The changes that take place when a Mana Beast becomes an Elemental Mana Beast can range from relatively minor changes to major ones depending on multiple factors. Usually, Mana Beasts could only become one of possibly two different species when they metamorphosed to an Elemental Mana Beast but on rare occasions something new emerges from the cocoon. This is known as a Variant Metamorphosis and while it can happen in the wild it is much more common when the Mana Beast in question have a Soul Contract with a human cultivator. This is because Mana Beasts who have a Soul Contract often encounter quite different stimuli than wild Mana Beasts could in most situations. Variant Elemental Mana Beasts weren’t necessarily stronger than a typical Elemental Mana Beast, but they could be.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes of Elemental Mana Beasts.

While they were waiting for Jai to complete his metamorphosis into an Elemental Mana Beast Telram and the others opened up a number of the other cases to retrieve the treasures within. This included the three items that Lelland, Ryu and Gerry had been interested in earlier as well as the special storage treasures that they had discovered.

Once they had retrieved these Telram and Gerry made their way back to the library that they had discovered. Once they were there started going through the books and placing the ones that Telram decided would be useful to them in one of the storage treasures that they had brought with them. The others stayed behind to keep an eye on Jai while he was in the cocoon. Telram had actually been a little worried that Ryu would want to go on ahead on his own, but he had readily agreed to wait for Jai to emerge from his cocoon. Ryu seemed to be quite excited by this turn of events but refused to tell Telram why that was the case.

Telram grinned excitedly as he placed another book into the storage treasure. As he’d expected most of the books in this library were either cultivation techniques or special martial techniques. There were also a number of primers on medicinal herbs and Mana Beasts that were quite interesting. In fact, there were only a few books that Telram avoided entirely. Mostly ones that were about taboo martial techniques and the like. Taboo martial techniques were techniques that were either incredibly dangerous or did things like actively destroying an opponent’s soul entirely which always results in the death of the opponent. One of the most well-known type of taboo martial technique was one that raised the dead and Telram actually found several books on the subject which was quite worrying to both him and Gerry.

In the end they decided that they would leave these books alone and take pretty much everything else that they could carry in the storage treasures. This even included a couple of ancient history books that Telram found. He wanted to know more about the people that made this place. This interest was mostly because they apparently both wrote and spoke in English which was possibly the weirdest thing about this place.

One they had collected all the books that they wanted from the library they made their way back to the others who were waiting patiently for them. Jai’s cocoon had grown slightly larger since they had left and was softly pulsing. With each pulse the cocoon let off a slight glow giving it an even more ethereal quality than it already had. Telram could feel the mana and soul energy coming off it almost all the way at the library which seemed unusual to him. Not that the cocoon was giving off mana. That was normal but the sheer amount was unusual. Ryu didn’t seem to be surprised by any of this though. In fact, he seemed excited by what was happening.

Since it didn’t look like Jai’s metamorphosis was going to be finished any time soon they decided to rest for the night. Once they’d finished getting ready Telram sat down next to Jai’s cocoon and started cultivating. A couple of hours later he decided to go to sleep while he had the chance since he had the last shift on watch.

Telram felt like he had only been asleep for a few minutes before Lelland shook him awake.

“Any changes?” Telram groaned as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“No, not really,” Lelland replied. “Well, I need to get some sleep.”

“Go ahead man,” Telram nodded. “I’ve got this.”

Telram settled down so that he could keep an eye out for anything that might be patrolling the halls of these ruins. At this point he was pretty sure that there wasn’t anything that was going to attack them in their sleep, but it was a still a bad idea to let your guard down in a place like this. Besides this gave Telram a chance to observe Jai’s cocoon.

The pulses of mana that the cocoon was giving off were happening faster than they were before and using his spiritual vision he was able to get an idea of what was going on inside the cocoon. Even using his spiritual vision, he couldn’t quite get a clear view of what was going on inside. But he knew from what Ryu had told him that Jai’s body was being broken down and rebuilt from the ground up as a completely different species of Mana Beast. Telram wasn’t sure what Jai was going to be when he finally emerged from his cocoon but from the way Ryu was acting, he was willing to bet it was going to eb something that he’d never even heard of before.

