Spirit Beast Enlightenment: A Beast Taming Progression Fantasy

Now that Ryker had gained so much from this trip, he wasn’t in a rush to leave. There were several things that were easier to accomplish with Earth Flames present. Plus, this was a unique environment as well. There was certainly still more to gain.

He planned to return to the Valorian Clan after he finished stabilizing the situation here, and if he wanted to do that, he would need power.

If Ravenna’s existence was a wake up call, then the existence of those two Elevated Elemental Spirit Beasts was like a smack in the face.

Of course, he didn’t believe this Iteration had any humans that were so powerful. This was clearly a very special case. Those two beasts were most definitely the strongest existences of this Iteration.

That said, the fact they all had the form of Mariah was eyebrow raising. He would have to be cautious if he could help it.

Having the little guy by his side was a huge boost to his power. It wasn’t just the fact he had an extra method of attack, but what was also important to consider was the fact this energy was of a higher caliber than any Ryker had ever used before.

In a one-to-one comparison of either fire, wind, or earth, this chaotic violet energy was a realm above.

That said, there was some trouble in paradise.

The problem with this little guy being one of a kind was that it didn’t have any inheritances like Phoenix did. If the fox creature from earlier had even half of Phoenix’s legacy techniques, Ryker would have died ten times over.

That said, that didn’t mean that Ryker didn’t have his own opinions about this.

Still, now wasn’t the time.

First, he rested, recovering his dissipated soul strength. This was something he rarely had to do, but now he luckily had a soul cultivation method he had built from the research papers in the prison.

About an hour later, he felt as though he had just gotten a perfect night’s rest.

‘It’s a bit slow, but I’d assume that’s because my soul is so powerful.’

Ryker had created something unprecedented in these Iterations, but that didn’t mean he felt it was perfect.

For someone with a weaker soul, it might have huge effects.

But for him?

Ryker shook his head and stood. He turned a complicated gaze to metals that were still drifting through the lava.

They had been buried for a bit, but it seemed they were quite buoyant. Even with the commotion from earlier, they were still within sight.

Ryker brought them over and took the Silver Mirror out. Taking the one that radiated the Dao of Time aura, he placed it onto the Silver Mirror and closed his eyes.

Contracted treasures were incredibly unique. They could refine themselves, unlike other treasures that required the input of a blacksmith.

What they couldn’t do, though, was think for themselves.

Although these treasures had “spirits”, they had about as much sentience as an amoeba or a bacterial cell.

Sure, they knew how to survive, but they didn’t particularly think or feel.

It was even worse in Ryker’s case where the spirit of his own treasure was so weak that no one had even sensed it until he accidentally contracted it.

Even so, under normal circumstances, Ryker would just let the mirror absorb it slowly all on its own. This would be a process that would take several days, but it was stable and reliable. It was also the very same thing that he had done when he first entered the 2nd Enlightenment Realm and could finally safely help the Silver Mirror to evolve.

This time, however, he had a different approach.

He had pored over more research papers than he cared to count at this point. Most of them were useless, and even those that were of some use weren’t often shocking realizations. His most useful insights were formed from his own deductions and pooling together the conclusions of several research papers.

The Iterations were often worlds at a much lower level than Ryker’s own, so although they might have some novel ideas and methods, they weren’t often impressive enough to shock him.

There was one exception to this. It was an example of an Iteration with methods that caught his attention all on their own.

And it happened to be related to Mystery Type Contracts, just like his Silver Mirror.

Ryker began to communicate with nine of his Circles. These Circles were the ones the Silver Mirror occupied, and they were often ignored by him.

The research paper made him come to a realization, though.

Regardless of the Mystery Type treasure, the number of Circles it occupied was entirely up to the person. There was nothing stopping a talent weaker than the 9th Circle from still allowing a Mystery Type to occupy nine Circles so long as they had enough to spare.

