Arthur spent the rest of the afternoon, feeding the blood essence gathering tree. He killed dozens of knight Ranked spirit beasts, and even two lord Ranked spirit beasts before getting injured slightly.
Arthur sat on the river bank, directly beside the blood essence gathering tree, wiping a thick, green coloured paste on a large gash on his upper arm.
He had found a lord Ranked Black Scaled Sturgeon in this river, and battled it, piercing straight through one of its eyes with a thrust using his halberd fae.
What Arthur didn't expect was that this was a female Black Scaled Sturgeon, one that was protecting its nest, while the male one went to search for food.
Arthur got caught off guard and was slammed into the bottom of the river, and accidentally sliced his arm open, despite having the crocodile arms fae activated.
Even this lord Ranked Black Scaled Sturgeon wouldn't be able to slice through Arthur's defences. other than some razor sharp teeth and a pair of extremely powerful fins, this spirit beast wouldn't be able to deal such a wound to Arthur.
Arthur he used the Silver Moon Piercer to instantly kill this male Black Scaled Sturgeon, and left the river, pulling both of their corpses towards the blood essence gathering tree.
He turned his head to the side, and picked up a large rusted object.
The shape may have been deformed, and the rust seemed to cover every single part of the object, but its shape was undeniable.
"This is.... a spear?".
Arthur frowned for a moment before shaking his head.
"No. This is the head of the spear. The metallic part. The wood must've degenerated countless years ago....".
This portion of the Winter Rain Mountain had been completely underground a few months ago. With the huge torrents and unrelenting rains, large portions of land had become eroded, and formed these countless rivers and streams.
There were even large underground pockets, filled with natural gas that had split open and become underground lakes.
All the water in Winter Rain Mountain came from the Falling Snow River, and all the water either became nourishment for the creatures that called it home, or flowed back into the river at an even later point.
This spear, this rusted spear had to been in the ground for an extremely long time. Far longer than most could even imagine.
It managed to cut straight through Arthur's crocodile arms fae, even though it had degraded to such a point.
It was probably the weapon of a Rank 5 Fae Master from countless years ago, he thought.
"Weapons aren't exactly common in this era. Most Fae Masters in this era, like Alina and Ratimir opt to use Weapon Type Fae instead of Fae like the Crimson Fae, or Wind Blade Fae. It allows a Fae Master to be more varied in terms of their attacks and abilities, so long as their main fae is a Weapon Type....".
In his previous life, Arthur didn't use Weapon Type Fae, although was by no means unpractised in the field.
He had spent numerous years in multiple different Sects, learning various arts and techniques from all of them.
He definitely wouldn't call himself a peerless warrior in front of those accomplished individuals, but he could hold his own in a fight against Fae Masters.
"In the previous era, the two Fae Attributes, Blacksmith Attribute and Alchemist Attribute Fae were discovered. This led to an explosive rise in the quality of Fae Masters, and the overall strength of Fae Masters. They could use Fae in order to create weapons which enhanced their combat power, or pills from an Alchemist which could increase cultivation speeds and resistances for short bursts".
This previous era, which lasted for over 17,000 years, was called the Contemporary Era.
The current Era was called the Dichotomous Era. It had been roughly 3,000 years since the beginning of this Era.
This spear, was definitely a remnant from the Contemporary Era.
Arthur wasn't a specialist in artefacts from previous Era's, but he could tell that the craftmanship of this spear was absolutely exquisite.
If he could clean it, it would definitely exceed the power of any Fae that he currently had in his possession.
Unfortunately, in order to purify this weapons without damaging it, he would need at least Rank 4 Blacksmith Attributed Fae.
As well as a Blacksmith capable of using said Fae.
He sighed.
"Oh well, it is a nice find though. I didn't know that Winter Rain Mountain possessed such things. It would make sense if this was the sight of an ancient battlefield or something, but as far as I am aware, this place doesn't have any sort of history.....".
Arthur didn't remember his time at Parachenko Village fondly in his previous life, which is part of the reason why he never returned.
He never even tried to find out what was happening in Winter Rain Mountain, and made no efforts to reconnect with his descendents.
Arthur knew about the history of Falling Snow Famous River, but....
Arthur raised his eyebrows and made a conflicted expression.
"Maybe it is from a war over the Falling Snow River? It's not that far, and since it is a Rank 5 Fae Master weapon, it might've just gotten flung, or lost as the owner tried to retreat.....".
It was possible, but the chances were low of such a thing happening.
Why someone with a Rank 5 cultivation would fight over such a small portion of the land around the Falling Snow Famous River was beyond him.
It was only Ranked 9th out of 13, and was near the ends of the river itself, not anywhere close to the origins of the River.
Arthur sighed, before standing up and stretching his arm.
The pain was still there, but the bleeding had stopped. There was a chance of infection, but the chances were slim at most.
Turning his attention back towards the blood essence gathering tree, Arthur smiled before picking off one of the blood coloured fruits, which had become ripe under Arthur's continuous feeding.
It was only a knight ranked Black Scaled Sturgeon Blood Fruit, but it wasn't the Strength Blood Fruit which Arthur predicted it would become.
"Agility Blood Fruit.... Even though I can't fully exert its powers above land, its speed underwater still surpasses my own. Now that I have it, I can move even faster underwater than before".
The Rank 1 blood essence gathering tree could produce Strength Blood Fruits, Agility Blood Fruits, Stamina Blood Fruits and Endurance Blood Fruits.
The difference between Stamina and Endurance was that the former increased the duration of intense physical strain, such as long distance swimming or lasting longer during a battle, while the latter could directly increase one's physical endurance, by lessening the amount of damage one took when receiving a blow.
It basically increased their defense.
Without even missing a beat Arthur opened his mouth and swallowed the Agility Blood Fruit in a single bite. The crimson liquid inside resembled the colour of blood, but was much sweeter, and tasted something along the lines of apple juice, or perhaps a pear to Arthur.
Licking his lips from any of the remaining juices Arthur sat down once more, taking deep breaths as the Agility Blood Fruit did its work.
Even though he was only a solid quartz origin essence, Arthur could feel the muscles in his body being refined, to that resembling a zero quartz origin essence Fae Master.
There was a slight tingle, in places all over his body before a smelly, unpleasant scent filled the air.
Arthur quickly washed himself of these impurities before letting out a deep breath and smiling.
"Nice".