The following few hours were a whirlwind of emotions and questions.
August did not want to descend from the tree, he'd have to deal with the many creatures that heard the commotion and would soon come to feast on the bears carcass.
But he did need to test something.
Scurrying down the tree, August managed to get onto the lowest branch before the first of the scavengers could arise. Then, whilst looking at the bear, he attempted to remember the feeling he had during the tutorial.
Outstretching his hand, he envisioned little threads of yellow mist pulling from the bear's corpse and floating towards his palm, tightly wrapping over one another until they formed a compact, arm sized orb.
As he clutched his fist, he felt a distinct cold and felt the familiar smoothness of steel in his hand. Opening his eyes to find that he had been successful in creating another orb.
He hurriedly climbed back up, hiding among the leaves of a thicker branch. Then August began to study the black orb.
Before, he had simply been too enamored to give it much thought, now however, he would allow himself time to fully understand the different facets of his ability and the exact parameters on which it operated.
After staring intently at the black orb for a few moments, a sudden lavender screen
Swirled into existence in front of his eyes.
____
"Aura Mold"
"Born from the death of another, one who has had their very essence stripped away and is left as a frigid husk with no soul. "
—--
After a brief startled moment, August focused his attention to the screen.
'Left frigid with no soul? Does this mean that the aura mold contains the soul of a creature?'
He was not fully sure what the description was meant to tell him, but it clearly had a meaning. Though, even after extensive thought, he really didn't understand what the organizer was trying to say.
So he moved on to another thought.
By now, scavengers had started to surround the body of the bear, around a dozen beasts fought for a claim of the free meal. Most of them being of the same species of reptilian bird that he had seen ever so often.
August once again recognized the lion with flames for teeth, however, this time he realized that the fire simply coated the creature's teeth.
'Does this mean the creatures can possess abilities as well?'
Before he had time to further process this thought, August watched the white lion lunge forward. It's claws lit with blue flame as it tore through one of the saurian creatures with what seemed to be more ease than when his swords pierced the bear.
He watched in fear and awe as the lion bounded around the body of the bear, lashing it's claws at and biting viciously into anything that dared to approach the creature that it had deemed it's prize.
The reptilian birds fought viscously as well, seeming to have some capability to discern their own kind from the enemy, they circled the lion and swooped from all sides, managing to maim it more than a few times with the many sets of talons they possessed.
The creatures of the forest battled for no more than half an hour before a victor emerged from the festival of slaughter.
Back on earth, August had read about monstrous beasts like this, and what they were called. Beasts that were above the natural order of things and lacked the ability to be contested by anything else that lived in their natural habitat. He didn't think he would ever see one for himself however.
An Apex predator.
Emerging from the slaughter, the white lion pulled itself through the field of it's felled foes. It had sustained injuries— the most notable of which being a long gash running down the hind leg, but the damage was not critical.
August himself was quite glad that the white lion had been the surviving party, as he did not know how long they would wait, nor where, the injured birds would choose to feast.
And he certainly had not wanted it to be in the black tree. August had just managed to kill a single beast, any more was well past his preferred situation.
While the lion consumed the bear's corpse, August turned back to his Aura Mold. He had thought about what kind of weapon he would create.
Firstly, he knew he would not be engaging in close quarters combat with any of the beasts of the forest. Choosing to focus more on his ranged firing ability.
This presented him with an immediate problem, swords were an amazing boon in close combat, but very rarely were meant to do large amounts of piercing damage.
He would also need a weapon capable of at least penetrating the hides, scales and armor of the more durable creatures. For these problems, August found a very simple solution.
Holding the mold in his hands, he began to think, using words to guide his thoughts.
'A long, durable stock, something like a metal javelin, accompanied by a heavy balancing point about a half foot below the head, and a sharp, spear adjacent head, capable of piercing into even the most durable pieces of crap in this hellhole.'
As the shapes took form in his hand, he opened his eyes reluctantly, and looked at what he had created.
In his hand was an almost eight foot long lance.
August smiled and examined his creation briefly before casting it into storage just like the rest of his weapons. Then looked down with glee and excitement.
Below him, there were more than a few corpses waiting to be collected and repurposed into his arsenal. He was almost salivating at the thought of what he could create with the aura molds he would soon come into.
The smart thing to do would be to hold out until the Lion fled, but August wasn't willing to wait.
He was going to get what he wanted.