Chương 177: B3 - Chapter 13: Cubs

Seth stared at the trio of trembling cubs huddled within the roots of the fern-tree for a moment, then he cast Intermediate Identify.

Galestrike Stalker Cub Potential: Silver Tier Rank: 3 (Low-Copper) Affinity: Wind Strength: 4 Arcane Power: 6 Toughness: 3 Well Capacity: 3 Agility: 8 Regeneration: 2 Galestrike Stalker Cub Potential: Silver Tier Rank: 3 (Low-Copper) Affinity: Wind Strength: 5 Arcane Power: 5 Toughness: 3 Well Capacity: 4 Agility: 7 Regeneration: 2 Galestrike Stalker Cub Potential: Silver Tier Rank: 3 (Low-Copper) Affinity: Wind Strength: 6 Arcane Power: 4 Toughness: 3 Well Capacity: 3 Agility: 8 Regeneration: 2 The three of them were physically almost identical.

They pressed on upon another, forming a single trembling silver mass, their amber eyes fixed on the human standing before them. Seth let out a slow breath, the tension in his shoulders finally beginning to bleed away.

"Hey, Devus!" Seth called out over his shoulder.

"Get over here. It's your lucky day." Devus began moving in a heartbeat, his heavy boots thumping against the churned earth as he, Elena, Jenna, and Selena scrambled over the toppled fern-tree. When their eyes landed on the cubs, a collective gasp rippled through the group.

"No freaking way," Devus breathed. His eyes widened until they were nearly as round as the cubs'. He dropped to one knee and put aside his shield in the mud.

"Silver Potential... just like Nightmare!"

"Yep," Seth answered, stepping back to give the Guardian and the others some space.

"Silver-plus potential," Nightmare corrected aloud, his aether voice edged with smug pride.

"Don't lump me in with those cubs." Devus ignored the direwolf's comment and pumped a fist into the air, a grin of pure, unadulterated joy splitting his face.

"I can't believe it. We actually found one—uh, three of them!" Jenna leaned over his shoulder. A smile touched her lips as she watched the smallest of the three let out a tiny mewl.

"They're so cute," she whispered. Elena stood just behind them, her hands clasped behind her back while she observed the scene in silence. Beside her, Selena shot Seth a glance. The flicker in her eyes made both her question and her intention obvious—she was wondering if she could claim one of the cubs as well. Seth tilted his head subtly toward Devus, a silent gesture. Let him try first. The Rogue shifted beside him, tension clear in the set of her shoulders.

Unlike Devus, she didn't have a contract to bond with one of the young beasts. Seth, however, remained calm. Worst-case scenario, he could simply pull the cubs into his necklace. The Pocket-Realm could hold a ridiculous number of beasts. As long as they stayed inside and didn't try to force their way out, there shouldn't be any real issue. Ahead, Devus fumbled with his Endless Pouch, hands shaking slightly with the nerves.

He pulled out a piece of thick, ivory-colored parchment etched with intricate, glowing blue runes: a Beast Contract. Seth watched the item with a flick of unease. Since learning more about the contracts, he had felt a lingering distaste for them. The item allowed a Wielder to bind an arcane beast through a tethered agreement, giving them the ability to issue commands and enforce obedience. The process was rarely honorable. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Most contracts were born from coercion—tricking a beast through its naivete, tempting it with resources, or simply beating it down until agreeing to the contract became the only way to survive. The thought of forcing a living creature into years, even decades of servitude through a scrap of paper left a bitter taste in Seth's mouth. What he shared with Nightmare and Colossus felt nothing like that.

True, the first moment had been forced—he had pushed Link onto each of them in the middle of life-or-death chaos so they would accept it. But once the bond had been created, it had grown into something else entirely. A partnership built on trust, instinct, and something that felt a lot closer to friendship than the hierarchy of master and slave.

"How do I even do this?" Devus asked, looking up at Seth.

"How do we convince one of them to accept the contract? I mean, how did you convince Nightmare to join you?" Seth shifted his gaze to the black direwolf—there was no way he could explain the unique nature of Link.

"He was just naïve," he finally answered. Nightmare's head snapped toward him and the direwolf's crimson eyes narrowed into a sharp, indignant glare as a rumbling growl came out of his chest.

