Two more weeks passed in Parachenko Village, and the rebuilding and reconstruction of many of the important Village buildings had been relatively complete.
The Lecture Hall had been completely restored, and the Weapons Hall and Medicine Halls had started opening their doors once more. The Elders Hall was still been rebuilt, however, other than that, even the Clan Prison and even the main street of Parachenko Village had already started to regain some of its former appearance.
Some of the surrounding areas were still unavailable to those who weren't Fae Masters, particularly the area where the Noxious Venom Spider Beast King was killed, as well as where Arthur had built his house.
One was filled with a dangerous and toxic poison, the other, over the top of a fast moving river.
Despite Arthur's contributions in the forms of ship designs and house designs, no-one was willing to build their houses on top of a river, without seeing the finished product first. Some Fae Master families were waiting until Arthur's house was finally finished, before deciding whether to build a similar house.
The Village was slowly regaining some sense of normalcy. Crops were already starting to be planted, curtesy of those young children whom also wanted to help rebuild the Village, under the guise of allowing to participate in this years talent awakening ceremony.
If they helped out now between then, then the Clan would make an exception and let them change their names to Kovacs if they awakened a Fae Master talent.
Those immigrants who came over to Parachenko Village in order to escape the floods were allowed to change their name to Kovacs, on the basis that they married someone from the Clan. They too would then receive the same benefits as someone with the blood of the Kovacs Clan.
Despite their still being an air of grief within some households, the vast majority of the denizens of Parachenko Village were keen for the event coming up in the next couple days.
That's right! The second new Fae Master Tournament!
This was the chance that Ratimir, Alina, Borik and Randolf had all been waiting for!
The rewards for the first new Fae Master Tournament were relatively weak, in comparison to the current rewards, so excitement was starting to built up in those survivors of the two beast tides.
Ratimir, Borik and Alina had all been stationed near the Medicine Tent, and protected the injured from wandering spirit beasts during the beast tide.
Only Zoya, Randolf and Arthur participated in the killing of spirit beasts that broke into Parachenko Village. Despite the fact that they hadn't seen any of them fight directly, the fact that Zoya firmly believed that Arthur was going to take first place, even despite his.... less than amicable feelings towards him, caused the descendents of the three Elders to narrow their eyes.
They had all heard that.... Andrea was killed during the second beast tide.
Arthur had been impaled through the stomach with a tooth from a Baron Ranked spirit beast and Andrea had died without any corpse.
Her parents.... didn't take it well either.
Leon had to restrain Andrea's father from attacking Arthur in the Medicine Hall, while her mother cried in Chensa's arms. Despite the fact that they both knew that there wasn't anything Arthur could've done, and even though he did try to do something, they couldn't help but place some sort of blame on him.
It was human nature after all.
Not that Arthur gave it a second thought. The moment he left that cave, he was prepared to leave behind everything, not just his emotions.
If one wanted to walk the demonic path, they had to be prepared to sever all connections that tied them down. Killing. Stealing. Massacring. Looting. Plundering.
Even if it meant giving up his brother, or first born child, Arthur would do it without question.
He had already made his bed long ago.... if it was his turn to die, he would accept it.
.... But, if Arthur could still move, still breathe, still fight.... then he would oppose anyone who stood in his way.
He had accumulated so much karma over his previous life.... both good and bad. This time, he planned on taking everything he could.
Arthur narrowed his eyes as he let out a breath of turbid air.
"I've stabilized my cultivation. Now that I'm back to solid quartz origin essence, I can fight everyone in the second Fae Master Tournament without reserve. My origin essence sea and origin essence regeneration surpasses even that of Randolf, so letting loose isn't out of the question either.
"Crocodile transformation Fae wouldn't be a good idea, but on the other hand, the others already know that I use both halberd fae and moonsword fae. I could use some of the Wood Attributed Fae that I've acquired, but I don't particularly want to let the cat out of that bag just yet".
"Unless I have to fight against the descendents of Elders, or perhaps Randolf, I won't use those unless I have too. My physical strength would exceed everyone, and match Randolf who is a Rank 2 Fae Master, and Borik who specializes in transformation Fae. In terms of technique, those two aren't a problem, and Ratimir and Alina are only just a level higher.....".
Arthur didn't of anyone as a threat, but the fact that Randolf was a foreigner, who also possessed an unknown foreigner treasure was something that he couldn't ignore.
It was an ability that most likely relied on touch, and from Arthur's understanding of foreigner treasures, it wasn't something that had on offensive ability.
Perhaps not even defensive, or supportive.
'Perhaps a non-combative ability?'.
He wanted to look at Fae, and even gave Arthur the chance to pick a Fae in exchange for first place.
'An analytical ability perhaps? Capable of reading information in front of them?'.
Arthur had never had a foreigner treasure in his hands before, so he didn't know the exact logic behind all of them. Only that they had come with foreigners from whatever world they originally came from.
They were all different, but all of them possessed a physical form.
From what Arthur had heard, most took the form of small metal jewellery or trinkets that they had in their previous lives, and all of them did not need Fae or origin essence to be used.
Arthur had heard a rumour towards the end of his previous life about the existence of a foreigner treasure that could exist between the boundaries of the Thirty Three Heavens, but nothing like that had ever been proven, or rationalized by Fae Masters.
The existence of foreigners was another one of the Thirteen Great Fae Mysteries, and was currently the Mystery with the least number of theories.
Why did individuals from another world come to this one, and why did could they bring items from their previous worlds to this one?
Did the Heavenly Laws not apply to them or something? Or was it perhaps something about their treasures which made them exempt from such things?
There were just too many unknowns.
Foreigner treasures were extremely sought after by Fae Immortals, since they contained Laws from another world. Foreigner treasures were different from the treasures of the Thirty Three Heavens, since they could grow stronger alongside their wielder.
Arthur was still in the dark in that regard also.
Arthur just shook his head before letting out a small sigh.
"At any rate, when the time comes I'll kill Randolf and take his foreigner treasure. Even if I can't use it, I can always sell it or exchange for something else when I leave the Village.
"It's been almost a year now since I went back in time. In less than four years from now, I'll leave, and start my journey towards the ends of the Azure Envy Continent....".
Such a small part of the world.... how could it hope to contain a Sovereign Boundary Physique anyway?