52 - That's Not How You Use a Wand!

---Third POV---

ProGamer_Daddy took a deep breath and shouted into the distance.

"Someone come help collect the corpses! Whoever helps can keep 20% of the red-scaled worm remains!"

A few breaths later, the sound of footsteps heading toward them echoed through the swamp.

"You're letting us collect the bodies? Count me in!"

Grinning broadly, ProGamer_Daddy tilted his chin slightly upward. "Alright, that's settled!"

Hedgehog raised a thumb in admiration. "You're still the craftiest of us, Daddy."

The red-scaled worms were enormous, and after the battle, their bodies had been shredded by the four of them. Less than half of the remains were usable.

Yet ProGamer_Daddy only offered 20%! He was blatantly taking advantage of the other players' ignorance about the worms to exploit their curiosity and labor.

"Ahem, as long as it gets the job done," NeverShowOff said, avoiding eye contact guiltily. 

Initially, he had planned to dispose of the worms by digging a pit and burying them, considering the summer heat would quickly make the corpses rot and create further problems. But since this method saved effort, who wouldn't prefer an easier solution?

The three of them recruited two new players to help, and before long, the giant worm carcasses were hauled back to Honeyvale Town.

The two new players, who had no idea what the red-scaled worms could be used for, happily took their share of the monster remains to experiment with.

The only one who stayed behind to watch was GoldenBoy, the blue gown player who had chatted with Hedgehog on the first day.

Seeing the pile of suspiciously shaped, deep-red mushy meat on the ground, his expression was complicated.

"Shouldn't this stuff end up in a landfill?"

Because the players were so rough while carrying the worm remains, they were now covered in grass, leaves, and dirt from the road.

ProGamer_Daddy raised an eyebrow defiantly. "Don't judge it by its looks—it tastes pretty good!"

He picked out a relatively intact piece of meat.

"Look here, this is belly meat—definitely tender! Help us out one more time, and we'll share our dinner with you tonight!"

GoldenBoy shook his head like a rattle drum.

"No thanks. I'm not interested in eating monster meat!"

He was just here to watch the spectacle, but the remains were so mutilated that he couldn't even piece together what the creature originally looked like.

Hedgehog's expression wasn't much better.

"This thing… can it really be eaten?"

He hadn't tried it before. Was this a joke?

The two veteran players nodded firmly.

ProGamer_Daddy, in particular, seemed completely unbothered by the fact that he had just rummaged through the worms' insides for loot. He carefully placed the meat into a wooden bucket.

"Don't let its species bias you—it's savory!"

Though, truth be told, he couldn't actually remember if the red-scaled worm meat tasted good. But he distinctly remembered it being salty.

In a game where their daily diet consisted of nothing but sweet fruits, having something with a different flavor was a rare treat. It had even influenced his real-life eating habits—he had started craving heavily salted and oily meals offline.

"Besides, all it eats are wild fruits. From the feed up, this is premium, all-natural, eco-friendly, toxin-free meat!"

GoldenBoy hesitated.

"I recall it also eats rotting leaves—the kind that smell like a compost bin."

"..."

ProGamer_Daddy clutched his chest. "Ouch, that hurts."

He just wanted to improve his meals. Why did they have to bring up the ugly truth?

Eating the meat of an unknown creature was hard enough to stomach as it was!

NeverShowOff rummaged through the pile of mushy remains, finding only a few connective tendons still intact enough to have made the transport worthwhile.

"There's too much unusable meat. Why don't we turn it into fish bait?"

They'd already brought it back; they might as well find a way to use it.

ProGamer_Daddy was the first to agree. 

"Sure, fish sounds good too! Using worms as bait to catch fish makes perfect sense!" 

He was desperate to upgrade his meals. 

Hedgehog hesitated. "Are you guys sure we can take on the fish monsters in this game?" 

Previously, when they had gone to the riverbank to gather iron sand, they had seen how ferocious the fish could be. One species, in particular, had a red back with black spots and had bitten clean through an iron rod they'd brought, costing them 20 magicoins in the process. 

The fish even chased them like dogs in the water, nearly coming ashore.

"What's there to be afraid of?" chimed in GoldenBoy, who hadn't been there to see it himself. "Fish have a critical weakness: their combat ability drops by 80% on land! If you can't beat them after that, then what's the point?" 

Hedgehog shoved him playfully. "Go on, then." 

They still needed to wash up after this; they didn't have time to argue further. 