About an hour after Telram’s turn on watch started the pulsing of mana became so close together and powerful that they started waking the others up. They all gathered around the softly pulsing cocoon with excited looks on their faces. A few minutes later something started moving inside the cocoon. Whatever Jai had become was somewhat larger than Jai used to be but that was nothing to the power that they could sense coming from within the cocoon.

The group watched intently as Jai tore through his cocoon with his razor-sharp claws. The once red and black Blood Tiger now looked quite different. His fur was now a dark blue with silvery stripes and there was a white flame burning at the tip of his tail. As he met Telram’s gaze the young man also noted that his partner’s eyes had changed color to a deep blue similar to the color of his fur.

“Well, this is definitely different,” the tiger rumbled in a voice that was noticeably deeper than his previous one.

“So, it seems,” Telram agreed with a grin. He wasn’t sure yet what species of Elemental Mana Beast his friend had become but he was sure that it wasn’t either of the species that a Blood Tiger normally metamorphosed into. “How do you feel?”

“Strong,” Jai replied. “Much stronger than I was before. My thoughts are coming even easier as well.”

“How interesting,” Ryu murmured as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I’ve never seen your species before Jai. You might be a new Variant form.”

“I agree,” Gerry nodded. “You don’t look like either of the Elemental Beasts that Blood Tigers normally become. Do you have any idea what powers your new form has?”

“For the most part I don’t think I have many new powers, but my spirit-based attacks are much more powerful,” Jai replied after a few moments. “Also, much like Telram I can use every type of Elemental Mana. Albeit in a very minor way, except for Fire Mana which I have a slightly higher Affinity for.”

“I see,” Telram nodded thoughtfully. “That is quite interesting. Does that mean that we have to name your new species?”

“I guess it does,” Jai replied with one of his strange coughing laughs. “Any ideas?”

“Hmm, what about Soulfire Tiger?” Lelland suggested. “It seems suitable.”

“I like it,” Jai nodded as his tail lashed behind him happily causing the flame at the end to flicker and dance.

“Makes sense to me,” Telram agreed with a grin. “What do you think Ryu?”

“It’s a good name,” the Divine Beast replied. “Jai is going to be very powerful once he learns to control his new powers. At this point I really can’t predict what will happen next around Telram but I’m very happy to be along for the ride.”

“It is always interesting, isn’t it?” Lelland chuckled in agreement. “I wonder what incredible thing you’ll show us next?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Telram laughed. “I do have some suspicions about that, but I really hope that I’m wrong.”

“Because the person that this place was made for is still alive?” Gerry asked.

“Yeah,” Telram nodded. “Although they might not be alive exactly. I suspect that they might be in some sort of suspended animation which is kind of like a deep sleep that prevents you from dying of natural causes.”

“That’s an interesting idea and makes a bit more sense than someone just living here for hundreds or thousands of years,” Gerry nodded. “And what do you think we should do if we find them?”

“I think that we should leave them here,” Telram replied immediately. “We’ve seen more than enough signs that they’re not someone that we want to deal with.”

Gerry nodded in agreement. Not only had they found a disturbing number of Taboo Martial Techniques they had also found some techniques that while not banned were definitely ones that Gerry wasn’t comfortable with anyone having access to. They had also found several treasures that could be used for things like torture or to bind someone’s will which Gerry was tempted to destroy.

“Right then,” Telram said as he turned towards Jai. “Sorry about changing the subject Jai. Do you feel like we can continue on or do you want to rest for a bit?”

“That depends,” Jai replied after a few moments thought. “What have you guys been up to while I was in my cocoon?”

“Oh yeah, we haven’t gone over that,” Telram nodded. He spent the next couple of minutes going over everything that had happened while Jai was in his cocoon. When he was done Jai nodded slowly as a thoughtful look crossed over his face.

“I think that we should keep moving,” Jai said eventually. “If we hadn’t found those storage treasures, I’d say that we should take whatever we could carry and come back later if we felt the need. But when I wonder what else we could find here I can’t help but think that leaving now would be a waste.”

“Well said!” Ryu laughed. “Hopefully, we’ll actually encounter something worth fighting that Telram can’t just destroy with that technique of his!”

