32 Core Problems

It had been a day since the imps has passed by us, and all of my allies were worried about the stability of my mind. I hadn't talked at all during this time, and was merely carrying out actions like a machine wandering from place to place. When we came across a creature, be it a predator or a rabbit it died by my hand in quick movements.

I knew I was keeping myself distracted, the only thing stopping me from crying over the loss of my new home was my constant battlelust. It drove me forward, able to see the path to my next kill almost instinctively. The only times I felt vulnerable was when we laid down for the night and I surrendered myself to the land of nod.

Several times I had woken up in a state of panic, covered in sweat and tears. Having no idea what I had dreamt I let myself fall back into my constant nightmares, hoping maybe they'd soften the blow that the imps had caused. We were traveling very slowly back towards the castle, I knew I needed to see the damage myself before I could move on. Since I received no complains I knew the others felt the same.

All of my experiments had been put to the side, as they didn't seem that important anymore, but cores still ended up in my bag, fitting a total of ten in just this day alone. It seemed as though indiscriminately killing everything in our paths had a positive effect on gathering supplies. Zack insisted on skinning the kills to make clothes for later since we only had a few pairs. He knew how to skin them and tan them, and Joshua knew how to use a needle and thread having grown up in an orphanage.

Joshua was of course the least affected, though he had lost his employer and his mission was considered only half fulfilled. He had tried several times to cheer up the group, but soon gave up on trying to counsel myself focusing on the other two giving me space. With a sigh I nodded, "Tomorrow we'll go to the hills above the castle."

All of them jumped at my words, this was the first time I spoke since I killed those imps, washing off my knives and my gear I slowly added oil to my leather outfit. "We might be able to find survivors, and if not we might be able to find things out that we'll need to get revenge."

With only 36 hours to completion on the castle I gathered my little demons, and allies letting them all gather beside me. "I want to tell you all now, I am on the path of revenge. I will kill the demon king that took my home from me, on my hands will be blood. Anyone willing to follow will see death at every waking moment and I do not guarantee your life."

Zack was the first to speak, "Well, we seem have the same goals so I'll be your shieldmaiden I may lack a pretty face but.." He winked lightly at me and I nodded.

Joshua gave a long sigh, "Why can't I ever swear my loyalty to a hermit or a death row inmate? They both probably have a higher survival rate than you." He paused, "No regrets though, right Jade?"

Jade was the only other of our group who actually had family in the kingdom, she was probably the most heartbroken out of any of us. She also proved to be the strongest, able to still smile and comfort each of us. "Of course, if you hadn't dragged me along…"

The mood went a bit dark at her words, so I continued. "And you lot?"

"Our goals are to eat and get stronger, can you promise us good meals?" Lucif asked.

"I'll have thousands of enemies."

Lucif looked back at the rest of the little demons, laughing heartily, "You hear that? If we follow the Lifebringer our food will flow like rivers! If you run now, Lucif will take your share!"

There were great cheers from each of the demons as they seemed happy at the prospect of more to kill. Lucif gave me a quick thumbs up, with his toothy smile, "We'll follow the Lifebringer till the ends of the earth."

The crow lowered its head, "All hail the king of monsters." None of the others followed his example much to his annoyance as he looked at everyone with a disdainful look.

"I am not a king yet, I am too weak for now to be able to protect what is mine." I pet the head of the crow which it seemed to enjoy, happily rubbing its head into my hand. "To defeat an army though, I will need one beside me. Which kingdoms hate the demons as much as we do now?"

"Any of the border kingdoms, they are at constant war with the demons, and any kingdom run by the Church of Radiance though they might not look favorably on your powers." Joshua took out a map and marked a few places on it. "These kingdoms will be your best bets, both border kingdoms and they don't have a strong church presence."

"It is time for me to take my training seriously." Everyone looked confused as they knew how much I pushed my body, and how much I studied magic. All the gold on my person vanished immediately, a flashing icon was on the side of my screen.

'Ten imps killed would you like to convert them into an Imp worker for 15 gold a piece?'

'Yes.'

The message came up again and I approved the prompt one more time.

'Shrimp Grunt: As the lowest of marine life they are hardy able to follow commands like no other! Able to accept twenty commands at a time, immunity to drowning.'

'Dedicate half of my gold into those two.' This would allow me to get a lot done without having to focus on it, more imps needed to die to keep up production. With that both of them nearly exploded as gold started raining from the sky on them.

I was placing seven hundred gold on both of them as soon as they spawned to life. Their bodies bulged looking like men from the neck down with shrimp heads. Their red skin shinned under their torn shirts as they yelled to the heavens, their black eyes bulging unnaturally big as they started screaming.

