The legacy of Keeling (1)

In the Universe, there were very many talented and skilled powerful individuals. With such a strong combined force, almost everything that could be thought of was possible. One just needed to think about it and someone would actualize it.

Similarly, the horse was also a preferred mount in many civilizations. The power and strength that this beast wielded were only second to its submission to sentient beings, especially bipedal. It had proved a proper companion in almost every situation.

When someone achieved godhood or demigodhood, they were able to exhibit insane power. This power wasn't limited to fighting. Among the Supers, many were researchers, forgers, alchemists and all manner of trades. With the infusion of abilities, the end products were always a marvel.

Yet, for the entire universe, there was one thing that was agreed upon, a pegasus was an impossibility. A flying horse, you can imagine the appeal of it. All the advantages of a horse and wings combined.

The only compromise that many had was to make sacred beast pegasuses. Remember, sacred beasts had a guarantee of awakening an ability. As such the wings would manifest as an ability when awakened. The thing about sacred beasts was that they had to be tied to a powerhouse, and from it, they drew their power.

While this was a good thing for some, for many who couldn't afford to be that powerful, it was a pipe dream. They could only watch as the powerful beings and their subordinates enjoyed this privilege. Luckily, there was an alternative.

There were numerous flying beasts, and among them, there were those that could be tamed and become mounts. The more powerful the beast, the better. Even sentient beasts would offer themselves to powerful individuals as pets or mounts when offered sufficient incentive. Many would go to great lengths to ride a legendary beast such as a dragon. These beasts were naturally looked down upon by many of their own as they were considered embarrassing their race. With proper motivation, however, one could overlook such opinions.

For normal mortals, the choices for flying mounts were fairly limited. Among those that could be obtained, the most preferred was the hafiti birds.

This was one of the rarest species of birds in the universe. This was because unlike most, they only occurred naturally in very special planets. Luckily, they could be easily moved and kept as animal husbandry. This was how one of the rarest kinds of birds was moved around the universe. Nowadays, it was a very common species in many mortal planets, but very few mortals knew that the species was not native to their planet.

The Hafiti Birds were very weird looking indeed. Firstly, they stood at the same height and size as a donkey, fully grown. Next, they were quadrupedal, as in, they had four legs, on top of having a pair of wings on their back. The entire body was covered in white and black, kind of like an osprey. Their front pair of legs had claws and hooves on the back.

Any bipedal could climb on their backs and ride them like horses. The drawbacks were that they weren't quite as strong. Similarly, they were of little help in a ground attack. To achieve flight, they had hollow bones, which made them vulnerable to attacks. For those that were able to awaken an ability, they were a tad bit more useful, but their true value lay in flight.

To show how valuable they were, there were tales where a 100 man teams riding on them could take on a heavily fortified castle with more than a 1000 soldiers. If one could fly, then walls and barriers were meaningless.

Of course, these birds were useless to beings who were above Grade B, since from that point onwards individuals could fly on their own using internal energy. If someone was at that level, then they could make short work of a castle, to begin with. Kedan had some distance before he could become that.

When one awakened an ability, they got a measure of power that could be contained inside a body. This power was measured in Onas. This power or energy was the one that could manipulate the elementary particles all around. Given the elementary particles submitted to the mage, it could be thought of that the power itself came from the elementary particles.

The limit to how much influence one had to their element and their range of influence was based on how much power they had. With a proper understanding of the element, one could exert more power and control and have a wider range. It was this kind of understanding, or rather, the enlightenment that triggered a breakthrough.

When one was able to connect with the elements deeper, they wielded better control over the elements. For instance, a thunder elemental mage such as Bamboo could only control the charged ions around him at Grade F+, but as he continued to rise, he would achieve better control over the thunder element.

At Grade E, he would have control of the actual atoms and molecules, and at Grade D, he could be able to mess with the electrons in molecules, while his range would be over a mile. Similarly, at this stage, he would be able to summon a thunderstorm gain favorable conditions.

Another advantage that came with growth in power was that one was no longer limited to just one element. With continued practice, hard work and plenty of resources, one could awaken latent abilities that were otherwise unreachable. For instance, despite not having any ability related to mind control, Dane was quite adept at it as previously demonstrated.

All in all, the horizons were limitless for anyone who had managed to awaken an ability. However, all told, it wasn't that easy to do. The breakthrough was already hard as is, but even then, progressing still required a lot of resources as well.

