After Garreth led his party towards the inner circle of the forest, Goto continued their hunting.

Several times they found unranked preys that they could kill with a flawless combination of cooperation, except for Aria.

Aria still couldn't find the right rhythm to blend into the teamwork. He still couldn't wrap his mind around finding the right setup. Or he didn't bother to put more effort into it.

With the way he handled such a big sword, fighting together with those nearby would actually endanger themselves with the sword's wide range and rough handling.

Not to mention that Aria's control and flexibility with his broadsword still needed a lot of time to polish.

What's more, he would be more restricted in his battle because he had to take into account his partners' movement throughout the fight. It was asking too much from a newbie like him.

So, Goto found a win-win solution for all of them. If the prey was a loner beast, he would leave it to Aria. Of course, he kept the boy's fight under his tight surveillance.

If the prey was in groups, they would deal with it together, leaving only one for Aria to play his own game, still with him accompanying.

If the prey was a herd of more than a dozen beasts, they would let the beast herd alone. Unless they were the ones that chose to engage Aria's party.

Other factors were also taken into account too. Because their main goal was not about harvesting those prey, but to make sure their skills didn't become dull.

In the setting sun, they would return to the outskirt of the forest, where they had set up their camp previously before it got too dark. It would be quite risky to stay in the forest.

The nocturnal beasts would come out of their nests and become active in the dark. Goto didn't want to face the beasts with limited vision and a narrower space to maneuver. It's wise to call a tactical retreat when it was needed.

…..

"Today's battle is so satisfying!"

Aria had retreated into his tent after making sure he was clean of any remnants of sweat, blood, and lumps of flesh. He didn't forget his stomach which has been satiated a little bit.

He chuckled remembering the faces of his team who were amazed by the amount of meat that could fit in his stomach.

"Ah, that's not too much," he muttered.

In an open nature like this, where everyone's vigilance could not be put down, he didn't have the luxury of fulfilling his desire to devour the meat to his heart's content.

"Be patient, it's only for a few days."

He stroked the surface of his belly like he was coaxing a child, full of tender love. The feeling from his hand's touch was no longer the same as before. His stomach was flatter. It was not soft-fat, but it was hard-muscle.

The moment he considered as the turning point in his life when he perfected his muscle modifications. It caused him to come out of a hellhole called obesity.

Since then, he had two daily objectives. First, to alter his body to his ideal state, little by little. He didn't want anyone familiar with him shocked with the radical change. He wanted it to be as natural as possible.

Second, to strengthen his body strength, partially. He had to get used to the change and had to be completely under his control. Certainly, another reason was to avoid extreme drain effects as before.

Aria finished with his first objective, making himself a little leaner in some areas. It might not be visible now, but with the accumulation of time, he thought the results would look superb.

Moving on to his second objective, he focused on strengthening his two hands first. The use of a broadsword all day long was quite draining for his body. He wanted his hands to be tougher and stronger to handle this heavy weapon.

He could not solve the problem with his flexibility and agility by simply altering the muscle tissues. He didn't understand the muscle structure to make that possible. So he could only train it normally.

“Okay, that's enough playing time with my body. Time to tackle more important things.”

Aria felt something weird after saying that. It's just his innocent mind prevented him to figure out where the problem was.

Throwing those useless thoughts away, he took a sitting position with his legs crossed, ready to meditate.

This was also his new habit at night. Discarding several hours of his sleeping time, Aria used that time to meditate every night if there were no urgent matters at hand.

Even though he was late to start from his peers, that was not impossible to catch up. Moreover, this was only temporary.

With his [Soul Map], it would allow him to upgrade his affinity. To what extent? Who knew.

At least, the limit modification for his [Physique] wasn't the end. It's just that he was at a loss in which direction to start. But this was enough for now.

With rhythmic steady breathing, his mind sank into his body. All he found was darkness. That was when he felt his mind fall through a certain layer.

*Plop*

It's still dark, but not the same darkness. Amid the darkness, it was as if his eyes could navigate in a bright place, even though it's the opposite. He was drawn to a corner, where the darkness was unable to dispel the only object within, a sword.

Aria could only stare closely at the sword, observing, nothing more. Other sensations such as touch, temperature sensor, smell, and others could only be found when he made further progress; as he grew stronger, perhaps at the level of his father.

‘What kind of perception gold-tier ranker like father had on his spiritual space?’

Aria was wondering in his mind. Everything in his perception was very dull. Like a person who had lost all his senses, except sight. He couldn't feel anything else.

'Now that I think about it, Rosalind's spiritual space contents must be much more fancy and less boring than this.'

He remembered the spiritual projection of his sister. Full of positive energy. Perhaps, her meditation session wouldn't be as boring as his, seeing different colors and changeable light.

Aria could only put that wishful thinking aside, and be patient with his situation. Now he was trying to absorb a wisp of spiritual energy from the surroundings into his spiritual space through the dull sword as an intermediary medium.

The results were still difficult. He could only tell there was a sword in front of him because his eyes saw that. There was no more information.

Whether it was a real sword or something like a hologram, he couldn't say for sure. All-access information he got was insufficient.

Indeed his condition was better than before, where he could not even feel what the spiritual energy around him was like. But it was not that much better either.

…..

It was still early in the morning, the sun had not yet risen too far from the eastern horizon.

However Aria and his party had started today's exploration in opposite direction from the previous day, but still the outermost region of the forest.

The teams were divided into smaller groups of four to five people. They scattered sporadically with the furthest distance of no more than fifty meters between them.

The distance was safe enough to facilitate their mobility so as not to pile up and narrow the maneuver space, but not too far to make quick support to other teams if it was necessary.

