CHAPTER 52: THE ROAD AHEAD

Of course, there’s still those who choose to ascend with a mix of different levels of Soul Seeds, which can place them anywhere from 8-50 BF depending on the rank and number of Soul Seeds they owned.

With 35.2 BF, Beast Slayer was already on his way to reaching highest limit one could reach in the first layer of the Beast Domain — however, this was actually quite low!

Contrary to what people thought about him, his number of Radiant Soul Seeds didn’t even surpass 200 yet!

There might even be some stronger individual hunters, or members of his own Radiant Slayers, or the War Beasts, who were near this figure.

But what truly cemented him as the undisputed 2nd place in the War Beast Sanctuary was his Soul Talent.

His ability to achieve a 400% boost to his physical strength for a short period of time was extremely powerful, and was the reason he won most of his battles with Radiant Beasts.

Without it, he would have a much, much more difficult time fighting them!

That short boost of strength temporarily placed him above the strength of a newly ascended Evolver, who’d ascended with a Mutant Soul Star!

The process of ascending quadrupled one’s physical attributes, and so the moment a Mutant Altered steps into the second layer after ascending, they’d find they’d have a staggering 100 BF from the get go!

And yet, Beast Slayer, not even being 50% of his way to filling his Soul Star in the first layer with Radiant Soul seeds, could achieve 140+ BF with his temporary boost in strength!

In essence, his Soul Ability granted him a temporary ascension...

This was why while he wasn’t considered the strongest in the War Beast Sanctuary, due to Dido being an outlier, he did have one of the quite a high future potential not only in the War Beast Sanctuary, but the whole of the Federation!

He would be rated near the top if using his Soul Ability didn’t come with such severe side effects after it ends.

It must be known that most of most severe injuries he’d suffered during his battle against the Wind Mantis weren’t from the Mantis itself, but from the backlash received by using his Soul Ability during the fight!

’Tsk, if it weren’t for the distasteful way the Beast Domain works, I would have become one of the strongest people in the entire Federation one day...’

Naturally, Beast Slayer was heavily annoyed and disappointed despite his Soul Ability’s overpowered effect.

After all, the stronger he became, the more overpowered its effect would be.

Just think about it, right now, he could reach what, 200 BF at most when he maxes out his Soul Star with Radiant Soul Seeds?

But what about if he reaches the second, third, or even fourth layer of the Beast Domain?

Even at the second layer, without even needing to absorb any Soul Seeds from the higher ranked beasts there, he could achieve a staggering 800 BF the moment he steps foot in the place!

That was a mind blowing figure for a newly ascended Evolver! He’d be one of the most eyed and coveted Evolver across the Federation by all the powerful factions.

Alas, the Beast Domain wasn’t so kind.

During the process of ascending, everything about a person also evolves... Soul Ability included.

This was what pissed Beast Slayer off the most!

His Soul Ability would change them moment he steps into the second layer, and while it would still provide enormous benefits to him, since it was an evolution, not a devolution...

But that wasn’t considering its future potential. His Soul Ability would evolve into something that was better, but only while in the second layer.

In essence, it would replace his extremely high long term potential for short term gains when he evolved.

’If it weren’t for this shitty system—’

Beast Slayer’s depressing thoughts were interrupted at that moment though, as while he was making his way out of the Altered testing centre, he spotted something... someone, he never would have expected to be in the area.

’Its that little Waste!? He really is from Terminus!’

Nick entered his field of vision as he walked nonchalantly down the street, completely unaware of Beast Slayer’s presence.

’Is he heading to the Altered testing centre as well? Change of plans, I have to see what this little shit is capable of.’

All the testing rooms in the testing centre were public and cheap to use, which in turn meant that anyone else who was in there could see each other’s results.

Naturally, Beast Slayer had paid to use the private rooms where one’s information was kept private, which nets him 2000 credits each time, but he didn’t bat an eye at such a measly price.

But, he knew that someone like Nick who was poverty stricken until recently wouldn’t even consider booking a private room for use.

This was what he was betting on, as he fully intended to get a full picture of Nick’s capabilities.

Meanwhile, completely unaware that he’d been found out by Beast Slayer, Nick sauntered his way into the Altered testing centre and paid the 100 credit fee to use the public facilities.

Beast Slayer couldn’t have been more right, there was absolutely no way Nick would pay 2000 credits just to find out the same information he could by paying 100!

In his eyes, only idiots who cared about privacy, and rich idiots who cared about privacy would use those rooms.

’I wonder how strong I am now that I’ve got 49 Mutant Soul Seeds strengthening me.’

With no baseline to go off of, since Nick had never been to one of these Altered testing centres before, he could only shrug and head over to the first test with anticipation.

He was just itching to see where he’d be placed in the hierarchy of the first layer of the Beast Domain.

Thinking as such, he took one last look at his string of data before heading over to start his first test.

[Name: Nick Balls.

Rank: Altered.

Soul Ability: Vitaldrain

Evolution Requirement: 500 Soul Seeds.

Soul Star: 261/500

Soul Seed Distribution: 67 Mundane, 145 Awakened, 49 Mutant.

Beast Armament: Sabertooth Wolf, Whiteclaw Snake King, Wind Mantis.]

His smile widened as he realised he’d finally crossed the half way mark to filling up his Soul Star, though he knew that happiness was utterly useless.

His horizons had broadened, and his goals had only become more bold.

Now that he had not one, but two Radiant Beast Armaments in his possession, he was striving to ascend to the next layer after maxing out on Radiant Soul Seeds!

Naturally, there was a long road ahead of him before achieving that, considering he hadn’t even gained a single Radiant Soul Seed yet, and had only just acquired his first Mutant Soul Seeds...

But his confidence was high nonetheless.

Because, as he was currently in the process of testing, his strength had improved drastically, and would only continue to improve as he hunted more and more Mutant Beasts.

’One day, I’ll catch up to and even surpass both Beast Slayer and Dido.’

Nick fully believed in this.