Chapter 12

"You ditched me! How could you ditch your poor big brother Boss Yale? Do you have any idea how worried I was when I saw you charge into the fight between those powerful magical beasts? And here I was worrying over whether I should call you over in the first place or not as I may be calling you to your death when I came across a Saint level magical beast." Yale was laying it on pretty thick when I got back to him. He did seem genuinely concerned for me though and I could see he was not lying about hesitating to call me over so I let him vent.

"Sorry Boss Yale. It's all good now, I even got two young magical beasts of high potential out of this mess." I tell him while pointing to the bear cubs on my back. Honestly, was this another 'MC fortuitous encounter' I kept thinking.

"Well, I can see that. You really are something else though aren't you Third Bro. You were able to easily chase away that Violet bear and that first attack of yours that you shot at it's a*se was terrifying. Promise me that you will tell me if I ever offend you so much that you think using that attack on me would be reasonable, I'd sooner kill myself that have to suffer something like that." He says with a shudder at the end.

"Hahaha, no need to worry Boss Yale, I will not use those kinds of attacks on my friends. Now what do you say we leave this place and head towards the meeting point a little early? Or do you want to go exploring on your own some more?" I ask him.

"No, let's head back. I've had enough adventure to last me quite a while already. I'd rather be back in the comfort of my own bed in the dorms sooner rather than later, or better yet, in a bed at the Jade Water Paradise with a beauty on either side, hehehe." He gives a perverted giggle towards the end that honestly made me want to try and bonk the horny out of him.

"Sigh, can you give it a rest and not think with your lower head for some time at least." I remonstrate him a bit but there was not much heat to it and he knew it so, I continued- "That perverted attitude is why you are still without a girlfriend despite your talents as a magus and your wealthy background."

"Hey…" He starts while holding up his arms to his heart as if I had dealt a severe blow to him. Though I sound harsh I was really grateful and surprised he even came with us on this trip in the first place. As the young talented master of the Dawson Conglomerate, he did not have to struggle so much but he was willing to join in all our training and trust us enough to stick with the program till the end.

We joke around some more in that manner while still keeping an eye on our surroundings. By some unspoken agreement I leave most of the beasts we encounter for Yale to deal with, Bebe and I only step in a couple of times when we encounter large pack type beasts. This was only the outer region of the mountains and even though we had just encountered high level magical beast bears not long ago, it was uncommon.

It took us 3 days to reach the lake we had set as a rendezvous location and I was not at all surprised to find that we were the first ones there. We decided to wait around here and set up a warded camp a little further into the forest so as not to interfere with any beasts that come by for water. I take the time to train Yale some more much to his grumbling while also caring for the bear cubs and just generally keeping an eye on the jade slips of the rest of my friends in case they also need rescuing.

The days pass by quickly after that and I'm able to sense my friends approaching closer via their jade slips. The closer they get the more accurately I would be able to find their position and I could now somewhat tell that George was the farthest from us and would be late by around 3 days from the set meeting date, that is if he was not side tracked by other things along the way.

"Linley! I missed you." Delia said as she was the first to show up and she was early by a couple of days, she was very happy to see me and even gave me a hug as soon as we met up.

"What is that pervert Yale doing here?" She asks with a bit of a pout that I miss as I'm too busy checking her over for any injuries.

"What? Oh I had to go rescue Boss Yale after he ran into a bit of a sticky situation." I tell her after her words finally register with me now that I've made sure she is alright.

"Ha, you needed to be rescued? If you had put in some more effort in your personal training instead of chasing skirts with that reprobate Reynolds you would not have been in such a tight spot." She rebukes. "Chi Chi." Fey adds from her shoulder while giving Yale a look of contempt.

"Why you… I'd like to see you handling an encounter with a Saint level beast without help." Yale grumbles back to defend himself but that was apparently the wrong thing to say.

"You encountered a Saint level magical beast? Why on earth did you even call Linley in such a situation, he can't handle opponents like that yet?" Delia rushed to Yale and started to violently shake him by the scruff of his neck and momentarily forgetting that despite the way that sounded, Yale and I were both here safe and sound.

"Gah! I'm sorry, but the Saint level beast was distracted while fighting another powerful beast and I was still far away, I thought it would be safe to call Third Bro to come and help me put some more distance from them. Not my fault he went charging into the fight on his own later." Yale was doing his best to defend himself from Delia's womanly wrath, he even decided to throw me under the bus in the end.

"WHAT?! LINLEY!" Delia drops Yale and he falls like a sack of potatoes. Delia now charges at me with a fiery look in her eyes that promise a lot of pain in my immediate future.

"Are you ok? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?" She asks in a surprisingly gentle tone while checking me all over for injuries, that has me relieved. Yale is looking on in disbelief and is almost banging his chest at the blatant difference in treatment form Delia.

"I'm fine Delia, by the time I stepped in the Saint level beast was dead while the other beast was only 9th ranked and was in a bad state from the previous fight." I reassure her.

"Well, that is a relief." She says with a hand over her heart, she is relieved to know that the situation was not that dangerous and that I am perfectly fine. Just as I was also feeling more relieved that this was resolved, Delia's arm shoots out to grabs my ear and begins twisting- "Now what were you thinking rushing to challenge a 9th rank beast mister?" She starts racking me over the coals.

"Ow… Delia… Ow… I'm sorry…Ow…" there was not much I could do against righteous feminine furry so I was left apologising. That stupid Yale was laughing on the side after seeing the damage his words had done to me, I'll get him for this eventually, I swore to myself.

