Mastering Knowledge

"Now I finally understood why the beginner mission—Survival Game—set such an almost despair-inducing time limit of one hundred and eighty days. It was clearly meant to give players a chance to grow."

After being completely suppressed by the Corpse Soul Naga for half an hour, Liu Zhi tossed aside his Wooden Sword, sat on the ground to rest, and said between gasps.

He had already spent a full thirty-one days in the Golden City. His life, which had initially been chaotic, had gradually stabilized, and his days now followed a fairly regular routine.

He now lived in a stone house he had cleared out on the eastern side of the pyramid. The stone house was clearly built in the style of either the Maya or the Inca. Though made of stone, it had been designed as a stilt house to keep out water and moisture.

Since there were no other humans in the city, Liu Zhi did not even bother installing a door. Every morning after getting up, he would spend half an hour practicing swordsmanship with the Corpse Soul Naga in the plaza beneath the pyramid.

The Corpse Soul Naga's swordsmanship improved far faster than Liu Zhi had expected. Even now, during their daily half-hour sparring sessions, Liu Zhi could still watch his experience steadily rise.

Next came Liu Zhi's archaeology time. Every day, he traveled back and forth between the eastern and northern districts, searching for all kinds of clues and recording every pattern he could find.

He tried to infer clues to the hidden writing from those patterns.

After a month, if nothing else, his Basic Language had already risen to level 3. He could now guess his way through some of the information left behind by the city's former inhabitants.

At noon, there would often be a heavy rainstorm, followed by the daily routine of snatching fruit.

After the rain, Liu Zhi would pick one or two fruit trees and make his move, fleeing as soon as he had grabbed enough fruit for the day.

It was not that he did not want to take more. The first time he had done it, he had not known better and stopped too much fruit. As a result, the giant snakes that had not eaten their fill stared at the city from the riverbank for a full hour that day, frightening Liu Zhi badly.

After that, Liu Zhi estimated his own appetite and only snatched enough fruit to cover one day's consumption. He did not stop any extra fruit, treating it as food for the snakes.

Once he had finished snatching fruit, Liu Zhi would take advantage of the receding floodwaters to wander through the other two districts and see whether any fresh plants or herbs had sprouted. He would bring those herbs back to the "laboratory" beside his residence and mix them through methods such as juicing and boiling.

As for what he could make, that depended entirely on luck. If he succeeded, the system would give him a notification. If not, he could simply pour it out.

For the rest of the time, Liu Zhi would stay there working on all sorts of things. The tools here were mainly containers forcibly hammered out of gold. By now, Liu Zhi could hammer gold into thumb-sized little bottles and ensure that they did not leak.

At nightfall, Liu Zhi would climb to the top of the pyramid and enter the Palace of the Underworld from there.

He would then remain in the Palace of the Underworld for a full two hours, carefully testing the effects of his control over it.

At midnight, Liu Zhi would return to his residence, sort through the day's gains, then draw a tally mark on the wall to record the time before finally going to sleep.

This regular life brought Liu Zhi growth in every aspect.

Not to mention anything else, the various types of knowledge among his passive skills were rapidly increasing. If passive skills could raise Attributes, Liu Zhi's Attributes might already have been stacked to quite impressive numbers.

[Name: Sandru (Sandru Idd: ordinary player of the cross-planar game Southern Swamp Plane, graduate of Bone Wind Academy / Sandru Ailanci: game character, impoverished noble of Xise / Liu Zhi: V3 player of the cross-planar game Milky Way Arm plane, ordinary person from Water Blue Star)]

[Class: Necromancer (Necromancer: not yet graduated / Noble: not activated, not displayed, no skills / Beginner Mission period, no class)]

[Level: 1]

[Mana: 31/66]

[Title: Idd the First]

[Secondary Class: Transcendent Sailor Level 1]

[Attributes: Strength 3.3, Agility 2.7, Constitution 1.6, Spirit 3.3]

[Active Skills: Sailor's Basic Swordsmanship Level 4 (3976+0/9000), Sailing Skill Level 4 (0+0/9000), Z-Secret Sword Level 1 (113+0/9000), Indigo Chasing Wind Swordplay Level 1 (79+0/9000), Goldware Crafting Level 1 (55/100), Simple Tool Crafting Level 2 (54/100)]

[Class Skills: Summoning Level 1 (35/1000)]

[Passive Skills: Magic Knowledge Level 3, Necromantic Knowledge Level 4, Basic Science Level 3, Basic Language Level 3, Fish Knowledge Level 1, Jungle Survival Knowledge Level 4, Toxicity Knowledge Level 3, Cooking Knowledge Level 2, Botany Knowledge Level 3, Herbalism Knowledge Level 2, Occultism Knowledge (Maya Civilization) Level 2, Occultism Knowledge (Inca Civilization) Level 2, Occultism Knowledge (Aztec Civilization) Level 2, Occultism Knowledge (Sacrifice) Level 1, Occultism Knowledge (Weather) Level 2...]

[Special Skill: Master of the Underworld Level 1 (62/9000)]

[Training Knowledge: Rotting Flesh Ghoul Wolf Level 1, Surging Wave Fishman Level 1]

[Experience: 8967]

After resting, Liu Zhi stood up and put away the Wooden Sword. With a stretch of his hand behind him, the Death Long Staff flew into his grasp.

"Alright, today we're going to take a look at the southern district. Last time, we dug up knotted cords from the Inca civilization there. Although I haven't deciphered them, when I took apart the cords, the experience for Basic Language shot up like crazy. This time, we'll see if we can find anything else. As long as I push Basic Language to level 4, most written languages without Mana won't pose much of a problem for me."

As he spoke, Liu Zhi headed toward the southern district, with the Corpse Soul Naga following behind him.

All four of her arms were now equipped with weapons. Her upper arms naturally held the Longsword and dagger she had started with, while her primary arms wielded obsidian Longswords Liu Zhi had made according to records left behind by the Aztec civilization, following the method for crafting Macuahuitl.

Although the obsidian Longswords he made were short and heavy, that was no issue for the Corpse Soul Naga.

She had the strength to wield such weapons with ease.

Liu Zhi had tested it as well. When all four of the Corpse Soul Naga's hands held weapons, he could only hold out in front of her for less than a minute.

That was without her using any killing moves. If she truly struck without restraint, Liu Zhi might not even be able to withstand a single exchange.

With the Corpse Soul Naga protecting him, Liu Zhi naturally dared to go anywhere.

He soon arrived in the southern district and began searching around the place where he had previously found Inca-style knotted cords used for record-keeping.

Just then, Liu Zhi seemed to hear something. An eagle suddenly flew across the valley.