Hunting for Sport

          As I trudged through the woods, the mana pooling around and within me seemed to swirl with recrimination. The wounds had mostly healed in the last 10 or so minutes - luckily the break of my calf bone was clean and automatically set and splinted by the machines inhabiting me - and my reserves had been somewhat replenished. Upon checking my system, I was met with several dings - which I then willed to never happen again - and 79 points of "exp.". Fantastic. Just had to almost die and now I'm full to bursting with the stuff. Though, I guess I wouldn't have gotten so close to death if I had just kept my head on straight and used my skills.

More specifically, the fact that I could have had a passive soul-detecting radar on this whole time completely slipped my mind! So, now I was angrily trudging through the sparse underbrush, pissed off that I could have gotten myself killed simply because I was negligent. Activating the skill with a punch of will, I was immediately aware of anything with even a smidgen of power around me within 300 meters. With a click of my tongue, I further realized that I had forgotten to Appraise anything I had hunted thus far and aimed to change that with the next target on my Radar.

A target I honed in on quickly; roughly 130 meters away was a relatively weaker creature high up in a tree. Unsummoning my armor to assist in sneaking up on my prey, I called out my hunting bow and prepared to take aim at the meter long turtle-bat-thing perching upside down on a high branch. Before I killed the poor animal, I focused my eyes and a small amount of information flowed into my head.

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Species: Fel'gar
Order: Natural Beast
Innate Strength: 132

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"Huh..." As soon as the small noise of surprise left my mouth, the fel'gar's head snapped towards me, but it had no eyes to speak of. On its head were a set of three relatively small holes in the shape of a triangle where its eyes should be, and a very large set of pointed ears that were swiveling nearly 360 degrees back and forth. With a shudder, I drew the bow and took aim. However, as soon as the creak of the bow tensing rang out, the blind beast dropped from its perch and spread its large leathery wings into their full 3 meter wingspan. The wings were more rounded, like a parachute instead of those of a bat, and as they caught the air they ballooned into two parts. Then, the other 3 limbs and head of the beast receded into the green shell covering its torso and back.

"Fucken ew," was all I could say as I loosed the taut string and sent an arrow at the unsettlingly alien creature. To my surprise, just before it hit, a gust of wind seemed to come at my arrow from behind - destabilizing the projectile and launching the turtle-bat into the sky. "Huh?" I could only stare dumbly as the large shell rocketed into the distance, riding the intermittent gales with skill... I stood there, puzzled at what had just happened, before ultimately deciding it wasn't worth chasing and merely retrieved my arrow then moved on to the next, hopefully less lucky, prey.

Putting a bit more of my perception into the Radar, I found several creatures within 200 meters that had a similar response to the fel'gar in terms of power. So, I set out towards the next target and monitored my surroundings for anything that may be following or approaching. I wasn't going to get ambushed this time. I'll make sure of it. Probably.

***

While I was hunting, I decided that I may as well take this time to make some observations on magic and my own system. Information is power after all and, as it stands, I'm practically a toddler with a physics degree and a gun... sort of, I guess. I know what I mean, that's all that matters.

Anyway, through my experiments I've gleaned a couple of important details:

1. Mana, for all intents and purposes, is part of the soul - but not the soul itself. This can be observed by the fact a creatures mana pool doesn't change when a it dies, even though I do absorb some power from it (that I can observe with the Radar, to some extent). On it being part of the soul at all - this is honestly just a hypothesis, but my own power cannot mix with objects already saturated with the mana of something else. For instance, I was not able to summon a ball of ice directly into the brain of the local equivalent to a deer, but I was able to forcefully displace its mana with my own and summon the ice then. Though it had already died by the time enough mana was replaced for me to summon anything and it had cost way more mana than a simple ice bullet shot at its brain would have. Thus, my theory that mana is the part of the soul and necessary for the bodies functions on some level, but is not the soul in its entirety, holds some weight. As non-empirical as it may be.
2. My system seems to be parasitizing around 5% of the Innate Strength of those I kill (rounded down probably), and it has to - for some reason - be a direct consequence of my actions. I'm still puzzling out how the system knows when to syphon power for me, but at least I'll know how much I'll get - if I manage to scan something before I fight it. I had witnessed the third raptor-otter-bird thing I had seen (a tell'vae, apparently) kill a fel'gar rather spectacularly and I had received none of its strength. Neither did the tell'vae, though, so it's still a mystery on how the beasts get stronger.

