Water droplets rained down, similar to a downpour, the yellow eel's movements were mesmerizing as it rose up higher. It's sclera were grey, dark pupils the size of pool balls gazed off into the distance, it's instincts were telling it something good was waiting in the direction it felt the surges coming from.

But it was hesitant to leave the lake, weighing the situation carefully in it's mind, the eel climbed onto the line of water, curling it's body as it sat, and thought patiently. Besides the crashing noise the upside down waterfall made, everything else returned back to a calm state.

At times the lake was still, showing Apu heading to the west, at other times waves rocked the water, shattering the reflection.

The massive surge of energy from earlier showed no signs of dissipating, catching the attention of even more monsters. A huge force was transmitted into the ground, causing everything to tremble, the twisted trees of the acid bogs shook, a snake with white scales, it's head looking big enough to swallow half a dozen people in a single gulp, revealed itself.

Half a second before it began to move, the Roaring Thunder Eel was alerted.

"I was wondering how long you would continue pretending to be utterly uninterested, and above the world. There are even times a snake can't keep hiding in the grass eh?"

Easily towering over the twisted trees in the acid bogs, the white snake looked at the yellow eel seated comfortably ontop of an upside down waterfall. Flicking it's forked tongue a couple times, the horrifying creature looked back towards the distance.

"What do you think?"

Without even needing to ponder, the eel knew what the giant snake meant. Now it was certain it wasn't just imagining things, this fellow would come out only when something was worthy of it's attention.

"So you felt it too? That nearly irresistible pull?"

Relived to have someone to share this inexplicable experience with, the eel's body flashed, appearing beside the snake, wanting to put it's arm around it, even though it didn't have shoulders. With a smooth lean, and sideways slither, the snake dodged the arm.

Their huge bodies crushed the twisted trees, making a wide open space inside the acid bogs. "Must you always be so active? After all these years you still haven't settled down."

The Acidic Anaconda was finally annoyed by the yellow eel. Showing not a hint of discomfort at the poisonous fumes coming from the acid bogs, the eel found itself a comfortable place to curl up.

"I'm pretty sure the higer ups back at the main branch will be anxious to know more details about whatever this is. I was thinking about taking a few promising young warriors from my clan out for a spin while I looked into it. I'm doubtful that they ever saw blood, kids these days sure have it easy, eh, old Melter?"

Every breath an Acidic Anaconda took could melt it's opponent to goo, so that's how the eel addressed it. The name was an example of what would happen to anything that dared to challenge it, being called by it didn't upset the snake. "Mine need to get a taste of blood as well. Or I fear their scales would grow soft".

Both of them felt a strange call in their blood, anything that could effect them like this deserved their undivided attention.

"You think that haughty bird will show itself"?

From the expression it had on it's face, the eel really wanted to hear the snake's thoughts on this.

"Her? I believe she can't afford not too, a lot of old monsters will probably be interested. Those troublesome fellows from the main branch may also head out to go fishing."

"What?! And we're suppose to make way for them? Like hell I will!" Thinking about having whatever good fortune he could snatch away over the course of this event being taken from it by a main branch member, an aura of savagery came out of the eel's body.

Something seemed to occur to it though, as the suffocating aura turned off. "What about the turtle? I heard it left the Indigo River, now there seems to be a mermaid living there, is it looking after the territory while the turtle is out?"

"I'm not sure about the situation over at the Indigo River, but the last I heard of the turtle was a dispute it was having with the Stingray clan".

Relief filled the eel's body hearing this, he was really hoping for the turtle to sit this one out, there wouldn't be any other choice but to let it take the lead if it appeared.

"Whether there'll be good fortune or not is unknown, but if there is, and someone stayed home wanting to act like they're above everything, then all they can do is die regretfully".

The eel understood the attitudes of it's peers, those guys loved to cloak themselves in the aura of deities. They were the types who always came fashionably late to a party, and hated appearing over eager, being the first to jump out when good fortune presented itself was unsightly, they'll leave that to the younger generation.

Ducking behind a screen of grass, the youngster had to choke off an exclamation of shock when he saw the white snake. "An Acidic Anaconda! It could be their patriarch, my luck today can be considered good. Thankfully, none of my mosquitoes went close to it, I'd be done for if it sensed something fishy was going on."

