Time passed quickly….
Day, weeks then months….
Rex's timetable these days was tight as it could get.
On even days all his time got spent on training and for odd days, he needed to distribute it to work, play with Aru, and most importantly give some time to Ria so as the promise of not treating her differently from before won't break... well, the good part was his VIT increased by more than 3% because of their combined efforts.
The training set by Zakiya grew harder and harder every time he made a progress… including when he breakthrough.
This time Rex wanted to surpass the Golden Core stage and became a Core Breaking stage expert in a few months but Zakiya told him to stop breaking through after reaching the Golden Core stage peak until she told him too.
Now it was almost a year since he left the Lower Ream….
Core Zone of Misty Maze Forest….
A silhouette was swiftly striding through the trees, his movements were quick but every one of them carried a meaning, even when he was jumping from one branch to another without making any unnecessary noise.
{… and that is how you are said to be completely prepared so tell me disciple on what basis should you choose a weapon or learn a technique to balance your overall combat power,} Zakiya said.
{While choosing a weapon and technique I need to focus on my - Attacking, Defending, Scouting, Movement, Healing, and most importantly Escaping capability to cover all weaknesses while also balancing combat power,} Rex said as he jumped from one tree branch to another while keeping his surrounding in check.
{Good, in the future the best way to get stronger quickly is diving in tombs, if you focus on these points then it will be a great help to you in surviving there,}
At the start, Rex only used to train on even days but then Zakiya said then due to the lack of time she will also give him some lectures and pointers while he was training.
She thought it would take Rex at least a few weeks to completely adjust to that after all it was like asking a person to draw a circle and a square at the same time but to her surprise, Rex was able to adapt to it in less than three days.
Zakiya could check his transformed brain or Node-Network but would she know what they even do?
Multi-Tasking was what Rex was good at especially after acquiring the Node-Network.
Because of his rapid progress, Zakiya also changed the cultivation base restrictions with time, at present, he could use the cultivation base of the Core Forming peak stage.
Rex who was rushing striding on the branches on uniform speed till now suddenly increased his speed. Just at this time, a gigantic bird dived down from above the cloud in his direction.
The bird's main body was light blue while its tail had three long dark blue feathers, those feathers were so long and soft that they looked like ribbons when they fluttered in the wind.
The bird had its wings folded, it was falling like a meteor as it dived towards Rex.
It took less than a minute for the bird to close in to Rex, when it was just a few meters away from him, Rex turned and leaped towards it.
'Battle-Wings + Remould: Armor Piercing Drill'
Two flesh tentacles came out from his back and wrapped themselves around his two arms wholly covering them. The tentacles then turned into black metal as they transformed into two long conical lances, many sharp knives tip grew out on the lances in several spiral lines then the short but sharp blades started to move along the spiral lines at a fast pace… seemly appeared to be rotating like a drill.
Rex targeted the head of the bird, but the bird was not an idiot, it reacted quickly and trying to change its direction and dodge but how could Rex let that happen.
'Massokinesis + Aerokinesis + Telekinesis'
Rex's body became lighter.
The bird felt an invisible force locking on it, the wind around it also betrayed it at the moment.
Fortunately for it, Rex was not using his real strength so it was able to avoid in time using brute force and Rex only scratched its neck.
Just when the bird thought it could now escape, the drills again changed into tentacles which wrapped themselves around its neck and Rex got in its back.
The process appeared long but all these things happened only in a few seconds.
The bird aimlessly flew at full speed with sharp turns to shake Rex of it but now that his four tentacles had grabbed om its neck and legs it was almost impossible for it to escape.
{Little guy if you don't want to die be obedient,} Rex sent a telepathic message to the bird while gently rubbing its neck.
The bird instantly quieted down. It was hard to tell if it because of the shock of it being able to understand a human or for the fear of being killed.
'So it had some intelligence, lucky for you I'm not gonna kill you,' Rex thought.
If it was before it might now have mattered to him, if a beast has some intelligence or not. b
Because having intelligence doesn't mean it would have a humane nature but now that he had Lerna and Aru he didn't feel that it was right to kill when they didn't have any chance to learn humane ways even after having some intelligence.
{Today's training is over. Come here,} Zakiya said.
Rex agreed. Normally, he would use Instant-Transmission, leaving the beast and going to her but this time he changed his mind and decided to take this beast.
Finding an intelligent creature wasn't easy after all but there was another reason he wanted it.
'This guy is at Monster Emperor early stage which is normally the same as Golden Core 1-3rd stage, if it wasn't for it to be fooled by the weak aura I was releasing earlier then it won't be easy to get it.
