Chapter 10: Second Sunset

As the horizon began to swallow the sun, Kai staggered back to the nearest waypoint. It had been a day of grueling combat, and if he ran into any other candidates he might regret pushing himself so hard. There hadn't been much fighting between humans on the second day of the Hunter Trials because of all the new monsters. That would probably change.

He had used up two of his three mana seedlings. Hopefully he wouldn't regret that, but he resisted the urge to examine himself with his spiritual vision. The numbers didn't matter as much as working as hard as he could, and getting to safety so some monster didn't kill him in the night.

After the good prizes from the dryad, he'd aggressively pursued other waypoints, but they hadn't been as eventful. Many of those that looked like they might have been interesting had already been cleared by someone else. Once he saw several of the goons that served Fhazi taking down an octopus monster in a small pond, then leave with the rewards. It seemed that the best challenges were taken fast.

There were a few simpler waypoints that distributed food and water. The quality was far worse than the reward meal given by Juray, so he belatedly wished that he'd thanked her more. He'd considered going back to her, but it would have wasted too much time to retrace his steps. Best to keep moving forward.

Before the sun set completely, Kai reached his destination. Just another little shrine surrounded by a barrier. Fortunately, it looked like no one else had returned to it, so the only occupant was a bored-looking hunter. When Kai arrived he nodded to the man, who grinned.

"Turning in for the day, huh?"

"I'm pretty tired," Kai said. He paused and stared back out into the darkness. "Wait, are there special events occurring at night?"

"Not for the basic Hunter Trials. Get your rest and heal up. You look like you need it."

Kai didn't hurt as badly as he'd expected, given all his injuries and the potion he'd taken during the day. He still really, really wanted to sit down. Before heading in, he decided to press for one more question. "If it's not cheating, can you tell me what the situation looks like out there?"

"You think they tell me anything important or let me use the portals?" The hunter snorted. "No, I just run the shrine and save candidates if they're getting themselves killed. I guess I can say that more candidates are out than usual. That huge monster is still out there."

"The giant boar?" Kai strained his eyes into the darkness, as if he hoped to find it. His spiritual vision had been improving through practice, but he didn't spot any concentrations of power that might be the over-sized monster.

"Yeah, that thing is a problem. But they might put a bounty on it tomorrow, so I can't say anything else."

After thanking the man, Kai shuffled into the shrine and finally dropped. He needed rest, but his mind was racing. To take his mind off everything, he opened his sack and counted all the monster cores. He'd been trying to keep track, just not very carefully given all the fighting.

So far he had 53 small cores, 14 larger, and 1 enormous core he'd torn from the chest of a twisted bear-like creature. That one had required a trap, several injuries, and a bit of luck. He hadn't been comparing totals with the other candidates, but he thought that was a pretty decent number.

Once he'd finished counting, Kai decided that there was no point putting it off any longer. It was time to see if his work that day had made any progress...

<

Name: Kai Granfian

Total Power: 16

Laborer Class: 2

Physique Level: G-4

Soul Level: 2

>

It wasn't as bad as he'd feared. His Physique Level had improved twice, no doubt due to the mana seedlings fueling his combat experiences. At this rate he was rapidly approaching the F rank, which would make him about as physically tough as most of the veteran hunters... just without a useful Class.

That was the fly in the pudding. None of the fights throughout the day had revealed any special abilities or wondrous secrets to his "Laborer" Class. Its level had increased for some reason, possibly due to the mana seedlings. Or possibly just to mock him.

If he worked twice as hard as everyone else, could he keep up? Right now it felt like it, but Gunjin had implied that every source of power became more and more difficult to increase as it advanced. For now, all he could do was give the last day of the Hunter Trials his all.

Lying down and thinking about his plans, Kai wasn't sure when he fell asleep.

.

..

.

He woke up with the earliest light stabbing into his eyes. That was the way it had always been: the slightest light was guaranteed to wake him up. Since he'd lived in hole-ridden shacks until Gunjin took him in, he'd gotten used to rising early.

Kai rose to his feet and yawned. He struggled to remember the fragments of dreams that slipped away before realizing it was pointless. One last day.

There weren't any sources of power on the horizon, so Kai decided to train until the dawn announcement. If they changed the rules for the last day, that could significantly change his strategy. Given the apparent weakness of his Class, his best hope of getting stronger was to acquire the top rewards for the Hunter Trials.

Since the day didn't seem to have started as far as the managers were concerned, Kai dropped to the ground for his old physical training. He started with ordinary push-ups, and when they proved too easy, he vaulted into a hand stand and lifted his body weight that way.

As he went through his routine, he marveled at how much stronger his body had become. Since he'd finished puberty, his gains in strength had always been slow and steady. Even when he tried more difficult exercises, he could only advance at a limited rate. But now his body was being enhanced by more than simply his physical exercise, and he was already seeing the benefits.

He might not have gained an exceptional Class ability, but he'd take what he could get. Exercising normally felt better than before and he wondered if he could improve that way now that he could attempt new exercises. Most likely there would be diminishing returns switching between combat and physical training. That didn't mean he couldn't balance both to see how far they could take him.

As Kai lowered himself to the ground, he tried to focus on the mana reinforcing his body. When his nose nearly touched the ground, he could feel a slight burn in his arms, but it was hard to disentangle that from the mana. Veterans said that balancing the two became as important as good form: you needed to exert both body and mana together, without letting either go slack. He began to slow down as he pushed himself back up, trying to focus on the sensations.

Kai had time for a long routine before a glowing point of mana appeared overhead. It briefly outshone the sun, but he just ignored it and prepared his things for the day's work while he listened.

"The third day of the Hunter Trials has begun!" It was the same old woman as before, though her voice was a bit less cheerful. "There has been a change to the schedule: the trials will end today at noon. Everyone's performance up to this point has been evaluated, and if you're still here you're eligible for prizes to be awarded at the end, even if you're eliminated today. A different prize will be awarded to any group that is able to eliminate the Direboar.

"No new waypoints have been added, but all candidates are encouraged to compete with one another to test their new Classes. Anyone who is still conscious when the bell rings will receive a mana potion. But the most substantial rewards will go to those with the largest number of monster cores. Stealing monster cores is permitted and encouraged. The strategy you choose is up to you, but prizes will be awarded at our discretion, for the good of Monskon City. Good luck!"

Those were essentially the rewards that Tusquo had explained to him. Good to know that the Irunian hadn't been lying. Kai was especially glad to hear that some rewards would be given based on the discretion of those judging. They would see that he was working at a severe disadvantage given his Class and hopefully reward him for his effort.

As for the others... Kai headed away from the shrine and searched the horizon while he considered strategy. He wasn't sure how his collection of monster cores compared to the others, but he didn't think he needed to be too concerned about volume. They were encouraging infighting, which could turn bad for him unless he found allies. Except all allies could easily be enemies.

He predicted that the least honorable candidates would go for the easiest path of taking down weak opponents to steal their cores. This late in the trials, they wouldn't risk their lives against the largest monsters unless they had to. If that was true, then hopefully the best plan for staying away from them would be to throw himself into danger.

Time to see if his new strength could take on the Direboar.