Chapter 32 - Devoured

the spell was already cast and it was coming out of the palm of his hand but then something struck the ground in front of him and he saw someone grab the beast.

Before the lightning bolt had the chance to move toward the beast, it was drawn to the object.

Ango recognized Little snow after he attacked, he also recognized the one who had grabbed her and the object that was embedded in the ground; it was Hawkwood who had thrown his sword to redirect the lightning.

'Why are they here… Oh' it was only now he remembered that when he was attacked they were both with him.

"I- I I'm so sorry, are you alright??" he jumped toward Little snow who was in Hawkwood's embrace but she growled.

Ango slowed down and spoke with a flustered expression "I'm really sorry, I thought you were an enemy and I just reacted, let-" but a voice cut him off

"Boy, don't worry about it, it was my fault" Little snow lifted her head and looked up toward Hawkwood as he gently placed her down and patted her head "First fights are always messy and in the end, the survivor is too jumpy to approach suddenly. I forgot about it and let her run toward you"

Ango listened, his heart not relaxing even a little; he shook his head and said "That's not it, I even forgot you guys were here …"

'I'm a piece of shit, fuck, why did I forget? Huh how did I forget? What's wrong with my head' he raised his hand and started scratching his arms, softly at first but gradually harder until he was practically clawing at them and wounding himself.

Hawkwood was seeing this but he was confused as to why the boy was doing this. It took him a few moments but he drew a connection between his past and his present.

"Boy…Ango stop, you're hurting yourself" he called out to him a few more times but it seemed that Ango was stuck in a loop. Hawkwood wanted to go and stop him himself but then Little snow jumped toward Ango, throwing him off his feet.

"Hey" his voice held surprise and annoyance

Little snow didn't care, he pinned Ango and started licking his face.

"What are you-"Little snow didn't stop, he kept doing it over and over and over until Ango's protests changed to laughter.

"Hehe bad girl, your spit is all over me hehehe" Ango gently grabbed Little snow and put her on the ground and stood up, feeling better.

Hawkwood was standing there, amazed by what Little snow had accomplished. He walked toward the wolf, patted her head and muttered

"Good girl"

…

Ango took a few moments to stand up then, trying to not think of what he had done a little while earlier, he started walking toward the corpse and said "Let me grab the crystal so we can be on our way, other beasts probably heard the commotion"

Hawkwood acknowledged him and started walking alongside him

"I'll get the body parts, they can be useful"

…

Ango reached the corpse and took a second to admire what he had done. The mighty beast was dead because of him, a human, a small and weak human.

'I'm still weak but at least I'm not helpless anymore, not anymore…'

He grabbed the dagger and pulled but it was stuck, he tried a few more times but he couldn't pull it out so he put he tried to put his other hand on the beast to have leverage but when he touched the body something happened.

Ango's mana veins suddenly appeared, the bluish lines that existed all over his body and on the back of his neck, the beating heart of his mana showed itself

'What's this? I feel … hungry? It's like I have a hole inside me' the feeling was sudden so he grunted.

Hawkwood who was tearing out the beast's claws heard that and suddenly turned his head to check on him

"Wha-" but before he could voice out, he and Ango noticed something.

Something blue and translucent, like a small cloud came out of the beast's head, moving quickly toward Ango; He wanted to dodge but he was too slow.

The small cloud was sucked into Ango's neck and his mana veins disappeared inside his body a moment later.

"Agh"

"Boy, what is it? What are you feeling" Hawkwood was becoming increasingly more worried and sheathed his sword so he could help him if the need arose.

Ango fell to his knees, feeling a sudden pressure. Hawkwood rushed toward him and asked how he felt but Ango didn't seem hurt.

'What's happening?' a sudden rush of mana startled him. Mana was being pumped into his body from the back of his neck; With each beating of the mana heart, a tiny bit of mana was being injected into his body, less than half the amount he could gather by actively trying, but it was passively happening.

"I.. I feel good, better even" He felt a sense of wholeness.

"Ha?" Hawkwood wanted to hit him "The hell does that mean?"

"I don't know alright? When I touched the corpse suddenly my mana veins appeared and that thing went inside me and now, I am suddenly recovering my mana. A very small amount at a time, maybe half as much as I usually do when I gather energy."

Hawkwood's eyes opened wide

"What?! Are you serious?" and Ango nodded.

Hawkwood started pacing around and thinking when suddenly

"Your mana is increasing… there is a corpse … you were close to it …Could it be that you have consumed the beast crystal from afar?" He immediately unsheathed his sword and attacked the beast's skull.

After the fourth strike, the head cracked open and Hawkwood pushed his hand inside it. a few moments later he withdrew his hand which now had some grayish substance on it and held his hand near his eyes.

"The crystal .. it's intact, it was a rank 1 beast, tier 1 rank 1" the situation was getting more puzzling by the second.

'I struggled so much with a tier 1 rank 1 beast?'

"Then how?" Ango asked, hiding the disappointment in his voice.

"I don't know" he then took a deep breath and said "Put your thoughts aside and finish up, we shouldn't stay more than it is necessary or we'll have to fight more beasts" After saying that, Hawkwood put the crystal away and started working on detaching the claws and fangs of the tiger.

Ango knew that and he had no wish to fight another beast tonight so he quickly retrieved his dagger; Little snow didn't want to be left out so she started biting some parts of the beast's belly that were comparatively softer, trying to eat.

That night, they did rest within the forest but rushed back toward their house as they had already done the thing they had gone into the forest for. The more important reason however was that Piere would skin them alive if they didn't let him check Ango's body right away, since they didn't know if the effect was permanent or temporary.

….

"Team leader you were right, there are no weapons in the cart… there are only metal ingots here"

The team of elves had just slaughtered the dwarven group by attacking them at night, one of them injured but they had someone who used life magic.

After checking the cart they searched the bodies and the tents. They found letters and scrolls detailing an agreement to assist the dwarves in the war against the elves.

According to the scrolls the price of this assistance was not money but one hundred kilograms of Titanium, a legendary material and one of the hardest metals known to the world, and half a kilogram of Etherium, The rarest metal in the world.

Reading up to this part, the color drained from the team leader's face because of the amount of wealth that was now beside him but no one could see because of the mask. He resisted the temptation to steal something and steeled his heart.

"Quickly strip the bodies, let the beasts have them, we need to hurry back. This is too important" His tone was grave and it made the rest of his team solemnly nod and begin their work.

"When we make it back, you can be sure we're going to be promoted big time" he added to take the burden on their mind a bit and make them more enthusiastic.

One of the masked elf who was standing closer to him asked

"Pedro what does the paper say?"

"I told you to not call me by my name when we are on a mission, there is a reason we are masked, god damn it" He berated the man as if he was a child.

"Sorry team leader" the one who had spoken lowered her head in shame

The brown-haired team leader, the elf named Pedro, saw his friend's mood turning for the worse so he said

"It's alright just be mindful of it in the future or it can get us killed and I can't tell you what's written it can only be seen by the higher-ups"

...

Inside the wooden house, Hawkwood and Ango were sitting Infront of a Piere whose eyes were closed. They had explained what had happened to Ango which led to Piere examining him with twinkling eyes but after a minute h had frowned and closed his eyes, trying to focus or so the duo thought.

'Let's hope this is a good thing, I really need one of those' Ango thought

Piere opened his eyes and stared at the Ango, and he wondered if the gnome's eyes could open any wider.

Piere cleared his throat and spoke, the ill-concealed excitement hardly veiled in his words

"You are absorbing the magic in the environment"