"Huh?"

"Well, that is... a rather logical but nonetheless unexpected reason, to be perfectly honest," acknowledged Thiago after carefully taking in her explanation and digesting it for a few seconds.

"Well that also means that I am basically fully responsible for your continuous breakthroughs, no?" put forward Thiago slyly, which would have made Faye appear in a rather embarrassing situation, or well at least Thiago had thought that, but who could have known that Faye's shamelessness and self-centredness knew no bounds.

"While it may be true that you gave me the meat, it was I, this venerated self, who requested them form you, so the final credit to my breakthrough still goes to me," declared Faye which made Thiago laugh out and commend her displaced world view.

"Haha, you truly have an interesting perspective and view on this matter,"

"Well in all honesty, it's not like I care about who takes the credit for your breakthrough, so let's end this matter here," Thiago expressed his wish to end this irrelevant topic at once, which Faye also internally agreed on and therefore did not mention that topic again after that.

"I was just thinking that if you want to leave the cave you are fine to go now, since you should be able to protect yourself with your realm at the 1st Tier of the Student realm a little at least inside this forest. Well, I will go rest now, do what you want to do," spoke Thiago after which he moved away from Faye towards his part of the Cave, leaving Faye standing there in black dismay after hearing him suddenly telling her that she can leave the cave and thereby his side if she wants to.

And although she seemed to be absolutely prideful, self-centred, arrogant and whatnot, she still did have no intention of leaving this cave let alone Thiago's side.

Mainly because deep down she was completely clear what Thiago had done for her all this time and even with her arrogant personality she couldn't deny any of that, additionally she had also unbeknownst to her, even become a little fond of being by Thiago's side all this time. What she definitely didn't know right now is that Thiago had also unknowingly and subconsciously already regarded her as his first Friend and companion in this world, since she had been the first entity, he had made contact with in this new world. Anyways, having already decisively chosen to stay inside the cave, she laid down on the floor where she had previously practiced and began to meditate in order to making herself familiar with her new body after he continuous breakthroughs, which had changed her body massively. 'It feels so different to before, that is simply the difference between heaven and earth.' thought Faye while she proved her new body in meditation.

'Hehe, it's all thanks to Thiago,' flashed through her mind which she could never utter before Thiago, because her pride would not let that slide.

Returning to Thiago's side, he was currently resuming the previous cultivation state he had before he had stopped after a four-hour long cultivation session. The reason for resuming now was that his intuition told him that something would happen if he were to cultivate now. He just did not know if it was something good or bad, so he wanted to find that out now.

'Well, if worse comes to worst, I just have to use strength to reduce any danger down to nothing, I guess, since the saying is strength is king,' mused Thiago while already slowly immersing himself in his cultivation.

He cultivated for seconds, minutes....

The imaginary clock ticked and turned as moments flew by in a ceaseless stream until suddenly, a vortex formed above his head, that was drawing in all mana inside the cave and additionally the mana that was outside of the cave, forming a vacuum, where no mana existed in a radius of one kilometre around him, thus scaring the beasts in the vicinity as they had no clue on what was suddenly occurring.

Faye was also abruptly awoken form her meditation and stared vigilantly around her surroundings, because she did not straight away know what caused this mana phenomenon. Only when she realized where the mana was pouring to, she concluded that it must be caused by Thiago and visibly relaxed a lot in that moment. Nevertheless, she moved towards Thiago's direction to see what was going on there, but she had obviously already the assumption that he was breaking through to the next realm right now.

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

And she was absolutely right with that assumption, because Thiago had already been at the late stage of the 8th Tier of the Student realm prior to his first cultivation session, after which he was basically at the peak of the 8th Tier of the Student realm already. And now that he had cultivated again, his cultivation has loosened and then he had successfully broken through and advanced to the 9th Tier of the Student realm, which also caused the huge amount of mana to be sucked away from the vicinity.

This usually did not happen to him because he used Essence to break through, which does not need much surrounding mana for him to advance due to it having the essence as a driving energy supply.

Contrary to that previous way of breaking through, this time his breakthrough was purely based on his own cultivation practice which also meant that he had to use a huge load of mana from the surroundings to break through the realm barrier.

