Megan explained to Nick what the situation was:
"During the past two months, our company's mining team discovered the existence of everlast rubies at one of our mining sites and reported the discovery to myself and my brother over there. We are a relatively new company and so the profits and connections that we could gain from selling everlast rubies are immense so my brother and I made the trip from Grand Earth to Forgotten Peril in order to make sure that the everlast rubies were secured but when we got to the mining site, we found out that the everlast rubies had been taken by a group of mercenary Magicians that our enforcement unit had hired to provide additional security."
Megan looked sternly at West, indicating that he should continue the explanation. Megan was a white, slim woman that seemed to be in her early thirties; she sported a head full of long, black hair and had dark eyes. West burned with annoyance on the inside but still explained:
"The mercenaries consist of mostly rank 2 Magicians and the only rank 1 Magician in the group, which is this pitiful man in the chair, was quickly caught because the others had used him as a decoy in order to escape by having him go in another direction to confuse us, during which time he made it easy for us to track him. We captured him a few days ago and then got back onto the trail of the other mercenaries but the trail has gone cold. We are now trying to interrogate him so that we can get answers."
Nick glanced at Megan and her brother and realized that they too were rank 2 Magicians.
(So this is all about getting back valuable resources. I can accept that. Looks like I fell into some money.)
Nick held up two fingers and said:
"I will help you find the mercenaries and recover the everlast rubies but I require payment of £2,000,000,000."
Megan's brother frowned and immediately refused:
"No fucking way..."
Before her brother could finish his words, Megan interrupted him:
"Hold on, Baxter. You speak as if you could do what you claim with certainty but if you are asking for such a hefty helper's fee, I need to know that you are capable of doing what you say."
Megan mused:
(Baxter and I started this company using our family's fortune and we have already gained much profit. Although £2,000,000,000 isn't a small sum, if the value that this person brings to the table is worth it, I don't mind paying the price. With the everlast rubies, Baxter and I might gain connections with legacy families that could help us with our own cultivation. Although we are rank 2 Magicians, we gained our rank by using our family's resources and we are not trained for combat so we have to rely on our enforcement team and others to get the materials back.)
Baxter Colt was a white man that seemed close in age to his sister and was just as slim; he sported a head full of short, curly, black hair and he also had dark eyes. Baxter had his own opinions about Nick:
(Why should we pay this bastard so much, he's rank 2 just like the rest of us and he is completely unrelated? Megan is drawing at straws but I'm losing my patience. It was her idea to put this idiot, West Bailen, in charge of the enforcement unit but look what happened...)
What Megan was asking for was natural so Nick did not intend to waste time.
(Battle Armor.)
Nick's right arm suddenly oozed silver soul miasma, which then fused with his entire right arm, giving it a metallic texture and consistency. The three members of the enforcement unit went on alert as soon as Nick used his magic but Megan signaled for them to calm down, saying:
"If he was going to harm us, he wouldn't ask for money."
Nick walked up to the rank 1 mercenary's front and the restrained man started crying in response, saying:
"I don't know anything. Please, let me go. I have some savings back on Grand Earth. I can give it to you..."
While the man cried, Nick placed his silver right hand on the man's chest, at which point his hand flashed with several sparks of silver light. The mercenary's eyes immediately rolled backwards until only his white scleras could be seen and his skin became deathly pale.
Everyone witnessed as Nick pulled his right hand away from the man's chest and a glowing white object seemed to be pulled out of the man, soon ending up being grasped within Nick's palm.
Nick looked at the glowing white object and then assured Megan and Baxter:
"If this man knows about the location of the other mercenaries, I will also know about it in a few minutes."
West muttered when he saw the glowing white object that Nick held:
"He dragged out the man's soul. You are a soul path Magician?"
West was confused to say the least.
(Why would a soul path Magician use blades to fight? Not only that, the spell that he used to get in here was definitely a space path spell. He must be a soul path Magician; why else would he have a spell that can take out people's souls?)
