Two Hours of Hunting

The Moonlit Bone was shaped like a crescent moon the size of Lucas' thumb. Like an actual bone, it was also grayish white in color, with few holes around its surface resembling that of biscuits.

Inside the pouch, there were a total of thirteen Moonlit Bones.

Just like what Ethan stated, the Moonlit Bone was really a suitable snack or treat for dog-type beasts.

Even though Spot had never tried this before, he clearly liked it the moment he tasted one.

Unlike wild beasts, contracted beasts do not have to consume food to sustain themselves. 

According to the experts, it was the grimoire itself that provided their needs; hence, there was no need to feed them daily, mitigating the cost for summoners by a large margin.

They can still consume food if they want to, but it was not a requirement, so the summoners could rest easy about it.

Lucas heard that the only time the contracted beasts truly desired to eat was when they sensed that a treasure to help them get stronger was nearby.

It was also due to this reason that summoners were not allowed to contract other beasts with grades higher than their own grimoire. Contracting one grade higher was alright, but contracting two or more would just be detrimental for the beast and the owner. 

If one were to forcefully contract a beast above their grade and level, the beast will die.

Once a contracted beast dies, the owner would also receive damage.

There were even cases where the summoner exploded into a mincemeat as they contracted a severely wounded Gold Grade beast when they only had Silver Grade grimoire, thinking that it was their fortuitous encounter.

The same thing happens when a low-star rank summoner forcefully contracts a creature several star rank or even a major star rank higher than them.

And even if they managed to survive the first ordeal, it would still be hard for them to summon higher-star creatures, as they needed high energy requirements to summon.

No matter how one sees it, it was not beneficial and was only detrimental.

Due to this, it was already an undisputed fact that there was no need to try and contract higher-grade or higher-ranking beasts like said in genius category novels.

A researcher even had some strong words about this.

"You are not the main character!"

Was what he said after various cases of 'main character syndrome' were reported with thousands of casualties around the continent.

Seeing that Spot truly liked the Moonlit Bone, Lucas decided to give it another one.

"Alright, this is the last one for now. You need to eat sparingly; otherwise, you might finish all of the Moonlit Bones in one go."

"I can't afford to buy you more of it, so we need to consume it slowly, okay?"

Woof!

Though the Gentle Dog Spot did not fully understand his words, he still felt sad upon hearing them.

It looked at Lucas and suddenly used Gentle Gaze toward him.

Lucas was taken aback by Spot's action.

"You traitor! Using that skill on your summoner!"

"Alright, last one, last one." In the end, Lucas decided to give in as he really could not stand the cute Gentle Dog paired with Gentle Gaze.

Of course, to avoid being manipulated by his own creature in the future, Lucas decided to set some boundaries in advance.

He could have chosen not to give in, but Lucas decided to give Spot another Moonlit Bone.

"This is a reward for being smart. Using your Gentle Gaze to your advantage, very good," he said with a nod of approval.

"You can also use your Gentle Gaze during a battle to distract your enemy."

Woof?

"Anyway, as long as you continue to behave and be a good boy, I don't mind giving you more snacks. Got it?" Lucas promised.

Woof!

Lucas smiled after seeing that Spot understood his understanding.

Lucas stored the pouch of Moonlit Bones inside the bag as they once again moved to search for another Clip Claw Spider.

The Clip Claw Spiders were numerous in the White Stone Cliff area, as they like to live in such an area where there was a dense forest on one side while the face of the cliff was on the other.

After almost fifteen minutes of searching, Lucas and Spot finally found another Clip Claw Spider.

With the previous experience, Spot killed the Clip Claw Spider with less time compared to the previous battle.

After resting for a few minutes to recover some Spiritual Energy, the two of them continued to hunt.

Two hours later, Lucas and Spot rested under a tree as he looked at his profile page in satisfaction.

[Name: Lucas Valen

Age: 17

Grimoire Grade: Unranked

Rank: Iron Star 1 (99.95/150 XP)

Spiritual Energy: 12/53

Beasts: Gentle Dog]

With an efficiency of 5 kills per hour, Lucas' experience points finally reached 99.95. Only a little more to go, and he would advance to Iron Star 2.

In terms of speed, Lucas thought that this should still be quite fast enough.

Due to Spot being able to fight across star levels and defeat opponents alone, the experience points that Lucas got were still plentiful.

Killing 5 Iron Grade-Iron Star 4 beasts in an hour was definitely unheard of in Twilight City.

Even with a squad, killing 3 beasts in an hour was already impressive enough if the beasts were not clustered together like the Clip Claw Spider.

Hunting does not only involve killing. Every hunt was time-consuming and should not be underestimated.

And after a successful hunt, the squad would still have to divide the experience points they gained according to contribution.

In this regard, although Lucas was at a disadvantage due to his grimoire's grade, he also had his own advantage by hunting alone with a powerful summon like the Gentle Dog.

Even though he only has an Unranked grade grimoire, Lucas still found his advancement speed a little ridiculous.

And he knew that all of this was due to the Hellhound Manifestation skill that he got from the elusive system.

Giving credits where credit was due was only natural.

He does not dare to claim that he was a genius because of such an achievement. If he truly was a genius, wouldn't he have awakened a Gold grade grimoire or even above during the awakening ceremony?

And if he had a Gold-grade grimoire, would he still be at Iron Star 1 now after killing such a number of beasts?

He just wondered when the system would give him another opportunity to use it, though. As of now, the system had gone silent, as if it had not existed in the first place.

After reminding himself to be humble and be aware of his origins, Lucas entered a state of meditation and gradually recovered his Spiritual Energy.

Twenty minutes later, his Spiritual Energy count had recovered to 22.

He could summon Spot for a total of one hour now if he wanted to. Sighing at his slow recovery rate, Lucas was just about to meditate and gain another batch of Spiritual Energy again when his eyes snapped open in alertness after he heard a commotion in the distance.

Lucas stood up from his seat and told Spot to hop on his head before he found a spot to hide.

When summoners ranked up, it was not only their Spiritual Energy that would increase.

Their physical strength would also strengthen along with it, albeit with just a very slight and barely noticeable increase.

When Lucas became an Iron Star 1 summoner, he also felt the increase of his physical strength, along with his sensory organs.

With his slightly increased hearing, Lucas could even tell that the commotion in the distance did not come alone from a single human or beast.

From the looks of it, it was a squad pursuing a beast.

As he hid behind a huge rock situated beneath the cliff, Lucas could not help but recall the seniors who were also pursuing an Ember Molten Ant back then.

Gazing at the distance, Lucas soon saw where the commotion had originated from.