[Caocao!]

From close range, the scarecrow was the first to notice the situation and immediately picked it up, raising it high towards Li Pu.

"A special drop?"

Li Pu was slightly stunned upon receiving the information.

He had heard that beasts had a chance to drop [magic items], but he hadn't encountered any before.

Except for the little treant that time, which had offered it up willingly.

Swoosh!

The scarecrow flicked its hand and tossed the item over.

Slap!

Li Pu raised his hand to catch it, feeling a slight pain in his palm.

This thing was surprisingly hard.

Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a grape-sized, black iron bead.

The surface was slightly rough and bumpy, but the overall shape was round.

"It's not a related item, nor is it a magic item."

Li Pu slightly pouted.

But the next second, he discovered something strange.

That this iron bead actually had panel information.

[Tiger Iron Bone]: Purpose unknown.

[Caocao!]

While Li Pu was puzzled, the scarecrow flung over another one.

"Another one?"

He instinctively raised his hand to catch it.

"Huh?"

Just as he caught the second strange iron bead, his expression suddenly froze.

"Something's odd."

Looking into his palm, he frowned.

The two iron beads he should have had in his hand had somehow become one, slightly larger in size.

The panel information hadn't changed at all, still showing [Tiger Iron Bone].

[Cao!]

After a while, the scarecrow tossed over a third one.

Slap!

This time, Li Pu caught it with the other hand, and it still made his palm ache.

The third [Tiger Iron Bone] was larger than the previous two combined. He held one in each hand, bringing them slowly together.

Buzz…

When the two [Tiger Iron Bones] touched, a magnetic force pulled them together.

Then, in an instant, they fully merged.

The new [Tiger Iron Bone] grew a little larger, but wasn't overly heavy.

The primary change was in its increasingly irregular shape and surface bumps.

Until he finished dealing with this batch of needle aphids, no new [Tiger Iron Bones] appeared.

Li Pu decided not to concern himself with it for the time being, instead focusing on the related items.

Gathering all the needlenose tubes together, he finally collected enough.

[LV1-Herbivory (E)] 113/100

Active Effect: Rapid recovery through eating plants

Attribute Requirement: None

Type Requirement: Breaking/Berserk/Balanced

Species Requirement: Herbivorous insect

This useless skill couldn't be more suitable for sacrificing.

After some operations, the scarecrow's level increased again.

Scarecrow: LV14→16, Listening to the Wind

Strength: 79→85, F

Having obtained the related items from the needle aphids, there was no point in continuing to annihilate them.

So Li Pu planned to take the scarecrow to explore the territory of the next mutant aphid type.

But before leaving, he had the scarecrow release a [Small Fireball] once more.

Because the upgraded small fireball, or rather the Q-version small grass bird, shared vision with the scarecrow.

During its duration, Li Pu had the scarecrow control it to fly up the large stone wall and conduct a reconnaissance.

But there weren't many needle aphids visible on the large stone wall.

In contrast, the ground had many rock crevices, suggesting the aphids usually hid in the cracks.

With nothing particularly noteworthy found, they decided to set off.

The territory of the nearest second kind of mutant aphid was that of the sword aphid.

The sword aphid's mouthparts resembled those of a regular insect. Their sword-like trait was a horn on their head.

Armed with the previous combat experience against the needle aphids, Li Pu didn't choose to confront them directly.

Instead, he lured them out of the stone wall and had the scarecrow remotely bombard them with [Snail Grass Fireball].

Interestingly, these sword aphids seemed to follow some sort of order.

Each time the scarecrow scattered them, it wasn't long before Li Pu just needed to step into the rocky area, approach the stone wall, and they would emerge again.

Despite numerous attacks from the scarecrow, they never ventured into the forest area.

It made Li Pu feel like he was playing a repetitive, mechanical AI game.

Anyway, the scarecrow could fire continuously and rest to recover when out of energy.

As long as it had a supply of cola, it could keep going and was very enthusiastic.

The reason he hadn't used this strategy before was because the original small fireball was too weak, unable to kill an aphid in one go, slowing down the strategy.

Now that the small fireball had been upgraded to C-class, its power increased with ghostly blue flames having a continuous burn effect.

Combined with the [Snail Grass] boost, the efficiency wasn't as fast as plunging into the bug swarm for melee, but it wasn't far off and was more stable.

Moreover, like the needle aphids before, the sword aphids' horns were quite hard and resistant to burning, remaining only charred even when engulfed by the ghostly blue flame.

After spending some time, Li Pu felt the number of related items should be sufficient, so he had the scarecrow stop.

Together with the scarecrow, they collected the sword aphids' horns, discovering four more [Tiger Iron Bones] during this process.

After fusing them once more, [Tiger Iron Bone] had grown to about half the size of an egg.

Li Pu expected the crystal coins he had left could last for another four or five sacrifices. He was curious to see how big the strange iron bead might grow by then.

For the moment, he put them aside and casually picked up one of the sword-like horns.

He turned the blade towards his calf, which had [Hardening] enabled, and tapped it lightly.

Ting!

The sound was somewhat crisp.

He exerted a little more force.

Thunk!

He continued increasing the pressure.

Clang!

On the last hit, it hurt slightly.

Using the same force, he swung it towards a nearby tree.

Crack…!

The trunk, as thick as a thigh, was slashed into two.

Checking his hardened shin afterward, there was only a faint trace, hardly a scratch.

"This [Hardening] is indeed impressive."

After comparing, Li Pu finally gained some substantial understanding of this summoner skill.

If he succeeded in activating double [Hardening], wouldn't his defense be phenomenal?

Additionally…

For some reason, Li Fan's lewd and ambiguous smile appeared in his mind.

"But if it's too hard, is that really good?"

He pouted, starting the sacrifice process for the related items.

Buzz…

[Cao!]

With a cheer from the scarecrow, its level rose once more, reaching LV18.

"As expected, as long as materials are sufficient, the sacrifice leveling is ridiculously fast."

"At this rate, by the end of this trip, I might be able to try visiting the small elemental world."

"Otherwise, if I wait even longer, the scarecrow might be able to reincarnate."

Muttering to himself, Li Pu led the scarecrow deeper.

...

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