Aeron returned to the battle scene, the ride compared to being piggybacked by Arthur was much more comfortable. Arthur picked up the Mid-Grade Wolf on their way back, now that another meat-eating beast was added to the team, bringing back Mid-Grade Beast corpses became more important. Aeron could've hunted further for the day, but he didn't want to stain his mood with another bout of hunting after taming a new pet.
On the way back, Aeron tried to think of a good name for the Cloud Leopard.
"Cloud Leopard, hmm how about Claude?" Aeron mused.
But the Cloud Leopard seemed to have heard him, it suddenly stopped on a huge branch before nodding its head.
"Claude it is then," Aeron smiled, amused at the Cloud Leopard's or Claude's reaction. He never thought that his mindless mumbling for a new name became approved of.
"Alrighty then Claude, follow your new friend, Arthur, you'll be able to meet the others too," Aeron said as they continued their way back to the base.
Agila felt her master get closer, the other wolves and the monkeys too, felt Arthur's return. Aeron introduced Claude to the other's and there wasn't any problem that cropped up, except for Terra taking a bite at Claude's nose when Claude tried to sniff it. It was a good thing Aeron got hold of Terra before Claude could attack it, although there was no need to do so because Claude was barely hurt. Aeron fed all his pets shortly after introducing Claude, he also did not forget feeding the still unconscious woman. Aeron prepared the meat from the Alpha Lykoi as a welcome gift to Claude.
Grrrrr!
Claude quickly felt the difference and thank Aeron by rubbing its head on Aeron and purring, although its purr was nowhere near a normal cat's purr and would probably scare any child to tears. It wanted to eat the sumptuous meat immediately but refrained because the others still didn't start eating,
"Go ahead and eat," Aeron said as all his pets started to eat.
The Cloud Leopard was doing so in haste, this was the same behavior as Ursa, and also the natural way predators ate. Aeron also expected such behavior as Claude would've probably eaten the whole Mid-Grade Wolf in a day or less. Aeron meditated afterward before going to sleep, he had Claude find a place for it to sleep and it chose one of the bigger branches in the base, it lied down while its long tail dangled while swinging left to right every now and then, Terra was watching below following the movement of the tail which was a very amusing sight for Aeron.
"Time to check out my new pet," Aeron said as he opened up his status plate, he didn't look through it immediately, but he did feel a considerable strength gain after he tamed Claude which was his goal in the first place.
Level: 5
Name: Aeron Ironbull
Age: 17
Profession: Tamer
Innate Skill:
[Mana Manipulation]
[Whisperer (Hidden)]
Skill:
[Level Up (Anomalous)]
[Bestowal (Unique)] (4/5)
[Tame] (5/5)
[Heal Pet]
[Nurture]
[Golden Monkey King's Martial Mastery]
[Accelerated Strike]
[Micro-Control (Muscle)]
[Lightning Strike]
[Unnatural Strength]
Pets:
1. [Golden Monkey King]
Level: 6
Age: 2 years old
Innate Skill:
[Mana Circulation]
[Monkey Kings Might]
Skills:
[Lesser Level Up (Anomalous)]
[Monkey Kings Authority] (36/100)
[Golden Monkey King's Martial Mastery]
[Make Staff]
[Metal Domination]
[Golden Armaments]
[Perfect Copy]
2. [Brown Bear]
Level: 5
Age: 101 years old
Innate Skill:
[Mana Circulation]
[Bear's Might]
Skills:
[Lesser Level Up (Anomalous)]
[Survivor (Unique)]
[Accelerated Strike]
[Unnatural Stance Mastery]
[Roar]
3. [Golden Eyed Snake]
Level: 9
Age: 301 years old
Innate Skill:
[Mana Circulation]
[Golden Eye (Inactive)]
Skills:
[Micro-Control (Muscle)]
[Cloaking]
[Constrict]
[Thousand Venom]
[Acid Shot]
[Tracer]
[Bulk Up]
4. [Grey Eagle]
Level: 5
Age: 1 year old
Innate Skill:
[Mana Circulation]
[Eagle Eye]
Skills:
[Lesser Level Up (Anomalous)]
[Lightning Strike]
[Talon Strike]
[Feathered Cloak (Inactive)]
[Swift Flight]
5. [Cloud Leopard]
Level: 5
Age: 120 years old
Innate Skill:
[Mana Circulation]
[Water Manipulation]
Skills:
[Lesser Level Up (Anomalous)]
[Felines Grace]
[Quick Strike]
[Keen Eye]
[Unnatural Strength]
Aeron looked into Claude's status and nodded in approval, this was what he expected, there was actually a chance for him to get the [Felines Grace] which was a similar skill to [Tiger's Might], but instead of Speed and Strength increase, the [Felines Grace] gave a boost towards Speed and Agility, there was also a boost in balance.
