Deep in a marshy sector of the forest, Jayden finally found higher ranked beasts: two D-Rank Tremor Gators occupying a flat clearing that had been partially torn up by their own previous activity.

He moved in first, letting out a bit of his Beastlord Aura.

The gators felt it, but they didn’t submit. They turned toward him...both of them, heads orienting with the flat, ancient attention of reptiles that had no instinctive framework for backing down. The aura pressed on them and they leaned into it, scales flattening, mouths opening slightly in a threat display that was entirely genuine.

They completely held their ground. Their higher rank features gave them just enough willpower to resist instantaneous submission.

"Looks like we have to beat them into submission, then," Jayden muttered. Then he turned to his six beasts.

"Attack!"

The six E-Rank beasts surged forward instantly.

The Tremor Gators were powerful, capable of snapping a Howler in half with one bite, but they were vastly outnumbered. The Stalker acted as the tank, absorbing the brunt of their thrashing, while the Howlers darted in to tear at the gators’ softer underbellies and joints.

The fight was brutal and prolonged. Jayden stood at the edge of the marsh, hands in his pockets, simply watching. Eventually, the two gators were battered, bleeding from dozens of minor wounds, and exhausted.

Jayden stepped forward. He unleashed the full, active force of his Beastlord Aura, his eyes flashing amber.

"Submit. Or die," he said coldly, his voice laced with authority.

Crushed by their injuries and the overwhelming pressure, the gators finally yielded, lowering their massive snouts into the mud.

[Taming Requirements Met]

[Would you like to tame: Tremor Gator 1 (E-Rank)?]

[Would you like to tame: Tremor Gator 2 (E-Rank)?]

[Yes / No]

Jayden accepted, and tamed both, the system chiming with a follow up confirmation. He now had a small army of eight beasts, creatures arranged around him in various states of rest and alertness.

It was time to organize them.

He opened his Subpack interface, planning to add the beasts to his pack. But he discovered he only had six available slots, which meant he had to be selective.

He looked at his beasts and considered each one with the particular attention of someone making a decision that had real consequences.

After a while, he made his decision on which beasts to add to the pack.

He chose the two D-Rank Tremor Gators first, they being the highest ranked among them, and the most direct contribution to pack strength.

Then he chose one Howler... the one with the highest Hp among all five, indicating it was closest to ranking up.

Finally, he picked the Wolverine Stalker, giving it the honor as his first tamed beast, and also because its HP reading was anomalous for an E-rank beast... inflated in the way that meant it was getting close to the next rank.

He added the four beasts to the Subpack, leaving his two remaining slots open for future, higher-tier acquisitions.

[Pack members: 8/10]

[+8% Permanent Stat Boost has been added to all stats for adding four new pack members]

A warm, sudden glow enveloped the four selected beasts. They each felt a deep connection to Jayden and an even stronger urge to obey him.

The effect on the Wolverine Stalker was even more profound. The pack bond boost pushed its physical metrics past the threshold, triggering a rank up.

A blinding white light suddenly enveloped the creature. After a few seconds, the light dimmed, leaving the Stalker looking brand new. Its wounds had completely vanished, and its underlying aura felt noticeably denser and more lethal.

[Alert! One of Host’s tamed beast has ranked up]

Jayden chuckled. He was right after all, about the Wolverine Stalker being close to ranking up. But then he looked at the beast, expecting it to have physically changed, but it looked the same, with no apparent transformation.

Jayden frowned. "Why didn’t it evolve into a Greater Wolverine Stalker?" he pondered.

[Evolution isn’t guaranteed at the rank threshold] Luna’s voice chimed in his mind. [For Wolverine Stalkers, full evolution to the greater form requires an accumulation of core energy. It might take weeks, or even months, for it to naturally evolve after reaching D-rank]

"Months?" Jayden thought, staring deeply at the Wolverine Stalker. "I don’t have months." The faster his beasts grew, the better their chances of surviving and serving him.

He opened his inventory and materialized a dozen E-Rank beast crystals he had farmed from Howlers over the past few weeks. Since he had no specific use for the crystals he decided to invest them in the Wolverine Stalker.

He tossed the crystals onto the ground in front of the Stalker. "Eat," he commanded.

The beast eagerly obeyed and crunched through the hardened crystals, swallowing the raw energy with ease. It consumed them methodically, one by one, with the unhurried efficiency of a creature that understood what was being given to it.

Jayden watched it work through the last one and let out a satisfied sigh. "That should speed up the evolution process," he noted. Then he pocketed his hands and began walking away.

"Come on," he said to his little army, ordering them to follow him. "Our work’s just begun."

They walked deeper into the forest, and with his Subpack formed, Jayden shifted his focus from taming to hunting. And the afternoon became its own kind of training exercise

They encountered a group of five E-rank tremor gators twenty minutes later in a lower stretch of the forest, clustered around a waterway.

Jayden paused. Then he turned to his beasts. "You four. Kill them," he ordered his four Subpack members to execute the gators, telling the other four to stand down.

The four pack beasts went in. The remaining four watched from the perimeter, a held reserve, understanding the command without needing it explained twice.

The fight was efficient. The tremor gators were outmatched by the combination of three D-rank beasts and a vicious Howler, all working together. The Stalker tore through the E-Rank gators with terrifying ease, aided by the others. And within five minutes, the five tremor gators were dead.

[+30 Exp Received]

[+30 Exp Received]

[+30 Exp Received]

[+30 Exp Received] 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

[+30 Exp Received]

[Exp: 6,010/6700]

Jayden smiled. One hundred and fifty experience points from a fight he hadn’t participated in. He stood with his arms crossed and felt the quiet satisfaction of a system working exactly as intended.

The passive Exp farm formation was a success.

Without needing an order, the Wolverine Stalker dragged the massive, bloody corpses of the gators to Jayden’s feet.

Jayden dismissed the prompt to absorb their Beast Energy, allowing the five crystals to automatically materialize in his inventory instead.

Then he looked at the five corpses arranged before him. He didn’t have much use for them so he gave all his eight beasts the command to eat them, to gain some additional stats.

As they feasted, Jayden

remembered a conversation he’d had with Luna weeks ago.

"Hey, Luna," he called out mentally. "You once mentioned that eating raw beast meat would be effective for me, right?"

[Correct] Luna replied. [Because of your Lycan physiology, you possess the digestive and metabolic traits of an apex predator. Consuming beast meat, particularly raw meat, yields significantly higher stat gains for you than it would for a standard human]

Jayden looked at the muddy, mangled Tremor Gator corpses and grimaced. He wasn’t about to eat raw reptile out of the dirt.

Instead, he opened his inventory and pulled out a large, vacuum-sealed slab of premium, processed C-Rank beast meat he had won from the school tournament weeks ago. He had been saving it for a special occasion, but right now, he needed to test the power gain.

He tore open the packaging. The meat was deep red, marbled with thick veins of energy-rich fat. He hesitated for a second, then took a large bite.

Then he chewed and swallowed. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it didn’t taste rotten.

Just then, the system chimed.

[Item Consumed: C-Rank Beast Meat (Raw)]

[+5 Strength Gained]

[+10 Stamina Gained]