HOWL!! HOWL!! HOWL!! HOWL!! HOWL!!
Five howls sounded from the Endless forest as massive amounts of wolves surged from the forest, 5 large wolves appeared with them. Aeron knew these wolves were Mid-Grade Beasts Dire Wolves, the smallest of the five was already twice bigger than a normal wolf.
"Hurry!" Aeron urged them; they were not far away from his house already. He had already unsummoned Arthur and fours silver monkeys as they ran back to the house. But he had underestimated the speed of the 5 Dire Wolves, as they quickly caught at with them.
Aeron saw the house was only a kilometer away from them. He quickly summoned Arthur and the four silver monkeys.
"Stop them!!" Aeron hurriedly ordered.
"Kii!!" the five monkeys hurriedly met the 5 Dire Wolves brandishing their staffs. But this time the wolves they face were much smarter than the earlier wolves. Each wolf dodged the silver monkeys and only Arthur was fast enough to hit one of the Dire Wolves.
Arthur successfully broke the wolfs hind legs, as he made his way back to the group. But it was already too late, the Dire Wolves were no more than 100 meters away from Aeron and the monkeys.
"Spirit go! Defense Formation!!" Arthur dismounted as he slapped Spirit to make it leave, mounted combat would've been advantageous for a skilled and experienced fighter but he was far from being skilled nor was he experienced. Hearing Aeron's order, the monkeys quickly organized themselves into formation.
Two lines of 6 monkeys went in the front, the first line pointed their spears forward while the second line had their spears diagonally upwards. This formation had only been a passing thought for Aeron which he tried to apply. The other monkeys formed a squad of 5 monkeys forming the third line, Aeron was in the middle squad of the third formation.
The formation managed to make the Dire Wolves stop as they started to surrounded Aeron's group instead, this was a very common tactic wolves would use to fluster herds. This successfully disrupted Aeron's formation as Aeron had only taught them how to form up but not what to do afterwards.
But Aeron had luckily unsummoned and summoned Arthur and the silver monkeys while the wolves surrounded them, but it was also at this moment that Aeron remembered that this Martial Monkeys were already at Mid-Grade Level and were only lacking in skills compared to Arthur and the silver monkeys.
"Kii!!"
The monkeys were only confused because of the formation, they weren't scared right from the start. Richie and his group of black monkeys each lead a group of monkeys as they faced the Dire Wolves head on, they weren't called Martial Monkeys for nothing.
The Dire Wolves had underestimated these monkeys as they let themselves be surrounded instead of trying to escape.
"Kiii!!" Arthur suddenly ordered them. Aeron didn't understand but let them be instead.
"Kii!!" "Kii!!" "Kii!!" "Kii!!" the monkeys replied, seeming to confirm Arthur's orders.
Each Dire Wolf faced three monkeys equipped with spears, the fight didn't last that long. None of the wolves were killed but were only left incapacitated instead. Arthur gathered the five Dire Wolves as golden lights emanated from Arthur's body.
"Ahh! You can do that to wolves too?" Aeron was stunned as he recognized Arthur's skill, it was [Monkey Kings Authority]. If he was not mistaken then Arthur was trying to subdue the five Dire Wolves.
Grrr!!
The Dire Wolves growled as they stared hatefully at Arthur, Aeron immediately ordered the other monkeys to surround them. The other wolves were of no danger to them as of now. The Dire Wolves didn't change even after an hour of the skill, Aeron started to think the skill failed.
"Kiiiiiiiii!!!"
Arthur screamed as he suddenly emanated a larger amount of pressure, this was probably planned by Arthur beforehand. The five Dire Wolves were surprises as one by one they lowered their heads to Arthur. This skill would usually only work to those beasts related to the king, but wolves were different, they only recognized strength. Even the wolf king wouldn't be recognized unless it overpowered or killed the other alphas.
Golden lights surrounded the Dire Wolves as their fur started to change color, after another hour the golden lights faded as Five Silver Wolves appeared, each one more powerful than their past form. Each wolf reached two meters in height, the biggest one stood at 2.5 meters.
"WOW!" Aeron couldn't help but exclaim, he even turned excited just by looking at them. But after a while the wolves slumped down, they were still injured and would probably need a long time to heal inside his pet space. He unsummoned the silver wolves before hurrying back to his house where he finally felt safe.
Howl!
Aeron suddenly heard a faint howl, it sounded like it came from deep within the Endless Forest. He peeked outside and saw the remaining wolves retreat back into the forest. The wolf howl was very faint but he still heard it and felt the power behind it. If that was not a Transcendent Stage Wolf then it would probably be at least a Sky Stage Wolf. It seems like the Endless Forest was starting to brew.
