After seeing two corpses being stuffed under a massive heap of industrial garbage, Euri snuck out of the projects very carefully. He had shown himself to those thugs intentionally, so that he could bait them into doing the dirty job for him. But he didn't want to be seen by anyone now.
Now, the only remaining trace of Euri's connection to the dead girl was the case file in the hands of the police. For Euri, accessing those files to remove his identity was impossible. But he knew he had to try it once before his anonymous opponent could dig it up.
Vowing to visit the police station the next day, he returned home under the shroud of the night. A slight sense of guilt tried to gnaw at his consciousness. But he suppressed it easily by imagining the consequences of letting that invader's plans succeed.
Before entering the apartment, he toured the surrounding area for a while alongside the group of old nightwatchmen from the neighborhood. He needed some company to shrug off the goosebumps on his skin. He wasn't going to get that at home.
The old elders loved this job, because it was one of the few ways they could still be of use to the community. Most people here earned their bread through hard physical labor. Having the frail folks at home strolling the streets and alleys at night was beneficial for everyone.
They weren't expected to fight off criminals if they encountered any. Their job was to whistle, scream, and make a ruckus to wake up everyone nearby.
"Heard you got jumped the other day, grandson," one of the old men said amidst their small talk. Everyone was looking at Euri's bandaged head curiously.
This question seemed to have been on the tip of their tongue for a while. But Euri didn't want the incident to spread. So he changed the story.
"It was actually just a scuffle between some friends from school. Things got a little out of hand. The rumors you've heard are exaggerated because of those damned news articles. Those reporters could hear about water being boiled and make a movie out of it!"
"...Oh! We were really concerned for a while. I even wanted to go visit your home. But the stairs kill my back every damn time..."
The grandfatherly men nodded among themselves and changed the subject. It wasn't entirely because they believed what he told them. They were just wise enough to read between the lines.
After returning home and cleaning up the dishes stuffed with Black Foam, he locked himself inside his bedroom and logged into the game. He had a lot of experiments planned since experiencing the twists and turns in the previous session.
First of all, the Administration Skill- [ Shepherding ] required some testing. But all four of his beast familiars were busy cultivating. Since the vitality well was still in its recharging phase, he couldn't see any chances of any of them having a quick breakthrough.
Staring at the lazy and cowardly Scout Dog, Euri recalled the memory sequence of training it in his mind. What was the command for getting its attention again?
Hesitantly, Euri put his mouth next to the miniscreen's audio input slot and shouted in a muffled tone, "Ghaghagha!"
Before he could feel embarrassed about it, he saw the dog open an eyelid and look around in confusion. He had observed this dog during cultivation before. It never paid attention to any distractions, and unless the sacred ground itself forced it, it was not easy to move it away from the well of vitality.
"It worked!"
Excited, Euri followed up with several more commands, even going as far as making pointed gestures at the camera of the miniscreen. The dog's tail began to move right and left, the head mirroring the same rhythm, clearly no longer interested in cultivation.
Grinning victoriously, Euri ordered to walk around the grove by itself and check for threats. The dog looked reluctant, giving forlorn looks at the tendrils of vitality clouding over the well. But it obeyed the instructions nevertheless and rushed into the dense woods at a speed Euri had never seen it move.
Euri turned his focus on Brawler Rat. In his dream of training the rat, he had not had much success. This little guy had a temper, and whenever it got frustrated, it tried to challenge Euri to combat. The regular defeats meant nothing to it!
Hearing Euri's comical squeaks, Brawler Rat broke out of its reverie and punched and kicked in all four directions in a panicked frenzy. Only after fully regaining its bearings did it realize that the commander was nowhere to be seen.
But the rat still listened. When Euri signaled for it to give him a show of combat skills, it charged at Scavenger Rat and rammed it in the stomach. Dragged out of the cultivation session, the latter tried to fight back passively, but the skill gap was too wide. Brawler Rat knew moves that it couldn't even comprehend!
After separating them, Euri gave instructions to the tame-natured Scavenger Rat to go look for more resources. It looked relieved that it didn't need to stick around Brawler Rat. Just like Scout Dog, it disappeared underneath a shrubbery-filled region of the grove.
The next experiment was with Dread Spider. After making it run in circles around the well and execute a couple of dance moves he had taught it in the dream, Euri let it return to its cultivation in peace.
After all, it was the weakest among all of his beast familiars. That 0.1 score in Physique evaluation was the lowest he had seen so far.
Euri opened his data window as the Administrator and tried to explore the skill roulette. But it refused to show up. Clearly, he needed to get the sacred ground's blessing once more to acquire another skill.
"Should I sacrifice all the hunted bests to the gas well from now on? Will that be enough for more blessings?"
Although the previous blessing had come from such a sacrifice, Euri doubted that the next one would come so easily. There were 99 beast cores left to give to the well before it leveled up. But the skill roulette contained only 9 skills in total. Perhaps he had to sacrifice a large number of cores to gain the next skill.
"I can't sacrifice so much, not when I am in such a perilous situation in real life. I need to amass a little strength first before thinking about this goal."
Euri looked at his physique evaluation, which showed a score of 1. If he could brew ambrosia through that secondary core and consume it himself, could he improve his physique?
If beast cores could be transferred from the game to his stomach, why not ambrosia?
"This will be my next goal." He decided firmly.