Killing

Colin swung his iron axe down with all his strength, striking the monster's twisted, horrifying head.

"Bang!"

With a dull, muffled sound, the influence that had been disrupting his thoughts vanished.

The feeling transmitted through the axe handle was somewhat like chopping into an unpeeled coconut.

The expected scene of its head splitting apart like a watermelon, brains flying everywhere, did not happen.

In fact, the recoil from the axe nearly made Colin lose his grip on it.

"Damn it, not enough experience. I should've aimed for the neck!"

After gripping the axe tightly again, Colin did not hesitate and chopped down once more.

This time, he aimed for the neck, but the axe only sank a few centimeters in rather than severing it outright.

The monster toppled to the ground on the spot, but it was not dead!

At the same time, the two Servants rushed forward and began raining blows on the monster with their clubs.

After a frenzied barrage, the monster was reduced to an indescribable lump of "meat paste" and finally stopped moving.

At last, the kill notification appeared before Colin's eyes. He hurriedly waved to stop the Servants' furious assault. "All right, stop hitting it. It's already dead!"

With that, Colin ignored the two of them, as another string of messages was popping up before his eyes.

[Congratulations, you have killed 'Suffering Citizen - Confessor Priest'.]

[Would you like to dismantle it?]

"'Suffering Citizen - Confessor Priest'?"

Colin froze for a moment. Did this thing count as an Aberration?

Rather than looking at the dismantling option, he quickly took out the Parchment from his [Inventory] and opened the Task List.

When he saw that the task that had originally displayed a question mark had changed to an exclamation mark and was flashing with a faint golden glow, Colin let out a breath of relief.

He quickly clicked to confirm completion of the task.

[Congratulations on completing the daily task "Face the Fear." Reward: Hardened Black Bread *1, Dim Filthy Blood 100ml.]

"The task rewards have been sent to your [Inventory]. Please check them."

Colin checked his [Inventory]. The amount of Black Bread inside had become two, and there was also an extra mass of dark-red liquid.

[Dim Filthy Blood: Obtained by killing Aberrations or completing tasks. Every 100ml can burn for one hour.]

Without hesitation, Colin used the blood. At once, the blood in the Hurricane Lamp was replenished by more than half.

[An ancient-style Hurricane Lamp. You estimate that it can continue burning for one hour and thirty-seven minutes.]

"Phew."

Colin breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as though more than half the shackles on his body had loosened.

Then, he looked at the mangled corpse of the "Suffering Citizen" in front of him and muttered, "I wonder what can still be dismantled after we beat it into this state."

Then, with a slightly expectant thought, he selected dismantle.

"You obtained 'Dim Filthy Blood 16ml'. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Thorns of Suffering' *1. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Filthy Bone' *7. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Blood-stained Broken Wooden Wheel' *1. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Twisted Soul' *1. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Mildly Rotten Meat' *4. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Mildly Rotten Venison' *1. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

"You obtained 'Mist Points' *3. It has been transferred to your Inventory."

As item after item appeared in his Inventory, Colin's gaze remained fixed on the Thorns of Suffering!

[Thorns of Suffering: Long thorny vines that grow from Suffering Citizens. Can be used in weapon synthesis, or synthesized with clay into a Thorn Fence to block Gray Fog!]

"Can be used to block Gray Fog, and permanently at that..."

Colin took a deep breath, fully understanding the importance of this thing.

With it, Colin could expand the boundaries of his territory.

By then, while most people were still cowering inside their Wooden Cabins, he could happily grow vegetables around his own cabin!

Huh? Why was my first thought after expanding my territory to grow vegetables?

Gurgle, gurgle.

Colin heard his stomach let out a "miserable cry," and intense hunger surged through him. He knew this was not the time to review what had happened.

His top priority now was to solve his hunger problem.

Although Colin had only been out for around half an hour, the two Servants' satiety had already dropped to single digits. Their legs were trembling so badly that they could barely stand.

If they did not eat soon, they would very likely starve to death.

After thoroughly looting this Suffering Citizen's belongings, Colin followed the prompt's directions and found the river it had mentioned.

It was not far from here. After taking only a few steps, Colin arrived at the spot.

The moment they reached it, the two Servants could not resist the urge to dunk their heads into the water and take a huge gulp.

But Colin immediately stopped them. "Are you trying to die? Don't let hunger blind you. Wait until we boil the water before drinking it!"

If he had not discovered that the river was called [Polluted River Water], and that the prompt warned it could cause diarrhea, he might not necessarily have stopped the Servants.

"Thank you for your reminder, my Lord."

The two Servants immediately replied. Though they did not understand what boiling meant, they could roughly grasp Colin's meaning.

It meant heating the water before drinking it.

This was a habit they had never had in their lives. The water was a little dirty, but it looked quite clean...

They found it a little hard to understand.

But since it was the Lord's order, they could not say anything.

Colin then took out the Novice Treasure Chest from earlier, intending to make full use of it, and filled it with roughly five liters of river water.

At that moment, a system message suddenly appeared before his eyes.

"Would you like to purify 1 liter of river water in exchange for 'Level 3 Water'? Each liter consumes 1 Mist Point."

"Decline."

Colin's mouth twitched. This system was way too damn greedy. Such a small amount of water actually cost one Mist Point.

He had already learned about the uses of Mist Points.

For now, it seemed they could be used to buy a Megaphone, recruit Servants, purify water, and even upgrade villagers...

They had countless benefits.

Just three Mist Points were enough to recruit one Servant.

And now the system was telling him that a Mist Point which could have been exchanged for another person could only buy a few pounds of water?

Colin was not taking that kind of losing deal.

Most importantly, the prompt had said that boiling the river water would have the same effect as purifying it with Mist Points.

"If I didn't have the prompt, I might've stupidly used them to purify water too..."

Who knew how many people would get scammed by this thing?

Colin shook his head and did not think much of it. In any case, it had nothing to do with him.

He took out the [Synthesis Table] and used several pieces of stone he had found on the ground. Following the prompt's guidance, he synthesized a set of Stone Kitchenware.

He piled up Timber, set up the Stone Pot, lit a campfire, and poured in the river water. A few minutes later, a steaming pot of [Level 3 Water (slightly contaminated)] was ready.