13. Farewell gift

When Zen and the others returned to Mansion's courtyard and put down their sacks to be sorted by the rest of the Red Trickerss crew, Zen turned to the side of the Mansion building.

There, the Red Trickerss ship was now lying beside the Mansion.

Due to the attack from Z-Emperor pouch before, it destroying most of the Mansion's roof. Of course, it also make the ship, which laying at the roof, to fell.

As a result, the damage suffered by the ship became even worse.

Fortunately, they would be relying on conventional ways to steer the ship this time. So, as long as the ship's exterior could be properly patched and some minimal engines could be secured, it wouldn't affect their plans at all.

At this time, Rina leads her fellow technicians and a group of Red Trickerss crew in the repair process.

Looking at the condition of the ship from a distance, Zen suspected that the repair process had just reached about 35%.

They still needed a lot of time, but it should be that this ship would be able to sail when they had to leave this town.

Away from the Red Trickerss who were engaged in their respective work, Zen moved to the remote side of the courtyard.

Zen resumed his magic training.

The gravel and dust around Zen began to float and form some blocks of rock or dirt.

Zen's eyes were closed and focused on honing his control of Elemental Magic.

***

Gathering resources, training, and occasionally discuss their plans together with Martha and some important figures among the Red Trickerss Pirate's Crew.

Zen continued his activities day after day.

Then, on the 28th day of the time given by Z-Emperor pouch to the Red Trickerss, they stopped collecting resources and began loading the valuables they had managed to collect into the ship's storage room.

And, the next day, on the 29th day of the deadline, the silhouette of the ship tens of meters in diameter was transported by the tendrils of Z-Emperor Pouch and dropped into the lake located 100 meters from Frincaal town.

Under the nervous gazes of Martha and the others, the downed Ship caused ripples on the surface of the lake, then... Successfully floated correctly!

The Red Trickerss cheered with joy seeing that.

Using small artificial-crafted canoes, they began to board to the Ship and preparing the Ship for their voyage later.

Zen sat on top of Z-Emperor Pouch's tendril as he watched them with a satisfied expression.

Z-Emperor pouch sends the transmission of thoughts again into Zen's mind.

Zen nodded.

"Yes, I'll go with them."

Z-Emperor pouch was silent before handing Zen a deep black crystal stone.

"What is this?"

To Zen's question, Z-Emperor pouch replied with a transmission of thought.

Zen widened his eyes.

"... Farewell gift?"

Z-Emperor pouch seems to give the crystal stone to Zen as a parting gift, as well as a form of help from It to Zen.

It hoped that this young Zombie would successfully find what he was looking for and fulfill his goal.

Z-Emperor pouch lowered Zen onto the deck of the Red Trickerss' Ship.

Z-Emperor pouch waved before returning to cover itself into the ground.

Zen stared silently for a while before smiling faintly.

Grasping the black crystal stone given by Z-Emperor pouch tightly, Zen lifted the crystal stone, then swallowed it.

***

Among the many books he had read before in Frincaal town's library, there was a book called "Recourses and Herbs Encyclopedia" which writed based on a book by a man named Brian Jungeor.

In the book, there are many types of natural resources, such as: minerals, plants, and even include animal-monster resources.

Among them, there is something called Monster Gem.

It was a kind of stone that Monsters would produce after precipitating their magic energy over the years.

Inside, there is a collection of the purest magic energy that can generally be used by monsters as energy reserves.

Humans often collect Monster Gems after killing Monsters.

The magic energy inside the Monster Gem is too unique to be used as fuel for a machine or magic tool, but the abundant amount of magic energy in it makes it suitable for the main ingredient in the synthesis of certain weapon bullets. It can also be used as a good alchemy material.

However, Monster Gems have a different value when given to other Monsters.

Monster Gem was the purest collection of magic energy of a monster.

In it, the monster's DNA was recorded.

So, if another Monster consumes a Monster Gem - especially when the Monster Gem that the monster eats comes from a monster that is much stronger than it - that monster will undergo a unique evolutionary process.

As if having consumed a powerful tonic medicine, the monster would become much stronger than before.

Moreover, sometimes, the monster would even start to develop the unique characteristics of the monster that it consumed it's Monster Gem.

For example, a Salamander consumes a Wyvern's Monster Gem.

Later, the Salamander may grow wings or gain the ability to exhale fire.

However, it wasn't the greatest effect of consuming Monster Gems for a Monster.

In much rarer situations, the pure magic energy belonging to the owner of the Monster Gem would undergo a unique resonance process and give birth a unique ability from it - an Innate Skill!

Zen realized that and consumed the Monster Gem given by Z-Emperor pouch.

