Infinite Mana In The Oasis

"This… this set is freaking awesome."

Eren exclaimed in joyful surprise. He could feel that this gear was the right match for his elemental neutral nature. Yes, it would take the edge off his Hex spells. But in exchange, it would allow him to cast various spells with ease.

Furthermore, Eren could always empower his spells with stronger intent from now on. Thanks to Alephe's intervention he had come to realize that superior intent alone could tip the scales in his favor. This was true no matter what kind of opponent he was battling with.

Kino smiled at Eren's praise of the Hex gear. She was pleased when it received the praise it deserved from its new owner.

"Um… Eren, are you trying to get your hands on other Hex gear sets as well? I heard you mumbling something about Wolf's Creed in your sleep."

Kino asked Eren intently. The latter was shocked at first. But he decided to come clean to Kino and nodded.

"Usually, I would advise the Hexers against using multiple Hex gears. Sticking to one path would give them more benefits than trying to dip their fingers into too many pies.

However, your case is different. Your no-element conflict and your battlemage class have changed that equation for you. Thus, I don't mind if you start looking for Hex gear from other Hexers' Creeds."

She held an array disk in her hands as she spoke. Before adding more, she sent it to Eren.

"It could not be a part of the official rewards. Consider this a personal reward from me. This array disk contains the coordinates of testing grounds that belong to other Creeds. I'm sure some of them would be popular places for rankers to test their mettle. A lot of rewards would be taken from known places like these.

I guess there would still be virgin testing grounds or grounds that are not known to the general populace of Gilaahan. You can check them out if and when you get some free time."

Eren was shocked again by Kino. He quickly imbued the array disk and tried to access the data it contained. In the next moment, a spectra screen appeared over the array disk that contained grid references of many places.

Eren quickly took a glance at the locations and found them to be quite far away from each other. Even the nearest testing ground was about a month's distance away from his current location. He would need to leave the kingdom in search of the next gear set. It was only after entering Gilaahan using his real body that he decided to do this.

Eren was glad that Kino had gifted him with such a huge reward. He could have found information about a few of the testing grounds mentioned in the array disk using Malcolm's contacts eventually. But he didn't have to pay for such information anymore.

Kino was still not done. She produced a scroll and handed it to Eren. It seemed to be a special scroll made of golden parchment.

"Eren, this is a transcendent-grade summoning spell you can use to summon earth-element bears. It will stay with you until you reach Arch rank. This is my personal gift to you as well."

Eren was quite stunned by Kino's generosity. He bowed to her before conveying his feelings.

"Saying thank you for your gesture seems too shallow, Kino. But that's all I got as of now. So thank you. Please accept this for now until we meet again and I can offer you something better."

Kino chuckled when she received Eren's genuine thanks. She looked at him intently and added.

"I'll hold you to that one day, Eren."

Kino said and smirked. She then looked in the distance to confirm that someone was there before commenting.

"However, you might want to save your thank you for the end. Because there's still one more reward you can receive by clearing the bonus stage."

Roar!

A terrifying roar resounded in the surroundings when Kino finished talking. Eren had goosebumps on his skin when he heard the roar and felt the beast's presence in the vicinity all of a sudden.

Eren felt like he was going to be run over by a truck when the new presence appeared. He had to deploy Venti Shards like a wind-element wall to protect his body and keep him from getting blessed away from his current position.

"This…"

Eren looked at the red-scaled wyvern he had fought in the bonus stage. The beast stopped only a few meters away from him. He growled and showed his sawtooth-like sharp teeth to him. But the battlemage could feel that there was no hostility in the beast for him.

Furthermore, the beast he was seeing at this point was not the same as he had fought with. The beast he fought with belonged to Rank-1. However, the wyvern in front of him was clearly a Rank-2. Plus, he had progressed much further in his rank from the initial stage.

The beast's presence was more overwhelming for Eren than the one he had fought with. And that was saying a lot. If the beast was hostile towards him, Eren would have considered running away from the testing grounds. He was ready to give up the possibility of receiving any more rewards from Kino.

"His name is Kiamat. He is a wyvern raised in captivity, Eren. So he is a bit on the tamer side."

Kino talked about Kiamat like he was a household pet. If it was anyone else other than Kino, Eren would have told them to check their eyes for associating the word "tamer" with a beast like what he was seeing in front of his eyes. There was nothing about Kiamat that was even remotely docile.

Kino laughed briefly before explaining things further.

"What you fought in the bonus stage was kind of Kiamat's rendition. Of course, Kiamat had inserted his consciousness into the Rank-1 mana body that was created for you to fight with.

The bonus stage was not meant to be fought by Meta rankers at all. And it was not intended for Arch rankers either. The entire three stages and the bonus stages need to be cleared by an Awakened ranker to reap maximum rewards.

The Rank-1 and Rank-3 rendition arrays and mana bodies were created for contingencies by my master. Thankfully, the contingency plan could be activated for you so that you could fight the beast. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to win the bonus stage or receive a reward for it."

Only now did things make sense for Eren. He felt as if he had fought the beast. However, his Rank-2 status threw that assumption out the window.

Eren was about to ask Kino something. But the latter beat him to it and asked him another question in a curious voice.

"Eren, have you ever heard of a spirit beast spell?"

Eren raised his eyebrows when he heard Kino's question. He was aware of the spell and wanted to use it for himself as well. However, he needed his real body to perform the spell.

Eren was reminded of Rog and his mountain-cat-type beast when the term spirit beast was mentioned. He was very surprised at that time when the cat started talking to him. This was the first time Eren had seen a spirit beast in action. And he was impressed by it.

It took a while for Eren to figure out what Kino was talking about.

"Um… do you mean to say that I can take that thing as my spirit beast?"

Eren pointed at Kiamat with a slightly shaking index finger and asked Kino in an unsure tone. Frankly, he wasn't too sure about taking someone like a wyvern as his spirit beast. He had started calling them overhyped lizards after hearing the term from Aleph. However, that was simply his defense mechanism to make sense of their overwhelming presence.

Roar!

The beast couldn't digest the disrespect he felt coming from Eren. He roared at him angrily and started breathing flames through his mouth and nostrils. Thankfully, he hadn't fired at them in Eren's direction. And yet, Eren had disappeared from his position, only to reappear after creating additional distance from the beast.

Eren's interactions with Kiamat were a bit funny for Kino. She laughed at him before speaking up.

"Spirit beasts are real, but they can't be found so casually. A normal spirit beast spell is merely a mimicry of a natural phenomenon. Nature breathes a fragment of its consciousness into the sea of elemental attainment and a spirit beast is formed from it.

The spirit beasts, therefore, don't have any biological parents. The World's Will gives birth to them.

Kiamat is not a spirit beast. And I don't like you using a normal spirit beast spell either. So what I'm suggesting between you and Kiamat is a Spirit contract.

With a spirit contract, you and Kiamat will be able to share fragments of your souls. Something that will allow you to form a symbiotic relationship with Kiamat."

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AN: Spirit Beast Spell was first mentioned in chapter 95.