[I dO, MaSTeR.] – Just as I was pondering on what to do, this thought entered my mind, it was weird, as if the one thinking it was not I, but the one in front of me, and he seemed like he wasn’t used to do so, but also had a defeated tone in it. I looked straight at Bob only to see him tremble.

“Hahahaha! You can speak!” – I really didn’t expect that at all! And strangely I could understand him, but it made sense, it was a thought, so it could communicate meanings instead of words coming from a language, allowing him to talk to me even thought we may or may not speak the same language. – “This is amazing, want to come home?”

[YoU ArE My MastER nOw, I haVE to FolLoW youR OrdERs.] – He seemed depressed to be under someone. – “Don’t be like that, Bob, I will be a great master, I’ll even train you, so you don’t feel like this anymore, okay?” – His eyes brightened with the thought of me training him, I was glad. - “Come, it has been a long day, and you must be hungry after our fight. If you are to be under me, I am to be held responsible for your care, am I not?”

Bob looked surprised at me. – [MasTEr dOesN’t NEeD to FeEd mE.] – It seemed he would need to practice before his thoughts seemed more natural, but either way, that didn’t worry me right now.

“Don’t worry, Bob, I’ll take care of you from now on, hunting a simple beast isn’t too much of an effort.” – I started walking towards the cave, knowing I would find at the least some beast in the way, but suddenly came to a stop, looked back at Bob, and tilted my head. – “Wait, what do you eat?”

[We Berserk ApES eat almosT eVeryTHinG thaT is AlivE, we just mAke sUre to aVoiD VenOmOus PantHErS aNd Gryphons.] – Oh, he seemed to be learning quite fast, but what were those Venomous Panthers he talked about?

…Ok, so they were Scorpion Panthers, just that they called them something else, I guess it makes sense, it would be too much of a chance that I named them the same as they did, mostly because I haven’t seen a Scorpion in all the time I’ve been here.

“Ok, there should be some Draconic Wolves from here to my cave, we’ll hunt some and we’ll eat them once we’re home.” – I smiled and started walking again, making way towards home, while thinking what a lucky guy I was. I was not lonely anymore and I could spar with someone! I would be able to increase by leaps and bounds thanks to Bob.

I felt some hesitation from behind me, and I turned around again, only to find Bob looking me as if I was stupid.

“What’s wrong, Bob?” – I had to ask, what the hell was wrong with Bob, now?

[DraCOnIc WolvES? You mean Drake HouNds? I mean no insult, MaSter, but DrAke Hounds are qUitE moRe tougH ThaN I aM, and you didn’t get to hurt me that muCh, ARe you sure you can hunt one?] – It was offensive for him to think that way, but all the same understandable, I didn’t reveal anything else but my natural capabilities and my technique.

“Don’t worry, Bob, I just used my body against you, not my full capabilities.” – I smiled haughtily, thinking how he would see me once I killed the Draconic Wolves, or Drake Hounds. – “Follow me, and you’ll see.”

I started walking again, and I heard the thumping stomps of Bob’s feet walking behind me. – [Master, you mean you’Re moRe PowErfulL than tHe HounDS?] – “Yes, Bob.” – [And yOu coULd kill a PantHEr?] – “Yes, Bob.” – [And what AbOuT a GryPHoN?] – “Harder than a Panther, but yes, Bob, I’ve killed Gryphons before.” – [You’re amaZiNg, MasTer!] – He seemed truly amazed, and I felt truly proud.

We were already half way towards the cave when I detected some presences a few hundred meters ahead. It seemed as thought I had found my wolves, and it was a full pack, instead of a loner.

I halted and looked at Bob. – “Stay quiet, I’m going to show you what I am capable of.” – His eyes brightened and he assented with his head. I smiled and took out a pebble, soaked it in energy and made it float over my hand. – [Woaaaaaaah! That’s amazing!] – He was getting more and more used to “talking”, it seemed.

I simply smiled and threw the pebble to my right. Suddenly a wolf jumped from where I had thrown the pebble to, and it unsurprisingly to me was hit by the pebble, that bore a hole through its head rendering the scout dead.

“Kaah?” – It seemed Bob didn’t even realize about the scout was there, but it was nothing surprising, the Apes were dexterous enough that even without knowing it was there, it wouldn’t have been hit. He could have reacted fast enough for it to hit the air, I just reacted before.

[Woooah, you could do that? You could have KiLlEd me before, couldn’t you?] – Bob seemed somewhat depressed, and I felt bad about it. – “Don’t say that, what we did was a technique fight, and you were on par with me, I just made a few breakthroughs back there, allowing me to beat you.” – Of course it was not fully true, as I could’ve used the WF fighting style and beat him quite faster, but ultimately it was true that I beat him thanks to my breakthrough in Aikido.

“Now, quiet, I’m beating all those wolves for you.” – I told him to be quiet one last time and readied my stance, of course, I still posed myself with Aikido, I had already advanced a .2% I had to try and advance the .8% missing.

7 wolves walked out of the bushes, looking at me with hatred, but I just stayed there, waiting for them to initiate their attack, as I was supposed to do. The wolf that seemed like the alpha growled, and suddenly one of the wolves dashed at me. I barely moved, dodging the biting and grabbing the wolf by its neck with my left hand and by its hind leg with my right hand, I didn’t even need to use my strength to lift him and crash him onto the ground.

I would have followed the attack, but I felt a rush behind me, and so I jumped onto the air, in time to see a wolf bite where my head had been seconds ago. Once in the air, I flexed my legs and before I knew what I was doing I charged my legs, but instead of doing so with only my energy, I used the energy around my legs, when I then “jumped”, the air didn’t even move, making a solid stepping plate for me to jump down.

