Ranking Up
With the caracal dead, Alex now had two mid rank 2 monster cores for his use. He knew that going against late stage monsters would be him biting more than he could chew. It may only be a single stage difference but that single stage was big that couldn't be underestimated.
The essence in a rank 2 mid stage monster core is significantly lower than the one found in a late stage monster core. The difference could be up to two times. A late stage rank 2 monster could easily slaughter five mid stage monsters but the same couldn't be said if the situation was reversed.