Absolute Beast Dominion - Chapter 493: Coming Across The First Inhabitant - 2

Chapter 493: Coming Across The First Inhabitant – 2

“Wha—!” Leo was so astonished that the words escaped his mouth.

“Lord! What happened?” Lyswenna shouted from a distance as both elves came running toward him, ready to react in case there was any danger.

“In here, there’s like a whole living space built underground, and it stretches even farther than my senses allow. And I can sense nearly 4 kilometres!”

Beneath the seemingly barren ground stretched a sprawling labyrinth of tunnels. What Leo discovered through Howl’s trait was a tangled underground network spreading for kilometres in every direction, resembling the veins of a colossal living creature.

Countless narrow passages intertwined with larger caverns, some large enough to house entire communities. Rough chambers branched from the main tunnels like clustered nests, while hidden shafts connected multiple levels below. Faint traces of life flickered throughout the maze—hundreds, perhaps thousands, moving within its depths.

The deeper sections remained shrouded even from his senses as the rock grew denser with increasing depth. He would need to practice the trait more in order to penetrate those extra-dense layers of stone. But one thing was clear: a group of intelligent beasts had formed this settlement over many decades, perhaps even centuries.

Leo’s senses picked up a particular chamber only a short distance beneath his feet that seemed rich in the fire element, and a few strong Kobolts were present inside. Strong in the sense that they were stronger than the others, around Peak 1-star to Low 2-star. Not only that, but those individuals seemed to be casting fire-related abilities on the walls at regular intervals, apparently practising their control.

“Lord?” Lyswenna asked, noticing his contemplative expression.

Leo relayed his findings to them, and their eyes widened in a similar manner.

“It’s like those wretched goblin caves…” Lyswenna muttered. It seemed goblins had also been a major problem in their previous world.

The Kobolts in the pond had already scurried into the tunnel entrance before their eyes since Leo hadn’t blocked their path. But Naelith had used vines to hold around 6 to 7 Kobolts captive, and they couldn’t even thrash wildly under the restraints.

When Nyxa came closer to sniff them, they immediately went stiff, and one normal Kobolt, with no strength, even fainted. But the funny thing was that even a normal Kobolt was said to possess juvenile intelligence.

“Gather the dead Kobolts’ bodies and extract their beast cores,” Leo instructed.

Lyswenna promptly got to work, using her knife to cut through their fragile chests and pull out the cores, which were only slightly larger than marbles.

The trapped Kobolts’ eyes widened in terror as they watched Lyswenna ruthlessly cut open their comrade’s body.

Even being dead was not enough to spare them from these tall, scaleless creatures.

Lyswenna handed the cores to Leo.

Intelligent Beast Cores… Leo thought, gripping the 5 Kobolt cores, their bloodied surfaces staining his hand.

His talent could extract talents from intelligent beast cores, and now, the chances were 50%.

[Beastiary Of Souls] – 8 stars

Effect 2: Can collect the soul essence of Beasts that have gained intelligence and use it to enhance the soul of the talent holder and the souls of beings connected to the talent holder. With a 50% chance of extracting a talent or confirmed skills from the soul if the talent extraction fails.

Just as he activated his talent, the beast cores sublimated, and a moment later, he received a message.

Ding!

>No talents or skills detected in the beast cores. Only the soul essence has been extracted and can be used to enhance the soul of the Host or of a being connected by soul to the Host.

“Well… can’t squeeze a dry fruit for juice,” Leo muttered as he threw the essence to feed his Super Rare soul.

His talent could only extract what already existed; it couldn’t conjure things out of thin air.

“Lord?” Lyswenna asked, not hearing him clearly.

“Nothing. But what do you suggest? Should we go inside this tunnel? I can tell there’s a natural treasure in one of the compartments near us.”

Leo suggested that because those Kobolts practising fire-related abilities clearly possessed some form of talent.

Lyswenna looked at the narrow entrance, then shook her head.

“Lord, I suggest we do not enter through this entrance. This is clearly an artificially formed tunnel, narrow enough to fit only these lean creatures. If we try to squeeze ourselves through, we might get trapped, and they may even have special traps that could be dangerous.”

She paused before adding,

“But still, My Lord, if you wish, I will use my power to dig through the earth for you. I can soften it with water first and use vines to expand the tunnels.”

“No need for that,” he replied.

If digging was the solution, his Earth Manipulation was more than enough.

He stepped forward and picked up a fallen stone dagger.

Looking closely at the yellow coating, he found it to be a yellow-coloured paste embedded with tiny yellow crystals.

“Sulphur?” Leo muttered before rubbing the edge across his palm. The paste instantly stuck to his skin.

He removed the defensive traits from his body and reduced the toughness of his skin in that area. Almost immediately, he felt a slight itchiness. His brow rose in interest.

It would be very effective against low-ranked individuals—people like those Low 1-star to Low 2-star participants from the other academies and across the empire.

“Naelith, light a flame over here,” he said, extending his palm.

“But Lord, that would hurt you…” she replied, though she hardly believed her own words after recalling the scene of Leo walking through her flames completely unscathed during their first encounter.

Still, she couldn’t willingly try to harm him.

“Nothing will happen. Do it.”

Naelith nodded and ignited his palm.

He hadn’t used his own [Violet Hellbrand] because its flames carried a poison attribute. And he still couldn’t separate the two.

As Naelith used her powers, his hand lit up in bright orange flames. But the fire covering the other areas gradually died out, leaving only the place where he had rubbed the sulphur paste burning with a pale yellowish-blue flame.

“Sulphur burns blue… so this yellow must be coming from some other substance,” Leo concluded as he clenched his hand into a fist, extinguishing the flames.

“Interesting. No wonder these creatures are intelligent. They’re forming new compounds to assist in battle,” Leo remarked.

He looked towards the Earth, though he was technically looking at the ground, and his senses were directly staring at the chamber around 20 meters deep and 30 meters ahead.