Chapter 16

The first thing I did once outside was secure the location of the magicite gem deposit and more importantly, the pocket dimension in the centre of it. Thankfully it was a remote region close to the Forest of Darkness so I did not have to be wary of watchers from other political powers seeing me easily alter the landscape. The very first thing that I did was to start digging up the magicite gems from the outer rim of the deposit and throw them into my Nebula space.

With my current power level, a portion of will and mastery of the Laws it was very easy, if I had to create another hideout like the previous one I had built with my friends, it would only take me a few minutes by myself. I had only intended to dig up enough gems to make the size of the deposit smaller but once I found that I could actually extract the natural essences from the gems directly into my Nebula and improve my cultivation, I went all out to dig up every last gem.

It still took me two days to completely clear the close to 30 km diameter deposit and with just a tenth of the power of the magicite cores refined into my Nebula, I felt bloated. I had a feeling if I continued to absorb anymore, I would break through to the next stage immediately regardless if my understanding of the laws was a bit lacking. Already I could feel clumps of similar essences that made up my Nebula try to combine and condense into a more solid form and by doing this I was able to clearly observe the Laws of the universe. I was instinctively sure that if I just continued absorbing energy, the formation of a meteor would let me completely master the basic Essence law of the corresponding type and I would ascend to become a Demigod. This particular break through would be really ridiculous even for me, looks like I really underestimated the Stellar Transformation technique.

I decided to not break through for now though as I had found out that at this particular saturation of my Nebula, I could more easily observe the different Laws and Edicts interact naturally. This would not only make studying the other Laws and Edicts in the future easier, it would also give a pretty good base to start fusing them all together. That would definitely be better than just rushing ahead now and only master the most basic Laws, if I remain at this level for a few years, it would greatly enhance my future prospects. I finally made up my mind as there was no particular need for me to hurry that much and besides, I was already at the threshold and could break through anytime I wished to get an instant powerup.

With that I settled to just store the remainder magicite gems in my Nebula space after condensing the remainder pieces into top quality pieces. Another thing I had discovered was that I could condense and purify anything I had placed in my Nebula especially if they were originally treasures with dense natural essences or even magicite beast cores and gem ores. I could refine ordinary materials as well but it would take more time, effort and skill for that though. Long story short, the large quantity of gems that comprised of over 60% low quality ones would not have been able to fit in my Nebula space but by condensing 1000s into a single top-quality gem comparable to the power of a Saint beast core, I was able to swallow the entire mine's worth.

Still, I now had a crazy amount of those top-quality gems and if I ever got around to creating high quality magic cannons, I could fire a forbidden level spell for each top-quality gem. I wasn't going to do something as stupid as waste them as a one-off disposable, I would rather use them for something else if I can't refine them, pity they do not have that spatial energy like a true Saint beast core or I would have turned them into inter-spatial rings.

With the attention grabbing magicite gems scattered about now removed I headed to the true treasure at the centre and arrived before the door to the pocket dimension proper. I still couldn't sense it with my spirit sense properly even if it was right in front of me, I reasoned that the only reason I was even able to sense it at all was due to the advantage of the portion of Will that I had. Anyway, a short jaunt into the pocket dimension proper left me wishing I had more time to stay in this place as not only was the concentration of the natural essence stronger (greater than Sartius' old cave by 50%), the Laws and Edicts were more easily discernible. The purity and lack of disturbances in this place so close to the chaotic energy flows which was the most primal state of the natural essences made studying the Laws and Edicts at least 5 times easier. The only down side that I had found was the defence measure at the doors that was guaranteed to kill an unprepared low-level Saint and the small size of the pocket dimension itself. Seriously it was only a spherical space that was 10 m wide. It would be uncomfortable if more than a dozen people had to share this place and that would only get more congested if large magical beasts like Sartius were included.

I really wish I had more time to properly make use of the place to the fullest but I had other commitments for now unfortunately. Still, I was very grateful for the decision to not dig up the central area like an open pit so the door was in an underground cavern of sorts, I had used the outer region of the mines to create the middle layer of defences for this treasure land by turning it into a large moat/lake pit. I had already diverted a tributary of the Yulan river to help me fill up this lake and deter strangers from setting foot on the small roughly 5 km diameter island in the centre. I still had to speed up the filling of the lake with a few forbidden water spells whenever I had energy to spare but it was worth it.

I then went back to the edges of the Forest of Darkness, grabbed as many plant and tree seeds as I could find. It was not that difficult to use these seeds and my proficiency with the Laws of life to encourage the edges of the forest to grow a bit past the lake I had made. It wasn't all that much but there did seem to be a decade's worth of forest growth around the lake now and I thought that would be plenty enough to discourage outsiders from thoughtlessly bungling into my place. A little more vegetation on the island itself, a little earth manipulation to create a short hill with numerous cave dwellings and I was done for now. It wasn't much but for the nearly two weeks I spent on the whole project; I was happy with it.

"Bebe, Grandpa Doehring, how are you two doing?" I initiated a mental conversation with my partners to enquire about them. I had still taken time to talk to them every day to share information and now that I was done here, I wanted to see if they were ready to leave. I might have to postpone my fight with the Saint dragons of the Forest of Darkness for another time.

"Boss, are you finally done with digging in the dirt? No need to hurry, take your time. Grandpa Beirut is teaching me a lot of things here." Bebe gives a cheeky reply.

