"Tiss"

Obruo dug his razor-sharp teeth into the Hyena's nape as his hind claws sought purchase on the beast's body. Upon finding it, he pulled himself up before using its claws to scratch at the beast's eyes.

"Awooo" The Hyena cried out in pain, finally releasing Kade's arm as it thrashed in agony.

Wasting no time, Kade dispelled armament and called all of his strength forth as he jerked the knife the rest of the way. The first Hyena, languid from bloodloss, whimpered softly as it collapsed to the ground.

Lurching to his left, Kade stabbed the knife at the beast's good eye, burying the blade into the hyena's eye socket.

The hyena staggered backward while howling in pain. Using what little remained of his strength, Kade stepped forward and used all of his weight to slam his palm into the butt of the knife, driving it to the guard.

The hyena twitched and shook its head as it stumbled. Its legs lost strength and caused it to fall to the ground, its body curling frequently as it twitched.

Obruo took the opportunity, releasing his jaws from the hyena's nape and biting onto its throat. Kade watched weakly from the side as Obruo ferociously attacked the hyena, rending the flesh and swiftly ending its life.

Glancing at his arm, he saw the mess that was his bicep and tricep. It was coated with blood that flowed down his forearm, chunks were hanging by a thread and deep divots covered it.

Turning back, he realized that the kids were still fighting their battle. Ben didn't have the time to heal him, as they seemed to be struggling with their fight as is.

Sighing deeply, he crawled toward the hyena and tugged at his knife repeatedly until he managed to free it. Wiping it on his pants to clean the blood before sitting it to the side, he cast Procyon onto the ground beside him.

Grabbing his knife, he held it over the flame, allowing the fire to sterilize the blade and heat it. Once the blade was glowing dull orange, he moved it over his left arm and grit his teeth before pressing the side of the blade against his wounds.

"AH!" He cried out and took a sharp breath. He whimpered while maintaining pressure for a few seconds.

Pulling the blade away, he panted heavily while trembling. Fear clouded his eyes as he slowly moved the blade back to the fire. Few things had been as painful as cauterizing his own wounds, but he didn't have much of a choice. He was losing too much blood and might not last until Ben could heal him.

Taking a few deep breaths to hype himself up, he pressed the blade to the underside of his arm. Bowing over in pain, he held it for a few moments before dropping the knife.

After taking some time to work through the pain, he looked at his arm. It was far from perfect and blood was still leaking, but it was slowed enough to buy him a good amount of time.

Falling to his back, he looked over at Obruo. The pup had stopped at some point and was gazing at him. Obruo walked over slowly before laying beside Kade and resting his head on the man's stomach.

"Thanks, buddy." Kade said as he reached out and patted the pup "You really saved my ass."

His situation had been dire. He couldn't exert the strength needed to finish off the first hyena until the second released him, and his stubborn personality had clouded his judgment not allowing him to realize that the first hyena was too weak to pose a threat any longer.

Feeling weird feedback from his hand, he took the effort to lift his head to look at Obruo and realized that the pup had numerous wounds.

'Ah, he was hunting before coming to help me.' His lips curled downward as he thought about the possibility that his pup received these wounds trying to escape in order to help him.

Sighing, he allowed his head to drop back to the ground. Dwelling on the possibilities wouldn't do him any good, he would just have to do better in the future. Also, he would have to spoil Obruo a bit more.

Staring at the sky, he decided not to waste a single moment and began cultivating while waiting for the others to finish their battle.

The sunlight blanketed him in comfortable warmth as the winds sang a soothing song. Slowly, his eyelids grew heavy and his muscles relaxed as he dozed off.

...

Kade opened his eyes after feeling a nudge. "Finished?" He asked groggily before sitting up.

"Yeah. The others are collecting the core right now." Jay glanced at the two carcasses a few meters away. "They will collect yours for you when they finish."

"Ben, do you have any energy left?" He called out.

"A little, why?" Ben replied as he walked over.

Jay stood up and pointed at Kade's arm "Do you think you have enough to heal that?"

Ben followed his finger before pursing his lips and nodding. Kneeling down, he cast his healing spell a few times before casting a purification spell to deal with any bacteria.

Kade felt a wave of discomfort as the feeling returned to his arm, bringing the pain with it. Luckily, that only lasted for a short time.

Looking at his arm he evaluated the results. The healing was miraculous, but it wouldn't remove the scarring from the bite and subsequent cauterization. That wasn't a big deal, the function of his arm was though, and it felt as good as new other than some tenderness in the area.

"Awesome. Thanks, Ben." He said

"No need to thank me. If anything, we should be thanking you." Ben replied, gesturing to the two hyenas.

Kade nodded and retrieved his knife from the ground. "Speaking of." He walked over and began harvesting the cores. After collecting so many cores he had learned that they were always in one of three locations. The head, heart, or stomach.

The majority of the time it was around the heart, so that was the first place that he checked. Both were where he expected, he was able to collect both cores by the time the other three joined up with them.

Glancing toward the sky, it had turned from the bright lilac that signified day, to a dark pinkish-purple, akin to mulberry, signaling that night would fall soon.

