Beatitudes

Episode 115.

“There are many different types of beasts out there and by extension a lot of head beasts ruling over them within each mountain as the mountain king. Most mountain kings are normal and aggressive just like how it should be. But for some reason or the other, some of the mountain kings are the cruelest of the cruel, even if it was to the beasts under them.”

At this point, Harry couldn’t stop himself from asking “How are they crueler?”

“They feed on their subordinate’s energy”, Adam said while he walked. On hearing that, the trio had thoughtful expressions as they thought back to the tainted mountain they had just left. It didn’t seem like the monsters were drained judging by the fact that they were like ravenous beasts. Their aggressiveness didn’t seem like they were starving beasts, instead it was the normal disposition and characteristics of the tainted beasts, from the first ones they fought till now. Adam could understand their thoughts somewhat so he continued his words,

“It’s understandable that you can’t notice the characteristics, you just don’t know it yet. But they’re not hard to identify, in fact they’re the easiest to realize once you see the pattern.”

“How do you see the pattern?”

“It’s simple, the strength of the mountain king in comparison to its minions, which are those you fight on the floors before reaching the boss zone.”

“When the mountain king is ridiculously strong in comparison to the other beasts, that’s a sign of the mountain king being a parasitic commensal.”

“Oh…”

Realization dawned on the trio’s face as they recalled the situation of the tainted mountain. They confirmed the evident difference between the Direflame wolves on the five floors and the eerie looking black furred wolf king that had almost steamrolled over them before they got their wits together and gained the upper hand.

And then it all seemed so obvious that they should have suspected something from the obviously large difference. But they were new to the whole thing, so it would have been hard for them to notice, they weren’t at fault or anything. And even if they hadn’t known, the main thing then had been to fight the mountain king, refusing the quest at the risk of the heavy punishment wasn’t even possible at that point as once they encountered the mountain king, it was already a situation of kill or be killed. The other beasts might have been bound to the mountain since they couldn’t cross into the safe zone or anything, but such restrictions didn’t apply to the mountain king as it was the king in control of the mountain. It could come and go as easily as any of them could. And since they had killed all its subordinates and even barged into its zone, it had already considered them as those that dared undermine and tarnish its authority. Due to that, it wasn’t going to let them leave even if it had to chase them for a while.

Perhaps if they ran fast and far enough, and managed to distance themselves significantly from the mountain king, then they could escape. Since the mountain king wouldn’t necessarily leave its territory to chase them forever.

Adam still continued his words like he wasn’t finished with his explanation.

“Another thing you could use to notice was the wolf’s appearance itself. Your description about it was that it had eerie black fur and red stripes all over its body which gathered from all over to its forehead to form a strange symbol.

Those red stripes on its body aren’t actually a natural part of its body, instead it came from the wolves beneath it. Each mark represented a Direflame wolf and its blood energy. It’s the same with all the parasitic’s every single beast under them is connected to their person, not to gain more power or to be controlled—but simply to absorb their blood energy to grow.

Blood energy, especially for beasts is an irreplaceable resource and factor of strength, it’s what strengthens them and allows them to grow. When it’s absorbed in that manner, the parasitic commensal is basically absorbing a part of its subordinate’s strength and power. With the absorbed blood energy switching hands, the mountain king grows stronger while the beasts under it end up with a slow growth speed. That’s why the gap between strength is always so large and unreachable. It’s why those kind of mountain kings are seen as they are. They’re a level above other mountain kings of the same tiered mountain and with the gathered strength from all other beasts under it, it’s so much more stronger.”

Adam’s words explained the type of mountain kings he said were called parasitic commensals in good detail as he tended to do. Through that, Isaac and the others were able to understand what exactly they had gone up against.

And after understanding that, Harry felt like puffing his chest further out than usual while he walked as he said, “Then I guess we did a pretty good job didn’t we?”

His words caused both Hiya and Adam to cast a glance at him though they both said nothing as they turned their gazes away. Isaac was the one with his lips curved into a sneer as he spoke with a taunting voice, “Weren’t you the one who got bashed up pretty bad out of the three of us. You couldn’t even beat its strength.”

Harry’s prideful expression and growing satisfaction at beating the odds soured on hearing Isaac’s words as he scowled at him. Isaac just chuckled slightly and ignored him, he wouldn’t have missed the chance to get a jab back at Harry in this situation for anything else.

And then they kept on walking, few words were said since there wasn’t much to be said anyways…

Currently he was having a conversation with the next being closest to him both literally and figuratively other than Isaac and the others, Horace.

Adam: It’s really hard to determine what’s going on within him don’t you think. What are your thoughts?

Horace: From what this world has shown and the effect of a few number of things on most other things, I feel it’s something like a bloodline within him… but if it is a bloodline of sorts, then I must say that it’s a relatively perplexing bloodline.

Adam nodded at Horace words. The whole situation of Isaac being encased within searing flames and eventually coming out unscathed despite being experiencing the flames for as long as half a day was pretty attention grabbing and not something one could easily dismiss. It was the reason why Harry relentlessly poked Isaac with his words as he couldn’t believe Isaac had no idea how it happened.

But Adam felt and knew that it was possible he didn’t know. The urgent question in this case was what had actually caused it. Isaac was the one who experienced it so he would have an inkling but that inkling wasn’t something he could elaborate which was why he had nothing to say. If he had anything to say, Adam was completely sure that Isaac would tell him even if he didn’t tell the others.

And since he hadn’t then it meant even he wasn’t sure, he would prod him for details later anyways. Their relationship had never been one of subordinate and superior, and although he hardly had any of his memories left, their relationship was still intact—albeit buried deeply.

But like Horace said, the whole thing was perplexing. Although Horace couldn’t say he was sure, Adam knew it was something related to his bloodline. ‘Which was a powerful bloodline at that’

And since it was a bloodline, it was meant to be one easily identified as Adam was confident enough to say he could identify most high level bloodlines from the knowledge he had built up, but that didn’t seem to be the case for this one.

‘All things hidden will be revealed eventually…’

Meanwhile the person who was the object of someone else’s thoughts and discussion was also deep in his thoughts as he walked along with the rest.

…

Special attributes:

-Racial:

-   Child of the flames

-Class:

-   Will manipulation (Level 1)

*Manifestation

-   Enhanced Spiral of will control

-  Internal fortification

…

He was still staring at his status screen, only this time his thoughts were focused on the part with the special attributes he had. Both the racial and class aspect had changed slightly as something new had been added to his racial factor as it replaced what was before it while a new skill had appeared in his class factor.

He focused on his racial factor first as he ran his gaze over the ‘Child of flames’ that had replaced ‘Flame manipulation’ in its spot. A meaning was being recited in his head without his control.

‘The flames of the sun is and are tyrannical in nature as it burns all things and leaves nothing in its wake. Raging from high above beyond the line it promised not to pass, it radiates it immensity down onto all life. From a spark, to a ball, to a celestial being, it grew and grew without anything to stop it. It was birthed in the void from the beginning of the ages and stood tall till the current ages. It represents the one and all above the rest.

The children of the flame follow in its path as the successor and embodiment of the sun’s flames. From its birth in the beginning, it was known as the first and foremost. And as the origin of the concept of heat and radiance, it wields control over any and all forms it might take. Before it all flames must bow. And as the child of the sun’s flame, all forms and concepts representing a different flame must bow and bend to your will.’