Test Subject

Once Leon confirmed that everything that proved a threat was dead, his soldiers started to butcher the more intact corpses. They had to move fast. If the bodies stayed out for too long, they might have to deal with yet another horde.

Leaving the clean-up to his commanders, Leon returned to his office and took out the gemstone he had looted from the ape.

Calling the only person who might know something about the stone, Leon waited for the call to connect. "L-Leon, why are you calling so early in the morning."

"It's four in the afternoon, grandpa, but that's beside the point. We had a beast horde, and we had to fend it off." Leon could almost hear Ziggy sit up in his seat, "Were you able to kill the Primal?"

"If you mean the twenty-foot tall gorilla, then yes, we killed it. That's the reason why I called you. I found a stone in the center of its chest. I was hoping you would know what it is."

Ziggy laughed, "What you just found is the equivalent to striking gold. Here where are you? I'll come right away."

In a few minutes, Ziggy was knocking on Leon's door looking worse for wear, "So how did living out your college days go."

Ziggy rolled his eyes, "Shut and let me see the Core." Leon assumed that the core was the gemstone, so he handed it over to Ziggy.

Holding it up to the light, Ziggy inspected the stone, "It's not the best quality one, but this one stone will probably fetch a pretty jenny."

"So what the hell does it do." Ziggy smiled, "Break it, and you'll see." Leon furrowed his brow, but he did it anyway. With a snap, the gem crumbled into dust, and Leon inhaled as his aura exploded.

"What the hell was that." Leon let the now crushed stone fall onto the floor as he stumbled, "I call them Beast Cores, as you noticed somehow the animals here can sense nen and they seemed to grow stronger when they eat things with it."

"When a beast grows strong enough, their nen consolidates into a solid stone that allows the beast to use nen in ways I can't explain."

Leon thought about it, for his nen to grow as it did so suddenly was unheard of. His Grandfather lived in a cave to spending years to try and make a breakthrough.

"We should send out parties to try and hunt more of these so-called Primals. If we can get more of them, maybe we can figure out how to make artificial ones."

Ziggy frowned, "You don't want to use too many of them at one time. It won't end well."

"What will happen?"

"You don't want to know." Ziggy left then, leaving Leon alone. Now with nothing else to do, Leon sat down at his desk and looked over all the notifications and emails he had gotten over his break.

The next three weeks were peaceful. They now had the canteen up and running along with the shop. The Hunters also started to complain about being held up in Haven for so long. Only able to stave them off for a few days, Leon eventually allowed three teams to go into the wilds.

An hour later, they came back beaten and battered. While it didn't completely stop complaints, it did quiet them. Leon didn't want to have the Hunter out exploring because his men were still scouting the area.

But in just a few weeks, they found the five threats. The teams reported that each beast guarded a valuable resource. Leon marked them down on a map. He didn't need to deal with them now but maybe in the future.

Gotoh also informed him of Bean's reports they blackmailed to spy on the Mafia, Leon wasn't worried about them.

Their leader lead by rage and they had the upper hand in almost every category. Leon was looking at the most recent report when he got an email on his phone.

It was from Gotoh telling him that his test subject was here. Grinning, Leon stood up from his desk, and he started to call people, arranging them to bring out the food they prepared.

Outside, a helicopter was hovering overhead, slowly lowering a large reinforced cage. Once the package touched the ground, Leon's men rushed to secure it.

Stepping in front of the cage, Leon watched as large troughs were brought out of storage along with a few barrels.

"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea? We don't know what side effects it could have." Leon waved off Gotoh's concerns, "I don't want anything to happen to him either, but we need to know what's going on here."

Gotoh nodded, and they watched as the cage opened, revealing the sleeping twenty-foot long leopard. The soldiers tensed as the animal began to stir. Without fear, Leon walked up to the cat and patted its snout.

"Stop faking it and get up already. I know you're hungry." Ymir glared at Leon as he got to his paws, "Don't give me that look. We both know you wouldn't get in the cage willing, so we had to tranquilize you."

Ymir chuffed as he walked over to the troughs and buried his face in the food, "That right, eat it all up. Just keep eating. We'll see soon enough, my loyal test subject."