“Kiii!”
Arthur suddenly called outside, this time Aeron didn’t know what Arthur said, he noticed the difference, Arthur was trying to convey the information to Aeron internally when he was talking with Aeron, but when Arthur talks to the other monkeys, there was no need to. As for why Aeron wasn’t able to hear the Grey Eagle on their first meeting, it was probably because the skill was not yet unlocked at that time. And Aeron was right, the skill that allowed him to listen to the Grey Eagle, to the Golden Eyed Snake, and to Arthur was fully unlocked when the Grey Eagle conveyed its gratitude.
“Ki!”
Aeron saw Alexander walking with the egg, which made him heave a sigh of relief. He had promised the Grey Eagle and he would deliver, of course he knew it was a huge opportunity for a Tamer to be able to raise a Grey Eagle close to him which would have a high chance to consent towards him taming it in the future, but there wasn’t actually a choice for him to not do so. Just like how humans can’t release those animals that were bred in captivity, if he raised the egg from its childhood to its adulthood, then it would more or less be closer to humans. If he released it in the future, it would be more susceptible to deception and other beasts, races, or humans might just take advantage of it. After all, Aeron can’t raise it to hate him or be vigilant of him, that would honestly just be tiring and stupid.
“It’s good that you’re fine little one, I promise I’ll treat you well”
Aeron said to the egg as he received it from Alexander. Becoming his tamed beast might not be the best outcome its mother could want for its offspring. However, it was the best thing Aeron could offer.
“Arthur have them collect vines and wood essence”
Aeron instructed; he was going to make a box then make a bird’s nest inside, it was the best thing he could think off for now, he could imagine the Grey Eagle’s nest to be full of Demon Beast material but this was the best that he could do, maybe he could make use of that bear skin back in his base to make the nest more comfortable.
‘Oh those hyena fur should do’
Aeron thought, as for hatching or more appropriately, feeding the egg, this was actually something that was in the memory stones back in the Ironbull Family, one of their Tamers have had the chance to acquire a High-Grade Beast egg, so it was actually well documented.
“Here”
Aeron manipulated his mana as it flowed around the egg, the egg instinctively absorbed it like a sponge, when Aeron felt his mana drain enough, he stopped transferring mana to the egg. Weirdly enough Aeron could feel the dissatisfaction from the egg when he stopped supplying mana.
“Sorry little guy, I’ll give you more mana later, but you’ll have to make do for now”
Aeron said to the egg, as if understanding Aeron, the egg stopped expressing its displeasure.
“Hahaha good boy!”
Aeron said, but as he did, the egg suddenly shook.
“Oh good girl then hahahah”
Aeron said amused, it could even understand that, he didn’t know whether it was his ability or the egg was much smarter that he thought it was, Aeron actually felt weird having to think about that towards an egg, but this world was a world that had dragons and magic, so an intelligent egg wasn’t much.
“As for the Golden Eyed Snake, just let it be”
Aeron said, it was unknown whether he was talking to Arthur or to himself, but his thoughts towards the snake was just to wait until he was able to make it acknowledge him, he was too weak right now, so that had to wait till maybe he was level 6 or judging from the golden eyed snake’s size, even higher.
“But this is all good! Arthur good job, I’m sorry for forcing you to level up”
Aeron said, he was overall satisfied towards his situation, he was in no position to even grumble about his situation as he knew that there were others that had it rougher than him. He also commended Arthur, if it wasn’t for Arthur then he would’ve died, and he probably wouldn’t be lucky enough to get another life after this one.
“Thank you master, it was my pleasure”
Arthur replied, this was his honest opinion, he had only been one year old when Aeron tamed him, and the monkeys around him had treated him with subservience, he didn’t even know where his parents went after giving birth to him, so he had treated Aeron as his master and his parent as well. So, he was actually happy to sacrifice himself just to save Aeron.
“Ahem.. That’s good then, keep up the good work”
Aeron had wanted to tell Arthur to value his life more, but he felt the happiness from within their soul connection, so Aeron just went with what he said, Aeron wanted to say more complements if it made Arthur happier as he didn’t know, but too much would be bad.
“We’ll stay here for a week more, gather all the fruits that we can, the wolves should be completely healed after a week”
Aeron ordered, he summoned the silver and black monkeys, as well as the silver wolves out. He could not support them inside his pet space as he had finished using all his mana stones already, Ursa was still asleep as it had received more soul power so it would probably have about Aeron’s level of soul power. Ursa was still in the midst of its evolution so Aeron couldn’t bother it, and with the egg taking most of his mana, he could only afford Ursa inside his pet space, good thing was that the wolves were almost healed and only needed to rest for a week more.
“Arthur did you bring the corpses here too?”
Aeron asked, this was an important point, he didn’t know what happened after he fell unconscious, but he was afraid that the Golden Eyed Snake took the Grey Eagle and Bloody Hyena corpse.
“Master, I was only able to grab the Grey Eagle Core but the Giant Snake ate all the corpses”
Arthur said with gritted teeth, he had thought about how he let Aeron down, but he was focused on protecting Aeron at the time, it was already lucky for Arthur to get the wind core of the Grey Eagle. The Golden Eyed Snake had instinctively taken out the wind core before it tried to devour the Grey Eagle Corpse, but Arthur had deftly taken it and refused to give it back. Arthur gave Aeron a green orb which was the Grey Eagle’s Core, Aeron could feel the wind energy covering the orb. Aeron had always wondered how it felt to hold one, as he had only seen one in a Memory Stone.
