Depthless Hunger

Chapter 8: The Second Day of the Hunter Trials

That night, Kai slept like a stone. When he woke up, the tightness from the magical healing was mostly gone and he felt better. At least until he remembered his awakening, and the Class that apparently meant all his hard work was pointless. Rallia was gone, Gunjin hadn't returned, and nobody else seemed inclined to talk to him.

Two more candidates had arrived during the night, both locals. Unfortunately, checking them with his spiritual vision wasn't any comfort: the woman had awakened a "Knight" class and the man was apparently a "Rogue." That sounded mildly negative, but the man was already training how to throw knives and have them reappear in his hands. Just the sort of magical power that a Class should grant, not his worthless Laborer status.

To avoid slipping into misery, Kai glanced at himself again:

Name: Kai Granfian

Total Power: 11

Laborer Class: 1

Physique Level: G-2

Soul Level: 2

>

His training was comparable to the other candidates, and in most cases better. If his spiritual vision was accurate, he'd grown substantially more powerful since beginning the Hunter Trials. He forced himself upright and resolved that he wouldn't let this setback stop him.

That moment of great determination was undercut when his stomach growled. He'd eaten basically nothing since breakfast the day before, and he was really feeling it.

After confirming there was nothing else for him at the central shrine, Kai headed back to Juray's waypoint. Assuming that she was still there, she had food and water for him. He tried to comfort himself with that a little: even though things had gone wrong, they'd managed to defend the position against an unfair challenge. Even before awakening.

Was it possible to be a monster hunter without a Class? He knew that Physique and Soul Levels were important, because the local hunters often talked about fighters who had put all their work into their Class but lagged behind elsewhere. But the advantages granted by a Class were so massive, it was hard to imagine how it would work.

Kai eventually came up with one example after walking for a while: Gunjin had once spoken about a man whose inborn abilities were tied to poison. They hadn't strengthened him like other Classes, but they had made him immensely lethal and he had become a veteran hunter at the Frontier.

So it worked for one person... but it was hard to imagine the same thing for a Laborer. Kai imagined a fighting style based on carrying rocks and pushing wheelbarrows, which made him snort. Not likely.

When a monster came prowling toward him, Kai actually hesitated. It was another one of those twisted dogs, just like he'd killed at the beginning. Yet now that he apparently wasn't fated to be a warrior, he found himself staring instead of acting...

In the end his training took over. He drew his sword and sliced across the monster as it struck, nearly cutting it in half.

After staring down at the body for several seconds, Kai bent down to find its monster core. He might have encountered an obstacle, but he wouldn't let this stop him. If there was any potential to be found in the Laborer Class, he'd find it. Meanwhile, he would finish the Hunter Trials in as strong a position as possible.

Before he encountered any other monsters or found the waypoint, a light appeared overhead. Not the rising sun, a glowing point of mana. He shielded his eyes to look at it better, wondering if it could be a threat, when he heard a voice speaking over the reserve.

"The second day of the Hunter Trials has begun!" The voice sounded like an old woman, but he didn't recognize her. Kai kept walking while she spoke. "New waypoints have been placed throughout the reserve. For those who have not awakened, these shrines will assist you in arriving. But for those who already have, they will offer opportunities to deepen your new skills. Good luck!"

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Both light and voice vanished. Kai had heard rumors that the Hunter Trials could change midway through, and now he understood what those meant. Most likely there would be another announcement on the dawn of the third day. Other than keeping an eye out for new waypoints, it didn't change his goals.

Along the way, Kai spotted a cluster of rocks that looked unweathered, as if they had been dropped in overnight. They were infested with small lizard-like monsters, and he braced himself for a tough fight, but to his surprise they dropped easily. He killed half a dozen of them with only a few scratches, then sat down to extract their monster cores. Small, but still valuable.

Perhaps those in charge of the test had added in some easier challenges to help those who had trouble with the horde of boars. Kai wasn't sure if he wanted to find them again, since he didn't have a new edge. He would hunt weaker monsters if he had to, but he wanted more.

When he finally reached Juray's isolated house, he saw that the barrier had been restored. She emerged before he did, waving cheerily.

"Hello there! They set up my waypoint again, and would you believe the next group only had to fight three of those dogs? You got really unlucky..." Her amusement faded as she got a better look at him. "Kai? You look fine, so... oh. That's not what you wanted, is it?"

"No, but there's not much I can do about it." He pushed past her instead of greeting. "Do you still have the food you offered?"

"That I do!"

She ushered him in, though the interior was absurdly spare compared to a normal home. There was only a simple table and chair, but Juray pulled an entire meal out of her pack. It must have been spatial magic, but that sort of thing was too expensive to be part of Kai's life normally. He sat down to eat and he was impressed by the assortment of food. Bread that melted in his mouth, mixed fruit from the entire country, and wine along with clear spring water. They hadn't skimped on the reward.

It could only taste good for so long, though, before he began to think about his situation. Eventually he sat back and asked a question while his mouth was briefly empty. "Has this happened in previous Hunter Trials? Someone just gets a useless Class?"

"I've seen a lot of disappointed candidates, but yours does seem a bit rough." Juray pulled an entire chair from her bag and sat down opposite him. "It never helps to say this, but it's the ultimate reminder that life isn't fair."

"Could I have... done something to do this? Is it my fault somehow?"

"Who really knows how Classes work? Certainly not me. I know that I spent every day as a teenager trying to train in mana-crafting, then my Class decided that I needed to work with herbs. So... here I am."

Since Juray had been an apothecary the entire time he'd known her, the idea that she had wanted to be something else set him back a bit. Kai looked her over curiously. "Mana-crafting? What's that?"

"It's similar to what I do, but it involves making and enhancing curatives from raw mana. I can work with herbs better than a normal person, but not fundamentally differently. It's like the difference between someone whose Class lets them be a slightly stronger fighter and someone who can call down lightning."

"Huh. I hadn't known that." Kai considered for a moment. In the end, it didn't matter: he was full now, so he didn't have time to sit around feeling sorry for himself. "Is there any way to fundamentally change your Class?"

Juray shrugged with an odd smile. "I have concoctions for temporary strength or faking a Class, but changing someone's natural powers? If that kind of thing exists, you can't get it from a lowly Herbalist."

"Thanks for the food. I don't suppose you can offer any other help without cheating?"

"If you win, you should get a very nice potion I made that will help you, no matter what your Class is. Until then, just be careful with the new waypoints."

That was an odd line, but when he stared at her she only gave a mysterious smile. Maybe an oblique hint? Kai thanked her again and headed out, examining the horizon in all directions. He could work out the big problems when he wasn't under such a tight deadline.

There were more points of interest on the horizon: either they'd dropped in a lot of waypoints or his spiritual vision was getting better. Based on how strong an impression the symbols made on him, Kai could roughly estimate their distance. Not much else about them, but that was a start. He checked his sword and began jogging out toward the nearest.

As he drew closer, he strained his eyes to try to extract more information. He thought he could make out several different sources, like clusters of symbols. Reading them individually was impossible, but the combinations looked extremely familiar - they were probably candidates just like him. Moving around rapidly, unless his eyes were tricking him.

Then he got closer and he saw what they were fighting: an enormous tree that stood alone in the wasteland. Not only was it lashing out with vines, a branch clenched into a fist and punched one of the candidates. Even as he ran closer, Kai saw one of the candidates try to hack at its trunk and immediately collapse to the ground as roots wrapped around their legs.

No, not a tree. There was a woman clad in leaves in the center of the branches.

He had no idea what that thing was, but the Hunter Trials were clearly about to get more complicated.