He opened the door to the cave and walked out. The door automatically locked itself and then blended into the surroundings, becoming indistinguishable from a rock wall.
The sapling to the left of the door still looked the same as it had yesterday. He had no idea how to make it bear fruit.
The sun was very warm, so Ma Lin slightly unzipped his leather jacket to avoid getting too hot.
The snow was still deep.
He walked around to the back of the rocky hill, wanting to get a clear understanding of the surroundings.
What he saw was an open plain, the terrain gently undulating, with sparse forests.
He didn't dare venture into the forests right now, fearing an ambush from some fierce beast.
He quickly arrived at the stream, the very one where he had found icefish the day before.
The narrowest part was just over two meters, which he could easily jump across. His basic running ability allowed him to run as fast as an antelope. Combined with the "servant's escape art," he felt that ordinary animals had no chance of catching him.
But he didn't have the guts to challenge any predator, not even a wolf.
After walking about two kilometers to the west, this was the farthest he had gone from the door. There were many footprints in the snow, but after a brief inspection, he didn't understand what sort of creature they belonged to.
Past a mound, he saw a group of deer several hundred meters away that looked a bit odd, with sharp, almost triangular heads, and scales covering their backs, but they were very short, no more than a meter tall including the head, and had long bodies. However, judging by their spotted fur and the antlers on their heads, they were indeed deer, just a strange breed.
The space around them was very open. If predators appeared, they could see them from afar and avoid them.
The system book vibrated, so he opened it. Sure enough, there was a new mission.
"Capture a sharp-headed deer and offer it to the Great Demon Egg to receive fifty contribution points. You can use these points to exchange for five attribute points, including strength, agility, constitution, intelligence, and charm."
There were also mission tips.
Less than a mile away on a hillock, there was a ram-headed demon statue where he had to draw an Array for the sacrifice, and slaughter the deer. Chanting "Master, master, I love you" a hundred times would complete the ritual.
"You can keep a deer leg for yourself."
Ma Lin could tell that there were several similar herds of deer living nearby. He could take them as hunting targets.
He didn't know how fast they could run, but he believed his normal running speed should be comparable to theirs, as he already possessed the basic running ability.
He approached them nonchalantly. When he was about fifty meters away, they still showed no reaction.
He chose one that was somewhat skinny, thinking it might be easier to catch, and then ran towards it. The deer became alert and started to run, but they didn't seem to take him seriously.
He shouted, "Servant's escape art."
This skill didn't require any incantations, but he had to shout out the skill name. It just showed that the Great Demon Egg really had a twisted sense of humor.
Suddenly, he felt as if the wind was under his legs, and he rushed toward the sharp-headed deer like an arrow, drawing his dog-tooth dagger. The deer panicked, trying to shake him off, but it was futile as the speed difference was simply too great.
Ma Lin's dagger slashed across the deer's neck, and a stream of dark blood spurted out. The deer struggled a couple of times before it collapsed.
The rest of the deer ran for a while before stopping, looking at him with bewilderment. After a few seconds, they resumed digging through the snow to eat grass.
This hunt was extremely easy. Normally, prey would start to flee when he was about twenty to thirty meters away, but he could catch up with just one acceleration. And with the dog-tooth dagger being so sharp, a simple slash would injure them. Even if it wasn't immediately fatal, it would slow them down, leaving them at his mercy to be slaughtered.
These deer looked a bit strange, and after killing one, he didn't feel any guilt. Firstly, he had to rely on eating meat to survive here; secondly, these deer were very different from the ones back home, and they gave him the impression that they should be hunted.
Then it was time to drag it to the ram-headed demon statue a few hundred meters away.
Why would there be such statues in the wild?
Did the Great Demon Egg have a hobby of making its own statues and then throwing them out into the wild?
The deer weighed about a hundred pounds, and even dragging it through the snow was quite heavy. He considered it for a moment and then used the dog-tooth dagger to split it into two. It hardly took any effort—the dagger was too sharp.
Then, he dragged the deer over in two trips.
He drew a large circle in front of the statue with the deer's blood, within which was a hexagram pattern. After thinking for a moment, he sliced off one of the deer's legs and placed it a little further away.
Both halves of the deer were placed at the very center of the hexagram.
Then he began to sing "Master, master, I love you" a hundred times. By now he no longer felt any shame.
After singing a hundred times, thick plumes of black smoke rose from the Array, and the deer's corpse turned into white bones within the smoke.
The system book vibrated slightly, and Ma Lin understood that the sacrificial ritual was complete.
He opened it to check, and sure enough, his contribution points had increased by fifty.
That really was a lot.
Since it was his first time conducting such a sacrifice, the system offered him a one-time opportunity to exchange fifty contribution points for five physical attribute points.
He fiddled with the system book, adding two points to strength and three to agility.
He confirmed the selection.
Then a red glow emerged from his body.
Afterward, he felt a surge of power within him.
His muscles bulged slightly, and at the same time, he felt that both his flexibility and his agility had improved significantly.
What exactly did an increase of three agility points mean?
He couldn't find his own attribute panel in the book, nor did he know the attributes of the wild animals, but at the very least, he had a feeling that his combat strength had greatly increased.
From yesterday to today, his strength had increased by three points, and his agility by three points as well, which should be quite a bit.
He felt much bolder. He began to feel more like a hunter.
Carrying the deer leg, he tried his best to wipe off the bloody smell with snow. Instead of heading straight back to the cave, he took a detour of several kilometers.
He came upon a pond, about ten or so acres wide, with very shallow water that had frozen over. He looked at it for a while and spotted a fish frozen in the ice, nearly two feet long.
He used the canine dagger to cut open the ice, took the fish out, then strung it with wool, ready to head home.
Because his strength had increased, carrying the fish and the deer leg felt almost weightless.
On his way, he saw a herd of deer again, but he had no intention of hunting them; it was completely unnecessary.
He moved with much more ease than the day before. There was no doubt that his combat power was still very weak here, but at least he didn't have to worry too much about fleeing and hunting anymore.
On his way back, he encountered another river, about fifty meters wide, also frozen over with thick ice, running mainly in a north-south direction.
He also encountered a tree of unknown species, its branches adorned with many animal skeletons, some of which still had intact flesh and skin.
Ma Lin stopped about fifty meters away from it and stood still.
He felt a buzzing in his head and then carefully retreated, distancing himself from it.
Even with just a casual glance, he could see skeletons of wolves, leopards, bears, and even one that seemed like that of a saber-toothed tiger.
It appeared as though some creature had hung them up there. The tree had thorns that were sharp and long, with each skeleton hanging from a thorn.
Ma Lin looked around the wilderness, a vast expanse of white, without spotting any suspicious creatures.
Yet, he felt his scalp tingle.
He quickened his pace significantly.
A creature that could easily hunt down tigers, leopards, and bears and then hang their bodies on a tree must be extremely strong and likely very ferocious as well.