Hunting Party

A group of four arrived at a lonely pagoda, behind which the ground opened up into a massive green jungle."Ah, here we are, the Valley of a Thousand Mountain Peaks!" Gale exclaimed proudly and spread his hands wide."I still can't believe you actually managed to get your hands on this contract. How did you do it?" Fen asked while holding his hand close to her body.Gale laughed and patted her hand. "Come now, let your husband keep at least some secrets…""Guys, it's going to be night soon, let's go register with the valley guardian first. You can flirt after we set up camp." Astarion urged and then turned to Fen beside him. "You coming?""I'm right behind you." The young woman replied with a smile. "Let's go."The four slowly made their way to the old wooden pagoda when the front doors opened and a man well past his prime stepped out to greet them."Greetings, fellow Cultivators. Welcome to the Valley of a Thousand Mountain Peaks." The man cupped his fist in greeting. "If you are here to explore, I'm afraid that will not be possible at the moment. The valley is currently under lockdown. A foul beast has been wreaking havoc for quite some time now and the creatures inside are getting restless."Gale moved to the front of the group, pulled a bound piece of parchment out of his sleeve, and handed it over with a smile. "That's exactly why we are here, my good man. We are the hunters sent by the city.""Oh!" The old guardian nodded and took the scroll. "I see, I see…" He said as he read through it. "In that case, follow me, we need to get you registered." He waved them over as he made his way back to the pagoda."What do you think the beast is? I have sometimes seen massive flames beyond the horizon during the night. Could it be a Dragon?" The man asked, trying to make conversation."Unlikely." Astarion stated. "Those creatures keep to their part of the continent, most of the time. My guess is that it's one of the monsters from the Underdark. Those creatures are vicious.""Ah, yes, yes… Quite feisty those ones." The man nodded, though it was unclear if he really agreed or if he was just being polite. "Well, here we are, please write your information here." He handed over a few official-looking scrolls and patiently waited until they were completed.The group handed them back swiftly."Thank you. Now, these…" He presented them with four bracelets made of gold. "These are your trackers. Also, if you find yourself in trouble, just twist here and you will be whisked away to safety. An Anchor is behind the pagoda and it should cover most of the valley."He handed each one of them a bracelet and guided them as they put it on. The metal expanded or contracted with a simple pulse of magic to reform tightly around a Cultivator's wrist."Now, the relics should protect you against the guardian beasts inside but do be careful with the unknown one. We don't know what it is capable of. Also, if you go too far from the pagoda, on the opposite side of the valley, the bracelet might not have enough power to bring you back. Do keep that in mind.""Thank you, we'll keep your warning in mind." Bai replied with a polite smile.Astarion examined his bracelet one last time and then displayed a confident smile. "No worries. We'll take care of this little problem in no time. The valley will open again before the next foll moon, that, I promise you.""Astarion…" Gale gave him a disapproving look and shook his head."Relax, man. With our skills, finding a roaming monster will be child's play." Astarion grinned. Gale just rolled his eyes."Shall we go?" He said, not in the mood to argue. He knew it was pointless. Astarion was like that for his entire life, and he doubted some words could change him. After all, he already tried, with little success. "There's still an hour left till sundown.""Ah, you can sleep here tonight. I got a few spare rooms-" The valley guardian offered.Gale interrupted. "No, it's best if we get familiar with the place as soon as possible. But, we appreciate the offer." He then turned to the others and pumped his fist in the air. "Alright gang, let's go! Let's find that trouble monster and collect that money!"The group responded with smiles, held-back cheers, and marched into the jungle as they chatted merrily among themselves.***he jungle was dense with life and obstacles as a man carved his way through. In one hand he carried a staff, and the other gripped a blade. He swung the weapon around, making a path through the foliage of the dense woods.He wore an earthy green robe that reached the ground, a gray sash around his midsection, and a dark blue conical hat with a wide rim. It was made from a similar cloth to his robe, and its sides drooped down from high heat and humidity.The man's eyes were unsteady, partially glazed over as he moved his body almost on instinct. Every time his staff tapped the ground, the earth froze, becoming more like a sheet of rock instead of soil. His bare feet scraped against the surface as he walked, leaving shallow imprints on the ground.There was rustling in the undergrowth, and a pair of yellow eyes appeared in the darkness. The man, without looking, pointed his gnarled wooden staff at the creature, and just as it burst out of the cover, sharp fangs and claws bared, a whisper escaped the man's mouth, accompanied by a crackling sound as if reality was breaking. A loud boom later, a smoldering black spot was all that remained where the beast stood a moment prior.Its body evaporated, its bones disappeared, and the man continued on his path, unperturbed.That man was me. Surprise!