Kaden continued with his studies as usual. With how he was put aside with nothing else to do, there was a lot of time for it. It truly was not wasted time at all. Then again, Kaden had other things to do too, but no means to continue.

Everything he did wasted a bit of his dwindling resources. Kaden did accept some missions from Nelsen who gave them to him sort of under the table. They weren’t really lucrative at all, but at least were some. These included things such as bounties yet again that Kaden was very familiar with. This time he didn’t have to waste time for information gathering since Nelsen gave that to him. The rewards, that used to feel large, were small to current Kaden.

There were some plans Kaden had for keeping himself at least at bare minimum amount of money to continue his studies and cultivation. Bounties that came were enough to keep him going for some time, but that money wasn’t enough for his studies.

Yet, unlike when he originally came to Corand, Kaden was no longer lacking in ability and knowledge. Kaden started to sell weapons and other metal work made from cheap common materials. There was barely any effort to put some simple formations on them too. For ordinary people and fresh Channel Opening stage people they were more than enough.

Kaden didn’t really care who he sold his things to. Since Kaden was living a bit out of sight, he attracted quite a few shadier people. Not to mention he himself looked rather strange. Yet, this became slight advantage since people came to know the ‘freaky smith’ and so on. Kaden was happy that no one seemed to connect him to that silly Shadow Wing that he had been called before around the same parts.

Considering these shadier people who often came to him, he took advantage of them for information. He offered deals for useful information from around the city since he couldn’t be everywhere and was often staying home anyway. People living in the background of the city doing questionable stuff always seemed to know a lot of things.

All of it also worked as a good cover. Kaden could go about doing his things while people on the surface saw him generally as a smith. One that asked perhaps too many questions, but still a smith. Those who were smarter could tell Kaden was not to be messed with anyway and, if possible, was someone one could work with.

This arrangement worked for Kaden pretty well. It was not perfect, but it kept his things in acceptable state.

As for Kaden’s cultivation while all this. He managed to advance to mid stage High Beast several months after he settled down.

There seemed to be some kind of limit rather than fuzzy line for what could be considered mid stage High Beast. There was a moment when the glow inside Kaden’s core stopped growing, but then eventually it suddenly expanded. It had needed some slight force to push it over that limit.

Kaden felt it was something to do with the different mana types he used. The push required him to mix fire and wind mana like he had been doing, but just slightly greater amount than usually. These two mana types were what his core needed. Kaden wondered for a moment that it might have been more difficult to progress, if he tried to make do with just fire mana.

This would explain why in the wild High Beasts progress slowly. They are simply lacking the mana types they need. At least that was likely a pretty good assumption.

With the upgraded core, Kaden started to feel that presure in his internal formation once again. He felt it would slowly come along, but could be sped up too. Still, he wasn’t certain if this was entirely good thing.

Sure, both of his sides, human and beast, were connected, but did he need twice the amount of cultivation to keep both up? If he works on core too much, would some of that always leak to internal formation and balance?

Perhaps it wasn’t that simple. They were one system now. The total amount of work might be higher, but it wouldn’t be so simple as twice.

Besides, Kaden felt his mana system was working very well and was well capable suporting both sides. Core and internal formation, while in the end were very similar, they could work slightly different ways. Core could take mana that internal formation couldn’t. In other words there was very little to no mana he couldn’t use.

Kaden decided to ponder over this matter over longer period of time. He needed still to observe everything.

Kaden had been also worrying about the entire situation with Erral. As time passed, he still had not found a way to properly get to him. Even with having advanced to mid stage High Beast, Kaden was not sure of his chances of victory. Either he had to still grow stronger or he had to manage some kind of surprise attack. That is against a higher officer like Erral.

That is to say, if he even could reach him somehow which he could not in a way that would allow him to strike without too large consequences.

These worries were reduced greatly once some news of the war against Sacronan dying down a bit. This was very normal. The war was basically always going, but it intensified for a while and then stopped. Kind of on and off situation.

This meant Erral was not going to suddenly set out while Kaden himself was suppressed at Corand. This gave him more time! That is at least until the war heats up again. Which could take some years the very least.

One of the largest uncertainties to Kaden were the nobles. He wasn’t sure why they were seemingly happy to just push him aside? Was whatever happened with Olren and Dorin so insignificant that none of them really care? Was he put aside just like their minor plans that didn’t work out?

