"Hu…" Noel let out a breath of relief as he lowered his vision, making sure the demon was dead. "It seems that I can use it right now."
He recalled the sensation from the muscle strengthening. The power surge coming from all over his body made him feel like he was flying.
"Muscle Strengthening, one of the most basic spirit techniques. My current control doesn't allow me to maintain it for a long time, but this is a perfect chance to hone it. With the life and death battle, I can force myself to continue using this spirit technique.
"From what I felt, it seemed that the Muscle Strengthening increased thirty percent of my power. According to Sir Shale, it can reach fifty percent. There are other spirit techniques that can amplify my power even further, but that's not something I can use right now.
"For now, I need to focus on honing my current skills." Noel was satisfied with his performance and dug out the crystal before disposing the demon's body and cleaning the blood. They were going to live here, so they didn't want the bad smell to disturb them.
"Impressive." Anna smiled while scooping the soup and handing the bowl to him. "Come eat."
"Mhm." Noel nodded. He didn't say anything more because of the previous question. It seemed that there was something that his parents had hidden from him. Or, they might simply never told him because he was never interested in learning about the family business.
'Maybe I should investigate my past… But it's impossible to do it currently since my mansion has been taken over by the royal family. In that case, should I make another deal with Anna? No, I can't trust her one hundred percent. She was the one ordering the execution, so she could lie easily.
'If I don't find anything from my investigation, I need to suspect her as well since she has been lying this whole time. In any case, I'll get stronger first. As long as I become a full fledged knight, I can do more.'
Noel fell into deep thought while he was eating, confusing Anna.
"What's with the long face?" Anna asked, concerned that he was thinking about the Ancient Demon Tree.
"By the way, what do you know about the Ancient Demon Tree? Its strength, appearance and other stuff." Noel asked back, changing the topic.
"You don't know?" Anna frowned but she started talking after seeing Noel's expression. "Well, I have three pieces of information. The appearance of the Ancient Demon Tree is… well, it's just a normal tree. However, the tree reaches 20 meter tall. Can you imagine how tall it is?
"Anyway, that's not important. The problem is the Ancient Demon Tree's strength. In the past, the Ancient Demon Tree could wipe out the fort with its branches alone. That was how powerful the Ancient Demon Tree was.
"But it had slept for thousands of years, so I believed the Ancient Demon Tree didn't even have 0.001% of its strength. We need to kill the Ancient Demon Tree as soon as possible because we can't afford to have it regain its full strength.
"In one hour, the demon can kill us with a single snap. So, we need to kill the tree within an hour."
Noel thought for a moment and asked, "How about the Supreme Devil? How is it compared to the Ancient Demon Tree?"
"Supreme Devil is one level stronger." She shook her head helplessly. "Ancient Demon Tree can threaten the entire kingdom, but a Supreme Devil can threaten the entire world. I'm sure you can understand the comparison."
"I see." Noel lowered his head with a serious expression. "It seems that the world is a bigger place."
"Anyway, the last piece of information is how to kill the Ancient Demon Tree. Normally, we'll kill the tree by severing its body, right? But that's not possible with this huge tree. Hence, we're going to climb the tree and create a hole for us to go inside the tree.
"After that, we'll head directly to the Demon Crystal and destroy it. Don't worry, even though the crystal is destroyed, you can still absorb it.
"But the Demon Crystal is too potent for you, so I don't advise you to absorb it." Anna suggested.
"…" Noel narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
They had agreed that Noel would get the crystal while Anna would take the piece of wood, but now Anna suggested not to absorb the energy, Noel felt unpleasant.
"The energy is too much for you to handle. Even I don't have the capability of absorbing the energy." Anna shook her head, explaining. "I'm sure that you know about Spirit Vessel, right?"
"Spirit Vessel." Noel looked down, recalling the information he got from reading about Spirit. "Spirit Vessel is a kind of a cup that holds the Spiritual Energy in our body. The more we absorb the Demon Crystal, the bigger the vessel will be. That's why we should absorb all the Demon Crystals to make our Spirit Vessel as big as possible, allowing us to have a huge amount of Spiritual Energy."
"Yes. However, can you imagine this…" Anna raised her wooden glass and asked, "This is your current Spirit Vessel. And the moment you absorb the Ancient Demon Tree's crystal, your vessel will evolve into this lake."
"Isn't that good?" Noel tilted his head in confusion.
"No. The rapid expansions will lead to an unstable foundation. If you think about it, how do you transform this small cup to this lake and suddenly fill all the Spiritual Energy to the brim? It's simple, you need to do it slowly so that you don't get drowned by it. Your Spirit Vessel might even break and you'll die."
"Does that mean there is no meaning in killing the Ancient Demon Tree?"
"There is one!" Anna raised one finger. "That is the part that protects the demon crystal. That part is elastic but durable, a perfect item to create armor or sword handle… My original plan is to use that part as my sword handle.
"As for the Demon Crystal, it's best to give it to the fort and exchange it for other rewards."