The Medallion novel Chapter 43

While Rocky was practicing the skills listed in the Beast Encyclopedia at the depths of the bamboo grove as usual, he suddenly sensed a strong breath. Someone was approaching. Alarmed, he immediately ceased his practice and controlled his spiritual power. Almost at the same time, a delicate shadow appeared in front of him.

"Master Mia! What a pleasant surprise to see you here!" Rocky was slightly shocked because it was Mia who came to visit him. He didn't expect her to find out about that place, which was supposed to be his secret practice spot. He was certain no one would even know that they could find him there. 'How did she find out about my secret place?' Rocky wondered stealthily.

"What? Are you surprised to see me?" Mia pretended to be mad at him and asked him as if she could read his mind.

Just then, a shadow of a beast darted out of the bamboo grove. In the blink of an eye, it approached Mia. It was Rocky's war beast Uriah.

"Uriah, stop!" Rocky ordered his war beast at once. He was afraid that it might hurt Mia.

Rocky's surprise was boundless when he saw Uriah reach closer to Mia, because it didn't attack her at all. Instead, it was meekly walking around Mia like a pet sheep, and kept licking her jade-like beautiful hand. Thinking that licking was not enough to show its affection to Mia, Uriah even began to rub its head against Mia's legs and arms. Mia, on the other hand, did not seem to be irritated by its intimate behavior and simply allowed it to do as it wished. Rather she was patting it softly.

"Wow, Uriah, you are unbelievable! When you see a beauty, you become so excited that you forget even your own master!" Rocky grumbled, but deep inside, he envied his war beast as it could be so close to Mia. He kept thinking that if only he had been treated by Mia like that.

"It looks like what I have heard is true. I didn't expect that your war beast would grow to this extent in such a short time," Mia remarked, narrowing her eyes. Some time ago, she had met Priest Dean. While returning, she accidentally heard a few young men talking about what had happened to Rocky recently. It was at that moment that she got to know about the conflict which happened in private two days ago between Rocky and Bear. Rocky even had a fierce fight with Bear's three-star war beast Lion Eagle. It was surprising that in the end, the Lion Eagle was brutally defeated by a more powerful war beast. Towards the end, Lion Eagle was supposed to have got so intimidated that it didn't have the slightest courage to fight back. After overhearing the young men, she couldn't help but ask them specifically whose war beast had the power to defeat Lion Eagle. They informed her that it was Rocky's. Mia was surprised and she came to Rocky to confirm that information. She also had to talk to him about another important matter.

Rocky got a feeling that Mia knew about what Uriah had done recently. He knew he couldn't hide it from her anymore, so he smiled and said, "I can't believe that even Master Mia has come to know about it. If I am guessing right, by now, what Uriah has done is known to people all over the world."

"Although I am not a beast evaluator, I can tell that your war beast could be a three-star war beast. I think its original potential was not evaluated correctly by the first beast evaluator, right? It's no wonder that Bear's three-star Lion Eagle was beaten hard by your war beast. But, how could you make its potential increase by such a large extent only within a month? Did you ever feed it anything special to improve its power?" Mia asked Rocky as she was filled with curiosity. She looked at him with a puzzled expression. She had enough reason to be baffled. Being inferior to a one-star war beast, the Uriah she had seen earlier was like a weak, ordinary pet. Within a month, somehow, it made great improvement and became a three-star war beast!

Such a shocking improvement was usually impossible unless Uriah actually had the potential to be a three-star war beast, which had not been found out for some reason. That was probably the reason why it was regarded as a war beast that was weaker than even a one-star beast. Since it had made such an abrupt and quick improvement in its power, Mia had a hunch that Uriah must have eaten something special that stimulated the potential hidden in its body, but Mia was not sure about that. Only Rocky knew the real reason for Uriah's development.

"I have my own way. Don't ask as it's a secret and I will never tell you," Rocky said, adding to the mystery. He would not tell Mia that the reason for Uriah's improvement was because it had swallowed a yellow spiritual crystal. He knew that if Mia got to know about the yellow spiritual crystal, she would certainly ask him where it came from. He did not want to reveal to anyone that the other day, he got it from Marcia. He had promised Marcia that he would keep everything that happened on that day as a secret. He had to keep his promise. Therefore, to stop Mia from digging deep into the topic, he immediately changed the subject and asked, "Master Mia, may I ask why you were looking for me? And how did you know that I am here?"

"Well, the dragon field is a small place, after all. It is easy for me to find anyone in this place!" Mia had a rare smile and said. "As for why I was looking for you, have you forgotten that I gave you only a month off? Your holiday ended yesterday. Today, you were supposed to show up at the training place, but you didn't.

