“Ha!”

Aeron thrusted his spear forwards, his figure seemed to blur as he used his skill [Accelerated Strike].

Bang!

A shield made of iron with wooden frames blocked the advancing spear. The bearer of the shield stood steady as Aeron was stopped completely. But before the shield-bearer could react, Aeron had already spun sideways, his spear spun with him as he delivered a fast and powerful sweep.

Boom!

A sword met Aeron’s spear, the result of the clash was Aeron being sent flying backward, but before Aeron crashed to the ground, he was able to maneuver himself and land softly. His control over his body had become more exceptional. Aeron’s figure flashed again as he repeatedly attacked, his spear left a mirage of spear shadows as each hit was imbued with the skill [Accelerated Strike], the shield-bearer was still steadily accepting Aeron’s attack, but each hit made the shield-bearer slowly skid backward.

Clack!

The shield suddenly veered sideways as Aeron’s spear slid out of place.

‘Oh no!’

Aeron thought as he got out of balance, this was the weakness of the skill [Accelerated Strike], ones you lose your balance, you’ll be in danger, but as Aeron started to fall, the shield bearer’s sword slashed again.

‘Quick!’

Aeron thought as he used his skill again, but this time he kicked the ground, as he was currently leaning forwards, the force of the kick and its speed sent Aeron lunging forward.

Boom!

The sword struck the ground, the sound made it obvious that the shield-bearer wasn’t holding back, and even if it wasn’t the case it was still enough to give Aeron trouble. Aeron landed on the ground by rolling his body forwards, he quickly got up and spun in place as he observed his opposition.

“Ki!”

The Brown Monkey Caesar pulled its sword from the ground, the equipment they were currently using were blunt and made of wooden essence, but even so, each of their strikes were packed with power enough to break bones. This was something inevitable as each of them held great strength, the battle would’ve been for naught if any of them held back. Other Tamers would honestly be baffled seeing a pet attack its master without holding back, and anyone other than Aeron would be confused as well. Tamed beasts were prohibited from attacking their master through their soul bond, other than cases where the Tamer had a far weaker soul than his/her tamed beast, there was no danger from being attacked by their pets. Of course, rebellious attitudes could not be prevented, but other than Arthur, Ursa, and the Golden Eyed Snake, the other beasts were technically not Aeron’s tamed beast, so sparring with them only needed Arthur to order them.

Arthur was currently standing not far from them watching carefully, if there were moments wherein Aeron could get hit or injured heavily, Arthur would quickly swoop in and save the day. There were already a few times where Arthur had to rescue Aeron from the spar, but through multiple battles, Aeron could finally stand toe to toe with the Brown Monkeys, but defeating them was currently not something Aeron could do, the Brown Monkeys were, after all, Mid-Grade Beasts built for combat.

Their battle right now might not seem flashy as those at a higher level, but each of their attacks was fast, precise, and strong. Not to mention, Aeron, as a Tamer already had a disadvantage when it came to physical strength and speed, Aeron had actually thought of finding a beast who had strengthening skills to alleviate his weakness in strength.

“Let’s stop for today, Thank you Caesar.”

Aeron said as he thanked Caesar for using his newly acquired skill [Whisperer], in the past he would give orders to the monkeys and they would only understand commands, otherwise, they would not have any way of conversing, but the monkeys were actually quick learners, though a bit inferior to Arthur but still much intelligent than other beasts, so they could still understand a little of what Aeron says. But with his new skill which he practiced day by day with the monkeys, Arthur, Ursa, and Eggy which he now named Agila, Aeron was able to master it in no time, he still didn’t know how he got it as there were no records about hidden skills, but its uses were straight forward, in a way Aeron thought it was a universal translator.

“Kii!”

Aeron interpreted it as ‘No Problem!’, this was the only thing, he could relay his message towards them, but other than Arthur and Agila, Ursa and the other beasts only replied with beast language.

Xiiiiiii!

Speaking of Agila, a huge shadow suddenly covered Aeron and Arthur’s figures, a huge eagle with an 8-meter wingspan slowly descended, what was noticeable was its pitch black plumage, there were white patterns on the eagle’s head.

“Master! I caught fish! And small rock thingy, oh it also has a head.”

