“Does this locust have a core now? The only change I can see is the growth of its physique, which might be the credit of the deposited body of the rabbit as the primary ingredient. But how do I verify the existence of its core?”
Wondering aloud, Euri observed the upgraded body of the locust for a while, and tried to communicate with it several times, hoping to discern hidden changes. But nothing seemed different compared to its earlier self. The only notable shift was the breadth of its movements, appearing somewhat livelier than before.
“Should I order it to climb into the ambrosia pool? That will tell me if the breakthrough has produced a core inside its body, but...”
This locust was just his first experiment subject. Euri had other options to choose from. There was no need to hurry.
He turned his focus back to the Breakthrough Pod and went through its data window again. After being utilized once, some of the information there had changed, just as it had happened with the Gas Well and Ambrosia Pool.
[ Secondary Core: Breakthrough Pod ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Occupants: - ]
[ Deposits: 3 Units (Rank-0) ]
“So the entire rabbit corpse hasn’t been used up for the locust's breakthrough! I have three more units left to use as ingredients.”
Delighted by the discovery, Euri hurriedly swiped away from that region of the grove and returned to the gas well, where a hundred locusts were still cultivating. Two more locusts had reached their breakthrough points alongside the one he had picked. He could let them enter the breakthrough pod!
Both locusts obediently followed his instructions and went to the Pod. The black sphere seemed to have no trouble in accommodating multiple beasts. The occupant list in its data window simply showed [ Infinity Locust × 2 ].
[ Detected occupants whose primary requirement matches current deposits. Would you like to proceed with the breakthrough? ]
Once Euri selected the affirmative option, green rays of light rippled across the surface of the black pod, shimmering for a full minute. Then, two larger locusts crawled out of the spherical chamber, appearing no different from their fellow predecessors.
“This secondary core seems a lot more powerful than the ambrosia pool. Multiple tasks are getting handled simultaneously with no extra consumption of time.” Euri couldn't help but be impressed.
A check of their stats confirmed that the similarity of the upgrades wasn't limited to their appearance. Both locusts were now sporting that [ 0.03+0.2 ] Physique stat.
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“Seems like unless I can deposit that secondary requirement, there is no possibility of a surprise here. All the locusts will follow the formula of taking after the nature of the deposited corpse. Since the rabbit's specialty was its physique, these three locusts have gotten a boost in that domain.
“So if I choose a new corpse as a deposit, the locusts that break through in the future will get different enhancements. The room for creativity here is in my choice of primary requirements, then!”
Idea after idea stormed Euri's mind. He even started writing down some of the plausible ones. From planning the enhancement of the entire army of locusts, to creating subdivisions among them based on possible variations in the breakthrough process, to assessing the likelihood of farming a mountain of cores from the advanced locusts, to wondering about the possibility of breeding new generations for an infinite supply of corpses and cores...
With these ideas, of course, came some humbling realizations.
“This Breakthrough Pod has no upgrade option itself, just like the Ambrosia Pool. So that Level-1 stat has to be a big limitation on its potential utility. There's even a possibility that it may not be able to upgrade the rank of these beasts. The best I could hope from it is to let them transcend the limits of Rank-0 lifeforms. But such a qualitative leap might demand extreme requirements...”
He also had to consider a certain breakthrough mechanism of the pod—the deposit matching system. The primary requirements of these locusts had been satisfied by a corpse he had in his collection. That could very well have been a coincidence.
But what about the future deposits of beast corpses? It would be more sensible to assume that the matching might not always turn out positive.
Watching the three beefed-up locusts returning to their cultivation spot gave Euri another question to brood over. Why did the cultivation session of these locusts result in such a massive upgrade when his previous beast familiars had almost nothing to show after cultivating for so long?
Scout Dog had been cultivating for more than a week. Every familiar except Scavenger Rat had gone through multiple breakthroughs. But how come none of them had reached this growth phase like the locust?
“Was it the effect of not having a core? Is there anything else at play here? And will the effect of cultivation be the same for the remaining locusts?”
Too many mysteries were placed in front of him, but Euri had little room to experiment for clear answers. So he went for the most direct one—testing whether the upgrade had really generated a beast core in those three locusts.
He ordered one of the locusts to walk over to the ambrosia pool. When the pool's detection system went off, the familiar popup told him what he wanted to know.
[ Raw ingredients detected. Assessing... ]
[ Select Ingredient: Beast Body/Beast Core ]
Seeing the beast core option available to be chosen, Euri jumped out of his bed and pumped his fists in the air.
“Hell yeah! Fuck yeah! It's on, baby! Wooooo!!!”
For an entire minute, he wreaked havoc inside his bedroom like an excited gorilla, punching tables and kicking walls. He only stopped after the downstairs neighbour came out on his balcony to yell at him.
Jumping back on his bed, he picked up the miniscreen, hands shivering in exhilaration.
“I've struck gold, dammit! How lucky do you have to be to receive such a massive windfall out of nowhere? One hundred locusts, one hundred beast cores, one hundred beast corpses, tsss....”
But as he swiped his way back to the center of the sacred ground and checked the cultivation progress bars of his locust army, he noticed an issue he had been ignoring until now.
Only two more locusts in the entire army showed that their cultivation session would result in a breakthrough soon. The remaining 95 ordinary locusts simply continued to cultivate like his other beast familiars.
“Could it be that only a small percentage of creatures can actually break through and form their cores? Or are these five locusts just more talented than their peers and reached their potential early?”
Falling into confusion again, Euri decided to wait until the morning to see how the extra cultivation time affected these 95 locusts. There were so many ways this experiment could pan out, and he couldn't be more eager to map the path of the maximum benefits!