Lin Lei stood before Matt's corpse, staring at it for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh. He couldn't help but touch the spot on his abdomen.
There was a wound here too — one that had nearly cost him his life.
"You're a far cry from Nina." Lin Lei shook his head with a sigh. In truth, he hadn't had much of a relationship with this Matt — they'd only made each other's acquaintance briefly on the road here. A brief acquaintance was nowhere near enough to earn Lin Lei's trust.
And besides...
After what happened with Nina, how could Lin Lei so easily turn his back to someone?
"Squeak~~~" The little Shadow Mouse Bei Bei had already brought over the bundle from behind Matt's back, and was urgently transmitting to Lin Lei through their soul link, "Boss, hurry up and open it! Let's see how many Magic Crystal Cores there are. Over the past month, not a single assassin who came to kill you had Magic Crystal Cores in their bundle that could match the first one."
Derinkoort appeared beside Lin Lei.
"Lin Lei, this little Shadow Mouse you've raised seems to have developed a fondness for counting Magic Crystal Cores," Derinkoort said with a smile.
"It does seem that way." Lin Lei reached out and untied the bundle, while teasing Bei Bei at the same time. "Bei Bei, this time when you killed this one called Matt, you didn't use those sharp teeth of yours — you used your claws. Why not use your most powerful weapon, your teeth?"
Bei Bei stood up on its hind legs, lifting its head with a proud squeaking cry, and transmitted, "Boss, my Bei Bei's abilities are formidable! My sharp claws are no worse than my teeth. Besides, this Matt was too treacherous — biting him would've gotten my mouth dirty." At the same time, Bei Bei deliberately pretended to be disgusted and spit.
A little mouse standing upright and deliberately spitting — with such eerily human-like eyes at that. Lin Lei couldn't help but laugh when he saw this.
"Alright, hmm, look Bei Bei — there are quite a few Magic Crystal Cores in Matt's bundle. Over thirty of them. Looks like he wasn't idle this past month either. Though among these over thirty Magic Crystal Cores, the best ones are only Magic Crystal Cores from fifth-level magic beasts."
Lin Lei carefully tallied them up.
Over these past thirty-some days, between killing magic beasts and fighting back against those who'd tried to kill him, the total Magic Crystal Cores he'd acquired came to over three hundred. The combined value of these three hundred-plus Magic Crystal Cores, by Lin Lei's estimation, was around forty thousand gold coins!
"Forty thousand gold coins — if Father knew, then..." The thought of presenting forty thousand gold coins to his father and seeing his reaction filled Lin Lei's heart with joy.
"It's only natural that you've managed to accumulate so much," Derinkoort said from beside him. "Of your three hundred-plus Magic Crystal Cores, about fifty are from magic beasts you killed yourself. The rest all came from the bundles of various assassins."
Lin Lei nodded in acknowledgment.
The very first assassin who'd come to kill him had brought him a full fifteen thousand gold coins, while all the other assassins combined only amounted to slightly more than that first one.
"The Magic Beast Mountain Range is extremely dangerous, so people who enter generally do so in groups, working together. Assassins rarely attack groups, because their greatest skill lies in killing an enemy in an instant. So assassins usually target individuals who are alone."
Derinkoort suddenly burst out laughing, his white beard bristling upward. "Lin Lei, look at yourself. Despite your tall and broad build, that youthful look still on your face and the fuzz on your upper lip both tell the same thing —"
"You're still a teenager!"
Derinkoort laughed heartily. "Lin Lei, in the vast Magic Beast Mountain Range, do you think those assassins would pass up a teenager with a youthful look on his face, all alone and undergoing his trial? That's why, in just one short month, you've run into several assassins."