"Anyway, let's continue." Yuna stood up as she reigned in her heart after having made the decision.
'I will make my place in your heart, even if not now, but eventually for sure.'
"Yeah, we only have a little bit left to explore this Moonveil Fen area. Let's finish it," John said as he also got up and jumped on Alfred's wide and furry back.
"Awoo!"
Yuna mounted Rayray and followed John with Pymon and Doku flying alongside them.
Their new Pet Monsters were in their soul space, as they only took them out after encountering wild monsters to fight and train them.
Hours passed by, and the clock soon hit 7:00 a.m.
Both of them returned with some good meat from a Silver-rank Monster and edible greenery for more tastes.
John enjoyed cooking because it was like opening a surprise box, mostly as meat and greenery tasted exotically different and could be cooked together for some of the best tastes. It was mostly experiments, but the food tasted good enough.
Max had also woken up by the time they arrived.
John and Yuna didn't sleep anymore because the event was going to end at 10:00 a.m.
It was only a matter of a few hours.
John was getting antsy because he wanted to access his Monster Paradise and do many other things, but he needed privacy for it.
But he didn't waste time idling.
'I saw Alfred's source space, and he had a soul avatar. What about Pymon?'
John checked Pymon, but Pymon's source space was a bit blurry to him, making John surprised. 'Why?'
He then checked his third pet's source space, and it was way more blurry.
'Is it because Alfred and I have a very strong soul bond that I can clearly see Alfred's source space?'
'Wait…that means…' John's eyes glinted. 'So I am on the right track. Monsters' physical growth is tied to their core because they have that intricately patterned structure that looks like themselves, connected to their core. If Monster Geno Art is created by studying Monsters' way of progress, then we should be able to retain the progress we make using Monster Geno Art!'
'Fuck, so the ruling sects must be hiding the true way to practice Monster Geno Art to control the flow of Tamers, or they also don't know…'
However, John felt that there was no way they didn't know. After all, to invent the method in the first place, a Tamer must have a strong bond to be able to observe that source space in full detail.
'Yeah, fuck it. I will study this myself and make sure to practice the Monster Geno Art in a different way. If I follow the general way, I won't be able to escape from the ruling sect's scrutiny.'
John continued to observe Alfred's source space while leaning against Alfred's furry stomach.
Pymon, Starry, and their eagles were also nearby while Barkhide Beetle was resting atop the wooden shack behind John.
Time passed, and soon, only half an hour was left as everyone who had survived got a notification from their wristbands.
[The survival event will end in half an hour. If you want to store anything in your wristband's storage, do it now and it will belong to you. But don't bring useless stuff.]
"Will they directly teleport us out of the forest using this wristband?" John asked as he opened his eyes and turned to Yuna, who wasn't too far resting with Rayray, Doku, and Buttery.
"Yeah," Yuna nodded.
"Man, I'm nervous." Max rubbed his palms. "Will I get recruited by a ruling sect or not?"
"You will find out soon," John chuckled. "By the way, how will they select us?"
"Once we are teleported back to the large empty ground, we'll see a bunch of Tamers belonging to various sects atop their imposing pets, with five of them being bigger than the others. The first dips will belong to the ruling sects. The Emperor-rank Tamers will be floating imposingly while looking at us and will choose us," Yuna said, recalling the scene she had seen last year when visiting an event area like this.
"And well, they will directly take us to the sects after that. Our new life will begin."
"For real?!" Max shouted. "I haven't even said goodbye to my parents. I thought I could return once."
Yuna rolled her eyes. "You sound like a true country bumpkin."
"Well, people in my village just have simple tamed monsters, and the strongest person is our Gold-rank tamer village chief. But my parents sent me to the academy, and now I am here." Max scratched his head. "I wanted to visit them once before leaving."
"No worries," Yuna smiled. "You can visit them after returning to the sect. Just tell the sect you want to visit your village, and they might even send a senior with a flying monster for a quicker journey."
