Water!

It turned out Rollan the Contractor was right about exhausting oneself to absorb more evolution gems.

Rin had exhausted his mana and stamina both in the fight, so when he tried to put the NPCs' words into practice, it worked. He was able to absorb two Spirit and four Physique enhancing gems, enabling him to a total boost of + 0.7 and + 0.3 in Physique and Spirit, respectively.

However, that still left him with over a couple dozen gems, including the Agility enhancing gems that Rollan left as they were seemingly of no use to him. All of them would take a couple of days, no matter how much he exhausted himself.

Of course, he didn't have Agility as an awakened attribute, but believing the NPC's word, Rin kept them all, intending to exchange them with other players.

Anyway, the refreshing boost from absorbing the handful of gems was enough to keep Rin on the path, although he was way stealthier now than he had been in the first place. Partially because of what happened with Rollan coming up with the wolves, but broadly because of the Shred.

Ignoring its awful strength, Rin genuinely didn't want to struggle with such a disgusting monster, no matter how glorious rewards it gave. Well, not until he could deal with it in a couple of blows and remain unscathed.

Rin was going to choose his opponents from now on.

Even if some people in need presented themselves before him, he would simply ignore them if the circumstances were against him. Well, that would be unbecoming of the name he cultivated in his years as a pro, but Rin couldn't care less about what he did when he was a teen.

Moving through the thick trees, Rin came to rocky terrains, carrying on under the scorching sun and humid atmosphere. After moving on for about an hour, he found what he was looking for.

Water. A whole lot of them.

There was a fucking stream on the other side of the high ridge. Delight spread across Rin's face, as he didn't wait there ceremoniously. He almost had the impulse to jump into the steam. Thankfully, he collected himself, remembering the pain was real and the surface of the water was easily fifty metres down from the ridge.

Augmented attributes or not, this could kill him easily if he dived wrongly. Thus, Rin didn't take chances and climbed down the ridge slowly. He only descended when he could time and balance the dive correctly, which was when he was barely a few metres away.

The water was warmer than what Rin would have liked, but he swam with unbridled delight, washing himself off from all the filth and reek.

"Oh, water, how much I missed you!"

The sun fell low almost abruptly, as a glow of dark red cascade around the open sky. Rin got out of the water after he was completely satisfied with his bath. He stripped most of his dresses—which were already in rags—and spread them on the boulders on the banks.

"So no censorship," Rin said, arching an eyebrow, looking down at his groin.

Then he started practising with his only ability: Mana Cloak. This ability had been invaluable in all his fights so far. He needed to grow more comfortable with it before jumping into another fight.

Besides, he was planning to exhaust his mana and absorb a couple more of the Spirit enhancing gems. Physique could wait, Rin was in need of a large amount of mana as soon as possible.

Rin had stayed there for about an hour before hitting the road again, keeping a note in mind about the stream in case he needed to clean himself again, which he guessed would be sooner than he hoped.

Rin found more than enough evidence of the movements of the Deadmen in this region to be sure of it. Well, he would be fine if it were only the normal ones, even a single Shred would be the end of his in this beta program.