Monster Cultivation

After about thirty minutes, Drew was almost done crushing the exploding starfish. His 'hands' had paused eating them too.

About a hundred more exploding starfishes hadn’t responded to the first signal, so they never moved.

The solution was simple. He tossed the carcasses of the ones he’d already killed into the range of the others. They didn’t attack him but quickly crawled back into the ocean.

It would have made them more alert if he had sent only one. However, for some reason, they knew there were exactly 12 of them in the area. Seeing a ton of others of their kind dead made them fear the predators in the territory and flee.

Drew had considered making his Whirlwind Hands monster vomit the corpses it had also eaten in their sensing range. But he figured he would do that if the corpses scare tactic had failed. It didn't fail.

Afterward, Drew had his monster devour the dead starfish he used to scare off the others. The way the 'hands' ate was interesting and weird. They increased the speeds of the rotating winds in the fingers and palm area, turning it into a blender.

The meat would be minced and disappear into its body. It ate a lot, enough to make it a bit stronger.

Not a bad day at all. He was about to head for the village but remembered the other kids. He thought about helping them, but honestly, how was he supposed to do that? He wasn't a medic.

Carry them back to the village? Without the likes of super strength?

He headed back to the village, reported the state of the kids down there, and then made his way back to the Community service task building and headed straight to the 'task evaluation' office, to meet the person who awarded Core points.

The room was covered with green bamboo structure.

Even the desk was made out of bamboo, the only thing that wasn't composed of bamboo was Drew and the evaluator behind the desk. An old wrinkly man who had one foot in the grave.

The man was currently examining task papers. His entire desk was cluttered with them. When he noticed Drew's presence, he lifted his eyes off his papers and then at the desk with his chin. "Drop it here. I'll get back to you when I do."

By the looks of it, He'll get back to Drew in three months.

Drew said as he placed his paper on the desk. "This one is important. It's about the exploding starfishes."

The man who wore a default tired expression blinked numerous times upon hearing what Drew said. Then he partially rolled his eyes. "Killing one or two doesn't count and you will not be awarded for that. It's all of them or nothing. And yes, I encouraged for you to perform this task with a large team."

"I did it. You can check the recording."

The raised an eyebrow and said, "What?"

"The recording. It's all in it."

The man didn't say anything. He put down the paper he was examining and picked up the one Drew just put down. He swiped up on the paper and the paper became translucent, and started emitting both light and sound.

It was playing everything that took place from the moment Drew reached the southern side of the beach. Including to what happen to the other kids, but that was no fault of Drew so there was no mention of it.

The man didn't have much of a reaction when he finished the replay. He just looked at Drew and said, "Smart ass kid. Did you obtain knowledge of their behaviors beforehand?"

"Yes." His future self could count.

He smiled and pulled a card from under all the stacks of paper and wrote on it with a black thin plant stalk that functioned like a pen. He didn't have an Ink monster.

The old man then gave Drew the card. 'Drew is to be awarded twenty Core points for clearing the detonating starfishes at the southern shore.'

Miss Maroon would have to receive the card and make the edits to his ID.

Drew thanked the man and left. The first thing he did was run to the classroom to give Miss Maroon the card. She just stared at the card and muttered something under her breath.

But she gave Drew the points so it didn't really matter. It was mostly likely just rude stuff.

Either way, he could finally access the library.

He pondered what to do next. It would look bad if he didn’t show any concern for the kids who were in need of emergency medical attention.

He began debating with himself, wondering if it would really look that bad.

"Yes, yes it would," he concluded, muttering angrily.

Damn idiots attack me, and I have to pretend I care that they got messed up. Absolute bullshit!

I alerted authorities of their injuries, rightfully that should be enough.

He ran back to the Community service task building and asked for the names of the kids who had taken the same task as him.

It was a struggle to remember all their names so he asked her to write it down.

The receptionist grumbled under her breath since she was tired. "What do you need their names for?"

"They were injured during the task. So I want to visit them later, it would be better if I knew their names."

Her attitude changed. "Oh!"

And he got their names. It wasn't like their names were meant to be private. Drew asking for their names for no reason would just be strange.

