Chapter 194 Rupture
William sat between two big rocks, peeking out and scanning the area cautiously.
The Courage Squad was all asleep, deep in slumber.
William looked at them with a bit of disdain, thinking their vigilance and strength were pathetic!
Nothing about this squad impressed William, except for Camilla.
Camilla Grayson, nicknamed Candy for her sweet looks and cute smile, became an Alchemist by luck, finding a Career Scroll on the first day of the apocalypse. Her much older brother got her a bottle of one-star Evolution Elixir.
She had shared all this with William during the day, showing little wariness towards strangers.
William shared some things, too, but carefully. He didn't ask how her brother got the Elixir. Instead, he dropped some alchemical knowledge, aiming to lure her in.
This had to be done gradually; William wasn't in a rush.
Within a day's time, his injuries had healed to a sufficient extent to allow him to ambulate slowly with the aid of a crutch. Because of this, the Courage Squad didn't travel far that day.
William's claim of knowing the map of the Land of Death was a lie, but he had been there twice before. He had also run around a lot, orchestrating fights between monsters. With his past life experience, he made the squad believe he knew the place well. He had twice predicted danger in advance, making it the easiest day for the squad since entering the Land of Death.
They had already lost three members in the past few days.
The terrain of Rivercrest Deadland was mostly flat with some hills and woods. The squad chose a campsite with good visibility. After scanning the area again and finding nothing unusual, William flicked his wrist, and a crystal appeared in his hand.
On that day, William confronted danger directly. Despite the peril and his injuries, his gains were substantial.
In fact, they were several times more than what he had obtained by orchestrating monster fights.
However, since these were still unprocessed stones, he couldn't say exactly how many he had. He needed to process them first.
Slowly and quietly, he began to process the Natural crystals in his hand.
The atmosphere in the Land of Death was always heavy. Sometimes, a squad member would awaken, survey the situation, and return to sleep if everything seemed in order. Luke woke up once, came over to William, and warned him not to doze off. William, of course, ignored him.
By the time the squad was ready to continue their search for materials, William had finished processing one Natural crystal.
To his excitement, it was a mid-tier ice crystal.
The difference between low-tier and mid-tier might seem small, but the power unleashed through the Staff of Nature was vastly different. Two low-tier crystals, one for defense and one for attack, had blocked a powerful skill from a level-four monster. Based on this, the Blue Blood Lotus unleashed by this mid-tier ice crystal should be almost as powerful as Ice Tornado, if not more.
This mid-tier crystal was now William's most powerful trump card.
William walked slowly ahead with his crutch, paying attention to the ground, the air, and any slight movements.
The other members of the Courage Squad followed at a distance, keeping a gap that allowed them to quickly escape if danger arose.
Camilla tried several times to walk with William. However, due to her importance to the squad, she was stopped by Craig and Luke. Eventually, only Camilla's brother, Tom, came over to accompany William, occasionally helping him when the path was difficult.
"You and Camilla have quite an age difference," William said, bending down to poke at some dark green weeds. His eyes flashed as he secretly collected a few blades into his space crystal.
"Camilla and I are half-siblings," replied Tom Grayson, a forty-something man with a somewhat muffled voice that matched his introverted personality. However, since William knew Tom had obtained the Evolution Elixir for Camilla, he didn't think Tom was useless. It was silly that the Courage Squad currently disregarded and even bullied Tom.
The two chatted casually until they found some Tiger Toothed Grass.
This was one of the main ingredients needed for Paralytic Potion. After discovering the plants, the group scattered to continue their search, eventually retrieving around ten. Just this amount of material was enough to make ten bottles of Paralytic Potion.
This made the members of the Courage Squad very excited.
Finding ingredients for a formula was a matter of luck, especially now when there were no established trading places. Even if you had the formula, it was still very difficult to concoct a potion; you had to rely on luck.
The Courage Squad had found an ingredient called Red Egg outside Rivercrest Deadland, prompting them to enter the land to search for more.
For this currently naive squad, the Land of Death didn't yet seem too intimidating, giving them the courage to venture in.
