Chapter 2: Pity Pity Pity.
“I just… I just should’a.” Bark kept chewing the handle of his sword as they moved along a path, any time they heard screaming they decided to head the opposite direction despite Jason's savior complex.
“I’m sorry…”
Shut up.
“I just… I could’a.”
Shut up.
“I’m the worst… I’m horrible.”
Oh my god.
Bark kept with this constant apologising, a backing track to the trail ahead. Jason along with Millie were too nice to make him shut his mouth so that obviously left Fay to be the bad guy, which he didn’t want to be.
Millie stopped yet again, looking around and picking up a random flower, tucking it into her robe pocket, she did this every few minutes and by now she had a pocket stuffed with ingredients.
Everyone could smell the earthy scent of a lake ahead, something that may not be the best idea to go close to now that they had the information that bears were around, but Millie was persistent that they needed to set base somewhere where they could keep an eye on themselves. The trees eventually opened up, the plants growing weaker as the soil turned more into pebbles, then into dark fine sand when the water appeared. The lake was not small but not too large either. Fay, only having seen the ocean, assumed it to be a bit sad looking, how the water stayed still and how the colour was mossy and gross.
Nevertheless Millie plopped down onto the sand, “There we are, Fay, here.” She patted the space beside her. As Fay sat, Jason and Bark both took watch, though the area was very quiet. “Now, I’m not very talented, I can't imbue mana into water so I’ll have to use my blood, may I have your knife?” She took it from his hands as she was saying this. “Watch if you will, it is very boring, but you may find it to be exciting, the little things, yes? The little things are exciting.” She dug a small hole into the sand, a hand length deep and tore up some ingredients into the hole. She then diced them all up with the blade edge, then crushed them with the hilt of the dagger, turning the plants into a paste. “Are you watching? You are.”
He was, intently so, he wasn't accustomed to healing magic, so this seemed similar to alchemy than anything else, maybe it was alchemy and she was using “healer” as shorthand for her real class, either way, she sliced open her palm and let the blood seep into the goo of plant matter.
The blood started a reaction immediately, bubbling up the concoction, she used the dagger hilt to mix it more, letting the paste turn more into a liquid as the blood somehow consumed the green. It smelt sweet and fruity, like a mango.
“You’re a good watcher, you watch, you do, you know? You have good eyes, not many have good eyes.” She took off the leaf from his injured hand and rubbed the liquid onto the open wound. The reaction was quick, it formed into a scab, then the scab dropped onto the sand, she repeated the same with Fay’s foot, though the foot was left with a dent in it, healed nonetheless. It was clear that the potion would only heal up the process, not bring anything back.
It was safe to say that wasn't healing magic. “That wasn’t healing magic.” So he said it to her face. She was staring back as she rubbed her palm wound with the same concoction, her face as still as ever, her grey eyes not twitching a slight.
“I need to preserve my mana.” She stood up and caught the attention of Jason and Bark, “this is our base. I’m sure you’re aware that if you kill something you can get stronger, that is the goal moving forward.”
Fay wasn’t too bothered with the idea and relaxed on the ground, “bears out there.” Which was all he needed to say to undo Millie's command, both Jason and Bark lost their confidence. “Those rabbits were easy to kill.”
“Not for you.” Jason said. Fay couldn’t tell if it was laced with malice or was a joke but either way he shrugged it off.
“Right, so how about we just…” Fay looked over into the lake, “fish.” He said with a bit of certainty, though nobody took it too seriously, getting ready to go out and hunt for XP.
“You’re really not coming?” Jason prepared his axe, even Bark, who seemed keen to not go anywhere near danger again, was readying for a hunt. “You’ll be okay here?”
Fay nodded, watching them wander off, Millie gave him a final nod before they headed back into the forest. The sun was still above them, so they had plenty of time to come back. There was a reason for all the hurry to go hunting, something about the night, and the monsters it may carry, seemed terrifying. They had all been told that this place was supposed to be a warzone, so the other shoe just had to drop soon.
Fay stood and traced the edge of the lake, there were a few fish that swam forwards and backwards, mostly trying to catch smaller fish. Despite how cold the water was, Fay stepped inside, getting knee deep so the fish may swim around him. He wondered something, obviously fish were too quick and cunning, they slipped around and had no qualms about getting close to a slow moving giant that Fay happened to be. With the knife in his right hand, and his palm open in his left he drifted them underwater, close to where a fish was relaxing and drifting.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
The fish froze completely, the slow drifting that it constantly had, the way it could ease into a quick dash was lost completely. Fay simply wrapped his hand around it and lifted it up. That only lasted for a moment though, as the fish flopped around and tried to breach his grip, Fay quickly split the fish open with the knife, killing it.
[Slain Basic Pond Fish (LVL 1)]
+2 XP
He chucked the dead animal onto the sand and waded through more water, he hoped that there wouldn't be any sharks nearby, or other large sea monsters, but that would make the lake much more frantic than it was currently, he assumed, a big creature such as that would make a big splash.
He collected more, using the same tactic, grabbing, then slicing, then chucking.
