The next day after the preliminaries, Sun went to the outskirts of the Capital.
There was a deep forest and some rumors said, that there is Demon Shadow Plant.
Sun researched the forest and suspected the plant to be in the center of the forest since that place offers the most shadow.
The Demon Shadow Plant is using shadows to nurture its body. This plan can refine the Shadows into the Shadow Element. The Shadow Element will be accumulated the over years and finally, after about 200 years, Shadow Seeds will be produced.
The rumors said that the Shadow Seeds will be produced around this time of the year.
If Sun is lucky enough, he can get one of the seeds.
Sun took Bell with him, the little lizard seemed to have gone with his body into the strange confining realm during his two training years.
Since it's still as big as the palm of Sun, he decided to try feeding Bell some Seeds of the Demon Shadow Plant. Once the Dragon-Blood in Bell activated, he would be able to fly and acquire a higher intelligence.
Evolving baby dragons into adult dragons are divided into three stages.
1. Spirit Forming Stage
2. Shell Forming Stage
3. Cultivation Forming Stage
Bell is currently not even at Spirit Forming Stage, so he's basically a dumb lizard crawling on Sun.
After reaching the first stage, he will be able to use some of its abilities and use a higher intelligence level to communicate with the owner.
Sun already formed a blood-pact with Bell, so he only needed to find plants or Demons for Bell to nourish his cultivation.
Advancing to the Spirit Forming Stage is not very difficult, Sun only needed to find something rare of the shadow element for Bell to refine.
For normal dragons to advance, one could buy the plants or pills for it, but in case of Bell, he needed plants or Pills of the shadow affinity.
The shadow element is very rare even in Esperia, so the Demon Shadow Plant is a very lucky discovery.
Sun figured that if he was able to even acquire one Seed, Bell would advance.
After that, Sun could actually take him into battles.
At that point, he could be seen as a Spirit Tamer.
...
The forest did not seem to be very extraordinary at first, but the deeper Sun ventured, the stranger the plants and animals.
At first, there were only some deers eating fruits and birds chirping happily. Deeper inside, a low-level demonized Boar was spotted by Sun.
The boar was chewing on a cadaver of some kind of animal. As the boar was eating, a group of black birds flew down like black rain.
The boar noticed the killing intent of the birds and figured it was not worth competing over the little food left, so it ran away.
After the boar left, the birds hurried over the corpse and began eating, swallowing down whole flesh clumps.
Sun became resistant to this sight. He trained in the mountains in a temple and the food there was not very appetizing. Most of the times, he was ordered to eat worms and other insects because they replenish the energy much faster than meat.
After walking for a while, he noticed a group of people about 300 meters ahead of him.
Sun figured that he was not the only one searching for the Seeds.
The Shadow Seeds can be sold at a very high price in auctions since its also a rare ingredient for some high-class potions. The potency of the Seeds is too great.
Sun did not want to be noticed by them, but also didn't like the idea of a detour since that would take too much time. He was also not very familiar with this place. Even with a map, it was still difficult to find the location.
"I need to use that...", Sun thought.
"Phase out."
Sun's body merged with the shadows of the forest and he was able to move freely.
This technique was indeed mesmerizing but restricted much of Sun's movement speed.
This was the only disadvantage it had.
Using this ability, he went ahead of the group and shortly after, found the destinated place.
"It should somewhere in this region...", Sun thought.
"Hey, come out! What are you doing on the territory of the Leaf Clan?", a woman noticed Sun's presence.
"****, she noticed me?", Sun thought but couldn't go back empty handed like this.
He did not want his time to be wasted for nothing! He could've cultivated or researched new techniques, but instead, he came here to enhance Bell.
"You got me! I'm coming in peace~", Sun deactivated Phase out and walked out of his hideout.
"Name yourself.", the woman pointed a gun at Sun.
"Schwarzschild."
"That's not a name! Be honest or you'll regret it.", she said.
"Chill. This is my pen name. I'm a Demon Hunter. Am I not allowed to enter this place?", Sun asked.
"A Demon Hunter? You look like 16. Are you fooling me?", her cheeks got red as she was at the verge of venturing her anger on Sun.
The woman was named Lafa. She's the daughter of the Leaf Clan head. She had a bad day, her boyfriend dumped her yesterday. Lafa was ready to move on and forget about that jackass, but now this boy came here and reminded her of her boyfriend.
"Oi, I have a license. Age doesn't matter as long as you're qualified.", Sun was a bit annoyed by the woman.
"Tsk. This doesn't mean I'll let you go. What you're doing this trespassing private property.", she warned Sun.
"Huh? Girl, you're being unreasonable. This forest can be used by everyone. The resources are free for everyone! This is written in the basic law.", Sun said.
"Tsk!", Lafa still didn't want to let go of Sun.
"Ah, this is nothing personal. I really need to pass your 'private property'.", Sun said and the marking of Lucifer appeared on his head.
"I'll be gentle.", Sun said.
"You shameless bastard! Do you dare to run?", now Lafa got mad and activated her Soul Origin.
"Take that and please die!", she shouted.
"Wait? Why did it turn like this? What have I done to her? She's sure unreasonable...", Sun thought and shook his head.
"Surpress", Sun said.
"Wa-?", Lafa could not move. She felt like being restrained by an invisible barrier around her.
"Until next time~", Sun said and flew away.