In the middle of the forest, a lone figure was sitting on top of a lifeless gray-scaled python.
'The high-rank spirit crystals were piling up. This should be a good amount.'
Raia stared at the high-rank 3 crystals that were inside the storage space. It was almost two hundred pieces now and should be good enough for him to refine.
"I just need a place where I can cultivate. Going back to the tiger cave is a hassle. I should just find another beast lair."
Raia collected the corpse of the gray scaled python and left.
He was wandering around the forest and was killing the weak beasts that he encountered.
In the last few days, he was doing the same things.
Hunting beasts and searching for the shining green spirit stone. However, the latter was still not showing itself to him.
"What are a few days with no results? I know that my hard work will pay off and I will be able to find it. I just need to be patient."
Raia encouraged himself as he dashed away into the forest.
…
A few hours later, he was watching a new beast he discovered.
It was a high-rank 3 beast.
The beast was a white rabbit about a meter tall with dark blue eyes. The thing that interested Raia was that this rabbit had what he assumed was an armor going from it forehead down to its back up to its small tail.
The rabbit was running and Raia was silently following from a distance.
He didn't immediately kill the rabbit knowing that this type of beast has a herd to return to. Raia wanted to annihilate its whole herd.
"I wonder how do they fight their opponents." He was trying to think how the rabbit fights when it stopped in front of a giant tree.
It turned around to all directions to check if it was followed.
Raia, who was already hiding behind a thick bush, was observing its next move.
The rabbit then jumped into the hole that was at the root of the tree.
After it disappeared, Raia walked towards the hole. It was only about half a meter wide and was extremely dark.
"Should I go in? My body can fit if I crawl inside. However, I don't know what was at the end of this hole. Well, it must be full of rabbits. I can easily kill them but fighting in a small space will restrict most of my movements. That will be a huge disadvantage for me if I get stuck inside this hole. If I can lure them outside, that would be great."
He was considering his next movement.
At this moment, he sensed someone has knocked on the door of his room. Raia left the hole and hid himself in a distance. Then he exited the world inside.
…
Back to his room, Raia heard the voice of his mother. "Raia, let's have dinner."
Raia opened the door and went together with her to eat.
After dinner, Raia watched some shows with Rina and Rome before heading back to his room.
He got his phone and browsed some information about rabbit type beasts.
The rabid rabbits he killed on the forest of Forzen were only mid-rank 1 and they were mostly found outside so he didn't bother to search for their lair because he can also kill many of them outside. Also, it was just a waste of time to find a lair of one of the weakest beast
A few minutes later, he found some information about rabbit type beasts.
He remembered the information and understood how these rabbit works.
Raia smiled then went back into the world inside.
…
He looked around and walked towards the hole.
According to what he read, these rabbit holes lead to the center of their lair and this center area is the largest part of their habitat. This is the area where they all gather, store their food and breed.
If the height of the rabbit was a meter, then the height of the center area would at least be three meters.
"If that is really the case then I can at least stand up and fight without any restrictions."
With that, Raia decided to enter the rabbit hole. He sat and lied down on his back. Then he pushed himself and went down with a slide.
The floor was surprisingly smooth so he didn't have a hard time sliding. His butt and back were just starting to heat up.
Raia was already sliding for a few minutes.
'This place is very deep underground and also very dark.' He was just relying on sensing the spirit energy around him to know what was happening.
A few moments later and he felt the end of the line.
Staring at this end of the line, Raia's eyes widened.
He saw a faint green light and felt a high amount of energy.
'Is this..?'
At this moment, he was thrown outside the hole and arrived at the center area. It was much larger than what he imagined it to be.
The ceiling was about five meters off the floor and the area was about two hundred square meters.
However, Raia was not amazed by this but by the thing that was lying on the center of this place.
It was shining green spirit stones!
There was a small mountain formed by maybe hundreds of fist size green spirit stone and they were the ones lighting up the whole place.
These stones were not emitting the light as bright as the one from the tiger cave but it was still better than the low-grade green spirit stones he took before.
"I finally found it!" He shouted as he raised both of his hands in the air.
Raia's eyes were fixed on the green spirit stones and only noticed the glare of hundreds of rabbits a few moments later. There are hundreds of glowing blue eyes glued at him.
"Boy, there are hundreds of you in here huh?"
The rabbits growled and showed their sharp teeth.
"These things were far from cute." Raia stretched his neck and arms.
He charged toward the rabbits. However, the rabbits didn't run to him.
Raia was a bit confused. When he arrived at only about five meters away from the nearest rabbit, it took action.
It kicked the floor and launched itself to Raia. However, it curled its body mid air, turning into a ball covered with gray armor.
