This would be Natalie and Dain's first time seeing a beastmaster's contract being conducted.

  At least a proper one.

  After all, there naturally was such a spell produced within the Romana empire to allow them to control beasts, but this contract was primitive compared to a proper beastmaster contract produced by the beast taming sects and the later on beast taming civilization of Daxia.

  This is due to the nature of beast taming sects, which are developed by cultivators.

  As people who pursue immortality, many will find themselves inherently deficient for this path, and will thus seek ways to improve their own footing or capability to cultivate.

  The result was unorthodox methods such as dual cultivating or blood absorption, with some darker methods like yin absorption or even self necromancy and mass sacrifice.

  Beast taming was merely one such method, using their beast partner's breakthroughs to stimulate their own body and their partner's better ability to absorb energy to increase their own absorption, their own "potential"

  Natural the beast taming contract, which serves as the initial contact, is very different.

  It is taylormade for young cultivators to bond their own bodies to the beasts, and to share their increased perception of the energy around them and stimulate their own potential.

  This contract also produced a beast taming space produced from a users mental energy, allowing them to store their beast partners in teir beast contracting space, saving beast tames the need to purchase spacial items that can store things, specifically living things.

  The current beast taming society in the north was actually the combination of all the beast taming clans and sects from the qing dynasty, driven out by the current human supremacy undercurrent, who went to the north and hid,

  So naturally Grant utilized their beast taming contract, which was the most optimized and perfected version of the spell, compiled of the various ways beast tamers created contracts.

  He wasn't a beast taming master after all. May as well mooch off of others, especially since that's what he does best.

  Devis was careful as he began setting up the contract circle, using blood to set up the contract.

  Many prefer to use manastone grinded up into powder, but blood allows for a much better connection between beast tamer and monster in the face of contract breaking spells.

  It also increases the users ability to communicate with their partner over longer distances.

  The problem is that A) user must have enough mana or qi in their blood to power such a contract so for those with low potential or low rank, this is not feasible and B) for the average citizen who may not be ready to spill blood, the grinded up energy stone is the better solution. After all, not all beast tamers became fighters, with some choosing to become construction workers or musicians or such.

  Devis had neither of these problems, and was not scared of bleeding himself. Torture over a long period of time had long desensitized him.

  And as part monster himself, an ogre no less, his mana concentration was not low.

  He clearly had no problem creating the magic circle, having clearly been listening in class.

  The next part was the acceptance of the monster. One does not necessarily need obedience, and could force the contract through their own power, But should be avoided if possible.

  The contract finished smoothly as the ignystro agreed to the contract rather quickly.

  After he completed the contract, Grant handed the boy a cultivation method, specifically made for those who had established a contract.

  Unlike the beast contracting method, this was not a publicly available method. He stole this one from a big family in the past.

  After all, although the publicly available beast contracting method was a useful and well made method, the individual cultivation methods were not of such high quality.

  It made sense. After all, giving out a good beast contracting method was a benefit to the people that wouldn't greatly affect their advantage over the masses, but a good cultivation method? That was something big families wouldn't easily give up, nor let leak easily.

  The methods they offered weren't bad, better than anything outer disciples in other sects in Qing could get their hands on, but it was still not as good as the treatment of those private families.

  So naturally he "borrowed" all their techniques. Privately or publicly depending on his mood.

  In particular, the current method was a derivative of a dual cultivation method. Of course, it was no longer a dual cultivation method, but many of the concepts in it were clearly derived as such. More importantly, it started as one for monsters, meaning it was more suitable for monsters who are holding contracts with other monsters, the essence flowing easier and the feedback greater overall, and would actually allow the beastmasters gains to feedback into the monsters, which most beastmaster cultivation techniques didn't.

  Nothing but the best for his students!

  As he explained the ins and outs about the techniques to Devin, Natalie decided to ask a question that bugged her.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Once he sent the boy away to get acquainted with his new fiery partner, she walked over. tapping him on the shoulder to get Grant's attention before asking.

  "can I ask you something about power levels?" she said, kind of out of the blue to Grant but he thought it a reasonable thing to ask about.

  "Sure. Shoot."

  "I noticed that cultivators have 6 ranks from qi refining to void refining and beast tamers have 6 ranks up to the god level. But adventurers don't seem to rank it into 6 divisions. Do you know why?" she asked uncertainty. Spending time with Grant, as well as having heard the ranking that Grant just put out, Natalie naturally noticed this fact. Grant had explained to them before that the high B- A rank corresponded to the golden core or the jindan stage of cultivating. Yet clearly there were 6 levels of cultivation, and A ranks were merely considered the halfway point.

  "That's because as far as the guild is concerned, beyond the fourth rank, or S to SSS class, is beyond rare, and basically nonexistent amongst adventurers monsters. So they categorized creatures within the F to SSS ranks in response to what level of danger a monster presents, and the adventurers ability to deal with monster. Not the level of development of existence they've reached.

  I suppose the best way to put it was that the goals were different from the get go, as cultivators and beastmasters focused on the levels of cultivation, while adventurers focused on the level of threat a monster poses."

  "So where are the rest of the ranks of adventures? Even including S rank and SS-SSS rank, the number of ranks seem incomplete compared to the ranking of cultivators. " she said, and Grant merely thought for a moment before responding.

