There was some clear friction between Kaden and rest of the people who worked for Sidon. Specifically Caili, who Kaden almost killed, disliked him for obvious and sensible reasons.

As far as Kaden cared, they could think of him whatever they wanted to. He would only retaliate. In any other case Sidon would likely trash him again. There was no way for Kaden to actually resist someone at Formation stage.

Then again, he was already midway with Channel Opening. Once the day comes when he reaches Formation stage or his core advances far enough that he will be a high beast, he will be beyond the levels where he can be easily pushed around.

Formation stage and high beasts could be called to be common stages. While they were rarer than, say, Channel Opening stage practitioners, it was not uncommon to find them. Still Formation stage was the ‘peak’ of common stage. Stages beyond that were much rarer.

In Kaden’s mind, he would have the minimum strength to not be a weakling once he advances to the next stage. Until then he will obey people like Sidon. Thus, he will do nothing, if he is not forced to. Patience was a virtue.

Corand, the imperial capital of the Saint Empire, was relatively far away. Sidon had to go pretty far until he found any stronger beasts as finding dire beast near the city was difficult and even, if one was found, it would be hunted down and killed immediately. The trip was going to take some time, but the area deeper inside saint territory was generally speaking safe. Excluding occassional bandits.

Not that they encountered any. Kaden was slightly disapointed about this. He had waited for, in his mind, inevitable bandit attack after he learned of the potential dangers on the way. Even, if he did let this particular group of saints, that should just die, live he could always have other targets that no one cared about.

He did test limits of things he were allowed to do, if he could not kill anyone. One evening, as rest of the group were eating, Kaden happened to notice a small horned creature in the distance. He had refused the food he had loudly said to be tasteless trash. There was barely any relevant amount of mana to absorb from the food so when he did notice the prey, he stood up.

“What is it now, kid?” Asked Morin.

Kaden ignored him and just stared into the distance only swaying his head a bit as he was extending his sight. A horned rabbit! A weak beast, but better than nothing.

“I’ll be right back in a moment”, Kaden then said and rushed out. The distance was not too long and he believed Sidon would not think he was running away. One could call it a test.

The others were slightly baffled of this sudden action and Sidon only watched with a frown.

Kaden kept the horned rabbit in his sight and, before getting too close, he moved more carefully and eventually leaped in the air to remove sound from his movement. The horned rabbit only noticed its death right at the moment Kaden landed on it and skewered it with his claws.

Afterwards he returned to the camp site while carrying the prey.

Everyone was frowning at the sight slightly, but Kaden ignored it. They could keep their shitty food.

“What the fuck?” Said the healer, whose name was Ulrin. “How did he even notice a tiny beast at that distance with this darkness?”

“Perhaps, if I cared enough and extended my senses, I would be able to do so too. Easily”, Sidon said and ate some more of their soup. “But I don’t care to or have to. Kaden has lived some time in the forest among beasts. I would guess noticing dangers and prey becomes something critical and he has learned to use his senses better than any of you or even me. In fact, if survival rate was any higher, I think more people might take living among beasts as good training method.”

Kaden listened to Sidon as he sat down. That was not even the maximum extent of his sight. He was a bit curious how far purely his sight compared to those in advanced cultivation stages. Out there in the open it was even better ability than in the forest. He only had to look to find a prey. Not really even search. Just look.

The group was looking at Kaden like a freak and even more so when he promptly ignited his meal.

“Then how do you explain why he ruins his food?” Caili asked with some disgust.

Even Sidon frowned as he watched the horned rabbit become charred and then Kaden start consuming the still smouldering meat.

“I really have no idea”, Sidon finally replied. “So, Kaden, why?”

Kaden looked up and swallowed mass of flesh. “What? Whats it to you?”

“Thats not how you cook food, Kaden”, Sidon pointed out.

“I’m not cooking it, I’m burning it”, Kaden said and tore off a leg and began eating it. “It tastes better than that manaless trash you choose to eat. Not that this weakling has much, but its more than yours.”

“Ah, so you choose to eat food with mana?” Sidon said while nodding. “Not that burning it has anything to do with its mana content, but there sure is in abundance in the forest, if you are strong enough to take it. Still, I’m afraid you will have to get used to food with little to no mana. That stuff is expensive.”

Kaden frowned. Right, it was probably difficult and only those with lots of wealth would be able to eat such things as beast meat with mana. It always required someone to go and kill a stronger beast to acquire limited amount of such food or find herbs which were possibly even more difficult to find.

“How troublesome”, Kaden thought as he was crunching down on some bone. Then he had a brilliant idea and replied to Sidon. “Nah, things with lots of mana are everywhere. I can kill some humans and use Devour spell on them. Surely there are criminals and other people who should just die.”

