First Spirit Ring

Early the next morning, while most of the Nuoding academy's teachers and students were still deeply sleeping, one tall, one average, and one short people left from the academy's gate.

"Teacher, where will we go to find spirit beasts?" asked Tang San.

These people were Grandmaster, Durand, and Tang San.

"We will be traveling four hundred li (1) northeast of Nuoding city to Spirit Hunting Forest. This is where the empire has placed captured spirit beasts. We will certainly find something that suits the both of you."

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As the trio walked to the market to prepare for the trip, Grandmaster explained to his students the differences between spirit beast levels. "The older a spirit beast exists, the more powerful they become. We divide spirit beasts into five levels: ten year spirit beasts, hundred year spirit beasts, thousand year spirit beasts, ten thousand year spirit beasts, and hundred thousand year spirit beasts. Its meaning is just as the name implies: a spirit beast cultivating for over ten years, is a ten year spirit beast, and so on. Spirit rings are distinguished in the same way as spirit beasts. Spirit rings of different age are very easily recognized, it can be seen from color. Of these, ten year spirit beasts' spirit rings are white, hundred year beasts' rings are yellow, thousand year spirit beasts' spirit rings are purple, ten thousand year spirit beasts' are black, and hundred thousand year spirit beasts' spirit rings are red. Those that are regularly captured by the country, supplying spirit masters with spirit beasts to hunt and kill, for the most part are ten years and hundred years."

"Older spirit rings manifest more powerful spirit rings and its corresponding abilities. Naturally, spirit masters pursue the oldest spirit ring they can obtain. However, adding a spirit ring have extremely severe requirements. First of all, one must personally strike the killing blow to the spirit beast to be able to receive the spirit beast's spirit ring. Also, spirit rings will only exist for two hours before dissipating if it has not been absorbed by a spirit master. Second, spirit beasts are proud beings and may prefer to commit suicide than be taken prisoner or killed by a human. Third, it is difficult to determine a spirit beast's attribute to determine whether it will be the most suitable for a spirit master. Finally, every spirit master has a restriction on the age of spirit beast ring they can absorb. For example, as a tenth rank spirit scholar, you can only absorb a hundred year spirit beast's spirit ring. If you attempt to absorb a thousand year spirit ring, your body will be unable to endure and will likely explode from the power."

The three of them quickly gathered the supplies needed for their journey. Along the way, Durand spotted a dagger displayed in front of a blacksmith's shop. It consisted only of a blade and a handle with no hand guard. Though the handle looked simple enough, the blade had an odd triple edge spiral shape (3). When he picked it up, Durand felt a sliver of his spirit power was absorbed by the dagger. Caught by surprise, Durand nearly dropped it but managed to hang on. Curiously examining the dagger, it felt perfectly balanced and somehow, he knew exactly what the dagger could do. Turning to his teacher, he begged Grandmaster top buy it for him. The dagger cost two gold spirit coins, enough to cover a family of three's regular expenses for almost two years. It was also equivalent to six years of income at Nuoding academy. Of course, once Durand promoted to spirit master, this would become only two months' worth of stipend that he would receive from Spirit Hall. As he increased in strength, this stipend would increase. This was one of the reasons why spirit masters were such a privileged occupation on the continent.

Grandmaster frowned, "I've already bought a short sword for you and Tang San. You won't need this at all."

Durand thought quickly. The dagger in his hand was very likely to be a long lost spirit weapon and was far more valuable than just two gold spirit coins.

"Teacher, the dagger just feels really nice in my hand. Besides two weapons is better than one," said Durand as he winked at Grandmaster so that the store clerk behind him could not see him.

"Very well, I can buy this for you," said Grandmaster as he raised an eyebrow at Durand.

