Watching the increasingly closer figure of the Flame Lion, Thorne felt a bit nervous.
After all, this was his first time hunting a Tier 3 magic beast, and this Flame Lion clearly looked extraordinary. Honestly, Thorne had no confidence in whether he could succeed.
When the Flame Lion was about 500 meters from the lake, the animals by the shore finally reacted and prepared to flee, especially the few buffalo that had been playfully splashing around, now scrambling in terror to escape onto land.
Thorne controlled the water flow, creating an undercurrent at the lake bottom to continuously block one of the buffalo from reaching the shore.
With a "whoosh," the Flame Lion reached the lake's edge and bit down on the buffalo's neck.
Blood instantly dyed a large patch of the lake water red, and the buffalo ceased moving after a few struggles.
Just as the Flame Lion was about to release the buffalo, Thorne used Water Bind.
Three water ropes shot from the lake toward the Flame Lion. Startled, the lion cleverly threw the buffalo's corpse at the ropes.
However, these water ropes were controlled by Thorne's consciousness, incredibly agile, dodging the buffalo with a flash and continuing to wrap toward the Flame Lion.
The Flame Lion opened its massive jaws, spitting out a fireball that struck one water rope, evaporating it instantly, while the other two ropes tightly bound its neck and one front claw.
A tug-of-war ensued.
This Flame Lion was indeed remarkable, able to resist the power of Thorne's entire lake with its own strength. The ring of fire around its neck was expanding, and it seemed the water ropes binding it were about to be incinerated.
With three "whoosh" sounds, three water arrows shot out from the water. The first aimed straight for the Flame Lion's forehead, with the other two following close behind.
The Flame Lion roared, spewing a cloud of fire from its mouth.
The fire cloud moved slowly but gathered in front of it. The first water arrow plunged in and was quickly evaporated. The second arrow shot in, causing the fire cloud to tremble, but it still didn't dissipate.
Thorne's heart tightened, controlling the third water arrow to change direction at the last second, bypassing the fire cloud and striking down from above.
Amid the Flame Lion's anguished cry, the water arrow vanished, leaving a gaping hole in the lion's head, blood gushing out.
The fire cloud dissipated the moment the Flame Lion was struck, but the ring of flames around its neck continued to burn.
Thorne controlled the water ropes to drag it into the lake, and the surface gradually calmed. Only a pool of blood remained on the mud, evidence of the slaughter that had just occurred.
This hunt exhausted all of Thorne's remaining energy, leaving him completely depleted, but fortunately, he managed to devour this Tier 3 spirit beast.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for devouring a Mortal Tier 3 Flame Lion, gaining 3000 energy points."
"Ding, abnormal energy detected. Refine it?"
"Refine," Thorne guessed it might be the ring of flames around the Flame Lion's neck.
"Ding, Flame Lion Fire refined, enhancing host's fire immunity."
Thorne's body was water, and fire could be considered his only natural enemy. He hadn't expected that refining fire could improve his immunity. If he could refine higher-level flames in the future, he might even be able to devour the sun itself.
This luring and killing operation was a resounding success, netting him 3000 energy points at once. Thorne pondered for a moment.
The known effective ways to gain energy so far were devouring creatures and refining special substances or energy, all of which relied on skills.
The current skills—Spring Breeze Rain for increasing his size, and Water Bind and Water Arrow as primary attack skills.
"System, I want to upgrade my skills."
"Spending 500 energy can upgrade Spring Breeze Rain and Water Bind, while spending 1000 energy can upgrade Water Arrow."
The cost of upgrading was indeed substantial, and this was just from Level 1 to Level 2. It was easy to imagine that future upgrades would require even more energy.
But to hunt and devour more powerful creatures for greater energy, upgrading skills was essential, so Thorne didn't hesitate to choose full upgrades.
"Upgrade all," Thorne commanded decisively.
Host: Thorne
Identity: Lake
Level: Lv2
Skills: Spring Breeze Rain Lv2, Water Bind Lv2, Water Arrow Lv2
Energy: 1000
Spending 2000 energy at once, Thorne wanted to test what was special about Level 2 skills, so he used Spring Breeze Rain again.
This time, Spring Breeze Rain cost 100 energy points and was far more impressive, with torrential rain pouring down for several hours. Thorne could feel the water contained even richer spiritual energy.
Though the rain was heavy, Thorne noticed his size didn't increase as much as he'd expected.
Focusing intently, he sensed every part of his body and finally discovered the clue.
Not far away in the mud, a seed—brought from who-knows-where—was greedily absorbing the spiritual rain, taking in nearly all the water near it.
"It's stealing my water! I need to see what kind of species this is."
Thorne was both annoyed and curious.
He deliberately directed a portion of the lake water to flood the seed. After nearly a quarter of an hour, the seed finally stopped absorbing water.
A seed the size of a peanut had absorbed a quarter-hour's worth of lake water from Thorne—an astonishing feat.
In Thorne's perception, the seed seemed satisfied, swaying its body and sprouting a green shoot with two leaves. The leaves probed left and right, then continued growing rapidly.
In no time, what was once a seed grew into a tree over a meter tall. Even more surprising to Thorne was that beneath the mud, a root system over two meters long stretched out, twisting and reaching toward him.
"Hmph, truly insatiable."
Thorne decisively used Water Arrow once, aiming at the newly grown trunk.
With a "bang," the trunk snapped. Thorne seemed to hear a ghastly wail in his mind, chilling him to the core.
The rapidly growing roots beneath the mud halted as well.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for establishing a connection with a mutated Ghost Thorn Tree. Please choose to either symbiosis with it or enslave the Ghost Thorn Tree."
"There's such a function?"
This was something Thorne hadn't anticipated. After some thought, Ghost Thorn Trees were common in the desert, but this particular one had mutated, gaining the terrifying ability to devour blood and souls to strengthen itself.
When Thorne had been hunting other creatures earlier, the Ghost Thorn Tree seed had been secretly feeding on the blood and souls. Now, irrigated by the spiritual rain, it had finally grown.