Most of the others rolled their eyes at the Divine Beast’s enthusiasm but Telram nodded in agreement. While he’d sparred with his friends quite a lot since he’d Ascended, he’d yet to really be forced into a position where he’d been forced to use all of his strength. Which meant that he had yet to actually learn the limits of his current strength.

Having come to a decision they made their way back down the corridor to where the path had split and headed down the other side. After a few minutes Telram noticed that some of the traps were still active and called for a halt. He was about to send out another pulse of spiritual energy when Jai asked him to stop.

“Hey Telram, why don’t you let me try this time?” the tiger asked. “I want to try out my new powers.”

“Do you have an ability that can deactivate these traps?” Telram asked.

“I think so,” Jai replied. “Besides, if it doesn’t wok then you can just do what you were going to do anyway. So, it’s not like it really matters right?”

“I suppose not,” Telram admitted. “Alright, give it a shot.”

“You might want to put up a screen,” Jai said as he walked to the front of the group. “This ability should be pretty powerful.”

Telram quickly did as Jai asked as the tiger inhaled. The rest of the group withed in interest as Jai’s blue stripes started glowing as he activated one of his new abilities. It took a few seconds for him to charge up the soul energy that he needed to activate the ability. Much like his previous abilities this one took the form of a roar that produced a shockwave of soul energy, but this was considerably more powerful than anything that Jai had been able to produce. It also resembled Telram’s Dissonance technique in a lot of ways in that the spiritual energy that Jai had unleashed devoured the Mana in its path.

“Well, that was quite impressive,” Telram said as he dismissed the barrier of soul energy that he had put up. “I don’t think that you got all the traps but most of them seem to have been destroyed.”

“I think that I actually underestimated how much soul energy to use,” Jai admitted. “I could’ve used more but I didn’t want to overdo it since we don’t know what’s up ahead.”

Like Jai had said a few of the traps did survive the wave of energy that passed over them purely because they had more Mana in them that the soul energy could devour in the short time that it took for it to pass over the trap itself. In fact, it was slightly more effective than the makeshift technique that Telram had used to clear the corridor before. They still had to deactivate a couple of traps that were still active, but they were able to reach the end of the corridor fairly easily.

“Another one of these doors, huh?” Telram sighed. Much like the previous doors this one had a familiar young woman engraved on it. This time she was walking in a garden with what looked like some sort of Mana Beast on a chain. The Beast looked like a Sunstrike Wolf which was a fairly powerful Fire Elemental Mana Beast that was known for its noble appearance but this one was in a pretty sorry looking state. It had a large metal collar on and had several marks on its side which looked like scars from being whipped. Once again Telram was filled with a sense of foreboding as he looked at the face of the young woman who had a haughty smile on her face as she pulled the Sunstrike Wolf along by its chain.

Telram was actually starting to wonder if the artist who had made the engravings was overplaying the cruelty of the woman that they were depicting. On the other hand, if that was the case then there probably wouldn’t be so many Taboo Martial Techniques or artifacts that could be used to torture and enslave people.

“So, is it safe to open?” Ryu asked impatiently.

“Hmm?” Telram grunted in surprise. “Oh, yes, I was just thinking about something.”

“Alright then,” Ryu said as he reached out and opened the door. “Then let’s keep moving.”

On the other side of the door was an overgrown garden that was full of Mana Plants. While some of these Plants were ones that Telram and the others recognized they had only seen some of them in books. Despite how unkempt this garden was the plants in it were worth no less than the things that they had found in the other rooms.

Telram quickly checked for any traps but couldn’t find any. He did find some Inscriptions that resembled the ones in the library that had been used to preserve the books, but these ones had run out of power at some point. Telram was guessing that these were supposed to prevent the Mana Plants and medicinal herbs from growing but something had gone wrong.

“Wow, there’s a lot of stuff here,” Gerry said. “Should we spend some time collecting some clippings to take back with us? I’m sure Iris and Lily would appreciate it.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Telram agreed. “Do you think that you guys can handle that, so that Jai and I can check for more corridors and clear away any traps that we can find?”

“Sure, I think that we can do that,” Gerry nodded. “Ryu, Lelland help me out. Fair warning you two; some of these Mana Plants will defend themselves.”

