Jack and his team were escorted by a team of 3rd tier monster hunters into the forest. It was meant to be a practical training. Over five months passed from the moment Jack joined the military. He learned all required theory, and now was the time to put it into a practice.

They were moving quickly through the grassland, paying attention to the eating bisons, and looking out for wolf packs. The forest was looking ominously with its leafless trees. Winter was coming, and the snow would fall any moment. Jack and the rest wore thick fur clothes provided by the military. They were giving some protection, but it wasn’t an armor. On their back, fur cloaks waved in the wind.

The group reached the forest and entered it. There was some green grass and plants, but most of plants was brown and grey. Jack could hear some occasional bird chirps, something he only knew from the books and lectures. It wasn’t beautiful for him. It was a reminder, that here, they weren’t alone, and this bird could try to hunt him.

He could feel, that there was food in some dead tree.

Ding… Your Savaging skill has reached lv. 7

He walked closer, and removed rotten bark with a spear, revealing small white worms squirming under.

‘I suppose the skill is convenient, but I am not going to eat it unless I am starving.’

“We are going to let you hunt some small critters, like mice, rabbits or maybe weak foxes. You have a low enough level to benefit from it, and it will be a good combat lesson,” one of the older hunters said. “Do any of you have a detection spell?”

“I have fire detection spell. I can detect heat in a 200 meters radius,” Aleena said. The hunter nodded.

“I have air detection spell. I can’t do 200 meters, but I can detect everything in a 100 meters radius,” Lillie boasted.

“Good. There aren’t much reptiles here, but who knows. It’s always better to have more means,” the hunter approved. They seemed a little surprised that two people knew a bit advanced spells. Jack was not going to spare them.

“I can detect through earth for 200 meters, but I won’t be able to detect anything small. Only heavy monsters making heavy steps. Alternatively, I could send earth mana through the air, but the range would be only 20-30 meters that way. I can also do some light detection, but it will be noticeable in the air.” The most common method of detection – feeling out surrounding with a mana type – had a major disadvantage. Mana was constantly dispersing, changing into an element.

Fire mana travelling through the air would leave a wave of heat, barely noticeable with small amount of used mana, but noticeable. Earth mana would leave dust in the air, and light mana detection would create a wave of brightness. In the end, the light was a one of most flashiest elements.

Water, and especially air elemental detection, were the most inconspicuous. Water was only increasing humidity a bit, while air mana only added more air. This changed locally pressure for a moment, but the change was minimal, someone would need a huge detection spell to notice.

“Oh. Good. But how do you manage the light detection? I thought the sensory overload was too much.”

“I have modified the spell a bit. It allows me to create 2-3 eyes in the distance. I need to obviously maintain the sparky mana connection for feedback, which leads from the eyes directly to me.”

You could only detect soil with the earth detection method, but earth mana disperses in the air, creating dust, which works as a suitable tool. It could be detected where dust could get, and where were some solid objects.

Light mana method detected light. Light was everywhere, coming from every direction in the forest. It was like seeing in every direction from every single point.

Actually, Jack could not even see it, as he didn’t have a spell capable of putting knowledge in his head, only a spell displaying an illusion in his eye. He had very limited space for displaying the effects of the detection spell.

The Jack’s light detection was showing him a panorama of a 2-3 point in the left eye, while earth detection spell, showed him overlay of earth in his range. He needed to interpret missing parts of soil on his own.

“If you want to find some small animals, I may be able to find their burrows,” Jack said and started casting the spell. After a few seconds, a wave of earth mana travelled through the earth. Jack needed to keep mana connection for the feedback, but when the information came, the link broke and the light spell displayed the results in Jack’s eye.

Jack had heard that people with a high affinity can feel mana like someone can feel with their skin, but he didn’t feel anything as of yet. Most people used complicated life spell., which displayed results by manipulating eye nerve. The spell used a lot of components that Jack wasn’t able to understand. The light version was simpler and needed less intelligence to cast.

Jack could see many shapes resembling underground trees, but he quickly understood, that they were trees’ roots. He looked over, searching for burrows. There were some cavities, but they looked either natural, or dug by a large animal. He managed to find only one place where it was possible to find living animals.

