The sun was barely cresting the horizon when Aaron exited the city gates. He could see the massive trees of the woodland in the distance. He spent the first part of his day moving towards the woods at his fastest walking speed. Aaron took the time during the walk to memorize the characteristics of the herbs and beasts most common in the outer reaches of the woods. He reached the edges of the woodland around midday, and settled an easy fifteen minute walk from the treeline for lunch. He settled in to search through his spatial ring as the food cooked. The sight of the pill bottle his master had given him had reminded him of the ones inside his ring. This had brought to mind the fact that he had never properly searched through the ring’s contents.
He started with the pill bottles, of which there were two dozen. These bottles looked to him to be frosted glass. The pill identification manual revealed that they were actually made of a specific kind of crystal. This crystal was known for its ability to contain essence, which prevents the pills from losing efficacy during storage. Only three of the bottles contained unique pills, the remainder were a mix of healing pills of various grades, and the same for essence restoration pills. He ended with; one peak grade, five high grade, two dozen mid grade, and over a hundred low grade healing pills. For essence restoration pills he had; two high grade, ten mid grade, and thirty one low grade.
The first of the unique pills was a Creeping Permafrost Pill, which helped with breakthroughs for ice elemental cultivators. Aaron decided to sell this pill when he returned to the city, as it was of no use to him. The second was a Hydra Blood Pill, which incited bodily vigor to regrow limbs. He decided to keep this pill as insurance for future troubles. The last pill was perhaps the most interesting. It was a Yin Yang Reversal Pill, which converted the natural yin or yang of the imbiber to the inverse. This, when combined with a much more common Bodily Adjustment Pill and the correct array, causes a full body change to the opposite gender. This pill could be sold for a significant sum, as it was quite difficult to refine.
Next on his list came the small libraries worth of books stored in his spatial ring. Searching through the stacks revealed that around a third of the books were regional books, similar to what he had purchased. These books were for every region on this continent, and several appeared to reference regions on other landmasses. Roughly another third of the books were academic treatises on various subjects, such as the physical properties of essence. While these were very interesting and would be helpful in general, they were something to look into later. The remainder of the books appeared to be the personal notes of the man who built the transmission array. These were notes on both alchemy and array construction. More books to be read at a later date, or at night while in camp. The books that had been in the original collection of rings were essence arts manuals. Aaron decided not to pursue learning their contents without his master’s approval
Aaron retrieved his meal and began to eat as he looked at the few objects he had failed to identify on earth. The cut gems clearly contained elemental essence of various kinds. He considered absorbing the lightning gems, before getting a distinct sense from his element that doing so would harm him. The bell proved to be possibly the most useful item on his person. According to the treasure compendium, filling the bell with energy and then ringing it would create a field that subtly repelled beasts. The bell would absorb essence from the air to maintain the effect so long as it had space to move. The compendium also warned that particularly perceptive beasts at or above the Rising Mind realm could detect the effect and trace it back to its source.
Having finished both his meal and the search of his ring, Aaron packed his supplies and moved into the cooler shade of the forest. He immediately noted dozens of herbs growing in the spaces between the gargantuan trees. Most had no use greater than adding extra essence to food as a seasoning. Several, however, were vital to the creation of low grade healing and essence restoration pills. He saw only a single herb useful for the creation of other pills. Aaron collected every herb within ten feet of himself as he moved directly towards the space he and Deng Fang had used on their last night in the forest.
It took just under an hour to reach his temporary campsite. Upon reaching his destination, a small cave nestled inside of a small ravine, he placed one of his lesser spatial rings as a beacon. Having ensured that he would not get lost, Aaron picked a direction and headed deeper into the forest. He spent the next hour picking herbs as he moved through the forest.
He was picking yet another herb when he picked up on the unusual silence of the surrounding woods. Glancing around, he noted a large bluff off to the right, which he carefully moved towards. He stilled as he approached the treeline, a sheer wall of stone coming into view. His view instantly locked onto several large wolves resting outside of a deep cave. The wolves were each at least five feet at the shoulder, and varied between seven and eight feet in length. They had shaggy coats of burgundy fur, with orange eyes that glowed like coals. He immediately identified them as Ember Wolves, known for scorching fangs and scalding hot saliva.
Aaron’s heart sank as he recalled that these beasts were also known for the ability to see heat. One of the wolves panned its gaze across the treeline as he had this thought. The beast’s gaze locked onto him as he crouched inside the woods. The wolf began to growl as it rose to its feet, the visible members of the pack swiftly reacting to the noise.
Aaron knew that he had little other choice but to fight, Ember wolves were known for their exceptional sense of smell. The pack would hunt him down if he attempted to flee. He stood and walked out of the trees, noting that several more wolves were exiting the cave. The wolves now numbered thirteen, all somewhere between the third and fifth stage of the Bestial Power realm. The only exception was the largest wolf who was at the sixth stage. Aaron knew that this was going to be a difficult fight, even with his new cultivation.
Seizing the initiative, he bolt rushed at the far right wolf, activating his arc barrier as he moved. The first wolf moved to swipe at him as he neared, but he pushed off of the ground just beyond its reach. While this cut off the essence to his bolt rush, he maintained his momentum. He arced over the first wolf’s head, driving a shocking strike into the base of its skull as he passed. The first wolf collapsed as Aaron landed, the lightning having fried its spinal cord. He immediately activated his dancing leaf step, ducking under a leaping wolf, feeling one of his barrier arcs leap into the wolf’s underbelly as it passed. Then he was striking out at the wolf moving in low on his left. His fist sliding over its snout to deliver a shocking strike to the space between its eyes. He stepped back to avoid the wolf’s trajectory, its body seizing as the lightning ran through its brain.
