Ronan was panting and heaving after bringing down the level 37 three-tailed fox. Despite that he was overjoyed at not just his victory, but the enjoyment of the battle itself.

Fighting Magriz'al the Hobgoblin Champion and eventually killing it had been satisfying, but he'd sort of cheesed the encounter by taking the boss by surprise. The fox was the highest leveled monster he'd fought on equal terms, and he'd won.

Beyond all of that, he was even more excited about one line in the kill message. In particular, one of the loot drops from the fox which had caught his eye.

You have killed [Elite Three-Tailed Fox Lv.37]!

Experience has been split among your party members!

Party Experience Bonus has been applied!

+194 Copper Credits

+2 [Pain] Mastery

+6 [Spear I] Mastery

+2 [Staff I] Mastery

+4 [Stamina I] Mastery

+2 [Mana I] Mastery

+3 [Perception] Mastery

+Fox Fur (Uncommon)

+Elite Shard Lv.37 (Mind)

You have leveled up to Lv.35!

You have been restored!

+1 Vitality

+2 Endurance

+2 Strength

+1 Resistance

+1 Tenacity

+1 Charisma

+2 Free Stat Points

All the gains to his various masteries were satisfying, especially unlocking a new type in perception, but they weren't what had him salivating. No, that was down to the elite shard the fox had dropped.

He had expected a shard, given that all the elite monsters he'd killed until now had also dropped one. What he hadn't expected and was excited to figure out was the fact this shard had the mind aspect, rather than the body aspect.

Having seen the exponential increase in difficulty that came after achieving Stone ★, Ronan felt that branching his efforts out wide would be the quickest way to gain more buffs in the short term. Long term, body cultivation would give him the greatest rewards for his efforts, based on his fighting style, but it would also be time consuming and he assumed, expensive.

Then again, a single shard might not be enough to get him past the threshold of the first realm of mind cultivation. Even though it was a high leveled one, based on the other shards he'd consumed it would probably give him around sixty percent progress.

A sudden thought came into his mind. Ronan quickly opened the marketplace, his face twisting into a satisfied smile before curling into an annoyed frown.

You have purchased [Elite shard Lv.24 (Energy)] for 2 Bronze Credits and 400 Copper Credits!

He dismissed the notification as soon as it appeared. He'd hoped there might be another mind shard for sale, which would get him to the first realm, but no such luck. Not to say he was completely disappointed to find a shard at all, just that it didn't offer him an immediate boost to his power.

Realising that he'd been lying on the floor for a little longer than necessary, Ronan clambered into a sitting position and then up onto his feet. "You scared me there, Keith. Try not to get caught in any more fox illusions, eh," he half-joked, elbowing Keith in the ribs.

"Just caught me by surprise, is all. I'll turn the next one we find into a kebab," Keith replied, brandishing his blade with a menacing expression on his face. At least, he'd tried to. It just made him look constipated.

"Maybe tomorrow. I don't know what monsters come out at night, but I'd rather not find out. We can push further in the morning," Ronan said, glancing up at the setting sun and then into the shadows that clung to every lifeless building around them.

Keith followed his gaze, shivering slightly, before nodding in agreement. "Yeah, that works for me."

Keith had taken the first watch, on account of Ronan being the one who brought down the fox and was mentally wrecked. During his stint, Ronan had spent most of it staring at the two elite shards in his possession, wondering whether to take the risk of absorbing them without the proper technique or something like the warrior's fortitude elixir.

In the end he decided against it. Even if he succeeded, it wouldn't take him into the first realm of either mind or energy cultivation. The risks were too great.

So they set out for the second day of exploration, with the only improvement to Ronan's abilities being the stats and mastery points he'd earned during the first day of killing monsters. They had pushed pretty far out, turning a large portion of the map from greyed out to a rough depiction of their surroundings.

The distance from their old office to the Thames, back before the terraforming, had only been a few miles. However, they had walked at least six miles south and hadn't encountered anything resembling a river, or the remains of one.

Today Ronan wanted to push at least ten miles out, possibly fifteen if they had time, and see once and for all how drastic the changes were. Surprisingly, the boundary of the sector seemed to be around twenty miles south. Could it be…?

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

He didn't give voice to his suspicions, since that might jinx things. Instead they just followed the same route as yesterday. It took a lot less time to reach the area they'd fought the three-tailed fox in, given that there were far less monsters roaming about along the way.

That confirmed that the monsters wouldn't spontaneously appear. Given that foxes seemed to be the prevalent species, it was likely that the existing animals had been changed along with the city when the terraforming occurred. We are in London, after all. Or what remains of it, he thought to himself. Plenty of foxes to go around.

Actually he was more surprised they hadn't run into any giant, angry pigeons yet. Then again, they had only explored a small section of land and anything was possible. Monsters were territorial from what he'd seen of them so far, so possibly the different species had portioned out the new world between them.

As they went beyond yesterday's final arena, the first monsters began to appear. Ronan wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or grateful that they weren't close to the three-tailed fox's level.

Most were still two-tailed foxes, with a few three-tailed foxes. None of them were elites. He noticed a trend after seeing a few more three-tailed foxes, that all of them were above level 30. The two-tailed foxes meanwhile were all between level 20 and 30.

