After absorbing moonbeams for approximately 15 hours, Ed's progress had reached 15%.
[Black Iron Witcher Progress: 25%]
"Maybe I'm gaining about 1% per hour?"
Ed's hope was reignited. If he could hold on for a few more days, he'd break through and become a Hunter!
Of course, the condition was that he had to survive...
Glancing at the time, Ed calculated that there were only two or three hours left before dawn.
He quickly took a nap, then woke up before the first light of day.
Outside, the sunlight broke through the darkness.
As Ed and the others stepped out of the stone house, they saw a pile of corpses near the foot of a mountain in the open space not far from them.
There were about a dozen people, their faces twisted in terror, dead.
Ed immediately recognized them. These were the slaves who had been taken away the previous day.
"My god…"
Ed's classmates all looked horrified.
The middle-aged man had already risen and was sitting on a large stone beside the mining vein.
He paid no attention to the corpses in the distance, as if he was used to such scenes.
He simply shouted at Ed and the others, "Time to work."
At that moment, the fox-woman came striding over, her hips swaying alluringly. She appeared somewhat distressed, as though she had encountered some difficulty in her magical experiments.
Upon seeing Ed and the others, her cold gaze immediately swept over them like a blade, leaving a chilling impression.
"Listen up! Get to work! Before dark each day, each of you has to mine at least one basket of purple ore."
"If anyone fails to meet this quota, expect your head to roll!"
With that, the fox-woman turned and walked away, leaving behind a group of frightened people.
They hurried to grab their tools and head toward the mining vein.
The middle-aged man walked over as well, beginning to instruct Ed and the others on how to mine and identify the purple ore.
Before long, everyone had learned the basics and began working hard.
Mining was an exhausting job.
But since the day was so short, and everyone feared being killed by the fox-woman if they failed to meet the quota, they all worked desperately!
Ed noticed that the others were slow and clumsy, struggling with the unfamiliar heavy labor.
But he was different. After the moonlight meditation yesterday and absorbing the moonbeams.
His body had undergone further enhancement.
Although he wasn't yet skilled at mining, his speed was far faster than anyone else's!
As they worked, Ed glanced at Luna, wondering if this frail girl would be able to keep up.
Ed quickly realized he had been overthinking things. Luna was indeed frail, but she was incredibly capable and didn't need anyone's help.
When Ed asked her about it, she simply said, "The sunlight is finally out. It feels so warm."
Meanwhile, the middle-aged man was not only supervising their mining but also offering instructions as they worked.
Ed noticed that the middle-aged man seemed to harbor some resentment toward the fox-woman.
A few times, when the fox-woman appeared, the middle-aged man would cast a quick, hateful glance in her direction.
But these moments of resentment were brief.
As night fell.
The daylight lasted about 4 hours. Despite it being the first day of work, all eight of them, including Ed, had managed to mine one basket of purple ore.
Another day of survival.
…
Four days passed in the blink of an eye.
Ed and the others noticed that every morning, more bodies would pile up at the foot of the mountain.
On this particular day, Ed saw that the corpses had stacked up into layers!
His expression turned grave and heavy.
"Those 80 people... they're all dead now."
Under the constant pressure of this grim sight, Ed intensified his nightly training.
He continued using the Moonlight Meditation to absorb the moonbeams.
As a result, he successfully increased his progress by another 60%.
Now, his progress had reached 85%!
Ed was filled with excitement.
"At this rate, if I keep at it for just one more day, I'll break through and become a Black Iron Witcher!"
However, despite his increased strength, Ed hadn't accelerated his mining pace. In fact, he deliberately worked slower to avoid drawing attention to any unusual changes in his body.
Over these past few days, Ed also managed to strike up a conversation with the middle-aged man.
The man's name was Mike.
At first, Mike wasn't keen on talking, but with some subtle questioning, Ed was able to get a few details from him.
Mike said he came from a nearby village, originally a coal miner. Later, he and his son were captured and brought here, but his son had already died.
Mike also warned Ed, saying, "Don't even think about escaping. The whole cave is surrounded by magical barriers set by the fox-woman. It's impossible to break through."
What Ed really wanted to ask about was the Hunters.
But Mike seemed unwilling to say much, and besides, he didn't know anything about the Hunters.
…
That day, at noon.
While Ed and the others were drenched in sweat, Mike suddenly called for them to stop.
Then, the fox-woman arrived, and she ordered the eight of them to line up.
The fox-woman then swept an unsettling gaze over each of them. Anyone who met her eyes instantly felt a chill run down their spine.
Finally, her eyes settled on one of the boys standing next to Ed. "You. Step forward," she commanded.
She waved her hand at him, and the boy, terrified, obediently stepped forward without daring to resist.
The fox-woman reached into a storage pouch and pulled out a small porcelain vial containing a silvery-gray potion.
She poured the potion out and handed it to the boy, ordering, "Drink it."
The boy, too frightened to disobey, took the vial from her hand and swallowed the contents in one go.
Afterward, nothing seemed to happen at first.
The fox-woman then instructed the eight of them to continue working.
As they worked through the day, the hours passed, and when it was almost time to finish for the night, suddenly, the boy who had ingested the potion let out a terrible scream!
The others were immediately startled. Ed and the others turned to look at him.
Under the moonlight, the boy was ripping at his clothes, tearing them apart with frantic strength. His body began to convulse violently!
"It hurts! It hurts so much!"
He cried out in agony, but no one dared to approach. After a few seconds of convulsing, his eyes suddenly turned blood red, and his body underwent a dramatic transformation!
His body began to grow at an alarming rate, and thick, wild fur sprouted from his skin. His face twisted into the snout of a wolf.
In just a few seconds, he had transformed into a werewolf!
"He... He actually turned into a werewolf!"
Ed's classmates gaped in disbelief.
But that wasn't the end. The werewolf's body soon began to wobble.
As though something inside it was violently shifting. The creature tilted its head back to howl at the moon.
"Argh—UGH!"
Before the howl could even finish, the werewolf's body suddenly exploded, tearing apart into a mess of blood and shattered flesh, scattering across the ground.
The fox-woman, having stepped out to witness the scene, shook her head.
"Which ingredient went wrong this time?"
The failure of the experiment seemed to frustrate her greatly.
The fox-woman glared at the moon, muttering under her breath, "Damn moon, always so annoying!"
With that, she quickly retreated back into the cave, slipping into her lab where she conducted her experiments.
After this incident.
The other students grew even more fearful. If that boy had died today, who could guarantee that they wouldn't be next?
As they were about to sleep.
Luna trembled and quietly moved closer to Ed. She slipped a grayish mineral stone into his hand without a word.
Ed immediately took it and hid it, looking at Luna with surprise.
It was well known that anyone caught hoarding special minerals would be executed on the spot.
But Luna, with her head lowered, said softly, "Ed, thank you for saving me from the ghoul that day. I never got the chance to thank you properly."
"Who knows, I might die one day, too. This is the special stone I found today. I want you to have it."
She didn't have much to offer in return.
But this strange-looking stone was the only gift she could give to show her gratitude.
Ed didn't say anything more. He simply accepted the stone and tucked it away safely.
Then, the two of them returned to their rooms.
That night, Ed felt even more urgency in his heart.
"My time is running out!"
He needed to quickly raise his progress to 100%, break through to become a Black Iron-level Demon Hunter, and gain at least some ability to protect himself!
He continued sitting on his bed, bathing in the moonlight, and focused intently on meditation, absorbing the moonlight.
Fifteen hours quickly passed.
[Ding! Black Iron-level Demon Hunter progress: 100%]