Aela POV
“Here you are.”- I muttered from the shadows of the fern I was hiding behind.
It was big; bigger than any of its kind I had seen till now. Even though I knew it was going to be huge from the size of the prints it had left in the snow, I didn’t expect to hunt this 8 feet tall monstrosity anytime soon. Its silver fur made it hard to spot it from afar without magic, but lucky for me, the Silver Wolf had made a mistake: It had failed to sense me and gone ahead and hunted itself a Styg Moose, painting the snow red with its blood.
Keeping my eyes on the wolf, I lifted my bow and knocked an arrow.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
Normally, hunting a beast on same Tier as me would be simple, but not this time.
I aimed at the hunter-turned-prey and closed my eyes. Visualizing my mana Core, I drew some energy from it, and willed it into turning 26 Runes, creating 2 spells:
“Sharpen” and “Muffle”.
I ordered the 2 sets of runes to fly out of my Core and to coat the arrow I had drawn.
As I opened my eyes, I saw the Runes gently shimmering around the shaft of the arrow, so close to touching the wood, yet never managing to.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
I made the last minute adjustments as much as I could before spells wore out, and loosened my fingers.
The shaft of the arrow slid past the right side of the bow, racing toward its target while glowing blue.
150 or so yards away from me, the Silver Wolf dropped down to the snow with a “thud”.
“FUCK YEAH!”
I rushed down from the hill I had shot the beast from after putting my bow away.
It took me seconds to reach the corpses, and what I saw put a smile on my face.
The arrow had gone half way through the neck of the Silver Wolf, nicking the spine and tearing its windpipe.
Perfect shot!
First, I recovered my arrow, only to see that it had chipped. Flesh was still fine, but the bones of high tiers were as hard as rocks, often destroying normal tools.
“I knew I should have used adamantium heads!”
Dad is so going to nag me to death. Again…
I had planned to drag my hunt back to the village, but I ran into a problem. The problem was that I was stupid.
“Shit.”
The Silver Wolf was over half a ton… Dragging it back to village would be pain in the ass, if even possible in the first place.
Having no other choice, I salvaged all I could before other beasts were drawn by the smell of blood. Winters were cold around here, and carnivores were already starting to hoard food before winter wiped out all of the smaller critters.
I first cut open the beast’s chest and took out its core.
“Oww, man… It was Tier 4 after all!”
This one was a big beast, bigger than most Alphas of Silver Wolf packs, but it was alone by itself. I had hoped that it would be a Tier 5, but it turned out to be a peak Tier 4 in the end. I put the core into my backpack.
Next, I pulled out its nails and fangs before pulling out my skinning knife. The colour of its fur made it ideal choice for hunters to make it into a coat.
There was also the corpse of the Moose too. Even if the flesh and the hide were ruined, its core was still there.
. . . . .
3 Hours! It took me 3 hours to make my way back to outskirts of the village. That bastard had made me chase it dozens of miles north, wasting all of the daylight, forcing me to trek back in night. Still, it was worth it.
“Are you going to come out or not?”
There was someone in the snow covered trees, but I was not worried. For one, I was about 5 or so miles away from the Village- no beasts would dare approach this close. And with Grandma keeping an eye out, no spies or enemies that I could detect could even reach the outskirts.
No, it was either another hunter messing with me, or one of the kids in patrol duty.
“Che.”
An elf jumped down from a tree 10 yards away from me, an elf I recognized from her voice.
Urgh.
“What do you want Njada? Don’t you have better business than messing with me? Or have you already sucked dry all the goblins in the forest?”
She was a typical girl as far as appearances went. Standard yellow hair, 6 feet tall or so, and a thin waist.
I walked towards home without paying much attention to her.
“Big words coming out of a virgin. You left for the whole day, so I thought you were going to bring back something nice. Yet you crawl back empty handed.”
Why did I ever become friend with her in the first place…?
I took off my backpack so I could take out the fur.
“Bah, if not fucking everyone with a dick makes me a virgin, then sure, I am a virgin. Is there a single unmarried man left in the village that you haven’t ridden yet? Also give this to your daddy for me.”
I threw the fur of the Silver Wolf at her. Her father was best tanner of the village, while my dad was the only smith we had. This forced them to work together a lot, leading me to become friends with this sex fiend.
