"Report. We are done with our shift. The remaining time will be allocated to you. It is an honor to meet you and your team." one of the patrol guards from the previous shifts greeted the team and offered a handshake to Richo.
"No need for so much thanks and pleasantries. Just the fact that you helping here is good enough for me. Besides, we are doing this for Seth's child." Richo explained the reason why the team did this at a time when they should still rest.
"Is that so? Are you the one?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?" Howell glanced at the young man in his twenties, from Insight Eye, as he pondered the reason for the young man's admiration toward the team.
"No. Just call the people in the outpost and they can help you if you need something. Too bad that my younger brother is not in the same high school as you...he is also a fan of Mister Seth."
Howell knew from the team that his father was some sort of a great benefactor. No, a hero even for them. But he did not know why his father never told him in great length about it.
'But if it is Father, I can understand why he does not explain his matter in detail. But why is he still bragged about me, then?'
'Master, do you think the reason is so simple? You are his child who even managed to get to Olive High School despite the difficulties. Which parents will not be proud?'
'I...am glad. I am happy and content that I can make them like this.' Howell only had admiration for his parents. The least he wanted to do even without the system was to make his parents happy and have a better life.
"Yes. I will call in case I need something important." Howell accepted the offer politely. He would also help if it did not cause more problems.
-
The patrol was simple. They had to move in a prescribed route while also checking the traces of various beasts to know the regular situation. Of course, they moved around with the jeep so that they could move and prepare for something unusual.
The jeep then moved once more as the team moved outside Bethlen City. From that point forward, Howell was outside the safe zone. He could feel the countless Wildbeast rank and Bronze rank beasts roaming around while avoiding the vehicle. Most of the beasts were actually afraid of the unknown and especially since there were some strong tamed beasts among them, the journey was relatively smooth.
And one more thing that Howell noted. The power rank of his father and the team was surprisingly at Commander rank. It also meant they had formed Internal Beast Space which could function as a beast storage. It could also function as the place to nurture the beasts whenever they rested there.
'Origin energy gathering, purification and reinforcement then exclusive space creation...' Howell thought about this particular matter since he would meet this topic when he delved deeper into some subject that Little Red raised.
Origin energy became the core of the civilization and thus many tools and even power rank depended on it. But the utilization part of it was as important since many technologies appeared due to the application of the origin energy and the materials used.
The topic was the same when it came to individuals and beasts who used the origin energy. Most of his knowledge was still on the Conscript rank topic and now he had a good grasp of Commander rank knowledge. Even so, it was not enough in his perspective since Little Red was far stronger and more knowledgeable thus he had to struggle and catch on to her at the least.
He also trained his conscious capacity since it was the most important factor that he lacked.
While Howell was in deep thought, Richo's voice interrupted it.
"There are herds of Gale Gazelle parallel of us. Behind them are definitely...sigh, here we go again."
Howell knew what Richo implied. Behind the Gale Gazelle was usually the pride of Undying Lioness'. Their pride was smaller then the herds but their hunting efficiency was high. The troublesome part of the lionesses' came from their extremely high regeneration factor which made them hard to kill.
'Regenerative factor?' Howell took a look at the pride while activating his Insight Eye.
[Undying Lioness
Race: Feline (Undying brach)
Rank: Silver level 1
Ability: Regenerative Factor(D-), Pin Down(D-), Lion's Roar(D)]
It was worse since there was a dozen of them. Howell also knew that their cooperation was quite good hence the difficulties exponentially increased. But Howell also thought about his system's ability about matter manipulation. It could extract matters from anything.
'Could I also extract the regenerative factor ability?' Howell thought about this possibility and was not sure. But if the ability was inherent in their bloodline, then he was sure that he could get his hands on that ability.
'I need the bloodline purity to be high too to be safe.' Howell added and planned carefully since the beast was almost a major rank stronger than him.
While Howell was observing the pride, he also took a glance at the Gale Gazelle.
[Gale Gazelle
Race: Gazelle (Fluidization branch)
Rank: Bronze level 9
Ability: Gale Rush(D-), Ram(D)]
'A fine addition to my collection!' Howell did not mind a bonus. He also took notice of the narrative text from the Beast Idle Training Dimension. Carmen was doing fine on that side and kept accumulating energy to both advance in level as well as preparing her transformation.
[Year 5, Month 12, Day 20
Carmen was resting on one of the middle parts of the tall tree when she felt some movements from her widespread silk. It turned out that a stampede was happening and then she knew the root cause of the stampede. A huge meteorite fell near her location shortly after the stampede. Carmen realized that the beasts in the forest were running away due to their strong instinct toward danger.
