Chapter 202: Predator Instincts
Priam spent quite a while explaining Jade Cores to Mirra in detail. The Ether in the room flowed thick and pure; for Mirra, all it would take was a little effort to condense whichever core she wanted.
However, she had just been born and knew nothing about the world or even herself. For any newborn, choosing a class that early would be an impossible task.
Luckily, she wasn’t a humanoid little girl. As a Primordial Chaos Beast, she could instinctively sense and manipulate the energies she had the greatest affinity for right after birth.
That alone was already a good indication of what suited her best.
"Let’s see..." Priam smiled, waving his hand as he took several herbs out of his inventory.
Using the Nexus Seed, he extracted and separated the pure energy from each one, forming small colorful spheres for Mirra to test.
Mirra’s amber eyes sparkled with fascination as she watched the little balls of light floating in front of her like tiny glowing toys. She reached out with her little paws, trying to interact with each one.
Fire, Lightning, Wind, Water, Yin, Yang... no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t interact with any of them.
Her entire body glowed. She could definitely activate her bloodline, but she had no natural affinity with any of those energies.
Only when she touched the Earth element sphere did she get a slight reaction. Even then, it clearly wasn’t her true calling.
Priam tried other energies: Life Energy, Mental Power, Soul Energy...
Still nothing.
"Hmm... If you don’t have a direct talent for those elements, then maybe becoming a Catalyst Mage or a Physical Mage is the way to go..." Priam scratched his chin thoughtfully before his eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait... how could I forget about that?"
With a gentle gesture, he burned a tiny fraction of Ether to generate pure Nature Energy.
A small emerald-green sphere, vibrant and pulsing with life, appeared floating in the air.
"Meow!"
Mirra gave an excited little hop, her eyes shining brightly as she leaped toward the green sphere.
The moment her paw touched the light, the energy flowed straight into her body and was completely absorbed.
"Oh?!" Priam smiled, impressed. "You’re good with Nature Energy... it doesn’t have much direct offensive power, but at higher levels it provides incredibly powerful defense and support. What do you think about becoming a Holy Mage?"
"Meow! Meow!"
She meowed excitedly, wholeheartedly agreeing with the idea.
Priam gently patted her on the head. "If you’re sure about it, then go ahead. The sooner you become a Mage, the sooner you’ll be able to leave the room and go exploring."
The little girl squirmed excitedly, clearly thrilled.
Without wasting any time, she curled up comfortably in Priam’s lap like a little ball of yarn. She closed her eyes and entered a deep meditative state, focusing every bit of her attention on forming her Jade Core.
Priam smiled when he saw how dedicated she was. That would keep her busy for quite a while.
Taking advantage of the quiet moment, he finally turned his attention back to the system.
[Total: 21,000 Germination Points]
He had accumulated a large number of points and had been saving them until he could decide how to spend them wisely.
With so many things to study and practice at the same time, he had barely had the time to fully absorb even half of the knowledge he’d acquired earlier. Waiting had definitely been the right choice.
But now that everything had settled down, the timing was perfect.
[5,000 GP] [EX Training Booster]
[2,000 GP] [Complete Ancient Art of One of Your Bloodlines]
[6,000 GP] [Syntheses] [Level: Intermediate]
[Total: -13,000 GP]
[Accept? Yes / No]
Priam didn’t hesitate. With that purchase, he’d be acquiring practically everything the system currently had to offer, leaving only repeatable options like the Training Booster or other Ancient Arts.
"I need to rank up soon to unlock new stuff... or at least, I hope that’s how it works," he muttered as he confirmed the purchase.
A confirmation window appeared, asking him which Ancient Art he wanted to unlock. Since the only remaining bloodline was the Eyes of the Wind, he selected it without hesitation.
That race specialized in manipulating air, so obtaining the complete knowledge of its Ancient Art would take his mastery to an entirely new level.
The moment he confirmed, a massive torrent of information flooded his consciousness.
At the same time, hundreds of new Intermediate-level Synthesis formulas, along with their unusual effects, were engraved into his memory.
[Activate EX Training Booster?]
[Yes / No]
Priam took a deep breath, eager to find out what that "EX" suffix actually meant.
