Heart Hunt was a game. It was a competitive, fast-paced, tactical game in which the Players in the Royal Institution and their Beast Companions form teams of two.
In the game, the aim was to capture the Heart Tokens from all the opponents while avoiding elimination.
Although there were other competitions such as Beast battle where there were one-on-one battles against each other's beast, the majority of the Players preferred Heart Hunt because the game combined agility, strategy and beastly combat as players dodged, outwitted, and overpowered rivals to claim victory.
The last team standing after retrieving all the Tokens, claims victory. Heart Hunt wasn't just a game, but winning it also gave XP and increased bonding levels between the Beast Companion and its owner.
Once it was time, Aeric, alongside Celestia who showed him the way, arrived at the place in the Institution grounds where the game took place.
It was a walled, labyrinthine arena known as the Veiled Maze. From where Aeric was standing, he could barely comprehend anything of the strange place.
The chairs were very raised high for onlookers who would want to watch the contest. But for this day, there were very few. Most of the Daughters had requested to be amongst the teams of five that were going to join in the contest.
They divided themselves as follows; Aryanne and Melina, Rosette and Misty, Nyx and Nyssa, Phoebe and Linnette, and Aeric and...
"Do you want me to be your partner?" Celestia asked him.
He turned to her, feeling a rush of emotion wash over him. Normally, the Players were paired according to their sisters of the same Region, but there was no rule suggesting that they weren't allowed to play with interregional teams.
"Yes!" he replied without haste. "Yes I do want you to be my partner."
Celestia smiled. "All you have to do is just ask," she said as her Beast Companion lowered its back and she climbed on top of it. "Come on, get yours ready."
Celestia's Beast Companion was a Winged Pegasus she named Lumi — from illuminate. Like a pegasus, it was reminiscent of a horse, except with the long and sharp horn attached to its forehead, the magical mane of glistening gold, and the beautiful pair of golden wings.
From a quick inspection of the Beast, Aeric saw that Winged Pegasi were able to shoot beams of light out of its horns, obscure vision with a burst of illumination from its wings, and the horns also acted as weapons.
Once the Winged Pegasus drives the horn into a target, they will be infected by its magic and would experience difficulties in simple bodily functions and even go completely paralyzed.
Not to mention, they were extremely fast as well. Celestia had herself a really powerful Beast Companion. But not one better than his Silverwolf.
"Come on, Sylver. I hope you're ready for this," he petted the Beast on its back.
Sylver let out an agreeing whimper, noting to Aeric that he was indeed ready.
"Now's as good a time as any to check your stats," Aeric said. "With the overflow of Divinity strengthening my brain, I'm sure it would be even easier to understand."
[Do you wish to see your Beast Companion's stats]
Aeric selected [Yes].
The window expanded and an interface of categories appeared before Aeric.
[Alias: Sylver]
[Name: Silverwolf]
[Species: Evolved Wolfkin]
[Rank: Legendary]
[Tier: Four Star (Upgradable)]
[Synergy: 3/10]
'Hmm,' Aeric placed a hand on his thinking chin. 'Synergy must mean our bonding level. 3 over 10 is pretty low. I think we're gonna have to work on that. The Daughters will certainly have higher synergy since they've got more experience with their Companions. Hopefully your Attributes could make up for that.'
[Attributes]
[Strength: 7]
[Agility: 10]
[Endurance: 8]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Divine Power: 8]
[Charisma: 5]
Aeric understood charisma to be the bond-building stat, reflecting Sylver's present loyalty and ability to form stronger bonds with him.
He moved on to another section. This one was for core skills.
[Core Skills]
[Combat: 8]
[Stealth: 9]
[Perception: 8]
[Flight: None]
[Swimming: 2]
[Communication: 7]
'Sylver's a poor swimmer. We're gonna have to work on those stats. His communication is surprisingly high for someone with a low synergy with me.'
Divine Abilities
[Shadow Cloak]
[Silver Runner]
[Howl of Terror]
[Power Claw]
[Silver Blast]
[------] [Unlock Ability with BT]
[------] [Unlock Ability with BT]
[------] [Unlock Ability with BT]
[------] [Unlock Ability with BT]
[------] [Unlock Ability with BT]
[------] [Unlock Ability with BT]
'Six more abilities are locked,' Aeric thought. 'What exactly are BT's?'
[Beast Tokens. Beast Tokens can be claimed from beast kills or by using XP to purchase].
'Interesting. So just like Skill Points, I can also turn my XP into Beast Tokens. This makes gaining XP kinda like the most important thing in leveling up in this world.'
There were some other sections as well, which surprised Aeric because it made Beast Companionship so much more specific, significant and meaningful. It was like leveling up another Player at the same time, and needing that Player to do things that he couldn't do.
He found Sylver's Weaknesses.
[Light-based attacks]
[Attacks to the chest and heart]
[Excessive exposure to hot sunlight]
[Water]
'By water, I'm going to guess that means you can't swim, not that drinking water is going kill you.' He looked at Sylver. "Right, boy?"
"Wmmh" Sylver whimpered a yes.
[Bond Compatibility: Silverwolves have high compatibility with a Players having shadow, night or dark abilities]
This made Aeric frown. The window explained that Silverwolves were initially found in the Moonlight and Twilight Regions first, which was the reason they were more compatible with Players from those Regions.
It made sense. Especially because Sylver's powers were really similar to that of Moonlight and Twilight Regioners. Maybe this was why their synergy was so low.
After thinking about it for a short while, his brain quickly came up with a solution. [Claiming] the Main Skill of a Player from any of those Regions would give him their powers, right? Which meant the more of those powers he [Claimed], the more compatible he would become with Sylver.
In fact, he was sure they had that amount of compatibility because he had [Claimed] Erimyra's Main Skill.
Glad to have understood that, Aeric went on to Growth and Leveling Potential.
[Upgrade Paths: Path 1/10]
[Potential: Dire Silverwolf.]
[Your Beast Companion will evolve to its maximal form, the Dire Silverwolf upon reaching Upgrade Path 10 and completing synergy]
[Upgrades can be done with Beast Tokens, but the price for upgrades increases with each Upgrade Path].
[Battle Performance History]
[Win Rate: Zero battles fought]
[Teamwork Efficiency: —]
Aeric took a deep breath, and removed the interface. 'Studying the stats with this faster brain really helped me with understanding. Most people would feel so overwhelmed after reading all that.'
"Hey, Late Bloomer!"
He turned his head to his left and saw Aryanne and the rest approaching him on top of their Beasts.
Aeric's eyes widened.
Aryanne's beast was a giant dog. A pitbull as they were called back in his former world. But this was something more. It had glowing dark skin that emitted a silvery smoke, dark fire was burning out of its eyes and its legs were armored with spines and sinewy muscles.
'What kind of Beast Companion is that?' he thought with fear.
The system made an assessment, then quickly replied.
[Name: Dreadhound]
[Five Star Legendary Beast]
Aryanne grinned devilishly. "Are you ready to have your bastard ass beaten?"