42.

"That's it!?" Pinching himself Eldric even felt like the situation in front of him wasn't real.

After all, what attacked him was an evolved beast so strong that it usually takes a newly evolved team of five to take it down. Even if the one attacking him was somewhat weak, it shouldn't be taken lightly.

And yet, here it was... Struggling even to push him back.

Raising his hand, Eldric grabbed its horn with his hands and then with a force, snapped its neck.

"..." Looking at the disappearing bull on the ground he narrowed his eyes as he had a rough understanding of his strength.

Placing the pair of horns in his inventory, Eldric narrowed his eyes, slowly making up his mind. If earlier he was wondering whether to exit this place or not, then now he had decided to proceed with his hunt here.

With this in mind, Eldric took a deep breath, activated his skill Surging Leap, and jumped into the air before crashing towards the nearest beast.

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Eldric didn't know how long he had been hunting. After killing the first fifty bulls, he grew numb and stopped counting. Morning turned into noon, noon into evening, and evening into night.

Throughout the day, Eldric kept on hunting. He would take a rest when he got tired and would resume his hunt once recovered. During this entire time, Eldric didn't see another person there.

When he came back to his senses, there weren't any bulls alive.

"Finally." Eldric fell to the ground as if his body had been drained of its entire strength.

Looking at his inventory he couldn't help but smile at the number of horns. It took him a lot of time and effort, but in the end, it was worth it.

Standing up, Eldric patted his clothes and turned around towards the exit portal when he felt a chill on his back.

At that moment, Eldric froze in his place. It was as if he was being stared by a great terror.

"Gulp..." Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Eldric didn't dare to turn around. This sudden turn of changes took him by surprise.

"Dann it... Is this why no one comes here?" By now, he had a rough guess about the lack of people in these areas. Not only were they costly to teleport, but they were also dangerous.

Feeling the gaze, Eldric didn't panic or rush forward but took a gentle step forward. It was a long shot, but he was betting on the fact that whatever was behind him wouldn't take him seriously and let him leave.

And sure enough... He was right. Eldric walked slowly and finally reached in front of the portal. Stopping there, he looked at the portal which was just an arm's distance from him, gritted his teeth, and turned around.

He wanted to at least see what the thing behind him was.

As soon as Eldric turned around, his eyes narrowed into slits as the air around him seemed to freeze. Till now, Eldric had never imagined that one day he would see something like this.

In front of him was an immensely gigantic creature so large that Eldric didn't have words to describe it.

The creature looked like a turtle on whose back the entire forest seemed to grow. Half of its body was still in the ground, but even with its present body, its size was unbelievable.

Eldric didn't know exactly how big this thing was... But if he had to compare it to something, then the creature in front of him would be almost one-fourth the size of the city of Aetheria.

Standing in front of such a massive entity, Eldric was like a single grain of salt in front of a fully grown human.

"Gulp." It was with great difficulty that he swallowed a mouthful of air. Right now, his intentions were green with regret. He even wanted to slap himself for turning around and seeing something like this. And if he could go back in time, he would definitely choose not to come to this map.

Taking deep breaths, Eldric calmed his anxious heart and activated his skill Surging Leap. He didn't want to waste another precious moment of his time which could be the difference between his life and death.

The creature on the other hand didn't seem too interested in him. It just glanced at the tiny ant in front of him and then closed its eyes once again... Its body slowly merged with the ground before everything turned back to normal.

But it was a pity that Eldric was no longer in the Domain to see this scene.

The moment the creature closed its eyes, he activated his skill and jumped back, exiting the Domain.

He then opened his panel and teleported back to the zone. And only after opening his eyes back in the zone, did he let out a sigh of relief.

"Heh..." With both legs trembling, Eldric wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. In the pursuit of earning more tokens, he even neglected the possible dangers that one could face there.

He was thankful that the gigantic creature wasn't interested in him. Otherwise, he would have kissed his life goodbye there.

This encounter also taught him a valuable lesson... And that was, to do proper research before going into a new territory.

With occasional trembling legs, he made his way toward the mission hall, opened the panel, and began to submit the materials.

