I Devour the Multiverses and Collect Worlds, Beauties, and Trophies

Preparing for the Hunt

The night enveloped my home as the faint glow of a dim lamp flickered against the walls. Pages turned with a soft rustle, each revealing the secrets of the beasts containing astral stones. There are five grades of beasts, and they all contain their respective grade of stones. Grades 1 and 2 should be able to be killed easily enough by someone in the astral refinement realm, while Grade 3 needs a party or someone in the core condensation realm, and so on for Grades 4 & 5.

Since I'll be going after Grades 1 & 2, I focused on them while only getting familiar with the appearance of the rest so I could run if we crossed paths.

In Grade 1, we have the "Speed Rabbit," "Ice Serpent," "Giant Moth," and "Shadow Panther."

Grade 2 beasts are the "Venomous Drakefly," "Lunar Wolf," and "Thunderhawk."

The Grade 1 beasts are pretty much just upgraded versions of their normal counterparts. The Speed Rabbit is renowned for its speed and agility. The Ice Serpent doesn't need to sun itself to avoid freezing to death like ordinary snakes. The Giant Moth is a very large moth with an average wingspan of almost 3 feet and usually hides during the day only to come out at night. The Shadow Panther is probably the most troublesome; its stealth capability that is already very good got even better.

For Grade 2, in addition to being upgraded, they also received small abilities. The Venomous Drakefly is a large insect with dragonfly wings and a poisonous stinger, capable of delivering a paralyzing toxin to its prey. This toxin doesn't completely paralyze but slows its prey down and makes it harder to move. The Lunar Wolf is a nocturnal wolf that gains enhanced strength and agility under the light of the moon, this buff increases or decreases depending on the cycle of the moon. And lastly, the Thunderhawk, probably the most troublesome of the Grade 2 beasts to hunt due to its speed and flight capabilities. In addition, it has lightning-fast reflexes and the ability to cover itself in a thin lightning shell that can deliver a small shock to its prey, temporarily stunning them.

The Speed Rabbits, Ice Serpents, and the Venomous Drakefly can be found almost anywhere, while the Shadow Panther and Lunar Wolf prefer the forest. I think the forest will have the best chance to run into some beasts, so I'll have to find one to hunt in. Since I currently live in some mountains, I'll have to descend down to the foot where there is a forest about a mile from the sect entrance.

I can try my luck in that forest, but I'm not feeling very optimistic since it's so close to the sect, and many other disciples probably hunt there also. I'll probably have to go deeper into the forest to find anything. Since the inter-sect competition is in 2 weeks and I want to be back for it, I should try to be back in a week and a half. Hopefully, this will be enough time to go in far enough and get plenty of stones.

I have a fabric bag that slings over one of my shoulders and sits at my waist, not as nice as a backpack, especially for a multi-day outing, but it's all I have. I packed some utensils because it's too hard to eat some things with fingers, and if it's something hot, I don't want to burn them. Three canteens full of water and a tin plate also went into the bag.

After looking around for anything else I should bring but not finding anything, I walked out the door and started making my way toward the stairs leading down to the entrance. After walking out of the courtyard, I realized something and stopped; if Kedron is stealing stones after we receive them from the resource hall, there's nothing to stop him from stealing them from disciples bringing them back.

As I thought about it, it seems like something he would do. However, he probably doesn't take them all, as that would make no point for people to go out to hunt them, which would lead to him getting nothing. So it's probably more like he charges a tax on all stones brought into the sect. If I had to guess, it's probably at least 50%, but with how he considers everyone else to nothing more than servants, I wouldn't bet on it being only 50%.

This poses a problem since I want to keep all stones for myself. I could just devour them all, but then I wouldn't be able to buy any techniques with them. Oh right, I need a weapon to kill the beasts, I'll just buy it from the store. This thought sparked an idea; I'll just devour all the stones and recreate them with the store.

'Kitty, if I devour a stone and then create it again using the store, will I lose any energy?'

[Not unless you fail to capture all of it when you devour it.]

With this plan, I purchased a plain-looking grade 3 sword from the store. I wanted to pick a cool-looking one, but it would stand out, and my current situation doesn't give me that luxury. Also, the cool ones take some more material to create, costing more energy. It takes the power of several stones to create a weapon, making the price already expensive enough at 2.3 energy.

With my sword on my hip, I made my way down the stairs, out of the sect, and started walking toward the forest some distance away.

While walking, I took in my surroundings. It's a nice day with a warm temperature. The hazy black line in the distance is the forest. There are several birds flitting around in the overcast sky with the sun peaking through once in a while. I could now tell where the faint smell of flowers came from that I could smell when entering the sect originally; wildflowers scatter the field with bees happily flying around while pollinating them in the still air.

After about 10 minutes, I reached the border of the forest. The forest seems to contain multiple types of trees but was mainly composed of a dark cypress.

"Hmm well, I guess this is where I'll be spending the next week and a half."

After taking a moment to survey, I stepped into the forest, ready to embark on the upcoming hunt.