Rhett simultaneously experienced two conflicting sensations: one side felt like heaven, the other like hell. The intense push and pull strained his nerves, causing his body to tremble slightly.
"Huff, huff, huff..." Rhett's breathing became heavy as he felt the changes within his body. Although both the pleasure and the pain were extreme, he didn't sense any immediate danger—he could endure for a long time.
"Continue!" Rhett's eyes were resolute as he prepared to direct the shell toward another magical beast.
However, at that moment, the shell seemed to fall silent. The continuous devouring force it emitted vanished. After consuming two magical beasts in a row, the shell had evidently entered a brief cooldown period.
Uncertain of how long this state would last, Rhett pondered for a moment before taking out a Blood Source Orb from his pocket.
Opening his mouth, he decisively swallowed it!
Similarly, he had tested this in the simulation: consuming the Blood Source Orb and the backlash from the artifact simultaneously did not cause conflicts within his body. Although it intensified the pain, at least he wouldn't completely lose his rationality and could still persevere.
As the Blood Source Orb settled in his stomach, a violent energy rampaged through his body, far more aggressively than the subtle enhancement from the purple mist. This was Rhett's immediate impression. Even though the energy was immense—much more than what the magical beasts' backlash provided—he felt that, on a fundamental level, the artifact's enhancement was overwhelmingly superior. The torment it inflicted directly affected the core of his being and soul, leaving him unable to pinpoint its origin.
Rhett speculated that an alchemist at the Saint Realm level might be able to suppress the side effects of the Blood Source Orb to some extent, but would likely be helpless against the artifact shard. This had been confirmed in a previous simulation when Hypaster, despite gathering allies, could do nothing against the shell.
After refining the Blood Source Orb, the shell in his hand had already regained its devouring force. Rhett could feel it and, after some consideration, concluded that while the Blood Source Orb provided a more substantial boost than the artifact shard, the artifact's effect was still far superior to the Aurora Potion. Therefore, in future simulations, he could forgo the Aurora Potion and instead maximize efficiency by combining the Blood Source Orb with the artifact shard.
After all, the Blood Source Orb required the consumption of numerous extraordinary beings to fully recharge, while the artifact shard, as miraculous as it was, could only devour about ten magical beasts per hour—creating a significant gap between their quantities.
Rhett then immersed himself in what could only be described as a suicidal training regimen.
Even when Tuck, Taylors, and Dick returned half a day later, they couldn't deter Rhett from his course.
After a day and night passed, Rhett's skin began to crack open, his eyes were bloodshot, and although he still maintained his human form, purple blood oozed from his body, making him appear terrifyingly gruesome.
"Father! Why have you become like this?" Taylors cried out in horror, grabbing Rhett's arm. "Please, Father, stop harming yourself…"
Tuck, too, was frantic, pacing around Rhett like a trapped animal, but every time he tried to forcibly intervene, he was repelled by a powerful force of shock!
"Cough, it's fine, Taylors, Tuck. Everything... is for the beauty of reality," Rhett murmured, speaking in a sharp voice that others could hardly understand, his throat deformed from the severe damage.
With that, he chose to end the simulation.
Buzz
Ripples appeared before his eyes, and the surrounding scenery seemed unchanged. Although a day and night had passed, both the time and place remained the same. Once again, he found himself alone.
Rhett stared blankly at the glowing screen before him.
[Real Simulation Complete. Please choose one attribute to retain.]
[1. Physique]
[2. Battle Qi]
[3. Mental Power]
"I choose Mental Power."
Emerging from the depths of an almost delirious state, Rhett was momentarily disoriented. A smile of relief spread across his face as he returned to full clarity—regaining his clear-headedness felt wonderful!
After enduring hundreds of instances of backlash and the ravages of the Blood Source Orb, Rhett was deeply affected by the compounded state of torment. Toward the end, his rationality had nearly dissolved, leaving him to act purely on instinct and willpower.
But the improvement was undeniable, making all his suffering worthwhile!
