Bang! Bang! Bang!

Arthur got hit by the Alpha Lykoi’s attack, blasting him down the tree, but not without retaliating. At the same time as the Alpha Lykoi struck with its tail barbs, Arthur had already positioned his golden metal blades to float around the Alpha Lykoi.

Siiik! Siiik! Graaaar!

Two golden metal blades embedded themselves on the Alpha Lykoi’s back which made it shriek in pain. But the other golden metal blades were stopped by the Alpha Lykoi’s fur. Unlike Arthur’s skill which made a literal armor on its body, the Alpha Lykoi had a defensive skill that made use of its fur, turning them straight, long, and durable enough to block off enemy attacks.

Graar! Graar!

Miserable screams suddenly caught the Alpha Lykoi’s attention as it turned towards the noise. There were only three Lykois left from the original twelve Mid-Grade Lykois. The sight made the Alpha Lykoi’s eyes narrow in rage. There weren’t many beasts that could challenge the Lykois dominance when it was a battle on the trees, even the monkeys it had previously met and hunted were nothing compared to its pack, but it suddenly met another group of monkeys. The one that led them was a High-Grade Beast just like itself, and even its aura intimidated the Alpha Lykoi, nevertheless, arrogance has been carved on its bones which only made it hesitate for a moment before it struck.

Now, the elite of its pack lost more than a third of its members, these were all Lykois who had the greatest potential in its group. And now, most of them were dead.

GRAAARR!!

It growled in rage as it signaled for a retreat. As it was doing so, another creature caught its eyes, a puny beast, but the small beast was odd, it had no fur like the monkeys, but a group of them were protecting it. The Alpha Lykoi had been hunting in the Endless Forest for hundreds of years, and most of the beasts protected by the group were usually important members, mostly, they were infants, but there were exceptions from time to time.

The Alpha Lykoi glared at the puny creature as it looked at the creature below the tree, Arthur was still on the crater unmoving, the golden armor was nowhere to be found. It looked again at the puny creature, but it seemed to have noticed the Alpha Lykoi’s attention. Its fur curled down as they suddenly sprung straight, ejecting away the metal blades that had lost their golden coating, except for the two metal blades still embedded on its back.

Bang!

The Alpha Lykoi leaped from its current position, the strength was enough to crush the huge branch.

“It’s coming!”

The Alpha Lykoi was so quick, even the monkeys protecting Aeron wasn’t able to react. It didn’t even take the Alpha Lykoi 10 seconds to reach Aeron’s position. But weirdly enough, the fear and panic from the puny creature had disappeared, instead, it stared at him not with rage, but with pity! The puny creature had pitied it!

Graaar!

The Alpha Lykoi was thoroughly enraged, the puny creature which didn’t even possess aura was pitying it. How absurd the Alpha Lykoi felt, but when it passed by a tree, a mind-numbing coldness suddenly erupted from its senses. It was pure killing intent, if humans could get enraged from their king being killed, so were the beasts with their Tamers.

This time, the master hadn’t even been attacked, but the Golden Monkey hiding behind the tree was thoroughly incensed. Although it was the master’s order, the way his master risked his life just so that the enemy could be killed quicker highlighted Arthur’s incompetence in taking down the enemy faster. What was adding salt to the injury, was the memory of his master almost dying because of his inattentiveness.

The Alpha Lykoi’s fur stood up, not just from its skill, but because of fear, the fear it had felt only from the beast deeper inside the Endless Forest.

Kiii!!

The Alpha Lykoi was only able to see the Golden Monkey’s arms bulge before it threw the golden spear it was holding. The fur armor didn’t stand a chance as the shining golden spear was infused with a massive amount of aura. The result?

BOOOM!

The Alpha Lykoi’s fur wrapped themselves around the golden spear’s tip to mitigate the impact and damage. But it was futile, the golden spear didn’t go through on impact, but it pierced through when the Alpha Lykoi hit the ground.

Swee! Swee! Swee! Swee!

Arthur’s metal blades followed as they pierced through the Alpha Lykoi on the ground, but even with all this attacks the Alpha Lykoi was still breathing and alive, but that was it, it was lying prone on the ground.

Graar!

The Alpha Lykoi was weakly growled on the ground, it had a huge hole on the center of its body, and eight other smaller holes.