"We should find a place to set up camp while we still have some light." turning to Jay, he continued "Jay, lead the way."

Since joining up with the kids as a mentor, he had acted as a pseudo leader. Now that they had grown, it was time for them to regain some of their independence.

"Right." Jay nodded "Follow me."

Kade took up the rear with Obruo following close. He observed Jay's leadership capabilities and decision-making silently, occasionally focusing on the plants and terrain.

Roughly thirty minutes later, Jay had decided on a suitable location and they fanned out to set up camp and collect resources. Fifteen more minutes passed before they all sat in the dirt lounge pit that Kade had created.

"Ahem." Kade cleared his throat. "We need to discuss how we will operate going forward."

Normally, they just relaxed and chatted after a day of adventuring and hunting, but they weren't on a vacation. They all needed to start taking this more seriously.

"Agreed." Jay echoed his statement "How long will we continue hunting?"

Kade pulled out his notebook "Personally, I had a five-month timeframe to hunt, I've been gone for two and a half months by this point. So I'll need to start my return trip in six weeks preferably, and eight weeks at most." Glancing between them he continued "You all can choose to leave whenever you wish. These are the details that you'll need to find us on Earth." He wrote on two separate pieces of paper and tore them out, handing one to Jay and the other to Ben.

Jay accepted the paper with a curt nod "Alright, what is everyone's opinion?"

"Following Kade would be the best. We'll all need a break soon anyway." Cal spoke up.

The others nodded in agreement. Their goal had already been achieved to a certain degree, they now had a place to return to.

"Alright. Tomorrow we will travel a bit deeper in and set up a base for the remainder of our trip. Then, we will hunt 24/7 to make the most of the trip." Jay focused on Kade "How much of our loot do we need to provide the faction?"

Kade mulled the question over. This was a topic that they would have to address at some point, all teams under a faction would be required to submit a portion of their spoils for the faction's growth, and in return, they received benefits that were difficult to obtain on their own. This was standard.

"This trip, zero." Kade replied with a smile. "You all have just joined and it was in the middle of your trip, so I want you to enjoy the spoils of your first trip. Jones handles the administration for the faction, so we will let him decide the split we will be using going forward."

He had thought about this since the moment he invited them to join the family. Their faction was tiny, formed of close friends that considered each other family. They would all be in this together and if they wanted to grow, everyone had to give their all for the faction. Unfortunately, he struggled to take an unbiased stance and decided to leave it to Jones.

Jay nodded. "What about training? Can we find someone from a faction to teach us about our classes?"

"I've given that some thought. You'll be following me when we return." Kade said mysteriously before turning to Cal "Have you decided what route you want to take?"

Cal scratched his cheek "Uh, I'm still not sure. I'd like to see what a ranger is capable of first."

Kade nodded before looking at the other three pensively. He sighed a few moments later "Alright, all of you can follow me. I'll see what I can do."

"Follow you where, exactly?" Trey asked in confusion.

"I'm going to try to find you trainers, but I'm not sure that I can do it so I won't tell you where yet." Kade replied.

He already had a few ideas, but he didn't want to get their hopes up only to have his plans fall through later.

The atmosphere relaxed considerably once all of the important details were sorted. Within moments the conversation became impassioned as they relished in their recent achievements and the enjoyment to come.

"We're gonna be loaded when we return!" Walter exclaimed as he rotated a stick in the fire with a massive grin plastered on his face "What are you guys gonna buy first?"

"A Slammed burger from Ott's palace, and a side of poutine." Jay replied before wiping no existent drool from his lips.

"Dude, YES!" Cal replied "Extra large serving of poutine."

"Okay, food first, Ott's specifically. What's second?" Ben asked while raising his brow repeatedly.

Trey leaned forward "I'm going to buy a new computer and phone."

"Haha." Walter nudged him with his elbow "Can't wait to talk to Melissa, huh?"

Trey's face flushed a healthy pink as he gave Walter a sidelong glare "No! I need them for other things, okay?!"

Jay chuckled "Oh come on, he is just teasing. We all know that you have a massive crush on her. You should ask her out on a date when we return, after all, you should be able to afford a plane ticket."

"It's not like that, okay?!" Trey retorted angrily before his energy deflated rapidly. "She's out of my league..."

"Ha, even if that were true, which it isn't, you're a champion now." Walter said as he threw his arm over Trey's shoulders "You've ventured to a new world, fought exotic beasts, navigated the wilderness, and returned triumphantly! You'll be seen as strong and brave. She'll eat that up, trust me."

"I don't know, everyone is becoming a champion now, is it really that impressive?" Trey asked skeptically.

"Did you forget what it was like when we were heading to the portal?" Cal asked "News of champions returning with huge beast carcasses in tow shocked everyone. I even heard someone mention that the UN was cooperating with the god factions to create a leaderboard for the strongest groups."

"Wait, really? Who'd you hear that from?" Jay asked

"Some people were talking about it in the city outside of the gate town. Reporters I think." Cal replied as he pulled his stick from the fire and blew on the steaming meat at the end.

