Chapter 773: Howl’s Rank Up

A/N: Big thanks to Jeffrey_Cornuelle for the supergift—Magic Castle!

It really encourages me!

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Chapter 773: Howl’s Rank Up

Leo and Lily rested for the morning after Leo retrieved Shyra and Niri from the temple. It was then that Brant’s Leviastorm Eagle dropped off the Oreback Behemoth’s Beast Core.

And unsurprisingly, the Beast Core was huge.

It was an almost 25-meter-wide sphere covered in a dense metallic coating that rang with a crisp metallic sound when struck.

Howl immediately grew excited after sensing the Beast Core, humming gently and sent low vibrations through the ground.

"Calm down, big guy. You’ll get it soon," Leo said with a chuckle when Howl repeatedly sent happy intent through their mental link, as if urging him to feed it the Beast Core quickly.

Lily also came out shortly after, though her mood didn’t seem quite as good after suffering such a crushing defeat. She was so weak in comparison that Leo had needed to send her away, which seemed to have exposed him to some divine being.

That didn’t sit right with her.

Leo didn’t wait any longer and activated his talent, fusing the Core’s essence into Howl.

At once, a wave of energy surged through the surroundings. Immediately afterwards, the Beast Core began to sublimate, slowly dissolving into the soil and becoming one with Howl.

A small earthquake reverberated throughout the entire territory, and the very next moment, Leo received a system notification.

Ding!

Cragviel Colossus [Howl] (Pseudo → Low 4-star)

- Super Bloodline (51% → 62%)

- Blood Bond (74% → 79%)

Traits:

Endless Growth — Locked

Controlled Weight Flow — Unlocked

Natural Habitat Harmonisation — Locked

Titanic Endurance — Unlocked (40% → 90%)

+400% → +900% Stamina Boost

Geo-Resonance Sense — Unlocked

Ding!

New Trait Acquired!

[Metal Genesis]:

- The beast can absorb metallic and non-metallic elements from the soil through physical contact, refining metallic content to generate metal-based structures on its surface and pure metals within its core while converting non-metallic content into energy.

Metals range from common iron and copper to rare metals like Mithril and Adamantium, with rarer metals requiring significantly longer accumulation and refinement times.

[Note: As the beast grows in strength, even rarer metals can begin to form.]

Ding!

Stats Updated!

Vitality: 5955 + [5500 → 6000] + {50% boost (Optional)}

Strength: 5940 + [5500 → 6000] + {90% boost (Optional)}

Agility: 5925 + [5500 → 6000] + {240% boost (Optional)}

Stamina: 5850 + [5500 → 6000] + {490% → 990% boost (Optional)}

Intelligence: 10,000 + [5500 → 6000] + {50% boost (Optional)}

Mana: 1.1M + [605,000 → 660,000] {Int × 10 × Soul Rank No. (7 + 4)}

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But that wasn’t all!

After accumulating energy rapidly for more than a month thanks to the Titan Breath Lotus, Howl was finally ready to expand its size!

Not to mention, now that he was a Low 4-star beast—with his strength doubled compared to when he was a Pseudo 4-star with a stat cap of 1,000 units—Howl could allow his body to grow freely until he used up all his stored energy.

If Leo wanted to claim as much landmass as possible, then Howl would do his best!

Grrrrrrrrrr—!

"What?! Again?!" Aina jumped out of her bed.

"This time, the intensity is even higher!"

"Quick! Everybody, get out of your houses in case they collapse!"

The territory members began panicking the moment the ground started shaking. The people from Kendru were even more frightened because it was their first time experiencing such a powerful earthquake.

But Howl was a smart beast. He had already reinforced the floors and foundations of all the structures, letting them stay rigid while only their interiors shook, the one part he couldn’t control.

However, the elves and Niri helped with that using their vines.

Veronica’s laboratory and the Gnomes’ workplace received special attention, with every apparatus firmly held in place. Niri even personally looked after delicate equipment and liquids, using her vines as makeshift ’gimbal stabilisers’ to keep everything steady.

Then the expansion began.

The mound immediately started growing, slowly crushing any trees or obstacles along its borders.

Leo and Lily rose high into the sky to get a clear view as Howl’s original dimensions—800 meters of length, 550 meters of width, and nearly 400 meters of height—began to change.

They watched as the length crossed the 1-kilometre threshold, eventually reaching 1.5 kilometres, yet it still showed no signs of stopping!

In no time, it had firmly reached nearly 2 kilometres in length. The width? Nearly 1.4 kilometres.

As for the height? An astonishing 1 kilometre!

The plateau itself—where the territory’s core members had made their homes—had expanded by 300 meters in diameter.

Now, it had grown from its original 200-meter diameter to 500 meters, providing more than six times the original space!

Even the Mid Yellow-tier Titanbreath Lotus seized the opportunity to grow, rapidly expanding from its original 60-meter frame to nearly 200 meters!

However, as it grew, the treasure’s stored energy depleted rapidly.

Previously, after the Beast Tide during the Territory Bounty, it had acquired a measly 5% energy reserve toward its next advancement. But after all this time, with the territory members feeding it beast corpses, that reserve had risen to nearly 10%.

Yet, having increased its size so dramatically, the treasure had depleted all 10% of its stored energy.

It was now left with almost nothing.

But that would soon change when Leo moved to a more dangerous location. In fact, nowadays the elves barely encountered even 2-star beasts, and even those were only found because they had been hibernating in the snow the previous month.

The area had become so safe that even 1-star beasts were becoming a rare commodity these days.

On the ground, every other territory member was left stunned.

"W-what happened?!"

Some people who had come to buy things in the territory through the teleportation array were also in disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

Some had even recorded the phenomenon on their phones and were already posting the videos online under various titles.

Naturally, many had also captured Leo and Lily hovering in the sky, watching the scene unfold. They were already speculating that Leo was the one behind it.

"Holy crap! Can someone really be this strong?!"

"Damn! Don’t tell me Sir Leo will actually put all this area under his territory!" A person exclaimed after looking at the posted video.

"Quick! I am sure he will be recruiting many people to handle that much land,"

Another person immediately burst into laughter.

"Hehehe, let me just leave that territory by slapping that stupid sum quickly in the leader’s face! I am sure Sir Leo will value my Masonry talent more than that stupid dog of a leader!"

"Me too! Me too! Even if Sir Leo charges exorbitant taxes, I will still join him, because it’s almost guaranteed that he will be first in rankings and his newly expanded territory will have lots of work to do!"

"Yes! I have gone there once to trade for High 2-star Bison Milk, and much construction was still in progress!"

While people discussed their rather premature plans to join Leo’s territory, the person in question was smiling with satisfaction.

One of his dreams was slowly coming true.

Matter of fact, the ’mobile house’ dream was already fulfilled the moment he tamed Howl, but now, it had already become a ’Mobile Fortress’ with such a large area and now the Metal reinforcements too!