The change from the well-maintained marble of the Academy to the uncontrolled biological waste of the Blackwood was a descent into a realm of uncontrolled variables. Aleric moved through the thick treeline, his crimson cloak a striking splash of color against the muted tones of the forest. The moment his feet made contact with the rich, mana-infused earth, he activated the Crimson Sight.
But behind the cloth mask, his irises did not merely shift in color; they dilated, the brown being entirely engulfed by a shining, hungry red. In that moment, the physical world was relegated to the status of secondary reality. Superimposed upon the trees and the earth was a pulsating mesh of Mana-Flow. He beheld the "Lungs of the Forest," the glowing pathways of energy that pulsed upward from the roots of the ancient trees, and the "Static," the grey haze of unrefined mana that clung to the moist crevices like a ghostly mist.
He was currently navigating the "Buffer Zone," a section of the woods filled with F-Rank Nuisances and E-Rank Hazards. Aleric did not see these creatures as biological entities; he saw them as specific energy frequencies. As he moved, a sharp, prickling sensation manifested at the base of his skull—the instinctual ledger of his Gaze-Detection. He did not need to see the eyes of the predators or the hidden observers to know their focus was locked upon him. He mapped the origin of these gazes as mathematical coordinates, ensuring no variable remained unmonitored.
A group of Needle-Wasps—F-Rank creatures the size of daggers—swarmed from a hollow log. Their wings vibrated at a frequency that usually blurred them to the human eye, but to Aleric, they were stationary data points. His vision generated Predictive Trace-Lines, assigning each wasp a red vector that mapped their flight path based on the displacement of the surrounding air. He did not draw his sword. He simply focused his gaze on the leading cluster.
"Ten slashes," Aleric murmured.
From his burning red irises, ten bursts of concentrated force erupted. To any observer, the slashes were invisible, manifesting only as a sudden, violent displacement of the atmosphere. The air screamed as it was torn apart, a faint, ghostly white distortion flickering for a microsecond where the transparent mana-blades sheared through the wind resistance. There was no flash of light, only the physical reaction of the forest floor being whipped into a frenzy and the wasps being instantly bifurcated by a force they could not see. Aleric moved through the falling husks, his hands still tucked within his sleeves.
As he moved deeper, a Shadow-Wolf, an E-Rank Hazard, launched itself from a high branch, aimed at his throat. In that microsecond, Aleric did not dodge. He utilized Blink-Transference. He focused his gaze upon a patch of shadow ten yards behind the creature. In a flicker of movement, Aleric vanished. The wolf's claws met only empty air. Aleric reappeared instantaneously at the targeted coordinate, his posture unchanged.
He did not turn around. He simply looked over his shoulder at the wolf as it landed.
"One slash."
The air cracked like a whip behind him. A pulse of energy, a demarcation invisible except by the bright streak of white that flashed where the air had cracked, shot from his eye. The wolf's head shattered from its body even as the wind-dying registered in its ears. Aleric smoothed a fleck of dust from his sleeve as he continued walking. He was attuned to the environment now; he could sense with his mind beyond what he could see with his eyes, tracing the currents of mana within the deeper wood to pinpoint the location from which he teleported next.
He entered an expansive meadow. In the center of the meadow was the Stone-Hide Boar, a C-Rank Biological Hazard. It appeared as if it were sculpted from granite, but Aleric analyzed its Aura-Profile, which resembled an enormous jagged mountain of radiance with a resonant, palpable heartbeat. This aura pushed upon him in a mana anomaly, making the air almost as viscous as honey. He merely synchronized his Internal Frequency by matching the rate of his own mana flow with the creature's.
Target: Stone-Hide Boar (Level: C). Variable Check: Aura Density - High. Flow Rate - Erratic.
Huddled amongst the treetops, Julian and his contemporaries watched in stunned, cautious silence. It made Aleric feel the pinch of their eyes, honed, fearful, amazed. They could not see the creature's light; only the youth in red standing calm before the beast. Then the wild boar roared, charging. To the nobles, the creature merged with rock and rage. But to Aleric, every motion the creature made was an open account book. He saw the power in the creature's hind legs, the mana building in its tusk, before the creature made contact.
The beast came closer, and Aleric's eyes burned with intensity. Aleric didn't change his stance. His gaze settled on the boar's front legs.
"Two slashes."
The clearing erupted in a sharp thrum. Two white, shimmering arcs of distorted air sliced through the mud, moving with a velocity that left a vacuum in their wake. They were invisible until they struck, the only warning being the sudden scream of the wind as it was carved open. The slashes struck the "Thin Node" of the boar's mana-veins with surgical precision, cleaving the energy-bonds holding the stone-reinforced hide together. The boar's front legs buckled, and the massive beast tumbled, sliding sixty feet through the mud.
It struggled to rise, its aura flickering and broken. Aleric did not give it the chance to recalculate. He Blinked, reappearing directly above the boar's head in the air. He drew his steel blade, coating the edge in a layer of colorless, sharp mana, and tapped the microscopic crack in the boar's skull-shell where the mana-lattice was most unstable.
CRACK.
The invincible stone hide, now bereft of its mana boost, shattered. The boar froze and went stiff. Aleric landed lightly beside the dead beast, his red eyes dimming as he scaled back his concentration. He towered above the dead animal, his crimson robes flapping in the wind.
He peered down at this huge beast. It was a peak of muscle and rock, weighing several tons. Aleric was no butcher; he had no tools and no knowledge of how to extract the best cuts of meat in the middle of a beast-infested forest without either spoiling it or being drawn by scavengers. The Guild needed this beast whole in order to confirm a kill and work with the high-quality resources.
Aleric looked back down the path he had come. He knew the mud was deep in places, that the trees grew thick, and that he was alone in the gray uniform. He looked at his own hands—thin and strong from the training of the Academy, but still human. He had the ability to break down the world's most intricate defenses with one glance, but his physical "Account" was weak by comparison.
"How the hell can I bring this lump of meat back to the Guild with my normal body?" Aleric whispered, his voice tinged with a rare moment of frustration.
He had the body of a well-trained athlete, with muscles of his abdomen honed from core workouts, legs chiseled from sprinting, but he certainly didn't have the Guardian physique of a man of iron. He lacked the incredible strength of those who could channel their mana solely into muscle tissues. It would be completely impossible for a student of his caliber to haul this monster through three miles of thicket.
He stood there silently, his brown eyes, now back, fixed on the massive task that was before him. A gentle breeze was blowing in the clearing, and it brought with it the smell of the noble students who were lined up at the finish line, waiting for him to fail.
"The kill is only the first calculation," said Aleric, his hand lying on the broken skin. "But how does one move a mountain when his muscles are attuned to a pebble?"
The sun began to set, casting long, mocking shadows across the clearing. Aleric Thorne stood still, his mind already starting the intricate process of scanning the environment for a variable he might use to overcome the fundamental principles of weight and range.