"My dear sister, your brother has become an Ego Fighter!!"
Laziah is still half-conscious as she just woke up from bed, she looks at Aldo blankly before she rubs her ears a couple of times and said, "I must've heard it wrong. What did you just say, brother? I didn't quite hear you"
"I'm an Ego Fighter!", Aldo said again full of excitement.
Even the entire Pendle Village only has about one hundred or so Ego Fighters, and only Ivor has a middle-tier Ego beast which puts him way above the rest.
It's not that many of the people here can't afford the Ego Awakening,
But many of them don't have the talent to be chosen by an Ego Beast, the Beast Blood Essence is probably what helps him to be chosen by an Ego Beast but since even Aldo who has lived for years here has never heard of it, the Beast Blood Essence must be very expensive.
Aldo got lucky that the Cleric gave him one,
From what the Cleric says, the Beast Blood Essence she gave is not a basic one.
So just from this alone Aldo definitely got very lucky, 'If I would've known that she will give me a Beast Blood Essence, not just half an hour, even if she told me to wait for the entire night in the cold I would've done it!'
'I'm very lucky! The gods are on my side!', Aldo exclaimed inside his head.
Hearing this, Laziah's eyes slowly widen as she realized that her brother is not joking around, "REALLY?! You became an Ego Fighter?!! How did you get the money?!"
Laziah becomes ecstatic upon receiving the news from Aldo,
Aldo has all smiles on his face, it can only be counted on one hand how many times he had smiled like this throughout his life after his parents died.
But the smile he had right now is no doubt the biggest,
"Don't worry about that! Now that I'm an Ego Fighter, I can pay back the money easily!", Aldo replied before the brother and sister duo hugged each other in happiness.
The next day,
Brak!
A man standing behind a desk that seems to be a store clerk looks at ten red orbs in front of him, he then looks up and finds Aldo smiling at him.
"I want to sell these Beast Orbs please", he said excitedly.
~
Just a moment ago,
With all of his injuries healed from becoming an Ego Fighter, Aldo went straight back to the woods to hunt for some beast orbs to sell.
He's now crawling on the ground while carefully looking at his front,
Many beasts are roaming the space in front of him that has many holes around, these beasts are the same beast that he attacked yesterday and this place is his nest.
Back when he was still not an Ego Fighter, he has been eyeing the Flaming Breath Komodo.
It's the reptilian monster that he killed yesterday,
Aldo has been eyeing them since he started to become confident in his skill, he will try to kill a mesial lower-tier beast which he did yesterday but got robbed by Ivor.
There's a huge leap in selling basic and mesial lower-tier beast core,
For one basic lower-tier beast core will only yield 40 coppers but for a mesial lower-tier beast core the yield raised to 2 silver, which is five times the amount he can receive.
Hunting basic lower-tier beasts is easy but they're still slippery,
Mesial lower-tier beasts on the other hand are usually bigger than a normal size animal, and as long as he can take it down then the mesial lower-tier beast is preferred.
In this world, 1 gold coin is 100 silver, and 1 silver is 100 copper.
Aldo and Laziah have been living and eating the cheapest food for years that only costs around 7 coppers, killing one mesial lower-tier beast is like a week worth of food for him and his sister.
Since Aldo has been eyeing the Flaming Breath Komodo,
He knows their nests, their habits, and even their favorite food, which is why he also knows about their nests in the woods.
The Flaming Breath Komodo has a very keen hearing,
Since the snow is not their usual habitat, their hearing is weakened heavily thanks to the snow which makes Aldo able to sneak to their nest like this.
While waiting patiently, Aldo finds one of the Flaming Breath Komodo left the nest.
Once in a while, these beasts search for food in this rough weather just like the Flaming Breath Komodo he killed yesterday that got lured by the smell of fish.
It needs food to sustain the winter, so they occasionally left their nests.
After seeing one of the beasts leave the nest, Aldo started stalking it silently while putting about seven to eight meters distance between them.
Anymore closer than that then he will be noticed,
Even though he knows that their hearing is weakened from the snow, he still needs to put this distance to be sure that he won't be noticed.
Just like he expected, the beast searches for food in the river.
The Flaming Breath komodo can use their flaming breath to heat up the steady flowing water in the river, this will make some of the fishes jump out of the water, and this allows it to catch some fish using its long tongue to bring them back to its nest.
But not intending to let it search for food,
Aldo comes out of his hiding before he charges at the Flaming Breath Komodo with a crossbow in his hand, he fires a couple of arrows to catch its attention.
From using trial and error, Aldo finds that a regular arrow usually will make them angry.
If he uses something like the exploding arrow like before, the Flaming Breath Komodo tends to flee to avoid fighting with whoever it is.
A normal arrow that didn't hurt it at all is only viewed as nothing but an insult, and Aldo uses that.
Hisss!!
Just like he expected, the Flaming Breath Komodo started charging at him angrily, in its eyes, it was baffled that a weak creature like Aldo is attacking it.
'Now that I got its attention, What should I do...', Aldo thought as he slowly decrease his dash.
Although he knows that he now is an Ego Fighter, he doesn't know if he can fight the Flaming Breath Komodo head-on or even how much stronger he is than before in general.
But since he got distracted by his thoughts, the beast is already opened its fiery mouth.
Swoosh!
The beast sends a flaming breath toward Aldo which catches him off guard, but he quickly snaps out of his daze and rolls to the side to avoid the flaming breath.
Aldo perfectly dodge the flaming breath before he stopped, 'My body feels lighter!'
