Chapter 66: The energetic meat buff

Lupa quickly raised a smile from these encouraging words. She went to wake Ester while in the meantime, Vincent approached the corpse of the adult mudcrab.

‘The rabbit horn was a lifesaver, good thing I kept it. I might need it in the future, so I need to remove it and break its shell for its meat. The energy boost it gives will be vital for our survival.’ Vincent pondered at what to do next.

“Hey, Kazumi. Do you want to continue with the progress of the Dimensional Storage? I will try to break the shell open in the meantime.” Vincent suggested.

[Fine... This worker will continue on our Dimensional Storage. Let’s hope it will reach eighty percent by the end of this session.]

Vincent nodded, and unlike before, the learning notification window appeared with the simple thought of forming a skill for his evergrowing arsenal of multi-class abilities and spells. The understanding of his power allowed him to reduce the concentration needed for a notification window to appear.

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[Will you spend 20sp to learn an ability from the host memories?]

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[Host has one hour to think, imagine, and understand for an ability to form.]

[No refund. No discount.]

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[Accept -20sp] [Decline]

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“Accept. ” Vincent placed all his trust on Kazumi once again. He wished for no problems to halt their progress and lose the hard to come by Soul Power to break through if possible.

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[-20sp used to form an ability or spell. 20sp remaining.]

[59:59 time remaining.]

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Kazumi once again became unreachable for one challenging hour. The more she reached the completion of the ability, the harder the progress became.

historical

Kazumi didn’t say anything because she didn’t want him to worry. However, all the knowledge Vincent knew was used. She had to theorize and guess the next steps from sixty percent onwards.

Vincent wore his smokey dried pants and grabbed a rock. He swung his arm and broke a small piece of mudcrab leg, intending to cook it for the Energy Boost Buff. It was enough to scoop a fist-sized white jewel-like meat.

Ester and Lupa approached with curiosity painted on their faces. Both wanted to know what he was planning to do with the mudcrab meat that gave such a potent energy buff.

‘Why is Vincent cooking another piece of mudcrab? Is he planning to do something?’ Both thought with a curious frown.

“You can cook three fish, one for each person after I finish cooking this. Then you can do the same thing in the evening. It’s good to start the day with breakfast and sleep with a good meal.” Vincent rolled the mudcrab meat hanging on a stick to cook evenly on the fire. It looked quite delicious as Lupa had her stomach growl from such a tempting yet dangerous view.

“Are you going to do something fun?” Lupa wagged her tail as she wanted to see what he was about to do next.

“I need an energy boost to break the mudcrab shell open. ” Vincent could see it on their faces that his words sounded ridiculous. He spent so much time and energy to make a fist-sized hole in the shell, and now he expected to break its shell with just an energy buff.

Vincent consumed the meat filling his body with energy and vigor. He could feel the adrenaline causing his heart to beat faster while feeling like he was the king of the world.

Vincent removed his shirt while approaching the mudcrab not to get covered with blood by his next course of action. He could clearly see his body’s reflection in the water; he smirked while saying, “Overheat.”

As his arms quickly became coated with the green hardened blood as he clenched his fists tight hardening in the next second. He set his sights targeting the cracked parts of the shell-like boulder with powerful strikes.

This time he was faster and punched harder, brimming with unstoppable energy. Every hit produced a loud ringing noise, louder than their fight. His energy seemed endless as he shot a barrage of strikes without rest.

The shell did its best to hold against his onslaught, but it quickly began to crack by the minute. At the around five-minute mark, the shell had two cracks long enough to split the shell into two separate parts.

Vincent took a deep breath. He took a stance while focusing all his strength in one last decisive blow. Then he twisted his body to add momentum with the force of his swing, landing a powerful blow in the right spot between the two cracks.

*Crack!

The loud sound of a cracking and breaking shell echoed in their location. Vincent grabbed the almost fallen large piece, tugged it a few times, and pulled it apart.

Shortly, a large piece of the boulder shell fell on the ground, revealing a massive chunk of glistening jewel-like meat. The broken shell that landed on the water looked like a shield from a second glance.

Vincent felt like he opened a treasure trove. The meat inside was shiny and reflective under the sunlight. It had an alluring fragrance, the type that would make anyone want to take a bite.

Not only the mudcrab was dangerous, but its meat was as dangerous as was. Vincent felt possessed by a fit of strange and unnatural anger when he had the negative Boost Overdose condition.

But he hid this fact and trained with all he had. The pent-up energy it provided could make its eaters enraged, great as a last resort.

This fact made Vincent worry more about what a buff meant. The resting buff or energy buff had unwanted side effects. Even the numb buff was situational. All of them helped yet were had their own price to pay.

