'If I want to keep playing, I'll have to buy my own virtual headset,' Aldric thought, remembering that now he was only borrowing from others.
He couldn't use it for too long.
In 30 minutes, he planned to stop and return the virtual headset to Romeo.
Since he didn't have any Storage Artifacts yet, he had to leave the monster's corpse behind as he continued his steps forward.
When he passed by a rock hill, he hurriedly stopped beside a boulder to hide because he saw the same type of monster but bigger, about four meters tall.
It fought with two men who teamed up to attack it, one using a sword and the other a spear.
DING!
(Shardling Level 4!)
Aldric received a notification.
The monster turned out to be at level 4.
It could move nimbly while launching red crystals to attack.
The men fighting it couldn't suppress it.
Their attacks didn't seem to have much effect on it either.
Instead, they were being suppressed.
Aldric saw that the man with the sword managed to slash the top of the Shardling's head. However, the sword only managed to scratch the monster's head.
"Damn, this sword is too dull, it's useless even though I'm already superior in terms of physical strength," he said in annoyance.
"Dude, keep him busy with you, I'll stab it in the back," replied the man with the spear.
As the man with the sword was keeping the Shardling busy with it, the man with the spear threw his spear at its back.
Clang!
It hit its back hard, even breaking one crystal on its back.
Only, it failed to penetrate the monster's stone skin, only being able to push it to stagger towards the direction Aldric was hiding.
He instantly thought about doing something, using Swallowed Sky from the Explo Spell.
By pointing his hand forward, a black hole as large as the monster appeared in front of the boulder he was hiding in.
It spun rapidly, emitting a suction force so fierce that it could be seen that the air was drawn into it.
Perhaps it really was a black hole.
The monster that was four meters tall apparently failed to resist at all.
Its body went into the black hole and disappeared instantly.
As the owner of the attack, Aldric could feel that the black hole crushed the monster's body as if a fruit was put into a blender.
When its Monster Core appeared, Aldric hurriedly stopped the attack.
He couldn't let the Monster Core disappear because of his own attack.
With the disappearance of the black hole, everything it had just swallowed appeared out, consisting of a pile of dust and the Monster Core with four lines floating above it.
"What is this?" The two men were dumbfounded.
When they noticed the boulder, they naturally realized there was someone hiding.
Aldric also didn't want to continue hiding because he wanted to retrieve the Monster Core.
He was the one who killed the monster, the Core was naturally his.
The two men became alert when they saw him, realizing he was dangerous because of the skill he had just displayed.
"Bro!" The man holding the sword greeted him.
In response, Aldric simply nodded.
He took the Monster Core and swallowed it directly.
DING!
(You swallowed a Level 4 Monster Core containing 4000 Spiritual Energy!)
(Your Ancient Sky Body successfully withstands 100% Spiritual Energy of the Core!)
(With Swallowed Sky, you can absorb all the Spiritual Energy in this Monster Core in 4 minutes!)
When the absorption process began, Aldric left immediately, not planning to interact with them.
"Did you see what he just showed us?"
"Yes, it's a black hole."
The two men started chatting.
"How is there such an Explo Spell. It's so powerful, this monster instantly crumble into dust."
"Maybe that guy is already at a higher stage."
"Impossible, he wouldn't swallow that Core if it was like that because it's useless. At best, he's only at the 4th Stage, but he's much stronger than both of us."
"..."
Meanwhile, Aldric who went elsewhere finally passed four minutes and got a notification.
DING!
(You successfully absorbed 4000 Spiritual Energy!)
[Spiritual Energy: 5000/4000]
DING!
(Your spiritual energy has reached 5000 Points. 4000 Points are required to advance to 3rd Stage Junior Magician, would you like to advance?)
Yes/No!
Yes, of course.
DING!
(You choose Yes, you advance to the 3rd Stage of Junior Magician!)
DING!
(Your status has been updated!)
[Nickname: Dark Crow]
[Magic: 3rd Stage Junior Magician]
[Spiritual Energy: 1000/6000]
[Power: 180!]
[Body: Ancient Sky Body
[Wheel of Life: Nine Stars
[Incantra Spell:
- Swallowed Sky
[Explo Spell:
- Swallowed Sky
- Star Formation
'I can easily defeat monsters two levels above me, it looks like I have to fight monsters that are really high level.'
Aldric realized something else because of the ease of the fight.
He fought twice and both times he finished with a single attack.
This was a bit boring for him.
However, in this area there didn't seem to be any monsters that were too high.
Along the way, he only encountered level 1 and 2 monsters. All of them he defeated with a single fist so he managed to collect up to ten Monster Cores, six of which were at level 1 and four were at level 2. They were useless to him because the players' bodies would not absorb the spiritual energy from the Monster Cores at lower levels.
The good thing was that he had encountered two Level 3 Monsters, which he also defeated with a single blow.
From those two Cores, he managed to collect 6000 spiritual energy and advanced again to the 4th stage.
DING!
(Your status has been updated!)
[Nickname: Dark Crow]
[Magic: 4th Stage Junior Magician]
[Spiritual Energy: 1000/8000]
[Power: 300!]
[Body: Ancient Sky Body
[Wheel of Life: Nine Stars
[Incantra Spell:
- Swallowed Sky
[Explo Spell:
- Swallowed Sky
- Star Formation
With the many Monster Cores he had collected, he returned to the city with only the Monster Cores, not their corpses as it was too troublesome with some of them having large bodies.
Plus, leaving the corpses of monsters for even ten minutes would make them disappear, picked up by other players.
Within the city, there were many shops that bought Monster Cores as well as anything from monsters or any object deemed valuable.
Some were very large and others were smaller.
The bigger ones bought at a higher price, but the queue was too long.
Aldric, who wanted to log out immediately, chose a small shop with a size of five by five.
It happened to have no customers, guarded by a bald young man wearing a robe.
He seemed to be the son of the shop owner.
"Sir, I have four Level 2 Monster Cores and six Level 1 Monster Cores, how much would you like to buy them for?" Aldric who arrived in front of the counter where the young man was immediately asked while showing ten Monster Cores in his hand.
The young man observed them for a while, then replied, "all of them are one thousand coins, can't be more!"
'Only a thousand.' Aldric inwardly grumbled because he should have been able to get at least 1400 coins.
This shop was really buying at a cheap price.
However, he had enough of that, so he nodded.
"Okay," he said, placing all the Monster Cores on the table.
The young man quickly picked them up then handed over the cloth bag that was constantly producing clanking sounds.
"I want one Storage Artifact, what's the cheapest?" asked Aldric, not immediately taking the cloth bag.
"1000 Coins is the cheapest, it has a 4×4 space with a height of 3 meters. Do you want to buy it?"
The young man pulled out the cloth bag again and showed Aldric a ring.
Apparently, the coins he earned could not even buy good clothes.
However, at this time Aldric chose to agree first.
"Okay, I want that ring," he said.
"Thank you!" The young man looked pleased.
He quickly handed the ring to Aldric.
When he held it, Aldric immediately knew how it worked, and could feel the frozen space inside the ring.
Basically, he only needed to think about storing or removing items.