After finishing their conversation at the tavern, the two got to work immediately. First, Courage started from scratch, making sure Wally mastered all the fundamentals of the profession. He wanted him to fully master the basics before moving on to anything else. This included the methodology behind beast cultivation and mastering the rudimentary skills and principles of beast control and combat.
Courage drew from the teachings left by his father when guiding Wally. Thanks to that, they were able to make a decent amount of progress in several days of training, granting Wally the bare minimum of practical combat skills and understanding of beast cultivation. The notebooks even had a little insight about beast cultivation related to the type of Wally's totem beast , which—though not extensive—granted the young man an idea and a sense of direction when it came to cultivating his beast. This was certainly invaluable for someone like Wally.
And speaking about his beast, Wally had actually shared the complete details about his beast with Courage—which might not seem surprising considering their new cooperation. However, you must understand that in the world of beast catalysers, information about one's totem beast has always been considered sensitive for a myriad of reasons. Secrecy when it came to one's totem was actually a common practice and a norm in this world.
Totem beasts are like credit cards: unless you're using them, you shouldn't show them all willy-nilly. That is something everyone understood. After all, who would show off all their strengths and weaknesses? So, someone willingly sharing everything about their totem beast with someone else was considered the ultimate sign of trust.
A trust Courage appreciated and resolved not to betray. Now, looking at the information Wally shared, his interface displayed the following:
First, a holographic projection of the beast:
Wally's totem beast was a large octopus, big enough to strangle a full-grown man. The beast's skin was bright orange in color with several spots of darker or paler color dotting its body. The beast had small slit eyes that, although dark, held an uncanny spark of intelligence shining within them.
Status:
Polynexus Cephalopod (Level 1)
· Grade: Mid
· Growth: 19%
· Type: Corpus
· Traits: [Root Perception]
· Abilities: [Polymorph]
Beast Description: A beast with a great capacity for change, born to fit its master's nascent imagination.
Trait Description:
· [Root Perception]: This beast has an intelligent and crafty mind that allows it to learn and understand things on a fundamental level.
Ability Description:
· [Polymorph]: This ability allows its holder to change the form and even the properties of its body at will. (The user would need to have a level of understanding of the thing it changes into in order to do so.)
Courage analyzed as he read. First, the grade: Mid. This was not really surprising, as most people's totem grade averages around low to mid, but at least Wally got the better of the two. Then there was the growth level, which was pretty low for someone who had spent as much time as a beast catalyser as Wally had. But it also wasn't surprising, considering Wally's previous circumstances; Courage had kind expected that already. The type was Corpus, which was fitting, looking at its traits and abilities.
For traits and abilities, this beast only had one each. Wally shamefully admitted that he couldn't get any new ability or trait catalysts for his beast, so it was stuck with only its inborn ability and trait ever since he awakened it. Courage understood and didn't blame him.
This beast's core ability was [Polymorph], and as its description said, it allowed Wally's beast to change the shape and even the properties of its body—something Courage witnessed first-hand when he was training Wally.
In a combat situation, Wally's octopus could elongate its tentacles to attack. It could also change the properties and even the texture of its body to make its attacks stronger. It would make the tentacles metal-like and even add sharp serrations to them to increase the damage it would inflict, basically turning them into agile, living spears. And that was only the tip of what it could do.
The octopus could change the properties of its body to fit the situation: about to be hit with something sharp? Become rock solid to resist it. Blunt force? Make your body elastic. Cold? Turn your skin into fur. Heat? Cover your body with heat-resistant scales.
And of course, Wally's beast was great at disguise. As an octopus, it was already skilled at matching its surroundings by changing its color and texture. But throw [Polymorph] into the mix, and that natural talent gets launched to new heights.
The versatility that Wally's beast had with a single ability was nothing short of astonishing. Even Courage couldn't help but be impressed by this ability. But as always, no ability was absolute, and even the Polynexus Cephalopod's [Polymorph] had some limitations.
