Mad Alpha

The Alpha looked at us in a crazed manner. It leaned all its weight on his back feet. When I saw this I know that it would dash at us.

Zoom

With a speed double that of regular Arboars it flew in our direction. Marco and I jumped to our sides. As pieces of the tree flew around, crashing the tree down.

"Lorenzo, quickly go and help Sheen. Kill the minions first. I'll distract this one, after your down with the minions let's take this one down." Marco commanded.

Pulling out the machete, I rushed in Sheen's direction. Leaving behind Marco to deal with the Alpha.

Marco whipped the rope on the ground and sounds of cracking attracted the Alpha's attention. "Come here boy!" he challenged.

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The Alpha snarled at Marco. It rushed to him while swinging its head. The sharp protruding tusk will likely stab someone if they're hit with it.

Marco rolled to the side, and he then swung his machete. But it only bounced off its body. Its refined muscle plus the hard black fur act like a natural armor. Not even the sharpened machete can cut a single fur.

The Alpha noticed Marco's attacks, it turned its butt to him while putting its weight on its front leg. It tried to kick Marco with its hind legs. Before the kick arrive Marco timed his body to sway back to avoid damaging his arms.

Marco rolled again but this time he was weakening the brunt force of the attack. Also, he's planning to widen their distance. He then stood up pulling out another rope. He securely tied it to a tree.

Holding the other end he whipped the rope to the Alpha's front right leg. The Alpha tried to dodge the rope, but Marco expertly tugs it changing its direction and catching the Alpha's leg.

Lorenzo and Sheen who already killed off the 3 Arboars rushed to help Marco. The two whipped their own ropes at the Alpha's two hind legs while it was distracted. The Alpha whose hind legs were now wrapped too, ran towards Marco planning to take the leader down.

Lorenzo and Sheen who were holding the rope were dragged down by the Alpha's sudden reaction losing their footing. The two looked at each other, sliding on the ground as they both stamped their foot on a tree. They then pulled the rope as the two were able to make a stable footing on the tree.

The Alpha tripped flatly on the ground crashing its body and head. It roared at Marco who was running towards it. The roar was short live as Marco slid down stabbing the roof of the Alpha's mouth and impaling its brain.

Sheen and Lorenzo rushed to the Alpha's body looking at its dead body.

"Thank god that you were able to respond quickly or I'll be battered to death right now." Marco thanked them while panting.

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We bandage Marco's side of his stomach. It was wounded by the Alpha's tusk. Fortunately, it's not that deep or he would be in danger.

"Damn it! It should be on the outskirts of the forest. How can an Alpha wander here?" Marco complained.

"We should return now. It'll get more dangerous when the night arrives," Sheen advised.

We first placed the other Arboars on the cart that I brought. We piled them up to one another. Marco on the other hand pulled out a gourd to collect the Alpha's blood. After that, he cut open the stomach of the beast, removing the Alpha's guts as he searched for something.

After searching for a while, Marco pulled a shiny ball the size of a pinkie nail.

"Sheen here, catch. You told me about trying the Beast Master Cultivation right? This will help you." Marco said.

"Nice one Marco. Didn't know this one has a beast essence inside." Sheen said.

"This beast started cultivating when it became the Alpha. From the look of the beast's essence, it was still young. If its beast essence reaches just 5 years then the situation would be different." Marco concluded.

After gutting the Alpha's body, Marco asked us to help him remove its fur. He said it would be wonderful to make it into leather armor. With that, we carried it to our cart and placed it on top.

Carrying this much baggage was so hard. Marco who was pulling the cart asked for our help because he can't move it an inch. It was too heavy, so we decided to push at the back. We slowly did it and when night came we are still on the road but we can see the lights of the town from our position.

Finally, after expending almost all of our strength we reached the Flambouyancy Restaurant. We park the cart at the back of the restaurant and knock on the door.

"My, my dass a lot. An wazz iz this, an Alpha Arboar? Magnifizent we'll have ze many dried age readi for ze Feztival." Chef Gustonk exclaimed. "ze Here your reward, 28 ether stonez. Iz suppoze to be 10 ether stonez for ze Alpha but only meat left zo here iz 5."

With all my strength expended, I was about to pass out listening to what Chef Gustonk is saying. I hardly get the words his speaking. Maybe because his 2 front teeth are just bigger than normal that his speech is impaired.

Marco said that there was a festival in the town next month. And this type of beast was a favorite of many customers of Chef Gustonk.

We divided the ether stone by 9 and the extra 1 was given to me by Marco and Sheen agreed with him. They said that I need more ether stone than them to reclaim my foundation.

Marco and Sheen told me that they are nearing the purple foundation. They even bought a small version of the urn called foundation plate to check what our current foundations are. When I hold into it, it glowed white. Sadly, the golden foundation that Deniesha and I worked on all became nothing.

There is still a lot of work to do. Marco said that I only have 2 years left to build my foundation. Upon reaching a certain age of 15 the foundation will not build up anymore and all you can do is start stepping on the first level of cultivation. If I don't reach the golden foundation in these 2 years then my future ahead will be arduous.

With my current atman being that of a regular one I doubt I'll reach it just by doing the breathing exercise. So I'm starting to think of other conventional ways that can help me reach it.

Maybe I'll bribe Nullus to help me out, but I doubt that he will approve it.

"I bought our dinner. It is rice and barbeque meat." Sheen said carrying our food wrapped in leaves.

"Let's go to our spot," followed by Marco.

"You guys go and eat first. I'll first go to the town's bookstore," I said.

"What are you going to do?" Marco asked.

I replied, "I want to learn about magic circles. Maybe there is a book about it."

When Sheen and Marco heard this they approved it, even giving me 2 ether stones so that I can save from buying a book. I gifted them a copy of the Sunflower Breathing technique because they're always helping me. To which they gladly accept.

I then said my goodbyes, heading to the bookstore in the center of the town. The bookstore was made of a concrete building, white color with clear glass windows that let you see through the many collections of books on shelves.