West did not come from a magician's family and he was a first generation Magician. From his perspective, powerful spells required a lot of money to buy and not even rich Magicians would bother spending that money on spells of different paths since focusing their resources on a single path would bring a better return on investment; that was common sense. A rank 2 spell that could forcefully retrieve another Magician's soul was not something an average person or a hobbyist could just buy because the act itself was illegal on Grand Earth.
(This person is so young but has the spare energy and resources to have powerful spells that have nothing to do with his main path. Have I been living a dog's life up until now?)
West forgot himself and openly sneered at Nick. Nick could sense the hate radiating from West at that moment but he paid it no attention, thinking:
(That's the mentality of poor minded people. They see what you can do and see what you have and envy it as if you received it for free, not thinking about the probable work that you did in order to get what you have. Such people are of no value and are no real threat. Envy will get you nowhere with me.)
Nick quickly cast his method on the soul in his right grip:
(Read Soul.)
The mercenary's soul immediately lit up and Nick's mind was then bombarded with the man's memories, from his earliest up to a minute ago when Nick took his soul. The soul is the core of any being and it not only held someone's magical affinities, it also held their memories, from beginning to end. Slade's inheritance possessed a rank 2 intermediate grade method to obtain those memories called Read Soul but it was actually only effective on persons at rank 1.
Within two minutes, Nick became as familiar with the mercenary's life as the mercenary himself was. Nick moved to return the mercenary's soul to him which he did by forcing it back into the mercenary's chest, at which point the mercenary's skin regained its proper shade but he still remained unconscious.
Nick cancelled Battle Armor and conveyed his findings to the Colt siblings:
"The mercenaries apparently have a base within the Rot Oak region and that is where they are heading. They have probably already used certain underground tunnels that you have already passed to get away from this area. The mercenary in the chair claimed to not know anything because the other mercenaries threatened to have his family living on Grand Earth killed if he said anything."
Megan was overjoyed that Nick was able to get a hold of the information that they needed. She retrieved her map of Forgotten Peril and asked Nick to show them the location of the underground tunnels and the mercenarys' base in the Rot Oak region. Nick pointed out the location of the entrance for the tunnel that the mercenaries probably used to get away but he made it clear that pointing out the location of their base was not something that he could do:
"I have never been to the Rot Oak region myself so I cannot say for sure where the base is just based on this map. I need to go there personally."
West heard Nick's excuse and immediately uttered:
"Bullshit."
Baxter and Megan felt that Nick was just making things difficult in order to secure the money that he requested. Megan sighed and said to Nick:
"We are about one month from the Rot Oak region by foot. While my people and my brother trace the mercenaries through these tunnels, you and I will head directly to the Rot Oak region to find the base. Does that sound good to you, Baxter?"
Baxter thought about it for a while before saying:
"That's a plan that I can get behind provided that our new friend isn't making things up. Hey, what's your name?"
Nick replied indifferently:
"Nick Capitol."
Baxter was about to continue speaking when a loud commotion was raised outside the tent. The six rank 2 Magicians noticed the commotion immediately but before anyone could go check it out, the same person that delivered Nick his soup earlier came rushing into the tent, screaming:
"Wyvern...there is a wyvern attacking the camp. We need to run!"
Nick's expression became stern when he heard the man's report.
(Wyverns are a specie of dragon. All dragons are born at rank 3 so a magic beast that is at least rank 3 is attacking the camp.)
(Blink.)
Nick suddenly disappeared from the tent, leaving the people present enraged at his sudden abandonment. Nick appeared some distance away from the gold colored tent that housed the others and he immediately received an image of the situation near the camp fire via Spatial Awareness. It showed the wyvern eating the magic beast meat that was hung up on the metal racks.
The wyvern had jade-green scales covering its entire body, a large head where its fangs that protruded from its mouth were housed in its menacing maw and two green eyes that appeared similar to jade crystal and that gleamed in the presence of sun light; it had no forelegs but had two muscular hind legs sporting clearly sharp nails and it had two wide wings that were also covered in scales but were flesh colored and leathery on the underside of them. All in all, the wyvern stood at about six meters tall and had a wing span of about sixteen meters.
Nick didn't need any further warning or even need to retrieve his picnic table. He cast Absolute Pull and Absolute Push and immediately flew into the air, trying his best to get away from the camp.
