They watched as its death throes slowly ended. Its black blood stopped rushing as vigorously, signifying the end of its life.

Yet, despite their victory, they felt no immediate urge to celebrate. In fact, there was a sort of urgency in the air.

"We need to leave." Dale reminded everyone.

Barely any time exploring and they were forced to return to their camp. It wasn’t exactly because they were tired... in fact, they could fight the same beast a dozen times over before being seriously spent.

What was chasing them, however, was none other than the very black blood the beast had bled.

As was taught to them in their Theory of Mysticism class, the blood of a fallen beast attracted those of weaker or similar ranks.

So in a nutshell, their current location would soon be swarmed by dozens of Dormant and Awakened beasts.

Naturally, only the more fit among those would survive.

The fight, however, would lead to more bloodshed which would attract more beasts. Rinse and repeat until only the strongest of that region of the forest remains.

On paper, it seemed like a great means of culling beasts without risking manpower unnecessarily.

But that was it. It was only on paper.

The survivors would feast splendidly on the carcasses and their powers would ultimately soar, making them harder to kill.

There was even the slight chance that the beast would evolve. The five of them were trying to kill an Ascended beast, not create another one.

So without wasting any more time, they turned on their heels and ran back to their camp.

Luckily, upon getting to it, they learnt that it hadn’t been trampled by some colossal beast while they were away.

Dale sat on the rough ground. ’This feels... right.’ He could barely remember the last time he had lain bare on the ground with no shelter.

Despite it being barely a year since then, it all seemed like a distant dream to him.

’Well, a distant nightmare.’ To be honest, the woods and the slums he had grown up in weren’t that different.

The glaringly obvious contrast, though, was the nature of the threat.

In the forest, it was at least clear that you were fighting non-human entities who were nothing more than a mess of instinct and primal desire — whether that he was feeding, or mating.

The slums were quite different... the enemy was humans.

Humans were an impossibly greater threat to another person than any beast could. ’Well... that isn’t technically true.’

It didn’t matter the nitty-gritty of it. What did, was how cunning humans could be.

Despite how much they told cautionary tales of foxes and tortoises, humans were far more devious and quick-witted.

A beast would directly lunge at your throat while a human would spend decades with you just to stab you from behind — literally and figuratively.

"Dale, got any meat?" Austin asked as he sat beside him.

The latter turned to the former and scanned him with scrutiny. "Why should I? I told you to pack everything you’d need. You didn’t listen to me talk about how long we’d spend here—"

Dale paused, sensing a myriad of powerful auras in the distance. The beasts had finally gathered and begun fighting over the bodies of their brethren.

His eyes remained in their direction even as the ground trembled and trees audibly collapsed. ’Fighting over resources...’

The more he thought about it, the less different they seemed from humans.

At their very core... no, by nature, humans were in fact animals.

What exactly was the defining factor that the pool used to separate them from other animals?

Despite the Awakening pool being incredibly miraculous, it has been tested and proven to have no sense of free will.

Dale’s mind remembered one of the things he had realized and learned upon getting to the boot camp.

’The AIDE is never wrong — people misunderstand its definition.’ It could very much be the same for this.

Could it be that there was, in fact, no difference between them? As Dale was, if he charged at Austin and ate him, would he gain some power?

A cold shiver ran down his spine at the thought. ’If I can think about this, then it has most certainly been thought of before.’

The question then remained: Was it a success?

Eventually, he turned back to Austin and he let out a small sigh, "Sure. Take some but only a little."

His roommate nodded as he walked to his rucksack. "Yeah. Sure..."

Dale stood, following him closely from behind, "Hey, you haven’t agreed. Austin? Why are you ignoring me?!"

In the end, the redhead took half of the dried meat inside.

Dale muttered curses about inequality and colonialism when Gary approached him and sat down.

The latter turned to stare at him in his eyes. "I need your help."

Dale raised an eyebrow, "With what?"

Gary lingered for a while.

"My dormant ability skill is called [Fortify]. It allows me to increase the natural defensive properties of any item I wish." He explained.

All those green pulses on clothes turned out to be his [Fortify] skill in action.

"My Awakened ability skill is [Field of Force] and I’m sure you’re quite familiar with what it does."

Dale nodded. What exactly did he need his help for?

"Your ability skill seems to directly attack mine. I need your help with training." Gary completes his request.

The other thought about it for a while. To be honest, it made complete sense.

"Yeah. Sure. Why not?"