"I thought you were a bodyguard, Mr. Ning. I didn't expect to see you working in a zoo," the old man Tim said.
"Oh, I do whatever I want, Mister Tim. I was a doctor before coming here. I became a bodyguard just for a bit. Now I'm working in a zoo," Ning said. "Don't worry though, this is just a part-time job. I have enrolled in the Aether Tower, so soon I will graduate and get certified. Surely you won't reject me when I come there then, right?"
"Oh," the old man was surprised. "Did you really enroll in the tower?"
"Yes," Ning said. "I start my studies in 2 weeks."
"Great," the old man seemed genuinely happy for Ning. "What about the admission payment? Do you need help with that? I know the tower asks for a lot, one of their ways to force someone to work for them in long term."
"Thanks for the concern, but I don't need any help at the moment," Ning said.
"Alright, I will pass on the good news to the Princess and the Prince consort then. Good meeting you, Mr. Ning," the old man said and walked away.
He then took the rugged Gem from the butcher, inspected it for a bit, nodded, and then left.
"Young man, are you really enrolled in the Tower?" the zoo's old man asked him.
"Ah yes," Ning said. "That was the reason why I only wanted to work for 3 weeks."
"I see," the old man said. "We would've loved to keep you for longer, but it seems the next 2 weeks is all we have."
"I would've loved to stay as well given how well you've treated me, but I need to further my Aether studies," Ning said.
"No, no, you don't have to explain. I understand completely. I was once a youth too, I too wanted to learn in the tower as well," the old man said.
Ning nodded and looked to the side. The butchered beast was still there. "What will you do with the parts?" he asked.
"Oh, we'll send them to experts who can make use of these beasts. They usually get turned to clothes or weapons or whatnot. I leave the worrying to them," the old man said.
"Alright everyone, return to work," the old man said and walked out.
Ning looked back one more time at the dead beast and walked out. The rest of the day went normally. A dead Aether beast didn't really cause a scene or slowed down the visits to the zoo at all.
Once the day was over, Ning returned back to the hotel. He immediately made the system buy him a few pieces of information on Aether beasts since he didn't know a lot about them.
What he learned gave him a fair bit of surprise.
Aether beasts came in every shape and size. From small creatures the size of rats to big ones the size of elephants, and everything in between existed.
The Aether beasts could only be found in the massive forest that separated half the continent. The other forests all around the world didn't contain them at all. That was to say that in most of the world, aside from Xandria, the Republic of Ember, The Principality of Losmana, and the Ruins of Afterlife, no other countries and empires had to worry about them at all.
<script>ChapterMid();</script>
Of course, there were also the Aether beasts in the ocean that many of the places bordered, however, the Ocean Aether beasts never left their place, so the people had nothing to worry about.
Another thing Ning learned about the Aether beasts was that they had no abilities at all. That was surprising to him. Considering he had been with beasts that could cultivate the same way humans did, it was surprising that these beasts were not the same.
Instead, Aether beasts were physically gifted. An Aether beast's body couldn't be so easily harmed. They had a superior body that also had enhanced speed, defense as well as reaction speed.
Fighting against an Aether beast as anything less than an Aether grandmaster who could enchant his own body to improve their physical status was a death wish.
"Would weapons work?" Ning wondered. From what he just learned, normal weapons like swords, spears, bows, and arrows would surely not work at all. Even something like a gun would barely do any damage to Aether beasts.
If anything, you wanted heavy artillery, the kind that could put holes in a steel door, destroy bunkers. Maybe even get a few bombs. Only those should be sufficient enough to deal damage to these Aether beasts.
However, the planet Vilmore wasn't at that time period yet. It would still take them a while to create such strong weapons, Ning was sure of that.
"So only Aether users can truly fight against them huh?" Ning wondered. Suddenly, his face changed to one of confusion as he thought of something weird.
"Didn't Emperor Kron fight against the beasts with just a sword? How did he do that? Did he have his weapons enchanted? That would take the constant attention of some Aether users," Ning thought. This was a really curious thing of the past that he had come across.
"Wait, maybe he was an Aether Grandmaster. He could definitely fight them if he was one," Ning thought.
"System, was Emperor Kron an Aether Grandmaster?" Ning asked. He had learned that the Emperor didn't have talent in Aether, but even without it, being an Emperor, he surely had found Aether Ores or Liquid Aether to improve himself to the most basic level.
<Yes>
"Ah, that answers it," Ning thought. He stopped thinking about the emperor and went on to learn more about the beasts.
The beasts were all similar in nature as they held an Aether Gem on their neck area that strengthened their entire body.
The gems usually had to be large, so Aether bugs didn't exist in the world. There were only normal bugs.
Ning read about the beasts for a bit longer and was finally done with them.
* * * * *
A few days passed. Ning was working in the zoo once again. His job was still the most important of all— Tending to the food of the beasts. By now, everyone in the zoo had come to realize that the new recruit was loved, or at least not hated, by the beasts.
Some became jealous since Ning earned a lot more now, some became thankful since they didn't have to be the ones to confront a hungry Aether beast. Most however didn't really care about Ning at all as they didn't pay attention to him mostly.
He opened a door and walked in to feed a monkey-like Aether beast. Once he was done, he walked out to see the group of visitors that were looking at the monkey.
Ning walked away from the room and went to get the food for the next beast. Along the way, he saw a group of visitors part ways as fully suited up people walked left and right of a black-haired man.
Ning too moved to the side and let them pass. 'Some son of a noble?' Ning wondered for a bit and went back to his own task.
"Hey, brother Ning, how's your day going?" one of the staff members asked. The kid who had just called out to him was a new staff that joined just 2 days ago and was meant to replace Ning once he left in a week.
He was about 15 years old from Ning's perspective and was really eager to be earning some money.
"Oh, Hi Mark. I'm doing okay, how's your day going? Are you accustomed to feeding the beasts yet?" Ning asked.
"Uhh… I wouldn't say that. I still get terrified when I get near those beasts," Mark said.
"Well, you gotta learn to tame in your fear kid. The ones you are feeding are the dull ones, known to never hurt anyone. If you cower in front of these other vicious beasts, they won't let you go in and out so easily," Ning said.
Mark's face paled a little. He was scared of what he was to do.
"Don't worry, there's a trick," Ning said.
Mark's eyes perked up. "What trick?" he asked.
"When you go in, act like you are strong. Don't cower, don't hideaway. Look straight at the beasts and let them know the food is here."
"Make sure you don't intimidate them too bad though. Some of them will think they are in danger and instead attack you. Just let them know that you aren't afraid, but you aren't a threat either."
"That's how I mostly do it," Ning said. "Despite how they look, Aether beasts are intelligent creatures that will know when to not try to harm someone for their own safety."
"Oh," Mark said as he nodded. "I will keep that in mind, brother Ning. Thank you." The youth was enthusiastic about working in the zoo now.
Ning didn't lie or anything. This was something he had learned from the system as well as just being here.
If one wasn't scared of the beasts, the beasts would assume they have the strength to match that confidence and leave you alone.
The boy named Mark was about to leave the room when a man entered. Ning and Mark looked at the plainly dressed man and didn't recognize them at all.
Whoever he was, given that he wasn't wearing the zoo staff's uniform, he was not welcome here.
"Sir, you will have to leave this—" Mark was just speaking when the man brought out a gun and pointed at the two of them.
"Remove your uniforms right now, or I will kill you," the man spoke.
