After walking one full loop around the plane, carefully counting his steps as he walked, Leo returned right back to where the rift had spit him out. By his count, the plane was only about three miles long, which put it firmly in diminutive territory. During his walk, he’d also confirmed one other important thing.

  This plane had never been cleansed.

  The first time he’d spotted a magical beast, Leo had nearly dropped his knife at its sudden appearance. Thankfully, the magical beast was not only docile, but one he was more than familiar with.

  This plane is filled with larva. Leo frowned as he crouched in the tall grasses, staring directly at the most pathetic magical beast known to man. The larva was only a few inches long, wriggling around along the grass as it nibbled here and there with nearly invisible teeth. After sprites, it was one of the most common magical beasts across the planes, and thankfully, incapable of doing just about anything.

  The only thing that separated a magical beast from a regular animal was the beast gem held within their bodies. With it, magical beasts were able to harness their natural magic and utilize powers that defied logic. In that same vein, humans were able to claim these gems and powers for themselves, fundamentally strengthening their souls and physical bodies as they grew in power. Most magical beasts had amazing powers, giving gem holders abilities like transforming their bodies into fire or shooting lightning from their hands.

  Then there were larva.

  Leo grimaced as he poked at the magical beast with his knife. He didn’t even need to bother figuring out how to channel the Silence skill he’d received from the ash sprite his father had given him to deal with these opponents. Larva didn’t have any sort of attack. They didn’t have any method of defense either. All they were known for was their ability to manifest just about anywhere, where they did the two things they were actually good at.

  Eat and sleep.

  “I get that you guys wanted me to be safe… but larva? Really?” Leo shook his head as he poked the larva again, watching it wriggle a bit more under his knife. Unfortunately, at first glance this plane didn’t seem to have any other magical beasts roaming the land he could fight, which meant this was his sole ticket to strengthening his soul. “Fine. You guys win. Let’s see how this goes.”

  Thrusting his knife forward, Leo killed the larva quickly, digging through its body for its beast gem. It was so tiny he almost missed it, but he finally spotted the dark chip of a gem hidden within the larva’s guts. Plucking it out, he sat down, thinking back to his mother’s lessons.

  Take in the gem’s power like you did the first time, but rather than trying to get the power to reform within your soul back into the same structure it once held, focus on keeping it in its more chaotic, fluid state. Keep it moving around your soul, drip-feeding the power wherever your soul feels weakest. Then, once you’ve finished a layer, the power will officially solidify and you’ll advance to the next soul rank.

  “How hard could it be?” Leo muttered, pressing the tiny gem against his chest. Focusing on the gem, he breathed the energy in, sensing the sliver of power as it was drawn into his core. It felt like even less than what he’d first pulled in with the ash sprite. Yet despite that, Leo found himself struggling to get the power to do what he wanted.

  Unlike when he took in the gem from the ash sprite, where the power naturally snapped back into the structure once held within the magical beast gem, this time was quite different. The power felt as though it wanted to go wild along the fringes of his soul, to crash through his small, barely developed core and ruin everything. Leo soon found himself sweating just from concentration as he desperately flexed muscles he’d never used before, keeping the power both fluid and moving within him at all times as he drip fed his soul one speck of power at a time. His soul was still only in the first grade, which meant he didn’t have any room for error. If his control lapsed and he allowed the power to go wild within his core, he’d either get violently ill…

  Or his soul would explode.

  Luckily, neither of those two things happened, and Leo let out a sigh of relief as his soul finally finished absorbing the excess energy. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he tried to focus inward, scrunching his face up as he tried to judge his own soul.

  Feels maybe… a sixth of the way full? Roughly?

  According to his parents, he’d eventually get to the point where he’d be able to not only know the exact strength of his soul and the magical beasts around him, but even the planar tier of any rift he approached. However, those were skills that would only come with time. For now, he was stuck relying on a childhood of studying under two apparently famous Cartographers.

  Soul ranks of 42 and 43… While his father absolutely was the type to use his dying breath to play a prank on him, Leo was pretty certain he hadn’t been lying. But if that were true, that would put his parents firmly within the upper echelon of society when it came to power. There were fewer than a hundred people with soul ranks in the forties, and most of them were rather well known. Only the Planar Lords, the five people who had managed to reach a soul rank of 50, were more famous.

  Leo paused in his hunt for another larva, wiping the fresh tears from his eyes as he thought about his parents. Taking a shuddering breath, he shoved those feelings back down yet again, sealing them away within a mental box. There’d be a time for proper grieving later. Right now, he needed to survive. While hunting larva wasn’t exactly exciting, it was safe, and-

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Pain exploded across the back of Leo’s calf and he cursed, stumbling forward as he barely managed to stay upright. Turning around, all thoughts of his family were forgotten for the moment as he realized he’d missed a magical beast during his earlier examination of this plane. Before him stood a rock rabbit, a well-known magical beast with a Grade 3 gem. That meant this plane was at least a tier 3, and therefore not nearly as harmless as he’d first thought for a brand-new gem holder such as himself. While a single rock rabbit wasn’t too much of a threat, they often lived in burrows, and a family of them could easily overwhelm a person.

  Fixing his grip on his knife, Leo squared off with the magical beast, his eyes sweeping over it for anything resembling a weak spot. Mostly identical to a regular rabbit, this magical beast counterpart was covered from head to tail in a thin layer of flaky stone. With their powerful hind legs and hardened armor, they were able to turn themselves into rather painful projectiles, smashing into people’s legs until they went down.

