Chapter 66 — A Dangerous Hunt (Part I)
The quantity of mana from the World Spirit swirling around Emina and Warnel, suggested both of them had gained a level—not unexpected with the size of the XP awards from discovering and creating the elixir and Laiya’s healing.
Recovering from the surprise of the level increase, Emina handed the open flask of elixir to a stunned Falma and began comforting Laiya, hugging and shushing, telling her it was over and that she was safe.
Toren started to leave Falma and Laiya’s room to give the family some privacy, but the younger daughter stopped him.
“She’s going to be okay?”
“With rest,” Toren confirmed. He really didn’t know for sure, but the World Spirit’s message had announced their success, and Laiya’s improved speech and restored mobility as she hugged her mother and father were all good signs. He motioned to the flask. “I can take that.”
Falma readily handed over the flask, and rushed to join the hugging.
Warnel’s eyes met his, and Toren motioned for him to follow as he resumed ducking out of the room through the curtain-door.
While looking for a cork top for the flask, Toren summoned Mirror shards for the two Abilities that had achieved breakthroughs.
He had, of course, felt the breakthroughs in [Burning Blood] and [Control Blood] as he pushed the Abilities past their respective thresholds, but he had held off on reading the changes while focused on healing Laiya, not wanting to risk distraction.
Though mentally exhausted, Toren barely held back a laugh at reading [Burning Blood]’s flavor text. The way he had achieved adding a feature to heal others was so simple in hindsight: ‘Effects remain for blood outside the body.’
The other changes were the shift from ‘emotions’ to ‘Warrior Spirit’, the addition of purification to the active effect, and the increased resistances to poison, disease, and corruption. That was a lot of refinement for a single threshold. He was a little unreasonably disappointed that improved bone-mending wouldn’t be added in tier-1 but certainly couldn’t complain.
The improvements to [Control Blood] were more surprising, but both being able to affect others and the changes regarding ‘blood essence’ made sense when he thought about the direction he had been pushing the Ability. There was a surprise here, too, the synergy with his [Mana Sensing] insight having led to an additional related refinement: blood essence sensing and control.
He wasn’t sure what ‘blood essence’ was but he partially suspected it was what the Ability had been using all along to power its effects.
By the time he had the elixir stoppered with a cork seal to preserve its contents and slipped the flask into his pouch, Warnel had left his family to work through the trauma of the last few hours and joined him in the common room.
“You wanted to talk?” the [Haberdasher] warily asked.
Toren nodded and declared, “We need to hunt the remaining jungle stalker.”
The man stiffened before turning to face Toren more fully. “You have a plan?”
“I do.”
Toren set the signal flare against the open window, angled so Laiya would be able to activate it and the metal tube would shoot its contents up into the air. “Don’t hesitate to use the flare if the stead is attacked or if we don’t return.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay alone, hun?” Emina fretted at her eldest.
“I’ll be fine,” Laiya insisted, rolling her eyes. “I’m mostly just sore-”
Warnel interrupted, “You have to stay in bed.”
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“I will, and I’ll keep an ear out for the pups.”
No one was happy with his plan.
No, that wasn’t quite true. Falma was already outside, geared up, Nog and Nilly at her side, eager to prove herself and get vengeance for her sister.
Whether he liked it or not, the fastest and safest way to track the big cat was by taking the hounds.
Taking the hounds meant Falma had to come on the hunt, and after what happened with Laiya, Emina wasn’t about to let Falma go unless she also went.
Laiya had to stay and rest while her bones mended and she recovered from the ordeal of the injury and the healing, and no one wanted to leave her to defend the stead alone, but Warnel wasn’t going to let his wife and youngest daughter hunt a dangerous jungle stalker without him.
The pups couldn’t come along. It was just too much risk that they would lose one.
That left the only question of whether they would leave a hound behind with Laiya. In the end, they decided it would be better to have both hounds with them and the pups penned up in the stable. Having the pups stay with Laiya was entertained, but Emina worried about the pups jumping on Laiya’s mending ribs or Laiya having to get up to clean after them.
Falma’s efforts to train the hounds to not leave the barrier had been going well, and letting Azi and Azu roam the stead would have been better for keeping a watch on the perimeter, but the pups couldn’t be trusted yet to not run out into the jungle or chase after them.
Eventually, there was nothing more to say, and Laiya’s weapons and armor had been left within reach, should the worst come to pass. Falma was a combination of nervous and excited when they passed through the stead’s barrier to return to where the jungle stalkers had ambushed them, her parents grim and determined. The hounds were, if anything, more excited to be coming along than the youngest Hatterwick.
Emina had reflexively wanted to be against ‘doing anything risky’ but, with Toren’s assurance that he had discovered a way to more reliably sense the jungle stalkers, accepted that they couldn’t leave such a dangerous threat lurking near the stead to attack them, especially with the coming high tide. If the barrier fell, a difficult to sense ambush predator would be a danger to all of them when they might already be desperately fighting to hold back who-knew-how-many beasts.
Retracing their path back toward the ant colony wasn’t hard, and Falma proved he was correct to bring her by expertly used commands to keep the hounds close, even with small critters scattering through the underbrush or up trees when spooked.
Toren held up a hand to stop his party. Falma issued a quiet ‘stay’ to the hounds.
The ants were aggressively patrolling the area where the fight had happened.
That left him with a small dilemma. Have Emina and Falma kill ants? Or go around?
“What is it?” Warnel whispered.
“Ants. Let’s go around and see if the hounds can pick up the scent,” Toren decided.
The XP from the ants was too small to bother stirring them up when Falma was Professionless and Emina and Warnel were too high level to benefit much. It would be better to leave them for Laiya to finish killing later.
For helping the hounds identify the scent they wanted to follow, Toren had Falma bring a handful of the dead jungle stalker’s fur, and the girl again called the hounds over to sniff it.
“Toren, do you think the stalkers are going to be a problem whether or not we hunt down this one?” Emina worriedly asked, trying her best to noiselessly follow his passage through the jungle underbrush.
Talking would not be ideal when they got closer to their quarry but he was confident Emina understood that. “Hard to say, but if there were more of them around, I’m sure I would have seen the tracks left. This was a somewhat young pair, maybe hunting the zoots and drawn deeper into the zoot territory by us killing and chasing out the zoots that used to be here.”
“I think they’ve got the scent!” Falma excitedly whispered, and sure enough, when Toren pushed aside a suspiciously broken fern, he found a large feline pawprint in the loam.
~~~
Name: Toren of Theravos
Race: Human
Age: 20
Profession 1: Level 8 Burningblood Berserker (9800/16000)
Mana: 40/115
Strength: 16
Constitution: 16
Dexterity: 15
Agility: 13
Wisdom: 12
Intellect: 8
Will Power: 18
Perception 15
Appearance: 9
Charisma: 8
Luck: 10
Attribute Upgrade Points: 7
Traits:
Sacrificial Guardian
Abilities:
Burning Blood (WIL, Rank 1, Proficiency: High)
Control Blood (WIL, Rank 1, Proficiency: Mid)
Flurry of Blows (DEX, Rank 1, Proficiency: Low)
Ability Upgrade Points: 7
Profession Skills:
Constitution of the Phoenix 5
Empower 6
Focus Rage 8
Combat Awareness 6
Berserker Weapon Arts 6
Pain Tolerance 8
Intimidate 5
Skills:
Danger Sensing 3
Stealth 18
Mana Sensing 17
Wilderness Harvesting 12
Theravos Language 11
Religion 10
Divided Focus 7
Meditation 6
Hunting 20
Archery 19
Running 15
Wound Binding 8
Arithmetic 4
