Iron-Eating Kaba Beasts

All eleven Kaba Beasts had been brought into Kroya's laboratory-though calling it a laboratory was generous. It was really just a secluded room.

The equipment a proper mage's laboratory required, such as magic-gathering arrays, power-supply crystal pillars, mental power amplifiers, elemental pools, and stabilizing beakers, was far beyond what he could currently afford.

To excel as a mage, you had to burn through money-and a great deal of it.

Naturally, Kroya couldn't afford that right now.

Still...

"I hope this works the way I think it will. Then I can quickly turn all that stockpiled ore into silver coins."

Muttering to himself, Kroya entered his laboratory and examined the utterly laid-back Kaba Beasts sprawled across the floor one by one. Through their astral spirit bodies, he could confirm that almost all of them wanted to "find some excitement."

That desire was what made the imprints possible.

"Let's start with you."

Kroya sat directly in front of the largest Kaba Beast and gently stroked its head with his fingers, while his mental power reached into its astral spirit body.

He saw the Kaba Beast's astral spirit body, which resembled an anatomical diagram.

Thanks to the Song of Red and the thirsty sea glow algae over the past few days, both his mental power and his magic power had increased considerably. He would soon be able to advance to a Second-Level Mage.

That made imprinting relatively easy. He first chose to imprint "Steel Hardening" on its teeth. This spell was actually more of an enhancement spell: it didn't truly turn anything into steel, but increased the hardness of a particular body part.

Supposedly, as the caster's cultivation and magic power increased, its effects could progress from ordinary steel to refined steel, and even magical metals such as star steel.

Naturally, its defensive and destructive power would increase dramatically as well.

Of course, Kroya's current understanding and spell-model construction only allowed him to achieve the level of ordinary steel.

Using the same method he had used to imprint the sunflowers and thirsty sea glow algae, he began imprinting the "Steel Hardening" spell onto the teeth of the Kaba Beast's astral spirit body.

It went smoothly at first, but halfway through the imprint, the Kaba Beast suddenly began grunting and nudging its head against Kroya's body.

Its previously calm blue astral spirit body abruptly turned a restless pale red.

"Hmm."

Kroya had no choice but to extend his mental power farther inside and carefully soothe the Kaba Beast.

Under his soothing influence, the Kaba Beast seemed to adjust to the discomfort of the imprinting process. It finally settled down and quietly let Kroya work.

About ten minutes passed.

A notification appeared-

[Imprint successful: Kaba Beast · Teeth (Steel Hardening)]

[After accumulating sufficient magic power, the Kaba Beast can strengthen its teeth at any time. The degree of enhancement depends on its magic power and the quality and quantity of iron it absorbs.]

"Isn't... isn't this just an innate spell for a magical beast?"

Kroya slapped his thigh, suddenly enlightened.

Doesn't that mean imprinting can give magical beasts innate spells they never had?

Magical beasts were born with certain special spells, but teaching them additional spells was extraordinarily difficult.

Only certain high-tier learning scrolls and the Church's "Divine Blessing" scrolls could allow magical beasts to learn more spells.

Yet he had casually taught a Kaba Beast one just like that, spending only a little mental power... It was frighteningly powerful.

After finishing the Steel Hardening imprint, he proceeded to imprint "Magic Power Forging" onto the Kaba Beast's stomach. In essence, this spell used magical vibrations to separate impurities from low-grade ores.

It was a common material-processing technique among low-tier mages.

This spell model wasn't particularly complex or difficult, and he had already soothed the Kaba Beast earlier, so he successfully completed the imprint in a little over ten minutes.

[Imprint successful: Kaba Beast · Stomach (Magic Power Forging)]

[After the Kaba Beast swallows ore that can be refined, it can emit magical vibrations from its stomach to process and refine the ore before expelling it.]

[The Kaba Beast will become very fond of swallowing ore.]

[The Kaba Beast will digest the ore impurities a second time, with a chance of strengthening its bodily organs.]

With those notifications, Kroya's experiment was halfway to success. Next, he needed to run a small test.

He stood up, picked up a head-sized piece of white ironstone ore he had prepared nearby, and placed it directly in front of the Kaba Beast.

He had thought he would need to command it through his mental power, but the moment the Kaba Beast saw the ore, its tiny, beady eyes lit up.

Like someone who had gone hungry for days and nights suddenly finding a table laden with delicacies, it began biting into the ore without hesitation.

Crunch, crunch!

Under its bites, the ore, whose rocky surface was flecked with white iron deposits, might as well have been a steamed bun. Its row of tiny teeth broke it apart with ease.

Then it swallowed without hesitation.

The more it ate, the happier it became. In less than a minute, it devoured the entire head-sized lump of ore, then rubbed its head against Kroya's palm, still wanting more.

It let out a series of little whines, like a burly man trying to act cute.

The other Kaba Beasts that had witnessed everything gathered around, surrounding Kroya and making the same noises. Clearly, seeing one of their own enjoy such a satisfying feast of ore had made them eager to try it too.

Kroya didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Don't rush! One at a time!"

He helplessly soothed them and began imprinting them one by one. Fortunately, he had ample magic power, with the thirsty sea glow algae serving as batteries.

Otherwise, imprinting eleven Kaba Beasts in one session would truly have been a major undertaking.

It really was equal parts pain and pleasure.

A little over an hour passed like this, and all eleven Kaba Beasts had been imprinted with the two spell models, "Steel Hardening" and "Magic Power Forging."

Without waiting for Kroya's instructions, they devoured every last bit of the ore he had prepared. Thanks to the powerful stomachs of magical beasts, swallowing a little stone was no problem.

As long as the white iron ore inside, which they couldn't otherwise process, could be broken down and expelled, there would be no trouble.

Kroya watched them swallow the ore. After waiting a while and confirming that there were no adverse reactions, he took them straight outside.

He certainly didn't want to watch a whole herd of Kaba Beasts excreting in his laboratory.

They went to the hill behind the castle, by the lake where the beasts usually stayed. The Kaba Beasts slowly ambled onto the grass and began expelling the ore.

The droppings of these herbivorous magical beasts weren't particularly disgusting. Besides, to help them digest the ore better, Kroya had ordered that they be given no fodder all morning.

Thus, what they expelled were small, uneven white lumps that lay quietly on the grass, reflecting the sunlight.

"The quality is pretty good." Kroya stepped forward and picked one up to examine it, and an idea stirred in his mind.

The quality of this refined ore seemed about on par with ore he refined himself. Once it was melted down in a furnace and made into iron ingots, it could be sold directly.

With that in mind, he immediately decided to take these Kaba Beasts to the warehouse. There was a huge pile of ore in there that he hadn't had time to process!

While he was at it, he could find out how much they could digest each day. That way, he could squeeze even more work out of them.