As Seth released the black swirling fireball tainted with distant sparks of red fire, he saw the beast’s eyes widen in dread as the technique shot forward, closing the distance in a blink. The black skull didn’t pose the slight resistance as bone, flesh and blood were vaporized alike on its path, leaving behind a gruesome hole the size of a fist.

Seth could only stare in amazement at his own power. He’d expected it to be strong, but not this strong, then again, he’d never test it. Not even after advancing to the Orange Core Stage.

Anyway, Seth didn't have much time to think about it before a wave of tiredness and extremely searing pain hit him, reminding him that using up his reserves in a single technique on his wounded arm was just as effective as a stupid decision. However, looking at the slain beast...

It was gratifying, even if his body didn't quite agree with that.

Feeling the throbbing core in his chest, the aching in his channels and the sharp pain on his shoulder, Seth reckoned he wouldn’t be able to wield mana for at least the next hours—he had pushed his body and spirit too much.

Still better than having an Orange Core Stage blowing up itself on my face, though. His body and core were still too weak to bear the stress of the move, but at least it helped to not end up charred into charcoal.

Anyway, there was another issue at hand.

Trying his best to gather up his shaking body, Seth's gaze swept across the chamber, just in time to see the stoneaters glowed colourfully as they ignited their cores. But Roland and Olivia seemed to be prepared for that as they unleashed their moves.

Olivia’s spear glowed brightly to the point of making his eyes hurt, casting a ghastly green light over the chamber as she threw the spear with all her might, zooming through the air like a bullet. However, instead of piercing through the stoneater, the dark-green spear dissolved midair into a thick column of gas that immediately surrounded the beast. Corroding flesh and bone as it feasted onto its mana, growing stronger the more energy was released from the imploding core.

The beast was reduced to a pile of goo after a short minute.

On the other hand, Roland’s move was far less flashy. He just sent a punch forward, at the speed and force of what any non-awakened human could muster with a bit of effort. But the simple movement was enough to send a pillar of pure mana howling through the air. With barely a few meters separating him from the beast, the force of the strike was strong enough to pull its limbs apart.

Leaving a bloody mess behind as the poor creature was literally dismembered alive.

The sight was sickening, but Seth didn't bat an eye. It wasn’t his first nor the second time witnessing such a grim sight, and it wouldn't be the last… hopefully. What was clear was that the strain from pushing their bodies to the limit wasn't small.

Olivia directly fell onto her knees as the cloud of poison seeps back into her body, her aura dropped to the lowest levels and her muscles spasmed while supporting her light body. Roland wasn’t doing much better, but despite his right arm being full of lacerations that dripped with crimson blood, his aura hadn’t dropped much.

Which meant he should have enough mana to take care of the last nuisance.

After catching their breaths for a few seconds, and gulping down an elixir each, Roland and Olivia walked in Seth’s direction. Nearly throwing themselves onto the soft floor as they found him looking at the ceiling, his face twisting in pain as he clutched his right arm.

Seth threw them a glance and said, “I knew this wasn’t a good idea,” he could feel the piercing pain vividly even after taking a healing pill, which didn’t put him in a good mood, but at least he could feel the warmth slowly spreading over his shoulder,

Olivia groaned and hit him lightly on the head, but Seth didn’t even react at that and let himself take a breath on the soft ground. It took him a few minutes to pull himself up and walk towards the pack that he had hidden on one of the entrances of the chamber. Taking a second flask and sitting down, he felt a soothing sensation on his insides, this one focused on his aching channels and core. Albeit far less effective.

Only after half an hour did they feel secure enough to approach the worm laying in the middle of the room, even if asleep, the stoneater queen wasn’t something they dared to approach lightly—much less one at the peak of the Yellow Core Stage.

“So,” Seth’s gaze lingered over the thin barbs from where a navy blue liquid could be seen oozing out, “How should we handle this?”

He could probably cut them with his sword as those were softer sections of the beast, but he would end up burning the venom and probably damaging the Amalgamated Billycock saved inside. Using pure mana enhancement wasn’t an option either, the skin of a peak Yellow Core Stage beast had proven to be far tougher than what they could handle, but the siblings surely had something for the occasion.

And this time, it surpassed his expectations by a large margin.

Seth could only stare in surprise as Roland’s arm pulled a decently long centipede from his pack, however, from how stiff it looked, Seth wasn’t sure if the little thing was even alive.

Taking a closer look, the carapace was completely brown while its legs were of a deep orange shade, two antennas could be seen poking out from the upper side of its reddish-brown head as a pair of short fangs decorated the lower jaw. Its black eyes were slightly larger than the norm, but aside from that, it looked exactly like any of the red-head centipedes he’d seen before.

