Chapter-11

The main goal this time around other than increasing my funds was to gain battle experience against 8th rank magical beasts. I was hesitant to face off against them before as I was still only 6th rank as a warrior but now with my skills as a magus of the 8th rank added in, I should be able to contend with them. Maybe I will even try and engage a few small packs of them as well, Goldmane Mastiffs and Blue-eyed Tiger Mastiffs tend to live in packs after all.

My plans went better than expected as the combination of Bebe and myself proved to be very capable of facing 8th rank beasts on our own and together small groups were not a challenge. I used the opportunity to polish up my skills to firmly step into the 3rd stage of battle technique which was the Impose level. Bebe was now also firmly in the 2nd stage and the power of his blows increased to a whole new level. The cherry on top was that with my advanced detection and stealth capabilities we did not run into any opponent we could not handle and with our targets being higher rank, my funds increased rapidly even if I did not go looking for assassins to loot.

In the end, we made it back to the institute in little over a month, despite us entering into combat numerous times and also gathering resources. Without the slow pace of a caravan our journey was much faster and I had made a killing profit of over 10 million gold with only 8th rank magic beast cores.

My hunting trips into the mountains were still the main source of my income currently, my stone sculptures while good enough to be displayed in the expert's hall of the Proulx Gallery, were still not up to the standards of Grandpa Doehring. He had after all seen me sculpt that one piece in his likeness that was around the master class so he insisted that my overall skill should reach that level before I am allowed to sell my sculptures. In his own words- "Don't be so upset Linley, you are by far the most talented person I have ever come across. Setting the bar so low for you will not motivate you to make the most of your talents, I want you to aim for the peak as I know that you can reach it."

Well, he should be happy now as I have now gotten a good grasp of the Impose level and my sculptures have finally reached master level art works. I already had a few of the ones I had made while in the mountains stored in my inter-spatial ring so I could sell them for some more cash later. I finally came back to the institute with only two months to the end of the school year and like usual, I gathered my friends to treat them on the occasion of me completing my first official assignment.

I decide not to make another trip to the mountain range of magical beasts for the holidays which was only a couple months away again. Instead, I use the time to train with my friends as they are also all approaching the peak of 4th rank now in both warrior and magus training. We were all planning to go on a joint expedition into the mountains sometime in the next two years and I planned to use the remaining time to polish their skills some more.

I had suggested to have everyone travel together for the first couple of weeks at least to get them used to conditions in the wilderness. They could then separate and explore on their own in smaller groups or go solo if they wished before we all meet back up to return to the institute. Senior Anna was especially inclined to my suggestion as she had some experience when on an escort assignment from the institute. There was safety in numbers after all and as far as everyone was concerned, it would be the first time for all of us to make a trip to the mountain range of magical beasts.

With the objective set I went about training our group with all the things I found were beneficial when journeying through the wilderness. Developing good detection and sensory skills was top priority so for the next few months Bebe and I had great fun ambushing my friends with pranks on a daily basis. I also set a portion of our training time aside to develop their senses by having them all blindfolded and asking them to detect and avoid low powered elemental attacks.

"Ouch, what is the point of this again Third Bro?" Reynolds complains petulantly while rubbing his shoulder. I had used a simple low powered application of fire elements to make it feel like I took a hot plate to his shoulder.

"The point is for you to not be overtly reliant on only your normal senses of sight and sound. I am going through all this trouble of only attacking you with elements you have the best affinity with so you can sense them more easily. All movements and by extension attacks will cause minute disturbances in the concentrations of the natural essences so with enough practice one will be able to detect attacks headed towards them. Sensory abilities are not exclusive to wind and earth styles, some elements may inherently be easier than others at first but in the end, all of them can improve your perception of your surroundings." I patiently explain to my gathered friends who are all blindfolded.

Naturally there was much grumbling in response but they knew to shut up and bear it by now. I had already built up a good reputation for excellent results with unconventional methods so everyone went with the new program with much cursing. They also knew that I really was going easy on them as I was only using elements they had the best affinities for as well as using very low powered attacks that helped them pick up the skill quickly. Just a month into the new training and everyone could now sense and evade the attacks I launched, naturally everyone was very happy. The next step was to attack them with elements they didn't have affinities for so naturally it was back to cursing their devil instructor for them.

Training progressed in that manner for the next few months or so and we all took the time to space out our applications for class promotion in the timeframe we had set. We all wanted to be at least 5th rank both as a warrior and mage before we set out and it was looking good for everyone so far. We also took the chance to relax properly on our rest days and spent the time just sightseeing around Fenlai city. Everyone especially accompanied me as I went to the Proulx Gallery with my first batch of sculptures for sale, I planned to put 3 of them up for auction close to the Yulan festival for the new year 9996. Needles to say the person in charge of receiving new pieces for the gallery was in awe of my master level creations and even more surprised at my background as one of the top talents of the Ernst Institute.

I was immediately given my own personal studio within the gallery to display my work in before I even sold a single sculpture. It was not really surprising as later on I found out that each of my sculptures sold for at least 20,000 gold coins, the important thing seemed to be my background as a 14-year-old genius magus of the Ernst Institute. It was a considerable value add to the incredibly life like sculptures that were already master level. The smooth flowing lines unique to those sculpted using the straight chisel school method only added to beauty of the works and with the benefit of me being at the impose level meant that even the former drawback of minor flaws due to not using different tools was completely eliminated.

