He ran. He cried. It was… wrong. He wanted to go back, but he knew he shouldn’t. A loud bang and wave of air threw him on the ground. Jack clenched his fist, while lying in the snow.

‘Screw it. I’m going back.’ Jack ran once again. His legs were killing him, but he didn’t care.

There was a small crater. Snow, soil and plants were pushed from the center. He couldn’t find Lillie, there were only blood marks everywhere. She wasn’t where he had left her. There was the wolf, though. It was still breathing. Its skin was mangled, and there were bones sticking out. Adding the previous damage from the lightning trap, Jack judged the wolf won’t survive, nor it was a danger anymore. He searched for Lillie.

He cursed himself he had not taken a different affinity, he could have a better detection spell. He found something. A piece of bloodied bone.

‘I have studied biology, this is…’ He searched through his memories. When he found his answer, he fell on his knees. It was a piece of a human skull. Jack lost all strength. He couldn’t do anything.

‘This… this can’t be true…’ He thought the bone may be from the wolf, it wasn’t over. He searched for more. Jack found more bones. He checked blood marks, some of them were guts, or brain matter. He puked. The realization was too painful. Too cruel. He just sat on the ground. He had neither will nor strength to stand. The wolf was dying. Jack thought to kill it, but he hesitated.

‘One level. I will only get one level.’ His body couldn’t take more essence at once. He started laughing. ‘One level. She wasn’t worth only one level. She wasn’t. Her life was worth much more.’

He got up, and dug a small hole with his hand. He didn’t want to use magic. It wasn’t intimate enough. All her bones he managed to find, Jack placed in the grave. He wanted to do more, there were few traditional ways to honor the dead. One of them was to eat the corpse. High tier individual corpses had high essence concentration.

Normally, an old dying person was doing everything he could for his family, and often humanity before their death. When there was only a month, or a few weeks before the death, the whole family gathered before the old person. A next family leader killed the dying person, earning a level for himself and everyone present, if the dying person had high level. They ate the corpse next. It was often the wish of the dying people. They could help their loved ones this way. This way, a dead person could give their final gift for the living.

Eating such a corpse increased someone level. It was only true for corpses of 4th tiers and higher, but sometimes, a 3rd tier person’s corpse was also eaten, as an expression of respect for a well-deserved. Such people were usually imperial court officials and sometimes a family head of commoners.

Lillie was not so strong, eating her flesh would give him nothing. Low tier people were buried in the fields. This way, their corpse would enrich the soil, which would give food for people. It was also a form of a final gift of dead. The only way someone could profane a corpse was to give it to monsters, in Jack opinion.

Jack could take her remains, but he wasn’t actually allowed to travel through interior. Besides, she left much better gift.

The wolf was still alive. Jack wanted to kill it, to avenge her.

‘Avenge? What stupid nonsense I have thought? She avenged herself. It will die on its own.’ He cried once again. She had saved him. He had been useless. The wolf was her final gift.

‘No time to cry.’ He grabbed the wolf and dragged it through the snow. His bars were low, but he pushed himself. He dragged the wolf for hundred meters, to a small mound. He used his magic to burrow in. Jack dug a cave, large enough for the wolf and him. He dragged the wolf in and sealed the entrance, only leaving a small hole for the air.

Jack created essence gathering runes on the walls, ceiling, and floor. He pushed his hand into one of wolf’s wounds, and sent life mana to its brain. Jack cast kinetic spell, turning wolf’s brain into mush.

Ding… You have killed lv. 65 Grand Grey Wolf

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 18

Jack sat in his cave, and leaned his body against the wolf’s corpse. The runes should keep a high concentration of essence in the cave’s air. He just had to stay here, and eat the wolf’s meat. He was tired and fell asleep.

Jack woke up. He cried once again. It was dark in the cave. He was alone. Jack wanted to be alone. He was hungry. Jack groaned and stood up. He should be able to cook meat with a spell, but he needed to butcher the animal. Its fur and skin were precious material. Jack had to skin the wolf first. Jack didn’t have a knife or a sharp blade, but he had magic spells. Jack pushed his fingers in the wolf’s jaw. The wolf’s skin wasn’t resistant to magic from inside. This way, Jack was able to bypass wolf’s resistances.

Jack slowly skinned the wolf. He used both magic and his muscles. Jack had to be delicate, otherwise, he would destroy innate spells in the skin, which would no longer be resistant against mana. The skin had to be proceeded. Not now, though. Jack still had not leveled more. The fur could wait some time before it would rot.