In the midst of the jump I soaked my arm in energy and once I got to the second wolf, I punched him in the head so strong that I blew its head to pieces. I landed as swift as I could, and I grabbed the first wolf, this time using my strength to lift him and launch him towards the pack.

They were so distracted dodging their pack member that they didn’t notice me dashing towards them, and once there I just punched downwards with both my fists onto the Alpha wolf, cracking his skull open and effectively dispersing the whole pack, which after realizing their Alpha was dead, intelligently decided I was too strong.

The only one of them that didn’t get to run was the first wolf to dash at me, who was too dizzy to run away before Bob appeared and with his four arms copied my up-down strike, crashing the wolf to the ground again.

I approached slowly to the wolf and grabbed him by the neck, then I flexed my hand, followed by a cracking sound and the limping sound of a dying wolf.

“Good job, Bob, this one is all yours, and the first one too, the other two are mine.” – I complimented him and grabbed my preys, dragging them with me, when suddenly I stopped feeling their weight, so I turned around.

[MasTer fought them, I caN carry them, tHis way I’ll be of usE.] – I smiled and let go of the wolves, letting him carry them to the cave.

Once we were in front of the cave, Bob started shaking, so I asked him again. – “What’s wrong, Bob?” – I stood there, waiting for an answer, but he kept shaking and looking at the cave with fear. – “Bob, there’s nothing to be afraid of, tell me what’s wrong.” – I tried to reassure him, and I guess I did at some degree, because he finally answered me.

[T-tHiS IS the CavE o-Of a MouNTaiN B-beAr!] – Ooh, so that’s his name? – “Don’t worry, Bob, he no longer lives here, and he let me live here after what I did for him.” – I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the giant Bear which had acquired my regeneration. That was a hell of an opponent, a giant rocky Bear which was hard to hurt but that even when hurt would regenerate? Hell if I wanted to fight that.

[YoU KnOW HiM?!] – Bob now looked at me in awe and it felt too damn great. I walked towards the cave while smiling. – [Aah, wait foR Me, Master!]

***

A big four armed Berserk Ape flew straight towards a tree and crushed it while on the other side a loud scream was heard.

“YEEEEEES! FINALLY!!!!! “

I had been training with Bob for three weeks straight, I hunted mostly for him and then went back to the training spars with Bob, increasing my Aikido mastery in a steady way, until today, where I finally got my 100% mastery.

Tenth and last step walked through, you have achieved a 100% mastery in Aikido. Congratulations on your full mastery, you've unlocked Mirror Strength.

Mirror Strength G mid tier 1.0 %

Half way through my training, I had come to realize what was that increased the mastery percentage, it was not a better comprehending on Aikido, but instead was a better comprehension in what I would acquire, meaning each time I mastered something that was part of Mirror Strength I made a step onto the full mastery of Aikido.

These weeks with Bob had helped me more than I could’ve expected, and I don’t mean just in terms of strength and technique; it was nice to have a companion, a friend, even one that called me Master. I had come to know so much about the Berserker Apes these weeks, and not only them, I also learned a lot about the creatures of the forest. And most importantly, I learnt a lot about Bob.

It seems he was an orphan, and he hadn’t had anyone to teach him anything until he was 12 years, which Berserker Apes considered adulthood. That was 2 years ago, and he had accomplished entering a community of Apes that had barely accepted him, but even so, they taught him what he needed to survive and thus protect the community.

At first he had thought he had learned all, but soon he realized that most of the secrets about their strength kept being a secret to him. They refused to teach him that, appealing to his strength, saying that he was sure to have some secrets of a different community, and that if he was to acquire another he would surely be hurt, but that was naught but excuses.

They just didn’t want to teach their empowering secrets to a Berserker Ape which was almost as strong as they were without such secrets, because if he was to learn them, they feared he would take the Alpha position from the leader.

I had come to the decision that I would help him obtain those secrets, but before going to their community, I had to make sure he would be able to take the Alpha position even without their secrets, so that he didn’t need me to force them to teach it to him.

I had thus, chosen a new fighting style, something I could teach him, but all the same it could be useful to me.

Berserk Rage A mid tier Progress: 7.3 %

A style vastly extended around the universe, practised by all kind of races, not only races resembling humans, but also by fierce beasts like Apes, Gorillas and other beasts that count with manipulable and dexterous front arms.

Its focus is on its offensive, and though it decreases the user's deffensive capabilities, it has an amazingly great increase in strength and speed.

But I already told him that until I achieved a 100% in my current fighting style, I couldn’t begin to teach him that fighting style, and so, Bob had taken an even more active attitude on the spars, helping me achieve full mastery this much faster.

Now it was time for me to learn a new fighting style, and together teach him that, so he would achieve its maximum potential. I did so because we had come to become friends, and I was committed to express my thanks. I was glad about having a friend, but still, there was not much to do here besides training, hunting, eating and sleeping, so that’s what we did.

“Bob! Come here!” – I shouted him to come, and he did so in a record time. – [Master! Have you achieved full mastery? Does that mean we’ll begin my training?!] – He could talk normally now, but still felt weird having someone else’s thoughts in my mind, but it had so many advantages that I was envious. I had asked him how he understood me, but it seemed that once I defeated him, he surrendered part of his soul to me, something he didn’t want to do, and that’s why he ran when he realized I could defeat him.

Unfortunately for him, the moment he accepted his loss and tried to run, was the moment he surrendered part of his soul to me. Now he could understand what I told him at all times, and technically I could speak with him without opening my mouth, but it fell good to talk after so much time alone, so I kept speaking out loud.

“Yes, Bob, we’ll start your training, so you better get ready! Until you’re able to defeat your entire community on your own, you’ll keep training!”

[Aye, Master!]