Mage And Wolf
Chapter 132

Chapter 132: Chapter 132

Opening the initial portal is the hard part. It’s possible with Karl’s ability, but getting it exactly where you want it and not just within a few hundred kilometers proves exceptionally difficult.

Just being linked to the world might be enough, but as these items are so valuable, we’d rather connect directly to the store room with Lelou in it if at all possible. I don’t know if a Dragon egg can hatch after a thousand years in stasis, but I’ve got a good feeling about this. We were originally just going to power up the bag to compensate for any extra distance, but as we’re both Death Energy cultivators, adding huge amounts of Energy to make up the difference didn’t seem wise with living creatures.

The portal is about one meter round, big enough to pass the incubators through without issue. At least, that’s the plan.

Lelou looks super excited to see what we’re hiding, as details on where we are and what we’re doing were sparse.

"Portal is stable, you’ve got two minutes before I run out of mana and we need to start over" Karl says with a grunt of exertion.

"Here, take these as fast as you can" I hand Lelou the incubators one after another, being very short on time. She’s scrambling to take them and set them down safely in time, but we get them all passed over in a minute and a half.

"Good Job Lelou. They’re all yours, Karl topped them up, but they’ve been locked in there for at least a thousand years. Let me know how it works out."

"Dragon eggs, so many Dragon Eggs" is all she can say before the portal closes and we’re back to a dark room with a skeleton and a barrier protected table full of books.

"Odds on that table being booby trapped?" Karl asks.

"I’d say 5 to 1 in favor of something nasty. This incubation room seems to be the last stand of the cathedral, with the second last survivor choosing mutual annihilation instead of letting the enemy breach that door."

"Gather everything else that looks usable from this room. It’s giving me a mad scientist experimental vibe" Karl says, sounding unsure.

He’s got a point, it feels a lot like Elder Song’s lab in my memories, something about whatever was going on here was forbidden, or at least not sanctioned. But no matter how much I search the room, there’s just not enough evidence left to determine what it was.

Karl places a barrier within the barrier over the table, just in case it’s a fire or explosion trap. Carefully, he touches the barrier with a stick. No response. With a thread of Arcane energy, still nothing, but the books seem to be locked in place, he can’t pick them up with the energy thread.

"Guess it’s a hands on approach. You want to do the honors? You’re more durable."

"Why am I always the guinea pig?" I ask, Forming up my armor and getting ready to reach through.

"I’ll make it up to you later, promise" Karl laughs at my petulant attitude.

First up, I poke it with an energy claw, but can’t get through. No harm in trying anyhow. Tentatively reaching out with my hand, I touch the barrier, creating a flash of white light and a tingle from my Goddesses mark before the barrier vanishes entirely.

"Looks like the trap was keyed to let any High Priestess, or maybe any member of the clergy unlock it" I shrug.

"It was trapped though, the odds were spot on" Karl laughs. "Now, let’s see what we’ve got for reading material."

There’s loads of history books, cultivation manuals, martial techniques and such, all very good finds. But it is the single text on ’Breeding Impurities Out Of The Dragon Genome’ that catches Karl’s attention.

"Looks like they were doing genetic experiments using magic to try to get pure blooded Dragons back to this planet." Karl decides after skimming the book.

"Don’t see any way that could end up going horror story level wrong" I joke.

Maybe there was a reason the people turned on them, leading this disaster. Or maybe it actually worked, everyone would want the ability to turn their followers into dragons. Many cultivators only goal is Immortality, and dragons are born with millenia long lifespans.

"This first day has been rough. You’ve got soot and dust in your fur" Karl jokes. "Come here and I’ll brush it out for you"

The last person to brush my fur was my mom just after I shifted the first time. After that the bullying started and I didn’t shift again for many years. Lately I’ve always just done it myself, though I did Lala’s and the twins a bunch of times.

Karl taps his thigh for me to sit down and starts cleaning out my tail with a soft bristled brush. That actually feels really good, no wonder the twins never objected. When he moves onto my ears I almost melt in pleasure. Head rubs are annoying as a human, but hold a strange appeal while shifted. That brush makes them a thousand times better.

Wait! I’m the small fluffy creature in this scenario aren’t I? Karl is fluffing my fur like I do the twins.

As he’s more than a foot and a half taller than I am, I certainly look like a small creature in his arms. But this second pass over my tail feels too good to express my righteous indignation at the moment.

Karl confirms my fears "Not as long as Allie and Ellie’s tail fur, but it collects more tangles" he says. Oh, that feels much better without the tangle.

I must have given him a dirty look because the next thing he says is "You’re not that small. Look at it this way, the difference is only half a meter in height. Just a half."

His consoling tone makes me laugh, but the brushing feels too good and soon I’m drifting off into a meditative trance.

Something changing pulls me from my meditation sometime later. Karl brought out the burial urn looking magical device when he finished brushing and our cultivation speed under its effects has been amazing. I’m not certain how long it’s been as I didn’t set an alarm, but I’m feeling close to breakthrough already.

The change I felt was Karl, his body is getting close to breakthrough, and the unstable energy is resonating with my energy. I turn to wrap my legs around him and hug his neck, increasing the effect with increased body contact and he buries his face in my ears.

"This is a good position, we should meditate like this instead" Karl sighs. Did he mean the energy resonance or the ears though? Because he’s definitely enjoying stroking my ears with his face.

Despite being the higher in cultivation, I am the first to break through. The resonance triggers Karl’s advancement, which sends my level hurtling through into a second break though without assistance.

I grab the pills, a Core Forming and a Soul Forging each for me and Karl. The effect seems greater than usual, not simply triggering another advancement, but pushing me well beyond it. It’s some time before the aftershocks of three advancements in rapid succession calm and I now fully understand why the Forbidden Treasure Sect disciple needed a nap.

Not just from their cultivation method, but from the advancement itself.

I check my cultivation base, it’s steady and solidly into Condensation rank 8, past the halfway point of the Condensation Realm.

Foundation and Fortification each have ten ranks, each representing a step for the Cultivator that increases their power by roughly half their strength when they reached the first stage of that Realm. Condensation has fifteen and Core Formation technically has twenty, though some have been known to break through to Immortality early, which Elder Song’s memory of alchemy research to fix one’s foundation tells me is a horrible mistake made by impatient or desperate cultivators who don’t know any better.

The stronger you were when you entered a Realm, the greater the power you will gain moving forward. Self sabotage at the gates to Immortality, where the cultivation world gets truly brutal, can make an Immortals actual lifespan very short.

That is why a solid foundation is so essential, and why being a Lycan physical cultivator, or a Dragon mage type mystic cultivator is such a huge advantage. Many cultivators, especially humans, will hold back their advance, building a stronger base and increasing their power to the maximum potential of their body before moving between Realms.

The blessing of the Death God means that isn’t a concern for me and Karl. We’re swimming in excess potential, our bodies remade to their maximum capacity every time we advance. No downtime needed.

Speaking of Karl, he seems to have advanced three stages as well. Moving up to the sixth rank of Condensation. Being human, his raw power can’t compare to a Dragon of his level, but due to the low mana content of our world for most of his life, he has excellent energy control coupled with a wealth of scientific knowledge he can use to enhance his spells in ways other mages would never consider.

"What do you think of clearing some monsters from the area?" Karl asks. "We spent yesterday going through the ruins, so let’s switch it up today, hunt some monsters and unwind."

That sounds like a great idea. The category 3 monsters in this area seemed quite durable, and we might even find category 4 this far into the woods. But if Karl doesn’t stop stroking my tail I’m never going to gather the motivation to get up from this position.