The rabbit became a projectile and instantly reached Raia!
He was startled for a second and didn't have enough time to evade.
'Bang!'
He was hit by the rabbit on his chest and was pushed two steps backwards.
'What a hard armor! And that speed!' He was surprised by what happened.
Thankfully, his body was stronger than the armor of the rabbit. Even though he directly received the attack, he was not injured.
Raia just felt a little pain on his chest. After all, it was still a high-rank 3 beast.
'Swoosh!'
The armor rabbits didn't give him time to rest and gunned themselves towards Raia.
However, this time, Raia already knew how they attack and was prepared to dodge them.
He sidestepped and evaded some but there are those that still reached him.
'Swoosh!'
One rabbit approached from the front. Raia took his stance and punched the armor rabbit.
'Boom!'
His fist and the armor of the rabbit clashed. He overwhelmed it and the rabbit was thrown away to the air a few tens of meters away. When it crashed to the other rabbits, its armor was already dented. However, it was still alive.
'These guys were tough!'
Another rabbit blasted of itself to Raia which he answered with another punch.
'Boom!'
The rabbit flew away but was still breathing.
For a few more minutes, Raia was running all over the place, dodging and attacking the armor rabbits. However, their armors were tough that he needed to punch them twice before they die. One was to crack the armor and the other one to penetrate its body.
There were still three hundred armor rabbits keeping him busy.
He wanted to get the green stones, exit the world inside and just came back after consuming it but the rabbits kept blocking his way.
'Good. The initial plan it is. I'll just annihilate you all.'
He grabbed the armor rabbit that approached him and force open its body. It shrieked and wanted to bit Raia but he already punched its revealed stomach.
'Bang!'
The armor rabbit died immediately.
Another one approached him. Raia received it on his chest, hugged it very tightly and crushed it with his arms. He threw it away and moved to the next rabbit.
At this time, he was hit by one armor rabbit in the head and was dazed for a second but he quickly recovered.
He charged towards that rabbit, leaped into the air and kicked it down to the ground.
Raia continued killing the armor rabbits like they were mortal enemies.
…
He sat to the floor three hours later. Raia was a bit exhausted.
His body was covered with blood and his robe was torn to pieces revealing most of his skin.
"It's time to make a new set of clothes." He still had some materials that can be used for clothing like the fur of the tiger or the skin of the black-tailed beast.
Raia also planned to add some more equipment like armor or helmet.
After catching his breath, Raia disassembled the armor rabbits. He collected the crystals first then the bodies afterwards.
"This loot is good. The armor of this rabbit can be used by father to make breastplates or maybe a full armor."
He was not afraid that some of the armor rabbits would not be used. Raia trusted and knew that his father can create beautiful things from these materials.
"It's sad that he still couldn't handle the alpha green tiger. I would love to have a weapon made from that."
Raia sighed.
It took him hours before he finished dismantling the armor rabbits.
"Time to meet the star of the show." He moved towards the pile of glowing green spirit stones. He estimated that there were about two hundred half-fist sized stones in front of him.
Wearing a wide smile on his face, Raia picked up one green stone. He sat down and began refining it.
A few minutes later, Raia opened his eyes with a smile.
"It was several times better that the green stones from the tiger cave. This quantity should strengthen my spirit by a considerable amount."
He was ready to refine the energy of all the stones in one go but stopped in doing so.
"There might be rabbits returning here so I need to seal the place like the last time."
However, he also thought. "But how I'm gonna get out if I seal myself here?"
Raia walked towards the wall of the center area and punched it.
'Boom!'
The wall was crushed and a hole was formed.
"Guess I'll just blast my way up." With that, he moved to the holes and sealed them using the rocks lying around the area. There were four of them was connected to different directions above ground.
After an hour of work, he returned to the stones.
"I'll keep some to light my way up." Raia sent some of the green stones to the storage space.
With that, he placed the glowing green spirit stones around him and began absorbing its energy.
A familiar wave of energy flowed through Raia.
His foundation shone brightly while his body was enveloped in a faint green light. The energy from the green spirit stone comforted his spirit.
Raia was improving all his three aspects simultaneously. However, among the three of them, his spirit was the one getting stronger at a higher rate than the other two.
He felt that his connection with the spirit energy was getting deeper bit by bit. His spirit force and learning ability were expanding too.
The blue tear was for the foundation and body whereas the glowing green spirit stone was meant for to strengthen the spirit. The two has a common point in that they both were not used for increasing cultivation level.
The shining green spirit stone was different from the two because it was a far higher grade material than them. It contained a vast amount of energy that Raia used to break through to the Martial Spirit State.
Time passed and Raia was progressing steadily.
Almost twenty hours later, Raia finally opened his eyes.