Hunting Trips

The next day...

As Katherine woke up early in the morning, she suddenly felt something bumping on her thighs.

Looking down, the blanket had been kicked aside.

Alex's head rested on top of her chest, his hand grabbing onto her waist like a baby. Yet his lower body was the opposite of a baby.

A small bulge had clearly formed, made even more obvious by the leggings he had to wear from his sister's prank.

"How is he always so turned on every morning? Is this just a kid's body growing?"

Katherine thought to herself as she gently put Alex aside without waking him up, then slowly got up from the bed.

As she walked out of the tent, her mind suddenly thought of something that made her blush a little.

"What are you thinking? He's your son, you idiot. Stop thinking about something that will never happen."

Katherine started to feel a little guilty for even considering using Alex's body to satisfy herself.

"Stop being a dirty whore, Katherine. You're already an old woman. Think of how scandals it would be for that to happen.

Everyone around you would be so disgusted by it... I probably should start wearing a bra when I sleep with them."

After calming back down, Katherine took out three glass cups and began unbuttoning her shirt.

With all three glasses filled with a certain white liquid, she quickly puts them right into her pocket dimension.

"When did I care about what other people think? No, no, I need to stop thinking about this. This is way too forbidden."

Katherine quickly shook her head a little as she walked straight back into the tent.

---

"Time to wake up! Wake up, piggies!"

All three of the kids slowly opened their eyes, their bodies barely moving as they leaned back again.

"Mom! My leg is so sore!" Mary complained.

"Same! My leg can't move an inch," Sophia complained as well.

As Katherine looked over to Alex, he was the only one who already sat up from the bed.

"Alex, how are you still fine?" Sophia curiously asked as she tried to get up but failed.

"Yeah, how are you still getting out of bed?" Mary asked in jealousy.

"I don't know... I guess I exercise more than you two?"

Seeing Alex heading out to wash his face, Katherine turned her attention back to the girls, who had finally sat up from the bed.

But both of them couldn't stand up, which made her realize how much she had put the three of them to walk through.

"That's what you two get for pranking your brother yesterday," Katherine smirked as both of them fell into silence.

After watching them struggle to get up for a whole minute, Katherine finally decided to offer them some help.

"Just relax... Let me chant a little spell for you three."

As Katherine closed her eyes, she began chanting something that caused a green light to appear.

The two girls could feel the sore disappearing, almost fully back to normal, as Katherine opened her eyes again.

"You two feel better now?"

Both of them nodded, finally getting up from the bed before stretching their body out.

"Mom, can you teach us that spell?" Sophia asked curiously, and Mary looked just as curious.

"It's not a spell... Go wash your face first."

After Katherine kicked them out of the tent, she finally began taking her pajamas off before going inside her backpack.

Just as she stood back up, getting ready to put on her clothes, the tent door was suddenly unzipped.

"Forgot we left our clothes in here."

Both of the girls didn't look at Katherine a single bit as they headed straight to their backpacks and began changing inside.

But Katherine noticed Alex kept on digging inside his backpack despite already knowing what was inside it.

"Alex, what's wrong? You looking for something in your backpack?" Katherine softly asked.

"I-I'm just looking for something to cover my legs more." Alex shyly replied as he froze in place.

"But your leg is already covered with the legging." Mary suddenly chimed in.

Alex couldn't answer back, not wanting to admit that the tightness of the leggings made it impossible to hide anything bulging out.

"No wonder why men always wear shorts underneath grey sports leggings..."

After an internal fight in his head, he reluctantly took out the knee skirt from the backpack.

"Alex, you..."

All three of them were in complete shock as they watched Alex slowly put on a skirt for the first time.

"S-Stop looking at me. I-I'm embarrassed by this, okay?"

Seeing their brother shyly looking down, his face blushing red, and his hand behind his back, a switch inside their head was turned on.

"Alex, you're so cute in this! You almost look just like me a few years ago!"

Sophia suddenly ran up to Alex in excitement, hugging him before Mary ran right from behind.

"Brother is actually wearing a skirt. It's so neat and beautiful!" Mary commented, still unable to believe her eyes.

"Alex, you don't look that bad in this... Why are you so taken aback by wearing——"

"Hell no! I'm never doing this again."

Alex instantly interrupted Katherine, his face blushing more red than ever out of embarrassment.

At the same time, a weird feeling was developing inside his heart. He couldn't really describe it in words.

It was the first time someone had stroked his sense of vanity, and the validation allured him to do it again for the compliments.

Still, his mind was rational enough to reject the urge, realizing it was just his woman's side of the brain playing psychology.

"Stop touching me. I'm never wearing this again——"

"Ahem, stop messing with your brother... Let's go hunting now."

As Katherine broke the two of them away from Alex, he was finally able to fix his skirt to cover the small bulge on his legging.

---

When the three of them followed Katherine into the forest, their surrounding was much warmer than Alex expected.

