23 Harvesting Lessons

Kirou and Reya were currently a few kilometers deep within the forests surrounding Thousand Wood Village. While Kirou was currently leaning on a tree, Reya was busy fighting a few Forest Wolves.

Monster: Forest Wolf

Level: 13

HP: 2790

Skills: Bite, tackle, leap, pack call

As an archer, it wasn't easy for Reya to fight the wolf in close quarters, much less three of them but she seemed to be doing quite good on her own.

[-70]

[-65]

Damage values kept appearing above the heads of the forest wolves. While that was going on, Reya was rolling to the side to dodge the attack of the third wolf lunging at her. So far, Reya was doing quite well in the fight.

The reason Kirou wasn't involved in this fight at the moment was that Reya asked that he sit it out. She wanted to test out manual mode combat on her own and wouldn't take no for an answer. As a compromise, Kirou gave her his prototype swampland leather armor set to make use of and also told her that he would jump in if the fight got to be too much for her.

As it stood, Reya proved to be quite adept in combat while on manual mode. While it wasn't anything worth bragging about, in Kirou's eyes at least, she could fight three forest wolves on her own at the very least. And the fight continued like that for another ten minutes, following which, her last arrow pinned the final forest wolf's corpse to the tree, dead.

Immediately after the forest wolf died, Reya collapsed where she stood. It seems like that fight took a lot out of her.

"That was hard. How do you keep this up the whole time?" complained Reya as she rested on the forest floor. She was currently sprawled out on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Practice. You gotta do it both in-game and in reality. Otherwise, I'd probably end up looking like you now after every fight." As he said this, Kirou couldn't help but admire how his prototype armor looked on Reya. Since this is a game, apparently armor of all types can be equipped by both sexes.

The prototype armor was originally designed for men but when he gave it to Reya, it was adjusted to fit her shape. And fit her it did. The leather pants hugged her hips nicely and showed off her nice, long legs. As for the vest top, it changed to a tank top on her and it emphasized her bust much more than he originally thought. All in all, it made her look quite alluring.

After getting an eyeful of Reya, Kirou then turned away to focus on the corpses of the three forest wolves. He dragged them all towards the same place before he took out his specialized tools, then proceeded to dissect all three bodies in a swift manner. While doing so, Reya had managed to sit up and watch him work from up close. To say she was amazed would be an understatement. The manner in which Kirou dealt with the bodies was masterful. She was so entranced that she didn't awake until Kirou had tapped her shoulder.

"Huh? What did you say?" asked Reya after being jolted awake.

"I said, are you interested in learning how to do this as well?" repeated Kirou, apparently amused by Reya's reaction.

Lowering her head in order to not show the blush of embarrassment on her face, Reya nodded, earning a chuckle from Kirou.

"Ok then. Allow me to demonstrate it for you on one from the next set of wolves and you can practice on the remainder." After saying this, both traveled down a random path in the forest. After a few minutes of walking, both were greeted to a pack of wolves numbering half a dozen. Reya immediately lifted her short bow, signifying that she was preparing to attack but was stopped by Kirou. Turning to look at him, Reya saw a light smile on his face before he said, "Allow me."

After speaking, Kirou jumped out from behind a tree and initiated the assault by throwing a few small knives at the pack. Each wolf was stabbed by two knives each and a bunch of [-20] damage figures showed up above their heads. Now that he had their attention and full hostility, Kirou took out a pair of gloves with sharp claws attached and equipped them while the wolves rushed towards him in a frenzy.

Seeing the rush of wolves, Reya was about to notch an arrow in her bow but then saw Kirou shaking his head in her direction. She let out a sigh while putting down the bow, preparing for the show that was about to take place. What she saw next, however, shocked her a bit.

Kirou didn't retreat in the face of six wolves pouncing on him. Instead, he actively went ahead to meet them halfway and started his attacks. With each wolf he passed, a deep claw mark was left on their bodies. By the time both sides had passed each other, Kirou was without any injury while each wolf sustained damage.

[-250]

[-120]

[-225]

[-110]

[-105]

[-330]

What was strange with the critical hit on that last wolf was that not only did it hit harder than the rest, a few more damage indicators of [-20] kept floating above its head, indicating that it was currently under the bleed effect. Looking at it from Reya's point of view, Kirou's final attack went over the wolf's throat, leading to such a situation taking place.

These actions, while it took a while to describe, took place all under a few seconds and currently, Kirou was still swiping at the wolves surrounding him. Both sides went a few rounds like this, with Kirou dealing damage and the forest wolves failing to even touch him. This fight went on like that for roughly ten minutes, following which, Kirou stopped moving with six corpses surrounding him.

Reya looked on at the scene, as if in a trance. This was the first time Reya had seen him fighting monsters and to her, it looked like a dance. Each attack was executed with just enough strength and targetted a vital area. As for movement, from her point of view, Kirou wasted no movement. If not for the fact that he was constantly appearing at different spots during the whole fight, Reya would have sworn that Kirou had stayed in one spot during the whole fight.

