Beast-Tamer: Limitless Evolution

Gotta Go!

At some point, Gale dozed off during the class, while Osho felt Bedrock's attention wane. It wasn't surprising, Gale wasn't the type to pay attention to these types of things, and Vedrock couldn't even understand what the professor was saying. The only reason he could understand Osho was due to their bond.

Osho, however, listened with rapt attention. The

attention shifted from him as the lesson progressed, and the professor continued talking about beasts and certain parts of their general physiology.

Despite it only being the first class, Osho was discovering new things fast, and he noted down interesting points almost gleefully. His mind was already spinning with ways these topics applied to his ability and how he could exploit them.

Eventually, though, the lecture soon came to an end, and the students began to leave. All except Osho.

Osho stood up with Gale in his arms and walked down while Bedrock was snapped out of his stupor and followed after him.

Professor Lark simply waited on the stage calmly, and when Osho reached, the man gestured for him to follow.

He was led to the back of the stage where there was a pretty sizeable office. It had a desk with a chair behind it and what looked like a holographic projector. A plaque with the name 'Prof. Lark' could be seen as well, and opposite the chair were two more chairs as well as a few by the side.

A bookshelf with a few hardcover books could be seen, and there were a few decorations and awards on the wall behind the desk.

It looked like a standard lecturer's office, but bigger and more futuristic.

"Take a seat, young man." Professor Kark said easily as he went behind the desk to sit, and Osho followed suit.

As soon as he did, the man regarded Gale, who was in his arms, and nodded.

"Quite the beast you have there." He said lightly, and Osho glanced at Gale, who was sleeping, but was also aware of everything happening around him.

"Thank you." Osho just nodded.

"What's your name, lad?" Lark asked.

"Osho."

"Just Osho?"

"Yes, sir."

"I see." He rubbed his chin before nodding to himself and smiling.

"Sorry if you were a bit impatient about me putting off that last question of yours. It would have sent us down a spiral that might have completely derailed the class. Moreover..." His expression turned a bit more serious. "... my potential answers aren't exactly common knowledge, so I would prefer we discuss things with more privacy." Hearing this, Osho nodded slightly. He wasn't particularly surprised.

"So, you asked what the correlation is between conduits, bloodlines, and concepts." The older man stated, and Osho gave an affirmative answer.

"Alright. First of all, what do you know about bloodlines and concepts?" Professor Lark asked.

Osho fell silent for a moment as he considered how to answer, but he eventually did.

"Bloodlines are lineages/legacies some beasts inherit from their ancestors. Technically, all beasts have bloodlines, but the concentration varies, and in most cases, it's so low that most beasts show no aspects of even having a bloodline. Those who do, though, seem to operate on a different level compared to Affinity-based abilities, since a beast with a bloodline could display certain abilities that have nothing to do with their Affinity. Or inversely, allow them to display skills far beyond what their level should allow.

Moreover, beasts with identifiable bloodlines sort of exist on a higher hierarchical order. Some bloodlines are also stronger and older than others, and if two beasts with bloodlines meet, the one with a stronger bloodline will suppress the other. Moreover, as I said, every beast technically has a bloodline, and since bloodlines are essentially etched into a beast's existence, suppressing the bloodline will suppress the beast.

But yeah, bloodlines are unique legacies/traits beasts possess after inheriting them from powerful ancestors, which grant them strange abilities that they typically wouldn't have." When he finished, Professor Lark nodded, seemingly satisfied.

"And concepts?" Hearing this, Osho hesitated.

In truth, his knowledge of concepts in the context of beast taming was still a bit iffy, and information on them wasn't easy to come across. Regardless, he answered as best as he could.

"According to my understanding, concepts are metaphysical forces that govern the laws of the universe. They exist everywhere at all times, but they can't be interacted with, at least, not under normal situations." Osho answered, his response significantly shorter than his explanation of bloodlines.

Amused, Professor Lark asked.

"Oh? And what abnormal situations allow an entity to interact with concepts?"

"... From what I've observed, bloodlines are one way. Reaching a sufficient level of power is another way." Osho replied.

"Hm, that's mostly correct." Lark nodded.

"Mostly?" Osho raised a brow, both curious as to what he missed and elated that he'd been mostly correct when he'd been speaking based on nothing but experience and pattern recognition.