"Oh! Is that so? Master Mia, you have such a good memory. Why do you care about me so much? Maybe, you do have some feelings for me!" Rocky flirted boldly and laughed. How could he not know that his one month holiday had come to an end! The fact was that he didn't want to start the training right away and wanted to take a few more days off. But he hadn't expected Mia to look for him in his absence.

"I'm not in the mood to hear your jokes. From tomorrow onwards, your training will be doubled. Next month, the Dragon Birth Festival will be held in our empire. That time you and other royal spirit manipulators will have to communicate and compete with the phoenix spirit manipulators of the Magic Phoenix Empire. I don't want you to be the one who will weaken our overall power because you're a month short of training," Mia said sternly.

Rocky listened, smiled, and looked at Mia, but spoke nothing. Actually, his mind was racing fast. 'If I told you that I was already at the fourth grade of Mortal Stage, I'm sure that you wouldn't have said those words to me. But at present, I prefer not to let you know about that. Just wait and watch. When you finally learn the fact by yourself, you'll be pleasantly surprised! Not just you! Everyone will be surprised!' Rocky was lost in his thoughts.

"Why are you smiling?" Mia asked suspiciously, when she saw an odd smile on Rocky's face.

"Nothing! Never mind. Master Mia, if you have nothing else to order or tell me, I'd like to go back to my room now." Without waiting for Mia's reply, Rocky turned to his war beast, who was still rubbing against Mia's hands, and said, "Uriah, you lady-killer! Let's go now!" After that, he roared to Uriah, as if he was giving it the signal to leave.

Uriah roared a few times and seemed to be very reluctant to leave Mia, but as a war beast, it was also aware that it should obey its master's orders. Thus, unwillingly, it began to follow Rocky and left.

"Originally, I had some hopes on him. I was hoping that he would make big improvements in his spiritual power. Yet, even after a month, his spiritual power does not seem to have improved much. Though he has a three-star war beast now, if as a royal spirit manipulator, he is not strong enough, it will be very difficult for him to manipulate his own war beast!" Mia looked at the back of Rocky while he walked away and whispered in disappointment.

Rocky took Uriah back to his room, and saw his roommate Flint. He immediately greeted him.

Flint's eyes fell upon Uriah. With eyes wide open, he looked back at Rocky and then again at Uriah. He looked surprised and stammered, "Is it really your Uriah?"

"Yes, it is. Is there a problem?" Rocky replied, raising his eyebrows.

"So, all those rumors about your war beast are true! Everyone is talking about your war beast," Flint added and still couldn't believe his eyes. As a result, he couldn't stop himself as he had a few more looks at Uriah. A month ago, it was as small and weak as a puppy. Now, it was half as tall as an adult and looked so beefy. Flint thought it was as large as his war beast Cloud Tiger.

"It turns out that I'm a celebrity now," Rocky murmured to himself with a smile. "By the way, I hope you remember the promise you made yesterday. So, can I borrow your Cloud Tiger now?" He asked Flint.

"All right! But just for three days," Flint stressed on the number, as he replied to Rocky.

"Then we start from tonight!" Rocky exclaimed at once and nodded his head. He would be able to do what he had planned.

When the evening fell, Rocky took Uriah and Flint's Cloud Tiger to the bamboo grove and began to use Cloud Tiger to practice the Magical Evaluation Skill. Rocky immediately felt that using a spirit-manipulated beast for practice was quite different from practicing without it.

"Evaluate!" Rocky said as he began to exercise his Magical Evaluation Skill. After making Cloud Tiger sit well, he sat down in front of it with his legs crossed and slowly began to work on the Magical Evaluation Skill. As time passed, a triangular mark appeared at the foot of Cloud Tiger. The next moment, the mark began to shine brightly and its light got reflected on it. Meanwhile, its body projected a cluster of light with different sizes and different wavelengths, which were arranged in a unique sequence. These were all the qualities of Cloud Tiger, which it had from the time when it was born.

Although Cloud Tiger was a two-star war beast, its strength didn't even reach the power of a one-star war beast. Therefore, Rocky's Magical Evaluation Skill could easily evaluate all its qualities.

Suddenly Rocky noticed that among all the rays of light which were reflected on Cloud Tiger, the brightest and thickest of them was a cloud of silver-white light. It immediately caught his attention. He clearly remembered that Flint had once told him that Cloud Tiger was a war beast whose special quality was its strong power, but the silver-white light didn't represent the power. Only red light represented. If Cloud Tiger's special quality was power indeed, the brightest and biggest light should be the red light. Based on the above deductions, Rocky felt that there must be something wrong with Flint's knowledge about his Cloud Tiger. Probably Flint wasn't fully aware of the strength of his own war beast!