"Finally! It is over." One of Ulf's teammates, Halvar breathed a sigh of relief.
All of them were pushing themselves over their limit. They just wanted to rest and replenish their energy.
"We are only half an hour's walk away from the entrance of the forest, where our three comrades should have been settled, hence take all your strength to hang on." Ursa tried to encourage them.
They continued to go in the south direction in silence, as no one had the power to speak and also didn't wish to make other creatures take notice of them. Ulf was also very tired. Running and fighting for a half-day took its effect. He had been using external qi, with only a few exceptions. It was clearly too much for his body. If he didn't have inner qi, his chance of survival would be the lowest in the group. He was just a new hunter, and maybe anyone else in his place would already be killed by the rhino or pack of wolfs.
They reached the outer part of the forest and met their teammates. The only wish every hunter had was to take a break. It was already dark in the forest. Ursa decided that the three hunters, who welcomed them, would stand guard one after the other over the night.
The next morning, the whole group gathered together. Ursa told them that it was their 4th day out. At the start of hunting, they had planned to stay outside for 5 days, but the plan was changed. The appearance of the mountain rhino and the loss of the three hunters forced Ursa to speed up their return to the tribe. Ursa decided that it was time to go back to the village and tomorrow on their way back, they would hunt down animals outside of the forest.
"Leader, I wanted to ask, but we didn't have any time or power for it yesterday. Why did the beast stage wolf and its pack follow us and didn't give us any time to rest? What made them more interesting in us than the corpse of a rhino?" Broderick asked.
"Rather than us... What attracted the beast stage wolf must be this little object!" Ursa took the small object in his hand and showed it to everyone.
It was what Ursa had removed from the rhino's body. Ulf looked around and when he understood that no one was going to ask what interested him, he didn't hold back.
"Leader, what is this object? Can you tell us?"
"The blessed heart? You remember that unique godly energy on the rhino's body?" When Ulf nodded Ursa kept going. "Our elders said that it is a very rare object. They can be found only in the bodies of monsters or their descendants. Maybe this little one is what makes them so strong, but we don't know how."
"What kind of use does it have for us?"
"As I was told, we can't use it. Our ancestors had been trying for a long time, but nothing was found. However, Shamaness told us that it's most useful for sacrifice for our gods and gu..." Ursa was going to say something else, but suddenly stopped and most of the hunters also had weird looks on their faces. "You will find out more in the village."
"Then... Can I take a close look? I am really interested." Ulf got curious about the others' sudden reaction, but he was more concentrated on what was in Ursa's hand. He wanted to show a naive and unpretentious face to get a chance to touch it.
"Of course, come. You can even hold it in your hand, just be careful."
Ulf took a bead size item in his hand. It was a beautiful, very small blue pearl. Perhaps less than a centimeter. Even so, except for its alluring appearance, he couldn't feel anything extraordinary. Then Ulf chose to use spiritual energy. He had already used the inner qi a few times, when he was around Ursa and others, but he didn't get any response from them. That was why he risked it again and concentrated a little bit of spiritual energy in his hand.
Only then did Ulf understand the real reason. Right after the spiritual energy made contact with the pearl, a huge amount of qi rushed inside him and spread to all parts of his body. Ulf shuddered due to surprise and also an exciting feeling that spiritual energy was giving him.
'This... this little object is core! It's made of very pure and solidified qi!' Ulf was stunned.
Just a little touch made him feel like his cultivation speed got a few times faster, even if it was just for a short time. It contained so much energy. Ulf sensed that, with such a huge amount of pure qi in this tiny core, he would accelerate his cultivation of the mind and body for a few months. Ulf was sure, in that period with this core, he would boost his cultivation at least with two years worth of qi, maybe even more. He wanted to study the structure of this item, how it was formed and what kind of effect it had exactly inside the body.
"Ulf, are you alright?" Warrior Bo asked him.
"Ah..." Ulf almost jumped from his place because of surprise. "Yes, what's happening?
"I called you a few times but didn't respond... Can I also take a look?"
"Really?... You want it?!" Ulf didn't want to let his hand go off the core, but there wasn't another choice.
As always, part of the hunters went hunting the animals for the group to eat. After that, everyone moved toward the north to leave the forest. Outside of the forest, they were going to hunt the muskoxen. Mainly it was about their skins and fur. Winter was coming, so those animals' warm fur would be in need. In the stone age, warm fur was used not only for clothes but also as one of the main components of the bed.
As they got out of the forest, their first target - a group of muskoxen emerged in front of them. Perhaps, some would think that those animals were easy to hunt, but more than two meters tall muskox with very large and sturdy horns didn't leave such an impression on Ulf. Especially when they were in a group, it would be very hard to divide and kill them one by one. However the hunters didn't have too much time, so they directly assaulted the animal before them.
The hunters spent a few hours hunting the prey near the forest. They got a large number of furs, which would help a lot in the tribe. When Ursa considered that the job was done, hunters set out and departed for the village. Because of the trophies from the forest and large quantities of furs, they couldn't move quickly.
Immediately after their group got near to the village, the tribesmen and women began welcoming them, especially as they were captivated by the huge head and horns of the mountain rhino. They had seen strong creatures brought by the strong hunting groups. Though Ursa was just a newly promoted leader-rank hunter with no other powerhouse like him in his team. It was what astonished them.
As they went into the tribe, instantly word about the arrival of one of the south-side hunting groups was spread around the village. Everyone was interested in their harvest of hunting, but the villagers were more concerned about the safety of their family members. It was when Ulf heard how one woman with three children behind her approached Ursa.
"Leader, where is Dag? Why can't I see him?"
"Dag... he..." happy looks on the whole group vanished at once."Everything happened so suddenly..."
'He was one of three dead hunters.' Ulf sighed.
Ursa as the leader had a duty to represent his team at any moment. It was his responsibility to inform families about their loss. This incident would determine the fate of those families. The village would provide them with food, but it would be only enough not to starve to death. After watching them, Ulf felt fortunate. If Bjorn was also just a warrior-rank hunter, his family would be in the same condition. The same could have happened if he died in the past few days.