Elder Vova continued to lead the new Fae Masters towards the next checkpoint, occasionally pointing out facts, or small details about the wild flora and fauna that grew unchecked outside the confines of Parachenko Village.
Most of these things were Rank 1 Fae materials, like Crimson Leaves, Purple Night Grass, Heavy Water, Worldly Silk and even rare Rank 1 Fae materials like Burning River Reeds and Silent Shadow Vines.
The young Fae Masters were allowed to take a small portion of these wild Fae materials and bring them back to the Village in order to sell.
They alone might not equal the value of an entire Fae, but perhaps over time they would accumulate enough materials to purchase a few Fae from stores, or even exchange them for merits to enter the Clan Reserves.
With the sole exception of Arthur, no-one refused the bounty that was right in front of them.
Arthur rolled his eyes slightly before shaking his head.
These plants were extremely common within Parachenko Village, and could be found in pretty much every store. Even thought they were Rank 1 Fae materials, selling them would be useless. It was much better to keep them for oneself and use them to feed fae, rather than sell them for portions of origin essence stones.
If they were smart, they could try and grow some of these Rank 1 materials in their own yards or gardens. If they could, it would destroy all the mortal Ranked fae materials, however, they would have a nearly limitless supply of Rank 1 Fae materials for them to use.
That was why the Rank 1 Water Leaf Tree was so valuable.
It was a fae that could create Fae materials.
Although it was extremely common, this particular material, Spirit Water, was always in high demand. Numerous Fae Masters needed Spirit Water to feed Fae, so there was never an excess of such a material.
Arthur shook his head before glancing in another direction.
He had planted a "seed" nearby, and as a result of Elder Stas' spying, he hadn't the chance to check on its progress.
While all the other students were being taught, or learning the basics of foraging Fae materials, Arthur gestured to his sister while shrugging his shoulders a little.
"I'm going to go for a walk. Be back soon".
Chensa nodded slightly before Arthur's figure vanished behind a few trees.
Now that Elder Stas had been removed from the picture, Arthur's plans could finally get back on track.
Using the wind stalker fae, Arthur rushed through the forest, leaping over fallen trees and dashing past giant ancient trees.
Eventually he arrived at the base of another small stream, one that could be hopped over by a mortal. However, despite its lack in width, the complete blackness of the small stream indicated that its depth exceeded the usual limits for such a stream.
Arthur nodded slightly, picking up a bunch of fallen leaves before throwing them into the stream. Most of them floated, and although the stream appeared slow and still, the speed at which they moved caused Arthur to smile slightly.
"It should be right around.... aha!".
Arthur came directly up to the side of the small, fast moving stream before steadying himself and reaching down. His arm dipped into the water and faced quite a strong pull, but he curled his arm up slightly patting the side of the stream before eventually finding what he was looking for.
Lifting his arm up out of the water, Arthur smiled as a tiny little piece of kelp, which flailed the moment Arthur lifted it out of the water.
"Forest Kelp Fae. It's not a variation or anything but still, its pretty good".
Forest Kelp Fae were similar, yet different to the standard Ocean Kelp Fae.
For one, the former grew in fresh water while the latter grew in salt water.
Additionally, the Forest Kelp Fae, unlike the Ocean Kelp Fae was a Wood Attributed Fae, not a Water Attributed Fae.
It could be formed in fast moving streams with lots of air moving through it. When Spirit Water and the seeds of a Water Kelp come into contact with Leaf Spirit Essence.
It's ability allowed the Fae Master to create pillars of kelp around them, which were covered in a thick wet substance. It was a defensive oriented Fae, however, due to the radius upon which it could be controlled, it was more of a domain oriented Fae.
It lacked any of the specialities that some of its variations possessed, that could increase its strength or even attack the opponent in some situations, but its range was the largest out of all of them.
Arthur quickly placed this fae in his empty bottle, rinsing out the dirty thick liquid and placing it inside.
Arthur turned his gaze to further up the stream before smiling and walking up towards the point where he was looking at.
There was an area of the stream where water pooled slightly, due to the rise and fall of the earth, creating a sort of natural dam which regulated the flow of this water.
Arthur could see a small creature hiding within the depths of this dam and instantly shot forward several moonslices carving up the natural dam which regulated the water flow for the stream.
The small creature was quickly pulled by the sudden release of all the stored up water and couldn't help but let out a small cry as a pair of hands rescued it from the sudden torrent.
This little lizard.... no, this little crocodile, probably only the length of a palm looked up at Arthur's face, and nuzzled his hands as Arthur patted it.
"It's nature is quite docile? That's a pleasant surprise".
Within just a few minutes, Arthur quickly refined this particular fae, letting out a small smile as an extra appendage grew out of his tailbone, causing Arthur to wince as he felt his body undergo such a rapid transformation.
Turning his head slightly Arthur wagged the crocodile tail a few times nodding slightly as he deactivated the fae and let it return to his origin essence sea.
Just like Borik's Rank 1 bear arms fae, this Rank 1 crocodile tail fae was also a transformation fae. However, the strength and powers of a bear and the abilities and talents of a crocodile were too different to compare.
In shallow waters, perhaps a bear would completely overpower a crocodile, killing it by simple immobilizing it, getting it on its back and tearing into its soft underbelly.
However, in deeper waters, even in nature the crocodile wasn't an apex predator for nothing. It couldn't just hide in water and breath underwater, but its powerful bite was capable of disabling larger creatures if they got too close.
Arthur didn't possess a crocodile strength fae, or even a crocodile skin fae, so its usage for the time being was fairly low. But in the future, that wouldn't necessarily be the case.
"These two will be fine for the time being. I was missing a defensive type fae, and the crocodile tail fae provides a huge boost to my variations during combat. I can even sacrifice it and let it take a blow to my back if I need to".
Seeing that Arthur didn't intend on picking up anything else, he quickly returned back to the group.
They were extremely close to the border of the Kovacs Clan, and the unbounded area where spirit beasts roam freely.
Elder Vova gestured for everyone to come closer and take a look at the natural boundary in front of them.
A massive expanse, with flowing waters and countless numbers of natural flora growing out of its depths. No trees or mangroves made their homes here, and only Fae materials could grow naturally in such a place. Just from where they were standing, these young Fae Masters could see a small group of young men and women bearing the Kovacs Clan symbol, standing on the riverside.
They were carrying a large boat onto shore, along with numerous chests specially designed to store Fae.
"This is the greatest river within our Winter Rain Mountain, and the ninth most famous river in our Azure Envy Continent!".
"Falling Snow River!".