  "You're wondering whats up with this weird absence of a ranking corresponding to the higher levels. Well that's the thing. There is no gap."

  This statement merely confused Natalie.

  No gap? Then does the SS and SSS rank correspond with them?

  No, if B-A is the Jindan range, then S-SS is likely the fourth level, and if not, it could fit, but it didn't feel right either.

  Wait, there was something. SHe hadn't thought of them, always regarding them as higher than herself, something completely out of her reach.

  Something mortals cannot touch.

  An important pillar in civilization. How could she forget them!?

  Seeing the dawning realization, Grant nodded before saying the words. "Yes, gods. You forgot them.

  Within the empire, those who are of the fourth rank and above tend to be considered gods." Grant state.

  "But the SS ranks and the SSS ranks exist? Would they be considered gods then?" she asked with confusion and Grant corrected her issue of perception.

  "You've come to a misunderstanding. I said tend to be considered gods because those above the 4th ranks tend to be gods.

  Any being can become a god as long as they gain enough faith. In theory, even a second level being can be a god.

  But pantheons have the nice benefit of being able to spread faith around and distribute it to people, ascending them to gods. As in, they get added to the pantheon. I'm not joking any hero whose reached the 4th rank and are considered of good moral character tend to end up gods eventually. And if not, become legendary heroes considered on par with the gods.

  People don't classify above that rank since to them there is no need to. FOurth rank and above, you're a god. I guess high gods would be considered 5th rank, 4th low rank gods, and primordials those who've entered the 6th level. The likes of chaos, ymir, surtr, and the first Ra would fit here.

  Also, from what I peeked, your guild does have a quiet classification of those above the 4th rank. It's not an official rank, but those above the SSS rank are classified continental disasters, and those at the 6th rank or God/void refining level are considered apocalyptic.

  Which isn't wrong I suppose."

  This did help clear up some of Natalie's confusion as to why she never heard of any equal ranking. Anyone of a higher level was considered a god, and distinguished appropriately.

  Still...

  "Does the Qing dynasty not have gods then? It seems clear that they have rankings for those higher levels while we don't, so does that mean there's no pantheon for such people to join?"

  To this, Grant showed a look of disgust, yet it was also a complicated look. .

  "There's a long story involved in that, but long story short: no. The current age of cultivators stands in stark contrast to heaven with its ideals, and thus tried to kill every god before Heaven eventually closed up.

  Since then, no one has been able to enter heaven since. Heaven does not recognize the current age of cultivators, and the current age of cultivators despises the heavens, and is greedy for all the treasures it holds."

  "Are the cultivators to the east so strong?" she asked confusedly and Grant shook his head.

  "On the contrary, Heaven is patient. Heaven knows the nature of man, and that eventually the current dynasty will fall, and with it, the age of cultivators. Cultivation can be said to be a doomed class since they consume resources at an increasing rate as more long lived humans join the ranks, and they suppress the nonhumans ."

  "Suppress the monsters? Don't we do that too?"

  "No. The nonhumans. Anything that isn't human is treated like cattle. I include the elves, the dwarves, and other nonhuman races.

  It got so bad that they drove out the beast taming sects and families all together by trying to kill all of them and refine all the beasts into resources. The whole reason there's a secret beast taming society in the north pole is because they all fled there and created their own, more sustainable society.

  And while you do subjugate monsters, it's limited by the natural aging of the people. A 3rd level adventurer can live like two centuries versus the multiple centuries of a jindan level cultivator.

  As I pointed out, most beings at the fourth level here switch to relying on faith to grow. There are negatives of course, but for the environment? It's a huge benefit as it drastically reduces the strain on the environment, and allows the nonhuman races space to breathe.

  So yeah, heaven predicts a collapse of their cultivation society and is just waiting it out." He said, throwing his hands up hopelessly in the air.

  Realistically, he was one of these cultivators to a certain extent, having been born into this age of cultivation.But in his world it never got this bad. For one thing, the government promoted martial arts and quietly pushed cultivation to the back over time, decreasing the stress on the environment.

  Not only that, but as magical beings quietly hid themselves from the public, there was less hunting of them overall. Heaven under Haotian had not come into direct conflict with cultivators.

  Most of all, there was no blatant genocide as there was currently in this world. One of these days Grant would have to go over there and sort it all out.

  Whether or not the dynasty fell was irrelevant to him, but china was one of the largest countries in the world. The last thing he needed was for it to collapse two thousand years from now when the sky was opened up.

  Hearing this, Natalie understood the disgust to a certain extent. The romana empire was by no means perfect, and there were certainly some suppressions on the nonhuman races, but it was clear that for cultivators it was a whole new level.To not be human was the ultimate sin.

  She had heard horror stories about cultivators,and it was clear from Grant's words they were true to some extent.

  She was now very aware of how dangerous it was to get so close to China.

  Sure they were human supremacists, but to what extent? What was human to them? She had heard the young master refer to them as "barbarians". A derogatory term, clearly designating them as lower life forms.

  Were they human in their eyes?

  Their teacher had never hidden his dislike for the world of cultivation warning against it, and purposefully limiting their lifespan against the norm of cultivation.

  And this was why. To consume everything in their path in the pursuit to immortality, to treat all life that was not theirs as food.

  What was the difference between them and locusts?