Stone lizard core (lvl 14): A monster core from a Lvl 14 stone lizard. Monster cores are crystals of power formed during the fusion of mana, essence and to create monsters. The core is the actual product formed during the fusion and the flesh and bones of the monster are created by the core. The skills and abilities possessed by the monster is dictated by the core and it provides the energy required for the monster to function. Destruction of the core results in destruction of the monster form and hence the core is heavily protected. Exhausting the energy animating the physical body of the monster is the same as exhausting the core’s energy. Sufficient damage to a monster will affect the core and force it use more energy to support its physical form. The energy output of the core has hard limits, damage causes the core to increase its output in order to compensate. Once the output reaches the core’s limit, any further damage done causes the core to become unable to support its physical form and it suffers a backlash of energy. This results in the rapid decay of the physical form and leaves behind only the core.

Monster cores can be used as a source of energy, used as a form of currency and has innumerable other uses.

Adam read the description. this thing is going to be useful once I figure out how I can use it and if not, I could always sell it and earn cash. Adam thought to himself, But I can’t see how I can use this inside the gauntlet though. I remember I ate the last one I got…wait! I killed that monkey monster yesterday and it didn’t drop anything like this? Adam questioned. Aren’t all monsters supposed to drop this? So why didn’t the monkey drop it?

Adam soon reached an answer by himself. He had not waited for the dead Mindflayer Simian to decompose and he had Devoured it as soon the monster died. Since he had used his ability on the corpse, the monster decayed into ashes and soon disappeared once he had absorbed the monster’s essence. Which he now guessed was the Monster core. The Stone Lizard on the other hand, he hadn’t managed to use his ability on it so the corpse decomposed into a black sludge like substance that turned to black smoke and left behind a monster core.

With that realization, Adam was reasonably sure that his ability absorbed monster cores, when used on dead monsters he had killed. Only one way to find out. Adam thought as he held the core and activated Devour. The crystal sublimated and the essence making up the crystal was absorbed into Adam. The amount of essence he absorbed was enough to fill 20% of his essence capacity. Adam was proven correct in his assumptions, his ability absorbed monster cores. He did not know how he could make use of the knowledge but he was sure that the information was going to be of use someday. Maybe if I have to leave in a hurry after I kill a monster and don’t have the time to devour it, I could always return back later and absorb the core.

Adam made his way back to the cave but did not return the roundabout path he had used to scout the edges of the forest. Instead, he cut through the forest and headed to his cave in a straight line. It was evening and light was fading. Although he had been on the lookout for something edible that he could catch, he did not want to risk staying out in the forest till last light.

Though I’m still a bit hungry, its not worth it to risk my life and stay out till dark looking for food. Besides I don’t think I’ll be able to find anything to eat since most animals should be returning to their hiding spots and nests by now. That THING comes out after dark and I don’t think the creatures in the forest stick around till it comes out. Adam shuddered at the thought and instinctively picked up his pace.

By the time Adam reached his cave, it was evening and the light was fast fading, although he still had a good half an hour of light left. He made sure to cover the bone pit with more dirt, just in case it attracted anything during the night. Then he went inside the cave, quenched his thirst with water and settled down with his back against one of the cave walls and went through his notifications.

User has killed Stone Lizard (14)

Due level difference essence gain increased

User has leveled up

User is level 04

User has gained 10 attributes and 1 trinity stat

I’ll never get tired of these notifications. Adam felt good every time he leveled up, he could always tell when it happened, the feeling of achieving a level was always euphoric and addictive. Seeing the notification wasn’t as good but he still felt satisfied seeing it.

The essence from the core gave me enough to fill 20% of the essence needed for the next level. Adam mused, which doesn’t seem like a lot. There’s an 11-level difference between me and the Lizard, if anything I should have earned more than just 20%, Adam reasoned. My class is great and all but these restrictions are really breaking my balls. Right now, its just the essence penalty but I don’t even want to imagine how frustrating its going to be once I get my hands on equipment and I’m unable to use them. Adam dejectedly thought, Ah fuck it. My class may have a lot of restrictions but its tailor made for my aptitude and not to mention the total amount of raw attributes I gain with each level should be much better than other classes…at least I hope it is. Otherwise, this shit is going to suck once I find other people. Sapients. Whatever.

