Archibald did his best to collect all of the valuable draconic blood.

The horrible wound, which literally slashed the beast in two, caused heavy losses. Over sixty percent of the bear’s blood gushed out immediately. The rest slowly trickled from the body as Archibald moved towards the corpse.

It took a couple of seconds to harvest the two halves of the carcass. Unfortunately even that tiny amount of time resulted in further blood loss. At least the corpse stopped bleeding once inside the Ring of Holding.

With the easy part done, what followed was a tedious chore. Archibald took well over a quarter of an hour to find and store all the usable bits of blood. The majority of the time was spent searching. Once found collecting it was simple and all it took was a bit of focus. Thanks to some of its properties, the Ring of Holding did the rest.

Rings of Holding had the ability to store liquid without a container, if the wielder chose to do so. But you had to store the whole thing, you couldn’t just take half a cup if the cup was full.

Thanks to this ability Archibald easily separated blood from grass, leaves and such. He could even collect it directly from pools. However, the blood that had soaked the soil and became merlot colored mud could not be harvested.

Archibald could theoretically dig it out and then pick it up, but he would end up collecting the bloody mud. Rings of Holding didn’t have the ability to refine or separate items and matter into basic components. They could only store them in their extra-dimensional space.

“I should pick up the damned mountain lion’s Monster Core while I’m at it. It was that vile thing’s screeching that started this whole mess...” Archibald muttered before disappearing into the nearby bushes, hoping that the monster’s bloodline purity was high enough to develop a Monster Core.

While Archibald was busy with his harvest, Wolf was busy with his enlightenment.

The boy was going through all of the thoughts and experiences that gushed out of nowhere and sorting them out. The luminescent figure that performed that strike a couple of minutes ago had stirred these fragments of memory from the deepest portions of his mind.

Luckily none of those memory shards were invasive. They didn’t show any signs of hostility towards Wolf either. These vague, fragmented impressions helped Wolf piece together the techniques he had read years ago from the scrolls left behind by Lonely Eagle.

Those scrolls contained Internal Energy gathering techniques. Unfortunately they just assumed that whoever got them already knew the basics. Since Wolf lacked that fundamental bit of knowledge the scrolls and even the carving in his Mind Palace were useless to him. It was impossible to build up if you didn’t have the foundation.

Yet, thanks to this experience, Wolf could finally make out what he was supposed to do. It couldn’t be said that he had a foundation, but he had a vague impression on how to build one. Now, if only he was able to find an environment rich in World Energy, Wolf could start gathering and converting it into his own Internal Energy.

Thinking up to there Wolf fully opened his half-closed eyes. “I wonder whether that draconic bear had a Monster Core?”

A few moments later Archibald emerged from the underbrush. The big man had a nasty frown and a dark expression on his face as he beckoned Wolf to follow.

Archibald didn’t say a word. He led the way straight the hell out of the danger zone. One brush with death was more than enough to traumatize him and make him question his decisions. Archibald wanted to bash his head in! What the hell was he thinking bringing Wolf here to hunt!?

To be honest, this place was like a children's playground when compared with the Beast-lands. Not that Archibald hadn’t cursed his own insane mind for taking a child into the Beast-lands…

His own life and injuries didn’t matter much, but if he were to lose Wolf… That was unthinkable…

That evening Archibald and Wolf made camp in the outer region of the danger zone. They started eating in solemn silence. The only sound to be heard was the clicking of cutlery.

“That groundhog sure was persistent!” Barely two bites into the meal, Wolf exclaimed with a laugh, hoping to lighten the mood.

He could tell that his father’s hands and legs were still trembling a bit. Those were clear consequences of this day’s ordeal.

Archibald’s unfocused gaze grew somewhat clearer as he gave a hollow laugh.

“I can’t believe the little bugger came after you two more times as we were leaving the forest. I’d get it if it was a badger. Those things are known to hold a grudge, but I never knew groundhogs also had such a foul temper.”

*Ahem*

Still smiling, Wolf cleared his throat.

“Father, did that dragon-blood bear have a Monster Core?” He asked as nonchalantly as he could.

This was what interested Wolf the most at the moment. There was no need to beat around the bush with his father. Not that Wolf knew how to do that…

“I don’t know, I just stored the remains into my Ring of Holding as fast as possible, to preserve the blood. How about we butcher it together after dinner? There’s some good meat even on a regular bear, let alone on a monster that you killed today…”

Hunting Monster Beasts is way too dangerous for the boy. Maybe I should’ve let him start with killing humans or elves? Especially if he insists on using that damn sword instead of casting spells like any sane person would do.

Maybe we should register as adventurers and go clearing out bandit camps and elven raiders?

While Archibald was mulling over what to do next, Wolf started shoving food into his mouth as fast as he could. Fortunately, his father was far too out of it to pay attention to his son’s horrendous table manners.

“Dad, I’m done! Can I start processing the bear?” Wolf mumbled with his mouth still full. He devoured his dinner as fast as a real wolf would, just so that he could get that Monster Core a moment sooner.

“Um, sure, here you go.” Archibald absentmindedly summoned a waterproof sheet from his Ring of holding and then dumped half of the bear’s carcass on top of it. A slab of meat thudded to the ground. Wolf quickly sprang to work, paying no heed to the leaking blood.

The boy took out his sword and started cutting at the dead beast’s forehead. The weapon was an unwieldy tool for this kind of work, but it was the sharpest blade they had. Surprisingly, the sword slashed at the scaly hide with relative ease.

“Don’t damage the hide son! We’re not money starved, but it would be a shame to ruin it any more than it already is.” Archibald suddenly warned when he realized that Wolf was about to make a mess.

The boy didn’t acknowledge his father in any way. Instead he noticed something interesting.

