“Your general education score is worse than last week,” Chloe noted with slight surprise. She rummaged through the reports from the last few weeks, compared the scores, and looked back at me, confusion etched on her face. “We increased the difficulty of the questions a little to prepare you for the lectures, but it’s not like this week’s increment was any worse than the others. How did your score plummet to 36 when you were closing in on an average of 50 in the last few weeks?”
I was in the middle of my workout in Beaster Bert’s basement, waiting for Aureus to complete his training in the ethermist cube, when Daniel’s mother appeared. She looked a little frantic, probably worried I’d grown complacent.
Mrs. Zerog was a kind woman. She was a little overprotective of Daniel, but she was a great mother. I was sure she would do everything in her power to help Daniel, which was the very reason she looked so… was that disappointment in her eyes? After spending weeks with the Zerogs—they visited me for what I started to call ‘investment inspections’ every other day—I had grown used to their personas; odd but not unkind.
My eyes creaked open while I continued to circulate ether through my body. I picked up traces of ether that constantly poured out of my leaky essence gates, inspected the tempering process, and upgraded it with the tempering technique the Zerogs prepared for me a few weeks ago. It felt like my blood was boiling, my skin was itching, and my bones cracking, but the pain accompanying the tempering technique was only temporary.
The suffering would stop the moment I stopped using the technique, although I doubted that would happen. The technique’s results were too good to ignore. Not only could I leverage the ether my gates leaked, I could use their enormous size to my advantage as well. There were only a few techniques that had been adjusted to suit unique constitutions. In most cases, families with unique constitutions kept them to themselves, ensuring others wouldn’t learn of their greatest advantage.
I had no idea how Daniel’s parents located the customized tempering technique, but I was grateful for their hard work. Even if it was an investment for their son, I was happy with everything I was given.
“What’s my Beaster score?” I asked through gritted teeth as a knot of pain formed in my chest. Circulating ether through the chest filled me with warmth. It cast aside the pain while straining it at the same time. Minuscule, barely noticeable shockwaves of ether rippled through my body—too weak to inflict serious harm but strong enough to push me to the brink of insanity—or so I would love to say. The shockwaves weren’t powerful and felt more like vibrations that phased through my form to reach every part of me, yet they were painful.
Chloe glanced at me for a moment, her eyes momentarily trailing the ether shockwaves phasing through me, before she turned back to the screens displaying my reports.
“Your body tempering seems to work just fine. If I’m not wrong—which I’m not—your physique is on par with 5-Star Novices. By the time your third ether gate is filled and refined, your physique might be strong enough to best a purely physically attributed 3-Star Wild unarmed, if you keep going like this.”
That would be an impressive feat, and I was looking forward to it. Since Aureus was barely a 1-Star Wild when it came to his physical attributes, my physique shouldn’t be impressive either. However, the existence of the customized body tempering technique and the size of my ether gates pushed me further than most Blessed. Most Novices, even if they had purely physical-attributed Soulkins, had a weaker soulshare than I had, and that resulted in smaller physical empowerments.
Novices are nothing special. Even if I am ‘better’ than most Novices, Chloe is comparing me to the average… and the average Novice is somewhere between eight to eleven years old. I had to remind myself. Nonetheless, I was satisfied since Daniel’s mother compared my strength to beasts from outside as well—and besting a 3-Star Wild unarmed was definitely impressive. Just thinking about it was motivating, to say the least.
“Your Beaster score increased by 18 points?” Chloe asked, her clear voice resounding through the basement.
I caught a glimpse of Beaster Bert as he stepped inside and stopped my workout. Aureus stopped at the same time, though the glutton couldn’t help but send waves of displeasure in my direction. He would much rather stay in the ethermist cube for 24 hours, enduring the pressure of condensed ether than consume one more serum. Unfortunately, the serums were too potent to ignore, which was why Aureus and I had to consume them—daily at this point.
“Adam is doing great. His questions are growing more and more complex,” Bert praised as he handed me two vials. I emptied the dark-colored vial in one go and fed a disgruntled mutant Soilback the contents of the other vial. “I can tell he has been studying a lot.”
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Bert turned to Chloe with a mischievous smile. “If you don’t want him, I will take him in as an apprentice. Don’t worry, I will continue with Daniel’s training, but it’s fairly obvious that your son doesn’t want to become a Beaster. Adam, on the other hand,” he looked back at me, “I cannot speak for him, but I’m fairly sure he wants to use that head on his shoulders a little bit more than Daniel.”
