Monster Hunt 1

A/N: Spell names will now be bracketed, e.g. [Water Cannon]

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A few weeks had passed since Rudeus accepted his first disciple, whose name was Sylphiette. She was a child of a hunter in Buena village, named Laws.

Rudeus actually recognized Laws when he once visited Sylphiette's home.

Since Laws was a full-time hunter, he was a lot more skilled and knowledgeable about hunting than Paul. Thus, Laws had actually been referred to Rudeus by his father so that the boy could learn more about hunting as well as how to hunt safely.

As a result, Laws was more than happy to let Sylphiette learn magic under Rudeus. The half-elf was actually glad to see his daughter taking the initiative to grow stronger, after having witnessed on more than once occasion her being bullied by the local children.

It was tough for Laws to see her child being bullied, especially for reasons as nonsensical as hair colour, but there wasn't much he could do to intervene in the affairs of children. Moreover, he also wanted his child to toughen up and learn how to stand up for herself.

Additionally, the cost of hiring a magic tutor was so high that the only household in Buena Village who could afford such an expenditure was the Greyrats, owing to Paul's salary as a local knight. So the opportunity for his daughter to receive such an education for free was a once-in-a-lifetime fortuitous encounter that no other peasant in rural villages like theirs would experience.

Laws had been so grateful to Rudeus that he imparted to him a beasthide scroll that contained the local map of Beuna Village's forests. This map included locations where certain animals were plentiful, the nests of various monsters in the vicinity, and safe places to rest if he ever found himself stuck in the forest overnight.

One had to understand that this map had been drawn up by Laws himself, after spending years exploring and hunting in the surrounding forests. Such a map would usually be considered a family heirloom, passed down only to Laws' descendants since it involved the livelihood of their family. It was usually something that could not be bought even with money.

So his act of sharing this map with Rudeus could be interpreted as Laws viewing the Greyrat boy as he would a son. Of course, his primary motivation for sharing the map was actually only as a form of compensation for Rudeus' services.

It was not an exaggeration to say that being taught magic was a life-changing opportunity, especially for rural villagers like themselves.

Rudeus had gratefully accepted the beasthide scroll, since having such a map in his possession would greatly expand the scope of his hunts in the future. He could even actively seek out monsters to fight against in the forest.

Those monster nests marked on the map was seen as a danger zone for people like Laws, but for Rudeus, they actually served as places he could temper his skills against actual monsters.

As for the magic lessons Sylphiette had been receiving from Rudeus, they actually went incredibly well to Rudeus' surprise.

Sylphiette was rather intelligent for her age, Rudeus had noticed, being able to read and write rather fluently unlike the other children her age in Buena Village. So he was quite glad he did not have to teach her their Human Language literacy from the ground up.

Rudeus had taught her the Beginner level spell, [Water Ball]. It was the first spell almost all apprentice magicians would cast when they first started learning magic, since it was relatively harmless as compared to Beginner level Fire spell, [Fireball], or Beginner level Wind spell, [Wind Arrow]; both of which were dangerous elements to handle since a wrong move could lead to a lethal accident.

[Water Ball] on the other hand, unless mana equivalent to the amount required by an intermediate level spell had been pumped into it, would only result in blunt force trauma that left bruises at most.

Since his primary motivation for teaching Sylphiette was testing his theories on expanding the supposedly 'fixed' mana capacity at a young age and the viability of learning chantless casting like he had, Rudeus soon had her trying out spells repeatedly until exhaustion and without incantations over the past few weeks.

The results?

It was a resounding success.

In the beginning, Sylphiette could only cast 5 or 6 [Water Balls] before fatiguing. After just a few days, this number had doubled. They were results similar to his own when he first started learning magic when he was only three years old.

After a few weeks, she could cast [Water Ball] more than thirty times before barely breaking a sweat.

To Rudeus, this served as almost definitive proof of the long established notion that there was a limit to mana capacity and this limit was fixed from the day a person was born to be false.

Rudeus also shared his method of incantation-less casting with the girl.

Similarly, Sylphiette was able to replicate the feat after just a few tries. However, there was one particular observation he had noted which was rather intriguing.

Rudeus had first explained his method of casting spells without incantations: After casting a spell for the first time with incantations, he memorized how he felt the mana circulate within his body as he chanted the incantation. Hence, when trying to cast spells silently, all he needed to do was replicate how his mana moved while visualizing the end result in his head.

That was his method for voiceless spellcasting.

However, Sylphiette had an entirely different approach to it as he soon found out. First off, she had no clue what he meant when he said 'feel and remember how mana circulates'. According to the girl, rather than a circulation, she could only roughly gather and emit mana in the desired direction.

Even though she was still able to cast spells silently, her method for doing it was different from his own.

According to her words, her method for voiceless spellcasting was gathering mana from her body and channelling it to her palms and fingers while visualizing the effect of the spell. Then once the mana was gathered, she would squeeze it out of her hands and materialize the desired spell effect.

Although both their methods relied heavily on 'feeling', it seemed that Rudeus had a higher sensitivity to the movement of mana as well as the mana circuits within his body. This higher sensitivity was also likely what contributed to his ability to consciously use Mana Reinforcement unlike Paul who could only do so unconsciously.

Regardless of their methods, Sylphiette being able to cast spells without incantation led Rudeus to have greater faith in the future of his Magic Sword style. It was evidence that he would not be the only practitioner of the Magic Sword style, which would have been pitiful indeed.

