There was a rumor that a squad of Life-bound Realm summoners came from Scaller Town to the village years ago to clear a dungeon that had formed deep within the forest.
However, not a single one of them came back. It was assumed they were dead.
This caused the villagers to panic and of course deemed the forest forbidden.
"I was lucky the last time I wandered deep inside. But I don't be so lucky next time." Tyrion muttered to himself.
"But the outskirt should be fine."
People gather herbs 100 meters in the outskirts and it had been long anyone went missing from the Forbidden Gorge Forest.
Making a decision, he lowered the brightness of his head lamp and started to walk East, towards the edge of the village.
In a 30 minutes, he reached his destination. The boundary between the village and the forest was filled with lots and lots of grasses.
Of course Tyrion absorbed these grasses but they contained 3 weeks to 2 months of lifetime.
About fifty meters in, his hand landed on the first Tree.
It was three times the diameter of the trees in the village. It's bark was rough and ridged, with its massive root dug drop into the ground. It looked really old.
Excited, Tyrion checked the bronze Watch.
[Name: Elder Ironbark]
[Type: Tree]
[Lifespan: 115 Years]
[Extract or Transfer Lifespan?]
Tyrion exhaled slowly.
One hundred and fifteen years. From a single tree. And there were dozens of them from where could see.
Eagerly, he extracted its lifespan without hesitation.
[Name: Moonshade Pine]
[Type: Tree]
[Lifespan: 67Years]
"Extract."
[Name: Verdant Hollow Oak]
[Type: Broadleaf Tree]
[Lifespan: 72 Years]
"Extract."
[Name: Ancient Emberwood]
[Type: Dryland Tree]
[Lifespan: 200 Years]
Tyrion was visibly stunned. The tree wasn't even tall, just double his height and way thinner than he is but it had actually lived for over 200 years?
"Extract," he breathed in.
He circled through the outskirts of the forest, staying within the first hundred meters of the the boundary, not daring to push deeper.
500 years… 700 years… 1000 years…
At 1000 years he started to feel giddy as though his mind was about to explode from happiness.
Calming himself, he continued to absorb and only stopped when he hit 2020 years.
[Lifespan — Plant: 2,020 Years]
"S-so much lifespan!" Tyrion whispered with his glinting eyes.
With this amount of lifespan, even a weed could turn into an immortal grass!
He carefully retraced his steps back to the village and then returned home.
On his bed, Tyrion was too energized to sleep. He sat cross-legged and practiced the Cosmic Shield until his Spark flickered from energy loss.
Exhausted, he fell asleep without knowing.
He woke up three hours later feeling rather refreshed.
"Morning mom."
Tyrion yawned as he walked to the living room, taking a glass of water from the tap.
"Morning. Hope your night was good?"
Tyrion nodded his head and downed the entire content of water.
After which, he started his morning routine. Feeding the animals, filling the water troughs, checking on the farm, clearing the drainage channel and other stuffs.
Then he went to check the herbs.
Two of the five rows had actually broken through the soil!
Tyrion was invigorated.
His hand hovered over them for a moment before he stopped himself.
'Not yet.'
He would wait until all five beds had germinated before he started the acceleration process.
Better to do it all at once.
He had only stood up when he heard shouting and wailing.
"Again?"
Tyrion frowned angrily.
"Witch! Wicked, shameless Witch! Get your filthy self out here this instant!"
Tyrion turned around slowly only to see Mrs. Leonis, standing at the short fence dividing the properties, screaming and shrieking at the top of her lungs.
Mrs Leonis was somewhere in her early fifties. She had a blonde-white hair, tiny eyes and was a large woman by weight.
Behind her was her Sun-Flare orange Tree.
The entire leaf had gone brown and its branches all dried up. At this moment, the tree looked like it had suffered from malnutrition.
Tyrion's mother came out from the kitchen doorway, wiping her hands on her apron. There was confusion on her face as she didn't know what was happening.
"Mrs. Leonis? What happened?"
"What happened?!" Mrs Leonis's screamed as though she was a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"You used your witchcraft on my Suntree! It was perfectly healthy yesterday evening, now look at it! If this isn't your wicked handy work, who else could it be?!"
Tyrion's mother kept her face carefully neutral.
"Mrs. Leonis, calm down. If I had witchcraft that powerful do you think I wouldn't have used it to improve my own life considerably."
Mrs Leonis slapped the fence angrily.
"Don't you dare be clever with me, stupid b*tch!"
"I know it was you! Your bad luck spread everywhere like disease. I shall make sure you and your miserable brat son and your cursed bloodline will be thrown out once I report this to the village head."
Tyrion's face turned cold.
"That's an interesting accusation, Mrs Leonis. You said witchcraft and now you're saying bad luck. You might want to decide which story to stick to before bringing it to the village head."
Mrs. Leonis' eyes snapped to him with anger.
"Disrespectful little brat! Daring to talk back to your elders. I'll teach you manners your mother clearly hasn't taught you—"
Suddenly, a summoning gate made of a a single white ring of energy overlapping each other appeared behind her.
A portal formed at the center of the white ring and a Saber-Horn Demon Owl flew out with speed.
"CAW—"
The Saber-Horn Demon Owl was two meters tall, with large wings of over three meters.
Underneath the Saber-Horn Demon Owl, three rings of different colors, white, green and blue lit up from beneath its body, signifying the Infant Realm, third level, the Ember stage.
The energy blazed off like an ember, whipping the surrounding air with energy.
The summon suddenly slapped one of its wing towards Tyrion.
Tyrion's hair whipped across his face, as his clothes fluttered.
He had no time to react as he was only at the first stage. His primal energy was merely a spark, not enough for him to generate reaction speed fast enough to counter the attack.
"Bang!"