M-mother?!

At this moment, seeing as how the spear Taku threw did not pose any threat to it, the Python decided to attack.

It shot its large body towards Taku, but just as it was a meter away from him it suddenly threw its head into the air and let out a shrill scream. Taku used this moment to grab Tino and ran.

"How did you know that it would land on the python's body?" tino asked whilst running.

Taku sighed and then smiled wryly. "To be honest it was a bit of a gamble. At the time I could not see the full body of the snake, so I just calculated where the tail might be and I got lucky. But those spears are strong enough to injure a tier 1 beast without us using any Zesa."

Tino smiled and replied. "Those Spears are made from a mineral called Sirivha. It is not a rare mineral, in fact, there is a lot of it back at the Foot Guard. This mineral is very hard and can only really be broken by beasts that are above the second tier but it can help a normal human being fight a tier 1 beast."

The two then looked back to check on the current situation of the python.

The Huge Python was clearly in pain, and as it looked behind it saw the reason for its pain. A large silver spear was lodged into its body. It did not bother to remove the spear as it looked back towards where Taku and Tino were, only to see the two almost several hundred meters away.

The Python did not waste time as it charged towards the two. The boys looked behind and saw it coming so they decided to increase their speed, and it was at this moment that Taku and Tino felt a somewhat warm feeling coming from their stomach going up to their chest area.

They both knew what this signified.

Zesa!

This was the moment that both of them had been waiting for, but it was unfortunate that it came during such a difficult situation. They both needed to find a place to quietly sit and meditate so that they could circulate the strand of Zesa through their meridians and organs.

At the moment they had no way of doing so due to the huge Horned Python that was currently chasing them. If they were able to shake it off then they could freely break through, but this was easier said than done.

The horned Python was famous for its speed and could easily catch up to the two children.

Taku then spoke. "Give me your spear!"

Tino hesitantly gave Taku the spear as he asked. "Do you really think that it will fall for the same trick twice?"

"You would be surprised…." Taku replied as he threw the spear into the air again. To Tino's surprise, Taku had not thrown it towards the snake's tail, but instead, he had thrown it straight up.

"What are you…." before Tino could even finish his sentence a shrill scream sounded out from behind them. Turning around Tino noticed that the python had another spear lodged into its eye. The Python did not bother to pursue them any further after this. It quickly turned around and fled.

The two heaved a sigh of relief as they also fled in the opposite direction. Tino did not have the time to ask any question as the two found an abandoned cave and sat inside in the lotus position.

Taku at the moment was feeling very hot from the energy that was inside of him. This made him think of the small little cub that was in his storage sack. He made a mental note to check on it after he was finished with this matter.

Taku suddenly breathed in deeply to calm himself. Even though it was rare, quite a number of people had failed at this very first step. Back in the guard, the children were given detailed information on the process of breaking through.

He had learned that the first step was rather slow and would take at least a couple of minutes if not hours to finish. But to Taku's surprise, the minute that he controlled the strand of zesa to move, he seemed like he had completely lost control of it as it raced through his meridians and organs.

He knit his brows when he saw this scene. It was safe to say that this was never recorded in any of the information that the Guard gave them but he quickly sighed in relief when he saw that the speed brought no negative effects.

He was just about to relax when suddenly the Zesa inside him moved again and went for a second round of purification.

This greatly shocked Taku, because as far as he knew, when a person senses Zesa for the first time then it would only circulate once. Surprisingly the zesa within him had circulated twice. As soon as the second circulation was completed Taku opened his now bright eyes. Just as he was about to cry out in excitement he realized that his body was sticky all over.

As he noticed this a very pungent smell suddenly penetrated his nose.

After checking on Tino and realizing that he was far from completing his first cycle, he quickly left the cave and then searched for the nearest water source. It was here that he began asking himself questions and attempting to search for any related info inside his head.

It was the first time that he knew of something like double circulation and what really gave Taku a headache was when he realized that he had no organ that was "specially" purified by the Zesa.

All his organs were purified all the same. Taku was hoping to take this chance in order to figure out which class he belonged to, but in the end, he was naturally disappointed.

He had also once heard that a cultivator had attempted to double circulate with his first strand of Zesa, but the result was that the man ended up becoming crippled. So why was he able to do it without any consequence?

Is it because of my two souls?

