A grey-brown ripped apart shirt. Brown leather pants with black leather strapped around them to secure their position. Two daggers strapped to said pants with the same black leather stripes.

A clean light brown face with dim emerald green eyes. Petite feet on the cold hard ground exposed to the rough surface.

Our protagonist is fully decked out, at least with what she could use. Feeling somewhat prepared for the hunt she does the last routine check on her current equipment. Shirt and pants fit somewhat. Daggers are as sharp as they can get with her limited resources. Her Qi and energy are at their peak. Her Qi is still just for support. She has yet to really train her Dantian and as a result, her small amount of Qi can only serve to strengthen her body in times of need.

Feeling much more confident since her first failed attempt at hunting, that didn't really begin, she proceeds to calm her mind. Despite her naturally calculative behavior and emotionless state, no normal being is truly without emotions. You can repress them, sure. But even if you do not understand them, they are omnipresent.

Discarding these distracting thoughts, she is finally ready for her first hunt. Moving forward she follows the stream towards its origin. Moving upstream would be foolish. She is not interested in meeting those Hydromags once again. So downstream it is.

Following said direction both, she and Idan, move silently for about ten minutes before they arrive at a junction. The two paths in front of them don't have any obvious difference. Deciding to inspect them carefully, she moves towards the right and Idan takes the leftover path.

Taking a good look at the ground and walls of the gorge both notice certain aspects. Idan's path is riddled with scratch marks and strands of fur. The walls are tainted with faint traces of blood and fur is embedded into the crusted blood.

Looking over towards the path his companion choose, he can see her walk over to him.

"There are almost no traces on my path. some lead into the path but not a single one leads back."

A careful tone lingers among her words. The absence of traffic on the path is a clear indicator for danger.

"Mine is the opposite. Blood, fur, and signs of traffic and combat are in abundance. if there really is almost no traffic on your path and nothing leads out, we can be almost 100% sure that a strong beast lives at the end and no one could return."

Idan makes sure to warn her about the possible danger. She has been alive for slightly more than a day now. Despite her abundant knowledge, for her age, he doesn't want her to make irrational decisions.

"I concur. The right path literally screams "Death". Considering our strength we should follow the left path and slowly make our way forward. We have to look out for large groups of beasts. We cannot take them on yet."

Needing no more words, both agree with their common opinion and move into the left path. With a space of slightly more than 5 meters. The gorge offers enough room for them to comfortably move around.

Their small build gives them the advantage in such a closed space, as Hydromags with their giant antlers would have trouble charging and dodging.

Making sure to observe their surroundings for possible hiding spots and advantageous spots, they follow the path. The further they go, the lesser the signs of fighting get. The beasts who make it through here seem to avoid fighting.

They guess that the junction is something similar to a qualifying round. Those who win can follow the path and the losers die or retreat.

After another good five minutes of monotonous walking, they arrive at a new open space.

"Do you know where we are?", asking Idan she seems to be even more careful.

"I have only been in this cave for two weeks. I only know a limited amount about it. I think I heard about this place but nothing really specific. Some say the higher ranked beasts fight here and others say they search for mates."

"Still a place of congregation. Being prudent won't hurt us. Go hide in the shadows! I'll move forward."

"Stay safe!"

Finishing their small strategic discussion they both swiftly move in their respective direction. She moves into the middle of the room and he tries to keep himself hidden while circling the hall.

As she slowly nears the center of the "hall", signs off battle reappear. Blood, scratch marks, fur and other things belonging to beasts or caused by them litter the ground.

(They do battle here. Guess we have to find out why. Might be a good idea to ambush them as they do so.)

Thinking about possible ambush points it cannot end another way. She straight up walks into one herself. The ground suddenly shots upwards. Earth spikes rise out of the stone surface and pierce their way towards her head and chest.

Despite being surprised her instincts command her to dodge. Desperately lunging towards the right she can only see a flash of cold claws before they rip into her leg.

Luckily her daggers are tightly bound onto her legs and negate some of the damage. Disregarding the offset her legs are still ripped open and pain shots into her brain. Her body kicks into overdrive and adrenaline rushes into her head. Frantically turning her head she tries to get on overview on her attackers.

In front of her stand three grey creatures. Small and scaly with a tail. They resemble lizards and she correctly identifies them as Elemental Lizards with an affinity for Earth. More precisely, stone.

Sadly the lizards are in no mood to have her collect her self. The front-most lizard releases a small hiss and shots forward. Raising the ground in front he uses it as leverage to shot himself forward.

Having seen the ground rise she knew she'd have to dodge. Lowering her body towards the right, she draws her daggers with a swift motion and stabs toward the less protected belly of the airborn lizard. Not expecting such a retaliation from small and wounded prey. The lizard suffers a deep cut on its belly.

Landing on the ground and turning its head. The lizard attempts to put distance between them. What greats his face is a dagger flying through the air, crudely coated in energy, trying to slightly improve the daggers aim. Sadly her aim is still terrible and the dagger only strikes the lizards left front leg.

Still, the dagger carries her full strength and some of her energy, which is by no means weak, the lizard has to say goodbye to his leg as his skin flesh and muscles are sliced apart and his bones breaks and splitters.

Left with a stump of gory meat and bone, the lizard won't participate in the battle anymore.

Turning her attention to the other lizards she can see that Idan is taking care of one. By the looks of it, he will win. Despite their improved defense, Idan's strength rose and while he may not one-hit them he will slowly wear them down and chip away their skin before ripping them apart.

The last lizard seems to understand that there is no way out and summons as much stone as he can to create a mass of stone pellets. Using all energy he has, he shots them at Idan, trying to take him out of the battle. Without Idan, they may stand a chance to retreat if they fight together.

Our calculative protagonist understands its intention and sprints forward. Holding her dagger in a reverse grip she feints an attack towards the lizards left flank. The lizard jumps to the right only to be greeted by a foot. The foot hits its side and throws it back by a few meters.

Following right after the lizard the small, battle crazy girl raises her dagger and stabs at the lizards head. In the last moment, he turns his head avoiding the hit. Opening its jaw he bites onto her arm, trying to break it.

Releasing the danger she is in, she abandoned the thought of trying to wrestle her arm out and pounds a fist into the lizard's stomach. Trying to wrestle her arm out would only worsen the situation.

Setting three fast and strong punches into the lizard's stomach causes to much pain and the lizards loses his strength to bite onto the arm.

Raising the arm with the dagger in hand she swiftly stabs the dagger into its eye. Ending its life.

Exhaling a breath she forces herself up and runs to Idans side.

Despite having been hit with a few stone bullets he was able to avoid them hitting his vitals. Some light wounds and strong bruises but he is okay.

Seeing the dead lizard and knowing that the danger is over, both slump to the ground. Exhausted and with no energy to spare.

"I...*pant*...I can't believe we struggled like this just to...defeat a Stage 3 and two Stage 2 beasts."

Nodding in agreement, Idan knows: They will have to be much more careful in the future.

While they did win it is nothing to be proud of. They lack experience and proper combat training.

There is a lot to learn. A lot to experience and real hardship has yet to appear.