Absolute Beast Dominion

Chapter 444: Training

03:38, 1 March 501 AA

Ding!

>Active skill acquired!

>[Spiritual Sense] – Low 1%

Leo shot his eyes open and immediately felt the freezing water crashing onto his head. He was sitting beneath a tall waterfall that poured down from the cliff behind him. Along the edges above, the water had partially frozen solid, making it clear that winter had arrived and the water was ice-cold.

Yet even in that freezing environment, Leo sat shirtless beneath the torrent crashing onto him. The pressure of the water was so immense that it could have severely injured 3-star individuals and potentially even killed them, but for Leo, it was just the right amount of force he could handle according to Gunther, after the professor conducted countless experiments to test his body’s durability.

For those durability tests, Leo had been beaten to a pulp by Gunther so many times that even he had lost count. Not to mention, since Gunther used movement soul techniques, his movements were completely imperceptible to Leo. Only after nearly 2 days of straight beating without food or water did Gunther finally say—

“Your body is quite durable for what your strength level suggests… I would say Peak 4-star.” Gunther had nodded before walking away, leaving Leo dazed and lying on the ground for several hours until his regeneration trait slowly kicked in and healed him. But even after that—

“You have quite an astounding regeneration skill… or rather trait, if I say so myself. The kind beasts possess that heals you even when you are not actively trying.”

“Are you unconsciously using a healing soul technique that you created, or is it related to your talent that lets you use your beasts’ traits? Because I can see that little Dryad of yours possessing this trait as well… hmmm.” Apparently, Gunther had still been observing Leo in his battered state, and only after muttering this did he finally walk off.

Vice Principal Tarun was indeed right… This boy is mysterious.

Gunther had thought before planning Leo’s training schedule.

But for Leo, things were different.

“Arghhhh… Fuck!” he cursed, unable to lift his body before collapsing back onto the ground.

“Never knew this light green-haired, calm-looking old professor would be so fierce,” he muttered, trying to use [Nature’s Heal], only for the skill to be cancelled by some strange force.

“Urrghh… How much does this old geezer want me to suffer? Even blocking my healing skill.” Leo couldn’t help but think Gunther was venting because he had come so late for his training with him.

Gunther had prohibited Leo from using healing skills by using a certain soul technique that blocked their usage—effective only against lower-ranked individuals and, in some cases, even those of equal strength if the mastery was high enough.

But later, Gunther realised Leo was still able to heal and concluded it must be a trait… or another natural healing talent like Kaelion’s, or perhaps simply a trait inherited from one of his tamed beasts. He had once seen a case where a tamer could copy one trait from each beast in exchange for not being able to gain skills from them.

Leo had come to Gunther on the 15th, just after assigning the land plots to the Gnomes and making Sylrael the temporary-in-command, because even Lily, Miho, and Kaelion were leaving for their own training under their respective professors. Ever since that day, no one had been allowed to return to the territory until they learned the first basic skill being taught.

For Leo, it was the skill [Spiritual Sense].

[Spiritual Sense]

– A Soul Technique that expands the user’s perception beyond physical limits and does not rely on the fundamental senses, allowing them to sense souls, emotions, mana, hostility, and spiritual disturbances within a wide area. It grants near-instinctive awareness of surrounding presences, making concealment and surprise attacks far less effective. At higher mastery, it can even sense the thoughts of lower life forms.

According to Gunther, it was a basic survival skill that needed to be trained to such a degree that it became a passive ability, active at all times without conscious effort. Leo also came to know that the sensation people felt when they realised someone was watching them was also because of this skill.

This meant that, until now, he had already come across a handful of people who possessed this skill, including Katherine, Brant, Kaelion, and Uraan.

This skill also allowed a person to sense others’ emotions and thoughts. No wonder Katherine and Brant could tell what was going on inside Leo’s head as if they were reading the back of his mind.

After that, Gunther gave him a general explanation of soul functions and their usage in soul skills and techniques.

Apparently, the soul was the most important factor in soul techniques and skills… which was evident from the name itself.

So, for a person to learn soul techniques, at minimum, he or she needed to possess a Rare Soul, and there was also a percentage boost to a technique’s range or power output depending on soul rank.

So, for a Rare Soul, ranked 3, there would be a 30% boost.

A Super Rare Soul, ranked 4, could provide a 40% boost.

An Epic Soul, ranked 5, could provide a 50% boost, and so on.

When Leo asked why a Common Soul ranked 1 could not provide a 10% boost, or an Uncommon Soul ranked 2 could not provide a 20% boost, the answer he got was simple. Research on souls was still extremely lacking, and no techniques had yet been developed that could be properly handled by Common or Uncommon Souls. In actuality, they could indeed use soul techniques, but there simply existed no proper low-level techniques designed for them.

So, in the case of Spiritual Sense, 1 unit in the Intelligence stat equalled 1 meter of sensing distance. For Leo’s 5320 Intelligence, it meant a staggering 5320 meters of perception range. But to achieve that full potential, he needed to master the skill first.

And that 5320 meters would only have been the maximum limit if not for his soul. Taking his Super Rare Soul into account, there would be a 40% boost to that distance, meaning the range would become 7448 meters.

Taking speed as another example, his attribute points would also be enhanced by a certain percentage according to soul rank. Since he had 3310 points in Agility, it would become 4634 after the 40% boost.

But there was another factor benefiting him—Shyra’s trait, which now boosted his Agility attribute by 80%.

So, his 3310 Agility became 5958 after the 80% [Feline Agility] boost, and then that value would be further enhanced by another 40%, becoming 8341 units.

But he had another secret that Gunther and the others did not know.

His other soul was Mythical, ranked 7.

—

A/N: The next Chapter will be published soon. I couldn’t get the time to complete it on time.