Reivan jolted awake, sucking in his breath as he sat up.

'What the hell happened...?'

His mind alert, Reivan looked around and discovered that he was back in his room back at the palace. This made him realize that he'd probably lost consciousness at some point. The last thing he could remember was something intangible crawling up his nose.

'The heat's gone too.'

Or at least most of it. The desire to dry hump anything — even the cold hard floor — no longer overwhelmed him, so that was certainly something to celebrate. There were still some urges left, but what alarmed him the most was that he'd lost consciousness at all.

'Did I unlock my qi...!?'

Being unconscious, how the heck would he know if he did? It would crush him if he'd undergone all of that shame and suffering for nothing. Reivan would honestly lock himself in his room for a few days in depression if that happened.

While his anxiety continued to rise, a soft pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulder and gently pulled him down. The back of his head was immediately met with a soft sensation, and half of his view of the ceiling was blocked by two white mounds wrapped in fabric.

"Mom?" Reivan recognized right away who'd done it. What lay behind his head was his mother's lap, while the things blocking his vision were her... assets — which Reivan appreciated for providing him meals when he first woke up in this world.

Vianna smiled down at him and stroked his silvery grey hair. "Good morning, Rein. Or I suppose I should say 'good afternoon'...? Anyway, you slept for quite a while, huh?"

"I did...?"

"Yep. You got knocked out for three straight days." Vianna giggled.

"What!?" Reivan sat up again, alarmed. "What about my qi? Was it unlocked...!? Did I fail!?"

"Relax." His mother's smile didn't falter but her hand used a bit more force to get him to lay down again. "It went well, so you don't have anything to worry about."

"Really?"

That was certainly a relief, but he could never be too sure. He hadn't checked himself with [Supreme Insight] since his stats plateaued, so this would be the first time in a while. After he made sure he was no longer wearing the strange shackles that sealed his special abilities, he brought his hand up to his face with anticipation.

~^+— Unit's Statistics —+^~ Name: Reivan Aizenwald

Species: Hybrid

Realm: Mortal

Age: Cannot Be Calculated

Sex: Male

Special Abilities [Supreme Insight] [Indomitable Willpower]

[Essence of Falsehood] [Drug Memorization]

[Glimpse of Eternity] Might: 219 Extra Skills Elemental Affinities: [Lightning]

[Chaos][Ice]

[Darkness]

[Chaos Origin]

[Intuition] [Taunt]

[Qi: Unleashed]

"Uhehehe..." Reivan unconsciously snickered in an unsightly manner when he saw the [Qi: Unleashed] skill. Furthermore, it seemed like his breakthrough actually provided an instantaneous increase in his Might.

'Holy fuck. My Might just doubled. I'm so strong now. No wonder Argonia and Arkhan treat our knights like monsters.'

Every single knight had their qi unlocked by default — since they wouldn't be knighted otherwise — and had monstrous physical prowess. Furthermore, the gap would only widen over time since Qi was the greatest aid in helping someone improve their physique.

And now, Reivan had obtained the qualifications to become a knight.

'Well, not that I'd actually become one since I'm already a prince. But it's still nice.'

Most of all, it would allow him to catch up to Helen. Although he won against her whenever they sparred, Reivan always felt somewhat guilty deep down. After all, it was never a one-on-one fight.

It would take a while, but this was good. A journey of a thousand miles started with a single step, and this would be his first step to catching up.

'I wonder what I can do with it?'

The subject of "Qi" was never tacked in great detail during his lessons with either Valter or Donovan. Even when Stella, Vianna, or Viktor came by to give him some guidance, they never gave him any concrete information. Everyone always said that qi manipulation relied more on "feeling". The hard part was unleashing it, activating it was always easy.

As such, Reivan wanted to try out how "easy" it was.

'Uh, activate? Qi, on! Activating Qi...!'

He tried thinking of using keywords first, but none of them worked. Really, he didn't expect them to work, but he thought it was worth a shot.

'I guess it's not that easy.'

Chuckling at his own thoughts, Reivan closed his eyes and turned his attention within himself. The feeling was unmistakable; he could sense the energy flowing through every part of his body. It was a potent, primal force that surged from deep within, saturating his organs, pulsating through his bones, and wrapping around every inch of his skin.

It was as if the energy was a permanent part of him now.

'Can I move it...?'

Just as he was about to try, he felt as if he'd completely lost track of the energy and couldn't find it anymore. He then became aware of his mother's hand pressing against the middle of his navel.

"I understand that you're excited," Vianna said with a warm smile on her face. "But you shouldn't try to do anything with your qi until it has stabilized. It's different if you unleash it in battle like you're supposed to, but when warbeasts unlock their qi through their first mating seasons it takes a while for the qi to settle down."

