The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 929: Embrace The Chaos

The white dragon nodded. ”I heard about it from Bishop Mistyʼs handler.”

”She has a handler?” Karl asked.

”Of course. The time dragons make the green dragons look reliable and responsible. If we didnʼt assign someone to her, we would never know what she had gotten up to, as she never remembers to tell anyone.

She didnʼt even tell us about the incident with you, and still insists that she hasnʼt done it yet, but the Golden Dragon Nation has many of our people embedded in it, as it follows the Dragon Gods.” Avatar Joel agreed.

He ran his fingers through his short white hair, then sighed, and took a book from his robes.

”Here, why donʼt you try this? Itʼs a power matrix textbook. Most species wouldnʼt need it, but I suspect that you will.”

Karl took the book and flipped it open to the first page. It was a newly written tome, and directed at monks, who needed to fortify their mental strength, as inner strength, not mana, powered many of their attacks.

It gave them an edge in some forms of battle, as inner strength regenerated even when cut off from mana. However, it wasnʼt so much the alternate form of energy, which he wasnʼt even certain that he could use, that was the priority. It was the way of storing it.

Karl flipped a few pages until he got to the part that he already knew, the basic focal point. That had formed a dragon scale when he focused, instead of the candle that was recommended. But it was enough of a similarity to follow the directions to the next step.

Karl began forming the pattern to turn the single focal point into a triangle, the next recommended shape. The moment that he clearly imagined it, the two new images of the dragon scale snapped into existence, and the flow of Soul Energy into his body tripled.

{Skill Master 5 activation} [Mental Fortitude] has improved. Maximum level reached.

The new images of dragon scales were solidifying smoothly, and the intensity of the influx began to stabilize, so Karl moved on to the next image on the page, the five pointed star.

Shifting the scales from their spot wasnʼt easy, but the new focusing array formed as easily as the last one had, and the influx of soul energy increased again.

There was a skill in his skill tree that Karl could see becoming incredibly powerful with these changes. It came after [Follow Me, Little One], and it was based entirely on mental strength.

(50 Points) [Dominating Power] The Pack Masterʼs Aura gains a {Mental Domination} effect at will, requiring weaker minds to submit to his will. Hypnosis type ability.

It wasnʼt really his style, but with this much soul power and capped out [Mental Fortitude], it would be effective on nearly anything. However, the other two skills waiting for him under [Pack First] in the skill tree were still more interesting.

(100 Points) [Benevolent Elder] Unbonded Upgraded beasts gain the ability to form a [Contract] with eligible targets before the targetʼs initial Class Selection

(20 Points) [Limitless] Passive Skill. Beasts Evolved by the Packmaster have an increased chance of surpassing milestones in development.

[Limitless] would be great for Thor, whose new species were typically invincible Overlords, but never Totems. While Benevolent Elder was a curious sort of skill that looked like it was better suited to a leader looking to build an army.

For now, he held off on picking any of them, though he had plenty of skill points available. They were useful skills, but he couldnʼt afford to get distracted from the task at hand.

From the five pointed star, the next step was a nine pointed focal design that was supposed to represent the shape of a dragonʼs head.

[The important part of forming the dragon array is to focus on the image of the dragonʼs skull to attain the perfect placement. The clearer the vision of the dragonʼs head in your mind, the more closely aligned to the dragon gods your array will become.]

Karl read the text three times, then realized he had a dilemma. Each of the dragon species had a slightly differently shaped head.

If he was going to align the array to a dragon, to increase and shape his mental strength, he would have to pick one of them.

The adorable, childish chubbiness of the hatchling that Lotus turned into when she was in Beast Form made Karl smile, and the two dragons watching him realized that he was making real progress on the mental exercises.

They didnʼt say anything, so as not to disturb his practice. But they watched carefully as the level of soul energy that his body was absorbing increased again.

This was not the final stage in the process. The next three detailed steps were representations of constellations, but they were 27 and 128 points, respectively.

It felt like there should be something in between those, but that was what the textbook was showing him, and Karl hadnʼt read the details yet.

Karl flipped the page to read the descriptions about the dragon shaped array. There should be guidance in there for him to absorb, and perhaps a good reason to pick one dragon over another.

[The dragon need not be one that you know well, but it is important that the dragon represent an aspect that resonates with your personality. The visualization of the dragon the points represent is integral to the practice and future growth of the Monk following the path of the stars, and a poor choice or visualization may lead to a crippling reduction in growth speed.] The book informed him.

Karl opened his eyes for a moment as he considered the best path forward.

”You look lost. What stage are you at?” Delilah asked.

”The nine-star dragonʼs head representation. Iʼm not sure what dragon to visualize to optimize my growth speed.” Karl explained.

The red dragon shrugged. ”As long as the visualization is good, you should be fine with any dragon you know.”

[I know the perfect one.] Cara offered.

[The Chaos Dragon? I think that might be more you than me.] Karl reminded her.

[Your new growth skill disagrees. You too are the chaos.]