Chapter 4 the new day to day

The next few weeks were hard and grueling for Seth with schooling and the work on the ranch he had ended up resorting to tobacco to handle the stress abeit loosing four credits a week to a pack of smokes but he was fine with it especially with his finals for his english class coming up. But soon Seths school day was finished and his work began after retreaving his tachi from New Edens armory where he was now keeping it there during classes not only because it was more conviniant to get to at the end of the day but they also because they offered free repairs for all students weapons, soon he had his tachi on his waist it was his first time bringing it to the ranch Rico wouldn't let him till now but he looked at the bone blade remembering how many times it saved him, it had the same curve at the tachi blades from the old worlds japan but it much thicker and wider almost like a machete but much much sharper as it was made from the blade bone of the ridge head, as he was remanising the shuttle arrived honked its horn and he climbed on.

"Hah about time you should up greenhorn" yelled rico as he stood at the ranches gate

"not my fault shuttles faster than running" said Seth as he got off the shuttle

"for now" said Rico as he turned around and walked to the slaughter house

Seth was confused they never went to the slaughter house they always fixed fence or herded the Rumblehorns from pasture to pasture. They walked inside for Seth to see Bison or that's what they called him he was the olderst bull Rumblehorn in the herd its fur was practically white and three massive horns on its snout all hollow and serving no other purpose then for calling.

"Whats Bison doing here" asked Seth

"the herd wont answer his call anymore" said Rico in a soft voice

Everyone knew this meant Bison was gonna be put down and they all grew attached to it because he is one of the only servivoirs of the original herd.

"Thats why I had you bring your blade" said Rico

"You want me to kill him" asked Seth surprised

"Everyone here tested there metal on the first herd how its your turn" Said Rico as he looked at Seth

Seth was concerned he never went after anything this big but he didn't argue, he jumped into the curral when the beast was and rushed it blade to his side ready to throw a slash at the beast and he did the blade drew closer. And struck the beast bouncing off its hide shocked Seth took a few steps back and becan to circle the beast he had not expected its hide to be that strong, what felt like hours to Seth were just mere minutes not knowing if the beast would attack or if it simply didn't care but he soon notice the only place he had a decent chance of hurting the beast was the soft underbelly. Now knowing what he had to do he began to provoke the Rumblehorn striking at its face to irritate it and his plan worked and seeing that it worked and ran as far away from it at possible, turning around Seth saw it covering the distance quickly but Seth didn't let that stop him he ran at the beast dropped to one knee and skid under it with his blade held straight up causing it to peirce into the soft stomuch of the beast and using its own momentum to gut itself. Everyone watching was shocked to say the least they didn't expect this 'rookie' hunter to be able to take down Bison but he did and soon everyone was laughing and smiling as they took care of the beasts boby but they allstopped when they saw a monster core inbedded in the beast.

"well shit" said one of the farm hands

"do we put it with the rest of them or what" asked another farm hand

"no keep this one off the books the kid earned it" said Rico ending the discussion there

no one was really upset they knew Seth earned the core so they pulled it out and handed it to him.

"now careful its probably the strongest core you ever absorbed" warned Rico

Seth nodded and absorbed the core and to say he screamed in pain was a understatement he felt like every muscle fiber in his body was getting ripped apart everyone rushed to help him but there wasn't much they could do. About a minute later Seth stop screaming and was drenched in a cold sweat and could barely breath.

"Jesus kid how you feeling" asked the first Farmhand

"shitty" Seth muttered out between labored breaths

"How many core have you absorbed" Asked Rico

Seth took him time to catch his breath he was beginning to feel better.

"Like four maybe five" said Seth

"GODDAMMIT KID YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOURSELF" screamed Rico as he grabbed onto Seth

As Rico grabbed Seth he felt normal again but different at the same time he felt strong very very strong

"what do you mean" asked Seth

"Kid the older a beast its the stronger it is that why we test greenhorns with the first herd because the worst that can happen to with an old Rumblehorn is you get thrown around there just massive loud cows after all" said Rico as he let go of Seth

"So that means what exactly" asked Seth

"It means with five cores a year old bull can kill you dumbass" said Rico

Seth was shook to the bone now knowing that the cattle he's been working with could easily kill him if they wanted to. He looked at Bison's corpse wondering how exactly he managed to kill it. But as Seth was thinking he heard Rico yell at the farm hands.

"get the hide to the crafters and get a set of rancher gear for the student Seth deken and make sure they put extra care into the damn hat" said Rico

one farmhand wrote down what he said and nodded before him and a few others started to take the beast apart and Rico and Seth walked out.

"Whats that blade of yours made out of" asked Rico as they got ready to finish the days work

"Its the fang of a Spire" said Seth as he got on the ATV

Rico was shocked hearing this a Spire was a very rare and powerful beast one of the first to appear making it one of the strongest around, they stood as tall as twenty feet tall and thirty feet long looking like a lion and a porkupine mixed together covered in spikes that it could shoot out in any direction, very few were in north America unless they were hiding deep in the now uncharted areas.

"how the hell did you do that" asked Rico

"a guy named Mark Kroford found and got me and a few hundrand hunters to go after it as long as we all got a cut of it, we killed it and Mark convinced me to get rid of my cut of hide and needles for one of its fangs I took the fang and found out no one could do anything with it that was till the Orc's came through the gates and I paid a group of them to make the blade" said Seth in a indifferent tone

Orc's were a humanoid race that came through the gate three years ago they were hated till they kill powerful beasts and made expert use of the bones of the beasts to make weapons and armor.

"so that makes sense wonted get a better blade then that for a long time" said Rico

Set nodded as they began to work again and Seth wondered what Rico meant when he said Rancher Gear, but the work went fast Seth went back to his Bus made food and went to bed.