News of this development naturally spread back to the Institute and instigated another round of gossip. Thankfully the management of the institute did not pry into it too much, they were now mostly aware of my ditching so many classes but as long as I wasn't bringing any negative publicity to the institute and advanced in rank at a good pace they did not mind. So, while some were grumbling that I would be better off using my time to study rather than doing random things they kept quiet as I was still progressing quite fast in my magic education. Everyone in our group could be said to be among the 20 top talents in their respective age groups despite us hiding our true power. If work of our actual capabilities ever got out it would cause a really big commotion.

All those matters aside it took nearly a year and a half for everyone to reach the rank 5 warrior and mage target we had set and everyone had successfully advanced to the 5th grade at least 3 months ago now so we could all apply for external assignment. Finally in the summer of 9997 we all applied for an expedition into the mountain range of magical beasts as a group. I was also especially happy as everyone had achieved at least the 2nd stage of battle techniques even if they had not completely mastered it yet.

Everyone's ranks as on the Summer of year 9997 Yulan Calendar-

Linley Baruch- age 15

Mage: Peak 8th rank (very close to breakthrough to 9th)

Warrior: Late 7th rank (Breakthrough achieved after much difficulty over 2 years, took only 5 years to get to rank 6 since start of training)

Battle Technique: 3rd stage mastery.

Bebe- age 7

Battle capabilities around the peak of 7th rank. Defence and speed comparable to 8th rank beasts.

Battle Technique: 2nd stage intermediate

Yale Dawson- age 16

Mage: Early 5th rank (could have been peak of 5th already if he wasn't slacking so much)

Warrior: Early 5th rank (could have been peak of 5th already if he wasn't slacking so much)

Battle Technique: 2nd stage Beginner

George Walsh- age 16

Mage: Peak 5th rank (very close to breakthrough)

Warrior: Peak 5th rank (very close to breakthrough)

Battle Technique: 2nd stage intermediate

Reynolds Dunstan- age 14

Mage: Peak 5th rank (very close to breakthrough)

Warrior: Peak 5th rank (very close to breakthrough)

Battle Technique: 2nd stage intermediate

Dixie Leon- age 15

Mage: Mid 6th rank

Warrior: Peak 5th rank (very close to breakthrough)

Battle Technique: 2nd stage Mastery

Delia Leon- age 14

Mage: Late 5th rank

Warrior: Late 5th rank

Battle Technique: 2nd stage intermediate

Fey- age 3 (Delia's Magical Beast Companion)

Battle capabilities around mid of 4th rank. Speed comparable to 6th rank beasts, can fly really fast.

Battle Technique: 1st stage intermediate

Anna- age 18

Mage: Late 6th rank

Warrior: Peak 5th rank

Battle Technique: 2nd stage intermediate

By now I was also satisfied with the level and training of all my friends and was confident that even if they couldn't face powerful magical beasts, they could at least escape with their lives in the outer region of the mountain range. I had also made preparations plenty of preparations over the past year and a half other than training myself and my friends, I had made my standard ward sets for all of them and had also come up with a unique fate element enchanted jade slips that they can bind to themselves with blood and could signal other paired pieces when broken. This was again inspired by other Chinese novels and I specially handed these out to everyone to use if they run into danger when they strike out on their own. This was a precaution I was taking as the strongest of the group so that I could quickly fly over to any of my friends if they ran into a particularly sticky situation.

Just going by our ranks, we all could possibly graduate in a year's time but we all knew the commotion it would raise if many students graduated at once. That was not even considering our young ages of under 20 and not to mention the fact that we were all known to be from a single close-knit group of class bunkers.

Regardless of anything else we had all made up our minds to graduate at around 20 years of age as long as nothing unexpected happens. Dixie and Anna especially had already gotten plenty of attention as top geniuses since they started school so it would not be good for them to put off their graduation too much, ideally talents of their potential can be expected to reach the graduation criteria at around 17-18. In fact, Anna had already fulfilled that requirement but there were also plenty of students that chose not to graduate until they reached 7th rank as a magus so her staying back was not unexpected.

All this was speculation and ideal cases though as I still wasn't sure the if cannon events like the Apocalypse Day of Jan 1, Yulan calendar year 10,000 would happen this time around. I was resolved to keep an eye on the lair of the Armoured Razorback Wyrm in the next couple of years or so regardless. I wasn't sure when exactly that Violet Tattooed bear will break through to the Saint level and make a play for revenge on the Armoured Razorback Wyrm but I knew it would be somewhere in the winter between 9998-9999. I remembered that canon Linley had his big heart break in the winter around that time and eventually broke through to 7th rank magus and he went to the foggy valley again not long after so I reasoned I had close to a year and a half for the milestone event.

I did not know if I could knowingly cause that disaster even if it could sort of get me a favourable impression with Dylin and his lion kids but with the corpse of a Saint level magical beast and the chance to harvest fresh blood from an Armoured Razorback Wyrm to awaken my dragonblood was too good a lure to pass up on. I had decided to at least be at ground zero at the time of the event and make my decisions later.

"Do we have to lug around these packs for the journey? And why are you the only one in magus robes Third Bro?" Yale complains as we were traveling on the road and also asks about my choice of attire when I especially told everyone to wear more form fitting attire like warriors.

