The Good Teacher

The Gryphon named Garrud was Al's familiar. A familiar is a being of another species tied in a pseudo-master-slave relationship with a mage. The bond is at the soul level, is hence an irreversible process, and is generally a mutually beneficial relationship. As the mage progresses in their cultivation, the familiar receives positive feedback in theirs which helps them advance, and vice-versa. However, due to the ingrained nature of this bond, should either party face a catastrophe of fatal proportions, the other will face equal retribution through their soul connection.

The art of forming this robust soul bond was introduced to mankind by the elves of the Fae Realm. The sentient elven race was unique in that they were born with very low mana capacity and weaker physiques. Compared to a human in the same cultivation realm, an elf might have less than half their mana capacity and somewhere between two-thirds to three-quarters of their strength. Although, compared to an average human, an average elf had far superior aesthetics and charms.

Yet, how could such a weak race, on paper, survive in such a perilous environment of the Fae Realm and become the dominant species to walk those lands?

This was because the strength of the Fae lay not in their raw martial prowess but their superior spiritual capacities. While humans could gauge their mana capacities quantitatively, the same could not be said for their spiritual strengths. To date, the spiritual aspect of cultivation, more specifically the soul, remains an elusive topic for most sentient races. That is, apart from the elves. The strength of a newborn elves' soul far exceeds that of a mortal human at the prime of their life.

Though many have tried to research this peculiarity, none have managed to derive a robust conclusion. Some believe that the elves' naturally long life expectancy, which is two and a half times that of a human, may have something to do with their high spiritual capacity. This is supported by the fact that it takes them double the time to mature biologically compared to humans. Others believe that inheritance and assimilation during fetal stages may have something to do with it. Elves have a very sparse birth and proliferation rate within their kind, which is further hampered by the fact that an elf mother gestates for nearly two years. Childbirth in elves is also much more perilous than in humans.

Nonetheless, the elves' large spiritual capacity enables them to form a symbiotic relationship with beasts of other species through familiar bonds, and this is their true strength. There have been records of an entire country being ravaged by a single elf in the Core Condensation realm and his horde of familiars - fighting elves is seldom a one-versus-one confrontation.

Ultimately, a rudimentary technique to form familiar bonds was shared with the humans years before the Age of Isolation, which has survived the test of time by being held firmly within the grasp of the Beast Taming Guild. The technique hasn't changed for millennia, not for the lack of trying. The field of soul strength and spirituality is just too complex for human beings and other sentient races to comprehend, thus rather than tampering with the existing method that works just fine, mages choose to stick to the status quo.

In the current age, if anyone wanted to take in a familiar, they had to do it through the Beast Taming Guild AFTER achieving a minimum of 2-stars. Another opportunity is presented to take on a new familiar with each successive star achieved. It was needless to say that very few people held more than four stars since each new familiar basically segmented the mage's soul proportionally to the beast's soul power.

Take Garrud for instance. A gryphon is born with pseudo-sentience. Within months of hatching from its egg, the gryphon's cultivation accelerates through the Mana Condensation realm to the Foundation Realm, at which point they reach adolescence. A Gryphon's DNA is encoded with a rudimentary cultivation method that elevates them to the Core Formation realm where they solidify full sentience.

As expected, a gryphon's soul power expands exponentially once they enter Core Formation, at which point forming a familiar bond becomes extremely difficult unless the Gryphon acquiesces to it voluntarily; a mature Gryphon's soul power can rival that of a mage in the same cultivation realm. If there isn't a consensus from the familiar, a severe backlash can be incurred which will end up crippling the mage entirely.

"I found Garrud as an egg," Al explained to Guy and Markus who were clutching onto the jerking body of the feathered and furred beast as it skimmed across the skies. "I formed a familiar bond with it the moment it hatched, otherwise it would have been impossible! gryphons are notoriously proud and highly territorial."

"H-How did you find the egg?" Guy inquired while trying to control his chattering teeth. The sheer distance between their current altitude and the ground was agitating his latent acrophobia. Even his Disciple had increased the force with which he grabbed Guy's waist.

