Derek remained quiet, his fingers tapping once against his arm before he spoke.

"I want the boy."

That drew all their attention.

Sylna smirked faintly. "Of course you do." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"He should not remain under Silvia," Derek continued, ignoring her tone. "With proper guidance, he could..."

"He could become yours," Sylna interrupted smoothly.

Derek didn’t deny it.

Karesh leaned back, exhaling sharply. "Then we take him."

Caron’s gaze darkened slightly. "You’re speaking too loosely."

"We’re speaking reality," Karesh replied. "If Silvia refuses to cooperate, we escalate."

Sylna tilted her head slightly. "And how far are you willing to go?"

Karesh opened his mouth, but he paused. His expression shifted as something flickered in his eyes. Then he spoke again, slower this time.

"What if Silvia has finally decided to stop going lowkey?" The words landed heavier than anything said so far. The air changed.

"If that’s the case," Karesh continued, his voice no longer heated but cautious, "only Anutach, Iset, the Chief Elder... and the Sect Master could stop her if we do something to her... and she retaliates."

Silence. Complete silence. Even the night breeze seemed to still.

Sylna’s smirk faded, Caron didn’t move, Derek’s fingers stopped tapping, because they all remembered: stories, fragments, whispers from years past. A woman who didn’t just teach monsters, but was one, a woman who had once stood against forces that required multiple elders to contain. A woman who chose silence not because she was weak, but because she did not need to prove anything.

Sylna exhaled slowly, leaning back again, though this time there was no arrogance in the motion.

"If she’s truly done holding back..."

Caron finished the thought quietly.

"Then provoking her would be a mistake."

Karesh swallowed, his earlier aggression gone. Derek, however, smiled faintly not out of arrogance, but intrigue.

"Then we proceed carefully," he said, his blue eyes gleaming.

...

With Sel’s ascension came an increase in the invisible pressure Bahamut had already brought. To make matters worse, the elders with disciples were feeling more pressure than their disciples. If an elder with two disciples had gotten them to ascend to Tier 2, and all that in a week, then they with one disciple should be able to do more... And they hadn’t. Elder Silvia had two disciples to train. She was getting the same amount of resources as they, despite the number of disciples she had. In other words, the sect was being biased towards her. But she had gotten her disciples to ascend.

Even without anyone saying anything, they were feeling the pressure, and they wanted to know Elder Silvia’s secret. But unfortunately for them, she had enough of a presence and past for anyone to have second thoughts. And she had no secret. She herself wanted to know how Bahamut and Sel were advancing in strength and power so quickly. It was too unreal. It had been barely two months, and they’d advanced from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

Normally, advancing from Tier 1 to Tier 2 took a short time, at least three months, at most a year. That was the range... normally. But these two had done it in a lesser period, and they didn’t even look like they were trying.

...

Aerith sat cross-legged in the air. He was floating in a translucent bubble with his master, Elder Tanhkut, floating beside him outside the bubble. His face was twisted in a mix of frustration and determination.

"You are acting very stupidly, boy. If you want to surpass the blind boy, you need more than just anger and jealousy. I don’t know what he’s done to you, but if there’s no reason for your hate, then you would be stuck at Tier 1 for life!" Elder Tanhkut berated him, making Aerith open his eyes in frustration.

"Why must he be so powerful?! Not only him. The elf too... Just why?!" Aerith, for the first time, talked back. Elder Tanhkut kept silent and watched him rant for two minutes about how life was unfair to him, about how Bahamut, a nobody, could become more powerful than him.

"You are really an idiot with a stupid ego and an unnecessary sense of entitlement. How do you know he has no background? And if he doesn’t, do you think he’s getting the resources you are getting?" Elder Tanhkut said with a disgusted expression, making Aerith look at him in confusion and a bit of fear.

"Bahamut and Sel are sharing resources. Elder Silvia receives the same amount of resources I receive, and while you get all, she has to share it between Bahamut and Sel. And if you don’t know, Elder Silvia has never taken any of the resources that direct disciples are provided with. Whatever Bahamut and Sel had achieved was through their own strength, determination, sweat, and blood. At least Sel got the chance to use a Space Domain for three days. Bahamut got none. You are here, cultivating in a Telekinetic domain for a week now, and you can’t even move a stone with your mind or your hands, all because you think Bahamut is beneath you.