[Polymorph] can let it change shape, but the transformation had some physical limitations as the ability doesn't change the beast's mass. So the octopus can't stretch or compress its body infinitely so it can't become too big or too small. Also, there's no changing its weight unless it changes the properties of its body to a lighter or heavier material, but that too has some limitations. The octopus can change the properties of its body to match other things, but it won't be as good as the real thing. So if it made its body metallic, it would become harder but not as hard as real metal. Or if it made it copper-like, it would become conductive but not as conductive as the real thing. And finally, there is the condition that the beast would need a level of understanding of the things it transforms into in order to do so. It can't change into anything it has never encountered before or didn't understand.
But that's where its trait comes into play. Its trait, [Root Perception], ensured the octopus could make the most out of [Polymorph]. With it, this beast could learn about new properties easily and understand them down to a structural level, ensuring it could keep adding more transformation options to its arsenal. [Root Perception] complemented [Polymorph] really well.
And that summarized Wally's totem beast. For a mid-grade beast, it had a lot of potential, Courage thought. He was even curious to see what it would be able to do in the future once it could grow properly.
Courage also shared details about his beast with Wally so he too could understand what it could do, and to show Wally that he trusted him in return. This mutual act of trust deepened the bond between the two.
After getting familiar with each other and developing their cooperation more in a controlled environment, the two were in the wilds the next day on their first hunt together as a team.
Courage set several goals for them: first, to improve their teamwork as a team, and to hunt enough so Wally could pay his dues for this month and still have enough capital to pour into his beast.
Now, some of you might be wondering: couldn't Courage pay off Wally's debt in full and then help him develop comfortably from there? The answer is yes—Courage had enough cash to pay Wally's debt several times over. But Courage didn't hold out on Wally because he was cheap; he had other reasons for that .
The first of which was motivation. Right now, Wally was being driven by his goal to escape his debt and grow stronger. People work better when they have a clear goal ahead of them. So if Courage solved Wally's debt immediately, he would be removing the main driving force pushing Wally, which in turn could slow down his development. Besides, if he let Wally overcome his difficulties on his own and truly earn his growth and triumph, it would be very healing and nurturing to his psyche. Even if Wally was now away from Jack, Courage bet that he still had a psychological shadow of him in his mind. If he wanted to be truly free of him, he would also need to grow as a person—grow into someone who could break this psychological shadow. Only then would he be truly free. It might be a bit cruel to put Wally through difficulties intentionally, but it was for his own good.
The other reason was a bit more personal. See, as of right now, Courage had around 113,000 credits. This was the money he made on his own, not counting the remaining portion of his father's inheritance that he kept as emergency funds. Add that, and Courage would have a net worth of 1,113,000 credits.
That wasn't the highest Courage's funds had reached; it had actually been over a million and a half at one point. But Courage never held back on spending on his beast these last couple of months, so the number had always been rising and falling, settling at this number most recently.
Now, the money Courage had was enough to pay all of Wally's 220,000 credit debt—however, not without digging into his emergency savings, which Courage did not want to . This was because his beast was bound to reach Level 2, and while that meant greater opportunities in the future, it also definitely meant greater expenses as well. Cultivating beasts doesn't just get harder but also more expensive as they increase in level, and so Courage didn't want to enter Level 2 with his funds lacking.
Add to that, Courage still had regular expenses too. And finally, there was the silver vice problem. Hunting those beasts was always his primary source of wealth. It was thanks to them that Courage could afford to develop his beast faster than most. But now, thanks to it being their mating season and Courage not wanting to damage their population, this source of income was currently unviable. Meaning Courage wouldn't be able to recover his funds as fast as he could before—not in the foreseeable future.
And that was why Courage decided not to pay off Wally's debt. He wanted to help him, but he still had his own development to worry about.
The two traveled west from where the bastion was located. After journeying through the forests and woods that surrounded the bastion, they had traveled for several hours—long enough for them to actually leave the thick cover of the woods. This usually isn't easy, as that forest stretched far longer than the distance they had crossed, but the woods spaned the shortest in the direction of the west, where they were headed.
After a while longer, they reached their destination a place called the Flatland Valley. The Flatland Valley was a massive valley, large enough to fit a city inside of it, and at its bottom, it held a large stretch of flatlands. That is where it got its name from.
The environment inside that valley was like that of a dry land—empty but not desolate, as it had a sparse cover of vegetation filling it. The weather here was much hotter than in the woodlands, and the air was dryer as well, but none of it was to an unbearable degree.
