"No way." Kade's eyes bulged in surprise.

he knew that guy was suspicious. His reason for being alone was too convenient and his demeanor oozed sleaze. He always gave Kade the feeling of a snake.

"You know him?"

Kade nodded "The team I was a part of ran into him. One of our members was injured and he healed them. The leader offered him a spot on the team and he accepted."

"You're kidding me..." Leslie facepalmed "That son of a bitch screwed us over and got my team killed, but he moves on so easily..."

"What happened exactly?"

"We were exploring a canyon when we came across a beast sleeping beside a crystal. We could tell that the crystal was valuable. Not only was the beast sleeping beside it as if to guard it, that was the only place in the canyon that had water."

he set the scene.

"It was like an oasis and water streamed from the walls. We were all sure that the crystal was the reason. We began planning how to get the crystal safely, but we didn't notice that Cash had slipped away."

He clenched his fists "The bastard snuck around the beast and took the crystal. The moment he did, the water stopped flowing and the beast stirred. Rather than rejoin us, he ran in the opposite direction. the beast, angry and confused, targetted us and we were forced to fight."

His eyes misted over "And well. I was the only one to survive."

Kade frowned and gnashed his teeth "People are too greedy. What a scumbag."

"Oh, his greed is deeper than that." Leslie sneered "When I escaped, I checked my bag for my first aid kit and found all of our spoils missing. I was the leader and in charge of keeping all of the most valuable treasures. we had two beast gems, both of which are gone."

"Are you sure that he took them?"

"Yeah. I had caught him rummaging in my bag the morning before. When he said he was looking for my canteen so he could fill it up with the others, I didn't think much of it. He was a teammate, so I trusted him."

Kade sighed. He could empathize.

"Anyway. Why are you al--" Leslie abruptly stopped talking and his body stiffened.

Kade furrowed his brows before following his gaze. "Oh. Sorry, forgot to mention that. I've decided to try taming it."

Leslie looked at him like he was insane "You're trying to tame that thing? Does it look like it can be tamed? What, you plan to make it into a show dog or something?"

"It does look a bit weird, but what doesn't in this world? Honestly, taming it wasn't my intention at first. I just didn't want to kill it." Kade said with a self-mocking smile.

Leslie laughed while shaking his head "Well, it would make a cool ass pet. Though, I doubt something like that can be tamed."

"I'll find out. Either it becomes my friend, or it becomes my food. I'll be satisfied either way." Kade joked.

"Anyway, as I was saying. We've established why I'm alone, but why are you?"

Kade frowned before briefly detailing his situation in a nonchalant manner.

"Damn brother, that's messed up. They didn't even give you your split?" Leslie asked incredulously.

"No, none of it. To be honest, I half expected them to demand my map and other notes."

They both laughed

"I guess we are in the same boat then." Leslie adjusted his leg and leaned back "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? Besides, What goes around comes around. They'll get theirs."

"True enough. Even if it has to be by my hand."

"Haha, amen to that brother. By the way, do you mind if I rest here for the night? I'll be on my way in the morning."

Kade pondered for a moment. Trusting someone he just met wasn't the best idea, especially considering the circumstances. He had just criticized himself for being naive and over-trusting. However, Leslie was indeed injured and didn't seem like much of a threat.

Besides, he didn't have much to lose other than his life, and Leslie had no reason to take his life.

"Sure. I'll give you directions to the gate in the morning."

"Thanks, brother. You're doing me a solid and I won't forget that. Leslie Rathford is my full name. You can look me up if you ever need anything."

"Will do."

...

"Gently, Obruo." Kade said sternly as he held out a piece of meat.

The canine, Obruo, snapped its maw down on the meat, though with much more control than he had before.

"Good job, buddy." Kade patted his head twice quickly before retreating.

Even after two weeks, their relationship was still strained. However, progress had been made. He had finally given it a name, and it no longer growled at him. He even managed to stop it from trying to bite his hand at mealtime.

Kade sat cross-legged by the cage before channeling his altaris. He had already finished the book and moved on to learning more spells. So far, he had learned two more. Light, and minor illusion.

The Light spell was simple, it just produced an orb of light that could be fixed on an anchor point. He could choose an object he carried, or anchor it in the air.

Minor illusion was more mystical. It refracted light and introduced altaris to produce a static image from a single direction. It didn't have many uses and didn't suit him much. However, he knew he would find some way to make use of it.

Truthfully, he didn't have a large selection to choose from. The spellbook only had around twenty spells. He now knew ten. He had already learned the spells that sounded appealing, so now he was just knocking off the rest to increase his understanding.

This book was meant for learning. Most of the spells differed in school or particles used, though it didn't cover all branches of magic. Not by far. This would give him a good foundation but didn't contribute much to his abilities.

Regardless, he would learn them all so that when the time came to learn more difficult material, it would be that much easier. Besides, it didn't cost him anything except time just as all learning.

