Human Spirit 3

A few days later both Tai Lung and Shun Min were in the neighboring village. This village was larger than the last one and had the houses more spread out. There were also large farms on the outside of the village. When Tai Lung arrived he bought two horses, one for himself and one for Shun Min. It would be a few more days until they were at a town twice the size of this village, so they stayed for one night and left the next day. The village did not have very much to it, and the town would be in the same kind of scenery.

While on the second day from the village, a group of people approached Tai Lung and Shun Min from behind them. "Hey there, travelers." One of the people in the group spoke. He had heavy armor on without a helmet. Everyone else with him did have a helmet though. "Hello, fellow traveler." Tai Lung said as he looked back at them and took his horse closer to Shun Min. "We've been on the road for a few days now, care to make a trade?" "I have some pills if that is something you are interested in." Tai Lung said, still looking back at the group of people. The road was long and straight, so he would not need to worry about facing forward too much. "We aren't interested in pills boy." The man said again, looking at Shun Min. "Well that is all I have with me to trade." Tai Lung faced forward and looked at Shun Min. "Let's speed up a little." "Yeah" Shun Min and Tai Lung both hurried their horses. "That's not all you have! Fire!" Tai Lung heard behind him and looked back at the group readying arrows into their bows and shooting them at Tai Lung and Shun Min. Shun Min and Tai Lung hurried even faster as arrows shot around them and hit their horses. Tai Lung was thrown from his horse as an arrow hit it's leg and soon after Shun Min was also thrown down. Tai Lung pulled out his sword and brandished it at the leader of the group. Tai Lung was currently at a power level of over 1400 and would be able to fight 14 normal humans evenly, but if one of the 7 people in the group he was facing was a spirit host, it could be trouble. "Looks like he wants to fight." The leader jumped off his horse and pulled a broadsword from his waste. Tai Lung could not accurately sense the power level of other people, but as Tai Lung and the group leader traded blows with the swords, Tai Lung felt he must be over 2000. 4 of the group members went over to Shun Min and Tai Lung was being held back by the leader. Without any options, Tai Lung shouted. "You won't be able to touch her when I shift into maximum overdrive!" Brutus took control and instantly killed the leader with a single strike to the neck, cutting off his head. Brutus then turned to the other group members and cut the arms off the people who approached Shun Min. They were still alive, but bleeding profusely and would die soon. Brutus then looked at the remaining 2 who had waited in the back. "Get off the horses!" Brutus yelled at them. After seeing 4 of their friends have both their arms cut off in seconds and their leader killed in one strike, they quickly slipped off the horses. "Yes, sir!" The two were obviously new members who did not have much experience with this kind of thing. "Bring the horses to me!" Brutus yelled again as he went to help Shun Min up. "Tai Lung?" Shun Min asked, looking at Tai Lung's body. She had seen him kill the assassin and the monsters, but never seen such elegance with a small sword at close range. "It's the human spirit, can you stand?" Brutus asked while keeping an eye on the last two group members who were walking the horses to him. "I think i'm-" Shun Min tried to stand up but was hurt from falling off the horse. Having a power level of over 1400, Tai Lung was not hurt much at all. "I will carry you then." Brutus picked up Shun Min in his arms and walked to the horses. He placed her on a horse and then drew his sword while looking at the last two group members. In another swipe, he cut the head off the horse next to him. "Don't tell anyone about what happened here." Brutus said as he got on the same horse as Shun Min and galloped away.

"That human spirit sure can get us out of a bunch." Tai Lung was now in control and was speaking to Shun Min who was on the same horse as him. "But he can be so scary too, he cut the arms off 4 people and let them bleed to death." Shun Min shacked when she remembered what she saw. "Those people were going to kill me and rape you, the human spirit did us a favor back there." Tai Lung hugged Shun Min closely. He shacked at the thought of what those bandits would have done to her. "But do you really need to say that dorky thing? Shift into maximum overdrive!" Shun Min said the last part in a mocking tone. "Yes, it is the code that I can't handle something anymore or I need things to be resolved quickly." "But did you have to choose something like that? Why not, human spirit?" "He was the one that thought of it, and I haven't asked him what special meaning it has." "Well we will be in a big town soon, and there you will be able to shift into another type of overdrive right?" Shun Min looked back at Tai Lung. "Every night." Tai Lung smiled and kiss Shun Min as they kept going down the road.

