Kaden found it surprisingly difficult to travel in the human territories. Sure he had known it was difficult, but not quite as hard it was.
In the smaller patches of forest, he could go about almost as he pleased. Yet, even there, once he was closer to some smaller villages, and more so for the larger ones, there would be people wandering around.
Kaden even had to kill a few. He made sure to do it so that it would indeed look like a beast kill, but not one that was special.
His nightly flights were far better, but he still had to avoid people.
"I look too special", Kaden though to himself. "If knowledge of my passing spreads too far, someone will come after me for my core, feathers and other valuable body parts."
Life of a beast had its own problems.
It all wasn't bad, as far as Kaden's plans went. In the human territories High Beasts were rare, but since Sacronan and Saint Empire seemed to be at full war once again, beasts were culled less. Kaden sensed few of them along his way. They covered in terror as Kaden landed next to them. Yet, it was not bad for them since Kaden offered each one a boon.
The first one had been a badger, a very large one.
"Do you want power?" Kaden asked the enormous badger.
He pulled out an information crystal containing the the godless mana system. It was time to start handing them out.
"You should be intelligent enough to understand this and use it", Kaden continued and tossed the crystal at the badger. This specific crystal Kaden had made different way than the ones he was planning on giving to humans. This was filled with very specific intent. It was likely a beast wouldn't understand human language, but precisely enough imprinted mana with intent could carry across the idea.
The badger seemed surprised and prodded the crystal a bit.
"Use it", Kaden demanded. Now was the time to test, if beasts could use it. He hoped this specific beast was bright enough that he wouldn't have to wait for a long time.
Even if it turned out it was unable to use the godless mana system, Kaden planned to let it live. It would hoard the crystal most likely. Someone would eventually come kill the High Beast. Human would take some time to understand the intent, but it wasn't impossible considering it was such specifically imprinted on the crystal and not random beast roar in a forest.
For example, Emina had been able to learn the idea in a few minutes. For the High Beast it took an hour before it started jumping about in some kind of joy. Kaden expected the beast was thinking failure meant death and now it could live and also gain this useful thing to grow with.
"With this you may absorb more mana and the mana you require", Kaden told it. "Grow, become powerful."
After pondering a moment, Kaden wondered if there was a way to make the information crystals easier to understand for High Beasts. Their number was much higher than Lower Cari and would cause far greater effect if he was able to make them grow stronger. A Lower Cari might even understand language, but most of the High Beasts required information to be conveyed with intent.
Kaden pushed those thoughts from his mind and left the joyous beast and contintinued north east. Kaden was planning on going to Brit. He wanted to hand over one of the information crystals to Nosran. He would not go see the elves, though. Emina and the elves could do what they wanted to. In fact, they would likely attack, if he tried to approach.
One day Kaden noticed some problems, but not unexpected ones. He was getting too close to Sacronan's central areas. There were far less forests and too many humans. Even if he did continue, he would eventually find himself in proximity of Grandea, Sacronan's capital. That would be a suicide.
He stopped to ponder the best direction, but decided to go north. He would still be close to the central areas, but not directly in them. There was no way to Brit without going through the area. As for other directions, they would take him to much longer route.
It was best to avoid any unnecessary dangers.
Kaden wasn't entirely sure how to accomplish his goals. His main reason going to Brit was basically to hand over the godless mana system to Nosran who did not like gods. That little god he used as excuse didn't seem anything than exactly that, an excuse. He was also a researcher. A godless mana system would spark his interest. Kaden needed people to work on it. As many inviduals as possible.
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He also needed humans he could trust to not betray him immediately. Nosran was one of those people.
Yet, once his dealings with the necromancer was done, he wasn't sure what to do.
"Should I go to beast territory so I can grow stronger with less distractions?" Kaden pondered. "I needed to evolve, but it would be easier to do things I want, if I could still interact with people more."
This was indeed a problem.
He could also follow his older ideas and stay in Brit once he was done. Northern side was mostly uninhabited by humans. It could be possible to stay there, but it was nearly completely isolated from anything. Kaden didn't want to become a simple ruler of some territory. For many beasts and even Cari this might have been point of interest, but not for Kaden.
