Flow of Existence

Needless to say the competition was a complete blowout, Nash and Kes had utterly destroyed the competition. Second place had gone to the team of three who had only hunted fifteen deer and four wolverines which was still an impressive result.

There was just no one who could compete with eleven deer, eight boars, four rabbits, two wolverines and a fox. The largest boar with the tusks hadn't counted for extra points but they didn't need them in the first place.

The village chief wasn't very pleased with the state Kes was in, he had gotten admonished for his reckless behavior while getting patched up better than his earlier emergency aid within the tree.

Tac looked very disappointed to lose the contest for Ade's affection. Riku on the other hand didn't seem to care and was blushing at Cenice who he had been paired up with together for the hunt, Kes wondered what had happened between them in the forest.

They had come in last with only a total of four boars and three rabbits hunted. They seemed to have grown a lot closer in the forest though. This would help with teamwork in the future.

Nash also didn't really seem to care about the contest, he seemed more concerned for Kes' health instead. But he was still happy about winning.

After the winners were announced Kes made his way home again, he was still limping a little but he was feeling a lot better than before.

He had apparently gotten very lucky and miraculously not broken any bones. Well, it could also be considered skill since Kes strengthening his body with Flow had prevented his bones from breaking. 

His sides and chest were severely bruised, he would need to rest for a week at least, but it was nothing too serious. He could continue training together with Nash in a week or two. So now he could spend these weeks studying and meditating instead.

Despite the ample admonishment he had received from both the village chief and Cantor he also received a ton of praise. His fight with the boars had been impressive after all, he had thought quickly on his feet and utilized his limited Flow pool at almost scary proficiency for his age.

His training was clearly paying off.

As Kes reached his house's doorsteps the door suddenly flew open. His mother, Nora, came dashing out of the door. Her look was less than pleasant, but she didn't seem especially angry.

Nora quickly supported the still half limping Kes. "Seems like you got pretty hurt, huh."

Kes nodded. "I got into a bit of a troublesome situation, but nothing serious, I survived after all." 

Nora gave him a concerned look. "You know I support whatever you want to do with your life, but try not to get yourself killed."

"I get it mom, it's not like I try to get myself killed." Kes responded.

Nora escorted him inside. "I'll hear all about it at the dinner table later when your dad gets home. Now go sit in your room and meditate, you definitely shouldn't be moving around right now."

Kes nodded and quickly went towards his room.

He entered and quickly sat down on the mat he usually used for meditation. Closing his eyes he looked up to where the middle of his forehead should be to inspect how much innate element he had gained. 

None of the boars had formed their innate element yet, but for all Kes knew one of the boars could have possessed a lot of innate element. The amount of innate element one had would be meaningless until they had actually formed it after all, it didn't increase one's combat strength at all. 

He didn't find any surprising changes when he closed his eyes. The dot, which had been vague earlier, was fully clear now but that was about it. He could very vaguely see some lines protruding from the dot curving upwards. No doubt this was the beginning of a circle being formed.

Kes kept his eyes closed and moved his focus away from his barely formed innate element. He focused completely on meditating and circulating Flow throughout his body.

When someone possessed a lot of Flow someone could heal a lot quicker. Much like body strengthening, how fast someone healed was dependent on both their Flow pool and Flow proficiency. 

Flow wasn't some magical solution to healing either. It would only speed up natural regeneration, it would not help you regain lost limbs. 

Kes sat in silence for the next thirty minutes, he could not help but lose focus.

'I'm honestly surprised at how well I fought against those boars, but I still did make a lot of miscalculations.'

Kes wasn't too happy about his near death experience earlier that day and decided it was a good idea to stay away from the forest for a while.

He could not help but wonder if he was now strong enough to have survived the encounter with the elemental beast for as long as Ade and Nash did a month ago. He also wondered how well Ade would have stacked up against those five boars.

The main difference between them was still their Flow pool. But now Kes had gained quite a lot of it. It was only a drop in the bucket compared to Ade's Flow pool because of the kill on the elemental beast but he was still taking steps in the right direction.