For now, I had to calm down Delia and after a bit of smooth talking, I told her the whole story and now she was busy cuddling with the two bear cubs I had rescued. Guess big soft and fuzzy teddy bears do help calm girls down, regardless she seemed to have mellowed down some as we waited for the rest of our friends.

Dixie and Anna were the next to turn up and I was quite surprised to see that they returned together… not really. I could sense that they had teamed up to explore together not long after we split up. Though I did not say much I did give them a knowing look and they both blushed a little and turned to look elsewhere. Oooh… looks like something interesting happened, well I'll leave it to the two love birds and not pry. We all hold back on sharing our experiences seeing as there are still some members yet to arrive and it would be annoying having to repeat the story multiple times. We were all just satisfied that the others had all safely returned.

Reynolds returned a day late and George turned up two days after that. I was quite curious as to what could have delayed George as he was normally not the type to be late for these kinds of things, I could expect this sort of behaviour more from the problem kids Yale and Reynolds but not George. Whatever the case, once we were all together again and we were all certain that everyone was safe, we had a feast while sharing our individual experiences. In the outer region of the mountains my wards were enough to keep us safe and in the unfortunate instance we did encounter something, I was confident we could handle it with our current strength.

"Dwam ah mish thish tha mosh Tha Bo." Reynolds tries to say something through his stuffed mouth. He was currently enjoying some roast magical boar meat with some herb and berry sauce I had made.

"Don't talk with your mouth full Fourth Bro, honestly, you are such an embarrassment to our dorm's image sometimes." George remonstrates him.

"I can't help it. It's been so long since I had Third Bro's cooking, I don't know how I will manage to survive after we graduate and go our separate ways." Reynolds responds back and everyone sort of goes silent at his words.

I mean we all knew we would graduate eventually and then go our separate ways but it was something we were all pushing away to a corner of our mind. We had talked ourself into believing that we had plenty of time together until we all graduate and we would cross that bridge once we got there but our most recent successful venture into the mountain range of magical beasts gave us all a good indication of our strength. We now knew that if we wished it or if the situation changes. We could begin to separate as early as the following year.

"Enough of that now. I propose that whatever happens, we remain good friends. No need to worry about our homelands, backgrounds or least of all politics. Nothing will break our bonds of friend ship." I state a very cheesy line but from the smiles on my friends, I can tell that they very much appreciate it.

"Hear hear, that's how it should be Third Bro. I've been thinking a bit on the future myself and have decided to not rush back home after graduating. I'd just be forcefully conscripted to the army to fight against the empire's enemies for little personal benefit, no way I'm rushing back to that. Especially since there is a high chance, I may be posted in the forces against the Yulan Empire. I just don't feel like fighting for ideals and politics that have little to do with me." Reynolds states while casually putting an arm around George.

"Humph, you aren't the only one to be having second thoughts about all that propaganda from the various rulers and nobles." Dixie also states. I just look on at all this unfold while wondering if I had maybe gone a little too far when teaching them to be more open minded.

"So, you also feel that way Dixie? Are you prepared to turn your back on the Yulan Empire, the Leon Clan?" George asks him seriously as he has been having some doubts as well. He had always been proud of his lineage and background and he was especially close to the current head of his clan and grandfather. He still has aspirations to improve his clan's standing but now, his time in the Ernst institute with his friends has given him so many new perspectives to look at as well.

"No, I don't plan to turn my back on my clan or country completely, it's just that I will not be blindly following all their arrangements from now on. I have learnt much over the years I have spent with you all and I must say it is very different from all the formal balls, meetings, political posturing and deals I had seen before. Even the other students of the institute only try to socialize with the heir to clan Leon or the greatest-magus-genius-in-the-last-century and not just... me. What I'm trying to say is that I will not be led to do things just because others tell me to do something anymore, if it is for the good of my friends and family or even for my country, I would do it but I would still think through everything before rushing in." Dixie responds and George has a more pensive look at that.

"Bah, you and Second Bro have it easier. Neither of your families are that closely tied to the military. Even then the Yulan Empire is not that aggressive or interested in wars beyond protecting what they already have. I get that our empire has the War God but do we really need to have so many wars and pick a fight with all our neighbours? And what good has it done the empire really? The Yulan Empire has the High Priest as a deterrent but what of the Rhine and Rohault empires? We've fought so much with them but exactly how much land have we conquered with respect to the lives lost. I certainly don't want to slave away my youth fighting and bleeding just to have some fat c**t who's never held a sword sit behind a desk and dictate terms to me." Reynolds responds with a look of distaste. I choke on the water I was drinking at that point. Damn Fourth Bro, it looks like I have really gone a bit too far with widening your world view.

"Snort, yeah sometimes the ones making the decisions at the top can be real idiots. At least they are not two-faced hypocrites that hunt and sacrifice their own subjects for some nebulous higher power. The Church and the Cult are far worse in that respect. I have absolutely no loyalty to the Union considering what the Church has done to my family. The only thing all these powers have actually done is given a slightly better stability for the common people otherwise society would be in a state of constant fighting like in the Anarchic Lands." I add in my own piece.

By now everyone knows about my animosity with the Radiant Church and they have also verified some of my claims discreetly and know that I'm not just lying to make them look bad. With Yale's connections it was easy to get a lot of evidence of the Church's dark deeds without gathering attention to ourselves after all. Even Anna who was a Union native now had a rather negative opinion of the Radiant Church, with her character it was not difficult to sway her opinion after we showed her some proof.

