Chapter 32: Practical lesson

"I think you should be able to guess what we will be doing out in the forest by now."

Lightly curving the line of his lips upward, Mark remarked. Before Fen could even have a chance to respond, his teacher stopped. Looking up, the place that the two of them arrived didn't look anywhere different than other spots of the road, besides how it was the nearest point to the city where the line of trees actually met with the side of the road.

"I guess something monster related?"

It would take someone really dumb to be unable to connect the dots. From the extensive background information about the monsters and their origin, through detailed questioning about what Fen already knew and what he did not, there was only one obvious reason behind all of that.

'Are we going to hunt the monsters?'

It went without saying that this part put a fair bit of fear in Fen's soul. Given his encounters with monsters so far, he would never dare to claim that he was capable of besting one. Unless a fair bit of luck was involved, then even the beasts that could be found in the small forest beside his home village were far beyond his capability to win against!

"Then you are not as stupid as Nadia was worried you were. But no, you don't need to worry. You are far too young and unskilled to take by yourself. Here, take this."

Rummaging through one of his many pouches attached to his belt, Mark pulled out a strange-looking trinket. Appearing as a small tablet, it had a set of unreadable inscriptions on it, that didn't resemble even a single of the marks that Fen could see Stiel writing on his fiery board during the lessons.

"Before you will get into the forest, you need to remember one thing. In case anything happens, just snap this trinket in half. It will give me a direction and the distance, allowing me to swiftly come to help. While I don't expect any problems to occur, it's better to be safe than sorry."

Throwing the item towards his young apprentice, Mark moved his head back in the direction of the forest.

Catching the trinket, Fen realised that it wasn't as simple item as he expected it to be. Rather than being made from wood or some other common material, the young man actually found it hard to name the resource it was sculpted from! What's more, those strange marks that he could see while the trinket was still in Mark's hand, turned out to be carvings penetrating almost through the entire thing!

"Anyway, while the church focuses on developing one's innate talent, it can't be said that we are leaving our own apprentices in the dark! Since you already learned control, then you need to learn how to fine-tune it. And the best way to do it is by trying to assimilate the energy of the natural monsters!"

As if this was his hobby, Mark dropped another bomb without even a shred of hesitation. What was the use of his extensive lecture about how rare the natural monsters were and how dangerous those created from the failed constructs if he were to send the young man right after those?

"But didn't you say that the natural monsters are extremely rare?"

If Fen were to go to the forest, then it would be all on his luck to find some naturals. And just a single look or even touch of the trinket that Mark passed to him was enough for the young man to understand how insanely expensive it had to be! With that in mind, Fen knew that unless he would be absolutely sure his life would be endangered, he would never be able to force himself into breaking that token!

"I said that strong naturals reaching the seventh level and higher are rare. Trust me, once you get to the forest, you will understand that. And about the absorbing part, you just need to tune your own fire to match the one of the monster you want to consume, and then just retract your fire once it merges with it. After this, a small red stone should remain. For now, go and try to bring back at least two of them."

Waving his hand as if he was trying to swat a fly away, Mark gestured at Fen. The meaning of his action was just as obvious as the hesitation in Fen's movement once he finally forced himself to set foot within the forest.

At first, losing the sight of his master filled the young man with a huge dose of fear, but as he continued to move deeper and deeper, this irrational terror disappeared. Even though Hekarion went on a prolonged rant about Mark lacking the qualities of a proper teacher back during their meeting at the pastry shop, that old sage also mentioned that when the push would come to shove, he was still more than capable to act as a mentor for the young man!

Putting those words at the forefront of his mind, Fen continued to push himself deeper and deeper into the thicker part of the forest. Soon, even the light was unable to properly light his way up, blocked by the rich crowns of the trees all around him. Thankfully, the slight aura of the leaves shining was still enough for the young man to see what was in front of him, as using his fire to light his way up would be nothing but bait for the dangerous monsters to detect him.

And then, the young man saw the first fire spirit.

It wasn't different from the ones that he saw on multiple occasions back during his hunting days. Looking like a slightly bigger candle-flame, it simply stood in its place, enriching the shine of the leaves from above with some red tones.

"I'm sorry, little one."

According to Mark's words, this kind of natural monsters has yet to develop any resemblance of intelligence. But just the fact that they were capable of doing so, meant that they were undoubtedly a living being! Even though Fen was long past the point where his conscious would bother him about unnecessarily killing other lifeforms with the years of hunting experience, the young man still preferred to at least keep the respectful attitude towards the lesser beings.

Kneeling down on the moist ground, Fen reached forward with his hand, keeping it just far enough for the think layer of his fire to connect him to the spirit. Calling his flames forth, he allowed them to slowly surface on his hand, slowly approaching the body of the fist-sized spirit.

But rather than the two fires merging, the spirit's body actually caved in, escaping from Fen's flames!