It had been a warm, pleasant evening above the empire capital when the emperor told Kingean, under spirit oath, the secret to his ascent up to the second step of the diamond path. A hundred years had passed since then.

And he hadn’t made a single step of progress toward achieving that goal.

A rope-thick strand of potential spreading seemingly infinitely in both directions, so long and glorious that it must have held a secret of the universe itself. And the emperor had grasped one for the potential of draconic might.

Try as he may, Kingean couldn’t achieve such an enlightenment. It was seemingly impossible. For many years, his climb in cultivation had been akin to climbing a mountain that grew a step higher with each step he took. And he had realized why.

For each new strand of potential he grasped, he lost the most useless one he had. So he thought that that must be the thing he had to do. He had to purify his cultivation through sheer, indescribable effort until nothing but the sword remained. So he did that. And still.

Nothing.

As he walked beside his cowardly companions, treading into the Abyssal Depths, spite billowed in the back of his throat. Not only had his companions failed him in every way imaginable, but his son was also missing.

The progeny he had brought up with everything he had, a talent unseen in generations, was lost, and he was busy looking for a different child. Perhaps, he thought, by some miracle, his son was still alive. Maybe the Lost Child was the one who had taken him for whatever reason.

After all, nobody had confirmed the identity of the one who had taken his son. Nobody had even seen the person who had done it. But… he was already prepared for the worst.

He couldn’t stop himself from shooting an envious glance at the emperor. Despite possessing power unrivaled in the entire realm, he was still greedily looking for more. No… he shouldn’t think like that. He had sworn his loyalty, and he intended to keep it.

But…

But he had worked so hard. Not only that, but he had lost his son, too. It was a shameful, despicable thought, but he wondered why the emperor didn’t ask the demigod to hand the true strand to… well… to him instead.

Again, that was a shameful, terrible thought to have. The emperor’s power would become a pillar unrivaled in the entire realm, and with such might, he could even work to stave away the encroaching apocalypse.

But… no. Enough doubts. They had a mission.

Their steps, as light and graceful as they could be, took them through the maze of caverns in their search. They had been there for a few hours, but the heavens hadn’t graced them with a trail yet. Still, they tirelessly marched onward, ensuring to cover every inch on their way down, keeping to the inside of the detection field Hosolar had set up.

It was then that they finally found their first trail.

The emperor frowned deeply at the sight before him. An entire section of the caverns had been nearly caved in in what could have only been a calamity. Signs of fighting were plentiful, and several still-rotting pieces of monster corpses were scattered around.

There had been a population of… some form of insectoid monster here. Something that appeared to be half-way between an ant and a praying mantis. Had been. None of them remained, and they could only form their hypothesis from the few remaining pieces.

Either this was the consequence of a large-scale war between monster populations, or it was a sign that the Lost Child had passed through.

So, they went forward.

Not long after, they found another cavern wholly destroyed by something horrible. This time, it was an encampment of at least partially sentient golems.

“Heavens above…” Xondir muttered at the sight.

The others, who were far more experienced, had little to say, but…

Indeed. This was something else. The golems, from what they could see, were as high as platinum-ranked in threat. And all that they had built had been wholly destroyed and stripped of any valuable materials that could be found.

So they passed by it, proceeding even deeper. Cave after cave, monster after monster. Destroyed. And dead. There was enough carnage to permanently upset the balance between the populations of monsters in the area.

They believed they were on the right track, and perhaps they had been right. But the destruction spread everywhere. How was it even possible to leave so much destroyed in one’s wake in such a short time?

“The Lost Child is presumed to be capable of fighting well above his rank,” the Emperor said, “but this makes no sense. There is too much destruction.”

“Indeed,” Carfen said, lowering his head slightly as he turned to face the Emperor. “That child should not have the stamina to keep fighting so long,” he proclaimed with more confidence than Kingean felt was warranted.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“We shall see,” the Emperor said. “Perhaps he is looking for something specific, but it seems that he is gathering vast quantities of monster flesh for… something.”

And thus, they continued. The unnerving nature of trekking after the child was something they couldn’t shrug off easily. Even if they presumed that he could fight with the power of a Master and that his companions were of similar strength, they shouldn’t have been able to successfully eradicate such a vast number of monsters. It was to the point of a genocide. Rarely did they encounter something that hadn’t been destroyed. Besides, where were all the monster corpses going?

Even if ten people were walking through here with the largest dimension rings available, there still wouldn’t be enough space to store this many corpses.

Continuing their trek, all of them, even the emperor himself, grew more nervous at what awaited them.

***

Neave looked at his companions and smiled pleasantly. They were all lying on the ground, their stomachs bulging while they groaned.

“Please… no more…” said Dukean as a bit of red liquid dripped down his mouth.

