Rewards

Lumian dared not take too long to recover, afraid that other monsters might come over. After a brief rest, he endured the pain in his neck and back, along with some discomfort inside his body, and crouched beside the monster's corpse.

He still held the axe in his right hand, worried that his prey might not be completely dead and could suddenly leap up like the Skinless Monster before it.

Using only his left hand, he searched the monster's body and found three 5-Kopek copper coins known as "Rick," along with an empty cloth pouch.

"That's it?" Lumian wasn't disappointed by how little money he had found, but by the absence of anything involving supernatural power.

If not for that, why would he have fought this monster to the death? For lack of anything better to do?

Had he not possessed something special in the dream, he would have become its food by now.

Lumian pushed himself upright and looked toward the shotgun monster's head, which had rolled to one side, praying that what he wanted was there.

Just then, he saw tiny points of dark crimson light emerge from the surface of the monster's body, which was riddled with puncture wounds.

Like fireflies, they slowly drifted toward the same spot, impossible to stop.

Lumian stared, joy gradually welling up inside him:

This phenomenon definitely had something to do with supernatural power!

Before long, a patch of viscous dark crimson appeared on the monster's chest, and no more points of light emerged around it.

Lumian carefully bent down and reached for the substance.

It was slippery. He dropped it twice before successfully picking it up and weighing it in his palm:

It was light, with a certain firmness and elasticity, and its surface was extremely smooth...

"What exactly is this thing?" Lumian once again realized that he was truly illiterate when it came to mysticism.

As he murmured to himself, he faintly caught the bloody smell emanating from the strange dark crimson substance. He quickly grew restless, an indescribable viciousness rising within him.

For a moment, Lumian wanted to raise his axe and hack the monster's corpse a few more times to vent the violence inside him.

Fortunately, Aurora had always stressed how dangerous pursuing supernatural power was. He had taken precautions and kept monitoring himself, never letting his joy lower his guard, so he noticed something was wrong before it was too late.

"It affects my mental state?" Lumian dropped the dark crimson mass into the cloth pouch he had found on the monster.

The moment direct contact ended, he regained his post-battle calm, along with the faint excitement that had yet to fully subside.

His body still trembled a little.

"Just as I thought!" Once he returned to normal, Lumian murmured delightedly.

He immediately tied the pouch shut and hung it from a belt loop.

After some thought, Lumian took the pouch down again and tucked it into his leather jacket's inner pocket.

That made it harder to lose and gave him a greater sense of security!

As he loosened his clothes, a book behind Lumian's back lost its support and fell with a smack.

Its surface was pitted, and the whole thing was battered and torn.

This was the workbook Aurora had compiled for Lumian, titled "Practice Tests for the Unified Higher Education Entrance Examination." It had a soft cover and an exceptionally large format, making it useful as an outer protective layer and for filling gaps.

Today, it had blocked a blow from the shotgun for Lumian at a critical moment.

Of course, that hadn't been the work of this book alone.

Lumian picked up the workbook, walked back to the monster's corpse, and chuckled at his dead prey. "See? Knowledge really is power!"

After saying that, he had intended to toss the workbook onto the monster's face, but remembering all the effort his sister had put into compiling it, he couldn't bear to.

He reached behind himself and slipped the workbook into his belt, then bent down, dragged the monster's corpse to the trap, and threw it in. Afterward, he kicked its severed head into the pit as well.

After briefly cleaning up the battlefield, Lumian endured the pain and discomfort, secured his axe, picked up the now-empty shotgun, his steel pitchfork, and his shovel, and retreated toward the wilderness.

As he walked, he kept watching behind him, not daring to let his guard down for even a moment.

At last, he crossed the wilderness, returned home, went upstairs, and entered his bedroom.

Only then did Lumian truly relax. The pain in his body, the distinct discomfort, and his intense exhaustion all hit him at once.

He sat on the edge of the bed and rested for quite a while before recovering enough strength to move. But he didn't rush to fall asleep and leave. Instead, he took off his clothes, put away the books, and went to the full-length mirror attached to the wardrobe to inspect his injuries.

His neck was badly swollen, with five bloody finger marks visible amid the dark bruising. Several obvious patches of bruising covered his back, while the minor scrapes and contusions were too numerous to count at a glance.

"There are even some of those internal injuries Aurora talked about. I wonder if they'll be fully healed the next time I come in?" Lumian couldn't help reviewing the battle and grading his performance. "A fail, but not by much."

Actually, he could give himself a high score for the first half of the fight. Not only had he fully exploited the monster's limited intelligence to successfully lead it into the second trap, but he had also strictly followed his plan, keeping his target occupied perfectly for a long time until its injuries were on the verge of overwhelming it. His only shortcoming was his lack of experience: he had chosen to stab the monster at the bottom of the deep pit with his steel pitchfork rather than find some heavy stones and throw them down.

