Chapter 450 - Day MCMIV

Since it was the day of Tihana's first hunt I quickly did my early morning shenanigans, and shadow walked to the city center, to go to Boris's place. To my surprise, she was already waiting outside, with a spear resting, leaning on the building's wall. It was quite well made.

- Wow, this early?

- I couldn't sleep - she confessed. - I'm so nervous.

- Oh, trust me, it will be like that until you start fighting, and then it will all go away. Do you have everything you need?

- Well... I just have a spear. Boris wanted to give me an armor, but I'm actually better without it. And I didn't pack any food, thinking we might boy something on our way...

- Don't worry about food. I'll take care of that. Pick up your weapon, and let's go- I pointed at the spear.

She quickly moved to fetch it, and then we started making our way towards the gate. Since there was an access point there, there was no problem with buying stuff we might need before leaving the city.

- I'll probably repeat this a few times later on, but they are weak as long as you don't have a whole bunch of them in your face. So just focus on delivering deadly blows from a distance. You don't want to end up having more than one in a distance to attack you.

- I know. Boris told me the same thing.

- Well, that's a basic, but very important, thing, and he is a smart guy.

- But what if I fail? What if they surround me?

- Relax - I patted her on the back. - I'll be there, and we will take it slowly, ok? We will start with one guy, then two, then more. You will be fine when you get the grip of it. Don't overthink now, and don't panic.

She nodded, but I noticed that she was still holding tight on her spear. The way she was walking with it was also kinda funny.

- You know what? Give me that. There is no reason for you to carry it since I can put it in my vault - I said grabbing the spear.

She didn't let go immediately but needed a second to make her hands release the weapon.

- O-ok - she said when she finally let go of it.

I put it in the vault, without stopping. There was quite a bit of walking ahead of us.

- You are too tense, girl. We will walk for hours before you even see a goblin. Stop worrying. Besides, when I first went hunting, I had a stick to fight with, and I managed. Not to mention I've never been trained, and you have. It all will be fine.

She nodded. After that, I switched my tactic and attempted to distract her by asking questions about her favorite anime, and then added few ideas to the plot she told me about yesterday. She fell for that, and a quite long discussion started.

She only noticed how much time has passed when we arrived at the city walls since she was too busy trying to explain her ideas. Some guards checked our papers, and we moved on.

We were one of the first people in the forest, if not the first ones. I couldn't see anybody ahead of us, and even behind I didn't spot anyone.

She started getting nervous again when we passed the tree line, but there was nothing much I could do about that, except giving her the spear back, so she would feel a little bit more confident with a weapon in her hands.

I still tried to speak reassuring words to her, but those had minimal effect.

The forest in the morning was actually beautiful with the rays of the sun making their way past the thick three crowns, and shadows dancing on the ground. Everything was richly green, starting from the grass, through the moss, and bushes, to the leaves above.

We encountered the first group of goblins after quite a moment of this enjoyable walk. I spotted them before here since I was so used to looking at the threats in my vicinity.

- Stop - I said to her. - There is a group of five ahead of us. I'm gonna lure one out, and keep the remaining four busy, so you can take it easy in the beginning, and get accustomed, ok?

- Ok - she said.

She was focused, prepared, so I started moving. I summoned some shadows to spread the group around. I forced them to not attack, and just distract the whole group. I kept summoning them, as they soon got destroyed, with one slowly being directed at Tihana. When he got close enough, I allowed him to die from the green vicious toddler's hands.

- No, go - I told her, and she started moving, as the monster picked his new target, her.

He charged mindlessly, so she did a simple, yet effective thing. Lowered the spear, locked its other end on the ground with her foot, and aimed the spearhead.

Goblin tried to knock it out of his way with a wide swing, but she easily maneuvered the spear, to avoid the stick, which ended with the goblin impaling himself on the sharp end, and turning to dust.

The stone fell on the forest litter.

She was about to jump from the excitement, but I stopped her before she could even start.

- There are still enemies in the vicinity. I'm gonna lure two this time. Don't lose focus!

- Yes!

So I did what I said, making two more heads our way, as they mauled my shadows one by one. This was only because I wouldn't allow them to actually fight the monsters, though.

The enemies got close almost at the same moment, charging from the same direction. She pretended to attack the first one, just to make him swing defensively, and after creating the opening stabbed him in the face. The other one managed to close the distance, and was actually in striking distance, but she made a pirouette, and swung widely, knicking his weapon out of his hands, then kicked him in the face, sending on his back. After, quickly finished with pinning him to the ground.

'"She got a grip", I thought to myself.

And she really did. The next two were just as easily dealt with. When the last one failed, I clapped to congratulate her.

- Good job!

- Thanks - she said, smiling, and then laughed.

I sent my shadows to pick the stones for her, and our journey continued.

We had few breaks on our way to hydrate and eat. I just pulled the supplies from my vault, since I still had plenty from the last journey to Loistavadvaar.

I tried my best to direct us towards the edge of the territory, to not meet other groups, so she could get an undisrupted start into her career as a hunter. She didn't even notice, too focused on searching for goblins.

I found it kinda funny.

We managed to get three groups more and then decided to call it a day since Tihana's endurance wasn't good enough yet. I shadow walked us back, so she could sell her score and buy the first upgrades. Then we had dinner at Boris's place. She told the Russian family everything that happened.

She was so excited, that she actually made them laugh a lot.

The day came to an end with 24 360 290 points remaining on my account, and 21 class points.