"Do you really have to go Arthur? I mean, your children have just been born, isn't it better to spend some time with them before you go on a trip for a few days?".
Arthur paused, stopping the spoon in his hands from entering his mouth as he lifted his head and stared queerly at Parvan who was sitting down beside him. All of the other Fae Masters belonging to his "team" sat around the table they were currently eating at, all pausing for a moment and looking at Arthur and Parvan.
The Rank 2 Fae Master just shook his head and continued eating.
"It'll be fine. I mean it'll only be for a few days. I don't exactly know how to.... raise a child either. I'm good a fighting, so I can provide for them and I can teach them how to fight and protect themselves as well".
Arthur pretended to poke a piece of meat in his soup, an unsure expression could be seen on his face.
All of the others felt slightly awkward that they were taking Arthur away from his family, especially at such a critical moment in his lifetime, but, even more so, it felt kind of strange that someone their own age was currently a Father.
Some of their mortal friends, who didn't awaken an origin essence sea had already gotten married and started to work on consummating their marriage and by having children, but mortal lifespans weren't nearly as long as a Fae Masters.
Most Fae Masters lived to at least a hundred, if they didn't die prematurely.
The average lifespan for a mortal within Parachenko Village was roughly seventy, and that was with a medium income household.
Arthur was seventeen and Nadia and Natasha were both twenty this year. By the time Arthur was thirty four, his children would be the same age as he is now. And with the speed at which Fae Master's age, perhaps Arthur would only look more mature, not actually physically changing.
It was a little bit weird.
"We'll be leaving tomorrow morning, so I want everyone to get a good nights sleep tonight. It'll be the last time you get to sleep in a bed for the next couple days, so don't do anything other than your daily cultivation.... Iryna, do you have the map with the newly established routes on it?".
The girl nodded.
"Yeah. Quite a few Fae Masters have already started to create pathways and clear out routes towards the Falling Snow River and numerous hidden checkpoints and bunkers have been established near the routes. Most of them aren't available for public viewing, although from what I was told we are allowed to use the #5 bunker which is roughly halfway between Parachenko Village and the Falling Snow River....".
Arthur nodded.
"Henrik, have you prepared the Fae Boxes and other storage material?".
The slightly younger male also nodded.
"Yeah. We've got a total of five hundred Fae Boxes without any seals or talismans on it, and about two or three dozen that do. Obviously the Fae Boxes without seals or talismans are for the less valuable Fae, while the other ones should be used for extremely rare or unusual Fae that we find....".
Arthur turned towards Zlatanna, who didn't need Arthur to say anything before she too also nodded.
"The horses and the carriages have been prepared beforehand. Since there are three carriages and two horses for each carriage, that means that we'll have four people to two carriages, and Arthur and someone else each day for the rear carriage".
Arthur nodded before pointing to several people.
"In the front carriage we'll need people who can either detect things from far away, or be able to take a hit in place of the carriage or the others. Henrik, Parvan, Iryna and Zlatanna will be in the front carriage. While, Eric, Helga, Milena and Dagen will be in the rear carriage. Since Nyssa can both fight at range and in close quarters, she'll be my backup using her ghosts. It'll be a good test for you all to see whether we can fight in this kind of arrangement. If we need to fight, that is....".
All of the others nodded.
Ever since the caravan left Parachenko Village, the quality of strength within Fae Masters belonging to the Kovacs Clan had skyrocketed. Having a brand new influx of Fae to augment their current strengths was good an all, however, normally the amount of Fae Masters within the Clan was much higher, leading to a group increase of strength, rather than a qualitative increase.
Since the beast tides came and eliminated more than half of the Fae Masters within the Village, the remaining Fae Masters needed to pick up the slack. And with more rewards and more Fae for them considering that there weren't as many people looking for them, it was only natural that the remaining Fae Masters would grow stronger much quicker.
These nine in front of Arthur were no exception.
Parvan had expanded his repertoire of Fae so that more control-type Earth Attributed Fae had been included in his fighting style. His Stone Monolith Fae was good, but its origin essence expenditure was relatively high, despite the fact that it was a Rank 1 Fae. He had purchased quite a few Fae, including a Rank 1 Earth Vine Fae and a Rank 1 Sandstorm Fae, both of which could be used at range.
Zlatanna had tried her best to purchase armour-type Wind Attributed Fae, but ended up settling for a complete set of armour-type Storm Attributed Fae, which was significantly more expensive. Unlike the Wind Attribute, which boasted invisibility and speed, Storm Attributed Fae lacked the transparency of the Wind Attribute, but had its power increased dramatically.
Storm Attributed Fae complimented both Lightning Attributed and Water Attributed Fae as well. So Zlatanna could use either of those two Attributes to fill that gap in anything she was missing. She had purchased a Lightning Lance Fae and a Stormstream Fae as well, which complimented her aggressive fighting style.
Milena had benefitted quite a bit from the caravan, considering that the White Dominion Sect specialized in Corpse and Thought Attributed Fae. She didn't so much as purchase Fae, but a series of books and knowledge on the development and evolution of Corpses. She obtained her Coffin Evolution Ritual and tried to evolve the the Corpse of her Leaf Essence Bear into a Withering Leaf Bear Corpse.
The difference between the two was that the corpse type and wood type spiritual essence within the Withering Leaf Bear was much more balanced than just the ordinary Leaf Essence Bear. It allowed for much more stable reactions within, whenever Milena tried to create Corpse Poisons.
Iryna.... despite Milena having the greatest qualitative gains.... didn't necessarily lose out to her friend.
She currently was walking the Spider Transformation specialist path and possessed three Spider Lance type Fae. The first was the Golden Poison Lance Fae. The second was the Bone Piercing Lance Fae. And the third and last type was the Coiling Vine Lance Fae.
What Iryna currently lacked was more Transformations that applied to the rest of her body. Using spider lances was fine, however it wasn't a true Transformation if it didn't involve the rest of her body.
The Transformation Attribute has been popular since before recorded history. Being able to shapeshift into a spirit beast, or even a divine beast has been the desires and wishes of Fae Masters everywhere, even members of the Myriad Races.
A such, in order to complete her transformation, Iryna had purchased numerous Spider species Transformation Fae. From the mandibles, to the eyes, to the poison sacs to even the transformation of her upper and lower body into the spherical shape that a Spider resembled.
So far, she had one complete Transformation, which was perfect considering her main role in the group.
The Bone Devouring Spider Transformation. A Bone Attributed Spider type spirit beast that possessed an external hardened carapace capable of resisting poison and flame. It's weakness was water, considering that it was too heavy to swim, but in large colonies, these types of Spiders could raze an entire Village in an afternoon.
Their defensive powers were extremely good. Although their speed it take a huge hit as a result.
Iryna only possessed a mixture of Rank 1 and Rank 2 Bone Devouring Spider Transformation, making it somewhat taxing on her origin essence sea, but considering that she was almost a Rank 2 Fae Master, that problem would be solved in the near future.
As for the other five.... they were all progressing well, focusing mainly on their cultivation so as to try and catch up with their older counterparts. Out of all of them, Nyssa and Dagen were the ones to benefit most from the caravan, Nyssa still researching Ghosts and Dagen still firmly interested in the notion of Blacksmithing....
Going there separate ways, Arthur took the long way to get home, stopping by a few of the streams and rivers that flowed through the Village. Dropping a few large chunks of frozen Hatred Imperfection Powder within the water sources, Arthur gazed up at the moon, calculating the time.
"Give it about.... 14 to 15 hours..... and then.... everything will come to an end....".