"Alright, that's enough politics for now. Let's get back to sharing our experiences over the past month." Delia tries to change the topic and restore the lively atmosphere. Soon we continue recounting our adventures in turn telling everyone all the interesting bits about the beasts we encountered as well as other events of note. So far Yale's encounter with a Saint level beast and me having to rescue him is the most attention-grabbing story.

"I can't believe you encountered those high-level bears. I'm just glad they were weak enough for Third Bro to deal with them when he got there." George shakes his head after Yale and I recount the whole misadventure.

"Well, it might have looked bad but we came out of it in one piece and also managed to walk away with something to show for and an interesting story." I tell them, by now they had all seen the bear cubs after all.

"Any idea when they will wake up Third Bro?" Reynolds asks while poking at the tummy of the cub in Anna's hands, by now both Anna and Delia had claimed one of the cubs each and were cuddling them on their lap.

"Sigh, there is an issue with their very Souls being affected so I cannot say when they will regain consciousness. My knowledge in Necromantic and Life magics is still very rudimentary after all, for something as delicately complex as their situation is I can only guess it will take me a few years to fully heal them. I just wish I had some more material to refer but there is just no knowledge of the higher magics available to the public, magics on Souls in particular are non-existent." I reply with a frustrated expression while rubbing my fore head.

"Well in that case it is a good thing I came across these in my past month of wandering. You have helped me out some much Third Bro, it is only right that I share some of my gains with you as well, but know that I'm only lending you these books to study and I want them back later." Reynolds tells me and much to the surprise of everyone around, pulls out a couple of books and hands them over to me.

"Fourth Bro, what are these?" I ask curiously as I take the books from him either way and flip through them a bit. My eyes widen after I see what these books contain though.

"Hehehe, I came across these books on a corpse of some unfortunate person on my exploration. These are books on Life and Necromantic magics, they only seem to be beginner tomes as they only have information referencing things up to around the 6th rank but they may help you Third Bro. I thought it would be quite useful for myself and studied a bit of it as I only had a Fire affinity before, these can supplement my abilities quite well after some more practice." Reynolds answers and while everyone is amazed at his lucky find I was only half paying attention as I was still studying up on the books provided to me.

"And I thought I was the only one who came across something interesting like that. Here Third Bro, I also came across a similar book but this one deals with Destruction magic. I don't know how helpful it will be in this case but it also has some details pertaining to the Soul and some interesting formations. I know you also have some affinity for the destruction element so this may be of some help still. Again, I would like it back after you go through it though." George tells me while taking out a book to pass to me as well.

We all just gape at this new information, it was quite surprising to find out that two of our members had just happened to find legacies to train in 3 of the edicts after all. I just quietly accept the book from George as well with a small thank you and am soon lost in studying them. After a while of studying, I start to get worried, there is no doubt that these are truly methods for cultivating and using the edicts of Life, Death and Destruction but the initial steps are just too dangerous. It just does not explain the severity of failure, even the warnings of crippling of cultivation and death do not begin to adequately express the price of failure in my opinion. As I read more and more of these books it becomes more and more clear to me how dangerous the methods listed are and anyone practicing these methods as is, is gambling with the devil with their everything on the line. The book on destruction was especially dangerous.

"Ummm… you two wouldn't happened to have already trained in these methods by any chance, have you?" I carefully ask with a neutral expression.

"Of course, I've practiced a bit Third Bro, I'm still in the beginning stages though so I'm not sure how much I would be able to help but regardless, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I will add that I have only made significant progress in the Life magic bit which I started to learn first and I'm still struggling with Necromancy as the requirements to practice it are very strict." Reynolds replies with a confident smile.

"I see, what about you Second Bro?" I ask feeling slightly relieved to hear that Reynolds at least had decided to start off with training the much safer Life magic first. Honestly the tome on Life magic was the only safe cultivation method of the three, you either have an affinity and succeed harnessing it or you didn't. There were no adverse side-effects to the practitioner.

"I've also completed the first few steps successfully. I was just mostly lucky that I had a weapon shaped Soul or else… hahaha…" George answers in a flippant manner which really ticks me off.

"I see…" I reply in a cold voice as I shut the book on the edicts of destruction that I was reading last. There was a cold pressure I was unconsciously emitting at that point and everyone grew tense wondering what was wrong.

"Third Bro… Is something wro.." *CRACK… *CRACK. Before George can enquire further, I whack both the idiots on the head with the spine of the destruction tome.

"Ow… What was that for, Third Bro?" Reynolds asks while rubbing his head in pain.

"That… was for being such reckless fools and practicing these dangerous techniques without consulting your friends. Both of you are somewhat experienced in runes and formations and honestly, I expected better from you. Did you even think to maybe consult with me before experimenting with these dangerous methods, I have already revealed to you that I have all these affinities, did it not ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe I could have helped you increase your chances of success?" I verbally tear into the two of them.

"But everything worked out fine didn't it. I mean we succeeded and are perfectly fine now right. I agree that it was dangerous at first and maybe we were wrong to rush in but in the end, it was our choice to make and our lives at risk." George argues back looking very offended as I had never behaved in such a manner with them before.

