Van and his father left the small campsite to head back to the main one. Thought delayed, using their aura they made it before nightfall, seeing the burnt-out remains of the blood thorn on the way.

Once there his father took him to the processing center to dump his kills, talking to the people who worked there and offering Van the choice of seeing how they work so he could get an idea for himself on how to process what he hunts on his own.

“New are ya? Ya, I can tell you a greenhorn… Come on, I’ll show you around.” one of the workers said. Then proceeded to show Van how to skin and cut his death wolf and the barkskin snake. Not something Van wanted to spend the night learning, as killing an animal was one thing, opening it up and looking into its insides were another matter entirely.

“This here,” the worker said, as she cut into the death wolf. “is where you would normally find the mana stones, you know what mana stones are, right? They are the excess mana that becomes like cancer on the body. Broken down, they make for good potion material, very valuable. The fangs and pelt are also good, and some necromancers can never have too many bones. The meat of a death wolf though is not so valuable, not tasty at all, but the kidney and liver, very valuable, death wolves have to sometimes eat things they don’t want to, and their body is forced to digest it and gain nutrients from it. Because of that their kidneys and liver are highly prized for their ability to get rid of impurities, so they are used in some rare potions and foods for the wealthy, as they have unique healing properties. Such as detox and blood cleansing.”

“As for the snake,” she said, waving her knife to the barkskin snake on the other table. “Unless you want to make armor out of its skin or fertilizer if properly done, it is not very valuable except for a few key items. One obviously being the mana core, two the fangs, and three, the most valuable part of this snake, its venom, gallbladder, and glands. The venom is unique in that it can be used to cure many different ailments, such as petrification, permanent paralysis, and even used in a few other rare remedies. A vial of that at an auction can get you a decent-sized house, all paid for throughout the next several years. And you can get more than just one vial…”

“Because of that, you should keep that you have it to yourself, fortunately, or unfortunately, you fought a young barkskin, so you will only get just about half a vial. Due to the mutable nature of the venom, it's also useful in making potions that train your body to resist poisons. If you are planning to become a great adventure one day, having a decent resistance to most venoms and some poisons would be very useful.”

She then methodically finished her task, showing Van her every step on how she cut the corpses. Him wishing he wasn’t there, but also wanting to hear more of what she was saying since it seemed both interesting and valuable information that he should know. Unfortunately for him, just watching wasn’t an option as she started teaching him how to properly hold a skinning knife and cut it into dead flesh. Not something he signed up for.

About half an hour of processing the wolf and snake, and feeling a little grossed out, Van left for the cabin he stayed in last time he was here. Entering the cabin, he dropped himself on the bed and sighed.

“Had fun learning?” his father teased.

“Mm.” was all he replied with.

Alvaroz just chuckled. “Trust me, I didn’t enjoy learning it either the first time, but it's very valuable knowledge out in the wilds. Could help save your life even. The next step would be how to properly cook everything. I did most of the cooking on this trip, but the next one we go on I'll teach you how to properly live off the land and make a nice stew.”

Van groaned at that, they mostly ate nothing but stew. “Can’t you cook anything else?” he complained.

Alvaroz smiled. “It was your mother that was the chef of our little party. She would bring herbs and spices and the cooking utensils and was the only one that bothered to cook anything other than meat on a stick, or stew. I was just fine with eating whatever, and Thea was just happy with eating a lot. Besides, my stew isn’t all that bad now is it?”

Van had to think about it. “...No…” he finally said, realizing that his stew genuinely wasn’t that bad, but was a little sick of eating it for so long.

“Well, there you go! It wasn’t bad at all.” Alv said, amused.

Van grunted and made a mental note that he should at least know the bare minimum on cooking and fending for himself out in the wild.

Just as the two were going to sleep, turning off the lights and getting into bed. A large boom was heard that shook the campground, startling them awake. This was soon followed by an alarm that sounded throughout the area.

Getting up a little confused, Van at least knew enough that he should get quickly changed and ready for battle before deciding whether or not to do anything. His father thought, with a will and a fluctuation of his soul realm had changed from casual sleepwear to battle a one in a few seconds.

