I've decided to stay with the wolves. They live in an ideal area, a river is only a mile away and there are fruit trees growing by the bank of it. That means really good hunting grounds.

The wolves themselves are pretty good too. They are strong for normal animals. There are six wolves in the pack. They've already welcomed me into their pack, so I think I'll stay. They're even letting me be leader, because I'm stronger than them.

If I work really hard maybe I can help them get really strong, they might even be able to become spirit beasts. That would be awesome. A super strong pack of spirit beasts, the rulers of the forest, kings of the mountain.

They could help me in my search for mother. Plus they fed me while I had a fever, so helping them get stronger is a good way to repay them. I nod to myself; yes that's what I'll do.

I spin around to look back into the cave. The wolves are lying down, enjoying the cool shade. I begin to gesture and growl to convey what I want them to do. The gist of which is something like 'become stronger, spirit beasts, sense self, find energy'.

They seem to understand me, and sit up, closing their eyes. After a few minutes some of them look at me in defeat. I tell them to keep trying. Their patience runs out after a few hours. None of them could even sense their second energy.

Why not? Hmm, they probably don't have enough second energy to sense. Muu, what should I do? Even if they train physically, without infusing energy into your body it won't ever get strong, energy is needed even for physical growth.

Wait... Mother said that eating spirit beast will help me grow, because their meat has a lot of second energy. Eating them increases the energy in your pool, and infuses it into your body naturally.

Maybe if the wolves eat lots of spirit beasts their energy pool will grow and it will help their physical growth until they can use second energy to do so themselves! Genius, this will be perfect. Hunting strong enemies makes you stronger, and eating them does too. Hahaha, we will rule the forest!

I tell the wolves my new plan, 'hunt spirit beast, eat, and gain strength'. They look at me like duh. I clarify, 'become spirit beast'. They like the idea, but they are reluctant considering their strength.

They say the weak usually stay weak, and they know that most spirit beasts are stronger than them. Looking at each other, they try to decide whether or not they should. In a huff, I stomp my foot to regain their attention. I ask about the weakest spirit beast in the area.

It turns out they are large rabbits with a single horn. This is ridiculous. They're afraid of rabbits, their natural prey? The wolves sense my chagrin, and look at each other sheepishly, which is ironic for wolves. They're not very smart are they?

*Sigh* I tell them to bring me to the rabbits. I'll have to fight them myself and then teach them to fight. The wolves bring me up the mountain until it levels out. The mountain has some rings of flat land around it, and the farther up you go the stronger the spirit beast get.

No spirit beasts live below this first ring or within five miles of the base of the mountain, they stay within the jungle. On a side note, the forest around the mountain lives in a temperate weather and is very spacious. As normal animals the wolves live around the base of the mountain, for safety.

This ring of the mountain begins as a wide field. The rabbits can be found in the short grass, and they are far enough apart that the others won't notice our hunting.

The rabbits themselves are a little bigger than half my size and their horns are 6 inches long. They're just wandering around placidly eating grass though. This should be easy. I have the wolves climb up a boulder which is conveniently placed to see the surrounding area.

They'll watch me as I fight. Confidently, I swagger up to a rabbit. I'll need to fight on all fours for the wolves to be able to copy my fighting. I growl, and the rabbit notices me immediately.

The rabbit keeps turning to follow me as I circle. I get ready to pounce on it, but unexpectedly it charges at me first! I throw myself out of the path of its charge, it almost skewered me!

The rabbit was much more aggressive than I thought it would be. I wasn't surprised by the speed though; I could sense that they were pretty strong. Mother already taught me how to protect myself on both four legs and two. She would let me fight her too; she went easy on me though.

That's why I'm confident. As soon as the rabbit passes me I spin around and pounce on it. I dig my sharp fingernails into its sides and bite its neck from behind. It starts bucking and kicking, which is no joke. Getting kicked by it seriously hurts. I cycle my second energy to heal and reinforce my body.

Taking it from the side might have been a better idea... I keep my hold on its throat until it stops moving. Before letting go completely I check to see if it's really dead. It is. I carry its carcass back to the wolves and we share its meat. Definitely more delicious than normal animals.

The wolves dig into it like they're starving; I guess it's their first time eating spirit beast meat. Now that they've gotten a taste of it the wolves are much more eager to fight. I make them watch me hunt a few more times before I let them hunt.

Attacking the side of the rabbit is much less dangerous, but takes better timing. I have the wolves hunt in pairs. One will taunt the rabbit while the other lays in ambush. By the end of the day we manage to hunt eight more rabbits. I had to watch the wolves in case they messed up, and it's a good thing I did.

Only one wolf didn't get kicked, and two got poked by a horn. There were quite a few close calls which I had to save them from. We ate the rabbits on the Boulder and then head to the river. We don't want the smell of blood in our cave.

After we've washed, we head back to the cave. *Yawn* we’ve done a good days work. It takes a few hours to get to and from the rabbit plains. It's good for speed and endurance training.

The wolves will keep practicing their team work for two week or until each team can hunt ten rabbits a day, and then we'll start hunting individually. Our goal will be fifteen rabbits each daily. After that we can start hunting stronger monsters. *Yawn* I'm good at planning. With a sleep smile I fall asleep surrounded by the wolves' warmth.