‘What about curses like the slave curse? How many more terrifying ones are there in this world?’ He thought.

Vincent used the remaining time of Overheat to remove the jewel-like meat and then pull out all of its legs. Then he clobbered the four large crab-like legs and the large spider-like legs until time ran out.

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[Overheat duration ended.]

[Host Race returning to human.]

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Vincent collected the Mutated Ash as it was one of the keys to his victory. The carapace on the legs wasn’t entirely broken, allowing the treasure inside to get scooped, so he grabbed a rock and continued to break the hard shell on its legs.

“Can I help you while sister cooks our fish? It looks fun.” Lupa wanted to join in. She wanted to have fun with Vincent instead of cooking the fish.

“Ok, take this rock and help. ” Vincent gave Lupa a rock lying beside his foot. She became ecstatic by the rock in her hands. It was as if she received a precious item.

‘I win, hehe. Vincent is mine.’ Lupa thought while she helped with a smug grin.

Later, Kazumi finished the challenging project. She noticed Vincent cutting the jewel-like mudcrab meat in half and pull out the horn inside.

[I’m back after achieving the eighty percent mark. Ohh, look’s like you prepared the mudcrab nicely.]

-That’s fantastic. I can’t wait to see the ability work.-

[Hold your horses. The last twenty percent is going to be the hardest. I need to figure out how to make the items transform into transferable data like... oh yes, magical particals.]

[Afterwards, the difficult final challenge would be waiting for us. Where will the items save themselves? This isn’t a game, after all.]

-We will figure it out later. But I can’t wait to try it out.-

Vincent sat on the ground, feeling tired from the hard work to break the shell while the urge to try out the Dimensional Storage tired him even further.

“I will go and check up on my food... I mean, my sister.” Lupa turned her gaze at the smell of the almost cooked fish. Her nose twitched, making the spoiled wolf forget to ask for a reward.

-The meat might catch a reasonable price if we sell it. What do you think?-

[Did you forget what you read from the heroic stories? Heroes would get caught for selling unique or hard to acquire items. It means death in this world if you get discovered to have arrived twenty-five years earlier than expected.]

Vincent stopped his grinning at the thoughts of making money. He had to be careful as one simple mistake could be the end of him and his three retainers.

Later, the three ate the fish for breakfast, leaving thirty-nine in their stockpile. Then Vincent and Lupa loaded up everything in the cart, such as food, water, sticks, the two parts of the mudcrab shell, and the cracked legs. Ester wrapped the mudcrab meat with a large sheet in the meantime.

Ester then climbed the cart, helping to place the mudcrab meat inside. She sat beside the large and heavy jewel-like mudcrab meat while channeling her Frost Sigil to freeze the meat at her own pace.

“Let’s depart. Vincent transportation service is about to roll out.” Vincent grabbed the handles of the two-wheeled cart and pulled the heavy cart with a smile. It seemed as if his stamina was recovered, and his strength increased after last night’s training.

It was a day like the others. They met with no animals other than a few birds chirping in the distance. They also saw nothing that can be considered as food.

Ester rested every few minutes until she managed to freeze all the mudcrab legs and the massive sixty-pound mudcrab body meat split in half.

The four members had their own job in the group. Transporation, security, food preservation, and support.

Easter finished her job while resting every few minutes. She gulped as if she had done something wrong every time Vincent turned his head to check if she was fine.

On the other hand, Lupa mostly had her full attention on finding food or sense danger. She would use her heightened hearing to track any movement and her nose to track any nearby food.

Night soon approached, and the group camped for the night.

Vincent began working out while the girls cooked three more fish. He ended up breaking his previous record of one hundred and fifty reps before getting tired, making him and Kazumi surprised by this feat.

“Do humans do that all the time?” Lupa asked Ester with curiosity.

“I never saw a soldier train, but I think Vincent is doing something no one does or maybe done differently.” Ester had no suitable answer, so she winged it by saying what she thought.

“*Sniff, The fish smells ready. Let’s eat.” Lupa swiftly grabbed one skewered fish and began wolfing down with her hungry appetite.

“I’m famished.” Vincent approached while wiping his sweat with a rag. His body glistened under the campfire light reviling a more toned body.

[I can’t stand guard this night. I need all my mana and focus for tomorrow.]

Vincent understood what Kazumi meant. As she told him this morning, it seemed the most challenging part was next. Unlike a game’s code, the items needed a place to get stored in.

Later, the three took turns guarding, leaving Vincent for last. But before that, the two girls trimmed down his long hair with the sharp heirloom short sword.