Putting an arrow through the skull of the beast that was slamming the shell of a fel'gar against a rock, I stored both animals and checked my status again. 

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Name: Xerin Quell'Thar
Order: EX  / ~Lord~ [+]
Class: N/A [+]
Job: N/A [+]
Innate Strength: Lord - 9001 {1% Effective}
Level: 1 / 99 [-] (101/05)
    • [Skills: 3]
Growth: [-] (05/05)
    • [Active Modifications: 8]

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Cool, I don't know how much'll be needed per level yet, but that will come later with observation. I'm assuming that the excess "experience" will be assimilated in my body while I sleep. I can also see that I have a maximum amount of points out of that experience that can be used for body mods, probably equivalent to the exp. needed for the next level... Hopefully leveling up increases the size and strength of my body and happens all at once instead of once per rest or something. 

*Crack*

I willed the menu closed and focused again on my surroundings, scanning with both Radar and natural sensory organs. That was definitely the sound of something wooden snapping, and it was probably to the East - directly away from the town. Just as my instincts were yelling at me to not check it out and that it was a trap, a high-pitched scream of pure frustration rang out and I was moving as fast as I could. Of course, I went through several different thoughts before I did so, I'm not the type to jump into harms way for just any damsel in distress I may perceive. The way I see it, either some lady is facing something she can't kill - thus, good exp. for me. Or, it's a trap and I'll be subject to an ambush that will ultimately fail due to my special set of skills - thus, good exp. for me. It's really a win-win, so I made my way to the still screaming person posthaste.

Burning a small amount of energy to empower my body, I easily reached speeds mere mortals could only ever experience on horseback. I held such expeditious speed for a solid half-minute before my Radar was in range and I saw something I had sort of expected. I closed the distance quickly, stopping behind a thicket of young trees and silently observed the duo I had sensed. Roughly 15 meters in front of me was a woman of shorter stature and slim build wielding half a bow. She was desperately dodging around the large frame of a bipedal alligator while clutching her left arm close to her chest. Focusing my eyes before introducing myself I scanned the beast that was slightly smaller than the one I had previously dealt with.

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Species: Tell'gar
Order: Savage Beast
Innate Strength: 715

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With a measure of my opponent and a desire to test my blade on the thick hide of the Savage Tell'gar, I began to run while I pushed energy into my body until I could feel it was at the limit of absorbing the impact of my harsh sprint. With a shout I pulled the attention of both beauty and beast, and summoned my claymore in-hand - only marginally slowing my stride in preparation to meet it head on. The reptile roared in what must be a signature display of acoustic might and began its own loping run at the new challenger (read: me). The low, rumbling bellow shook my bones and I had to grit my teeth to not break my concentration on the mana coursing through my body at maximum capacity.

In a bid to end this in one strike, I gripped my blade in both hands and stopped dead. Planting my feet and pivoting in such a way as to transfer as much of the kinetic energy as I could, the Tell'gar had acted in the way I had both anticipated and dearly hoped. The arrogant beast had probably not met anything that could out-pace and overpower its terrifyingly powerful maw - just like the last one. Yet, with the kinetic energy of a 70kg woman traveling at almost 30 kilometers per hour directly translated into a swing of my heavy blade, the teeth of the reptile didn't stand a chance - and neither did the bones of its jaw and skull.

With the grating rasp of sharp metal slicing through bone, the loping monster continued on its run straight past me and into the young trees I had hid behind - bowling over the new growth and finally collapsing under its own dead weight. Though it had left two baleful eyes behind, along with its  upper jaw and all the skull in-between. 