“Damn… I should learn how to do that, the ability to quickly change clothes like that seems really valuable.” Van thought as he finished putting on his shirt and coat and pulled his sword from his soul realm. His father was already near the door looking out when another boom was heard. Running up to his father he asked if he knew what was going on.

“It seems something large is banging against the barrier, it will either continue until it realizes it can’t and leave, or tire out. Or if it is strong enough, breakthrough.” Alvaroz said, calmly, almost bored, looking only mildly interested in what's going on.

“Does this happen often?” Van asked.

Alvaroz shrugged, “only every few months, most leave after a while, a few though keep trying, and even fewer actually breakthrough. Mostly monsters or beasts that are very territorial and set up shop nearby or who are looking to carve a territory for themselves.”

Turning to look at Van. “I'm going to take care of this real quick, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. Just stay in bed and it’ll all be over soon.” Alv said, almost a little bored sounding.

And with that, he left towards the booming sound at a leisurely pace, not hurried, but not slow either. Unsure if he should follow or not, Van’s curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to follow at a safe distance and see what was going to happen.

Reaching where the booming sound was, he saw a large lizard monster trying to break in. it looked a little like a t-rex, but smaller, with three eyes and another three eyes on its frilled mane. The thing was pretty big and it roared at the guards and rangers on the other side of the barrier as it tried to break through.

Alvaroz thought, didn’t really seem to care. Walking up only inches away from where the barrier prevented the lizard monster from entering. He projected a massive wave of killing intent that Van could feel from several dozens of feet away.

The lizard creature recoiled as if buffeted by a large ocean wave. Confused, it used its many eyes to look in every direction, not even contemplating that the wave of killing intent could have come from the small prey that stood before it. No, it had to come from another apex predator that was nearby, that was its only logical conclusion.

Now a little agitated, it roared louder, left and right, daring the other predator to show itself.

Sighing, Alv let off another wave of killing intent, this time more directed and stronger at the overgrown lizard.

Being rocked back and actually looking a little fearful now, the self-proclaimed apex predator was finally beginning to realize that the small prey in front of it must have made that killing intent. But how could small prey make it? It must be a small prey trick, just like most small prey do. Angry and this time knowing the cause of what tried to scare it. The apex predator roared and charged at the barrier, determined to show the small prey who was on top of the food chain.

With one last sigh, Alv pulled his sword out as it started to hum with power. With a casual swipe, a wave of aura energy flared out and disappeared in a second. A portion of the barrier was cut. Which was followed by the head of the lizard falling off. And the barrier slowly healing itself

Even Van knew what his father did was ridiculous. Crazy. Impossible by most people's standards. Even if the barrier wasn’t top grade and old, to cut through it and the head of a monster on the other side was just too unbelievable for most people to comprehend. So much so that most of the people who were there looked on slack-jawed at what he did.

Putting away his sword, Alv made the slow walk back to the cabin. Van slowly followed behind, wide-eyed.

Once they got back Van had to ask. “How did you do that!? You just cut the lizard’s head off through the barrier!”

Alv looked a little embarrassed. “It's no big deal, the barrier was old and it's not like it was of high grade either. With enough skill and power, anyone could do it.”

That made Van pause in thought, how much power did you use to cut through all that?”

Alv thought about it. “Perhaps about over 70 percent? I could waste that amount and risk it only because I was sure that I could come back to the cabin and rest up. I didn’t sense any other dangers so I figured I’d quickly take care of it. If there was a chance that there were more, I would have moved outside the barrier before taking care of it. Would have saved me a lot more energy.”

“How much?” Van asked.

Alv shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe 30 percent? I’m not always good at gauging my own energy reserves.”

Van's eyes narrowed as a thought came to him. “Did you just want to show off?”

Alv looked away. “Well it's getting late, we should go to bed and rest up for tomorrow.

