In the middle of nowhere, Mark was sitting on the grass in lotus position with dozens of ether crystals poured beside him.
"System, Absorb."
He was taking one of them into his hands, absorbing all the ether energy from it, and took the System's help to refine it.
Within ten minutes, all the sixty-seven ether crystals were absorbed and refined, increasing his ether energy points from 359 to 426.
"I see, low ether crystals only raise 1 point, huh. No wonder it is too tough for the Spirit Warriors to raise their level in a short time." Mark mumbled to himself while taking a look at his stats.
After calculating how much it costs to reach 7-circle, Mark threw away the silly thoughts and proceeded to open the currency exchange tab.
*Ding! You exchanged 2500 gold coins for 500 credits.
"System, open the store."
A list of categories appeared before him. "Items, Attributes, and Skills."
He clicked on items.
A long list appeared before him. Mark didn't waste any time and scrolled down to the Pills section.
*Ding! You purchased the Basic Intelligence pill. 500 credits have been deducted.
"Open Inventory"
He searched for a while before finding the slot with an image of a pitch-black pill with a 4 number on the bottom.
Their shape isn't that of a usual sphere-shaped one like an advancement pill. Instead, they look more like vitamin capsules. When he took one of them out, he could instantly feel the softness like gel.
He swallowed like a capsule. Within a few seconds, the pill entered the stomach and dissolved instantly.
*Ding! Your intelligence is increased by 0.1 points permanently.
Mark didn't feel any difference and proceeded to take the remaining three of them, earning three more similar notifications before the new notification popped, giving him the confirmation about the breakthrough along with another surprising notification.
*Ding! Your Intelligence reached 4 points. Do you wish to break through to rank-4?
"Yes. Proceed."
*Ding! Congratulations, you successfully broke through to rank-4.
*Ding! You completed Main Quest-II. You received 4000 credits as a reward.
*Ding! You receive a new Main Quest.
*Ding! You received a new summon, Lightning Crocodile.
*Ding! You received a new summon, Frosty Roc
*Ding! Your share in the purchases of system-created weapons has been increased from 40% to 50%.
*Ding! You received a new skill, Ice bolt.
*Ding! Your skill, Absolute Freezing has been upgraded.
******
Absolute Freezing: Freeze your surroundings for 60 seconds. Range: 100 meters. Cost: 1000 ether points, CD: 30 minutes.
Ice bolt: Conjure any number of ice spears with your ether energy at any time to launch them at your enemies. Anything that the ice spear pierces will be frozen. Attack strength: 100% power of the user. Range: 100 meters. Cost: 20% ether energy. CD: 0 seconds. Note: The user can only control one spear at one time. The rest will hover around the user.
*******
"Okay, I guess my summons would be strong enough to protect me in the absence of Allen and Alina but need to do something about the ether crystals. Let's hope this trip would be bountiful enough for me to raise my ether energy considerably. Until then, I need to depend on these advancement pills. Seriously, they are a cheat item for me."
Mark was now satisfied with his strength and decided to leave for his next stop, the bandits' village but he practically knows nothing about these Kunyu bandits and the mountain range stretches for a few hundred kilometers from north to south.
He knew that he cannot search through old fashion methods. As he was thinking for an idea, Alina spoke to him after automatically reading his thoughts, "Big Brother, there's still a spy who is alive, the watcher deployed by the palace."
She pointed her finger towards the east where around half a kilometer away, a person is sitting on a horse and is observing them through a piece of high-quality magnifying equipment (binoculars).
The watcher didn't dare to go near to Mark and just spied from distance. He witnessed the eagle and the deaths of the strangers. He couldn't hear them. So, he didn't know what he asked them but either way, he will report it to the Imperial Palace, later.
However, little did he expect, he would also become a victim in Mark's ruthlessness.
Unlike the spies from Sui Clan or the Kunyu bandit, Alina didn't drag him by force nor did she threaten him.
She calmly informed him that Mark wanted to talk to him.
At first, the watcher thought that Mark will probably threaten him to stay quiet about this matter, and in case, he was forced to make an oath, he planned to keep it as secret as it has nothing to do with him.
But then, after reaching Mark, the latter asked him about the Kunyu bandits on how to meet them.