There was barely any wind, causing the day to be much hotter than yesterday's cloudy day.

Or it could just be the leggings were much hotter than he had ever imagined as he continued walking.

"Okay, you three ready? There's an animal within ten steps from us."

All three of the kids nodded to show they were ready, but besides a few bugs, not a single living thing was in sight.

Just as one of them was about to ask Katherine about it, a barrier suddenly appeared behind Sophia's head.

With a clunk sound, a rock fell right onto the ground as they finally turned around to check.

Much to their confusion, nothing was there. But the rock on the floor showed that something had thrown it towards them.

"Mom, where is the animal?"

Sophia asked in confusion, as everything around them was just trees and vegetation.

"You can't use your eyes in a forest to see it... Try to use your mana to detect living beings around you."

All three couldn't understand what Katherine meant until they suddenly felt the mana in nature started to become unstable.

It was almost as if someone was scanning all the nearby trees and using mana to touch all over their bodies.

"Mom, what was that?" Sophia curiously asked as the feeling disappeared.

"Just let your mana go freely rather than letting it stay inside your body. Then try just to direct the mana in a random direction."

The three nodded, following Katherine's instruction to release their mana freely into the air.

As they tried to direct the mana, everything they bumped into gave them visual feedback inside their mind as they absorbed it back in.

They could sense a clear hitbox of everything their mana touched, from the solid tree to the ground to the birds watching from above.

Their mana could even detect each other's bodies as they bounced off back into their own body.

"Focus on the environment. You still lose some mana to the environment every time you reabsorb your mana again."

As the three of them shifted their attention back to the environment, they finally found the animal Katherine had mentioned.

It was a small boar in the process of casting another stone as their mana gave them visual feedback into their mind.

Without any hesitation, Sophia was the first to cast a spell, throwing a wind blade right in the boar's direction.

A loud ugh sound could be heard before something could be heard dropping onto the floor.

"Good job, Sophia... Alex and Mary, don't try to reserve your mana when scanning for threats, or you might miss it."

Both of them nodded in agreement, realizing they wasted more mana doing a little at a time when they could have released their mana all at once.

"Now, get ready to scan your surroundings occasionally. We're going to keep going until we find something else better."

As the three of them followed Katherine down the dirt path, the three of them were starting to get the hang of it.

"Remember, do not use your mana to scan in public or towards someone without their permission.

It's considered rude and might even lead to trouble. One of my classmates was turned into an ordinary person after he scanned an archmage."

Seeing all three of them nodding and noting it in their head, Katherine continued down the path until she suddenly stopped.

This time, Katherine didn't need to say anything as all three of them cast a rock spell towards the side.

"Nice, you three are getting the hang of it... Look like we can pack it up now."

As Katherine stepped into the bush, she came back with a rabbit-like animal in her hand.

"Can we hunt more?" Alex curiously asked, feeling a little unsatisfied with just a small animal.

The other two supported him as well, wanting to hunt something bigger than just rabbits.

"Too bad. Unless you guys don't want to explore the dungeon."

None of them spoke up again, not wanting to miss the real challenge ahead of them.

---

When the four of them arrived back in the camp, Katherine quickly started up the fire while they sat and watched.

Right before their eyes, Katherine kills the animal with a knife before removing the skin.

All three of them didn't flinch a single bit, as they had seen thousands of live butchering back in their hometown's market.

After gathering only the meat from the thighs and chest area, Katherine pulled a pan and a bottle of animal oil from her pocket dimension.

With a few drops, the meat immediately started sizzling before filling the entire area with a strong, flavorful smell.

"You guys are lucky we killed this Luni-rabbit. They usually are super agile and hard to kill.

They are also one of the best animals to get in the wild, as their flesh is perfectly tender yet firm enough to feel full."

"Really? But this Luni-rabbit didn't feel fast at all." Sophia murmured as she thought back to the rabbit tanking her windblade.

"That's because it didn't see your spelling coming."

As Katherine started flipping the meat around, Alex quickly cleaned up the nearby area so she could put the pan onto the ground.

With the meat fully cooked and seasoning added, Katherine handed each of them a fork to eat straight out of the pan.

Sophia was given the right to eat first, as she was the one who scored the kill.

"Hmm... This is so good!"

Both Alex and Mary had the same thought as they took turns to get a small piece and chewed it several times inside their mouth.

Katherine took only a small piece to taste before letting the three of them finish the rest.

"Okay, here's your milk for today... Are you all ready to go explore the dungeon?"

All three of them said yes as they drank down the milk that Katherine handed over from her pocket dimension.

As Katherine packed everything away into her pocket dimension, the three of them finally walked into the cave, and Katherine went in last.

Fortunately, this time, they didn't really need to make a light as the sun outside was perfectly angled to light their way in.

With the two statues switched back to the correct position, the stone entrance began slowly sliding to the left.

"Wait, You guys can't explore a dungeon with only three mages. Someone needs to act as the knight in the front."