One last thing he had yet to do. See what sort of skill he was about to gain next.

  Closing his eyes, he muttered softly, “Show me something cool.”

  ....

  (Analyzing beast core crystal... Please wait.)

  Moments later, text filled his vision.

  (Analysis Complete.

  Beast Core: Armoured Quadruped

  Rank: Initial Bronze

  Passive skill: Mark of Destruction.

  Brand the target with a destructive seal that burns away 1% of their current vitality per second for 5 seconds. Can stack up to 2 times. Each stack refreshes the duration.

  [Skill evolution possible.])

  Talk about being cool, this was some next-level shit, and it appeared to be a new skill type too: passive.

  Did this mean his new skill could allow him to deal damage to foes without actively doing anything? Just by branding them with this Mark of Destruction?

  Reviewing his skill again, it appeared to be particularly useful, especially against high-level enemies.

  Hell, If he had this skill when he faced the bronze-ranked Armoured Quadruped, he bet he would've easily beaten the crap out of it, and the fight? It definitely wouldn't have dragged out that long.

  Being his first offensive skill, it already seemed overpowered. A skill that disregarded rank to deal damage, if this wasn't broken then he didn't know what was. And even more crazy was that it was in its base form right now, what about when it evolved the first time? Then the second?

  Hahaha, he could almost envision himself defeating enemies just by touching them—that is if he could even touch them in the first place.

  That aside, it was time to absorb the skill, it was definitely worth the effort, still it sparked a question, where did the skills he absorbed from beast cores come from, beasts? He hadn't seen the armoured quadruped use that kinda skill else he'd have been in a tough spot, was it their bloodline? Untapped potential? Too many questions he didn't have answers to which he attributed to his weakness.

  Every step in power had revealed to him something new about his system, guess he wasn't strong enough...yet but that wasn't going to last long.

  Without hesitation, he tapped yes mentally—which was followed by... raw unfiltered agony?

  “Argh, come on, not again!”

  His body trembled as pain assaulted his senses, which was reforging him into an entity that was becoming less human every time.

  Through his senses, he saw the changes unfolding happen.

  Runes formed deep within him, unfolding from the beast's core as they etched into his essence forming a pathway that contained even more intricate runes creating a pathway to what he saw as a means to unleash destruction. A feeling of explosive might coursed through him as if begging for an outlet yet it was caged if only by the precise containment of those runes.

  Then slowly but deliberately, the pain receded, followed by warm streams of energy that soothed his body.

  Within him, the runes forming began to overlap then something incredible happened: two black, intricate runes began to etch themselves into his palms, forming tattoos of something, a faint outline he couldn't make out—at least, not yet—before they subtly integrated with his skin as if waiting to be summoned for he could feel a new connection within him, power? Whatever it was, it gave him the illusion he was just a touch away from unleashing destruction.

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  Did this now make him a vessel of destruction? Maybe, but it still did not confirm how much his skill could help him.

  Guess it was time to hunt another beast before calling it a night. After all, even with his endurance, he was starting to get tired, guess it wasn't high enough but that wouldn't be an issue, given his massive blank attribute points it was just a thought away from being leveled up, the question being just by how much. He needed to give it some thought that's why he hadn't allocated them outright the time he had devoured them, that being said, rest would be highly appreciated.

  Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he looked at the disintegrating beast crystal before him with a flicker of regret in his expression.

  “Damn... shame it can’t be reused.”

  Still, he had the Iron-ranked beast core left. Might as well check it.

  It couldn’t be too shabby, right?

  ...

  A few moments later.

  "System, what am I looking at?"

  Holding up the blue beast core shimmering with faint runes, Auron stared at the notification in front of him, trying to make sense of the skill.

  (Analysis Complete.

  Beast Core: Armoured Quadruped

  Rank: Intermediate Iron

  Skill: Bite

  Lunge forward and deliver a forceful bite to the target, dealing physical damage based on Strength.

  [Skill evolution possible.])

  The hell? What in the actual fuck was this...?

  Multiple scenarios flashed through his mind as he processed, analyzed and even reviewed the skill again in his mind. Maybe he was looking at it all wrong. Was there something he was missing or had overlooked?

  A while later, lips twitching, he came to a single conclusion: the system really wasn't damn joking about it. If he somehow chose to absorb it, how was he going to integrate this skill into his battle style?

  Bite back when beasts lunged at him?

  It would definitely be a surprise attack—if not straight-up unexpected—but he sure as hell wasn’t going to absorb it just for that. This was just too unconventional, even for him.

  But he couldn't let it go to waste. That was definitely out of the question. He could sell it for a decent sum of money in the academy's inventory, he could create a collection of beast cores he couldn't use... multiple ways of utilizing it came to mind but none involved leaving it behind or for some reason giving it away.

