Author's Note: For those interested, there are now five advanced chapters (we're on chapter 29) and a poll about drawing that we will be requesting in the future for this story on my on P-atreon, which you can read and vote for just $5.
I also finished the first volume of my other story, "Welcome to the Alternate Multiverse Chat Group."
So if you can, please go to my profile and check it out.
Remove the spaces and dash: p-atreon/ Krakenian01
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Third Person P.O.V
Leek felt his back hit the soft snow as a smile remained on his face, this had been the first truly serious fight he'd had since the one with the pack of gorillas, and although it was clear to him that he had made some mistakes, mainly due to inexperience, it was an exciting fight and a satisfying victory.
Sitting up in the snow, he saw, a few dozen meters away, the last mantis fall defeated, its head full of cracks exploding when Huyan Xiong's massive fist struck it.
"Phew." Leek exhaled before standing up, brushing the snow off his clothes, only then did he notice that his hands, which had been slightly blue from blocking the breath attacks earlier, now had mostly regained their color, and were just a little pale.
"Well, it seems the anti-freezing pills Mr. Ye Shuo gave me are quite effective." He said, opening and closing his fist, confirming that he could now feel his hands much better, though they still felt quite cold.
Putting that aside, he began walking toward the two men, who, though relieved to see him victorious, also seemed quite incredulous.
"You really beat that behemoth lizards." Ye Shuo said, clearly surprised.
"Heh, of course I did, it was easy because they were pretty weak, and I'm incredibly strong." Leek said with a smug smile and puffed out his chest a little, but a couple of seconds later, the smile faded as he exhaled, almost deflating like a balloon. "Or so I'd like to say." He continued, now with a slightly embarrassed smile. "The truth is, I made several mistakes during that fight." He admitted, turning to look at the two defeated beasts.
"I thought their breath attacks would be something they couldn't do many times or not without a cooldown between each attack, but in the end, it seemed like they could fire them as much as they wanted and in rapid succession. Their scales were also tougher than I thought, I'd need a piercing or cutting attack to get through them, and an impact attack like the ones I used would need charging time to overcome their defenses, I wanted to test them and got overconfident. Because of that, I ended up getting hit by their breath attacks and wasted way more energy than necessary to defeat them, it seems I still lack experience." Leek said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Both adults were quite surprised to hear this, they had been focused on finishing off their enemies and hadn't observed Leek's fight beyond a brief glance, but the fact that the Saiyan not only noticed his mistakes but was also willing to admit them was surprising.
Most young geniuses who stood out almost always maintained an air of superiority over others, sometimes even toward their elders, and it was normal, the strong were always proud of their strength, sometimes to the point where it blinded them, so Leek's admission of his mistakes showed that he was, at the very least, trying not to let power go to his head, and was keeping his feet on the ground.
"Still, that was quite impressive." Huyan Xiong said, stepping forward and giving Leek a pat on the shoulder strong enough to almost make him stumble. "Defeating two fully grown Snow Wind Behemoth Lizards is no small feat"
"I agree, for someone with the strength of a three-star gold rank to pull that off is something I didn't think was possible." Ye Shuo added.
"Ah, I've also been thinking about that." Leek said, this was something he had intended to mention earlier, but I had never found the right moment, mainly because these were just his conjectures, but now that he had done something someone of his "level" shouldn't be able to do, perhaps his thoughts carried more weight.
"I don't think it's a good idea to try to equate me with the ranks of spiritists or fighters in Glory City." The Saiyan explained, earning curious looks from both adults, so, he decided to elaborate as the three of them approached the two fallen Snow Wind Behemoth Lizards.
"Well, what I mean is that Mr. Huyan Xiong relied on the strength I displayed during our fight to give me a power level equivalent to what you already had in your system, right?"
"That's correct"
"Well, what I mean is that Saiyans have this… let's call it a battle momentum, during a fight, we learn and adapt to maximize our chances of victory, there have been cases where, even in the middle of a fight, a Saiyan has become stronger by pushing the limits of his body enough, surpassing opponents who were stronger up to that point, not to mention that the strength I show in a fight can vary depending on some other factors." He explained, glancing at Huyan Xiong.
"Besides our physicality, Saiyans can reinforce our bodies more or less depending on the energy we have and our control over it, a punch reinforced with a certain amount of ki won't always do the same damage as a particular technique with the same amount of energy, and as Mr. Xiong surely told you, I learn quite quickly, so I've improved even more since that fight, plus, being able to fly and fire energy blasts is always beneficial." He finished saying as they reached the body of the first Behemoth, whose brain he had cooked from the inside.
