Observing the beast from afar, Raia was surprised to see that the beast was the spiked-green tiger. It was guarding the blue tear plant that was already slowly blooming.
Seeing this, Raia was excited and anxious at the same time. It was a good thing that he found the blue tear fruit. However, getting his hands on it was a different story.
Before finding the fruit, he was already thinking that he will have a hard time getting if there is a beast guarding it like the black-tailed beast the first time. He didn't expect that the first beast that he found with the blue tear plant was a mid-rank 3 spiked-green tiger.
'I'll just snatch it the moment it fully bloomed.' Raia thought to himself as he stared at the plant and beast.
Raia didn't want to engage a fight against the tiger at the moment. It was because the combat power of the spiked-green tiger was still too much for him. It was not like the purple python which also had the mid-rank 3 rank. The spiked-green tiger has a high-rank 3 combat power and that was something Raia couldn't handle at the moment.
However, he didn't want to let the blue tear fruit go.
Therefore, he decided just to snatch the blue tear fruit from the tiger.
The spiked-green tiger was staring at the beautiful blue tear plant and its bud. However, it was still alert and attentive to its surroundings even though it was focused on the bud.
Raia was still looking from far away. He didn't move a single step from his place.
One hour later and the bud was half way open. The tiger became more vigilant.
With careful movements, Raia began walking towards the spiked-green tiger, one step at a time, as quiet as he can.
After he was about only 50 meters from the tiger, he stopped and hid behind some bushes while still monitoring the situation.
'I need to distract it somehow even just a few seconds.'
With the distance between him and the blue tear plant, he can probably reach it quickly but the real problem was that the tiger would surely be faster than him by a huge margin.
'Guess I'll just use my amber sword as distraction. But I need to get closer so that I can get to the fruit faster. Every meter and second counts.'
He gently moved forward without any sound.
Raia successfully reached the 30 meter mark after an hour of slow movements.
At this time, the bud fully bloomed and the light blinded Raia and the tiger for a few seconds. They both opened their eyes and the tiger stared at the blue tear fruit for a second then moved to pick it up.
Raia gripped the amber sword and wanted to make his move but at this moment, a violent roar sounded around the forest.
He felt the extreme pressure.
The spiked-green tiger heard this and growled as he faced the direction where the roar came from.
'Swoosh!'
During the time it turned its attention away from the blue tear fruit, Raia rushed out and sprinted towards it with everything he can.
However, the tiger sensed him and returned its eyes towards the fruit and was ready to eat it.
'Swish!'
Raia threw his amber sword like a spear at the tiger. The spiked-green tiger didn't even try to evade the attack because it was only focused on the glowing blue tear fruit.
'Pushik!'
It was hit in the eye by the amber sword. The beast retrieved its mouth and moved away from the blue tear fruit by two steps backwards. It roared in pain while the sword was still stuck in its eyes.
The tiger didn't get the blue tear fruit!
When he was already near the fruit, Raia threw himself forward and stretched his hand to reach the blue tear fruit.
'Yes!' He was already celebrating in his mind when he felt a danger coming.
On his peripheral vision, he saw the claw of the tiger descending on him fast.
'Almost there!'
The second he grabbed the fruit, he plucked it out, send it into the storage space then exited the world inside.
At this moment, the claw of the tiger hit the ground. The target that stole its fruit vanished so it was angry.
It roared with wrath and pain as the amber sword was still in its eyes. Then it left the place.
A few seconds after the spiked-green tiger left, the starlight wolf discovered the empty plant and roared while destroying the trees around with its beam.
Back to his room, Raia slammed to the floor on his chest.
His heart was beating so fast and he was sweating buckets.
He then took out the blue tear fruit and shouted. "Yes!"
"It was a close call but I'm glad I made it. That roar must be the starlight wolf. It really wanted the blue tear fruit. Unlucky for him, I got it." He said as he grinned.
"I should let mother know I will cultivate and won't get out for the night."
Raia left his room and informed his mother that he will cultivate long and she should not wait for him. Rose understood this and told Raia to not over work himself.
After talking to Rose, Raia head back to his room, sat on the bed and swallowed the blue tear fruit.
The energy from the blue tear fruit made his foundation and body excited. His spirit veins glowed as his whole foundation vibrated at a constant speed.
His body was absorbing the energy like a black hole and after only a few seconds and the energy of the blue tear fruit was already spread throughout his foundation and body.
Like the first time he took a blue tear fruit, his foundation shook violently. However, this time was not the same as last time.
The foundation shook but Raia can endure the pain more than the last time.
After an hour, his foundation changed little by little. More spirit veins were appearing and the original ones were getting thicker and were emitting more resplendent light.
After another hour, it finally stopped. Then his body followed.
