NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4 - Chief Brain
Anyway, to become that strong, there’s no need to build power right away.
After all, according to the setting, I’ve settled in this hunting ground which is said to be an uninhabited forest, so I can focus on expanding my influence diligently.
‘Wake up, children.’
And in that sense, this time I produced a total of 4 Hive Spiders and 1 grade 7 monster, ‘Chief Brain’.
Chief Brain is a psychic user specialized in psychic use and a grade 7 monster. Its appearance is a volleyball-sized pearl-colored sphere floating in the air, and its specific abilities are as follows:
Chief Brain
Grade :: 7
Level :: 3
Abilities
Strength :: 2
Agility :: 5
Vitality :: 5
Intelligence :: 25
Resistance :: 30
Energy :: 50
Leadership :: 10
Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (E), Hive Mind (E), Subjugation (EX), Versatile Psychic User (D), Psychic Relay (D), Constant Floating (E)
Skills
Psychokinesis (D), Psychic Shield (D), Mental Control (E)
Biological Armament
None
As can be seen from its appearance, Chief Brain has no close combat ability, but instead has the trait of Versatile Psychic User (D).
Thanks to this, it can use both physical psychic abilities like psychokinesis and shield formation, and mental psychic abilities like mental control, and also has a unique trait called Psychic Relay (D).
As the name suggests, Psychic Relay (D) means that when I use psychic abilities through this creature’s body, the power decreases relatively less, and it can withstand the shock of my psychic use better compared to those without the skill.
Considering that when I used psychic abilities through the Hive Spider a few hours ago, its nervous system was damaged due to excessive psychic energy use, this is an essential trait for continuous intervention.
Anyway, after the combat-use Chief Brain and the Hive Spiders for corpse transport were completed, I sent these five monsters through the passage once again to the forest above the cliff.
‘…Protect the Chief Brain.’
After I gave that instruction to the Hive Spiders, this group of monsters began to move.
With the Chief Brain’s intelligence and leadership, I could leave the command to it, but in the current situation where available forces are far from sufficient, I’m directly commanding to prepare for any situation.
While searching thoroughly through the densely wooded forest, the Chief Brain’s senses detected very faint vibrations from the west.
And those vibrations began to rapidly grow in an instant.
It was a signal that the source of the vibrations was approaching this direction.
‘Hide!’
As I hurriedly gave that instruction to the Hive Spiders and the Chief Brain also hid its body, immediately after, two cries of pain were now mixed with the thumping sound.
KkRrrrRrrrrRRrrRAaaAaAAAAA!!!!!!
■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!
And a moment later, one of those cries suddenly disappeared, and right in front of our eyes, the corpse of a huge thing was thrown with a thud.
Thud!
A monster that looked like an enormously large bear with its head torn off, covered in feathers, with an owl’s head and bird talons instead of front paws.
It was the corpse of a grade 6 monster, Owl Bear.
‘…Crazy.’
The state of the corpse was miserable. As mentioned earlier, the head was roughly torn off, and the belly skin was split open as if scratched with a blade, with bright red blood and pink intestines flowing out.
The left hind leg had injuries as if something had bitten off the flesh, and there were numerous stab wounds all over the body.
It was undoubtedly killed in combat, and as I was tensing up to the maximum at the sight of this state, the owner of these wounds appeared.
This equally giant reptile, with front legs so long that it seemed capable of quadrupedal locomotion and a blade at the end of its tail, resembled a dinosaur—particularly a raptor.
Of course, I know this monster well too. No, to be precise, I know it even better than the Owl Bear.
It’s a monster that makes me realize how strong it is when I see it like this, having experienced grinding for 3 hours in the game for equipment using its materials due to its low population.
This monster, holding the Owl Bear’s head in its hand and eating its brain, is a grade 5 monster called Hunter Raptor.
…KrraaaAaaa.
Crunch! Crunch!
The creature, which was frantically scraping out the brain while fixing the head with its sharp-clawed front legs, seemed to have eaten enough brain and started chewing the remaining flesh along with the skull, turning its attention to the body.
