After placing her carefully onto the bed, I noticed something strange.
She had stopped crying.
But instead...
She is quietly sniffing my neck.
I froze for a moment.
Still, I decided to ignore it and turned around to leave the room. But before I could take another step, Lily suddenly grabbed my wrist tightly, as if she feared I would disappear again the moment she let go.
"Please don’t go," Lily said softly.
"Lily, your father is still badly injured. I need to give him the healing potion," I said gently, trying to convince her.
She hesitated for a few seconds before slowly nodding.
"Okay... but please come back quickly."
I smiled lightly.
"Sure."
As I walked downstairs, I noticed Vorak standing near the entrance, fully covered in heavy plate armor like an unmoving guardian statue. Nearby, Thomas—Lily’s father—was leaning against the counter wall while taking deep breaths.
"How is Lily?" he asked the moment he saw me coming down.
"She’s fine. She’s resting now," I replied before handing him the healing potion.
Without hesitation, he uncorked the bottle and gulped it down.
Soon, the bleeding around his wounds stopped, and even his torn skin slowly began regenerating before my eyes. His pale face gradually regained some color, making him look much better than before.
After confirming he is stable, I left him to handle the situation and returned to the bathing house.
"Ahh..."
The moment I sank into the warm water-filled tub, exhaustion washed over me, and my tense muscles finally relaxed.
"If I had arrived any later... something terrible might have happened to Lily," I muttered quietly.
"I thought they would target me instead."
"But they didn’t..."
I narrowed my eyes.
"This isn’t some fantasy novel where everyone follows the same predictable path and acts exactly as expected," I muttered to myself.
"I need to become more ruthless."
My voice turned cold as I clenched my teeth.
"Hah..."
I took a deep breath to calm myself before pouring water over my head.
After dressing up, I returned to the inn.
Thomas had already placed a closed sign outside the building.
As I approached the upper room, I heard several voices talking inside.
When I entered the room, I froze slightly.
The village chief is here, alongside the same E rank adventurer from earlier. In addition, two middle-aged women were taking care of Lily.
Seeing that, I quietly sighed in relief.
At that moment, Lily noticed me as well.
But the instant our eyes met, she panicked and immediately turned her face away. Her cheeks had turned completely red.
I ignored it.
Emotional matters are never my specialty.
Without saying anything, I left the inn once again.
About ten minutes later, I found a cave far away from the village and sat down inside it.
I summoned Vargan, Vorak, and the Deathfang Wolf pack.
"Howl!"
The moment Vargan saw me unharmed, he let out a loud howl and began wagging his tail excitedly.
The Deathfang Wolves instantly panicked after seeing this scene.
The cave was too small for them to escape, so they quickly huddled together tightly in one corner, as if trying to avoid being blown away by Vargan’s absurdly powerful tail swings.
"Hahaha..."
I couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculous sight.
"Enough, Vargan. We don’t want the cave collapsing or filling with sand."
The moment I said that, Vargan immediately stopped wagging his tail and lowered his head with a sad expression.
I ignored him.
"System, show me my point gains."
[HOST HAS GAINED 2000P FROM F RANK GROUP ENEMIES (F-, F, F+)]
[HOST HAS GAINED 2400P FROM 240 E- RANK ENEMIES]
[HOST HAS GAINED 150P FROM 10 E RANK ENEMIES]
Points Balance: 821 + 2000 + 2400 + 150 = 5371P
"I’m rich," I said excitedly after seeing the total amount.
Not only did I gain points, but I also obtained a huge number of monster cores and corpses.
"When my enemies see hundreds of E rank undead charging toward them... I wonder what kind of expressions they’ll make."
I laughed while imagining the scene.
Since the monster corpses are too large to fit properly inside the cave, I walked outside toward an open field.
Then I brought out ten E rank monster corpses and began resurrecting them one by one.
Ten minutes later, the resurrection process was finally complete.
Even though the summons consumed an enormous amount of mana, my True Core had increased my mana capacity nearly ten times beyond that of a Peak F+ rank individual.
This is the only reason I still had enough mana left to continue summoning more E rank undead.
Soon, ten newly resurrected gorilla-like undead rose before me.
Their enormous bodies looked like moving mountains of muscle and thick brown fur. Their crimson eyes glowed ominously in the darkness while cold mana leaked from their bodies like invisible smoke.
Each of them stood nearly seven feet tall with broad shoulders, swollen muscles, and terrifyingly long arms that almost reached their knees. Thick tails slowly swayed behind them, smashing against the ground with heavy thuds powerful enough to crack the earth beneath their feet.
Even standing still, they radiated monstrous physical strength.
When Vargan fought them earlier, one of the undead gorillas had grabbed a twenty-foot tree with both hands and ripped it out of the ground by its roots as if it weighed nothing.