"I need not think of this now", Kaden thought to himself. "If I don't know what to do, I will do what is my next most immediate concern and wait until I can choose better course."
This time getting over to Brit was no problem to Kaden. The distance to fly over was short. Biggest problem, as usual, were people keeping watch, but on Brit side there were many opening due to it being a fringe area.
Kaden quickly noted that Brit was probably completely under control of Saint Empire. Yet, they were not a problem. The war with Sacronan distracted them enough to allow Kaden evade notice again. They were far more concerned building fortifications and ways to attack Sacronan than keep watch over beasts.
It was also very clear to Kaden why a lot of beasts could live in human territories. There was simply too much land to cover and there were always openings one could use with some cleverness. Eventually the stronger ones would be noticed, though.
Kaden avoided any saints he discovered by a very long distance. He knew there could be a True Magus hiding among the troops somewhere or even higher ranked Condensation stage officer or two.
Luckily Kaden knew where he was supposed to go. He had not stayed long enough on Brit to know it well, but he knew where Nosran was. He could easily make those trips to avoid anyone he found and the number of people was much lower inland.
The necromancer still had his house and nothing seemed to have changed. Though, all the zombies and whatever minions Nosran had created activated and went into frenzied state as soon as Kaden approached.
Kaden ignored this and casually landed near the house even with numerous zombies swarming towards him.
"Nosran", Kaden said. "I am not here to fight you. I merely evolved into greater form as you can see."
The zombies stopped, but they didn't go away.
"Kaden, your mutation has progressed far", Nosrans voice sounded from one of the zombies. "Though, should I still call it mutation or whether you have managed to simply take the required steps to transform entirely from human into an avian beast?"
"Externally at least", Kaden replied. "Truth is I seem to be somewhere in between. I'd still consider myself a beast, though."
"Hmmmm, how interesting", Nosran replied. Then got to the point. "You came here for a reason, yes?"
Kaden tossed out an information crystal with the godless mana system to the zombie which, despite being a zombie, somehow caught it with extreme precision with its twisted boney fingers in a single movement without even looking at it.
"I decided to give you something interesting to research", Kaden said. "For free even. I am hoping you might make it something better. If you feel you do not want it or are too afraid, I recommend you destroy the crystal and forget I ever visited. My hope is that with time, your reasearch, if you choose to contribute, will spread from here." Kaden was quiet for a moment. "In fact, whether you choose to do any research on it, forget I ever came here. I never visited you and if anyone ever asks, you saw a bird beast fly past your home."
Kaden beat his wings and left the place. The shorter time he was there, the better. If Kaden's opinion about Nosran was right, he would surely study the godless mana system. He would even do it from point of view that Kaden wouldn't. Perhaps he would even discover uses for it that Kaden himself wouldn't think of.
Even if he was wrong, Nosran was unlikely to tell anyone anything. He lived far away from anyone for a reason.
Kaden also didn't mention him that the elves that lived somewhere nearby also should have the godless mana system in their hands. Kaden didn't want different parties having definite knowledge about each other. The less people knew of others, the harder it would be to get rid of when churches finally noticed something was up.
Additionally, having different people trying to improve it will likely result into different end results causing variations. Perhaps even ones that were difficult to notice even if church inquisitors were looking at it.
At any rate, the more people had it, the easier it would spread and in greater forms. Still, Kaden wanted to find some Cari and arrange the godless mana system in their hands. Churches had no power in beast territories.
Kaden needed to confirm Cari belief system first, though. Would they see the godless mana system as blasphemy like humans did. He did know enough of beasts and their forms of worship to know how they did it and this made him believe it would not be seen as a problem, at least not by most. Yet, he could not be sure. His knowledge was based on secondhand information collected by humans. Perhaps it was even incorrect with church wanting to paint beast worship as heretical?
Things needed to be confirmed first. If it was a problem Kaden was going to arrange information crystal to be 'discovered' by, obviously, a party that would keep it and use it.
Kaden's mind returned to the previous problem that he was not sure what to do next.
"Damn it", Kaden cursed. "I'll have to think of something and not waste my time."