“Um, what exactly happened here?” Will asked when he returned and found Steph using her healing magic on Ben while Thera and Wedrow watched from the side.

“Oh, just seems like some people aren’t big fans on how I solve conflict,” He told his friend with a chuckle as he rubbed his bruised head. They had only been left connected through him for a few minutes before Steph seemed to get overwhelmed by not being able to properly control all of the thoughts and feelings leaking out of her mind and gave him a solid whack to the head to escape. Considering just how much more powerful than him she was when she came to this world it was far from a light blow and left Ben seeing stars, but at least her honest emotions had been transmitted to Thera, who seemed to have reacted in a way he never would have expected. She was feeling shy.

“Ignore it, he’s just being punished for his choices. More importantly, did you find anything in the immediate area?” Wedrow asked.

“Nothing worth worrying about. A few smaller creatures I couldn’t identify but as long as they weren’t poisonous I don’t think there’ll be any issues.”

“Mmh, if that’s the case then it’s the perfect time to start fulfilling my agreement with the smith. Will, take your friend nearby and start letting him practice his weapon skills while we let our mana recharge. I assume you can keep him safe in the event anything goes wrong?”

“Of course, you can count on me. Come over this way Ben, there are plenty of creatures around that should be alright for a beginner.”

With a sigh he got up and followed his friend, resolving himself to spend a long week working on getting the few skills he would need to give his crafting some extra oomph. They didn’t go very far, maybe five minutes of walking at most, before Will stopped them.

“Alright, you’ll find a bunch of small creatures ahead in the bushes, around ten of them. How do you want to handle it?”

Ben appraised his friend for a minute before pulling out his small bear trap and pouring his mana into it to power the charm it had been enchanted with before quietly backing off and waiting.

“Hopefully something will come out and activate the trap, but how do you know there was anything there?”

“You’re not the only one who learned some skills. I learned tracking and life sense since I started my training, using them together makes hunting a breeze.”

“Ah, jealous,” Ben could potentially learn tracking, but life sense was a skill that relied on having a decent life affinity, meaning it wasn’t in the cards for him. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t take a copy of it to enchant with later. “Did you learn any other cool skills since I’ve seen you last?”

“Wait and see,” Was what he got back with a wink. “Even if I haven’t leveled anything I’ve learned as much as you have, I've picked up a trick or two. Anyway, it looks like your trap’s about to catch its first victim.”

He couldn’t help but be curious about how his friend had grown in the time since he’d seen him but put the conversation on hold for now in favour of waiting for a creature that had left the bushes to explore the device as it was lured over.

Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long, and in only a few minutes he was able to identify a familiar foe. A screll, its three beady eyes and razor-like teeth catching the faint light that made its way between the trees and left them sparkling as it approached the trap. Of all the animals Ben could hunt for his skill, he was happy to get this one. He’d harboured a bit of a personal grudge against them since one bit a chunk out of his leg a few months back, even if he and Thera had ended up hunting dozens of them since, he didn’t think he’d be feeling too bad about it.

With a quick snap the trap closed around it after it got a little too close, and with that Ben came out of hiding with Will in tow. He’d used his dismantling enough times on the creatures to feel confident when taking them apart that he knew exactly where to cut for the best results and to give the creature a quick death.

It saw them approach, and despite managing to get two legs caught in it the trap thrashed around as it tried to escape, not wanting the two of them any closer. Seeing it was enough to make Ben feel more than a little unpleasant despite himself. He had always kept a distance from the things he’d hunted, either through his traps or Theras magic. Now that he was right in front of it he couldn’t escape the fact that he’d be killing it with his own two hands.

But that was the reality of the world he now lived in, and not letting himself hesitate any longer pulled the knife across the creature's throat in one swift movement. Only a few moments after, the life left it.

Ben looked down on it and evaluated how he’d done it. Even if he made its suffering reasonably short it still must have been in pain for longer than it needed to, a fact that didn't sit well with him.

God, look at me getting sentimental. It’s not like my pit traps wouldn’t be a million times worse and I use them all the time. He thought to himself, annoyed he was feeling this way just by reducing the distance between him and his kill. Still, I’ll try going under the jaw next time so it will be quicker. All that’s left is to drain the blood and pack it away to dismantle later.

