Chapter 41: Arcane Beasts

“That’s new.” Alex muttered.

“Oh, that really is interesting. You should go carve into that thing and see what you find.”

“Look, Pebble-”

“That’s not my name, I’m Obsidian, remember.”

“Not gonna happen. I’ll call you… Obby. Best I can do.” Alex crossed his arms and smirked.

“You are truly evil. You know that?”

“What can I say?” Alex leaned against a tree, still happy to take a minute to torture the sentient rock a bit. “I’m as stubborn as a… rock.”

“Alright, you can call me Obby. That will be our little nickname between each other. Everyone else has to use my real name though. Deal?”

“ We’ll see.” Alex tucked ‘Obby’ away and approached the den mother corpse.

As he got closer, he could see that the faint azure glow was indeed focused at the center of its body. Something, apparently, was inside the den mother. Alex was interested in what it could be, but he was more interested in how he was seeing this azure glow.

“Probably that [Aether Sight] ability you got from shattering your core? This isn’t my doing, that’s for sure.”

“Oh yeah.” Alex nodded.

He did remember that ability. It was also what had let him see the aura around Obby back in the cavern as well. It looked as if the ability had a bit of a mind of its own. Showing him the rock and whatever was in this corpse. But Alex was sure there was ambient aether energy all around him inside this forest, and it wasn’t showing him that.

“Concentrated aether only then maybe?” He guessed.

“Certainly possible. Something you will have to practice and experiment with later. For now, please pry open the decaying carcass of your previously fallen foe and extract from it our unknown treasures.”

“…You have issues.”

“Oh, so many issues. Yes.”

Getting to the source of the aether was more gruesome than Alex would like to admit. He didn’t have a weapon on hand, so he had to actually use his literal hands to dig into the corpse. Lots of cursing, blood splatter, and a vomit break later, Alex found it.

“What the hell?”

Alex held a small marble-sized orb between his blood slicked fingers. It almost looked to be a crystalline structure with a faint opalescent glow at the center. Streaks of brown and white light nearly imperceptibly flashed within. All surrounded by a faint fuzzy blue halo in Alex’s vision.

A mage core? Inside a beast? Alex thought it looked like what he would imagine a mage core inside a person’s soulspace would look like. But he couldn’t be sure.

Is this what Sylvaris pulled out of that panther beast when he killed it? Alex distinctly remembered the first time he had seen magic being used. The acidic drip of the beast’s fangs as it stared him down, the flash of light and thunderous explosion of noise from the elf’s spell.

The elf had pulled something from the beast’s body afterward, something small. It certainly could have been an object like this.

It was a thought that brought a sense of hope to Alex. If this thing was a beast’s core, then it could hold aether. Which meant if he could implant it in his soulspace, he could have a new mage core.

“Could I implant this as my new mage core then?” He wondered out loud.

“Definitely not. You couldn’t cultivate with that, its stuck at its current power. Not to mention, trying to put something into your soulspace is just begging to cause problems.”

“ Wait, do you know what this is?” Alex felt a bit dumb not asking the rock, ‘Obby’, about it already. If the thing knew about glyphcrafting, it probably knew more about other magical system shenanigans.

“Yes, of course I know what it is.”

Obby was silent for a few seconds. Alex fished him from his pocket, staring at the rock pointedly for a while. Once it didn’t seem to want to continue, he shook the thing in his hand.

“Hello. You going to tell me what this thing is?” Alex was practically yelling at the stone now.

“Careful there. You didn’t ask what it was, you simply asked if I knew what it was. Not my fault you don’t know how to ask the right questions. Doudra knew how to ask questions.”

“Tell me what this is, or so help me, I will shove you inside this badger corpse in a place you very much would not like.” Alex scowled.

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“So angry. You should really talk to someone about that. But okay. It’s an Arcane Beast Core. Well not this one, looks like it is not completely formed quite yet. The energy at the center hasn’t solidified fully. So a Pseudo-Beast Core.”

“ And… what can I do with it?”

“You? Probably nothing. But most commonly beast cores are refined by various crafters for purposes related to their profession.”

“Such as?”

“Alchemists refine them into elixirs. Enchanters can use them as catalysts for their enchantments. It could be a part of a very powerful glyphcrafting ink perhaps. Or just as an aether battery.”

“Battery? I thought I couldn’t use it as a mage core?” Alex was confused now. He felt like he was getting contradictory information.

“It still holds aether, which can be drawn upon to power various things. Including to power spells or items. But once it’s drained, it’s drained, and wouldn’t be worth as much.”

“

Okay, something to hold on to for now then.” Alex mentally accessed his bracelet, opening the hidden storage space and dropped the Pseudo-Core inside. It would be safest in there, Alex was sure of that.

“By the way. Given my mage core situation-”

“You mean your total lack of one, yes, go on.”

“Given my situation… ” Alex repeated. “Is there anything that could be used to replace my core. Or even repair it?”

“Hmm, with the information I have access to right now. No. Nothing can replace a mage core, and nothing can restore one that has been shattered.”

“I figured as much, I was just— wait. What do you mean information you have access to, right now?” Alex glared at Obby in his hand.

This was again, not sounding good to Alex. Could this item gain even more sentience? Was is a leveling item or something? Could it eventually get strong enough to actually take over his mind?

“I’m a magically bonded item. So I’m linked to you as my bonded owner. Like I said, specifically to your soulspace, which determines how much access I have to my internal power and knowledge. With your wisdom stat so low, I barely can provide support. I couldn’t even teach you the glyph circle I taught Doudra, access to that has been re-locked.”

“Oh, I see.” That did make some sense after all. Games back on earth had items like that too. It kept a person from having a super legendary ranked bonus from an item at level 1. They would have to level up their character to make the item more powerful. Looked like Obsidian, or Obby, worked like that as well. Here, in this world, he didn’t level up though, he needed to increase his wisdom stat and strengthen his soulspace.

“So, Doudra had a higher wisdom than I do? Now that you’re bonded to me, you’ve reset?”

“As I said before, bonding to you was a downgrade. Rather crappy downgrade even. I had restriction grades removed with Doudra, and they are now back thanks to you.”

“ Restriction grades? How many in total do you have?”

“No idea, do I? Haven’t ever had them all removed that I can remember. But we can find out together! Pump up that wisdom stat meat-sack, and I will see if I can’t access knowledge you could only dream of.”

Alex looked at the stone containing Obby’s consciousness. It didn’t even look like an enchanted item. He couldn’t see any glyphs or markings to show a crafting method. And since it was an opaque material, he couldn’t see inside to check if the enchantments were internal. He very doubted breaking it open to check would be a good idea.

It was bonded to him though, Alex could tell this was true given it’s ability to see through his senses, and even create a slight heads-up-display effect as it had been doing in combat just a few minutes ago.

But would giving this thing access to more information hurt me more than help me? Once again Alex felt like he was thrust between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t have an answer. There was one thing he did know.

Getting answers was hard to come by, and if this damn rock was his way to get them, he’d have to go for it. Even if it turned out that he regretted it later. He had to take that risk, that leap of faith off the diving board and into the swimming pool.

“Fine, I will increase my wisdom stat so you can access more information. Okay? But not right now, we have other things to worry about.” Alex tucked the rock back into his pocket once more then looked off deeper into the forest.

He had a campsite to find, and hopefully there was at least a few things left behind that he could use.

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