Chapter 8: Mutation

Both Jessica and the old man looked at Elias with a strange expression, until eventually the old man spoke again with a hopeful voice “Elias you do know there are ranks above X don’t you?” Elias looked dumbfounded at his father but with a strange glint in his eyes “Really! What ranks are there?” with a wry smile on his face the old man spoke about the ranks above the X rank “When someone surpasses the X rank they are then classed as a beginner immortal, then a mid immortal, upper immortal and then peak immortal each of these ranks have five sub stages but you’ll find them out in time. The reason why there are no immortals in this forest or the Usborne continent is because all beginner immortals cross over the myriad sea to get to the immortal continent”.

Elias was in a stupor at the thought of the powerful immortals but was suddenly snapped out it as the sword he randomly obtained was actually a very powerful weapon and quickly asked his father “Then what can the sword do” smiling at the state of his son the old man replied “The runes on the sword are very intricate, so its difficult to say what some of the effects actually are, but the main ability of the sword is actually to absorb blood and when activated it will emit a baleful aura depending on the total amount of blood absorbed. To know the rest of the effects you would best find out from an actual immortal” as his father handed back the sword Elias’s eyes glistened with amazement “So powerful and that’s just the first ability… it actually has three in total amazing hehe”.

Looking at Elias drowning in euphoria Jessica couldn’t help but have a smile on her face. When Elias’s father looked at her he was shocked that she was actually human and asked Elias “Any way Elias who is this you brought with you” breaking Elias out of his dazed state he replied “Ah!... father this is my servant I met 5 years ago when some human came into the forest she’s now a C rank in cultivation”.

“Oh is that so” with a hint of a smile he assessed Jessica who couldn’t help but feel restless under the gaze “Well as long as she doesn’t cause trouble its fine… any way your next task is to understand and practice your new skills, after that you will go to the human continent and join a cultivation sect of your choice, this is to learn new skills and broaden your horizons seeing as you don’t know much. Don't worry as with your level you would be welcomed by any sect”.

“Ok father” Elias replied, but was visibly excited, as he always wanted to go to the human continent and cause trouble.

“You can stay here, I'll give you a month but with your understanding you can probably complete this within a couple of weeks as they’re only rank one skills” watching Elias get to work almost straight away the old man couldn't help but feel he caused a massive headache for the unlucky sect Elias chose.

2 weeks passed by and Elias could be seen with a blood red sword in one hand and with a 1 meter long lightning serpent in his other hand. Seeing the two made Elias very happy as he had a bit of trouble shaping the serpent.

Nodding at the sight of the fully formed serpent the old man looked at Jessica who was meditating in the corner and called out “Jessica! Seeing as you are Elias’s servant I will trouble you with protecting him, but I will doubt you will need to, but just in case I will give you a monster core to absorb… this may cause a mutation depending on the monster, but it will let you pass through to the B rank. Because this core was from a B ranked Golden Basilisk, your mutation will probably be an extra eye on your forehead that will give you some sort of ability that normal humans won’t have, that’s if you manage to survive it anyway”.

Surprised at the offer, Jessica thought for a bit until saying “Yes I will try” tossing the core over Jessica with the help of Elias cut the core into two and swallowed one half followed by the next. As time passed Jessica finally controlled the power in the core and absorbed it into her soul centred in the head, but a agonising pain that felt like her head was splitting open quickly took over. This led to Jessica rolling on the floor clutching at her forehead screaming, but this didn't garner any attention from Elias as he was too focused practicing his skills and sword play.

After a while the pain stopped and Jessica collapsed on the floor unconscious but there was now a visible slit 3 cm long on her forehead that would sometimes uncontrollably open and close, revealing a golden iris against a black sclera which gave a very sinister look to her.

Waking up Jessica was looking at an excited Elias who was looking down at her saying “Jessica what’s your ability tell me tell me” chuckling at the childish expression which matched him perfectly Jessica said “Lord apparently when I open the eye I can see the Ki fluctuations and what kind of Ki it is for example I could tell if it’s a high rank or low rank skill and what element was being used. But I can only open the eye for a few minutes as it's quite draining”.

“Ooh cool, that’s going to be helpful in the future, and seeing how you’re a B rank now you can enter the sect with me but of course I am still the best hehe” Jessica was filled with happiness at her new rank and because the eye was pretty easy to hide it wouldn't cause much problems she hoped.

“Ok you two continue to train for another week, and then I will say my goodbyes” both Elias and Jessica nodded at the old man’s proposal and headed off to train again.

A week later Elias successfully mastered both of his skills while Jessica had gotten used to opening her new eye, also during this time Elias had managed to create a demi-human form this contained his human body and face but with fox ears, his five tails and sharp claws instead of nails, this made Elias very excited as he looked pretty cool so he said.

And on one of the days of training his brother came in and as soon as he saw Elias broke down into laughter, the sight of a 15 meter long and 1 meter thick snake laughing was very amusing to Elias even if he was laughing at him.

As soon as he said his goodbyes both Elias and Jessica was seen sprinting through the forest toward the 1st circle and eventually the first human village about 2 kilometres from the edge of the forest and next to the human outpost in which Elias and Jessica would have to pass this excited Elias as if they didn't let him pass he would just kill them thinking about a 10 year old boy murdering the outpost guards was very amusing to Elias whereas Jessica was dreading this part not because of the guards, but because she knew what Elias’s personality was like.