Chapter 19

The days past and it was now October of Yulan Calendar Year 9999. Just as I was worrying about Cesar not turning up before Apocalypse Day or him being delayed due to some other complication leading to being unable to complete my request; Bebe finally reported to me that he had turned up at our hideout one day in the middle of October and I once again slipped out of my manor to finish this deal.

"It is good to see you again, Lord Cesar. I trust everything went smoothly on your end?" I ask after greeting him and seeing his usual carefree and lazy smile.

"Hahaha, everything is fine now. I am sorry for the delay Master Linley; it has been a while and it seems as though I have forgotten how stubbornly mule headed Armand and his descendants could be. Rest assured I was able to convince all five brothers to move to Channe, some of them had their own family already which was the cause of the delay. I trust that my original request to you has also been completed?" Cesar responds before following up on my side of the deal.

"Yes, I have finished the sculpture as per your request and I must say it turned out great, I'm sure you will like it." I tell him. We continue to chat over drinks and snacks for a little bit before I offer to escort Cesar to where I had put the sculpture on display.

"My, this is an impressive little hide away…" Cesar comments as I show him around the place a bit on the way.

"Right this way Lord Cesar, I have arranged the sculpture in this room." I lead him straight to the sculpture and am rewarded by the look of awe that fills his face once he finally lays eyes on it. Bebe and I watch on from the side as Cesar move forward by himself while admiring the sculpture as if in a trance.

He is completely lost in admiring the artwork as he studies each and every set from every angle before moving on to the next piece. This continues all the way until the 6th set piece and just as he was turning away his eyes widen in shock as he seems to almost impale himself on the stone dagger the final piece was grasping. He freezes for an instant before laughing out loud.

"Hahaha… marvellous, truly marvellous. You truly exceed your reputation in every way Master Linley and I am beyond happy to see that it is not only your personal strength that is beyond the norm." He praises me.

"I am glad you like it Lord Cesar, I trust you have made the arrangements to transport these sculptures like I had told you." I ask him. He did indeed have a suitable inter-spatial ring ready and after a little more light hearted conversation we bid each other farewell and went our separate ways.

Now with that done it was only a matter of waiting quietly for a couple more months and making any last-minute preparations. I decided to craft another batch of inter-spatial rings just in case as it would be better to have more tools than necessary for my planned heist rather than not have enough. I also made one final check on the power of my dorm bros who were still in the city and was very happy with their current strength that would allow them to fight even 8th rank beasts if they worked together. I could confidently say that they could even escape from a handful of 9th rank beasts safely which would all but guarantee their survival as the Saints and Dylin would be too busy with the Church's Saints; I'd still be close by though and they were still carrying the enchanted Jade slips I had made them so long ago.

The 1st of January, year 10,000 of the Yulan Calendar dawned nearly just like any other day, albeit a very festive one. It seemed as though the Church and the Union as a whole had planned to host a grand celebratory mass prayer at the central Cathedral. Being the Union's top genius, I was naturally invited to attend; more like being forced to actually but I somehow managed to beg off by saying I was on the cusp of another breakthrough and needed to go into closed door meditative training.

It was mid-morning when I caught the first signs of the tragedy about to unfold. Even with all the preparation and planning, I was still affected quite badly when I sensed the wave of beasts hit. The guilt of knowing that I was the cause of this struck the Transmigrator part of me heavily despite the Original Linley and more logical Transmigrator parts were telling me that this was bound to happen even if I had not pulled Bloodviolet from the sealing formation. My complexion paled as I felt the life of each human be snuffed away by the remorseless beast tide and my heart was nearly overcome by grief of knowing that scenes like this were occurring over much of the Union and Cult's territories.

'No point in beating yourself up at this point. Better to use this chance to improve yourself as much as possible so that you will actually have the strength to do something if disasters like this happen in the future.' I psych myself up and shake away most of my insecurities to do what was needed of me. I begin drawing in all the Souls of the deceased within my range irrespective of beast, human, man, woman or… child. That last one nearly had me drown in guilt all over again and I had to really push myself to continue, it was the least I could do as I considered the turmoil of my heart and conscience as a way of repentance. Never again I swore to myself, never again will I let such a tragedy such as this unfold on this new world I call home and may the Overgods have pity on the fools that would try to hurt my friends and family in the future.

I once again firmed my resolve to do what needs to be done in this new life of mine before moving out. Bebe and I easily slipped my guards as they were too busy reacting to the approaching wave magical beasts, heading to our first target- the royal palace of the Kingdom of Fenlai.

I cast my stealth spells and I slipped into the palace unseen just as I saw Clayde rush past the throne room with his personal guard. "What a disaster, the Kingdom of Fenlai is probably finished." He was complaining as he rushed towards what I assumed to be the treasury.

"Stand guard out here while I go inside to make preparations. I won't be long so if anything happens call out to me, none of you is to enter in here without my express permission." Clayde firmly gives out an order to his guards before entering the treasury and closing the doors behind him.

Lucky, I thought as I slipped in to the room behind him and here, I was wondering how to discreetly kill him without raising an alarm. I did not waste even a second to glance at the riches of a Royal clan had accumulated over 1000+ years as I focused on Clayde. I knew he had some b*llsh*t protection enchantment given to him from the church so I went all out in my attack from the get go. I used the Laws of Earth, especially my understanding of the Throbbing Pulse, Strength and Essence as they had a good defence bypassing and penetrating damage especially now that I could create a strengthened 10 layered wave attack.

