After the pack of wolves left, Nawa took out the scroll of sacred thread from his spatial storage and touched it to the translucent energy barrier. Immediately, the barrier began to dissolve into countless white energy strands, which then flowed back into the scroll of sacred thread.
Nawa looked at the slightly thicker scroll in his hand and sighed softly. Although it had increased, the overall quantity was significantly less than when he obtained it five years ago. While he was pondering how to increase the number of these threads, a sharp sword tip suddenly slashed across his shoulder from behind.
The others besides Nawa were surprised by what happened. The killing intent released by Natee clearly indicated that he wasn't joking this time. If Nava resisted, the sword in his hand would have struck without hesitation.
Although Nava hadn't anticipated this, he maintained his composure. He slowly turned to look at Natee, speaking in a normal tone as if nothing had happened.
"What does this mean?"
Natee looked at Nawa thoughtfully before speaking:
"From what I've gathered from my system examining that scroll of sacred thread…"
"The inspection fee is more than 1 gold coin. Items with such a high inspection fee can only be rare or higher-level. Even high-ranked players can't easily acquire such items. How could someone who didn't even have the city entrance fee last week possibly have something like that?"
The scroll from the Asashi Academy that Somchai mentioned cost 50 silver coins was purchased directly from the academy using his student privileges.
If a regular player wanted to buy it, the price would be 1-2 times higher, making it a premium item. However, if Nawa's sacred thread scroll were truly rare, its price would exceed one hundred gold coins, or more than one hundred million baht.
The One Association broadly categorizes items in The One's Nest into eight levels: Common, Fine, Excellent, Rare, Epic, Unique, Legendary, and God-level. The categorization criteria are based on the item's effectiveness and value.
The first tier is Normal, which includes various items crafted from materials in The Oneness, as well as weapons and artifacts with attack or defense ratings of 1-10, valued at no more than 100 copper coins or 10,000 baht. All items in this tier are considered normal.
The Good tier includes items priced between 1 silver coin and 99 silver coins. The attack and defense ratings for weapons and artifacts in this tier are approximately 11-30. Most do not have any additional effects, but some pieces may have effects activated when a complete set is equipped or under certain conditions.
The Premium tier includes items priced between 1 gold coin and 10 gold coins. The attack and defense ratings for weapons and artifacts in this tier are approximately 31-70. Some pieces may have specific effects or options. Due to their exorbitant prices, only high-ranked players can afford these items, including Natee and his friends. Those from wealthy families also use items of this caliber.
The next tier is Rare, items priced between 10 and 99 gold coins. The attack and defense ratings for weapons and artifacts at this level are approximately 71-150. Each piece has additional effects and options. These items are not yet capable of being produced using current technology; crafting requires high-level crafting skills from professions and rare materials from The Oneness.
Epic items are priced between 100 and 1000 gold coins. The attack and defense ratings for weapons and artifacts at this level are approximately 151-300, considered extremely rare. Only Master Blacksmiths can forge items of this caliber, and there are only a handful of players worldwide who have reached that level. Therefore, simply having money doesn't guarantee you can buy them.
Unique items are those priced over 1000 gold coins. The attack and defense power of weapons and artifacts at this level is approximately 300-700. Even master blacksmiths cannot forge them. These are the highest-level items and artifacts players can currently possess.
Legendary items are priceless. No player has ever owned an item of this level before. It's said that the attack and defense power of Legendary weapons and artifacts is approximately 701-1000. Their power and effects are beyond imagination, such as the Shamur Staff that a Rank A assassin stole from the Temple of Florence.
The final level, God, consists of artifacts that have never been seen, and their power and effectiveness are unknown, as information about them is only recorded in some ancient texts. Or the stories passed down through generations, like Zeus's lightning or Poseidon's spear.
"Tell me, since our last encounter, have you met anyone connected to the PPTP group of companies?"
Natee asked seriously, holding his sword closer to Nava's neck.
"Natee, are you saying this guy is someone your family sent?"
