Hidden Clues

' Authority'

August activated his authority before the beasts could attack him. The whole cave was frozen. The beasts all stopped moving. The 5 S-rank beasts could perceive but they also couldn't move their bodies in the slightest. They were all terrified. The entirety of the cave descended into silence.

" Let's look at your stats then."

August looked at the 5 S-rank beasts to analyze the stats and skills. The rest of the A-rank beasts were nothing special to him.

[ Type : Awakened Beast ]

[ Age : 2.5 years ]

[ Species : Argnes ]

[ Level : 101 ]

[ Strength : 123 ]

[ Agility : 99 ]

[ Vitality : 120 ]

[ Dexterity : 90 ]

[ Intelligence : 5 ]

[ Wisdom : 5 ]

[ Skills : Aura(S), Blade claw(A), Windstorm(A)....]

He looked at the other beasts. They were all around the same level and the stats fluctuated a little bit. But the last S-rank beast stood out from all of them.

[ Type : Awakened Beast ]

[ Age : 9 years ]

[ Species : Balriguana ]

[ Level : 131 ]

[ Strength : 163 ]

[ Agility : 120 ]

[ Vitality : 210 ]

[ Dexterity : 30 ]

[ Intelligence : 9 ]

[ Wisdom : 10 ]

[ Skills : Aura(S), Sealing claw(S), Revitalize(A), Intuition(B).....]

This S-rank beast was quite intelligent for a beast. Its intelligence stat was 9, which was even comparable to an average human. He was really intrigued by this S-rank beast. If only he could somehow interact and talk to it.

' System, can you decipher that beast's thoughts. '

[ Conversion initiated..]

[ Conversion complete ]

[ You can converse with the beast using thought transference]

August looked at the beast who was frozen in its place.

' Hey, can you hear me ?'

~ Grrrm Human, is that you ?~

' Yes, it's me. You looked a little intelligent, so I decided to have a chat.'

~ What do you want, human? Why did you gather all these beasts here? Do you want to kill us? ~

' Not necessarily. but if you don't cooperate I don't mind doing that. '

~ As usual, greedy humans trying to take over everything. I will never bow down to you. ~

' Can't you see what situation you are in? You don't have a say in this.'

~ …. ~

' Listen, tell me everything you know, and I might spare your life.'

~ What do you want to know?

' How did you develop your intelligence ?'

~ Grmm, I don't know the correct answer, but I am quite old. I have seen my great great great grandson die before my eyes. I didn't know why I lived such a long time, but I had a sense of the world. I was in the last phase of my life, but one day suddenly my mind expanded and I received these powers out of nowhere. I was really thankful that nature bestowed me with this power. Since then, I have been leading the beasts here.~

' Hmm, so you were almost at your life's end, but when the quantum field erupted, it swept across all consciousness. You might have awakened because of that, your intelligence also gained a huge boost.'

~ … ~

' So, can you see the system?'

~ System?

' A rectangular box in front of your eyes. '

~ You mean nature's slate, where we can see our powers. ~

' Yeah, that.'

~ Yes, we can all see it, but only a few can actually interpret it. I am the most intelligent and powerful here, so I usually help them interpret it. This slate gives us instructions on what to do and in return gives us food and more power. ~

' What ?'

[ He's referring to quests as you see in a video game.]

' But, I've never received quests or read anywhere that quests in the system exist, so how is this happening ?'

[ Initialing system scanning….]

[ progress.. 1% ]

[ progress 2% ]

…..

….

The system started to scan the beast's system. August waited until the progress finished.

[ Progress 100% ]

[ Anomaly detected ]

[ A foreign force is trying to corrode the system ]

[ Foreign force trying to inject it into your system.]

[ Automatic defense initiated. ]

[ Neutralizing….]

[ Threat neutralized. ]

When the foreign force tried to invade August's system, he felt a pinching pain in his consciousness. Whatever it was, It wanted to take over his mind and re-establish his memories and change the system.

' Did you find any data'

[ Negative. Before I neutralized the threat, I tried to scan it, but it self-destructed. ]

' Smart move. Did you get any leads ?'

[ The anomaly appears to be detached from this dimension. I scanned the whole quantum field, but I couldn't find its signature. It seems that it might have come from another dimension.]

' So they are trying to take over all consciousness in this dimension using the system. But you never detected this anomaly before.'

[ It was my first time detecting it too. The anomaly has not spread to humans. It appears to be only targeting some selected groups. ]

' Hmm '

~ Human, will you let me go now?

' Not yet'

' Tell me, what kind of instructions the so-called slate gave you.'

~ It asked us to hunt certain beasts, defend our place and stay together.~

' Has it ever asked you to attack humans ?'

~ Yes, only when the humans attack first.~

' It doesn't appear to be too aggressive. What is its purpose ?'

The system was a subconscious construct that he made for himself. It was just his subconscious projection of information. His system was different from others this way. He always tried to find out how other people got their systems. This might give a clue as to why there are skills, awakened people, and beasts. The most important part was that there were several different types of systems. And now he discovered a system that is outright foreign intervention. If that foreign anomaly that controlled the system of these beasts was also a consciousness of sorts that means they are trying to enter this dimension by expanding and controlling a controlled group of beasts and using them to create influence. But what was their end goal? Why would they try to invade our dimension? Is there something hidden in this dimension?

The anomaly with this beast group's system was not very powerful. It must be a fraction of their powers, whoever it was. This time his system neutralized it because it was not concentrated as his force field.

' No point thinking about it now. I can only know after getting more information.'

*sigh*

August pushed the thought to the back of his mind and looked at the S-rank beasts.

' I will let you live, but in exchange, I will have your skills.'

~ Human, you promised to let us go if I answered your question.

' Well, I am letting you go, but your powers shall be mine.'

The wise S-rank beast was afraid he might kill them after he took their skills, but thinking about it, Can they really resist?

~ Very, well

' Oh, And also I need a beast core of A-rank beast. Pick out a beast as per your choice. You know them all, don't you? You can easily give me a bad apple.'

~ … ~

August loosened his authority over the S-rank beast and it turned around and looked at all the A-rank beasts. His eyes suddenly stopped while looking through them.

~ That one, He left our group and went underground. We've been looking for him ever since. He killed a lot of weak beasts and scouts in the edges of the glade. ~

It looked at a large centipede-looking beast. It had red and black skin with large pincers protruding out from its head.

August disappeared from his position and re-appeared in front of the centipede-looking A-rank beast. He coated his hand with force and aura and stabbed his head. The beast plopped on the ground devoid of life. He then took out the beast core from the beat's head. The core was a bright red color and strands of black could be seen on the surface.

' This will do.'

August used his force to clean the beast's core and put it inside his pocket. He then turned around and vanished. He reappeared again in front of the S-rank beast.

' I should take the selected beast's skills or my skill window will be too cluttered. '

He thought about taking the skills of S-class beasts and some A-class beasts whose skills look useful. In his eyes, these awakened beasts were not even one-thousandth of the quantum beast he fought before. There is a different level of power that comes with the quantum field that normal stats and skills can not achieve. He noticed that the quantum force field boosted the skills exponentially, so a quantum life-form can be way stronger, even if it looks like its stats are similar or lower.

' Hmm... I need to find out more about quantum life-forms. But before that '

' Acquire '