“I think there is a burrow 60 meters in this direction,” Jack said while pointing with a finger.

“You have three mages?” The hunter asked. Jack wasn’t surprised. His team trained hard. Normally, only noble’s children could cast some more advanced magic, but judging from clothes, only Aleena counted, as Stanley’s armor was covered with fur. Aleena had a fur half-armor reinforced with bone and metal elements, and with inscriptions on it. That was a magic tool.

The hunter must have thought that they were some purpose gathered team, something that was slightly illegal, but apparently dukes had their own way.

“Hmm, there are dozens of mice there. I can spot them with water detection.” Stanley said, interrupting wanting to explain Jack. Jack knew what he was doing. They would protect Jack’s team better now, as they would think Jack and the rest were some VIPs. Jack didn’t like the manipulation, but he knew, that may help them. He wasn’t going to explain.

“Let me check,” the hunter said and stopped moving for a few seconds, casting a spell. His teammates were giving each other knowing glances. “Yes, it’s true. Fine, that burrow will be your first target.”

They closed to the target. Patrick was looking a bit sad, probably since he couldn’t show off. He concentrated on physical abilities, and for magic, he only knew life spells. Unfortunately, life mana detection was kind of not working. It just showed that life is everywhere. It was unusable, as life mana dispersed into life itself, and due to the lack of conflicts with other mana types, life mana was able to get everywhere. It was possible to check on your own body, though, as with such close distance, the results were very sharp.

There was a small hole in the place and nothing to indicate mouse nest with only visual looks. Jack thought of using light detection inside the burrow, but he decided he may not like to look that closely at the rodents. He used once again the earth mana, feeling with it the walls of the burrow. He then forced mana into the air in the burrow’s tunnels, producing dust in it. He needed quite a bit of earth essence for that, which needed essence in turn. He was able to distinguish some shapes, but it seemed, he would need more dust, or better proficiency with the spell to be able to spot clearly such small critters.

“How are you going to kill them?” The leading hunter asked.

“I can collapse the burrow,” Jack said. It was cruel in Jack’s opinion, as the rodents would either die to suffocation, or be forced to dig out and be killed on the surface. However, it was efficient and safe.

“I can send fire mana in and burn them all,” Aleena said.

“I could stop the air and force them to get out.” Lillie said hesitantly. Jack thought it indeed was the worse method presented.

“I think we have two options. We can either shoo them out with Lillie’s or Jack’s method, or try to directly kill them. I don’t have a good method without a source of water nearby. I could use a lot of water mana to create the black hole spell, but it’s just not worth it.” Staley analyzed.

“I also don’t have a good method. I could just dig them out with my spear if everything else fails.” Patrick said.

“You girl,” the leading hunter pointed at Aleena, “let’s start with your method.”

She started casting. Soon, fire mana came to be in front of her, and started to move in the hole. She didn’t try to squeeze the fire mana into the hole, but just send it in the ground, heating everything – soil, air and mice bodies. Without magical protection, fire mana should be able to penetrate their bodies, burning both inside and outside.

Jack cast the earth detection spell and tried to observe. Rather than one strong pulse, he created earth mana to continuously observe the ground a few meters around him.

There wasn’t much to see. Nothing was changing, as fire mana wasn’t reshaping the tunnels. He couldn’t use the light detection spell, since there was the conflict between light mana and fire mana. He once again forced earth mana into the tunnels, but there wasn’t much difference to what was before.

Suddenly, the leading hunter dashed at Aleena, punching her in the chest. Surprised, she wasn’t able to defend, and fled a few meters back.

Everyone in Jack’s team took a defensive position, startled. Jack didn’t know what to think about it. Nobody moved.

Aleena slowly got up. “What was that?” She asked with irritated face.

“A lesson,” the leading hunter replied calmly. “You had completely lowered your guard. It’s fine to kill monsters, but you also need to survive. Always be prepared for being attacked in the exterior.”

