As for the barbarians who used to live in the Forest of Dawn along with other illustrious races like the Elves and Divine Dragons… Well, they weren’t doing good at all. As a matter of fact, their situation was quite a sorry one. Although they had Beast-like constitutions that allowed them to absorb energy from the meat that they eat and a ferocity that wasn’t inferior to any predator, the competition that they had was just too great. Elves who had a Tree of Life, Spring of Life and a supreme aid like Ciera, Divine Dragons whose bodies naturally grew up to be very large and extremely powerful, Beast Emperor Raiko and his Beast Empire, and finally, Dodo the Guardian of the Forest and his Glacial Saint Deer Clan. None of these factions were something that the fledgling Barbarian Clan could compete with, and as a result, not only was the Barbarian Chief not in the 4th Realm like the other Mutated Human race progenitors (Crying Ghost and the High Human Empress), but they had also had to flee their home in search for a safer territory!

This was definitely going to become a blight in their history if their progeny lived to tell the tale, but who knows, maybe this could end up becoming the greatest decision that they ever made.

Moving on, Eridel was actually very fascinated with something that was going on within the Celestial Desert, the desert in the South of the Central Continent that Celestial Beast Apis had claimed as his territory. Although it wasn’t exactly a peaceful territory considering the fact that it was still a desert and lacked an adequate amount of naturally growing food, it was still the most peaceful territory of its kind. This was because Apis, their regional lord, had long ago kicked out or outright exterminated the more violent races in his territory. Having suffered from the torment of the more crueller races like the Sun-lit Hyenas and the 4-legged Death Vultures before becoming a Celestial Beast, he had been exceptionally vicious to them when he had finally gained power. In fact, as soon as he had woken up from his Celestial Transformation and realised how powerful he had become, his executions began immediately. But that was not what Eridel found interesting. Instead, he was far more interested in the 3 to 4 metre tall humans that had large ears and prominent tusks sticking out of their mouths.

Quite some time ago, the last remaining Humans of the desert had stumbled upon the apocalyptic 500 metre tall figure of Apis the Celestial Elephant and had nearly died from the gaze that was cast towards them. They fully expected to be killed without resistance and immediately prostrated themselves in hopes that the nightmarish being wouldn’t care about them. However, unexpectedly, it was at that moment that a large flock of 4-legged Vultures chose to attack them. They lamented their fate and despaired, but unlike what they were expecting, they heard a furious elephant roar that was so loud that it shook the lands and damaged their ears. Without pause, Apis crushed the entire flock of vultures with a single blow from his trunk, inadvertently saving the lives of the last remaining humans in the South of the Central Continent. Without being long winded, after being saved by the majestic Celestial Beast in such shocking fashion, they decided to fully pledge their allegiance, or servitude to be specific. More than a decade later, the Celestial Beast, who was pleased with their adaptability, intelligence and loyalty… decided to do something that no other Beast had ever done.

The humans, who had become quite prosperous in this time had simultaneously become fanatical about Apis, the Beast who was quite literally their Lord and Saviour. They treated him like a god and this only increased every time they saw him accomplish world-breaking feats that no other being could. It wasn’t long before they began to think and do the strange things that situations like this caused to those that were more ignorant, but one of those things was asking for the Celestial Blood of their Lord, and as one can guess, Apis had obviously agreed. Despite the absurd request, he did it. He gave out his blood freely, not knowing the effects it would cause. As a result, those humans became what they were now, the first Beastkin in the Eridius World. To be exact, Celestial Elephant Beastkin. But make no mistake, Celestial Beast Blood wasn’t something so easily ingested. In fact, other than the chief of the tribe who was the strongest, everyone who was granted the blood imploded, and even with the chief it was a very close call, and that was after seeing what happened to others and only taking a few sips instead of chugging it down. Blood from powerful Beasts, especially Celestial Beasts, was extremely valuable, but it was even dangerous if you weren't careful.

But speaking about humans becoming powerful, the situation in the North Continent was going really well. Although Seraqiel’s unique path of power was unable to be passed on just yet because of a lack of specialist equipment, Gabriel had been able to pass on his various martial arts along with their shared Essence Cultivation Technique that allowed them to  more efficiently absorb the ambient Magical Energy into their Magic Cores and convert it into their own Mana, more than 10x faster than the basic cultivation technique that every Enlightened Being was born with. Thanks to this, they had been able to claim large amounts of territory from the Undead infested continent and now had the entire Southern Sector under their control. They were still hidden of course, hidden away in their secret bases to prevent the Original Undead from ending everything they fought for in a single moment, but everybody on the continent who had a well functioning brain knew that the Southern Sector was owned by the humans, and if you wanted to enter, tread carefully.