CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 70: HUBRIS

Location: Dark Forest - Mid Ring | Doha (Lower Realm)

Time: Day 445, Afternoon

The quakeboar’s tracks were massive—each hoofprint pressed deep into the forest loam, leaving craters the size of dinner plates. Fresh, maybe an hour old. The displaced earth still held moisture from being turned, and the trail of broken undergrowth led northeast toward the rocky ridges where the Mid Ring’s terrain turned harsh.

Target assessment: Inferno-tempered tier, early stage based on track depth and territorial markers. Estimated mass: 800-1,000 kilograms. Threat level: Significant.

(We’ve killed nearly thirty Flamewrought beasts already. We can handle this.)

Jayde crouched beside the trail, running her fingers through the disturbed soil. Her enhanced blade rested across her thighs, runes already warming with channeled Ember Qi. The Qi Regeneration Pendant at her throat hummed softly, pulling ambient essence from the Mid Ring’s dense atmosphere.

She’d been hunting for ten days straight since the Mistwraith Cats. Twenty-two more kills—including a ridge stalkers and a thornback lizard, both Flamewrought-tier. Clean engagements. Minimal injuries. Growing merit balance. The rhythm felt good. Natural.

[Confidence levels elevated. Recommend caution—pattern recognition suggests potential overestimation of capabilities.]

(The cats were harder than this’ll be. They worked together, had tactics. This is just a big pig.)

She stood, checking her gear with practiced efficiency. Armor intact, runes charged. Spatial ring loaded with Qi Restoration Pills. Emergency healing formation active on her chest piece. Two escape talismans clipped to her belt—Green’s gift, supposedly good for random teleportation within ten kilometers if things went catastrophically wrong.

Everything ready. Everything perfect.

The quakeboar’s trail led upward into rockier terrain where ashwood trees gave way to scattered boulders and exposed stone. Good. Open ground meant room to maneuver, clear sightlines for ranged attacks. She’d hit it with Flame Lances from a distance, wear it down, and finish with the blade when it was weakened.

Standard tactics. Proven effective.

Terrain advantages noted. However, recommend intelligence gathering before engagement. Unknown variables remain.

(We’ve got this.)

Twenty minutes of tracking brought her to a cleared area among the ridges—a natural amphitheater of stone and scrub where the quakeboar had been rooting for tubers. The beast itself stood at the far end, maybe forty meters distant.

Huge. Way bigger than the tracks suggested.

The quakeboar’s shoulder stood as tall as Jayde’s chest, its body a mountain of corded muscle beneath coarse, earth-brown hide. Tusks curved up from its jaw like ivory scythes, each one thick as her forearm and wickedly sharp. Its snout worked the ground with methodical purpose, tearing through roots with casual strength that sent rocks tumbling.

Revision: Mass estimate incorrect. Target weight: 1,200-1,400 kilograms. Muscle density suggests enhanced physical capabilities beyond the standard Inferno-tempered baseline.

(It’s... really big.)

Affirmative. Recommend reevaluation of engagement strategy.

But she’d come this far. The beast hadn’t noticed her yet—wind was in her favor, carrying her scent away. Perfect ambush conditions. If she hit it hard and fast, took out a leg or damaged its mobility, she could control the engagement.

Jayde raised her left hand, Ember Qi flooding her channels. Twenty-five Qi condensed into her palm, shaping into the familiar spear-form of Flame Lance. Heat rippled the air. The technique stabilized—three feet of compressed Inferno essence, sharp enough to punch through Flamewrought-tier armor.

Target locked. Recommended strike point: right foreleg, joint articulation. Disable mobility, maintain range advantage.

She released.

The Flame Lance screamed across the distance in a streak of orange fire, air igniting in its wake. Perfect trajectory. Perfect aim.

It hit the quakeboar’s right shoulder dead center.

And bounced.

The Inferno essence shattered against the beast’s hide like glass against stone, fragments of flame scattering harmlessly. The quakeboar’s head snapped up, small eyes fixing on her with sudden, terrible intelligence.

