As Gabe came back to the present he felt like slapping himself. He'd been so caught up with the fact that he could now possibly hold ten soul beasts that he had missed out on hearing the other things he could do now. What if he could predict the future, or produce heavenly treasures out of his butt. It sounds ridiculous, but so did having his soul beast number increased to ten. "Are you okay?" Colin asked looking at him anxiously like he might explode any second now. Gabe's soul was just now starting to cool down, and surprisingly he felt good. Really good. "Yes I'm great!" He said loudly as he leaned forward and stood up. His body felt lighter, and harder. He even thought his soul sense was almost twice as far now and he could sense behind trees! He never could sense behind trees before. Colin looked at him weird. "Explain to me Gabriel why you have done this, and what it is exactly you did." He demanded. Gabe smiled. "First let me show you."

They packed up their stuff, Gabe being careful as he poured the leftover Fairy dust back into the vile. Even this tiny amount was worth more then anything else they had. Then The two men walked through the Shadow Forrest heading westward with Colin standing a few extra paces away from Gabe and watching him carefully, while Gabe used his boosted senses to search for a test subject. Most of the creatures of the Forrest had avoided them, the SickleBack that they all paid heed to had ordered it's flowers to avoid the two. But there were creatures here that weren't under his control. They still hid because they didn't want to have anything to do with Gabe and his partner, but they didn't stay far away. In a flash second Gabe reached out and grabbed a Blood bat. A tiny bat the size of his hand. It was a beast of both fear and Death. And would be perfect. Though Gabe was a bit apprehensive about using his bond with yet another weak creature, he felt confident that if he was truly able to hold another beast, then somehow the other part was true too... and he was able to kick Beasts out also. "What are you going to do with that?" Colin asked as the weak bat tried to claw at his hand. But he was actually three levels higher then the little creature and the claws slid across his skin like water. "Didn't you hear the dragon? We can't harm or touch anything." Gabe nodded. "I heard him, but I think he ment anything of value, this little guy is worth about his weight in dirt." Before Colin could stop him he bit his finger and started drawing the binding rune on the bat. Colin was about to say something but then saw the rune he was drawing and let out a breath. "Really? You've gone crazy?" He said it with an uncaring tone. The binding rune was harmless if it failed, both to the drawer and to the beast. Gabe finished it in only a few minutes, his hand eye coordination perfect and his speed increased. He could already imagine himself a Rune master with this kind of skill. Once the rune was complete it began to glow, brighter and brighter. Colin stared with his jaw open. Finally the beast shot into his palm and Gabe felt a thrill go through his body. He'd done it he'd just proven to himself that it was all true! He really could hold more then one Beast.

Any Channeler with more then one beast was an instant genius. Even two low leveled beasts when combined were slightly above average. The most beasts ever recorded to be bonded by the same man was four, the name Avansel LongKnight was forever stamped on history and he ascended at the youngest age anyone had ever heard of. Gabe couldn't keep it all in. He grinned like a maniac turned to Colin and in a slightly louder voice then necessary he said. "Sit down Colin we're going to be here a while, it's time to start cultivating!" Before his slack jawed servant could muster up the words to say, Gabe sat down exactly where he was standing took the basic cultivation pose with his legs crossed and his back straight, and pushed his soul into his mark.

