"Piece of shit." Paul growled as he kicked the scorpion's carapace.

No one laughed. Paul was incredibly sensitive to the deformities caused by the acid and had been increasingly irritable at most times. The only thing that calmed him was the knowledge that his scars could be healed by a high-level healer for a price. Still, until he was healed, none of them would mention his looks.

"Let's dissect it and see if it has a Core."

They all got to work slicing at the joints. Surprisingly, the flesh had lost much of its elasticity and was far easier to cut than the day before. What would have taken hours before, now took less than one. After separating the carapace, they understood the reasoning.

"A core. Woah. I thought they would be more rugged..." Chelsea said

Kade stared at the core in his hand. He had sensed it once the carapace was split. It was a grey color, slightly opaque, and resembled an uncut gem on the surface. A faint hint of energy leaked out, almost like smoke from incense.

"It's leaking energy. I don't think that's supposed to happen." Kade voiced his concerns.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound right. Does anyone have a container to put it in?"

They all scrambled to find something that might contain the energy unsuccessfully until Chelsea pulled out a transparent pink water bottle.

"I guess that will have to work." Kade sighed as he dumped the core into the bottle before tightening the lid. He observed it for a few moments before handing it over to Dallas.

"Do you think the bottle will work?" Dallas asked as he grabbed the bottle

"I'm not sure, but it's our only option." Kade shook his head before shrugging "On a positive note, even if there is no energy in it, the shell should still be more valuable than the bones."

"Oh! We have this too!" Chelsea quickly took out the seafoam green crystal. It was much larger and not as smooth as the gem.

Kade furrowed his brow before reaching out his hand "Can I see it for a second?"

Chelsea hesitated before reluctantly handing it over. Kade rolled it in his hand for a moment before closing his eyes. He remained motionless for nearly twenty seconds before his eyes snapped open and widened.

"It has energy too." He could feel it leaking extremely slowly.

"Awesome." Chelsea's eyes shined as she greedily swiped it from his hand and embraced it.

Kade sneered in his heart, she looked like a hairless rat in his eyes. It was clear that the crystal was valuable, but he wouldn't steal it from her. In fact, it wasn't hers in the first place. She might have seen it first, but they were a team and without them, she would have died because of her greed.

That crystal belonged to the entire team.

"Alright, this is good news." Dallas clapped, gathering everyone's attention. "It seems that the deeper we go, the better the spoils. So let's continue, shall we?"

"The danger increases too." Kade interjected, "We need to be more careful from now on." He said with a solemn tone.

Both Paul and Chelsea glared at him, which he expected. Even so, it needed to be said. Both of them nearly died due to their careless actions. He would rather them be angry than making a mistake and cost him his life.

...

"Go for the legs!"

"I can't hit it, it's too fast!"

A large, short-legged beast darted around at high speeds. It would attack before dodging their retaliation with acrobatic maneuvers. It was fast, nimble, and completely fearless.

A ball of ice struck it's rear causing a layer of ice to quickly spread and thicken. The beast slowed, however, a few moments later the ice shattered and the beast regained its mobility.

'Damn.' Kade thought. His crowd control spells were losing their effectiveness the higher leveled beasts they fought. Anything with a beast core could break free of his ice in less than a second.

Entangle was a bit more effective, but it was difficult to restrict fast targets with it, as it had a short preparation time.

He calmed himself as he thought of his options. They were fighting above their weight class, so overwhelming their opponents wasn't an option. They needed to use their heads and finesse the win.

"Victor, bait it in!" Kade shouted as he prepared a spell "Julian, get ready!"

He kept his eye on the beast while Victor was shouting taunts and chasing the beast around. Unfortunately, the beast wasn't falling for it.

A gunshot boomed, and blood blossomed on the beast. It squealed before turning its gaze to Chelsea. It jumped away from Victor before charging at her. It curved widely around the obstructions in its path but was still far faster than her.

In just a few seconds, it was on her with a gaping maw. She fell backward while aiming at its face and began dumping her magazine. Suddenly, vines sprouted and entangled over half of the beast's body.

In a panic, the beast tried its evasive maneuvers, and though some of the vines snapped, many remained and chained it down. Julian appeared from hiding and thrust his dagger at the shoulder of the beast. The blade penetrated roughly an inch before the beast knocked him away.

Kade frowned as he cast Entangle again, causing more vines to burst from the ground. He layered two more casts, completely constricting the beast. At this point, it was only capable of wiggling and the rate of vines breaking had decreased significantly.

"We have to kill it now!" He shouted "The vines won't hold for long, and I can't keep this up forever!"

The others had approached by now and began stabbing the openings. Chelsea continued to fire off rounds, focusing on accuracy instead of speed and managing to land multiple shots very close together, opening a sizeable hole.

Dallas, Paul, and Victor targetted the open wound while Cash was healing Julian.

