Chapter 43 – Spiritual Whale

It took five full days for the spiritual whale to recover from her injuries. During all this period, Kieran was to take care of her, and thanks to the guidance of Runihoril, he was able to learn how to find medicinal herbs in nature. Thanks to this, he could at least do first aid, even if he had no alchemist ability or knowledge.

The spiritual whale shook its entire body, moving its tail up and down in the water, making sounds of joy. A wave of energy emanated from its horn, entering Kieran's body.

"You don't have to thank me. I did it of my own choosing," Kieran said, caressing the spiritual whale.

"It's time for you to go back to the sea."

Using the giant's transformation, his body grew to 4 meters in height, and crystal essence flowed through his whole body.

He placed his hands on the spiritual whale before bending his knees and pushing with all his might, crystal essence suddenly surging from him as the spiritual whale's body shifted slightly.

"Once again!"

Kieran didn't give up and kept pushing with all his strength.

After five long hours of fierce struggle, he managed to push the whole body of the spiritual whale inside the water. At the same time, he fell to the ground, exhausted.

The spiritual whale made several circles in the sea, emitting noises of joy.

He was trying to get his breath back. During those five hours, he kept pushing the spiritual whale away by constantly using his crystal essence.

"If I didn't cultivate the Heaven Sun Body, I wouldn't have been able to stand under such crystal essence consumption."

"The fact that you reached the late stage of the Iron rank also has a lot to do with it," said Runihoril.

Kieran lifted his upper body to sit, watching the spiritual whale swimming freely in the water. He couldn't help a smile from rising on his face.

"What are you going to do now?" Runihoril asked.

"I don't know which way to go. I can only hope I get lucky and run into some humans along the way."

"I'm sorry, without a body, I can't guide you."

"It's okay. Before participating in the expedition to enter in your secret realm, I bought a small boat big enough to support a person in case I have to move on my own. Although it's slow to navigate on the sea, with the infinite number of islands in this archipelago, I could move on the sea during the day and land on an island for the night."

"It's not a bad idea."

He sat cross-legged, beginning to meditate to recover all the crystal essence he had spent.

An hour later, he opened his eyes. Nearing the beach, he could still see the spiritual whale near the island. With a gesture of his hand, a small boat appeared in front of him.

The boat was the size of a car. It was so small that a wave could easily overturn it.

"I hope I don't run into a crystal beast as big as the spiritual whale, or it can destroy my boat in one fell swoop."

He got on the boat and started to set sail.

Shortly after he left the island, the spiritual whale came close to him, forming circles around his boat.

"Do you want to come with me?"

A surge of energy escaped from the horn of the spiritual whale, entering his body, and an expression of surprise emerged on his face.

"Really? Thank you!"

"What did she tell you?"

"She wants to thank me for helping her by carrying me on her back!"

Kieran didn't hesitate and jumped on the back of the spiritual whale while he recovered his boat in his aurora collar.

Kneeling down, he gently caressed the back of the spiritual whale.

"Thank you. I should give you a name. It will be easier than calling you spiritual whale."

The spiritual whale emitted a sound of joy.

Runihoril watched the whole scene with a dumbfounded expression.

'A spiritual whale accepts another race on its back?!'

Runihoril couldn't understand the scene he was witnessing before his eyes. According to his memories, the spiritual whales were among the purest race in existence, avoiding anything that could taint them. In that sense, they even had more arrogance than a True Dragon, preferring death rather than having another race touch them.

"Are you a male or a female?"

The spiritual whale sends a wave of energy to Kieran while making little sounds.

"I see. You're a female. Um..."

Kieran rubbed his head, trying to come up with a good name, when his gaze fell on the spiritual whale's horn.

'That horn almost looks like a half-moon in the sky.'

"I know! I'll call you Luna from now on."

Luna made sounds of joy.

"You have a terrible sense of naming. You could have called it World Eating Whale or something like that," said Runihoril.

"..."

Kieran looked at Runihoril, not knowing what to say.

"Let's go this way, Luna."

Luna started to swim slowly, following the direction Kieran was pointing.

***

Two days passed as Kieran crossed the sea on Luna's back. Each evening he asked Luna to take him back to an island so he could sleep comfortably.

He looked at the date on his aurora collar.

"In a week, it will be one month since I've been here. I hope Mom isn't too worried about me. She has the vital orb with her, so it should be fine."

A golden halo formed in his right eye.

[ Kieran Arvost]
[Crystal Seed Status (1):
Name: Wolf Transformation
Refinement Rate: 75.82/100]
[Crystal Seed Status (2):
Name: Giant Transformation
Refinement Rate: 75.51/100]
[Crystal Essence: 151.33]

"I've been awakened for almost two months. It will take me several more days before I can reach the Bronze rank."

A small shadow suddenly appeared above Kieran. Looking up at the sky he saw a bird a few meters above him. At the same time he saw the bird, he felt a movement coming from Luna under him.

Luna emitted a slight noise, and the water around her suddenly started to move, causing a small column of water to emerge, which hit the bird, causing it to fall on her back.

The bird was stunned. Kieran looked at him with a strange expression on his face.

"Why did you attack the bird, Luna?"

Luna sends a wave of energy toward him.

"You are jealous... Because he can fly?!"

The answer left Kieran even more stunned than the bird.

"Ahah, you're a weird whale. Being jealous of a bird doesn't make sense for a whale."

Luna cried several times before controlling the water around her to spray Kieran.

"..."

"Hahaha."

It was the turn of Runihoril to laugh, seeing Kieran's surprised face.

He wiped the water off his face before checking the bird. It was a small bird barely larger than his forearm.

'That must be an Iron rank young beast. She just knocked him out. He should be able to fly again in a few minutes.'

Several minutes later, the bird got up, looking around it. When he saw Kieran, he flapped his wings and escaped quickly.

Kieran shook his head before looking straight ahead again.