Leonard tried to calm himself down. He took long, deep breaths, over and over, until his heartbeat began to slow. The sha still burned on his cheeks, but he attempted to redirect his thoughts elsewhere.
Suddenly, he rembered sothing.
’I should have asked what happened after I passed out. What about that Mutated Beast? What happened to it?’
He also rembered Lily. The rabbit girl. Was she okay? She had joined the fight and had been struck by that monster’s charge as well. Leonard hadn’t even had the chance to check on her condition.
’I should have asked Borami. But...’
His cheek still felt hot from the slap. Borami’s flushed face, her wide eyes, the way she’d run out of the room—everything was still fresh in his mory.
’Ah, damn. Better to ask tomorrow morning. I’m not ready to face her right now.’
He touched his still-stinging cheek. Borami’s slap had been pretty hard, but the wound had already healed thanks to his regeneration. Only the heat remained.
Then, at the edge of his thoughts, sothing surfaced. Vague. Like an incomplete mory, only fragnts difficult to piece together.
’There was sothing... before I passed out... I did sothing...’
He tried to rember. But his mory was fuzzy, like a dream fading after waking up.
Leonard decided to check his status.
[ Leonard Harrington ]
[ Stage: 1 ]
[ Evolution Progress: 0/1000 ]
[ Bloodline: — ]
[ Conquered: 0 ]
[ List: — ]
[ Tad Beast ]
Leonard raised his eyebrows. There was sothing new. Before, there was no "Tad Beast" section in his status.
Curious, he focused his thoughts on that section. Instantly, a new screen appeared.
[ Mutated Beast ]
[ Species: Black Tusk Boar ]
[ Stage: 2 ]
[ Evolution Progress: 2014/3000 ]
[ Status: Tad ]
Leonard read it over and over, making sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.
This information... was exactly the sa as the information about the boar monster that had attacked him. Sa species, sa stage, sa evolution progress. The only difference was the status changing from "Untad" to "Tad," and the disappearance of the "Threat Level: High" section.
And instantly, that vague mory beca clear.
He rembered. After the fierce battle, after his body had been destroyed multiple tis, after Lily ca to help, when the boar monster lay helpless—there was a notification from the system. Sothing about blood rging, about a taming ability. And Leonard, with his consciousness nearly gone, had agreed.
’Damn system!’
Leonard cursed inwardly. From the beginning, this system had been useless. It hadn’t told him about regeneration. It hadn’t told him about taming abilities. It only told him how to conquer won—as if that was the only important thing in this world.
’Now I’m starting to wonder, what other abilities don’t I know about yet?’
He stared at the Mutated Beast information screen again. If the information was still there, it ant the monster was still alive. But where? Had Borami locked it up sowhere? Or maybe soone else had taken it away?
Leonard tried to think. But the information he had was limited. This damn system didn’t explain anything, just displayed data without clear guidance. Useless system.
’How do I connect with it?’
That question arose, and sohow, as if answering his thoughts, Leonard felt sothing. Like an invisible thread in his mind. Not visual, not sound, but more like... instinct. Like he just knew that thread connected him to sothing. To the beast he had tad.
Leonard focused his thoughts on that thread. He wanted to follow it, wanted to know where it led.
And instantly, incredible pain exploded in his head.
Like soone was splitting his mind in two. Leonard winced, clutching his head, nearly screaming. But he stayed focused. He kept his thoughts fixed on that thread, refusing to let go.
Slowly, the pain subsided. And when he opened his eyes, he was in a different place.
Dark. But sohow, he could see clearly. He could see stone walls around him, hard earthen floor, a high ceiling above with large wooden bars filtering the moonlight.
An underground chamber. Wide, maybe twenty ters across. About that long too. The height was maybe ten ters—too high to jump. And in this room, he wasn’t alone.
Leonard looked around and counted. One, two, three... seventeen. Seventeen Black Tusk Boars, all with the sa terrifying size, roaming the room. So slept, so just stood still, so paced restlessly back and forth. Their eyes glowed red in the darkness, like burning embers.
Panic. Leonard tried to run, tried to move away from them. But when he moved, he noticed sothing strange. His legs didn’t move the way they usually did. His steps felt heavy, weird, like he was walking on four legs.
He looked down and saw that his legs weren’t human legs, but animal legs. Hooved, large, powerful, covered in black fur.
Leonard raised his hand and saw a snout. A long snout with wide nostrils. Two long tusks from the lower jaw, two from the upper, all pointing forward, sharp, terrifying.
He looked down again. His body was huge, covered in thick black fur. Four legs. A short tail.
’I... I’m inside that boar’s body.’
That realization ca slowly. Leonard tried to stay calm. He analyzed the situation.
He could still feel that invisible thread connecting his consciousness to his original body. That thread led in one direction—to the left. That’s where Leonard’s real body was. Toward Borami’s house.
He looked up. The ceiling of this room was made of large wooden beams arranged closely together like prison bars. Through the gaps, moonlight filtered in thin beams. It was ten ters high—too high for these boars to jump. They had no climbing ability or jumping power to reach that height.
Leonard looked around again. Seventeen Black Tusk Boars. All looked savage, wild, ready to pounce on anything that entered. There was no way they were being bred here—besides being too dangerous, it would be too difficult to control.
’This is a storage place,’ he thought. ’Food reserves. They keep these monsters alive to harvest their at or cores later.’
He rembered Lily’s words. "Mutated beasts the hunters captured for food reserves."
So this was the place. An underground prison for captured monsters.
Leonard tried moving this boar’s body. Walking, sniffing, experiencing what it felt like to be a monster. Strange. But fascinating.
After satisfying his curiosity, he decided to return. He focused on the invisible thread connecting him to his original body. He pulled his consciousness back toward it.
Instantly, incredible pain exploded in his head again. Leonard winced, enduring it. Slowly, the pain subsided, and when he opened his eyes, he was back in Borami’s room. His own body. Human hands. Human legs.
Leonard breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to the right, toward the direction he sensed as the location of the beast he had tad.
’So there. Underground.’
He was curious. There was still so much he wanted to try, so much he wanted to understand about this new ability.
Leonard focused on that thread again. This ti, the pain wasn’t as intense—maybe because he’d done it before, or because he knew what to expect.
Once again, he entered that boar’s body.
This ti, he was calr. He tried moving the body more deliberately. Walking, jogging slightly, sniffing. The sensation was strange, like wearing clothes that were too big, but he was getting used to it.
He looked at the other boars around him. They didn’t attack him. Maybe because he slled the sa, or because they recognized him as another Black Tusk Boar. Leonard approached one of them, trying to sniff it.
The boar stared at him with red eyes, snorted, but didn’t attack. Just wary.
’Interesting.’
Leonard tried sothing else. He attempted to control this body with more precision. Moving the ears, swishing the tail, lifting the snout. All possible. This body was responsive, like his own.
After a while, he returned to his original body. The pain was drastically reduced now, only like a mild migraine.
Leonard lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. His mind was full of questions and possibilities.
’I can possess the beasts I ta. I can see, feel, move like them. And it seems I can also sense their presence. I haven’t tried commanding it since it’s pretty far away, but I think I can do that too.’
He then re-entered the boar’s body to try other things.
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