51st of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

The beast was unlike anything Newt had ever seen. Fatsnouts were large, docile herbivores; wild beasts beyond doubt, too massive for common folk to tame, but sometimes used by first and second realm awakened as beasts of burden.

The monster that appeared before the group was massive, nine feet tall and twenty-five long, its snout puffed up as if a giant bee had stung it, but that was where the similarities with the rest of its species ended.

Instead of the unassuming camouflage scales of grayish-green of its genus, the manabeast's skin was the bright-red of blood. Instead of an unassuming, duck-like mouth beneath the bloated snout, a pair of saberlike tusks hung from its upper maw, threatening Newt and his team. The beast's eyes were bright yellow, its black, vertical pupils widening as it spotted the group just as they saw it.

The bipedal saurian sprinted, flaring fire-attributed mana with every move. Newt observed the technique or to be more exact, the utter lack of one, as the energy bled into the environment, hardly a quarter of it used to enhance the creature. A part of his mind wondered whether that was what Lord Flameax saw when teaching him, but the majority of his attention was on their enemy.

The frothing giant opened its maw, aiming for the closest member of the group. Ready, Obsidian hefted his steel mace, his muscles bulging and mana coating his skin as he whipped it like he did in the practice match with Newt.

Unlike Newt, the fatsnout neither dodged nor resorted to trickery. It met the strike head-on, believing it would overpower a fragile little creature which matched its realm, but only amounted to one-fiftieth of its bulk. Obsidian's mace glowed earthen brown, hardly any energy wasted, and smashed the fire-attributed saurian's temple.

The elements collided, the outer layers of heavily condensed earth burning before the scattered explosive flames, but even if one disregarded the difference in concentration, fire was the second-weakest element in terms of defense. The flame barrier yielded, and the flanged mace smashed into the beast's thick skull with the weight of a mountain.

Blood sprayed, but the blow barely scratched the thick, massive skull. Still, the impact enraged the fatsnout, which ignored the flesh wound and stabbed at Obsidian's torso with its massive tusks.

Newt's glaive appeared out of the beast's blind-spot, its tip found its eye when the monster's massive tooth was a foot away from goring Obsidian's chest. The fatsnout reared, moving back, trying to avoid the pain, but flames exploded beneath Newt's feet. Lightened by the hot air, he soared up, harrying the retreating monster.

For a moment, it looked like the fatsnout would escape its fate with merely a serious injury, but moving back, it lost its balance from the sudden change of direction and stumbled over its own tail. Newt pressed his attack, his glaive sinking deeper. Disoriented and in pain, the fatsnout toppled and died as the glaive pierced its brain.

"Great job antagonizing and grabbing its attention, Obi!" Newt said as he drew his weapon out of the third realm manabeast's skull. "It hardly used any mana; the odds are its core is still intact."

The potential prospect would have made Newt grin ear to ear half a season ago, but as things stood, a third realm core was next to useless to him, barely a grain of sand before his crippling debt. What mattered more were the bright smiles and excited glint in the girls' eyes. And even Obsidian smiled like a madman.

"Excellent strike!" The big man beamed. "I thought people used glaives for slashing, not for stabbing because they are too massive, but you wielded it like it was a light spear."

"Thanks. I had a good teacher." Newt drew his short-sword and got to work just as Jasmine and Obsidian drew their daggers.

A few slashes in, Obsidian put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're doing it wrong. Step back and let me do it." Obsidian took over. "You were hitting its ribs too often, you should…"

Obsidian parted flesh and broke apart bones at joints, digging his way to the core, explaining what he was doing and why with every step. Newt found the demonstration educational and to the point. Digging through raptors a fraction of the size was easy, and the macetail he handled was a packed mass of armor where finesse mattered little. The fatsnout was an excellent beast to practice butchery.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Unfortunately, the effort didn't pay off. Newt thought the core was whole, but the monster's bulk must have obscured the flare of its shattering.

Obsidian shook the blood off his hands and glanced at Newt. "Don't look so disappointed. That's how life is, you have to check every time, and once in a while you get lucky."

