SHWIP

BOOM

As the target made of wood standing in front of Faxul at the end of the large room shattered into pieces, his eyes s.h.i.+ned seeing the Raven that had done its job take an abrupt u-turn before heading back towards him.

In barely a few seconds, it crossed the 40 feet of distance between them before agilely landing on his shoulder and adorably nuzzling at the spot behind his ear.

Feeling the tickling sensation, Faxul smiled before lifting his finger to scratch the Raven on its forehead, just like the Black Raven King had done in the video which he had seen.

Yes, Faxul was actually smiling and playing with the beast which he had only known for a month.

If Daneel were here to see this scene, he would definitely have been shocked at the change that had come over his friend.

Yet, the smile only lasted for a brief moment before both the man and the beast became alert, hearing the door open in the room which was reserved for their training.

After all, someone seeing a trusted friend and advisor of the King of Lanthanor training with a Black Raven would definitely blow his cover and result in disastrous consequences.

Hence, Daneel had given them this room which had been emptied of everything and now had just a sparring ring whose floor was enchanted with cus.h.i.+oning magic and the target practice area which the Raven had just attacked.

Over the month, Faxul had been becoming closer and closer to this bird which was now a trusted friend of his.

It was almost as if interacting with it was healing the wounds he had sustained, allowing him to find the happiness that he had lost for over a decade.

Communication was mostly through gestures, but Faxul was feeling more and more like he was almost at the point where he could understand the beast's thought.

Yet, there seemed to be something blocking him from reaching that final point.

The feeling which came when he trained with the Raven was truly intoxicating, as it felt just….right.

If he had to put it into words, Faxul would have said that it was as if he had been reattached with a body part that he hadn't known was lost.

Both from the video and the information he had read about the Black Raven Kingdom, he knew that the final barrier that was stopping him from fully connecting with the raven was definitely the trinket which Tenebrol had used to bind his blood with that of the Raven's before the fight with Elanev.

These trinkets were apparently strictly restricted, making it so that it was impossible to obtain one for himself in order to carry out the process.

Putting this hopeless matter aside, Faxul fed the Raven some raw meat before beginning coordination exercises.

...

Meanwhile, in the King's chambers.

Sitting in the secret Energized Training Chamber, Daneel was absorbing energy alone from the freshly gathered mosquito blood from the Valley of Mist while a display trinket that had been newly fitted in the room flickered.

In it, Faxul could be seen balancing on one leg while the Raven did the same, as if mimicking him.

After an hour or so after which Faxul ended the training with the Raven to leave to the Energized Training Chamber, another Daneel walked into the Energized Training Chamber before touching the one in the room on its shoulder to absorb the Energy contained in it.

Indeed, it had been his clone training all this time, while he had hidden himself near the room in which Faxul had been training till now.

"System, any increase in progress today?"

[Negative. Human-Beast Link a.n.a.lysis Progress: 70%.]

With a slightly frustrated expression on his face, Daneel conjured the clone again before starting another training session.

Indeed, this had been the idea that had occurred to him when he had seen the mosquitoes: to a.n.a.lyze the link that was forming between Faxul and the Black Raven.

The sight of the mosquitoes had reminded him of the fact that he had only been able to modify them due to the years of research data on them that had been acquired from the Kingdom of the Elves.

a.n.a.lyzing complex things was all about data. If so, why not collect data from the interactions between Faxul and the Black Raven to understand how the link worked?

In the beginning, the plan had worked perfectly, with the progress bar filling up rapidly with each training session that Faxul underwent with the Raven.

Yet, since the past week, it had been stuck at 70%, as if some sort of limit had been struck which Daneel had no idea how to cross.

Of course, along the way, Daneel had also seen the positive change in his friend's att.i.tude.

As someone from Earth, Daneel was well aware of the profound effects that pets could have in healing mental trauma.

If the pet in question was something which had a link with the owner's blood, then there was no need to be said exactly how effective it could be.

Daneel knew that he was right in this matter, as he had clearly observed how Faxul's entire body language changed whenever he was with the Raven.

He was open and less restrained, with his body loosening up, as if it were free.

Such a freedom could only come from comfort.

And comfort was definitely what Faxul felt when he trained with the Raven.

Hence, Daneel only felt happy with this change, glad that his friend's years of trauma might finally heal to allow him to smile and speak like a normal person. In fact, he wished that he had gotten the idea to do something like this sooner.

Regardless, the matter of the link's progress being stuck was quite concerning.

Yet, Daneel could guess the reason behind it: it was possibly because of the absence of the trinket which the King had used to bind that Raven.

Resolving to ask Elanev to look for a way again to get that trinket, Daneel continued training while idly daydreaming about commanding a horde of Eminent Human level Black Ravens to destroy his enemies without even leaving a bone behind.