"And the track stops here. How troublesome, you just had to come to this place of all places."

Xiao was currently tracking a rare beast. All the body parts of this beast could be used as good material, and Xiao needed its horn as he was constructing a weapon.

Xiao had been following the beast for nearly a week. It always ran away before Xiao managed to even lay eyes on it. According to the encyclopedia book that Xiao had learned from, what made the beast so hard to track down was its unique ability to detect "heat" from its predator.

After a week of trial and error, Xiao finally found a way to counter its ability. In Xiao's hand was a bottle containing a specially made crystal. This crystal had a temperature of at least minus 50 degrees Celsius, and it would mask Xiao's presence, allowing him to track down the beast.

Xiao continued to follow the tracks for a few more minutes. He then stopped at a bush and lowered his body to ground level.

"Alright, got you in my sight." Xiao rejoiced as he spotted his target. He quietly hid behind the bush and observed the target not far away from his position - a black, four-eyed stag deer.

"No running away this time, just as I expected. This crystal hides my presence."

Xiao took out a dagger with a green tip, which could temporarily paralyze the target for a short duration. He aimed at the stag deer's body. After a moment of focus, Xiao threw the dagger with a small movement.

The stag deer realized something was coming fast, but it was too late as the dagger hit its body, making the stag deer jump in pain. It then tried to escape, but the paralysis instantly took effect, causing the stag deer to fall to the ground, twitching as it tried to get back up.

"Alright!" Xiao emerged from hiding and walked toward the stag deer. The stag deer stared at Xiao as if it were begging for mercy.

"I'm not going to say sorry. You should know the rule of the jungle already," said Xiao as he brandished a short sword. Xiao steeled his heart and plunged the sword into the stag deer's throat, swiftly ending its misery.

"Thank you," Xiao whispered quietly as he touched the stag deer's body. After that, Xiao took out his tools and started harvesting its body parts with ease, for he had already reached a certain level of mastery in doing it.

It had been a month since Xiao started his life in the jungle, and he had learned firsthand about the law of the jungle: the weak die while the strong live. Every living being in this jungle strives to fight for survival every day. Each of them has a role to play, one being the prey and one being the predator, and no one will ever stay the predator forever.

As Xiao was almost finished packing his stuff, he noticed something was wrong around him.

"They always have to show up at the worst timing. It must be the blood that attracts them," Xiao sighed as he put his harvest on the ground. He then wore a military gas mask that he had made for himself and drew out his short sword and a long blade.

The long blade was without a cross-guard, and it had a black handle with three buttons on it. The blade part resembled a cutter blade, meaning it was made out of seven small razors assembled together.

There was a ruckus in the trees and bushes around Xiao. After a while, multiple green hideous creatures jumped out from all over the place.

"Goblins again, just as I thought. You guys never get tired of stealing other people's stuff, eh?" Xiao sighed again, thinking of how troublesome it was to deal with them, which had already happened multiple times before.

This was not the first time Xiao had been ambushed by the Goblins, which were many in this jungle. Nine out of ten times Xiao encountered them whenever he was out hunting. With each Goblin ambush, Xiao was getting more and more used to their tactics and fighting style, to the point that he got bored and tired of it because it was a waste of time and resources for him.

(Well, whatever, I'll just use this opportunity to test out my latest weapon.)

Xiao took a deep breath and started constructing his strategy. Eighteen Goblins were surrounding Xiao. Each of them was showing bloodthirst and was already eager to lunge at Xiao at any time.

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"Well, let's get this over with. Come get me!" Xiao provoked them as he shouted out loud. All the Goblins rushed toward Xiao at once from all directions. They planned to seal up any opportunity for Xiao to escape or dodge.

"Coming in together? Bunch of idiots," Xiao smirked as he pressed one of the buttons on the black handle.

"Second Form - Goat Scream," said Xiao as the hilt of the black handle opened up and popped out three white balls while Xiao leaped backward.

As the three white balls hit the ground, they immediately blasted out a blinding light, instantly flooding the area with light, which resulted in stunning all the Goblins that were attacking Xiao. The Goblins closed their eyes and shouted in agony as they were blinded by the light.

