Damian was drenched in sweat as he fell backwards onto his back and panted, while the Monkey Beast was still jumping around happily after consuming enough beast meat to feed an entire village for a few months.

He had trained using his new ability for half a day and he had hardly taken any breaks, only pausing to eat beast meat and recover his energy storages that would be drained quite quickly.

However, his time was well spent and in that half a day, his proficiency in the use of the Earth Manipulation Ability was incredible, and although it couldn't be compared to that of Clay who had trained with the ability for much longer, forming spikes and walls out of the ground had become quite easy.

The only issue that Damian found was that his range and scalability was too low as he could only manipulate the Earth within a 10 metre radius and he also couldn't create any extremely large structures, as his control and energy reserves weren't enough.

Damian for the time being was satisfied with his progress and how well he could use the ability, but he knew he was still far from mastering it and his range, speed and scalability while using the ability would increase through practice.

Drinking some water from the bottles that he had brought with him, Damian threw some over to the Monkey Beast who also seemed thirsty before eating some beast meat and recovering his energy storages.

He couldn't help but compare how well he used the ability with how well he had seen Clay use the ability and was able to identify all his flaws, that he was planning to work on as he continued using the ability.

Soul Spirits deepen the connection with a single application of energy and make it an innate ability of the cultivator, which was why those with an earth elemental affinity would have no chance against the royal academy group leader and wouldn't even be able to do half of what he can do.

Damian, with the same ability as Clay also wasn't able to do even half of what he could do and there were a few reasons for that.

Clay had very large energy storages with dense energy as he seemed to be a very talented cultivator that was hardworking.

Matched with the fact that he had a high graded Soul Spirit and was very wealthy, he was nurtured by the royal academy attentively and given all the resources he could ever need.

That had made it so that his physique and cultivation could rival that of Damian and might even be superior, which Damian found amazing, especially after training using the two cultivation methods from the Golden Flame Inheritance.

Along with that, he was very intelligent and had very sharp senses and was skilled in the use of his spiritual sense, which was why his control over energy and his range were much better than that of Damian's.

Additionally, Clay's efficiency and use of energy was much lower than that of Damian's, as Damian struggled to control the amount of energy that was streamed into the ground and wasted too much energy in the process.

Energy output was something that Damian did struggle with and he was starting to learn and practise using less energy, but still causing the same amount of damage and releasing the same amount of power.

Damian wasn't making excuses, but Clay definitely did have a lot of advantages over him.

However, he also knew that there were many things that he had that not only Clay, but nobody else in the world had, so all he was doing was identifying his weaknesses and working on them.

"Monkey Beast, we are companions now, so I can't keep calling you Monkey Beast and I should probably give you a name," said Damian as he took a moment to think about it.

He didn't want to give him a name that he would expect a human to have, but also didn't want to give him a generic pet name and wanted it to suit the Monkey Beast.

"How about Kong?" suggested Damian as he looked over to the beast.

The Monkey Beast nodded its head and began jumping up and down in excitement as it jumped onto Damian and began climbing all around him.

Damian chuckled then said, "Kong it is. From now on, I got your back and you've got mine".

Not only had he gotten the Moose Beast's Beast Core, but he also gained a powerful and worthy companion along with acquiring a powerful and versatile ability.

Just as Damian was starting to feel happy and great about having the Monkey Beast around him, it suddenly switched into its adult form and forcefully grabbed his arm, which shocked him as he went to defend himself.

However, the Monkey Beast's grip and arm strength were overwhelmingly stronger than his and it also didn't seem to want to attack him as it pulled his hand towards its face.

It opened its mouth as Damian's hand neared its face, as he instantly became scared and struggled to get out of its clutches.

After seeing it crunch on beast cores as if they were merely some crunchy candy, Damian knew that it was more than capable of biting off his hand and eating him.

However, after seeing the gentle look in its eyes, Damian calmed down and relaxed, and as he did so, the Kong's grip on his arm also loosened.

It didn't seem to have malicious intentions and that was confirmed by Utsusu, who sounded excited for the first time since integrating with Damian.

{Amazing, you are so lucky. You need to relax and intend to be the master and companion of the Monkey Beast and do not be afraid, the beast has no ill intentions and merely wants to make sure that you are companions and stay as companions} said Utsusu, causing Damian to smile and also feel excited.