Chapter 4: Chapter 04 – Resource Point

“Is something wrong?” Alanis whispered as she packed up the first test’s equipment. The wolf-beastman noticed how occupied Sumire’s mind was.

“Who is that boy? The one that smelled like pigs?” Sumire telepathically inquired.

Alanis scrunched up her nose at that. Beastmen- or in this case, women- have a stronger sense of smell than a normal person, but don’t possess the blissful ignorance actual beasts have when it comes to horrible smells. Plus she’s a cultivator with heightened senses…  

Alanis tamped down feelings of disgust briefly before telepathically replies what motes of information she had on him. “He is Mino Satoru, son of Mino Yua: a quasi-cultivator who sold her body in exchange for privilege, money, and cultivation resources.” 

“A quasi-cultivator’s son, huh…” Sumire felt her eyes wetten, bringing to light rather… unpleasant memories. 

Unlike true cultivators who cultivate their foundation and thus gain supernatural abilities through (mainly) effort, quasi-cultivators are mortals who have consumed cultivation resources, received a life alteration surgery, or have drunk special potions. Mordred’s methods are vaguely similar, but it’s comparing apples to W.M.D’s. It is through these methods that quasi-cultivators can acquire a level of radiation resistance, allowing them to interact with true cultivators- that lack the ability to restrain their radiation- directly. 

Without it, a mortal’s body would collapse in proximity to rank 1 cultivators. 

Though, being a quasi-cultivator is not completely beneficial. Unless they received ‘proper’ treatment, such as drinking potions that increased their radiation resistance over time rather than all at once, quasi-cultivators typically have a shorter lifespan than mortals. Generally, this depends on their contact with cultivators. Notably, quasi-cultivators bearing mortal children don’t suffer from, say, cancerous or mutative complications- mostly. While not common, it isn’t rare, either.  

“Should we give extra assistance to him?” Alanis asked once more, sharing Sumire’s sentiment. “Or perhaps, alter the result of his tests?” She has been with the vice-captain for far longer than anyone else in the team. It was clear to her that Sumire felt empathetic towards Satoru, knowing of her conspicuously similar past.

“It’s alright, we shouldn’t pry too much into other people’s business. Either way, however, I can feel his stubbornness and desire to escape from this place. If he’s proficient enough to be accepted by the academy, then that’s excellent, but if he’s not, then that’s also fine. I don’t want to nanny a random child… though it wouldn’t be obtuse of us to at least give him some advice.” Sumire decided not to think too deeply about him. “Oh, right. The captain, has she given us an update on when she’ll regroup with us?”

“Not yet, I think she’s still busy with her ‘wild hunt’…”

“Hmm, I see.” Sumire nodded in acknowledgement. 

…

“Great, now she has put more attention towards my movement. It’ll be hard to hide anything in the village. It seems like refining a blood potion out of mother will be more difficult than before, my other option is a blood sacrifice. Good thing my phylactery is a rank 6 artifact, even a rank 3 telepathic scan shouldn’t be able to detect it.” Mordred gave a mental sigh as he had escaped Sumire’s range of senses, which was around two kilometers away from the village. Yet, he did not stop moving. Before the day ended, he needed to have enough capital to be accepted in the Hunter Association’s recruitment.

After all, all he did was cheat the first test, one he literally helped design. If he could not reproduce the result of his cheat later on the second stage, then he couldn’t get a pass. Worse, it would draw attention he might not survive, should they realize his ploy.

‘According to my memories, the academy will accept anyone with potential, even if it’s Grade-E talent. Those cultivators at the top will require support from the lower-ranked ones. The competition will be intense, but I can weather it until I needn’t any longer. Since I’m not planning to use this body for long, then getting a Grade-E, the lowest talent classification, wouldn’t be impossible if I sacrifice a bit of Satoru’s lifespan, but I still need to refine a blood potion as the catalyst or a blood sacrifice to augment my ‘mortal shell’.’

With his wooden basket on his back, it took until midday before Mordred arrived at his destination: the exact spot where he resurrected Satoru’s body, a riverside near the forest with large trees. He had no expectation at first, as he just wanted to collect souls for cultivation, but Mordred’s memory is photographic, he remembered the position of the big stones in the river, and the changes were quickly noticed.

‘The deepest part of the river is barely two meters, while the width is around 5 meters. There are signs of the big stones being pushed away by something large, perhaps there’s fish beasts swimming across this river?’ Mordred quickly touched the spot where the said fish beast might pass.

