Bert and his wife were nice people. They were friendly and didn’t shy away from teaching me all about Beasters. Maybe Bert and his wife appreciated how curious I was—or maybe they were just bored. It didn’t matter, as I learned a lot about the identification of beasts, the mysteries of serums, and evolutionary paths. I sincerely doubted anyone else would teach me this much about Beasters, yet Bert did—for free, no less! Then again, the Zerogs were probably paying him generously for everything.
Beaster Bert and the Zerogs were affiliated—not just through Daniel’s tutelage, but in several other ways as well. From what I had learned, most ether devices belonged to Peter Zerog, and he had only installed them in Bert’s basement in exchange for… something.
I was fairly sure Bert didn’t have much use for the ethermist cube. Sure, it was valuable and could be used to concoct serums, but I had never seen the Beaster use the device that way. Since only Daniel and I used it, it probably wasn’t worth the effort.
“Does it work?” Bert asked, his smile hinting at something he already suspected. “Can you tell me what you see in your World?”
I didn’t understand half of what the Beaster told me about his work, let alone the complicated explanations behind the creation of evolution serums, but the last two weeks had been educational nonetheless. I understood more than before.
One step at a time.
“Aureus fell asleep. Soul energy particles are drawn to him and seep into his body.” I explained what I saw but hesitated to continue.
Bert looked at me with a reassuring smile and waited for me to say more, so I brushed my doubts aside and added, “I believe the Pith Potency serum is working. It must have triggered successfully, which resulted in the pull of soul energy. The serum is probably utilizing soul energy, and both the ether and nutrients Aureus gathered are necessary for the serum to function at full efficacy. I do not have much soul energy left after refining my World, and Aureus has already absorbed the rest rather greedily. If my guess is correct, my soul energy reserves won’t be recovered by tomorrow.”
Trying to sense the changes in my World, I added, “Aureus has absorbed a lot of ether, yet a portion of my replenishing ether is being sapped and pulled toward him.”
Bert nodded slowly. “You can recover your entire soul energy reserves in a day? That could be a perk of having a small World. Interesting.” He shook his head, brushing the thought aside, and smiled at me. “Anyway, your gut feeling seems to work just fine. But I told you that Beasters work with numbers. You won’t be able to determine how effective the serum is going to be until Aureus digests it—we will examine him once that is done, but you can give me more details to analyze if Pith Potency works as efficiently on the mutant Soilback as it would on other beasts with weak physiques.”
Data was everything to a Beaster. I knew that much, and I had learned about the numerical value of various stats.
“Aureus is a 3-Star Wild with a soul energy level of… 3.63 the last time we scanned it. My World can safely contain Aureus with little additional space, putting it at a soul energy level of 3.8, which should have increased a little since both my World and Aureus have grown since then. Our soulshare is very strong, resulting in growth spurts whenever Aureus’ soul energy level increases.”
I muttered, mostly to myself, “My core’s ether level is valued at 1, though that may not be entirely right because everything below is rounded up. Still, my core is one-fifth of my World.”
More information and memories flashed through my mind, and I compared them to everything I had seen and sensed through my own senses, but also Aureus’ bond. “I think Aureus consumed roughly five units of ether in the ethermist cube. Roughly one and a half soul energy units remained after I finished my practice with Blastor Refinery, which were fully consumed by Aureus the moment he returned to the World, yet the suctioning force hasn’t subsided. I cannot be certain, but I believe Aureus will consume three to five units—or would have if I had this much at my disposal. Since that is not the case and Pith Potency is unlikely to work efficiently until my World recovers enough soul energy, I believe it will be capped at two units.”
Though more ether was being drawn into Aureus, the steady amount was too insignificant to quantify.
But… did that mean they made a mistake? Maybe we should’ve waited until I’d recovered more soul energy.
My throat tightened as I stared at Bert, worrying we wasted Pith Potency.
The Beaster, however, was smiling, which was reassuring.
“You used up more soul energy than I anticipated. It looks like you’re doing well for yourself with Blastor Refinery.” Bert nodded, looking satisfied and… proud? “Pith Potency won’t consume much more soul energy. Under normal circumstances, it requires one-third of the consumer’s soul energy, and a tremendous amount of both ether and nutrients to work on the beast’s muscles. From the looks of it, Pith Potency works as intended, if not better than expected. Despite being a mutant, Aureus is still a Soilback. We may be able to fix his physique—to a certain extent.”
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That was great news.
“We will examine Aureus again in two days,” he said. “On another note, I am glad you retained something from our last discussion. To be honest with you, I was a bit frustrated when Peter interrupted me. He not only interfered with my work, but also obstructed my desire to sponsor you. I’m glad it worked out in the end.”
