Sprawling for hundreds, maybe even thousands of kilometers was a vast mountain chain that stretched past William's view. His exit point from the tunnel had placed him about two thirds of the way up the mountain, but he still couldn't see the top of the tallest mountains.
The fog covered William's view once again, but this time he realized it wasn't fog. No, this was a cloud!
He got on Uri's back and used Atticus' Illusion Magic to conceal their presence, then had the dragon fly down the mountain until the clouds no longer obscured William's vision. As they flew further, William redirected the dragon towards a massive City in the distance.
Strategically placed in the center of a ring of mountains, the City maintained a single entrance to the south that could only be accessed from the other side via man-made tunnel. Thıs text ıs hosted at novelꜰire.net
If they weren't multiple kilometers in the air, William wouldn't have been able to see past the cyan blue walls that were dozens of meters thick and over five hundred meters tall.
William had to redirect Uri a second time to avoid running into a thin barrier that William didn't notice until they were only a few hundred meters away. The barrier was made of millions of Complete Arrays, which would even take William weeks if not months to crack.
He wondered how much time someone spent creating this barrier, which was probably strong enough to withstand his improved Five Elements Explosion Array, which was now formed of Complete Arrays and stored in his Array Wheel.
"Huh?" William felt his Space Ring shudder for a moment, before returning to its previous state. He looked inside but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He was about to close the Space Ring when it vibrated a second time.
William picked up the Array Wheel, which was shuddering slightly at consistent intervals. His fingers clasped around the object, causing a piece of information to enter his brain.
"I forgot about that." William muttered. He had an ongoing Quest to recover all eight of the Array Wheel fragments, but it was labeled impossible, so he had temporarily set it aside. Now that he was close to a fragment, however, how could he let it go?
Even if his Array Wheel wasn't completed, having an additional slot for an Array could be lifesaving in the future.
I'll at least check it out. If I can't get the fragment, so be it. No need to get into unnecessary trouble.
William directed Uri to loop back the way they came and fly over the mountain ring. After a few minutes of flying, William had the dragon land at a different cave entrance than the one from before.
His Cloak detected a few Magical Beasts nearby, but they all seemed to be in the Core Formation Realm or below, nothing even Atticus couldn't handle.
"You two stay here, I'll go down and visit the City for a while." William ordered his Magical Beasts.
Atticus slithered off Uri's back and looked at William, "Why do we have to ssstay?"
"Because you're too big and conspicuous. I don't have any way to hide you."
"Oh..." Atticus became sullen.
Uri looked at William. He tried to keep his voice low to prevent the cave from collapsing as he said, "What should we do while we wait? I haven't been out in so long, I want to explore."
Atticus raised his head excitedly as he nodded in agreement. He was already tired of sitting in William's room at the residence and wanted to do anything but sit in a stinky cave.
William looked at the two and sighed. They were Magical Beasts after all, and their desire to fight was much greater than his own. It was a surprise already that Atticus had remained calm all the while.
"Alright, you can go out, but remember that this is where you return to if something happens."
He looked at Uri and thought of something. His strength was technically higher than the Flame Dragon in some aspects, so he should be eligible to use the Companion Beast function now.
"Uri, would you like to become my Companion Beast?"
Uri was confused for a second, before a blue panel suddenly entered his view. The text box surprised him for a moment, but he had seen many interesting things in his long life.
-You have received an offer to become William's Companion Beast. Yes/No?
-Note: Once you have accepted this request, your fate will be tied to William forever. You must follow every order given to you, but your abilities may be improved in the future if you perform well.
The boy seems to have a powerful secret, I always knew he was different from the others.
"Follow you for the rest of my life? That's no different from what I'm already doing, I accept!" the dragon released a light roar that he cut short when the cave began to shake.
Uri felt his mind being suppressed by a powerful force, preventing him from even thinking about the blue text box that had appeared. Even if Uri wanted to, he couldn't say anything about the System.
The dragon could tell that this was just a method to keep William's secrets hidden, but the presence he felt made him feel uneasy.
Just how strong is William? Did he create this, or is there a powerful being even stronger than Master Riyald? There's no way that someone who hadn't Ascended could create this!
On William's end, he received a positive notification from the System that Flame Dragon Uri had been added to his Companion Beast Menu. He could now check the dragon's status, and there was even an option to upgrade his Potential.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any rewards since he didn't hatch Uri from an egg. Either way it was fine.
--Uri (Flame Dragon): S (10000PP to next rank)
--Atticus (Mythical Rat Snake): B (25000PP to next rank)
He's two ranks higher than Atticus, but his upgrade is still cheaper...How powerful will Atticus be when he's S-Rank?
William had added Uri to his Companion Beasts for a few reasons. The first was because the dragon was very loyal even without being controlled by the System and William wanted to give back to him in the future by improving his potential.
The second reason was for his own Potential Points gain. If Uri killed Magical Beasts before, William wouldn't earn anything. But now, he could passively earn Potential Points without even lifting a finger!
It was a win-win situation, and Uri didn't seem to mind at all that his life was at the hands of a young man with a bone age of barely twenty. The dragon trusted him completely, having a great sense for a person's character. He could tell that William liked to get into trouble, but he always treated those close to him well.
System, should I upgrade Uri right now, or will there be a Tribulation? William paid five Potential Points for an answer.
-There will be a Tribulation, but his strength will automatically be improved beforehand so there will be a one hundred percent chance of passing. Regardless, the Tribulation will attract unwanted attention.