Back at the camp fire, the wyvern picked up the magic beast meat that hung on the racks with its mouth and swallowed each piece in one gulp. It seemed to have little interest in the Magicians running away from it. Magic beasts that were rank 3 and higher had high intelligence so they were not prone to wanton destruction that was purely based on instincts. The wyvern's reasons for coming to the camp seemed to be related to the smell of the meat that had been roasting at the camp fire.
Soon, however, the wyvern took its attention away from the rest of the meat and eyed an airborne figure in the distance. The wyvern screeched in the direction of the figure and raised itself off the ground in order to fly in pursuit of the fleeing airborne figure. The wyvern left the area near the camp fire and the Magicians remaining within the camp breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the wyvern fly away as if it had lost interest in their camp.
Megan, Baxter, West, Jennifer and Qwain left the gold tent just in time to see the wyvern fly off but they were confused because they quickly realized that it was chasing someone currently in flight. West asked aloud:
"Why is the wyvern chasing after Nick Capitol and ignoring us?"
Megan hurriedly instructed:
"That doesn't matter. Nick Capitol is probably a dead man so we should leave this place as soon as possible and use what he told us to find the everlast rubies. I want all our equipment packed up in ten minutes so that we can move away from this area before that wyvern comes back."
Baxter, who was still coming to grips with the fact that they had somehow dodged their likely deaths, echoed:
"Hurry, let's leave."
West, Jennifer, Qwain and the other present member of the enforcement unit ran towards the camp fire in order to gather the other Magicians belonging to the company. Baxter kept close to Megan and remarked:
"It looks like we managed to save £2,000,000,000."
Megan smiled lightly despite the seriousness of their circumstances and replied:
"Nick's bad luck is our good fortune."
****************************************************
Nick gritted his teeth in frustration, thinking:
(Why is the wyvern chasing me?)
Nick had only flown about one hundred meters away from the camp when he noticed that the large magic beast was tailing him and approaching him rapidly. Nick manipulated his two space path spells the best that he could in order to fly as fast as possible, not even considering the direction that he was going in. Nick decided to start preparing his spell, Grey Room, so that he could use it to increase his chances of escape.
Five minutes later, the wyvern arrived only two meters away from him and visibly tilted its head in curiosity while staring at Nick with its jade-green eyes. Soon, however, that curiosity turned into hostility as the wyvern increased its speed suddenly and almost instantly loomed over Nick.
Nick cursed aloud in response:
"Fuck!"
The wyvern quickly bit towards Nick but he was one step ahead of the beast.
(Grey Room.)
Nick's surroundings immediately developed a grey hue and although the wyvern had bitten down on his position, he remained unharmed since the wyvern was, in fact, now within a different space. Nick's smoke like body began to fall, approaching the equivalent of the adjacent space's ground within the Grey Room.
Nick watched from the Grey Room as the wyvern tilted its head in confusion and remained at its airborne position while Nick fell lower and lower. Nick soon reached the apparent lowest level of the Grey Room and stopped falling but then the wyvern lowered itself to the ground and loomed over Nick once again, staring at him curiously. Nick was alarmed.
(What? Can it still sense me even after I've left the adjacent space?)
After thinking for a while, Nick thought of a possible reason for the current circumstance.
(Grey Room is just a rank 2 spell and this wyvern is at least rank 3. If it has a talent or innate magic ability that it can use to keep track of its prey, then my space path method might not be able to interfere with that. After all, Grey Room puts me into an adjacent space, not a distant space. That means that the Grey Room and the other space have a magical connection that if I can take advantage of, the same should be possible for a rank 3 being. That is not even considering whether this wyvern has a mindscape and can cast its own spells.)
Nick was currently at a loss for what to do. His magic energy reserves were now rapidly being drained and it would only be a few minutes until he was forced to cancel Grey Room.
(Do I run?)
Nick knew that would likely be futile but he had no other alternatives.
(Or do I?)
Nick realized that he had been so busy running from the wyvern that he had not taken the chance to look at its body. Nick now had a close up view since the wyvern could not attack him while he was within the Grey Room. Nick decided to take the risk of his time running out in order to examine the wyvern's body for a possible solution to his current predicament.
