Chapter 778: Zelut’s Little Family

Chapter 778: Zelut’s Little Family And Valandor

Chu!

Zelut squeaked happily when he noticed Leo’s attention and ran forward, circling him a few times in excitement.

After that, he stood on his hind legs and straightened up, his height easily reaching Leo’s chest.

Squeak!

Leo could swear that if Zelut had longer hands and the ability to speak, he would have saluted him and started singing praises, just as he was doing right now through their mental link.

After that, Zelut ran back to the people behind Leo and excitedly began introducing them.

"Chu! Chu! Ch—Chu!! Squeak!"

He occasionally shifted position before repeating the process.

Through their mental link, Zelut quickly conveyed their names and introductions, finally reaching the biggest mices. Both were around a meter long.

"Oh? Looks like Zelut’s advancement even helped his swarm benefit," Leo remarked with a nod.

He’d worried that, given Zelut’s size, he wouldn’t find suitable mates, but he seemed to be wrong.

Then Leo bent down to look more closely at the smaller mice.

They were barely a few inches long, and there were eight of them.

"Your kids?"

"CHU!!!" Zelut announced happily.

Frostwhisk Mice (Low 1-Star) — Mortal Bloodline

Leo looked at the mothers.

Frostwhisk Mice (Peak 1-Star) — Ordinary Bloodline

Then he looked at Zelut.

Frostwhisk Mouse (Peak 2-Star) — Super Bloodline

No wonder... Zelut’s kids were ranked lower in bloodline, apparently because their mothers have an Ordinary Bloodline.

At that moment, Zelut shook his fur, causing round, marble-like objects to fall out. He quickly gathered them into a small mound in front of Leo.

"Chu!"

Frostwhisk Mouse Beast Cores (Low–Peak 1-Star) — Ordinary–Mortal Bloodline × 83

Leo’s lips twitched at the sight.

"All... were traitors...?" he asked suspiciously.

Seeing Leo’s suspicion, Zelut panicked and hurriedly began explaining himself once again.

"Squeak! Chhhu! Chu! Chu!"

He frantically explained how, after gaining access to a safe environment and adequate food, his men had started multiplying like crazy. Naturally, some mice with a defector mentality had also been born, so he had needed to eliminate them.

Not to mention, some had even died of old age.

Leo pondered Zelut’s explanation for a while.

Mice do reproduce crazily... and even their growth period is short...

Leo looked at the number of Beast Cores again.

Somehow, given that the mouse population had grown to around 400–600 over the past few months, 83 was relatively small. In other words, Zelut might be telling the truth.

Might be.

Leo wasn’t entirely sure. Who knew? Perhaps some mice were being executed for even the smallest mistakes.

Wait...

He quickly asked Zelut something else.

Hoh? So their lifespan is barely one year... That meant that by the end of the year, Zelut might be able to gather tons of Beast Cores to strengthen himself.

"Alright, do you want me to strengthen you with these cores?" Leo asked.

Zelut frantically shook his head and gestured toward the little mice.

"These?"

Zelut nodded.

Chu!

Oh no... Leo was sceptical about whether he could enhance the bloodlines of his beasts’ children.

He immediately asked the system.

>It’s possible.

Thankfully, he could do it.

He immediately assimilated the Beast Cores equally into the little mices, causing their bodies to grow to a certain degree.

The mothers panicked for a moment, but after checking that their children were fine, they sighed in relief.

"Unfortunately, I cannot help these two just yet..." Leo muttered as he watched the mother mice nudge their children to check their responses.

However, he assured Zelut that they would find a way soon.

Zelut was satisfied, already planning how years of ’accumulation’ would gradually help him grow stronger and expand his loyal forces.

Howl had already given Zelut and his men a vast underground space to roam. It was only a matter of time before the Whisk Kingdom reigned supreme and provided Leo with the best surveillance force!

With that done, Zelut departed, and Leo began making his way toward the plateau.

As he climbed, a strong gust of wind struck his face.

It was natural wind. With Howl’s height reaching more than a kilometre, the wind hit his body directly.

"Howl, from now on, keep a weak, thin layer of [Mountain Aure Done] perpetually active to block the wind," Leo instructed.

Soon, an almost invisible yellow barrier rose around the territory, immediately blocking the wind.

The barrier was strong enough to block the natural wind while remaining weak enough for Howl to maintain it indefinitely.

At that moment, Leo suddenly felt a strange sensation.

It seemed someone was trying to probe him through the divine mark.

He narrowed his eyes.

He had two such marks and couldn’t tell which one was being used.

"Fuck, I need to find a way soon."

Even though Tarun had reassured him he wouldn’t die from any surprise attack—not even one launched by the so-called ’god-Monarch’ itself—it still didn’t feel great to be under the constant watch of some unknown, powerful being, with the sole exception of the God Beast Sanguor.

Conversely, he actually wanted a little more attention from Sanguor so that he might find a way to harness the God Beast’s divine essence and use it to offset the other two.

Having a backup of strong divine attacks might be tremendously useful until he grew strong enough.

Leaving that matter aside, Leo finally summoned a ring into his hand.

It was the Life Spatial Ring given to him by Aurex, containing the Dragon Emperor’s Dragon Blood Essence.

Leo had candidates in mind on whom he would use it, but first, he needed to create a designated location for the fire-based members of his territory.

---

At the Aeloria Palace...

"Hm? Someone actually came? Looks like Lily’s intuition wasn’t wrong."

Cyrandel was sipping her tea and looking through various reports when Venyra, her personal attendant, brought her the news.

"Yes, Your Majesty. His name is Valandor Yuvi, the second prince of the Yuvi Tribe—er, Yuvi Kingdom," Venyra replied, quickly correcting herself when she recalled that the Yuvi Tribe had become a kingdom a decade ago after expanding its influence and growing its population.

"Yuvi? Isn’t that the one that appeared a few years earlier than the Evergreen Tribe?" Cyrandel recalled.

As it turned out, Evergreen hadn’t expanded much and was still a tribe, though it controlled a large city.

"Why would someone from there ask about Sylrael’s whereabouts?"

"I managed to gather some information, and it turns out that Sylrael and two of her sisters had been engaged to him before their world was destroyed and they appeared here. Those three girls were then sent away through the Departure Ritual without his knowledge."

Venyra continued, "Apparently, a major fight broke out when the prince became enraged after learning what had happened. Even now, he has come here after fighting with both sides of his family."

"Interesting," Cyrandel remarked, thinking things through.

Currently, anyone who wanted to travel to another Empire needed explicit permission from the Aeloria Palace, along with an official stamp.

They implemented this policy because if someone wreaked havoc in another Empire simply because everyone could travel wherever they pleased, it could cause the mending relationships between the Empires to collapse.

So, during this initial phase, they were careful to record the names of everyone travelling to another Empire for any reason. They also had to state their purpose for travelling.

This way, some random thug couldn’t blame an entire race for the damage.

"Where is he?" Cyrandel asked.

"He is currently waiting for his request to be processed."

As she spoke, Venyra brought out a piece of paper.

Apparently, she had brought the request form Valandor filed here.

Since Cyrandel had told her to keep an eye on this matter, Venyra assumed she might want to review the request personally.