It was a year after Kornin had started as a hunter for the city. He was part of a larger hunting party checking on some unusual markings. The tracks looked similar to the tracks that would be left by a bear. The odd thing is that this animal seemed to make an effort to specifically avoid stepping in soft dirt that would leave tracks.

Korin and the other four men tracked the bear for three days. The group broke camp at dawn and continued to track the difficult trail. The trail had gone cold too many times to keep count. They would need to find the trail again every hour or so due to the bear’s habit of avoiding anything that would hold a track.

A lucky break came when the bear’s tracks intersected with the tracks of a few deer. The tracks showed that the deer scattered at the approach of the bear, but it seemed to focus on one of the deer and give chase. This was the first chance that the hunter’s had to really study the bear’s tracks.

They knew from the size of the tracks that this was a larger bear. Judging from how far apart the tracks were though, they had underestimated. The leader of the hunt was an experienced woodsman who had seen fifty winters. He determined that this bear had to be about as tall as a man when it was standing on all fours.

Korin reached into his pouches and pulled out some vials of a paralytic poison that he had been able to make. He passed them around and had everyone apply them to their weapons. With this information and feeling better prepared, they hurried off after the bear.

When they found the bear, it was hunched over the body of the buck that it had been chasing. The bear was massive. On it’s four paws, it was at least a head taller than any man in the group. It’s fur was black as night. It was easily the largest animal that Korin had ever seen.

The bear was busy devouring the buck and had not noticed the approach of the five men. The lead huntsman signalled for Korin and one other hunter to climb the nearby trees, then fire arrows at his signal. The other hunters would also shoot arrows at the bear and then switch to their long spears. The bear crunched through another bone as Korin climbed the tree.

Korin gave the lead huntsman the signal followed shortly the hunter in the other tree. Everyone readied their bows with the paralytic poison. The leader put up his ten fingers then waited two seconds then lowered one. Two more seconds and he lowered another finger. After he lowered the third finger two seconds later, he grabbed out his own bow and sighted up on the bear.

When everyone reached zero on the lead huntsman’s countdown, they launched their first volley. The bear whipped it’s head around at the sound of the bow strings. All five arrows sunk deep into the bear’s hide and introduced the poison into the bear’s blood stream. The bear roared and started to charge. The three hunters on the ground had enough time to fire another arrow before tossing aside their bows and raising their spears to form a spear wall and meet the charge.

Korin and the other hunting continued to rain down arrows on the bear as it charged. Korin as also taking a moment to charge his arrows with a bit of infernal essence as he fired on the bear. These arrows would be naturally more deadly than a regular arrow. This made him a tad slower than the other archers, but he had always played this off as taking more time to aim.

The bear crashed into the spear wall and pushed all three men back by it’s massive weight. The hunter on the left side’s spear bent and snapped in half. This allowed the bear to move in that direction. The bear slammed it’s massive paw into the hunter driving him into the ground in front of it. It’s next step sent all of the bear’s weight crushing down on the man’s rib cage.

The hunter didn’t stand a chance. The ribs shattered and chest cavity collapsed, crushing every vital organ inside. The hunter died in an instant. The other two hunters on the ground changed position and shoved their spears deeper into the bear.

Korin’s senses had been attuned to the burst of essence when a being dies. Hating himself for doing this, but unwilling to waste the essence in the air, he activated the technique that he had developed with his mother. With a sharp inhalation, he pulled in the cloud of infernal energy. The energy added a large amount to Korin’s chi spiral to be refined at a less dangerous time.

The other hunter in the tree got a spectacular shot off and caught the bear in the neck. The bear flinched and chuffed as the arrow struck it’s neck. It looked up at the archer and then stood up on it’s hind legs. This brought the bear up to about fourteen feet high. It reached up grabbed the hunter who was in the tree about sixteen feet up off the ground. It raked it’s claws through the man’s armor and tore deep into his chest. As the bear feel back to all fours, it pulled the man down from the tree where he landed with a sickening crunch.

