It took ten days to finally reach the other side of the Dragon's territory, they only stopped to rest a couple of times. Sleep was still needed for low stage channelers but not as much as a mundane humans. The shadow Forrest went on for at least twenty more miles after they left the Dragon's protection. Once they left the forest completely they came into a rocky plain. There were black boulders and dark smooth gravel everywhere. Colin pulled out the map from his pouch. The map was a square crystal cube with a small pink pearl inside it. Holding it in his hand Colin pushed his energy into the crystal and a projection of where they were appeared on a large expansive map of the rocky territory. This was the first object they bought on their path to the Yellow belly mountains. "This is Dead goat's Gulch." Colin said after reading the information the cube had. We're still in the same family's territory but on the edge of it now. In fact from the looks of it once we pass this area we'll be in no man's land." No man's land meant that the territory wasn't owned by a League, Faction, or Family. The beasts and heavenly objects found there belonged to anyone who found them. This was both good and bad news. Because these lands were usually overlorded by powerful beasts, and dangerous cutivaters prowled for profit everywhere. "How long will it take us to traverse the gulch." Gabe asked looking around at the dark hard land. Colin put the cube away. "A mouth and a half by the distance. But probably longer then that because this place is a low Quality treasure land. And there are plenty of powerful beasts around." Gabe frowned. Treasure lands were areas where Rare treasures would commonly appear. The Energy vains deep under the earth would bubble up and create Treasures, sometimes high specialty items and artifacts, as to how or where they came from no’one on primeway was knew. but it was thought by many sages that these treasures were mainfestations of peoples desires, and that’s why these naturally occurring treasures could be so complex. Treasure lands were saturated in Spirit energy just like spirit lands, and beasts of great strength would flock to them and fight for places where Treasures were more common and the energy was more pure.

Most lands had a Quality rating of Low, Mid, high, or Heavenly. But even the low ones were coveted by any family. The artifacts inside the land would be tied to the Energy beneath the Ground and slowly increase in power until they were taken away or used. This was why many Families would seal away their Highest quality Treasure lands for millennia. "I guess we'd better start walking now then." Gabe said solemnly. He didn't like treasure lands, mostly because he couldn't take any of the treasures. If the owning family discovered that he took anything, they would hunt him down and kill him without a second thought. Families and Factions were very protective of their territories. But at least this would be a great place to hunt for beasts. Under the agreed apon statutes by all the Families on The north continent, Beasts found in the wild belonged to no'one. This made sure the beasts could roam freely and allow natural breading and migration. So Any beast here could be taken by Gabe, though he was sure most were too powerful to even let him get close enough to bond with.

They walked for days on the barren rocky plain and passed hundreds of undead, and poisonous creatures. Gabe bonded with a few of them, but was really looking for a golden opportunity. The land was unnaturally dark even though the Blue Darkstar sun was shining over it. It was like the black stones on the ground absorbed the light. There were several large crevices in the rocky floor, some that went so deep nether Gabe nor Colin could sense the bottom with their soul sense. Finally they reached the Gulch. The massive canyon stretched for miles from north to south, and was at least a mile wide. On the canyon walls were caves and crevices where plenty of powerful beasts lived and probably where great treasures hid in waiting. The two men would have to walk around the canyon, or figure out a way over it. But nether of them could fly so they were forced into the former. Which would inevitably add three weeks to their journey. Gabe didn't care in the least this time, because of his many new soul bonds, even though they were just weak common beasts, he was on the edge of his next channeler breakthrough.

On the fourth week of walking on the hard stone and avoiding anything that could kill them, they both sat down to rest for a little while. Colin set up a vigilance ring with a Rune ball Gabe had made himself. The ring would alert them if anything came near them while they were sleeping. Gabe immediately went into his soul room to cultivate. He had five Beasts now, three of which were undead Zombies. They were the most powerful thing he and Colin could find that wouldn't be the death of them. The zombies were putting out fifty times the energy the blood bat and Sisfar were giving him, it was all death energy but that didn't mater. Any pure energy increased your channeling strength. So even if Gabe was only getting one element of energy, he would gain strength at using both. Though it was unnatural for a Channeler to gain another element, most were born with just one and could only bond with beasts of that type. Even if they bonded with a double Element beast they still couldn't absorb the other element. He wondered if he now had the ability to absorb all the Chaos elements or just death. The implications of the former were huge and unthinkable.