"Linley, it is good if you are done dealing with that magicite gem mine. Another deity came by not long ago asking to meet you, I think it would be best for you to return to the castle for now." Grandpa Doehring tells me.

"Another deity, who could it be?" I wonder out loud, as per my knowledge I should not have any dealings with any deity so who could this be. Whatever, I doubt they could do any harm to me while in the presence of both Beirut and Bebe. "Anyway, I'm sorry but I got caught up at the magicite gem mine for longer than I expected, I will return immediately and we can see what this is about."

I rushed back to Beirut's castle and entered after the door opened to welcome me. Just then I heard Beirut send a mental communication to me- "Ah, Linley you've returned right on time. Come meet us at the sitting room, there is a special guest here to see you." He informed me.

On reaching the same sitting room where I had a chat with Beirut before, I find a new person there in addition to Beirut and my three beast companions. It was an old white-haired man with a large white beard in white robes. What is this, a weird I am a divine messenger vibe? I had never seen the man before today but seeing that he was able to be invited into Beirut's castle, I was at least reassured he was not a hostile.

"Well, aren't you a talented youngling. My dear friend Baruch would feel really proud to have such a fine descendant." He states as he looks at me with a smile though I somehow felt it wasn't that sincere.

"Greetings, My Lord, pardon my rudeness but I'm afraid I don't know you are?" I ask politely. I had figured it was at least a fairly powerful deity seeing that I could not grasp his strength in the slightest.

"Oh, where are my manners. My name is Hodan and I am the Planar Overseer of the Yulan continent and it is my responsibility to facilitate the transfer of all the powerful combatants above a certain level to the higher planes." He explains.

"Transfer to the higher planes?" I ask with pretend confusion; I obviously knew all this beforehand thanks to the transmigrator but it was better to play along.

"That's right Linley, training in any of the realms is far more efficient that just training in a material plane. The 7 Divine planes were created by the Sovereigns of the 7 Elements and the concentration of their corresponding elements is many times higher than there and you will be able to train much faster in the corresponding Laws. The 4 Higher planes are even better as they were created by the Overgods themselves and the concentration of all elements is very high there, experts of the Saint level and above are as common as clouds there." Hodan starts his sales pitch.

"Hmmm… that does sound interesting Lord Hodan, but I'm afraid I still have a lot of unfinished business here." I state my prepared excuse.

"Don't be in a rush Linley, when I look at you, I am reminded of your clan leader Baruch. I was good friends with him and the other heads of the four supreme warriors, it is so unfortunate that their clans have declined so much. Back in the day they all had dozens of supreme warrior saints each, now they have all settled in the Infernal realm with the main clan." He throws me a bait and I can see that Beirut is a little pissed that Hodan is trying to tempt me to leave this plane.

"Dozens of supreme warriors each? Main clan in the Infernal realm?" I continue to ask, feigning interest.

"That is going too far Hodan, Know your limits. The boy has already made his choice so don't try to tempt him otherwise you will have to answer to me." Beirut threatens him.

"Why I would do no such thing Lord Beirut, I am oath bound to not force the locals after all." He states in a very sincere tone.

"Dozens of supreme warriors have joined the main clan in the Infernal realm? I did not even know we had a main clan." I state to try and get this show over with. The faster we get through this the faster I can make it clear to Hodan that I do not wish to leave yet.

"Yes Linley, all the four supreme warriors of this plane are in fact a small branch of the main clan in the Infernal realm. Their strength and resources are all considerable and they even have a way to help their clansmen to directly ascend to deity level once they reach saint level." Hodan continues and I was now sure he was positively trying to get me to leave the Yulan plane. Tch, I thought he would remain a bit more neutral and not let his clan's enmity to the Four Divine Beasts Clans colour his perceptions of me so much.

"That does sound impressive Lord Hodan but I would like to try achieve that level by myself. Besides, like I've said I have certain commitments here so I can't leave, I would reconsider if I could return here whenever I wished but seeing that my ancestors haven't done so, I can guess it will not be easy. Still, I doubt I will be able to re-join my clan as soon as I reach the Infernal realm, better I improve my strength so my chances will be better seeing as you have told me there are plenty of experts there, I should be more careful." I completely shut down Hodan's attempts to get me to leave using every point I can think of.

"I think you should leave Hodan, Linley has made his decision." Beirut also calmly states with a very obvious warning to Hodan to not push his luck anymore.

"Sigh, very well, you can come find me at the northern icecaps if you ever wish to head to the higher planes. Thank you for the hospitality, Lord Beirut, I wish you a good day." He gives up seeing that I was not even slightly tempted by his word and with a final farewell to Beirut, he leaves.

"What was that about Big Bro, why was he so eager in trying to convince you to leave the Yulan plane?" Bebe asks me mentally.

"I'm not sure Bebe, but something tells me that his intentions weren't in my best interest despite the words he used." I answer back.

"Snort, well at least you were able to pick up on that. Normally I am not allowed to say much or influence another's choice but you seem fairly level headed, so I will give you one more bit of advice. Don't even think of going into the higher planes until you reach the deity realm." Beirut adds in our conversation again despite Bebe and I only conversing mentally in private.

"Thank you for the advice, Lord Beirut and you praise. Still, I can't say I wasn't tempted a bit by Lord Hodan's words, the support and resources from a powerful clan would be really useful for me." I state my honest opinion.

