It didn"t take very long for them to reach the first area after leaving the site of future James Town. They only had to walk a mile or so past the territory into the place blocked off by the mountains. The very first section that they came across after entering was the level forty-five area. It was a basic forested location like most places they had come across up to this point, but the main difference was the large amount of brush in the forest. All in all the trees were rather short in comparison to other areas they had been to before and it almost looked similar to how forest used to look before the changes. tThe foliage up above was too thin to completely block out the sun and the trees were to spread apart to actually get in the way as they walked through the forest. The only true annoyance in the place was the large amount of brush that came up to Lilly"s waist wherever they went. Luckily there were sections that were vacant of these plants, but it forced them to have to either cut through them or slowly work their way around them all of the time. If they hadn"t been enhanced by the system at this point it would have been a very tiring endeavor to try to force their way through the forest.
t"So, I guess we"re going to explore this place a little bit before moving on to the area you want to train at right?" Lilly asked while tilting her head. She had already put Tank away so that they could move through the area at a far faster pace than before. Cinder on the other hand had shrunk down in size to a similar size as Jade as she jumped from tree to tree scouting out the area for them a bit.
t"Yeah, we"ll map the place out a bit and try to find the dungeon before moving on. I don"t plan on actually taking on the dungeon though this time around. We"ll save it for Jayce, Julia, and the others so that they can grind it and get some good gear." Joshua explained, but then thought of something else before continuing. "We can also tame some of the local beast in the area for the moment. We"re not training against these guys all that much anyways so taming some to protect the base should be a good idea. h.e.l.l maybe you"ll find something you want to keep around yourself."
t"Yeah, it"s not so bad now that I have something else to help me take care of them. I was worried about that becoming a problem in the future. Even if I can keep an infinite amount of creatures in my soul realm I still have to feed and take care of them if I want not only their loyalty, but also want them to continue to grow stronger." Lilly said. "I wonder what type of beast are in this forest. Based off of how simple it is I highly doubt any super powerful creatures live in the area that we should be aware of. Have you sensed anything with your aura yet?"
t"Not yet, but if there was some sort of powerful creature in the nearby area like Cinder or something I would have sensed them ages ago. It seems like most of the beast in this location are fairly simple. We"d probably have to go to the dungeon of this area if we wanted to find any actual tough enemies to go up against this time around." Lilly simply nodded to his response as they pushed forward further into the forest to see if they could attract the attention of any of the beast that live in the area.
tWhen they got far enough into the forest that Joshua figured they were getting close enough to run into other beast he started to use his aura pulse to check out his surroundings. For a while he didn"t see anything but after a few minutes a group of figures started to appear in the distance in large amounts. They weren"t surrounding them by any means, but they were clearly spread out all throughout the forest. They were in packs that hung out together as they moved throughout the place and hunted for food. Joshua could also sense creatures that were similar to the rabbits that he had seen in the beginner area, but those were clearly the weaker opponents in the area based off of the small amount of aura they were giving off.
tJoshua waved at Lilly to tell her to follow him as he quietly made his way through the forest in the direction of the nearest group of the creatures that he could find. He made sure to keep himself hidden as they closed in and Lilly had a rabbit out to help hide their presence even more. When they got close enough to see what they were up against Joshua was a little surprised at what he saw and had to keep himself from laughing a bit. He was expecting a pack of wolves or coyotes or something incredibly threatening, but instead he was met with something that was almost too silly not to laugh at. In front of him was a pack of dogs, but these weren"t wild dogs or anything threatening like that. No instead it was a pack of mismatched domestic dogs that ranged from intimidating German Shepherds too far less intimidating poodles. He could even see a wiener dog struggling to keep up with the rest of the group.
tLilly was looking at them stunned at the fact that there was literally a herd of domesticated dogs just running around the forest like they owned the place. Now that Joshua knew what he was sensing with the aura pulse he was certain that all of the signatures he was sensing around the forest were similar dogs that were hunting for their next meal. Even though these dogs were descendants of domesticated dogs they had clearly been hunting in the wild for a long time as they traveled in packs. Their bodies also proved that they had changed a great deal since the world changed. They weren"t small defenseless creatures, instead the largest of the group was as big as a horse while the smallest were still at least donkey size.