A small smile broke through Kedan's face. Right now, he had just walked through the secret door into a large open field. The field looked more like a square, each side almost 10 miles wide. There were several large trees, but what was distinct about these trees was that they were almost half a mile long. The tree trunks were 2 meters in diameter. These trees were only found in one other planet, the natural home of the hafiti birds.

Atop each one of these trees were several flocks of these birds, each hafiti bird more impressive than the other. Kedan recognized then immediately, and they were leisurely eating the barks and leaves.

The lady walked on, and Kedan instinctively followed. A glance in the forest made Kedan gasp in shock. Littered all across the forest were resources, weapons, and equipment. Everything that the human resistance needed to rise to the absolute top of the continent. Everything was there, as advertised.

The beautiful woman walked on, and a stupefied Kedan followed her. In truth, he would have gone the same way, as the equipment and resources seemed to be leading deeper into the forest.

Finally, after a long walk, they ended up in a cave. As they went in, Kedan was greeted with a sight to behold. A mountain of Hexham gems. Behind the mountain, there was a Hexham mine which seemed to go on for miles. The entire place was exuding a luminous green light.

"Go up." She said, pointing up the mountain of the gems. Kedan obeyed, and right up there, he found it.

"So this is it, the totem?" He asked excitedly.

"How wrong can you be," she smirked, before turning serious. "Don't you get it, you already found it, sorry, her."

"What do you mean?" Kedan asked as he looked around only, he didn't see her. She had disappeared. It was to be expected, luckily, the construct had served its purpose, and whatever formation that was powering it had served its purpose. Quite a testament to Dane's formation setting, only ...

"... Take care of my consciousness ... "

An eerie sound carried by the wind hit his ears. Kedan's smiled, "try to scare me, bro?"

***

"Alright, this is it, are you ready?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"You sure you ready for this?"

"For the last time, I am ready! You promised you'd let me do this."

"Yes, I remember the promise." and exhausted Kendar said, "and I and not going back on it."

"Thank you thank you thank you!!!!" Alie replied jumping up and down.

Kendar was wondering if he was risking the plan too much, but for the last couple of days, the little boy had been very lonely. Turns out hanging with just a dragon and an old lavel is not the best company, especially when his only companions were in actuality one-person, only Alie didn't know that.

Over the past few days, Kendar had grown quite a liking for the little lavel. His fatherly instincts had kicked in, and he hadn't been a father for quite a long time. It was time to dust off this skill once more.

"Remember the rules!"

"We are only going to the market, buy some material then come back."

This was the second part of his training. Kendar was going to introduce little Alie to a community, a settlement. The boy had always been quite sociable, but he had real horrors in his life. He needed to develop his social aspect.

Given that the lavels were hunters by nature, their life expectancy was based on how if they could continue hunting. However, since this was a sentient community, they wouldn't just abandon their elders, but they did lower their rations to a point where death would come more easily. Therefore, seeing a very old lavel who didn't belong to a settlement was quite surprising.

In some cases, some were maintained by the younger generation, especially if they had suffered losses together. Naturally, in this settlement, when the old lavel and the youth walked in, quite a few heads turned. While the old lavel was quite a sight to see, the youth by his side explained his long life. Many just ignore the 2 as they went about their business.

A young lavel had his eyes wide open. He had never seen so many lavels before. While he had been in a settlement before, it was nothing compared to the one he was now. Putting it in perspective, if the previous settlement he'd been at was a village, this looked like a big town, and they were in a market place.

There were all kinds of lavels and vasils milling about. While in small lavelian settlements, it was a wonder to see a vasil, in larger settlements, they were a common sight. These flying creatures would swoop in, do their trade and leave trying the best to look as marvelous as possible. Yea they were quite the show-offs.

When Alie saw them, his face contorted in hatred. At this point, it wasn't fear that he felt, just blinding rage. He hated the race for being responsible for his loss, and as Kendar observed the youth, he understood where he was coming from.

Yes, he had suffered all that, but now was too early. The boy may be powerful, but he still hadn't reached the height of power he needed before he could be revealed. So Kendar led him down another street.

There were rows of temporary stalls that had been set up where the lavelian merchants were hawking their wares. Kendar saw the one that had what was looking for, and to it, he led his young ward.

Alie was bubbling with joy because of the words that his master had just told him, and he couldn't help his joy. He didn't mind that they were going to buy from a vasilian stall owner.

"Time for you to get a weapon."