She caught it, but she didn’t seemed to be pleased.
“This is it? You wasted all day for a common wolf? I am ashamed for you, sister.”
“Whore, have your eyes rotten away from all the fucking? Look at its size.”
Now, the look she had on her eyes when the coin dropped was priceless.
“Hmm? Oh shit! It’s from an Alpha! How in the oblivion did you manage to kill an entire pack?!”
Heh, I wish! A normal pack has over twenty Tier 3 Silver Wolfs, and they are especially aggressive this time of the year.
“Nah, it didn’t have a pack. It was alone when I managed to find its tracks. Whether it lost its pack in a fight or it was kicked out, I don’t know. It was not a normal one either, here look at this.”
I took out the core from the backpack and threw it to her. I got to see her ears stand in attention once again. Her ears were very long, almost like goblin ears. This made her expressions especially comical.
“Daaamn, girl. This is almost Tier 5! And you hunted it alone?! Didn’t you just got to 4th tier, like, a week ago?”
Praise me more, foolish creature!
“Hehe, I am great after all! Now give it back, Dad will grill my ass if I am any later.”
She threw the core back with an amused face.
“Oh, you have bigger worries, Aela. Take a guess.”
Shit. There was only one thing worse than an angry dad…
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yep, I saw her before my shift, and believe me, she was not smiling.”
FUCK.
I stuffed the core back to its place and took off towards home.
The 16 Mana trees and the single Elder Tree of the village came into my sight in minutes, but there was only a single though in my mind.
I am fucked.
Making my way toward the furthest Mana tree took more effort from me than I spent in the last 3 hours. And it was not the muddy soil that slowed me down/
There is no running from this.
I knocked on the door of my home, one of the 4 houses that were nestled between the thick roots of this Mana tree, roots which were holding its trunk above ground.
Not waiting for or expecting an answer, I opened the door and walked in.
First thing I saw was Dad, whittling wood for some weapon at the end of the corridor.
He stopped his hands, lifting his eyes to meet mine for few second. He was neither angry nor worried, but his gaze made one thing clear.
I am sooo fucked.
“H-Hi.”
“Aela Maryon! Get your ass over here right this second!”
It was mom, shouting from kitchen a door over.
Gathering all the courage I could, I marched towards kitchen without saying anything. Shit. No beast was as terrifying as the one cooking in the kitchen.
“Now, tell me, young lady, where were you whole day?”
“I-I was hunting!”
“Keep your shoulder straight and look at my face when talking, Aela! There is nothing to fear. Tell me, what was the mighty beast that made you forget your promise not to leave the village without telling me?”
Liar! You are the terrifying thing I know!
Trying to get out of this as fast as possible, I took out the core and put it in front of her. It was a mistake. Her ears rose up enough to get glued to her head, and her face contorted in anger.
“AELA MARYON! WHAT DID I TELL YOU BEFORE?! Why did you chase after creatures stronger than you?! What would we do if you fell to a random bear or wyvern?! Huh?! Did it ever occur to you not to mess with creatures stronger than you?!”
It had been years since she last shouted at me like this. I knew it was partially my fault, but so what?! She knew why I did it! She knew why I tried so hard to cultivate for all the time. She knew what I wanted to do. So why was she shouting at me like this?!
“YOU KNOW WHY I DID IT! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE!”
Before I knew it, it become hard see. Tears had filled my eyes. They raced down my cheeks before I knew it, leaving behind a small trail.
I didn’t realize how, but I was already hunkering behind the table when I heard mother sigh.
“Aela… We talked about this, didn’t we? You are still too young to leave us. Just wait few more years.”
Putting her chopping knife down, she came towards me, pulling me into a hug.
“B-but I am a-already 34! When will it be enough?!”
She let out a small chuckle, hugging me closer. It had also been years since we did this. I had almost forgotten how safe and warm her embrace could be. My tears finally dried up, but not before wetting her shirt.
“You are barely out of the crib, my little baby. With your talents, you will easily live up to 400. What are you if not young? Little girl, outside world is not kind, especially now. You are not ready to face it.”
