Once the research team was settled into the tower and the spirit array was charged, Jun Hai and I prepared to set out on our own. The mercenaries initially asked if we needed them to follow, but Jun Hai shook his head.
"No, we'll be fine on our own."
"Figures," the mustached mercenary muttered, glancing at me. "Your brother is a one-man army. He possesses enough fighting strength to rival an entire infantry regiment just by himself."
"That's not true. You saw how I'm not a single person. I have friends who fight by my side."
"Ah, yes. The spirit beasts. You're a beast tamer, aren't you?"
Summoner. Fuck. Why can't people just call me a summoner? Just look at the damned title. It was the Super Summoning System, not the Super Taming System, for heaven's sake. Why do people keep assuming I was a damned beast tamer?!
"We would like to follow," Sylvie said, Silvia by her side. "We've set up the barrier spirit array, so the researchers and scientists should be safe inside there. Furthermore, they have the paramilitary teams to protect them."
"We'll do our best, little ladies," one of the soldiers said with a grin, hefting up his rifle.
"So cool," Silvia said, her eyes sparkling. The fairy sisters hadn't seen guns before, and they were amazed by the human technology. "To think humans can replicate the effects of magic spells without needing to manipulate the elements in the environment…and cause destruction on a scale that rival even the most powerful spells…"
"Huh?"
"Oh, they aren't familiar with modern technology. They come from a very rural village." I quickly cut in before the puzzled soldier could ask his question. Sylvie and Silvia were currently hiding their wings with magic, so nobody except Jun Hai knew that they were fairies.
"T…that's right! All these guns are very novel to us! We come from a place with strict laws and regulations on firearms!" Sylvie also added hastily, clamping a hand down on Silvia's mouth and dragging her away, much to the bewilderment of the mercenaries.
"Okay, shall we go?" Jun Hai asked. The four of us were about to turn and leave when a voice called out to us.
"My lords and ladies! Wait for me!"
Long Wang emerged from the tower, waving frantically. He jogged to our location and stared pleadingly at me.
"Please allow me to come with you!"
"Sure…but what about the research teams? Don't they have questions for you?"
"I've already shared all that I know with them. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but even I do not know much about the Dryads. I never had any interactions with them – what I do know is based off ancient hearsay from millennia ago, before I was sealed near Atlantis. Also, you know I spend most of my life in the ocean. I have no reason to find out much about the events occurring on the surface."
"Fair enough." I nodded. "All right then, let's go!"
And so, the five of us set off, venturing deeper into the forest and toward the river. Jun Hai had a map and he led the way, glancing at the holographic display projected from his smartphone as he plotted a route.
While we did so, Long Wang couldn't help but crack a joke.
"Also, my lord, we should also look out for a new member to recruit."
"New member?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. The dragon butler nodded enthusiastically.
"That's right. We're just missing one member now."
"Oh, yeah!" Silvia said excitedly. "Now that Xiao Huo has evolved, she can join us! Xiao Huo!"
Xiao Huo materialized as a nine-tailed Fire Fox, her red fur seeming to blaze in the sunlight. Unlike the time when she had evolved, she kept her powers under control here, the fiery qi that she emanated suppressed to a slight warmth as opposed to the intense heat from before. I reached out and stroked her head before turning to Silvia and Long Wang quizzically.
"Why did you call her here?"
"You'll see," Long Wang replied before nodding at Xiao Huo. She chuckled before transforming, her body glowing a bright white before shrinking and changing. To my utter shock, she turned into a human, similar in size to Sylvie and Silvia, but with long red hair.
And for some reason, she was wearing a Miko outfit. Like the shrine maidens from the Rising Sun Nation, she wore a white top and a red skirt with a hole at the back to allow her nine tails to emerge from. She bowed politely with a smile.
"Xiao Huo, at your service. I have now gained the ability to shapeshift."
"Why a Miko outfit?" I blurted out.
"Why not?" Silvia retorted and giggled. "It suits her perfectly!"
