My Bugged System Made Me Too OP!-Chapter 44: One more time
And the knife he was using... wasn’t even a proper hunting blade but a spare kitchen knife.
After struggling with the first corpse for several minutes, Noah had quickly realized that trying to force the knife through the bodies directly was nearly impossible.
So he had been forced to use another method.
He had been forced to burn their bodies using [Lightning Ball] over and over again.
Each time he cast the spell, a small crackling orb of lightning would form in his palm before slamming into the corpse. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
The explosion from the lightning ball would tear through the flesh and burn away the thick hide.
Once the body had been damaged enough, he would then step in and use the knife to tear open the chest cavity before the flesh cooled.
It was crude, messy and extremely inefficient, but it somewhat worked.
However, it was such a wasteful and stressful method.
The explosion from [Lightning Ball] could easily destroy a beast core if one was present.
Beast cores were condensed mana crystals, but they weren’t indestructible.
If they were struck directly by a powerful spell, they could shatter.
Which meant every time Noah blasted a corpse with lightning just to break it open, he was risking the possibility of destroying the very thing he was trying to retrieve.
He had already checked several wolves.
None of them had contained a beast core.
And the more lightning balls he used, the higher the chance that if a core was present, it would be destroyed before he could retrieve it.
Still...
Noah slowly looked down at the pink crystal resting in his palm again.
"At least I managed to get one..."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Out of the entire pack, only this wolf had produced a beast core.
And considering how risky his extraction method had been...
He was honestly lucky the core hadn’t been destroyed during the process.
Even though the process had been messy, it wasn’t entirely a loss.
Using [Lightning Ball] repeatedly had at least produced one positive outcome, which was the levelling up of the skill.
The skill now felt smoother, and both its power and his control over it improved simultaneously.
Noah slowly exhaled through his nose.
"Level two already..." he murmured quietly.
Not bad.
Carefully, he lowered his hand and glanced at the pink beast core resting in his palm once more.
The faint wind-element mana pulsed inside the crystal like a tiny heartbeat.
Without lingering too long, he opened the bag he had brought with him.
Inside it rested the snake corpse he had killed earlier, coiled and lifeless.
He placed the pink beast core inside the bag carefully, treating it like it was an egg. After all, it was currently his most valuable possession.
Then he slid the chipped knife in as well.
The blade gave a faint clink as it settled inside.
After securing the bag properly, Noah straightened and rose to his feet.
He rolled his shoulders slightly, letting his muscles loosen after kneeling for so long.
Then his gaze lifted toward the deeper parts of the forest ahead.
Tall trees stretched endlessly into the distance, their thick branches weaving together to form a canopy that dimmed the sunlight above.
It was quiet.
But Noah’s thoughts were already moving ahead.
’Completing the quest once isn’t enough...’
His eyes narrowed slightly.
I need to do it at least twice.
Almost as if responding to his thoughts, a familiar translucent screen appeared in front of his vision.
The glowing text floated clearly in the air.
[Weekly Quests: Hunt 5 mana beasts (2/5)]
[Reward: 50 EXP, 5 Supreme Points]
[Penalty for failure: None$&@?]
Noah stared at the final line for a moment.
Two out of five, which meant he still needed three more.
Three more mana beasts to complete the quest again.
His lips curved faintly.
"That’s very doable."
Considering he had already fought a wolf pack and survived without serious injury, hunting three more mana beasts didn’t feel difficult at all.
Especially now that his skills had improved.
He lifted his bag slightly on his shoulder and stepped forward.
Dry leaves crunched softly under his boots as he began moving deeper into the forest.
*
A few minutes later.
Noah was kneeling beside another corpse.
This time, it wasn’t a wolf.
Instead, the body lying on the forest floor belonged to a large black rat.
The creature was roughly the size of a dog.
The chest area was completely roasted.
The fur there had turned black and brittle, clinging weakly to the charred flesh beneath it.
A strong burnt smell lingered in the air.
The middle of the rat’s torso had been crudely torn open.
The flesh around the wound looked jagged and uneven, clearly cut apart using a blade after being damaged by an explosion.
The marks left behind by Lightning Ball were unmistakable.
Despite the brutal condition of the corpse, Noah’s attention wasn’t focused on the rat’s body.
Instead, his gaze rested on the small crystal in his hand.
A smirk slowly formed on his face.
The crystal looked different from the wolf’s beast core.
That one had been pink.
This one was nearly colorless.
The surface of the crystal was transparent, allowing light to pass through it easily.
But within the clear core, a soft red tint pulsed faintly.
Noah turned the core slightly, watching the faint red glow shift inside it.
"Another one..." he murmured.
The faint heat radiating from the crystal made its elemental affinity obvious.
Fire.
However, unlike the wolf, the rat hadn’t been able to use its element to attack despite also being an advanced grade mana beast.
At that exact moment, another system screen appeared in front of his eyes.
[Weekly Quest: Hunt 5 mana beasts (5/5)]
[Status: Completed]
[Reward Granted: 50 EXP, 5 Supreme Points]
Noah glanced at it briefly.
Then he gave a small nod of satisfaction.
Without hesitation, he raised his hand and casually swiped the screen aside.
The notification vanished instantly.
Just like he had planned, he had indeed hunted three more mana beasts after leaving the wolves’ territory.
The large black rat had simply been the final one.
With that kill...
He had completed the quest one more time.
