The Superior Life Vein should be easy to deal with, but the resulting Beast Tides were still an unknown. Not a single one had been absorbed across all of history, which proved the insane difficulty.
Not only that, but there were three Superior Veins in the Providence Zone alone! That didn't count the fact that each Superior Vein was guarded by five Greater Veins, which would incite Beast Tides of their own.
He had initially only planned to send Kamei and his group to deal with the Beast Tides, but he clearly needed at least double the amount. The only bonus was that all the time spent mapping had earned back all the Points William had spent because of the Potential Farms.
At this rate, he could continuously funnel his Potential Points into hatching more Companion Beasts, reap the benefits from the Beast Tides, map out the next area, and repeat!
Before he could decide on which of the three remaining guardian Beasts to hatch next, though, William was interrupted by a Kamei Hamei that served under the Black Turtle. It had come to report to William that someone had entered their territory and was looking for him.
"Looking for me?" William asked. Who would look for me in a place like this? I didn't even tell anyone where I was going. Is it Gu Dianlong again?
He opened a portal to the location described by the Kamei Hamei, stepping out to see an old man in robes of the Spirit Ascension Sect. He smiled faintly and bowed to William respectfully, then extended his arm out with an upward-facing palm, as if inviting William to join him.
"I hope you don't mind the rudeness, the young miss and I had to split up to look for you. I'm Elder Fan by the way, but you can just call me Fan." the old man smiled again.
William nodded, but he was confused about Elder Fan's intention. "Is there a reason you came to visit me? I'm very busy right now."
"The young miss is on her way over. She said she wanted to meet with you, but I don't know for what."
William frowned. He didn't have time to be waiting for some unknown person. He turned around and made a portal that would send him back to the center of the Providence Zone.
"I don't really have time to be waiting, sorry. If you need to find me, come to the center of the Providence Zone." William replied as he stepped through the portal.
"W-Wait!" a young female voice came from afar, but William had already closed the portal.
Fria flew over to Elder Fan and panted heavily to catch her breath, then asked, "Elder Fan, was it him? What did he say?"
Elder Fan smiled sheepishly, "It was, but he said he's too busy. If we want to see him... I'm afraid it's not possible."
"Why not?" Fria asked. How could a Space Mage not have any time? Something inside her felt as if she had missed an important moment, which made her desire to see this person increase even more.
What was she missing?
I'm always nice to you!
The System sent William a memory transmission of him a few weeks prior, which showed him in the Thieves' Guild's Fire Mine. His face at the time had contorted in anger, where he proceeded to shout "Shut up, System!", thereby giving away his position to the nearby thieves.
When the memory ended, William shook his head in frustration. You clearly cut out the part that explained why I was mad at you in the first place! This is slander! Stay connected with мѵʟ
-I am the nice one. All I do is help you and you do this to the poor System.
Stop talking about yourself in the third person!
-My point is proven. Hmph!
William sighed. He could never read what was on the mind of the System. His strength steadily grew, but so did the System's attitude. It was as if—
-As if what?
Nothing!
-Finish your sentence.
Never mind!
William ignored the System's subsequent messages and focused on scrolling through the Bestiary. Thankfully, the System knew better than to interfere with his process, still following through with his requests to incubate and hatch White Tiger Cub eggs.
As long as William spent the Potential Points, the System couldn't say no. He spent the next few hours upgrading the White Tiger Cubs, until they had reached the first stage of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm just like the Kamei Hamei Turtles.
Of course, the entire process didn't make any sense to William. For one, Tigers don't hatch from eggs, but also why are they still cubs when fully grown? No one knew, but William didn't bother to ask questions about it.
Once the nine White Tiger Cubs were fully grown and named, William brought over Little Tiger, who reacted very similarly to the Black Turtle Hatchling. None of the four Divine Beasts had met their own kind before, even curious to how they existed in the first place.
The traditional Pheonix, Tortoise, Dragon, and Tiger Clans all berated them when the four Beasts were younger for being some sort of half-breed or variant, but those promptly ended when the four grew to become the strongest Magical Beasts on the Continent.
Those thoughts and feelings had stuck with the peak Beasts for a long time, but now that they had members of their own clan to lead, their hearts were filled with joy and belonging for the first time.