Finding out more

Standing on top of the beast, August was examining the skills he gained. After he acquired the skills, the beast looked desperate and tried to retort. August used his force to punch the beast in the head. After losing its skills the beast couldn't defend himself against the immense force and finally collapsed on the ground.

' Now let's check the loot.'

August opened his status window.

[ Skills : ??? , Quantum System View(Ex), Acquire(Ex), Remembrance(Ex), Cosmic Bridge(Ex), Regeneration(SSS), Authority(S), Quantum Force Channel(S), Sonic Scream(S), Phase(S), Gamma Breath(S), Sleep(A), Claw of Devastation(A) ...]

' What's with the question mark ?'

[ This skill is not complete yet, so the information regarding the skill is currently unavailable.]

' Whatever '

He tapped the skills to get the skill information.

[ Sonic Scream: Produces a shockwave of high pitched sound waves ]

[ Phase: Allows the user to permeate through the quantum field and all physical matter. ]

[ Gamma Breath: Projects a highly concentrated gamma-ray burst ]

[ Sleep: Can be used to make the target or the user sleep. ]

[ Claw of Devastation: Produces a mixture of corrosive dark matter that expands as it approaches the target.]

' Hmm, very useful but I have to do some tweaking. '

Looking at the unconscious beast, August thought about how it gained the skills and physical stats. Authority and Quantum Force Channel were skills that could only be gained when you resonate with the quantum field.

' Does that mean this beast is also connected to the quantum field? '

[ Affirmative ]

' So what about the condensed force ?'

[ You can extract the condensed force by applying your force around the beast and collecting the condensed force. As the beast lost all its power it can not resist your force.]

August closed his eyes and activated his quantum field. After scanning the beast he could see a bright core at the center of its body right above the stomach. He applied his force to penetrate the outer layer and entered the inner field of the beast. The core was pulsating with bright blue lights. His force field tendrils reached and touched the core of the beast.

[ Initiate Assimilation ]

' yes '

[ Calculating life force..]

[ Calculating Quantum Force..]

[ Calculating Resonance …]

[ Generating compatible channels..]

[ Initiating Assimilation..]

[ Progress 1%]

…

As he waited for the assimilation to complete, he fell into thought. According to the system, it is just his subconscious projection of how the representations look, in short, he could change how the representation looks. The system is not omnipotent, like those in the games, rather it is directly connected to how much information he has or is stored in the system library. It's like a mental extension of himself in the quantum realm. The good thing was that he was not short of computing power. Whenever he wants to decode something or acquire it, the system automatically runs the process in the background.

Looking at the beast, it might have been exposed to the quantum field and resonated with it. That would have allowed it to evolve past the ordinary beasts seen on the glades. The question was how did it evolve and gained authority. Despite having great computing abilities, the beasts' intelligence and wisdom didn't increase. The beast could think at the level of a low IQ human, but it couldn't do complex thinking and planning. The beast didn't have the proper exposure to critical thinking just like how a supercomputer is useless without the proper software. It doesn't matter if you have the infinite processing power, if you don't know the algorithm or the formula, it's useless. You need to have the proper means to execute and use those resources using complex algorithms or in the case of organisms, complex thoughts and ideas. Having experience in research August knew how hard it was to gather knowledge when you hit a ceiling. You need to do experiments over and over to gain a little hint about the next piece of knowledge. Fortunately, he now had the computing power to apply his ideas and simulate all the scenarios. The conversion of knowledge could be done due to the near-infinite processing power the system had. But it is all an extension of him. It is all possible because his consciousness runs on the quantum field and provides the system with all its ideas. Without him, the system wouldn't exist. The system is not independent as it is reliant on the user to operate and provide it with consciousness.

' I have a lot to figure out.'

He set aside all his running thoughts. Looking at the progress window, he confirmed that the system can decode things given enough time.

[ Progress 99%]

[ Progress 100%]

[ Assimilation complete ]

A wave of new information flooded the system. He could feel that the system gained quite a lot.

[ System updating…]

[ Merging all information…]

[ Creating new database… ]

The system started to update after the assimilation was over. He waited for the process to complete.

[ System updated. ]

[ New information gained ]

[ Would you like the summary ?]

' Show me.'

The system projected a big panel in front of me.

[ Stat updates:

[ Level adjustment : 1=> 112 ]

[ Strength : 11=>161 ]

[ Agility : 9 => 159 ]

[ Vitality : 10=> 1010 ]

[ Dexterity : 15=> 25 ]

[ Assimilation stat acquisition ]

[ Resonance : 1 => 1.0075 ]

[ Assimilation skills acquisition ]

[ Quantum Force Channel : S=> SS ]

' Oh, my resonance increased, but I didn't see his resonance before.'

