It wasn't until halfway through the night that Cynthia began to stir. Once she awoke a blue window appeared. "You have become the lord of the Human Face Spider cave and its vicinity. This means that all creatures native to this area who have not migrated must follow your orders. Beware that a forced servant and a willing servant are very different. Creatures may submit to you willingly because of your increase of power but many still won't acknowledge you even if they are weaker." "System, did you know that the pain would be that high?" asked Cynthia. There was no window that appeared. "Are you really ignoring me right now?" Cynthia growled in a threatening manner. There was still no response. As Cynthia angrily sat there she decided to look at everyone's status but realized there was a new connection. "You have subjugated an Adolescent Human Face Spider through your act of higher evolution. The Human Face Spider has a deep admiration of you!" said a new white window as if it hadn't been ignoring her before. "Business over personal, huh?" Thought Cynthia, rather annoyed. Even though she was angry, she didn't really remember much of the nearly 3 days in earth time and didn't remember any of her slumber afterwards. "Tell me what happened during that whole time." Then several windows appeared. Even more than after the fight with the xingxing. Blue 1 "You have consumed a beast pearl with far more energy than your own. The latent consciousness in the pearl is trying to take over!" Blue 2 "You have sustained cultivation damage from a fight between beast pearls! Initiating healing!" Blue 3 "Your energy has reached 50! Usually 1 inner energy stat point is considered one year of internal energy by human standards! You are undergoing the right to become lord. A beast tide is coming!" Blue 4 " Your subordinates seem ill-equipped to handle a beast tide. Automatically ranking up your subordinates!" White 1 "Your subordinate Sebas is currently capable of evolution to the adolescent stage! He is undergoing evolution!" White 2 "Your subordinate Baby Human Face Spider is currently capable of evolution to the Juvenile stage! She is undergoing evolution!" White 3 "Your subordinates have successfully evolved! This act of rapid evolution including you and your subordinates was witnessed with admiration by an intelligent Human faced spider!" Blue 5 "Your subordinate Sebas is creating his beast pearl!" Blue 6 "Tip: usually it takes beasts at the bloodline level of Human Face Spiders about 25 points in the inner energy stat to form a beast pearl. The higher the bloodline the sooner a beast pearl can be made. Ordinary bloodlines may never create a beast pearl since it would take hundreds of years and the main component in prolonging a beast's life is the beast pearl." White 4 "Your subordinate Sebas has created his beast pearl!" Blue 7 "the beast tide has arrived! If a beast gets to you and kills you and absorbs you energy it will become the new lord instead of you! Moreover there will be no risk of your consciousness taking over their body because of the universal penalty of undergoing the right of lordship!".Blue 8 "Your Subordinates with the help of one mercenary have repelled the beast tide! MVP: Sebas" Blue 9 "You have passed the Trial of Lordship! You shall now become a lord!" Blue 10 "Error! The host's body is not strong enough to hold a lord title. Undergoing body reconstruction!" "Congratulations! You have become a juvenile White Tiger!". Then finally there were three familiar windows. Blue 1 "Congratulations! Your body has been reconstructed and you have received a lord title! You are now a baron!" Blue 2 "You have become the lord of the Human Face Spider cave and its vicinity. This means that all creatures native to this area who have not migrated must follow your orders. Beware that a forced servant and a willing servant are very different. Creatures may submit to you willingly because of your increase of power but many still won't acknowledge you even if they are weaker." white 1 "You have subjugated an Adolescent Human Face Spider through your act of higher evolution. The Human Face Spider has a deep admiration of you!". Most of a full day and half a full night before. Sebas had finished the blood he was given and felt a change in his body. He looked around and could see many transparent Human Faced Spiders. "Where did you come from? And why can I see through you?" Inquired Sebas, clearly rather panicked. One of the bigger and older looking ones almost as tall as the cave itself instead of replying asked, "Can you really see us little one?". "Yes I can! Why wouldn't I be able to?" replied Sebas, still very confused. "We are the souls of your ancestors. We are no longer of the world you live in and within a few days we will disappear folding back into reincarnation. All of the young ones have long since passed on. Only we remain." replied the big spider. "How did you die?" asked Sebas. "Our cave was raided by the nearby xingxing settlement. While our leader was nearly a baron They has tactics that were far beyond our capability to fight against." replied the soul "I see you brought one of them back as food. We managed to decimate most of them but we did not come out unscathed. The