With a deep breath of air to calm my once-again pounding heart, I savored the fleeting feeling of battle and turned to the shell-shocked woman who had just been scrambling for her life. She was standing there, staring at me with wide eyes and blood dripping down her arm from a gruesome cut. Shit, that's pretty bad actually. I can see the bone exposed with a deep score and a bunch of roughly sliced muscle, it's practically torn. With a muttered curse I approached the increasingly pale woman, who failed to react at all, and tried my hand at a new brand of healing magic.

I had never done complex surgery before, but I knew the proper anatomy of a human arm. Though, her ears told me she was closer to a fox-person than a human, hopefully it wouldn't be too different and I can get her using that arm again sometime today. Once again, I whirled mana around my body and focused on the steps needed to repair the gory sight. I poured a summoned potion on her arm and she finally reacted with a hiss of pain and a scream she managed to choke down. She glared at me, one I answered with my signature sweet smile, and grit her teeth when she saw the steam rising from the quickly mending bone. Guiding the nanites and simultaneously pushing power into the image of a whole arm, I spoke to the foxy blonde in a bid to keep her mind off the pain.

"Nice to meet you I'm Xerin Quell'Thar, but you can call me anytime." I flirted flirtily. 'Or Xerin works I guess,' I added under my breath when what I said actually registered for me.

"..." She simply stared at me. Flummoxed at my expert bedside manner, no doubt. It seems my goal was met, though, as color returned to her cheeks - but she continued to glare at me with only a trace of perplexity in them. A few minutes of inane flirting later, her healing was proceeding nicely and, with the bone finally healed, I could block her nerves and relieve her of the pain she was feeling from her torn muscles. When the senses in her arm were finally cut-off she heaved a deep sigh of relief, and almost collapsed as her mind thought she was out of danger by the lack of sensation.

Holding the slight woman up with one arm, a dull glow came from my other arm and enveloped the wound that was slowly stitching itself back together. Eventually, after about 10 minutes of continuous healing, my mana pool was at about half, even with the constant vortex filling me, and the muscle was mostly repaired. Feeling the exhaustion of the day, I realized the still silent fox-person must be even more tired and slowly lowered us both to the ground and continued the healing in a kneeling position. With the wounded arm mostly healed after another 20 minutes, I pulled the nanites from her body and laid her down in the grass. There was still a rather gnarly cut, but it didn't extend into the muscle anymore and I finally set about healing the soft looking skin that was so badly damaged.

With a sigh releasing the tension in my body, I finally cut off the flow of mana and inspected the blonde fox-beauty more closely for any other small wounds - of which there were a few cuts and burns that were definitely not caused by the savage beast. She was currently sleeping with deep, even breaths, and was covered in sweat.

When I cast a simple cleaning magic, I realized that my initial observation may have been slightly wrong. I couldn't see any sign of secondary sexual characteristics on them and the only thing I had to go off was their very delicate features, slim figure, and wide-ish hips. Their body was very androgynous, with the swell of their hips and thin waist leaning ever-so-slightly towards feminine. Yet, their face and general "aura" felt like that of a mature and cold prince, even with their face relaxed in deep sleep.

With a shrug, I got to my feet and managed to put them on my back. They were wearing hard leather that muted any sensation I might have felt, but I simply shook the errant thought and approached the pieces of the Tell'gar to take with me. My accounts settled up, I shifted the weight of the fox-person on my back and proceeded in the direction of Windhaven. I was roughly 5 kilometers away, to the East, and I was too tired to walk through the forest with a person only slightly smaller on my back. So, my mind made up, I searched for a clearing nearby and found a good spot roughly ten minutes into my meandering walk. I set my patient on the ground, called out a bedroll and a blanket, then placed them on it before sitting on a nearby boulder and keeping watch while I waited for them to wake.