And when the mana reached a saturation point of density and quantity the vortex slowly stopped spinning and just shortly after Thiago's body shook ever so slightly just as it had been the case when Faye had broken through. "boom!" sounded the realm barrier breaking and cracking inside Thiago's body at the moment which announced his advancement to the next small realm. When he came back to his senses a few seconds later he promptly shouted, "What?! I just broke through so suddenly that I hadn't even expected it in the least bit. Haha what a great surprise, indeed, it seemed my instinct was top notch when it had urged me to cultivate just now."

When he came out of his wild thoughts Thiago immediately noticed a new System notification pop up on his panel.

[Congratulations! You have advanced: 9th Tier of the Student realm]

And just as he was about to avert his gaze again, since this was already a notification, he was quite familiar with, he received another, albeit slightly different one.

[Received new mission!]

"Huh, a new mission?" exclaimed Thiago in surprise after which he also read the following message.

[Evolution mission]

[As you have reached the necessary conditions, you are now eligible for the evolution mission.

Mission Name: Evolution's Trial

Rank: Personal Quest

Mission Description: You have reached a pivotal moment in your journey as a cultivator. In order to initiate your evolution and reach the next major realm, you must undertake a dangerous and challenging personal quest.

Your objective is to slay and thereafter devour the most powerful beasts and its underlings that reside within the depths of the forest you are currently located in. These beasts are known to be incredibly dangerous and should not be underestimated.

The beasts in question are:

The Golden basilisk, a massive demon beast with the body similar to a snake but with additional wings, thus making it able to fly, that can breathe poison, petrify its enemies just by gazing at their eyes and has an extremely tough exterior. The basilisk has the Cultivation realm of the 2nd Tier of the superior Student realm.

The Thunder Bear, a giant bear that can control lightning and has incredible strength. Cultivation realm: 1st Tier of the superior Student realm. The Thunder Bear has the Cultivation realm of the 1st Tier of the superior Student realm.

The Ice Serpent, a serpent with the ability to control ice and freeze its enemies. Cultivation realm: 1st Tier of the superior Student realm. The Ice Serpent has the Cultivation realm of the 1st Tier of the superior Student realm.

This quest will test your skills and determination as a cultivator and will serve as a rite of passage in your evolution.

(Note that this is the only time for now that you will receive this mission as a novice and due to your first evolution, and every other advancement towards major realms will not activate this mission.) ]

'Damn! This mission is proving to be far more challenging and dangerous than the mission of massacring the goblin village before. The beasts I am tasked with defeating are all at least at the 1st Tier of the Superior Student realm, with the Golden Basilisk being even more powerful at the 2nd Tier. This level of power is truly leagues above what I have been fighting against this whole time up to now, and it's clear that this task will probably bring me to reach my limit.

But this is probably also the intention of this mission, to bring out my whole potential and then granting me an incredible evolution or something like that. Well, I might also be wrong with that guess, but whatever.

While I have faced against opponents with higher realms than myself in the past, the difference between the Student realm and the Superior Student realm is significantly and vastly different than just a few small realms in difference between me and the opponent. The Superior Student realm serves as a threshold to gain a human form, which indicates that once one gets into the superior Student realm, there may be some great changes in powers, abilities and strength.

Although this mission may prove to be my greatest test yet, but I am determined to see it through to the end. I will need to be at my best, drawing upon all of my strength, cunning, and agility, if I hope to emerge victorious in this fight, I guess,' Thiago's mind whirled wildly as he monologued after reviewing the mission's requirements and description.

Just then he was suddenly interrupted by Faye's congratulations, "Congratulations for your breakthrough, Thiago!"

"Oh, I didn't even notice you were here, ah, but thank you," replied Thiago who was suddenly interrupted from his thought process in which he had not even realized that Faye was standing next to him, by Faye speaking up.

"So, in which realm have you broken through just now?" inquired Faye who couldn't sense his realm accurately because Thiago was too many small realms above her, which made it impossible to accurately read out his strength.

"9th Tier of the Student realm," replied Thiago concise owing to the fact that his mind was currently still occupied by the mission content he had read just a minute ago.