While Erik worked in the field, he could see how much easier it had become to make the plants grow. He grew several in a single day, starting with carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes and ending with garlic.
He even managed to get some potatoes growing too. The young man was euphoric because of his renewed power. With this ability, he would really be able to make a farm prosper. Maybe his future wasn't as bleak as he thought, and his power was not so useless.
He had to thank the Biological supercomputer and his father for this opportunity.
"Erik, go collect the carrots!"
Mister Fox's voice interrupted him while he was admiring his work in one corner of the field.
"I'm going!"
Erik shouted as he ran towards the vegetables, picking up each carrot carefully. The field where the carrots were planted looked magical. The vegetables were massive and grew faster than any vegetable ever did before he got the biological supercomputer.
He was eager to try them, too, so he decided to ask Mister Fox a couple of them to see how they tasted.
Their sturdiness surprised him every time he picked one of the plants. He gathered them into his arms and then placed them in a basket. He then brought them to Mister Fox, unloading them into the old farmer' cart.
As soon as the basket was empty, he returned to the carrot field and repeated the process. He had to do it several times since the carrots were too big.
It took a lot of work, but he eventually finished gathering all the carrots.
"Mister Fox? I just finished collecting the carrots; where do I put the last ones?"
"Put them there," Mister Fox said to the young man. His voice sounded tired. He was old now, and doing all this work was not simple for him.
The young man ran to put away the carrots and then went to Mister Fox's house. His hands were dirty from doing manual labor. After washing off his sweat, he came downstairs to find Mister Fox sitting at the table.
"Here is your daily pay," Mister Fox said while handing twenty new dollars to the young man. Erik grabbed them with gratitude and then went to change.
He put on his clothes when he came here and then said goodbye to his employer. He grabbed a bag with carrots and some apples inside that Mister Fox gave him.
"Don't forget to come tomorrow. Same time."
"Yes, don't worry, Mister Fox."
The door closed behind Erik; he stood outside, looking up at the sky. The sun was already setting, painting the sky red. A few stars were already visible in the middle of the sky, and the moon was starting to shine brightly over the horizon.
This was a very romantic view that Erik hoped he could enjoy sooner or later with someone dear to him. No one had been interested in dating him until now, though he tried to attract girls occasionally, but there weren't women around who wanted to date a guy with his BCP rank.
Even if he found one, she probably wouldn't stay faithful after seeing how he lived. This wasn't a world where people could live happily together, no matter how hard they tried.
The sound of leaves rustling disturbed his thoughts. Erik turned right toward the source of the noise, Mister Fox's wheat field. Erik was distracted for a moment by the golden wheat ears waving gently in the wind, but he couldn't see anything.
"It must have been the wind," the young man said.
Then his eyes caught sight of something moving through the fields. Something small and fast. "Huh?!"
Erik then saw a small rodent head with sharp fangs pop up from the wheat field. When he saw the creature turn in his direction, Erik realized it was about to run straight toward him.
Initially, the young man couldn't recognize what that creature was, but a thought came to his mind. There are no wild animals on earth anymore. Dread filled the young man. Whatever that beast was, it had to be a thaid.
[WARNING. HOSTILE DETECTED.]
-----------------------------
<Emergency quest: Survival>
-Rewards for completion: A hundred experience points for killing the creature; Fifty experience points for escaping the creature. Forty DNA points in either case.
-Failure Penalty: Death.
(Kill or escape the unknown creature.)
-----------------------------
"FUCK!" Erik shouted back at the system.
"Analysis," the young man shouted, and then a window appeared in front of his eyes.
--------------------------------------
- Species: Unkown.
- Brain crystal power: Unkown.
-Dimension: Approximately fifty centimerers long and thirty centimeters tall.
-Description: The beast has two sharp fangs and resembles a rat. The host is advised not to be bitten by the creature since the system can feel mana surrounding the teeth of the creature.
-Approximate level: 2
-Approximate Strength: 2
-Approximate Intelligence: 1
-Approximate Dexterity: 2
-Approximate Energy: 8
...