Somchai asked to confirm his understanding, but Natee didn't answer, unsure himself. However, it was the most plausible explanation he could think of at the moment.
Natee is one of the two heirs of the PPTP group, which has monopolized the country's energy business for decades. They are one of the five wealthiest families in the country, and the CEO of PPTP has only two sons: Natee and his half-brother.
The relationship between the two was strained. Not only were they half-brothers, but they were also rivals for the position of business successor.
While Natee didn't want to compete with his brother for the position, the vast fortune involved made it a difficult decision for him. Even if he agreed, his siblings and relatives on his mother's side would never approve.
Therefore, Natee was closely watched by his family, both from his brother's and mother's sides. One reason he chose to come to the remote city of Matthehorn was to avoid being followed.
Now, Natee suspected that after his previous encounter with Nawa, Nawa might have met with members of the PPTP group and been hired to follow him and his friends.
"No wonder you've become so incredibly strong in just a few days. You even have high-level items. You must have gotten paid a lot," Somchai said, tightening his grip on his hammer as he approached Nawa.
"Stop! Are you guys crazy? If it weren't for Nawa, we might be dead by now. You not only didn't thank him, you even disrespected him!"
"I'm so disappointed in you guys!" Ploi shouted, her voice trembling.
Natee lowered his head slightly, seemingly feeling guilty. He was well aware that if it weren't for Nawa's help, something terrible might have happened to him and his friends. Besides, his suspicions were just assumptions, without any evidence.
In truth, Natee only did this to threaten Nawa into telling the truth; he didn't intend to harm him in any way.
Nawa felt the tip of the sword pointed at his throat become unstable. He didn't let the opportunity slip away, immediately swinging his arm guard to deflect the sword tip. While Nawa's action seemed brave and well-timed, for Natee, Nawa was asking for trouble.
His Craymore sword was a premium-grade item with an attack power rating exceeding 60, very high even among premium weapons. Even if he stood still, and Nawa's arm was made of solid steel, this action could easily cut him in two.
Natee tried to retract his sword, but Nawa acted too quickly, leaving Natee no time to dodge.
"Boom!"
A loud clash echoed. Nawa's arm was not only unharmed, but it was Natee who couldn't hold onto his weapon. The Crescent Sword flew from his hand, impaling a rock dozens of meters away.
"Impossible! Even if I eased off some strength, how could a mage who had only recently reached Rank D have the strength to knock his weapon out of his hand?" Natee exclaimed inwardly.
Nawa's armguard was one of three items he obtained from the wizard Alfor. Although it had lost almost all of its original power, it was still incredibly durable. Even a direct clash with a premium-level weapon wouldn't leave a single scratch.
But that alone wasn't enough to disarm Natee. Since the sword was pointed at his neck, Nawa had secretly used his Airblade skill to envelop the steel armguard, enhancing its attack power.
Combined with Natee's relaxed grip, the result was that Natee was disarmed with a single attack.
Nawa didn't take advantage of the stunned Natee to harm him. He simply placed his hand, enveloped in sharp gusts of wind, on the other's neck. Releasing a terrifying killing intent, he spoke,
"Next time anyone dares to attack me from behind, I will make sure they never get a second chance."
Natee felt his throat dry, like a little rabbit facing a venomous snake. He gathered his courage, bowed his head to Nawa, and offered a sincere apology.
"I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I suspected you were sent by my brother. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."
Nawa looked at him thoughtfully, then lowered his hand and dispelled the energy before speaking,
"I don't want to know about your family. What I want to know is, what are you going to do next? Continue hunting or stop here?"
Natee paused for a moment, surprised by Nawa's magnanimity. This only increased his guilt and respect for Nawa. He lowered his head, deep in thought for a while, before speaking politely,
"We plan to continue hunting."
This answer caused Nawa to raise an eyebrow slightly in surprise. He thought that after just surviving a life-or-death situation… The boys were about to give up the idea of hunting.
"Given your financial situation, even professional-grade monster meat shouldn't be beyond your capabilities. Why are you so insistent on hunting these wolves?"
