A couple weeks passed since the destruction of Parachenko Village. With the sole exception of the nine Fae Masters and the three babies, not a single other living human being resided within the territories around the Village.
With the excess amount of wood type and water type spiritual essence in the environment, plants had already started to take root on the destroyed buildings and wreckage from Arthur's battle. Vines and plants started to coil up and around fallen wooden slabs, bricks and other various building materials.
Ponds of all shapes and sizes could be seen scattered around the Village, small tadpoles swimming energetically within the small water sources. Lily pads, mangroves and even large amounts of kelp could be seen just through the waters surface.
The vast majority of these ponds, plants and other changes to the wreckage of Parachenko Village was purposefully done by Arthur in the days after he had set up his Basic Seasonal Array. There were a large amount of things to be done by him in terms of both research and preparation for leaving the Village for good.
These ponds, despite the surface being clear were all extremely deep and interconnected. Quite a few Fae materials where placed in each deep pond, and in some of them, the uncorrupted bodies of mortals and Fae Masters could be discerned at the very bottom.
This particular pond, was Nyssa's Ghost Nurturing Pond.
Without having to be restrained by notions such as wealth and sharing, all of the nine Fae Masters delved into the respective fields, researching and practicing the limits of their Fae and Fae materials intently.
They all knew that without strength, something like the beast tides, like the Monster invasion, like the Hatred Imperfection Powder could always happen again. Arthur made sure to reinforce that notion within each and every one of them, every time they wanted to cry, or feel bad about the loss of all their friends and family.
At the same time, solidifying the nature of their relationship between him.
Trust needed to be nurtured over time, and Arthur had all the time in the world. They had nowhere else to turn to other than him....
Nyssa and Arthur had created these Ghost Nurturing Ponds all over Parachenko Village. Each one focused on nurturing different Attributes of Ghosts, although the vast majority being either Wood Attribute, Yin Attribute, Bone Attribute or Blood Attribute.
These were the main focuses of these two specifically.
Ghost Nurturing Ponds were something that usually aimed at nurturing either Water or Blood Attributed Ghosts, but with some tinkering and with an exorbitant amount of wood type spiritual essence, Arthur had transformed several of them into what he called "Ghost Nurturing Swamps". These were closer towards where the Monster carcase was, specifically near where the Wood Attributed materials formed.
He needed to calibrate the balance between the ambient Thoughts, Emotions and Desires within the Ghost Nurturing Swamps, but the problem regarding spiritual essence and Fae material balance had been sorted thanks to the A.I.
Instead of having him calculate the necessary materials needed to balance out the Ghost Nurturing Swamps, the A.I. did instead. In the mean time, he had assisted Henrik and Parvan in creation of their own unique Combined Attribute Control Skill.
The two young men practiced Metal Attributed Fae and Earth Attributed Fae respectively. With all the new Fae in the Clan Reserves at their finger tips, both Henrik and Parvan had started to learn how to control different types of sands.
Fae materials, when used in conjunction with specific Fae, could be used in battle.
Within the Clan Reserves existed numerous different types of Attributed sands. Yang Sand, which could actually burn the skin of mortals if they touched it for too long. Metal Glass Sand, which was actually almost invisible due to its transparency and possessed the same sharpness as glass. And even just Heavy Earth Sand, which despite being the same size in terms of grains, was more than 7 times the weight of normal sand.
They had been working towards mixing their sands to create complimentary attacks, or defensive abilities.
Arthur had also assisted them in the creation of a Combined Attribute Control Skill, similar to his own. The vast majority of Arthur's Attribute Control Skills were instant attacks meant to end the battle in a single flurry or strike. Elder Vova's on the other hand, and his Father's were sustained attacks with much more flexibility and complexity. In terms of strength they were the same, but theirs were much more adaptable during combat.
His Falling Autumn Maple couldn't be used to trap or defend someone like the Untainted Flower Petals had for Arthur previously.
On the other hand, Milena and Dagen had been working separately, unlike they had been before. With all these different materials placed in front of them, they could explore the path of Corpses and the path of Blacksmithing without having to worry about money or having too little to work with.
Milena had already started working on her seventh or eighth Coffin, while waiting and taking notes patiently on the other six already established Coffins.
The Coffin Evolution Ritual that Arthur had shared with her was a good starting point, and in the scheme of things just a beginners version of how to enhance the base attributes of Corpses without risking or damaging the Corpses themselves. The only problem was that it took a relatively long time in comparison to other methods.
