Down By The River

The next morning Aiden woke up as the first rays of sunlight began to filter down into the cave. His body was pretty sore from yesterday's activities followed by a night on the stone floor. He winced as he began to stretch and loosen his muscles, he had to find a better sleeping solution. Maybe a nice mountain sheep would come along and donate its wool, he thought with a little grin chuckling to himself.

After he was done stretching he headed out of the cave and down to the river, his eyes scanning his surroundings for other edible plants and useful alchemical herbs. Just as he was about to exit the brush he stopped. Aiden's eyes widened in disbelief, sitting on the bank is what appeared to be a small beast of some sort. It had a large round shell, a long neck that ended in a sharp beak, and webbed clawed feet. It seemed like a very large turtle, albeit with sharp ridges over the eyes, and horns on the end of the beak and tail.

He carefully sized up the strange turtle beast, it didn't appear to give him any feelings of dread. In the past if he had encountered a magical beast, even a very weak one, he would be filled with a sense of fear and panic as his instincts warned him away. Now, although he could sense that it was threatening he wasn't overwhelmed with the idea that his death was upon him.

Aiden glanced down at his dagger and then back at the turtle. He bit his lip while considering his course of action. He knew that cultivation would require enormous amounts of energy, and a small radish every day was not going to sustain him for long. He also knew that the forest was dangerous and he needed to develop some sort of combat ability or risk being eaten by another magical beast.

Also… that shell… kinda looks like it could pass as a cauldron in the right light, Aiden thought longingly. He wanted to start practicing Alchemy, but had run into a major roadblock at the very beginning. Now a cauldron had been kind enough to swim its way over to him, he couldn't disappoint its intentions, that would be mean.

After making up his mind, Aiden reached down and grabbed a small stone from the ground. He then flung it at the turtle beast, the stone bounced off the shell with a crack. The turtle beast which had been enjoying itself basking in the morning light, immediately swung its head around. Its small yellow eyes carefully scanned the shoreline for its would-be attacker.

Aiden quickly darted out to get its attention, when the turtle saw him its eyes narrowed in irritation. Such a small little snack dared to come and bug it when it wanted to relax!? Well if this creature wanted to die so badly, then so be it. With that thought the turtle swiftly turned and began to move towards him. Aiden carefully backed away, he planned to try and get it stuck between to close growing trees he had seen on his way over, and then wear it down.

He quickly realized that this may not work however, when he heard a snap from behind him. The turtle had stretched its neck out to an extreme length to try and bite him! Aiden gritted his teeth as he narrowly avoided another chomp.

The trees were just ahead of him now, a faint sting came from his left arm, the stupid turtle had managed to nip him with very edge of its beak. Aiden slipped in between the trees and heard a strong thwack from behind him. The turtle had been unable to slow itself in time and had wedged itself stuck as he had planned.

The problem now was that although it was stuck, the turtle had a very long and dextrous neck that prevented him from getting close. And behind it was a similarly dangerous tail. Aiden hurriedly scanned the ground around him, his eyes landing on a sturdy looking branch.

He picked it up and grasped it with his left hand before approaching the turtle. Its eyes glared at him as he approached and it chomped its beak threateningly. As he came within range Aiden swung the branch in front of him, the turtle took that as provocation and stretched its neck out to snap this weak stick and show this insolent creature its strength.

Even stuck, the turtle felt no sense of danger, after all it could just hide in its shell and be safe. As it bit down towards the stick, Aiden's right hand clutching the dagger moved equally as fast. While the turtle was focused on destroying his makeshift club, Aiden aimed for the turtle's neck right behind its jaw.

There was a moment of resistance as the blade met the turtle's aura toughened flesh, before his strength allowed it to continue to slice through. He was by no means able to behead it, but he did leave it with a nasty gaping wound that poured out blood. The turtle began to emit a series of hisses and frantic chirps, its body trembling from pain. This lasted for several minutes until as the blood flow slowed, so did the turtle's movement until it was completely still.

Aiden slumped to the ground, his hand shaking. Even though it had looked pretty simple, his heart was pounding the whole time for fear of any mistake. If he had been just a bit slower or the turtle a bit smarter, it would be him and not the turtle who would be dead.

After Aiden managed to calm himself, he grabbed another branch and carefully prodded the fallen turtle, making absolutely certain that it was dead. Once sure, he pulled the turtle out from where it was stuck and dragged it back to the river bank. He laid the body down about ten feet back from the water to prevent opportunistic thieves from snatching his hard earned spoils.

He then gathered several large leaves and laid them next to it. Aiden searched around for some large bamboo that he then cut into sections to use as water carrying vessels. He would be crazy to try and clean the carcass directly at the river, that was just asking for some large predator to come and eat them both.

After filling up several improvised jars with river water, he stopped and ran through one of his source books from the inheritance. The Beginner's Guide to Magical Beasts, it had a full description of a large variety of low level magical beasts, their habits, and their uses in alchemy as well as forging. In fact he should have looked at this information first, but he had let his impulses get the better of him. He severely chastised himself and vowed not to let that happen again. That was a fast way to get himself killed.

After flipping through the pages mentally, he finally found what this weird turtle was. It was a magical beast known as a Mud Snapper, and when fully grown would reach the 7th level of the Body Tempering stage Widened Veins! Aiden paled at the thought. Luckily, luckily it hadn't been fully grown yet. The turtle he had encountered seemed to be a juvenile, which would explain its lack of combat sense.

He turned his attention to the uses of its different parts. The Mud Snapper was an earth element biased magical beast which meant most of its properties were infused with the power of the earth element. Its shell, which was its most prominent piece, was usually used for its defensive properties when forging armor and shields. The spines on its head and tail could also be refined into small weapons such as darts or needles.

On the side of Alchemy, the meat and some of the organs could be used in various fortifying tonics. And its blood was useful as a binding agent in a potion known as the Stoneskin potion. Aiden grinned widely, he felt like he was staring at a pile of treasures and didn't have to share with anyone.

He first drained what was remaining of the turtle's blood into a few of the bamboo jars. Then he began to carefully separate the turtle into categories of usefulness. The bones and spines in one section, perhaps to sell later or fashion into some simple weapons or implements here. The meat and organs were carefully placed on the leaves he had set aside earlier, these would be a part of some of his first attempts at alchemy.

The process was slow and a little rough as this was his first time trying such a task. He carefully followed the guide of one of the source books from his inheritance, Gathering Materials For the Uninitiated. It went over how to gently part off useful materials from the undesirable with limited to no damage to the reagents you were gathering. Soon, he was looking at an empty shell, he had broken off the underside earlier to be able to access the insides of the body, so now all that was left was an intact dome. He washed it carefully using the water he had stored, occasionally refilling when need be. Once he was done he packed up all the supplies and headed back to the cave, he was ready to start crafting!