"Now, just like with that pack of apes I fought before, I assume the materials from these lizards' bodies are also valuable?" Leek asked, changing the topic of conversation to something that interested him more.
"They are, but separating them would take too much time, especially now that we don't have the necessary materials, not to mention, that we don't have enough rings to transport the materials." Ye Shuo explained, earning a defeated sigh from Leek.
"I figured." The Saiyan nodded in a slightly defeated tone.
They hadn't come prepared for a hunt but for the retrieval of an item, so no one had brought more than a couple of rings with the materials needed for a simple expedition, even if Leek used the ring previously filled with food that Lanruo had given him, now empty thanks to his enormous appetite, and the one Huyan Xiong gave him, which had various other things, it probably wouldn't be enough even if he threw out everything he had.
So, if he decided to harvest the materials, it would not only take too long, but he also likely wouldn't be able to carry everything these Behemoths could offer, so, he gave up on the idea.
"Come on, boy, don't make that face." Huyan Xiong spoke in a lively tone, drawing the attention of both the Ye family elder and the Saiyan. "You've been pretty lucky so far, so make a bet, if fate is on your side, one of the Behemoths might have a formed spirit, checking will only take me a couple of seconds, so let's see if it's your lucky day." Huyan Xiong tried to cheer Leek up, after all, he understood that this situation frustrated him a bit, the value of the materials from both beasts amounted to, at the very least, several hundred thousand spiritual coins, or a couple of million in the best-case scenario, something very few young people Leek's age could acquire.
Huyan Xiong stepped forward with Leek, stopping at the head of the fallen Behemoth. "Do you remember what I told you about demonic spirits?" The man asked.
"Yes." Leek replied, nodding. "They're rare, only a few out of tens of thousands of beasts develop one, though the probability increases depending on the beast's power relative to the rest of its kind, and they're located in the brain of the demonic beasts"
"That's correct." The man nodded, seeming quite satisfied with Leek's summary.
"But didn't I damage the demonic spirit when I attacked the Behemoths? I basically cooked this one's brain from the inside, and the other one had his own attack, and mine exploded in his mouth." The Saiyan seemed a bit nervous at the possibility of having damaged his hypothetical reward.
"It's unlikely, demonic spirits aren't physical aspects themselves, they're the essence of the beast made into materialized energy." Ye Shuo shared his knowledge to calm Leek.
"Alright, let's see." Huyan Xiong raised two fingers, manipulating his soul force and pointing them at the center of the monster's head, a beam of light shot out, striking the scales of the inert beast, and after about three seconds, the man lowered his hand, canceling the beam and shaking his head.
"This one didn't have a spirit inside." He said, a bit disappointed, before turning to the second fallen Behemoth and approaching it with Leek and Ye Shuo.
"Well, I guess I'll cross my fingers for this one." Leek said, standing in front of the second Behemoth.
Unlike the other, this one seemed a bit more frozen from the neck down, making Leek wonder if it was due to the icy beam he had made explode with his last attack, did that mean they were vulnerable to their own breath attacks if they hit the inside of the beasts? If so, their "immunity" to their own attacks might come from their scales or something in the external tissue of the beasts.
Setting those thoughts aside for later, Leek watched everything Huyan Xiong did closely, both with his eyes and his sense of ki, hoping this demonic beast had a spirit, he hoped that after seeing the process up close a second time, he might understand it and perhaps recreate it with his ki.
The beam of light pierced the Behemoth's head, and just like before, the inspection lasted only three or four seconds before the beam retracted, but this time, it wasn't like the previous one.
Attached to the end of the beam, like a small fish caught on a hook, was a small light, similar to a flame, pale blue in color.
Leek's eyes widened in surprise, as did Ye Shuo's, after all, as a black gold rank spiritist, he knew very well how unlikely it was for a demonic beast to have a spirit to harvest.
Normally, one would have to defeat many demonic beasts, so most preferred to buy them directly rather than hunt beasts in the hope of finding one, so, events like this were infrequent.
Smiling at their surprised expressions, Huyan Xiong said. "Well, kid, it seems Lady Luck has truly chosen you, huh?" The man then tossed the spirit to Leek, who extended his hands to catch it.
"And what am I supposed to do with this?" Leek asked, holding the small flame in his hands, it emitted no heat, and its weight was barely perceptible, but his ki sense told him that this small flame contained a considerable amount of energy.