Slowly backing away, the youngster broke out running once he made it to the woody area that led out of the Marshes. Now wasn't the time to be conservative, the youngster pulled on the energy inside the sphere without restraint, picking up speed, his body became a long streak.

Making a few turns he started heading west, to the hidden passage which could take him deep underground, utilizing the earth shifting technique of the ancient sorcerers, he made a tunnel up to the surface, the secret passage was covered with protective barriers, no one could easily find it.

His obsession with the history of the sorcerers brought him some exciting discoveries, when he first started dabbling in it, the issue of keeping energy within his body became a difficult hurdle to overcome, nearly driving him mad with despair.

But he didn't give up, the spirit realm will always leave a door open for the one who seeks, despite the gloom weighing heavily on his heart, the youngster retreated even further into his research. And indeed, his refusal to call it quits was fruitful. He was able to discover the outside of body external weaving technique, created by a senior called the Venom Sorcerer, who also had a body which was a poor container for energy.

That senior's notes paved the way for him, the method of raising essence extract mosquitoes, and flesh eating locusts was also picked up after going over them hundreds of times. Brimming with eagerness to cast off his status as a small fry, he came close to killing himself so many times he'd lost count, like when the magical conversion sequence in a spell formula overloads.

To continually advance in his arcane practices, the importance of resources could never be stressed enough. Searching for materials in the pitch black tunnels, and deep caverns thousands of meters underground, water flowed through cracks, turning to rivers, mushrooms taller than trees received sustenance, alongside other tenacious vegetation.

The youngster had the opportunity to come in contact with creatures from other races, the ones that couldn't speak the gnome language it was best to avoid, because it meant they were too uncivilized to engage in trade.

Some of the materials he needed were in areas controlled by monster clans, among these groups are those who knew some things about the world outside their territories, they were aware of items open for purchase which could increase their training speeds.

Sorcery is 60 percent magic, and 40 percent alchemy, although he didn't know it, the solid energy pellets this youngster concocted sparked a whole war underground. The power dynamics tilted, between those clans which welcomed the trade with the cloaked youngster, and the ones that showed hostility toward his intrusion.

Feeling a huge boost in power, a number of them started acting cocky, in this current climate the clan leaders even started fearing for their positions. Infighting became a commonly seen thing, new clan leaders stood on the corpses of their predecessors, purging the old regimes, then inserting their own people into the vacancies.

The ones calling the shots now wanted to maintain friendly relations with the youth, they understood it was him they had to thank for their present upgrade in status. Thinking the reason for his nearly unobstructed passage through the underground tunnels was because the monsters finally realized his prowess, the youth even began swaggering through them.

When in actual fact they didn't want to frighten him away, effectively cutting off their source to the magical pellets, word was passed around that the cloaked youth who smelled like a human is their merchant, anyone who tried to eat him will be hunted down, and ganged up on.

Fast forward to today, now the youth felt safe once he made it back to the tunnels . Usually the gloomy tunnels, with their dark walls of soil, and rock, felt quite suffocating to him, but at this moment he thought they were really cozy.

"bzzzz"

Like music to his ears, the essence extracting mosquitoes came in behind him, wings clicking in announcement of their arrival. Observing them close up, their lower bodies had a crystalline appearance, under a microscope you'd be able to see lines which came together in an intricate diagram.

Slowing down to a walk, the youth held out a finger, separating from the rest of the swarm, a mosquito landed on his finger, it's lower body looking like a shard of red glass. It was the leader of this swarm, the youth's eyes were full of fondness as he looked at it.

With a wave of his hand, the entire swarm turned into bloody lights, symbols crawled along his finger, changing into a ring like sigil. "I'm not sure what kind of commotion refining the Poison Mist Serpent body will cause. I'll have to set the highest level of concealment barriers I know of if I don't want it to become known that I'm playing around with such heavy weighted stuff."

For thousands of years the dark elves have ruled the caverns beneath the southern section of the Sky Whale mountains, they've been quietly building up their strength. The issue with low birthrates was solved thanks to the fertile wombs of human females.

