Chapter Six: The Slaying

Colin swung the iron axe with all his might, bringing it down upon the twisted, horrific head of the monster.

With a dull, muffled thud, the unsettling influence clouding his mind abruptly vanished.

The sensation sent up through the axe handle reminded him somewhat of chopping into an unpeeled coconut.

The expected scene—like splitting open a watermelon, with brains flying everywhere—did not occur. In fact, the recoil nearly wrenched the axe from his grip.

“Damn, lack of experience. I should’ve aimed for the neck!”

He gripped the axe once more, wasted no time, and swung again with force.

This time, he targeted the neck, but the axe only embedded itself a couple of centimeters deep, not severing it outright.

The monster toppled to the ground instantly, but it was not dead!

At the same time, two servants rushed forward, swinging their clubs down upon the creature with all the fury they could muster.

After a frenzy of blows, the monster was reduced to an indescribable mass of “meat paste,” finally falling silent.

At last, the notification for a kill appeared before Colin’s eyes. He hastily gestured for the servants to stop their furious assault. “Enough, it’s dead!”

With that, Colin ignored the two men. More messages were appearing before him in quick succession.

“Congratulations, you have slain ‘Sufferer—Confessor Priest.’”

“Would you like to disassemble?”

“Sufferer—Confessor Priest?”

Colin blinked, wondering if this thing counted as an “Aberrant.”

He didn’t bother with the disassemble option. Instead, he quickly took out a sheepskin parchment from his inventory and opened the quest list.

Upon seeing that the quest which had previously sported a question mark now bore an exclamation point and glimmered with a faint golden glow, Colin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He quickly tapped to confirm task completion.

“Congratulations, you have completed the daily quest ‘Face Your Fears.’ Rewards: One piece of hard black bread; 100ml of Dull Tainted Blood.”

“Quest rewards have been sent to your inventory. Please check.”

Colin checked his inventory. The count of black bread had increased to two, and there was a new mass of dark red liquid as well.

“Dull Tainted Blood. Obtained by slaying Aberrants or completing quests. Each 100ml can fuel a lamp for one hour.”

Without hesitation, Colin used the blood. Instantly, the lamp was refilled more than halfway.

“An old-fashioned lantern. You estimate it can burn for one hour and thirty-seven minutes.”

—

He exhaled deeply, feeling as if a heavy shackle had been lifted from his shoulders.

He glanced at the grotesque, unrecognizable corpse of the “Sufferer,” muttering under his breath, “I wonder what can be salvaged from something beaten to such a pulp.”

With a hint of anticipation, he mentally selected the disassemble option.

“You have obtained 16ml of Dull Tainted Blood. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained one Thorn of Suffering. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained seven Tainted Bones. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained one Blood-stained Broken Wooden Wheel. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained one Twisted Soul Fragment. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained four Slightly Corrupted Meat Chunks. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained one Slightly Corrupted Venison Chunk. Added to inventory.”

“You have obtained three Mist Points. Added to inventory.”

As the items appeared one by one in his inventory, Colin’s gaze fixed upon the Thorn of Suffering.

“Thorn of Suffering: A thorny vine grown from the body of a Sufferer. Can be used for weapon synthesis, or combined with clay to create a ‘Thorn Barricade’ to block the Grey Mist.”

“It can block the Grey Mist—and it’s permanent…”

Colin drew a sharp breath, grasping the importance of this item.

With it, he could expand the boundaries of his territory.

While most people would still be huddling inside their wooden huts, he would already be happily planting vegetables around his house!

Wait… Why is my first thought, upon expanding my territory, to plant vegetables?

Grrr…

Colin heard his own stomach growl in protest—a fierce hunger gnawing at him. Now was not the time for reflection.

His immediate priority was to address his own hunger.

He had only been out for about half an hour, but his two servants’ satiety had already dropped to single digits. They were so weak their legs trembled beneath them.

If they didn’t eat soon, they might well starve to death.

Having cleaned out the Sufferer’s loot, Colin followed the prompts to locate a river mentioned in the hints.

It wasn’t far—just a few steps, and Colin reached it.

At once, the two servants could barely restrain themselves from plunging their heads into the water to gulp it down.

—

But Colin stopped them at once. “Are you trying to get yourselves killed? Don’t let hunger cloud your judgment. Wait until we’ve boiled the water before drinking!”

Were it not for the fact that he’d noticed the river was labeled “Polluted Water” with a warning about potential diarrhea, he might not have intervened.

“Thank you for the warning, my lord,” the two servants said immediately. Though they didn’t quite understand what “boiling” was, they got the general idea.

Boiling water before drinking… This was not a habit they’d ever had. The water looked dirty, but also rather clean, in their eyes... Hard to comprehend.

But since it was the lord’s order, they had nothing to say.

Colin then took out the novice’s chest, determined to make use of everything, and filled it with about five liters of river water.

At that moment, a system notification appeared before him.

“Do you wish to purify one liter of river water in exchange for ‘Tier-3 Water’? Each liter costs one Mist Point.”

“Decline.”

Colin’s lips twitched. The system was truly outrageous—using a whole Mist Point for a mere liter of water.

He already knew the uses of Mist Points. So far, they could buy megaphones, recruit servants, be used for purification, or upgrade villagers…

Their uses were many.

Just three Mist Points could recruit a servant.

And now the system was telling him he could spend the same amount, enough to recruit a person, on a few kilos of water?

That kind of loss-making trade was out of the question for Colin.

Most important, he’d seen that boiling river water produced the same effect as Mist Point purification.

“If not for the prompt, I might have foolishly wasted Mist Points on purification…”

Who knew how many people would fall into that trap…

Colin shook his head. It didn’t matter to him.

He took out the Synthesis Table, used some stones found earlier, and following the instructions, crafted a set of stone cooking utensils.

He stacked wood, set up the stone pot, lit a fire, poured in the river water, and in a few minutes, had a pot of steaming “Tier-3 Water (slightly polluted).”