All of the Fae Masters from the caravan felt a shiver crawl up their spines, and the hairs raise on the back of their necks. Titling their heads slightly, they looked down towards the thick layer of green grass beneath them, only to notice that the completely normal bed of grass just swayed gently in the faint breeze.
A breeze that carried the scent of blood....
One of the Fae Masters, the one who had picked up the Rodent Corpse Flower, gulped slightly as he gazed at Alan's dead body, feeling an immense trepidation as he turned the focus of his attention towards Arthur.
The seventeen year old was smiling, walking all over the grass towards Alan's body.
Without a mental strength strong enough to dominate these Wood Yin Spirits, the half dozen phantoms were running around aimlessly, bumping into each other as if mentally deficient, or with a distinct purposelessness.
None of them were strong enough to be created from a single source, so their own spirituality was corrupted and too androgynous. Too much of everything created something stable, but without much potential for growth.
Arthur didn't even so much as blink as he reached inside Alan's body and retrieved some of his Fae. The vast majority of which was only Rank 1, although the Fae that he had used to control these Wood Yin Spirits was a Rank 2 Fae.
Arthur held it in his hand and silently refined the Fae. Turning towards Elder Vova and Ricardo, he gave them both an innocent smile, causing Ricardo to take a half step back.
'This kid.... wait, this Village has complete Attribute Control Skills!?'.
Ricardo turned towards Elder Vova, who just narrowed his eyes as he continued to stare at Arthur.
"Arthur.... did you have to kill him?".
Arthur didn't stop his refinement, even with Elder Vova distracting him somewhat, and just sent him a glance, before closing his eyes.
"I thought you said that you wouldn't care no matter what the outcome was?".
Elder Vova just shook his head.
"That's not the point Arthur. You didn't have to kill him with that attack. You could've easily just aimed for his limbs, just like you did Randolf before".
Arthur shrugged his shoulders, pointing towards Alan's body.
"Well, isn't that obvious? I wanted his Fae, so I pushed him to the point where he would fight me. He was weak and loud, so killing him would both shut him up, and let me take the Fae from his body".
Arthur glanced at the rest of the caravan members.
"I might be some savage barbarian from a backwards Clan in the middle of nowhere, but origins and background have nothing to do with strength or ability. I suppose they should learn this lesson now before they offend someone they can't afford to offend".
Elder Vova let out a sigh before glancing at Ricardo.
The Rank 3 Fae Master from the caravan made no effort to attack or dissuade Arthur's method of thought, so it seems that for the time being, this matter had been drawn to a close. The death of this young man would've made a much bigger splash if he had a background that the Kovacs Clan couldn't offend, and considering his talent, it didn't seem as though he had come from a powerful Sect or Clan.
The Wood Fae specialist turned gazed at Arthur silently, watching as he silently refined the Wood Ghost Imprint Fae.
While most of the other Fae Masters, like Borik, Ratimir and Alina left, only Ricardo, along with Arthur's teammates stayed behind. Watching as his silently refined all of the Fae that he wanted.
The bright ball of flame overhead gradually rose and fell as time passed. The colour of sky changing from its bright azure, to a strange mixture of oranges and purples. The gentle light from the moon, alongside the faint light from the sun came together, and bathed the world in a beautiful swirl of colour and light.
Arthur let out a deep breath, suddenly extended his arm outwards and latching onto one of the Wood Yin Spirits. Activating the Wood Ghost Imprint Fae, a strange symbol appeared on the palm of his hand, eventually extending towards the Wood Yin Spectre, letting the symbol merge with its meagre amount of spirituality.
Within just a few minutes Arthur had imbedded his own imprint onto these Spectres. All of them stood side by side, floating aimlessly and harmlessly in the faint evening breeze.
"Milena. Dagen. Let me show you two something".
His teammates perked up the moment he made a sound, and while only Dagen and Milena were called, all of them gathered around him.
Ricardo on the side, looked as though he wanted to say something, but just waited for Arthur to finish his conversation before speaking up.
