A week later, I was leaving Shanghai, Mingzhu University, and the damn Magic Court, which absolutely did not want to let me go. Tang Yue wanted to send me after Xiao He, a bastard with the Curse element, but I stated that she would manage perfectly fine without me and wrote a request for two months of vacation.
After reading it and realizing how much I wanted to get away, my mentor was quite shocked. As a result, we argued, made up, argued again, and finally, she let me go. But she promised to kill me at the first convenient opportunity.
I remembered that in the original story, she went on this mission with Mo Fan, where he obtained a powerful Soul Seed. Of course, I could have taken it, but I didn't want to interfere with the main character's development; he still has to stop the empire of sea monsters and destroy the Holy City. I have no desire to do that myself, so we won't get in the main character's way; we'll focus on our own development.
Right now, I decided to obtain a contracted beast for myself, specifically an Ice Hippogriff. These were flying monsters, mostly at the Warrior level, but I was aiming for a completely different level.
Recently, in the mountains of Tibet, a group of hunters consisting of Super Mages discovered that the head of a monster tribe, a High Commander, had laid a clutch and was gathering seeds from the entire area.
These mages tried to obtain a Soul Seed but almost died and sold the information to the Hunter's Union for a symbolic sum. It's unlikely that a hero would be found who would try to rob the nest of a High Commander and manage to stay alive.
But I have a good cheat for such tasks: by moving into the shadow, I cross into another dimension, albeit one parallel to ours. Thanks to this property of my shadow, the hippogriff mother will lose me and won't be able to track her eggs. The main thing is to get far enough away that she couldn't even theoretically detect me, and even better, to find a scapegoat who can distract her while I rob the nest and won't die immediately.
I have an approximate plan for the operation; the main thing is to play it all correctly. As a result of this excursion, I will be able to enrich myself significantly and obtain a good contracted creature. It's worth mentioning that hippogriffs, starting from the Ruler level, awaken a dragon lineage, and instead of fur and feathers, they are covered in scales capable of scattering weak magical attacks. In themselves, these creatures are a mix of lions and eagles. From lions, they have a body with four strong clawed paws; from eagles, a head with a strong, predatory beak and wings on the back. Awakening the secondary dragon lineage, they begin to be covered in scales, and besides increasing their already enormous physical strength and resilience, they begin to use Wind and Ice magic.
The hippogriff tribe nests on the Kailash Range in Tibet, and the nest of their commander is located on Mount Kailash, the highest point in the area, neighboring a tribe of Ice Eagles. These are the ones I want to use in my plan.
I don't intend to approach the Commanders themselves on either side; it's enough to pit their Warriors against each other to start a big brawl. For this, I will send wasps with a Source of Madness. There isn't a single settlement nearby for thousands of kilometers, and the tribes share a common border. At the same time, I'll be doing a good deed. After all, if both tribes suffer serious losses, they won't expand, remaining in their habitat.
When the big brawl between eagles and hippogriffs begins, the mad monsters certainly won't listen to their rulers, for only rage will remain in their bird brains, and the rulers will have to intervene in the skirmish. After a fight with his neighbor, the hippogriff ruler will definitely have no time for me.
By the way, besides their queen, they also have a king, also a Commander but of a lower tier; the clutch is likely from him, and the descendants of two Commanders can become Commanders themselves. Obtaining such contracted beasts is a great stroke of luck; surely the eggs will be worth insane amounts of money. Of course, one could try to find descendants of Emperors, but that is impossible in principle. And I don't intend to get anywhere near such beings until I reach the Forbidden Curse level; even with my shadow, it's pure suicide.
***
Arriving in Tibet, I immediately headed into the wild zone. Along the way, I intend to kill as many Servants and Warriors as possible. The ring also needs to be developed, and it's time to start strengthening the stars with souls. I don't have many classical ways of strengthening anyway, so I can at least try to open the fourth or fifth tier at the Basic level; I'll start with Spirit, then Poison, then Shadow. The Summoning element won't be able to provide much in this regard besides feeding the monsters themselves with energy and their faster development, so we'll strengthen that with whatever is left. I could even catch the edge of the tribal battle, though to hell with them. The risk is too high; it's better not to go anywhere near there. The sensory skills of Commanders are conceptually different from their weaker relatives. So it's decided—we're heading in the opposite direction and hitting weaker beasts.