"Humph, what resources? At your level you would be lucky if you weren't robbed of your current possessions in the higher planes, do not try to obtain things beyond your reach. Besides, like I said before, I still owe you so I may be able to help you a bit as long as you are reasonable. That reminds me, here are the Saint level beast cores you requested earlier." Beirut tells me before tossing me an inter-spatial ring.

"Lord Beirut, this is…" I splutter a bit as I find close to a 3 dozen Saint beast cores in the ring, he had given me and that was not all as the ring contained a lot more resources such as precious ores and metals. It might not appear as much but maybe it was due to the fact that the items only occupied a small portion of the over 500 cubic meter space of the ring itself, I was honestly in a daze at the quality and quantity of the stuff that Beirut had casually handed me.

"Lord Beirut… this… this is too much. I don't think I can accept this." I honestly tell him. While I could make good use of all these, I did not want to completely use up my favour for these kick-knacks, this was a Sovereign we were talking about. Surly I would be able to cash in something more valuable in the future for the favour instead of wasting it all on large quantities of cheap stuff that I can only use now.

"Hahaha, no need to be so surprised Linley, this really isn't much for me and I could even give you ten times as much if you want. Now tell me Linley, is there anything else you need?" Beirut offhandedly tells me as I was worrying on the inside. Now I couldn't be sure if he was tempting me to test my character, the sly old coot. I completely believed he was only being half sincere with his actions, of course the inter-spatial ring, Saint beast cores and other materials were not of much value to him, it could only be a test for me.

Not to mention his status as a Sovereign, he was the only maker of godspark weapons in the known universe and he managed the Necropolis of the gods so even getting his hands on millions of Saint beast cores would not be an issue for him. He was just testing to see if I would let this chance go to my head seeing as I had no way know his real capabilities, if I asked for something a little too unreasonable for a deity, he could deny me without too much guilt then.

"Really Lord Beirut, this is too much already, as you said earlier, one should only try to obtain things within their reach. I would be happy with even half of what you've given me, though if you could…" I trail off as I truly did not know how to phrase what I wanted.

"Oh, you need something else kid. Well, let me hear it, if it is something I can do I'll get it for you." Beirut says with a hint of curiosity at my reply. He was at first pleased with me for not pushing to get more resources, he would have thought me a greedy opportunist if I had asked for more even if he could get those things for me easily. So, while he was happy, I had not pushed, he was curious as to what else I would ask. He really did have thoughts of repaying as I had really done a lot for his descendant and he was even thinking about giving the Lesser Sovereign Water Spark of my ancestor to Bebe instead. He thought he should at least give me a few more benefits to ease his conscience even if he could not match the price of a Sovereign Spark.

"Well, Lord Beirut, you seem to be a really powerful deity so you must have been to the Higher planes I recon." I ask tentatively to which he nods before making a gesture to get on with it- "I figured you would know a lot of stuff so I was wondering if you could spare some time to teach me some things. I will understand if you are busy and would be grateful if you could spare some books even." I ask.

"Hahaha, consider it done kid. This is easy for me as I really have seen and learnt a lot, now tell me what you would like to learn in particular." He asks me with a happy tone.

"Thank you, Lord Beirut. Well as to what I would like to learn, first I would like to request if you have any information on high level spells for all the elements and edicts particularly the forbidden level spells. With my current connections, it is difficult for me to obtain them." I ask first.

"That will be easy, next." Beirut informs me.

"Well, I was wondering if you could give me some guidance in the creation of various kinds of artifacts and formations, I am quite interested in those. Lastly, I would appreciate any general knowledge about deities, the higher planes and my clan in general that you may know, Lord Hodan's words about my clan got me very curious and I would rather learn a bit more about it before I head over." I finish.

"Really Linley, is that all you want from me. Many have come seeking my favour before but never has anyone asked for such trivial things from me. I must admit, this is a strange feeling, hahaha." He lets out a laugh after hearing what I had requested. All of these he could easily do after all and he really wondered if he was even paying the kid back. The most expensive thing he requested this time was knowledge on creating artifacts and formations, even then that was a field that he, Beirut, was an expert in so it was not like he could say he did not have said knowledge.

"Here are some books that you may find useful that should have what you are looking for." He passes some books over before continuing- "There are some general bits of information I feel as though you should know that are not in those books as they are either considered too common to be written down or the books are not updated."

"First off, I will explain about the ranks in the deity realm. What you understand as the deity level is actually a very broad classification and they are again divided into ranks with varying degrees of strength. Still, the strength of those in the same rank may vary greatly so I will also explain more on that…" He starts by explaining that deities are born and raise their strength via comprehension of the natural Laws and edicts and they are broadly classified into ranks of Demigod, Full God and High God based on their understanding of the laws and/or edicts.

He also tells me about the descent of the divine sparks themselves and the benefits of creating a divine clone rather than fusing with the spark, especially for someone with talent in multiple laws like me. He then explains the difference between fusing with someone else's divine spark and training till I obtain my own and how the latter was better since I would be more powerful and my future potential will not be cut off. He warned me that if I fused with another's spark, I would forever be dependent on fusing sparks to rank up and I would not be able to fuse different laws and mysteries. Lastly, he explained how deities in the same rank can vary in strength depending on their understanding of the laws and the benefits those that had fused the mysteries in their elements had over those who had not.

