The body cultivation that most of the universe used was set into ten overall ranks, with seven levels within those ten ranks. The first rank was tin, then there were seven levels of accomplishment inside the rank of tin. Levels 1-3 were low rank, levels 3-5 were mid rank, levels 5-7 were high rank, and rank 7 was peak rank.
Beyond tin was aluminum which is the second level of body cultivation, rank 3 was copper, 4 was cold iron, 5 was dark steel, 6 titanium, 7 darkleaf, 8 mithril, 9 adamantite, and 10 was orichalcum.
The average beast could never reach the intelligence needed to cultivate a human body unless they could reach titanium rank. So it might not be until darkleaf that they actually gained a human or beastkin transformation. But the closer in ancestry they were to a rank 10 beast, or godbeast, the greater the chance they could cultivate the transformation earlier.
On the three forge worlds there were definitely a few higher rank beasts, but in general the higher rank beasts left for the outworlds to have better mana environments. While the forge worlds did have a pretty decent mana environment, there were definitely a lot of better worlds both in mana and in durability.
Gunnar being surprised to see such a beast here was more about being surprised that the Forge would allow the survival training to take place around a beast of such rank.
"How in the hell did the scouts not sense you?! With a beast of your rank here this should have been crossed off the list of possible training grounds!"
The tall muscular beastkin now spoke aloud. "If you are talking about when the humans came and scanned the area, they would not have detected me for two reasons. The first is that I was weakened from giving birth. They would have detected me as a copper beast, and not the titanium great bear I am. The twins father is a higher rank than me, so I would have had a hard time with just one of them much less both."
Gunnar nodded his head. 'That would make sense, if she was giving birth to beast with a high potential they would pull mana out of her like a raging river. But then with two it should have killed her.' He furrowed his brow in confusion.
"No offense, but from everything I've learned, you should have died. Forget being read as a copper beast, that would make sense for one, but not two. How in the world did you survive that?"
"That is part of the second reason they would have missed me, as well as the reason I have mostly recovered and probably why this place is steady enough in mana and space for the demon to be teleported here. The lava pit here is a dragon vein." She then shrugged. "Or at least where one comes pretty close to the surface."
Dragon vein were the semit-biological metal veins that ran through a worlds surface. They both took in used mana and other energies for transport to the worlds core for transformation into useable mana. As well as transpired it back to the surface.
She finally rolled over and sat up, displaying a mostly nude body with fur covering her shoulders and back.
"I have been sucking the mana to help recover and help the young ones develop properly. That has allowed the spacial mana to be steadied enough to allow transpsitioning and teleportaition."
"But then why did you have such an animalistic reaction to the hybrid being here? You are more than strong enough to handle it as if it were a bug. It was not high rank at all."
'Well that has more to do with my personal grudge with demons. It is the reason my mate is not here to protect me during the early birth, as he would have normally. He was killed by the demons not long after I became pregnant, offworld in a demon infraction." She smiled a little wryly with a good touch of sadness in her voice.
The woman slowly stood and watched the two cubs playing around Gunnar. Gunnar being more than a little worried about the cubs crashing into him curled inward slightly to protect his broken ribs. As he curled he suddenly became aware of the multitude of other injuries he sustained from the mad rush and sliding down the mountainside. He had cuts and bruises all over, not the least of which was the bruise from the initial contact with the demon and the explosion of the ice sapphire as well as the flush of all the different higher grade mana types in a close proximity to him.
The cubs slowed down their romp when Gunnar gave his almost strangled gasp of pain. They then came over to him and looked at him with their seemingly intelligent eyes. The slightly smaller framed of the two walked up to his left side and rubbed its head into his shoulder, as lightly as falling snow. Then the other, sturdier sibling came to his other side and butted its head against Gunnar's bent knees.
As they both touched the woman's eyes widened, and she started to jump toward the two but then hesitated and settled back. Speakng as if to herself, she mumbled. "If he survives I will consider it the boy's own luck."
Gunnar on the other hand felt a overpowering rush of energy through him. For the first time in his life, he felt mana. He had felt the manas influence before, the weight that seemed to settle when someone else was actively using mana or was angered and using it without meaning to. But this was different. He actually felt and sensed the energy that flooded him.
Pure heat and flame mana from the sturdier of the twins, and a steady solid earthy energy from the slimmer twin. The two energies met at his abdomen and seemed to begin to romp through his body as the two cubs had been doing earlier.
Gunnar knew that one could technically begin mana training at nearly birth. But on the forge worlds, the mana wasn't tame enough or smooth enough to be controlled by a child who was not expirienced enough to begin refinement. Until they were older, smarter, and able to stand the pain of the raw and wild mana breaking down and rebuilding their bodies repeatedly,they were not given their families refinement technques.
Gunnar gasped and tensed all over know that as wounded as he is the mana rush of two children could absolutely kill him. Either through his body not being able to take the pain or just out right exploding from the too sudden influx.
But as he strained and his skin reddened from the mana sliding in his body. Deep within him he felt his heart almost seem to slow to a stop. But right before he thought it would never beat again, he felt as if a glass ball inside him cracked and nearly shattered. Energy flowed out of those cracks and begin to direct that mana.
The test would be wether he could take the pain long enough for the mana to be expelled or used up by that energy now racing through his blood.
Not terribly far away now, on a transport flashing towards the place where the two children were, along with several other adults, Narrick felt a stir in his blood. He turned his head away from the campsite where he could just now begin to see the girl running and climbing higher by the minute into the tree, towards the distance where he could now sense both the great bear calmly watching and Gunnar fightling for his life as the blood energy and mana clashed in his body. He hit a button on the side of the transport opening a for and jumped out, flashing into the distance to arrive nearly instantly alongside the great bear.