Euri ordered Scout Dog, Dread Spider, and Brawler Rat to grab a few locusts from the tentacle barrier. Alongside the locust he had bonded with, he took them all to the center of the grove, where the gas well was emitting the precious cultivation resource these beasts were after.
His bonded locust was already in the midst of cultivation, as he had allowed so in its stats window. However, the other locusts kept screeching and rolling on the ground, expressing their frustration at not being allowed to do the same. The tendrils of gas seemed to be actively avoiding entering their bodies.
But when he clicked on the [ Cultivate ] option on one of these locusts, this aversion effect was canceled immediately. It opened its mouth and sucked in large mouthfuls of gas, its wings vibrating in excitement.
More importantly, no aching in the back of his head came to assault his nerves.
Euri breathed a sigh of relief at this discovery. So his authorization as the administrator actually meant something. The implicit rules wouldn't undermine his control or will!
"This is a great loophole. I can command, or at least communicate with, the twins of any of my bonded beasts, but that doesn't give them the privilege my bonded beast familiars have. Maybe this is an indication of how things would proceed if more locusts enter the grove later on. They would not leave me with another headache session unless I chose one of them to cultivate..."
The rules were so hard to decipher that he could never be sure until he could see the results firsthand, multiple times.
"I wonder if this Shepherding Skill has the same effect in real life. Should I start looking for people's beast familiars that look close to mine? If my commands actually work on them..."
Feeling like he was getting ahead of himself with the imaginary scenarios, Euri stopped and focused on the game again. None of these 101 locusts had a beast core, as of yet. From his understanding of alien beasts with the potential of cultivation, the creation of beast cores in their bodies was more or less an automatic process engraved in their genetic build.
So there was a high possibility that these locusts were just too young to be manifesting beast cores. Several of their comrades had already done it. They could too. He just had to wait and nurture them.
Euri dedicated ten more minutes to this task, allowing each and every locust caught by the tentacles to cultivate. The 'senior' of the cultivators, Scout Dog, looked quite unhappy at the fact that he now had to share the cultivation spot with these bugs.
Brawler Rat, Dread Spider, and Saw Serpent had other ideas. They stared at the army of locusts with visible greed in their gaze. Euri knew what they were thinking. He was thinking the same thing.
In case these beasts didn't get anything to eat for a long time, they could treat this army as the emergency ration!
Another benefit of nurturing these locusts was the in-depth understanding he'd get about the exact process through which alien lifeforms below Rank-1 formed their beast cores. Although humans weren't capable of manifesting cores before ascending to Rank-1, this knowledge and experience could greatly benefit him!
"If only I could use the vitality gas alongside these beasts..."
Euri went to sleep with jealousy burning his heart. The spectacle of more than a hundred beasts meditating in peace was not easy to shake off from the mind.
He woke up in the middle of the night to another piece of good news. Scavenger Rat had returned with a nice haul of wildfruits, perfectly acceptable as common foodstuffs. Euri deposited them to the ambrosia pool very cautiously this time, stopping the moment the notification of one unit of raw ingredient being accepted showed up on the screen.
Judging by the number of fruits left, he could use them for another batch of ambrosia tomorrow. Reaching 2 points on the Physique evaluation stat wasn't far away!
Giving Scavenger Rat the opportunity to rest and cultivate for the night, Euri used up the current deposits in the ambrosia pool. Half an hour later, his profile in the game displayed a Physique stat of 1.2 points.
"A jump of 0.03 points from one unit of ambrosia? That's a first!" Recalling the frog he had deposited in the pool this morning as an ingredient, Euri thought that it made sense.
The frog was huge, almost the same size as Scout Dog. Its Physique stat and special attribute had also been distinctive among all the beasts he had hunted so far. Had he not been wary about the headache, he would have definitely kept it around as a familiar.
"If this isn't a result of rounding up figures, then it can be assumed that stronger beasts provide better results in terms of enhancement when used as ingredients for ambrosia. But that frog was still a Rank-0 lifeform. What kind of increase in stats would I get if I concocted ambrosia by using Rank-1 beasts?"
Smiling to himself while dreaming about getting so lucky someday soon, Euri fell asleep again. As it was the weekend, he didn't have to go to school the next day.
After waking up late, he found the house empty. A note on the dining table said, "Your father and I are leaving to look for a job. May not be back before sunset. Don't wait for us during lunch."
Euri's mood turned sour, and as soon as he realized that his good mood had been ruined by something perfectly reasonable, something he had even vocally wished for, his heart turned gloomier.
For some reason, the vision of his parents wandering in the rough, smog-soaked streets of the industrial regions of Peacock District caused a distinct discomfort inside him.
"Fuck it. As long as the hardship affects their addiction, it doesn't matter if they suffer a little. Nobody around here has it any better..."
After breakfast, reclined on the couch, Euri turned on his miniscreen and almost as if by reflex, opened up the network surfer search bar.
Then simply out of sheer curiosity, he typed in the name of the factory his parents used to work in. The list of upper management there wasn't difficult to look up.
"Who was Director again? His son is close to my age, Mom said. What school did that ill-mannered mutt graduate from? Any Superhumans in the family?"
Euri was simply doing this to satiate his curiosity. If he came across these guys someday in the future, he could politely inquire about the actual reason behind his parents' layoff.
Of course, if the other party refused to act politely, he wouldn't mind fixing their attitude.
For some reason, imagining that scenario in particular cut down much of the discomfort Euri had been feeling since seeing his mother's note.