The change was subtle, like a firefly flickering near a fire. To someone with experience, however, that was more than enough. Splitting into five instances, Dallion dashed towards the cave entrance from several sides. The hedgerel paused. As a creature of magical nature, it was able to sense his presence along with the instances that were approaching it. Dull gray fur glowed up in bright orange in an attempt to ward off enemies. Moments later, that was accompanied by a burst of instances on the creature’s part as well. A wave of hedgerels appeared like a river filling up the cave, then rushed forward like a river of lemmings.

“Gleam!” Dallion shouted.

All but one of his instances vanished as the whip blade flew out of its sheath. The blade extended forward, slicing through the torrent of creatures as it split it into two parts. Half of the hedgerels disappeared in the blink of the eye. The others continued running forward, keeping their distance from the blade as if an invisible wall had emerged.

So far so good, Dallion thought.

Normally, there wouldn’t be an issue capturing a hedgerel. The creatures were the size and shape of a squirrel, with hedgehog spines that had a tendency to glow when frightened. Most would call them harmless, but every now and then, there were exceptions as the one that had been terrorizing an entire region of Keliesh County. With several of the empire’s provinces engaged in open war against the neighboring countries, food was sent to the battlefield, not to mention that the crop poisoning incidents were still increasing, affecting a greater area of the continent. And it wasn’t only settlements that were suffering either. Parts of the wilderness, otherwise left to their own devices, had also been affected, along with the creatures that inhabited them. As far as Dallion was aware, three simultaneous hunts were ongoing through the empire itself, all led by nobles and battle clerics. That left all lesser nuisances to be dealt with by mercenaries and starting hunters.

Remember not to use line attacks this time, Nil said. It’s not a good look to destroy mountains each time you’re on a hunt.

I know. Dallion split into instances again, chasing after the hundreds of instances. The nature of the creature allowed it to split into so many of itself that even Dallion’s first teacher would have a hard time keeping up. That, however, didn’t matter. When it came to everything else, the hedgerel was quite a simple creature, so all of its instances pretty much did the same thing, running in the same direction one after the other.

“Once more!” Dallion ordered.

The whip blade swung again, halving the stream of instances. As the creature felt boxed in, its spines grew brighter changing into a bright amber, like the top of a candleflame. Focusing all effort on running, it stopped maintaining its additional instances, letting them vanish away a dozen at a time. This was precisely what Dallion was waiting for. The moment there was only one creature in front of him, he ran at full speed and snatched the animal from the ground.

The first moment the hedgerel’s legs left the ground, the creature froze. Then in a fit of desperation it started fidgeting wildly in an attempt to break free. Unfortunately, that proved impossible. The thunder-hide gloves Dallion had procured himself—at tremendous expense—protected him from any spines and bites the hedgerel could offer. Holding it tightly, he shifted from a sprint, to a run, and then to a fast-paced walk, as he made his way to the outskirts of the nearby village of Vitanallia.

“Is that the last one?” Dallion asked.

Looks like. The whip blade compressed back to its original length. I’d be sure if I got a few more level ups, she said.

“Gleam.” Dallion sighed.

It’s the last one, she replied, annoyed. I’ll check.

Gleam was one of Dallion’s familiars, whom he’d made guardian of the whip blade. In the real world she had no actual presence, only being able to move about through the weapon that Dallion had with him. In the world that was his awakened realm, however, she was a small, but increasingly beautiful and deadly shardfly with crystal wings. When he had first found the creature, she had been trapped as a guardian of a broken hand mirror, which served as a toy in a criminal gambling den. Since being freed, she had helped him to a great extent, although she kept insisting that Dallion help her improve her awakened level so as to regain some of the powers she used to have.

A few minutes later, the whip blade returned and gently made its way into the empty sheath on Dallion’s back.

There’re no more, Gleam said. We’re good to go.

That was everything Dallion wanted to hear. Holding the hedgerel tightly, he continued walking.

“Nothing will happen to you,” he said, adding some calm to his voice. “I just can’t have you guys eating all the food there is.”

That made the animal pause a bit. In a while—seeing that there was no way to escape—it stopped fidgeting. Dallion would have preferred that it stopped doing so on its own accord, not due to an obvious threat, but still he’d take the win any way he could.

It was roughly an hour’s walk to Vitanallia. The village was rather large, some would even mistake it for a town. At any other time, they would have been, but the archduke of the entire province had recently declared that no settlements could increase their level without an official permission from him. Given that response was pretty much known before even any request was even made, all minor nobles in towns and villages had preferred not to bother at all.