"For now, you can store it in your ring, once we return to Glory City, we'll place it in a Demon Spirit Stone, and after that, you can do whatever you want with it, sell it or try to use it. Who knows? You haven't tried fusing with a demonic spirit yet, right? So, maybe it's possible, like I said, it depends on what you want to do, after all, you're the one who defeated it." Huyan Xiong explained.
"Heh, well, thanks, I'll think about what I want to do, but just out of curiosity, how much would people pay for something like this?" The young man asked both adults as he activated one of the rings and stored the spirit.
"Easily a few million." Ye Shuo replied.
"M-millions?" Leek seemed quite surprised, after all, if he compared it to what he got last time for the gorillas parts, this demonic spirit was worth at least twenty times more.
"Don't be so surprised, boy, that time, only the materials from the armed apes were sold because none of them had a formed spirit, they're useful for multiple things, but the spirit of a Snow Wind Behemoth Lizard is something completely different, it's useful for any spiritist, and it's also a beast at the peak of the gold rank, just one step away from black gold, the two things can't be compared." Huyan Xiong explained.
Leek snapped out of his astonishment and nodded, deciding that after returning and training for another month, which was his rough estimate of how long the money from the sale of this spirit would last him, he would go hunting again, as he had said before, the difficulty of this fight was due to his inexperience more than his lack of power, so, the best way to gain both funds and experience at the same time would be to hunt large numbers of beasts of at least gold rank.
"Alright, with all that said, it's best to continue, we still have a ways to go before reaching the Dark Ruins." Ye Shuo interjected.
Both Huyan Xiong and Leek nodded at the man, and after a quick final check of his body and ki reserves by Leek, the dome-shaped barrier materialized once more before the three resumed their journey.
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Third Person P.O.V
The sound of footsteps was muffled by the snow, about two hours had passed since the two spiritists and the Saiyan resumed their journey, and now, after being lucky enough not to have to deal with another setback in the form of a demonic beast, their steps stopped at the entrance to where they would spend the rest of the day and night searching for Hong Yue Mu, the Dark Ruins.
"You weren't lying when you said this place was dangerous, I can feel that this place is filled with an unpleasant ki." Leek said, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
"You can feel it?" Ye Shuo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, it's a bit hard to explain, it's not like the energy signature of a living being, like a spiritist or a demonic beast, to put it simply, it's like there's some kind of fog covering the entire place, and that fog feels... alive?" Leek bowed his head, arms crossed, and eyes closed, trying to put into words what he was feeling before giving up and continuing.
"The presence is strong, but what I can feel most clearly is an unpleasant sensation, as if it's filled with negative emotions, so I'll say it now, this thing is actively blocking my ki sense, I can still use it, but my range has been reduced by about half." Leek explained with a serious expression, this place was no joke, if just being here could affect him this much, he wasn't sure what kind of abilities the beasts living in these ruins might have.
Ye Shuo and Huyan Xiong seemed surprised by this information, after all, they hadn't felt this kind of problem, nor had anything like this been reported before, but they quickly returned to a calm state before speaking.
"There are many rumors about the Dark Ruins, each more unsettling than the last, perhaps some of them have more validity than we thought before." Ye Shuo said, stroking his beard, thinking about what Leek's words could mean.
"In any case, it's best to stick together, even if your detection range is more limited now, it's still useful, but we still have to be careful." Huyan Xiong added.
With that, the three of them moved forward, passing through the entrance, their minds focused on defending themselves against whatever they might find, and their intention set on finding Hong Yue Mu.
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Well, this is just a transitional chapter, Leek discovering a little more about the world he's in and some character interactions, in the next one we'll have some more interesting things.
Besides that, I also wanted to ask you for something else: I'd like to commission a drawing for this story, either a new cover or a fan art of a scene.
That's why I wanted to ask you to please join my P-treon, those who join, in addition to being able to read the 5 extra chapters there, will also be able to vote to decide which of these two options will be the drawing.
If we get 19 people with Legend rank to join, and I add a little bit of what I have saved (because the good artists I've seen on X aren't cheap), I think I'll be able to find a good artist to draw something for this story.
Remove the spaces and dash: p-atreon/ Krakenian01
Besides that, I wanted to ask you the same thing I did with my other story, if you could please leave a positive review for this story, that way it will reach more people, thank you very much!
That's all, see you in the next chapter.