Chapter 21

The squirrel then looked at Fares dejectedly.

Fares felt bad for it, so he gave the squirrel his broken walnut willingly.

It looked at the nut then at Fares then at the nut again, not sure what to do. Fares then pushed the nut towards the fat squirrel.

The squirrel looked so happy having the nut, and directly put it into its mouth and munched rapidly onto it.

When the squirrel finished, it rubbed its head into Fares chest awkwardly due to the height difference.

Fares rubbed its fluffy head, calming down instantly. 'Everyone needs a pet at some point in his life.' he thought.

"Alright from now on you're called squeaky," he said.

The squirrel stiffened and back up a little looking at Fares with contempt. It was too clear that anyone could see it.

"Ha Ha." Fares laughed awkwardly at his terrible naming sense, he hadn't been paying a lot of attention to many things around in life, so it was understandable.

The squirrel looked at Fares and shaking his head asking him to continue.

"Fine, how about…" He trailed off a little. The squirrel looked at him with anticipation.

"Smooka!" Fares finally said looking at the squirrel.

The squirrel looked extremely happy and rubbed Fares' chest even more.

"What a smart beast. I wonder if he's special in some way." Fares said rubbing its head.

After a while, Fares sat down in a lotus position with Smooka snuggled right next to him. He then took out a blue crystal orb that he took from the Raptors.

When the squirrel felt the energy fluctuation besides him, it raised its head in alarm. But when it saw the orb in Fares' hand, it nudged at his forearm.

"Do you know what it is, Smooka?" Fares said looking at the squirrel expectantly.

Smooka shook its head fiercely.

"Do you know how do I use it, then?" Fares asked another important question.

Smooka nodded, then without wasting another moment he jumped forward, consuming the crystal off of Fares' hand in one gulp.

After that, it returned to its original place and sat there in silence.

Fares was both shocked and awed by its speed. Even with his increased perception, he couldn't follow that casual move it made.

He didn't mind if it ate the crystal though, as it showed him how to use it. But something still bothered him about it, if it's that easy why didn't I see Zena eat it.

If Azkar forgot to tell him or hid it on purpose that was another story, but if even a native-like Zena didn't then something is wrong.

But still, if Smooka could do it, he too can.

He looked outside, the sun was setting anyway, he couldn't leave even if he wanted to. Taking another blue crystal out, Fares was about to consume it when it suddenly vanished.

Fares looked to his side and found Smooka looking at him expecting more.

"…" He was speeches, such a shameless squirrel.

But it was too cute to say no to, so Fares took another one out and raised it above his head. The squirrel stood up to his feet and fixed its eyes on the crystal.

Fares swung it left, then right a few times, but Smooka didn't move its eyes away from it. It was obvious how useful it was to him if he looks at it like that. So Fares threw the crystal to the opposite side of the place and the squirrel moved extremely quickly and caught it in a single bite.

Fares couldn't help but chuckle, it just looked too much like a giant dog rather than a squirrel.

After the squirrel ate his third orb, it just fell asleep where it was. Any idiot would know from the way it just lost consciousness that it wasn't normal.

Fares infused his eyes with energy and observed Smooka's energy flow.

He was amazed by what he saw. It was the first non-plant organism to have an energy flow like that.

Normally, when organisms cultivate, they absorb energy towards a single central point which becomes its energy core. But Smooka had energy flow moving smoothly between nodes set at fixed intervals.

And right at this moment, the energy came directly from its stomach and entered its body through an abdominal node.

It looked pretty much like Fares when he unlocked his brain node, but at the same time, it didn't. It was as if Fares' nodes were there but at the same time, it wasn't.

'Is it because I am a soul?' He wondered. He had no idea and not sufficient information to make an assumption.

Fares decided that he will give the crystal a try too. He sat on the ground and took yet another crystal out and ate it.

He had already decided to cultivate his stomach node to be able to digest stronger cores.

But he didn't realize that cultivation wasn't that easy. When the core reached his stomach, he could feel scorching hot pain arising from it.

He almost let out a scream but held it in as he knew that if whatever comes out at night found them they won't be safe.

Fares tried to control the energy to go to attack his stomach node, but the energy was too violent and moved on its own in his cultivation circuit.

It bypassed all of his body nodes and rested in his leg nodes. As it wasn't redirected, it affected both of his legs at once.

However, every time a strand of energy leaves the crystal ball in his stomach into his body, it elicits a burning sensation along the way it passes through.

Fares frowned deeply. He quickly supplied his energy to surround each strand of energy from the crystal. This eased the burning sensation on his body and his face turned to just a slight frown.

Doing this consumed a lot of Fares' mental concentration and energy. He didn't know how long can pull this up.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, Fares' energy almost got used up, and so was the crystal's energy. Fares forced himself to focus more as to not lose any extra energy.

With drops of sweat falling down his face and body, Fares drew the last strand of energy from the crystal towards his legs.

By now the energy-filled both of his leg nodes by a fourth, but his mental energy had almost drained.

Wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his hands, Fares drew in a deep breath and started reciting the incantations he learned from Azkar.

Slowly, but surely, he was draining the outside energy into his mental node.

A few hours later, Fares opened his eyes that had a golden glow at the edge of them. He had filled his mental node with energy again.

But he was still too tired mentally, so he laid his head back on the still asleep Smooka.

"You're still absorbing the energy? Well no wonder, you've eaten three of the orbs." Fares said sleepily rubbing Smooka's silky fur.

At some point, he fell into a deep slumber.