Beastforged Bond

I stared at the training dummy in awe. It had been powerful, tougher than the Spawn marble had been. No matter how one looked at it, anyone wielding armor crafted by whatever divine artisan crafted the training dummies would survive getting pummeled by Overlord beasts and Monarchs.

Unfortunately, the armor didn’t make it. It fell apart; its upper half even slid down and tumbled to the ground. The scene reminded me of a humanoid beast that had been cleaved in two.

“Woaah!!” Thaira exclaimed, clearly elated. Unfortunately, the mother didn’t look too happy. Then again, it was hard to tell how she felt as she stared at the destroyed equipment. Her expression was almost as unreadable as ever, if not for her jaw dropping to the ground.

“I… I think I will take my leave now. Have a nice day.” That said, I left House Heilos in hurried strides. Once back on the ground floor, it was time to teleport away. Why? Because I was not going to wait around for Thaira’s mother to ask me to pay for the destruction.

It would have been interesting to learn more about the dummies. But you do you.

Sapsie chuckled, but I could only grimace.

Truth be told, the destructive force of the Annihilation Blade had been surprising. It was surprising how well the trait worked with spirit power.

I want too! My trait!

Nox hissed, annoyed, which was also understandable. There was only one problem; I doubted Nox would ever be able to generate the spirit power needed to fuel the trait. He may advance to a Monarch now that his strongest trait has reached said ranking, but it was unlikely.

Spirit! Like Aureus. I too!

Nox demanded, yet it was hard to tell whether the Ferronox Mantis was telling me to turn him into a Spirit or if he was announcing that he would become a Spirit in the future.

As impossible as either option sounded, I was no longer sure they truly were. Aureus was certain I, or my World, were the cause of his ascension. Precisely, it was our bond reaching the 3rd Stage that completed the process. Before that, he was ‘only’ a sacred beast. It was hard to make sense of that, but Aureus knew best. He’d felt the changes happening to him and knew even better what items had been needed to initiate and complete the ascension.

Nox was different. He was not a sacred beast, and even if he was powerful and had long since surpassed his racial limit, he wasn’t forming any new Gates, let alone special ones. The only Gates that were coming into being stemmed from Aureus and Resh’s evolution. The latter was a little confusing, since the evolution had yet to conclude, but it was nothing to worry about. If anything, watching the regular Gates form was a pleasant experience.

Teleporting out of the Mikoniv’s district, I focused on the heartbeat and the power it generated. The spirit power I’d used up was being replenished, a little bit every time my heart beat. That was Aureus’ fault. His trait’s, to be precise.

Spirit Heart. It was hard to rank the trait, but it was certainly powerful. Getting knocked out for a few days during Aureus’ ascension had been more than worth it. Adjusting to the new heart beating in my chest after the ascension had been odd as well, but I felt stronger than ever. So was Aureus.

The Earthheart’s appearance hadn’t changed much after ascending either. Even as an Earthen Spirit, he looked the same. Then again, something about his presence had changed.

I am still the same. Just a little glowy.

Aureus grumbled, clearly not all too happy about the murky golden hue shrouding him at all times.

Nonetheless, he was right. Aureus was the same even as the Earthen Spirit, although he now had a pool of spirit power to call upon. It was much stronger than ether, yet it was his Core that had grown the most. His ether was purer than ever before, and it was now fully aspected to the Earthen Aspect. And that was only the beginning.

After ascending, Aureus’ traits were much stronger. His physical strength reached new heights as well, and so did his mental capacity. At this point, I wouldn’t worry too much even if several weaker Overlord beasts were to attack Aureus simultaneously. And, even better, his power flowed straight into me through our bond at the 3rd Stage.

The empowerment, however, was only one factor. A minor one at best. Spirit Heart was the cream of the crop. Whenever my heart beat, it emitted a sliver of spirituality. Spirit power that fed into the Insignia, refilling and expanding it. There was only one minor downside; my heartbeat affected my constitution much more than regular movements. It consumed a lot of ether, certainly due to the Gate Outflow Syndrome. A problem that had been solved, at last…mostly.

Now that the Vortex Gate technique was complete and the Elixir proven to work, creating more Vortex Gates was only a matter of time…and money. Acquiring enough water-attuned etherstones for the process would be cumbersome. For a Stage-1 Vortex, it would already cost no less than 100 gold if I didn’t mess anything up and succeeded on the first try. But that was the cheap part.

The Elixir, the Vortex Stabilizer, easily cost 50 platinum for a Stage-1 Vortex. Actually, 15 per set with all the Essences needed, but only one out of three tries produced something good enough to be consumed.

The Elixir would be good enough for Stage-2 Vortexes as well, though the time needed to consolidate the vortex would be a lot longer. That was fine with me, though. With 15 Wild Gates linked to my weave, the cost would ramp up rapidly, and that was more of a problem.

For 15 Wild Gates, I’d have to pay 1,500 gold for the etherstones and 750 platinum coins to pay for the ingredients of the Vortex Stabilizer. Maybe it would be a little cheaper as soon as my alchemy skills improved, but even the best case would cost me 250 platinum, and that was wishful thinking.

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Creating Vortexes for Awakened Gates would cost the same for the Elixirs, but I would have to pay a lot more for the etherstones. As for Evolved Gates… It was possible to use the Vortex Gate technique on them, but my success rate with the Vortex Stabilizer was not good enough. Precisely, I had to increase the efficacy of the final product to 120% or use higher-graded Essence and ingredients, and that would increase the cost significantly.

