Kiro widened his eyes in disbelief, the bear's HP significantly dropped! It was almost the same as his now. He cursed at how unfair this game was sometimes.
Though he didn't dwell on it too much, because he had just scored a legendary beast that could evolve. This was worth more than anything in this game, except for his staff Ryu of course.
Since he tamed Frost first he was defaulted as his mount, he quickly made Hubris his mount. Which significantly increased their bond.
Even though he had 50 slots, that only meant he could command 50 beasts at a time. But he could only have one mount. A mount was a beast you shared even your feelings with.
Though if the beast was low level, feeling and deciphering feelings would only confuse it to the point it would underperform. There was also a ownership transfer option, it was made clear that even if he gave away a beast a slot wouldn't open. Unless he set it free.
Kiro noticed there wasn't an option to unsummon a beast, which was a downside because walking around with one would be too conspicuous.
"System, can't I unsummon tamed beasts?"
Ding!
[Can't be done. This is to give you a more realistic experience, a companion that's always there, like a pet.]
'Dumb.'
Ishaan couldn't even walk with shock. "I never saw the taming class back when I created my character, how did you get it?"
Kiro's heart jumped from his chest, 'dammit, he's forgettable!'
He was about to tell him everything when realised, he didn't know him therefore he didn't quite trust him. It was nothing the kid did, Kiro just didn't trust anyone. Especially the rich that he hadn't spent much time with.
"Well, it was a quest reward." He shrugged.
"What kind of quest, I want to do it too!"
"Sorry chubby, the quest was at beginner village," he said turning his back to walk ahead when he saw his expression through his peripheral vision. "Even if you lost experience on purpose and went back, it's one of those quests you can only trigger once."
Ishaan was disappointed, he liked being a mage but he reckoned raising beasts was a lot more fun.
Kiro walked out of the cave with a fat smile on his face. Utterly thankful for the rewards. He was in such a good mood, even if Isaac jumped them again it wouldn't ruin it.
He made Ishaan carry the hellhound, saying it was part of the test, to test whether or not he was the right guy to let join their group. This was obviously bogus, as none of the joined members had to go through tests.
After they left the cave, they went deeper into the canine fields. Kiro vibrational sense was clearly still low ranked, its radius wasn't that big as they finally found some canine beasts.
The most appealing amongst the beasts were noirwolves. They had long black fur that was dark as night. Pretty golden eyes. They were taller than average wolves.
Ding!
[You've encountered noirwolves. They're proud rare beasts that aren't easily tameable, even for you awakened one.
Noirwolves
Level 35-40
HP 15000-25000]
Kiro picked the leader out of the pack and ordered Ishaan to use the force field to imprison the rest of the pack so they didn't interfere.
"Okay then doggy, let's do this."
It growled and pounced at frightening speeds, readying both its claws and maw. Ready to kill it's enemy.
'Fast, but not enough.'
Kiro simply jumped up, and landed on its head with the least brutal kick. He didn't want to activate bending kick, that would utterly crash it's skull.
Even with this weak kick, it lost half of its will to fight. They fought tooth and nail until he completely lost its will and was tamed. Kiro named it, Fang.
Surprisingly, taming a leader meant he'd gained the whole pack, for one slot. He was over the moon with joy. The pack had a total of 10 noirwolves including their leader. He scored big.
They walked far and wide, most of the beasts he saw weren't up to his standards so he'd just kill for EXP. Of course he occasionally used Ishaan as bait. His force shield was simply too perfect to draw out beasts.
They eventually crossed over to the feline fields. Cats were proud creatures even amongst their own, they were loners who preferred fending for themselves. So Kiro doubted he could get a group of them here.
He did however encounter a mother with two little ones following behind. He decided to take the 3 of them. He fought the mother. He underestimated the mother, so he got 3 scratches on his face.
"Dammit, guess I'll be harder on you then."
Ding!
[You've encountered the white tiger, its speed is unmatched.
White tiger level 40
HP 25 000]
"Is that why your notification is so late?" He asked through gritted teeth.
[...]
He fought more seriously with the white tiger and eventually broke its will but unlike the pack he couldn't get the 3 of them for one slot. So with his one eye opened, he tamed all 3 of them.
Ding!
[You've tamed 3 common white tigers that can evolve. Please name them.]
"Let's see, the mother, should be Envy. The little ones, Yin and Yang."
He laughed at his terrible sense of naming. Because the little white tigers were male and female, he just opted for yin and yang.
He tamed a couple more beasts after that, they numbered to be about 10. He wasn't in a hurry, but he figured their forest in the base was empty and therefore he would dump them there.
By the time they were done, Ishaan was as tired as a dog. To make matters worse they had to walk to their base and Kiro promised to let him join, that's why he didn't log out.
Reaching the base, he released the beasts into the forest. Except for Hubris, who now liked staying by his side. Though they were different species, they had one master so they didn't dare fight each other.
"Hiro, could you ask your girlfriend to look at Hubris? Tried feeding him some potions and it just won't help his weakened state."
"Girlfriend?"
"So, with everything I said. That's all you heard?"
Hiro simply clicked his tongue. He had been working for the past days, he'd made a lot of armour, weapons and potions. He was beat and ready to logout.
"I'll give you a pet bear."
"Deal."
Ishaan joined the group and the group quickly became larger with 5 members in total.
Kiro could've obviously asked Felix, they had a priest too now, but he didn't want to disturb him. As mining was very important to someone who had nothing like them.