16. Growth

After Mark had finished fixing all of the tools and getting acquainted with the specifics required for the fifth step, he carried the tools to the dropoff area next to his house and then he returned to the forge to clean up.

The sun had already set below the horizon and the moon was beginning to come over the peaks so Mark just walked past his favorite night spot, sparing it quick glance, before he made his way back to the forge.

He had to clean up the mess from the work he did that day and when he was done the moon was already high in the sky. 

He just walked over to the spot with his favorite view at that point and lost himself in the ethereal nature of the valley.

It allowed him to clear his mind, and it was different than when he was in a trance at the forge. While he felt relaxed and a bit awed, he was not in any sort of trance. Looking out at the distant river in the valley just made him feel relaxed and after an unknown amount of time, he felt ready for bed.

On his walk back to his house all he thought was, 'It's too bad I couldn't work on the sword today, but there is always tomorrow.'

He ate a bit of the food some of the villagers had brought him and then went to bed. 

Once again, he fell asleep to the rhythmic hammering of the forge as he imagined working on his creations.

Mark woke up to the sun on his face which was his favorite way to wake up. The light was warm and comforting which gently woke him up and he felt like that gave him a more rested feeling when he woke up.

He did his normal routine of washing his body with a wet rag and eating some of the food the villagers gave him. Usually, he would just eat some dried mountain beast meat but he had recently run out of it.

Today he would begin with a foraging route since he still needed to stock up on iron and hopefully some mountain beast meat. Since he would be going out of the village he dressed in his mountain beast furs instead of the thin blacksmith garb he wore at the forge.

All he lacked to look like a real mountain man was a grizzly beard.

'I never thought this would happen, but if I don't kill a mountain beast today I'll have to go hunting for them.'

He was thinking of the route he would take as he headed to his forge to grab the rest of the gear he would need for his adventure.

'Today I will have to travel about 6 km north of the village through the natural bridge pass. That is where the Unikuma dwell but their horn could be a good crafting material. The meat is tough but it's still good . . . they are hard to kill though. Maybe I will give it a try if I find one on its own.'

The Unikuma that he was worried about was a bear-type mountain beast that had a single horn on the top of its head. The horn was typically 13-19cm in length but it was possible for an exceptionally powerful and old Unikuma to grow a 28cm horn.

While he was thinking about eating some Unikuma and getting a bigger rug than the bear rug he already possessed, he reached the forge and began taking out the gear he would need.

The spear, of course, as well as a larger skinning knife and the sacks he would use to carry everything.

'I am not going to commit any sort of genocide today. I don't need that much meat or fur and the horn would only be good for a handle on a knife. . .'

He looked over to where he kept his sword.

'Well if I kill an elder Unikuma then maybe I'll have the perfect hand grip for this sword. . .'

Then he shook his head.

'That would be a terrible way to kill myself. Even thinking about those things gives me the creeps. . .'

When he was done with preparations, he unceremoniously left the village. The guards had no questions for him, just the typical respectful nod which he returned.

When he was out of eyesight, he ran around to the north path and maintained a reasonable speed as he made his way to the natural pass.

It was a landmark that basically signified that he was leaving the 'safe' area of his village outskirts where some rocks fell from higher up the mountain and lodged themselves between two rock formations. It created a natural bridge between the rock formations that were angled in opposite directions and led up to different peaks.

Once he ran under the natural bridge, he slowed down until he was walking and he continued to walk for a few hundred meters before he slowed down further so he was making less sound.

He had to be cautious and carefully observe his surroundings so nothing could sneak up on him while he was gathering the ores.

He soon came upon an area that was covered in iron ores from a recent rockfall and he started collecting the best ones he could find.

The entire time he did this he kept a lookout so he didn't get too focused on the rocks.

Once he had collected the most reasonable ores, he moved on and carefully made his way further from the village.

He managed to collect a full sack of ores without running into a Unikuma, which he found to be a bit disappointing so he continued on to see if he could find one nearby.

The terrain in the area he was looking in was filled with large rocks and boulders that regularly fell from the sides of the growing rock piles on either side of him that pushed themselves up into mountains.

This is why there was never a lack of iron that didn't need to be mined. Actually, any metal could be found on the ground in the mountains since they all fell down with the rest of the rocks.

There were multiple paths he could take over many large rocks that opened into vast areas that had rocks piled around as natural walls that he could climb into and walk around to look for ores. Since he had already met his iron quota, he was looking for the much rarer colored ores. They were easier to find in caves but they did fall down with the rest of the metals from time to time.

Since he was looking for a beast he figured it would be good to also look for some of the colored ore he was always in need of.

As he searched for a Unikuma, he discovered the bones of a warg that had long been killed and eaten. The bones were mostly cracked or broken so none of them would be usable for anything he could think of.

'It looks like I am for sure in Unikuma territory.'

