Days passed by quickly and the one-week deadline Aeron had set for himself came. Aeron continued with his training while preparing for his exploration towards the Endless Forest. Of course, Aeron could’ve chosen the smaller forest which he had named Arthur Forest in the past. The problem concerning that forest was that it had already been occupied by powerful High-Grade Beasts, that was not to say Aeron knew any of them, but the fact that the Golden Eyed Snake’s territory had only been the northern part of the Arthur Forest meant there was an even more powerful or just as powerful beast on the eastern and central part of the forest.
“Arthur, call all the monkeys here.”
Aeron asked Arthur, they would head out towards the Endless Forest an hour later, what he needed to sort out was the little turtles.
“Sigh, why did you have to catch more of them?”
Aeron asked Agila. Agila had seen Aeron adore the little turtle, so she had thought to catch more, but there seemed to be an abundant amount of them in the small river, one week of catching them, and the result was 10 little turtles.
“Now where will I put them in?”
Aeron said, he knew these turtles were probably siblings, and their survival rate was dismal. This was in comparison to sea turtles and other turtles, although they would lay hundreds maybe even thousands of eggs, there would be at most 1% survival rate.
‘Should I just release them back’
Aeron thought this was truly a dilemma, he wanted to, but he knew most of them would die if he returned them. True, he had already been accustomed towards hunting beasts, but he always had a purpose in doing so, this world, although different, was still the same just like his past world, the strong prey on the weak. And only with sufficient strength would one experience peace.
“Sigh, Caesar, bring the basket here.”
Aeron sighed as he shook his head, this was the same sickness he had in the past, he would always feel guilty in situations like these, though he still had a bottom line. He had asked Caesar to bring a basket over, these were weaved wood essence, but these baskets were big, the smallest being one meter in length, this was something he readied for the exploration, now he had to use one to store these turtles. He couldn’t leave them behind as they needed to be fed, but he also couldn’t leave any monkey behind as each of the monkeys was essential towards his plans.
“It’s a good thing Arthur discovered a suitable base”
Aeron said out loud, he already had some monkeys explore the Endless Forest, this initial exploration was led by Arthur, Aeron had to hide in the base each time they left, just in case. And those exploration bore fruit.
“Ki!”
Caesar had arrived bringing with him a 1-meter high basket, it also had a diameter of about 2 meters, Aeron carefully placed the little turtles inside the basket and had Tom carry them. Though the basket was big and was filled with 10 turtles, Tom didn’t feel any burden, the brown monkeys were more strength-oriented than the black monkeys, and it was a Mid-Grade Beast to start with.
“Master, we are ready.”
Arthur said as he arrived with the other monkeys.
“Ursa, Agila, I’ll have to unsummon you both for now.”
Arthur said, he unsummoned them afterward, next he unsummoned the monkeys and wolves temporarily, with the exception of Arthur, Tom, Akila, Fang, and Fen .
“Let’s go!”
Aeron said as Akila, Fang and, Fen ran towards the Endless Forest, they were only 3 kilometers away so the journey wasn’t long and took only a few minutes.
“Stop.”
Aeron said as he ordered Akila to stop in front of the Endless Forest, even though he knew that the stronger beasts lived deeper inside the Endless Forest, just the towering trees felt intimidating.
“Arthur, guide us towards the tree.”
Aeron ordered, he only needed Arthur with him for now, but the turtles weren’t his pets so he had to let Tom out for now.
“Yes master, follow me.”
Arthur replied as he rode Fang, entering the forest, Aeron and Tom, followed him closely. Aeron looked around while traveling inside the Endless Forest, he felt like a dwarf beside the massive trees, the interior of the forest became darker and darker, the massive canopy barely had any openings to lend lights towards the smaller plants. But this had always been the situation in forests, plants had to find their own ways to survive.
“Arthur, are you sure there aren’t any High-Grade Beast living near here?”
Aeron asked, the forest had suddenly become very dark, they had already traveled for about an hour into the forest, which to Aeron was already too deep. Though Aeron knew the reason, he was still doubtful why such a perfect area for an ambush was uninhabited.
