Chapter 720: The Phenomenon

Moon looked up at the sky where the vision of the flowing river had appeared and vanished, that inexplicable feeling of closeness still lingering in his chest, something that had reached down out of the heavens specifically for the newborn creature at his side.

What legacy is it giving you right now? What legendary path are you walking, somewhere I can’t follow?

He didn’t have the answer. He could only wait, waiting in the quiet after the storm, watching over his unconscious turtle as it journeyed somewhere Moon himself had only been once.

A slow, awed smile crossed his face.

"Whatever you come back with," he murmured, resting a hand gently on the golden shell, "I have a feeling it’s going to be good."

Outside, the storm had fully cleared, the sky calm once more, as though the heavens themselves were holding their breath, waiting for the little turtle to return from the River.

Moon decided to store Honeybun inside his beast taming space.

Entering the River of Paths was done through the mind, the consciousness drawn into that vast and ancient current. Any interruption to that process could cause a backlash, and Moon didn’t dare imagine what a disruption might do to his newborn turtle mid-journey. The safest place for Honeybun to weather the experience was within the protected sanctuary of his beast space, sealed away from any external disturbance.

With a thought, he withdrew the unconscious turtle into his beast taming space, then closed his eyes and turned his focus internally, checking carefully that the transition hadn’t disrupted anything.

Several seconds passed.

Moon opened his eyes and exhaled in relief.

Everything was fine. Honeybun rested peacefully within, its consciousness still walking the River, its body safe and undisturbed. Exactly as he’d hoped.

He glanced at Mirage.

"Let’s head back to Earth."

He swung up onto the white steed’s back and dismissed the Lesser Elf Beast Soul with a thought, the southern commander dissolving back into his summon pool. Then he set off down the slope from the pavilion’s peak.

Partway down, he crossed paths with Talan and the brute, both of them alive and whole after their respawns.

"Boss! Thank you for saving us back there," Talan called out. "That panther had me dead to rights."

"We owe you," the brute added. "Again."

Moon simply smiled and gave them a wave, not stopping, letting Mirage carry him steadily down the slope and onward. "I will see you guys another time!"

The two men watched their boss ride away, and Talan let out a slow breath.

"You know," he said, "we’re seriously lucky to have a boss like him. He is always saving our asses, the debt is too much for us to pay... we can only work hard."

"Not just lucky, we are blessed," the brute agreed solemnly. Then his expression brightened as a thought passed by, "Which is exactly why the King’s Chamber isn’t good enough yet."

Talan’s eyes lit up. "You’re thinking what I’m thinking."

"Gold trim and a bigger throne. Something that says Base Lord the second you walk in."

The two of them stood at the bottom of the slope, entirely forgetting the beast attack they’d just survived, heads bent together, already sketching out grand redesigns in the air with their hands, grinning like a pair of craftsmen who’d just been handed their dream commission.

"We’ll start the moment we finish cleaning up the area," Talan declared.

"He’s going to love it," the brute said confidently.

Neither of them considered, even for a second, that Moon had already told them a simple room would have been enough.

Moon entered the gate with Mirage and returned to Earth.

He paid the exit fee to the two Evolvers guarding the gate, then set off toward the nearest Association branch, only a few minutes away at his pace.

Inside the branch, he handled the relevant paperwork to register Mirage as a companion beast. The process, which could be a bureaucratic ordeal for ordinary fighters, went smoothly and quickly given his status and fame. Normally, registering a companion beast required proof of a beast-tamer class, but Moon needed no such thing. His reputation and power were more than enough to satisfy the officials, who processed his request with deference rather than scrutiny.

He did, of course, have a beast-taming class skill. But the Association had no business knowing that, at least not yet.

Moon preferred to reveal his abilities slowly, one at a time, and to reframe their source as he went. Rather than let anyone learn he possessed a Classless class that could copy others, he was gradually building a different narrative. That his diverse abilities came from having opened a unique path in the River of Paths.

I have Alaric to thank for that.

After Alaric had gone public with the concept of the River of Paths, revealing that fighters could reach beyond the confines of their class, he’d handed Moon the perfect alibi. Now, whenever Moon displayed some impossible versatility, people attributed it to the same mysterious source that Alaric spoke of. It was the ideal cover, close enough to a truth people already accepted, far enough from the real mechanism to keep his true nature hidden.

With the paperwork done, Moon made his way to the Trading Center.

He entered and used his card to ascend toward the twentieth level, where the higher-tier goods were kept.

To his surprise, his card refused him access. The floor that housed Surpasser-ranked items and other premium goods was locked to him. After a brief conversation with the grand manager, whom he asked for directly, the issue was resolved. His card was upgraded to VVIP status, granting him access to the higher floor despite him not being a Surpasser himself.

He was one of the very few exceptions the Trading Center ever made.

It was a strict rule of the establishment that no one could shop above their rank. Awakeners couldn’t purchase what Evolvers had access to, Evolvers couldn’t buy what Surpassers could, and so on up the ladder. The system kept dangerous materials out of unready hands and preserved the value hierarchy the Center depended on. For the grand manager to bend that rule and grant Moon access to the Surpasser floor was a significant courtesy, one extended only because of exactly who Moon had become.

Ten minutes later, Moon walked back out of the Trading Center, having spent $40,000,000.

But the purchase was well worth it. Two Surpasser-rank beast corpses, prime meals for Honeybun to devour once it returned from the River of Paths, each one another leap in the little turtle’s explosive growth. And a fresh supply of rune materials, for his own runesmithing activities.

’I will create some skill-runes and store Thunderclap Raiju, and others in them for emergencies.’

Moon tucked the storage ring away, already imagining how much stronger Honeybun would be after consuming two Surpasser corpses, and set off toward home, another productive day behind him.

Arriving back home, Moon found Selene and Yara seated on the couch watching a show, wearing soft, silk pajamas.

Hearing the door open, Selene turned her head towards the door where Moon entered. With a knowing smile, she said, "Got into any trouble?"

Moon’s mouth twitched, "...Sigh."