Original Animal Spirit

Relying on the Eye of Truth, Shane successfully avoided Sylvanas. At the fork in the road, he chose a different path, turning left and heading north.

In the latter stages of the Troll Wars, the High Elf-human allied forces drove the trolls to the vicinity of Zul'Aman. For thousands of years, the trolls had stubbornly spread through the Ghostlands, but ranger vanguards kept hunting them down, preventing them from ever becoming a major threat.

The closer he got to Zul'Aman, the stronger the stench of voodoo in the air became. It did not affect his use of arcane magic, but it made Shane nauseous. "Compared to the rotten stench hidden beneath Silvermoon City's extravagance, just how far had the trolls fallen for their habitat to reek like this?" Shane realized that he did not actually know much about trolls. Aside from knowing that they liked to blood-sacrifice to their gods, he knew nothing about their social structure, cultural inheritance, language, writing, or anything else.

"User, it is recommended that you do not proceed any farther."

Even without the Eye of Truth's warning, Shane could feel that the voodoo stench had reached a critical point. If he continued onward, the arcane energy on his body would stand out more clearly than a torch in the night. Voodoo casters and priests would follow the scent, and he would be walking into danger.

Shane had the puppet Taigo drive into the woods by the roadside. Its huge body easily crushed a path through the trees. Trolls had a habit of migrating, and small tribes were scattered throughout the area. They were the best prey.

The trolls of the Ghostlands were forest trolls, their bodies naturally covered in green moss that served as perfect camouflage in the woods. But under the Eye of Truth's scan, every living creature within a thousand meters was under his control.

"User, five male troll creatures detected. No spellcasters."

The puppet Taigo's rampage through the road made quite a commotion and lured the prey in. The trolls crept forward, believing they had not been detected. They slowly approached Taigo, circling around from both sides to get behind it. Their target was clearly Shane.

"User, they have closed to fifty meters. Danger range."

A fourth-tier monster summoning spell brought down a giant boar, crushing two sneaking trolls to death. The remaining three dropped their stealth and hurled flying axes and javelins at Shane. Troll sentinels were battle-hardened warriors, and the weapons they threw flew straight for vital points. Shane moved his fingers a few times and softly said, "Double casting: Arcane Barrier." The three weapons were deflected without even breaking through the first layer.

"Kill them." The puppet Taigo turned around, its single eye shining a beam of light onto the three trolls as it charged alongside the giant boar. The enormous difference in size was suffocating. The three trolls did not resist and turned to flee.

"Don't go too fast. Follow them slowly." At Shane's command, the puppet Taigo and the giant boar moved as though the forest itself were holding them back, unable to pick up speed. The three trolls nimbly dodged the obstacles as they sprinted, soon vanishing from sight. The giant boar gradually dissipated, but Shane kept hold of the three trolls' trail as Taigo steadily carved out a path.

After running for nearly twenty kilometers, they discovered a troll camp. It was a tiny tribe with fewer than a hundred members.

"Is there a troll spellcaster?"

"One spellcaster detected, carrying anomalous energy." The Eye of Truth reported. "The enemy's overall strength is very weak. It is recommended that the user launch a frontal assault."

The trolls spotted Shane as well. The one-eyed puppet was taller than most broadleaf trees.

"Kill them all." This time, he held nothing back. The puppet Taigo charged at full speed. The fence around the troll camp could not even slow it down before it shattered on impact. As it stormed into the camp, Taigo stomped its right foot down. With a thunderous boom, the ground within five meters split apart, and the shockwave sent the surrounding trolls flying.

Taigo continued forward while the troll spellcaster directed troll warriors to surround it. Shane seized the opportunity to cast a spell. Magical energy spread outward from him as Frost Ring exploded, freezing every troll within its range. A chainsaw sprang out from Taigo's arm. Its shrill buzzing drowned out even the screams as blood sprayed high into the air like a curtain and limbs were shredded into chunks of flesh.

"Triple casting: Arcane Barrier." The words had barely left his mouth when a black orb struck Shane. One layer of the barrier was neutralized, then vanished in an instant.

"Spell attack received. Effect: corrosion, necrosis. Neutralized by the user's defensive spell. No damage inflicted."

Shane saw the troll spellcaster standing atop an altar, a mask covering his face as a second spell brewed in his hands. Shane raised his hand and activated a third-tier defensive-school spell: Counterspell.

Arcane energy violently forced its way into the troll spellcaster's mana fluctuations, disrupting the spell. The troll spellcaster's upper body swayed, and he nearly lost his footing.