I still listened to all this despite it just being a confirmation of all that I had learnt from the Transmigrator's memories. It was at least useful to Bebe, Grandpa Doehring and Sartius so there was that. He then told me a few more details of the Four Divine Beast Clan as well as some more up to date information on them that was not recorded in the books. He told me about their current troubles before telling me once again that I was wise not to jump at Hodan's offer earlier.

"Thank you for telling me about all that Lord Beirut, if I was not careful, I really would have been tempted by Mr. Hodan's words and rushed in without a better understanding of the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if he was lying about the main clan's methods of enabling Saints to immediately become deities, I don't know, for some reason I felt that Mr. Hodan just wanted to get rid of me." I add while also dropping my respectful address of Hodan from Lord to Mr.

"Oh, he wasn't lying about that bit Linley. As per the clan's namesake, they are in fact descended from 4 Divine beasts of water, wind, fire and earth elements each and they have a way for clan members to awaken their potential despite none of the descendants being divine beasts themselves. The process even lets the clan members use the innate divine ability of the ancestors and despite the abilities power being less than a true divine beast's, many are jealous of even that as it gives the clan members more advantages in a fight." He reveals some more.

"Innate divine ability? What is that?" Bebe asks in between and Beirut then has to answer this new question way before he had originally planned to reveal it.

"Just like Saint level magical beasts, there are a few rare beings in the universe that can reach the demigod level naturally as they mature. These are called Divine beasts and more often than not they awaken a special innate ability regardless of their mastery of the Laws once they mature and become deities naturally. You will also awaken our special ability in time little one." Beirut explains.

"Really, what is our ability Grandpa?" Bebe asks excitedly with sparkling eyes. Damn the cuteness is too much for me.

"Hahaha, well that is a surprise Bebe, just continue to train hard till then." Beirut tells a now pouting Bebe.

"Well, that's enough for today I believe. You may rest in the rooms I had shown you till you decide to leave." Beirut dismisses us and we all return. I hurriedly make my way back so that I can use the time to go over the books that Beirut had given me. I focus on the books on the forbidden level spells as they will give me the most results in the shortest time, the rest I could read in time.

"So, did you fight any overgrown lizards while you were out Big Bro?" Bebe asks me eagerly and got a growl from Sartius that the cute guy completely ignored.

"Hahaha, no Bebe. I got side tracked by other things." I tell him before going into more details about my discovery of the large magicite gem mine as well as the pocket dimension. Understandably, all my listeners were impressed and couldn't wait to check it out themselves.

"Boo, while that place you mentioned was interesting, I would still rather beat up some arrogant lizards. Say Big Bro, how about we drop by their place before going back so we can all see you skin some dragons." The little devil continues to push for conflict and I could see that part of it was just to annoy Sartius who had to quietly endure lest Beirut smash the dragon into paste on his grandson's behalf.

"We shall see Bebe." I answer him. We were already pushing it as it is and my friends back in the Ernst institute must be getting worried. For now, there were some books that I had to read.

"Ah, good morning little one, Linley, Bear brat, worm." Beirut greets us the following morning. I guess I should feel honoured that I was the only one not being addressed with a cute or horrible nickname.

"Greetings Lord Beirut/Morning Grandpa." We all greet him in return.

"Grandpa, it seems that we lost track of time while were staying here and our return will be delayed. Could you please help us get back near our base, that way Big Bro will also have some time to fight some Saint dragons and I can show you proof how strong and capable he is." Bebe proposes to Beirut. Now normally someone of Beirut's status would be quite insulted to being used as a taxi service but he really could not say no to Bebe.

"Sigh, very well. This way I will also get a better idea of the strength of your human companion. You better not make me regret my decision to accept you being my Grandson's human companion, Linley." Beirut says to me and despite the warning that it was, I did not feel that much heat in the threat.

"I will not disappoint you, Lord Beirut." I answer firmly. Thus, soon after we finished breakfast, Beirut accompanied us to the northern edge of the Forest of Darkness where it suddenly drops in a sheer cliff to meet the sea there. With Beirut himself guiding us we found our targets easily enough and we all saw a large cave at the bottom of the cliff, it was fairly large at about 50 metres wide and over 70 metres tall with close to half of it submerged under water.

As we approached, I heard a low growl build from within as if the occupant of the cave was giving us a warning. Understandable as we were encroaching upon their territory with not so good intentions. Soon enough we saw the occupant as they flew out and I lost my breath for a second as I finally caught sight of a magnificent Silver Dragon. Silver dragons were classified as Saint level winged dragons with a natural affinity for wind and lightning, they were also described as one of the most beautiful breeds of dragons with their smooth and elegant silver scales.

"Who dares trespass in the territory of Sylvia?" The dragon roared at us before she caught sight of Beirut and she dialled back on the aggression- "Lord Beirut, pardon my rudeness. What brings you here, how may I be of service?" She asks instead. It wasn't too strange for me as I thought it was only natural that any Saint level combatants in this region be aware of the presence of the local hegemon.

"I'm afraid I have come to cause some trouble for you little Sylvia. You see I recently found that my Grandson here has contracted this here human, fortunately the human has shown some promise to treat my little one well and shows potential. I brought him here to test his strength against you and your daughter, I hope you and Selene won't mind." Beirut answers calmly. Although no one would like being used like this, especially those prideful Saint dragons, in front of monsters like Beirut they could not object.

