It took me a total of 3 days to completely clear out the cave of the goblins. I took this time to strip the goblins off all their belongings. They did not possess much of value, most of them only the clothes on their backs.
However, the clothes on their backs were enough, as I could use them for various things. I also found a few weapons, though most of them were of really poor quality. It seems that the pistol wand, the dagger, and the axe were the only things of real value in the entire place. I did manage to find a dagger that was slightly better than the others which I hung around my waist.
During this time, I had not done much else, so when I finally looked over my status again, I realized my [Poison Orb] had leveled up to 3, Increasing its damage by 2 per second. My stealth had also leveled up to 6. It was not a big increase, but it was enough for now.
My biggest surprise came when I accidentally clicked on the Shop tab. I had somehow managed to collect a total of 700 coins. The shop had a history tab, like I got a small amount of coins for each kill I made.
The shop also had a sell tab, And I managed to sell the axe to it for a total of 500 coins. Which brought my total up to 1200 coins. I spent several hours looking through the spells and abilities before coming across an interesting ability. It cost a total of 1150 coins.
[Dual casting]
Allows the user to cast two spells at the same time, one from each hand, but the second takes twice as long to cast.
The ability was part of a chain. The second was [Improved Dual Casting] which reduced the cast time of the second spell to one and half times. The third was [Perfect Dual Casting] which reduced the time to the same as a single spell. The cost of the two upgraded were 10,000 coins and 100,000 coins. They were quite expensive, but I thought it was worth it to invest. Worst case scenario I can dually cast in a dire situation.
I had found a supply of food that looked mostly edible in the kitchen, the goblins did not touch it as it wasn't meat. It was enough to last me for a month if I was thrifty with it.
I also found that there was an underground river that traveled through the back of the cave. In its fish could be seen swimming. I used the clothes I had saved to make an improvised net that I used to catch them. With my immediate needs met I found that I had more time to figure out how this world works.
A huge part of me wanted to go out and explore right away, but before I did that, I knew I would need to upgrade my core cultivation method. [Poison Orb] fulfilled the requirements that Laurel had told me were best for the Method described in [Venomous Grimoire], the method was called [Venomous Cultivation]. It was both an evolvable spell and one that matched the element.
With this I spent the greater part of a week slowly integrating [Poison Orb], [Venomous Cultivation], and my original cultivation method. Sweat dripped down my head as I was nearing completion. The fusion. of [Poison Orb] and [Venomous Cultivation] had been the simplest part of the process. The orb was almost immediately engulfed by the cultivation method.
The problem came when [Venomous Cultivation] and the [Basic Cultivation] attempted to fuse. It was obvious that [Venomous Cultivation] was a much stronger Cultivation method, but [Basic Cultivation] was of a higher level. It engulfed [Venomous Cultivation].
If I had practiced any other element perhaps that would have been the end. Fortunately, I practiced poison magic, and [Basic Cultivation] had caused its own doom when it absorbed [Venomous Cultivation].
For the last week I have been unable to practice magic. I have not even been able to sense magic and on my status screen my mp was greyed out. However, as the evolution of my cultivation method reached its climax a wave of magical energy surged inside of me, causing me to fall into a trance as I sat in the middle of a room.
I could feel the once harmonious mana that flowed through my veins take on a much more lethal feel. I felt a burning sensation flowing through my body. Suddenly it stopped, and I could feel the core that had taken root next to my heart crack.
From the crack I could feel a different type of core taking hold of the broken remnants of the core. Green mana began to flow in a vortex around the shattered pieces, slowly fusing them together into a much smaller, but far denser core. It was an emerald green in color, and no bigger than the nail on your pinky.
[Beginners Venomous Core] level 3
Increases the damage of poison type spells by 30%. Grant's 30% resistance to poison. Reduces casting time of signature spell by 15%. User is unable to use other types of magic.