Wang Cheng looked at the harvest in front of him—this was the result of his nearly full-day of hard searching, the spoils from those who had died under his dagger.
It was just that at the time he hadn't had the chance to cut the materials from their bodies, and since he was using a dagger-type blade, which was small in size, it didn't cause much damage to their bodies.
So now, the moment his body entered the internal space, he controlled the dagger and began to cut the materials from them.
"This is an Iron-armored Three-tailed Scorpion, and here's a Shadow Claw Fox—didn't expect to even hunt a Cloud-pattern Phantom Leopard…"
After finishing cutting all the materials, Wang Cheng couldn't help but let out a long breath.
"Didn't expect to get tired of cutting materials too, but now that I have so many of them, I can try out my earlier idea."
Actually, the classification of these materials wasn't too troublesome—they could be roughly divided into three types.
The first type was claws and sharp horns. These materials could generally be mixed with metals to enhance their properties, especially in improving the hardness and toughness of alloys.
The second type was things like hides and fur, usually used to make protective battle suits and similar items.
The third type was special-use tendons, bones, internal organs, and blood—these could be used to make medicinal materials for healing or boosting strength.
Among these, the third type was naturally the most valuable, the second type was slightly less so, and the first type was the cheapest and most abundant.
Wang Cheng then threw the similar-type claw and horn materials into the gray energy.
Almost instantly after being thrown in, the materials would be refined and fused, and among them, some material's quality would be improved.
"This won't work if it's just random enhancement—not very useful. Let's try this instead."
Wang Cheng gritted his teeth and, using his mind, controlled the dagger he had used to harvest the materials and floated it above the gray energy.
Then he also placed the pair of bull horns he had enhanced before above the gray energy.
He focused his attention on the dagger, controlling both items to fall into the gray energy, while mentally chanting the enhancement of the dagger and its desired form.
Just a moment later, the bull horns and the dagger disappeared. When they reappeared, Wang Cheng looked at the appearance of the dagger and couldn't help but smile widely.
"Haha, didn't expect it to actually work—this looks promising! Let's see."
At this moment, the handle of the dagger had disappeared. What appeared in front of Wang Cheng was a throwing knife with a streamlined blade.
Not only that, the pitch-black blade of this throwing knife seemed to be devouring the surrounding light, giving off a chilling aura. Compared to the previous dagger, its quality looked clearly superior.
Seeing his experiment achieve unprecedented success, Wang Cheng was very excited: "Can't catch the wolf without sacrificing the child. Let's go again!"
He controlled most of the claw materials and a small portion of horn materials, plus his long blade, and threw them into the gray energy. After sending in the mental image of an enhanced long blade and its appearance—
A few breaths later, a long blade that matched Wang Cheng's envisioned appearance fell out.
Feeling the black long blade whose material even surpassed the throwing knife, Wang Cheng couldn't help but laugh out loud. Then he took a small portion of claw and horn materials and enhanced another throwing knife in the same way.
Afterward, he used the remaining horn materials to enhance his shield, and its quality was improved as well.
"Very good! They should have all reached the eighth-tier apprentice level, and there's no visible sign of enhancement from appearance. Since that's the case, the weapon and equipment issues are mostly solved. Before I reach the planetary level, I won't have to worry about weapons. Time to try the battle suit."
Thinking this, he quickly stood up and took off his combat protective suit. Then, just like before, he threw all the fur materials, some horn materials, and the suit into the gray energy. After sending in a mental image of enhancing the protective suit—
The battle suit was successfully enhanced without any surprises. Not only that, its material wasn't inferior to the long blade at all.
Even if it didn't reach the ninth-tier apprentice level, it definitely hit the eighth-tier.
After enhancing all his equipment, Wang Cheng did realize he'd overlooked something—the throwing knife was fine, but the weight of the shield and long blade had doubled. It looked like he needed to familiarize himself with the new gear.
After all the fuss in the internal space, coupled with using his mental power throughout the day, even though he had enhanced multiple times, his mind was exhausted.
So after coming out of the internal space, he lay down on the folding bed and fell into a deep sleep.
He didn't know how long he had slept. When Wang Cheng woke up and checked his wristwatch, he saw that over six hours had passed.
There was an unread message flashing above—it was a virtual video message:
"Ah Cheng, how are things on your end? Why didn't you leave a message for me or your dad yesterday? If you get this, don't forget to reply. Your dad and I think the monsters around the outer perimeter have clearly gotten denser—denser than even the inner perimeter used to be. A beast tide might not be far off, so don't stray too far from the fortress. If the beast tide happens, you won't have time to escape."
After watching Leng Yan's message, Wang Cheng frowned: "Looks like the beast tide is approaching. But regardless, I must hunt enough beasts in the next few days. After the tide, if I want to hunt in large numbers again, I'll have to go deeper into the outer perimeter. It's not too dangerous for me, but it's a hassle. Looks like I'll have to work hard these few days."
He then opened his watch's communication function and left his mother a message.
"Mom, don't worry about me. You and Dad are the ones deeper in the outer perimeter—that's more dangerous. I'm not stupid enough to go that deep. Don't worry. If there's any sign of a beast tide, I'll immediately return to the fortress. You and Dad need to be careful too. If there's even a hint of a beast tide, return at once. No need to risk yourselves for some materials."
After sending it out, he took out some of the food ingredients he had bought earlier, and put the beef he had set aside into the automatic cooking pot.
A few minutes later, the food was ready. Wang Cheng tasted it and was quite satisfied:
"Hmm, not bad. Though it's just a common flavor, it's a decent treat in the wild. Looks like this smart auto-cooking appliance is actually useful…"
After eating, he packed up the appliance and left the safe house. He released his mental power to scout around—there were no hidden monsters nearby—so he stowed the safe house back into his internal space.
The sky had not yet brightened, but the darkness didn't affect Wang Cheng much. Looking at the faintly visible forest, he made up his mind:
"Can't waste any more time. If I clear out all the monsters around this lake, I can definitely collect over ten thousand monster corpses. That will be enough to boost my body to a high-tier apprentice level."
As Wang Cheng disappeared into the darkness, the dissipating smell of blood once again enveloped the woods by the lake.
Countless wild beasts, seemingly provoked by the blood scent, let out deep warning growls in the night.
(End of Chapter)
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