Ripping off their shirts, their muscles started rippling as if snakes were running under their skin. Both their bodies had expanded to double their size, the red skin of theirs started to steam out a red smoke that started to pour liquid onto them. In the end they looked like all of them had a red shell over their bodies. With two extra set of legs falling down now much like a spider's leg and digging into the earth around them.

'Two evolutions complete! Shrimp grunt evolved to Crab Person. Losing much of their ability to finely manipulate things, crab people have increased carrying capacity, faster speeds, and the ability to work like a hive mine.

Having a hive mind they can be told to complete tasks equal to twenty times the amount of crab people. They will complete the tasks as a unified whole completing one task in order.

Note: Amazing gardeners with their scoop like claws.'

"Lucif, gather acorns, pine cones, whatever seeds you can find." Sitting in the lotus position, I started to think of the martial artist books from my world. They had a power called Qi according to a lot of people who practiced it, they believed that cultivating it could strengthen the body beyond the human limit.

From what I remember they focused energy into the dantian that should be in my exact center of gravity. Using magic to scan my body like a sonar, I didn't find any such area, shaking my head I tried to swirl energy into a ball where it should be.

Nothing!

"What am I missing?" Letting my eyes wander around for inspiration, they fell on the monster cores I had pulled out. They were orbs that contained power, just like what I imagined the dantain to be, and they weren't connected to the body in any way and yet provided power.

"Joshua, I'm going to need you to heal me in a moment. Jade, I need you to cut me open after I take some extracts for the pain, and bleeding. Then I need you to add this to my body, under my stomach." I yelled over to Jade and Joshua.

"I don't think I can do that." Jade shook her head as she came over, her face very pale. As I was using pages of a notebook to draw a picture of the human body, my pencil marking out exactly where the core needed to go.

Joshua sighed, and nodded, "I can do both at the same time. We were taught surgery in case we need to remove something before healing the person."

"Good, now here's the exact spots I need you to cut and where the core is needed to be placed. This core has already been condensed down to its condensed state so it should be easier to add to my body without damaging anything." Taking out two vials filled with liquid I drank both of them. This will allow me to be able to sleep through the surgery.

Joshua started to heat up a small knife, both himself and Jade looking at each other in worry. They knew I could not be convinced otherwise unless they had something concrete to persuade me to not do this. Joshua being older knew that there were experiments done to do just this, but no one knew the results of the experiment.

The confusing thing was that I wanted to add it under the stomach, beasts usually had their core right next to the heart. Very few beasts had their core somewhere different but none had them in the spot that I was suggesting.

Joshua turned around when the knife was as serialized as he could make it, finding me already slumped on the ground with my stomach up in the air. I had already taken off both my shirt and pants, them laying in a bundle next to myself. Letting the red blade cool down to its normal black appearance he started to cut into my body.

The crow watched gleefully, small strings of fate wrapping around Joshua without his knowledge. Each cut was done precisely as if he had done this a thousand times, and soon there was a hole open. Healing magic, and fate magic both covered the wound keeping the blood back, and keeping the tissue from drying out. After moving around the organs delicately Joshua finally added the small orb into the hole.

With a lift of his hand the flesh started to fuse with the orb tendrils of flesh, blood, and veins wrapping around it as if to consume it. Pressing down, Joshua seemed to be trying to shove healing magic into my body, the flesh starting to close up the hole. When the final bit of mana was drained from Joshua's body, he collapsed to my side his body covered in sweat.

"Will he make it?" Jade walked to Joshua wiping off his brow.

"I think so, but he truly overestimates my ability. I almost couldn't patch him up with the mana I had." Joshua let out a long sigh, closing his eyes as a damp cloth wiped off his forehead. "I wonder if he even realizes sometimes that he has people around him that are just as worried as him, that are worried for him. He tries to carry a burden no one man should bear."

Zack shook his head, "He has planned since the beginning to becoming an assassin type, they don't work very well in groups."

"Why not? Distract, divide, and defeat!"

"The more powerful the assassin, the less he needs his allies. He's obviously doing something strange with his… golems… but he seems to be training them like assassins too." Zack pointed out.

"I think I deserve to be called more than just a golem at this point, 'human.'" Lucif gave Zack a very dismissive look. "Plus we shouldn't be talking behind the Lifebringer's back."

Zack nodded slowly, "We just want to understand him more."

"Then talk to him, not about him." Lucif shook his head at these people, he was less than six months old and HE had to lecture them?