Several months had passed since the mutant invasion attempt, and there had been no new attacks during all that time.
Although Luna had managed to prevent her faction from losing face being marked as "abandonment of duty", her political situation remained precarious.
Being a child didn’t help.
Having escaped from school had complicated things even further. And her uncles having achieved a great accomplishment on Yino’s side with the Twin Stars had strengthened their position to the point where Luna’s rewards seemed insignificant in comparison.
But the saving grace was that fortunately they had only been monetary advantages...
Her territory had been saved thanks to her, at least for now. But the constant pressure remained there, threatening to crush her now smaller faction at any moment of weakness.
Sirius still hadn’t appeared.
Had he fallen during his mission?
Luna was becoming less and less efficient at pretending she didn’t care about him.
But today wasn’t about politics...
Today was about something that could change many things, or at least one person’s capabilities greatly.
Ren’s room was large now, a significant improvement from the first shared space he had occupied during his first year at the academy. Min, Taro, and Liu were positioned near his desk, their expressions mixing excitement with obvious anxiety.
The girls occupied the other side of his part of the room near his bed. Luna maintained more distance, her eyes fixed on the point where the process would take place, clearly hoping to see if "Mooshito" would finally return. Liora was closer, not trying to disguise her intense curiosity. Larissa maintained a more reserved posture, but her interlaced hands betrayed her nervousness.
The maids and guards surrounded them.
The professors formed a semicircle near the door. Lin had arrived early but had let Ren skip half of the morning exercise to give him time to attenuate his anxiety. Zhao stood beside her, his arms tense. Wei and Yang flanked Ignatius, all observing with the attention of experts who rarely witnessed something of this magnitude at the prestigious school that would see this new record born.
Julius and Selphira had "preceded the gathering of those closer to the kid", as they had called the process of selecting who could attend. Many more had wanted to be present, but Ren had flatly refused to make the process public or do something like ranking up on the esplanade as if it were some kind of attraction.
So there wasn’t space, even in the spacious room, to allow everyone who could be there to attend...
And Ren didn’t want to disappoint a larger audience either... Not when he didn’t know what would happen.
He held the last Gold-sized processed crystal in his hands, the last of four hundred he had used to reach this rank, feeling the familiar but always significant weight of what he was about to do.
Today’s cultivations of his Wolverine and Diamond Hydra he had already done first, and since requiring less than a tenth of the energy they had been simple, following established patterns that everyone had seen before.
They didn’t even require great preparation even at the beast’s overload limit... just good management and correct mana distributions.
But the fungus was different.
Not only did it require more strange materials like a mushroom from the golden spores, it also required external support so as not to break Ren’s systems... or else, his veins wouldn’t withstand the enormous energy.
When Ren took the final crystal, the largest and processed with the extreme care that only he knew was necessary, everyone in the room visibly tensed.
The requirements were ten times greater than for any normal beast reaching this same rank.
Ren closed his eyes and began.
The processed male Shadow Stalker tentacles from his reserve were already ready on the desk. Little by little he used them, passing them through the mana points in his body that were getting blocked with the high precision given by years of practice. It was a scene most present had witnessed many times, but it never ceased to generate anxiety seeing how Ren suffered as he pushed his system beyond what should be possible.
The crystal began to disappear, its energy flowing toward Ren’s system in waves that made his entire body illuminate from within. The veins in his arms became visible, pulsing with golden light as he channeled massive amounts of processed mana.
Luna took a step forward without realizing it, her hands clenching until her fingers turned white. Min had to grab Liu’s shoulder to keep himself in place. Even Lin, with all her past experience, felt her breathing quicken as she watched.
The process intensified. The entire room began to vibrate subtly with the amount of energy Ren was processing. The decorative crystals on the walls resonated, creating a low-frequency hum that was felt in their mana systems more than heard in their ears.
And then something changed.
Ren felt a connection forming, tenuous at first but becoming stronger with each second. It was like touching something familiar after years of separation, recognizing a presence that had been a fundamental part of his identity.
His fungus. His first beast was evolving.
The sensation was pleasant after the pain of cultivation. An omniboost of one hundred percent, as if he had a fourth power ring. The three hidden rings within the seed pulsed in response, resonating with the energy flowing through his system.
The power grew exponentially, filling every cell of his body with an extra vitality of four hundred percent that he had forgotten was possible to feel. His senses sharpened until he could hear individual heartbeats around the room. His perception of mana became crystalline, seeing the flows with perfect clarity.
And then it began to diminish.
"No," Ren murmured, trying to hold onto the connection that was escaping like sand between his fingers. "No, wait... I need you!"
But no matter how much effort he put in, the connection kept fading. Little by little, inexorably, until it was finally completely lost.
When Ren opened his eyes, tears were running down his cheeks.
He hadn’t recovered his initial beast from the cyst.
The jade seed also remained broken, holding on by almost nothing. It had regenerated during these months, yes, but only minimally.
"Ren..." Lin began softly, approaching. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel⁂fire.net
But Ren shook his head, quickly wiping away the tears with the back of his hand. "It’s okay," he murmured, his voice no longer sounding sad but resolved. "I knew... I knew this was a possibility."
"But it’s not everything, right?" Taro tried to cheer him up. "Maybe you can still..."
"I don’t think I’ll be able to form another contract as things are," Ren interrupted, assuming the worst. "If I couldn’t even recover my main beast, how am I going to...?"
He stopped when his fingers caressed with resignation the mantis egg he had been keeping for years. The contact was casual, driven by unconscious longing more than deliberate intention.
And he felt something.
It wasn’t anything like the complete connection with his fungus. But it was a possibility to advance that was there, pulsing softly under his touch.
He could do it. He could form the fourth contract.