After more discussion with Heather, it was decided that they would set off for the quintessence spring in three days. It would be a long trip away from Roan Oak Village so they had to prepare. For Zachary, he wanted to make some quick progress to increase his strength before heading out.

He currently had three adept rank Ensouled; Wander, Onkie, and Voodoo. However, he could only bring out two of them at the same time due to his soul cultivation at the Two Paths Adept Rank. One of the summons always had to be Wander as that was one of the drawbacks of eternal summoning.

Heather had spare novice rank anima crystals and gave a lot of them to him as a bonus in exchange for the soul orbs. Zachary would use them to cultivate all of his novice rank summons to the limit of eight paths. It would be tricky to raise them to the adept rank but this was the least he could do.

Adept rank anima crystals were hard to come by. Simply fighting a wild Ensouled was difficult enough. Killing or capturing one wasn’t guaranteed as they all had excellent survival instincts. Heather’s gang often had to work together and send out an overwhelming force of adept rank summons to overpower one wild adept.

The situation changed for the better now that Zachary was here, especially with the addition of Voodoo. Seeing their potential, Heather organized hunting trips in the interim to take advantage of his powerful summons. The poisonous swamp wasn’t the only area of interest on her map of targets.

Zachary ran around nonstop the following few days, heading out with Heather and an alternating number of her group members. They first tackled a bamboo grove that contained a strange Ensouled. It wouldn’t come out to harm other creatures. But if anything tried to enter its territory, it would attack ferociously. Hunting it by normal means was impossible as the creature was like a ghost within its natural environment.

However, it was no match for Wander who simply wandered into the bamboo grove with his protective shield fully active. The creature attacked as expected but wasn’t able to break his shield. It kept attacking, driven mad by his incessant barking and taunting, and was lured to the edge of the bamboo grove where it was immediately set upon by the other summons in waiting.

In the end, the professor received a brand new treant. In fact, according to him, it was a new species which he named the bamboo treant. Its main body resided underground while spreading bamboo rhizomes in all directions. It didn’t look like other treants that had a humanoid body. Instead, it was more like a giant knotted root that could walk around using countless tendrils as little feet. It was extremely ugly and Zachary was more than happy to hand the creature off to someone else.

At the next hunting ground, the gang had to deal with a powerful brown monkey residing in a peach tree. The tree produced delicious peaches but these were all monopolized by the monkey. It attacked anything that dared to come close. If the opponent was too strong, it resorted to hurling the sharp, gnarly pits of the peaches it just ate at its enemies.

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The monkey was strong, fast, and intelligent. It was an excellent addition to anyone’s lineup. Heather’s gang had tried to capture it many times but the tree was its domain. It was too smart to be beaten up and it also had a seemingly endless supply of peach pits.

Unfortunately, its reign as the ruler of the peach tree came to a quick end at the hand of Voodoo. Its poison was simply too powerful. The monkey was quick and agile and dodged the first few barrages. But all it took was one purple spitball making contact and it quickly succumbed.

The monkey went to Shuhua. She was the next in line to receive an adept rank Ensouled. Zachary wanted the monkey too but he couldn’t be too greedy. Heather had to take care of six other people. If one person gained too many benefits, the others would become discontent. It was one of the disadvantages of being in a group. They had to share the spoils with everyone.

With him added to the mix, they had eight people. It was already a lot. Eight adept ranks Ensouled was a full lineup for an adept rank summoner. But if they had to share, it was only one Ensouled for each person, far from enough.

After a few whirlwind days, Zachary and Heather swept the nearby hunting grounds clean. They managed to capture a total of seven wild adepts, including the bamboo treant and the peach tree monkey. Zachary’s soul orbs provided great help but it was also a solid group effort. Everybody contributed, showcasing their strength in numbers. Their efficiency far surpassed what he could do alone.

The seven new adepts went to each person in Heather’s gang. Zachary was left out because he recently got Voodoo so it was considered fair. Still, Heather didn’t forget about him and gave him two adept rank anima crystals as compensation and to show her appreciation. These were all that her gang had at the moment. She gave them to him in hopes that Doro could break through before the mission to the quintessence spring.

Zachary quickly set to work. It was the final night before they were to set off. He dug a deep hole inside his hut and went underground with Doro. He let the earth elemental sink into the dirt and sat on top of its head. With the anima crystal between his palms, he entered soul cultivation, drawing the abundant Eternum energy from within into his soul. At the same time, Doro let the energy of the surrounding earth flow into its body.

Together, summoner and summon cultivated deep into the night. Doro’s soul sea was surging, moving with unstoppable force like a landslide. But it still wasn’t quite enough. The first anima crystal was expended and the second quickly took its place. Eternum flowed between their two souls, strengthening the connection.

It was a long, tedious process. He could not feed too much to Doro at once or else its soul would be damaged. If he fed too little, there would not be enough stimulation and the energy would be wasted. He needed steadiness and control and stamina, especially because Doro was talented and its soul sea was already vast.

Sweat poured down Zachary’s brow. Sweat poured down his bare chest and formed a small puddle on the ground. By now, he was feeding his own soul energy into Doro as well. And when he was exhausted, Wander took over, using the borrowed power ability to supply Zachary with soul energy which was, in turn, sent to Doro.

Oomm.

A deep reverberation shook the ground beneath him.

Ooommm.

The moment he had been waiting for came. He quickly collected all the remaining strength he and Wander had and sent it all through to Doro. Doro then let out a mighty roar, making the underground world tremble all around them. Waves of Eternum radiated in all directions like an earthquake, like the lord of the earth awakening from a long slumber.

Ooommmmm.

Finally, Doro broke through.