Despite the months of hiatus and obstructions, Wolf had finally finished carving the fifth column.

With one last stroke of the chisel Wolf completed the line which went through all of the bodies displayed on the pillar. The line connected all of the faceless people in a jumbled up fashion, seeming to represent the flow of time.

The generic, faceless humanoids displayed how to make a cycle of Internal Energy within one’s body. Unfortunately, this instruction manual was as useful to Wolf as a book with detailed potion recipes.

“No, that can’t be right.” Wolf’s Mental Aspect said with a frown.

“If I have something embedded inside my head then it can’t be useless… It’s just that I’ve never had that kind of energy inside me, so I can’t tell how to use this schema.”

Luckily, Wolf immediately saw the crux of the problem. Teaching a man how to swim, when he’s never seen a body of water was impossible. The man could have extraordinary talent, but this kind of knowledge required hands-on experience. So, what Wolf needed now was to experience Internal Energy filling his body.

Based on the carvings on the column, Wolf could deduce that this was the energy that ran through all people. No, not just people, everything in the world had at least some of this energy. It’s just that most things had trace amounts, which couldn’t be used and were difficult to detect.

“No point playing this guessing game. I’ll just ask dad tomorrow.” Putting his mind at ease Wolf went to work on smoothening the sixth column.

The next morning Wolf popped the question, prompting his father to enter the lecturer mode. Not that Archibald needed much prompting…

“There are plenty of ways to go about gathering Internal Energy. The most traditional option is meditating in an energy rich environment. For instance the peak of a very tall mountain, the source of a grand river, the crater of a volcano or maybe some place constantly plagued by thunderstorms. The only problem is that Monster Beasts favor such environments too. There are some that are free of monsters, but that’s only because humans had exterminated them. Such locations are heavily guarded private property of powerful individuals and organizations.”

“I think that you already have an instruction manual on how to gather Internal Energy from the environment. It should be in those scrolls you picked up at Green Glade Hill.” Archibald pointed out, but Wolf shook his head.

“I’ve tried it a couple of times. I think I felt something in the Beast-lands, but here and in the elven lands there was nothing.” Wolf said with graveness, that looked very odd in an eight-year-old.

“That’s not surprising. The places where manlings and Monster Beasts can gather Internal Energy are well guarded. I avoided such places as much as possible.”

“But don’t despair. That’s not the only way to gather Internal Energy. Another, more convenient approach for manlings, would be through the use of tonics and potions. I’ve already told you that any potion that causes a permanent change has a diminishing effect with each use. Every time you take one, the efficiency of the next one is halved, due to your body building up resistance. So even though it’s a convenient shortcut, it’s not all that useful in the long run.”

“Lastly you can eat energy rich foods. Mostly flesh of higher Order Monster Beasts. Monster Cores are most densely packed with energy, but you’ll break your teeth trying to chew them.” The big man chuckled, but seeing that his son wasn’t amused he cleared his throat and carried on.

“There are supposedly some plants with similar effects, but they are even more difficult to acquire than Monster Beast meat. The biggest problem with gathering energy from raw ingredients is that not everyone can use it. It’s speculated that this is the original approach to Internal Energy gathering, which Monster Beasts use. Then manlings used their superior intelligence and adapted it to suit them better.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t use this method. It’s just that it requires one to have a special physique. Either that or years of training to learn how to properly distribute the energy throughout the body.”

“I’ve heard that if you let Internal Energy accumulate naturally there exists a wide range of side effects that could occur. That’s all I know, more or less. When it comes to Internal Energy, most manlings have bodies like sieves. It just drains out of us over time. Becoming a Sword-Sage is a matter of luck, talent and constitution. It’s more or less the same with Mages really. If you have talent, but nobody discovers it, your talent will be wasted.”

“So, are the elixirs the way to go?” Wolf tried to steer the conversation back towards the relevant topic.

Too bad I lack talent for Alchemy… If I was an Alchemist I could brew my own potions.

