After a few more hours, Raia finally reached the cave of the spiked-green tigers.
He made his way inside.
Standing in the hall way, Raia stared at the green stones emitting faint glow.
He picked up one and absorbed its energy.
A few seconds later, he sighed.
"There are no effects." Just like the first time, he only felt the energy enter him for a brief moment before it vanished completely.
"This is the energy I need but the amount in one stone is so little that it doesn't do anything to me."
He turned to another stone, picked it up and absorbed its energy.
Same thing occurred.
"The shining green spirit stone has concentrated amount of this energy. I wonder how did it form?"
He knew that the green stone in his hand was a spirit stone. However, its quality was far inferior than the shining green spirit stone.
If the shining green spirit stone costs up to billions then this green stone probably costs only a few thousands and would be categorized to be the lowest grade of spirit stone.
He was playing with one stone in his hand.
"I'll try to absorb many of this stone at the same time. Let's see what happens."
He continued walking while collecting the green stones around him then sending them into the storage space afterwards.
Time passed and he arrived at the dome where he fought the alpha green tiger.
However, he was a bit surprised to see that there are some spiked-green tigers lying around the area.
He didn't even try to think the reason why these tigers were here.
Raia charged to the tigers and killed them all. He collected them all and then walked towards the platform in the center.
He took out all the stones he gathered on the way and placed then on top of the platform. The stones made a pile up to a meter tall.
Staring at the small mountain of green stones, he was hoping he could get some good results.
He sat in front of the stones and started absorbing its energy.
This time, the energy didn't disappear quickly but flowed into his body continuously.
Raia refined the energy.
After ten minutes, he finished refining the green stones.
Unlike the other times, Raia felt that his spirit was strengthened. However, this effect was almost negligible.
The thousands of green stones only filled up 0.1% of the bar his spirit needed to reach its high state.
Additionally, the stones didn't improve his foundation and body along with his spirit unlike the time he used the shining green spirit stone where his three aspects were getting stronger together even if it was only little by little.
"It seems like I would also need to find something that can enhance my foundation and body."
The blue tear fruit was ineffective to him anymore so he needed another source to further improve his other two aspects.
"Mining this place would eat a lot of my time and it would only improve my spirit by a miniscule amount. I would rather go out there to search for shining green spirit stone or other resources than to trap myself here. I'll just try my luck outside."
With that, Raia left the cave and went back into traveling and covering more area while hunting and trying to discover new things.
After a few hours, he found nothing interesting. He just hunted beasts then sat on a tree root to rest for a bit.
Currently, his strength was enough to fight up to a peak-rank 3 beast. However, whenever he sees a low-rank 4 beast and above, Raia runs away quickly.
"I didn't see the starlight wolf or charge boar these past few days. I wonder where they are."
After staying for a bit more time, Raia exited the world inside.
…
The morning came.
Raia was sitting on the couch playing with his phone. Rina was beside him watching the TV.
At this moment, someone came in without even knocking.
"Rina! You've grown so much!" Aaron said loudly as he sat near Rina.
The little girl got scared and leaned closer to Raia.
"It's fine Rina. That is Aaron. Remember him?" Raia asked her sister.
Rina glanced at Aaron for a bit and asked Raia innocently.
"The booger-eater?"
"What?!" Both Raia and Aaron were surprised.
Aaron's eyes widened from what he have just heard while Raia was already laughing so hard.
Sensing the glare of Aaron, he finally stopped. "I didn't tell her that."
Aaron furrowed his brows. "Then who did?"
"Rina, who told you about that?" Raia asked Rina.
Rina looked at them for a moment before shaking her head. "I won't tell you. I promise her I won't tell you."
Raia raised his brows. "Her? So it is a lady."
"That lady must be one of our close friends if she knew about it." Aaron commented.
"But who?" Raia wondered.
"I don't know but if I find out who it is, I will smack the head of that lady." With his clenched fist raised, Aaron vowed to himself.
Rina burrowed herself closer to Raia when she saw this.
"I am not angry at you Rina. Don't worry. I am angry at the lady that told you about that nickname." Aaron explained with a smile.
Raia was thinking who this lady is.
There were a few ladies in their circle of childhood friends that know about the nickname of Aaron.
He was deducing who might she be when his phone vibrated.
Caroline and Veronica were almost at his home.
"I'll go get Caroline and Veronica outside." Raia left to fetch Caroline and Veronica.
After a few minutes, he came back with two ladies wearing casual clothes. But these two were releasing the allure of models. They were beautiful and charming after all.
"Raia, here. We brought something to eat later." Caroline handed over a plain red box to Raia.
Raia gladly took the box. "You shouldn't have bothered to bring this but thank you. Unlike someone else here that didn't do his promise, you two are very nice."
Caroline and Veronica smiled.
"I already put the food in the kitchen. What are you getting upset for?" Aaron said with his arms crossed.
Raia looked at him in disbelief. "You really are treating my house as it is yours."
"Your house is my house and my house is your house." Aaron said as he stood up.
Raia placed the box on the table. "I don't have a messy house like yours."
Aaron coughed.
Raia introduced the ladies to Rina.
"Rina, we are going to my room to study but if you need anything just come to me, okay?" Raia rubbed the cheeks of Rina. The little girl only nodded then looked at the two ladies.
The four left.
In his room, Raia placed his table in the middle.