"Well, I made sure to include all the basic essentials in everyone's packs so even if they want to venture off on their own later on it will be easy. As for my choice of clothes, it's because my strength and detection abilities are the best and I can more easily protect myself from ambushers in case we run into bandits or something." I explain. Though even I wished we all had more convenient options to carry our stuff like my inter-spatial rings.

I actually wanted to try my hand at recreating inter-spatial rings and to that effect I had, with quite a bit of reluctance, broken one of the low quality 10 cubic metre Cult of Shadows rings to study its construction. The raw materials needed to make it were naturally expensive and the enchantments I could detect on it were very complicated as well. I wagered I needed to at least advance to a magus of the 9th rank to successfully make them. The other materials I could also get with my connections but I found a strange component with very high energy readings that I had no idea how to replicate, it felt a bit like a magical beast core to my senses but it had a little extra signature to it as well that I could not place. Whatever the case I would not be making inter-spatial rings for my friends anytime soon.

"Bandits? I thought we only have to worry about magical beasts?" Dixie asks picking up the conversation from before and I can see some others also have questions.

"Sigh, let me explain. While the threat of beasts is ever present in the mountains as it is their territory, other people pose just as much of a threat if not greater. There will be plenty of bandits and assassins out to kill you as it is much easier to earn more by ambushing other people and loot all their assets rather than spend time to kill a single beast and harvest a single core. Make sure to treat all strangers with caution and don't ever let your guard down when in the presence of strangers, that goes double for us as we are looking to hide our true powers." I explain in more detail.

"That still doesn't explain much about why you are wearing mage robes. Besides didn't you also get all of us full body black coveralls with masks to hide our identity? Why are we not wearing that instead, we will be able to use our full might more easily once we no longer need to worry about our identities getting out after all?" Yale continues his line of questioning.

I smile at his sharp observations and reply as much- "Well aren't you being observant? That is good, this current arrangement is to throw off any observers out here in the open plains, if we wear those black coverall clothes on the main roads, we will attract more attention. The news may even reach back to the institute and blow our cover so, we will change in the forests of the mountain range. The second reason is to give you guys some experience as to what can happen on these types of missions. Tell me, when you spot a mixed enemy party of warriors and magi in the distance how would you go about attacking them, especially if you have the element of surprise?" I lecture on.

"You go for the long-distance heavy hitters first so the mage is the first one under attack. Next is any warrior with long range attack capability like a bow and arrow. After that the rest of the party becomes easy pickings, I see why you had us take this formation now. Though I have to ask, are you expecting to be attacked?" Anna who was the most experienced of the bunch after me explained all the details.

"Yep, that was the plan. As for being ambushed though I am detecting around 30 people grouped up around 5 kilometres north east making their way towards to us so better be cautious. There is also a smaller group with 3 people a couple kilometres behind us, both parties have 1 mage of the 5th rank, wind style if I'm not wrong. The rest of them are warriors and vary in strength from 3rd to one person even being 7th rank." I tell them.

"What?!" "How?!" for a moment everyone panics for a bit and I spend some time calming everyone down.

"Seriously Third Bro, your sensing abilities are a bit too strong, you can even roughly tell the ranks of those people." George says while shaking their head.

"Hahaha, it only works if the ones I detect are weaker than me. If they are stronger experts around then I risk detection by them in turn even if I find them so it is a bit of a double-edged sword. It would be wise for you all to remember this as well, while your passive sensory skills have a smaller range, others will not be able to detect it easily but any active scouting spell like what I'm currently using have the risk of stronger opponents sensing it." I warn them.

They all nod at that and I urge everyone to continue moving at a decent pace while being on guard. We eventually put more distance between the small group behind us and as we approached the larger group in front of us, I warn everyone to be on guard again and be ready to cast a few spells if things escalate. I have all of them make suitable preparations with tasks suitable for their skills, Dixie and Delia are the next best sensors in the group so that is their main objective, relaying the positions of our enemies. George and Anna are put in charge of defense as their earth and water affinities would be most useful there. The honour of attacking first if a battle began was given to Yale and Reynolds who had the fastest attacks with the highest burst power. I would naturally hold back a bit and mostly act as bait first before I help out where ever they need it, they could also naturally change their roles depending on the situation but that was the initial plan.

"Linley watch out!" Delia yells out while managing to intercept a wind spell enhanced arrow headed straight for me with her own enspelled blades.

"Great work on that Delia. Prepare for attack everyone!" I call out, I had naturally detected the attack aimed at me and would have been able to defend myself but I was still grateful to Delia. I was also beyond pleased that she could actually intercept that arrow as it was really fast and shot at a tricky angle, not to mention that the spells on it would enable it to make some minor course corrections to avoid evasive and defensive manoeuvres the target takes.

There was a bit of a pause from our attackers as they had not expected their first surprise attack would be foiled so easily. We didn't give them much of a chance to prepare after that and charged at them immediately, they had already taken the initiative to attack us without provocation first so we had no thoughts of going easy.

Dixie and Delia cast a speed buffing spell on Reynolds and Yale as they charged first at the enemy's location. They were also already chanting for high powered AOE spells while closing the distance and I took the opportunity to cast an Earth Spear Array just before they cast their own spells to maximise the damage. George and Anna had already set up a few wide area defences around our position while also putting some single target defence buffs on Yale and Reynolds.