Step Step Step

Though it was weakened, the Alpha Lykoi was stunned when it saw what was approaching it. It was another Golden Monkey, the same amount of power exuding from its body, perfectly the same as Arthur who was currently at the top of the tree looking down at it, this was Arthur’s new skill, [Perfect Copy]. It was suddenly drenched with regret, if it knew it was facing two High-Grade Beast at the same time, then it would’ve never been greedy enough to engage.

The Arthur on the ground suddenly started pummeling the Alpha Lykoi on the ground. When the Alpha Lykoi was on the brink of death, the other Arthur stopped.

“Master, its done!”

Arthur said, it was another order Aeron told him to do, that if possible, leave the Alpha Lykoi on the brink of death. Of course, Aeron wasn’t going to do the last hit, that would just be a waste and even a bit suicidal, there was another more qualified beast to do so.

“Ursa!”

Aeron summoned Ursa as they got down the tree, Ursa was already at the peak of Mid-Grade this past year, it hadn’t been hunting, but Ursa had continuously devoured fruits and sleeping to process the mana it attained. If not for the monkeys collecting massive amounts of fruits, Aeron wouldn’t be able to do something like this. And the most important reason was Aeron’s bestowed skill. If it weren’t for the [Lesser Level Up (Anomalous)] skill, Ursa wouldn’t be able to reach the peak of Mid-Grade within a year. It would probably be stuck at Mid-Grade for at least a hundred years, unless of course, it hunted crazily like Aeron did, which was very dangerous if it did not have anyone to scout its target, even so, it would at least take it 10 years. Aeron even thought of using this method to level up, but just like the Mana Stones, the mana he got from the fruits was transferred to his pet space.

‘Dumb skill!’

Aeron couldn’t help but curse when he remembered his failure in copying Ursa’s way of leveling.

‘Eating and sleeping are equal to getting stronger! Who wouldn’t want that kind of method?’

Aeron thought, it was like his skill was designed for his pets rather than him. Not to mention, Beasts had cores which helped in processing the mana gained through fighting and eating, Aeron’s skill just made it faster, especially the consolidation to another stage. If a beast were to evolve in the wild, chances were, that other beasts would kill it in the process, thus most beasts would instinctively find hidden places to evolve in. If lucky, then they would have a group of beasts to protect them in the process, otherwise, it was all about luck.

Grrrr!

Ursa was jolted awake when it was summoned to Aeron, it had been sleeping beforehand. The sleepy bear nudged its head on Aeron’s shoulder, such a cute act from a gigantic beast would’ve scared other people instead.

“Ursa! Kill it, fast!”

Aeron suddenly ordered, the Alpha Lykoi was near death already, it Ursa didn’t kill it immediately then this would turn into a missed opportunity. After hearing Aeron’s order, Ursa quickly looked at where his master was pointing to, and it saw a dying High-Grade Beast, the sleepiness was nowhere to be seen, instead, there was a fierce and excited expression on the charging bear’s face.

Boom!

It had even used its [Accelerated Strike] to quicken its pace. The dying Alpha Lykoi could barely see at this point when it heard a sudden noise approaching it. Its mind was suddenly filled with despair, Aeron had actually thought of convincing the Alpha Lykoi to capitulate, but when they had initially gone down, Aeron saw the fierceness on the Alpha Lykoi’s eyes. And if this beast could sneak attack Arthur, then it would definitely kill Aeron in the soul battlefield without mercy, but just as it was, Aeron needed a catalyst for Ursa’s evolution.

Crunch!

An audible crunch reverberated on the forest floor as Ursa’s giant mouth crushed the skull of the Alpha Lykoi. The Mighty Alpha Lykoi died, just like that, the number of beasts it had preyed on throughout its life was in the tens of thousands, but it had died on the hands of a Mid-Grade Beast.

GROAAAR!!

Ursa suddenly roared expressing its happiness, this was not something it had ever expected, although not as smart, Low-Grade Beasts still had memories pertaining to their path. It might not be a clear cut explanation but it was there to guide them. And beasts like Ursa, who did not come from a lineage of High-Grade Beast’s only had a vague image of Mid-Grade Beasts. And now, it was evolving into a higher existence, not achieved by its ancestors,

“Good!”