"This… a human would dare to form a contract with one of your direct descendants." While she was not happy with being used as a stepping stone so suddenly, she was even more surprised by the fact that I was still alive and in one piece.

"Well, as I've said, he seems to be close to my Grandson and he shows potential. I still want to test him so don't hold back, if he cannot endure against you and Selene then he truly wouldn't be worthy." Beirut says. Looks like he has decided to not mention my true purpose of collecting their blood, those dragons can truly get prickly if they feel they are insulted. It really wouldn't matter that the amount of blood I needed would only count as a few drops for them, it was just the thought of someone spilling their noble blood and just collect it that they were against on principle.

"Very well, Lord Beirut. Please give me a moment and I will call my daughter as well; she has gone out to sea for a swim." The Silver Dragon Sylvia states before I sense her extend her spiritual sense out to contact her daughter. We now had to wait till the other dragon arrived.

"Grandpa, do you really intend for Big Bro to fight off two dragons at once?" Bebe questions his Grandfather. He was not looking down on me or anything, it was just that he was unaware of how powerful I was and just how much of a cheat having a portion of Will at this stage would be for someone. It was natural as Beirut had also elected to not explain about Will to any of us so other than Beirut and myself, nobody had a good understanding of my strength.

"Humph, of course. If anyone seeks to say they are the human companion of my descendant then they must be the best of the best." He states while ignoring Bebe's plea to not have me fight two opponents at once. In a way Beirut really was testing me and was already taking it easy by having me fight only two opponents. From the Transmigrator's knowledge, I knew all the crazy difficult challenges he had the participants of the Necropolis of Gods go through. The only reason he was taking it easy on me and only have me fight two Saints was due to my young age and inexperience. He reasoned if I couldn't deal with this much with all the advantages I had it truly would be a waste of talent on my behalf.

Soon enough the wait was over as another beautiful winged dragon rose out from the water not far from the cave. Unlike her mother, this one was a beautiful sapphire blue with deep purple highlights along her eyes, underside and the inside of her wings. All in all, she looked even prettier than her mother and here I thought that Silver Dragons were the best looking of the Dragons.

Sartius seemed to agree with my judgement on this new dragon as the prideful idiot growled a bit with his mouth hanging open. Everyone then turned to stare at the tailless Armoured Razorback Wyrm that had just called the more powerful blue dragon 'Beautiful' out loud.

"Humph, you called for me mother?" The blue dragon proceeds to completely ignore Sartius and addresses her mother while I try to hold in my chuckles so as not to offend the dragon I was looking to form a contract with. Bebe, Grandpa Doehring and Beirut on the other hand had no such reservations.

"Ah, Youth." Beirut comments after which the trio let out another chuckle and Sartius is trying really hard not to yell at them as the main perpetrator for his miserable plight was a powerful deity.

"So, you are the human who has formed a contract with Lord Beirut's Grandson. You don't look like much, let's see if you are really worthy of such a favour from Lord Beirut." The blue dragon calls out as she and her mother, the Silver Dragon confront me.

I also float forward while drawing my twin blades at the same time. I don't transform though as I want to test out my powers in my current form first. "Thank you for agreeing to this spar." I state as I get into a ready stance.

"Hmmm, still you look very young for a human, no wonder Lord Beirut was looking upon you with so much favour. If you are even just three times your apparent age, you would still be considered a genius among your kind." Sylvia states.

"Whatever, enough chatting, let's fight." Selene the blue dragon decides to stop wasting time and just charges at me. I must say that despite my current strength it was still a little unsettling to have a 30+ metre Saint dragon to come charging at you for a fight.

I barely avoid her charge as it was not just her large maw I had to avoid. She was very nimble and she was very fluid to make the best use of a Saint beast's innate ability to alter their size, it was difficult to gauge distances with her strikes as she seemed to change her size at the drop of a hat. So I had to make a rather hasty retreat to avoid the claws and wings after she missed biting me with her jaw and I still nearly got bisected by her whip like tail in the end.

I had to resort to utilizing my understanding of the laws of wind to evade her last attack with the tail. As I tried to put some distance between us, I spotted Sylvia in the rear finish a spell and I was caught in a large hurricane caused by the forbidden wind style spell- Annihilation Tempest. If it was not bad enough that I had to contend with strong winds carrying numerous wind blades, it only got worse as the seawater was pulled in by the storm and Selene charged headfirst into the storm to continue attacking me.

Normally one would think it was foolish for a large Saint beast to charge into a powerful AOE spell that was already pressuring a target as they would have to suffer more attacks themselves and the original target of the spell would use the chance to escape. That would have been the normal case but Selene was a genius peak Saint with insights into the mysteries of Waterbody of the Laws of Water. She completely merged into the seawater that was pulled in by the tempest and together with her mother's wind spell, started to attack me with water in the form of whips, blades and torrents.

I was honestly very impressed by both the dragon's combat ability and especially their team work, even Sylvia's forbidden spell attack had traces of the Laws of Wind. I could feel the control the Silver Dragon had on the storm and though her understanding of the Laws might not compare to her daughter's let alone my own, she could also be classified as a peak Saint.

