More hours passed, and the awakened had already left the battlefield.
All except for Alex.
He sat, waiting near the Floodgate in a meditative stance.
The Military officials had already declared the mission to be complete, but Alex's bad gut feeling didn't subside.
Hence he stayed.
In truth, he didn't expect this mission to be so short, but as it turned out, the Floodgate had already been open for 2 weeks and was already near the end of its life cycle before Alex even accepted the mission.
But with the amount of beasts he killed during the four hours he was on the battlefield, he should still get a decent amount of contribution.
After all, most of the awakened who had been there from the start were working in teams, so even though they had probably racked up hundreds or even thousands of kills over the past two weeks, when the contribution was split between 10 people, they were still below Alex, who worked alone.
There were a few strong solo awakened like Alex who had been there from early on as well.
They were the ones who were guaranteed the most contribution of all. They had killed hundreds of beasts solo by the time the mission ended.
While Alex was sitting there idling in front of the Floodgate, he decided to tally up his loot from the beasts he had killed.
'Let's see here...'
He opened up his inventory, and felt intense satisfaction at seeing the sheer number of beast cores he had obtained.
In total, he had killed around 60 beasts, give or take a few.
And from these 60, he netted around 43 beast cores in total, 8 of which were Mutant class.
This was a very good haul. Over 70% of the beasts he had killed dropped a beast core!
This was to be expected though.
The higher ranked a beast is, the more energy capacity it has.
And it is this remaining energy left over in their bodies that condense to create a beast core when they die.
So the likelihood of harvesting a beast core from C tier beasts was much more likely than from F tier beasts.
Of course, Alex only viewed these beast cores as just another source of income.
They were essentially money bags in his eyes.
What he was really interested in were the Soul orbs he had gained from this haul.
And he was very satisfied.
10 soul orbs were floating gently in a corner of his inventory, away from the droves of beast cores.
But this mother-son duo was different.
The mother wolf had outgrown the Alpha wolf in terms of strength and the two of them got into a life or death battle as a result.
The fight was close, with the mother wolf narrowly winning the fight by the skin of her teeth, and the Alpha wolf met its demise.
However she was seriously injured, and had to run away from the pack before the other wolves killed her.
She acted as a sole hunter for a while, but after a few weeks, she could feel a little pup growing in her stomach.
And that was how the unique mother-son wolf duo came to be.
Tonight was special. It was the night she would teach her pup how to hunt.
The pup, still young and inexperienced, looked up at her with eager eyes. The mother nudged the pup gently, encouraging it to follow her.
They moved silently through the snow, their white fur blending seamlessly with their surroundings. The pup tried to mimic its mother's movements, stepping lightly and keeping its head low. The mother led them to a ridge overlooking a frozen valley.
Below, a herd of snow deer grazed, their white coats blending with the snow, but their faint glow from their breath and the occasional flick of an ear gave them away.
The mother assessed the herd, searching for a suitable target.
Her keen eyes locked onto a weaker member of the herd, an E- rank deer that lagged slightly behind the rest.
It was the perfect target for the pup's first hunt.
The mother turned to the pup, her gaze stern but gentle. She nudged it forward, urging it to approach the deer.
The pup hesitated, looking back at its mother for reassurance.
She gave a soft growl, and the pup steeled its resolve.
Creeping forward, the pup mimicked the stalking technique it had seen its mother use many times. It kept low to the ground, moving slowly and deliberately, its eyes locked onto the deer.
The Mother followed at a distance, ready to intervene if necessary.
The pup drew closer, its heart pounding in its chest. The deer remained unaware of the impending danger, its focus solely on the grazing of the frozen tundra.
The mystical ice flowers and other vegetation unique to this snowy climate were the favourites of these deer.
The pup readied itself, muscles coiled, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
With a sudden burst of speed, the pup lunged forward. The deer's head snapped up, but it was too late. The pup's small but sharp teeth sank into its hind leg, and the deer stumbled, letting out a panicked yelp.
The mother moved swiftly, closing the distance between them in an instant. She clamped her powerful jaws around the deer's throat, ending its struggles in an instant.
Things had occurred so fast that the rest of the pack had yet to notice what had happened to their straggler.
The mother wolf turned to the pup, a glint of pride in her eyes.