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As Jibril stormed off with a face full of frustration, several dozen kilometers away, Riku—pale-faced and exhausted—finally let out a breath of relief.
This had been his first all-out battle since gaining his powers. And considering his complete lack of combat experience, the fact that he held his own against Jibril? Not bad at all. He was pretty satisfied.
Also... pretty damn lucky.
Thank god everything went according to plan. If even one thing had gone wrong, he would've had to pay a steep price just to escape.
Still, even now, he was dead tired.
He'd used a whole string of trump cards in a row. And since he had only recently gained his powers and wasn't very skilled with them yet, the energy drain had really hit him hard. He was totally wiped out.
"Good thing the Chaos Energy Seed absorbs energy like a beast. It's more like it hunts and eats energy rather than generating spiritual reactions. Otherwise, recovering right now would be a total nightmare." Riku shook his head a little.
"Alright, time to look for treasure chests." His eyes flashed, and he opened the map, scanning the various chest locations.
He'd already gotten the goblin race's telescope, and with Shangri-La, he didn't need to worry about getting back late. Might as well take this time to power up.
"Better take a longer route though... If that crazy feathered chick finds me again, I'm toast. Not gonna be so easy to get away next time," Riku muttered calmly.
The Flügel were absolute monsters when it came to spatial abilities. Who knows? She might even track him down through the spatial ripples. He'd only gotten away last time because the explosion masked the energy trail.
A day later, after taking several detours, Riku arrived a few hundred kilometers away. With Sky Walker Boots, travel was faster, but he still held back to avoid detection.
Along the way, he ran into a bunch of demonic beasts—but didn't bother hunting or collecting their corpses. He'd just fought Jibril; better safe than sorry.
Finally, on top of a snowy mountain, Riku stood before a silver treasure chest, cold wind whipping around him. He sighed in relief.
Over the past day, he'd also opened three bronze chests... but it was like his luck had totally run out—the stuff he got was so ridiculous, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
First bronze chest? A pack of sanitary pads...
What the hell was he supposed to do with that? Go back to Kuol and say, "Hey, this is your girl-only supply, here's how you use it"?Yeah... no. That'd just get him labeled a total creep.
Second bronze chest? A box of Instant Noodles.
Okay, food was pretty valuable in this world, so it wasn't the worst... but still! He wanted power-ups, not snacks! Something like a gene booster, maybe?
Third bronze chest? Finally, something useful—Swordsmanship Mastery.
At least that filled in one of his gaps. Up until now, he'd just been swinging his sword around randomly—and even Jibril had called him out on it.
"Please don't disappoint me again," Riku muttered, rubbing his temples. "If I keep pulling garbage like this, when am I ever gonna be strong enough to beat the God of War or those damn winged freaks?"
Then, he placed his hand on the silver chest.
In a flash, the chest opened. Light swirled around him, and a glowing orb floated up.
Ding! Congratulations, Master! You've opened a Silver Chest and received the item: Divine Escape Talisman.
Divine Escape Talisman – When used, it lets the user ignore all barriers and terrain and instantly escape over a set distance. It also grants one hour of perfect invisibility and completely hides the user's presence.
"Divine Escape Talisman? Hell yeah, that's gold. That's a top-tier escape tool if used right!" Riku's eyes lit up with joy as the system's voice rang in his mind.
"…Wait a sec, why is my first thought about running away?" A line of frustration popped across his forehead.
Apparently, Jibril had shaken him up so much that his entire mindset hadn't even adjusted yet.
"I'm destined for greatness, you think I'd waste this thing just to run away?" Riku muttered, rubbing his forehead.
"The Elven capital... and a platinum-level treasure chest..." Then he stroked his chin, deep in thought.
Using the Divine Escape Talisman would definitely give him a shot at getting that platinum chest. But even then, it wasn't a sure thing. The elves had tons of mages and spellcasters, and that talisman could at most get him through the national barrier.
Plus, if things went down the same way as the original story, the Elven capital was gonna get nuked into oblivion by Jibril anyway, and then they'd be hunted all over the place.
And that event would happen within a year.
In that case, it'd actually be way easier to get the platinum chest later on.
"Vampires... not too familiar with them. Warbeasts... tons of battleships. Should I just go scrap those for parts?" Riku smirked, eyes gleaming with mischief.
The Warbeast battleships were gold—literal exchange points just waiting to be farmed!
Ding!Friendly reminder: You can't recycle things that are still under someone's control.
"Tch, useless junk," Riku clicked his tongue in disappointment. Clearly, this crappy system was already guarding against point farming.
"The Warbeasts are tricky to deal with. All that high-tech stuff might even detect me. Risk factor's too high. Better skip them for now." Riku muttered. "So that just leaves..."
His gaze slowly drifted toward a certain race on the map.
"....."