After an hour of waiting, Pef decided the Saint won't be coming back soon, probably digesting the pills somewhere, or perhaps reading his books.
At least the first page was especially made to explain the conversion, from chicken marks to the new letters and numbers.
The rest of the manuals were also easy to read and understand, with hand made pictures and baby talk, as they were intended for new engineers or smiths.
"Let's go someplace and build us a mansion. And a sauna..." Pef commanded in a thoughtful voice, as he reached his wives and looked for agreement.
"And a smithy. I still have to work with this steel more, and build a better engine..." Lady Lin demanded with a nod.
"And a smithy. Maybe a restaurant as well. Make ourselves useful to the natives..." the young cook mused while hugging his smith wife.
In the end, the golden aura wives haven't managed to increase in rank, even after two months of roaming the wilderness.
His oracle, Lady Lia was almost at the peak of her Tyrant rank, but now was stuck. And it wasn't practice or combat that she lacked.
Lady Lara, the former Wall Guard Major was doing well, and almost reached the middle of Tyrant rank. She could use more practice, but then everyone could. She hadn't received a Green or Yellow Pill, so her qi rank needed more time.
And his dear smith, Lady Lin, was still in early Tyrant rank, with the least combat in their group, and also lacking the extra meridians.
Thus for a month, the new arrivals worked hard (almost two days) to build their new dwelling at the outskirts of Frigia, then started making new houses and teaching the locals, having started a school for the more curious kids.
A large maize farm was set up in the back of their mansion, and Pef could only be amazed again, as the wonder plants of the Legion sprouted and grew to four meters tall in weeks, refining qi on their own to grow and create the corn, and ignoring the freezing weather.
Sadly, each corn seed had to be activated individually with the glove, and the plants wouldn't grow outward by pollination or normal means. The plantation would remain locked in place, and only produce new corn once the corncobs were collected.
Then one day, as Pef was lazing tired in the sauna, and eating a naked Yuan with his eyes in fruitless hunger, the sauna got cold suddenly, and a new person appeared inside, glancing curious at the occupants.
"Is this some kind of training or just relaxation?" the Saint wondered while blushing a tiny bit.
Pef smiled and patted the bench beside him. "Sit and try it, my lady. I'll grudgingly keep my eyes closed." he replied in a wise manner, and proceed to close his eyes and dive inside his soul sauna.
A cold snort was heard in the sauna, and Pef could feel Yuan breathe a bit anxious. But he wouldn't change his ways for anyone. If the Saint wanted his help, she could get with the program. Or get out.
A few hours later, he came out of his meditation, feeling a tiny bit more in tune with his qi and soul.
His fire sprite had come out and was playing inside the metal stove for some reason, but otherwise the sauna was empty.
Pef scratched his cheek in thought, then asked his advisor. 'So, you got anything more?'
'Huo Xuyolan Cellia. White aura. Water spirit. Saint rank, age about 2 millions. 7 meridians open. No surviving children. Lady Netherfrost of Artus and likely your new sword teacher. And Water qi teacher. Has a variant of the Cutting skill, but uses a Monarch sword to reduce it's damage.' came the full print, explaining some things.
'But she took the pills, right?' he asked to make sure. Not that he could find a better use for them. Saints were rare.
'Indeed, just last week. New projected time to ascension, 2.4 million years.' the glove answered at once.
Pef nodded and walked out of the sauna, feeling his fire sprite get swept into his palm, the second he left the room.
'Damn sentient constructs, they'll be everywhere as I ascend, right?'
'Exactly, even on your hands. Wait till you meet the Veritas guns. They rarely explode their users after the latest patch, but these antiques might not have the newest upgrades.' the glove explained in a serious tone.
'I wonder if they can play music...' the idiot Sovereign mused inward, almost crashing the subroutines of his expert system.
After a minute though, the glove concluded it would be possible, as the power word weapons were scalable. They didn't have to shatter reality, all the time. Teaching an old hound new tricks though...well. If the neo knife could do it, perhaps a gun might as well. Or explode a galaxy by accident. Either way, it would be fun to see the user try.
For another month, the 5 younglings were trained in the sword by the Saint, and got themselves equipped with full Monarch plate armor and swords, just to survive getting smacked around by their teacher.
Pef grew in a month more than in his past year, and reached two minutes of sword qi at the end of the training. His soul felt a bit more strong and responsive, the water clone moving naturally now, and his resistance to cold doubled too, for some reason. Nothing to do with getting hit by ice spells every day.
