Although he remained emaciated, his once sickly-looking pale skin now had some healthy-looking color.
As he began to wipe the blood from his body, he caught sight of a stick by the lake's edge. He stood up, went over to the stick, picked it up, and gave it a close inspection.
''When I first found it, I thought this stick belonged to something extremely rare like the world tree, but I don't think I've ever been lucky enough to find something this rare four times in a short period of time. '' He felt disappointed when he realized the stick he found was the same as the ones he had discovered earlier. It seems that what he discovered was not as rare as he had believed.
Anyway, he was determined to take this stick as well as his loot.
When he turned to look at the crocodile that was still hanging in the nearby tree and noticed that it was completely motionless, he assumed that it would soon die. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long to hear the system sound.
*Ding*
[Lv.1 Blue Lake Crocodile(F-Rank) has been killed.]
[Your team gained 1 point.]
[You gained 10 experience points.]
When he received the system notification saying the crocodile was dead, he untied it, collected the vines, and brought it to the edge of the lake to clean the blood off its body.
The absence of predators despite the abundance of blood indicated that either the local predators were not particularly aggressive or that they each had their own territory and remained there. Nonetheless, out of caution, he covered the open holes in the creatures' burrows with soil and grass to mask the smell of blood.
After preparing the bodies, he tied the wolf tightly on top of the crocodile. He called up the status screen once he was done with his work to see how much time had passed.
''It seems that only 43 minutes have passed.'' He was relieved to realize he still had plenty of time and began moving through the forest while dragging one end of the vine attached to his loot.
Despite the fact that the crocodile's weight had been added to his load, he was dragging it like a sled thanks to the crocodile's flat stomach.
Raydon noticed that the trees around him were becoming scarce as he wandered around looking for other mobs. It was a sign that he had reached the end of the forest, and he soon arrived at a location where all of the trees had disappeared, leaving only isolated rock formations in the dry land that stretched out before him.
When he looked ahead from where he was, even though it was blurry, he could see where the forest began again, making this area appear to not be that big.
''A desert surrounded by forest, huh? '' He looked ahead, raising an eyebrow.
In the desert-like area, he could make out a few wandering lizard-like mobs, but for the most part, rocks blocked his view.
Seeing a different kind of mob made him excited.
''I have to go check what kind of monsters they are. '' Raydon smiled childishly as he gripped the vine tightly in his hand and continued walking, dragging his loot behind him.
It was good that there were no trees in the way of his vision, but if a predator was nearby, Raydon would make a clear target with the two animals he was pulling behind him.
Regardless of how dangerous the area was, he was eager to explore it to learn and discover something new, and he had no intention of abandoning his loot in the process.
With each step he took, the dry earth he was standing on crumbled. In comparison to the jungle, carrying his loot behind him on this flat terrain had become simpler, and his increased stamina was helping him more than he had anticipated.
As he continued to walk, Raydon began to feel uneasy. Apart from the noises he made, there was only silence.
It was completely silent; not even the wind could be heard.
It was similar to the situation at the lake a while ago. ''Have I entered another predator's territory? ''
Raydon's perceptions kept alerting him as he walked. He had the feeling that something was watching him, even though he couldn't see any living things nearby.
He quickly reasoned that the only possible source of danger could be the undersoil.
There was no way he could not see an enemy approaching from the ground or the sky in his field of vision if the enemy was not invisible. Raydon started to pay close attention to the ground beneath him.
With the loot he pulled behind him and his own steps, he had developed a rhythm while moving, but for a split second, he felt that something else was a part of this rhythm.
The moment he realized that this new thing was disrupting his rhythm, the ground beneath him split open, and something dark leaped out and sneak attacked Raydon.
He quickly let go of the vine's tip in his hand, hunched his upper body back, and performed a backflip to just barely avoid this sneak attack.
[-1 HP]
By the time Raydon regained his balance, the thing that had attacked him was already back in the ground and hiding.
Raydon felt a sting in his leg. He looked down and saw that his right leg had been cut, as if by a knife.
He didn't give much thought to the pain this small wound caused because he had always set the pain settings in VR games to almost 100%. It had little impact on his HP either.
''Don't tell me, now my enemy is a mole?" Raydon thought of his new foe as another familiar animal after facing a wolf and a crocodile earlier.
''That's just a guess, anyway, and I can't make a plan until I'm certain. '' Knowing your opponent's strengths and weaknesses is always a huge advantage when fighting them, but if you have the wrong information, this error could be fatal.
Raydon thought about this for a moment, then felt the ground vibrate again. This time, he rolled to the side with a quicker reflex than before. He had a better chance this time to get his bearings and see who or what was attacking him.