Inside his chest, he could slightly influence the essence gathered inside of him and purify it slowly by merging it all together. Just by closing his eyes the essence he saw could be described as thousands of glowing spheres colliding against one another. It required Zaro to manually merge them, once he merged enough essence together, it condensed into a drop of liquid and was absorbed by the thin layer surrounding his essence.

However, if he consumed one of the other cores, the essence automatically merged within him in large multiples until all the essence had enough room to float around. If it felt as if the outer layer was going to burst, the essence condensed itself and allowed the core to expand slightly. Zaro guessed that this process would end at some point and he would be unable to expand his core.

Similarly, the other pups must be going through the same process but because they can't hunt and don't know how to manually go through this process of condensing essence, they are unable to form their cores let alone expand them! Thus, if he wanted them to grow in strength, he would have to either teach them how to condense the essence or teach them to hunt to have their essence automatically condense itself.

After he finished thinking everything through he raised his head which had been previously dropped to the ground as he walked, Zaro had reached the place where the pups were staying. When he walked into the pups' territory, it seemed so peaceful and beautiful with small wolf pups snoozing on rocks or against trees.

Zaro quietly revealed himself and dropped his camouflage while at the same time Kia opened her eyes to see a larger wolf suddenly appear out of thin air. She yelped nervously then sighed of relief when she realized it was Zaro.

"He's here! Senior brother is here!" she cried out in excitement.

Upon hearing the cries, the other pups opened their eyes only to see a larger wolf with green tinted fur and a revering aura around him. Initially, no one dared to approach him and they just stared in awe and fear from a distance until Koh and Kia joyfully approached him with their tails wagging.

"Come on guys! It's Zaro, he had undergone a transformation!"

Shortly, all the other pups walked over yet they still remained cautious and didn't show the same affection from before. This made Zaro sigh with grief; when someone becomes more powerful, others will immediately draw back as to not offend them. Due to this the pups were simply being respectful to him and allowing him to gain full control of the situation.

In a way, this made things easier for Zaro as he would now have no problems gathering everyone's attention while he taught them. Also, Zaro wanted to keep growing stronger so that he would not have to keep running away from any foe he encountered next so the more they listened and the faster he finished, the more convenient it would be for him.

"Alright, since I do not wish to remain here for long, I will shortly begin teaching you all so that you will be able to thrive in my absence. Firstly, I will give you pointers on how to hunt down prey regardless of it being big or small."

In order to teach these pups, Zaro did not require much knowledge about how wolves hunted in his previous life but instead how he did it. While working in an underground mob, his job was collecting intel and escaping with what he managed to discover. Although hunting down other beasts was different in terms of the end goal it was similar in the process of obtaining it. So, with that in mind, he began outlining the different steps.

"Step one, identify your target; in order to begin the hunt, one must decide what the end goal will be and what they will want to get from it, therefore, you must use the tools on you to discover what your prey will be. Step two, a.s.sess the situation and use your tools to get close; as a wolf, you have three different advantages than others and these are your senses, your agility and finally, your claws."

Just from the two steps, the pups understood that they had to use every weapon in their a.r.s.enal to kill an enemy regardless of their strength. Zaro noticed that the pups were hanging onto every word he spoke which made him feel relieved in a way.

"Step three, think of a plan of attack and commence the hunt; since you are a pack, you work as one and reap the rewards together! Feel your surroundings, understand the consequences of every action you take and most importantly... don't back down."

This three-step process was Zaro's previous life summed up, once he focused everything on an end goal, he would do it regardless of the dangers attached. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it out alive in his last mission but came incredibly close until his plans were prevented by a brick wall.

"As long as you carry these three steps perfectly, you will be able to defeat anything in your path! However, this doesn't mean you are invincible in any way... treat step one as an observation, step two as an a.s.sessment of your own strength and finally step three as a life-threatening decision! The bigger the reward the more you might need to give up but remember do not be reckless, your life should not be gambled unless you have no other choice."

"Yes senior brother Zaro!" they all cried in unison.

"Alright, we will now commence a hunt... Kia will lead the attack, Koh will be behind you all and act as something to fall back on if something goes wrong. This will be your standard formation, leave the strongest member in the back to watch over everyone and then have the second to the strongest lead the a.s.sault. I will be in the background watching your every movement, do not disappoint me" Zaro noted before quickly vanis.h.i.+ng into the forest.

With the plan set in motion, the now wolves set off into the forest with a sharp killing intent with the end goal of acquiring food.

Since Zaro only circled the camp it wasn't long until the wolves discovered something in the distance. Kia detected some animal ahead of them that had yet to discover them, after a brief pause, she led the pack onwards and whispered to everyone that they will be surrounding the animal.

Zaro had moved ahead of them and was camouflaged by a tree staring at a boar with some fine tusks. It had only formed a core on the top of its head meaning that it didn't have enough essence to form one inside its chest so it was not too powerful just yet. However, it wasn't an ideal prey for the pups and Zaro even considered it being too hard for the pups to take on for their first hunt.

Ignoring its size, its tusks could easily injure one of the pups and the only way to kill it would be by tearing it to pieces and allow it to bleed to death. Zaro suddenly switched his attention and focused on the pups as he watched them circle the boar which was nonchalantly chewing on some roots.

Kia signaled the other wolves and in a very structured and orderly manner they began circling the boar and stopped once Koh was in the center. The boar quickly became alerted and helplessly watched as it was being surrounded by the wolves.

Without hesitation, Koh walked up to the boar growling relentlessly and revealing as much killing intent as he could. The boar seemed to calm down a bit when it realized that the wolves were just mere pups, however, remained cautious as they were all intent on attacking.

"Kill it!" Koh cried out with a hint of excitement in his voice and without delay, all of the wolves pounced at the boar. With so many opponents the boar swung its tusks at the closest wolf but within a second the wolf pup backed off and allowed the other wolves to take advantage and attack the new openings.

On the other side, the wolves sunk their claws into the boar's back while others snapped at the boar's thighs and feet in case it took off running. In a matter of a few seconds, the boar was quickly disabled from all movement and the wolves relentlessly began ripping the boar apart as blood splattered from all areas.

Zaro was completely stunned, it really was in their nature to kill! He had never expected the wolves to defeat the wolves in such a way! For their first time, this was simply incredible!

Soon the boar was nothing but a pile of bones and an essence core s.h.i.+ning on top. Koh called out to the wolves and they all back off. Zaro smiled and revealed himself which startled all of the smaller pups, he was right beside them the whole time!

"Senior brother Zaro, this core is yours! There are six more to come, if you plan on leaving us, these cores will be located in our den under a boulder for you to take."

Zaro suddenly remembered the promise he had made with the pups and almost cried because of the pup's generosity.

"I hate to take the core away from you as it is rightfully yours, but I will honor our agreement and receive this token of appreciation gladly... I will return for the rest of the cores in a week, I expect to see you all improve greatly by then."

"Of course, brother!" Koh said proudly.

Soon the pups separated from Zaro and walked in the opposite direction while Zaro swallowed the small core. With a swift lesson, he transformed the innocent pups into growing killing machines in less than half a day!

Satisfied with his work, Zaro could now focus on traveling further into the forest in search of much greater cores and opportunities! Without hesitation, he returned to his. .h.i.t and run tactics where he would obtain a core and quickly move onwards towards another. He wanted to see how big he could stretch out his own core and what he could transform into.