At the foot of the tree, a crowd of four-horned goats were gathering. Raia stared at them with disbelief on his eyes.
There were already more than fifty goats surrounding tree where he was located.
'Goodness! These guys really didn't leave!'
At this moment, he noticed a goat charging at the tree with speed.
'Bang!'
It bumped it horns into the lower part of the tree and the clash shook the whole tree. Leaves fell and branches waved.
'Crazy!' Raia shouted. He witnessed the goat clashing with the tree and thought it was crazy.
'These guys lost their mind to vengeance.' He shook his head. He didn't know why they were trying to bring down the tree that was definitely not going down.
Then he saw that the spot it hit was sunk into the trunk of the tree.
'Creeek.'
Only seconds later and he heard a creeking sound accompanied by the tilting of the whole tree by a small angle.
Raia's eyes widened. He turned his head to the goats and discovered that another four-horned goat was charging at the same spot.
'Bang!'
It clashed with the tree then the creeking sound was heard again.
Then another goat followed up. After it, another one charged into the tree.
Raia watched all of it while it was happening.
'If I fall down to the ground, I will surely die.' He was trying to decide what to do. The tree was tilting bit by bit and the goats didn't look they were stopping anytime at what they were doing.
'I have no choice then. I'll just come back after I got my weapon. You guys wait for my return!'
He then exited the inside world.
"I have to get my weapon first. I'll be back two days later. That time, I at least have some chances of killing them."
He had no other choice but to wait for his weapon to be finished before he can engage a battle with the goats. At least, his odds won't be zero that time.
'There were already fifty of them. That is fifty spirit crystals. Just with that alone can increase my cultivation to the point of even breaking through the Martial Spirit State. That will also be fifty carcasses of beasts.'
He then remembered the body of the first four-horned goat he killed.
Raia took it out and stared at it.
"Sure it will be delicious, right?" He asked himself. He took a chunk of its meat and observed it.
"It looks just like an edible meat for be but I'll try it in the forest first tomorrow. I'll hand it over to mother if it's something good."
He placed the body back into the storage space and slept.
…
The next morning, Raia went to school during the day and went straight to the forest after it was done. He found some place and started a fire.
He roasted a piece of the meat of the goat.
"This really smells good." He said as he stared at the meat with drooling face. "There is no doubt that this is edible. Inedible meats can't be like this. It's so appetizing."
After the meat was cooked to his liking, he bit a part of it and chewed.
"This is..so good!" Raia shouted. The meat was tender and it melted in his mouth. It also tasted great. This was the first time Raia ate this good meat.
At this moment, a small wave of energy flowed through his body. His foundation absorbed it and his body was being strengthened by this energy by a minute amount.
"What?! This is an essence food?" He was shocked.
Essence foods were made of the ingredients that contained a noticeable amount of spirit energy. This energy can also be cultivated.
In their city, there are places that serve essence food. But they were expensive. It was because the ingredients in making an essence food were difficult to acquire.
The herbs and fruits should at least be grade 4.
Beast meat that can be used to produce an essence food should have a lot of spirit energy when they were still alive. The beast should at least be at rank 5 and not all rank 5 beast meat can be used. Only a few of them actually taste good. The others were not all poisonous but they just taste bad.
High level cultivators and rich people are mostly the only ones who can afford essence foods. Even some cultivators don't take other source of energy except essence food.
The energy inside the one bite that Raia took was equivalent to two times the amount a common-grade energy pill that he took these past few years had. Common-grade pill was the lowest grade of a pill.
However, a single bite of the four-horned goat's meat contained two times the energy of this pill!
Then what if Raia ate all the meat of the goat which was more than one thousand bites?
He would have eaten thousands of common-grade pills.
"If I sell this to people, I can be rich in a blink of an eye." However, he decided against it. "I should give this to my family first. My parents and Rhea can use this to increase their cultivation. Rome and Rina can start cultivating using essence food for now. This is enough for them to start."
He had another bite of the meat.
"The beasts in the world inside are really incredible. A peak-rank 2 beast has top quality crystal and meat that can be used as essence food. I will explore more of that place after I got my weapon."
He finished his meal then head back home. His timing was good because he saw his parents talking in the smithy.
Raia greeted then and handed his mother the four-horned goat meat.
"Mom, I have some special meat here." Raia said.
"What do you mean special? Is this some kind of essence food?" Rose giggled as he looked at the meat.
Raia didn't answer and just smiled at her. They both turned to Raia after hearing no reply from him.