[Slain Basic Pond Fish (LVL 1)]
+2 XP
[Slain Basic Pond Fish (LVL 1)]
+2 XP
[Slain Basic Pond Fish (LVL 1)]
+2 XP
The pile had grown quite tall, the fish weren't too big, about a bite size worth of meat, but stacked up into an array of four they were a good meal for two. The only issue was that he was growing very very tired, the tactic taking a lot out of him already.
[Status]
[Fay]
HP: (52/60)
MP: (9/80)
“Right… this skill sucks.”
—
“Millie!” Jason wrapped around the tree where the rabbit happened to land after Bark’s open hand slap to the creature. Millie's job was quite simple, don’t let the rabbit escape, and she did just that by using a big stick and slamming it onto the rabbits head.
She gave a warm smile, “would you like me to carry this one too?” She already had two on their hands, a third seemed overkill. So he instead made bark hold one, that should be enough for all of them, one rabbit each.
“What about…” Bark started but couldn’t exactly remember the boy's name.
“He can have scraps, he didn’t want to hunt so he doesn’t get food, okay? We can't all be holding things.” He sanctioned this off as grim practicality, but the truth of it was that he was angry that Fay wasn't trying to help. He didn’t hate him, but he saved his life, he expected at least some help back. But in the back of his mind he knew he was trying to play hard, he’d likely give Fay his rabbit and eat scraps because of his skill. Pity.
They were concerned with the lack of fire making skills, but Millie promised she could ignite something if they managed to get enough sticks, so that would be their next goal. “Does anyone know how much XP we need to level up?” He asked.
Both Millie and Bark didn't answer, but they all guessed around one hundred, or fifty, which was a long way away if they kept at this pace. Just three fights with those rabbits made them all tired, with the exception of Millie, so they needed something to keep them ahead.
“We can make poison.” Millie suggested, “those boars we saw, if we poisoned one it'll be dead.”
“Too risky to be that close.” Jason said, although he was seriously considering it. If they made a spear then it would be perfectly viable, and with Bark’s butcher skill, he could infect an organ instantly and then run away, and maybe even Fay, if he wanted, could stop a boar charge.
They decided for today at least one of them needed to level up, so they would now kill rabbits without trying to keep their bodies for food, meaning they could actively slash instead of bump.
—
“Urgghhhh.” He sliced at another fish, missing completely, he was absently waiting for his mana to regenerate, but at this pace of one mana per minute, it was going to take a genuine hour. This hunting session had quickly become a bathe session, which was welcome, he finally washed his hair and drank some of the lake water, even though it tasted disgusting enough to vomit out. He felt a bit embarrassed that he didn't go with them, regretting it now. It would have been a great bonding experience and even though he was used to being lonely, he didn’t want to be kicked out of the group.
But laziness prevailed, he spent a while collecting and stacking sticks for a potential fire until the sun hit a 45 degree angle. He heard a few screams in the distance, very far away, carried by a reverberated echo.
He sat down once the sticks were fully stacked and checked his status, he was pretty much dry now, and the group still wasn't home after an hour.
[Status]
[Fay]
HP: (56/60)
MP: (59/80)
He thought he might as well go out fishing again, but this time for something more. He noticed there were in fact some bigger splashes, and also found that freezing the water around a fish rather than the fish itself reduced mana cost and had the same effect, turning that section of water into what was basically a bubble that flowed against the lakes tempo, this usually confused the fish and threw it off, but he only had the chance to try it once.
He took off his clothes this time and dipped into the water, luckily the sun had been heating the lake throughout the day so he could swim in it like it was a bath, he had a fish in one hand, bleeding, and his knife in the other. He quickly got deep enough to where his neck was just above the surface, he could see just barely into the murkiness, what he was looking for was that catfish he saw earlier. It was a lot more difficult to spot it now that he was in the middle of the lake, and the thought of there actually being a predator in here, something with sharp teeth, came into his mind. This was how people died.
He rested there for a bit, shutting his eyes and mouth, listening for the sway of the water. He waited for a second, waving the fish back and forth under, a second more and he felt the water be disturbed. A second more and the fish he was holding onto got sucked, like a great wind was blowing underwater.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Activated Stop Momentum]
He slashed down, again and again and again. The fish tried to break free, almost the size of Fay’s arm, he sliced again blindly.
[FAILED Stop Momentum]
He brought both his arms around and tried to hold it to his chest, slicing across the back. Finally, the creature stopped as he slid the knife one final time, the water around him becoming completely red.
[Slain Catfish (LVL 2)]
+8 XP
[Stop Momentum LVL UP]
-10% mana consumption
+1 Intelligence
He didn't waste any time getting out of the water with the fish, he happened to not even be able to touch the floor of the lake at this depth so he had to hold the fish to his side as he swam forward. The thought of a predator in the water was now his biggest worry, it was a huge risk.
As he got to the sand, he saw three figures in the distance, coming out was Millie with her robe holding a dead rabbit and more herbs. Bark was holding two rabbits while Jason had none. They all stood still and watched as a naked Fay stepped out of the water holding an arm sized fish, drenched in wet blood. “Hey!”
