Chương 46: Chapter 45: Back to Adventuring

The departure of most of the outer disciples left the sect compound in an almost eerie sort of silence. It was normally quite peaceful and not exactly bustling with shouts and screams like back in the slums. Still, it felt very odd not to see disciples darting around the compound, some taking clothes to wash at the back of the sect building, or people coming and going from the grand hall. But even that didn't unnerve him half as much as the absence of Senior Disciple Chang did.

There'd been a few times Nero had, out of pure habit, called on the senior for help regarding the garden work. According to the cultivation manuals he'd been reading the past few days, the path of eternity was described as a lonely, solitary journey indeed. And it was the first time Nero was actually feeling that isolation. Back in his room, he couldn't help but laugh to himself, leaning back on his bed.

"Man, have I grown too used to the company of people." There was no more yapping and shouting, no sounds of one buttering up the other coming from the rooms to his left and right anymore. The latter wouldn't have bothered him before, but after meeting Disciple Chang and Sylvia, something had certainly shifted within him. He allowed himself to remain scatterbrained and unproductive for a minute more, before his gaze hardened. Before he was a junior disciple, a friend. He was a Solo Adventurer.

And a solo adventurer didn't have the luxury of wasting time. He immediately restarted his cultivation. He'd come back from garden duties two hours early, so he planned on taking full advantage of it. He started out by channeling the Pristine Aura. The thick energy of amplification ran through his veins at blistering speed, enhancing every pore of him as it swam through the veins of his arms, shoulders, chest, feet, and then back to his chest.

Each cycle ticked one point up on his Endless Paths progression panel, the counter climbing bit by bit. Once he'd done nearly thirty reps, he switched to the meditation technique. Breathing in the Qi, the lifeblood of heaven and earth, he channeled it in turn. But channeling Qi was vastly different from channeling Pristine Aura. While channeling the Pristine Aura felt comfortable, channeling the Qi made his veins sting slightly, and even made certain sections of his body hum softly.

Each cycle gave him a minuscule amount of Rainbow elemental energy, the refined Qi. The seconds progressively melted into minutes while the minutes flowed out, joining the river of hours. And soon his time was up; he ended the session with a deep breath—a breath not meant to draw in the energies of the heavens. The oxygen filled his lungs, making him feel a touch more lively as he lay back down on the bed. He closed his eyes for a minute, resting his temples, rubbing the area around his brows.

Then he mentally nudged his gene talent, and the panel showing his progression along the various Cypher Arts opened up. [Meditation Technique (Intermediate)] 680/1000 [Pristine Aura Manipulation (Intermediate)] 563/1000 [Spectral Touch (Phantom Path) Basic] 107/1000 [Blue Phoenix Manifestation (Basic)] 102/1000"Hmm, I'm close to advancing the meditation technique to the advanced realm. But the Blue Phoenix Manifestation is lagging behind…"

It was hard not to fall behind on that one currently, mainly because of his lack of elemental energy. He'd again accumulated only about 5% of the energy he'd previously used to nourish his beast core. And he needed several spirit stones to quickly regain the necessary amount.

"This is going slower than I expected. I need a lot of spirit stones at once… maybe I should start hitting up some E-rank dungeons after all." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. His current abilities had made his strength soar past that of any average Copper Core initial-stage adventurer. He felt pretty confident in that, and usually it took only a day for such individuals to clear an E-rank dungeon.

And that was an E-rank dungeon of the Northern region of the seventh circle, which were considerably stronger than those on the Western side, where he currently was.

"If I really push myself, I can probably clear two dungeons a day." Clearing out a whole dungeon and taking all its resources would usually earn him about half a gold crown. That meant hitting up two would net him a whole gold crown, which he could use to buy himself a full spirit stone.

"And the amount of elemental crystal deposits sitting in that chicken dungeon could yield me five gold crowns daily…" So per day, he'd be able to earn roughly six gold crowns, which equaled six spirit stones.

"And that, supplemented with the meditation technique… could drastically improve my cultivation speed." …. Nero spent a bit more time resting before getting back to work on the sect garden. It usually took him six hours to properly tend to it before showing the work to Senior Chang and getting his approval to leave. But since Senior Chang wasn't present, Nero cut back on his work, doing just enough maintenance so the plants wouldn't die from snow accumulation.

It wasn't worth spending time on an activity that would only net him one more spirit stone by the end of the month. It took him roughly an hour to do the plant maintenance, during which he also experimented with using the meditation technique and refining Qi while he worked, so he could cultivate while doing his duties. It wasn't much, but that netted him half a quarter of a percentage per two hours.

He quickly changed out the garden's lamps, then left for the dungeon with his dagger and short sword, both of which he'd sharpened the night before since they'd gotten slightly blunted from lack of care. …. Nero didn't inherently know the specific locations of many dungeons, so he dropped by the guildhall first.

There, Miya greeted him with that same beaming smile, and they started off exchanging some light pleasantries, which soon melted into gossip about the guild—how the old man who'd long been the resident expert for material checking had gotten another wife, and all that—before they finally got down to business. She brought out the latest map from the wooden shelf at the back of the receptionist area and unfurled it in front of him.

It marked several locations with red dots, strange letters written below each mark that meant nothing to him.

"Before I tell you the exact names of these locations and the specifics, be informed that you won't be able to sell the loot obtained from the dungeons I mention anywhere but to the guild." She followed it up with an apologetic wink.

"You know, nothing's free in this world and all that." Nero nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, fair. I'd be sure to sell them here—that's what I usually do anyway."

"Haha, true, though it's kind of surprising that you even bother coming here when you could sell all that stuff at your sect's transaction desk." A senior receptionist behind Miya gave a loud cough at that, which had her straightening up. Nero gave her a pained smile.

"Let's just say it'd be a lot of trouble selling all that stuff to the sect." He heaved a sigh.

"My sect mates aren't the kindest of the bunch." Though, since they were out at the Hira Forest for the expedition, he could have sold these back at the sect if he wished. But he didn't want to miss out on meeting Miya and basking in her wonderful smile over just a slight inconvenience. Besides, now that they were providing the locations, he couldn't sell them there anyway. After a bit more happy back-and-forth, Nero secured two locations for himself.

Miya then brought out a small paper with a hexagram drawn on it and told him to drop a bit of blood to seal the contract, binding him to bring the dungeon loot exclusively to the guild. He complied, and once done, he rented a larger dimensional bag for twenty copper and set off for the dungeon. On the way, he made sure to buy himself a few stamina and healing potions. He'd need them to spam Pristine Aura and Aura of Decay extensively in order to deal with the dungeon's spawns quickly.

As he left the city, its lights fading into the distance, he lit his blue lantern and pulled the blanket he'd brought along a little closer for warmth. He was already keeping his body infused with Pristine Aura, but the blizzard outside had intensified to such an extent that alone wasn't enough. The Pristine Aura mainly shielded his body from the cold by amplifying his internal temperature, and it could only amplify it so much before it started giving his body side effects as a whole.

He could have used mana in its place, which would have been far more effective, but he barely had enough to nourish his core. So that was naturally out of the question. After trudging through the snow and hilly terrain of the mountainous area to the far left of the chicken dungeon, he eventually reached the cave Miya had told him of. Outside, two spears were dug into the ground on either side of the entrance, skulls impaled on the tip of each one.

Nero's face darkened at that—it was a goblin dungeon he was diving into today. And if there was one monster he hated more than any other, it was these fiends.