I returned to Xu Zhao Ting when it was already dark. I received a bit of his grumbling about it, but quickly sent him to sleep. I myself was also not averse to sleeping; after the battle with the alligator, I was quite tired. I put its fangs in my backpack when Zhao Ting fell asleep. Its skin was valuable; if you bring a piece fifty by fifty centimeters, you can get about a hundred thousand yuan, only I had nothing to cut it with.
I planned to sell two fangs, getting some extra money not accounted for by Xu Zhao Ting, and keep the other two, the larger ones, to carve two daggers from them. So, taking out one of them and my knife, I began to work. It was necessary to carve the handle and the approximate outline of the blade so that later, using a special sharpening stone, I could sharpen it. I spent quite a long time on this task, but I didn't even finish half of the work on the first fang; it is quite durable, and that's why I need it instead of the one I bought with Xu Zhao Ting's money. Daggers made from these fangs will be able to cut through the alligator's skin, which means I can profit from its hide.
While working, I didn't notice how it was time to change shifts, so I put everything in my bag, woke up Zhao Ting, and handed over the post to him. I myself got into my sleeping bag and fell asleep. With the first rays of the sun, I was woken up to continue searching for our dear newts. The second day was more successful; in fact, we wandered longer than the first day, and our bag was replenished with sixty-six pairs of eyes. In the evening, we set up camp outdoors again, as we planned to return to the city the next day after lunch.
This time, I didn't go looking for trouble on my backside but stayed put, immersing myself in cultivation. I needed to catch up for yesterday. As soon as I entered my spiritual world and opened my spiritual paths, I felt an incredible influx of wild and pristine energy. It flowed into me in a stream, filling my two nebulae and one star dust. I decided to focus on the element of space, as cultivating air and lightning is impossible without books, and I couldn't get them in front of Xu Zhao Ting. The stars of the space element differed from the stars of wind and lightning; they didn't rush around the star dust like winds, nor did they try to hit you like lightning; they behaved, I don't know, loftily, showing that they belonged to the elite.
However, this only complicated gaining control over it. When I tried to get closer to a star, I felt as if I were talking to the mayor of a city or a governor! After an hour, Xu Zhao Ting called me, said he was going to sleep, and promptly fell asleep. I, meanwhile, took out the wind book and began to subdue the corresponding stars. Now I felt like the leader of forty-nine unruly children running around the room, escaping from you in different directions, while you try to line them up against the wall! But it was much easier for me than with space.
In the middle of cultivation, I was jolted by the sound of a cracking branch and someone's presence. Opening my eyes, I saw a red fox creeping towards us, a middle-level servant beast inhabiting these parts. Its fur is highly valued for both its protective and magical properties; one skin can fetch up to one hundred and twenty thousand! The beast itself is not much larger than ordinary foxes, but it has incredible speed and sharp claws.
Realizing I saw her, she stood for a second, staring with wide eyes, then lunged at me, but to her misfortune, the wind blade was already ready. One wave of my hand, and the dangerous beast, two meters away from me, lost its head. What a pity. Approaching its corpse, I determined that it was quite weak among its kind, and also stupid; who gives their enemy time to prepare for an attack?
Taking out my knife, I began to skin it, then threw all the remains far into the forest; the meat has no value to me, it's too tough for these beasts. I got all the information about these beasts at school, as well as at the hunter league before departure. Finishing, I washed my hands and the knife, then continued cultivating, maintaining increased caution. The skill of cultivating without losing touch with reality is important to me, so I honed it from the second year of study, achieving noticeable progress; otherwise, I would never have noticed this fox.
The next day, by noon, we managed to kill twenty-four more newts, so we had one hundred and thirty pairs of eyes. You might ask, if they are exterminated in such quantities, why haven't they gone extinct yet? I'll answer: they breed faster than rabbits! Yes, they are weak and pose no particular threat even to initial-level mages of the second or third stage, even in groups of up to ten individuals, but if they are not exterminated, then in just a year, there will be about a hundred thousand in the Suzhou area! And that's already dangerous.