That's right. What Z-Emperor pouch gave to Zen as a Farewell gift was a Monster Gem, and it was a Monster Gem fragment of Z-Emperor pouch's own Monster Gem!

Z-Emperor pouch is a high-level Monster that has the power to annihilate entire population of a city.

There was no question of how rare a situation was where a weak monster could consume a Monster Gem from such a powerful Monster.

However, Zen experienced it.

And now, within his body, in the path of blood energy and magic energy circulation within his body, dark magic energy spots that emitted an oppressive powerful aura began to appear.

This oppressive aura even seeped out of Zen's body; made the Red Trickerss crew turn their heads with a frightened expression towards Zen.

Zen was now covered in a blanket by a pitch-black magical energy.

Changes are also starting to occur in his physique.

His height begins to grow slightly; makes him look like a teenager around 14-15 years old.

But Zen wasn't paying attention to his physique right now.

He exerted most of his mind's power to calm down the pure magic energy belonging to Z-Emperor pouch.

This magic energy will not be able to be fully integrated with Zen's magic energy, but it will still belong to Zen.

This pure dark magic energy was extremely powerful because it came from Z-Emperor pouch's Monster Gem, so Zen could use it to strengthen his magic energy, as well as expand his magic capacity.

Moreover, pure dark magic energy could also be used as a trigger. Such as switches; It can be used to convert his entire magic energy into pure dark element magic energy without the need to study the dark element from the outside.

A sense of nostalgia once again invaded Zen.

This dark magic energy ability reminded him of the Elemental Core belonging to cultivators.

Elemental core.

It was a core that would be formed by the Spiritual Kings - who had undergone their First Tribulation and were finally able to use the true 100% pure spiritual energy - within their Dantian.

An elemental core was a core formed from the spiritual energy essence of a certain element that the cultivator mastered.

It functions like the dark magic energy of the Monster Gem; It can be used as a trigger for spiritual energy changes.

Elemental cores were indispensable when a Cultivator truly intended to study Magical arts in more depth.

There was a limitation of a cultivator in controlling the elemental spiritual energy, so Elemental core would bear some of the burden in controlling this element and make them able to go further in controlling the element.

Elemental cores, in particular, are indispensable in the process to master unique and abstract elements, such as: the elements of space, or time.

Well, put that aside.

Zen, inspired by the Elemental core, got the idea to gather the pure dark magic energy from the Monster Gem to become something that resembled an Elemental core.

Can he do it?

Zen was very excited.

In the past, Zen managed to form 3 Elemental cores, namely: Water Core, Air Core, and Earth core; making him at the top ranks even among Spiritual King cultivators.

When he fought all out, he could turn the plains into filled with scenes of catastrophic natural disasters, such as: floods, typhoons, and devastating earthquakes.

His three Elemental cores were one of Zen's greatest pride as a cultivator.

Therefore, although Zen wasn't sure if he would actually manage to form something similar to Elemental core of this Monster Gem's pure dark magic energy, he anticipated this prospect with great excitement.

Without hesitation, Zen began to use his mind power to drag pure dark magic energy into his Dantian which now had a lake of pure water energy and a Tree of pure fire energy growth.

Dark magic energy formed a small ball that floated above the lake and beside the growth tree.

Every point of dark magic energy was dragged by Zen into his Dantian to form this pitch black ball.

After all of his dark magic energy was condensed into a pitch-black ball, the dark magic energy that enveloped Zen's body disappeared.

However, another change occurred instead after the black orb in his Dantian met a size that was sufficient to the size of the Elemental core he remembered.

Roughly, this black Core had 95% of the size of the Elemental core he remembered.

Dark energy radiated from the Dark Core.

This energy carried an extremely powerful dark element.

Dark energy also spread out and shot out from Zen's Dantian.

Dark energy circulates through every corner of the nerves, organs, and Zen's Meridians.

Unknowingly, after some circulations around his body, the dark energy had disappeared without a trace. It was as if the dark energy had never existed in the first place.

However, that's not true.

Because Zen could intuitively now sense that he had a new ability now.

A unique special ability that among humans, is said to only be awakened when a person is under 10 years old.

A unique special ability born from the magic energy itself.

An Innate Skill.

At Zen's command, his right hand turned into a cloud of dark smoke formed from pure magic energy.

He could change the size and shape of this dark smoke at will.

Making his hands have to be two or more hands is even possible.

This was an Innate Skill that was closely related to the characteristics of Z-Emperor Pouch.

And Zen named this Innate Skill as...

"Darkness Grip!"

Z-Emperor pouch gives Zen the best Farewell gift!