  Before he could delve deeper into his thoughts, an idea struck him. Wait could he funnel it toward skill progression?

  It wouldn't hurt to try, both Mark of Destruction and Bite were attack skills, right?

  To confirm his assumption, he looked at his system panel.

  SYSTEM INTERFACE

  Name: Auron Raventor

  Title: Peak Iron Rank Hunter

  Race: ???

  Class: None (Yet)

  Beast Contracts: 0

  Attributes:

  Strength: 74.2

  Agility: 44.6

  Intelligence: 22.9

  Charisma: 17.5

  Endurance: 33.7

  Luck:20

  Toughness:10.3

  Willpower: 10

  Remark: ( Recalibrating)

  Unallocated Attribute Points: (70)

  Skills: Mark of Destruction

  [skill progression 0.0]

  Affinities: Earth

  [ Affinity progression 0.1]

  [Do you wish to absorb the skill from the iron rank Armoured Quadruped beast crystal? Or funnel it towards skill progression ?]

  Aha! So it seemed it only had to align—whether it was an attack skill or defensive one—to be compatible.

  Sure answered one question that had been lingering at the back of his mind for a while.

  Then again, he already had a faint outline of how it worked—not that it mattered now.

  Tapping Skill Progression, something he couldn't quite get a hold of unfolded. The runes that had seemingly faded from his arms reappeared. This time the outline of the form they were conjuring became clearer—but not clear enough to see what it was shaping out to become—but what he could see was the skill progression which was rising explosively.

  Skill Progression: [0.0 > 12.5 > 24.0 > 35.5 > 44.7> 50.5 >59.0 > 65.0 > 72.6 > 77.9]

  Higher, until it stopped at [78.7].

  At this point, he could feel the runes not just being carved onto him but merging with his being before they started glowing with faint black energy.

  Almost undetectable—but it was there.

  Watching as the blue crystal disintegrate, he couldn’t wait to check out his new skill.

  But first, he looked up its description to see if it had changed.

  Skill: Mark of Destruction

  Brand the target with a destructive seal that burns away 1% of their current vitality per second for 5 seconds. Can stack up to 3 times. Each stack refreshes the duration.

  The number it could be stacked increased.

  Which was great—if only he could see in clear detail the vitality of other beings he’d be chunking. It would be even greater!

  Maybe he would gain a skill that would allow him to do so as he continued along this path—or he had yet to meet the criteria to unlock such a function.

  Whatever the reason, he shrugged it off because only one thought ran through his mind.

  Time to test out his new skill.

  Just where to find a suitable training target?

  With a sweep of his surroundings, he began moving through the Wasteland brush, eyes scanning for a target that hopefully wasn’t way out of his league.

  Before he could continue wandering, something flickering in the distance caught his attention.

  Distorted outlines, like mirages blurry against the night, appeared in his line of sight.

  Then the images sharpened into frantic shapes revealing a group of students, muddy and bloodied, sprinted straight towards his direction at full speed.

  Leading them was a tall bloodied figure—bare-chested with wind-torn dark hair and fury burning in his eyes.

  Even without seeing his face, he could pretty much guess it was Riven, the guy had an absurd resistance to wearing shirts.

  His train of thought was disrupted by the yell that came out of him once they were within a shorter distance.

  “RUN, RAVENTOR BASTARD!” Riven bellowed, eyes wide. “UNLESS YOU WANNA DIE HERE!”

  The others, he hadn't observed fully thundered past—one girl limping whom he made out to be Kara a blue-eyed beauty, another trailing behind with a half-conscious teammate slung over her shoulder, Was that Mila carrying Arthur?. No time to explain. No time to think.

  Just a few heartbeats later, Auron felt it more like saw it.

  A faint outline of a beast which was massive, to say the least.

  At least ten feet tall, its form a grotesque fusion of sinew, chitin, bones and some fucked up sh*t. Its back arched like a monstrous feline, but its legs bent backward—like a mockery of evolution.

  Its head was too long with horns spiraled like barbed spines, and the faint runes etched into its messed up flesh glowed a sickly crimson.

  Auron narrowed his eyes, he wasn't liking what he was seeing. Distorted appearance and movement, no, that wasn't movement that was a spasm. Warped energy. A body...more like a mass... twitching and shuddering unnaturally with each step. That wasn't a beast, it was corruption given form.

  His eyes widened slightly.

  “…Is that a corrupted beast?”

  P.S. Shout out to the 25th follower, just made my night. Yeah right i know my upload schedule is a bit chaotic, I'll update the synopsis to let you know when to expect the upcoming chapters.