"See, champions will be the new celebrities. You're gonna be super popular with the ladies, we all will." Walter said as he shook Trey's shoulder "And imagine if we make it onto that leaderboard!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, there are bound to be a lot of teams far bigger and stronger than ours." Jay said, dousing his enthusiasm.

Walter shook his head "You're forgetting something, our team isn't the only one in our group." He turned to stare at Kade "We are a part of FwD now. If they get on the leaderboard, then technically we do too."

The others understood immediately and turned their gazes to Kade as well. Perhaps they couldn't be considered exceptionally strong, but what about someone that could fight off of a horde of beasts solo?

"What?" Kade asked as he noticed their gazes. Though he caught bits and pieces of the conversation, he had been primarily focused on his own thoughts and cultivation.

Jay's stared for a few moments with a pensive expression before speaking "You came to Detrius with the first wave, right?"

It was only now that he realized, they didn't know much about Kade. They had figured out that this was his second hunting trip, that he was in the military before he became a champion, and that he hunted alone. But that was it.

"Mhm." Kade nodded "I was a part of a team called 'Moonlight Squad'."

"Why did you leave the team?" Cal asked curiously.

Kade frowned "I didn't. They kicked me off the team when we returned and refused to give me my split of the loot."

"Why?"

Kade sighed before explaining what he had gone through with his previous team. He kept it concise and only mentioned the necessary tidbits, enough for them to understand the situation.

"Oh..." Jay said while twiddling his thumbs. "So, you decided to go solo after that?"

Kade nodded "I needed credits to advance as a mage. The inferior spells that I had access to weren't cutting it, I wanted to get better resources. I didn't really trust anyone else at that point, so I spent a few months training until I was confident that I could fight a beast alone." He patted Obruo "Met this guy along the way. Though he left me to fight my first beast alone, he was great in every fight after. He is the perfect scout."

"How long was your first trip?" Ben asked, his brows furrowing.

"Hm." Kade reclined and stroked his beard "Well, the trip with Moonlight Squad was around two or three weeks. Then I spent roughly four and a half months hunting solo."

"How many beasts did you kill solo?" Cal asked, his brows furrowing as well.

"Fifteen over the course of six weeks or so." Kade said before chuckling "I fed half of the cores to this punk though."

"Well?" Ben asked as he turned to Cal.

"He matched the top teams..." Cal replied in astonishment.

Jay waved his hands "Wait, what do you mean? You never mentioned top teams."

Taking a deep breath, Cal explained "When the reporters were talking, they didn't just mention the leaderboards. They also talked about the prospects for the top spots for the NA groups." He paused for a moment "The lowest had thirteen cores, the highest was eighteen."

Their gazes returned to Kade in surprise.

"Woah, so, since Kade got fifteen kills solo, does that mean he is the strongest in North America?" Walter asked with a fawning expression.

Kade, having understood the conversation, shook his head "No. It was too early, everyone was still learning at that point. I doubt I'd be able to match one of those teams now."

Jay laughed and threw his head back "As if! How many beast cores are in your bag right now?! Do you think anyone could match that in two and a half months?"

Kade smiled wryly. He would take this win, but they all knew that luck played a big part in his current wealth.

"Either way, I think our chances are good." Walter said as he leaned back and crossed his hands behind his head "We've got Kade, and he will have his own team soon. Even though the others started at the same time as us, by the way he talks, they are probably advancing way quicker than us."

"Eh, don't sell yourself short." Kade said as he took a bit of the meat he pulled from the fire "You guys have improved very quickly. It's actually impressive if I'm honest, but don't let that go to your head." Dropping the stick and leaning back as a smile crept onto his lips, he continued "Still, they won't slack off. As goofy as they can be, my family is reliable. They might not be stronger than you, but if you relax even for a second then they will leave you in the dust."

Walter was stunned but quickly shook it off "If that's the case then I don't see us making top ten, but I refuse to believe that we aren't in the top one hundred!"

Everyone laughed, finding it funny how invested Walter seemed to be.

The conversation finally steered to another topic. Kade took the opportunity to finish his meal, feed Obruo one of the Hyena cores, and step away to practice.

He was making good progress with adapting to his enlarged channels and was eager to return to his previous form. As well as he seemed to be doing, it would be nice to have all of his options in battle. Not to mention that the time he was having to devote to practice was eating into the time allocated for his study.

Thankfully, both would increase his strength, so it wasn't a big deal if he prioritized one of the other for the time being.

After a few hours of practice, he took a break and checked his current level. The bracelet provided showed level 12, he had finally leveled up again causing him to smile.

In the grand scheme of things, one level didn't mean much. In the true classification of cultivation, twenty-five system levels equated to one level in a stage. Every one hundred system levels equated to one stage. This meant that he was only halfway through the first level of the first stage, and he knew that there were at least five stages composed of four levels each.

When he learned of this he felt dejected. At his pace, assuming he maintained one level per month, it would take at least eight years to break through to the second stage. However, that was before he figured out how to multitask his cultivation. Before, he only spent one hour a day cultivating. Now, he cultivated constantly unless he was in battle, practicing, or reading, which increased his efficiency by over tenfold.

Suddenly cultivation didn't seem so daunting.