Chương 64: The Cost of Victory

The sun slowly moved up from the horizon. In the quarry, the Skeletons carried out their tasks with commendable speed and practiced precision. Materials were piled like a mountain. Arthur currently sat near the pile of Cores, constantly separating the Black Cores from the white, pristine Core pile. The amount he gathered in a short amount of time was staggering. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind.

Could this be the reason the Skeletons had engaged in a serious battle, instead of running away after killing the single Black Core Ant? Arthur held around 10 Black Cores in his hand. These came from 100 Ants. Following that calculation, he could easily collect 3 kg of Black Cores from just this Ant colony. Arthur was on cloud nine. Even though he was unhappy about the notebook's quests with a short timeline and his inability to achieve the goal, he was eager to complete the Second System Quest.

There was one main reason for this. Reward. Where in the world could he get an [Omega] Standard Core with a guaranteed special affinity? He was stressed about the quest completion. Now, however, when he thought about how soon he could complete this quest and gain his first affinity, he could not control his gleefulness. So, with that eagerness, he restricted his urge to eat the fresh Black Core to gain Attribute points. He had to choose one.

Gaining Attribute points was equally important for his personal growth, but inheriting an affinity came as the first priority. So, he pocketed all the Black Cores but one. Earlier, he gained 0. 05 points after consuming half a Black Core. Now, he wanted to check whether he would gain a similar amount or if it would change. He threw the whole Black Core into his mouth. Without even the need to bite, the Core dissolved once it touched his tongue. He swallowed it whole.

It tasted like nothing in particular, but it did not matter. All he needed was… [Alpha Standard Night Crystal Core Consumed, Gained 0. 1 Attribute points] To be honest, Arthur was excited and disappointed at the same time. Excited that he gained a whole 0. 1 points from the whole Core. Disappointed, for it only gave 0. 1 points for each Night Core. With its scarcity, he wondered if it was worth it to consume them. He might need 100 Cores just to gain one real Attribute point.

His current thought was that it wasn't worth the effort. However, if he were to collect an overwhelming number on this trail and if he completed his quest, then he could consume them. But as far as his priority went, he would first complete the quest, then search for an Ability Card. Since Night Cores were only harvested from Gate monsters, it was an unwanted venture as far as he was concerned. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He gained this many Night Cores because he was in a special trial he would exit eventually. If he decided to collect Night Crystals just to consume, he would have to enter a Gate, and he wasn't knowledgeable about how many Night Core monsters lived there. So, he was not going to take this as one of his personal growth assignments. For his personal growth assignments currently, he needed to live a strict, disciplined life to increase his Constitution.

Since he was going on a venture to collect as many Innate Ability Cards as existed in this place, he needed his body to be in perfect condition to use everything. With that decision made, he stood up and stretched his body. With their current speed, it would take at least two hours for the Skeletons to clean up everything. So, he decided to take a walk towards the caves to see if any escaped Ants were roaming there.

"Dolph, come with me," Arthur called the Dolph Skeleton for his safety. As they walked, they noticed there were no Ants anywhere to be seen. The cave entrance was empty. There were a total of three caves in that quarry. Everything was dug by Ants; it was not man-made. The cave entrances were enormous. Arthur looked around the entrances and knelt beside the stones that the Worker Ants had been working on. He picked up one fist-sized stone and inspected it.

"Bingo." Arthur exclaimed. On the stone, he could see traces of iron. So, the cave was made of Iron Ore. Arthur had already somewhat guessed this. When the Ants' bodies were made of iron, they must have eaten these stones to evolve their body parts, or even their whole bodies, into iron. However, Arthur didn't want anything to do with this finding. He could check if any Worker Skeletons could be hired using this Iron Ore. This would boost his worker hiring for his First System Quest.

He would check for that, but first, he wanted to enter the cave. If his guess were to be true, in one of these caves, there should be some kind of crystal material that exists. How could Arthur tell? With the same logic as the Iron Ants. The Ant King was made of some kind of crystal, so it must have eaten that crystal to evolve into a Crystal Ant King. To his guess, that crystal was only strictly consumed by the Ant King, so there should be more crystals lying in the cave.

If he were to get those crystals, he could check if he could hire a few more workers. Furthermore, the crystal body of the Ant King was very strong and weird. Even Dolph's spear couldn't pierce it, so he was thinking the crystal must be some rare material. If he were to find some and take it with him to the outside world, he could sell it for a few bucks. When he thought about the money, Arthur suddenly remembered his family.

They must have been devastated by his disappearance, it had been two days since he disappeared. He hoped they would have faith in him and wait confidently, instead of going into despair and making their health suffer. He might need to find a way to escape successfully before his family went into poverty again. With that thought, Arthur commanded Dolph to walk forward as he followed him from behind. Even before they walked for 10 meters, the darkness surrounded them. They couldn't even see their own hands.

At that time, Arthur thought about the torch he had bought earlier, which those people had taken with other items from Bathory. Suddenly, his footsteps stopped in their tracks. His heart suddenly sank. He was too happy earlier about gaining one I nnate Ability, but he forgot one crucial thing. Which was the materials that Bathory held. Bathory held more than 500 monsters' worth of materials. Especially the Alpha Standard heart, which he saved to hire a Debuffer.

Now, everything disappeared with Bathory's destruction. If he had known earlier, he would have summoned the Brog Skeleton to die for him, not Bathory. Arthur could do nothing but curse. At least he spent all the Cores to hire Three Skeletons. If he were to lose the Cores as well, he would be deeply heartbroken. Arthur prayed that once he revived Bathory, he would get his materials back. If not, it was a waste of effort and time. Most of all, it was a very dumb thing to do on his part.

Without any quick thinking in an emergency situation, he wasted a lot of materials.