Chapter 4 - Cores

Making his way through the forest, Ryuu was "very on guard". I didn't want to turn from a hunter into a victim.

Therefore, he activated the Imperial Zone and the Emperor's Eyes.

- "Quiet... Too quiet." – Ryuu squinted – "There are no animals in a radius of a hundred meters except for some birds. It seems that the animals avoid this territory, which means that this territory most likely belongs to a Dangerous Monster. I hope not too strong, otherwise I'll have to kick my slippers..."

He walked for ten minutes, but found nothing. - "Where are you, you little thing. I am already tired of walking with the greatest possible care and attentiveness."

Ryuu relaxed a little and, as always, various thoughts immediately popped into his head -"...Esdes, what to do with you... You little monster, how do I get a little empathy into you? It has changed a little, albeit extremely slowly, but this is progress. The problem is that soon the tribe will be cut out and this will deal a strong mental and emotional blow to her and strengthen her worldview. I am unlikely to change her opinion about the fact that the weak obey the strong, because... Therefore, as I myself consider it to be the truth. Unpleasant, but true..."

An interesting-looking wolf, which was a Dangerous Beast, slowly crept into the radius of the Imperial Zone. Two meters at the withers, a formidable sharp horn on the head and a strange scaly armor all over the body instead of fur.

The beast was carefully creeping, almost without making a noise, towards the little boy who had wandered into his territory.

Ryuu squinted for a moment and continued walking as if he didn't suspect that a huge wolf was stalking his soul. – "It is only necessary to correct the part in which she claims that the weak deserve to die and everything will be fine."

The wolf entered a radius of ten meters from Ryuu and began to wait for the right moment to attack. The beast wasn't afraid of some little man, no, he just didn't want this little brisk asshole to escape from his clutches. The boy is certainly small, but it will do for a snack...

– «...I won't be able to change or somehow influence her sadistic tendencies, but I hope I can curb them, as I once did with Saeko..."

Suddenly, the wolf took off and rushed to Ryuu, jumping out from behind the trees.

What surprised the wolf and greatly alarmed him was that the kid instantly turned to face him and it would have been fine, he grinned excitedly at the sight of him, and was not scared and tried to escape.

The instinct of the beast screamed about the danger, as never before, and the wolf urgently decided to turn around and run away himself, but it was not there.

The wolfman saw with his peripheral vision how the boy's body was smeared in the afterimage.

Then he felt an unexpected weight on his head, and then his world suddenly began to revolve around him... The last thing the wolf saw was his huge headless body and the kid who was standing at the perfect log of his neck.

Ryuu used his version of the flicker body technique, which worked on physical energy, and very quickly climbed onto the head of the beast. Well, then the sharpest and strongest bone blades came out of his palms, which easily cut through the strong scales, elastic flesh and hard bones of the beast, separating the head from the carcass.

───────•••───────

The User's Level Has Been Raised!

Level 5 → 6

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"Only one level?!" he protested, feeling the pain of muscle rupture. Still, the technique heavily loaded the body of even Chunin in the past world, what to say about the current Ryuu – "Okay, it's still better than nothing at all."

The carcass of the wolf, which had already managed to gain some speed, abruptly fell to the ground and drilled a small ditch with its flesh.

All this time Ryuu was standing on the carcass, and as soon as she stopped moving, he started self-medication.

Taking control of a little prana, he separated from it that part of the energy that was responsible for "life", and returned the remaining physical energy of the body back to the well of prana.

Part of the energy that he separated was extremely similar to the honey chakra... More precisely, it was her, only very concentrated and extremely effective. To do this, you need to have a filigree control over energy, which even Tsunade did not possess at the right level for this.

In general, it is incorrect to call this piece of energy a honey chakra, because both physical and spiritual energies must be present in the chakra. So it's better to call it the energy of life.

The energy of life, under the control of Ryuu, dispersed to all corners of the body and cured all the damage, as well as relieved accumulated fatigue.

– "Great." – he grinned slightly, lifting the left corner of his lips – "And now... Let's take the tidbits, and let the animals take the rest."

While Ryuu was getting to the best pieces of meat, he came across a small ball of perfect spherical shape that resembled a cream-colored pearl. This ball was the inner core of the monster and it is the presence of this core that distinguishes ordinary beasts from dangerous beasts.

After all, it was with the help of this core that dangerous animals could instinctively use their prana and strengthen themselves.

Stronger monsters could consciously strengthen their bodies and even use some interesting abilities. For example, to control water, ice, fire and much more, the benefit of nature is a contented diverse and slightly perverted fantasy.

The monster that Ryuu killed was at the bottom of the food chain of dangerous monsters, so he could only use his prana a little to strengthen his muscles.

