"Rustle."
Tyrion felt something soft and warm pressing against his cheek.
He stirred awake, groaning in pain.
His body felt incredibly heavy and his mind extremely foggy as though he had taken too much alcohol.
Something ruffled against his face again, and his eyes cracked open.
Two large beady eyes appeared right before him, startling him before he realized it was his Rooster.
The damned chicken was resting comfortably on his chest.
"Cough — cough—!"
A violent cough ripped out of his chest.
Tyrion sat up sharply, and the chicken hopped off with an indignant 'bwok' as he doubled over and spat a thick, dark wad of phlegm on the ground.
His body ached but the pounding head ache made things even worse. Tyrion was confused as tho what was happening when the fog clouding his mind began to fade and everything came rushing in.
'I'm still alive?'
Tyrion thought he was truly going to die when his body became paralyzed after drinking the two liquid.
His eyes fell on the Ancient Bronze Watch still In his grasp.
"Did you save me?"
He remember the watch glowing but it might have been an illusion now that he thought about it.
At that moment, he noticed something written on the glass cover of the ancient bronze watch.
[Time Currency]
[Plant Time: 10.2 Years]
Tyrion was stunned. 'What's this?'
He brought the watch closer and the text was even clearer. He didn't hallucinate it.
"Time currency, plant time? Does this have anything to do with plants?"
He looked around him until his eyes landed on a five-inch long grass that had survived the battle, and was behind him. Reaching his hand out he touched the plant and sure enough, another text appeared underneath the first line of text.
[Name: Lemon Grass]
[Grade: Nill]
[Lifetime: 2 weeks]
[Harvest Plant Lifetime?]
[Infuse Plant Lifetime?]
Tyrion raised an eyebrow in surprise. The watch was actually displaying the stats of the plant in real time, even displaying the name of the plant which is really surprising.
He hesitated for half a second then clicked on the Infuse button.
In that instant, the grass started to grow rapidly before Tyrion's face.
In just a few seconds, the thin grass stretched and thickened as it grew all the way from an inch to a two meters tall grass!
At the same time, the Plant Lifetime currency in the watch started to reduce rapidly.
10.2… 7.8… 4.1… 2.3… 0.00.
"…This," he breathed in disbelief. "This is the real treasure."
Everything clicked into place. The two summoners, Lifebound Realm powerhouses, had fought each other to the death, he finally understood why.
The ability to fast-forward growth of plants by thousands of years in a few seconds was the kind of power that could turn the entire continent upside down!
Symbiotes typically need high grade materials to level up and evolve. Such as beast cores, potions and herbs. The main material is Dimensional Herbs.
The longer the lifespan of a Dimensional herb, the higher its grade. If he could use this Ancient Bronze Watch's ability to increase the quality of a Dimensional herb or fruit to the highest mythic grade, even a foolish goat would evolve to a divine-grade beast!!!
"Calm down!"
Tyrion inhaled deeply to calm his beating heart. It was at this point he needed to be extremely calm so as not to make any mistake.
The giddiness that rose in his chest was immediately wrestled back down.
If even a whisper of this spread, not even his corpse would be found.
"I need to wipe every single trace of me being here."
He tied the watch to his neck and put it underneath his shirt. Then he spent the next twenty minutes erasing every trace he could find of his presence in the clearing.
He broke several small branches and covered the corpses as well as the clearing with them.
He cleaned his footprints, covering what remained of both bodies beneath a thick layer of deadwood and foliage. It wasn't perfect.
So when he'd done everything he could think of, he immediately lit a fire. The dried leaf and deadwood caught fire as they began to burn rapidly.
It wasn't until Frank's flesh strarted melting did he turn around to leave with two branches tied underneath his boot to cover his tracks.
Since it was midnight, the village was still half-asleep when he slipped back into the village.
He made sure no one saw him and even if they did, he had branched the stream on his way here, catching two fishes to use an excuse.
His mother's farmland sat at the quieter edge of the village. It wasn't very large but was modest.
She had purchased the land from the village head years ago with the last Crowns she had when they escaped the city.
They planted rice, wheat, corn, herbs and lots of vegetables. The livestock section held about 15 chickens, 2 cows, 5 sheep, and one very lazy pig.
Tyrion vaulted the wooden fence of his home.
Then he chose a spot at the base of the old oak tree near the rear fence and dug a hole with a shovel.
There, he buried the books, the watch, the shirt he wore stained with blood and the wooden box containing the two herbs more than 3 feet deep.
After he was done, he opened the tap in the barn and washed the filth from his his body and then entered the barn.
"Bwok!" "Bwok!"
The chickens stirred at his presence but quieted down after a while.
He moved quietly between the rows of cages, filling water troughs and scattering feed like he had done a thousand time to calm himself.
Suddenly, the barn door swung open.
"Tyrion."
His mother stood in the doorway.
The woman was a fine-boned woman that had large, catlike eyes with modest feature.
She was wearing her plain morning clothes, with her dark hair pulled back and her eyes were puffed as though she had been crying all night.
She immediately crossed the barn and wrapped her arms around him so tight.
She didn't say anything for a long moment.
"I thought something had happened to you."
She pulled back to look at his face — both hands cupping his jaw, turning his head left and right, checking his head, his neck, his arms. Looking for any signs of injury.
"I really did," she said quietly. "I kept telling myself you had just gone somewhere to be alone. That you needed space. But even after so long, I didn't see y—"She stopped. Swallowed. "I don't know what I would have done. If something had happened to you."
"I'm alright. Just tired."
She held on for another long moment. Then, gradually, her grip loosened. She withdrew, brushed a hand quickly across her eyes.
