Chapter 5

I barely made it a couple steps out of the rooms before I was intercepted by a servant. Her reaction to my current pungent scent was, not what I could call kind.

I found myself basically pushed into a large communal bathhouse in the basement so fast I think she used Air magic to whisk me there.

As she walked away I could hear her muttering to herself.

"Son of a bitch, I'm gonna have to burn his clothes..*sniff*...maybe my own too."

"This is why people are supposed to plan their first breakthrough, bloody kids these days."

"Taking it up with accounts, they are definitely paying to replace my damn clothes."

She didn't even come near enough to me the second time as she pointed out the cleaning area, soaking pool and where some changes of clothes were available in a change room. I guess due to my current issues she didn't let me go into the change rooms and just turned her back and left shortly with my clothes floating in front of her.

Fortunately no one came in during the fifteen minutes it took to scrub my skin clean, almost raw I might add, before having a short soak in the heated pool area.

Finally it was time for me to eat. I may or may not have gotten lost as I tried to work my way through the palace, eventually following my nose to a set of kitchens.

I entered to glared from many of the staff around the kitchen, I quickly figured I wasn't supposed to be there.

A voice rang out behind me suddenly.

"Cain, how nice to see you again. Looking for a spot of dinner, everyone was worried when they couldn't find you for dinner."

"Lord Sullivan, how can we help you this evening? An evening snack and brandy again?" A chef asked before I could even turn around.

"Why thank you Andrew, that would be lovely. Do you think you could scrounge something for the lad also? He missed dinner with the Royal Family due to his first breakthrough." Sully answered as I finished turning around to see him.

The staff looks chastised as they hurriedly made a meal for me, I was mesmerized, using magic and skill they made a beautiful meal in minutes. I was expecting something small for me but apparently when Lord Sullivan asks for a meal, by gods they will give him a meal.

Bare minutes later I was sitting across the table just about filled with food with Sully, I was slightly nervous to be around him all things considered.

"Don't mind me Cain. I know how hungry you must be, eat up." He told me.

With his words, my thoughts left him abilities and were centred entirely on the food again. I lost track of time as I gorged myself on the enormous amount of food on the table, I came back to myself as I realised my plate may Still have scraps on it but no other place on the table did.

Sully say quietly, savoring his brandy while he waited for me to finish. Now that I was, he finally looked ready to talk. I decided to start first.

"So Lord Sullivan huh?" I asked.

"Technicality, my father did some meritois work for the Royal Family and was rewarded with a title in recompense. Other make more of a big deal about it than I ever felt, but it is one of the major reasons I now work for her Majesty, so it does have some benefits." He answered.

Before I could formulate a response he continued talking.

"I'm less important that your surprisingly fast achievement. Initial control over you mana in a single afternoon, very impressive, it took me several weeks and even Prince Mason took three or four days." He explained.

"Can you explain how this all works? My training with Master Gregor today was mostly about the initial control without explaining the levels of power Mason has mentioned in passing." I asked.

"Considering you have reduced your Beast form features substantially and your eyes now look less like your iris is falling into the void, I assume you have an all-purpose cultivation technique?" Sully started.

"From the shock on your face I'm assuming I'm correct. With the initial control, a purification of your body is formed, this is the waste mana that had been rampaging around and any other foreign matter that your body has gained over the years. Now that you have eaten and replenished your bodies energies, I fear the worst awaits you in the next couple hours. I will have some more food sent you your room in the morning." Sully finished and left the room.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I was less than half way back to my room when I felt my stomach rumble and an urgent urge to use the restroom.

Lets just say, the next few hours were some of the worst of my life and leave it at that. All I'll say is, both ends.

*

It was the day before Mason and I would be leaving for the academy when I was considering finally doing the second stage of my cultivation technique.

It had been three days since that less than ideal night, most of that time was me recovering and learning more about the theory. Tonight was the bicentennial celebration, Mason told me earlier we would hang out for a while during the celebration and he would show me around.

I was relaxing in my room, still processing my time so far in this new world when Essie swept into my room with Mason in tow.

“Cain! Get ready, we are going shopping.” Essie ordered.

“Umm, I was kinda planning on just relaxing before the festivities tonight.” I answered.

My answer had an expression I recognised immediately appear on Essie’s face, one that I wasn’t dumb enough to argue with. I had seen it on my own mothers face enough times.

“But of course I have time to go shopping for you.” I continued like I always meant to say it, it wasn’t fear at all, nope not at all.

I put my shoes on and started to follow her out of the room. Essie swept down the hall, with Mason and I following.

“Weak.” Mason muttered.

“Pfft like you have a spine when it comes to her.” I answered.

“Ha touche”

*

It was a much longer journey on the carriage this time, since I knew very little about the layout of London, I also had no idea where we were going.

I once again spent most of my time looking out the window, watching how the whole city had completely incorporated Magic into their lives.

It was amazing, something that I could still barely work my mind around, I had spent sixteen years in a world of technology and machines and suddenly I was in a world of pretty much the opposite.

We stopped at a giant building on a narrow street, as we got out of the carriage I saw the building looked like a converted warehouse. It didn’t look like somewhere Essie would normally come shopping and a suspicion developed in my mind.

“This looks...different Essie.” I said.

“You will see.” Essie answered with a smile.

One of the Guards opened the door in front of us and another half dozen flooded through, at a nod from the guard on the door we entered.