Nick quickly noticed a gap in the wyvern's front teeth, a gap wide enough that a grown man's body could slip through.
(That's not of much help though. If I were to slip through, what would I do? I can't hurt a rank 3 magic beast's body. The laws that concentrate on their body is what gives them their awesome power.)
Nick had that thought, then he had a sudden realization.
(That's right, their laws are concentrated on their bodies...their bodies. Can I do something to its soul?)
Nick was a soul path scholar but had never been thinking in terms of using his soul path methods to deal with the wyvern.
(Honestly, that's probably because out of all the paths that I cultivate, I have made use of soul path the least in recent times even though my highest attainment level relates to that path. As a Soul Magician, if I wanted to deal with an opponent who was physically superior to me in every way, how would I do it?)
After some thinking, Nick had his answer:
(It's obvious. I would deal with their soul. Magic beasts have strong bodies but not necessarily strong souls. Although dragons like this wyvern are born at rank 3, that refers to the accumulation of laws on their bodies. Are their souls of the rank 3 standard or rather, is there even a rank 3 standard for magic beast souls?)
Nick realized that he had never asked that question.
(Magicians often cultivate their soul and doing so was fairly common up to a certain point but not worth it after that because the excess addition of soul path laws may interfere with the Magician's main path. Besides, a powerful Magician would definitely acquire strong methods to defend their soul because of its importance. Now that I think about it, doesn't that mean that most Magicians' souls are relatively weak compared to their overall magical strength.)
Nick's mind shook from a wave of realization.
(...So that is why it is said that soul path specializes in killing. I thought that it was because soul path involved strong combat methods but it is really because the soul is generally the most fragile part of a magical being and soul path Magicians are experts in taking advantage of that.)
Nick looked at the wyvern with a new sense of appreciation. He was still afraid of it but not nearly as much as before.
(A change in mindset was all I needed. Once I decided to stop running from my problem, things became clearer. The best chance I have to get away from this wyvern is to attack its soul. I am a soul path scholar. Such methods are actually at my fingertips but I have to think through my actions properly.)
Nick took one more look at the gap in the wyvern's teeth and mused:
(When I leave the Grey Room, my magic energy reserves will be at rock bottom but not empty. That means that I can't perform a strong enough spell to do any damage but I do have something that is already filled with power that could do the trick. The soul that I took from the man that tried to kill me with acid back when I first mined for ores is still within my space band. Souls are manifestations of a large amount of energy. A normal human's soul has as much power as one thousand rocket blasts. A rank 2 Magician's soul has power close to the equivalent output of several nuclear reactors. If I can expend the latter in an all-out attack, then what could I accomplish?)
Nick's mind suddenly became flooded with ideas in response to his previous thoughts. Scholar attainment was clearly no joke. Nick quickly realized how to add laws to a soul in order to make it into a weapon.
(It is actually very similar to creating a magic formation except that the fuel would be the soul itself and I can use Battle Armor's power to make adjustments to a soul's laws or even add to them.)
Nick immediately went to work on formulating a suitable method; he only had one minute left before he would have to cancel Grey Room but a minute working out a soul path method for a soul path scholar felt like hours. By the time that Nick was ready to cancel Grey Room one minute later, his new method had been designed. The grey hue all around Nick dissipated as he and the wyvern once again stood within the same dimension. The wyvern did not hesitate to lunge its maw at Nick and Nick did not hesitate to cast his spell:
(Blink.)
As a space path master, Nick was just too quick at casting his space path spells. Before the wyvern could bite down at Nick, he had already disappeared and reappeared within the large gap in the wyvern's front teeth. This gap was so positioned that the teeth at the top of its mouth could not be brought down to impale Nick at his exact position. Once he securely held himself in place within the gap using Absolute Pull and Absolute Push, Nick cast Battle Armor and used it to cover his right hand's finger tips with silver soul miasma.