  And unlike regular rabbits, magical beasts would nearly always go after a gem holder if one was available.

  “Come on!” Leo shouted, waiting for the rock rabbit to launch itself at him again. “I don’t have all day! Let’s see what you-”

  The magical beast leapt forward, its head down and aimed for his lower leg once more. Leo barely managed to jump out of the way, swiping down with his knife and actually managing to hit the beast mid jump. Unfortunately, his blade scraped off the rabbit’s rock armor without drawing blood, and the two of them faced off yet again, neither any worse for wear.

  Damn, I can’t wait to get an actual offensive skill I can use.

  A few seconds passed before the rock rabbit proved patience was not one of the things it was known for, launching itself at him a third time. This time, Leo didn’t even bother with the blade of his knife, instead swinging the pommel down and smashing it into the rabbit's head mid-jump. Years of working on his hand-eye coordination and heightening his reaction time under his parent’s tutelage paid off, and he shouted a victory cry as the rabbit dropped stunned to the ground. Not giving it a chance to recover, he finished it off with a quick stab between the plates of its armor, quickly finding the beast’s gem and plucking it out.

  The rock rabbit’s gem was far more impressive than that of the ash sprite or larva, looking like a small brown topaz with a glimmer of power contained within the center. As much as he was tempted to save it for later, Leo knew from his studies that beast gems couldn’t survive on their own for very long without the proper equipment. The lower the grade, the less time they could survive outside of a host, which meant this gem probably only had a few minutes before it dissipated, if that.

  Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t use it for power…

  Technically, what he was about to attempt was incredibly reckless. His parents had stressed that while absorbing a gem a few grades above one’s own soul was technically possible, it required an iron will and unwavering concentration. Leo was still learning all this on the fly, so sticking with fellow Grade 1 gems like those from the larva would definitely be the safer method of strengthening his soul.

  But he didn’t have time for safety.

  The image of his father’s charred corpse flashed through his mind, and Leo shook his head, deciding right then and there he’d do whatever it took to grow in power and be able to hold his own against the Planar Lord and their agents. He had a long way to go, which meant there was no time like the present.

  Running a good bit away from his downed foe in case there were other rock rabbits lying in wait, Leo took a seat and raised the fragile gem to his chest. Before he could change his mind, he breathed in, bringing the grade 3 gem into his soul.

  Where he instantly realized he’d bitten off more than he could chew.

  Leo gasped as his own immature soul suddenly found itself adrift in a sea of power, swaying helplessly as it was beaten and battered on all sides. Almost immediately, what little progress he’d made of strengthening his soul from the previous larva gem was eroded away, and it took everything he had just to keep his soul locked down and prevent the foreign energy from piercing directly into it. If that happened, he was dead.

  Move! he ordered, clenching his jaw as he tried to corral the raging sea of power he’d foolishly taken into himself. Even with all the mental exercises he’d been practicing before bed each night for as long as he could remember, it was like trying to swim through a lake with stone boots, and he struggled harder than ever before to force the power to do what he wanted. Finally, the current shifted ever so slightly, and he managed to get the power into something resembling a stable pattern. Rather than smashing up against his tiny core, it now felt as though he were in the eye of a raging storm, safe from the damaging current swirling around him, if only just.

  He did note that, due to having to divert the vast majority of his mental strength on keeping his soul protected, a good bit of the foreign power swirling within his core was actually leaking out of him, dissipating into the air once it left his body. His parents would have called such cultivation sloppy, but they also would have called him a fool for attempting to absorb a Grade 3 gem so soon, so Leo ignored the power bleeding off him for now.

  He didn’t know how long he spent keeping that deadly power away from puncturing his core as he drip-fed it along his soul piece by piece, but finally, after what felt like an eternity, he succeeded. The last of the power solidified around his soul, and he twitched as he actually felt his soul condense deep within him, growing ever so slightly thicker and more capable than before. A quick gaze at his newly strengthened core showed exactly what he hoped it would, and he grinned as he flopped back onto the meadow, going over his progress.

  Soul Rank: 2 (1 available)

  Beast Gem: Ash Sprite (1)

  Skill: Silence

  It was stupid… but damn was it effective. Leo knew his parents had anticipated it taking him about a week to get his soul up to the sixth rank, yet here he was, having already hit the second rank in less than a day. Granted, he had no idea how long the days on this particular plane actually lasted, but based on the fact that he still wasn’t all that hungry or tired, he didn’t think it had been more than a few hours.

  Now that he’d achieved a soul rank of 2, his options had improved a bit. He could either take in another Grade 1 beast gem, like that from one of the larva, or he could ditch his ash sprite gem and try to find a Grade 2 beast gem instead to take in as an upgrade. He was a bit hesitant to simply abandon the gem his father had chosen for him to start with, but his mother had drilled the foolishness of getting attached to any one gem into his head. The mark of a true Cartographer was one who was willing to swap out gems on the fly, changing to counter whatever deadly plane they were planning to tackle at any given moment. But seeing as he didn’t have the means of storing the gems he found, any gems he didn’t keep in his soul would be gone for good within minutes.

  Still, the fact that this plane had Grade 3 magical beasts meant it was a tier 3 plane at a minimum, which made his next goal crystal clear.

  Time to grow stronger.