Aeron decided to stay inside his house for a few days, he spent his days meditating as well as training, he also made new spears, now all his monkeys had spears with an iron essence spear head. He was also using his [Heal Pet] to heal the silver wolves, these wolves were an important assets for him as his monkeys lacked mobility on plain ground.
The five wolves' injuries were far more severe than Aeron thought, Arthur was not entirely sure if the skill would actually work so he had ordered the monkeys to severely injure the five wolves' legs.
Even after three days of treatment, the wolves were only able to walk slowly, any further activity was still out of the question. Aeron could wait but it might take a month before they could safely fight together with them. It wasn't that the skill was weak but Aeron was still a level 2 Tamer, considering that other Tamers were only able to tame Mid-Grade Beasts or higher beasts at level 6, him healing one as a Level 2 Tamer wasn't as effective.
Aeron also had Arthur to ask about the situation within the Endless Forest. Arthur had relayed that the five wolves were members of one of the largest wolf pack in the outer layer of the forest, they were led by a Sky Stage Frost Wolf, a Magic Beast adept in Ice Magic. There were other packs but the silver wolves didn't know much about them. They had also said that the Transcendent Beasts would only go outside of the Endless Forest if they found Transcendent Stage invaders. This news made Aeron feel relieved, instead, it was the Sky Stage Wolf that he was wary about.
'I need to get stronger!' Aeron thought, even if he couldn't become an amazing fighter right now, he should at least raise his level, and the fastest way was through fighting. He kept the wolves inside his pet space so they could heal at peace.
"Arthur, assemble the monkeys" Aeron ordered, he had to start exploring the southeastern part of the forest.
He had the Black Team scout ahead, while each of the knight's squads guarded him. The exploration went much smoother than the earlier ones as Aeron and his monkey army were much more experienced in battles, Aeron and Arthur divided the kills equally. As they went deeper into the forest, stronger beasts started to appear, even Level 5 Brown Bears started appearing.
"Bear Territory" Aeron wasn't an expert but he had seen some nature documentaries and recognized these bear paths, of course there could be other large beasts roaming in the forest but the scouts told him there were bears ahead. Bears were a bit on the slow side but their strength and resilience weren't something even Mid-Grade Beasts would underestimate. Aeron had even thought of Taming one himself, in reality he wasn't very keen on overestimating himself and going around trying to tame Mid-Grade Beasts as a minimum.
His soul could currently rival a Mid-Grade Beast, this was a fact. But that would only give him a 50% chance to tame one, and the other fifty percent was death. If he could somehow undergo another soul sublimation then Mid-Grade Beasts wouldn't be his match, but until then he didn't have any plans of taming Mid-Grade Beasts. Though, he was thinking of taming beasts that were almost Mid-Grade Beast. Of course, finding one on the verge of leveling up to Mid-Grade Beast wasn't something he could just ask for and get. But he had a King Beast as a way to identify one, and with his skill bestowal then he would have another pet with a high potential of evolution, this was in theory of course. He only had Arthur as his sole recipient for the skill, but Arthur already had the potential and the skill was merely giving him a boost.
ROAR!
Suddenly a huge bear came their way, it was huge, about 4 meters tall. It glared at them menacingly, its black beady eyes showed no fear at the large number of monkeys around it.
"Arthur, Lancelot shoot it" Aeron said, he wanted to see whether any of the two could pierce through the bears' defense.
"Ki!" Arthur and Lancelot knocked their bows while activating their skills.
Sweee! Sweee!
The bear was surprised at the sudden attack, it could only see a golden and silver flash as both arrows lodged themselves on each of its shoulders.
ROAR!!
The wounds weren't shallow nor were they deep, the enraged bear charge at us.
"FIRE!" Aeron ordered, Arthur and his knights left a barrage of arrows, the nearer the bear was the more damage each arrow did.
ROAR!! Thud
When the bear was about 10 meters away from them it uttered its last roar then fell on the ground unmoving. Its body was cover with holes as blood gushed out of them. The bloody scene wasn't new to Aeron but this was the biggest beast they had killed yet, luckily the scene only made him a bit queasy, he looked at the bear's large frame before continuing on, thinking it was a pity. They met more bears on the way, even Aeron would try to kill one using arrows, which took too much time than usual so he just did so every now and then, letting Arthur kill the majority of the bears.
He didn't see the bear he wanted but he still felt the mana in his body grow at a sizable amount, even Arthur answered positively when he asked him if he felt his mana grow bigger. Bears took longer to kill but they gave large amounts of mana, of course this was not to say that beasts of the same level like jungle cats gave lesser mana, it was only because level 5 beasts like jungle cats were much rarer. Arthur had also been the only one to kill jungle cats, Aeron didn't even attempt it, their speed was too troublesome for him to handle.