He carefully turned toward Mirra and gently picked her up. Then he lay down on the bed and placed her comfortably on his chest.
Finally, he confirmed the activation.
In that very millisecond, an overwhelming wave of drowsiness struck Priam. His eyelids instantly grew heavy, and his consciousness faded away.
...
"!"
Priam woke up, but he didn’t see the ceiling of his room. Instead, he found himself in a plane of absolute darkness.
He was startled, confused.
He couldn’t feel his hands, his legs, or even his Ether... nothing!
[Welcome to the Timeless Space.]
[Your soul has been brought inside the Nexus Seed, and the fabric of space-time within has been compressed and altered.]
Priam read the green window in front of him in surprise. He was nothing more than a soul!
[Whenever you use the EX Training Booster, your consciousness will remain in this place for an extended period.]
[Current available time: 24 days.]
"What?!"
Priam was stunned.
[Note: Time in the real world will not pass even a single second while you remain in this space.]
[The regular Training Booster accelerates the development of your physical body during a night’s sleep, equivalent to several days of intense training. That benefit remains active. Upon waking, your body will have developed the equivalent of: 60 days.]
[With the EX Training Booster, you are granted the opportunity for complete training. Within the Timeless Space, your soul can study, reflect, and sharpen your mind, while also mastering all the theoretical knowledge you’ve acquired.]
Priam took a deep breath, feeling warmth ignite within his soul. If he’d had a physical body there, his heart would’ve been pounding in his chest.
His biggest bottleneck lately had been his lack of time.
He kept buying all kinds of knowledge, but there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to absorb everything.
He barely even had time to train his body regularly!
But now... whenever he piled up a mountain of things to learn and needed time, all he had to do was activate the EX Training Booster.
On its very first use alone, he had a full twenty-four days—without needing to eat, sleep, or take breaks—dedicated entirely to studying and understanding theory. All of it without losing even a single second in the real world!
And when he woke up, his body would still reap the physical benefits equivalent to two months of training.
Those points had been incredibly well spent.
***
Seven days passed peacefully.
Inside his room, Priam remained focused on absorbing Ether and increasing his level.
Suddenly, a tiny reddish figure passed straight through the wall as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Mirra now loved playing with Flaris, Lumiere, and Shione whenever they had some free time.
Priam had allowed her to roam freely, but with one strict rule: she could only stay within that central mountain.
Since she could enter her spiritual form, the little girl passed through doors and walls like a ghost whenever she wanted to visit everyone. When the three of them were busy and couldn’t pay attention to her, she’d return to Priam’s room and curl up beside him to absorb Ether as well.
At the moment, she was already a level 2 Holy Mage Acolyte. Her frightening talent, combined with the Ether-saturated environment, allowed her to grow at an astonishing pace.
Mirra shifted back into her physical form and gave a graceful little hop, landing directly in Priam’s lap.
Seeing the adorable little thing asking for affection, Priam stopped everything, setting aside all his worries to hold her in his arms.
Over the past few days, he’d done plenty of research on the development of Primordial Chaos Beasts.
To help her grow strong and healthy, he’d been buying Beast meat in the form of pheasants—birds whose bodies were naturally packed with concentrated energy.
The sect’s Physical Mages bought this meat because it helped with physical development. It was truly powerful and extremely useful.
Even though it was a body created through metamorphosis, Mirra possessed a sort of refined stomach capable of processing and converting the energy from food perfectly.
And because she was a Primordial Chaos Beast, proper nutrition produced immediate results. Simply eating highly energetic food caused Mirra’s true body to become visibly sturdier, expanding its capabilities.
As her true body grew stronger, her Metamorphosis body also gained more room to develop. So Mirra was growing rapidly in every sense.
Priam gently scratched behind her little ears before taking another portion of fresh meat out of his inventory.
Mirra’s eyes lit up instantly, and she sprang to her feet.
Whenever she saw food, the little predator inside her came out in the funniest way possible. She pounced on the pheasant meat with wild ferocity, sinking her teeth into it and trying to swallow the whole thing in one bite.
But the little glutton was so overenthusiastic that she bit off far too much! The chunk of meat was too large for her tiny throat, and she immediately started choking.
"Damn!"
