"Agh! William, are we there yet?!? I've been running after you for days now, give me a break!" Carl asked while taking a knee to catch his breath. William was still running ahead at the pace of a peak Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
"Almost." William said while stone-faced. They had already traveled for six full days and the Elemental Beast Tide was set to arrive the following morning. He could see Blue Moon City in the distance, but it still seemed a few hours away, which made William a bit nervous.
If Carl wasn't with me, I'd have been there in less than a day. At least we will still make it in time.
"Don't you want to get stronger?" William yelled behind him while maintaining his pace.
"Easy for you to say!" Carl yelled. "You're way stronger than I am, of course you can run longer!"
"I'm in the same Realm as you!" William replied with a snort.
"No you're not...really? Are you actually also in the Foundation Establishment Realm?" Carl looked at William in shock. He assumed Will was in the Golden Core Realm or something, considering he wanted to visit the edges of the Providence Zone.
"Did I really Cultivate faster than you? What did you do during the last month? Not to mention you spent four months in the Ruins while we barely spent one outside! I thought you were supposed to be good at everything!"
William looked over his shoulder at Carl whose hands were pressed to the ground while still running forward, "Say that again when you can ca-wouagh!"
A suspiciously sturdy branch had suddenly appeared in his walking path, tripping William and causing him to roll across the ground for a few meters when his Acrobatics Talent triggered. When he got back to his feet, William traced the source of the branch, finding Carl to be responsible. Official source ıs N0veI.Fiɾe.net
"You!" William looked at Carl with anger, who was currently flashing a goofy smile.
"I think we can tell who's stronger here." Carl laughed as he retracted the branch, "When I started Cultivating, I gained the Plant and Earth Affinities, pretty cool huh?"
Damn, he awakened new Magic? I didn't get anything other than Stat increases... William complained inwardly.
-That's because you had already awakened almost every Magical Affinity.
William nodded. It made sense to him, but he couldn't help but complain. That being said, he didn't regret waiting until his Manamatus Title had been upgraded to Celestial, since it came with a massive number of Potential Points, and the bonus effects were pretty amazing.
William flicked his finger and teleported directly in front of Carl. The Array Wheel was already in his hands, and the improved Five Elements Explosion Array was lit up and ready to explode.
Overwhelmed by the sudden presence of threatening Mana and surprised by William's close proximity, Carl's face turned pale and he raised a series of protective barriers while fearing for his life.
"O-Okay William, I get it! You can put that away now!" Carl said in a shaky voice.
William showed a mischievous smile, "Who's stronger?"
William teleported away and stored the Array Wheel in his Space Ring, "That's what I thought."
William had no intention of targeting Carl from the beginning, only to show off his strength to his friend. He used to do this all the time while gaming in his old world, so doing this to Carl brought back some fond memories.
After all, are you truly friends if you don't fight once in a while?
Seeing that William's false killing intent had disappeared, Carl breathed a sigh of relief. He ran after his powerful friend while studying a sheet filled with Runes that William had made for him.
They arrived in front of Blue Moon City four hours later. The hundred story buildings were still as impressive as ever, but compared to the Hillvire Empire, William felt it wasn't anything much. Even the 50-meter wall wasn't anything much anymore.
William noticed that many of the guard towers were damaged, and some were missing the magic ballistae that were responsible for protecting the City. The surviving ballistae were covered in scorch or claw marks, while others had discolored wood that had been poisoned.
The scorch marks had a red and black spiral shape, which reminded William of the shape on the Element Roots that he had seen before.
It was obvious that Blue Moon City had been attacked more than once by Magical Beasts.
Above the City, there was no presence of Cultivators performing fancy moves while flying on swords. Instead, they were rushing from one direction to the next as fast as possible, as if their lives depended on it.
"The Elemental Beast Tide must be moving already, for them to be in such a hurry." Carl said from the side, having heard all the details from William. He didn't understand how William knew all this, but he didn't ask questions.
William nodded, but his focus was still on the scorch marks. I don't remember any Magical Beasts from the Foam Desert using Fire Magic. This must be from something else...
"You know a lot about Magical Beasts too, don't you Carl?" William asked suddenly.
"Uh, yeah? I guess so." Carl scratched his head. Ever since learning about his Innate Talent, Carl had studied many types of Magical Beasts while searching for the strongest companions. He had spent many hours in his family's library studying the creatures of the World, from man to beast to even plant.
It could be said that out of anyone in the Foundation Establishment Realm, Carl's knowledge of Magical Beasts was the best. He even surpassed William in many aspects, if not for the Bestiary.
"Then can you tell me what Elemental Beast Tide we are about to face?" William already knew the answer, but he was just checking.
"It should be of the Earth Element, no? They're coming from the Foam Desert, so it could also include the Poison Element, but most Magical Beasts in that area primarily use Earth Magic."
"Correct," William said. "Then why was that ballista on fire?" he pointed upwards to a guard tower. Carl squinted his eyes but could only barely make out its figure after William pointed it out.
He pulled out an Artifact from his Space Ring that improved his vision, then gasped in shock when he noticed the unique pattern of the scorch marks. Carl's mind spun as he thought back to which Magical Beasts had Fire Elemental attacks that created such a unique shape.
When he finished combing through his knowledge of Fire-Elemental Beasts, Carl realized there was only one.
His eyes opened wide with shock as he realized something, but then his expression became angry. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, but they were unclenched just as quickly when he noticed William looking in his direction.
"Did you think of something?" William asked.
"No," Carl shook his head. "But that doesn't matter. Let's forget about this."
William could tell he was lying, but he didn't press the topic any further. He nodded and registered his fake identity with the guards, then entered the City with Carl close behind.