“Well, I can’t really help you with this choice, other than giving you some facts I’ve previously heard. Potions come in two varieties, those that expand your capacity and those that refill the energy you spend. I think I read somewhere, a long time ago, that Monster Cores are used for creating both potions. Oh, right, the recovery one doesn’t have a diminishing effect the more it’s used. It’s like a healing potion. It doesn’t cause permanent change in your body.”

“The Internal Energy expanding one is just a safer way to evenly distribute the energy from the Monster Core. To a regular person the effect is minor. A slight increase in their vitality and lifespan of the body. For a True-Namer the effect is negligible. While it’s nonexistent for me, since I consumed something good back in my early one hundreds. You know, back when I was young…” Archibald tried showing off, but when he saw his son rolling his eyes he got back on track.

“However, the potion is very useful for a Sword-Sage, or anyone that knows how to circulate Internal Energy.”

“An old friend of mine had great interest in being a Sword-Sage, despite already being a True-Namer. He has considerably more experience on the subject. As for me, I’m basically a somewhat educated amateur that overheard a couple of useful things when debating with him.”

“Well, if I can’t go to those special places and elixirs are no good, then the only thing I can use is Monster Beast flesh and Monster Cores. Right?” Wolf concluded questioningly, hoping to get at least some direction from his father. A fool’s hope really…

“Well, it’s not that elixirs are no good. It’s just that the same grade of elixir becomes more or less useless as soon as you drink the first two. The price ramps up quickly as their grade increases. Not to mention that the higher the grade, the more difficult it is to find the potion. As for Monster Beast flesh, we’re headed to a danger zone so that you can practice hunting.” Wolf’s eyes sparkled when he heard this.

“Don’t be alarmed. While it is called a danger zone, it’s a much tamer place than that jungle we walked through. The Order of Monster Beasts there is significantly lower than those we avoided on our way back to the empire.”

“At the center of the deadliest danger zone within the Empire of Human there are legendary Monster Beasts of the fifteenth Order. As for the place we’re headed, it shouldn’t have anything above tenth Order at the center. It’s even safer in the fringes and that’s where we’re going. Only lower Order Monster Beasts live there. They shouldn’t pose any danger even to a Third Order Mage, let alone you.”

Wolf wasn’t alarmed at all. He had a feeling that he had grown up! His father was now taking him hunting Monster Beasts. He kind of felt bad for rolling his eyes at his father’s nonsense. However, that had no impact on the boy’s eagerness.

“When do we start dad?”

“Easy now. We have a long way to walk before we reach that den of monsters. Dragon’s Forest is kind of strange compared to most other danger zones in our empire. The legends say that a long, long time ago a dragon appeared there. That’s almost certainly nonsense. If a real dragon had appeared in these parts they would probably exterminate all ten races of man in one breath. The monster that appeared there was probably the same kind of creature Lonely Eagle slew when I was young, namely a kind of Wyrm.”

“Wyrm is the lowliest of all dragon-blood creatures. Dragons generally have trouble reproducing, at least that’s what the legends claim. As far as the folktales go, the lower you go in their evolutionary ladder, the higher their virility. All dragon species are well known for their tendency to um… copulate, as that old Druid called it, with pretty much anything in an attempt to leave offspring.”

“As time passed this danger zone slowly filled up with dragon-blooded animals and Monster Beasts until no normal life forms remained. I’ve been there myself ages ago and I can tell you that even bugs had trace amounts of draconic heritage. Fortunately the Wyrm’s already thin bloodline had become even thinner to the point that you can barely call those creatures dragon-blooded.”

“Another important factor in thinning out their bloodline were human hunters and adventurers. Our elites preyed on the creatures with purer bloodline. The ingredients you can get from draconic creatures are considerably more valuable than what you get from regular Monster Beasts.”

“By eliminating creatures with purer bloodline and leaving behind useless dregs nobody cared about, the value and strength of those monsters plummeted. Since those Monster Beasts were no longer expensive commodities and never really left their forest, the nobility was fine with leaving them there. But even if they did cause trouble, organizing monster subjugations is an expensive affair. Unless the Monster Beasts caused some serious harm, nobody would bother funding an army to exterminate them.”

