"Why don't we send Asher a ticket?"
"Let him come watch together?"
This is the college league. A competition that best proves the strength of college Beast Tamers.
It's understandable that Asher wasn't interested in the preliminaries, open qualifiers, and elimination rounds.
But this is the finals.
Asher would definitely be very interested after hearing this, right?
———
Asher, who received the ticket stub and June's call at the same time: "..."
"Interested, yeah, I'm definitely interested, but I've been a bit busy lately, probably won't be able to go," Asher looked at June and Ivy on the other end of the video, with a very regretful expression.
A confused and puzzled expression appeared on June's face, ["Huh?"]
["This time of year, we're about to be on break, how are you suddenly so busy?"]
June couldn't understand.
Asher's expression also looked very troubled.
"Sigh, who says otherwise?", Asher let out a shallow sigh.
To really talk about this… Even Asher found it very headache-inducing.
———
[Yesterday]
Which was the second day after the mechanical little octopus was created, the National Research Institute of the Star City Beast Tamer Alliance suddenly contacted Asher.
Asher: "?"
"You guys want to see the little octopus?"
Through a screen projection conversation inside the research institute, Asher saw Professor Desmond and Professor Hubert on the other end, and even had the illusion that he was back in his time at the national research institute.
Of course. Because of the tools… ahem, researchers around him, Asher quickly came back to his senses.
Just an illusion.
But having had close contact with Professor Desmond and Professor Hubert, Asher knew.
If it's not something important, they absolutely wouldn't contact him casually.
The only thing Asher could think of was the mechanical little octopus.
Right away, Asher was about to call someone to go check on what the mechanical little octopus was doing.
See if it had some free time to come over.
Just then.
Professor Desmond spoke up, ["Although I'm quite interested in that mechanical-type little octopus, and the support ability you mentioned, I'm actually not contacting you today because of that."]
Asher: "?"
The question mark on Asher's face became even more obvious.
'Not because of that?'
'Then what is it for?'
At the same time, Asher noticed that Professor Hubert beside him didn't seem very happy either.
Asher furrowed his brows slightly.
Professor Desmond wearing a stern face doesn't necessarily mean it's very serious.
After all, Professor Desmond's unruly bad temper is well-known, it's not impossible for him to suddenly be annoyed.
In contrast, Professor Hubert's emotions are much more stable. Almost never gets angry.
But for Professor Hubert to suddenly show an angry or serious expression… that means things are more serious than expected.
["In the Forbidden Zone of Branlow City, we've detected a group led by a forming Tier 9 beast."]
As soon as Professor Hubert spoke, Asher was so shocked he leaned back.
'Tier 9?'
Just like previously mentioned, in the Forbidden Zones, it's rare to encounter extremely powerful beasts.
As long as it's within areas that humans can explore, once a beast beyond the acceptable power level is found, humans will try their best to eliminate it early, not giving these creatures a chance to grow and strengthen.
Because beasts need a very long time to grow.
This method is effective.
Most beasts that appear in beast tides come from mist zones that humans cannot explore.
Humans have no way to detect them in advance.
They can only face them once things erupt.
But anyway, the explored areas are relatively safe zones to some extent, no wild beasts can become powerful within them.
'So what's the deal with this newly born Tier 9 beast and its group?'
"If I remember correctly… a Tier 9 wild beast with a group, its group's strength is also generally very strong?"
"Among them, the beasts are generally Tier 8, with the weakest being seventh-tier."
"There might even be other Tier 9 beasts under its command?"
As he spoke, Asher's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
'Just hearing about this makes it sound really bad.'
Tier 9. Wild. Beast. Any two of these words put together already sound bad enough.
Let alone…
["Yes,"] Professor Hubert let out a long sigh at Asher.
The staff gathered around Asher also all fell silent, not daring to speak.
This matter was far more serious than they had imagined.
So…
"What exactly is the situation?"
Very quickly, Asher calmed down his emotions.