He knew that there were possibly many reasons as to why this happened. He just had to find a high-level Muroyi to help him figure out the reason for this. The only problem was that it had to be a Muroyi he could trust. At the moment the only person he knew was Saru, but the man was not a person who was easily found.

It had been four whole years since he had met Saru.

He still owed the man a favor for helping him that one time. They had even made an oath so there was no way that he could back out of it.

He could only laugh bitterly when he thought about this.

What Saru had done for him was extremely beneficial to him and he knew that he had to pay back the favor at some point.

But then the whole situation was rather shady. It was a known fact that Saru was one of the most respected cultivators in the whole Gutu Empire, even the King would have to be slightly polite when talking to him. So what did this well respected and powerful Muroyi want from him?

He had racked his brains countless times about the matter but it yielded no results. He had also tried to get some information from Maka when she was escorting him to the Foot Guard, but she would just smile and keep quiet whenever such questions were asked.

When he finished bathing Taku took out a set of clean clothes and wore them. He then sat down and peeked into the storage sack. It had been over a week since he put the cub in the sack and during that week he had checked on it a couple of times, but it had shown no signs of waking up. The minute his eyes landed on the cub, he froze.

This was because the Cub was awake and staring right back at him.

What surprised Taku the most was that this little lion was not looking at him viciously at all, In fact, its gaze contained a hint of gentleness when it looked at him. What surprised Taku the most was that this little creature which looked like it was just newly born already had a mane.

From the knowledge he had from Earth, he knew that it would at least take a couple of years before the mane would grow out. So looking at the cub which had a mane and yet looked like it was barely a month old was very shocking to him. He quickly took out the cub from the sack and placed it in front of him.

Neither made a move as he studied the cub. He noticed that apart from its natural golden color, there were faint streaks of black on its mane and it appeared as though they were beginning to extend to the rest of its body. He had read that most cultivators could forcibly tame a beast by forming a master-servant contract. He had thought about doing so with this little creature but after studying it for some time he decided against it.

At the moment he was not in a position in which he could cater to the little lion. He had to rush to find his new teammates and if they met with danger he was not confident that he could protect it. He had thought of putting it back in his storage sack but ultimately thought against it.

Tino had told him that it was not a suitable place for living beings. Even when the cub was unconscious he had to take it out frequently in order for it not to die.

It was a very annoying process and he did not want to go through it again. The only option he had was to let the little guy go. He tried, by all means, to make the cub move and go, but the little lion just stood there and stared at him blankly. After noticing that the cub did not have any intentions of leaving, he just shook his head and decided to give his body another look.

He closed his eyes and used his soul power to examine his body. He was in no rush to check on his Zvikanganwahama because he already knew which elements he had. He did a quick survey on his body and noticed that each organ was at least five times sturdier than before. He knew that this was one of the effects of purifying your organs using Zesa, but he still felt like the results were rather outrageous.

The whole check-up took at least twenty minutes, and after opening his eyes he was shocked to find that the Cub was still standing in front of him, just staring blankly at him. He could only shake his head when he saw this.

He could not figure out why the little cub refused to leave.

After throwing the issue at the back of his head Taku stood up and began walking back to the cave. After walking for a couple of seconds, Taku looked back and saw that the little cub was quietly following behind him. He just smiled and did not attempt to chase it away, he had attempted to before and had failed miserably.

Just as he got to the cave entrance he noticed that there was a silhouette of a young man standing inside the cave with an excited expression.

Seeing Tino's excited expression, Taku could not help but ask. "You're done? Feels good doesn't it?"

"It feels great! Well apart from the horrible smell it feels awesome! So this is the first sublevel of the Pamamonya level. Hehe… my goal is the peak!" Tino replied.

Taku laughed as he directed Tino to the little lake he had found. Tino hurried there and came back only after 20 minutes. Just as he entered the cave again, his footsteps suddenly froze when he noticed the creature lying next to Taku. He couldn't help but point.

"That…"

"Oh, this…" Taku reacted. "This is that little cub we saved that day. I have tried chasing it away but it just won't go away. You can try to form a contract with it if you want."

Hearing this Tino's eyes suddenly lit up, but almost immediately he suppressed his excitement and said. "As much as I would love that, I don't think this beast is suited for me. Plus it followed you back for a reason. To be honest most beasts would have run off by now."

"Yeah…" Taku then stared at the cub before continuing. "I have been trying to think of a reason but nothing makes any sense at the moment."

"Maybe it sees you as its mother…" Tino responded