Back to the Base

Rowan ran towards the truck as fast as he could. 

The truck will flatten if the rat chief hits it. 

So, at the last minute, he changed direction, jumped up the tree, and started running on the branch towards his truck. 

All he needs is the pole arm, which he stored in his truck. This spear is made of steel and tungsten, and a straight blade, so it could slash as well. 

It is both flexible and lethal.

The speeding meatball veered off the course, then the rat chief hit the tree he was standing on in full force. 

The tree trembled, almost making Rowan lose his balance. 

He jumped from the branch like a monkey, and ran to his truck full speed. 

The rat chief recovered faster than he expected it. 

By the time he retrieved his spear, the balled up rat was already heading straight towards himself and the truck. 

Rowan did not even have the time to swing the spear. 

He just braced the spear on the ground and held it towards the rat chief. 

Given the balled up rat hid both it's eyes and ears, it could not even see the weapon. 

The rat chief went bombarding towards the spear, and the spear skewered through the Rat chief's arse, head and stomach in a single shot. 

Only, the momentum of the rat chief is so strong, the spear hit the ground. With the recoil, Rowan went flying away. 

Rowan held his finger's too tight in the beginning, and when the rat chief got speared through, his fingers locked there in fright. 

The spear struck itself into the ground like a flagpole, with the rat boss still stuck in it like an onion on a skewer. Rowan twirled mid air to avoid the sharp side of the blade, landing on the blunt side of the blade. Rowan dangling on the top, by the blunt side of the blade like a green onion that did not get skewered correctly. 

' Ah ! If only I was filming this ! It would definitely fetch a few thousand dollars on youtube ! ' he thought. 

[ Spirit energy, + 100 ] 

With that, he remembered he was not on earth any more. 

The blood slime and flesh slime both came running towards the flagpole. 

In a moment, the rat boss lost all its blood, and his body vanished, leaving a small bean sized green crystal. 

[ Evolver energy detected. Absorb evolver energy ? ] ( yes ) ( no ) 

Rowan finally had feeling in his hands. He slid down the spear. 

He had thought for a moment the rat boss would flatten him through the spear. 

Sure enough, the boss will die, but it's body is not small. 

Most of his bones will break, and in this wilderness, that is nothing short of a death sentence. 

He picked up the green bean sized object. 

" The school says eating it directly will give you an awakener ability. What if you eat the energy, upgrade yourself and then disconnect from me? " Rowan said. 

It's rare to find a zero level evolver beast core. 

Most of the bosses are more than zero level, and with each level increase, the danger to the person taking evolver beast core increases. 

[ The system is upright and moral. It will never cheat owner. ] 

"Funny! You don't deny trying to do such a thing." Rowan said. 

The system said many things recommending its own character, but none of them said it will not disconnect from him after upgrading. 

For the first time, Rowan wondered where the system came from. 

All the same, now he knows what it wants, all he should do is keep it wanting more. 

He walked to the truck, swallowed the beast core with some water. 

He wanted to drink the rest of the water, but soon he passed out inside the truck. 

It's a good thing all the animals ran away due to the volcano's eruption, otherwise, he would have long since become a snack for the beasts of the forest. 

Rowan woke feeling utterly thirsty, hungry and weak. 

The first thing he saw was the water bottle. 

He gulped down the water like a man parched to death in the desert. 

Then, he tore into the bread with equal fervor. 

The gnawing hunger in his stomach eased a little bit. 

Now that the bamboo rats vanished, the horned rabbit cubs made themselves home in the broken bamboo thicket. 

However, the surprising part is Rowan could feel the bamboo thicket. 

He could tell which plant is about to die, which one will not produce shoots any more, and where the new shoots are going to come up. 

Better yet, he knew he could tell these shoots to grow up quickly. 

The prompt asking him if it could absorb evolver energy vanished. 

Rowan knew it's the next day without even looking at his phone. 

Seems building a house will be impossible. 

With bamboo, and bamboo shoots, he will at least have something to sell for money. 

After the beast tide, the base will be very much in need of any vegetables. 

