Miles returned to the Portal World after trying to comprehend all the information stored in his mind by his mother and having a well deserved rest after hunting, training and using serum without almost no break in between.
He still had problems putting the information into practice, but theoretically, he was as good as any other forgers now that he spent some time on the subject.
Forgers were craftsmen who chose to work with monster cores to create different things. There were many kinds of forgers working in different areas. Such as wristwatches, created by using monster cores also made by Forgers. The information Evelyn let him learn was mostly related to arrows, ammunition, armors, and other cold weapons that could be crafted by monster orbs. After all, no one could learn everything even when sharing data became much easier.
That is to say, Miles could be considered a craftsman with the information he gained thanks to Evelyn sharing everything Unity had learned in the last few decades except the hidden alloy formulas. He only needed experience working those crafts now. After getting hands-on experience, he would be a full-fledged master craftsman.
But since he could hardly get by with little he earned through hunting, he had no spare cash to work on crafting yet. After all, even with the knowledge, his body has yet to experience forging. If he were to try to craft now, he would be wasting lots of raw materials, and wouldn’t be able to afford the artisanship yet.
While studying all the knowledge he gained, he didn’t neglect his body training either. He worked out every day and went to the Death Trap as much as he could. He already gained back the power regressed when he first used the serum and now he overcame the second serum’s limit. He used most of the money he earned lately to purchase the serum and now he had to hunt again.
Miles left the stronghold without drawing any attention. He had caused a little turmoil in his stay lately, but the stronghold was packed with people and every day something new would happen. So, his impact over time is hardly remembered by others. Other than that, he didn’t draw anyone’s attention except Tian Ling’s men from time to time.
Miles walked in a direction he learned from his mother. In the text Evelyn stored in his mind, there was an unpopular hunting ground because of the rare few strong monsters living there. But Miles found out that actually, it had a small lake with lots of fish-like monsters living inside. That type of monster had the poison element and orb dropping them were of poisonous throwing needles, known as senbons.
Miles tried all the ranged weapons before and studied senbons as well. His proficiency in senbons wasn’t as high as the bow, but he could still use them. But that wasn’t his purpose this time, but acquiring as much as a poison monster cores so he could study arrow making. Since he couldn’t afford to buy materials, he had to collect them himself, and the reason why he chose the poison element was that he knew a person with said element could help him in crafting.
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The path to the secret lake wasn’t that long, but there were dangerous monsters evenly distributed. Most of the people wouldn’t dare to come here, but Miles was at the peak of middle-tier and had the best armor G-Circle could offer. Thus, he wasn’t shy to venture deep inside of the forest.
While walking, he kept his eyes open and searched for plants he had learned while studying. He wouldn’t put too much effort in looking for them, but if he were to see one, he would of course collect them.
Plants in the portal world had marvelous effects. Some of the plants were good at healing, while some of them could increase bodily attributes. The real key was identifying them. But since the knowledge he gained came from the best source, he could be said to be the best herbalist in G-Circle thanks to cheating his ways with his uncle.
While Miles was looking around, he saw a strange white object on the ground. The object was half of his height, and a foot wide. It looked like a big stone, except it looked like jelly. Miles approached the jelly-like thing carefully with his armor on and poked it with a stick he found on the ground.
The object jumped all of a sudden and turned to look at Miles. To Miles's surprise, it was a creature. Its two eyes were bead-like black dots. They were shiny and clear. Its mouth was not monsterlike but looked like a cat's. It didn’t have a nose or ears, but it looked like it could hear. What gave the most confusion to Miles was the lack of killing intent in the monster's eyes. Miles could swear the monster was smiling at him.
Since Miles didn’t feel threatened, nor the monster was dangerous, he didn’t attack and observed the monster. It was Miles's first time seeing or hearing a monster not attacking a human as soon as they saw them. It intrigued Miles’s curiosity.
Miles looked at the monster, and asked, “Can you understand me?”
He asked because he saw intelligence in those eyes. Most of the monsters in G-Circle lacked intelligence, and couldn’t understand humans, except humanoid ones. They would attack humans without any planning, rarely relying on their instincts. Since Miles felt like the monster had some sort of intelligence, he decided to ask if it could understand him.
The monster looked at Miles without saying anything. Its eyes were still smiling, and it was looking at Miles like a fine specimen. It then started to bounce away from where he was standing. Miles stood where he was and looked at the monster as it bounced away. He didn’t know what the monster was doing, but he didn’t want to follow it without making sure it was safe.
After bouncing away some distance, the monster turned to look at the human and jiggled ever so slightly. Its movements were telling Miles to follow it.
“Do you want me to follow you?” Miles looked at the monster and asked. But the round monster couldn’t nod nor answer. It looked at Miles for a little longer and bounced away once again. Miles decided to follow the monster for a while.