After a few seconds, Karl found that it was easier to have the new feature form in all three spaces evenly, as an imbalance in them was going to cause him to have to alternate.
That proved to Karl that this was definitely something different than he had done before, as the other additions to the spaces he had been able to add freely to each of them independently, they were just decorations.
It was only after the basics of the new power cores in the spaces were in balance and properly formed that the energy increases started to spread between them, keeping the three focal points in balance naturally.
Hopefully, doing things this way wouldn’t preclude him from forming another space, as Karl got the feeling that he should be able to add another one when he reached Commander Rank. The natural progression seemed to be one per Rank, but he had rushed things when he bonded both Thor and Rae at the same time, so he was going to have to advance through Ascended just trying to recover from the damage he did to his progression.
If there was another Beast Master in the future, he would be certain to warn them not to try that, and to take things in the proper order, but until then, he was going to have to use himself and his partners as guinea pigs to see what worked and what didn’t.
Hawk was quite certain that wasn’t a good thing. Guinea pigs were a species of mouse, as far as he was concerned, and you never wanted to be the mouse. But if it was going to make him a Commander, then he would submit to some experiments.
Thor thought that trying new things was pretty good. The sun was warm on his scales, and it was very comfortable to lay in his pond full of shiny rocks.
Those shiny rocks were having a rather profound effect on his pond now that Karl was adding the new sun to the area as well. They glowed in the light, making the pond shimmer, and Karl could feel the energy emanating from them to be soaked up by the lounging Cerro.
At this rate, they weren’t even wrong to call him Brother Karl because he was going to end up with a Holy Beast in his menagerie.
Now, exactly which God or Goddess would find the Cerro to be sacred was a question, but going by the responses he had gotten so far, it could be any of them. Even the War Priestesses thought that he made a mighty steed.
Thor preened in pride at the idea of being as valuable as a mount, while Rae giggled at the memory of Lotus riding her through the trees.
While Karl might not be much of a mounted combatant, and preferred to use his own two legs, that didn’t deter the Priestesses from finding faster methods of transport than simply running places.
The only one in the group who was faster than Karl was Hawk, or possibly Rae on open ground, which she preferred to avoid if at all possible.
As he worked, Karl took an inventory of all the random items that the beasts had been collecting. Mostly it was just body parts in two of the spaces, and plants in Thor’s, but as Karl searched, he found a number of gems and trinkets in both Hawk and Rae’s spaces, left on bodies or carelessly tossed on the ground.
That was odd, as he couldn’t forcefully put such things in the space, and Karl had assumed that they couldn’t enter at all. But once he looked at them more closely, it was easy to tell that they all had something in common.
[Flame Ruby: Usable by Hawk] combines with zombie ash and phoenix down to trigger a constitution improvement.
Well, they definitely didn’t have any down feathers from a Phoenix, so that one would have to wait.
Damaged: [Ring of Giant Strength: Usable by Thor] should be crushed to powder and combined with red veined Alum Fern and ground Drake Scales for an improvement in physical power.
That one might actually be plausible. The inspection of the damaged ring, which was cracked open by an attack, highlighted the other two ingredients in Karl’s vision, and he mentally pulled them over as he worked on the energy focus in the three spaces.
Grinding the items in the mental space only took a little effort, and left him with a pile of powder that Karl sprinkled over some of Thor’s favourite feed, which he moved next to the pond, so the Cerro didn’t have to stop soaking to test the improvement.
Free food was free food, and he didn’t even have to get up to eat them, but Thor was slightly disappointed when there was no instant and massive change in his body after completing the snack.
He could feel extra power in his body, but he was also soaking in the pond full of Holy Stones, so that was fairly normal. It was also the only way that his growth could keep up with Hawk, who had evolved, and Rae, who would make Commander on her own if given enough time.
[Don’t worry about it too much. I’m sure we will see the results the next time we’re in combat.] Karl assured the Cerro as he continued his work to improve the spaces.
He had totally lost track of time, so it was a shock when a gentle rustling noise alerted him to movement in the room.
“It’s dinner, and there will be plenty of curious people waiting to meet you. The Beast Master who made Ascended in the first semester at school is a hot topic, even here in the Capital. Normally, both you and Dana would be the centre of attention for your growth rate, but with your most recent advancement, it looks like you will be stealing the spotlight from her for the moment.” Brother Choi whispered.
Karl chuckled. “I’m sure she doesn’t mind too much. You should have seen her face when she found out that the school wanted her to become an Idol. The next Archmage, singing and dancing by night, Elite Mage by day. They even had a career path planned for her by the end of the day after she made Awakened.”
The Monk smiled back. “You say that like it’s in the past tense, but you should know that those dramatic old crones won’t give up that easily. What is the phrase? Living life vicariously through others? They can’t become pop idols themselves, so they will stop at nothing to be known as the force behind the next great Idol.”
That description seemed to fit the middle-aged ladies of the dance and vocal training classes exceptionally well. They weren’t Elites, nor were they famous actresses, singers or songwriters. They were the behind-the-scenes staff who had tried but never really made it to a professional level before being forced to support those who surpassed them, and it had made them bitter and jaded.
At least in the magic and combat specialties, the people training you had real skills, not just a talent for teaching others to use their skills.
Though even that was questionable. The Classes who had an aptitude for singing, like the Bards, would get magical enhancements to their voices, rhythm and even their looks, so the value of the teachers in that department really was suspect.
Karl’s mind was still on Dana’s unfortunate life plan when he saw her coming out of the showers in the same hassock he was wearing, with her deep chocolate curls still wet and bouncing all around her face.
He couldn’t blame the teachers for wanting to make her an Idol. Not when she was standing right in front of him, looking like a wingless angel.
“Sister Lotus, Sister Tessa, it’s good to see you again. I met with an old friend of yours not long ago.” Choi greeted the two clerics as they came out behind Dana.
“So I heard. Nathan ran past us like someone had lit him on fire, and apparently made quite the spectacle of himself. Someone really should convince him to go to the therapist more frequently. He’s never going to get better if just the memory of being turned down by Lotus is enough to make him like that, even after all this time.” Tessa agreed.
While she had a point, everyone else was more interested in what Tessa had done to him over the years that her name also elicited a trauma response.
