Ron found one more beast attacking a girl; he immediately took action and killed the beast swiftly, as it was only a second-level body refinement beast. After taking care of it, he didn't look back and took off for the next one.
In just an hour, Ron was able to collect more than 70 points!
When Ron arrived at the next scene, he was shocked to find that it was the same guy from the first time, again fighting against a deadly beast. Ron thought it was a strange coincidence. He shouted out to Dixie in order to get her to cooperate, as the beast this time is at the fourth level and it will be hard for Ron to take care of it alone.
They were able to coordinate perfectly and kill off the fourth-level beast swiftly.
"Thanks again! I really owe you my life. Can you tell me your name?"
"It's Ron Rogers; you can call me Ron."
"Thanks Ron!"
Ron left again after gathering the corpse. He found that the points for each level of beast are multiples of five, which means the fourth-level beast would give him 20 points, and indeed that was true.
As Ron was moving around, he found the only mortal kid in the test. Strangely, he was collecting herbs in a bag and often putting some of those directly into his mouth.
He saw a shadow slowly moving towards the mortal kid. Ron frowned and slowly moved forward; he then saw a giant snake, at least at fourth level, opening its mouth wide right above the kid's head! He immediately took out his sword and shot it towards the snake's head; it directly hit its eye and it started struggling.
The kid was scared, and out of fear, he kept running without looking back; some of the herbs fell from his bag, but he hurried nonetheless. Ron took the chance and approached the snake to take it down, but things took a turn and the snake started escaping deeper into the forest.
"Hey! Give me back my sword! Ora, ora, ora!"
Ron ran frantically, worried that he might lose his only weapon. He followed the snake and tried to keep up with its pace. The snake saw a boulder and immediately rammed the other half of its body against it to get the sword out of its eye. Every time it rammed, it wiggled in pain and hissed wildly.
The next time it rammed its head, the sword flew off from its eye, flying in an arc and spewing blood. It landed right in the opposite direction of Ron. He stopped right in front of the snake beast; it noticed Ron and hissed at him with its only eye. There was only silence after their initial confrontation.
Just then, he heard someone or something running towards this area. The sounds grew louder and louder, but both the snake beast and Ron didn't move, afraid the other would take advantage.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Aaahhh!!!"
A man and a wild beast jumped out of the woods and landed right in front of Ron. Mid-air, the young man noticed the serpent beast; his face twisted, and he literally wanted to cry for his bad luck. Just then, the serpent smacked its tail, causing the wolf to fly off in mid-air, towards Ron.
Damn!
Ron cursed in his mind as he tried to evade it, and the serpent took that as an opportunity to dive at him, trying to chew him off. If Ron doesn't block it, he will surely be cut into two pieces.
Bang!
The serpent beast looked back, only to find nothing. By the time it realized that something was wrong, a sword had been pierced into its other eye. It was Ron!
The serpent beast struggled a lot, but this time he made sure to pierce it completely into its head and pierce the brain. Just a few seconds later, it stopped struggling and fell down with a thud.
Huff….Huff…. Such a waste; if only I were a bit more careful, I wouldn't have to use the formation plate. That was almost 100 points wasted! Now I can only use it two more times.
On one side there was the wolf, which was smashed to meat paste by the serpent; on the other side was the same young man whom he had already met twice, Dixie.
Ron thought he might be a jinx; every time he sees him, there's trouble.
"Hey, bro, are you sure that you don't have an amulet or something that keeps drawing the beasts to you?"
Dixie was too embarrassed to say anything; he smiled awkwardly and thanked him again and again. It was getting dark, so Ron decided to take some rest. It would be good to add Dixie to the pack, as he thought that wherever he is, there are definitely beasts around, which means more points for him!
Dixie took out a few herbs and handed them to Ron. She insisted that it was the least she could do to repay him. But the problem is that Ron didn't know a thing about them. Ron decided to appraise them.
[Nightshade Grass: 6 points]
[50-year-old Ginseng: 35 points]
[…]
What?!
Ron just realized that he had missed the fact that anything can be exchanged with the system for points. When he was a miner, even the stones that were infused with spiritual energy were accepted, let alone the herbs that contained even more spiritual energy.
This batch of herbs that Dixie shared with him alone gave him 68 points.
Just then, Ron remembered that the mortal kid had dropped a few herbs when he was escaping from the serpent beast. He didn't want to wait until the next day because who knows if it would be picked up by someone else or a beast. So Ron told Dixie that he was leaving and rushed out to the location.
It took him a while to reach there, but he found that all the herbs were still there. He quickly saved and earned 35 points.
'Status'
[ Ron Rogers (SilverSurfer) ]
[ Cultivation: Third Level Body Refinement Realm (Low Level D Rank)]
[ Vitality: 1.2]
[ Focus: LOCKED ]
[ Skills: - ]
[ Storage: Tag Change Token]
[ Points: 804 ]
[ Task Progress: System Node placed - Time remaining 108 days ]