The function changed how he read the mission board.
He had been choosing contracts based on zone familiarity, material grade targets, and permit access. Those three things had worked well. But the Path Compatibility Analysis added a fourth factor: which creatures, at which depth, in which zones, would feed the Dragon-line substrate rather than just the primary Beast channel.
He spent twenty minutes at the board one morning running the calculation.
Zone eight had three active contracts with Beast-type targets at high D-Rank depth. Two of those contracts specified sub-species he already knew produced above-standard compatibility. The third was a new listing for a creature type he had not encountered before—a Rift Fell Hound, listed under Beast-Shadow dual expression.
Dual expression. Shadow component.