Priam was startled. Without hesitating, he guided a gentle stream of Ether to safely help push the food down her throat.
Mirra let out a relieved purr and coughed lightly. Apparently having learned her lesson instinctively, she began tearing the meat into much smaller pieces before carefully chewing.
Even after devouring half an entire pheasant—which seemed impossible considering her size—Mirra’s little belly only puffed out a tiny bit.
Satisfied and with a full belly, she lazily crawled over to Priam, curling up against his lap for a nice, cozy nap.
Only after waking up from her nap would she finish eating the rest.
Priam smiled warmly. No matter how fierce that little cub’s instincts were, she was the sweetest, most affectionate, and most obedient little creature in the world whenever she was with him. She loved sleeping in his arms and would even lick his face from time to time.
Sometimes she acted like a dog, sometimes like a cat, and other times like an uncontrollable beast. In the end, she was something close to a Deer using a metamorphosis that didn’t quite suit her.
When Priam introduced her to the others inside the central mountain, Mirra displayed intelligence worthy of her origins. She immediately understood that those people were friends and naturally played with all of them.
On the other hand, Flaris, Shione, and Lumiere had nearly suffered heart attacks when Priam told them where the little girl had come from.
They remembered the events shortly after the Ylisse Clan tragedy. The shocking news was that the greatest treasure of the Primordial Chaos Beast race had been stolen.
Priam had simply stolen their divine daughter!
Not only that, he’d turned her into his partner through an unbreakable soul contract!
In the original timeline, fifty years from now, that young girl would’ve been born, and the three of them would’ve become her slaves. But Priam had completely overturned everything in an unbelievable way.
...
Several hours later, Priam received a message from Dandara. She had brought the last Beast race to speak with him, since their demand in exchange for the potion materials wasn’t simple.
He left the central cave carrying Mirra comfortably in his arms.
Outside, Dandara was waiting for him alongside two beasts that resembled bulls.
The instant Mirra laid eyes on those ordinary beasts, it was as if a switch had flipped in her mind.
Her predatory instincts took over. She slipped free from Priam’s embrace with astonishing agility and leaped toward the bulls, practically drooling!
"Mirra!"
Priam was startled and grabbed her out of midair at the very last millisecond. If he’d been even one second slower, the little girl would’ve gone straight for those beasts’ throats.
As adorable as she was, she was still a Primordial Chaos Beast. And since she was in a period of rapid growth and constantly needed energy, the sight of ordinary Beasts caused her hunting instincts to explode wildly.
"Brat, no causing trouble!" Priam said in a stern voice, wearing a strict, angry expression. "You can’t go attacking anyone or anything without my permission, much less eat something I didn’t give you! Got it?!"
Hearing Priam’s harsh tone, the little girl froze instantly.
Her wild posture wilted, and she became completely submissive. Curling herself up, she lowered her big amber eyes to the ground, not daring to look at him, clearly realizing she’d done something wrong.
Priam let out a heavy sigh, maintaining the attitude of a strict guardian.
Mirra was like a small child. If he didn’t firmly teach her right from wrong now, she’d become impossible to control in the future.
Mirra peeked at him from the corner of her eye and saw that Priam’s face was still stern. Her little heart tightened, and she slowly lifted her head before rubbing her soft muzzle against Priam’s chin, apologizing in her own clingy little way.
"..."
Priam almost laughed, but held himself back with all his strength. If he gave in too easily, she’d get spoiled and repeat the same mistake. She needed to understand how serious this lesson was.
Mirra kept rubbing against him for a long time. Seeing that Priam’s expression was still stern and unpleasant, she lowered her little ears and... started crying for real!
Priam blinked in disbelief. He looked closer and confirmed it—those were real tears streaming down her little eyes! Mirra’s tiny nose even sniffled, letting out a small sneeze between quiet sobs.
"Alright... but don’t act like that again next time. Don’t let your instincts act before your reason, understand?" Priam said with a bittersweet smile as he gently stroked her head.
Understanding his words, Mirra seemed to calm down and once again rubbed her head affectionately against his chin.
Throughout the whole scene, Dandara watched without blinking.
The current Priam... he really did look like a father raising his daughter, didn’t he?