At that moment, ProGamer_Daddy glanced around and realized something felt off. 

"Hey, has anyone seen LootGoblin?" 

No one knew what LootGoblin did in real life, but the guy was online constantly. ProGamer_Daddy had even seen him earlier on the road before they entered the swamp. 

Why hadn't he shown up for the server-wide announcement? Wasn't this worth checking out? 

Hedgehog shrugged. "Beats me. I think I saw him not long ago." 

---

Meanwhile, LootGoblin had already left Honeyvale's safety zone. 

Initially, he had been looking for the "Big Four," but he couldn't find them anywhere. By the time they finally crossed paths again, the Lucky Stars Team had already set out to find Viktor. Deciding not to bother them, he let it go. 

Lately, LootGoblin had been feeling paranoid that the game officials had discovered his false registration info and synced it to the in-game NPCs. 

The faction leader had been acting strangely around him, silently watching him from afar. Worse, every time he logged in, he found himself under the eerie gaze of undead spirits with glowing blue eyes. It was spine-chilling. 

Unless absolutely necessary, he avoided Viktor like the plague, terrified of triggering some targeted quest. 

Unfortunately, staying out of trouble didn't guarantee that trouble wouldn't find him. 

After learning about the dwarven craftsman, Viktor didn't leave town immediately with Garble. Instead, using the admin privileges provided by his role, he tracked down LootGoblin and sent him a mission invitation. 

---

"There's a new dwarf outside?" LootGoblin exclaimed, his jaw dropping. 

Great, the veteran players had already started advancing the storyline behind his back! 

Viktor explained, "Dwarves are a communal species. It's possible they have a unique sense of connection with their kin. The next phase of this mission is critical. Would you like to join us?" 

In truth, normal dwarves didn't have such sensory abilities. But the Chosen Ones—players whose bodies were made from godly fragments—did. 

Artificial Chosen Ones were still Chosen Ones, weren't they? 

LootGoblin closed his mouth and nodded enthusiastically. "Of course I'm in!" 

If the veteran players were making such big moves, how could he pass up the chance to stay in the top-tier player rankings? 

Without hesitation, he accepted the mission. 

Even though Viktor had expected him to agree, he still felt relieved when LootGoblin did. With LootGoblin's help, their route would be much more efficient. 

"Let's move out!" 

---

Tracking the red-scaled worms wasn't difficult due to their size. Viktor led the group to a swamp littered with signs of battle. He marked six routes on the ground and turned to LootGoblin. 

"Which path do you think we should take?" 

"It's my turn?" LootGoblin was stunned. He hadn't felt any supposed 'dwarf connection' yet! 

After scanning all six directions, he pointed to the second path from the left. 

Viktor nodded and took his probe, carefully working it into the ground where indicated. Soon, it hit a hard patch of soil.

"Found it!"

He pressed the wand down forcefully, causing the ground to crack like a spiderweb, revealing a hollow tunnel.

"The surface of the red-scaled worm is covered with a special mucus that hardens the surrounding soil, forming tunnels for them to move through."

"But this hardening effect is limited. After a day, it automatically degrades, and the tunnels become unstable. Once you break the hardest core soil block, the tunnel collapses on its own."

The tunnel caved in, stopping just short of Viktor's feet. Garble nodded thoughtfully.

"So, if we want to catch a new red-scaled worm, we can start by following their paths?"

As long as you find a worm tunnel, you can trace it back to locate a red-scaled worm that passed through less than a day ago.

That's way easier than waiting for them to emerge from the soil for air by sheer luck.

Learned something new—coming out here was worth it!

LootGoblin silently moved closer.

"Hey, Garble, the thing in Viktor's hand—is that a wand?"

"What else would it be, a cane?" Garble glanced over, puzzled.

"No, no, I mean, do the mages in this world just not care about their wands?"

Watching the entire process had left LootGoblin shaken.

He had always thought of wands as important tools, like glasses or smartphones. Even if they weren't revered, surely they weren't used for such wear-and-tear-heavy tasks?

But Viktor was straight-up using his wand as a hoe!

"Uh..." Garble was at a loss. "I'm not sure either."

They had encountered very few NPCs.

Alyanne was restricted and couldn't use magic at all.

Edgar, who normally cherished his sword, had ended up splitting it in two just days ago.

And as for Viktor...

That black wand of indeterminate material was practically an all-purpose tool.

It could intimidate and attack, serve as a magnet or a hoe—it did everything.