I had heard these excuses dozen times already. ‘You are too young’, ‘You are not strong enough’ and ‘The world is a cruel place’. Yet, I had not seen a glimpse of the world. I had never been allowed to go south toward the famed Empire they spoke of, nor have I ever gone close to Maki.
“When?! When will I be strong enough then?! You two are at Tier 5, yet I reached Tier 4 before fifty! Tell me, when will I be strong enough to wander the world, leaving behind this cursed village? Even hunting that Silver Wolf had been as easy as pie!”
SHIT!
I realized that I had fucked up big time when she released her hold over me. But it was too late. Her eyes locked onto mine, but there was no anger in her eyes. I couldn’t spot a single emotion on her face.
“Aela. Where did you hear that phrase from?”
Fuck me!
I just broke one of the taboos of the village, the one about never using the words of the humans. It was fine still fine using it among kids, but you would get a good spanking if others heard you speak the phrases brought by the corruptors. And spanking was only for the kids, adults had it much worse; they would be banished at best case…
“I-I…”
While I was looking for a way out of this mess, I was saved by someone knocking on the door.
Father put down his tools to answer the door, but the mom’s steely eyes were still on me.
The one on the doorway was one of the hunters of the village.
“Grand Elder sent a summon.”
Father being the only smith here, he was often called by the Grandma Maru, the Grand Elder of our village.
“Alright, just give a minute to get ready.”
Father replied as he invited the hunter inside. But fate had something else in mind for me.
“It’s not for you, brother. Grand Elder wants to see Aela.”
I am waaay beyond fucked.
Comparing his work to mine left me ashamed.
Please don't feel this way. Your story is special and definitely deserves to be told. Anyway, his story and yours are quite different, are they not? His story is a gender-bender isekai with the MC reborn as a baby. And, while it does have lots of views and ratings (clearly from getting lots of exposure), as one can tell from reading several of the comments, his story has some serious flaws.
I think your story is plenty good. But the only way to get better is to continue writing, right? The fact that you've released some stories says a lot. Many aspiring writers only dabble in writing here and there and are not confident enough to release anything (myself included).
it is good to see another chapter
thank you verry much for the entertainment
Wait there are humans (other than our alien/ interterestial being) in this universe!!???
Thank you for chappy have a nice day 
Nice and welcome back
Thank you!
What was the human word? Was it Pie?
"Easy as pie"
@Monk_Origins That. Is hilarious, in a dark way
Let's get this onto trending.
Welcome back !
A nice surprise to see an update!
Aela is hot so that's just fine!
Thank you for the chapter! Please, keep up the good work.
"I just broke one of the taboos of the village, the one about never using the words of the humans."
As most of you understood, this means that rest of the elven society got changed due to humans.
How does this obviously isolated village know about humans, much less have rules against adopting their words and culture?
"B-but I am a-already 34! When will it be enough?!"
"You are barely out of the crib, my little baby. With your talents, you will easily live up to 400."
In earlier chapters, the oldest elf refugees - the ones who were described as nearing the end of their natural lifespan - were much younger than this. Gilan's uncle, Milan, had been saved from conscription by being just 135 years old and is deemed too old to fight. And my impression is that matriarch Reba is not much older than Milan - surely less than 200 years. Also, during the recruitment before the boot camp chapters, they rejected any elf over the age of 35, implying that those over this were considered "middle aged."
Further, it was revealed that, while cultivation can increase natural lifespan, the increase is only about a decade for every Tier.
I got to see her ears stand in attention once again. Her ears were very long, almost like goblin ears.
Wait a minute... The refugees that came down south had ears which Lloyd described as quote, "Couple centimeters longer than normal, but not as long as fantasy ones." For their ears to be so long... Combined with the much longer lifespan in this isolated village, the only logical conclusion is that they are a breed apart from the majority of elves on this continent.
Apparently, other humans have arrived on this planet before Lloyd. This just brings up lots of other questions, such as: Did these other humans arrive by spaceship or other means (such as by a portal)? And how many years or centuries ago did those other humans arive. Actually, since so much of this planet's inhabitants and creatures have, apparently, influenced Earth's mythology, this suggests that - at some point - portals connecting the two allowed elves, goblins and other creatures to wander the Earth.
