Leonel stepped on the chest of a man whose body was only lacking hair in the upper portion of his torso and his face. He looked very much like an ape, and Leonel would have thought that he had run into an ape race of sorts, if not for the fact the entire party seemed to have different bodily oddities, not to mention gave off a foul stench reminiscent of the Oryx.
Some had spotted fur, some had twin tails, some were covered in scales...
They looked like a completely different set of people, but they also seemed to be of one mind.
That was when Leonel understood. These people were likely humans that followed a path of experimenting with their bodies through the use of beast blood and the like. As for how they were already together, it was likely that they had a Seeded Participant as well and started off as one before splitting off into several groups, and Leonel had just so happened to run into one of them.
Having a Seeded Participant was truly a great advantage. It allowed you to start with a huge leg up, and rather than ending up in a battle Royale like Leonel had from the start, you could be among allies and start looking for treasures immediately. This was obviously done on purpose. The Vast Bubble didn't want a bunch of stragglers; they wanted to maximize the chances of those that had been powerful enough to curtail their entire verse.
More likely than not, those that could come together to anoint a Seeded Participant also had the strongest and most unique paths to benefit from. After all, conquering an entire verse was not easy. Leonel speculated, then, that those with Seeded Participants would be the most powerful, while those without would be fighting for scraps.
There would be some exceptions. For example, verses with more than one powerful path that couldn't choose a Seeded Participant because they had too many powerful paths, but that would be rare for obvious reasons. Really, then, Leonel believed that this group he had run into just happened to be among the weaker members of this verse.
How many participants were there? From just a single verse, there should easily be billions. That number wasn't exaggerated at all. He had questioned the little woman about many things, and one of the things he learned was that the only requirement was being under a hundred years of age. Of course, there were some other caveats so that toddlers wouldn't be running around, but that was the main requirement.
There should be a few dozen Incomplete Worlds, each with billions of participants. The number that would be true elites among that number would be minimal.
"Hey."
Leonel pressed his foot down harder before realizing his bodily strength wasn't enough anymore. Instead, his body trembled and his Gravity Domain roared with life. The sudden change in weight was so great that the crackling of ribs echoed moments later.
A roar of pain came from the ape-like young man before they quickly became whimpers. All signs of resistance vanished from him. The people of the Beastman Dimensional Verse respected strength of the body far more, and they had strict hierarchies that were divided into Beta and Alpha. Usually, the ape-like young man would have lowered his head far more quickly, but Leonel had defeated them with speed, finesse, and trickery, that wasn't something he could respect.
But now, there was nothing to
"Good. Now we can talk."
The ape-like young man spit up a mouthful of blood, drowning as the pressure around him lessened.
"You're all in a group, so you should have a Seeded Participant. Lead me to them."
The ape-like young man's eyes opened wide when he heard this. There was a squirming shift of power within him, one that felt almost cancerous in nature.
Leonel frowned. 'Hm?'
Just now, he had felt the ape-like young man's willingness to comply, a benefit of his Dream Force. Although he couldn't sense his King's Might Lineage Factor any longer, his sharpness in reading people had increased thanks to whatever seal had been placed on him being undone.
However, just as quickly as that will had appeared, it was actually suppressed, almost like these beastmen were being forced to comply with certain rules.
'This is a compulsion built on the back of Soul Force? No, it's not Soul Force, it's actually Blood Force, but it seems to have a layer of Soul Force as well. Interesting. A Blood-Force-Soul-Force fusion. Is this just a Force I've never heard of? Or is it another unique Force like the Chaos Force that little woman mentioned?'
Leonel was interested. Theoretically, as a Life Grade Crafter, he could create ores that had never existed from scratch, and by proxy, that likewise necessitated the creation of new Forces as well.
Who was to say that these various verses didn't have unique Forces he had never come across before?
In this case, there seemed to be an Alpha and Beta system in this world. Those that were forced into submission would always be in submission unless they could become Alphas themselves.
Leonel began to question these Beta Beastmen, and he soon found that his conjectures were correct, but only in part.
There were layers in their Alpha and Beta system, not that he cared much to parse apart the differences. What was important was that they didn't have any ability to directly help him in betraying their Alphas.
In fact, it turned out that the only reason they could answer these questions at all was that they were questions that would help Leonel defeat the Seeded Participant, but not their direct alpha.
If Leonel had intentions of targeting their pack leader, or rather, if they believed that he had the intention of targeting whoever they were, they would be compelled to remain silent.
'I see. So their compulsion's strength is dependent on how close they are to the alpha in question. These few are so low ranked that they're quite a distance from the purview of the true Alpha that leads them all. What a fascinating system... But that's also why I saved this question for last.'
Leonel grinned. If he was correct, if there was anyone who would be born with a Vital Star Force Innate Node, it would be a group with powerful bodies.
It had to be remembered that Leonel's birth of a Scarlet Force Innate Node was seen as absolutely ridiculous because a human birthing an Elemental Innate Node made no sense at all. Humans weren't nearly in tune enough with nature to produce such a powerful Elemental Innate Node.
Clearly, Leonel and Amery were the exceptions to this rule. Now, Leonel had a verse of body experts right before him. If they didn't have what he needed, then who would?
Leonel's grin widened. "Is there anyone among you who has a Vital Star Force Innate Node?"
The eyes of the ape-like young man widened, and soon after, they began to bleed as though he was leaking tears of blood.
Seeing this, Leonel burst into laughter. He had finally found it. He would have his wife by his side soon enough. With a flash, Leonel vanished, but not before he stored the beastmen into his Segmented Cube.
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