He climbed roughly halfway up the tree before casting Telekinesis on the cord end with a loop and weaving it between the branches where he had carved smooth grooves. Finally, he maneuvered the wide loop around the head of one of the badgers.

The beasts were lounging below, unaware of the danger soon to fall upon them. One badger saw the battle cord and swatted it in an unconcerned, playful manner. Kade relaxed his control and allowed the badger to mess with the cord until it had lost interest before continuing.

He pulled the cord taut, the loop quickly shrinking around the badger's neck. He tied his end of the cord to his waist before standing up and taking a deep breath.

'Let's hope this works.' He thought as he moved the cord into place on the branch and fell backward.

As he fell through the air, the loop tightened around the badger's neck. Kade came to an abrupt halt momentarily before to badger stood up on its hind legs in discomfort, causing him to descend a few meters. He quickly grabbed the branch in front of him right before his body began bobbing.

The Badger thrashed around in an attempt to remove the restriction on its neck, but Kade had no intention of giving it the time to succeed. Using all of his strength, he pulled on the branch and managed to get one of his legs under it.

He held himself to the branch with his leg and one arm while using the other to pull the battle cord over his shoulder. After, he struggled for a minute before getting both feet on the branch and pushing with his legs to stand.

He was standing upside down on the underside of a branch. He looked down at his target. The badger was suspended less than half of a meter off the ground by its neck while thrashing.

The veins on Kade's neck bulged with effort, but he watched the commotion below with a smile. The other two badgers had finally reacted, but they just shifted around in a panic. Their low intelligence prevented them from finding the source of their companion's situation.

As long as his strength could hold up, he would succeed in killing one of the beasts!

He was using a simple concept in a crude way. By carving smooth grooves in branches at varying elevations and weaving the battle cord around them, he was able to gain a mechanical advantage. Essentially, he had created a very basic pulley system.

Pulleys would be better, as they lowered the friction drastically which not only reduced the damage on the tackle but also increased the multiplication of the advantage. Unfortunately, he only had a single block and tackle that he doubted could support this method, so he was forced to improvise.

Even with this method, Kade understood that he got lucky. The badger didn't weigh as much as he originally believed, and its reaction of standing up when the cord tightened gave him enough slack to reach the branch for leverage. There were a lot of small details that allowed for this sub-optimal system to function.

Kade watched the badger's struggle diminish, its stubby legs going limp. He held the badger off the ground for a few more minutes before slowly maneuvering around the branch and allowing the cord to suspend him in the air before grabbing the tree and climbing back up to the branch.

He untied the cord from his waist and rubbed the red indention left behind while leaning against the tree. His shoulder took the worst of it, a sharp aching pain radiating around the area that the cord had dug into. He felt that the pain was worth it though as he peeked below.

'Now I just need to find a way to deal with the other two.' He thought. He had chosen this method because he wanted to secure the beast cores, but he didn't want to push his luck.

"Tsk." He clicked his tongue after making a decision and climbed to a lower branch. Taking aim, a spell trace formed followed by a translucent ball. After a few seconds, the ball shot forward and struck one of the remaining badgers.

Translucent chains locked the beast in place, then came an arrow. The badger's instincts kicked into gear as it twisted its neck, causing the arrow to miss its vitals. Instead, a portion of its snout was sheered off.

Its companion, the second badger, quickly jumped into action, clawing at the chains binding it. The chains bent and warped when struck by an outside force, but held up. Though, how long they would hold was unknown.

Kade had expected this. It was the entire reason for his previous methods. A second arrow took shape and fired out toward the restricted badger. He was happy with a single beast core, but why not secure two if he could?

As his second arrow closed in, the badger stopped attempting to break the chains and instead went for the arrow, swatting toward the attack. A claw flew through the air, but the arrow's energy was reduced greatly, resulting in much lighter injury to the restricted badger.

Now that was a surprising development. Protection through self-sacrifice displayed a level of care that he hadn't expected from a beast. Putting yourself in harm's way went against all instincts of self-preservation and required overwhelming emotion.

He had respect for the badger's actions, but that was as far as his emotions went. These fuckers sought his life relentlessly, so he saw no issue with returning that gesture.

As he was preparing his third arrow, the chains finally broke. Kade dispersed the spell trace and reabsorbed the Altaris as he watched the badgers escape at a high speed.

He plopped down on the branch, exhausted. His body ached from the strain and he had expended nearly 60% of his Altaris in four spells. Though he had failed to kill more than one badger, he wasn't upset. This exchanged tested his limits and allowed him to have a greater grasp of his capabilities.

The greatest discovery was the potential strength of Spirit Chains. He had poured over twice as much Altaris into the spell this time, causing it to resist the struggle of two beasts for nearly six seconds!