He looked seriously at Professor Desmond and Professor Hubert on the screen, "Logically speaking, you shouldn't be contacting me first."
"A Tier 9 wild beast, you can go find Tier 8 Beast Tamers."
As he spoke, several names flashed through Asher's mind.
All of them were Tier 8 Beast Tamers he'd interacted with before.
There are very few Tier 9 Beast Tamers in the country, extremely few.
But there are a certain number of Tier 8 Beast Tamers, and many of them are strong.
One might not be able to handle this wild Tier 9 beast and its group.
But what about two or three?
If really necessary, just call up all those Ace Beast Tamers?
There has to be a solution.
Asher thought left and right, 'This matter really shouldn't fall on me.'
"Although I want to become a powerful Beast Tamer, and I believe that given another ten or twenty years, I can contribute my part to matters like this—", Asher locked eyes with Professor Desmond and Professor Hubert on the other end of the screen.
His eyes were full of confidence in his own strength.
Ten years, tier 8 Beast Tamer?
He could do it
Asher had both confidence and that kind of premonition.
Professor Desmond and Professor Hubert both revealed briefly shocked expressions.
They were genuinely shocked by Asher's statement.
'Ten years?'
'Tier 8 Beast Tamer?'
'Not joking?'
'…Alright, if it's Asher, maybe it's actually possible.'
Having spent time with Asher, they all knew he wasn't someone who liked to boast.
And Asher had already shown his talent in Beast Tamery.
In battle, in nurturing, in training, Asher had talent.
The only thing Asher lacked was time.
["Ahem…"], Professor Hubert was the first to react.
He gestured with his hand to Asher, trying to calm himself down emotionally, ["Let's not talk about that yet, I'll explain the situation to you."]
["This time…"], Professor Hubert furrowed his brows lightly, sighed, and from head to toe exuded a sense of fatigue,
["The situation is rather troublesome, and quite complicated."]
Professor Hubert looked up at Asher, ["Do you know what kind of beasts this Tier 9 creature and its group are mainly made of?"]
Asher was taken aback.
Branlow City.
He had only heard about it. It's relatively close to Star City.
But as for what kind of beasts are most common in the Forbidden Zone of Branlow City… Asher really didn't know.
["Golden Silk Worms."]
Asher: "?"
Asher: "!"
Asher's brows also furrowed.
"Got it," Asher raised a hand to his forehead, showing an expression that was hard to say whether it was disgust or something else.
Anyway… it's complicated, very complicated.
Golden Silk Worms.
Bug-type beasts.
Among them, a very small portion might be bug + fire type beasts.
They look… just like bugs.
Similar in some aspects to honey bugs.
For example, they look quite pretty.
Not as scary as ordinary bugs.
Slender bodies, interwoven gold and white colors.
Apart from the overly soft feel, some people who like snake pets actually really like golden silk worms.
But unlike honey bugs, which have had no discovered evolution route and are non-harmful for hundreds of years, golden silk worms' reproductive ability is horrifying in certain aspects.
Yes, truly horrifying.
Golden silk worms like to reproduce in moderately warm environments.
And their favorite temperature is close to body temperature…
When traveling in special areas in the wild.
The most taboo thing is getting a wound.
Golden silk worms will be attracted.
Once entangled by golden silk worms, starting from the wound, it's highly likely they will use it to lay eggs and reproduce…
What's most terrifying is, bug-type beasts can reproduce in extremely large numbers at once.
Thousands upon thousands.
If a Beast Tamer or ordinary person is accidentally caught by golden silk worms, even if they go to the pet center immediately for treatment, completely removing all the eggs inside the body still takes a very long time.
During that time.
There's a chance you'll encounter horrifying scenes of golden silk worms hatching and crawling out from inside the body before removal is complete.
That kind of thing… just imagining it makes your scalp tingle.
The problem is, so far, there are no very effective medicines or solutions on the market that specifically target golden silk worms.
Of course.
Golden silk worms don't have to rely on human body temperature to reproduce.
