Attacked and Surprise

When Trevor's foot landed in the cave, he immediately felt something off.

There was a faint lingering smell of blood, but at the same time there was that light done the path.

"Probably some anglerfish sought bait."

Trevor pulled out his sword cautiously, waiting for the sudden attack he knows is coming.

He slowly moved forwards, checking his steps to make sure he doesn't step on anything again that would make a large noise.

Not long after he entered, Trevor found himself in a small opening, with a large stalactite coming from the middle, seemingly piercing the air.

Looking, Trevor found the smell of blood, hundreds of skeletons of beasts lay, as well as one half-eaten human.

Trevor was angered at the sight of these unintelligent beasts chomping on his fellow humans. It's just a survival instinct after all.

Suddenly, Trevor felt a tingling behind him.

He turned around and raised his sword only to be immediately hit by a lashing tail and flung right into the pile of bones.

The bones were crushed with the strong impact of his body.

Trevor once more stood up and took a look at the beast.

Its body resembles that of a large rooster or chicken, covered in vibrant feathers of various shades. Its wings are bat-like, stretching out from its sides with leathery membranes between the bony structure. The head is adorned with a comb atop its crown, giving it a regal and striking presence. Its eyes, intense and piercing, possess a hypnotic and deadly gaze capable of turning its victims to stone. From its rear, a long, sinuous serpent-like tail coils and writhes, ending in a venomous stinger.

Trevor quickly scanned the beast in front of him.

[Species: Birdsnake (Low purity Cockatrice bloodline)]

[Cultivation: 4th Stage Foundation Establishment]

Trevor almost burst in laughter. Birdsnake, what a bad name. On top of that, it looks all cool and all but it is just a low purity Cockatrice.

Whilst contemplating about this Birdsnake, it suddenly attacked him once more.

Not outmatched, Trevor swung his sword directly at the incoming claws.

With a large bang, the Birdsnake was flung back, however, the common grade sword couldn't withstand the immense pressure and started cracking.

"Are you kidding me. This is the first time I use this sword properly and you immediately fail. I used you what, ten times and you already want to die?"

Exasperated, Trevor immediately threw the sword right at the Birdsnake's head which was still getting up whilst diving into the sea of bones to find a new sword.

The Birdsnake quickly defended itself from the incoming sword by lifting up its tail, only far its hard defensive armour on the tail to get penetrated. The tail immediately fell onto the ground, bleeding profusely whilst the Birdsnake roared in anger, rushing towards Trevor.

Suddenly, another sword flew out of the pile, again flying to the thing's head. It immediately tried to life its tail to protect itself, but, having dementia and the intelligence of a beast, it forgot that it could barely move and the sword immediately penetrated its eye, going right into the brain, killing it.

"Ha Hah, I got a good sword. It's of the common grade."

Trevor swung his head around trying to find it. Frightened, he remembered it could fly so he pulled his sword above his head to defend himself. But he again couldn't see it.

Still on guard, he looked around confused, only to see the bleeding beast on the ground, dead.

Trevor just stood there mouth wide open.

"I am incredible. The best ever."

[Medium Spirit stone +4]

Trevor stood there proudly for a second before walking up to the thing and cutting a hole into it with his new sword, whilst storing the reward. It was a longsword of the common high-grade. His previous katana was of the low grade. It was almost a normal sword.

Soon, Trevor located the core a pulled it out. This bead in comparison to the marbles he got from the Qi condensation beasts was about as large as a golf ball, but it had a far darker hue of red with a tinge of blue, probably from its bloodline.

Storing it away, he started to investigate the room, after all, it was a Foundation Establishment realm beast. It wouldn't live here if there was nothing special there.

Trevor activated Alice as he scanned the entire room, and saw nothing.

Then he stared at the massive stalactite in the middle

[Spiritual Stalactite]

[Rank: Rare]

Trevor was overjoyed when he saw the rare rank of the rock. But, he was quickly disappointed.

"How the hell am I gonna get that thing down. Ain't no way my sword that sharp..."

Whilst looking around, he saw a soft light coming from the side, similar to the one from earlier.

[Spiritual Stalactite water]

[Rank: Uncommon]

"Damn, uncommon. This thing is good. I have to quickly get back to the city to ask Alice how to get this cave back."

He quickly got out a small bottle he had and captured the drops of water on the side.

Though disappointed by the small amount, he pulled up his map that was covered in dark area, with a small grey line down the edge and greenery in the places he had gone, making sure he could find it again.

Then, he retreated back to the city. He was relatively injured by the slap of the beast, his arms and chest were burning, but not as bad as the second refinement.

He ran.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in the cave again.

"Ha. That boy really found me a treasure."

She stuck her hand into the ground, right below where the water dripped onto.

She herself cultivated Qi and her immense energy flowed into the ground producing a gaping hole.

At the bottom, there was a large golden core, about the size of a football (The good kind).

If Trevor saw this, he would want to cry.

[Cockatrice beast core]

[Cultivation: Rank 7 (Mana)]

Jasmine was greatly satisfied. This bird must have been teleported here from another universe whilst greatly injured and simply died inside.

"They did a great job covering themselves. But it didn't realise that some trash Qi condensation beast came along and took a drop of your blood and jumped a realm."

Although the beast cultivated the mana root, which they can do once the develop intelligence, it was filled with immense energy that Jasmine could use to strengthen her base.

She quickly moved back to her room in the palace, all before taking the entire cave with her.

---

When Trevor arrived back, he realised that the cave he was just in a few minutes back was just here, right in the middle of his front garden. Confused if he was hallucinating, he entered only to see the bones and the stalactite.

"Thank you almighty cultivators!"

Trevor shouted loudly, hoping his words would reach their ears. He then bought a barrel from the store and placed it under the stalactite.

He then happily skipped away to cultivate.

Jasmine herself smiled and flew away to cultivate as well.