“We’re done for today.”
Aeron said as he and the monkeys collected the arrows on the ground.
‘Though if I meet that bear again, I could consider enhancing my [Accelerated Strike] skill.’
Aeron thought, he knew that beasts like the bear he met were incredibly rare and had more potential in evolution, but he had decided to find a beast with a strength-enhancing skill. After collecting the scattered arrows, Aeron and his pets returned to their base.
“Arthur, go and widen the map, but be careful in doing so, we don’t want conflicts with High-Grade Beasts for now.”
Aeron told Arthur after they arrived, he planned to have Arthur declare a territory within the Endless Forest. Once the territory was claimed and the neighboring beasts were informed, then he would have more freedom inside the forest, and even Agila, Ursa, and the wolves could be set free in the area.
“Yes Master.”
Arthur answered, he was determined to fulfill Aeron’s plans, not just for himself or his master, but for his subordinates. The only problem was the attitude of the beasts a bit deeper within the forest neighboring their area. If those beasts were extremely territorial then the plan could fail and they might have to face a strong beast in battle, not to mention the pre-existing threat from the wolves. This was after all a very possible scenario.
“Alright, go after eating and resting for a bit, I’ll also have to do training later.”
Aeron said, he had truly been exhausted with the hunt. Arthur left after eating, bringing with him ten other monkeys, the rest were left to protect their base and master. Aeron walked towards Ursa, he had always liked sleeping with the fluffy bear.
“Oh Ursa, I just fought with another bear, I bet you would’ve liked another bear with the team.”
Aeron said as he saw Ursa wake up when it felt Aeron get close.
Grrrrr
“Hahaha maybe if I see him again, maybe.”
Aeron said as he felt Ursa respond, it was only Ursa and Agila who had no beasts of the same kind, Aeron had already forgotten the Golden Eyed Snake, that guy was too much of a rebel. Even Terra had 9 other turtles to accompany him.
‘Speaking of Terra.’
The little turtle crawled towards Aeron, Aeron had decided to let loose the little turtles inside the base, of course, he had turtle proofed the whole place and left monkey guards on the exits. Terra nudged Aeron’s legs, and with its cute little eyes, it begged Aeron to pick it up.
“You little thing.”
Aeron picked Terra up before lying down on Ursa, he had spent most of his stamina but his mana was barely touched, so he gave Terra his daily mana bath.
“This little b*****’s getting too smart.”
Aeron said as he looked at the little turtle closing its eyes in bliss, if Aeron had known better then he would’ve thought that Terra was some sort of special beast, maybe even an infant beast. But Aeron knew Terra didn’t have a large amount of mana just like the rest of the turtles. It was the same with the little birds living on Aeron’s base. Judging a beast wasn’t as simple, but one of the main indicators was its mana, of course, this can only be done to beasts or creatures much weaker than the Aeron. He had even asked Arthur to judge but the result was the same, making Terra’s intelligence an enigma.
After feeling about half of his mana reserves gone, Aeron stopped, Terra nudged its head towards Aeron’s arms as if thanking him, even Aeron could feel it through his skill.
“You’re a weird little beast huh, Arthur might just be wrong about you.”
Aeron said as he raised Terra with his arms, the little guy’s eyes were roaming around. Aeron put it down which made it sink on Ursa’s fur, the area where Terra sunk started shaking.
“Hahaha!”
Aeron laughed, he took the little turtle off Ursa’s back before placing it down, the other turtles weren’t as intelligent but they were still as cute waddling around, Aeron wanted to find someplace for them to swim on, but keeping water on the tree wasn’t possible so it has to be on the ground. After a while, Aeron’s thoughts began to drift, the exhaustion of his hunt began to sink in and he fell asleep.
“Hey Terra!”
Agila called towards the little turtle, who actually looked back, its eyes were full of curiosity, but the weird thing was that it recognized its name, although Aeron had named the little turtle, it still wasn’t the same as his tamed beast, but Aeron thought it to be natural.
“Stop taking all of the master’s time!”
Agila grumbled, which was answered by a tilting head. She had thought the little turtle was weird so she brought it to her master, she didn’t expect the result would be less time towards her. The little turtle turned away after a while before roaming around aimlessly, its thoughts were truly a mystery. Agila started walking towards Aeron, she slightly waved her wings producing a gentle breeze. She had been doing this secretly when she found out that her master liked this sort of breeze.
