The 9 clans keep the stronger lone creatures in check, so there are barely any stronger ones within a weeks distance. So if I really want strong essence it has to be the crows or the lizardman.
So the next target is confirmed, let's talk about the really interesting things now.
"Could you tell me more about the dragon?"
"The dragon is a true dragon. The true races are the original and most powerful kinds of their races. He's a white dragon, not to be confused with a holy dragon. White dragons are proficient in ghostly magic. He can't turn intangible, but he can cut your soul without damaging your body and he can control ghosts from those he kills as long as they aren't resentful against him. Those are his main ways of attacking, but no one knows how old he is, so he'll have many hidden cards to play."
He tells about the dragon like he knows that I want to fight him, looking at that hopeful look in his eyes, he might actually want me to fight him. Or this goblin really looks up to red fairies, or he is a crafty old bastard.
I'll need to find a place to train against ghosts though, I've never met one, and without this information I'd never have gone out of my way to go and kill one. I don't think I can drink their ectoplasma, or maybe I can? I'll find out if they have plasms and if I can drink it when I find one.
"Are there places with ghosts that aren't under his influence?"
He tells me that there are beyond the white lizard clan, those ghosts are resentful to the dragon and take it out on his underlings. So, I'll go there after the crows and lizards. I'll see after that.
We say goodbye and I leave, my first friendly contact with another group went well. See, I can make a decision not to kill, I'm proud of my self control.
And like that I'm on my way after I am sure they can't see me anymore the fairy doll turns into needles again and I appear. I've grown to like this body, and the fairy is just too small to be comfortable as a humanoid.
My journey to the crow territory is rather uneventful, the goblin told me about the areas I shouldn't go so I'll go unnoticed.
A few minutes after I enter the crow territory a crow lands on a branch. There's black smoke coming from it, on a second look its more the shadows around it gather on its feathers. It's something I haven't even seen in this world before.
I can understand most elements, even light space and time are pretty okay. But a shadow is just a place with less light compared to the places around it, how can you control the lack of something? I need to know these kind of things to know what I can expect.
"System, what is it that gathers on that crows feathers?"
[Darkness is an element that is the opposite of light. The light that you see in this world isn't just a photon, there's an elemental energy added to it. If there would be nothing to counter this elemental energy everything would be purified to its purest form by the natural light element. To counter this energy a new energy has been created to bring the natural energies in balance.]
So that's why, darkness is normally hidden as it is created to only interact with light. But how will the crows use the darkness energy if it's only supposed to react with light? I'll see in a moment I guess.
This crow has no blood essence, but I can see the blood flow inside its body just fine. So I shoot my needles, they shoot up from beneath him in a semi-spherical shape.
The bird suddenly explodes, the darkness is everywhere, it looks like space collapsed. But I can still sense it with blood control, my needles pierce it and it's blood start to flow. I dodge its attack, shortly after he dies.
[Blood control +1]
It has been quite some time since the last time I heard that one. It's level 9 now, I hope something special will happen at level 10.
I take some of the crow blood because I can wield more blood once again. And I continue my search, the crows don't have 1 big boss city. They're nomadic within their territory, the places where they've been are low on darkness energy and this makes the light so strong that it might kill anyone with a low resistance.
Within minutes there are 3 more crows, 1 is darker than the other. And behold, a drop of blood essence.
The 2 crows do the same darkness trick where everything is plunged in darkness, right after that the strong crow disappears and reappears right behind me. It's claw pointing towards me.
I barely have time to dodge, but I use a long blood needle to cut at its claw. It cuts of 2 toes and stops in its leg, I form 5 blood needles and stab him. 1 needle goes through his heart and he dies. The other 2 following shortly. I take the drop of blood essence, but I just keep it floating with me. I want to see if I can combine it again, or if there are more requirements.
I don't know if I'm getting closer to their main group, or if they're just coming to me. But after those 3 another 9 came. There are 2 teleporting crows and the other 7 are flying at me as fast as they can, if I didn't have something like blood control so I can see them wherever they went I'd have died here. I'd have died with the previous crows.
I wonder how many crows there are, the darkness spreading ones don't matter. Something that can't hurt me will never kill me. But a moment of carelessness will kill me with the teleporting crows, if there was no cool down on the teleport it'd have been really hard to kill them.
And then there'll be a leader. That'll be quite a battle. It kinds of scares me, but I need this for my growth. If I can't kill some stupid crows that only know how to hide and sneak, then how will I ever kill the Morrigan?
After the third wave of crows came 2 more with 18 and 36 respectively. I now have 15 drops of crow blood essence. After those 2 groups I suddenly was fully surrounded, I really hate my 5 meter sight limit sometimes.
There were at least a 100 crows, maybe even 200, and there was one right in front of me. He's smaller than all others, but with every move he made a dark after image lazily followed after. It gave him a mysterious look, as if the energy inside of him still needs to follow well after it moved. That'll give him a great advantage in a fight against someone who's dependent on visual sight or energy sight. I'm glad I can still see him just as he by looking at his blood, otherwise I'd be as good as dead already.
"Hey you, why did you enter our forest?"