Chapter 93: You Should Hunt

Above Elias, Commander Yseult’s eyes shimmered with radiance as she saw how deeply Elias was pulling all the vitality from the corpses into his body.

He had dispatched these seven quickly, and perhaps it might not be as efficient as she would have liked; the only wasted motion Elias had made was the excess force he had placed in his blows.

It was obvious that the opponent he must have faced inside the Fragment might have been armored or more durable than these ones he was fighting, and he was not adjusted, or more likely, he was not using his strength as efficiently as she would have liked.

However, all of these were issues that could be easily resolved given time and practice. If Elias did not die early and could survive for long enough, then he would be placed in many battles, and these fiery crucibles would refine him into a true warrior.

What drew her attention was the manner in which Elias’s body was consuming Lumina. She had expected something similar to this as an advantage of having more pools of Lumina were the ability to draw upon Lumina from the fallen.

The knowledge Elias had learned came from another world, and in that world, most Siphons had one or two pools and not dozens, and they could only gain Lumina by using a Technique and slowly drawing it into their bodies. He should begin to realize that the world he knew was different from what he was about to enter, and Yseult felt like the best teacher was experience itself.

With Elias’s smartness, she was sure he was going to be figuring out some of these soon, and if he would be asking her questions, it would be after he had gone over many of these new insights in his head.

Still, the sheer volume of Lumina pouring out of the bodies of his prey was ridiculous, even for someone with a hundred pools open. This must be an effect of his Title or his Traits, and she could not count out his Talent as an additional factor as well.

She recalled that the members of the Bone Singers had asked her about the level of Elias’s Talent, and she brushed aside the question. While she wanted to know this, she wanted to give Elias some secrets of his own. The child was most likely a bit frustrated at what was happening around him, but he seemed to be taking it well.

When the bodies turned to dust, Yseult smiled, knowing that if Leviathan was here, he would give anything to have Elias as his Disciple; such greed for Lumina was not something that could be cultivated; it could only be innate.

Yseult frowned when she noticed a slight ripple around the bodies before they turned to dust. It was slight, and only someone of her perception could have seen it.

A few thoughts passed through her head, and she had no ready answers, so she brushed them off. The bodies turning to dust meant all energy in their bodies had been siphoned away, and she chalked the ripples to a harmless shift in pressure, but she would keep an eye out for more of them.

Devouring seven targets at the peak of Fury Forge should have pushed most Siphons to the next stage, but she watched Elias’s body and saw no shift inside of him; his Lumina had not overflowed.

Well, if Fate was right, and it was rarely wrong… this oasis was to be destroyed today, and Elias would have all the challenge he would need and some.

She did not expect him to change what would happen today, but he should be taken to his limits so she could see what she had to work with. There were things that no amount of talent could replace, and if she was going to be betting on this child that should be a replaceable pawn, she needed to be sure he was worth the trouble.

Ⓨ

Elias had never been in a forest before, and even with the greenery surrounding him, he did not think he was in a real forest, and it was because everything was so orderly. The trees were spread out evenly, and he could see the designs of the creator who planted every tree in this place… six hundred years of work, and they had been able to achieve so much.

He had less than seven hours to hunt and kill, so he could show the Commander that he was worthy of being nurtured at a high level. Elias could feel the movement of the sun, and he knew that in two hours, dusk would be coming. Funny how this day seemed to have begun only a moment ago, and now it was about to end.

Elias pushed his senses to the peak, and the forest seemed to come alive all around him. Looking at the shapes, sizes, and the way the trees were planted, he picked a path and began moving forward, his bare feet digging into the soft ground and making no sound.

He did not run, but with his long legs and his Agility, he was still moving very quickly, and trees whipped past him as if he were running. He was moving with his eyes as well as his nose, and he was already smelling blood ahead.

Soon, he came across three of the victims of the cannibals, a woman and two children, a boy and a girl. They had grievous wounds around their necks, but they were not eaten, and Elias knew that these three most likely killed by the cannibals he had slaughtered, and they must have been left behind so they could kill the men who were fleeing.

The woman’s body was partly covering her children even in death, as she had crawled on top of them to shield them, but it did not help. Flesh was not a good shield against claws and teeth.

Elias bent down and drew the boy closer to the mother, so the family of three was together, and seeing the eyes of the child that were opened in horror and pain, he gently closed them.

He felt a slight disturbance in his heart when he saw the dead children, and Elias frowned. He did not like to see children dying, and the mutant babies he had butchered in the Fragement had been one layer of nightmare he had not shed from his consciousness just yet, and seeing more children die only made him upset.

Elias sighed, and he focused his mind and pulled. Blue Lumina floated out of the bodies and began to pour into his chest. It was easier than he had expected, and he finally confirmed that he no longer needed the Vitality Absorption Technique, and if he wanted, it only took a thought for the Lumina that had no will holding it to be seized by him.

As the three turned to dust, their souls entered him, and Elias thought he heard the quiet cry of a child, but maybe it was his imagination; his ears twitched when he heard grunts and clicks ahead, and he knew that this was not his imagination.

Placing aside his irritation, Elias bent his body and began heading for the sound, claws slowly emerging from his fingers.

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