Arthur naturally didn't know, nor did he care about the meetings between Ratimir and that young Rank 1 Fae Master.
Wasting time be dealing with someone who didn't matter wasn't what Arthur needed right now.
He had spent the last few days igniting his origin essence, letting it boil and bubble to the point where it constantly fluxed between vapour, liquid and solid states of being.
It was time.
He entered Old Wagner's tavern, and gave him a small nod before gesturing that he shouldn't be disturbed. The old man nodded slightly before smiling and pouring another drink for one of the regulars.
Arthur didn't waste anymore time and headed down into his basement, locking the door and scanning the room slightly before sitting down on the floor.
He had suppressed his cultivation the past few days, refining his origin essence sea to the point where impurities couldn't exist, or were so small that they were inconsequential.
The pure quartz crystal that existed within all three of his origin essence seas glimmered slightly. It gave of a faint radiance, as a thick mist rolled off it, as if it was steaming or something.
Arthur's origin essence sea had started to show signs of reaching hadron quartz origin essence, ever since a few days ago.
Even though he could've reached it then, he suppressed it, and used the increased temperature of his solid quartz origin essence to refine even further, removing quite a few hidden impurities.
This just made his cultivation more stable, and increased the chances of success when he reached higher realms of cultivation.
Once he reached Rank 5, or even Rank 4 he would be able to come into contact with "that", and the benefits of such a pure origin essence sea would be realized.
He smiled.
"Perhaps with a Sovereign Boundary Physique, I would be able to start reaching for "that" at Rank 3", he muttered.
What Arthur was referring to when he meant "that", only he knew. But reaching "that" as a Fae Master wasn't just a measure of talent, but also comprehension and perception.
With the comprehension and perception of a Fae Immortal as a Fae Master, Arthur's attainments in this life would be much greater than his previous, even if he did everything the same.
It would be like going into a test, completing it, and then going back in time to complete the test again. His foundations were much stronger, even if he didn't want them to be.
At any rate-.
Arthur let out a huge breath of air, the temperature in the room increased by several degrees after he let out this long exhale. If one were to examine Arthur' external appearance, they would see that his skin had started to undergo a huge change, turning red, the same colour as blood.
His origin essence sea was bubbling, leading to his blood to boil.
His blood would heat up his veins, his organs, his bones and even his muscles.
His skin would start crackling, as if experiencing an intense heat, or a strong sunburn.
The first three stages of cultivation, vapour origin essence, liquid origin essence and solid origin essence only refined and purified origin essence, to the point where one could use less in order to activate a Fae.
The last two, hadron origin essence and zero origin essence, changed the intensity of a Fae Masters origin essence, burning it, or freezing it, making it last shorter, or longer depending on what they need.
These two stages were also where Fae Masters experience a huge change in their physiques.
Their origin essence would refine the bodies due to the extreme heat and extreme cold, increasing their physical attributes even further.
When Arthur fought Dominic for the first time, Dominic held back quite a bit, not wanting to hurt Arthur. But since Arthur's technique and combat prowess exceeded his own, he accidentally used too much force and punched straight towards Arthur, almost injuring him.
If the pair were to fight now, or after Arthur had completed this.... the outcome of that battle would be quite different.
.... Especially since Arthur had eaten five Blood Fruits from the blood essence gathering tree. Things would be much different indeed.
Arthur continuously let out gushes of hot air. Trying his best to adjust the temperature of his internals between the melting point and too low of a temperature.
His origin essence needed more time to flux, rapidly changing between vapour, liquid and solid, so that Arthur could exert a force far greater than what he previous could, using Fae or otherwise.
The quartz coloured mist shifted constantly into a sea of quartz coloured liquid, before changing once more into a veritable glacier of quartz coloured ice.
Even though Arthur had removed more than 95% of the impurities within his origin essence sea, large pools of black coloured waste were expunged from his body, causing his room to smell as though it were a chamber pot.
The smell didn't bother Arthur, as he took in a deep breath, suddenly increasing the temperature.
The purity of his origin essence had exceeded 99%, and surged, as if a bubbling volcano existed deep within him.
The Fae inside his various origin essence seas trembled slightly at the sudden shift within their origin essence seas, while only the Winter Solstice Salamander stayed quiet and tranquil, as if this tiny heat could do nothing to harm it.
Arthur's vision turned slightly blurry due to the heat, but, despite the burning pain, he smiled before letting out an extremely powerful breath, releasing the vast majority of the heat within his body.
The stone walls beneath him became hot to the touch, as if they were metal left out in the middle of summer.
The barrels of water that Arthur had stored in his room turned lukewarm, and Arthur immediately took of all his clothes before jumping into one of those said barrels.
A huge amount of steam filled the room, and Arthur sighed pleasurably as the huge amounts of black waste, fell off his body, along with a large amount of dead skin and loose hair.
His appearance didn't change, but Arthur's skin did become much brighter as a result of his cultivation.
The scar he had from when he sliced it on that Fae Weapon had completely vanished, as did some of the small scratches he had gained from when he went hunting the rivers.
His hair became more glossy, and his the depths of his eyes became even more unfathomable than before.
".... Hadron quartz origin essence.... I didn't reach this until the height of the beast tide".
It had been more than half a year since his rebirth, and his cultivation had increased by leaps and bounds, and was much more sturdy than it was previously.
In just a couple more weeks, the beast tide would formerly begin, lasting three months, until the end of the year when the water level lowered.
Reaching Rank 2 might be a bit of a stretch, but the peak of Rank 1 wouldn't be out of the question. Once he had the Boundless Forest Yearning in his hands, everything would change.
For him, and for the Village.