"Here we go again" said Tom, pushing himself to stand from his meditation position.
' I'm really becoming tired of having to stop my training every time a somewhat powerful wisemonkey shows up' thought Tom, making his way out of his tent.
When he got outside, he was greeted by the sight of at least thirty wisemonkies on their knees with their hands tied together by some sort of rope made of vines.
These Wisemonkies were the ones mooglie and the others defeated during the lasts five days.
They had wanted to swear allegiance and become Tom's subordinates the moment they were brought by mooglie and others, but due to Tom being in seclusion they couldn't, so mooglie decided to keep them chained till Tom emerge out of his tent and recognized them as his subordinates.
Unbeknownst to them, it was done on purpose by Tom, the reason for that was quite simple, Tom knew that he would surely be in a state of tiredness the next time he would have to come out and fight, so, he counted on the enhancement he got when he obtained a new subordinate to take away that exhaustion.
However, the enhancement to his physical attributes isn't something that's supposed to take away his weariness, what it mostly does is giving him more strength, so his exhaustion doesn't actually disappear.
Obviously, Tom knew all of this, that's exactly because of that that he left the captured wisemonkies to attain a number that might give him a lot of strength in one go.
"We don't have much time, so let's wrap up the introductions" said Tom looking at the pile of captured wisemonkies.
"I'm actually the chief of those that captured you, so if you want to pledge loyalty to someone, that would be me" said Tom, pointing to himself.
In truth, he didn't need to do or say all of that, the moment these captured Wisemonkies saw him exiting from his tent they knew that he was the chief of their fellows Wisemonkies that captured them, so they planned to pledge loyalty to him from the start.
The captured Wisemonkies then proceeded to bow their heads to Tom, showing that they would be at his service from now on.
'Ahh, I will never grow tired of this feeling' thought Tom when he felt that the enhancement process started.
He felt a cool sensation spreading all over his body, with this sensation came the feeling of having more control over his etherium and over his strength.
It was as if a refreshing wave of energy washed over him, empowering his connection to the etherium and bolstering his strength to an all new level.
He couldn't help but feel that he was on the brink of a breakthrough in his physical capabilities, but he was not quite there.
However, he could confidently say that he stood at the peak of level 1.
"Boss, they are coming" said mooglie to Tom.
"Okay, prepare for battle, how much are we ?" Replied Tom to mooglie.
At this point, he conversed freely with mooglie despite the latter not being a human.
In Tom's mind, this was the result of either of two things.
The first, and the one he felt the most likely to be true, was that it was due to his ruler bloodline.
What made him think like that was that he couldn't understand what those that weren't his subordinates said, but the instant they became his subordinates he could comprehend what they were saying, like this new group of Wisemonkies that were congratulating each other's for becoming his subordinates.
The second thing - that he felt wasn't true but needed to be considered regardless - was that he went completely insane and was speaking with a bunch of monkeys.
Regardless of what was the truth, he was glad that he could speak with someone, even if they were not humans.
"With this bunch of newcomers, we should be around eighty" finally replied mooglie after he counted the number of Tom's subordinates.
"That much ?" Asked Tom while whistling in astonishment.
"Yep, we sure came a long way from two" responded mooglie with a hint of pride in his voice.
"Yes, like you said, we sure came a long way" said Tom with a content smile on his face.
"How much are coming this time ?" Finally, asked Tom after a moment.
Mooglie's face turned grim and he replied "two hundreds"
"Oh..." Tom released a startled Yelp, suddenly feeling like his eighty subordinates weren't much.
"Don't freak out so much; they are just a group of ordinary tribal people gathered in formation. They don't hold a candle compared to us"
"I was not freaking out!" Exclaimed indignantly Tom.
"Yeah right"
An awkward silence settled for a second before mooglie said in a dark tone "They don't handle a candle compared to us, however it's another story for the one leading them, this one is...dangerous"
"I see...do you know what his power might be ?" Asked Tom.
"No, what I do know however is that his fight always end in a matter of seconds, that's way you should be on your guards" warned mooglie.
"Hmm... I'm thinking, if he is so strong as you say, why is it that he is only the fourth in the power ranking ?"
"Well, that's essentially because the others are one level above him, however speaking by potential he should be at least the second strongest"
"So I'm going to fight the second most talented right off the bat" sighed Tom before continuing with a chuckle "but then again, that's an assessment coming from the second weakest, how much trustworthy can it be ?"
"Hey! I'm not second weakest anymore!"
"Third weakest ?"
"Still wrong !"
"Why are you getting so worked up, if I remember correctly, back then you were quite proud of being the second weakest" fired Tom.
A little ashamed mooglie replied "that's because back then I wasn't the right-hand man of the special unit boss"
"Yeah right, I don't even know why I decided to make a weakling my right-hand man" fired again Tom.
One might think that he was cruel by saying this, but mooglie knew that he was merely paying back from his previous teasing.
Before mooglie even got the chance to defend himself, they felt a small tremor course through the ground, and with each second that tremor was getting closer and closer.
"I guess they are finally here" said Tom, cracking his bones that became stiff due to him being seated all the time in a meditation position.
Like to confirm his guess, matour, spear in hand, came running toward the tent's while shouting out loud "THEY WILL BE UPON US IN A FEW MINUTES, PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"
"Are you ready ?" Asked Tom, addressing to the group of recently acquired subordinates.
"YES!" Replied with an excited shout, the group of wisemonkies, ready to exhibit and show their worth to their new boss.
Even though they were beaten by mooglie and company, that was mostly because mooglie group ganged up on them, they were still the strongest amidst the wisemonkies and Tom's current strongest subordinates, that's the reason why they were going to be the vanguard in this battle.
"Well, if everyone is ready, let's set out"