Kes thought back to the fight with the boars and realized that the largest gain he had gotten from this hunt wasn't actually the increase in his Flow pool, but instead the increase in both fighting and Flow proficiency.

He had increased his understanding of fighting wild beasts, this way he would no longer make the same mistakes he had made this time. He now understood beasts did not act logically like humans, he had been taught so before but now he fully understood what those teachings meant.

Experience was the best teacher, and with this experience he could now utilize the hunting lessons the village chief in class, and his father at home had taught him. He had become a better hunter.

And because he had become a better hunter he now better understood his inadequacies and understood why the forest was off limits. Without a team to support him he would have trouble against three boars alone. If he got overly hurt in a fight against a weaker animal or ran into some dangerous animal there was a high chance of him dying.

This was at the edge of the forest alone, he could not even dare to imagine how dreadful the depths of the forest would be.

Spending the next two hours meditating without much focus he suddenly heard his mother knock on his door and tell him it was time for dinner.

He arrived at the dinner table and scowled as he noticed it was the classic, dry cooked potatoes with boar meat. His mother had clearly cooked today.

'I really need to hurry up, get stronger and move to the big cities. I don't know how much longer I'll survive this.'

Nora smiled as she caught Kes' scowl. "Eat up, it's a healthy meal." 

She pointed at the boar meat. "That was one of the boars you risked your life to hunt by the way. Cantor dragged it all the way here for you, he came to deliver it earlier."

Kes' face grew softer. "This isn't the kind of healthy meal I appreciate, but eating my own prey might be satisfying."

Yosen laughed. "Your own catch always tastes better, now we would like to hear your valiant tale of slaying these big pigs."

Kes rolled his eyes and started recounting his hunt in the forest. First about the hunt on the fox, deer, rabbits and wolverine. And then his desperate fight against the boars.

About how their plan had failed, how he had to face five boars himself and how Nash had come to save him at the last moment. 

Nora nodded when he finished talking. "That sounds a lot worse than I expected it to be, but I doubt you were as close to death as you thought you were, either Cantor or the village chief would have saved you just in time. That is if the boar didn't instantly kill you of course, but I think you are strong enough to survive a couple stomps of their hooves."

Kes had obviously considered this too, he had no doubt he would be as safe as possible within the allowed hunting area. Otherwise there would be no point in both Cantor or the village chief being there, the kids might as well have gone in alone with no supervision. He still hadn't taken it for granted, thus he had planned around not letting it get far enough for them to have to step in.

But hearing the conformation come out of his mothers mouth still surprised him a little bit. This once again confirmed to him how strong both Cantor and the village chief were, they could actually sense the whole class far away from there. And they could sense if one of them was close to dying too. 

He wondered what the full power of, what to him were the two strongest powerhouses in the village, was and how they stacked up against each other. His intuition somehow told him that the village chief was even stronger than the fearsome leader of the hunters who was commonly considered the strongest in the village.

Yosen gave a nod of agreement. "It sounds like you had a great fight, honestly I'm impressed, I definitely could not fight as well as you did at your age. Actually I don't have talent for combat at all. I wonder who you inherited it from."

"You shouldn't talk yourself down so much, you are a member of the hunting team after all." Nora refuted.

"I wasn't as good as Kes is at his age either, maybe he just inherited both of our good aspects for fighting. He's very smart too, our child is truly great, as expected from both of us."

"Please stop." Yosen and Kes replied in unison.

Nora laughed. "That part of his personality clearly comes from you."

Yosen clicked his tongue. "Anyways Kes, what insights did you have from this battle, just say whatever comes to mind. Your Flow pool has also increased so we need to hurry up and start training with it in mind."

Kes told him of his earlier insights as Yosen nodded along.

As Yosen and Kes discussed the next steps of training Kes started to become excited to take steps towards becoming stronger.

Excitement that quickly faded when he forked a dry crummy potato into his mouth.