LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 32: 32. Dormant Beast Core
32. Dormant Beast Core
The avalanche swallowed the pack of white fur mountain wolves one at a time, devouring them with no mercy. Eryndor did not plan to outrun the avalanche, what he was realing aiming for was a very tall oak tree that stood in the way to the cottage. He nimbly climbed up the tree, and he had Elantha to thank for the climbing lessons. He was a little over halfway up the tree when the avalanche came on him.
Climbing unto the closest branch he clung to it for his dear life just as the avalanche impacted him with a force strong enough to shatter his spine. He screamed out in pain only to have his voice drowned by the roars of the snow, the only thing that kept him alive was his flame tempering body art.
He stayed there for a few minutes even after the flood of snow had died down, he coughed repeatedly and started to shiver uncontrollably. Hor air expended from his lungs, he turned on the branch with his chest facing the night sky and started to breath heavily. He raised his trembling hand and noticed the signs of frostbite on them, his palm and fingers had ugly cuts on them small most of the wounds had things like small twigs or snow covering them. They looked horrible, his entire self looked horrible.
His body temperature started to drop drastically and he could tell, he was dying and he needed to do something quick. What he would do for athe warmth of a flame.
"Dammit, is this how I end?" He thought to himself. "I'm cold."
Due to the fact that he had learned the body tempering technique he was able to tell that his body temperature was dropping. Left with no choice he dug his hand into his pocket and took out the small dark jewel that was the dormant core of the beast he had slain.
Consuming a beast core without having it purified by a healer would be suicide but Eryndor was just about as dead and dead could be.
"What more could I lose?" He thought to himself as he tossed the jewel into his mouth and gulped it down. It tasted very bland as it slid down his throat. He felt it reach into his stomach and that was it.
He waited patiently with the first thing he heard being his master's voice:
["You know there was blood still on that thing, you could have washed it at least"]
As much as he felt like puking he was in a state not to, in fact he was dying. He prayed silently for it to work but nothing happened. He had failed, he was forever cursed to never be able to grow his own mana. Truthfully he preferred to die this way knowing that he would never be a proper mage and reach his goals. What did he expect to achieve in the first place, he was a degenerate, nothing good could come out of him so why even bother?
He was at the verge of giving up when he felt a warmth at the base of his stomach, his body quickly welcomed the feeling. Hit mist started to evaporate from him as the coldness of the mountain chill was replaced by the growth of internal heat.
The familiar legacy appeared before him:
[You have consumed a dormant beast core
You have grown stronger]
A moment later the warmth died down leaving Eryndor in a state of confusion, his eyes widened as the words escaped him. "Was that it?" He half expected to die from the side effects of the beast core. "Could it be that I'm immune?" The thought of not needing a healer mage to purify a beast core would be very helpful to him in future.
["Quit being so dramatic and examine yourself kid.
I want to know if it worked"]
As annoyed as he was that the eye was butting into his matter now after it had failed to help him when he needed it, he knew he had to confirm. He could also feel a shift in his chest, his mana core felt different, lighter. Not just lighter, his whole body felt rejuvenated. The feeling was very vague but it was there.
He called upon the legacy to see if there was any considerable change, he had his hopes up and prayed they would not disappoint:
[Name: Eryndor Sylvaren
Race: Elf (Holy)
Title: Fallen Prince, Degenerate
Rank: Beginner Mage
Core: Dormant
Attribute: (Divine), (Legacy Of the crescent prince), (cursed)
Magic Point: 175/1000]
Eryndor noticed the change in his magic point it had increased by fifty points, head gotten such a boost from the core of a normal beast. He felt considerably stronger but was nowhere near achieving his goal.
If his assumptions were complete then he was a mage who could only get stronger by consuming the core of beasts, while that might have made him sound special it really was not all that great. Most mages never risked consuming beast cores because it was unstable and mostly incompatible with most mages, instead a conventional method was founded by the world alchemists a few hundred years back.
The world alchemists found a way to purify the beast cores and then then to potions used to increase the growth of mana. These potions due to the change they had undergone had made them lose up to 50 percent of its effectiveness while reducing the risk of being corrupted my the influence of the beast core. Only few mages had a natural resistance and could consume the beast cores after they were purified but there was no one heard of to consume a beast core without the need for purification.
Eryndor did not expect the increase to be so much, though it was less than expected he instead imagined it would be very little. After a while he came to the conclusion that the unpurified beast core was still at its peak without it ever being tampered, allowing him to convert even it's impurity to mana due to the power of the legacy. If his theory was anywhere near accurate then his pitiful state might not be so bad.
The fact that he was the only one able to achieve the maximum potential of a beast core made it an exclusive for him. If he wanted to get stronger he would have to face against stronger beasts in future meanubg he woukd have to grow stronger.
Eryndor shook his head roughly, he did not want to be bothered by future problems not when he still had problems of his own to solve. Just then his ear picked up on the soft growl of one of the beasts that was chasing him earlier. Apparently it had survived the avalanche fall and was digging out of the snow and from the looks of it the others were also doing the same.
Feeling a new sense of self Eryndor looked down from the branch on the sight before him, he was a bit stronger but still the strongest he had ever felt in his life. The pack of white fur mountain wolves were disoriented and weakened, it was the perfect time to accompany them away from the land of the living. And who better to have the honour than their prizes prey.