"No scars," she said. "Good."
She tilted his chin up once more, examining the shallow cut on his cheek that Frank's blade had left. Her expression didn't change, but her gaze sharpened slightly.
"It's good you're home," She said with relief.
***
Finally alone in his room, Tyrion was now able to contemplate.
A summoned beast is called Symbiote because the beast feeds and depend on the human host to survive. A Symbiote can't survive if the summoner is dead but a summoner may survive if a their Symbiote is killed and might even have the chance to summon another beast.
Thousands of years ago, this world underwent a catastrophic event. Another dimension overlapped with this world, opening numerous portals, into this world.
Dimensional beasts spewed forth into this world causing chaos, death and destruction. Humans managed to awaken talents called Supergenes.
Humans hunt dimensional monsters to level up, dimensional monsters hunt humans to evolve and mutate.
As a result, countless battles had broken out between these two species for thousands of years.
It was a cycle of life.
But that cycle was broken when another type of race invaded both this world and the Primordial world.
Their strength were extremely terrifying and their destructive ability were astonishing.
In a few months, they wiped more than 60 percent of the two world's population!
Neither humans nor soul beasts were spared as the enemy culled their numbers until barely any remained.
However, just as the two worlds neared extinction, the two species came together and united, forming an alliance with each other. Hence, the Summoner path was born.
With the intelligence of the human race and the strength of the dimensional beasts, their strength erupted.
The two species were able to stand their guard against the Demonic beasts invasion, killing them as they came.
The world was rebuilt and was even more advanced than the previous era.
After thousands of years of rebuilding and civilization, they developed technologies that converts demonic beast crystals into electricity to power various aspect of their lives until it became a household tool and a basic necessity.
—-
When his summoned his beast, several information popped up into Tyrion's head.
Th first information was the name of his chicken which is called the Red-Crown Rooster.
While the second information was the Blood Origin Skill [Soul Shaking Cry] and also how old his beast was — 2 years.
If it weren't for the skill, who knew what else Frank had up his sleeve. Tyrion might not be alive at this point.
Tyrion gazed at the chicken resting in his Monster Space with a complicated look then his gaze became very clear.
With the Ancient Bronze Watch now in his grasp, things would be different now.
Tyrion didn't even know when he slept off.
***
When morning came, mother and son were both seated at the dining table.
They were eating Fried rice and beans. His mother had placed three boiled eggs on his plate slightly surprising Tyrion.
Tyrion ate in silence.
"You're not disappointed," he suddenly said, without looking up.
His mother's spoon froze.
"Why would I be disappointed?"
"Father summoned a dragon," he said. "Everyone expected—"
She immediately interrupted him. "Your father summoned a dragon, fought for this country with that dragon, gave everything he had for people who smiled to his face and stabbed him the moment it was convenient." Her jaw tightened.
"He was branded a traitor and died with that lie on his name. So no, Tyrion. I'm not interested in what anyone expectation. I'm only interested in you being alive, that's enough for me."
She picked her spoon back up and continued eating.
After a moment she added, somewhat more quietly: "If it were up to me, I wouldn't have let you awaken at all."
Tyrion looked at her with a peculiar gaze.
"If you're worried, there's still the Super-soldier path," she continued.
It was obvious she had put some thoughts into it and didn't want him to continue down the summoning path.
"Monster Training isn't the only road. And even if you had awakened a rat—"
"A rat," Tyrion repeated flatly.
"—I would still love you. Don't ever disappear on me like that again."
Tyrion felt something thug in his heart. He looked back down at his rice so she wouldn't see his face.
"Yes, mother."
After a short pause.
"They said your summon was a large chicken," she said casually.
"Let me see if it's large enough to feed us for the next two weeks."
"Mom!"
Tyrion pouted in mock anger.
His mother burst out into laughter, warming the atmosphere like a ray of sunlight.
Tyrion rolled his eyes and formed the hand seal.
His two hands coming together so that formed the shape that looked almost like a gate or a doorway made of bone and skin.
He closed his eyes. Breathed in. Let the connection between himself and his Monster Seed open up.
Behind him, energy gathered and three white large circles overlapped with each other as they spun rapidly.
In the middle of these white rings, a black hole formed and within the black hole, a beast came out. The summoning gate immediately vanished.
The chicken stood in the kitchen for a moment, head bobbing as its checked its new surroundings.
Then its gaze landed on the boiled egg sitting on Tyrion's mother's plate. It immediately walked over snatched the egg with its beak and began chewing it.
Tyrion immediately face palmed himself.
"It's quite carnivorous."
His mother immediately burst out laughing once more.
After a while she stood up and walked around the table, pressing her fingers gently along the chicken wings, running her thumb through the edge of its feathers and observed the chicken with serious expression on her face.
She paused at the comb.
The fleshy crest along the top of the chicken's head was entirely red but there was a hint of gold color on it.
"What's wrong?" Tyrion brows knitted in slight fear.
His mother exhaled slowly and stood up.
"It has a hint of mutant blood in it," she said. "Just a trace but it's buried extremely deep." She shook her head.
"It's likely impossible to awaken in its lifetime, and would take enormous resources and a great deal of time to awaken it."
"But there's a chance," Tyrion immediately said happily. The thought on feeding the chicken 1000 year old herbs till it becomes fat and mutate flashed through his mind.
Mrs Maxwell glanced at him. Something passed across her expression but she forced a smile.
"Yes. There's a chance."
***
The rest of the morning moved slowly.
He watered the plants they had and did some minor chores.
By the time he was done, his entire body was aching. He washed his body at the outdoor pump, went inside, lay down on his bed, and was asleep before even hit the bed.