An unoccupied patch of the jungle floor moved. Something emerged like a bamboo shoot emerging in spring, something large. There was nothing to witness this otherwise they would have thought it was a miracle.

Doro came out from its hiding place. It growled and shook its body of loose rocks and chunks of earth. It expanded its arms, depositing a slightly dirty Zachary on the ground. Zachary looked around, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. At the same time, a streak of light emerged from his brow and took the shape of a large turtle.

“Wan! Wan!” It barked, sounding more like a dog than its supposed species.

“Hey! Big Bro Zach! Look at me! Did I grow bigger? How do I look? Much more handsome, right?” Wander asked eagerly, his loud barks echoing around them.

Zachary studied his eternal companion and smiled. He rubbed Wander’s head and also patted his moss-covered shell. Wander did indeed grow bigger. He used to be around a meter in length from head to tail. Now, he reached a meter than a half.

He still looked the same. His head and limbs were leathery and dark green. His shell was perhaps a little thicker. The layer of moss that grew on it was also thicker and would probably be comfortable to sit on.

“Hey, Wander. What about your abilities? Do you feel any changes?”

“Wan! Wan… eh?” Wander paused and thought about it, “Well, let’s see.”

He sucked in a deep breath and then slowly let it out, summoning his soul force and healing energies.

Zachary put a hand in the path of the healing breath. He felt an immediate difference from before. It was so warm and comfortable. The breath was still mostly transparent but there were faint sparkles of green Eternum.

He pulled his hand back and opened and closed it several times. His skin was as smooth as a baby’s. Serval minor cuts he had suffered in the last few days were completely healed. Even the scabs had fallen off.

“Yup, definitely stronger. Perhaps not transformatively so. But that could be because your healing ability is already so good. One that can heal soul wounds is hard to find, even among healing abilities.”

“Hehe, Big Bro always praised me. What about my shield?” Wander said and let out a surge of Eternum.

It coalesced into a glowing green shield that hung in front of Zachary. It was also much stronger than before. Zachary felt strangely confident standing behind it, as if he wouldn’t be afraid even if a forest elephant was charging at him.

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“Mmm, your shield has improved greatly, much more than your healing breath. We’ll have to do some experiments to find out its new strength and if it can stand up to a true adept rank attack.”

Zachary rubbed his stubbled chin and thought about what they needed to do next. Wander’s breakthrough to the adept rank was only the first step. There were more things they had to do before they were able to fight for the four pardon spots. He spent several months out of commission inside the underground lake. During that time, the other survivors had no doubt made a lot of progress. He had an eternal summon but he was still behind.

One adept rank Ensouled definitely wasn’t enough. It didn’t help that Wander was his eternal summon. If Wander died, he would also die. He would only send Wander into danger as a last resort. So, right now, his overall combat power was still unchanged. He still had to rely on his other summons.

He needed at least four adept rank summons to feel ready and comfortable. More was always better but it depended on another factor and that was his own soul cultivation. He was at the One Path Adept Rank, meaning that he could summon only one adept rank through his one path and novice ranks through his other seven paths.

As he thought about it, he realized another problem with Wander and their eternal soul bond. Other summoners that were at the One Path Adept Rank could still work with multiple adept rank summons on hand. Sure, they could only summon one of them at a time. But they could still summon another one when one was wounded or not suitable. With Wander, since he fully occupied the only adept rank soul path, Zachary couldn’t summon another adept rank Ensouled even if he had one.

“I guess we’ll have to do that.” He muttered to himself.

“What are we doing, hunting another wild adept?” Wander asked.

“Not that. We need to do that too but I was thinking of something else.” Zachary shook his head and sighed, “I thought we could catch the next adept rank or use it to let Onkie breakthrough. But I will have to use it on you again so that we can reach the Two Paths Adept Rank. Otherwise, I can’t summon another adept rank.”

“Oh, that makes sense… wait! Two Paths Adept Rank?” Wander rushed over, looking excited. “Two Paths Adept Rank?”

“Yeah?” Zachary replied uncertainly.

“Big Bro, look at your soul sea!”

“Huh? Why…”

Zachary still looked inward, urged by Wander’s eagerness. His consciousness sank into his soul sea and he was met with an astonishing sight. To the east lay his sky path. It was surging with Eternum with each breath he took. It was at the adept rank. That wasn’t the surprising part.

Instead, he looked towards the southwest.

“… What the… Gah!” He let out a weak shout, too shocked to do anything else.

He nearly fell over. At the same time, he wanted to jump up and down to celebrate.

His life path… was also at the adept rank. It was wide open, letting life-attribute Eternum flow freely. It was the same as his sky path, meaning he was now at the Two Paths Adept Rank.

“How… wait, how…” Zachary couldn’t think clearly.

He was so excited but he had no idea what was going on.

Wander appeared beside him and laughed, “What, you’re surprised?”

“Yeah! Of course, I’m surprised!”

“Hahaha! Did you forget what happened when I broke through? Your life path is bonded to me. Naturally, it broke through as well.”

Zachary stared at Wander dumbly for a long time before blurting, “Damn the saints, is this for real? A two for one deal?”