"Wha…?!" Clayde could barely utter any more as his magical protection flared to life for barely a second before being crushed and my attack struck him. He was dead before his body even struck the ground, it was too quick and easy for him I thought as I wanted him to suffer a lot more so I absorbed his Soul into the CD ring to deal with at a later time. I burnt the body to ashes before clearing the entire treasury by storing the riches into the various inter-spatial rings I had prepared.

Together with help from Bebe we were done within a couple of minutes as we did not bother to inspect what we were storing away; everything here was bound to be worth a considerable fortune anyway. We slipped passed the guards outside easily enough and went to hit my next target, Duke Patterson. Patterson was also just as easy to deal with as he, like his brother was making similar plans that met the same unfortunate result as it did for Clayde.

With my main targets so easily dealt with I decided to continue on to loot my secondary targets, the residences of some of the higher ups of the Church and the various ministers of the kingdom. All in all, I got a pretty big haul from my looting activities and only stopped after I sensed a huge commotion from the direction of the central cathedral. After taking a peek to see what was happening, I finally found the main confrontation between the Saint level combatants of the Church and the Saint beasts of the beast tide. Currently the forces of the Church had a slight advantage but I knew it wouldn't last as Dylin had yet to make an appearance.

I decided to stop seeing as I had looted plenty as is and began looking for my friends. I knew they were safe as I could still sense their Jade slips and their positions which told me they were making a break towards the city's western gates.

"That should be enough looting, Bebe. Things seem to be escalating a little too much, how about we meet up with my dorm bros and make a break for it." I mentally communicate to Bebe.

"Sure thing big bro, this is becoming too boring anyway. We can at least fight more openly as we make our escape with everyone. Let's go, I am eager to show all these little beasties the true power of a divine beast." Bebe responds back after hopping onto my shoulder

"Hahaha, You have still not fully matured Bebe, I'm sure there are plenty of powerful beings out there that are much stronger than you are right now." I gently chastise him a bit as I quickly and stealthily fly towards my dorm bros.

"Humph, only for now, I will surely surpass them soon. Besides, I doubt there are many out there that are stronger than you, big bro and even if there are, humph, are there any that would be stronger than Grandpa Beirut." He fires back and I really have no response for that.

Thankfully I am spared from responding to that and somehow truly provoking Murphy's Laws as I soon spot my dorm bros rushing out of the city accompanied by an able band of fighters of the Dawson Conglomerate. Their group was being chased by a mixed hoard of magical beasts as well but it was only 6th or 7th rank beasts mostly which they could handle. Seeing as they were among the first major groups to be moving out of the city, they were having an easier time as the higher ranked beasts still wreaking havoc in the central region of the city. The only problem they really seemed to be having was due to the various flying type beasts that were continuously harassing them and supporting the terrestrial beasts.

"You want to take care of this Bebe?" I ask my partner while gesturing towards the flying beasts that seemed to be the most troublesome issue. The group just did not enough long-range fire power it seemed and while my dorm bros were powerful magi and showing their prowess, they could not risk being too flashy with their spells lest they attract the wrong kind of attention in this mess.

"Leave it to me, boss." The little guy answered before I saw him envelope himself with the greenish glow of a wind element flight spell and whizzing off to battle. Soon the flying magical beasts that were harassing my friends started dropping down like dead flies causing the ground bound magical beasts and humans freeze momentarily.

"Hey guys, I'm glad to see you all doing well so far." I call out in the brief silence as I approach them.

""Third bro!"" my dorm bros cry out in joy.

Munroe Dawson POV-

Munroe Dawson was not having a good day today. It started off as a slightly better than normal day what with it being the 10,000 year celebration of the Yulan Calendar but the hoard of bloodthirsty magical beasts put a damper on that like nothing else. And here he was worrying over a Cardinal of the Church who had sought an audience with him in a few days after he had reduced their conglomerate's trading within the Union considerably over the past year based on his younger son Yale's advice.

His life was more important to him than any business deals and looking at his son Yale and his friends George and Reynolds easily killing multiple beasts to help their group escape, he decided to shelve away any prior bad thoughts he had of Yale. He had no idea that the impressive strength and talent that Yale had displayed to convince him to reduce dealings in the Union and Cult territories was much greater than he had imagined.

He was sure they would not have been able to progress so far and so quickly towards the exit of the city without Yale and his friends leading the charge, especially when they were beset by flying beasts as well. If it was just him and his own personal forces, they would have suffered heavy casualties dealing with this and there was a good chance of them not being able to make it. Just a short while after Yale threw some coins to bring down some of their arial foes, another shocking development occurred as a lot more bodies than were shot by his son fell to the ground.

Then he heard a new voice calmly call out- "Hey guys, I'm glad to see you all doing well so far."

Yale and his friends eagerly turned to greet the speaker happily and as he had expected, it was indeed the fourth member of his son's dorm at his old school. Linley Baruch, 17-year-old mage genius of the 7th rank, with his help he was sure their chances of survival went way up.

"Linley! It is good to see you are alright my boy. I am sorry we could not come find you in this mess before… but why don't you join us. With your help I'm sure we will all be able to escape this madness." Monroe calls out.