[Quick Strike] was a skill which was identical to [Accelerated Strike] in function, the difference being it was a full-body strike, of course, in Aeron's case, this did not make any difference, but to beasts like the Cloud Leopard and the Brown Bear, its utility and effectiveness were very different. [Quick Strike] allows the Cloud Leopard to concentrate its whole body's strength for the attack, while Brown Bears used [Accelerated Strike] with one of their limbs, Ursa being an exception, after all, size and weight wise, a Low-Grade Brown Bear was almost a meter taller than a Cloud Leopard that was already a Mid-Grade Beast, that being said, Brown Bears would not be able to keep up with the Cloud Leopard's speed, even after becoming a Mid-Grade Bear.
[Keen Eye] was a skill that allowed Cloud Leopards to see through mists and smoke, but one of the most important functions of [Keen Eye] was to see through illusions, this was also one of the reasons why Cloud Leopards became popular among the Tamers who had the ability to tame Mid-Grade Beasts. Gaia was an enormous world filled with different types of creatures and beasts, as such, it was no wonder that there were beasts that were able to use illusion magic.
The [Keen Eye] skill was also the reason why Cloud Leopards had the ability to hunt one of the most elusive beasts in Gaia, the Mirage Tapir. The Mirage Tapir was one of the rarest beasts in Gaia, not because they were few in numbers, but because they could expel an invisible smoke which would form a mirage around it, this was different from the Golden Eyed Snake's [Cloaking] skill which allows it to turn itself invisible, not only could the Mirage Tapir make itself invisible, it could actually change the terrain's looks into anything it wanted, the good thing about Mirage Tapir was that they were very tame beasts, very unlikely to attack other creatures except when it was accompanied by an infant Mirage Tapir, then it would do its best to put you in an illusion which could inflict mental traumas and cause insanity.
Aeron clenched his fists after he saw the [Unnatural Strength] skill on his Status Plate, he felt his strength increase by almost twice his normal strength. His goal for a new pet achieved and a new skill acquired, Aeron gave Terra its mana shower for the day and slept afterward. Aeron woke up refreshed and fortunately without a nightmare. After feeding his pets and the injured woman, Aeron rode Claude while Arthur led them around to hunt for the day.
"Master, a wolf pack with a Mid-Grade Wolf was found in the western part of the forest," Arthur reported, this time it wasn't a black monkey beside him, the black monkeys were separated and were more suited for tailing the wolves, thus a brown monkey was sent back to report.
"Let's go then," Aeron said as they traveled towards the wolf pack.
After seeing the size of the pack, Aeron prepared an ambush, this time, Claude participated in the ambush by using its stealth skill, at first, Aeron entertained the idea of using Claude's [Water Manipulation] skill to create mist but the other monkeys didn't have the ability to see through the mist, and the mist wasn't really needed at this moment.
"Now!"
Aeron said as Arthur lunged towards the Mid-Grade Wolf to disable it while the other monkeys, and Claude moved to kill all the other wolves, Claude in particular did its best to kill more beasts, Aeron could feel its fervent desire to grow stronger. Of course, Aeron didn't forget his target Mid-Grade Wolf, one arrow through its neck ended its life. Arthur quickly went towards Aeron to carry him back to the base, Aeron couldn't ride on Claude with his current situation, and Arthur was still faster than Claude, so just Claude followed behind them while the other monkeys carried the Mid-Grade Wolf corpse.
Aeron quickly went to work and started purifying the foreign mana, Arthur guarded beside him while he tasked the other monkeys to search for another pack. Late in the afternoon, another Wolf Pack was discovered, Aeron quickly went and hunted the wolves down before returning to the base.
'These wolves don't seem to be from the same group as the wolves yesterday,' Aeron thought.
The first pack should at least have a High-Grade Wolf as the alpha to be able to send Mid-Grade Wolves as scouts, the second pack should also of the same power. This worried Aeron as he did not know a lot of things happening within the Endless Forest, but at the same time, he wanted to level up before leaving.
"Right!" Aeron suddenly had a eureka moment when he thought about the wolves, just like the first time Arthur subdued the silver wolves, Arthur asked them about the information inside the Endless Forest. Aeron wanted to slap himself after forgetting about the matter.