"Oh? You succeeded and are perfectly fine now, are you? We'll see about that; you may have had some initial success but there is no telling the extent of the damage that has already been done. Sit down both of you, let's see exactly how fine you really are." I don't relent and the others are wisely keeping quiet as I scold George and Reynolds. None of them have seen me look so worked up before and decide to just silently see where this goes.

George and Reynolds still look like they have been greatly wronged by me but one look at my enraged expression and they decide to just follow along to my orders for now. I have both of them sit cross legged in front of me with their backs to me and start meditating. I also sit down and put a hand on the centre of either of their backs and begin meditating to calm my mind as well.

After I had calmed myself down some, I chant a new combination spell under my breath that was a combination of Life, Death and Fate attributes. I usually just used the Life and Death attribute part of this spell before to check up on the status of my own Soul. I did this to further my own research on getting Grandpa Doehring a body as well as to improve my understanding of the Soul to better my grasp on edicts of Life and Death. I threw Fate into the mixture this time as I wanted to pull in George and Reynolds as well into a shared Soul-scape so we could all see the state of each other's Souls.

'Woah… What is this place?" Reynolds asks in wonder. George is also looking on in wonder at the vast expanse of white we find ourselves in. it is a bit similar to the place where the old Linley and Transmigrator first interacted.

"This is our shared Soul-scape. We will be able to check up on the status of our Souls from here and we will all have a clear view on exactly how fine you are after this inspection." I tell them.

"We are in our Soul space. You are going to enter our personal Soul spaces?" George asks with a bit of panic. It was kind of understandable as the Soul of a person was considered private and sacred to oneself. Others were not meant to just barge in on it after all.

"Relax, I'm not out to hurt you or anything. We are only here to take a look, tell you what, let's start the tour with my Soul space first." I tell them and lead them in a particular direction. They both share a look behind me before finally nodding their heads and rushing to catch up. We eventually encounter a circular portal and I lead the two of them through to find that we are on top of a vast lake.

The waters of the lake are multiple colours- 11 different colours to be exact- and the distribution of all the elements seems to be in balance and harmony. At the centre of the lake is another glowing copy of my physical form that has its eyes closed and seems to be meditating in peace. The whole place gives out a very strong and stable vibe.

"Well, what do you think?" I ask my two visitors. They are in awe at the sight before them.

"Hang on, I had read in the book on destruction magic that you would only be able to study the ways of destruction if your Soul's core has a weapon shape. Your core looks like a copy of you Third Bro, how can you practice the ways of destruction?" George asks.

"I am a powerful mage and warrior; I can cause a great deal of destruction just by myself so you could say that I myself am a weapon." I reply with a smirk and my friends are thrown for a loop. That was my original thought process while I was first meditating on the edicts of destruction after all. I was thinking that I did not need a weapon in my hand to fight, I would fight all my battles regardless with my bare hands if I had to and no one would stand in my way. My Soul had naturally been shaped with those thoughts in mind.

"Enough gawking around now, let's check out Fourth Bro's Soul." I lead them back out of my personal Soul space and after a bit of walking I stop at a place and turn to ask Reynolds- "Well, Fourth Bro, do we have permission to check out your Soul space? I promise we will not harm it and only wish to see it."

"Umm… well ok I guess…" He responds. He was now feeling slightly better and more reassured that I wasn't up to anything dangerous so he decided to trust me. Soon another circular portal forms before us and we enter another white space with a large fire blazing in the centre.

The fire is very large and burning with great strength and vigour for the most part as there seems to be a bright green haze constantly feeding it but there were also a few wisps of grey smoke like substance around it that was somewhat looking to choke the flames. This was causing the flame as a whole to flicker wildly in an unstable manner, it was especially bad where the smoke was more concentrated and it was also affecting the green haze quite a bit and causing it to warp in unnatural ways. As we got closer to inspect the situation, we could see a spear floating in the centre of the flames which was Reynolds' Soul core.

"Well, at least your Soul looks mostly fine and its strength is still strong despite the little instability. Though we will have to work on that soon as it would be very detrimental to your future growth if you continue to rashly increase your rank with an unstable Soul. You also have a weapon shaped Soul core so who knows, you may also train in the ways of destruction eventually? No hurry though as we will first need to sort out the stability issue." I tell Reynolds before we head back out to the shared space.

I repeated the same question to George outside and with his permission we entered his Soul space. His Soul space was a huge sphere of water in a dark expanse. Only the sphere was not stable at all, there were numerous currents and whirlpools with a slightly steely colour that was disrupting the entire structure. The normally dark waters were being whipped into a frenzy that was looking to rupture the sphere at the smallest disturbance and we could barely see into the depths of the water sphere where a staff was being violently tossed around by the steely currents. The staff already looked like it was bent out of shape a bit and quite beat up.

"Well, what do you have to say to that Second Bro? Is everything fine? Not only is your Soul space unstable but your core is also damaged, if you continue to cultivate recklessly without taking the time to properly heal first you will meet a very sticky end." I warn him.

"This… thank you for the warning Third Bro." George honestly thanks me for looking out for him and I lead him back to the shared Soul space along with Reynolds.

"I never knew training destruction magic could be so dangerous though. That will teach me to be more cautious with my training." George chastises himself as we exit his Soul space.

"You are wrong about destruction magic. First off there is no "destruction" type of magic in the first place and I doubt there will ever be a magic for it. There is a reason only warriors are known to train in the ways of destruction after all." I tell him bluntly.

"But the book said it was magic, it even had spells and stuff." George tries to reason.

