Chapter 81: Chapter 81

Oblivious to the fluttering hearts around him, Sokram stirred the bubbling pot, steam rising in fragrant waves.

The scent of roasted pork ribs, spiced peppers, and simmering herbs wrapped around them like a warm blanket.

“Soup’s ready,” he announced, snapping the girls from their trance.

As they dug into the steaming bowls, the soft chomp of cooked meat and vegetables mingling with the savory broth, Sokram quietly laid a few items in front of them.

“These pills are for healing, primarily for bleeding and deep wounds. I concocted them myself. Each of you will get a bottle with fifty pills. Thanks to Savannah’s help, I managed to make enough runestones, and they are truly azure this time. Each will get ten. And in case I fail to trap the bulls…”

Sokram looked up, finding his team utterly still, their eyes wide and fixed on the array of items.

Nora’s eyes were glazed, and she even had a thin stream of soup trickling from the corner of her mouth.

“…Heh, as I was saying, in case I fail to trap the bulls, these azure runestones with the brownish runes etched on them are for the Muddy Pit spell. Just inject a bit of energy, count to ten, and throw it below the beast. Each of you will get only two of those, alright?”

He glanced at them again.

Nora was a little embarrassed about drooling, but the rest nodded. Sokram, grinning at them, added, “Any questions?”

Seeing that none of them had any questions.

Sokram began handing out the kits he had prepared, eliciting surprised looks from Timothy and Kazzah as he gave them theirs.

Seeing their reaction, Sokram grinned, and with a mock-greedy tone, he extended an open hand, “Two gold!”

They looked at him, stunned for a while, as did the rest of the team.

Then he chuckled, “I’m joking, you fools! You’re part of the team, why are you looking so surprised?”

Hearing his words, their gazes grew complicated, and a slight pang of guilt pricked their chests, but they only nodded and shyly thanked him.

After that, they struck camp, erased their tracks, and departed while Sokram began looking for tracks in the snow-covered terrain.

It didn’t even take twenty minutes before they found their first prey.

One of the cows was reaching for leaves on a tree, filling her mouth and munching, while the bull and the other cow were embracing and nuzzling against each other.

The girls, except for Kiana, looked hesitant, and Sokram sighed, knowing exactly why.

“Even if we skip this trio, the next one won’t be different. Steel your hearts, you romance addicts. Instead of reading so many romantic novels, you should be deepening your knowledge.”

Sokram cast them a meaningful glance before continuing, “There are many monsters and beasts that can bond and express affection to each other, and although the Taurinos are counted among the peaceful ones, they are still creatures of Chaos and must be trimmed during their mating seasons. If any beast reaches the Reformed or Flawless Existence level, they will either become Evolved Species or become real calamities.”

The girls nodded, while Kiana cast a disapproving look at Lara and Nora. Pointing at the Taurinos, she declared, “Food!”

Nora and Lara lowered their heads, their cheeks slightly flushed, and chuckled, “Yes…”

They then looked at the beast with a predatory, feral glare and repeated Kiana’s words, “Food!”

Sokram chuckled at the sight.

The team quickly hid their mounts and split according to their plan. Savannah’s group went around to the left, while Amber and Lara went rightward. Once they were in position, Sokram’s group approached the bull, walking leisurely side by side.

Once the bull noticed them, it quickly released the cow it was flirting with and let out a loud “Moo!” that sent the cow dashing away in a different direction.

“Be ready, he is about to change.” Sokram's voice was low, but his tone was firm and commanding.

The bull, noticing the cows being chased, clashed its two fists, staring menacingly at Sokram’s group.

It scuffed its hind paws, lowered its horn, flexed its muscles, and tried to intimidate them.

But seeing the team showed no fear, the bull spread its arms and, with closed fists, charged at them.

Kiana and Kan stared ahead without fear, but Kazzah and Timothy began looking at Sokram, full of hesitation.

The charging bull crossed half the distance between it and the team in a couple of seconds when it suddenly sank into the ground.

Having fallen face-first into the Muddy Pit, the bull’s panicked bellows echoed through the trees as it thrashed, churning the mud into a froth of snowmelt and clotted earth.

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The stench of its fear, musky and sour, hung heavy in the air.

The more it struggled, the more it sank.

“See, they’re quite unintelligent…” Sokram began, but suddenly one of the Taurino’s hands reached the edge of the pit, and the bull's huge body started surfacing.

Instinctively, Kan summoned one of the brownish runestones along with an azure one.

But Sokram raised a hand to stop him, saying only two words, “Dry! Solidify!”

Grinning, he patted Kan’s head. "Scaredy pup."

Kiana shook her head, flashing her cousin a teasing grin, and she laughed.

Kan scratched the back of his head and let out an embarrassed chuckle.

Meanwhile, the bull, realizing it was stuck, pressed its hands on the floor, trying to form a rock boulder.

Seeing that, Sokram raised an eyebrow, “Heh, not that stupid, hm? But too late.”

Suddenly, his group was startled by the sudden flash of dark lightning, and only when Sokram’s figure appeared behind the bull did the sharp clap of thunder reach their ears.

One swift and well-aimed slash was all it took, a deep cut into the bull’s cerebellum, and its body shut off as if its power button had been pressed.

But then Sokram did something that surprised the group.

While standing near the bull, the ground turned into mud, but Sokram didn’t sink; a light hum of Force seemed to be sustaining his body above the mud.

In a swift motion, Sokram stored the bull’s body in his Void Glove, and only then did the ground turn solid again.

“I guess this is good enough for Tier 3, hm?” Sokram mumbled, and his teammates' eyes widened.

Kiana’s wolf-kin ears perked up.