(What—)

Unanticipated defensive capability. Hide density exceeds theoretical parameters for early Inferno-tempered classification. Reassessing—

The quakeboar moved.

For something that massive, it shouldn’t have been fast. Physics said no. Mass and acceleration, and every tactical model she’d ever learned said a creature that size couldn’t close forty meters in under three seconds.

It did anyway.

The ground beneath it erupted as the beast charged, earth essence flooding its legs in a visible aura of brown light. Each impact of its hooves sent shockwaves through stone, cracks spiderwebbing outward. It didn’t run so much as detonate forward, using cultivation-enhanced strength to treat physics like a suggestion.

Jayde threw herself sideways, rolling behind a boulder as the quakeboar’s charge tore through the space where she’d been standing. The shockwave from its passage alone sent her tumbling, armor’s runes flaring as they absorbed kinetic energy that should’ve shattered ribs.

[Threat reassessment: Target is mid-tier Inferno-tempered, not early stage. Combat capability significantly beyond contractor specifications. Recommend immediate extraction.]

(Too late for that!)

The quakeboar pivoted with impossible agility for its size, tusks swinging in a wide arc. Jayde got her blade up—enhanced steel met ivory with a sound like a bell being struck. The impact jarred up her arms, made her shoulders scream, and sent her skidding backward across loose scree.

She channeled Qi into the blade’s runes desperately. Flames erupted along the fuller, Inferno essence, adding cutting power beyond mere steel. Slashed at the beast’s face as it came in again.

The edge drew sparks off its hide. Sparks. Like she was trying to cut granite with a kitchen knife.

A tusk caught her armor’s side-plate, ripped through the Runeinfused leather like it was silk. The defensive formation flared, absorbed some of the impact—not enough. Ribs cracked. She felt them go, heard the wet snap over her own ragged breathing.

(Can’t—can’t hurt it—)

Correct. Defensive hide beyond the blade penetration threshold. Revised tactical assessment: Survival unlikely without—

The quakeboar’s head swung low, caught her legs. She went airborne, the world spinning in a nauseating blur of grey sky and brown earth. Landed hard enough that her teeth clacked together, bit her tongue, tasted copper.

Pain. Everywhere. Her left arm wouldn’t respond right—something was wrong with the shoulder. The Armor Reinforcement Array was screaming warnings in her peripheral vision, three of its ten charges already depleted from impacts she barely remembered taking.

The quakeboar charged again.

Jayde rolled, threw up an Ember Shield with her working arm. Twelve Qi. Two feet of compressed defensive essence between her and a thousand kilograms of cultivated rage.

The shield lasted exactly one second.

The quakeboar hit it head-on, and the barrier shattered, fragments of Inferno essence scattering like embers from a kicked fire. The beast’s momentum barely slowed. Its shoulder clipped her, sent her flying into a boulder with enough force to crack stone.

Everything hurt. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Her Crucible Core was screaming at her, Ember Qi channels burning from overuse, techniques cast too fast without proper recovery between.

[Critical damage sustained. Left clavicle fractured, three ribs compromised, suspected internal bleeding. Combat effectiveness: 23%. Extraction recommended. Extraction MANDATORY.]

(Can’t... reach talisman...)

The emergency escape talismans were on her belt. The belt was on her left side. The left arm wasn’t working. Her right arm was pinned under her body, and moving sent white-hot agony through cracked ribs.

The quakeboar was turning. Lining up for another charge. Its eyes held an almost human calculation—recognizing wounded prey, moving in for the kill.

[Final warning: Life-threatening injuries detected. Emergency protocols initiating in three... two...]

The Emergency Healing Formation on her chest piece activated.

Golden light erupted from the runic array, flooding her body with restoration essence. The effect was instantaneous and agonizing—bones grinding back into alignment, torn muscle knitting, blood vessels sealing. It didn’t heal so much as stabilize, forcing her body into a state where she could survive the next thirty seconds.