The whole thing seemed to be a bit overkill though as our opponents had underestimated us greatly and lost 90% of their forces with the first combo from Yale, Reynolds and myself. They were the melee fighters after all and were set up a couple 100 meters in front of the rear line archers with their leader. They were most certainly not expecting the mage to be fine or the fact they were tricked and the party had so many magi so they took a devastating hit.

"The back line is looking to retreat." Delia informs us. Looks like they planned to fall back after this disastrous encounter.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Dixie says as he mutters a quick spell and pulls out some small throwing knifes made of cheap but conductive metal. They are soon enveloped in an electric current with some lightning elements also forming a few small circles in front of Dixie who then begins to throw them towards the enemies through the circular lightning rings. Normally even a 7th rank warrior will not be able to throw knives to fatally injure opponents at such distances but with the lightning railgun spell I had taught Dixie and Yale, it was easy. Sure enough, as soon as the knives passed through the lightning rings they sped up like crazy and with a loud sonic boom, they easily impaled all the stragglers in the back, killing them before they had any idea what was happening.

"Hey, I was going to handle those!" Yale yells back to us after finishing of the few melee attackers that survived our spells.

"You already had a chance to fight, leave some for the rest of us too. Besides throwing coins around is so… uncouth." Dixie retorts back as we all regroup. Dixie at least chose to use some cheap knives to use for this method of attack, the money bags Yale unfortunately had developed the habit of throwing the metallic coins in his pockets when using this method. He was now literally throwing money around to defeat his opponents; I wonder if I am being a bad influence on them when I had told them they could even use the spare change in their pockets for this powerful attack.

It really was an insanely powerful attack and only needed the cost of a standard 3rd rank spell, like a lot of my custom spells it was OP. By now all my friends knew a bunch of custom spells and were frequently asking me to tell them how I came up with all of them as well as studying up on more details of their elements so they could do something like this on their own eventually. Hehehe my plan to encourage them to start studying the laws early was progressing nicely.

"Did we really have to be so violent and kill all of them though?" Delia asks and I see her face has gone a little pale after seeing this gruesome sight of our dead opponents.

"Sigh, this is how the world works Delia. I know it is cruel but we need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to survive, do you thing they would show us mercy if they had the upper hand. They were the ones to attack us in the first place without us provoking them so don't feel bad for them." I grab her hand gently and comfort her.

"That's right Delia, these scums deserve no mercy from us. In fact, if the tables were turned, we would be in an even worse state, the two of us especially." Anna adds with a firm look before continuing- "I've seen what bandits do to any females they capture alive and let me tell you, I would rather die than suffer such a fate."

"Gulp, you are right sister Anna. Thank you for your guidance." Delia responds nervously so I give her a one-armed hug and console her. "Chii.." Fey also consoled her partner and nuzzled her head from her perch on Delia's Shoulder. Speaking of Fey, she is growing well and is already twice the size of a normal hawk. She is still too young to communicate mentally though and despite her showing the strength of a magical beast of the 4th rank already. I think that she has a good shot of reaching Saint level in the future so that was good.

Fey's form was also growing more defined now and her draconic features were becoming more prominent even if she did not lose her avian features. Her neck, head and tail all had a distinctive dragon like resemblance. All in all, she already looked way more fearsome than Bebe now which seemed to annoy my cute little partner quite a bit.

"Don't worry Delia, I'll protect you to the best of my abilities and I'm sure if we remain cautious, all of us will be safe." I tell her and seeing that she is starting to feel a bit better I continue- "Besides, I know your strength and I know you would have been able to handle trash like them on your own especially with Fey's help. You did save me from that first arrow after all, so thank you for that." I give her a gentle encouraging smile. It was not completely a lie either as I was sure she could handle these situations on her own, it might not be so easy or risk free as now but she would come out of it victorious.

"Thank you, Linley." She responds with a bright smile and a reddening face.

"Alright, break it up you two. We are here to explore the mountain range of magical beasts, not for a picnic date." Yale rudely breaks the mood.

"Sure, thing Boss Yale but are you sure you are not being so grouchy because you are jealous?" I ask back with a devilish smirk.

"Humph, lucky juniors…grumble…" Yale starts pouting at that and we all laugh.

"Big bro, don't forget to loot those Bandits." Bebe reminds me mentally and I soon get everyone to the looting. I rush them along before anyone else comes in to try their hand in looting us, after we had pocketed everything worth looting, we quickly depart after burning the bodies to ash before the small party of three behind us can catch up.

We did not face anymore issues after that and safely entered the thick forests of the outer region of the mountain range of magical beasts. I checked our surroundings once again before I signalled everyone that it was safe to change in to our more covert gear. Naturally with George, Dixie and me putting our foot down and overruling Yale and Reynolds idea to change at once we split into two batches of boys and girls so one of the two groups can stand on lookout while the others change clothes in peace. In the end I couldn't help but be reminded of that Cult of Shadows elite team I had met on my first visit here on looking at everyone's all black gear and head coverings.

