A light stroll

Walking back through the slightly damp forest ground he continued at a slower pace for the rest of the journey to just stop and enjoy the view as a slight mist covered his vision after it had rained last night. Through the year he had ended up eating a lot of the lower leveled meat he had taken from the creatures all over the forest but he ended up ignoring any of the meat that was any higher because he dreaded the after effects if he wasn't prepared. The hellish mind numbing feeling he felt last time was definitely a good enough warning to stop him from doing so again recklessly.

Though he had confirmed a couple of things with all the samples he had tried thankfully.

"First."

whenever he first tried a newer meat didn't it matter if they were from the same subspecies or not he would gain more energy and a stronger craving then anytime afterwards of consuming the same meat once again.

"Second."

The level of the creature plays a big part in the whole system. Whenever he ate lower meat it would always give him only a little amount and if he compared it to the time he ate the Awakened Stage meat they were incomparable. No matter how many different meats he ate the energy they gave past the first one stayed relatively the same give or take. With that figured out he knew he'd have to eat stronger Astral Beasts to get more but he just wasn't ready yet.

"And finally."

If he were to eat meat of an Awakening Stage Wolf and then eat the meat of an Awakened Stage Wolf his first try bonus wouldn't change or get reset. They counted as the same species even with the difference so in the future if he saw a Transformation Stage Crossior species but he knew he could also find a higher stage version of the Beast he had to either decide to use his bonus on the lower leveled one at the time or gamble and try to find the higher tiered one later on.

"haaaaa...if only their wasn't such a thing it could be so much easier."

If he figured that out right away he might of been able to change his plans, but he didn't end up figuring that out until later on and potentially ruined a lot of his further growth by eating stronger versions of the ones he had ate in the forest.

Seeing him sighing and his constantly changing facial expressions the lizard give him a slight slap with her tail as if trying to cheer him up. Thankfully while it might not of completely cheered him up it did snap him out of his bad mindset.

"Thanks."

Slightly rubbing her head he moved on and finally arrived at their home. When he first tried to bring her out of the Myriad Forest she was absolutely opposed to such a thing and refused him for the longest time until recently she finally started to give in and follow him along to his forest area mostly because it wasn't too far from the entrance of the Myriad Forest.

Whenever she noticed him trying she had always avoided or ran away at the time but the more and more closer and attached to him she had gotten the more time she wanted to spend with him and that eventually brought the question to her mind of. "Why don't I leave the forest." For the longest time she had never once had the question pop up in her and never tried herself but finally after all those years of lurking and staying in the peaceful forest it finally appeared to her whenever she saw him leaving without her.

Maybe it was loneliness or a curiosity on what was out there in the world that made it come to mind but whatever it was she wanted to do it. Though it scared her tremendously at first and still does even if she does leave the forest now she would always cling closer to him outside even more than in the forest and slightly stronger as well subconsciously. Where as in the forest she would cling to him but not as much.

But it was a step in the right direction for both of them for her to come out of her shell.

Though there was one time when she was leaving her the forest with him that he forcefully pushed her off like never before and ran out of her sight for a good minute. When that happened she stopped and froze in her tracks and even though she was probably the strongest thing around she still ended up terrified which ended up proving to her that he was her crutch. She didn't hate the thought of it but she knew that it wasn't a good thing in the long run.

After that minute had passed though he all of a sudden ran back to her while apologizing desperately. Though she didn't pay too much attention to it and couldn't even question it if she wanted to she did notice that he seemed to be in slight pain for some reason. But after that it had never happened again so she figured it was probably a one time off kind of thing and let it be after a while.

Watching him clean up the wet leaves and the rest of the more messy grounds in the living room she continued till he was done until rubbing her head against him. After tidying up his surroundings and making sure the area was safe he quickly jumped into the tree where he usually slept and started getting ready for bed.

After spending a year in the forest he had finally gotten use to sleeping at night while keeping vigilance to his surroundings by using his Astral Energy which in turn also helped him be better at concentrating and releasing his energy and using it.

Though the biggest contributor to why he had the ability to do such a thing nowadays was most definitely due to the couple of times he had been attacked in his sleep. After the first Wolf attack he got attacked five more times through the whole year and eventually got sick and tired of it after the second one and even almost lost his life in the third attack. After that he finally put a massive amount of time and effort into fixing his more bad habits and now was able to sleep at night safely without worries and he also ended up being way better in the mornings then he had ever been before but, sometimes he would still take his time just for the sake of it.

"So a year has passed now and I'm getting closer and closer to my goal now. I wonder how long it'll be until I leave this forest and what will I do after leaving?. Though the one thing I long for the most is to find like minded people eventually. But that may or may not be easy as it sounds. One year of practical solitude is even harsher than the days I spent in the Fiery Clan in some ways..."

Though he still made his monthly check in visits to the Fiery Clan for the most part he did it as sneakily as possible and as quickly as he could and, while not everything was bad about the time he had spent in the Myriad Forest he technically still hadn't made a lick of progress towards his goal yet and he still needed to spend more time here.

*sigh*

Exhaling quite loudly he started to slowly drift off into the night so he could be ready for tomorrow's rough day once again.

Though as he was falling asleep she ended up noticing the sadness he was feeling and snuggled up close to him and attempted to comfort him in any way she thought she could. Noticing that brought a slight smile to his face as he drifted off into the darkness known as sleep.