“We’re near master, we have already checked the area, there are no signs of other strong beasts in the area, I have a way to feel High-Grade Beasts, and they only appear to live further inside the forest.”
Arthur answered, this had been the result of his exploration in the Endless Forest, though his color was conspicuous, Arthur was still able to explore stealthily inside the forest, he was after all the one to give the black monkeys the memories they used to act as assassins.
“Alright then.”
Aeron said, the journey wasn’t that long and Aeron now stood in front of a giant tree, if the other trees were big, then this one was thrice that size, this tree was also the reason why the area had gotten dark.
“We are here master, now we just have to climb up.”
Arthur said, he got down from Fang, and Aeron followed. Aeron unsummon Akila and Fang as they continued to climb up, the tree wasn’t much taller than the other trees, but its girth was what made it noticeable. Although Aeron had only climbed trees with the monkeys when it was time to stock up with food, his skills in climbing were more adept than it was in the past. With the help of the trees having plenty of footholds, the climb up the tree was more relaxed.
“We’re near master.”
Arthur said, Aeron looked up and saw a small opening amongst the branches, this massive tree was aptly called the umbrella tree, as its branches would form an umbrella-like shape. But the difference between this tree and the normal umbrella tree was its size, its branches should’ve been separate from each other but its size had become so big that they have crisscrossed with its other branches forming a tight branch formation. There was barely any hole that could be found underneath the tree.
‘It seems Arthur had to dig a hole as an entrance.’
Aeron thought, although the hole had healed, it had become a natural entrance, and very hard to spot as it was covered with vines. Arthur opened the entrance and went in, Aeron followed after Tom, the basket full of baby turtles had to be passed to Arthur first so it would fit inside the hole. After Tom passed the basket to Arthur, Tom went inside followed by Aeron, what met Aeron was breathtaking.
“Amazing!”
Aeron exclaimed, what was seen from below was incomparable to what he was currently seeing, it was like a hidden world, unlike the darkness on the forest floor, the area within the tree’s umbrella was far from dark, the light from the sun passed through the thin verdant leaves forming a greenish hue around, it was a hidden wonder far from what Aeron had expected.
“Beautiful!”
Aeron said, this was the only word he could think of other than amazing, the light rays collided with small particles that drifted in the air making it glitter every now and then, sometimes leaves would fall from the branches but like the magic that surrounded Gaia, they would disappear into green glowing dust before scattering into the air.
“This is amazing Arthur! Why didn’t you tell me it was this beautiful?”
Aeron asked, Arthur had only told him he found a good hiding place inside the Endless Forest, Aeron didn’t care much about the appearance so he hadn’t asked much. Aeron thought Arthur would tell him that there was such a beautiful secret base.
“I thought it would be a nice surprise master.”
Arthur said as he looked at Aeron expectantly, to which Aeron reacted with astonishment. Arthur was truly becoming more and more intelligent, and not just in mental capacity but more on the spiritual side. But the expectant look was the classic Arthur.
“Hahaha you did an amazing job Arthur, you even learned to surprise me!”
Aeron said as he laughed happily, he had expected to live in a very inhospitable area within the Endless Forest, he had forgotten how there could be beautiful places within scary and dangerous places, this was the work of nature after all. This was the epitome of not judging a book by its cover. Aeron didn’t forget to pat Arthur’s head as he saw Arthur lower his head towards him not caring for Tom beside them.
“Such a beautiful place, you’re really my lucky charm Arthur.”
Aeron said as he was still mesmerized by the surrounding image.
“Are those orchids?”
Aeron asked in surprise, some branches held different leaves, as Aeron looked closer he saw that they were orchids instead, but the flowers had yet to bloom, the fruits on the other hand were abundant, there were different types of them, it was only when he looked closer that Aeron found why. The umbrella tree had already encompassed other trees within its branches, the trunk of the tree was already thrice the size of the normal trees here, but the umbrella forming branches covered an even larger area.