“Dad, why is it easier to cut the hide now that the bear is dead? When I parried that mountain lion’s blow I didn’t even manage to break the skin of its paws. This hide seems much tougher, yet I can slash through it easily?”

“Monster Beasts also have Internal Energy. That’s what makes them dangerous. Thanks to their Internal Energy Monster Beasts can move their bulky bodies at an incredible speed. Those with weaker looking bodies can display incredible physical prowess you wouldn’t expect from the build they have...” Wolf had figured out something years ago. The best way to shake Archibald from a daze or to change the subject was to ask a question and let him enter the teacher mode.

“... naturally since the Monster Beast is dead it can’t mobilize the Internal Energy which it used for defense.” After talking for a while about what little he knew on Internal Energy, Archibald finally told Wolf what the boy really wanted to know all along.

“Meaning that mountain lion really did have a Monster Core…"

“Found it!” Wolf triumphantly raised half a raspberry sized grimy pearl.

At some point during his Father’s speech Wolf had gone back to work. He was careful and made sure not to damage the hide too much. A moment ago he noticed the pearly knob that was the Monster Core and managed to pry it out of the skull at the perfect moment.

“Dad, can I have this?” Wolf beamed a bright smile as he looked at his father pleadingly.

The big man smiled at how silly the boy was acting. As if Archibald had any need for material things at this point…

“Sure. Everything from this Monster Beast goes to you. I just want to check out that Monster Core. Could you hand it over for a moment?”

“What do you mean everything goes to me? You should eat the liver and the heart! You said those were good for health and stamina.” Wolf protested while handing over the bony half-sphere.

“Nah, I’m already too old for stuff like that.” Archibald waved his son’s offer off, while examining what was left of the Monster Core.

A shame, most of the energy had leaked out when it was cut in half… It’s probably useless except to fuel some very weak Spell Formations… The big man had his own thoughts, ignoring Wolf’s offer… The problem didn’t lay in his body.

Casting that spell had an adverse effect on Archibald. Wolf was naturally worried about his father’s health and wanted to help. As far as he was concerned, giving him some nutritious food should make him feel better, at least a little bit…

“Dad, you should take those to improve your health. Also, don’t ever do anything like what you did today. I’m strong now and I can protect you.” Wolf’s face was dead serious and his voice had an unyielding charm to it.

Archibald found the whole scene extremely cute and heartwarming.

“Son, this has nothing to do with strength. It…” Archibald started, but Wolf didn’t let him finish.

“Dad! Strong protect the weak. You taught me that. When I was a child you protected me. Now that I am strong please let me return the favor.”

“It’s not the same…”

And you’re still very much a child! If I wasn’t dying, I’d put you into a regular school for a couple of years before shipping you off to the Mage Academy. Socializing would do you a whole lot more good than killing monsters and bandits!

“Dad!” Wolf once again interrupted his father mid sentence.

“All right, all right. You have those scrolls on you and what not. I’ll let you protect me. But in turn, if something you can’t handle happens, you will let your father take care of it. Do you understand? That’s my bottom line.”

… why did you send someone with a crippled soul to go around, stumbling blindly…

Those words still echoed in Wolf’s mind, but the boy could tell that his father wouldn’t budge any more than this. He had touched upon the big man’s bottom line and this was as much as Archibald was willing to compromise.

“All right. If something I can’t handle happens you will take care of it. But… you have to eat the heart and liver.”

What kind of a negotiation is this? I’d laugh, if I didn’t have to act like a responsible parent… Archibald forced himself to frown.

“I’m not eating them. The benefits you would gain from eating the heart and the liver outstrip what I would gain considerably.”

Seeing that Wolf was about to argue back, Archibald raised his hand to stop him.

“It’s not just about you and me now. In the future, when you’re out adventuring with a party, don’t insist on even or even merit based splits. If you care about the people you go adventuring with, share the spoils in a smart fashion. What I’m trying to say is give things to people that would benefit from them the most. Once you’re done with the mission, you can easily settle the score using gold or gems…”

Seeing that Wolf had completely forgotten about butchering the bear, Archibald took over. The big man did the work while talking and Wolf started helping out of habit.

“Before going on an adventure make sure to reach an agreement on how the spoils are split. We used to do a bidding thing.”

“Everything that could be split evenly was split amongst the party. As for the rest, we would auction them off internally. The winner would get the item, while the rest of the party would split the gold from the winning bid.”

“Of course the gold or items used in the bid had to be paid immediately. If you trust people, IOUs are fine too, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of people have died to their friends because of some treasure they had found together...”

As expected, the bear’s body was really tough. Even in death, it took quite a bit of strength to properly skin and butcher it. About an hour later Archibald was done with the first half, then got onto the second half.

“Here are the heart and the liver. You have to eat all of these.” Once he was finally done, Archibald presented Wolf with his neatly sliced treats.

For a moment the big man considered offering a few more choice pieces, such as the brain and testicles, but decided against it.

“Do I have to eat them now?” Wolf wasn’t a stranger to seeing raw meat and he wasn’t disgusted, but they had just finished an ample dinner and the heart and the liver were huge. It would take a better part of a year to consume that much meat.

“You can take your time. I’ll preserve them.” Archibald barely refrained from laughing. Did his son really expect him to force feed him some forty kilos of meat?

“Then I’m going to absorb the energy from what’s left of this Monster Core. Um, how do I do that dad?” Wolf was extremely excited, but faltered on the first step.

“Well, I’m no expert, but as far as I know you should...” Archibald said as he started yet another lecture.

Archibald's lessons:

Portable Mansions are extra-dimensional spaces that can house living creatures. However a Portable Mansion is considerably larger and more cumbersome to move around than a Ring of Holding.