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Aaron instinctively raised his right leg as a wolf behind him bit at his ankle. He killed the wolf with a shocking kick to the top of its head, before rolling forward to avoid another leaping wolf coming from his left. His mind slipped into something akin to a trance as he continued to fight. He avoided the wolves attacks on instinct, taking wounds only when several attacked in concert. His barrier arcs tore at wolves who got too close, and the beast's numbers slowly declined under his shocking strikes. The electric blows either directly damaged vital organs or slowly wore away at their bodies.
His trance was broken by a massive blow that tore into his side. The largest of the wolves attacked just as he struck down the last of its packmates. His mind snapped back into full consciousness as the pain ripped through his body. He rolled away from the beast as it drew back its paw, rotating across his shoulder to come up facing the beast. Stepping in towards the beast, he ducked under its next swipe, driving a shocking strike into the meat of the beast’s planted foreleg. He could feel as the essence of his strike bled off into the beast's extremely thick fur, not piercing into its body. The following attempts proved no more successful, doing nothing more than wasting his essence.
Avoiding the beast’s jaws as it attempted to bite through his torso, he drove a shocking strike into the creature’s nose. Taking the free moment as the beast yelped and drew back slightly, he retrieved and consumed a low grade essence restoration pill. He knew that the blow had surprised the beast, but hadn’t dealt any meaningful damage. Dodging another of the beast’s strikes, Aaron wracked his brain for a method to harm the beast. Then he felt it, the base of his skull began to tingle as he ducked yet another swipe.
The presented concept built upon his Meridian Helix technique, repurposing it for an offensive purpose. Seeing no other option, he leaned into the feeling, regardless of the possible danger of attempting a brand new technique in combat. Starting at his right shoulder, he started spinning that specific spiral section ever faster. He then stopped absorbing the essence back into his hand, allowing the essence spiral to run down to the tips of his fingers. The essence, which wisped lightly off of his fingertips, was drawn back in as the spiral grew ever faster. Aaron knew that this technique could possibly drill through the wolf’s thick fur, and yet he knew that it could be improved upon yet further.
Jumping back to avoid yet another strike, he attempted something entirely new to him, manipulating gray essence. Pulling upon the gray essence already in his system, he reversed the direction of the peripherals in his right arm. The gray essence in that spiral, with nowhere to flow, instead applied pressure to the white essence around it. This increased pressure drove the spiral to spin even faster, pressing against the containment of his will. The increased pressure caused his arm to waver, beginning at his hand and moving upwards. Aaron dodged under the wolf’s snapping jaws, drawing his fingers into a rough cone, which caused the separate spirals of his fingers to merge together. The gray section of the newly merged spiral extended several inches beyond his fingers, maintaining its shape under the rotational force.
Aaron somehow knew that the gray essence would slide through the beast’s fur without dealing any physical damage. This was because the beast's body was already attuned to absorbing gray essence through its skin. However, the technique as it currently stood would simply push extra gray essence into the beast’s body. The tingling at the base of his skull suddenly redoubled as his lightning crackled. Complying with the new influx of insight, Aaron isolated the portion of the Shocking Strike which converted white essence into lightning essence. Having isolated that particular aspect, he then used it to convert the essence flowing through his peripherals into lightning essence.
Aaron nearly got hit due to his surprise at what was occurring on his arm. Both colors of essence on his skin changed color, the lightning element bleeding into the gray essence. While the white essence became the familiar bright lemon yellow, the gray essence became something closer to olive. Both colors of lightning essence began to move differently as they interacted. The refined lightning essence began to drift side to side along its spiraling path. While the unrefined lightning essence began to form more recognizable waves with the troughs touching his skin. The rapidly rotating olive extension now bore more resemblance to a drill, with a surface covered in biting protrusions. Aaron winced as his arm bones began to creak and ache under the force of the technique.
While this took time to describe, the construction of the technique had taken less than a minute in total. Having completed his new attack, Aaron dropped under the wolf’s body as it lunged for him, driving his right towards the beast’s chest. Suddenly recognizing the danger to his fingers from the force of his blow, he curled his fingers slightly. His hand folded into a fist as it struck, at which he reflexively started drawing his essence into his hand. This had the unexpected effect of causing the remaining olive essence on his hand to burst forward into the beast’s body. The lemon yellow essence flowed through his meridians, entering his dantian. There the lightning element was drawn into the lightning speck at the core of his essence spiral, leaving behind pure white essence.
The wolf collapsed to the ground at the end of its lunge, howling in pain. The wolf’s body was not designed to contain the lightning essence, which was tearing at its meridian network. Aaron watched with a certain degree of sorrow and guilt as the wolf’s pained howling slowly petered out. Its body shuddered for several more moments before going still. He sighed morosely before collecting the bodies of the beasts from across the field.
Having completed his grim work, he then pulled out one of his light stones and entered the cave. Application of essence caused these stones to emit light more akin to an electric lantern than a torch. The cave was around twenty feet across and twelve feet high. It stretched some thirty feet back into the bluff, rounding out into the back wall. There was a single large herb growing on the back wall next to a small trickle of water. The herb primer listed it as the most vital herb in a Mountain’s Heart Pill, which assisted in breakthroughs for earth cultivators. Aaron presumed that the pack leader was planning to consume this herb in an attempt to become a Magma Fang Wolf. He plucked the herb before leaving the cave, gazing into the evening sky.
He spent the remaining hour of sunlight picking herbs as he made his way back to his campsite. Entering the cave in which he would be spending the night, he strung the Beast Repelling Bell up from a sturdy branch he had selected from the forest floor. He then set up his cooking equipment and made a quick stew, taking a low grade healing pill and recovering as it cooked. Dinner was passed reading the primer on clans and sects as he ate. He continued reading for half an hour before retrieving his mattress and going to sleep.