Heart broken, Korin inhaled the infernal energy from another one of his fellow hunters. He fired another infernaly charged arrow at the bear and noticed that it was starting to slow down and not moving it’s left arm near as well. The bear swung it’s right arm out and smashed another of the remaining spears. The situation repeated itself as the spear shattered. It struck the hunter with the back of it’s paw on the way back. The blow sent the hunter flying as he slammed into the tree that Korin was in.

The bear narrowed it’s eyes and surged forward to finish off the downed hunter. Unwilling to watch another hunter die, Korin dropped his bow and pulled out his hand axe.

He poured as much infernal essence as he could into his deadly strike ability and leapt towards the bear’s left side. The bear saw him and tried to lift it’s arm to swat him out of the air.

The paralytic poison and the injury from the spear had limited the bear’s range of motion. It simply was not able to lift it’s arm high enough to reach him. Korin landed on the bear’s back and dug his hands into the bear’s fur for a grip.

He slammed his axe into the bear’s spine right at the base of it’s neck. The infernal essence caused the blade to sink in deeper and change the angle enough to sever the bear’s spinal column. This caused the bear to crash to the ground about two feet away from the wounded hunter. Korin’s axe raised and fell three more times before the bear stopped moving. He looked to see that Michael, the lead huntsman, had ran over and stabbed the bear in the throat. He had twisted and pulled the spear free, severing the major arteries.

Korin was suddenly surrounded by a dark cloud of essence. He pulled a small waterskin with a red ribbon on it out of the pouch at his side and tossed it to the lead huntsman. “Hurry Michael! Pour this down his throat.” Korin pointed towards the downed hunter.

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Michael looked at the waterskin for a moment, then ran over towards the hunter. He tilted back the man’s head and poured some of the healing liquid into the man’s throat. He would recap it, then hold then man’s nose and force him to swallow. He then repeated this process. Seeing that Michael had the situation in hand, Korin closed his eyes and breathed the infernal essence in. After five minutes of cultivating the bear’s essence, he had his chi spiral filled to an uncomfortable level. He opened his eyes and saw Michael staring at him.

“Are you alright up there?” he gave him a strange look as he was still sitting on top of the dead bear. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I guess I overdid it there with that last attack.” Michael nodded and patted the side of the bear. “Well Korin, you really need to work on your self-preservation skills. Come on down off that bear. I need your help.”

Korin slid down and was slightly light headed from all off the essence that he had taken in from the bear and the two hunters. After looking at Korin oddly, Michael shrugged and patted the bear.

Michael pulled off his backpack and walked up to the bear’s front paw. He picked up the bear’s massive paw and slid it in the bag. Korin went slack jawed as the bear slid into the bag. He held up the bag in front of Korin. “There are certain perks from being the lead huntsman. Now, we need to put our hunters in as well.”

He walked up to the man who was in the tree. “Lucas. He was a bit of a drifter. He never told us where he came from and if he had any family.” He put the bag over the man’s head and he slid into the bag. Walking over to the man who was wielding the spear. “This is Victor. He just got married a year ago. No children. We shall be giving his share of the hunt to his wife.”

“Let’s go check on Hector. I gave him the full skin of the health potion you whipped up. Impressive by the way. Health potions and paralytic poisons. You will have a nice side business as an alchemist.”

Korin nodded in acknowledgment. “That’s the plan. I get to wander the forest collecting the ingredients that I need and you pay me for it. As long as I bring back a deer every once in a while, I can gather as much as I need.”

Michael was quiet as he reached into his bag and pulled out a two long wooden poles with cloth tying them together. He walked over to Hector, the injured hunter. He gestured to Hector’s feet and stepped over by his head.

“You and I are going to talk about that when we get things settled here. We need to start using you more efficiently. I want every hunter to be carrying some of your potions. They’ll gather materials for you to get you prepped for this. I still want you to help with these big hunts though. We all would be dead if not for your leap of faith there. We need to double time out of here though. That potion should let us get him back to town, but we need to get him to a priest. We also have dead to bury and a bear to process. Now that we have seen that thing in action, i’m sure that it’s a beast. No regular bear would act like that.”

