Chapter Eighteen

Rushing through the yellow world, Alem was in the lead with the rest behind him. "Tell me again why we're traveling?" Samir asked with a bit of confusion. "Why not stay in the base, where it's safe. We could wait this whole thing out."

"Why would we do that?" Looking at his cousin, Alem asked with annoyance. "Are you really going to stay in one place for a thousand years? That's so boring."

"Atleast it's safe." Shrugging his shoulders, Samir didn't say anything more. "Sandy, look at that." On Alem's shoulder was his little snake. It wrapped its tail around his neck, but kept its head on Alem's shoulder.

It had been a few days since they started walking through the desert. And they only got a bit further from the raided camp. There were small water spots on the way, and even a few brown trees, but nothing else. His group continued to walk for a few more hours. "Alright, let's rest up."

"Alem, why do you think this test is so long?" Nor came closer to the shirtless man and asked. She wanted his input as well.

"Honestly, I have no clue. I'm sure we have around a thousand candidates, but how many are dead by now? Lots of people probably have five pellets, so pushing this test further would probably be dumb." Taking a sip from his wooden water bottle, he wiped his forehead. "I feel the second requirement might be coming up soon, just not as simple as killing."

"I agree. But when? And how does this faction thing count for it?" Nor also went into deep thought.

"Who knows. For now, we should just enjoy our time, right?" He didn't care for the test before, nor did he care now.

Nor looked at him carefully. "What was you cultivation realm before this?" Suddenly, she popped up a weird question.

"Hm?" Raising his eyebrows, he couldn't help but smile. "Why?"

"Just curious."

"I didn't start cultivating." Alem didn't care to hide it at this point. Like what would it change?"

"What? How old are you?" She asked in surprise.

"I should be in early twenties." Since time was a confusing concept at the moment, he only knew he was in his twenties, not any specifics.

"What? And you don't have a cultivation realm?" She got up and became even more shocked.

"Didn't I tell you I'm from a world that didn't really have that?" He said, finding her shock to be funny.

"Well yeah, but you said you escaped the planet, right?" Sitting back down, she rubbed her head a little. "That's so weird. Even the worst in this group have probably cultivated a little. Yet you have nothing. Your cousin is even less likely to have a cultivation realm."

"Oh? I feel that even without a cultivation realm, I could likely still take all of you out." His world, Einnvegr, had beasts which were stronger than lots of low levelled cultivators. The beasts were not things that regular cultivators could normally fight, yet he did.

"Oh really?" Nor snorted. "Believe it or not, but outside of this world, I could likely kill you with a single breath."

"I don't believe it." Compared to the Gur's and their mother, how strong could Nor and her cousins be? "Anyways, tell me how strong you were." Though he knew nothing of cultivation, he had a set of questions that would give him a rough idea of his current strength.

"Me? You would be shocked if I told you." Nor teased, though her face kept straight.

"Try me." Alem looked back with a bland smirk. What could shock him?

"You asked." With he pride increasing a little, Nor couldn't help but feel her body become light. She could finally show off in front of Alem, someone who kept on destroying her ego as a cultivating genius. "You know the basics of cultivation, right?"

"Not really." Alem shrugged. Shameless didn't teach much to him about cultivation. He read a little bit, but it wasn't much information in the end.

"Well, I'm in the Self Realization realm. It's the fifth major realm in the Mortal realm category." Seeing Alem just look at her dully, Nor felt her face rosy up. "Just so you, Self Realization at my age is extremely rare, even in the higher realm. People at my age tend to be stuck Orb Formation even if they're genius'. Also, Orb Formation is the third realm of the Mortal realms!" Snorting, Nor stopped talking. She felt that Alem wasn't worth her time at this point. He didn't understand a thing!

"Oh? Here, stop for a second." Looking at everyone in the group, he smiled before getting onto the ground. "Kir, let me ask you, how much knowledge do you have on beasts?"

