CONTINUING THE HUNTS

CONTINUING THE HUNTS

"Orion, how are your injuries, we heard you fell down unconscious at the butchers?" Raven and Bommurs came over to my house to ask me.

News about the people of our small village town travelled fast and my friends quickly came to see me.

"Actually, I'm fine", I replied to them.

"Michonn almost killed you and I thought you fell ill because of the injuries but you are all okay now", Raven said to me about my injuries that was all healed.

"Michonn and his bullies can't harm me even a little", I replied to them.

"We are relieved to see you recover but your recovery is really a miracle," Bommurs said to me.

"There is something different about me, but I don't fully understand it yet", I replied to him.

"He's like this since young. I am not worried a lot about you", Raven told Bommurs and me.

"Do you guys want to hunt some more magic creatures?" I asked my friends.

"Are you sure, the healer said you should be in bed for two weeks?" Bommurs asked me.

"Well, I've recovered, I need to save money for another Awakening ritual", I told them.

An Awakening Ritual was a magical ritual that awakens a person's Templar magic in our world, and it was an expensive ritual.

"But my father won't take our creatures anymore, he would kill me if he knew that I hunted by myself again", Raven told us.

"Well, we just bring the animal directly to the Butcher", I told them.

"You are a genius", Bommurs said to me.

"I'll need you to craft some metal parts for me though, this time", I told Bommurs, who was the son of a Smith and is a capable young smith.

"You didn't need tools to trap the boar last time", Bommurs told me.

"I didn't know how to make a better trap at that time, but I have the plan in my mind now", I told him.

"Where and when did you get a new plan?" Raven asked me about my new traps.

"I just dreamt about it", I replied to him.

Usually, the first time was the most difficult, but we were already experienced with hunting Great Boars, so finding them wasn't much of a problem for us. 

With the money received from Raven's father and the winnings from Michonn, we bought some sleeping cream and materials. I made some strong ropes while Bommurs followed my plans to cast new springs and pulleys for our traps which made the hunt much easier.

"Where did you learn to make traps like this? Even my father's traps aren't this good", Raven asked me.

"It's all in the mind", I told him.

Making traps was easy for me because my adopted father was a carpenter and I learned carpentry skills from him. 

But for some reason, I knew how to make better traps like the knowledge was inside of my mind. After I fell unconscious at the butcher's more knowledge returned to me, and I learned to make even more advanced traps.

In a week's time, we built a much better trap and went to the jungle again to hunt. Eventually, we captured another Great Boar.

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"Mr. Meegan sir, how much would you give us for this Great Boar?" I asked the Butcher as we pushed the beast that we had just hunted to his shop.

"Did you boys catch another Great Boar again? In a week? How did you even do it? Don't tell me the Boar was sick again," the Butcher asked us in disbelief.

"There must be something about the water in the forest. Now back to business. We are selling it, how much for it?", I asked the Butcher again without elaborating on how we managed to catch the magical creature.

"Fifteen silver coins", the Butcher told us.

"Deal, but I want to stay around for the slaughter", I agreed and replied to him.

"And please don't tell our fathers", Raven told the Butcher.

"Of course not, we are doing business here not running a gossip shop", he replied to Raven.

"That is a relief", Raven replied to him.

"He will find out about it soon anyway, whether I tell him or not. Few people will come to my shop selling magical creatures other than the hunters and dozens of people will see you boys carry the creature to my shop. This is a small town", he replied to him.

"We'll deal with that when the time comes", I replied to him, and he paid us our dues.

"Are we going now?" Bommurs asked me.

"You guys go home first. I'll stay to watch the slaughter", I replied to him.

"Are you crazy? To watch the killing of the beast", Bommurs asked me.

"It's good to learn something about the creature's anatomy. To be better at hunting them in the future", I replied to him with some lame excuses.

"Forget it, let him be. We go back first before my father comes looking for me in the Butchers", Raven told Bommurs as they quickly left.

The slaughter of a magical beast was surprisingly useful for me to improve my soul magic, so I won't miss the opportunity whenever there was a magical beast being slaughtered. 

However, it wasn't often such creatures were captured or slaughtered, so the only times I could stay for their slaughter was when the Butcher killed the Great Boars that we sold to them. 

In the following months and weeks, we continued our hunts in the forest that netted us many Great Boars, Deers or Bulls and other magical creatures that were unfortunately in our path in the jungle.

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"Wow we are so rich now", Bommurs told us as he counted our coins.

Bommurs was born into a smith family, but his real talent was in business and accounting. He managed our hunt's expenditures and replenished our equipment and stock. He was the manager of our hunting team.

"Yes, me too, I'm making more money than even my father", Raven added.

"Well with my new improved trap we could catch at least two or three Great Boars a week, but there are few magical creatures in the forest recently", I told my friends.

In a month we caught more than a dozen Great Boars and other magical creatures, so there weren't many more of these creatures near the outer forest jungle of Slowan.

"What should we do then?" Raven asked me.

"We must go deeper into the jungle forest", I told my friends.

"But it's more dangerous the deeper we go into the forest. Even my father will not make a trip so deep into the forest", Raven told us. 

"Well, we can make a trip to scout the area first, and we'll run if something is wrong", I told my friends about my adventurous plans.

"Fine with me", Bommurs replied to us.

"Alright", even Raven agreed to come with us.

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