The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1308 The Key To Advancement

With the followers now somewhat safe, Karl moved on, then called the Epic Guard and the Haint to him so that he could have support at his sides, without greatly reducing the number of fighters on the other side of town.

For a moment, the Epic Golems felt insulted that Karl hadnʼt called them. There were two of them as well, so they wouldnʼt deplete the force any more than the other two.

Then they realized that without being at Karlʼs side, they were free to just do as they pleased, within the scope of their orders.

”Kill the invaders, rescue the civilians.”

Simple, but with so much leeway.

To a pair of Dark Elven Kings, that was practically winning the lottery. They could terrorize the civilians as much as they wanted, as long as they ʼrescuedʼ them after. And as an added bonus, they would be dismissed after the battle, so they wouldnʼt have to listen to anyone whine about their methods.

Though, if they could make their way across town, they could go challenge Lady Rae to a killing contest. That would be even more fun than terrorizing strangers.

While the two Dark Elves were considering whether it would be going too far to escort the civilians back to safety collared on a slave gang rope, for their own safety of course, Karl was pondering a profound insight about

advancement.

One of the first things that he had ever been told about gaining power was that people eventually got complacent, or lost motivation, and that was the end of their career.

They would end up stuck in a rut, never advancing, and burn away their potential.

But today, seeing Opal advance because she was upset that the battle had interrupted the chances of Ophelia and Lotus going on a steamy date, he was beginning to wonder if that was only half the story.

Yes, getting stuck in a rut, or losing faith in yourself could stop you from advancing. But at some point, it might actually be necessary to want and need to advance. Cara routinely advanced because it would be boring not to. Hawk often advanced out of pure frustration. Opal had just advanced out of unfettered rage.

So, as all of them were pushing the limits of their species, could that actually be the trigger, the last missing ingredient to the advancement formula?

There was a mining song about a man named Big John who had once held up a broken mine timber, propping up a collapsing mine, so his fellows could escape. A feat of heroism that should have been physically impossible.

But in the context of the system, what about it wasnʼt physically impossible for a normal man?

That overwhelming surge of emotion and motivation could be the key to advancing.

And if it was, then they might have actually done their children a disservice by making the academy too safe, and too well organized. Only when things went wrong, and they were pushed to their limits, could the students really reach within to get past the bottleneck.

Rae thought that Karl was absolutely right. Torturing and terrifying the students was truly the right way to go about it. Look at how well her Baby Rogue had grown under the threat of being captured the moment that she began to slack off.

That reminded her.

[Once this fight is over, open me a portal back to the Academy, I need to go see Sybil.]

Karl and Dana both laughed as the Epic Golems mentally pleaded to be allowed to go with her. One Rae was enough to terrify a baby Rogue. But the three of them together was enough to terrify the entire Academy.

They might even be able to teach the children something new while they were at it.

Karl could sense that the other teams were getting close to the river, so they would soon enter the Redwood Sprawl, or what was left of it. However, the Dark Elven Kings were faster, and they were at the north gates, fighting their way towards Rae at breakneck speed, aiming to create piles of bodies larger than what the spider and her golems managed.

That seemed impossible, as Rae had the Spectral Knights with her, and they were slaughtering the frogs in a single strike. But the Dark Elves had ranged blade techniques that could take out multiple targets at once, and they were faster to release their skills.

Karl was about to relax and order his golems forward when he sensed more disturbances overhead.

The Supreme Ranked creature that Matilda was fighting had stumbled, and a gout of black blood fell toward the ground, then vanished into Raeʼs space before it could be polluted by the rubble.

The two Supreme Ranked Combatants vanished in a wave of Chaotic energy, marking Matildaʼs temporary victory in their battle of wills.

From inside the Chaos Realm, she would have the advantage.

And she wasnʼt alone. Cara had shifted to go assist her.

Karl frowned. The battle between two Supreme Ranked creatures was not something that the badger should be getting involved in. The problem was that Karl couldnʼt easily move to the Chaos Plane to go get her.

He did have a skill for that, but it was one hundred skill points. Incredibly expensive, and possibly not worth the loss when he could use them on

{Blessing of Skill} to create new skill books.

That was two artifact grade skills, or four Epic Grade skills.

Not an easy choice.

[No need to save me. The Calamari in Chief is about to get chopped and diced.

It can fight, but it canʼt properly move here. It doesnʼt understand the rules.]

Cara explained.

[If you let it injure you, you are in big trouble.] Karl warned her.

[Got it boss. I will wait patiently.]

If Karl wasnʼt suspicious of her intentions before, he was now. Cara never waited patiently for anything, even when she had seen it in a vision and knew what was coming.

No, especially if she knew what was coming. Because then, the suspense was

gone.