Earth Violent Bear

Deep within the dense forest lies a massive cavern, its entrance wide enough to accommodate a dinosaur. The surrounding area is devoid of vegetation, littered with scattered, bleached bones that serve as a grim warning. There are no traces of animal activity; even the freshest remains are free of flies.

Oh, there is one trace: a giant footprint, roughly 1.5 meters long, belonging to the cave's master.

One look at the print reveals the immense size of the occupant. Today, the animals that usually live near the cave entrance are fleeing deeper into the woods, driven away by the constant, furious roars echoing from the depths of the cavern.

Accompanying the roars of the beast are the voices of humans.

"With Prince Karen here, this quest is a breeze."

"True, but this is a high-level magical beast, an Earth Violent Bear. With our strength, we wouldn't even be able to inflict fatal damage before being flattened into meat patties one by one."

"We've been fighting for so long, yet listen to how much power is still in its roar. Before it could stomp us all to death, we probably wouldn't have even managed to deal any effective damage. Now that we have Prince Karen, we just need to stand our ground and grind it down."

As it turns out, Karen has recently been looking to experience life, joining some mages from his club to take on a few quests. This particular mission is to obtain the magic core of this Earth Violent Bear.

Originally, this quest wasn't even on the Mages' Association's public board, as it is impossible for intermediate mages to complete. It typically requires at least one high-level mage leading a group of low-level ones to take down an Earth Violent Bear.

This quest belongs to the circle of high-level mages; as Karen had learned, such tasks are never posted in the halls for low-to-mid-level mages, circulating only within the elite circles.

However, the mage who posted this quest is the mentor of one of the intermediate mages in Karen's club. With Karen in their adventuring party, they were highly confident in their ability to succeed, so they accepted the contract.

In truth, this quest had been posted for a long time, but no one had ever come to finish it.

The Earth Violent Bear is a tyrant of this forest. Its location is well-known, but no one dared to provoke it. It wasn't that it was invincible, but rather that fighting it was simply not worth the cost, so few bothered to take the job.

Karen's team set their sights on this quest to test themselves against a high-level task. Moreover, they had a way to counter the Earth Violent Bear, making them indifferent to the consumption of resources or the potential profit.

Although the Earth Violent Bear is a high-level magical beast, its magic is purely auxiliary. It possesses virtually no offensive spells, relying almost entirely on raw physical power. However, its strength is immense, its damage output is formidable, and its hide is incredibly thick with high resistance. As a bear with such a massive frame, its health pool is undoubtedly vast, and its regeneration speed must be equally high.

If a high-level mage were to stand and trade blows with it, their mana would likely run dry. Furthermore, the beast wouldn't just stand there and take it; those paws, each as large as a person, are not just for show. A single swipe would likely shatter a high-level mage's magic shield.

A high-level mage would have to kite the beast while burning through auxiliary spells, which would inevitably exhaust their mana.

Without a team's support, one simply cannot defeat this Earth Violent Bear. It would be a waste of time, energy, and potions, and the quest rewards wouldn't justify the expense, which is why no high-level mage ever bothered with it.

But with Karen in the party, the strategy became simple.

Karen used the magic barrier from his necklace to block the center of the cave passage. Although the barrier provided by the necklace was small, covering only two by two meters, it was enough.

Compared to the massive cavern that allowed the Earth Violent Bear to pass through unimpeded, it didn't truly block the path; it was like placing a small stool in the way.

The catch was that this "stool" was suspended in mid-air. Given the Earth Violent Bear's height—over ten meters standing, and at least five even when hunched—it was impossible for it to bypass the barrier to attack Karen and his team.

To reach them, the Earth Violent Bear had to break the barrier, but its defense was terrifyingly high, possessing master-level durability. Even with the bear's violent physical strength, it required several strikes to shatter it.

But the moment the barrier broke, Karen would immediately replenish it. After all, it mostly consumed magic crystals, and a wealthy man like him didn't care about the cost.

The rest of the adventuring party could calmly stand their ground and unleash their attacks through the wide space beside the magic barrier.

While the magical damage from these mostly intermediate mages was low and required a slow grind, there was strength in numbers.

The Earth Violent Bear's roars grew weaker as time passed. The beast began to grow anxious, shifting from fury to fear, and finally turned to flee.

"Maintain distance, pursue!" Karen commanded.

Driven to desperation, the Earth Violent Bear would occasionally turn to counterattack.

But every time, Karen would accurately place the magic barrier directly in front of the beast. The Earth Violent Bear could only retreat further, but the cave was finite and had no back exit. Finally, with nowhere left to run, the bear—much like a cornered rabbit—went berserk.

Yet, with Karen present, its fate remained unchanged. With a final, mournful howl, the Earth Violent Bear's hill-like body collapsed in frustration.

"Sigh, what a waste. If only we hadn't used fire-based magic, that would have been such a fine pelt. A leatherworker could have made several sets of leather armor out of that. Earth Violent Bear hide is worth a fortune."

"If we didn't use our highest-damage fire spells, how much longer do you think it would have taken to grind it down? Besides, here in Dalaran, we are mostly magic-based professions. There's no market for leather armor, and there aren't any high-level leatherworkers here either. Even a low-level one wouldn't know how to process a hide like that."

"We could sell it to someone who needs it. Someone will always want it. Even if those merchants try to drive the price down, it wouldn't be that cheap."

Hearing their discussion, Karen realized that preserving the hide would have been simple; he had a top-tier master-level bodyguard by his side.

As a top-tier professional, soloing an Earth Violent Bear without taking damage would be a piece of cake. However, he was here to experience life. When he joined the adventuring party, he hadn't used his own gear or skills, only resorting to the necklace's ability because this quest was indeed challenging.

Besides, the hide was likely not even worth the magic crystals he had consumed, so there was nothing to regret.

Still, the mention of leatherworking and leatherworkers reminded Karen of the sub-professions in the game. Now that his main profession had hit a bottleneck, he could dabble in sub-professions. After this quest, he would look into what sub-professions existed in reality and see if they differed from those in the game.