The sudden disappearance of their boss alerted the other two, but Arthur was there to keep them in check, always attacking, always wounding them.

After just a couple of minutes from Emy’s real departure this time, Arthur found his little friends had already finished their task back there, and the last couple of monsters lay on the ground, burdened by their heavy wounds, unable even to roar.

“It’s time for me to go back, and wrap everything up.”

He smiled as he moved, with the two meat mountains after him, towards the place of his friends. Once there, Tally moved without the need to say a single word, as he welcomed the two aggressively charging bears, receiving them with his shield, and then stepping away to let the others start their carnival.

Arthur stood away from there, as he already exhausted himself a lot, and Madly stood beside him, watching over the ongoing fight. Her care and keenness was appreciated by Arthur, as this was the true traits of a good leader, someone he could depend upon in the future.

He just needed to rest for a bit, with no surprises his friends would kill the monsters here.

Just as the thought stuck him, he helplessly sighed, moved from the place he was sitting at, towards the nearby trees.

“Where are you going?” Madly asked, surprised by his sudden move.

“I have to get the ingredients for the next meal,” he simply replied, in a dejected tone, as he moved slowly towards the forest. Madly silently watched him disappear, refraining from asking to help, as she knew she would only get in his way.

Arthur was tired, but when he recalled the last bad experience in eating the fried meat they made, that bitter taste still lingering in his taste buds, he shook the temptation of rest, preferred to tire himself up and search for suitable ingredients, plus he would also season the monsters’ meat himself.

Eating a decent meal was the biggest reward he could grant himself, not just rest.

So, he strained himself even more, and spent the next half hour looking for good looking weeds and herbs all over the place, anything that had energy flowing in them and its shape were similar to his previous life herbs.

He had no knowledge of this world’s plants, but there were many similarities between the two. he guessed the uses of the herbs and weeds he grabbed, and even tasted some for his convenience. When he finally collected enough, that made him quite satisfied, he returned to the group, finding them surrounding the monsters, watching them with ease, as the monsters were already docile on the ground.

Once reached there, with the fiery looks coming from the little gang, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly. He knew they were waiting for his return, to ask about the most essential thing that kept bothering them all this time.

“You want to absorb hearts like Ouly did?” he asked, as he already read their minds. There were seven monsters there, and they were eight, with one had already his share of the treasure.

“Sure, we all want to be stronger, like Ouly,” Madly said, as she was the first to announce her desire.

“Sure buddy, we all want that,” Ron replied, while waving his hand to each one here.

Arthur sighed, as he said:

“This monster’s strength is essentially defense based, which would help all of you raise your defenses, not speed.”

“Is it bad?” Ron asked, as he sensed something was off here.

“No, but you must understand, raising your defense won’t boost your strength obviously, but it will make you able to withstand attacks that normally would kill anyone,” Arthur explained, before adding, “human body needs certain sorts of powers to exert its strength, defense and speed are just aspects of it, plus strength, intelligence, and vitality. These are the five essential aspects of any human body. to grow your strengths beyond measure, you will need to acquire vital parts of monsters belonging to one of those powers.

To be frank with you, finding a monster for each aspect might be quite problematic, and time consuming. For example, intelligence based monsters are rare, and even vitality based monsters are even rarer.”

His lecture was quite detailed, but it gave them many insights about the strengths of the human body.

“This is the first time I ever heard something like that,” Madly mumbled, as she was a bit confused.

“How do you know all that?” Ron asked, with doubt and amazed eyes.

“I… I don’t know, this information just keeps flowing in my head,” Arthur defended himself by saying these vague words, “just to be cautious, don’t tell anyone, no matter who he is to you, about this info. At least we trust each other, but others might do anything to get strength, even dirty and treacherous acts.”

He was reminded by this point, so he used this chance to stress gently over their secrecy. They nodded in understanding, and he depended on their loyalty to him for keeping his secret.

“Now, we have a choice we must make,” he added, “this monster might be quite remarkable to some of you, if you took it as your inner demon.”

His words startled everyone, but he hurriedly added:

“It’s a defense based monster, but I believe when coupled with you, and becoming an official mage by it, you will gain a boost in strength as well. I think any strength based fighter here will benefit from it, but…”

He paused, as he always knew, everything in this world had its pros and cons.

“But what?” Ron asked, as he was quite interested in this type of monster.