By sheer luck, Arky found another Hilichurl camp soon after. This one was bigger. A Mitachurl, a Samachurl, and about five regular Hilichurls scattered around the clearing.
All of them were asleep.
This time, Arky did not feel like repeating the same assassination routine.
He wanted a fight.
His gaze locked onto the Cryo Samachurl.
Those things were a nightmare during his first mental trial.
While he dealt with other enemies, they would start dancing in the back, chanting nonsense, and flooding the battlefield with freezing shit. If he let it live, it would become a problem fast.
So it had to die first.
Arky shifted into a throwing stance, planting his feet firmly.
He poured strength into the arm holding the spear, soul energy flooding through his grip and into the weapon itself. The blade of Errata began to glow with a faint gray aura.
Errata was the only weapon that could tolerate his energy without corroding. Any normal weapon would decay over time if he kept channeling Entropy through it.
He exhaled slowly.
"Heave… ho."
He hurled the spear, and it left his hand in a perfect, deadly arc.
Vrrsh—
It sliced through the air, and just before reaching the sleeping Samachurl, most of the gray energy burst outward, forming a 1 meter radius spherical zone of silence around the target.
No sound escaped from within.
Then, right before impact, Arky willed the spear to change.
The remaining energy within the spear surged inward, and Errata's mass spiked to 50 kilograms.
Boom!
"Kkee—"
The Samachurl did not stand a chance. The spear slammed through it like a falling anvil and smashed into the ground beneath, cracking the earth on impact.
Even though no sound escaped the silent zone, debris exploded outward.
Chunks of dirt and stone erupted across the camp, several striking the Mitachurl directly. The impact was enough to jolt it awake, and within moments, the entire camp stirred to life.
Arky casually took a sip from his gourd, savoring the dandelion wine beneath the pale glow of the false moon.
"Haa… 50 kilograms might have been a bit much for a Samachurl," he muttered.
He willed the spear again.
Errata tore itself free from the shattered ground, rotated once in the air, and shot back toward him. Arky caught it midair with practiced ease.
A soulbound weapon answered its master's call as long as nothing actively blocked it.
Arky watched as the Mitachurl grabbed its wooden shield and let out a deafening roar.
"RRRAAAAHHH!!"
The other Hilichurls joined in with cries of, "YAA!"
"Hey, mascot, what are they saying?!" Arky asked.
Sitri floated lazily nearby. "Hehe… they're totally cursing you! Like, 'Look at that human scum attacking us! How can that ugly old man kill our buddies? Let's skewer him and roast him over the campfire—'"
Arky had enough of the translation. He grabbed the yapping fly from her head and hurled it at one of the Hilichurl shooters aiming at him with a crossbow.
"KYAAA!! YOU BASTARD—"
Mid-flight, her body glowed brightly and transformed into a black die, dodging the arrow effortlessly.
Arky raised an eyebrow, momentarily forgetting that he still had no idea what this divine artifact could truly do. He decided to ask later.
He spun his spear in front of him, snapping the bolt coming towards him with ease, then hurled the weapon at the Hilichurl shooter, infusing it with energy.
Just before impact, he spiked the spear's mass to 20 kilograms. Using its awakened ability, Lunar Singularity, the spear thrown with the velocity of a 5kg weapon maintained the same speed despite the sudden mass increase.
Since Momentum= Mass × Velocity, the strike obliterated the Hilichurl shooter's head. Purple blood exploded outward like fireworks before dissipating into black mist.
He absorbed some essence but didn't bother checking it, his focus already on the Mitachurl charging at him with its shield raised.
Arky was standing before a massive tree, waiting for the perfect moment. Just as the Mitachurl's charge was about to hit, he leaped to the left, rolling across the grass.
Thud!
The Mitachurl, shield raised, slammed into the tree trunk and went dizzy from the impact.
Arky willed the thrown spear to spin through the air and return to his hand, catching it just in time to plunge it toward the dazed Mitachurl's head.
But before he could act, a crossbow bolt whizzed toward him. He sighed and sliced it cleanly in half, losing his perfect chance to take down the Mitachurl.
Deciding to handle the remaining Hilichurls first, he ran toward the camp.
The first one raised a club as it charged, but a simple thrust of his spear to its head ended it instantly. He followed with a full sweep, taking down the other two Hilichurl fighters.
The last was a Hilichurl shooter, reloading its crossbow, too slow to understand what was happening.
A shadow fell over its face.
"Dala?!"
It looked up to see Arky looming above, spear raised. At 183 cm, Arky towered over the Hilichurl, which barely reached his chest, making the creature seem tiny beneath him.
Without hesitation, Arky plunged the spear into its head, killing it. He turned back just in time to see the Mitachurl charging at him again.
"Tch… if I had my trial strength, I'd charge straight at it," Arky muttered.
His eyes scanned the forest floor and landed on a sturdy rock, just the right size. He sprinted toward it, luring the Mitachurl in a straight line.
With precision, he planted the back end of Errata into the rock, angling the spear at 45 degrees toward the charging beast. The rock anchored the weapon, ready to bear the brunt of what was coming.