Even so, the fact that humans and elves are so similar, can successfully breed with each other and the fact that they have such similar DNA almost guarantees that some weird circumstances or outside intelligence made them common ancestors. (Search for "theory of Panspermia".)
This would also help explain why Lloyd can digest the local foodstuff without issue. Sci-fi and xenobiology suggests that alien plants and animals are likely so different that humans trying to digest them may end up sick or worse. Without common ancestry, the DNA, biological processes, enzymes and other chemicals may be very different and could lead to poisoning or toxic shock.
Hmm... On further thought, another possibility comes to mind: Perhaps this alien planet full of things like elves, goblins, orcs and magic is not so alien? Perhaps this is actually Earth millions of years in the future? I'm reminded a bit of The Time Machine (2002) movie.
>How does this obviously isolated village know about humans, much less have rules against adopting their words and culture?
The village is isolated for a reason, next chapter will explain a little bit more.
>Wait a minute... The refugees that came down south had ears which Lloyd described as quote, "Couple centimeters longer than normal, but not as long as fantasy ones." For their ears to be so long...
Well, I accept blame on this a little bit. Long ears are a trait of the s*x fiend, and does not apply to other elves of the village. I had thought that Aela commenting on it specifically would not cause confusion, but it seems I was wrong.
Also, due to me trying not to force characters explain things that are common sense to them, some details can be hard to pick up. Since this village has a whopping 16 Mana Trees and even rarer Elder Tree (will be explained in future) Mana concentration is out of chart compared to other places, leading to increased cultivation speed. Another clue is that killing a T3 creature considered a "common feat" to be done by "youth". There was also the fact that a (peak) T4 was only 3 hours away from the village, and the fact that stronger adult hunters and the (elusive) Grand Elder didn't care about it a bit.
And lastly, consider that while Princess is also a T4(mage only), she had the backing and the wealth of county helping drown her in resources up to T3. Aela reaching T4(both in Warrior and Magic- spoilers btw) without the support of wealth is major.
>Also, during the recruitment before the boot camp chapters, they rejected any elf over the age of 35, implying that those over this were considered "middle aged."
Again, I was planning to go into more detail later, but cultivation speed is limited by age. If one doesn't reach at least T3 in one branch by 35-40, it can be considered waste of resources to help them.
Spoilers ahead.
I have not written how common these portals are, nor how long they stay open yet. Portals themselves are not too rare, but a person coming though is rare. But every time a portal open between the 2 world, there is always the exchange of air, leading to exchange of microbes and whatnot, eventually leading to microbiology of the 2 mostly unifying over the years. This was my answer to the question(which no-one asked till now...) of "wHaT aBoUt MiCrObEs!"
@Monk_Origins
Long ears are a trait of the s*x fiend, not all elves. I had thought that Aela commenting on it specifically would not cause confusion, but it seems I was wrong.
Ah, okay!
Apparently, Aela's friend is rather special and her having especially long ears is a visible indicator of being a more literal "s*x fiend", which I assume is the elf equivalent to a human diagnosed with nymphomania (hypersexuality or "s*x addiction").
I just thought Njada just happened to be very promiscuous. And I thought Aela was just being a bit mean to Njada, calling her "s*x fiend" as a 'dig' by giving her a nickname to be made fun of.
Since this village has a whopping 16 Mana Trees and even rarer Elder Tree (will be explained in future) Mana concentration is out of chart compared to other places, leading to increased cultivation speed.
Considering that, I can see how this would explain their absurdly fast cultivation rate and absurd Tier strength. But does this also help explain why Aela's mother told her that she could easily live to 400 years?
...Well, you did say that Aela is Tier 4 in both Warrior and Mage. And since she is especially talented, she might be able to achieve Tier 7 or higher in each, eventually. If each Tier adds 10 years of life, that's at least 140 additional years. But that would mean her lifespan without any cultivation should be around 260 years. Is that a normal lifespan for elves, because I thought it was more like 200 or less.
Well, if Aela is expected to one day achieve Tier 10 in both Warrior and Mage, that might explain a 400 year lifespan. But such a legendary strength should be impossible for either Warrior or Mage, let alone both - at least according to the common sense of the refugees in Lloyd's village.