"..Is this really an essence food?" Rose asked with anticipation.
"Yes. It is, mother."
"Where did you get this? Did you buy this? This cost so much, right?" Hauran asked with a high voice.
"I..it's.." Raia stuttered with his words.
His parents looked at him.
"It's fine if you don't say it but I have to make sure that you didn't do anything stupid." Rose asked.
"Don't worry, mother, I didn't." Raia answered. "But please, I request you to keep this a secret inside our family for now."
Hauran rubbed his chin. 'This is the same case with the horns that he brought last time.' He thought to himself. However, he didn't want to force his son to say everything.
Everyone has a secret they keep. Cultivators keeping secrets to themselves is a more serious matter. They wouldn't just talk about things in order to protect themselves and the people around them especially their families.
Rose and Hauran sensed that Raia have something important going on with him.
Hauran put his arms around Rose and said. "Don't worry son, we'll keep this to us. I'll talk to your siblings too."
"Just always be careful." Rose said as he patted Raia's head.
"I understand, mother." He replied. Then he told them how much energy it contains. His parents were shocked. With this amount, they can continue cultivating even though only by a small amount. Rhea will benefit from this too and Rome and Rina could start cultivating.
Hauran and Rose have still many questions for their son but didn't push the topic further.
Rose left to cook and Raia assisted his father in crafting his weapon.
At dinner time, Rose prepared the meat and made a simple steak dish out of it.
"What is this? This is so good!" Rome exclaimed. He then felt the energy from the food he ate. "This is.."
"I'll help you refine the energy later." Hauran said with a smile.
"This means I can start cultivating? This is great! Is this essence food? Amazing!" Rome shouted excitedly.
"Elder Brother, this is good!" Rina said with a bright smile.
"I know, eat some more, mother will help you with your culitavation." Raia patted her head.
"Mm!" Rina put a small piece of meat into her mouth.
Rhea was silently eating but she was also smiling. Hauran and Rose were happy too.
Hauran then explained to his children to keep this matter a secret to other people. When the other three saw the expression of their father, they all nodded and promised to keep the secret.
After dinner, Raia washed the dishes while his parents helped Rome and Rina in their cultivation. Rhea headed back to her room too.
He head back to his room to rest.
…
The afternoon two days later.
Raia ran back home and went straight to the smithy. He saw his father was still working.
Hauran saw Raia and stopped for a moment.
"It's on the table there." Hauran pointed to a table that had a box on top it.
Raia excitedly walked towards the table. He opened the box and saw his new swords.
There are two swords inside the box. They were both only made with the horns of the four-horned goat.
Two of the horns of the goat were long and the other two were shorter.
The blade was over a meter long and was made from the longer horns while the hilt was made of the shorter horn.
The sword had still the dark brown shade of the horns.
Raia gripped both of the swords and tried to be familiar with it. He performed some slashes and strikes.
His motions were all sloppy and awkward. He was not used in using two swords at the same time after all. He smiled with embarrassment.
"Dual wielding is difficult. I'll just use one for now. It is a bit heavy holding it on one hand but I can use it perfectly with both hands. The balance is really good too."
He put down one of the swords then did some basic techniques that he knew and felt good.
"This is really great. We did a good job creating this."
He couldn't wait to try it to the four-horned goats.
"The materials were top notch so the result was really great. This was the first time I made mid-grade 3 swords. That is only possible because of the material and you helped me all the time. I couldn't possibly create this on my own." Raia heard his father's voice.
"Thanks, father."
They chatted for some time and separated.
He thanked his father again before heading to his room.
Raia changed his clothes into the goat robe and entered the inside world. He brought one sword with him.
The second he appeared, he fell from a certain height.
He dropped to the ground. It's a good thing he didn't suffer any injuries. His body was stronger now so falling from a three storey building is an easy thing for him.
"What happened?" He asked himself then looked around him.
He was astonished as he saw the tree where he was last time, collapsed to the ground.
"Those guys really brought it down."
Raia turned around and observed the forest. "But where are you guys? We are not yet finished with each other."
When he saw that the four-horned goats were gone, he left the place searched for them.
"Now that I have a weapon, I can fight a spiked-green tiger." Raia was excited.
Half an hour later and he didn't find any shadow of the four-horned goats.
However, he discovered a new beast. It was sitting with vigilance in its eyes.
Beside it was a plant with blue leaves. Raia observed from a distance.
'Is it guarding the plant?'