Pointing to the six Ghost Yin Spectres, Arthur smiled slightly before gesturing to Milena's origin essence sea.
"The pair of you, primarily Milena, rely on poison to attack, defend and support our group. Blood poison isn't primarily needed in this situation, however the power of blood can also be used to nurture and heal if the correct Fae are used. In this instance Dagen, the power of the Blood Attribute will be used to nurture and grow Milena's corpses".
Arthur continued his little lecture.
"The ultimate goal of the Corpse Attribute is the creation of an Immortal Zombie. Zombies are technically a type of undead, although they possess all the characteristics of a living being, with the sole exception of a Soul. Unlike the Grave Race, whom do not possess anything other than flesh, blood and organs, Zombies do not possess Souls of their own.
"The main use of Zombies, and to some degree, spirit beasts, spirit plants, Ghosts, undead and corpses, is to act in the place of its Fae Master. They should be capable of attacking, defending, supporting, buffing, or debuffing an enemy or ally, depending on the situation. The main ability of your Corpses Milena, is to attack, and take your place when facing a fatal blow.
"But look at these Wood Yin Spectres. They possess two Attributes. Wood and Yin. It isn't as complimentary as Blood and Corpse now is it?".
Milena and Dagen both nodded.
"You can use Blood to nurture Corpses, you can even use Blood to nurture Wood or Yin, but in this instance, two options are available to me. The first being to strengthen both Wood and Yin, and the other would be to sacrifice one at the cost of the other.
"If I sacrifice the Wood Attribute to strengthen the Yin, these Wood Yin Ghosts would transform into pure Yin Ghosts. Their potential would be much greater, although their overall strength would drop due to the lack of the Wood Attributes powers.
"Conversely, if I were to sacrifice the Yin Attribute in order to fuel the Wood, these Ghosts would lose their humanoid shape. They would become pure Wood Ghosts, remnants of the faint emotions from hundreds of grieving flora.
"The pure Yin Ghosts would have a much greater potential, but lose the various abilities and buffs that would come from fighting within a forest environment. Their abilities would become much more linear too, developing as a normal Ghost should".
"While pure Wood Ghosts would be easier to control, having lost even more spirituality than before. Their Wood Attributed abilities would increase drastically, and even though they don't have Fae, they could probably possess flora and control it as if it were their own body.
"Now out of the two, which path would you choose, and why?".
Dagen opened his mouth to speak, but paused and showed a thoughtful expression. Noticing that he wasn't going to say anything, Milena turned towards Arthur and spoke.
"The pure Yin Attributed Ghosts. Their potential is much higher than just the pure Wood Attributed Ghosts".
Arthur nodded, before turning towards Dagen. The younger male seemed to have discerned something.
"I would choose.... the Wood Attributed Ghosts".
"Why?", Arthur didn't seem mad, upset, offended or even curious. As if he already knew the answer why.
"These Ghosts potential aren't very high in the first place. Even if you use the Wood to nurture the Yin, the amount of potential it would bring would be miniscule at best. When I tried to use Blood to nurture the Corpses, I found that the quality of both my Fae and the Corpse itself were insufficient. As such, I couldn't try to even increase its innate potential at all....".
Arthur nodded.
"I want you all to pay close attention to my words. Those Fae Masters whom can control other creatures are the most dangerous enemies for you. The amount of variation within spirit beasts, spirit plants, Zombies, undead and Corpses is almost as great as the amount of Fae in the known existence. It is impossible to know every single type of of these creatures.
"Milena here specializes in such a field, so she would understand best. But, if she got her hands on the corpse of a Beast King, or even a Rank 4 or a Rank 5 spirit beast, then all of you would be as good as dead. These Fae don't take much origin essence, which is also why Taming Fae Masters can control so many at one time. If that ever happens, you'll have to try your best to do what I just did".
Nyssa lifted her head.
"Kill the Taming Fae Master?".
Arthur nodded.
"If you can break them all free from the Fae Masters control, you'll have a chance of getting out of there alive. There is no guarantee, however it is undoubtably your best option".