Feast

Ernst had been so agitated on seeing C+ grade Body Potential… So, Aaron couldn't even imagine what he would say if he found out that it was actually A+, not C+.

At the moment, although he knew that Body Potential was something very important, he still didn't know exactly what each grade signified. Yet, he did understand one thing: this was definitely something that he should keep to himself, just like the fact that he was capable of speaking to Teras.

Putting aside the risk of the organizations that Ernst had just spoken about, Aaron knew that calling attention to himself was definitely something that wasn't advisable.

The predator which slithered silently through the grass and struck a killing blow was always the one which succeeded the most times and survived the longest, when compared to those which blatantly assaulted their prey and oftentimes found themselves in tricky situations because they would attract other predators who could mince them to shreds.

In other words, the tree which stood the tallest was always the one which was blown away first in the event of a storm.

His only objective was to reach the top, and unveil the mystery behind who he was. For that purpose, he didn't see any reason right now which would justify him telling others about this.

Shaking his head, Aaron walked out of the metallic room to find Woof faithfully waiting there, guarding the door and making sure that it could respond in a moment's notice if he faced any danger.

As soon as he laid his eyes on the husky, Aaron felt like testing A.A to see what it would say about Woof. He wondered for a moment how he was supposed to do that, but after that, he figured that he would just ask.

"A.A, I want you to scan the Tera in front of me."

"Scanning. One Tera found. Searching in Teratome. No entry found. Searching in pre-apocalyptic animal database. Entry found. Retrieving entry.

Name of species: Siberian Husky.

Traits: intelligent, faithful, can quickly adapt to situations, has the natural instincts of a predator.

It is likely that this is a high potential Tera, but as no entry has been found in the Teratome, this is all the details that I can give you. New entry has been made in local Teratome. Data shall be updated as soon as it is processed."

With a sigh, Aaron started to wonder whether it really was as practical and useful as he thought.

Yet, Ernst had said that humanity was still in the midst of exploring all Teras, and that the Teratome was constantly being updated by the World Government.

So, it seemed that Woof was a new kind of Tera that hadn't been recorded by humans before.

As for the traits of the Siberian Husky, they really did match Woof.

Yet, there was something that had bothered him since he'd been had given that explanation about Teras.

Teras usually had unique abilities, like the ability of the Flame-Tongued Viper to spit out flaming balls of poison.

Woof had no such thing. Even though it was faster, more agile and probably had more bite strength than most common Teras that they encountered in the forest, any of these didn't qualify as unique abilities.

What could that mean? Could it be that there was something that even Woof, itself, didn't know about and hadn't used in all these years? That was definitely out of the question, as they had gotten in multiple situations where Woof had pulled out everything it had. If there was some terrifying ability that it possessed, it would definitely have put it on display to save them.

Then, the other possibility was that Woof wasn't a Tera at all, but even this didn't make sense as Woof was definitely highly intelligent and incomparable to those common beasts which only had instincts to guide them.

Patting Woof on the head, Aaron decided to put this matter aside for now, and think about it later when he had more information.

Heading in the direction of Edmond's room, he heard snoring before he entered, meaning that the guy must've fallen into a deep slumber to recover from all the blood loss.

Changing direction, he headed to his own room, where he fell on the soft bed and enjoyed the feeling for a moment before opening the red leather book he had obtained as a part of the rewards.

This book had four sections, with identical headings.

The first section read: Ordinary Grade Tera Master Manual – Part One.

The other three sections were the same: they were Ordinary Grade manuals for the other three paths.

With excitement, Aaron first checked the globes in his mind. On seeing that they were already a quarter of the way full, he placed his full attention on the booklet and started going through each and every section.

In this way, he completely lost track of time, as each and every piece of information that was in this booklet seemed invaluable and precious.

Inside, there were clear instructions on how Teras were supposed to be pulled into a Core, how a Tera was supposed to be trained in order to pull out its maximum ability, how to increase the compatibility and coordination between Tera masters and Teras, and a host of other tips and tricks regarding what a Tera Master should do to become capable of beating the settlement leaders and ascending further on the Path to the Stars.

He didn't just focus on the Tera Master path, either. Right after he was done with that, Aaron flipped the pages to the next one, which was the manual for the path of Energy Manipulators.

