The sound of clanging iron could be heard before they even arrived.
"Mi Duo, why are you so late today? Master is unhappy." A young man with a bare chest, revealing a body of bulging muscles, said to Li Xi.
Li Xi looked around, not seeing his stern master,
"Where is Master?"
"Master went to repair armor for Lord Nas."
Nas was a down-on-his-luck knight who had been injured years ago and his strength had greatly diminished. He lived frugly and couldn't afford a better blacksmith, so he had to use cheap ones like them, considered high-end customers of the blacksmith shop.
Hearing that his master was not around, Li Xi walked into the blacksmith shop and went straight to a warehouse. Inside were all sorts of iron weapons, farm tools, and some household items.
Li Xi quickly picked out twenty steel needles, each about the length of a palm and as thick as a pair of chopsticks, and packed them in his clothes.
These steel needles were meant for sewing leather armor. Since they lacked sufficient hardness and there was no time to reforge them, they were left to gather dust in the warehouse.
"Andy, I'm going out to do something. Tell Master when you see him."
Andy was about to ask, "What are you doing?" when he saw Li Xi turn and disappear.
Upon reaching the city gate, Li Xi saw a bustling crowd of people entering and exiting, as well as countless beggars. People occasionally collapsed and were quickly dragged away by the city guards. As for their fate, Li Xi was sure it wouldn't be good.
As soon as he stepped out of the city gate, he saw a young priest sitting behind a table. He wore a white priestly robe embroidered with a wheat ear pattern on the chest. He looked to be just an adult, not much older than Li Xi, yet his skin was delicate and his complexion was radiant, completely unlike Li Xi's dark skin and peasant appearance.
The wheat ear was the symbol of the goddess of agriculture. Each deity had its own emblem, and ordinary people could identify them. More knowledgeable individuals could even discern the priest's identity from the emblem. The previous owner, Mi Duo, was a dull person and didn't know much about these specialized matters, only recognizing a few common ones.
Li Xi directly handed over the quest token. The priest glanced up and knew this was another F-rank rookie, most likely here to just pick up a quest.
He pointed to the endless wheat fields in the distance, "The wheat fields outside this city all belong to the God of Agriculture's church. You can go anywhere, but remember to return before dark. Do not trample the seedlings. There are some tenant farmers working inside. Hand over any beasts you hunt to them."
"Yes."
Li Xi couldn't afford to offend such an important person at the moment, so he naturally agreed to whatever was said.
...
Li Xi entered the wheat fields, two steel needles already in his hands. This异世界 (yì shìjiè - another world) was not like his previous life. It was difficult to encounter a living creature in the wild. The wildlife here reproduced at an extremely high rate and usually needed to be culled regularly. Now, due to the influence of abyssal energy, their attack power had increased significantly since before the great chaos.
Simply put, herbivores could eat meat when necessary, and carnivores dared to attack humans directly.
Li Xi carefully sensed the movements in the wheat fields and soon heard a 'rustling' sound.
This was the sound a reptile made when crawling. The lush wheat stalks obscured the beast's silhouette. Li Xi held his breath, his steel needles poised.
'Rustle'
The sound grew closer. Finally, as the beast approached within five meters of Li Xi, he saw what it looked like.
It was a python with a pair of crimson eyes, its entire body black, and as thick as a large bowl.
As Li Xi saw the python, it immediately reared its head and lunged, its long, forked tongue clearly displaying its backward-facing teeth.
'Swish'
At this moment, even half a second's delay could mean death in the serpent's maw. Two steel needles flew from Li Xi's hands like afterimages.
The python, moving at high speed, was immediately shot through both eyes by Li Xi. The powerful force drove the needles deep into its flesh, piercing its brain.
However, the python's momentum was immense. Even though it was killed in an instant, its body still hurtled towards Li Xi.
Li Xi quickly dodged, and the python's body scraped past his shoulder, hitting the ground with a thud that indented the moist earth.
Looking at the white brain matter oozing from the steel needles and the python's body mixed with red blood, Li Xi's back hairs stood on end, and goosebumps covered his body. In that moment of life and death, he had only focused on how to kill the python; now, a sense of fear began to creep in.
Li Xi's legs felt weak, and he couldn't stand up for a while. After a long time, he managed to shakily get to his feet. He pulled the steel needles from the dead but still wild-smelling python and let out a long sigh, looking at the motionless creature.
He looked up and quickly spotted the tenant farmers mentioned by the priest. In the center of the wheat fields were many wooden houses where the tenant farmers were busy.
Li Xi dragged the python by its tail towards the wooden houses. He approached a few tenant farmers and threw the more than four-meter-long snake onto the ground, "This is the prey I just captured. Please register it for me."
Several tenant farmers, with skin as dry and rough as tree bark, immediately took out a scale to weigh it. "Sir, this snake weighs eighty-five pounds. According to the mission regulations, you can receive a quarter of its weight or its equivalent market price in coin."
Li Xi didn't plan to return after killing just one, so he opted for money. "Give me the coin."
"The market price for this snake is one silver coin. A quarter of that is twenty-five copper coins."
A tenant farmer took out a small slip from the wooden house and handed it to Li Xi. "Sir, take this slip back to the Adventurer's Guild, and you can exchange it for twenty-five copper coins."
Li Xi took the slip and put it in his pocket. He asked, "Can I accept the same quests here repeatedly?"
The tenant farmer nodded. "Yes, sir. The farmland is vast, and many beasts intrude every day. Some even take root in the fields. We don't have enough manpower, so we post quests at the Adventurer's Guild. Many lords come here to do quests every day."
