When the advance to rank 1 finished both Ezequiel and Sophia started to evaluate the changes in their bodies as well their new abilities and innate spells.
Ezequiel's height was now 1.9 meters and his weight was so high that when he moved, the ground under him was cracking. His body suffered repetitive compression which enhanced his power greatly as well his penetration force and the resistance it had to physical damage.
His strength had improved greatly, as well as his physique. But due to the transformation in his body, his speed was affected but the innate spells he unlocked solved those problems.
One of the spells was Lightning Transformation which allows him to transform his body, partially into lightning, allowing him to achieve great agility and exceptional destructive power.
In Sophia's case, the dark-platinum scales were no longer visible, but they were still active. It was just that they were under her skin like active body armor. Her height was now 1.85 meters, and her eyes had turned to a deep red color.
Now she was able to use the power of the corrupted waters of the Styx which inflected a corrosive and decaying effect as well as affecting the mind of the target.
One of her innate spells was Oblivion Eyes, which could harm the intelligence of anyone she sees straight at their eyes and destroy their memories if the time of exposure is prolonged.
The two were marveled at their changes, but the moment they saw Zatiel's condition, all that excitement became a disappointment.
They knew that if he had not helped them during the assimilation, their will would have been broken and they would have failed.
So they just sat down in silence and waited for him to recover.
Zatiel's situation was not serious, but he was severely exhausted. Using the third eye with his golden flames to purify the bloodlines and then releasing his bloodline pressure to overcome the ones of the dragon and titan had depleted his stamina greatly and he could barely move right now.
It took an entire day for him to be in top condition again and that was only because his sun had recharged and was able to use the vitality of the flames to accelerate his recovery.
Zatiel opened his eyes and saw the bodies of Sophia and Ezequiel. After assessing their condition, he nodded.
'They have not become as strong as me, but they are not too far apart. Although they had just reached rank 1, they should be powerful enough to kill rank 1 Advanced Magus and fight against those at the Master level,' Zatiel was satisfied with their increase in power.
Magi possess various ways of advancing through ranks, so focusing on a single aspect of the advance to describe how powerful they are was not effective. Because of that, the fighting ability is used as a measure of power.
Novice are those who just entered rank 1 and are only able to use the most basic rank 1 spell. Advanced are those who are already able to use high power rank 1 spells and their battle experience and consciousness has reached a powerful enough level to completely dominate a recently advanced Magus.
As for Master-level, they are the ones who are starting to learn their new Rank Spell, preparing to advance to rank 2, and their energies are beginning to change obtaining special properties.
Erick would have fallen into the rank of Advanced level Rank 1 Magus, but that was only because he had followed the path of Fire Mastery giving him great damage power or else he would have been between Novice and Advanced level at most.
Usually, one Advanced level Magus should be able to defeat 2 novice level ones and fight to a draw 3 of them.
"Have you two familiarize yourself with the changes in your bodies?"
Ezequiel and Sophia nodded and their expression was serious, they would not let themself become a burden the next time.
"Ok, then let's break the last defense in this place," Zatiel took the two with him and headed towards the last part of the laboratory he needed to search.
Breaking the energy paths and altering the runes in this house took a lot more time than before, but by the end of the day, he had managed to break the defense.
Zatiel sent his Primal Chaos Consciousness to explore the place, but the moment it entered, he knew that he made a mistake.
The place started to shake and an immense amount of energy started to accumulate inside.
Zatiel was able to realize immediately what happened. The moment his consciousness entered this house, it activated a secret protocol that must be followed. This way, any type of intrusion of a person other than the original owner will trigger the self destruct protocol.
'Dammit! I got too careless,' Zatiel was surprised but immediately, his eyes focused.
"Wait here!" The moment he said that he activated Sunlight Speed, and the golden flames covered him entirely as he entered the house.
Ezequiel and Sophia were able to feel that the place became dangerous and that Zatiel could be in trouble. But even though they wanted to help, they knew that they would be a hindrance if they followed him and they did not know what to do
Zatiel entered and used his third eye to see the place where the energy was gathering. It was just in the center of the house and he sped to it before he took a beautiful gem with ever-changing colors from his ring.
This gem was the Rainbow Flash he got from the kobolds but now its surface was covered with all sorts of runes.
Zatiel put the gem against the core of the explosion and activated the runes in it. The moment he does that, the gems are utilized releasing a wave of energy that engulfs the entire place.
When the wave touches the energy channels, some are deactivated and others break, generating a chain reaction that neutralizes the explosion and the self destruct protocol.
'Just in time,' Zatiel made sure that the explosion was detained and calmed down. Although he could just have run, this place surely had something valuable. So he took the risk and used the Rainbow Dash he enhanced with runes to affect the magical equipment that was responsible for the self-destruction.
Although it was risky, it paid off.
Now that the problem was fixed, he could examine this place correctly.
This place had an experimentation table, and by what he could tell, it was used on humans or some other living creature to dissect and search their bodies.
