BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

As soon as the dart hit the Cricul, the beast started to bellow and blare. The beast got agitated, and, feeling the stinging pain in his back leg, it started running away, alarming all the other Criculs that ended up following him in his mad dash for safety.

That was the most challenging part of the fight since now Erik had to follow the beasts through the forest. He hoped the creature got weakened enough to become isolated from the herd and wished no other beast set their eyes on him or the creature.

The young man was very much concerned, but he did not hesitate a moment before starting to give chase to the Criculs while keeping his distance and avoiding detection. The creatures continued on their way hurriedly toward the woods beyond, unable to find any predator nearby.

The Criculs ran at least ten kilometers through the forest, reaching a part where the trees started lessening, and an odd number of rocks started taking their place.

Most of them were huge, and they created a natural obstacle course that slowly made the herd disperse. However, the weakest Cricul, due to the poisonous mana inside its body, was almost exhausted, and it could no longer keep up with the rest of the herd. His own mana was already starting to fight Erik's, slowly improving its current condition.

The beast had to stop to rest while the other Criculs kept running away in a panic. Erik waited until the last of the beasts was far away from the weakest one, and it was then that Erik sprung to action.

He wielded the branch like a sword and immediately ran toward the injured Cricul. The beast, despite being weakened, was all but out of combat, so it immediately started charging at Erik, pointing his sharp and long horns against him.

Erik noticed three things during this short period. One was that the system didn't give him any quest.

This was probably because during his fight with the Leylarhad, the Biological supercomputer exhausted all its energy reserves to reward Erik. As already announced, it could not give him quests outside of the daily ones.

The second thing the young man noticed was the stench of the creature. As he got closer to it, the smell started to become unbearable. It was a mixture of shit, urine, and even rotting meat, despite Erik's inability to understand this particular odor's origin.

There was something he was certain of, though; the smell was so strong it made him want to puke.

The third thing Erik noticed was a particularly concerning one. The beast started channeling mana as soon as it saw Erik, and it got quickly redirected toward its horns.

The deadly protrusions started changing; from their initial light creamy color, they started assuming a metallic luster.

Erik could swear he saw the horns sharpening at the naked eye, and he got immediately aware that if he got hit by the Cricul's horns, he would die a miserable death.

The beast quickly gained speed, not as much as its initial fleeing burst but enough to reach Erik in a matter of moments.

Though, the weakened thaid, at his actual state, wasn't particularly hard for Erik to fight. All thanks to Logan's power. Erik couldn't wait for his mana to be enough to kill any creature with this power alone, who quickly became his favorite.

The beast tried to gore Erik, who immediately avoided the horns like a matador during a bullfight.

With a swift movement, the awakener swung his makeshift sword over the beast's neck, creating a gaping wound that, however, wasn't enough to kill the beast. The creature started flailing and writhing due to pain, kicking the air and almost hitting Erik in the chest.

The Cricul turned to look at Erik with an enraged look, one that, nevertheless, hid a slight fear and charged at him again. However, due to the short distance, the thaid couldn't gain enough speed, and Erik effortlessly avoided the move.

At that moment, Erik swung the sharpened branch with a swift motion, aiming where he previously hit the creature but missing the spot and creating another wound, this time on the creature's back.

Blood poured down from the wound, and the beast faltered for a moment. It looked at Erik with its glowing eyes, which seemed to say, "Why have you done this?"

Though the beast was mighty and side kicked at Erik, hitting him on the right shoulder and sending him flying into the ground.

The young man felt some bone crack under his skin, making him wince in agony, but having used Orson's power, nothing major happened.

Since he had total control over his bones, Erik started channeling mana, mending the cracks, and feeling better after doing so. He, somehow, acquired a healing power in the end.

As he rose up from the dirt floor, Erik realized that the thaid was now bleeding heavily and its wounds were getting worse. Its movements also slowed down considerably.

The beast lifted its head and looked at Erik, revealing deep sorrow and regret. But despite feeling a little bit sorry for the creature, Erik knew that this world was governed by the law of the jungle and that he couldn't have pity.

Besides, Erik was feeling a sort of urge to kill the creature that was clashing with rational thoughts. He was sorry, but he wanted to kill it. It was very weird.

The beast was now having problems moving. Erik then approached it with quick steps, with the Cricul still looking at him with scared eyes.

Erik didn't want to make the thaid suffer more than he already made it, so he channeled more mana through his body, increasing the output of the ethereal substance that sharpened his branch, and by avoiding one last goring attempt by the creature, he plunged his weapon into its head killing it on the spot.

Though, to do so, Erik had to almost deplete his mana reserves, putting himself in danger if another thaid attacked him along his way back.

Having few neural links proved to make his fights harder, and the only way to solve the problem would be to train more. Erik did hope that the system would be able to find a way to improve the neural link-developing process.

[HIGH-LEVELED HOSTILE CRICUL KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]

[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]

[3...2...1...0]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 261 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]

"Only this much?" Erik said with a sad tone. "Well, It didn't have the same amount of mana the Leylarhad had, and I didn't even get a quest, so..."

Then Erik leaned down toward the beast's body, and he dipped his finger inside the beast's wound.

[CRICUL'S BLOOD ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]

[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]

[50 DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE DNA.]

[1740 DNA POINTS DETECTED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION?]

"No," Erik immediately replied.

Then another notification appeared in front of his eyes, it was unexpected, and Erik even forgot about this.

[CRICUL'S DNA HAS BEEN FOUND COMPATIBLE WITH THE BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER "ANIMAL SHAPESHIFTING" TO STRENGTHEN THE POWER, THE HOST IS REQUIRED TO DRINK AT LEAST 20 CC OF BLOOD.]

"What the hell?" Erik said in surprise. This was the first time something like this had happened. Though Erik recalled what the system had said to him twenty days before, and everything clicked inside his mind.

Immediately, the young man leaned on the Cricul and started sucking its blood out of its wounds like a ravenous beast.

During the process, Erik wondered what all of this would imply, but he suspected that thanks to this DNA, he would be able to transform into a Cricul.

By having previously tested Conal's power, the young man was aware that he could fully shapeshift into a lion. The problem was that this ancient beast was no stronger than most thaids, so he deemed it useless to do it.

But if Erik were able to get even thaid's DNA, then everything would change. However, Erik recalled the Leylarhad blood he had recently absorbed three days ago, and his mood suddenly plummeted.

If the power had been fully unlocked already, he would have probably been able to shapeshift into this powerful beast.

As Erik absorbed enough blood, another notification rang inside his ears and appeared before his very eyes.]

[BLOOD ABSORBED. DNA STORING PROCEDURE STARTED. PLEASE WAIT.]

This time, Erik had no choice to make. The power got automatically absorbed by Conal's power, but since this was a sort of natural occurrence since it was related to his power, it didn't last more than five minutes, and he didn't even feel pain.

[PROCEDURE COMPLETE.]

<Good... Now let's absorb the brain crystal...>