Chapter 8: Bestiary Overview

The vengeful hunter went into the woods with the corpse of Fluffy in his sack.

It was glorious. The small revenge he had been able to achieve. His soul felt a certain satisfaction that was hard to describe.

This feeling was nostalgic for Siderius. It was so long since he had felt any kind of emotion. Months and years of his past life had made him desensitize to most things.

The new part of him, Snow, showed him those lively part once again.

He went inside the woods to find a good place to settle down. He needed a base for his operation.

The place should not be too far away from the water source. That was essential.

There was a river flowing from the Rottin Woods and straight through Mucktown. It was the core water source of the entire region, humans and beasts alike.

Setting up a camp directly beside the river could be convenient. But the predators would become a hindrance.

As the river was the most reliable water source, predators would come and go, increasing the chance for Siderius to encounter them.

He needed the hideout to be near the river but far enough to avoid the predators.

There was a big clearing that satisfied this condition.

When Siderius first saw it, he thought it was perfect. But he changed his mind. This clearing was too open. And he needed to prepare his hideout as a warzone or a discreet safe house.

Siderius shook his head and left the area. Looking for some other place.

On the other side of the river, there was an overgrown area where grass was as high as Siderius' stomach. That place was a perfect natural concealment. If he built his camp here, it would be a good place to hide.

But its weakness was big. These tall grasses were also predators' favorite place to hunt. Siderius had to stay alert all the time if he didn't want to be mauled to dead.

That overgrown grassland was out of a question.

Siderius moved on.

The third area was a range of rocky hills surrounded by trees. Building a camp on the hill was a no-go. But the foot of the hills was great.

The trees were thick enough to provide concealment and it had a hill at its back, reducing the direction attackers could take.

The hill was also filled with a rocky vertical surface that made it difficult to flank the camp from behind.

Siderius picked up a piece of rock that he found in the foothills. There were countless black dots on its surface. The stone was cold to touch and had a fine surface despites its natural state.

This was not normal limestone. This was granite, a perfect material for base building.

Siderius found his hiding spot.

First, he found an area that was big enough.

Then he made a campfire and a temporary shelter.

The campfire was easy to build with the dried branches and rocks scattered on the ground. Siderius created tinder by grinding sticks into wood shavings.

The campfire was set up quickly but Siderius didn't set it on fire yet. A column of smoke in the day would only attract unwanted attention and he didn't need its warmth yet.

The shelter was made of wood branches and leaves. It was small and only had enough space for one person. That was enough to shield Siderius from wind and cold.

It was almost evening when he finished setting up everything. Now came important business.

Siderius took Fluffy out of his sack. He used the knife to gut the owl quickly and then chopped its head off.

Owl meat might not be as tasty as beef or pork but it was food nonetheless. Its meat would also be very important later on.

He continued to dissect the owl into pieces of meat and hung them on a drying rack.

The rack would make sure the meat be preserved for a long period of time. Salt would be perfect but Siderius didn't have any at the moment.

Then Siderius gouged the two eyeballs out of the owl's head.

In his old world, witch hunters would only graft mutations from non-magical and non-mythical beasts. This was to ensure the safety and mentality of the witch hunter.

But this path did not lead Siderius to his goal, eternal life.

So in this life, he had decided to use not only beast in his mutation.

In his old world, all beings were categorized into five ranks, Dominions, Kingdoms, Family, Genus and Species. This was according to the Alchemical Bestiary, written and edited by many brilliant alchemists throughout the years.

Dominion was the core substance of a being. What it was made of and the source of its power. Dominions included Flesh, Soul, Element and Construct, representing four major types of life.

Kingdom was how a being operated.

The Kingdom of Man consisted of families that focus on building a civilization and any families derived from it. The notable family in this kingdom was the human, the pinnacle of civilization. The name of the kingdom was named after human because of how significant the family was.

The second was the Kingdom of Nature. This included beast, plant, insectoid and even rare families like draconid and giant.

The third was the Kingdom of Monster. This kingdom included major families like undead, werebeast, specter, etc.

The Kingdom of Fable was mostly theorized and only a few percent of it had real records of encounters. The most notable family that proved to be true was Fey. There were enough stories about witch hunters entanglement with certain nymphs or satyrs in their adventure.

The last was the Kingdom of Chaos. A kingdom that posed a threat to all other kingdoms if allowed to exist. Its sole existence was similar to a parasite that would eat its host to death.

Witches were categorized to belong to the Kingdom of Chaos.

The existence of any family under the Kingdom of Chaos caused an imbalance to the world. So naturally, all the species from all the other kingdoms always joined forces to kill the Kingdom of Chaos.

Witches were a special kind that was harmful to a large array of families. So in Siderius' old world, the witches were eradicated and the few remaining survivors were few and far between, staying hidden to keep their own lives.

Siderius's species was Terran, belonging to the human genus, under the Kingdom of Man and the Dominion of Flesh. Terrans were humans that operated solely on land. Apart from Terran, there were Aquan, Ignan and Aeran, three different types of humans with very different autonomy.

For a witch hunter, they may try to gain power from Beast but never from any other families.

The autonomy of other families was too contradictory to humans that trying to graft them would lead to incomprehensible consequences.

But Siderius was ready to face that chance. For him, eternal life was more important than anything else.

With eternal life, he could find a way to fix all ailments and consequences left by dangerous mutations. But if he was dead, there would be no chance left.

This owl, Fluffy, was a beast. It belonged to the owl genus and its actual species wasn't something that Siderius could recognize.

Inside this owl flowed the magic of Lyara. It was the best candidate for Siderius' new experiment.

It wasn't too far away from the usual mutations, which would be taken from a beast. It had a trait that was unique enough for Siderius to try, the fact that it was a familiar.

Siderius raised his left hand, the steel bracer emerged from under the skin of Siderius' left wrist.

It was time for him to try and graft a completely new mutation.

[Analyzing potential mutation…]

[Detecting unknown species…]

[The species share genetic traits similar to an owl]

[New Strix Oculus Extima is recognized]

[Strix Ocula No. 47 is registered!]

[Grafting Strix Ocula No. 47?]

[YES/NO]