The brat looked up and asked, "By the way, your body had a lot of soul pressure and heat radiating from it when you sliced the silverback bear’s head off. You can use imperia?"

Sariel was curious about what the kid meant by 'soul pressure.' He knew what a soul was. "First time hearing about soul pressure… what's it?"

The boy squinted at him, looking a bit perplexed. "You should be the one telling me, but, uh… it's like when you guys generate imperia. It creates byproducts — heat and soul pressure, which is like very heavy, hot air apparently."

So that’s what it was, he thought. All that heat was just byproducts?

Sariel glanced down at his hand, the same one he had used to kill the bear. He hadn’t expected imperia to give him that much strength, but it felt strange — like lava was being channeled through his arm. It also felt like there were blockages in his shoulder and elbow that the lava had to break through.

"I see. It was my first time actually using it ," he admitted. When he generated the imperia against the bear, it hadn’t hurt, but channeling it did.

He wondered if it was like other things that only hurt the first time, hoping that was the case, or if he had used it incorrectly. He wasn’t sure.

Kai and Lilan both perked up, showing immediate interest. They moved closer.

“Really? So why didn’t you use it the moment you challenged the bear?” Kai asked.

It was a fair question. He had never used imperia to fight before and had no idea how to use it properly. He was mainly relying on instinct. If he had trained with imperia, it might have come naturally to him in such a dire situation. He felt lucky that his body had just managed to rely on what little knowledge it had.

“I can’t use it well,” Sariel replied. He knew he would most definitely have to use it again soon and hoped it wouldn’t hurt as much.

"Oh, that sucks."

"Trust me, I know."

Shortly after, he fell asleep, surrendering to his exhaustion.

He guessed the kids had collected all the herbs they needed in the area.

A disgusting, rotting smell suddenly filled his nose, causing him to snort and jerk awake.

What’s that disgusting smell?!

He got up, scanning the darkness for any half-dead animal nearby, but there was nothing.

How bizarre…

He blocked his nose with his sleeve.

The kids woke up, too, quickly holding their noses. One of them exclaimed, "It’s decaying..."

Decaying? What was decaying? What were they talking about? But then he noticed they were looking at him — specifically, at his arm.

Lilan pointed to his injured arm. "Your arm is decaying."

Huh… Hah? They had to be kidding. What did they mean by "decaying"? No way… that wasn’t possible.

Anxiously, he turned to look at his left arm. His forearm’s flesh had patches of ugly green and black all over it. It not only looked rotted, but it smelled rotten too.

Kai commented, "The venom in the saliva of the silverback and any bear variation is capable of rapidly breaking down their prey. Honestly, we completely forgot about it since the venom usually works incredibly fast, in a matter of minutes. Somehow, you’re still alive, and it’s only contained in your forearm."

Whenever he got injured, it would only hurt for a while. Granted his injuries from hunting was never serious from his perspective. His limping was gone the day after. He fell from a building head first and was okay a couple hours after.

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Maybe he just healed quickly?

Lilan said, “The decaying smell would keep animals away, but the reason isn’t exactly in your favor.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be. “What is it?”

He held his breath, bracing himself for what would surely break him…

No, it wouldn’t. He had survived so much already. He could handle this.

“Because other animals will think you’ve been claimed by a silverback bear. They wouldn’t want to interfere with the prey of something of such caliber unless they’re stronger than a silverback bear. Also, silverbacks are also scavengers, so they’ll happily come for you.”

…Well, that was hellish. Being a powerful animal magnet vs. dying from flesh-rotting venom. What a fate.

Lilan focused intently on his arm. "We can make an anti-venom. If… if we collect saliva from a silverback, then I-I can do it!"

Now… that sounded like an issue too. They would have to face another silverback. But more importantly, "How do you know how to do that?"

“School!” she replied.

Schools? They went to school?

“What do you guys learn there?" he asked.

“Eh?” Lilan made her usual confused sound. She always seemed to be baffled by everything. It was like her favorite word.

