The group of children gathered around the corpse of The Monster. Although Stilla remained unconscious, it was agreed upon that everybody would have a fair share of absorbing its mana. Melvin left for a little bit and returned holding a sword and a mace. These were the weapon artefacts they had used to collect mana from the beasts.

Sienna questioned Melvin of why they had not used their weapons in battle. In response, Melvin stated that she and himself preferred to be disarmed than fight with unfamiliar weapons. Thus, the two of them employed their weapon artefacts as, in essence, leeches instead.

While it was obvious for Melvin that he was unable to wield such weapons, Stilla in reality, couldn't make do with these weapons either.

The horrifying truth was . . .

She absolutely sucked at using armed weapons.

Whether they were bows, swords, daggers or the like. She was not competent and had no natural gift, either. When it came to using such weapons, her prowess was at foremost, slightly better than average.

She would fail to use the most of her abilities and had the unfortunate tendency to miss a fair amount.

No, she was nowhere near as incapable as the useless crusader with masochistic tendencies.

Fortunately, she had talent when it came to weapons that were thrown. For instance, a javelin or a throwing stick.

The group then began their process of mana consumption.

Naturally, Stilla's proportion of mana was filled up first. Followed by Sienna, Dalis and Melvin respectively. It turned out that The Monster was truly a unique, powerful beast. No matter how much time they spent with the absorption of mana, it never ended. It seemed as if it was a bottomless pit hole.

Dalis had no complaints with this as it ensured he would secure a top position in the Pre-Soldier Exam. Melvin was pleased and continued to absorb to his heart's content. Sienna was likewise. Soon they were wholly indulged in this practice.

****

It was inevitable that the dying shrill scream of the beast had drawn the attention of countless participants. Many of them had eventually arrived at the scene.

In their survey, they were left thoroughly astounded.

They saw four individuals crowd around a huge corpse of an evolved wolf in the middle of a bloody battlefield. Three of them were greedily sucking mana as if they were bloodthirsty vampires. Their wet red clothing made this scene very disturbing. Every passing moment, the life force of the beast grew duller, and its deceased body even started to gradually contract.

When they gazed at their faces, it felt as if their hearts were being grasped, threatening to choke.

"I-is that Melvin? His eyes are closed, and his mouth is moving as if he is muttering something. Could he be chanting some kind of Feeria spell?" a young girl with bobbed hair asked.

"Weird . . . I thought Melvin had the ability to cast spells without a chant. In any case, have you guys ever seen Melvin make an expression like that? I'm actually acquainted with him and never have I seen him wear such a baleful face," the boy with spiked hair chided.

"He must be doing some kind of dark ritual. Look carefully! Don't you see that layer of purplish-black mana veiled over that corpse? My blessed mana is feeling threatened just being in its presence. Even though we are a hundred meters away!" a male with wavy hair said.

"Damn how distur—LOOK AT THAT GUY!"

"Wait I know that guy. That's Dalis. He's that aloof guy who doesn't really talk to anybody besides his roommates. Though I heard if you get to know him, he's not an unapproachable guy at all and can be quite amicable."

"You call that face approachable??!!"

The candidate that said Dalis was amicable squinted his eyes. When he saw him, he felt an icy chill run down his spine.

Dalis wore an expression of a villain . . . no, it was probably more correct to say he appeared as a mad scientist. His eyes seemed to stare infatuated, completely wallowed in his experiment. The sinister smile of his gleamed with delirious pleasure. He appeared to be somewhat slithering as he was engrossed in whatever he was trying to do with the bloody staff in his hands. Needling and jabbing in a staff in various spots of the beast's anatomy.

"He's a mad professor . . . No mad doctor! Is he dissecting the beast? No it doesn't seem he's going that far . . . What the hell is he trying to do? Did I just see him lick his lips? For the love of Caleyar, who the hell told me he was amicable. He's the devil incarnate. What a load of bullcrap!"

"You are so right brother. Now that I think about it, Melvin and Dalis are roommates. Could it be that every one of them are lunatics? What do you think Qi Yu?"

The girl named Qi Yu did not reply. However, it was apparent to the two guys that she was trembling immensely in fear. Her blenched face seemed to suggest that she had seen a ghost. Their line of sight was directed by the shaking index finger that pointed out towards the bloody corpse.

It was difficult to perceive due to her being just out of the picture from their position. However, it was now glaringly overt.

Two girls could be seen. One of the girls was nestled in the other girl's lap. It appeared she was sound asleep though it was impossible to tell. Her clothing was bloody and tattered. The hands of hers were particularly alarming as they were painted crimson red. She seemed no different from the rest.

However, she was only a figure that was illustrated in the background. All attention was on the foreground—the other girl.

Similarly to the girl in her lap, her clothes were relatively tattered. However, it would be an understatement to refer to her garments as simply bloody. They were drenched in this red liquid.

The most frightening of all was her head . . .

Her entire face was splattered with blood.

Crimson red blood.

Brows relaxed, eyes half awake, jaw slacked, and a faint smile curled revealing her pearl-white teeth. The young girl was the spitting image of a mother . . . if one was to exclude the wine red face.

Her left hand was preoccupied with caressing the girl in her lap. Gently touching her silky maroon hair. It was as if the girl was her child.

While her right hand held a pureblood red longsword. Its sharp-edged end was speared a foot deep on the side of the beast's hide. The sword gave the impression of becoming denser in the epitome of blood, modelling a weapon equal to the devil's trident.

Due to the magnitude of horror, the two boys, who had seen what she had seen, were now petrified with utter fear.

They too trembled without a single word to be spoken.

It was as if they were standing before the gates of hell.

And as though the gates of hell were aware of their new guests . . . the gate opened.

The girl with the blood-splattered face turned her head directly in line with those three guests.

"Do you guys want to join too? We have enough to spare," the demoness inquired with a brightened smile.

"GYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"KKKYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Those screams were only counting those specific three. Countless individuals that observed from that particular direction screamed and fled without a moment to waste as if their very lives were at stake.

Sienna was perturbed, but she soon realised that they must have run in fear because of her "muddy" outlook.

(It's just a bit of blood right? Sure it's quite a considerable amount, but still . . . )

After a minute or two, some individuals came to accept her kind offer. Although many of them were ready to sprint at any given moment, they were unable to resist the temptation to absorb free mana. After all, not everybody reacted the same way as those three candidates. Quite a few of them were aware that they were draining mana from the huge wolf corpse.

Eventually, after twenty minutes or so, a dozen people were crowding around the corpse of the beast, absorbing mana. The most concerning fact was that each of them steadily became engrossed in their practice. They did not resemble children aligned with the Church. Rather, they seemed like the youth generation of the dark cult.

Were they enmeshed by the purplish-black mana?

The pompous Melvin acted as a cult leader, fervently explaining with the aid of Dalis the art of sucking blood, including how to extract it efficiently and effectively.

It was at this point that the dispatched unit was ordered to prevent this influence from spreading and begin cleaning up the mess.

When the dispatched unit told them that these were the orders of their superiors, they reluctantly obeyed. A large majority of them knew that their actions were probably considered immoral, so they didn't have any hard feelings about it. Besides, they were only granted the opportunity in the first place due to the group's kindness.

However, that was the majority. The remaining few were like sly hungry cannibals and tried to consume as much mana as they possibly could before being rebuked again by the dispatched unit. All of them succeeded in obtaining a great chunk of extra mana. Dalis and Melvin were part of that minority.

(If I get the feeling that Sister Edna will bring it up . . . I will definitely apologise for my actions before she scolds me. Otherwise I will be punished . . . Besides, I did this for her . . . also because it was unexpectedly entertaining. Of course the second part would not be mentioned.)

(The process of extracting an evolved creature is a profound experience that one would not receive the advent of unless one was fortuitous. My extension of knowledge through printed work is not adequate and requires practical experience to solidify my comprehension. It was with good fortune that I was able to understand a sizeable proportion of the complexities that I had not been able to clarify.)