“Order anything you want.”

“Anything? You sure are loaded.”

“Beef, beef, big brother I want beef!”

“You want to eat meat in the morning? Didn’t you just eat breakfast? Drink juice or something.”

After sitting at a table in the hotel, Mkata-mwezi offered to pay for everything that the rest of the group would order. However, most of them were not hungry and they were only interested in hearing more about the upcoming Steel Bone gauntlet.

“As I was saying, it is a tower competition with several floors. Each floor has a different test.”

“The first test is the Test of Strength which usually involves fighting battle puppets and golems or moving rock formations.”

Mkata-mwezi proceeded to explain the different tests within the Silver Pyramid. The second trial was a Test of Wit which involved things like illusions, puzzles, problem solving, and formations.

The test on the third floor was a Test of Courage. In this test, the participants would be put in a scary or impossible position to see who pushed through even when everything seemed hopeless.

“During my year, this third test had an unbeatable swordsman. However the requirement for clearing the stage was not defeating this swordsman but to persevere till the end. They did not even give us a time limit making everything feel so hopeless but a few people still stood till the end of the test. In your year it will probably be different but expect something extreme in this stage.”

The fourth test was the Test of Spirit.

The fifth was the Test of Personality. Mkata-mwezi explained the necessity of this test further, “This is a necessary test as one must have a steely and firm personality in order to fuse with the Mystic Steel Bone. The steel bone is a foreign entity after all. If your psyche is weak, it is easy for one to get corrupted when fusing or absorbing foreign matter.”

“The sixth test is a Test of Comprehension. They usually just place some murals there with techniques engraved on them and you have to comprehend some of them. These will mostly be techniques fit for Bone Forging stage and Tendon Strengthening stage.”

“Then there is the Test of Heart. This one is no joke. In our year they had a terrifying projection of a powerful opponent standing in front of us and we had to strike no matter what!” Mkata-mwezi added with a hint of fear.

“How hard is that, is it not just striking?” Mwana could not help but ask after hearing Mkata-mwezi’s fearful words.

“Hmm, what do you know? Just the aura coming from the projection was enough to freeze the body. It was not an ordinary warrior’s aura but a Monarch’s aura!”

“A Monarch?!”

“Right.”

“Isn’t that overkill.”

Monarchs belonged to the realm of rulers and their aura naturally had a strong sense of authority and suppression over those weaker than them. Most would not even be able to let off a single strike in front of a Monarch even if the Monarch just stood there and let them attack.

After explaining the stages, Mkata-mwezi revealed some of the things at the top of the pyramid.

“Naturally there are rewards the higher you go. The Phantom Light Sword; everyone knows I use this sword technique but do you know where I got it? This was one of the rewards for the top 3 during my year. Every year has a different reward but they will all be of a high level.”

The Phantom Light Sword was a metal element, light element, and gravity based sword technique that Mkata-mwezi had learned after clearing the Steel Bone Gauntlet almost 3 years ago. Seeing the various energies encompassed in this technique, it was obviously a Comprehensive sword technique.

Mkata-mwezi continued to explain the other benefits of the trial. One of them was related to bloodlines. As the ‘blessings’ from the trial strengthened the bones, this had a direct effect on the bone marrow which is responsible for the production of a lot of blood components in the human body. Naturally, enriching and strengthening the bone marrow meant boosting one’s bloodline power.

When this topic came on, Jana could not help asking about the origin of bloodlines. He could remember some people talking about the origin of the Pweza family’s bloodline when Majimaji revealed his Heart Burning Ice technique on the fighting stage. However, the things Jana heard felt a bit too incredulous, ‘King Fisher divers, thousands of meters deep in the ocean, transplanting…!’ He could not help but wonder if all families went through the same process as the Pweza family. At least he was almost sure his family had not.

It was Kia who answered Jana’s question. “There are different ways for humans to acquire bloodlines. Usually people with beast type bloodlines inherit them from some type of spiritual or magical beast. As for how it happens, a magic or spirit beast that has attained a human-like level of intelligence can learn a transformation skill to take human form. They can then lay with humans to produce offspring, the beast-people: beast-men and beast women. These half-human half-beast beings will then continue procreating mostly with other humans and after hundreds or even thousands of years, the beast-like features would have long disappeared. However, just because the visible aspects of their ancestry have disappeared doesn’t mean there aren’t invisible ones left. This invisible part is the bloodline.”