“Sigh, I thought so, but its fine, it’s a good thing you got the Grey Eagle Core, the Bloody Hyena will probably leave its skin behind but if the Golden Eyed Snake devoured the core then there would be nothing left, we’ll get back the Bloody Hyena Skin in the future, I’m pretty sure the Golden Eyed Snake lives inside this forest, We’ll visit it when I get strong enough”
Aeron said as it was impossible to get the Bloody Hyena Skin back from the Golden Eyed Snake, it was as he said, he was still too weak, he would probably destroy his soul if he sent the Golden Eyed Snake a soul command.
‘So it’s really called Golden Eyed Snake, and it’s even a Level 9!’
Aeron thought in surprise, he had already thought that the Golden Eyed Snake was powerful, but it was actually a Level 9 Beast. If it was in a fair battle, then it could’ve killed them all except for the Grey Eagle, if the Grey Eagle was in perfect shape, Aeron couldn’t gauge the Grey Eagle’s level as he had never seen a High-Grade Beast fight before and it was severely injured.
“The [Bulk Up] skill is probably the reason why the Golden Eyed Snake became that big”
This was one of Aeron’s thoughts as he saw that the Golden Eyed Snake had venom on its skills, if he were to base it on his past world’s logic, then the Golden Eyed Snake having venom should have a smaller size. He had a bit of knowledge regarding animals as he had always been interested with them, venomous snakes like vipers would usually have a smaller size in comparison to Boas and Pythons, the latter having a much larger bulk, no venom, and specializes in constricting their prey to death.
“So the levels after 6 doesn’t increase the soul power then”
Aeron thought out loud, there was only a vague information about the power level of souls in Aeron’s memory, it was always described as more, less, or as powerful when soul powers were described, if Aeron had to guess then it was probably to not discourage the prospective Tamers.
“Hmm I should be a level 3 when it comes to soul then”
Aeron rationalized his level of soul power, an un-awakened or newly awakened professional probably had a level 1 Soul, a Low-Grade Beast, on Aeron’s analysis would be level 0 Soul, as they can’t even take on a proper form. A Mid-Grade Beast, on Aeron’s opinion would be a Level 2 Soul, Tamers who reach level 6 would have a Level 2 Soul, but Beasts who were able to evolve to level 6 would have a Level 5 Soul. If people knew the gap was that high, then no one would want to become a Tamer, except for a few cases. The only way to evolve a Tamer’s soul to the same level as a High-Grade Beast was to tame a High-Grade Beast, which was close to impossible. This was the reason why Tamers weren’t as mainstream as the other Professions.
“This profession is really messed up”
Aeron lamented. Only in families like Aeron’s who were a profession-oriented family, would there be people willing to take the Tamer Profession. Of course, there were people who would do so without the pressure of their family, this was how these families came to be after all, of course there were also famous Tamers in other families, but they were far and few.
“But the payoff is also quite high”
Aeron said as he looked at Arthur, as well as thought about the Golden Eyed Snake. If he had any of these two fight other people on the same level, then he could probably beat most other Profession. But this was not considering Aeron’s involvement in the fight, as he would be the biggest weakness, this was also a sort of balance.
“Kii!”
Alexander along with the other monkeys returned bringing with them a lot of vine essence, the wood essence would’ve been harder to get but the recent fight took a lot of trees down so there was a number of them. There were still more monkeys gathering fruits and material essences in the western part of the forest, Aeron had judged that area safer as it had been the territory of the Bloody Hyena, and without it there should be no threats to face there. One would think, what if the Golden Eyed Snake attacked the monkeys, Aeron wasn’t actually that worried as he could feel the whereabouts of the Golden Eyed Snake.
“Alright, hold this for me”
Aeron gave the egg to Alexander. Arthur was guarding vigilantly around him so he found it inappropriate to let Arthur hold the egg. He first made a box made of wood essence. After a few minutes.
“Done. Let’s move on to the nest”
Aeron weaved the vine essence and made a bird’s nest, he had actually skinned off one of the Mid-Grade Hyena’s they had, when the blood around it disappeared, only the slick fur remained with the skin.
“This should feel better”
Aeron felt the hyena fur before placing it over the vine nest he made. He smiled as he looked at the finished product, making this was really relaxing in times like these. Unlike making spears and arrows for killing, creating things for comfort was more comfortable in Aeron’s opinion.
“There you go”
Aeron placed the egg on his creation.
‘Is it this a nest or a pillow?’
Aeron thought as he looked at the egg lying inside the nest or pillow, it had really looked like a nest before he covered it with hyena fur.
“Oh well, as long as your comfortable little guy err girl”
Aeron said, he felt the egg relay a feeling of comfort.
“Hahaha its good then”
Aeron started to cook the hyena meat, there was no such thing as bad meat in Gaia, except for poisonous ones, but even those could be cooked by skilled cooks.
“If only there were spice fruits, this would taste better”
Aeron said as he started cooking, he had yet to explore the western part of the forest, he had already sent some monkeys to search for spice plants, but none have yet to return. In the end, Aeron had to cook without the spice fruits as the monkeys found no spice fruits in the western forest. If Aeron had to guess, then it should be those hyenas’ fault, spice plants are very sensitive to begin with, the hyenas probably ate the fruits then damaged the plant afterwards.
“Hmm”
Aeron could already smell the meat being cooked. Aeron was positive that even without the flavor fruits, the meat would be tasty enough. Unlike in the past where there was only him, Arthur, and Ursa, the other monkeys were watching, the wolves also had their eyes stuck with the meat. Aeron had already foreseen this scenario so he had the other Mid-Grade Hyena carcass chopped up and cooked. The Monkeys unlike Ursa and the wolves, preferred the fruits, but they also liked the occasional meat.
“Time to eat!”
Aeron said as he gave the pets their share and started eating.
