"Haha! We're making a killing this time!"
Gray's unrestrained laughter echoed through the woods. Splattered from head to toe with wolf blood, he looked thoroughly wild.
The bounty on a single wild wolf was three silver coins. At least six or seven had already fallen beneath Gray's sword, rivaling their entire haul from the previous five days combined.
A cold arc flashed in the darkness as Gray severed the front left leg of a wolf lunging for his throat.
The unfortunate beast crashed to the ground with a whimper, blood spurting from its ruined leg as its breathing rapidly faded.
Seeing this, Zelier's eyes lit up.
The wolf wasn't dead yet!
If he landed the finishing blow... would he gain experience points?
He was just fretting over where to find a way to level up.
No time like the present!
Zelier channeled his mana, precisely tracing the spell structure of Fireball in his mind.
To ensure a lethal strike, he poured as much mana into it as he could manage.
The entire casting process took about five seconds.
Scorching flames ignited in Zelier's palm. He took aim at the wolf... and fired!
The temperature of the air rose slightly as a brilliant streak flashed across the clearing, striking squarely against the dense fur around the wolf's neck.
The magical concussive force packed into the Fireball tore through flesh and pelt, igniting the wolf's coat into a raging blaze!
Already on the brink of death, the wolf suffered this sudden agony. The combined torment of a severed leg and burning alive sent it thrashing and flailing across the dirt like a landed carp. It let out a wretched howl and soon went limp.
First blood!
Zelier beamed with delight.
Just as he had guessed, the experience points on his attribute panel climbed after the kill.
Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2. Level up!
An inexplicable power surged into his body, spreading into every limb and bone.
A translucent blue glow, visible to him alone, surfaced before his eyes.
Four attribute points were awaiting allocation, and the talent skills that had previously been grayed out were now unlocked.
Spell Surge and Formula Deduction.
Zelier hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he chose Formula Deduction!
[Talent skill "Formula Deduction" unlocked.]
Suddenly, beneath Formula Deduction, a progress bar popped up.
Grand Creation, Analysis Progress—0%.
Zelier paused, taken aback.
Grand Creation...?
What in the world was that? It sounded pretty formidable.
But had anyone cast a spell like that in front of him just now?
With no time to ponder it, Zelier shifted his thoughts and funneled all four attribute points into Spirit.
His Spirit attribute rose from 67 to 71.
It couldn't be helped. While Formula Deduction heavily depended on Intelligence, Spirit was paramount for a mage.
Otherwise, what was the point of learning countless spells if none of them packed a punch?
Even the best mechanics needed raw numbers to back them up.
With the four-point boost to Spirit, Zelier distinctly felt the source seed circulating slightly faster, and his spell power increased alongside it.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
In any case, he had finally crossed the threshold into true wizardry. With a talent skill like Formula Deduction, his path to gaining power would save him a great deal of trouble.
Gray, who had been about to step forward and finish the wolf off, blinked in surprise, then turned his head to look at Zelier.
Zelier offered an apologetic grin.
Sorry about that—stole your kill.
In the rest of the fight, Zelier found no further chances to intervene.
Marcus and Gray dispatched their targets almost instantly, and Vallis's arrows left no survivors either.
The nighttime ambush came to a swift close. Leaving behind over a dozen carcasses, the remaining wolves fled in panic, vanishing into the dense woods.
There had been quite a pack of them; no wonder the nearby villagers had posted a commission with the Adventurers' Association. If a pack like that descended on a settlement, casualties would be inevitable.
"Pretty sharp, kid," Gray said, wiping a mixture of blood and sweat from his forehead. "Already learned how to swoop in for the kill."
"Sorry, I just reacted on reflex..." Zelier said.
"Don't worry about it, no need to be polite with me. That wolf counts as yours. For your very first quest, coming away with a bit more is always a good thing." Gray grinned broadly. "Feeling it now? That's the beauty of adventuring. Three silver coins—that's a laborer's daily wage, and you earned it with a single Fireball."
The party set about clearing the battlefield. Marcus sorted through the wolves to pick out those with usable pelts, while Vallis pulled his arrows from the carcasses.
Arrowheads that weren't badly damaged could be reused once wiped clean of blood, saving a decent sum.
Gray strung a wolf carcass upside down from a tree branch, using a small knife to cut a neat ring around its rear ankle.
The skinning knife traced all the way down from the circular cut, slicing straight to the anus before curving toward the other thigh.
Next, Gray set about peeling the hide from the hind legs.
His movements were steady. One hand gripped the cut flap of pelt and pulled down firmly, while the other worked the skinning knife, carefully slicing through the connective tissue and fat that bound skin to meat.
"Zelier, give me a hand here. Lift this leg up," Gray said.
Working together, they soon stripped the hide off the hind legs like rolling down a sock.
Then came the torso. The skinning was filled with the dull, tearing sound of separating fascia and the coppery scent of raw flesh hitting the open air.
Zelier felt his stomach churn, but he forced himself not to turn away.
He knew this was a skill he had to master.
The commission issued by the Adventurers' Association was only for the wolves' lives; a left ear served as proof to collect the bounty.
As for the pelts and other parts, the party was free to keep and sell them on their own.
An undamaged wolf pelt could fetch around three or four silver coins, which was significant income for low-ranking adventurers.
The party had brought down fifteen wild wolves in total, and several carcasses had hides intact enough to be worth harvesting.
Such an unexpected windfall brought a rare trace of good humor even to the stern Marcus.
Gray moved to make the first cut on the rear leg of the final wolf carcass.
His technique was deft and clean, bearing the practiced rhythm of a veteran. In contrast, Zelier looked far clumsier.
His task was to hold the loosened flap of pelt and pull it taut as Gray cut through the fascia, keeping the surface tight for the blade.
Yet the chore proved much more taxing than he had imagined. The slick layer of fat on the pelt made his hands feel coated in grease, and the hide nearly slipped from his grasp several times.
"Hold tight, Zelier!" Gray directed without looking up. "Right, keep that tension... Your hands don't really look like a mage's, you know."
From the corner of his eye, he had caught sight of Zelier's hands—the knuckles were lined with faint calluses and veins stood out sharply across the back, bearing the clear marks of hard labor.
Chapter 3