William ran his hands through his hair a few times before scratching his face. 'Ugh.' This was the thing he hated most about this lifestyle. He prided himself on being well-kempt and hygienic, believing that was an essential part of being a respectable man. How could anyone expect others to take them seriously if they refused to take proper care of themselves?

Yet, out here it was very difficult to do so. Cutting his own hair with a knife was anything but fun and the result wasn't much better than just letting it grow. The beard on his face was impossible to contain and itched like mad. He even stunk! The only solace was occasionally being able to rinse himself off, but without soap, the odor still built up after four months.

'I guess I was too hard on Kade. This shit sucks!' He finally understood what his good brother was dealing with. Hygiene was important, but without the proper facilities and skills, it was difficult to manage. Besides, there were more important things to worry about our here.

'I'll have to get Polly to fix me up when we return.' He thought with a goofy smile slowly forming on his face.

"Alright, Gather 'round." Mike called out, waving them over.

The six gathered with William and Hank flanking Mike while the other three; Katie, Simon, and Wei finished the circle.

"It's been four months since we began this expedition. We set a time frame of five months, so it's time we begin our return trip. Besides, this has been our first expedition and I know that everyone is eager to get home."

"Ah, finally!" Katie exclaimed with a sigh

"I guess I could use a break." Wei said shrugging with a sly smirk

Hank nodded "You and me both, I need a nice brew and good eats!"

"Don't make too many plans, Hank. We're gonna be busy when we return." William chided in an effort to hide his own excitement.

Mike glanced at Simon, expecting an equal reaction but noticed that the man was completely stoic. He had been keeping an eye on these three and evaluating them.

Katie and Wei both got on well. Wei was as rowdy and lively as could be, perfectly matching the untamed personalities of William and Hank. He would fit in well.

Katie was slightly more reserved and elegant. Though, after she grew comfortable around them she had let loose and often joined in on the shenanigans. He got along with her well and knew that just like Wei, she was a good fit for the team.

Simon however, was difficult to place. He was silent most of the time and constantly wore a stoic expression. The times that he did speak, it was always business and very detached. Even after four months, the man hadn't cracked even once.

'I wonder if he will decide to split from the team when we return.' Mike thought as he rolled a pebble in his hand. If Simon left the team then it wouldn't bother him, in fact, it might be for the best. Kade would likely join the team for the next expedition and this way they would maintain a small, six-person team with a solid composition.

"Ahem." Quieting the group by clearing his throat, he continued "I've taken time over these months to track our accomplishments and today I organized our loot." He gestured to the beast cores, furs, bones, claws, and other miscellaneous loot. "We have thirty-seven beast cores, eight bundles of fur, fifteen sets of claws, a number of random bones, and a heap of random plants and minerals."

Splitting the cores into six piles, he gestured "We can discuss further cooperation when we return. Regardless if anyone wishes to leave the team or join our faction, everyone will get a full split for this expedition as promised. I don't want anyone to feel pressure to bring this up when we return, so I'll split it now."

He split all of the loot, handing it to everyone one by one while keeping the leftovers.

"Just hold on to mine." William said as he waved off the beast cores, only accepting the larger items to carry in his pack.

"Mine too." Hank said, doing just as William had.

Wei nodded "Yea, what they said." Surprisingly, Wei responded in kind.

Katie and Simon were the only two that accepted carrying their own split.

"That it?" Hank asked

Mike nodded as he returned the loot to his bag.

"Good. Who's up for a game of acey deucey?" Hank asked as one of his eyebrows bounced, his gaze scanning the others.

Wei sighed "You've already run me dry."

"Don't worry about it buddy, you can just use your profits from this trip. I know you're good for it." Hank replied with a sly grin.

"... You're on!" Wei responded after a few moments with fire in his eyes.

...

"Ahhhhaaa" Kade yawned as he stretched his body before looking to the sky. It was still early morning as evidenced by the dim sky.

Looking around camp a small smile spread on his face. Jay was keeping watch while the others slept. He couldn't help but feel a wave of pride after yesterday, they had adapted well and each of them showed their unique skills. If before he was worried about them, he wasn't anymore. At least, not nearly as much.

'Guess it's time that I buckle down again' He thought, feeling inspired. This trip had been a roller coaster, he had grown stronger and could even consider his goal of earning money to be successful, but a large portion of his time was spent recovering from injuries. A lot of his success was shrouded in luck, even if that luck was disguised as misfortune and required his hard work to change that.

Standing up, he walked to Jay and patted his shoulder "I'm heading out, good luck today."

"So early?" Jay questioned with a tired voice.

"Progress waits on no man." Kade replied with a stern voice and ramrod straight back before his facade was broken by his own chuckle. Waving back at Jay, he continued forward.

Obruo followed until Kade noticed him.

"Not today buddy." He said as he crouched down and rubbed the pooches head "Stay with the others and help them out in my place. They know my rules about feeding you your share, and if they don't then you can hunt as you usually do, okay?"

"Tiss." Obruo released a snort of air as he pressured Kade's hand.