Approaching the headless Owl Bear’s body, it first devoured all the internal organs, then cleared away the skin as if peeling it off, and started eating the fat along with the meat underneath.
By the time it had swallowed more than three times its body volume in corpse, the raptor seemed to be getting full and left, leaving behind only the skin, some flesh, and bones and claws.
I got goosebumps for a moment at how quietly it moved despite its size, but those goosebumps quickly disappeared when I saw the corpse it left behind.
The corpse of a grade 6 monster would undoubtedly contain a huge amount of energy along with a large quantity of excellent genes.
‘Come on, move quickly!’
As we needed to collect the corpse and flee as quickly as possible before other scavengers arrived, I moved in a bit of a hurry.
I had the Hive Spiders eat all the edible parts like flesh, and decided to use psychokinesis to transport the bones and skin that were too tough and hard to eat.
Even with this, the actual amount we could obtain was only about 1/4 of the remaining corpse.
As much as I wanted to take the entire corpse, I had to reluctantly give up the rest of it, knowing that other monsters would soon gather around.
And fortunately, without being detected, I was able to safely bring back the Hive Spiders that had absorbed plenty of nutrients along with parts of the skin and bones.
※ ※ ※
The harvest from this outing was surprisingly bountiful.
First, there are the nutrients. Although the flesh we obtained wasn’t much, the nutrients and energy composing the flesh of a grade 6 monster were of incredibly high density and quality.
So even though the amount was only a few dozen kilograms at most, the amount of energy obtained was beyond imagination.
We can easily mass-produce hundreds of grade 9 monsters, and it’s also possible to produce several additional facilities.
We’ve obtained such vast energy that we can create new species of monsters, which consume large amounts of nutrients and energy, more than twice.
[Trait ‘Digestive Fluid (C)’ has been acquired.]
[Trait ‘Thick Skin (C)’ has been acquired.]
[Trait ‘Energy Conductive Skeleton (C)’ has been acquired.]
[Biological Armament ‘Hunter Claw (C)’ has been acquired.]
On the other hand, the spoils obtained by analyzing the Owl Bear’s genes were also surprisingly impressive. They’re all grade C, and there are a total of 4 types: 3 traits and 1 biological armament.
First, let’s talk about the traits. Digestive Fluid (C) is a trait that affects the entire digestive system, especially strengthening the digestive fluids to the point where they can digest all sorts of things and turn them into nutrients.
At grade C, it can turn even raw wood into nutrients if eaten, and although the efficiency is terrible, it can digest and turn into nutrients even small rock fragments or soil.
Thick Skin (C) is an upgraded version of the Blade-proof Fur we obtained from the Beast Hound earlier. Unlike the fur which only works against blades, this is effective against almost all external attacks.
It’s a simple trait, but that also means it’s easy to manifest its effects. It’s so major that most high-grade beast-type monsters possess it.
And the last trait we obtained this time, Energy Conductive Skeleton (C), unlike the Thick Skin above, is a special trait that isn’t very efficient on its own.
Of course, it’s not without effect as it strengthens the skeleton just by itself, but its true value lies elsewhere. That is when there’s a separate psychic energy production organ—the so-called ‘Energy Core’.
The energy produced by the core is usually used for energy shields or absorbed into the body to enhance physical abilities. If there’s an Energy Conductive Skeleton, the efficiency of physical enhancement increases dramatically.
And the last spoil is Hunter Claw (C), an upgraded version of the biological armament Hunter Claw (E) that we already had.
While the low-grade Hunter Claw is simply at the level of a sturdy blade, the grade C Hunter Claw has surpassed the simple blade level.
The blade part has a thickness of nanometer units at the tip, and as it’s a ‘biological’ armament, even if it’s damaged or shattered, it can be recovered if sufficient nutrients are supplied, so that sharp blade part can be quickly restored even if damaged.
Although it might be inferior in destructive power to Chain Claw or Energy Claw of the same grade, I can say it’s the best close-combat weapon in terms of versatility, recovery ability, and cost-effectiveness.
And when all these are added together, they were excellent spoils that made me wonder how strong the original Owl Bear, which had all these traits, had become when it became reality.