Sam and his team left the Undead realm and came back to his city.
They went on to different duties and perform a general inspection after they came back.
It has been a great training trip for everyone and all of them had certain gains.
Sam went to the department of healers and gave his blood sample and the body tissue to conduct other experiments.
While he gave the resources he obtained from that realm to the material section. They decided to stay for another three months and go on their next journey.
After he completed these actions, he went to meet with the Old Beast. No matter how safe this body seemed to be, he couldn't get comfortable with these changes, he needs the opinion and judgment of someone experienced.
So, he went to the tempest valley as soon as he got free time.
As soon as the Old beast looked at him, he couldn't help but say.
"What the hell happened to you? The human part of your body is almost gone. Why did you become like this?"
"What can I do? I was too weak and I am making enemies out of too many strong people. This time I even managed to piss off three races altogether and a whole realm."
Sam said as he sat down on the ground and recounted the whole story.
"I faintly remember something about that Vampire King. I didn't expect that he would be able to survive until now. You did a great job and also getting rid of that guardian is a good decision. I don't know who he is, but I do know one thing.
Nothing that comes to the desolate realm comes by chance and nothing that was imprisoned here is for some ordinary reason.
The hydra, me, and that guardian, everyone is here because of someone more powerful making them stay here.
As for your body, it is okay for now. From what I can see it is not unstable. There might be some changes in your instincts and urges and you might like the raw food more than cooked food and there would be some cravings for the blood of the creatures. With your ability, you can suppress them easily. The beast bloodline in your body is not there for show.
In front of those creatures a human bloodline and Vampire bloodline are not that different, so don't worry and just enjoy the perks that came with it."
"Thank you," Sam said as he heaved a sigh.
"What is up with your friends' training?"
"It is good. Jack got the most gains out of all. He got a legacy of a swordsman. His technique and comprehension have improved."
"Do you want me to give you a suggestion?"
"Yes."
"You are being too possessive of your friends, no matter how much you are increasing their difficulty, they are already getting used to being under your shadow. This might have some benefits as chasing after you and keeping up will give them a target and goal to increase their strength.
But they will soon forget to depend on themselves when there is a bigger problem and turn to you for every difficulty.
This would limit their potential. After all, the true potential of a person lies only within the boundaries of their mind, so if you don't let their mind grow past you they wouldn't grow."
Sam thought for a moment and felt that there is merit to what Old Beast said. This is the first time he had this many friends.
All he knew about friendship is helping out each other and staying loyal. Except for that he doesn't know to truly take care of someone and how to help them grow.
Even though their current age is similar, Sam's mental age is far more than them and he is supposed to be mature than them, but except for war, business, and stuff he is dumber than Watt when it comes to relationships and if he trained them like normal soldiers, he might be able to get in some work but they would lose their personality around him.
His commander or trainer side will outdo every other side he had. That is why he let them train in their own way.
"What should I do?"
"Just let them go. Your step to take them to different places and train them there is good, but this time take them to different places and let them train there alone, let them travel alone, let them make their own enemies and let them fight, escape, hide, fight back, let them do everything together."
"But that would increase the risk."
"Yes, it would also increase their growth. The way you are going now, they will first grow too reliant on you and soon will become a burden, even if you don't mind that there comes a day where they realize that and they wouldn't be able to forgive themselves.
The relationship would be strained.
Just listen to me and think about it.
After you broke through Level-5 of the Pre-transcendent stage, you will get access to many new realms and some places that are suitable for them.
Go on a journey together and then leave them alone in different worlds.
From now on, the realms are connected together with a way to move from one realm to another, so let them grow, set a target, and meeting time, you are going to the top of these realms, the highest of them all, and fight with the strongest of them all, so they have to learn and explore themselves to be on par with you.
Otherwise, they would be left far behind. The decision is yours."
Sam fell into deep thought and felt a lot conflicted.
He doesn't know where he would end up finally so he couldn't decide if he wants to get separated by them.
As if reading Sam's thoughts, the old beast continued.
"Come back to me after you broke through, I will look at the realms you have access to and pick the best realm for them to train. I will even give the path they have to follow to reach the top, so don't worry."
Sam nodded and thanked him before saying that he would consider it and left the valley.
He went back to the city and focused on his next research project now. This time, he is going to work on another puppet.
A puppet in the form of another animal and for starters he is using the panthers as the model.
He is not just using the shape and size, but he is also using the cultivation research he has done since he came to this world.
Since the first two puppets are successful and he has the basic work done, he can finish this project within the next three months, it might not be ready to hit the markets but it would be enough time for him to create a couple of them and let his research departments analyze them.
He let his friends do what they want for the next three months.
He didn't put any restrictions and before he closed himself in research he went to Sirona and spent some time going through her research results. He is surprised that she could find so much inspiration cooped up in this place.
She has great breakthroughs in puppet making and her new puppets are really amazing. But she is not interested in business, all she did was patent some mechanisms she created and let them be used for the research and new products.
After that, he went to the rest of the departments and looked through the research projects. He taught some classes to the students and went through the new students that joined. Only after managing everything did he leave to research.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Undead realm, a space crack opened up and a middle-aged man with a large beard came out of it. He has a bulky humanoid body. His muscles are huge and he is almost seven feet tall.
He is not that handsome but there is an evil aura surrounding him.
He walked out and with a single flash, he reappeared on top of the Vampire territory. He looked at the remaining stray houses and very few vampires that are still living there.
The ghoul king and Wight King didn't swallow up this territory directly they just let the Vampires live by themselves without much trouble.
The man frowned and the aura around him looked cold before he flashed again and a few minutes later he reappeared near the Ghoul Territory and directly entered Ghoul Palace.
The Ghoul King felt the aura of the intruder and came running towards him and knelt before him.
"Greetings from the Ghoul King."
"What happened to the Vampires and the rest of the realm? Your population decreased so much, there are not even many creatures left in the wild. What is this?"
"As I mentioned in the report, a young man came here with a group of humans due to some past rivalries caused by the war between the Undead realm and the Banished realm. He seemed to have come for revenge and brought a weird vine with him. The vine has flowers that spread the pollen faster and the vines grew so much…"
He explained everything and the person that came released an aura that even suppressed the Ghoul King, but he calmed himself down before saying.
"Do you have his picture?"
Ghoul King nodded and took out a portrait of Sam.
"A human trying to mess with demon's underlings. I will find out where he is and kill him myself."