“There are stories that long ago one of the Northshield Dukes organized an army to clear out the Dragon’s Forest. Allegedly he had taken such horrible losses that he almost caused a civil war. Since then, Northshields had decided to leave those Monster Beasts alone…”

Archibald spoke at great length about the history and characteristics of Dragon’s Forest. Once he was done he went on with explaining other danger zones, Monster Beast types and a bunch of other, questionably related, things.

Archibald had decided to dedicate the remaining three years of his life to pass on the distilled, useful knowledge gathered over the course of his two century long life. Wolf chose to suffer silently and accept his fate. As long as his father was happy…

A week later Archibald and Wolf arrived at the border of the Dragon’s Forest. Monster Beasts of up to Fourth Order prowled the forest’s fringes. A sick or old Monster Beast of the Fifth Order might make an appearance, trying to survive where the competition wasn’t as ruthless. As for those of the Sixth Order and above, it had been ages since one of them was spotted so far away from the depths of the forest.

Even though aware of this, Archibald felt a tad uneasy now that they had arrived. Wolf had finally advanced his Mage Order a couple of days ago. He could now cast Sixth Order spells. In theory he should be able to confront Fourth Order Monster Beasts safely and instantly kill Fifth Order ones from an ambush.

The rule of thumb was that a lone Mage can safely fight a Monster Beast two Orders lower than his own. If the Mage had set up an ambush, they could kill a Monster Beast one Order lower than theirs. As for the scenario where a Mage is caught unawares… Even a Second Order Monster Beast could kill a Mage of the ninth Order. The body of a Mage was hardly any different from a regular person. A Second Order Monster Beast could tear a common man to shreds in seconds.

Even though he was aware of all of this, Archibald still felt uneasy. But he couldn’t shelter Wolf any longer. In ideal circumstances the boy would have to fend for himself in three years. In his desire to pass along his experience, Archibald had to pit Wolf down against Monster Beasts in a relatively controlled environment.

That wasn’t the only combat related experience Wolf needed. Archibald had to get him used to killing manlings as well. A decent part of his missions back when he was at the Mage Academy involved killing elves and brigands.

The way Wolf incinerated those Iceowl bandits with a Fireball was a good start. However, instantly vaporizing people wasn’t as weighty as stabbing them dead. That was why Archibald took care of their leader in a bloody way, to get Wolf used to seeing bleeding corpses.

“Dad, you seem to be deep in thought. What are you thinking about?” Wolf snapped his father back to reality.

Whenever the boy saw his father deep in thought he had an uneasy feeling. He was under the impression that the man was coming up with new ways of hurting himself over something trivial.

“I’m just unwilling to have you grow up this fast. Even urchins rarely have to be as mature at such a young age.” Archibald’s sadness was visible. He had a feeling that he was failing as a father, but had no choice in the matter. He could only press forward.

“Don’t worry dad. I’m already a grownup! I’ll show you when we encounter Monster Beasts here.” Wolf was taking after his father.

The boy was trying to show a brave and cheerful front, while deep inside worrying about his father’s wellbeing. Besides, he really had the right to feel proud of himself. His father took him monster slaying at the age of eight. How awesome was that?

The fact that you’re a grownup is exactly what’s bothering me.

“Come on, you have to use your tracking skills to find your prey. I’ll stay out of your way, so that you can hunt freely.”

Wolf nodded and started carefully examining the ground only to find that there were no visible tracks. After half an hour of walking and paying attention he still came up with nothing. It shouldn’t have been that hard to find tracks in the snow…

“Dad, there are no tracks here.” Wolf finally concluded.

“Makes sense. We still haven’t really entered the danger zone and the regular animals that lived in the surroundings have been hunted down a long time ago. I was hoping we’d get lucky and find your first opponent here."

*Sigh.*

"Fine, we'll go in deeper.” Archibald cursed their luck as the pair headed deeper into the danger zone.

Archibald's lessons:

Empire of Human is huge. It has thirty billion residents, nearly a third of which live in the central, most prosperous province. The population of all ten races of man put together is calculated in hundreds of billions.