He suspected that if they encountered a fox above level 40, it would have four tails. Then again, it would also pose a very real threat to their lives, so he might not stick around long enough to confirm his hypothesis.

Ronan put his spear away after defeating the last of the group of monsters which had just attacked them. There had been two three-tailed foxes, one of which was an elite. The battle had pushed him to his limits, but Keith hadn't been completely dazed this time.

Despite almost dying twice, he was truly satisfied. The gains he'd made today outstripped yesterday's by a long shot. Reading over the kill message from the last battle really drove it home.

You have killed [Two-Tailed Fox Lv.21-28]x3, [Three-Tailed Fox Lv.35], and [Elite Three-Tailed Fox Lv.39]!

Experience has been split among your party members!

Party Experience Bonus has been applied!

+512 Copper Credits

+3 [Staff I] Mastery

+8 [Pain] Mastery

+17 [Perception] Mastery

+11 [Stamina I] Mastery

+2 [Leadership] Mastery

+4 [Mana I] Mastery

+12 [Spear I] Mastery

+Fox Fur (Uncommon)

+Elite Shard Lv.39 (Mind)

You have leveled up to Lv.37!

You have leveled up to Lv.38!

You have been restored x2!

+2 Vitality

+4 Endurance

+4 Strength

+2 Resistance

+2 Tenacity

+2 Charisma

+4 Free Stat Points

In just two more levels he would be at the same level of strength as Magriz'al. He didn't feel it. Probably the system jacking up a boss monster to make it a challenge. Yet another reason to hate the unfeeling artificial overlord.

Then again, Ronan had to admit that progressing this way and living on the edge of life and death was a thrill like no other. He enjoyed this life a hell of a lot more than the doldrum of finance.

It was missing a few creature comforts, but he was sure as more people returned from the tutorial and the world acclimated, those would return. I could kill for a soak in a hot tub right now…

At the moment all they had was pouring bottled water over themselves to wipe away the blood and grime. It was a far cry from running hot water, but it did the trick.

Before that, Ronan had a decent few stat points to assign. Eight in fact, given that he'd not been spending them at all. The only question was where to invest them.

He didn't need more strength. The natural gains from his class covered that. Besides, even the level 39 fox had died to a few well placed strikes. Power wasn't his weakness right now.

No, he still lacked speed and finesse. The foxes toyed with him until he was able to figure out their hiding spots and he was slow on the uptake when he did.

His combo drained a lot of stamina too. With levels becoming sparser on the outside of the tutorial, he could no longer rely on constant restorations to top him up. Impact leech helped, but relying on getting smacked about to regain stamina wasn't an ideal strategy either.

With all that in mind, he ended up putting 3 points into endurance, 3 into agility, and the final 2 went to dexterity. He immediately felt his muscles becoming a little tighter as he input the changes.

[Status]

Name: Ronan Steele

Race: Human (G)

Heritage: Reverberating Chronosphere (Current Iteration: 7) +

Level: 38

Class: Knight (Uncommon)

Fortune: 12 Bronze Credits, 940 Copper Credits

[Stats]

Health: 462/462 Stamina: 650/650 Mana: 150/150

Vitality: 44

Endurance: 61 (+4)

Wisdom: 14 (+1)

Regeneration: 10

Resistance: 33 (+1)

Strength: 77 (+6)

Agility: 27 (+2)

Intelligence: 10

Dexterity: 12

Acuity: 7

Tenacity: 39

Luck: 10

Charisma: 31 (+1)

Available Points: 0

[Traits]

Personal: Inevitable (Epic)

[Skills]

Unified Language Adaptation (Universal)

Relentless Training (Common)

Magic Strike (Common)

Vital Surge (Common)

Mighty Strength (Common)

Critical Experience (Common)

Double Strike (Common)

Magic Money (Common)

Excessive Endurance (Common)

Breaking Charge (Uncommon) (Class)

Lionheart (Uncommon) (Class)

Reverberating Path (Epic) (Blessing)

Impact Leech (Common)

[Mastery]

Pugilist I 4/100

Mana I 11/100

Sword I 0/100

Shield I 0/100

Staff I 7/100

Spear I 68/100

Stamina I 49/100

Pain 35/100

Perception 23/100

Leadership 2/100

[Cultivation]

Mind: None

Body: Stone ★ (58%)

Energy: None

Soul: None

[Blessings]

Blessing of Chronos (Boundless)

He couldn't help letting out an appreciative whistle as he reached his masteries. They had seen some major gains during the two days of exploration, with his spear mastery even approaching the limits of the first tier.

As he dismissed his status, he saw Keith tensing up and backing towards him. Following the man's gaze, his eyes narrowed as he saw a group of four… humans approaching them. That's new, Ronan thought to himself, hoping they were friendlier than the monsters.

Unfortunately the very first sentence from their mouths told him that likely wouldn't be the case. They stopped around twenty metres away, when one stepped out from the group. The leader, presumably. He had the trademark overconfident sneer for it.

"Halt! Anyone who wishes to hunt in Lord Rockmore's territory must swear loyalty and pay their taxes!" he yelled in a shrill tone of voice that would put a songbird to shame.

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