Beaming, Durand quickly thanked Grandmaster, "Thank you, Teacher you won't regret this."

~~~~~~~~

After the leaving blacksmith shop, Grandmaster said nothing of the dagger he had just purchased for Durand. Instead, they found a store selling radishes and bought 20 jin (2) of radishes and Durand was in charge of carrying them. Thankfully, he didn't have to carry them for the whole journey as Grandmaster soon hired a carriage for their trip.

They boarded the carriage and were on their way to Spirit Hunting Forest. A short moment after, Grandmaster turned to Durand and asked, "So, what is so special about the dagger that you wanted so badly?"

Durand grinned and answered, "When I picked it up, it absorbed some of my spirit power. And… when I insert spirit power into it," Durand lifted the dagger and pointed it to the side of the road, "the blade shoots out!" As he poured in his spirit power, the blade shot out with a powerful spin to increase its penetrating power. In fact, the blade only came to a stop after drilling through two trees and disappearing into a boulder.

"When I put spirit power into it again," Durand held the dagger handle out, "the blade returns to the dagger!" The spiral blade reversed its original path and magically returned to the handle in Durand's hand.

Durand looked pale after he did so. Shooting and recalling the blade had drained a little over half of his available spirit power causing him to become extremely tired.

Grandmaster and Tang San looked on with shock. Grandmaster was amazed because he had bought an extremely rare spirit weapon for a mere 2 gold spirit coins and Tang San was amazed because the weapon was basically a magic hidden weapon.

Grandmaster's face became stern once again. "Durand, you should use this weapon as a last resort. Spirit weapons are extremely rare. Very few spirit tools are passed down from ancient times, for the most part without offensive function. Even though spirit masters themselves, do not need weapons, this one in particular seems very strong. Remember, it is a sin to own treasure when you are weak. The strong will always come to take it from you."

"This dagger can be considered my gift to you then. You should name the dagger."

Durand looked carefully at his dagger and thought of its powerful ability, "I'll name it Hornet's Sting."

Turning to Tang San, Grandmaster held out a beautiful black belt. "Little San, this is for you."

The whole belt was black, and on the surface were dark stripes, that unless carefully looked for could not be distinguished, and on the entire belt, evenly distributed were set twenty four pieces of milky white jade. Each piece of jade was the size of an adult person's thumbnail, and round. With gentle color and luster, looking like rare fine jade. Oddly, when Durand saw the jade, he his mouth seemed to salivate and his stomach rumbled softly. (OMG, did I Pavlov train myself?) Durand thought.

Meanwhile, Grandmaster explained to Tang San the origins and the function of the Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges belt. Like the space ring Durand had bought from the System, The belt had 24 cubic meters, one in each of the jades.

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On the second day of travelling, the trio arrived at Spirit Hunting Forest at around noon. Surprisingly, the forest was not as quiet and tranquil as you might think. Near the forest, a small market had been set up with hawkers yelling out their prices for food and supplies. Next to them, groups of spirit masters yelled out to search for additional team members to hunt spirit beasts.

Tang San asked, "Teacher, what do those people shouting about recruiting groups mean?"

Grandmaster responded, "Spirit beasts are not so easily killed. Spirit beasts are inherently formidable and even if they have not cultivated for more than a few years, still have very powerful fighting abilities. Weaker spirit masters will group up to kill spirit beasts together. They cooperate by hunting their respectively required spirit beast, and obtaining the spirit ring. With the help of other people, the weaker spirit master can land the final hit themselves. On the continent, this is the most common and safest method of hunting spirit beasts. However, creating a team is not easy."

As he said this, Grandmaster shot a disdainful gaze at the shouting spirit masters.

"A genuinely outstanding spirit hunting group, will be composed of at least five parts: food system tool spirit masters are responsible for supplies, healing system tool spirit masters are responsible for physical and spirit power restoration. Agility system battle spirit masters are responsible for scouting, defense system battle spirit masters are responsible for blocking, and attack system battle spirit masters are responsible for annihilating the enemy."

"Only when a group has these five components can they be considered a complete group. However, once the group is complete, they must build two aspects before they can be perfect. The first is creating the necessary coordination which can't be shaped in only a day or two. Coordination imperceptibly increases the power of the group as a whole and it requires at least several years to become coordinated. Second and more important is to have mutual trust. Absolute trust. Otherwise, when encountering danger, they will be quickly and easily defeated."

"Tang San and Durand, perhaps in the future you will also join a group. Remember this, when you choose a group, the first criteria is not strength but their trustworthiness."