Other warm-blooded beast corpses, or regular animal corpses with similar temperature…
As long as it's a suitable environment for reproduction, they'll try them all.
They won't miss a single opportunity.
"A Tier 9 golden silk worm… tsk," Asher sucked in a breath of cold air.
Just thinking about how difficult these beasts are to deal with, and now there's a Tier 9 one.
That's a killer situation.
The insectoids from those fantasy works were probably based on golden silk worms, right?
In that regard, golden silk worms really are quite talented.
Several gasps of breath were heard from around Asher as well.
It was clear.
Everyone was terrified of golden silk worms.
This really is a beast that defies description.
Asher looked up and made eye contact with Professor Hubert and Professor Desmond, "You're telling me this because you want something from me, right?"
Asher didn't believe that at a time like this, these two pet research professors, who could be considered top experts, would contact him without a reason.
["Yes,"] Professor Hubert nodded. He let out a soft sigh, and his expression looked somewhat bleak and grim.
["Actually, we received this information half a month ago."]
["In the past half month, we've been researching golden silk worms."]
Asher was stunned.
'Researching golden silk worms?'
'Why study those things?'
["We wanted to see if we could discover a new evolutionary route for golden silk worms through research, and thereby uncover their flaws and problems."]
["Then develop targeted countermeasures against golden silk worms."]
Asher perked up with a bit of interest.
'Hm?'
'Sounds kinda interesting.'
["But we didn't manage to discover anything,"] Professor Hubert sighed again.
Professor Desmond folded his arms and turned his head, refusing to speak.
Now Asher understood why Professor Desmond's face looked so dark.
They still hadn't made any breakthroughs.
Felt ashamed.
Professor Desmond seemed to notice Asher's glance and coldly tossed out a few words, ["Too little time."]
His tone carried a trace of suppressed frustration.
Of course it was too little time.
Half a month, only half a month.
At most they had just barely figured out the basics of golden silk worms, wanting to develop specialized, targeted responses? How could it be that easy.
["Just like Professor Desmond said, not enough time. We really are… powerless,"] When Professor Hubert said those four words, his voice was filled with unwillingness.
Admitting powerlessness is something that takes courage, too.
Seeing Professor Hubert's dejected expression, Asher sincerely comforted him, "This isn't your fault."
"No one expected an accident like this."
The difficulty of dealing with a Tier 9 golden silk worm was far beyond imagination.
Although judging by what Professors Desmond and Hubert said, the golden silk worms hadn't yet launched a new wave of beast tides against Branlow City and nearby cities, but obviously, they were already on the move.
They had to be ready to respond at any time.
["Headquarters has dispatched Tier 8 ace Beast Tamers, but you know, nothing's guaranteed with this kind of thing."]
Professor Hubert continued.
Asher nodded.
Got it.
Battles at the Tier 9 level aren't as easy as imagined. Especially when fighting a Tier 9 Golden Silkworm.
On the human Beast Tamer's side, many factors need to be considered, even to the point of not daring to let oneself or one's beast get injured.
Otherwise, in the next second, don't even talk about eliminating the Tier 9 Golden Silkworm.
You yourself might end up contributing to the next round of reproduction for the Tier 9 Golden Silkworm.
["Professor Asher, may I invite you to help us conduct research together?",] Professor Hubert finally spoke to Asher of the purpose for which he initially contacted him.
To help, to develop, in a targeted way, weapons with characteristics capable of countering Golden Silkworms.
Asher rubbed his forehead.
'This...'
Asher looked at the other end of the screen, at Professors Hubert and Desmond, who were seriously looking at him, yet had not rushed him, placing the decision in his hands.
Asher let out a long sigh.
'What else can I do?'
"Alright," Asher nodded in agreement.
"But I can't guaran—"
Asher's words of precaution were not finished before Professor Hubert interrupted him.
Seeing that Asher had truly agreed, a faint smile appeared on Professor Hubert's face.
["That's enough, that's enough, this is enough,"] Professor Hubert said from the bottom of his heart.
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