‘The water and soil of Morgen World is more radiation absorbent compared to that in Holy Terra, but the level of absorbance is determined by the location. The water, soil, and rocks around this area should be mortal-rank, so when exposed to the presence of a rank 0 beast, it’ll take some time for them to completely wash away…’

He felt a wet tingling sensation in his finger from touching the rocks, confirming his conjecture. ‘It’s too bad my truesoul foundation is around a 4-man soul. If I can murder wildlife and use their soul to cultivate into a 10-man soul before tomorrow, my truesoul should awaken several rank 0 Soul Traits, such as [Telekinesis] or [Synesthesia]…’

While being distracted with his thoughts, his eyes captured the trails of the fish beast. It should be a fish the size of a human toddler. ‘Animals evolve into beasts after fulfilling several conditions. Since perch is common in this area, the beast is likely one of those...’ 

He followed the trail downstream. The tracks’ number told Mordred that the beast was not alone. Most beasts have little to no radiation on their body, so what little radiation he picked up was the result of a school of fish beasts swimming through the river. The small lifeforms in the river such as river crabs, river shrimps, and river moss did not die, however. Instead, they absorbed the beast’s radiation, therefore becoming an even stronger variant of themselves. Evolved beasts’ presence are actually beneficial towards the environment, but even more so to Mordred.

Stronger beasts have stronger souls, that was already obvious. To Mordred, souls are a supreme cultivation resource because he could devour them to directly increase his soul foundation. Therefore, he chased after the trail with renewed fervor. It took him almost three hours to reach some sort of lowland, where the ground became a cliff and the river turned into a waterfall.

The lowland was like a bowl, surrounded by said cliffs from all sides. From above, Mordred could see thick foliage with swamp-like muddy ground, with perpetual misty clouds shrouding forests and moisturizing the ground. The misty clouds blocked his line of sight, so he couldn’t measure the size of the lowland, but it should be extremely vast. The river that he followed wasn’t the only river, there were multiple sources of water feeding into the bowl-like lowland. Even from above, Mordred could feel the presence of multiple types of rank 0 beasts down below the waterfall. 

‘The cliff is around 50 meters deep. This terrain… isn’t it a Resource Point?’ Mordred squinted his eyes, exerting more effort in inspecting the landscape. 

Just as he had expected, the presence of rank 0 beasts is extremely rich down below. There’s also a strong presence that should be emitted by rank 1 beasts deeper within the swampy lowlands, probably on top of the food chain.

This, however, is both good and bad news for Mordred. 

The good part is that he had found a source of resources that he could exploit, whereas the bad part is the fact that it was so rich in resources that the environment could support the existence of rank 1 beast. 

“To think there’s a resource point only a couple hours away from Mira village, and it’s not even protected by a magic formation. This must be a wild resource point unclaimed by the noble families of the Hartina Kingdom. In any case, it is beneficial for me…” Deducing the reward to be greater than its risk, Mordred doesn’t take long in deciding to go down. 

Naturally, he wouldn’t simply jump over a cliff and expect the small lake down below to break his fall. His luck wouldn’t be able to support him like that. What he did was deftly tie a rope out of the vines that grew on the rocky cliffs so that he could climb back up later. Even without tools, that wouldn’t hinder him as he was the former Sovereign of refinement, even if only in this world. 

His hands are already a great tool.

Slowly and surely, the vine ropes are beginning to shape. The interwoven vines might not be the strongest material, but Mordred wouldn’t waste too much time on minor tasks like this. Therefore, he was weaving more vines while going down in a complicated twine, tying himself to the end of a slowly downwards-protruding spiral that extended as he went, preventing him from falling off in his haste. 

He luckily found a cave-like hole during his descent. After a brief inspection, he found out that the cave was the former nest to some type of decently-sized avian beast. It was abandoned long ago, so no radiation nor beast presence was left, but it’ll make a great hideout later, well-hidden and in a great vantage point. In any case, he continued going down after ensuring he could get back here later.

As he neared the swampy, muddy ground, he could feel a numbing sensation all over his body, his semi-half-undead body not appreciating the strain. ‘This is no longer a mortal-friendly environment as the water-path radiation has become noticeably strong. The animals living in this place naturally absorb the radiation, allowing them to evolve into beasts easier. Unfortunately, the ambient water-path radiation is not good for my mortal body…’

Mordred endured the uncomfortable sensation, ignoring the cost of his lifespan as he quickly maximized what resources he could harvest in this place. The muddy ground is difficult to traverse, but he was able to quickly navigate his way into the river lake that he observed from on top of the cliffs. There, he found a large number of rank 0 beasts swimming rather freely without a care in the world.