Kir walked forward while scratching his head. "I should know lots. I've studied them crazily before the test, plus I have always found animals to be interesting so I have lots back home too."

"Alright, tell me if you recognize any of these beasts." Alem then began to draw three different beasts. One was the final tiger beast he faced during his thousand year battle training. One was the four armed gorilla he saw facing the large wolf that one time. And finally, a Gur. Although the four armed gorilla was not something Alem could face anytime soon, it was a good goal to aim for.

"Huh?" Kir bent over and looked at the rough drawings. "A Starloss? Eviliny? Gur?!" Kir felt his heart pace. "A Starloss is rare since they're supposed to be forsaken tigers of a star. The golden stripes on their body are whips given to their bloodline by the star of their birth. When adults, their strength is in the Immortal realms, the second category after the Mortal realms. Normally, they should be at the Moon Door realm, which is the second major realm of the Immortal realms. Their strength is decent in the Star Tiger race, but they aren't the strongest, just one of the rare kinds."

Alem listened and couldn't help but remember his fight with the Starloss. It was bloody. Yet, he still killed it. "What's their method of fighting?"

"Well, as they've been forsaken by their birth star, the Starloss tend to have extremely powerful bodies. Their teeth are imbued with star essence, which is an extremely powerful Tier 2 essence. Though they don't have their original powers, their main strength actually comes from their body itself." Kir explained with enthusiasm. His interest was easily seen during this moment. Even in the past when he helped rearing the animals in Alem's farms, he didn't show much excitement. "As for the Eviliny, they are considered extremely powerful, beyond the Immortal realms actually. And that's just their physical bodies. At birth, their bodies are imbued with a Tier 3 essence. Once they reach adulthood, their bodies would contain Tier 5 essence, while also being able to use their special bloodline abilities. As for the one in this sketch, it should be an infant. Three eyes represent babies, four for teens, and five for adulthood."

'What the hell? That Eviliny was a baby? He could have squashed me in an instant if not for him being baby minded! I barely escaped that.' Alem felt his back turn cold for the first time. He got so close to a monstrosity such as the Eviliny. 'Wait, if that's just the child, does that mean Einnvegr has a mother? An Adult?!' Alem suddenly thought he stone platform was a wonderful place.

Calming himself a little, he then pointed at the Gur image. "What about these guys, how strong are they?"

"The Gur are conquerer beings." Kir suddenly said with a frown. "Not many have met them as they hide deep in oceans and usually claim ocean planets. Their strength alone is terrifying, having the ability to match Moon Door cultivators with easy. The Star Tiger race is huge, but they are like insects compared to the Gur. Keep in mind, the Star Tigers essentially are born from stars, meaning every star has a group of Star Tigers." Alem did the math and couldn't help but frown.

'Even if there are five Star Tigers for each star, there are still trillions of stars out there, and that's just our universe, what about larger ones?' He felt the number was astronomical, something he couldn't even fathom.

"But funny enough, despite they're being so many, they are extremely hard to find. Atleast, most in our clan haven't met any. Other than the clan leader and a few other elders, no one has seen any Gur in their life." Kir said with a sigh. He wanted to see rare races like Gur's. They were powerful and somewhat cute to him.

"Ok, you said that they were conquerers, but if their strength is in the Immortal realms, are Eviliny's stronger?" Sure their numbers were mind breaking, but Alem was sure numbers weren't able to fight against real strength. Against a single gun, even tens wouldn't stand a chance. So, what's to say about cultivators who could potentially destroy worlds with breath?

Shaking his head, Kir continued. "The Gur are powerful alone, but that's not the source of their power. They have evolutions." Kir began to draw a huge pyramid. "The Gur are separated in this evolution system. They are born as Gur, then evolve into Magur, then Gugur, Tagur, Sagur, and finally, Gurki." Kir stared at Alem weirdly. "Just so you know, a Magur could decimate groups adult Eviliny's in seconds."

