Spirit Lord
After their third battle since the day they faced the boar, the two looked at each other in the middle of the devastated forest and smiled.
"You did well. We did much better today. Our powers are synchronizing well," Liam said to his companion as he held the body of a demon below his knees, his clothes and hands smeared with blood.
Mary stepped forward closer to Liam, her clothes drenched in sweat after a fierce battle with the now dead 8-Star demon beneath Liam.
Nearly two weeks after the battle with the boar, they had fully recovered, fought two more times, gone hunting again, and, most importantly, found the opportunity they had been looking for all these days.
After defeating the enemy in their path, the two finished what they had to do, with Liam collecting the demon essence before moving on to where the special resource.
"How do you think we can use this?" Mary asked Liam as she looked at the light green leaf that held about 300 milliliters of a special liquid, glistening with the ambient light.
They were sensitive to mana and could tell what was valuable to them and what wasn't. But neither of them had the knowledge to identify the type of resources they had, or even their properties.
They could only tell what they felt from what they came in contact with.
"I think we should drink it," Liam said as he approached the leaf, which was shaped like a bowl, the size of four adult hands put together. "Although we know little about it, I feel a warm energy coming from it. I don't think it will harm us."
After a brief pause, he said. "Let's drink right here."
"Are you sure? It's not like this place is 100% safe."
She looked around, surveying the area at the base of a cliff. Stone pillars covered 70% of the terrain, and the only accessible path was the one they had taken past the previous demon. From their position, anyone at the top of the cliff, 27 meters above, could easily spot them.
They had discovered this place, so others could too!
"I'd rather not risk taking the liquid out of here. Any accident will cause us to lose it. It's best to consume it while we still can."
He offered her the leaf to drink first. "Let's divide it equally."
She sighed but didn't argue. Opening her mouth, she let him pour about half of the viscous, hard-to-swallow liquid into her velvety mouth.
As soon as Mary had her share, Liam swallowed his, grimacing at the liquid's thick texture.
But he didn't vomit the contents into his mouth. He sat down in the lotus position and began to meditate while swallowing.
Despite the difficulty of swallowing it, as he began to meditate, bringing the free mana in the air into his body, he felt the viscous liquid infiltrate through his organs and disappear as a magical aura penetrated his being.
Less than a minute after he began meditating, anyone who saw Liam would see him smiling, his expression one of serene bliss, as if he had spiritually cleansed his body and felt improvements in every aspect of himself.
Liam didn't know what this liquid was, but it had the power to calm the heart, clear the mind of unnecessary thoughts, and cleanse the body and soul.
Feeling as if invisible weights had been lifted from his body, Liam drew in the surrounding mana like an unobstructed drain, ready to absorb all the energy above him.
As this happened, the spirit of the demon incubus awoke from its slumber in the flooded area where it lived. It saw swirls of mana appearing, making the lake of mana vanish amidst the clouds.
Liam felt his consciousness being pulled into this strange space. Suddenly, two platforms appeared, surrounded by runes and distortions, where strong winds seemed to concentrate.
The demon incubus didn't hesitate. It swiftly moved into one of the areas, reclaiming its space.
"It seems you are not so useless, after all. Find a new spirit to strengthen you further. Be careful to choose the best offensive spirit you can. If you make a mistake, you'll pay dearly later."
Liam heard the demon's voice just before his mind snapped back to reality.
He opened his eyes and looked at his hands, immediately realizing he had successfully reached the second realm!
"I have become a 1-Star Spirit Lord!" His eyes lit up, and a bright smile spread across his face.
"Congratulations on your breakthrough, Liam!" Mary approached him, smiling as she hugged him.
"You've improved too, huh? Not bad. You've reached 9-Star. At this rate, you might advance a level by the time we enter Demon Gate."
He noticed her improvement as well, pleased with her ability to keep the distance between them stable.
"I don't know about that... Anyway, you can make a new Spirit Pact now. Do you want to go straight to hunting your demon or look for another opportunity first?"
Spirit Masters could add new spirits after every realm they advanced. This was just one of the many benefits of becoming stronger, but one of the most important points of magical empowerment for people like Mary and Liam.
With each new realm of cultivation, one could add new spirits and increase the number of abilities available to them. But it wasn't just about adding more spirits.
In the world of Spirit Masters, the quality of a spirit had to be considered. If you added a not-so-good spirit, removing it and replacing it later could be as complicated as ripping off an arm and implanting a prosthesis in its place.
Replacement was possible, but extremely expensive. So you had to be very careful before you made Spirit Pacts!
But Liam had no such choice. Even though the Eternal Doom Island was not home to any extremely valuable beings, he desperately needed a spirit to introduce to Demon Gate!
"Let's hunt down the strongest demon on this damn island!" Liam said with a determined smile.
The major problem for him was that his first spirit was out of his control and wouldn't contribute to battle. That alone would put him in danger against opponents of the same or higher level when he left this place.
Not only that, his first soul gave him a dual cultivation ability, something deeply frowned upon in this world.
If he didn't have another soul to use instead of the incubus, the chances of someone finding out the truth about him would be higher, which would increase his chances of being hunted down and killed!
As soon as he had decided, he followed Mary back to where they had come from, passing close to where the body of the previous 8-Star demon lay.
"Give it to your spirit to feed on." Liam gave Mary the essence of the 8-Star demon, a special little organ called Arcane Crystal.
Every magical creature in Twin Lands had an Arcane Crystal in its body. Depending on the race, the color, size, and shape of the organ could vary, but they had basically the same value after their owners died.
As extremely pure essences of elements and mana, Arcane Crystals were precious for feeding spirits and helping them to raise their spiritual quality.
The Incubus demon was not under Liam's control, so he had never given it any Arcane Crystals.
Mary accepted without blinking, not having seen Liam feed his first spirit, but not too surprised, either. Given the peculiarities of his spirit, she knew that such a being did not follow normal rules.
In this way, they continued their hunt, about a month before the end of the period promised by the men of the Demon Gate.