Patting the pup one last time, he stood up and left.

Eager for what came next, he cast wind surge and rocketed off into the forest. In the short moments when he wasn't casting wind surge, he tried casting armament. His success largely depended on his height and the obstacles in his path, but this was exactly what he wanted. A challenge!

The coming weeks would be all about pushing himself and discovering his limits and surpassing them. He wanted to use every single moment available before their return specifically for this.

He burned through forty percent of his Altaris in failure before stopping. The moment he landed, he fell forward and caught himself with his arms. Pushing off the ground and then descending, he did push-ups to the point of failure before standing and jogging forward on his path. The moment his Altaris fully regenerated he shot into the sky.

Continuing the cycle with different exercises each time, he searched for an opponent to test his mettle and pad his wallet.

It didn't take long, but by the time he found a large creature his arms and legs were aching. He cast wind surge to aim himself and shoot toward the creature. Following up, he cast a long-neglected spell, Shock, and released it onto the creature as they collided.

Unsheathing his knife and using the brief moment that his combination had created, he hammered down, driving the blade into the creature's hip. Keeping a grip on his knife, he kicked out at one of the creature's legs while punching toward its head with his free hand and casting wind gust from it.

The creature, already disoriented, injured, and off-balance, toppled like a ton of bricks. Ramming his heel into its neck, Kade cast Yisik's arrow at the head, swiftly ending its life.

"Haa, that was too easy." He grumbled as he crouched down. After pulling out his knife, he used it to cut open a few areas on the Deer-like creature before sighing. "As I thought..." It hadn't formed a core, which explained why it was so weak.

Irritated, he wasted no time in leaving for his next hunt. The fact that he had spent so much effort to kill a normal creature bruised his ego a bit and he was eager for redemption, as well as a real challenge.

-

"Huuht" Kade groaned as he slammed into a tree.

Sucking in a deep breath of air, he opened his eyes to see the beast's massive hand swiping at him. Bending his legs and upper body, he narrowly avoided the smack that shredded the bark in his place and rolled to the side. Scrambling to his feet he cast freeze on the shoulder joint of the gorilla and stepped back to put some distance between them.

He wanted a challenge and he got one. Maybe too big of a challenge.

While backpedaling, he cast armament to create his trusty chain and whipped it at the massive gorilla. To his horror, the beast caught the Altaris chain in its palm and used it to reel him in while stepping forward. Kade released the chain but it had all happened too quickly, by this point he was back in the gorilla's range.

Moments later, the thick forearm of the beast crashed against the breastplate created by aegis which shattered on the second swing of the beast. It had done its job and bought him just enough time to cast spirit chains. He cast wind surge while he watched the gorilla struggle against the chains, using the few seconds to escape as fast as he could.

Depleting the rest of his Altaris with wind surge, he managed to escape. plopping to the ground he clutched his side. "Ahhh, shit." He winced in pain. His back was aching, and it felt like he had a few broken ribs.

"I'll be back soon." He mumbled in the gorilla's direction with mixed emotions. On one hand, it had been months since he was forced to retreat from a one on one fight and he was happy to have an opponent that forced him to improve to stand a chance. On the other, his ego had been bruised once again by losing so terribly.

Pushing himself from the ground, he continued onward despite his pain.

-

The next day, Kade continued his journey of self-improvement. Seeking more battles non-stop.

"Haaah!" Kade swatted out, smacking multiple smaller hornets as he used wind surge to fly away.

Casting Procyon, he sent it directly toward the largest hornet. The ball of fire burst prematurely due to the abundance of smaller hornets blocking the path. The viscous liquid spread out, covering countless smaller hornets and burning them to a crisp in a few breaths.

After every attack on the large hornet, he was forced to fend off the smaller ones. Slowly, they thinned from continuously sacrificing themselves for their leader, until there was less than fifty total.

Panting heavily, Kade went over his situation and options with the respite he gained while the enemy was regrouping. His Altaris was running low and his body was burning from the multiple stings, but this battle would be coming to an end soon. The biggest issue was that the largest hornet hadn't participated in the fight at all, only commanding its brethren. It was still at full strength and he didn't even know how strong it was.

Thankfully, he had a good grasp of the species resilience. He was confident that it would die with one or two spells, he just had to conserve enough Altaris to cast them.

The Hornets began their attack once again only to be met with a blast of water. Water cannon took very little Altaris and was perfect for these brittle creatures. If their wings weren't destroyed from the impact of the water, they would be when the creature slammed into the surrounding terrain.

Watching his steps, he intentionally stepped on the Hornets that had fallen to the ground and crushed them beneath his bare heel while continuously felling the ones attacking from the air until all of the small Hornets were dead or incapacitated.

Only the large Hornet remained. Staring it down, a ball of white fire formed in Kade's palm, ready for it to engage. However, the creature betrayed his expectations by spinning and shooting off in the opposite direction.

