Roar!! Groar!!
Continuing the exploration, Aeron with his new pet, Ursa, found another bear. Aeron didn’t need to order Ursa as it roared at the incoming bear.
Boom!
The ground boomed again as a familiar scene appeared in Aeron’s sight. This time he saw clearly how Ursa was able to gain such speed, it was because of one of his skills. Although skills didn’t have descriptions, he could still feel their functions, just like how a Mage would know what to chant when activating magic skills. The speed gain was the product of [Unnatural Stance Mastery] and [Accelerated Strike]. The [Unnatural Stance Mastery] allows the user to use 2 skills simultaneously, as such with the [Accelerated Strike] skill, Ursa was able to use the skill with each leg. Different from [Empowered Strike] which strengthens the attack, [Accelerated Strike] speeds up the attack.
The surprised bear was unable to react before it saw Ursa launched another [Accelerated Strike] with its remaining arm. Ursa’s paw struck the bear’s head which slammed the bear to the ground.
Groar!!
Ursa roared as it raised it arm ones again, before the bear could recover it was hit again, making its head sink further into the ground. Ursa did something that made Aeron stunned, it started eating the dead bear. This was something Aeron saw for the very first time, of course, the action itself was natural, the same as any other beast, Ursa also had to eat. In general, a low-grade beast corpse could stay for about 5 minutes before disappearing. Bears weren’t known to hunt other animals because they were already great climbers. A bear’s source of food was generally within reach, so the necessity of hunting was almost nothing. Other beasts that can’t get food from plants and trees would gorge on the prey’s dead body before it disappears, if need be, they would circulate mana on the carcass to preserve it for their young. Of course, they could use the mana gathered in their bodies to satiate themselves, but this would halt the beast’s progress, this was also the same for humans.
Ursa having only its right arm would find it hard to climb trees to gather fruit, as such, it has always hunted and eaten its prey. This made Aeron realize why Ursa was able to develop its skill [Unnatural Stance Mastery] which he surmised was a learned skill.
‘Poor guy’ Aeron thought as he patted Ursa’s head while its maws were still painted with blood which would of course disappear after a short amount of time.
“Arthur, get some monkeys to collect fruits on the nearby trees,” Aeron asked Arthur, this was because when he looked at Ursa, it looked much thinner than the other bears, this also became the reason why he immediately noticed Ursa’s long limbs.
“Kii!” Arthur nodded.
After a bit of time, the monkeys returned with a vine net filled with fruits. Ursa eyed the fruit but didn’t budge, this was not something it had hunted or gathered and with its master beside it, it stopped itself from diving into the tasty looking fruits.
“Ursa go eat.” Aeron smiled as he looked at Ursa’s drool flowing like a waterfall beside him, which made him laugh a bit. He had already thought Ursa’s purred like a cat, now it even drooled like a dog, he even thought that if Ursa had a longer tail, then it would’ve started wagging it already.
Grrrrrr
Ursa immediately started eating the fruits, Aeron could feel the happiness within their soul connection. This touched him, even beasts had a harder time in this world. Prey wasn’t easy to catch as lone beasts would naturally be stronger while those that lived in groups could warn each other.
Crunch! Crunch!
Ursa made crunching noises as it ate up to 4 fruits on each bite, the monkeys kept replenishing the pile as Ursa ate. Ursa had eaten about 4 piles with about 50 fruit in each pile, it seemed like it had truly starved before Aeron tamed it, maybe it was even sleeping on the cave to reduce its hunger.
“Alright, let’s stop for today,” Aeron said this as he saw the sky change in color, it was almost dark and he had already cleared most of the southeastern part of the forest. Tomorrow would also be another weekend, he was unsure whether Brother Gerard would come considering the situation, but seeing that the silver wolves had relayed that there were no High-Grade Beasts that would venture outside the forest then there was a huge possibility that Brother Gerard would come.
