Sheltered By A Tree

Dante was stunned and amazed, this was only the fifth stage of Bone refining, it would be even better at the peak.

Looking down at the purple belt on his waist his face showed a sense of satisfaction. It was only his second puppet and he already feels like he could effectively double his strength with the bonus cultivation base, not to mention the two fairy state subordinates.

Even if the fairy state is nothing in comparison to the Armstrong Family, it's still a stunning achievement to be able to have two fully loyal ones by your own influence. After all this is a world of blood and hard work.

Despite the strong being like clouds, the family won't provide their children with access to all of the strong in the clan.

At most they can order a few loyal subordinates.

Especially with Dantes position as the heir to the family, other than the guard sent by the family to protect him he has to cultivate his own team of loyalists if he wants to make a force.

In this way the competition between the younger generation for talents to recruit is extremely cruel. There are even annual competitions held between some families testing their subordinates' power.

With his first target secured, Dante started to head towards the next one. This time it was a small plant like a sunflower on earth, its main skills revolved around auxiallry effects causing its combat power to decline drastically.

This also led to it being on the brink of extinction in the continent due to its high quality healing characteristics.

As Dante traversed his way towards the next location, he noticed a small wooden tree hidden within an enclave between two large boulders.

Its wood was pitch black, with no light being reflected. It had no leaves growing off of its branches.

''Demonic Blood Wood'' Dante whispered with a slight smile on his face.

Demonic Blood Wood as its name suggests is a tree created from the dousing of antique blood onto a regular sapling. Its rarity could be imagined, after all how many antique creatures get injured?

But despite its rarity its value is actually pretty low. Its qualities are only suited for those with a Demonic Physqiue, a rare Rank 2 Physique.

But the excitement that Dante felt didn't decrease, rather it increased. Because he has a special use for this wood.

In his inheritance he learnt that he can manufacture rare materials into puppets, and even create customised physiques depending on the material provided!

Naturally the Demonic Blood Wood could create a puppet with the Demonic Physqiue. That's a physique comparable to the ancestors of the world. In the future it's almost guaranteed to become a Saint with a chance to become an Antique.

Unfortunately Dante didn't have time to stop and start making the puppet, according to his inexperience he would take at least a week of dedication to make it.

But Dante wasn't disheartened, with his status there was little he needed to do other than focus on practicing.

After putting the small tree into his little pendant he headed towards his next target, after all this encounter was an accident. The pendant on his neck was the equivilant of this world's spiritual ring, however the pendant is infinitely better than the general ring.

Its space is easily large enough to fit the entire circumference of the earth inside of it. Naturally it's value is immeasurable however its value is even larger for Dante now.

The reason is because it can fit living creatures within it, meaning Dante can feel free to create as many puppets as he wants without worrying about hiding them.

Dante slowly drew close to his next target, as he got closer he saw the small yellow flower buried just beneath a towering tree over a hundred metres tall.

Dantes eyes glowed as he looked at it, however when he urged his chaos eyes he noticed an added bonus.

Shockingly the tree that sheltered the plant was also a spiritual plant, its cultivation was even higher than the plant reaching the Spirit state.

Dante showed no horror that you would expect from a general Fairy state, rather his eyes were almost on fire.

He didn't hesitate anymore with a flip of his hand a sleek black spear appeared in his hand. This is Dantes main weapon and a soul weapon that came with his physique's inheritance.

This is another advantage of a high ranking physique, any above Rank 3 will generally come with a spiritual weapon from the birth of the holder which is implanted deeply into the child's soul requiring massive amounts of energy to redeem it.

Dantes spear shook as his spiritual energy flowed through it before congregating at the very tip forming a small bright ball.

Dantes body leaped into action stretching his muscles to the limit, after all his opponent is in the spirit state and it wouldn't be easy even if Dante can leapfrog levels.

The tree reacted almost instantly with vines bigger than Dantes entire body causing the air to bend around them as they flew towards Dantes' seemingly frail body, but inches before they touched him Dante twisted his body to dodge the flying branch by a centimetre.

Dante didn't even flinch as he took advantage of his close gap and pierced out the spear, with a boom it implanted against the tree's thick trunk sending splintering wood throttling into the air.

Following the successful attack Dante quickly leaped backwards deflecting the attacking vines showing tremendous strength.

The battle lasted almost half an hour before Dante finally planted his spear into the ground, panting heavily.

As for the previous plant that was Dantes target, it had long since huddled into a corner to avoid the backlash of the battle.

Seeing the tree falling limply onto the ground, its heavy body sending plumes of dust aroun into the sky, Dante finally heaved his body off the floor and walked towards the tree.

A familiar action happened as Dante pushed his spiritual power through the tree's body before making it into his puppet.