It was clear. The assimilation had failed.
He let out a quiet sigh — not sharp with frustration, just the exhale of someone who had already made peace with the fact that not everything worked every time. Assimilation wasn't a guarantee. It never had been. He had known that going in, and disappointment over a known variable wasn't something he had much patience for.
He moved on.
His attention turned back to the forest around him, eyes moving with calm, deliberate focus across the treeline, the ground, the spaces between. There had to be something that explained why those awakeners had stood their ground against a legendary grade boar instead of retreating the moment they sensed it. From everything he had pieced together, they were scouts — light, mobile, trained to observe and report rather than engage. Scouts didn't fight head-on with legendary grade creatures unless retreating was no longer an option.
