Draylen sat underneath a Blood tree, his wrist blades unsheathed. He carefully cut down the baby deer's stomach, before removing the organs. He made sure to be careful with the skin, only damaging it when necessary. This was not the first time that he had done this, previously, when the old man was skinning the Giant Forest Boar, the young boy had observed and learned the technique to prepare an animal.

When he finished removing the insides and hide, Draylen then propped the body up onto a stick and dispelled his weapon. Charcoal appeared in a puff of black smoke and without any instructions, he blew out a small gentle flame. Draylen slowly rotated the stick and whilst waiting, he quietly enjoyed his surroundings.

It was night, but the Heartichokes on the Blood trees glowed slightly, looking like Chinese lanterns. They swayed gently in the breeze, creating a peaceful atmosphere. Several monsters sat and cultivated, whilst others lay down and slept.

The only noise in the valley was the crackling of flames and the snoring of monsters. A few carnivorous monsters raised their heads curiously as the smell of roasting meat wafted into their noses. After a while, a lioness-like monster walked over to Draylen, briefly looking at him before shifting it's gaze to the deer meat.

Noticing it's look, the young boy cut off one of the legs before throwing it to the lioness, who caught the leg in it's mouth. It nodded it's head gratefully before slinking away. Draylen smiled happily, before continuing to cut off other parts of the deer. He gave a leg to the drooling Charcoal before taking another one for himself.

After eating, he felt slightly refreshed. A weak wave of mana which came from the deer's leg washed through his body.

'Huh, I might as well cultivate for a bit.' He thought, closing his eyes.

Draylen made sure to eat another Heartichoke, which would speed up the rate of his revolutions and increase his mana intake. He entered a relaxed state and each time he completed a revolution, any tiredness would quickly fade away.

The night passed quickly and soon, the sun came up once more. Draylen stood up and stretched. Whilst he didn't feel tired, his body felt stiff from sitting in the same position for several hours.

-Purrr

The same lioness from the night before walked over and purred at him, before looking slightly at the leftover deer meat. Smiling helplessly, Draylen made a 'you can have it' gesture, causing the lion to once more nod gratefully before grabbing the entire legless deer's body and walk away.

'I wonder where it's going.'

Since Draylen was bored of cultivating and had nothing better to do, he decided to follow it. He made sure to step lightly and not disturb any of the other creatures cultivating, as the valley was relatively packed and if he bumped into any of them, he might incur their wrath.

He followed the lioness deep into the valley, further than where he had been the day before. The foliage started to get denser as they went on, probably due to the higher concentration of mana in the ground and air. Draylen saw the lioness slink into a large mass of vines and bushes, with the deer in it's mouth.

He waited for a moment, before sneakily following after it. He brushed away a few of the low hanging vines in order to peak in.

'Oh, she's feeding her cubs.'

The lioness had walked into a small cozy cave, greeted by the mewling of a litter of lion cubs. They rolled around on the floor with silly grins, eliciting a fond lick on the face from their mother. She then dropped the deer onto the floor and began ripping off small chunks and pushing them towards her children.

They quickly began feasting on the cold meat with joy, occasionally purring. Draylen smiled briefly before slinking away from the lion family. He was puzzled by a few things. First of all, lions, like dragons, were supposed to be prideful creatures so why would the lioness stoop down to begging for food? Usually, the lioness would have gone out to hunt herself instead.

Second of all, shouldn't there be a male lion looking after the cubs? Why was there only a mother which wouldn't hunt?

'Well, it doesn't matter. I might as well get some more food and help feed the family, who knows, I might even get some kind of reward.' He thought to himself.

Truthfully speaking, Draylen felt a small sense of warmth when he saw the cubs enjoying the deer that he caught and wanted to feel it again. He walked back over to Charcoal, who was snoring away at the base of the tree.

"Wake up." He said, prodding the baby dragon on the forehead.

-Grar

Draylen soon found himself wearing a dragon scarf. Shrugging, he quickly exited the valley to find himself training partners and more importantly, some food for himself and the lion family.

'I'm not sure if I should call them lions though. They only share a few similarities."

The 'lions' which he had helped actually had several heads and tails. The lioness had a single head but 5 tails, whilst some of the cubs had two to three. Another strange thing was that their fur was a greyish colour and they had glowing red/orange eyes.

So in a way, it was wrong to call them lions.

'I'll ask the old man when I get back.'

Draylen heard a rustling noise coming from up ahead along with the distinct-

-Oink! Oink!

Of Giant Forest Boars. Grinning, he crouched down and slowly made his way through the underbrush. He saw a rock formation with a small cave with several piglets and a large boar lying next to them. They seemed to be feeding off of the mother's milk.

