CH 12: Rich

Rios asked again, not paying any attention to the pitiful amount of points the system had given him for killing a level-two beast while he was carrying a spatial bag that contained at least thousands of points’ worth of cores!

"My Lord, all you need to do is focus, send your consciousness into the bag, and imagine the item you want coming out. It will emerge immediately," Old Jansh explained everything in detail, barely having recovered from the shock of seeing Rios slaughter a level-two owl like a chicken.

"He’s still only a level-one Master? Just how far will he reach after consuming all those cores? I must make sure he reaches City of Light no matter the cost, even if it means sacrificing my own life. He is the only hope for the rise of the Elf race!"

Thoughts raced through Old Jansh’s mind as he silently vowed to protect Rios until they arrived at City of Light.

Rios followed Jansh’s instructions and focused his consciousness on the bag.

One second... two seconds... five seconds... ten seconds...

A full minute passed without Rios showing any reaction.

"My Lord, are you alright?" Luna asked in her gentle voice, obvious concern written all over her face.

Rios regained his senses, looked at the two Elves in disbelief, and asked,

"Are there one million level-one cores inside?"

Old Jansh and Luna exchanged puzzled looks, unable to understand why Rios would ask such a question, but Jansh eventually answered,

"Yes, My Lord."

Rios nodded, then asked again,

"Are there five hundred thousand level-two cores inside?"

"Yes, My Lord?"

Rios nodded once more and asked for the third time,

"And are there one hundred thousand level-three cores inside as well?"

"Yes, My Lord?" Old Jansh replied without the slightest annoyance. In fact, there was even a happy smile on his face.

"Then tell me one last thing... am I dreaming?"

This time, there wasn’t the slightest trace of composure or dignity on Rios’s face.

To be honest, he was on the verge of tears!

Old Jansh and Luna were stunned by the sudden change in Rios and froze for a moment before Jansh finally regained his bearings and replied,

"No, My Lord. You are not dreaming. This is reality."

"Hahaha! It’s real! It’s real! I’ve become rich! From this day onward, who can possibly stand in my way?!"

Rios laughed like a madman, completely ignoring the fact that Jansh and Luna were still riding on him.

He continued laughing for a while before finally calming down and asking Old Jansh once more,

"But tell me, where did all these cores come from?"

The moment Jansh heard the question, his joyful expression instantly turned sorrowful.

"My Lord, this was the accumulated wealth of City of Light over the past thousand years. We divided it into ten portions. City of Light kept two portions, three portions were sent to the three Giants bordering our territory, and we sent a messenger to the Falcon race, promising them five portions in hopes that they would help us break the siege and drive away the invaders. This bag contains one of those ten portions."

Rios looked at the old Elf for a while before saying,

"Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to drive out the Centaur race as soon as we arrive at City of Light."

"Thank you, My Lord! This old man is deeply grateful! The entire Elf race is grateful to you! All the ancestors of the Elf race are grateful to you!"

Old Jansh burst into tears, and Luna quickly followed after hearing Rios’s reassuring promise.

They desperately needed something like that after enduring months of siege.

Of course, even amidst all the crying and gratitude, Old Jansh didn’t forget to polish Rios’s boots with praise and flattery.

That was exactly why Rios liked him.

Rios looked at the two Elves without feeling the slightest pity.

From the very moment he arrived in this world, he had known this was the fate of the weak.

That was why he fought and killed as quickly as possible, exhausting himself throughout the past week so he would never end up in such a position.

As for the cores he had obtained, there was absolutely no way he was giving them back!

What fell into his pocket stayed in his pocket!

The Elf race could forget about recovering those cores—they already belonged to Rios.

Still, he wouldn’t forget the favor they had done him.

Without this enormous pile of cores, Rios had no idea how long it would have taken him to gather an equivalent amount of points.

So, as repayment, Rios would conquer the Elves, sleep with their Crown Princess, and protect their city by becoming its king! XD "_"

"Get ready. We’ll camp here tonight and set out early tomorrow morning. I need some time to become stronger."

Rios ordered the two Elves and began searching for a suitable place to train.

"As you command, My Lord."

Jansh and Luna answered in unison, happiness filling their hearts.

In their minds, it would already be incredible if Rios reached level two before arriving at City of Light.

They had witnessed his strength while he was still level one.

Just how powerful would he become after breaking through to level two?

Naturally, they had no idea that Rios wasn’t planning to stop at merely reaching level two!

Rios neither knew nor cared about their thoughts.

Meanwhile, he extended a branch into the spatial bag and looked at the system screen.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ding!

[The system has detected a large number of beast cores.]

[Does the Host wish to begin devouring?]

[Yes / No]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Yes."

Rios answered, barely managing to suppress his excitement.

ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ

[Beginning devouring.]

50K points

100K points

1M points

10M points...

ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ

The cores began transforming into points, and Rios in turn converted those points into the energy he needed to advance his level.

Rios remained in that state throughout the entire night.

He completely shut off his senses and focused solely on evolving and gaining power, leaving the task of keeping watch to Jansh and Luna.