Frowning, he hastily took aim and fired the spell at the Hornet before giving chase. The Hornet, unaware that a ball of fire was quickly gaining on it, continued in a straight line until it was engulfed in the flames.

Kade came to a stop as he watched the large Hornet writhe on the ground, its wings completely incinerated. "Pfft, you're a terrible leader." He mumbled with scorn.

-

The days flew by in a haze of combat, and now, a week had passed. Day after day. fight after fight. Kade only returned to camp every few days when his body couldn't take it anymore, and even then he didn't rest for long.

"Dude, slow down!" Jay said as he firmed grasped Kade's shoulder "You're gonna get yourself killed at this rate."

Kade wrenched Jay's hand off, requiring more strength than he imagined. "I'm fine Jay. This is all about pushing my limits, and I'm smart enough to know when to take a break."

"Are you sure?" Jay retorted as he gestured to Kade's body "If you don't take it easy then I'm going to force Ben to stop healing you."

Kade shook his head "Do what you need to man, but I'll continue. When did you lose trust in me?"

He felt the results and wouldn't stop. With every fight, he gained more experience. With every cast, he improved slightly. Every day he was pushing his limits, and in return, his skills flourished. The benefits were worth the hardship.

"When you lost your mind!" Jay raised his voice with furrowed brows "What happened to being smart, scouting the area, and resting to top form before battles? You don't have to recklessly push yourself to be successful!"

Kade frowned as he mulled over Jay's words. Jay was right, he had neglected many of the important aspects of hunting safely, but that didn't mean that his actions were stupid. He wasn't doing this solely for beast cores, and success was secondary to improvement. He had learned of his own limits and he needed to push them. Doing so required difficult situations.

"I'll be okay, Jay." He said with a smile as he punched the young man's shoulder "This will only last for a few more weeks." then, he disappeared into the treeline.

Jay watched with an increasing frown until he felt a nudge and looked over to find Cal.

"It's kind of like when I had to save you guys." Cal said as he stared in the direction Kade left "I didn't think I could do it, but when Kade forced me to try, I figured out what I was capable of when put under pressure."

"You think this is the same?" Jay asked skeptically

Cal shrugged "How isn't it? He has to purposely play it risky or he would never allow himself to experience danger and the pressure that comes with it."

Jay raised a brow before shaking his head with a chuckle "You're only fifteen, you're not supposed to be this wise." He said as he threw his arm around Cal. "You're right, let's just focus on ourselves for now."

-

"Ugh!" Kade grunted as he used all of his strength to fight against the constriction from a long, thin snake. "That's it, you overgrown worm!" He shouted as a ball of white fire formed and shrouded them.

Twenty minutes later he was finally able to break free, the charred snake body snapping as he broke his arms free. Bending over while drawing in deep breaths, he noticed his pants and tool belt.

"Aw man." He mumbled with a sigh. The belt was hanging by a thread, and his pants had seen better days. It wouldn't be long before the toolbelt failed as did the band of his pants.

Running around with shoes and a shirt was one thing, but he had no intentions of hanging loose. Who knew what might latch on to his precious manhood if it were to be exposed?

Dejected, he finally slowed down and took the time to find something he could use to support his pants. He settled on a couple of thin vines weaved into a makeshift belt before getting back to work.

-

Another week passed before he returned to the camp late at night looking bedraggled. However, the most disturbing aspect of his condition was the lack of clothing.

With an angry frown, he stomped into camp and found his bag before rummaging through it. He pulled out the iridescent snakeskin from before and created a knife with armament. Stretching out the skin, he roughly measured it before cutting it in half. He did this a few times before rolling the excess back up and putting it in his bag along with a pouch made of large, thick leaves that held the beast cores he had harvested over the week.

Trey acted as though he didn't see what was happening, only occasionally sneaking a few glances toward Kade with confusion and curiosity.

'What is going on with him, and why is he naked?' He thought. He only knew that Kade had been training and had so many questions he wanted to ask. In the beginning, Kade returned every other day exhausted with numerous wounds. Now, after being gone for an entire week, Kades biggest issue was his lack of clothing.

Either Kade was playing things safer than he had been, or he was improving at a ridiculous rate.

Obruo, not as reserved as Trey, approached slowly before laying beside Kade and watching curiously.

"Oh, hey buddy." Kade said, spending a moment petting the pup.

Obruo looked between the snakeskin and Kade "Awo, tiss."

"I'm making some pants. This thing doesn't burn, remember?" Kade replied as he returned to his work, folding the skin and making a few holes on the edges.

He took a few thinner strips and used them to bind the ends together before working on another piece. After nearly an hour, he finished everything he wanted to create.

Pulling the clothing on, he pulled it up and checked the fit. It was a mix between a loincloth and a skirt, far more crude than pants but sufficient for his needs at the moment. He had also made a drawstring pouch that he attached below his kidney.

"Done." he said with a satisfied grin before patting Obruo a few more times before reaching in his bag once more and pulling out a core. "Here, sorry I've been gone for so long." He said with some guilt as he presented the core to Obruo

"It'll only be a few more weeks of this."