Aeron felt the gentle breeze which made him more comfortable but not for long. When Aeron started drifting in dreamland, a black mist like creature started to envelop Aeron’s body. Every creature around Aeron was unable to see it.
Aeron’s dream started to change, it was the same dream all over again, the dark figure arrived making his body shiver, he wasn’t scared one bit, the same dream had repeated all over again, but his body still felt the danger.
“Who are you?”
Aeron asked the dark figure, he had never seen the dark figure turn around completely, but Aeron felt that there would be an extreme danger once the figure turned. The dark figure slowly turned, Aeron could see its eyes, it was like an empty socket with swirling dark strings. Its grin started from its ears and exuded a creepy feeling.
Crash!
The dark figure’s smiled turned into a frown as a loud noise interrupted Aeron’s dream again, the dream cracked like glass before shattering into pieces, Aeron woke up with a flurry. Dark gas escaped from Aeron’s body, but Aeron didn’t feel nor see it.
“Huuu.”
Aeron quickly calmed himself down, he could feel that his situation was in danger, but he didn’t know why, there was no one that he could think of to ask for help. He had even asked Gerard whether he knew anyone or any beast who could invade dreams. He could clearly remember what Gerard said.
“Well, I haven’t heard of any Profession capable of manipulating dreams, but there are rumors or rather legends about otherworldly beasts that could invade and control dreams, it was said that not even God Stage Professionals could find these beasts. It’s still unknown whether they truly exist, but in my opinion, if not even the most powerful people could find a clue about them, then whether they exist or not doesn’t matter.”
It was after this that Aeron had suspected that it was either the doing of the Governor of Isa or those otherworldly beasts that Gerard talked about. If any of his speculations were true, then he had no solution to any of the problems. The only solution he thought of was to further strengthen himself, especially his soul, the only factor that he could think of within dreams that he could use to resist the dark figure was his soul.
“But what is that loud noise?”
Aeron thought about the crashing noise he heard that interrupted his dreams, but whatever it was, Aeron knew it was the reason why the dark figure couldn’t harm him.
“Are you okay master? Did you have that bad dream again?”
Agila asked in surprise, her master suddenly woke up visibly flustered and even started speaking to himself. She knew there was another invisible problem her master was currently facing, which made her more agitated towards strengthening herself.
“It’s fine Agila, I’m fine.”
Aeron said reassuringly, he had already noticed Agila’s eagerness to raise her strength, the dream, the wolves, and the gleam within his pet’s eyes made Aeron want to hasten his power-up.
‘A week then, after one week of hunting I’ll let Arthur power level me.’
Aeron thought, he had decided in the past that he would hunt for at least a month to further consolidate his training. But things weren’t going well, the dream woke him further, if only he had enough time to do things more stably. Having been awoken from a bad dream, Aeron decided to train earlier.
Not far from the tree’s base, a gleaming pair of eyes scanned the area before disappearing into the darkness.
“Master, no High-Grade Beast was found around 20 kilometers of our base.”
Arthur said as he returned from his scouting duty.
“Thanks Arthur, go ahead and rest, have the other monkeys guard.”
Aeron nodded as he finished his training. It was already dark and but he was still not sleepy enough. Though he had already finished his meditation for the day, he continued on till he felt sleepy.
***********************In the City of Una***********************
“Young Master, we have sent your message to them.”
A shadowy figure spoke as he gave about a dozen rune etched mana stones to Gerard, the same one as the previous governor gave.
“Good then, I just hope there will be no need to use them.”
Gerard said as he looked at the rune stones, he didn’t want to waste favors for something unsure, but his purpose here was too important.
“Brock? Is the training going well?”
Gerard asked, he had already incorporated many Professionals towards his faction, and he was currently training them with basic formations. He had also spent a massive amount of wealth to purchase equipment to arm his people which were at least a thousand. A thousand people might not look impressive considering the number of people in Una, which still amounted to about thirty thousand, this was not counting the number of people who already left the City with the governor.
Though there were a lot of them, the number of people willing to fight for Una was small, along with his own, there were scattered groups of about 2000 people willing to stay and fight. The City of Una might have been built four years ago, but it was not enough for the people to feel sentimental about it enough to risk their lives.
“The training is going well young master, good thing the other 2000 people are willing to be ordered by you in exchange for decent equipment.”
Brock replied, it was a good thing their number was enough to actually man the walls, if not, then it was better to just retreat.
“That’s good then.”
Gerard nodded, it was unknown whether the City could endure the wolves onslaught, but having 3000 Professionals to defend it was enough for him.