The thing which made the umbrella tree a perfect secret base was that there were two layers of branches, the first layer was flatter because the branches were thicker which made a natural floor, the second layer was composed of smaller branches in comparison to the first layer, so as they grew longer, unlike the first layer which became steadier and flatter, the second layer will bend downwards as it grew longer making a natural dome-like formation forming a natural roof. And even if other people were to see it from below, they would only judge it as a bigger tree than usual.
“Alright then, let’s get to work!”
Aeron said as he summoned all his pets.
“Arthur have them gather fruits, wood essence, and vine essence, but make sure they only gather near here, this area should be untouched which should have more than enough to make a better floor.”
Aeron ordered, the umbrella tree truly made a natural floor with its first layer, it was even relatively flat, but since it was made of crisscrossing branches, it made for a very rough floor to walk on, but by using wood essence for the flooring, it should make it more even. Aeron was currently pumped with this new project, this beautiful place was truly something unexpected, and now it was his, he wasn’t as enthusiastic about the prospect of living inside the Endless Forest, but with the discovery of this secret base, his enthusiasm and excitement were awoken to a high degree.
“Yes Master!”
Arthur saw the excitement his master was exuding which made him even more motivated, Arthur led the monkeys around the area carefully sensing whether there were other creatures around, but all he saw were Low-Grade Beasts. There were the familiar fanged boars, jungle dogs, jungle cats, some wolves, and even bears, there were more of them which he had already seen on his initial exploration here, one kind made Arthur angry. The snake beasts, although they were far from the Golden Eyed Snake in terms of size and power, thinking about how the Golden Eyed Snake had almost killed his master made Arthur irritable against these slithering vines. But Aeron had warned him about killing for the sake of killing, if they were to kill, then they must have a purpose.
After roughly an hour, Arthur had returned with the first batch of materials, Aeron started his work on the flooring, there were about five brown monkeys left to help Aeron, and after half a day of work, Aeron had already covered half of the first layer, to be honest, Aeron’s actions were very wasteful to other people, there were certain rules that humans had to follow in terms of collecting wood essence, places like the endless forest was very hard to go to for the stronger humans as they would be treated as intruders, but Aeron was still in the mortal stage, as such he wasn’t treated as an intruder, not to mention it was his pet that had a stronger presence. Even if the other beasts in the forest discovered Arthur, they would just treat it as another beast taking over a territory.
“Time for training! Let’s continue with these tomorrow.”
Aeron said as he started his daily training, training was his top priority even inside the Endless Forest, he’ll be hunting later on but right now he still needed to maintain a strict training regime. Agila was currently nestled in a vine weaved nest, while Ursa slept like usual along with the wolves. There was plenty of room in the umbrella tree base, it was as wide as 200 meters, its growth was concentrated on the branches as it was only about 100 meters in height, which was the normal height of the trees in the area, this was also the reason why the umbrella tree had its branches cover the other trees near it, they were the support its branches needed. It was simply treating its neighboring trees as support columns.
“Oh right, Tom, feed the turtles.”
Aeron said as he pointed towards the turtles, they were placed in a fenced area made from the dismantled basket. They were all cutely wobbling around exploring their new surrounding inside the fenced area, some of them would try to climb the fence but end up falling on their shells, it was funny looking at them struggle to get back up. Aeron knew it was unhealthy, so he had a bunch of monkeys look after the turtles, flipping them over every time they fall, even the monkeys looked amused doing their job.
There were sensible ones, but there were also ones like Terra who kept trying and trying. It was much smarter than the other turtles as it tried to climb on Aeron’s direction, its cute little eyes never left Aeron’s figure.
“Sigh, Tom, bring Terra here.”
Aeron said as he sighed, he had truly spoilt the little thing rotten. He took Terra from Tom as he saw its eyes sparkle. Sighing again at his own actions, Aeron covered Terra with his own mana, it was an accidental discovery as he had missed the time when Agila was still Eggy, he had unconsciously covered Terra with his mana, it had scared him at first as he thought it would be harmful to Terra, but to his surprise, it looked like it enjoyed the treatment. Since then, Aeron would routinely do what he did with Eggy towards Terra, this was also part training, as controlling his mana in a protracted amount of time became harder and harder.
