Next mission

At the meeting spot was a table. Oren and Irene sat and drank tea as they talked. Oren saw Leon return and was surprised. It was still two days early for the mission to end. He thought Leon had failed. Looking at how beat up his clothes were he felt like he was right.

Leon had barely done anything. His clothes weren't torn but they were dirty. The Phoenix had suddenly jumped off his head while he was climbing up a ledge. The sudden change in weight had caused him to jump to jump and hit a tree and then the ground.

Other then that it was the Ifrit's explosions which had knocked up a lot of dirt on to. his clothes even earlier then that.

Leon's hair was a mess as well. With the Phoenix forming its nest on it he looked like he had gone through the worst time of his life.

"It's fine young man, you tried your hardest. If you want to return don't feel bad about it. You still made it to the top twenty." Oren said as he got up.

"I completed the mission. Here are the runic cores." Leon took out the cores of all the beasts he had. He couldn't do much with them at the moment so he gave them all.

Oren opened the spatial bag and was surprised to see around forty cores. "Yes you did complete it." He coughed and said, "You can rest for two days or start the next mission."

"I wanted to get a new Fire art I'm done cultivating mine." Leon wasn't really listening to Oren.

"We were going to announce that you would be able to exchange cores for arts when everyone returned. Irene should we let him exchange for an art?"

Irene didn't care, and just shrugged her shoulders. "I'll take that as a yes. Here young man see which art you want to exchange for."

It was a list of three hundred arts. The most expensive ones were around two hundred cores. Leon found the art that he could buy with all his cores. It was an art that was for thirty nine cores called Pure Fire Art. It was a low earth rank skill that allowed beasts to summon stronger flames.

He traded for it and asked What the mission was.

"You have to reach summoning expert but looks like you have already completed it. The mission after that is to have all your beast reach Greenstar.

"Here this is a map of all the areas the Council of Fire has mapped out of the Fire Plane. Use this to find high energy zones and cultivate. You have a month to finish this mission."

Leon took the map and nodded. He then left to complete the mission.

Leon forbade enough and summoned the Phoenix and the Ifrit Beast. Further away he summoned the Dragon and the Chimera beast. He didn't summon the Strom spirit butterfly and the Lightning Griffin because they were weakened by the Fire energy. He didn't let the Phoenix bless them because the blessing increased fire affinity.

The Dragon was pure ice and wasn't effected by the blessing, other then making it more resistant to fire. It didn't matter if the Chimera gained the Fire element. However it did after for the other two beasts.

Leon rode the Dragon to a place called Falling Meteor Valley.

The Ifrit sat on the Dragon as well as it flew. The Chimera ran next to the Dragon in the air until the valley.

The valley had was large and had large meteor craters litter it. As Leon had the Dragon fly threw it, he had the Ifrit and the Phoenix sense for fire energy.

The mission wasn't going to be too hard. Most of Leon's beast were high level yellowstar. The Dragon was slowly rising in cultivation because of the Ice Heart. It was able to absorb ice energy from every where. Leon had walked around with it on his head through a lot of the competition which allowed it to reach one Greenstar level.

The Chimera was low and had leveled up to nine yellowstars after killing the beasts earlier.

The LIghtning Griffin and Storm Spirit Butterfly were a problem as they were only at five yellowstars.

The Ifrit was also already at the one Greenstar level. It had reached earlier when it grew. The Phoenix had also quickly leveled up. It was at one yellowstar and didn't look like it would be stopping any soon.

The Blood Harpy was still in its egg and needed holy energy to be born.

"I need to get Holy and Lighting resources. The Council of Fire should provide them." Leon thought.

As he was thinking a large meteor landed near them. Soon it started raining meteors. They fell down as flaming rocks. The Dragon dodged the meteors and moved through the valley. The Chimera did the same. It would cut a meteor in half when it couldn't dodge.

The Ifrit Beast on the Dragon took care of the meteors about it hit the Dragon. It formed a Fire bow and shot arrows at the meteors getting to close changing there direction.