So, he continued. Wake up, train, hunt, train some more, all while cultivating. Day after day.

...

"Hm?" He stared at the white fireball the size of a cantaloupe hovering above his hand. He studied it for a moment, his expression growing more solemn the longer he observed. After a few more seconds, he extended his hand.

The fireball flew out. He could feel intense heat radiating off of it the moment he cast the spell. It struck a tree nearby, seemingly bending around it and adhering.

He watched as the fire burned, a large grin forming as his eyes twinkled. By the time he calmed down the tree was already ablaze. He quickly fired off multiple water cannons and doused the majority of the tree until only a few leaves burned into cinders.

He had finally succeeded. He had always wanted to combine some of the traits of freeze with Fireball. The goal was to make the fireball stick to the target and preferably spread.

He knew how the freeze spell worked. It converted altaris into ice particles, a sub-particle of water, and condensed them into a gaseous form before infusing it into a ball of ice. When the ball struck a target, it would crumble and release the gaseous ice energy, rapidly freezing any moisture on the target.

Fire was different. Unlike most other things, it couldn't be classified into the four basic states of matter; solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Fire was closest to plasma. No other states of fire had ever been observed by humanity.

That wasn't to say that it wasn't possible, in fact, considering the miraculous properties of altaris, it likely was possible. However, that was beyond him at the moment.

So, he had to find another way to produce the effects he wanted. Through experimentation, he had learned a lot about traces. How they were formed, why they were used, and what certain patterns did. This allowed him to alter the traces.

He didn't know the principles behind traces so he couldn't begin to comprehend creating his own partitions, but he could move and substitute the small glyph-like shapes and patterns.

Doing so, he had created this fireball. The first success was the color which signified an increase in temperature. Next was the size, which had over doubled. Finally, the adhesion.

For both the increase in temperature and size, he had simply found the glyph that controlled these parameters and altered them, eventually succeeding. Though, the increase in size was partially due to his level increasing as his cultivation had increased greatly.

The adhesion was far more complicated. He took the partition from the freeze spell that condensed ice particles and modified it, substituting the ice particles for fire particles. Then, he worked on adding the partition. This was the most difficult step.

Traces were complex and precise. The foundation, more often than not, was a circle. Within, other shapes, known as partitions, could be formed and connected to the circle. The lines of the foundation, and shapes within, were formed of glyphs. These glyphs and shapes dictated the function of each partition.

Changing a single glyph or partition was acceptable given that it didn't warp the structure of the trace. Adding a partition, however, would require space that wasn't allocated in the trace design, and required it to be connected to the foundation.

His solution was to shrink the size of every partition within the spell so that the new partition could be added. Which succeeded, though there were drawbacks.

The amount of altaris required to form the trace increased with the addition. The time required to form the trace increased as well, due to the finer control needed now that the partitions had decreased in size.

Without an acceptable level of control, forming the trace would be impossible.

However, much of his success was due to dumb luck. He realized that he had failed in properly substituting the ice particles for fire, and instead formed something that he didn't quite understand. The luck was the fact that an acceptable effect was achieved regardless.

He was happy but also disappointed. He didn't like the fire element when it came to offense. The only reason he modified this spell was due to his familiarity with it.

"I should have modified shock or gust." He mumbled. Modifying the fireball spell was a big achievement, but he doubted he could replicate the success with other spells right now.

"Whatever, it will have to do. It looks cool though, right?" He asked as he looked at the canine lounging to his left.

Three more months had passed. His relationship with the animal had grown quite a bit. He removed the cage and released it from the vines two weeks ago.

At first, it showed some aggression and they even had a scuffle. After, it ran off with its tail between its legs. Surprisingly, it returned later far more relaxed. Since that day, it hadn't attacked again and only resorted to growling. It disappeared often but always returned. Sometimes, it even followed when he went hunting.

"I know you only stay because I feed you, but you could at least pretend to be interested?"

"Grrr."

"Pfft, whatever. I'm going to hunt." Kade rose from the dirt couch in a huff.

Enough time had been spent preparing. He had leveled up to level 2, and he finally had a strong offensive spell. It was time to fight a beast.

Slinging his rucksack over his shoulders, he left camp.

-

He looked down at the canyon as he remembered Leslie's story. He had returned a month ago with a new team and spoke in greater detail about the area that his team had perished in. This canyon matched the description.

Though the crystal had been taken, the beast could still remain in the canyon. Leslie had expressed no interest in returning anytime soon, so Kade planned to use this beast as his first target.

Having decided, he cautiously descended into the canyon and began exploring. Though this canyon was barely large enough to be considered a canyon, there was still ample room to move should he get into a battle.

After walking for twenty minutes, he was able to verify that this was the place Leslie had been. Three corpses were strewn across the canyon, mostly bones by this point. Out of respect, Kade cast shape earth and buried the three before continuing.

Shortly, he arrived at the location that the beast had been resting. The ground was worn, and there was a deformation near the wall, presumably where the oasis had been.