Jack ripped some meat and cooked it, or at least tried. Jack had some experience with cooking, but doing it over a fire spell was a first time for Jack. He finally managed to create something edible after the third time. The taste was poor, but for a hungry person, everything was tasty. Jack ate as much as he could.

Ding… Your Cooking skill has reached lv. 11

Ding… Your Cooking skill has reached lv. 12

Ding… Your Cooking skill has reached lv. 13

Ding… Your Crafting skill had reached lv. 12

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 19

‘Good, ‘ Jack thought. Jack continued to butcher the animal. Bones were valuable. Tendons, guts, all had their uses. Jack understood he wouldn’t be able to take all. ‘Fur and bones are most precious, and I’m planning to eat all meat.’

Jack didn’t have much to do anymore. He was sitting in an area of high concentration of essence, he just needed to wait for levels. Jack thought about his capabilities. He thought about what had gone wrong.

‘I was supposed to be prepared, but I wasn’t.’ His plan was to create traps. ‘I was trying to hunt like Aleena, but it can’t be my style. I need to create a trap and lure a monster in. I wasn’t even using any illusions, even though I should be able to.’

Jack knew how he should hunt from now on, but there was a problem. ‘To use such style when in a team, all our plans must be centered about my magic and traps.’ Jack sighed. Should he try to hunt alone? Would the military allow this in the first place?

Jack knew he could create spells beyond his tier with his earth sculpting magic. A size of a spell in his mind was determined by his intelligence, but the size of a spell used in a trap was only determined by the length of time used to create the spell.

‘There is a limit, though. Essence in the air is limited. I can create more and more spell vectors, but at some point, the strength of a spell would stop increasing.’ This was the reason high tier spells concentrated on complicated spells creating exotic effects with minimal usage of essence. ‘Even with a limit, the style I’m trying to use should be more efficient.’

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 20

Ding… Your Cooking skill has reached lv. 14

Jack thought about the wolf he was eating. Aleena and Stanley had been able to spot it with their detection spells. Jack could do so too, but his detection spells lacked in comparison. ‘We chased the hallola without paying attention to surroundings.’ Jack came to realization. He remembered how old hunter struck Aleena when she wasn’t paying attention, and his advice. Jack would never make this mistake again. ‘But why Lillie had to die? Why couldn’t I learn it faster?’ He cried again.

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 21

Ding… Your Cooking skill has reached lv. 15

Jack didn’t know how many days passed. It was either three or four, though. The meat should get spoiled soon. All essence he had managed to trap should have escaped by now. It was only the essence drawing spell after all.

Jack tried to create a better detection spell. He had no idea how to do so, nor any help. He could compare his ideas to spells in the library, but the library was far away. There was no progress. Jack’s mind often wandered, he spoke in the darkness to his imaginations.

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 22

There was no more fresh meat. Jack had eaten his last meal two days ago, then he puked. The meat was too rotten. He should go to the frontier now, but he didn’t feel like it. He lay in the cave. The smell was horrible. Jack had pissed and pooped in a corner before, but now, he just pissed as he lay.

Jack heard some sounds. Breaching. Digging. He cast earth detection. Nothing. ‘Right. It’s something above the ground, idiot.’ He created an eye outside of his cave. A small wolf pack was digging him out. Jack started laughing.

“Hahahahaha” He rolled in his piss and hysterically laughed aloud. “Preparations. Ha. I’m completely unprepared. I should just die.”

He stood up. He loathed himself, but he wasn’t going to let the wolves eat him. He observed the pack. ‘A dozen of 2nd tiers. One 3rd tier, seems to be an elemental variant.’

Ding… Your Analyze skill had reached lv. 22

Jack went to the wall. He casted the drill spell, already creating it on the other side of the wall.

Ding… You have killed lv. 31 Lightning Wolf

The wolves were startled. He just continued to cast his drills. It was easy. ‘I have leveled a few times. My boost to intelligence must have increased.’ Wolves were not able to attack Jack, they escaped after a few more causalities.

Ding… LEVEL UP! You have reached lv. 23

“Time to go.” Jack opened an exit from the cave. He took the fur of the 4th tier and many bones, as much as he could carry. The fur looked fine, even after many days, though Jack wasn’t an expert. He went west, to the frontier, to humans. Jack was using his detection spells most of the time. There weren’t many monsters, though.