The watcher didn't have any idea what Mark was thinking. Maybe, this guy would warn them because his land is nearby or maybe, he will also extort them, or maybe, he had some other plans.
Whatever the case, it doesn't matter to him and the watcher replied, giving a suggestion, "Lord Lu, you can go through any of the Kunyu valleys that are connected to the Western Yan. If both of you hide your aura like now, they will surely launch an attack for sure."
"Okay, thank you." Mark nodded with a smile before adding, "And should I expect you to follow me if I go to the Kunyu valley?"
The watcher stayed silent, trying to understand the hidden meaning. He replied, "If Lord Lu wants me to stay here, I will do so."
"No, I won't stop you from doing your job." Mark waved his hands with a smile.
The watcher inwardly sighed in relief and bowed to him, before getting onto the back of his horse as Mark stepped forward towards his carriage that was parked about 100 meters away.
But, just after he made two steps, Mark stopped in his tracks and turned around, "Actually, you know what. I don't want to take that risk."
"Alina," He called her name and snapped his finger.
"Sir?" The watcher's face paled as the peerless beauty disappeared and a dagger was pierced from the back of his throat.
He lasted for a few seconds before his body fell on the ground from the horse.
Looking at his corpse, Mark let out a sigh, "sorry but this wasn't personal. I can't risk allowing someone to live who might have a chance to learn about my plans to ruin the Empire."
To not leave any evidence, Mark further ordered Alina to kill the horse too before placing the two corpses into the inventory. He planned to dispose of them later at the third destination.
About an hour later, the horses were seen pulling the carriage as they were slowly walking through the valley.
Alina informed Mark about the presence of bandits who are hiding but the latter didn't care much and told her to drive.
Eventually, they reached halfway into the valley.
And all of a sudden, bandits rushed from left and right.
"Alina, scan the surroundings and tell me what the strength of the strongest person is." Mark gave an order.
While the bandits were about to reach the carriage with various weapons in their hands, Alina quickly followed the order and found the person and reported him, almost within two seconds, "Big Brother, found him. He is in the advanced stage of the six-circle realm."
"An upper elite?" Mark furrowed his brows. He didn't expect such a powerhouse is hiding within bandits. Now, his suspicion of their identities deepened, thereby increasing his excitement.
"Okay, take him down and bring him to me alive." After giving an order, Mark took out an advancement pill from his inventory and swallowed it.
*Ding! You took an advancement pill (intermediate)
*Ding! Each of your stat is increased by 1 point for the next 60 minutes.
*Ding! You temporarily reached rank-5.
*Ding! You temporarily received a new summon, Lightning wolf.
*Ding! You temporarily received a new summon, Tundra Bear
*Ding! Ether energy temporarily increased to 100,000 points.
As Alina jumped away from the carriage and quickly rushed away, the bandits who reached the place thought that she was escaping. Someone wanted to shout about catching her but she already left their sight.
It was then the door of the carriage is opened and Mark stepped down. His eyes fell on the bandits surrounding his horse carriage from all the sides. To his surprise, several of them have pistols and revolvers in their hands.
Looking at his luxurious clothes, the eyes of the bandits lit up. A captain bandit who was at 3-circle realm walked forward in confidence after sensing there's no ether in Mark and spoke, "Leave your belongings here and come with us in peace. Or else…"
There's a revolver in his hand. He shot the bullet into the sky and then, pointed at Mark, "the next thing that will blow up is your head."
Mark stared around with a frown on his face. "How do you get so many firearms with you?"
At first, he wondered whether it is the Lin Clan but pushed away from the thought as Lin Xue mostly buys Semi-Automatic guns, every day.
A figure appeared in his mind.
Before he gets to confirm his suspicions, the captain shouted, "Quit asking nonsense questions and surrender if you want to leave. I'll give you five seconds."
"5, 4, 3…"
As the captain bandit was counting down the numbers with the revolver aiming at Mark's forehead, the latter replied, "well, too bad that I won't give you the time to think."
"Come out, foxy."
In an instant, a blinding flash of lights appeared beside him, pushing all the bandits including the horse carriage away slightly away to clear the space, and after five seconds, a pure white fox, which is bigger than Mark appeared on the spot.
