『Sweet Meat』

Jack as nimble as he could, bound on over to Megumin, checking to see if she was hurt in any way. Quickly finding there were no scratches from falling to the ground like she had, he smirked lightly. "So how does it feel to learn that you've taught a one-hit bear your power far surpasses it?"

Blinking up at him, Megumin grinned smugly as she had believed she was to be victorious prior to him originally denying the quest, "Excellent! I feel overflowing with power that I can hardly contain! If it weren't for my--" She immediately went quiet as Jack put a finger to her lips.

"Don't say eyepatch," he said with a blank look on his face.

"C-companion! I was going to say, companion! What kind of weirdo do you think I am? Claiming it to be just a regular item, and then changing my mind, Hmph!" She huffed in a light-hearted manner as she felt him turn her over onto her back pick her up. Near instinctively she wrapped her arms around his neck, as he had one arm under her legs and the other supporting her back and carrying her stave.

With her in his arms, he swiftly made way over towards the tree, where the wounded pup lay and rested her down alongside the near-unconscious wolf.

"Watch over the pup will you?" Jack grinned lightly as he used 'Mana Bond' to refill her mana reserves. Though it would still take time for her normal physical functionalities to kick in, he knew she had enough strength to move her arms if she needed to.

Megumin pursed her lips as she was shifted about slightly until she was propped up against the tree, facing the downed bear. Her eyes shined brightly at the dead carcass. "What are you going to do with the beast? We can't just carry the whole thing back, can we? Or shall we see how much further resistant its fur is to my crimson magic flames!? Haha!"

"I'm going to skin and dress it, and then I'm going to cook its meat." His eyes shifted over towards the wolf, it didn't look like it was going to die, the fearsome canine was just exhausted.

Taking several steps back, Jack then turned on his heel, showing his back to his only party member. In his right hand, a short blade of pitch blackness appeared, created with concentrated Yin energy, negative energy.

"Now I just have to cut it open to make sure the insides cool down so the meat doesn't spoil." Walking over towards the dead creature, he eyed the slightly singed coat, it wasn't visibly damaged. It was, just like when he had killed the dire wolves just prior, cooked inside its own pelt. Though this time, it wasn't cooked all the way through, but just enough to cause cardiac failure.

Buffing his strength with Yang Magic, not needing to cast a spell for it, he used his foot to kick the massive bear onto its back. It landed with an awful thud within the sterile crater which now surrounded it.

"This is one big fella... Probably more muscle and fat than meat sounds kinda sweet," Jack went on humming as he shallowly plunged the knife just below the skin and began pulling the blade up from underneath of it.

In order to not puncture the insides of the bear, especially the stomach or other innards that may render the meat inedible, he only cut the skin. "Perhaps I should have brought sheers..."

It cut the skin starting from the pelvis area, the penis bone, and all the way down to the throat. Once he was done with the skin layer, he began cutting through the fat and muscle, of course after partially skinning the beastly's underside.

Megumin's eyes were wide as she reached up and gradually removed her eyepatch, putting it in her wizard hat before placing that on top of her lap. Using her hands, she shifted ever so slightly.

"I've been working on the railroad... All the livelong day~" Jack switched and to and from singing and humming as he continued to work away at the corpse.

Taking out her registration card from her hat, which was amongst some of her other belongings stored within, Megumin peered at her new levels. She had gained a total of five levels, causing her eyes to shine a brighter crimson red.

A number of choices appeared, including upgrades for her Magic Power and Explosion Magic. She stared at the opportunity to gain far more firepower but then paused.

Those shining crimson eyes stopped glowing as her mind went back to when she was immobile. It seemed her mind kept on going back to that moment when she couldn't defend herself.

Her eyes shifted over towards Jack, watching as he was seemingly enjoying himself. Then her eyes went back to the card, her thoughts going back to how he had said she should get something to support herself so that would never happen again.

Her gaze narrowed on the magic that was available for an Archwizard, someone who only used named spells, rather than ones of their own creations. Jack was capable of using his magic at both range and close-quarters combat. She had even seen him use it against an experienced-beginner warrior on their own playing field. What she had witnessed, the words he had shared previously, they were wise.

"So this foul beast has granted upon me five levels, making me a level eleven..." Megumin muttered under her breath, still staring harshly at the choices. "Such power indeed!"

She quite literally had low statistics for her overall ability attributes, particularly the physical ones. The only one being over thirty-five, or even two hundred, was her Magic Power. Almost everything was below a hundred.

Compared to Jack not only was she physically weak and inept, but she cannot support her favored spell due to its high tier and mana consumption.