"They always fall for this. Well, time to kill."

The reason why Xiao was not affected by the flash was because of his mask. Xiao designed his military gas mask with his other weapons in mind. Flashbangs, smoke bombs, and poison gas would be rendered useless by this custom-made mask.

Seeing that all the Goblins had shut their eyes, Xiao swiftly slashed through the throats of two Goblins standing in front of him with his short sword. Xiao was used to knowing Goblins' weak spots, and the two Goblins died a few seconds after their throats were slashed. Xiao didn't stop with just two. He immediately leaped forward to do a horizontal slash with his long blade to the other Goblin next to the two he had just killed.

Both of Xiao's blades danced flurry around the Goblins as he continued his onslaught. One of the Goblins had a giant tumor on its nose. It was about to run away in panic at the sound of its comrades' screams.

"I see you, tumor man." Xiao didn't directly look at the runaway Goblin, but a red dagger was already flying toward it. The red dagger penetrated the tumor Goblin's back, causing it to tumble to the ground and crash into its comrades.

"BANG!"

A few moments later, the red dagger exploded, turning the giant tumor Goblin and its two friends beside it into chunks of meat.

The rest of the Goblins slowly recovered from the flashbang. What they saw in front of them were the dead bodies of their comrades. One of the Goblins took out a crossbow from its back and was about to shoot Xiao.

"Long-range weapon? Good timing. I was thinking of trying out the latest form," said Xiao as he got excited and pressed one of the buttons on the black handle.

"Second Form - Cobra Fang."

Xiao lunged his long blade forward. The blade extended, with a wireline attached between each razor, turning the long blade into a razor whip. Xiao dodged the upcoming arrow while the razor whip's edge already slashed the head of the Goblin that shot him.

The remaining Goblins tried to charge toward Xiao before realizing something was wrong with their bodies, hindering them from moving as usual.

"You guys only figure it out now? Too late!"

Xiao redirected his razor whip to the rest of the Goblins, effortlessly cutting anything within ten meters into ribbons. When Xiao was done cutting, all except one Goblin that was further away from him were already dead.

"First Form - Lion Claw."

Xiao turned his razor whip back into his long blade as he walked toward the last Goblin. The Goblin tried to raise its club to fight back, but it kept having problems controlling its arm, and its muscles kept twitching oddly.

"Still have no clue what's going on? Too late!"

Xiao was already standing in front of the Goblin, readying his long blade to do a vertical slash.

"Goat Scream is not only a flashbang, but it's also a paralyzing bomb. Not that you will understand what I am saying."

As Xiao finished his pointless explanation, he slashed the Goblin's head without hesitation, adding another strike to its throat to confirm the kill. Xiao was not affected by his flashbang plus stun grenade because of his custom-made armor.

The chest part was made out of elemental crystal fused with iron plating in a full grey leather trench coat. Xiao's pants were tailored with a dagger holster and multiple small pockets that let him store items, mainly bombs. Xiao's pants, high boots, and gloves were also infused with elemental crystal, which was made possible because of alchemy. Xiao designed his armor in such a way because he prioritized agility, allowing him to dodge and counter-attack easily. Like his mask, Xiao's armor was also made with his other weapons in mind, which means all his weapon's effects will never affect him.

Xiao went back to his backpack, took out a cloth, and wiped off the blood from his weapon.

"Guess that's a success for the third form, Cobra Fang. I may need to adjust the speed of the retraction." Xiao was already thinking of fine-tuning his weapon as he cleaned his sword.

"Well, that's another form for the Hundred Form Switch Knife, Chameleon. I should start designing a new form already!"

After Xiao finished cleaning up his weapon, he then took out his tools and started harvesting the dead Goblins around him.

Blood, teeth, bones, Xiao didn't waste any of the Goblin parts as he skillfully harvested everything and packed it into a package. These were all excellent materials for Xiao to create something.

Paralyze dart, poison gas bomb, or even glue, all of these were made possible with the Goblin parts.

When Xiao finished harvesting every Goblin, it was already sunset.

Xiao packed up his things and checked around to see if he missed anything before returning to his lair.

And that was just another ordinary day for Xiao.