Strategy is the path to victory
In a clearing bathed by moon light, several light green deer rested while a few stood watch. Sudenly one of them went off it's route and entered the greenary. After a while of it not comming back, some other dear started directing themselves to the area and even cast some wind blades before stepping in, hearing the sound of their magic hitting flesh and wimpers of pain, the beasts felt pride and intended to imediatly eat their newly wounded prey. These didn't come back either though.
The leader of the pack, identifiable by it's bigger body and white mane, was awoken and decided to use wind magic to detect their attacker, getting a ping of three small creatures, two in the way of the fallen patrols and one on the oposite side. Snorting, the leader ordered that some deer dealt with the one creature on the back while it and some more beated the creatures taking down their breathen. It felt quite sleepy, but that didn't matter, it was a predator, it had been insulted in it's home and intended to make the offenders pay with their flesh.
As it approached the creatures' location thought, it felt cold. Very, very cold. Imediatly jumping to the right, it avoided an ice spike to the neck. Two of it's subordinates weren't so lucky and we're hit on the side and leg.
Turning around, it saw all the females and babies sleeping profoundly with the team that was meant to deal with the lone creature massacred behind them. A wolfish creature stood in two legs and charged at them with great speed, the ice in it's hands looked ready to pierce their hearts. The herd leader imediatly shot it with wind blades, but Aki dodged the first wave easily, while tanking the second and third with his arms protecting his face and neck.
By the time he was close enough to the big deer, he'd already stuck it's feet on the ground and made it lose balance before proceeding to shove an ice spike in it's neck and eye, killing it imediatly.
With the leader dead, there was nothing stopping Aki from cutting off the horns from the rest of the herd before sinking then in the ground and pilling all bodies together so he could eat them.
Raw meat has more nutrients after all, so he would not give it to any other would be predator. Aki had always been a smart guy, so instead of spending lots of mana in keeping the smell of blood from spreading, he cut their necks and ussed magic to suck the blood out. The interesting part is that after no more blood would come out of the corpses, the huge ball of blood simply dissapeared.
Yes, he made sure to learn how to create the smallest item box at the very least before going hunting. Though it won't fit even one of the fully grown deer.
Instead, Aki was going the resistance way.
Burning himself was as much an option as burning the deer though, so he went with a completely different magic school.
"Yeah, this feeling of wrongness should be it." He said as he flooded his body with arcane magic while paying attention to his hp and mana bar.
He'd already cast a restoration spell on himself so he would regenerate much faster than normal, and there were plenty of mana bateries just waiting to be harvested right behind him.
It was gruesome, but stats were stats.
*****
Name: Aki
Race: Human/Lycantrope Lv 21
Class: Mind adept Lv 21
HP: 260/260 (regen 23/h)
MP: 330/330 (regen 24/h)
STR: 26
VIT: 23
DEX: 15
AGI: 38
INT: 33
WIS: 24
SP: 40
Skills:
Ancillary:
Meditation Lv 5
Student Lv 4
Stealth Lv 2
Hunting Lv 4
Survailance Lv 3
Tracking Lv 3
Crafting:
Caligraphy Lv 2
Singing Lv 4
Handcrafts Lv 2
Acting Lv 3
Magic:
Mana manipulation Lv 6
Mind magic Lv 5
Elemental magic Lv 4
Metal magic Lv 1
Blood magic Lv 3
Space magic Lv 1
Arcane magic Lv 3
Nature magic Lv 2
Combat:
Claw technique Lv 3
Deadly bite Lv 3
Unarmed combat technique Lv 2
Bow technique Lv 1
Augmentation:
Heat resistance Lv 2
Sun resistance Lv 2
Pain resistance Lv 7
Abnormal status effect resistance Lv 4
Blood magic resistance Lv 3
Arcane resistance Lv 2
Unique skills:
Mental alacrity Lv 5
Alpha Lv 1
Biomass processing Lv 1
"The way of the spider really is the mightiest one..." Aki murmured to himself, very much hoping to be able to get a pain immunity skill after evolving pain resistance even though he knew the chances were very slim.
"You, what in the abyss was that?" Asked the spirit with a confused expression.
"Training." Aki kept looking at his status as he ignored the driad behind him.
"Attacking yourself... was training?" Asked said driad, very much about to reach levels of confusion that could only be represented with a meme.
"Yup. Know of any other species of beasts living here?" Responded the completely immersed Aki while not really expecting an answer.
"There are several more species living in this forest, but i see no reason to tell you of their wereabouts."
"Just wated to confirm if there isn't anything i should not kill on the off chance i find it. If there's none, then i shall not worry about it. I'll be going back to my cave for some sleep if you need me.
*****
"Look, when people say 'if you need me' after they explain what they are doing, specially when they say they will sleep, it is supposed to mean 'if the house catches fire', not 'if you stub your toe'." Said Aki with a very charming smile, bloodshot eyes and bed hair. "Just to clarify. So, what happened?"
"A human has entered my domain. From what I can observe, he seems to be scouting for an area where they can firm a temporary or permanent settlement." Aki imediatly lost all wish to go back to bed.
"Fuck me sideways. What was he wearing? What tools did he have? Did he have map or was he making one?"