“Are there any movements inside the Endless Forest?”
Gerard asked another shadowy figure.
“None young master, it has been quiet these past few days.”
The shadow-like figure answered, they have been exploring the Endless Forest, especially the wolves territory, but the wolves seemed to have disappeared deep inside the Endless Forest.
“A few days have already passed, since they have not returned to normal or in chaos, then the wolf king must be undergoing some change.”
Gerard said to himself, if this was true then the war with the wolves would become more dangerous. It would be impossible for the wolf king to conquer Transcendent wolves, but Sky Stage Wolves would not be an issue, and if that happened, the City’s survival would dwindle further.
“Did that person in the City of Isa agree?”
Gerard asked, he was given the rune stones but he still didn’t know which rune stone was from who.
“Yes young master.”
The shadow-like figure picked a rune stone with a bullhead carved on it.
“That’s good then.”
Gerard said in relief. If that person came then he would at least be able to fend off several Sky Stage Beast.
******************************************************************
Early in the morning, Aeron woke up. He ate with his pets before going off to hunt. Arthur led the way, as usual, leaping from branch to branch. The first prey was a fanged boar, which wasn’t that hard to kill once you were fast enough because of their simple charging tactics.
“Has there been any movement from the Panthers?”
Aeron asked, if the Panthers had finished breeding, then he’ll go and tame the male Panther when it leaves the female.
“There’s been no movement master, both of the panthers hunt separately, but there have been no signs of the male panther leaving.”
Arthur answered, the black monkeys would follow the male panther around, if there were any signs of it going further away from the panther territory then one of the monkeys would return to report.
“Alright then, where to next?”
Aeron said as he pulled his spear from the fanged boar’s body.
“Not far from here is a jungle cat master.”
Arthur replied.
“Jungle Cat huh.”
Aeron said before they departed for the jungle cat, jungle cats were much more difficult to kill than Brown Bears in Aeron’s opinion. If he lost sight of a jungle cat then without Arthur’s help, he’ll be in a fatal situation. While the Brown Bears were harder in the sense that it takes more time to kill them, jungle cats were faster to kill if his tactics go as planned.
Just like the last time, Aeron and Arthur stopped a distance away from the jungle cat, he climbed down the tree as he crept towards the jungle cat.
‘So they’re usually grooming at this time of the day.’
Aeron thought as he saw the jungle cat licking itself, but it was not licking itself to be clean, but rather licking its fur to keep them in proper condition. Aeron nocked his arrow on his bow before aiming at the jungle cat.
Twang!
The arrow shot through the air towards the jungle cat, and as expected, the jungle cat noticed before the arrow hit it. Its figure flashed as it dodged the incoming arrow. More arrows followed but the jungle cat kept on dodging, Aeron noticed it was slowly getting nearer and nearer. When it was near enough, Arthur was already primed to strike, but he held off because his master didn’t ask him.
“Not this time.”
Aeron said as he threw his bow and held his spear, unlike the first fight, he had been surprised by the attack and had underestimated his enemy. Now that he knew that the jungle cat was coming, he was more than ready to fight it in close combat.
“Come!”
Aeron taunted as he pointed his spear towards the jungle cat, its body became stout and like a bent spring, it lunged at Aeron with blinding speed. Arthur looked on worriedly but he saw his master’s eyes were confident.
When Aeron saw the jungle cat lunged at him, he had already estimated its speed and trajectory, but if he tried to pierce the jungle cat, it might be able to avoid the blow.
“[Accelerated Strike]”
Aeron used his skill before sweeping his spear, the spear met the jungle cat in mid-air blowing it away towards a tree. But before the jungle cat hit the tree it was able to adjust its body before landing safely but the hit still stunned the cat as it struggled to stand steadily. Aeron followed up with another [Accelerated Strike] but this time he was the one that attacked first, the disoriented cat, the fast spear pierced the jungle cat’s front leg as it tried to dodge Aeron’s attack. The jungle cat stumbled, but Aeron didn’t give it any chance to dodge as another spear thrust pierced the jungle cat’s head.
“Huuu”
Aeron let out a breath of relief as he relaxed his body, the fight had been short and simple but his nerves were stretched tout all throughout the fight, one mistake and it could lead to severe injury or even death. He had ordered Arthur not to intervene unless he was severely injured since he needed to compress his hunting time to a week instead of a month, Aeron had decided to take a riskier approach.