"What the fuck?!" Alem couldn't help but speak in slight excitement. After all, he made friends with the Gur. "Wait, are Magur's the large mother Gur? The one that spit the red ice?"

"How do you know about that creature?" Kir asked with shock.

"What do you mean?" Alem asked with a confused expression. "Gur's live inside them, they're like a package deal, right?"

"You couldn't be further from the truth." Kir said with a trembling expression. "I don't know how you even met this creature or heard about it. It should be classified since the Gur have restricted all information about them. I only know since my dad, the clan lead has accidental met one of these during his travels."

"What are they then? Don't keep me in suspense." Alem felt he was learning information that only the FBI would know back on Earth.

"Alem, the Gur race have only one predator, the Crimson Ice Whales."

"Predator? No no, that can't be right. The Gur called them mother. Plus, the creature was very nice to the Gur, literally saving a single one when in battle." Alem knew what he had seen. Plus he even spoke to it, so how could it be a predator.

"Why would I lie to you?" Kir shook his head. Listen, the Crimson Ice Whales are a malicious race that rear Gur. Despite the Gur being so powerful, these ginormous whales are able to tame them and then munch on them. Since you met one in the past, have you noticed how the red ice has no effect on the Gur?" Alem nodded his head. "Well, that red ice isn't coloured red just because, rather it's because of the Gur eggs! Crimson Ice Whales gather thousands of Gur eggs and destroy them to fuel their red ice, and then rear the Gur in their stomachs until they're ripe. Even Tagur struggled against these whales."

'Shit, how could that be? That's so messed up!' As he briefed internally for his Gur friends, he suddenly had a weird thought. 'Einnvegr is a new world, so how does it already have so many crazy creatures? Is this Shameless' doing?'

"Anyways, why did you ask about all of these guys? Where have you seen them? Can you let me meet these guys one day?" Kir knew that the three creatures, rather four if he counted the whale, were rare beasts that most wouldn't ever see in their life. "I would love to take a Gur home too if I meet one." He spoke with dream filled eyes.

"Well… I actually have killed a Starloss adult before. I couldn't do a thing to the Eviliny, but even a single Gur is weaker than me outside of this place." His biggest reason for asking this was to see where his strength lied. If a singular Gur was weaker than him by a bit, then that meant his strength was atleast at the second major realm of the Immortal realms. 'How crazy.'

"W-what?!" Though Kir was the one explaining the whole time, the one to have the major reaction was Nor. "You're a liar! How could you kill a Starloss? Even a Gur? You're a liar! Without cultivation you can't even breath near them." Nor spoke with disdain written all over her face.

"Alright, I'm a liar." He didn't want to argue. If she didn't believe him, then that was her issue, not his. "Thank's Kir. You really helped me understand this world a bit more. Stay close to the front, I want you to tell more about the various beasts I've seen in my life." Alem spoke with a glimmer in his eyes.

"Sure…" He then turned his head and looked at his angry half-sister. He neared Alem and put his mouth close to his ears. "Listen, are you serious you've killed a Starloss before? Even being stronger than a Gur? Don't get me wrong, but outside of this test world, my cultivation is at the early stages of Mortal Break. It's the final realm in the Mortal realms, but even I wouldn't stand a chance against a Starloss."

"Oh? You're stronger than Nor outside of this world?" Alem couldn't help but find this notion a little funny. A childlike person was so powerful?

"Well, my realm is higher but in the same realm I'm not her match." Kir didn't hide this fact. It wasn't shameful to him.

Alem nodded his head. "Well, you guys can believe what you want. However, I don't have a reason to lie. You guys are just a few strangers in this strange world." He wasn't being mean, but it was truly such a situation.

"I believe you." Kir didn't have any doubt towards Alem's strength at this point. He was such a mysterious guy and showed so much battle potential, it would be weird if he wasn't so powerful outside. "You could truly wreck all three of us. Haha."

Alem didn't comment further and just shrugged. With Nor still looking at Alem in contempt, and Eli grumbling in the back, the group continued forward.