A few more days later, the pair was at a medium sized town. It was not walled, but it had guard towers all around it and many guards. To the south was a mountain that ores were taken from and it had high star level monsters on all sides of it. A single path was cut from the side of the mountain that would allow a 2 horse wide cart to pass through and take the ores to the town. Powerful spirit host were hired by the mining company to guard the carts that went along the path and to guard the mine entrance. To the east and west were forest that the wood for the town came from and had low star level monsters, and to the north were plains where Tai Lung and Shun Min were coming from.

Tai Lung and Shun Min both went into an inn near the entrance to the town. It was not a far walk to the other side of the town though, and before they decided on weather to stay or leave, they would need to stay for a few days. "Room for two" Tai Lung said to the worker at the desk. "Right, that will be 150 coins per night." Tai Lung reached into his bad and pulled out some coins and handed them over. "Here is 4 nights worth." "Alright, He Jiang, show them to their two person room." "Yes." A woman came over from a room behind the desk worker and looked at Tai Lung and Shun Min. "Follow me upstairs to your room."

The first floor of the inn was where food could be eaten, thought it was alright to take it to ones room. The second floor though was all rooms for people to stay in. The room was not too special, being a medium sized town and all. There was a single double bed, but that would not be any issue for Tai Lung and Shun Min. "Well now that that has been settled, we can explore the town freely to make our decision."

The next few hours that day were spent exploring the town. There were many more shops than the two villages they had been in and there was even an alchemy shop. Tai Lung would be visiting there to see if he could get a job, and the day after this he would see if he could sell his pills he took from the village. Tai Lung would be able to gather red beads in this town, and with those his power level would rise quite a bit. Tai Lung did not even bother training like he had done in the sect because of how much faster pills were, and if he ever got into trouble Brutus would save him. While most spirit host had to train every day and use the best pills they could get because their life was on the line when they went to fight monsters, Tai Lung only needed to raise his power level to deal with things that did not endanger his life. He did however want to be strong for Shun Min, so that Brutus would not have to take over every time to protect her. Shun Min did not have a job in the village and mostly hung out with her friends every day while her father worked in the mine. She told Tai Lung that she would try to get a job in the town though to help with living expenses. Tai Lung told her that she did not need to because he would be able to earn plenty of money, but she insisted.

At the end of the day, they both went to the inn to sleep and prepare for the next day. Tai Lung would be looking to sell his pills and acquire some red or purple beads. Shun Min would look for a house they could afford. Tai Lung got of first in the morning and set from orange pills and a few thousand coins on the table for Shun Min to take, and then he went out to the mountain. He heard there would be strong monsters there and wanted to see for himself. With his bag over his shoulder and his sword on his hip, Tai Lung set out for the southern gate.

The town was not very busy in the morning, but there were visibly more people than the village he had been in before. Locating the southern gate was easy, it was directly south. "Halt there, you intend to make passage to the mine?" A guard stopped and asked Tai Lung who was looking at the trench that lead up the mountain. "Yes, and I am prepared to deal with monsters along the way." Tai Lung put his palm on the sword hilt and moved it around a little. "Alright, but be advised the monsters have been known to reach over 800 star levels." Tai Lung was excited when he heard 800 star levels. He would be able to get huge amounts of red pills with that, even if it required a single person to have a power level of 8th tier, Tai Lung did not doubt that Brutus could do it.

Tai Lung went along the path for a short distance and then left it to enter the trees on the edge of the path. On the mountain the monsters would be over 200 star levels, but in the forest they were mostly below 100. Brutus would take over to kill the monsters and then give Tai Lung control to take the beads. After a few hundred feet, monsters below 50 star levels stopped appearing and it was all orange beads.

