This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The teleportation array crackled with energy as Kain, Bridge, and the unconscious Gabriel reappeared on the Dark Moon College campus.

The familiar sight of towering obsidian spires and the intricate designs of gothic architecture welcomed them back.

Despite not getting as much time as he would have liked to spend time with his family, Kain also felt a sense of security in what was now his second home; here, he could have access to better resources and improve his strength, and also to find out how to help the unconscious Gabriel.

On the campus, Kain and Bridge separated—Bridge to settle in early to his new dorm room, and Kain to settle Gabriel into his lab.

The college had invested greatly into Kain, since they valued the fame having such a young researcher brought to the college. However, the room was hardly fit for a recovering human.

Therefore, with the help of the Vespids, he repurposed a section of the lab and the spiritual creatures he'd been experimenting on were carefully relocated to the college's bestiary.

In their place, he installed a comfortable bed on the other side of the glass wall leading to the observation room that previously housed various spiritual creatures.

Gabriel was laid gently on the bed, still unconscious but stable. His pale face, framed by his blue-gray hair, looked fragile and as though he could die at any moment—which is actually possible considering that his body was still in danger of exploding according to the research notes.

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With Gabriel settled, Kain turned his attention to another pressing matter: his promised reward for representing the college at the National Tournament.

The next morning, after moving to his new room, now on the third floor of the top 5 residence, Kain was summoned by one of the professors of the beast-taming department, who guided him to a secluded part of the campus.

After weaving through a maze of buildings and hallways, they arrived at what appeared to be a warehouse—one that many students and staff would likely never be able to enter.

The warehouse had an imposing appearance: a massive entrance, glowing sigils, and what appeared to be various deadly security measures.

The doors themselves seemed alive, shifting faintly between solid metal and translucent energy. As they opened, a cool gust of air rushed out, carrying the faint hum of stored power.

Inside, the warehouse was a sprawling space of seemingly endless rows, each packed with treasures. Shelves stretched into the distance, holding rare spiritual materials—ores, divine beast parts, spiritual orbs, vials of glowing liquids, and more.

In another section, there appeared to be various spiritual skills contained within glowing scrolls and books.

Next to it was an extensive catalogue of high-quality weapons, artifacts, and even barriers for the visitors to choose from.

Finally, in a distant corner many multi-coloured spheres were arranged in neat rows with descriptions beneath them. Each sphere contained a spiritual creature that appeared to be frozen in time.

Meanwhile, an adjacent shelf held many eggs of varying shapes, colours, and sizes with detailed descriptions of what each contained.

The professor gave a slight smile seeing Kain's admiration for one of the college's most exclusive warehouses—a place many students and staff will never enter in their lives. "For your contribution, you may select three items from this warehouse. Anything you choose will be yours—unconditionally."

Kain stepped forward, his analytical mind already at work on what he needed most.

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It took Kain hours to go through everything available for exchange within the warehouse. However, he took the time to carefully do so, in order to avoid missing out on something that would be more useful to him.

The first item that Kain decided on for exchange was the Starlight Bind barrier, his property off campus only has barrier effective for yellow-grade spiritual creatures currently, which isn't particularly valuable for him, whereas this barrier is completely effective for beings with up to blue-grade spiritual power.

If he were to try and by this barrier himself, it'd probably cost millions of school credits or even hundreds of millions of Celestial Dollars.

Not to mention, there is a note that a 3 year's supply of the pricey materials needed to maintain the barrier would be provided up front after the exchange.

Another reason that Kain picked this barrier specifically, was because it may also have an improvement effect Gabriel.

After analyzing Gabriel with the equipment he had in his lab, and finishing going through the Doctor's research notes, Kain concluded that the spiritual power within the boy following the completed fusion with the artificial star space was several times greater than his ordinary body could handle. So great that his body is forcefully maintaining his unconscious state to conserve all of its energy as it focuses on not having him implode.

Therefore, although not a permanent solution, one way to wake the boy up is to restrict the rampant spiritual power in his body. However, things that could do so effectively enough to extend the boy's time to live are not easy to come by. Even the organization that the Doctor belonged to had few that they could provide—and they were only given to the absolute top researchers, like his teacher.

However, the Starlight Bind Barrier, was one such method of suppressing the boy's rampant spiritual power with enough effectiveness to wake him up.

Most skills, barriers or equipment able to restrict spiritual power would be considered very effective if they could even reduce the strength of the target's spiritual power by 30% up to the blue-grade. Such an object would probably sell for close to a hundred million CD.

However, the Starlight Bind Barrier can completely sever he connection between spiritual energy and its wielder.

Within the barrier, even blue-grade spiritual creatures—those capable of reshaping landscapes and wielding devastating abilities—were reduced to practically ordinary beings stripped of their spiritual power and can only rely on their enhanced physiques to fight.

As long as Gabriel remained in the barrier, it wouldn't be a problem for him to live to a normal old age—although it'd be a pitiful life spent in confinement.

But the barrier would reduce the clock ticking down Gabriel's remaining time and allot Kain to search for a solution with peace of mind.