Just long enough to escape.

Jayde’s right arm came free. Her hand found the escape talisman. Ripped it from her belt with fingers that still didn’t quite work right.

The quakeboar charged.

She crushed the talisman.

The world twisted.

***

Spatial displacement felt like being turned inside out and shoved through a keyhole. One second, she was staring at a mountain of angry pork bearing down on her. The next, she was on her knees in soft grass, retching, while her inner ear insisted that up was sideways and gravity was optional.

(Where—)

"Easy." Isha’s voice. Calm. Professional. The tone he used when things had gone very, very badly. "The talisman’s random teleportation brought you here. You’re safe. You’re in the outer ring, about eight kilometers from the extraction point."

Jayde looked up. The Luminari stood in his humanoid form—the one he used for serious conversations—emerald eyes assessing her with clinical precision. Behind him, the forest was wrong. Different. The ashwood trees were smaller, the undergrowth less dense. The ambient Ember Qi thinner.

The outer ring. She’d been thrown all the way back to the beginner area.

"Injuries?" Isha asked.

"Emergency formation... activated." Her voice came out rough, throat raw from screaming she didn’t remember doing. "Ribs cracked. Shoulder... something wrong there. Healing formation stabilized everything, but it’s..." She touched her side, felt the sick wrongness of bones that had been broken minutes ago. "I need actual healing. Pills. Time."

"You need to not die." Isha’s tail swished once, sharp. "Which was a near thing. The bio-monitoring showed your vital signs dropping into the critical range. Another thirty seconds and I’d have been opening an emergency extraction portal—which would’ve cost you five hundred merits plus my considerable essence expenditure."

(Five hundred—)

The escape talisman was free. Green’s gift. But if we’d needed Isha’s emergency extraction...

"The talisman saved you five hundred merits," Isha continued, reading her expression. "What it did cost you is this: that quakeboar is now aware you exist, aware you’re huntable, and aware you ran. Predators remember prey that escapes. It’ll be more cautious if you try again, more aggressive, and significantly harder to ambush."

"I’m not trying again," Jayde said flatly. The words hurt almost as much as her ribs. "That thing... I couldn’t even scratch it. My blade just bounced off. Flame Lance did nothing. It was faster than me, stronger than me, tougher than me." She swallowed hard. "I was wrong. I thought I could handle it. I was wrong."

"Yes." No softening of the word. No comfort. "You were wrong. That quakeboar was mid-tier Inferno-tempered, not early stage. Your intelligence gathering was insufficient—you assumed based on track size rather than confirming with Heat Sense or tactical observation. You engaged without proper reconnaissance. You committed to an attack without confirming the target’s vulnerability." His emerald eyes held hers. "In short, you fought stupid."

(It hurts because it’s true.)

Accurate tactical assessment accepted. Error analysis confirms: overconfidence led to inadequate preparation. We assumed rather than verified.

"The emergency healing formation kept you alive," Isha said. "It also just spent its single charge. The array needs twenty-four hours to reset before it can trigger again. Meaning for the next full day, you don’t have that safety net." He paused. "You also used one of Green’s three escape talismans. You have two remaining. Each one is unreplaceable—when they’re gone, they’re gone."

Jayde nodded slowly, the movement sending dull aches through her stabilized but not healed ribs.

"But," Isha continued, and his voice gentled fractionally, "you did the right thing when it mattered. You recognized you were outmatched. You didn’t double down on a losing engagement. You used your emergency resource to survive." His whiskers twitched. "Many cultivators die because their pride won’t let them retreat. You’re smarter than that. Barely."

"Feels like failure," she admitted quietly.

"Failure is dying. This?" He gestured at her battered form. "This is education. Expensive education, but you’re alive to learn from it."