Although the child would be a half elf, the Elven nobility didn't care too much, a decent number of the hybrids grew up to be powerful warriors, even more outrageous, there were records of hybrids whom could tap into the powers of a high elf, something countless pure blooded Elves would never dream to accomplish.

This was a period where the Dark Elves were shining bright, no one wanted to start shit with them when they had this kind of morale, it was easy to tell these Dark Elves were waiting, and eager for someone to try something. Step out, and be used as a stepping stone! This was the feeling the Dark Elf kingdoms gave people.

Last he knew, there were over 30,000 people living in the town where he grew up, humans always made up the majority, though there were hundreds of pure blooded Elves, and hybrids living there as well.

It was rumored that the Lord of the town turned down the offer of a city. He'd been fighting all his life, at the time he only wanted to go somewhere quiet, and raise a clan. Disbanding his unit, which barely had a hand full of it's original members left, amidst tears, and hugs, when he was through with his goodbyes, the Dark Elf warrior headed towards a town that was being sculpted directly from the rock, and soil underground.

It was a town that would later be called Reiolgotekha, our friend the warrior came inside the cunts of Elven maidens, and human maidens alike as if he didn't care. Any hot virgin he came across would be plucked by him, even an Elven princess wouldn't be spared if she was pure, and he fancied her.

No one knew if this wild Lord was alive today, it was possible, considering an elf's lifespan.

Among the Elf lord's subordinates, were ones who threatened to commit suicide if he refused to allow them to continue their service to him. They knew no other way of life besides killing, what would they do with themselves without him to guide them?

No matter how much he tried to dissuade them, their minds were set. Helplessly, the Elven Lord had no other option but to bring them along to found a clan. Because of his dual element water, and lightning technique, he named it the Spell blade clan.

The Spell Blade clan of today still controlled the town of Reiolgotekha. There was a salt lake that ran near the town, the Spell blade clan profited from that as well as the fire crystal mines which operated around the clock.

Those fire crystals they were mining were of a high purity, magical doctors, and master blacksmiths went beside themselves to get their hands on them. Precious metals weren't a rare sight either, not many magic crystals were sold since the Spell blade clan needed them for their own purposes.

Completely understanding staying cautious could save his life, the youngster did nothing that would attract the elves attention. He had his own plans, using the knowledge he'd gained studying the alchemical aspect of sorcery he could help other humans get stronger.

Together they could explore the world to find a place for themselves. News of powerful human sword masters circulated in the world underground for a while, most just laughed it off, even the humans didn't believe it. Powerful human sword masters? What a joke! Only a handful of them were so-so, a warrior who trained in a spirit refining technique could kill them with a point of their finger.

Considering the things he had cooking up, this youth wasn't as helpless as the average human, who have no control over their futures, if they couldn't get those humans who were like nobility to hire them at one of their stores, the poor souls might just die slowly.

His parents both had respectable statuses, his mother especially was rolling in gold coins, the style of the dresses she made with her own hands captivated the well to do human mistresses, and noble Elven matrons and young maidens alike.

Her skills at sewing even had warriors coming to get parts of their armor restitched, there was one who made respectful advances, but was politely let down by her.

Through her connections with the Elven nobility, she was able to get her husband a job as a shift manager in one of the mines. Sitting on his ass only having to do paperwork had the man's belly getting fat.

It was a pity their son had a poor energy body, they could've used their resources to get him pumped full of medicinal supplements, with a strong future warrior at residence, they could look forward to the good days.

Still if he was skilled at handling money, spending some to make more, without squandering it off, the boy could create a family of generational wealth. Using the money to nurture a few loyal warriors to lead a team of household guards, they could also become a clan.

Like a sky underground, mist blew by above the youth's head, looking no different from clouds. Slabs of rock, and soil half of a dozen meters thick stood straight, vanishing into the mist covering the ceiling. They blocked off the view from the right, to the left of you, the youth had to slow down when he reached this area, these were no longer the tunnels where his barriers were laid down.

Other creatures were also roaming inside these caverns, running around heedless of his surroundings could result in him bumping into a gang of hungry monsters. He refused to die, if he survived the bloodline transfusion, the youth planned to make a trip to the gnome city, seeking more writings on the history of his seniors: the ancient sorcerers!

