The beasts were divided into three types: regular beasts, demon beasts, and elemental beasts.
Regular beasts did not have an ounce of mana in their bodies. Demon beasts were exposed to mana and evolved from regular beasts. They were stronger and had a more profound appearance.
Elemental beasts are considered “beasts” despite their appearance. They did not contain flesh, but an elemental mana core. The mana cores were produced from a sudden surge of mana in the environment.
The beasts had a power ranking system. They were ranked from weakest to strongest:
Normal, Elite, Commander, King, Divine, Supreme Divine, Ascended.
There were also mutated beasts, and their name had an additional “Mutated” prefix.
The demon beasts orchestrated beast tides. The threat of a beast strike was measured as pack, company, and disaster.
Peak commander-level demon beasts led pack-level beast tides. They amounted to thousands of demon beasts and came from the same family of demon beasts. Villages would be in danger when a pack-level beast tide was detected. A group of platinum-level warriors or one diamond-level warrior would be able to stop this beast tide.
King-level demon beasts led company-level beast tides. They consisted of hundreds of thousands to millions of demon beasts. Small cities would be in danger when a level of this beast tide occurs. Master-level warriors or stronger were required to stop this beast tide.
Divine-level beasts led disaster-level beast tides. They consisted of millions to billions of demon beasts, and the aftermath would be terrifying. Only the Higher Elders and stronger warriors have the power to stop these beast tides.
The Great Human Imperium, the Great Elden Conglomerate, and the Great Void Hive constituted the Tripartite Alliance.
The humans were the weakest race, yet their reproduction rates were terrifying. They were situated in the Great Human Imperium, which was the youngest member of the alliance. The Great Human Imperium was founded 100 years before the start of the Expansion Era.
The Great Human Imperium is situated in the Imperium Continent, west of the Central Continent.
The Elves, fairies, druids, devils, and other similar creatures constituted the demi-humans.
The elves and fairy’s affinity to mana was the second greatest. The devils’ affinity was lower, but their strong physical bodies compensated for it. They were all united under the banner of the Great Elden Conglomerate. It was situated in the Elden Continent, south of the Central Continent.
The devils’ race originated from the Ingradium Continent, but they moved to the Elden Continent afterward.
The void creatures were the most peculiar race within Pandragea but had the greatest mana affinity. They did not have a definite form, but they adapted to the humanoid forms of the demi-humans when the alliance was formed.
All the void creatures had a void core in their bodies. There were also different types of void creatures.
Some were purple and similar to goo creatures. Some had a more ethereal appearance that is similar to ghosts.
The void creatures were under the Great Void Hive. The Void Hive was situated in the Ingradium continent, west of the Central Continent.
The Supreme Elder and the four Void Higher Elders overlook the matters within the Hive.
The Circle of Pandragean League oversaw the matters concerned with the members of the Tripartite Alliance. The CPL was composed of the Elite Pandragean Warriors, the Circle Intelligence Network, 16 Higher Elders, and the three Supreme Elders.
The Elden and the Voids founded the alliance 100,000 years ago. The Circle was then founded years after the formation of the alliance.
The alliance also had their own power rankings using the Mercenary Guild’s system:
Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Grand Master.
The rest were for people following the path of divine ascension:
Lesser Divine, Higher Divine, Divine Providence, Ultimate Divine, Ascended.
Aside from the Tripartite Alliance, there were also the Three Great Dark Underground Factions.
The three Dark Underground Factions were:
The Fleeting Shadow, The Templars of Pandragea, and Cutthroat.
Cutthroat was the most active and infamous faction. They were a discredited assassin organization that completed contracts of assassination from their clients.
Unlike the Assassin Department from the Mercenary Guild, it was blatantly despised by the Circle due to their nature and targets of assassination. The mana cores from their targets were harvested. They would also commit r*pe, torture, and other heinous activities, before killing their target(s).
The Fleeting Shadow was a cult of fanatics who were working towards the accomplishment of the “Gospel of the Black Shadow”. They started to surface at the start of the Expansion Era.
The contents regarding their Gospel remained blank, but the Circle would not allow them to do so as they wished. Any movement that may link to the Fleeting Shadow would be immediately acted upon and deny any possible negative results that may fall out.
The Templars worked with the demon beasts, and the Circle considered them as enemies. Their organizational structure remained unknown. They would sometimes appear on some demon beast tides then leave without leaving any trace. The Circle guessed that they were the ‘real’ orchestrators of beast tides and only observed from far away with no intentions of bringing up a fight.
Zachariel finished reading the book a few hours after.
It was almost noon now, and lunch would be served soon. He went to the dining hall with Uncle Zwein. After lunch, he went to the training grounds. He planned to train for the whole afternoon.
He picked up a wooden sword and started slashing his sword towards a dummy. Uncle Zwein was a bladed warrior, and he helped the young master in training the art of the blade.
After a few practice sets, he stopped and rested.
`Alright, let’s test our physical ability.`, Zachariel wanted to test his current physical ability.
“Uncle Zwein, I’d like spar with you.” Zachariel walked back to the training grounds.
“Go ahead, Master Zachariel”. Uncle Zwein knew that Zachariel was going to use him as his “dummy” partner. He also walked back to the training grounds. He stood opposite Zachariel. They were 10 meters apart from each other.
