More Hunting

[Ace POV],

"Was this really a good way to kill someone?" I thought, and then nodded because it was a nice way to kill efficiently, but unfortunately, not all fights could begin and end with this method.

It is truly unfortunate.

As I considered these things, I harvested the crystal core from the fire ape, bringing my total to seven rank 1 crystal cores in my possession.

Even though they were all from the weakest monsters in rank 1, they meant something to the current me.

After all, I could do something with it.

I suppose I should start when I get home.

After all, I still had a time limit to meet.

I had already almost finished harvesting everything I could from the rank 1 fire ape monster when I had thought of these.

I took the materials I thought were useful from its body and left the ones I thought were useless alone.

According to the basic alchemy knowledge in my head, the materials I deemed useful were blood, bones, especially the strongest and hardest ones, and a few other things, such as the heart.

When the fire ape died, the heart was already dead, but this is where my storage ring came in handy.

Although I couldn't keep living things in it, I could keep inanimate objects with some kind of life. I'm not sure why, but it has something to do with the soul and other things related to nature, spirits, and other things.

I honestly didn't understand anything about the epic-grade storage ring information I was given by the primordial chronicle, but that didn't matter because everything was working fine for me.

Perhaps I'll understand these things in time, but now, it's fine as long as it works.

I should also see if I can plant the awakening tree in the alternate dimension.

'There might be some unexpected results,' I thought as I began to gather my materials.

After I finished what I was doing, I immediately left the area because the mess I had made and the blood of the fire ape was very likely to attract some monsters.

And if Anna was correct, then all of the monsters that were going to come here were going to be rank 1 monsters.

I wouldn't mind if it were weaker rank 1 monsters that were even weaker than me that were drawn to this location, but it was also possible for monsters that were far stronger than me to appear, which is why I left the area where the fire ape was previously.

I was curious about most things, but not to the extent that I would court things that would get me killed.

My actions may contradict this, but I believe I behave in this manner most of the time, right?

As I considered these things, I moved on to another location in search of another suitable rank 1 monster to kill. I took my time, looking around carefully, making sure I didn't miss any of the monsters lurking in the shadows, though this was a little dubious given that I was the one lurking in the shadows.

Eventually, I found the perfect monster to take on, one that I was certain I could defeat.

[Rank 1 Earth Rat level 25],

Apart from the ones I encountered on the trial grounds, this was by far the weakest rank 1 monster I'd seen, and the reason I tagged them weaker was that the threat they gave me was far weaker than the others, and I was also three levels above it, and the reason I also said 'they' was because the earth rat wasn't one but several dozen.historical

Although their bodies were much larger than regular rats, the tallest of them, from what I can see right now, could only reach my thigh.

I wasn't sure about this estimate because I was on the trunk of a tree near the earth rats, but they couldn't see me because I was high above them.

These earth rats looked like regular rats, except their body appeared to be made of rocks and right now, they were currently eating.

They were currently eating the body of what appeared to be a bear, and based on the surroundings, it was clear that these rats were here for the leftovers and were not the cause of the bear's death.

But even if I had multiple weak rank 1 monsters in front of me to kill now, I couldn't do anything.

For one thing, although these earth rats were very weak individually, none of the eats were separated now and looking at how quickly they handled the body of the bear corpse they were eating, I didn't have to think twice about what could potentially happen if I faced all of them. With no other choice, I could only silently observe these earth rats and consider ways to at least kill a large portion of the monsters in front of me, as killing them would reduce a large portion of the numbers I still had to be concerned about for the second requirement for my job quest.

So I began to devise a strategy to reduce the number of earth rats without endangering myself, but in the end, I couldn't come up with anything because all of my plans would cause me more harm than good.

When I saw this, I was about to give up and go find another monster to kill when I noticed the earth rat below begin to move.

I was perplexed when I saw this, but when I looked at their 'meal', I realized that at some point, while I was deep in thought, the earth rats had finished eating the bear to its last bone.

Seeing this, and seeing the earth rats scattering around after their meal, I decided to give it one more shot and followed the largest group of rats among the scattered ones.

....

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