Inside confirmed my suspicion, cages full of beast that had clearly been changed by mana. There were wolves covered in shadow, sparkling with lightning and one that had a crown of fire, A tiger whose fur was ruffled by a wind that was in its cage only, an adorable little two-tailed fox that shone with an internal light and those were just the ones I saw from where I was standing.

Clearly those animals were some of the most eye catching and thus used to lure in potential buyers, from the number of Manabeasts on display, either Beast affinity was less rare than I thought or many people kept a veritable army of beasts.

A man that I immediately disliked came around the corner from further into the warehouse to greet us, he had the feeling of a snake oil salesman to me, greasy and smug.

He clearly knew who they were as he bowed as soon as he got a good look.

“Your Majesty, welcome to my humble establishment. My name is Heinrich Carter. Are you looking for a familiar contract? I have some of the best Beastmasters in the city that can set that up for you. Have you seen some of my prize specimens here? My personal favourite at the moment includes a Flame Wolf King, he was incredibly hard to procure, killing a dozen familiars sent against him but we managed to capture him. How about our adorable Twin-Tailed Light Fox huh? She has the potential to gain at least a few more tails with the correct care…” he stopped speaking as Essie raised her hand.

“As much as I enjoyed your sales pitch, we aren’t her for me today but my young ward. Cain?” Essie cut in.

I stepped forward.

“He is looking for Fire or Void element beasts, I fear the Flame Wolf King would be too high a burden for one so inexperienced so cross that one off the list.” Essie continued.

“Ahh for the young Master, please follow me to a more comfortable room.” Henirich answered.

We followed him deeper into the building, passing many cages, but not a sound was heard. It was maybe half way back that I saw a giant pool of water full of creatures, unfortunately I didn’t get a good look before we were ushered through a door I hadn’t seen with my rubbernecking.

We were led to a luxurious room with leather seats, a small bar in the corner and a small stage to the side that was clearly for the beasts to be put on. We all sat in the chairs, myself in the first row with Mason next to me, Essie sat behind us with her Captain at her side and Heinrich stood at the bar.

“Can I get any of you a drink while we wait for my men to bring in the selected candidates?” Heinrich asked.

“I’d love a glass of wine, thankyou Mister Carter. You have a lovely range of Manabeasts out there. How long have you been in business in our fair city?” Essie responded.

The bartender picked up a bottle that had been hidden below the counter and poured it into a glass. The Captain behind Essie walked to the bar and picked up the glass before anyone else could touch it, he appeared to sniff it before handing it to Essie.

“Thankyou Charles.”

I tuned out of the conversation behind me as the workers started bringing in covered cages, a half dozen were brought in before they finished. One of the workers approached Heinrich, spoke for a moment and left again, I could have sworn I saw panic on Heinrichs face for a moment before he went to the stage and ripped the cover off the first cage.

“Here we have the pup of that Flame King Wolf, since it is the direct descendant it is almost guaranteed to one day grow to the King rank.” Heinrich kept talking but I tuned out.

I looked at Mason and asked,

“King Rank?”

“Common, Soldier, Commander, Lord, King, Emperor, Demigod and God. The level of strength when it comes to Manabeasts. The highest we have ever found on Terra was an Emperor but there have been sightings of creatures capable of devouring suns, so Demigod and God.” Mason answered without even looking at me.

By the time I paid attention again, Heinrich was onto the next cage. It was an armoured Spider that looked more like a crab than a spider.

“Void Spider, commonly found attached to ships as they come out the other side of a Void Teleport. These creatures tend to hide in the void realm until they can hitch a ride back out to our reality, they have high strength shields they can deploy over their back, almost zero offence though.” Heinrich explained.

Clearly saw my disinterest at the Void Spider so went onto the next cage.

“I should explain before we take the covering off. This is a Dire Hawk, very volatile to anyone that doesn’t control the bond but quite powerful in scouting and ambush tactics. The Fire element is secondary, it’s primary element is Air.” Heinrich told us.

As soon as he took the covering off the cage, the Hawk immediately went wild and lunged at the cage. Heinrich covered the cage again as fast as he could.

“Might have been a mistake to bring that one.” he stated.

As Heinrich moved to the fourth cage I felt something moving next to my leg. In fact it as starting to move up my leg, I looked down to see an almost invisible snake winding around my calf. Normally I would have freaked out having a snake on me let alone slowly climbing my body, the weird part was that no one had noticed it was there until it touched me.

“Shit don’t move!” Heinrich yelled to everyone as he spied the snake on me.

“What is happening?” Essie said with such force it demanded an answer from everyone in the room.

‘There appears to be a snake crawling up my leg. I like it, something is drawing me to it.” I answered.

“That is a Void Serpent that has killed over a dozen people before it was caught. It was found dying on a planet in the Free Worlds Alliance, many people tried to either send it back to the Void or capture it as a Familiar but they all failed. Everytime they failed it bit them, injecting them with its necrotic venom.” Heinrich gave a full explanation like he was trying to sell it to us.

“Charles, protect Cain and kill it!” Essie ordered.

“NO!” I interjected.

The Void Serpent made its way up to my chest and stared me in the eyes. I felt my mana core respond to a call that I had no control over, the Beast mana extricated itself out of the circuit, that it had been continuing since I finished the first step of the cultivation technique, and moved through the short gap between myself and the Void Serpent. A similar string of Mana was projected by the Void Serpent, they met and intertwined before the knot of mana pulled back into my body, settling into my Root Chakra.

Suddenly exhausted, I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness but I could have sworn I heard,

“Home...Sssafe”