As they entered his base, he noticed that the field was already ready for harvest, the 12 fields of mana rice looked beautiful as they glowed golden. This kind of harvest would’ve been bountiful for others but with his monkeys and the additional bear to feed, it would probably not last for a week, it was the same for his other supplies. Good thing he had chosen an area with a forest, this in addition to the endless forest with its gigantic trees. Each tree could probably supply hundreds of fruits, and this was only the trees outside the forest, the inner ones would probably have bigger trees.
Aeron led Ursa near the stables, there was an extension of the stables meant for bigger beasts, of course, this was just an extra thing they built. Most tamers would usually keep their giant pets in their pet space, but some preferred their pets to be outside with them. Aeron was the latter, if he didn’t need to like the case of the silver wolves, he felt it was much better to have pets outside the pet space because the pet space was honestly limited, it only had grass inside it too.
Grrrrrr
Aeron led Ursa to one of the bigger quarters, there were only 2 of these while there were 4 smaller quarters which were the same size as those on the stables. They were honestly earth walls with big windows that could also be closed, although it seldom rained, it still happens. Storms were in his memories, dreadful events, lighting could chatter buildings, while the wind could launch people into the air. Every house would usually come with an underground bunker as storms were unpredictable.
Ursa nuzzled its head on Aeron before falling asleep, it had eaten a lot today and sleeping was the way it processes its gains, same as most beasts. Aeron smiled as he petted Ursa one last time before going out, he saw Arthur’s serious face but felt its feelings with their soul connection.
“Good job for today Arthur” Aeron smiled as he petted Arthur too.
‘You jealous thing’ Aeron thought as he mentally laughed. Arthur was still young, even its height hadn’t reached Aeron’s shoulders, but this would probably change after it matured more or reached the High-Grade Beast level.
Aeron started
his daily mediation, he was sure after another excursion into the forest he would level up, this time he was thinking of taming Spirit. Spirit couldn’t always come as it was not suited in the forest, maybe in the Endless Forest he could still ride Spirit, but in smaller forests, it was impossible to do so. Leaving Spirit in his base had always made him unsettled. His plans for taming a bear first was because he still needed to explore the forest, he had wanted one as a mount which was more suited in the forest.
Five hours passed by and Aeron finished his mediation, he unsummoned the monkeys and summoned Richie. Richie had rested for the majority of the day so he had Richie do guard duty for the night. He had already stored enough mana in the pet space so it wouldn’t suck him dry when it needed the mana, as well as holding a mana stone in his hand. He had done so because he might oversleep, just a small precautionary measure before nodding off. There were howls throughout the night, each time Richie would check outside, Aeron was oblivious to this, as he kept on sleeping.
Early the next morning Aeron decided to do the patrols, he hadn’t done so for a week now. While he also needed to get some fruits in the Endless Forest, of course, he knew the true purpose of the task but it would be bad if he doesn’t complete his end. Not just for him but also for Brother Gerard, if the delay was from his side then it was their fault and not his, but if they were to come and he didn’t do part of his task, then it would discredit him and Brother Gerard.
Hyah!
He urged spirit and unsummoned his other remaining pets, he only brought some weapons with him, the five Mid-Grade Wolves were not something that would normally go near the outer layer of the Endless Forest according to the wolves themselves. If it were a normal wolf pack then Spirit could easily outrun them. All he had to do was run away immediately if he saw a pack, just like the past, wolves still had the ability to call for backup, so fighting them now didn’t benefit him.
Today he was still eating fruits and mana rice, the black bear he brought back still needed to be bled off before he could butcher it. Just like other knowledge like Training, butchering was also a survival knowledge the original was taught from a young age as his parents never expected him to pick Tamer as his profession. After butchering the bear, he would be able to retrieve a full set of bearskin, of course, he could just wait for the carcass to start disappearing then he would be left with the skin, this was normally the process when acquiring materials from High-Grade Beasts. Letting the core absorb the remaining mana for the body would strengthen the material, normally humans would just slice off a small part of the beast’s meat for consumption while the rest would be given to the core to be absorbed. But that was a case for the complete core, the black bear only had a base core that couldn’t absorb the mana from the carcass, it would just normally provide mana to the whole body for preservation.
