The next day, as they are preparing to pack things up. A man asks what Clad knows about monsters and how to hunt them.
"Alright, my name is Rith. You probably saw me talk to the elf girl yesterday, so you already have an idea of who I am, but the captain told me to teach you how to kill monsters since I'm so good at it!" He says while holding his head high.
"So, kid, is it your first time hunting monsters?" He asks clad.
"Y-yes," He replies.
Heh
"Aint suprised," He says with a smirk across his face.
"Let a real pro of the hunt show you." He says, bursting with confidence.
The two walk for around the heavy forest for a few minutes, looking for a small monster to hunt and eventually find one. A rabbit with a horn that is shaped like a lightning bolt.
"Alright, so let's start," he whispers to Clad
"First, you will need to compress your energy as much as possible so that the monster won't notice your presence."
Clad attempts to compress his mana, which he succeeds in doing almost immediately, which surprises Rith.
"What the? This kid is pretty good," he thought to himself before getting to the next step.
"Alright, the second step is to strike him when he isn't paying attention to his surroundings. Here, I'll let you borrow my shortsword so you can finish him." Rith's shortsword was slightly curved and had claw marks on it, showing that he's been using this blade for many years at this point.
Clad takes Rith's blade and patiently waits in the bushes for a moment to strike the little creature. The second the monster turned his head from his direction, Clad dashed forward with unimaginable speed, cutting the rabbit's head off, catching Rith in surprise as he didn't know that the kid could move at such speeds.
"Holy shit, I barely saw him move!?" Rith was shocked by what he witnessed.
"I'm done," The boy tells him.
Clad takes the rabbit's head and body and shows it to Rith, revealing that his usually pink eyes have become white before quickly becoming pink again, and now he has a blooming flower on his head.
!!!
"G-good, let's go back with the group,"
"His eyes became white all of a sudden, but quickly went back to pink, and since when did he have a flower on the side of his head? Is he an awakened?"
"I want to ask him, but I don't want to make him uncomfortable..." Rith thinks as the two of them walk back to the camp.
(a few days later)
They see Clad train his swordsmanship with a stick from afar and notice that is really good for his age and ask him where he learned it, and he replies that he copied it from someone else when he was young.
"He must have been one hell of a swordsman," one of the men says.
"Yeah, but he's dead now," Clad coldly replies.
The silence after what Clad said was almost deafening before the man replied to him.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
The days go on, and the group hunts monsters and tasks from other humans as he gradually becomes more used to the mercenary life, when one day, during a party, a moment during that night will scar Clad for a second time.