"There you have it," Long Wang declared and started counting off with his fingers. "The three different ultimate species. You have the dragon race, the fairy spirits, and now the demigod race…ahem, I mean a nine-tailed fox. The only one you're missing right now is a cat girl."
"Since when are cat girls an ultimate species?" I rolled my eyes.
"Since The Beast Tamer Who Was Exiled from His Party Meets a Cat Girl from the Ultimate Species."
I stared at Long Wang blankly, not sure if I comprehended what he had just recited. After a while, I shook my head to clear it of confusion. "Seriously?"
"Seriously."
Honestly, I felt like there were so many problems with this that I didn't know where to begin, but I decided against speaking them out. Instead, I turned to Jun Hai. "Are we there yet?"
"No, we're still some distance away."
"Before we reach the river, we should find the cat girl," Long Wang suggested. Silvia nodded excitedly.
"I concur! Let's look for Kanade! No, since this is a Chinese story, let's call her Xiao Mao!"
"For God's sake…" I held my head in despair. "Can we stop this nonsense? Oh, and Xiao Huo, unless you want to join us in bashing through the forest, you can return to the dungeon."
"No, I want to play the role of Nina."
"Then big sis and I will be Sora and Luna!"
"And I will take on the role of Tania. Though I'm male and not female. But hey, it's more realistic this way, isn't it? That way, people won't complain that you're getting a harem."
I shuddered to think of the Boys Love doujins that would result, though. Especially since Long Wang's human form was a bishounen. Unfortunately, I didn't swing that way, and I was loyal only to Myria so there would be no harem happening.
"Can we get down to business instead of detracting from the mission with all these jokes and references?"
"You ought to relax, big bro!" Silvia complained. "We just finished a battle against a Devil's Pitcher and secured the ruin. You can't be fighting all the time! You need some downtime too! There are always ups and downs, otherwise the pacing will be all messed up!"
"R…right." I sighed. "We don't have to be so tense, but can we at least stop it with the ultimate species or cat girl nonsense?"
"If you say so, Master," Xiao Huo said politely, her head bowed in submission. As my first spirit beast, she seemed to be the most loyal.
"Silvia, please stop it already. It might be funny at first, but the joke gets old after a while."
Okay, maybe scratch that. It appeared that Sylvie was the most loyal to me. Or maybe both Sylvie and Xiao Huo were tied in terms of loyalty.
Wait a minute. Why the fuck was I turning this into a competition? Who cares whether one was more loyal than the other? All that mattered was that they were both loyal to me, and I could trust them. Not everything had to be a contest.
That said, it was only applicable to the two of them because I was aware that Long Wang had his own motivations and agendas. He was reliable, but I couldn't fully trust him. I knew that the moment I let my guard down, he would pounce on it. Whereas Sylvie and Xiao Huo were unconditionally loyal. And Silvia's loyalty lay more with her sister than with me, though I would like to think that she considered me her brother. I suspected she did it more to tease me than because she really harbored any sibling affection for me, though.
Fortunately, there was where Jun Hai came in. Even though we did have squabbles like all siblings did, I could trust him unconditionally as well. because…well, he was my brother. That was all the reason I needed. Blood was thicker than water. Of course, I could hear some of the more cynical existences beyond the fourth dimension screaming at me for being naïve and condemning me for being gullible, or whatever nonsense it was that they were typing into the comments, but fuck them. They knew nothing about my family or my relationship with my brother, so they had no right to comment on it. I couldn't care less if they had been betrayed by their siblings or parents or families. I wasn't talking about their brothers. I was talking about mine. So they could fuck off if they were trying to tell me how I should treat my own brother.
"Big bro? Hello?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was zoning out."
"Yeah, you've been fighting almost nonstop today. You and your spirit beasts, I mean." Jun Hai shook his head. "Maybe you should have stayed back and rested in the site."
"Nah, it's fine. I want to see what spirit beasts are in the river or in the forest. I don't want to miss out on the chance to make contracts with new ones."
"You really are looking for a cat girl, aren't you?"
"Not you too…"
"Ha ha, I'm just joking." Jun Hai chuckled and pointed past a bunch of shrubs and ferns. "Anyway, we're getting closer. The river's just over there."
