Mother Jason

Jason got down on all fours and could now see the burrow below the tree, covered by thick roots and foliage. There were many different colored hand-sized fox cubs enveloped in a black-colored hue inside the burrow.

There was just enough space for him to squeeze through the densely packed roots after taking out the greater-horned wolf corpse.

Because the burrow was below a tree, not much sunlight reached inside, but what Jason wondered about was something else.

Upon looking closely, he noticed that there was a network of tunnels inside the burrow, going in all different directions and Jason could see lots of black lights at the end of each of them.

There were probably a lot more fox cubs inside and Jason wondered about the total number of lesser elemental fox cubs that could be hiding within the several tunnels when his eyes fell on a bunch of them in front of him.

`Did all of the lesser elemental foxes gather together to give birth to their offsprings inside this big burrow? Why would they do that here and not in their territory? Did something happen there?....

I hope that's the only group of beasts migrating…' 

Looking at all those lesser elemental fox cubs which could barely see, Jason grew sad.

Their parents had been killed by some humans because they were seen as a threat to the middle-school students who trained inside the one-star wild zone, even if the foxes had been harmless and hadn't attacked anyone.

Jason was sad but there wasn´t anything he could do about it. The world was built in a hierarchy where the strong reigns and the weak suffer and die. This was even more apparent outside the dome.

Because he had been forced to act responsibly and like an adult from a young age, he could be more practical than most other youths of the same age. Jason didn´t know if other youths thought about killing living beings as he did, but sometimes Jason couldn´t understand himself either.

Four days ago, he had killed packs of low-star wild beasts without getting emotional but now he felt sad?

His own mindset was still difficult to comprehend, even more for himself, but the longer he faced reality, the more he tried to find a good balance in the conflicting emotions coursing through him.

He didn't want to kill each and every beast ruthlessly, but he wouldn't shy away from killing matured beasts and other threatening predators.

If he gained something from it, Jason would probably still do it but was that even right?

Jason didn't want to kill mother beasts with their cubs, but other than these few exceptions, there weren't many excuses to not kill them. The population of beasts had exponentially increased in recent years and it wouldn't take long for another beast tide to pervade through Astrix.

Most humans would probably think Jason was too soft-hearted because beast cubs could also grow into terrifying existences and turn against mankind in the future, but he didn't really care about their opinion.

The news was filled with information about the overpopulation of wild, awakened, and evolved beasts while the reproduction ability of beasts with higher ranks was fortunately lesser.

The stronger one's mana core was, the less active was the beast's reproduction ability.

But Jason had to remind himself, even if it was hard to accept: If he didn't kill these beasts to get stronger and more proficient with his martial arts, someday these beasts could kill him even if he didn't like that fact.

The numbers grew more and more and Jason was not confident in surviving against a stampede, even if it were only wild beast-ranked individuals, which was hilarious.

He couldn't even outlive a high quantity of wild-ranked beasts, which were by far the weakest beasts… while others killed hundreds or thousands of them without the slightest hesitation Thus, Jason was having a mental debate with himself while looking at the cubs in front of him.

But one thing was for sure! He wouldn't kill these cubs… They had done nothing wrong and maybe they could act as cute soulbonds for someone and live a decent life.

Apparently, they seemed to have been born a few days ago when their parents had migrated into the one-star zone. They wouldn't survive without their mother's milk for long and it seemed like he had to act as fast as possible because they looked at him with hunger in their eyes.

Before anything else, Jason had to get these lesser elemental foxes outside.

Taking out the big self-driving enlarging miniature beast cages, Jason pressed the red button and the miniature beast cage enlarged itself outside the burrow.

After that, Jason empowered it with a decent amount of mana as he began to work.

Fortunately for Jason, the fangs, claws, and elemental affinity of these beast cubs hadn't fully developed yet, otherwise this procedure would have been a lot more dangerous.

Taking out one hand-sized furball after another, Jason noticed that Artemis watched him in fascination. It took him more than two hours before he was finally done.

Jason´s clothes were completely soiled as well as his hands and his whole face was smeared with dirt. While he estimated that over a hundred lesser elemental foxes had migrated, he would have never imagined that there were so many cubs.

There were at least 150 lesser elemental foxes and Jason was shocked to see the 20 sq.m self-driving beast cage jam-packed with cubs….

Jason gulped and activated his mana eyes again to see if he had forgotten a fox cub.

Instead, he noticed the varied shades of black color radiating from these beasts.

He could almost immediately figure out which beast had a better potential...or higher limit?

Adding what he saw to his self-established theory that slowly formed in his mind, Jason thought that the parent genes of the cubs with denser color had to be stronger. It looked like the kind of ability also played a role in the density of the color that was radiated by each cub. The blue-furred lesser elemental foxes radiated a gentle black color while red-furred ones had a more vigorous shade of black radiating like a flame.

But that wasn't everything as the amount of color radiating from them was dependent on their ability or at least that was what Jason assumed.

In the beginning, Jason took a look at two fox cubs from the same batch and one of their colors was denser. Jason thought that it was either that one beast inherited dominant genes or the fire ability which was slightly stronger.

And again...too many questions began to torment his mind.

But there was something else that Jason noticed.

There were all kinds of wild beasts cubs and they struggled when they saw Jason, but after looking deep into his eyes, they completely stopped moving around and some even rubbed their heads at his legs in affection.

But he had to steel his heart against the innocent faces that stared at him… He couldn't raise over 150 lesser elemental foxes due to many reasons.

First of all, they were wild beasts that were not permitted entry in any city except the beast pagoda, for selling purposes or as soulbonds.

One had to have a license to sell them or form a contract with the beasts if one wanted to take any single beast.

Jason was confident in his soul world but his soul energy rejected this thought immediately.

It was sad because they were so cute and Jason wanted to test his Purity-theory.

And the thought of having an army of powerful foxes behind him while riding on a large Artemis was pretty satisfying.

Artemis sensed his thought and immediately rejected it because even if she grew, she wouldn't want anyone to ride on her!!!

Nobody is allowed to dirty her plumage!!!!! (>'o')>

The large self-driving beast cage was ready, but before Jason started his trip back to his tent, he had to do something against the blinding effect of the sunlight as the foxes that could barely see and had never been in direct contact with the sun.

Taking out a few sheets he had bought earlier for his bed, he threw them over the beast cage, effectively blocking the sunlight before their trip back to the dome began.

While Jason looked out for beasts sensing the awakened beast cubs and trying to take easy prey, Artemis' job was much more difficult.

Once in a while, a fox cub fell out of the beast cage as the bars were too far apart and she had to pick them up and place them back inside the cage.