Gwen tore across the ground, chasing the monster out of hiding. An intimidating werewolf went both ways.

  Either a monster was provoked into attacking or ran out of pure fright. The howling usually made the ones on this plateau skittish, especially when the Brawler was covered in blood from a fresh kill.

  Something Mel was pleased that she did not shy away from. Gwen was in this to win. Just like Mel.

  Mel didn’t really blame the creature for running, even though it was a bulky beast, resembling a cross between a dragon and a rhino with the same autumnal coloration as the forested hills.

  Six or seven smaller cat-like creatures with six legs and two tails rushed out alongside it. Oddly enough, Gwen was best at tracking predators, not prey.

  She seemed to attract and repulse them in equal measure. Some wanted nothing to do with her, others were attracted to her out of some sort of instinctual rivalry.

  In the end, it didn’t matter. Intimidating the monsters changed their behavior and made them easier to hunt. Sometimes they were even able to find monsters that were otherwise hidden, such was the case with this one.

  Mel summoned Hush, sending the little snake out as she blanketed the forest with [Hidden Mist]. Her eyes swapped to heat vision, and she tracked the multiple monsters until she found her prize.

  Casting [Omen Mark] on the large dragon-rhino hybrid alerted Thomas, who was waiting for his moment to shine. His skills were most effective at range.

  He blasted out with two [Thunderbolts] in quick succession and followed up with a [Sunspear]. The bolts of lightning struck the creature’s back, staggering it, while the second bolt spun it around to face Mel as she charged it.

  Hush slithered toward one of the six-limbed panthers, rearing up and hissing in defiance of his name when the cat spotted him.

  Summoning her twinblade, Mel sliced up into the creature’s thick hide just as [Sunspear] slammed into its back. Mel turned her blade, catching the creature on the lower half of her twinblade, impaling it with the force of Thomas’ attack.

  She pulled out the blade, letting the creature’s blood patter to the forest floor, staining the yellowed grass crimson. Before the creature knew it was dead, Mel was already moving to support Hush.

  Runes wove through the trees, siphoning into the three Magi.

  Her snake familiar had a big heart, but he was a lot like a chihuahua. He thought he could take on the same things that Mel could and often got himself killed for the effort.

  Or whatever it was when a familiar’s health dropped to zero. Hush surely didn’t think he was being killed.

  As they journeyed closer to the plateau beast’s lair, Mel had to summon Hush three times. She would have done it more, but the cooldown was too long.

  Thankfully, each time she summoned him, the less it cost and the lower the cooldown.

  The six-legged panther let out a yowl of pain, drawing Mel’s attention.

  Aspect Skill: [Binds of Fire]

  Hush was curled around the panther’s paw, rooting it to the ground and biting it with his tiny black fangs. The panther was gnawing on Hush’s ashen scales. If Hush felt any pain, he didn’t show it.

  He tried so hard that sometimes it broke Mel’s heart to summon him again. At the same time, she knew that if she didn’t, he would feel like she didn’t want him.

  It was a hard balance to strike.

  “Leave my little snek alone!” Mel shouted, twisting and slicing into the panther’s flank to draw its attention.

  Gwen rushed out of the underbrush, grabbed hold of the panther’s face and twisted her whole body. The creature’s neck was wrenched around until its yellow eyes stared up sightlessly at the canopy.

  Plumes of steam burst out of Gwen’s nose as she looked around for the next kill. If anybody was more protective of Hush than Mel, it was Gwen.

  Runes flowed out as Mel and Gwen joined forces to wipe up the small group of panthers. In the mist, the creatures were easy prey. Even easier when Mel moved her [Omen Mark] from one to the next.

  Hush hissed with joy, happy about joining in on all the action and not getting wiped out for once.

  Mel was glad her familiar wasn’t scared of the big, bad, gorgeous wolf.

  Loneliness was no longer Mel’s constant companion.

  Mel learned as the battles wore on, that the longer Hush was out, the stronger he seemed to get. At first, he seemed to grow exceedingly slowly. By the end of his first full day without being re-summoned, Hush was at least twice as strong as he had been that morning.

  With Mel’s [Primeval Brew] aiding her, she was getting consistent progression. She moved faster, her body responded to her desires with barely any effort.

  A panther nobody had seen lunged from its hiding spot. Mel twisted on the balls of her feet and bent back so that her spine was almost parallel to the ground floor.

  The panther’s razor-sharp claws raked the air inches above where her torso had been just a moment ago. Hush leapt up and snared the panther around the neck, burning it with his [Binds of Fire].

  In the same smooth motion, Mel rose up and whipped her twinblade out, drawing a deep line across the panther’s flank. It landed awkwardly, being burned, choked, and cut.

  Before Mel could get to the panther, the ground below the cat’s paws shattered and broke apart. The cat’s body slammed into the ground as if an invisible hammer had struck it. Hush was flung from the cat’s body, relatively unharmed.

  Aspect Skill: [Black Grimoire: Shatter]

  Thomas swiped his hand across the summoned grimoire, shutting the book and dismissing the skill.

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  Gwen prowled around the area, searching for anything else hiding in the trees and underbrush. Finding nothing, she circled back to the panther’s body and knelt to directly [Harvest] steaks of meat.

  That was roughly how the two Magi were eating so well before Mel encountered them. By collecting meat from a monster kill before using the system to loot it, it guaranteed food.

  Over time, Gwen had begun to naturally collect meat when using normal looting, but it still wasn’t a sure thing.

  Mel knelt down to Hush, extending her arm. He dutifully flicked his tongue and curled around her forearm, melting through her armor and branding himself on her skin beneath.