***I was cosplaying an old sage, or a wizard with the staff, the hat, and everything. I had even grown a beard! Well, it was over a year since I last shaved, so I became a harry wizard, hehe. Also, Tiny was walking a few steps behind me. A silent companion.It took me nearly six months to consume the Wyrm, though I did save a bit of meat for later. The thing was that I probably could have done it faster, but that would have been less efficient.If I took my time and consumed the Wyrm over, let's say, ten years, I could have probably absorbed nearly half the Essence its body contained. That would have been a huge boost, but it would take a lot of time. But instead of caring for efficiency, I could just consume more. It was a trade-off.Speed or efficiency. Some other Cultivators didn't mind spending the extra time to extract every little drop of Essence possible and incorporate it properly into their bodies, but that was just not for me. Six months of doing the same thing over and over with no distractions was already pushing it.That's why I didn't even finish the meal entirely when I decided I needed a break. And as I had magic powers, I decided to play as a wizard for a bit. I have never done it before, like a proper fantasy wizard. I even made my own gear.I took a robe of some Brilliant Sword Sect Elder and slightly altered its color to have a more earthy tone and then made a hat from an Outer Disciple robe and dunked it in a vat of some purple fruit. It came out dark blue, but that was fine with me.As for the staff, I just took a young sapling and dried it out, before hollowing and sticking a Spirit Metal rod inside. I melted down a few Spirit Daggers and even wrapped a wire I made out of them around the staff to give it some structural support. The wood by itself was terribly weak, but with my improvements, it became strong enough so I didn't accidentally crush it.The staff did nothing by itself, I just sent Qi through the metal decoration to make it appear like my spells came from it. Heck, I even figured out how to add sound effects to my magic. Usually, there was only a flash and a boom and the opponent was dead, but with a bit of brainstorming, I made it so that for about a second you could hear cracks and a grinding, rumbling sound, like the world was ending, before getting embraced by oblivion.I was having so much fun. The only thing that I was missing was gray hair and a long beard and I would be set. But I was kind of too young for that. Small problems. Nothing that would pull me out of character.Yeah, well… I say that, but when the ground suddenly exploded below me, I was cursing like a sailor, before getting myself back under control. I half expected to get jumped by a whole bunch of thugs, but the jungle was quiet. There was just the explosion that ruffled my clothes, not even really damaging them, and that was it.My left eye twitched in anger, but there was nobody to take my anger out on. It wasn't even the first time, it was the third! In my last week since beginning to play a wizard, the ground exploded beneath my feet three times already! I sadly didn't know if it was a natural phenomenon or if anyone was messing with me.The thing was that I couldn't even detect the magic before it happened. And it was definitely magic. I could feel Spirit Qi every time the ground blew up. Very annoying!And so I walked, eyes glazed over, and my body basically on autopilot, and my mind stretched far and wide, examining the landscape, searching for… something, anything out of the ordinary. I just needed one or two more Spirit Beasts to reach the Eighth Layer. I was so damn close!I did kill a few Golden Core beasts, but they really didn't do much for me anymore. I would need hundreds of them to reach the new level. Their Souls were just too tiny to matter.I guess I could exterminate every being around me, but that would be way too cruel. I didn't want to make entire species go extinct just because I had a problem finding one or two big guys.Speaking of two guys…I stared at the two Spirit Realm Cultivators blocking my path and blinked a few times. They remained there, unmoving, their expressions ones of surprise and suspicion. I sent another wave of energy through them and even used my Arcane Eyes to scan them, but it all came back negative.It was as if they weren't even there. I could feel their Souls though, but that feeling didn't carry as far as my other methods did. They had damn good cloaking techniques, that's for sure.They frowned.[Er… Good day.] I said, not really sure what else to do. It had been a while since I last saw another human and the last time they tried to kill me.Ignoring my friendly greeting, the two men looked at one another."I thought the valley was under lockdown?""I thought so too. Hmm."They turned back to face me and the taller of the two took a step forward. "My name's Gale. Who might you be, friend?"