Since their meat wasn’t good to eat this step wasn't as important, but he didn’t want to fill his bag with blood if he could help it so with that in mind he found a couple strong vines to tie around the body and hung it from a tree.

“You were good at that,” Will complimented as he worked. “Sure you don’t already have a knife skill?”

“I have dismantling which gives me a pretty good idea on how to take an animal apart so that helped, and my crafting gives me a certain level of knife proficiency. Hopefully, both facts will work in my favour."

“It couldn't hurt, but on a different note are you planning on using your trap each time? It seems like some of the other scrells around heard that one panic and are hesitating to come out, especially with us here.”

“Do you have a better idea in mind?”

“Of course,” His friend said with a grin, before he walked out into the bushes, reached down, and pulled another out.

Ben watched it struggle while calling out a warning to his friend. “You don’t want to be on the receiving end of those teeth, trust me it sucks.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten the skills I came here with man,” He yelled back as a screll tried to chew on his arm. Tried being the operative word. No matter what the creature attempted, it couldn’t make its way through Will's flesh, making Ben remember one of the skills his friend had told him about when they first came to the world; tough skin.

Seeing that his friend was fine, Ben walked over and stabbed under the creature's jaw to get to its brain, killing it instantly. 

“So what do you think?” Will asked. “You deal with the bodies however you need to and I’ll go grab us the next one?”

“Sure, sounds good to me.” He took the corpse and started preparing to let gravity do the work of bleeding it while Will went for another one. It felt like it was going to be a messy day.

<ACQUIRED SKILL KNIFE WIELDER LEVEL 0>

“Oh thank god.”

“You got it?” Will asked after hearing his friend's outburst.

“Yeah. I guess it ended up being quicker than I thought but I really would rather avoid hours of throat-slitting and stabbing again in the future. That felt like the sort of thing that would get a guy a few years of court-ordered therapy on Earth.”

"Probably, but gotta accept the world we're in."

It had probably only been two or three hours, but in that time Will caught a variety of small monsters for Ben, who then used the knowledge that came from dismantling to kill them in the most efficient way possible. 

He could only hunt like that because Will was there to capture them and hold them down, but it had paid off and now he only needed to worry about getting the hammer wielder skill.

On the other hand, they now had the issue of having almost a hundred animal corpses to deal with. Ben had been proactive and started the process of draining them all as Will found them, but there was far more than he could fit into his spacial bags. He was going to have to choose what to keep of it all.

“What a waste,” He said aloud as he looked at the pile of death he was responsible for.

“Feeling bad about all of that?”

“Maybe a little, but mostly about the fact that I won’t be able to take it all back with me. If I’m going to kill all that, I should at least put it to use.”

“Then get Steph or Wedrow to help you,” Will told him, and seeing Ben's confusion went on to explain. “They each have spacial magic so instead of using a spacial bag like yours, they can create their own storage spaces around them. Why did you think we didn’t have any supplies on us?”

Ben hadn’t actually given the matter any thought but it made sense, if the spell on his bag was a space affinity one then of course anyone with an awakened space magic would be able to do that much.

“Oh sweet, in that case give me a hand carrying them back,” Now that he knew he would need help to deal with all of them after all, and immediately started loading his own arms while watching as Will did the same. There was a clear difference in what they could each carry. Even with the strength he’d gained working at the forge, he still fell short of the strength his friends came with to the planet.

“God I wish I could work on improving my stats a bit more,” He lamented. “The bonuses I got for my last job are pretty weak,” At the very least they weren’t in areas Ben cared too much on improving. The intelligence bonus was nice, but he got that from his other jobs too, and even if he was supposedly getting bonuses for his vitality recovery and mana recovery he wasn’t seeing much growth there at all.

“Well maybe you’ll make some progress towards it after all this,” Will said, trying to cheer him up.

“Not likely, I don’t have any combat job options. Currently, I’m just your friendly local priest.”

“Well yeah, all this isn’t going to do anything for you, be we are hunting demons.”

“Um, so?” He asked, not understanding what his friend was getting at as Will's eyes widened in comprehension.

“Ben, you do know killing demons gives experience to all jobs, right?”