Chapter 63 Farming Experience
Erik walked down the school aisles with Amber, Floyd, and Gwen. The four friends were leaving the building while chatting about this and that.
"Hey, Erik," Floyd said. "Want to hang out a little after lunch?" he asked.
Erik felt thankful for his friend's wish to spend some time with him, but unfortunately, he had other plans that day.
" I can't, sorry. I need to go to work, Floyd."
"It's all right," the young man replied.
"I never asked, but what is exactly your job?" Gwen said.
Erik was a little bit embarrassed by the question. He wasn't doing a sort of dream job, so having to say that he worked on a farm was a bit hard for him, especially considering that all three were rich.
Well, Amber was the really rich one, but Floyd and Gwen had a lot of money too. He took his time thinking about what to say, and Amber noticed his reluctance to tell what he did for work.
"If you don't want to tell us, you don't have..." she said.
"No, no... I work on a farm. My powers are pretty useful there..." Erik said.
"If I'm not wrong, you can make plants grow faster, am I right?" Floyd said.
"Essentially, yes... There are some additional effects to the plants since they are stronger and much better to eat, though..."
"Well, it must be a good power on a farm..." Gwen added.
"It is, but unfortunately, not owning the farm, my share is not so high..."
"How much do you earn?" Amber asked.
"I got an increase some days ago, but I got twenty new dollars a day before that day..." Erik embarrassedly said. For them, twenty new dollars was nothing.
"Twenty new dollars? That's outrageous," Floyd said.
From there, the conversation trailed about how much Gwen's, Floyd's, and Amber's parents earned. Obviously, Erik was surprised to hear that Amber's parents earned millions and that her father was the CEO of a company owned by the stone family. The Most prosperous family in the country.
After that, Erik and the others went their separate ways, with the young man heading to the train station. After a relaxing trip, Erik arrived in the Northern district.
The truth was that Erik intended to go hunt for thaids before going to Mister Fox's farm, and since his power improved a lot, the old man had a different attitude toward the student. Erik felt confident that he wouldn't say anything if he were a little bit late.
With this thought, Erik walked inside the wheat field, thinking about how many thaids he would kill that day and what fantastic power he would earn.
Though he also remembered that he could unlock the Lomalin's power later that night, so he quickened his steps and went out of the wheat field.
Erik later arrived at the breach and started searching for thaids inside the forest after having walked through it. The place was as wild as usual, with many birds chirping through the trees, whose canopy cast long shadows over the ground obscuring everything on the ground.
For ten minutes, Erik was unable to find any thaid. For this reason, he decided to go deeper inside the forest bordering the barrier until he reached a small clearing surrounded by thick vegetation and tall grass.
In the middle of the clearing stood a massive tree, which appeared to be ancient, its trunk covered by moss. At first glance, it almost looked like something from a fantasy book or movie.
Besides the tree lay a large rock, at least four to six meters wide, standing upright against the earth, looking like someone placed it there. Around the rock were several smaller rocks forming a circle around it, and between those stones grew purple-colored lilies among the green leaves of other plants.
As Erik Observed the place, he noticed a group of five Lomalins. Their round black head, devoid of eyes or ears, gave the young man the creeps. The young man's disgust grew when he saw their pair of piercing mandibles.
"Ugh..." Erik shivered. Despite having tasted their blood and eaten their brain crystal, he found the beasts disgusting.
Erik decided it was time to test his new powers. Logan's one was handy since it allowed him to kill creatures from afar. However, he didn't have good aim, so he needed to get closer to the creatures if he wanted to reduce their numbers enough for him to battle them without risking his life.
He was confident he could kill three of them since he already did, but he didn't know if he would be able to do so with five.
Though, Erik didn't have a way to approach the beasts without being noticed since the clearing had no visible hiding point. Disappointed, Erik did the only thing he could do, try to sneak up on them by crawling on the ground.
"Shit, this uniform was clean!" the young man said.
He then started to approach the creatures while he channeled mana. He created two mana darts, and at the same time, Erik injected enough mana to sharpen a long and thick stick he found along the way. The sharpening power was useful since he could use whatever he wanted as a weapon, and what better weapon than a plant? After all, he had been made fun of for the fact that he could grow plants all his life, so why not use them as weapons?
Though, as Erik approached the beasts, no new quest appeared, much to the young man's disappointment.
Erik kept getting closer to the thaids until he was close enough to their position. He breathed heavily as he aimed at one of the beasts and focused on the task at hand. After a couple more breaths, he finally threw the deadly dart at one of the thaids.
SWUUMP!
TIIIIING!
"AAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!"
As Erik's dart penetrated the Lomalin's skin, the poison inside the tip started spreading into the thaid's body and circulating inside of it. The beast squirmed and shrieked on the ground, but the poison didn't leave the thaid any chance as, seconds later, it succumbed to the deadly substance contained by Erik's darts.
[HOSTILE LOMALIN KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 104 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
The other four Lomalins started channeling mana until another exoskeleton appeared over the beasts' bodies, encasing them into heavy armor.
"Fuck..." Erik cursed. "Luckily, they have not found me yet..."
Erik knew that his dart wasn't enough to penetrate the thaid's mana exoskeleton, but his sharpening power gave his darts that edge they needed to pierce the mana armor.
The young man started immediately channeling mana into the already-prepared dart, increasing the tip sharpness and piercing power with it.
Erik aimed again at the Lomalins, who were trying to find the unknown attacker. Though, another dart reached one of the beasts, penetrating its thick mana-imbued exoskeleton as if butter, leaving the other three thaids bewildered.
The beast later succumbed to the poison, and it was then that Erik sprang into action. He ran toward the thaids with his ultra-sharpened stick and started relentlessly slashing at the creatures.
One by one, the creatures died under the young man's onslaught. Each time Erik killed a beast, a notification rang inside his ears, and a weird feeling spread inside the young man's body. It took some time before the last of the Lomalins fell dead to the ground, and it was then that Erik burst into thunderous laugh.
[MULTIPLE HOSTILE LOMALINS KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 312 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
[LEVEL UP.]
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH"