There was a handsome young man and a beautiful woman arm in arm with smiles on their faces. On a closer look Xeno realized that the man was actually an elf. The young woman was Riz in her younger years.

‘They look so happy…’

Still Xeno was clear on the fact that interracial relationships especially between elves and humans were not publicly supported. This was more so among the nobility. There were no signs of another person living in this house before him so the couple must have either split up or a more unfortunate outcome must have taken place.

"I forgot I still had that painting back here."

Xeno turned back to see Granny Riz standing near the door, "Granny, I was going through all this clutter hoping to find something interesting... sorry if..."

Riz cut him off, "It's fine dear, it’s quite pleasant to see old memories again, that was my husband Lucas and I after we got married."

Riz paused before saying, “He is not with us now unfortunately."

Xeno started apologizing again, "I’m sorry..."

But Granny Riz brushed him off saying it wasn't a big deal.

"The knife I gave you is in fact his, it was forged by some of the finest elvish smiths."

Granny Riz left after that statement and Xeno too left after putting the painting back in its place.

Xeno was curious about the Riz's history but held himself back from asking as he didn't want bring up unpleasant memories.

Putting this little incident behind him Xeno continued to work on his magic cultivation. After reaching the 9th circle, it was only a short time before he reached the peak of the Acolyte rank. In all honesty, while such a cultivation speed wasn't necessarily rare it certainly was a surprising phenomenon to see in a goblin.

The mana conductivity of his body as a result [Psychometric] was truly a cheat, but unfortunately it would not be as helpful in his construction of his Mana core which would promote him from Acolyte to Magus. Unlike other mages however Xeno didn't need to worry about the accumulation of mana for the breakthrough given his special abilities.

The 'Mana Core' is the place where the mana is gathered in the body. Unlike its name suggested however there was no actual core. Initially the accumulated mana just coalesced in a specific location.

In order to become a Magus one must create a Mana Core which would allow them to store large amounts of mana in a more organized way which would enable mages to cast more powerful spells and also increase the speed of spell casting as mana could be manipulated more easily with the presence of a Mana Core.

After hundreds of thousands years of research, a Mana whirlpools were discovered to be the best way to create a Mana Core. The whirlpool would allow easier accumulation of mana and was the most stable structure for mages.

As mages cultivate to higher levels the Mana Core would change accordingly, Master Mages were said to have a Mana sea.

Xeno wanted to attempt a breakthrough immediately but Granny Riz advised against it and told him to strengthen his foundation. His speedy advancements the past few months had resulted in his mana core foundation being a little shaky.

While working on solidifying his foundation, Xeno took trips to the village where he rescued Isabella from, and he managed to create a tunnel from the forest all the way to the inside of the village. Using basic earth magic sped up the process considerably otherwise it would have taken weeks to finish the job.

With the tunnel he now had safe passage to and from the village’s marketplace. It made buying supplies for granny much simpler and he wouldn’t have to worry about the village guards. Occasionally Xeno would linger around the village tavern’s roof and hear bits and pieces of information.

Isabella’s kidnappers were furious at their companion’s death at the hands of a ‘hobbit’ and they searched the forests for two weeks for the lost ‘merchandise’ but Granny Riz’s home had powerful wards so the men would always fail to locate the house and so gave up and left the village.

Normally these villagers would uselessly chatter and exchange gossip but one night Xenophxi heard something interesting,

“… The elves are up to something I tell ya, those pointy eared bastards never leave their trees but all of a sudden they’re everywhere now.”

Another man spoke up, “I heard there were a couple of elven ambassadors in the capitol recently, the empire wants to set up a trade or something.”

The men eventually started talking about elven products and Xeno left the scene and headed back to the house.

During dinner, Xeno mentioned the news he heard to Granny and her expression was strange. Riz was surprised that the elves would be open to such a thing as they usually kept to themselves but times changed perhaps the elves could change too, and as far as Xeno could tell Riz wasn’t didn’t react to badly at the talk of elves. It only made him more curious of her past but his gut told him not question Riz.

Xenophxi focussed on his magic cultivation the next few days and soon felt he was ready to become a proper magus. Granny Riz too agreed with him,

“You’re making fine progress Xeno. However the initial formation of the mana whirlpool is crucial to mages and she told him that most Acolytes consumed potions that would assist in the breakthrough.

Riz had all the ingredients for the potion except one,

“I need the heart of a Magic Beast, a fresh one.”

Unlike the other ingredients the heart needed to be fresh and so Xeno set off to get a heart.

The forest area around the house was inhabited by normal wild beasts so Xeno had to go deeper into the Jalcin forest to find a magic beast.

Magic beasts didn’t have to be mythical creatures or monsters of fantasy, any beast which could use mana was considered a magic beast. Wild beasts who live in mana rich environments for a long period of time could become Magic beasts.

