Undead Beast Master: Living Solely for My Desires

Two weeks had passed relatively quickly. Zaroth had begun to tap into the will of the world, though he still needed much more training before he could use its power effectively in offensive attacks.

Vera, however, was a natural-born talent—or so the naked elf claimed. She wielded the power like it was barely an inconvenience. She could coat her body in protective barriers and infuse her strikes with energy. Though still far from being considered a true threat, her progress was remarkable.

Ari, too, had gained a far better understanding of her abilities. Unlike the others, she was an elf. She seemed to intuitively grasp things, sometimes simply by observing. Her combat strength, along with her control, had improved many times over. She had even sparred with Zaroth and Eldros after their training sessions, managing to match their strength—impressive in its own right.

'Though I wonder if powering up this hothead is really a good idea…' Zaroth thought, glancing at Ari, who was still lying on her bed. In the two weeks since they'd started sharing a room, she'd grown quite comfortable around him and Vera—almost too comfortable. She often wore thin pajamas that barely covered her and looked at least one size too small, clinging tightly to her figure and making it hard to ignore her maturing form.

'I'm not complaining about that, though,' the beast master thought, eyes narrowing.

Half the time they had been granted to learn the elves' power had passed. From this point on, they would not only focus on the will of the world but begin learning about runes as well.

Their teacher fortunately wasn't going to be the naked elf, making Zaroth let out a sigh of relief. While he didn't really feel any kind of attraction toward the seductive woman, with her body constantly on display, it did put a pressure on his mind.

'Still, I expected to be assigned to someone else… not the sleepy one,' he thought, rubbing his nose bridge.

"Well, since you're here, I take it you've managed to learn the will of the world. That makes you the first humans that have. I imagine you were expecting some sort of ceremony, but I won't bother—it's a drag," the elf said lazily, her eyelids struggling to stay open.

"Skip the formalities," Zaroth spoke, beaming with excitement. He was finally going to learn how runes worked!

"I can see that you are excited," their new teacher yawned. "But it's nothing special. You have your own language, right? And to write, you need to know the alphabet."

She said, taking three textbooks and giving them to them. "Here it's the same, you set what you want it to achieve then begin to draw it by infusing it with the will of the world."

She opened her own book to the first page. "Take teleportation, for example. You use a symbol meant for transportation, infuse it with another for living beings, then add modifiers for destination, timing, and power source. And don't forget to make it resistant to time and the elements—otherwise, it'll break down in about a week."

She paused for a second.

"As such something as simple as teleporting would require a few dozen runes infused together with the will of the world. And keep in mind that is for one way only, and one person at a time. If you want to be able to come back and transport multiple people at the same time it becomes much harder."

Zaroth nodded, carefully memorizing her words. His gaze briefly shifted to Ari.

"You said that you couldn't teach us runes but that was a lie, wasn't it? Sure, we couldn't have used them since we weren't able to use the will of the world at the time, but we would have been able to memorize some at least!"

Before Ari could snap back the sleepy elf answered, "It's because she knows it by instinct, she doesn't know it in such simple terms. In a way no elf does, it's just me, the one that had to reverse engineer this stuff making it so simple that your young brains can grasp."

Zaroth studied the teacher, then Ari, and finally scoffed. "Fair enough."

He had thought rune learning would be hard and time-consuming, but it wasn't.

And not because of the guidance of the teacher and not even because he was a natural born talent like Vera when it came to the will of the world… no, it was because of the one rune, he studied every single dream he had.

With time the giant thing had begun to make sense, not by a lot but still… just enough to give him some insights.

As such, memorizing and learning how to use the runes came like second nature to him. Even better, he now would be able to not only help Vera with the runes stuff while she helped him with the will of the world, but once they came back to the human continents, they would be able to spread the knowledge if the need arose.

The final days of the month passed quickly, and soon, it was time to leave… to free their so-called leader.

A stroke of good luck seemed to fall on the beast master on this day, as before they were sent, he heard the system words echo in his head.

[Hellweaver has evolved]

With his eyes sparkling, he summoned the spider.

The difference in appearance was… striking, before it was larger than a horse, now it was about three times the size of one. Its crimson eyes had multiplied, offering 360-degree vision.

From its mouth poison dripped… one that looked even more deadly than before, it created sizzling sounds the moment it fell to the ground, melting it.

Its body looked far sturdier now, like even steel would bend under its weight—Zaroth's attacks might not even leave a scratch. But that was to be expected; the deadly spider had reached the Epic tier, after all. It had become a menace in its own right.

Now, with his beast finally evolved Zaroth was ready. Unsurprisingly, there was no dramatic farewell. Only the elven elders knew of his mission to free their imprisoned leader.

The only thing that happened before they were sent out was the prideful elf reminding them that they had granted all of his conditions, so now he was in their debt. He had no choice but to free their leader now.

'I will do whatever the hell I want,' Zaroth almost growled, but held himself back. He'd already taken everything he needed from the place. There was no point wasting more time here.

*****

"Can't they use teleport rune or something similar?!" he cursed looking at the horizon once more, since the leader that they were set to free… or kill depending on what Zaroth decided to do, was on the second elven continent they had to cross the ocean once more.

'Stop complaining,' Luna said in his mind, 'the two are close, it would take you a day or two at most.'

With a scoff he ignored her and turned his gaze to Ari.

"This is your last chance," he spoke, eyeing her up and down, "since you were with us when we started to learn from the elven leaders your powers have been boosted by a lot. If you want, you can remain here, they even said they are willing to give you a high position like Adam and Eve have."

It wasn't something he was going to admit outright, but he enjoyed her company. They had spent more than a month together and her stubborn personality had begun to rub off on him.

"No," she snapped her head sharply, "I… want to come with you!"

Her eyes gleamed with their emerald color showing her determination.

"Pl–plus I still am your guide!"

Zaroth raised a brow. "To be a guide, you need to actually know something about where we're going. Do you?" he challenged.

In frustration the brown elf bit her lip and gazed to the side.

"Act more like a gentleman," he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

'Was that all the power Vera could put in that punch?' he mused, glancing at the Oracle behind him.

"It's obvious that she simply wants to be in our company, stop tormenting her."

With a pause, he enjoyed the sight of the panicked elf for a few more moments.

"Relax," he said, flicking his finger and summoned serpent.

"I was just teasing. Now come on. I'm getting seriously tired of this elven continent. Nothing personal, though."

Ari, not caring about the comment, jumped on him, her legs and arms wrapping around him tightly,

"Thanks!" she beamed with joy, for her there was nothing more important than to see the whole world for what it was.

'I can't breathe…' the beast master thought, however since the reason was that Ari's chest was bearing in his face he didn't dare complain.

With that they set off to the second elven continent, where they would ultimately decide if they are going to kill or free the imprisoned elven leader.