I decided to combat with my own understanding of the Laws and chose to mostly restrict myself to the same ones my opponents were using. That way we could more easily exchange pointers and it could be said that I was giving something to my opponents as well instead of having Beirut force them. I used my understanding of the Essence of Water and Circular Softness to create an area of defence around me that was able to easily parry all attacks to my person. With the way I was moving with my twin blades around it looked like I was completely surrounded by a ball of water that could block any attack from getting within a metre of my body.

I chose to defend for a bit as I studied Selene's Waterbody technique as I hadn't quite grasped much of that technique myself. It could prove useful especially as I could then extrapolate the other elemental body mysteries with that as a base. We were all at a stalemate for quite a while and despite my defence getting better as I reinforced them with the insights into Waterbody, the attacks did not let up. Just like I learnt to internalise my understanding or the Laws of Water into my own physical body to learn Waterbody, Selene had also observed my usage of Essence of Water and Circular Softness to get stronger. Despite the raging storm, her attacks continued to get more and more streamlined and focused rather than the turbulent mess it was before.

Selene's attacks grew stronger as she was able to more precisely control her Waterbody as well as the water around her so now the hurricane started to look more and more like a dense and deadly whirlpool rather than a loose collection of wind chopped turbulent waters. After another 10 minutes of the fight though the dragons decided that they had had enough so they sought to end the stalemate. I felt the wind storm lose Sylvia's control as she was taking time to build up the next attack and Selene too seemed to be preparing something despite not letting up her water attacks one bit.

"Impressive, I am beginning to see why Lord Beirut has kept you alive. Let's see if you can defend yourself against our next attack." Selene states and immediately I feel alarm bells ringing.

There was a brief lull in the fight before a massive lightning bolt hit the now water cyclone intent on frying me to cinders. I immediately abandon any thought to block or parry this all-consuming attack and instead use my understanding of Spatial and Dimensional winds along with Wind Walking to directly get out of the storm using the smallest of air gaps available.

I look back at the insane rampage of lightning and couldn't help but shudder as its power was comparable to the most powerful bolt from my last tribulation and I had no formation to buffer the attack for me. Again, it was a remarkable show of co-ordinated attacks as both of them had lightning affinities as well and the pre-existing seawater hurricane only made it more dangerous. The lightning's power was especially devastating as the mother-daughter pair had incredible insights into the Laws of Lightning to only focus on building up a single charge each of either positive or negative and let lose to have them clash violently in the storm.

Well better get on to offence now or it will just continue with me defending until they catch me off-guard with another nasty surprise. With that thought in mind I first sought to deal with Sylvia who was keeping distance so far. I immediately reach the spot behind her wing joints using another fast approach thanks to my understanding of Wind Walking, Fast, Slow, Spatial and Dimensional winds and in the same breath with only the Fast and Slow aspects of wind channelled into my blades I cut at the base of the Silver Dragon's wings. (Honestly, I was afraid I would directly kill her if I used the other Laws in my attack as well and I didn't want that.)

"*GROAR.." Sylvia let out a loud roar of pain as she dropped out of the sky due to the massive injury but succeeded in stopping before she hit the water. While a Saint beast did not need wings to fly, all beings that were already used to flight using their wings had that little weakness of being overly reliant on them so Sylvia was now finding aerial movement to be more difficult now.

"Mother…!" Selene calls out to her mother in worry before turning rage filled eyes to me. She charged at me and after a massive inhale she breathed out a massive torrent of pressurised water at me that I chose to dodge. Good thing that I did though as she had also seemingly chilled the water to such a degree that as soon as it crashed into the cliff face behind me it solidified into an ice block while sticking to the wall after burying into it quite a bit. Laws of Ice, well I was impressed by the diversity of Selene's arsenal and her insight, she really seemed like a primary Water style expert.

"Don't worry, I didn't forget about you." I say as I swung my sword at her next and while imbuing the laws of Ice and Ice edge myself along with Circular Softness to create a clean smooth slash that was deadly sharp. Space seemed to bend with my strike and though Selene protected herself from the physical damage with her Waterbody technique, she got hit by the spiritual attack that was added on to bypass physical defence.

"Ugh…" With a might crash and splash soon after she hit the iced cliff face before falling into the sea. She had nearly completely lost consciousness when my spiritual attack struck like a deadly sword slash and her Soul core started to grow increasingly sluggish when frost started to spread over it from the cut.

Before I could follow up on Selene, her mother Sylvia attacked me with a wind-based dragon roar attack that I easily avoided and decided to respond to her in kind. Instead on being a physical attack, my roar focused on the Laws of Sound Waves and Music aspect of Wind Laws to deal a purely spiritual attack. Sylvia was also instantly rendered dizzy and just like her daughter, fell into the sea after crashing into the cliff.

"I advise you both to surrender." I call as both of them slowly break the surface of the water and get back in the air with difficulty.

"That was impressive but we are not done yet." Selene answers back.

I was looking to end this so I focus on the Essence of Lightning and Lightning form to perform a rapid lightning speed dash and open up a long wound with my sword on the blue dragon's side that actually caused her to bleed this time around.

"Again, I advise you to reconsider." I say as I had now shown that I could easily kill them both as they are not fully recovered from my spiritual attack and their physical abilities have reduced greatly. I had already achieved my goal of collecting their blood as well as I had discreetly collected a few gallons from both when I caused some physical damage to them.