At the edge of the forest and finally to the mountain, Tai Lung saw a huge monster. It was the size of a two story house and had 4 legs to walk on the ground with. Brutus took over and walked towards the monster. It was at least 600 star levels. Brutus took out his sword and the monster chraged at him. The monster was fast, and it's 4 feet trampled everything on the ground. Brutus was able to dodge the attacks and make cuts on the legs, and after a few minutes was able to kill it. Tai Lung was given control and tried to cut open the monster with his sword, but the skin was incredible dense. Tai Lung was unable to pierce it with his current strength and had to work his way in from the cuts Brutus made. Inside the beast was a huge red bead though, nearly the size of his fist. Tai Lung put it in the bag and kept moving.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and only produced orange beads. The red pills he could make would be quite valuable and would make neither him nor Shun Min need a job if he could get a red bead every few weeks. Normally an alchemist uses a large amount of heat and flows as much power as they can into the pills so that they do not take much of the bead, but they are still only able to make a few dozen or so pills at most. Brutus though, he can put in so much power that the entire liquidized form of the bead can become pills, so he can make many times the amount of a normal alchemist. Brutus is able to channel power that does not even register on the power level scale because he does not need to hold back. Sometimes when Brutus uses his power, the collateral damage would be higher than what the thing he was fighting would have caused, so he always held back. But with alchemy, unless someone was standing on the other side of the bead, Brutus could push his maximum power into it to liquids beads and make the into pills.

Tai Lung went back to the town and bought a huge glass jar and some oil. The glass jar was almost as large as Tai Lung's legs because he did not know how much refined spirit bead the red bead would make. When he got back to the inn, there were a few stares, but he went to his room without being stopped. Shun Min was gone with a letter stating that she went to look for houses, and would be back sometime in the evening. It was already 4 in the evening, so Shun Min must have already looked at many houses. Tai Lung got his alchemy tools and poured some oil inside.The first step was to refine the spirit bead, so he dropped it into the jar and let Brutus take over the rest. Brutus pushed his spirit energy into the bead from the outside of the jar and it quickly expanded. The huge jar filled with red refined spirit pill and used up the red bead. This could make thousands of spirit pills.

Brutus spent the rest of the day waiting for Shun Min to return while he made the refined spirit bead into pills. It was almost a technique had he made himself now. Brutus make the entire jar into a long snake of a pill and then broke a section off to refine a second time. When he did this, he was able to make the most out of the refined spirit bead and precisely pour the refined bead into the pill molds, but it was slower than the normal method. Making 7 pills at a time, and taking about 2 minutes per batch, Brutus could make 200 pills in an hour. Shun Min came back to the room at about 5:40 and then left with Tai Lung to get something for diner. Tai Lung took the pills he had made with him and went to find the most expensive place they could find, but being only a medium sized town, it was not too much.

The next day Tai Lung did almost the same thing, but he couldn't find any 500 star level or higher monsters. He still had not checked the other side of the mountains, but it would take many hours to travel there and he did not have the time when he had to be back home every day for Shun Min. This day, Shun Min found a house that they could buy. It was on the outside of the town and would only cost 70,000 coins. The house had one bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Tai Lung bought the house and they both moved their things into it. In the corner of the living room Tai Lung set up the space for his alchemy and his pill storage. At this time, Tai Lung had a power level of 1460. Every 10 days he could take a red pill and gain another 100 power levels, and his current supplies if he kept them all would last dozens of years.

Shun Min got a job at a clothing store. It was not very luxurious, but it earned her a small amount of money while Tai Lung hunted monsters or made pills. 3 weeks into their life in the new town, Tai Lung had paid off the loan on the house and finished making the refined red bead into spirit pills. Sometimes, Tai Lung would even go out to the forest from the west gate to fight monsters he would not need Brutus to take over for, and he reached a power level of 1700. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

"Everyone with a power level in over the 3rd tier gather at the lord's castle!" People were shouting in the streets for people to gather. It was a summons by the king for all people with sufficient power level to gather for the defense against a monster of a huge star level, rumored to be over 3000. It was the giant land strider, and it stood at over 70 feet tall. The maximum size of the giant land strider was over 300 feet at 1337 star levels, so while smaller, it would have more than twice the power. A 3000 star level monster required 300,000 power levels to defeat it, or at least 3 10th tier spirit host, or 6 5th tier spirit host. While this might not seem like much, a single strike from the giant land strider could kill a 5th tier spirit host, and a 10th tier spirit host would not last more than a few hits. For this reason, hundreds of people were being gathered to combat it.

