Transcending Dreams

Chapter 23: The Perks and Perils of Spirit Plants

[+1 Stamina]

[RNG Activated | Result: 350]

[+1 Agility]

[RNG Activated | Result: 104]

William twitched as he kept chewing on the Lightning Berry, the first thing he had found that could be eaten raw to increase Stamina. The Agility increase was a convenient bonus, but it was one that he wasn’t sure he really wanted.

It was only a matter of time before he got unlucky, and every stat was reset to one.

[+1 Stamina]

[RNG Activated | Result: 117]

[+1 Agility]

[RNG Activated | Result: 326]

William winced as another shock ran through his body when he swallowed the remaining part of the berry. The Lightning Berry, thankfully, didn’t live up to its name and only caused a minor discomfort instead of being fatal, unlike a few other things that seemed to be edible.

It had been a few days since Lan Yin had abruptly left William in the wilderness. In the short time he had been exploring his surroundings and gathering some spirit plants, William had not found anything that seemed particularly dangerous to him. Lan Yin had told him to stay alive, so he assumed that animals were in the area. However, William had not seen any tracks or heard any sounds suggesting something else had been moving beside himself.

That significantly decreased William’s wariness, but it didn’t mean he started to stroll through the overgrowth like the place belonged to him. Some spirit plants still enjoyed having an occasional human snack, and he didn’t intend to become food to a damned plant.

Of course, all of this meant his progress in exploring this area was painfully slow. Not only because he double and triple-checked if his surroundings were safe but also because of his terrible Stamina. If he didn’t have three weeks to explore, he might have resorted to using his stat points to increase it.

William looked up at the top of the tree and counted that four more Lightning Berries were ripe and safe to eat. He dropped his makeshift pouch made out of ripped silk fabric and rubbed his hands together for another climb up a tree. It had become so common the past few days that it had become almost effortless, even to someone like William, who had never done any strenuous work in his life.

It took around a minute for him to reach the top and pluck the berries he wanted before quickly climbing back down. He added the Lightning Berries to his collection in the pouch and smiled in satisfaction.

While it might have taken days before seeing the first increase in his stat points, it was by design. William didn’t see a point in increasing attributes other than Stamina since he was satisfied with the level they were at. That didn’t mean he ignored the fruits that would increase his Strength. Whatever he could carry, he currently had in his makeshift pouch.

Unfortunately, there was no other option but to rip large pieces of his clothes to make it. Although it was a regrettable decision, it was a choice he knew he wouldn’t hesitate to make again.

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William counted what he had in the pouch before wondering if he should try his luck. If everything went his way, he could potentially increase his stats by ten Strength, eight Stamina, and eight Agility. The latter two obviously would come from the four Lightning Berries he had just plucked, and the Strength would be from the Blood Oranges he had gathered the past few days.

After a few seconds of hesitation, William decided it wouldn’t hurt to try it. Even if he got unlucky and his stats reset to one, he had more than enough collected to quickly get back to his current level, and if that wasn’t enough, there was plenty that he could find over the next few weeks.

William took out a Blood Orange and hung the pouch over his shoulder before walking to where he had seen the Spirit Grass yesterday. That was another spirit plant that was known to increase strength. This place was like heaven to him. All the spirit plants that could be picked were for Qi Gathering cultivators. When eaten by a mortal, it would never lose its efficiency, no matter how much was consumed.

[+1 Strength]

[RNG Activated | Result: 944]

[+1 Strength]

[RNG Activated | Result: 591]

William threw the remaining skin of the Blood Orange to the ground and thought about how nice it would be if side quests could be activated too. That would make this perfect.

He rubbed his growling stomach and pulled out another Blood Orange.

William was still perplexed by the situation. Given that all the side quests were currently user-generated, he couldn’t understand why none had been triggered yet. He felt that what he had been doing since the beginning, searching for a spirit plant to increase his Stamina, should have qualified as a quest.

