Chapter 67

  Adaptive Crystallization

  Like a demonically possessed Christmas ornament, the dimly glowing core that Mr. Karl was holding began to flash to life and then glow excitedly as it absorbed the ambient healing energy from my Trash Skill.

  “Eeep!” Mr. Karl cried out, in the most non-manly way possible, as he dropped the core to the ground as he backed up, arms wide as he pulled Markan and Mr. Yi with him to apparent safety.

  Even Madame Voyou stumbled backwards, her balance and coordination slightly thrown off by the metal leg catching in the marsh lands.

  All of their actions left me all by myself, a few feet away, staring at the still glowing core. A core that seemed to be growing slightly as the remainder of my energy filled the core.

  “Watch out,” Markan finally yells out a few seconds later to me. After he realizes that while all of the seasoned experts left for safety, the person on her first mission was left out there holding the bag.

  Though watching, I could see that the dead serpent’s core grabbed the ambient energy from my Skill and continued to glow and grow, but at a much slower rate now that the influx of energy to it was gone.

  “Wait, did it just evolve?” Markan asked finally coming closer. Not as close as I was currently, as I was still within two paces of the discarded core.

  “No, it couldn’t have. Dead cores can’t—” Madame Voyou began, coming forward from my side, but still seeming to use my body as a makeshift shield as she peered around my shoulder. But her words were cut off as she witnessed the last few glowing lights of mana go into the core and slowly dissipate while a few new tiny spikes began to grow upwards.

  “Wait, you all are seeing this right? Spontaneous growth of a dead core?” Mr. Karl asked, getting closer and finally being the one apparently brave enough to touch the core. A stark contrast to his early cry of fear, before stumbling backwards into the rest of the team.

  With a focused look, Mr. Karl reached out and took one large finger and tapped the core gently. The tap caused a solid tink sound to echo.

  “It’s solid too,” Mr. Karl let out as that one tap was enough for him to begin trying to manipulate the abandoned core again. Picking it up, he began to thoroughly inspect the core, holding it up to the light and finally giving his impression of what he was seeing.

  “Not a scratch on it, not even any signs of stress faults forming,” Mr. Karl noted.

  “Stress faults?” I parroted back, only after saying my question did I remember the earlier game that everyone had been playing at my expense. Fortunately, everyone was either too distracted by whatever happened to the core, or by the recent battle, but no one seemed to harp on my faux pas.

  “Yes, normally, we have to be careful with healers around monster cores. As the cores have a few hours after removal that they are still capable of absorbing the opposite energy of the body they were in. That was a spirit snake, meaning it devoured life energy.” Madame Voyou responded, giving her typical lesson format, but I was glad for her details at this point. Even if her response did cause so many more questions to form.

  “Wait, they eat Life energy?” I ask.

  “Yes, that is why the spirit snake was particularly drawn to you over all of us. It is also why a diamond formation is the most preferred when a healer is part of your party.” Again, her words were making more sense to me now that I had been in the field and seen the monster’s reactions firsthand.

  “Wait, but earlier, the snake followed my sword, and not me?” I asked.

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  “It did, but I think the combination of your Spirit and Life attributed mana in your blade proved to be a more appealing target than the life mana that fills your body. Also, you weren’t exactly exposing any Life energy at the time, just projecting it into your sword.” Madame Voyou clarified.

  “So it was only attracted to my sword, as that was where I directed my attuned mana to appear outside my body? Meaning that if I created a mist of Life mana, it would be drawn to that instead?” I asked, trying to remember the Love Fountain trick from yesterday and trying to see if it could have a practical application in combat.

  “Yes, and possibly, but know that you would always be a primary target, as most creatures here can sense living creatures, and those that are attuned to Life mana especially.” Madame Voyou commented.

  It was about this point that I realized why most people did not find healers inside rifts.

  “Look at it, it is in perfect condition, actually probably even in better than perfect condition,” Markan exclaimed pulling our attention back to the altered core. “It think it scaled up and went from mid-Rare tier to near peak Rare tier.”

  Markan said words, but they almost sounded like gibberish to me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The core, it seemed to eat your energy, and grow to a point where if it was still inside the spirit serpent the Spirit Serpent would have been ready to evolve to the next Tier of power,” Madame Voyou explained.

  “But this is perfect, no stress fractures, no cracks. None of the signs you would expect to see by a healer throwing power directly on a monster core,” Markan the apparent crystal expert explained. Then again, he did have the earth affinity, so his knowing about crystals did kind of make some sense.

