33 Hunting the Enemy
Deon faced the five enemies with a clear mind.
Out of the remaining five enemies, four were at the late stage and one was peak stage. Keeping an eye on all of them simultaneously, Deon's body blurred and he appeared in front of a young woman. She was a beauty by conventional standards…too bad that her silky black hair became soaked and matted with blood after Deon cut her face in half.
Chi!
He didn't stop, immediately slashing towards the leader of the group, his sword still soaked in the blood of the man's fallen comrades. The peak stage shaman grimaced as he held his hand up towards Deon and summoned a rotating series of three 4-leaf clovers.
CRASH!
The first clover was shattered by Deon's attack, making everyone's expressions change.
"Impossible, he ca-"
CRASH!
Deon destroyed the second clover. The leader of the enemy team showed a dark expression. He pulled back using a movement spirit, then raised his two hands as a black disk appeared between them.
Chi!
Seeing that the leader had retreated, Deon ignored him and stabbed another man through the chest. Realising that his own choice to retreat had caused this, the leader's eyes became bloodshot with guilt and hatred. He let out a deafening roar as he crazily attacked.
Swoosh!
The black disk in his hands shot towards Deon and was about to slash his throat, but Deon quickly blocked with his sword. He then heard something from his left side, causing him to spin and block a sword strike from the last standing soldier aside from the leader. Deon parried and then slashed straight down at the person, cutting their body in half in the most gruesome spectacle of the group leader's life.
His eyes showed despair as Deon arrived in front of him.
CRASH!
The final clover was broken.
"Is this the e-"
Chi!
Deon cut the man's words short, stabbing him through the heart swiftly.
'Indeed, it is the end for you all.' He thought mildly.
Learning from his mistake last time, Deon dropped down and placed his hand on the corpse of the second to last person he killed, before promptly summoning the soul extraction spirit above the body. It didn't take long to suck in a golden humanoid figure, but he didn't stop there. He then pushed the soul extraction spirit onto the leader's body, sucking out his origin soul also.
The others died too long ago for their souls to be extracted. There was only around 5 seconds between the death of a 1-Star shaman and their origin soul fully dissipating, so the soul needed to be extracted less than 5 seconds after their body's demise.
Still, he managed to earn two more origin souls this time, increasing his total collection to 3.
Deon quickly examined the bodies and caught any escaping spirits. He recognised them all, but none particularly caught his eye. Although it was painful, he couldn't take the spirits with him.
Some of the spirits escaped under Deon's helpless gaze, but others stayed dormant within the corpses. After some thought, he hid the bodies underneath a pile of rocks…perhaps he could pick these spirits up on his way back.
It was impossible to carry every spirit he found along with him. Firstly, he had 9 spirits in his soul space and could at most store one more, but that would negatively affect his origin energy recovery rate. He also couldn't just carry them around with him unbound, as unbound spirits needed to be fed with specialist resources.
There was something he could take though; their drop spirits! Drop spirits were the standard currency used between shamans, both in the Kingdom of Restari and in the world at large.
Before now, Deon only had 4 of these spirits that he kept in a metal flask of mountain spring water, but this flask could support far more spirits than just this. He was using a high grade of Jing Mountain spiring water, meaning that this 2 pint bottle of water could sustain a thousand drop spirits for 3 months before the water needed changing!
The simplicity of keeping the drop spirits made them an effective currency, as did their universally need amongst shamans, which was to rapidly recover their origin energy.
After looting these Fan Kingdom soldiers, Deon now had 24 drop spirits! He also took their badges as proof of his kill, this way he could cash in his merit and achievements later on.
'So one of them was a captain.' Deon thought as he placed the badges into his spatial ring.
It was night, but he would not be sleeping tonight. It should be remembered that Deon was still using the 1-Star bed bug spirit which he found surprisingly useful, compared to most shamans who considered it a waste of a spirit slot. Combined with his enhanced senses, it would be no problem for him to continue exploring through the night. He took a single hour of meditation, then continued up the mountain.
This hour of meditation was just ordinary meditation, where he cleared his soul, body and mind of all thought and feeling. Shamans could recover some of their mental energy this way, it was a necessary thing to do given that he wouldn't be sleeping tonight, or the following night for that matter.