Ensuring he had his attack spell at the ready, the youth's cloak flapped lightly as he stepped forward. A green light flashed on his middle finger, and a swarm of 3 fingers thick dark green locusts appeared in the air, their mouths were full of iron like teeth, and their beedy eyes looked quite creepy.

The youth didn't mind this at all, he had a look in his eyes like he was staring at a great treasure he had stashed away. "Alright guys, don't forget, you can't lose your minds, I put alot of hard work into raising you, ignore my orders this time, and I'll lock you away in your seal with nothing to eat".

Hearing this threat, the swarm of locusts tried to put on obedient looks, but the youth didn't buy it, he glared at them, making the locusts flutter their wings in helplessness.

"Quit hanging around, off you go, remember to send me a call if you see something up ahead."

Teeth clanging together, the locusts sped away like a school of piranhas in the air. If a tight leash isn't kept on them, these guys would attack anything that wasn't him, or them indiscriminately, the youth had to raise whole new swarms of them, the locusts didn't have a concept of fear in their hearts, it didn't matter how big, or strong, to the locusts, everything was game.

Under the effects of sorcery, the youth was something like a motherly figure to them, if it wasn't for that, he too would be crazily attacked, getting covered by them, their teeth would pick his meat clean down to the bones.

Flying in the air with a smooth, deliberate posture, looking among the swarm of locusts, there was a locust which stood out from the rest, it's turquoise exoskeleton made it look like a general among it's soldiers. It even slapped the slower locusts on the head with it's hard front forelimbs, getting them back in position for one of the 3 attacking arrays it knew.

36 locusts at the top, another 36 at the bottom formed the bear trap array, once they clamped down, it would take a huge chunk out of you. They'd totally forgotten about the warnings given to them by their master after a minute had gone by, leading them, the turquoise locust kept it's eyes peeled for the first sign of movement.

All of the side passages were clear on the route they were taking, the turquoise locusts also didn't feel any disturbances in the wind elements. A vicious predator like itself had more than a few means to seek out prey, the wind elements would relay the breathing of anything near it's sensory range.

Sweeping the air, four wings disappeared, then reappeared on it's back, other flying creatures would be jealous if they saw the speed, and mobility this little bug had in the air. Every now, and then the turquoise locust looked back to make sure everyone was in their positions.

As soon as something showed up it wanted to be able to attack instantly, the concept of information before attacking like the youth wanted was beyond it. For the sake of sinking it's jaws into something, the turquoise locust wouldn't mind sending it's whole swarm to death with it.

"Hum, um,".

Seeming out of place, a cough came from behind the swarm. When the turquoise locust looked back savagely towards the source of the sound, it nearly jumped out of it's shell in fright upon seeing the youth.

"You're up to no good I see. Can't trust you for a moment."

The youth would be naive to think his bugs had reached a level that they could ignore their instincts, they couldn't ignore their natures to appropriately follow his orders yet, this included the turquoise fellow, who was the brightest among them.

Good thing he wasn't that naive, or he wouldn't be at a level where he could shake hands, and do business with monsters. He only needed them to be up in the sky, they could warn him of trouble ahead of time, and if need be harry the enemy to create an opening for him.

Attacking the enemy head on without his support, a few fire spells would be enough to finish them off. Maybe the turquoise one could manage a sorry escape, but more likely the thing would continue the assault until it was crushed to death.

Continuing on ahead of him, the swarm was on it's best behavior following that second reminder. Or it possibly could've been there was nothing for them to get into, all the way until they were close to Reiolgotekha, there weren't any alarms.

That is until he felt an excited buzz in the connection between him, and turquoise locust.

Rumbling across the ground on wheels of wood, and rubber, a carriage smoothly rounded the bend, only the wheels bumped, and bounced, nothing else was effected by the rough ground. It was being pulled by a big headed hyena, the beast stood over three meters on all fours.

Holding the reins with an indifferent look in his eyes, a yellow skinned male with pointy ears drove, the hair on his head was swept back stylishly, a pair of neatly filed claws lightly gripped the reins.

There were plenty of dangerous things operating here underground, and yet here we have someone riding around in a carriage carelessly. Not bothered about their presence being easily noticeable. Then again looking at how obediently the ferocious looking hyena let itself be tied to the heavy carriage, with an expression like all this is normal, one would have to step back, and further assess this situation.