However, the beast was nowhere to be seen. He examined the area, finding signs of frequent travel in the loose dirt indicating that something frequented the area, likely the beast.

"I'll just prepare and wait then." He mumbled as a smirk grew. He wouldn't pass up the opportunity to lay a few traps!

He spent nearly twenty minutes casting spells and preparing an area to fight before he found his preparation satisfactory. He created an alcove to hide in and cast a minor illusion to conceal himself within.

"Now, we wait."

-

Two hours passed before he finally spotted a creature that resembled the description he was given. It looked similar to a bulky lion with burgundy-colored fur, long and sharp teeth with claws to match, and a spiked tail that resembled the tail of a stegosaurus.

'Maybe I should have made the hole bigger...' He frowned at the thought. The description he received didn't do it justice.

He watched with rapt attention as the beast approached. His heart dropped into his stomach when it stopped and sniffed the air. Luckily, he had learned a lot in these three months, and masking his smell, to a certain extent, was one of the things he learned.

After a short investigation, the lion beast returned to its favorite spot and sat down while gazing at the wall where the crystal had been.

Kade waited patiently until he was convinced that the beast was relaxed and unsuspecting. He cast shape earth.

The ground beneath the lion crumbled to expose a deep pit. The lion began to fall, but it wouldn't be a beast if it wasn't capable. With incredible reflexes, it managed to catch the edge of the hole with its claws.

Kade was already prepared for this and cast water cannon. The water slammed against the lion's face at a high speed, causing its neck to crane back. The impact caused its claws to shred the ground but it held on.

Before the beast understood what was happening, another jet of water slammed into it. Two was enough. The beast's claws slid to the edge which crumbled beneath its weight.

Kade ran to the edge while forming a trace. He peeked over the edge and locked eyes with the furious beast. He had made the pit fifteen meters deep in case the lion could jump high, and his only regret was not making spikes at the bottom.

"I've come to deliver a gift in place of a friend." Kade smirked "It comes with a message. Burn in hell, love Leslie." He cackled as a white fireball formed above his hand and grew rapidly.

The moment it was fully formed, he fired it down.

"Roooooooarrrr"

The beast roared out as the fire engulfed its back.

Kade stepped back as the heat rising from the pit, even at nearly fifteen meters distance, was rather intense. Even though he didn't believe that the beast could still pose a threat, he still channeled his altaris.

"Wait, why don't I send a gift of my own?" He mumbled as he cast shape earth and formed a small boulder.

He felt extremely sadistic as he formed a slope and watched the boulder roll toward the pit. 'That should do.' He thought with a nod.

However, he realized how arrogant he had been when a large paw appeared on the edge of the pit. Though surprised, he formed another trace and collapsed the section it was holding on to before watching the boulder fall over the edge.

He knew he had made a mistake when he could still see the upper half of the boulder.

"Fuck, why didn't I make spikes..."

The lion took twenty seconds to force the boulder out of the pit and climb out itself. By this point, the fire had shrunk by a large margin, though it had burnt a large cavity into the beast.

Kade stared at the beast with furrowed brows. This thing was a monster to have climbed fifteen meters and force a boulder out of its way while on fire. Now, that monster was gazing at him with a fire of his own making within its eyes.

It wasted no time before charging at him with unbridled fury.

Kade closed his eyes before a bright light emitted from his hand. Before he had even opened his eyes, another trace was forming. He cast shape earth onto the wall behind him, revealing a narrow tunnel that he retreated into.

It only took a few seconds for the lion to regain its vision and charge after him. It slammed into the wall, and unable to get into the tunnel due to its size, it clawed at him while roaring.

Kade smile. He hadn't retreated into this tunnel just for safety. No, this was his plan B. He illuminated the tunnel with the Light spell before looking up.

Three months of solitude had its perks. It gave him time to think up plenty of strategies, traps, and other useful ideas. Such as a clever mechanism to send a boulder over the edge of a steep slope.

He tugged on the paracord hanging above him. Shortly after, he felt a low rumble followed by a loud grinding sound. Moments later, a large boulder rolling at high speeds slammed into the lion's head.

Kade quickly scrambled out of the tunnel and began running. Though he was confident that the boulder did some damage, he had no intentions of underestimating this beast again.

And sure enough, to his dismay, he was the lion struggling to its feet when he looked back.

'I'm going to run out of traps at this rate!' He felt like a clever coyote that kept having his meticulously lain traps fail.

Before he had a chance to make it to his next location an ear-shattering roar rang out. He stumbled before falling to one knee as dizziness overtook him. He felt a warm fluid tickling his ear canals as he fought against the effects of the roar.

Realizing he didn't have time to recover fully, he cast a barrier around himself just to have it shattered almost instantly. However, it gave him just enough warning to fall sideways.

He felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder as he rolled on the ground and back to his knees. The effects of the roar slowly waned, allowing him to see the Lion in front of him.