In his soul room as Gabe cultivated keeping Sisfar from speaking with just a small amount of power, he felt his level increase. White light radiated from the soul core that looked like a Perfectly cut diamond in the middle of his translucent soul being. And even the tattoo on his soul’s abdomen was lit. He grinned from ear to ear as power coursed through him. And as it faded he felt twice as strong as before. It was hard to think that he was now a level ten Embryo Channeler when just a month and a half ago he thought he would die at level nine.

Gabe stood up from his cultivation and stretched out, with all the energy his rank up had pushed through his body he didn't feel fatigued anymore from the weak of walking nonstop. He was just about to wake Colin from his cultivation when he saw his hand. In his right hand where his Channeler's mark was, the number in the circle was still the rune meaning nine. He blinked. What? He was absolutely certain he had gained a level of power. He may have only experienced a rank up Nine times before in his life but he dam well remembered what it felt like. He was a level ten embryo, but his mark still said level nine. He quickly woke Colin. The man looked annoyed at being pulled out of his cultivation but had long ago realized that he wouldn't be able to cultivate on his own time anymore. "Colin, what level Cultivation am I at?" Gabe immediately asked, Colin looked at him confused for a minute. "Your still a level Nine embryo." He answered. Gabe held up his hand. "That's what my mark says, but use your soul sense. What level do I feel like?" Colin shook his head. "I am using my soul sense. Your a level nine." Gabe felt his heart deflate something must have gone wrong... maybe he had mistaken his rank up. He was confused for hours thinking about it.

Later the next day the two were walking along a large rock cliff that jutted up out of the ground for a few miles and cast a shadow over the edge of the canyon. There were a few crevices and caves in the large abnormal stone ridge, and as they passed a large cave Gabe felt something. He turned to the large opening they walked by and smiled. The rocky exterior of the cave was rough and had large terrifying claw marks around the entrance. A lot of caves in the gulch were marked like this. It was a sign that whatever inhabited the cave was powerful but not strong enough to fight for a space in the canyon where the treasure land energy was thickest. From what Gabriel could sense it was somewhere between a high level Champion beast or a low level Master. The cave itself however was blocking most of his senses so he couldn't say for sure what it was or what element it had.

Still gabe felt realy good about this one. They had avoided beasts weaker then this one on their trek through the gulch, mostly because both him and Colin were some of the weakest beings out here, but Gabe was feeling lucky.

Colin of course cursed vehemently the moment he brought it up. "There is no way we're going to try to take on something that strong. Just wait till we get to a city so we can sell the gold fairy dust and buy you a strong bond." Gabe wasn't even listening, whatever was in that cave was a beauty, and he wanted it. He also had a plan to capture it. Colin stopped talking the minute he saw the look in his eye. "Are you really going to risk everything now? After things have started to change for you?" Colin had to get in his one last voice of reason and it almost worked. But it was risking everything that got him what he had, the moment he became scared to lose it was the moment he was under fear's control again, and he couldn't be there. Not for another second of his life. A risk wasn’t a risk if there was nothing to lose anyway.

Drawing a bonding rune was a relatively long process, it took about six minutes for an average Channeler, the problem was that most beasts would buck, or run, or even kill you by then. So you eather had to be realms stronger then the beast to hold them down, or they had to be incapacitated. The majority of Channelers got their beasts from a Breeder who would put the Creature to sleep for them. But any beast in the wild would be a Hassel. Still once the rune was completed and the bond set, the Beast wouldn't be able to stop it. The only thing that could stop it was if the Creature was too strong for the Channeler to hold in his spirit room, then the Channeler would die instantly and the Beast would be free. But Gabe didn't have to worry his soul room was now strong enough to hold an ancestor level Beast. That was realms above of what he was facing.

