"Hey! You with the ax!"
Cheng's sudden shout after relieving himself made the two college students, who had kept their distance all along, flinch.
After witnessing the entire process of Cheng Tian taking down Red Arremer, One-Ear and his companion were shocked by the combat power of someone who should have been a rookie just like them. At the same time, they also felt a faint trace of fear.
This was different from when they had fought zombies earlier. The decisiveness and brutality Cheng Tian had displayed while killing Red Arremer naturally made them imagine that the Cheng Tian in reality might not be a good person.
"What decent person could beat a demon into a human stick!?"
But letting Cheng Tian go on ahead without them... They were even less willing to do that. They figured they would die without even knowing how.
You couldn't teach someone with words, but one experience was enough to teach them a lesson. Having personally experienced the dangers of Demon Village, the two had long since abandoned any thoughts of playing the hero. Now, they only wanted to cling to a powerful ally.
So when Cheng Tian stopped, the two of them simply began resting more than ten meters away from him.
"Big brother! What do you need?"
One-Ear, who knew he was far inferior to Cheng Tian, immediately stood at attention.
"Do you have 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 blood-crusted idiot of a college student directly hooked an arm around his roommate's neck. Without asking why, he took on the task for both of them.
The blood-crusted idiot, who had already done something stupid once, had never been clearer-headed than he was now.
He had fully realized that One-Ear at least possessed some combat ability and was qualified to leech off Cheng Tian for a little support or something. As for himself, he was just a useless burden. Cheng Tian had no reason whatsoever to help him.
If he wanted to cling to Cheng Tian's leg, he had to display as much value as possible beyond his combat ability—running errands, carrying things, or handling miscellaneous tasks for his powerful ally.
Cheng Tian's request at that very moment was an excellent opportunity to show his value.
The two of them really had no food, but the blood-crusted idiot remembered that among the other players who had already died, several had been carrying shoulder bags or briefcases. There was a good chance they could find food and drinks inside.
Just one hour had already drastically changed his outlook. As long as he could cling to a powerful ally and survive, looting corpses was merely a minor issue.
If they really couldn't find anything, they could only search the tombstones nearby and see whether anyone had left offerings they could steal... Though he had no idea whether a medieval-style world would have food among its offerings.
"Wait."
Just as the blood-crusted idiot was preparing to take One-Ear back the way they had come, Cheng Tian suddenly called out to them. When the blood-crusted idiot turned around, he saw a baseball bat descending in an arc and landing a short distance in front of him.
"Take it. It'll at least help you defend yourself."
Cheng Tian had thrown the plain baseball bat to the blood-crusted idiot.
"Yes, big brother!"
The blood-crusted idiot had just declared his willingness to help and had immediately received a response. He was overjoyed.
One-Ear also patted the blood-crusted idiot on the shoulder, then followed him as they began heading back the way they had come.
There was still quite a fundamental difference between killing zombies and searching human corpses. At the very least, the two college students couldn't do it without feeling anything at all.
Fortunately, the various bags that the zombies had ignored really did contain some food. The girl's shoulder bag in particular was stuffed with several kinds of snacks, all of them high-calorie foods such as fruit gummies, dried fruit, and nuts.
While Cheng Tian calmly treated the two strapping young men as errand boys, he wasn't idle either. He opened the bronze chest he had previously been using as a stool.
Naturally, there was no Vampire Magician hiding inside. It was just an ordinary chest.
As the chest opened, Cheng Tian's wealth, which had previously been zero, increased by 1,500 Heaven's Chosen Coins. Clearly, this was the universal currency of the space. He just didn't know how much purchasing power it had.
The second drop was Red Arremer's wing, which had originally been lying scattered nearby after Cheng Tian cut it off. It dropped as a green, excellent-grade craftable material, and Cheng Tian casually placed it in an empty slot in his inventory.
Then came the important part.
The third chest reward was one free skill point.
Besides completing mainline missions with a high completion rate and high evaluation, there were also chances to obtain free skill points by killing powerful monsters, completing hidden side quests, obtaining special treasures, and so on.
However, Cheng Tian was clearly more cautious about how he used skill points. More importantly, the only skill he currently possessed that could be upgraded clearly wasn't the kind where a single skill point would bring about a qualitative change, judging from its description alone.
As the saying went, when riding a bicycle to a bar, save where you should and spend where you must. He had already used his attribute points and skill stones, so Cheng Tian decided to keep the free skill point for now and allocate it as needed later.
While the two young men went looking for food, Cheng Tian wasn't completely idle either.
Not far from the cemetery's exit, a river that wasn't particularly wide blocked the only route to Demon King's Castle. Above the river, he could see circular moving platforms, clearly driven by some special force, drifting around like floating ice islands.
The river water was very clear, and the current wasn't swift, but it was definitely deep enough to submerge a person completely.
After looking at the water for only a moment, Cheng Tian unloaded his "Vampire Hunter" template without hesitation.
The reason was the template skill that came with it, named Water Solubility.
Water Solubility: Template skill, negative passive skill. When your entire body is submerged in a water source deeper than your height, you will immediately be judged dead.
Because Cheng Tian's Vampire Hunter template was an "Original Type," it had inherited not only Simon's strengths but also his weaknesses.
With a constitution like this, you could probably convince people that Simon was a vampire...
Hit Evasion was only troublesome in practical application, with strict terrain requirements. At least it was technically a beneficial effect. Water Solubility, on the other hand, was a purely negative passive skill with not a trace of anything else mixed in.
A gentleman did not stand beneath a dangerous wall. Cheng Tian had no intention of gambling on whether he could cross the river safely and without a single mishap on the circular moving platforms, so he simply unloaded the template first.
Even if you liked taking huge risks, you still had to pick the right occasion, didn't you?
In any case, he was still wearing the Strawberry Muscle Man underwear, and he only needed to wait fifteen minutes before he could reload the template. Thus, he removed it without the slightest hesitation.
By the time Cheng Tian returned to his original position, he had already filled the Knight Armor helmet to the brim with clear river water.
However, even though he was desperately thirsty, he didn't rush. Cheng Tian first gathered some dead branches and dry grass beneath the surrounding withered trees. He wrapped the embers from the fireball Red Arremer had sprayed onto the ground before dying in the dry grass, held it in his palms, and blew gently on it again and again. Soon, he ignited the grass and raised a campfire.
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Next, he spent some effort moving several shattered tombstones over to serve as a stove, placing them over the fire. Then he set the helmet full of river water on top and began boiling it.
Bear Grylls and Ed Stafford had taught Cheng Tian more than once that, if conditions allowed, water found in the wild had to be boiled before drinking.
The likely result of drinking untreated water in the wild just to avoid the trouble was severe dehydration that followed soon after... or even a prolapsed anus.
Before you continue