For the first few weeks I imparted my experiences on basic survival and tips when out in magic beast territory. We did not run into other people that often as with our detection skills we could avoid them. The first few times I had our group purposely come in contact with others it went smoothly without a fight as the other party did not want mess with a mysterious group as large as ours. I learnt my lesson after that and I had us purposely crash into an ongoing battle between two human groups. One side was naturally being ambushed and as the still morally upright bunch that we were we left after swiftly killing and looting the bandits. The other group was still weary of us but seemed to be made of more decent folk as their leader tossed a pouch of magic beast cores to us when he saw we were leaving after helping them out. He just gave us a nod with a grateful look without saying a word and we returned the gesture like wise.

"Man, that felt great, those people were nice and even gave us these magical cores. It's also much easier to loot bandits if you want to earn more cash though, let's do it again." Reynolds happily comments after we separated from them.

"Humph, don't let your guard down like that Fourth Bro. We might have met decent folk this time around but that may not always be the case. They may just as easily turn on us after we help them out and then where would we be. We only decided to step in this time as Third Bro had scanned all the people and determined that they would not be a threat to us even if they attacked together." George remonstrates him.

"That's right, whether you encounter humans or magic beasts, the only thing that matters here is your personal strength. Did you forget about all the attacks that party sent our way even though we were trying to help them, granted they stopped quickly when they saw we were not retaliating or targeting them in turn but the point remains." Dixie adds.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Still doesn't change the fact that it was awesome." Yale adds his own input.

"Say, Third Bro. We have all gotten enough experience now I reckon and fighting as one big group is not much of a challenge any more. What do you say we part ways here and meet back near that lake we found not long after we first entered the mountains in a month's time?" George proposes while also looking around at everyone else as well to gauge their reactions.

"Hmmm, I have no issues. You all have shown that you are more than capable of taking care of yourselves. Just remember those wards I gave you as well as the enchanted jade slips, break them if you encounter something you think is beyond you or you are in danger. Don't carelessly wander into the deeper regions and always remember that there is always a possibility for strong beasts to come to the outer regions." I warn them all.

""Yes mother!"" Everyone just responds in a practiced manner.

"Seriously, guys I mean it. I don't want any of you getting hurt or worse." I respond seriously. They also become more solemn at my tone and reply more seriously. We all check our packs and supplies one more time before heading out on our own.

"What now boss? Are we going to that secret foggy valley?" Bebe asked me when it was just the two of us with Grandpa Doehring being a silent spectator.

"No, I think it would be better to stay out here in the outer region of the mountain range this time. I can still roughly sense the direction each of them has gone so I can position myself centrally between all of them in case I need to help any of them." I respond back.

"You can't keep coddling them Linley. They can only grow if they face their challenges on their own. You have already gone above and beyond in teaching them so much, the rest is up to them." Grandpa Doehring advices me.

"I know Grandpa Doehring but I still can't help but worry. I really want to be able to secretly tail them, Delia at least but I know that they have to strike out on their own as well. Well, that said, there is nothing stopping me from dealing with all the bandits and assassins in this region. They may have avoided us when we were all together but now, they might make a move. How about we go thin the herd a bit Bebe and make it a little safer for our friends?" I address Bebe towards the end and he responds very eagerly for a little bout of bandit extermination.

With my own plans set I go about searching for those assassins and bandits in particular. We naturally exterminate any magical beast that dares to attack us as well but we mostly go looking for other humans this time and only deviate again if I sense a natural treasure nearby. I must say though that I had a good run as I also run into another elite Cult of Shadows team and wipe them out with Bebe's help. I swear they are coming to these regions close to the Holy Union's territory on purpose, I wonder if the converse is also true and the Church has any teams attacking people close to the Cult's side of the mountains.

Whatever the case I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and looted them. Their 8th rank leader is not much of a challenge to me as his battle technique is way below mine, I still leave him for last though and engage in a frontal fight after I kill all of his subordinates by assassination. Must be karma for those Darkness Sovereign worshipping sneaks to be done in by another silent assassin. I get another low-grade spatial ring just like the one that I broke down to study for all my troubles and consider myself very lucky.

We were now a little more than halfway through our month-long solo adventures and I was a lot more relaxed now as I could still sense that all my friends were alive and well. Their exact state of being may be unknown to me but judging from the steady shifting and movement of their rough positions led me to believe they were all fine. So, it was quite a shock to me when Yale's jade slip suddenly shattered while I was cooking up a meal for Bebe and myself. I did not waste any time and neither did Bebe who immediately hopped on my shoulder before I completed my full stealth spell set. I took a bit to chant the lengthy incantation for the 8th rank wind spell Air Wings after that and immediately rushed off in the direction I had sensed Yale's presence.

"Linley, be careful, I am sensing a Saint level combatant's presence up ahead." Grandpa Doehring who was until recently floating beside me a while ago tells me after retreating into the CD ring.

I immediately stop and get scared a bit. 'Seriously Boss Yale, WTH?! How did you end up encountering a Saint level combatant on your first outing from the institute?' I curse inwardly. I am caught up in a moment of indecision for a bit as I'm unsure what to do next. In the end I decide to see if I can get any more information on the situation first. I know for a fact that at least Yale is still alive as the shards of his jade slip still have his magical signature which would have dissipated if he was killed.