Working fast, and trying their best to mask any of their presence Gabe and Colin set to work outside the cave. Using his Second wing of the dove move, Colin channeled his life energy into the ground and caused a wing shaped rock formation to cover the cave mouth. Then Set down spirit traps one after the other, when these trap activated they would shoot ropes of energy around the beast and tie him to the ground. They of course wouldn't be enough to hold the Great beast but they would slow him down for an inch of a second. Which was all they needed. Gabe spent his time Channeling his death energy into a skin tight shield around his body, and pouring as much power into as he could. It was weak, which was clear by the tiny thin glow it gave off of him. But it might turn a really painful crippling blow into a slightly less painful crippling blow.

Finally Gabe had Colin make a rope of life energy and give it to him. The rope glowed yellow and was much more powerful then anything Gabe could make. Then with Colins power completely drained from making so many rope traps Gabe sent him away to watch from a safe distance. "This is crazy." Colin said as he started walking away. "But what did I expect? " when he was far enough away that Gabe couldn't sense him with his soul, Gabriel channeled a bolt of fear into the cave. The fear was weak, and barely would be felt by whatever beast was in there, but it would be seen as an attack, and any attack to a beast on his claimed territory would get a reaction.

Suddenly the sound of roaring and heavy footsteps could be heard coming from the cave. Gabe smiled, good he thought. Just perfect. He was over three realms of power weaker then this thing, but he refused to be scared of it, even a single realm of power was many times more strong then one below it. A level one tyke realm Channeler could kill ten Level ten Embryo Channelers easily. The foot steps increased in both sound and speed. It began to sound like a dragon was running through the cave. Gabe hopped it wasn't a Drake, dragons were Usually more powerful then other beasts, though not as a rule. Their blood was more pure, closer to their ancestors. Beasts were all descended from Diety Beasts. These diety beasts were the purest form of each Species, and incredibly powerful beings. As a beast grew and cultivated by absorbing thier element's energy into thier soul, they would purify their blood until they conformed into a purer version of themselves. This was done once each realm of power they reached and took much, much longer then human cultivation. Diety beasts were ranked by their strength and intelligence. There were four grades, Low grade Diety, mid grade Diety, high grade diety, and Heavenly diety. Each grade was Mountains of power higher then the other.

Gabe let out a breath as a booming crash echoed trough the rocks as the Beast plowed through the formation set in front of its cave and shattered rock went everywhere. Immediately Colin's traps sprung and hundreds of light ropes shot up and wrapped around the beast causing it to hult for just a moment and look around. Gabe had to act quickly. The beast was a thirty foot tall, Rotted flesh Boar. The boar had two long broken tusks and a purple discolored body. Half of it was made of rotting flesh and its eyes showed no sign of intelligence. Rotting flesh boars were descended from ancient Unfortunate Hogs which were mid level deities. They were a very violent beast with no regard for death or life. They were considered one of the most Vicious fighters because they couldn't be crippled, any blow laid on them that wasn't a killing one would eventually heal like it had never been there at all. It was listed in the top one thousand healing techniques on primeway. the 456th. To be precise.

Gabe used his spirit energy to power each step and bolted forth quick enough that the boar didn't have time to react. He jumped up and slammed onto the beasts back attaching the rope to one of the bones protruding from it's rooted flesh. The other end of the rope was tied to himself. He made sure that he was tight up against the boar so that he wouldn't even wiggle as it bucked. The boar let out an annoyed roar able to sense that he was much too weak to hurt it. But it quickly began to buck and try to break the ropes around it. The life ropes started popping like threads on a bear and Gabe used the time to release his soul beasts from his body. The Undead zombies the blood bat and Sisfar in his floating bottle appeared in front of the boar and immediately began to attack it. This move was called summoning and allowed for a soul beast to come out and fight under its master's control. Soul beasts couldn't be killed when outside, but if they were hit with a death blow they would disappear and couldn't be summoned again for a set amount of time that depended on how powerful they were.

