Realization

Bones!

Although the corpse before him was mutilated, a little muscle, fat, and fragments of internal organs remained. Yet bones, the hardest parts of the body, were conspicuously scarce.

Apart from the skull, half of which had been bitten away, there were no relatively intact bones visible to the naked eye.

Had the bones been chewed to pieces?

Or did the beast prefer bones to soft, succulent flesh?

Neither explanation held up!

The first was easy to disprove. Even if the beast had crushed the bones, bone fragments should have remained nearby, but Qin Ran had found none.

The second was even more obvious. The skull, with only half bitten away, was enough to show that the beast did not like bones.

In other words, these people's bones had been "taken" before the beast devoured their corpses!

What did Sphendick want with bones?

Did this magic circle require bones as a medium?

Or was it something else?

Qin Ran instinctively began to speculate.

But with so little information and his insufficient level of [Mysterious Knowledge], he reached no conclusions.

More precisely, he learned nothing concerning the mystery side.

In other respects, however, Qin Ran did make some discoveries.

For example, Paul, the third victim devoured by the beast!

Unlike the other four, whose heads had been found, all he had left behind was an arm.

Qin Ran believed this definitely had nothing to do with the beast being a picky eater.

Judging by the corpse before him, gnawed down to scraps of flesh, the beast had quite a healthy appetite.

Likewise, it knew nothing about covering its tracks.

Through [Tracking], the traces left by the beast were perfectly clear.

Red paw prints soaked in blood.

Broad and powerful.

Nothing a human could have left.

A bear?

Qin Ran was not