Lady Lin and Yuan gained the most, as they didn't have any sword qi before, and now they had three and five seconds of constant use.
But after this month, the Saint told them to go out and get stronger, and return with Monarch ranks and fused souls. Having a source of nice food or people to beat up was great, but it was also distracting.
"Well, I kinda hoped you'd join us and train us more..." a bruised Pef muttered while digging himself out of the ground.
A prison of ice englobed the mouthy youngster, and almost froze him solid.
"And I will, once you're more durable, young Xi. But this old woman has other problems, beside watching over young pups as they stumble. I told young Deng the same thing, and he still hasn't returned. Your Ignited wife can stay, if she agrees." a cold voice bounced around his head, making the ice vibrate and his blood get sluggish.
'It would take maybe 10 years now, Aspirant. Don't push your luck...' the glove advised him in a warning tone.
Pef pulsed a question to Yuan, and the woman hesitated. The she shook her head.
"It's tempting, Lady Netherfrost. But my duty is to my husband. I'll watch over him, til he's ascended again." she said in a worried voice, her eyes frowning at the ice globe around Pef.
"Hmph! Husband or not, he's just a young pup. He might die like that, the next divine messenger you morons get into a fight with." the Saint declared in a bit of contempt, snapping her fingers and making the ice vanish.
Pef drew on the fire sprite for warmth, then flew close to the stern woman, undeterred. He stopped just a step away, and looked her directly in the eyes.
"We'll meet again, my cold lady. You're strong, and I love strong women. Makes me less worried, that they'll die to some beast or disease. And ask your god, how would the cold winds blow, or fresh snow fall, if the planet gets pushed too close to the sun.
Or if the light from the sun gets concentrated, with millions of mirrors on the arctic ice." the Sovereign said with a calm voice, and caressed a strand of the Saint's hair.
'Activate indoctrination?'
'No, she needs to ask for it, and that will take time. And she knows where I live.' Pef answered inward, still amazed at the silky texture of the Saint's hair.
Then he turned and flew away, heading into the wilderness again, a bit more confident now.
By next day, the 5 Legion recruits left the Grey Taiga continent behind, along with its harsh climate and people.
Although there was an abundance of qi, the beasts were low ranked and avoided the few towns from far away.
It didn't take a genius to conclude their Saint protector was responsible.
A week later, the group stopped as their way was blocked by huge dust and smoke clouds, going from horizon to horizon.
'Arachne and Volcanis are fighting over these islands. She detonated 46 volcanoes at once, and killed most of the locals...' the glove explained after scanning the outskirts of the Tan Marinesia continent, a place with millions of old stone buildings but fewer people.
'Climate change, and colder winters due to dust blocking the sun.' Pef mused examining the scene with cold and angry eyes.
'Not yet, as planet Lacrima is much larger that you think, Aspirant. This was just to annoy the fire god and get him to disperse some forces. The real fight is elsewhere, most likely the Yellow Marshes. But there's a hundred spider nurseries here, and we have two Ignited to calm the eruptions.' the orange glove answered in a kind of suggestive way.
"We're staying the help. Lia, hunt the spiders with Lin and Lara. Yuan, time to feed our fire sprites!" Pef ordered in a commanding voice.
They dove towards the afflicted islands, saving or killing people as per need. Yuan proved a hundred times more proficient at draining the heat of the volcanoes, so Pef abandoned that task to his Fire Monarch, and returned at hunting and cooking spiders.
There were large stone sculptures everywhere, large human heads and fishing tridents a hundred meters tall, decorated with origin stories of the world, the oceans spilled from the mouth of god Mershe, and his tongue transformed into fish or islands.
A dozen more women hit with soul arrows were found during the next three months, and Pef used Lin and Lara to throw the arrows at various beast flocks or herds, piercing their shells and detonating the charged arrows inside Sky or Emperor ranked beasts, for lesser environmental damage.
The Water Sovereign also worked on installing defense arrays to block radiation and dust, as well as creating sterile formations to block small animals and planted maize plantations, saving perhaps 300 thousand people from Marinesia.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
They had an Emperor with a Sky ranked wife still able to rule the islanders, but Pef didn't put much hope in him. That guy seemed more likely to steal the gold of the array anchors, to wear it himself.