Channeling his energy, the spear flared gray, its presence turning ominous. Just as the Mitachurl's shield slammed into it, Arky willed the weapon's mass to spike to 100 kilograms. The sudden weight nearly buckled him, but before he could falter—
The shield crashed into the spear. The force of the charge, combined with the abrupt increase in mass, drove the blade straight through the wooden shield and deep into the Mitachurl's chest.
"GRAAHH!"
The creature roared, still alive, the spear's blade buried deep in its chest. Arky narrowed his focus, guiding the remaining energy toward the spear's bladed end.
"Localized Blast," he muttered.
Ptzh—
The space within the Mitachurl's chest collapsed inward, flesh and bone erased in an instant. A gaping hole formed where the spear's blade had been embedded.
Arky could see the forest beyond through it. Moments later, the body broke apart into black mist, and a surge of essence flowed into him.
[ You have slain a Wooden Shieldwall Mitachurl: Level 8. Gained 600 Essence. ]
"Hoo…" Arky breathed deeply and sent Errata back into his sigil.
The clearing fell into silence with every enemy dead. That peace lasted exactly three seconds before a certain mascot started hurling curses and kicks at him.
After Sitri was finally satisfied, she flopped onto his head, adjusting his hair until it was comfortable enough to use as a pillow.
Arky scanned the clearing and noticed a slightly cracked mask and a heavy horn left behind where the Mitachurl had fallen.
"Hmm… character enhancement loot?" he muttered. In the game, these were used to strengthen characters.
"They're useless to you," Sitri replied sleepily. "But you can sell them for a decent amount of Mora. Alchemists love this stuff."
"Oh?" Arky smiled faintly. Mora was one thing he desperately lacked. If he sold these at Mondstadt, he could probably buy more dandelion wine.
'Am I getting addicted like Venti?' he wondered. The wine dulled the edge of five hundred years of death and torment, and sometimes it even cleared his mind instead of clouding it.
He shook his head and collected everything that had dropped, sending it all into the sigil's spatial storage.
For now, the storage was a simple cube, three meters on each side. Once he tiered up, it would expand alongside him.
While searching the area, he spotted the remains of a shattered wooden carriage nearby.
Judging by the state of decay, it had likely been attacked months ago.
When Arky peered inside, his brows furrowed. A skeleton lay slumped within, wrapped in filthy, shredded clothes. Judging by the fabric, the man had likely been a merchant dealing in cloth.
Either the Hilichurls had killed him, or he had taken his own life afterward.
Near the skeleton lay a small money pouch. Arky picked it up and opened it. As expected, Mora clinked inside.
A small smile appeared on his face. He turned toward the remains and bowed slightly.
"Thanks for the gift. I'll make sure your remains can rest."
Placing his boot against the skeleton, Arky released a trace of gray energy. It flowed into the bones, and slowly, steadily, they began to decay.
Within minutes, nothing remained.
"Amitābha… may you find peace wherever you have gone." Arky murmured.
He had seen monks say things like that in novels, so he figured it was appropriate.
Once the looting was finished, Arky sat down on a nearby rock and finally looked at the panels he had ignored earlier.
[ You have slain a Cryo Samachurl: Level 5. Gained 280 Essence. ]
[ You have slain a Hilichurl Shooter: Level 3. Gained 100 Essence. ]
…
…
[ You have created a Skill: Localized Blast. ]
From the five Hilichurls, he had gained a total of 500 Essence. The Mitachurl alone granted 600, while the Samachurl contributed another 280. Altogether, that brought the total to 1380 Essence.
Combined with the Essence he already possessed, the final count appeared as:
[ Essence: 1960 / 3000 ]
"Hm… still too slow, but one more Mitachurl camp should be enough to hit Level 4." Arky nodded to himself, already planning to go hunting again, when Sitri suddenly warned him.
"You've been wandering around for hours already. In a little while, the sun's gonna come up, you know? And if Adelinde finds out you snuck out just to hunt Hilichurls, you're soooo getting in trouble." Sitri yawned mid-sentence, sprawled on top of his head like it was her personal bed, eyes half-closed as she spoke.
"Oh…" Arky sighed. "I'll have to leave officially tomorrow morning. Once I'm out of the winery, I can hunt freely. I need to reach Allogene before the Stormterror incident begins." He murmured as he traced the path back.
On the way, he emptied the remaining dandelion wine from his gourd.
Burp!
"The moon's really beautiful tonight. Yohoho… if only there were a beautiful girl to enjoy it with." Arky muttered through his drunken haze.
"You've already got one right above your head! A beauty that no one in all of Teyvat has ever seen!" Sitri bragged, puffing out her chest and pointing at herself.
"Ew… get lost, old hag." Arky's face twisted in disgust.
Sitri's face flushed red with fury as she grabbed his hair and yanked. "Fuck you, old man."
"Fuck you, old hag." Arky shot back without hesitation.
The two continued bickering all the way back to the winery, disappearing into the dead of night.