Returning to the city, we split up. Xu Zhao Ting went to the league to exchange eyes for money and points, while I went to the magic market to sell unregistered gear. The fox skin sold for seventy thousand, and the fangs were taken for twenty each. So, I had exactly as much in hand as Zhao Ting received for the eyes, cool. However, I had to spend about eighty thousand on a magic sharpening stone. Initially, I wanted to buy a cheap, poor-quality one for forty to fifty, using the mission money as well, but the fox gave me the opportunity to buy a good stone and still come out ahead!
A magic sharpening stone is the same as a regular sharpening stone, only with enchantments applied and made of special material. They don't use whole souls on them, which is why they are so cheap, but without them, you can't sharpen any magical artifact in the form of a sword or dagger. So, I need such a stone for my daggers; without it, they will just be beautifully carved monster teeth. Such things are of little use; I don't have the strength of an alligator to pierce monster skin with them!
After finishing my shopping, I returned to Xu Zhao Ting, who had found us an inexpensive room with a shower and also bought decent food. He also gave me my share of the eyes, namely fifty-two thousand. Now I have a total of one hundred and two thousand, not bad.
"Phew, finally a normal bed, not a sleeping bag," Zhao Ting exhaled, lying down on the bed after eating. "How wonderful it is to sleep on it!"
"True, but we didn't earn that much if we hadn't slept there," I added, also lying down on the bed. Today I will sleep properly. "How is your cultivation? Do you feel any changes?"
"A little, but there are changes, and practicing spells on live, moving monsters is much more effective than on targets," my partner replied. "Are we going back there tomorrow or taking a day off?"
"I would go if you don't mind," I said. Staying in the city is not beneficial for my cultivation!
"Excellent, I intend to recoup the money spent on the artifact, and also reach the intermediate level by winter; that's my goal. And what about you, Jiaxing Yun?" Zhao Ting asked, clasping his hands behind his head, with the happy face of someone doing what they love.
"To break through to the intermediate level by autumn, and by winter, to learn to release magic of a new element. As for money, it would be nice to save about five to six million by winter," I replied, taking off my sports jacket and returning to bed.
"So quickly and so much money? Is it even possible to earn that much by killing these newts?" Zhao Ting asked, surprised, looking at me with wide eyes.
"Quite possible. I'm almost at the intermediate level, I told you. Again, as for money, we earned one hundred and thirty thousand in three days. If we continue like this, we'll earn one million three hundred thousand in a month. In six months, that's already seven to eight hundred. I'll earn at least three million," I replied dryly, of course, not mentioning the additional earnings that exceed these calculations a couple of times.
"I see, so we need to try harder to earn more and advance in cultivation," Zhao Ting concluded our conversation happily. But don't count your chickens before they hatch; we need to work, and for that, we need to sleep well. So, without further ado, I went to the realm of dreams.
The next day, after replenishing our supplies, we headed back into the forest to hunt tritons. This time, we were even luckier, and by evening, fifty-six monsters had fallen by our hands. In the evening, I was once again cultivating space until Xu Zhao Ting fell asleep, after which I began working on my daggers. I now had the whetstone, and before going on a solo hunt, I needed to finish them. That night, no one dared to disturb our sleep. I, however, stayed up until almost two in the morning, but I finished my dagger, sharpening it completely. Now it would easily rip open the belly of that alligator. I also sharpened my first knife, which had become dull and could barely cut through even triton skin.
The next day, due to my drowsiness, we only killed fifty-two tritons. It should be noted that in the first few days, we worked from around noon, and on the second day, from about six in the morning. For this, I received a small reprimand from Zhao Ting, and I had to promise that I would no longer stay up late at night, but would wake him as soon as my shift ended. The evening passed the same way as the previous one, with one exception: I started on the second dagger. I needed two of them mainly to replace one with the other in case of anything, so I would soon return to my hunting.
On the third day of our wanderings in the forest, by noon, we had killed twenty-two tritons, less than the previous third day, but it was not a big deal. In total, we had the same amount, which was surprising. Returning to the city, we split up again, only this time I went for food and lodging, not to the magic market. Spending twelve thousand yuan, I bought enough food for the next three days. With the new money from exchanging eyes, I had one hundred and forty-two thousand. This time, before going to sleep, I worked on finishing the second dagger, and by eleven o'clock, everything was ready.