As Deon walked and climbed, he found that the spiritual energy density was rapidly rising. It soon reached levels nearly comparable to that found back in the inheritance palace!
At a certain point, more dense spiritual energy wasn't anymore useful, at least not to 1-Star shamans. If the energy became too dense, it would instead have the adverse effect of clouding one's senses and reducing their speed in refining spiritual energy into origin energy.
This concentration and the concentration in the inheritance palace, was the most optimal energy density for 1-Star shamans. Others might not know this, but Deon had been through the inheritance palace, so he was extremely clear on 'perfect conditions'. Of course, this level wouldn't be optimal for 2-Star shamans.
As he thought this, Deon continued to climb until the energy density became exactly the same as that within the inheritance palace. This level of atmospheric energy was the 'perfect condition' for a 1-Star shaman to train.
He stopped ascending the mountain at this point, because the changes to energy density made Deon consider something. When he thought about it, he was certain that those 2-Star shamans would continue ascending the mountain as they felt increasingly comfortable under the atmosphere. If he stayed at this height, he likely wouldn't encounter anyone at 2-Star.
Even if there were rules restraining them, Deon would prefer not to rely on that, not in these desolate lands where nobody could hear you scream.
There was something else to consider though. This optimal level of spiritual energy for 1-Star shamans…should also be the most optimal for 1-Star spirits!
On all likelihood, this was the exact height at which most 1-Star spirits would form, grow and thrive! This also meant that going higher up the mountain would increase one's chances of finding a 2-Star spirit, but that wasn't actually what Deon wanted.
He couldn't bind a 2-Star spirit, and he might not be able to capture one and take it back to the camp before it either escaped or died under his terrible care. Deon wasn't familiar with many 2-Star spirits and couldn't be sure that he would be able to avoid damaging it in transport if he didn't understand the spirit's specific attributes and requirements.
Besides, a 2-Star spirit emitted a certain aura, an aura that would grow stronger if he tried to take it away, and an aura that would attract the envy of literally everyone who noticed it. Even a fellow recruit from the Kingdom of Restari might try to steal it secretly, though most soldiers were quite loyal to one another and they certainly wouldn't go so far as to kill their comrades…they were not like Deon.
So, he began travelling around the mountain in an anticlockwise direction. In terms of the upper region South East battlefield, Deon felt like he was only at the edge, he needed to travel further East to reach the truly exciting areas.
In the pitch black darkness atop the cold windy mountain, snow began to fall as a solitary child made his way East. The snow was soft and dispersed on contact, but the chilly winds would freeze any mortal's skin over.
This was the difference that a few hundred feet could make to the weather on Jing Mountain's upper region. One moment it was temperate, then in the next moment, icicles were hanging off your chin.
Deon ignored the cold and his eyes lit up as he saw a faint flicker of light a couple hundred feet away. He narrowed his eyes and stared through the darkness as if it were the middle of the day. He could still see clearly despite there being no light aside from the waning moon. 200 feet was only a normal distance now that he was supported by the eagle eye spirit.
'A camp…Fan Kingdom, definitely. I count 10…no, 15 people. This group is quite big, they probably joined together recently…but to then stay together and sleep together, they must have found something!'
Deon rapidly assessed the situation with a bright gaze. He slowly crept in closer, whilst staying hidden and maintaining awareness of his surroundings. The night had only just fallen and they would likely rest for 6 hours total. One third of the troops would remain awake to keep watch, for a 2 hour shift before switching, giving everyone 4 hours of sound sleep.
It was a standard tactic, but this simple adherence to military code gave Deon the courage to circle the entire camp twice whilst maintaining a distance of 150-200ft.
He spent a full hour assessing the situation before he was confident that he had a thorough understanding. Since an hour had passed and nobody else showed up aside from another 5 figures that he noticed inside a small cave behind a translucent waterfall, Deon was sure that they hadn't called for any sort of backup.
'There are 20 enemy soldiers. Based on my instincts, I would say that there a 4 at the peak stage, the remainder are all late stage. This group would be a bit troublesome usually, but right now…'
An evil grin crept onto Deon's face. He licked his lips in anticipation of this coming lavish feast.