This was a principle he had learned halfway through his three months of training. All spells required varying amounts of Altaris to form, and usually, the greater amount of Altaris required, the stronger the effect. Hence, why inferior spells cost so little and were so weak.

Spells required precision, even in the regard of how much Altaris was used. Pumping too much energy into any single aspect could cause an adverse reaction. This fact resulted in the creation of spell grades.

The spell traces for an inferior fireball and a basic fireball were very similar, with the main difference being the temperature and the amount of Altaris required.

This all wasn't to say that it was impossible to cast an inferior spell with the power of a basic spell, just that it was much more difficult and took more time than simply casting an improved grade of the spell.

Then, there were unique spells like Spirit Chains. It was a basic spell, but the trace design allowed for variance in the amount of energy funneled into the spell. In simple terms, it made it easy for the caster to increase the strength of the spell by using more Altaris at the cost of efficiency.

Kade had used over twice the amount of Altaris needed to form the spell and was satisfied with the results. Now, he had a baseline to determine the strength of the spell in the future.

While he was satisfied with the results of his efforts, he cleared his mind and focused on regenerating his Altaris. Little blood was spilled in the area, but he didn't want to stay longer than necessary.

Thirty minutes later he collected the battle cord and climbed down the tree. He wasted no time processing the badger for the beast core and the claws. He felt wasteful leveling so much behind, but he only had so much space in his bag.

He dug a small hole and cast water cannon, then used the muddy water to rinse the blood off his hands before leaving. He had taken less than ten steps when Obruo showed himself.

Kade frowned while glaring at the pup "Nice of you to show up, asshole." Where had his friend been when he was stuck in a tree?!

Obruo released the high-pitched whistling growl while tilting his head. The pup strut up to Kade and nudged his pocked with its nose.

"Screw off." Kade rebuked while slapping the canine's snout "You know the rules. You have to help to receive a cut, and you didn't even bring back the sled with our food."

Kade wasn't truly upset. He understood that Obruo couldn't do anything to help his situation, but the rules remained. Besides, he would use any chance he could to justify keeping the beast cores. They were way too valuable to let his pup eat them for free. As for the sled, it wasn't very important, and this situation had awakened him to a serious issue regarding it.

If they were caught off guard and attacked then Obruo would have to remove the harness which would slow him down and put him in unnecessary danger. Was a stockpile of food really worth the added risk to his friend? No. And it wasn't like he could put valuable loot on the sled, as Obruo liked to disappear and clearly disliked pulling the sled, so if the pooch took of the harness while gallivanting in the woods then he would lose all of his valuables. There were just too many negatives without the corresponding benefits, so he decided to leave it behind and just hunt along the way.

Obruo, clearly dissatisfied, chomped at his pocket while he was lost in thought, biting off a large piece of fabric. Kade reacted quickly by tackling the beast to the ground and grabbing its jaws while trying to pull them apart.

"No you don't!" He roared as he fought with the pup "If you swallow that core, I'll have you for dinner!"

He was being relatively gentle until the moment he saw the pup's throat flex. His eyes sharpened as he rammed his hand into Obruos neck while energy began to shroud his fist.

"I can tolerate a lot, but you're pushing it." His grip tightened "I've been fair, I'm being fair. I don't take what belongs to you, so don't take what belongs to me."

Obruo reluctantly spat the saliva-coated core out of his mouth before Kade released him and scooped up the core. He scrunched his face while wiping the core on his pants before putting it into his bag.

Standing up, he brushed himself off and continued walking. Obruo scrambled to his feet and followed with a defeated gait.

It was late into the night, and though he wanted to rest, Kade decided to travel through the night and the entirety of the next day, only stopping briefly to tend to his wounds. He didn't want to burn daylight while sleeping, so he would just endure the exhaustion.

By the time he set up camp, both of them were ready to collapse. After eating, Kade would usually spend some time studying, but tonight he fell right asleep.

When he woke, he was blinded by the bright rays of sunshine. He had overslept, but that was to be expected after nearly two days of no sleep. Thankfully, the coming days would be relaxing in comparison. He had decided to avoid fights and focus on his studies.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes before pulling out his notebook and flipping to an empty page. The first order of business was fixing his mobility issues.

Most of the time his crowd control spells would make up for this weakness, but that wasn't a reason to neglect an obvious shortcoming. The last encounter had sobered him up by beating down his arrogance.

"Burst is good, but it's not enough." He mumbled while tapping the pen on his notebook. This was the temporary name he had given to his trick with wind gust. The main issue was that it only gave him a momentary boost and his only form of control was directing the blast to choose the direction he would fly.

He began scribbling notes onto the page.

[Control... Ease of use... Consistency... Speed... Cost...]

He listed the aspects that were important when considering mobility. Next, he had to compile his knowledge of the different types of mobility.

