SSS-Rank Talent: Super Upgrade System-Chapter 168: The Strange Aardvark!

The strange, massive bite marks on the tunnel walls were a constant, unsettling reminder that he wasn’t alone down here. He was the hunter, tracking his prey.

After several minutes of silent, tense progress, his enhanced senses picked up on something new.

It was a faint, rhythmic sound, carried through the solid rock from a tunnel deep ahead.

Scrape... scrape... crunch... It was the sound of something digging, something powerful and methodical.

It was followed by a strange, almost delicate clinking, as if small, hard objects were being dropped onto a growing pile.

Daniel’s curiosity, a powerful force that had led him into both great danger and immense fortune, was fully stirred.

He slowed his silent approach to a near crawl, advancing with the measured patience of a predator tracking an unfamiliar, larger foe.

He followed the sound around a tight bend in the tunnel and glanced into a newly excavated cavern.

The sight that greeted him was so bizarre, so utterly unexpected, that he had to suppress a surprised laugh.

There, in the center of the cavern, bathed in the faint, ambient light that seemed to emanate from the very rock itself, was the culprit.

It was an aardvark, though only in the same way a Gloomfang Devourer is a badger.

It was massive, the size of a large boulder, its body covered in overlapping scales that gleamed from deep bronze to shimmering silver in the dim light.

Its short, powerful limbs ended in massive, chisel-like claws, which it used to tear through a vein of raw origin stone with unsettling ease.

With each scrape of its claws, it would pull loose a chunk of glittering ore, pop it into its small, powerful mouth, and chew on it with a loud, satisfying crunch.

After a moment, it spat out a smaller, perfectly refined, and brightly glowing mineral onto a massive, neatly arranged pile behind it.

The pile was a treasure trove, a dragon’s hoard of rare and precious ores that would have made the Weapons and Armaments School’s Vice-Principal, Robb Naharis, weep with joy.

Daniel watched, fascinated. Daniel watched in awe. This creature wasn’t just digging, it was refining, a living ore-processing machine.

It was a marvel of Verge biology. He now understood why the mining shafts were stripped bare.

This creature had been systematically eating its way through the entire mountain, hoarding the purest essences for itself.

As he watched, the Treasure aardvark finished its latest mineral snack.

It let out a soft, contented sigh, then came a sound so strange and unexpected that it sent a chill through Daniel’s veins as it reverberated through the cavern.

It was a desolate, high-pitched wail, filled with a haunting sense of loneliness and sorrow that lingered in the air.

It was the wail of a grieving woman.

The ghost the miners had spoken of, the sound that had driven seasoned veterans from the deep shafts in superstitious terror, was just this strange, lonely creature crying out in the darkness after a meal.

Daniel felt a flicker of something akin to sympathy.

This wasn’t a monster, it was just... an animal, doing what it was born to do, in a world that was no longer its own.

But his mission was clear. The Luminark stone, the key to his second stage of cultivation, had to be somewhere in these deep, rich veins of ore.

This creature and its hoard were inextricably linked to his goal. He couldn’t just leave it.

He allowed his [Voidwalk] to fade, his form solidifying in the shadows at the edge of the cavern.

The Aardvark, its senses incredibly acute, instantly froze.

It dropped the piece of ore it was holding and spun around, its massive, scaled body coiling defensively.

It let out a low, warning hiss, its small, intelligent eyes fixing on Daniel, a clear message of ’This is my home. Leave, or be crushed.’

Daniel raised a hand in a calming gesture, but the aardvark was not in a negotiating mood.

With a furious screech, it charged. For a creature so bulky, it moved with surprising speed, a rolling battering ram of sharpened scales and raw power.

Daniel sighed. So much for a peaceful introduction. He had hoped to avoid a fight, but the aardvark’s territorial instincts were absolute.

He decided on a non-lethal but firm response, a way to establish dominance without causing unnecessary harm.

He activated a controlled burst of his S-Grade [Solar Flare Fist Art].

"BOOM!"

The ground beneath Daniel’s feet cracked as he launched himself forward, a blur of motion against the cavern’s gloom.

The wind shrieked as he met the aardvark’s charge head-on, his fist, wreathed in the white-hot, contained fury of a miniature sun, slamming into the creature’s broad, armored head.

"BOOM!"

The impact was like a thunderclap in the confined space.

A burst of kinetic force and searing solar plasma exploded outward, sending up a cloud of dust and sparkling ore fragments.

The aardvark was sent tumbling backward through the air, crashing into the far wall of the cavern with a deafening crash of metal against stone.

The entire cavern shuddered from the force of the blow.

Daniel landed lightly, shaking his gauntleted hand.

He had held back considerably, using only enough power to stun, not to kill.

He expected the aardvark to be dazed, perhaps even knocked unconscious.

Instead, it shook its massive head, let out an infuriated squeal, and scrambled back to its feet, looking more angry than injured.

A single, hairline crack was visible on one of its metallic scales, a testament to the incredible power of the blow, but the creature itself seemed almost unharmed.

Daniel’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.

"Incredible defense," he murmured, a new level of respect for the creature dawning in his mind.

Its vitality and natural armor matched those of some elite beasts he had faced in the Taiji Basin. This was no ordinary aardvark.

He prepared for a second, more serious strike, ready to use his S-Grade Blade of The Night if necessary.

But as he tensed his muscles, he felt a sudden, insistent nudge in his mind, a sharp pulse of eagerness from his familiar bond.

Me! Me! Let me talk to it!

It was Nyx. She sensed something in the aardvark, a kinship, a shared primal nature that went beyond their forms.

Daniel hesitated for only a moment. This was unexpected, but it could be an opportunity.

Perhaps a physical confrontation wasn’t the only way to solve this.

"Alright, girl," he thought, projecting his assent through the bond. "Let’s see what you can do."

He raised his hand, and with a swirl of shadow and faint Soulfire, Nyx, the small appeared on the cavern floor.

The massive aardvark stared at the wolf, a look of profound confusion on its face, its aggressive charge momentarily forgotten.

The confrontation had just taken a very strange, and very unexpected turn!

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