Ashpheran Mountains ( Part 1)

* BAM* *BAM*

A hammer slammed the two beast's heads. The mountain of corpses that filled the valley portrayed a grotesque scene.

" HOW… MUCH… LONGER... DO I HAVE TO DO THIS ?"

Fatty yelled while smashing beasts with his hammer.

" Until you finish the horde in the valley."

Daisy replied as she shot multiple rounds with her gun.

" Damn, I am going skinny at this rate."

" Isn't that a good thing?"

*BANG* *BANG* *SWISH*

" Almost done."

Fatty looked at the rest of the horde that was already scattered.

" But where is bro..? He always goes poof after we get to a new valley."

" He is probably hunting A-rank or something."

They have been hunting beasts in the Ashpheran mountains for a week now. At first, when they arrived the hordes of beasts swarmed the valleys. August gave them a week to finish off all the beasts.

They hunt all day long and August, who vanishes like that, comes in the evening to heal them.

This was the most intense and exhausting week they have ever experienced in their life.

" FUCK.. MY... LIFE.." Fatty shouted as he strides across the last group of beasts.

" Still, it is increasing our proficiency way faster. If we didn't have him, we couldn't hunt the beasts like this every day."

Meanwhile August scanned every corner of the Ashpheran mountains after they came here. He didn't find any quantum life forms here but there were plenty of A rank and S rank beasts. He hunted all the S rank beasts and collected their beast core. As for the A rank beasts he left them for Fatty and Daisy to hunt later so they will provide a good challenge for them.

August was on the top of a mountain with an icy wind blowing at high speeds. But the wind didn't blow his hair or his clothes as he activated force all around his body. He was looking for quantum life forms around the southern part of the mountain range. This area was around 20,00 square kilometers and bordered the nation of Setria.

" Still no sign of them." He sighed and started to initiate the cosmic bridge.

But he sensed something was heading his way. He stopped the cosmic bridge and scanned the surroundings again. Then he noticed a projectile was heading his way from the sky.

[ An SS rank beast detected 50 kilometers in the mesosphere. ]

[ Approaching at the velocity of 3600 km/hr ]

A few seconds later August could see a glowing fireball approaching the mountain top. He activated his force field and Authority. As the beast approached his range of Authority which was 16 kilometers. As the beast descended down the sky and entered his authority range, The speed decreased substantially, but due to the momentum, It still moved in that direction albeit rather slowly.

The beast was surprised and confused by this turn of events. He couldn't control his body and started falling down towards the mountain top.

August could see the beast now. It was a bird hybrid that resembled a peacock with an eagle's head. The whole body was covered with orange feathers. As it was falling down from the sky it struggled to move its wings, and when it thought that it would crash on the snowy white mountain top, there was an invisible force that felt like a cushion levitated it. There was a human standing on top of the mountain top, looking at it with intriguing eyes.

When the beast entered this region, it spotted a living being on top of this mountain. Due to its enhanced vision, the beast could see through very long distances and it thought it got prey in this desolate place. It dived from the sky to pick the beast and then enjoy its meal, but it turned out to be a human that was using some kind of force to distort the surroundings.

August quickly checked its status.

[ Type : Awakened Beast ]

[ Age : 3 years ]

[ Species : Faenxi ]

[ Level : 233 ]

[ Strength : 251 ]

[ Agility : 323 ]

[ Vitality : 190 ]

[ Dexterity : 187 ]

[ Intelligence : 5 ]

[ Wisdom : 6 ]

[ Skills : Aura(SS), Enhanced Vision(SS), Flight(S), Dive(S), Flame Annex(S), Flame Control(S), Glide(A), Regeneration(A)....]

" So this is an SS rank beast. The skills are heavily focused on fire and by the looks of it, it is indeed a fire specialized bird hybrid."

August looked at the bird-like beast and the ends of its feathers were actually burning with yellow fire.

' It doesn't have that much intelligence.'

August didn't waste any time and appeared in front of the beast's head and placed his hand on its forehead.

' Acquire '

[ Skills acquired : Aura(A=>SS), Enhanced Vision(C=>SS), Flight(S), Flame Annex(S), Flame Control(S), Dive(S), Regeneration(A=>SSS) ,....]

After he absorbed all the skills, he picked up the beast and vanished from the spot. The cold wind blew from the place where he vanished.

********

Fatty and Daisy were lying on the ground around the campsite after they finished hunting all the beasts in the valley. A sudden burst of air blew and August appeared in the campsite with an enormous beast lying on the ground.

" What is that ?" Fatty asked August.

" I was looking around the mountain range for S rank beasts but found this SS rank beast instead," August replied casually.

" Are you kidding me? That is an SS rank beast." Fatty gasped after realizing the situation.

' How can he kill a SS rank beast on his own? This doesn't make any sense.' Daisy's thought was all over the place. She never saw an SS rank beast in the flesh, because they are the predators who ruled over an entire beast region. To just kill a SS rank beast just like that was something she never imagined in her dreams.

" Fatty, take out the beast core. I doubt there is anyone in Eclipse city who can create artifacts with it."

The artifact labs on Eclipse city could make S rank artifacts, which was really rare. They were commissioned very rarely and making them requires a lot of capital. August was an expert in physics, mathematics and biology due to his research career, but he wasn't that great at other subjects. And after the incident, there was more new knowledge that spread due to more advances in science. All the information available on the web was generic and showed little about the current advances. But he knew, there were labs that pioneered in beast artifacts and other awakened research. The government was concealing the information so that this doesn't get into the hands of spies and terrorists.

' I need to get the research papers on the awakened powers. They must have a lot of secrets hiding.' August thought to himself.

Fatty used his hammer to crush the head of the beast. As the beast lost all its power, there was nothing stopping the hammer. Fatty used his hammer to crush the beast's head and took out the beast's core glowing in bright orange. It was so hot that fatty dropped it after the core burned his palm.

" Damn it."

" Careful, that's a fire type beast. The core holds the residual essence of the beast so it must be very hot." Daisy warned fatty.

Fatty brought a heat resistant case and put the beast core inside it. Looking at the beast corpse, even though it had no skills, the inherent properties of it was resistance to fire. If they made armours using the skin, then it might help them tolerate very high temperatures.

August came back to his tent and sat on his chair. There was a big box right beside his bed. He applied some force and the box opened on its own. He created the box with tungsten and locked it from inside, so only he could open it using force.

After opening the box he placed all the S rank beast cores he collected today. There were hundreds of glowing orbs of different colors that filled the box. These were all S rank beast cores he collected during the week.

' I need to find an artifact lab that can make all the artifacts or get hold of a research facility to get all the research papers. Then I could make them using the system.'

August thought about how to stockpile artifacts and open the shop function. He could go steal all the artifacts from other labs, but as a fellow researcher, he knew how hard it was for them. He didn't want to take away the things they made after so many efforts. He was really harsh to his enemies but he had a soft heart for those who devoted themselves to their work. And if they didn't do any harm to him, it was not right to take their stuff, unless he was desperate.

He also put a huge bait by giving the beast core to both of them. He just needed to wait and let the scene develop.

' Let's see how this turns out.'

There was a sinister smile on his face.