Chapter 9: The Bear, The Elf, and The Deal (Part 1)
Location: The Dark Forest, North of the River of Whispers.
Time: Early Morning.
Status: In Combat (High Speed).
The ground shook. It wasn't a metaphor. The impact of the Dire Bear's paws against the earth created a rhythmic tremor that Ren could feel through Onyx's spine.
CRASH.
A pine tree, thick as a barrel, snapped like a twig behind them. The bear didn't dodge obstacles; it obliterated them.
Ren leaned low over Onyx's neck. "Faster, boy! He's gaining!"
Onyx snorted, his hooves tearing up the mossy earth. The Abyssal Warhorse was fast—faster than any natural beast—but the terrain was the enemy. The dense undergrowth slowed the horse down, forcing him to weave and jump, while the bear simply plowed a straight line of destruction.
Ren risked a glance backward.
The Dire Bear was a nightmare of muscle and bone. It stood ten feet tall on its hind legs, but on all fours, it was a runaway siege engine. Bone plates covered its shoulders and skull, glowing with a faint, earthy yellow aura.
[ Monster: Dire Bear (Armored Variant) ]
[ Level: 12 ]
[ Ability: Earth Skin (Defensive Buff) ]
[ Weakness: Underbelly, Eyes. ]
"Earth Skin," Ren analyzed, the wind tearing the words from his mouth. "My shiv won't pierce those bone plates. And Mana Arrow will just bounce off."
He needed to strip the armor.
Thwip.
A sound cut through the roar of the chase.
An arrow struck the bear's shoulder. It exploded in a puff of green smoke. Vines instantly erupted from the impact point, wrapping around the bear's front leg.
The bear stumbled, roaring in annoyance. It ripped the magical vines apart with a single flex of its massive muscles, but the stumble bought them two seconds.
Ren looked up.
Kaelith was moving through the canopy above, leaping from branch to branch with terrifying grace. She was keeping pace with the horse.
"Lead him to the Ravine!" Kaelith shouted down. "Two hundred yards North!"
Ren didn't ask questions. He pulled the reins left.
"North, Onyx!"
The horse banked hard, narrowly missing a jagged rock formation.
The ravine appeared ahead. It was a narrow crack in the earth, carved by an ancient earthquake. It was about fifteen feet wide and thirty feet deep.
"Jump it?" Ren thought. No. The bear can jump too.
"Stop at the edge!" Kaelith commanded.
Ren trusted her. "Halt!"
Onyx skid to a stop, his hooves carving furrows in the dirt, stopping just inches from the precipice.
Ren spun the horse around.
The Dire Bear burst through the brush, seeing its prey stopped. It let out a triumphant roar, saliva flying from its jaws. It charged.
"Now!" Kaelith yelled.
She dropped from the tree line, landing on a high rock on the opposite side of the ravine. She drew her bow to its full limit. The arrow glowed with a bright, piercing white light.
[ Skill: Piercing Shot ]
She loosed the arrow.
It didn't hit the bear. It hit the ground directly in front of the bear's charging path.
BOOM.
The arrow was enchanted with Explosive Runes. The ground, already unstable near the ravine edge, collapsed.
The bear tried to stop, digging its claws in. But its momentum was too great. The earth gave way beneath it.
With a howl of rage, the Dire Bear slid into the ravine.
It didn't fall to the bottom. It slammed into the opposite wall, digging its massive claws into the stone, hanging there like a giant, furry spider. It roared, trying to climb up.
"It's stuck!" Kaelith shouted. "Finish it!"
Ren looked at the bear. It was hanging ten feet down. Its back was exposed. The bone plates were thickest there.
"I can't penetrate the armor!" Ren shouted back.
"I'll distract it! You need to hit the throat!"
Kaelith began firing rapidly. Thwip. Thwip. Thwip. Her arrows peppered the bear's face. They didn't do much damage, but they forced the bear to tuck its head, protecting its eyes with its paws.
Ren realized what he had to do.
He looked at the ravine. He looked at Onyx.
"Stay here," Ren ordered the horse.
Ren dismounted. He stood at the edge of the cliff.
The bear was hanging below him.
"Gravity assist," Ren whispered for the second time that week.
He didn't jump on the bear. That was suicide.
He raised his hand. [Grimoire of the Devouring Void] passive effect active.
"Mana Drain."
He couldn't touch the bear. The range of Mana Drain was "Touch."
But...
Ren recalled the Moon-Shade Spores. He recalled the water. Mana could be conducted.
He pulled out his waterskin. He uncorked it.
He poured the water over the edge, aiming for the bear.
The stream of water hit the bear's back.