Immediately he was in his soul room, and it felt huge. At least ten times as big as before. And there they were the Devil and the Bat. The bat flapped it's wings and hovered in perfect position, looking at Gabe with no anger or malice only obedience. This was how soul beasts were supposed to act, even ones with sentience were more inclined to folow thier master then Sisfar. The Demon bottle was speechless. He'd watched the tattoo Gabe had drawn, but knew nothing else. Then the kid had bonded with another being and he couldn't believe it. Some kind of Heavenly intervention was at play. Gabe sat in his soul room and started to cultivate. The Chaos energy from the Forrest around him began to slowly seep into his body and leak into his two soul beasts like muddy water. The beasts began to purify the energy glowing with faint light in the darkness quiet of the room, and then the pure energy started to trickle in long strings of pale and purplish light into Gabe’s translucent soul. Gabe couldn't believe it. The light strings flowing into his translucent soul told him two things that were equally incomprehensible. One, not only was he able to have more then one beast in his soul room, he was also able to use more then one element!! Before he'd only been a Fear elemental, but the purple energy string coming from the blood bat was a clear sign he now had the death element as well! His soul felt like dancing but he forced himself to focus on cultivation. The second thing he learned was just how incomparably weak Sisfar really was!!! The haunted crap in a bottle was only producing a quarter of what the weak and tiny bat was dishing out. The difference was clear to see in the perfect streams of energy flowing from the pair into Gabe. The bats streams were at least twice as thick, both its Fear stream and it's death stream. Sisfar had cheated him out of more then he ever thought possible.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Half way through the cultivation Sisfar began to try and pull away, clearly wanting to speak. But Gabe was too angry with the Demon to even let him move. He reached his mind around the Dirty bottle of Fungus and forced him to cultivate. The energy flowing into him felt good. Incredibly good. For so long now his soul core had been blocked up. Not allowing but a tiny amount of energy through, usually this type of block could only be broken with sheer force of pure energy in a ledge amount. But Sisfar was incapable of breaking it because of his low purifacation rate. Gabe had planed to use the bat to help with the block, but when he got here the block had already been gone, likely because of something the rune did to him. He was a bit gone silly about what this could mean, maybe it meant that his soul core could never be blocked again... that would be a trait worth dying for as every Channeler got blocked. It was the great equalizer of the world. Some blocks could last for years, some for decades. There were even those that got blocked and never had the means to get unblocked. Though the wealthy were able to use pills and treasures to help their situation it was still something that slowed every Channelers potential. Blocks were caused by a build up of impurities in the soul. These impurities were the soul shedding it's weaker parts as the new energy came in and replaced them. Most of the time the impurities left without a trace but sometimes it caused blocks. Sometimes blocks had been known to drive a man who had no other means to fix it, to use impure energy in his soul. Soul Beasts all had the ability to purify Spirit energy into perfect Element energy. This perfect energy had no imperfections and when it entered the soul would strengthen the Channeler. But if the channeler used imperfect energy, even heavenly Grade spirit energy, the impurities would become part of his soul and corrupt it.

Gabe didn't come out of his cultivation until thirty hours later. He stood up felling refreshed and powerful, his body was only slightly tired. He looked down at Colin who was still cultivating. Colin was a sixth level apprentice Channeler a full two realms above Gabe. Gabriel wondered if his new found talent would allow him to catch up. After just a bit of considering it he was certain it would. "Why did you waste your soul binding on an Embryo realm Blood bat!!!" The voice that rung in his head was Sisfar, the bottle had been forced to silence the whole cultivation session. Gabe really didn't think he wanted to tell the rotten Demon. In fact he was almost certain he didn't so with just a bit of his ever growing control of the Ship in a butt, he shut Sisfar up. Gabe waited a good two hours before tapping Colin on the shoulder. It was considered dishonorably rude to wake someone from cultivation without an emergency, but Colin would get over it. And Gabe needed to get out of this Forrest. All the beasts worth a dam were avoiding him because of the dragon, and he really wanted more beasts. After seeing just what the small bat could do he was eager to discover just how much something a few realms above it could put out. Colin slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Gabe with a raised eyebrow. "You know, if you keep doing this to me I promise you it will come back to bite you in the ass some day." He said plainly. It was clear he was just tired. Gabe helped him to his feet. "So mister Soul Rune, explain to me what it is exactly that you have done to yourself." Gabe started walking westward again and Colin followed. "Well...." He began, deciding to tell his only companion the truth. "While we were sleeping I had a dream."

Gabe told the whole story. from the mysterious Golden Fairy dust to the Rune that he met before it died. Once he finished Colin began to rub his temples. "You've got to be kidding me." He grumbled. It was an impossible story, and Gabe was even shocked as he retold it himself. None of it sounded real. Gold fairy dust? Soul runes? Heavenly runes? He didn't know much about heavenly runes but he'd never heard of one talking before. Colin stayed silent walking with his face in his hands for a good fifteen minutes, finally he spoke. "Gabriel, if I could I would hit you right now. Do you know what kind of situation you could have put us in doing something like that? If this story is even half true." Gabe nodded. "I know what I was risking." He said solemnly. Colin looked at him. "That makes it worse! You knew you were throwing my life into the gamble too! If something had happened and you had messed up, I could become the servant of a Corrupt soul." He looked away with his eyes wide and fearful at the thought. "I would be forced to kill you..." though Colin was spiteful and hateful at times, he really did care for Gabe. How could he not? They had been together for ten years! And as bratty and foolish as he was he was also a much kinder master than most. They had passed some servants in the cities that were forced to cut themselves for the entertainment of their masters. And heard rummers of servants being forced to kill their children to “test” their loyalty. That was in the darker parts of society though, and they only went there when times demanded it.

"I don't know how, but I think I believe you." Colin said after a short silence. "Which means... which means.... this has so many implications it's impossible to say." Colin was at a loss… Gabe nodded vigorously. "I know, this changes everything for us. But Colin we must keep it a secret. I don't know what would happen if word got out." Colin agreed. "So are you sure that you can really hold ten Soul-Beasts?" Gabe smiled and nodded. He wanted to test it but he was already positive he could. "Yep all we need to do is get out of this Forrest, and I can show you."