After some time, Aeron arrived in front of the Endless Forest. The huge trees towered over the normal trees, he let the black monkeys explore and gather fruit again as he stayed 1 kilometer away from the forest, as long as there was any sign of danger then he would immediately run away, he only needed to gather the at least five fruits before he would return. Even though it looked peaceful, he could still feel danger from the forest, this wasn’t something he would overlook. Whether there was truly a dangerous beast lying in wait inside the forest or his weak level making him more susceptible to intimidation, he didn’t want to take chances.
The fruit collection took time, but it was only natural as these trees spanned hundreds of meters in height, this was not even counting the beasts that leave on top of these trees. Good thing Arthur told him the beasts up top wouldn’t bother them if they only took a few fruits per tree.
After collecting the fruits, Aeron did a quick sweep over his area, it would be good if he didn’t find any weird things happening in the forest, but if he chances upon one then at the least, he could report it and get to safety in advance.
This time he also saw Gerard coming while returning to his base, they still looked the same only the number of guards swelled into 50 people. The white rhino was still as eye-catching as it was before, after all, this beast stood at almost 20 meters in height. As brave as Richie was for trying to protect him last time, Aeron knew it could probably wipe him and even his army of monkeys out with a few attacks.
This time Aeron waited for Gerard to come out of the carriage, these people didn’t know him. If he started shouting to them it might just prompt an attack which he could honestly not take, each one of those guards exuded an aura of pressure, which means all of them were at least level 6 Professional. Suddenly a figure dashed out from the crowd, Aeron couldn’t see the person clearly but the figure was quickly approaching, he knew about the skill this person was using as he had seen memories of his mother using it. This skill was the Warrior’s skill [Dash] which a Warrior could get at level 5, the individual also didn’t exude an aura which means this person was not yet at level 6.
‘A test?’ Aeron thought, he didn’t know for what this was but he couldn’t afford to dally.
“Ursa! Go fight that person, but no killing!” Aeron summoned Ursa as he quickly gave an order.
Grrrrr GROAR!!
Ursa nodded as it roared at this would be assailant, it had a massive amount of experience in hunting and had already faced beasts with this kind of speed. As the Warrior approached nearer, he saw the one-armed bear and snickered, this wasn’t what he expected from someone chosen by his master. Even the people at the back looked amused, but the original 5 people looked confused.
“Didn’t he have a black Martial Monkey?” one of the four guards asked.
“It seemed like he leveled up and caught himself a new pet,” another said, they didn’t really give Aeron any respect, in their eyes, this was just their master’s charity case.
“You bunch fools, you knew his situation, and there is only one thing he could do to remedy his level speed” another chimed in, as the others looked bewildered.
“It seems master saw something from this kid,” the leader of the Guards said in a hoarse voice, the four of them were their masters most powerful guards. As such, they knew more than the others knew.
‘It seems there really is something the young master saw that we didn’t see, to level up this quickly with his talent means he needed to kill hundreds of beasts’ Alexis thought, even after his master questioned his loyalty because of this guy, he just thought the young master really sympathized, but as a Tamer, he knew the hardest part of it was the taming part, level speed wasn’t much but those with an affinity of Grade-4 was a different story altogether. This was the reason he was prejudiced right from the start, even if this guy was a late bloomer, he still wouldn’t be any help to his master’s cause. At most he thought that his master’s real target was the parents.
As the bear and the human neared each other, something bizarre happened, they only saw the bear figure vanish for a bit before reappearing in front of the warrior. Ursa’s speed was further increased after he ate the piles of fruits yesterday, Aeron had bestowed him the [Lesser Level Up (Anomalous)] skill. This had allowed Ursa to process the mana it ate in one night of sleep. Its figure wasn’t as thin as it was yesterday and it looked more like those normal bears, even Aeron was surprised as he didn’t really see Ursa before he unsummoned him along with Richie.
The Warrior was surprised as he saw the supposedly slow bear appear right in front of him.
Boom!
Ursa’s arm swung with blinding speed as the Warrior was blown back near the group of guards. Every one of them wore a surprised expression, the 4 guards and Alexis included, not to mention the person inside the carriage who had only expected a show of might from Richie.