***
An Fire Fox Warrior was moving very fast, but my reaction was at the level of a weak Warrior, and I could keep track of it. Here I hit its brain with Spirit; it freezes for a moment and is pierced by two Shadow Spikes. I don't use the third tier; wouldn't want to damage its soul in case a whole one drops. A dozen wasps with my strongest poison head to the victim and immediately attack. Standing for a bit, it calms down and stops struggling against the shackles. Another five seconds pass, and a whole soul rushes to my talisman. I don't stop it; my two vessels are already full, and this one, after the ring drinks energy from it, will go to strengthening. Five vessels for Servants are also full.
The journey to the Kailash Range took me three weeks. During this time, I killed about a hundred Warriors and about a thousand Servants. After all, I can use Basic level spells like a machine gun, and the energy, thanks to the constant feeding of the amulet with souls, doesn't have time to run out. I noticed this very useful ability of my ring when it absorbed the first whole soul during my march; after that, I fully recovered magically in almost an hour. Considering that a soul dropped from practically every thirtieth monster, I had no shortage of energy. I even tried to attack a Ruler-level monster once, but still couldn't kill it, although my poison battered it severely, it was still not enough, and I almost died, diving into the shadow at the last moment and getting out of there for safety.
My amulet finally opened an internal space and began to produce synthetic souls from fragments; selling these souls won't work, but they are perfect for strengthening my stars; so far not a single one was ready, but I already saw how smaller pieces were being soldered to the largest fragments.
Today I approached the goal of my journey, the Kailash Range. From here I need to cover about two thousand more kilometers and I will see Mount Kailash. That's roughly when all the fun will begin, because a battle of Commander-level beings is a legendary event in itself; perhaps one of them will die and the mountains will plunge into anarchy until a new strong ruler arrives. But one thing is clear: during the fight, the clutch, if guarded at all, won't be guarded too strongly; all the strongest representatives will be participating in the battle. Well, it's time!
***
Another week passed; during this time, I explored the field of the upcoming battle far and wide; it was a perfect place for me. A gorge, about two kilometers deep and twenty kilometers long, separated the borders of the monster tribes. It was about six hundred meters wide, and on both sides, one could notice representatives of various monster species; there were even representatives of Ruler class, apparently acting as a deterrent here.
Taking a deep breath and mentally crossing myself, I appeared first on the side of the Ice Eagle tribe. Their commander felt something and began to look around, but with Spirit magic at the third spiritual boundary, I tried to hide my presence as much as possible.
With all possible speed, I composed the Poisonous Wasps spell, focusing on the star where the Source of Madness was located. The first spell, then immediately the second. Each took about two seconds. But this time seemed like an eternity to me. I assigned each wasp a separate target; I hope this amount is enough, and the main thing is that they start.
Sending my wasps to the targets, I quickly began moving to the other edge of the cliff.
The hippogriffs on the opposite side were very alert and looking at the opposite side, from where a wild bird screeching was already starting to be heard. Managing to get behind them, I appeared on the surface again, hiding my presence. They didn't even pay attention to the slight fluctuation of magic. They were focused on the monsters approaching them. Also creating two spells, I sent them to the hippogriffs who didn't expect such an underhanded attack.
For a second nothing happened, and then a new wild roar rang out—it was the hippogriff leader roaring; it was clear he was trying to resist, but gradually rage took over. Moreover, the opponents had already approached closely. This became the trigger, and he commanded an attack.
