Bronze Crest Shelter, At the Border of Shamor Empire
A blonde-haired boy walked out of a tower-like building that was located in a dense forest.
He changed his facial appearance into one of Asura's guards as his figure started advancing far away from the shelter.
'This would save me from exposing my face until I find a Mask.'
Rio didn't want to reveal his Disguised appearance that was similar to Helia's big brother Leon.
He thought it was bad to taint the reputation and make others hate Helia.
Although Helia wouldn't stop killing humans mercilessly but Rio wanted to approach the lioness to convince her not to harm the innocents.
As he traveled further away from the bronze crest shelter, a field of grassland appeared in front of him.
His sight spotted a beast around 120 cm tall that was darting in distance to somewhere else.
Rio was able to observe its bodily features with the help of [Heaven's Eyes] as it boosted his eyes abilities.
Beast's sharp teeth were protruding from a rodent-like head. Its body and tail with yellow stripes were covered with defensive spines that were very sharp at the end. There were three thick purple lines on its forehead that went vertically down.
"Those purple lines are similar to the Royal Family's guards' armor. A sign of Devlin's family banner." He mumbled inwardly.
The boy recalled the information he gained from his first visit to the land of Asura and his first theory lesson with Emperor Dylan.
Rio used his [Heaven's Eyes] to inspect this tall rodent-like beast to find out more about them as he was expecting his innate skills to work on these monsters and reveals their stats.
A long string of information was displayed in front of him.
<<<<
[Name: Normal Fierce Porcupine]
[Race: Beast]
[Core: Yellow Stage]
[MANA: 75]
[Physical Power: 10 + 26]
[Innate stats: 10]
[White: 10]
[Yellow: 16]
[Beast Soul: Projectile]
>>>>
'As I guessed, it even works on beasts. It's quite handy while wandering in unknown lands.'
He sighed and looked at the Beast's various stats.
"This normal yellow-stage beast has 1.5 more mana than humans and asura." He mumbled while reading the information.
The crimson-haired boy gazed at the beasts and commanded, "Hey, you... Follow me."
This single line seemed funny to hear when it wasn't directed to a person.
Rio spoke in his mind and sent a telepathic message to the beast, who looked at him with intrigued eyes in his direction and then started running towards him as if it could understand the boy.
'One is done but How would I summon the rest of the beasts in the area that aren't visible to me?'
He thought for a few seconds and mumbled, "All the Fierce Porcupine in 100 kilometers region, I summon you."
The moment he said these words, a cloud of dust started rising in the four directions around the bronze crest shelter.
The ground was vibrated by their galloping impact as a herd of beasts marched towards the crimson-haired boy after hearing their master's call.
Rio could easily see them even when they were far away with the help of Heaven's Eyes as it was enhancing his vision range.
He calmly looked at Fierce Porcupine beasts one last time and brought out the map from his pocket that Helia had given him earlier in the day.
"The marked location is in the southeast direction in a forest near a stream of water. I should start moving, there is no use waiting for these beasts to catch up first." He thought inwardly and pocketed the map.
Rio didn't notice it but compared to the last time when he saw a herd of beasts and got scared by their terrifying number, he wasn't fearful at all. He simply checked the map while many beasts were coming in his direction.
Although they were his allied beast still he would've shown a little reaction to these terrifying beasts' march if this crimson-haired boy was the old Rio.
He enchanted his foot with mana for faster movement as Rio traveled southeast of the bronze crest shelter.
The grassland was spread to a vast region. There were a few trees and shrubs at a far away distance.
He also traveled past a small green lake without giving it much attention.
The Fierce Porcupine yellow staged beasts were following him at their own speed as Rio's stats were higher than theirs.
The boy could've ridden these beasts but their sharp spine wouldn't feel good to his chubby bum. Moreover, they would've slowed him down.
After traveling for an hour, a forest with birch-like trees came into his view.
He halted his marching right outside the forest as the boy saw a battle happening between two monsters.
Rio gazed at the wild beasts that were fighting each other.
It looked similar to the Fierce Porcupine but the spines on its body were not sharp but grouped together to stop any form of physical attack from harming its body.
'There is actually a pattern with them. Beasts of the same family are not at far away distance from each other.'
Rio remembered how at the Dargus Isle, the beasts of both neighboring shelters were from the same family, and the only difference they had, was their physical qualities. One family branch was good at agility while the other one had a great defense.
He inspected the one that was overwhelming the other beast with his [Heaven's Eyes]. It was even taller than the opposing party.
<<<<
[Name: King Armored Porcupine]
[Race: Beast]
[Core: Yellow Stage]
[MANA: 75]
[Physical Power: 19 + 27]
[Innate stats: 19]
[White: 10]
[Yellow: 17]
[Beast Soul: Armor]
>>>>
'Ah...King tier beast.'
Rio summoned his King Silver-Bloom sword and bolted toward the beasts.
He was sure that the second beast was at most a mutated Armored Porcupine so the boy didn't bother inspecting it.
Rio slashed at their bodies, and with two normal attacks they were both cuts neatly apart and their internal organs with blood scattered on the ground.
<<<<
[Yellow stage Mutated Armored Porcupine killed. Absorb the core of the Mutated Armored Porcupine to gain zero to 4 yellow stats points randomly.]
[Yellow stage King Armored Porcupine killed. Absorb the core of the King Armored Porcupine to gain zero to 6 yellow stats points randomly.]
[Beast soul of Yellow-Stage King Armored Porcupine gained.]
>>>>
This was the first time he killed a king-tier yellow staged beast in the wilderness. Yet he received the beast soul.
A yellow light shone and a yellow stage King Armored Porcupine beast soul appeared in his mind sea.
He grabbed the pebbled size yellow core and absorbed them as usual.
[Core of Yellow-stage King Armored Porcupine absorbed. 4 Yellow Stats points gained.]
[Core of Yellow-stage Mutated Armored Porcupine absorbed. 2 Yellow Stats points gained.]
Rio heard two notifications which confirmed his yellow stats points raised by six and became twenty-one.
He entered the forest and paraded at a fast pace. The location map pointed was ahead of him.
The Fierce Porcupine had caught up to him. They were many in numbers, Rio was sure they were at least a hundred.
He commanded them to follow without causing a disturbance as the boy didn't want to alarm his target.
If humans find out there was a beast raid on them they would go back to earth to ask for help from neighboring shelters.
Rio wasn't sure how long the battle would take to capture the shelter so he was making sure to not give them more time.
A stream of water came along his path as it was shown on the map.
He halted his steps to bring out the map to find the exact location.
"The map says it is around here But where?" He scrunched his eyebrows.
He rotated all around on his spot to look for any ascended structure that appeared like shelters but the boy failed to locate any.
Rio rubbed his forehead as he couldn't find the marked location of the targeted shelter near the stream of water.
He walked at the edges of the river to follow closely nearby the indicated spot on the map.
Soon, an underground cave appeared in his sight as it was perfectly hidden on the ground.
'...'
Rio sighed as he didn't expect the targeted shelter to be hidden underground.
He was looking for some tall buildings or something higher from ground level so the boy failed to discover it.
Two human warriors were guarding the entrance of the underground cave and a staircase went lower into the ground level.
They were hidden behind birch-like trees. If not for Rio following the map closely while keeping his pace slow, he would've wasted more time finding this underground shelter.
"All the Fierce Porcupine, take your positions and surround this place without revealing your location." The crimson-haired boy gave a command in a calm voice but a hint of hesitation was flickering in his sea-green eyes.
Edited By: TheWhiteSnow
I'll add the important character images on:
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