One year later

Before long, An Kai had left the town.

Quite a few others were leaving alongside him.

At that moment, they all eyed one another warily, as though they had forgotten they were still neighbors in the same town just yesterday.

An Kai was no different. He covered his face with a strip of cloth, clutched the things in his arms, and hurried north with his head down.

Now, his balanced attributes began to show their worth.

Compared with the others, An Kai had greater endurance and a greater advantage.

Among those with roughly the same strength as him, some were faster but could not last as long, while others could last longer but were not as fast...

He ran north all the way from nightfall to dawn.

After resting five times along the way, An Kai finally reached a stretch of rocky desert.

One of his secret hideouts was here.

This place was a full four to five hundred li from Nameless Town.

Finding this exact spot in the desert was extremely difficult.

Only someone like An Kai, who had made the trip over a hundred times in a year, could locate this stretch of rocky desert so precisely.

The rocky expanse consisted of a cluster of enormous boulders, offering one of the few shaded spots in the desert.

An Kai entered the cluster of boulders and, following his memory, continued walking for about ten minutes.

He spotted a dark cave entrance in the middle of a huge boulder.

It stood about five meters above the ground.

"Finally here!" A glimmer of joy appeared in An Kai's eyes.

He walked to one side and found a vine as thick as his arm among a pile of small stones. An iron claw with a metallic gleam was attached to its end.

He coiled the vine several times, slung it over his shoulder, gripped the iron claw, and hurled it toward the cave entrance...

Clink!

A faint sound rang out as the iron claw caught firmly on the entrance.

An Kai tugged hard on it. After making sure it was secure, he climbed up the vine with the practiced ease of an ape...

It took him a little over ten seconds to climb the five meters and enter the cave.

He pulled up the vine and set it aside for when he needed to leave.

The cave covered about twenty square meters. Inside was the air-dried beast meat An Kai had stored over the past year. At the very back lay a pool of clear spring water, formed by drops trickling out of a crack in the rock.

Not far from the pool, animal pelts An Kai had "borrowed" from others were spread across the ground.

Aside from having no electricity or internet, this was an excellent hiding place.

He could live here for a year or two without much trouble.

By then, the civil war in the Bukelin Duchy should be nearing its end...

An Kai walked over to the pelts and took out the bundle that had suddenly appeared in his arms.

A gust of wind had delivered it while he was fleeing.

In Nameless Town, only the old president of the Mage Association, Second-tier Mage Donglin, could pull off something like that!

The bundle was not large, but its contents were hard, pressing against An Kai's chest painfully throughout the journey.

"What did that old fellow leave me..." An Kai muttered as he unwrapped the bundle...

"Whoa!" The moment he opened it, a glow spilled out!

An Kai looked as happy as if he had won the lottery...

Because the bundle contained exactly what he needed!

-Lower-grade Magic Stones!

He counted them three times over.

At last, he confirmed the total: twenty-eight Magic Stones!

This was undoubtedly a genuine fortune!

Without a second thought, An Kai silently commanded, Exchange!

[Skill points +28!]

This was the first time An Kai had been so well-off since coming to this world!

[Skill points -7.]

[Meditation proficiency +7]

[Meditation Lv1 "10/10"]

Seven skill points were instantly consumed, raising Meditation to its maximum proficiency at Lv1.

Just as An Kai was about to continue upgrading it, both his body and the system gave him a warning.

If he forced more points into Meditation, his body would explode on the spot...

With no other choice, An Kai stopped.

From what he could sense, his current Meditation would grant him an attribute point roughly every seven days.

Compared with the month it had taken at first, this was nearly five times faster!

He still had twenty-one skill points. After careful consideration, An Kai chose to upgrade Fireball.

In this desert, there was no telling which would arrive first: tomorrow or disaster.

Only turning his resources into strength could give him real peace of mind.

His physical limitations meant he could no longer upgrade Meditation.

Keeping his skill points would only leave him with a number.

He did not want to die in some accident one day with a pile of resources he had been too reluctant to use...

Just like the plots of novels he had read in his previous life, where some sucker of a powerhouse spent a lifetime hoarding resources, unwilling to use or spend them, only to die full of resentment and hand everything to the destined protagonist who dug up his grave.

[Skill points -9]

[Fireball proficiency +9]

[Fireball Lv1 "10/10"]

He opened his hand, and a red fireball tinged with yellow appeared, about the size of an adult's head.

The moment it appeared, it lit up the entire cave, which measured just over twenty square meters.

An Kai walked to the entrance and hurled the fireball at the ground!

He sensed it streaking in a straight line before it slammed into the gravel-covered ground!

Boom!

Dust sprayed into the air, and stones flew everywhere!

A crater roughly half a meter across appeared, with wisps of white heat still rising around its edges...

If that hit someone, it should burn them to a crisp...

An Kai muttered inwardly as he looked at the crater.

After his experiment, countless strange birds rose from the rocky desert, screeching shrilly. Faint beast roars also echoed from among the rocks...

Seeing this, An Kai returned to the cave, dragged a leafy tree over from one side, and placed it across the entrance as camouflage.

He also scattered a ring of sulfur and sharp iron fragments around the entrance...

"That old fellow has a pretty good heart!" An Kai muttered as he returned to the pelts.

He settled into a comfortable position and began trying out Meditation with its proficiency maxed at Lv1!

One year later.

In the shade of the rocky desert, a fat white worm wriggled slightly. It was about two meters long.

Its body was as thick as an iron barrel, and its head consisted of nothing but a sharp mouth split into four lobes.

The mouthparts were densely packed with gearlike teeth.

They churned constantly as it devoured a dead, large bird...

[Lv4: Desert Thorn Worm]

About three meters behind the Thorn Bug, behind a huge boulder.

Basic information about the monster appeared before An Kai's eyes.

Lv4 was equivalent to the fourth stage of a First-Tier Mage.

With a thought, a head-sized fireball appeared in An Kai's hand.

Without the slightest hesitation, he hurled it at the Thorn Bug.

The fireball crossed the three meters in the blink of an eye!

As danger struck, the Thorn Bug could only hastily curl its body into a ring, desperately bracing itself...

Boom!!!

An explosion rang out. Just as the Thorn Bug was feeling relieved that it had withstood the ambush...

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several more fireballs came hurtling in one after another!

Boom!!!

When the explosions ended, a glance toward the Thorn Bug revealed...

Its plump body was nowhere to be seen. Only fragments of white flesh lay scattered across the ground...