The immense mental power now flowed like a gentle rain in his mind, soothing him deeply. Unlike the euphoric, almost intoxicating feeling from the artifact's enhancement, this felt serene, reaching into his soul with no side effects whatsoever.
Soon, the soothing sensation faded—it was only a single simulation's worth of improvement, after all.
Rhett took a moment to assess his progress. The efficiency of this simulation training was tenfold better than before. Previously, in real simulations, the purple Blood Source Orb had only played a minor role, with most of the time spent consuming potions. But now, the artifact shard's effects, though not as potent as the Blood Source Orb, far exceeded those of the Aurora Potion.
Before this round of simulation training, Rhett's strength had been at the early stages of a Level Six Magister. Yet, after just one round of training, it felt as though he had made significant progress. With this increase in efficiency, it seemed that only a few hundred more Destiny Points would be needed to push him to the peak of Level Six.
Having spent over half a month in the Dark Mountains, Rhett hadn't been idle—while collecting third-level magical beast corpses, he had also gathered a considerable amount of Destiny Points with Dick's help.
Glancing at his status panel, Rhett noted the [Destiny Points: 429] displayed at the bottom, contemplating, "This should be enough. Let's keep going and aim to reach the peak first!"
[Would you like to initiate a Real Simulation? Each day of simulation costs 1 Destiny Point.]
"Yes, simulate one day!"
Time flew by rapidly, with one day in the outside world feeling like a year in the simulation.
After over three hundred simulations, Rhett endured countless rounds of torment, relying on his strong willpower to push through each time.
It wasn't until this round of training that he felt his mental power could no longer advance, his mental sea now approaching its current peak, that he realized he had finally reached the pinnacle of a Level Six Magister.
The next step would be becoming a Grand Magister, an achievement many could only dream of!
"Exhale…"
Rhett let out a long breath. Honestly, despite enduring all that pain, he couldn't ignore it completely.
Reflecting on the upcoming task of breaking through his bottleneck through daily meditation, rather than enduring the relentless torment of the simulations, Rhett felt a small sense of relief.
Chuckling softly, Rhett shook off these thoughts and immediately ended the simulation.
Ripples of light appeared before his eyes, followed by a change in scenery, and the familiar glowing screen emerged.
[Real Simulation Complete. Please choose one attribute to retain.]
[1. Physique]
[2. Battle Qi]
[3. Mental Power]
"I choose Mental Power."
Back in the real world, Rhett took a moment to sense his surroundings and felt a slight increase in his mental power, though it now seemed impossible to progress further, as if an invisible barrier was tightly constraining his entire mind, stronger than any he had faced before!
"Becoming a Grand Magister isn't something easily achieved. Once you cross that threshold, you're considered a formidable force across the continent," Rhett mused silently. He wondered how many days or how much Destiny Points would be needed to cross this barrier with his current talent.
Standing before the small mountain of magical beast corpses, Rhett glanced over them, smiled faintly, and then walked to a nearby rock to rest.
By the time Tuck, Taylors, and Dick returned, it had transitioned from morning to dusk. The sky was tinged with golden hues, and today's sunset, though not particularly vibrant, was beautifully serene.
Along with the trio came Taroo and a dozen other extraordinary beings. Rhett gave them a quick glance, his eyes lingering for a few seconds on a black-robed woman among them, before he smiled and walked over.
"Taroo, I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly. I thought I wouldn't see you until nightfall."
"Mr. Rhett, I wouldn't dare delay your orders. As soon as I got the message, I rushed to notify the extraordinary beings in town, and we came right away," Taroo replied warmly. He was dressed in black leather armor—though its defense wasn't exceptional, it offered greater flexibility.
He stepped forward eagerly and asked, "Mr. Rhett, I heard you called for me to arrange a barbecue?"
As he spoke, Taroo's gaze briefly flicked to the small mountain of magical beast corpses, secretly marveling. This Magister's behavior was certainly peculiar—having people collect over two hundred magical beast corpses, he had assumed they were for some special purpose. In fact, he had even speculated that it might be for some dark alchemical experiment.
But it turned out to be just for a barbecue?
