Chapter 236: Respect

Once they left the Starlight shelter, Ilya wanted them to accelerate their pace as she started to float ahead.

However, suddenly she heard a loud thump and only a moment later Shane shot past her, riding on a 50 meters long snake.

Shocked out of her wits, not only could she hardly maintain her humanoid form, but even the stationed guards were utterly dumbfounded.

They were about to unsheathe their weapon but after seeing that there was someone on top of the late-Awakened stage snake, that was not showing any signs of hostility, the guards calmed down.

Shane didn't like to be annoyed while he was on his way towards the Lesser Starlet Foxes habitat and using Umbra's aura was already enough to prevent most beasts from picking a fight.

Once they approached the dangerous areas, Umbra would have to enter the Hidden Paradise again, which was the best way to prevent any accidents from happening.

In the end, they would save lots of time and Shane told Umbra to halt for a moment.

Smiling slyly at Ilya, he used the same lines Illya had used a few minutes earlier as a comeback.

"What are you waiting for? We don't have all day to waste!" 

Ilya was still dumbfounded but she quickly comprehended that Shane had a taming skill like her father which astonished her for a moment.

Quickly gathering her wits, she floated towards Shane who held out his hand that was enveloped with a thin membrane of mana in order to help Ilya up.

"We should be faster if we ride on Umbra. Just don't fall down and please tell me which areas I, or rather Umbra should avoid. There are a few habitats of strong beasts I can't remember and you should be more familiar with this dimension than I am!" 

Nodding lightly, Ilya was unable to ask him the questions she had in her mind when she sat behind Shane.

Umbra shot forward and his speed accelerated as the bright starlight currents that could be seen during the whole day, whether it was day or night-time, shimmered on his black scales.

These starlight currents invigorated Umbra and he couldn't help but let out a joyous roar that caused Shane to roll his eyes.

However, he was still smiling as he caressed his friend's head.

Meanwhile, Shane decided to answer Ilya's questions to prevent being stared at like it was currently the case.

He was not sure how exactly someone without eyes was able to stare at him but Shane felt uncomfortable under her gaze as if her entire being wanted to envelop him.

Thus, he began to explain a few things without telling her too much. For example, he told her that he had a Taming skill and that Umbra was his tamed beast who had already evolved once.

Otherwise, how would he have been able to tame a Horned Darkness snake? 

Other than that there was not much he had to explain because she didn't ask many more questions involving Umbra or something else. 

She was just curious about his unique constitution that seemed to have changed once again because his mana absorption was much smoother, very calm, and not like a dominating force, annexing everything in its surrounding.

This didn't need much explanation and Shane just said that his constitution was previously undergoing some changes.

Thus the mana absorption was crude and unrestrained which was different, but now it had improved after the said changes had been put into effect.

After that, Ilya began to talk about a few things, like small details he had to be careful about inside the Starlight-river dimension. They were not written inside most books and proved to be helpful information for Shane.

Furthermore, she gave Umbra the directions to take detours in order to avoid infiltrating areas of strong peak Awakened beasts or large hordes of Awakened beasts.

When Shane heard that those large hordes with a majority of Low-Awakened beasts mostly consisted of several tens of thousands in number, he couldn't help but feel utterly dumbfounded.

'Now, I get why Ilya thinks that their shelter's defensive measures are nothing special...the shelter they expanded to is just way more dangerous than mankind's….'

If one had to compare the human-race and Elus-race in gaming terms, humanity was at level one, trying to compete with level 5 opponents, while the Elus-race was a lowkey level 4 trying to befriend an overconfident level 1 race.

Shaking his head, Shane couldn't help but feel that the unique ballista blueprint Dyr and Han were working with was not enough.

'Even if I need funds, with blueprints of stronger weapons, I might be able to solve my funding problem and the issue with our shelter's protection! Even a double beast tide without many Awakened beasts would have been enough to destroy newly constructed shelters if Aisha and the Valkyries weren't there to help...and the Elus race must be facing something more than 100 times worse every single day, probably in multiple shelters at that….'

Shane's respect for the Elus race increased manifold and he couldn't help but see Ilya in a new light.

She was more serious than he estimated her to be and Ilya explained everything calmly, not minding Shane's questions about some particular information.

After venturing through the dimension for half a day, Umbra stopped in his tracks before he entered the world within Shane once again.

This interested Ilya a lot because it was different from her father's taming skill that would summon a magic circle below his tamed beasts.

Nevertheless, it was a fact that many skills had different ways to utilize them and it was possible for Shane to have a different beast storage skill than the Emperor had.

As such, she didn't say anything.

Concealing his mana pool he was about to gulp down the mana concealment potion that he retrieved from his spatial ring as Ilya cautioned him.

"Don't waste your gold coins. Only drink a mana concealment potion when you start your first attempt to catch a Lesser Starlet Fox. If they were to encounter a being, able to conceal its mana completely they would be more vigilant of their surroundings.

For the next few days, it would be better to pay attention to our surrounding area because of the stronger peak-Awakened stage beasts. With your tamed beast's support, normal peak-Awakened stage beasts shouldn't be a problem, which is good, but the area we are about to enter is the habitat of stronger beasts too!"

Ilya concealed her mana fluctuations too and started to float inside the forest that had dark blue leaves, glimmering in the starlight currents which caused Shane to be distracted for a short moment.

Activating the concealment skill, the Hidden Paradise's mana absorption decreased drastically and he was barely able to absorb enough mana to sustain everything in addition to a small surplus of mana that was stored away.

This was very good and Shane was glad that he didn't have to search for ways to procure mana stones to supply the Hidden Paradise with mana.

The extra mana that was stored inside the world core was also very beneficial because Hidden Paradise's demand for mana would increase during the next few weeks, once the new Nightshade flower roots were cultivated and planted.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the lush and magnificent looking forest that was the first adjacent area to the Lesser Starlet Foxes' habitat.

'Soon...Soon I'll be able to finish the [Mythic] mission!!' 

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