"Oh. Yes, mom." Reivan grinned and decided to set aside his thoughts about his qi for the time being. What mattered most was that he had finally unlocked it, and there was no harm in waiting a bit more.

"Good. Now, we have other important matters to talk about now that you've reached this stage in your life. Like your responsibilities to our clan."

'Okay. I immediately don't like the sound of this...'

Despite this, Reivan sensed the severity of the situation in her tone. So he sat up and moved to sit in front of his mother and faced her properly.

"Oh, wait a second..." Vianna took out a communication crystal and rolled it around in her palms for a bit. "Since this involves our clan, your uncle should join us."

In the next instant, there someone knocked on the door.

"It's me."

Vianna raised a brow. "Why are you going through the door...?"

"Because that's what civilized people do when they want to enter someone else's room, sister." The door opened and Viktor came in, a big smile on his face as turned his attention to his nephew. "How're you doing, champ? Good?"

"I'm doing pretty fine, I guess?" Reivan shrugged. "I've been better though. But since I've unlocked my qi, it's all worth it."

"Oh, I'll bet it is," Viktor smirked and threw a small crystal orb toward Reivan. "Here, a small present."

Reivan smiled and stared down at the object as his heart beat in excitement. "What's this?"

"Inside is a recording of everything that happened while you were blacked out. I made sure everything was visible even though it was somewhat dark in the dungeon."

"... I don't want it."

"Just keep it with you. And don't worry if you accidentally break it. I have a few more copies."

"Please get rid of those copies!"

His uncle just laughed as Reivan struggled with the choice of whether to watch the recording or not. On one hand, he was incredibly curious as to what happened. But on the other hand, he was convinced that it would permanently scar his mind and traumatize him for life. His uncle wouldn't have such a mischievous grin otherwise.

'Asshole.'

Reivan cursed his uncle inwardly but knew that he would probably do something similar too. It was scary how similar they were even though Reivan developed most of his personality during his past life instead of in this one.

"Okay, okay. You can watch or not watch that later." Vianna cut in, her solemn tone brook no argument. "We have important matters to discuss."

"Yes, mother."

"Fine, fine."

Reivan focused on his mother while Viktor chose a nearby stool to park his butt on.

"Good." Vianna nodded in satisfaction at the boys' behavior. "Rein, I believe you already know about my and your uncle's past, yes?"

"I've pieced together bits and pieces, but nothing specific." Reivan bobbed his head while gathering his thoughts. "I was always told to wait until you told me yourselves."

Viktor grunted. "Right. Then tell us what you've pieced together."

"Mother and uncle came from the continent to the east when you were both very young. Then you've been living here for most of your lives. From what I understood, you were running from something. Oh, and I can understand that you guys are either royalty or from a very important lineage. That's about it."

"Pretty good." His uncle nodded in admiration. "You can pretty much piece together a story with that information alone, right?"

"Yep. I'm not assuming anything though. Reality is often stranger than fiction. What happened can be vastly different than the scenario I think of."

"Well, in this case, it's probably exactly what you were expecting." Viktor chuckled lethargically before throwing his sister a look. "You wanna do it, or should I?"

"I'll do it." Vianna turned toward her son and said, "Rein, we are from the Luka Touji clan, which hails from the bloodline of the Winter Wolf."

Viktor cut in at this time. "Just so you know, the Winter Wolf is a giant legendary creature in Eastern mythology. A Primordial Beast symbolizes one of the four seasons. The medicine called Wolf King's Ichor comes from is just one of the Winter Wolf's descendants. Ours is the last of the four primordial beast bloodlines. The others have all died out."

"The Winter Wolf..." Reivan unconsciously whispered to himself.

'Cool. That's so cool.'

He liked anything dog-like so the idea of some kind of massive wolf that embodied winter itself pulled on his heartstrings. It was extremely generic and he'd seen a lot of similar creatures in the novels he'd read, but it didn't change how he felt about the concept.

A question suddenly popped into his head at that time. "If these primordial beasts were so formidable, where are they now?"

Viktor shrugged. "Some say it didn't exist at all. Some say that it died fighting some other great foe. And some say that it actually came from another world and birthed babies here before leaving right after. There are many theories but civilization barely existed when it all happened, so we can never know."

'Uh, that last part makes me think that the Winter Wolf's an Archon or something similar... but surely that can't be it, right?'

"Anyway," Vianna cleared her throat and brought the conversation back on track. "Our clan was pretty important. All of the members of our clan were top-of-the-line talents who were guaranteed to become Ascendants given enough time. Furthermore, our clan was protected by a Transcendent guardian beast that we called the Icetail Canis."