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There’s a need to understand that not all beasts are hostile or dangerous. Some types of beasts are simply harmless animals who have grown too big and have no choice but to evolve into a beast, thus their body carries a large amount of energy and nutrients. To some hunters, they were no different than free lunch, and said free lunch is simply waiting for Mordred to harvest.

‘Wait.’ Mordred, who was about to jump headfirst towards the clear lake to catch some of the swimming fishes, paused. ‘My karmic luck is extremely bad, I shouldn’t test it by allowing some ambush predator to drag me under as soon as I jump in. I can’t be careless…’

The freshwater shrimps could be poisonous, the perch-like beast might be carnivorous, and the weeds growing on the bottom part of the lake might contain paralytic substances towards mortals, et cetera. In the first place, resource points should be entered with a specialized team of Hunters, not alone. The fact that large amounts of resources are concentrated in one location should be an indication that this location, although rich, is, at the same time, incredibly dangerous. To get something from resource points would take significant effort.

Just as he was about to find something else to gather, he picked up a splashing sound not too far away from his position. Reflexes born from countless years of experience quickly led him to darting behind a rock while his presence became suppressed to the limits of his mortal body. From his heartbeat that suddenly slowed down to almost 1 beat per minute, his body temperature which matches the environment, and the pores of his body that forcefully closed to erase his presence, all of them were the skills he possessed as the greatest assassin of Holy Terra.

In the distance, he sensed a group of fish-like humanoid walking towards the clear lake where he was about to swim into. These creatures are shorter than a human, probably around 120 to 140 centimeters from top to bottom, but their body length should be longer as their back were hunched. Having large fish heads and scally bodies, their webbed hands held some sort of primitive weapon of stone-tipped spear, club, or discarded metal weapons.

‘Murlocs?’ Mordred wondered as he scrutinized them further.

These groups of four Murlocs carried wooden baskets just like Mordred had, and it seems like they were filled with some mushrooms, herbs, and fishes. Studying their movement habit of looking towards the shallow lake expectantly, Mordred deduced that they should be foraging.

Gauging the strength of these Murlocs from afar is quite difficult, especially since the ambient radiation in this place has numbed most of his senses. However, he could make an intelligent guess by observing their habits, condition, and small details. For example, in Resource Points, it is common for stronger beings to occupy the central, most beneficial spot. Although it is not an iron rule, most resource points, be it natural or artificial, are designed like this. Since these Murlocs are foraging on the very edge of the outskirts, it wouldn’t be wrong to consider them as the weakest Murlocs. Perhaps, they are not even equivalent to rank 0 cultivators, but mortal-ranked Murlocs instead!

If his deduction was correct, it was a great chance for Mordred to kill them and use their souls as cultivation resources. Furthermore, their blood can be used to refine blood potions or used in sacrificial rituals, further preparing him.

Instantly deciding to murder them, Mordred put down anything that could slow down his movement such as the wooden basket on his back and several other articles of clothing. Nevertheless, Mordred did not take any rash moves. He waited for the Murlocs to be occupied by the fish in the water before rushing towards them swiftly.

Compared to a human, these Murlocs might have superior physical strength, especially since they lived in an environment that benefited them for a long period of time. However, one of Mordred’s specialties is assassination. There’s no need for him to waste energy and time wrestling with something that has superior physical specification. Assassination is to use one’s greatest strengths against another’s greatest weaknesses.

Before a single Murloc detected Mordred, he was able to approach the furthest one in the back whilst making hand seals.

“Rank 0 sound-path ninjutsu, [Triple Extreme Sound: Bell Palm]!” Mordred whispered as he sent a palm strike towards the back of the unsuspecting Murloc’s head. 

Thud! There was a heavy sound as Mordred’s palm made contact with the Murloc skull. Each of its seven orifices ejected brain matter, fish-human tissue, and blood. At the same time, Mordred could feel the bones of his right hand immediately fracture due to the backlash of [Bell Palm]. Nevertheless, the pain from his broken right hand did not delay his movement. Before the other Murlocs were able to react, Mordred had already headed towards the other one after taking the stone-tipped spear that it held with his left hand, not even having the time to have even hit the ground.

Mordred’s skill in handling spears is obviously pitiful compared to ‘Seven Spear’ Lamost, the hero who killed him. However, his expansive combat experience was enough that these mortal-rank Murlocs were practically child’s play. With a swift stab at the second Murloc’s gilly neck, he had dispatched the poor Murlock instantly.

