The Spirit Nest - Day 1 (2)

The Earth Realm direct disciple didn't notice this interaction and simply prepared another powerful spell, but the energy that gathered to his palm dissipated once he sensed a large number of hostile presences approaching.

'These are all, gremlins?! Why are so many of them coming here?!'

The bewildered direct disciple hastily tried to find the reason behind the appearance of the wave of gremlins, but in the middle of his search he sensed an incoming projectile. He quickly expanded his barrier to block the projectile, which then exploded and left a dark brown gas that blocked his sight.

"Ough! Ough!"

Since his barrier wasn't made to intercept harmful gases, the direct disciple could only hurriedly cover his mouth and use a wind spell to blow away the gas. With his vision restored, he was ready to pummel the ones who attacked him, but they had disappeared. Luckily the gas didn't seem to be poisonous, but he hated the fact that they made a fool out of him.

"Those bastards! They're gone already, huh? Tch, should I leave too?"

Under normal circumstances this would be no need to reconsider, but he hesitated due to the sunfield pyraflower that was starting to bloom below him.

'Hmm...!'

As the direct disciple looked at the lake with a pensive expression, he caught a glimpse of some bubbles on its surface before an eight-foot-long shark suddenly leaped out and tried to capture him between its jaws.

The shark was dark blue and had four fins, but compared to shark-type evolved beasts, it wasn't much different from a normal shark. As the leaping shark gremlin came closer, the direct disciple fired a lightning spell into its open mouth, causing it to explode from the inside. However, even as its colourful flesh fell, his expression remained grave. In addition to the gremlin he just killed, five more had jumped out as well. This time, he expanded his barrier to knock them back, but at this moment a tiger with red and blue eyes jumped from a cliff overlooking the lake and rammed into his barrier, shattering it.

"Damn it!"

The direct disciple quickly took out a halberd and smashed the tiger gremlin's head. Compared to evolved beasts, gremlins were generally weaker, but he couldn't let his guard down since they had a higher chance of birthing stronger variants. Even the weaker ones were a threat since energy-based attacks were less effective against gremlins, and they wouldn't die unless he destroyed their head or most of their body.

After killing the tiger gremlin, the direct disciple quickly remade his barrier and fired a barrage of small lightning bolts at the other gremlins that leaped at him. Few of them were burnt by these bolts, but they were all knocked down to the lake. As they fell, the direct disciple carefully watched the lake. He didn't care about the varying colours of blood that started to fill it, or the chewing and crunching sounds that reached him; only the condition of the sunfield pyraflower concerned him.

'Should I give up?'

Though he was managing to hold his ground, he didn't know how long that would be for. The end of the wave of gremlins still couldn't be seen, so he wasn't confident that he could hold out here until this stopped.

"Caw!!"

As he hovered and pondered, two human-sized birds dived at his barrier with glowing beaks. Wary of their beaks, the direct disciple quickly expanded his barrier to confront them, and his fears weren't superfluous. The beaks pierced through his barrier, but since he was prepared, he was able to stop them with mental control and then slice off their heads with his halberd. The bird gremlins fell, and without time for relief to settle in, five more approached through the sky.

'Tch, I guess this is no time to be stubborn.'

Determined to return here once the gremlins were gone, the direct disciple started his escape. However, even though he was fleeing on his flying sword, the wave of gremlins still followed him.

"What? Why are they...! Those damn brats!!!"

After a brief moment of pondering, the direct disciple remembered the gas that was thrown at him and realised that it was what was attracting the gremlins to him. There was an item known as gremlin spice that could turn any regular gremlin into a starved hyena. As soon as they smelt it, gremlins would gladly risk their lives to obtain the item and rip apart any that interfered with them.

"I should have killed them!"

Now that he realised that the gremlins were targeting him specifically, the direct disciple didn't bother looking back anymore. Nonetheless, before he knew it, there was a flying gremlin staring at him in every direction. Although he had killed several of them, each was as strong as the average beast spirit, so he could feel the fatigue piling on. Even so, his determination didn't waver as he faced them. In fact, he revealed a daring smirk.

"You filthy beasts! Return to the ground you came from."

Watching safely as this battle unfolded was Shui. Just like the newborn spirits, the gremlins were also unable to detect him. And even if they could, they had a far more appetising prey to attack. The direct disciple would find it very difficult to escape at this rate, but Shui didn't have any interest in interfering. 

Meanwhile, a group of elders sat in front of a floating wall of mirrors, each showing different scenes inside the Spirit Nest. As mentioned before the disciples entered, the elders could watch what was happening inside the Spirit Nest using the spirits sent out by a guest elder who was an expert spirit walker.

"Hehe, it's just the first day, and so much has happened. By the way, does anyone know where those kids got gremlin spice?"

One elder with a grey beard chuckled while looking at the screen showing the frantic direct disciple despite being his master. 

"I think one of them works part-time as guest elder Kerr's assistant. Maybe they bought it from him."

"Hmm, speaking of which, where is the guest elder?"

"He should be in his quarters. You know how he is with research."

"True."

While the elders were preoccupied with other scenes, Shui harvested the unprotected flower at the center of the lake.

'A sunfield pyraflower.'

When he saw the flower, he was sure that it wasn't a normal sunfield pyraflower. The energy it hid was far too great. Furthermore, he could sense the natural laws of fire being attracted to it.

'With this, my understanding and control over fire will skyrocket. And if there's anything left, I might be able to make my first tesora-rank artifact. It'll still be lacking compared to Sui or a Master's archaic-rank artifact, but the experience alone will benefit me greatly.'

As Shui's heart pounded with ecstasy, he sent his spiritual sense to enter the flower. But surprisingly, there was life already inside of it.