The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1209: Training Location

”The old mage training grounds are unused right now. You know, the ones where you used to go with Hawk to harass water mages?” Rita suggested.

Hawk laughed from his nest. Picking on water mages was fun.

Karl stopped at the training grounds, and wrapped his arm around his mother.

”Would you like to see something incredible? I know that most of this is overwhelming, but I swear that it’s actually pretty cool once you’re used to it.” He whispered.

His mother shook her head in dismay. ”You left me as a skinny teenage boy starting puberty, and now look at you. Taller than your father, all muscles, and such a strong elite that even the Headmaster of the School is polite to you.”

The other Elites began to chuckle, and Rita leaned over to whisper in her ear.

”You probably can’t tell with their auras restrained, but Karl is most likely the most powerful person standing here. And not just in raw strength, he’s got incredible wealth and valuable skills as well.

The place he went to after he left the Golden Dragon Nation has magic beyond anything that we have ever seen here.” She explained quietly.

Karl’s mother looked to him for confirmation, and Karl shrugged, then picked up Cara to pet the badger’s back.

”Cara here could likely beat up half the academy on her own. But power isn’t everything. I would like to think that I’ve built up a reputation that would make you proud as well.” Karl insisted.

Dana snickered at the idea. Yes, Karl had a reputation alright. Whether it was a good one or not depended on who you asked. But there was no denying that he was highly valued for his skills and power.

Karl gathered mana to cast [Earth Manipulation], but Tian and Opal were getting excited about helping, so Karl didn’t cast the spell himself.

Instead, he channelled the mana to the pair of reclusive beasts, who had a grand vision of what a trial tower should look like.

Opal had seen the Gothic Cathedrals of the Capital today, and while they weren’t the most popular of architecture, this was called the ’Golden Dragon Nation’ and nothing else looked like it should have a dragon perched on the roof.

They were simply the most suitable style of architecture for the location.

According to Opal.

So, they built a five-story cathedral, with a large belfry that would be the main trial tower structure.

[Illusionary Domain] was limited in how much she could expand a space, so the tower portion would be mostly stationary trials. But in the cathedral area, she could create something more like a dungeon, or large combat field.

[Alright, we have a list of things we need added to stones.] Opal informed Karl, before presenting a list in her space for him to make.

Some of the spells needed elemental affinity to the material for stability, so Karl took out stones from storage and began carving them as everyone watched, then placing them back in Opal’s space.

The parts that only needed enough power for the desired ability, he just created with [Earth Manipulation] and [Runecrafting] directly in Tian’s space, so the fox could drop them in the spots he wanted them as they constructed the ornate cathedral themed structure.

The belfry tower actually had a dragon made of stone wrapped around it, extending over the top, where victorious challengers would be able to exit the trials.

[Ooh, we should have lights or something, so people can watch and see how many trials the current challenger has finished. We already wanted to make them harder with every victory, so there should be a ranking.] Tian suggested.

[Light up dragon scales. That’s almost as good as glowing feathers.] Hawk suggested.

[Good idea. That’s an easy spell with Holy Light. I can add that to the building as I finish it.] Tian cheered.

Cara returned to her space to assist with setting up the challenges, and because her assistance would be needed to properly randomize the trials and rewards.

Karl knew the [Randomize] spell, and that could be added to a runic item designed to make gifts, but with [Chaotic Zone] it would be so much better.

Karl’s parents watched in awe as he created an entire cathedral in front of them in the course of ten minutes.

That sort of power was unlike anything that they had ever considered possible. They had heard that Elites could destroy massive areas with their attacks, but nobody had ever mentioned that they could simply construct massive works of architectural mastery with pure willpower and magic.

Plus, when had Karl learned about architecture? It surely hadn’t been long enough for him to get an engineering degree.

If either of them were well versed in architectural engineering, they would have known that he clearly didn’t have one. The building existed to spite the laws of nature, and the strength of regular stone should not have supported this design.

But the true wonders were hidden inside and waiting for Karl to finish the spells.

Karl wove [Illusionary Domain] and [Chaotic Zone] together into one spell effect, imbued into the inner walls of the building.

The level of mana use had alerted Totems all over the continent that something big was happening at the Academy, but after the first group of mages had visited, they had passed the message that an exile had returned to collect guests for his wedding.

So, while they were desperately curious as to what was going on, none immediately made a move to visit the Academy.

Not even the Emperor of Newbon, though he knew exactly which of the exiles had returned for a visit, and he sensed a strangely familiar presence with him.

He was going to have to talk to his bonded weapon. She had definitely been up to no good at some point because not just anybody could obtain a Haint Claw. If it was all grown up and at Totem Rank, it was likely to be nearly uncontrollable, so he wasn’t too worried yet.

But he was certain that Karl was in for a tough time when that sapling of a living weapon gained sentience.

A Haint Claw sapling that was currently napping in his mental space because construction projects didn’t interest her nearly as much as destruction projects and challenges did.

Sitting in a room down the hall, Leafa giggled at his silly notions. It wasn’t that sentient weapons couldn’t be controlled. It was just that her wielder was a boring jerk, and she didn’t want to see his face.