Alaster really wished he could wait until morning to skin the Bugbear, but he knew that if he did, the corpse would only attract more predators. Maybe even stronger ones. Nor was his Ring large enough to hold the bear, at least not unless he dismantled the body.
So he ignored how exhausted he was and kept going.
He had not been hurt during the fight. He hadn't really even moved. But he was tired from trekking through the deep snow all day and then making his shelter. And he had never cast that much magic so quickly. It strained his mind.
Alaster quickly cut off the fur hide of the Bugbear, after years of doing so with his father. He had never done it with such a large creature, but the practice was similar. He had cut from the top of the legs to the bottom of the arms.
Bugbears had stubby legs, which left the boy with very large hide. Alaster wondered how he would prepare it. He had seen the Village tanner work sometimes, and he had seen how some tanners in the city did their work, but he had never really paid attention or learned.
Deciding to ignore that for the moment, Alaster began to carve out the meat. It was a long process, as there was a lot of meat with plenty of fat. The boy stacked all of it neatly in the snow, separating any bone that he could and putting it into its own pile.
Alaster worked by the dim light of the moon, and the light of Gobi's eyes. Neither of which was good light. Eventually, however, Alaster took everything he thought he could. He ordered Gobi to drag the remaining carcass away at least a hundred meters. Alaster was not sure if the Goblin Skeleton would understand that measurement, but it didn't need to. Alaster had supplied the Undead with a mental image of a spot he had passed earlier.
With the weighty meat off, as well as most of its bones, the little Skeleton was able to slowly drag it away. As it left, Alaster fought against his mana to access his Ring and put all the material inside. After he released his hold on the mana, and the Ring closed, Alaster noted that his mana was responding to him easier.
But at that moment, he was too tired to care. Like some drone, Alaster began to bury the bloody snow under fresh snow he had received from a nearby snow bank, and then he carefully entered his shelter once more. He removed the sticks from over the dying fire, instead adding them to it. As it began to come to life once more, Alaster warmed his hands and face over it.
The cloak Lukas had given him kept his body warm enough, but he did not have gloves or anything to keep his face warm. As his little and primitive began to warm up once more, Alaster leaned back against the cluster of trees and quickly fell asleep.
It was a deep sleep, with no dreams, or nightmares. Ever since that night, Alaster had seen that scene almost every night. The only nights he didn't was when he was too tired or injured to dream. That was one of the main reasons he trained as hard as he had.
When Alaster woke, the sun had just begun to peak through the branches. Mumbling to himself, Alaster moved to his fire hole and stoked the remains until there were embers, which he then added wood shavings to, and then sticks, until the flames returned in strength.
The boy glanced over his snow wall, but did not see anything amiss. Even more than that, he did not see Gobi. Briefly panicking, Alaster studied the area, searching for some threat or a clue about the Skeleton's whereabouts, or remains. But once more, he saw nothing.
Confused, Alaster looked at his status and saw that the Goblin Skeleton was still part of it, meaning it was still active and had not been killed, again at least.
'Shit. I told it to move the remains of the Bugbear, but didn't specify the need to return afterward. Gobi, come back to me, but don't bring back any threats.'
Alaster made sure to add that last part, as he could quite vividly imagine Gobi sprinting back to him, with a horde of Monsters chasing after him.
Instead of patiently waiting, Alaster fought with his mana to bring out some of the Boar meat.
'Enough Boar for another meal, then it's onto the Bugbear.'
Alaster quickly cooked the meat and began to eat, when Gobi returned. As ordered, it had not brought back another monster chasing it. Instead, Alaster was quite impressed with it. Without the weight of all its flesh and organs, that twelve DEX had more of an impact. It had moved much quicker than Alaster had expected, and its trail of footprints in the snow was quite light.
As Alaster ate, embracing the warmth, he thought about his immediate plans. The night's storm would have erased any tracks Alaster had missed.
'But they found my in Onigas two years later and without tracks. But why did it take them two years to find me?'
The young man's mind ran through a series of possibilities, which were quite extensive, as he knew enough about Magic to know there were countless ways to track someone, but did not know enough to know what those ways were.
'If it took two years for them to find me, I should be safe for a little bit. Besides, the book had said that my [Bone Crafting] Spell is extremely valuable and versatile. But it also sounds like it's careful and fragile work. I need to get the [Mana Manipulation] ability.'
Colius had regularly told Alaster that since mana was needed for every spell, being able to manipulate it intricately was invaluable for any mage. Unfortunately, Colius had forgotten to mention to the boy about how to get the ability, as he had with [Meditation].
'Hmm. My mana is becoming easier to control the more I use it, so maybe it's that simple?'
Deciding to put it to the test, Alaster opened his Ring, this time only taking a few minutes to do so, and pulled out some of the Boar bones. Alaster set them on the ground and took a deep breath before he activated his [Bone Crafting] Spell.
Once he did, he could feel his mana stretch from him and coat the bones, despite being unable to actually see it. The bones began to lose their shape, turning into a thick off-white puddle.
'As the spell description said, it's like clay.'
Alaster tentatively touched the puddle with his finger, quickly withdrawing it. The imprint of his finger in the puddle slowly closed. Feeling somewhat giddy, Alaster began to experiment with the liquid bone.
After nearly an hour, meditating when he ran out of mana, Alaster discovered a few things. The less mana he used, the harder the liquid became. If he used more, the bone puddle became more fluid. However, he also noticed that if he used a lot of mana, turning the standard ten mana a minute into twenty a minute, the impurities of the bone seemed to fall out of the bone puddle. This more pure bone was much stronger.
He also learned that if he tried to condense the puddle between his hands, it would become denser and heavier, so long as he hardened the material before he let go. Alaster was extremely fascinated, wanting to experiment with it further, but a brisk breeze reminded him of his circumstances.
The book had stated that most Death Mages used the [Bone Crafting] spell to equip their minions in bone weapons and armor. But what was stopping Alaster from making other things?
Driven by his curiosity and the cold, Alaster took out all the bones of the Boar from his ring and began to mold them into a large sheet. It was only about two centimeters thick, fairly fragile, but Alaster did not care for it being sturdy.
He was intending to use it as a shelter, at least a wall in his shelter. He wanted to bring it with him, so he made sure that the wall was a little smaller than two meters tall and two meters wide. Alaster made three more walls the same size.
Alaster made one of the walls have a small gap that he could crawl into. He was a bit grumpy about running out of Boar bone and needing to use the Bugbear bones. However, he was even more grumpy at finding that there was no real difference between the bones. The Bugbear's bones were denser and larger, but nothing else.
Alaster was able to quickly attach the four walls together with his [Bone Crafting] but was also able to just as quickly detach them to return into the Ring. The young man set it up in the clearing and then began to work on the floor and roof.
When he finished, Alaster examined his creation. It was basically just a square.
'Hmm, snow could easily get in.'
To remedy this, Alaster made two thick hooks on either end of the 'doorway'. He also added a small beam that would stick out from the floor of the doorway, helping to keep the snow out. For the hooks, he intended to attach a hide across to cover the door and keep any light in. He hoped to not use the bear hide. But if he didn't find another, he would.
Seeing his work, Alaster smiled. When the sun set once more, Alaster would set his shelter up and he would be warmer. At least, he hoped.