Reivan raised a hand, then asked a question once he saw Vianna nod. "What is this Icetail Canis? And why would it protect our clan...?"

Victor chimed in again. "The Icetail Canis was a wolf that was just as big as Viktor's transformed form. And as for the reason why it protected us, nobody knows. It was there before the founder of our clan was born. With its nature, it is also said to have been one of the Winter Wolf's offspring."

"I see..."

"That said, all it ever did was protect us. It never attacked our enemies for us. This is also the reason why the location of our clan's headquarters never changed throughout the millennia that the Luka-Touji Dynasty ruled."

'Interesting...'

Vianna threw her brother a look of annoyance. "Would you stop cutting in? I can explain these things too!"

"Oh, please." Viktor rolled his eyes. "You never paid attention to your lessons saying there was always time to do so in the future. See where that got you?"

Vianna grimaced and ignored her brother, turning her attention back to her son. "Anyway, just because we were powerful and had lots of strong Ascendants, didn't mean we were unrivaled. Our guardian beast never strayed too far from our ancestral home. The rest of the continent didn't know this initially, but after generations of emperors died on the front lines, they realized the guardian beast's limits. They naturally began to challenge our rule, and for centuries, the eastern continent was embroiled in neverending conflict."

"Wars were a common occurrence." Viktor sighed as he wistfully stared out of the window. "It would pretty much only stop during mating seasons. And that was just to sow the seeds for the birth of future soldiers and to obtain more fighters capable of using qi. Things were a lot different where we lived since it had a Transcendent protecting it, but we still heard about how rough it was on the outskirts of the empire."

"New blood was used to wash away the old blood." Vianna crossed her arms under her heavy chest and shook her head. "And we weren't the only clan that had a Transcendent. On the southern side of the continent was the Celestial Sage of the Stoneskin Ape clan. His staff was renowned on the battlefield, and soon enough, he became a Transcendent. He eventually came to our capital to challenge the Icetail Canis to single combat."

Reivan frowned as he offered his predictions of the story. "And he beat the Icetail Canis...?"

"No, he lost." Viktor snickered. "Did you know, kid? Mortals and Ascendants can kill each other in an instant. But that doesn't seem to be the case for Transcendents... well, at least the ones that don't have assassin-like abilities like old man Rolf up there. Anyway, after two weeks of fighting high up in the sky, our guardian beast triumphed."

"Eh...?" Reivan couldn't help but scratch his head at this baffling development. "So then how come you were forced to flee...?"

"Because," Vianna sighed. "There was another person who managed to become a Transcendent right after the battle."

Viktor's face darkened as he nodded. "The Great Tiger of the Torhu Duchy that served us. That piece of trash immediately turned his glaive toward our clan the moment he Transcended! Even if the Icetail Canis defeated the Stoneskin Ape Champion, how could it be easy to slay a Transcendent? Naturally, it took a lot of damage."

"I see..." Reivan rubbed his chin with a frown. "So that evened out the gap in experience between them?"

"Precisely." Vianna took one of the nearby pillows and hugged it to herself. "Everybody knew what the outcome would be. Allies and enemies alike. In our troubled times, the snakes revealed themselves immediately to curry favor with the eventual winner."

"Father and the other ancestors fought hard." Viktor's fists clenched and they trembled from the force he was exerting. "They wished to at least preserve some of our bloodline's legacy by sending the imperial children along with some loyal vassals to the edges of the continent. Mind you, it wasn't just me and your mother. There must have been hundreds of us and all of us haven't even made it through puberty yet."

"There were still some clans that helped our clan escape," Vianna said. "but there were plenty more that chose to switch sides. Then a few days after our flight from the capital, there was a resplendent explosion of energy in the sky, similar to what happened when the Celestial Sage died to the Icetail Canis. Soon, news of our guardian beast's death reached us. And after that, our party no longer had the courage to ask anyone for help."

Viktor grunted as he rubbed his throat. "For months, we were forced to live off the land while keeping one eye open at night and constantly glancing behind us in fear of pursuers. Oftentimes, we couldn't feed everyone. Luckily, we never ran out of water since we could just melt the ice we could easily produce. But I can still remember how for days, I drowned out the hunger with just water..."

"In any case, it was a rough period in our lives." Vianna casually said it as if it didn't matter. "I can barely remember it since I was only fifteen at the time. But moving on to the next part of the story, the loyal vassals escorting us eventually came to the conclusion that staying anywhere on the continent would be too risky. So they decisively took action to send us to another continent."

"Sentorale..." Reivan whispered to himself.

"Correct." His mother smiled at him. "They chose to send us to the mysterious continent beyond our western sea."