Despite William’s efforts to get a response, he had not received any alerts from the system on why it didn’t qualify. It left him feeling lost and frustrated, wondering if he was missing something crucial.

[+1 Strength]

[RNG Activated | Result: 848]

[+1 Strength]

[RNG Activated | Result: 293]

“Are you sure they won’t find us?”

William froze, looking like a surprised statue, when he heard someone’s voice for the first time in days.

“You know they ignore this place. The Manager told me it’s restricted until the Overseer starts to develop it.”

William was tempted to say hello for some human socialization. Still, while he acknowledged he wasn’t the smartest, he at least had the sense to not do something so foolish.

“You’re a genius, Brother Cao! This way, we can eat what they send to the Sect instead of the trash left to us.”

“Let’s go get our brothers and come back. We can find the spirit plants quick-Wait!”

William frowned when he heard the man sniff loudly like a dog.

“I smell something close by! Brother Liu, it’s this way!”

William cursed loudly in his mind when they started to come his way. He darted in the opposite direction without waiting to see if they were friendly and tried to find a hiding place. While this area was untamed, it didn’t include many thick trees that would provide any cover. Most were like the Lightning Berry tree, thin and utterly useless for the purpose of trying to hide.

“Brother Liu! It’s moving! It might have gained sentience!”

William wanted to punt that man into orbit. How in the world did a human gain a dog-like sense of smell?

He knew there was an easy way to escape them. All he had to do was to throw down his makeshift pouch and abandon it, but the chance of finding ripe Lightning Berries wasn’t high. In a last shot to distract them, he reluctantly threw two of his three remaining Blood Oranges to the right, hoping it was enough to distract the dog man.

William pumped his legs faster, running at the fastest speed he could and hoping that the dog man didn’t have ears like a dog. He didn’t dare to slow down until twenty minutes later when he was panting for breath, and the muscles in his legs were burning from the strain.

It might seem excessive to keep running for that long, but he had seen the mortals that worked in the Garden. While their levels averaged around five, they were all ridiculously strong due to what they were fed. If they were unfriendly, William knew he would have a tough time trying to escape.

He slumped against a nearby tree and considered what his future days could be like. With those men intending to return with more of their friends, he would either have to risk it by revealing himself or be fast enough to reliably escape them every time.

William took out a Lightning Berry and rolled it between his fingers before popping it into his mouth. He quickly crushed it between his teeth, flinching at the shock running through his body, before swallowing every bit of the berry.

[+1 Stamina]

[RNG Activated | Result: 11]

[Soul Damage Trait Activated | All Base Stats Reset to 1]

[Current Chance of Soul Damage (Major) Effect Activating: 5%]

[+1 Agility]

[RNG Activated | Result: 433]

[+1 Stamina]

[RNG Activated | Result: 601]

[+1 Agility]

[RNG Activated | Result: 423]

William stared at the blue text blankly. He knew that the chance of the dreaded reset activating was one in twenty, but he believed it wouldn’t happen at this moment simply because he couldn’t bear the thought of being so unlucky.

Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)

Age: 13

Level: 4

Experience: 390/500

Cultivation: N/A

Health: 45/45

Strength: 1

Stamina: 2

Agility: 3

Luck: 1

Points: 11

“Fuck me,” William dropped his face into his hands, “…Why did it happen now.”

All that hard work was gone, and he didn’t forget that some of the points he had just lost were from his stat points. Points that wouldn’t come back. Sure, they could be replaced with spirit plants, but the more he used when he was a mortal, the worse the side effects were when cultivating. At least, that was what the books that Li Xinyue had given him indicated.

William spent a few minutes gathering his emotions before standing up. The remaining Lightning Berries couldn’t be safely eaten until a day had passed, so he had to focus on his Strength.

The patch of spirit grass was the easiest way of getting his Strength attribute back to its previous level. And he had to go there immediately so those men wouldn’t have the chance to take it for themselves.