It also expanded the range of vision to survey the terrain they would pass.

“By the way, how to distinguish the deeper parts of the forest? Is there any kind of warning sign made?”

Aria asked Goto beside him as they hadn't found the first prey for the day.

"Nope, there's no such a thing."

“Then how do you know if you entered deeper part by accident if there's no sign? Do you need to find higher tier spiritual beast as a sign?”

"It may happen, but it doesn't always end that way. Just like this, even though we entered the forest, we didn't find a beast right away.”

"It's the same over there. If you're lucky, maybe you won't be found right away and can escape. It's just…”

Goto paused for a moment, looking at the inner direction of the forest as if he could see far and deep into it, which was impossible. The distance was quite far and blocked by various kinds of vegetation in between.

“Over there, most of the spiritual beasts have their own territory. Even if you're lucky enough not to run into any spiritual beast, it doesn't mean that you are safe when you could get out of its territory.”

"You could have left a trail, maybe a smell or something. You will be very unlucky if the beast decides to target you while you have not evacuated yourself to a safer place.”

Aria could understand that, it wasn't that strange. Someone trespassing into someone's house was quite rude, especially if it's a beast's territory. It was not rude, it was a challenge.

But that didn't answer his question earlier.

“Obvious changes in vegetation especially those that literally obstruct your mobility, reduction of light that it interferes with your vision, drastic changes in ambient temperature, and…”

Goto glanced at Aria who continued to walk forward but the boy's eyes were instead looking at him. He stretches his arm to the boy's head, pressing his head down.

"Watch where you're going, kid."

"Oops, my bad. Thanks, Uncle!”

Aria just realized that the direction of his steps would lead his head to collide with a low-growing branch.

"So, what's the last one?"

“The vibes. So long as your instincts say it's dangerous, if your body hairs stand on end, you must leave that place as soon as possible."

“That last one was very vague.”

“Trust me, kid, my experience won't lie. As long as you find just one of these conditions, you must quickly avoid it. Even if it's on the outskirts of the forest.”

“You wouldn't realize when you entered the territory of a high-tier spiritual beast without you having the knowledge and experience to recognize it. Or you're strong enough to prove it. Most importantly, don't overestimate your abilities and underestimate your surroundings."

"It doesn't hurt to be more vigilant, you have only one life after all."

Aria listened intently to his uncle's explanation. The last part his uncle spoke seemed to have more emphasis. Perhaps it was just him being too much thought.

“There is movement ahead of us!”

Suddenly, one of the leading members of Aria's team announced to the rest of the team.

"Distance? How many?"

"Less than three hundred meters, a little to the right side, just behind those bushes. The number is unknown, but from the size of the bushes, no more than two medium-sized beasts.”

"Prepare to engage, the other teams are on standby, check the surrounding area. Move!"

"Roger!"

Aria's small team of five moved closer as they were the first to detect the movement, while two other teams flanked from the side, forming a semi-circle formation, ready to provide support if needed.

When the distance was less than fifty meters, Aria's team took up several positions behind the trees. Three people used arrows to test the creature behind the bush.

The first arrow was deliberately directed into the ground near the bush, as a warning in case behind it was a human who might be doing his own business, no one knew.

The sound of an arrow splitting the wind and striking the ground was loud enough to be heard by them who stood further away, let alone the creature behind the bush. Unless that thing was deaf.

The bush moved wilder, but that was it. The warning was completely ignored.

"Release the arrows."

*Swoosh**Swoosh**Swoosh*

Three arrows nested at three different points in the bush. At the same time, there was a loud roar from behind the bushes.

ROAARRR!!

"Oh? This roaring…”

Goto recognized the beast's roar. As if answering the question of others with the appearance of a big brown beast.

“Brown honey bear? But this bear doesn't seem to have grown up yet…”

Goto muttered under his breath, ignoring the painful roars of the beast before him.

"Careful! Check around for the parent of this bear."

Goto shouted at his subordinates, then he turned his attention back to the brown bear in front of him while telling Aria beside him.

“This is our first spiritual beast hunt.”

"Oh? What level is this bear?”

“Just tier-0 spiritual beast. If he grows up, he can become a tier-1 spiritual beast."

"Oh, that's why you gave such instructions."

“Mmhm, although some of the guards have already reached iron-tier rankers, they will struggle to cope with this type of bear."

"Is the mother nearby?"

"They are very individual beasts, so their mother shouldn't be here."

Goto then glanced at Aria.

"So, do you want to give it a try?"

Aria observed the beast in front of him that was still roaring in pain. The three arrows hit its left shoulder, left hind leg, and abdomen.

The first two arrows didn't cause that much bleeding. From the brown bear's wild movements, it could be seen that the two arrows were not pierced deep enough and were likely to come off.

Meanwhile, the arrow on his abdomen seemed to stick more firmly, didn't budge by the bear's wild movements.

However, the blood that came out was not that much either. Perhaps because of its thick skin and the layer of fat, Aria thought.

"Of course, I will not waste this opportunity. Leave it to me!"

Aria took his broadsword from his back. He was so excited to face his first spiritual beast.

"Be careful! Don't be careless, even though it is not as fast as yesterday's wolf, this bear is much stronger and more durable.”

“Spiritual beasts have their physical advantage over humans on the same level. Don't push yourself too hard."

"Okay!"

Aria immediately marched forward to the beast. In terms of its size, this bear was almost the same height as Aria when it was standing with four legs. But when it used the hind legs to stand, its height easily towered beyond two and a half meters.

'Time to test how strong my flesh is compared to spiritual beasts of the same level.'