Plundering Souls as the Blessed of an Ancient God

Waking up at dawn the next day in one of the two bedrooms, Cifer sat upright on his bed.

Today was the day he was going to start working under Des had a hunter.

Based on Des' words the night prior, he woke up early to get prepared for the day.

He first sat cross-legged on his bed and gathered mana from the atmosphere.

After absorbing the white mana and higher-quality blue mana into his body through the mana veins, he concentrated on the core itself, aiming to increase the size of his core.

Upon finishing that, Cifer pulled mana out of his core and tried to manipulate it throughout the mana veins to improve his control over mana within his body. 

The overall process took about 2 hours and the time was closing in to 9AM.

Not wanting to have issues with Des this early on, he dropped his mana practices and went to take a shower.

Within a few minutes, he was done with that. He proceeded to wear the clothes that were bought for him by Des.

He donned a brown coloured shirt with black pants and boots that reached his shin. 

He also donned his white make-shift scarf and wrapped his fingers in the white clothes he had used previously.

'I done… I can do this!'

Cifer wasn't fully ready to enter the forest yet. He could recall a lot of presences he had avoided while he was running from whatever was chasing him.

'I can't avoid that place forever, it will be my training guard! Des also said we're doing light work today, so I believe it should be fine.'

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Oi, Cifer. It's time to go. Come out already."

Interrupting Cifer's thought was Des' deep and calm voice.

Glancing up towards the wooden door, Cifer released a heavy sigh before he opened the door.

"Yes, I'm read-"

Upon opening the door, a bag hit Cifer's face before it fell into his hands.

"First lesson, a hunter is always alert." Des said with a smug smile. "Let's go. Oh, right, let's eat first."

'Who throws a bag that's holding hunting equipment at a child? What's wrong with this guy?'

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Cifer wore the bag and followed Des to the kitchen.

While Des sat at the dining table positioned at one corner of the Kitchen, Cifer went to greet Lisa and assist her in serving the food.

Breakfast was light so they were done with their food within 10 minutes.

Immediately after, Des led Cifer outside the house.

Like the previous day, Cifer quietly hid in Des' shadow while Des was greeting almost everyone they passed by.

They navigated their way through the town streets, towards the sole entrance of the city where there were even more people going around.

Now that he paid less attention to the civilians of the town, Des spared Cifer a hidden glance, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

'This kid is really carrying that bag like it's nothing. With his body size, I assumed that he'll struggle. If I hand him my rifle and knives, will it be harder for him? I'll slowly measure his strength with today's hunt.'

After crossing the gates, Des didn't follow the main road and turned around the city walls, towards the sides. 

Before going further, he turned to Cifer.

"Alright, I should tell you something before we go into the forest."

Cifer remained expressionless as he listened attentively.

Des provided a map of the town and its surroundings.

'A map of the town… I should get my hands on one soon, I should be helpful. Or better still, I should try and just learn the general geography of this world.' Cifer commented inwardly.

"Pay attention to this." Des said as if he knew Cifer was distracted. 

He pointed at the map and explained. 

"This is our town, Seashire. And as you can see here, we're surrounded by a forest that stretches a long distance."

"From this part of the forest, east of the town to north-west of the town, there are different creatures of varying natures inhabiting the forest. The weaker ones lay in the east and that's where you'll be hunting till I say otherwise."

"Don't, I repeat, don't go towards the north, or worse, beyond north! Those parts are dangerous and I can't emphasize that enough."

"Also, I advise you to stay away from the waters beyond the forest and even some within the forest, the weakest ones in these waters can be compared to the stronger ones in the forest."

Having paid utmost attention to the map, Cifer nodded in understanding while silently busying himself in his thoughts.

'I was reborn north-west and ran towards the north. I wonder, what was a child doing in a place deep into the north-western regions of the forest? Who are those chasers that are coming from those dangerous parts?'

'He also didn't mention those blue ghost-like figures I previously, are they unique to that region of the forest...? Initially I thought it was best to avoid them, but after considering it, I feel like I'm related to them somehow...'

Oblivious to Cifer's thought, Des approached Cifer and collected the bag that was in Cifer's hands.

He rummaged through the bag and brought out some of its contents.

A set of light leather armor for Cifer and himself, and some other tools they'll be using during their hunt.

Cifer noticed Des handing him the leather armor and humbly accepted it.

After they both wore their armor, Des extended Cifer a bow along with a set of arrows.

"I'll have you start with this bow for now. I'll be hunting with you till noon."

"Okay." Cifer remained his act of indifference and simplicity.

Des scrutinized Cifer for an instant before turning towards where the tall trees began extending.

"Fix the bow and arrow to your body well."

Wearing the bag, he prepared to dash forward and said, "Follow my every move. Remember the first lesson too, always stay alert."

Cifer, having been stripped of the chance to reply, ate Des' dust.

'What? This guy expects a kid to catch up to his speed… just like that? Tsk, let's just do this.'

Tensing his body and holding his weapons securely, Cifer burst forward too, trailing behind Des.

As they went further into the forest, Cifer saw Des turn his heads to multiple directions as they moved as if raising his awareness of his surroundings.

'Hmm, he's not using the scope, could he trust his senses that much? If he had some kind of mana sense, it makes sense. Speaking of mana sense, how much difference will the effects be if I concentrate more on my surroundings and reduce its range…'

This forest didn't serve as his training ground only for hunting but for everything that was possible to be trained.

'Let's go crazy…' he muttered, excited by the thoughts of wielding extraordinary power.