Pef Awoke a couple locals as Guardians and got them trained a bit, to hold off minor beasts waves or hunt the spider Disciples if they returned.
Then the group continued onwards, and reached the Orange Sand Continent, which was indeed a mostly large desert with orange dunes and crazy wildlife. Even animals were dangerous, not to mention beasts.
The Orange Kick Jumping kangaroos were among the scariest creatures Pef and his wives had seen, as they kinda adapted to jumping really high and kicking at their enemies.
And when a Sovereign ranked kangaroo kicks you...it hurts a lot.
The surprised Sovereign got bent in half, and spewed his breakfast, as the crazy herbivore jumped from the midst of its herd and kicked him at hyperspeed.
His knife flashed white for a split second and removed the offending leg, while the glove instantly stored the leg for lunch.
It was a 5 meter long leg though, so it could feed 5 people well.
Lady Lin and Lara yelled excited and chased after their possible rank, and kinda butchered the poor beast in mid air, with their Monarch ranked locust legs forged into polearms.
Lin got to keep the bones, while Lara got the kill, and climbed higher in her energy, but not enough for a new rank.
'This continent seems a good place to train, right?' Pef asked inward while circulating qi to heal himself. His Monarch armor took the worst of the kick, but it still hurt to be kicked by a jumping bulldozer.
'Yes, there's a dozen Sovereign beasts, including an Orange Soul Poison Rattlesnake. Targets marked. Also, thousands of ingredients for the Orange Meridian Pill.' the glove explained helpfully, generating a new high altitude map with markers for the required plants.
'So many...nobody collects these plants?' the Sovereign wondered while taking point towards the next Sovereign beast.
'No humans can live here, Aspirant. Even Sovereigns would have a hard time, simply surviving a month. Be warned, everything here has evolved to kill humans.' the system added in a flat tone, like an airship departure.
"We do not land and step foot on the ground, my dear wives. Well, Yuan could, but it's still risky.' Pef told his golden aura recruits as they began diving closer to the ground.
Lia glanced at his glove, then down towards the endless sand dunes and patches of grass.
"Poisons?" she asked in a wary tone.
"And toxins, venoms and disease. Even in the air be wary. Other beasts can jump or fly, and they are all dangerous." he said in more protective manner, raising his water shield.
Just as he spoke, Yuan fired a huge firebomb and then a couple of fire streams, detonating in the distant horizon and scorching the sand to glass under them as well.
A yellow-brown lizard emerged from the vitrified sand, and spat a few of its teeth at Yuan in retaliation. The projectiles were supersonic and hissed with acid or venom on the Monarch's armor.
"Insect cloud, 80 kilometers south. And a herd of sand lizards just below. About 50 Tyrant ranks. " Yuan reported while igniting her sprites and cooking the beast, making it dive under the sands.
Pef sprayed her sizzling armor with a water jet, cleaning away the venom. "As I said, a bit dangerous. Let's keep going!"
Some 50 kilometers away, there was a small oasis with orange and brown plants growing all around.
'There's three ingredients here, marking with blue outlines. Red outlines are lethal to Tyrant ranks.' the glove related and did just so, making half the oasis get deadly with a simple colored crayon.
"Tyrants, fly a kilometer up. Yuan on guard." the young husband ordered while descending cautiously.
Soon, various types of pollen and allergens filled the air, straining Pef's breathing until he began filtering everything with his water domain.
He turned upside down, and began collecting the precious fruits and bulbs or leaves, flitting like a hummingbird from place to place, and careful not to touch any of the dangerous plants.
In a few hours, he had mostly cleaned up the oasis, leaving only a dozen flowers surrounded by red thorns and carnivorous plant mouths.
There was a half digested lizard inside one of the closed mouths, and he didn't want to risk it.
He began lifting up when a human sized dragonfly appeared from somewhere, moving in short bursts at immense speed.
Pef backed away cautiously, but the beast possibly suspected he was the thief, looting the precious plants. It sped up and headbutted Pef in the chest, pushing him some 500 meters and making him crashland into a sand dune.
The Sovereign sped away and rose higher, with the crazy insect in pursuit.
It was a trap however, at a kilometer altitude, he had backup, Yuan flashing by and catching the beast by the tail.
"Lara, it's yours!" the Monarch decided while waving the beast a bit, to deny it purchase and grip.
