<h2 style="font-weight: 600; text-align: center">The White Mammoth Herd</h2>


    Gray clouds covered the sky, creating a canopy over the snowy ground. Two black horses pulled an ordinary wooden wagon. On top of the wagon sat a man wearing a white coat made of white animal hide. His eyes were closed, and his black hair was swept back.


    9y:11m:19d: 23:59:58…


    9y:11m:19d: 23:42:38…


    9y:11m:19d: 23:35:15…


    Aldric silently watched the countdown in the contract. Every second, every minute, time continued to tick down. When the countdown ended, his life was no longer in his hands. He didn''t care if he died first. He cared about that mysterious place called the beginning and the end. He cared if the emperor’s judgment skill could work on the being he had signed the contract with. Aldric sat on the carriage, his legs crossed, contemplating. Snow fell on his white wolf''s fur coat.


    Aldric had been meditating for several days, absorbing and gathering the Aether to break through to the 3rd rank. When he plundered the power of the giant wolf, his level reached the peak of the 3rd rank. He only needed some meditation and absorbing and balancing the Aether in the air. After five days of hard work, he finally reached the 3rd rank.


    He patted the roof of the cart, signalling Steve to stop the cart. Steve stopped the cart and Cara and Alice got out. Aldric looked at them and told them to wait for him for half an hour, then he headed off in a random direction.


    Cara, Alice, and Steve sat in a circle, staring at Aldric''s back before je disappeared into the distance. "Cara, do you know how Aldric got so powerful?" Steve investigated Cara''s face with a strong curiosity.


    Cara heard Steve''s question, "My father taught him, it''s some kind of energy or something." Cara shook her head at Steve. Unfortunately, her father hadn''t told her anything about the Sea of ??Nothingness or that mysterious energy.


    “Oh, unfortunately, it would be nice if you knew,” Steve shook his head sadly if he had that kind of power, he wouldn''t have been a horse driver, “How about asking Aldric to teach us,” Steve’s eyes lit up When an idea came to his mind, and he asked Alice and Cara.


    “I don’t think he’ll teach us,” Alice quickly dismissed the idea. Who knows what would happen if someone as unreliable as Aldric taught them?


    "That''s a great idea. Why are you refusing, Alice? I thought you would be the one who would say yes so strongly because at least you''ve been with him longer than the two of us." Cara looked at Alice curiously, wondering why Alice was so reluctant. Their relationship seemed close.


    "Uh... I just think it''s better if someone with experience, like Bruce, teaches us." Alice lowered her head to hide her scared eyes. Who knows what he''ll do with them? Someone like that could do anything.


    “Well, anyway, Cara and I will ask him to teach us,” Steve shrugged at Alice’s odd explanation.


    On the side, the Aldric was standing on an ice cliff, facing the wind with his eyes closed. He was listening and seeing from Alice''s perspective and listening to their conversation. He opened his eyes and stopped Emperor’s judgment. He discovered this use first time. When he used it on Alice for the first time, you can listen to the defeated person''s thoughts and share their vision and hearing.


    He activated the emperor’s eye''s ability and looked at the ice field searching for prey; he wanted to reach the green color before he reached the city. After 10 minutes of searching, he found several mixed auras, from green to brown. Aldric was surprised by the green color again and stronger than that skeleton.


    He took a deep breath and cautiously approached slowly, keeping a distance between himself and those unknown creatures. After about ten minutes, he finally reached 300 meters away from those creatures. He used the Aether in his eyes and saw a group of giant animals in front of him.


    They were creatures covered in white fur with two giant fangs sticking out from the side of their giant noses, every step sounded like a small earthquake, with the tallest being 50 meters tall and the smallest being 5 meters tall, the strongest being the tallest being a green rank 2 to the smallest being a brown rank 1.


    Aldric''s hearts beat with every step the mammoth took. He took a deep breath and turned his attention to the young. If he wanted to kill them, he would have to start with the weakest ones, but they walked alongside the adults so he couldn''t do anything. As he thought, he heard a sharp scream.


    He looked up, and there were 12 creatures flying. They had a long beak, two wings on their backs, and two front legs with three sharp claws. Their body color was white with a scale pattern on the surface of their body.


    Aldric lay down on the snow and covered his body with white wolf fur, blending himself into the white environment. He used the Emperor''s Wisdom skill to lower his Halo presence to the maximum and slowly stopped his breathing and used Aether in its place.


    The giant mammoth''s voice rang out. It seemed he had an enmity with those creatures. He raised his trunk and blew hard at the bird in front. Icy air with small sharp ice needles toward the birds.


    The bird dodged the ice attacks and flapped its wings towards the giant mammoth. sharp crystals formed from the air and flew towards the giant mammoth.


    the mammoth lowered its head, using its back as a defence against the attack of the flaying creature.


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    Aldric watched the fight through a gap in the wolf''s fur and noticed that the creatures under the green didn''t attack like the giant mammoth and the giant bird, but they used their body as a tool to attack.


    Aldric slowly backed away from the cliff to reduce the chances of being noticed by an accidental attack. After descending the cliff, he looked at the various battles ahead of him. After some searching, He found a slightly weaker mammoth fighting a bird of equal strength.


    The two creatures were a little farther from their herd, a quick target to kill and increase his power. He slowly dug into the icy ground, relying on the emperor’s eyes to dig towards the creature while doing his best to minimize its presence.


    After some deep digging, he finally reached the bottom of the creature, took a deep breath and pulled his sword out of its sheath, charging it to 90% of its Aether. After waiting for a while, he pointed the sword upwards. "Swish. " The sword cut through the ground like butter and stabbed into the mammoth''s belly, piercing its body until it reached its heart. The sword stopped and then spun quickly, slicing the mammoth''s heart into tiny pieces.