"Shun Min, I think I will kill the giant land strider." Tai Lung told Shun Min as they ate diner. Shun Min was not a spirit host so she had a power level of 100 by default, and Tai Lung was only at 1700 first tier. "It's too dangerous, you should stay here." Shun Min was pushing some peas on her plate and not looking at Tai Lung. "But the bead, it would be able to make pills to be enough to sell for 100,000 coins, and raise my power level by huge amounts." Tai Lung puts down his fork and flexes. Because he has been using pills, he has bulked some, but it is not totally impressive. "I'd only be gone a few days." They both look at each other for a few moments. "Fine, but don't go finding another woman while you are away!" "It'll only be a few days and I'll be on the road the whole time, nothing will happen!" In actuality, it will take about a week if Tai Lung is doing the traveling, and by using a notepad to confirm with Brutus, he will.

Tai Lung is able to make the trip in under a week and is at the base camp for the fight against the giant land strider. Brutus takes over for the time being because a single hit could kill Tai Lung in his current power level. Brutus goes into Stage Three Spirit Mutation and signs up for the fight. He registers his name as Brutus from Epic, though he doubts that is a town name in this world. A few hours later, him and another 300 people are sent to fight the monster. The 3200 star level monster is over 70 feet tall and has 4 legs stomping on the ground keeping people away. Most everyone has gone into second stage spirit mutation. Scales, claws, some are even airborne. Brutus and the rest of his group wait for a bit and then go in for the attack while the attackers that were out come back. Brutus is in his armor and is carrying his huge sword and can see the bodies of many spirit host on the ground. There are also many craters in the ground from the steps of the giant land strider. Many spirit host have already arrived at the base or are flying above it and attacking the giant land strider. With a swing of one of it's legs, dozens of spirit host are flung out of the way. In a single movement, a few of the lower power level ones have died. Brutus jumps towards it and pierces it's body with his sword. The giant land strider has thick fur all over it's body, and it is very resistant to normal swords. This is not an issue for Brutus though, because his sword is made from a meteor that can only be reshaped with molecular reconstruction. Brutus is able to make a path through the thick fur and into the beast's side. Brutus must fall to the ground after every strike though, and soon airborne spirit host are attacking the bald spot he made. In the air, Brutus can see someone shooting fire from their hands. They must be fire element user he thinks. The giant land strider has been battling with the increasing forces of the king for the past 2 weeks and is getting tired, so Brutus takes the initiative. Brutus puts his left hand on his sword and the blade thins out and extends to 30 feet long. Brutus gets a running start and then jumps toward the giant land strider. He makes 55 feet his height for the cutting off of the head of the giant land strider. The blood from the giant land strider explodes with a huge pressure and covers the battlefield. Brutus goes inside the head to find the bead. He must be quick if he wants to find it, and he knows he can do anything he wants while in his armor. So what if the king put a bounty on him for stealing the purple bead, Brutus was in third stage spirit mutation, he only needed this form when he was going to truly kill a huge something or a huge amount of someones. Brutus could not find the bead in the head and so he moved into the body which already had people trying to cut it with their claws and other weapons. Brutus dived into the body from the neck and made his way to the core. Somewhere near where the heart would be, there was a purple bead. He could not see the color though, be he could feel it. The monster was on the ground so Brutus made a tunnel under it with his ground enhancing and closed it after him. Brutus carried the purple bead that was about as round as a large coin in his free hand and moved the ground with the other. Though he did not need to use his hands to direct the enhancing, it helped with doing more than one thing at a time. Currently, Brutus was clearing the path, closing it behind him, and moving the ground under him to move him forward. Brutus went into second stage spirit mutation and came from the ground. He put the bead in the bag and then let Tai Lung take over. Tai Lung went to zero stage and walked back to the town. He knew Brutus was going to give him control once he had the spirit bead and was ready to start going home.