The entire ground shook as the whole tree in the forest followed soon after. Carmen could feel that the ruckus would make her safe place filled with danger. With her silk ability and utilization, she swung among the trees to go to the crater where the meteorite landed.
She wanted to see whether there was an opportunity for her or not.]
[Year 5, Month 12, Day 22
Carmen only got a slightly useful thing for her Jade Metamorphosis from the meteorite namely the Grandmist Condensed Crystal. Most of the meteorite was full of metal of unknown source but Carmen could not even use it. A pity but it was a fact so she migrated from the forest where she secluded herself for five more years to another place.
She kept using her silk ability and utilized it in a manner like swinging her around the tall structure of trees and rocks. She finally found another place where she could idle herself. That was the only thing she could do at the moment and she made a new nest with her silk while also spreading her illusion ability.]
'Come to think of it, Carmen has Jade Metamorphosis ability. And if it is the usual, she will transform into a butterfly. Is it the ability specifically to make her stronger? Evolution and material...I am starting to understand why those aristocratic families go crazy about rare and fantastic materials from nature and the carcasses of beasts.'
Howell also understood Little Red's actions during her Idle Training. Perhaps, the key to better evolution and potential laid in the materials and compatibility of that to the beast.
A topic to be pondered...
But to the present situation. Howell did not know whether the team would act against the lioness' or not since they did not want to have a clash with them if possible. So his expectation was lowered.
The jeep went straight in parallel with the herds of the gazelle for a whole minute. But it turned out that Howell's expectation was not unfounded. It was because the herd decided to move closer to the jeep, carrying with them the pride of the lioness' along.
"Prepare for the clash!" Seth already prepared his armaments while also circulating his origin energy. All the team members also did the same before the jeep slowed down and the door opened with a loud bang!
"Little Red, do you know how to handle this situation in your current form?" Howell asked in a low voice.
'Master, it has been a long time since I fought in this form. We need to act to see where we can improve. After all, this is our first battle together!' Little Red was excited. Howell could feel it from his connection. Little Red had no problem and the problem was him all along. This made him smile wryly since he was the one who dragged the other down.
'It will be fine. Let us go to the herds first then we assist the team against the Undying Lioness' pride.'
"Team leader!" Howell shouted among the howl of the tamed beast being summoned from the Internal Beast Space. Birds, Rhinocheros, Wolf, Tiger, and Mantis were appearing one after another. Richo was the one who summoned the tiger heard Howell's voice and looked at him.
"I will going to the Gale Gazelle first before going to support you all!" Howell went away after saying that.
"That child!" Seth was flabbergasted but summoned a transparent figure and ordered it to follow Howell. He knew that Howell was confident to do something and that also meant that Howell could guarantee his own safety. But this was wilderness so anything could happen and he decided to let one of another beast of his to follow Howell.
"You seem worried but you only sent one guard. You are confident about your child despite the fact that he was still at Tamer Apprentice rank." Richo added which made Seth glared at him but only for a moment before they focused on the pride.
The problem with the Undying Lionesses' was that they tended to challenge the strong. It was because their ability grew when fighting under immense pressure while the prey could be obtained regularly so they ended up challenging beasts right and left.
The team knew that the moment the pride sensed them, it was inevitable and Seth was the master in the regard of the pride's behavior and response so he was tasked to be the one who gave the indication for what to do alongside Richo.
As for Howell, he found one severely injured gazelle and moved forward to kill it. The beast was injured to the point that it was basically crippled and his Insight Eye only confirmed the gruesome truth. Initially, Howell wanted to help but seeing that the gazelle was on its last breath he might as well end its suffering.
'Sorry,' Howell beheaded it and then proceeded to extract the matter from the gazelle's corpse.
[Host has used Matter Manipulation function]
[Extracting matter from the object...]
[Extracted Cherymean Hind bloodline, 500 gram of Magium, 1 Liberation Sect growth reinforcement essence]
"Liberation Sect!?" Howell let out a small cry. The moment he saw with his own eyes the traces of Liberation Sect, he felt an ominous undercurrent had already sweeping the place. This was the thing that was carried out long ago and what he had seen was the result of that.
Add to the fact that the aristocracy children were enrolled at his high school of all places also indicate something. And his past was related to them according to what Little Red had revealed so far...
