"Hey! Axe guy!"
Cheng Tian's sudden call after resolving his urgent need to pee made the two college students, who had kept their distance the entire time, shudder slightly.
After witnessing Cheng Tian take down the Red Demon from start to finish, One-Ear and the others were astonished by the combat strength of someone who should have been a novice like them. At the same time, they had also developed a faint fear of him.
This was different from fighting zombies earlier. The decisiveness and brutality Cheng Tian had displayed while beating the Red Demon made them naturally think that Cheng Tian might not be a good person in real life.
What kind of decent person could beat a demon into a human stick!?
But asking them to leave Cheng Tian behind and push forward on their own... they did not dare do that either. They would probably die without even knowing how.
Words could not teach what experience could teach in one go. Having personally experienced the dangers of Demon World Village, they had long since given up on playing the hero. Now, both of them only wanted to try clinging to a powerful ally.
So when Cheng Tian did not move, the two of them simply rested more than ten meters away from him.
"Boss! What is it?"
One-Ear, who knew he was far inferior to Cheng Tian, immediately stood at attention.
"Got anything to eat?"
"We'll go find some!"
While One-Ear was still scratching his head at Cheng Tian's sudden request for food, the foolish college student covered in Blood Scab directly hooked an arm around his roommate's neck and took on the task without even asking why.
Having already done something stupid once, the Blood Scab fool's thinking was clearer than ever at this moment.
He had completely realized that One-Ear at least had some combat ability and was qualified to mooch off Cheng Tian for some assists or something. As for himself, he was just useless dead weight. The other party had no reason whatsoever to help him.
If he wanted to cling to someone powerful, he had to show as much value as possible beyond combat ability—running errands, carrying things, handling miscellaneous chores for the big shot, and so on.
Cheng Tian's request right now was a perfect chance to show his value.
Neither of them actually had food, but the Blood Scab fool remembered that among the players who had already died, there had indeed been several carrying messenger bags or briefcases. There was a good chance they could find food and drinks inside.
Just one short hour had drastically changed his mindset. As long as he could cling to a powerful ally and survive, looting corpses was only a minor issue.
If they really could not find anything, they could only try searching the surrounding gravestones to see whether anyone had left offerings they could steal... though he had no idea whether a medieval-style setting even put food in its offerings.
"Wait."
Just as Blood Scab was about to lead One-Ear back the way they had come, Cheng Tian suddenly called out to them. When Blood Scab turned around, he saw a baseball bat flying in an arc and landing not far in front of him.
"Take it. At least it'll help you defend yourselves."
Cheng Tian said this as he tossed the Blank Baseball Bat to Blood Scab.
"Got it, Boss!"
Blood Scab was overjoyed to receive an immediate response right after declaring his loyalty.
One-Ear also patted Blood Scab on the shoulder before following him back the way they had come.
Killing zombies and searching human corpses were fundamentally very different things. At the very least, the two college students could not do it without feeling any emotional turmoil.
Fortunately, the bags ignored by the zombies did contain some food. In particular, the girl's shoulder bag was stuffed with several kinds of snacks, all high-calorie foods such as fruit gummies, dried fruit chips, and nuts.
Cheng Tian, who had calmly treated the two young men as errand runners, was not idle either. He opened the Bronze Treasure Chest that he had been using as a stool.
There was naturally no Vampire Magician lying in wait inside. It was just an ordinary treasure chest.
As the chest opened, 1,500 Chosen Coins were added to Cheng Tian's previously empty wealth column. Clearly, this was the space's universal currency, though he had no idea about its purchasing power.
The second Drop Item was the Red Demon Wings Cheng Tian had cut off and which had been scattered nearby. They dropped as Green Excellent Grade processable material, and Cheng Tian casually stuffed them into an empty slot in his inventory.
Then came the important part.
The third reward from the treasure chest was 1 Free Skill Point.
Aside from completing main quests with high completion and high evaluations, killing powerful monsters, completing hidden side quests, obtaining special treasures, and other such things all had a chance of yielding Free Skill Points.
However, Cheng Tian was clearly more cautious with Skill Points. More importantly, the only skill he currently had that could be upgraded did not look like the kind that would undergo a qualitative change from a single point based on its description.
As the saying went, ride a bicycle to the bar—save where you should save, spend where you should spend. He had used his Attribute Points and Skill Stones, but Cheng Tian decided to keep the Free Skill Point for now and allocate it later as needed.
While the two young men went looking for food, Cheng Tian was not completely idle.
Not far from the cemetery exit, a narrow river blocked the only route to Demon King's Castle. Above the river, there were clearly circulating moving platforms, like floating ice islands, driven by some special force.
The water was clear and the current was not fast, but it was definitely deep enough to completely submerge a person.
After looking at the river for only two seconds, Cheng Tian decisively Uninstalled his Vampire Hunter template.
The reason was the Template Skill that came with it, called "Dissolve Upon Entering Water."
[Dissolve Upon Entering Water: Template Skill, negative Passive Skill. When your entire body is submerged in a body of water deeper than your height, you will immediately be judged dead.]
Because Cheng Tian's Vampire Hunter template was an Original Type, it not only possessed Simon's strengths but inherited his weaknesses as well.
With a constitution like this, people would probably believe you if you said Simon was a vampire...
Damage Dodge was merely a little awful in practical use, with strict terrain requirements. At least it was nominally a buff, but Dissolve Upon Entering Water was a completely unadulterated negative passive.
A wise man did not stand beneath a crumbling wall. Cheng Tian did not want to gamble on crossing the circulating platforms to the other side without encountering any accidents whatsoever, so he simply Uninstalled the template first.
Even if you liked to gamble big, there was a time and place for it, right?
In any case, he was still wearing the Strawberry Man Underpants, and he could reload the template after only fifteen minutes, so he did not hesitate to Uninstall it.
By the time Cheng Tian returned to his original spot, he had already filled the Knight Armor helmet to the brim with clear river water.
But despite being parched, he did not rush to drink. Cheng Tian first gathered some dead branches and dry grass beneath the surrounding Withered Trees, wrapped the embers from the fireball the Red Demon had spat onto the ground before dying in the dry grass, and held it in his palms while blowing on it mouthful by mouthful. Before long, he ignited the grass and started a small campfire.
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Next, he put some effort into moving several broken gravestones to use as a stove, propping them in the fire before setting the helmet full of river water over it to boil.
Beiye and Deye had taught Cheng Tian more than once that, if conditions allowed, water from the wild had to be boiled before drinking.
The price of drinking untreated wild water out of laziness was likely severe dehydration afterward... or even rectal prolapse.
Before you continue