    The mammoth''s eyes narrowed as he felt his life slowly disappearing. His knees gradually buckled, and he fell into the snow with a sound that caught everyone''s attention on the battlefield.


    The bird he was fighting was delighted and landed over the carcass and flapped its wings to express its happiness. After taking the first bite, it flapped its wings and headed to its companion to help it fight the mammoth.


    Aldric sensed the mammoth''s death and the bird''s departure and retrieved the sword from the slain mammoth''s body. He activated his emperor''s judgment skill, absorbing the mammoth''s Aether. His concentrated brown aura enveloped Aldric''s body, causing him to regain 90% of his Aether supply and raise his strength by 10%. Aldric nodded and headed towards the mammoth that was fighting two giant birds.


    Using the same trick to kill a 20-meter-tall mammoth, the Green-Levelled Giant Bird was delighted to see that two of the 10 mammoths in the herd had killed. The two birds happily went to help another bird.


    And so, it went. It was easy for Aldric to kill one mammoth after another first because of the large number of attacking birds and the increase in his strength from 10% to 99.9%. When Aldric felt that his strength had reached its maximum and he was close to breaking through the green color, he had two options. The first was to kill the last mammoth and loot it, but breaking through might attract attention and there was a risk in fighting 12 birds and three of them were in the green color. The second was to ignore the last mammoth and go on his way back.


    Aldric thought a little and headed towards Alice and the others, and took off, making no sound. After digging 50 meters away from the battlefield without the Aether, he jumped out of the ground. He didn''t use the Aether immediately for fear of attracting the attention of the giant bird, but he used his physical ability. After half an hour, he reached a safe area, I think, and used the Aether and took off towards the cart.


    After running for several minutes, he finally reached the cart. On the side of the cart, Alice and Cara were leaning their backs against the cart, looking at Steve in front of them.


    To the side, Steve was standing on the ice with an excited voice, telling Cara and Alice a story. He wanted to make Cara forget about her father''s death.


    Aldric reached the top of the carriage and looked at Steve with flat eyes. He didn''t speak. He just lay down on the carriage, looking up at the gray clouds. His blue eyes seemed to shine a little. Then he took something out of his coat. It was a white letter. He placed it on his chest and gently wiped the surface of the letter, lost in a sea of ??memories.


    After some time, Steve finished telling the story with a tired red face. He looked at Cara''s happy smile and the small tears of joy on the corners of her eyes; he felt his heart beating; he wanted this moment to last forever; he wished he could only see this face forever.


    Alice smiled happily. It had been a long time since she had felt such feelings. She looked up at the sky and felt that Aldric should have come a long time ago.


    Aldric stood up slowly. "Let''s go now," he lightly jumped off the roof of the carriage and opened the door. He turned to the three of them, "Hurry," and entered the carriage.


    "Was he here the whole time?" Steve asked with a sceptical face. He looked at Cara and saw that she didn''t know either. He turned to Alice and saw that she had already entered the carriage.


    "Do you feel Alice is different when Aldric is around? She seems to be terrified of Aldric," Steve approached Cara and asked suspiciously.


    “Oh, I never told you before, Alice is Aldric’s slave,” Cara told him in a low voice, afraid that Aldric would hear her. From the beginning, Aldric seemed like an undetectable, misty figure. She was afraid of him because she couldn’t even expect his next move.


    Inside the carriage, the air was still and cool. Alice sat upright without moving. She didn''t even have time to push a lock of hair out of her face.


    She felt a sudden hand on her right shoulder. She turned to look at her shoulder, but suddenly her vision spun. She looked into the blue eyes above her.


    Aldric looked into those silver eyes and pushed the lock of hair away from her face. He looked at her. "I just heard someone saying something bad behind my back. How do you want me to punish you?" Aldric wiped his hand on Alice''s cheek and looked into her eyes.


    Alice felt a chill on her cheek and her body tensed. She wanted to get up but couldn''t. She averted her eyes, avoiding looking directly into Aldric''s eyes.


    Aldric looked into Alice''s shifty eyes. He didn''t speak but lowered his hand from Alice''s cheek to her chin, then lifted her face slightly. He lowered his head and kissed Alice''s lips.


    Alice felt a cold on her lips and closed her eyes, unable to look into those empty blue eyes. Slowly, she lost her breath. She tried to struggle but couldn''t. She hit Aldric with her two hands, but found it was not any benefit. Her face turned red, and she felt she was about to die. She opened her eyes and met the same empty eyes looking at her. Her eyes turned red and two hot tears fell from her eyes.


    Aldric looked into Alice''s red eyes; her face flushed from lack of breath and finally broke the kiss. He watched Alice breathing heavily as if she was about to drown. He put his left hand on her hair, gently stroking it. "This is your punishment for what you said when you thought I was gone. Now close your eyes and go to sleep," he told her flatly, then turned his gaze to the window, watching the snow fall.


    Alice breathed deeply and felt alive again. She heard Aldric''s voice. Who can sleep when he just nearly died? She thought to herself as she closed her eyes, afraid that Aldric would find another ridiculous reason to punish or kill her. Suddenly she felt a warmth coming from her body as if she were in warm water, and with every stroke of Aldric''s palm on her head and she slowly fell asleep.


    Cara opened the door and entered gently. She looked at Alice''s face, which was still a little red. She didn''t speak, just sat silently.


    The carriage started moving towards the next destination. Aldric looked out the window at the sky, looking forward a little to the next city and to how much his power might increase.