SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Without Rowan noticing, Moon quietly cast Curse on one of the passing Cragbrutes.

The beast was walking alone, within the casting range of Moon. The thread reached across the distance and settled onto the Cragbrute’s soul without visible effect.

As a body refiner beast, the Cragbrute’s spiritual defenses were significantly weaker than Moon’s own.

Within a few seconds Moon’s [Curse] hooked in cleanly, establishing the connection between Moon and the beast.

The Cragbrute continued walking without any change in its posture or gait. Its mind was now controlled Moon, but its behavior remained externally identical to any other beast returning to the nest.

Moon fed it a single simple instruction.

’Every time you see one of your kind, send me a signal. Nothing more.’

The instruction was carefully designed.

Asking a beast to count was pointless. Cragbrutes didn’t have the mental architecture to hold abstract numerical concepts. They couldn’t remember how many kin they had passed during a walk.

But they could pattern-match visual stimuli. Every Cragbrute they saw would trigger the specific response that identified another member of their species. All the beast needed to do was send a small message.

Moon would handle the counting himself.

By breaking the problem down into its simplest form and moving the accumulation work to his own mind, he could get an accurate count of the colony’s population without needing the beast to do anything beyond its limit.

The first pulse arrived within ten seconds. Moon marked it internally. One.

The second pulse followed a few seconds later. Two.

Then more, in irregular intervals.

Three. Four. Five.

Rowan stayed beside Moon in silence.

He was oblivious to the specific work Moon was doing in the background. His attention was focused on the surrounding terrain, watching for any movement that might indicate a Cragbrute approaching their hidden position. He had drawn his bow to a light half-tension, ready to release quickly if needed.

Moon appreciated the quiet.

It would have made things difficult if Rowan had been asking questions or moving restlessly. Rowan’s discipline made the work possible.

Then a cluster came through together, indicating that his Cragbrute had entered a section of the territory where multiple kin were visible at once. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Then a pause, followed by more. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.

Moon waited patiently in the shadows, letting the count accumulate.

Half an hour passed.

The pulses eventually slowed. Then stopped entirely, indicating that his Cragbrute had reached the central nest and was no longer moving through the territory. The count finalized in Moon’s mind.

’Approximately fifty.’

He thought about the number carefully.

Fifty Cragbrutes was a large colony. Especially given their massive individual size, the fact that each Cragbrute was already a Three-Star Evolver-tier beast, and the near-certainty that the colony’s central territory contained at least one powerful boss at a significantly higher tier.

The engagement was going to be serious.

But it was manageable. Especially with the Curse-controlled Cragbrute now embedded in the colony itself. He could use the beast as an internal disruptor once the fight began, breaking up the pack’s coordination from the inside while he and Rowan attacked from the perimeter.

He rose to his feet quietly.

"Let’s go. We’re going in."

He leapt upward, his feet landing on a thick branch several meters above the ground, high in the canopy where their silhouettes would be less visible from the terrain below as they moved.

Rowan followed without a word.

The two of them began moving through the treeline toward the colony.

In the span of a few minutes, they arrived at the colony’s territory.

The Cragbrutes had carved their home into the base of a small mountain. Natural stone had been widened by their horned skulls and heavy bodies pushing through the softer sediment, forming a series of rough cave openings that ran along the mountain’s lower face.

The largest opening at the center was tall enough for a full-grown Cragbrute to pass through without lowering its head. Smaller openings branched off to either side, likely leading to sleeping chambers, feeding areas, and juvenile pens.

The ground around the entrances was packed hard from the constant traffic of heavy hooves. Bones and gnawed remnants of prey littered the outer region.

Cragbrutes moved in and out of the openings in a steady flow.

Some carried prey in their jaws. Hunters bringing food back to family within. Others walked out empty-handed, likely heading for their own hunting rounds. A few younger ones circled the perimeter under the watchful eyes of older adults.

Moon turned to Rowan and kept his voice low.

"We stay at high ground for now. Let’s pick off the ones outside first before we deal with what’s inside. I’ll lead the attack. Follow my shots."

Rowan nodded.

Drawing his bow into a light half-tension before nocking an extra arrow into the string.

Moon leapt to another thick tree several meters away. He summoned the B-rank bow Sierra had gifted him from his storage ring and drew an arrow from his quiver.

His mana channeled through his eyes.

[Falcon’s Focus]

His perception sharpened.

Moon nocked his arrow and drew.

[Deadeye.]

His second archery skill activated, as the arrow’s head lit up with concentrated mana.

Moon held the draw for a fraction of a second longer, letting his aim settle onto a Cragbrute at the far edge of the territory. The beast was walking away from the colony, heading toward its personal hunting grounds. It had almost cleared the outer perimeter.

~Whoosh~

The arrow punched through the air at an astonishing speed.

The Cragbrute never saw it coming. It was mid-step, its head slightly turned to catch a scent on the wind, when the arrow struck.

The Deadeye-empowered shaft drove through its skull cleanly. The beast’s body kept moving forward for a fraction of a second on pure inertia before its legs collapsed.

It hit the ground with a soft tremor.

The vibration rippled outward through the packed dirt of the territory.

The nearby Cragbrutes who heard the sound turned their heads immediately.

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