"Ohh, that's good."
Yuna turned to John and said, "You better choose Ouroboros Hall. That's best, and you can directly live in the Heavenrend Region."
"That's the plan if they choose me," John said with a chuckle. "Also…what if I remove the wristband right now?"
Yuna and Max were startled.
"Why?" Yuna confusedly asked.
"Hmm, I don't want to get teleported. I can simply go there by flying on Pymon anyway," John said. 'And I want some privacy so I can send Starry and others to Monster Paradise.'
"Well… nobody has ever done that, so I don't know, but it'd be fine, I guess," Yuna said, uncertain. "Even if you arrive late, they'll choose you."
"John, I want to spar with you." Max stood up, his expression determined. "Without pets, but we can use Soul Synergy."
"Sure."
John smilingly nodded and got up.
Both of them went out of the camp with ten meters of distance between them.
"Go ahead," John carefreely spoke, gesturing with his hand to come at him.
Max's aura surged as he used Phantom Cinderstep, increasing his speed and using the combo move Blazing Dash to quickly close in on John.
John used Vorpal Howl, increasing his stats further while reducing incoming Max's stats.
'Shit,' Max cursed as he got hit right on the face, but he continued with his plan and streaked by John with his increasing speed while activating Gloomhunt Mirages, creating four mirages around John swiftly before jumping up as his palms burst with dark flames.
Swoosh!
Before the Gloomhunt Mirages could explode, John used Umbral Drift to get out of their way. From above, Max was watching and grinned, shooting Gloom Blaze Shots from his palms as he landed.
'That will hit!'
Max also continued to chase, wanting to get close enough to hit John with Gloomblaze Slash.
Alas, John, in his Umbral Drift form, used the combo move Frostfire Scythes as the blazing scythes destroyed the incoming shots before he turned into human form, facing Max with a grin and his palm shining.
Shader Blaze Beam!
'Shit!'
Max quickly side-stepped to dodge, but John quickly closed in with Umbral Drift again, arriving right on top of him and using Shattering Tail Smash.
Bam!
Max was knocked out.
"Tsk, that Umbral Drift is really a top-notch movement skill." Yuna clicked her tongue in envy.
"Haha, yeah. It's awesome."
After splashing some water on Max's face, he regained consciousness and weakly smiled.
"I thought I could get a hit on you first this time, but damn. Also, a twenty percent reduction looks small, but it really messed up my speed while increasing yours. That's a 40% difference, and it's big."
"Yep."
…
In the end, John removed his wristband when five minutes were left until 10 o'clock.
When the clock hit exactly 10 o'clock, a few seconds passed by in silence with them looking at each other before Max disappeared first.
"See you lat-" Yuna nodded at John, but her words were cut short as she also vanished.
John looked at the wristband on the ground. 'Will it transport me if I touch it?'
Shaking his head, John didn't care to pick it up and looked at Starry and others with a grin. "Are you all ready to check out our new home?"
"Whistle!"
"Reeeh, reeh!"
"I am, too. But let's wait for a bit more."
John decided to wait a bit more in case the Emperor-rank Tamers were still observing, but it wouldn't be long before they stopped.
After drinking water and eating some berries, John put Alfred and Barkhide Beetle into his soul space while he mounted Pymon.
"Let's get out of the forest to the west and see if the barrier has disappeared."
John flew up as he commanded Pymon to go up. Starry and the other three Silverwind Eagles, who had grown to Prime-stage followed them.
'Oh, it's going away…' John saw the airship moving towards the east, outside the forest. He hadn't gotten out into the sky yet and was still amidst the upper part of the trees.
Descending back, he flew across the area. Upon seeing that there wasn't any barrier, John's eyes lit up.
'Alright!'
John spread soul threads and struck at Starry and the other three Eagles before all of them vanished.
Arriving in Monster Paradise, John's eyes immediately widened.
'Holy shit!'