"That is exactly why I came to join you Uncle Monroe. Now let us make haste and flee this place, you three, take point, Bebe will secure the perimeter and I will deal with anything that could pose a problem." Linley quickly assigns roles to everyone and we quickly proceed far faster than we were before.

Monroe was only slightly disappointed when he saw that Linley was not making any move to actively fight but had taken a position of rear support. He had really been looking forward to seeing the strength of the so-called 2nd most talented magus in all of history. Though it had to be said that he did not really need to make a move personally, just by following his directions and taking a few detours through some side alleys, they made it out of the city's western gates not long after. The few beasts we still had to face were not much of an issue for the fighters.

They were able to flee much faster on the open roads outside the city as the beast tide was still a little too busy attacking the concentrated human population of the city. Monroe let out a sigh of relief after a few hours now that they were out of immediate danger, they still continued their retreat towards the north this time until the early evening.

"Alright, let us set up camp here for the night. Same rules as when camping within the mountain range of magical beasts apply. Everyone do your best to keep track of each other and don't wander off on your own, we are not out of the woods yet." Linley once again calls out and after Monroe also agrees, everyone starts making camp.

Dinner was a sombre affair; everyone was still on edge despite guard watch having bee assigned till morning. Monroe sat by the central fire with a bowl of simple soup along with his closest aides and bodyguards. Accompanying him were his son Yale and his three other friends.

"Seriously Third Bro, I knew something dangerous was going to happen but I never expected a disaster of this scale. All that extra training paid off though." Yale spoke out in between spoonsful of soup.

"What do you mean young master Yale? Were you expecting something of this nature?" One of his close aides asks his son and Monroe also could not help but pay more attention as he was also very curious.

"Well… honestly, I am only just slightly prepared you could say. I have learned a special type of magic that can give me a few warnings about what is to come. It is not predicting the future as such but more like giving me a certain feeling on what my choices will lead to, that is why I had asked father to liquidate as much business within the Holy Union and Dark Alliance territory." Yale explains some more.

"Wait is that why you asked me to pull out of these markets a couple of years ago?!" Monroe asks in shock. He had been surprised and disappointed at first when Yale had come to him with those business ideas. At the time he was somewhat dissatisfied with Yale's discission to withdraw from the race to become the next leader of the conglomerate as well as he thought that Yale had the best talent out of all his children.

In his opinion if he did not want to take up leadership then he should not interfere with the running of their business but now he could only bang his chest in frustration at not taking Yale's advice more seriously. Just the little steps he had taken to play along with Yale's advice had probably saved their conglomerate billions, he made a choice then and there that even if Yale wants to pursue personal power more, he would still tie him to the conglomerate in some way.

He had already seen a good showing of Yale's martial prowess as they escaped the beast tide and he was fairly certain that he had a shot at reaching the Saint level. A Saint level combatant for a son, Monroe already could not be anymore proud for his son, no other conglomerate had that kind of backing. He firmed his resolve to provide as much resources to Yale as he could for that bright future.

"That's right." Yale responded to his earlier question bringing Monroe back from that train of thought.

"Good to know. Son, I am very happy with your progress so far. Even though I still think you would be the best person to take over the conglomerate after I step down, I need to also take your personal preferences into account. Still, I would very much like for you to be involved in the family business in some way so effectively immediately, I appoint you to the new position of Grand Elder. Don't worry, it won't have much responsibility so you can focus on your personal training, just check in on the conglomerate whenever you can and give your advice. We will also see to ensuring you get any resources you may have need of, you are likely going to be the strongest combatant in the conglomerate eventually, might as well help you out." Monroe declares and no one else including the other Elders and important personages close by protest to his discissions.

"That… Well…" Yale tries to object some more saying that he would rather just focus on training and he did not want to impose on the running of the conglomerate but Monroe was having none of it. He even roped in his son's friends, all three of them and offered them Elder positions in the conglomerate as well as resources. He had seen their potential as well and was very impressed, no way someone of his business acumen would let this opportunity fly, he made full use of his son's friendship to increase the prospects of their conglomerate getting a Saint in the future.

Linley POV-

I could sort of guess Uncle Monroe's thought process when he made Yale the Grand Elder and offered the rest of us Elder positions. This was a world that valued strength and all the big players tried to tried to at least build firm connections with the top combatants at least even if they could not personally reach that height of power. I did wonder what he would think though if he realises one of his conglomerate's new Elders was already a Saint.

"I'm really sorry about my old man, he gets carried away sometimes." Yale softly tells the three of us in private as we had all separated in a smaller group after dinner.

"Don't think much about it, as I had said earlier, we would help each other even after we leave the institute regardless of our previous backgrounds. Besides, Uncle Monroe offered us really good resources and this could help me more seeing as I am still reluctant to head back to my clan." Reynolds spoke up first.

"Fourth Bro is right; I also do not mind. You and your family's conglomerate has already helped me out so much over the years, this is the least I could do." I also assure Yale.

"Sigh, I still wonder though. How would my old man react when he figures out that it is an actual Saint level combatant, he managed to recruit instead of a prospective one." Yale laughs while shaking his head and the rest of us join in as it really was an amusing thought.