Nick only had about 3,000 magical units of magic energy left within his mindscape so he was forced to use Battle Armor sparingly as his magic energy reserves now gradually dwindled. Nick then summoned the only human soul that he had within his space band into his right grip and his fingertips immediately sparked with flashes of silver light as Nick used his magic power to add laws to the soul, similar to the laying of a magic formation; his formation path attainment noticeably helped him at this juncture.
The wyvern did not stand still while Nick was using his methods and was enraged that a human actually managed to take up residence in its mouth. It tried to bite Nick to death but when it realized that its actions did not amount to anything, it began shaking its head and then thrashing about in hopes of shaking Nick out of its mouth. Nick was like a piece of food stuck in its teeth and the wyvern had no arms with fingers to help it pick him out. Nick laughed internally, thinking:
(No doubt, I've had stubborn food stuck in my teeth too.)
Nick's position did not change in the slightest despite the wyvern's violent thrashing because of the quality of Absolute Push and Absolute Pull.
(It's a good thing that this specie of wyvern does not seem to have a tongue.)
Dragons were a varied specie of which there were thousands of varieties living across thousands of different realms. Not having a tongue was actually common among certain kinds of dragons. Nick knew this from reading books on magic beast anatomy.
Soon, Nick finally finished adding soul path laws onto the human soul that amounted to a magic formation that would self-ignite and use the soul's internal power to create a fatal effect.
(Doing this will completely annihilate the person who this soul belongs to but it was his fault for attacking me.)
Nick mustered all his strength in order to throw the soul into the wyvern's throat. He then cancelled Battle Armor and used the last of his magic energy to cast Blink in order to appear almost ten meters away from the thrashing wyvern. With the depletion of his magic energy reserves, by the time that Nick reappeared, Absolute Pull and Absolute Push were automatically cancelled.
Nick appeared on his feet, facing the wyvern with no way to defend himself or even flee with any hopes of escaping. The wyvern quickly noticed Nick's appearance at a short distance from it and bared its fangs menacingly at him. Nick could sense the magic energy that was being passively exuded by the wyvern suddenly surge in intensity and blow over him, suppressing his ability to move completely as it eyed him.
(This is the power of a rank 3 magic beast. Once I left its mouth, it became able to target me. This wyvern must still be at the early stages of rank 3 and so it does not have a good enough grasp of its power. If that wasn't the case, I'd probably be dead already.)
The wyvern immediately pounced at Nick, raising itself into the air and aiming to slash its wide right wing at him which would undeniably tear him into strips of meat. At the half way point to Nick's position, however, the wyvern's jade-green eyes suddenly lost their color and became dull; the wyvern then fell to the ground, appearing lifeless. Nick dispelled his fear and moved quickly towards the wyvern's body. He soon discovered that it was still alive, just not conscious.
Nick sat down to meditate for a few minutes in order to recover his magic energy reserves. After recovering all of his magic energy, Nick cast Battle Armor and used it to fuse his right hand with silver soul miasma. Nick then used his right hand to make checks and came to the conclusion that the wyvern's soul had been completely destroyed.
"That's in keeping with my expectations. The method that I imprinted on the human soul that I used to deal with this wyvern was intended to corrupt the soul itself, causing it to quickly degenerate into free energy while also corrupting any other soul that its power could influence within reasonable distance, forcing them to share the same fate."
Nick was not surprised by the fact that his method worked.
(Scholars are usually rank 6 or rank 7 Magicians. The methods that they can devise are not normal. Having soul path scholar attainment makes me a killing machine now that I understand its lethal advantage clearly. Now, what do I do with this wyvern?)
This was a live rank 3 magic beast's body. If sold on Grand Earth, Nick had no doubt that it was worth billions of pounds but now, it was like a vehicle with no driver.
(A soul is the core of any living being and without it, the body will certainly die but a live wyvern is so much better than a dead one.)
Nick could not store a live body within his space band and could not manipulate it with his spells because his magic power did not qualify to do so.
(Even if its soul is gone, the wyvern's body is still imbued with rank 3 level magic energy. My rank 2 spells can't effect much until it's dead. Hmmm...)
An idea suddenly came to Nick's mind.
(Can I replace its soul with another one?)
Nick's intuition made him feel that doing so was very possible but the most suitable soul to put in place was another wyvern's but where would Nick get such a soul?