Kaden wasn’t sure. He did work with some questionable people and he couldn’t rule out that there was someone among them that paid attention to him. At least no assassins came.

“Perhaps they are merely waiting for me to make a mistake?” Kaden muttered to himself one day as he thought about the matter some more. “If that is the case, I must be more careful when I do make a move.”

The problem was that there was nothing significant to do. He had even tried himself get military to arrange him something to do. While it might not have been something he wanted to do, it would at least get him room to maneuver. Yet, just like Nelsen’s requests, his were declined too.

That is until one day roughly two years after his return to Corand there came something for him to do. This was because something had attracted church’s notice. When they gave orders, military followed. Nobles couldn’t stop that.

“Something strange has been happening for a while now”, Nelsen told Kaden personally. He had told Kaden to come meet up. “Judgement will be going around looking for clues. The order was that those under me would go and that counts you in too. I will be in contact with inquisitor named Weils and while that my team and you can work.”

“Inquisitors?” Kaden asked curiously. He had yet to ever see inquisitors work, but they came out when church wanted something done. They had very extensive authority and should not be messed with. “What could be their interest?”

“Something has been happening at higher layers of Corand, fourth and fifth as far as we can tell”, Nelsen explained. “Unusual deaths to questionable behavior. Murders, distrust, people fighting each other for seemingly no reason. All sorts of things. Church thinks there is something unusual behind it.”

“And we are supposed to find it?” Kaden asked.

“Use and quite a few others too”, Nelsen said. “I will be with Erral and deal with the church.”

Erral?

“This could be a chance!” Kaden thought to himself. “Whether it is or not, I better take it!” Then he continued asking Nelsen some more information. “What shall I do, if I find something?”

“Inform me immediately”, Nelsen answered. “Do not act. Just inform. Once we know what it is, the inquisitors will determine the course of action.”

“I see”, Kaden replied.

“Additionally, if you have good reason to expect something is wrong, due to the nature of this investigation, you are allowed to enter and search places without having to request permissions first”, Nelsen pointed out. “The church wants this dealt with efficiently. Still, this is higher layers, if anyone gives you trouble, contact me again.”

“I understand”, Kaden nodded.

“Judgement is already awaiting”, Nelsen continued. “We should be get to work quickly. We should work quickly, but with care. There is no need to draw ire of the inquisitors.”

With that said, Kaden followed Nelsen to his team. They wasted no words and continued towards the upper layers.

There was already gathering of church personel, military and city guards. Many of them were already moving out on a search.

Kaden spotted Erral giving orders to his people. Nelsen made his way to him and started talking.

So close, so close! Kaden was literally just a few steps away from Erral again, but he could not act. Instead he calmed down.

“There might be a chance later!” Kaden thought. “Even in that case, I might need to wait. I’m not necessarily strong enough!”

While he was thinking these matters a person in a black and red robe came. An inquisitor! Kaden was pretty sure the inquisitor was at Condensation stage.

The inquisitor Weils started talking and giving orders to all the higher officers and those leading the guards. Everyone else was ignored. Kaden felt this was good. He wasn’t sure what kind of opinion an inquisitor might have of him, an unusual mutant. To begin with inquisitors were good at finding things. There was no telling whether or not they would notice more oddities regarding him than anyone else had so far.

Soon everyone seemed to scatter around in search. Kaden went off on his own and no one seemed to object on that.

“I wonder what is the church’s interest in all this?” Kaden wondered as he went further into the fourth layer. “Perhaps they already have an idea, but aren’t willing to give out that information. At least not to someone like me. Maybe the officers who the inquisitor talked to directly?”

It was probably irrelevant. If whatever was the cause was too dangerous, it didn’t matter if he knew of it beforehand. It would still be dangerous. Kaden’s greatest interest was still Erral. If this thing was dangerous, perhaps he could arrange Erral’s death? Not doing it personally was something that would annoy him quite a bit, but he was willing to accept Erral’s death in any case.

Kaden had taken direction where majority of Erral’s people went to in hope that he would run into Erral and find a favorable moment later. Erral himself had stayed with the inquisitor, though. Perhaps he wasn’t even going out at all?

“I doesn’t matter”, Kaden decided. “I’ll just treat even this chance as a failure, if nothing comes up.”

He had already got used to waiting. Some more wouldn’t matter. He would cultivate and become stronger. Then more options would open up.