"Still, I ask you to keep Uncle Monroe in the dark about that for now Boss Yale. It would not do for word of my strength to spread just yet." I caution him.

"No problem, Third Bro. Now tell us what you were up to before you joined us in fleeing. What kept you busy?" Yale answers and we make small talk with me briefly explaining how I had made an advance collection from those who had wronged my family.

Eventually we all broke up to either sleep or meditate or in Yale and Reynolds cases, check up on the two damsels they had rescued sometime ago (Alice and Windsor respectively). The two girls had progressed their strength considerably since they were first taken under the care of the two boys but they were still not strong enough to deal with situations like the present situation on their own.

The journey north continued as we fled towards areas that would be free of the invading beasts. As we progressed, we saw continued to encounter magical beasts frequently though none were strong enough to need me to act let alone impede our party. The destruction to human settlements was truly tragic though as we encountered one ruined settlement after another.

The days passed and soon we realised that the entire Kingdom of Fenlai was consumed and so were many other duchies and kingdoms of the Union. I reckoned that anywhere between a third to half of both the Union and Alliance territories were now under the rule of Dylin and his magical beast empire.

I still did not stop training though and I also encouraged my fiends as well as I had convinced them to separate from the main party of the conglomerate whenever we came across a major town or city. The previous human inhabitants had all either fled of been killed and consumed by now leaving only magical beasts roaming the ruins. I organised treasure hunting parties to loot the valuables the nobles would no doubt have been forced to leave behind.

It took some convincing for Uncle Monroe to allow us to go on these treasure hunts on our own but we managed eventually and also had Alice and Windsor tag along as practical training for them as well. I had already scanned these towns to ensure there was nothing in them that would be beyond the ability of me and my friends and like that we all acquired a considerable fortune on our journey.

"Isn't it wrong to just take all these riches for ourselves. I mean the old owners of these things could still be alive and even if they aren't, this feels like grave robbing." Windsor who was still innocent and naive to the ways of the world spoke up with Alice nodding along in agreement.

"Sigh, I thought your mindsets would have changed and matured a bit more now that you have experienced this beast tide. In this world, the only thing that matters is personal strength, these people were not strong enough to protect themselves and now the beasts are not strong enough to stop us. Your situations before you met us were also not so great as you were forced to follow along to the words of those above you whether you liked it or not. Let this be a lesson to you, to all of us, if we want to achieve something, we need to fight with our all for it." I explain to the two young ladies patiently.

"That and it is always nice to have some extra pocket change. I can't speak for Second Bro and Boss Yale who are closer with their family, Third Bro and I on the other hand need all the extra resources we can get as we cannot rely on our clans albeit for different reasons." Reynolds expands on it while happily looting the vaults of some long gone noble.

"Even if we do not need the riches, fighting magical beasts is good experience for us and it could also be considered as revenge for what they have done to us humans. Besides, it's not like a lot of these riches are all that useful to magical beasts is it, better we claim and use them for ourselves than just let them collect dust." George adds and we just continue our treasure hunting activities whenever we get a chance.

Like that we eventually come across the ruined capital city of the Kingdom of Hanmu. The concentration of beasts in the city were much larger than the towns we had raided before and I was even detecting a Saint level beast's presence from within the royal palace. My spiritual sense was no doubt the strongest out of all the Saints in the world so I was able to easily detect the Thunder Lizard lounging around in the treasure room among all the shiny trinkets.

"So, are we heading in to that place as well? It looks a lot more dangerous than those towns we passed by." Yale asks.

"I think it is better you lot not venture into that place. You have been lucky so far that you have not encountered anything dangerous yet despite my insistence that you all not recklessly endanger yourselves, I cannot in good conscience let you go this time. I insist you stay with the large group as we circle around the city." Monroe says after he walked up to us on his own. The rest of the Dawson conglomerate party has stopped trying to control our little group by now and only look at us in awe from afar.

"Hmmm… it could indeed get dicey since there is a Saint level Thunder Lizard in the palace." I say and Monroe instantly pales and panics at my words.

"WHAT?! We need to get out of here. If that dragon detects us… no, I doubt it couldn't since you were able to detect it and that is a true Saint beast. Let us flee while the dragon seems content to ignore us." Monroe says in a panic as his complexion pales considerably. My friends are also slightly panicked at my words so I speak to ease their worries a bit.

"Relax Uncle Monroe. The dragon has not detected us yet and is too busy admiring the trinkets in the treasury to care about us. Still, if it does come to a fight, we will not be helpless." I reassure him. I decide to reveal some of my strength to Monroe to ease his worries and besides, I really want to fight another Saint dragon and collect some of its blood too. Can't have enough of that after all and I don't even have to worry too much about keeping its freshness as I have inter-spatial rings.

"You… are you insane? This is not some random beast Linley. This is a true Saint level dragon, even if you somehow have the confidence to face it, we don't." Monroe has now entered a full-blown panic. I was just thankful that I had seen this coming long ago and used my understanding of the Laws of Wind to prevent anyone outside of my friends and Uncle Monroe overhearing our conversation as I did not want to share some details with them.

"There is no need to worry Uncle Monroe, I am well aware of exactly how strong Saint level beasts are normally. It should be easier this time as I don't have to fight two of them at the same time." I casually state.

