Hearing the youth's words, Ayfia spun around to face him. "An emergency?"
"Yes," the youth answered. "A Beast Tide, ten kilometers north of the village. From the reports, it seems that there is also a Tide Head."
"Of all the times, "started Ayfia as she began to stand.
Sighing, she continued. "There aren't supposed to be signs of one for another few weeks, much less an actual beast tide. Aestas' just began. "
Turning Arthur, Ayfia flashed an apologetic smile. "Mind holding on to that thought for a bit."
Arthur nodded in understanding as Ayfia began to run out of the infirmary.
Just as Ayfia left, the others in the infirmary began to dive into another discussion.
"How unfortunate, of all the times. Why now?"
"Probably because the Tide Head must have sensed that Chief is M.I.A at the moment."
"Guessing by how early it is, it must be a composition of beasts from the outer area of the forest."
Something of note about Pandora is that there are three classifications of wild organisms. There are animals, beasts, and creatures with their rating in the same order – last to first. Animals are the lowest of the three. They have low intellect, low realm energy, and are very easy to domesticate.
They typically make up the majority of farm animals, with nothing truly special about them. However, should an animal encounter a fortuitous event or object, they can evolve into Beasts.
Beasts are the second classification of wild organisms. Depending on their rank, which ranges from F – FFF to S – SSS, one can usually determine a beast's level of intellect and strength. To properly tell a beast's ranking, it is usually written in Pandorian somewhere on their bodies. And as for how beast raise their rankings? It's by devouring other Beasts and utilizing the devoured beasts' bloodline to refine their own. The lower-ranked a beast is, the easier it is for them to evolve, with evolution difficulty exponentially increasing with each rank up. However, this exponential rise in difficulty comes an exponential rise in power.
When estimating beasts' strengths, a common rule of thumb is to note that the difference in strength between a single letter (F) and a double letter (FF) is about two times. And between a double letter (FF) and a triple letter (FFF) is also two times. However, between ranks like (FFF) to (E), the difference is roughly three to five times. Nevertheless, this is all dependent on if the beasts in mention have the same bloodline grade, but that's a talk for another time.
Creatures, on the other hand, are evolved from beasts. When a beast reaches (S, SS, or SSS), depending on their bloodline purity, they can evolve into creatures and gain a humanoid form. However, this all comes at a sacrifice. Creatures must condense their strength thus far into one of the Three Paths. But calling it a sacrifice might be much. After all, after successfully condensing onto a path, they gain something called [Realm's Blessing]. They are cocooned in a crystal that virtually sprints them through whatever Path the Realm chooses for them, from initial to peak. This process can take as little as a month or as long as a year. Conversely, there is another option, but that's a talk for another time.
Nevertheless, there are two things of note. One, depending on the Domain of a creature, the power is capped to that Domain. Reason being that rankings don't carry across Domains. A SSS in the Outer Domain would get demolished by a mere F-rank in the Inner Domain. And as for the second note, children of creatures must all have an initial evolution before they can properly cultivate.
Nonetheless….
Turning to the discussing group of men, Arthur couldn't but ask, "What is a Beast Tide?"
Hearing Arthurs voice, all of the men turned to him, sizing him up.
"Oho," began a bald dark-skinned man with an interesting scar near his left eye and an arm in a sling.
"Oho, what? Just answer the lad's question, Mensa." Came an annoyed voice from a lightly tanned man with brown hair, with both his arms wrapped in stiff cloth.
"Oh, and why can't you, Ajax?" retorted Mensa.
"oH, aNd wHy cAn'T yOu, aJax?" Mocked Ajax. "Dumbass, you are the one who responded first!"
"Who are you calling a dumbass? Mr. 'I want my first daughter to be a girl.'" Fired back, Mensa.
"You-you….we promised never to speak about that anymore."
Immediately, the room burst into a roar of laughter.
"You two sure you aren't brothers from the same mother," laughed a brown-skinned man with a thick mass of curly black hair and a bandaged forehead.
""Oh, zip it, Andres!""
"Don't mind them," continued to laugh Andres, as he turned to Arthur. "They are always like this."
"As for what a Beast Tide is, young man. Every year a bit into Aestas, a horde of Beasts from the nearby forest will always make a charge for our tribe. The longer the charge takes to happen, the stronger the beasts who arrive are. Normally around this time, each year, we would have already dealt with our Kante problem, allowing us to have all hands on deck. But unfortunately, this year, we are still dealing with the Kante problem. But fortunately, because the tide is so early this year, the beasts should all be relatively low ranked. But even then, with the hands we have on deck now, I expect us to suffer some losses."
Nodding his head in understanding, Arthur asked another question. "Why do the Beasts come in the first place, though?"
Exchanging looks with one another, Mensa replied. "The season of Ver is when a majority of Beasts rank up. After ranking up, Beasts go into a frenzied state where they need to consume a lot of food to stabilize their rank. That's where they begin to turn their eyes to our quaint little tribe. After all, should they take down our defenders, a feast for the ages awaits them. But normally, with our chief here, they wait till they are quite large to mount a charge. But guessing by how early they are this year, they must have sensed that our chief isn't here, giving them the courage to mount their current charge."
"Don't even know why they continue to bother," began Ajax. "With their charge each year, we've grown stronger and stronger from their deaths to the point where we've slowly turned the event into a type of sport. But I guess hunger and desperation can turn the illogical, logical."
Hearing Ajax's words, a few others chimed in, in agreement.
Pondering for a bit, Arthur asked. "May I help?"
"Huh?" Began Andres. "I suppose every hand available will be useful, but can you? You passed out, trying to sit up a few days ago."
Looking down at his right hand, Arthur slowly clenched and unclenched a fist as a bit of golden energy began to dance.
Nodding, Arthur replied. "I should be alright."