Just as Jason suspected it took the other two around thirty minutes to get the cauldron and the sacks to where Jason was waiting. He was still gutting the coyote’s when they arrived so he just told them to start setting up the tent. An hour or so later Selene had melted down a few trees and the campsite was set up.

“Phew.” Jason wiped some sweat off of his brow and looked at the completely gutted, skinned, and carved coyotes that he had in front of him. He took a few of the slabs of meat and went to where the other two were laying down next to the campfire they had made. Caleb had taken off his scale armour and put on his leather armour while Selene had taken off her robe leaving her just in scale armour, her scale mask, and her gloves.

“Jaaaasoooon… start cooking.” Caleb moaned from where he was sitting.

“What? Did carrying that cauldron wear you out more than you thought it would? Huh buddy?” Jason mocked him as he was setting up the prop stick so that he could cook some monster meat stew with some of the herbs that Selene had in her collection.

The other two knew nothing of cooking so they left all of it to Jason. Selene had just essentially burned the meat that Jason had brought her and ate that with the occasional herb that she knew had beneficial effects. Caleb on the other hand had done odd jobs around the city to get enough copper to afford two meals and a bed each day just hoping to train enough in the yard that he’d be able to join a proper party someday.

Jason propped up three long sticks around the fire to make some sort of pyramid and then using some monster tendons that he found in the “to burn” pile he tied them together. Then he hung a pot from the top of the pyramid which was right above the center of the fire.

“Hey you two. Don’t die. I’m going out to get some water for the stew.” Caleb waved back in acknowledgement and pulled himself into a sitting position and nodded at Jason. He was going to be on watch until Jason got back.

Shaking his head Jason went to the nearest tree and jumped to the lowest branch. He then climbed as high as he could and used his hand to shift the leaves out of his way. Looking all around him he found that there was a good sized clearing just to the left of where their camp was going from the direction Jason was facing. I have no idea if that’s a lake or not but it’s certainly a possibility.

At the pace Jason was going it wouldn’t even take him ten minutes to get to the clearing by running and jumping from branch to branch. The trees and leaves would shake and creak at his passing but it was much safer and better than being on the ground.

That’s what he thought until he was sent hurling to the ground mid jump. The impact with the ground made it so that Jason couldn’t breathe for a time. Opening his eyes through the pain that was swiftly fading he saw a glimpse of something black and shiny heading towards his face.

Jason immediately rolled to the side with a clawed paw missing him by mere centimeters. Kicking the ground Jason shot away from the paw to the side as he flipped his body around with preternatural grace and dexterity. Landing on his feet Jason saw that it was a panther that was attacking him.

Level 19 Blood-Mad Panther

Jason didn’t hesitate in unsealing his Aura of Misfortune and letting it start to do its work. The panther turned toward Jason and he could easily tell why it was “Blood-Mad”. The panther had a black furred body sleek and about half as tall as Jason was. Yet throughout the black fur thick red pulsating lines stood out from the body which thumped as if blood was pumping through them. The eyes were completely bloodshot and had thick red lines extending out of the sides of the eye into the body.

I have no clue what happened to that creature, but it sure as hell doesn’t look fun. If it was bad enough to have the system change its name then I don’t want to have it happen to me. Jason barely had enough time for this thought when he heard a loud thump and the veins on the panther pulsed strongly causing it to screech in pain. Driven by the pain the panther lashed out at every living creature around it which in this case meant just Jason.

Leaping at Jason the panther brought its front two paws down in an attempt to kill him, all Jason had the time to do was take a step back. He was still going to get gutted and then devoured, but he tripped. Jason’s tumble helped him escape the fate of being shredded by a blood mad beast. The panther went a bit past Jason which allowed him to get up and send a punch its way right before it turned and tried to attack him again.

The punch caught the beast in the side forcing it to stumble in the opposite direction or fall down. Jason pressed his advantage and went on the attack. He threw punches at the body and the veins at different points in time and found different effects.

Hitting the body was just like any other body shot. Mainly it could destabilize the enemy, but it didn’t really do a lot of damage. The panther had bruises mainly and a few broken bones here and there. Yet it was other than that completely fine. It would take probably triple the number of hits it had already taken to kill it off completely.

Hitting the pulsating veins, however, was a completely different story. There didn’t seem to be any physical damage done, but every time a vein was hit the panther would hiss and growl as if it was experiencing the most painful thing in its entire existence.

Jason after figuring that out used a combination of body shots and vein shots at different times to push the panther back and unbalance it. Jason had tried to listen to the music, but all he got from the beast was a mass of chaotic sounds that didn’t go together. This beast shouldn’t exist. It isn’t right. It just doesn’t sound right. Were Jason’s main thoughts after he tried to listen to its music only to get a massive headache afterward.

Jason ducked and leaned slightly avoiding a claw swipe aimed at his head and then punched a vein at the neck of the panther as hard as he could. While the panther was regretting its entire existence Jason dished out three more shots to the panther’s front legs and chest.

I have no idea how long we’ve been fighting but my stamina is almost gone. I need to either end it soon or I’m going to die. With these thoughts, Jason dove forward and rolled to be underneath the panther. Then disregarding the stamping feet coming his way he threw punch after punch right at the abdomen of the panther. As long as it dies before me I’ll be fine.

Jason continuously threw punches at the panther even as his legs were breaking and his skin was tearing. The panther leapt backward which left Jason alone on the ground just lying there. Instead of getting up as per usual what Jason did was rolled back slightly pressed his hands on the ground with his body rolled up in a ball. Then he pushed off aiming it so that his feet were aimed right at the panther’s face. Through the strength of his arms, he shot himself off like a cannonball.

Hitting the panther right in the face with his feet followed by his entire body weight made the creature stumble. As it stumbled two of its legs gave out leaving the beast hopeless.

A beast can live without an eye, it can live without teeth, what it can’t live without are its legs. Once the panther had half of its legs gone there was nothing it could do. It could barely limp, barely crawl, barely move. To put it out of its misery Jason carefully walked so he was in front of a leg that was unusable and punched the creature as hard as he could through the eyeball. Then since he didn’t think that was enough he opened his hand and grabbed what he could before pulling it out as hard as he could.

What was left in his hands as he did so was a squiggling little red leech looking thing.

Level 24 Blood Parasite

Nope. Jason didn’t hesitate in throwing it to the ground and stomping the red thing to death. It was only when he saw that the creature was in multiple different squashed pieces that he felt alright leaving it be. Even then to make sure no creature ate the remnants and maybe got infected he dug a small hole with his hands and carefully moved the squished remains there, then he covered the hole back up.

Hopefully, everything will be fine. Probably not, but hopefully. Jason sealed his Aura back up so that he didn’t kill any innocent forest critter that was around him like the insects or songbirds.

Jason sat down and ate two hearts. Grumbling as he did so because he only had five left. Then he picked himself up and started moving towards the clearing he saw again. Once there he saw something he completely didn’t expect. It was a lake so the first thing he did was fill his waterskin up with water to drink and then a second bigger water skin up for the meal. The others have probably already gotten worried and are out looking for me at this point. Hopefully, they don’t go too far.

What Jason didn’t expect in the clearing was that there was a path. An actual path that was created by animals through how frequently they visited the pond to drink. Jason knew that they were supposed to exist at almost every pond, but this was the first one he had ever seen. So Jason went and followed said path for a little while. He was barely walking for fifteen minutes when he saw where that path led.

Jason grinned widely. Body still bloody and bones still broken from his fight Jason smiled. Then he turned back around and started heading for camp, excited to share his discovery with the others.