The Medallion

Chapter 39 Study Hard

Although Rocky had a month off from his basic training, he still had a lot of studying to do, the most important of which was learning how to evaluate the beasts. As there was no technology nor science in this world, he had to find another way to study their genes and create his own genetically enhanced beasts. He believed that the evaluation of the beasts might be his ticket to making his breakthrough.

In this world, no one had a better knowledge of the beasts or any other rare species than the beast evaluators who were tantamount to authoritative scientists around the world. It was the main reason why he wanted to be a beast evaluator as a huge first step.

After he returned to the bamboo grove, Rocky saw a dark figure running straight towards him at lightning speed. Before he realized what it was, the big beast jumped right on top of him and licked him all over.

"It looks like Uriah has evolved so much. It is so fast now that I don't even have time to react, which means its strength could now be even stronger than mine. It is merely a rock yet it has caused such a drastic change to Uriah. Its genes seemed to have been completely rearranged." Rocky patted Uriah as he muttered to himself.

Rocky set Uriah free to play by itself as he lay down on the rock by the pool. He took out the Beast Encyclopedia to read while bathing under the sunlight glimmering through the bamboo leaves.

A beast evaluator usually called all the species including war beasts, spiritual beasts, and other rare species like dragons the spirit-manipulated beasts. It was because the method to evaluate them was pretty much the same for all kinds of beasts. Although spirit-manipulated beasts were different in terms of appearance, the basic structure remained the same.

However, every beast evaluator applied different methods in evaluating beasts, just like there were different pills and prescriptions for the same disease. The one who wrote the Beast Encyclopedia had

created an evaluation method called the "Magical Evaluation Skill". One could use it as a basis for the analysis and evaluation of all kinds of spirit-manipulated beasts.

A beast evaluator was more than just determining the beast's star level. It also required for evaluators to discern all of its quality like category, ability, and its space and direction for future development.

So there was a set minimum standard for studying the beast evaluation technique, which was to be at the third grade of the Mortal Stage. It consumed spiritual power when one was using such technique. The longer the evaluation took, the more spiritual power it consumed which meant that higher levels of the Magical Evaluation Skill would also require higher levels of spiritual power. So in order to become a beast evaluator, a spirit manipulator had to gain a certain spiritual power.

There are nine levels of the Magical Evaluation Skill and it was the same as the grades with spirit- manipulated beasts. With higher levels of the Magical Evaluation Skill, one would be more likely to be able to discern spirit-manipulated beasts of higher grades and star levels. For instance, evaluators at the entry level of the Magical Evaluation Skill would be able to evaluate all one-star spirit-manipulated beasts and discern their qualities. However when it came to two-star beasts, beast evaluators at the entry level would only be able to discern its star level along with a small portion of its qualities instead of being able to detect all of them.

Put it this way, beast evaluation was like a program in an operation system. It would take a better operation system for a more advanced program to run. The same could be applied to the Magical Evaluation Skill and the evaluation of spirit-manipulated beasts.

The advancement of the Magical Evaluation Skill was entirely up to the enlightenment and endeavor of the individual. Evaluating more spirit-manipulated beasts would certainly help with the advancement and breakthrough one could achieve at a certain point.

Generally speaking, it was not an easy task to be a beast evaluator.

However for someone like Rocky who had a thirst for knowledge, nothing excited him more than the idea of studying beast evaluation as he got to know more about all kinds of spirit-manipulated beasts. Although there were detailed information about spirit-manipulated beasts in the Beast Encyclopedia, Rocky still decided to study them through firsthand experience in order to lay a solid foundation for his future genetic endeavors. After all, theory came from practice.

Therefore, Rocky planned to take a one-month vacation to study the Magical Evaluation Skill. He spent all his time in the bamboo forest studying apart from his basic three meals a day.

After a rough inspection of its contents, to Rocky's surprise, he discovered that what was special about it was way beyond his imagination. He finally understood why one could use the Magical Evaluation Skill to discern all the qualities of spirit-manipulated beasts.

The Magical Evaluation Skill required an evaluator to apply spiritual power directly on spirit- manipulated beasts which would then reflect it in the form of light in different kinds of color that each represented a quality. The more color it showed meant that the more qualities it possessed, and vice versa. Also the brightness of each light indicated the strength and space for growth for each of these qualities. Just like the sequence of our genetic makeup, not too difficult as it might be, it was still not easy to completely match each of these lights with their designated qualities.

This was not too much of a problem for Rocky because he had spent a lot of his time in his past life mapping the genes extracted from DNA. However, in this world there, was no DNA to extract the genes from for mapping. Although he had some big ideas, there was virtually nothing concrete for him to work on. But now, that wasn't the case anymore. The light reflected by spirit-manipulated beasts was tantamount to their DNA. The volume, brightness, and even the very position of every light correspond to the sequence of the genes.

This Beast Encyclopedia brought about an opportunity for Rocky to take his research up a notch, thanks to that beautiful general.

A whole month went by in a flash.

In the deep parts of the bamboo grove

"Evaluating......." Rocky sat on the ground as he tried to use the Magical Evaluation Skill on a rabbit.

At that moment, a triangle mark appeared on its foot and a bright white light shone out of it. The rabbit then reflected a very week and yellow light the size of a spark, which represented the agility of its extremities.

Howl! A beast then came in at lightning speed and ran off with the rabbit in its mouth.

Rocky was kind of used to Uriah always taking his subjects to eat them for lunch all. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Its appetite had grown exponentially since its evolution. The food Rocky brought from the canteen, including the raw meat directly from the kitchen was no longer enough for it. Finally, he let Uriah go hunting food for itself while bringing him back some subjects for his experiment.

As there were no proper facilities in the world to tame and nourish Uriah, he had to raise it in the wild to further improve its abilities. Uriah proved to be a born hunter with extraordinary motion skills. It could climb trees and swim in rivers at a great speed. It also had tremendous strength. The depth of the bamboo grove had already been leveled by it just because of its regular playtime for the past month.