Dan and his companions stayed true to their words. One Strike's body was torn apart and was fed to the exhausted horses. After everything was well and done, Dan retrieved One Strike's Spatial Ring and gathered everyone at the campsite.
With a flick of his wrist, everything was cleaned up and before an empty ground. Dan took the Spatial Ring and displayed everything inside. Constant clanging sounds reverberated as numerous artifacts, talismans and gold coins filled the empty space before them.
Aside from the gigantic corpse of the Ape Vampire Count. The pile of gold coins formed a mountain and Dan's eyes wrinkled when he saw it as he thought inside his mind, "Damn, just this mountain of gold coins alone is enough to feed my entire clan for three generations..." He glanced around and frowned when he realized that his fellow disciples looked uninterested.
"What's wrong with these guys, are they so rich that they do not care about a mountain of gold coins, anymore?" The actions of his fellow disciples were strange for his eyes.
Annie's gaze swept over his figure as she said, "Hmmm? Why are you so concerned about such a currency that only mortals, uses? Could it be that senior doesn't know anything about Spirit Stones?"
Annie's question pinpointed Dan's weakness as the latter glared at her, "Hmmph! Do you really think that someone like me won't know anything about Spirit Stones? I just want to pack these gold coins so that I can have something to donate for the Impoverished mortals! Do not misunderstand."
Dan crossed his arms and made a gesture of irritation, Annie covered her mouth and exaggeratedly said, "Ah, so that's the case! I offer my apologies for being so blind! I was actually unable to see through Senior's magnanimity..."
Their sarcastic remarks between each other didn't go unnoticed under Kwydin's eyes as the latter lightly coughed and said, "Senior, what do you think should be the distribution of these items?" His tone indicated his submission under Dan's might.
Dan fell into contemplation for a moment before he took the crucial Beast Core and left the remaining materials for his fellow disciples. After all, they made their own sacrifices and it would be too domineering to collect everything.
"Bastards, let me teach you how a clean-up should be done! There, take that part of the tent, that can still be sold for a high price! What are you guys doing, standing there, are you looking down on those small parts?! Those are made with deep sea gold! Imagine melting those and reselling it again, it would rake you tens of thousands of gold coins, you know! Stop being so wasteful!"
Dan transformed into the incarnation of a hoarder, remembering the way that Grace disassembled the carriage that they used until the border of the Great Forest of Manzur. Dan's concise instructions bore fruit and now, they had several hundreds of kilograms of deep-sea gold for melting.
Annie and Kwydin along with his companions stared at Dan with strange expressions. Dan didn't even spare the robes of the dead disciples, saying that they could be recycled.
"See this? Don't even think of letting these fabrics rot in here! It has the property of being hot in winter and cold in summer! It shouldn't be wasted! Gather them, gather them!" Dan lifted his index finger and pointed on the corpses. His fellow disciples looked disgusted but remembering Dan's previous display of his might, they could only swallow their indignance and do his bidding.
In the end, several tragic looking disciples carried the robes of the deceased as they continued their journey and return back to the Paradyne Academy. Fortunately, George arrived on the second day. Clad in fiery robes, the former descended from the skies and acted as an Elder and brought every one of them into safety.
Annie Thompson and Senior Brother Kwydin along with his group were Inner Disciples, and their region was located several dozens of kilometers away from the region where Dan stayed in. Though Kwydin and his fellow disciples wanted to celebrate together with the latter. The restrictions regarding regions were something that they didn't want to violate and they could only retire and promise each other that they would drink when they meet once again.
George and Dan stayed inside a luxurious Inn meant for Inner Disciples inside the Inner Disciple Region. The reason why both of them didn't immediately return was to calculate everything that Dan acquired from his endeavor.
Withdrawing everything above the bed, the most iconic item that Dan obtained was the Ape Vampire Count's beast core, a primary ingredient needed to concoct the Divine Connection Pill, a pill compatible with his physique for his breakthrough.
"Since we already have the primary ingredient for concoction, we only have to find the six remaining supporting ingredients. Though they are just supporting ingredients, they are also rare and cannot be bought with gold coins alone." George shook his head and Dan nodded his head in understanding before keeping the beast core inside his Virtual Inventory.
The higher the demand for the item was, the harder it would be to find and secure.
"Young master, since you have already mastered the physical techniques that the master tasked me to teach you. It is time for me to retire," George lifted a small smile on his face and stared at Dan's figure with shining eyes. The time he spent together with this young master of his wasn't long, but it was meaningful.
Dan stared at him with the same aura around him. He would miss spending his time together with this old man.
"George, are you really going to return, now? You can stay here you know, and I'm sure that once the Headmaster recognizes your presence, he would be more than willing to let you stay..." Dan commented. If Mathias knew about George's existence, he would definitely be ecstatic. After all, having a Divine Ascendance Realm Cultivator around you would make everything more secure.
