*SPLAT*
"GUH...!"
"URGH...!"
Blood and guts began spewing on the prisoners below as the monster corps carried by the momentum overshoot them just by the tiniest margin and spewed out the entrails right at them the moment it made contact with the ground.
"...uh-oh..."
Viria looked at the scene wide-eyed and did a quick head count.
There were over twenty prisoners there at least – most of whom got showered in monster viscera.
"You can keep the corpse as an apology! Thanks again for the info! Bye!"
Viria called out in a hurry, facing away in hopes that the others didn't manage to memorize his face, and just started running into the monster spawning ground, much preferring to deal with monsters than with a bunch of angry cultivators holding a grudge.
"...did that guy just... kill a rare spawn in one hit...?"
The man who called Viria a sleepy-head gulped down his saliva and asked in disbelief staring at the back of the disappearing young man.
"More importantly – did he seriously just GAVE IT to us afterward?!"
A short young gold-haired woman with a footprint-shaped reddish mark on her face pushed to the front and kneeled by the monster corpse that was still twitching and shoved her hand inside it in search of the monster core.
"Damn! I like that guy already!"
Someone from the group laughed in admiration while swiping a piece of smelly mole-rat entrail from their shoulder looking towards the spawning ground where Viria disappeared.
"Hey, drop the useless shit and help me carry this, common mole-rat skin is dirt cheap now anyways!"
"On it!"
The gold-haired young woman called out and immediately three other prisoners got to her and helped her pick up the surprisingly heavy monster corpse.
"Alright. Close the gate, our kind sponsor definitely would not appreciate having a way for his prey to run away."
The young woman nodded at the rare spawn mole-rabbit with satisfaction before motioning at the gate...
...and as she did that, blood started trickling out her nostrils as if the kick she received while serving a springboard for Viria had a delay...
[Prison shiv (mole-rabbit bone) – low-grade soul artifact – it sometimes breaks but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.
Abilities – Bone weapon (The higher the mastery level, the higher the damage dealt by the weapon) - - Rabbit strike (Adds the speed of a mole-rabbit's jump to the attack) Rabbit aspect (Imbues the user with the speed of the mole-rabbit)
Mastery – level 5/10
Durability 5/12 –repair– -remake-
???]
"...that's not very good now, is it...?"
Meanwhile, Viria was checking the condition of his soul artifact, hiding behind a rock while two packs of mole-rabbits were viciously fighting amongst each other a few steps away.
Judging by the drop in durability, it was either that the large monster rabbit he killed had its skin tougher than the skull of the normal ones, or because of the new augmentation that granted his soul artifact the third ability, the weapon became much more brittle than before.
On the bright side, his mastery went up, but that silver lining was a bit too thin to make up for the potential problems.
"..."
The young man leaned from behind his hiding spot to check on the monsters duking it out with each other.
It would be really nice if they all just killed each other, which would allow Viria to get a whole lot of materials – bones in particular – so he could get his soul artifact back into top condition before risking it.
Unfortunately, the mole-rabbits weren't too smart – although they were originally from two different packs, the moment the number of corpses reached a third of the number of the beasts left alive, they all just stopped trying to kill each other and instead began happily munching on the bodies of their fallen brethren creating one massive pack of over thirty.
"..."
Viria looked at the monsters, then at his soul artifact which had five points of durability left, and then made a rather bitter expression.
He has found himself in quite a pickle...
On the other hand, one of the corpses had fallen relatively close to his hiding spot and surprisingly enough it did not pick the attention of the rest of the monsters munching on the closer ones.
It was risky.
Honestly, Viria would be better off if he didn't try anything stupid and just waited for the large pack to finish eating and hopefully dispersed just like the helpful female prisoner from before had told him.
But the urge for killing burning deep within him pushed him to try his luck.
Biting his lips in concentration, the young man took a stance from one of the movement techniques he worked hard to get any good at and...
*WHOOOSH*
"Scwee? Scwee..."
The speed that Viria launched himself, grabbed the corpse, and returned to his hiding spot was so great that he not only shocked himself – one of the mole-rabbits did hear him move. When it raised its head to check it out, there was only a splatter of blood indicating the presence of a corpse that simply vanished out of its sight, leaving the creature confused before it returned to eating its previous pack member as if nothing happened.
"...what the...? That... that should not work like this..."
Meanwhile, despite succeeding, Viria was feeling rather distressed, sitting behind a rock with a salvaged corpse of a mole-rabbit.
The thing was he wasn't able to completely master the technique he used but the speed he reached was definitely the one that was supposed to be reserved for the mastered one.
It was almost beastly, just as if he suddenly gained the speed of the charging mole-rabbit and added it on top of the movement technique and...
"Huh...?"
The young man gasped quietly and looked at the soul artifact that he was firmly gripping in his other hand.
[Prison shiv (mole-rabbit bone) – low grade soul artifact – it sometimes breaks but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.
Abilities – Bone weapon (The higher the mastery level, the higher the damage dealt by the weapon) - - Rabbit strike (Adds the speed of a mole-rabbit's jump to the attack) Rabbit aspect (Imbues the user with the speed of the mole-rabbit)
Mastery – level 5/10
Durability 5/12 –repair– -remake-
???]