Chapter 134 Collector
The fight had been quite intense with the Vermin Rat's high agility and unique properties.
Even killing it was not without danger.
A single scratch of the Vermin Rat would have been enough to poison and kill Liam and the others. That was why the others were wary of attacking it, fearing its highly lethal poison. Liam's claws ached quite a bit as he washed off the blood of the Vermin rat in the sewers' water.
It was not the best solution, but it certainly helped him in getting rid of the burning corrosive blood of the Vermin rat.
Once his claws were somewhat clean, he purchased some water to thoroughly clean them properly this time.
The Kikal Stalks shouldn't get damaged by coming in contact with the water of the sewers. That would be the worst that could happen!
"Liam! Are you fine?!"
The others rushed to him when they saw what had happened. Seeing the burned skin all over his claws and the blotched patches of scorched flesh on his face, shivers ran down their spines. They stared blankly at Liam who nodded his head.
"This is nothing."
'...Nothing? Does this really look like nothing to you?!' They wondered, but nobody said anything.
They looked at Liam, who released his Arcane Power to shroud the Vermin Rat's carcass. He stored the carcass in the Storage Rune and turned around to them.
"Let's collect the Kikal Stalks and devour the Spawn of Ancient Vermin Draklings first. We also need a few more monster carcasses, but that shouldn't be a problem."
Liam retrieved the Livral Orb. He accessed it and targeted the Spawn of Ancient Vermin Draklings without a second thought.
Huge fangs, glistening in a bright white color manifested on the ground around the Spawn in the next few seconds.
Once hundreds of huge fangs manifested, a huge maw snapped out of the ground, devouring the levitating liquid mass.
[The Livral Orb devoured the Spawn of the Ancient Vermin Draklings]
[Digesting the Spawn requires 100 hours. The produced Arcane Power will be stored in the Livral Orb's storage, and can then be used, or sold at will!]
'100 hours? That's longer than expected.'
Liam believed that the Livral Orb's digestion was a constant process that couldn't be accelerated or decelerated. Thus, the time limit of 100 hours indicated that the Spawn of the Ancient Vermin Draklings was either four times more complicated to digest, or that the amount of Arcane Power produced from the digestion would be more than four times higher than what he had obtained from the Lesser Rift of the Shedim.
The corners of his lips twitched as he stepped closer to the center of the intersection. He retrieved the Chain of Miniature tools and retrieved a particular tool. It looks a little weird but it was a small hand shovel with sharp edges and fork-like metal branched at the tip. No matter which type of plant he wanted to collect, this tool was everything he needed.
Liam didn't want to damage the Kikal Stalk for the time being. Creating the Kikal Tonic with Kikal Stalks of the best quality would logically result in a tonic with higher potency.
Others might not bother about this because a lower potency meant that the survivability upon eating the Kikal Stalk would increase drastically. However, Liam was far from normal.
He bent down the moment he reached the small field of Kikal Stalks.
"You guys pay attention to the surroundings. Don't let any monster bite you, otherwise, you're dead meat in ten seconds, or even less."
Liam's warning caused the others to stiffen, but it was not as if they hadn't noticed how dangerous the monsters in the sewers had been.
The fact that Liam, with a Vitality stat at [S], sustained serious burns from the Vermin Rat's blood was already more than enough to understand how dangerous their current situation was.
Everyone carefully channeled Arcane Power into their nightvision glasses, while vigilantly observing the other tunnels. The eerie atmosphere and the reeking stench of the underground sewer didn't really make things easier for everyone, but they were faring much better than Liam had expected.
He was actually pretty sure that some of them wouldn't be able to endure the pressure in the dark and eerie underground. At least, after they encountered the Vermin Rat, some of them should have panicked a little.
However, contrary to his expectations, even Jennie was doing pretty well.
In less than 20 minutes the entire field of Kikal Stalks had been collected and stored inside the Storage Rune.
"Let's hunt a few monsters before we leave this place."
Now that he was done, his mood was much better. Ready to kill a few more Vermin Rats and other monsters from the sewers, he walked into one of the tunnels.
The others lost sight of him once he went past the 20 meters threshold they could see in the dark. They were startled and swiftly followed him.
It didn't take long before they caught up to Liam. He had halted in his tracks and pointed in front of them.
"There are five more Vermin Rats. They're feasting on a corpse. Close your eyes for a moment."
Liam retrieved the Arcane Kunai and several Lumina Needles. The Arcane Kunai flew quietly through the air. At the same time, he channeled Arcane Power inside one of the Lumina Needles while quietly inching closer to the five Vermin Rats. Once he was close enough to throw the Lumina Needles above them, he did exactly that.
The Lumina Needles began to shine in a dazzling light that spread across the entire tunnel and illuminated it. The Vermin Rats hadn't expected the dazzling light and they looked straight into it, blinding them for several seconds.
Pained squeaks resounded through the tunnel, while Liam dashed forward. The Arcane Kunai accelerated as well, piercing through the weak defenses of the Vermin Rats before they could even react.
Moving according to his Will, the Arcane Kunai moved zig-zag, piercing through each of the Vermin Rat's necks, leaving no leeway.
'I should really upgrade the Arcane Kunai soon. This Relic is too powerful to be left at such a low rank!'