'So this is his room. It smells good.' Veronica was gently sniffing as he looked around.
On the other hand, Caroline suddenly commented. "Raia, your room is almost empty."
Raia just laughed. It was true that his room was almost empty. There was just one shelf with his books, a cabinet, a table and chair, and his bed.
There were two main reasons why Raia's room was like this.
First, he didn't have enough credits to buy stuff for his room or himself in the past.
And secondly, even if he had enough credits to buy some of his wants, he won't do it because he would rather give the credits to his mother.
Even in the past, the only things he spent his credits on were cultivation resources and pills then gave the rest to his mother.
He was a bit stingy to himself but always generous towards his family.
"That is just how it is." He said and sat down.
"Alright! Let's do this. Raia, here are the lessons I am getting hard time understanding" Aaron opened some files on his phone and showed it to Raia.
Raia nodded and explained it to him. The explanation of Raia was rather short and simple but it contained all the information needed and was very easy to understand.
A few minutes later and the three were looking at him with wide eyes.
"What is it? Is there something you didn't understand on what I've said?" Raia asked them.
"…"
The three shook their head violently.
"It was the opposite. I understand everything very clearly." Aaron answered him with amazement in his eyes.
"Yes. Honestly, I think it is even better than when Sir Timothy discussed it." Caroline declared with a smile.
"Mm. I even learned something new just from your explanation." Spoke Veronica.
Raia waved his hands as he shook his head. "You are over praising me. I just told you how I understood this topic."
The three felt complicated. They were amazed by Raia but they also felt that they were very stupid compared to him.
Among the three, Aaron was the most shocked. He knew that Raia was not this smart in the past.
'Maybe he was studying very hard to enter the top rankings.'
That was the only reason he can think of right now.
Caroline and Veronica were surprised to know that Raia was intelligent guy. He was not outstanding in their class so they never imagined that he was this brilliant.
'He has already the good looks and cultivation state and now he also showed his brains.' Caroline thought as she stared at Raia with admiration.
'He is amazing.' Veronica said to herself.
The moment of silence was broken by Raia.
"We should continue."
Caroline suddenly raised her hand like he was in the classroom. "Me! Please teach me how to solve this problem."
Raia looked at the file and saw it was a basic problem about space travel.
He explained it to Caroline while he was writing his solutions on a holographic board.
A few minutes passed and he finished the solution.
Caroline was happy.
Then Veronica raised her hand shyly and handed Raia the topic she wanted him to discuss.
Raia explained it to her.
'I suddenly became a teacher and got myself students.' Raia thought to himself.
However, he still answered the questions of the three as long as he knows it.
They studied or rather, Raia taught them until noon.
"We should eat first." Raia yawned and led them outside.
At the kitchen, Rose and Rhea were already preparing the table.
Caroline and Veronica saw this and they helped them.
Raia and Aaron went to Rome and Rina who were sitting on the couch and watched the show with them.
A few minutes later, Rose called to them. "Come on guys, let's eat."
While eating, Rose talked to Caroline and Veronica about themselves. The two answered the questions with a smile. However, she didn't ask about their families, careful not to make the ladies feel uncomfortable.
At this time, Aaron kicked Raia's foot lightly. Raia turned and saw Aaron giving a teasing smile.
Raia stepped on Aaron's foot really hard that made Aaron groan.
The others turned to him.
"Aaron what is wrong?" Rose asked with concern.
"Nothing Auntie. I just bit my tongue." Aaron smiled awkwardly. All this time, Raia continued eating.
After their lunch, the group went back to Raia's room.
In the middle of their discussion, Aaron spoke. "Right, Raia. Can we also meet tomorrow?"
Caroline and Veronica heard this and looked at Raia, waiting for his answer.
Raia shook his head lightly and apologized. "I am sorry but I have something to do the next few days."
The three were a bit disappointed but they understood that Raia also need to study for the finals.
How would they react if they knew that he was hunting beasts instead of studying?
Seeing their disappointed expressions, Raia continued. "However, I have some free time at night so if you have questions, you can just call me or leave a message. I'll try to my best to answer it."
This statement made the eyes of the three lit up.
'If I can help them a bit, why not, right? The food that Caroline and Veronica brought today was really good. I knew that it was expensive and I want to at least make up for that.'
The ladies brought a cake which was made from red star berry fruit that the four ate as snacks. Red star berry was a bit expensive fruit priced at about a thousand silver credits per piece. And this cake had a few of it.
Raia left some for his family. They also wanted them to taste this cake.
He realized that it was expensive so he didn't ask where the two bought it because the price might increase more if he knew where it came from.
He just thanked the ladies for it.
After a few more hours, it was time for the three to head home.
"Thank you for your help, Raia. Today was really great." Caroline said with a bright smile.
"I learned a lot from you. Thank you." The shy Veronica said.
After saying their goodbyes, the two left.
Standing beside Raia, Aaron sighed. "You've been out a few days and now you came back charming girls. It seems even in that department, you are going to surpass me."
Raia rolled his eyes and laughed. He placed his arms around Aaron's shoulder.
"Stop talking nonsense and go home." He slapped Aaron's shoulder. "Call me if you need anything."
Aaron nodded and left.
Back to his room, Raia stretched his body. "It was finally done." He then prepared himself to enter the world inside.
"I still have time before dinner." With that he disappeared in his room.