Kade watched as he channeled his altaris. He couldn't afford to cast a fireball to assist with damage because it would cauterize many of the wounds without doing enough damage to make up for the blood loss. Regardless, they had three damage dealers so he was better off focusing on utility. Even if he felt slightly helpless at times.

His eyes shot to Chelsea. He was surprised at how effective she had become. Before, she could barely open a wound on a normal creature, but now she was the most effective out of all of them against higher-level beasts. The surprising part was that he never saw her training.

"Tsk." Clicking his tongue, he cast another Entangle. He would be lying if he said he wasn't slightly bitter about the situation. Chelsea had grown so much stronger without any work, while he toiled for hours on end each day without much result. Even worse, his spells were becoming less effective.

He shook off his indignation as he focused on the battle. It was a matter of time before they killed the beast, all he had to do was keep it restricted. It would either bleed out or be split in two.

ten more minutes passed before the beast stopped struggling. Blood-soaked vines covered its body.

"Hell yeah!" Paul shouted while pumping his arm.

Dallas wiped his sweat with a wide grin before giving a thumbs up to Chelsea. Victor kept a stoic facade that was betrayed by the twinkle in his eye.

This was the second beast they had killed since the scorpion and the strongest so far. They did not doubt that it had a beast core, likely of higher quality, so they were all excited about their success.

After a short breather, they all worked together to clear the vines and skin the beast. They tore between the shoulderblades barbarically before pulling out an off-white gem.

"It's better than the others. Just look at it." Dallas said happily as he held it between his thumb and index finger.

"Hehe, we're going to be rich." Julian cackled in a creepy voice as he rubbed his forearm.

"It's very pure!" Cash explained as he leaned toward it "I think it's a complete core, unlike the others!"

"How much do you think it will go for?" Paul asked as he nudged Cash with a smile.

The two had become quick friends due to Cash having healed him on their first meeting.

"The apostle told me that a complete energy gem would sell for 2,000 credits, minimum."

Victor Whistled. Cash had informed them about the currency system among the factions.

They used credits, a digital currency that was used amongst all factions. Credits were a general use currency that could be exchanged for most common items, but the system was far more loose than gold. Most sellers would accept both credits and barter for items.

Energy cores were a common item but remained valuable due to having endless uses as a consumable. In most cases, they were accepted as a form of currency since almost everyone would accept them.

Two thousand credits weren't much among champions, but they could be sold to humanity at a 1:10 ratio, and that was in USD. Which meant that the gem was worth $20,000. After splitting, each person would receive a little over $2,000.

Kade rubbed his chin as his mind wandered. two weeks had passed since they started this trip. $2,000 in that time wasn't much, but many things needed to be accounted for.

Their first week was spent taking it slow and learning. It wasn't until a few days ago that they found a location with actual beasts that had gems. They also had a few incomplete gems and the crystal. If they could kill one true beast every two days, each person would make $15,000 in a month.

It wasn't an astronomical amount of money, but it was far more than any of them could hope to make in a month. They were also still very weak. As they became stronger, their pace would increase and with it, their profit.

"This has me all fired up!" Dallas exclaimed as he clenched the core "We should try to kill a few more before going back."

"I'm running low on ammo, but we might be able to kill one or two more." Chelsea said as she packed a magazine.

"How many more do you have?"

"Sixty-three rounds."

"Tsk. It wouldn't be smart to use them all hunting. Let's kill one more, that way you'll have some in case we run into anything during our return."

The team finished stripping the beast before moving out. They set up camp for the day, checked their supplies, and took inventory of their spoils. Kade, as usual, was the only one that elected to train rather than relax.

He opened a book and continued reading where he left off. He was still reading the book about altaris. It was quite thick and had many concepts that took a long time to learn. Learning spells was quicker because each spell only consisted of a page or two and was more like instructions.

This book, however, was like a beginner-level physics textbook. He couldn't flip to the fifth chapter and expect to understand it. He had to start from the beginning and slowly grasp the content before moving on.

To this day, he hadn't even finished one-fifth of the book. Even so, his understanding of the energy made leaps and bounds with every concept he grasped. He knew such a pace was only possible because he was still ignorant and each slice of knowledge was equivalent to doubling his understanding.

Sometimes he wondered if it would be better to learn spells, but the knowledge gained about altaris was a holistic increase. As a champion, altaris was the core of his strength. Learning how to utilize it better helped in every aspect.

His cultivation speed, casting speed, and control were all increasing steadily. He even understood spells better and had some enlightenments regarding trace designs, which made it easier to learn spells.

Coming to that thought, his mind drifted. His spellbook wasn't impressive. It only contained the lowest level of spells and many were impractical, especially in combat. That wasn't to say that he couldn't benefit from learning them, and there were a few that he knew would provide a significant increase to his strength.

Toughen, for example, was a buff that would enhance the target's defense. However, Cash already knew more effective buffing spells.

He felt what he was lacking the most was offensive ability. He didn't like fireball much. Fire was terrible for damage as burns weren't immediately lethal. They would hurt, but the victim could survive if the burns didn't get infected. Unless he could burn his target to ashes, it was nearly useless.