[ Due to his inner field shielding his core, the resonance couldn't be measured before. Also, Its resonance with the quantum field was negligible.]

' Yeah, it just increased my resonance by 0.0075. It's not even worth looking at.'

" Ahhhh….Bro "

" What?"

" Can you put on some clothes? You have been naked the whole time."

" You haven't seen a guy's body before. " August turned around. He was aware of his exposed body but due to his system being occupied, he could only wait.

' I don't wanna get embarrassed by that. Look tough. I would look childish if I get embarrassed.'

" Hey... it's inappropriate. "

Fatty turned his head.

" I think you're just jealous looking at my body."

' After all, it was reconstructed in the best image of myself.'

' Create a suit for me, use carbon nanotubes so it doesn't evaporate again.'

[ Understood.]

The system converted the carbon in the beast's skin and converted it into nanotubes, then generated a suit over my body that looked exactly like my previous suit.

" How do I look ?"

Fatty peeked from his hands.

" How.. did you get a suit here? It looks like you just arrived here. There is no spot on your body."

' Thank my regeneration for that.'

" Didn't you ask to put on some clothes? And now you are asking where I got it ?"

" That.. uhh "

Fatty thought it might be some skill that August used so he didn't ask further.

" By the way, is it dead? Like dead dead."

" It's not completely gone yet, but after losing all its power I doubt it can survive anymore."

" So, what happened to it?"

" I just gave him a pat, that's all."

" Yeah.., right."

Fatty didn't want to talk anymore.

Looking at the body of the beast lying on the floor, fatty wanted to take the beast's core, but he had to restrain himself. He knew August was the one that defeated the beast, so he should take the core. Frankly, it was his first time seeing an A rank beast. He only heard about them before. Only beasts of A rank or above have beast cores in their body. These beast cores were used to create artifacts and to train the users. Whenever a beast core was discovered it was registered with the DoA and then whoever hunted the beast got compensated. The user could take the beast core with him or sell it at the auction house. Due to the rarity of the cores, they go for insanely high prices. Still, most hunters prefer to keep the cores for themselves. One should note that the residue energy of the beast flows in the beast core so it is also used in creating training artifacts. The top guilds have their own training artifacts, like in the gym where you can lift weight to train your muscle, these artifacts imbued with the top-level beast cores can provide you with buffs and increase the efficiency of the training. That's why top guilds try to monopolize the beast cores. If you have a beast with gravity skills, you can use its core to create a gravity chamber, so training there greatly increases the power of the users. There was a rumor that a beast core related to time manipulation was found, but there was no evidence so it got buried in the sea of conspiracy theories.

*Sigh*

" Hey.. bro, did you collect the beast core ?"

' Oh, I did tell him, it was an A rank.'

August did his research about awakened beasts and knew that A class or above rank beasts have a beast core in them. But this was not an awakened beast, It was a Quantum beast that gained power and evolved due to the quantum resonance. It was just a low-level beast before, and when it got exposed to the quantum field it might have mutated and became what it is now. The condensed quantum core was different from beast cores. From what he understood, beast cores were physical concentrations of the awakened beast's residual energy, while the condensed quantum cores were not physical in nature. They could only be interacted with using the quantum field, so normal users can't perceive them.

" Yeah, I got it."

" Can I see it ?"

" I will show you later, now let's take this beast's corpse. It will be a good material to make some artifacts for you."

Fatty looked at August suspiciously, he wanted to see the beast core but this was also a pleasant surprise. He was giving him the corpse to make some artifacts!

" Are you really giving me the beast corpse?"

" Did I ever lie? You worked hard on this hunt, so you deserve some reward."

" …. "

Fatty was really happy. if he could make armor and artifact with this A-class beast corpse, his overall power will increase significantly.

" Thank you... Big bro."

August activated the cosmic bridge and connected it to the guild office. He then touched fatty and the quantum beast corpse and teleported them to the office.

August didn't return immediately, he wanted to clean the beast glades and find all the beast cores here.

' I have to get all the beast cores, I can collect the skills and use the cores to help fatty train.'

With that in mind, he activated his quantum force field. With the upgraded rank, he could easily spot any beast in the glades.

' Locate all the beasts in this region.'

[ Detected a total of 228 A-class beasts and 5 S-class beasts in this region ]

' Good, now send them to me. '

[ Initiating cosmic bridge. ]