"A white-skinned one" - Juan looked at Allan and muttered.

Allan heard Juan and spoke "Yes, human, you must be lucky. If I am a black one, you will be cursed right now".  Allan looked at Juan who has Alice sitting on his head as it was natural for her to be there. 

Chapter 11 - Hunting

Allan was jealous of Juan having Alice sit and played on his head. He was irritated ever since he saw Alice with Juan. He didn't even go out as he had seen Alice arrived near his village. He was burning with jealousy. However, Alice only gave him a friendly call, while Juan just assumed he was a hot-tempered person.

"Allan, can you help them upgrade their equipment?" - Alice asked Allan

"I don't want to" - Allan said

"Please!" Alice flew from Juan's head to Allan's face. "Please Allan!"

"Get away from my face" - He said while waving his hand near his face and slightly blushing

"I will do it for one condition" 

"What condition?" - Dex

"You will provide the materials, I need metals or leather for basic armor. If you want something special, you need to provide something spiritual in nature"

"Like this?"- Juan showed the nails, bones, and wings they got from Ferocious Lambanas. 

"Yes, like those. But I need more"

"Where can we gather more?"

"Outside the town"

"No! That's too dangerous!"- Alice

"What is there outside the town?"

"Animals corrupted by evil energy. The evil energy made them wilder and attacked living beings at first sight. There are also magical and spiritual animals outside town, if you don't provoke them, they'll not attack you. If you have bad luck, you will also encounter the corrupted spiritual beings outside. That is where you can get other spiritual materials. If you have worse luck, you will see the evil beings you knew, the aswangs and the likes. If you have the worst luck, you will see evil beings that wield the evil energy and granted them more magical powers"

"Wow! that's a lot for bad luck"  - Dex

"Why are you wishing for their misfortune!" - Alice said to Allan

"I wish I can wish for their misfortune. Tsk" - Allan mumbled 

"Grant them good fortune!" - Alice said

"Nope, I do not like him" - Allan

"Arf, arf" [You short one!] - Zoe said

"Huh? It is a companion spirit? How? I thought it was a regular animal" - Allan amusingly said

[White Duende, grant your fortune to my Master. Look at him. I know you can read his status. I can feel great power from you] Zoe said telepathically 

"What, How, Why?!" Allan was shocked when he saw Juan's status

[Bless him. You know why you should]

"I don't have a choice, right" - Allan said to Zoe

"Arf!" Zoe barked

"Just give me a minute. I'll pray to Kapalaran"- Allan said

"But Kapalaran is not a God, right?" - Juan asked

"He is more ancient than the Gods, that is what we only know about him. He has the power to change destiny at his will" - Allan

"Oh Kapalaran, Hear my wish. Please bless these beings before me." - With a wave of his hands, faith energy was mixed with mysterious energy from the environment. 

~Ting!~

"That's is a large increase in luck!" - Dex exclaimed

---

Outside the town, 2 humans, 1 lambana, 1 dog, and 1 duende were exploring the vast outside.

"Why does this world is much larger than our world even though the town was almost the same. Looked around us, in the real world there is no big forest outside town. Diwata said this world is a mirror world of the real world" - Juan suddenly asked

"Hmpf. Ignorant. Even though this is a mirror world. There is a warped mirror in your world right?" - Allan short explanation

Juan wanted to ask more questions but he felt that Allan was mad for some unknown reason to him. 

"This world contains an abundance of different energies, unlike the real world. It makes this world larger to accommodate these energies" - Alice said while still sitting on Juan's head. 

The group continued walking outside. They were in a grassy plain and they can see forest ahead. In the plains, they can see different animals. Some are the extinct animals like the plains bison and mighty stegodon. 

"Wow, the extinct animals are still thriving here" - Juan

"Not just the extinct animals, there are unique species here due to our environment" - Alice

"Can we hunt those?" - Dex while pointing the mighty stegodon

"If you can, why not, but remember do not overhunt. You do not want to have the ire of nature be with you. But hoping it be with him" - Allan said while looking at Juan

"Where and when can we hunt some animals for materials?" Juan asked

"Near the forest, some magical animals wandered outside the forest. I think you can hunt them or they will hunt you. I hope you will be the prey." Allan said

"Allan!" Alice shouted. "Do not mind him, Juan"

"It is alright" Juan said. "Dex, can you pray to your god to give us some blessings?" 

"Sure, Let's see," Dex said he think carefully about what to do while thinking about his blessing for Dumakulem. He put his close fist near his left chest near his hear. He thumped his chest hard and said "Dumakulem, my god, hear my prayer. Give us good hunt" 

Brown light emerged from Dex and spread out of everybody with him. 

~Ting!~

"Now, that is good, well-executed hunter's prayer. But how can you?" Allan looked at Dex and said "Oh a descendant of the hunters"

They walked into the end of the plains near the forest entrance. They saw a rat 2-ft long 1-ft high. It has brow fur and moved through the earth while digging. 

"That's an earth rat!" - Alice exclaimed

"Inspect" - Juan

"There are three of them" - Zoe said while looking around. 

"Juan, I'll go fight them. Let us see my new strength" - Dex said

Dex prepared himself, He stretched his muscles, and swung the bat. He surveyed his environment and picked some stones while walking away from the group. When he was at sufficient distance away, he threw the stones and earned the aggro of the animals. The rat ran to Dex while dex prepared to smash them with his bat. When they are 5 meters away from Dex, they started to dig fast to the ground and in a blink of the eye they were out of sight.

"What!"- Dex shouted while looking around

"Focus on the ground behind you!" - Juan shouted when he saw the ground suddenly moves

Thanks to Juan shout, Dex saw the rat jumped into him and ready to scratch him. He dodged it. Then he felt there is another one behind him. He dodged it perfectly. Again, he felt something behind him and dodged it. It repeated several times. After dodging one last time, he ran away from the rats to recover some ground. 

The rats followed him after a few seconds. They ran a little faster compared to before. Similarly, after nearing Dex, they vanished underground. However this time, they simultaneously jumped out of the ground. Dex skillfully dodged them. However, there are times he can't dodge successfully. Light scratches emerged from his body as the fight goes on. Dex while thinking about what to do, he suddenly closed his eyes and felt his surroundings, the movement of the earth and wind, even the movement of energies around him. He successfully dodged all of the attacks while he kept on feeling the energies around. He was looking for a moment while storing his energies into his bat, arm, and back muscles. 

He started to memorize how the rats moved underground. Until he felt that it was the time to strike while the rats are underground. With his muscles and bat full of energy, he struck the ground with all he got. 

"BOOM!" The loud sound, clouds of dust, and flying dirt were around Dex after hitting the ground. The rats are also thrown into the air by the force of the strike. They are a little muddle-headed. Dex didn't let go of this opportunity. He struck the rats while they are in the air. All of his swings hit the vital organs of each rat. They reached the ground dead second later. 

"Wow!" - Allan said

~Ting!~