"That is enough Selene. We admit our defeat human, you are clearly very skilled." Sylvia decides to intervene before her prideful daughter gets it into her head to turn this spar into a real life and death battle.

"Humph, fine. You only got lucky this time human, the next time we fight it will be our victory." Selene calls out to which I can only chuckle.

"I will be looking forward to sparring with two such magnificent dragons again. Now I would like to thank you for even agreeing to spar with me in the first place. Even though Lord Beirut may have requested it, this is for you." I honestly respond with a smile before I cast a powerful Life type healing spell on them that instantly heals the wounds on their bodies and also greatly alleviates the mental damage they had suffered. I also throw two of the condensed magicite gems that had Saint level concentrations of wind, water and lightning elemental essences in them. Those were the affinities I had seen them display so far and it should be enough of a recompense for the spar as it was equivalent to a couple decades worth of cultivation for them if they can fully absorb them.

"This…" Both their eyes shine with happiness as they had already sort of resigned themselves to just be used for testing by Lord Beirut. Now, not only were they healed but they also got a nice treasure for their troubles.

"Hahaha, good good. That was indeed a splendid battle, not only are you strong Linley but this action shows me that you are also not the type to let the power go to your head either. Few who reach your level of power would treat others so courteously, especially ones who reach this level at such a young age as you. I am truly pleased that my Grandson has contracted you and am sure he will learn much in the future." Beirut flies over in a happy mood with the rest of the peanut gallery.

"Thank you, Lord Beirut." I give a small bow to him.

"Hrmmm, Linley right, it's a shame that it looks like you've already got three contracted magical beasts or I would have decided to join you. That way we could spar more regularly." Selene says next and finally addresses me by name.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind if you joined. I am only contracted to two magical beasts at the moment as Sartius has yet to…" I had started to say before said Armoured Razorback Wyrm makes a desperate leap towards me looking to take a bite.

"What is the meaning of this Sartius?" I ask as I stop him by grabbing him in a large hand formed by water. Now that I have some insight into Waterbody, stuff like this was easy.

"What do you mean, Linley? I thought that you said that you wanted to form a contract of equals with me. Are you going back on your word now?" He growls back his retort.

Really what a shameless dragon, I had to coax him so much before and he wasn't even addressing me by name. Now that I had revealed more of my strength and the final slot of my contracted magical beast companions was about to be fully filled, he sought to cash in immediately. The sly old lizard, just as I was giving up on him and had found a willing Saint dragon instead, he finally put his pride aside now that he saw he was about to be replaced by someone stronger.

"What now you want to join our group after you have seen how awesome Big Bro is? Go away you shameless lizard, have you seen yourself, my Big Bro is awesome enough to even impress even powerful Saint dragons and has no need for you." Bebe squeaks out from Beirut's hands causing the Sovereign to chuckle in mirth.

"Ho, so you wish to form a bond of equals, do you? You are quite a strange one Linley, normally humans as talented as you would seek to turn us into servants or worse, mounts. I have no objections if you form a bond of equals with my daughter." Sylvia states.

"Ho, would you say the same if you knew that this one is of that lineage of Dragon hunters, the so called Dragonblood Warriors. In fact, the main reason he even came to fight you two was to collect the blood of Saint dragons for his own use." Sartius seeing that the situation is getting dangerous decides to throw some mud on my reputation so he wouldn't lose his chance at forming a contract with me. Now I was feeling really strange as these so-called prideful dragons were arguing over forming a bond with me.

"Really now, still I don't care about that too much. We lost in a fight fair and square so I it doesn't bother me if you took some of our blood when you injured us. Besides if you really are of that clan of humans, that means that you can transform into an even more powerful state and you did not even need that to fight us." Selene casually dismisses Sartius' efforts to discredit me.

"Hahaha, I knew something like this would happen, someone who is so powerful and treats their magical beast companions with so much care is bound to attract others to form a contract with you. It is your choice in the end Linley but I will say that it would be quite good if you contract Selene or at least get to know each other, she also has the same dragonblood lineage as you." Beirut adds seeing the fun.

"I'm also of the same lineage?" Selene asks in shock and I am also taken aback by this revelation.

"She also has the same dragonblood lineage as me, how?" I ask curiously as I don't remember anything like this from canon or even from the Transmigrator's memories when he was looking up the state of affairs of the remaining supreme warriors. Upon thinking further for a bit, I figured that Selene did not come up because I had focused on direct human descendants in my search and not any of Beirut's other successful experiments.

"Ahem, well it is difficult to trace out the exact number of descendants of that lineage and not all of them are human. The original source and Ancestor of your line was not a human after all." Beirut gives a very unreliable explanation. Tch, no need for so much beating around the bush, I may not know how exactly but I know this was Beirut's doing. No wonder he let these two Saint dragons settle on the edges of his territory, if they are part of his experiments, it would make sense to have them close by for observation.

"Well, does that mean you're like my big sister or something?" I ask as I look at Selene. She looks at me while blinking her huge eyes before she also suddenly leaps at me.

"Hahaha, so I have a little brother? I always wanted to have a little sibling. Hmmm, although you are a lot stronger than me it does not matter, Big Sis will help take care of you." She was surprisingly quick in grabbing me and due to my shock, I was not able to react fast enough. Before I knew it she had me in her grasp and was patting my head and nuzzling me a bit while still being surprisingly gentle to not crush me.