Aleena’s face changed to thoughtful, and she replied after a few seconds. “I would appreciate, if you could deliver your lessons in a less violent manner.” She said calmly, and without accusation. Jack thought that it was deliberate, as he would be a bit enraged in her situation.

“But that is the best method.” The hunter said with the smile. “So, who can check on our little dead monsters?”

“Everything is heated, so it’s impossible for me to distinguish bodies.” Aleena said.

“I think, I don’t have enough proficiency with earth detection.” Jack said, shaking his shoulders.

“Aleena’s fire evaporated most water. Water mana doesn’t like air and earth… I could use more water mana, but the result will probably be similar to what Jack got.” Staley said.

“Ok. I will do it,” Lillie said. Jack thought, he could use light detection, but he decided to avoid looking closely at burned mice corpses in dark tunnels.

“Nothing is moving,” Lillie described. “I think we got them all, as there is no movement of the air, no one is breathing inside.”

“The simplest thing you can do to check if you got them all, is to count them before the battle, and then compare the amount of notifications,” the leading hunter taught. “The most important advice I can give you, is to always use your brains. Most monsters have higher physical stats than us, but we have higher intelligence. Using your brain and being smart is not being an exceptional or great hunter. It only means you are normal hunter, as without brains, you would be just a failure.”

They continued to hunt small animals. Aleena had the best detection spell, as her fire detection could find most living things by their heat. Stanley was in the similar situation, as most living beings were in huge part constructed with water. He just had a shorter range.

Allena was quite greedy. She always wanted to be the one to kill. Jack admitted in his mind, that her killing power was the best out of the team. The fire mana was the only mana type deadly even in its raw state. She just needed to throw fire mana at monsters.

It was only possible, because those monsters were the low leveled ones, and they had neither affinities nor resistances. Starting from 3rd tier, nearly everyone had innate life mana resistance. Jack also could easily kill slow 2nd tiers. He could just send life mana and use the kinetic spell to displace some vital organ in an enemy’s body.

Skin of 3rd tier beings had a passive innate spell, using miniscule amounts of essence to repel life mana. It was a form of magical barrier, only able to defend against mana. A common repelling mana barrier who anyone could form with spell vectors could be created a meter or two before the caster, increasing their security. Some monsters had resistances to other elements as well. Affinities were also granting body some resistance against being penetrated by conflicting elements.

Ten hunters wandered the forest all day, killing mostly small, burrowing monsters. Any 2nd tier monster which spotted them in the open, immediately ran for its life. Some 3rd tier lynx came closer, but it must have been an experienced one, since as soon as it spotted five 3rd tiers it also immediately ran away with all its might. Burrowing was a good strategy to avoid stronger animals, but human’s magic made burrowing animals essence on a silver plate.

At the end of the day, 3rd tier hunters decided to observe from the distance, to allow Jack’s team some battle experience. They have managed to find a 3rd tier boar, but Aleena fried it with her fire nearly immediately after the boar charged at them, gaining a level in the process.

Soon, the boar was a dish. As the time was at the start of the winter, the nights were longest in the year, taking 20 hours from 30 hours day time. Jack’s team wanted to continue, a human only needed 10 hours of sleep a day, but older hunters decided to stop for today.

Third tier hunters argued, that it’s for the best to take it slow. They told, that Jack’s team should divide into two groups for the night watch. This way, everyone would be able to have proper 10 hours sleep.

“You can’t always sleep properly in the wild, but if possible, you should try. Sleeping even an hour or two less will cause sleep deprivation, lowering your reaction time,” the hunter taught.

Jack and Stanley were holding the first watch. The two of them were sitting with touching each other backs. They were wrapped in their cloaks. The rest of their team were sleeping a meter from them, covered by cloaks. It was early in the night, and the temperature wasn’t that low yet, but after 20 hours of darkness it would be deadly freezing.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t just light the fire. It would scare 2nd and 3rd tier monsters, but for a stronger one, it would be an invitation for a feast. New hunters were being taken outside at the same time every year. Jack learned from hunters, that wolves and some other more intelligent monsters living nearby, had learned that, and were often trying to kill inexperienced humans by raiding groups such as theirs.

