With her healed and with the extra energy she should get to rank two or three easily. Once she is done evolving I check her again and am happy to learn that her lifespan did increase. She now isn't anywhere near dying of old age, in fact I can't detect a lifespan.

It would seem that sacred beasts are naturally either extremely long lived or straight up immortal. That is kind of what I was expecting since Great Mother Wolf has been alive since the ancient empire was around. When I finish my scan and return my attention to the outside world I hear endless roaring.

The other bears are all roaring in celebration, apparently the old bear becoming a sacred beast is a big deal. The fact that it's a big deal doesn't surprise me, what does is the fact that all the bears understand it. I may have been underestimating the intelligence of mana beasts all along.

Old Bear says "Th...ank.....You!!"

"You're welcome!"

Apparently, Old Bear doesn't feel that saying thank you is enough, because she turns and starts licking my face. It takes me a few minutes to get her to calm down and stop licking me. When I do I notice the bears have polished off all the meat I gave them and some still look hungry.

So I decide to empty out all the food I have left in my old pouch and give it to them. After all, with the new pouch I don't need to carry food in my old pouch at all. Considering most of what I was carrying was meat anyway, the bears are overjoyed to take it from me.

Old Bear says "Thank you for saving my children!"

"You're welcome! Why are they starving? Did something happen to affect the hunting?"

Old Bear says "The human's war. The army drove away most of the game."

"I thought they made an agreement with Great Mother Wolf to provide food?"

Old Bear says "They did, but the humans are too scared of my children."

"Well, the human army has left now, things should go back to normal."

Old Bear says "Yes, the balance will return, eventually."

After chatting with the Old Bear I finally remember to eat my own dinner. By then Ekard is already fast asleep with Lizzy watching over him, he is actually sleeping on top of a bear. In fact, Lizzy is surrounded by sleeping bears, they seem to have gotten over their fear.

When I am done eating I take off Lizzy's saddle and give her a good grooming. Then I sit down and meditate for the entire night, in the morning I have enough power to restart my cultivation technique. When breakfast is demanded by Ekard, I once again feed all the bears as well.

Once we have finished eating we say farewell to the bears and continue our journey. It only takes a bit over an hour to leave the forest and enter more open land. This allows Lizzy to finally test out her new top speed, to Ekard's delight.

Seeing her speed yesterday, I already knew that Lizzy was faster than I am. However, when she shows off her top speed I am left in awe, she is about three times faster than I am. For her to be able to run three times faster than I can fly is truly amazing.

It is also a very smooth ride, even hills will flatten out in front of her to allow her to pass. Everything returns to the way it was once she has passed, but it is still amazing to watch. It is like she is a goddess and the land just doesn't dare to impede her.

Of course, she can choose whether or not things are changed, if she wants to go up a hill it stays put. Which she proves when she decides to stop atop a nice big hill with a good view all around. From here I can see the forested hills that should be the border area of the kingdom.

Lizzy says "Can we have lunch please?"

"Of course! Does moving at that speed consume a lot of energy?"

Lizzy says "Only maintaining it for a long period."

"That makes sense. Okay, what would you like?"

Ekard says "Food!"

After lunch we continue on at a more normal pace and reach the forested hills in less than two hours. Once we enter the hills Lizzy slows down even more, so we can look for beasts. After all, we just know the area they should be in, we don't actually know what kind of beast we are looking for.

Suddenly, Lizzy stops and cranes her head to look all around, then tells me we are surrounded. At that moment figures suddenly rise out of the ground around us as if by magic. A closer look reveals that it isn't magic, they came from concealed tunnels.

The figures are standing upright and carrying crude spears, but they aren't humanoid. The closest thing I can compare them to would be weasels, giant weasels. To be honest, even though they are trying to look fierce, they are simply cute and adorable.

As such I am having a terribly hard time keeping a straight face as the weasels try to threaten us. They are not making animal noises, it would seem that they actually have their own language. Of course, I can't understand a thing they are saying, but it shows high level intelligence.

After a few minutes of trying to talk to us they give up and stand quietly as if waiting for something. Eventually, another weasel shows up, this one is obviously much older and has an air of authority about him. Instead of a spear he has a staff in hand that is decorated with various bones, it makes me think shaman.

Shaman says "What do you want in our territory?"

"The Great Mother Wolf asked me to come here and help one of your people evolve into a sacred beast."

Shaman says "One of our people?"

"Well, this is the location marked on the map and it's your territory. So unless there are other mana beasts here, I'm guessing it's one of your people."

Shaman says "Follow me, I will take you to the king."

The shaman turns and heads back the way he came, so Lizzy takes slow steps and follows him. Rather than a cave or cavern like I was expecting, the shaman eventually leads us to a valley. Being a valley between hills it isn't all that impressive, but the village is.

The fact that the weasels live in a village is surprising enough, but the fact is they have well constructed buildings. None of these buildings would stand out if placed in a human village. While the buildings are wooden they actually have brick foundations and tile roofs.

It really makes me curious as to why the warriors have such primitive spears if the weasels are capable of building like this. The buildings I am seeing should require advanced tools to build, so why only have primitive spears? The shaman leads us into the biggest building, it's a tight squeeze for Lizzy, and introduces us to the king and queen.