"Then let me try." Devus turned back to the cubs and reached out a hand, moving slowly, but as his fingers neared the nest of roots, the largest cub hissed and coiled back, its fur standing on end as tiny currents of aether swirled around its paws.

"Try with a beaststone," Seth suggested. Devus nodded, then quickly reached back into his pouch and pulled out a small Copper-Tier beaststone that hummed with a soft light. The largest cub froze. After a moment it glanced toward its dead mother, its amber eyes clouding with a visible sadness, but then its focus snapped back to the stone in Devus's hand. The concentrated aether within the gem was an irresistible lure for the not-yet-grown predator.

The cub edged forward, its nose twitching as it sniffed the air, hunger slowly overriding its fear. Devus held the stone steady with one hand while bringing the glowing contract close with the other. As the cub's nose brushed the surface of the parchment, a sudden swirl of blue aether erupted around them. The cub paused, its eyes darting between the beaststone and the magical runes that had begun to pulse against its fur.

It seemed to hesitate, as if realizing that the contract was the price for that thing in Devus's hand. Finally, it let out a soft huff and pressed its forehead against the ivory paper. The aether intensified, a pillar of light momentarily illuminating the dark canopy above, then the runes on the contract flared before dissolving into a shower of sparks that sank into both Devus's chest and the cub's brow. The moment the light faded, the contract crumbled into ashes that scattered with the breeze.

Devus remained on his knees, eyes closed, as he let out a shaky breath. The cub didn't retreat this time and instead stepped forward to snatch the beaststone from his palm. Devus opened back his eyes, and a look of pure happiness surged on his face.

"I did it," he whispered, looking down at his chest as if he could still feel the bond.

"I actually have a partner." Jenna looked from the two remaining silver-gray cubs to Elena and Selena.

"You two should try and bond with the others," she said.

"Devus and I have our battles tomorrow, so I don't have the time to leave the Rift, find a contract somewhere, then come back here. And letting this opportunity go to waste would be a crime." Devus let out a short chuckle, reaching back into his pouch.

"My sponsor apparently thought my thick head would fail the first few attempts," he said before flashing a grin and pulling out a stack of ivory parchment.

"He bought me a bunch of extras just in case."

"What?" Jenna stared at the four additional Beast Contracts in his hand. The Guardian merely shrugged, then held them out to Jenna and Elena.

"He's a cautious man. Better to have them and not need them, right?" Elena immediately stepped back and shook her head before looking at Jenna and Selena.

"You two should be the ones making those bonds. You've both worked incredibly hard this week, and you deserve it." She then paused.

"Besides, if I were to make a contract with a beast, my father would certainly want to be involved in the selection. I don't think he'd be happy if I did it in here without consulting him." Seth felt the excuse was rather flimsy, but he kept that thought to himself. In the end, it was the noblewoman's decision whether she wanted to pass on the opportunity and let the other two claim it.

'Should you take one for yourself?' Nightmare asked through Link.

'No,' Seth replied mentally. He looked inward, focusing on the two mysterious threads currently leaving from Link's grooves to bond with Nightmare and Colossus. He didn't know if his unique spell would even allow standard contracts, and he wasn't willing to risk making a mistake. Selena and Jenna both moved toward the remaining two cubs. Following Devus's earlier approach, they each took out a Copper-Tier beaststone.

The cubs, lured by the concentrated aether inside the crystals and perhaps the loss of their mother, edged forward. The air in the clearing swirled with blue light twice more as the girls pressed the contracts to the young beasts' brows. The invisible tethers snapped into place, linking their Wells to the Galestrike Stalker Cubs in a hail of aether sparks. As the light faded, Jenna looked down at the shivering cub now gnawing on her boot. A realization seemed to strike her.

"Wait... how are we supposed to get them out of the Rift?" she asked, looking at Seth.

"We don't have a beastholder like your necklace, so we can't transport them out." Before Seth could answer, Selena spoke up.

"From what I've heard in the Adventurer Guild Outpost, if you use an Escape scroll while physically holding a contracted beast, the teleportation field should extend to them as well."

"And if it doesn't work?" Devus asked, looking worriedly at his new partner.

"We will stay here with them until you or Selena can come back with beastholders," Seth answered.