Aeron felt Ursa’s emotions, and he felt good about it. It wasn’t just the feeling of helping a stranger, but it was for someone who had a soul connection with him, the gratitude and happiness that he felt was the purest form. Even humans would still have other thoughts when they become stronger, but beasts weren’t as complex, especially those at the lower grade.

“Alright Ursa, you’ll have to stay in the pet space for your evolution.”

Aeron said as he unsummoned the excited Ursa, they were still in the area where a High-Grade Beast appeared, this was even after Arthur explored their territory. There might just be other High-Grade Beast near the area.

“Alright, let’s go back to the base first!”

Aeron said, he had already planted a lot of scent bush under the surrounding of his secret base. The good thing about the scent bush was that it grew quick and specialized seed pods, once the seed was sprinkled on the ground, they would start to grow and absorb the mana from the earth. This was a preemptive method to avoid the senses of the wolves, especially with the wolf king crisis. Now, even if they brought the carcass of a High-Grade Beast to the base, no wolf would be able to sniff them out.

Arthur carried both the Alpha Lykoi and the Mid-Grade Vine Snake, the other monkeys carried the other Mid-Grade Lykois. It took them a bit more time to get back to the base because of the additional baggage, but it was all worth it. The worried look on Agila’s face turned into delight when she saw the number of meat the group was carrying, especially the biggest one. Aeron on the other hand was excited because of Ursa’s evolution, sure it might take a bit more time than Arthur did, even Aeron regretted rushing Arthur’s evolution which might have affected Arthur’s potential, but it was a good thing that the evolution was under the help of Aeron’s bestowed skill, otherwise, it might have truly been a huge loss for Arthur’s growth.

Another reason was because of the hide he’ll be harvesting from the High-Grade Lykoi, although because of the restrictions of the rules of mana, he could not cut up the Alpha Lykoi’s hide into a lot of clothes, he would still be able to make a coat from it. What was more, was that the Lykoi’s hide could probably preserve one of its skill, which was the defensive one. Aeron could already picture his self, covered in a grey-furred cloak, and the enemy trying to attack him, he could activate the cloak’s defensive skill. This was also not just a normal skill activation, the core infused inside the Lykoi’s hide could gather its own mana, even if it was just a portion of the Lykoi’s total mana, it was probably enough to activate the skill three times before it needs to gather mana again. This was a very important point, as it meant free mana activation, Aeron only needed to catalyze the skill and the cloak would do all the work.

‘And this will be my first High-Grade Beast armament! Well, except for that demon beast saddle Spirit took with it.’

High-Grade Beast equipment was called armaments because they could contain skills from the beasts they were from, though not all High-Grade Beast material could have this property, just like the demon beast saddle Aeron’s parents gifted him. The memory of Spirit dampened Aeron’s mood a bit, he had really liked the black horse, he didn’t know for what reason Spirit left.

‘I wonder how Spirit is doing.’

Aeron thought again. To Tamers, horses might not be as valuable, but to other Professions, unless they find a contract beast that would approve on being mounted, which was near impossible because contract beasts weren’t like tamed beasts and were treated as equals, horses were definitely a must. The most important aspect of a horse was its stamina, if it was only because of speed, then even Level 6 Professionals could match a horse’s speed with the use of aura, but if it were a contest of stamina, then the horse was king. For this reason alone, mounts, especially horses were sought after.

“Master what happened?”

Agila suddenly asked, she had been distracted by the large amounts of meat that came with her master, especially the events earlier, there was only about two brown monkeys, the turtles, Ursa and her left in the base, not to mention, Ursa was summoned earlier too.

“It’s fine Agila, these beasts attacked us on our way back, fortunately, Arthur was able to neutralize the Alpha Lykoi.”

Aeron explained, he knew Agila must’ve been confused by the earlier events, even though she was already a force to be reckoned with, she was still too young. Seeing Agila nod in understanding, Aeron looked towards the Vine Snake corpse.

“Anyways, Arthur, cut open the Vine Snake’s belly, let’s see what it ate before we got it.”

Aeron ordered, it was something bugging him earlier before the attack happened, the beast might just be a Mid-Grade Beast, otherwise, it would’ve dissolved inside the Vine Snake’s viscous digestive juices. Arthur nodded at the order, he used the tip of the obsidian glaive to make a clean cut on the Vine Snake’s belly. And out came its content. A figure covered with viscous liquid came sliding out of the Vine Snake’s belly.

“A person?!”