Noah woke up after a long sleep.
He ate a hearty meal at break fast, then started to plan out his next move.
All he knew was that he had to go north. So he had no other options.
If he had a GPS, he could have found a different route.
Now he knew there was an anaconda one hundred meters long and as wide as a bus.
That one monster alone was enough to disrupt his peace of mind.
He had to come up with a plan to pass through its territory without fighting.
Someday, when he became powerful enough, he would return here and hunt it down.
He brainstormed, but he could not think of anything that might help him get past the monster.
His only option now was to level up to level ten, then open the shop to buy skills, mana cores, and other attribute cores.
He left the bear territory, wolf territory, and rabbit territory without causing much destruction.
He only killed those who stood directly in his way.
Now he had to go back into their territories and cause mayhem.
Noah's eyes turned resolute. If he did not become far more powerful than he was now, there was no chance in hell he would be able to leave this cursed death forest.
If a single anaconda was that powerful, what if there were fifty of them? What if even more powerful mythical monsters were lurking deeper inside the forest?
A weak Noah would simply die, and no one would notice.
Noah learned one thing from his battle till now—speed. If he could master speed, he would be able to kill his enemies much faster, and every battle would fall under his control.
Even if his enemies were stronger than him, he could simply run away.
This time, he created a dagger made of stainless steel.
One small dagger cost him seven points of mana, which was all he had at that moment.
He waited thirty-five minutes, then created another dagger.
Afterward, he created a face mask with goggles.
The last time, the blood and intestines of a snow wolf had splattered across his face, and he had almost vomited.
Now he was ready to wreak havoc in those territories.
Ten days later.
Noah was standing on a tree, his eyes calm. Extremely calm.
The weariness from before, the immature expression on his face—both were gone.
It had been eighteen days since he had arrived in this realm.
The first eight days had passed in running and acting cautiously.
But in the last ten days, he had attacked those monsters like a demon from hell.
He had brought an apocalypse upon them.
He did not even know how many bears, wolves, and rabbits he had killed during those ten days.
His fighting skills had polished to a professional level. Noah was a supreme genius when it came to battle.
He could constantly learn from his fights and evolve his moves.
He had been a complete novice when he first arrived here. But now, he was certain that if necessary, he could kill a human without even batting an eye.
Yet this did not make him a mindless killer.
He killed for experience and coins.
He killed because he had to kill to survive.
He was simply following the most primordial law of creation: "Survival of the fittest."
And this place was a true forest, where one either killed or was killed. There was no middle ground.
Noah was eating bread while scanning the distance through binoculars, which he created with 12 points of mana.
In these ten days, he had obtained five strength attribute cores, seven speed attribute cores, and one mana core.
He had probably killed thousands of monsters.
He looked at his panel:
[Name: Noah Aldric
Talent: Creation (Unranked)
Vitality: 100/100
Level: 10
Strength: 27
Speed: 27
Mana: 14
Spirit: 16
Exp: 0/200000
Coins: 186900]
He had gained twelve strength points from six strength attribute cores, fourteen speed points from seven speed cores, and two mana points from one mana core.
He also received five points in each attribute from leveling up five times.
He had earned one hundred eighty thousand coins, which meant he had needed around one hundred eighty thousand experience points to level up five times.
A normal bear gave one hundred experience points, a wolf twenty-five, and a rabbit twenty.
Even if the kills had been evenly distributed, he had slain more than five thousand monsters in those ten days.
He had not slept at all. He had stayed awake by using military medicines.
He slaughtered herd after herd of monsters.
This time, he did not play hide and seek with them.
He attacked directly and wiped them out instantly.
Now his punching force surpassed one tonne—1.35 tonnes to be exact.
His speed had reached one hundred ninety-four kilometers per hour, or fifty-four meters per second.
He had already become a superhuman.
Everything was ready. He could now access the shop.
"Shop."
He whispered the command.
An interface appeared in front of him. There were many categories.
Noah did not waste time browsing through them.
He searched directly for "Mana Core."
[Novice mana core = 10000 coins, +2 mana points.
Black iron mana core = 100000 coins, +10 mana points.
....
....
(Only own level or one level higher mana cores would work. Only ten could be used per realm.)]
Noah understood the implication. He could now use any of the available mana cores, but only ten.
That meant he could either use ten novice mana cores to gain twenty mana points or ten black iron mana cores to gain one hundred mana points. But ten black iron mana cores would cost him one million coins.
There were many things to consider.
If he used novice ones, he would miss out on the eighty additional mana points he could have obtained.
But for that, he would need far more money and time to gather them.
Would Noah compromise his future for some meager coins?
The answer was absolutely not.
He would buy ten black iron mana cores. He would simply kill more.
He bought one mana core, instantly losing one hundred thousand coins.
But he felt no regret.
Ten mana points were instantly added to his panel.
Now his total mana had reached twenty-four points.
But what Noah truly desired was not the mana cores from the shop, but the ability to create mana cores himself.
He first attempted to create a novice mana core to test the waters.
[2000 mana points required. Confirm?]
Then he attempted to create a black iron level mana core.
[10000 mana points required. Confirm?]
It was indeed possible, but it required an absurd amount of mana.
Noah also noticed that creating novice or black iron cores made no difference—the ratio was the same.
To gain two permanent mana points, he needed to spend two thousand mana points to create a core. To gain ten, he needed ten thousand mana points. The ratio remained one point for every one thousand mana.
But the real question lingered: there was a limit of ten cores per level. Would the same restriction apply to the mana cores he created himself?
Technically, the mana cores from the shop were generated by the system, which allowed it to enforce restrictions. But if the cores were his own creations, they should not be bound by any restrictions. Right? Who knew?
Then he shifted his attention to the skills category.