Ren slammed his hand into the water stream at the source.
[ Skill: Mana Drain (Channeled via Medium) ]
[ Efficiency: 40% ]
Black lightning crackled down the waterfall.
It hit the bear.
ROAAAAR!
The bear convulsed. The yellow aura of its Earth Skin flickered. The mana holding the bone plates together was being sucked out, siphoned up the water stream and into Ren.
[ Mana Drained: 20... 20... 20... ]
[ Earth Skin Deactivated. ]
The bone plates turned from glowing yellow to dull, brittle grey.
"Now!" Ren shouted.
He cut the Mana Drain. He drew the Prisoner's Shiv.
He jumped.
He fell ten feet. He landed on the bear's shoulders.
The bear thrashed, trying to throw him off into the abyss below. Ren grabbed a handful of fur with his left hand (the Gauntlet of the Starving Wolf digging in).
With his right hand, he drove the black iron shiv into the side of the bear's neck, aiming for the soft spot beneath the deactivated armor.
SHUNK.
The blade sank to the hilt.
Ren twisted it.
[ Critical Hit! ]
[ Damage: 150 ]
[ Bleed Effect Applied. ]
Blood sprayed, hot and metallic.
The bear's strength failed. Its claws slipped from the rock wall.
They fell.
Ren kicked off the bear's back in mid-air.
[ Agility Check: Passed. ]
He grabbed a protruding root sticking out of the ravine wall. The jolt nearly dislocated his shoulder, but he held on.
The bear fell the remaining twenty feet.
CRACK.
It hit the rocky bottom of the ravine. It twitched once, let out a low groan, and went still.
[ System Alert ]
[ Defeated Dire Bear (Level 12). ]
[ XP Gained: 1,200 ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 9. ]
Ren hung from the root, panting. His heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs.
"He... he actually did it," Kaelith's voice drifted down from above.
She peered over the edge. Her green eyes were wide.
"You're crazy," she said. "You jumped."
Ren looked up. He managed a weak, tired smile. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
He pulled himself up, climbing the rocky wall with the ease of a spider (Agility 8 was no joke). When he rolled over the top onto the grass, he lay there for a moment, staring at the sky.
Onyx trotted over and nudged Ren's face with his wet nose.
"I'm alive, Onyx," Ren groaned, pushing the horse away.
Kaelith walked over. She stood over him, hands on her hips.
"You stole a Warhorse. You use Dark Magic. You jump off cliffs. And you're... what? Twelve?"
"Twelve and a half," Ren corrected, sitting up.
"I'm Kaelith," she offered a hand. "Clan Forest Walker."
Ren took it. Her grip was calloused, strong. "Ren. Clan... Stable."
She laughed. It was a bright, clear sound. "Stable Clan. Right. Well, Ren of the Stables, that bear down there is worth about 200 Gold Coins if we harvest the bile, the pelt, and the claws. Since I stopped it and you killed it... 50/50?"
Ren stood up. 100 Gold Coins. That was enough to buy high-grade spell books. Or better food.
"50/50 is fair," Ren agreed. "But I have a problem."
"What?"
"I can't sell it," Ren said. "If I walk into town with Dire Bear parts, the Guards will arrest me for poaching or theft. A stable boy can't kill a C-Rank monster."
Kaelith tilted her head. "So you need a fence."
"I need a partner," Ren corrected. "You sell it. You keep 60%. I take 40%."
Kaelith's eyes narrowed. "You'd give up 20 gold just to stay anonymous?"
" anonymity is my armor," Ren said. "Besides, I have other things to sell. Things I find in the forest. I need someone who can move between the Estate and the Market without raising suspicion."
Kaelith considered it. The Forest Walkers were nomads. They traded freely. No one questioned a Ranger selling monster parts.
"Deal," Kaelith said. "But on one condition."
"Name it."
"You teach me how to do that black lightning thing with the water. That was wicked."
Ren smiled. "I can't teach you that. It requires a specific... book. But I can teach you how to predict a monster's movement."
"Deal."
They shook hands.
Location: The Ravine Bottom.
Time: 30 Minutes Later.
Harvesting a Dire Bear was messy work.
Ren used the Prisoner's Shiv to skin the beast. Kaelith removed the gall bladder (the source of the bile) and the claws with a specialized skinning knife.
[ Item: Dire Bear Pelt (Rank C) ]
[ Item: Bear Bile (Rare Ingredient) ]
[ Item: Iron-Bone Claws x10 ]
"This is good quality," Kaelith said, packing the bile into a sealed jar. "The Alchemists in the city will pay a premium."
Ren was busy with something else.
