Hunt [1]

A group of four were walking through the large plains of the wasteland, hoping to find something to slay and earn money.

Sophie, Miren, Hugo, and Marlene had just begun their hunt.

Although I hadn't socialized much during my stay I kind of recognized their faces. No, I am not antisocial, it was just that I was busy with other stuff. Like training and being with Misa.

Anyway, Hugo was a shield bearer and Marlene was equipped with two scimitars. It couldn't be said to be a balanced group if one were to think in terms of games, but as three of our group couldn't wield mana there was no way for us to get a healer or a mage. Even a ranger was impossible as they couldn't imbue their mana into arrows.

For some reason, it was still possible for most of them to imbue weapons held in their hands with mana, but it was still impossible for them to do anything else than strengthen their strikes.

With that said, I still didn't feel like we were in over our head.

Both Hugo and Marlene were Rank IV, and with a Rank V leading us with her giant greataxe, it appeared that we were going to be fine.

As I was thinking about the dynamic of our group, Sophie spoke softly,

"Three salamanders, no mutations. Get ready."

We all readied our weapons and prepared to engage with the group of salamanders, Rank III monsters with the ability to spit small fireballs.

They were also equipped with sharp claws and teeth, as well as hard scales that covered their bodies for great defenses.

Our leader turned to me and instructed me about our tactics,

"Let Hugo and me start the fight, while you and Marlene look for openings. I'll try to not kill them instantly so you can get some practice."

And with that, we were on our way toward the wolf-sized, red lizards.

With a roar, Hugo instantly got their attention, to which they responded by spitting fireballs at him. The shield-wielding man did not stop, instead, he just raised his shield and moved on, blocking every single fireball without a hitch.

Just behind him was Sophie who could barely hide in the cover of his shield because of her large stature.

When they reached the pack of reptiles she instantly cleaved one of them with her axe, leaving it with no chance of survival.

'Wasnt she going to take it easy?'

It seemed like survival wouldn't be the problem this hunt, it would be to actually have the time to fight before the amazon killed everything.

As such I quickly dashed forward, looking for an angle to attack.

The only reasonable spot for me to strike was their neck where their scales seemed to be a bit thinner.

'A chance!'

One of the remaining lizards slashed at Hugo's shield, leaving it open for an attack.

'[Lightning Step]'

In a split second, I was right beside the salamander and stabbed it in the neck with both of my daggers imbued with electricity.

'Too shallow...'

My attack was quite effective, stunning the lizard long enough for me to back away, but not enough to be fatal.

Instead, Marlene came in like a storm and with what seemed like a [Double Strike] she severed the head of the salamander.

Meanwhile, Sophie was just finishing off the last one without any issues and as soon as she was done she issued orders,

"Marlene starts the skinning process, Hugo collects all the teeth and claws that are intact."

"What about me?"

"You can just watch, we can't risk losing profit by letting an amateur collect materials."

It made sense. There was a large risk that I would accidentally break something or damage their hides when skinning them. So instead I just sat down, trying to focus my mana on my legs.

It was one of the ways I had found that mitigated the effects of my skills to some extent, the mana seemed to stimulate my muscles enough for them to start to heal a tiny bit.

"Let's move on."

We started to walk onwards, with Sophie and Marlene scouting for prey. They had the best sense of us, being able to feel small distortions of mana in the air.

It was a more instinctual act compared to using a spell, but it worked quite well even if it wasn't quite as effective.

This time it was Marlene who spoke,

"Five salamanders, one of them is an ice mutant. Engage or retreat?"

Sophie pondered a bit about what choice to make.

If they were normal salamanders she would probably have made the decision to fight instantly, but with a mutant in the mix, it wasn't quite as clear-cut.

Mutants were, just as the name suggests, monsters who have mutated. It could be in all kinds of ways. A mutated goblin could be stronger or faster, a gnoll could be bigger or equipped with sharper claws. In the case of an elemental monster like the salamander, the most common mutation was a change of elements and a general increase in power and intelligence.

Our leader had made our choice,

"We fight. Same tactic as before, but this time I will go all out. Try to keep your distance from me."

I got a bit excited hearing that I would finally get to see what Sophie can do, but at the same time a bit nervous.

"Let's go!"

Huge ran first again, this time already holding his shield up, ready to intercept the barrage of elemental bolts that were coming.

All five of the lizards started to barrage Hugo with their fireballs, with one of them firing ice bolts.

In contrast to our last encounter, Hugo chose to stand his ground when he defended against their attacks, making sure he would not get overpowered and fall down.

Instead, Sophie saw the opportunity to get in range with her axe, without having to worry about getting shot at for a couple of seconds.

"[Whirlwind]!"

She shouted as she started to spin her axe around her, and after that, all that was seen was blood and guts.

She had single-handedly killed all of the salamanders except for the ice one.

"Miren, Marlene please kill the last one as cleanly as you can."

I now understood why she hesitated in the beginning. For us to confront the pack without any risk of injury, she had to go all out. But this meant that the salamanders she killed wouldn't be in the best shape. Scratch that, the corpses were completely demolished and would probably not yield much profit.

She at least wanted to make sure we could gather resources from the mutant, and as me and Marlene were the ones with the most finesse, she left it to us to finish it.

Thankfully Hugo had also engaged it, taunting it and blocking its attacks with his shield.

This time I didn't want to repeat my mistake. My doctrine was still to kill my target with one attack, as to make sure I wasn't the one to do so.

I started to accumulate lightning into Khanda, getting ready to end the blue reptile's life. Just to make sure it was enough I also overclocked my body a little bit. It was the application of raising my M.G. by one step artificially pushing me into a Rank III.

Marlene noticed what I was doing and backed off, most likely interested in what I was doing.

After a couple of seconds of immense pain throughout my arm, I used a step to blink to the side of the salamander.

'[Discharge]!'

*Crrzzt!*

I sliced with all my might through the neck of the lizard and let my lightning explode.

*Thud*

It fell to the ground with its head separated from its body.

Canceling my overclocking I once again found proof of my progress. I could still stand even after using, not only, overclocking, but even after quite a big [Discharge].

As I was feeling a bit proud of my achievement, I looked at my group and found that all of them just stared at me with questioning eyes.

'Right, I had never shown Sophie my skill before...'

She had seen my [Lightning Step] plenty of times during our spars, but as [Discharge] wouldn't create a situation where I would manage to land hits on her I had never used it.

In order to defuse the tension I just started to talk like normal,

"So, are we going to skin these too?"

All three of them collected themselves and started to work on the corpses, leaving the issue regarding my powerful attack behind.

'Maybe I have to be more careful about showing my skills...'

And with that, I sat down and circulated my mana through my whole body while I was waiting for them to finish, enduring the hellish pain that was flooding my limbs.