The Divine Tome’s interface flickered to life, golden text scrolling across her vision:

EMERGENCY EXTRACTION PROTOCOL USED

Method: Escape Talisman (Green’s Gift)

Distance Teleported: 8.3 kilometers

Destination: Outer Ring - Safe Zone

Merits Cost: 0 (Gift item)

Resources Depleted:

Emergency Healing Formation (1 charge, 24hr cooldown) Escape Talisman (1 of 3 used)

Current Condition: Stable (Requires Rest & Healing)

Recommended Action: Return to Cave, Recover 48-72 hours

"There’s one more thing," Isha said, and his tone carried weight. "The monitoring data. I want you to see exactly how close this was."

The interface shifted, displaying a biometric readout from the fight. Jayde’s heart rate, Qi levels, injury status—all tracked in real-time by the Divine Tome’s soul-bond connection.

The graphs told a story she didn’t want to read.

Her heart rate had peaked at 187 beats per minute. Qi pool had dropped from 2,225 to 340 in under three minutes—depleted from desperate technique spam. The injury diagram showed her body outline lit up red in a dozen places, with the critical threshold marked in pulsing orange.

She’d crossed that threshold.

For seventeen seconds, her life signs had been in the "imminent system failure" range. Seventeen seconds where the Divine Tome had been preparing to forcibly extract her regardless of cost, because the alternative was watching its contractor die.

"This is why we have emergency protocols," Isha said quietly. "This is why I monitor you constantly in the field. This is why the safety measures exist." His emerald eyes held hers. "Because even talented cultivators make mistakes, Jayde. And in the Dark Forest, mistakes kill."

(We almost died. We really, actually almost died.)

Affirmative. Mortality probability during peak crisis: 73%. Only the emergency healing formation’s automatic activation prevented fatal organ failure.

"I understand," Jayde said. Her voice came out smaller than she wanted, but steady. "I got cocky. I assumed I was ready for Inferno-tempered prey because I’d handled Flamewrought beasts. I didn’t respect the power gap between tiers. I..." She touched her side again, felt the ache of recently-broken bones. "I won’t make that mistake again."

"Good." Isha nodded. "Because the Dark Forest doesn’t give third chances. You got your second chance today. Use it wisely."

He turned to go, then paused. "One more thing. When you’re recovered—and I mean fully recovered, not ’good enough to fight’—we’ll discuss proper tier-assessment techniques. How to identify a beast’s actual cultivation level before engaging. How to recognize when you’re outmatched before you commit to the fight." His tail swished. "Because you’re going to encounter Inferno-tempered prey again eventually. And when you do, I want you equipped to make smart decisions, not brave ones."

(Brave and dead versus smart and alive.)

Accurate summary. We prioritize the latter.

Isha dissolved into emerald light, returning to his spiritual form within the Divine Tome. Jayde was alone in the outer ring forest, sitting in grass that smelled too clean, too safe, too far from where she’d nearly died.

Her hands were shaking. She only noticed because the tremor made her enhanced blade vibrate where it lay across her lap.

The Divine Tome’s interface updated one final time:

CURRENT STATUS:

Merit Balance: 1750.50 (unchanged)

Qi Pool: 340/2,225 (Depleted, regenerating)

Physical Condition: Stable/Injured

Required Recovery: 48-72 hours minimum

Lesson Learned: [Pending contractor acknowledgment]

Jayde stared at that last line for a long moment. Then she reached out mentally and filled it in:

Lesson Learned: Overconfidence kills. Respect the tier gap. Intelligence gathering before engagement is non-negotiable. Retreat is a valid tactical option.

The text glowed briefly, then locked into place in her Divine Tome’s permanent record.

(We almost died,) Jade whispered in her mind, and this time Jayde didn’t argue with her.

Yes, she acknowledged. We did. And we won’t forget it.

The walk back to the cave took three hours. Every step hurt. The emergency healing formation had stabilized her injuries but hadn’t truly healed them—bones were aligned but not knit, tissue was sealed but not repaired. She needed rest, needed proper healing pills, needed time for her body to recover from the trauma of nearly being killed by an angry pig.

But she was alive.

And she’d learned.