CHAPTER 32: MAKING BILLS

The monster didn’t expect this kind of response.

Not only were the lightning-coated fingers piercing deep into its body, but even the wind blades were blocked.

As he spun, the fire created a spiraling barrier around him. When those wind blades tried to pierce through, they only intensified the flames.

Because of this, the spiraling fire turned into a massive hurricane. But it wasn’t a problem for Tyler since he had controlled the temperature of the flame.

Even though it was big, the temperature of the flame was around a hundred degrees Celsius.

It was enough to boil water, but not his body.

Because he was coating his body with lightning, the temperature didn’t reach him.

Even if it could, the temperature wouldn’t harm him since it was flame.

But the same couldn’t be said for the monster.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

It wouldn’t stop howling. The sheer temperature of this tornado started affecting it while its back was being pierced through.

Sweat and blood were leaking at the same time.

This was the truest example of sprinkling salt on someone’s wound.

But Tyler couldn’t pierce through its bones. His lightning wasn’t sharp enough.

Because of this, he was stuck, and the monster wasn’t going to let him go so easily.

It jumped and flipped on its back. Facing this, Tyler had no choice but to let go of the monster and jump out of the tornado.

The flame didn’t affect him, but the monster landed on its back and screamed in agony once more.

The tornado kept burning brightly. Tyler didn’t make a move. Instead, he retracted his Lightning Cloak, running towards the tree.

He grabbed the fruits immediately and put them in the inventory. Now, he wondered if he should continue fighting or not.

The next second, he shook his head.

’It’s not worth it.’

This time, he did have a better fighting chance, but he wasn’t in any kind of hurry.

This wolf-like creature with two tails and two horns was quite fierce, but he knew he would recognize it immediately if he saw it again.

’So, it’s better to leave right now.’

He activated the Enhanced Strength and ran away, using a stronger force to speed up his Explosive steps.

On the other hand, as the tornado slowly died down. The monster raised its eyes towards the front.

It didn’t find Tyler, and that enraged the monster. It quickly rushed to that tree and found those three fruits missing.

Seeing this, its eyes turned red as it howled towards the sky.

Saying it was angry would be an understatement. It wanted to find Tyler. It even sniffed his position.

But Tyler had already gone several dozen kilometers away from it. Even if it wanted to chase him, it would only make things worse.

It shook its head and started moving around, trying to find another tree with the Natural Fruit.

Just like how it didn’t take Tyler long to find fruits, the same could be said for this monster.

It did encounter another monster, but that one gave up its position and left.

There was only one fruit, but this time, the monster didn’t wait.

It opened its mouth and swallowed the fruit without much hesitation.

Normally, for monsters, if they swallow unripe fruit, most of the energy would be wasted.

They couldn’t absorb Natural Energy into another space like humans. They absorb it into their blood, improving their genetics and physical capabilities.

The ripened fruit would have Natural Energy that could be easily digested by them.

That’s why every time humans tried to find Natural fruit, they were bound to encounter a monster.

Monsters would guard the fruit until it ripened, while humans would try to steal it.

After eating this fruit, it didn’t rest. It needed a lot of energy, and if it wasn’t getting a ripped fruit, it would rather gather multiple unripe fruit.

Even if it could cause dissatisfaction among other monsters.

It didn’t care.

It just wanted to reach Country Level and find Tyler, then destroy him.

That was becoming its obsession.

.......

On the other hand, Tyler also continued his journey to find more fruits. At this moment, he had five more fruits in inventory.

This was great news for him.

One fruit equaled one hunter. One hunter equaled one village. Of course, he also had Natural Fruits from before, but he planned to spend them on his city.

He was willing to put out one fruit per village.

Based on how much progress they could make within a year, he would start spending more Natural Fruits on them.

’But it will be much harder to maintain a village. Just maintaining Shadow Totem City is already hard.’

’If I try to maintain multiple villages, it would only get worse. On top of that, this world is so corrupt that either people are too loyal or frauds.’

’Not to mention, whether they will accept my conditions is another question. So many problems! Why did I even decide to have such an ambition?’

’Can I even call it an ambition but not a duty?’

He shook off those thoughts and kept searching for more fruits.

After two hours, he encountered five monsters at City Level, defeated them, and took their souls and bodies.

He also found four Natural Fruits.

With this much loot, he decided to return.

And, it didn’t take him long to return to the camp.

Others were waiting for him, but Rose was quite angry.

Judging from the level of destruction their battle caused, they should be pretty aware that it was done by their boss.

"Seriously, sir, do you need to fight every hour of the day? Can’t you just relax for a moment?"

Rose bombarded him with questions as she placed her hands on her waist.

"Sorry! Sorry!"

Tyler immediately apologized and took out the scrolls.

"Here, six souls, five bodies! John, you can start making the Soul Bills. I think we have captured enough souls to make a lot of bills."

John nodded, and Rose helplessly sighed.

She went to John, taking out several scrolls holding the souls of the monsters. While he was unconscious, these guys didn’t disappoint him.

They took down several monsters and spirits to capture a lot of souls.

Now, they had at least thirty souls. Tyler was quite curious how many bills he could make with those thirty souls.

Twelve of them were Building Level, twelve of them were Street Level, and six of them were City Level.

The process of making Soul Bills was quite easy. It required them to imprint the logo of the Hunter Association in the middle.

Then, make two squares on the side. Each square will hold a certain stamp.

To make sure the Association could control the flow of bills, they had decided to add some regulations to those bills.

Each stamp would be imprinted with a person’s Aura. He knew the rune was attached to the stamp to keep the Aura.

Each bill required two stamps, from two different high-ranking officials of the Association.

If they didn’t possess these stamps, these bills wouldn’t be accepted by the places where Associations had full control.

Tyler proposed such bills to give autonomy to the hunters, but they instead made it their way to control the public.

The reason why Soul Bills were special was simply because each bill could be used to recover one’s mental energy.

This would give it the same value as gold. Since gold was only valuable because of its long-lasting nature, and could be made into weapons.

Soul Bills weren’t there to replace gold but rather to give economic control to the hunters.

Unfortunately, these still went under the thumb of the political leaders of the Hunter Association.

The final part of making the bills was to infuse the soul or part of the soul into the bill, using a rune called ’Soul Storage’.

It was an easy rune, and John had mastered it. Even the papers for these Soul Bills were quite amazing.

They were made from those trees of the Eternal Forest. Hundreds of these papers would cost one gold coin.

And, each gold coin was equivalent to one Soul Bill.

The cost of making the Soul Bill wasn’t high, but it wasn’t negligible either, especially if he had to make enough bills to support several villages and his city.

He took out several of those papers, took out five stamps, and a special paper.

Finally, he started stamping the paper. First, he stamped the logo of the association, then he stamped the squares, then the imprint of the officials.

Finally, he laid the special paper on top of it and placed the Soul Transformation Rune scroll on top of it.

The next moment, the special paper started sucking the soul energy of the Soul Transformation Rune.

After two seconds, it stopped.

Finally, he put away the special paper and rune to show the actual Soul Bill.

There was a green outline around the paper, and it was an indicator of soul energy reserve in the bill.

Seeing this, Tyler nodded and looked at his team.

"Help John make more bills faster!"