Two months later.

Bo dodged to the side as a paw the size of his head with razor sharp claws, narrowly missed his face.

Wielding his machete, he used his explosive speed to dash past the lion beast's front.

He sliced the lion beast's underbelly from the side, causing the beast to roar in pain and whip its enormous muscular tail at him, hitting him square in the chest.

He flew a good few meters before harshly landing on the grass floor with a thud. Thankfully his leather armor and metal skin prevented his chest from caving in but it still hurt like hell.

“You don't have time to feel pain, get up and fight!” Sera shouted at him from atop a hill while watching the fight with her arms crossed.

He spat out a mouthful of dirt and stood up whilst spinning his machete, ready to take this beast down.

It seemed the beast would take the fight to him first because it sprinted at him in anger, opening its jaw ready to pierce its fangs into his flesh.

He prepared to dodge the bite but the second he jumped to the side to avoid the beast, it read his move and awkwardly headbutted sideways, hitting him once again. But this time it didn't send him flying and instead he grabbed hold of the beast's mane as tight as he could, and wouldn't let go.

Now that he was holding onto the beast's head, he knew just the right thing to do.

He pressed his feet into the beast's nose and flipped over onto its back and before the beast could shake him off, he stabbed his machete directly in the beast's spine with as much force as he could muster.

Slink!

The machete dug straight in, piercing through the lion beast's skin, muscles and through its bones.

After letting out one final roar, the beast collapsed to the ground, defeated and lifeless.

Bo tiredly crawled off the beast's back, and looked at this victory of his. In the center of the dead beast there was a blue flame floating, a flame only he could see.

He reached out for the flame and called it to him.

The flame reacted to his call and flew into his hand, disappearing once it got there.

Bo checked into his mind and looked at his emblems stats.

~ ~ ~

[ Badge weapon — Machete ]

~ ~ ~

[ Ember | Formless into Form — Access the formless items of living beings and turn them into form. ]

[ Restrictions: Use the souls of beings you've slain to power the ember. ]

[ Soul Power: 2.9 ]

~ ~ ~

Right under his ember restrictions was a new slot he had only recently started seeing called Soul Power.

His first kill he managed to get was only yesterday, and when he did the Soul Power showed up for the first time at 0.5. Now that he killed a second beast, it increased all the way to 2.9.

He wasn't sure what quantified how much soul power he got yet, but hopefully he would soon learn more about his ember.

He and Sera had been training for the last two months, and only recently had he, Sera and Iris ventured together into the Beast Glades to practice fighting real beasts.

It started really poorly, Sera would have to swoop in and save them most times but now, Bo was able to take on a beast by himself— only the smaller beasts though. There were a few close calls that Sera had to jump in to save him, but now he was relatively confident to take on any of the smaller beasts by himself.

It was a fast progression that he wasn't expecting, but he couldn't complain. It felt rewarding to see his nonstop efforts through these last two months pay off.

Iris was a little worse off at least in terms of fighting, but it made sense since she didn't have his extraordinary physical capabilities. She was learning all there is to support us; from using her potions to first aid and survival training.

He and Sera would be in charge of fighting, while Iris took care of them in a sense.

But that didn't mean Iris didn't learn how to fight, it was still a vital part of crossing the bridge and you shouldn't ever go in without knowing how to fend for yourself.

Iris took on the more strategic aspects of fighting, like learning how to position herself in battle or studying all the environments of the bridges sections to learn the best ways to take advantage of it.

Today was a little different since it was their final test to see if he could fight a beast by himself and he had succeeded. Now he really wanted to know what his ember could do, but even when he had soul power, he still didn't know how to use his ember— but that would change real shortly.

Sera ran down the hill with a smile, “You did it Bo!” She cheered.

A yellow aura faintly radiated out of her body which was the first time Bo had ever seen something like that. It was faintly visible, but still there.

Bo reached out his hand and touched Sera’s shoulder and something came over him and he instinctually activated his ember.

“Hm, what are you doing Bo?” She asked confused and suddenly she started to feel different. Her feeling of joy when she saw Bo pass the test, disappeared and she now felt like her normal self.

“Bo?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Bo jumped back and saw Sera’s confused face. “Sorry, it was my ember. I think I know what it does— or at least one thing it can do.”

Her excitement returned and she waited for what he had to say.

“I think I just… stole your emotions.” Bo explained and then held his hand out and materialized the happiness he had just stolen from Sera in the form of yellow powder on top of his palm.

Sera leaned in closely to look at the small pile of powder on his hand and she nodded in fascination and understanding.

“I think I get it. The formless into form… You turned my emotions, which are formless, into powder, which is a form.” Sera deduced. “Thats fucking cool!”

‘That makes sense,’ He thought and was happy his ember finally did something.

Bo smiled. “Not sure where I’d use this power but I'm glad I at least know a little bit about what my ember does. Now I wonder if it can do more than this.”

He looked back at his ember and saw his soul power had lowered down to 0.9. It seemed taking emotions had cost him two soul power.

“Probably since the description of your ember was so vague, but no need to rush.” Sera said. “Let's head back with your kill since the day is almost over and Iris is getting tired.”

“You gotta show your ember to Iris as well, she’ll love it!” She finished and then approached the dead lion beast.

She used her ember to casually hoist the corpse onto her shoulder, making sure to keep the bloody wounds away from herself, and took off back towards Gladesdale with Bo and the listless Iris waiting at the top of the hill.