Jack returned after ten, or maybe fifteen hours, it was dark. Healers checked on him, but he was fine. They took part of bones as a tax. Hunters were supposed to bring some materials every hunt. This was the reason Jack had not been able to get some money before. Materials from 4th tier were a lot more valuable, so they didn’t take all of them. Hunters had free meals so it wasn’t unreasonable.

Jack went to crafters first. He wanted to get rid of the fur, before it would rot. Jack knew he reeked. It was normal for people to smell, they only washed in the rain, but Jack reeked. He sighed. A crafter was disgusted, though he started doing business, when he saw Jack’s treasures. Jack requested fur armor. It would use only half of fur he had, the second half would be the payment. Jack sold all remaining bones. He went to the bath house. He needed to pay a bit, but he didn’t want to show up like this.

Jack slowly walked into the house.

“Who’s there?” Stanley asked. He was wary, judging from his voice.

“It’s me.” Stanley walked out the bedroom. “Jack!” Stanley lunged and hugged Jack. “We thought you died!”

“No. I’m alive.” He said calmly. Aleena also appeared.

“Good to see you alive.” She said with a smile.

Jack tried to peek inside the bedroom. “What about Patrick?”

Stanley saddened. “We don’t know. He hasn’t returned, nor we have found the body.”

Jack felt a pang of pain. Patrick was his friend. He wasn’t going to grieve over him, or at least not as much as after Lillie.

“He wasn’t able to escape the same way as the first time?”

Stanley shrugged. “I don’t know. After Aleena used her spell to escape, the wolf went after him. It never went after me, I was lucky. We returned later to the place, but we were only able to find Patrick’s clothes and weapons, including the flask Aleena gave him. Besides that, there was only a wolf’s corpse with a throat bitten by the alpha.”

This was suspicious, though Jack suspected it had something to do with Patrick’s mysterious heirloom. Stanley continued.

“We thought everyone alive would quickly return, but… There were only me and Aleena.”

“What now? How long have I not been here?” Jack asked.

“Eight days. Is Lillie…” Stanley asked hesitantly.

Jack shook his head. “She is gone.” He fought the urge to cry. Jack didn’t want to show his miserable face to Aleena and Stanley. It was a bit easier to not cry now, after a week.

“Our team has been disbanded since three days ago. We were waiting for a new assignment. I will make a petition to preserve our team. We will need to wait for new members, though.”

‘New members, huh.’ Jack didn’t want to see new faces. “Fine by me.” He lied. They nodded.

Jack slept in a fur bed. It was a lot better than sleeping in the cave, though he felt guilty about it. He stood up and went to the plaza to train. He had nothing else to do. Jack planned to go to the library later to find a better detection spell, but he also thought about that as a training. He was interrupted after two hours.

“Jack!”

“Bob.” Bob ran over and hugged him. “I thought you were dead!” Bob let him go, and punched him right in the face. Jack was completely unprepared for that and fell on his back.

“Why you didn’t come to tell me you are alive?!”

“Ummm…. Sorry. I kind of forgot about you.” Jack said

“Are you an idiot? I thought you died! I have already buried you!” Bob was furious. Jack was ashamed. He really forgot people could think him dead. Bob extended a hand, and helped his get up. Jack was surprised when a fist struck him second time, though he didn’t fall this time.

“That’s too much! Stop hitting me!” Jack shouted.

“I thought you died! You told me I should only try easy targets, and then you died! You idiot!”

“Yeah. I’m sorry. Lillie died. I needed some time.” Jack didn’t want to say it, but this was the best way to silence Bob.

“I’m sorry.” Bob said. Jack shrugged. Bob’s words wouldn’t help. He knew now how Bob had been feeling when his teammates died. Jack knew now his words had not been helpful back then.

“Let’s spar a bit.” Bob said. Jack was surprised. Bob was rather lazy.

“Come on!” Bob threw a fireball at him. Jack was forced to defend, though he still got lightly burned. Jack healed himself and fought with Bob. He forgot about Lillie for a moment and concentrated on the fight.

The next day Rowan came to Jack. He complained about his deal. Jack even wanted to go to the exterior to find his fucking rats, but he decided to just endure Rowan’s complains. It was too dangerous to go on his own.

Jack spent a few more days training, and grieving. One day, Stanley came to him.

‘You need some fun.” Stanley declared suddenly.

“I’m grieving. It’s not a time for fun.”

“You are grieving too much. Do you think Lillie would want to see you like this? You need some fun, maybe just for your mental health. Come with me. I know the place.” Stanley grabbed him and pulled forcefully.