Damien, who had fainted, did not know that his internal strength was changing simultaneously as his muscles were refined by the jackfruit he had eaten.
At the same time, the buffalo meat worked to supplement the jackfruit, increasing the process. The process continued the whole night, but Damien remained unconscious.
The next morning, Damien woke up only to see himself in the same place where he had eaten the fruit and meat.
"So I survived the experiment. How should I check my strength?"
Then he thought of a way. He came out of the house and walked toward the gate of the city.
As he walked toward the city gate, he saw the damage done by yesterday's monsters.
"They literally dismantled every building near the city gates," he could only sigh in resignation.
Then he shifted his eyes to a huge stone near the city gate.
"If I can move this stone, then it would be easier to look for other mystical fruits."
He came near the stone and wanted to punch it, but thought if his strength hadn't increased, his hand would break. So he first tried to push the stone.
To his surprise, the stone, which was more than 500 kilograms, was pushed easily with both hands. He then tried with one hand, which was also easy.
So he tried to carry the stone. It was difficult, not because of the weight, but due to its size.
Then he thought of punching the stone.
"Should I punch it? Let's try. What's there to worry about?"
Damien used his full strength to punch the stone.
Suddenly, a loud noise broke the silence of the whole city.
Damien looked at himself with surprise.
"Damn it, I broke the whole stone slab to pieces."
Then his laughter was heard everywhere.
Damien, who enjoyed the progress of his grown strength, looked back toward the place where the monster corpse lay.
"I may be stronger than before, but it isn't time to feel I can conquer the world. Even such monsters can be killed, so where do I get this confidence? I should finish the whole meat of this monster and look for a map of the surrounding area to know better."
Damien started to walk back toward the corpse. He dragged the corpse near a water well and brought different buckets to store the meat. After all, this would be his way to increase his strength.
Damien spent the whole afternoon cleaning the meat and cutting everything thoroughly to preserve it before it started to rot.
Damien cooked the meat again in the afternoon, but this time his food intake increased more than he could have imagined. He ate more than 5 kilograms of meat, and he could feel that each time he ate, his body felt refreshed.
"So the meat does help me increase my strength, but its rate of increase is smaller than yesterday's jackfruit."
Damien thought about going to the jungle to look for more mystical fruit, but then remembered the other creatures.
"No, first let me finish the meat I have. Then I'll decide whether I should go to the jungle to look for those mystical fruits."
Damien ate his food, then started to clean up everything and kept the meat in a clean place. Then his eyes fell on the bones of the monster. He spent a lot of time breaking them. Even though his strength had increased, he still put in a great deal of effort.
"The butcher knife might not work if a stronger monster comes. So I need to shape these leg bones into knives and swords. They might help in a fight as well."
Damien looked outside, then walked out of the house and moved toward the inner city. As he walked, he started to enjoy the environment. After all, he was always stressed about survival, but today he had some knowledge about the world and, at the same time, some strength, which gave him a big boost.
Then he came near a big palace-like building. Outside the gate, "City Lord" was written.
"Even the language written in front of me I can understand, but I never learned it."
Damien always thought there was a reason he came here, but he never found it.
He had come here before as well, but he hadn't dared to walk inside. After all, he had read quite a few novels in his world where every horror story started with a big abandoned palace. But now he knew this world definitely wasn't some kind of horror world.
Damien entered the main gate and walked toward the palace. Looking at the palace, it was huge enough to make even the richest person in his world feel ashamed.
Damien walked inside the palace, looking into every corner and room, but he didn't find anything. He even went to the library, but he only saw a few exercises which were training methods for soldiers to form ranks during battle.
Then there were a few exercises which described how to wield a sword or other weapon properly, which was good for him; after all, he didn't even know the basics, so he took those books.
Except for these books, he saw a few pieces of jewelry kept in some rooms, but he didn't take them. After all, what use would such jewelry be to him in this desolate world?
Then he started to search more thoroughly.
"They must have some hidden chambers. I must find the hidden treasure room. If they knew anything about these creatures, they should have written it down somewhere."
Damien searched more carefully in each corner of the palace, but it still took a lot of time to examine every place.
"Looks like I was expecting too much. If they knew anything about ways to increase their strength or about mystical fruits, they wouldn't have left their home."
Damien looked at the big bedroom, which itself was far bigger than any room he had searched in the palace.
"This should be the main bedroom. If anyone in the city knew anything about this world, it would be him."
Damien started to search every corner of the bedroom to find something; otherwise, his journey would be more difficult.
Damien also started to look at the books kept on a shelf. When he removed the middle one, a sudden mechanism started.
Damien looked at the bookshelf, which automatically began to move, then his eyes fell on the passage that appeared behind it.
"So this ancient trick of putting a hidden room behind a wall is really a headache for newcomers like me."
Damien sighed. "If I hadn't been persistent enough, I wouldn't even have known about this. Let's hope to find something relevant here."
Damien entered the passage and could even hear his own footsteps. It looked more like a dungeon than a treasure room.
When he entered the treasure room, he was surprised to see a huge amount of gold and silver. Looking at the gold, he thought,
"If this much gold were in my world, I could enjoy my life without working."
Then his eyes turned toward a few wooden boxes, which were large, and then toward iron boxes of different sizes. But among all of them, there was one small box made of a material he didn't recognize, placed on the top shelf as if it were more important than anything else.
Damien started to open the boxes. He began with the wooden boxes. In each wooden box, there was either ore or some metal he didn't recognize.
Then his eyes turned to the iron boxes. There were nine of them, which in itself suggested they were more important than the ore kept in the wooden boxes.
Damien opened the first iron box, where he saw grape-like fruit.
"This is also a fruit, so why didn't the people in this city use it? After all, looking at it, it must be the same as the jackfruit I ate."
He started to grow more confused about this world. Then he opened the other iron boxes; in more than half of them, there were fruits, and among them, jackfruit was also present.
"Fruits are kept here, I get it, but what is the purpose of the ring and these small bottles?"
Damien then turned his eyes toward the smallest box, which looked more like jade, but he couldn't be sure.
When he opened the box, he suddenly saw a white crystal lying inside. He took the crystal in his hand, but suddenly felt it break free from his grip. It emitted a white light which pierced his eyes.