Thinking of the Novice level Energy Missile, Matthew's thoughts drifted back to an evening half a month ago.
The setting sun, red as blood, gilded the open clearing outside Stone Mill Village in molten gold.
He stood alone by the stream. Ten paces ahead of him was a half-man-tall, grayish-white boulder—its surface rough and mottled with moss and water stains.
But it was clearly solid and sturdy.
Matthew slowly raised his right hand, spreading his palm wide. Guided by the 【Elemental Meditation Method】, the life energy circulating within his body began to gather and compress toward his palm.
Unlike the arduous, sluggish condensation process of his previous Mastered Rank, the energy flowed much more smoothly now, like a warm stream following the guidance of his will, surging naturally into his palm.
“Lamo lamo, liesuo liesuo...”
The incantation slipped rapidly from his lips, and a faint golden glow quietly lit up in his palm.
It wasn't a dazzling, blinding glare, but a more condensed, restrained convergence of energy. Roughly the size of an egg, its surface shimmered with a subtle luster like liquid metal.
It hovered three inches above his palm, stable and quiet, emitting a faint, oppressive pressure.
“The gathering speed has more than doubled.”
“Based on my current estimation, charging the Energy Missile only takes about a second...”
This judgment flashed through Matthew's mind.
“If I reach the Practiced level or an even higher rank in the future, will I be able to cast it instantly without chanting?”
At this thought, he temporarily set aside his anticipation and refocused on the faint golden glow hovering steadily over his palm.
At the same time, he also noticed that the Novice level Energy Missile allowed the energy to gather in a much more concentrated manner with almost zero loss. Nearly all the channeled life energy was compressed into this single missile.
He could feel that the 'density' of the energy inside the missile far surpassed what it used to be, and its structure was much more stable. It was no longer like when he was at the Mastered Rank, where a slight distraction or movement could cause the energy structure to collapse.
“Go.”
Matthew's gaze locked onto the center of the grayish-white boulder ahead.
Driven by his mind, the faint golden missile shot out silently from his palm.
There was no ear-piercing whistle of tearing wind, only a low hum, as if the air was instantly displaced.
The missile's trajectory was straight as a line and incredibly fast, leaving a barely perceptible golden afterimage in the dimming twilight.
“Bang!”
In the next instant, the missile struck the center of the boulder with pinpoint accuracy.
“Boom!”
A low explosion rolled through the valley like muffled thunder, and the half-man-tall, grayish-white boulder disintegrated on impact!
The shattered stone did not scatter. Instead, it was reduced to fine powder by the shockwave of the blast. The rising dust billowed up like a sandstorm, only to be swiftly swept away by the mountain wind.
Once the dust settled, only a sunken crater remained. Fine stone chips were scattered at the bottom of the pit, and the edges were scorched black, as if seared by raging flames.
Matthew stared at the scene, his heart jolting.
“Holy crap, it's this powerful at just the Novice level?!”
The power of this strike far exceeded his previous estimation of the Novice level.
After all, the power boost when 【Melting Slash】 broke through to the Basic level hadn't been nearly as massive.
But immediately after, a wave of satisfaction welled up in Matthew's heart.
“All that hard practice was worth it...”
...
His thoughts slowly returned to the present.
Though he was pleased, Matthew had a clear understanding of his own talent.
He understood that without higher-grade weapons to serve as external enhancements, this highly efficient growth momentum would likely be difficult to sustain.
By then, his progress would likely slow down... or even grind to a complete halt.
“Fortunately, a higher-quality sword and bow will be delivered soon.”
“With the support of those weapons, I'll have a bit more confidence when looking for a higher-quality staff later.”
With this thought, Matthew slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, quietly pushing his lingering worries back down into his heart.
Though the path ahead was undoubtedly full of challenges, at least his direction was clear.
He closed his status panel, and his gaze fell back onto the dark green python carcass before him. The short blade in his hand sliced down once more with precision and stability.
His top priority right now was to properly process his harvest.
Half an hour later.
In the clearing in front of Matthew's wooden cabin, the sparse white snow had been stained dark red by the deep green python's dark blood.
A faint, metallic stench of blood hung in the air, but the cold wind quickly swept the odor away.
A clean area had been cleared on the ground beside him, where his processed core spoils were neatly arranged: about twenty pounds of faintly shimmering prime magical beast meat, a complete and tough python hide, and some of its bones.
As well as the Green Bead Python's most dangerous and valuable parts—its venom glands and venom sac.
This was the part that required the utmost caution.
The python's most dangerous organs were completely extracted and carefully wrapped and sealed in thick, waterproof oilcloth.
Even through the wrapping, one could still feel the potent toxicity radiating from the dark green venom glands and the bulging venom sac.
Matthew remembered clearly that even a common viper lizard's venom sac was worth fifty silver coins. The value of this magical beast's venom glands and sac would only be far more astronomical.
He even briefly considered the method of raising venomous snakes to harvest venom for profit, a concept he knew from his past life. But looking at this ten-meter-long colossal python, he immediately realized it was entirely impractical and dismissed the idea.
On the other side of the snow, a large amount of ordinary snake meat that had been stripped off was piled up somewhat casually.
This meat was relatively loose in texture and contained negligible energy. To Matthew, its immediate value was far inferior to that of the core materials.
It could only be used to satisfy his hunger.
In the past, he would have been ecstatic to see nearly a hundred pounds of snake meat on the ground, but with his increased strength over this recent period, although he had the ability to set up more pitfall traps, he always prioritized his personal training.
Considering that having too many traps would require frequent checks and eat into his precious training time, he ultimately kept the number strictly capped at four.
This not only guaranteed a stable source of extra meat but also ensured that his core rhythm of improving his strength remained undisturbed.
And the harvest from these four pits had far exceeded his expectations.
On average, each pit captured one large animal per month, providing Matthew with a very abundant supply of meat.
Additionally, he had the Vine Traps that triggered daily, accumulating a massive amount of meat over the long term.
From the traps alone, he could obtain over a thousand pounds of meat every month, which far exceeded his personal consumption capacity.
He had essentially achieved a state of “meat liberation.”
Therefore, he naturally didn't need to treat the ordinary, energy-sparse meat of the Green Bead Python as a precious treasure.
...
Rate on N.U.
