Reid, for the second time today, headed towards the dumps in search of the parts needed to evolve his forged beasts.
Since the sun was already up, most of the Scrapyard residents were out and about. Reid had to wave to most of them since everyone knew each other.
"Oh, look who has decided to give us a glance at his face?" Someone spoke from behind him, "What's wrong, rich boy? You out for some vitamin D like the rest of us commoners?"
'Just when I thought things were looking up,' Reid thought to himself, and turned to face the speaker.
The boy who spoke stood at the same height as Reid, 6 feet, but that's where the similarities ended. He had a buff build while Reid was on the slimmer side. His hair, like his eyes, was red and cut in a fade hairstyle.
Behind him stood two other boys, twins, that Reid had come to recognize as his lackeys who had slightly bigger than normal dog-like, cat-like forged beasts at their side. Beside the red-haired boy was a red-furred hound-like forged beast that was threatening Reid with its growl and snarl.
Reid knew that no matter what, it wouldn't attack since Old Man Scrappy would have their head if they started a beast fight in the Scrapyards. He just ignored the beast and turned to the owner at the moment..
"What do you want, Alex?" Reid asked, his annoyance evident in his voice.
Alex had always been a bully since Reid arrived in the Scrapyards. He never physically bullied Reid because of Old Man Scrappy but made sure to attack him with words.
Alex hated Reid ever since he found out he was from one of the great families. He's like some of the people in the scrapyard who believe their situation to be the fault of the rich.
"Oh, nothing really. Was just wondering if you'd start being useful around here by actually bonding with a forged beast that'll help in defending this place." Alex paused, a smirk on his face. "Oh wait, you can't. That's why you were disowned in the first place."
He and his two lackeys burst out in laughter after he said that.
Reid clenched his fist in anger, wanting nothing more than to punch Alex's smug face, but he couldn't.
Reid knew that Alex was only waiting for the moment he attacked first. That's when he'd let his hound hurt him with the excuse of protecting its master.
Reid swallowed down his anger, ready to turn away when a screen suddenly popped up in front of him.
[Forged beasts successfully scanned
[Forged beasts 1: The Flame hound]
Rank: Bronze tier
Abilities: Blaze, limited inferno
Parts useful for forging: flame core and dark alloy.
[Forged beasts 2&3: flame cats]
Rank: Iron tier
Abilities: fireball.
Parts useful for forging: Flame cores.
Would you like to harvest the useful parts for forging?
]
[Yes] [No]
This screen confused Reid; he knew what he was looking at but didn't know why it appeared in the first place. He hadn't even summoned a status screen, so why did it automatically pop up?
'What's happening, Evo?' he asked inwardly.
[Those are two other functions of the Evolution Codex, the [appraise] and [harvest.]
[Appraise]: shows you the abilities and rank of beasts, both forged and not, up to a rank above yours.
And [Harvest] takes the parts of a beast or forged beasts which you can use to forge or evolve your forged beasts. Harvest only works on beasts and forged beasts the same rank as you or lower.
Note: All harvested parts will be sent to the materials tab in the forged lab, she concluded her explanation.
'That's pretty useful,' Reid commented, but before he could think of anything else, his musing was interrupted by the trio standing in front of him.
"Why are you staring in space like an idiot?" One of the lackeys, Tommy, asked. He was the one with green eyes, the only distinguishing difference that existed between the twins.
"Maybe he's developed brain damage from all our words," Timmy, the second twin with black hair and grey eyes, mocked.
[Would you like to harvest the useful parts for forging?]
[Yes] [No]
The screen popped up again, almost like it was urging Reid to click [Yes], and with the party's cockiness, it'd be a surprise if he didn't.
'What happens when I accept?" He asked.
[After clicking Yes, the parts will be harvested from the targets and stored in the forged lab. The forged beast will then proceed to malfunction before completely shutting down,] Evo answered.
'Alright,' Reid sighed and mentally chose [yes].
Alex and the twins, seeing that Reid wasn't replying to their taunts like he usually does, decided to keep pushing.
"I bet even your mom—" before Timmy could complete whatever he was going to say, he heard sounds of sparks beside him. Looking down, he saw his forged beasts behaving weirdly, as if it was constantly being electrocuted, before sprawling on the ground, completely shutting off.
The same happened to Tommy's Forged beast.
"Timmy, you idiot, didn't I tell you to fix the faults before we used them next?" Tommy angrily turned to his twin brother.
"I-I did, I fixed them last night," Timmy defended.
"If you did, then explain what's happening, idiot, " Tommy persisted.
"I don't know and don't call me an idiot, you ugly duck!" Timmy, tired of his brother's insults, fired back.
"Ugly? We have the same face, you idiot." Oh, right, they're twins.
Alex, embarrassed due to his lackeys' behavior in front of the person they were bullying, stepped back to shut their mouths, which gave Reid the chance to slip away with an evil grin plastered on his face.
'It's too bad I couldn't harvest Alex's hound, but it's fine. This much is enough, ' Reid thought to himself while resuming his walk to the scrap yard.
He couldn't harvest Alex's forged beast because it was Bronze-ranked while Reid was still Iron-ranked.
He mentally summoned the Forge Lab. A screen popped into his brain.
[
[Forge Lab]
Available Materials: [Flame cores x2]
Blueprints:
[Rusty Upgrades]: 5 Energy cores from beasts and Alloys.
[Nyx Upgrades]: 5 Energy cores from beasts and Alloys.
Progress: [0.00%]
Note: The abilities of your evolved beasts will highly depend on the materials used
]
The available materials tab changed from none to Flame Core X2.
"Thanks for the gifts," he quietly thanked his 'generous' bullies for the flame cores with a grin.