The existence of Fae that could expand the maximum size of a Fae Masters Origin Essence Sea, would undoubtedly cause countless conflicts, even perhaps over mere Rank 1 Fae.
Arthur knew of Rank 5 Fae Masters who had lost their lives over such an insignificant ranked Fae, believing that with its power, they could increase their own strength several fold, and even gain the upper hand during battles!
Of course, to some degree this was true, however, once again, these Fae only increased the size of an origin essence sea, not the origin essence regeneration rate.
In terms of cultivation speed, they would still remain the same.
Although in battles, they could last much longer than opponents of the same level of cultivation.
If some of those larger Clans knew that the Kovacs Clan was in possession of both the Bone Development Fae and the Conscious Development Fae then....
Arthur let out a deep breath of air.
"I could definitely use this Fae right now and expand my Mind origin essence sea by another 60%. With the Boundless Forest Yearning, I doubt that I would notice the drop in my regeneration rate at all. However....".
If Arthur used this Rank 3 Consciousness Development Fae right now, he would lose the chance to increase his Mind origin essence sea with a higher Ranked Fae of the same type in the future.
Others might not be able to even consider using origin essence sea expansion fae, but Arthur was an exception.
He knew of at least a dozen different Fae Masters within the next hundred years whom would all find such Fae, all of which were Ranked higher than the one in his hands right now.
A few of which, even found Rank 5 origin essence sea expansion fae!
Arthur could only expand his origin essence sea once, and despite the rarity of this particular Fae, using it right now would only limit his future potential.
With Arthur's current knowledge, limiting his goals and ideals would only harm his future.
If one wanted to become a Fae Immortal, they would have to be greedy.
And if one wanted to become a Rank 9 Fae Immortal, they would have to be the greediest person in their generation.
Putting his life on the line for such a thing.... wasn't that already obvious?
Keeping the consciousness development fae hidden in reserve was already a good thing. Once he left the confines of the Village, selling that Fae, or putting it on auction would net him an extraordinarily large amount of resources.
Questions might arise as to why he didn't use it beforehand, but Arthur could always say that he had already used a lower Ranked version of the same Fae.
If they wanted to validate Arthur's words, they would have to check his origin essence sea. And any good Fae Master would die before they willingly let another person delve inside their own origin essence sea.
At any rate-.
"Today's harvest was pretty good. I'll keep all the Wood Attributed and Emotion Attributed Fae, and exchange some of the weaker Rank 1 and Rank 2 Fae that I have no use for. The next month will be crucial for the formation of most Fae, but in just under three weeks is the second Fae Master Tournament.....".
Arthur was only a liquid quartz origin essence Fae Master, but by the time the Tournament comes around, he'll have solidified his foundations as a solid quartz origin essence Fae Master.
.... In his previous timeline, Randolf had already reached Rank 2 by this stage. He had a first tier talent after all, reaching Rank 2 was only a matter of time.
With Arthur's current abilities, defeating Randolf was no big deal. In fact, origin essence stones weren't too much of a problem either.
Fae from the Clan Reserves were too little in variation and strength, and other than "that", there wasn't anything particularly special that Arthur wanted.
What was "that"?
Other than the Transformation Attributed Control Skill, and associated Fae, that the Clan Founder left behind, there was technically one other thing.
Although, leaving behind was a little bit of a stretch, in fact, it was here long before the Kovacs Clan let their roots grow in this area, and would continue to be long after they were gone.
The reason why this area didn't have as much spiritual essence as the surrounding forests and woodlands, despite being to close to the Falling Snow Famous River, was because of a Spiritual Spring, located underneath Parachenko Village.
It was a naturally occurring phenomena, where the ambient spiritual essence in an environment gathered in one place, creating a pool of spirit water.
This spirit water wasn't anywhere near the Source Water that Arthur had received, but, it far exceeded the spirit water that Arthur received daily from the Water Leaf Tree.
This spirit water, was called Origin Essence Liquid.
Not to be confused with liquid origin essence, this Origin Essence Liquid could increase the regeneration speed of origin essence of those who bathed in it by three times. Essentially making it a paradise for cultivation.
The winner of this tournament would receive the chance to spend a single week within the Spring, before the spring was closed for another year.
Only one person from every generation was given the chance to bathe in this pool, so the competition was extremely strong this time around.
So.... no matter what anybody offered him, Arthur would never accept a proposal like he did last time.
Unless someone offered him a Rank 5 Twin Sea Fae, then there was absolutely no reason to accept such a stupid proposal.
Arthur sat down cross-legged in his small shack, letting out a deep breath as his continuously expanded and contracted the origin essence within him.
He was never one to shirk his cultivation either.
On the other side of the Village however, there was another person, debating the same things right in front of them.....
Randolf let out a deep breath of air, smiling slightly as he noticed the change in colour in his origin essence sea.
Instead of its formerly translucent, faint rainbow colour, this new, bright ruby coloured origin essence caused Randolf to unconsciously nod as he felt a formless power flow all throughout his body.
"I've become a Rank 2 Fae Master. And I've got more than enough time to solidify my foundation before the second Fae Master tournament.... The only problem is.... "him".".
The familiar figure, of a cold, handsome young man flashed through Randolf's eyes. His figure, despite being smaller than his own, seemed to unfathomable within his eyes, as if Randolf was staring up at some sort of mountain or ancient beast.
"Arthur's moves.... His knowledge.... His killing intent.... Even his actions and words.... all of it is frightening. I may have my A.I. that carried over from my previous life, but every time I look at Arthur, I feel as though it means nothing in front of him....".
Randolf's A.I. had the ability to record the information and abilities of everything that he came into contact with. By moving origin essence into Fae, he could understand their abilities and limits, without having to use them. By ingesting small amounts of Fae materials, spiritual medicines and heavenly metals, Randolf could comprehend their strengths, as well as their weaknesses.
To put it in his own terms, Randolf had the "Appraisal" ability, like in those light novels he used to read.
A pretty boring ability, but extremely useful given his current situation.
It allowed Randolf to absorb every bit of information around him, even the parts that he missed.
He could even record things that he had seen, although it didn't make a record of everything, only the parts that he wanted to record, so he didn't possess an eidetic memory.
Arthur had comprehended quite a few martial arts, especially in their previous battles against the two beast tides. Even gained some insight into Attribute Control Skills.
The young reincarnate showed a resolute expression, as he narrowed his eyes and remembered that unfathomable figure.
"This time Arthur.... I will defeat you!".