20

I flinched when he looked at me that way. People never took interest in me unless they wanted something.

"They're scales from my tamed beast," I focused on his feet.

"They're both mana resistant, and mana conductive," Bryce sounded excited, "Those two qualities shouldn't be in the same material. They're conflicting qualities. Its like fire, and ice existing in the same place at the same time without harming each other."

That's impossible I thought skeptically. Fire, and ice were destructive opposites. They destroyed each other whenever they were in the same place.

"This should be impossible," Bryce tapped the scale he was examining twice with some sort of pen, "This material shouldn't exist."

"And yet it does," I mumbled, "And so does the beast that grew them."

"I'd like to see this beast," he started examine the scale again.

"Sure," I rubbed my forehead as I mumbled to myself.

Walking out the door now that I was done with that. Heading back to the housing we'd been provided. Savannah wanted us to go out on hunting trips now that we were mostly settled in. Her reasoning was pretty sound. We needed to provide for ourselves or the hospitality we were being given would run out soon.

Especially with how much free reign I appeared to give Wyatt. I didn't care about any of that, but we really didn't have anywhere to go so we really couldn't pull any stupid stunts. Giving Wyatt free reign from the beginning would end better than chaining him up like a typical beast. I wanted them to know that Wyatt wasn't a typical beast so they would know he wasn't a danger once his intelligence got out. Once people found out how intelligent Wyatt really was, and that he wasn't a tamed beast like we claimed.

There was no doubt in my mind that they would be very angry. Finding out there was a beast like intelligent Archaic running around. Archaics still had a bad rep in the eyes of humans. I hoped letting Wyatt have free reign would build up some sort of reputation as a beast that didn't really care to hassle humans. Maybe Wyatt had a similar plan in mind.

Maybe he had a better plan than that. I really hoped he did. No plan I could come up with very good.

*****

I wanted to roar out in joy. That level up had been incredibly satisfying. I dashed through the tall grass killing every single snake creature I went after to boost my XP a bit further. Maybe you could call it some sort of a level high. Consuming their crystals to gain access to the corrosive poison they were hiding within their jaws.

Stealing the power of my enemies was highly satisfying. My wings twitched. Begging to be used, but I didn't care to fly right now. That would take me too far away from the interesting things happening here. I ran out of bigger snake things that were worth hunting, and started wandering back toward that group of adventurers.

They were interesting. I wanted to see how they were faring after seeing a beast like me massacre their enemies. I didn't bother sneaking up on them, and just focused on walking toward them calmly. I flinched when the spotlight hit my eyes. It didn't hurt, but for a split second I was blinded by the light.

None of them attacked in that split second. Which was why I didn't attack either. I laid down on the edge of the range of their spotlights light. Liking the blood off my face. The green blood of the creatures here had an odd tang to it.

Like eating an orange, but the meat version. I couldn't be poisoned so I didn't have to worry about it too much. The foreign mana that filtered toward my core had to be purified by my own before I could allow it into my core. It was wasteful to purify the unique traits from the mana of this world so I could absorb it without poisoning my core, but I couldn't stop it from heading to my core once I'd eaten the creatures crystals so I had no choice, but to do so. I really didn't have a choice in the matter.

I couldn't allow it to reach my core, and poison that. It would be much worse for me if I did. I yawned slowly. Showing a maw without any teeth for a few seconds as I relaxed in the odd soft grass. I didn't need to bare my teeth at these ones.

If they had an ounce of common sense they wouldn't dare to attack me first. I was light enough of a sleeper that they kept waking me whenever they approached. Drawing a light irritated growl from me two or three times before they figured out it was a bad idea to approach me. It was still dark when I finally finished resting nearly six hours later. I could practically taste daylight coming though.

It wouldn't be long until the sun rose. I shook off what was left of my stiff limbs startling the man that was assigned to watching me. Standing slowly, and scanning the surroundings. I sat down on my haunches, and waited. They would wake soon, and if they decided to go back I would leave them.

They were strong enough to handle the dangers on the way back without me. I wanted to go a bit further out before going back. If I found something dangerous then bonus. If I didn't then I would head back either way. Ethan would get antsy in my absence soon.

He needed a certain amount of my attention to keep himself sane in his fear filled world. I looked his direction. I had to concentrate to stretch our connection at this distance. Reassuring my frightened bonded that I was in fact all right, and I had a reason to stay out tonight. It was a good reason.