Two people sat inside the carriage, one of them was a creature that had the look of a kangaroo, mixed with an armadillo, small squares like miniature blocks of armor plates were on it's slender body. There was a ring of white light hovering half a centimeter above it's tail.

Sleeping peacefully with a line of drool leaking out the side of her mouth, a yellow skinned little girl with features similar to the stylish male lay on her side across from him. Except the male didn't have a ring of light hovering over his tail like these two did.

She wore a dress with a creature that looked just like the one inside the carriage with her embroidered on it. This carriage appeared to be designed for comfort while on long travels, cream colored pillows, and rugs were arranged orderly, there was even a table with a tea set under the seats.

Mumbling something which couldn't be clearly made out, the little girl began to stir. Rubbing her eyes, she looked blearily at the creature sitting across from her. "Uncle Shigi, were are we now?", she yawned as she sat up.

His eyes were closed at first, no matter where you looked his body was completely still, Raiken would know the special state this creature was in with one look if he was here. It was the state of locking the breath within the body, to be able to initiate it at will, spiritual practitioners had to put in long hours of meditation.

Exhaling a breath that turned into a miniature cyclone, the creature opened it's eyes, they were amber colored, spiritual lights shot out in circles from them when he looked at the little girl. "Wipe that spit of your face first, we're approaching the town of Reiolgotekha, a clan of elves who had a few figures of decent strength in the past rules here. They've built a port here recently, connecting it with some other lakes 5 levels up from the one outside their town. "

Two masted ships could sail easily through the salt lake channels threaded beneath the Sky Whale mountains. Kheyon Spellblade, the current patriarch, was different from the first lord who already had glory, there weren't any significant achievements he could boast of besides being the descendant of a well known warrior.

Using these water ways, people could move around more easily, merchandise made it to where it was going quicker, people thought the young patriarch was biting off more than he can chew, such a small noble family wanted to pull of a big project like that?

Where would he get the equipment, and experts to operate them? The Spellblade clan's first lord was a laid back guy, later on, the following clan heads hadn't made much noise either, now we have the clan leader of today, who wanted to return back to the center of things.

Nobody knew what kind of hidden resources the Spellblade clan had behind it's back, the Elven nobility were surprised when they saw the Muggy Earth Beaver tribe come in, it only took them three months to finish the whole thing.

Throughout the whole Tyjuku forest, people knew the name of the Earth Beavers, hell where there was water, there will likely be Muggy Earth Beavers, it was hard to find anyone who didn't know of them.

On top of being the best architects, and builders you could find, the battle prowess of their warrior class is very high, they could even deploy armies onto the battlefield, you can consider them one of the respected races.

This was one of the trump cards the old Spellblade left them, they gained the approval of the merchants with it, getting them on board the project, 3 towns, and 1 city came together to finish it off. An armed group was also put together by them, named the Steel Water Guards, Kheyon Spellblade used his influence to have his sister take command of the group.

"Bad uncle, my mom said a male must exercise discretion when dealing with a female. You could've thought of a better way to say it than that."

Puffing out her cheeks, the girl glared cutely at her uncle Shigi.

"Oh? What else did your mother say?"

Raising his brow ridges, the creature looked at her curiously.

"That Torye is the cutest in all the land, and there's no man in this world worthy of me". Lifting up her pretty little chin, Torye proudly stated.

A mouth full of terrifying fangs flashed as the creature smiled at it's niece, anyone else with that set of teeth pointed at them would probably lose control of their bowels, but the little girl sat there with a happy smile on her face.

"Uncle Shigi, will you take me shopping for pretty dresses?".

Fluttering her long lashes, the little girl milked her beauty for all it was worth. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, of course, who could deny our little princess? Everything in this world is yours for the taking."

As those two were having a lovely chat, the guy with the swept back hair picked up something interesting in his spirit sense."I take it he's the one that's controlling them. Interesting, from the blood readings that person is a human. You don't see too many of em' like this one, I can even sense the power of flame from somewhere on his body."

