Chapter 71 - Not One But Two

Liam's figure was a blur and the crimson blade in his hand let out a shrill cry before breaking apart into several fragments.

At the same time, a hundred swords appeared out of nowhere and pierced the snakes from top to bottom.

-2000

-2000

-2000

-2000

-2000

-2000

-2000

-2000

One hit kill! All eight snakes dropped down dead, sprawled on the rock and Liam as well was lying amidst them unconsciously.

An ominous silence prevailed on the inside of the volcanic mountain and a few minutes later soft cracking sounds echoed.

Kyyuuuu?

....

....

....

With the sizzling heat waves constantly assaulting him, Liam was only unconscious for barely a minute. Besides, there was something wet and dripping on his face.

He scrunched his face and stirred awake, feeling the wet sticky liquid all over his face and neck. And as soon as he was able to think clearly, he jolted to sit upright. "Damn it. The egg!"

Liam's eyes widened as he was about to hurriedly see what was happening around him and if he was in any immediate danger when unexpectedly he came face to face with something else.

A small creature was standing on his lap, looking up at him with its big wide eyes.

Kyuuuu. 

It purred and before he could react, it immediately jumped on him and started licking his face like a small puppy. 

"What the…" Liam was baffled. He plucked the baby beast by the scruff of its neck and took a look at it. It was a fox spirit beast and its fur was a ruby red color.

He stared at the creature for a second, and then lightly chuckled, as everything fell into place. "So you are the spirit beast huh?"

Unexpectedly a soft voice answered him back. 'Papa'

"Oh!" Liam was amazed once again. He had never dealt with companion beasts before.

Though he knew that a companion beast and its master shared a mental connection, this was the first time he was experiencing it personally.

"Wait. Are you bound to me already or am I yet to tame you?" 

Liam knew that pets hatched from eggs were automatically tamed and belonged to the owner of the egg, but he still wanted to verify it with his own eyes.

He hurriedly opened the status screen to check when a number of notifications bombarded him.

[Ding. 300 Experience points have been rewarded]

[Ding. 300 Experience points have been rewarded]

…

…

…

"These must be the experience points from the eight lava mambas." He swiped them away and looked at the next few notifications.

[Ding. A new skill 'Spirit Wrath' has been created due to your actions]

[Spirit Wrath: Consumes 50% soul strength; Million swords arise from the earth, each dealing 1000% damage to the enemy that had incurred the wrath; Cooldown: None]

[Ding. Your Soul Strength is too weak. The Skill has been locked]

Liam tiredly smiled at this familiar skill. This was the second and most powerful attack he had comprehended by himself in his previous life.

He was not fortunate enough to run into any of the famous Sword Heritages or Sword's Will like the other players.

After he had broken free from his life of slavery, this was all that he could manage to pick up, [Spirit Slash] and [Spirit Wrath].

Perhaps if he had comprehended more about the way of the sword he would have had a chance to learn even stronger attacks, but he never had that opportunity.

However, that was going to change this time around. This was why Liam did not hesitate and used this trump card in his possession.

Now both the spirit sword skills he possessed were locked, but it wouldn't be long before he unlocked them and finished his comprehension. 

Liam let out a long tired sigh and then looked at the last few remaining notifications. "I even used my trump card, so this better be worth it."

[Ding. Egg is hatching]

[Ding. You have obtained a new pet]

[Ding. Egg is hatching]

[Ding. You have obtained a new pet]

"Huh?" Liam was confused seeing two notifications of egg hatching. 

"Both the eggs hatched?" He looked around again, this time lifting his head up, to finally see a small wind ripper chirping above his head.

"Come here." He muttered waving his hand when the bird quickly flew down to him. It was only barely the size of his palm, the same as the red fox. 

"How are you able to fly already?" He chuckled.

The bird shook its head but it didn't speak back to him like the fox. Of course, this difference was to be expected. 

Even though he shared a mental link with both of them, one was a normal beast while the other was a spirit beast. 

So while the fox could freely converse with him, or at least speak something rudimentary, the bird could only understand his commands.

He glanced at the two tiny beasts circling him and looking at him with their big wide eyes and shook his head helplessly. "Looks like I need to spend some time leveling you guys up."

Liam also didn't want this incident to repeat itself once again. Though leveling up was not his top priority, it was something that needed to be done to progress further in the game.

His gaze casually dragged over the corpses of the lava mambas as he checked for any loot and a few copper coins and a couple of silver coins were scattered around.

There was also a pair of flaming red braces and a skill book.

Liam first picked up the skill book to take a look. 

[Lava Rain] - Consumes 20% of base mana; 5 second cast time; Calls down a rain of fire and lava, burning all enemies within the vicinity with 50% spell damage.

"Hmmm. Not bad." Liam quickly learned the skill.

This combined with the boost he had for fire magic as a result of collecting fire essence would together pull big numbers of damage on multiple targets.

He prepared to leave but he suddenly paused thinking of something. "Can you still absorb fire essence from the lava pool?"

The tiny fox spirit beast stared at Liam and then at the lava pool shaking its head. 'No papa'

"Hmmm... Is there no more fire essence in the lava pool or you are no longer able to do that?"

The fox looked at him blankly and then again shook its head.

'Sorry, papa. Don't know.' The beast's face immediately changed and it looked down sorrowfully. Such a sight was capable of melting anyone's heart.

Even Liam felt awkward. "Don't worry. You will be able to do it when you grow up."

He rubbed its head gently and only then the fox brightened up again, smiling back at him with its extremely adorable appearance.

"Tsk. Tsk. If I had known this beforehand, I could have planned this better and absorbed some more fire essence before you hatched!"

He flicked the fox's head, but the beast seemed to like even this and purred happily. Liam sighed at this sight and smiled bitterly.

At times, looking at the beauty and marvel around him, it was difficult not to enjoy this life, but in reality, this was like the calm that came before the storm.

He simply didn't have the time to entertain these two and show them the love and affection a baby beast required.

"You guys will have lots of attention when I bring Mei Mei over. Until then just be good." Ha patted the fox and then the bird. "Let's leave this place."

Getting out of the lava pool was just as difficult as getting in here in the first place. 

Liam hopped on the small rocks floating atop the lava and then reached the sturdy rock wall of the mountain. 

These were even warmer than the ones outside and he was barely able to touch them without seeing a drop in his health.

But thankfully, this climb was short as the cave jutted out at the top just a few hundred meters up. 

Liam sucked in a big breath of air before he started climbing up or rather running up the mountain. 

He placed his hands and feet in a mad rush in whatever crevices he could find, holding on to whatever rock that was near, and climbed up as fast as he could.

Even if he reduced his speed a little, he would begin to lose huge amounts of health rapidly. So he didn't hold back and only let out the next breath when he reached his destination.

His pets on the other hand…

One casually flew up while the other hopped and skipped and landed softly next to him.

Liam walked out of the cave, reaching the other end, and then took out a tool from his bag. It was a sickle-like weapon that had a long rope tied to it.

He hooked it to the inside of the cave, securing it properly, and then began climbing down the tall mountain using the rope to slowly lower himself down.