Nawa asked with a serious expression. He genuinely wanted to know why they were willing to risk their lives. If possible, Nawa wanted to persuade Natee and his group to change their minds.
Because if they were unlucky enough to encounter the alpha male of the mountain wolves, their lives might not be safe.
"According to protocol, if the support team sees that the hunting team cannot protect their own lives, they can cancel the job and receive half the payment. But if I do that, you guys won't be able to continue hunting because you won't have any other support team."
"I'll double the payment," Natee quickly offered.
Nawa shook his head before speaking in a more serious tone.
"I don't want the money. I want to know the reason."
Natee pondered for a moment before speaking.
"What I'm about to tell you, while not a secret, is known by very few, as it's a matter within academic circles that hasn't been publicly disclosed."
Natee explained further that insider information indicates that repeatedly consuming the same type of monster meat can grant a player certain abilities or facilitate the training of specific skills.
Natee said he was currently training an A-level skill. Training this skill requires mastering several basic B and C-level skills first. One of these is Sprint, a skill that increases the user's speed two to three times for a limited time.
Even though Natee was naturally gifted, having mastered the B-level skill Berserkda in less than a year, he had spent over half a year without success with Sprint.
Upon learning that consuming a large quantity of wolf meat would increase the chances of successful skill training, and unfortunately, wolf meat was scarce on the market, Natee and his companions had to hunt it themselves.
After his explanation, Natee was slightly surprised that Nawa showed no surprise whatsoever. However, realizing that the man in front of him was already full of incredible things, it wasn't surprising that he knew this as well.
Nawa wasn't really surprised, as he already knew this from reading Alfor's wizard book in the Himmapan forest and witnessing it firsthand when White Snake gained the Assist Concentrate skill after devouring a large number of slime cores.
However, Nawa was still puzzled as to why he didn't receive the same ability as White Snake, even though all the stats gained from eating White Snake's monsters were transferred to him.
Seeing Nawa's thoughtful expression, Ploy misunderstood, thinking he was hesitating about continuing to hunt with them. She took his arm and spoke to him in a pleading, childlike voice:
"Brother Nawa, I won't break my promise next time. Please come hunt with us again."
Nawa flinched slightly before turning to smile at her and saying,
"Okay, but this time I'll join the team, but not as a support team, but as a hunting team."
Nawa assessed the situation and realized it was pointless to refuse. Even if he withdrew later, they would probably hunt these wolves themselves anyway.
Another reason was that he himself wanted the meat of this pack of wolves. Besides being valuable, if White Snake gained the Sprint skill from eating their meat, it would dramatically increase his strength.
Natee and his friends discussed for a while, and almost everyone agreed to Nawa's proposal. Only Somchai showed displeasure, but he couldn't do anything about it, because Nawa had already proven to be reliable.
After packing up their belongings, everyone met to plan the hunt for the wolf pack. Natee estimated that the wolves were probably scattered now, since they couldn't find them last night. It was a good opportunity to hunt them.
After walking from the campsite for a while, they encountered a group of wolves still roaming around. As agreed, Nawa's job was to lure the wolves away from the pack with long-range attacks. Once the attacked wolves ran away, it would be Natee and his friends' job to finish them off.
Nawa summoned an ash wood bow from his dimensional inventory. It was a reward he received from completing a quest for the weapon shop in Mumtehorn. Although it wasn't top-tier... This premium bow is considered top-tier, boasting an attack power rating of over 10 units.
"From this distance, do you think you can hit it? This bow has an effective range of no more than 200 meters. At that distance, don't even think about hitting it. Just reaching it is impossible."
Somchai muttered as he watched Nawa draw his bowstring. But, as usual, Somchai's words were insignificant to Nawa. He aimed at a wolf more than 300 meters away.
Just before releasing the bowstring, a gust of wind converged around Nawa's arrow. When Nawa released the bow, it made a sound like an explosion of air.
"Boom!"
The arrow shot through the air like a bullet from a gun. It surpassed 200 meters in an instant. A second later, the arrow struck a brown wolf right in the middle of its body. The force of the impact pierced through the wolf and emerged on the other side.