Most of the group spit out whatever they had in their mouths and stared at Kaden incredulously.

“What the fuck!” Screamed Caili in rage. “The kid is a cannibal?! Or is he even a human?! Is that what he was planning on doing in the forest when he tried to kill me?”

Before Sidon could say anything, Kaden quickly replied nonchalantly. “Sure, if I get intruders in my territory, I’ll kill and eat them. Then again, I do have aversion about eating people so I don’t do it. Yet, I feel its diffirent, if I use magic to have their bodies broken apart into mana and nutrients before consuming it. I have never eaten a human. Only time human flesh and blood has entered my mouth was when I killed one guy by tearing out his throat.”

Morin went to vomit just behind the carriages.

Sidon was rubbing his forehead as if he was having a headache. Kaden calmly continued to munch on his food like nothing he said was weird. Everyone else seemed like they lost their apetite.

“This kid ...”, Sidon muttered silently. “He is like a savage beast.”

For some time people just stared at Kaden as he crunched down on bones and flesh of the horned rabbit. Even Sidon had some second guesses on what he did actually pick up. He quietly updated his opinion about just how unhinged Kaden was.

It wasn’t just Sidon. Everyone in the group did so. Some of them even had discussions on what could be Kaden’s true past. Still, seeing that Kaden was going with his agreement with Sidon, so there were no actual problems along the way. The weird looks and people keeping their distance was completely okay for him. He liked it that way.

Only bad thing was that he could not study formations. He didn’t want these people knowing the extent of his abilities. Instead he spent most of his time cultivating. It was slow, but constant increase in power. Without extra resources, it would still take years to progress to advanced stages of Channel Opening or to advanced dire beast.

It had been difficult to find dire beasts that Kaden would have needed to kill for their cores to be of any use. Early and mid stage dire beasts were relatively common, but those nearing high beast stage were not. This was also one of the reasons why Kaden was willing to follow Sidon. If he managed to get enough money, he might be able to simply buy such cores! After that he would only need to absorb enough of them to progress. At least within reason.

He expected it to require more than few, though. He had eaten several mid stage dire beast cores, but he felt the further his cultivation progressed, the more mana he would require to take one step further. He would need resources. A lot of resources. He hoped to find a way to get some from Corand.

The entire trip took several weeks. Kaden assumed it had to be worth it. He found out Sidon’s arena had a betting system for fights. Due to some legal reasons it was a somewhat questionable enterprise. Sidon had managed to arrange matters that it was barely a legal arena and not an illegal one. It hinged on some technicality on how he handled matters and apparently a few friends among the officials who were supposed to oversee such matters. Kaden assumed it involved some shadier business along the way too, but didn’t feel any need to ask questions.

The fights were sometimes against beasts and sometimes against humans. If one fought good, their name or specific beast would become known. Then the fights would have higher stakes and so on.

Eventually as time passed, Kaden finally saw things in horizon that he had never seen before. Enormous structures, towers.

“That would be Corand”, Sidon pointed out to curious Kaden. “You will always see the towers first, but soon rest of it will become visible.”

“What is the purpose of these towers?” Kaden asked. Why would anyone build something like that?

“I guess when you are powerful enough and resources, you get to waste tons of it”, Sidon explained. “Some of them belong to church, some to imperial family and rumors say that some of them are owned by Archmagi.”

“What is an Archmagus?” Kaden asked curiously.

“You know cultivation stages? Channel Opening, Formation, Condensation”, Sidon started. “Those are the ‘mortal stages’. Mortal because at Condensation stage people, if they live to die from old age, they are at most something past three hundred years old.”

Kaden nodded. He knew of this already.

“After these come last two stages that humans can reach”, Sidon continued. “Obviously it is extremely rare for someone to break free from their physical restraints, but once they do, there are the venerable True Magi. Their bodies resemble more mana than anything else. Only one of them has lived long enough to die to old age and that was apparently few thousand years. They have their own conflicts so they die in them much earlier. Still, they are considered beyond ‘mortal’.”

So that was what True Magus was. Kaden frowned as he thought that these were his toughest opponents, most likely. That was the level of the people who pursued and caused Anuu’s death.

“Then the highest stage a human can reach before they reach the limits of what is possible”, Sidon continued with some reverence in his voice. “There exists the Archmagus stage. I don’t know anything about them other than that they exist and are likely the true rulers of the mortal world. They likely only listen to orders coming directly from gods, if that ever happens.”

Kaden pondered on this matter. The limit. It was unlikely for him to ever reach that far, but looking at the enormous towers in the distance, he was filled with determination. In his mind he imagined the towers burst in flames and collapse and crash upon smoldering remains of the city. That would be something he wished to achieve!