"Mhm, mostly," Lark confirmed. "There are a few more obscure ways. One way is if one comes into contact with an environmental phenomenon so potent that slivers of a concept naturally manifest there. For instance, if one managed to find their way next to a particularly potent fire-based natural treasure, the concept of fire will likely revolve around that object. However, this method has its issues. For starters, even if a creature with the fire affinity managed to come across such a natural treasure, they would likely still be burned to ashes before they got close, and that's if they weren't killed by powerful beasts that already had their sights on such a powerful natural treasure. After all, just because one has an Affinity in line with a concept doesn't automatically mean they will be capable of assimilating an item that possesses that concept within.

Another way for a beast to touch upon a concept is for them to embody an idea so thoroughly and purely that reality itself has no choice but to grant them the ability to gain control over a certain concept. For instance, say a beast has spent centuries doing one thing, and that is hunting. And not just any normal hunting, but specifically hunting creatures stronger than it. It refuses to hurt anything at the same level or weaker than it, strictly stronger foes. And foes that are a legitimate threat to it, and it does this for so long that it understands the intricacies of hunting, different types of hunting, how to incorporate hunting into everything it does, and so on. Eventually, such a thing will lead to it touching upon the concept of hunting itself, and you see it in the way it fights. Perhaps it gets a boost whenever it hunts, or the longer it stalks its target, the stronger its opening attack will be, and so on." Hearing this, Osho blinked before frowning a little, and Lark didn't immediately say anything as he let Osho digest the answer.

'That's an oddly specific answer, the second one. Perhaps there was a creature he encountered with such a concept under its belt? But that aside, environmental phenomena as well as embodying and idea so thoroughly that reality itself gives in...' As soon as he had the latter part of that thought, two things came to mind.

The first was Gale. Osho already knew about Gale's concept of 'Freedom' and how it was intrinsically tied to his Sky Affinity.

'Maybe he hasn't gotten there exactly, but Gale is a pretty free spirit that more or less just does what he wants.' Osho thought and frowned inwardly. He could recall the numerous times when he'd told Gale not to do something. Was that adversely affecting him?

He sighed in his heart.

'I'll address that later.' He thought and shifted his attention to Bedrock, who just sat on the ground without a thought in his head.

He recalled the Terra's Breath Crystal he'd used to evolve Bedrock. Of everything he'd used to evolve the egg Bedrock came from, that was probably the most valuable item due to the extreme difficulty that came with acquiring it as well as just how valuable it was.

'Did it have concepts related to what Bedrock can do currently?' Osho mused and felt like he was somewhat correct in his guess.

"Now," Lark finally continued, gaining Osho's attention. "With all that said, you can't simply touch upon a concept due to being close to an object that is rich with a certain concept, like I said already. Neither can a beast easily embody a concept by abiding by one, even if they spend the rest of their lifespan doing so. Can you tell me why?" Hearing this, Osho's brows knit together as he thought about the question carefully before a light bulb lit up in his head.

"The conduits." He blurted out, and Lark smiled.

"That's right. Without sufficiently complex and strong conduits, the body of a beast cannot handle/process concepts even if they come in a tangible form." Lark nodded, but then Osho frowned.

"But you just said that strength isn't the only prerequisite to comprehend concepts. If you still need sufficiently complex conduits, doesn't that defeat the point?" He asked with some confusion.

"You misunderstood. Your potential is what determines the complexity of your conduits, you your strength." He corrected Osho calmly, and Osho blinked.

'That... makes sense... Wait, if that is the case, how exactly does evolution work, then? If Bedrock's conduits only became complex after I evolved him, how was he able to handle something like the Terra's Breath Crystal? Were his circuits already sufficiently complex before then? Did it have something to do with their strange rules behind beast eggs and hatching? Or... wait.' Osho suddenly remembered the cracks in the ribbons and how it meant future evolutions would be impossible.

'Don't tell me...' His eyes widened with realization, and he stood up abruptly.

"Oh?" Lark raised a brow.

"Thank you for your help sir, it has been very useful, but I need to go and check something!" Then, without another word, he bolted out of the office, leaving a slightly stunned professor Lark in his seat.

"Huh. I guess I helped him figure something out." He eventually shook his head.

"Something tells me the next few years in this place are about to be pretty interesting."