Bert looked at the empty vials and then at me. “They’re very interested in your growth, and it looks like they’re up for some heavy investment.”
I was grateful for everything the Zerogs did, but it reminded me once again that Daniel’s parents were mostly doing all of this for their son’s sake. The higher their investment and the greater the corresponding results, the better their chances were of procuring a suitable Aspect for Daniel. And that was more than fine with me, since I gained a lot more than I could have wished for. I didn’t need the Aspect, but I wanted it as well—although not for myself. I wanted to help Daniel too.
“I’ve sent over some files. Check them out when you have time,” Bert said, sounding as nonchalant as possible as I checked my messenger to see a good few dozen files about the works of Beasters, ranging from information every half-decent Blessed should know to information on the Intermediary level of Beasters.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He chuckled. “You seemed interested in my works, so I asked your sponsors if it was fine to help you a little. They weren’t particularly pleased with my desire to distract you from training, but they agreed—reluctantly. Peter may be a bit grim and hard-hearted, but he knows how important it is to keep you educated. The Camp has several lectures about beast evolution, serums, and even Beasters. If you work hard enough, you may be able to join a Beaster’s basic workshop to become an Aspirant Beaster.” He winked at me as he added, “Naturally, that is only to push your rank among other cadets. Everything is for Daniel’s sake.”
I grasped the hidden meaning and smiled brightly at Bert. The Beaster knew about the issue in the Zerog family, and he approved of their actions. So did I.
There was no need to fight each other with the Council heavily investing in the Camps and the growth of the future generation. Working together so that all benefited sounded like the go-to plan.
As long as I don’t fail, everything will be fine. I snickered inwardly, but I doubted that would be a problem. Daniel made sure nobody would hold me accountable even if I were to fail. He ripped his family a new one for tricking him—‘betraying his best friend,’ as he shouted—and his mother felt guilty enough to agree with everything Daniel wanted.
His father was not so easy to convince, but he agreed that he wouldn’t leverage his power to punish me if I was to fail, as long as I gave my best. I didn’t appreciate the hidden threat, though it was better than nothing. The Zerogs didn’t have to worry about my motivation either way. I was going to give my best whether they threatened me or not.
***
“A Wagur? I don’t think it will be easy to subdue one, let alone two.” I finished stretching my body while images of the weaker 1-Star Wilds appeared in my mind.
It had been two weeks since Aureus had consumed his first Pith Potency serum, and he had been given three more serums since then. The results had been interesting, to say the least. Aureus was satisfied with the strength he gained, and so was I—mostly. I could feel a trickle of a physical empowerment from our bond, yet the amplifier was low and not noteworthy. Not when I had two ether gates and was filled to the brim.
Both gates could be used to temper my body. Working on the third gate was an ordeal as it required even more ether than the first two, but my training in the ethermist cube provided great results. The third gate was already one-tenth full, which was great. I was sure others would consider my growth slow, but it was not like others had ether gates that required five times more ether than the average gate. Nor did I think many Blessed had to supervise their ether gates constantly to ensure they weren’t leaking.
My physique, as pleasant as it turned out to be, was far from perfect. My ether gates were leaky, and they consumed ether constantly. It was not much, only a trickle, but I had to check on them several times a day to keep them topped up. Bert’s tests hadn’t led to great discoveries, but the Beaster labeled them wells and open energy reservoirs, as they were not working like the sealed gates they were supposed to be once filled and refined.
As unpleasant as my leaky situation was, it carried a few advantages. First, the leaked essence seeped into my body, replicating a lesser version of a body-tempering technique. The leaky gates tempered my body consistently. It was a slow process and couldn’t be compared to the active use of a proper tempering technique, but it was better than losing the leaked ether. Even better, the tempering process of my active technique was faster, as remnants of the leaked ether remained untouched in my body, ready to be properly utilized.
The more ether gates—or was it better to call them ‘ether wells’ in my case?—I completed, the stronger I would be, and the faster I would be able to temper my body. It would cost more ether to keep the gates topped up as I filled up more, but it was not like I had many gates to access either way—for now. Once Aureus evolved, more ether gates would be accessible…
Aureus interrupted my train of thought with more pictures and emotions that formed simple words in my mind. The glutton was not talking in the human tongue, but we could communicate. At this point, I could understand him even if he wasn’t speaking properly.
I knew some Blessed could communicate properly with their Soulkins, but I was wondering how long it would take until we could do the same—talk seamlessly in each other’s heads.
I awaited that day impatiently, though I was also dreading it.
What if Aureus was a chatterbox? What if he was like Daniel?
I shuddered and glanced at Aureus.
“Nah, you won’t be that bad.” I shook my head, but the doubts lingered. “Right?”