At dawn,
The barren Gulphia cliff, a place avoided by magi of the south coast like plague due to the unknown dangers that lurked here.
Rumors had it that there were some magical beasts at the level of rank 2 magi, which caused several bold rank 2 magi of south coast to come here searching for fortune, alas, all they got in the end was their death.
"Finally, we are here." Tirus murmured as he got out of the carriage along with Beth.
"Slaves! Attention, this place is filled with dangers so stay close, your priority is to protect us." Beth said in a low voice which magically traveled to all the slave's ears as they prostrated themselves in front of Beth and Tirus.
Seeing this, Tirus felt quite proud of her. 'She has become like a general.' He thought as he whispered "Beth, you've become quite the leader" in her ear.
To which she replied "I'm learning from you, master." with a smile.
"Hm."
"Now what?" She asked.
"It was stated in the inheritance that below the cliff, there is a tunnel that leads to an underground lab created by the nameless wanderer. There is a magical beast whose strength should have been lowered until the level of a peak rank 1 magus due to old age and past injuries.
If we kill that magical beast, then we would find the teleportation formation." Tirus told Beth everything he knew.
"Oh! If that is so, then let me go down and see." She said as she gestured five of the branded swordsmen slaves to follow her as she jumped down the cliff.
Her body shone with an eerie green light as she started flying.
A few hours later, she returned with a triumphant expression on her face.
"Tirus, we found the cave entrance, let's go."
"Okay." Tirus simply nodded as he made his way to the cave entrance along with his other slaves.
....
Inside the cave entrance,
After walking continuously for several hours, Tirus and company reached the hall where the peak rank 1 beast was supposed to be.
"There it is." Beth said as she pointed at a gigantic bear like beast.
It had brown fur, golden eyes and sharp claws and fangs of a wolf.
"Can you kill it?" Tirus asked in a monotone voice.
"Hm...if I use the slaves to exhaust all of its spiritual force first, then I can easily burn it's soul." Beth gave a bold answer.
When Magi continued to improve their progress of elemental essence conversion, the spiritual force radiated will bring about a strong power which was attributed to the elements.
For example, Tirus's current Elemental essence conversion rate was at the peak of rank 1, that is, 90%. He could easily kill this bear in a second with a simple glance. Similarly, Beth, even with only 38% elemental essence conversion, could easily turn this bear into and kill it, that was if it didn't defend itself.
Even though her cultivation talent was average, under the guidance of Tirus and with the help of the high-grade meditation technique, her cultivation had actually been quite fast.
One had to know that she had cultivated as a rank 1 magus for less than a decade, so her reaching elemental essence conversion rate of 38% was a feat no genuis in south coast could achieve without an immense fortuitous encounter.
"Okay, if you think you can kill this one, then do it. It'll give you some much needed battle experience." Tirus said as he chuckled.
She only had the memories from when she came in the magus city of Lonburg, which resulted in her having no actual battle experience at all.
"Oh, okay, fine." She said as she gestured the slaves to go encircle the bear.
"I'll kill it myself." She roared as her skin started turing ashen gray in colour and cracks started appearing a over her body, even her pupils turned completely black as a white bone sword manifested itself in her right hand.
*Grr*
The bear like beast roared at the top of its lungs as it pounced towards Beth, intending to rip her apart with its claws.
She dodged the attack and countered "Weak." She mumbled as hundreds of spears of bones appeared all around her and shot towards the magical bear.
"Grrrg!" The bear howled as its body was burned and pierced by hundreds of diamond like bones.
Although this bear like beast was at the peak of rank 1, it didn't mean was it had intelligence on par with humans and also, it had been weakened due to its past injuiries. So as long as Beth was careful, she had a chance against this magical beast.
Beth, due to her lack of battle experience, lost her balance and before she could stablize herself
*Chomp*
The bear like magical beast broke her innate defensive spell and ate her upper body in an instant. But not a drop of blood was spilled.
"Be careful, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Tirus reprimanded Beth as her upper body slowly started to regrow.
This was the speciality of this transformation. The users of the transformation, when in the ashen gray zombie state, couldn't be killed unless their entire body or truesoul was destroyed at once.
And by the looks of it, this beast probably didn't have any methods to attack someone's truesoul. Which meant that if Beth didn't give up on fighting, then the bear would be killed by her eventually.
"Arrgh!" Beth roared as she casted multiple spells. The entire place looked as if it was engulfed in a sea of vengeful spirits, the slaves started sweating profusely due to the unbearable terror that they were feeling.
*Shii*
After an hour of continuous battle, Beth finally dealt the final blow and severed the beasts head. Blood spurted like a fountain.
"Hehe, how was it, master?" She turned around and asked him, covered in blood as she made a grabbing motion in the air and a necklace flew out of the beast's body.
It was her mid-grade magic item that her master
had gifted her.
The beast had swallowed this along with her upper body an hour ago. Hopefully, it didn't get damaged in the slightest.
"Hm, your technique was a bit off, but good for your first time. And you neared the time limit of the ashen zombie transformation, so try to finish fights faster from now on." He reviewed her previous battle with the beast as a satisfied expression revealed itself on Beth's face.
"Now what?" She asked. The next moment, Tirus took out a palm sized bottle from his storage ring as the blood of the beast got stored in it.
"Taking the blood essence is important." He told Beth while tapping her on her forehead.
*Rumble*
*Rumble*
The entire cave started shaking as if there was an earthquake. Soon, a door revealed itself.
The two rings on Tirus's fingers started glowing as a line of words appeared in his head.
Before he knew it, he started chanting it.
"I am the inheritor of the wandering magus, Robert.
I am the fated one, the one to continue the legacy, the door to endless opportunities, open!"
All of them were engulfed in a bright light as their visions blurred.
....
Soon, they were teleported in a 100×100 m room.
Everyone opened their eyes, full of shock.
"Are we in the Twilight Zone?" Beth asked in confusion.
"No, see, there is a formation for a magus to break through to rank 2." Tirus looked calm as he assessed his surroundings. He looked at the formation and the 20 branded swordsmen.
"So, you will now break through, master...did you already know about this?" Beth inquired.
"I did." Tirus shook his head and ordered the rest to maintain a distance of at least 40 m as he sat in the middle of the formation.
To be continued...