Chloe frowned, though I was certain it had nothing to do with me. Her gaze flicked from Bert to me and then back to the reports.
“If there’s a Beaster workshop, which is likely, Adam could…” she muttered to herself, but I could still hear her.
“Do you want to become a Beaster?” Daniel’s mother asked, turning back to me.
Why wouldn’t I want to become a Beaster? was the real question. Beasters were highly regarded by everyone. Not a single soul didn’t know about Beasters and their wealth. Every Beaster was wealthy, or so everyone thought. That was what my parents and I thought too.
However, becoming a Beaster was expensive. It was an ordeal, and also the reason Bert, the Beaster, was affiliated with the Zerogs. He’d been sponsored by Pater’s father and was thus working for them ever since. I didn’t know anything about their contracts, but I’d never seen Bert ask the Zerogs about money.
“I don’t know,” I answered, unsure what to say even though I was certain I wanted to become a Beaster. “Once Aureus evolves, it will be difficult to prepare suitable serums for him. He’ll need serums of a higher grade, which are more expensive, and I’m sure we would have to figure out which serums work on his new form. He won’t evolve into a Cragling, which makes it all the more difficult to prepare for the days in the Camp.”
Being a Beaster would also help my future Soulkins and my parents—especially my parents. I’d be able to harvest infused herbs to concoct serums at no cost, ether machines excluded. First, however, would be the troubles within the Camp. I wouldn’t have the Zerogs’ investment once the Camp started. They could only invest in my growth until the Camp officially started. Once a cadet, I would have to use the Camp’s resources—earn them.
Being a Beaster, aspirant or apprentice, by the time the Camp started would be the best way to earn the resources needed to advance Aureus. I’d have to be a higher-ranking Beaster to help Daniel’s Soulkin, but that was also worth thinking about if I was talented enough to become a proper Beaster. I would acquire merit points for the cadet ranking as well since not every cadet was focused on combat. The Bastions were in dire need of fighters, but Beasters and other occupations were just as important, if not more.
I wanted to fight beasts outside the dome, though not constantly if I could avoid it.
Chloe looked at me, but her gaze was unfocused and dim.
“Your World is growing at a decent pace. Not very fast, but not too slow either. Aureus is growing similarly faster—just as we’ve calculated,” Daniel’s mother muttered, yet it did not feel like she was talking to me… or anyone. “Aureus’ physical growth is lackluster, disappointing, but the data of his brain and the results of his mental examinations are off the charts. He is definitely a beast with great focus on his mental attributes.”
Aureus’ soul energy level dictated that the glutton was a weak 4-Star Wild. It was hard to fathom for me since all we had been doing for the last few weeks was train, study, and for me to get thrashed by Selene, but by the time several weeks had gone by, Aureus had already surpassed his racial limits. His mental stats were a dozen times greater than the average mature Soilback, which was hardly a surprise given a Soilback’s low intelligence, though his physical attributes were still far away from a Soilback’s limit. Still… a 4-Star…
Chloe nodded slowly. “Displaying Adam’s potential and knowledge is the way. It was a good idea not to push him too much into combat training, especially with a Soulkin like Aureus. A high soulshare with a Soulkin with mental attributes is rare to come by at the lower ranks.” Daniel’s mother shook her head, her initial disappointment no more. “Working with you has been interesting, to say the least.”
I was not quite sure if I was supposed to thank Mrs. Zerog for that, but it seemed like she had regained her senses. At least, she was no longer talking to herself, even if she was busy grinning vibrantly at one of the screens as she made a few notes.
Chloe Zerog finished her notes with a satisfied smile but froze in her tracks. She tensed and spun around faster than I could see. All I noticed was a flash, and a spear appeared in her hands.
A flash of lightning burst through the door to the basement and Peter Zerog emerged. He was nowhere to be seen one moment, and stood beside his wife a moment later with a large, familiar figure thrown over his shoulder.
Peter laid the figure on the ground and turned to Beaster Bert, whose shouts ceased the moment their eyes clashed. My eyes drifted to Daniel for a moment, only to revert to Peter’s ice-cold, dead-serious eyes, and my stomach tightened.
I had a bad feeling about this.
The basement trembled ever so slightly, and a thunderous explosion resounded. Then the screech came. It echoed through the building and echoed through my very being. Aureus yelped, fear flooding our bond, and I couldn’t even blame him for that, as I felt exactly the same.
What’s happening? I wanted to scream, but not even the faintest sound escaped my lips as more sounds—shrieks and roars—reverberated, filling me with dread.