Water!

It turned out Rollan the Contractor was right about exhausting oneself to absorb more evolution gems.

Rin had exhausted his mana and stamina both in the fight, so when he tried to put the NPCs' words into practice, it worked. He was able to absorb two Spirit and four Physique enhancing gems, enabling him to a total boost of + 0.7 and + 0.3 in Physique and Spirit, respectively.

However, that still left him with over a couple dozen gems, including the Agility enhancing gems that Rollan left as they were seemingly of no use to him. All of them would take a couple of days, no matter how much he exhausted himself.

Of course, he didn't have Agility as an awakened attribute, but believing the NPC's word, Rin kept them all, intending to exchange them with other players.

Anyway, the refreshing boost from absorbing the handful of gems was enough to keep Rin on the path, although he was way stealthier now than he had been in the first place. Partially because of what happened with Rollan coming up with the wolves, but broadly because of the Shred.

Ignoring its awful strength, Rin genuinely didn't want to struggle with such a disgusting monster, no matter how glorious rewards it gave. Well, not until he could deal with it in a couple of blows and remain unscathed.

Rin was going to choose his opponents from now on.

Even if some people in need presented themselves before him, he would simply ignore them if the circumstances were against him. Well, that would be unbecoming of the name he cultivated in his years as a pro, but Rin couldn't care less about what he did when he was a teen.

Moving through the thick trees, Rin came to rocky terrains, carrying on under the scorching sun and humid atmosphere. After moving on for about an hour, he found what he was looking for.

Water. A whole lot of them.

There was a fucking stream on the other side of the high ridge. Delight spread across Rin's face, as he didn't wait there ceremoniously. He almost had the impulse to jump into the steam. Thankfully, he collected himself, remembering the pain was real and the surface of the water was easily fifty metres down from the ridge.

Augmented attributes or not, this could kill him easily if he dived wrongly. Thus, Rin didn't take chances and climbed down the ridge slowly. He only descended when he could time and balance the dive correctly, which was when he was barely a few metres away.

The water was warmer than what Rin would have liked, but he swam with unbridled delight, washing himself off from all the filth and reek.

"Oh, water, how much I missed you!"

The sun fell low almost abruptly, as a glow of dark red cascade around the open sky. Rin got out of the water after he was completely satisfied with his bath. He stripped most of his dresses—which were already in rags—and spread them on the boulders on the banks.

"So no censorship," Rin said, arching an eyebrow, looking down at his groin.

Then he started practising with his only ability: Mana Cloak. This ability had been invaluable in all his fights so far. He needed to grow more comfortable with it before jumping into another fight.

Besides, he was planning to exhaust his mana and absorb a couple more of the Spirit enhancing gems. Physique could wait, Rin was in need of a large amount of mana as soon as possible.

Rin had stayed there for about an hour before hitting the road again, keeping a note in mind about the stream in case he needed to clean himself again, which he guessed would be sooner than he hoped.

Rin found more than enough evidence of the movements of the Deadmen in this region to be sure of it. Well, he would be fine if it were only the normal ones, even a single Shred would be the end of his in this beta program.

"I need to grow my attributes," Rin mumbled. He didn't have a certain number in his mind, but it seemed he needed to get to a threshold to remain unscathed in this jungle.

Screech! Screech! Screech!

As if to give him an opportunity, the ones looking after him from above provided him with targets that would help him grow his attributes the best.

Thankfully, they weren't that cruel this time around, as the screeches suggested only a small pack of deadmen. Still, Rin sneaked just to be sure.

There were about eight or nine deadmen encircling only another man. The man seemed mostly unharmed and seemed confident through his body language. This was as much Rin discovered in the spewing darkness.

'Perfect.' With that thought, Rin jumped into the battle, sneaking in on one of the zombies. His short sword hacked its jaw, and he twisted it enough to distort its nose and skull. Filthy blood stained his arms again as he moved to the next opponent.

[You have defeated a Deadman LVL 2, a threat to the Avalon and the universe. You gained 1 avalon credits.]

In the first battle before, he had found that these deadmen had profound physical strength, but they lacked agility and intelligence. All Rin had to do was kill the deadmen before anyone could hit him or eat him. Sounded easy enough. But apparently, it was not. At least not for everyone.

Rin had the physique of a national-level athlete, although not properly kept, and had combat training for his VR game. As for mindset, he had always been a little twisted-minded that stood out from the norm—sometimes in a good way while mostly in a bad way.

But not everyone was like that. For example, the party he had met yesterday, only one of them seemed to have a strong enough mindset while the others were panic-stricken even though they know they will not actually die here.

If they did not die, then why would he restrain himself? Pain? Nah, that would only make him go harder at it.

With the Mana cloak lightening his body, Rin was moving at a supernatural pace effortlessly. He killed another two zombies before he saw the other person who had already killed double of his number.

The other one was a lanky fellow, holding a one and a half metre long Japanese-style katana, smeared in blood.

However, the moment Rin laid his eyes on the face of the individual, he took a step back, and then with an impulse, he swung his sword at the other person. Well, he was unlikely to be a person.

The other individual that was killing the zombies with him appeared not to be human. With his insight, Rin could call the figure only a demon.

"Rest it, human," the demon said in a loud, arrogant tone. "I already have enough of your kind."

___