I don't have to wait long before Aura comes into the clearing and all of her guards start to disband and go to make their food. She walks up to me and gives me a hug saying, "how goes the hunt?"
"It goes good I've managed to slay a buck of the Cyan deer as well as a midnight Panther also I've managed to bring in err kill the Trentino brothers." I reply as she breaks the hug, a few of the members of her hunting party who can hear what I just said look around nervously, it doesn't go unnoticed. "well I suppose I'll see you again in three days, I'm going to the pest zone to hunt some pocket change."
"Ok see you then and Hunter, stay safe." then we eat lunch together before I head out into the forest again finding my way towards the 'Pest zone', its known for having spirit beasts that reproduce extremely fast, but don't fetch high prices, because of their abundance. but I more or a less just want their cores to eat, as they can help be the push from a Bronze to an Iron tier Page. I travel north for around two hours before I find signs of a pest beast, they look like rabbit tracks 'oh finally some good luck, rabbit will sell for a decent price too' I think as I follow the tracks to what is beginning to look a lot like an orange rabbit warren. Slowing my pace I begin looking around more closely for signs of the rabbits and more importantly predators, it doesn't take long for me to find them as orange rabbits shed a lot of their fur. Seeing no sign of predators, I get closer to the warren and spot a handful of the orange rabbits and begin to draw my bow out of it's holster. I make my way over to a tree in the distance and climb it with relative ease and then I set up a few arrows so i can hopefully get a few shots before the rabbits go to ground in their warren and i have to move location. I steady myself drawing the bow back and take aim, releasing half a breath and release my first arrow finds its mark, I grab another arrow nock draw and fire. After releasing 4 of my 6 arrows into the rabbits, they have all bolted into the warren underground so i descend my tree and go to collect the slain rabbits, picking them up without removing the arrows so as to not leave excess blood around the opening to the underground rabbit den.
After getting a decent ways away from the warren I stop and dig a small hole in the ground for the offal, collecting my double-extra large(XXL) waterskin from my pack, and looking around again for no sign of predators or scavengers, I begin to clean the rabbits first starting by opening a hole with my knife from the base of their necks to the seam of their butts thee was a buck among them so I take care to remove it's testicles separately from the rest of it's entrails I scoop out the guts and drop them in the hole and rinse each rabbit cavity with the water also draining it into the hole before filling it in and taking the carcasses up into the tree, my inner dragon scoffs at us climbing the trees with a small prey like we aren't a holder of a dragon bloodline, but i would rather not be caught with my pants down while cleaning these rabbits. It takes a while for me to finish removing the skins and applying some preserving salt to the meat before tucking them into my pack. I check my arrows afterwards inspecting them for straightness and the heads for sharpness I managed to pierce each rabbit through the head with them and while the arrows would still fly true, I don't think the heads are going to be good enough for clean kills at the moment, so I mark them with some orange chalk the archery instructor gave me saying that; "if you don't feel good about your arrows and don't yet have a spatial item mark them, so you'll only fire them if you absolutely have to when the rest of the quiver is empty."
I notice the daylight has almost entirely faded, so I decide to find a better spot to make camp for the night. Finding a spot near a brook, I set up my camp and check my gear sharpening my senbon and arrowheads, before taking out the rabbit meat and seasoning it a bit with some cajun seasoning one of the few flavors that somehow persisted into the apocalypse and dawn of mana. I roast it over the flames of a campfire, not that I really need to, but it helps me retain my human side a bit more, after eating I decide to consume one of the rabbits mana crystals. the cool feeling develops a slight burn at the end and I now know I'm going to have to break through in the morning.
Dawn comes for me with a hiss as large python tries to slither its way up my leg. I immediately channel my dragon blood to harden my skin into scales as I sit up and the snake goes for my face, extending my claws I try to block, but it is not as effective and I can feel pressure on my leg, but the snake's trajectory is off and I can grab my sword drawing it while standing is a bit difficult but I manage and the python goes for another money shot, too bad this time I'm ready and my blade is in the way, the snake's own momentum working to sever its top and bottom jaw. After hitting the "snooze button" on my rather annoying wake up call I root around in it for a minute searching for the core. I find the core and eat it feeling the heat wash over me as my body evolves, the salamander form of my dragon solidifies a bit more getting stronger and larger, I can feel the power in my veins getting easier to wield. after burning through that snake core, i decide to cook the thing and remove its skin, maybe to make a belt I don't know, it pissed me off, after eating it and the remaining rabbit cores I check my situation having my first minor break through from copper to bronze ranked page after only a few months when it takes most the better part of a year. Everything feels more powerful now, Rex's scales are more sturdy, I have a bit more mana to use, i can probably use my fire breath for a few sustained seconds. I decide to go a bit more wild in the pest zone.
I hunt for the rest of the day taking down several more rabbits of varying types as well as a few other species including blue ferrets a small number of green pythons and a weird little bird, using my draconic side more often than not getting used to it's upgraded power and the flexibility it has, I don't run into anyone for the rest of the day. The next day I begin my trek back towards aura's area meandering around when I find a shadowed black wolf, that probably decided to try his luck of fattening himself up in the pest zone, it looks at me with the eyes of a beast that has been around for a while and I draw my blade partially transforming my skin to scales. Our battle begins, with me lunging forward with an upward sweep of the blade, which the wolf dodges, I smile baring my own fangs at it. Our clash goes on for over an hour and both of us take heavy blows, but finally I spot an opening in its defense and capitalize on it stabbing directly into its heart, though it gives me a hefty bite as a parting gift. I don't clean it right away I'm tired and need a few minutes to regain my strength, that was a late bronze soldier ranked beast probably trying to break through to iron, shadowed wolves have a relatively low potential usually only making it to baronet rank, but there are stories of a few making it all the way to the top of the noble rank, and it's even rumored the queen of the country has one that she matured through the familiar route, so it's worth a decent amount of money if there's a seed inside it, which there might be. After resting for a bit I take care to clean my foe's remains properly and even send them off with a fire breath I had of course harvested the hide edible parts and and core, before looking around in it's head for the monster seed, there is one. Rex chuckles at my joy, then I set up camp a bit closer to aura's scheduled meeting spot before consuming the core and going to sleep.
this time morning awakens without fanfare and I eat my breakfast of trail rations, and water, not wanting to take another core as the last one still is settling, it's power rapidly bringing me closer to the iron page rank, which is unexpected but still a happy surprise, though the bite mark from the wolf yesterday lingers more than I thought it would, I hope it's just a scar forming and not some weird magic curse ability, shadow elements were tricky like that, which is why most shadow practitioners go the familiar route, so they can keep the power without the weird stares brought on from someone with two shadows or whatever. my clothes are in a bit worse shape and I only realize that after I've made my way almost to Aura and her bodyguard Farina.
"What happened to you?" she asks when she sees me
"I beat a wolf. why? am I bleeding all over or something?' I reply checking myself for blood loss quickly.
"No but Your clothes look like they went through a storm" Farina answers for Aura, I then look down and really notice that my clothes and part of my armor do indeed look like they had gone through a blender
"Oops."
"Oops my foot! for the rest of the hunt you are staying with the group!" Aura says in a voice both regally authoritative and yet brattily concerned. I know better than to fight it so I just nod my head and accept the change of clothes Farina pulls out of her space item, ducking into Aura's tent just to annoy the other male guards while I change, scrapping some of the worst worn armor pieces and doing what field repair I could. I step out looking better and less like I just returned from fighting a monster a full realm above me. I mentally prepare to spend the next four days hunting with eyes on me.