39

Purifying my core was going faster then I expected. I couldn't expect it to keep up this pace though. I was pretty sure that last five percent was going to give me a bit of hell. I just hoped it was a circle of hell I could handle. Then again if I died then that was just me overstepping how far I was capable of going.

I raised my eyes to look out into the cavern, and noticed that several of the surrounding elves avoided my gaze. Daylight was still an hour or two off so I ignored the impulse to wake up Sekka, and get moving immediately. I pushed off the wall, and cross the floor of the large cavern. Most of the entrance had been hastily blocked off by the wagons. I felt the eyes of all the elves on me as I crossed the cavern.

My clothing was still pretty severely torn. I was letting the natural mana in the air repair my clothing the same way a manaless human would have to. It would take a few more hours for the process to finish. For now I could focus on getting rid of the corpses of those Vytra outside. I was surprised to find that they actually had dark green scales instead of the red I'd seen yesterday.

Perhaps they had the ability to flush blood into their scales. They had a very wolf like appearance. If they had fur instead of scales then I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart from the endangered wolves in the history books. Their massive size was the only other thing that set them apart from earth's smaller grey wolves. I myself had never seen a real wolf in person, but I would eventually.

As long as I didn't get myself killed first. I crossed the road to the corpses in just a few quick strides. Digging the cores out of the bodies with well practiced ease. Each core was about the size of a softball. It was smaller then I expected.

I kind of wished I had time to go back to the three I'd mangled before my nice little nap, but right now wasn't the time. I drug all the corpses off to the side of the road. Something would come for the meat eventually. We'd need to do something with the corpses. I let the rain wash away the blood that had dried to my body while I slept for a few minute while I thought about a decent plan for the corpses.

There were several things I could do that would be highly effective in getting rid of these corpses. Just none that I could use with an audience. Then I thought of how they used to dispose of corpses before technology, and abilities. Luckily there was already a pretty large depression next to the road near the corpses. I drew one of my blades, and cut down several of the trees surrounding the spot quickly.

Making a makeshift pyre for the beasts. It was hard for me to get the fire going without the aid of magic. The first rays of daylight were crossing the horizon by the time I finally got the fire going good enough to burn the corpses. Once the corpses caught fire the flames didn't need much more help from me. It wouldn't burn them up completely, but a smaller amount of meat meant a smaller amount of scavengers.

Less scavengers meant less chances of something bigger, and more terrifying showing up. Not that I really cared about the safety of the elves that travelled this road. Appearing to care was plenty to convince them of my loyalty to my supposed master. Once the sun was clearly visible in the sky I returned to the cavern. Walking past all the merchants without giving them a second glance.

Checking over our birds, and packs carefully before setting the cores I'd collected from the beasts next to where Sekka was sleeping. A few mental nudges started bringing him back to full awareness slowly. I was finally fully rested after almost two full nights without rest. From what I could tell I'd only slept a little over two hours. I had a feeling that I could remain fully functional, and combat ready for a few weeks if I needed to.

I hoped I looked more tired then I felt when I left the city yesterday. I didn't need much sleep in the first place so I hoped that they would just chalk it up to my unusual ability. There was only so much that could be explained away by an ability though. People were going to start asking questions. That was one of the reasons that I was glad this was a one year mission.

Longer then that, and people would start asking questions we didn't have answers to. I rubbed the back of my neck as if it were stiff. Stretching my fingers experimentally to see how much they had healed. I would be fully healed by dark. That much I knew for certain.

I was an origin species. Accelerated healing was something all origins shared. We had a habit of being harder to kill then most. Dragons in particular being a predatory origin species were a cut above the rest. I was excited to see what purifying my core would do.

If I was right then the benefits would far outweigh the negatives very quickly, but instinct told me that there would be a lot of negatives that came with it as well at first. My body had grown with the impurities of earth hammered into every single cell. Having those impurities driven out would be both painful, and would probably render me incredibly weakened for a short while. The growing sense of danger that was coming from within told me that I would not like what happened when my core was completely purified. Yet I would still push on because of the promise such an achievement held if I survived the process.