It took Mor a whole week to get used to his volatile magic until he could use it effectively again. After that, he started his point enhancement training again by chopping the firewood of the whole village for days on end. However, this did the trick when he suddenly understood the technique. Repeating the action over and over, actively trying to figure out where the best moment for adding power made everything fall in place. He still kept up the woodchopping, even after "mastering" the technique, because it was good practice for body and magic and endeared him with the other Ice-kin.

One day, when he had just finished another session, his ax over his shoulder, Mor walked back home when he noticed a commotion at the gate. His interest peaked, and Mor changed his steps toward the commotion, curious what this was about. The closer he got, the louder the mumble of the seemingly heated discussions got until he could understand some choice words like "impossible," "first time," "fire breath," and "changes."

Mor then saw what the whole fuss was about. Another hunter group had returned with their loot. However, they were missing a member, and everyone else was badly hurt, mainly with gruesome burn wounds.

°Huh, that looks like a giant red boar thingy, with scales and six legs.° The human said, evaluating the loot.

°Yes, but why is it red?° Mor asked, not expecting the human to know but asking anyway.

°Is that strange?° The human asked back.

°It is.° Mor stated. °All monstrosities are black. No exceptions.°

°Then why is it red?° The human asked.

°My question exactly.° Mor said, turning to a nearby Ice-kin.

"What is going on?" He asked, the frowning man next to him.

"Hmm?" The man answered, looking down at the young Soul-kin. "Ah, the wood boy. Did you get pulled over by the commotion? As you can see, a hunter group has returned, and the thing they brought down and back was stronger than expected. If I understood their tale correctly, that Charger breathed fire and also enveloped its tusks in flame."

"It did?" Mor asked incredulously.

"Seemingly. Who knows what's going on with those things, after the whole Stone-kin fiasco. It will be interesting to hear what the chief says about this." The Ice-kin replied.

°Maybe they are mutating?° The human offered an explanation.

°Mutating?° Mor asked.

°Other word for changing.° The human explained, and Mor nodded.

The Ice-kin interpreted Mor's nod as understanding the explanation.

"This is nothing for kids. Go home." The man said, and Mor looked at him in surprise. He then wanted to protest for a second before remembering that in Ice-kin society, if an adult gives you an order, you do it as long as you don't get hurt following it.

Mor shrugged and left, knowing he would not find out more until the adult men had a chance to talk about it. He would simply need to be patient. However, theorizing with his human counterpart was still possible.

°I think such strange monstrosities will appear more often.° Mor said.

°Probably, but this doesn't change your goal. Where there is one, there might be more.° The human replied.

°I fear this could make returning far more dangerous. Suppose the already dangerous monstrosities are getting even more tricky to deal with. Who knows what abilities they develop?° Mor grumbled.

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°True enough, but it made something impossible just impossible. This means that nothing has changed in the big scheme of things. We still need to get incredibly powerful to fulfill our goal.° The human stated.

°You don't believe we can do it before that grand gathering. Right?° Mor asked.

°Honestly, yes, but you were so emotional. I couldn't tell you the truth and crush your hope.° The human said apologetically.

°I see.° Mor replied, taking a deep breath. °Thank you for looking out for me.°

°What? No accusations? No cursing me? You're just thanking me? I had expected we would fight again.° The human replied, surprised.

°Well, it's you and me. Also, I feel it is time for me to grow up, ° Mor explained.

°I really didn't expect that, but I got your back, buddy. Then, we might want to change our plans a bit, concentrating on growing your power and that of your hunting partners, ° the human replied.

°I thought that was already the plan.° Mor stated.

°Yeah, but the focus was getting you strong first and dealing with the rest when there's time.° The human said, and Mor had to agree.

°So you want to get Jorgen and Elly on their way, where they can practice on their own, then focus on our training?°

°Just like that.° The human agreed.

°Then let's do it!° Mor said, much to the delight of the human.

On their way back, the two of them discussed the steps necessary to make those changes in the plan. The first step is to get Jorgen on his road to also use the new pulse body enhancement while changing it up because of his lack of a reservoir. For Elly, they both had no idea and would probably just have to trust Lize with it. Well, except for the appearance of those "new" monstrosities, some new challenges also appeared. Mor would need to prepare his hunting buddies for magical attacks. As a Soul-kin, he knew very well how devastating those could be, especially after his experiences at school.

°How about playing a game of reverse tag with them?° The human asked.

°What’s tag?° Mor replied.

°Right, I forgot. Tag is a game where you would need to catch and touch another player, who would then need to touch someone else. The game's goal would be to run away long enough and never be touched. However, in our case, we would do the running while Jorgan and Elly needed to catch us.° The human explained, and Mor spun the thought further.

°And while they are trying to catch us, we would sling spells at them. Forcing them to evade those and preparing them for magic attacks without endangering them too much.°

°Indeed, we probably would need a few more rules to drive the lesson home. For example, if they get hit by a spell, they need to get into a sort of timeout. And with our ability to regenerate stamina by magical means, we can drill the game until your stamina and magic run out.° The human explained, and Mor liked the idea very much.

He would need to explain his plan the next time they started training. Even if the strange monstrosity was a single occurrence, training evasion was never a bad thing. The only thing he was unsure about was allowing Elly to use a bow because she was a ranged fighter. This would make the "game" a lot easier for her. Well, that's something to think about later.

Gorn returned from the adults' gathering just before dinner and verified Mor and the human's guesses. The chief also decided to send him and his team out to get more information about those changes, as they were the best hunter team this village had to offer. However, they were told not to engage if possible. Watching and learning were the primary assignments.

Lize was unsurprisingly not happy about this, but Gorn insisted on behalf of the chief. Those things pose a genuine and new danger for the whole village. They had already lost an entire hunter team, with one dead and the other unable to wield weapons anymore because of their gruesome and lasting burn wounds.

Mor decided to state his plan with evasion training at this opportunity, which Lize and Gorn instantly accepted. Training the young ones to deal with such attacks was an excellent plan. Gorn even offered to ask the chief if Mor could train everyone who was interested, even the more experienced hunters. After all, few monstrosities fought by conjuring magical effects, so they all needed to improve in training against such things.

However, Mor was not sure about this because it would reduce the time he could train his team, and he had no infinite stamina or magic, so this would pose a problem. Honestly, though, he didn't want to train with some of the more antagonistic Ice-kin, like Thor.

Ultimately, Mor had to promise Gorn that before he began training Elly and Jorgen, he would try this training method with the experienced hunters. He reluctantly did this because Lize also begged him to prepare Gorn and his team as best as possible for their mission. This meant Mor spent his evening and part of the night planning and refining the short training session with the human.