Chapter: Field Lesson

On the paved road outside Minegarde City, an unroofed flatbed cart pulled by an Aptonoth was moving slowly.

Her helmet placed aside, Hayata was lying on her back on the cart bed alongside Porkchop, enjoying the sunshine and breeze. She dangled her calves off the edge of the cart, swaying them leisurely and looking relaxed and carefree.

"It's been so long since I last left the city! We're still far from the hunting ground, and Teacher says we can relax a bit~."

"Meow~."

Unlike Hayata, who was always "caged" within the city walls, Gordon didn't find the blue sky, white clouds, and roadside weeds and wildflowers worth "enjoying" at all.

At that moment, his entire attention was focused on the weapon strapped to Amos's back.

"Senior Amos, is that weapon of yours a Long Sword?"

It was no wonder he was puzzled, for the shape of this weapon was truly quite strange.

Unlike the slim, slightly curved, and simple design of the Long Sword in most people's minds, it looked more like a giant fork.

The hilt was very long, taking up nearly half the total length. The ice-blue blade was slightly short and thick, and the tip widened further while splitting into two prongs, inevitably evoking memories of the sharp fangs of a fierce beast.

"Oh? You mean this?"

Amos glanced at the weapon behind him, his tone tinged with a trace of pride.

"Right, the ice Long Sword-White Ape Cleaver [Extreme]. It was forged from the materials of the fanged beast monster 'Blangonga', and after step-by-step upgrading, it finally turned into what it is now."

"Whoa, a weapon with an element! This is my first time seeing one!" Gordon leaned in closer, carefully inspecting the slightly translucent, ice-blue blade.

"What is an 'element'?" Hearing a topic that interested her, Hayata sat up and leaned over. "Huh? It's chilly!"

"Don't touch the blade, it's very easy to get frostbite," Amos reminded the two, then entered "teaching mode," patiently explaining to Hayata the knowledge related to various elements and monster weaknesses.

Gordon understood all of these things, but of course he wouldn't interfere with their master-disciple lesson. To pass the time, he unstrapped his Buster Sword and began doing maintenance with a cloth and blade oil.

"Why do people say that elements don't matter for heavy weapons like Great Swords and Hammers?"

Hayata's attitude of drawing inferences from one instance made Amos quite satisfied, and her question also attracted Gordon's attention.

Elements don't matter for Great Swords? So there was such a saying; this was knowledge he didn't know!

Gordon stopped what he was doing, tilted his head, and listened attentively.

Amos smiled at him and asked, "Gordon, when you use a Great Sword to attack continuously, about how fast is your attack frequency?"

Gordon thought for a moment and replied, "Disregarding evasion and the Charged Slash, I can probably manage one swing every two to three seconds."

Amos nodded and continued explaining, "A Great Sword's single-attack damage is very high, but its attack frequency is slower. Meanwhile, a Long Sword's attack frequency is over one strike per second, and it gets even faster when using Spirit Slashes.

The extra elemental damage dealt with every strike of an elemental weapon is basically fixed, so the higher a weapon's attack frequency, the greater the boost from elemental effects.

The boost is especially obvious for Dual Blades, which have the fastest attack speed. Rather, the added elemental damage is the core part of Dual Blades output. Because of this, Dual Blades users mostly craft multiple weapons with different elements to target different hunting targets."

The two young listeners nodded in unison, and the anticipation and envy Gordon felt in his heart for elemental weapons lessened a bit.

Time thus passed in teaching, idle chatter, and rest over the course of several days.

The road gradually disappeared, and the low bushes and weeds by the roadside were replaced by taller woody plants. They had finally arrived at Metabe Forest, where their target hunting ground was located.

This was a super-giant forest covering an area of over five hundred thousand square kilometers.

Because it was far from the Shinmailong Mountains, the terrain around here was relatively flatter. There were some low hills, but no high mountains, and the vegetation was much more lush.

If Gordon were to describe his state at that moment, it would be like a fish in water.

The natural ecology of the two hunting grounds was quite similar, so there was no need to adapt from scratch, and the gentle terrain spared him the trouble of climbing mountains and descending gullies. He fell in love with the place almost instantly.

Upon arriving at the hunting ground, they didn't start hunting right away; instead, they headed to the camp to rest for the night.

Hayata felt a little disappointed at this.

Gordon, who unintentionally noticed her expression, was somewhat speechless. When he first entered the hunting ground with the Instructor, he had been very nervous. How come with her, there was nothing left but anticipation?

By the campfire at the hunter's camp, Hayata, who had been raised in luxury, tasted the "deliciousness" of Rations for the first time.

She chipped her tooth on it.

Although dry, hard to chew, and very salty, Hayata still washed it down with plain water and chewed through her entire share little by little.

This made Amos look at her in a new light.

Hayata's talent was good, and she was also brave-this was a fact that had long been confirmed. His only worry was whether the child could endure the hardships of being a hunter.

Now it seemed he had been worrying needlessly.

Pine, this precious niece of yours probably has more resolve than you think.

The night passed without incident.

A new day arrived amidst a thin morning mist.

The one who woke up the earliest turned out to be Hayata; she had long been feeling impatient.

Ignoring the young girl skipping around the camp with her Hunter's Knife in hand, Amos walked over to Gordon, who was checking the hunting tools in his pack.

"Gordon, you'll be the main force for this subjugation mission. I need to protect Hayata, and I won't make a move unless an emergency arises. That's fine by you, right?"

"Of course." Gordon readily agreed.

It had already been agreed upon when taking the mission. Since he was taking all the reward, it was entirely reasonable for the other party not to participate in the hunt. Mere Shakalakas were hardly worth borrowing Amos's strength for.

"Mhm, let me offer a word of unsolicited advice: don't provoke too many Shakalakas at once. These little things aren't low in intelligence, and they're good at using tools. Cooperating with each other makes them a bit troublesome."

"Understood!"

After checking his equipment and tools one last time, the three humans and one cat left the camp.

Gordon and Porkchop walked in front, while Amos brought Hayata about ten meters behind, following closely.

Along the way, Hayata's questions were endless.

When she noticed Gordon suddenly squat down and fiddle with the weeds on the ground, she asked in a low voice once again, "Teacher, what is Brother Gordon doing? Is he looking for monster tracks?"

Amos glanced over and said, "No, he's using the condition of the grass roots and soil to gauge the ambient humidity."

"Ambient humidity?"

"Mhm. Seasons, temperature, weather, topography, monster habits, and so on. Every single one of these things is both relatively independent and closely interlinked."

As he spoke, Amos squatted down, thrust his fingertips into the soil, and pulled out a section of grass root. Hayata tried to imitate him, but her still delicate fingers couldn't pierce the soil.

Holding up that section of grass root with damp soil in front of Hayata, Amos said, "From just this root with soil, you can extract a lot of information. For instance, it rained here within the last day."

Seeing that Hayata still looked baffled, Amos smilingly tossed the grass root away, dusted the soil from his hands, and stood up.

"Hunting isn't just about swinging a blade to hack at monsters. Keep watching; that kid has very solid fundamentals. It seems he has a quite exceptional instructor."