Kian Goldmaul POV

  It’s the next day after the first day Niko took me hunting. As promised, today should be the day he lets me do the shooting myself instead of just watching from the side.

  We’re currently back in the same forest, though in a different spot than yesterday, using the same equipment and wearing the same clothes as before. The familiarity helps a little, even if the tension feels different now that I know I’ll be the one acting.

  “Let’s start with a normal rabbit. Let’s go on the right,” Niko says, motioning for me to follow him.

  As we walk for a few minutes, Niko starts a conversation, his tone casual but observant. “You don’t seem to be nervous or scared. Or are you?”

  I shake my head lightly. “No, I’m not.”

  He nods, a small smile forming. “When it was my turn to go hunting for the first time with my teacher, I was the complete opposite. Even when I first aimed, I missed a few shots, mostly because I was nervous and scared. But after a few sessions, everyone gets used to it.”

  We continue walking for a few more minutes before Niko suddenly stops.

  “Alright. We’re about twenty meters away from the pack. Choose whichever one you want, and don’t worry about the arrow not being strong enough to pierce it. I’ll boost it,” Niko says, then pauses as his voice speaks directly into my mind.

  I nod silently and lift my bow upward. I take an arrow from behind me and place it carefully on the string.

  I look through the zoom, calmly deciding which one to aim at. After a dozen seconds of observation, I choose the rabbit that’s lying down, since it’s the most still and least likely to move suddenly.

  I nod once toward Niko and start pulling the string back with the arrow.

  I take a deep breath and aim at its head, pausing for an instant to steady myself before letting go. The arrow starts flying through the air, and almost instantly its speed gets boosted by Niko’s magic.

  The arrowhead pierces straight through the rabbit’s skull, killing it instantly without any struggle.

  Niko nods in approval. “Good shot, kid.” He starts walking forward. “Let’s check out your hunt.”

  He removes the arrow from the rabbit’s skull and places the rabbit inside the bag. After wiping the blood off the arrowhead, he hands it back to me.

  “Let’s get going kid.” he says after seeing that I don’t seem uncomfortable or shaken by what I just did.

  As we walk deeper through the forest, he suddenly stops again before changing direction. “Let’s go this way.” As he says that, he reaches toward his torso, withdraws a knife, and hands it to me. The knife is big enough to be a sword in my hands.

  “Hold onto that. We’re getting close to a boar, and you’ll fight it a little. Your armor is strong enough that you won’t get any harm from a boar’s charge. You can use any type of magic you want, just beat it. But if you get hit even once, you stop. Understood? If you don’t want to fight the boar, you can say so.”

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  I nod excitedly. This would be my first real fight. Even if it’s against an animal, it’s still a fight nonetheless. “Yes, I understand, and I do want to fight,” I say, and Niko starts laughing heartily.

  “Hahaha! That’s the spirit. Well, prepare your mentality and don’t cower just by looking at it.”

  As we approach, I can start hearing it. “Don’t underestimate the boar. You’re currently worse than it at almost everything besides intelligence, agility, and the fact that it can’t use magic. So think carefully before attacking. Well then, here it is. It’s noticed us too. Now go.”

  Just as he says that, the boar notices us and immediately starts targeting us.

  I take a deep breath before thinking rapidly. ‘It’s bigger than me, and without a doubt physically stronger and faster. I’ll use The Fool’s Line right from the start. The other magic I know can’t do much besides scaring it. If I use flames, I might burn it a little, but that would use too much Veythar, and the magic itself isn’t lethal. My best option is to use The Fool’s Line to predict its movements, dodge, use water magic to scare it, and then slash its neck before it can react. I hope this succeeds.’

  I activate The Fool’s Line and take a fighting stance. I move closer, intentionally baiting it into rushing me.

  As I wanted, it starts charging, pointing its tusks straight at me. I ignore my fast-beating heart and focus entirely on it. When it gets about four meters away, The Fool’s Line takes effect, showing me its possible movements, just a straight line, nothing fancy.

  I immediately prepare my water magic. When it’s only a meter away, I splash it directly in the face and sidestep just far enough for the knife’s edge to reach. With a moment of hesitation, I slash its neck before it can react.

  I take a deep breath as I see it crumble to the ground, its legs kicking weakly.

  “Great job, kid. Distracting it before going for the kill,” Niko says approvingly.

  He approaches the boar and places his hand on its wound, healing it. “No need to kill this one,” he says as he holds onto its tusks to keep it still.

  I watch as the wound heals slowly. Niko looks unusually focused while healing. After the boar is fully healed, Niko lifts it up with ease.

  ‘That shouldn’t be possible for a normal human to lift a boar of that size so easily.’

  After that, he pushes the boar far away, scaring it into running in the opposite direction from where we came.

  “Healing seems to be a bit hard,” I say. “You looked extremely focused while healing the boar just now.”

  He nods. “It is harder to heal, but that only applies to animals that cannot naturally heal limbs or lost tissues, regrowing limbs and organs, just like ancient humans were.”

  “Ancient humans?” I ask. “And what do you mean it only applies to animals?”

  He looks at me for a few seconds and scratches the back of his head. “This should be common sense, but I always forget you’re a kid because of how mature you are, and you likely don’t know this.”

  He pauses, thinking about how to explain it properly.

  “Well, you see, animals like boars or rabbits and ancient humans aren’t able to heal lost limbs, organs, or tissues naturally. That makes healing harder, because you have to guide the healing tissues to close the wound or even guide them to form a limb. For ancient humans, the healing process was extremely tedious if you tried to heal a lost limb or even a deep wound.”

  He continues, “But after years of humans undergoing that type of healing for almost every kind of injury, along with biological research, current humans can heal limbs naturally without magic, though it takes a long time and a lot of energy. Because of that, when we use healing magic now, we don’t need to guide the process anymore we’re just speeding it up.”

  He pauses again. “Do you want me to cut my hand open to show you the speed difference?”

  I hesitate for a few seconds, but my curiosity wins out and I nod.

  Seeing that, he reaches his hand toward me, requesting the knife back. I hand it to him.

  He aligns the blade with his palm and cuts without hesitation.

  Before the blood can even flow, he uses healing magic, and the wound closes in less than a second.

  “Well then, as you just saw, the healing process is much faster. It can go even faster than this, but I went slow so you could see it clearly.”

  I nod, feeling a bit excited by the revelation, but I still ask, “When you cut yourself, why didn’t it seem like you felt any pain?”

  “Oh, that,” he replies. “It’s a type of Knight magic we use to nullify pain. It becomes instinctive through repetitive use and training. We use it so our thoughts don’t get clouded by pain during battle.”

  He sheathes his knife and starts walking again. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter End