"Gran, how about Faye? When will you awaken her talent?" Rose interrupted the fight of the two.
Gran coughed and answered. "Well, I plan on giving the resources to her after she broke through the Martial Spirit State."
"She is already at 9th level Martial Physique State so you should prepare everything." Rose said.
Gran nodded obediently. "I understand."
He then turned to Victor. "Faye is also attending the Wolford Central University so please take care of her."
Victor nodded and replied. "I will."
…
Days went by and Raia reached the high-2nd level Martial Spirit State.
This time, he went back into the rocky mountain to enter the rabbit hole that gave him an unusual vibe.
As soon as his foot landed on the floor of the center area, his attention was quickly drawn by the stone in the middle that gave of a bright green light.
'A shining green spirit stone!'
And the amount that he discovered this time was about ten meters in diameter. That could be enough for his spirit to reach its peak state! There was also some mountains of glowing green spirit stone around it.
However, his eyes also landed on the armor rabbit sitting beside the shining green spirit stone.
'A low-rank 4 beast!' Unlike the common armor rabbits that were at high-rank, this armor rabbit was way stronger. Its appearance and size was also different from the others.
It was about five meters in height, its armor covered in dark color with some small spikes scattered around its surface. Its claws were also sharp and long just like its protruding teeth.
Apart from this beast, there were also at least a thousand armor rabbits living in this lair.
Sensing his presence, the king armor rabbit, as what Raia named it, opened its eyes. The other armor rabbits moved away from his path. It took a stance, kicked the ground and launched itself to Raia.
Fortunately, Raia had the speed to dodge its attack. He dashed to the side to avoid the king armor rabbit.
'Boom!'
It hit the wall of the lair, leaving huge cracks on it.
After evading the attack, Raia charged to the king armor rabbit while it was still adjusting its body. He kicked it with all of his power sending it flying to a crowd of armor rabbits.
Although he didn't deal much damage to it, it was enough to buy him time and deal with the other armor rabbits. After killing some of the normal ones, the king armor rabbit launched itself again.
As fast as he can, Raia sidestepped again and punched the king armor rabbit throwing it away for the second time. Then he resumed slaying the normal ones.
This pattern repeated many times and little by little, the number of the normal armor rabbits declined. However, the king armor rabbit was still unscathed.
When the normal armor rabbits decreased to half, the king armor rabbit changed its pattern of attacks. It didn't launch itself like a cannon ball but rather used its sharp claws and fought Raia in close combat.
This made Raia at a disadvantage because he didn't have something that he can use to defend from it claws. His fist was even hurting and bleeding after just hitting its armor a few times.
Additionally, the other armor rabbits were gunning themselves to him and were constantly attacking from his blind spots.
Soon, he received wounds from the battle.
He quickly exited the world inside and healed using high-grade recovery pills. After recovering, he returned to the world inside.
The king armor rabbits and the others were surprised to see the unfamiliar creature again.
Raia resumed the battle against the armor rabbits and when he suffered wounds, he exited the place to heal outside. Then, he came back to fight once more.
Ultimately, the normal armor rabbits perished in his hands.
Now, he and the king armor rabbit were left. He left the scene to heal again then after he returned, he kept on fighting it. All these time, as long as he can, he was attacking and hitting his known weakest part of the armor rabbit.
He almost lost his life on a few occasions, but still persisted to fight the king armor rabbit. Every time he felt that he will die, he would exit the place and heal, then return back to fight.
'Almost there!'
He really didn't think that he could kill the king armor rabbit. He was just buying some time to get closer to the spirit stones. While he was doing that, he was also sending the bodies of the normal armor rabbits to the storage space.
Finally, the king armor rabbit slowed down by a bit after Raia hit its weakest spot for who knows how many times.
This gave him a small window to dash to the green spirit stones and send it all to the storage space. His goal was fulfilled so Raia exited the place leaving the king armor rabbit alone.
…
Back in his room, Raia took a recovery pill then threw himself to the bed, instantly sleeping. He woke up the next day to the sound of Rina banging his door.
"What is it?" Raia asked with half-closed eyes after he opened the door.
"Something is happening to Rain!" Rina took his hands and dragged him to her room.
There, he saw Rhea and Rome looking at the curled white frost cat on the floor. However, its body was emitting a light blue glow while trembling intensely. There was also a sign of pain formed on Rain's face.
Raia noticed that the air around the room was colder than the outside and the spirit energy was gathering towards Rain.
"What is happening to Rain?" Rina asked worriedly.
"I am not sure but I think he is breaking through to the next rank." Raia answered.
Then, Rose entered the room. After seeing Rain, she uttered. "He is having a break through. Don't worry about it. Let us just watch him as that is the only thing we can do. This is a step he should go through himself and we can't help him."
"But he is just mid-rank 2 a few days ago. What happened?" Raia asked Rina beside him.
"I-I fed him some of the beast crystals that mother gave me. He seemed to like it so I gave him some. I fed him more when I saw him pleading for it. You should see how cute he was acting just for me to give him the crystals!" Rina explained.
Beasts eating beast crystals were common. However, advancing them to the next state requires a tremendous amount of beast crystals. That is why beasts tend to advance slower than humans.
"I am sorry I gave him the spirit crystals.." Rina lowered her head.
"Don't be sorry. It is fine. You can feed him all you want. Just don't give him everything you have." Raia said.
Because of this event, he had an idea on what to do next after leaving the king armor rabbit lair. However, he can only execute that after he had reached the 3rd level and killed the rabbit for good.
At this time, the light from Rain shone brighter and the temperature went down as small frost from around the room. Rhea and Rina hid behind Raia while Rome ran to Rose.
Suddenly, a burst of cold spirit energy surged out from Rain. Then, the light slowly dimmed down revealing a white cat almost the size of a feral dog.
Rina could literally ride on its back now!
Rain successfully broke through to low-rank 3. His ice talent improved several times and was just not weak feature anymore. There were some blue patterns on his body that gave him more beauty.
"Rain!" Rina jumped to him and embraced him. Now, Rina couldn't carry him in her arms anymore.
The cat sat as it let Rina pet its head.
Raia took out a low-rank 2 beast spirit crystal and when Rain felt its energy, his deep blue eyes were already glued to it. Raia moved the spirit crystal around and when he saw that Rain was following his hand, he laughed.
"Stop teasing him elder brother!" Rina shouted.
"Alright, alright. I'm sorry. Let go of him Rina." He then tossed the spirit crystal in the air. Rain jumped and caught it with his mouth. After eating it, he sat in front of Raia with his tail slightly wagging.
He took another one, but this time, the crystal was a high-rank 3 one. He tossed it again to the air again and Rain caught it.
…
At night after dinner, Raia went to the smithy with his parents.
First he took all the blacksmithing tools his father made for him.
"Before I leave tomorrow, I want to give you this." He handed Hauran a spatial ring.
When Hauran looked inside the spatial ring, he was totally shocked.
"Raia this is so much!"
"What is?" Rose took the ring and gave the same expression as Hauran.
"I want you to have it. This is for the five of you." Raia smiled at them.
"Thank you, Raia." Hauran said with a smile.
"Raia, can I ask what this spirit stone is? I can feel some profound energy from it." Rose took out a green spirit stone from the spatial ring.
"Ah..That is something that strengthens the spirit. You should try to refine it. It is really good." Raia replied. He gave them all the glowing green spirit stones that he had and just left the shining green spirit stone for himself.
"Did you just say this can strengthen the spirit?" Rose asked again.
"Yes. It's like the blue tear fruit but for the spirit." Raia cleared.
'Like the blue tear fruit? That means..' Rose thought. She then walked towards Raia and embraced him.
"Thank you, Raia. Really, thank you." She began sobbing so Raia comforted her.
"I-I'm just doing what I can to help." He said as he rubbed her back. Hauran squeezed his shoulder and nodded.
Rose kissed his forehead and smiled. "We'll put this to good use."
"Are you traveling with Faye and Aaron tomorrow?" She asked while wiping her tears.
"Yes." Raia answered. He already told them that Faye and Aaron were taking the entrance exam with him.
"Alright. I'll prepare some meals for the three of you." Rose said.
"Just use the essence food, mother. I want to give some to them." He said with a gentle smile.
Rose nodded and didn't ask anymore. She trusted the decisions of his son just like he trusted them.
'If it's just Aaron and Faye, it should be just fine.' Raia thought.
…
At night, he didn't enter the world inside and just packed his things. After chatting with Aaron and Faye for a bit, he cultivated until midnight.
The following morning, he woke up early to get to the transport ship terminal early.
Outside the house, his family is waiting for him.
"Hey, behave yourselves in here. Also, don't slack off in cultivation." He said to Rhea, Rome and Rina.
"I know. Just take care." Rhea replied.
"I will be as strong as brother! I promise!" Rome shouted.
"I will miss you, elder brother." Rina sadly said.
Raia patted her head. "Me, too." He turned to Rain. "Be strong and protect Rina."
The cat purred while it was being petted by him.
He embraced Hauran and Rose. "Take care of yourselves."
"Don't worry about us. Just focus on your studies." Hauran assured.
"Just be careful at all times and always take care of yourself." Rose said.
"I will."
After saying their goodbyes, Raia left.
…
In the transport ship terminal, Raia was the first one to arrive so he was the one to book a room for the three of them. He decided to get a room because it would take a day to get to Wolford City and just sitting at the common public seats would be uncomfortable.
Aaron arrived a few minutes later.
"I already got us a room." Raia said.
"Won't Faye just kick me out so that she could be with you alone?" Aaron teased.
Raia flicked his shoulder and said. "Honestly, I am scared to be in the same room with her."
Both of them sighed at the same time.
They waited for some more time before Faye showed up. However, she was not alone but with two other ladies.
"Caroline? Veronica? What are you doing here?" Raia asked.
"What do you think? Of course they were going to take the entrance exam with us." Faye answered.
Raia had some feeling about it even though the two didn't talk about it.
"We wanted to surprise you." Caroline said.
"Are you surprised?" Veronica asked.
"Uhm.. Yes." He answered with a smile. "I'll change our room so that it can fit all of us."
Raia left and when he came back, they went together inside the ship.