31 Chapter 31: Farming RP Points

A week had passed since Lake had discovered the Spider Kingdom.

He had been camped outside the Spider Kingdom a few buildings away in a relatively intact eight story apartment building where he built a temporary shelter. He had been surviving off the field rations he bought before coming to the field. If he needed water, he would head back to the Shelter where the other hunters were before refilling his bottles and then returning to his temporary shelter.

Most hunters wouldn't normally do something this risky as staying the night in the field as it can be extremely dangerous and most would rather choose to rent a room inside the Shelter to stay the night. However, Lake wanted to save on money and choose to stay isolated outside.

That isn't to say that staying outside is all bad as it also comes with its other benefits beside saving on money.

Since Lake isn't so far from the spider nest, from the moment he is done resting, he can go hunting immediately. This had greatly increased the efficiency and speed at which Lake could stockpile spider materials. Every time he goes out to get water from the Shelter, he would carry back a few valuable spider parts that he has gathered from the spiders he had hunted, earning quite a profit from it. At this point, Lake has already earned over ten thousand dollars from just selling a few parts, already recovering half of the money he had spent to come here. This was not to mention the fact that he still hasn't sold all the parts he had stockpiled either.

The reason he didn't sell them all at once was because of two reasons.

One of the reasons was that he didn't want to flood the market, and lead to the value of the spider parts decreasing after he sold a large quantity of them at once.

The second reason was because he didn't wish to attract too much attention by bringing in all those spider parts at once. When Lake had been walking through the Shelter, he had seen the cruelty that happens in a field after observing a few hunters' fate.

Although it is looked down upon, since there are no real laws or rules in a field, it is common to hear news of hunters ambushing and killing each other just for the sake of a profit. If a hunter were unlucky and stood out too much in a Shelter, it wasn't uncommon for that hunter to never be seen again after leaving for the field.

When Lake had first found out about this, he released a small sigh in response but it didn't affect him much. In his mind, if the situation called for it, he probably would have done the same as those other hunters. After he had massacred the goblins and unlocked the Master Assassin role, his mindset towards the killing of another human or humanoid creature had changed drastically.

As Lake sat atop the edge of a five story building, he silently observed the fates of the spiders that came in and out of the ravine. Over the time he had been hunting the spiders, he had managed to kill around 350~400 spiders, greatly increasing his RP. At the current moment, Lake had already gathered 499.994 RP points, only 0.006 RP away from five hundred, which would be enough for him to finally upgrade Steel Body Martial Arts to the second level, which would greatly increase his battle strength.

As Lake observed the fate of the spiders, he slowly started to gather the few remaining points while also observing the new changes in the nest. After Lake had killed off a large amount of spiders in the last week, he had alerted the Queen Spiders of the nest, putting the entire nest on high alert. Now, when a group of spiders exit the nest, they are accompanied by a much stronger spider that Lake has labeled the Soldier Class Spiders. These spiders were extremely dangerous to Lake, with each one of them having an average fitness index of two, making them comparable to low-tier martial apprentices.

However, that wasn't all. When Lake had been observing the fates of these Soldier Spiders, he had seen another type of spider that was still hidden in the nest. These spiders were extremely terrifying, and if Lake were to estimate their fitness index from what he had seen through the fates of the soldier spiders, he would estimate that they had a fitness index of at least four and possibly five! That level of strength is already on par with a mid-tier martial apprentice! After thinking about the structure of the Kingdom for a bit, Lake had labeled these spiders as General Class Spiders.

Lake estimate that even with his current skills and stats, if he were to fight a General Class Spiders, unless he managed to get the most perfect sneak attack, in one of the spider's vulnerable point, such as their eyes or spinneret glands, he will definitely lose in any other form of confrontation. If his sneak attack were to miss and hit any other part of the spider than one of its few vulnerable points, the chances are that his attack would at most leave a light scratch on the spider's thick exoskeleton.

Because of the additions of the Soldier Class Spiders and the hidden threat of the General Class Spiders, Lake's hunting speed had slowed down in recent times in case he sent the whole nest into a lock down. That was also the reason why he was currently sitting on the edge and observing the spider's fate as they walked past.

After observing the fate of another spider, Lake took a glance at his status screen to see that his points had crossed the five hundred mark. When Lake saw this, he immediately got up and headed back to his temporary shelter.

When he arrived, he took a glance at all his skills and the cost to upgrade them.

[Skills]

Observer of Fate lv2 (10,000 RP to upgrade), Writer of Fate lv1 (10,000 RP to upgrade), Steel Body Martial Arts lv1 (500 RP to upgrade), Master of Stealth lv1 (300 RP to upgrade), Parkour Master lv1 (200 RP to upgrade), Assassinate lv1 (500 RP to upgrade), Weapon Master lv1 (300 RP to upgrade), Sixth Sense lv1 (300 RP to upgrade).

[RP Points = 500.006]

After his Observer of Fate skill had been upgraded to the second level, Lake was speechless after seeing how much the price to upgrade had increased by. To upgrade the skill from level one to two only cost 100 RP, but to go from level two to three cost 10,000 RP! That was an increase of 100 times the original price! Lake wanted to curse when he had originally seen this but after thinking about it, he felt that it made some sense. After all, with how powerful the Observer of Fate skill is, Lake could only imagine what the next level may hold.

After taking a glance at all the skills, Lake still chose to upgrade the Steel Body Martial Arts. Although the Assassinate Skill or the Weapon Master Skills could have been upgraded instead, which would have given him a massive boost in terms of combat proficiency and skill, he still chose to upgrade Steel Body instead. This was because of the fact that even with the boost in combat proficiency, it wouldn't amount to anything if he couldn't pierce through the defense of the enemy or was too slow to even land a hit on it. Because of this, Lake decided that it would be far better to upgrade his base stats through Steel Body, which would give him a massive overall increase in combat strength and even influence his Assassinate and Parkour Master skills which scales with his stats.

After clicking confirm on the system window, Lake began the upgrade process for the Steel Body Martial Arts as his vision went black and he lost all senses from his body. Information of various forms and movement patterns of the Steel Body Martial Art started to pour into his mind as he focused his mind on absorbing it all.

Lake couldn't feel or see it as his mind was in a blank domain but on the outside, his body was going through incredible changes. Bit by bit, his body was being rebuilt as each cell in his body started to disintegrate before being reforged into far stronger cells. If Lake still had his five senses, this process would have felt excruciatingly painful. As the process continued, Lake's body started to grow then shrink repeatedly as if his body was being refined into folded steel as black impurities started to exit his body. The muscle lines on his body became more defined as his skin became smooth and clear like the bevel of a freshly forged blade.

When the process was done, Lake slowly opened his eyes as he began to sense the changes in his body. With calm eyes, he opened the status screen as he checked out the changes in his stats.