1 Chapter 1: Ivar

Sniff, sniff, sniff.

A large orange lizard with green stripes and horns cautiously walked towards three red fruits sitting in a small canyon. It would walk a few feet while swinging its head side to side looking for predators and competitors before stopping and sniffing the air and extending its tongue. It had taken five minutes for it to walk twenty or so feet.

It was a Great Horned Lizard, a low ranked demonic beast. While not many people would bother hunting a Great Horned Lizard, their meat, skin, and horns are worth some credits. Only low ranked demonic beasts are allowed to remain near the city, and all of them are pretty much worth the same amount of credits.

The sound of a rock bouncing off the canyon wall alerted the Great Horned Lizard and it spread its front legs and lifted its head to make itself look bigger as it stared down the canyon. A young teenager with a tall and lean build looked into the canyon from the top and saw an eight- or nine-foot-long lizard standing three and half feet tall.

He was holding a club made of a wooden shaft, a stone, and lots of rope. After taking a deep breath he jumped off the top of the canyon with his club raised high. Swinging down with all his might he hit the Great Horned Lizard in the back of the head. Two loud sounds echoed in the canyon, the wet crunch of the lizard's skull shattering and the sound of a wooden shaft snapping.

The teen landed face first into the lizard's shoulder before falling backwards to the ground.

"Fuck, that hurts."

It seemed like a perfect plan, lure a beast into a narrow canyon, jump down and smash its head to kill it. While his plan worked, he didn't think about what it would feel like to jump down ten feet, or what hitting something in the head as hard as he could do to his hands.

He probably would have like to spend some time to let his aches fade before doing anything, but he saw a rainbow-like mist escaping from the lizard's head. Scrambling to the lizard as quickly as he could he waved his hand over a bag hanging from his waist, a wooden item appeared in his barely working hand. Flowing a little spirit power into the object the center glowed a light grey color and began to pull the rainbow-like mist into itself.

The object was a soul gem, kinda. If he was from a family of wealth or power, he would have been gifted a mid-grade amethyst soul gem. An amethyst soul gem can keep a mid-ranked demonic spirit for a year or two and a low-ranked demonic spirit can last for five years. This grey soul gem is often referred to as trash grade. It is a soul gem crystal is so weak it has to be laminated between wood; the engraving that are supposed to be etched into the crystal is carved into the wood further weakening it. It can only be used with low-ranked demonic spirits and can only hold it for two or three days before the demonic spirit becomes useless. The worst part is the academy rents them to poor students at a high price.

After a few minutes all the rainbow-mist was absorbed.

Standing up the teen touched the bag on his waist and the body of the Great Horned Lizard disappeared. Using the broken shaft of his club he poked the red fruit to make it weep some more of their juices to rebait the trap.

Returning to the top of the canyon wall he sat down in his hunting blind before placing the grey soul gem against his head. Flowing spirit power into the soul gem he began to pull the demonic spirit in to his soul realm. It only took him a few minutes to achieve his goal.

Next would come the hard part. Using his spirit power to purify the demonic spirit before he spends a week or two filling the demonic spirit with his own spirit power to saturation, to make the demonic spirit his own. It was a long, very boring process that the teen was not looking forward to.

After dwelling on his future plans for about twenty minutes new prey arrived. It was a Shell Bug; it was two feet long by one and a half feet wide and stood a foot tall. Picking up a rock he threw it at the Shell Bug, hitting it in the back. When a shell bug feels threatened it rolls up into a ball, if you take a long-pointed stick and slide it under the shell between its head and armor and stab it in the brain.

After several more hours a total of 3 Shell Bugs met their end. The spirits of shell bugs are worthless, but armorers will pay nicely for them, but not nearly nice enough to buy the armor they make from them.

Taking his haul, he returned to the city. Not that it was far, he could see the city walls from the canyon if he stood up. To leave or enter the city, all he had to do was show his academy card.

After entering the city, he made his way to the district trade center. The Great Horned Lizard sold for 1/3 less than he thought, it couldn't be helped since he wasn't the only academy student hunting. The good news is that the three Shell Bugs were sold for double then the standard rate.

After emptying his belongs into his room, he went to the academy resource center. He hated coming here. Every week every student is given resources to use to grow their strength, and they should only have to show their academy card to get them. Unless you come from a poor family, then you have to show your card and answer every question the clerk has, or you have to wait several days while they "check" your identity.

Even simply returning the soul gem and space bag required him to answer a bunch of questions.

"Gods be damned, you clerks get more and more incompetent every time I have to deal with you worthless shits."

His voice was loud enough to draw looks from everyone in the resource center.

With a smile that wasn't really a smile the clerk only said: "I'll remember you, Ivar."

"Good, then maybe you'll be able to do your fucking job, you worthless shit."

Under the amused gazes of the other students, Ivar turned around left the resource center and fuming clerk.

While Ivar was glade to stick it to the clerk, he had a feeling he would have trouble getting next week's resources.