All, even the non-poisoned monsters, rushed into a furious brawl; feathers, pieces of flesh began to fly from the sky, and blood poured. Soon the first dead fighters began to fall to the ground. Junior Warriors, but the beginning was already made. The fight was playing out more and more fiercely, and monsters from the whole area began to join the battle. I also noticed several flying Rulers. Time to get out. Soon Commanders might join the battle, and I don't know for sure if I can hide from them in the shadow dimension.
My shadow quickly rushed toward Mount Kailash. The clutch itself should be at the top of the mountain; this species of monsters doesn't settle in nests or deep caves. Usually, they hollow out niches on sheer cliffs. Watching the mountain, I saw where a huge, silvery hippogriff was flying with its prey; I think it was a male carrying prey to his queen while she was incubating the eggs. Already approaching the place, I felt a simply terrifying pressure, and then a roar rang out that sent snow avalanches down.
From behind the mountain, shining in the sun, a blinding silhouette of a huge dragon flew out; only looking closely could one notice the characteristic features of a hippogriff; after it flew all the other representatives of its tribe. The pressure of this monster was so great that I almost lost consciousness even while in the shadow dimension. There was no question of protecting my mind with the Spirit element. I couldn't even think, only tremble from the understanding of the power flying nearby.
This Monster was followed by a silhouette about half its size, but also possessing monstrous pressure.
And what's most terrifying, a similar roar rang out from the side where I came from. Soon a battle of two High Commanders will occur. The lords of these lands, and even the echoes of this battle can smear me across the local rocks.
When the monsters flew past me, for a second I thought about getting the hell out of there. But the mere thought that in the future I could possess such power immediately cleared my mind.
When I approached a huge hole in the rock, echoes of terrifying magical power began to ring out from the side of the battle. Surely all the monsters nearby won't survive this. In the hollow itself were two Rulers and a dozen high Warriors. It was to be expected that the mother wouldn't leave the clutch unguarded. Surely these are the older brothers and sisters of my future contracted beast.
Emerging next to the hollow, I again began creating poisonous wasps with the Source of Madness instead of poison. One, two, three. Poison element finished! The star's energy ran out. But this was enough. All the monsters in the nest fell into a rage. And they knew who to take that rage out on!
The monsters rushed out of the nest toward the unfolding battle. At that moment, I moved to the clutch itself and simply stood stunned. There were so many valuable resources here.
A huge number of Ice and Wind elemental stones, a heap of mana-saturated herbs, remains of various Ruler-level monsters. Six Ice Spirit Seeds. Two Soul Seeds, one false, just evolved, one small, and the real cherry on top of the huge resource cake: one large Ice Soul Seed, surely with a domain. Apparently, that hunter team was looking for it. Such a thing costs about 250-300 million.
Of course, I suspected there would be a lot of resources here, but this!
Thank God, I was well prepared. Long ago I decided to become a hunter who goes on long raids, and so as not to regret it in the future, I bought ten containers for Spirit Seeds, five for Soul Seeds, and one for Heavenly Seeds. They came in handy much earlier. Except the vessel for a Heavenly Seed will remain empty.
Quickly gathering all the seeds into containers, I threw all the other loot, without even sorting it, into the ring. The eggs, four in total, I placed in a special bag. Scanning everything around with spiritual perception one last time, I applied the hundred-and-first karate move—specifically, I started running away from there at full speed.
After a couple of hours, having moved a couple of hundred kilometers away, a furious roar full of pain and despair caught up with me.
Just as I managed to catch my breath and put up a Mind Wall, echoes of the battle of the two High Commanders reached me again. To hell with it! No more treats will lure me into these damn mountains again!
After half a month, I reached a safe zone, from where I flew back to Shanghai by plane; I wildly wanted to get drunk and take a bath, which I did, only in reverse order. I drank a bottle of the best whiskey alone that day and finally, for the first time in a month and a half, fell asleep like a baby.
***
The next day, I entered the Zhao clan auction house. The same pleasant little man was standing there.
"Oh! Hello, young man! Please the old man, tell me you've come again with excellent souls."
"Why not please you? With souls too. But this time there's too much goods; is there a private office?"