Adam’s class was odd, to say the least, it had a lot of restrictions in place but it provided raw attributes in compensation. Since Adam had no weapons or gear, he didn’t have anyway to procure them or the knowledge or skills to make them, he realized that his class was much better suited to his situation than any normal class. At least he assumed so since he reasoned that the other classes would require some sort of weapon or gear to utilize them. His class Wildling of Hunger had no such requirement. The only issue was that he was permanently barred from using equipment and his essence requirement for levels had increased significantly.

Next, Adam thought as he finished cheering himself up.

User has absorbed Monster core Lvl 14.

Essence gained increased.

User has gained +2 strength, Endurance and +1 to reaction and Perception

User has learned Mana Control*(E)

User has learned Mimic*(Un)

User has learned Gaea Force*(R)

Now this is more like it, Adam was ecstatic with what he had gained, 6 attributes and 3 abilities and one of them is even epic. This is definitely the biggest haul I have ever got till now. And those gains in attributes were to my BODY stats which is great since they were falling behind MIND. Adam thought, and it even gave me 3 abilities, judging just from their names, they sound as if they’re going to be extremely useful. Especially that camouflage ability. Fuck I can’t wait to try them out. Adam thought excitedly as he read the through the names of the abilities he had gained from absorbing the core. He wasted no time as he clicked on the first ability to check it out.

Mana Control*(E): An ability similar to Mana Manipulation but much more comprehensive. The user has earned this ability through absorbing a Stone Lizard. Though not masters of mana manipulation, their inherent ability to control their internal mana signature in order flawlessly blend into the environment is only possible due to their Mana Control ability. The ability allows user to control all forms of mana. Increased proficiency improves the ability.

Decreases cost of mana of skills by 10%

Improves effectiveness of skills that use mana by 10%

This is going to be a core skill since it works on all my other mana-based skills and should improve them significantly at higher proficiency. The boost to effectiveness and decrease to skill cost will probably end up being a life saver since most of my skills have increased mana cost with proficiency. Adam was ecstatic about his new skill. He had been worried about the rising costs of his skills. Every level in proficiency added to the cost of the skills. Now he had something which would mitigate the cost and would even improve the skill. He tried testing the skill out before checking out the others.

Let’s see now. Adam closed his eyes and focused his senses inward and towards his core. This is my core and the place that houses my mana pool. Before when I had tried, I hadn’t been able to manipulate the mana strands that come out and flow through my channels when I activate skills. And neither had I been able to manipulate the core and create a mana strand by myself, Adam recalled. Let’s take it one step at a time. First let’s try manipulating the mana when I activate a skill. Adam activated bolster at the lowest output and observed his core release strands of mana that continued to split as they followed the channels throughout his body and empowered his physical attributes.

Adam continued observe the interaction between the mana and the cells in his body and then shifted his focus back to his core to observe it. His core continuously released strands of mana as he kept his skill active and after watching for some time, Adam attempted to slightly alter the path of one of the strands and was met with dozens of failures before he was rewarded for his efforts. Adam observed with delight as the strand moved according to Adam’s focused intent.

Adam had to really flex his focus, his intent needed to be clear throughout the process and loss of focus resulted in failure. Once he had learned the basic technique, Adam decided to see if he could control multiple strands at once. It was several times more difficult than trying to control just one strand even though he was only trying with 2. The biggest issue was that he had to keep focus on both strands at the same time, which had proven to be extremely difficult, almost impossible and just a small loss of focus resulted in failure.

Maybe I’m doing something wrong, Adam questioned his method since it was proving to be inefficient and extremely difficult. Let’s think Adam. Maybe I’m not doing it properly. Maybe my method is wrong or half complete. Maybe I need something more than just focus and intent. Adam felt that he was on the right track. Focusing was not the way to control mana, it was part of it but it wasn’t the most important bit.

And then Adam had a eureka moment as he realized that his mana pool was located in his core. The core was his soul. And he needed willpower and control to effectively manipulate mana since those were the attributes governed by his soul. Adam had no idea what quintessence did or how to go about using that specific attribute so he had no choice but to give up on using that attribute. But will and control, Adam had a few ideas about how he could use those.

I mean that actually kind of makes sense. The core is not just my mana pool but actually my soul which houses mana and health and probably stamina as well, although biology would disagree with that assessment. Cells each have their own mitochondria which are responsible for producing energy that body needs to function. Adam reasoned, for arguments sake let’s say that when I focus inward, I’m not actually seeing an actual ball of light but it’s just how I mentally perceive the metaphysical representation of my soul and the energies present in my body.

Going forward with that, in order to affect the energies housed inside the soul I need to make use of the 3 attributes that my soul govern. Quintessence, I have no fucking clue what that is but willpower and control, those I have an idea about. So, lets just go with that and see if I can use willpower and control along with focus and my intent to manipulate mana. Adam decided that his theories had merit and if he was honest with himself even if he was wrong it didn’t really matter since he wouldn’t lose anything by trying.

So, once more Adam focused on a strand of mana and this time, he flexed his willpower with intent to exert his control on the strand. He visualized grabbing the mana and bending it out of its place. He was pleasantly surprised as the mana strand bent in the way he had visualized and was more surprised at how easy it was and how much more control he had over the mana strand as he kept playing with it. It didn’t require him to keep razor focused on the strand, in fact he only had to focus just enough to exert his willpower and control over it. I was right, Adam was excited with his discovery and he had a thought whether it would be possible for him to split his focus now that he needed just a fraction of his focus to control a strand.

Without thinking any further he split his focus on another strand and flexed his willpower and control. He was rewarded with another strand that he could exert complete control over. Fuck me this is awesome! Adam was surprised that it had worked and soon he tried splitting his focus on multiple strands and kept splitting his focus till he could not anymore. The more strands he controlled, the more difficult it was to exert control and soon after he reached his 20th strand, he had splitting headache and yet still he continued determined to find his limit which happened to be his 23rd strand.

His head was in immense pain by then and it felt like it was going to burst. Yeah! Definitely my limit for now, anymore and I’m going to get an aneurysm. Probably. Adam thought as he relaxed his will and let go of the strands. It’s cool that I can manipulate my mana right now but I don’t think ill be able to use it to boost my skills or alter skills or do anything useful anytime soon. Going need a lot more practice and practical knowledge and attributes at least, Adam admitted to himself. Once his head started to feel better, he tried to create a mana strand by himself without depending on a skill, he had turned off Bolster.

Try as he might, no matter how much he pushed his will against his core, Adam was unable to force the core to release mana. Welp! That answers that question. Adam thought as he gave up his fruitless struggle with his core.

Can’t even test out whether I can control external mana since I can’t even see the mana in the surroundings. Adam mused. Though that would stop being an issue once I can find a skill that lets me see mana with my eyes. Till then ill just have to settle for the passive effects of the ability. Which is still hella useful, Adam affirmed.

Satisfied with his tests and having learned more about his SOUL attributes in the process, Adam once more returned to his notifications and clicked on the second skill he had gained to check its description.

Mimic*(Un): A skill similar to Stealth but unlike Stealth which is focused on blending into the surrounding environment while moving and keeps continuously merging user with his surrounding, Mimic is more focused on taking on the specific shape, coloring and mana signature of a pre selected object and superimposing the appearance of the object over the user. The skill does this by manipulating the light reflected by the user so that the user visually appears as the object. The skill also manipulates the mana signature to mimic the object. Visually and to mana senses the user would appear similar to the object that had been selected beforehand. Accuracy, precision and cost of skill increases with proficiency.

Initial activation of skill will prompt user to select an object to mimic and subsequent uses will not have this extra step.

If user wishes to change the object being mimicked, hold the skill without fully activating and a prompt will be appear that will allow user to change the object being mimicked.

Moving while the skill is active won’t affect the skill but it wont stop entities from noticing the movement.

Skill uses 40 Mana initially and uses 5 mana/min to keep active.

Adam was happy with the skill; he already had an inkling about what it did but he was glad that he wasn’t proven wrong. He was an ambush hunter and he mostly stayed in one place and waited for prey to come before he attacked. He depended on mud and Psychic Obfuscation to prevent monsters and animals from locating him and now with Mimic, his ability to stay hidden was further enhanced.

The skill allowed him to perfectly blend in with the environment. As long as I stay still, Adam thought as he read the skill, it would make it that much more difficult for predators to find me when I stay still but I’m not confident about how effective it would be if I was stalking through the forest. Adam considered the skill some more; It should work really well with Psychic Obfuscation since the way that skill works is by sending out mental radio waves that tell entities to ignore me and makes it harder for them to sense my location even if they did sense my presence.

Too bad I can’t test it out right now, Adam was disappointed as he looked outside and saw that it had turned completely dark. His instinct didn’t have blaring alarms going off like it had the last time, but it was still rumbling and giving out warnings when he stared outside into approaching darkness.