This was the place Courage and Wally chose to hunt. The reason for that is because the Band of Dawn was concentrated in the east, whilst the Black Hyde Gang was mostly in the north. Courage and Wally didn't want to risk a run-in with either of them, so they decided to stay away from those areas. The south of the bastion was blocked by an impassable wall of mountains, so there was no heading in that direction. That only left west.
The western wilds had many hunting grounds, with the Flatland Valley being one of the most well-known and explored ones. So they decided to hunt at this location, as it spared them the risk of running into unknown dangers.
Now that they're here, all they have to do is scale down the rock walls of the valley to enter the flatlands below.
It wasn't long after that , that the two had their first encounter. Kabuto and Octo (that is how Wally refers to his beast) were engaged with a beast that looked like a jaguar. It had the typical jaguar markings on its dirt-colored fur, but unlike a regular jaguar, this beast had rock-like plating covering its back and legs, with a rock-like fin atop its body. The rock fin started from the head of the beast and streaked across its back until it ended at its tailbone. And speaking of tails, this beast didn't have much of a tail—only a short, stubby one like a bobcat. Finally, this beast had saber-like fangs jutting from its jaw like a saber-toothed tiger. This beast was called the Stone Fin Saber Jaguar.
The two totem beasts were engaging with the beast whilst their masters stayed a safe distance away from the battle. Beast catalysers have always been kind of a weak spot for their beasts. Staying too close could put them in danger, which would force the beast to split Thier effort from defeating thier opponent to also having to defend their masters at the same time—which can be quite burdensome. So it was a commonly taught strategy for the beasts to do the fighting while their masters give commands from safety; it was the common strategy.
Even Courage, who had the Little Comet—a weapon that can harm even Level 2 beasts—still preferred to follow this strategy most of the time. He would only join the fight himself if he was certain of his safety and his ability to effectively contribute to the fight.
The reason why he wasn't doing so right now was because of octo who was fighting too close to Kabuto.
unlike Kabuto, he didn't have a mental link to Octo that allowed him to know where it was going to move and what it was going to do— and even if wally told him it wouldn't be as effective. So using his flail now, he could accidentally hit it. And so, to avoid the threat of harming an ally, he set his weapon aside this time. Maybe once he and Wally became more adept at working together, he would feel comfortable using his weapon again.
The jaguar swung its claws at Kabuto, intending to slash him , but the claws only made a screeching sound as they raked against Kabuto's chitin, leaving no injuries. Retaliating immediately, Kabuto used [Flurry Strike] with [All Out], targeting the weak spots on the jaguar's armor. He punched and cleaved with his horn a couple of times, striking four different areas on the jaguar's back. Each strike contributed to weakening the stone plate armor.
Behind the jaguar, Octo was getting ready to attack as well. Using [Polymorph], the octopus transformed several of its tentacles: one had a steel-like sickle at the end of it, another turned into a sharp pike, while another curled in on itself and turned into a stone mace. Several other tentacles turned into different weapons. Lunging at the jaguar, the octopus targeted the weakened areas of the stone armor, missing most attacks but managing to inflict wounds where its blows managed to connect.
This caused the jaguar to become enraged and more aggressive. Activating some ability, the jaguar created a set of long stone claws, arming its paws with them and increasing its attack power. Octo was forced back, but luckily Kabuto was there to support it.
The battle lasted for an hour with a lot of back and forth from both sides, but eventually, the jaguar beast was defeated—marking the success of Wally and Courage's first hunt together. The duo launched into a small celebration after the battle, with Courage giving Wally some words of encouragement, telling him to keep up the good work.
Lastly, before stashing their kill, Wally asked to let his beast study the body of the jaguar. The Polynexus Cephalopod can not only mimic the properties of mundane objects, but it can even mimic those of the bodies of other beasts—a useful capability with still untapped potential. It had been hard for Wally to find beast bodies for his totem to study; before, no one would let him inspect their beasts, and he couldn't hunt on his own, so this feature remained undeveloped. But now that Wally was working with Courage, who was supporting him fully, it was Octo's opportunity to build its catalogue of aspects it could utilize.
The octopus caressed the jaguar's body with its many tentacles and moved its eyes intently in a thorough inspection. Soon, a spark of new understanding shone in its eyes.