LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 9: 9. Fire Demon Tiger
Before the tribe members could fully grasp the danger bearing down on them, Al and Ajis moved with practiced precision. Without a word, they shoved the nearest hunters back into the lake, their urgent gestures leaving no room for hesitation.
Just as they prepared to leap into the water themselves, a sudden rumble shook the ground. Before their eyes, a massive stone wall erupted from the earth, standing tall and unwavering in the fireballs' path.
The fiery projectiles collided with the wall in a series of deafening explosions, sending shockwaves rippling through the air. The tribe members, now submerged in the lake, surfaced with wide eyes, coughing and gasping as they looked to the shore.
Smoke billowed from the other side of the stone barrier, and an eerie silence settled over the area, broken only by the faint crackle of dissipating flames. Moments later, the stone barrier crumbled and vanished, revealing the tiger once more. Without hesitation, sharp stone spears shot from the ground toward the beast. The tiger, however, didn't engage. With an air of calm menace, it simply turned and retreated into the forest, its massive frame disappearing into the shadows as if it had never been there.
The tribe members' earlier playfulness evaporated in the wake of this close encounter. Their excitement over the totem's blessings—the practice method to advance the Elder to the Great Shaman realm and the appearance of a magic beast aligned with their totem to aid them—was sobered by a stark reminder: the forest was no place for lowered vigilance.
Gavin stood silently, his gaze fixed on the spot where the tiger had disappeared. His thoughts churned. The tiger had been capable of overpowering his clone, given its superior rank—two entire realms higher than the wolf. Yet, it had chosen to back down after its attack was blocked. He wondered if it would return, perhaps underestimating their strength or seeking an easy meal.
As the group began their return journey, Al carried one of the deer on his shoulder while the other two were shared among four tribe members. Ajis and two unburdened hunters took the lead, their sharp eyes scanning for danger, while Gavin, in his wolf form, guarded the rear.
Ajis, walking steadily along the familiar path, spoke thoughtfully. "There are only about five Fire Demon Tigers in the magic beast realm within our region."
Gavin listened intently to their conversation, his thoughts drifting to the map he had studied on the stone tablet at the Elder's house.
From that map, he recalled that this part of the forest was known as the outer southeast region of the WinterMoon Mountain Range. It stretched across the tail end of the mountains, near the source of the river that flowed from the last peak in the range.
Al broke the silence, replying thoughtfully, "Teacher, I think it might be the tiger that roams the hunting grounds of the Snake Tribe."
The Snake Tribe was located behind the last mountain at the tail of the range. Their hunting grounds spanned the eastern side of the mountain. The forest on the far side of the lake was considered neutral territory, as it bordered the hunting grounds of several nearby tribes.
Beyond the forest lay the Golden Plain, where a new settlement and market had recently been established by a clan from the Silver Sword race at the meeting point of the forest and the plain.
Ajis frowned and asked, "Then why did the tiger leave its territory? Or, if it was just roaming, why did it come here?"
No one could provide an answer. If the tiger had truly fled its territory, the implications were troubling. It could mean that the Snake Tribe's totem, the Ice Poison Snake, had advanced to the Bronze Spirit Beast realm.
Such an advancement would be significant, as it would make the totem powerful enough to threaten a third-realm magic beast like the tiger—something that would not retreat easily from a fight otherwise.
Gavin mulled over the possibilities but found no definitive answer. Still, he knew one thing: the Snake Tribe's affairs were of little concern to him—until they became a direct threat.
If their totem had indeed advanced to the Bronze Spirit Beast realm, he would take decisive action.
He would sacrifice his wolf clone, to eliminate the threat. Losing a clone would be a small price to pay for securing the safety of the tribe.
Beyond that, his curiosity about the altar's full capabilities remained unresolved.
The altar required faith to function, and the location where his true body was sealed was hidden so effectively that it might take centuries for new people to discover it.
For now, he couldn't afford to lose the Statue Tribe—their faith was essential to sustaining his plans while his body remained imprisoned.
Shifting his focus from the clone, Gavin turned his thoughts to the pressing matter of escaping the seal.
Through meticulous investigation, he had uncovered a hidden layer to the seal—one that existed alongside the nine primary seals. This concealed layer elevated the entire construct to the rank of an immortal seal, ensuring his imprisonment.
Originally, the seal had drawn its power from the soul of the Vampire Bat it trapped, both sealing and feeding upon the creature.
However, once the Vampire Bat's soul was fully consumed, Gavin had taken possession of the body, and the seal had adjusted to hold him instead.
With no external power now fueling the seal, he could theoretically wait for it to gradually weaken and fade. Yet, that process would take millennia, potentially thousands of years.