In the latter half of the battle, his joy at nearing victory, his lack of combat experience, and his contempt for the monster's intelligence had led him into its trick, nearly getting him killed.

That performance definitely deserved a failing grade. Fortunately, his earlier success had pushed the monster to its limit as well, preventing it from killing him quickly and giving him the chance to complete his Meditation and summon his "special" quality.

Honestly, before this, Lumian had never imagined that his "special" quality could have such a powerful effect, plunging the monster into inescapable terror that it couldn't shake off even while being attacked.

He had originally worried that the near-death state brought on by summoning his "special" quality would let the enemy finish him off easily.

"It really is special, and powerful..." As Lumian marveled, a thought suddenly struck him.

The reason the monsters in the ruins never entered his home, turning it into a "safe zone," was that something even more terrifying existed inside-such as the owner of the mysterious voice he heard when summoning his "special" quality!

At that thought, Lumian couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath.

His instinct was to immediately search every corner of the house and find that terrifying thing, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

Someone who couldn't even beat the shotgun monster had better not provoke a horror that frightened that monster so badly it didn't dare resist!

Since everything in the house was peaceful, he shouldn't expose what lay beneath the surface. He should preserve its current status as a "safe house" as best he could.

Every day he could keep things that way was another day gained.

As for future dangers, he could face them when the time came.

"No, not just sometime in the future. After I become a Beyonder and grow strong enough." Lumian looked at the cloth pouch in his left hand.

Even while inspecting his injuries bare-chested before the mirror, he hadn't wanted to let the hard-won source of supernatural power out of his grasp.

"How do I use this thing?" Lumian opened the pouch and looked at the dark crimson mass.

It lay quietly at the bottom of the pouch. Its shape wasn't entirely fixed, but it clearly showed no signs of life.

Lacking knowledge of mysticism, Lumian didn't know whether he should eat it directly, perform a ritual to merge the dark crimson mass with himself, or sacrifice it to some hidden entity.

The latter two possibilities had only occurred to him because he had read the magazine Veil of Mystery. In the past, he would only have managed a single word:

"Eat!"

Lumian didn't rush to decide. He planned to consult the mysterious woman at the old tavern first.

He felt she would probably tell him how to use the dark crimson mass to obtain supernatural power.

Although he didn't know why she would be willing to do that, he simply had that intuition.

If that failed, he could still try to coax information out of his sister.

Slowly putting his clothes back on, Lumian tucked the dark crimson mass and all the money he had obtained into his inner pocket.

Once everything was done, he lay down on the bed.

Intense exhaustion swept over him, overpowering the pain in his neck and back and the discomfort inside his body, and he quickly fell into a deep sleep.

When Lumian woke, the sunlight outside had already passed through the curtains and lit up the entire room.

He slowly sat up, feeling sore all over, as though someone had given him a thorough beating in his dream.

I really did get a thorough beating... The injuries from the dream really carried over into reality, but they're noticeably milder... Lumian tried moving around. Apart from sore muscles, he felt no other effects.

That put his mind at ease.

Then he searched every pocket on his body.

"Not here... It's not here!" Lumian couldn't find the dark crimson mass.

His expression grew grave, and his brows knitted tightly. He didn't know what to do.

Despite being an object involving supernatural power, the dark crimson mass hadn't followed him into reality. That wasn't quite what the mysterious woman at the old tavern had said!

Lumian steadied himself, quickly changed clothes, and left his room.

The bathroom door was open. Aurora stood facing the mirror, carefully brushing her teeth.

"Morning," Lumian greeted her.

"It's not early anymore. You're just late..." Aurora said indistinctly.

Gurgle, gurgle, spit. With a swish of her blond ponytail, she spat out the water she had been rinsing her mouth with.

Then she turned to look at Lumian.

"What mischief did you sneak out to get up to last night?"

"With that owl outside, how would I dare go out?" Lumian remained perfectly calm.

"True." Aurora dropped the subject and said instead, "Remember to take 5 Felkine to the administrator's office later to send a telegram."

Lumian nodded.

This was crucial to his and Aurora's escape from Cordou Village. He didn't dare forget it for a moment.

After breakfast, Lumian headed straight for the village square. The administrator's office was in a two-story building there.

When he arrived, Administrator Beaost was still at home, but the other staff had already begun their day's work.

After paying the fee and sending the telegram, Lumian turned and headed for the old tavern.

Although the mysterious woman probably wasn't awake yet, he was willing to wait.

He had already waited a long time in his pursuit of supernatural power. He didn't mind waiting a little longer.