Seth had successfully trailed the footprints in reverse and somehow ended up in a desolate wasteland.
"This should be the beast hunting grounds or whatever they're called!"
He had found his way here, and now it was time for him to grind. However, Seth scratched the back of his black hair and tilted his head slightly in confusion.
"But where are all the beasts though?"
The place was as desolate as... well, a wasteland, and there wasn't even a speck of life anywhere at all.
"What the hell could have happened here?"
According to 80℅ of all webnovels he had read, places like these should he crawling with beasts, but all he could find was rubble, debris, sand, more sand, even more sand, and...
"A beast corpse?"
Seth raised a brow as he glanced at the dead beast. It was a kind of scorpion-like creature spanning at least five metres in height. It had some type of metal shell and its stinger was especially large, even by giant scorpion standards. Well, this was the first giant scorpion he had seen in his life, but this things stinger was probably making up to sixty percent of its body mass. From the way the body was torn to shreds, Seth was pretty sure he knew what had done it in. "It was probably that dog beast, wasn't it..." The teeth and claw marks all matched the size of the dog like creature, so he was at least forty percent sure-ish. Well, he did not cone here to act as a Sherlock Holmes for the beast's brutal murder, nor did he come to perform an autopsy on the corpse. Instead, he came for the Qi shard within the creature's body.
From what he knew, beasts usually had beast cores of sorts that should be worth quite a lot of money. He stuck his hand into the revolting carcass, and almost threw up when the slimy, slightly warm, putrid innards caressed his palm.
'So gross...'
He had already fouled his hand by inserting it into the beast's carcass, so he could not possibly stop now. He felt around the inside of the carcass as his stomach churned on disgust. Then his hand hit a sharp object.
"The beast core!"
He clenched the object and pulled it out of the carcass, it was a spiky diamond like stone with viscous repulsive black blood dripping from its surface. Unlike the novels he had read, it was not a smooth crystal ball that held mana.
_ring_ring_
[Ascended level Qi Shard detected]
[Error: Cannot be absorbed as Host level is too low]
[Option 1: Save]
[Keep the Qi shard in your inventory. Benefit; Automatic absorption once Host level is high enough] (recommended)
[Option 2: Sell]
[Exchange the Qi shard for coins which in turn can be spent on weapons and materials at the Store after seven days.]
[Option 3: Craft]
[A high level weapon can be generated using the power of the Qi shard. The type of weapon and its properties are determined by the beast where the shard came from]
Seth stared at the holographic screen in his line of sight, with a slight crease on his forehead.
"The system supposedly allows me to absorb beast cores... I mean Qi shards, but I can't absorb this one because I'm still a level zero?"
However, it seemed like he was not blessed with an interactive system as the system kept quiet and did not answer him. He scanned the entire screen with his eyes, and lingered on the store option. He was partly sure that he would gain a substantial amount of power from absorbing a high level With shard, but the other two options were just as enticing, perhaps even more. The sell option allowed him to exchange the shard for store gold which he could spend on equipment and materials, and the craft option created a custom weapon for him using the shard.
"Coming from a scorpion-like creature, I'm pretty sure I'd get a poisonous dart or something..." In all, the save option was the most beneficial option for him in the long run when he eventually grows stronger, the sell option was beneficial, but he would have to wait for seven whole days fist. However, the craft option was perhaps the mist beneficial option for him as of now. He desperately needed weapons if he were to hunt beasts, and the crafting option would do just that.
"Option three." Seth called out in his mind.
_ring_ring_
[Crafting option had been selected]
[Commencing Crafting]
[0%...1%...5%...10%...50%...80%...100%]
[Crafting Completed]
His eyes widened considerably as a slick, jagged, beautiful black dagger appeared in his palms.
"Sweet!"
With this, he would be able to grind as many low level beasts as he wanted! If webnovels were anything to go by, then a high level beast weapon would basically be as potent as a machine gun against a herd of cows.
"Wouldn't that count as cruelty to animals though?... Ah, who cares. I have beast hunting to do."
His confidence stemmed solely from the item description.
[Poisonous Peril]
[Tier: Ascended]
[Stage: nine]
[Two deadly forces met in a harrowing battle, the battle was fierce, yet ended in regret. This dagger holds the murderous intent of a fallen beast and wishes to poison all of it's kind.]
[Ability: automatically secrets a deadly poison in the fork of scorpionicus venom into the bloodstream of the target along with every strike made using the dagger]
The whole back story and the ominous feeling he got from merely holding the dagger sort of creeped him out. A lot. But, the ability of the fearsome weapon was nothing to scoff about. Armed with what he could boast to be the strongest weapon in the desolate wasteland, Seth's continued to reverse trace the beast's footprints.
"Its time to show these beasts why humans are at the top of the food chain."
He had zero fighting experience, and barely knew how to use a dagger, yet he brazenly marched onwards into the den of the beasts. Why? Because he was transmigrated. Seth knew that one usually got transmigrated because their presence would make a difference in the other world, and he was a hundred percent sure that he was not sent here to die.
Pretty dumb if you ask me.