14 The Mysterious Fruit

What kind of fruit was this?

Not only was it sweet, but it could also actually restore the fatigue of the body.

Gray immediately squeezed his hands. He found that the fatigue he had suffered from fighting against the violent ape had already mostly dissipated. His arms, which were sore and numb a moment ago, were now filled with strength once again.

Gray had already finished the fruit in two or three bites. This kind of fruit actually didn't have a core. This couldn't help but make Gray feel a little regretful. If there was a core, he could at least identify what kind of fruit this was, and he could obtain some information about this strange fruit.

Without a doubt, he had never heard of such a thing in his old world.

This was probably another strange specialty of this world.

Gray put away the core of the fruit and thought about studying it later. He then lowered his head and searched the ground again, but he did not find another such fruit.

Unfortunately, if there were more of it, his safety and efficiency of exploring the jungle would be greatly improved!

After confirming that there wasn't another fruit by the stream, Gray sulkily stopped exploring.

In order to search for the fruit, he had to stay by the stream for an extra period of time. This was actually very dangerous.

His strength was only at tier 1 after all. Now that the Dragon's Might had been weakened, if there were wild beasts drinking water from the water source, then a conflict might be unavoidable.

Now was not the time to explore casually. Gray could only put this matter to heart first, and then leave to find a place to hide and sort out the harvest.

...

There was a wet and soft depression, where a two-meter-long giant toad was lying prone.

The toad's body was covered with a thin layer of dark green stripes, which was not very different from the lichens that could be seen everywhere in the depression. This was its proud disguise.

As the most successful hunter in the nearby area, it clearly knew where its advantages were and how to use them.

Weak creatures would be attracted by the fertile lichens and enter its hunting ground.

Just like now.

The ground shook along its webbed surface. It was a tremor that only appeared when the soft ground was trampled on. It knew that its prey was coming, and it was still approaching.

Then, just as the prey was about to reach its guarded range, it suddenly felt a great terror, as if it was about to be swallowed by some extremely huge existence.

Its consciousness was cut off at this moment...

...

In the jungle, Gray slid down from his hiding place, pulled out the machete hanging from his waist, and fiercely stabbed it into the eyes of the decaying toad that had fainted on the ground. Then, he quickly stirred it a few times.

Under Gray's full strength, the sharp and narrow blade sank into the decaying toad's head and entered the depths of its brain. The body of the decaying toad suddenly convulsed violently.

After a moment, as fresh blood mixed with yellow and white juice flowed out, the decaying toad was no longer breathing.

Gray pulled out the machete with ease. He picked up the fallen leaves on the ground and wiped the dirty liquids off the blade. Then, he put the machete back at his waist.

Gray quickly broke down the rotten toad and immediately left the place.

The whole train of movements was clean and neat, without any sloppiness. It was hard to imagine that these movements were made by a person who was still a little noob in the jungle that morning.

Gray did not feel that much emotion towards his own growth. The reason was that this was already the fourth wild beast that he had hunted today.

After every hunt, he would summarize the gains and losses of the hunt. Until now, he could be considered to have some insights of his own.

When it came to enemies with strong movement abilities like the gnawing rabbit or the violent ape, Gray needed to deal with them more. This kind of enemy, who liked to lurk, was more convenient for the dragon egg's attack. Gray deeply liked these types of beasts.

After all, in front of the dragon egg's mana sensitivity, these kind of beasts with mana crystals were as conspicuous as the sun.

However, as Gray's level increased, he felt that his physical abilities had been further strengthened. This was also the reason why he was more adept at dealing with beasts.

Gray quickly found a bush and hid in it, intending to clean up the gains he had made today.

He placed the dragon egg and machete on the ground, allowing his body to completely relax.

Then, he opened his attribute panel:

[Gray]

[Strength level: Tier 2 (3/20)]

[Classification: Human]

[Ability: None]

[Description: Adult male with a relatively strong human physique. Able to contend with ordinary beasts for a short period of time.]

Gray saw that his leveling progress had only increased to 3/20.

He confirmed his guess. As expected, as his level increased, the value of life energy obtained from killing wild beasts of the same level would decrease.

Just like when he killed a tier 2 wild beast when he was at tier 1, he could obtain 4/10 of the life energy required to level up once.

However, when he reached Tier 2, he could only obtain 3/20 of life force each time he leveled up.

The amount of life force he needed skyrocketed.

Thinking about it carefully, wasn't this method of leveling up encouraging him to challenge those of a higher level?

Gray didn't think too much about it. For the time being, he didn't have any urgent need to continue leveling up. He believed that even those Guardians who had already stepped out of the safe house, if he didn't count their troops, might not necessarily have tier 2 strength.

For the time being, his strength was enough.

Then, Gray opened his backpack, and in it lay his spoils of war:

[Beast meat * 13]

[Beast skin * 4]

[Mana crystal * 1]

[Violent ape sharp claws * 2]

[Sharp antler deer antlers * 2]

[Decaying toad skin * 3]

Looking at his backpack, Gray felt a sense of accomplishment and security.

He first took out the Mana Crystal and gave it to the dragon egg.

The dragon egg's cheerful mood immediately soared, exuding waves of intimacy.

Feeling the dragon egg's passion and attachment, Gray couldn't help but smile.

"It's delicious. You have to quickly grow up and protect me."

Hearing that, the dragon egg's mood changed. Although it was still affectionate and happy, it became more serious.

It seemed to be agreeing to Gray's words.

This was another discovery of Gray's. It seemed that as the dragon egg swallowed more and more mana crystals, its thinking and sensibility became more active and intelligent.

Other than being unable to move, it was almost the same as a young beast.

When he thought about the hatching of the dragon egg, Gray could clearly feel that it was getting harder and harder to find beasts with a mana crystal.

In the case with the decaying toad, Gray and the egg spent an entire afternoon searching for it.

It seemed that there were no more beasts with mana crystals in this area.

Tomorrow, they might have to look for beasts in another direction.

On the other hand, since only powerful tier 2 beasts would carry mana crystals, how powerful would the dragon that was hatched from devouring mana crystals be?

Gray was really looking forward to it.

He scrolled through the chat forum again. The content was similar and didn't change much since morning. Most of the Guardians were still holed up in their own safe houses and not moving. Water and meat were still in short supply.

After a while, Gray looked at the sky and found that it was already getting dark. The Dragon's Might cooldown of the dragon egg had ended, so there was no time to lose. Gray carried the dragon egg on his back again and set off on his way home.