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Inside a well-lit large hall, more than one hundred people were gathered. Other than a man in his seventies with a headful of white hair and a long luxurious violet robe with the symbol of a small cauldron, everyone else was working at their cauldrons. Sometimes, they would mix, sometimes they would shake their head and sometimes they would even empty everything into the dustbin near them.

The old man would roam everywhere, guiding them and correcting them.

It was at this time that a young man rushed inside the hall with a face full of nervousness.

"MASTERRRRR..."

It was a loud shout that immediately disrupted the people inside.

"What the hell! Who is this moron?"

"GOD DAMN IT YOU LITTLE SHIT. YOU RUINED MY ELIXIR."

"KILL THIS LITTLE BASTARD."

"FUCK HIS MOTHER."

Within a few moments, there were already profanities hurling his way. If not for the presence of the old man, the people inside the hall would have torn him apart.

The old man too wasn't happy about it. His usual amiable face which was always filled with a smile has now turned pitch-black. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the young man who was still struggling, trying to catch his breath, and spoke in a cold voice.

"If it isn't anything urgent, you can say goodbye to the Hall Of Elixirs." It was a simple sentence, but for the young man, it seemed like a death sentence.

But he still gritted his teeth and spoke with some nervousness.

"It's the materials... There is something terribly wrong with the missions we issued."

"Huh!?" The old man frowned as he thought about the missions that their Hall Of Elixir usually issues.

Due to their business of making elixirs, they usually need all kinds of materials and herbs. Hence, every once in a while, they would issue missions regarding those materials.

Even the missions they had issued were just released about a week ago. For a moment, he couldn't guess what was it that made the man in front of him so nervous.

Sensing the old man's gaze, the young man swallowed a mouthful of air and spoke in a trembling voice.

"Just like every month, we had a quota of three thousand tokens this month too which was equally distributed between all materials.

But... There has been a mishap. We didn't put a limit on materials and someone just submitted a staggering amount of two thousand Green Bull Horns.

Now we are down to less than five hundred tokens in balance and still don't have other materials."

"..."

"..."

The entire hall was enveloped in silence as everyone just stood there absent-minded.

It took the old man a while to understand what the young man had just said and what it meant for them.

"AH! DAMN IT."

He didn't even wait for the young boy to say further, but opened his panel and teleported to the Zone.

Rushing towards the mission hall as fast as he could, he finally managed to cancel every single mission that required one to submit materials.

Looking at the inventory that now had an additional two thousand horns and a pitiful balance of 300, he wanted to cry. But unfortunately, there wasn't anything that he could do.

It was his mistake not to set a limit on the submitted materials. After all, nothing like this ever happened here before. And there was no reason to believe it would happen in the near future.

This oversight of his led to a situation like this where he had spent the month's budget and the only material he got were Green Bull Horns.

"Don't let me find out who did this."

For a moment the old man wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, but suppressing his emotions he exited the Zone and opened his eyes once again inside the large hall surrounded by people.

It was impossible to find the one responsible for submitting these many horns. So, the only thing he could do was to calm himself and make changes in the materials submission missions. As for the matter of this month's quota... He had to fill it from his own pocket.

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Sitting on his bed, Eldric was looking at the panel in front of him with a wide grin on his face.

[Name: Eldric Stormborne]

[Profession: Brawler(Tier I)]

[Vitality: 5]

[Strength: 5]

[Agility: 5]

[Skills: Thunderous Barrage, Surging Leap]+

[Tokens: 2060]

Just now, he gained two thousand tokens after submitting all the materials. Coupled with the sixty tokens from before, his balance was at a staggering two thousand tokens.

Earning so many tokens in a single day was an unbelievable feat that almost no one had been able to complete. Even Eldric himself got lucky because the one asking for materials forgot to put a limit, hence letting him submit materials to his heart's content.

But Eldric was completely unaware of it. He was still thinking about which map to go to tomorrow to hunt those Green Bulls to earn tokens.

With this in mind, he furrowed his brows, thinking about what to do with these many tokens...