Ryker had never thought very much about this. He somewhat understood that this would help increase the treasure’s capacity, but he hadn’t considered to enough depth the kind of mechanisms at play.

Spirit Beasts usually came with a set amount of Circles, so why was it that Mythical Types were so flexible?

The simple answer was obviously that their talent could be decided by their owner, while their foundation and cultivation would be based on the materials they were formed from.

This was the answer Ryker had accepted all his life, and it was a good one.

But there was a deeper layer underneath it all.

What he had ignored was a connection he had with his Silver Mirror that went beyond the connection he had with his two Spirit Beasts.

It wasn’t just that it was contracted to him. For all intents and purposes, it was a part of him now.

For this Ancient Heirloom, this was even more so. That was because it was Ryker’s contract that had triggered its awakening. It had never been contracted or close to anyone else.

All this time, Ryker had been using the Silver Mirror as a natural extension of himself. Everything projected onto its surface appeared in his mind without thought, and he could easily use it as a medium for [Soul Ripple] and abilities of the like.

He had always accepted that this was just the natural path of the Silver Mirror. This had even caused him to miss the fact it had a second, hidden, and much stronger affinity.

When he read to the end of the research paper, the concluding line was like an ancient bell ringing in his ears.

~ ‘… though difficult to accept, it is our conclusion that Mythical Type Spirit Beasts might present the opportunity of birthing a second soul. It cannot be considered a living entity to itself, but rather the potential for life. When contracted to a human, it wholeheartedly becomes an extension of said human.’ ~

They were profound words that Ryker couldn’t quite wrap his mind around. Even now, he didn’t fully understand them.

Still, it gave him an idea.

If it was an extension of himself, a second soul, why not treat it as such?

When he communicated with the nine Circles, it was like the world around him had changed. He was displaced from his body, appearing in a completely different state.

Right then, he could feel the inner workings of the Silver Mirror and it hit him even more profoundly…

Because he finally understood.

It felt like he was staring at those endless constellations in the skies once more, like he was experiencing the vast Dao.

This time, he managed not to shout out that word, but that was also because the more he observed, the more he understood that these sights weren’t as profound.

‘This is the soul of the Silver Mirror?’

Ryker couldn’t believe it.

How could a treasure’s soul be so complex, and yet their existence be so simple at the same time?

Were all treasures like this? Was it just Ancient Heirlooms in specific? Or was there something unique about his Silver Mirror?

‘This is… it’s like it… encapsulates the impetus of life? A Spiritual Resonance? Something else? Something less?’

His mind was a mess, but he still forced himself to focus. His thoughts wanted to jump from thought to those, but he pulled it all back.

He could feel that the Silver Mirror was starting to absorb the metal. It was slow, and at this pace, let alone days, it would take months to finish.

The metals that Ryker used the first time were incredibly precious, but there were two things working against him.

For one, this time, he was trying to course correct, which was always more difficult.

And second, this ore was on another level entirely. Its Dao was “complete”, and as such, it was beyond anything the Silver Mirror had ever come into contact with.

What surprised Ryker, though, was that he was able to easily speed up the progress with just a little bit of guidance.

As he did so, he felt the constellations in the skies continue to light up, forming new connections and almost repairing themselves. No, they were actually making themselves more whole.

At the same time, in the outside world, the Silver Mirror’s surface rippled with a silvery light and the metal began to sink into its surface as though it were a lake rather than a solid piece of glass.

Ryker didn’t pay attention to this at all, completely immersed in what he was seeing. He seemed to forget about everything else, watching and guiding the constellations in completing themselves more and more.

He could feel his views on the world expanding, and his comprehension of the word Dao and what it encompassed was deepening as well.

If at first he only thought of it as a law that governed some function of the world, now he was seeing it on an entirely different level.

It wasn’t just a law.

It was life itself, the impetus of life, the connective tissue that allowed it to exist and have meaning.

What did it take for a treasure, an inanimate object by all respects, to gain a soul?