That THING isn’t nearby this time, that’s probably why my senses haven’t gone crazy. Adam mused. At least tonight I might able to sleep in peace. That is if I can curb my excitement after going through all my notifications. Adam thought to himself amused by idea of getting lost in his notifications till morning. As funny as the thought is, lets try and go faster. I can’t do anything to test out Mimic inside the cave so I’ll just leave it till tomorrow morning. Next.

Adam opened the description of his last skill.

Gaea Force*(R): An earth attuned boosting skill. The user has learned this skill from a Stone Lizard. The lizard uses its skill to channel earth mana through its body using the earth it’s standing on as the source of power. The skill requires the user to be touching the earth in order to make use of it but in return the force of the earth mana being channeled from the earth and into the user would empower the user’s BODY to staggering heights. Earth attuned boosting skills are normally focused solely on BODY attributes and Gaea Force does this at the expense of disregarding MIND and SOUL. While using Gaea Force there is an extra effect, all of the user’s attacks will contain Earth mana and will cause foes to slow. The effect is meager but with each successive strike that lands on foes, the effect grows stronger.

Physical defenses are enhanced by 100% when using Gaea Force.

All BODY attributes are boosted by 50% when the skill is active.

Increases User’s Weight by 100% when skill is active.

Requires 50 Mana to activate and uses 20 mana/min while the skill is active.

Improved effects and cost with increasing proficiency.

Fuck me! Adam was shocked, this skill is just too damn strong and its only ranked as Rare!?... But the boosts are just fucking insane for its rank! Adam thought to himself, his excitement growing by the minute as he went through the skill description. The skill was an absolute monster, after his Giant Killing skill, Gaea Force was by far and large the best skill he had. If you took into account the fact that he could only use Giant killing twice a day at most, Gaea Force had no such restriction besides its mana cost. Which I can somewhat mitigate with Devour, Adam reasoned, his excitement not at all affected by the prohibitive mana cost.

Adam got up unable to wait till morning and activated the skill, and immediately focused inward to see the skill activation and saw an extremely complex working of mana, the mana was moving in an almost chaotic pattern, hundreds of thousands of strands released from his core flooded into his channels and moved about in dizzying patterns throughout his body. Instead of staring blankly at the mesmerizing sight, Adam shifted his focus outward and saw the changes that were taking place with his physical body.

Adam had grown in height and mass till he was almost half again as tall as he normally was and his weight had increased significantly. He felt solid and full of wild energy that nearly forced him to rush out and challenge the THING in the dark. But his will quickly clamped down on the impulse before he had taken a step and still the urge remained strong. Got to be careful of that, Adam thought, nearly forgot how invincible boosting skills made you feel. But this is on another level.

Adam hadn’t only grown in height and weight, His arms and legs felt like steel and he felt powerful enough to crush stone. He felt a limitless supply of earth mana way, way below his feet, he couldn’t exactly see it with his eyes but he could feel it, like he could feel the earth below him, feeding the skill along with his own mana. He had wrongly assumed that the earth mana would be stable and solid and instead it was wild and briming with energy and a powerful need for motion.

Adam felt extremely powerful with the skill active and once his willpower clamped down on the impulses of the Earth mana, he realized that the skill boosted his attributes after the Efficiency of the attribute was added. Which basically multiplied his stats once more after efficiency was taken into account. That is just insane, Adam was awestruck at that fact, Fuck man, with such an insane boost to my stats the skill deserves that restriction of touching the earth. Adam thought, Not like it affects me negatively since I can’t fly. But with this skill, fuck flight. I wouldn’t complain if I could never fly if it meant using this skill.

The skill also increased his physical defenses by a 100% which meant that his skin felt extremely tough and durable like it was dense rubber and his muscles felt like steel cables and bones like granite. I’m exaggerating with the descriptions but damn! I feel like I’m a walking goliath. A juggernaut! Adam thought as he flexed his now enormous arms and walked around inside the cave. Although his steps didn’t make the earth beneath him tremble, his weight was significant and made him feel as if he was a moving mountain. The skill had improved his BODY attributes and defenses to a staggering level and as far Adam was concerned the requirement for touching the earth wasn’t a restriction at all.

I have to test it out to know how it performs in a fight but I’m excited to test it out tomorrow. First creature I find I’m going to Juggernaut that Bitch! Adam thought gleefully as he imagined turning into a giant and tussling with a boar.

And that was when Adam had his third eureka moment of the day.