Seeing her in a trance, Kirou could only chuckle before making his way over to Reya. When he got close, he used his index finger to flick her nose, abruptly waking her up from her trance.

"Hey! What was that for? It hurt," complained Reya as she stared at Kirou all teary-eyed. In response, Kirou only chuckled some more before pointing at the monster corpses.

"While it's flattering to have a beauty as you stare at me in a trance, we've got work to do. Don't you want to learn how to do dissect those?" asked a chuckling Kirou, clearly amused by Reya's antics.

"Of course. Let's go," said Reya in a spirited manner, completely disregarding her teary-eyed appearance from earlier as if it was a lie. She then dragged Kirou towards the nearest corpse and sat next to it. "You work while I watch from here."

"As you wish." Following those words, Kirou got on one knee before the wolf corpse and started dissecting it. Unlike before where he would breeze through the entire process, this time Kirou took his time in order for Reya to see his movements.

He spent time pointing out where to cut, the amount of force to use, as well as talking about the usable parts from the corpse that took priority over the others. All while he was doing this, Reya asked questions whenever he did actions she didn't understand or thought unnecessary to the whole process. In response, Kirou would always answer her questions in a patient manner and explain for what purpose each action was done.

Like that, Kirou spent a good half hour dissecting the forest wolf's corpse. By the time he was done, the other corpses in the area showed signs that they were about to disappear as well.

"Let's end this lesson here. The other corpses are showing signs of leaving and I don't want to waste any materials that can be used." Following his words, Kirou rushed towards the other five corpses and made quick work dissecting them. Since they already started to disappear, Kirou didn't gain as many materials as he should have but it was enough for him.

"Wow. I never thought one would be able to dissect monster corpses already in the process of disappearing. Looks like I've got more to learn about this." Having said this, Reya was looking at Kirou as if he was a monster. His speed at dissecting those disappearing monsters was even faster than what he displayed on the previous set of wolves she killed.

"Of course, you can dissect monster corpses in the process of vanishing. It still has a physical body at that point after all. The only downside to it is that you have to move fast or you'll lose the important parts as they are the first to disappear," was what Kirou said as he stood up. That stunt he just pulled made him use more energy than he needed and it resulted in a few of his harvests to drop in quality.

"Amazing. I've gotta admit, that's not something I would be able to pull off on semi-automatic mode as the system prevents me from touching a body already in that state." Reya said this as she released a sigh at another difference between the three game modes.

"Now then. Let's go find another group of monsters. I'll explain the importance of the use of the respective tools then."

"Ok. Let's go." Once again, Reya grabbed unto Kirou and dragged him deeper into the forest.

*****************

Like that, both Kirou and Reya went around the forest, hunting down the many different beasts inhabiting it. Whenever they ran into four or fewer monsters, Kirou would allow Reya to take care of them as a means of practicing on manual mode and only joined in when more monsters joined the fray. After each battle, Reya was always lying on the floor, but she was improving.

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As for the dissection of the monster corpses, Kirou always took care of half ahead of time while leaving one for him to demonstrate while the rest were for Reya's practice. So far, Reya was showing competence in learning the actions but that was it. On her own, she was capable of harvesting materials at the average quality and getting one or two good quality materials in the mix when she's lucky.

In Kirou's eyes, this was just average, even if she was improving as they continued. If there was anyone, and I mean anyone within the player base, from the pros at the top to the noobs at the bottom, were to know his thoughts, drowning in a sea of spittle and curses would have been the least of Kirou's suffering. It probably would have been the first time an entire player base, with allies and enemies alike, would team up in order to end someone.

Just using manual mode, as Kirou stated earlier puts an immense strain on the body. Just fighting under those conditions exhausts Reya and she could be considered one of the better players. Most players wouldn't have been able to walk in manual mode, much less fight. And then you have this crazy person saying that her talent in harvesting on manual mode is just average. In the eyes of other players, getting average on manual mode is equal to great or excellent on semi-automatic mode, and guilds and sects would fight tooth and nail for crafters like this.

It's a really good thing such thoughts are unknown to others as it would lead to major trouble. Hell, there were times even the system was tempted to release a few of those thoughts to the public as it was starting to get sick of Kirou's crap.

"Anyways, we'll have to end this hunt here today. It's already 5 am and I've gotta go do my morning routine before heading to work. What about you?" asked Kirou as he finished dissecting the body of a forest boar in front of him. As usual, his actions were both swift and efficient, yielding top quality materials.

"Hmm. You know what? I think I'll do the same. It will also give me time to digest all the info you've given me for the day." Reya said this as she finished dissecting the forest boar in from of her as well. Her movements weren't fast but they were precise and showed hints of understanding behind them. Her haul was a mix of average and good quality materials, her best yield result for the night.

"Ok. Let's head back to the village for now before logging off," suggested Kirou as he stood up.

"Sure. We can pick up on our lessons later. Say, around 8:15 tonight?" asked Reya as she looked at Kirou in expectation.

Seeing her face, Kirou could only shrug his shoulders before agreeing to her words, eliciting a shout of joy from Reya.