Megumin wrinkled her forehead in thought, clenching her teeth together even to the point that her jaw felt stiff. The temptation to pour everything into [Explosion] was there, and it was hard o resist.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

| Race: Human | Class: ArchWizard | Level: Eleven |

- Paramters: Abilities & Skills -

Strength: <17>

Health: <26>

MagicPower: <231>

Dexterity: <32>

Agility: <21>

Luck: <18+12>

- Active Skills -

Explosion +

- Available Skills -

Charm Person (Ranged) +

Magic Missile (Ranged) +

Incendiary Cloud (Area of Effect) +

Magic Armor (Touch) +

Antipathy (Repel) +

Sympathy (Attract) +

----------------------------------------------------------------------

With twenty-five skill points and fifteen ability points, she had a number of things she could improve on. For one, though she narrowed her eyes on the Luck attribute. Oddly enough it seemed to have a modifier, one in which she didn't entirely understand, from her knowledge she wasn't wearing any magical items that did so.

Her eyes rested on her strength and health. It was clear because of her low health, or low strength, she became physically weaker due to the strain of magical power.

Megumin's thumb caressed over the bottom right corner of the card.

The [Charm Person] spell made people see you as an acquaintance, but from what she remembered from studying magic at the academy, it lasted only a limited amount of time. That is unless it was continuously refined, and even then, the target would eventually be aware of it.

[Magic Missile] allowed the creation of projectiles of raw magical power to be thrown at enemies. She could use this to wipe the floor with humanoid and smaller targets, and if improved upon even further, she could create many more than just three projectiles at a time.

[Incendiary Cloud] was something she may have looked at if she hadn't been obsessed with Explosion Magic for so long. It created a cloud of incendiary gas within twenty feet ahead of the user with a malleable radius.

[Magic Armor] allowed the user to cover themselves or a willing target in a layer of magic that acts as a defensive barrier against both magical and physical attacks. It could even be laid over existing armor in order to reinforce that of a warrior.

[Antipathy] was self-explaining, causing specified creatures and other individuals to be repelled within a certain radius of the user. [Sympathy] was the exact opposite that attracted persons and particular creatures to them.

All of these were useful, even as she was in the Advanced Spectrum of Magical Knowledge.

Increasing her health by four, and her strength by eleven, watched as the numbers would glow red as she put them in. She then stared at the possible skills once again.

If she had gotten any one of these they would've helped her in the past. Especially [Charm Person] and [Magic Missile], these three would've allowed her to remain untouched by the man who had betrayed her and his party.

Tapping [Explosion] once, as per mentally necessary by her, she put the rest in [Magic Missile]. If she had Jack to talk to people, to always work with her, why would she need Charm Person? If Jack could manage aggro against monsters, why would she need sympathy? If she could destroy all her enemies with explosive magic, why bother repelling them?

Smugly proud of herself, she pressed the ArchWizard portrait at the top of her card, updating her changes. Near instantly she felt a change circulate through her entire body, a warm sensation.

Jack hadn't stopped working on the bear since he had started several minutes ago, if not a whole half hour. The muscle and fat were thick, though the magic knife he used worked better than most normal ones, it was hard to cut.

When he finally finished cutting it open, he let the blade dissipate into the air as magical energy.

"Megumin, how are you doing over there?" Jack asked as he glanced over, seeing her unsteadily move onto her feet. Her legs seemed wobbly from where he was standing. His hands were covered in blood, the bear's blood. "Are you sure... You should be standing up?"

"A simple explosion spell cannot defeat the Crimson Demon, Magumin! Greatest Explosion Magic-User the world has ever seen, so feared, that she is ostracized by the rest of the world!" She cheered, almost falling over in the process.

Raising a brow at this, Jack shook his head before he wiped his hands clean of blood in the grass nearby. Once they were clear of blood, he took his registration card out of his kimono. Looking over the stats, it appeared he gained four more levels. He was now level eight. Twenty skill points and twelve ability points.

He dropped all of the ability points into the strength attribute, before looking at the new available skills. One skill, in particular, made him chuckle as it was [Mage Steal] as he had designed it based on Chris's thief skill. Then there was also [Mage Bind], a spell based on the Binding thief skill.

Jack had no problem putting points into [Mage Steal] but chose [Explosion] over [Mage Bind]. The next one he put points into was [Arcane Gate], this was another portal based magic that allowed him to travel without the use of doors. It also opened a whole new skill set with spatial magic. When he tapped it, another spell appeared, [Analyze Gate] which allowed him to figure out where pre-existing portals lead to. He tapped this new one that emerged as well.

One of the spells he really craved to have, based on novels he had read in the past world, was to create an inventory to avoid physically carrying lots of supplies or items that'll weigh him down.

Updating his card, he felt the same strange warm sensation as Megumin had just moments ago.

Nearly tripping over herself as she ran over towards him, she caught herself and pushed off the ground to continue on her clumsy approach. As she came to a stop in front of him, Megumin grinned up at him with a smug look on her face, "Jack! You really learned explosion magic?! You've joined my superior path of magic?! Have you!?" She inquired as her eyes were glowing brightly once more, her face blushing as she tried getting her face as close as she could to his while planting her hands on his biceps.