tJoshua made sure to observe them before trying to figure out how he was going to handle the situation going forward. When he observed them they were simply called domesticated dogs with their breed at the end of the name. He noticed they all were in the level range of forty-one up to forty-three with the highest level one clearly being the pack leader. He also noticed they were all two stars with the leader being a three star creature. "Well looks like we know what type of creatures we"ll be up against in this area." Joshua said through the party chat so that the alert dogs wouldn"t notice them.
t"They"re so cute! Can we tame them please? I know I won"t be able to use them all while exploring, but they can help defend the base alongside the other stuff we already have." Lilly asked excitedly. She had all sorts of ideas going through her head as she looked at the dogs. Living in a veterinarian family for so long had clearly had its side effects.
t"Well that"s the plan. It would help to have beast that are able to scout the area around our territory throughout the day in packs. Wolves or dogs would be the obvious choice for that." Joshua seemed to mumble through the voice chat. "Considering wolves are probably higher level if that guardian beast was a good example I highly doubt we"ll be taming any of them any time soon so this seems like our next best bet. Can they evolve any further?"
t"All of them can if trained properly, but they don"t have as much potential as even Jade does. The pack leaders have more potential than the rest, but that"s probably because they can control the others in the group." Lilly explained.
t"Well then we"ll need to tame them in groups since individually they aren"t as worthwhile. I"ll go beat them into submission then you come in and tame them. I"ll make sure not to be too harsh." Joshua said with a smile before he leaped out of the brush and charged towards the nearest dog. Before it could even react Joshua punched it hard in the head knocking it out cold. He had already had his aura shroud on the moment he charged over and the power he was giving off put all of the other dogs on edge. They had seen how easily Joshua had taken out one of their own and now they were growling threateningly towards him.
tThe pack leader was a large German shepherd that glared at him before letting out a bark that got all the other dogs in line. Then with another bark they charged over in a formation that allowed them to weave around each other. Joshua was impressed by their teamwork as he was forced on the defensive. The dogs didn"t seemed to have anything special about them in the way that Jade did with her abilities and tails, but they made up for that with high physical stats. Even the smaller dogs were strong enough to crack the ground beneath them as they leapt forward towards him. Unlike with the haze creatures they didn"t seem to be stressing their bodies whenever they did it either.
tThe other thing that the dogs had going for them was the fact that they were so coordinated. The lizards back in the marsh were somewhat coordinated as they timed their attacks to line up, but these dogs were on an entirely different level. They would circle around Joshua and attack in ways that would leave him open for the next attack. If one of the dogs were put in a dangerous position two more would show up to defend that dog. The entire time the leader would stay on the edge giving orders and waiting for a chance to go in for the kill. Joshua was happy with how powerful these dogs were, they"d give other beast that were far larger than them a lot of trouble do to their strategy.
Humans would struggle as well since these dogs clearly knew how to change strategies depending on what was working and what wasn"t. They wouldn"t just go after the tanks because of a provoke skill since the pack leader would just order the rest of the dogs to ignore that. They wouldn"t get caught up in only going after the backline as well and would target whoever left an opening. Plus they ran in packs of ten or more so it was a lot to deal with. Even so Joshua knew exactly how to handle the situation and did the one thing he knew that would end this quickly. He blinked behind the leader and grabbed it before slamming it into the ground to knock it out quickly before it could respond.
The rest of the dogs looked shocked at the situation and didn"t seem to know what to do. Before they could get themselves together Lilly arrived with a fully grown Cinder that scared the now leaderless dogs into submission before she started to tame them with a big smile. After a few minutes of going through each of them she had a pack of twelve dogs standing in front of her for a moment before they all disappeared into her soul realm since she had to many pets out at once.
"They"re so adorable. I can"t wait to get back to the territory and spend some time with them." She said excitedly before turning to stare at Joshua for a moment.
"Um, what?" Joshua asked a little puzzled at the look she was giving him.
"Are we going to tame more?" She asked with bright eyes that told Joshua exactly what she wanted to do at the moment. He thought about it for a little bit and realized they were going to need more than one pack if they wanted to properly guard their territory. Of course he planned to get other beast to help out as well, but the dogs would be good for scouting the surroundings and causing a ruckus if anything happened.
"Alright fine, will get a few packs of these dogs today as we explore the place. It will be good for the territory anyways." Joshua finally said with a sigh as Lilly jumped with excitement.
"Well then onwards to gaining more fluffy companions!"