He was cutting open the bear's chest cavity.
"What are you doing?" Kaelith asked, wrinkling her nose. "The heart isn't worth much."
"I'm checking for a Core," Ren lied.
He wasn't checking for a Core. He was feeding the Gauntlets.
He pressed his gloved hands into the pool of blood in the chest cavity.
[ Life Force Detected. ]
[ Absorbing... ]
[ Artifact Satiety: 100% ]
[ Bonus: Permanent Strength +0.5 ]
Ren felt a surge of heat in his muscles. The Gauntlets didn't just heal him; if he fed them high-grade blood, they permanently enhanced him.
He stood up, wiping his hands on the grass.
"No Core," he said.
"Too bad," Kaelith shouldered her pack. It was bulging with the loot. "I'll take this to the Shadow Market in Oakhaven tomorrow. Meet me at the big oak tree near the North Gate in two days. I'll have your money."
"Wait," Ren said. He reached into his Dimensional Pouch. He pulled out the Shadow Pavilion Invitation that Vargo had given him.
"Do you know where this is?"
Kaelith looked at the card. Her eyes widened.
"The Shadow Pavilion? That's the underground auction house. You need a verified identity to even get in the door."
"Can you get me in?"
Kaelith bit her lip. "Me? No. I'm just a Ranger. But... my Clan Elder might. If you bring us enough high-grade kills, the Clan might sponsor you."
"Good to know," Ren nodded.
They climbed out of the ravine.
"I have to go," Ren said, swinging onto Onyx's back. "If I'm missing for too long, the Head Butler will get suspicious."
"Go, Stable Boy," Kaelith waved. "Try not to die before payday."
Ren spurred Onyx. They thundered back toward the estate.
Location: The Arken Estate, Caelum's Room.
Time: Nightfall.
Ren stood in the shadows of the young master's bedroom. Caelum was sitting at his desk, nursing a bruised shoulder from their sparring session.
"You're late," Caelum grumbled.
"I was hunting," Ren said, stepping into the light. He placed a small bag on the table. Inside were 40 Gold Coins—his share of the advance Kaelith had given him from her own savings (she kept the loot to sell for profit later).
Caelum stared at the gold. "Where did you get this?"
"Bear," Ren said simply. "I need you to buy something for me."
"You want me to be your errand boy now?" Caelum scoffed.
"I am a servant. I cannot buy spell books. You are a noble. You can buy anything."
Ren pushed the gold toward him.
"I need 'Intermediate Mana Manipulation'. And I need a Skill Book on Dagger Arts: Vol 2."
Caelum picked up a coin. "Fine. But I'm keeping two coins as a commission."
"Keep five," Ren said. "But get it done tomorrow."
Ren turned to leave.
"Ren," Caelum called out.
Ren stopped.
"My father... he received a letter today," Caelum said, his voice dropping. "From the Capital."
"So?"
"It's about the Hidden Continent Expedition."
Ren froze.
"The King is organizing a crusade," Caelum whispered. "They found a gate. A gate to the Continent of Sloth. They are calling for volunteers. High-level Mages and Knights."
"Sloth..." Ren muttered. The Sin of Belphegor.
"Father is going," Caelum said. "He leaves in three months. And he's taking the Elite Guards with him."
Ren turned around slowly.
If the Duke left... and took the Elites...
The Estate would be vulnerable.
But more importantly, the Duke would be gone.
"This is our chance," Ren said.
"For what?"
"For power," Ren said. "When the cat is away, the mice don't just play, Caelum. They take over the house."
Ren's grey eyes gleamed.
"In three months, we are going to clear the Dungeon beneath the forest. Fully."
Caelum swallowed hard. "We?"
"You, me... and a Ranger I met."
"A Ranger? You're building a party?"
"No," Ren smiled. "I'm building a Guild."
End of Chapter 9 - Part 1
Summary of Events:
The Chase: Ren and Onyx are chased by a Dire Bear (Level 12).
The Trap: Ren and Kaelith (the Elf Ranger) coordinate. Kaelith uses explosive arrows to drop the bear into a ravine.
The Kill: Ren conducts Mana Drain through a stream of water to strip the bear's armor, then delivers a killing blow.
The Alliance: Ren partners with Kaelith. She will act as his "Fence" to sell monster parts. They split the bear loot (worth ~100 Gold).
Artifact Growth: Ren feeds the bear's blood to the Gauntlets, gaining a permanent +0.5 Strength.
The News: Caelum reveals the Duke is leaving in 3 months for an expedition to the Continent of Sloth.
The Plan: Ren decides to use the Duke's absence to clear the Dungeon and form a team.