  “So, I’m assuming there is a reason you all did the T-Barry Shuffle away from the core when it glowed?” I asked.

  “The Tee Berry Shuffle?” Markan asked, stretching out the words from my past life that were oddly out of place in this life time.

  Only as soon as he did, I paused and pointed at him and exclaimed, “gotcha! One for me.”

  There was a pause as everyone just looked around confused for a second, before dawning recognition sank in. Mr. Karl was the first to notice.

  “Ah hahaha, she got you! She got you good!” Mr. Karl said, before giving a smack to the back of Markan’s back that sent him stumbling forward a step before he caught himself.

  That’s when everyone else started to laugh as well. Markan looked at first offended, staring back at Mr. Karl, but seeing the look of youthful happiness radiating off of Mr. Karl, Markan soon broke and started laughing as well.

  Finally, after a second or two, Markan composed himself and stared at me for a moment as if truly being able to see me for the first time. That is when he paused himself and after nodding he began to speak, “you might have what it takes for the elite squads yet. That said, your survival instincts are a bit lacking.”

  Hearing his words I could only grimace, especially as he turned to look at the no longer glowing core that Mr. Karl still had in his hands.

  “When you see a group of people running away from an object. Especially when someone like Karl here cries out like a sissy, you should try to back away.” Markan stated and then paused after pointing to Mr. Karl who looked offended by pointing out his eep from earlier. Before I could think too much about what he said, or before Mr. Karl could come up with a reply, Markan continued.

  “Now to answer your question from earlier, these do feed on Life mana. Most of the creatures here have been tuned to gain sustenance from any living thing, this is why you will see that even the grass is dead in these realms, as all the nutrients have been absorbed in some way or another by the denizens of these realms. You remember last night with the Royal Seal Master?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, just as everyone ran when the Royal Seal Master’s core broke, the same could have happened here. Most of the time, when ambient mana from a Skill is added to a core nothing will happen, the only exception to this, is when Life attuned Skills are used on a still active core. Now once the core has been removed for a few hours, then it is dormant and there is nothing that you could do to alter it with your Skills. But while it is still alive, it can still absorb life energy and attempt to heal itself.”

  Hearing that continued explanation, I paused as I could only imagine that giant serpent slowly regrowing itself back to its full size and coming back with a vengeance.

  “You have to realize that this core is inside the beast’s body, and that there are multiple layers of muscles, fats, and proteins that all absorb the mana and prevent it from directly interacting with the core. This is why, the core is so susceptible to Life mana as any that reaches it is processed and utilized to its fullest. This means that generally a rupture or explosion will occur, when it is exposed to Life mana directly.”

  Another pause as Markan let that extra factoid sink in. Then apparently seeing something in my eyes, he continues his explanation on cores.

  “However, it would appear that your Skill that you used was diluted enough to cause the optimal growth rate of the core.” Markan began, and then I could almost see the moment a light went on in his eyes as he turned back to look at Mr. Karl and Mr. Yi respectively. Both of whom both nodded, before Markan turned back to face me. Well not me, but Madame Voyou who was still over my shoulder. Looking back, I saw that there was something being exchanged. Again, the importance of working with the same team for so long was immeasurable as they were able to have an apparent conversation with just a glance.

  I could tell the moment they made a consensus, when Madame Voyou nodded and then turned her bright blue gaze down to me.

  Gasp.

  Still seeing both of her powerful blue eyes was new to me, as she had been intense with just the one eye. But now that she had both, the power of her gaze was astounding.

  “That said, if you are willing, I think we might be able to try out something, a science experiment of sorts?” Markan asked.

  I opened my mouth and was about to parrot back his wording on science experiments, but stopped myself. As I closed my mouth, I could almost see the moment his composure dropped as he had apparently been expecting me to repeat his words back to him. Like a sulking child he dropped his shoulders for a moment, causing me to smile at his antics.

  While I might not like the hazing ritual, I couldn’t help but note that it did cause you to focus on things other than the giant lurking monsters that were hidden deep within the fog. Fog that seemed to have dissipated a bit now that the giant serpent was dead.

  Looking around, I pause as I realize it has been a few moments since I last used my Skills to remove the fog from around us. But even now we were still out in the open. I am about to fixate on that for a moment, but quickly catch the look of discontent on Markan’s face. That’s when I realize he is expecting a response.

  “Go on?”