8. Awakening 3

A Beast Core was the convergence of mana within the body of a beast, aside from mana it was also filled with the beasts corresponding element.

Beasts just like humans also have their rankings, they range from one star to Nine star, their cores get larger and purer with each advancement in ranks.

In Ahmed's case, the beast core in his hand was filled with an eerie green glow, the poison element.

'Less than an inch, did it just form it's core?' Ahmed mused, 'if that's the case then I'm really lucky, no wonder it hadn't used its abilities on time.'

He remembered the snake's mouth bloating as it prepared to spit it's venom at him, he had wondered why it hadn't done that earlier but now knew why.

'Just like us who are knew to awakening, so are they, they have yet to get accustomed to their abilities after awakening and would only use their physical attributes until they feel threatened to use their mystical ones.'

After storing away the core Ahmed made a run for it as he ventured deeper into the forest. He had met and clashed with beasts but none were awakened, they were just like the deer he had first met, this gave Ahmed a subtle understanding of the forests hierarchy.

'If I'm not mistaken then I'm in the outer region of the forest, this is where unawakened beasts who've yet to form their cores and awakened beasts who are in the one star realm dwell. There might be higher ranked beasts here but I doubt there's many of them.'

He was grateful that his brother had forced him to learn hunting when he was younger, as much as his siblings never talked about cultivation, they couldn't shut up about everything else aside from it.

"They were so annoying." He smiled to himself as he remembered them pestering him to learn all those boring things.

Ahmed was smart yes, genius even, but he was extremely lazy, more so when forced to do something he didn't want to.

This had led to many back and forth between him, his siblings and parents, he was academically good yes but he never really tried his hardest on subjects he found to be a bore, but he was also smart enough to maintain an average which frustrated his teachers since they couldn't really complain since he wasn't failing.

Now that he thought about it, he was only exited about the awakening because he was curious about what it was about, it was how his brother got him to learn hunting and of beast ranks.

He was taught how to use the bow, how to skin, dismember and dismantle beasts, how to harvest their heart and to butcher, how to use a dagger and a sword, to throw the spear and wield the axe.

'I guess even annoying things have their importance.' He cringed and promised himself never to tell his siblings that their pestering helped him.

He continued running through the forest leisurely until he heard the sound of fighting, with how calm the forest was anyone within a suitable distance would be able to hear it.

Ahmed climbed up a tree and cautiously approached the battle, he lessened his presence and skillfully blended in with the environment, he went as far as ordering his artifacts to change their colors.

Below him were corpses of nearly a dozen beasts, a pack of wolves, before the corpses were two kids his age they were bloodied and injured but none relented as they viciously clashed against each other.

Ahmed's eyes furrowed as he tried to think of why they would so eagerly be at each other's throats, that was until he heard their exchange.

"You bloody demon spawns shouldn't exist within the same space as us!" One of the boys cursed, he had dirty blonde hair which had been dyed red with blood, he had amber eyes and wore a simple leather breastplate and had a pair of short swords in his grasp.

"You pigeons and your biases, so long as they're demons you lot assume we're bad guys, no wonder you lot don't live on the surface with other races!" The other boy rebuked, he had messy black hair with amethyst eyes and a simple leather breastplate covering his front and back

'Ahh, no wonder.' Ahmed inwardly sighed, before him was a pretty common event whenever the sons and daughters of angelic and demonic beings met, they had an innate hare for each other that even history couldn't date.

It was only now that Ahmed picked up on the corpses of other kids along with those of the wolves, some were clawed to death by the beasts while others were cut, sliced and stabbed using weapons.

'If I join the fray I may become their target, after all I'm mixed.' He groaned, if demons and angels hated each other for no reason, then they hated mixed people with passion, after all they believed they were tainted.

A mixed was a person with a blurred descent, they were neither of demonic, angelic or divine ancestry, they were a mash up of bloodlines which in most cases suppressed each other.

With each ancestry trying to become the first to awaken, mixed bloods usually hard the hardest time awakening and more dangerous experiences too.

In some cases their bodies imploded due to the clash of ancestry, other times because the said bloodlines had taken in too much energy and had yet to decide which one was superior.

'Will I also face that risk, the risk of failure, the risk of death?' Ahmed couldn't help but ask, he closed his eyes as he calmed his heart, he shook his head out of the clouds of doubt and affirmed his resolve.

'If I want to get strong and to get rich, then failure isn't an option, so what if they clash, the moment they do I'll discard them and choose the timid one, it's my body after all, ancestry be damned before I let them control me.' His eyes flashed with strong determination as his blood trembled.