Chapter 66

  Three Main Types of Crystals

  Thick slime.

  That is the first thing I felt once I crawled out of the giant serpent’s maw. A sensation that seemed to be heightened by the minor breeze in the air. Ironically, the breeze was slightly warm, which only exacerbated the problem of my body being coated in slime, for once the warm breeze passed, I was left with even colder drying snake mucus on my body.

  This was not how I thought the aftermath of my first battle would go, but any survival is a good victory. Especially since no one got injured. Also, this is just a minor inconvenience as I just cycle a bit of mana and use my Trash Skill.

  Glowing green lights.

  There is just one oddity that I notice, and that is the fact that my Trash Skill now seems to have a direct reaction to the world around me. As I can almost feel a static cling fill the air. In a way, it makes sense as this is supposed to be a Spirit rift, and the exact opposite of Spirit magic is Life magic.

  Falling motes of green energy cascade to the ground and slowly bring a subtle glow to the earth below me. It is not the same energy needed to bring back the plants directly. Or at least not the way that Madame Bloom could with her powers, but it does seem to cause the ground to radiate with residual light and energy.

  Unfortunately, I can’t take the time to explore this new development too much as I am quickly brought back to the fold by Madame Voyou, who comes over to be my support while the three males begin the process of cutting open and dissecting the large beast. I almost might think this is sexist, but Madame Voyou is clearly missing a leg, and I am the frail healer. Well, frail by comparison to the others of the group.

  “Now the gory part,” Madame Voyou exclaimed, “though you will likely be given a higher compensation for your Skill. Being able to remove dirt and grime will be an exceptional boon for you in the future.”

  As she spoke, I could almost feel that this was a recruitment speech, subtle praise meant to form my thoughts into this line of work.

  That said, I don’t mind this type of exploration. Just being here, in this rift helps me feel alive and awake in a way I never have before. Almost like the first time I ever drank coffee, or maybe the first time I had an energy drink in my past life. The raw and undeniable sensation of energy coursing through me is palpable.

  “For a monster like this, it is best to work in pieces, whittling down the body in sections, until you get to the one with the intact core,” Madame Voyou began, speaking about how Mr. Karl was working by himself on one end to slowly cut off sections of the giant serpent. While Markan and Mr. Yi worked on the other end. That too didn’t seem like a fair distribution of labor, but Mr. Karl’s axe cleanly and easily cut through the thick hide with one swing, while the other two had to work in odd tandem of Markan shooting rock bullets that caused wedging to appear, while Mr. Yi then struck at the wedges, driving them deeper.

  “Wait, monsters have cores?” I asked suddenly confused.

  “Yes, but you will never see them as cores, for they are worth more for their parts than as a whole,” Madame Voyou commented.

  “What?”

  Hearing my question, Madame Voyou paused and then after staring at me for a moment seemed to come to a realization.

  “Let me go back a step, are you familiar with the three main types of crystals?”

  “Yes, there are Experience, Enhancement, and Skill Crystals.”

  “Okay, and how do you get them?”

  “By killing monsters, don’t they just sort of drop?” I asked, slightly confused.

  “Well yes and no, for your weaker scale of the strong monsters, you can likely find a crystal drop. But most older monsters, like the giant Marshlord here, will have multiple crystals forming together in a formation that is often referred to as a core. Now it is our job to take that core, and keep it as pristine as possible, and deliver it back to anyone with an advanced harvesting Skill. Preferably a crystal working Skill as well, or have the harvesting Skill focus on harvesting Crystals specifically, those are the best. But they will take this core and break it down into as many usable shards as possible. A monster like this can likely have a core worth about two to three crystals, at least one Experience crystal that allows you to gain energy or levels in a Skill you currently have equipped. An Enhancement crystal that could, if of higher quality enhance an existing Skill towards a higher tier. Or a Skill Crystal that can offer a new Skill, based off the abilities of the serpent.” Madame Voyou spoke, as she did I started to see that this was a far larger process than I had expected.

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  “So, this monster itself can be worth two to three crystals which could go for a hundred gold each, or roughly a thousand soft-backs?” I ask, referring to the local currency in the slang that most people here do. Commerce is weird, but all money is theoretically backed on the precious metal standard. But the value of the currency can fluctuate, depending on how the particular country you are in is faring economically. If your country is on the verge of collapse, or invasion, your country’s value in soft-backs will drop considerably, as everyone will want hard currency that can be carried relatively easily to a new place to start over. As it is a lot easier to sell every worldly possession you own and carry one gold coin, than it would be to carry bags full of now worthless soft currency.

  “Yes, meaning that one crystal from this beast is worth the same as winning two consecutive fights in the Pit,” Madame Voyou added.

  “So why don’t more people go to rifts? It seems more lucrative. Especially if every crystal found is all but guaranteed to be worth one gold piece, a fact that is backed by the crown.” I asked, remembering that the crown has forced the economy to sell all crystals at the rate of one gold piece, unless they sell it to a member of the original finding party, or to a family member. Politics and taxes.