Trying to hide from a combat race like theirs was fruitless, the cloaked figure didn't take spirit sense into account because that was a whole other level. "Excuse me cousin, sorry for disturbing you, but is it alright if I have a word with this interesting human I found?"

The fancy carriage continued to roll on for a second, "Ah, I see, he is interesting, his talent for refining energies is poor. While his talent for manipulating it is remarkable, what a pity. It seems the heavens hated him. He'll never be able to increase his lifespan beyond a few hundred years, no matter how powerful he gets with that ingenious way around his problem."

With only a scan of his senses, the cloaked youngster was laid bare to Shigi. "Go ahead, it's good to connect with interesting people like this. I can sense a huge pulse coming from off of him. This kid seems to be planning big things." He advised his younger cousin.

"I'll try not to be long cousin". It couldn't be seen when the stylish man's body moved, but he was no longer sitting in the driver's seat of the carriage.

He appeared in the air above the cloaked figure, the flesh eating locusts were wrapped up in a blue ball floating over his head. His long sleeved shirt had white rings embroidered on it, the shirt tail flapped when he landed on the ground, looking at the youth peddling backwards on all fours like a crab.

Seeing a guy with a tail appear out of nowhere, the cloaked youth felt like his heart was going to explode in his chest. He was even more flustered at how his senses couldn't keep up with him, in the blink of an eye the fellow was standing ten meters away.

Then he remembered the impact dispersal wards that protected him from physical, and magical harm, the youth took a quivering breath to calm himself. Before the opposition could take hostile action, he allowed his heart to surrender to panic, a sorcerer must conduct themselves with dignity, someone who wanted to take their life has to be ready to pay a huge price.

Now that he'd gotten a closer look at the man standing in front of him, the cloaked youngster saw that he wasn't that much older than him. Where did this guy pop out from? Scaring him half to death like that, the cloaked youth naturally didn't have a good impression of the other young man.

"I don't know what your intentions are, appearing in front of me so suddenly. Is there anything I could help you with"? Speaking with an icy tone in his voice, the youth knocked the dirt off his cloak, it hid the embarrassed expression on his face, for which he was thankful.

In his wheat colored boots, and embroidered shirt, the stylish man looked quite dashing, he was a guy you wouldn't feel safe leaving alone with your girlfriend. Calm, and collected, he studied the youth silently, then he bowed his head"My apologizes for surprising you, I mean you no harm, I'm just here paying respects from one warrior to another."

Paying close attention to the handsome fellows every move, the cloaked youth quickly nodded at what he said, right, right, he was only a little surprised, nothing more. There was no way a sorcerer like him would be cowed in the face of an enemy!

He was also moved by the part about respects between fellow warriors. As a human, you rarely got the opportunity to make these kinds of exchanges. Especially with a formidable warrior like this young man surely was.

"Since it's a misunderstanding, let's forget about it, it's always good when two warriors meet, and don't flat out start killing each other."

Fights to the death could erupt over the most ridiculously petty things, unless they held something in their possession you can use to grow stronger, it was wiser to avoid needless battle.

Bending, then pointing his finger, the stylish guy sent the locusts floating back to their master. Curiosity was visible in his eyes, he looked straight at the cloaked youth. "I don't mean to pry into your business, I'm really just passing by. In passing, I couldn't help but notice an intense level of energy coming from you".

The thing on him with the highest energy reading was the refined Acidic Anaconda blood, it was a blow to the cloaked youth's pride, realizing the concealment barriers that he was proud of could be seen through with little difficulty.

He was lucky the stylish guy isn't intent on finding out his secrets, walking around with this kind of beacon on him could draw unwanted attention, his family might get implicated by it as well.

"Hmmm? There's a human here? Isn't he scared of being in these tunnels alone." Nobody knew where she came from, but a little girl wearing an embroidered dress showed herself. Thick braids were done in two buns ontop of her head, with the rest hanging down her lower back.

Staring blankly at her, the cloaked youth didn't know what to make of it. He couldn't see how this little girl moved either, which meant she was stronger than him. "Just who are you go guys?"

"This is my cousin Torye, she's a strong fellow warrior as well. My friend, even if I told you who we were, the odds are you've never even heard of it." The stylish guy didn't bother to give a rundown on their backgrounds, it wouldn't serve a purpose either way.

