Legendary Beast Master: Starting with Contracting SSS Rank Dragon-Chapter 45: Imitation of God?

Kael had a guess about what was happening with Kiona, so he rushed to her side and caught her before she could fall.

He then gently said, "Don't resist. It's the process of ranking up. Enjoy the moment."

Hearing that, Kiona calmed down. Since her master said everything was fine, then there was nothing to worry about. She closed her eyes and let the strange power guide her consciousness to a different plane.

On the other hand, Kael picked up her body and took her into a small dent in the wall of the mountain's base. He then sat there with her while having his [Beast Sense] activated.

After a whole minute had passed, Kiona's eyes fluttered as she blinked and looked at Kael's handsome face from her lower point of view.

She didn't get out immediately and enjoyed his warm embrace, while saying, "It was beautiful... also very dangerous."

Kael also opened his eyes and looked down at her. "So, you were also conscious there."

"Yes, but I couldn't do anything, and I just stayed there for like ten seconds at most. I couldn't even understand things properly before I came back here," Kiona explained and then asked, "What was that, Master?"

"It was the Astral World..." Kael didn't hide anything except for his theories about the Astral World.

It was something necessary that everyone should know, as they would definitely come in contact with the Astral World sooner or later if they wanted to become stronger.

Just like how Kiona was pulled into the Astral World, they would also be pulled—and the Astral World was too dangerous. If one was ignorant, then they would definitely die an early death.

Besides, at one point people would begin to access the Astral World more readily, so it was better to have as much knowledge about it.

Kael had already planned to tell his subordinates everything about it so they could survive if they somehow ventured into the Astral World.

He kept his hypothesis to himself for various other reasons.

Kiona was listening attentively and the more she heard, the more shocked she became. What shocked her even more was that Kael knew so much and that he was likely very high in stages of Evolution.

'I am already on the fourth stage, then what about him? Fifth?... or...' she dared not think, but she knew the possibility was high.

"Master... I have many questions, but I'll wait," Kiona said, knowing that their current target was something else.

They had a week inside the Labyrinth to use it in the best way, and they intended to use it fully.

Kael nodded, stood up and gave a hand to her. He asked, "Did you get any skills?"

Kiona blinked in confusion and tilted her head slightly, "Why would I get any skills?"

"You don't get new skills after ranking up?" Kael asked, just as confused as her.

"No, we only get skills after an Evolution or some unexpected gains like sudden awakening of bloodline or finding some murals," Kiona shook her head, as Kael's eyes drifted to her ears that danced alongside her head.

She paused and asked, "Is it different in other races?"

She had interacted with humans only a few times, and all the other information was from her father and teacher. So, she didn't know too much about the power system of the humans.

Kael sighed, finding yet another reason for the downfall of the beasts. Every other race gets new skills upon their rank-ups because apparently the Gods are pleased by their hard work.

He understood that it was probably the Gods who gave the skills—and beasts had none, so they were excluded from others who got them after every rank up.

'They can't survive long like this. No wonder other races aren't meddling with them. They will die on their own sooner or later.'

Pausing, he thought, 'Now that I think about it, that old man also didn't give me anything after the rank-up. Tsk! Stingy old men.'

He sighed again, knowing that this was yet another major problem for the beasts. Learning or creating skills by themselves was practically non-existent as far as he knew, but even if it wasn't, it was definitely very rare, so skills still held the most important aspect of one's power.

Looking at her, an idea formed in his head as he thought, 'What if I work as their God? I can imitate them so I'll have some practice.'

[Technically, it's possible. But you can't do that now.]

'I know, but it's worth it if this shit works,' he smiled. 'We will talk about this after this trip.'

Kael went outside with Kiona and stared at the broken bridge. Even with his jump, he doubted he could reach the other end.

"Let's first check if there are other bridges," Kael said. "We might need the twins."

They began walking along the bank of the lava lake while searching for the bridges. They also needed to be careful of the lava streams that came down from the volcano.

As much as he wanted to explore it, he knew it was very dangerous so he shifted his focus somewhere else.

'What will be the boss? Wither? No, that should be a hidden boss we can summon after collecting the ingredients. Interesting. Then, where is the Boss chamber? In the volcano?'

His thoughts wandered around as he quickly dealt with a few F-Rank monsters. The floor was filled with them, so they were finding a lot of them.

Soon, they reached the end of the lava lake and found a tall hilly area of Blackstones and small puddles of lava scattered here and there.

He also realised that he could go to the entrance of the Labyrinth by walking down the bank of the lava lake. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

'We should have enough time to explore this then. I don't know where the two of them went to explore.'

The hilly area was surprisingly very calm, as they didn't encounter monsters and continued to walk forward. Aside from the Blackstone and lava puddles, they didn't find anything there.

Kael stopped and crouched down to touch the Blackstone underneath him. He smiled, "These will be good for making our houses. They're very sturdy, durable and can also absorb heat."

As their empire would be close to the Northern Frost Mountains, the houses would need to be suited for the cold environment.

[I will make a list of materials found in this floor too.]

This was also the reason he wanted to explore the Labyrinth, as it could provide much better materials for building his nation.

"There is a huge supply of these Blackstones here," Kiona nodded.

"Yeah, the best thing about them is that they'll grow back in some time," he smiled. "That's why people desire the Labyrinth so much. It's a great source not only for Soul Power, but also resources."

'That's possible?' Kiona was surprised.

Kael once again stood up and they continued their journey under the dark red sky. He wondered if he should turn back since there were no monsters here.

After all, his goal this time for coming here was to get stronger as much as possible, not to explore the Labyrinth. That could be done later.

Just as he was wondering if he should turn back, he found something bright in the corner of his eyes. So, he climbed a small hill and looked into the distance at a peculiar structure he recognised.

The Nether Fortress.