There were also giant tubes with blue liquid and floating inside were all sorts of monstrosities, one trace that they all shared was dog parts and an immense stomach disproportionated to their bodies.
In the back of this house was a smaller tube and inside it, a small dog was floating. But unlike the rest, this one didn't have the horrible mutations but just looked like a simple dog.
'What are these things?'
Although Zatiel could be considered a walking library with all sorts of obscure and arcane information, he could not figure out the origin of these creatures.
After exploring the entire house and making sure he didn't miss anything, he went back to the one creature that seems like a small dog.
'It seems to be some sort of chimera. Whoever owned this place tried to create a new being from the part of others, but they were all failures, except this one.
Unfortunately, they are all dead,' Zatiel focused his consciousness on the little dog to try to understand him more. But he became shocked when he felt a little spark of life inside him.
Immediately he activated his Eye of Life and Creation and focused on the animal, and after a little time, he realized that the dog still had life. Although it was very weak, it was present.
'It must have been in a sort of hibernation state that allowed him to hold on this long. But still, to be able to live all this time means his heritage must be very powerful,' Zatiel assessed him for a while before breaking the crystal and taking the dog in his hand.
Without wasting time, he made his flames cover the animal and used his third eye to start engulfing his body with vitality, trying to wake him up.
After a long time, the dog finally started to react, his fur was grey and it had two small pointed ears.
As he opened his eyes, he saw his surroundings and when he saw Zatiel, he became fearful and he tried to move from his hands. But his strength was so little that he could not escape his grip.
Zatiel continued looking at him, not caring for the dog's state but could not figure out what made him special.
Finally, the fear of the dog reached its peak and he opened his mouth as if it was going to bite him.
Zatiel was not worried. But immediately, a sensation of danger assaulted him and without hesitation, he threw the dog against a wall and a golden glow filled his body as he escaped the house.
Just as Zatiel reached the door, from the dog's mouth a small black orb formed, and an immense suction force was generated swallowing everything in his reach.
The first to enter the orb was the tubes with the failed experiments, and then everything else in the house was suctioned.
Zatiel managed to leave the house just in time and almost crashed with Sophia and Ezequiel who were waiting outside the door.
'What is that dog?' Zatiel kept his eyes on the house and after a couple of seconds, the swallowing force vanished.
"Master are you fine?"
"Don't worry, I am not hurt," Zatiel was focused in the house and sent his consciousness inside to see what happened.
Inside the house, everything had vanished and even pieces of the wall were missing, the only thing that remained inside was the little dog that looked like it fainted from the exhaustion and now it had strange symbols on its stomach.
After making sure that the dog was indeed unconscious, he entered again. Zatiel picked up the dog from the ground and looked at him for a long time using his consciousness and third eye to assess him.
The only thing that could detect an agglomeration of energy inside is the stomach but nothing else.
After seeing him for a long time, he brought his head close to the dog's head until they touched each other. Slowly he was sending his Primal Chaos Consciousness into the small mind of the dog and creating a connection between the two.
With this, the next time he sees him, the dog will feel familiarity and fondness, but this is not absolute. If he does something that harms the animal, that connection will be broken.
After a couple of hours, the dog opened his eyes again and when he saw Zatiel, there was none of the initial fear and he even started to move his little tail in showing his happiness.
"You are a little glutton, so how about if I call you Tao?"
Zatiel smiled at the dog, as he started to rub his head and he gave the first name that comes to his mind.
The dog only barked as if showing his approval and moved its small tail even more.
By what Zatiel could tell the intelligence of this creature was no superior to the one of a 3-year-old human, and his strength was also very small. But his defense was on par with the one of a rank 1 being, after all, when he threw him against the wall, it didn't harm him at all.
Zatiel placed Tao on his shoulder and left the house.
The moment the two saw the dog, their reaction was very different. Ezequiel was a little surprised but nothing more, as for Sophia her eyes sparkled and she came close to the little dog immediately and tried to pat him.
Although she knows that her actions are not fitting of a rank 1 being, she was with people who she trusted, so what reason was the reason to pretend?
Unfortunately for her, the moment she brought her hand to Tao, he bit her. She was frozen, the little dog looked so friendly but the moment she approached him, he attacked.
"Ah, you little rascal! Zatiel, why did you get this insolent thing?" The bite was so weak that Sophia practically did not feel it. But she was ashamed, especially seeing the face of the other two who were about to laugh and the dog that had a prideful expression.
"Enough, he is Tao and will be your new comrade, so treat him well," Zatiel knows that this dog is special so he will take him with them.
Ezequiel nodded and although Sophia was a little angry, she knew that the decision was already made so she just nodded.
"Ok. With this, we can call the trip to the laboratory finished. Our next destination will be a visit to the Wasteland and then we will head to the tower. But before that, I am going to inscribe a special rune in us."
After he finished speaking, Zatiel took the mirage crystals from his ring and his runemaster tools.
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