Agila suddenly spoke, her voice was very cute, Agila had just hatched 3 months ago, which meant that it shouldn’t be able to speak with Aeron as it was not yet a High-Grade Beast, but things changed when she found her way towards her mother’s core. Agila swallowed the green core and it suddenly fused with her base core, Agila told Aeron that the fusion had something to do with the skill he bestowed towards her after the event happened.

Agila was currently growing very fast, as Aeron’s tamed beast, Agila made Aeron quicken up his pace further, this was the reason why Aeron had started his sparring session with the brown monkeys at an earlier date, if Agila was to evolve into a High-Grade Beast before Aeron could become a level 6 Tamer, then it would spell another bout of soul sublimation, of course, Aeron would’ve been able to redirect the soul power towards his other pets, but he would then have to tame another High-Grade Beast to undergo another soul sublimation or make Ursa evolve into one, which would honestly take a bit more time.

This was a golden opportunity which made Aeron decide to explore the Endless Forest after a few days, Agila was already almost half the size of her mother, which meant she wasn’t that far from evolving, of course, this did not mean that Agila had to reach 20 meters in wingspan to evolve, her mother was probably a peak Mortal Stage Beast, which meant that Agila would evolve when it grew to about 12 meters in wingspan.

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“Oh, What fish?”

Aeron looked at Agila’s talons which held a shell and a fish, the fish was easily 4 meters long, it was probably a level 5 beast river fish, it was still alive judging from the movement on its gills. As for the shell, it was a normal looking shell, this was probably a level 0 turtle, from the looks of it, it was probably very young, the turtles head was half exposed as it looked around curiously.

“Nice catch Agila.”

Aeron said as he patted Agila’s head, Agila was still three months old, so she was very happy when Aeron patted her head, meanwhile, Arthur was looking enviously at the sidelines. Arthur grew further after one year, it was about 2.5 meters tall, just a bit more and he would be one meter taller than Aeron. Arthur of course tried to hide the envy from his face, but Aeron could feel it clearly from their soul connection.

“Arthur, thanks for guarding me with the sparring, you did a splendid job.”

Aeron said, but Arthur was truly too tall for Aeron to pet, and it wasn’t like Aeron could order Arthur to lower its head, but to Aeron’s surprise, Arthur actually did.

“Hahaha good job!”

Aeron laughed as he patted Arthur’s head, two years old was still young in Aeron’s mind so patting Arthur wasn’t much to him if it made Arthur happy. Although it was fine for both parties, it wasn’t true for the other monkeys. Aeron had seen the other monkey act uncomfortable seeing their king acting subservient towards Aeron, although they had a connection with Aeron through Arthur which made them tolerate having their king be ordered by Aeron, actions such as kneeling or being petted like a kid made the other monkeys very uncomfortable. But this was not them judging in conventional ways, it’s just that those actions were a bit degrading to the monkeys, Aeron couldn’t remedy this as he was much weaker than Arthur, so he would usually not allow Arthur to kneel or reward Arthur through actions like petting Arthur’s head. But times like these were an exception.

“Alright alright, Agila give me the poor little turtle”

Aeron said after sufficient petting time with the two pets, as for Ursa, he was currently sleeping by the base, with abundant food delivered to its midst, Ursa had become much lazier, but Aeron wasn’t really worried about it that much. Bears were known to do this a lot, sleeping to them was like training, they would constantly circulate their mana while they slept which was a very envied way of training, of course, this was only possible because Ursa had an abundant amount of food, otherwise it could only find food for itself before it could sleep for a short while. But two big changes happened to Ursa as one year passed. Ursa had recovered its missing arm, and its fur had already turned black, whilst it grew even bigger, Ursa could reach 9 meters tall when standing, and it looked even more natural with its posture.

“Here you are master.”

Agila gave the little turtle to Aeron, as she flew a distance away to eat her catch, the fish meat wouldn’t stay too long before disappearing, so Agila was quick to devour the fish. Aeron accepted the little turtle as it looked back at him, its eyes were filled with curiosity.

“A baby turtle?”

Aeron said, this wasn’t that hard to believe, the turtle would probably be like a full-grown turtle on Aeron’s past world but in Gaia, this little turtle could only be considered a baby, and judging from its curious eyes, it was probably a newly hatched turtle.

“Arthur, get Tom to watch over this turtle, don’t let it wander around too far and bring it to the house before it gets dark.”

