Training and exploring

Arjuna let out a sigh while squatting on a small tree branch suspended in the air. He squinted his eyes down at the forest floor, his eyes peering through the thick canopy of leaves and branches.

His eyes traced and darted across the entire forest as he searched for something. Finally, his eyes landed on a moving green creature walking on the forest floor. It held a wooden club and wore a single loincloth as it moved around the forest sniffing the air and letting out random grunts.

A glint passed through Arjuna's eyes as he picked up the black bow hanging on his side. Arjuna's hands fit perfectly in the small grooves that were in the bow, it was just a simple black bow with silver lines etched in the back in a scale pattern but everything about it, from the size of the bow itself to its grip and even the string tension. It was all perfect for Arjuna, after all, it was given by the master gnome archer Sninkkaakac himself.

Arjuna pulled a black arrow from the quiver full of arrows that were also given by Sninkkaakac and placed it securely on his bowstring.

With a small grunt and a small burst of strength, Arjuna pulled back the bowstring along with the end of the arrow. He quickly pointed the tip of the arrow towards the unsuspecting goblin and closed one of his eyes. His other eye seemed to almost zoom in, passing through all of the trees and other foliages until it finally arrived at the head of the goblin.

Arjuna like a person plucking off the petals of a flower, delicately let go of the string while letting out his bated breath. With a resounding twang, the bowstring snapped back into its original position.

The arrow darted forward from Arjuna's bow. It cut through the wind in a sharp whistle as it cut through the bits of leaves and soared through tiny gaps in the branches.

The goblin looked up at the weird sound that it heard. It looked at the sky hearing what sounded like a whistle of a bird and then its eyes widened in fear at the incoming object that seemed to dive straight towards him.

[you have defeated a goblin]

[+2000 EXP]

Arjuna got those notifications even before the goblin fell to the forest floor with an arrow through its skull.

He swept his eyes around one more time to make sure that there were no more monsters in the area. He wished he had his master's ability to have an almost all-seeing map with everything labeled in dots. But he was sure his master used it better than any way that Arjuna could use it.

Confirming that no monsters were nearby, Arjuna placed his bow on his shoulder and swung his quiver onto his back. He reached out with his left hand and curled it around the tree trunk that the branch he was currently crouching on stretched out from.

He jumped off with a light leap and slid down the trunk with his left arm sliding down the trunk like a fireman's pole.

With a soft landing, Arjuna's feet touched the forest floor. He looked around and breathed in the cool forest air for a bit. The trees that Arjuna was on before now towered above him blocking out most of the sunlight, the few bits that managed to pass through streamed down and shone on the forset ground in beautiful light ray patterns made by the leaves' edges and rows.

Arjuna thankfully had the eagle eyes skill which while enabling him to see things far away. It also helped him to see things in a dim environment like these.

Arjuna had heard that the forests near the city of twilight were both terrifying and hauntingly beautiful in the night, and wished to be able to see it someday.

A few meters away from him, sitting on two trunks were two people, one was covered in a black hood though in the small amount of sunlight that conveniently streamed a few inches away from her blond hair reflected the sunlight flashing a brilliant gold and the green eyes underneath them gave Arjuna a warm greeting.

The second person sitting on another trunk chatting with the hooded figure was a girl around 15 or so. She let out a brilliant smile and tossed her silver hair mixed with strands of purple to the side her blue eyes sparkled as she raised up her delicate white arm in a wave to Arjuna. Her purple and dark blue dress seemed to blend in with the forest atmosphere and as the streams of light shone down on the forest floor around her, she seemed like a literal princess.

Rei touched the red flower which was always pinned on the left side of her hair and looked at the forest floor a bit shyly as Arjuna's gaze passed them.

Arjuna let out a small smile and walked over. Alanis let out a small giggle as she raised a small stick that had its end covered in dirt. Arjuna could only assume she used it for drawing things in the dirt.

"so it seems you finished your lookout?" Alanis asked while waving the stick in her hand absent-mindedly.

Arjuna nodded his head

"yup, not a single monster for at least a few miles is near us, you can continue your lesson in peace"

Alanis gave Arjuna a nod of thanks and turned to Rei who was softly humming a song to herself.

"now Rei, let us continue our lesson"

Arjuna propped himself up against one of the thick trunks nearby and watched both of them with attentive eyes.

Rei noticing the new observer straightened her back from her previous lax position and took on the position of a diligent student.

Alanis started to draw out the 4 symbols of elements. For earth, she drew some mountains for air a swirl which represented wind. Water was a wave and fire was of course a flame.

She finished by tapping the ground.

"mana is usually divided into these 4 elements, while of course there are plenty of sub-elements, these are the main ones. Since spirits are creatures made out of mana, they work on the same concept, spirits are divided into the 4 elements earth, wind, water, and fire along with the sub-elements. You must be able to differentiate the difference between them after all, different spirits have different types of likes and dislikes, some spirits even don't get along with each other which can be reflective in their elements, for instance, fire and water spirits do not get along."

Rei nodded her head, listen attentively though peeking a bit at Arjuna's figure who was leaning against the trunk.

Alanis launched into the different relationships each of the elemental spirits had with each other. While Arjuna started to pull out different types of tools from his inventory. He currently wasn't selling his potions since Hisoka was still in the process of starting up his company. He had started to give some of the potions he made to Jason and Perseus but he still had a plentiful amount. He needed to start selling some though, his wallet was starting to look a bit empty after buying supplies supplying food for Rei and Alanis, and buying materials for his alchemy.

Oh yeah and Arjuna also was going to start trying to mass-produce bombs too. He was extremely happy to hear about their great performance in Jason's uses and was sure they would be even more useful in the future.

Arjuna tore off a small part of a leaf and started to crush it until the liquid started to emerge which he poured the contents into a vial.

Arjuna looked at the materials he had left in his inventory and took a quick count of them. From what he could see, he only had enough ingredients for a few dozen more potions. A small sigh escaped from Arjuna's lips, he liked the way they were doing things now.

Most days they would go and accept some quests from the adventure guild. With Arjuna and Alanis's expertise, they would usually finish it before midday with Rei in tow. Then they would spend the rest of the time exploring the forest, while Arjuna worked on his potions and Alanis taught Rei some fighting skills and about the spirits that she seemed to be gifted in affinity with.

Days passed like these, to Alanis it felt like bliss, going on mini adventures with Arjuna and now she even started to view Rei as something like a daughter. That could only mean that Arjuna was the husband....

Man, she couldn't help but blush thinking about that. While Alanis blushed and tried to control her thoughts, Arjuna stood up with 2 completed potions in his hand. He had a smile on his face as he walked over to both of them.

"Good work both of you," he said gently as he placed the two new potions in his inventory.

"I need to stop by an alchemy shop, you two can go and head back to the inn, be sure to rest up early"

The two nodded their heads and walked off into the forest towards the city of twilight.