The Phoenix just enjoyed the ride.

The chaotic falling meteors finally stopped. The beasts regrouped.

Leon asked the Ifrit Beast, "Did you find any energy source?"

The Ifrit shook its head, Saying No.

Leon nodded and started moving to another area called the Fire ocean. Along the way the Chimera killed four beasts which Leon happily collected the cores of. He also formed more runes for that Blood Harpy. He brought the number of runes formed to 2041 leaving 959 until reaching the completion of the second level, Killer's Blood Pool.

The fire ocean was a large ocean of Fire. The fire was compressed and dense to the point it had liquefied.

Leon looked at the Ifrit Beast, "Any energy source here?"

The Ifrit closed its eyes and concentrated. It then nodded and said that there was a strong energy source at the bottom of the ocean.

Leon looked at the Chimera and the Dragon. The Dragon nodded saying it would be able to follow. The Chimera roared and also said that it could follow.

Leon nodded and jumped in the ocean. The Phoenix on his head enjoyed the bath and it also pushed Leon down to the ocean bed with out him even having to try to swim down. The Ifrit also moved through the liquid fire with Leon.

The Dragon entered Ghost from and followed Leon, while the Chimera formed a Lotus around its body. It then dived in. The lotus acted like a shield and kept the Fire away.

The beast sunk to the bottom and followed the Ifirt beast. The Ifrit Beast brought them to the place.

At the ocean bed was a Crystal coral. It was red and gold in colour. The size of it was as big as Leon.

The Ifiet pointed at it saying it was a strong source of energy. Leon swam to it.

"This should be a Flame Crystal Coral. Out of my beast only the Ifirt and Phoenix are Fire beasts." The Ifrit already was at the Greenstar level, the Phoenix Beast it was then.

Leon held the Phoenix and brought near the coral to eat some of it. The Phoenix opened its mouth and took a bite of it. It nodded saying that it could eat this. It then opened its mouth and sucked the whole coral in.

In a few seconds it broke threw to the one greenstar level. It also grew a little larger. It then hoped back on to Leon's head.

Leon and the beasts swam out. Now the Fire beasts were all level at Greenstar. He couldn't do much about the other beasts at the moment.

"I'll have to collect cores and probably trade for resources." Leon thought. "There was an art called the Flame Devour art for one hundred and twenty cores. I can teach that to the Chimera to help it level up." Leon thought.

He then spent a week killing beasts and training the Pure Fire Art.

The Pure Fire art was a simple art. It had four levels all of purification. The art allowed the formation of a Rune called Pure Fire. This rune just made the flames of a beast stronger.

He had reached competition of the Pure Fire Art in the week. With the Phoenix his training speed had been increased by ten times. Leon already started thinking of where to get Fire Heavenly rank arts.

Leon formed the Pure Flame rune and gave it to the Ifrit Beast. The Ifrit Beast had its own unique demon fire. This was the Flame it used in all its attacks. With Pure Fire rune it became stronger.

In the week Leon collected the cores. He had killed two hundred and thirty beasts as all of his beasts worked together.

He returned to the meeting spot. It was still empty. He had already unsummoned all his beasts and walked up to Oren.

"I want to buy an art." Leon said.

"You already want another art! It's barely been a week. You should slow down and finish cultivating the other art."

Leon didn't seem to care. He told him he would be fine cultivating another art. Oren allowed Leon to buy that Flame Devour art eventually.

"What about materials, can I buy those?" Leon expected he could buy them.

"Yes, here is the list."

Leon was surprised looking at the list. It had holy element materials on it. There were only five and all of them were worth two hundred cores. Leon was ecstatic because they were high quality. Leon decided to buy all of them later.

He quickly bought a few Lightning element fruits and drops of soul dew. He then left back for the forest.

As Leon ran he thought about Anastasia and Pace. He hadn't seen them for a while. They should be fine since they had the teleporting Talisman.