"Total coincidence! You wouldn't even believe it," Al blurted out as he soared next to him. "There was a contract posted for exterminating a pair of gryphons up at Gold-Plated Hills quite a ways West from Twilight Village. Many heads congregated there to undertake this venture, the beast couple WERE in the Core Condensation Realm after all. On a side note, beasts in a cultivation realm are generally stronger than human mages in the same realm. It has to do with their superior physiques, bloodlines and one-track-minded cultivation methods. None of those distractions that humans suffer from, holding their cultivations back."

"So anyway, I wanted to try my luck out. I hadn't confronted gryphons before; thought about testing my might against them. And would you believe my luck! The gryphons had laid a wonderful gold coated egg!"

"Unguarded?" Guy exclaimed in disbelief.

"Not really," Al responded with a sly smile. "It just so happened that two mercenary groups led by a few mages had coordinated an attack against the nest at the same time. You may be aware that gryphons are notorious for their capacity to hoard treasures. Their affinity to it sometimes even rivals dragons! The stronger the gryphon, the more treasure hoarded in its nest. And if there were two, the hoard would be doubled. The mercenary groups distracted the two gryphons, while I sneakily entered and swiped it."

As Al finished the sentence, Garrud jolted with mild aggravation.

"Oh drop it already!" Al spat at the irritated hybrid. "Your life amongst your parents would have been far worse. Do you think they would feed you all those expensive elixirs and natural treasures such as I did?"

Garrud vibrated reluctantly in agreement.

"He's a saucy little brat," Al commented. "A familiar bond does not automatically ensure allegiance as it isn't like those slave contracts clans and sects use to control their protectors. This brat realised that he had been fleeced the moment he gained partial sentience, and he turned on me at that instance! You wouldn't believe how much I had to sink into him to get him to listen to me."

"What surprised me, though," Al immediately redirected with a confused intonation, "is that he was so amicable with that girl. Garrud hates people, period. The last time I asked someone else to feed him, he nearly mauled the poor bloke to death. The girl didn't aggravate him - it's peculiar."

"Dora has a way with animals," Guy affirmed.

"No kidding," Al muttered. "The weird thing was that I could hear her voice through my familiar bond. It was like a faint echo."

"You know, the more I get to know the people at the orphanage, the more I've come to realise that it is a treasure trove filled with talented individuals," Al declared spontaneously.

"Everyone's talented in one way or another," Guy chuckled. "You just have to look deeper and with a lens free of prejudice."

"Hear, hear!"

After that, Al increased his flight speed along with his familiar's.

Although Guy had flown many times in his past life, it was always within the confines of a pressurised metal tube. Surprisingly, he felt safer atop the back of the flying beast that when travelling via aeroplane. Somehow, the feeling of the wind blowing through his hair and the paced heartbeats of the beast beneath him comforted his mind. While within an aeroplane, the precarious rumbling and jerking motion always instilled a subtle fear in his heart. He did not experience the same uneasiness atop Garrud.

Guy did have some difficulty keeping his eyes open as they started to gain altitude. The dry, cold wind bit into his skin and desiccated his eyeballs immediately. Through trial-and-error, he managed to form a robust screen of mana in front of him that helped separate the currents. He was just about to tell his Disciple when he noticed that Markus had already put up a similar shield in front of his face.

"We will be arriving at the sect soon," Al's voice reverberated in their minds. "Let me handle the talking. I will lobby for access to the sect's record library. Through it, you will gain access to the sect's history and front-end management data and finances - all under supervision. The favour should cover that much."

Guy and Markus nodded affirmatively.

"The man we are going to rendezvous with is extremely nosy. Try not to reveal too much about yourself. The more intrigued he feels, the more he will dig into your past," Al warned.

Guy chuckled spontaneously at the irony of Al's description of the man. 'Sounds similar to a certain mage I know.'

"Finally. Whatever happens, do not interfere with anything that happens in the sect," Al warned Guy and Markus. "I am a hundred per cent sure that the bastard will set something up to provoke a confrontation."

Al gritted his teeth in frustration as he suddenly recollected the interaction from his past with the 'bastard' in question that led to him gaining the favour.

"It's because he LET me win that time," Al muttered to himself. "I have to be extra careful so that Guy and Markus aren't caught in whatever scheme he is cooking up."