"No matter. Get stronger, foil the plan that caused my family to be threatened." Howell already knew what to do, getting stronger. Only by having strength that he could establish himself in the world.
"We should go back. If the herd of Gale Gazelles is cornered, they retaliate more fiercely and ruthlessly." Howell then put the extracted materials on the system inventory while returning to the place where the team was fighting against Undying Lioness' pride. As for hunting the herds of Gale Gazelle, Howell was confident of killing one of them but if all of them came to him all together, he would be trampled to the point of becoming a red pancake!
Howell had some consideration but that did not mean he had never killed before. Today was indeed the first time he personally killed a beast...
But Little Red knew something that made her heart ache and sad. Her master had experience of killing, especially killing humans. That was why he could behead the beast in one strike. Even the blade was still fresh of blood as Howell gripped it tight.
'What is wrong, Little Red?' Howell sensed the slight emotion fluctuation and knew that Little Red was sad.
'Just a bit sad.' Little Red's reply was short and Howell did not understand fully the reason for her sadness. But he hoped that she would not wallow in that emotion. Little Red then became a bit happier and Howell was glad that Little Red was more easy to get happy.
She was happy because, despite that circumstances, her master still held tight to his principles from his parents. But at this moment, both of them knew that their cooperation would be put to test.
Howell returned at the rear of the team without disturbing their teamwork. The team realized this and a slight acknowledgement for him appeared in their heart.
'Look for the more secluded lioness. Then we can play hit and run with her, more so since the lioness doesn't have movement ability, unlike the gazelle.' Howell formed a plan and both he and Little Red searched for the individual lioness that was a bit far from the pride and when they did not find one, they kept waiting.
Seth realized roughly what Howell had in mind and slowly but surely, ordered his wolf to move the battle that tangled one lioness to be separated a bit from the rest of the pride. The transparent figure also returned to his side and entered Internal Beast Space.
The battle between Silver rank beast was more fierce since the wolf was cunning enough to weaken the capability of the lioness by striking her four legs again and again. But it also made their battle into the battle of attrition since they had roughly the same capability as an individual being.
The lioness mostly used Lion's Roar to even the battle with the wolf but the wolf used Swift Attack to cripple the lioness legs. Howell could see it through his Insight Eye and also understood that the wolf was doing it to negate the advantage of the lioness. Even if the Regenerative Factor recovered the injured legs, the wolf just had to strike the leg again and the lioness would be helpless too. And the wolf also had movement ability...
While that was the case, the endurance of the wolf was lower, and could not hold on for long either. Howell and Little Red finally found their opportunity to change the situation.
'Now!'
Howell first ordered Little Red to use the Silver rank output of Bloodvenom Mist with his connection. Little Red already knew that was going to be the case and let out the crimson mist that started from the location where the lioness stood her ground. This time, the roar was that of excruciating pain from the lioness...
The wolf then retreated from the red mist due to the order from its master and looked at the mist.
The mist was venomous and the lioness felt the effect immediately. It corroded its skin but the Regenerative Factor kept it from dying immediately. Sadly, it also prolonged its own suffering.
With the flesh corroded and not completely healed made it easier for Howell to kill it. Too bad that he could not enter the mist due to the fact that his equipment would be broken immediately, even his blade. So he ordered Little Red to go for the kill instead. He kept his Shared Sense so he could also see from Little Red's perspective.
'Master, watch and learn!' Little Red had lots of combat experience and she wanted to show her master how to do it under these variables.
She slithered on the ground and because of the combat learning purpose, she did not hide her presence. The lioness who had been weakened became wary and used Lion's Roar to first intimidate the opponent before going in with Pin Down due to the fact that Little Red was smaller in size.
But Little Red easily dodged the paws, to the point that she did it narrowly with minimal movement. She opened her mouth and used Silver ranked output for Venom Fang!
It hit the lioness and Little Red moved quickly to the other part of the lioness' body. Her movements were fast despite not having any movement ability. Howell could feel that she was using her knowledge to recreate something similar to the movement ability. She bit and made the lioness weakened.
'Weaken the opponent but also pay attention to the sudden change of the battle?' Howell who watched all of the process realized that Little Red's position was ideal for any change on the situation but also optimized her attack on the lioness.
And then Howell let out a small smile because...the time had come.
With the lioness weakened to the point of not able to resist, Little Red strangled the lioness and broke the neck of the lioness. Then after she had done so, she lowered the output of the Bloodvenom Mist and Howell stored the armaments temporarily and entered the mist.
