Chapter 382: Tough Nut
Chapter 382: Tough Nut
Katherine quickly began segregating their scavenged materials.
In total, they had found 8 beast corpses over a distance of nearly 100 kilometres—that’s how far they had travelled on Singham and Shyra before returning.
"That’s a pretty good outcome. I didn’t expect you all to even get 5 corpses. I guess it was thanks to that little Dryad?" Katherine asked, glancing over.
Lily nodded. All of their gains could be attributed to Niri; they had found 5, while Leo had found 3.
"Even you and K—how did you do it?"
"Everything was done by him," Kaelion replied, gesturing toward Leo. "He guided Singham to all the corpses. Apparently, he has a sensing skill that allows him to detect things through the ground."
Leo scratched his head. It was the Geo-Resonance trait he had received from Howl; he used it to sense regions dense in mana, giving him a rough idea of where beast corpses lay.
After a beast dies, its body begins to dissipate the excess mana that once coursed through it into the surroundings. That was what Leo sensed.
As they spoke, Katherine finished segregating the materials.
- Four Mid 4-star beast cores and mana crystals.
- One High 4-star beast core and mana crystal.
- Three Low 4-star beast cores and mana crystals.
Out of these, only two Low 4-star beasts had soul crystals. Lily had already given them to Niri so she could advance in rank.
There was no flesh left; the only things remaining were the feathers, now stacked in heaps to one side. Each feather was as large as three humans standing atop one another. Lily had even been forced to leave behind many weaker ones, choosing only the best due to the limited space in her spatial rings—and she had 4 of them.
As for Leo, he had simply dumped all the feathers into his spiritual space.
After examining them, Katherine spoke, brushing her hands lightly.
"Many of these are in great shape. If you sell this entire heap, you can comfortably get around 1 to 2 million, considering they’re from 4-star beasts. Even higher, if I say so."
But there was someone else who had taken an interest in the feathers. Lily noticed it immediately.
"Sylrael," Lily called, watching her closely.
"Do you want to say something?"
"I—uh, Lady Lily..." Sylrael hesitated before speaking; she straightened herself to remove the sluggishness after coming back from the storm. "These are very sturdy and light. I would be grateful if I could get a few of them. They would make perfect arrowheads and increase our damage output against enemies."
Lily glanced toward Leo.
He simply shook his head.
"You’re the management head. Don’t ask for my confirmation in these matters."
Lily turned back to Sylrael.
"Of course, you can take some. Do you require proper facilities to forge the arrowheads? What about the wood?" she asked.
"Lady Lily, we can create the wood required for the arrows, but... if we could get a few starting tools like hammers and anvils, it would make things easier."
"You’ll get them. I’ll make sure you have both the tools and these metallic feathers," Lily assured her.
Katherine, however, interjected.
"Since you already have elves in your territory, why not bring in dwarves? Or gnomes? They’d be excellent for crafting and building with more materials other than wood."
At that, Leo spoke.
"We will. But our priority is to first pass the bounty day. After that, we’ll focus on our main progress."
Katherine nodded. That was a sensible plan.
Kaelion stepped forward and picked up a beast core, its faint, veiny glow reflecting in his eyes.
"What are the plans for these beast cores and mana crystals?" he asked.
"We’ll keep them to feed our own beasts," Leo replied.
"Since Niri already used the soul crystals, you and Lily will get more beast cores—Sylrael is already getting the feathers."
Leo looked at the beast cores. They varied in size, but none were smaller than a medium-sized bowl.
"Do you think we should keep one for Miho?" he said after a moment. "She also needs to contract a beast core to boost her powers."
He had suddenly recalled that Miho could contract beast cores to permanently alter their affinity.
Lily wasn’t interested in contracting any. She already possessed all 3 elements the storm had to offer—Wind and Lightning from Lunaria, and Water from the Hydra. There was no need for her to take another.
Kaelion nodded. Keeping one for Miho made sense, especially once she reached the required strength. And since a single core of any of these carried 2 or 3 elements, it added to the advantage.
"But how do we determine which one would be the best?" Kaelion asked.
"I think a beast core with a stronger bloodline would be better..."
Katherine cut in before he could finish.
"I heard from hubby that Leo can tell whether a beast—or its core—has a high or low bloodline. I think you should leave it to him."
Leo nodded.
It wasn’t truly his own ability—it was his system. In fact, the information of each beast core was already displayed clearly before his eyes.
Thunderveil Skyreaver Beastcore (High 4-star) - Noble Bloodline
Skybreaker Vulture Beastcore (Mid 4-star) - Super Bloodline
Thunderveil Skyreaver Beastcore (Mid 4-star) - Super Bloodline
Storm Condor Beastcore (Mid 4-star) - Super Bloodline
Tempest Raven Beastcore (Mid 4-star) - Noble Bloodline
Tital Skybreaker Beastcore (Low 4-star) - Super Bloodline
Storm Condor Beastcore (Low 4-star) - Noble Bloodline
Thunderveil Skyreaver Beastcore (Low 4-star) - Noble Bloodline
But to avoid suspicion, he pretended to examine them.
And to evade Katherine’s scrutinising gaze, he picked up the cores one by one and imagined the grandeur of the beasts he had witnessed during their flight along with the Nimbus Tyrant. It created the illusion that he was thinking deeply about each one.
And it worked—he successfully avoided Katherine’s prying eyes.
He’s really a tough nut, just like hubby said...
Katherine could tell Leo was doing something, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was.
Finally, after a while of fake examination, he kept aside 4 cores in front of everybody.