"Oh, nice!" Silvia was eagerly running forward. Now that other people weren't around, she had dismissed the spell used to conceal her wings and were flapping them to take off into the air and surge ahead of us.
"Hey, Silvia! Come back here! Don't run off by yourself! This is still a dangerous place!" Sylvie was upset and she tried to chase after her sister. Before she flew off, she turned toward me as if seeking for my permission. I nodded.
"Go ahead, but the moment you detect any danger, retreat immediately."
"Yeah. I'll drag Silvia back if I have to!"
Then she was gone. I exchanged a glance with Jun Hai, who looked amused.
"If you weren't already engaged to sis-in-law, I think Sylvie would have made a fine wife."
"She certainly would, but there's no ifs and buts about it. I've made my choice and I intend to stick to it."
"Well, I suppose. Sis-in-law is a great person too." Jun Hai shrugged neutrally. "And it's none of my business who you decide to date or marry."
"And here I thought Chinese cultivation protagonists are all obsessed with getting a harem." Long Wang shook his head.
"Please don't put me in the same group as those misogynists." I shuddered. "I've seen comments by incels, and good lord, they are disgusting. They want their protagonists to be alpha chads who sleep with multiple women, but when one of the heroines might end up sleeping with another guy who isn't the protagonist, they start raging and frothing at the mouth and screaming, 'NTR!' and sending the author death threats. Apparently, it's okay for the guy to sleep around because that makes him an alpha chad, but when a girl does it, she's considered a slut or a whore. What stupid double standard is this?"
"Incels," Jun Hai muttered under his breath, as if that explained everything.
"And then when I point out that double standard, they start justifying their misogynistic behavior with 'Men are different from women!' I even saw this bastard type about how men have to work hard and achieve things in order to win over women, whereas women have it easy, and all they need to do is open their legs and they will have men lining up. And then he ranted about how men will always prefer virgins, whereas women prefer men with a lot of experience. Then he screamed at me for being a weak loser because I apparently supported feminism. I can't even…I mean, did he even look at what he was writing? Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. Even in this day and age, some men are stuck in their misogynistic mindsets."
"Disgusting," Jun Hai said, visibly horrified. He shook his head. "Sounds like an incel who has been stuck in his parents' basement throughout his entire life and never been with a single girl. No wonder he is so salty."
"With that kind of attitude, it's obvious he'll never get with any girl…unless he's rich. But if he's rich, he probably wouldn't bother typing stupid comments on a pirated free-to-read manhwa site in the first place."
"Why are you even reading those manhwas, my lord?" Long Wang asked, rolling his eyes. I scratched my head sheepishly.
"Well, my major requires me to conduct research on popular culture…so that I can see what's popular and write stories according to the latest trends."
"Huh? I thought your major was combat and beast summoning."
"That's the cultivator major. I have an academic major too. Anyway, let's not bother with the details and check on Sylvie and Silvia. They aren't back yet."
"There's because there's nothing to report back on," Sylvie said, suddenly appearing in front of me. She looked a little tired, probably because she had to chase her sister around. "The river's just ahead, but other than a few herbivorous saurian spirit beasts like the Trumpet Lizards and Thunder Lizards, I don't see anything."
"Over here! There's a waterfall!" Silvia called out from afar, waving her hand as she hovered high above tall grass. We had to bash our way to her, glancing at the river not too far away. The currents were strong and rapid, rushing over the riverbed like something ejected from a hose. I followed Silvia's finger and caught sight of a waterfall in the distance.
"Hey, I know that waterfall," Long Wang suddenly said. We all turned to him and waited expectantly. He blinked and took a deep breath, contemplating deeply as he tapped into his long and ancient memories. "That's the Dragon's Gate."
"Dragon's Gate?" Xiao Huo asked, her nine tails swishing silently and batting a few branches and plants out of the way as she followed us.
"That's right," Long Wang affirmed, glancing around cautiously. "Be careful. There might be dragons around here."
"Dragons, huh?" I wondered out loud as something occurred to me. "Could they be related to the demise of the Dryad tribe?"