Tai Lung was gone for less than two weeks when he came back to the town, but things were not as he left them. When Tai Lung came to his house, he saw two people with Shun Min who he had never seen before. They were two women who had simple clothes and were sewing with Shun Min in the living room. "Welcome back Tai Lung, I missed you so much!" Shun Min put down her things and rushed over to Tai Lung to kiss him. Surely, they had not been apart for more than 3 days from the time after her village was attacked by monsters, as long as the time after the attempted assassination doesn't count as Tai Lung being away. "Shun Min, aren't you going to introduce me?" Tai Lung said, pulling away from Shun Min and looking at the women in the room. "I got so lonely while you were gone and invited some of the fabric workers from the shop over to the house to show me some techniques, look I made a shirt!" Shun Min did not have skill with the needle and thread, and it was painfully obvious with the quality of the shirt. "Looks like I won't need to buy shirts for myself anymore then." Tai Lung took the shirt and held it up. It was certainly lower quality than anything he already had. Both of the women in the room started laughing as they saw the facial expression on Tai Lung change. "I see you have quite the collection of pills on the wall, are you by change an alchemist?" One of the women asked Tai Lung as they looked at the bottles of pills he had on the wall. Tai Lung had most of the red pills in his bag, but a few dozen and all the orange and yellows were on the wall. "I try my best to near my keep." Tai Lung replied as he went to take a seat on a chair in the corner. "Did you come back from that giant land strider subjugation order?" The other woman asked. "Yeah, but someone stole the bead." Brutus stole the bead, but nobody had to know that. "Well that's not good." "Once they find him, he's a goner." The women kept doing their work at the table but Shun Min looked over at Tai Lung worryingly. "Yeah, what a jerk, taking the reward like that." "Well Shun Min, I have been on the road for a while, I'm going to get something to eat." "Alright, come back soon." Shun Min waved goodbye to Tai Lung as he left their home. He could hear the women say something as he left, but he could not make it out.

"So that was him?" "Yeah it was." "He doesn't seem like much." "What is his spirit animal?" "He doesn't like to talk about it." "Hey it can't be that bad." "Is it a monster animal?" The two women in the room are asking about Tai Lung after he left the house. "He doesn't have a monster, he just doesn't like people to know what his spirit animal is." "Do you know?" "Yes, I have even seen it." "Ah, then it must be something normal for you to still live with him." "I remember dating a guy who just couldn't wait to pull out his spirit animal's parts. Every chance he got he would go into a partial second stage spirit mutation." "That must have been exciting." One of the women and Shun Min laugh. "Come-on, doesn't Tai Lung ever go into a partial second stage spirit mutation?" "He really doesn't like to do it, so he stays at first stage spirit mutation most of the time." "Hey, what's his power level?" "I don't know, something like 2000 or so." "What tier?" "First." "What, at his age?" "I thought he had a really powerful spirit animal that he just didn't like to show off, but he must have a small rodent or something." "It's not that! He has a really powerful spirit animal!" "But he is only at the first tier, and already 17 years old." "We just need to get him to hold a spirit crystal to test him with." "No don't do that!" Shun Min knew that Tai Lung just wanted to hide that he had a human spirit to avoid people looking differently at him. "I don't know where to get one of those though." "I think we can get one for 1,500 coins." "Way too much!" "Hey Shun Min, do you think we could have some of those orange pills?" One of the women points to the jars on the wall with orange pills in them. Normally, a single orange bead would produce 10 - 70 orange pills, but with Brutus using maximum strength on the bead he can get over 200. "No you can't have them if you just want to test Tai Lung's spirit animal!" Taking a single orange pill would be like taking 1,000 coins, enough to buy food for a week. "Fine, we'll just have to find another way to get 1,500 extra coins." "Maybe we can find a rich man who will get us the spirit crystal."

Both the women left shortly after that. Shun Min worries that she might cause trouble for Tai Lung, but those were just two women from the cloth shop. They certainly had no ties to assassins. Or so she thought. Tai Lung came back home less than an hour later and spent time with Shun Min that he was not able to for almost two weeks.