"What happened here?" August asked them.
Harry, slumped against a rock, wiped sweat from his brow and glanced up at August. "We barely made it out of the cave. Those Snow Vipers ambushed us." He gestured to the fresh wounds on their body and their contracted beasts.
"Let's go." August extended his hand to Harry.
Harry gripped August's hand and rose, his legs trembling. "Get up, everyone!" he bellowed, his voice laced with urgency and determination. "We can't stay here any longer!"
Everyone got up slowly and began to head towards the shelter. As they were walking, they asked August what was in the cavern, and he told them everything he saw. They were shocked to know there was a rare plant.
After what felt like hours of trudging through the snow, their feet aching and breaths heavy, they finally reached the shelter's entrance. They shared a collective sigh of relief before heading straight to the task center, driven by the urgency of their mission.
In front of a counter, August and everyone stood while Harry talked to a male receptionist.
"We want to show you something about the Snow Viper extermination mission," Harry said as he brought out his smartphone and showed pictures of piles of corpses, beast cores, and the trail left behind by the beasts. Then he explained everything about it.
The receptionist studied the pictures with seriousness and asked, "Anything more you want to inform?"
August stepped forward and said, "I was the one who went inside the cavern, and when I was returning, I felt two eyes staring at me, but I couldn't find anything."
"Understood. I'll notify the higher-ups. This mission is now on hold—no one else can take it," the receptionist said, his expression grave. He turned to August with a pointed look. "Next time, don't venture into unknown territory without proper intel."
"I'll be more careful," August mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing away, a flush of embarrassment creeping up his cheeks.
After that, they sold their loot. August also sold some of the beast parts he had collected, which raised his adventurer rank to Bronze-III.
As they left the task center, August asked, "What are we going to do with the beast cores?"
"We haven't given you anything for saving our lives, so you can keep all of them as thanks from us," Harry said, and everyone nodded in approval.
"Thanks."
"We want to discuss about the potion," Harry continued.
"Can any of you give me your Clik ID so I can give you the ingredients' names? You can gather them and give them to me tomorrow," August said. He hadn't bought the recipe from the system shop yet, so he decided to buy it after he got to his room.
"I can share mine," Dina approached August, getting close to his face.
"Uhh... sure," August said awkwardly. 'Too close.'
"Dina, don't tease him," Harry said.
"Tsk, you're no fun, 'Captain,'" Dina backed off, emphasizing the word "Captain" with annoyance.
"Here," Harry ignored her and showed his contact information on his phone. August quickly noted it in his smartwatch, adding it to his contacts.
"Then I will send you the ingredients' names, and you can hand them to me tomorrow." August separated from them and headed to the residence area and to the hotel.
After eating something, he got to his room and opened his beast space, letting Aurora out. He handed her some beast cores he'd been saving in his inventory.
'Now I should convert the beast cores to system points,' he thought as he opened the storage ring, letting all of the beast cores fall on the floor.
The cores glistened in the light from the room, and he touched them with his hand. "System, convert them to system points."
[ You have chosen to convert 512 beast cores into system points ]
[ You got 6,800 SP ]
After doing the daily quest for four days, he had saved 200 SP. With the 6,800 SP, he now had 7,000 SP in total.
'Now I have more than enough system points to buy the recipe from the system store.'
August quickly opened the store panel and asked the system, "System, buy the Advancement booster elixir recipe."
[ You have bought the advancement booster elixir recipe for 1500 SP ]
[ Transferring... ]
[ Complete ]
'It didn't hurt much. It must be because it's only a recipe.'
'Let's note the ingredients down and send them to Harry so he can inform the others.' August noted the ingredients for the elixir of different element beasts, then sent them to Harry.
'Now I have 5,500 SP left. Let's buy the rune language knowledge.'
'Hehe, I can't wait for it,' he thought, his body shivering with excitement. He had some basic knowledge of rune language because of his father, who studied the ruins.
"System, buy the Tier-I knowledge of rune language," he asked.
[ You have bought the [Tier-I] (Rune language) knowledge ]
[ Transferring in process... ]
'Argh, fuck!' August was hit with a headache because of the knowledge transfer process. He rolled on the floor in pain as his head filled with strange symbols that could be written in formation to make them work the way he wanted them to.
As the knowledge transfer process was going on, Aurora, who was watching him, got worried. Then she saw her master's body glow in golden light.
As the runes in his body started to glow, August felt another lock on his body unlock. Then his headache began to slowly relieve, making him sigh in relief.
[ Ding! Knowledge transfer complete. ]
[ Ding! You have unlocked another hidden feature of the Rune Body: Overdrive ]
[ Overdrive ]
[ One of the hidden features of the Rune Body. After activating this feature, it can boost body strength by two folds and mana core rank by one higher temporarily.
Duration: 10 minutes.
Cooldown: 24 hours.
After effects: Can't use mana for 1 hour.]
"Holy shit! What the fuck, system? Why didn't you give me this from the start?" August was awestruck and angry at the same time. How could he not be? If he hadn't bought the rune language knowledge, he might have missed it completely.
[ I understand the host's worry, but there are many different ways to unlock the hidden features. The host has unlocked it using an easy way, so the host should be happy ]
"Oh, so there are multiple ways to unlock them. Thanks for informing me," August said, quickly calming down.
'Let's try it out, shall we?' He was pumped up to test it.
"Activate Overdrive."