George lightly chuckled, "Of course, I do want to stay but I still have my own tasks to do. I'm actually overdrawing my stay and my return should've been three days ago..." He shook his head and glanced at Dan for a moment before saying, "Young master, I will be looking forward to your success, I do hope that you can reach the Divine Ascendance Realm as soon as possible and acquire the qualifications to know about everything..."
His voice turned faint as he reached the end of his sentence before it disappeared completely along with his figure.
Dan stared at the open window with complicated emotions on his face. Before long, he deeply sighed and laid on the bed. These past days, he suffered inhumane tortures but have acquired greater rewards in return.
"Rewards? Now that I think about it, how did I forget about the Quest Rewards and the System Upgrade that happened several days ago?" Dan murmured before swiping open the System Menu and tapping on the Quest Icon.
A burst of resplendent lights decorated his vision along with numerous system notifications that said,
[Quest Completed!]
[Rewards Acquired!]
[Assassin Skill Tree, fully activated!]
[Skill: Weapon Mastery Acquired!]
[Skill: Mental Mastery Acquired!]
[Skill: Physique Mastery Acquired!]
[Skill: Stab Acquired!]
[System Upgrade Completed!]
[Patch Notes: Rage Gauge percentage acquisition has been decreased by 30%]
[Added Daily Quest, Weekly Quest, and Monthly Quest]
[The Damage of the Sudden Strike Skill has been lowered from a 150% to 110%]
[Item Shop has been restricted! The host can now only buy a maximum of ten items per month!]
These series of system notifications astounded Dan, his eyes shone in excitement when he saw the list of skills that he acquired from completing quests. However, when his gaze landed on the patch notes section. His excitement dimmed, as he thought about his restricted Item Shop and his nerfed Rage Gauge.
The former didn't bother him that much since he could use the primitive weapons of this world in ease, but the Rage Gauge was his final trump card. Having it nerfed greatly impacted him.
Shaking his head, he calmed his nerves and decided on inspecting his newly-acquired skills.
[Skill Name: Weapon Mastery]
[Skill Effect: As an aspiring Assassin, everything under the heavens can turn deadly in your hands. With exceptional handling and coordination of your body, your mastery of weapons exceeds the peak.]
[Skill Cost and Duration: None, Passive]
"Weapon Mastery? Wait, does this mean that with this passive skill, I only have to train myself in half the time to achieve double the results?! What a goddamned cheat!" Dan exclaimed in his heart and suppressed his excitement before tapping on another skill icon.
[Skill Name: Mental Mastery]
[Skill Effect: As an aspiring Assassin, one's mind should be clear of all distractions, with Mental Mastery, one's worries would disappear while in the battlefield, Can be combined with Assassin's Focus to achieve one's peak in battle prowess.]
[Skill Cost and Duration: None, Passive.]
"Mental Mastery? Though mental strength can be trained over time, it's still quite neat to have such a supporting skill. I can't really complain," Dan mumbled in his heart before tapping on another icon.
[Skill Name: Physique Mastery]
[Skill Effect: As an aspiring Assassin, one's body should be as hard as steel and as impenetrable as a fortress, with Physique Mastery, one's physique would be enhanced, bringing with it a multitude of benefits such as poison immunity.]
[Skill Cost and Duration: None, Passive]
"Now this is what I call as overpowered! Goddamned it, with such a skill, I won't need to worry about being assaulted with poisons nor sneak attacked from behind!" Dan rubbed his palms in excitement, he couldn't help but desire to test his body's resilience. But since he still has one remaining skill for inspection. He calmed himself down and tapped.
[Skill Name: Stab]
[Skill Effect: A swift stab.]
[Skill Cost and Duration: 2% of Host's Spiritual Qi, Instant]
Dan knitted his eyebrows, the Skill Effect notification didn't divulge any helpful information regarding the skill. However, he could just use it for himself and so, he shrugged and dismissed all system notifications. Taking a soft sword from the pile of loots that he acquired, Dan swung it around.
~Whoosh~ ~Whooosh~
The soft sword gleamed in a cold light as it tore through the air itself.
"Good sword!" Dan exclaimed in his heart and kept swinging it. His eyes were half-closed and his mind focused on the sensation of swinging the soft sword.
Ding!
[Soft Sword Mastery Acquired!]
"Eh?" Dan's movements froze and he stared at the system notification that floated in the air, "It's that simple to acquire weapon mastery?" His eyebrows locked and he swung the soft sword once again. But this time, when he used it to slice the air before him.
Hummm~
The soft sword gave off a soft humming sound that felt pleasant to the ears. Dan's expression changed and he realized that the soft sword looked like it was enjoying itself. "Understanding the emotions and intent of the sword, could it be that I just comprehended, Sword Intent?!"
Dan's jaws slammed the floor and his movements froze. Staring at the soft sword in his palms, he thought about the Weapon Mastery Passive Skill that he just acquired and couldn't help but mumble, "I knew that it was an overpowered skill, but I didn't expect that it would be that overpowered..."