loot, yes, there is loot.

John slowly got up from his grounded position, patting Jack and scratching him between the ears as he stared up at Ellen. The mercenary silently smoked her cigarette with her eyes still on John. One hand twitching over her weapon as her eyes flashed amber every so often.

“Can I ask you something, Ellen?” John asked as he washed the sour taste out of his mouth with the rations Old Fred had sold him.

“No. But go ahead anyway,” she responded while rolling her shoulders.

“Why do your eyes flash amber?” the question was out before he knew it, his shaken mind slowly starting to come to a semi stable state, trying to, for the moment, just not think about it all.

“Nothing that you need to concern yourself with. Don’t forget that we are still enemies, hunter. I may not be killing you, but I neither trust nor like you,” with a flick of her fingers, Ellen threw away the last bit of her cigarette. “And with that, I am leaving. If three of us can’t deal with one fledgeling hunter, then what chance do I have against someone that knows what she is doing, hm?”

John looked surprised as Ellen walked away from him, resting her weight on her weapon, something that struck John as slightly odd, but he did not feel like poking the bear at this point. Before she disappeared into the woods, Ellen turned around one more time. “Take what you need from the dead, they won’t use it anymore, and if it helps you get stronger, well, that's how the Abyss works. We will see each other again, and next time, you should be prepared to die. I know I said it's how it always goes, but that does not mean that I don’t blame you for Mariel’s ****.” With those gloomy words and a tired, regretful look on her face, Ellen disappeared into the woods, leaving John and Jack alone.

John shuddered as he got up. He got a soft mew from Jack, and John nodded. “Ok, guys, normally you would be jumping at the chance to tell me off or make fun of me; you have been awfully quiet,” he grumbled at the air.

Aye, ‘twas not the right time to talk, lad. I’m sorry, but I simply have nothing to say.

I did not expect you to be so weak, kid. Pull yourself together!

Well excuuuuuuuuse me for doing Artemis a favor and not bothering you, ungrateful brat.

John flinched at the words, especially Cernunnos being a tad harsh. He closed his eyes. “Forget I asked.” He shook his head. Then with an encouraging lick from Jack, he trudged over to the fallen ent. Just as he approached it, a string of pop-ups finally appeared.

Now that you are done feeling sorry for yourself, here are your achievements.

Synergy skill unlocked: Piercing Mana Arrow
Create a sharp mana arrow, capable of piercing through most unenchanted armor. Has a low chance of penetrating an enemy and continuing to fly further.
Cost: 6 mana

Achievement unlocked: More apex than the apex
Kill an apex predator, showing the world how a late bloomer does things! Enjoy my little gift.
Pet evolution items unlocked

“Pet evolution?” he wondered out loud, patting Jack softly as he finally gave a soft kick against the grayed out bark of the creature that would no doubt haunt his dreams. Its leaves, brown and withered, fell off in droves before the gigantic log creature disintegrated into the familiar smoke, leaving behind a certain amount of loot. Five items lay there on the forest ground, in the big indent where the corpse once lay. First off, there was a stack of twenty dollar bills, totalling three hundred dollar. John threw it into his inventory without much thought.

Second, there was an aged book with a cracked brown cover. After observing it, it turned out to be a skillbook. Energy Drain, it said. John looked at it, face paling slightly as he picked it up, opening the pages before starting to tear them out, ripping them up into tiny pieces and then some. “Never, ever, ever, will I use a skill this dark in my life,” he mumbled, once again reminded of that moment not too long ago, of the tentacles wriggling under Mariel’s skin. With a bit of luck, he managed to keep his rations down this time, and for once, he was not even sorry for destroying something as precious as a skillbook.

Third was a pile of wood, indicated to be Ironwood, heavy pieces of gray wood with a slight sheen to them about a meter long and thirty centimeters thick, three of them. He picked them up, tossed them into his inventory, and then moved on to the next thing on the floor, a green, deflated vine. He recognized it as the ‘heart’ of the ent, the one he had ruptured. Ent’s life vein, hunting trophy.

Finally, a green apple, radiating mana, was laying there. John cast Observe on it too, doing a double take when he saw what it said.

Apple of Life
The condensed essence of an apex predator of the plant attribute. When given to a pet with the corresponding attribute, it will **** an evolution. WARNING: There is a chance of the energy overwhelming the pet, making the evolution have a detrimental effect on the pet. Use at your own risk and be sure to be ready before using.

“So that is what she meant with pet evolution items,” he mumbled, seeing the flashing light of another pop up to his side, showing him that he had cleared the secondary objective of Artemis’ quest. This, in turn, boosted his exp over the threshold for the next level.

“Jack, do you want to go on and hunt that nightmare?” John asked his pet while wondering what to do. When Jack nodded, John let out a sigh. “Okay, then we will continue; I can always decide to flake after we complete the quest, right?” With those words he invested his newly gained stat points. 1 in Agility and 2 for both Strength and Endurance. When they were locked in, yet another popup made itself known.

Agility threshold reached, 25 Agility
Ability unlocked: Limber
Your body has become more flexible, making you able to bend in ways impossible for normal people.

This brought a small smile to his lips, he actually managed to get a threshold done, the familiar feeling of achieving a milestone in games washing over him. When he was about to set out with Jack, he saw the one corpse he had not yet looted. The weeb. Ellen's words rang through his mind again: “Take what you need from the dead, they won’t use it anymore.”

With another sigh John made his way to the corpse, looking him over, knowing that the claw weapons were, to be blunt, shit quality; most of the gear wouldn’t fit him either way. The only thing on the bloody corpse that looked like it might fit… was the mouthguard. John hesitantly wiped the blood off of it as he took it from the empty eyed corpse. His other hand closed those eyes, not wanting to look at them longer than he had to. After rubbing the blood off of the mouthguard as best he could with his wrist, he cast Observe on it.

Cleansing Mouthguard of the Hidden
A simple, magical fiber mouthguard. Enchanted to keep your breath from forming clouds in winter and to filter out toxins from the air. With this equipped your breathing will not be heard and airborne toxins will be filtered up to a certain degree.
Requirements: None

“Gaia, could you elaborate on what to a certain degree means?”

You breathe mustard gas, you still die. You breathe smoke? No problem.

“Helpful.”

Take it or leave it.

With a shake of his head, John flipped it over in his hands. He didn’t feel comfortable directly equipping a dead guy’s gear. So for now, he stored it in his inventory, not wanting to deal with his current spoils of battle for the time being.