After being tempered by the flames the hut was now done, at least physically done, I still needed to add the wards which shouldn’t take that long. I wanted to make these wards extra powerful and permanent, so I needed to gather materials and paints, luckily, I already had most of the needed ingredients and paints, all I needed was a few different ingredients of the… human kind. It looks like it's time to finish off the little expedition. They should still be in the forest right now, but I needed to check, adrenalin is one hell of a drug after all. I began creating the needed structures and ingredients to set up the defenses, once I had everything in place it was time to begin the hunt.

I gave one last examination of the girl before placing my hands on the ground and connected to the network of green lines once again. A wave of information flooded my mind and I was able to pinpoint the expedition's position, they were closer than I first thought but it appears that they had actually taken refuge in a bunker of sorts, I had overlooked it before but It was now in my sights. It was around four feet underground and was the size of a two-story house, a decoy hunter's cabin sat above it and was presumably concealing the entrance. It was a bit hazy, but I believe I could make out around ten signatures but due to a ward, I could make nothing else out.

I decided to play it safe and headed back to the ceremony site to enchant the sword I had made from the Murolok, and while I was at it, I made a shaman stick. I carefully began to chisel several symbols into the sword along with a few patterns, with a symbol here and there I had a weapon that can easily withstand and contain my magic. Now, to make the stick, I decided to use the remaining pieces of the tortured tree and with gentle hands, I started to whittle down a leftover branch. I was a bit more careful and meticulous with the stick, a shaman stick needs to tell a story and its mere appearance needs to evoke an air of mysticism and power. Unlike my previous symbols which were just a mix of gibberish and many different languages, the ones I used to decorate and enchant the stick were ones of my own creation, each symbol had its own meaning and power, and with these, I weaved the story of a few of my experiences during the killing fields.

As I worked a storm started to pick up above me, it started off as a small cloud, but it soon developed into a massive mass of twisting darkness that stretched for miles on in. I didn’t let this distract me though. I began to call the ambient mana towards me causing the already intense wind to become almost hurricane levels. As I wrote my hands began to move faster and faster and soon they were nothing but a blur, and as I neared the end my emotions grew turbulent, and soon the hunger reappeared with a vengeance but this time I didn’t let it get the better of me again, I contained it and compressed it before forcing it to intensify. I could feel the space around me begin to tear as I quickly lost control of my presence, quickly the spirit realm started to bleed into the overworld. I did not stop however and continued to quickly carve the symbols even as my astral form began to manifest behind me.

With one final symbol, the story was finished, and I raised above my head and roared as a massive bolt of lightning struck the stick, but instead of dissipating the lightning continued to strike until the stick began to charr. I brought the smoldering stick down and began to direct the rampant electricity to distribute out into the symbols causing them to take on a black appearance, but I wasn’t done yet, I began to gather and focus my power causing the surrounding environment to frost over and freeze. I injected as much of my magic as I could before the stick began reaching its breaking point and I had to stop.

Once the stick was completed the volatile storm above me began to disperse and spread outwards, and the surrounding spatial cracks began to mend and repair themselves. With the stick done I restrained my emotions and retracted my presence as well as my astral form. It seems I lost control there for a second and accidentally caused a scene. Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter since it was well within my own territory, but I needed to be careful about that. I sighed and inspected the stick; its previously fresh tan wood had seemingly become old and withered. The aged appearance was completely covered in dense black symbols that completely encompassed the very top portion of the stick causing it to look uniformly black.

I already had wasted enough time so I began to approach the bunker with a fast pace, I easily dodged and weaved through the forest but even at this pace it would take a couple of hours so I decided to perform quick discreet spirit jumps to cut that time down to a quarter, soon I crested over a small hill and was met with the small hunter's lodge. I stopped and began to carefully circle around it to check for any anomalies and found none, but I did find something interesting, I cracked a cruel smile and gave a quiet cackle, it seems the fun just won't end.