The first day of the convoy was relatively boring. There were a few Magical Beasts that appeared at the front of the convoy, but William didn't have a chance to participate in the fight. The enemies were a group of three large birds, but William was too far away to add them to the Bestiary.
I need to find a way to battle, I'm losing points here!
William called forward, "Hey Torc, does anyone up front want to switch?"
"Why would you want to do that, this is the best spot. We don't have to do anything and get a paid trip to Blue Moon City."
"Do you want to switch then? My spot is better than yours."
"Sure, go have fun up front."
William swapped positions with Torc and moved up a wagon. He leaned forward to ask the next person to swap, who seemed quite happy to move back. This trend continued until William was on the fifth wagon. Perfect, now I can see the fights.
This turned out to be a good decision, as another group of six large dark-colored birds appeared two hours later.
[Bestiary] Plains Vulture: +1 Potential Point
The Cultivators in front stood up and leapt off the wagons. William watched as they drew the attention of the Plains Vultures away from the convoy. Since there were six Vultures, William decided to follow the group's lead.
He started the fight very passively, as he didn't want to anger anyone and get kicked to the back or middle of the convoy again. He healed the Cultivator's injuries from afar and received multiple looks of appreciation. This group seemed less arrogant toward William since they were able to experience his Life Magic firsthand. Follow current novᴇls on ɴovelfire.net
"A Life Manamatus, nice! Now I have less to worry about from these damn birds!" the Cultivator in front laughed and brandished a giant axe.
In between heals, William used some weak fireballs to hit each of the Plains Vultures before they were killed. The group of Cultivators were surprised again when they found that the Commoner was actually a Dual-Manamatus, and not a weak one. Their attitudes became more respectful when they saw this, as a healer with strength is a valuable asset in any team.
-Defeated Plains Vulture: +3 Potential Points
-Defeated Plains Vulture: +2 Potential Points
-Defeated Plains Vulture: +2 Potential Points
"Hey Newbie, come here! You've got a good battle sense for your age, how did you train?" the Cultivator with an axe asked.
"I go into the Livingwood Forest a lot."
"Oh that place? By yourself? Impressive. I think I saw you in the middle of the convoy, did you get excited seeing us fight?"
William scratched his head, "I still need experience, it was boring in the middle."
"I like your spirit! From now on, you fight with us. Think you can handle it?"
"Good! Let's take care of these bodies." the group of Cultivators put the beast corpses into their Space Rings. According to the Bestiary, the feathers were the valuable part of Plains Vultures, and William was given a feather for his contribution.
They returned to the convoy. The group continued to be the first to fight during the next few days. William's Mana Regeneration turned into a valuable asset here, since he didn't need to be as stingy with his Mana usage. There weren't many plants nearby to draw vitality from, so William had to use more of his own Mana to heal others.
--Upgraded Title: +1 Potential Point
-Savior (Uncommon): You have saved ten lives. Healing effects are 10% stronger.
The upgraded Savior title helped William to save more Mana, allowing him enough time for a full Mana recovery between each fight.
William's easygoing trip didn't stay that way. At dawn on the fifth day William was awoken by the shouts of two Cultivators using Wind Magic. He recognized the two as scouts who were supposed to be a few kilometers ahead of the convoy.
"Beast tide! Beast tide! Estimated size is around 60 Plains Vultures! They will be here in ten minutes!"
"60? F*ck this is going to be rough.." a Cultivator mumbled next to William.
The noble at the lead of the convoy called out. "Have everyone in the convoy move to the front. Two will stay at the rear, and one at the center. Go now!" he was surprisingly competent for the situation, which spoke volumes of his experience as a noble.
The Cultivators did as they were told. They formed a line in front of the convoy, while the Mages built walls with their respective Elements. William used the chaos to his advantage to strengthen the Earth and Ice walls that were built, only leaving gaps to launch spells from.
Preparations were completed quickly. William looked up to see a dark cloud approaching from about a kilometer away. Two minutes later, William could make out the shape and sizes of the Plains Vultures.
His eyes turned serious when he noticed a Plains Vulture that was much larger than the rest, probably at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm, or maybe even the Core Formation Realm. There were very few people in their group that could keep up with an enemy of that caliber, none could do it alone.
Now wasn't the time to hide his strength, William had to reduce the number of enemies. He prepared a giant fireball at full power. The Mana continued surging towards the spell until it started losing stability.
The Cultivators next to William saw what was happening and opened their mouths in shock.
That spell is almost as strong as a Core Formation Realm Cultivator, how is it possible? the axe-wielding Cultivator was stunned.
The giant fireball was launched when the Plains Vultures were within 200 meters. It flew as fast as William's normal fireballs when they were B Rank and exploded a few seconds later.
-Defeated Plains Vulture (x20): +40 Potential Points
-Defeated Plains Vulture (x6): +12 Potential Points
--Upgraded Title: +3 Potential Points
-Beast Slayer (Uncommon --> Rare): You've personally killed at least 100 Magical Beasts. +20% damage to Magical Beasts.
The Plains Vultures were each as strong as a Wind Wolf, yet William treated them like they were Liffox. The explosion instantly crippled the beast tide, even causing some minor damage to the leader of the Plains Vultures. The vultures that survived the first impact couldn't resist and were burned to death without a chance to resist.
"How can a non-Cultivator be so strong?"
The Cultivators nearby didn't have a chance to further express their shock as William threw a second Giant Fireball at the group of Plains Vultures.
-Defeated Plains Vulture (x8): +16 Potential Points
-Defeated Plains Vulture (x3): +6 Potential Points
What was previously a desperate situation for the Cultivators turned into just another difficult battle. With less than half their group remaining, William and the other Cultivators were able to finish off the remainder with minimal casualties. Even the leader of the Plains Vultures only lasted a few minutes under the continuous bombardment of over a dozen Adventurers.
Those who were severely injured were healed to full by William, and he was rewarded by the group with the largest portion of the loot. William didn't have a lot of space in his bag, so he traded some of his vulture feathers for Gold Coins. William was now quite rich with 140 Gold, but it wasn't enough for a Cultivation Technique.
He was going to ask the others how they managed to Cultivate, but he noticed that there were only middle-aged men among the Cultivators. They probably worked for years to earn as much money as William had in a few weeks.