Perhaps, in the world of Aeltia, swapping out magic tools was so common that wear and tear didn't matter?

That was his best guess.

Viktor raised his head from the tunnel. "Quit chatting, dear comrades. I need your help."

There was something more important than gossip—a poor dwarf still needed their rescue!

"Oh, coming!"

Indeed, it always took a quest keyword to ignite players' enthusiasm.

The tunnel collapsed further as the mucus quickly decomposed upon contact with outside air, turning the soil unusually soft.

The three of them spent quite a while searching inside before they found the object LootGoblin had sensed.

A flame-shaped crest.

It was about half the size of an adult's palm, featuring crossed hammers and battle axes. Its back was embedded with a fiery red gemstone.

"Lava energy ore. No wonder you could sense it."

Viktor stowed the crest away.

"This thing can be consumed by dwarves. You're probably hungry."

LootGoblin brushed dirt off his head and laughed awkwardly. "Really? I guess I am kind of hungry."

A flash of surprise crossed Garble's eyes.

"Dwarves eat stones?"

"Energy ore," Viktor corrected. "Actually, some energy ores can be consumed by humans, too, to replenish mana."

They were just... outrageously expensive.

The focus wasn't the use of energy ore but the fact that LootGoblin truly had the ability to sense dwarves.

Even if it had only led them to a crest that the dwarf carried.

Viktor pushed off the ground and effortlessly leapt out of the collapsed tunnel.

"This crest appearing in the tunnel means that when the red-scaled worm swallowed the dwarf's belongings, the injuries on its body hadn't healed."

The item had slipped out through a wound shortly after being swallowed.

This suggested the target wasn't far away.

"We're heading in the right direction. Let's move!"

LootGoblin shuddered at the imagery Viktor painted, his skin crawling.

"The red-scaled worm's vitality is way over the top!"

Eating and leaking at the same time—it sounded like a zombie reincarnate.

"I thought the same thing three days ago," Garble quipped, pulling LootGoblin up to the surface as the two hurried after Viktor.

---

In the game's settings, only a one-kilometer radius around Honeyvale Town was considered a safe zone.

There were no boundary markers or visible dividing lines.

But there didn't need to be.

The moment they stepped out of the safe zone protected by the magic array, the atmosphere shifted dramatically.

The environment looked the same, yet the air grew inexplicably oppressive.

It felt as though something unseen was watching them.

Even the sky seemed to darken slightly.

The two players instinctively quieted, carefully controlling the sound of their footsteps.

All around them were dense grasses that grew tall enough to swallow everything in sight, rising higher than a grown man's head.

Only when passing by could they catch glimpses of what might have been a road beneath the overgrowth, evidence of once-thriving but now-abandoned civilization.

LootGoblin whispered in awe, "This really feels like a primeval forest."

The trees and undergrowth seemed magnified several times over, making the humans walking among them appear particularly insignificant.

It matched perfectly with his imagination of a primeval forest.

"Daddy said the same thing on his first day with beta access," Garble replied.

If they hadn't been clearing things out, the trees around Honeyvale would likely have been just as tall as those outside by now.

Still...

He slashed through the thorny vines blocking their path.

"The overgrowth outside is just slightly worse."

He strongly suspected that Honeyvale Town's level of abandonment wasn't much better than the surrounding wilderness.

The fact that players weren't forced to clear roads and rebuild the town on their first day was probably the rare instance of mercy from the game's developers.

Viktor, however, was in a hurry and wasn't about to let them waste time on the road.

When the thickets became too dense to navigate, he raised his wand, and a fiery blaze roared through, carving out a path.

Green and blackened vegetation drooped lifelessly on either side of the newly formed road.

Viktor was the first to step through. "Let's go."

"Whoa! Fire magic is this strong?" LootGoblin's eyes sparkled. "That jerk actually lied to me, saying Fireball is trash!"

Garble chuckled silently.

Buyer expectations versus reality.

He had a sudden thought. "Wait, don't tell me you picked...?"

"Fireball, of course!" LootGoblin replied matter-of-factly.

"I only realized while choosing skills that dwarves have a built-in 50% debuff for any magic outside of fire-based ones."

"At first, I just picked Fireball under pressure, but it seems fire magic has serious potential!"

Garble sighed but decided against raining on LootGoblin's parade.

"Let's keep up! Otherwise, Viktor will vanish ahead."

---

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50 advance chapters!

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