Rather than a fireplace, there was a rune scratched with a stick on the ground. It just created slowly fire mana, heating surroundings like a fireplace, but without the light.

Jack was looking into darkness. It was eerie. There was some light from the stars and moons, making it possible for Jack to see things in the dark. The trees were blocking line of sight, however, making it impossible to watch over for large distances. Jack wasn’t placing great importance in his eyes anyway. He had his magic, which he regularly used to make sure nothing was closing on them.

The 3rd tier hunters were maintaining their own watch. They were never planning to place their security in new hunters’ hands.

Jack looked over his status, as he didn’t have anything better to do in the meantime.

Name: Jack Age: 15 Class: Survivor Level:11 5% to next lv Stats: Base Essence reinforced Strength 15,21/25 31,63 (20% + (6+2)%/level) Endurance 16,29/30 33,88 (10% + (6+2)%/level) Intelligence 19,73/25 65,89 (40% + (6+8)%/level) Mental Endurance 21,76/30 58,96 (20% + (6+5)%/level) Agility 19,16/30 50,00 (40% + (7+4)%/level) Perception 12,32/20 25,62 (10% + (6+2)%/level) Affinities:

Life

Fire

Earth

Light

9,49%

0,21%

5,34%

5,49%

Class skills:

Economy of movement

Scavenging

42

7

+10% to agility

Professions: 5/5

Conman IV

Masochist IV

Spearman VII

Wizard III

Battle mage V

Fighting skills: Sword handling 8 Spear handling 37 +10% to agility Archery 17 Battle precognition 6 Footwork 43 + 10% to strength Magic skills: Rune Shaping 33 +10% to intelligence Spell slinging 25 +10% to intelligence Words of Power 15 Meditation 1 Parallel thinking 33 + 10% to mental endurance Crafting skills: Farming 19 Cooking 10 Crafting 11 Trapping 13 Utility skills: Analyze 21 Charisma 35 +5% to intelligence and perception Pain Tolerance 21 Mental intrusion resistance 22 Tracking 12 Sneaking 9 Vitality 563/563 Stamina 306/330 Clarity 486/580

In the end, Jack decided to cultivate the earth and light affinity. There were quite a few reasons for that.

Jack thought for a long time how to gain advantage against monsters. He came to the conclusion, that the answer is preparations. Obviously, even skill levels and magic abilities counted for that, but Jack also wanted to be prepared specifically for every fight.

Jack considered preparations mostly as a knowledge and terrain preparations, especially traps. Jack was taught tracking, sneaking and trapping skills in the last months. Trapping was only briefly mentioned, as there weren’t many mundane traps capable of harming monsters in 4th tier or stronger ones. Magical traps existed, but the only element from you could create runes with magic was earth.

It was impossible to create stable runes with air or light. It was possible, of course, to cast with shape created from light mana, but a trap should work on its own. He needed earth magic for that. He could also use life magic, but earth was nearly everywhere, and he could harden it to make clear lines.

With the earth affinity chosen, he had only fire, water and light affinity viable. He decided for the light, as the he wanted light spells ability to directly send knowledge to his mind. While light didn’t have the offensive power of the fire spells, he thought higher level illusion spells would grant him more options. He just liked the trick options more.

Jack knew quite a few spells now. He knew mana moving spell vectors for every element. He planned to use them for the repelling mana barrier, but if needed, he could also use some other element spells. It would just mess his affinities and hurt his body, but if it would be his very life at the stake…

He could cast earth and light moving spells. He was still unsophisticated with those spells. It was enough to make use of earth, but throwing it at his enemies, but not enough to cast convincing illusions with the light. Even relatively simple invisibility spell was firmly in the 3rd tier spells.

Other that detection spells, he also learned a beam spell. The spell was moving light from the caster’s surrounding and forcing it to travel parallel to each other. At the receiving end, the light was strong enough to burn the recipient’s skin. The spell wasn’t very strong, but had extremely long range, unless disturbed. It also had a weakness, that it was unusable in the darkness, unless a caster delivered a huge quantity of light mana to create light.