Time Skip
One Year Later
The aircraft hummed softly, the sound a steady rhythm in the background, and it was almost therapeutic, in a way.
Osho sat by the window, watching as the vast sea of clouds slowly parted beneath them, revealing the world below.
His expression was calm and collected, making it hard for anyone to tell what he was thinking from that alone. However, a flicker of anticipation could be seen in his gaze
After more than a year, he was finally returning to the Blossom Citadel.
The thought stirred up complicated feelings within him, but the most prominent of them were nostalgia and curiosity.
The Osho who had left there was not the same as the one sitting at this window. Back then, he had been sharp, ambitious... but reckless, still in the process of figuring out his own power.
Now, though, there was a sense of restraint in his gaze followed by a deep confidence.
He leaned into his seat and looked around the cabin.
The aircraft wasn't just that. It was a masterpiece of Mana engineering. It was wide enough to fit a dozen people inside comfortably, and the suite was quietly luxurious. The whole thing was enchanted in such a way that feeling turbulence was simply impossible, and the comfort was on another level
If one tried to compare it to private jets before Mana appeared, the best they could say was that they were second-rate.
One shouldn't be fooled, though. Beyond that comfort was a beast of machinery. The weapon systems alone on it could comfortably take out high-level Elite Rank monsters and seriously injure Masters.
'Stellaris truly has a way of spoiling its people.' He thought. It was only natural, though. Even more so when one considers the importance they place on Osho and his friends.
Across from him, Gale dozed with his wings folded neatly. The bird had wanted to fly next to the aircraft for most of the trip, and he did so, but he eventually got sleepy and returned.
His size hadn't increased much despite having ranked up, but that was out of choice.
On the floor Bedrock, who was almost as big as Osho now, sat cross-legged in silence. His large arms sat beside him like barrels, but there was no brutish pool in his eyes, only calm intelligence.
Osho's gaze softened. A year of training, learning, and evolving. It had been quite the process for all of them, and now, it was time to see how far that year had truly taken them.
He looked around and saw his companions.
Chatting and doing their own thing. Appearance-wise, they didn't look much different. Granted, there were some changes here and there.
Kurt had put on more muscle. Not quite bulky, but in terms of sheer physique, he stood out the most out of all of them, primarily due to Venom and the way the symbiote interacted with his body.
The three girls had matured quite a bit, too, both physically and mentally. Their vibrance was almost blinding, and their appearances were to drool for.
Osho's gaze shifted to Ellie. She'd let her hair grow out before turning it into a single large braid. His gaze flicked over her body, and like every other time, she seemed to notice his gaze and winked at him, promptly making him look away with some embarrassment.
He sighed and looked up as he recalled a some of the stuff that had happened within this year.
In terms of his ability and its usage, if one were to conpare the current him to the him of back then, calling him an amateur would be putting it nicely.
The level of innovation he achieved with his ability was simply top-notch. Whether it was evolving beasts or developing methodologies for other things, he was simply unmatched in his level.
As such, talent aside, the items he created for him and his group made their training speed incredible, and the only reason none of them had pushed for even higher ranks was that they wanted to get used to their current levels.
After all, he'd already made something that circumvented the shaky foundation issue.
Anyway, he had thoroughly convinced Stellaris to keep sponsoring him. It was to the point where he didn't even need to show them proof of his progress to warrant more resources, they just did it so that they knew what he made and how best to use them.
Then in the evolution aspect, Osho had learned a lot. Whether it was dealing with beast conduits or handling how they evolved, everything was just better, and the stuff he could do now was mind-blowing.
His increased rank also allowed him to unlock more aspects of his ability which he couldn't use easily before. For instance, mending the cracks in evolution ribbons caused no strain now, and he had a much easier time when it came to dealing with conduits.
Speaking of, Osho had a bit of a field day with those after his rank up.
He took the creature's words seriously, so he treaded carefully and tried not to overdo things. However, that didn't stop him from altering the conduits of his and his companions' beasts to make them absolute monsters.
And on that note, he also managed to increase the potential of their beasts to legendary as well, meaning their group now had 5 prospective Legends in the making. Not that anyone knew this other than them.
The power each of them could output was simply absurd now.
As such, they had made a bit of a reputation for themselves within Stellaris, with many either trying to ally with them or suppress them.
There were other things, too.
Osho recalled his 'siblings', and sighed.
At some point, Peter had snitched to the other Star Children about his presence in Stellaris, and somehow, a few of them had no issue waltzing into the hidden realm to meet him.
In fact, he planned on meeting one of them in the Blossom Citadel, but that was for later.
Then there was the deal with the evolution regents and Fredrick.
Yeah, needless to say, he'd caused an uproar.
Fredrick and his people had done their jobs remarkably well... almost too well, to be honest.
Whether it was secretly making beasts people pay a lot of attention to evolve or making the regents pop up on markets briefly, or even spreading rumors about what they were doing, it didn't take long for a it to cause a sensation.
All of a sudden, people start looking deeply into these beasts and their evolutions. People chase after signs of the evolution like thirsty men looking for the well of life.
People desperately look for information on the name Maven.
It had been so significant that it even appeared on the news, and he heard his classmates, and even his lecturers speak about the issue here and there.
As it turns out, he had still slightly underestimated the significance of clean and seamless beast evolution. After all, many of these beasts had been captured by significant/powerful groups. Either private organizations or Citadels to be studied, and as it turned out, the evolutions these beasts underwent were seamless and without any sort of drawbacks.
Osho knew this both because Fredrick told him, and because, well, due to his increasing value in Stellaris, he was privy to more and more sensitive information. And as it turns out, Stellaris had captured a few of the beasts to run their own tests on them, and indeed, the evolutions were seamless.
By now, the aircraft had broken through the clouds, and the massive walled city that was Blossom stood in view.
Osho... could actually see a lot from up here. His vision was something else, especially since Gale was his beast. But he refrained from inspecting the place thoroughly as he wanted to experience it again when they landed.
Even from here, though, he could tell that quite a few things had changed. The most prominent being the size. It seemed like the conquest on the ants had been quite successful, considering that a lot of the expansion had grown in that area.
'I wonder how Mrs Jane and the others are doing.' Osho thought and smiled a little. While they had sent some messages here and there, due to the location of Stallaris and its rules, he hadn't been able to see his teacher since.
'I guess we will find out when we land.' He hummed, and then his smile faded a little.
Granted, while they were technically on 'break', they didn't come back just to relax. No.
They had reached the stage where Stellaris could assign tasks to them, and said task would begin in Blossom Citadel.
Moreover, Fredrick would be coming, so they were going to have a bit of a discussion as well.
As for what tye discussion was going to be about?
Well, something that Osho had still been digging into quite significantly.
The Outerplanar