John watched in fascination as Ursel pulled out a large cauldron and began to break chunks of bone from the foot of the giant rhinoceros. These were then tossed into the cauldron and pulverized into a powder, using her club like a pestle. When the cauldron was nearly full, Ursel carried it over to the body of the rhino and began to catch some of the blood oozing out of where she’d torn it apart.

“You have to use the blood while it’s fresh,” she said by way of explanation. “Otherwise it simply isn’t any good.”

John ultimately had to agree with that, but he couldn’t help but wonder. “What are you doing?”

“I’m making bone broth, obviously.”

No. No she was not. “I’m not looking forward to having my guts torn up by powdered bone…” John commented.

“Well obviously we don’t just drink it. There’s a circulation path to dissolve it into spiritual energy to temper your body. I came up with the technique myself!” Ursel beamed.

John pondered for a few moments. He knew his daughter’s talent, and so he was quite certain that her technique worked for her. But he hadn’t seen her create a new technique that was supposed to be usable by others. “Well, I look forward to seeing it,” he said.

“Sure thing! It’ll make our bones super tough and fill us up. All thr-” Ursel looked at Crystin who was definitely not an earth cultivator. “Both of us! I can also… roast some of the meat…?” she tilted her head. “It’s full of… proteins?”

“While I am sure it would be delicious,” Crystin said. “I don’t believe it would be the best dish for me to consume.”

“That makes sense,” Ursel said as she began to tear down a nearby tree, creating a ring of stones and placing everything in a single fire pit. She held a flint in hand, glaring at the extremely wet wood before her.

“I can start the fire,” John said.

“That would be great, thanks!” Ursel said.

He wondered if she’d ever cooked this ‘bone broth’ before, or usually drank it as it was. Ultimately, John decided he didn’t need to know that answer. He first drew the water out of the wood, after which it was simple to light it with a little bit of fire element. It came so much more naturally now than ever before, so even in his current state his fire element was more powerful than it had been before.

The massive cauldron took a long time to heat up, and John began to direct the heat through it to speed up the process. He made sure to not let it concentrate in any one area, and once it began to boil he let the natural flames keep the process going. The concoction of powdered bone and blood smelled about like he would expect. Very much like iron, and not very much at all like food. But Ursel seemed happy, at least, eagerly waiting next to the fire.

“How do we know when it’s done?” John asked.

“Uh, it should be soon. The fire will help break it down into a more usable form…?” Ursel said uncertainly, cementing the fact that she’d never accomplished this part of her plan. She waited for a while then looked at the cauldron. “Seems like it’s about time to eat it,” she stepped forward. She reached for the cauldron, seemingly unsure about where to place her hands.

“Bowls?” John said, gesturing to the ladle, bowls, and individual spoons he’d pulled out. He was beginning to feel brief visions he’d had of his daughter actually learning to cook a little bit crumble apart.

“Yes. Of course. Obviously that’s how it’s done.” She was definitely going to drink directly from the cauldron. Ursel looked at the bowl that John had produced. “That’s about big enough, I guess,” she said as she ladeled it full.

Considering the size of the cauldron, John had brought out his biggest bowls. How much did she really intend to consume at once?

“Okay, so,” Ursel said. “First you take a drink of- Ack!” Ursel recoiled as she touched the moments before boiling concoction to her lips. “First you prepare yourself for the technique. I’ll show you the circulation pattern. Break down everything and make sure to fortify all your bones!” Ursel demonstrated quickly, then went back to the boiling concoction. “So then we just… drink this.” Fire was the weakness of earth. Though John really doubted Ursel would get hurt, it might still be unpleasant to drink something that hot. But she looked at him, then downed the bowl. She rapidly turned around. “Make sure to immediately begin the technique!” she said with a panic while trying to hide her reaction to the heat.

John watched her perform the technique, and could feel the time and effort that had gone into developing it. Even with her practice it seemed to take a while to dissolve the bones- but this particular creature wasn’t the average specimen.

Once he was satisfied with it in action, John tilted his own bowl into his mouth. It was slightly cooler, but he likely could have managed without discomfort in its boiling state. Not that he’d always been like that, but with both water and fire elements he was quite well insulated from heat.

The concoction was heavy. Dense. He’d tasted blood before, and while it wasn’t too bad on its own this was more bone powder than liquid. It poured slowly, like he was trying to consume sand. It was most definitely not something he intended to digest. But that was a good reason to dump it all into himself at once, so he could begin to get to the next step of things.

He used his spiritual energy to begin breaking down the concoction. He was tempted to add more than just earth to the mix, but he wanted to get experience with Ursel’s practiced method before changing anything. It did seem that it was possible to break down with the boiling involved, but if not John would have been a bit hard pressed with the amount of earth element he could bring to bear at once. Though once the process was started, he was filled with overflowing energy that he was quite eager to use up quickly.