“He he he, ‘lay’…”

“Cheza don’t you dare make any dirty jokes. Otherwise I will smash your face.” Fury already had her fist near Cheza’s face ready to strike if the latter continued with his dirty jokes.

“Sheeesh. Fine fine, Calm your…” Cheza said with his hands raised up but caught himself at the last moment. He nearly said something that would get his head torn off.

“Finish that statement if you dare.” Fury had a smile on her face as she said this in an ominous tone.

“I don’t dare, I don’t dare, please finish what you were saying Kia.” Cheza could only defend himself by deflecting while desperately waving his hands.

Kia did not take any of this o heart and continued explaining, “But this theory alone has some holes…” Kia looked at Mwana who naturally continued her statement.

“1st, numbers: there is not enough intelligent beasts to influence humanity as a whole and give rise to all these bloodlines.”

“2nd, speciesm: At the end of the day, transformation magic won’t erase the difference between humans and animals.”

Kia picked up on Mwana’s words and continued her explanation, “Right, Just because an animal becomes smart and learns some transformation skill, does not mean they will become ‘hot’ on the human romantic market. While it is understandable why people would line up to enjoy ‘fansy-pansy time’ with regal creatures like dragons…” Kia said this statement while pointing to Mwana which made the latter blush a little.

“Hey!”Mwana could not help but protest in a low aggrieved tone.

Realizing the somewhat embarrassing statement she just said, Kia chose the smart way out and completely ignored the situation while continuing her explanation. “A dragon is one thing but who in their right mind would want to lay with some creatures: a crow, a snake, etc. Just look at Majimaji for example. Their family has an Octopus bloodline. Do you really think there are people lining up to lay with octopi?”

“So how do they get such fish bloodlines?” Pendo could not help but ask. She was the least knowledgeable on this topic but even she knew that humans were not lining up to marry or procreate with beasts. Intermarriage could not explain the wide proliferation of bloodlines where a huge population of people in the Zika world had one.

“Bloodline Transplantation.” Kia’s answer quickly answered Pendo’s doubts.

Indeed in the Zika world, bloodline abilities could be transplanted by injecting the blood of spiritual or magical creatures into people during a prepared bloodline ceremony. This would allow the subjects to gain these creatures abilities.

There were 3 different levels to this. The first level granted the abilities temporarily and the bloodline power would run out after it was used repeatedly. The 2nd level granted the abilities permanently but the subject could not pass them down to their offspring. As for the 3rd level, it could only be performed by a handful of people on the planet of Zika. The subjects of this experiment could pass on the bloodline to their descendants unlike the previous two levels.

“For most humans today, about 60% of them, Bloodline Transplantation is the source of their bloodline. The likelihood is that one of their ancestors had a level 3 bloodline transplantation and passed down the bloodline power to his progeny.”

After Kia’s explanation, Mkata-mwezi also added his own piece. “Of course there are also other stranger and rarer ways to gain bloodlines apart from transplantation and interspecies ‘hanky pankys’.”

“One of them is a ‘Blessing’ almost similar to the Steel Bone Gauntlet’s blessing but much stronger.”

“As you guys know, powerful sagely beasts can ‘bless’ specific humans they approve off with their bloodline abilities.”

Indeed when it came to powerful creatures, there was no limit to what they could do. They could bestow their abilities upon humans of their choosing in the same way gods could bestow powers to their followers through Divine Invocation.

“The fourth and last way to attain a bloodline is through advanced Summoning Magic and Beast equip.”

“Beast Equip? You mean like Maji 1 and his Silver Hawk Demon?” Jana could not help but ask.

“Yes and no. Maji 1’s beast equip isn’t even on the same level as the real deal. It is too surface level.” Mwana who had fought Maji 1 knew that if the latter had even scratched the surface of true beast equip, he would have been extremely formidable.

“For practitioners of summoning magic, those who achieve a higher level of beast equip can fuse at a cellular level with their summoned beasts and use their powers. This is higher level than just wearing the beast like armor the way Maji 1 did it. If that was level 1 of beast equip, this would be level 4 or 5 or something. A few fusions will not have a significant effect but if you continue fusing with your spirit or magic beast partner too many times for long periods of time, both you and the beast will leave effects on each other at the genetic level. This will in turn influence the bloodlines probably to an even deeper level than all the other methods of acquiring bloodlines above.”