Test

Two days later, Oliver was cleaning the floor when he saw Eloise enter, with bags full of vegetables and other materials, held in both of her hands.

Eyes shining, he rushed over to her and took two bags to lessen her burden.

"I talked to Bron about you," She started, chuckling as she saw Oliver's eyes sparkle at the name and its meaning. "He said he'll test you and see if you are up to the tasks a hunter has to do. Go see him in an hour."

Eyes widening with every word, Oliver dropped the bags and ran straight into her with a wide smile on his face.

"I love you, Mom!"

"Alright, alright, now go play with your brother," She said, chuckling as she patted him on his head. "Off you go now."

"Yeah!" He said, enthusiastically picking the bag of vegetables up again and sauntering off to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Ryan was lying peacefully on the cold grass filling the backyard.

His eyes closed with a serene expression on his face and his limbs spread out, continuing to diligently practice his mana sense.

He was currently multitasking, trying to maintain a meditative state while having enough awareness to converse with Codex.

Lately, he had been quite annoyed at the fact that he could not even meaningfully use his only skill — his mana sense — while not becoming a burden of a bag of flesh and bones.

Hence, the practice to improve that skill to allow some leeway.

'Oh, well. It's a long project anyways.' Ryan sighed and refocused on the brightly shining, rough sphere of energy in his mana sense.

Even with shallow meditation, he could see a bulb of blue and green about two feet to his right and half a foot into the ground, sprouting veins into the ground till the edges of his limited senses.

'Fascinating, isn't it?'

[Indeed, it is.] Codex responded.

Currently, both of them were examining the magical seed Cloe had sown, trying to make out the what effects it created before maturity.

So far, they had only been able to make out tiny, root-like tendrils growing out from it deeper into the ground.

Extrapolating from Cloe's words, if this spell was supposed to provide water somehow, it would make sense if it created a root system like trees to transport water from the underground reservoirs and gather it at the top.

Unfortunately, only an inch high sapling had appeared above ground, while his senses didn't go far enough to see the depth of the magical plant's roots.

'Since it's technically the result of a magical Rune, is it alive?' Ryan asked. 'All plants are normally considered alive because they grow, reproduce, and metabolize. And we have seen only the growth aspect of it.'

Indeed, it was so.

Over the past couple of days, Ryan had only witnessed the runic plant grow. As for its metabolism, Ryan couldn't tell. What he could say, was that the shine of the mana in the orb has diminished noticeably.

Reproduction was still a question mark.

[It isn't clear, yet. But it is also not important right now.] Codex answered.

'Yeah,' Ryan echoed, noticing a partial silhouette entering his mana sense and rising from his meditation.

It wasn't hard to fake waking up from a sleep, considering he was lying down comfortably for the past hour.

"Good morning, Ryan." Oliver teased with a smile.

"Good morning, Ollie." Ryan smiled back.

"Want to go visit Bron?" Oliver asked.

Confused at first, realization dawned on Ryan's face, his eyebrows rising in surprise. "Mom agreed? Congratulations."

"Heh, yeah." Oliver chuckled. "Hold your well wishes though, I'm not a hunter just yet. Mom said Bron will be testing me to see if I'm fit. Are you coming?"

"Of course," Ryan nodded, standing up and dusting his clothes. "Anything we need?"

"Yeah? Like what?" Oliver asked, confused.

"I don't know. Any preparations? As you said, Bron will be testing you, we don't how his tests. And I assume a hunter should be prepared for anything. Maybe grab a knife or two?" Ryan offered advice.

"Huh, good point."

After gathering some items that seemed important — including a spare piece of clothing, a water canteen, and short kitchen knife — Ryan and Oliver went to look for Bron.

In a village as small as theirs, most of the food came from the farms, being basic grains and a few different types of vegetables rotated throughout the year.

Meat, instead, feel in the category of exotic foods, being specially procured by the dozen or so hunters specializing in surviving in the wild.

As far as was common knowledge, there were three teams of four hunters in the village, and neither of them took in apprentices more than once every three years.

Bron, being the strongest hunter and the village headsman's son, handled all the hunting affairs of the village, as well as setting market prices for animal products such as pelts, bones, the occasional Beast Cores and testing new apprentices.

The hunters' gathering spot was to the north-western most edge of the village, surrounded by the thick vegetation of the forest, but not so much that it wasn't visible from the village.

It was a tree-house, built sturdily across five especially close growing trees. It was made modestly, with multiple rope ladders hanging from different sections.

Before Ryan and Oliver got close to the tree-house, a figure jumped down a nearby tree and landed in front of them, kicking up some dirt.

"It hasn't been an hour," A rough sounding voice said. "Why are you hear so early?"

"Uh, because I was free and didn't see the point in waiting, so I thought I might as well see if you get free sooner." Oliver replied timidly, recognizing Bron in his hunter outfit, his body covered in leather armor, a satchel on his waist and having a short sword strapped to his back.

Nodding to the answer, without indicating if it was acceptable or not, Bron pointed to a tree about fifty meters ahead.

"Run to it and back. As fast as you can."

Not wanting to disappoint him, Oliver immediately took off, sprinting to the tree as fast as his legs could carry him.

Behind him, Bron picked up a pebble from near his feet and tossed it in his hand, getting a feel of its weight.

'Huh, wait a second...' Ryan thought, but before he could say something, Bron pulled his hand back and threw the pebble towards the sprinting Oliver.

"Watch out!" Ryan screamed, as the pebble soared through the air and hit Oliver squarly in the back.

"Ow!" Oliver groaned in pain, his momentum carrying him forward as he barely caught himself from falling.

Suppressing a complaint through sheer will, he carried himself to touch the bark of the tree and ran back.

"Pathetic," Bron scoffed. "Is that your best?"

"Yes..." Oliver squeezed out amidst panting.

"It took you half a minute to run this much distance, and this is your condition." Bron continued, pointing to the out-of-breath figure of Oliver.

"When you are running for your life out there, you absolutely do not want it to be slow." He uttered, emphasizing the warning. "Is that understood?"