The Troll's Little Treasury

[System, how much magic crystal is required for the next simulation?]

[The next simulation requires 25 first-level magic crystals.]

Upon hearing the system's prompt, Gobro felt a bit helpless. He had been hoping to exploit the system by not upgrading his level, but only upgrading his skills to reduce the magic crystal cost for the next simulation.

Now, it seemed that the system wouldn't let him exploit any loopholes. The simulation count couldn't accumulate, and as long as his strength increased, the cost for the next simulation would go up. It was really harsh.

However, collecting 25 magic crystals was not difficult for him at all.

But when he thought about the way he died in the previous simulation, Gobro felt a bit speechless. Perhaps, if he hadn't set up that scouting team, the valley wouldn't have been discovered. Or maybe, of the three options, doing nothing was the right choice.

Then, he glanced at the cave of the ogre, and a hint of greed flashed in his eyes. With his current strength, he should only need a small trick to deal with the lazy ogre and then take all of its magic crystals for himself.

But soon, Gobro restrained that thought. Although he now had a great chance of defeating the ogre, this was the real world, not the simulation world. There was no room for mistakes. It was better to wait until the next simulation to kill the ogre. For now, he should adapt to his body's abilities first.

With that in mind, he left the camp, planning to see how his hunting skills fared on his own. Though his level hadn't increased, he had gained new skills, and his critical hit level had also increased, so his efficiency should improve significantly.

Outside the camp, Gobro noticed that his vision had become much broader. Though Qingmu had said it was just a slight improvement, that small improvement was actually quite noticeable. The world around him was much clearer now. With a quick glance, he spotted several small magical beasts hidden in the grass.

Normally, he would have hunted these small magical beasts, but now, he planned to target a slightly stronger magical beast to test his strength.

He focused his attention on a magical beast not far away that resembled a wild dog. This wild dog-like magical beast was about 1.3 meters in length, which was relatively large among low-level magical beasts. Since it was carnivorous, its strength was likely not too weak.

Once he locked onto the target, he quietly began to move toward the wild dog. Perhaps due to his increased strength and battle instincts, he felt his body had become much lighter. His movements were quieter as well. It wasn't until he was about ten meters away from the wild dog that it finally realized something was wrong.

But by the time it realized, it was too late. As it raised its head, it suddenly felt a sharp pain in its neck and lost consciousness.

Gobro's level 9 critical hit had precisely struck the wild dog's neck, and the tremendous force shattered its neck. The dog's head limply tilted to the side.

Looking at this scene, Gobro began comparing himself to the ogre. Yesterday, the ogre could crush a goblin with a single punch, but those goblins were newly born, their bones were not fully developed, and they were very fragile.

But the wild dog that I just killed is different. This wild dog is obviously an adult monster, and its bones are very tough. Although I struck its relatively fragile neck, it is still much stronger than a goblin that was only born a few days ago.

With my lv.9 critical strike, my strength is certainly stronger than that of the ogre, but critical strikes have a skill cooldown and can't be used like a normal attack. Overall, my strength is about on par with the ogre's.

With that thought, he decided to continue hunting monsters. This time, he didn't bring Gobli or Gobra along. With his current strength, solo hunting is much faster. He no longer cares about monster meat; increasing his strength is now the most important thing.

As he thought, he continued searching for his next target.

Three hours later, looking at the five monster corpses in front of him, Gobro was very satisfied. Thanks to his increased strength, his stamina had improved a lot, but he also noticed a problem. Why were all the monsters in this valley so weak?

From the time he was born until now, aside from the ogre, the strongest monster he had encountered so far was the wild dog that he killed with one strike. This shouldn't be the case. Was it his good luck, or is there something special about this valley?

Thinking about it, he began to enjoy today's spoils. Thanks to his increased strength, his appetite had grown as well. His experience bar had already increased to 4%. Now that his appetite had increased, the more monster meat he ate, the faster his level would rise.

While eating, he continued to think about why the valley was like this. He looked in the direction of the ogre's location. Compared to the other creatures in the valley, the ogre seemed a bit too strong. Perhaps the ogre knew why the valley was like this.

With this thought, he planned to observe the ogre before getting his next simulation, to see why the ogre could live here so out of place.

That night, he didn't continue hunting. After having been active all day, he was quite exhausted, so he secretly observed the ogre's cave, and by midnight, all he could hear was the sound of snoring from the cave. Nothing else happened.

For the next three days, he hunted during the day, kept watch at night, and only took short rests. By now, he had accumulated 19 first-grade magic crystals. He needed 6 more to proceed with the next simulation.

Tonight was the last night he would observe the ogre. If the ogre was still snoring away like the previous night, once he collected enough magic crystals tomorrow, he would have to deal with this creature.

As before, Gobro kept watch until midnight. Just as he was about to leave to rest, the snoring from the ogre's cave suddenly stopped.

'Did it wake up? It's strange to wake up at this time.'

The next moment, he saw the ogre walk out of the cave, holding a pile of magic crystals.

The number of magic crystals in the ogre's hands was at least a hundred, and Gobro's eyes nearly popped out. He almost rushed to grab them, but reason prevailed over impulse. He wanted to see what the ogre would do with so many magic crystals. Was it planning to hide them all?

Realizing that he might discover the ogre's little treasure chest, Gobro's heart started to race with excitement."