Suffering For Time Spirit

The black rose fortitude spirit was a naturally formed spirit which could sometimes be found within the centre of large bloody battlefields. Unfortunately, it only lived for a single day, from the moment it sprouted from the blood-soaked ground, to its death. It was only identifiable for around 12-18 hours of that day, and it was only ripe for picking for a short 15 minute period.

Once the spirit was plucked though, it would never die, remaining in the exact same state that it was picked in.

The food of this spirit was quite strange…it was suffering. So long as it was present in a place where there was suffering, then it could survive indefinitely. According to legends, no matter how hard people tried, no matter how far they went, this rose would never starve, as there was no place in this world that truly lacked suffering entirely.

Actually, the rose itself was practically useless, it was a 0-Star spirit with no chance of advancement, and its only direct use was that it would slightly dampen your mood if you touched it.

The rose itself was useless, but it was the precursor spirit in the refinement of a 1-Star spirit that he strongly desired.

Deon was grinning from ear to ear as he held this magnificent rose.

The black fortitude spirit was a 0-Star spirit, but its class could vary from ordinary class all the way up to mythril class! It was impossible to change the spirit's class once it was plucked, it depended entirely on the intensity of its growth conditions. As for the rose in Deon's hand, it was actually gold class!

"Sigh, if I had all the gold class body tempering spirits on hand, I could directly refine the gold class version! Regardless, the silver class suffering for time spirit is still very useful to me."

Deon first gently placed the rose down into the cauldron. Next, he used his origin energy to make a 0-Star vital physique spirit gently float down towards the rose. He silently watched, doing nothing to help as the spirit with the appearance of a large blood drop was absorbed into the black rose.

The rose gradually turned blood-red. As the red colouring deepened, its petals began to fall off.

The first petal to fall was pitch black like the abyss, only brightened somewhat by the blood red veins running through the petal. The second petal was dark with a hint of crimson around its outer edge.

Each petal was more red than the last, all the way until the ninth petal which glowed bright red, with a few thin stems of black running through its body.

Deon added a second vital physique spirit. This time, the flower's stem was absorbed into the droplet, turning the droplet half-black and half-red.

He added the third 0-Star spirit, finally creating a significant change.

TSSHHH!

The separate spirits were drawn towards one another, then bounced apart, then slowly drew back together, then bounced…this went on for a few minutes, until finally, the three spirits fused together. The end result was a black-red spherical orb of liquid, rotating and creating illusions of black and red petals circulating around it.

The first part of the refinement was fairly calm, but from here on, things would get increasingly hectic.

Whoosh!

Deon quickly withdrew five spirits and threw them above the cauldron. These were the dense muscle, steel bones, iron skin, metal tendons and hardened organs spirits.

Whoosh!

Immediately after, he threw out 5 vital physique spirits, each stopping above the 5 body tempering spirits.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Then again, and again. There were now 3 stacked 0-Star vital physique spirits above each of the 5 body tempering spirits.

Boom!

The explosive force that suddenly threatened to push up and out of the cauldron was really shocking. Unfortunately for Deon, there was genuinely only one viable method for him to quell the upwards explosion without ruining the refinement.

He ripped off his military jacket, then threw himself on top of the open-top cauldron, blocking the explosive and corrosive force with his bare stomach. He lay there, gripping the cauldron tightly for a solid 20 seconds, until the mixture settled down.

When he slid back, the skin, flesh and blood from his stomach had been burned off. Not only that, but it was also absorbed into the refined spirit!

The spirit floated up silently. Deon smiled slightly at the strange morphing ball of black and red. It emitted a horrifying, painful and pitiful aura, yet was also surrounded by a faint golden glow, filled with tranquility.

Looking at this spirit for himself took Deon aback slightly. This aura of suffering and the pain, yet the calm understanding and tranquility…for a moment, he felt like he had understood something, but this feeling vanished, unable to be found again no matter how much he focussed.

"Hmm…oh well, I need to continue, I don't have much time." Deon immediately began the second step.

This was currently the 1-Star ordinary class spirit, 'suffering for time', a strange name for sure, but fitting once you knew its effect.

In essence, the suffering for time spirit allowed the 5 body tempering spirits to be fully utilised in a much shorter period of time, in exchange for experiencing a much greater amount of pain and suffering!

The refinement of the suffering for time spirit into a higher class was very similar to before, however, the process was many times more complex.

Firstly, he placed the new 1-Star spirit into the empty cauldron. Next…

Whoosh!

The 5 bronze class body tempering spirits appeared above the cauldron and began falling down.

Whoosh!

Above each spirit, appeared 3 of the ordinary class versions of the same spirit, each covering one third of the bronze class spirit below. Without missing a beat, Deon rapidly threw out the final ingredients.

