When all was said and done I had spent a total of nine days living with the squirrels. The first five of these I had spent completely unconscious, then another one making my breakthrough to the use of liquid mana. The final three days were spent fully recovering my body, playing with the squirrels, and improving my skills.

During the day I would go out gathering with the smaller squirrels and then spend the afternoon playing around. We would race through the underbrush, climb up trees, and just generally have a good time. During some of our carousing I came up with an idea for how I could start improving my physical stats. In what upon future reflection was probably a bad idea I had shown the young squirrels my gravity magic. This resulted in a long session of us bouncing and floating around nearly weightless. My thought was that if I could make myself and others weightless then I could also do the opposite. By making myself heavier while I traveled I would be able to see improvements to my physical stats.

After spending the day or as much of it as I could playing I would return to the burrow and begin practicing my skills. I had to almost relearn how to use elemental arrow and my weapon creation as my liquid mana acted differently than my mana earlier. Being almost liquid when I extruded it the creation of these items took much less mana but slightly more concentration. My first few attempts were… I chose to forget about them. By the end of that first day I had once again gotten pretty good at the process. I also solved the issue of my mana weapons being too light through the use of my enchanting skill. Etching a simple gravity circle into the blades as I formed them allowed me to get them to be perfect.

Despite all the improvements that I had seen in both of those skills the two that I thought were the greatest improvements for me were bow crafting and archery. I had spent my nights carving bow after bow. Most of them turned out to be little better than firewood but ever so slowly my skill and the quality of my product improved. On my second to last night I bent all of my will into crafting something that was useable and was rewarded with a decent bow. It was my best work yet, a little rough around the edges but solidly recognizable as a bow. When my crafting skill appraised it I nearly cheered in delight.

[Oaken Recurve Bow – Quality: Moderate]

Bow Crafting has reached level 4!

My final day was spent firing arrow after arrow with my new treasure. The first thing I realized was that my lacking strength was catching up with me and that I really, really needed more practice. I pressed on in my training missing the target almost as much as I was hitting it at first. As the day wore on however I had several notifications come in telling me that my strength had increased and that my archery skill was improving. With these extra bonuses giving me some help as well as learning from my many mistakes I saw my accuracy improve greatly by the end of the day. I was no marksman but I would now usually hit what I was aiming at.

With a happy smile and aching muscles, I crawled back into the burrow and started to get ready for sleep. As a new part of my night time ritual I carefully fed Mel several drops of liquid mana. In the past couple of days, she had been growing increasingly irritated with me for my forgetfulness when it came to this portion of my duties, but now that she was able to gorge herself on the super dense liquid mana her temper had cooled rapidly. It had taken a good deal of time and a lot of mana treats but I think that we are getting along just fine once more.

When it finally came time for me to leave I found it extremely difficult to say goodbye. Up to this point I had been alone with only Mel for company and I had quickly grown to consider the family of squirrels my friends. I think that it was because of this that when they asked if they could do anything else for me I jumped at the chance to be able to see them again. To accomplish this I gave them a mission. Since I would be unable to keep track of the hunters that had pursued me I asked them to do it for me. After listening to what little information the trees would give me on the group I had realized that one of them was a druid and thus I would be putting my new friends in relatively little danger. As one final piece of insurance I created one of my mana spikes and gave it to the mother squirrel to give to the hunter with the strange ears. The spike carried a double meaning to it. First, it would let the hunters know I had sent the watchers and second, that harming them would not be in their best interest.

I watched with a hollow feeling growing in the center of my chest as the family of squirrels ran off to do as I had asked them. With no reason left to delay my departure I turned north and started the next leg of my journey. My travels were slowed slightly due to the fact that I had started making myself weigh half again what I normally did. This was about as much as I could handle while not impeding my movements too much. The added weight also slowed me down as I had to put in additional effort to maintain my stealth.

When the sun started to fall low in the sky, I found a good spot to make camp and began practicing my archery skills once more. Once I was good and tired, lacking in stamina and mana, I made a small meal from the last of provisions I had and found a good tree to sleep in. After trying several times to climb the tree to no avail I let out a sigh of resignation and returned myself to normal gravity. My next attempt at climbing the tree was much more successful. Checking my notifications, I smile happily to see that I had gained two points to strength, dexterity and endurance. After giving Mel her daily allowance of mana, I quickly curled up and fell asleep.

Waking up the next morning to a rumbling stomach I realized that I would need to get more food. I had already killed a rabbit but Reina was demanding that I hunt something larger. I’m not exactly sure when I had started calling the other me that represented my hunter instincts Reina but it had started to feel weird calling her other me. Now it just seemed right to call her Reina and it made me feel a little less crazy when I talked to her, or when she tried to tell me things. With Reina firmly putting her foot down and threatening more mental shocks I decided that today would be my first true hunt.