"Grandpa Doehring, can you sense anything else? Can you sense Yale? Is he in the same position as the Saint?" I decide to ask him as he has a much better detection range than me as a Saint level expert. Even if he has now been reduced to an incorporeal spirit that can't really affect the outside world, he is still quite capable, especially since I started to also reinforce his spirit every now and then with the refined spirit essence I had stored in the CD ring. He has also been spending time just studying the laws of earth upon my urging as I thought that may help him regain a body with his improving spiritual power so I had no doubts that he could at least give me a few more details on the situation without being detected.

"Hmmm, your friend is indeed alright and is hiding under your wards right now. He is a little way away from the Saint level expert and I can now tell you for sure that it seems to be a magical beast, a World Bear, I think. Hang on there seems to be another magical beast of the 9th rank that is fighting the Saint level bear. How on earth did that 9th rank beast even get the courage to fight a Saint level beast." He responds and I do not bother wasting anymore time after that as I resume rushing to Yale's position.

I had little confidence in ensuring my own safety let alone rescuing Yale from the clutches of a Saint level beast. It was a different situation altogether though if I only had to quickly dash in and whisk him away as the Saint level combatant is engaged in combat with someone else. I still redouble the application of my stealth spells for safety though and charge in despite Grandpa Doehring screaming at me to turn back.

I soon reach close enough that I am indeed able to sense the two bears fighting on my own as well as get a lock on Yale's position. He is thankfully safe and hiding between the thick branches of a tree that was a little way from a huge cliff. I easily ignore the wards he had put up and approach him; I then quietly cover his mouth to prevent him from making too much noise and alerting the bears that are fighting about a kilometre away along the walls of the opposite cliff face we were located at.

"Shhh… Keep quiet, it's me. Let's see where this goes and look for an opportunity to escape safely." I tell Yale and he nods after calming down a bit. He's still a bit tense but just having me rush over to help him out has calmed his nerves considerably.

I then settle to see this bizarre situation with my own eyes where a 9th rank Violet Tattooed Bear is pressuring a Saint level World Bear. Now that I am seeing the full situation with my own eyes, I can see how that Violet Tattooed Bear is still alive, it seems to be holding a smaller injured bear cub in its paws and is using it as a shield from the adult World Bear. That is some really sick and twisted sh*t right there, I knew that humans could stoop so low sometimes but seeing that magical beasts were also like that made me disgusted.

I also noticed that the Saint level bear was also not at full power and was in fact injured a bit. Just then the Saint level bear spoke out loudly in a slightly feminine voice- "Unhand my daughter Gregor and I will not pursue this matter any further. You have already killed my son, if you persist in this madness, I will kill you even if it is the last thing I do."

The Violet Tattooed Bear- Gregor- growls something back in return that I do not understand but I can see that the situation is not diffusing. I have heightened my already sharp senses to the limits with my magic so I am able to hear and see the situation much more clearly despite the distance between us. I was now debating if I should step in and maybe help the mother bear, I could easily escape with Yale right now but remembering the surprising lack of a mother's presence in both my lives I was reluctant to just leave this mother and child duo to their miserable fate.

That didn't mean that I was going to just charge in blindly either as both sides were still dangerous and there was no guarantee that the Saint level mother bear would just let me leave in peace after I help her. Magical beasts normally had a very hostile disposition to humans and the feeling was mutual from the human's side so there was a very real risk if I got involved in this. While the moral and logical sides of me were locked in an argument on what to do next, the situation changed too quickly and I found myself charging head first towards the bears on instinct.

The Violet Tattooed Bear had just snapped the neck of the cub in its hands and taking advantage of the brief moment where the mother froze in shock, the Violet Tattooed Bear attacked the World Bear with all of its strength gathered in its other hand. The World Bear did not even make a sound when the attack struck and caused another vicious injury, the pain of losing its other offspring was obviously much worse.

With a violent roar of rage, it struck back at the one who had hurt it so much but the all the injuries it had suffered so far and the weakness from having given birth not long ago had weakened it a lot. The Violet Tattooed Bear was able to defend itself and though it was also injured quite badly, it was not fatal. Taking the chance, the Violet Tattooed Bear once again coated its arm with a dark malevolent aura and struck at the open mouth of the World bear who was still roaring in grief and rage. This second attack to the World Bear's mouth proved fatal and the Violet Tattooed Bear was overjoyed at having succeeded in its gamble and was about to let lose a roar of victory that quickly changed to a roar of pain as something had attacked it violently from behind.

As soon as I heard the sickening sound of the bear cub's neck being snapped, something snapped in me too and I found myself flying headlong to the bears without a care. I barely paid attention to the desperate battle as I was too busy chanting a powerful attack spell, if the attack I shot into the pedo-mushroom's butt was sinister then this one was the souped-up forbidden version of it. The outer shell was much tougher and made of magical crystal jade like the plate armour of the 8th rank Earthguard spell, it was also covered in spikes all over to cause maximum pain to the target as it is shot up their butt. The concentration of fire elements is much denser and I also throw in a good deal of lightning element and pure destruction element for maximum damage. The spell was barely stable and exploded as soon as it was shot up the a*se of the Violet Tattooed Bear.

Unfortunately, I was still a bit too late as the Violet Tattooed Bear had killed the weakened World Bear and I could not save her or her child. I unconsciously drew in the Souls of the mother and daughter bears into the CD ring though I did not refine them immediately. I focused on the opponent in front of me for the most part and quickly chanted the spell for the Earthguard spell as well and rushed to attack the offending bear with my Blades of Chaos as soon as the crystal jade armour had fully formed.

