Liam began with telling the Elder where the Royal academy was, their transportation methods, their protections and numbers, as well as the teachings he learned from his classes.
The Binding Oath no longer bound Liam.
He was free to divulge any information about the academy. He went as far as giving the names of his teachers, starting with the Headmaster.
All the while, he was fondling the giant Octopus and manipulating its body in different ways.
A solid hour passed.
Now and again, the Octopus would jolt awake and attempt to ensnare Liam’s body, but a slap by the Elder put it to sleep again.
Eventually, Elder Jane raised a hand.
“You can stop. I can’t use most of the information you gave me… but the knowledge you have from your classes can prove useful.”
“The Disciples and Shadows have forging and inscribing methods that can benefit from that. Write down anything that pertains to that and give it to me.”
“With that, you can keep the Shifter.”
Liam suppressed a smile and nodded.
A Rank 4 beast!
All his!
Liam felt excitement bubbling up. ．
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. You still need to feed and take care of it. Usually, Rank 4’s eat up to four to five Rank 3’s. And I won’t always be available to subdue it for you.”
Although Elder Jane meant to mock Liam for his decision, it was barely an inconvenience for what he gained in return.
Besides, having an Elder there was not necessary. Even Krel and Ruth were sufficient enough for a backup, though he didn’t feel comfortable with them spying on his work.
‘The Octopus is smart. Maybe it can recognize me as its caretaker once I feed it enough.’
The chances of something like that were slim.
Magical/Spiritual beasts were prideful creatures, and their pride only grew with their Rank.
Though, none of them came close to the Octopus’ intellect.
Liam did a few more experiments with the creature.
He took out a blade and cut off a small portion of it.
It awoke from its sleep, thinking it was under attack, but another firm slap from Elder Jane sent the Shifter back into the void.
Liam stored the cut off piece of flesh, and Elder Jane put the Octopus back into the inscribed cage.
“I’ll start feeding him after roughly a month. My body suffered too much during the hunt.”
Sighing, Elder Jane nodded after a short pause.
///
After buying a set of nourishing pills with his new merits, Liam went back to his room, a pensive expression on his face.
He took out the piece of flesh he cut off the octopus, dripping with liquid darkness. It was pure black, and still pulsing with movement.
However, if Liam applied force to a part of it, it would flicker with countless different colors.
Also, its surface would also change shape. Hardening into a scale-like material, or growing fur and spikes.
All octopuses had the ability to change their color.
Yet the Shifter took it to the absolute extreme.
Liam fell into thought.
He had a few theories of how he could make a body tempering method.
The Octopus could act like a vessel for his Ashura and Human side.
A mold of sorts.
The Shifter moved in any and every direction possible, and had no fixed structure, making it the perfect body to attack and defend with.
However, its base form was incredibly weak, enough to be slapped around and humiliated by lower Ranking beings.
However, that could be fixed if his Ashura strength was transferred to it.
Liam imagined how powerful something like that could be.
He would practically be invincible.
‘I could change the shape of my gauntlets to form swords. I can raise my height or grow in size. The possibilities only depend on my imagination.’
The absorption abilities of the octopus paired with the hardened muscle of an Ashura was bound to create something beyond imagination.
And lastly, Liam only needed to transfer his core and sea of consciousness over to the vessel.
…Only, he knew how to do exactly none of those things!
‘It sounds too perfect to be true,’ Liam thought. ‘But not impossible. Probably.’
His greed and hunger for power churned at the thought of it.
Liam knew he was in over his head.
‘But I have to find a way to do that anyways. I still have my deal with the Kitsune to take care of.’
Although he was absolutely sure making a body-tempering method like that at his current level wasn’t possible, he couldn’t say the same once he advanced to a higher Rank.
Learning how to transfer the sea of consciousness early on would probably do wonders once Liam had to find a way to resuscitate the Kitsune.
He studied the piece of flesh for a few more hours, before taking out a large parchment of paper and writing down any useful knowledge he had about inscribing or forging.
The next day, Krel came and took the parchment, before giving it back to Elder Jane.
Liam still wasn’t in a condition to cultivate.
The drawbacks from transforming still weighed heavily against his body. It was through sheer will alone (and the occasional drug) that he was able to stand.
He only lightly trained his mental sphere and absorbed ‘Ora’ into his bones, before putting his head to sleep.
In the coming weeks, Liam took on a different project.
Attempting to make a low ranking spell.
Liam would pause every other project and work solely towards making an effective spell.
‘I’ve already gotten good enough with the Blood Arts to start. I’ll never improve if I don’t start somewhere.’
With that, Liam brainstormed on what spell he should working on inscribing.
He already had enough spells for darkness… but none for chaos.
In the first place, was chaos something he could make into a spell?
That’s exactly what Liam began to work on throughout the month.
At a point, he started to cultivate normally, and all his centers of power grew in strength. He gave the Shifter a visit now and again, but the creature still hated Liam with a burning passion.
Then, on the second day of the third week, Liam had succeeded in making a spell for his chaos.