The old man pressed some button and said:
"Wait a second."
Soon a young girl came out to him. He whispered something in her ear and gestured for me to follow him. We went into an office with rich decoration made of carved wood; in the middle stood a table with two soft leather armchairs. On the table lay various tools needed for appraising goods. The man pulled out a chair and invited me to sit. Sitting opposite me, he said:
"Come now, young man, satisfy the curiosity of this old man, take out your goods!"
Before taking everything out, I warned him:
"Do you understand the situation? My team is very careful, but this time we took a very large haul, so we would like to remain incognito."
"You don't need to worry about that, young man; our auction house will not disclose any information about suppliers if they so wish. Believe me, our clan has enough strength to defend its point of view, and information about you will not fall into third hands; if there is a leak, it will definitely not be from our side."
"If you promise to keep me incognito, then we will continue."
"Of course, young man; besides, only a fool would spoil relations with a promising Spirit mage. Especially if a strong team is behind him, and I am sure of that, otherwise you wouldn't have started this conversation. Let's get to business, what do you have?"
First, I took out seven soul vessels, two with Warriors and five with Servants. The man was clearly not impressed. Then I took out six Ice Spirit Seeds; here he already began to be surprised. Then came energy-saturated body parts of various Ruler-level monsters; here his eyes began to round, and he literally dashed from container to container, carefully measuring and recording everything.
"You've surprised me, young man; is there anything else?"
And whole heaps of various herbs, mostly with Ice and Wind elements, were placed on the table. The old man skipped around them for about half an hour, apparently forgetting that he was no longer young. Only after he calmed down and cleared everything from the table, two Ice element seeds were placed on it: one false, the second small. Apparently, the old man had already burned out and studied them calmly.
"Well, young man, I can say without a guilty conscience that the next Zhao clan auction will be dedicated to you. Anything else to surprise me?"
And a bag was placed on the table.
"Here are three eggs. They were laid by the mistress of the Kailash Range in the Tibetan mountains, a hippogriff of High Commander level. After her battle with a snow eagle, my team managed to steal these eggs. How? A secret!"
The man sat and looked at the bag for a long time with an expressionless face. Finally, after a minute, he rebooted and asked:
"Young man, as a representative of that hunter team, wouldn't you like to receive a platinum card for our auction? With it, you will become a member of a closed club and will be able to attend any, even closed events where even forbidden goods can be obtained, and you can also turn to any auction house for help and protection of any kind."
"I would be honored!" and bowed slightly.
"What are you saying? You have no idea how much such eggs cost! It's not even a question of price, but a question of reputation! By putting them up as our main lot, Summoning mages from all over the world will come to our auction! Soul Seeds will only be a warm-up for the audience! To think of it! Descendants of a High Commander with a dragon lineage!"
"I understand you have the necessary equipment for their proper hatching?"
"Of course, young man! You don't need to worry about your goods!"
"Tell me, would it be impertinent to rent one set from you for a while?"
"So there weren't three initially?"
"Our Summoning mage took one egg, but he doesn't know how to hatch it correctly."
"I will immediately write out all the necessary equipment and instructions for you! And if this mage needs resources for its future development, he can safely turn to our auction house!"
"Thank you very much!"
"You're welcome, young man; I am sure this is not our last transaction of such level; this is my business card. I am the manager of this auction house; contact me on any issues!"
I left the auction house only after a couple of hours; Zhao Lyu Yan brought in a whole bunch of assistants; they described all the goods and took them to the warehouse. For me, he laid out a magnificent feast, and a couple of young girls in short skirts performed servant duties. It's quite possible that after lunch one could lay them out right on the table instead of dessert, but I fled home. The owner had started catering to me too much, and that makes me wary. All the equipment needed for hatching was in my ring. And I quickly set up an analog of an incubator for a thirty-centimeter egg in a spare room.
The auction, by the way, will only start at the end of October. For many prominent mages from all over the world will want to visit it, and for that, time needs to be carefully planned.
I hope they bring me a lot of money!!!