"That idea was risky, but very productive," Alexander concluded. "I got several creatures I can disassemble to sell, use, or eat."

  As soon as he finished storing the bodies in the internal space of his ring, Alexander heard some small noises coming from a nearby bush and prepared to fight, or flee. After all, he didn't know what creature was coming.

  To his surprise, it was just a gray wolf. The strange thing is that, for some reason, this wolf seemed different from the others in Alexander's eyes.

  Apprehensive, Alexander looked around, searching for its pack, but, even searching well, found no trace of another wolf. The wolf also made no attempt to attack, or even moved, after stopping and settling a few meters in front of him.

  "An omega perhaps?"

  "It must sense it can't defeat me, and I'm not opposing it… What exactly does it want?"

  The two spent about 1 minute staring at each other without anything happening. Seeing that the wolf, apparently, wasn't hostile, as his instincts told him, Alexander began to approach.

  Seeing him take the initiative, the wolf also went to meet him, which raised Alexander's guard. But as soon as it got very close to him, the wolf simply stopped and sat down in front of him.

  Realizing what was happening, and feeling the wolf seemed susceptible to this, Alexander used |Bind Familiar|.

  Ding!

  [You successfully bound a {Small Alpha Wolf}]

  Ding!

  [Hidden Mission Completed]

  When the small alpha wolf was successfully bound, a new tab revealed itself to Alexander.

  This was a sub-tab intended for his newly acquired familiar, to show some information about it. Alexander's dilemma was that the sub-tab told him to name his familiar to fully access it. "This is very sudden. I won't be able to think of a good name now."

  "Fine. I'll just put a simple one like mine," thought Alexander. "Wait, that's it."

  "You are no longer an omega. Now you are part of my family," Alexander said to the wolf. "Ocean."

  Ding!

  『 1st Familiar 』

  Name: Ocean ♀

  Species: Beast

  Race: Small Alpha Wolf

  Level: 9/10

  Condition: Injured

  HP: 39/50

  Stamina: 14/30

  [Proficiency Skills]:

  |Ambush (Intermediate)| … |Teamwork (Intermediate)| … |Run (Advanced)| … |Claw Attack (Intermediate)| … |Bite (Intermediate)|

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  [Enhancements]:

  (Alpha's Body)

  [Titles]:

  "Hmm? It's a female," Alexander noted. "Good thing I didn't give it a completely masculine name."

  "This tab will certainly be very useful to monitor Ocean's progress and condition," Alexander commented to himself while looking at the information on it. "It's just a shame it doesn't show the attributes and some other information."

  "Let's go, Ocean," said Alexander while affectionately stroking the wolf's head. "We need to get to a safe place to spend the night so I can heal you."

  After moving away from the location a bit, Alexander used |Invigorate| to clean the dirt and smell of blood from them. And after cleaning them, Alexander guided Ocean to the concave tree, which he had found earlier, as fast as possible.

  Arriving at the tree, Alexander used |Invigorate| and a simple [Health Potion] to help Ocean recover.

  As soon as Alexander finished, they dried themselves as best they could to remove the excess water, but still remained quite damp.

  Not daring to light a fire on such a bloody night, where the smell of blood likely alerted many creatures, Alexander could only gather as many skins, leathers, and dry leaves as possible to cover them.

  After gathering a good number, Alexander placed them to camouflage the tree's opening and went to lie down with Ocean, because, thanks to the bond formed, neither of them felt the slightest distrust of the other.

  Perhaps to facilitate understanding between them, the bond allowed Alexander to feel a bit of what Ocean felt/desired, and vice versa. That's why they could sense that they didn't want to hurt each other.

  "Finding Ocean was a great stroke of luck," thought Alexander while lying down. "Besides being very instinctive, she also has a very special enhancement, a skill that will help our partnership, and a progress bar that is already around 80%. That is, she should evolve soon."

  The next morning, Alexander woke up as soon as the light from the first rays of sun overcame the camouflage he had made. And once awake, he remembered he had completed another hidden mission the previous day and went to see it.

  Wild Beast Tamer (Hidden Mission)

  Mission Type: Acquisition.

  Mission Description: You have already become a 1st evolution monster and unlocked the familiar tab, now go after yours and obtain it by taming a wild creature completely alone within 5 days.

  Reward: (Scalable active skill: |Gift|)

  Ding!

  [You completed the hidden mission: Wild Beast Tamer]

  Ding!

  [You received: (Scalable active skill: |Gift|)]

  "Interesting. I didn't imagine a mission like that would be generated," thought Alexander upon reading this mission's description. "Is taming and binding a familiar really that difficult?"

  "Speaking of missions, didn't I receive some (Random Reward Cards) when finishing the grove's dungeon missions?" Alexander asked himself, finally realizing this. "Where did they go?"

  As was to be expected, Alexander's faithful squire "heard" his call, "came to life," and "answered" his question.

  [You have 4 random reward cards. Do you wish to use them now?]

  "It seems they are stored in this system and I just need to think about them to use them… but I'll leave them stored for now," Alexander decided. "I can't risk losing control of my body for no reason, much less in the middle of this forest."

  Feeling Alexander's awakening, Ocean, who was already completely recovered, also woke up and went to him to give him, possibly, her version of good morning.

  "Good girl," said Alexander while carefully stroking Ocean's neck. "Now that you're awake, we can eat."

  "I don't have much to offer you yet, but I hope you like it."

  With a few simple hand movements, Alexander retrieved some pieces of meat from his ring and produced water with |Invigorate| so they would have something to drink.

  Ocean made some "faces" because she was unaccustomed to the roasted meat like that, but didn't refuse it.

  The funniest thing for Alexander was seeing her reaction when drinking the water created by |Invigorate| for the first time.

  "It seems you really liked it, didn't you, girl?" Alexander joked in a cheerful… happy tone, after a long time. "I like it too."

  With both fed, hydrated, and well, Alexander went back on his way, but this time he wasn't alone. He was with his new family.

  While walking, Alexander began to appraise the components of Ocean's Status he didn't know and the skill he had gained. After all, he needed to familiarize himself as much as possible with her strengths and weaknesses.

  The skills |Claw Attack| and |Bite| were self-explanatory. The only noteworthy information was their strengthening with energy.

  What really surprised and moved Alexander were the other three components, especially the last one.

  [|Teamwork|: Facilitates mutual and instinctive understanding with those considered part of your team.]

  [(Alpha's Body): The bearer's body corresponds to an alpha of the same race and evolution, regardless of evolution, and provides attribute bonuses upon leveling up.]

  [|Gift|: Enables the bearer to pass their skills, spells, enhancements, and the like, to their familiars. Cost: (1) growth point for each Skill and the like. (2) growth points for each Enhancement and the like. Restrictions: It is not possible to pass magical skills and the like to a familiar that cannot use them or does not possess mana, nor is it possible to pass incompatible talents, special skills, and "gifts." Note: Spells and the like will be adjusted as special skills for the familiar.]