"The woman wears hard leather, there are some decorations I can't tell the utility though. Could be a badge or a magic inscription of which I don't know about. She carries a spyglass, monster repellent, several potions in a bandolier, some knifes, something inside her left breast pocket, but I can't tell what, a scroll case and two pouches with contents I can't identify without notifying her of my presence. She is currently making a map while laid in a tall tree branch." The spirit professionally said.
"How feared are driads and how far away is the scout?"
"Very much, I imagine. Some distance away towards the west. She will reach your lake before the beast kin tribe."
"So you don't know either, ok, guide me to a safe distance to observe and I will get her sleepy before searching her mind. She might come out in a brain dead state though, so I suggest starting to prepare contingencies." Said Aki with a heavy tone.
*****
"What have you found out?"
"That she sleeps with her adoptive brother so she can shove it in the face of her in-law, she likes recreational drugs, has been robbing her adventurer party, the bitch is almost as confusing as me and it's my first time doing this. If you want a quicker job you might as well breed a... You fucking... Ok, everything is fine, they are just exporting a noble through the woods because they have an assassination order in their heads. You can just kill them with the help of some wild beasts and leave the carriage behind so the chasers take then and leave. Better yet, I take this bitch with me for practice, have a midnight snack and go back to sleep while you get rid of these people when they don't receive any new from her. Great, good job and good night." Aki said and carried the woman by the scruff of her clothes.
*****
Ela woke up startled. She couldn't breath. She couldn't move her limbs and her whole body was sore. She was already starting to panic, but when the vision of a short haired young man with very intimidating features registered, she suddenly calmed down and he released her nose.
'What is happening? Why am I not panicking anymore?' She thought with a calm mind.
Suddenly her pants and underwear dissappeared. A bowl formed beneath her.
'Pee.' The command appeared in her mind and she obeyed. It was then that she noticed that she was fixated against a wall of a cave. The shame of exposing herself like this was there, and though she'd long learned to deal with it, there was just something more about being completely at this man's mercy that made the situation that bit worse. A part of her was somehow enjoying itself though. A small one.
He held the bowl in one hand after she finished and... Smelled it. Before grumbling about something in a language she didn't understand and putting the bowl on another part of the wall and making another bowl.
The next order was a bit harder, but she still didn't take long.
He looked at it, nodded, got the other bowl, and went out of the cave.
'Wait, where am i!? Who is that guy and how did he capture me? I was in the middle of an escort mission, so is he with the assasins? I need to get out of...' That line of thought imediatly stopped when he came back. His hands were moist with water, but they imediatly dried and released a bit of steam as he shook them. She couldn't help but be completly entranced by him. 'How can i please him?' She thought as he approached her again, making her notice that he was at eye level with her even though she was held up in the air.
'Language.' She imediatly thought about all she knew of common as one of his meaty hands touched her face and the command registered, which wasn't really much and problably had many errors. For some reason she actually felt embaresed about that.
He nodded again.
'Status' She summoned her status page. It wasn't anything impressive, she barelly reached level 80 and didn't have many resources while growing, but she was almost a B rank adventurer, maybe he had a use for her? At least her sexual skill were...
"Well done Ela." He said with a soft smile that became her whole world. She barely even register the fact her lower parts were cleaned and covered again. "I found you in the forest and bought you here last night, I'm sorry for the rough handling and taking your weapons, but i couldn't just leave you when you were so close to my cave." He gave her a helpless smile as she looked into his crimson and embarased eyes. She nodded, she would have done the same or much worse if in his situation.
"It's ok, i understand." She curtly said, finally noticing how parched her throat was.
"I will release you now, so please don't do anything too much." He said as the stone slowly unhanded her, until she fell in his musculous arms and firm chest. "Oh, sorry, that wasn't my intention." He embarassedly said while scratching the back of his head, which made her chuckle. "Look, some rabbits live near the lake, and i also just woke up, i will get some and prepare them with chore magic. You can stay and have breakfast with me if you want, but otherwise you are free to go."
"No, i have to go back to my party, they problably are worried about me since i didn't come back during the night. Man, was i sleepy!" She said as she streched and her moderate bosom, not fully hidden by her brasiere, was emphatized. He took a peek, but didn't stare. "I'm Ela, an adventurer, by the way, almost B rank. You must have some high level stealth, uh? You didn't do anything weird to me though, right?" She asked and his face fell. "Did you actually do something?" She said it in a more serious tone, but it should be obvious she didn't actually think so. He actually shook his head very fast and blushed a bit. "No no, it's fine, I didn't think you had done anything."
After flirting a bit more with the cute hunk, Ela decided it was time to go, using the chance to show her behind.
*****
"Why are you letting her go?" Asked the driad.
"I'm not." Cryptically said Aki.
"But you even checked out her feces." She mentioned with confusion.
"I wanted to know if she has any problem. I didn't find any other blemishes or visible signs on the outside either. Now i will at max have to check for inactive diseases in her body. I can't have my employee going down with a fever out of nowhere while out of my supervision. I'd really apreciate it if you asked the stronger beasts to avoid her while she comes and goes." He said and went hunting before getting an answer.