'Why does attacking them in this vulnerable state feel wrong?' He thought to himself.

'Agh, never mind.'

Draylen shook his head before activating his armament and weapon spell circles. Luckily, his mana had turned black, otherwise the boar would have noticed him and the usual bright white glow of mana. He took his time to circle around the family, before cautiously climbing up above their home, He grasped different natural hand holds to steady himself before looking down upon the pigs.

'Sorry.' He said mentally.

Then, Draylen leaped down, on top of the large boar, and stabbed downwards with both of his wrist blades.

-Oiiiiink!

The boar cried out in alarm and pain, mostly in pain. It then began to jump around like a rodeo with Draylen on top.

"Aaahhhh!!" He shouted involuntarily.

Quickly, he stabbed his blades into either sides of the large boar's head, both to injure it and also get a good grip so that he wouldn't fall.

'If I fall off, I'm dead.' He thought, panicked.

The Giant Forest Boar seemed to be going berserk, charging forward and smashing into different trees haphazardly. Branches and twigs lashed into Draylen's face as he clung for dear life, his cheeks were lined with cuts but getting injured was definitely better than dying completely.

With a burst of determination, he pulled out his right wrist blade before plunging it into the boar's right eye. There was a grotesque squelching sound whilst a puff of wet blood burst from the ruined eye. Draylen felt his blades going straight through, before reaching a mushy, fleshy area.

The giant boar suddenly stopped it's reckless rodeo ride and slumped over, against one of the trees.

'Oh crap, that was scary!'

Draylen climbed down gingerly, for fear that the boar might start attacking again. He then looked at the shivering piglets which huddled together in fear. He frowned slightly.

'I'll just take the mother, that'll be enough to feed the lion family and myself for a long time.'

Quickly giving the dead animal a silent prayer, he hoisted the large body over his shoulders and walked back toward the valley. This created a comical scene as the boar was almost twice his size. Luckily for Draylen, his familiar armament seemed to boost his strength a fair amount, just enough for the scrawny boy to carry the boar.

After an hour, he finally managed to make his way back. He cut up the boar, remembering to keep the skin and then roasted it with the help of Charcoal. He then chopped it up into smaller pieces and carried them in a bundle of vines toward the lion cave.

"Knock knock, is anybody home?" He asked.

-Growwl

The lioness from before prowled over cautiously, but relaxed upon seeing the boy carrying a large amount of cooked meat. She then nodded and walked back into the cave, as if saying 'you can come in'.

"Thanks for the hospitality." He said before following her.

'I feel kind of dumb for saying that. Do monsters even have etiquette?'

The cubs from before didn't seemed wary of the stranger at all, instead playfully hopping over and rubbing against his legs. Draylen grinned and lay down the still hot boar meat. The lioness once again nodded before calling to her cubs.

Upon hearing her call, they too bowed, albeit slightly clumsily before charging into the pile of meat.

'1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5. There's quite a few.' He counted mentally.

He then took out a leg he saved for himself along with some meat for Charcoal. They sat down in the cave and began eating as well. Draylen realised that the lioness seemed to only watch her cubs eat, without eating herself.

'She probably want's her cubs to eat their fill.' He thought, feeling slightly touched.

Then, the lioness picked up some meat from the large pile and walked slowly further into the cave. Draylen curiously followed her, wondering why she couldn't just eat with her cubs. They walked on for a while and the lioness seemed to not care about his presence.

-Meww

A muffled call from further into the cave piqued Draylen's curiosity, causing him to walk slightly faster. Soon, he saw the lioness cutting the meat into tiny pieces and feeding it to a very small kitten. Unlike the others, it had black fur and three heads. It's eyes were a glowing red, but seemed to be closed most of the time.

'Why isn't this one out there like the others?'

Draylen watched on as the lioness gently fed her cub, she lay down next to it and began to clean it. She licked it under it's arms and other places in a fond manner.

'My heart... It's melting.'

Draylen quickly rushed back to where Charcoal and the other cubs were. The cubs had finished eating and were now dozing off in a large pile. He grinned slightly before going over to the meat pile and grabbing an armful before walking over to the lioness and her black cub.

He slowly placed it in front of the two before returning to where Charcoal was. The purpose of coming here wasn't just to feed the hungry family though, as the mana concentration here was much higher than outside, even without a Heartichoke, Draylen was sure that he could make more progress than outside.

Sitting down in the lotus position, Draylen began to cultivate.

A pair of green eyes watched him for a while before disappearing, melting into the rock wall.