"Tch, that just pisses me off more. Look if it actually was a pure mage that came across that book and tried to train in the listed methods, I can guarantee you they would have died 100 times out of 100. Warriors have a unique mindset that is suitable for training in the ways of destruction with their penchant for violence, especially the getting up close and personally causing destruction with their limbs." I explain and both of my audience listen in with rapt attention.

"The so-called spells are basically very simple applications of the destruction element to cause well… destruction to a target. The first spell- Destruction Application is straight up applying destruction element to your attacks to cause great damage or even just throwing pure destruction elements around to the same effect. The Energy Disruption spell is a bit more interesting but it again boils down to throwing around destruction elements at your opponents but this time you are targeting their energy circulation routes and causing damage there.

The body refinement method is nothing but having destruction elements circulate in your body like a Qi practitioner circulating Qi, only the goal here is to actually cause limited damage to yourself so that you can heal back stronger. The Soul refinement technique is much the same and I have to admit, both of the techniques are well put together and also help in breaking down and discarding impurities. The only flaw is that they are not so good at reconstructing that which is broken or rather healing if you will. Continued use of this method without giving your Body and Soul time to heal properly could lead to disastrous consequences." I continue my lecture.

"There is a reason that most people only start to seriously walk the path of destruction after they reach the Saint level. By that point you have somewhat changed on a fundamental level and you are a hardier lifeform. The vitality of a Saint will ensure that any damage will not be permanently crippling and you can heal naturally at a faster pace. In fact, the only reason I think you are still alive at your low rank Second Bro is because you were lucky to have a weapon Soul core, your warrior training and your exceptional water affinity. Water, among all the elements has one of the gentlest and most flexible natures, it is also very resilient with good defensive and healing properties. If you had any other affinity I would have feared for the outcome." I warn him and he loudly gulps after realising how lucky he got.

"As for you Fourth Bro, you really lucked out in finding a training method for necromancy and its direct opposite life magic. You also did a good thing in training with life magic first as that helped safeguard you better when you got around to practicing necromancy. If you had only found the necromancy legacy or switched up the order of your training you could have directly gotten yourself killed instead of a little instability with your Soul. The edicts of Death are the defacto no. 1 subject when it comes to Souls and rashly tampering with it without any precaution is just asking for trouble. I really don't know where either of you got the guts to use formations of all things to directly expose your bodies and Souls to these dangerous elements." I warn him and now both of them gulp audibly and their faces become pale.

"Well at least now we are all better informed and can progress safely with proper precautions. First off, I suggest you both share some of your techniques, Fourth Bro seems to have the qualification to also practice the ways of destruction and the Soul refining aspect of it should greatly help him meet the requirements to properly practice necromancy and help balance your Soul. Second Bro, you on the other hand would benefit greatly by learning even a bit of life magic, your main issue other than the instability is the damage you have already done to yourself. You first need to heal before anything else and relying on the healing powers of your water affinity just isn't enough." I quickly propose a plan forward for both of them and some of the colour returns to their faces at my reassurances.

"Thanks, Third Bro… I really don't know what to say." Reynolds voices out first with a grateful expression.

"Yeah, thanks Third Bro. If you hadn't warned us of what might have happened, things could have gotten really dangerous for us." George also thanks me earnestly.

"No need for that, we are all bros after all. If I don't look out for you guys who will?" I ask with a smirk before continuing- "Just promise me you will think more carefully before practicing random techniques from now on. I know the allure to learn more and become stronger is great but a little caution is always recommended, I would expect better from the two formation and rune prodigies of the Ernst Institute after all." I finish with a smirk.

"We promise to be more careful from now on Third Bro, we learnt our lesson." They both respond like good little boys.

"Well with that done I have one last thing I want to know from you two before we head back outside. How do you feel about sharing the techniques you two have found with the rest of the group? These could be considered as your personal training methods so no one can force you to share them and nor should you ever feel obligated to share them. I am already very grateful that you two have decided to share the knowledge with me, I just wanted to know what are your thoughts. No need to answer immediately though, I don't want to put either of you on the spot, I thought it better to ask you here privately here instead of out there in front of everyone." I ask them before making preparations to head back out.

"There is no need to be so secretive about it Third Bro. I am willing to share what I found with the rest of the group." Reynolds readily agrees.

"That's right, we have all shared our resources for years and this is not any different." George responds. It was kind of true as I was sharing my supposed special clan techniques and over the years Dixie and Delia had also opened up about their Tigerstriped warrior heritage and shared their techniques with the group as well, Yale was very loose with his purse strings and connections in the economic front and Anna was very open with her experiences as a senior as well as helping out with blacksmithing related works. We all shared our resources without much thought for returns in our group and were developing as a whole.

"But you have already pointed out so many dangers about these techniques Third Bro, will it be safe for the others to practice as well?" George asks me worriedly; he really does not want others to suffer the same way he has or worse die because of the techniques he shared.

"Rest assured you two, between the three of us we can come up with a better way to test compatibility with the edicts safely. I can just use this very same method to check with them and help them out in any case so that will reduce most of the risks." I reassure them and we all head back out to the material world feeling refreshed and lighter.

On reaching outside I give the rest of my friends a brief explanation on what we had found and the new techniques George and Reynolds were willing to share with us. They were all naturally excited but I had everyone wait until George, Reynolds and I could tweak the beginner formations to make them safer in case some of our friends did not have the required affinities to practice the techniques safely.