The most troublesome thing about it is not strength but its flying speed, I am pretty sure even if I use the speed of Golden Core 3rd stage it might be able to hold on and if it's a normal cultivator then they might not be able to complete in speed even if they are at Golden Core peak stage that's the reason cultivators use beasts as mounts… hmmm… mount,' Rex thought at he stared at the bird with a smirk.
Cultivators can fly but it doesn't mean they could fly at the speed of a jet plane or anything. If the flying speed of a normal cultivator is taken as the running speed of an average adult then the flying speed of a flying type monster beast was the running speed of an adult racing horse or even cheetah.
{Hey, little guy show me how fast you can go?} Rex said.
But the bird didn't react like it didn't understand what Rex was saying.
{Hooo? so it's like that then it's a shame if you can't fly faster than this, then the only use you can have is to join the dinner tonight… as a dish that is,} Rex said in a helpless tone.
The blue bird's body trembled for a second, then it flapped its wings increasing its speed by few times in the next moment.
'Hehe… Zakiya is right only a life and death situation can bring out the true potential of someone, now let's see how much potential I can squeeze out of it,' Rex thought.
The speed of the bird had already surpassed the speed of a normal Golden Core peak stage expert.
{Is it all you got? Come to think of it, it's been a while since I had eaten a fried Monster Emperor stage bird,} Rex said in a disappointed tone.
If the bird could talk in human language it would have already started cursing Rex, according to the bird if it hadn't underestimated him a while ago then Rex would be in its stomach by now.
'Huh? this…' Rex suddenly noticed that the sky blue fur of the bird started to emit blue light, light sparks on electricity also appeared all over its body but they were far being able to hurt even a Core Forming 1st stage cultivator.
In the next second, the speed of the bluebird soared at an astonishing level. It turned into a blue light with Rex on its back and disappeared in the distance only leaving the blue light trail behind that disappeared soon after.
Zakiya in the distance looked in their direction and smiled.
'This brat is really lucky, being able to attract a flying type beast that has the special ability to boost its speed of all the ones he could have attracted, but after thinking that how many variants he has around him it doesn't look that much surprising at all,' She thought.
"Woooooahhhhh …gooooo blueeee," Rex shouted with an excited expression. The feeling he was getting was the same as driving a Lamborghini on a race track at high speed. Of course, at that time the one driving it was James while he was just a passenger he didn't even have time to go on a vacation at that time much less cultivating his love for speed.
While enjoying the moment, he looked at the bird who's full concentration was on the front making it look like a traffic-rule abiding driver.
{Idiot bird, if you had used this ability from the start then you might have got me, you know,} Rex said.
When the bird heard these words, it was moved to tears. If it had known that the prey who was emitting the aura of a mere Core Forming stage expert while also releasing a sweet aroma that made it hungrier all of a sudden was actually baiting it then like heck it would have underestimated him.
Unfortunately, for the bird, the special ability it had was not that suitable for frontal battle. It was good for escaping but by the time it realized what was happening Rex had already caught it. It was actually waiting for a chance when Rex would let his guard down then it could escape by using this ability but when it thought that he was going to kill it for dinner, it gave everything in hope of survival.
After a few minutes, the blue light coming from its body dimmed and its speed came back to normal. The bird looked tired, Rex could guess that the ability would have probably drained a lot of her stamina too.
{Well, it's time to go back,} Rex said as he tapped his training uniform in the chest, then it loosened and the restriction on his cultivation base disappeared.
The tired bird was gasping for air when it sensed the change in aura of Rex, it had lived in the wilderness until now, fighting beasts both weaker and stronger than itself all day long so the change in aura alone was enough for it to tell that Rex was actually the cultivator of Golden Core stage.. for the bird, it was Monster Emperor peak stage, now it thoroughly understood why it lost.
It turned its head and stared deeply at Rex.
If eyes could kill then Rex would have been cut into thousand pieced by now.
Rex just smiled and ignored its gaze, he extended his hand and place it on the wound he had inflicted on it earlier.
'Heal'
Under the baptism of the golden light, the wound healed in a few seconds but the bird didn't look pleased in the least.
After a while, the bird landed near Zakiya. Rex jumped off its back and released it from his tentacles.
The bird still didn't run, it was no fool. Because of using that ability earlier, it was tired right now and Rex was a Golden Core peak stage expert furthermore there was also a suspicious woman present in front of it. Although she didn't release any frightening aura but it decided not to do the same mistake of underestimating its opponent again especially when that opponent was related to this despicable human.
"Rex, now that you have all your basics clear. I will first help you broaden your horizon before we proceed to the next phase," Zakiya said while sitting on the couch under the umbrella.