Aldred stepped on the beast's corpse and raised his hand. "Arise."
Black mist engulfed the beast. Aldred had seen this scene repeated many times before so he was used to it. But the feeling of getting new undead always gets him excited.
So when the beast stepped out in its undead form, Aldred's body vibrated in excitement. With mystic purple lines glowing all over its body, the crystals on the beast body looked so mysterious and dangerous at the same time.
"Okay, what should I name you? You know what. I am too lazy to name you. Let's just call you Juragan instead."
Aldred then told the monsters to vanish before he continued looking around the forest. He saw a lot of weird bugs on the way, and a lot of suspicious-looking plants. After what Byron said about those plants, he did not want to test his luck with them.
After a few hours, Aldred realized that the forest was really huge. There were hills, gigantic trees that went through the clouds, and some even had roots as large as a house.
He passed by a lot of monsters on the way, but he killed all of them. Aldred did not know what reward Byron would give, and he wasn't that serious about playing this hunting game either. He just wanted to have fun until the astrolabe activated and he could begin his journey again.
And yeah, he still remembers that he had to go to Paphia first and visit the Lair of Treasure to obtain the shield and complete the Golden Battle Gear set.
Suddenly, Aldred saw a shining green mist coming out from a cave. He frowned and took a closer look before entering the cave. Inside, there were some crystals that gave a dim light for the cave.
The cave was small and there was nothing else inside.
"I should go back. The monsters I hunted should be enough."
Aldred turned around about to leave the cave, but a beautiful woman in a light green dress appeared and stared at him. Her whole body seemed ethereal, barely entering the physical state and non physical state.
"Hello?" Aldred asked.
"So you are the one," The beautiful lady said.
"The one who?"
The lady smiled. "Your presence affects many beings in this world, my boy." Her voice was sweet. "They are scared of you and yet there is nothing they can do about it."
"What are you talking about?"
The lady shook her head. "You will know sooner or later."
She raised her hands, and some sort of divine green energy came out of her body, condensed on her palm before forming a jade medallion.
"Take this medallion with you."
"I don't need something like that."
"Take it. It will do you wonders in your journey."
"I don't want to. You're a weird lady in the middle of the forest that suddenly gives me a piece of jade. You expect me to smile and take it just like that?"
The beautiful lady glared at the word 'weird'. This was the first time someone called her that way, not to mention the person in question was a boy below 15 years old.
If she did not know who this boy was, she would punish him.
Punish him very dearly.
"This jade will help you in getting stronger. You have a lot of enemies, child. Many people will try to kill you."
Aldred looked at her with suspicion which irritated the lady.
Eventually she sighed and grabbed his hands by force before channeling the energy from the jade throughout his body.
"Hey! What are you doing!"
The lady ignored him and let the channel cycled within his body once.
That was when Aldred received a notification.
[World Refined Physique Lv.1]
Upgrade points: 250/7550
"What is this?" Aldred looked at his hands. "I feel like my body is stronger now, but it's not strength."
"The durability of your body increased. From now on, you can take attacks more effectively than before."
"What is this World Refined Physique thing?"
The lady smiled. "Your ability is quite something. So it told you the name of the talent you got. Interesting. That World Refined Physique is as it says, a physique refined by the world. Use this jade to further strengthen your body, but it will not always work. After using it, you need something to temper your body. Only when you tempered it to its limit can you further strengthen it with this jade."
"So complicated."
The lady sighed again. "Basically, you need to get hit a lot before using this jade to get a stronger physique."
Aldred inspected the jade.
[Heavenly Jade Token]
"Why are you giving me this?"
The lady smiled. "You will know sooner or later. For now, I will leave you on your own."
She started to fade and then vanished.
"What a mysterious lady." Aldred looked at the medallion and tried to absorb the energy within it. Only a trickle came out that cycled inside his body, but nothing came afterwards.
[World Refined Physique Lv.1]
Upgrade points: 270/7550
"I should keep this in my inventory." The medallion vanished and entered his inventory.
Aldred walked around the forest for a couple more hours, killing monsters, and almost getting caught by some weird plants.
But after he had enough, he returned to the starting point. Only Byron was there, sitting on a chair with a large table in front of him. There were fruits, wines, and plates of meat. The plates gave heat to the meat using magical runes carved on them.
This kept the meat hot and tasty.
"The others aren't back yet?"
"No. I am surprised you would return so soon. I thought you would hunt for longer."
"Nah. I am bored of monsters. They're not challenging enough."
Byron laughed. "Yeah, you would say that. I believe you're going to get the treasure. With your power, you might just be able to. I am not going though."
"You don't want to continue?"
"No. Mount Fargon is just the first stage of this treasure hunt. That's where the big players can sit still and buy some astrolabes from the adventures, but the second stage will be where they play. They will send their best men in this phase, and use everything they can to defeat their competitors. I am not ready to play this game yet."
Aldred nodded. "So I will face these people in the future."
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