While the Boar focused on his soul beasts Gabe bit his finger and began to draw the binding rune on the Beast’s back. He was using all the speed he had but with one move the boar called up a death cloud and eradicated all the Soul beasts in front of him. Gabe cursed but didn't stop drawing. The boar began to buck wildly but it didn't slow Gabe down, his advanced hand eye coordination was really paying off. Soon though a death could was released from the boars mouth and launched at Gabe on it's back. Gabe's shield held up for less then ten seconds under the power, but by then Colin had raced forward and hit Gabe with a bolt of life energy. The death cloud pulled away from the life, but not for long. As it was too strong to be held off. Colin was already attacking the boar however and distracted it long enough that Gabe was able to finish the rune. He was impressed with himself it had been less then three minutes.

The beast froze, and went silent. Gabe grinned broadly as the binding rune began to glow. He quickly prepared to fall as the light increased and suddenly the entire Rotting flesh boar shot into his mark. He was left in the air until he fell on his hands and knees. "Yes!" He shouted. And quickly stood up. Colin rolled his eyes crossed his arms and started preparing to set up camp in the cave. He knew Gabe would want to start cultivating immediately. The cave would be the safest place they could stay, with the scent of the Boar still fresh. They laid the vigilance ring at the mouth of the cave, it didn't reach from one end to the other, but it did cover most of the middle and they felt like anything that would dare to venture in here would be too big to get by it.

As they started towards the back of the cave they both felt a great treasure waiting inside. “looks like we struck gold” Gabe said loudly. When they reached the dead end it was sitting on the cave floor with a nasty purple aura around it that made Gabe’s head hurt just looking at it. It was only the size of a mouse. The treasure was a low grade Bloody Giants tear. A blood red teardrop shaped crystal that would store up highly pure death energy and release it into the person that was touching it allowing them to slowly cultivate even while they weren't meditating. The rate was less then a fifth of regular speed but it was still a valued item, as it allowed those wearing it around their neck to never stop cultivation even when preforming daily tasks.

Of course Gabe immediately wanted to take it. But Colin stood in front of him. "Now Gabriel, don't even think about it. If the Rightsong family discovers you took something from here then there will be no place to hide for us." Gabe was definitely not an overly cautious person but this was one time he had to agree with Colin. Having an entire Family Clan against you was something no'one wanted. "Alright Colin, calm down. I know better then to piss off the clans." Colin smiled. "Good, at least you know one useful thing." The two sat down in basic meditation positions and began cultivating.

Inside his soul room Gabe almost fainted from the shear amount of spirit energy the Rotted flesh Boar put out. The stream of purple death energy coming from the thirty foot beast was as wide as Gabriel's hand. In comparison the streams coming from all five of his other beasts put together was about half that. And Sisfar's stream was less then a twig's width though it was less then even that now because there was very little fear element in the cave. Gabe wanted to hug the beautiful pig but instead he kept cultivating as hard as he could. Drawing the death energy through his Channels and into the Beasts.

Almost two days later Gabe felt a tap on his physical shoulder and came out of his session to see Colin grinning at him. Finally he was not the one being disturbed. Gabe suddenly understood why Colin got so agitated when he was pulled out of meditation, it was annoying to be so focused and then be pulled back. The two packed up in silence and headed out. Gabe made sure that Colin went to go get the vigilance ring while he packed up the heating rock they had used to keep the cave warm while they meditated. The rock only worked good in enclosed spaces. Then while Colin was far enough away not to sense it, he grabbed up the Rare treasure and quickly drew a rune on it with Some venom lizard Beast blood. He knew the beast blood wouldn't be powerful enough to hide the object on it's own even with him pushing all of his own power into the drawing, so he carefully withdrew a single fleck of Golden fairy dust from the glass vile and added it to the rune. Immediately the rune went active and the Bloody giant's tear disappeared from his soul sense. This rune would hide the Artifact well. How well? Gabe wasn't sure, but at the least it would be invisible to anyone below the master realm. And most importantly Colin wouldn't be able to sense it. Acting fast Gabe strung a thin cord through the tiny needle hole at the top of the teardrop and latched it around his neck, putting the small treasure under his robe and making sure it touched his skin. Immediately he felt it working and even with the cultivation rates cut he was still cultivating faster right now then he had been for the last ten years of his life. He hurried out of the cave and met Colin with a smile. It turned out he just couldn't help himself from such a rare find. Even when he did know better.