After two hours went by, Silas finally stood up and smiled, 'With this strength, I would no longer have to fear that Riverstone elder.'
With his new divine ability, as well as his progress in his Dao, he was confident that he could kill that elder from before if they were to fight again, and that was without Kai's help or the use of his innate talent.
While both of his lesser Daos were still at minor completion, they had made some slight progress, and he had gained better control in their actual use, turning his comprehension and insight into actual battle power.
Silas turned and saw Thea watching him from a distance, her eyes filled with curiosity and a bit of awe. After the battle with the Scorch Crocodile, they hadn't spoken, and now there was a slight tension in the air. Their respective clans wanted them to get married, and now here they were, together.
"Silas," she called out as she approached him, since she saw that he was done meditating on the battle.
Her voice was steady, but her expression was unreadable. "That was… impressive. You've grown a lot stronger than before. Much stronger than me…"
Silas just smiled, not quite sure what to say to this beautiful girl his family expected him to marry. But after a moment, he said, "You seem to have gotten stronger as well, but I didn't expect to see you fighting the Scorch Crocodile."
She hesitated for a moment, then answered, "I heard rumors of villages being destroyed and came to help. But I guess I was a bit overconfident. If you hadn't shown up, I'm not sure what would've happened."
Silas nodded his head, knowing she was right. If he hadn't come along when he did, Thea would have been in trouble. As a peak Transcendent King Beast that had even touched a lesser Dao of fire, the beast was far too powerful for her currently.
After thinking for a little while, Silas finally said, "Would you maybe want to travel together?" He and Thea were supposed to be getting to know each other, and this seemed like as good a time as any.
"Really? Are you sure? Wouldn't I just slow you down?" Thea asked, clearly not against the idea but not wanting to be a burden. She, too, knew what was expected of her, and she wanted to get to know the man she might end up marrying.
"Yeah, why not? There aren't too many beasts around here that are a match for me anymore. I could go looking for one of the rank 3 beasts, but if I start killing them, who knows what kind of trouble I'll stir up," Silas said with a small laugh.
"So what are you going to do?" Thea asked. While she didn't mind traveling with Silas, she was still out here to temper herself.
"I'm just going to spar with Kai, and that should be plenty, but I know a beast that you can spar with. She's really strong," Silas said.
"Who's Kai?" Thea asked, not sure who he was talking about.
"Yours truly," Kai said as he hopped onto Silas's shoulder.
"This is Kai. He's one of my beast companions and brothers, and he's really strong. Strong enough to kill that crocodile if he wanted to," Silas said.
Then he pointed over to Red. "And that's my big brother Red. He is currently weaker than all of us, but he'll catch up eventually. I'm sure of it."
Thea nodded her head, a little surprised that the little mouse was seemingly strong enough to kill the beast that was strong enough to kill her.
She then asked, "So what about the beast you want me to spar with?"
"Oh, it's an Emperor Beast I found a couple of months back. I've been sparring with it for a while. I just became a Transcendent lifeform, so I won't be able to spar with it anymore, but it's also close to a breakthrough in the Dao, so you should come spar with it. You will learn a lot," Silas said.
"An Emperor Beast… you know where a low-rank Emperor Beast is?" Thea was now even more shocked. Not only did Silas have a little mouse that could kill a peak Transcendent lifeform that had even comprehended the Dao, but he had found a young Emperor Beast that seemed to be friendly enough not to fight to the death.
'Could I tame it?' she thought, but she quickly shook the thought out of her head. The higher-ranked the beast, the more prideful they were, and the less likely they would be willing to enter a bond of equals with someone else.
"Ok… I'll travel with you," Thea finally said with a nod of her head.
"Great. Just give me a minute, and I'll take you over to the Spatial Lynx," Silas said. He then went and collected the corpse of the Scorch Crocodile and even managed to snag another ranked spatial magic treasure. He planned to save this for Red once he ranked up to a Transcendent lifeform.
"Alright, let's go," Silas said as he headed back toward the Spatial Lynx.
***
A few hours later, Silas and Thea reached the familiar territory of the Spatial Lynx. The lynx was lounging lazily atop a rocky ledge, its sleek, silver coat shimmering in the sunlight. As it spotted Silas and Thea approaching, its ears twitched, and it gracefully leaped down to greet them.
The Spatial Lynx was a little confused at first. Why had the human come back? Hadn't it made its breakthrough? And who was this new human with him?
"Hey, I've brought you a new sparring partner," Silas said, clearing up the lynx's slight confusion.
The beast nodded her head. "Ok, bring it on. Let's see what you got."
"Here I come. Be careful," Thea said as she dashed forward.
"Whoosh!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
Thea and the Spatial Lynx both fought for about an hour, each making their own progress, but soon the fight drew to a close.
"You're strong," Thea said to the beast.
"As are you," the Spatial Lynx said as it started to walk back to its ledge.
"Would you be willing to consider being my beast companion?" Thea suddenly asked.
"Ha," the Spatial Lynx let out a laugh. "If you can bring me out of this place, I'll gladly be your beast companion, but otherwise, hmph."
Thea nodded her head. She had expected to be turned down, but now she had a small shot. She had always planned, since she was young and first discovered to be talented, to get strong enough to leave this place. So while the Spatial Lynx was just throwing out an impossible goal, to Thea, this just so happened to be her dream.
Thea then walked over to Silas, who had been watching their fight with both Kai and Red from a distance.
"You really have gotten stronger since our battle," Silas said.
Thea nodded. "My grandfather has been training me, and I've also gotten a lot stronger since starting my journey. I've fought several strong beasts, but none as strong as this one, if the Scorch Crocodile isn't included."
"Well, you can keep coming back to spar with the Spatial Lynx for the next couple of months if you want," Silas said.
Thea thought about it and quickly nodded her head. "I'd like that."
Silas nodded as well. "Great. Well, I guess we should start getting to know each other, don't you think?"
Thea blushed, knowing what he was referring to, a little unable to believe he was being so direct about it. She then nodded her head. "Yes, I guess we should."
"Ok, well, tell me a little about yourself. Who are your parents? Do you have any siblings? What are your goals? What are your dreams?" Silas said.
He looked over and saw that she was clearly a little shy, so he said, "I'll go first, though. My parents are named Alexander and Clara Armstrong, and I'm an only child. But while I don't have any blood-related siblings, I consider Red here to be my big brother, and Kai here to be my little brother," Silas said, motioning toward his brothers, who held their heads up with pride at being mentioned.
"My goals… well, I guess my goal is to get out of this place. And my dreams… well… I guess I want to get strong enough to be able to take my family out of this place as well," Silas finished.
Thea nodded her head. It turned out his goals and dreams weren't too much different from her own.