His train of thought was distracted again when the beast slowly turns its mouth toward him again, and this made Aldo quickly gets up and started running to avoid the flaming breath in a circle.
Upon reaching the beast' back, Aldo immediately closes the distance between them.
The beast has somekind of reload in each flaming breath that gives enough time to be exploited, with a blade in his hand Aldo stab the side of the beast's stomach.
Stab!
Hiss!!!
To his surprise, the beast's thick skin got penetrated by the blade.
'I-I got stronger! This is amazing!', Aldo thought as he look at the blade in surprise.
Even an arrow from a crossbow can't penetrate the beast's skin if not for its delicate part like the neck, but now Aldo manages to pierce the blade into the beast's back.
The back has the thickest skin, and he manages to stab through it.
Just as he celebrated in his mind, a tail is heading towards him as the beast swing its tail powerfully intending to slap Aldo away.
But feeling confident, Aldo embraces the incoming tail.
Bam!
Aldo grunts a little but he manages to catch the tail, his eyes turn bright realizing he just caught the tail, and without wasting the opportunity he stabbed the beast's tail.
The blade slice through the tail and cuts it,
HIISS!!
Upon getting its tail cut, the beast wiggles vigorously in pain pushing Aldo away.
But Aldo didn't let himself get pushed away for too long as he tighten his core and dashed to the beast again, and this time he aims for the neck, its weak spot.
Slash!
The beast hisses again as its neck got sliced open,
Aldo becomes even more excited seeing that such a beast can be killed without him preparing traps and explosives, this is all done by his physical strength.
With the blood flowing out of its wound, the beast started losing its strength.
This can be clearly seen from the movement of the beast that is slower, it can't keep up with the fight anymore and decided to flee but its speed is in no way near its peak.
Looking at this, Aldo realizes that this is the end of their battle.
Just by running after the beast for fifteen seconds, Aldo reaches the beast easily.
He jumped with the blade still in his hand,
The beast kept running without realizing that Aldo is already above it, Aldo then grab the handle of the blade with both of his hands before stabbing through the beast's head.
Boom!
Immediately after that, the beast falls to the ground dead with the blade stabbing its brain.
With its thick skin unable to block Aldo's attack, the terrifying beast that is very hard to kill becomes very easy thanks to him becoming an Ego Fighter.
"Hah... I can't believe it becomes so easy", Aldo utters to himself.
He then sliced the beast's stomach before taking the red orb before he thought, 'If this is the case then I probably can hunt all of the Flaming Breath Komodo, I'll use this money to take sister out and pay some to Uncle'
~
Back to the present,
The man takes a tool that looks like a small microscope that he puts on his right eye, he then starts checking the ten beast cores Aldo just brought.
After checking it briefly, the man then said, "Ten mesial low-tier beast orb"
With that, the man takes out 20 Silver that Aldo accepts gratefully.
It's the first time for him to produce such an amount of money, if not for yesterday, this might be the first time he has 20 Silver inside his pouch.
Just from this alone, Aldo can feel the benefit of becoming an Ego Fighter.
Aldo is not familiar with how an Ego Fighter can be so strong or even how some of them are way stronger than the rest, he only knows about the Ego Beast.
Thinking logically, there must be a way to become stronger.
'If I can kill a peak lower-tier beast or even a middle-tier beast then I will be rich! Laziah wouldn't need to worry about money anymore!', Aldo thought excitedly.
He then decided to check the store later, but for now, he will celebrate with his sister.
Aldo went to the food store and buy a bunch of meat that he will be eating with his sister, he takes a variety of meat as they hardly ever had meat.
His blood trembles a bit while bringing the meat back home,
'I can't wait for Laziah to cook these, she will be very happy to eat meat', Aldo thought excitedly.
But before he went back to his house to celebrate with his sister, Aldo stops at Aunt Liv's house to pay some back to the Uncle.
After knocking a couple of times, the uncle opens the door.
Upon seeing Aldo who has a big smile on his face, the Uncle was stunned but he quickly recovered before giving Aldo a big hug, "You made it! You become an Ego Fighter!"
"It's all thanks to you uncle! I won't be able to if it weren't for you!", Aldo replied.
Even if the Uncle didn't ask for any reward or some sort, Aldo already set up his mind that he will be helping Uncle and Aunt Liv as he owes them his life.
The Uncle even called Aunt Liv and told her about Aldo being an Ego Fighter,
She also becomes excited as she also gives him a hug, the both of them knew their parents which is why they occasionally helped Aldo and Laziah.
For Aldo, they're already like family before and now it's even greater.
After chatting for a moment, Aldo heads back not forgetting to wave at the Uncle and Aunt Liv.
While walking back to the house, Aldo hummed happily.
From how things are currently progressing, the future definitely becomes brighter for Aldo and Laziah, and this can't help but make Aldo feel joy and anticipation in his heart.
Upon arriving at his house, Aldo wanted to open the door but he suddenly stopped.
There's a weird feeling he felt in his stomach that started to crawl up slowly, the feeling slowly turn into pain as Aldo felt his chest and throat burning.
He dropped the meat he brought home before holding onto the door,
Cough!
Aldo suddenly coughed but his eyes widen when he finds blood that stains the snow beneath him, it definitely comes from his cough, "What is happening...?"
"Did I exert myself too much from fighting ten Flaming Breath Komodo? Must be..."
Thinking that he must be tired from all the fighting and his body is suffering because of it, Aldo gets inside the house before giving the meat excitedly to Laziah.
Unknown to him, the blood he just coughed started steaming before turning black.