Chapter 443: Search

The Cosmic fox had silver fur, just like Cosmo, but its entire fur was sprinkled with a bright golden pattern of stars of various sizes.

Its height was still not that great, and it was probably not even tall enough to reach Shane's waist, but that was not important because it was rather confusing that the Cosmic fox did not look much different compared to Cosmo's current form.

It was only later that Shane realised something important about the Cosmic fox that would shock him extremely. 

He would learn it the hard way that the Cosmic fox was the first evolution of a beast he shouldn't play around with!

Even if he had yet to sight the most important aspect of the Cosmic fox, which were the two small lumps on the fox's rear, with each of them being on either side of its tail, Shane chose the Cosmic fox as Cosmo's evolution.

Suddenly, as he made up his mind, huge currents of mana were drawn out of his body.

Because of that, Shane was finally able to realise the true extent of his ability.

'So, choosing the evolution path my soulbonds are supposed to take is like I forcefully activate their evolution?'

This was confusing and interesting at the same time.

Yet, instead of paying more attention to it than necessary, Shane transferred tremendous amounts of mana from the soul world. 

He directed it straight into his body where it was circulated into his hand, only to enter Cosmo's body.

Time passed slowly, and every second felt like an eternity as Cosmo was slowly releasing a faint milky shroud that turned denser forming a cocoon of sorts around the Lesser Starlet Fox's entire body, hiding it from Shane.

It was only then that Shane's activated skill was deactivated.

This was probably the indicator given by his ability, saying that the evolution was successfully initiated.

As such, he retracted his hand from Cosmo, only to see his soulbond for one last time, taking a glimpse through the small opening his hand created as he retracted it.

Only a second later, the opening was closed as the milky hue enveloped Cosmo entirely.

After that, he returned Cosmo into the soul world by manifesting a portal below his second soulbond.

Once that was done, Shane took a deep breath before he averted his attention to Viridy.

Because the Lesser forest spirit was his youngest soulbond, Shane couldn't help but feel extremely excited.

Only now did Shane realise that Cosmo's evolution would allow the lesser starlet fox to become an existence that was supposed to be both extremely strong, and extinct.

Through this, Shane's strength would increase by a large margin too, which was shocking.

'With my racial talent and the ability I have, am I not simply too strong? I can increase my strength without cultivating as long as I bind more beasts to my soul, only to increase their strength by enhancing their quality as well as evolving them?'

This realisation was crazy, and Shane couldn't help but smile as he activated his ability to take another look at Viridy's evolution paths.

Having made up his mind, Shane glimpsed at the last evolution before choosing it without hesitation.

This drew out lots of mana from his body as it did with Cosmo's evolution.

However, instead of paying attention to the milky hue, Shane stared at the bulky beast he decided to call Forest Guardian!

Shane thought of this name because of its bulky physique that was mostly enveloped by tightly intertwined vines and roots.

Furthermore, it looked like a gigantic human-like being, with vibrant green eyes that pierced right through him.

Its dark-green glowing core was almost not visible through the multitude of thick layers of vines and roots.

Yet, what Shane wondered was the question of whether the Forest guardian would be able to change its shape as Viridy could.

Despite that question, the answer to which could turn into a huge advantage thereby increasing Viridy's combat prowess by leaps and bounds, Shane simply evolved his youngest soulbond before it was completely enveloped by a milky shroud, deactivating his ability.

Having taken care of his soulbonds, Shane only returned Viridy into the Hidden Paradise before he turned towards the Dimension portal that was several hundred meters away from him.

At that moment, he noticed a few pairs of eyes staring at him with confused expressions which caused Shane to smile lightly before he continued to approach the Dimension portal.

According to his perception, the aura released by the milky hue attracted other beasts, only to see how Cosmo and Viridy were evolving.

Yet, before they could truly figure out that Shane had been the sole reason for his soulbonds' evolution, he had already disappeared within the Dimension portal.

Only a few seconds later, Shane emerged in the middle of a verdant grass field which felt odd to him.

Looking around, he saw hundreds of skyscrapers all around him, yet the place he was standing on was but a large grass field.

The change of landscape from a bustling city to a small field with nothing but the grass was weird, but the dense mana fluctuations released by several beings that emerged behind him from the dimension portal made Shane walk instinctively.

He had sensed stronger mana fluctuations only twice in comparison to some beings he could see, and one of them was the Creator who was not even required to use his mana in order to suppress Shane subconsciously.

Just a slight movement by him would be more than enough to do that to Shane.

Meanwhile, the second being was none other than Levi, the Leviathan, whose strength was something Shane was not sure about yet.

However, comparing the Creator with Levi was not feasible because the creator was an existence whose strength was at a level Shane couldn't even hope to reach in the near future, or possibly, never in his entire life!

Shaking his head, Shane found himself being stupid for even thinking about such a useless thing.

Even if he couldn't reach the Creator's strength only the future would tell how far he would go.

Questioning the possibility right now was needless, and Shane took a deep breath before he activated his ability.

At first glance, he didn't notice a difference compared to not using the ability, but after walking into the first skyscraper that inhabited several thousand shops, Shane could see its use faintly.

He could already see the first item that glowed in a bright golden hue, indicating to be of use for Cosmo.

This caused Shane to note down the name of the item in addition to the quality it had, only to search for the same item at a lower quality.

Shane did so in order to prove his theory that items of a higher quality glowed brighter.

Yet, what he saw confused him as the bright golden glow was exactly the same despite the item having a lower quality.

However, instead of stopping the experiment at that point, Shane looked for an even lower quality item.

Finally, the bright golden glow had dimmed down, which caused him to overthink his ability.

'Maybe the difference in quality has no effect on the efficiency and it would remain the same for Cosmo? In the end, this would mean I could save on money without a lowered result!'

With the final result of his experiment, Shane started to take notes on all the items his soulbonds required to increase their quality, even after the evolution of both Cosmo and Viridy.

Using the exact quality as a ballpark to receive the best results, Shane couldn't help but feel glad that he had entered the Primordial shop dimension because his research was just about to start.

Meanwhile, the number of objects that were enveloped by a faint hue were far more than Shane had expected. This allowed him to believe that the misfortune of losing the system's support might not be as bad for him as initially expected!