One year later: From the day Muku was dragged to the Beast World.

"Are you ready?" Raya asked Muku in a serious tone.

She was currently in her battle dragon form. And she looked a little different. Her body had grown quite a bit. She now reached ten metres in height which was a big improvement from her four metres from before... So, saying she was a little different might be a gross understatement. That change in size was anything but little.

And it wasn't the only thing which changed. Her aura was also different... well, it was the same aura. However, it was worlds apart in intensity from the day she killed the shadow panther.

If her aura at that time was a bright furnace. Then the current her was a bright mini-sun. She was well on her way to being a bright sun.

This change was understandable though. After all, the Raya standing beside Muku wasn't a mere R3. She wasn't a Pseudo R4. That's right, she was a legit R4!

It wasn't surprising for her to reach R4 after hunting for more than seven months after the panther incident when she was already a MR3.

And she wasn't the only one who had improved. Beside her stood Muku... Unfortunately, he was still unable to escape the armour. It basically became his skin at that point. And it had gotten even worse in appearance.

It had actually grown a grey cloth which was mixed in with the metal. In fact, it wasn't cloth at all. It was actually metal which had been made to look like cloth somehow. It was almost like the armour was trying to look as scary as it possibly could.

And that wasn't the only change. The subtle mental state stabbings he got from before had gotten even worse. Now it took some real effort to keep his mind stable. There were times when he would let his guard down in battle and the armour would influence him into a mad rampage...

Anyway, that was a story for another day. What mattered currently was that, just like Raya, Muku was also a legit R4.

The two were currently standing in front of the "restricted zone" as the Beast World knew it. Of course, the two knew that it was just a trial ground.

That's right, it was time to go and see Mrs C again! It had been a year since the last time...

"Of course I am. Are you?" Muku replied resolutely.

"Of course I am. Let's go then" Raya replied and Muku jumped from the ground onto her head the moment she spoke.

"Tsk. I really hate it when you do that" Raya complained.

"Oh shut up. I let you ride me on the time" Muku retorted.

"Sigh. Fine. Whatever" Raya replied then...

Boom!

She took off into the sky. Just like one would expect from Eastern dragons. She could fly in the sky as if she were swimming in water.

It always amazed Muku how she could do that without wings with such a large body.

Speaking of which, her real form as a R4 was actually much larger than what she was displaying. Ten metres was the shrunken version. She could actually grow up to seventy metres. Which made her one of the biggest R4s. As for why she didn't stay in that form... It was obviously hard to walk around in. Hunting would also be hard when the prey could spot you from over a hundred kilometres away...

Fortunately, she had a bloodline ability which allowed her to shrink. Which most R4s did have. Those had to wait for R5.

"Woooah! What's the rush?!" Muku screamed while standing on top of Raya.

"Shut up. Let me enjoy this. Do you know how hard it was to reach R4?!" Raya replied and continued rushing forward.

Soon she passed the area which could stop even Monarchs and continued forward. What made her happy was how she could finally withstand the gravity within the training ground...

Sure, she was still on the outskirts and would probably have to retreat into Muku's mindscape when they reached the central area. But still, she was happy with the progress. She knew that someday she'd be strong enough to moonwalk through the intense gravity. Which was actually her goal. As funny as it was. She just liked the dance when she saw it in Muku's memories...

"Fair point..." Muku who also knew how hard it was to transcend the barrier between R3 and R4 replied.

The requirements for advancing from R3 were first reaching PR3 of course. That was quite easy with enough beasts to kill. Then came stepping into Pseudo R4. That's where things got interesting. One needed to first learn how to compress their domain to something akin to a body suit. They also needed to transform their mana into advanced mana...

We'll start with turning your domain into a "body suit". It's what the Pseudo R4s Iris massacred used. It pretty much multiplied the user's already multiplied abilities by double. Let's say a standard domain multiplied a user's abilities by ten or more depending on talent. Then a compressed domain multiplied those abilities by two. If it were twenty, then it would become forty. Which was a scary thought.

Of course, some domain abilities would be taken out of the picture. But the trade-off was very worth it. Mages would gain the ability to fight in close combat. And their magic would be made even more destructive. If they could destroy a big city in one attack under a domain's multiplier. Then they would be able to destroy one which was two times that with the same effort under a compressed domain.

So, in other words. A compressed domain made everyone a perfect combat machine. Even though without elements gain the ability to shoot neutral beams of energy under compressed domains.

However, it wasn't easy to compress one's domain to that point. It was different from the compression Muku did before under the big boar he faced before's domain. That time he wasn't the one actually suppressing it. The boar was doing that.

When one did it themselves, they needed at least ten times the mental energy needed to create and maintain a normal domain. One had to know that some people could reach R3 but because of their weak mental states, they couldn't even create domain embryos. Those people (those with random classes) wouldn't be able to make it past R3 no matter what. Of course, there were always exceptions, but those were far and few. Almost none existent. Not to mention not many such people reach R3 anyway...

Anyway, the point is, even the stronger and more capable people like Muku would need to put in a lot of work to compress their domains and sustain them.

It took Muku three months of hard work to even start the process. He only recently completed it all the way...

After that, or along with that rather, one had to turn their mana into advanced mana inside their mana core. Which would also need to be upgraded to contain the new energy.

However, its change would come naturally after the energy is successfully changed.

As for how the energy is changed. It was quite simple. One had to compress the mana inside them into a liquid state. That's right, more compressing!

Unfortunately, this one wasn't only long, hard and tiring, it was also painful. This was because the gaseous mana which fills a person's mana core only amounts to one drop of advanced mana. And to meet the requirements for the mana core's change. One had to fill it up with liquid mana (advanced mana).

Which would require thousands upon thousands of drops to fill the core up. This meant one had to fully recover their mana, create a drop, then recover and do it over and over for an unknown number of times. The higher the talent, the more drops one needs to create.

Then came the painful part. Since the mana core wasn't made to house Advanced-mana. Having the substance in it hurt like hell. It was a rather fragile organ, after all.

So, not only did the individual have to constantly deal with the troublesome process. They will also have to deal with pain which will keep on increasing with the more drops they create. It won't hurt them, but it will be very painful. And their mana capacity they can use in battle will be constantly decreasing.

Interestingly enough, the drops will need the same amount of mana no matter the space that's left. So the individual would keep on piling up the little mana they can store until a complete drop is made no matter the space that's left...

So, they'd be dealing with a long boring process, constant pain and they'd slowly lose their ability to fight with mana with the more drops they create since R3s can't use them.

Which means the person would probably have to go into hiding until they rank up. The selection process was just that brutal...

Anyway, after the core is filled up with drops. It would explode. That's right, the core along with the drops...or pool at that point, would explode together. Which was another painful experience. What would happen after that is the core's recovery powered by the advanced mana. This will turn it into a vessel for advanced mana.

The mana wouldn't only repair the core. It would travel all throughout the body reshaping it to fit. After that, normal mana won't be able to enter the body. Only advanced mana(AM) from the surroundings would be able to enter.

Speaking of which, there's just as much AM in the air as normal mana. Just that those weaker than R4 can't sense or use it...

Anyway, after those two processes are done. Then the individual would finally break into R4. And the AM in the core would return to a gus state after the advancement...

With everything they went through, one can understand why Raya and Muku were so happy, right?...

(As for why the author made the process so hard a painful... Well, he doesn't have to go through it so he doesn't really care. Power must have a price, right? The process was definitely not born from jealousy derived from the power his novel characters have... Lucky b*stards!)