"That's over two thousand gold coins right there! I couldn't dream of such wealth. But then again, you can't compare yourself to others—after all, a Level Six Magister can afford to be this extravagant," Taroo thought to himself.
"Yes, I want this barbecue to be lively. This trip is all about having fun," Rhett said nonchalantly. "By the way, there's no need to continue hunting magical beasts for me."
"Understood, Mr. Rhett," Taroo nodded.
"But... I do have an additional task that I need your help with," Rhett said thoughtfully.
Taroo hesitated for a moment, then quickly replied, "There's no need to talk about trouble, Mr. Rhett. Even on the open market, your bounty for hunting magical beasts was generous, which was a blessing for us. If there's anything else you need, please just let us know, and we'll do our best to help."
"I'm looking for someone who might have lived in Withered Vine Town for a while. Since you're familiar with the area, I hope you can help me find him."
"Do you have any information about this person? Such as their habits, hobbies, skills, appearance, etc.? The more details, the easier it will be for us to find them."
"Let me think... He has an older appearance, a square face, black hair, blue eyes, and his strength should be around the third level—he's a knight," Rhett described.
Taroo took note of Rhett's requirements and nodded, saying, "Understood, Mr. Rhett. Leave it to me, and I'll make sure we find him."
"Thank you," Rhett smiled, then turned to address the dozen extraordinary beings gathered around Taroo, "Since you're all mercenaries here, this task is open to everyone. Whoever finds this person in Withered Vine Town will receive a five hundred gold coin reward!"
His words caused a stir.
"Five hundred? That's an incredible bounty!"
"Wow, I have to find this guy."
"Oh my, Sina, we have to take on this task—you're good with faces, do you recognize him?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure. With so many people coming and going in Withered Vine Town, it's possible he arrived in recent years. But we can start by checking all the inns..." The black-robed woman and the middle-aged knight beside her exchanged excited glances, their behavior close and familiar.
Rhett smiled faintly as he watched the couple in the crowd, thinking to himself that everything was falling into place.
In fact, before asking Taroo to hunt third-level magical beasts for him, Rhett hadn't known that he was acquainted with Sina—the lucky one who, in the previous simulation, would have obtained the dark spirit. Over the past few days, the two had even crossed paths while hunting beasts for Rhett.
So, when Rhett learned of their good relationship with Taroo and that the couple was well-regarded, he began to form another plan.
Originally, he had intended to intercept the couple on December 17th—half a month from now—and scare them off so that Taylors could acquire the spirit. But now that he knew them, he decided to take a gentler approach. After all, it was no trouble for him to do so.
"Mr. Rhett, you're generous and lavish, a rarity in Withered Vine Town," Taroo said with a slight smile.
"Don't mention it," Rhett replied casually. "The task of preparing the food is yours. Don't say I'm lazy."
"Mr. Rhett, you're too funny. Of course, we'll take care of such a small matter," one of the middle-aged knights, who happened to be Sina's husband, said enthusiastically.
"Yes, Mr. Rhett, just let us know which beast you'd like to eat," Sina added with a light laugh, holding onto the knight's arm.
"Thank you," Rhett said, glancing at the couple with a smile. "You two seem capable; I have a feeling you'll complete the task of finding this person for me."
"Really? Well, if Mr. Rhett says so, we're even more motivated!" the couple replied politely, thinking he was joking.
That night, a grand barbecue party was held at Goldcrest Peak.
The extraordinary beings sang and danced, enjoying a lively and harmonious atmosphere. Though two fourth-level magical beasts attempted to disrupt the gathering, Rhett effortlessly dispatched them, adding to the feast.
The next day, after everything had settled, Rhett made an excuse to leave, taking Tuck, Taylors, and Dick with him as they ventured deeper into the Dark Mountains.
Half a month later...
In the deeper regions of the Dark Mountains...
As dawn began to break, Rhett cautiously walked through an area of soft soil, a growing sense of unease gnawing at him.
Silence.
An eerie, deathly silence.
This wasn't normal for a forest—at the very least, there should have been the sounds of insects and birds. But for the past couple of hours, these noises had vanished entirely.