He proceeded with caution as he walked closer to the edge of the mountain. It was a bit more dangerous to walk closer to it but it also caused him to blend in a bit better than when he was in the middle of the clearing.

He walked from rock to rock, sometimes having to jump over a crack which he managed to do silently.

Eventually, as he walked around a rather large pile of rocks, he spotted a young adult Unikuma. It was sleeping on its back in the sun on a big flat rock. 

'I am down-wind of this thing thankfully. It looks like it is sleeping but they tend to sense danger or killing intent, I'm not sure. I need to be careful here.'

As he pulled out his spear he thought about how he would go about killing the bear.

'It is about 100 meters from me at a downward angle. That is well within my throwing distance. The problem is if it begins to move as when I throw the spear. It could mess up where the spear hits or even cause me to miss."

"hmmm"

'I could throw a rock at it, if it is running at me it might be easier to predict where I need to throw.'

'It's dangerous, but fighting this thing in general is dangerous. The lure approach is possibly the better choice since I have a better chance of getting a lethal blow that way. . .'

He bent over and grabbed a rock with his free hand.

'Lure and stab it is. Lets . . .'

His thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly heard a crack and stone scraping against stone from above him.

'Fuck'

He dropped the rock and his spear and jumped under the first large rock that he could near himself.

He didn't even turn to look at the bear. The rocks in this area could kill everything that happens to be hanging around.

In less than 5 seconds, after hearing the sounds of it tumbling and scraping against the more solid rocks on its way down, he hears the crash and splintering of a massive rock. It hit near his hiding spot so it caused the rock he was on and the one he was under to shift, but luckily it was just a little and he could still easily get out.

He also heard the sound of the Unikuma yelling for help.

It sounded hurt.

Mark was not dumb though, he waited and listened for more rocks. Usually if one broke off there would be more to break off, but he hoped it was an isolated event.

After waiting for about a minute, with the bear still calling for help, he slowly and carefully came out of his hiding place.

The aftermath was quite terrifying but it looked like he was not in danger of getting smashed where he originally was standing and he grabbed his spear. The real danger he avoided was the splintering of the large rock that shot smaller rocks everywhere.

He looked around the big rock he was using to spy on the Unikuma to see what happened to it.

Where the bear had originally been is where the edge of the massive rock had struck, and the Unikuma was about 20 meters past that point. It was obviously running away when it got struck by a smaller rock that broke one of its legs and then it got pelted with the shrapnel from the large rock.

'If that thing was not so sturdy it would have instantly died.'

Mark looked above his head and didn't see any rocks moving.

'Now is my chance. I better hurry.'

The bear was still calling for help, but Mark figured any other Unikuma would be cautious of the rocks falling and they also were probably not nearby.

He jumped down from his little ledge and gave up the stealthy approach, opting for a full sprint, leaping from rock to rock with his momentum when it was necessary. He quickly made it to a vantage point where he could see the Unikuma from above and jumped at it as it was trying to drag its broken body across the rocks.

While the bear turned to him, he threw the spear to its chest without hesitation.

The spear slid right through the bear's chest bones and opened a large hole in its heart. After punching the hole, the spear continued through the bear and stuck in the rocks behind it.

Even though it had a broken leg and a large hole in its heart that was now pumping out lots of blood, the bear still tried to attack Mark.

Mark just pulled out his knife and sliced the paw that was swiped at him which cut deeply but also resulted in Mark getting batted aside.

That seemed to be all the bear could do with its dwindling life because it then fell back next to the spear and let out a pitiful groan that was closer to a whining sound. 

Mark quickly ran over to the spear and pulled it from the rocks it was stuck in before stabbing the bear between the eyes. He wanted to make sure the thing was dead before he started harvesting it since even a dying Unikuma could easily kill him from up close.

Mark quickly went to work skinning the fur and cutting off large pieces of meat, then getting some intact bones from the beast. He also managed to get its horn by hacking it off with the spear.

He didn't feel like he had time to be careful with these things and the result was sub-par harvested materials.

'At least I can't ruin the meat.'

As he finished packing up everything he grabbed his spear and stood up to leave. When he did so, he looked up and found the biggest Elder Unikuma he had ever witnessed and it was staring at him.

Time seemed to freeze in that moment.

'Oh, looks like I am going to die.'

As soon as he thought that, the Elder Unikuma let out a ferocious growl as it leaned toward Mark. It was a sight to behold and it caused Mark to falter. His fight or flight response kicked into overdrive and he couldn't make the decision to do anything. He just stood there staring at the horrific bear.

Before the Elder could move in on Mark though, another terrible and horrific thing started to happen.

The ground began to shake.

This stopped the elder in its tracks. Its rage could be seen replaced with . . .

'Is that fear? Wait, the ground is shaking.'

Mark realized that something was going on and he looked around. 

It was not the ground that was shaking.

It was everything.

The whole mountain was shaking.

'Oh double fuck'

Mark promptly turned around and ran as fast as he possibly could.

'It's the fucking growth!'