Meat Feast

Chapter 19

The sky was still dark, and dewdrops adorned the leaves. However, this didn't deter the ordinary young man from sitting in the lotus position in front of a bonfire, ready to engage in his practice.

As the young man focused on meditating, he noticed several colorless particles slowly approaching him. Initially, only Ray, the ordinary young man, could sense the movement of these particles in the air. But as time passed, the particles around him grew more active, creating a mirage-like effect.

Despite the phenomena occurring around him, Ray remained steadfast in his meditation, directing the Aether that permeated his body. This continued until Ray felt a stagnation, reaching a point where it became unbearable as if a stone were lodged in his throat.

Realizing that he had reached the bottleneck that others had mentioned, Ray adjusted his meditation intensity to a lighter level. The Aether energy within his body seemed to be forcefully pushing through a rubber gate, causing increasing discomfort.

Ray's physical body could no longer bear the burden, but he had to endure it while maintaining his vitality. If he were to stop now, the breakthrough momentum he had accumulated would be lost, and he would have to start from scratch to attain the breakthrough again.

With determination, Ray controlled the energy flow as gently as possible to avoid damaging his vitality. He employed a basic method of continuously pulling energy at a low intensity, rotating it within his body, and finally expelling the excess energy.

Ray persisted until eight in the morning when the bottleneck finally burst like a fragile bubble. Covered in sweat, he opened his eyes, feeling a sense of relief.

"Huff, why is there such a vast gap between people?" Ray sighed helplessly. At school, he had heard that some talented individuals reached the first stair mortal rank within one to two days of practice, while it took him five days, an average speed.

Ray worried that if this trend continued, the gap between him and others would only widen. He would be left behind, merely slightly better than the average person. Shaking off these negative thoughts, Ray returned to meditating, seeking to solidify his foundation.

After his usual cleanup routine, Ray enjoyed a breakfast of grilled rabbit fried rice made from the previous night's leftovers. Satisfied and full, he sought out a corner of the camping area with a large tree nearby. Since he was unsure of his newfound strength after the upgrade, he intended to test it by striking a tree and observing the results of strengthening his physical body.

With a focused expression, Ray stared at the tree trunk for a few seconds before unleashing a powerful punch.

"Booms!" The sound of the impact was not overly loud.

Ray looked expectantly at the log, and to his satisfaction, he noticed a significant dent, reducing its diameter to about one-tenth of its original size.

Ray had made considerable improvement. If he had been asked to hit a tree before, let alone make a dent, his hand would have likely been in pain.

However, Ray's facial expression did not reveal a sense of happiness.

This was because the added strength after breaking through the first stairway of a mortal practitioner was supposed to be at least ten times that of an average person.

But the denting effect Ray witnessed was likely only half of what it should have been.

Several factors hindered Ray from exerting 100% of his power, such as his movement posture, punch speed, and more.

It was evident that Ray had not yet fully unleashed the power of his body.

Ray then conducted a few brief trials to confirm his combat power.

After feeling a complete understanding of his body, the ordinary young man started walking towards the lake.

Ray fished until eleven o'clock in the afternoon.

The number of fish he managed to catch brought him joy—there were at least five trout and a dozen other types of freshwater fish now trapped in his net.

As it was almost time for lunch, Ray hurried back to the tent.

During his journey, Ray encountered no danger. However, as he walked further, he faintly smelled a strong scent of blood in the air.

Out of curiosity, Ray took the initiative to approach the source.

To his surprise, Ray discovered dozens of deer and wolf corpses lying lifelessly around.

Upon closer inspection, Ray confirmed that these corpses were still fresh, as the blood remained liquid instead of dried and coagulated when exposed to air.

Ray happily proceeded to neatly pack the entire corpses into his storage ring.

When he arrived at the camping area, Ray promptly hung up the animal corpses to drain the blood.

While waiting for the blood to drain, Ray enjoyed a lunch of venison steak.

...

Finally, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Ray had already finished his meal. The ordinary young man was now busy collecting wood and dry pine sticks to process the freshly acquired animal meat.

Ray was clearly in a hurry to process the meat. It was understandable, considering that the storage ring he had purchased for ten thousand units of value the previous week only had 5 cubic meters of space.

(Note: 1 unit value equals 1 US dollar)

The water tanks, food, and utility equipment had already taken up half of the available space in the storage ring.

Ray still had one black ring that resembled obsidian, but it had limited space, offering only 0.5 cubic meters.

The black stone ring was a leftover item from Ray's parents. Haruza also had a white one with him.

Ray would only put essential items into the black stone ring. Apart from its limited space, this was also because the speed for retrieving items from the stone ring was superior to that of a regular storage ring. As a result, Ray could quickly extract cores or related items to activate his passive copying talent.

Ray planned to preserve half of the venison and half of the fish by smoking them. The remaining meat would be cut into pieces as needed to save space. Only a dozen pieces of wolf meat were left untouched and unprocessed.

Ray decided not to continue hunting and focused solely on processing the meat until six o'clock in the evening. In addition to the meat, Ray also obtained animal skins and other valuable items.

Out of the tens of essence cores Ray collected, only two of the doe's essence cores possessed passive abilities. To Ray's disappointment, he received the [C-rank Danger Instinct] passive. While this passive was very useful, especially when exploring dangerous areas for experience, Ray's talent only allowed it to be used for a limited time. If the [C-rank Danger Instinct] passive could be activated for twenty-four hours, it would be incredibly beneficial.

Without complaining, Ray continued his activities, carving a wooden statue for his little sister. As usual, he had a simple dinner and proceeded with martial arts training.

Tonight, Ray went to bed early, feeling somewhat exhausted from his busy day.

…

At one o'clock in the morning, a pair of sharp eyes stared coldly and fiercely at Ray's camp area.

After a moment of stillness and continuous observation of the surroundings, the owner of the sharp eyes finally emerged from the bushes, revealing his figure.

The figure that emerged from the darkness had a distinct lack of bloody gray fur, except for the movement as it approached Ray's location.

If Ray were to see the appearance of the other party, he would recognize it without a doubt.

There was no mistake that the owner of those sharp eyes was the leader of the wolf pack!