(I have to make use of what I have. I am not willing to give up on this wyvern.)
Nick's eyes steeled with resolve and then he cast one of his soul path methods?
(Minor Split Soul.)
Nick gritted his teeth as an intense and indescribable pain overwhelmed him. He could sense it as nearly half his soul was split away from him. A few seconds later, an orb of bright silver light emerged from his upper-body and Nick held it within his right palm. Nick's skin became deathly pale but a smile creeped in on his face.
"Just like that, my soul cultivation where I spent months devouring 300,000 souls is ruined, but the chance to gain this wyvern makes it worth it."
Nick began to look over Slade's inheritance within his mind and soon found what he was looking for.
(There is a spell called Replace Soul within this inheritance that can be used to inject a soul into a living body, making the body its permanent host but the spell's lowest ranked version is rank 3 so I will have to design a rank 2 version of it myself.)
Nick sat cross legged beside the wyvern and started redesigning Replace Soul within his mindscape but the task was not easy since the spell was based on complex principles. Nick's attainment helped him to get over the major hurdles but it was really his spell making skills that he had constantly developed up until now that truly allowed him to make rapid progress.
After only three hours, Nick had fully redesigned the rank 3 Replace Soul to a rank 2 version with the same effect but that was only effective on rank 2 and lower beings. Since the wyvern did not already have a soul inhabiting it, however, Nick conjectured that the spell would still work as it should by injecting his split soul into the soulless wyvern. Nick did not waste any time and immediately cast the spell with his split soul as the target.
(Replace Soul.)
Nick's split soul immediately became energized, glowing brilliantly before moving to fly through the wyvern's scales and skin and then into its body. Nick waited ten minutes for a reaction but after seeing none, he grew worried.
"Huh? What's going on? Why isn't the wyvern's body reacting to my split soul?"
Nick gave it some thought for a few minutes before he came up with an answer:
"My split soul came from me, a human but this is a wyvern. Naturally, the soul and the body are incompatible so the soul is not yet able to control the body. I know, however, that human souls are as adaptable as human bodies. My split soul will eventually adapt enough to this wyvern's body to move it. Using the wyvern's active magic powers is probably a different matter though..."
Nick had no choice but to wait right here for his split soul to adapt. In the meantime, he would have to feed this wyvern's body in order to keep it from dying before his split soul could adapt to it.
"The good thing is that the wyvern's body is likely to keep weaker magic beasts away and I'll have to kill any humans who approach it myself."
Nick summoned a large, blue tarp and covered the wyvern's body, making sure to leave its head uncovered. Nick summoned his armored truck from his space band and went into the driver's seat where he would wait for his split soul to adapt to the wyvern's body.
Over the next month, Nick spent his free time reading text books and meditating. He would frequently fly over the surroundings in order to find magic beasts to kill so that he could feed their carcasses to the wyvern's body.
He basically did so by forcing the carcass down the wyvern's throat and into its stomach. At the end of that time, Nick noticed that the wyvern's wings and feet would occasionally move or twitch so he knew that the conjecture that he had made one month ago was correct. Nick continued to wait and so he began to practise the use of his Blade Works magic formation to manipulate his ghost-white blades. He also began to think up possible improvements to his spells as a basis to create new spells.
Just like that, another two months went by...
Nick stood over fifteen meters away from the wyvern as he manipulated over one hundred ghost-white blades at the same time. He waved his hand and each blade moved according to his will, either spinning, turning, moving forward or backward. It was an interesting sight to say the least and Nick was enjoying his cultivation.
"My proficiency in using Blade Works is far better than a few months ago. That makes me feel better about losing the defensive power of Battle Armor."
With the creation of Nick's split soul, he was forced to give up nearly half of his soul's power which meant that although his soul's general quality remained the same - bright silver, the strength of his soul path methods suffered because of the loss of a large amount of soul path laws.
"Battle Armor's defense is still better than Reinforced With Soul or Soul Capturing Coat but if I don't cultivate my soul back to the previous standard and I have to fight someone like Harvey Nefari again, I'm going to have a hard time. A good defense is just too important and Battle Armor is just too good a method to let it rot within my mind like the others."