Ryuu took the ball in his hands and examined it with the help of his abilities – "There is still a dangerous monster's prana inside, and she is not going to leave the sphere at all..."

This prana was thicker than his... The physical energy inside the pearl was more concentrated, wild, and even still carried a small will of the slain wolf.

– "Interesting..." – Ryuu smiled and introduced his prana into the pearl.

The prana of the beast felt the intruder and tried to merge with the flow of Ryuu's energy and mess up in his body, but nothing happened, since he saw everything perfectly and prevented any attempts to harm him.

Next, Ryuu tried to suppress the will of the beast in the core. For twenty seconds his prana and his will in it fought with the prana of the beast and eventually she submitted to the invader.

Ryuu with a research fervor began to study the core further and that's what he got.

Combining his prana and the prana of the beast, Ryuu directed the received energy into his body. As a result, he noticed that the resulting prana fusion strengthened his body by several percent more, but these were not all the differences.

This prana enhanced his hearing, sense of smell and vision better. In addition, his nails grew slightly, and as soon as he removed the mixed prana from the body, everything returned to its place.

– "Very interesting." – almost grinning, Ryuu grinned – "The core does not produce its own prana, but is only an intermediary that gives my own prana new properties. Extremely interesting."

The prana that was inside the core was finite, and it could not be produced by itself. For this, a living body is needed.

Having cooled his research fervor, Ryuu put the core in his bag and took the best meat cuts, headed back to Esdes.

...

– You're fast, brother. Esdes smiled, sitting on a stump and warming herself by the fire. She was already finishing Gosha, which indicated a good appetite of the girl, her large stomach and powerful digestion.

– Yeah, I was a little lucky. Ryuu replied and smiled and pointed to his small, but full of meat of a dangerous beast, purse.

When Ryuu came up, Esdes closed her eyes and sniffed sweetly, like a rabbit – Is this the meat of a dangerous animal? Did you manage to kill a dangerous beast, Ryuu?!

- Yes. I found a wounded wolf that had a large horn on its head and plate scales all over its body. I waited for the moment and stuck my knife in his neck. I would have brought more meat, but he was too big. Two meters at the withers.

Esdes looked at her brother in surprise, and Ryuu was waiting for his sister's reaction. "Ideally, she should scold me now and even hit me, saying that I acted extremely stupid and wrong."

Unfortunately, not everything is going the way we want...

Esdes happily smiling hugged her brother – I'm so proud of you, Ryuu! A real hunter of the Partas clan! Even I couldn't kill a dangerous beast at your age!

– Haha, come on, sister, he was injured... – Ryuu smiled, but inside he sighed – "Where did I go wrong? Does she really care at all that I could have just ended up in the stomach of some dangerous beast?"

The girl enthusiastically replied – And what? He could have easily killed you anyway! The fact that you decided to attack an opponent so superior in strength means that your spirit is extremely strong, Ryuu! And Father says it's even more important than the strength of your body. Suddenly Esdes hugged Ryuu even tighter. An ordinary child would even feel pain –Just don't do such stupid things anymore, brother. If you want to hunt dangerous animals, then take a sister who has more experience in this.

There was a slight anxiety and even a fleeting fear in Esdes' voice, which surprised even her

Ryuu was surprised. I was very surprised. – But...

Esdes squeezed him even harder in her arms and, interrupting, said – Your father did not teach you to hunt such animals at all, Ryuu. The strong survive – the weak deserve to die, it's true. But you're a strong brother, you don't have to die so stupidly, okay?

– Yes, sister... – still freaking out from what is happening, he answered automatically

– Great. – the girl nodded and releasing her brother from her arms, sat down on a stump – Now you can try your catch. – rubbing her palms together, she said

- "I hope she values me not only because of my grub." - Ryuu mentally grinned and started cooking anyway.

While he was cooking, thoughts about the near future were spinning in his head – "It was amazing... If everything also goes well, then perhaps with Esdes it will even be possible to create a harem without shedding someone's blood. Hmm, in a few years the northern tribe will attack the clan and cut out all its inhabitants, except for me and Esdes, of course, I will try. And then... First, we will wander through the local forests and when there are no monsters equal to us, we will go traveling. We will explore the lands of the Empire and hunt for new monsters that can still challenge us. Then, most likely, Esdes will join the army of the Empire, and I will follow her. I still have to choose a side, but of the two evils, I'll probably choose the lesser one... The destruction of the Empire will lead to incredible consequences. Wars will break out with renewed vigor, foreign countries will tear apart the remains of the Empire like hungry jackals. Previously restrained by the Empire, the warring nations will begin to destroy each other again, and Dangerous Animals will happily take advantage of all this confusion, turning the territory of a once great state into hunting grounds. The empire may be completely rotten, but I'd rather change it from the inside..."