Li Xi nodded thoughtfully and continued walking into the wheat fields.
"Xiao Fan, if I turn in quests every day and take new ones from the Adventurer's Guild, won't I be able to draw rewards from you every day?"
[Master, the same quest can only be drawn for the first time.]
Unable to exploit loopholes, Li Xi thought of another question. "Xiao Fan, will returning to turn in the quest now, versus hunting more prey, affect the reward draw?"
[It does. The better the mission is completed, the greater the chance of receiving high-value rewards.]
Xiao Fan's words made Li Xi stop his steps to return immediately. It went without saying that the rewards for returning now would be dismal, most likely a weapon like a kunai. If he could accumulate the prey for a day or a few days before turning in the quest, the rewarded item would surely be much better.
This wheat field stretched as far as the eye could see. Li Xi dared not venture too far from Kado City. If he encountered a magic beast with his current skills, he would surely die.
So, he decided to wander around here. There weren't any large beasts, but there were plenty of rabbits weighing a dozen pounds, groundhogs, and monkeys.
Although these beasts also possessed attack power, they were well within Li Xi's ability to handle. It was usually a matter of one steel needle.
"Swoosh"
"Swoosh"
"Swish-swish"
His steel needles never missed. If he aimed for the eyes, he hit the eyes, not the eyelids. By afternoon, the slip in his怀 (huái - bosom/pocket) would be worth one silver coin, meaning Li Xi had hunted four hundred pounds of prey.
"This Kunai Throwing Technique is truly amazing. It's a top-tier technique for throwing hidden weapons."
Li Xi continuously spun steel needles between his fingers, like two small fans, creating blurs of motion.
Another hour passed. Li Xi was extremely hungry. He hadn't expected the mission to take so long, and without experience, he hadn't brought any rations.
"Borrowing five gold coins, the monthly interest is two and a half gold coins. With an income of one silver coin a day, it's indeed not enough."
However, Li Xi wasn't worried at all.
He handed three rabbits to the tenant farmers and took the slip. The tenant farmer said, "Sir, it's getting dark. After dark, the priest will perform divine magic, and there will be no beasts in the wheat fields. You should return to the city as soon as possible."
"That's what I was thinking. I'm going now."
Li Xi didn't walk fast in the wheat fields. Since there was still plenty of time, he ambled back slowly.
Less than a hundred meters after Li Xi walked away, the ground suddenly shook. Li Xi stumbled but managed to regain his balance. He saw the seedlings in the wheat fields sway in unison, and many small flying creatures fled in panic.
"An earthquake?"
This was Li Xi's first thought.
But the next moment, he refuted his own idea.
Because the wooden houses he had just left collapsed amidst the violent shaking, and then a gaping mouth suddenly opened in the ground. The wooden houses, the tenant farmers inside, and the prey were all swallowed, leaving only a deep pit, or rather, a sinkhole.
Amidst the screams of the tenant farmers, Li Xi took to his heels. Rescuing them was out of the question. With his small arms and legs, he would only become more food for this unknown magic beast. At best, if he mastered his ninjutsu in the future, he could avenge these tenant farmers if he encountered this unknown magic beast again.
Unfortunately, Li Xi hadn't run far, tumbling and scrambling, when he heard a 'buzzing' sound behind him. The sheer density of the sound made his scalp tingle.
It reminded Li Xi of his home on Earth, where in the summer countless mosquitoes would breed on the trees in the courtyard. Half asleep, the sound of mosquitoes was like countless bombers circling around him, just like how he felt now.
Li Xi looked back and saw countless monsters, the size of human heads, resembling flies, flying out from the sinkhole where the wooden houses had been. Their backs were covered with wrinkled skin, sprouting two pairs of wings three times their body length. Their mouths protruded with sharp teeth, and there was no doubt they were carnivorous.
As soon as these monsters flew out from underground, they scattered in all directions, occasionally snatching groundhogs from the wheat fields and throwing them back into the sinkhole, then flying off to other areas. It seemed they were symbiotic monsters of the underground unknown magic beast, specifically hunting food for it.
At the same time, an alarm sounded from the gates of Kado City.
Thanks to the wars during the great chaos, everyone maintained sufficient vigilance and could immediately raise an alarm upon discovering any anomalies.
However, Li Xi wouldn't be able to wait for reinforcements from Kado City, because he was closest to the wooden houses, and many of the monsters had already set their sights on him.
Li Xi touched the steel needles on his body. All twenty were still there. With his skill, he could kill twenty such monsters in an instant. But twenty monsters were a drop in the ocean compared to the explosive overall number.
"Xiao Fan, with death looming, can I at least withdraw my current reward?"
[Master, I do not have that authority. You can only draw after your mission is settled.]
Li Xi gave a wry smile, took out two steel needles, and held them in his hand. "If you won't give it, you won't. Worst case scenario, I'll fight my way out. Maybe I'll even go back to my world if I die."
There was nothing he could do. Facing imminent death, Li Xi could only say such things to boost his morale.
These monsters were incredibly fast, catching up to Li Xi in a few breaths.
Their sharp teeth, an inch long, lunged at Li Xi's body.
'Swoosh'
A steel needle struck the monster's head directly. The monster fell without a sound. Seeing this, Li Xi felt somewhat relieved. These monsters were easy to kill.
Li Xi didn't have time to retrieve the steel needle; the next wave of monsters was already flying towards him.
The beating of their wings was like an illusion. Dozens of them lunged at Li Xi.
Li Xi simply stopped running. Facing them head-on would allow him to last longer. If his back was exposed to the enemy, he would surely die.