First Hunt.

After having some rest, they both met up again. Today was Isher's first time going out to venture into the forest to hunt monsters.

Isher and Emily were walking towards the training grounds situated at the back of the facility, offering a clear view of the dense Tulgey forest. The facility was built for research purposes and to keep the monsters in the Tulgey Woods in check. The research lab is beside the quarters where our rooms are. The whole facility is enclosed in a transparent protective dome, which is powered by mana.

Reaching the training ground, they found Instructor Jake gathering the attention of both. "Alright, listen up," he said. "As Emily will be joining Isher, I won't be participating."

The instructor's statement caught him off guard. He blurted out, "What!" in disbelief.

"Not like, why can't you just come with us? It doesn't hurt to have more people," Isher explained his case with his strange logic. Unfortunately, his persuasion didn't work on the instructor.

"Look, Isher, I'm busy and Emily is more than enough," the instructor said with some annoyance mixed in.

"Don't worry, Instructor. He will be safe in my care," Emily said with a smile, though it didn't reach her eyes. Isher swore he saw her lips twitch, which was both cute and scary at the same time. Finally relenting, as the situation was really out of his hands, the instructor nodded at both of them and gave some words of encouragement before leaving.

As he followed her into the forest, he wondered why everything was going haywire today. I was hoping she wouldn't take more revenge for his prank yesterday.

Contrary to his expectations, nothing like that happened as they both ventured silently into the forest. At one point, he tried to speak due to the silence becoming uncomfortable, but she shushed him with a finger-to-lips gesture.

The Tulgey Forest is famous for its dark affinity monsters, which are found in the inner region of the forest. The dome is in the outer region, and we were also roaming around the outer region, so coming across dark affinity monsters was slim.

Even here, the forest trees were large, stretching out and covering the whole sky. Barely any sunlight was passing through, even though we left in the afternoon. It felt like evening, even though barely 30 minutes had passed.

Emily stopped and gestured forward with her soft, dainty hand. Isher nodded and moved, and there he saw a 2.3-meter bear, if you can call it that, with dark fur sharp and bloodshot one-eyed. It had cuts and bruises on its body, sitting against the tree in the clear with enough room to move around.

Honestly, it was kind of badass. Maybe I should also try the one-eyed style, Isher thought just in passing. Alright, here goes nothing, he thought as he eyed the Ursine.

Emily watched with serious eyes as he approached the Ursine, moving from between trees forward. Once it was in his eye range, he rushed toward it. Emily had the urge to facepalm. Why didn't he go for a sneak attack?

He probably didn't even know any information about the Ursine, shaking her head. She took a sleek katana from her inventory, admiring its beauty. Tearing her gaze from it, she watched as both the Ursine and Isher, who had taken a sword, rushed at each other. The bear took a big swing with its paws at him, and Isher used its big movements to dodge under it while slashing under its arms.

This continued for a minute, where the bear used its huge body like a bulldozer and tried to ram into him, and Isher used his short stature to perform nimble movements to dodge. The bear roared and rushed again; this time, Isher had a smirk on his face as he coated his sword with mana. The pressure it emitted told a story; it had a lot of mana. For a moment, the Ursine flinched, and Isher took the chance to coat mana in his legs. With a burst of air, he took off like a cannon bolt and did a horizontal slash at the bear-like abomination.

The Ursine's hair stood up as it sensed impending death. Out of instinct, it used its whole mana reserves; a black aura gushed out of it, making it look more menacing. It swung its paws at him.

Due to its black aura, Isher couldn't respond, as the paw, which was one step away from him, suddenly appeared in front of his torso and rammed into him, sending him flying straight toward the tree against which the bear was previously leaning.

The side of his stomach where the paw landed had a chunk of flesh on it. His vision began to darken, and his eyes moved to the spot from where he came, to spot Emily. Alas, due to the distance, he was unable to. He could only watch helplessly as the bear made its way towards him, probably due to spending all of its mana in its previous attack; it was taking its time, until suddenly an arrow flew from the other side and embedded itself in Ursine's back.

It howled in agony as another arrow came. Turning around, it warily eyed its surroundings. Isher took the chance, took out a healing potion from his inventory, and splashed it around the wound. With a sizzling sound, the pain came. He knew he had to be silent, but he couldn't hold back a scream. He screamed with his lungs out.

After a moment, he regained his bearings, panting heavily. He saw the scene; the Ursine was nowhere to be seen. Instead, its arm was lodged into the ground by the arrow, and there was a trail of blood, probably from the Ursine.

With the help of the tree, he stood up just in time to hear several howls.

"Shit," cursing, he ran towards the other side where Emily was supposed to be, but all he found was a wolf-like creature waiting for him. It had jagged black fur, with dirt covering all over its body.

He took a deep breath and took out his sword. "No use worrying about Emily; let's focus on the situation first."