The blue haired Tyrant yelled in joy and flew forward, scything with her weapons and battering the Orange Oasis Dragonfly untill she got a kill by cracking and splattering the beast's head. Her rank rose even higher, holding right at the peak of Tyrant.
Pef rushed to hug and kiss his wife in congratulation, then whispered the next step in her neck.
A minute later, Pef and Lara flew two kilometers higher and entered the Anaconda's nacelle for a bit of dual cultivation.
Took them a bit more though, and they fell asleep tired but happy. When Pef woke up next morning, he found a dazzling Sovereign in his arms, her body transformed even more into a heavenly form, her bountiful flesh firm and dense, but also warm and elastic and soft to touch.
"This feels so good, my senses are so strong and wide now. I can even sense my sisters, staring at us with hungry eyes." Lara Xi murmured to her husband and kissed him a bit forcefully.
The hero sighed audibly. "Okay, I'm up and making breakfast in a minute. Geeze! Let a man rest a bit, would you..." he said in a defeated voice.
A bit of giggles and laughter sounded from his other wives, who were hungry for more than breakfast.
"I already made breakfast an hour ago, beloved husband. Boiling maize and brewing tea isn't quite that hard as your cultivation." Lia spoke in a teasing tone, and sipped her tea as proof.
The hunt for more ingredients and beasts continued, until Lady Lin killed a fifth Sovereign beast, an Orange Royal Striped Thylacine, which was kind of a wolf and tiger combined. Her qi ranked reached the peak, and she immediately demanded extra care and private time to cultivate.
She needed a week though, until her husbands love and qi injections crossed the lovely smith into the Sovereign rank.
The other wives got a bit bored and had to cook for themselves, and then train with the sword or forge more items.
But it was Lin's turn to ascend, and kinda the point of the whole trip.
After that, Pef continued the search and collected the rest of the pill ingredients, while Lia was helped to kill four Sovereign beasts including an Orange Tiger Beetle, but to no avail. Even spending night after night beside her husband didn't work.
'Why isn't she ascending, my glove? We did everything!' Pef asked in a bit of desperation.
'Your dear oracle, she's too calculating and logical. It's a rare thing in humans, and not a bad thing. But the love comes from the soul, as it says in the manual. Her body and brain can try all they want, but her soul is constrained and constricted. I think...you have to die, Aspirant' the glove concluded after reviewing all the user's history.
Pef mulled and mused for a few minutes, but the glove was always right. 'Okay, Lia has the golden aura, so it makes sense. If that's what it takes...she's more important, after all. Just save my mom, when they reach the heavens..'
The glove sighed inward at its moron user, with a great heart but not enough brains.
'Right. We'll use the last Sovereign Rattlesnake for your death. It should be heroic and dramatic, and hopefully unblock her feelings. You did good, Aspirant.' it said in a proper military tone, honoring him who was about to die.
The hero sighed and lead the group on his final mission, decided to die with glory. And possibly in horrible pain, if that soul poison was as potent as he suspected.
He pulsed to Yuan to stay back and not interfere, as he had a perfect plan.
Then he handed his Legion knife to his dear oracle, and dove toward the snake in a last dance of the swan.
His sword strike and moves were fast and precise, blinding the snake at the first pass, then slicing through a tooth on the return strike.
Venom spewed out, and Pef turned around protecting Lia Ching Xi at his chest, while his Monarch ranked armor sizzled and melted under the powerful soul imbued poison.
It hurt a million times more than he'd imagined, and he screamed and spasmed as the insidious venom burned through the armor's backplate then his spine and heart. And so, the hero died, protecting someone he loved, and giving Lia only the chance to revenge him.
"Damn idiot! Always ignoring danger, and risking your life...and now you've died, to a stupid sand snake!" the oracle sobbed while dragging his corpse in the sky.
Her golden aura pulsed in unrestrained anger, and solid wings of light appeared on her back, as she handed her husband's corpse to his still virgin wife.
"I'm sorry Yuan...if only I'd loved him more. Just a bit more." Lia said in between tears, then dove at superspeed toward the poisonous beast who took her only hope away. Her tears evaporated under her solar domain, and the neo knife glowed with fierce golden light.
A single cut decapitated the horrible beast, but it was too late. She was now alone, and fated to return to her old home, with a stupid grave marker saying 'Beloved husband?'
Lia didn't care about her new Sovereign rank or various contingencies of her skill.
She took out a wine pitcher and drank in mid air, trying to drown her sorrows.