[You have killed 2 dire wolves]

[Devouring two life forces]

“Heh… Why didn’t it say the evolution thing? I’ve been scammed!” Silas shook his hand at the injustice before panting again and holding himself from dropping to the floor.

Even though he was now at the pristine-garnet core, his mana pool was far from large. At most, he could create a few tier one and two spells without completely drying it.

A single tier three spell would completely drain him, while a tier 4 spell was something only a future topaz-core Silas could think about.

However, Silas’ mana core could gather much more than the average mana core. At first, he thought he was at a disadvantage when he began to break his mana into 4 elements at the start of his journey on Gilea.

Yet, When Silas discovered how to create a spark within his mana to not lose 75% of it when creating a spell with a certain element, he also realized that his mana pool was 4 times larger than the average person at the same stage as him, or probably even higher.

The amount of mana stored in a mana core depended on their affinity toward an element, and their core grade. Their core grade also indicated how much mana they had control over, while also indicating the quality of the outputted mana.

‘I should definitely start to break through to the topaz stage soon. It’s getting much harder to break through now that I’m reaching higher mana core grades.

‘Is that their mana cores? I guess it makes sense. These beasts seem to infuse themselves with pure mana the same way I do… Wait, am I doing something only beasts can do? I hope I don’t get burnt at a stake for this.’ Silas shuddered while walking toward the carcass.

Lifting his axe into the air, he descended it upon the beast and ripped out its abdomen before sticking his hand inside.

After fumbling inside the thing for a few minutes, Silas finally felt something hard inside, causing him to grab it and pull it out.

“So this is what a mana core looks like.” Silas muttered while looking at the dull garnet jagged crystal in his hand that continued to pulse with mana.

It didn’t have any semblance of an element inside it, but what confused Silas was the fact that it looked a lot different from what he had imagined.

Every time he sent his mana to his own mana core, it always felt like a sphere, yet the thing he was holding in his hand was far from a sphere.

It looked closer to a rock than anything… A very dull rock that shines every now and then.

‘I don’t really have a bag to place this in… So-.’ Silas turned around and began to dig through the wet mud with his axe, creating a small hole where he placed his cores and covered it again.

He didn’t want to use earth magic since it would cost mana, something he could not afford to lose while in a forest filled with monsters who want to kill him.

‘Next problem, my alleged bloodlust.’ Silas closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.

He knew what bloodlust felt like now that he had fought against a beast that used it, and while the bloodlust wasn’t very advantageous to it, the fight did allow Silas to unlock several memories where he had felt something like it in his past life, primarily after the collapse of civilization.

Breathing in, Silas calmed his heart and stopped thinking about killing monsters.

He felt his heart rate drop slightly while the feeling that continued to build between his stomach and chest finally disappeared.

When he opened his eyes, he sighed and took off once more.

Silas spent the rest of the night killing random monsters, yet none of them were nearly as strong as the wolves, who seemed to be by far the strongest ones around.

However, Silas was aware that wolves usually hunted in groups, so it was odd to find one all on its own.

Hours passed as Silas killed monsters one by one, shedding blood after every slice of his axe or every spell he formed at his fingertips.

Silas mainly used air, water, and earth spells. Sure, Silas was no saint in his past life, but he usually avoided hurting animals excessively or causing them too much pain.

It was a little ironic since he could not say the same thing for humans, since he could remember several occasions where he had set a person on fire for reasons that would probably make him the villain in everyone’s story.

However, once the night ended and the twilight began to shine upon the forest.

Seeing this, Silas was a little disappointed with his hunt, but he had gained a few mana cores that he could probably sell in the future for money.

‘I should probably research the uses of mana cores before selling them, though. There’s a chance that they might come in handy whenever I might need them.’ Silas pondered momentarily before nodding to himself and eventually leaving the forest and leaving the mana cores in the hole in the forest.

A monster finding them was a better scenario than Rhea or Lochras finding them.

Eventually, he returned home before sunrise, allowing him to begin his routine before his parents or grandmother could work out. He was covered in a lot of blood and grime, so when he was done with working out, he quickly bathed and returned to sword practice.

***

It had been several days since Silas began to sneak out of the house to fight monsters and beasts, and ever since the wolf fight, there hadn’t been many like it.

Silas had quite a few close calls since many of the creatures tended to use ambush tactics, but with the help of mystic eyes, Silas was able to quickly dodge out of the way and kill them all quite easily.

*Clack Clack Clack*

The hollow knocking of wood hitting wood echoed throughout the front yard while the wind’s howls reverberated from the backyard as two individuals seemed to be cheering something.

“You’re getting sloppy.” Lochras spoke before knocking Silas’ blade to the side and striking him in three vital points with the wooden sword.

While Silas wore a leather armor, Lochras wore nothing but normal tunic garments that suited both battles and home life.

“Oh really?” Silas grinned while stepping to the side and reeling back his wooden blade, yet just when he saw Lochras beginning to block the incoming attack, Silas shifted his weight and stabbed at his father.

“Clever…” Lochras smiled.

“But clever doesn’t let you win fights.”

‘Well, that’s just untrue-‘

“Blegh.” The knock of his blade being struck away from his hand was followed by Silas suddenly puking whatever was left of his breakfast. This was one of the rare days a week when his father was actually home, and Silas assumed that this was the case due to the church ceremonies being on that day.

However, since they didn’t believe in the Gilea religion, they simply stayed at home.

Feeling the foot on his abdomen, Silas gritted his teeth and looked up at his father, staring into his eyes.

Lochras couldn’t help but shudder and the sudden stare.

‘Was that killing intent?’ He furrowed his brows before eventually chuckling.

‘Of course, it wasn’t. Silas is a child; no matter how mature he seems, there is no way he can create killing intent.’ Lochras bashed himself for having such thoughts before shoving Silas a few steps back to increase the distance between them.

“You did your feint wrong.” Lochras sighed.

“What do you mean?” Silas tilted his head slightly.

“You should have gone more like- whee, then woosh, then boom.” Lochras demonstrated how to effectively do a feint.

‘What the hell is this guy teaching me?!’ but instead of complaining, Silas tried to replicate his father.

“Whee, then woosh, then boom?” Silas did exactly what Lochras told him to do.

“No! Whoosh then boom!” Lochras did it again.

“Whoosh then boom?”

This carried on for several minutes. The argument was quite intense since clearly, despite being a master at the sword, Lochras was a horrible teacher.

‘Yes! I blame him for my bad swordsmanship!’ Silas inwardly declared with his chest puffed out and his nose pointing to the sky.

“WHOOOSH! LOOK AT ME! WHOOSH, THEN BOOM!” Lochras shouted.

“I did exactly that, you f-… Piece of-… AHHHHHH.” Throwing the sword at the ground, Silas shattered it in anger before walking in the other direction.

“So, how did it go?” Rhea’s voice suddenly entered Lochras’ ears, causing him to look toward his wife with a beaming smile. She clearly knew how it went, yet her husband replied earnestly.

“Amazing!” He raised a thumbs up, making Rhea sigh while gently face palming.

——————

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