Bebe, who had been perched on my shoulder all this time also hopped off and started to distract the bear with hit and run tactics. I managed to get a couple of good solid hits in that were enhanced by pure destruction elements before the Violet Tattooed Bear recovered from the ambush and swung its powerful arm at me. I didn't have the time to dodge and could only block with my blades crossed in front of me.

The power of a peak 9th rank magical beast was no joke as despite my defences the force of the blow shot me back dozens of metres. My wrists were shattered and my ribs were cracked as well when the back of my own blades struck my chest from that blow. 'Alright, guess I am still not qualified to engage in frontal conflict with opponents at that level. Guess I'll have to stick with long range attacks then, good thing I have plenty of high-powered ones of those as well.' I think before I quickly heal myself with a quick application of life element magic and pull out some throwing knives instead to use railgun attacks myself.

While Bebe is keeping the big b**tard busy I spend a moment to channel the spells I need and I then begin firing the knives at the bear at insane speeds, they do considerable damage seeing as they are so fast and they also have some pure destruction elements added. I have been using pure destruction elements in all my attacks as it is a very good power and damage multiplier and easy to use with all of my attacks. The Edicts of Destruction have no particular magic of their own so even if I had been gathering their essence and refining them to mageforce similar to the other elements, there was little I could do with it. It seemed to have only one purpose and that was to destroy sh*t so I have been using it to buff all my other attacks whenever I need a little extra oomph, like when I go challenge a powerful strength specialized Violet Tattooed Bear that was 1 rank above me.

For the most part my attacks seem to be working and I am steadily chipping away at the bear and with Bebe helping me distract it I am continue attacking it from range. Bebe was no slouch in this timeline either as he was now able to buff himself with his wind affinity and combined with his darkness affinity, it was a real pain keeping track of him let alone landing a hit on him when he cuts loose completely.

The Violet Tattooed Bear was unfortunately smart enough to realise when the battle was not going in its favour and with one final murderous glare from its single eye, it quickly stuck its paw at the corpse of the dead Saint level bear's head to pull out the latter's beast core and quickly retreated towards the central region of the mountain range with large leaps. I immediately rushed in to close the distance with it again along with Bebe but the Violet Tattooed Bear proved to be way too smart. It began picking up every other magical beast it came across in its dash to freedom and bodily hurling them towards us and like any normal magical beast that suddenly found itself being hurled at a human, they attacked me.

Though I could kill all of these weaker beasts with a single hit each it still slowed me down considerably and the distance between me and the Violet Tattooed Bear was widening. Just then Grandpa Doehring's words sound out in my mind from the CD ring urging me to give up on the chase and try to put some effort into other pursuits.

"Linley, I know you are upset but you likely will not be able to catch up with that Violet Tattooed Bear. It is also heading to the core regions of the mountains; it will not be the only high ranked beast there and you will not be able to fight them all if they gang up on you. I suggest you head back to see if you can do something for those World Bears, maybe you can still heal the infants at least." He urges.

"You can save my children?" A new voice resounds in my mind that has me stop in shock. I had never heard this voice before but I still found it somewhat familiar.

"Boss what's wrong? Aren't we going to hunt down that sh*tty bear?" Bebe comes up to me and quickly kills the few beasts that were looking to attack us after being hurled our way curtesy Violet Tattooed Bear parcels. The Violet Tattooed Bear in question uses this chance to slip away from us for good and I could only give up the chase.

"Something's weird Bebe, hang on let me check. Don't worry I'm not hurt nor is it dangerous, just… weird." I reassure Bebe as he seems to be worried about me after I had suddenly stopped in place. I then examine the CD ring more closely as that was where the new voice seems to be coming from and after a single glance, I find the source.

"Well, that is unexpected…" I say while raising one of my eyebrows. With a little pull from my spirit essence, I manage to extract the ghostly form of the deceased mother World Bear and she seems to be cradling a smaller form in her arms in the likeness of her daughter, only the form of the cub is fainter and flickering a lot as if a strong breeze will disperse it.

"Can you really save my children human?" The mother bear addresses me again.

"Well, now that is interesting." Grandpa Doehring also appears from within the ring and the mother bear has no other reaction other than giving the old man a surprised once over before turning back to look at me expectantly.

"What's wrong Big Bro? What's happening?" Bebe asks again and I spend a moment to explain the situation to him before I quickly respond to the now very frantic mother bear.

"I'm not sure if I can be of any help at all but I certainly intend to try." I answer much to her relief before asking Bebe to hop back onto my shoulder so I can fly us back to the location of the bodies to see what I can do.

I am back at the site of the fallen bear family and I first make my way towards the Saint bear's daughter at her urging. On first glance the body looks really bad and beyond all help but I still cast the most powerful life attribute spell I could muster while keeping my mind focused on resuscitation methods from the transmigrator's world to revive someone from a state of clinical death. I knew that it was possible in that world and it certainly should be in this one where the bodies of people were much stronger let alone the beasts.

