Updated Mission Statement

"Hawk thinks that will be useful to him if he can have it. What is it?" Karl asked.

"It's mana infused monster blood. It's the most basic of Common Grade resources for physical cultivation type elites. Drinking mana infused monster blood strengthens the body and can induce mutations. Without a proper method to handle and guide the process, it is often fatal, but for a monster or magical beast, it should be perfectly fine." She explained, with amusement sparkling in her eyes.

For a moment there, she almost seemed like a happy young woman, but then her serious face was back as she gestured toward the table.

"Call him out so that I can see the process. If it works, the Academy will get you more resources for the bird until it can grow into a proper combat unit. According to this morning's briefing, leadership feels that trying to turn you into a frontline fighter with just one Rending attack is pointless, and the senior professors think that we might have more luck training the Hawk, with you as its backup and leader in a support or scouting role." She explained.

Karl sighed. "Day two and I've already been sidelined?"

Rita gave an honest laugh at his disappointment. "All the mages are being cultivated in this direction as well. It is a measure to reduce casualties. The more people that we can have fighting behind golems, summons, barriers, and in your case, monsters, the better we can resist the Magical Beasts, and the more success we will have against the armies of the other nations.

They know that we have the advantage, and this relative peace won't last for much longer. If you don't want to be cannon fodder, you need to act quickly to gain strength. So, strengthen the bird, and when you feel that you are strong enough to take on another pet, let me know and the Academy will find something suitable for you."

That was a sharp change from yesterday's regimen of focusing on building his physical strength as fast as possible, but if they didn't know any more about his powers than he did, there wasn't actually much they could teach him, other than methods that had worked for others with different powers.

But Hawk was already out on the table, and happily lapping up the mana infused monster blood while radiating an amount of power that was far beyond what anyone would expect of a Common Grade beast.

After a few seconds, the effect seemed to fade, but the former swallow - sized hawk was now much larger, and while it was still a Common Grade monster, it was getting much closer to fully grown and awakened level power.

Then, something truly strange happened. Karl felt energy flowing from Hawk to him, clearing his mind, sharpening his eyesight, and leaving his muscles feeling fresh and strong.

He had no way of subtly testing it, but Karl was almost completely certain that his physical strength had suddenly increased as Hawk grew.

Most of the people he had seen these last few days were changing rapidly after the mana injection, so it might just be that, but the fact that it happened so suddenly after Hawk was given the monster blood seemed incredibly suspicious.

Karl cleared his throat and looked at the empty vial on the table. "So, I resonate with Dragon energy, and Hawk likes monster blood. That second part isn't exactly a surprise for a Hawk, but do you think that there is a known technique that will let us grow stronger more quickly?"

"Well, we are limited in Dragon type energy, there just isn't a lot of it floating around, but there might be another way. Carnivorous magical beasts grow stronger by killing and eating, absorbing the life force of other beasts. I think that moving the two of you to the practical courses as soon as you can finish basic skills and survival lessons would be for the best.

We can't just send you out of the Academy without getting you trained enough to defend yourself, the public would riot if they found out that one of the elite had died during training. The mana injections are great for us, we get the superpowers of all sorts, but to the average people, they are the promise of a safer future, without the nightmares of impending monster invasions or being left helpless during a war."

Karl rolled his eyes as she got into the official propaganda. While she wasn't exactly wrong, most of the students here would never fight in any war. Heck, half of them would never develop a skill that was actually useful during a war. No matter how cool a sword skill was, artillery still existed. Unless your sword could deal with an air strike, it was not suitable for use during a real war.

But some of them really could deal with artillery using sword techniques.

The Mages were a different story. But also, if his beast got powerful enough, or he managed to bond with a particularly powerful monster, he could also become a deadly fighting force. The hide of a powerful magical beast could stop bullets, and many types of beasts could breathe fire, call down lightning, or even slice apart armoured vehicles with their claws.

He was already headed down that last road, with [Rend], and if he could get it past the Awakened level of the power scale and into the Ascended levels, there was no reason that he couldn't tear through an armoured vehicle on his own.

"But for now, that's mostly hypothetical. We're not at war with anyone, and the magical beasts are being held at bay throughout the Golden Dragon Nation." Karl replied.

"For now. Just trust me, Karl, you want to get in as much combat training as you can, and I will apply for improved resources for Hawk. I know that birds are usually fine with whatever sort of meat you feed them, but if we want to force it to grow faster, it will take a detailed plan." Rita informed him.

Karl thought about that. A Windspeed Hawk was full-grown at four months old. But at that point, they were only low Awakened Level beasts with a Common Grade physique. It would take time and hunting stronger beasts if they wanted to grow past that strength level. Without some sort of reference or plan, he could be stuck at a very low level in his second year.