In the best case, I’d end up paying 150 platinum coins for a Stage-3 Vortex Stabilizer. That was expensive, to say the least, but it was also incredibly useful. It was a one-time payment to create structures that would last for decades, centuries with maintenance and a little bit of luck.

The structures were basically permanent as long as the creation process went down flawlessly. They’d absorb ambient ether at all times and, according to our calculations and experiments, would absorb more ether than the Gate they were linked to would leak. As long as I didn’t perform any high-intensity movements.

Only in intense combat would more ether leak from the Gates than the vortexes could recover in a short period. And that meant that as long as I wasn’t in combat, my Gates would be filled to the brim and all excess ether would be shoved into the weave until that too was overflowing. The surplus ether forced into the weave could then be used to practice Mindbreaker, Fortress, or Blastor Refinery. They’d also be useful for various other training regimes, or simply to fill all the remaining Wild, Awakened, and Evolved Gates I’d neglected.

Refunctioning them to Liferoot Gates was also a possibility, one that would further strengthen me, increasing my survivability against the Devourer and its Spawns. Then again, life-attuned ether was not very efficient when used with traits aspected to other elements, especially not the destructive types.

But that was an issue for later. I had only one stabilized Vortex for now.

Returning home after a long day, Daniel was already waiting for me. Actually, he wasn’t waiting. It was just that my childhood friend returned home at the same time as me.

“Long day?” he asked with a tired smile.

“And expensive.” I chuckled mirthlessly, dreading the exorbitant prices that awaited me. Vortex Stabilizer aside, I did want to continue to feed Sapsie and Nox with high-quality Elixirs. And that meant I needed even more money.

“But you look happy. If money is your only problem, then you don’t really have a problem.” Daniel smiled lightly, but I couldn’t reciprocate that feeling.

As great a friend as Daniel was, he’d never been poor.

“Don’t look at me like that. And don’t act like you’re poor. Worst case, you hunt some of the rampaging Overlords or a bunch of Spawns. I met Zegrath a few weeks ago, and you’ve been all she’s talked about.” The look in my friend’s eyes threw me off. “What’s going on with you and Zegrath, by the way?”

“What are you talking about?” I had a guess, but I highly doubted Daniel was talking about that.

“You know what I mean.” He crinkled his eyebrows at me.

Never mind. Daniel did mean what I thought he did.

“We’re not a couple, if that’s what you’re trying to say.”

“But you like spending time together. Or sparring with one another.” Daniel snickered.

“Did you know that beating a Caldera a hundred times is the equivalent of going on a hundred dates? Or… something like that. Anyway, if you court her, she’ll surely accept you. Caldera respect power and, for them, you’re still a Youngling wielding enough power to crush most of their Elders. Touched by the spirit and such, you know?”

I didn’t really want to talk about any of that with Daniel. Then again, it was fun to sputter nonsense here and there.

Studying my friend, he only looked a little tired. But beneath the exhaustion he’d accumulated over the last few weeks was something else. A constitution empowered by crackling lightning currents. Through Lifesight and Predator, I could see traces of his weave. They were hard to see, and Daniel could have concealed them if he had wanted to, but that was not the case. If anything, he wanted me to see the electrical currents racing through his weave, zapping him, filling him with power not unlike the Blazing Gates did.

Sacred beast?

Sapsie whispered through the bond, which was hurriedly followed by snippets of evidence that could possibly explain Daniel’s state.

Having bonded with a sacred beast was one of such possibilities, but the electricity coursing through Daniel was very familiar. It reminded me of Coco’s lightning.

Did he turn Coco into a sacred beast? That’s possible? I thought...

“What are you looking at? Or are you dreaming about Zegrath? I didn’t know you liked muscly women.” Daniel snickered, though the look in his eyes told me he was very well aware of what I was looking at.

“Your physique,” was all I had to say to make Daniel smile like he’d won the lottery.

“I knew you could sense it. The Thunder Physique is really powerful. The Lightning and Thunder Aspect are much stronger than they used to be and my ether is now aspected. Even the sealed Gates are now aspected and improved my reaction speed and movement speed. No wonder you were so strong with Aureus being a sacred beast.” He bragged before laughing excitedly again.

“It’s Coco, isn’t it?” I asked. “She evolved into a sacred beast, didn’t she?”

Daniel only smiled at that.

Does he really think he’s the reason that dumb bull evolved into a sacred beast?

Sapsie asked, sounding oddly offended.

What do you mean? Is that not what happened? Her words were almost as confusing as her irritation.

Of course not.

Aureus spoke up this time.

Your World resonated with Coco. While that alone was not enough to turn a beast into a sacred beast, being together for prolonged periods must have helped. You probably emitted some of the Primal’s power while you were in a coma and your World broken. It would explain why Coco turned into a sacred beast now. Even then it wouldn’t mean the advancement was not worth celebrating. Coco’s evolution is a very nice surprise, but it has little to do with Daniel’s effort. Without the Primal’s Spark, Coco would have never become a sacred beast. Never.

That was harsh. It was also something I would never tell my friend, knowing how much it would hurt him.

So instead of talking about any annoying topics or subjects that could hurt Daniel’s confidence or pride, we spent some quality time together. With him and later our families.

We relaxed a little for the next 36 hours.

The following morning, I woke up groggy but more than ready to spend my last fortune. The last of my Spirit Coins was swiftly exchanged for the material sets needed to proceed. Two weeks later, seven Stage-1 Vortexes spread throughout my weave. And while it was nowhere near enough for my final goal, the sight was beautiful.

What wasn’t beautiful was the call I received. Or, more precisely, the pull of a higher being. A friend I’d been wanting to talk to again for quite a while.