Mummification, Transfiguration and Surgery were all different Schools of the Corpse Attribute. Milena was currently exploring one of the more rudimentary techniques in the School of Mummification, and Arthur planned on showing her the other basic techniques later in the future.
He wasn't going to give her everything for nothing, now was he?
Dagen on the other hand, had already established his Blood Iron Nurturing Pools. A large amount of Blood and Fire Attributed materials had been spent already on him trying to forge a Rank 1 Fae Weapon. So far he had only been successful once, and ended up creating a single Blood Attributed Frozen Blood Lance which was in the scheme of things, a one star Rank 1 Fae Weapon.
It had used several Rank 1 Fae materials, but used the Rank 1 Crimson Ice as the core of the weapon. Dagen had also sacrificed a Rank 1 Frozen Lance Fae in order to create this Rank 1 Fae Weapon.
Arthur had the spear tip of a Rank 5 Fae Weapon, which was more than capable of killing a Rank 4 Fae Master, let along a Rank 3 Fae Master. It may have been broken, and perhaps rusted beyond imagination, but it was still capable of cutting through most things below Rank 5.
All Fae Weapons, just like Ghosts, needed the sacrifice of Fae in order to be created. In order to create a single Rank 1 Fae Weapon, at least one Fae needed to be sacrificed. Every Fae Weapon possessed the same tier as a Fae Master or a Fae themselves, but possessed different sub-realms depending on how many Fae were sacrificed during the creation process.
Every Fae Weapon was further broken down into ten stars. One star meaning that one Fae was sacrificed, while ten stars mean that ten Fae were sacrificed. In order to create a Fae Weapon, Fae with similar Attributes or effects needed to be sacrificed and imbued into the Fae Weapon. This would enhance the strength of the weapon itself, as well as the ability that is generated from it.
Rank 1 Fae Weapons have one ability.
Rank 2 Fae Weapons have two abilities.
Rank 3 Fae Weapons have three abilities.
Rank 4 Fae Weapons have four abilities.
And Rank 5 Fae Weapons have a total of five abilities.
However.... there were more restraints on how Fae Weapons could gain abilities.
If a Rank 5 Fae Weapon only had three stars on it, meaning only three Rank 5 Fae were sacrificed, it could only have three abilities imbued within it. A one star Rank 2 Fae Weapon would only have one ability, instead of two.
And as such, the standard for Fae Blacksmiths weren't their cultivation, but how many stars they could attribute to their creations. That was the most important quality.
Having only created a one star Rank 1 Fae Weapon, Dagen wasn't even worthy of being considered a Fae Blacksmith. In Human Heaven, only Fae Blacksmiths who could create two star Rank 2 Weapons were worthy of the title of "Blacksmith".
Everyone else, were just forgers.
Arthur let out a deep sigh, just shaking his head.
The road to becoming a Fae Blacksmith was long and arduous and only a handful of people all throughout history have actually become "Immortal Blacksmiths". Being perfectly honest, Arthur didn't see Dagen reaching such a stage, although so long as he was both useful and loyal, would continue to nurture him appropriately.
Out of the remaining four, Zlatanna, Iryna, Eric and Helga, only the two older women still functioned properly, moving past their grief and sorrow and continuing to better themselves and their abilities.
Both of them how had access to all the Storm Attributed and Spider Transformation Fae within the Clan Reserves, and they were still focused on their previous gains that they had obtained from the caravan.
Arthur had even given Zlatanna a Rank 2 Storm Cloud Fae, which created a thick mist around herself, which could compliment a wide variety of Lightning Attributed Fae quite well. He had taken that one from Ratimir's corpse in the day after he destroyed the Village.
Iryna was still perfecting her Bone Devouring Spider Transformation.
But as for Eric and Helga....
"Well.... at least she is caring for the three babies....".
Helga had done nothing but cultivate and look after Grigori, Ophelia and Titania. She didn't appear interested in Fae or the progression of her strength. Arthur didn't mind her taking care of his children, but Eric on the other hand....
All he did was eat, sleep and drink. Every single day....
He had found that one of the taverns within the Village still possessed a huge stockpile of alcohol, and was continuing to drink himself to death, without even so much as caring about his cultivation. For the time being he hadn't bothered anyone during their own practice, but he was distracting enough during mealtime that it had started to get on the others nerves.
Arthur just shook his head.
"He has to go....".
Perhaps right now wouldn't be the best time, considering everything that has just happened. But if he got drunk one night and tried to harass Nyssa or something, then he couldn't blame Arthur if he ended up losing his life.
Whether it was true or not, didn't really matter either....