Aldo hopped to the pouch to take the other middle-tier beast core from the Elusive Iron Deer, he has just reached the first circle and can't wait to absorb this one.
The next step is to reach the second circle.
Diane hasn't really taught him how to reach the second circle since she definitely won't expect that he can reach the first circle this fast, but whatever the method to reach the second circle is, it definitely needs more energy from beast cores.
Upon taking the middle-tier beast core, Aldo immediately sat down on the ground again.
Not intending to stop training here, Aldo sat down and closes his eyes again. Red aura started to envelop his body like a blanket, he's now a literal clueless Ego Fighter that has just reached the first circle and now wanted to absorb another middle-tier beast core.
Swish!
Just like before, the energy inside of the middle-tier beast core slowly got absorbed by his body.
Aldo's tattoo glows again responding to the energy coming from the middle-tier beast core, it glows with a red hue before slowly absorbing the yellow energy. But upon making contact with Aldo's red aura, the yellow energy slowly turns into red color.
It got changed unnaturally and integrated to amplify the tattoo on his right arm that is growing ever more brightly, the tattoo feeds on the middle-tier beast core's energy greedily.
But unlike the beast core belonging to the wolf beast, this one takes longer to absorb.
Under the golden sun, Aldo kept absorbing the beast's core without a pause. The golden color of the sky slowly turns darker as time passes by, and before Aldo knows it upon opening his eyes the day has already turned to night.
After finishing the training, Aldo looks at the middle-tier beast core and finds that it hasn't got completely sucked out of energy yet. He needs at least a couple more hours to absorb it all.
Stretching his body, Aldo stood up before he feels his new body.
Swish!
Upon activating the red aura that is very thick, Aldo can feel the energy is more powerful than before thanks to the middle-tier beast core. But he doesn't know exactly how to determine his strength, he will need to wait for Diane.
Feeling utterly tired from today's training, Aldo went to take a bath.
With the Earth Stripe Cow that probably will last a month or more, Aldo creates a fire before roasting the meat of the cow and savoring it.
Bite!
"Oof... No wonder it's the most expensive meat in the village. It's freaking delicious!"
Aldo started devouring the roasted meat he cut from the Earth Stripe Cow without any restraint, he eat 15 pounds worth of meat before he sat back in surprise. He has never once in his life eaten that much meat, usually 1 pound of meat will put his stomach really full.
But this time he ate 15 pounds! That's like a dozen people worth of food!
'Did I need more food the stronger I get? I swear I hardly ever see Diane eat this much so that shouldn't be true', he thought in confusion.
After eating, Aldo lies on the ground while looking at the starry sky.
Just after he relaxed his body after eating so much while enjoying the beautiful night sky, Aldo suddenly remembered his sister that probably haven't eaten at this moment.
Remembering Laziah ruined his mood, he hits the ground in annoyance before he stood up.
"When I reach the second circle, I will definitely search for her. I don't care what Diane says", Aldo vowed to himself before he takes out the fire and gets into the house to sleep.
The next day,
Slash!
Aldo is currently inside the woods hunting beasts left and right, no matter what the beast is he hunts them down and gets their beast cores to keep on training.
With the power he has right now, even the strongest lower-tier beast is no match.
Roar!
Sword in hand, Aldo looks at the moose in front of him that is way bigger than himself and also has green skin. He's currently fighting an upper lower-tier beast, the apex beast in the lower-tier realm that he will be hunting today.
Aside from training his combat skills using a sword, he also wanted to see if he can fight an upper lower-tier beast as a first circle Ego Fighter.
The ground cracks a little from the strength of Aldo's legs,
Closing the gap between them like a raging bull, Aldo dashes at the moose beast readying his sword for a heavy swing. He grabs his sword using both of his hands before he swings down powerfully.
Slash!
Clang!!
With its big root-like horns that are very big and wide, the moose is able to block his heavy swing.
But even though it managed to block the heavy swing, it noticeably got pushed back by the strength behind Aldo's swing. The subtle explosion created upon contact can even break four trees at the same time, and this proves to be powerful enough to push this moose back.
Roar!
The moose flicks its horns pushing Aldo ten yards away.
After managing to push Aldo away, the moose started tossing its head about forcefully while pawing the snowy ground with killing intent. Just from these signs alone, it's clear that the moose is about to charge at Aldo.
"Come on beast! Let's see what you got!", Aldo taunted pointing his sword at it.
Even though the moose don't understand human language, the posture and also the taunting expression clearly show that Aldo is underestimating it.
With a flash of ferociousness in its eyes, the moose roared and charged at Aldo.
Unlike the exchange they had before, the moose noticeably becomes even faster but giving the moose some space to charge even faster is a foolish move so Aldo also charges at it.
The red aura surrounding Aldo's body becomes even more violent.
Aldo's tattoo on his right arm glows red brightly amplifying the red aura just before the moment of contact, it makes him even more confident in clashing head-on with the moose.
BAM!
A powerful shockwave blasted the snow away.
Surprisingly, Aldo manages to stop the moose on its track as their strength is about even. But the moose suddenly flicks its horns slapping Aldo's sword away.
Seeing this, Aldo was forced to hold onto the moose using his hands just like he did with the cow. He then gave out a smirk while gazing at the moose before using his newfound first circle power, Aldo slams the moose to the ground using pure strength.
