One Last System

Gathering up the spoils sounds like an easy job. All one needs to do is to cut open the fallen monster, get their hands bloody to extract their spiritual stone, and then move on. 

This surely is an easy job...

But even an easy job multiplied by tens of times turns pretty tedious. Adding on the factor of looking for all the fallen monsters scattered not only through the clearing but also through the forest area made this task surprisingly hard. 

With the two of us working tirelessly, we managed to clear out the clearing from all the stones in just a few minutes. Then, we returned to the nest, where I could finally see the effects of Lucius' carnage. 

'And here I thought I had it hard,' I thought, massaging my wounded side. 

The nest that used to be bustling with monsters now turned into a scene of a bloody massacre. 

Fighting with two short axes, Lucius would often dismember his opponents, making their corpses spill out most of the blood all over their surroundings. 

Even though they were only monsters, moving through the thick puddles of blood, I couldn't help but feel pity. 

And then I sensed it. 

"There are still some monsters inside that burrow," I said, pointing out my spear at one of the monster's hideouts. 

"That's right," Lucius nodded his head as he extracted another stone. "We don't kill the young. Once they grow up and make another nest, we will have more monsters to hunt," he said. 

'I didn't expect him to have such environmental concerns,' I thought, barely holding back a chuckle. 

But it only made sense. 

If we eradicated the entire settlement, then this group would never be able to regrow. While doing something like that once wouldn't make much of a difference with how massive this forest was, it was more about a principle than a singular situation. 

Suddenly, right as I was about to move on to the last batch of the monsters, Lucius suddenly stood up. He looked around before locking his eyes in a seemingly random direction. 

"We are ditching," he said, taking a few steps to the back without turning around. 

'That's strange,' I thought, observing his movements. 

Even though we hunted for nearly ten days already, I never saw him move in a direction he didn't take a look at before. 

"I only have those few left to extract..." I protested silently, unwilling to let go of our spoils. 

We worked so hard to get them, I even got injured while doing so... And now we were going to abandon it?

Judging from Lucius's actions, something bad was coming, but did we really have to leave all of those precious stones behind?

It wasn't that I was greedy... No, that certainly took part in my protest. But I just couldn't accept ignoring all those stones with how hard it was to obtain them normally. 

I would have to strain myself just to get a single one on a normal hunt. Right now, all I had to do to get a stone was to open up a corpse and pull it out!

"WE DITCH," Lucius repeated his earlier order, turning around and approaching me. His voice was shaking; his face was pale. 

Only now did I understand the seriousness of the situation. 

Lucius pulled my robe, helping me to stand up. Using the momentum from his hand, I started running. Yet, before we could even leave the area of the nest, it appeared. 

It was a monster amongst monsters. A mix of a lion and a hippo from the earth, with sabertooth qualities to its teeth. It was as big as a hippo, yet I could tell that it was far more mobile than a lion. 

And it didn't waste any time on the small fries scattered on the ground, instantly rushing towards us instead!

'Fuck,' I only managed to curse when I saw its massive paw stretching towards my face. Its claws glistered as if they were some kind of enchanted items with a visuals-focused game. 

'So this is how I die,' I thought. 'What a shitty way to go, though,' I almost closed my eyes in the moment of acceptance of my fate.

'I was too arrogant,' this single thought appeared in my mind when my eyes involuntarily closed. 

"DUCK!" Lucius shouted, axing my knees. 

Rather than ducking, I feel down on my back. The sudden collision only made my torso injury cry out in pain, clearly not suited for this kind of exercise yet. 

Forcing my eyes open, I saw the beast's claws tearing through Lucius' side. He was wounded in exactly the same spot that I was... But his injury was far more vicious. 

If I lost a chunk of meat, then his entire side was ripped apart!

What came next, I couldn't really remember well. 

I was in a haze, just following the instincts of my body. 

Feeling something soft underneath my hand as I attempted to stand up, I swung it at the beast. 

Not even waiting to see the results, I grabbed Lucius' robe with my left hand and...

Attacked the air with my spear?

I didn't even have my spear in my hand when I did that... but it somehow appeared in it. 

I drove all the energy that I had in myself through that spear for seemingly no reason... Only for the spear to pull the two of us in the direction of my attack. 

It was only a small leap, far less than enough to get away from the beast. But it gave us the momentum necessary to start running. 

"Just leave me," Lucius uttered, his voice already weak. His injured side was bleeding profusely, leaving a trail of blood after every step that we made. 

"No fucking way," I muttered, straining my body to its limits to pull my Overseer along with my escape. 

I didn't control my body. It moved on its own, propelled by the mix of desperation, fear, and cultivation. It was as if the mana that filled my flesh gained consciousness on its own, directing every last tension of my muscle and relaxation of my tendons. 

But I didn't direct our escape towards the camp. Not yet. I rushed towards the clearing, where we fought the monsters first. 

"What are you doing?" Lucius uttered, his eyes already turning foggy. 

"Betting," I replied shortly, grabbing one of the dissected bunnies and stuffing its flesh into Lucius' side. 

I didn't know if we had the time for this. But if we attempted to run towards the camp just like that, Lucius would die from a loss of blood. That was one thing I was sure about.

The second I stuffed the monster's flesh into Lucius' side, I placed my hands on him. Driving my mana to the limits of how fast it could move, I poured it all into the stuffed wound.

To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. Trying to transplant the flesh itself? 

Even if this was the source of my idea, I knew myself just how dumb it was. But still, I poured more and more mana into the injury, hoping that this miraculous force would somehow make the cut. 

Or, to be honest, I didn't do any of that. My body... No, my instincts did it on their own. 

I ran out of my mana. Pushing myself any further would stop me from running at my top speed. And thankfully, by this point, the bleeding was subsidized. 

"I'm sorry," Lucius muttered when I lifted his body and started to run back towards the camp. 

"The fuck are you talking about?" I replied silently, focusing all my strength on dragging him out. "It's all my fault. If I didn't get greedy..." I couldn't utter even a single word more. 

The feeling of guilt overwhelmed my soul.

"It wouldn't make a damn difference," Lucius uttered, his voice turning slightly clearer than before. 

Did my strange healing method work? 

No, this wasn't the right time to think about it. 

"Still, I don't think I will be able to go to the sect in my state," Lucius uttered, his voice turning weaker once again. 

"I don't think you should be worried about it now," I replied, clenching my teeth. 

I wanted to pick more stones to give Mia more resources for her own cultivation. As a result, I put my companion in danger. In effect, I wouldn't be able to provide my girl with any resources at all.

'Is this what they call the irony?' I thought, gritting my teeth. 

I would have a lot of time to think about it and reflect on my actions later. For now, all that mattered was to bring Lucius back to the camp!