Unfortunately, many low-level elemental spells suffered similar drawbacks. Fire and ice would reduce blood loss, water and earth could only inflict blunt damage and wouldn't do much against beasts.

Kade sighed. He couldn't help lament the difficulties that low-level mages faced. Eventually, his spells could cause ridiculous levels of destruction, but right now they were about as useful as water guns.

He shook his head and returned to his book. The best choice was to deepen his knowledge of altaris and increase his level. The sooner he could cast devastating spells the better.

...

Kade crouched beside Julian and peered through the trees at a beast lounging on the bank of a river. It had wide paws and a narrow, elongated body. Its fur glistened with water, and from the shape of its body, he had the feeling that it was an exceptional swimmer.

"I think it's better to leave this one alone." He voiced his apprehension quietly.

"That's a lot of money to pass up." Dallas replied without taking his eyes off the beast.

"I know, but a few grand isn't worth the risk in my opinion."

"Not this shit again." Paul huffed "You're such a pussy. Hide if you're scared, but you won't get a cut."

Kade gave a sidelong glance "Seriously? I thought you had learned your lesson about recklessness."

"The fuck does that mean?" Paul's voice raised as his face turned red.

"It means that you need to use your head once in a while. You're not invincible, and if you keep it up you might lose more than your looks."

Paul's eyes widened before he lurched forward while drawing his sword. Victor and Dallas intercepted him and kept him from attacking.

"I'll kill you, bastard!" He screamed as he tried to free himself.

Kade sneered, unable to hide his disdain. Paul had an incredibly fragile ego and too much machismo. He wasn't about to dance around the best example of the consequences of reckless actions just to spare Paul's feelings.

"Enough!" Dallas growled in a hushed voice "Let it go, for now, we are hunting."

He shoved Paul back before spinning toward Kade. "Did you have to go there?"

"No, but I'm not going to sit here and be insulted by a man child. If he can dish it out, then he needs to be ready to take it too."

"Well, he is right though." Dallas said as he frowned "You are a bit cowardly."

Kade furrowed his brows "I'm a coward because I'd rather not fight a losing battle?"

"This isn't the first time you've acted like this though."

"You're right, it's the second. The first time, a teammate nearly died to acid after I warned you all." Kade said firmly.

"C'mon, really dude? Stop bringing that up." Dallas sighed and shook his head "Either way, the fact remains that you keep complaining about the risk and danger. We can't avoid danger here, it's part of the job. If you can't handle it, then maybe you shouldn't be a champion."

Kade frowned before nodding. If that's the way they wanted it, then so be it. He would do his job, but he would look out for himself first and foremost.

"Somehow, it didn't notice the commotion." Julian whispered while peering through the trees.

"Good. We will take it down and start heading back. Let's go."

Everyone split up and began surrounding the beast. Kade hid behind a tree roughly fifteen meters away while channeling his altaris. He needed to stop it from entering the water.

When he heard the signal he cast Entangle before immediately starting a second cast.

Vines wrapped around the middle of the beast before the close quarter's team attacked. All three attacks hit, but the blades glanced off its body as it twisted. Before they could attack again, the beast managed to slip out of the vines, breaking a few before freeing itself.

Kade's eyes narrowed. This was the first time a beast had escaped his spell without using brute force, and it was his most effective crowd control spell too.

The beast clawed out, knocking Dallas down before twisting its body and sending its rear end at victor like a whip, sending him tumbling. Paul stepped forward and thrust his sword. However, the beast bent and contorted, causing the edge to slide off without cutting.

It retaliated with extended claws, slashing his chest and leaving three gnarly lacerations.

"Ahhhg"

Paul stumbled back and was forced on the defensive as the beast pressed the attack.

Two rapid gunshots rang out, causing blood to blossom. They were followed by a fireball that struck the beast's face. It recoiled in pain and retreated.

Julian, approached from the rear and swiped his dagger but was met with similar results as the others and his blade slid off.

Their barrage caused the beast to retreat continuously as he tried to find reprieve, which allowed Dallas and Victor to rejoin the fight, and Cash time to help Paul.

The fight reached a standoff, with both sides poised to attack.

"How are we supposed to hurt this thing?" Julian asked with a pensive expression.

Blades didn't work well because it was too slippery. Chelsea's attacks hurt it, but she had limited ammo and it was unknown if she could finish it off before running out.

"Our swords don't work because it twists its body to minimize the contact. Kade, freeze it!" Dallas shouted

Kade did was he was asked and cast Freeze. The ball of ice exploded on the beast's hind leg. Ice formed both quicker and thicker than normal, and even the size of the affected area was larger.

This happened because the beast's fur was wet, which reduced the time and energy required to form the ice. It wasn't surprising, he took note of it because it confirmed some of this hypothesis surrounding how altaris and elemental particles interacted.

"It's super effective!" Julian cackled as they charged in.