***

About two hours after I had found this little clearing, I heard a groan and the rustle of cloth - alerting me that the sleeping beauty was awake. Standing up from the boulder and pushing the radar to the back of my head, I approached the blanket where they were groaning with their eyes closed with a hand on their forehead - probably nursing a headache from hunger and dehydration, if I had to guess. That healing used up quite a few of their bodies resources after all. I cleared my throat, hoping to not alert them, but when they heard the noise they bolted upright in a panic. They still had their eyes closed but must have been confused, as they leapt straight at me instead of away like they wanted. Presumably, of course. Maybe they did want me pinned under them, but considering the look of shock on their face and the high pitched shriek that preceded them rolling off to the side, shooting up to their feet, and then taking up an amateurish boxer's stance - that was unlikely.

I lay there watching them work themselves further into a panic, bemused at their actions and turned on my side, before speaking to the frantic little fox. "Hey, you~. You're finally awake~." I stand and stretch my tired muscles as I speak in a sultry tone, my jumpsuit still in its tighter configuration and the cloak swept behind my shoulders with the hood down, showing off every contour of my body. Which was apparently appreciated, as the fox-kin's guard lowered ever-so-slightly as their eyes traced my figure and lingered on every hard line that was only emphasized by the titillating gray jumpsuit. With a sharp inhale, they pulled their eyes away to meet mine with a glare and spoke in a harsh tone with their clear jewel-like voice.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Their voice rang out, clean, pure and perfectly androgynous despite the panic and anger it was laced with. With a soft chuckle, which seemed to put them more on guard, I waved my hand and deposited the tell'gar that had wounded them onto the ground between us. When they saw the beast, their eyes widened and looked at me with a renewed sense of fear. Then they gasped, and their hand shot up to their left arm where they expected to find a wound. With a look of confusion on their face, they continued to stare at me, but patted down their whole body. Finding themselves hale and healthy save for being in need of some sustenance, the look on their face quickly turned to one of gratitude, but was still laced with caution.

They gave me a nod, finally relaxing, and continued to speak. "Right, I guess I should thank you for jumping into danger like that for me and for patching me up, too." Their way of speaking was way less formal than I was expecting and most of their distrust towards me had seemingly evaporated when they took a second look at the headless bipedal reptile at my feet - which I stored at the reminder. My surprise at the shift in attitude must have shown on my face, because they chuckled and answered the, as of yet, unasked question. "You're much stronger than I am, so much so that any but the most extreme caution is practically useless. ...Besides, if you wanted to do anything to me, my armor wouldn't be on me right now." They said with a shrug, while pulling a pouch from their belt.

"I couldn't even see you until you stopped on a tenpiece and decapitated the tell'gar with barely a sweat, anyway. Plus, unless I've been sleeping for more than a day, you've healed what should have been a lost arm in less than 3 hours." As they spoke, they pulled out a small brown lumpy ball and popped it in their mouth, chewing it with difficulty before swallowing. "You, uh... Wouldn't happen to have any water would you?" Well, they're very put together aren't they? With a question brewing in the back of my mind (next to the radar), I pulled out a pitcher of water and handed it over with a tankard. Eventually, I was too curious and had to have an answer.

"*Ahem*, sorry if this is uh... hard for you, but while I was healing you I noticed some wounds that couldn't have been caused by the tell'gar..." I trailed off when I noticed the look of cold fury that crossed their face. "Hunters." They spat, "Apparently there was an all expenses paid trip to the capital of this quaint little kingdom. Though when I declined their... invitation, they got violent. So I ran, and eventually I ran face first into that beast." They said with a disgusted shake of their head. "Of course, they all ran off like the cowards they are. And I was stuck facing off against a Savage a whole realm above me."

"Fuck, I was hoping it was just the one, but I guess there's a whole band of the bastards." At my cursing, They raised their brow in a silent question so I explained what had happened in my confrontation with the sleaze-wad from earlier. When I finished recounting my tale, a flash of excitement and yearning flashed through their eyes and I knew right then I had found a fellow battle junkie. Thankfully, neither of us were berserkers - proven by their bolting when outgunned so thoroughly and my... uh...

Anyway, after regaling them with the tale, I suggested we make our way back to town, as the day was growing long and - if we hurried - we could be there before sunset. They agreed and thus we set off into the woods. Our guards raised and wary of any potential ambushes. An attitude that paid off an hour later, less than 2 kilometers from the edge of the forest.