Tiresome

Immediately, Mooglie raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, and Tom lowered the spear in his hands.

"That was a good fight," Tom said, a smile on his face.

A few seconds later, Mooglie went to help Matour get up, supporting him as they walked back to the branch they had made their home.

Once they were back on the branch, Tom assumed a meditative position, feeling proud of his progress since arriving in this forest. He reflected:

'I've made significant strides since arriving in this forest. When I first got here, I could barely handle one Wisemonkey, but now I can take on two at once.'

'But it's still not enough. I need to become much stronger if I want to protect myself when I return to Earth. Besides, I still have no idea what problem I'm supposed to solve in this world to return,' Tom thought.

He had been sent to this world to address an issue, but so far, he hadn't figured out why he was here.

What Tom didn't know was that, due to a certain someone, he was sent in a world he wasn't supposed to be in.

***

"Hmm... what's going on?" Tom asked as Mooglie shook him to bring him out of his meditation. Lately, when he meditated, he lost all awareness of the outside world, and it was up to his subordinates to wake him if something happened.

After he woke up, Mooglie didn't say anything but pointed to the mountaintop.

"Already coming?" Tom asked. They were only a day after his battle with Mooglie and Matour, and according to their estimates, the next member wasn't supposed to arrive for another two days.

'But it seems they've decided to accelerate things. Well, that's fine,' Tom thought as he got up.

"I'll go welcome our guest. I'll be back shortly," Tom said to his subordinates.

One might say he was overly confident in his strength, but after the battle yesterday, could he not think he could defeat a single opponent when he had already beaten two?

He became even more certain of his victory when he saw the weapon his opponent carried.

The weapon the Wisemonkey descending possessed was a bow and arrows.

Thanks to his time astralum, Tom was the natural enemy of anyone skilled in long-range combat. The outcome of their battle ultimately proved him right.

Though his opponent was highly skilled with the bow—able to fire up to five arrows in barely three seconds, each with astonishing precision—he simply couldn't touch Tom throughout the entire fight.

Tom used his time astralum to slow down some arrows and divert them from their trajectory. However, for particularly dangerous ones, he had to completely stop them, depleting his etherium reserve.

But despite this, Tom managed to close in on his opponent. Yet, to his surprise, when Tom was just a few meters away, the Wisemonkey dropped his bow and adopted a combat stance.

It was at that moment that Tom understood why this opponent had a higher level than Matour and Mooglie. This Wisemonkey was an expert in long-range combat.

However, he was also a master of close-quarters combat, which Tom hadn't expected and resulted in well-placed strikes on certain parts of his body.

But despite it all, Tom emerged victorious, using whatever means necessary in the process.

However, unlike Matour and even Mooglie, after his defeat, the Wisemonkey didn't lose consciousness.

Recognizing his defeat, he bowed himself before Tom and became his subordinate.

Tom also experienced an enhancement in his abilities due to his bloodline.

Together, the new subordinate and the master descended the mountain.

'Hmm... enhanced precision. That explains why he uses and is so skilled with the bow,' Tom thought when he observed the characteristics of his new subordinate, Marud.

Marud possessed an astralum that allowed him to increase his precision.

'If it weren't for my ability to stop arrows in mid-flight, he would have been a formidable opponent,' Tom thought, knowing the danger of such an astralum in the hands of someone with good control of their etherium.

"I think it's time to build a shelter on the ground instead of all of us staying on this branch," Tom told his subordinates once he had returned with Marud.

***

Several days passed after Marud joined the group. During this time, Tom and his subordinates had constructed several tents for each of them.

Of course, they didn't spend all their time on this; they also trained, often individually or as a group, with Tom sometimes fighting all three of his subordinates at once.

However, this time, unlike the previous ones, the next member of the Wisemonkeys was sent only a week after Tom's battle with Marud.

The Wisemonkey sent was two levels higher than Marud, indicating that the higher-ups had learned from their mistakes and understood that sending a stronger individual was the better choice.

This Wisemonkey was especially dangerous due to possessing a powerful Astralum that allowed him to increase the size of certain parts of his body.

Tom's battle against such an opponent was quite perilous; he almost lost several times because not only was the Astralum of his opponent dangerous, but he also knew how to use it effectively.

Fortunately, thanks to his frequent training, where he fought his other subordinates, Tom managed to defeat this adversary as well.

The enhancement he received after this Wisemonkey pledged his service was also more potent than all the others. Tom realized this was because this Wisemonkey, compared to Mooglie and all the others, was closer to level 2.

Three days later, two Wisemonkies appeared, one being the one who was just a rank above Marud, following the hierarchy, and the other being one rank above Tom's last subordinate, Migr.

This time, however, Tom didn't fight alone, as the opponents arrived too early, and he had barely recovered. So, he had to fight together with Migr to defeat them.

Once they were vanquished, two more descended from the mountain three days later, followed by another two after their defeat, and then three more when the previous ones didn't return.

The time between each Wisemonkey sent was becoming shorter, to the point where two Wisemonkeys descended per day.

"Sigh... it's really starting to become tiresome," Tom remarked.