...
--------------------------------------
The beast then jumped out of the field and started running in his direction. Fear bloomed inside the young man, who turned his back at the creature to flee, but the thing kept following him.
The creature was faster than Erik, and in a couple of seconds, it was on him.
"HELP!" the young man shouted. The thought of his untimely death scared him. Was it possible that now that his life was turning for the best, he would die? He cried at life's unfairness.
"Help me! Please help!!"
But no one was going to help him. All those days of loneliness and despair seemed like nothing compared to being eaten alive by a thaid. That fear alone made the young man scream louder, begging for mercy.
"Please don't eat meeeeeeee..."
His heart began racing wildly in fear. Soon enough, the thaid leaped into the air, landing atop the fence surrounding Mister Fox's property. The beast looked at the young man as if he was succulent meat. Its teeth were ready to rip open his flesh.
The creature stared at the young man for a couple of seconds, and then the thaid leaped again.
With nowhere else to do, Erik threw the bag of carrots and apples that Mister Fox gave the young man. The fruits traveled through the air as missiles, but the young man knew that it was all futile.
He was going to die. But maybe this would give the beast some distraction. At least it might buy him another second, perhaps even more.
Then, as by instinct, Erik charged mana into his brain crystal, and the usual electric sensation spread throughout his entire being, making his hairs stand up.
Then the pressure built up inside his body, and he started accumulating energy. It was then that the young man released that energy, this time without physically touching any recipient.
While the thaid was still in mid-air that the energy hit the apple, and a tree started growing at astonishing speed from the seeds.
The tree became easily and rapidly massive, though they traveled in the air as if they had been thrown by a giant. The apples had already sped, which multiplied as the tree enlarged thanks to the mana that the young man released into the air.
The tree trunk traveled like a bullet toward the thaid, who could do nothing to avoid the humungous plant from reaching it.
Then a deafening noise spread in the surroundings since the trees hit the beast which fell to the ground.
[HOSTILE CREATURE KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED INTO EXPERIENCE. THIRTY EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
"What?" Erik asked himself. "Thirty experience points?!"
-----------------------------
<Emergency quest: Survival. COMPLETE>
-Rewards for completion: A hundred experience points for killing the creature; Fifty experience points for escaping the creature. Forty DNA points in either case.
-Failure Penalty: Death.
(Kill or escape the unknown creature.)
-----------------------------
[HOST IS ADVISED TO COLLECT THE CREATURE'S BRAIN CRYSTAL AND A SAMPLE OF BLOOD.]
"Wait, why?" Erik asked the system.
[ANSWER: HOST UNLOCKED BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER EXTRACTION AND DNA EXTRACTION]
"WHAT THE HELL DOES IT MEANS?"
[ANSWER: HOST IS ABLE TO GAIN THE BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER OF KILLED ENEMIES AND MAKE IT HIS.]
Erik wondered if what he heard was right. Did the system just state that he could acquire multiple BCP? Was he dreaming? Was it all a joke? Erik didn't ask about this power to the system before because he had other things to think about during the past days, but he could have never expected something like this to be true.
If it was, Erik would have the possibility to steal thaids BCP and become insanely strong. The only problem would be to explain how he acquired such powers. For this reason, Erik immediately understood that he couldn't overuse the power or reveal he had multiple of them. That, if he could get them to begin with.
Even if he was stunned by the sudden revelation, Erik tried to snap out of it and ran to the beast.
"What do I have to do?"
[ANSWER: EAT THE BRAIN CRYSTAL AND DRINK THE CREATURE'S BLOOD, AND THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER WILL DO THE REST.]
Erik ran to the fallen beast; its's body had been crushed by the apple trees. It was disgusting to look at the creature.
It's body was mangled, and the eyes popped out from the sockets. The young man gathered his courage; he reached the creature's body and grabbed it. With the creature under his arms, he ran away from that place before anyone could see him.