They went back home before the sun went down; they were only able to clear half of the Southeastern part of the forest. The bears took longer to take down, this was especially true when Aeron takes the last hit. Aeron meditated for about five hours before going to sleep, meditating is an essential part of his training, this was even more so because he acquired large amounts of mana through battle.
Mana acquired from battles always have impurities in them, as such it is imperative to screen out these impurities before reintegrating them into the body. It was different for Arthur, Arthur as a beast has a core, with this core, he is able to absorb mana continuously as well as automatically sift out impurities. This was also the reason why beasts were much stronger compared to humans; beast bodies have a lot more capacity but with a core acting as a generator this capacity would be filled at some point in time.
Most creatures in the world of Gaia have cores inside of them, some don't have one in the earlier stages but develop one through time. Humans however were different; this was because humans would never develop a core. The only reason humans were able to survive until this point, was the stone plate or the Status Plate, when humans awaken their profession, the Status Plate changes their body to a more suitable vessel. The changes were not at a fundamental level though, this was the reason why humans stay as humans.
There are other races in Gaia, but unlike humans they have to learn the skills themselves, before they can develop a Profession. Most races in Gaia can outlive humans many times over, that is why they have the time to develop skills, humans would take a long time to learn skills and develop a Profession. In truth humans had also tried doing so, and they succeeded, one person was able to learn skills and develop a Profession, but he was only one of the million who took the risk. As such this possibility was further locked in history so that humans don't start dwindling in numbers. That was not to say that this path didn't have its pros, as the first person to develop a Profession, was also the fastest person to become a God Stage Professional.
Aeron woke up early the next morning, there were no wolf activities the night before so he had a very good night of sleep.
���Good Morning Arthur" Aeron greeted Arthur as they readied themselves for another day of exploration.
"Ki!" Arthur greeted back cheerfully; it seems like Arthur also had a good night's sleep too.
"Arthur assemble the monkeys" Aeron ordered as he had a plan in mind for today's exploration.
"Richie, today you'll be facing a bear" Aeron knew the monkeys were a bad match up against the bears, but he wanted to see how a normal Mid-Grade Monkey would fare against a Level 5 Bear, Arthur and the silver monkeys were already on the cusps of evolving to a High-Grade Beasts so to say.
"Kii!"
"It seems like you're quite excited" Aeron said, monkeys weren't known as fighters, but martial monkeys were different, they were born for battle. He had seen the silver monkeys and Arthur fight, but they probably needed a High-Grade Beasts opponent to show their full battle power.
Aeron set off to the Southeastern part of the forest and encountered their first bear.
ROAR!!
The bear roared as it stared at Aeron and the monkeys in front of it.
"Richie, go!" Aeron said, he had already instructed it to not bring the spear, Of course a Martial Monkey could fight using weapons, but they usually don't have one in the wild as they needed a human to learn the weapon skills.
"Kii!!"
Richie quickly leaped on a tree, it leapt from tree to tree as it observed the massive bear in the clearing. Then it started, it rushed behind the bear and punch the back of its head. The shock made the bear lean forward but it easily recovered.
Roar! Boom!
The bear turned around wielding its massive paw as it smashed the ground behind it, dust flew off as the annoying monkey was out of sight. As the bear was about to roar in frustration, Richie sprung up from below it landing a punch on its lower jaw, blood splattered as the bears tongue was cut in half.
"Kii!!" Richie taunted as it landed in front of the bear.
The bear stood up in pain and frustration as it glared hatefully at the small beast. Its massive paw suddenly disappeared as it slammed down the ground, it was twice the speed it wielded earlier, although level 5 beasts couldn't use mana, they could still use physical skills. This was one of it, still the monkey was able to dodge the surprise attack. Richie suddenly fired a heavy punch on the bears exposed rib.
The bear staggered from the force. Aeron was surprised, this was the first time he saw the Richie activate a skill, though he already knew that his Martial Monkeys possessed the skill [Empowered Strike]. This was an active skill that empowers the users attack. To be able to stagger a bear with a punch showed its power.
"Ki!"
Again, Richie vanished from the bears sight, this time it didn't roar, its vigilance was at raised to its highest bar. Its sensitive ears heard a sound from above, as it saw a shadow approaching its head, the bear quickly activated its skill as it swung its arms to the monkey's direction.
"Richie!!" Aeron couldn't help but shout, being airborne was very stupid action, to begin with. Cause Richie had no wings nor magic to change directions midair, or so he thought.