43: Unexpected gains inside the cave

The Shadow Leopard fled all the way, blood spilling along its path; heavily injured, it could no longer enter the shadows at will.

Renn followed closely behind. Although the Shadow Leopard was severely wounded, its fleeing speed was still not slow; if not for the blood guiding the way, Renn might have lost it.

During the pursuit, Renn once again felt an urgent desire for a magical beast mount.

"I must have Little White promoted to a Demon Wolf as soon as I get back!"

"This Shadow Leopard can really run; even with such heavy injuries, it's still moving so fast."

The roles of hunter and prey had swapped; now the Shadow Leopard was the prey and Renn was the hunter. One man and one beast raced across the wilderness in a chase.

A day and a night later, Renn arrived at the Black Mountain Range on the western side of the Red River Valley.

After a continuous pursuit of a day and a night, Renn's physical strength had dropped significantly, and only half of the combat qi in his body remained.

"I'm finally catching up!"

Through the residual bloodstains along the way, Renn clearly sensed that the Shadow Leopard not far ahead was already at the end of its tether.

Having fled for a day and a night while heavily injured, it was only because of the powerful physique of a magical beast; anyone else would have died long ago.

At this point, Renn was no longer in a hurry.

A few hundred meters away, the Shadow Leopard stumbled through familiar forest paths. Due to excessive blood loss, its consciousness was blurred, and its body relied entirely on survival instinct to move forward.

After continuing for a distance, it sensed its most familiar aura—that was its home.

In front of a towering cliff, the Shadow Leopard exhausted its last bit of strength to merge its body into the shadows.

Renn, who had caught up behind the Shadow Leopard, happened to witness this scene.

"This is?"

Renn quickly walked to the cliff. The Shadow Leopard had already vanished from the spot, leaving only a vertical cliff hundreds of meters high in front of him.

Taking out the Eye of True Sight from his breast pocket, Renn activated it immediately to observe the cliff before him.

Soon, Renn discovered an anomaly.

On the cliff face, halfway up, a shadow appeared abruptly, while everything around it was normal cliff wall.

Having found his target, Renn pulled out a dagger he carried and stabbed it into the cliff to start climbing.

He was agile and reached the anomalous shadow in the middle of the cliff in just a few moves.

He touched the cliff face in front of him; there was no reaction. Renn directly gathered his combat qi and smashed a punch into it.

Large chunks of rock fell down. Renn did not stop his movements and continued to strike the cliff face.

Soon, he had punched out a stone hole.

"It's hollow?"

Renn clearly felt a slight change in the sensation of his strikes, so he accelerated his movements.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He continuously swung his fists to enlarge the hole, digging deep into the cliff.

With the final punch, a large opening appeared before Renn; he had dug through the cliff wall.

The power of the Eye of True Sight flooded into the opening, and Renn saw a huge grotto inside the cliff.

Clearing away the rocks blocking the path, Renn stepped inside.

The grotto was pitch black without any Light source or sound, only a silent deadness.

"Light!"

Renn used the spell Cecilia had taught him, and a magical Light source floated above his head, illuminating the surroundings.

The grotto before him was several thousand square meters in size. The Shadow Leopard Renn had been pursuing was at the deepest part of the grotto; Renn saw it lying motionless on the ground.

Upon approaching, Renn found it was already dead; the massive wound on its body had drained its life.

The place where the Shadow Leopard lay was a stone platform, the highest point in the grotto. Near the platform, besides the Shadow Leopard's corpse, there was a pile of miscellaneous items.

Renn sensed the aura of magic within this pile of junk.

"Are these all the Shadow Leopard's trophies?"

Renn rummaged through the pile. He saw some magical beast bones and stones with magical auras; they were clearly transcendent materials.

There were also some damaged pieces of equipment like armor and longswords. Most were too damaged to use, but Renn still picked out a few that were functional.

Whether it was the beast bones or the magic ores, they were all useful to Renn as transcendent materials for making Enchanted Equipment or potions.

The few pieces of equipment he picked out at the end went without saying—they were Enchanted Equipment themselves.

Two enchanted longswords, an enchanted longbow, two staffs, a pair of boots, and a pair of bracers.

Renn looked closely; although they weren't high-level Enchanted Equipment, they were indeed all enchanted and still usable.

These gains made Renn grin with joy.

Most of the Enchanted Equipment accumulated by the Derrick Family had been lost on the Fel Orcs battlefield. Aside from the rage bear armor, Renn only had the low-level enchanted longsword in his hand.

Only three pieces of Enchanted Equipment remained in the family treasury—two longswords and a dagger—which Renn had kept as backups for himself.

If one encountered an evenly matched opponent, the probability of weapons and equipment being damaged was very high.

Just like this time facing the Shadow Leopard, Renn's rage bear armor had suffered great wear and was nearly ruined, and the enchanted longsword in his hand also had many nicks and would need replacing upon his return.

Low-level enchanted weapons had good effects, but they were indeed not durable in high-intensity combat. This harvest greatly increased Renn's stock of Enchanted Equipment, so he wouldn't have to worry about running out later.

"I'm rich! I didn't expect that chasing it for a day and a night to the Shadow Leopard's lair would yield such a harvest. It was worth nearly running my legs off; I didn't run for nothing."

Renn happily gathered these spoils, putting on the enchanted boots and bracers on the spot.

The boots automatically adjusted their size once worn, fitting perfectly and feeling very comfortable. Renn felt the power attached to the boots making his steps lighter.

The enchantment effect of these boots was to increase Agility, and the magic attached was Wind Power, which was the most common effect for boot enchantments.

"Not bad, I'll run even faster now. It seems I'm becoming more and more suited to traveling on my own two feet."

The enchantment effect of the pair of bracers was to increase Strength, with the attached magic being Lesser Strength Blessing, also a standard model.

Renn tested them out; his strength increased by more than ten percent, a very obvious effect.

Not to mention the longbow and staffs; Renn was currently lacking an enchanted longbow and a staff, and now he had them all at once.

After putting away the Enchanted Equipment, Renn had mostly finished rummaging through the Shadow Leopard's trophies.

When he reached the very bottom, Renn thought the harvest would end there, but he had far underestimated the gains this time.

"No way?"

"This is?"

Renn carefully took out the item from a corner at the bottom of the pile that made his heart tremble.

When he sensed this object, he could hardly believe it. He held it in his hand and examined it carefully for a moment, and after checking it with his mental power, he confirmed that the thing before him was exactly the magical equipment he thought it was.

"It really is a fucking spatial ring!"

"How could this thing appear here?"

Renn's mental power easily imprinted onto the spatial ring, marking it as his own.

The spatial ring had about a hundred cubic meters of space inside, which was already quite large; clearly, the grade of this spatial ring was not low.

After seeing the items inside the spatial ring, Renn was a bit dazed, with only two words in his mind.

"I'm rich!"

"I'm really rich this time!"