In a camp shrouded in thick fog, at least over a hundred beast bones of a human's height were stabbed into the ground.
Sparkling light flowed along those beast bones. Apart from the unique gems embedded on them, unique arcane energy was also flowing inside.
Amongst the standing bones, platforms similarly made of beast bones scattered around. Many Eclipse Moon arcane masters stayed alert while sitting on them.
The thirty plus tents in the camp were all made of a unique plant. The plant was milky yellow in color. Three huge leaves hung downwards surrounding its pillar-like stem, making it a perfect natural tent.
Occasionally, roars of huge beasts and monsters came from the exterior of the camp site, along with heavy footsteps.
There were Eclipse Moon medical arcane masters scuttering around in the camp. Every natural tent had one to two heavily injured Eclipse Moon arcane masters. Some had terrifying injuries, such as half of the body getting punctured. Some arcane masters were using precious medicine and secret skill to heal the wounded.
"Ayrin's group is coming!"
"Are they arriving soon?"
"Even the Goat Horn Team was completely annihilated by them?"
House Eclipse Moon had a unique 'Root Words' method of transmission. By casting the skill on some trees, the roots of the trees would transmit the unique arcane energy to trees far away, and manifest into unique flares on the receiving trees. Hence, the camp had already received the message Annon transmitted. Jano and Christine were waiting at the entrance.
A trace of joy finally broke the clouded expression the two had over the past few days.
During the most dangerous time in the Southam Demon Forest, Ayrin's group appeared. Jano even obtained the Hat of Concealment and allowed the House to gain a Shadow Dance level expert.
Currently, it was also the most dangerous time for House Eclipse Moon. If not for Ayrin's group, half of the wounded in the camp might be killed by the Goat Horn Team after their retreat path was blocked off.
It seemed that every time Ayrin's group appeared, it would bring House Eclipse Moon good luck……
A group of familiar figures appeared within Jano and Christine's sight after passing through the thick fog.
"Ayrin! Rinloran! Stingham!"
Jano immediately became excited and rushed to the group!
"Brave warrior Jano! Brave warrior Christine!"
Ayrin, who followed behind Annon to enter the camp zone, also shouted excitedly after seeing Jano and Christine.
"What a powerful physical strength! How can he improve so fast!?"
The moment Jano and Christine got near Ayrin, they immediately felt the strong pressure. Their instincts told them that they were facing a huge monster with exceptional muscle power.
"Even Stingham……" What was more shocking to them was that they could even feel a great improvement in Stingham's physical strength.
"What are these? Artifacts?"
Ayrin's attention was immediately attracted by those tall beast bones flowing with sparkling arcane energy instead.
"It's Ancestral Bone Formation, the unique inheritance of our House Eclipse Moon. It's similar to an artifact, but an arcane master can control multiple ancestral bones, equivalent to casting multiple arcane skills at the same time." Jano immediately explained.
He and Christine had watched Holy Dawn Academy team's fight at Eichemalar. Now that they were closer, he felt that not only Ayrin, Stingham and Rinloran whom he was familiar with had huge improvements; Chris, Moss and Belo were also clearly different from before. Especially Belo, who gave him a mysteriously creepy feeling.
"The beastmen from before the Era of the War with Dragons are the true ruler of such demonic forests…… Looks like the beastman blood this guy inherited has evolved to an unimaginable state." He immediately understood the reason.
"Jano, guide our honorable guests in first."
At that moment, an old and gentle voice called out from a natural tent nearby.
"Come, I will bring you to meet our chief shaman."
Jano enthusiastically led the way.
"What's this plant? It's actually a natural house." Ayrin looked here and there, everything was new to him.
An especially old-looking elder sat inside the tent where the call came from. His hair looked very scarce and withered. However, sprouts of magenta-colored grass were actually growing in his withered dark grey hair.
"Haha! Why are you able to grow grass like me!?"
Stingham became excited immediately after seeing that. He coursed through his arcane energy, weeds started to grow on his hair and body. At the same time, he stretched out his hand and wanted to help the Eclipse Moon elder to pluck off those magenta-colored grass.
"My grass is different from yours!"
The elder was frightened by Stingham's action, he immediately stopped Stingham's hand.
"Stingham, stop!" Jano and Christine were also shocked and held Stingham's arms back.
"What? Do you think having grass on your hair is more handsome than me?" Stingham could not comprehend.
"This is a type of arcane skill, look." The elder stretched out his foot.
"……"
Stingham and the others were astonished by the scene.
The Eclipse Moon elder's foot seemed to be made up of countless tree roots. Many of them seemed to be alive and took root in the ground.
"Rinloran's body is full of sword, a blademan. Your body is actually roots, so a rootman?" Stingham shouted in disbelief.
"You're the bitchman! Idiot!" Rinloran lamented. (TLN: A Chinese pun between '剑人' and '贱人' as they have the same pronunciation.)
