I couldn’t stop the grin curling across my lips.
This was broken. In the best way possible.
I wanted to test the mecha shift mode, but I didn’t want to do anything that could draw attention, so I left it for later once I was in a much more secure environment.
I mentally commanded the interface once more.
The holographic blue screen flashed open, unveiling before me.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
┗ Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther Form→ [ Swift-Horned Panther]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I saw that the cursor was now pointing at the ’Swift-Horned Panther’ while the ’Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther Form’ was greyed out.
Suddenly, an unnatural scene occurred.
The mechanical hum elicited a loud hum from the cybernetic Horned Panther’s chest as it stood rigid.
The eerie blue light within its core flickered and then pulsed erratically. Its segmented tail twitched, and the energy whip retracted into its base before dissolving into thin blue wisps of blue mist.
The metal plating covering its limbs shuddered before beginning to crack apart, releasing fait trails of steam.
The cybernetic alloy melted way like liquid metal, retreating beneath its fur as if being swallowed by its own body.
The sleek black servos in its joints collapsed inward, replaced by organic muscle and sinew.
Its once monomolecular claws dulled, shrinking back into curved obsidian talons. The Swift-Horned Panther’s razor-edged metallic horn trembled before splitting apart like a fractured stone.
Jagged fragments peeled away, revealing the rough natural texture of its original bone-line structure. Sparks of electricity flashed one last time before fizzling into nothingness.
Its pupils widened, pupils rounding, shedding away the cold gaze of a machine and filled with the wild, untamed gaze of a predator.
The eerie mechanical hissing of its breath softened, replaced by the deep, steady exhales of a living beast.
Within an instant, the traces of the cybernetic augmentation faded, and the Swift-Horned Panther had become flesh once more.
The Panther lifted its head to the sky and roared to the sky, letting out its emotions. Then, it lowered its head and fixed its gaze on me once more.
Unlike before, I stretched my hands forward to pet it. Its stripped-smooth fur and fleshing hide rubbed against my palm, allowing me to understand it had genuinely reverted back to its previous natural form.
The Swift-Horned Panther responded to my advances with a gentle purr. It pushed its head against my palm as I continued to rub it gently.
I wanted to know if any other change had transpired.
I called out with the intent of seeing its status.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Class: Swift-Horned Panther. ]
◆ Innate Talent: Swift Predator (C+)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Rank: Lesser Beast - First Rank (80%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Attributes: Wind (High), Lightning (Middle), Metal (Supreme)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
┗ Razor Claw Strike (Beginner - 70%)
┗ Horned Charge (Beginner - 65%)
┗ Phantom Step (Beginner - 40%)
┗ Wind Veil - Passive
┗ Lightning Reflexes - Passive
┗ Predator’s Instinct - Passive
┗ Thunder Dash - Active
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I frowned when I saw that its innate talent was a C+.
When I purchased the beast, they assured me that it had a B-ranked innate talent. The stronger a beast’s innate talent, the more powerful it was compared to another beast of the same race and rank.
Innate talent also affects the magical beast’s growth and skills.
As such, when selecting a magical beast to contract, Beastmasters aimed to choose the magical beast with formidable talent as it would ensure their ascent to becoming a formidable Beastmaster in the future.
Nonetheless, the Swift Horned Panther status sheet showed me what it had lost and those that were altered when it transformed into its normal form.
I attempted to see if Felix could communicate with me just as before.
An excited feeling surged through our bond.
He couldn’t speak. His level of intelligence was part of the features of the cybernetic lifeform.
I withdrew my hands and issued some commands, ordering him to roll over, jump up, crouch downwards and wag his tail.
He executed them perfectly.
"I should try putting you away in the meantime."
His body melted under my touch.
I sat down, crossed my legs, and focused inward.
Beastmasters were said to possess a ’Beastspace,’ a metaphysical domain where contracted beasts could rest, train, and evolve.
It usually took seven hours for a newly awakened Beastmaster to sense it.
I found mine in two minutes.
I felt so incredulous that I possessed such a terrifying aptitude for beast-taming. Yet, I had been practising to become a Magical Swordsman for as long as I could remember.
My heart ached, remembering that I had been wasting my talent away.
Fortunately, I had taken a leap of faith and favour had shone upon me.
A beautiful grassy plane with numerous metallic-like mountains on one side unfolded in my mind.
The sky was dark blue, and the sun rose from the east, illuminating the day and creating twilight.
Huh? What’s happening?
I focused on my Spirit Veins and nearly recoiled.
My Spirit Veins were glowing with microscopic metallic particles, rejuvenating and reinforcing them. They swam through my bloodstream like digital fish, reinforcing my body and adapting to my mana flow.
I took a closer look and swiftly realised what they were.
Was this the reason why I had barely felt any pain when awakening a second Path?
These nanites had protected me.
More than that... they might be why I could use the Cybernetic Evolution Talent at all.
Knowing that talents were also tied to the nature of one’s Spirit Veins, I realised that I shouldn’t be worried about this.
If my guess was correct, then with these nanites, I didn’t need to worry about burdening my Spirit Veins when utilising both Paths.
This would also aid me in eliminating suspicions from others to myself.
Because if the Zahara Clan found out about this...
They would likely dissect me on a surgery table.
I attempted to summon Felix into my Beastspace.
Within moments, Felix scattered into countless specks of light, vanishing into my body and entering my metaphysical beastspace.
Felix appeared in the centre of the grassy field.