Elias opened his eyes as soon as golden rays of morning sun hit his face. He didn't expect breathing technique combined with meditation would be such an effective substitute to sleep, but right now, he felt as if he had the best sleep of his life. He sat there for a moment, enjoying the warmth brought by the sunlight to his skin. Until a particular thought crossed his mind.
"Fuck! I forgot about the second guy!"
Little tiger jumped up from Elias's sudden shout. After looking around and seeing no imminent threat, it looked at Elias and squinted its eyes, as if it was angry.
Elias, however, was too absorbed in his own thoughts.
*Damn, I bet there is nothing left of him by now. He is one hundred percent already inside some beast's belly.*
Elias rubbed his temples.
*I could've had a third sample already.*
"Sigh"
With a third blood sample, he would be one step closer to figuring out how to get out of his energy crisis. Well, "crisis". He wasn't actually in desperate need of the energy himself, it was the system that lacked it. And given such an opportunity like this system, it was foolish not to take advantage of it. Who knows, maybe if he does nothing to solve the energy issue, the system might find a way to dump him in hopes of finding a better host, or something like that. There was also the issue of Gaden, but temporarily, Elias was safe.
Elias gathered his thoughts and got up.
"Rawr!"
"Hey, it's morning already, time to get up!"
Little tiger yawned in response.
"How can I bring you back to the village safely?"
Even though the question was aimed towards the little tiger, it was clear that this fluffball wasn't interested in answering it. So Elias just picked it up and put it inside the folds of his clothes. A fluffy head poked out of his clothes on the level of his chest. Little tiger was curiously looking around from time to time, but it was clear that it quite enjoyed its new spot.
Elias was about to go into the brainstorm mode to find a way in which he can accomplish his task the best way possible, but at that moment, a realization struck him.
*Why would I even go back?*
It was a fair question. Humans lived together because of various reasons, but safety was one of the most important ones. But for Elias, safety in the village was only perceived, rather than real. After all, he lived through three assassination attempts in the past couple of weeks. In fact, it was probably safer to stay here in a kind of a self-exile, rather than coming back. Who knows, maybe there is an ambush waiting for him back at the village.
This place, in Elias's eyes, was much better. Even when one would take the danger of predators in account, just considering how much more abundant the ambient energy density was here, made this place a preferred option. And this is without even mentioning the variety of the herbs growing here. There were herbs he already knew about, but they only constituted a small part of what one could see growing in these parts. Just the sheer amount of species growing here may take Elias weeks to sort through. Maybe he could find something as good as that flower that already helped him twice.
Speaking of plants. Elias looked towards small trees that were growing in the valley formed by cliff walls. Every time he saw them, he felt a vague feeling of remembrance, as if he knew what this plant is.
He came closer to one of them. One could think of it as an overgrown bush, but if you look under the leaf canopy, you could see a miniature trunk with branches going off, just like a normal tree, but small. It only reached somewhere around one and a half meters, which was barely under five feet.
Elias took a long look at the tree's leaves. They were dark green in color, roughly seven centimeters in length. They gave off a fresh smell which only intensified when Elias broke one. It was at this moment Elias knew, he struck gold. Because from now on, he had a whole tea plantation to himself! Thoughts of riches these little trees could provide him instantly filled his mind, only to be dispelled by a simple realization that people living here for generations would surely have found out about something like tea. There were people like Sovsem, who spent their lives learning about different herbs, so there was no way tea was unknown to locals.
"Sigh"
*I seem to be sighing every day now.*
Elias still decided to pick some leaves. He left them drying on a rock. There was almost no wind in this valley, which was rather surprising, given its shape and altitude. So it was pretty safe to leave the leaves like that. Even though they won't make him rich, he still could enjoy some tea later. The only issue was that Elias knew absolutely nothing about the tea processing, but the basics were pretty simple. He may not know the specifics of the fermentation process, but he was perfectly capable of drying some leaves.
The next thing on his agenda was to scout out the valley to gain some knowledge of the territory. If he was to live here, he should at least know where he could run if things go south.
To gain a better view, he decided to leverage his now superhuman body and scale one of the cliff walls. This way he could see things he may miss by being on ground level. However when he was climbing, he noticed that his physical capacities felt like something stronger than thirty percent over ordinary human level. To provide an example, he almost flung himself off the cliff when he tried to leap up to grasp to a higher ledge. He was stronger than a normal human, but this was something else. He still weighed at least sixty kilograms, but he felt like his body was made of paper.
*System, can you explain what just happened?*
[Ding!]
[Host used internal energy to boost his physical power.]
It dawned on Elias that with all the talk about the system's new functions, he completely forgot about his own benefits from breaking through. Most importantly, it was only his first step on the path of cultivation. If he got this strong at the first layer of Qi Condensation, how strong would he be at ninth?
*System, I can break through as soon as I have enough energy, right? If so, how much do I need to get to the second layer?*
[Ding!]
[Currently the host will be unable to break through to the second layer of Qi Condensation.]
[To proceed with cultivation, the host will need an actual cultivation technique.]
"Sigh. Why didn't I get a system that just pulls stuff out of nowhere. If I had one like that, I'd already have kicked Gaden's ass three times over."
[Ding!]
[Life is not a video game. In words more understandable to host: "Git gud scrub."]
...
[Advice to host: it is better to learn how to use internal energy. It may save the host's life sooner or later.]
*I'll add that to my agenda.*
After finally climbing up the cliff wall, a picturesque view of the entire valley appeared before Elias. He could see all the way to the entrance of the valley, as well as the Fierce Tiger village itself far away. It looked like a collection of small black dots, but Elias was familiar enough with the local geography to know that this was the village. He was surprised by the fact that he could still see it at first, but then he thought about how long he was going up the mountain while being chased and at this altitude, one could really see far away. Elias made a mental note to come back here at night, light sources would be seen from far away, so maybe he could spot something else from his new vantage point.
He focused his attention on the valley. It was shaped like a bell with a cave being at the very top of it. There was a lot of vegetation, but it was mostly tea trees. This meant that he would have to venture outside for things like fruit, but he had to hunt anyway, so this was not really an issue.
He also saw several places where he couldn't make out the details, but he wasn't sure if it was the way light fell, or there was another cave in this valley. What frustrated him the most, was the fact that the valley lacked an easy-to-defend choke point, instead, it felt more like a trap for himself, given that cave, while it had a source of clear water, had no secondary exit, so in case he meets someone who he cannot fight again, he would be screwed. Good point was that while definitely rich in herbs, this area could be considered outskirts if one speaks about the inner reaches of the mountain. It meant that the truly scary Fierce Beasts that live closer to the peak are unlikely to appear here. So the strongest animal he would encounter here would still be a normal one.
Just as Elias wanted to climb down, something has caught his eye...