Outside the City Limit's

Pushing myself off the ground, I twist my neck and take a look at the beast that'd we'd brought down. It was huge, and currently, it was huge and dead. Licking my finger, I suck up all the blood on my right hand and move to my left.

Cecily's got Ekon strung over her shoulder like a rag doll. In the past three years she'd gotten a little bit taller, and a lot stronger. Ekon was a good foot taller than her and she had no trouble carrying him at all.

She places him down on the ground not altogether that gently, but he doesn't complain. He's completely covered in wood chippings and blood.

"You really took a beating this time around didn't you Ekon?" I ask him as I wring out the blood in my hair, but it was pretty pointless. I was drenched to the bone in blood.

"Who would have thought that he'd pull out those skills in the end!" He sighs.

He'd also changed, his hair had shifted from a light grey to an inky black. He'd also gained a fair bit of muscle, the two of them looked light night and day. He was inked in even more tattoo's and he had two black lines that reach over his eyelids and down his checks all the way to his neck.

"Mph~" Cecily jams the potent content of a vial down his throat. His face sickens but he drink's the whole of the vial, and his broken bones start to straighten out. It was like someone had pressed the rewind button, and everything was reverting back to before he'd gotten the shit beaten out of him.

Cecily looks pleased with herself, but her method of application was violent. I was just glad that I didn't need her expertise at this point. She'd gotten even cuter, after these past three years, but at the same time, I was starting to wonder if she was as innocent as she acted.

Not dwelling on the subject, I grab my Odachi and twist it in my hand. The blood splatters against the ground as I clean the thick much off it.

"Silvyr, get the other tusk, I'm going to start skinning the hide of it," I say jumping up and getting to work, I decided I'd start with the top half of the beast.

"I'll get the blood for you," Silvyr mutters looking a little green in the face. He'd grown a lot as well in the past years, his hair was now down to his midback, and he'd actually let Cecily tattoo over his scar, it was a beautiful branching work of cherry blossoms. All of his features had gotten even sharper and he'd started getting hit on by boys and girls.

All of us had changed a lot over these past three years, physically and mentally. Smiling to myself, I start to get to work. This bull wasn't going to skin itself.

Blood was still draining out of the beast, by the time I'd cleaned the coat completely off the meat. Like a skilled laborer, I cut and skinned and peeled back the hide of the whole beast. After I finished the front, I moved to the back and repeated the process.

Even though I worked efficiently, the bull was huge. A good hour or so later, I'd completely freed the fur from the meat, and now came the fun part.

"Okay," I chuckle to myself and began hacking and slicing the bull into meat slabs. Soon, I'd divvied up the eternity of the bull. We have the neck, the brisket, the rib, short loin, shanks and etc.

"Here let me tie it together, you should drink the blood and see if you'll get any of its skills," Ekon says, he was standing up and moving about as if nothing had ever happened.

Cecily was cleaning the dagger of the bull's blood and humming to herself. While Silvyr was wiping his hands on a cloth, cleaning all the blood from them.

Sweat trickles down my forehead along with blood, and I swipe at it. "Sure, knock yourself out," I say and place my sword into the ground.

"Here, I got at least two canister worth of blood," Silvyr mutters as he points to two giant metal cans that had to be the size of a grown adult.

"Thanks," I say as I walk over to one of the giant bins and will a cup to appear. Bending down, I put the cup underneath the spicket and twist. Red blood sloshes down into the cup, and I grimace.

"This was all for the skill," I chanted to myself.

Tipping my head back, I left the still-warm blood pour down my throat. It tastes like wild and spicy, not as tasty as blood from any race. But it would do its job just fine.

Finishing one cup, I don't get a notification.

Another cup!

Another cup!

Two cups, and three cup pass.

"How many cups has it been?" Ekon asks.

"I think she's on her eighth cups," Silvyr's responds back.

I shut them out and continue on my quest for a skill. My stomach was starting to feel a little full. Finally, on my tenth cup, a notification appears.

「Fortress Stance Obtained! 」

「Fortress Stance is at level zero」

「Consumption beyond this point wouldn't yield more skills」

Rubbing a hand across my face, I clean up the last bit of blood that's running down the side of my face. Putting the cup down, I let out a small burp.

That was a lot of blood to consume in one sitting!

"Cecily wants to know if you got a skill!" Cecily says as she bounces closer to me and grabs my hand. Even though it was covered in sticky blood, she doesn't seem to mind.

"I managed to get 「Fortress Stance」," I tell her using my free hand to rub the back of my head. But my hair was so thick and full of blood, it didn't work out quite as I wanted.

She nods her head and continues' to smile at me.

"Are we doing any more hunting today?" Ekon asks.

"We've been hunting for three days! Shouldn't we be heading back soon; we're nearing the day for our test. I feel like it would be in our best interest to be well-rested for that," Silvyr chimes in.

Ekon shoots him a look, but Silvyr meets it head-on. These two had really learned how to bicker with each other. Silvyr has even learned how to stand up to Ekon. I was proud of him.

"Enough you two, your glaring isn't going to do either of you good," I say rolling my eyes.

"I do agree with Silvyr, hast makes waste. I'd be best if we headed back and rested before our test, plus we've got to haul all this meat back," I say with a grin.

"Cecily will do whatever Hollis is doing," Cecily says releasing her hold on my hand and turning to give both of the boys a stink eye.

Ekon sighs but relents and Silvyr looks like he'd just won a great war. He was pretty smug.

Turning away from Silvyr smug grin, Ekon pulls out a little bag that strapped to his waist out and opens's it while pointing it at the bundles of meat that we have stacked up.

"Come," he says, and all the bundle began to fly towards the bag and entered them. It took less than ten seconds for all the meat to be sucked up.

The bag remained the same size, and he quickly ties it shut and strap it back onto his waist. Spatial magic was handy and made transporting stuff so much easier.

"Do you, maybe, want to find a body of water to wash all the blood off in?" Silvyr asks as he looks at me.

I give him a wry smile, but I knew he was right. This was disgusting to be covered in blood, even for a Vampire…

About twenty minutes later, we'd found a pond and I'd washed all the blood off of everything. It was really nice to be rid of the stinky monster blood.

I felt a little bad, I'd turned the pond into a bloody red mess. Stepping out of the pond, I grab a towel and pat down my body, before I started on my hair that's a heavy wet mess.

Twisting my hair, I strain the water out of it.

Sighing to myself, I put my armor back onto my body. I hadn't been using the armor that Marigold had given me, it attracted too much attention. Plus, it wasn't good to rely on armor too much, I wanted to temper my skills myself.

Instead, I had a simple set of black armor crafted to fit me. It was thin but it was still made out of quality materials.

Sliding each piece into place, I smile and will my towel into my bracelet. Shaking my head, I flick more water droplets out of it, and with a tie, I quickly put it up into a ponytail.

Looking up into the sky and around me, I inhale a deep breath of air. It was peaceful being outside and hunting, over these three years we'd spent many a day out here in the wild.

All in preparation for this fast approaching day when we'd take our class test. Soon we'd be challenging the Fate Temple.

I couldn't wait!