It seems to be working as it has only been a couple of minutes since the cub had been 'killed' and the wounds were not so grievous that they were beyond the ability of life magic to heal. Soon the body of the bear cub is restored to health, heartbeat and all but it is unconscious. Reasonable I think seeing as the Soul of the cub is being held within my CD ring.

"This is incredible. Can you actually revive my children?" The mother bear once again asks me while holding out the weak spirit of her daughter to me as if asking me to fully revive her.

"Sigh, I'll see what I can do. Healing the body was the easy part after all. Putting the Soul back in safely is a completely different matter." I tell her honestly. It was the truth after all as I hadn't really figured out how to do that just yet or I would have gotten Grandpa Doehring a body already.

I try a few times and even strengthen and stabilise the Soul of the bear cub using the refined spiritual essence in the CD ring. I am kind of hoping it will just work and the Soul of the bear cub will simply float back into the body seeing as it was the Soul's original body and all. It did not work though.

"I'm sorry. It doesn't seem to be working. There seems to be something missing, I can preserve the body and Soul separately for now so I can revive your child eventually." I tell the eager mother bear and though it was not the best option she seems to relent for now. There was literally nothing else she could do now anyway.

"My son's body is this way, see if you can do something for him as well." She urges me towards a cave in the cliff face up ahead and I soon find another body of a bear cub but this one seems to be slightly more mangled with one of its limbs completely ripped off. I don't waste much time and get to trying to heal this one as well. I'm just thankful that the bodies of magical beasts are so hardy as I was able to restore this body as well at the cost of more energy.

"Well, the body I have healed but sadly I don't have your son's Soul. He was likely killed before I could safeguard it and it doesn't seem to be lingering around anywhere near here." I tell her. I knew there was also the ability to call forth souls from the nether realm for necromancers but sadly I had no formal education in death magic so abilities like that were beyond me.

"… At least you tried, we'll see what we can do for my son later. Can something be done for me as well?" She asks hopefully, she really put the welfare of her children before herself and was only asking me to help her out now. She was also very hesitant as she didn't know if I would continue to help her, if I stopped now, I would be able to harvest the corpse of a Saint level beast as well as the bodies of 2 infant Saint beasts.

"As long as you promise me to leave me and my friends in peace after you recover, I will try and help you too." I tell her honestly and with her agreeing to my condition I finally head over to her body to see to its healing. This time around though, I encountered a problem, I cast the healing magic filling the body with life elements but after trying to aggregate in the head region and pulsing out to complete the recovery like it did for her children, it just fizzled out.

"What the…?!" I look on in shock and try once more in case I did something wrong. I go slower this time to try and see if there were any issues that I could maybe resolve. I found the issue quickly enough but I could not resolve it and the magic fizzled out again.

"What is it Linley, is there a problem?" Grandpa Doehring asks me, he was always curious and watched me do a lot of research with my numerous affinities. Since his own situation was sort of in limbo now, he had developed a lot of interest in magical theory and we would sometimes spend hours discussing those theories and bouncing ideas back and forth. He saw this as an opportunity to learn more, or maybe offer some advice.

"The bear cubs I managed to successfully heal as the healing magic I had cast gathered at their cores and then pulsed out through the rest of their bodies to heal them back to rights, but now this body doesn't have its core. The magic just fizzles out after gathering near where the core once was. I don't think I have enough power in me to heal a magical beast enough for it to regrow a new beast core let alone let a Saint level beast regrow its beast core. It would probably take a powerful life attribute deity level being to heal something like that." I explain the issue I was facing as well as my hypothesis on the situation.

"Well, I have to say that seems reasonable. I would have already written off on their deaths completely if we had to rely on just my knowledge, your life affinity aside you really know how to use it in miraculous ways that I had never seen before. At least you did your best Linley, no need to be discouraged." Grandpa Doehring consoles me.

"That is right human, at first, I had my doubts but even I could tell that the method you used to try to heal me was the same as the one you used on my children, you even used more power the last time. It is understandable for you to be unable to restore a Saint beast as the power we hold is truly vast. The only reason that scum Gregor was even able to kill us was because I was still very weak from giving birth and the trash had the audacity to use my children as a hostage." Surprisingly the mother bear also consoles me.

"But I do want your word that you will look after my children human… no Linley was it. I want you to promise me you will look after them and do your best to take care of them from now. One more thing though, in the future if you ever run into that b**tard Gregor, I want you to kill him. You are still young and you can already force him to flee, in a few years you may be strong enough to completely see to his death so promise me this and I, Lana, will help you in any way I can." She tells me in a solemn tone.

"… You are putting much trust in me… Lana, I will do the best I can to take care of your children and I swear to see to the death of the Violet Tattooed Bear called Gregor." I can't help but be reminded of my own mother in this life, Lina, a bit at this point as this bear has a very similar name. I also think I will definitely run into that sh*tty bear in the next couple of years as I think it was the same one-eyed bear that attacks that Armoured Razorback Wyrm in the centre of the foggy valley. Whatever the case, that bear's days were numbered.

"Say Big Bro, shouldn't we get back? We left so suddenly after all so Yale must be worried." Bebe uses this opportunity to remind me.

"Oh crap, Yale." I exclaim before quickly storing the corpse of Lana in my spatial ring and moving to place her cubs into a makeshift sling around my back, can't store living breathing entities in a spatial ring after all. After all the things there were sorted, I flew back to Yale's position.