eggs at the back of the cave were all that remained. They actually let them be because our corpses tasted so nice to them. They decided to let them be so that they could herd them like livestock later once they had recovered the damages of war.". Then Sebas felt a shift in Cynthia's energy and he got worried. "My lady!" he shouted. The big spider noticing this focused his senses on where Cynthia was in the cave. "My god! Is that little tiger about to attempt to become a lord!?" said the spider's soul in complete surprise, usually it takes over 50 years for a human to attain that level!". "Even with the head start we beasts get we wouldn't dare to attempt without solidifying our foundation to the extreme!" continued the big spider now with all the other spiders in uproar "I've never even heard of one so young undergoing the trial!". "What's going to happen to my mistress?" asked Sebas. "Well when humans undergo the trial to become a lord they call it breaking through a major layer and have to survive a world energy baptism. We beasts have a somewhat similar process but the power we get comes from a different source than humans and since we are actually blessed by the world it doesn't fight against us on our path of cultivation. Instead of a world energy baptism where the world fights against our growth like humans, the world sends down a trial to see if we are worthy.". "What happens if you fail?" asked Sebas. "You die and the person who kills you gains all of your energy without any risks." replied the soul "In fact a lot of lower level lords travel the world hunting people trying to become lords during their trials to gain more power. Even worse, the most common way I've heard of beasts becoming lords is by subordinates usurping the position of leader of their groups during the trial.". "What does the trial entail?" asked Sebas. "Every beast in the area will instantly know the location of the possible lord. Humans call these events beast tides. In fact beast tides will even occur when humans break through and they can be sensed by nearby beasts. This is why many human cultivators try to avoid breaking through in the wilderness and usually opt to break through in the comfort of their sects where beasts can't enter usually." answered the spider. "Why can't beasts enter these 'human sects' as you call them? Wait, do we have time for this?" Sebas asked, realizing again that what all this means is that beasts are going to flock here to kill his master. "It's ok. We still have some time. To answer your question. What we beasts call the growth stage, which you, your siblings, and that tiger are in is what humans refer to as the qi gathering stage, dantian building, and dantian purifying stages. All of these things that humans have to train to do naturally happens for us, as we grow after attaining sentience." the soul answered patiently "all that is to say that the humans who are in even minor sects usually have one or two lords as either the elders or the sect master that can protect them. Usually the minor lords who go out hunting lord candidates usually have enough sense to not attempt to go up against multiple lords just for power less than a lord and for mid level lords it usually isn't worth absorbing the power of creatures who aren't even lords yet because their power doesn't grow much from it.". "How do you know all of this?" asked Sebas. "All of this is information passed down from even my ancestors." said the big spider "In fact in the distant past one of the beast dukes was a Human Faced Spider. A duke is the highest level of lord who has the qualifications to attempt to become a beast king.". "We are running out of time though so I must ask." Said the spider soul switching to a very serious tone "you have the temperament to become a beast lord on your own and if you take out that little tiger you can become a new hope for our Human Faced Spider species.". "I would never do such a thing to my lady! She is all I have ever known. She was there when I had just hatched and mercifully spared me when I tried to kill her! She even allowed me to take more of my siblings under my wing so that they didn't have to die either. She even showed concern for the safety of someone as lowly as me when I could feel that my elder brother almost killed her from the fragments of memories that poured through my connection with her!" pleaded Sebas "I have nothing but respect and loyalty for her!". "Very well then," said the big spider "There's a saying that the humans In our section of the world use. 'Sometimes it is better to be the tail of a dragon rather than the head of a snake'". After the big spider said that Sebas began to shine with white light and a moment after the souls as well as Sebas could see white light coming from where the two spider girls were staying. As both Sebas and the little spider began to undergo evolution to become adolescent and juvenile respectively. Moreover the juvenile spider girl Sebas had feelings for saw what happened and subconsciously replicated it and also began to undergo evolution to become an adolescent. "My, my" said the big spider without anybody but his fellow souls to hear "It seems that little tiger's growth speed is contagious!".
