Fire Elemental Shard

Chapter 8 - Fire Elemental Shard

After exchanging the Resource Voucher for resources, Zwei focused his mental power on the tattoo on his hand.

["Night Forest · Outskirts" conquest completed.] [Evaluation - A] [Receive reward]

"Huh? I actually got an A for such a fight?!" Zwei was pleasantly surprised. "Could there be something like an S-rank evaluation for a perfect clear?"

The system, naturally, wouldn't answer his query.

Not dwelling on the matter for long, Zwei chose to receive his reward. Immediately, the roulette wheel appeared once more. However, the prizes listed were different.

Firstly, there were three resource prizes, like before: Alchemy Material +30, Metal +30, and Gem +10. As for the three other rewards, they were a construction blueprint, a magic staff, and an Identification Crystal.

For Zwei, the most useful of these items were the Metal resource and magic staff. Unfortunately, he had no control over the roulette wheel and could only watch as it automatically started spinning.

The roulette wheel spun without care for Zwei's will. Eventually, the needle started slowing down and moved past the magic staff, followed by the construction blueprint. Just as Zwei thought the needle would stop on the Metal resource, the incredibly slow needle continued past the Metal resource and eventually stopped at the Identification Crystal.

"…" Zwei was at a loss as he looked at the red crystal that had appeared in his hand.

Similar to the Lesser Identification Crystal he obtained before, this Identification Crystal was a consumable item. The only difference was that its identification success rate was a notch higher than the Lesser Identification Crystal.

Apart from the Alchemy Material resource, the worst prize available this time was this Identification Crystal. Even a recovery potion would be better than this thing.

With a gloomy expression, Zwei chose to exit the dungeon and return to reality.

The sky outside the window remained pitch-black. Judging by the hourglass's current state, it most likely wasn't even one o'clock in the morning.

After staring at the glowing red crystal for a while, Zwei jumped out of bed and went to his study table. He then opened the drawer with a key he carried. The drawer held his spoils from his previous dungeon run: the nail-sized red gemstone and the construction blueprint.

After tossing the unknown feather into the drawer, Zwei picked up the red gemstone.

This gemstone was the item he collected from the goblin spellcaster's corpse during his first raid of the Night Forest's Outskirts.

Since Identification Crystals could be obtained easily, Zwei chose to appraise this red gemstone without hesitation.

…

[Fire Elemental Shard]

Gemstone/Shard

Weapon Inlay: Fire Damage +3

Armor Inlay: Fire Resistance +3

This is an elemental shard brimming with fire elementals. However, it appears to be only a shard that fell off the complete crystal, so the amount of elementals contained inside is not particularly large. This shard can be inlaid on weapons or armor. Injecting mana into the unprocessed shard will also cause it to explode three seconds later. The power of the explosion is equivalent to the second-circle magic "Flame Impact."

Remarks: "Gura… Guwa! Guao!" — by Goblin Spellcaster.

…

This was evidently a gemstone meant for inlaying in gear. As Zwei did not have anything for comparison, he did not know how good a +3 to fire damage or fire resistance was.

However, this item was merely the fragment of an actual elemental shard, so the bonuses shouldn't be particularly strong.

Aside from inlaying in gear, he could also use it like a grenade. Though, if he did that, he felt as if he would be wasting the Identification Crystal he used.

"How about I give this thing to Alyssa tomorrow? Maybe it'll help her sense magic elements faster."

After deciding the use of this elemental shard, Zwei tucked it into his robe's pocket. Yawning, he crawled back into bed and fell asleep.

—Resting—

When Zwei awoke, it was already nine in the morning.

Alyssa's family operated a small tavern. As the sole tavern in the village, business was quite good.

The girl would normally help at home during the morning. Only after the busy noon period would she bring food to his place and learn magic.

"…Strange. Why do I feel as if I'm being raised like a pet?" After washing up, Zwei stood outside his mage tower and gazed at the distant village out of boredom.

He could see smoke rising from the chimneys of the village houses. He could also vaguely see black spots that resembled ants moving about the green farmlands outside the village. They were most likely the working villagers.

Although he could pass the time in meditation, it was still early in the morning. Moreover, he had already used up today's chance to enter the Trial Gate. He had plenty of time for meditation in the afternoon.

While there was also the option of visiting the village, he did not plan to do so. The villagers' attitude toward him had indeed improved after the arrow porcupine incident. However, the person that actually saved the village wasn't him, but his body's predecessor. Zwei couldn't help feeling awkward about being respected for someone else's achievement.

Hence, he simply turned around and started hiking up the mountain. Exercising once in a while was good for his body, as well.

Although Rockdoor Mountain was labeled a mountain, it actually wasn't very tall—no more than 400 meters tall, according to Zwei's observations.

Moreover, as Rockdoor Mountain was the starting point of the Angola Mountain Range, the monsters inhabiting it were incredibly weak. The strongest monsters here were the cherry baboons residing on the other side of the mountain, Level 7 monsters that looked like they had a cherry for a head. They were basically baboons with thoroughly red faces.

When Zwei's predecessor decided to settle here to teach Alyssa, the cherry baboons had attacked him for trespassing in their territory. However, Zwei's predecessor had already been a Basic Magician back then, so he easily repelled the baboons and even left a psychological trauma in their hearts. The monsters dared not appear before him even now.

Although Zwei had regressed to an Apprentice Magician after transmigrating into this body, this matter was known only to himself. Those beasts were still apprehensive of him. Hence, he now climbed the mountain without hesitation.

However, when Zwei approached the summit, he discovered something amiss. The dense woods blanketing the mountain were too quiet.

It was currently midsummer. Setting all else aside, there should at least be the noisy cries of cicadas during this period. However, the forest was utterly silent.

Zwei secretly raised his guard as he continued ascending the mountain. Although heading back now would undoubtedly be the best choice, uncovering the source of this abnormality was much better than hiding inside his mage tower in fear. Otherwise, let alone himself, even Alyssa might fall into danger.

After walking for a while longer, he picked up a faint smell of blood. He also heard flies buzzing.

Zwei headed toward the smell and soon came across a slightly decomposed corpse.

Even though he had already gotten used to seeing goblin corpses, his stomach still rolled at the sight of this corpse.

The corpse belonged to a female cherry baboon, and there was a look of horror on her face. Her hairy body was in tatters, and her intestines had fallen out of the gash in her belly.

The baboon's left paw was gone, and in its place were broken bones and torn muscle tissue that resembled a peeled orange. The eyeballs had also disappeared without a trace, and maggots stained with yellow and white mucus were currently busy crawling in and out of the empty eye sockets. Flies also buzzed around the exposed internal organs and bones.

Suppressing his urge to vomit, Zwei scrutinized the baboon's wounds.

However, at the end of the day, he wasn't a forensic doctor. He also hadn't studied anatomy. Apart from the fact that most of the baboon's wounds were caused by sharp teeth, he didn't learn anything.

One thing was for certain, though: a powerful predator had arrived at Rockdoor Mountain.