It had been one month since Long Tian joined the Green Arrow Group.
At the start, he was thinking of only going with them for a short time to gain experience and discover the best spots to hunt, then he would move on.
But seeing that they were decently strong and often hunted mutant beasts, Long Tian decided to join the group for real.
He must admit that he also liked the people here, they were funny, and he felt that they could be considered his first friends in this new world.
It had been very productive, and he had discovered a lot of things.
First, he had accumulated almost 1 million credits. Part of it came from the meat they sold and also, he started selling some beast souls.
Nothing too crazy, to not attract attention, and he tried to sell only souls from beasts that others had seen him killing. From the same rank, obviously.
Even then, he was nicknamed "Mr. Lucky", as he had sold 5 beast souls in their month of hunting.
Second, he now had 8 Sacred Blood Beast souls, the same number of mutant beasts he had managed to kill.
There was a Sword, Armor, an Axe and 5 Javelins.
The sword came from the white lion and the others from mutant beasts that they hunted in the Ten Rings Mountains that month.
Furthermore, he had discovered another incredible thing.
One day, after finishing the body of the smallest Mutant Beast they had found, a snake, he decided to start eating ordinary beast meat from the market to save money.
However, at that moment he took the first bite.
*Ding*
[Detected host is wasting Gene Points. Does host want to trade excess Gene Points for Supreme Evolution Points?]
Long Tian had been ecstatic, finally discovering a way to gain those points.
But his happiness was short lived after he discovered the factor of conversion.
One Ordinary Gene Points granted him 0,0001 Supreme Evolution Points.
He started dreading how much he would have to eat until he found a Gene Art that solved his problems in the shop.
[Supreme Refinement Art (First Level) - 10 SEP]
This art would allow him to refine the Gene Points in any meat without having to eat it.
He did not know how it worked, nor did he care, he was simply happy he would not have to risk dying of a punctured stomach.
So, he had set a goal to get this art and had been keeping some beasts with small bodies that he killed so he could eat them.
Thankfully, primitive gene points gave more SEP, not that it made much progress in the 10 he needed, but it was still faster than ordinary by a factor of 10.
Then, there was also that quest to choose his path.
He had been thinking about it, and he had been scrolling through the options the system gave him.
There were honestly way too many paths to choose from.
He could even tame Gene Beasts if he wanted, not that he had particularly liked this one.
There was even a path that he could only call Dual Cultivation.
That one caught his attention, but after he stopped thinking with his lower half, he discarded it too.
In the end, he became torn between two paths.
Original Swordsman.
And Space Swordsman.
In the end, he remembered the saying, "Space is King." and ended up choosing it.
It was not just because he thought that teleporting behind your enemies and slashing them without them knowing was OP, okay?
So, he had chosen it.
The quest worked in this way.
Every gene point rank he completed, i.e. got 100 points, he would get one level of the Supreme Space Sword Gene Art.
From the first three levels in his head, he could only surmise it in one world. Strong.
This Gene Art was what the system called a Complete Gene Art, something that contained both a Cultivation Art and a Martial Art in just one Gene Art.
Just the moves in the first level had been enough to nearly drive him insane.
He felt as if he was trying to cut through metal every time he tried to swing his sword according to the art.
This was because what he was slashing through was space itself.
Apparently, if his sword touched anything short of a Super Beast, it would cut through. And this was just the first level.
The art also allowed him to be more in tune with space.
This absurdly increased his perception of his surroundings, almost like a sixth sense, and also gave him a good boost at speed, as if he needed less force to move.
During this time, Long Tian also interacted with the members of the group.
As he was always in the sanctuary, they were his way of passing time, aside from training.
Mainly Qiu Fei, who always wanted to spar with him. And Bian Mei, who seemed fairly interested in him.
Regarding Qiu Fei, Long Tian normally just beat his ass and was done with it.
Although the swordsman was clearly practicing a very good Martial Art, his fitness simply couldn't compare to his.
But with Bian Mei he did not know.
He was not experienced in romantic matters and had never had a girlfriend.
And he did not even know if Bian Mei was interested romantically in him or just liked to talk to him. Or even if she was just being polite with the new guy.
She had even invited him to have dinner at her house one time.
He truly did not know, and saying he was not anxious would be a lie.
Bian Mei was the complete opposite of Bian Lian, even though they were both twins.
Bian Lian was always cold and quiet, only responding when absolutely necessary.
Bian Mei, on the other hand, was warm and liked to talk, she always asked about his life and what he wanted to do in the future.
Long Tian had even almost let it escape that he was from the Long Clan one time.
And what made his heart flutter even more, Bian Mei was like that only to him, with the others she maintained a certain distance.
Not as cold as her sister, but still, she clearly talked and interacted more with him than the others.
Long Tian absolutely would not say he was ugly. Quite the contrary, he was handsome and had a refined demeanor.