I scoured the area around my tree for tracks that were both fresh and from an animal that would satisfy Reina. My search grew in an expanding spiral until I finally found what I had been looking for. Next to a bush picked clean of berries were fresh tracks from a tri-horn deer. Seeing the tracks Reina smiled and gave her seal of approval. I was about to set off when she gave me a small mental zap. “Oh what now?” I groaned. She just smiled wider and bent over like she was getting heavier. Groaning internally I whined, “You want me to do this with my gravity increased don’t you?” She just nodded.

With a final sigh I increased my gravity and set off following the tracks. I found that tracking was much easier than I had thought it would be. Since I had been practicing how to move stealthily I knew where to look for tracks, and what would indicate something’s passage through the forest. I found tracks pressed into soft patches of soil, libs on bushes that were either bent or broken, and scuff marks on trees and roots. Following this trail of signs I was able to track the tri-horn to a small stream.

The beast was bent over drinking deeply from the water. It stood about as tall as me and had thin course grey hair. As its name would suggest it had three horns a little longer than my hand sticking from the top of its head. The horns were jet black and tapered down to wicked sharp points that I definitely didn’t want to be on the receiving end of. I crouched in the underbrush about thirty paces away from it and slowly raised my bow. I had formed an arrow out of pure mana and was drawing back the string to take aim when a gust of wind came from my back. The tri-horn’s head snapped up and it looked straight at me before it bolted away into trees.

“Damnit! The stupid wind gave me away. The thing must have smelled me.” I cursed my luck and lack of foresight. Reina just clutched her sides and laughed before looking at me with you’re an idiot eyes. “Hey, don’t give me that look. What was I supposed to do about it?” She just stared at me for a second before sighing and waving her hand as if to call on wind magic. Flushing a bright embarrassed red, I mumbled, “Right.” before I called on my magic to form a shell of wind around myself. This would keep any of my scent from leaking out and frightening my prey away, again. I only flushed brighter as I got a notification.

Ding!

Stealth has reached level 3!

Stupid Reina, stupid system making me feel like an idiot. I’ll show them. This time I’ll get the thing. No more mistakes. I grumbled internally as I once more set to tracking the tri-horn.

The thing had run quite far and left a much fainter trail. By the time I was able to track it down the sun had passed its highest point in the sky. This time rather than next to a small stream I found the tri-horn in a large open clearing. It was a break in the trees that seemed to be several hundred paces across and was nearly circular. Inside the clearing was nothing but waist high grass.

Damn. There isn’t the slightest bit of cover out there. If I try to get any closer than the edge of the clearing it will either see me or hear me moving in the grass and I will lose it. If I get to the trees at the edge of the clearing I should be able to make the shot. It looks to be around a hundred paces which is a little further than I practice at but I should still be able to do it. Taking a slow deep breath I sight in just behind the front shoulder and draw back my arrow. Adjusting my aim slightly for the increased distance and a slight breeze I let the arrow fly.

It zips through the air and strikes just a little high of where I had wanted. Letting out a high pitched squeal of pain the tri-horn spasms and falls to the ground. I am about to cheer in victory when it stumbles back upright and starts to take slow unsteady steps away from me. Not wanting the animal to suffer any longer than it already has I quickly form another arrow and draw back my bow. I had just sighted in on my fleeing target when it vanished. “What the-“In my surprise I let go of the string. My arrow streaks across the clearing before vanishing in the same spot as the tri-horn. A second later I receive a string of notifications.

Ding!

Congratulations! For successfully completing your first hunt of worthy prey class Orionian Archer has been increased to level 3!

Archery has reached level 5!

Elemental arrow has reached level 5!

Okay so I killed it but where did it go? I stare at the empty clearing for a long moment trying to puzzle out the answer but come up with nothing. It looks like just an empty clearing. Could there be some type of magic that is hiding something in the center? Could it be some kind of portal? Well standing here guessing isn’t going to get me any answers. With all my senses set to high alert I slowly approach the center of the clearing with and arrow held out in front of me. I am more than happy to experiment with magics and do so in ways that are probably less than smart but even I am not stupid enough to just walk into a strange magic field I know nothing about without testing it first.

I edge my way closer and closer to the center until I see the tip of my arrow simply vanish. I push the arrow deeper into the field until about half of its length has vanished before pulling it back to inspect it. Seeing no signs of damage to the arrow I edge a little closer and extend one of my hands. Touching the field is weird. It is like sticking my hand in cool water but there is no resistance to it. It doesn’t feel like I am taking any damage and q quick check of my hand confirms that nothing is wrong.

Seeing nothing that should stop me from continuing I take a deep breath and step forward into the field. I close my eyes as I pass through letting the strange cool rippling sensation wash over me. Once I get to the other side I open my eyes and am met with a sight that is as strange as it is beautiful along with a new notification.

New location discovered! Welcome to The Moonlit Tower.