We solved this issue by incorporating Fate type elements that would act as a barrier between the elements the formation would naturally gather and the person being tested. This was sort of like putting a person in a steel mesh suit and a metal cage before throwing them into shark infested waters to experience the thrill. The results of these trials proved to be quite beneficial to all as everyone showed a compatibility with at least one of the new techniques.

Delia and Fey both showed affinities for Life and Death attributes, Dixie showed an affinity for the Life attribute, Anna had Life and Destruction attributes and Yale surprisingly showed he had affinities for both Destruction and Fate attributes. Yale's Fate affinity was a surprise, I really wasn't expecting him to show compatibility with the Fate type safety feature we had incorporated into the tests itself. Whatever the case I just had him start refining Oracular mageforce for now as well as teaching him the few spells I had created for that brand of magic so far. Bebe did not have any other affinities besides the four I had already found for Darkness, Wind, Water and Destruction but George's findings did help him in better cultivating his Destruction affinity.

In the end we all had a successful first trip into the mountain range of magical beasts and decided to head back. I was still studying up on the books George and Reynolds had shared with me and making copies of them whenever we stopped to rest. The book on necromancy was especially useful as it pertained to subjects of Soul refining and poisons rather than the raising of undead from the Nether Realm, it surprisingly did not have the famous Wraith Call spell in it that lead me to believe that the author of this book had a different approach to the Edicts of Death. The important thing though was that all three books had references to different Soul formations that was giving me more and more inspiration to try my hand at creating a formation to stuff a Soul into a suitable meatsuit.

For that express purpose I had decided to stay in the outskirts of the mountain range to experiment some more. I had also decided to make a hidden safe house in the plains that were just beyond the mountain range before we reached the territory of the Union proper. There was a buffer zone between the human and beast territories that no one had claimed after all and I thought it would be prudent to use this place as a temporary location to try and do the re-bodying experiments on the bear cubs. It wouldn't do to return to the Institute with a pair of infant World Bear cubs after all, too many questions would be asked and it was not like we could hide the large cubs like how I had hidden the little Fey when I first brought her to Delia.

My friends had also decided to accompany me if for nothing else than to witness what I was about to do and maybe study my technique. We had only been in the mountains for a little over 2 months and the standard expected time for people to be on assignment was around 6 months taking into account all the things that could go wrong. Normally if you did not show up at the Institute within that time, you would be considered dead and if you showed up after that time frame you had to go through a lot of formalities and jump through a lot of hoops to account for the late return. Let's not even mention if you were spotted somewhere outside safe and sound after the 6-month period, if you did not report back at the nearest Radiant Church after that, students could face immediate expulsion and, in some cases, outright hostility from the Union.

Since we planned to linger in the very border regions of the mountains for the foreseeable future, we decided to ditch our disguises as a mysterious group of black clothed masked individuals would gather the wrong sort of attention. It would make more sense to be seen as a group snot nosed brats playing around at trying to be real adventurers rather than mysterious lurkers with unknown backgrounds and intentions.

So, imagine my surprise when we came across another gang of brats that seemed to be in trouble after we had discarded our stealth gear. 'Oh yeah, this had happened in canon too.' I realise after spotting a group of 4 kids just catch sight of a rank 5 Bloodthirsty Warpig within my range of detection. 'Damn, looks like some canon events are bound to happen whether I plan for them or not.' I think as the leading warrior in white armour calls out to the only mage of the party by the name of Alice.

"Oh no, there is a group of kids that have run into a Bloodthirsty Warpig up ahead. They don't seem to be that strong or experienced, they mostly likely thought that this region only had rank 3 and 4 beasts." Delia calls out to alert the rest of us and I can only face palm as my initial idea to keep quiet and ignore the situation failed spectacularly.

"Delia, dear, we are also 'a group of kids', there is no need for us to go out of our way to rescue every group of ill prepared people in danger out here. We can't even be sure if their own intentions towards us are honest. They could be bandits or assassins acting to gain the sympathy of others and then stab them in the back for all we know." I try to reason with her.

"They don't look like assassins Linley. They don't seem to be that strong either, we should be able to handle them as long as we remain cautious a bit so I say we help them out." She says with a cute pout and I just can't bring myself to say no to that face.

"Fine, let me just cast a spell to hide the bear cubs though. I am not taking any chances, I don't want word of their presence with us spreading out even by accident, the news of infant Saint level beasts in our possession can cause too many problems for us." I relent and we head over to rescue them after I hide the bear cubs on my back with my invisibility stealth spells.

The others in our group also don't seem to be bothered much by us trying to rescue strangers, they are still too nice and innocent even after their experience in the mountain range of magical beasts. I begin grumbling that maybe my preparations and teachings were a bit too good and that I was coddling them a bit too much but, in the end, I went along with everyone.

Thanks to my repeated warnings about the dangers other humans could pose as well as some of Senior Anna's own shared experience, all of my friends maintained a good distance when interacting with other people so none of them got ambushed from up close by Oscar worthy assassins, even the horny bros of my dorm managed to keep things in their pants and act rationally.

The fully covered getup I had everyone don also had a part to play in making strangers treat us with more caution, they were less likely to treat us as prey if they couldn't get a good read on us after all. This also served as a safety barrier for my friends to interact with others without coming across as easy targets and ensured they had a better position when engaged.