The alternative was for his current body to advance to the Immortal Body Realm, which would grant him the strength to break free.
Presently, the Vampire Bat's body was in the Quasi-Golden Magic Beast Realm—equivalent to the Quasi-Seventh Rank Psychic of his previous world.
Gavin already absorbed the inheritance which contains only two innate spells of the vampire spell but if they are divived then from them multiple small spells can be found like the blood slave.
The Vampire bat's major law is blood, but he cannot peek into the blood rule to understand as his spirit still is below the bronze realm. To observe the rules of the world, he has to raise his realm to at least bronze.
To do that he has to master the innate spells, which without the help from his calculation ability may take years but he does not want to wait.
He chooses one of the innate spells and activates the quantum calculation ability and the next second, he becomes unconscious.
He walking finds it still morning but when he connects to the clone, he knows an entire day has passed.
The clone a further distance from the tribe is transforming his bones into magic bones. As the spirit field scans the valley, the tribe is also without any disturbance everyone busy with their work.
He only mastered 14% of the innate spell, but he got a figure of why it is called the Blood Sea spell. It is an evil spell and may be the reason for the vampire bat to be sealed.
The basic of the spell is not evil but the vampire bat develops into an evil spell. The spell practice slowly transformed the body of the vampire bat into a blood sea.
By practicing absorbing the spiritual energy it may take centuries but without any obstacle, the vampire bat will become a golden realm magic beast.
But the vampire bat developed the spell in which it uses the blood of living things to practice and this may be the reason for the seal.
Because it had halfway to become a blood sea it was difficult to be killed, so this may be the reason behind it being sealed.
Gavin has many evil psychic practices he got in his previous life but even in his most difficult times he did not practice any of them because all evil spell has a hidden danger behind them waiting to erupt.
So, he destroys the rest of the Blood Sea spell, because with the basics he can create his path so that he has confidence in himself.
Using the calculation ability consumes his spirit, so he cannot use it to start to master the second spell. And it will take 12 hours to activate the ability again.
He does not know if the second innate spell is also turned evil by the vampire. Very likely, he thought because blood slave inheritance is from this innate spell and he knows the name of the spell, Blood Disease.
Guessing it is an evil spell, he does not waste his time on this spell but he will check with the calculation ability. So, he did not erase the spell.
He turns his attention then to the blood sea spell which returns to its starting point a 0-rank innate spell.
To practice the spell, like the magic space of the magic beast, one has to build a blood pool in the same space under the magic core.
For Gavin, it was not difficult to find the space and it was empty without blood sea, or any magic core. He did not care about them as the blood sea would merge with the body when starting to advance to the golden realm.
And the seal would have consumed the magic core energy.
Gavin starts absorbing spiritual energy and guides them to the space. The Seal did not stop him because it was for the vampire bat and not for him.
He is sealed because he occupies the body of the vampire bat but it cannot seal all of his abilities.
With the spiritual field, He can absorb all the energy of the valley, but he does not because it may affect the tribe and his clone.
He starts absorbing spiritual energy from the underground and sky. Slowly the spiritual energy fills up 0.01 % of the space. But it is enough for building the 0-rank blood pool. The space grows with the realm of magic beasts.
For him, it will be an energy pool, because there is not a drop of blood on the body of the vampire bat. He can use the spiritual energy to produce blood in the body.
But decided not to after much deliberation. He destroys the blood sea spell but traces remain of the spell in the body. As the blood sea was halfway to merge with the body.
To remove the traces, he cannot use his blood to form the new blood sea. So, he started with building a sea of spiritual energy.
Now, the most difficult task of transforming spiritual energy into liquid form may be a difficult task for others but from it is easy.
The spiritual energy gathered in a place may look like mist, so people can think cooling it down may transform the spiritual energy into liquid.
But it is not, spiritual energy is made up of tiny particles, and the arrangement of the particles of the spiritual energy is different from its liquid form.
He does not where he observes a spiritual energy liquid or when to discover the particle's arrangement. So, the choice left to him is to use force to transform the spiritual energy into liquid.
He forms a tornado with the spiritual energy particles when they collide with each other they shoot out in the opposite direction but he creates a barrier around the tornado.
Blocking all particles from escaping, and the particles all crash into each other, some merging into each other.
He then speeds up the tornado and tightens the barrier around and after some time inside the barrier lay a tiny puddle of silver-colored liquid.
Gavin zooms in to see the particle finding one source particle without any single particle floating around the source particle.
So, he starts to see how much percent of space he can fill up with spiritual liquid until he can again use the calculation ability.