"Ding!"A familiar sound echoed in Nawa's head. This was followed by a system window popping up almost immediately.
(New Skill)
(Air Bomb - Uses telekinesis to control spacetime fields, creating a force that acts on the surrounding air mass, causing it to condense into a high-pressure air mass. Destroying it creates a massive explosion. The size and destructive power depend on the mana used.)
Nawa has developed the Air Blade skill into the Air Bomb skill. Although it has less destructive power, it can be applied in a variety of ways. Importantly, it uses significantly less mana and takes less time than the Air Blade skill.
For example, this time Nava used an air explosion to envelop the arrow. The air explosion amplified the arrow, increasing its destructive power, speed, and attack range. Unfortunately, Nava lacked practice, so the arrow didn't hit any vital points, preventing him from killing the wolf in a single shot.
But this was enough to leave Natee and his friends staring in stunned disbelief once again. While some players could use more than one elemental skill, almost all of them were high-ranked players.
Using magic skills with different elements required more than one basic psychic power. Training and developing these skills demanded significantly more time and effort. It was virtually impossible for low-ranked players to achieve this.
The wolf rose, blood gushing from its mouth. It looked left and right, trying to find who or what had caused it pain. Perhaps due to its keen sense of smell or instinct, the wolf ran precisely along the path where the arrow had been shot.
But being alone and injured, it was ultimately beheaded by the Clemo sword. The headless body fell, dropping three silver energy crystals.
The plan was going very smoothly. Even if these wolves were professional-level, without being pressured by numbers and having been injured from a distance, killing them wasn't difficult. Before long, Natee and his friends had dealt with all eight mountain wolves.
The energy crystals alone were worth more than 20 silver coins. Combined with the meat from ten wolves, Nawa roughly calculated that in less than half a day of hunting, they had already earned over 700,000 baht.
Even if they divided the profits, that would still be more than 100,000 baht per person. Adding his wages as a support team member, after this hunt, he would have enough money to pay off the loan he used to register as a player.
Even though the rewards from the hunt were much better than expected, Nawa didn't let greed cloud his judgment.
"Should we stop for today? It wouldn't be good if their main pack came back,"
Nawa suggested, feeling that the hunt had been too easy. A pack of wolves intelligent enough to ambush at night shouldn't have such lax pack defenses.
"That's crazy! The hunt is going so well, how can we stop? Even if some wolves did come back, it would be even better, wouldn't it? We wouldn't have to waste time hunting them down. What do you think, friend?" Somchai said, turning to ask Natee for his opinion.
Natee pondered for a moment before speaking.
"Hmm, we'll continue hunting, but we shouldn't be careless. How about this? We'll find a safe place and set up a force field. If anything happens, we'll take cover inside."
After speaking, Natee turned to look at Nawa, as if seeking his opinion. Without Nawa's sacred thread, this method was impossible.
Nawa nodded in agreement, but deep down, he still felt uneasy. It was as if a premonition was telling him that continuing to hunt this pack of wolves would bring serious danger. However, Nawa wasn't sure what it was, so he didn't want to object further.
"Roar! Roar! Roar!"
But before Natee and his friends could do anything, they heard a howling sound coming from deep in the forest. It was a series of howls, as if communicating something. Natee immediately knew the area was unsafe and they needed to leave quickly.
However, the howls were coming from multiple directions, making it difficult to decide which way to go.
"That's…" Ploi exclaimed in surprise, pointing to something. A dozen or so wolves were on a hill several hundred meters away.
Many had gray manes; they looked much stronger and more powerful than the wolves they had dealt with before.
Most importantly, there was one wolf with entirely white and gray fur, and it was more than three times larger than the others. Because it was daytime, and with the high accuracy stats of her Assassin class, Mai could see that wolf clearly.
She immediately activated the system's scanning function. Soon after, Mai's face turned pale.
"Advanced...Professor level," Mai exclaimed, her eyes wide as she stared at the system window.