As the sun crept from the east it cast shadows upon the withered forest that lay still in silence, with the only sign of life it holds being the two skulking in its newborn shadows of dawn, intently watching the mansion that lay further ahead.
With careful steps they advanced toward the old mansion before stopping at the side of the gate.
One of them nods to the other before probingly cracking open the squeaky door, fully knowing that, had there been anyone inside, they would be fully alerted by this move.
Taking a peak and spotting no one, he opens the door and goes in with slow heavy and tired steps.
"I'm beat, let's eat and sleep."
With a tired voice Yu declares as he goes toward the Core room.
"First though let's finish off our security measures"
Fishing the two cores from his backpack Yu opens the core rooms doors and looks at his own Castle Core. Lifting up his hands he places the other two cores next to his own which instantly absorbs the two, turning their remnants into powder. The core suddenly seems to shine a tad brighter than before.
Placing his left hand on the Core and closing his eyes, Yu finds himself in a white room merely seconds later.
"So this is the Castle Core. Plainer than I imagined"
As his words echo in the room, Yu looks around and find a pedestal in the middle.
Grabbing hold of the pedestal a white screen pops up, filled with compact symbols.
"That's one of the old languages, they did teach it to us since they knew we would enter the battlefield though only the basics."
Taking a closer look Yu skims through the list searching for his target
____________________________________________
-Regulate Temperature: Increase Ice Attribute: 1-3 Core Units
-Regulate Temperature: Increase Fire Attribute: 1-3 Core Units
...
Fortify Walls: Increase Metal Attribute: 1-4 Core Units
Fortify Walls: Increase Earth Attribute: 1-4 Core Units
...
Provide Light: Concentrate Lightning Attribute: 1 Core Unit
Provide Water Well: Concentrate Water Attribute: 3-5 Core Units
...
____________________________________________
Yu Continues to read the hardly understandable symbols with a slight headache forming until he reaches the bottom part of the list.
"Ah, here it is, if I had known I would have started from the bottom instead"
Choosing the item and setting it to 2 Core Units, Yu notices the surrounding dim a whole lot before leaving.
Opining his eyes to the now regular looking core, a smile forms at the tip of his lips with a mocking glint in his eyes.
"Yawn~ one last thing and I can wrap this up"
Returning to the hall, he drops his backpack to the ground and takes out the now awake and very frightened Yin Yabbit. He then unties most of the ropes and only leaving one that ties down its feet.
Drawing a hexagram on the ground and taking out his only two Dark Attribute Crystals, one that he had with him when he entered and the other from Kore's Dead bod, He places them on two sides of the formation leaving the other three empty.
"The time and resources it takes to get a Yin Yabbit to become a Yin Rabbit are just as much as it would be to buy two Yin Rabbits. not to mention the success rate is abysmal. My sacrifice however may just be a good way around it"
Since Soul beasts can't directly absorb the entire Attribute of a crystal, it would take many crystals for there to be any noticeable difference, not to mention the Soul Beast might not even be able to refine it. Sacrifice, on the other hand, can strengthen the Soul Beast instantly which can be seen form the recent sacrifice to the wolf.
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'Let's start'
"I, Yu, Sacrifice this as a means to nourish thou, in body and mind, in hope thou reach thy Zenith"
Extending his hands Darkness envelops the mansion triggering the wolf to be on guard as it takes a crouching stance. In the middle of the hexagram the Yin Yabbit began to grow in a noticeable rate, while the white spots on its body began to fade into the dark fur that intensified with each passing second. On its belly a white circle seemed to be struggling to form while darkness ate away at its edges.
By the time the size of the Beast had reached double its original size, deadly black claws had already formed on the rabbit's paws, while its front teeth formed into sharp fangs that seem to transit between black and white.
Suddenly it opened its scarlet eyes that contained a hit of madness, and screeched at the top of its lungs. As it did small cracks began to form in the near vicinity indicating the instability of space.
Yu looked with panic written all over his now pale face as Yin Yabbit.... No the Yin Rabbit turned toward him, with a madness and hostility clearly showing on its face.
'Shit, I forgot Yin Rabbits are silver rank, with the laws of this dimension it will either die or break the dimension, and it doesn't seem like it would let me seal it'
The Yin Rabbit again issued another screech, this time around it was one of extreme pain as its skin cracked apart and black blood started flowing down from its eyes and ears, while the laws seemed to be cracking down on it as well.
'Wait it's not done yet??'
While it seemed to be dying, Yu could clearly see the whites of its eyes transit toward black while its fangs seem to dim, as for the white circle on its belly, it was clearly on the verge of disappearing.
'No way!!'
Perhaps sensing the fear from Yu, the creature turned back to lock onto him even though it was in extreme pain. Then, much to Yu's horror, it pressed on the ground with its long legs and with a crack it shot toward Yu, mouth wide open.
By the time the mouth was within a step away, Yu suddenly calmed down as a dome like shield enveloped him, while the creature sprawled on the shield, tears in its eyes, while its mouth had been torn open from the sudden impact.