They had their secrets, he had his, the cloaked youth had good understanding, he wouldn't continue asking if the other party didn't want to speak about it. "Well, thanks for pointing out that earlier flaw, you really saved me a lot of trouble. If you ever need any medicinal pellets, come see me at the Stone Hearth inn, right there in that town up ahead."

"Wait, you know how to make medicinal pellets?" It wasn't every day you ran into someone who knew their way around this craft. Forming relationships while they were still experiencing the struggle wasn't a bad idea, who's to say they wouldn't reach a level where each bottle of their pellets cost more than a kingdom?

Nodding his head affirmatively, the cloaked youth felt like he'd taken back a little of his dignity when he saw the surprised look stylish guy was giving him. I can do more than that, in a while, I'll be refining myself a brand new body, using my old one as cocoon, nutrients for the birth of the Poison Mist Serpent bloodline!

Him doing this was an indication of someone going all out, to host the power of spirituality within their bodies. In the aftermath of the transfusion, he may be discarding his humanity, but he had a pellet which will put his mind into a cocoon like state, the same as his body. They'll both resonate better that way.

"Th-th-then can you make the internal marshalling pellet?" Stuttering his words, the stylish guy lost his composure when he fixed his lips to say the name of that pellet.

"Internal marshalling.....?" The cloaked youth spoke to himself as he ran through the list of medicinal recipes in his head. "Ah! I recall it now! The two main ingredients for condensing it are the roots from a vermilion reiki tree, and a piece of blood stone, from the heart of a body refining beast. With the proper materials, I should be able to succeed at making a batch of them on the first try".

Although it was a pellet he'd never tried his hand at making, the cloaked youth was confident in the skills he inherited from the sorcerers.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, I have everything ready with the exception of a blood stone. But it won't take me too much time to secure one of those." At this moment, the stylish guy's heart refused to settle down, he thought he'd have to go all the way to the gnome city for a internal marshalling pellet.

Who could've predicted that he'd randomly meet a person that had the skills to make them far away from those centers of commerce?

Up on the surface, inch by inch, the light of day was being pushed away by the darkness of the night. Lots of carnivorous beasts climbed out from their dens, the hunters have already scored their catch for today, they didn't want to be too far away from their villages when the suns were about to go down.

Bestial roars came from the surrounding peaks, as a group of four walked up a rocky road. Standing tall above everything else like he was a mountain himself, Pernoaken's long stride ate up the distance. The fangs of some beast were used to fasten a fur around his shoulders.

Legs crossed, looking very natural in his ethereal black robe, a demonically beautiful child sat on the giant orc's head. His eyes hadn't stopped moving once as they made their way over to the Sky Whale mountains, Pernoaken was shocked by the little thing's methods.

Upon regaining consciousness, his reflexive reaction was to attack the moment he felt an unknown presence. Drawing his dinner table sized sword, it changed to a slash smoothly in that one movement. Even he was pleased at how the blade flew beautifully along it's trajectory, pressure built up, making the air thicker, a trail of mist stretched out like a tail behind the sword point, such incredibly intense effects, what a comeback! Thought Pernoaken.

Alas, the little thing simply lifted his finger, tapping the air in front of him, it was like the finger came in contact with a solid surface, frighteningly, he found he'd lost control of his body.

"You dare to take action against me? If you're that eager to throw away your life, surrender it to me. I'll show you how to put it to good use."

A child's tender voice spoke up, looking forward, Pernoaken saw a kid with glowing crimson eyes, the boy's expression didn't have a hint of fear in the presence of the enormous orc, it was as if he were staring at an object that would bend to his every whim.

It was also shocking to hear him speak as if he were an orc, the kid spoke the orc tongue like it was his own native language. He usually needed to have his cousin around to communicate with beings of a different species. That guy was really good at reading books, it all looked like strange curves, and lines to Pernoaken.

Come to think of it, shouldn't he have brought his cousin along instead of the two useless fellows he had with him right now?

After he had the three orcs lined up, and awake, the baby demon glanced at them like a kid with shiny new toys to break. Being conquered by such a tiny thing, the orc warriors were in disbelief, they walked up the mountain with their heads down, not having the heart to speak.