“I’m gonna die,” said Hunter. “The righteous path will… blegh.”

“Oh, shut it, you cowards,” said Harel, who sounded like she was doing no better than any of them.

Marven and Gabrias remained silent, groaning and doing their best not to throw it all up.

Eventually, they finished digesting the final few bits of the dragon. It had taken them a long time to complete all of it, and, thankfully, Neave had the brilliant idea to feed them the stomach right after the heads in hopes of enhancing their digestion. It was successful, but that didn’t mean that it had made the process of devouring an entire dragon an enjoyable one.

There was no true limit to the benefits of devouring monster flesh. Well, there was no hard limit, at least. But with every bite, it grew less and less effective. By that point, their vessels had been nearly filled with how much they had consumed over the past week.

With that, they should have enough power to tackle the series of spirit trials they would have to take. Well, the spirit trials would be easy. But they were powerful enough to have their powers removed in case they didn’t cooperate as well as Neave expected them to.

He extracted the bag of monster cores with a small burst of qi. Most of them he had purchased from Kalen, and it hadn’t been too expensive. The quality of the shape was irrelevant to him as long as they fit the criteria he set.

As for the rest, they had found them while digging through the numerous monsters they had slain.

He rounded all the cores and started organizing them.

Each one of them, barring Dukean, would get four spirit powers. Dukean would only get one since he decided to stubbornly cling to his elemental spirit powers like a tool. This was the amount that, with the types of powers he selected, he decided was safe enough from any possible negative interaction between them.

They would get one physique ability, the only power Dukean would get, one supernatural attack-augmenting ability, one supernatural boosting ability, and one miscellaneous power. For the time being, the powers were all potent Platinum-ranked abilities, and it would be their task to upgrade them to diamond-ranked if possible. This was another reason they had been eating so much monster flesh—they would try to boost their spirit powers to diamond rank as soon as they received them.

First, he neatly placed all the cores in six piles. The first was for his father.

Marven would get the following spirit powers—King Archgoblin Supreme Physique, Severing Light, Ultra Speed Boost, and Sword Saint’s Domain.

King Archgoblin Supreme Physique was the closest thing to a supernatural human physique there was. They were nearly identical to humans. And men wielded swords as their claws, or so Marven claimed. Still, for a swordsman, it was an all-around excellent choice.

Severing Light imbued his strikes with a, well, Severing Light.

Ultra Speed Boost was self-explanatory.

As for the Sword Saint’s Domain, that was something to be seen. Apparently, it should create an area where all cutting force works in his favor. How it would work was still to be discovered.

Next up was Harel. She would get these—Superior Blood Python Physique, Withering Touch, Ultra Speed Boost, and Lifeforce Siphon.

Superior Blood Python Physique held incredibly potent burst potential and could, just like a coiled snake lunging into a bite, display an utterly insane amount of sudden force. It also allowed her to slither around strikes better.

Then, there was Withering Touch. Her every strike would make things wither and rot. As if her set wasn’t already destructive enough. But alas, her crazy nature worked in Neave’s favor, so he had no desire to question it.

Ultra Speed Boost was, yet again, self-explanatory.

Then, there was Lifeforce Siphon. It allowed her to steal life force from creatures she struck and convert it into her own. If she had any injuries, that life force would also be automatically burned to heal her. It wasn’t quite as potent as Neave’s Integrate, as it had a limit for the life force it could absorb, but it was something special nonetheless.

Then, there was Hunter. For him, he decided on Black Wyvern Physique, Force Control, Super Regeneration, and Ultimate Barrier.

Black wyverns had some of the most potent defenses they could find. Golems, however, rarely dropped physique cores, and when they did, only a fool would take one as it was practically suicide. It wasn’t quite black dragon territory, but an evolution would hopefully fix that without killing the poor boy.

Force Control was superb as it would do well with the power Neave intended to bestow upon the boy’s equipment, and it could be used both offensively and defensively.

Super Regeneration was… Yes. It was what it was.

And, finally, there was Ultimate Barrier. He could create a barrier around himself, either all-encompassing or more concentrated.

And, finally, there was Gabrias. Superior Ogre Physique, Homing Projectile, Ultra Strength Boost, Momentum Impartment.

If Neave was being honest, he envied the tall man. An archer needed all the strength they could get, and this dude would be able to pull dragon tendons apart with his bare hands. With the supernaturally boosted strength of an ogre, the ability to imbue projectiles with additional momentum, and the power to make those projectiles track an opponent, it was clear that getting hit by his arrows would be one hell of an experience.

And then there was Dukey Boy. Stupid prick got Elementalist Hawk Physique so that he could better resist his own powers. What a stubborn guy.

While his companions went at it and consumed their powers, he moved his attention to something else—it was time to create their weapons—this time, from diamond-ranked material.