After dinner, everyone went to sleep except Leo, who continued his late-night date with Terrana as usual.
On the other hand, Rei had a strange dream throughout the night.
A shadow, a crown, and a crow. A humanoid shadow with a majestic black crown and a black crow on his shoulder.
And then, more shadows appeared. All of those shadows had colorful auras swirling around them.
They bared their evil intention on the lonely black shadow, chasing and attacking him for unknown reasons.
Ultimately, they all mercilessly tore that shadow apart and devoured it before celebrating.
Rei's eyes shot open, sweat covering his face and body.
'What was that?'
He tried to recall the dream but couldn't. However, he was sure that he had dreamt of something terrifying and that he saw that crown in his dream.
The same crown that suddenly flashed out from his mailbox days ago and the same one that appeared in his hand when he was on planet Almundo.
Shaking his head, Rei cleared his mind. There was no point in thinking about these things. He intended to find out more about it, but it was not his priority at the moment.
Looking at the time, he saw it was already five in the morning and got up before entering the bathroom.
…
Two hours later, the whole gang was ready and freshened up before leaving the planet after breakfast, onward to their new journey.
Since Rei had things to do in his Phantom Realm, he told everyone about it and went back to his room before using [Reach For Shadows].
He arrived in the same underground chamber below the temple ruins. But there was nothing else here, so he returned to the surface.
Rei was on the top of the mountain, so he started descending while looking for phantoms to kill.
*Rustle~*
It wasn't long before he heard rustling sounds when he arrived at the green part of the mountain while descending. There were many trees, bushes, and other greenery here.
*shaa!*
Rei was cautiously walking, so he quickly noticed the incoming phantom that jumped out of the bush.
A brown snake with dark green patterns!
He didn't move and just narrowed his eyes. The moment the snake came within his range, he grabbed its head tightly and rendered it immobile.
[Black Fangs Snake]
-> Common-rank phantom.
*splat*
Rei crushed the snake's head, killing it in a second. Since creatures here had no physical body or blood, they just turned into motes and vanished upon dying.
'I guess not everyone is like Amby,' Rei thought, missing his cute little friend as he continued walking.
But when he thought deeper, it felt like Amby appeared at perfect timing and led him to the Venerous Fate Crow.
Still, he was sure Amby was already a peaceful phantom, considering its first skill was called Peace Shot.
'So 5% progression for killing a common-rank phantom….' Rei checked his Aspect's progression while walking before he soon encountered another phantom.
A normal-sized tiger with light grey fur, red stripes, and a dark red horn on its head.
[Feral Horned Tiger]
-> Uncommon-rank phantom.
*Grrr…*
The tiger slowly walked with its gaze locked onto Rei, with its paws having sharp claws extended.
It was ready to butcher Rei at any given chance.
Rei frowned. He was not here with his physical body, so he also didn't have his weapon. Frankly, he didn't even know the current strength of his phantom body and how it would fare against this tiger.
*growl!*
The tiger pounced on Rei, who quickly ducked down and punched its stomach while it crossed over him, spoiling its landing after its failed attack.
The tiger fell on its side but quickly recovered, turning towards Rei with red eyes.
'Wait, I should use phantom energy!'
Rei realized the crux! He had to use phantom energy to tame the phantoms in this world.
His Taint was freaking horrible, so the seal should be powerful. However, he had yet to bring his First Seal's full power.
The tiger arrived and pounced again, but it was careful this time and did a low pounce to prevent Rei from ducking down, and it also seemed to use a skill as its horn started shining!
'Stupid beast.'
Rei jumped over the beast this time and focused as he condensed an orb of phantom energy on his palm.
The tiger turned around again for the next attack, its anger increasing by another notch.
However, the tiger stopped when it noticed the orb of phantom energy on Rei's palm.
Rei grinned and stretched his hand forward, "Take it."
"Growl…"
The tiger issued a low growl as it looked at Rei and the orb warily.
It was cautious and afraid!
'I should be able to detach this orb of phantom energy,' Rei thought and decided to try it.
He shaped the phantom energy orb more properly and condensed it. Since this energy was flowing in his body, he could easily control it.
Ultimately, he spent 100 phantom energy to create this orb.
After he was done, he threw the orb toward the tiger.
The tiger flinched a bit but then realized that Rei was not attacking since the orb landed before it instead of hitting it.
Immediately, the tiger's eyes showed excitement, and it gobbled up the entire orb of phantom energy at once.
Rei saw the tiger looking at him after eating the orb of phantom energy, its eyes asking for more.
"You want more? Haha, come here and sit down."
Rei spoke while making a gesture with his hand.
"Rawr…"
The tiger released a low roar before walking forward and sitting before Rei.
Rei touched its head and sent his thought into the phantom to form a contract.
[ Contract Formed. You can summon this phantom whenever and anywhere by using Dark Port.]
[ Evolution commencing.]
[ Feral Horned Tiger has successfully ranked up and evolved into Dreadling Blood Tiger; both skills are promoted.]
[Dreadling Blood Tiger]
-> Rare-rank phantom. Phantoms of this rank gain slightly higher intelligence and a stronger phantom physique. They can share one of their skills with their master.
-> Skills: Bleeding Recovery, Shattering Enchant.
Rei was surprised at the skills' names and focused on them to see their effects.
[Bleeding recovery]: Recovery in exchange for bleeding your targets. Consumes stamina.
[Shattering Enchant]: Enchant any of your body parts and grant them the power of shatter. Shatter's effectiveness depends on your physical prowess. The skill consumes fixed stamina on each use and requires a minute of the interval before using the skill again.
"Roar!!"
The tiger also turned twice the size of a normal tiger after evolving to the Rare-rank! Its fur became more exquisite, and its dark red horn had faint silver patterns.
"Great!"
Rei nodded with a smile. "The task will be finished quicker with you."
…
Rei didn't waste time and continued descending the mountain with his new pet since he couldn't get phantom energy while staying in the phantom realm. Instead, it was getting consumed each minute.
After half an hour, Rei finally descended the mountain. On the way, he killed four more common-rank phantoms and one uncommon-rank phantom, getting closer to completing his tasks.
[ Phantom Mausoleum (35%/100%) ]
'I need to hurry,' Rei thought, seeing that only 649 phantom energy was left.
After descending the mountain, Rei continued in the forest area that he had seen when he was on the mountain peak.
His eventual target was a shadow of the giant tree that seemed to touch the sky, though he knew it was impossible to reach there on this trip since it was far.
"Let's go, Tom. Sniff out a phantom and lead."
*Rawr!*
Tom nodded and sniffed a few times before walking while Rei followed it, remaining cautious and on the lookout for any danger.
'I also need to see if I can tame one more phantom or if having one is the limit for now.'