Right now Xeno was heading deeper into the forest where the mana was thick. Xeno debated on using the [Detect Life] spell but decided against it, as it would alert magic beasts. One had to be of a higher level than the target so as not to alert the target. Casting a [Detect Life] might attract unwanted entities.

Instead Xeno opted to use [VIKI] to detect traces of a suitable target.

……………………….

Scanning Tracks…

80 % chance tracks belong to a bear like creature.

……………………….

Xeno followed [VIKI]‘s lead and the tracks lead to a bear or what was left of it, Xeno eyes moved to the monster on top of its corpse and the monster looked back at him,

“Nice bunny…”

The bunny didn’t give him a chance and instantly dove horn first towards Xeno, luckily predicted this dodged.

……………………….

Scanning target…

[Horned rabbit]

.

.

.

[Leap] skill has been updated.

……………………….

This time [Psychometric] not only altered his body but he received some information as well, gaining knowledge of using mana to increase the power of his leg muscles. This change came as a surprise to the rabbit as it found the goblin keeping up with its lunges.

After dodging the horned rabbit for a while, it was clear that the rabbit wasn’t too powerful. Its only mode of attack was to charge into enemies horn first which given its mana infused jumping ability was quite useful in dealing with most threats.

Xeno decided to end the fight and pounced straight towards the rabbit at an astonishing speed. The rabbit failed to react before its head was cut off in one clean motion.

The rabbit could probably deal with most wild beasts but Xeno was a peak Acolyte. His mana was stronger and more pure than the beast’s thus his attempts to mirror the rabbit’s jumps were much faster than the rabbit giving him an obvious advantage.

Xeno stored the horned rabbit’s heart but continued hunting anyways as he didn’t want to give Granny Riz the heart of such a weak creature for the potion. Making his way further into the forest, Xeno felt the mana become a tad richer and knew the beasts here were probably much stronger than the horned rabbit.

When hunting though one must not forgot that the hunter could always become the hunted. Unbeknown to Xenophxi a pair of eyes were following his movements from a top the trees.

As the goblin was focussed on set of tracks on the ground, the eyes lit up with killing intent and a shadow rushed from the tree cover straight at the goblin. Xenophxi reacted quickly and dodged the strike.

His face was calm as he observed the snake. His goblin senses didn’t decay but were honed by his practice of magic. Xeno heard the snake and dodged with the help of his updated [Leap] skill.

The snake had greens scales and piercing yellow slits for eyes as it stared at Xeno patiently, both of them could tell the other was their equal in strength.

That’s right the snake was the Magic beast equivalent to a peak Acolyte. It was truly unlucky for Xenophxi to encounter such a beast as stronger animals would head deeper into the forest.

‘It must have just advanced.’

On the same level magic beasts were usually stronger since the body of a beast stronger than other races but if it was a newly advanced magic beast while the difficulty would still be high it wouldn’t be impossible to slay it,

“Staring is rude, you know”, Xeno said as he stared harder at the snake.

As the staring contest went on, Xeno grew impatient and made the first move, casting a [Stone skin] on himself as he rushed at the snake. With [Leap] the distance was closed in a flash and Xeno swung his dagger at the snake’s head.

The snake dodged swiftly and launched an attack at his face. Guarding with his [Stone skin] enforced arm guard Xeno was shocked when the snake disappeared from his vision and to his dismay wrapped around his body.

This snake wasn’t venomous but instead a constrictor, and after wrapping around Xeno, proceeded to squeeze the life out of him,

“Damn you, little bitch.”

His shouts were in vain and he couldn’t beat the snake in terms of raw strength. Still as an acolyte, Xeno had more cards in his sleeve than just brute strength. Xeno cast [Flame Hands] on the snakes head.

The burst of flame made the snake panic and its grip loosened allowing Xeno to break free. Without relent Xeno continued to cast [Flame Hands] on the snake. The snake reeled from the heat initially before a layer of earth covered its scales.

The snake had used an ability similar to [Stone skin] and resisted the flames. The snake lunged with its fangs and tried to bite Xeno. Knowing that [Flame Hands] lost its effectiveness, Xeno allowed the snake to bite his armguard.

It failed to pierce through his [Stone skin] enforced armour and Xeno used the chance to grab the snake’s head and wrestle it to the ground. It tried wrapping around and constricting him again but Xeno split opened its most and cast a [Flame hands] a more powerful mana output right down its throat.

Xeno didn’t stop till its body went limp. After making sure the snake was dead he cut its heart out and bolted back to Granny’s house. He didn’t want to take the chance of a third party coming after him after that battle.

‘Hope this is good enough for the potion. A snake is way cooler than a bunny.’

Xeno couldn’t wait to brag to Granny Riz about his battle with the snake.