Zachariel posed into a stance. He placed his left foot behind, shoulder-width apart from his right foot. He then bent his knees and raised his hands. His fists clenched, he accumulated mana force imbued with wind essence within his right foot and arrived in front of Uncle Zwein within 3 steps.
He accumulated mana essence in his left fist and punched straight to Uncle Zwein’s face. A small current of wind was formed on his fist.
Uncle Zwein dodged his attack by shifting on his right side.
Zachariel then stomped with his left foot and punched with his other hand directed at Uncle Zwein’s stomach.
Uncle Zwein placed his hand in front and shifted the trajectory of the incoming punch further to his right. Zachariel continued a series of punching then jumped off using his right foot, spun in a clockwise fashion, then kicked using the other.
Uncle Zwein blocked the kick. He firmly held onto Zachariel’s foot then threw him away.
Zachariel somersaulted and was met with a punch from Uncle Zwein’s right fist.
He dodged the punch by shifting to the left side, then deflected another punch from Uncle Zwein. Uncle Zwein was imitating the previous moves of Zachariel.
He was testing the young master’s comprehension of moves while the young master was in combat. He was not disappointed.
He went ahead and launched a kick.
Zachariel bent his knees then rolled backward. He was not crazy enough to face a platinum-level warrior’s kick directly.
Uncle Zwein limited his strength for Zachariel. Zachariel was fast because of his wind essence and was able to keep up with Uncle Zwein’s speed.
His mana was drained after 1 hour of training.
He rested for a few minutes and sparred with Uncle Zwein again. He only used pure physical strength for 30 minutes. He repeated this manner of training many times until night.
Dinner was served later on. After dinner, Zachariel took a bath before going to bed and slept early. Tomorrow was the day they would depart for the Imperium Capital City.
Later that night, Uncle Zwein went to Grandfather Albert’s study room.
He opened the door and saw Grandfather Albert sitting in his chair. His clasped hands rested on the mahogany table. There was a small magic lamp emitting a faint bright light.
A circular wisp was floating above the brown circular wooden base. Carved on the base was a formation, and a compartment within the wooden base was used to insert a mana stone of the light essence to power up the magic lamp.
“So, what did the brat do the whole day?”, Grandfather Albert asked Uncle Zwein.
“The young master went to the library in the morning, reading about books regarding mana and the races in Pandragea.”, Uncle Zwein replied.
“Oh? Why is that boy studying those books? Didn’t the teachers in preliminary schools already taught that?”, Grandfather Albert asked. He was confused. These were common knowledge that everyone should know. Why was Zachariel studying them now?
“I’m afraid I do not know of the reason for this, Sir Albert.” Uncle Zwein said calmly. The recent activities of the young master disturbed him.
“Peculiar indeed.”. Grandfather Albert let the matter go at the back of his head.
“What about his strength?”, asked Grandfather Albert.
“The young master’s strength meets the standards, Sir Albert. His mana core is expected to be at least grade 4, and his wind essence quality is good. However, his physical strength might be a bit lacking when compared to others.”
“It doesn’t matter since he’s still young anyway. He still has time to become stronger.” Grandfather Albert was confident that his grandson would become better than him in the future. Who knows, maybe his grandson becoming a Prospect might be a reality.
The Strom Household was lacking geniuses as of now. The Rossi family recently produced their own to-be Prospect, Sabrina Rossi. She formed 2 mana cores when she reached 16 years old. He envied her since his grandson only had one mana core formed when he was 16.
`That old fool from the Rossi family sure struck gold this time. He started boasting about his granddaughter’s potential to me. Hmph. Just you wait, bastard. My son will also become a Prospect like her, and I’ll make you eat dirt.`
“On the other hand, his Imperial Majesty and the Imperium Court decided to increase the efforts in the expansion of the Imperium.
The situation in the outskirts of the Medullan Forest is becoming more and more dangerous. Several commander-level demon beasts have been spotted. There’s a chance that a king-level demon beast may appear and lead a company-level beast tide.
I may be recalled back to the border soon. I hope that you, in my absence, will take care of the matters within the household.”, Grandfather Albert said.
The Imperium’s expansion was limited due to the topographic features in the Imperium Continent. Two mountain ranges blocked the way northward. The lowest peak was recorded to be at least 2 kilometers. The mountains were steep, and a lot of flying and earth demon beasts resided within those mountains.
On the southern border lies an estuary connecting the South-Western Whirling Ocean to the River of Damnation. As such, the Imperium had no choice but to move westward, into the Medullan Forest.
“Yes, I will certainly take good care of matters in the household in your absence, Sir Albert”. Uncle Zwein affirmed.
“Ok, you can go leave now.”
Uncle Zwein bowed then left.
Grandfather Albert stood up and looked outside. He thought about his son and daughter-in-law.
“Hmm. I wonder if they are doing fine at the borders.”
Outskirts of Medullan Forest.
A battle was in progress. The environment continuously altered. Trees were either uprooted or broke in half.
The earth cracked and formed small craters. Dust would fly around, and sparks of light would flash now and then.
The creatures clashed against one another, producing sounds that resonated all over the field.
Spells and skills were continuously used, and blood and flesh would splatter and paint the earth.
It was a horrific scene.
