Chapter 181: Extinct

Shane walked through the Giant Fluare-plain dimension aimlessly, without a set destination. He tried to figure out ways to get more information about the 'Lesser Starlet Fox' that was his next target.

Not only did he have to find it, but also catch it!

For a task to be set as a [Tier-1 (Mythic)] mission, it had to be extremely difficult and tedious, not something one could easily solve.

Furthermore, he had no time limit which made everything a little bit worse as it would be much more difficult than a mission with a certain amount of time to solve.

'Either the Lesser Starlet Fox is extremely powerful, rare to find, sly, agile or it has something else that makes it difficult to catch!'

However, after re-reading the message several times, Shane figured out that finding his target was a rather difficult task to accomplish in the first place, let alone catching it alive that followed later.

Right now he only had two choices in front of him; either complete the mission or enter the Expert rank without doing so, which would immediately disqualify him from receiving the perfect body refining manual for an Apprentice stage.

As such, he opened the Primordial Library and specifically searched for books that said something about the Lesser Starlet Fox.

Utilizing this function cost him 100 gold coins for the books about Basic-Dimensions which was also the reason for it to be rarely used.

Nevertheless, Shane couldn't afford to be stingy now because he had to dig for more information about the Lesser Starlet fox, its common habitat, strength, prey, predators, likes,  dislikes and so on.

Furthermore, he had already estimated it to be a rare species because it wouldn't be a [Mythic] mission with unlimited time otherwise.

At least, that was what Shane assumed and he could only sigh deeply after he figured out that he was right.

There was only a single, humongous book about the Lesser Starlet fox inside the Primordial Library which shocked him greatly.

Under normal circumstances, the Primordial Library was filled with thousands of books catering to a single subject. There were certain beasts that were even mentioned in several different themes which were what Shane hoped would be the case for the Lesser Starlet fox.

Yet, there was only one, large, and expensive book with a specific name on it which caused Shane to stare at it in horror.

His finger trembled lightly as he paid 200 gold coins to purchase the book.

[Beastarium of extinct Beasts] 

Upon reading this name Shane got goosebumps and he couldn't help but mumble

"How am I supposed to find something that doesn't exist?"

However, after thinking about it, that was impossible! The system wouldn't give him a mission that couldn't be solved.

At least, it was not something the system would normally do…

'It is probably not broken….right?' He asked himself, but how was he supposed to know the answer to that? 

Opening the 'Beastarium of extinct Beasts' on the holographic screen in front of him, he immediately searched for the 'Lesser Starlet Fox'.

Only a moment later, a picture of a small, 20-centimeter tall silver furred fox that had one golden colored strip that looked similar to a golden stream of stars embedded on its fur. Its golden eyes were intently staring at him.

'It doesn't look ferocious...I guess? Rather it looks agile and sly?' 

Seeing the fox, he immediately imagined its instinctive behavior and strength before he started to read through the Lesser Starlet Fox's description.

[The Lesser Starlet Fox is a small fox, known for its playfulness and cheeky attitude. Its racial limit is at the peak-Elite stage and it has a strong spatial affinity.

However, the Lesser Starlet Fox is not known for being aggressive or its high combat prowess, but for its placid behavior. 

It doesn't attack anyone unless provoked and only hunts small beasts to eat and stay alive. 

Before it was reported extinct by several hundred races, the Lesser Start Foxes' habitats primarily consisted of dimensions with long nights to absorb the energy radiating from stars and the moon. Other than that, it also inhabited dimensions consisting of herbs, specific objects, and areas, in general, having a high quantity of spatial affinity transmuted mana.

This indicates that the Lesser Starlet Fox likes places with starlight, moonlight, and spatial affinity transmuted mana around.

It dislikes being hunted and will scheme against anyone who hunted it, which results in death in most cases.

The last reported Lesser Starlet Fox was found dead, more than one millennia ago and there was no more news about Lesser Starlet foxes after that!

Without any further information to verify the existence of the Lesser Starlet fox race and several hundred races reporting it as extinct, the Primordial Library hereby announces it as an extinct race!]

After reading through the few paragraphs several times, he noticed a few things! 

'It's strength should be lower than mine which means I can overwhelm it if I were to find it! However, the Lesser Starlet Fox's spatial affinity could be a big problem. The Golden centipede King was already difficult to fight but it was not fast, which is different from the Lesser Starlet fox that is fast and small.

Now the first problem is how to find one… Apparently, the Primordial Library only uses reported and proven information to determine if a race is extinct or not. This only means that there might still be a Lesser Starlet Fox somewhere, away from the public eye. Maybe there are some races that keep their existence a secret! 

If the provided information is not wrong, every place a Lesser Starlet Fox lives should be extremely secretive. As such, it's obvious that some races keep these regions within dimensions where Lesser Starlet Foxes are habituating, a secret!'

Shane tried to sound optimistic and could feel his tension subsiding slowly.

'At least they shouldn't be extinct!' This was something he was glad about after he went through an emotional roller coaster when he thought that his target might be extinct, preventing him from attaining a perfect Apprentice physique.

Once he figured that out, Shane immediately accessed PrimWeb and created a thread stating that he would pay 100 Gold coins for credible information on Lesser Starlet foxes, such as if they had been sighted in a Dimension, less than 100 years ago.

Furthermore, Shane also added that he would pay 500 gold coins for specific information, about the dimension they could be found in, including the name which was the most important.

'If that's not enough, I can double the rewards in a few days!' He told himself before he sighed deeply.

What was the use of a large fortune if he couldn't do anything with it? 

Right now, he had lots of gold coins but no way to find out more about the Lesser Starlet fox other than searching through the PrimWeb.

The information about Lesser Starlet foxes that had been spotted alive was more than a millennia-old. Also, there were only a few Dimensions with enough Starlight, intense moonlight, or large territories with spatially transmuted mana in them.

However, Shane couldn't simply enter these Dimensions. They were not only extremely dangerous because humanity had yet to set a  foot inside them, but also reigned by strong Basic races that had a foundation of tens of thousand years!

'Should I just ask all the neutral races that have a shelter within such a dimension about the Lesser Starlet foxes?... They might not answer me or maybe even ignore my queries, but it should be worth a try….I guess? I can't just sit here and do nothing!'

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