It was 6 in the morning when Rin opened his eyes. The sun is still rising behind the mountains so it’s relatively dark outside. He gets up and stretches his stiff limbs.

His room is a little different from before, he blocked his window with a table. It won’t stop anything that tries to get in but it should buy Rin enough time to wake up and access the situation when the need arises.

He also barricaded the broken window in his living room with a sofa. He stacked small items such as cups and cans on the sofa so if anything tries to go through then they would have to knock them down and alert him.

It’s not a perfect solution but it gives Rin some peace of mind when sleeping.

Rin goes to the bathroom to wash up. He checks his phone while brushing his teeth but there was no signal on his phone. In fact, online services went out yesterday while he was practicing magic but he checked again just in case it came back, even if it was only a slim chance.

‘Soon the water will stop working as well. Luckily I can just make some with magic.’

Rin heads outside to check on the pit. There is a rabbit and a coyote that got impaled last night. The system didn’t notify him, probably because he didn’t kill them himself or maybe they didn’t have mana cores since they look like regular animals. He wasn’t sure of the exact reason.

Rin takes the two animals and spears out of the pit and fills it back with dirt. He was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a bokin or goblin who fell into the trap.

Rin intends to use the rabbit and coyote as practice for butchering and skinning. He is inexperienced in this field and he may have to hunt his own food from now on so this is a good opportunity for him to learn. When he was harvesting the mana cores from the bokins, he didn’t do so with much care nor delicacy since it wasn’t required.

Rin didn’t want his mana to stay idle so he used some mana to practice magic and then finally starts butchering while his core is working to regenerate mana.

He finished after an hour. It wasn’t the cleanest but he’ll slowly get better the more he butchers. Rin makes a stew with all the meat. The electricity wasn’t working so he couldn’t preserve them in the freezer.

After having breakfast, Rin grabs the goblin core and uses [Inspect Magic Core]. His thoughts were a little occupied yesterday so he had forgotten about it.

-----------------------------------------

[Magic Core: goblin]

[Club Mastery] Cost: 4 goblin cores or 4 core points [Throw level 1] +10% more power when throwing an object. Cost: 2 goblin cores or 2 core points [Dark Vision level 1] Gives better vision in the dark Range: 5 meters Cost: 2 goblin cores or 2 core points 2 goblin cores can be absorbed to 1 core point

-----------------------------------------

‘[Lesser Throw] seems like an interesting skill. My [water magic] is too weak to be used offensively so my only option for ranged attacks is to throw weapons. I’ll try to get it whenever I can.

Having a [night vision] skill will allow me to travel and fight at night but this one doesn’t let me see far. Creatures roaming in the night are bound to have better vision than this so it’s not a priority.

There’s also [club mastery] which is as expensive as the [spear mastery]. Although I’m not interested in it, there must be something special about the mastery skills. In any case, I need more monster cores.’

Rin currently possesses 1 goblin core and 1 bokin core. He puts the two cores into his pocket and starts walking toward the corn farmer’s house. He wanted to check if there was anything that he can make use of.

Rin stares at the cornfield as he walks along the road. He shudders with fear when he recalls his encounter with the giant. He is traumatized by cornfields now.

‘The giant didn’t seem to have any interest in me whatsoever. Was it because I am too weak or was it because I was too small to provide any kind of nourishment? Hmm...’

Lost in thought, Rin reached the house before he realized it. He heads inside and checks inside the house for any useful tools or preserved food. He found a few variety of canned fish and beans so he brings that with him.

Rin also brings a sickle with him as well. The knife that he was using is relatively thin so it’s good for quick stabs or slashes but it lacks the weight to perform heavier attacks, which the sickle can do thanks to its curved blade.

Rin heads back home and grabs his backpack. He plans to head out so he will be bringing some supplies with him. He brings some of the canned food, a bottle of water, and a thermal portable container with the stew inside. He also places his sickle, club, knife, and the two mana cores in the backpack. He will be carrying the staff and spear in each hand.

Rin heads east in the direction of the town. The street he is walking on will lead straight to his destination.

While walking, Rin stares at the open field. The rising sun peeks above the mountain. Its orange rays shine on the green field that is void of any creatures. The various species of wildflowers dart across the field and the landscape waves up and down on various levels. Rin couldn’t help but admire the view.

After walking for a while, two houses on opposing sides of the road come into view.