Peering at them with one of his crimson eyes, Raiken looked at their long faces curiously. "Why are you guys looking so crazy? Cheer up! Clean your ears out, and listen to this. You can consider this trip a special mission assigned by me. If you bring me somewhere good, there'll be benefits for you all."

Growing tired of the gloomy atmosphere, Raiken decided to throw these dogs a bone. And like the ravenous dogs they were, the orcs began slobbering everywhere, trying to outdo each other with suggestions for the best places to eat.

From his power, to his robe that looked like a patch of darkness on his body, it was easy to tell the little thing was a creature in the big leagues. In from of him, even the great Trollsbane who had a formidable reputation among the orcs was subdued with ease.

Assisting them in reaching another level was a small matter for this kind of character. Simply a glance at your physique, and blood flow was all Raiken needed to provide a refinement technique which suited you the best.

Right now, the group was traveling through a pass with stony hills on all sides. The mountains were stained green from the ivy, and trees that thrived here. Through eyes which stripped anything they laid on down to it's true essence, Raiken can easily find places of high spiritual activity.

Thinking to himself for a moment, he looked down at Pernoaken, " So you said this grey wolf village has a human family who sold food. You can't speak the gnome tongue which seems to be a universal language around here, and can't communicate with them. How can a guy like you, who's a leader of warriors, only understand one language?"

"Excuse me for my ignorance Little Deity, but what does being able to speak other languages have to do with leading warriors"? The orc didn't dare to be impolite to this little thing, he addressed him with a differential tone.

"Well from what I gather the gnome language is a language that opened the way for different species of creatures to communicate. If you learned that, it could get rid of a lot of pointless hassle, a top level warrior could fish, as well as swim in any water, a guy like you who could only speak his own language will have no idea what is going on around him."

As a leader of men, you have to be a step ahead of everyone, taking advantage of the gnome language which all civilized tribes, clans, kingdoms, and empires knew how to speak as well as read to broaden your field of view, and make connections with other powerful leaders is the mark of a leader who didn't plan on dying anytime soon.

"I think I get it, in so many words a good leader should be well informed." Speechless that the brute actually understood him, Raiken could only stare down at him wide-eyed.

"Right, moving on", quickly brushing away the subject with a wave of his hand, the baby demon continued, "I recall you saying you knew of this village because the grey wolf clan bought boxes, on top of boxes of moonberries from your tribe once a year, who did they speak with?"

"Both the shaman, and our chief can speak the gnome tongue, they are as you say, true leaders, I'm sure they'd be more helpful than me in telling you what you want to know."

Troublesome things like that he dropped in Polgix's lap. Polgix was also the one responsible for scheduling patrols, if it was left up to the Trollsbane, there'd probably be a gap left in the cordoned off perimeter.

Made speechless again, Raiken stared so hard at the orc that he nearly went cross-eyed. "Then what do you actually do? Is drinking, and eating all an orc leader does with their lives?"

Yellow fangs revealed themselves in the darkness, with a vulgar smile the Trollsbane looked back up at Raiken. "Little Deity from the freshness of your sent, I can tell that you're still quite young. So you wouldn't know about that other thing us orc leaders love to do, ha, ha, ha." Giving the Optic Demon a few winks, he giggled foolishly.

Raiken just looked back at him in confusion, "What other thing"?

"Hum, um, sniff, sniff, oh, Little Deity do you smell that"? Coughing with an awkward expression on his face, the Trollsbane thought hard to come up with a response, he was saved by the smell of burning wood subtly teasing his nostrils.

"Yes, I know where it's coming from. Continue to grey wolf village while I go take a look." Raiken wanted to see who was burning wood, isn't a campfire used to cook food? There were also a good deal of water elements in the air around the woody ridge, which meant a water source was over there.

Changing into a plume of golden light, his body shot off towards the ridge. Shocked at the sight, the three orcs watched the golden plume fly across the sky.

"Honorable Trollsbane, what kind of great thing do you think the Little Deity will be rewarding us with once we help him settle his matters." Wanka asked excitedly when they all came out of their daze.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, I don't know. But surely a being on his level won't be too stingy right? These kinds of things are like farts to them".

The three orcs looked at each other with smiles of anticipation.