Seeing Sylphiette's ability to cast spells silently, Rudeus then moved her training to the second aspect of Magic Sword style which was equally as important. It was the 'Sword' part of 'Magic Sword'.

That's right. In addition to teaching Sylphiette magic, Rudeus also began training her in the three main sword styles.

Before imparting his own Beginner-level Magic Sword style techniques, the girl first needed to be proficient in both magic and the three main sword styles his own Magic Sword style was based off of.

Hence, Sylphiette swung a sword as often as she casted spells when training under Rudeus. Though her arms were still weak, and barely able to swing the small wooden sword he once used to train a few dozen times before she had no strength to even hold the sword properly, Sylphiette stayed through to her words and never complained even once.

What an obedient disciple, Rudeus had once mused while watching Sylphiette tear up as the skin of her palms tore from swinging the sword.

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(Timeskip 1 year; Rudeus age 6)

Rudeus was once more in the forest. However, this time he was not there to hunt animals. Today, he ventured into the forest specifically to hunt monsters. This was the first time he had done something like this, and he had a few reasons why.

Firstly, he had slain a monster for the first time just a week before.

He had been out on a regular hunting trip only to suddenly encounter a monster in the woods that had attacked him.

It was a large, wolf like creature that was twice the size of regular wolves. Rudeus had identified it as a monster called Direwolf, one of the most common species of monsters that inhabited the forests surrounding Buena Village.

It looked exactly like a regular wolf, with the exception of its larger size, which precisely demarcated it as a monster rather than just an abnormally large beast.

Its differences with a regular wolf did not stop at its size. Its fur was stiffer than normal animals, and its hide was also tougher. Naturally, a monster was also faster and stronger than normal animals.

This particular Direwolf was greyish-black, and its eyes exuded a sickening aura that nearly froze Rudeus when the boy first locked eyes with it. It was only after sharing this experience with Paul did he learn it was something called killing intent, which was basically an intangible pressure which contained the source's deep desire to kill.

After Rudeus' initial shock wore off however, he was able to dispatch the Direwolf using the sword Roxy had gifted to him. Incidentally, Rudeus had named the sword that also doubled as a wand 'Blue Fang' after this incident, to commemorate his first kill as well as a way to honour his mentors Roxy, Paul and Zenith.

The Blue in the name 'Blue Fang' was meant to represent Roxy's blue hair, while the Fang was meant to represent his parent's party name when they used to be adventurers – Fangs of the Black Wolf.

A Direwolf was typically regarded as an E-ranked monster. Meaning, a party of E-ranked adventurers would usually be dispatched to deal with just a single Direwolf. E-ranked adventurers generally consisted of Elementary ranked swordsmen.

Rudeus, who was advanced rank in all three sword styles far surpassed the standard of E-ranked adventurers, and that was only taking into account his swordsmanship.

One had to remember that Paul, who was similarly advanced rank in all three sword styles, was capable enough to not only be part of an S-ranked adventuring party, he was even the leader of the party.

If you added in Rudeus' advanced rank Fire, Earth and Wind spells, his status as a Water Saint-ranked magician, compounded with his expertise in Magic Sword style, he even surpassed the standards of an S-rank adventurer.

As a result, a single Direwolf would not have been at all dangerous to Rudeus.

And yet, Rudeus still had a little trouble fighting against the Direwolf. The reason was because, as Paul had pointed out, Rudeus simply had too little experience with life-and-death battles! Being able to perform well in spars did not translate to having the ability to do the same in an actual fight for one's life.

When he was still an adventurer, Paul had been in dozens of fights that would have resulted in him losing his life if he made a single mistake. This experience was like a whetstone that sharpened his instincts even more than the already talented Paul originally had, not to mention desensitizing him to killing intent.

Rudeus simply did not have any opportunities for a similar experience. He was comparable to a greenhouse flower – raised in a protected environment, sheltered from the winds and rain. Without life-and-death battles that would sharpen his instincts and hone his edge, he would never be able to compare to warriors who fought and bled for their lives.

Thus, Rudeus sought to expose himself to such experiences as well.

Secondly, he had recently been feeling incredibly stifled at the lack of progress in his swordsmanship.

It had already been more than a year since he reached Advanced rank the Sword God, North God and Water God sword styles, yet his growth had subsequently stagnated after reaching this point.

This was mainly because Paul could no longer teach him anything more advanced since his own expertise had similarly stopped at Advanced rank. There was no way Rudeus could blame his father, since Advanced swordsmen were already considered to be a top-tier expert in this world. Anything more required a deep obsession for the sword that Paul did not have.

Unlike his father, Rudeus loved the sword. He loved it even more than magic. The feeling of learning new techniques and then subsequently perfecting and incorporating them to his Magic Sword style felt incredibly refreshing to him. As such, witnessing his growth in his swordsmanship stagnate for more than a year felt extremely stifling to the overachieving boy.

His foundation in swordsmanship had grown firmer and more stable after repeated spars with Paul over the past year, but that was the extent of any sense of progression he felt.

As a result, venturing into the forest to hunt monsters not only served to sharpen his instincts, it also gave him the opportunity to temper his swordsmanship.

With the beastskin map Laws had gifted to him, Rudeus decided to head to a monster nest and fight these monsters.