They lifted Hector and set him on the stretcher that came out of the impossibly large bag. As they rushed back through the forest towards the city, Korin frantically thought of what to do. As an infernal cultivator, it would not be a good idea to step into a building full of celestial cultivators. All it would take is one of them to decide to attack before realizing that he’s not a summoner.

Korin shook his head as they lifted him up. “Michael, we’ve been out here for three days and just been through quite a fight. We should go to the lodge. Fresh hunters can get him to a priest faster than we can. I’ve already helped him as much as I can with that potion. Speed is what Hector needs. I’d rather help with the dead.”

Not slowing down at all, Michael adjusted his path towards the lodge. “You are right. Fresh hunters will make better time. You are also being an idiot. Your healing potion is the only reason that he’s not in the bag with the others. Your poison is probably the only reason that we are all not bear scat.”

They emerged from the forest a short time later. A small crowd of hunters started to gather on the porch. Michael barked out orders and four hunters ran down and relieved them of the stretcher. He handed one of the hunters five copper and sent them running to the church with the stretcher.

Michael turned towards Korin. “Rest up for a little while. Then, we can lay Lucas and Victor to rest.” Korin walked over to one of the chairs on the porch and slumped into it.

Sitting there, he worked on refining all of the essence in his chi spiral. The massive influx of essence had let him rise from F8 to F9. That beast had given him almost the same amount of essence as half of the bandit camp back when he had his essence stripped.

* * *

Hector made a full recovery and became a close friend to Korin. Michael had been correct. The bear was a beast. The local spotter called a dire black bear. It even had a core. The core was sold to the adventurer's guild, the hide to a noble, and the meat to the city. Even split four ways, they each made significant profit. Korin used his share to buy himself quality leather armor, a good axe for combat, and a portable alchemy set.

Hector had other plans. He was so impressed by the priest’s ability to heal, that he tried to join their ranks. He was devastated when he was turned away. They had explained that his affinity was with earth and only celestial cultivators could become priests.

He told Korin about this and Korin arranged a meeting with his mother. She asked to meet them by the river the next day. She explained the elements of the heavens and the earth to Hector. She told him that everyone is born with at least one affinity channel open. She emphasized that this channel does not determine who you are, but simply what essence techniques you can use. More than that, she explained that there were still ways for him to heal even with his current affinity. However, there could be a more effective way too.

Hector had begged her to help him utilize these skills. She agreed, but explained that it would be pricey and she wanted a commitment from him in return. As a healer, he would be well sought after in groups of cultivators. Hector would always need to have her son in that group if Korin wanted and he would need to buy a memory stone. Hector agreed immediately,

Paige told them that she needed to get a few things together and meet them in the cave south of town tomorrow just after sunrise. She ran back to the guild to purchase some supplies and cash in on an old debt from one of the guild’s healers that she knew.

When Hector and Korin arrived at the cave, Paige was already there, sitting next to six water skins. Hector handed her the fifty copper that they had agreed upon. The true cost of this venture was significantly more and Paige would have sponsored it all anyway. The fifty copper was a lot of money for a hunter. It showed a lot of commitment for him to pay this much.

Korin watched the process of stripping one’s core for the first time since experiencing it himself. This time was so much more peaceful than the one he remembered. Hector pressed the memory stone against his forehead, then stumble back and fall against the wall of the cave. After he came back to his senses, he knew how to cultivate.

Korin got a good laugh at the expression on Hector’s face when he saw what his center looked like. Paige had him drink all six water skins. Then, he swallowed the beast core. The core pulled all of Hector’s accumulated essence and all of his corruption into itself. Right before it started to pull his life energy, Paige had him start cultivating the earth essence of the cave. Then, she used her techniques and pulled the water and the core out of Hector’s stomach.

The water hovered in the air and the pressure increased vastly. Releasing a large bubble, the core was crushed. With a wave of her hand, she sent the water bubble and the shards of the core back into the cave,

Paige instructed and corrected Hector as he pulled in earth essence and purified it in his chi spiral.she squinted at him. He had managed to get a pure center. “You need to gather and refine as much essence as you can. Once you can get to F8, I’ll feel comfortable opening up your water channel and we can get you that plant healing technique we talked about.”