First hunt

"Artus, you have really surprised me."

"If I did not see that with my eyes, I would never believe that someone was able to master the fireball spell within one week."

When Seers saw Artus casting the fireball spell, his jaw almost dropped. So, she agreed to take him out to the forest, intending to test his power and see if his fireball spell actually worked in combat.

Artus and Seers were walking on the edge of the Moonshadow forest early in the morning. They left the academy and passed through the academy city to the forest.

"Lady Seers, I will not deny that I have some talent, but honestly, I got lucky. I was able to understand it easily, especially after you demonstrated the spell in front of me. It was your guidance that enabled me to achieve this feat."

Artus smiled and praised Seers, giving her credit for his progression. He was trying to avoid speaking about himself.

"Oh…. young boy…. how clever of you."

Seers knew Artus did not want to talk about how he learned the fireball spell in short, so she did not ask. After all, how does it not have a secret?

The Moonshadow forest was a large forest spanning a large area of the Valeria kingdom; it was very deep, containing all kinds of monsters; the more you advance through the forest, the stronger the monsters; monsters are powerful close to the forest center so its depths remained unexplored.

Artus and Seers were traveling on the edge of the forest, looking for low-level monsters to test the fireball spell on.

Seers spotted a small furry creature on the ground several meters away as they walked. It had tiny paws and long ears, but what drew attention the most was the long horn on its forehead. It was eating some fruit peacefully.

"This is the One-horned rabbit; it is a small and timid creature; it usually runs away using its fast legs when it senses danger, but if it is driven into the corner, it will start attacking using its horn."

 "The horn is very sharp and hard. It will jump into its enemies, stabbing them with the horn, causing damage."

"let's test your abilities with it, go ahead and fight it."

Artus walked slowly forward; his steps were slow and quiet, and he almost made no sound. When the distance between him and the one-horned rabbit was around four meters, he extended his hand forward.

Within moments, a fireball formed in front of his hand; then he threw it at the rabbit; it traveled very fast, and the monster had no time to react when he sensed the danger from behind. It was already too late. The fireball exploded on him, causing significant damage.

Its body lay on the ground, half burnt with smoke rising from it.

"What do you think, Aunt? Is it good enough?"

Artus asked seriously; he had never seen a fireball spell cast on a target before. He had only seen Seers casting the fireball, but she did not launch it, so he had no idea about the spell's average range, speed, and power.

"Artus…. you never fail to surprise me…honestly this was one of the best fireball spells that I have ever seen…. the casting speed was almost instantaneous...the fireball speed was fast….and it was able to travel for a longer distance…. you would be considered in the top ten percent of the mage in the overall performance of the fireball spell."

Artus was taken aback by her words; her reaction was stronger than he had expected. He thought she might praise him a bit, but he seemed to underestimate his power; in other words, he had overestimated the average power of other mages. He thought that his performance would be considered good or even excellent at best, but from the way Seers spoke, his performance turned out to be mind-blowing.

He decided to worsen his performance intentionally from now on. If he kept showing his cards, he would draw too much attention, and even if he had some degree of trust in Seers, he should be careful. He didn't want her to get suspicious of him.

"Ok, Artus, bring the body of the rabbit here."

Artus put the body on the ground; Seers handed him a knife.

"Law-level monsters like this one-horned rabbit are only capable of physical attacks using their body part; they can't perform magical attacks since their body does not contain a nucleus. For this monster, you can sell the horn for some money because of its hardness and sharpness. It can be used in making some weapons and tools, and its meat can also be sold; it is considered light, soft, and delicate and used in making various dishes."

"As for high-level monsters that can perform a magical attack, you can extract the nucleus from their bodies; it contains condensed magical energy which can be used to increase the power of mages or to make magic weapons or tools."

Seers taught Artus how to skin the one-horned rabbit, remove its horn, and harvest its meat. He put the part in a small leather bag, and they continued their walk.

They found another rabbit, so Artus approached it and tried to cast the fireball spell. He once again raised his hand, and a tiny spark of flame was ignited in front of his hand. Then, it started to grow; the process was somewhat slow, especially compared to his previous performance; then, suddenly, the shape of the fireball became irregular; it started to bulge from everywhere. Artus could not maintain its spherical shape, so it shattered into pieces and extinguished. 

The rabbit sensed the distance and ran away quickly into the forest's depths.

"Aunt, what happened? I was not able to cast the spell?"

"You have run out of mana and just entered the mage path. I estimate your power to be around a level one apprentice mage, so your mana is enough to cast the fireball spell once before being depleted. Now you must wait until you accumulate mana again, or you can directly replenish it with a potion".

"So that's it, thank you for explaining, Aunt."

Artus said with an innocent smile as if he was just a curious, smart child.

As Seers said, she took a small potion bottle and gave it to Artus.

"Here, drink this."

 "Is this the so-called mana potion?"

"Yes"

Artus did not hesitate and drank it in one gulp.

"I feel refreshed."

"let's continue searching for another monster."

They spotted another rabbit.

"Remember always to be careful, don't underestimate your enemy."

Artus nodded his head in response to Seer's words, but he did not take them seriously in his heart after all. He was confident in his power. He got close to the monster and started casting a fireball, but just a moment before he finished casting the spell, a fruit fell on the ground from a nearby tree, altering the rabbit.

It turned its head in response, noticing Artus and sensing the danger, so it directly jumped into the air. It was too late for Artus to change the direction of the fireball, causing it to hit the ground below the rabbit.

When the rabbit's paws touched the ground, it relaunched itself, but this time not into the air but directly toward Artus.

*SLASH*

Blood covered Artus's clothes.