The big man then moved towards the giant's rear legs and carved strips off of one thigh before moving over to the belly.

"Are those valuable?" Newt asked.

"No," Jasmine shook her head, "but they are tasty, if you know how to grill them right."

And, as it turns out, Obsidian did know how to grill them right. Or at least make the meat smell right. Newt salivated as Obsidian prepared the meal on a mesh he kept rolled up in his sack of camping supplies.

The group barely moved half a mile away from the scene of battle before stumbling across a solitary tree, but smoke, smell, and noise were not an issue in the Valley of the Lost. The whole saurian could be running rampant a few dozen steps away, or fellow awakened might be fighting for their life two hundred yards away, and there was no way to tell.

Newt glanced at his companions, and the girls were doing all right. The stress and fear were mostly gone from their faces and shoulders. The victory had the expected effect, even if it came later than Newt would have wanted it to.

"Obi used to enter grilling competitions back when we were outer students." Jasmine broke the silence as she met Newt's gaze. "Workers organize events like that since they have more time, and Obi's skewers were quite popular, even if he never won first place."

"I wish I had some proper seasoning, but grilled meat with a tad of salt can be delicious enough if it comes from such a high-realm manabeast." Obsidian flipped a strip of meat with his dagger and prodded the branches burning into embers a good foot below his mesh. "And a couple handfuls of coals would be nice. Grilling over a fire is bound to burn some of the food, not to mention the extra smoke."

Newt considered the words and looked up at the gnarled old tree under which they had decided to take a break. It was an outlier, since the forest should have been a full day's travel away.

He didn't know why he was hesitating. He already knew how to scribe a heat-generating spell seal.

"You know, I could scribe a seal for us to help with the grilling."

Newt expected several reactions, awe, surprise, confusion, yet he was the one confused by Obsidian's response.

"That sounds great," the big man said, taking Newt's words in stride, as if it was perfectly normal to arrange a cooking spell formation out in the field. "We'll use it next time."

Obsidian then focused on his grilling, and a tantalizing aroma filled the air.

"Why does it smell so good?" Newt asked. "We don't even have to eat all that often, and I'm not hungry."

Roselilly spoke up again.

"It's the same reason manabeasts eat each other even though they could live just fine on ambient mana and common prey. Their flesh is infused with a much higher concentration of mana than the environment, and our bodies crave mana. Manabeast flesh is like low-potency elixirs, with no drawback, since the absorption of mana happens naturally."

Newt gave a slow nod, taking in the information before smiling.

"You're trying to say that Obi isn't skilled; he just has good ingredients?"

"Hey!"

"More or less." Roselilly smiled, and Jasmine covered her mouth with her hand.

"Hey!" Obsidian turned around and hissed at his sister. "Traitor."

All four burst into laughter before Obsidian turned around and resumed fanning the coals and half-burned branches.

Newt kept mulling over his idea. "I think there's a problem. Manabeasts native to the Valley of the Lost would sense the seal from a distance, since it causes a disturbance in the ambient mana. But we could use it to lure them into traps."

Roselilly shook her head.

"Not worth it. Their range of detection is too small, and if you're making a seal to grill the meat of the ones we slew, the odds become even slimmer, since it's unlikely that two manabeasts roamed the same general area without meeting each other. But even if we use them as beacons, their range is too small to be worthwhile."

Roselilly's reasoning was sound, but Newt was not easily dissuaded. "What if we carried the seal with us, it would make it likelier for us to encounter manabeasts?"

"And why would we want to do that? Our mission is to harvest mysterium, not to kill roaming manabeasts. They are an obstacle, not the goal."

Newt disagreed. While Obsidian and Jasmine thought it was a punishment, he had a feeling the champions had arranged the mission in the Valley of the Lost specifically for him and for his team as a bonding experience or something of similar nature. That meant the more monsters they fought as a team, the better the end result. Still, it was only his opinion. Besides, explaining his hypothesis that they were in a danger zone to better integrate him into the team sounded like it would hurt his cause more than help them.

Eventually, Newt nodded in agreement with Roselilly, hoping the regular manabeast population would prove enough to serve his master's purpose.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.