Lastly, I had drilled into each and every one of them the importance of situational awareness and to always stay on guard of one's surroundings so even the few times they had to fight and kill sneaky assassins that sought to ambush them, they were more than prepared. All in all, while everyone now had experience with dealing with assassins, they were not overtly traumatised by the experience enough to walk away from situations like this and let others die in cold blood.

I had especially sat Delia aside before this trip to make it extra clear on all the things that could happen on this trip and the horrors we might face. I had even requested Senior Anna for support as a fellow female mage to really drive home the dangers we could face and gave her all the emotional support I could. She really was a strong girl and only needed a bit of comforting from the rest of us in the first few days and had handled herself well after adjusting a bit. I was very proud of her as she had successfully ventured in the mountains on her own for a month and dealt with all the problems that came up be it human or magical beast without breaking.

It was with these thoughts that our group walked into the scene of four people about our age struggling against a single rank 5 Bloodthirsty Warpig. We quietly observed the situation from on high and hidden by the leaves and branches of the trees after we had tree run to the site of the skirmish, Naruto style.

"Ummm… what am I seeing here exactly?" Reynolds asked as he was truly baffled. These kids were truly too pitiful in our eyes as even though they had around 4th rank raw power with their leader being a 5th rank warrior, they were struggling a bit too much. Both their team work and individual battle technique were absolute garbage.

The white armoured leader's shouted orders for the rest to keep calm and other simple strategies showed just how green this bunch was. We could see that if things continued, the death of a couple of their members would be guaranteed and it could also be a full party wipe if the others weren't smart enough to use the death of their first member (whenever it happened) to retreat. The beast was bound to be distracted for a little bit after it killed its first victim and provide the others a small window of opportunity to escape safely, if only they could grasp it that is.

"Well, how are we doing this?" George asks. It would be a very simple matter for anyone of us to simply kill the stupid pig and be done with it, the question was asked to mostly enquire who would have the honour of gutting the pig as well as what to do in the after math. There was a bit of silence at first before we discussed amongst ourselves as the other party were run ragged by the stupid pig.

Just then the golden blonde female mage of the other party seemed to have drawn a bit too much attention to herself and was in trouble now as the pig was charging straight at her. While she was a decent mage for her age, she most certainly was no warrior and she was severely lacking in experience. Her timing of casting as well as positioning was lacking and she obviously had no strategy for when she was engaged in melee. She would likely be the first victim of this group after she had tripped and fallen down but we moved just in time to save her.

After our group had finished our impromptu meeting, Reynolds was chosen to be the one to act (We drew lots and I was just glad I didn't have to act). He simply enchanted a few fire elements onto the tip of his spear and threw it at the still charging pig. With him having already mastered the 2nd stage of battle techniques to an acceptable degree, this attack of his had a lot of power even without the spell boost. The spear easily penetrated the pig's throat and also had enough force to throw its whole body aside so it ended up being thrown off course from its charge and saved the fallen damsel in distress.

After it was tossed aside the fire element enhancement kicked in and exploded in the pig's neck which blew its head clean off its body, it was a bit much seeing it was already fatally wounded but Reynolds wanted to be flashy. The rest of us could tell he wanted to show-off from his sauntering up to the other group while raising his hand to causally catch his spear that had flown up after blasting the head off the pig. The rescued kids looked on in awe as the fearsome beast they were struggling to fight was so easily defeated in a single move by this new comer.

"Are you alright miss?" Reynolds stops in front of the fallen golden-haired girl and extends a hand to help her up. He was naturally using the chance to flirt with a beauty so he had his charm turned up to 11.

"Uuuh… Tha…Thank you sir." As expected, the girl stutters with a red face and nervously reaches a hand out to Reynolds so he can help her up.

"Thank you, friend, if it weren't for you Alice could have been killed." The white armoured teen approaches Reynolds in a pompous manner.

"It was nothing much, I only did what any decent person should do. But speaking about decent people, what are you people doing here? With your strength even the outer regions of the mountains are dangerous, not to mention all the not so decent people lurking around here." Reynolds casually responds while waving his hand.

"None the less I Kalan Debs of Fenlai city's Debs clan would like to thank you for your help." The white armoured Kalan does some pompous bit of posturing and completely misses the words of warning Reynolds tries to pass on.

"How long have you guys been here in the mountains exactly?" George comes up and asks after seeing this bunch of noob's behaviour of even ignoring the advice Reynolds had tried to give them.

"This is our first day here actually. I still can't believe we were unlucky enough to run into a 5th rank beast, I'd heard only 3rd and 4th rank beasts wander the outer regions." The other male of the party responds.

"Really, what a bunch of fools." Dixie mutters and everyone hears him. The other party looks really offended by that statement but none of my friends even look apologetic, a few of them look at Dixie as to say 'Could you have maybe put it a little more nicely?' but no one outright chastised him as his words were true.

"Hey there is no need to sound so cocky. You may have saved Alice and helped our group but that doesn't give you the right to insult us." The other girl of the group who was armed with a bow and arrows fired back.

"Oh? What else am I supposed to call you other than fools then? Especially when considering you lot barged in here with just your level of strength and so little preparation. Magical beasts don't really stick to a location all the time and even powerful ones may wander to the outer region frequently, you should know this. The other thing to watch out for in these mountains is other people, just be grateful you have not encountered any bandits or assassins during your journey so far. I would advise all of you to get out of here as soon as possible and return to your homes." Dixie doesn't pull back on the punches and verbally lambasts them.

