Chapter 16: Hunting

Jackson felt a bit weird watching Tunner gasp for air on the floor. He wanted to go help him but...

"Right, Marshall wins this round. Mind helping Tunner, Jackson?"

The Instructor decided to hold a small tournament. Team A vs. Team B. Jackson certainly didn't expect the instructor to use this as a way to understand his students.

"Yes!" 

Jackson rushed out and began to patch up Tunner. It wasn't bad, just a bruise and some exhaustion. Jackson healed him while increasing his metabolism.

"Here, take this." 

Jackson pulled out some Jerky from his bag and handed it to Tunner.

"You should be at full stamina in about five minutes or so, but you need to eat that. I took care of your bruise too."

"Thanks. God why did he have to go for the jaw..."

Tunner walked off to join his team sitting on the grass.

"Okay! Kenya vs. Sarah! Get into the circle and eliminate the other! No directly offensive spells or weapons!"

Jackson had only payed half attention to the fights happening so far, he was sidetracked thinking about what spells he should learn. After healing Tunner he had a thought.

I should really learn a better healing spell, or a proper stamina recover spell. Increase Metabolism gets the job done but is pretty resource intensive. At least it makes natural stamina.

Natural stamina is as the name implies, natural. You can make artificial stamina with Mana, but it's a bit different than natural stamina. At it's core it is mana that is imitating stamina. Some forms of healing make "artificial" HP, but this is not a problem do to the similarity between HP and Mana, as HP is not exclusively representative of the body's condition. Jackson could go in depth about how strange HP was, but he never came to a conclusion beyond what he was taught. 

Jackson was brainstorming ideas about how to learn a good restorative spell beyond what he knew, but all he could think of was using healing energy which he still couldn't get a proper grasp on after all the time he spent studying it. Jackson was pulled away from his thoughts as he noticed Sarah get a good hit on Kenya. Throughout the whole fight it seemed one-sided, Kenya a spear woman and Sarah a mage. It seemed that she was out of luck considering the whole no offense spells rule. No offensive spells didn't mean no spells though. and while Sarah was a mage focused on one school, she did seem to have an array of spells at her disposal.

Jackson stopped paying attention to the fight but did remember Sarah on her back foot almost the whole fight. Now she had a thin film of Mana around her, thicker near her fists. Right after getting the punch in she got thrown out of the ring. So although it was a valiant effort she was still a mage brawling a close quarters fighter with her fists. After tossing her out the ring, Kenya approached Sarah and held out a hand towards her. She accepted it and stood up.

"I must admit, for a mage you really know how to throw a punch."

"Aw thank you! What kind of adventurer would I be if I hadn't handed someone their own ass before?"

Kenya busted out laughing.

"I like your attitude! I'd offer to show you how to throw a punch but you seem to have it down already."

"Why don't you offer me a drink?" Sarah winked.

"Kenya wins! Jackson, do you mind taking care of them?"

Jackson rushed up and was worried that Kenya somehow managed to get a fever, but was hurriedly assured by her that she was fine.

"You sure? The bruise is gone but your face looks inflamed!"

"I'mfinethanks!"

Kenya covered her face and just walked away. Sarah giggled before Jackson helped with her bruises.

"Time for the last matchup! Samson vs. Barry!"

Jackson just got back to sitting on the floor and observing the fights. The instructor decided to exempt him from the small "tournament" because there was one extra person and he was a supporter and should be judged on that. Jackson was okay with that. He would have lost all these fights anyway. They were just short 1v1's with no actual placements on who was "better." So nobody was going to be placed as #1 or #11. It was interesting to watch at least. As the fight began Jackson's mind drifted to hunting for tonight.

What do I do? I have to catch something this time. I can have one of us forage along the way but I'll need to keep my eye out for tracks because I'm responsible for getting everyone food tonight. We have rations of course, but that's not the point. Hmm...

Jackson was drawn to the fight when he saw Barry on his back foot, nearly out the ring. All of a sudden, he managed to speed up and toss a surprisingly quick jab.

Throughout the fight, Barry managed to hold his own for a short amount of time before it became apparent that Samson had more physical stats. Jackson thought back to when everyone was introducing themselves and could faintly remember Barry saying he dabbled in motion magic, a fairly mana taxing magic, but he didn't mention knowing a buff, which would be an important thing to tell people about. Even a self-buff would be useful as Jackson could use his buff on others.

In just a few seconds Barry managed to overwhelm Samson and toss him out of the ring. Jackson was surprised, he didn't know much of Barry's strength, but he didn't expect that. However, shortly after he tossed Samson to the ground, Barry fell over as well. He seemed exhausted, hyperventilating like he was having a heart attack. Jackson could tell he was fine though, just probably low on stamina and winded. Everyone here was past first enhancement after all. Didn't stop him from rushing to help anyway. Samson wasn't hurt beyond a scrape or two, Barry still needed help calming down. 

On the way to Barry he formed a flexible and non-permeable bag of Mana. He put it up to Barry's mouth and fastened it to his face. Jackson began to increase his metabolism while fetching some food from his bag. He could feel a few bruises on his sides and arms which he also healed. It was interesting, now that he had been healing specifically bruises he modified his spell for them a slight bit. White blood cells would clean up the excess red blood cells while he fixed the capillaries they spilled from.

After Barry's breathing calmed down he took off the mana bag and handed him some more jerky he dug out of his bag.

