Chapter 38: What the Blood Teaches
Chapter 38: What the Blood Teaches
The third day passed without a hunt worth taking. We kept moving, trained during short rests, and stopped only for water or terrain that needed careful study. By the fourth morning, connected buildings had given way to detached houses, overgrown lots, and strips of woodland growing through old roads.
Shortly before dawn, I checked the class interface out of habit. The charge remained empty. Natural recovery would not begin until Liora returned.
Eastbridge lay far enough behind us that we no longer saw patrols. Monsters had become the greater concern.
Liora stopped beside a muddy verge and pointed to a print wider than my hand.
"What do you see?"
Four blunt toes. Deep pressure at the front. The mud around it had cracked after drying, then softened beneath a light rain.
"Large. Heavy toward the shoulders. It passed before last night’s rain."
"And?"
I followed the track to a tree where bark had been scraped above my head. Coarse black hair clung to it.
"Too large for us to hunt for food."
Liora’s mouth curved. "Excellent."
The creature would have offered more experience than anything we had killed. I thought about that while we gave its territory a wide circle. Level 9 waited somewhere ahead, but pursuing it through an unknown animal’s range would have repeated my stairwell mistake on a larger scale.
The safer hunt came near noon.
Finding it required patience. We watched the injured grazing animal limp across a field while the two scavengers followed from cover. A larger trail vanished into the trees behind them. Liora waited until the pair crossed a shallow drainage channel and the rest of the pack failed to appear.
"If their heads rise together, we leave," she whispered. "It means something called them."
They kept hunting independently.
At Liora’s signal, I threw a stone beyond the brush to draw one scavenger away. She intercepted the second while I fought the first.
I used the knife because firing would bring its companion back harder. My footing held through the first lunge. I cut its foreleg, retreated two steps, and made it turn before striking again. When it exposed the neck, I finished it without needing Liora’s voice to tell me where.
The second creature tried to disengage when its partner fell. Liora drove it back toward the channel instead of chasing, controlling the ground until she had a clean angle. Watching her felt different now. I understood why she moved to one side, why she refused another opening, and how every step limited what the monster could do next.
She killed the second at the same moment.
[Class-Assisted Kills Confirmed: 2.]
[Combat contribution verified.]
[Experience transferred.]
[Level increased.]
[Adrian Vale has reached Level 9.]
[Active summon synchronisation complete.]
[Liora — Manifested Level: 8 → 9]
[Attribute and energy ceilings increased.]
[Existing injuries unchanged.]
[New energy capacity: Unfilled.]
[Duration added: 10% of D-grade Level 1 duration.]
[Remaining timer capped by the one-time stabilization maximum.]
I added one point each to Strength, Vitality, and Agility.
Strength: 9
Vitality: 10
Agility: 11
My body accepted more of the change than it had at Level 7. I could climb a low wall without someone pulling from above and hold the rifle steady for almost twenty seconds. The debuffs remained. A healthy Level 9 would still overpower me easily.
Liora tested that immediately. She had me sprint to the far side of the field and back. My acceleration had improved; my lungs turned the final third into misery. Then she threw small stones at my feet and made me change direction without crossing my legs. I stayed upright four times out of six.
"Your numbers are ahead of your habits," she said. "Train the habits or the strength will trip over them."
I repeated the direction changes until I managed six without falling. My legs burned, and the improvement vanished whenever I tried to go faster. Liora stopped the drill before exhaustion taught me worse movements.
"End while the body can still remember the correct version," she said.
I stored that beside the rest of her rules.
There were many now, too.
What had changed most was my understanding. I was a beginner who could survive encounters chosen carefully and leave the ones that were wrong.
That was progress worth keeping.
We spent the afternoon butchering both scavengers. Liora made me inspect their livers, joints, glands, and stomachs before deciding what to take. The procedure taught me as much about danger as combat did. Parasites in the wrong place could kill more reliably than claws.
One carcass carried pale knots along its intestines. We discarded every portion that had touched the abdominal cavity and kept only clean muscle from the rear legs. Losing food hurt. Liora made me throw it away myself so hunger could not later persuade me that the contamination had looked harmless.
"Survival is mostly refusing bargains made by a desperate version of you," she said.
At our final temporary shelter, I built a low fire and prepared the meat myself. Thin strips hung over smoke. Thicker portions went into the pan with a pinch of precious salt. I turned the drying pieces every hour and checked for moisture before wrapping them in clean cloth.
Liora leaned against the wall, watching me work.
"What?" I asked.
"The first time I came here, you hid behind a counter while I killed rats."
"I also helped strangle a Lurker with a strap."
"You were very brave after the oil, the falling rack, and my knives did most of the work."
"Your praise has become less generous."
"You need less of it now."
She said it lightly, but her ears angled toward me. I realized she trusted me to hear what sat underneath the teasing.
Desire: 99 → 100
Trust: 57 → 65
Resonance: 17% → 21%
I checked the timer. The two level gains had extended it, yet the remaining hours were in single digits.
"How far to the house?" I asked.
"If the route stays clear, we reach it before dark."
Liora took first watch while the last meat dried. I lay beside the fire listening to her sharpen a knife.
Before this night ended, she would be back in her training yard.
I would have food, levels, and instructions.
The room would still become painfully empty.