Aldo uses the horns to slam the moose to the ground,
Roar!
Without a moment's pause, Aldo gritted his teeth before he twist the horns trying to break them apart, "Raarghh!", he shouted putting all his strength into it.
The red aura violently hovers around Aldo's body before finally,
Crack!
A loud cracking sound can be heard as the left horn of the moose got snapped, it ruptured right on the point of linking the horn to the skull gushing blood right out.
Roar!
Just like that, the moose cried out in pain after getting one of its horns ruptured.
Seeing that the moose is at his mercy, adrenaline starts to fill Aldo's blood before he repeatedly pounds the moose on its head creating small explosions from each punch.
With a powerful swing right on its head, the moose's head caved in and died.
Huff...
Huf...
Aldo falls back butt first with a rough breath, he looks at the dead moose in delight, 'I can kill an upper lower-tier beast with my current power, although it's still a struggle I still managed to do it!'
A smile appeared on his face while looking at the dead moose.
He then stands up and ripped the moose's body open before he took its beast core, Aldo puts the beast core into his pouch. This is the seventh beast core he got today. All the others are mesial lower-tier beast cores, while the moose's beast core is an upper lower-tier.
'This should be plenty enough for today, let's keep grinding!', Aldo thought intending to head back to the house, but while he was on his way to the house he suddenly stopped.
Aldo remembers that there's a beast core of a middle-tier beast that he hasn't taken.
It's the middle-tier beast that the mysterious man killed that night when he almost died, he can't cut through its skin back then but he probably can right now.
His strength compared to a month ago is like the sky and the ground, incomparable.
But although he just needs to take the beast core from the middle-tier beast carcass, there's one problem he had to face. That place is near Pendle Village, and he might meet some hunters from Pendle Village or even Lord Arter's soldiers.
After briefly deliberating for a moment, Aldo finally decided, 'Let's go there at night'
Later that night,
Wearing his leather armor coupled with a brown cloak that he finds in the house, Aldo head towards the place where he met with the mysterious man.
It's a bit far from the house since the house is near a hill that is roughly two or three miles away from Pendle Village, that's far enough from the hunting area of Pendle Village hunters. It's even further from Arkney Village since the soldiers there are many, and right now Aldo has basically become a wanted man.
The night is dark and colder than usual but Aldo kept going for the sake of obtaining the middle-tier beast core, but on the way, Aldo realizes that he doesn't feel the coldness.
From the way the snow falls down almost turning into a blizzard, the night should be colder.
But Aldo doesn't feel anything at all, in fact, he feels that his body's warmth blocks the coldness from the snow which is bizarre, 'Is this because of reaching the first circle? probably', he thought.
Aldo travels cautiously for over half an hour through the woods while keeping his focus at maximum, some hunters are hunting at night so he needs to make sure to not meet any hunters.
Knowing Ivor's personality, he probably still wants to find him.
Pendle and Arkney village are under his father's government and he's basically a king in these villages, he has many people on his side and definitely hunters that he deployed to search for Aldo who escaped thanks to Diane.
While traversing through the woods, Aldo heard some people chattering.
This makes him hide behind a tree while watching to his right where he saw two men wearing similar leather armor hunting, they seem to be stalking a snake that is quite big at a glance.
Looking at this, Aldo sticks his back on the tree while moving according to the hunters.
After the hunters left following the snake that they were trying to hunt, Aldo came out of his hiding and resume his journey to the middle-tier beast carcass.
But just as he continued his journey, his eyes suddenly landed on a leather paper on the ground.
It seems the hunters dropped this leather paper. Feeling a bit curious, Aldo takes the leather paper from the ground before he reads it. His eyes widen in shock before he clenched the leather paper upon reading it, turns out Ivor puts a bounty on his head.
The leather paper has a rough sketch of Aldo's face with a 10 gold coin reward above it.
Upon looking at this wanted paper, Aldo grits his teeth as the amount of bounty on his head is ridiculous. Even one gold coin can turn a recognized friend into an enemy, let alone 10 gold coins that even Aldo himself never even hold that much money in his entire life.
Aldo clenched his jaw in anger, 'Ivor!! You better hope I die or else I will go after you until the end of the world!', he thought.
After a moment, Aldo puts the leather paper in his pouch before he moves again.
Not long after, about ten minutes he arrived at the place where he supposedly meet the mysterious man. He can even say that this is the place the mysterious man saved him.
The long tree branch he stabbed thankfully hasn't got drowned in snow yet.
Because of that, he can pinpoint the location of the middle-tier beast carcass before he started digging. With his new strength as a first circle Ego Fighter, it didn't take long before he reach the middle-tier beast carcass.
It's still there buried under the snow, Aldo pulls the middle-tier carcass out with a struggle.
From how heavy this middle-tier beast carcass is, it seems this one is heavier than the Earth Stripe Cow. But after a moment, Aldo was finally able to take it out of the snow.
Taking the sword strapped on his waist, Aldo wanted to try taking the beast core but suddenly,
"What did you get there? Is that a middle-tier beast carcass?"
A voice interrupted him while he was about to take the beast core of the middle-tier beast, Aldo slowly turns around before he saw the two hunters that he saw earlier are already behind him.
One of the hunters then cracks a smirk, "Oh? What a stroke of luck, Isn't it the wanted man..."