The First Legendary Beast Master

Dana nodded in acceptance. She hadn't realized that an advancement would have such far-reaching consequences.

Her first thought was to ask Matilda where she was hanging out these days and just got there to advance, but if it was going to cause a huge fight, then they would just be bringing unnecessary trouble to the Chaos Dragon.

Matilda was still protecting this world, even if she wasn't constantly living here, so they might as well take full advantage of that protection to advance in relative safety.

Relative, as Tribulation Lightning was supposed to be dangerous, no matter how prepared you were.

Most of the Myths who reached Tribulation either died or fled from its wrath and failed to advance, and even they were only a small fraction of all Myths who reached the peak.

Actually succeeding was so rare that Dakkarian likely knew the names of everyone in the world who had succeeded in the last ten thousand years.

"We should probably let everyone know that we're going to be doing a thing." Karl noted as Dakkarian opened a portal.

"Is the badger asleep? I had assumed that she had updated everyone already."

Karl checked for her, and found that she was currently operating a betting pool on who would advance first, and how many lightning strikes each of them would get during the tribulation.

"You're right. Never mind. She's already informed everyone."

The black dragon Avatar laughed. "You'll understand once you advance. Your Tiny World's entrance is open, I can tell what's going on inside without physically looking inside."

"Oh, that will be an interesting ability to have. Karl's senses are so much more sensitive than mine." Dana realized.

"I'm sure his senses will still be ridiculously overpowered when he advances, given that he can see souls, and in a larger spectrum of light than most species."

"I can see by echolocation as well." Karl added helpfully.

"See what I mean? Trying to blind him is nearly impossible. But with so many ways to perceive the world, it also opens opportunities for deception. Those with the best senses are the least likely to question what their senses tell them." Dakkarian informed them smugly.

"Oh, that must be one of your abilities. After all, hiding from every sense is too much to ask. But masking yourself and letting the target question their own sense is much easier."

Rae made a mental note of that. If that was the best way to hide, then paranoia wasn't a bug, it was a feature of a successful hunter.

[Until it's used against you, to make you crazy with fake input.] Opal reminded her.

Right, there was a balance there somewhere.

Becoming the perfect Immortal hunter wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped. There were still far too many tricks to learn, using skills that weren't possible even at the Mythic Rank.

Karl followed Dakkarian and Dana through the portal, and then shook out the wings of his Tengu form as icy wind blasted through them.

"Man, how are we supposed to get any work done here? It's like forty degrees below freezing with hundred kilometre an hour winds." He complained.

"I didn't think of that part. Well, I suppose it doesn't matter much either way.

There is a lot of lingering Immortal power here, and the presence of the two of you is already starting to cause a storm.

We will have to separate you onto separate peaks, so that you don't resonate and mess up each other's advancements.

Karl, if you would pick one, I know that you can use a portal, even here."

Karl saw what Dakkarian meant when he tried. There was so much Immortal Power here, and the mana was so unstable from past tribulations, that just trying to open a portal to somewhere in his line of sight was a challenge.

So, he opened it well above the next mountain peak and flew back to the ground.

But as the storm began to gather, he realized that thirty kilometres was not going to be far enough from Dana to stay out of the influence of her tribulation storm.

The clouds were gathering over her head, spreading in a swirling circle, as if there was going to be a tornado, but the lightning in the sky was a rich purple, not any sort of natural shade.

Dakkarian was also backing away now, so that his Immortal presence didn't interfere.

Outside interference could help to some extent, mitigating the damage done by the tribulation lightning, but the Avatar knew that while you could pass the tribulation that way, it would cripple the growth of the Immortal after that point.

For many eons, it had been the standard for helping children advance.

Letting them suffer direct tribulation lightning was seen as cruel and inhumane.

However, the number of years taken to advance one sub rank within the Immortal Realm began to steadily increase with each generation, but they were so far apart that most wrote it off to poor bookkeeping or previous generations bragging about their geniuses.

Only after hundreds of thousands of years did they finally have a researcher graph the trend and realize that either the Immortal Realms were weakening to the point of collapse, or something had gone wrong with their training methods.

The researcher had been a blue dragon, and when Dakkarian went on a tour of the Immortal worlds to stabilize his advancement, he had come across the Library where the records had been collected.

They had dragged him in for nearly five years, analyzing his advancement and growth rate, compared to the normal rates in the Immortal Realm, so they could test the recovery of potential after generations of it being burnt.

It had been an informative time, and a firm confirmation that all blue dragons were the same. No matter where you put them, they just studied different topics.

The storm above Dana was growing fast as Karl moved away, separating them by three mountain peaks. But the tribulation wasn't the only thing that he could sense.

They had visitors.