The three made their way back into Gladesdale, Bo explained what he found out about his ember to Iris on the way but he couldn't show it to her since it looked like it cost two soul power to use. She of course loved it since it was such an abstract idea like her own ember and started brainstorming ways he could use the power.

They strolled through the wide streets where many beast hunters were also bringing back their kills to the Crosser Guild. It was the largest job market in Gladesdale because the pay was good, and there were endless beasts to hunt outside.

It was a little dangerous, but well worth it.

They dropped off the beast at the Crosser Guild which they had signed up to roughly a month ago, and earned a decent paycheck of around 2000 lang.

And that was only the price of a small beast, the large beasts were worth way more. They were easily in the five digit mark but hunting a large beast by oneself was largely impossible so groups would hunt them together, meaning that after splitting the reward, the net profit probably wasn't too different from a solo crosser hunting a small beast.

People there waved to their group, something that started happening more often as they appeared together more.

It might be the fact that whilst Sera wasn't as famous as her mother, she was still well known especially to fellow beast hunters. Now that Bo and Iris were always seen with her, people began to become friendly toward them.

Bo usually waved back, and maybe had brief conversations with people who came up to him, but he knew they probably didn't actually care about him and only wanted to cozy up to Sera.

They left quickly after earning their paycheck, heading back to Sera’s place and when they arrived, they smelt a delicious aroma floating in the air.

Madeline saw them walk in and asked them to join her for dinner, something they had done plenty of times over the last two months.

Dinner was already ready and Robert brought it out while making sure everyone also had something to drink, and then he joined them by sitting next to Madeline.

During the meal Madeline asked. “So, when do you guys plan to leave? No rush of course, I'm just curious if you have a date set yet.”

“We were thinking a week from today.” Sera replied. “Bo and Iris have improved their skills drastically over the last two months, and I think they're ready.”

“Don't get complacent, you also need to be ready.” Madeline warned.

“Of course, I've been keeping up with my training.” Sera said. “I've even started to spar with Bo recently.”

Madeline nodded and continued eating.

“Um, Miss Might?” Iris spoke up.

“You can just call me Madeline dear.” Madeline smiled at her, this definitely wasn’t the first time she had to ask Iris to call her by her name.

“O-oh sorry, Madeline.” Iris stammered. “I've prepared 102 potions for you and should be able to get a few more before we leave.”

“Sounds good, just make sure you remember to come get that wild artifact before you leave so you can send my potions from afar.”

Iris nodded.

After dinner, they took baths to wash off the dirt, blood and grime from their day. Bo made sure to wash his brand new beast hide armor he spent a majority of his cut of their funds on, making sure it was as pristine as it could be.

One who doesn't care for their equipment, does not care about themself— or something like that he read in a book.

Night came quickly and since it was a long day, the three went straight to bed, not having any energy to stay up.

Only seven more days before they left for the Lost Forest.

***

Seven days later.

It was the time for their departure.

Bo, Iris and Sera stood a few dozen meters away from the edge of the Lost Forest, dressed in leather armor while carrying large backpacks packed to the brim with equipment.

The edge of the Lost Forest was eerie, if you tried to look into the forest you would only see fog. Looking further up, you would be able to see upside down trees poking out of the fog caused by its gravity anomalies.

While they were all nervous to venture into the dangers ahead, they also couldn't help but feel excited.

Behind them ready to see them off was Madeline and Robert.

Madeline looked at them all and with a stern voice she said. “Remember what we've discussed, come back to the Beast Glades after beating the trial. You need to consolidate your strength and recover your worn body and mind before taking on the Sea of Misery.”

“Okay?” She stared at them, not requesting but ordering them.

“Yes mother!” Sera almost saluted. “We’ll beat the Lost Forest trial then come back home before heading out again.”

“Good!” Madeline then walked over to Iris and re-explained how the wild artifact she gave her worked.. “Just press the top of the cube and it will expand, then just put the potions in through the hatch. If you need anything just write a note, I'll make sure you get it.”

Iris nodded, she made sure to fully memorize how the wild artifact functioned.

She then stopped in front of Bo and smiled. “Keep them safe.”

Then she leaned and whispered. “Sera’s kinda stupid and Iris freaks out too easily, you need to be the voice of reason and calm them down, okay?”

He took in her words of wisdom and responded, “I'll do just that, thanks.”

Lastly she approached her daughter and smiled. She gave Sera a big hug that lasted for a minute and then took a step back.

“Robert, can you hand me the things?” She asked and Robert handed her two items; a burlap bag and a compass.

She gave the bag to Sera and the compass to Bo and explained what they were. “These are both wild artifacts I'm giving to you as a congratulation on your start to becoming crossers.”

“The bag produces 2-5 pounds of a random food every six hours so make sure you get the best use out of it.”

“The compass works like a compass but you can also lock its direction to a person, just drop a little blood on it and voila.”

Madeline stepped back and put her hands on her hips.

“Okay youngins, don't die on me!” She shouted. “Make sure you stick together, and have fun or else there's no point!”

“Now get going, show the Bridge what you're made of.” She boisterously laughed and waved them goodbye.

Bo locked eyes with Sera and Iris and they all smirked, ready to take on the Bridge.

With a large step, they walked into the foggy Lost Forest, disappearing from sight.