Blue-grade soulstones were higher than green-grade soulstones, and green-grade soulstones were higher than white-grade soulstones.
"This thing is useless to me at the moment. I'll keep it for now," I said as I stared at the blue-grade soulstone in my hand.
The soulstone has a glossy surface with an oval shape and was as big as a mussel shell. That's why searching inside a gigantic body such as the 'Mad Boar' is really not easy.
I also did not forget collecting the soulstone of the first 'Mad Boar' I killed. Just like the other one, it also had blue-grade soulstone.
These two blue-grade soulstones were equivalent to a good amount of money.
It also contained a stronger energy, which was why my 'Mana Container' wasn't suitable to absorb the energy in this soulstone. The strength of magical energy the blue-grade soulstone possesses could cause breakdown of my mana container, which at the moment was only a white-rank container. White-rank mana container could only contain energy from the white-grade soulstones.
So basically, it was dangerous for someone like me to absorb this blue-grade soulstone.
"It can't be helped," I muttered.
In the meantime, I kept them inside my trousers pocket.
I noticed I was wearing light black leather armor over my blue shirt. This armor could only protect me from low-power attacks but is useless against powerful attacks.
"Errm…" my throat suddenly felt itchy.
In Lucius' memories, it seems it was already more than a month had passed since the day they came here.
Lucius lost all his belongings from his escape. His last meal was 17 days ago and his last drop of water was 10 days ago. No wonder my throat felt so dry.
Lucius had no idea that some plants and trees contained potable water.
However, looking at the trees around me, even a 'professional jungler' would have second thoughts about whether they could get water from them, seeing how dry they look.
As for me? I have a way to avoid dehydration even without drinking water for a month.
"Show skill."
After mentioning that, a vertical translucent screen appeared in my vision along with a 'Trroiin~' sound. In it were the three types of fighting arts, Magic, Weapon, and Melee.
I tapped the [Melee Combat] category because what I needed was in this category. Some categories belonged to this category. Like the [Body Builder] and [Temporal Enhancement].
I tapped the [Temporal Enhancement] next. It involves body strengthening and conditioning for a limited time.
After tapping the 'Temporal Enhancement', a list of useful techniques followed after. They were sorted from lowest to highest ranked and alphabetically ordered. It only need a little scan to find what I want.
The first list of abilities appeared.
[Aaron Skin] - Was a type of ability that could harden the user's skin like iron, depending on the level.
[Ace Enhancer] - This ability increases the effectiveness of the user's other techniques.
Each of these abilities had their cons as well that's why they were belonged to low-rank abilities.
I frowned as I looked at these skills, which were the first to greet my eyes amongst all the abilities listed there. I noticed something that put a bitter taste on the tip of my tongue.
Regardless, I continued searching for the ability I was looking for. It didn't take much time to find it.
[Advance Breathing]
It was among the low-tier abilities I have. It helps stabilize my breathing and temporarily regulates the amount of water and sugar in my body at the most thrifty amount without affecting my health status.
As I was staring at the abilities, my finger froze in front of it.
I noticed that all my abilities degraded to a first stage.
"Hell. It seems because I am now in a weaker body, all my 'Melee Combat' abilities receded to their initial stages. This sucks." I gritted my teeth out of frustration, then sighed.
Damn, it took me many centuries to max out those abilities. Yet, they degraded back to the first stage almost instantly.
"Anyway. There's nothing I can do about it. I need to start all over again."
The initial stage of 'Temporal Enhancement' could only help me increased my survivability five days longer without drinking water. The effect lowered so much after it receded to the initial stage.
Activating a 'Temporal Enhancement' ability didn't need mana. A human's body has another energy known as 'Physical Force'.
Unlike mana, which was used to cast spells, 'Physical Force' on the other hand, enhances your physical body.
Based on my and Lucius' memories, the people in this world were more inclined to mana improvement than improving their 'Physical Force'.
The reason was because mana could achieve almost everything. Mana could not only create something from nothing, but it could also help improve a person's physical ability. The best example of it was the 'Fortification Skill' I used in the tree branch earlier.
Moreover, 'Physical Force' was harder to improve while mana just needed to absorb energies from soulstones to improve. Improving 'Physical Force' also needs arduous training and needs more materials.
Essentially, Mana was better than 'Physical Force', especially in this place where magicians were far more popular than melee combatants. Even most melee combatants in this world use mana rather than 'Physical Force'.
After tapping the skill, I could feel warmth in the center of my chest and my body glowed briefly, indicating the technique had been activated.
Humans with better sight perception could see the invisible glowing force around my body at this moment. But those with lesser eye perception could only see me as normal.
I sat in meditation posture again. I needed to refill my mana.
As I was absorbing mana in the air, I could also hear distant eerie howls.
When I was still a young and powerless person in this world, such howls were enough to shiver me in fright.
Although I wanted to forget everything about the original me in this world, some memories were just hard to get rid of no matter how many centuries would pass.
I closed my eyes. I didn't need to worry that I would fail to notice a monster's approach. The ground was littered with dry twigs that would crackle when stepped on by someone.
When I opened my eyes again, the sky was already dark. I could not even spot a single star.
Out of nowhere, 'AWW-OOOHHH' a more eerie howl reverberated in the night.