He placed three 0-Star vital physical spirits above each of the ordinary body tempering spirits.

Seeing the 5 bronze class 1-Star spirits, 15 ordinary class 1-Star spirits and 45 ordinary class 0-Star spirits falling into the cauldron, Deon focussed with his utmost attention, manipulating the fall ever so slightly.

He obviously could not bind so many spirits at the same time, but these spirits were not bound by him. Instead, he had been keeping all of these body tempering spirits in storage within the camp, waiting for this day to come!

When Deon 'controlled' the spirits into the cauldron, he was using his origin energy to forcefully slow their descent. Using origin energy directly like this was entirely possible, but it was extremely wasteful and inefficient. This was quite a crude method, but it was the only method he had available to him right now.

Grey gas coiled around the various spirits as Deon quickly moved his hands back and forth. He made tens of minor adjustments until the bronze class spirits made contact with the 1-Star suffering for time spirit.

Deon used a sizeable amount of origin energy to force the many ingredients to perfectly fuse into the spirits below.

BOOM!

The moment the total fusion took place, it erupted upwards and outwards. This explosion could only be stopped by a form of suffering, such as Deon throwing his bare stomach on top of the cauldron and letting his skin, flesh and blood get devoured by the refinement.

After enough flesh had been devoured, Deon exhaled slightly in relief. He glanced at the second stage of the final product, then at his devastated stomach. He couldn't help but laugh wryly.

After walking outside shirtless and with half the flesh of his stomach burned to a crisp, Deon attracted a fair bit of attention. He casually brushed off the questions, just saying that he was refining a very useful spirit.

By the time he managed to persuade his men that he was fine, the shaman healers finally found him and began healing his injuries.

After half an hour, he wasn't 100% healed, but it was good enough. Time was a luxury he didn't have right now. Ignoring Remi's sharp questioning and her clear anxiety as her uncle drew closer, Deon returned to his tent for the final refinement.

The first refinement created the standard spirit, the ordinary class 1-Star suffering for time spirit. The second refinement increased its class from ordinary class to bronze class. Naturally, the next step now was to evolve this spirit from bronze class to silver class.

The bronze class spirit was again placed within the cauldron. Deon glanced at the cauldron and smiled wryly…it was a bit small for this refinement.

WHOOSH!

Luckily, this shocking treasure could be shrunk or enlarged at will, though Deon could at most double or half its standard size. At least the cauldron's opening increased from 1.5 feet to 3 feet.

What came next could easily be guessed.

The 5 different 1-Star silver class body tempering spirits appeared above the cauldron and began to slowly fall.

Above each silver class spirit, appeared 3 of the equivalent bronze class spirits.

Above each of the bronze class spirits, appeared 3 of the equivalent ordinary class body tempering spirits.

Above each of the ordinary body tempering spirits, 3 stacked 0-Star vital physique spirits were placed.

Deon was already sweating as he controlled all of the spirits to descend gently into the cauldron. He also needed to be careful not to completely slow down the descent, or else the fusion would certainly fail.

The 5 silver class spirits hit the suffering for time spirit. At the same time, each silver class spirit was hit by 3 equivalent bronze class spirits from above. In the same moment, each group of 3 ordinary class spirits hit the equivalent bronze class spirit. And finally, the trigger of the rapid fusion, the triple stacked 0-Star vital physique spirits, collided with their ordinary class 1-Star body tempering spirits.

This was a fusion of 201 spirits in a single step, this was really shocking for a 1-Star spirit refinement!

Continuing to control the spirits to descend perfectly really wore down Deon's mental energy rapidly. Twice, the cauldron acted to push a spirit a millimetre to the side within the last half second of the descent. Without this special cauldron, he would have certainly failed the refinement.

As the refinement reached its peak, Deon felt a sense of crisis and sighed, knowing that this would not be easy. He shrunk the cauldron, then elongated it. A second later, he altered the shape of the cauldron's opening to be just slightly smaller than his body.

Boom!

Thud!

Knowing that he had no chance of controlling or holding back this explosion, Deon quickly jumped on top of the opening, which was now the same shape and size as his body. Just like he hoped, this caused the explosive force to spread out more evenly across his body.

However, after ten seconds, he was shaking, barely able to even hold on without being thrust off the top.

His fingers bled, as did his teeth after he bit down hard onto the rim of the cauldron with his full bite force. It seemed to help prevent him from flying off the cauldron, but 3 of his teeth cracked and blood flowed out from his gums.

A minute later, Deon stumbled up, barely managing to bind the silver class spirit before staggering outside for assistance. Everyone was immediately alarmed, especially when Deon took 2 steps before collapsing face first on the ground.

He hit the ground with a twisted smile on his face.

Success! He had refined the silver class 1-Star suffering for time spirit!