Jack and Sarah stood next to each other, as the former began a countdown. Three seconds later, two [Qi Projection] skills were triggered, roughly at the exact same time. Jack noticed that his crescent, arcing slash Qi projectile seemed to lag behind Sarah’s spear tip shaped Qi, but his slash also had a much larger surface area so he supposed that made sense. A few moments later Sarah’s projectile crashed against the crystalline surface, carving a large dent into its surface. Jack’s Qi projectile slammed into the surface a second later, followed by a loud cracking sound as cracks erupted across the surface area from the epicenter of the impact.

A grin spread across Jack’s face as he watched the exterior of the crystalline surface completely shatter, revealing a [Gemstone Beast] that looked around in confusion before locking eyes with him. The violet [Soul Stone] pulsed in his left hand, an insurance in case the [Gemstone Beast] had the foresight and the strength, or perhaps other methods of awakening its companions.

It’s open maw started glowing with an azure light, and for an instant Jack’s face went rigid. If the beast decided to use it’s beam attack on the crystalline surface covering its companions, they would definitely awaken— but at what cost? He refused to believe that the crystal was durable enough to bear the beam attack without any harm coming to the creature inside.

Thankfully, its gaze remained focused on Jack, making it clear that he was the undoubted target.

“Dodge,” Jack cautioned, diving to the right the moment he said those words. Were the beam attack used in the midst of combat, with four beasts encircling them, it had the potential to cause lethal damage. But alone, when they were staring down at the beast in clear line of sight? There was no chance.

The beast’s beam blew past Jack by a wide margin, not even close to Sarah who evaded in the opposite direction he did, as per their prior discussion. Rolling and getting back on his feet, Jack raised his sword hand in the air as a declaration of challenge— not quite sure if the [Gemstone Beast] had the intelligence to understand the meaning behind his gesture, but their entire strategy was contingent upon it attacking instead of retreating or staying in place.

The next second, the [Gemstone Beast] charged, its ruby eyes glinting under the azure glow of the cavern, promising violence and murder.

Jack smiled, refraining from using [Qi Projection] again lest he drive the beast away. Sarah jogged back into position, her motions confident knowing that for the first time, they were the ones that outnumbered an enemy weaker than themselves.

Five minutes later, the [Gemstone Beast] was reduced to a pile of inert crystals, both Jack and Sarah largely unharmed besides a small scratch on Sarah’s right arm. Their strategy had been simple, letting one of them attract the beast’s attention, focusing on parrying it’s blows away with [Qi Blade/Spear] while the other encircled it. In this case, Jack had managed to attract the Beast’s attention, parrying it’s first attempt to lacerate his windpipe with it’s sharp claws, sending it back a few meters while Sarah pincered it from behind, digging into its side with a thrust of [Qi Spear].

The beast reacted quickly, managing to shift its mass before Sarah could severely wound the creature, but Jack started raining down a barrage of light [Qi Blade] strikes to retain its attention. The beast tried its best to escape the encirclement, but ultimately the fight was over when it was constantly being attacked from both directions. Before it could fire off another beam attack, Jack brought down his sword, [Honor’s End] upon it’s crystalline skull, shattering it into countless pieces.

You have slain Gemstone Beast, Level 4 [Elite]. You have received: 125 TP. [Elite] modifier: x4. Total TP received: 500.

There was no loot, again, but Jack was not disappointed by his gains, having discovered a way to quickly farm TP. The next kill would go to Sarah, of course, but even then there were enough [Gemstone Beast’s] to go around.

They entered a cycle of hunting the beasts one by one, resting to replenish their Qi, and once all beasts were cleared in an area moving deeper into [The Underbelly]. Around nine hours later, they had killed a grand total of eight gemstone beasts, including the first one Jack had killed with this new strategy, four of which were kills that belonged to him. He had no qualms sharing TP equally, because without Sarah there was no way for him to penetrate the crystalline surface. He had tried, and if the damage wasn’t enough to shatter it in one go, the surface would simply regenerate at a frightening speed.

Name

Jack Fletcher

Age

28.6 Years

Race

Human [F-]

Cultivation Level

5 [43%]

Class

Swordsman (O) Lv. 5 [57%]

Cultivation

Initiate I

Talent

-

Skills:

Inspect, Qi Blade [MAX], Qi Pulse [Lv.2], Qi Projection [Lv.2], Minor Cure [Lv. 1]

Feat

Warrior

Equipment

[F] Honor’s End, [F- ] Lunar Wolf Cape, [F- ] Lunar Wolf Boots, [F-] Twilight Boar Pendant.

STR

11 (+1)

CON

11

DEX

11

AGI

13(+2)

PER

11 (+1)

WIS

7

INT

9 (+1)

WIL

8

QI

4/14

FP

-

TP

4400

His TP had gone upto 4,400, which meant that he was only two more kills away from reaching the first milestone of 5,000 TP. An attunement stone could be his, if he wanted…. though he was still not sure if that was the right option. Leveling had slowed down after reaching level 5, but he supposed that while the [Gemstone Beasts] were elite opponents, they were still a level below him. No more items had dropped for either him or Sarah, making Jack realize that he had likely gotten lucky with the [Soul Stone] he had received, or the rewards from [Elite] creatures were harder to get but better in quality.

However, after they slew the last beast, the rest of the tunnel seemed clear until the distant bend, much to his disappointment. They continued to progress slowly, the initial horror of the ambush they found themselves in not being forgotten, until a system notification popped up in front of them.

Twenty four hours have elapsed since the start of the trial.

Jack didn’t really feel anything about an announcement, but Sarah seemed to exhale in what felt like palpable relief.

“We survived the first day,” she whispered under her breath, making him realize that, in a way, it was a milestone that they had crossed. The system had called the first twelve hours the hardest, and he didn’t disagree. From here on out, the ones who survived would either be ruthless, skilled, or just lucky. There would also be smart individuals that leeched off more talented ones, but ultimately he did not believe that one had the ability to guarantee someone else’s protection in this hellscape, not without a talent, at least.

“We did,” Jack whispered back, but he continued moving with alertness until they reached the bend of the cave. His perception did not indicate that there was anything amiss that lay ahead in ambush, but Jack was still feeling skittish about the bend.

He waited a few minutes, ready for something to come around the corner leaping at him, but there was no attack. Finally, he sighed, knowing that there was no way to know but to proceed forward, and have faith in his perception stat.

He gave Sarah the go ahead as his [Qi Blade] flickered to life, taking no chances as he took six steps in rapid succession, crossing the bend with his blade pointed forward.

“What the..,” Sarah whispered sharply under her breath, her eyes wide with shock as she witnessed what lay ahead.