Cero!
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Taming of [A Grade] Andesite Abyssal Cerotidae complete! EXP +1000
First Cerotidae tamed: EXP +100
Taming the ceroditae has provided you with the skill: [Berserker's Charge lvl 5]
Do you want to learn the skill?
Cost: 25 Control points.
Balance: 1.75 Control points.
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[You have levelled up! 2 unallocated Stat points awarded!]
"Yeah, learn the skill and use up my last remaining points. No thanks." Zok mumbled and closed the window and went to check up on the Ceroditae.
Just like it had happened with Kaira, the Cerotidae's injuries were healed in a fraction of a second and now the newest member of his team was standing back on his feet. Now that Zok was standing face to face with the beast, it truly looked marvellous. Just the sheer size of the beast was enough to overshadow Zok and even Kaira.
Also, now that the beast had been successfully tamed, the Ceroditae appeared to be calmer than before. Zok didn't know how could anything change a creature's mood as easily as this. But he wasn't complaining. Now that everything had been resolved Zok wanted to see the stats of the beast he had captured.
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Basic Information:
Name: <Unnamed>
Age: 1.2 years
Species: Andesite Abyssal Cerotidae
Gender: Male
Level: 17
Exp needed to level up: 0/18000
Stats:
HP: 4700/4700
Strength: 35
Defence: 86
Stealth: 0
Stamina: 89
Agility: 45 (Increases up to 65 while charging at a target.)
Accuracy: 50%
The beast is evolvable.
Unallocated Stat points: 0
Would you like to name your familiar?
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"Name him huh... How about... Cero?"
The beast snorted loudly as soon as Zok uttered his new name.
[The creature has taken a liking to the name.]
"What's up with these stats... I knew Cero would be strong but I never realised his level was even higher than mine. What a great catch!" Zok mumbled while checking Cero's stats, "I hate to admit it, but he is better than Kaira in every aspect, except his agility and stealth. But that is the reason why I have to tame different types of monsters to help me out. Right Cero?"
[You have not established a Hivemind connection with your familiar <Cero>. Would you like to do so now?]
"Please do!"
[Processing... connection has been successfully established. You can now give commands to <Cero> using the psychic link.]
[Skill: Hivemind has been upgraded to Level 4. New perk unlocks at level 5.]
"Oh! I'm getting a bunch of good news. I have wasted enough time already. Shall we go and see what can you do, Cero?"
Cero snorted once again. He too was excited to start the new phase of his life just like Zok had. With both Kaira and Cero by his side, Zok no longer had to be worried about his safety. For now, having the two of them was enough for him. But he needed to collect some control points, and if he couldn't do that, the least he could do was to level up and gain some unallocated points to be later used as control points or to increase his other stats.
"It's time to hunt down the stronger beasts!"
***
Two days had passed since Zok tamed Cero. Since then, the trio had been hunting in the region known as the Beastly glades of the Wilderness. This was a territory even the Zukiras rarely visit and they had sufficient reason to be cautious of this place. For starters, the beasts found in this region were much stronger than the beasts they were used to fighting against.
The appearance of Cerotidae marked the beginning of this territory. But the Cerotidae were in no way the strongest beasts of this region. In the two days, Zok and his familiars have been hunting, level 15 was the lowest level beast they had found.
The higher level of these beasts was the reason the tribe rarely stepped foot in this region. Considering they were having a hard time taming Kaira who was around level 8 at the time, it was obvious they wouldn't come chasing after him there even if they knew he was hiding there.
Thus, not only hunting the beasts in the glades was helpful for the Zok and his familiars to level up, but they could also live without any worry of the tribe or the shamans finding them there. In other words, the Beastly Glades was just the place where Zok belonged.
Another point to note was the lack of predators in that certain region. Almost all of the beasts Zok had encountered there were herbivorous and usually minded their own business. However, that didn't mean they were easy to kill.
In fact, Zok soon realised why the predators never preyed on them... because most of the beasts lived in large groups and attacking them was equivalent to courting death. Zok had already made that mistake once by attacking a group of Cerotidae to level up faster and was never likely to make the same mistake ever again.
However, there was a situation Zok hadn't expected to happen. Since Cero was now a member of his party, the exp he gained by killing monsters was divided into three equal parts and not two. Thus making it a bit difficult for Zok to level up.
Thankfully, they were living in an area with high leveled beasts, so even the divided exp he earned was much more than what he would have earned otherwise. It was only thanks to that, he had almost caught up to Cero in terms of levels while Kaira was trailing behind him by a couple of levels. His life was looking good and he was finally able to sleep more peacefully without worrying about predatory beasts to attack him.
The only thing he had been wondering about was the lack of the involvement of the one who gave him his blessing. Zok hadn't received another notification about the depraved one ever since killing those Henchmen and he didn't know whether it was a good thing or not. However, while he was thinking about all that, something happened.
He saw a flash of light similar to the one he had seen when the Arachnid's cave appeared. He wanted to ignore it as his past experience inside the cave hadn't been the best. But just out of curiosity, he decided to check it out. If there were white markings on the cave he would simply leave. What was the harm in that, right?