Deciding to just leave it at that, Van and Alv went to bed. Thought Van had a bit of a harder time falling asleep. His thoughts running wild. “How many people are out there that are as strong as my father?” These thoughts and more plagued him as he soon realized that more than ever if he wanted to explore the world, he had to become as strong as possible in case he had to deal with someone of his father’s caliber.

---

The next morning the two left to talk to the guards at the barracks about what happened last night. His father explained everything and even offered a new barrier stone in case his actions caused one of the ones they had some damage.

Waving it off the guards were just thankful to see such a sight, and that any damages done to the barrier could be fixed with the money they will receive from selling the Zilizard that Alv just took care of and donated to them.

With that done they left the campsite and walked down the trail back down towards their home. The walk back being largely uneventful compared to the night before.

As they walked Van couldn’t help but let his mind wander about all the things he saw and learned on this trip. How even if he was told that he had great potential, it didn’t mean that he was the only one with great potential. Not to mention that they are probably millions of people out there who have had the resources, time, and more to reach great and powerful heights. And he was still very young and naive. It could be decades before he reached his father’s power level. But at least he knew, as a dhampir, time was on his side. Not that he would want to wait that long to finally pursue his dream.’

Finally getting to the gate, they were waved in once the guards realized who was entering. Heading up the busy street was a stark contrast to the loneliness they experienced in the forest. In the forest, he didn’t have to worry about all the eyes that were on him just because he was a male. Which made him already a little homesick for the old campsite. Which was weird, because he was also a little homesick for, well… home. And he dearly wished to see his mother and wife again.

Upon passing through the gate into the castle grounds, their loved ones beset them with hugs and kisses.

“I missed you so much!” Luna said, hugging Van close to her and refusing to let go.

Van smiled a little embarrassed but happy. Moving into the hug. “I missed you too,” he said and then shared a kiss with her.

His father and mother also going through the same motions of hugging and kissing and everything else that came from loved ones not seeing each other for a long time.

“We're so glad you boys have finally arrived home, we were expecting you earlier but you didn’t come,” Lillia said, her voice sounding a little concerned as to why they must have delayed coming back.

“We just decided to extend the training just a bit. Van has progressed much since. You would be proud to see how much he has grown.” Alvaroz said with some pride making Van feel a little embarrassed.

After that, they talked about what they were up to since they last saw each other, Luna going on about how she had improved on her sewing and how much she had learned about herbs and healing magic with Van talking about how he learned to hunt and what he hunted.

“You hunted a death wolf and a barkskin snake? Good on you! I knew my training would show results!” Thea laughed with pride as she overheard Van talk about what he hunted with Luna.

This thought made Lillia glare at Alvaroz with the promise of words to be had later.

Trying to change the subject, Alv suggested they talk about the rest of their trip over dinner and catch up then. Saying that there were a lot of things they had to dump and that they both could use a nice long bath since when on the trip, they had to use cantrips to make themselves clean. Which while effective, wasn’t very enjoyable, nor did it make one feel clean even though it did.

Doing just that, Van left for his room and had the bath drawn, getting in he was joined by Luna and Anna. Sheri also tried to get in on the action, but he was in a good mood, so he let her.

An hour later the whole family was sitting down at the table and eating. Talking about their time away from each other, mostly about how Thea was mopey without Luna or Alv around.

“I wasn’t mopey!” Thea tried to defend herself to little success as both Lillia and Lore gave more than enough evidence that she was miserable without them around.

Everything seemed to be going great, until one person opened up their big mouth to ruin it, making Van regret being nice to her a few hours before.

Sheri suggested his next learning course, and it was not one he ever thought he would hear. Worse, his parents were silent when they heard of it, and simply talked about for how long and other particulars. Only after the talks did they ask Van if he wanted to go through with it or not. He wanted to say no, but he knew, as much as it was the last thing he wanted to learn, he probably should. Even Luna seemed unsure, but held his hand and acknowledged that it might be for the best.

So with a sigh of defeat and a glare towards Sheri, he agreed, next week he would leave and work three months in the most dreaded place he could imagine.

A brothel.