It took a while for Zachary to calm down. After Minah’s betrayal, he thought his life was over. Even after jumping off the prison ship and landing in the New World, he held little hope that he would be able to survive. But after meeting Wander, he felt as if he had been reborn. Every day was a surprise. It felt like he could conquer every challenge and reap rich rewards, rewards that he deserved.

He thought about the two for one surprise and realized that he should have expected it. Wander occupied his life path. Although their bond was eternal, it was largely similar to a normal soul bond. In those cases, if the Ensouled achieved a rank breakthrough in their primary soul path, their summoners would receive the same benefit through feedback.

He had forgotten about it because Yaoyao had been his only soul summon. They had broken through to the adept rank together through their shared sky path. Yaoyao’s subsequent advancements within the adept rank did not benefit him too much. If he had a second soul summon, this exact scenario with Wander would have also happened.

“Alright!” He slapped his thigh, “Our battles continue. We’ll have to hunt another wild adept Ensouled and help Onkie breakthrough!”

“Yeah!”

Zachary and his squad gathered to celebrate their achievement with a big breakfast. Blue normally ate berries and flowers so he gave it a whole petal from the flower demon. Boba was exclusively a meat eater. He let it swallow a large rodent whole and turn itself into a small balloon. Onkie and Wander split the remaining petals with each getting two apiece. He also gave Wander four pieces of seaweed from Sugo as a bonus.

Elmont and Doro didn’t need to eat like the others. They stood around silently, one absorbing sunlight with its leaves and nutrients with its roots while the other simply took in earth-attribute Eternum from the ground. Archer was the only odd one out. It ate meat but also liked to bask in sunlight. It acted like a beast but also a plant.

Zachary munched on a piece of dried meat while he studied a rough map drawn on a piece of animal skin. It depicted a circle where their stump hunting ground had been. Surrounding the circle were several octets of smaller dots, each representing the potential location of a wild adept rank Ensouled. One of the dots had been crossed out, which was their current location.

“What are you looking at?” Wander perked up after finishing the seaweed. He still had half a flower petal stuck to his mouth as he sauntered over, “Which one are we fighting next?”

“There are no easy targets. All adept ranks are powerful. We can’t take them lightly. That said...” He paused and pointed a dot to the east, “There is a small stream and a pond here. It should be a watering hole for the local wildlife. A single adept has made this place its hunting ground. Since there is water, we might be able to use Whiskers and increase our combat power by a lot.”

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“Smart, smart.” Wander said as he swallowed pieces of the flower petal, “So what kind of Ensouled is it?”

Zachary shrugged, “Don’t know. Too bad I can’t fully understand Blue’s chirps yet. We just have to find out when we get there.”

After breakfast, Zachary checked the condition of each of his summons. Once everyone was ready, they set off toward the east. Onkie led the charge, clearing a way through the underbrush with her tough body. Blue flew overhead, observing their surroundings for potential dangers. Boba was wrapped around Zachary’s arm, providing close-range scouting. This was their usual formation for traveling fast and light. The slow-pokes were kept in their summoning orbs while Wander stayed inside Zachary’s soul sea. The only change was the addition of Archer who followed behind Zachary, protecting the rear.

The squad moved quickly through the jungle. Weaker Ensouled and small critters fled or hid in their presence. A stronger Ensouled might try to attack them but it would be noticed long before it could launch a sneak attack. Unlike before, he was no longer scared for his life with every step.

The air was warm. It wasn’t as humid as usual. It felt comfortable, as comfortable as walking through a wild jungle could feel. He even started to hum a catchy tune. It was almost like a casual stroll in a park. Back in the Old World, many areas had been subjugated by humans. There were few dangers in populated areas. Even children could go out and explore without too much worry.

When the sun had risen halfway to its peak, Zachary and his group slowly approached the vicinity of the pond. They were still some distance away. They shouldn’t have been able to hear anything yet. Instead…

“Skraa!”

“Guuurr!”

Several beast cries drifted over from the distance. These were not ordinary cries but ones filled with fury and viciousness. These were soon joined by distinctly human shouts although it was impossible to make out what was being said. More shouts followed, from more than one voice. There was also a huge crashing sound as if a tree had split apart and fallen.

“Skraa!”

Zachary stopped and hid behind a large tree. He frowned as he peeked over the edge. He couldn’t see anything but he could still hear the chaos from ahead. At least a few people were fighting with something or someone. From the reverberations in the surrounding Eternum, they were not weak.

He sent Blue ahead to scout. The bird quickly came back chirping a bunch of nonsense. It was freaking out and he couldn’t get anything useful from it except that there were definitely humans.

“Humans!” Wander shouted excitedly, “We finally ran into more humans!”

Zachary grunted in dissatisfaction, “Bad luck… I just wanted a wild Ensouled. Why did I have to find other prisoners? Should we turn back?”

“Why? Let’s go and see if there is anything interesting.” Wander said. “Maybe we can catch a wild Ensouled and beat up a human in the process. Another two for one deal!”

Zachary scoffed but he had to agree. He hadn’t talked to another person in half a year. He had no information on his competitors or how strong he was in comparison. He couldn’t hide like turtle forever. He had fight other people sooner or later.

“Alright, we’ll go take a look.”

“Yay!” Wander did a flip in his soul and came out, landing beside Zachary.

Zachary also summoned Doro and Elmont. Together, the party advanced slowly, ready for a fight.