While Mordred had successfully assassinated two out of the four Murlocs, the others received enough time to properly comprehend what had just happened. Screaming in their fishy language, the remaining two immediately gave him the sapient fish equivalent of a grimace and thrusted their primitive weapons towards Mordred in hope to wound or even kill the intruder. However, Mordred stole the rotten metal short sword of the second Murlock and moved in an almost graceful arc to dodge the incoming spear attack. 

With a swift strike at the Murloc’s hand, the poor lad’s hand was severed. Simultaneously, the sword splintered into numerous pieces, being reduced from a crude implement to a paperweight in mere seconds. Unfortunate, but not unexpected. Mordred would’ve been more surprised that a Murloc tribe could properly maintain any metal weapons in this humid, water-infused environment.

Nevertheless, Mordred kicked in the head of Murloc whose hand he had amputated before it could react. The bone-crunching kick was imbued with a weaker version of [Bell Palm] as it discombobulated the Murloc but not enough to instantly kill it, while the backlash did not break Mordred’s foot.

Twisting his waist, he deftly dodged a spear thrust from the last Murloc who, from a glance, had experience in using spear-like weapons, though managed to barely miss the attack.

Still, no matter how much experience a mortal-rank Murloc could accumulate in its lifespan, it wouldn’t be able to topple the experience of an old fossil like Mordred. Pressing further, he got into the spear’s blind spot, preventing them from getting a proper hit in. An opponent that got too close to a spearman became their undoing.  With a resolve to quickly end this battle, Mordred made hand seals as he sat inches from the Murloc, not allowing it to counterattack.

“Rank 0 sound-path ninjutsu, [Triple Extreme Palm: Drum Fist]!” Mordred finishes the hand seals in less than two seconds as he extends his left fist into where he recalled the Murloc’s heart to be placed. Thud! Mordred’s fist caved in the fish person’s chest, the secondary vibration pulverized the heart. As soon as he pulled his fist out of their chest, the Murloc was coughing blood as it was pushed back for a few meters, stumbling on its feet.

Before it could return the favor, the Murloc suddenly fell, and all signs of life had left his body.

‘Damn, this body is really weak…’ Mordred complained while activating a healing soul art. Both of his hands were shaking intensely as the bones had fractured, a result of sound-path methods.

Though, he had successfully killed three out of the four Murlocs. While waiting for the healing soul arts to completely heal his fractured hands, he inspected the Murloc that he did not kill, making a pitiful and only vaguely human-like groaning noise through its unconsciousness. It appears that they passed out from the pain before the fight even ended.

‘Adolescent Murloc, of the same crossroads as human teenagers. He has yet to undergo a rite of passage, but he is eligible…’ Mordred touched the lower belly of the unconscious Murloc, he wanted to determine the existence of a Mana Pool. Unfortunately, the poor Murloc was not so lucky. 

After ten minutes of continuously using healing soul arts on his hand, he felt his soul essence depleted. To recover them, he either needs to consume souls directly, or wait until they naturally recover by absorbing the ambient soul nutrient in the environment. In his Soul Phylactery though, he had captured three Murloc souls, so he is perfectly capable of quickly recovering himself from these wounds, but he wanted to use them to catapult his cultivation base instead.

To do so, he needed a secure location and the small cave in the cliff fit the bill.

First, he gagged and bound the Murloc with some vines before collecting the most precious luggage they carried. He also took the broken, rusted metal that he shattered since even slag is something a mortal like him couldn’t get in the village. After carrying those luggage, he sensed that he could still carry some more, so he dragged the remaining three corpses with some vines toward the vine rope that led into his hideout.

The vine rope isn’t strong enough to handle the weight of a teenager and four Murlocs, so he has to take them one by one. It took a lot of effort and energy to bring them to the cave, but it was worth it. Not only did Mordred have the resources required to make a blood sacrifice, he also gained some souls in the process.

While he was sorting his gains and hanging the three corpses to drain their blood, he could hear the sound of his stomach rumbling.

‘Oh, I forgot to eat lunch. No wonder I’m feeling a little headache…’ The healing soul arts forcefully hasten the healing factor of Satoru’s body by artificially accelerating molecular division rate. The difficult part is accelerating his metabolism to meet the demand, as the process consumes a significant amount of nutrients from the body. ‘Hmm, I’ve never eaten Murloc meat before…’ As though he heard him, the Murloc slowly showed signs of awakening from his unconscious stupor, wearily blinking his eyes open, before warily blinking them wider in panic. 

He remembered its groans and moans, and they sounded humanoid, if only a bit. Nostalgia came to him as he eyed his captive. ‘I suppose it will do…’ He thought, his more murderous impulses slowly began to grow, but eventually, his logical ones won. He had something in mind for the living, something far worse than being eaten alive.