Nick had created and made use of many spells since he became a Magician but he only frequently used a small portion of them because of the increased requirements in standards that he now had.
"Stronger enemies and harsher environments mean that I need stronger spells too. There can be no compromise. When I get back to the academy, I'm going to work on some of the methods that I am using now or replace them. Fighting Harvey Nefari a few months ago made me realize that I have a lot more work to do if I am going to compete with legacy Magicians."
Of course, Nick had Malevolent Shrine that could very easily have killed Harvey Nefari but that would have put him in deep shit. Nick knew that being a Magician was about more than just killing enemies. It was about using the best methods in order to get the best possible outcomes and in that regard, Nick still fell short compared to others so he would aim to improve.
"Oh right, I have to leave Forgotten Peril soon because of Carla's request but I plan to ignore her request if the wyvern doesn't wake up by that time. I've even decided not to pursue the mutant shifter or hunt down the everlast rubies with the Colt Company because of the wyvern."
Nick sacrificed valuable opportunities just for the off chance that his crazy gamble on obtaining a rank 3 magic beast's body would work.
"But life is like that. Many opportunities will come but you cannot pursue them all. One must prioritize if they are to achieve anything worthwhile. Is it the right choice to try and gain the wyvern's live body? I have no idea but if it turns out to be the wrong choice, even that is a valuable learning opportunity. Risk in pursuing an opportunity is not a bad thing if you truly believe that it can amount to something wonderful and I would say that not taking risks is much costlier than taking them. How do you learn or grow by only doing things that you know will work? That sounds like a formula for total failure to me."
While he was cultivating and affirming his beliefs aloud, Nick suddenly felt the ground lightly rumble. Nick looked all around him and soon realized that the wyvern had stood up and was now looking at him with a blank gaze. The jade-green glow in its eyes had finally returned. Nick stored his ghost-white blades within their adjacent space and cast Blink so that he could appear immediately in front of the now standing Wyvern.
Nick looked at its body up close and although it had visibly thinned from not getting the amount of food that it was used to, the wyvern was still a very intimidating magic beast. Nick commanded:
"Raise your wings."
The wyvern raised its partly leathery wings without resistance. Nick tried to get it to use its magic:
"Use your magic powers."
The wyvern tilted its head and did nothing else. Nick sighed, then gave another command but this time, he used his mind to do it:
(Take flight.)
The wyvern immediately flapped its wings and flew into the air, almost blowing Nick to the ground but he managed to maintain his balance. The wyvern circled Nick's position as he mused:
(The split soul that I created shares my memories up to the point of creation and shares my magical path attainments in real time but that's about all we share; oh right, and it seems that I can send it mental commands through the connection that our souls still have. Just like I expected, the wyvern is unable to willfully mobilize its magic power but its powerful body can still be used. Truth be told, I don't even know what kind of wyvern this is, so I'll have to research that when I get back to Grand Earth. The split soul is able to control its body but in order to control its magic, the soul needs to become further attuned to its host...that will take time, probably a long time, that is, so long as I am not missing something important regarding my conclusions. I can likely use methods to speed up the process but the time horizon is still a far distance away.)
Nick internally commanded the wyvern to return to the ground and it did so imposingly and breathed on Nick, soon gently sniffing him. Nick smiled at the result of his gambit but then decided that it was time to return to Grand Earth.
(Whenever there is a period of extreme growth, it's best to retreat in order to properly digest it. Roaming around with this wyvern unhindered would seem fun but it has implications that I don't want to deal with as I am now. I need time to really assess my gains.)
Nick moved to store his armored truck into his space band and then cast Blink to appear on the wyvern's back. He then cast Absolute Pull and Absolute Push to keep his body in place and gave the wyvern a mental command to fly into the air.
The wyvern flew up as fast as a jet and moved forward at a far greater speed than Nick himself could have achieved by using his space path spells. Nick couldn't help but feel excited about the future possibilities that have opened up because of what he had learned and gained during his time in Forgotten Peril.
"Now, it's time to go back to Grand Earth."