What made it so special?

Ryker hadn’t thought about this question before…

But if every other Iteration had its tweaks to the laws…

What was the tweak in the world of the Valorian Clan?

This Iteration had only been active for 370 years, but its progress was rapid. Plus, they had gained a great deal of knowledge scrounged together from earlier Iterations.

So why didn’t they have a concept for Mystery Type weapons?

It was obvious that other Iterations did, or else he wouldn’t have found that research paper in the first place…

But what if…

The Silver Mirror suddenly let out a bright light. With a surge, it finally entered the 3rd Enlightenment Realm.

Ryker almost laughed.

This annoying treasure had taken almost 19 years to go from the 1st Enlightenment Realm to the 3rd. He almost wanted to bash his head against a wall, those bitter feeling surfacing up once again.

He pressed them down.

Today was a happy occasion. It was the day he finally shed his final weakness and forced the world to bear the brunt of Ryker Valorian.

The constellations in the skies rumbled as they finally completed.

Ryker understood exactly what was happening, even though it was the first time he had ever seen such a thing.

Not only had the Silver Mirror immature soul finally grown whole, the Dao it was birthed from had been completed by coming into contact with the Time Type metal.

This process solidified Ryker’s connection with it to a new level, and for the first time, he felt that it could be used… truly.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg, because what was more profound than that was the fact Ryker could feel…

‘An inheritance?’

His heart skipped a beat.

No, it wasn’t an inheritance. It instead felt like he could naturally sense exactly how to use the Silver Mirror to maximize its abilities, like it was opening up all its secrets to him.

‘No way…’

When Ryker sensed the paths, he didn’t even want to believe it at first. It felt too… too broken.

The Silver Mirror seemed to have three main capabilities, each one of which could be modified and refined into the future, either by increasing its cultivation or allowing it to fuse with other metals.

The first was related to its Spirit Type affinity. It was able to record and perfectly replicate anything reflected on its surface, and the range of applications felt endless.

It could be a technique that someone or a Spirit Beast used. It could be a perfect and their appearance alone, and more shocking than that was what it could do with it.

It seemed to be able to do anything from allowing Ryker to disguise himself as someone else, all the way to even attempting to reform or recreate a technique, whether by giving Ryker the information to do so, or even doing so itself.

The second was even more baffling. It was a Domain type ability and Ryker wasn’t even sure how to feel about it.

With this Domain activated, he controlled the flow of time someone experienced. While it didn’t seem capable of reversing time, it could slow it down considerably for an enemy, or even speed it up for himself or his Spirit Beasts.

He had already learned a method of instant casting, but it wasn’t perfect. And even if he had such a method, his beasts certainly didn’t have it at their disposal.

And what did it mean for an enemy to be slowed to half his speed while his own doubled? Time Type abilities might be some of the scariest he had ever seen.

Yet, even with all this, there was still a third path.

This was the fusion of the two affinities and it left Ryker entirely without words.

It allowed Ryker to pick a target to reflect on the Silver Mirror. While this object was being reflected, he could speed up time not on the object, but within the mirror itself…

Essentially, taking a peek in the future.

Any one of these abilities was absolutely shocking. For three of them to appear…

Ryker laughed. He laughed so hard that tears came out of his eyes.

Unable to suppress it, another episode was triggered. He thought he had left it all far behind, but it seemed that part of his mind hadn’t quite healed yet.

But this time, he didn’t do anything wild. He just collapsed back onto the rock island, rolling in the middle of a pool of lava, his laughter booming with a violent cadence.

Did he know that all of these abilities were as suppressed by the Silver Mirror’s cultivation as they were by the insane energy requirements? Of course, he knew.

He just didn’t give a damn.

This useless shackle on his ankle had finally become a boon instead…

And that had him grinning ear to ear despite what the tears falling from his eyes might say.

Now…

It was time to break into the Ascension Realm.