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In the Beastmen nation—tucked up in the northern region—it took Riku about three full days to reach the area, even at his current speed.
Along the way, he casually took out some demonkin and earned a clean 2,000 exchange points. With his current strength, he no longer had to avoid every weakling like before.
As long as he didn't run into any top-tier races, he could handle pretty much anything. Even if he did face a high-ranked race, as long as it wasn't a monster like Jibril, he could still get away.
He didn't just kill demonkin either—he also found five treasure chests along the way.
One was even a silver chest, while the other four were bronze.
Sadly, the loot this time... was kinda lame.
The four bronze chests? Total trash.
At least for Riku, right now, they were worthless.
"Hacker Master" skill — What's he gonna do with that in this world? Hack a goblin battleship? Yeah, no. This thing was based on Earth tech…
A revolver with unlimited bullets — Like that's gonna work on anyone in this world except maybe random humans or beasts.
An extra-potent stink bomb — Riku nearly chucked it on the spot. He grimaced and tossed it into his storage space instead.
The only half-decent bronze chest item was some high-tech gear that could generate clothes from surrounding particles. Kinda useful for daily life, but zero combat benefit.
As for the silver chest—the item inside was... well, hit or miss.
It was a Zanpakutō from Bleach. Just a basic one. He'd still have to awaken it and go through the whole process. Kinda annoying.
And with how strong Riku was already, a Zanpakutō wasn't exactly going to be a game-changer.
"Looks like the Beastmen capital's still a few hours away," Riku muttered, scanning the map. "But there's a gold-tier chest nearby. If I go for it, it'll take a few extra hours."
He thought about it.
"Eh, might as well go for the gold one first. Could give me a solid backup plan. Better to be safe before heading into Beastmen territory." With that, he changed course.
Three hours later, he reached a deep, narrow gorge. The place gave off a super creepy vibe—like something bad was about to happen.
Even Riku frowned. He had a bad feeling.
Suddenly—sssshhkkk!
Some weird hissing sounds echoed around him, and he turned toward the noise. His golden eyes narrowed.
Behind him... were several giant, rotting serpents slithering forward, tongues flicking.
And from all around, more demonkin and mountain spirits appeared.
"Great. Guess I just stumbled right into a demonkin nest," Riku sighed. "Knew it wasn't gonna be that easy."
Silver and bronze chests might be free loot, but gold-tier? Totally different story.
"SSSSHHHHRRAAA!" One of the giant rotten snakes suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of black mist straight at Riku. Even the rocks it touched started to rot—obviously extremely poisonous.
Riku's expression tightened. He stomped the ground hard, blasting upward like a missile and leaving a crater behind.
With Transcendent Step, he easily soared a hundred meters into the air. Spirit energy surged in his hand.
"Projection."
With that word, a bow and a pseudo–Drill Sword appeared in his hands.
"Fwooooosh—!"
He nocked the Drill Sword like an arrow, pulled back, and fired straight down.
A sharp whistle tore through the air as the sword slammed into one of the rotting snakes, piercing it hard. It let out a hideous screech, black blood spraying everywhere.
BOOOOOM—!
It was like a missile hit. The explosion rocked the area, tearing several other snakes to bits.
And he wasn't done yet.
Riku kept firing—arrow after arrow, sword after sword.
The explosions echoed through the canyon, rocks flying everywhere as the entire valley shook.
Below him, the demonkin were blown to pieces—completely annihilated.
"....."