  “Well, as you noted the crown is very interested in the sell and trade of Skill crystals as they get a silver coin in commission upon every transaction of Skill crystals. Even our getting the crystal back from an Advanced Harvester would cost us one silver to the crown per crystal returned. Even if we don’t sell it, as our transaction with the Harvester would count as a sale. This is why the crown watches these transactions so strictly and why all known advanced harvesters are registered and completely loyal to the crown with full benefits. Actually, that is not a bad gig, if you can learn one of those Skills, or Classes.” Madame Voyou added.

  I thought about it, a cushy guaranteed government job that all I had to do was look at rocks all day. Somehow it seemed that this position was an idea stolen from my past life as well.

  “Nah, I’m good,” I stated, realizing that I would go mad having to just sit in a chair and wait for people to bring me rocks all day.

  “Same, but sometimes I do wonder how much easier life would be if I never had to leave a chair,” as Madame Voyou spoke, I could almost see the moment that her eyes made an imperceptible flicker down her left side and at her still disfigured leg and metal prosthetic.

  Seeing that subtle look of longing, I made it a vow that I would do everything in my power to help her regrow her leg. I was fairly certain I could start helping now, but I also realized that if I messed up it would be catastrophic for her psyche. Or worse, if I succeeded but only marginally. I could only imagine the pain she would feel as her body had to adjust to having an inch of her leg back. How we would then need to adjust her prosthetic by that same amount and slowly work it back to a point where she would be able to move around as she does now.

  No, to fix her, I would want to do it all in one go, but I am not there yet. Also, we don’t have much time. For the moment, I will just come up with plans and Ideas that might work, practice them on others or in the wild, then come to her with a solution that I was certain that would work.

  “Oh, found it,” Mr. Karl’s jubilant voice cried out in excitement. That’s when Madame Voyou and I turned ourselves to him and watched as the giant monster of a man unhesitatingly stuck his hands deep into the blood and viscera of the serpent as if giving it a giant bear hug. Then began to pull and tug on the scraps of meat he had grabbed.

  “Hold it down!” Mr. Karl called out, as he was so strong that he was actually dragging the carved up snake carcass away, versus pulling the clump of guts and gore that he was desperately clinging onto. Hearing his words, Markan and Mr. Yi both dove into action. Jumping onto the carcass and trying to afford some resistance, even digging their feet into the ground as they did.

  There was a sickening slurping sound that came next as there was finally enough resistance that Mr. Karl could use his bulk and apply just enough leverage to yank a giant spikey crystal out of the serpents body.

  As he pulled, multiple veins and arteries were ripped and torn apart, causing the last vestiges of blood that had been laying flat suddenly come to life and spray wildly.

  “YEAH, got it!” Mr. Karl excitedly exclaimed as he raised the glowing high over his head, as he held it with one hand, while plucking away strings of muscle and viscera with the other. It was sickening to watch, but seeing his face, Mr. Karl could not have been more excited.

  “Look, four crystals!” Mr. Karl exclaimed, as he pointed out four different larger spikes that protruded from a dense spherical structure that he could grip with one hand. In all, the structure resembled an oversized seasonal tree topper than anything else.

  As he spoke, Markan and Mr. Yi both ran over to inspect the spoils.

  “Nice and with the four spikes, you know what that means?” Markan asked.

  “Darn straight I do!” Mr. Karl replied excitedly.

  As they spoke animatedly to each other, I just turned to Madame Voyou. Seeing the look of confusion in my eyes, she responded. “Much like people, creatures with cores follow the class leveling system. Meaning that a core with four spikes could be considered the same thing as a Rare class. Meaning, that if we get any crystals from it, those crystals should be able to affect Skills that are Rare ranked or lower. Or possibly provide a Skill that is up to rare quality.”

  As she spoke, a whole new line of thoughts hit me, realizing that this might be the way to go in the future. Again, I couldn’t imagine why people would not actively do this for fun and profit. That’s when I turned to look at the trio of muck and gore covered fighters and realized that normally they would have to stay like that until they got back to civilization. Looking at them and their current state, I realized why a lot of people didn’t feel the calling to come out and harvest monster cores like this. But that was okay, as I was here.

  Moving over to them I show why I am here and why they should continue to take me on these types of adventures.

  Holding up my hand, I focus first on Mr. Karl and the glowing orb in his hands. That’s when I use my Unique Skill Trash.

  This time, like earlier I once again power it with my life mana, but no one was ready for what exactly happened next.

  For the moment my life attuned mana reached out and touched the core to clear away the remaining tendrils of blood and rotting meat. That is when the scariest thing happened.

  The core lit up and began to pulse.

  “WHAT THE?” Three voices cried out in unison. The only reason more didn’t was that I was too shocked to speak. As the core, began to pulse and glow with a dark malevolence that sent shivers down my spine.

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