Well, I suppose that’s better than waiting around,” Ryu sighed irritably. It was obvious that he wasn’t particularly impressed with this new room that they had found but at least there was a chance that he would get to fight something here.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be sticking around too long this time,” Telram said as he patted his friend’s shoulder. “I know that you were expecting to fight a lot more than you have so far. Don’t worry if we don’t get a good fight today, we can spar later.”

“It’s not that same,” Ryu sighed before giving Telram a grin. “But that doesn’t mean that I won’t hold you to it.”

However, Ryu’s irritation only lasted a few minutes. Gerry had been harvesting the seed pods of one of the Mana Plants that he recognized when a vine wrapped around his ankle and jerked him off his feet before he could react. Upon seeing this Ryu immediately leapt into action cutting Gerry clear of the vine and catching him as he fell. A strange screaming sound came from one of the nearby plants which resembled an overgrown pitcher plant. Several more vines shot out at Ryu and Gerry from the undergrowth. But the Divine Beast just grinned excitedly as Water Mana gathered around his fingers which lengthened, and talons grew from the tips.

Telram shot a glance over his shoulder when he heard the ruckus behind him, but he decided to leave it to the others for now. If they really needed his help, then they would ask for it. Even Ryu wasn’t arrogant enough to risk his life or the life of anyone else if things got out of hand. This new room was round and larger than any of the other rooms that they had found so far with four corridors branching off and all of them were trapped but one of the corridors had collapsed so Telram didn’t even bother to deactivate that one.

Lelland watched in surprise as Ryu proceeded to shred that Mana Plant that’d attacked Gerry. He knew that Ryu was starting to get a bit stir-crazy, but he hadn’t expected that Ryu would be quite as vicious as he was being right now. Just as he thought this another nearby Plant released a cloud f something at him. Lelland immediately created an orb of wind around the plant before the cloud could reach him. He didn’t recognize this Plant either but judging by the way that it didn’t attempt to do anything else it wasn’t anywhere near as dangerous as the Mana Plant that Ryu was fighting.

Ryu snarled angrily as his claws ripped through the flesh of the vine-wielding Mana Plant causing the caustic liquid inside to splash over him. The liquid wasn’t really enough to do much more than irritate him, but it was more than enough for some of the other Plants nearby to immediately start wilting which showed just how dangerous it would be to a normal person. Now that the main part of the Mana Plant had been damaged its ability to fight was greatly reduced. Even worse for the Plant was that Ryu had also shredded four of its ten vines. Gerry was watching the fight with an interested expression on his face. While he had known that it was quite likely that some of the Mana Plants in this garden would defend themselves, he hadn’t been expecting to actually get attacked by one. Since Gerry didn’t recognize this particular Mana Plant, he was even considering the idea that this Mana Plant had been introduced to protect the other Plants.

Meanwhile Telram and Jai were pretty sure that they had managed to clear most of the traps from all of the corridors that branched off from this room. Which meant that they too were watching Ryu fight the Mana Plant. At this point Telram was convinced that Ryu was playing with the Mana Plant because of how bored he had been these past few days.

“Just finish it Ryu!” Telram called out. “The sooner you do that the sooner we can move on!”

“Fine!” Ryu shouted back before ducking through the flailing vines and ripping through the stem of the plant with his claws.

“Collect some of that liquid Ryu,” Gerry said causing Ryu to roll his eyes before catching the vial that Gerry tossed at him.

“Fine,” the Divine Beast sighed before bending down to fill it up with the caustic liquid from the main part of the plant. “How much longer are we going to be here?”

“Not too long,” Gerry replied. “I don’t feel the need to collect a sample from everything. We actually have some of these fairly close to the village after all.”

Telram also started to collect samples from the Plants that he was interested in and passed them to Gerry who put them into the Herbal Satchel that they had taken to give to Iris. A few minutes later they decided to move on.

“Alright, which corridor are we going to take?” Lelland asked.

“Not that one,” Telram replied as he pointed at the corridor that Lelland was closest to. “That one has collapsed.”

“I think that we should go down this one,” Jai said as he pointed to one of the corridors with his paw.

“Well, we don’t really have anything better to go off of,” Telram sighed. “What do you guys think?”

“That’s fine by me,” Gerry agreed.

“Alright,” Ryu nodded. “Let’s go.”