William continued through the forest with more confidence. The Liffox weren't a major threat to him, and he hadn't spotted any other beasts so far.
He moved quickly, harvesting Lifeshrooms and other plants that looked valuable on the way. He didn't really know how to gather herbs, so even the roots were pulled without much thought. He hummed to himself while thinking about money.
"Herbs, herbs, money, money.
I'm going to sell these herbs
and make some money."
William's singing ability was too profound for others to understand.
His pace slowed as the amount of plants in the area increased. Nearly 3 hours had passed since he entered the Livingwood Forest this time, but it wasn't even lunchtime yet. The Lifeshrooms looked somewhat edible, but William still packed some vegetables and a potato before he left his house this morning.
Why waste potential money when I have an infinite supply of potatoes?
--Unlocked Title: +1 Potential Point
-Amateur Herb Gatherer (Common): You've very incorrectly harvested over 250 herbs and have angered the local Alchemist. +10% Herb Gathering Skill. -10 Reputation with Alchemists.
-Host has not yet learned any Herb Gathering skills. This title's bonuses are mostly ineffective. Please upgrade the System to learn more.
So you give me a title and make it useless. God d*mnit System. This is basically just a negative buff. Oh well I haven't even met an Alchemist yet. William complained.
He was surprised that harvesting 250 plants was considered common, how many would he have to pick for the next rank, 1000? The grind is real.
The negative comment from the System didn't stop William from entering loot goblin mode. He continued harvesting plants while he had space in his backpack, and killed Liffox when they entered his view.
2 hours later, William had earned 6 more Potential Points and only had a small amount of Mana left. He found a medium sized tree and tried to climb it, but the branches were out of reach. All the nearby trees were similar, so William had to find a solution.
He gathered a small amount of Fire Mana to two of his fingers and used the high heat to cut grooves in the tree that would be stepped on. After spending a small chunk of his remaining mana, William managed to get to a safe position.
-Developed a new magic spell: +1 Potential Point
-New Spell: Flame Blade
William used Flame Blade one more time to go higher up the tree. He took the backpack off and hung it off the nub of a branch, then brought out his lunch to eat.
System, open the Menu.
-Lifespan: 45 Years (Medium physical health)
-Manamatus (Rare): ( + )
-Loot Goblin (Uncommon): ( + )
-Moneybags (Uncommon): ( + )
-Savior (Common): ( + )
-Spell Master (Common): ( + )
-Amateur Herb Gatherer (Common): ( + )
-Cultivation: None (No suitable techniques)
--Fire: C (100PP to next rank)
--Life: D (75PP to next rank)
MONEY: 8 Gold, 7 Silver, 64 Copper
POTENTIAL POINTS: 98 Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel·fiɾe·net
SYSTEM RANK: F (202PP to next rank)
At this rate I will need almost 12 hours to fully recover. I don't have enough food for that!
William planned to eat here and wait a few hours for some Mana to regenerate before moving forward with his exploration. He again regretted not having any way to quickly recover mana, and wondered if there were any Mana potions at the Alchemy Hall.
With his new useless Title he might not be well liked, but who was going to refuse a customer?
In the Core Area of the Livingwood Forest.
A group of Wind Wolves at the Foundation Establishment Realm were ruthlessly chasing down a heavily injured old man in a tattered grey robe who was carrying a fist-sized purple rock. Just as a Wind Wolf snapped its jaws to bite him, the old man suddenly blinked out of sight. He reappeared 100 meters away, spitting out a large amount of blood.
These weaklings wouldn't even be able to touch my robe if not for that greedy bastard. the old man thought to himself.
He had joined an expedition to the Lost Caverns, but there was a difficult test for each member of the group. Everyone passed, but only he performed well with his use of the Space Element and received a reward, which was the purple rock in his hands.
Even though he was the strongest member, it was 4 on 1 and he had no choice but to escape. The old man knew this region was relatively harmless, but who knew that the location he teleported to would be a cave full of Wind Wolves! He could only blame his bad luck.
The old man only had enough Mana to flash one more time, and the Wolves were catching up again. He knew his death was close, so he tossed the purple rock into a tree and prepared to fight the Wind Wolves.
Feeling somewhat refreshed, William gathered his items and climbed down from the tree. His Mana had recovered to 75 after four hours and he had 3 or 4 more hours of time left before sundown.
While resting, Will noticed that using his Life Element to detect Mana particles in the air allowed him to sense where the vitality aura was highest. Using this method, Will traveled in a certain direction that would take him deeper into the forest by a few hundred meters.
As he drew closer, he also sensed the vitality from a group of Magical Beasts nearby. The effect wasn't much better than his eyesight, but it could help William detect an ambush.
William sensed 3 Liffox with the help of the Life Element, but when he approached it quickly became 6. He was still too unfamiliar with detecting vitality, and cursed his bad luck when he found that two of them were the strongest Liffox he had encountered so far.
They didn't notice him yet, so he backed away and decided on a plan. Should he fight with his limited Mana, or avoid them and miss out on whatever was deeper in the forest?
No way I'm missing out on this! Those furry demons are going down! William was pumped at the idea of loot, and he wasn't going to pass up on these Potential Points either.
Based on his fight with the other Liffox, William knew they didn't have any ranged attacks. He chose to climb a tree with Flame Blade again and launched a weak fireball at the group to draw their attention.
The Liffox rushed to the base of the tree, where they growled at William, but couldn't do much else. He threw a fireball at the smallest one which was probably at the 2nd stage of Qi Refinement.
The Liffox was too slow to dodge this and took the full impact, dying instantly. Before the others had a chance to react, one of their own was dead.
-Defeated Liffox: +1 Potential Point
The largest Liffox had a look of surprise on its face as it didn't expect the human with no Cultivation to seriously injure, much less insta-kill any of them.
Even William was a bit surprised at his power as he was always too scared of fighting head-on with the Liffox. It must have to do with the extra Mana control from my Spell Master Title. he thought.
This development scared the group, as they couldn't do anything to William at the moment. The next smallest Liffox turned to run but was thrown to the ground by a fireball. The healing element was triggered this time, stabilizing its injuries but another fireball ruined any chance of surviving.
-Defeated Liffox: +1 Potential Point