The castle was big and looked abandoned, with moss on its walls and climbing plants around. Weeds seemed overgrown, and the trees were much taller, their branches reaching towards the sky, casting long shadows that added to the eerie atmosphere, especially in the midst of the rain.
"This is—" Kyra looked at the castle with wide eyes, feeling a bit of fear in her heart because she had always been afraid of ghosts and witches, as she had heard. Seeing the abandoned castle made her heartbeat quicken in fear.
However, different from her, Lucas exclaimed, "Goodness! A castle! Wow! It looks so interesting. It definitely suits my alpha personality. Once I rank up, I will definitely build a similar castle."
"Alpha personality!" Hearing this, Kyra shook her head helplessly. However, some other words also caught her attention.
"Rank up?" she asked.
"Well, you see, we Beastmen have a system of inner strength rankings ranging from one to ten. And I happen to be a rank four Beast," he stated, his arm encircling Kyra's shoulder as they went inside.
"That sounds amazing. But how does one increase their rank in strength? And how can we determine someone's rank?" she asked with curiosity and confusion.
"We can level up our rank through combat experience. The more we grow and develop through battles, the more powerful we become. As for identifying someone's rank, it's not something you can discern at a glance. Only rank seven Beastmen have the ability to perceive the ranks of others," he explained, his hand pushing open the massive castle door, the sound echoing through the empty halls. "However, one can also gauge the strength of a Beastman by their size and the power of their roar."
"You wait here, Kyra. I will see if this is marked territory," he said as Kyra stood near the door, watching as Lucas quickly shifted into a wolf, his snout twitching as he sniffed around.
Kyra looked at him with gentle eyes.
Lucas shifted back into a Beastman. Kyra noticed he still had clothes on, but why didn't he have them on before when she first saw him shift into a human?
"Lucas, where do these clothes go when you shift into your beast?" she asked as he walked towards her, her gaze shifting to the delicate white fur that now draped around his upper body, naturally falling from his shoulders to his thighs.
"Don't worry, it's my original fur skin, so naturally, it will appear when I shift," Lucas said as he pulled her hand again, wanting to take her upstairs.
"But why didn't you have them on the first time I saw you shift into your human form?" she asked, a hint of doubt coating her words.
"Oh, that... I forgot, hehe," embarrassed Lucas spoke. Actually, he wanted to impress Kyra with his body.
"Okay-okay," Kyra raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows as she looked at Lucas with a small smile.