It is old, torn, and battered, but it is still readable, although it is in the empire's language. I am a little rusty in translating so it takes me a few minutes to get into it. Once I do I am immediately entranced, this is a book about cores and cultivation techniques!

Even though it is written in the ancient empire's language I get the impression it is much older than that. In fact the way things are worded and explained don't seem like they were even written by a human. After all, why would a human write about cores when they cannot have them as far as I know.

Maybe this book is a translation of an even older book someone just happened to find. That would make more sense, but either way I plan to read the entire book. I should have plenty of time to do so while waiting for Lizzy to finish her evolution.

Or so I thought, that was not taking into account a child that wanted my complete and undivided attention. In the end the only time I am able to do any reading is when Ekard is taking a nap. While that still leaves me some time to read, it is nowhere near as much as I hoped.

Not that I mind spending time with Ekard, playing with him is entertaining. One thing that surprises me, despite eating his body weight several times a day he isn't growing. With both Kerchara and Asuna I could almost literally see them growing, Ekard is still the same size.

From that I am guessing that drakes take a lot more nutrition to grow. Which does make sense, it is just surprising that Ekard hasn't grown at all yet. It is enough for me to start worrying that I am missing something and not providing enough for him.

It could just be that drakes grow very slowly, but not knowing for sure worries me. When I meet back up with Mercy I will ask Zamart what he knows about drakes. Until then all I can really do is make sure he is well fed and happy.

Over the next couple of days, whenever he is asleep, I spend the time reading the book. Everything the book says about cores matches up with what I have learned on my own. This leads me to trust the book when it says things that I don't know anything about.

Especially when it comes to cultivation methods, which are all about how to improve a core. There are several different methods listed in the book, a couple match things I have used before. One method in particular catches my attention, it is called the River method.

Basically, instead of directly attacking your core to improve it, you let your power flow over the core. Like a river slowly eating through rock, your power would slowly refine and improve your core. It makes sense to me when I think about it, so I plan to try it out.

'Core status!'

Core Upgrade Progress: 87%

'Wait! When did it get so high? I thought it was only a few percent?'

When I think about it I remember putting a bunch of power into my core and then forgetting about it. That must be why it is so high, which means it should be hard for me to gain a higher rank. So I check on Ekard and when I find him still fast asleep I enter my meditation.

Once in my meditation room I take a look at my core and start experimenting with my sacred power. Since I am just sitting around waiting for Lizzy anyway I go ahead and use all of my power. Forming it into a stream that runs over my core is easy enough, but there is more to the method.

The idea is to have the power flow over the core continuously be turning into a circle. I take it a step further and form the power into an infinity loop so it goes over the core twice. Once I see that it is working I lock it in place and leave it like that as I exit my meditation.

It means I don't have access to any of my sacred power, but for the time being that shouldn't be a problem. Even once Lizzy wakes up all I will be doing is leaving the underground and going to find Mercy. I don't foresee needing my sacred power anytime soon, especially since I still have divine power.

Besides, I figure if I just leave the infinity loop running all the time it won't be long before I reach rank eight. Since Ekard is still napping I go back to reading the book, there is still more I can learn. The book mentions sacred being the level above mana, but unfortunately it doesn't mention what is above sacred.

That is fairly disappointing since that is actually what I want to know the most. However, as I continue reading the author does mention being above the sacred level. Or at least rumors of such, the author calls them the hidden ones, creatures on par with gods.

In fact, according to the book, there are primitive cultures that worship these beings. While the descriptions are fairly limited, it would seem these hidden ones are the next stage after sacred. The reason I believe that is they are all described as being massive yet looking like normal animals.

Just that makes them sound like sacred beasts, yet the powers described are much more powerful. The book lists the names of places where these hidden ones have been spotted, but the names mean nothing to me. Since I have seen a map of the ancient empire I am fairly sure none of the named places are in the empire.

My best guess would be that those places are actually on the main continent. After reading the descriptions I find myself wishing I could forget about the demon invasion and go exploring. The main continent sounds much more interesting than this little peninsula.

Ekard says "Mama?"

"Oh, finished your nap huh?"

Ekard says "Play!"

With a laugh I put the book aside and start playing with Ekard. After a few hours of playing I make some food and after eating Ekard goes to sleep. Then I pick up the book to continue reading about the hidden ones, hoping for hints about the level above sacred.

Unfortunately, I reach the end of the book without learning much more. There are more stories of the hidden ones, but they are all rumors or folk tales. If I find the time later to journey to the main continent maybe I can find some of these locations.

Going there in person I may be able to track down one of these hidden ones. Other than that, I will just have to wait and see what happens when I go above rank ten. For the time being the plan is to help Mercy deal with the empire and then return to Illium.

Once back in Illium I will start working on gathering the clans and become the beast king. Unfortunately, once I am the king I don't know if I will be able to find time to adventure. Being tied down dealing with politics is basically my worst nightmare.