Masked Demon Panther

The next morning, Aurus and Laia went out to get their breakfast and they immediately left for the tamed monster station. This station was close to the different exits of the city and they would loan a monster for a certain duration. The monsters were tamed and Hunters would be able to loan them in order to travel great distances.

Although they had no combat power, they were extremely useful for transportation. This was basically the transportation service outside of the safe zones in this world.

As he leaves the foothold, a screen appears in front of him and he notices that it was a task.

[Task: Kill 100 monsters.

Reward: Monster icon.]

Lifting an eyebrow, he really couldn't tell what this icon would help him do. All of the other icons were useful one way or another. However, he really couldn't tell what it would be used for. Figuring he would find out when he killed all of those monsters, he continued on his road to the lair of the Masked Demon Panther lair. Indeed, Laia had chosen such a monster as her first contracted beast. While they were bronze level, they were at the limit of it and they were close to breaking through the iron level beast.

Such a monster was the strongest in the surroundings of this foothold in the bronze rank and if not for Aurus becoming stronger, she would have settled on a weaker monster like some kind of bird.

"Brother, you are sure you can't find another bird-like Zaya right?"

Right, the previous day, she had started by asking if it was possible to find a monster like Zaya but she had been utterly disappointed when she heard that Zaya was extremely rare or even unique in this world.

"Yes, sorry. I'm certain we won't be able to find a Phoenix. Getting Zaya and contracting with her was only because I had a lot of luck that day." Although Aurus didn't say all the truth, it was indeed true that he had a lot of luck that day.

When he was thinking about all the lucky things he had received since he appeared in this world, he was starting to wonder whether or not he was the protagonist of this world.

"Alright, thanks anyway brother!" She said while hugging Aurus from behind while they were riding on the green wolf that they had loaned for five crystals.

With a wry smile on his face, he merely continued to control the green wolf to go to the right destination. Aurus estimated they would arrive around two or three hours later if they didn't meet too many beasts on their way to the beast lair.

Indeed, two and a half hours later, they finally arrived at the misty demon forest. This name had been granted to the forest since it was misty all year long from morning till night. As for the demon in the name, it was because of the Masked Demon Panther.

Getting down from the green wolf which would be waiting here for them, they slowly walked in the forest, Zaya was used as a scout and she had the job to find a Masked Demon Panther for them to beat up and catch.

It was the first time he hunted in this world but with his experience in the world of Ernia, he wasn't scared or surprised by this environment. While the monsters in this world relied more on cultivation than skills, it merely meant that the beast had a stronger body which meant, he just had to beat it up a little bit more.

With a confident smile on his face, he walked towards the forest.

"Laia, you will be walking behind me and you will stay close alright? When Zara finds the location of the beast you want, we will beat him up and bring it back to Crayna city."

As for the green wolf which was left at the entrance of the forest, they didn't have to worry about it. Green wolf was strong in hiding its own body and with the smell of humans close to it, most monsters would ignore it. After all, for a monster, a human body was a delicacy. It was way better to eat a human than a fellow monster.

Around five minutes later, Zaya came back from her flight and she landed on Aurus's shoulder. She turned her head and pointed in a certain direction with her beak. Understanding her meaning, he started to walk in that direction while Zaya kept a close look for monsters.

As they made their way, they often encountered other monsters such as the Three-Headed Sparrow and the six-armed marionette. These were just the two most common monsters they met on their way and Aurus still managed to kill all of them. With all of these sacrifices, he killed a total of 63 monsters and with 37 left, he figured he would kill them on his way back as he finally arrived at the Masked Demon Panther lair.

Their lair was a big word as it was simply a territory of their tribe which other monsters wouldn't trespass on. Their territory was around five-kilometre in circumference and there was a pond in the middle of it. Moreover, there were trees growing on the edge of the territory but only on the edge as the rest of the territory was flat land with some holes here and there where they would sleep at night.

Coming closer, Aurus had a simple plan to take care of the beast. He would have Zaya 'intimidate' the monsters just like she had done with the black iron rhinoceros. Then, if it worked, he would merely go to one of them, capture it and bring it back. It really wasn't difficult but he didn't know if the previous rhinoceros was only just weak-willed or if Zaya was indeed able to give pressure to all the beasts near her level.

"Alright, Zaya, go and give everything you've got."

Hearing his words, Zaya flew up and entered the Masked Demon Panther territory. All of the monsters seemed to have felt her presence at the same time as they all gathered outside and showed their teeth.

The Masked Demon Panther were completely black with red streaks starting from both of their eyes and reuniting in the middle of both eyes. Then, the red streak went from there to the end of their tail. Moreover, normally a Masked Demon Panther only had a single line but they were different from the rest of the monsters as from the moment they completed a kill, a new red line appeared from their body starting from the original one. As such, the more red lines the monster had, the more kills they had and in the tribe of Masked Demon Panthers, this was how they showed their strength. By the number of lines on their body.

There was a rumour from this race of monster. It was said that as long as they managed to completely change their black fur into red, they would be able to evolve. Although it had never been proven before, it was a well-known myth.

As Zaya gave her cry, all of the beasts started to tremble in fear and when Aurus followed by entering the territory, the monsters didn't even dare to move. Confirming it was safe, he asked Laia who was still outside of their territory which monster she preferred.

"I like the third one in the second line." As Aurus pointed to one of them, she continued: "No, two on the left. Right, this one!" It wasn't easy as they weren't exactly standing in a line.

The monster Laia had chosen was a baby Masked Demon Panther which had no extra line on its black fur but the one single line in the center of its body.

Confirming it was indeed the right one, Aurus didn't waste any more time and brought it out from the pack. While the other beasts were looking at him with anger, they didn't even dare to stop him as Zara was looking at them.

Normally when people came to capture a beast for someone close to them, they would bring a cage on a carriage and they would need multiple people just to take care of the carriages. It would be more complicated and not as easy to leave if they were attacked. However, with the help of Zaya, it wasn't so complicated anymore. He only had to knock it out and Zaya would be able to transport it. They had indeed prepared a cage back at the house but they didn't bring it in the wild.

While others would also be able to transport knocked out beasts from the air to bring them back there were several restrictions coming with it. The first one would be that from the moment it woke up from its knocked-up state, it would be dangerous to the flying contracted beast while it would also be dangerous not being able to control it if they were to get down. The second restriction was just like Laia had done and they could only take small panthers or babies as they wouldn't be able to transport bigger ones through the air due to the weight. The only reason they could do that was due to the active suppression of Zaya on other beasts close to her level and her superior strength. And even then, they weren't certain if it would work and Aurus had another plan to take care of the baby panther if it was needed.

Having taken care of everything, they went back in their way and ten minutes later, they were back on the green wolf while the baby panther was in between the claws of Zaya as she flew through the air. Luckily, it didn't seem to be very heavy as she was still agile while flying.

Running back on their way, the travel on the way back was pretty easy as they had killed most of the monsters on their way to the forest.

However, just as they were halfway back, a monster appeared in front of them. Looking closely, Aurus noticed that it was an iron level monster, this was exactly the rank of monster he needed to kill in order to breakthrough from bronze to iron rank.

Seeing this, he got down from the green wolf and had Laia leave first since he could only complete his kill as long as he was completely alone or with his contracted beast.

Of course, he wasn't very scared. Zaya followed Laia for a short while and dropped the Masked Demon Panther to the ground, knocking it out again before going back to Aurus. At the same time, Aurus and the iron ranked beast was staring at each other. They were quite far from each other and from this far he couldn't tell which monster it was. As such, he used his identification skill and looked over its information.