After a while, the old man left, leaving Leonel to his thoughts.
'It's interesting, I guess…'
Leonel didn't expect to be interested in this Hunt. But in the end, the old man had actually managed to convince him. Plus, it would apparently not interfere with his schedule to go back as Damian and the others would still be stuck here for a while longer.
According to the old man, the Hunt had been being planned not just a few years, but decades even. It might not even be an exaggeration to say more than a century, in fact.
'Project Hunt' could be considered to be one of Earth's contingency plans. If Hutch's words were to be believed, it was likely that a similar practice was taken on by the Empire as well.
This so-called 'Project Hunt' was an attempt to raise Evolved Beasts. As Leonel had so unfortunately found out already, humans weren't the only ones who could awaken.
The project itself spent years diligently breeding and cross breeding different species of animals to create incredibly powerful creatures. The hope was that upon the descent of the Metamorphosis, these creatures would awaken miraculous abilities that would allow humans to benefit.
These beasts would become great natural resources. Their meat would be the best tonic for human warriors, allowing them to progress at much faster speeds.
Also, according to Hutch, beasts have much larger Ethereal Glabellas upon awakening. This is not only due to their larger size in general, but it can also be considered an evolutionary buffer to their intelligence. After all, beasts are innately inferior in this aspect. Those who successfully awaken are thus compensated in this way.
The larger Ethereal Glabellas of beasts are considered to be delicacies that can even improve the speed of evolution of one's ability. They're called Beast Crystals.
Thinking back to the octopus stored in the Segmented Cube, Leonel suddenly understood why it was that the latter had wanted the former so badly.
After all of this, Leonel was even more impressed with exactly where these projects took place. When he asked Old Hutch about that, the old man hadn't held back.
Apparently, Project Hunt took advantage of the fact that Earth only had one super continent and spread the project across several off-land islands. Each of these islands had their own unique environment, pushing the evolution of beasts in certain aspects.
Now, after so much preparation, it was finally time to reap the rewards of their labor of over a hundred years.
Leonel wasn't interested in the beasts for the potential boost to his ability. Since his ability had already broke into the realms of the Fifth Dimension, he doubted that there were any beasts on Earth that could help him improve any further.
But, Old Hutch had let it 'slip' that the closer Earth approached to the end of the Metamorphosis, the more striking changes would take place. Soon, there would be Force Crystals forming and these islands could be ideal hot spots. After all, even if one appeared in the city on the main land, it wasn't as though Leonel could dig through the layers of dense stone and metals to reach them.
These places would be perfect toward helping him fill his Segmented Cube to the brim to pave a path for his later breakthroughs.
Even this, though, wasn't the main reason Leonel's interest had been piqued.
After so long, Leonel was finally ready to create his first Force Craft. In fact, he had already settled on two designs. One was a weapon and the other was an upgrade to a treasure he already had.
The second design, the upgrade, was related to his treasure shoes. However, the main point was that the main design around the upgrade was reliant on the suction cups of the octopus.
By now, his purpose might have been obvious. He wanted to see just what other Evolved Beasts existed. If there were any that were particularly useful, he might be able to design more useful upgrades…
Leonel took a deep breath and finally stood from his bed. A moment later, he had already entered the Lab Setting of the Segmented Cube's Phase One.
"Hey Little Tolly."
After completing Lesson Three and learning everything there was to know about the relationship between familiars and their Force Crafters, Leonel named the little Metal Spirit Tolliver, a name the little guy seemed to like quite a lot.
Leonel smiled lightly, slipping on his protective gloves and allowing the little Metal Spirit to excitedly snake across his fingers. For a moment, man and spirit seemed to become one. Leonel's fingers danced and Tolly's body seemed to respond instantaneously, changing its movements along with Leonel's will.
A long while later, Leonel finished playing with Tolliver and placed the little guy on the table, turning a serious eye toward the several large pieces of paper laid out before him.
After Leonel learned everything there was to learn about Lesson Three, the next touched on Force Art, and the Lesson after that was titled 'Functional Design'. This Lesson not only taught him basic concepts of design, but, most importantly taught him about drawing blueprints.
Leonel had never taken an art class before, nor was he familiar with calligraphy. After all, this was the 25th century, nobody writes anymore. So the first few attempts he made were abysmal. But, over time, with how high his coordination stat was, not only did he improve by leaps and bounds, his penmanship could even be said to be quite beautiful.
Calligraphy on Earth referred to the writing of characters. In ancient Eastern countries, this was especially important to their culture. However, the West had quite a few practitioners as well.
To Force Crafters, Calligraphy referred to the art of drawing Force Arts. Each branch of Force Art was a unique language with its on unique quirks. A steady hand and a keen eye was, of course, important for all of this.
Thankfully, Leonel's basics were exceptionally robust. Due to the Force Art he had drawn on the back of his palm, his knowledge of Third Dimensional Force Arts was incredible. So, when he moved on to Fourth Dimensional Force Arts as he was now, the result was him improving at unimaginable speeds.
The blueprints before Leonel now were the product of several hours of work. But, he still felt like something was missing. It was an intuition that kept nagging at him. He knew that if he designed his first weapon based on these designs, it would fail.
At that moment, Leonel suddenly slapped his forehead.
'Idiot. Why waste time drawing all of these blueprints in real life when you have your Dream World?'
Leonel closed his eyes and sunk into a state of meditation. A moment later, he found himself in a wide blank space, but there was a bright smile on his face.
A quill identical to the one Montez gave him manifested in his hand. This was the product of a Dream Sculpt he forged.
Then, he began to draw in the air.
The scene was absolutely dazzling. The sight of several layers of blueprints being built atop of each other with glistening transparent lines made it almost feel as though Leonel was playing God.