Chapter 141: Hunt (2) (1/2)

After a while, the old man left, leaving Leonel to his thoughts.

'It's interesting, I guess…'

Leonel didn't expect to be interested in this Hunt. But in the end, the old man had actually managed to convince him. Plus, it would apparently not interfere with his schedule to go back as Damian and the others would still be stuck here for a while longer.

According to the old man, the Hunt had been being planned not just a few years, but decades even. It might not even be an exaggeration to say more than a century, in fact.

'Project Hunt' could be considered to be one of Earth's contingency plans. If Hutch's words were to be believed, it was likely that a similar practice was taken on by the Empire as well.

This so-called 'Project Hunt' was an attempt to raise Evolved Beasts. As Leonel had so unfortunately found out already, humans weren't the only ones who could awaken.

The project itself spent years diligently breeding and cross breeding different species of animals to create incredibly powerful creatures. The hope was that upon the descent of the Metamorphosis, these creatures would awaken miraculous abilities that would allow humans to benefit.

These beasts would become great natural resources. Their meat would be the best tonic for human warriors, allowing them to progress at much faster speeds.

Also, according to Hutch, beasts have much larger Ethereal Glabellas upon awakening. This is not only due to their larger size in general, but it can also be considered an evolutionary buffer to their intelligence. After all, beasts are innately inferior in this aspect. Those who successfully awaken are thus compensated in this way.

The larger Ethereal Glabellas of beasts are considered to be delicacies that can even improve the speed of evolution of one's ability. They're called Beast Crystals.

Thinking back to the octopus stored in the Segmented Cube, Leonel suddenly understood why it was that the latter had wanted the former so badly.

After all of this, Leonel was even more impressed with exactly where these projects took place. When he asked Old Hutch about that, the old man hadn't held back.

Apparently, Project Hunt took advantage of the fact that Earth only had one super continent and spread the project across several off-land islands. Each of these islands had their own unique environment, pushing the evolution of beasts in certain aspects.

Now, after so much preparation, it was finally time to reap the rewards of their labor of over a hundred years.

Leonel wasn't interested in the beasts for the potential boost to his ability. Since his ability had already broke into the realms of the Fifth Dimension, he doubted that there were any beasts on Earth that could help him improve any further.

But, Old Hutch had let it 'slip' that the closer Earth approached to the end of the Metamorphosis, the more striking changes would take place. Soon, there would be Force Crystals forming and these islands could be ideal hot spots. After all, even if one appeared in the city on the main land, it wasn't as though Leonel could dig through the layers of dense stone and metals to reach them.

These places would be perfect toward helping him fill his Segmented Cube to the brim to pave a path for his later breakthroughs.

Even this, though, wasn't the main reason Leonel's interest had been piqued.

After so long, Leonel was finally ready to create his first Force Craft. In fact, he had already settled on two designs. One was a weapon and the other was an upgrade to a treasure he already had.