In the Beast Kingdom's throne room, several minutes had passed in silence.
"Your points are excellent." Queen Helena finally spoke. "We can definitely organize our armies without causing suspicion. Valeria will spin a story that tensions with the Elves have escalated, so we're preparing for war."
"It wouldn't exactly be fiction." confirmed the princess in the leftmost chair.
"This will throw off their spies. However, Amelia, I want you to find some beast people with poorer heritage and create a spy group of our own."
"You want our people to hide like rodents?" scoffed Amelia.
"These are no times for prideful boasting." Though Helena controlled the volume of her voice, the tone expressed her frustration perfectly.
"We've been capturing elvish spies for years, yet we still don't have any eyes within their territory. Now, the humans are infiltrating us too." The Queen spoke so fast there was no time to interrupt her.
So, how much longer should we wait? Until we find a demon in our midst?"
Amelia swallowed the words she was about to spit and bowed in apology.
"Mother, does this mean you agree to wait?" asked Vincent.
"Certainly, but until when?" Helena's eyes pierced through him, but the man expected as much. Without batting an eye, he made his point.
"Thanks to Eduard's efforts, we know for a fact their King won't act before the humans' tournament takes place 5 months from now.
Therefore, time is on our side. If we take it slowly and plan our assault, not even a single rat will manage to escape."
With this final assurance, the Queen was convinced. Though the humans had a few more rank 3 and 4 mages, the beast people had their legacy, time, numbers, and the element of surprise.
Helena stood up as did the others. In a decisive tone, she ordered.
"We shall follow your brother's plan. Everyone, do your part."
Some time after this meeting, under the lake near Last Heaven…
It took many days, but Ethan had finally caught up to his friend. As soon as this happened, the girl stopped her excursions and they began working together.
By now, their cultivation pills had run out. However, the whole point of making them was to remove the link between the mana core and the body. This link was similar to a soul's consciousness just like the mana core in a monster was similar to a human's soul.
Since Ana could absorb mana directly out of souls and cores, there was no longer a point in making cultivation pills. Using a core's energy directly was simpler, and for the two mages, it had basically the same effect.
After two months of almost non-stop cultivation passed, they both had entered the first rank of magic. Ethan was no longer surprised by Ana's diligence. He now saw her as a slightly smaller monster than himself.
Since she would need time to adjust to her power, the teen let her practice while he did his own training with the pelts she had gathered.
"Don't you want to test what you can do at rank 1?" asked Ana after doubling the cave's size.
"No need." Ethan knew exactly what he was capable of. Until level 3, there wasn't much of a change in one's abilities. Mana would increase in quantity and quality, but no further techniques would be possible.
The bridge he would pass every 3 ranks was the only thing that could catch the mage's attention. Fortunately, he now had ways of improving his power even in the meantime.
"Check this out." Later that day, he threw a tattooed pelt at Ana, and she put mana into it. Almost immediately, lightning, fire, and ice shot out in different directions. A gravity field brought part of the ceiling smashing into the ground, and the pelt itself started levitating as if it had wings.
"Hmm, I used a bit too much space, the design needs work, and the energy efficiency's at around 89%. But, not bad for a first try, right?"
Instead of applause, Ethan received a scowl instead. With wet clothes and charred hair which stood up like a broom from the electricity, Ana muttered while throwing back the pelt. "Next time… Test it yourself."