章 6: The Hunt
Alex woke up and got out of the makeshift bed he had gotten from one of the villagers. He yawned grabbed a bucket of water and splashed some on his face.
He finished changing and opened the drawer that had the parchments, inks, and drawings. He looked through them and picked out 6 from the stack.
"Can't believe that I've been here for nearly two weeks, time really does fly by."
He walked to the corner of his house and picked up the bow and the quiver of arrows he had gotten from the Merchant in order to start paying the village. He practiced firing for 4 whole days and according to the rest of the hunters he had talent with the bow. "Looks like that week of archery in my ILR class was helpful. I have to thank Jacob for showing me the basics."
He walked out of his house and began walking towards the forest.
"Hey kid wait up."
He turned around and found a familiar face, "Oh hi Mr. Emmot, I didn't know that you were up this early. Do you want me to keep my eyes open for the fruits and herbs that I brought last time?"
The man laughed and shook his head, "Well no but if you do find some then I wouldn't mind you bringing them along. I'm actually here because my daughter cooked this for you, she was a bit tired so she asked me to hand it over to you."
Alex looked at the wooden box that was wrapped in a cloth and smiled, "Well sir, give her my thanks. I really don't know how I will repay her for cooking all these meals for me."
"Right, repay her. Look, Alex, my two daughters and my wife mean more to me than anything else ever could. My job is to make sure that they don't get hurt and that they always have what they need. Young man, what I'm trying to say is that I have seen that you are very hardworking. You have a house and thanks to you the village has more meat than we've ever had before. The thing is that I don't know you and from my understanding, you don't know yourself either. If you want to be friends with my daughter Enri then I'm fine with that, but if you have any other thoughts and try to cross the line before the two of you get to know each other better, then I'll make you regret ever coming to this village."
'Oh shit'
He took the food and gave a short nod, "Well Mr. Emmot I would be lying if I said that I didn't wish that your daughter would one day choose me. She's hardworking and always cheers everyone around her up. For someone like me that has no one in this whole world, you must understand that having her around is like a ray of light. You have my word that I won't try to do anything I shouldn't do. I'm going to go now, I'll make sure to bring you the fruits or herbs that I find."
The man looked at Alex's eyes for a few seconds before nodding "Alright kid, make sure to stay safe out there, Christian said that he saw some goblins walking through the forest. Are you sure that you don't want to wait for the rest of the hunters?"
Alex shook his head, "No, I feel more comfortable when I hunt alone. You know the early bird gets the worm."
After a few minutes of entering the forest, he grabbed one of the parchments and infused it with a generous supply of chakra. 12 crows popped out of the parchment and cawed as they all went their separate ways.
He didn't have to wait long before 11 different crows returned to him and flew into the parchment becoming drawings.
"Another one today huh, well it is a forest after all. Glad that I finally figured out the right amount of chakra to make them last through the night.
Alex touched the drawings again and supplied them with some chakra. The 11 crows all popped out of the drawing and flew deeper into the forest.
He slowly walked towards the direction that they flew, not much time passed before 2 crows returned and began flying circled around him. Alex gave a short nod and the crows began flying back from where they had come from.
When they flew up and started circling he crouched and hid in the bushes, he looked directly below the crows and found 4 black wolves sniffing around.
Alex grabbed another parchment and injected chakra into it and 10 human figures popped out with bows extended ready to release their arrows.
He grabbed his own bow and activated his Dragonic Eyes which he had gotten from an earlier roll.
Alex's pupils began changing until they resembled a reptile's and his eyes glowed a golden color. The way that he saw everything changed, the wolves and the vegetation became a black lined outline. In the area where the heart and the brain should be there was a black shadow like core.
He drew his arrow and aimed at the heart, he steadied his hand and released. The arrow cut through the air but unfortunately, he ended up hitting the wolf in the abdomen. The black wolf yelped in pain and came crashing down. The rest of the wolves began darting their eyes from side to side trying to look where the arrow had come from.
Alex began to ready another arrow but while he was doing that the three wolves began howling. It surprised him since it had been the first time that occurred since he had started hunting.
He gave the signal and three archers released their arrows. Since the fur of the wolf was valuable he didn't want to damage it with unnecessary holes.