"This is the Wooden Spirit of our chief shaman. The wooden spirit grass growing on his head allows his body to remain mostly unchanged. During battle, they can gather an astonishing amount of wood type arcane energy." Jano was afraid of Stingham doing something dangerous again, so he quickly explained.
"There's actually such an arcane skill huh." Ayrin looked at the grass growing on the Eclipse Moon elder curiously, "It this arcane skill difficult to learn?"
Stingham speechlessly looked at the elder, then back at Ayrin, and grumbled, "No way. You also want grass to grow on your head?"
"You can say it's somewhat difficult. The most important thing is to have the unique bloodline and wooden spirit grass's seeds. Only our Eclipse Moon bloodline can learn this arcane skill. Also, the wooden spirit grass will only wither and produce the seed after I die."
"I see!" Ayrin curiously asked again, "Since this arcane skill lets your body to remain mostly unchanged, how long have you lived?"
The elderly arcane master's expression returned to normal. Light of wisdom dwelled in his eyes. He looked at the shadow ball floating next to Ayrin, then pointed, "I belong to the Magus Era just like this Death's Energy."
"What!? Doesn't that mean at least five to six hundred years!?"
Ayrin and the rest were shocked.
"Did you really live that long? Won't you get tired of living?" Stingham could not help but ask.
"……" The rest became speechless.
What do you mean get tired of living……Why does this guy say such rude things from time to time?
"I do feel tired sometimes. It's just that we are always threatened by House Roland and have to fight against them. We never had the upper hand, so I have to persist on." However, the old shaman was not angry and calmly told him.
"Gramps, you are also a true brave warrior. You have been fighting for a longer time than anyone." Ayrin called out respectfully.
"Ayrin, I have also heard many of your deeds." The old shaman's gaze also fell onto Ayrin.
He stretched out his hand, a ring of strange transparent light seeped out from his hand and touched Ayrin's body.
Ayrin's body emitted a pale silver glow.
"Hahahaha……"
The old shaman suddenly laughed.
"What's the meaning of this?" Stingham and the rest were confused.
"As I thought, it's the legendary bloodline. The person who granted you this bloodline has lived even longer than me……" The old shaman spoke in monologue, and slowly recovered his laughter.
"A pure human bloodline. To be able to train to this extent at such a young age, you must be Chris, right?" The old shaman's gaze fell onto Chris next.
"I am Chris." Chris nodded with a serious expression, "We want to kill Emperor Evil Eye. Uncle Annon said you can help us."
"Emperor Evil Eye bloodline in conjunction with your Dark Destruction Dragon is indeed the best combination. Your Holy Dawn Academy teachers are certainly impressive. However, they should have little understanding about me, because our House Eclipse Moon does not have much contact with the outside."
The old shaman spoke with a serious tone.
"Hahahahaha……" He suddenly laughed again.
"What's he laughing about since just now?" Stingham looked back at Jano and Christine with doubt, "Has your chief shaman always been like this? Did he go senile? Or did he gain such a quirky habit due to old age?"
Jano and Christine were also confused. The chief shaman would never laugh randomly like that normally.
"You kids are really lucky, and our House Eclipse Moon is also very lucky to have you as our allies." The old shaman ceased his laughter.
"Hahahahaha……" Stingham suddenly laughed.
"Stingham, what's wrong with you?" Ayrin asked.
"I'm helping him laugh. Then he would be able to tell us whatever he wants to say. Don't waste time, speak up." Stingham waved at the old shaman and spoke.
"……" Everyone lost their words.
"The greatest help I can give you is related to your training and arcane skill." The old shaman looked at Chris and continued, "I have an arcane skill here which can supplement your Dark Destruction Dragon. And it can only supplement forbidden skills at the level of Dark Destruction Dragon."
"An arcane skill that supplements Dark Destruction Dragon?" Ayrin could not comprehend.
That was because, after using Dark Destruction Dragon, Chris's arcane particles would be mostly exhausted. Also, Dark Destruction Dragon was an arcane skill that purely pursued the greatest attacking strength. It was already at the limit of destructive power.
Even if Ayrin used Cocktail Grandmaster Leonardo's Warlock Variation, it would only mutate into other effects and reduce the attack power.
"Dark Destruction Dragon's terror is the pursuit of utmost destructive power, the eruption of black dragon particles. However, the sole defect is that after using it once, you won't have much fighting power left. Success or not depends on a single strike. Your Holy Dawn Academy teachers suggest you to integrate Emperor Evil Eye bloodline to ensure your strike succeeds. However, from how I see it, there is a better choice." The old shaman seemed to be stifling his laughter, "Because the arcane skill I know lets you make a second attack with the same power of Dark Destruction Dragon after casting Dark Destruction Dragon."
"What? That means two times of Dark Destruction Dragon?" Ayrin and the rest all shouted in disbelief.