In this, instructions regarding how one should get started on the path and how one should choose an element to focus on and train were clearly written, followed by a list of 'spells', which were just instructions on how to manipulate Energy to result in certain effects. Among these was the temperature growth spell which the Energy Manipulator during the orientation had displayed, much to the awe of everyone.

The Body Practitioner Manual was actually the simplest: it listed a set of exercises and activities that one had to do while ingesting Energy from the Core into the body in order to digest it and make themselves grow stronger. After that, a very basic punching and kicking technique was given which had both offensive and defensive uses.

Lastly, the path for Weapon Wielders was split into two parts: one which dealt with a simple bladed weapon, and the other which was regarding a weapon that was similar to the one that Aaron had seen during the orientation. In this, most of it was covered with instructions on what materials to gather and how to build one's own weapon, along with exercises to increase one's control and accuracy.

All in all, the former Chief had been right: the World Government really rewarded Ascenders well for beating settlement leaders. Aaron could tell that all of this information had been collected over a long time and had been curated in order to give the best effect for those just starting on the path.

He was incredibly grateful, and he couldn't wait to get started on all of them, as right now, each and every path interested him equally, as there were merits and demerits in each which made it so that it didn't feel right that he had to focus on just one.

That was exactly when he heard a loud knock on the door, following which he looked up and out of the window to see that it was night time.

At the same time, he heard his stomach grumbling loudly, as he hadn't eaten in a long time, and as he looked to the side, he found Woof looking in the direction of the window, too, with its tail wagging and it's tongue outside its mouth, dripping saliva onto the floor.

As Aaron took in a breath, he realised the reason: aromatic scents which made the grumbling in his stomach intensify were wafting through the window, and as he heard the knock again, Aaron got up and went to open the door while still keeping his eye on the direction from which the smell was coming from.

"Come on! Everyone is waiting for you! The food is ready, and I must say that my wife has really outdone herself!"

The mention of the word 'food' was enough. Nodding profusely, Aaron called Woof and the two of them followed the former Chief as he led them to the same clearing where the challenge had happened in the morning.

Right now, there was a large bonfire in the middle on which a gigantic lump of meat that was half the size of an adult man was slowly being roasted.

That… was the source of the smell. As soon as the both of them had appeared, all the Hamletfolk who had gathered cheered and started saying things such as how they were really happy that he had such high Body Potential, but Aaron just ignored all of them and completely focused on the meat, which was glistening in the light.

How… Could meat smell so divine? So complex, yet simple?

Wanting to dig in right away, Aaron wiped the saliva that had started to drip from the corner of his mouth while Woof had already starting to walk forward.

Food was the one thing that could elicit this kind of reaction from him.

As if catching the hint, Ernst laughed and slapped his shoulder, thereby stopping him before he walked forward by himself and whipped out a large cleaver from his waist.

Expertly carving a large portion of the meat that was the size of a human head, Ernst took a large metallic plate that was handed to him and placed it on it before walking towards Aaron and saying, "Count yourself lucky, kid. We seldom have meat like this, but this is an occasion that warrants it."

Again, Aaron's full attention was on the chunk of juicy, red colored meat, whose aroma was literally blowing his and Woof's minds because of how close it was.

If they weren't in a new place where they had to act with caution, they might already have pounced on it and begun tearing it apart while ferociously looking around for any Teras that might try to come and steal their food.

Understanding this, Ernst laughed again and handed Aaron the plate, who licked his lips and chomped down immediately, biting away a large portion on top.

At the same time, Woof jumped in the air and bit off a portion, too, and as both of them chewed, expressions of absolute ecstasy came on their faces.

At this moment, all the fantastic things that Aaron had learned about since coming into the settlement were all shoved to the side. This…This heavenly feeling of the thick juices swirling in his mouth before he swallowed them dominated him, making him almost cry with happiness.

Woof was the same. Its eyes were closed, savoring the flavor, and even it looked like it was ready to burst into tears at any moment.

Their life in the forest had mostly been spent eating raw or occasionally roasted meat which had little to no flavor that could be savored. Over time, Aaron had picked up a few tricks to jazz up their food, but none of them could be compared to what he was tasting now.

Sweet, yet spicy. Soft and tender. Juicy and chewy. With a flavor that was to die for.

As Aaron completely lost himself in the moment, everything else faded away.