But he was inexperienced, so yeah, he had lost some sleep over this.
Right now, he was walking towards the northern gate of the shelter.
The group had all decided that they would spend the night out today and enter deeper into the Ten Rings Mountains.
Reng Huang was almost full on his Sacred Blood Genes and wanted to ascend before his period of service ended to see if he could become an officer in the military.
So they were preparing to hunt a Sacred Blood beast.
Reaching the northern gate, Long Tian saw Bian Mei waving at him with a smile.
Her sister just looked at this without changing expression while the others also waved at him.
"Hey guys, hope I didn't make you wait too long."
Long Tian said after approaching them.
"Relax Tang Tian, we just arrived too."
Reng Huang said with a smile.
Then, he asked.
"Have you brought everything you will need?"
Long Tian nodded, pointing at the backpack made from primitive beast hide that was in his back.
"Yes, the only thing missing is the meat."
He said with a smile.
This caused Reng Huang to smile as well.
"Yeah, I am sure there will be plenty of meat by the end of today."
He said, clearly hinting at the meat of a Sacred Blood Beast.
"Well, if everyone is ready, let's go."
And then they departed.
Their objective today was the fourth ring.
During the previous month, they had been slowly but surely advancing through each ring, making a route clear of strong beasts so they could enter deep into the mountains safely.
Today they were finally going to achieve that.
They departed feeling confident about today's hunt.
While walking, Long Tian decided to check his status.
'Status.'
*Ding*
[Status]
Name: Long Tian (Victor Smith)
Rank: Non-Evolver (First Sanctuary)
Age: 16(20)
Fitness: 26.5
Gene Points -
Ordinary: 100/100
Primitive: 100/100
Mutant: 100/100
Sacred Blood: 0/100
Super: 0/100
Beast Souls: [Sacred-Blood White Lion – Weapon: Sword];
[Sacred-Blood Mountain Goat – Armor];
[Sacred-Blood Bloodthirsty Rabbit – Weapon: Axe];
[Sacred-Blood Wood Python – Weapon: Javelin] x5;
[Mutant White Lion – Weapon: Sword] x34;
…
[Primitive Small Jackal - Weapon: Saber] x5.
Gene Arts: [Supreme Space Sword Gene Art – Supreme Grade (1/3 Levels)];
[Dragon Foundation Cultivation Art - S Grade Basic Rank (9/20 Levels)];
[Martial Arts Essentials Martial Art - S Grade Low Rank (3/3 Levels)];
[Draconic Sword Martial Art - S Grade Intermediate Rank (0/7 Levels)]
Supreme Evolution Points: 3.2]
'I am probably stronger than a Sacred Blood beast right now.'
Long Tian was honestly very surprised about his progress.
His fitness had originally been at 22.0 after consuming a mutant beast, but just the first level of the Supreme Space Sword Art and the four levels of the Dragon Foundation Art had boosted him to 26.5.
He was already stronger than most in the first sanctuary, even those with some Super Points.
Only those geniuses with full or close to full Super Points were stronger than him in Fitness.
"Hey Tian."
At that moment, Bian Mei came close to him and greeted him with a smile.
"Hey Mei, is everything alright?"
During this month, they had grown closer and started using their first names to refer to each other.
"Everything is alright, was just wandering how you felt. This should be your first Sacred Blood hunt, right?"
She asked with a mixture of concern and curiosity.
"Yeah, I am feeling confident. With everyone working together we should be able to hunt one pretty easily."
Long Tian said confidently.
"Hmm, you are right. If even before you entered, we could hunt them, now with you here it will be even easier."
After some more conversation, just when they were reaching the tenth ring. She came closer and whispered in his ear in a mischievous tone.
"If you manage to deal the blow that kills it, there might be a surprise for you later."
She said and then left without giving him time to ask what that was about.
Long Tian was speechless.
After blushing for a little and overthinking what she said, he became extremely motivated and wished there was a Sacred Blood beast in front of him right now.
…
"Alright guys, after this mountain is the Fourth Ring, be extremely careful as packs of mutant beasts are common here."
Reng Huang's voice was heard by all the members of the group as they finally passed the Fifth Ring.
This had been the farthest Long Tian had advanced in this month, but he did not feel nervous at all.
Actually, he was anxious and wanted to find a Sacred Blood beast as fast as possible so that he could have his surprise.
He kept stealing glances at Bian Mei all the way here and he was pretty sure she blushed when she met his gaze once.
He had been mowing through any beasts that they encountered along the way. Clearly showing how excited he was by what she had said.
They had left the corpses behind as they did not want to summon the Mammoth now.
"Alright, let's go. To the Fourth Ring."
Reng Huang declared, and they stepped forward. This was unknown territory for Long Tian.
Would this go according to plan?