The flat insect did seem to be more dead than alive, but Seth wasn’t the expert carrying a pack full of gadgets and useful stuff on his back. He limited himself to watch.

Roland took a core and waved it in front of its head section as though it was a sweet, Seth wondered if he was just playing around as the insect didn't show any sign of moving. But after a minute of waving a red bean-sized core, he caught one of its antennae twitching, then the other and then the legs below.

Before he knew it, the previously motionless insect was earnestly munching the red core with far more enthusiasm and intelligence than should be possible for an insectile beast. Its Orange Core Stage aura was also worthy of note.

Anyway, Seth found the situation fascinating. Especially after the beast finished swallowing the core and looked at Roland with something he could only describe as puppy eyes—but on a centipede scale.

“Okay, Danzi. I can give you a few more but I need your help with the big guy over there,” he said, pointing at the other insect in the room. “Everything yours except the core and the treasure,”

The little guy didn’t waste time and directly crawled in its direction, heading towards the encircling hole full of rows of teeth that anyone could assume to be its mouth.

As the centipede crept inside, Seth couldn’t help himself to ask, “What’s the deal with the insect?”

Roland’s gaze remained on the insect until it completely disappeared inside the worm, “I’m training it to become my familiar,”

Seth’s eyes widened slightly in surprise after hearing his words, “I thought insectile beasts weren’t that common among Trainees,” he’d never seen a Trainee in the flesh, but it was vastly known as one of the most famous, prestigious and hardest professions one could find out there, so it should be impressive.

Much more the rare Insectile Trainees.

“They aren’t,” Roland said, taking another core from his pocket, “Being a Trainee isn’t just an issue of affinity or skill… but money. And we would say that among all the options available, insectile races are among the most expensive and hardest specimens to grow. And that’s considering that raising even the simplest beast is already a mammoth task. It isn’t strange that barely anyone decides to focus their resources on them.”

“And why bother with them?”

“Well, I will admit that they are quite a pain in the ass when it comes to the sheer volume of resources they require and the issue that insectile races, in general, are very problematic. Even a Dark-clawed Panther or a Cyan Wolf could be far easier to work with.

“But cultivating one of these guys did come with its advantages,” Roland said, his lips curling slightly.

As he finished speaking, Seth's attention was immediately drawn to the ear-piercing shriek that left the mandibles of the queen. The sound made his eardrums hurt just as fast as the queen’s body began to spasm uncontrollably, its barbs quivering as several ripples seemed to travel over its skin, making it quite an appalling sight.

That the full force of its aura hit them, making them lose their balance for a split of a second. It didn't stay for long. Soon, Seth sensed its aura growing steadily weaker with every passing minute and, before he knew it, it was already dead.

The skin began to pale and wrinkled as bone-cracking and swallowing noises sound out from the inside. Likewise, the plumb flesh began thinning down and soon, the worm fell apart into a sack of dried bones and skin. The whole sequence just took a few minutes, Seth now understood how fierce an insectile beast's appetite could be.

The now plumbed centipede didn’t take much time to exit the carcass, this time, carrying two objects onto its now elongated fangs.

Handing one to Seth and the other two to Olivia, the flat insect immediately climbed onto Roland and went back to its post-mortem state, not before swallowing a core and clacking its fangs happily.

But Seth was preoccupied with something else.

Holding the dull yellow core with his right hand, he could feel the high density and high quality of mana stuff inside. It made his lips involuntary curl up, even if the little mushroom in Olivia’s hand did look fairly more dazzling.

The small Amalgamated Billycock glowed with a faint silver lustre as Olivia carefully placed it inside a small wooden box, it didn’t look much different compared to an ordinary mushroom. Only a bit bigger, bigger than his fist. Seth couldn’t refrain himself from having scattered ideas of selling it to Lucas’ family.

He could get a good amount of money from it.

But he quickly shook the thought away.

Even though they were scamming him with this contract, he wasn’t going to antagonise the second most influential force in Darkhold City, no thanks. The item was clearly far more valuable than what they were paying them, but there was nothing he could do.

Seth would not care if it was just the Amalgamated Billycock from a low-level Yellow Core Stage Stoneater Queen. But this one was from one at the very peak of the stage, which made it a few times more valuable.

The problem lay that they wouldn’t get higher pay for bringing a more valuable item as it was specified in the contract that they wouldn’t do it. Normally, people would never accept such an unreasonable deal, Seth included. But looking at how fast things were developing in Darkhold City, soon, it would be a miracle to find a contract with such generous rewards in the course of the next few months.

Anyway, Seth's expression shifted from one of annoyance to one of doubt as his eyes fell onto Olivia as walked towards the dried carcass.