"You…you…" the poor man could barely comprehend what I had just said so I expand on it some more to help him understand. I carefully only transform my hand so it is covered in black scales and position myself so that only he can see the deadly claw.

"Tell me Uncle Monroe, have you heard of the Dragonblood warriors? I assume you have done a background check on my family especially after I had requested your help all those years ago. Let me just add on that yes, we do indeed live up to the reputation and one Saint level beast can hardly pose a problem to a Saint level Dragonblood warrior." I still keep it vague enough that he assumes I have only reached Saint level as a warrior and that to only thanks to my Supreme Warrior lineage.

"This… Linley… you've already reached the Saint level?" he stupidly asks again out of shock.

"Yes I have indeed, Uncle Monroe, but please keep this a secret just between us. I don't want word of this spreading out just yet, give it a few years and we will see." I carefully caution him and he numbly nods along in a daze. His earlier fear of the Saint level Thunder Lizard is long gone, he was now much more reassured now that he knew that their group had a Saint level combatant of their own.

"So how are we doing this?" Reynolds asks while rubbing his hands in glee. Yale and George just shake their heads while Alice and Windsor are also gaping in shock at my recent revelation.

"Well, although I can handle the dragon, you lot still won't be safe if the fighting gets intense. Give me at least a ten-minute head start, I will sneak into the palace and deal with the dragon first so we can fight the small fry to our heart's content later." I reply back.

"Are you sure you can deal with a Saint level dragon that quickly?" George asks in awe. They are still not aware of exactly how strong I am so I could understand their doubts.

"Just wait a bit." I say and vanish out of their sights in a burst of speed after they all nod in agreement. I easily made it past all the other beasts lurking around outside and rushed straight for the Thunder Lizard while under my stealth spells, I also used the Laws as well to increase my chances of being stealthy and so far, it worked.

I still did not want to kill this dragon though as I was unsure if I could keep myself off Dylin's radar otherwise, also Beirut's warning against going around killing Saint beasts was still in my mind. I did not want to test if my relationship to Bebe would protect me from being tossed into the Gebados Plannar Prison just yet. With all that in mind, my goal was to hit the dragon hard and fast with a Soul attack until it is completely unconscious so that my friends and I could clean up the surrounding area.

My plan worked better than I imagined as I was able to ambush the Thunder Lizard before it even realised anything was wrong. It was unconscious with just two good hits of my Earth Laws based Soul attack, Soul attacks of that level were very rare in the Yulan plane so naturally the defences of the inhabitants were also just as horrible. After drawing some blood from it as well and cleaning out the treasury, I head back to my friends so that we can bully the weaker beasts in peace.

"Alright, I'm done. The Thunder Lizard is taken care of, let's thin some of the hoard in the city and loot whatever we can find." I call as I return. Everyone's eyebrows shoot up their foreheads as I had returned so quickly. I simply chuckle at their reactions before urging them to get moving.

Our regular stops at magical beast infested human settlements doubled our travel time so what would have usually taken a fast-moving party like ours just two weeks to reach a safe area took us four weeks instead. No one was complaining though, I had initially expected some more nagging from the other members of Uncle Monroe's entourage but he had controlled his group to prevent any issues. He had likely reasoned that it would be safer to move with someone powerful like me and the fact that he could also get a cut of our incredible haul was a plus.

Speaking of riches, the personal monetary value of me and my friends was now in the billions as we had acquired the total value of many noble clans. Years of their accumulation was all stored away in our spatial rings in a short span of time. Each of us could now individually be valued at many times the value of the top noble clans of the continent, we could easily start our own clans if we wished.

We decided to take a break after we reached the city of Hess though which was still safe as the beasts seemed to have stopped expanding their territory. We used this down time to let Uncle Monroe's Dawson conglomerate do its thing and gather information through its private channels. This way we would be more aware of the goings on in the wider world and plan our future actions better.

"Uncle Monroe, could I bother you to send word to my family in the O'Brian Empire that I am alright and will join them in a year or so?" I request him to which he readily agreed.

I wanted to send word to Delia as well but the long-range communication ability of our paired rings was much better than I had ever imagined as we were still able to communicate. I had tried contacting her on the night of the 1st of January itself and was beyond pleased I got through. I let her know I was safe and also enquired about her own safety. I was glad to hear she was well clear of the reach of the beast tide despite her own disappointment at not having a chance to improve her skills in live combat.

After two days of rest as well as getting all the information we could, we each decided to go our separate ways. Surprisingly all of us decided to journey through the mountain range of magical beasts despite in different directions for the most part.

George and Reynolds decided to travel north along the range first before separating ways with George heading south on the other side towards the Yulan Empire while Reynolds hadn't decided where to go next. Yale wanted to just explore the mountains close by as he felt there would be a good opportunity for him close by, I just shook my head at his continued use of divination. I had planned to cut straight through the mountains towards the east and check up on Grandpa Doehring and my friends at the entrance to the pocket dimension first before making my way over to Channe to reunite with my brother.

"So, what is it that you expect to obtain on this little fortuitous expedition Boss Yale?" I asked as he and Alice seemed to be headed in the same general direction as me. I elected to keep quiet when both Yale and Reynolds had insisted the girls accompany them and thought it would be a good opportunity for them to train. I felt Alice would fare slightly better between the two girls seeing as she had been training in magic for much longer, then again, Reynolds was slightly stronger than Yale in a straight up fight still. While Yale had shortened the gap in recent years, his previous lackadaisical attitude to training had done significant damage.

