165 First steps

Arthur followed Elder Vova and his Father out of the cave, glancing at Elder Vova, with a small polite smile on his face.

"I don't suppose you've forgotten about our earlier bet, Elder Vova?".

The Head Elder of the Lecture Hall rolled his eyes at Arthur's words before throwing him a token with the word "Head" on it. It was Elder Vova's personal nameplate, and could be given to Fae Masters to select a Fae from the Clan Reserves.

Any Fae from the Clan Reserves.

It was one of the boons of being a Head Elder.

Niklos on the side suppressed a smile as he saw his son trick Elder Vova into giving him a free Rank 3 Fae. If Arthur wanted to, he could as him to get one for him, but it made Niklos slightly proud seeing such a capable son.

If Arthur awakened to a first-tier talent, perhaps there would be some friction between him and Dominic about who should become the Clan Leader, but seeing how close his children were with each other, Niklos didn't even give the notion a second thought.

Arthur's existence would allow the Kovacs Clan to develop its strength quickly so long as he could find the time to contribute more knowledge and wisdom to the Clan.

Arthur was the first Kovacs in the entire history of the Clan to create his own Attribute Control Skill at such a young age, and the youngest ever to comprehend a Law.

Even in the ancient Clan Records, Niklos had read that the founder of the Clan comprehended two Laws, Shadow Laws and Transformation Laws by the time he had turned 100. Both of which were taken far beyond anything the current Niklos had accomplished, so the middle-aged man had yet to even grasp a sliver of what his ancestor had done.

Most of the other Elders had already considered giving Arthur free reign, so long as he could progress his knowledge and wisdom by sharing it with the Clan. It would count as increasing their own strengths as well.

Seeing Arthur want to contribute to the future of the Clan did cause Niklos to raise an eyebrow, but seeing just how many new Fae Masters there was this year, Niklos understood what Arthur was talking about.

The Rank 4 Fae Master let out a small sigh, shaking his head.

Despite his sons cultivation being limited, it seemed that his perception and comprehension far exceeded anything that he thought was humanly possible.

Perhaps even those geniuses from large Clans and Sects would pale in comparison to his son....

Arthur said his goodbyes to his Father, Elder Vova and a few of his older brothers comrades before heading towards the rear of the Village, near the cliffs on the edge of the plateau.

He had a few hours to prepare all the offerings to the Sleipnir, and didn't want to waste this opportunity.

The Sleipnir was a divine beast, a spirit beast that possessed a bloodline and a strength on par with a Fae Immortal. Its intelligence was higher than the average humans, and it could detect animosity and generosity from those whom had offered things to it.

Arthur's desires could be smelt even from a mile away, but so long as he was true to himself, the Sleipnir would be able to sense it.

He had stockpiled quite a number of Fae, Fae materials, spiritual medicines and special treasures from the Winter Rain Mountains. He even planned on offering a single Rank 2 Bone Expansion Fae to the Sleipnir, which could increase the size of a Body Origin Essence Sea by 40%!

He had never done such a thing, even in his previous life, but offering such a Fae should grant him immense rewards!

Had had started to plan on evolving some of his Rank 1 Fae into Rank 2 Fae, considering that evolving Rank 1 Fae to Rank 2 Fae was the easiest evolution process.

Out of all of his Fae Formula within his mind, the number of Rank 1 to Rank 2 Fae Formulas were the most numerous. Rank 2 to Rank 3 was slightly less varied and anything higher than that was just patchy and mostly incomplete.

Other than his Winter Solstice Salamander, Arthur didn't have a complete Fae Formula from Rank 1 Fae to Rank 6 Immortal Fae.

That was just how rare and how valuable Immortal Fae Formula were.

That didn't mean that Arthur didn't have other Immortal Fae, it was just that researching Immortal Fae Formula independently was extremely slow. Like many other rogue Fae Masters, Arthur's network of contacts and communications were very low and his combat prowess was much higher than his knowledge.

Starting over from the beginning did allow Arthur to refine his cultivation and future path to a much greater degree, however he couldn't make use of what he didn't have.

Even with the times that he spent within Sects, Arthur didn't have all the information about their specialised Fae, or variation Fae that they had lovingly researched.

There were just too many Fae to count, and it wasn't easy to gain the trust of the upper echelons, especially as an outsider.

Arthur bit his bottom lip, carrying an enormous amount of Storage Fae within his origin essence sea.

'I have Dagen, Eric, Helga, Henrik and Nyssa to quietly groom. Their strengths aren't too much to me in the present, so I'll have to turn my attention to some of the others for the time being....'.

Arthur had already crossed out Randolf from his list of potential candidates. Other than his foreigner treasure, Arthur hadn't much need for an immature demonic Fae Master who can barely control his desires.

Borik, Ratimir and Alina were potential candidates, although their closeness with their Elder grandparents made them a little too risky to bring to his side.

The other top ten Tournament fighters, Parvan, Godemir, Florian, Milena, Iryna, and Zlatanna were all possible targets. There was even that girl who Alina fought in the first round that slightly peaked Arthur's interest.

Her talent was only a third-tier, but her combat prowess was considerably high for someone who came from a normal Fae Master family.

"I think her name was..... Vladya?".

The fact that she was a girl did nothing to interest Arthur. If he needed some time to vent, just about any decently looking girl would do. So long as they were strong, and were relatively easy to sway to his side, Arthur could make use of them.

Loyalty didn't matter so much as the Affection Tree Fae could bridge the that crossing. If he really needed to, Contract Fae was always an option.

Arthur nodded.

"Starting tomorrow, the first steps towards destroying Parachenko Village will finally be taken".