"I'm sure the Champions of Chaos could help her find a few of those." Devus nodded.

"Alright." They all agreed to the plan, though Selena turned to Seth, her lips squeezed tightly together.

"I wanted to stay longer to hunt with you," she admitted.

"But putting the cub at risk by staying here without a beastholder would be foolish."

"Don't worry, we'll have plenty of other opportunities to hunt together," Seth replied, forcing a smile. Deep down, he felt a cold knot tightening in his guts. In a war where the Empire took no prisoners and Kastal's survival rate was this low, promising something like that felt like saying words for the sake of words. Devus acted first and scooped up his cub, the silver creature letting out a startled mewl as he tucked it against his chest.

He then crushed his Escape scroll, which caused a pillar of white light to engulf them both before they vanished from the clearing. Jenna and Selena shared a final look with Seth and Elena, their expressions a mix of gratitude and grim resolve.

"See you in a week or two," Jenna said. An instant later, they both triggered their own scrolls, and with a shimmer of aether they were gone, leaving Seth and Elena alone in the clearing. The noblewoman turned to Seth. Her emerald eyes searched his face, her brow furrowing with a concern that had been simmering pretty much all week.

"What's going on? You feel... different since you came back from the Warfare Rifts." Seth let out a long, heavy sigh, and his shoulders slumped. Aside from Nightmare and Colossus, Elena was the only person he could afford to be truly honest with—she already knew about his Legacy, which was his biggest secret.

"I've found that planning for anything beyond next week feels pointless," Seth finally answered.

"Entire squads were slaughtered in the first round. By the time the King decides he's had enough, we could all be dead." Elena pressed her lips into a thin line. For once, she didn't retort or argue in defense of the crown; she had likely seen the empty royal pavilion herself in the neutral zone.

"There isn't much we can do to change the situation."

"Yes and no." Seth looked at the distant, mist-covered mountains.

"You saw my father's friend. And saw how strong he is. He could take me—take all of us—to another country. We could leave all this nonsense behind." Elena's expression darkened.

"But that wouldn't fix anything, Seth. People would still die. And what about your trial's inscription?"

"He could get rid of it," Seth answered, though the words felt hollow.

"He said it wouldn't be complicated. And we could come back later. Once we are strong enough to make a difference."

"But until then, people would continue to die," Elena countered, her voice soft.

"And how is us dying with them more useful?" Seth retorted, frustration finally bubbling over.

"It's not like we can win this war alone. Even if we kill or capture a hundred Iron Wielders, the people in the other squads will still be butchered. The format of this game they call 'war' is rigged. Sure, it allows the weaker side to hold on a bit longer, but it also stops a handful of strong soldiers from actually turning the tide. We can't fight in every single battle at once." Elena remained silent, her eyes fixed on the damp earth. Seth watched her expression and felt his fists tighten at his sides.

The helplessness written across her face stirred something fierce inside him—an intense urge to tear down heaven and hell alike just to wipe that look away.

"There's nothing we can do right now," Seth said, his tone softening as he stepped closer.

"But that won't always be the case. We just need time." Elena finally met his eyes once more.

"Can you actually do that, Seth? Could you really leave behind people from the academy? People from your squad?" Seth took a deep breath. That was the sole reason he was still in Kastal instead of being in Asethka at this very moment. Leaving people behind felt wrong, and he knew Marcus wouldn't help him bring fifty people out of the country.

"No… and that's why I'm still here, trying to save as many lives as I can."

"That's exactly what I want to do too," Elena said, regaining some of her composure.

"And I know Devus and Jenna feel the same way." Seth's jaw tightened.

"I'm confident in my own skill when it comes to surviving, but I cannot be as certain about you... or them."

"We're not that weak," Elena answered, trying to offer a reassuring smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Don't underestimate us." Seth wasn't buying it. He had seen what the elite squads of the Empire could do to one filled with Rank-30s and Rank-40s. Without himself, Colossus, and Nightmare, his squad would have all been killed. But Seth decided that arguing wasn't worth it. He couldn't force his friends to run. He could only make sure they were as strong as possible each time they stepped into one of those Warfare Rifts.

"We should continue to hunt," Seth said, turning back toward the deeper part of the forest.

"There's still a week left."