  She no longer felt any pain from the effect, just a warm, hugging sensation.

  Mel hauled the bodies of the monsters out for Gwen to use her skill on one after the other.

  It was supposedly possible to pick up the knowledge, but Mel’s focus was on growing stronger. No one else was faster or more efficient than Gwen at collecting meat. Perhaps after this trial she would try to learn it.

  There was another benefit as well. Ample sources of blood for Mel to use for her [Sanguine Coat] and [Blood Tax].

  Coupled with her stored-up scrap, and a few donations, Mel was able to get her [Smoke Dash Bangles] to the same rarity as the bracers she had replaced. Unfortunately, the imprint didn’t change once it hit Epic, but Mel wasn’t bothered.

  Not that they found many weapons on wild beasts, but they were aware of other groups around them. Hunting grounds of any worth were popular spots, even if most of the groups struggled to penetrate deep into the wilds.

  Gwen held a [Panther Heart] in her hands, studying it with a clear lack of interest.

  Mel and Thomas looked at it curiously as they went through their loot and the gains they had made so far. “You gonna eat that?” Mel asked.

  Gwen frowned. “If I have to. It’s…not strong enough.” She put it away into her necklace inventory.

  “Is…that a thing?” Mel laughed nervously.

  “Guess I’ve been a little sneaky about it,” Gwen said, forcing a smile.

  “Noooo,” Mel said unconvincingly.

  “Mel,” Thomas warned.

  She held up her hands. “My b. Don’t sweat it, Gwen. We all have our secrets, right? You can open up about whatever is bothering you when you feel comfortable.” She nudged Thomas in the ribs. “And not because somebody was white knighting for you.”

  Gwen stared at the both of them, half covered in blood, perplexed.

  “You want me to take care of that for you?” Mel asked, motioning to the blood. Her [Sanguine Coat] rippled in the breeze.

  “If you don’t mind…”

  Mel reached out a hand toward her friend. The blood pulled away in scarlet droplets to join her bloody coat. Gwen’s viking outfit was still scuffed up, but it was completely rid of blood.

  Most days, Mel didn’t bother to change the color or style, so it looked like a long duster coat made of wet blood.

  Thomas shaded his eyes from the golden rays slanting through the forest canopy. “I think we should go deeper.”

  “We’re already fighting things that are High Copper,” Mel said. “What else is there?”

  “I don’t know, but how many points did you get from that?”

  “You know I don’t keep track.”

  Thomas rolled his eyes. “I gained roughly fifty from that group. The first group we killed was around seventy.”

  Mel realized what he was getting at. “And they were High Copper too.”

  “You see my point,” Thomas said, looking toward the depths of the forest to the west. “We’re getting fewer points for the same amount of effort. I think we should turn our focus to the apex predators of the region. We’ve seen the lionals around, those strange lion-goat hybrid things the size of a small cart? They might be a good start.”

  “Maybe one of those will sate my appetite,” Gwen said, staring in that direction.

  “You’re not going to believe it,” Mel said with a chuckle.

  “That’s the way to the plateau beast,” Gwen guessed, her eyes brightening with hunger.

  “No risk, no reward, right?” Mel said, putting her fists out.

  Gwen and Thomas both bumped their fists against hers. “Let’s do it,” Thomas said with a grin.

  They went deeper into the woods, using a mix of Gwen’s tracking capabilities and Mel’s blessing to aim them toward the areas with the strongest monsters.

  Even among Coppers, there was a large variation between individuals. The amount and potency of their skills, their raw power, and their cunning all differed greatly.

  The system clearly understood what amount of perceived effort they were exerting to kill each beast. It didn’t take the trio long to realize that they needed to continually fight stronger and stronger monsters just to keep the same number of points flowing.

  Instead of chasing progressively stronger monsters, they decided to go into the heart of the forest, jumping over the middling monsters and going straight to the apex beasts. The strongest creatures that this plateau had to offer.

  That was one of the upsides to hunting in a group. She didn’t have to be so careful. When someone got hurt, the other two could cover.

  Mel never would have been able to do this on her own. They had the luxury of a camp, a ritual spell that would alert them to danger, and an ample supply of food. They each had a task to perform, and together they were able to take down foes that would have proven nigh impossible for any one of them alone.

  They traded quantity for quality. Lionals, grotesquely muscular creatures with horns like the ram bars on a truck, and claws that could rend steel like tissue paper, were their first target.

  Swift and powerful, the creatures were a struggle to take down. They fled when they were at low health, forcing Mel’s party to give chase at first, until they learned a better way.

  Thomas had been the first to notice something that even Mel had missed.

  Her [Bane of Tartarus] stacked if the target had [Omen Mark] on it. Most monsters didn’t live long enough for the skill’s cooldown to expire. By switching to stronger monsters, they were able to have longer fights where her skills could shine.

  [Omen Mark] worked exceptionally well against a strong foe, lowering its defenses proportional to Mel’s. Its ability to grant stacks of afflictions that wouldn’t otherwise stack meant that effects from all three of them could stack to insane degrees.

  [Bane of Tartarus] lowered both movement speed and maximum health. After realizing the semi-obvious synergy, Mel was able to employ three attacks in a single fight.

  There was another combination too. Gwen’s [Primal Rend] afflicted a type of magical weakness on enemies. Ordinarily, it didn’t stack.

  With [Omen Mark], it absolutely did.

  By the time the lional tried to run away at low health, it was so slow from [Bane of Tartarus] that they could practically walk it down.

  They worked well together. Almost like they had been doing this their entire lives.

  And yet Mel felt like there was a deadline. Not necessarily for the Convocation, which there definitely was, but with Gwen’s hunger.