Grandmaster turned and led the two through the market and toward the forest. As they approached they could see massive trees at the forest edge, surrounded by an immense ten-meter tall steel fence with piercing tips facing the forest, and a line of hundreds of soldiers standing patrolling the forest edge.

Grandmaster brought the two children forward and showed the captain of the guards a small dark token. After they passed, Grandmaster explained in a low voice that though the forest belonged to the country, Spirit Hall was the enforcers of who could hunt in them. Once they entered, Grandmaster called out his spirit, Luo San Pao.

"San Pao, lead us towards appropriate spirit beasts," Grandmaster called. San Pao nimbly moved from one side to the other as it sniffed the ground for tracks of spirit beasts.

"Ah, before I forget, this is for you Tang San," Grandmaster pulled a short sword from his belongings and gave it to Tang San. "The two of you must make the last attack on the spirit beast that you will absorb."

Turning to Durand, Grandmaster said, "Durand, since you already have a spirit weapon, you should not need a weapon."

As the three of them walked deeper into the forest, Grandmaster continued to instruct Tang San and Durand by explaining the characteristics of certain spirit beast families, how to determine their ages, specific properties and how spirit rings should be chosen.

"Choosing a spirit ring must be done carefully since each spirit ring cannot be replaced. Spirit scholars promoting to spirit masters, can absorb hundred year spirit rings. To be precise, they can absorb any hundred year spirit ring under 423 years old. I've studied many cases of spirit masters undergoing growth and failure and have determined that 423 years is the limit of what one can endure for their first spirit ring."

"However," as Grandmaster looked at Durand somewhat thoughtfully, "since the Fifteen Ton Ant Emperors have strong vitality and endurance, you may be able to absorb slightly older spirit rings. This is very good for you if we find a slightly older spirit beast."

Durand smiled with excitement. He already knew that he could absorb up to a 623 year old spirit beast's ring due to his "Increased Soul ring Age Absorption" Talent that he had purchased from the System.

Grandmaster continued with his lecture, "Even spirit beasts in the same age group have differences. 100 year beasts and 900 year beasts are both hundred year spirit beasts. However, the spirit rings from the two are extremely different with the latter being much stronger. Therefore, every outstanding spirit master will strive to gain the oldest possible spirit ring just under their limit."

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After nearly an hour of searching for suitable spirit beasts, Durand began getting frustrated. (Didn't I trade almost 30 million Karma points to increase my luck in finding suitable spirit beasts for me? Where the hell is my super defensive spirit beast?) It wasn't just the hour of searching for spirit beasts that bothered Durand. After all, he had been anticipating his first soul ring from before he was reincarnated more than 6 years ago.

As if his thoughts were the magic words, Luo San Pao suddenly began calling out to them frantically, "luoluo luoluo luoluo…" The three of them quickly became guarded. Tang San drew his short sword and Durand pulled out Hornet's Sting. Ahead of them, a large tortoise could be seen eating from a nearby bush. Nearly 3 meters high, the tortoise boasted an enormous shell embedded with six incredibly menacing looking spikes. Moreover, the shell seemed to be plated with an extremely durable metal.

"Careful! That is a 600 year old Spike Plated Tortoise. Its defensive power is extremely formidable. This is the perfect spirit beast for Durand so make sure not to scare it. If it becomes scared, we won't be able to kill it. Also, it can fire a spike by retracting one from a shell. This spike is very dangerous and is comparable to Durand's Hornet Sting," Grandmaster quietly exclaimed.

Grandmaster looked at Durand and said, "Durand, one of my spirit abilities is to cause the spirit beast to become sleepy with a gas. This can be a good opportunity for you to kill it with your spirit weapon."

Durand nodded and the three of them slowly approached the tortoise. However, the tortoise was alert and stopped eating to face the three of them. Rapidly, a spike on its shell began to retract inwards. The three of them quickly became guarded in anticipation of the spike projectile.

The Spike Plated Tortoise swiveled its head to face Durand, opened its mouth, and fired a powerful spike at him.

(Oh s***!) Durand dove to the ground to dodge. However, he didn't react quickly enough even with his decreased reaction time talent. After all, even though his mind could perceive it, his body was still only at the spirit scholar level. The hundred year spirit beast had an edge in this regard. The spike pierced into Durand's left shoulder and blood splattered onto the ground. Somewhat fortunately, the spike remained stuck in Durand's body, directly stemming the bleeding. The spike had permanently disabled his left arm for the duration of the battle. However, this injury had bought everyone important information. Just before firing the spike, the tortoise had become still for a brief moment.

His eyes still on the tortoise, Durand watched as Tang San, Grandmaster, and Luo San Pao rush in from the sides to distract the tortoise from finishing him off with another spike. Groaning as he pushed himself up with only one arm, Durand quickly rushed himself to a nearby boulder so that he could safely take aim with Hornet's Sting.