"Unhand me!" I exclaim in indignation.

"None of that now. Come call me Big Sis." She coos at me leaving me completely lost for words. Beirut, Bebe and Grandpa Doehring are laughing their heads off on the side though as they look on at my predicament.

"Ugh…" I get a massive headache at this new twist in my life and seeing as I am not going to get any help from anyone to resolve this peacefully, I am forced to relent. "Please let go of me Bis Sis."

"See that was not so hard now was it, little brother." Selene coos some more after letting go of me after one last pat to the head. I am gritting my teeth in frustration as the rest break out in laughter again and even Sartius has joined them this time.

"Sigh, whatever. Sele…" I try to change the topic of conversation but another glare from the blue dragon has me quickly changing my words- "Uhhh… right sorry, Big Sis, you are really impressive. Your strength and technique are amazing, have you used any special training method, perhaps the special technique that my own ancestors developed?" I ask.

"Special techniques? No, I have not trained using any special techniques in particular." She answers.

"But then, how…?" Just as I was wondering how she reached such a level on her own, Beirut answers- "Linley, while I am intrigued by the special methods you have taught the magical beasts with you, that is not the only way for us to develop. True, your methods have proven to be very effective and can greatly speed up a magical beast's accumulation of power but it is not the normal way for a magical beast to develop. The natural development of a magical beast has always been superior to those of humans and that is especially true for those of powerful lineages. Humans can only compete with us by using various different techniques and a lot of hard work." Beirut explains.

I was internally cursing after that and really lamenting the fact that the stupid Truck-kun transmigration had a limitation on reincarnation into human lines only. Still, I commended myself for having the foresight to at least think of choosing this place for the chance to get some of the benefits of the Azure Dragon lineage.

"That is just not fair. Still, I wonder if her strength can improve further if she practices my clan's methods? Sele.., Ahem, Big Sis, would you like to find out?" I ask. In the end, the mother-daughter dragon pair decided to accompany us back to Beirut's castle after the Big Cheese himself invited them along to continue our discussions.

We discussed at length on the way back and I took the time to explain the special battle Qi cultivation methods of the dragonblood warriors for Selene's benefit. From there we continued to talk about our battle itself.

"I must say, you are also very impressive little brother. All this time I was so proud of my accomplishments with my Water techniques and some of my Lightning ones as well but you were just as good with them and Wind as well. Mother and I must be very lucky to have encountered such a wonderful sparring partner." Selene tells us.

"Indeed, that last technique you hit me with that caused me to nearly faint was particularly powerful. I had first thought that you roaring at me was only just your anger or something, it had barely any power to physically injure me. I never could have guessed that it could directly attack my Soul like that." Sylvia adds.

"That was indeed very impressive, Linley. There are not that many Saints who even think to use spiritual attacks like that let alone develop them. The few Magus Saints that do use spiritual attacks only do so in desperation and just blindly throw large portions of their spiritual power at their opponents. It is just too wasteful and the attacks are not even nearly as powerful as yours had been." Beirut adds.

"Spiritual attack? Was that what that Ice sword attack you used on me was, it was really powerful… you'll show you Big Sis how to do that too right?" Selene asks while turning her large sparkling eyes to me. Can a dragon do puppy dog eyes? I wondered as I eventually relent to help her with creating a spiritual attack of her own.

Once we made it back to Beirut's castle we settled in for more detailed discussions as Selene and Sylvia were not the only ones interested in spiritual attack and defence techniques. I explained how I was doing it as best as I could and promised to help them all with it over time. As we discussed some more things such as the Saint dragons wishing to accompany me for a bit, Beirut took the time to excuse himself so he could attend to some tasks. When he returned during lunch time, I found out that he had gone to collect some more books as he now had a better understanding of my level after seeing me in a fight. The new set of books included more details of formations related to Souls as well as those needed to create Soul defence artifacts.

As we were having lunch, I discovered that Sartius was a little too subdued. I decided to speak to him in private after the meal just in case to find out what had gotten to him.

"What's gotten you so down Sartius?" I ask him.

"Sigh, nothing Linley. It's just… I have lived for centuries already and had even spent most of that time in that wonderous cavern in the mountain ranges. Yet my strength which I was so proud of before only amounts to so much in this world, I am so far from the likes of you and even those Saint dragons let alone those like Lord Beirut." He starts off with a faraway look.

"What has that got to do with anything? It's not like everyone can just reach the top easily, a lot of hard work and training is involved and sometimes a bit of luck as well. You are only a few centuries old, there are others out there who have not progressed significantly for 1000s of years or even longer." I comfort him.

"Snort, and I still threw away one such lucky chance to better myself due to my own stubborn pride. If I had been even slightly more willing to agree to forming a bond of equals with you earlier… sigh." He really seems to be regretting his earlier actions now.

"Well, there is still a chance." I state with a grin that has him look at me with an incredulous look on his face and I continue- "As you said earlier, I did promise to offer you the spot for my last magical beast contract. What do you say?" I state.

"Linley… I… I don't know what to say." Sartius finally says after coming out of shock.

"A yes or no will do. I will add on that I will not ask again after this; I also still have some pride too you know." I tell him and after his eager acceptance soon after I finally get my third and last magical beast partner in this life.