He stopped and lowered to the ground. It was difficult to sense a manabeast who wants to remain hidden. If there was no movement, there would be no vibration on the ground. Nico could easily locate a manabeast in the dark, but it was difficult during the day. He could only rely on training his own senses. It was difficult to sense shadow symbols far away, but Nico could tell when there were strong cl.u.s.ters.

Nico then signaled two numbers to Jack. He raised one finger and then two fingers. There was one manabeast 20 m away.

Jack nodded to confirm he understood the message.

Jack grabbed his bow from his back and carefully unmounted.

Nico lightly stepped out of the cart and Jack tied the rein to the nearest tree.

Jack and Nico steadily separated and walked closer to the target in a V formation. Nico took his spear and pointed it to one particular bush.

Jack prepared his arrow. Nico gave him a countdown with his hand.

By the time Nico enclosed his fist, Jack released his arrow.

Nico charged toward the prey.

The manabeast roared painfully, with the arrow dislodged right in its right eye. Nico saw its head peeking out and thrust his spear directly into its left eye and through the brain.

The manabeast squirmed once and dropped to the ground.

"Nice shot!"

"You ended it pretty quickly." Jack walked closer to inspect the beast. "It's a manatiger!"

Manatiger had strong defense, for it to be knocked down in two hits was quite a feat.

"Your spear thrust is scary." Jack saw the sorry state of the manatiger skull.

"How were you able to shoot it in the left eye when it is hidden?" asked Nico.

"Just based on the bushes it was hiding in. I've a.s.sumed it weighs 350 lb and around four foot high. Before they prowl to hunt, they like to take a low position, so I target it lower hoping to hit the face. Otherwise, it will hit the body."

Jack hunted with his father and uncle, so he too knew the importance of preserving the body.

They hauled the carca.s.s onto the cart and continued further.

They caught two more manabeasts.

As they rode on, they stopped before a small crevice. Nico felt an ominous presence. He knelt on the ground and touched the muddy surface. Junior and Snowy s.h.i.+vered and cowered closer to Nico.

"Anything good?" Jack whispered.

Nico shook his head. "I think we should head back."

Jack looked at the cart. They had enough for the horse to carry back, and agreed to head back.

Once they were out of the forest area, Nico took the rein again. This time, he was comfortable enough to converse with Jack on the basics of combat.

Some students can't learn from just reading. They memorize information better when it was orated and taught directly. Although Jack regularly made appointments to learn with his professor, his roommates were always there and a good source of information.

People were likely to memorize a conversation from a friend than a pa.s.sage from a book.

Once back, Nico and Jack divided the manacores and turned in the carca.s.ses for Academy Points. Carca.s.ses were prized by the Academy for experiments and raw materials. Although they also preferred manacores, very few people were willing to trade in manacores.

When they returned to their dorm, Jack bragged to Ashe.

"You spent most of the morning in Arango Forest and collected only 3000 APs?" Ashe stated, still looking at his book.

"It sounded like this bookworm thinks he can do better?" Jack retorted.

"I only need to join up with a tanker, and can probably get 5000 APs in the morning."

"Hm, I'm curious if you're more than just talk, how about a match?"

Nico was also curious to see how a magician like Ashe would fight. There were spars between blue robed magicians in the Student Hall Training Center, but their magic was barely considered magic.

"With you?"

"No way, between you and Nico," Jack suggested.

"Me?" Nico was in the middle of feeding manacores to Junior and Snowy when his name was mentioned.

Vincent interest piqued. Everyone looked at Nico.

"Sure, I guess," Nico agreed.

In the student hall, they registered for a battle court. While they waited for their turn, Anya showed up.

"How in the world do you know we are here?" Asked Jack. "You're not stalking us?"

"Why are you so rude to a lady?" Asked Ashe. "h.e.l.lo Miss Anya, are you interested in officiating the match?"

"Sure." Anya agreed. She then looked at Jack. "I'm in the student hall a.s.sociation. In other words, I work here."

Jack ignored her and walked toward the court.

The court was one of several smaller courts within the Student Hall provided to students for training. Each court was protected by an array. There were several other groups sparring and practicing in the other courts.

"I'm ready. Are you ready?" Ashe stood impatiently on the right side and looked at Nico.

Nico stretched on the left side of the court while Vincent, Jack, and their pets watched from the rear.

"Yep, ready." Nico thumbed up.

Nico and Ashe both wore the black battle indicator cuffs they had loaned from the student hall.

Anya walked to the center. "All right, first to have their force barrier or body aura broken loses. On the count of three. 1, 2, 3!"

Anya leapt out of the court as the round began.

Without warning, three fireb.a.l.l.s shot toward Nico. Nico dodged to the right to avoid the first fireball. The 2nd fireball closed in on Nico and singed his left sleeves. Nico leaped back, barely escaping the third shot.

That was close. Nico crouched on the ground and examined the magician staff Ashe was holding, it was known as the Trifire Magician Staff.

Magician greatest weakest was casting time, but they had other means to attack such as talisman and Magician wands or staffs. Talismans were single use items, and while they were extremely useful, it was wasteful to use in spars. Magician wands were capable of casting spells, and the preferred method for a first attack. However, it needed time to recharge.

"That's too cheap!" Jack cried out from the side. "If I have a weapon like that, I would be a strong magician too!"

"Magical weapons need time to recharge, the stronger the spell, the more time the magician needs to concentrate their energy into the staff," Anya explained. "If you were paying attention, you could see the fireb.a.l.l.s shooting out from the staff head. The staff head is the point where the magician's aura is connected to. A cultivator like you could probably puff out hot air, but not a fireball as strong as Ashe, not to mention three consecutive fireb.a.l.l.s."

Ashe recharged the wand on his left, he was already preparing the next attack.

Nico rushed toward Ashe and thrust using Gale Force. The spear drilled into an invisible barrier. The body aura cracked, but Ashe jumped back before it could be destroyed and cast three blades of ice.

Nico flipped back to dodge the blades. The third blades boomeranged from the back and to hit Nico from the side. Nico bent down, barely avoiding the blade.

"d.a.m.n it! Why didn't anyone warn me about magic spells?!" Nico shouted. "Can magic spell curve like that?"

"Amateur magicians can't, but good magicians can bend their spells," stated Anya. "Otherwise, magicians might as well just use talisman that only has a single trajectory."

Nico thought about it, it did make sense. Talismans were like a beginner billiard players and magicians were like professionals with their various trick shots.

Nico threw the spear directly at Ashe and dashed forward, he needed to close in.

The spear collided with an invisible barrier, but again Ashe backed away before it did further damage to his body aura.

Right as Nico was about to punch directly at the barrier, Ashe whacked his staff toward Nico's head.

S***! Nico leaned to the left.

He concentrated the mana force into his right leg, and kicked toward Ashe.

Ashe pointed his staff toward Nico, and the wand shot out a fireball.

Ping!

Nico noticed his battle indicator cuff had turned to white.

Well, that sucks, Nico thought.