The energy focused mostly on his bones, though he thought it could have managed to temper other parts of him. Diamond Defense focused more on the skin and the outside of the body, so it seemed a sensible addition to the other technique.

After he was done breaking down the whole bowl, John saw that Ursel had finished at least another one or two, performing the process much more quickly. But it wasn’t a race, and it wasn’t like they were going to run out of materials. Before immediately starting on a second bowl, John took stock of himself. His stomach wasn’t quite empty, but the material was broken down in a way he thought he could properly digest instead of the sandy mixture. As for his bones, there was no sudden change. But the process was unlikely to have instantaneous results. He felt the energy settling into his bones, and decided he could handle at least a couple more bowls full.

Somehow they got through the massive cauldron, with John having used only a quarter or less of the total volume. “Oof,” Ursel said. “I’m pretty full now. It’s going to take forever to eat this whole thing,” she looked up at the massive creature, of which they had used a small portion of the bones in its foot.

“I think perhaps we should break it down for the choicest parts,” John said. “Even with our storage bags, we won’t be able to bring most of it with us or use it all.”

“Fine, but we need to at least make use of more of it while it’s fresh. And we’ll take the horn with us!”

“There’s no way that fits anywhere,” John pointed out. It was the size of a small house. “It’s fine,” Ursel said. “I’ll drag it!”

Well, if she was confident in that, he wasn’t going to try to stop her.

-----

Understandably, the beasts of the wildlands were quite eager to get their jaws on the massive feast. Not only was it a great quantity of food, but the quality was also a huge factor. For beasts that would grow primarily based off of the natural energy in what they ate, it was the best way to advance. Ultimately that meant fending off beasts at all hours of the day as they slowly began to dismantle the beast, though some were placated with the offcasts.

Optimally they would have brought a whole clan to return with every piece of such an impressive thing, but as it was they had to cast away most of its hide, and the vast majority of muscles, tendons, and organs.

They worked up quite an appetite constantly dealing with the beasts, and John did his best to actually cook some of the massive thing, producing ground meat that was at least edible. Most of the energy he absorbed from the creature went into his body rather than advancing his cultivation, as it was a unique opportunity and he was also uncertain if it was safe to push past his current limitations that way. He planned to try it soon, but not like this.

John couldn’t say he had any deep and engaging conversations with his daughter. However, her response to his arrival had been mostly positive. Clearly she wanted him to be around, even if half the reason she was out here was likely due to his lack of support during times of trouble. They talked, a little, about Matayal.

“Remember when she tried to teach me to swim?” Ursel asked. “I sank to the bottom of the pool immediately. Instead of pulling me out you dove down with me and brought me air.” Ursel frowned, “Swimming will be harder again after this.”

John nodded. “I can show you some techniques she taught me, where you widen an area of spiritual energy around you to displace water. It’s meant to increase buoyancy to return to the surface quickly, but it should be useful for you in general.” John sat in silence with her for a few moments. “Did you hear that the leviathan broke apart into smaller pieces? I wonder if anyone tried to eat it.”

“Someone must have,” Ursel said. “Are you telling me Tirto didn’t?”

“I suppose I didn’t ask,” John admitted. “But I think most of it was left for the other sea life to consume. Anything that didn’t become one of its babies.”

“Sea creatures are weird,” Ursel said.

John nodded, “Agreed.”

-----

It was a long process to break down the rhino, even when they were being quite selective. But a week later, they had what they could carry. “We should go see your siblings,” John said. “I can’t imagine you’ll get much more effect out of your bone tempering here in the near future anyway.”

“Yeah, it’s basically complete. Or at its limit for my cultivation, at least,” Ursel said. She fulfilled her promised intent to drag the massive horn behind her, leaving a wide furrow. “I do want to see them,” she admitted. “Especially to find out what happened with Verusha and Emilia. It’s hard to believe my idiot brother actually did it…”

“Did you expect that outcome?” John asked.

“I don’t know if anyone could have expected anything where that trio is concerned. Nothing but brewing trouble, I mean. It was clear that there was something different between Verusha and Tirto compared to Emilia and him. But it wasn’t clear if it was better or worse.”

John shrugged, “I still don’t know. And we might not know for a while.” He at least hoped things hadn’t immediately fallen apart after he left. But if they did, at least they could begin the process of repairing what friendship they’d had. It was better than waiting until things were committed and wanting something different. Though John wondered if he should have pushed his son towards the stability that Emilia would have offered. But stability was something Tirto had on his own, so he could see why things didn’t quite fit.

John did his best to smooth the path of the horn as Ursel dragged it. She could shift the earth, but there was always a little something other elements could do. A little air and water to make it slide more easily, for example. He wondered what they would do with it. Because even as much as Ursel liked oversized weapons, she couldn’t even really grip it at the thinnest point. And if she was able to swing it, the dangerous part would be her and not a barely moving horn. It could probably be sold for any number of things, though.