The Mech Touch

The next day, Ves and his family boarded a shuttle that took them a fairly short distance away outside Tixe City.

The main settlement on Ocanon VI was situated in the Melrose Continent. The hunting grounds on this landmass were highly regulated and deliberately controlled to remove any threats that posed a slightly greater danger.

While this made it so that the Hunting Association refused to recognize the hunting accomplishments of anyone who ventured in these grounds, they were popular destinations among children, tourists and hunters who were simply looking to relax.

Ves decided to bring his children to the Hanlin #6 Hunting Ground.

This was a landlocked region that was characterized by a lot of rolling hills and uneven terrain. It encompassed a large alien forest as well as open prairies.

Hanlin was a particularly interesting destination for young hunters due to the abundant presence of smaller exobeasts.

Many of them only grew as large as Arnold. They often looked cuter and fluffier than the prey in other hunting grounds. While they were not entirely harmless, a lot of herbivores among them never thought about fighting at all, so they never posed any serious threat.

Aside from these cute mammalian critters, Hanlin was also famed for hosting a lot of colorful birds.

These avian creatures evolved in a thick forest that provided a lot of cover against larger and more formidable predators. Their speed and agility also enabled them to shake off predators with relative ease.

As a result, these alien birds tended to be less vigilant towards the humans that occasionally intruded in their forests.

It was often possible for children to get a little closer to them so long as they did not make any threatening moves.

Killing them was a lot harder, though. Unless they utilized shotguns or high-tech rifles with guided aim functions, it was unlikely for them to hit a fast and agile bird.

Most children merely liked to watch them without ever thinking about shooting them down, and Ves' children were no exception to this rule!

Aurelia tried to coax a fiery red bird from the tree branch in the distance. "Here birdy birdy. Come over here. I picked up a few nice seeds from the ground."

Though the birds did not really care about the occasional human intruders, that did not mean they were willing to get closer.

Too many children had tried and failed to attract one of the small avian creatures, but Aurelia was different!

She radiated so much gentleness and purity that the alien bird actually grew curious enough to fly closer!

"Hihihi! I told you I could do it! I have caught a bird!"

The red bird perched onto Aurelia's arm and quickly began to peck at the seeds in her hand.

"Chirp chirp chirp."

Her younger brother and sister carefully approached so that they could admire the bird in greater detail.

"This bird doesn't look so alien." Marvaine said. "Its eyes look funny, but they look just like normal birds."

"That is because birds are pretty efficient flying organisms." Ves taught his children. "You will probably learn this in your biology classes if you haven't already, but convergent evolution causes a lot of different organisms to look roughly the same. Ocanon VI might have a lighter gravity and a slightly different air composition, but it is pretty similar to Old Earth for the most part. That means that a lot of creatures from one planet tend to work in the same way as the creatures of another planet."

While there were more profound differences between the birds of the two planets, it was a bit too complicated to explain it all to his children.

Ves kept a constant eye on the red bird as he talked. Though he could feel through his spiritual senses that the alien creature possessed no hostility, he was always ready to take action if that changed.

Not that it mattered.

His children all wore their own personal shield generators, so it did not really matter if the bird tried to peck his daughter all of a sudden.

Lucky and Clixie were also capable of protecting the children, though the two nosy cats had already ventured deeper into the forest in order to 'scout out the terrain'.

If that was not enough to keep his children safe, then the silent and invisible mecher bodyguards around him would definitely utilize their full might to fulfill their mission!

Ves found it handy that these bodyguards were able to cloak themselves. It was not quite effective at making him feel alone, but it at least made his group less intimidating to the surrounding fauna.

He coughed a bit in order to attract his children's attention.

"Okay, that's enough. You can admire the birds later. Don't forget why I brought you here. I want each of you to hunt the prey of this hunting ground by relying on yourself as much as possible. In order to complete your hunts, you should make use of these rifles."

He reached out behind his back and retrieved a pack that contained three small ballistic rifles.

They were fairly simple, cheap and low-tech. They could not pose a threat to any serious prey in the Shamon Continent and the Chasseur Continent, but that didn't matter in their current hunting ground.

Due to their low specifications, it was extremely fast and easy for most of the gun stores of Tixe City to fabricate custom-fitted rifles for each of his children.

"The pink one is for you, Aurelia."

"Thank you, papa." The girl said with obvious reluctance in her voice.

"Chirp chirp."

Strangely enough, the alien red bird had not left her side despite all of the changes. The avian actually grew comfortable enough to move up to her shoulder instead!

"This red one is yours, Andraste."

"My favorite color!" The younger girl grinned as she expertly snatched the weapon from her father's hands.

She skillfully inspected it with trained motions and quickly studied the specs projected by the weapon.

Her expression quickly dropped.

"This rifle is too weak! Its stopping power is too low and its muzzle velocity is even worse. Its effective range is so poor that I can't snipe anything at longer ranges. Saintess Ulrika gave me rifles that are a hundred times better in every way!"