He doesn’t even know you. It’s high time you grew up. Despite your strength, you look like the kind of person who has everything and has been taught that the less privileged should remain as such."

"You don’t know what I’ve been through!" Aerith shouted, jumping out of the bubble with an angry expression. Elder Tanhkut looked down on him with cold eyes.

"And you don’t know what Bahamut has been through. He is a blind boy with a bunny as his only companion if he hadn’t come to the sect. There are no records of a family, meaning that he is an orphan. He fights like an animal... brutal and efficient. You don’t get that kind of skill by living life like a king. Even the sect master, the Pharaoh, sweated to get where he is now. You can hate Bahamut all you want, but hating him because he is more talented and determined than you... It is just the cry of the fool. If you want to ascend to Tier 2, do something reasonable, because the ascension isn’t easy. You’ve witnessed it twice."

Elder Tanhkut left the place after saying that, leaving Aerith with a shocked expression, which twisted again into anger.

"Such a low-life can never surpass me. Never!"

...

Away from Aerith, sect disciples intensified their training; even the strong eleven were pushing themselves to the very limits. The pressure had intensified, and the cause of this was Bahamut and Sel.

...

Oblivious to whatever disciples, elders, and Aerith were thinking, Bahamut sat at his usual place by the stream, scrolling through his system. Exildra was currently in a coma, Lily was training intensively, and she didn’t need his help. Alana, on the other hand, had become too shy to talk to him after the episode when he woke up. She’d been avoiding him, but he didn’t mind. It was just a phase. It will pass.

Looking at the system, he couldn’t help but smile. He’d even gotten another perk. Well, it was already there, but now, it had been added.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name: Bahamut

Age: 17

Race: Chimera (Cub)

Class: Tier 2 (Elemental Core(s) Formation)/ ???

Rank: Blessed

Titles: Psychopath (Titled), Ruthless Killer (Titled), Unknown, The BEAST (Titled)

Super Title: The First of His Kind

─

HP: 1000 / 1000

MP: 1500 / 1500

Level: 20

EXP: 200 / 1750

─

Attributes (Super-Ranked):

Strength: 16

Speed: 16

Agility: 16

Endurance: 16

Perception: 95

Willpower: 105

Luck: 3.5

Charm: 8

─

Element(s): New!

- Fire

- Water

- Wind

- Earth

- Light

- Darkness

─

Skills:

• Pain Immunity (Lv. 3)

• Super Reflexes (Lv. 11)

• Super Senses (Lv. 13)

• Self Healing (Lv. 7)

• Death Intent (Passive – Locked)

• Beast Trait Manifestation (MAX)

• Spear Mastery (Lv. 3)

• Sword Mastery (Lv. 1)

─

Special Traits:

• Fragmented Soul (Effect Unknown)

• Past Lives Memory (Partial Dormancy)

• Madness Bloom (Dormant)

• Apex Shepherd’s Law

• Storage (New!)

─

Followers:

• Ren (Chaos Bunny)

• Alana Nyx (Cow Beast-kin)

PATH OF THE BEAST

B - Brutality of the BEAST (80% Complete!)

E - Elemental Beast (New Unlocked!)

.....

"Storage?"

He called out the new special trait, and it opened up into a virtual screen with the number of items displayed at the top right corner of the screen, and small squares showcasing what he had in there. Currently, there were three items: the revolver he got from the bandits, the gauntlets he received as a reward for the mission, and his sword, Ironfang.

"Wow..." He then moved to the elements section.

’Hmm... I wonder if I would have to create skills like Senior Apollonia...’

[You don’t have to.] The system said suddenly.

’Hmm? Explain.’

[You don’t necessarily have to train and create spells or skills or any such thing. That is why the system is here. For you, using your element is limited only to your mana and your imagination. You just have to use it.]

’Huh... You mean, I don’t have to cultivate to create spells as everyone does?’

[Yes. You can cultivate as usual. Forming circles, building elemental cores... Those are the principles. But, for elemental spells, it is limited to your imagination and your mana, and any spell that is analyzed as powerful by the system would be added to your list of skills.]

’Hehe. I already have ideas of what I’m going to do.’

[...]

’And the Apex Shepherd is purposely for beast taming, I suppose?’

[Yes. But it is a divine skill, so I don’t know much. You will have to discover everything on your own.]

’I figured.’

"Alright! Let’s train!"

Bahamut stood with a bounce and flexed his fingers.