He eliminated most purely physical forms of movement. He was a mage and wouldn't be able to contend with beasts that received natural boosts in regards to the physique.

This left the more magical methods of mobility. The options here were almost limitless. Wompus had told him about many mystical methods that cultivators used to travel. Teleportation, flying on clouds, conjuring wings, some even swam through stone faster than a bird could fly.

It seemed that the only restriction was his imagination, and of course, his understanding. He could imagine shooting fire out of his feet and flying through the sky like a rocket, but if he didn't understand what made a rocket fly and how to adapt that knowledge, then it wouldn't work.

He sometimes felt like a mage was akin to a physicist, but he knew that wasn't quite accurate. Mages worked with the Laws of Altaris, so it would be more apt to relate them to magical scientists.

While he didn't understand the laws behind the more mystical methods of movement, he did understand rocket propulsion. He had already used a similar concept with 'burst'.

Continuing to refine the technique seemed like the best path after giving it some thought. Burst gave him a foundation to work with, which would reduce the time needed to develop a new skill.

Now that he had a plan, he stood up and flipped to a new page before heading out. He would devote all of his free time to creating this new spell, even while traveling.

...

*Phsssssh*

A short burst of air sent Kade careening through the air before tumbling on the ground.

"Blagh." He spat the leaves out of his mouth as he stood up and dusted himself off.

Over the last two days, he had managed to alter 'burst' to mimick the propulsion of a rocket and even extended the duration by a small amount. This led to the discovery of a new problem. While he gained more speed, he lost what little control he had.

Originally, burst worked by creating a strong blast of air that expanded when it struck an object. The expansion of air would propel him in relation to where it hit him. The new version was more similar to modern attempts at a jetpack where the source of propulsion was connected and moved with him. It didn't matter if he used his hand or foot, both wobbled with the strong force of propulsion.

He cupped his chin while he thought. His arms and legs were difficult to use for many reasons, but there was one that he could eliminate right now. His limbs had joints that would bend, and while these joints usually gave control, they could also be a point of failure in moments like this.

Sometimes, especially while learning, too much control could be a hindrance.

"Why not use my core?" He mumbled before giving it a test.

He took a deep breath before beginning, a spell trace slowly formed at his back. A compact cone shape was created out of Altaris. Then, he bent his back and flexed his core before activating the spell. A strong burst of air released and he shot forward, flying diagonally into the air.

He grinned widely while flying up, it was indeed much easier to withstand the force with his core! The moment the burst of air ended, he twisted his torse and focused on casting the spell again. A few seconds later his descent was interrupted as the strong blast of air rocketed him back up.

In his excitement, he continued two more times, climbing higher and higher. For a few moments, he flew through the air with delight. Until he saw how far off the ground he was.

"Oh fuck!" He yelled in a panic as he fell. He had forgotten about developing a method for stopping.

In desperation, he cast the spell again, but this time from his chest. The propulsion countered gravity to an extent, but due to his panicked reaction, he hadn't flexed his core. His body bent and changed the angle of the propulsion, causing him to careen once again.

Moments later he crashed into the ground and tumbled head over heels before a tree stopped his momentum.

"Ugh." He groaned in pain as his body curled. "That hurt..."

"Tiss, tis-tis-tis."

Kade could only relate that sound to Obruo, and it seemed like the pup was laughing at him. Shooting a hateful glare at the canine, he pushed through the aching and stood back up while rolling his shoulder.

"I guess it needs some work." He mumbled. The spell had a lot of issues, but now he had a proof of concept. He would continue improving it, increasing the efficiency and ease of use over the coming days and months until it was a bonafide mobility spell.

Flipping open his notebook, he made more notes as he walked. Part of his process was hands-on experimentation followed by documenting what he learned to reference when he was stuck later.

Once he finished documenting his experience, he took out his map. This was useful at first, but he wasn't a cartographer, so the map didn't have proper scaling and very few points of reference. By this point, he was simply guessing.

Shrugging, he updated the map the best he could. At the very least, it could point him in the right direction if he referenced landmarks. All of this made him wonder if one of the factions had a better method of mapping out new lands. He would have to ask Graak or Wompus when he returned.

'Maybe I should just buy a compass... Wait, would a compass even work properly here?' He sighed as he thought about his mistake. How could he venture into the wilderness without bringing one of the most essential tools for survivalists? What a dumbass.

He shrugged. it was too late now, besides, he had managed fine last time. He would just buy one when he got back.

"Damn, this is boring." He said while looking to the sky. For all the benefits of hunting solo, it was lonely as hell. It was only during idle times like this that he felt that loneliness. Luckily, there was a simple fix.

Study, experiment, fight. There was nothing to fight, so he would get back to improving himself.