His bones trembled, crushed then repaired again. Raia endured the pain more easily than the first time. The pain only ended after two hours.
Next were his organs and then his muscles. Each one of his organs were ruptured and fixed after a second. His muscle fibers were torn apart the put back together.
They were destroyed and every time they were put back together, they were stronger than before.
The whole process took about eight hours.
Raia stabilized his foundation and body before stopping.
He smiled at the result of his work. Although it was not as great as the first time, Raia was not disappointed about it because he already expected it to happen.
Also his strength still increased so it was still a great outcome.
His foundation was more stable than before. His body was tougher at all spots and his organs were sparkling clean and stronger more than ever.
He only reached high 8th level Martial Physique State but it was fine for Raia. His combat power also reached high 1st level Martial Spirit State.
"My body was still not its peak. I can improve it even more." He said as he smiled.
"I will be back to find some more blue tear fruit."
He then walked to the bathroom to wash his stinking body. The blue tear fruit extracted some more impurities from his body. However, it was way less than the first time.
Raia then lied down on his bed and pondered for a moment.
"It is a good thing we made two amber swords. Father would be upset if I ask him to make a weapon like that again with his cultivation level."
He thought of something.
"I should convince them to continue their cultivation. We don't need to worry about buying resources anymore so they can resume cultivating especially father. I can ask him to make me higher grade weapons if he has a high cultivation and can handle high grade materials."
He rubbed his chin.
"We should also make our smithy larger if that happens. I only need some weapons and father can sell some using the materials I have."
"If he can make a good name in the business, it will benefit us more in the future."
Raia made a decision before sleeping.
…
The following morning, he left his home and head straight to the forest.
He hunted beasts until dawn and returned to Forzen to sell it to Gran. He made more than yesterday.
Raia went home and talked to his parents inside the smithy.
"You want us to continue cultivating?" Rose asked.
"Yes. And you don't have to worry about the resources because I will give it to you. I just want you to resume cultivating." Raia said seriously.
"This.." Rose didn't know what to say.
"Raia, son, before anything else I just want to ask you one thing and you should answer me honestly." Hauran asked.
"What is it?"
"You are not doing something bad, are you? It's not that I'm not trusting you or anything but you should understand that as your parents we are worried about you. And these past few days, we don't know what to think about what is happening to you." Hauran explained.
"Don't worry, father. I am not stealing or doing something bad. I just can't tell you right now, but I will after everything is ready." Raia answered with a smile.
Hauran sighed and dragged Rose into a corner where they whispered to each other while taking a glance at Raia from time to time. A few minutes and they returned.
"Alright, we do what you say." Hauran said.
"Thank you, father." Raia embraced his parents.
He then started to tell them about his plan.
"That is fine with me. With a higher cultivation, I can handle higher grade materials. But the problem is the acquisition of good materials…well you have that covered, right?" Hauran asked.
Raia then left and pretended to get the materials from his room. He returned with a bag full of the horns of the four-horned goats. He dismantled all of it beforehand but just handed his father fifty pieces. Twenty five long ones and twenty five short ones.
Staring at the pile of horns in front of him, Hauran was surprised. The very first time he saw the horns of the goat, he knew that it was not something to acquire easily. These type of materials, even though not high grade, were rare and expensive.
Rose was a little shock and puzzled to where did his son found these things.
"You can have this, father."
"Raia, you know that I can't handle these materials really well right now." Hauran complained.
Raia took out the low-rank 3 beast spirit crystals he have and gave it to his parents. They can already handle the energy of these crystals.
"Use these, mother, father. I really want you to resume cultivating. You already done so much for us and it's time for me to give something back to you even it's just a small thing." Raia said.
Rose embraced him tightly. "You silly kid. Of course we will do everything for you and your sisters and brother."
"You're still too young to give back to us, Raia. This thing that you do is not small thing but you are already doing it. That makes me proud of you." Hauran said sincerely.
"Thank you."
The three talked for another hour and before heading in to eat dinner, Raia sent 100,000 silver credits to his mother Rose resulting in the latter's shock.
After dinner, Raia played with Rina and Rome before heading back to his room. Rhea was already cultivating at that time.
He did some stretching before entering the world inside.
"I will appear at the front of the blue tear plant. I hope that the starlight wolf or any other strong beast is not waiting for me. I'll just run away as fast as I can."
With a flash, he was already inside. The moment he appeared, he fled the area as fast as he can.
Fortunately, there was no beast around him.
"This is a good start. I hope I can find blue tear fruit today too."
With that in mind, Raia wandered around searching for the blue tear fruit or any beast that was guarding some plants with them.
Three hours later, he was staring at the blue plant in a distance but he was frozen in his place.
'What the hell?!'