After some more yelping, the wolves were finally put to rest, he stopped using his Dragonic eyes and came out to gather the bodies after removing the arrows made from ink and smearing another 3 of his arrows in blood.
When he saw the penetration of the arrow he smiled and looked back "Looks like this design is a new best." During the two weeks, he had been experimenting and he found that the design of the drawings affected their speed, strength, and their flexibility.
Alex was about to return the archers into the parchment when he was suddenly surrounded by 9 cawing crows coming from all directions. They usually wouldn't make such a ruckus if he had other crows with him unless there was something headed his way.
He quickly climbed the trees and he ordered the 10 archers do the same, not much time passed before he could hear wolves snarling. He could hear them coming from all directions. "Looks like they have gotten tired of being hunted. To be able to form a tactic like this is impressive, if not for the crows then this could have gotten tricky."
The wolves that arrived ran to the slain pack members and began sniffing them and then their surroundings.
'Trying to catch my scent huh.'
Alex raised his hand and gave a mental order to the 10 archers.
("Fire")
Simultaneously the 10 human figures that had their bows drawn, let go of the string and let the arrows fly. At the end of the volley out of the 9 new arrivals, 2 of them were still living. One of them had its hind leg shot but the other seemed to be fine and it quickly ran into the bushes.
"Where the hell do you think that you are going?"
He pulled out another parchment and infused chakra into it.
("Fetch")
Out of the parchment, 12 wolves jumped out of the paper and ran to the direction of where the wolf had run. Not much time passed before 10 wolves returned dragging the limp body of a black wolf.
"Ugh, I really need to find a way to make them more durable against attacks. I've tried drawing on stone and other objects but that didn't work. I also compared the quality of ink and that seems to make somewhat of a difference but not much. The drawings I make using blood can withstand one hit but if the blood dries on the parchment the drawings are useless. If I want to make use of it I have to be able to draw on the spot and that will affect my design meaning that I will give up the strength and speed for a higher defense, not sure it's worth it in most cases."
He called the archers back and began smudging his arrows in wolf blood once he was done he looked at the bodies and gave out a sigh, "13 wolves today how the hell am I supposed to explain this? As good as I am this is a little too much. How big is this pack anyway, I'm sure that after killing this many the pack is nearly wiped. I wonder..."
("Find and bring wolf pups")
After several experiments, he had discovered that his drawings could understand his orders as long as he had a clear image in his head.
The 10 wolves quickly ran into the forest in different directions. Meanwhile, he took out a parchment and 20 ink men appeared.
("Carry")
He led them near the edge of the forest and had them drop the bodies after calling them back. "I really got to get the villagers to help me out carrying this, I don't want all this blood to attract unwanted attention. Looks like the village won't have to worry about eating for a while. The one that has to worry is me, how am I supposed to get more points. I got 5 of them when I killed one wolf and then another 10 points after killing 10 of them. I've killed about 28 wolves in total. Oh and I also can't forget the points I've gotten for killing that goblin and the 7 boars. Seems like I'll have to walk deeper into the forest for some new prey."
After waiting for a few minutes the ink wolves arrived carrying 4 pups. Their eyes were still closed so it seemed like they hadn't been born that long ago. He sat down and used his finger to rub their little round snouts "Hmm how will I feed you? Based on the fact that another of my wolves was killed, that must mean that my guess was right and that only your mother was left."
Suddenly 5 crows began cawing as they flew in circles on top of him. At first, he thought that it was because the blood had attracted some other beasts but then he felt the amount of chakra inside them.
He sighed and put the pup he had in his hands down. "Here I was hoping that things would stay like this a bit longer. Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later."
Alex pulled out all of the parchments and his brush equipped Arataka's Suit and put them back in his pocket except for one. He infused it with chakra and parts of armor popped out and fell to the ground.
("Equip")
The armor began to float in the air and it began to wrap around him.
"Well some protection is better than none, each part of the armor should be able to stop at least 1 arrow before it's destroyed. Not like I plan on getting myself anywhere near danger but it's better than nothing, this would also help me in keeping my identity a secret. It might not look like much but my first house is here, I can't have the villagers looking at me differently. I also have to make sure Enri survives."
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(I'm going to leave some images of the ink summons and the other abilities down in the comments, check them out :-)
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