"Eat this and go sit down for a bit, I'll find you after you calm down."

"O-okay. Thanks."

He was still a bit winded, Jackson could tell. He was experienced in hyperventilating after all.

I wanna know what that was, but I'll give him a bit. The buff was malformed, that much is obvious. The uses of a speedup buff like that should be tremendous though. It shouldn't take much a toll on your stamina either if done right. ...At least I think so.

Jackson went on to heal Samson but nothing unique came of it. The Instructor had taken some time to review the fight while Jackson was taking care of the two and come to a conclusion.

"Barry wins! Barry pushed Samson out of the ring at first but left himself vulnerable. In a real fight you should be careful of everything, not just your opponent. Leaving yourself vulnerable like that forces your team to either cover you or watch you die. This was most certainly not a real fight, so Barry wins the fight, but not the war. Although that was not good realistically, it would be unfair of me to say that was a fail or a tie."

Samson nodded calmly and Barry just grumbled, still to worked up to speak without stuttering. The Instructor didn't waste a moment before giving out new orders. 

"Right! Now that that's over you all get a 30 minute time period to set up your tent or sleeping area before you all go out to do the tasks that I assigned on the walk here." 

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Jackson got to it pretty quickly, he finished setting his tent up fast and then offered to help everyone else.

"It'll help level one of my skills up. I'm really interested to see it's abilities as well. I can't remember hearing about it so it'll be a surprise to me!"

"What's it called? I don't look at the skill archive much but I do remember a few."

"It's called Survivalism, I haven't checked the archive in a while so I don't remember it."

"Hmm, sounds familiar... Can't place it though. Alright, I'd appreciate the help anyway. Your healing was nice but Barry definitely didn't pull his punches."

Jackson was nervous at first when talking to Samson, but he seemed to be very calm and polite. Even after losing the duel he just gave a curt nod and a "well done" to Barry. Of course Barry couldn't respond due to acting like a fish out of water. Soon enough everybody was done and the thirty minutes were almost up.

"Hey Jackson! Thanks for the heal there, I'm not good at using motion magic yet and... Nevermind, we should probably get hunting, yeah?"

"Yeah about that... Can either you or Catherine forage? Just meat isn't the best thing to eat. Either way the only seasonings I brought with me are relatively basic and I don't think anyone else brought any. It'd spice it up if we had something else to add to it."

"Augh, that sounds boring. If I have to..."

A voice that seemed to appear out to of nowhere added to the conversation.

"Hah, it seems you can't be professional for more than 5 minutes Barry. No worries, I don't mind handling the gathering."

Barry jumped.

"Gah! Catherine! Hasn't anybody told you not to sneak up on people before?"

"Hasn't anyone told you adventurer's should be perceptive? If you paid due attention during introductions, you would know I specialize in stealth. I really think I should be hunting, but ah, c'est la vie. Whatever makes you comfortable. I'll be off then. Meet back here in say, 3 hours?"

"Fine just... Don't scare me like that. Young strapping men like men like me aren't the ones who should be screaming."

"Seriously? I'm out."

     

"Soooooooo, how do you usually do this? I'm not much of a hunter myself but..."

"Always leave a trail behind to find your way back, but hunting specifically... just try to make as little noise as possible and follow tracks. I'm not the best at it though, I've only caught rabbits and I can't really tell if tracks are fresh-"

"What type of tracks? Like those ones?"

"Ye-yeah. Huh. How did I not notice that... Anyways. That's um, a... deer? Huh, convenient, come on let's go!" 

Following the track for next to 30 minutes proved fruitless, disheartened the two almost went back, until they heard some skittering, and running away. Turning around, Jackson couldn't see anything but Barry seemed to catch something in his vision.

"I think I saw it! Damn that guy's fast. Come on."

Barry sped off. 

He's fast too!

Jackson wasn't able to keep up that well, in comparison to everyone else his stats were low.

After all that training too... Eh, what am I expecting. I trained for about a month, I'm not that special.

Eventually Jackson caught up to Barry, standing next to a deer laying on the floor. Barry was bleeding from the shoulder.

"This guy's a fighter, Well, not anymore. Mind healing me?"

"Y-yeah, just let me... Catch my breath..."

These people are strong. At least having low stats is acceptable for a supporter, it's just... I feel weak.

     

Walking through the brush, they came to the campsite and multiple fires. Some boiling water, some just... There? It wasn't even dark out yet but...

"Ah, welcome back. You got a deer I see? Good job, that'll look good on your evaluation."

Oh right. Adventuring is more than just killing monsters.

"Tunner! Take care of this Deer!"

Tunner came over seemingly surprised. He was muttering under his breath as he dragged the carcass off for dismantling.

"A deer? Godsdammnit I was expecting a rabbit or something but..."

"Right, you two are free to do whatever Catherine came back early and finished her duties too. Splitting up is fine and all, but at least have some form of communication next time. The leading cause of death in young adventures is overconfidence. Don't think I didn't notice that wound Barry. There wouldn't be a suspicious hole in your jacket if there wasn't one."

Jackson sat down next to a fire and pulled out a book he had brought with him.

My perception is low, My agility is low, carrying that deer back was tough so my strength is low.... 

I suck.

But that's fine. For now at least. I'll... I will do better. I think I can, at least. The only improvements I can make right now are... Abilities.

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