Crunch
A huge maw suddenly bit off one of the creature’s legs, ensuing another screech as it jumped away with its remaining leg.
Seeing the creature escape, the wolf instantly enters the shield, with a leg in its mouth and victory within its grasp.
Indeed, the creature who had already been under the torment of its own transformation and the laws of the dimension had been pushed to the verge of death with this injury. But clearly not willing to give up, or merely succumbing to madness, it used it one remaining leg and the front paws to rush toward the shield, constantly banging its head on it and scratching with all its might but clearly to no avail.
Some while later, the scratching had gradually come to a stop while the cracks in space started to mend itself signaling the end of this crazed event.
"Sigh, Finally"
Sighing in relief, Yu looks at the dead body and then to the wolf beside him as a smile formed on his mouth.
"You learn fast, your too smart to be bronze"
Hearing this wolf lifts its head with pride, while keeping a nonchalant attitude.
Indeed, the wolf had learned the trick of Poking from inside the shield after doing it once, something that not many beasts could do with their degree of intelligence at the bronze rank.
While the wolf gloated Yu poked the dead body a few times to make sure it wasn't playing dead, though the laws retreating were an obvious sign of its departure, then he dissolved the shield and started to clean up the mess. Looking at his torn up bag tears well up in Yu's eyes.
"My new bag... my luxury... RIP"
Turning his head in grief he starts picking up the items scattered across the broken floor and piling them into his old self made bag that was scattered with them.
After rounding up everything Yu looks at the creature in contemplation.
'The signs on its body.. it was defiantly turning into Noble Yin Rabbit'
-Noble Yin, Beast Branch, Rabbit Sub-Branch, Pure Dark Attribute, Silver-Platinum Rank
'While Yin Rabbits hold mostly Dark Attribute they also have a ting of Yang to balance their body, the white circle that was appearing on its belly signifies that. But this one had its circle vanishing which means it was taking the path of pure Yin'
Extreme Attributes signify the dominance of the element while Pure attribute signify its solitary.
Beasts and Soul Beasts that take the path of Solitary Attribute take much more time in getting to the next stage while requiring double if not more resources than a Beast of the same rank but they would be twice as powerful, especially since they would have a higher reserve of said Attribute in their body allowing them to pour more into each attack.
While Yu was in deep thought on whether he should feed it to his Soul Beasts or not, with the spider being the main candidate. a huge maw suddenly bites the body of the creature and swallows it whole in one bite.
Panicking at the sight Yu suddenly screams at the top of his lungs toward the satisfied wolf.
"YOUR FIRE ATTRIBUTE WTH"
Flinching at his scream the wolf turns toward Yu with an unpleasant look on its face.
Seeing the look Yu calms down knowing that screaming would only make it hostile toward him just when it began opining up to him. So after calming himself and lowering voice Yu proceeds to explain.
"You have fire attribute which corresponds to Yang, the rabbit on the other hand is Yin and a half pure one at that, so eating it will only harm your body, even if you live through this you may lose that bit of fire attribute you had just gained robbing you of your way upward toward higher ranks."
With a look of confusion and suspicion the wolf stares at Yu as if signaling him to continue.
"No need to look so confused, you'll see the result in a bit"
Before his words fell the wolf had fallen to the ground wailing painfully while trying to muffle its voice, clearly the Yin had kicked in.
"Sigh, see I told you, but bear with it, if not you might be crippled"
While most Soul Beasts would die from these types of scenarios, Guardian Soul Beasts can never die unless the Grimoire holder himself dies, but that doesn't mean they can't become useless.
So with hope Yu looks at the wolf flailing about looking at him with a wronged and blaming look as if to say 'how would I know, you should have said something earlier'.
The wolf indeed had thought the reason its master had kept the rabbit alive was to make it more delicious, how could it have known that it was poison instead.
"Well even if you didn't know, there was still a silver rank crystal in its body, you can't just swallow something that potent at bronze rank.... don't wail at me like that Soul Beasts are supposed to know which elements correspond to, them the very fact that you didn't means there's something wro.... wait, wailing, Wailing Wolf, damn so that's why"
-Wailing Wolf, Beast Branch, Wolf Sub-Branch, Beast Attribute, Dark Attribute, Bronze Rank exclusive.
Because of the red spots on its body and the slight vermilion blood Yu forgot that the wolf was in fact a Wailing Wolf at base, which means dark attributes are much more beneficial to it.
With this in mind Yu feels much calmer since it might help it rather than hurt it, after all he didn’t want to depend on the minimal amount of vermilion blood to begin with, he didn't like depending on luck.
The dark attribute it was born with was much better. And while advancing like this may not help normal Soul Beasts, in fact in might kill them, Guardian Soul Beasts are different in the fact that their much more susceptible to change.
"Endure, I'm certain you'll survive through this, but for now let's go to the back of the mansion, we don't want to be attacked unprepared"
Hearing this the wolf tried to get up but fell down form the pain which just made it feel weaker.
Seeing this Yu sighs and unsummons the wolf, and after taking everything with him, he leaves to the back of the mansion with his mind heavy with concern.