Beast cores and Soul orbs

A few hours later.

In an ordinary hotel room in the outskirts of Valentis city, a young man sat on the bed in a meditative position with a peculiar looking stone in his hand.

Alex sat there thinking about what that adventurer on the street had told him about the usage of beast cores.

This hotel room cost him one gold coin for a week's stay, he didn't know if he got a good deal or not due to not grasping the value of this city's currency just yet.

By now the headache from his recovery had subsided.

'So I just think about absorbing it and that's it? Surely it can't be that easy, right?'

It was that easy.

The moment the thought entered his mind, the beast core in his hand dissolved into dust and soon into nothing as the energy entered his head—where his soul core was located.

Instead of the uncomfortable pain he had expected, he surprisingly felt nothing other than a subtle warmth entering his head.

His mind didn't feel refreshed, he didn't feel any significant increase in power, nor did he feel any changes to his soul core.

In fact when he focused on the energy he was receiving from the beast core, he felt a little disgusted.

Like he was eating meat that had been left to rot for a month.

'This is nothing like that purple soul orb I absorbed before.'

Speaking of soul orbs, why hadn't he received one from the Sleeper when he pummelling its head in with a rock?

Well the answer was that he actually did!

Alex remained in contact with the Sleeper throughout the whole fight, which meant that when he eventually killed it, the purple soul orbs went straight into his inventory space.

He was so pumped up with adrenaline, trying to manage his injuries that he didn't even notice anything happening.

Alex only noticed the new soul orb in his inventory when he regained consciousness in the hospital. 

He only had time to properly inspect it when he arrived at his hotel room though—he didn't want the nurse to notice anything suspicious about him so he could only put it off until he was discharged.

This new soul orb was twice as bright as the first one he had obtained and absorbed.

'This one is F+ rank, the one the rabbit dropped was F rank, that explains it.'

'I guess I should see what the difference is between my soul orbs and these beast cores while I'm here.'

With just thought he willed the glowing soul orb to appear in front of him. It illuminated the room around him and dyed everything purple with its hue.

Just like the beast core, he thought about absorbing the soul orb and the glow along with the orb disappeared in an instant.

Much differently from the beast core this time, Alex immediately felt refreshed when it entered his head. The energy of the soul orb didn't make him feel disgusted either. It was actually the contrary, he felt pure and blissful.

Alex felt like he had climaxed!

That was the only way he felt he could describe the feeling this energy gave him.

Over the next few minutes, the absorption continued until all of the energy from the soul orb was used up and had fully fused with Alex's soul core.

'I didn't immediately get pushed up a level like I did last time. I feel like I am maybe 40% closer to the F+ tier? However I do feel like my strength has improved quite a bit.'

Sure enough, when Alex opened his details, the Primordial Expanse confirmed his thoughts.

[Details]

Name: [Alex]

Age: [17]

Talents: [Soulforge]

Trait: [Adventurer]

Trait Description: [You have cast aside your status as a commoner, good for you.]

Rank: [Seeker]

Soul Core: [F 45%]

His progress towards F+ tier had gone up by 45%, which basically confirmed something for Alex.

'40% came from the F+ rank soul orb, while the other 5% came from the F rank beast core.'

'From seeing how much energy I gained from the soul orb and the beast core, I can probably guess how much energy I'd get per rank. It should be 5% for F rank beast cores, 10% for F+ rank beast cores, 20% for F rank soul orbs, 40% for F+ rank soul orbs.'

'But when I used an F rank soul orb when I was only at the F- tier, it immediately filled up my progress by 100% and pushed me to the next level. This could only mean two things.'

'One—the amount of energy I get from a soul orb depends on the strength of the beast that dropped said soul orb. This could also apply to beast cores too.'

'Two—this was only a one time thing that only happened because my soul core was F- rank, otherwise known as an inactive core.'

'If my first theory is the case, then my rapid progress through the tiers will only slow down unless I choose to fight stronger and stronger beasts and absorb their soul orbs. This would allow me to become stronger, faster, but also increases the level of danger. My second theory could also allow for this to happen but not to the same extent.'

Alex thought a lot about the usage of soul orbs. He had many unanswered questions, but only one thing was made clear to him.

The stronger the beasts he fights, the more energy he receives.

He had also noticed a few things in particular about the differences between beast cores and soul orbs.

Soul orbs had dropped twice now from both the beasts he had killed, yet he hadn't received a single beast core from either. This probably meant that he was guaranteed a soul orb whenever he killed a beast.

Another thing he noticed was that absorbing soul orbs seemed to increase his combat power and the power of his body, whereas absorbing beast cores didn't.

Naturally many ideas stemmed in his mind from this revelation, most of them being just the wild dreams of a teenager.

But it all left Alex with one conclusion.

'I have the strongest talent!'