Laughing softly, he turned his card for her to see, raising a brow at her to see a reaction.

"Mmhmmmhmm!" Megumin's eyes were so red and glowing so brightly, it felt as if he was going to be melted by them. Though there was no heat that emitted with such intensity from her face, it only showed how much she got off on the fact he had followed through with his word.

"Now, I'm going to skin the bear, so I'm going to ask you to continue watching the pup... When is your birthday by the way?" Jack pursed his lips while peering down at her, genuinely curious.

Megumin hadn't expected for Jack to ask this question, the two of them were essentially strangers, but part of the same party. That party only consisted of the two of them. For a split moment, she appeared perplexed as she had her upper lip overlapping the lower.

"December Fourth, in about two and a half months... I think it's supposed to snow early this year," her head cocked to the side as she let a little useless though also useful, information slip from her mouth.

"Supposed I'll have to make a present then," Jack shallowly clicked his teeth together before lightly brushing her hands off of his biceps. "Can you get back to the pup alright?" Promptly his sights shifted to the Dire Wolf. It had black fur with a silvery shimmer in the light, its eyes which were partially open had an ice blue hue to them.

As her stomach seemed to growl, despite the fact they had eaten just prior, she fixated her gaze upon the hapless pup with ravenous eyes. "Are we going to eat the Dire Wolf? Or keep it for emergency rations!?"

"Dire Wolves grow rather large, right?" Jack asked rhetorically, "We could use it as a mount and constant companion on our travels... And Wolf meat is gamey and smells pretty bad."

Megumin slowly nodded as she turned her head to look at the pup, "By the mighty power of the Crimson Demon Clan, I shall bestow its name... Its name shall be ChunChun!"

As if it was disagreeing, the pup let out a low whimper.

"No." Jack immediately denied the suggestion for a name.

Nearly pouting, Megumin threw her arms in the air, as if it would change his pre-destined decision of the next name she was about to share, "MuraMaru?"

"Uh, No..." Letting his head droop down slightly at this suggestion, he shook his head.

Megumin fixated her eyes upon his, almost glaring at him, "PetraToni?"

"No, but how about just Petra? It's a girl anyway," Jack conjured the knife-length blade of Yin back to his hand, "You don't mind spending the night under the stars do you?" He'd ask as he went back to work removing the creature's furred hide. He planned on using the excess material to bag the guts and other edible meats while burying the nonedibles which was likely the liver.

"Under the stars?" She blinked a few times as she looked to the autumn sky above, "A trial of Survival it is!" She declared without a second notion.

"I take that as a yes," Jack swayed his head slightly with a smirk still plastered on across his face. "Wait... We can't can we..." Sucking on his teeth, he huffed quietly to himself, "We have to meet Chris later at the Eris Church, or whatever it is. Perhaps I should've gotten that Message spell."

With a clever open mouth smile, her eyes danced over Jack as a scheme came to mind. "I SHALL SET OFF ANOTHER EXPLOSION TO INFORM HER THAT--!"

"You're still recovering from using the explosive spell from the last instance, rest before I put you to sleep." Jack playfully threatened as he continued to do his work with the remains. "We'll do the 'Trial of Survival' tomorrow when we're not obligated to return to town."

"Ah!" Megumin winced at the playful threat, not knowing whether or not he would go through with it, despite the tone. He had already hit her butt because she had made him out to be a pervert by going to the women's bathroom door.

"Plus, an explosion would just bring more monsters in our direction... I can already smell some predators snooping around the perimeter. I assume you got some new skills you can put to use if need be?" Jack had no idea what she had added to her skills, or if she had added anything new in general. Part of him still expected her to pour all of her points into magic power and explosion magic.

"Yes! I have adopted lesser subsidiary magic for such an occasion!" Megumin scoffed, showing her preparedness off towards him "Even if our trial is postponed, tomorrow shall be a glorious time beneath the heavenly lights!" She cheered with beaming eyes and a matching smile.

"Yup, yup. Exactly right, Megumin. Now, we'll probably pick up some camping gear tomorrow anyway, before heading out..." Jack seemed to be vaguely paying attention to her words while thinking about the next day to come. Though he was also rather curious regarding whatever Chris wanted at the Church.

"Getting some of this meat cured by a professional would probably be a good idea too... Conceivably I could make a spell for that too... Couldn't I? Hmm..."

Megumin waddled on over to the tree as he had gone back to work and plopped right down next to the wolf, staring at its tuffs of stained fur and patches of tender skin. "You'll be fine in no time, Petra." She patted its thick soft but wiry coat of fur, causing the small being to tense briefly, before relaxing to her small hand.