Extending her senses toward him, she felt it, three concentric circles of mana pulsed while orbiting around Sokram now, "Tier 3?!"

Her voice cracked. "Already?!"

Sokram’s grin was answer enough.

“Congratulations, little brother!” Kan celebrated cheerfully, while Timothy’s jaw clenched so tightly that Kiana heard the faint grind of his teeth.

Kazzah’s knuckles, white as bone on his sword hilt, betrayed the effort he exerted, his own teeth gritting against the surge of undeniable envy.

“Heh, I thought you had sensed it already,” Sokram said, walking toward them, “but I guess your mind has been full of worries. Better to stay sharp, guys.”

He flashed a grin and then turned toward the direction Savannah had gone.

While this was happening, Amber had just trapped one of the cows that Lara lured into the mud pit.

Like Sokram, Amber allowed the cow no time for resistance.

She quickly dried the mud, solidifying it around the beast's legs and arms, immobilizing it before it could even attempt to use its elemental skill.

But even if it could, Amber would have been faster, because as soon as the cow was stuck on the solid ground, a sharp clap of thunder resounded as lightning flashed in front of Lara’s eyes, just bluish instead of Sokram’s dark, almost black one.

Amber raised her right hand up, palm open, as she called forth, “Ice Spear!” and the air screamed as it froze.

The Ice Spear materialized, hovering above her palm, its surface jagged with fractal patterns, colder than a winter grave.

Without a second thought or even giving Lara the chance to hit the beast, she threw the spear, piercing the cow’s brain with it.

A shiver of unnatural cold radiated from the wound, misting the air.

Lara looked at Amber, stunned.

It hadn’t been that long since she started learning Magi from Sokram, and Amber was already at that level.

While Lara watched her in a daze, Amber cast a few vines, entangling the cow’s body, and returned the pit to its mud state while using the vines to drag the dead cow from the pit.

After they stored the cow in a spatial ring, they dashed toward Savannah’s direction.

Thanks to Lara's sharp feral senses, they easily navigated the biting cold of the frozen woods, the crunch of snow underfoot echoing as they followed the faint scent of disturbed earth and lingering musk.

Reaching their location, Savannah had already trapped the cow; it wasn’t even necessary to use the runic barrier.

The cow was struggling to free its hands from two pillars of stone with glowing runic symbols on them.

Savannah had straddled the cow's back and was writing runes on the nape of its neck.

Seeing Amber arrive, Savannah flashed her a proud grin, “One point for me!”

And poked her tongue at Amber teasingly as she cast the runic version of the taming spell.

Amber pouted but didn’t back down, “I’ll be faster next time.”

But just then, Sokram’s voice resounded in a cheerful tone, “Very good, girls!”

He flashed them a proud smile. “I guess we can hunt at least another ten trios before the end of the day, right?”

Lucy jumped down from one of the trees and landed beside him. “If their mana lasts that long, sure.”

“Are you two sure you don’t want to siphon my mana?” Sokram asked, but they were worried his Chaos Energy would leak again and refused, shaking their heads.

Besides, they didn’t want to grow addicted to that feeling of abundance and forget how to manage their own mana.

Sokram could understand that and approved; he knew the hunt would be easier and faster if they accepted his offer, but this way it would be more beneficial for them in the long run.

For the rest of that day, the hunt proceeded smoothly under Sokram’s lead, even more than he had first thought.

The teamwork was flawless, and they easily slaughtered the Taurino’s bulls while Savannah subdued and tamed most of the cows.

Amber tamed a few too, as she insisted on competing against Savannah after taking care of the other cow.

But once the number of tamed cows surpassed ten, Kan and Kiana took turns watching over the cattle, as they refused to leave Timothy or Kazzah with that level of responsibility.

Yet, even with one less member, Sokram’s group remained efficient.

What surprised Sokram was how Kazzah and Timothy weren’t creating drama.

Instead, they followed his orders to the letter.

Their obedience was almost unnerving.

Had he not already suspected their true intentions, their flawless performance would have convinced him, leaving him vulnerable to the inevitable betrayal at their first opportunity.

Nonetheless, the easier part of the hunt was completed in under five days; they managed to hunt 60 bulls and 60 cows and tame 20 bulls and 60 cows as well.

On the morning of the sixth day, slightly before sunrise, Sokram and the team began escorting the cattle back to the city.

But during this hunt, although very faintly, Sokram felt the same strange feeling emanating from the beast’s blood.

From what he remembered, something like that hadn’t happened in his previous timeline. But, he couldn’t sense Aether or Nether Energy back then at his current age.

Sokram concluded that, in the same way, he could absorb Soul force from his fallen foes to feed his own cultivation, he could also absorb Chaos Energy from monsters' cores and blood.

They herded the cattle back to the city through a different road than the one they had come from.

It was then that Sokram realized why Kazzah and Timothy continued to leave tracks behind.

When they were a few kilometers from Eversnow, Kiana approached Sokram quietly, informing him that the wind carried the scent of other people seemingly nearby.

Sokram had also noticed a few humanoid tracks on the ground, which appeared to be circling around them.

After careful consideration, he decided to reveal this to his team so they would be alert. Follow current novᴇls on novel✶fire.net

He also tied the cattle in pairs so they could travel faster, adding an azure runestone to each rope and entrusting the runic key to Savannah.

The frozen wind carried the clinking of enchanted ropes, mixing with the low grunts of restless bulls and the occasional shuffle of hooves seeking in the snow.

From time to time, Sokram would glance back at Kazzah and Timothy, who were still riding at the back of the formation to protect the cattle, clearly avoiding his gaze nervously.

He knew for sure then that this was the result of their ploy with the Steelhearts.