He rolled his eyes at her.

Kai started tapping his chin repeatedly, looking deep in thought. "Mhm, of course, you’re too dumb to have gone to school. It makes sense!" He slammed his fist into his palm like he’d just solved a great mystery.

“You know you’re a little shit, right?” Sariel quipped.

Kai laughed. “But seriously, you don’t know about school?” He sounded like he couldn’t believe it.

He didn’t bother to answer, but Kai seemed to get the idea and muttered a quiet "dang" under his breath.

Lilan jumped in. “Well, there are a bunch of different schools. There's general education — like language arts, science, math, geology, social studies, rift studies, and history. Then there are schools for specific trades or talents. But everyone has to go to general school first before moving on to anything else.”

That made sense enough.

Kai added, "There are also schools for slayers, you know. You want to become a slayer, right?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, Kai. He’s got a dagger, he can use imperia, and he’s out here in the forest. He’s obviously trying to level up, either to be a hunter or a slayer."

Kai nodded like it was obvious. "It wasn't a real question."

Sariel seems impressed. "You’re sharp."

Lilan blushed, her cheeks turning a shade darker. “Well... I mean, if you say so. I won't argue.”

Sariel laughed loudly. "Smarter than Kai."

Dumb ass kid.

"I'm smarter than you!" Kai shouted, and began ranting about how stupid Sariel was to him.

Kai was annoying, beyond annoying. But it was entertaining to hear him act a fool.

Lilan’s voice broke through his thoughts. "Sariel?"

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"Do you have a little sister or brother?"

"I don’t know. I have bad memory." He didn't want to admit that he had lost his memories to kids.

"How can you not know?"

"Because I don't. I just can't remember much."

"Oh..."

Kai muttered, avoiding his gaze, "I bet you were a cool big brother."

Sariel gave a faint smile. "I hope so."

But what if he hadn’t been? What if he’d been awful to them? He didn’t want to think about that. He shook his head, trying to push the thought away.

He needed to change the subject. "So, how’s school been for you? I imagine it must be tough since you're half reserio."

Lilan clicked her tongue. "Most of my teachers are nice. My language teacher treated all of us reserios with respect."

That surprised him. "Glad to hear it wasn’t all bad."

She smiled at that.

Kai cut in again, "The only school that matters is the hunter's school! So we can become anima hunters, or stone hunters, or whatever. None of that boring stuff about history or math."

A stone hunter? Wouldn’t that just be a miner? Then again, maybe the stones they hunted were in dangerous places. He hadn’t thought much about schooling, but maybe he should. Then again, how would he pay for it?

The smell of his decaying arm hit his nose again. And the thought of other bears being attracted by it frightened him.

Damn it… He needed to learn how to wield this imperia properly.

He tried generating the imperia again, focusing hard. No heat came off him this time, but he didn’t feel any stronger either.

Weird… He had to channel it, right?

He concentrated on moving the imperia to his arm. It moved, but slowly, like it was crawling through mud. As soon as it reached his shoulder, it stopped.

What the hell?

The force didn’t feel nearly as strong. Was it his mental state messing with it? Why did it move so fast when he fought the bear? Was it adrenaline?

He tried again, but the result was the same. This wasn’t good.

Come on, focus… you need this power…

He tensed his arm. Ugh!

A wave of pain shot from his neck down his arm. Not as bad as before, but still pretty damn painful.

Maybe he was channeling it wrong. At least it didn’t feel like lava this time, but it still felt like something was tearing inside him.

He let it go; he couldn’t handle that right now.

He’d save it for when he needed it.

He checked the dagger’s scabbard. The weapon was good, but not good enough. He needed something better, but that wasn't an option at the moment.

These kids’ father was a hunter, and they seemed to know something about poisonous plants.

He pointed at Kai and Lilan. "I need you guys to teach me how to make poison."

If he was going to survive, he’d use every tool he had.