"Arthur, ask the new wolves about their packs and their territory!" Aeron quickly summoned Arden and Fera.
This time, Aeron was astonished by what Arthur relayed, the new silver wolves weren't very high up the hierarchy so the information they got was limited, but even then, they were very useful. Deeper within Endless Forest, a distance away from where Aeron was, was ruled by three High-Grade Wolf pack, but this information didn't surprise Aeron at all, as this information was only a confirmation about his thoughts with the exception of a third High-Grade Wolf pack. What truly stunned Aeron was the fact that the three packs belonged to a bigger pack lead by an Earth Stage Horned Wolf.
"The wolves also said that the packs were told to search for monkey-like creatures master," Arthur added.
This stunned Aeron again, there was another piece of information which Aeron didn't expect, the monkey-like creatures should be humans, but the wolves seemed to have spoken about it like there was more than one human who went inside the Endless Forest, and that the wolves were sent here to find them. There was another information which Aeron missed, that the Earth Stage Wolf was sent to investigate, which meant that a beast of a higher Stage was in command.
"Could she be one of them?" Aeron murmured.
He looked towards the unconscious woman, she was healing fast, and under Aeron's estimate, her external injuries should heal after a week or maybe even less. He was still not sure about things, her identity was a mystery, and even though Aeron had some guesses, he didn't want to assume without further information, which he couldn't confirm.
"Arthur, let's quicken up the pace, if we can find three wolves in one day, then I should be able to reach the peak of level 5 after 4 or 5 more days," Aeron said.
The monkeys were dispersed at a wider range than before.
"Also, Arthur, go and get me the notification bird!" Aeron said.
He needed to tell Gerard about the wolves around this area and his discovery about the woman, he needed more information as he only knew that the girl he was tasked to escort had a sword with her, the governor was probably confident about his daughter to only give such description. But the birth of the wolf king became a variable, and even then, it shouldn't have been a big variable, but its grudge against humanity made it more dangerous. Thus, Aeron decided to send the notification bird to notify them that he saw a High-Grade Beast near the outer region of the Endless Forest.
Aeron started to recite the information about the High-Grade Beasts, he also mentioned that there might be an Earth Stage Wolf leading the High-Grade Wolves, he sent the memory of him doing so into the memory stone which he then stuffed inside a small bag strapped on the notification bird. Aeron set the notification bird free, it should arrive after two days, and another two more for the reply to arrive.
Flap! Flap! Flap!
Right after Aeron freed the notification bird, Arthur came in to tell him that another pack had been discovered. Aeron quickly departed to hunt the new pack.
In the City of Una.
"Young master! High-Grade Wolves have started to appear in the outer region of the Endless Forest, but its only one area that they have been spotted. It's about 600 kilometers away from the City," A shadowy figure reported to Gerard.
There were still people who chose to continue their task to which Gerard guaranteed compensation twice the first reward, this was so he did not need to send his own people to guard those areas. Of course, the same deal was struck with Aeron.
"Send our people to investigate further, just observe if there are more than one High-Grade Wolf in the area, or if they're led by a Higher Stage Wolf," Gerard ordered.
A day passed by and only one High-Grade Wolf had been spotted, there was still no sign of Higher Staged Wolves in the area, which made Gerard think that it was only an isolated case. But the second day came Aeron's message towards him.
"Young Master, do you think that boy is telling the truth?" Alexis asked.
He was the one to catch the notification bird, and he was also one of the first people to know about the information Aeron sent along with Gerard's four guards.
"Even if you don't trust him, he is still an Ironbull," This time it wasn't Gerard who answered, it was Sam instead.
Alexis did not mean any harm when he asked, although he was a bit biased on his views, at the same time, he forgot that the person they were talking about was part of a prestigious Tamer Family, thus, Sam saw fit to remind him, especially with Gerard's fondness of the boy. Not many knew why, but Sam did, thus he decided to have a talk with Alexis after this meeting.
Gerard didn't say a thing after hearing the two talk, instead, he seemed to be contemplating something.
"Brock, get me that runestone I prepared, bring me Aeron's notification bird, also, Sam, start the final announcement, those who want to stay will have to fight. Rodrigo, start the preparation!"
Gerard said, if it was just the prior discovery of a High-Grade Wolf in the Endless Forest then Gerard would only think it was just an isolated case, but since Aeron sent him another message, and even said that there was a possibility of a Higher Stage Wolf leading the other packs.
"Yes, young master!" the three people mentioned answered in unison.