Once again, we went to the forest to hunt tritons as if it were a job, like mushroom picking. The count for the first day of our sortie was forty-four pairs of eyes. My daggers were ready, which meant it was time to test them in battle. Under the guise of a walk, I headed deeper into the forest, looking for beasts, with one dagger at the ready. It wouldn't hinder my magic release anyway.
I walked without much caution, which was a foolish mistake. Even if only servant-level beasts lived here and leaders were rarely encountered, it didn't mean I could be careless. A single mage, even of average level, is an easy victim for servant-level beasts accustomed to ambushing. Such as red foxes; one of them attacked me while I was looking for an opponent. Fortunately, I heard its approach in time and dodged its leap at the last moment, so it left a shallow cut on my right shoulder.
I immediately used the wind step and jumped away from it. However, the fox was persistent and, after a failed leap, charged again, this time head-on. But I needed its pelt as intact as possible, so I used the lightning whip, which struck it in the head, disorienting it while running. Then I had to act quickly, as it had almost reached me. A dagger strike to the spot where the whip hit, and it was dead.
After skinning and washing it, I put the pelt in a bag and my backpack, and continued my search for game. Yes, this one was stronger than the one that attacked at night, but not much. Its only chance of victory in a battle with me was to inflict a severe wound immediately.
The next beast I found was a black sharp-winged crane. Usually, Xu Zhao Ting and I avoided such beasts as this crane or alligators, high-level servants, but for me, they were just worthy opponents. The black sharp-winged crane is a magical bird, rarely found on this lake, but very dangerous. Standing a meter and a half tall, it has an incredibly sharp beak and black sharp feathers on its wings. Although it cannot fly, it runs fast. However, the defensive capabilities of such birds are very weak. My first-level spell would be enough to kill one if it hit the neck, but the problem is that it's difficult to get close enough to hit it, and this bird runs incredibly fast, surpassing some pack leaders! Without a good ice mage, it's better not to approach it.
But my confidence convinced me to take the risk. For each feather from its wings, if it's completely intact, they give up to a hundred thousand yuan! Very good initial-level offensive artifacts are made from them. My plan was simple: prepare a spell in advance and kill it with one strike, without letting it touch me. But as always happens with this bird, it noticed the offender as soon as I started forming the star path and ran straight at me.
The distance between us was about seventy meters, but it covered half of that distance in literally a second! Fortunately, my initial-level magic is quite fast; it took me one and a half seconds to create a wind star path, which concentrated in my hand where I held the dagger. And with a skillful movement, I cleaved its long neck with the wind blade as if with a dagger, and it turned into a bloody mess!
I had to urgently dodge the beast's head flying at me, which plunged into the tree behind me with its beak. I stood there, covered in a cold sweat, and never wanted to face such fast birds again without mid-level magic to kill them from a distance with one blow. To say the least, it is classified as a high-level servant only due to its energy level and speed, but it is easy to kill if you are quick enough, of course.
After spending half an hour collecting and carefully packing the feathers, of which there were twelve! Although it's unlikely they'll give a hundred thousand each, I'll definitely get fifty. I should clarify a bit about these feathers and why they are so valued. Firstly, these birds, as I've already said, are rare, and my encountering one is great luck. Secondly, these birds are fast, and it's difficult to kill them without damaging the necessary feathers, due to the fragility of the bird as a whole and the feathers themselves. This drawback in artifacts is overcome by incorporating magic and additional components. For this reason, mid-level mages are not in a better position than initial-level mages. Thirdly, as mentioned, these feathers conduct magic well and are indispensable in offensive artifacts, even of mid-level. Therefore, if you managed to obtain them, and even so many as I did, consider yourself lucky.
After dealing with this bird, I returned to Zhao Ting and began cultivating. The next day, I didn't look for any diversions and just cultivated. By the end of my shift, I had mastered the eighth wind star. The further it goes, the easier it gets, right? On the third day, we returned to the city with a total catch of one hundred and twenty pairs of eyes. After selling the feathers at the magic market, I earned sixty thousand for each, as well as the fox pelt for eighty, totaling nine hundred and ninety thousand! This is undeniably pleasing. True, I spent ten on lodging and food, but almost a million in nine days! Although I was lucky to stumble upon a black sharp-winged crane. July had just begun.