"That is because she wanted to let you get used to weapons designed to kill formidable enemy soldiers." Ves patiently explained. "I am not throwing you into a fight against an elite orven trooper or anything. This trip is about hunting harmless small exobeasts. There is no need for additional firepower."

"Awww..."

Ves bent down and gave his youngest son the smallest rifle. The light blue contraption looked like a toy more than anything.

"This is for you, Marvaine. You have memorized all of the rules on the handling of firearms, correct?"

Marvaine nodded as he held the weapon in a slightly awkward grip. "I did, papa."

"If you don't want to use this rifle to hunt any critters, then you can give it back to me. You are still young. There is plenty of time for you to grow older and gradually assume more responsibilities."

"I don't want to give it back!" Marvaine cutely insisted as he held the small rifle tighter in his arms. "I won't leave my sisters behind!"

"Good boy. I will stay close to you, so don't worry about anything."

A short moment passed as the children roughly understood how to handle their child-sized rifles.

They all received varying degrees of weapon training, so they did not need a lot of time to know how to aim or fire a bullet.

The weapons were deliberately stripped down in order to make them as low-tech as possible.

They lacked a lot of advanced functions that came with a lot of complexity.

Of course, Ves made sure to retain the feature that automatically blocked the rifles from firing if their muzzles happened to point towards any friendlies!

Ves clapped his hands.

"Before I let you go, I need to tell you two more things. First, if possible, I do not want you to kill your prey the normal way. Do you remember the Destroyer of Worlds and how she embedded an enormous cat onto her projectiles? I want you to try this out with your own companion spirits."

That caused his three children to look confused.

"How?"

Ves smiled and retrieved a bullet from one of the pocket's of his adventurer's coat. "It is not as difficult as you think, my dear. Do you see this bullet? I especially ordered it to be made out of a hyper metal. This makes it a lot easier to attach your companion spirit to it. The bullet material will make it easy for the two to stay together."

"Mrow."

He demonstrated this by sending out Blinky and having him enter the bullet.

"You can do that?!"

"Yes. This is not an exclusive ability of the Destroyer of Worlds. Anyone with a companion spirit can do the same. The real problem is range. Your companion spirit will only stay inside the bullet until it flies outside of your maximum boundary. This is why I insist that you move as close to your prey as possible before you aim and fire your weapon. Try your best to get within 50 meters or so. That should be close enough for your empowered bullets to produce the greatest effect."

"50 meters is too close, papa. Won't those exobeasts run away? Also, how can I find them in this forest?"

"I am sure you can manage. Your outfits come with moderate camouflaging functions, so you won't be as conspicuous as you think. As for tracking down your prey, you can use your companion spirits to scout ahead. Don't keep them in your heads. Make use of all of your advantages. However, if that is not enough, our cats can lend you a hand."

Ves transmitted a silent command.

A few seconds later, a pair of very different cats dashed out of the forest and stopped in front of the Larkinsons!

"Meow!"

"Miaow!"

Clixie came back without carrying anything between her teeth. Her cat-sized breathing mask made it difficult for her to bite onto anything.

Lucky on the other hand triumphantly returned with a furry brown mammal between his teeth!

The gem cat had already slit the creature's throat, but dark brown blood still spilled out of the wound.

"Eeewww!"

"What a poor beast."

"Why did you kill it, Lucky?!"

"Meow meow meow!"

Ves reached down and plucked the beast carcass from Lucky's teeth.

"I know this critter looks cute and all, but do not let that stop you from doing what is necessary to survive in this dangerous dwarf galaxy. I won't ask you to wantonly kill other lives, but you should at least show that you will not freeze and refuse to do what is necessary if your lives are ever under threat. Sometimes, you can only count on yourselves to save your life."

After a few more words of encouragement, he sent his children out into the forest.

They stayed fairly close together, though made sure not to press against each other.

Their smart clothing had automatically dimmed so that they blended better in the darkened forest environment.

Their weapons also became a bit less conspicuous.

With their companion spirits scouting the way ahead, the children weren't going in blind.

They soon paused as they spotted a six-legged mammal with an abnormally long snout and six eyes on his head.

"Mrow."

Ves used Blinky to signal for Aurelia to take the first shot.

His oldest daughter raised her darkened pink rifle and took aim. Mana had entered the chamber and attached herself to the hyper bullet.

Seconds passed by as Aurelia continued to aim at the creature in the distance.

"Mrow..."

After a few more reminders from Blinky, Aurelia overcame her unease and pulled the trigger.

"Mew!"

The round carrying Mana soared into the distance and missed the six-legged exobeast by a wide margin!

Though the rifle was not too loud, the discharge was still loud enough to spook the exobeast and scare it away!

"It's okay." Ves said as he softly patted his daughter's shoulder. "There are plenty of chances for you to try again. You'll get one next time."

He had noticed that Aurelia's aim should have been fine. The problem was that she jerked her weapon to the side from the moment she pulled the trigger.

Hopefully, she would get rid of that habit by the time their hunting trip was over.