Their luck held as they actually found one of the main ingredients.
Craig was flushed with excitement. The Paralytic Potion was crucial for him and his squad to hunt level-two mutated creatures, which was key to their evolution to level two. Finding one of the main ingredients greatly boosted their chances.
While the squad was excited, William rested with his head down, a slight smile on his face.
The Courage Squad's luck was good, and William's luck was even better. Nearby, he had found two types of herbs. Adding the one he found earlier, these three matched a formula! And there were plenty of them!
This was a pleasant surprise.
William was happy for a moment but quickly calmed down. He thought for a bit and understood why everyone's luck was good.
Firstly, the Land of Death was still an undeveloped territory, with only a few brave souls daring to enter. Among these brave ones, only the lucky ones survived. As a result, not many people had ventured here and lived to tell the tale, keeping the Land of Death's mystery intact.
Secondly, the acquisition of professions and formula blueprints was still in its early stages. Survivors' knowledge hadn't reached a certain level, and their strength was low. Their desire for Evolution Elixir far exceeded that for potions, so they didn't value them enough, making the number of people coming to the Land of Death to find materials very few.
Just like the Courage Squad, if they didn't need the Paralytic Potion to hunt level-two creatures, they probably wouldn't have come to the Land of Death to explore.
However, the excitement didn't last long before the squad encountered trouble.
Two level-two Red-Eyed Deer appeared nearby, likely using this grassland as their feeding ground.
"Run!" someone shouted, and the Courage Squad members started running in the opposite direction.
Only Camilla and her brother Tom hesitated, looking at William with some intention of helping. However, before they could move, Craig and the others pulled them away.
The squad quickly disappeared behind a small hill.
William's expression remained calm, though he felt a slight pang of regret. If he were in good condition, he could easily deal with these two monsters. Now, he had to waste something valuable.
With a flash of light, the Staff of Nature appeared in William's hand. He embedded the remaining low-tier ice crystal into the wooden staff. To be safe, he released a quarter of its energy.
The Blue Blood Lotus instantly appeared, emitting a chilling aura. The two Red-Eyed Deer, which had started charging at William, immediately stopped and turned to flee in terror.
But the Blue Blood Lotus activated instantly, and sheets of ice leaves whistled towards the fleeing targets.
The ice leaves were too fast. In the blink of an eye, they caught up with the two monsters, piercing hundreds of blood holes through the Red-Eyed Deer.
The two level-two monsters were killed instantly.
William hobbled over, calmly dug out the Magic Crystals, and looked at the two monster corpses. The upper bodies were unusable, shattered and frozen like ice sculptures. However, their limbs were intact. William took out the Edge of the Moon, cut them off, and gathered some dry branches, leaves, and bones to start a fire, roasting the monster's legs.
Eating the meat of level-two monsters was very beneficial for recovering from injuries.
About half an hour later, William noticed the Courage Squad cautiously approaching from a distance.
Since the fire wasn't very strong, William could only tear off the cooked meat from the monster's legs and place it on a leaf, continuing to roast the uncooked parts.
By the time the Courage Squad members arrived, there was already a large bowl of cooked meat strips on the leaf.
"Damn, you're living pretty well!" Luke exclaimed. Seeing no danger nearby and the two monster corpses, he grabbed the leaf from William's hand in surprise, causing some meat strips to fall to the ground.
Craig also came over, his face dark. He walked up to William and said coldly, "Where are the Magic Crystals?"
The Courage Squad naturally didn't believe that the heavily injured William had killed the two level-two monsters. They guessed that some natural enemy of the monsters had appeared. But the Magic Crystals were clearly taken by someone, and there was no one else here but William.
Two level-two Magic Crystals were an enormous fortune that the Courage Squad had never seen before!
William squinted at Luke, then at Craig, and took out the two level-two Magic Crystals from his body, saying, "Here they are."
Craig and the others' eyes were full of greed, and they reached out for them. But William suddenly clenched the Magic Crystals in his hand.
He declared coldly, "Too bad, you don't deserve them."
