Shen felt his soul return to his body and he felt very different his strength was much more his comprehension had sky rocketed from his experience in the ethereal plane of the devine. With such a new sensation of strength and clarity he decided to take a task to test his strength against the wilds of the nearby area and so he walked towards the tasks board and took a level 4 ascending realm task that asked him to claim the tails of 7 fox-type beasts and so he left and traveled far to the north where the forest had more small game and a large body of water which was understood to be a place where all the elemental beasts went so Shen was to face beasts of Sound, Fire, Lightning, And Wood. Shen travelled with his weapon over his shoulder and strolled towards the watering hole where he would wait for the foxes to show up and whilst they were drinking he would behead them in one smooth motion using his first technique. As Shen hid near the watering hole and readied his axe he felt something on his shoulder and when he looked over he saw a face with a large idiotic grin "What are you hunting?" "How long have you been here?" "Long enough to know this isn't working out for you" Shen had to admit that after sitting here for almost 2 hours he hadn't seen more than 2 fox-type beasts 1 was of Fire and the other was of Lightning so he had only to sit here and wait for a few days at this pace and he'd be done but this chubby youth seemed to have some trick up his sleeve other wise why would he be able to pull off being so close to Shen without his noticing that someone was leaning on him so Shen decided that he would accept the help of this stranger for now but if this stranger tried anything he would fight just as brutally as he does every fight. "I'm of the Sound clan so I'm quicker than You'd think for someone of my size" the chubby youth stated in a matter of fact tone with a near blank expression as if this didn't bother him. "Ok well I'm of the Lightning clan and I need fox tails so far I've got 2 and if you have a better idea than to wait for the cunning little rats to come here I'd like to here it" said Shen as if challenging the stranger "I chase and kill them but I get their paws and fangs you can have the furs and the tails from them all I just get to keep a portion of them since I'll be doing the killing" "I can agree to you killing foxes and bringing me the tails and furs while you do that I will test my strength on bigger prey" with the deal come to a close the chubby youth pulled out a small explosive tossed it into the air and when it blew up he disappeared as though he had been carried away by the sound of the explosion itself. "The sound clan is weird" muttered Shen as he walked out of the brush and challenged a wolf sized armadillo-type beast of the wood element Shen saw its armor and decided to battle it to test his strength as he stepped up to it he used his first technique but the armor was only cracked by such a blow it was not broken. The beast felt what Shen had done to it and decided to use its wood element to boost its own defense and to slowly heal the wound to its now even more armored back Shen backed up and then cocked his arm back before punching it in the side of its head relying on his sheer physical strength to disorient the creature if possible but it was not so as Shen swung his fist at the creature it snapped its jaws around his hand but could not sink its teeth into his flesh so it tried to roll over to pull shen down but when it tried he kicked at it harshly and knocked it back a few feet learning that so long as he hit the side of the beasts body that was closer to the ground that he actually do some damage so he took up his axe and used his 2nd technique to target its joints when it stepped towards him. The beast rushed towards Shen and felt its strength leave its limbs faster than it had seen the axe slice through them at this point the beast was harmed greatly and incapable of escape so Shen walked towards it and brought his axe upwards into the soft part under the chin. When he wrenched the axe free he peeled off the layers of armored plates that the armadillo-type beast had and understood that it would be a great thing to have for equipment later and as he walked away he thought he heard another person but he saw no one so he met up with the chubby speedster claimed his goods from him and then walked back towards his clan before he questioned who that chubby sound user was he also questioned if they would fight during the tournament and felt his battle intent rise.