Ch.11 Another day, another hunt.

After the conversation Cinis went to sleep. They had a dream. In that dream they were inside a cage, unable to escape even though they could have fit through the bars.Something repelled them. Cinis tried again and again but nothing changed until a giant creature appeared. It looked similar to the two-legged inhabitants of the city but something was different. Cinis was not quite able to figure it out through the haze of the dream. The creature extended an arm towards Cinis as if to grab them. Suddenly Cinis felt that the dream was blocked off, now they were hovering in a black void for a short amount of time until they woke up.

‘What was that? Did you see that as well?’

‘See what?’

Cinis felt that Aiden wasn’t comfortable with this. Even though it seemed like they knew something, Cinis didn’t inquire further. If Aiden hid something then Cinis might not act so again.

Cinis prepared to go outside and to hunt. The day was yet another regular day, in almost no way different from the previous few and Cinis gained another point of Magic. They were also once again lucky enough to receive another skill, this one being “Lesser Earth Resistance”. Surprisingly Cinis was able to get through the day without spending any MP. At one point they were ganged up on by 5 slimes at once but since simply maintaining Aiden came at no cost they melted through the slimes easily.

They knew the routine and went looking for rabbits which were quickly found. This time they didn’t send a cursed flame to lure a rabbit but Aiden themself. Due to this they were able to lure the rabbit not in a straight line, but in a way that avoided the other rabbits. At this point Cinis had already resolved themselves not to use any MP to not waste valuable resources that could save their life if needed. Completely without magic one rabbit was harder to deal with, but not impossible with the assistance of Aiden. Once again a rabbit's neck had been snapped and once again a corpse had been consumed granting one point in the Agility stat.

Cinis felt refreshed and went back to have Aiden lure another one. This was yet again successful but didn’t grant any stats. For the next one they were unlucky and lured two, having to expend 14 points of mana to win and suffering minor injuries of 0 HP. Cinis was now tired and made a small mistake when attempting to lure another one, causing two additional assailants to show up.

‘We should have stopped just now.’

‘We couldn’t have known that three would follow us, if only one appeared we wouldn’t have had a problem.’

‘Right, but we have killed 4 rabbits today already, that was enough, we got greedy.’

‘No point worrying, let’s fight.’

They stopped running, letting the following rabbits catch up and run directly into the burning spikes that cinis had set up, searing their paws. Cinis reacted and moved the spikes upwards causing further pain. One rabbit fell and Cinis concentrated on the others while Aiden suppressed the fallen enemy. Cinis lunged at one, stepped on its back and slashing at it while attacking the other with fire. The rabbit struggled hard, slashing at Cinis but only got one hit in, hitting above Cinis’ eye and along the side of the head for 11 damage. Due to that attack Cinis was able to get a good angle to retort. They bit the rabbit’s neck and turned around to do the same to the other.

As they were attacking the rabbit they had previously attacked with magic Cinis noticed that AIden was able to finish off their foe as well and they now joined in on the enemy which Cinis was fighting. Due to this teamwork Cinis could now dismiss their magic and concentrate completely on the physical aspect of the fight. The rabbit could not withstand this assault and soon faltered. Just as Cinis was about to instruct Aiden to absorb the bodies they felt a sharp pain right next to their spine. This attack too a significant chunk of health from Cinis, 46 to be exact. Now Cinis was at less than half of their HP.

Cinis spun around to see the attacker, who had already removed its horn from the wound. It was a rabbit. But as Cinis quickly noticed nor just any rabbit, this one had one eye. Although this did not clearly identify the rabbit that had previously escaped it seemed obvious enough. The wound weakened Cinis a bit but they already conjured needles of flame to attack the rabbit and recuperate. As the needles attacked the rabbit and their weakeniong set in Cinis felt confident to attack directly. Although the wound hurt terribly Cinis pushed through and latched onto the one who inflicted it as if fueled by the pain. As Cinis clenched down on the rabbit, if to attack or to relieve their pain could not be known, The rabbit turned lifeless and sacked to the ground, bleeding profusely.

‘I didn’t think it would come back.’

Even in their mental communication with Aiden Cinis was panting due to the exertion, both physical and magical, of fighting four rabbits in a row and then another four at once immediately after. They quickly made themselves another leaf compress to stop bleeding, just like they did recently.

‘Me neither, who could have expected it.’

‘Me, I should’ve known! If I had been more attentive I wouldn’t have been injured. The fight was over, I didn’t need to concentrate on the other rabbits anymore.’

‘Exactly, the fight was over. You didn’t need to concentrate anymore and relaxed. That’s not a problem.’

‘It is a problem, that did a lot of damage.’

‘If you think so then you can be more attentive from now on, learn from this and not get ambushed like that again. Anyhow, can we get to eating now?’

‘I guess, let’s eat then.’

“Stats gained: 1 Strength (STR)”

‘Today was a good yield, we got three stats and a skill, just like when we just started killing slimes.’

‘There’s a lot I can criticise about today but the stats certainly aren’t part of it.’

‘That’s right, now let’s go back and sleep before you exhaust yourself.’

‘You’re right, the sun is already setting.’

Cinis and Aiden went to sleep. Oblivious what the next day would hold.