Chapter 30: Transportation

A few days had passed since Ain returned from his trip, and the next weekend was fast approaching.

It was evening, and Ain’s body had fully recovered. He once again began his body tempering training. However, different from before, he had the Blood Refinement Pills to assist with the process.

He retrieved a Blood Refinement Pill, which looked like a small red bead, from the pill bottle.

[Name: Blood Refinement Pill]

[Rank: Rank-1]

[Attribute Traces: Blood 41.254%, Fire 3.459%, …]

Ain used Scan on the Blood Refinement Pills as well. The attribute traces were different the Spirit Condensing Pills, with the blood attribute being more prevalent.

Although the attribute traces were fundamental in medicines, they weren’t the leading factors in determining the specific effects of the pills. Those were determined by the characteristics of the ingredients used. Specific attribute traces would only amplify the effects of these pills.

So learning about the attribute traces in this case wasn’t as useful to Ain yet.

Putting away his thoughts, he swallowed the blood-red pill.

A burning hot sensation soon started to spread through his body. Ain felt as if molten metal was flowing in his blood vessels.

However, he didn’t feel any pain for some reason; only Ain’s control over his body was a little sluggish.

He didn’t panic and immediately began his training.

He first held the Prowling Tiger stance for eighteen minutes, which had increased from fifteen, and moved onto martial arts.

In the state of exhaustion, circulating his spirit energy in accordance with the Prowling Tiger technique and practicing martial arts simultaneously was already difficult.

With the Blood Refinement Pill mixed in as well, the difficulty increased further.

But despite the exhaustion, Ain’s movements never stopped. His energy seemed unlimited as he trained past his previous limits.

After getting the hang of it, he started using Spirit Impact as well.

Spirit Impact was close to mastery. Upon mastering it, its power would increase, while the spirit energy consumption would decrease.

Ain finished his training only when darkness began to consume the light in the sky.

The pill effectively doubled Ain’s returns. One hour of training with the pill’s effects was equal to two hours from before.

After finishing his body tempering training, Ain dragged his exhausted body home. Before beginning his usual night training, Ain fiddled with his hololink for a few minutes.

He had been eyeing something on Cyberspace these past couple of days.

Now that he had recovered, Ain planned to make another trip outside during the upcoming weekend. Learning from his previous trip, he finally decided to invest in some convenience.

With a simple tap, 50,000 star coins were suddenly deducted from his account.

He set the delivery time for tomorrow evening. Since today was Thursday, it would be just in time before the trip.

The next day arrived uneventfully.

On his way back from school, Ain stopped by a couple of stores to resupply for his trip.

After returning, he received a package and continued with his training routine before ending the day.

…

Once again, Ain was awake before dawn and made his way towards the city entrance.

This time, he didn’t go to the Forest Gate. Instead, he arrived at an entrance towards the east of the city.

On his way out, Ain stopped by the Spirit Tamer Association branch to browse through some missions near his destination before leaving the city.

Similar to the Forest Gate, this entrance was also guarded by a long stretch of walls. There was a wide road leading outside, which then split into smaller paths heading in different directions.

There was less traffic compared to the Forest Gate, but this was only relative. To Ain, there were still a large number of spirit tamers here.

Without wasting any time, he headed off onto one of the smaller paths.

With his back facing the sturdy city walls, all that entered Ain’s vision was green and blue.

The vast plain ahead of him continued as it merged with the clear blue sky.

In the cloudless sky, the sun shone down on the verdant green grass as it swayed in a gentle breeze. A simple feeling of freedom couldn’t help but emerge from Ain’s soul as he took in this sight.

Duskfield City was surrounded by plains on three sides, with the south facing the Duskfield Forest.

Locals speculated that this was where the name “Duskfield” originated from.

In the eastern direction where Ain was headed, the plains didn’t extend as far compared to the north and the west. It slowly merged into a vast rocky region with sparse vegetation. Beyond that were unending mountain ranges, twisting like snakes and dragons.