Durand carefully aimed his spirit weapon at the Spike Plated Tortoise's head. Since, the dagger would take more than half his spirit power, he only had one shot. It was important that he make the only shot he had count. Durand patiently waited for a second spike to retract into the tortoise's body. The moment the spirit beast tried to fire its spike would be when he had a motionless target to shoot at.

The moment came quickly. As another spike rapidly retracted, the tortoise turned its head to face Tang San this time. Two things happened in quick succession as the tortoise opened its mouth to fire. Grandmaster commanded Luo San Pao to use Mesmerize. A mass of yellow gas sprouted from San Pao's butt, permeating in front of the Spike Plated Tortoise. The spirit beast seemed to sway and its eyes became droopy. Despite the tortoise quickly resisting the poison within a second, it was too late and Durand's spiral dagger sharply whistled as it cut through the air and pierced through the Spike Plated Tortoise's head. Soon, faint yellow lights began floating from the tortoise's corpse to form a radiant yellow ring.

At this time, Grandmaster had already rushed over to Durand. Pulling medical supplies from his wrist storage band, Grandmaster began instructing Durand, "Summon your Tree of Life spirit. This will help with the healing while I remove the spike from your shoulder. It is very important that we finish treating you quickly so that you can absorb your ring before it disappears in two hours."

A beautiful miniature blue tree appeared in the palm of Durand's left hand. When the tree appeared, the forest seemed to come alive as spirit beasts became attracted to the aura that the Tree of Life gave off.

Grandmaster's expression changed, "We'll have to finish this quickly before spirit beasts that are too powerful come. Tang San, use your hammer to hit the spike out from Durand's shoulder. Be careful not to hit Durand with your hammer. Luo San Pao and I will make sure that the spirit beasts don't attack you while you treat Durand."

Tang San positioned himself to the left of Durand. As he swung his arm back, he said to Durand, "Stay absolutely still."

With that, Tang San swung his hammer toward the spike. Like a true blacksmith, Tang San hit the spike accurately and avoided hitting Durand. Unfortunately, the blood around the spike had already begun hardening and when the spike was forced out from his shoulder, it ripped apart the delicate scabbing. However, Durand circulated the Mysterious Heaven Skill and his Tree of Life martial spirit glowed. Rapidly, the severe would began repairing itself. Despite not having any spirit rings, the Tree of Life was a formidable spirit and an observer could see new bones, muscles, and tendons re-forming, albeit extremely slowly, in the wound. The skin formed the quickest and in half an hour, the wound was covered over with skin. Durand unsummoned the Tree of Life and the two young boys began moving over to the Spike Plated Tortoise. As they did so, the forest quieted once again as the spirit beasts lost the target of their attraction.

When Durand and Tang San arrived to the spirit beast, Grandmaster began teaching them once again about spirit rings. Pointing at the yellow ring that had formed above the dead spirit beast, he said, "This is a spirit ring. Only the killer can absorb this ring and if they have not accumulated enough spirit power, they will not be able to absorb it. The method to absorb the rings is to use your spirit power to draw the spirit ring to your body and begin meditation, absorbing the energy of the spirit ring."

"Durand, quickly sit down and begin absorbing the ring. Cross your legs and sit up straight. Focus your mind on the spirit. Remember, this is a 600 year old spirit, if the pressure from it is too much, don't continue to absorb the ring as it can kill you."

Complying, Durand sat down and began concentrating on his Fifteen Ton Ant Emperor spirit. As the spirit ring began floating towards him, he felt an unprecedentedly powerful pressure, causing even his skeletons to pop and emit small noises. As the yellow ring reached Durand's body, the halo suddenly rushed towards his Fifteen Ton Ant Emperor spirit. At this moment, pain invaded Durand's body as the spirit ring and his martial spirit began to mutate. His entire body seemed to have burst into flames. Faintly, he could hear Grandmaster and Tang San yelling something but he couldn't make out any of their words.

Externally, every artery and vein in Durand's body could be seen through his skin. Jade like armor began forming around his chest, arms and legs. A large circular shield began forming around his right arm. Internally, Durand could see his Ant Emperor spirit be tempered in a sea of flames. Slowly, the ant's exoskeleton became covered in a jade colored shell that exuded a formidable feeling.

The transformation lasted nearly an hour and at the end, the hot current surged out and Durand felt as if he had left a magma bath. Opening his eyes and sucking in a cold breath, he looked to see Grandmaster and Tang San both looking at him with concern.

"Did I succeed?" asked Durand.

"Hmphh! Did I not tell you to stop absorbing if the pressure was too much?!" Grandmaster rebuked. After seeing that Durand was okay, Grandmaster had felt a brief sense of relief before becoming angry with Durand for not following his warnings.

Durand blushed, "Teacher, Tang San, sorry for worrying you." Even though he had known there was only a five percent chance of failure when he had purchased this mutation path from the System, both Grandmaster and Tang San did not know that.

"I'll scold you later! We need to leave right away in case a spirit beast is still curious about the aura that your other martial spirit released," said Grandmaster as he hurried his two students away from the area.