He headed to his dormitory, sat down, and quietly repeated, "Please survive this situation so that you may live a long happy life," over and over for about an hour. Afterward, he stood up.

Shun entered the dormitory and heard what Drew was saying.

He runs over, asking, "Who got hurt?! " His voice was tense, worried that it might be someone he was getting close with.

Drew turned to Shun with a sad expression. "Mui, Terj, Koi..." He listed all the names before saying, "They got badly hurt by the exploding starfishes. I was there when it happened."

Shun knew them—friends, kind of. The news hit him hard, and not just him.

All the students nearby gasped, unable to believe it. Many dropped to their knees, repeating, "Please survive this situation so that you may live a long happy life."

Drew mentally rolled his eyes. They heard him chanting forever but didn't bother to ask about it. They probably thought it was somebody close to Drew

Some of the students left the compass to see how their friends were holding on.

Shun saw that and suggested to Drew, "Let's go meet them."

Drew wanted to ask Shun why the hell would he do that since those little bastards tried to kill him. But he suppressed the urge. And the urge was strong.

"I think I'll go later. It'll be better if I don't go now."

"Why? It would mean a lot for them that a lot of their classmates show up to support them."

"I know I know. Trust me. I'll go later."

Shun lips parted to say something but he sighed and said, "Okay. But make sure to check them. They're good people."

Drew just smiled while he mocked what Shun said in his mind.

He could be honest about them attacking him, but he was planning on using the first people who showed up against the exploding starfishes, and they just happened to be the first people, so it didn't feel that appropriate. They were really helpful, so that was the most he could do for them.

He did plan to go later—it would look bad if he didn’t. But what he really wanted was to get to that library as soon as possible.

There wasn’t a big reason to rush, other than the slight concern that Beins’ family might send assassins after him. Even if he had chosen to not extort them, they’d still try to kill him.

They most likely still want to kill him. Most definitely more than before, but they will be smarter about their plans.

Either way, don't attack, they try to kill him. Do attack him, they try to kill him, but smarter. So, the least he could do was gain something from them. In the process, he’d increase his strength. However, he couldn’t do anything too suspicious right now, as he was certain an investigator was tracking him.

He hadn’t noticed anything unusual, not a single dang thing. But he knew how cultivation schools worked and how seriously they enforced order and hierarchy.

They weren’t conducting a strict investigation for a reason—probably hoping to learn more by silently observing his every move.

"Whatever."

Drew slowly made his way down the stairs, keeping up a depressed vibe all the way to the massive library. Unlike most of the buildings, the library stood out.

The building was grand, like an ancient temple, with carvings of constellations, and humans with dragon tails, claws, and scales on its wooden beams.

The large doors, made of dark wood and iron, had symbols that glowed faintly with yellow energy.

Inside, rows of tall bookshelves filled the space, each with a number tag. The higher the number, the farther back the shelf, and the more points he required to access the books there.

The front shelves held basic knowledge, while the deeper sections had more advanced knowledge. Science, maths, history, legends, techniques, power-up methods, monsters and so on.

The library was silent, with only the soft sound of pages turning. Floating lanterns gave off a gentle light, and students sat at wooden desks, reading in silence.

Drew didn't understand the point of the lanterns since it was daytime. But it added to the design he guessed.

Drew glanced around, heading for the section marked with legends. He was focused on finding information about the lady who became the moon.

He pulled out the first book, and began speed-reading, looking for keywords: moon and affairs.

The other clues were probably unrelated, so he’d deal with them later once he cracked the first one.

Finding nothing in the first book, he was about to move on to another when common sense hit him.

He approached the library assistant and asked, "Which books contain legends about the lady who became the moon? And maybe something about her affairs?"

The man stood up and replied, "I’ll show you, young master." Servant families either addressed cultivators as "miss," "sir," or "young master."

Drew followed him to the legends section. The assistant scanned the spines of the books before settling on one. He pulled a small book from the shelf and handed it to Drew. "Here.

Drew gave a slight bow. "Thank you."

The man seemed baffled. "Please don’t bow to me! I’m just happy I could assist you!" He bowed repeatedly in return.

Drew smiled lightly, then leaned against a wall and cracked open the book, ready to dive into the tales of the lady who became the moon.