"Something is telling me that I might get a magical beast companion for myself if I look around the area a bit. I don't know where or when but… I just get this odd feeling, almost as if something here is calling me." Yale answers my question and I get worried a bit. Especially when he mentions about something calling out to him, I do my own bit of divination to ensure nothing untoward happens to him and only relax after I find out that he will be safe. I still can't get a lock on what exactly he was looking for despite the information he gave me but I decide to trust him. It was time my friends walk their own paths for now, if we meet up again in the future, we may journey together for a bit again but still we each had our own lives.

I separated from Yale and Alice as well eventually as they turned towards the south leaving Bebe and I to continue our journey East. Yale's idea of looking for a magical beast to make a contract with also prompted me to look for any suitable beasts to capture so I slowed down my travels through the mountain range of magical beasts. I already had three contracts and could not have anymore but that does not mean Wharton and the others at Channe could not partner with them.

It was a good thing I decided to slow down and search though as I found and captured quite a good number of beasts. They were surprisingly a good deal of abandoned young beasts around that I caught with my scans. Looks like the beasts rushing out to invade the human territories had some unintended consequences. While strong and fierce, they could not be expected to have the same discipline as human forces and so many fights between the beasts themselves had broken out. Not to mention the sudden displacement of large populations threw the regular balance way off and those with young became easy targets in the rush.

I was very surprised to find an infant Electrobolt Panther, another beast with Saint level lineage so with the same vigour I continued my hunt while crossing the mountains. (AN: Yes, it is the one from Burning fiend, I felt that its full potential was wasted in that so instead of leaving it for Reynolds, I will have Linley take it.) I also got a pair of tiny Illusion Flame Fox kits and a Glacial Snow Lion cub. They were still very tiny so I could easily carry them after hypnotising them into a deep slumber, I could just as easily preserve their life with Life magic for now after all. I did not feel too bad either as all four of them looked to be abandoned and moments away from starving to death or in a couple of cases, hungry and preyed upon by other beasts as well.

I still only took a little over a month to cross the mountain range safely and once on the other side I picked up the pace towards the entrance of the pocket dimension. I wanted to check up on Grandpa Doehring, Sartius, Selene and Sylvia to see how they were holding up. It took another week to fly there as I was still not rushing at my maximum speed though.

"Hey you two, how have you been doing?" I ask Grandpa Doehring and Sartius who had exited their own personal caves on the island's central mountain.

"I can't say much really, my training has been much slower than I expected. How about you? Tell me more about this Apocalypse Day disaster that happened over at the Union." Grandpa Doehring responds and I tell him as much as I can about the disaster.

"Where are Selene and Sylvia though? I don't see them anywhere and I can't sense them nearby either. Did they return to their old home?" I ask as I had yet to see the two dragons.

"They have been a little too occupied with that odd room beyond the strange door under the mountain. They rarely step out of that place for anything and just remain holed up in there." Sartius grumbles.

"Oh, don't give me that. You would also 'hole up' within if you could get past the doors, I know I would. Sadly, I am currently not strong enough for that, how I wish I could have found that wonderous space when I was in my prime." Grandpa Doehring laments.

"I see, well let's go check up on them then. Don't worry, I'll protect you two as we enter like last time." I tell the two.

"Why didn't you just leave the two of us in there when you first brought us here." Sartius grumbles.

"If I did that you two would be trapped in there for months on end without a proper source of food and other necessities. One you is in a young growing body and the other is recovering from a severe injury, that is as far as you can be from the everlasting physique of Saints." I fire back.

"Very well, now that we are back can we just go." Grandpa Doehring urges me on and I decide to just help them out as the four of us make our way to the doors underground.

"You know, you two could have at least helped Sartius and Grandpa Doehring enter in this place a couple times a week." I call out to Selene and Sylvia who were meditating within the room after I led my beast companions through.

"What, lil bro? You returned so soon; it has only been a few days since you left." Selene greets me and my eyebrows twitch at both her form of address as well as her following words.

"This is truly a wonderous place to train young Linley. I must thank you a lot for showing us this place. As for your friends, we were meaning to also help them in but I'm afraid we lost track of time." Sylvia also addresses me. Her response confirms my earlier suspicion of why Grandpa Doehring and Sartius were left hanging outside. Saints can easily slip into deep meditative trances when they train and they almost completely lose track of time for years on end.

"Never mind then. Continue your own training for now while I get these three settled." I tell the two before turning to my partners and helping them get situated. Even though Selene and Sylvia could drastically reduce the sizes of their bodies, the space within the pocket dimension was just starting to get crowded with the addition of Sartius and Grandpa Doehring who both had fairly large bodies. Grandpa Doehring was already over 3 meters tall if he stood up right and Sartius was over 5 meters long even without most of his tail. Thankfully we were only here to meditate and not really do much physical activity.

"Humph, for once I'm glad you still haven't completely healed me. There is still some room in here now but if I had my tail as well it would be even more crowded. Speaking of which, when are you going to do that special procedure to turn me into a Soul Mutate as well?" Sartius asks me mentally and I can tell that he is getting impatient.

"Sigh, it is because you will not be able to make the best use out of this as you currently are Sartius. This method works best the more elemental affinities you have, no matter how slight, even a little comprehension to more Laws will give better end results. That is why I had asked you to train with Grandpa Doehring at first to strengthen your basics." I tell him. We kept our conversations private over our mental channel as we were not ready to share information on this topic with the two Saint dragons.

"I don't understand. What does the boring lessons of the bear have anything to do with this?" He asks in frustration.

"Quit whining, this is the most important thing. This technique my friends and I developed only helps to combine and better use our existing potential; it does not directly give you new powers unless in very few dire circumstances. That being you getting killed and having your Soul stuffed into another body which I don't recommend." I explain to him. After much study and later analysis of our method of Soul mutation, I had discovered some really interesting things that I begin to break down and explain to Sartius so he can understand.

The gist of it was that the more affinities you have prior to the process the better it would be for you in the long run. The Soul Mutation process only enables those who undergo it to use the Laws they have an affinity for in tandem or even fuse them, it does not give them new affinities on its own. If you had an affinity for only two elements you would only become a two way mutate and it was near completely useless if you had only one affinity. Adding affinities after your Soul had mutated was close to impossible though and I reckoned it would take some truly powerful divine treasure to facilitate that. This was the reason that pre-existing mutates simply did not try to gain insights into more elements later, they probably found it impossible if my theory is correct.

I felt that this made sense in a way so as to maintain the balance of the universe otherwise every two way mutate could completely alter the balance by eventually mastering just the basics of a single Law from each affinity. Mutates got much greater power that just the sum of their affinities, enough to even challenge those a rank higher in most cases but in exchange lost the chance to pursue other elements or edicts. Normally, non-mutates could eventually grasp each of the 11 elemental laws and edicts if them put enough time and effort into it. It is just that even to achieve that is a herculean task and many find it difficult to progress in just one affinity as is so there has never been such a case before.

Our group was just lucky that all of us showed at least four different affinities, I felt that we were truly blessed as I was unsure what would have happened if we had also exceeded that limit. I had already understood that the more affinities you were trying to fuse the more dangerous it got, I felt that with triggering a four-way mutation was the sweet spot where the trade-off between result and safety was optimal. The success rate was only 100% thanks to my already miraculous existence as I could provide fused elemental essence in the desired combination of the target otherwise the chances would drop to 80% at most. I reckoned that the chances fell drastically again if they tried to push beyond four-way mutation.

There really was a considerable amount of luck involved though, what with George and Reynolds finding those books on training three of the edicts and everyone having some talent in some of them. The luckiest duo though were Arya and Grandpa Doehring, they were originally only Earth element practitioners but dying once and remaining in a Soul only state for a time before being revived opened their spirits to three of the edicts. The Life and Death affinity was understandable as they had literally gone through a life and death experience, the Fate affinity though was odd and I mostly attributed it to the re-bodifying process itself where they defied their normal fate.

"That is why I am still with holding the procedure. As far as I can currently tell, you only have a basic grasp of two affinities- Darkness, which I guess is the norm for Armoured Razorback Wyrms and Destruction which I would say is a more personal preference. The point being, with only two affinities you would be the weakest kind of Soul Mutate there could be which I feel would be a waste. Try to grasp one more affinity at least, don't worry too much though, I will help out." I reassure him.

I was being completely honest and open with him and he seemed to be mollified that I was taking his best interests to heart so I personally helped him train a few hours every day. The rest of my time I spent meditating on the laws myself and just researching on anything that caught my interest. I got the idea for two different experiments in that time though and I must say they both gave fantastic results.

The first was my interest in the chaotic flows of natural essences outside the pocket dimension that eerily resembled my Nebula. All the elements and edicts existed and interacted in harmony, I chose to just ignore that it was fairly violent harmony that could crush and utterly destroy most things it touched though. There was a sense of terrifying beauty to it that was plainly visible and that was the main reason for why this place accelerated one's understanding into the laws.

It was like my original analogy of my Nebula being a snow globe got flipped and now instead of me looking into it from outside, I was the one inside the snow globe looking at the wider world outside. All those thoughts about snow globes got me thinking if I could actually create some weird imitation of this that one can carry around like an actual snow globe that they can pull out to study anytime anywhere. I reckoned it would be fairly simple, just create a tiny area of extremely concentrated essences of all types and just seal it up in a container securely.

The first part proved easy enough as I could easily isolate a portion of my very dense Nebula, the cost of extracting essences to make even dozens of the snow globes would hardly matter to me in the grand scheme of things. The problem though came when I tried to contain them in a stable enough manner that would not dissipate once brought outside my Nebula. I could barely keep the thing together for a few hours even with all my focus and this entire project could be considered a failure if I did not find a solution to this issue. Even if I figured out a way to slow down the natural dissipation, the final artifact would be useless after a certain amount of time and given the lengthy meditation sessions the immortals around here go it might as well be a one-use item, a very inefficient one-use item.

I also needed whatever containment method I used to be transparent, at least to spirit sense or something otherwise no one would be able to look in on its contents and study it. I needed to make something like the walls of this pocket dimension but I had no idea of where to even start for something like that. I thought the Spatial and Dimensional aspects of Wind may give me a hint so I studied that for a time but I soon realised that I would have progressed too far into the deity realm on the path of Wind by the time I would be capable of using that and by that time I would have lost my Nebula.

