Hunt

--Gremory Point of View--

'This, is it? Nothing? That's suck's, I was thinking maybe this would work for me, so I never will be able to remember.'

As I walk back to the wagon, the expectation in the eyes of Robert became clear.

"What the results? Remember that, even if you got an F you can still manage to overcome this, there is no need to worry."

"I got nothing (I show them the form)."

"Well, that's bad." Said Carine.

"Shit dude, the magic part is not surprising, but no physical ability is terrible, an F rank would be common as it is with most people, but nothing is really sad, it looks like I was wrong about you being the work of nonhumans" Spoke scullery with a sarcastic voice.

"That's not a problem, most people judge you by your strength, but you can be many things aside from a warrior." Said the old man.

"I have no problem with not having physical ability, what I really wanted was to use magic..."

"Not wanting to be insensitive or anything, but we should go to the village soon, otherwise we will have to cover part of the land in the dark without protection," Fulgence said to Robert.

"He is right, we can discuss this better on the way to there, let's go!"

--At the Wagon--

'I talked to the old man on the way to the village, he told me stories about the time he was my age and when he first joined the army, I don't know my age, but he said I must have something in around 6 years old, so just one child, no wonder everyone keeps calling me that. We also talked about the rank and he said that when he first tried the test, he got an F for physical ability, but through years of intense training, he managed to reach C and that the people with us also were Rank C Warriors, but even with then, life was not beautiful, so he said that maybe it was a blessing the rank that was given to me (None), that I could enjoy life away from the chaos of battles and maybe become a trader one day.'

'The sun was nowhere to be seen when we reach Tuska, but the noise of the horses and the wagon managed to attract the village attention, so the guard came to us, they explained everything and showed some piece of paper, the guard said that they were already waiting for us, so we head inside. It was just a small village, nothing fancy to me seeing, we put our things inside a house that was designated for the "member of the magistrate present in the village" and to avoid attracting more attention, we just went straight to sleep.'

--The next day--

Carine wakes me up screaming like a crazy woman she is, just to make me wake up quickly.

"Get up boy, the sun is high, and is time for the hunt."

"You couldn't just say that, without the screaming part?"

"There is no fun in that, come on, hurry up."

I walked to the dinner table and eat some piece of bread, or better saying I just swallow quickly so as not to taste the food, in the past weeks I am getting used to that, the food always tastes bad.

"Where is everyone?"

"Robert will join us soon, he just had to fix a few things before, as you may know... it's not very common for a "simple mercenary" to become part of the magistrate of a city, and even less common for him to come and live in the village for which he is responsible. So he's having some problems, but nothing he can't solve so don't worry, as, for Scullery and Fulgence, they're reinforcing the village's defenses and getting used to the guards already allocated, so they won't come with us."

"..."

"You need to learn to talk more dude, it's not cool to be talking to the walls. Anyways, let's get going, I will teach you how to use a bow until Robert arrives."

'Carine is a good person, after all, just a bit crazy from times to times, learn how to use the bow was quite easy with her teaching, unfortunately, was quite hard to aim with that, then she brought me to the woods, in the meantime I had a look in the village as well, there were just a few houses, some woodcutters close to the forest, a small forge and planting fields, the city guard was made up of 7 guards who only stayed at specific points talking or playing cards, if you consider our group then the guard now has an addition of 4 troops, everything was too calm to be true.'

'Robert reach us in the woods and we start hunting after they gave me the instructions and the bow, the bow was quite big for me, but they said they didn't have any small ranged weapons for me to use.'

As expected, hours passed, and I didn't hit anything, I was getting even more tired, and was like my stamina was not coming back to me anymore. So they decided to make me just watch this time, to learn how to hunt.

The moment Carina took the bow, she turned around and hit a squirrel next to her, just like that, for her, it was easy as breathing, but the most impressive thing happened after the squirrel died, his body started to age and his skin disappeared, the bones were exposed, and then they also disappeared until they became dust, this happened in no more than 3 seconds. At the same moment, I had the same feeling of the battlefield, only this time it was much smaller, It was like I've been without breathing for weeks, and for the first time I've caught a little breath.

In the meantime the two were watching me with scared faces, the feeling was so good that I only realized when a full minute had passed.

"What was that Gremory???" Said Carine with a panicked face.

"I don't know, I was thinking this was some kind of skill yours..."

"Skill? I can't use mana, and even if I could, I never heard of magic like this!"

"I really don't know what you expect me to say?"

"It was true then" Said the old man.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Carine.

"About what happened to the soldiers on the battlefield... And look at him, his skin got a bit of color?"

"Shit, that's true."

"What I do now? Are you guys going to take revenge on me now? I swear I didn't do anything on purpose and I have proof, you saw my test, I don't have mana in my body, so I am not capable of this" I spoke in my defense.

"Yes, you must be right. Let's keep hunting, and then we'll see what happens." The old man said with a calm voice.

We keep hunting, hours passed before I realized, with each dead prey the sensation came back to me briefly, and with it my stamina and strength too, my hunger was slowly filled until my skin took on its normal color and stopped being pale. Carine watched every step mine for the whole time, I could feel that she was getting ready to fire an arrow at any moment in me, yet this was a day unlike any other, I finally could breathe the air without feeling that I would suffocate.