Chapter 176 The 9 Beasts
You see, this was obvious enough to most people, but it was a fact that beasts thought differently from humans. There were elements of treachery and deception in them, yes, but that was a trait limited by species.
All species were influenced by their instincts first of all, whether they thought so or not. Even humans were often influenced by instincts but draped fancy words and philosophies over it in order to seem enlightened.
It was the same for beasts. Unless they were like hyenas or foxes who were known for being cunning and treacherous, they were mostly straightforward and honest. One could even say - in comparison to humans, of course - that they were naive.
As such, Dante's act of self-introduction without hiding anything prompted them to also share their details in the same manner. It wasn't that they didn't know to guard this information, but their thought process was that it would be unfair for them to know Dante's info without him knowing theirs.
Based on the responses, Dante glanced at the 9 beasts here and sorted out their information in his head. From left to right, there were:
1. Stellareon (C Rank - Cosmic Shift): It was a strange mix of a luminous panther and a meteor, its iridescent fur reflecting the stars, probably granting it the ability to vanish into the night. According to it, it could teleport instantly from place to place, appearing as a streak of cosmic light.
2. Dracoray (C Rank - Solar Scorch): This fellow who called himself Dracoray had shimmering, dragon-like scales and floated above the group, seeming like the king of the skies. It claimed to be able to breathe ethereal fire that could burn even in the vacuum of space, and it could alter its size, becoming as colossal as a meteor or as small as Dante himself.
3. Lunafin (C Rank - Gravity Tide): This one was basically a giant, sentient jellyfish with purple-gray lunar tentacles. Lunafin claimed to prefer to glide through the black-colored oceans of the Zero Gate world. Apparently, it could control tides and manipulate gravity, creating ethereal spatial whirlpools that drew prey into its deadly embrace.
4. Flarechirp (C Rank - Transcendent Screech): This beautiful and peacock-like bird was similar to the legendary Phoenix in that it was flaming red and glowed with simmering heat. It claimed to like hot areas, and its superpower was the ability to unleash a radiant sonic scream that could shatter anything it came across and even temporarily disrupt the laws of physics.
5. Quasariant (C Rank - Ultimate Replusor): This fearsome creature had a thick armored exoskeleton while physically resembling a rhino, having a blade-tipped tail that could extend and retract. It claimed to be able to generate a gravitational pulse, sending foes hurtling backward with their bones crushed like an Almighty Push, while its exoskeleton absorbs starlight to replenish its energy.
6. Nebulion (C Rank - Dreamy Illusion): This was a whitish-blue, cloud-like, ever-shifting being that could take any form it wished. Nebulion claimed to possess the power to manipulate thoughts and dreams, ensnaring prey in illusions and making them lose their way among the expanse of the forest.
7. Cometess (C Rank - Searing Rays): This was a giant blackish-red snake with a sleek, serpentine body adorned with comet-like patterns. It claimed to be able to project energy beams from its eyes, vaporizing living beings on the spot while its tail could slice through bodies like a blade.
8. Astrafin (C Rank - Celestial Roar): This one resembled a cross between a lion and a comet. Astrafin had indigo-colored fur and claimed to be able to summon and control meteors through its roars which had the fury of a supernova, unleashing shockwaves that can flatten entire areas.
9. Vortexion (C Rank - Temporal Volume): This was a colossal, amoeba-like entity that drifted through the upper layer of this plane, which was a cosmic storm according to it. It claimed to be able to alter time, causing it to speed up or slow down in its vicinity.
Dante's eyes naturally narrowed after he heard all this, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat. Assuming that these fellows were not lying - but were definitely exaggerating or hiding some parts - then they were truly fearsome foes.
Even if they were just at the C Rank, they were still potent enough to wipe out any arrogant student who walked up like Dante did. To be the only 9 qualified to stand right in front of the tree and fight for the fruit, they were the most outstanding among the monsters in the nearby region.
Then Dante's eyes narrowed. Or could there be some other reason or metric? He did notice one almost common trait, and that was the fact that most of these fellows possessed space-related powers.
He looked deeply at the nine and pondered. He didn't care about his life and death in this realm since it was a VR body and only his actual performance in the real Zero Gate mattered, so he wanted to test some things now that he could possibly use later in the real deal.
Dante didn't bother to chat with them anymore. While their eyes were on him, he activated his Eyes of Illusion to the fullest of his ability, the golden glow piercing through the souls of his victims.
The eyes of the 9 - or what passed for their eyes - were dull and glazed over, showing that they had fallen into a trance. This excited Dante deeply because he feared that since his eyes were hosted by Quantum Entanglement, which was D rank, it would not work on C rank superpower wielders.
However, in truth, the answer was both yes and no. Yes because if the two superpowers were exactly the same, like one to control wind at the B rank and one to manage wind at the C rank, the B rank would suppress the C rank one.
No because superpowers did not directly affect each other. If party A had the F rank laser beam and party B had the A Rank ice generation, even if they threw up a wall of ice, that laser beam could theoretically pierce through if it had enough time to melt its way through.
And then, as always, stats were the most important base. Even if you had the almighty EX rank superpower to manipulate reality like you had the power stone, it was useless if your stats were at 50 points in all fields because you would get tired before you turned a person into a frog.
However, if someone was like Dante and had 1500 points with a mediocre F rank superpower of shooting strings from his fingers, it would go from a joke to a fearsome killing power, akin to what Donquixote Doflamingo had.
Likewise, against these powerful beasts with awesome superpowers one tier above his - and even truthfully at an even higher tier that was suppressed down here - they simply did not have the SDI to match Dante, seeing as his clap alone sent them flying without being able to resist.
Even Nebulion, who Dante suspected was the one who cast the illusion on him previously through a widespread use of its superpower, only struggled for slightly longer before becoming still.
Dante was able to sense whether someone was put under his illusion without relying on just looks, so he knew that all of them had fallen. Once again, Dante strengthened his resolve to raise his SDI and acquire more diverse and useful powers, then stuff them into his quantum body.
While they were under the illusion, he sighed with fatigue. In order to make sure he wouldn't fail, he had burned all his energy at once. So he couldn't tell how much he had wasted, if any at all, in activating the illusion.
This was problematic because it would lead to inefficiency during battle, but after the illusion was done, he would be able to investigate everything as he pleased, so he was not too worried.
The first order of business was to walk to the nearby stress and spread out his Gluttonous Inferno fire for the full range and devour the energy from everything nearby to replenish himself to full, which took about a second.
The moment it was done, as he had noticed before, the withered trees quickly recovered as they absorbed the ambient Zero Energy and were back to normal in seconds. This phenomenon made him understand once again the uniqueness of this world, and he couldn't help but think of how it could benefit his Gluttonous Inferno.
After all, it still had the potential to become faster as Dante raised his Intelligence stat higher. That was something to look forward to as he could casually release planet-destroying attacks while constantly releasing his fire to absorb ambient energy to keep him in a state of 'Infinite mana'.
While he fantasized, he was not idle. He opened his quantum storage space, which was full of many things, including technology that was useless and various resources or magical items he transported between universes or quantum worlds.
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