I needed another method, a quick and dirty way to create stable and sturdy spatial containment possibly like an inter-spatial ring… That is when it hit, I could use the same spatial energy in Saint beast cores that I was using to make interspatial rings for this project. I immediately got to it by throwing the cores into my Nebula space and harvesting the unique spatial energies they contained. Now the only issue was to use it to make the containment walls of the globe I wanted.

I took inspiration from the method of creating inter-spatial rings again for the basic structure as well as the spiritual sense interaction to look in to the inner contents. I had to make the barrier a loth thicker and stronger though as the thing that I was seeking to contain was very volatile especially when compressed to such a degree as I was going for. Still, it took a lot more of the spatial energy to make a single product that was only slightly larger than a pea, I decided to name my latest creation as the Pearl of Wisdom.

With the first success, I decided to make more and completely burnt through my stock of Saint beast cores. Each pearl needed 11 cores worth of spatial energies which was ridiculously high, especially when you consider you could make dozens of spatial rings with a single core. In the end I was left with 3 pearls and only Gregor's core that I was holding for Sartius left with me. I had either used the rest of Beirut's stock to create inter-spatial rings or to improve the weapons of me and my friends.

I wanted to make as many of these pearls as I could while I still had my Nebula as a reference but I had run out of Saint beast cores. I couldn't even get more currently even though I was strong enough to kill the beasts and I doubted there were that many Saint beasts on this plane for the quantity of pearls I wanted to make. I guess the only window of opportunity for me would be the Necropolis of the gods that had thousands of Saint beasts imprisoned within. I just have to keep my current cultivation level of the Nebula stage till after that I suppose. It shouldn't be all bad, maybe I could study enough of the laws by that time to directly jump to the Full God stage in all affinities.

With my first project put on hold after the successful first phase, I focused on my second project that was more of a continuous long-term process. I knew from the Transmigrator's memories that the ancestor of my bloodline, the Primordial Azure Dragon had found out a way to strengthen himself by fusing his Blood Essence with Water type Sovereign's Might and I could also do the same. Unfortunately, even the single drop of both the potent liquids that were stored in the CD ring were sealed until I reached the Deity level myself. Now I was wondering if I could at least develop a vastly weaker but much cheaper strengthening technique using the principles of the Blood Essence Refinement technique, my research on bloodlines with George and concentrated Water element essence.

The end result proved to be a viable method to increase the strength of my base body albeit very slowly. I reasoned it would also improve my special bloodline related abilities when I awakened them in the future as I focused on refining my blood and marrows. As another subsidiary experiment I tried to have a few drops of my blood be refined to a much larger degree with much greater concentrations of energy used to see what would happen.

Months passed in that manner and I was quite proud of Sartius as he put a lot of effort into developing more affinities after I explained their importance to him while also getting a better grasp of what he already had. He now had three affinities- Destruction, Darkness and Earth, so I thought it best to not waste anymore time and just get on with the Soul Mutation process for him as he really was not showing much progress towards a fourth affinity.

Still, I was not one for settling with a slightly lower than optimal outcome so with Sartius' permission I also had him be the first subject for my own Divine Beast Bloodline infusion method. I used the few drops of my most blood that I had been working on over the past year, it wasn't much for me and not like I could not make up for it over time anyway. There was also very little chance of things going badly for Sartius as it was his blood that awakened my own lineage in the first place, I still had him hold on to a good quantity of Blueheart Grass though, just in case as it can curb some of the more violent tendencies of Dragonblood.

"Well, what is the hold up then? Everything is ready, let us get this started." Beirut calls out. I had invited him over to observe this technique in action as he had requested long ago.

"Yes. Now remember Sartius, keep using that Blood Essence Refinement technique I taught you. Don't stop no matter what and use the Blueheart Grass if you feel the power is going out of your control." I warn him one last time before starting the process.

It was a considerably lengthy process, much longer than what I had used before as I had first tried to impart the Azure Dragon bloodline into Sartius first but in the end I the results proved to be more than worth the hassle. Sartius ended up obtaining a little Water element affinity as well as becoming a four way mutate. His appearance also changed slightly and he was now more a dark navy blue rather than pure black as just like Selene and me, he also shared some trace from a Divine water type beast.

Beirut was very impressed by what I had achieved, as I had also managed to impart a divine beast bloodline in addition to the Soul mutation process. He was also inspired and wanted to do some testing of his own as well with the more advanced and extravagant resources he had. I was honoured that he still valued my opinion to ask me to observe when he got around to do the actual testing stage. He already had a couple of volunteers in Selene and Sylvia as Beirut's primary objective was to see if he could make it safer for more powerful individuals to undergo Soul mutation. He had decided to start off at the Saint level before experimenting with stronger subjects, baby steps were important in this research.

While Sartius took the time to get used to his new found strength as well as to do some personal training, the rest of us also fully focused on improving our personal power for the next couple of months. Finally, when the dead line of a year's time that I had set for myself came around, I decided to head out towards Channe to reunite with my brother with all my magical beast companions. There wasn't all that much benefit from the pocket dimension for those below the Saint rank and besides, I had made 3 Pearls of Wisdom that we could use whenever we wanted so we had no issues moving out.