Then five Arcane Missiles shot from Shane's fingertips. "Bang, bang, bang..." Five muffled explosions rang out in succession. Green light flared around the troll, blocking four missiles, but the final one knocked him off the altar.

"Target not dead. User, follow up with another attack."

The troll spellcaster had fallen behind the altar, where Shane could not see him. Direct spells had no line of fire. A fourth-tier monster summoning spell brought a boar crashing down from the sky. With a boom, its weight—enough to crack the earth—slammed into the ground behind the altar, throwing up several meters of dust.

"Troll spellcaster dead. Ordinary trolls are beginning to flee. Objective achieved. User, please cease casting."

The fleeing trolls posed no threat for now. Shane felt the changes in his mind. He was much more comfortable than after unleashing a full barrage last time.

"Because the user absorbed pure energy, the mind has been reinforced, reducing the sensation of swelling."

"Then can I sustain another round of multi-casting?" Shane cared greatly about every change.

"Not yet. After this absorption, this device will assess it again."

After going around the altar, Shane saw the troll spellcaster crushed flat in a pit. His skull looked boneless, twisted so badly that his facial features were unrecognizable. The mask told Shane that he had been a priest.

"Pure energy detected. Absorb?"

"Absorb it."

"Converting."

With the experience from last time, the Eye of Truth absorbed it much faster. A warm current flowed into him, soothing his mind and bringing a serenity even purer than meditation. There was so much of it—far more than the combined amount from the three voodoo casters last time—that he could actually feel his mind growing stronger.

"Residual memory fragments detected within the energy. Receiving the information may help locate the source of pure energy. It is recommended that the user absorb it."

"Absorb it if it is harmless."

"Understood. Scanning memories, removing harmful components. Quantity: harmless. Beginning absorption."

Shane was drawn into the memories of an animal. The sensation was unpleasant, but he did not interrupt it and continued watching for the moment.

It was a dragonhawk. From the moment it hatched, it ate more than its siblings. It shoved aside its brothers and sisters to claim the most food, and so it grew much larger than them. A few years later, it soared through the skies as the strongest member of its flock. All of its younger and older sisters courted it. It accepted them and produced many offspring with its sisters, forming its own tribe.

One by one, its sisters died, but it remained powerful. Its offspring covered one mountain after another, more numerous than its own feathers. Its descendants were protected beneath its wings, and it could feel the call of its bloodline.

New offspring hatched from their eggs. Their mothers were born from the mating of its descendants' descendants' descendants with it. It had grown tired of mating and breeding; simply watching its descendants grow was enough to make it happy.

It flew above its territory day and night, protecting every descendant. One day, it felt the land it guarded calling to it, naming it Dulles. It realized that it was a dragonhawk, and that hurling pillars of fire from the sky was its ability.

The memory shifted. A strange fellow came to the dragonhawk's territory. He said he wanted the dragonhawk to become their god, claiming that it could gain greater power and protect its territory better. The dragonhawk agreed.

The strange fellow proved his words. He killed a hundred creatures that looked like him, and the dragonhawk grew stronger because of it.

Every so often, the strange fellow would kill more creatures that looked like him, and the dragonhawk became increasingly powerful. The strange fellow said his name was Malakas.

Malakas begged the dragonhawk for help, and the dragonhawk went to assist him because he had made it stronger. There were countless creatures there that looked like Malakas. Just as the dragonhawk was about to ask how it could help, its own power betrayed it. At that moment, it understood that Malakas had been deceiving it all along. The power it had gained became the accomplice that bound it. Its body began to rot, sprouting countless festering sores. Malakas laughed wildly. He imprisoned the dragonhawk, confining it atop an unfamiliar altar. Many of Malakas's companions extracted its power, including the priest Shane had killed.

The memories broke into several fragments, each flashing past in an instant.

"User, according to the memories, the pure energy came from the primal animal spirit called Dulles. Analysis of the legends indicates that Dulles is a divine creature, not an Immortal. The extracted energy is transformed from his divinity. It is recommended that the user make contact with Dulles and directly analyze his divinity. This will greatly improve the user's strength."

"There's no rush, but keep looking for relevant information." In the memories, both Dulles and Malakas had been far stronger than him.

"Understood. This device will remind the user again when the user's strength is sufficient. After this absorption, the user's mental capacity has expanded. The user can cast one additional round of multi-casting or memorize one additional fourth-tier spell."

The gains were excellent. If he returned now, he could still make it back before Sylvanas. Even if Sylvanas arrived before him, Shane did not mind in the least. In fact, he was looking forward to seeing the expression on her face.