By now, hopefully, the beast tide is over. 

Rowan drove leisurely towards the base. 

As expected, the beast tide is over. 

The ground is full of dead bodies, both beasts and awakeners alike. 

The dead bodies of the people are retrieved by the base. 

The mutant beasts could be eaten, however, the mutant corrupted beasts could not be eaten. 

On the ground, everything is mixed into the soil. 

The corrupted blood, the mutant blood, and the corpses of animals. 

The outer wall is dented in many places, and was completely broken in many places. 

Rowan had to go through all the checks to enter the base. 

The corrupted blood, once it gets into the body, could spawn a pandemic. 

So the clean up procedures are very strict, and require the help of the entire base. 

Especially adventurers, even the most low ranked ones are summoned to the mission hall to participate in the mandatory mission of cleaning ground outside the base. 

Rowan has accepted cleaning corrupted and mutant corpses over retrieving the dead, so he could get some time to run mandatory errands in the base. Every quarter, they need to fill an amount of community service. This is for the best given these hours of community service will roll over for next quarter. 

The first thing he did as soon as he entered the base was to send a message to his little sister, informing her of his safety. 

The message from Mina arrived promptly, saying they are to remain in the school for two more days, the school will provide food and necessities for these days. 

She might have to suffer a little, but she wouldn't be any worse for the wear when she returns. 

Rowan returned his cordoned off plot. 

It's intact. 

The beasts couldn't come here because of the lake and mountains on otherside. 

Rowan worked quickly with the bamboo in his hands, building a small one room roof. 

Technically, it passes all the ticks that are needed for a house, so he took the picture and submitted it to the base administration. 

These kinds of things are in flux at the beginning of the demon beast invasion. 

However, from the time of the mobile phone's advent ten years ago, the world seems to have returned to some semblance of normalcy. Some old rules and values returned. 

Thus, as long as he submitted evidence, he will receive the title deed for the house and land. 

Rowan informed his sister he is leaving for the clean up, and where their new home is, so she could come take a look if need be. 

He is not quite sure that their old house is not invaded. 

The breach in the wall is quite near where their old house was, and it looked like a big animal broke in. 

Now, he doesn't have time to check on two houses. 

Rowan went out in his truck once more, and this time, he drove straight towards the volcano explosion without making any stops. 

He was going for the outermost rim of the explosion site. 

It seems many of his slimes are already gathered at the rim. 

Rowan put them in the pen directly. 

Most of them are plant and earth slimes. 

The ones still feeding are the lava slime, diamond slimes, salt and acid slimes. 

Rowan called for all but lava and diamond slimes. 

Those will come back at a later date to collect. 

So, all his twenty thousand four hundred and eighty seven slimes are gathered this time around. 

The only ones out are lava slime and the diamond slimes. 

Rowan drove back to the cleared ground outside the base, put on his clothes, and started his work. 

Thankfully, having slimes made the work a lot easier. 

There's a corruption slime that eats only the corrupted beast flesh. 

However, blood is still a problem. 

Rowan summoned blood slime, and let it touch the corrupted beast blood. 

The blood vanished, but the next moment, blood slime split into two. 

It looked like a very red, very big blood drop the size of a basketball, and another super small black tar like blood drop, the size of a pea. 

[ Detected unique type of slime ] 

[ Tame the corrupted blood slime ? ] ( yes ) ( no ) 

Rowan tamed it. Why not tame a slime that is useful? 

If this slime removed the corrupted blood like the blood slime removed blood, his work is already half done. 

The corrupted slime ate away not just the corrupted blood, but the corruption properties in the corrupted beast corpses. 

The flesh slime ate the remaining body, and spawned another scavenger flesh slime. 

With the slimes cleaning up the ground besides him, Rowan finished cleaning his assigned lot in no time at all. 

When he returned in the night, He received an approval notice of his lease, and instead of ten acres, he got a lease for a hundred acres for the same price, which is a single credit. 

He got the land for free, however, he is expected to pay the tax for this free land in three years whether he has cultivated all of the land or not.