"…Bandits?" Kalan looks amazed, like he never considered this before now. He was starting to think that maybe he was in over his head this time and was a bit careless.

"Kind sirs and madams, we came her with little knowledge about the place, though it was our private decision to explore here, I now understand the dangers. We would like to request your aid in helping to escort us back to Fenlai city, my Debs clan will surely compensate you well for the trouble." Kalan requests on behalf of his group.

"Debs clan? Where have I heard it before?" Yale interrupts as he ponders Kalan's words.

"The Debs clan is a very rich and powerful clan within Fenlai city, in fact it is the most powerful clan after the royal and noble clans as it is the partner for the Dawson Conglomerate in the Kingdom of Fenlai." The other male in the party answers proudly. He really seemed to be a boot-licking lacky for the white armoured Kalan.

"Ah! So, it's the local partners for our Dawson Conglomerate, no wonder I thought that the name was familiar. I must have overheard a few conversations my father was having about you people." Yale answers back causally.

"Wha… What do you mean by your Dawson Conglomerate good sir? I'm sorry but I never got your name?" Kalan asks with a bit of dread. All this while he thought that he was the biggest fish in terms of background at least so he was still behaving with a bit of attitude even though we were a lot stronger than his group.

"Pardon me, I was rude to not introduce myself before, I am Yale Dawson and these are my good friends from the Ernst Institute- George Walsh, Linley Baruch, Reynolds Dunstan, Anna Stark, Dixie and Delia Leon." Yale introduces us all of us and we each just nod our heads politely when our names are called.

"Ah, it… it is an honour to meet you all. Let me thank you all personally once again for your aid Young master Yale, if it wasn't for you and your friends we would have been in danger." Kalan was now a lot more submissive after finding out that some of our backgrounds were far superior than his own.

"These are my good friends- Tony Marcel, Niya Jones and Alice Straf. We are from the Wellen Fighter Institute Milords." The guy was totally trying to butter up to us now as he was introducing his friends from the other male of the group to the female archer and the female mage who Reynolds had rescued.

"Kind Young master Yale, we beseech your aid. Kindly help us get back to the city." Alice and Niya also request help from us with a pitiful look. I just wanted to leave them be as I still had other work to do but Yale seemed to be in deep thought and was very serious for once.

"Hmmm, let me discuss with the rest of my group a bit. We still have some work to do here in the mountains after all, I won't promise anything yet so don't get your hopes up." Yale answers after a bit of thinking. Wise of him I thought, while he could make some suggestions that the rest of us would consider, none of us were obligated to follow his every word. They did not really have to follow my own words either and a lot of times they didn't, it was just that over the years they have come to respect my abilities and look to me as a leader of sorts once in a while.

"Is there anything we may do to assist you in that case Young master Yale? We will help in any way we can." Kalan tries to at least curry favour with Yale but there was nothing he could help us with and we were definitely not going to share our plans with them.

"No that will not be necessary, thank you. Now if you please, I need to discuss this with my friends privately for a bit." Yale responds before walking a bit away from the group we had rescued and asking us to follow him. After we are a little out of direct sight from Kalan and co he sets up some privacy wards before turning to speak with us.

"Please tell me you aren't planning to ask us to help that bunch of pompous fools?" Dixie was the first to ask and he got an elbow to the ribs from Anna and Delia for his heartless opinion.

"Sigh, while I agree with your assessment of them, I can't really leave them on their own either. That Kalan fellow's family is our partner somewhat and even though I am not obligated to help them out here, I do feel that it won't be good if I don't extend help to one of my family's allies." Yale answers with a put-upon expression.

I kind of have to agree with him on that, George and Yale are among the most social and politically savvy members of our group and I had learnt much from them. I could tell that if that Kalan fellow made it back to the city, he would rat us out and tell everyone in his circle about our meeting. It could lead to either good or bad publicity for all of us from there, so it was better to help them. We also had to take extra care in what we reveal in their presence or that will cause a whole bunch of other problems for us. There was also the option of permanently silencing them and no one would need to know the truth but none in our group even raised that topic so I just kept quiet as the rest discussed.

"What do you think Third Bro? I am ready to follow your lead on this one." Yale finally turns to me to hear my opinion.

"I think we may have to help them out a bit more, at least help escort them to the out skirts of the city. The best course of action would be to split up and have three of us go with them while the rest of us get to preparing our secret hide out for our little experiment." I tell everyone.

In the end we all draw lots again to see who will be saddled with escort duty and who will stay back. I naturally was exempted as I conveniently put myself in charge of creating the hideout, I did not want to tempt Fate and hang around Alice for a minute longer than I had to. My three dorm bros were unfortunate enough to draw the short straws and had to escort the brat pack to the city, the horny duo just consoled themselves that there were at least a couple of pretty girls in the group, there was not much in it for George though.

"I'm just thankful that I don't have to tag along due to your obligations Yale." Dixie comments off-handedly and receives some muttered cursing from Yale. While Dixie had mellowed out a lot in the time he spent with us, he was still a bit of a snob sometimes but we were used to it, we knew that despite his words he would help us out if we really needed it.

"Well, that's settled. We'll rest for a bit today and you all can head out at dawn tomorrow to escort Kalan and co. Meet us back near that place where we first took a break before entering the mountains in about a week's time. The rest of us will see to getting a hidden base ready." I tell everyone and after they nod in agreement Yale takes down the wards and we go about setting up a camp for now.