Ain’s destination this time was the rocky region after the plains.

Similar to the Duskfield Forest, he could only operate on the periphery of this region. Only higher-ranked spirit tamers would venture further.

The distance Ain would have to travel to reach his destination was much greater compared to before. But he was prepared this time.

After putting sufficient distance between himself and the city, Ain removed a compact metal plate from the side of his backpack and placed it on the ground.

Under his gaze, the silver metal plate extended on two sides as blue light suddenly appeared on some of the engraved ridges. As soon as it took the shape of a long board, it slowly started to hover thirty centimeters above the ground.

Seeing this, a faint smile appeared on Ain’s face, and he quickly stepped onto the board.

The device stayed stable and quietly floated in place.

“Now, let’s test out this new fluxboard.”

That’s right. Ain had purchased a fluxboard to reduce his travel time.

He had seen various forms of transport during his last trip, and the fluxboard had instantly caught his eye.

It was compact and lightweight, allowing Ain to carry it with ease. It was flexible and could be maneuvered in various terrains. It was even possible to traverse a forest using a fluxboard. Of course, it would be a little unsafe unless his senses could improve. As long as he sensed danger, he could alight from the fluxboard before engaging in battle.

Regular fluxboards cost around 20,000 star coins, but they couldn’t fulfill Ain’s needs.

He bought an advanced variant, which was better in every aspect, whether it be acceleration, max speed, durability, or weight capacity.

The last one was what Ain needed the most. Since he couldn’t afford a spatial storage device for now, this fluxboard would be able to provide him with some convenience if he ever became overburdened with his luggage again.

The fluxboard was controlled by touch-sensitive panels on the board itself. Ain only needed to use his feet to intuitively control it.

After sufficient testing, he finally set off towards his target as the wind brushed against his body.

His journey lasted for almost two hours.

Ain encountered various spirit beasts on his way, as well as some sparse herb patches. With the wisdom from his last trip, he simply ignored them for now. If he still had space, he could harvest them during his return.

All the spirit beasts he encountered were weak, the strongest barely reaching Beginner Rank-1. The vast majority were Rank-0 Spirit Beasts.

Other than some species raised as livestock in the city, most Rank-0 meat was obtained from the vast plains surrounding the city.

In just two hours, Ain had covered a vast distance with his fluxboard. Part of this was also attributed to the terrain. Compared to the forest, there were almost no obstacles here. Even though it was called a plain, the terrain still rolled up and down at times, with hills of various sizes appearing irregularly. But these hills were insignificant obstacles to Ain with his fluxboard.

As he approached his destination, the grass became sparse, and the bare earth peeked through. Rocks of various shapes and sizes began to litter the ground.

The fresh green scenery suddenly shifted to a dull brown, as if the vitality in this region had been sucked dry.

Looking at the barren region in front of him, Ain knew that he had arrived.

This place didn’t have a creative name; it was just referred to as the Rocky Region.

There was one specific reason why Ain chose this place.

Just as he had seen, this region was indeed barren in terms of plants. But there were several mines and special mineral lodes that occasionally appeared here.

Most of them had been harvested over time, but there were still some mines that were currently active. Their rights were either owned by the city or some powerful private entities.

From Ain’s research, his current location was completely opposite from those mines, and considered a true barren area. It was seldom visited, and all those who did visit shared the same goal. And that goal was to hunt and harvest Rock Golems.

Although Rock Golems were elemental lifeforms, they were still considered spirit beasts.

But unlike other spirit beasts, Rock Golems' bodies solely comprised of rocks, surrounding a special rock called the golem core.

Rock Golem Cores could be used to craft equipment and artifacts. Ain had also come here for a similar reason, but his true goal was to hunt the rarer Metal Golem.

New Update:

1 Free Chapter! Read ahead!

Support me on Patreon and read up to 16 chapters ahead! There are Illustrations available, and a side story will be available soon as well!

patreon.com/ForsakenHaven