Edoran woke up groggily. His hair stuck up oddly at one side. He could still see Jake's lifeless eyes.
"It was my fault."
However much he wanted to think otherwise, he knew it was also his fault. He should have listened to Harold.
He went outside his room without washing himself up. Looking at the clean and neat hallway, he saw that one of the maids was approaching him.
"Edoran, Master Harold told me to bring you to his study after you wake up. Please follow me."
Edoran obliged. He was taken to a small room with Harold sitting behind a handsome desk. He was writing something seriously.
He did not show a sliver of the things that expired the day before.
"I brought Edoran, Master Harold." The maid said and left.
"Did you sleep well, Edoran? We need to start working on hunting savages in the wild soon. We also need to recruit soldiers."
"What about Jake?"
"What about him? It was my fault. You need not think about him. If we stopped focusing on work just because Jake died, he wouldn't be happy."
Edoran felt angry at Harold's indifference but he knew what he said was true.
Harold moved on from the topic. "We need to show that our company is good by hunting savages. I have hired some agents to give us information about tier-1 savages in Verdantia."
"You should go train till then. Our training room still has 7 lesser savages left alive. Absorb their cores. You also need training in martial arts and survival."
Edoran nodded. He did not like that he had to go back to the training room.
"Edoran. I know you did not want to get roped into being in my company and working as a slave for me. But I do not have any choice either."
"What choice do you not have? You are the grandson of a big conglomerate. You have your life set for you already."
Edoran did not know why he was angry but he felt good raising his voice.
"You don't know about me or my struggles. Stop thinking that only your life is harsh." Harold said coldly.
The sudden change in his tone felt like the temperature had dropped drastically. His eyes glared into Edoran's.
Edoran felt that Harold had almost grown double in size looking down upon him.
Harold calmed down. He looked outside the window behind him and sighed.
"I did not want to start a savage management company. Circumstances pushed me into this. But Jake wanted to be a reverberator. He wished to fight at the frontlines against savages."
"I want you to help me, Edoran. No, I beg you to help me." Harold bowed to Edoran.
"I don't want to fight or kill. All I wanted was a free and peaceful life. But I cannot let Jake's death go to waste."
Harold smiled slightly. Edoran smiled back as well.
They went to the Star Wraith building again.
The blood had been washed and the training room was cleaned up properly.
Still, Edoran felt nauseous, remembering Jake's lifeless body. There were seven cages in the room.
"Go ahead."
A core can store as much energy as it wants from slaying different savages but at a time, only a single ability could be used.
Edoran had the best core made from materials completely scrounged from savages.
He was the only homunculus in the world other than warmonger to have 100% core output.
He did not bother checking the savages and their types. He ruthlessly diced each and every one of them. He felt his core become enriched.
"Now our next goal is to hunt down commercially useful savages. Our agents have already located three."
Harold handed him a digital pad. Edoran saw three photos of different savages. One among them caught his eye. A tiger made entirely of wood and moss walked through a place right near his house.
It was as tall as him on all fours. He felt a shiver just seeing it.
"That is a wood tiger. We won't try to fight it till the end. Our first hunt will be the blood anteater."
He pointed at a video of an anteater with red fur. Its long tongue lashed out with red liquid dripping from it. Its yellow eyes looked around carefully as it moved along.
The blood anteater is a fleshspawn lesser savage. Its strength and speed were subpar but its tongue secreted a toxic substance which caused organic matter to vaporise rapidly.
A lesser savage was far weaker than a tier-2 savage. Humanity could deal with lesser savages using even nuclear weapons.
"We located the anteater near a forest behind Verdantia. We will head there today. I have also arranged for some training for you tomorrow."
"But before all that, I want you to sign a contract officially making you my employee."
Edoran was handed another digital document.
The contract was concise and simple. It stated that he would be working solely with Star Wraith Industries and the working hours would only be 8 hours a day inclusive of his training as well.
He would be paid 10% of every savage he hunts inclusive of all taxes.
Edoran was more shocked by the last part of the contract.
'In case of the demise of the founder, Harold Faulkner, 50% of the shares owned will be transferred to the chief Reverberator, Edoran.'
'Huh. What is this? Has he gone mad? Why has he offered me this?'
Harold laughed slightly at Edoran's shocked face looking at the contract.
"Don't worry, you are the only one I can trust." Harold flashed his teeth at Edoran.
Edoran was speechless but he signed it after reading the contract once more.
"Great! Now that this is over, grab your armor, we are leaving for the blood anteater's location immediately."
Edoran put on a new set of armor left for him. It was thin and felt brittle.
"Hey Harold, how do you think this weak armor is going to protect me?"
Harold smiled again.
"Don't worry, this armor is made of the outer shell of a crowned white rhinoceros, a tier-3 savage. This armor would not budge under even a tier-2 beast's normal attacks. It would take an effort to break your armor."
Edoran felt more confident. 'To hell with this. I will massacre all those savages.'
They got in a large ORV which stands for 'Off Road Vehicle'.
The ORV blasted through the rough terrain to the blood anteater's location.
The blood anteater was not so large. It barely reached around Edoran's waist when standing on its hind legs. It whimpered and tried to run away as it saw the approaching ORV.
It soon understood that it would not be able to outrun the vehicle and tried to pulverize the ORV by using its tongue.
Harold quickly stopped the ORV and Edoran jumped out and used the ability of the savage he had just killed.
His skin was covered in black fur and he had two large wings on his back covered in blade-like sharp wings. His hands turned webbed and his legs grew in size and felt more powerful.
He leaped across the sky and glided towards the anteater. He was able to easily roll around its ghastly tongue.
He spun and left deep lacerations around the anteater's neck. It sputtered blood and started to lash around its tongue crazily in fear.
Edoran just flew away as he already knew that the savage was done for. In a few minutes, it came to a stop from the blood loss.
It whimpered as Edoran dealt a final blow. He smiled and took the corpse of the anteater and Harold gave him a cage to transport the corpse.
"Wait! Who permitted you to hunt savages in this zone, this is the personal zone of the Red Giants corporation."
A girl with red hair in grey armor shouted. She had a red shining blade in one hand while another guy stood near her.
The guy looked far more dangerous than her, tall and rabid. His long unkempt blue hair gave the impression of a beast. He did not wear any armor.
"This is not your zone, it is a no man's land," Harold said coldly. The girl's face reddened and she raised her blade and charged at Harold.
Edoran parried the blade using his wings. He punched her in the stomach with the entirety of his power. The blow pierced through her armor as she fell at a distance.
Edoran rushed for another attack but the man stopped the blow with his bare hands.
He smiled slightly and said, "I am sorry for Kara's behavior. We don't want any fights."
He picked the girl up and left the place.
"That was Sebastian, a reverberator with tier-2 savages' abilities."
Harold was shocked to see that they left without causing any more trouble. But he was happy and sighed with relief.
After reaching back, Harold said, "You did a good job today. I will give you the money tomorrow."
Then suddenly another thought struck Harold. "Hey, Edoran, do you want to go to the savage market with me?"