Lord Of Beasts

After landing on something oddly soft and slimy, Ethan was, of course, relieved that he hadn’t fallen to his death. But that relief quickly transformed into confusion, especially when it felt like something burst beneath him.

Even more so when he suddenly heard a series of familiar notifications from the system.

{Beast Eliminated!}

{Beast Eliminated!}

{Beast Eliminated!}

"What..."

Ethan was completely thrown off.

Slowly, he pushed himself up, grimacing as the sticky substance stretched between his hands and the ground.

It clung to him, thick, viscous, and disgusting.

"...The hell is this?"

He wiped at it instinctively, trying to shake it off.

As he did, he brought up the System Interface and checked on Evolutionary Shards to confirm he wasn’t just hearing things.

"Three more?"

He paused.

"When did I kill something?"

That didn’t make sense at all.

He looked down, then he carefully stepped forward.

Pop!

With the soft pop came another burst of slime and...

{Beast Eliminated!}

Ethan froze.

Then slowly, very slowly, he looked around, his eyes adjusting to the dark.

That’s when he realised what it was.

"No way."

His eyes widened slightly.

"This..."

His lips curled.

"...is a breeding ground."

A massive underground cove stretched out before them. The space was enormous, easily spanning hundreds of metres in every direction. Its walls curved naturally, forming a cavern-like structure deep beneath the earth.

And everywhere there were eggs- hundreds, no, thousands of them.

Clusters of them were packed tightly together, fused by that same sticky, slimy substance.

They pulsated faintly, clearly alive and organic.

The slime seemed to act as a binding agent, holding them together while protecting and nurturing them. Some clusters clung to the ground, while others clung to the walls.

Even the ceiling above was covered in patches of these grotesque sacs, hanging like swollen growths.

Each one contained a future ant beast, an E Rank Ant Troop waiting to hatch.

Ethan locked eyes with the red-eyed A Rank.

And what she saw made her pause.

He was smiling, a sharp, predatory, and excited expression that was borderline deranged.

’I’ve fucking hit the jackpot!’

Ethan was struggling to contain his excitement.

’Even if they’re all E Rank, this is the easiest farming ground I’ll ever find.’

With his current abilities, he could easily handle E Rank beasts, so killing them wasn’t the issue. It was finding them that was the problem.

Beasts very rarely gather like this.

They had territories, and at a stretch, sometimes moved in small groups.

As such, progress in the tower was slow and almost controlled as he covered vast, harsh terrains in search of prey.

But this?

This was absurd.

It was a literal field of prey waiting to be harvested without any effort.

And did he feel guilty?

Not in the slightest.

’These things grow into those monsters and would rip me apart without hesitation. So anyone who hesitates to kill them now is just stupid.’

He snorted quietly.

’Hell... I’d kill humans too if they gave me those shards.’

The thought lingered longer than it should have.

He shook his head and regained focus, his gaze shifting back to the A Rank.

’That’s the only problem.’

If she saw too much, that could complicate things for Ethan.

He wanted to summon his beasts and let them run wild, to sweep this place of all the Evolutionary Shards it had to offer.

But first, he needed information about the Titled who was stuck to him, and quickly. Because something about this felt off, and if there was one thing he had learnt, it was that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

"Yo," Ethan called out casually.

She flinched slightly, her movements hesitant and nervous.

Despite that, she didn’t speak; instead, her hands moved quickly, shaking slightly as she made a series of gestures.

*Do you know sign language?*

Ethan blinked.

’So she’s a mute, huh,’ he noted internally before nodding his head.

"Yeah. I can understand you."

Her eyes widened slightly, clearly surprised.

*How?*

Ethan shrugged.

"You pick things up after seven years."

She tilted her head.

*Seven years of what?*

Ethan waved it off.

"Don’t worry about it."

For a brief moment, his mind flicked back to the only person he didn’t consider an enemy in that harsh penitentiary.

That was as close as you got to a friend in prison.

It was that large bald man, who was covered in tattoos and ugly as hell. He would always follow him around, sit opposite him during meals, and babble endlessly.

’His mum was deaf, or was she mute? Something like that.’

Ethan ended up learning sign language from him, in between fighting for his life, mostly out of boredom.

’It definitely wasn’t the worst way to pass the time.’

The memory faded as he refocused on the A Rank.

Now that she was actually communicating, he wasn’t going to waste it.

"If you’re an A Rank..." he started, narrowing his eyes slightly, "why aren’t you doing anything?"

She stilled.

"Your abilities," he continued. "You’ve been useless this whole time. Is it some kind of support ability? Or is it restricted? What’s going on?"

He studied her carefully.

Her base stats seemed decent, but definitely not those of an A Rank. Aside from that, no presence or power radiated from her body like other Titled.

It simply didn’t add up.

Her hands moved slowly this time, hesitantly.

*You... don’t know of me?*

Ethan frowned.

"...Should I?"

There was a pause.

*They call me... the weakest A Rank.*

Ethan blinked.

"Okay...?"

Her fingers continued.

*My potential was measured at A+ Rank. But my actual performance is worse than most C Ranks, and even D Ranks.*

Ethan stared.

’How the fuck does that work?’ he questioned internally as he watched her hands trembling slightly.

*I... can’t use my ability.*

Ethan’s expression hardened.

"Explain."

*It... has a mind of its own. I’ve never even fought before in my life.*

"That doesn’t make any sense."

His confusion only made her more uneasy, which was amusing considering he was on paper just an E Rank.

*I-I know.*

Ethan exhaled.

"So what’s your Title?"

She hesitated, but felt like she had no choice but to answer. Her hands began to move slowly.

*My Title is-*

She froze, her body tensing mid-motion before suddenly twisting and writhing in pain as she collapsed to her knees.

Her body contorted violently, and she was clutching her head as veins bulged unnaturally.

"Hey! You good?"

Her entire form was shaking as if something inside her was rejecting the very act of communicating her Title, even if it wasn’t verbal.

"Alright, alright, forget it!" Ethan snapped. "Your Title doesn’t matter."

As soon as she stopped intending to convey her Title to him, the pain stopped.

She gasped, breathing heavily as she struggled to her feet.

Ethan stared.

’Yeah... she’s definitely not normal.’

A brief silence passed after that unnerving display, but their conversation, if it could even be called that, didn’t last much longer.

The reason was simple: they were still in a gate crawling with beasts that now caught onto hostile entities in their sacred breeding ground...