Aeron put the baby turtle on the ground, he also took a small fruit then placed it in front of the turtle. The little turtle looked curiously at Aeron before it looked at the small fruit, it had never seen one before which made it even more curious. After a short time of watching the small turtle, seeing that the turtle didn’t have a clue as to what it should do.

“Eat.”

Aeron said while using his skill, which was successful as the small turtle bit the small fruit, its eyes went wide, which to Aeron was very cute, the small turtle quickly munched on the fruit as its eyes would widen and close while it savored the fruit.

“Cute little thing.”

Aeron smiled, Agila had become a huge bird which looked marvelous and beautiful, Arthur had grown taller and more mature, Ursa was cuddly but cute was not something to describe it. Now that Arthur had the small turtle, it should be enough for his ahem, relaxation time.

‘Yup, too much violence is bad for my health.’

Aeron said, he had actually planned to get a small pet, something like those emotional support dog, it didn’t even have to be a tamed beast, the small turtle though not furry, fit the bill. Tom, another brown monkey arrived, Aeron had already named the brown monkeys through the year.

“Your name shall be Terra.”

Aeron said, the name was something he took from his past life, his brother had a pet turtle which was named Terra, in a way it was also a sort of token for Aeron, though his memories of his past family were hazy, he still didn’t want to forget them completely.

“Here Tom, take care of Terra.”

Aeron said as he lifted Terra after it ate its fill, Tom took Terra and walked towards the open area beside the fields.

“Arthur, how about the task I gave you?”

Aeron asked, the whole year had been good overall, the training wasn’t pleasant but it was very fulfilling. If there was something Aeron felt disgruntled about, it was the dreams he would occasionally experience. If it was the past Aeron, then he would’ve felt scared by what he saw, but every time the black figure turned around, Aeron would always be awakened by a loud noise. At first, Aeron thought it was just the stress that left him with these dreams or nightmares, but he started to suspect that it had something to do with Spirit’s disappearance, even to the point where Aeron thought it had something to do with the Governor of Isa. But Aeron set those suspicions aside, he only had a small understanding of Necromancers, in his past life, Necromancers were feared and hated, but in Gaia where power was more important as it was vital towards humanities survival, Necromancers who were usually more powerful than the other Professions were sought after and respected.

Another thing that Aeron took in consideration was the Ironbull Family, even if the Governor of Isa wanted to experiment on something or someone, he still wouldn’t do it on an Ironbull, that would be too counterproductive. This leads Aeron towards another possibility, High-Grade Beasts who were adept in illusion magic or even dream magic if that sort of magic existed. Now, unless the beast was powerful enough to use magic at a very far distance, then it should be close by to cast its spell. Aeron had tasked Arthur to spread the monkeys out, especially the black and silver monkeys to find out if there were a beast playing with Aeron’s dreams.

“I’m sorry master, we have yet to discover any beast going near the area”

Arthur answered, this had actually irritated him as he also felt his master’s discomfort, but he was helpless to discover any beast near them.

“It’s fine, it really might just be my dream”

Aeron said, he was still doubting the Governor and the beast if there ever was one, and if it could use a spell from a very far distance, then it should be powerful enough to kill all of them, but since they were still alive then Aeron might just be reading too much into it. In truth Aeron had experienced something similar in the past, consecutive dreams where he would wake up in sleep paralysis, it had been caused by fatigue, this was the best-case Aeron could compare it with.

“Alright then, one week from now, we’ll start our journey in the Endless Forest”

Aeron said to Arthur, Gerard had visited Aeron once in the whole year, he had assured Aeron that the City was doing nicely, the walls were completed, along with other buildings, and the wolves had yet to show any movements, everything was peaceful. When Gerard suddenly visited, Aeron had to hide his other pets other than Richie, the good thing was that Gerard hadn’t asked for Ursa, nor did he ask how Aeron had become a level 4 at the time. Gerard just congratulated Aeron before leaving some supplies and departing, of course, they were only gifts since Aeron’s tasks had been voided due to the Governor leaving. Still, Gerard told Aeron to send a twitter once he noticed anything weird happening in the Endless Forest. Gerard then took the twitter he sent last time before going back to the City, it was a weird visit actually, but Aeron had seen Gerard’s fatigue so he tried his best to let Gerard relax as they talked about many things.