The massive tree spun through the air like a giant spear before crashing toward Vargan like a cannonball.
Although Vargan avoided it effortlessly with his speed, the moment the tree slammed into the ground, a deafening explosion echoed through the forest.
BOOM!
The earth trembled violently like a small earthquake as dirt, shattered rocks, and broken roots blasted outward in every direction. Nearby trees shook intensely, while dust clouds rose into the air and covered the entire area.
I narrowed my eyes while considering their potential battlefield use.
Then I continued.
Another forty-one E- rank monster corpses appeared in front of me.
Among them, forty were Vine Serpents—the snake monsters capable of blending perfectly with forest vines and disappearing completely from normal sight.
Although many undead wolves had been injured during the battle, the Deathfang Wolf pack eventually succeeded in killing them.
It isn’t as if there are no other monster species in the forest, but most of them are low-level creatures that haven’t awakened mana cores yet. Those creatures neither provided points nor valuable cores.
I began resurrecting the Vine Serpents as well.
Forty minutes later, I finally finished raising the last one.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
My breathing became rough, and a sharp pain spread through my head.
"Seems like mana exhaustion is no joke..."
I tried laughing, but my body suddenly lost strength and collapsed backward.
Fortunately, Vargan quickly moved behind me and supported me with his massive body, allowing me to lean against his soft fur.
"So fluffy..." I muttered while rubbing his fur.
The Deathfang Wolves stared at me curiously, clearly confused by what I was doing.
Then, surprisingly, one of them slowly walked forward and lowered itself beside me.
I blinked in surprise before placing my hand on its fur as well.
It is soft too.
A faint smile appeared on my face while watching their behavior.
After resting for nearly an hour, I finally felt some strength returning to my body.
I then took out a Mana Potion from my inventory and drank it slowly. Little by little, my depleted mana finally started recovering.
"Seems like these Minor Mana Potions are no longer sufficient for me," I muttered while staring at the empty vial in my hand.
Then I turned toward the Vine Serpents.
Each of them possessed light green scales resembling leaf color alongside pitch-black reptilian pupils.
All of them are around three feet long and roughly ten centimeters thick.
I stood up and walked toward one of them.
"Pull me," I ordered.
One undead Vine Serpent immediately wrapped itself around my ankle and began pulling with all its strength.
At the same time, I also resisted with my full force.
Even after an entire minute, it still failed to move me.
"Stop."
The serpent immediately released my ankle.
"Seems physical structure matters a lot," I muttered thoughtfully.
"Even if two monsters are the same rank, a creature specialized in speed or stealth won’t necessarily possess the same raw strength as a physically built monster."
I shook my head, pushing those thoughts aside for now.
Finally, only the last E- rank monster remained—the Red Eye Crow, a corrupted bird that survived by feeding on monster corpses.
Compared to the other monsters, this creature isn’t physically strong. However, its speed and agility made it incredibly annoying to deal with.
When Vargan had been hunting peacefully in the forest earlier, the Red Eye Crow suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began harassing him relentlessly. It kept circling above his head while attacking whenever his guard dropped.
Several times, Vargan tried to bring it down, but the crow easily dodged every attack with its incredible flying speed.
In the end, Vargan finally lost his patience and used his racial skill.
Storm Howl [E]
(Signature Racial Skill)
Effect:
Vargan releases a terrifying howl infused with wind and lightning.
Effects:
* Weak enemies become stunned
* Applies fear effect
* Nearby allies gain increased movement speed
The moment the howl exploded across the forest, the Red Eye Crow froze midair for a brief second.
That single opening was enough.
Vargan instantly leaped upward and tore the creature apart before it could escape.
Now, after using Resurrection on its corpse, the dead crow suddenly twitched.
Its glowing crimson eyes slowly opened once again.
Then, with a flap of its dark wings, the undead crow flew directly toward me before landing quietly on my shoulder.
Then I looked toward the pile of monster cores.
240 E- rank cores.
10 E rank cores.
1200 F- rank cores.
500 F rank cores.
300 F+ rank cores.
I immediately fed the 290 F+ cores to my undead wolves, allowing them to evolve into E- rank undead.
Soon, twenty-nine undead wolves successfully advanced into E- rank creatures.
Next, I distributed the 240 E- rank cores among twenty-four undead wolves, giving priority to the Deathfang Wolf pack.
After the evolution process finished, I finally reviewed my undead army.
34 E rank undead.
66 E- rank undead.
I nodded in satisfaction.
I exhaled deeply.
"Spending this many cores actually feels good..."
After all, my overall strength had increased tremendously.
Finally, I returned to the village and found another inn to stay in.
I would spend my remaining system points tomorrow morning.
Right now...
I just wanted to sleep.