When he got to the library,
the largest building he had seen in the academy so far,
he walked the pavement floors for what felt like hours until he finally came into view of a mini forest—
the one right behind the library.
"Get to the Willow Forest, locate the twin large oak trees. Sounds simple enough," he said to himself, taking a moment to admire the view.
He wasn't exactly sure of the location but remembered clues from the novel's scene,
where the hero chased down a minor antagonist who had been part of a terrorist attack on the school.
The scene vaguely described how Vince, the minor antagonist, stumbled upon a pill that not only healed his injuries but also enhanced his stats.
"Ninety meters north of Liberty's Willow Forest, between two large oak trees," he muttered while pacing back and forth, searching.
After hours of searching, he finally found two large oak trees about twenty meters apart.
He circled the area between them until he finally spotted a tree with branches growing in a strangely twisted, almost unnatural way.
"This should be the spot."
"…I… I'll admit, identifying a large oak tree within a forest of large trees was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be," he said mockingly in exhaustion.
After a moment of rest,
he removed gloves and reagents he had spent countless points acquiring.
He hoped it would work as it should—after all, he knew close to nothing about alchemy.
It would have been better to get help from a professional, he thought to himself,
but he knew he couldn't risk it.
He had no reply ready if someone asked why he needed a potion made from a burrow rat's tail, decayed essence-blood of a razortooth elk, a treant tree's branch, and other, much more disturbing materials.
Or how he knew ingredients for a potion only grave robbers ever made use of.
After putting on the gloves, he uncapped the potion's bottle, pouring its contents beneath the tree.
He waited until he felt tremors from underneath.
"It worked!" he exclaimed excitedly.
He heard the sound of gears turning and immediately stepped back five feet as the floor beneath the tree slid away, revealing a spiral staircase descending into the dark.
He took out a flashlight from his backpack before entering.
The walls were narrow, filled with cobwebs, and his steps echoed all the way down.
When he stepped off the last stair, torches hanging from the cave's walls flickered to life, lighting up a small room about the size of a classroom.
In the middle stood a wooden coffin, covered in dust and cracks.
Liam slowly drew his sword, After switching off his flashlight.
His arms trembled, fidgeting.
He walked as quietly as he could toward the coffin.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed a shadow shift against the wall, moving in on him.
BAM!
He dodged just in time as a thick, long vine slammed into the floor.
He raised his guard, tracing with his eyes the vine back to the wall, where he noticed the source—
a grotesque creature with multiple tentacle-like vines sprouting from a stump embedded in the stone.
"Corpse Vine," Liam murmured softly, adjusting his sword.
"An E-rank monster that grows in cemeteries or near the presence of death energy."
It was briefly mentioned in the novel how Vince had easily dispatched it.
But he was no Vince.
As weak as he was, an E-rank monster basically spelled doom.
The monster, after realizing its first strike had failed, began raining down attacks relentlessly.
BAM! BOOM! BAM!
He used agility that would put most athletes from his old world to shame to dodge the first few strikes.
But when the number of vines increased to the point he had no space left to evade, he slashed down at one whipping toward his face.
He cut through vine after vine, slowly advancing toward the creature's core in the wall.
Just as he closed the distance, a hidden vine struck him hard, sending him crashing against the wall.
THUD!
Liam hit the ground face-first, dust settling around him.
"Arghhh…"
He groaned in pain, rolling away as another vine slammed down where he had just been.
Jumping to his feet,
Liam stepped onto a vine beside him and charged forward at full speed toward the core.
The monster, more relentless than ever, lashed out with every vine it had, striking at him in a frenzy.
"Not this time," Liam murmured.
With a thought, he activated his unique skill: [Focus].
The world seemed to slow down, the vines moving sluggishly as if time itself had bent to his will.
He darted forward, using the vines as footholds, cutting them down one after another with precise, calculated strikes.
Channeling the last of his mana into his sword, he gripped the handle and hurled it like a javelin with all his strength toward the monster's core.
SHIIING!
The blade pierced deep.
The vine monster thrashed violently before collapsing, all of its tendrils falling limp.
"Arghhh… It hurts…" Liam groaned, stretching his body in pain.
He walked up to the monster, chuckling humorlessly.
"Who would have thought that I, an F-rank, would slay an E-rank this easily?" he said, kicking the corpse for the sheer satisfaction of it.
After catching his breath,
he returned to his bag and took out a small gecko.
"Sorry, buddy, it's you or me," he muttered, tightening his grip around it to stop it from escaping.
When he reached the coffin, he dropped the gecko on top.
It screeched and writhed in pain, cursed by the coffin's lingering malice—the first living thing to touch it.
"Probably why the Corpse Vine grew on the wall instead of the coffin," he muttered.
When the gecko finally died, he lifted the lid, grateful he still had the gloves on.
"Ughhh… it stinks," he groaned.
"Should've worn a mask too."
Inside was a corpse reduced to little more than bones and rags.
The body clutched a book, a porcelain-white pill bottle, and a ring still on its left hand.
He reached in and grabbed the book.
The moment he pulled, the bones and clothes crumbled to dust.
"Arghh, the dust got on my face," Liam groaned in disgust.
After carefully placing the book aside,
he reached back for the bottle and the ring.
"My precious…" he muttered with a mad grin.
Once he had everything,
he wrapped the items in a plastic bag and gently placed them into his backpack.