The brain may have frozen, and its heart may have stopped, but dead it was not.

Moments after the giant bear/cat Monster ceased moving, Adamu, through the Mystic Eye, witnessed the silver pattern on its hide power up as a last desperate attempt to survive or maybe achieve revenge.

Slightly worried, yet mostly curious, Adamu watched the Silver pattern glow and glow, but for some reason, nothing occurred. The only reason Adamu was certain of that also had to do with the magical floating eyeball sharing its Mana Sight with him. As such, within said vision, Adamu saw how the Silver Light saturating this fairytale-like forest reacted and frothed with the desire to latch onto something only to fail at finding that something.

Must be the lacking range. Adamu realized because there was, in fact, quite some distance between him and the Monster. Hmph, this just proves my reluctance to be anywhere near it.

Nodding, Adamu focused on Essence Sight and found a similar situation, as the gray pattern had also acted up. However, this time, Adamu noticed nothing occurring. Must be entirely internal then, which limits the possibilities. As if to prove it for Adamu, the giant bear/cat Monster began to jiggle somewhat, as if its brain and heart were no longer fully frozen. Ah. I see. The gray pattern must be either a Resistance Pattern. Or a Physical Enhancing Pattern. Either of the two could explain the jiggling.

Too bad, I had planned for something like that, hence the choice for Ice Magic to freeze its insides first before even thinking of trying to kill it from the outside.

Yes. It will take longer, but it's much cleaner and safer for me.

Having understood everything happening so far, Adamu continued observing the Monster, but no longer had he put all of his attention on its actions.

Instead, most of his engagement was on drawing more Mana from the Realm Grid to strip its colors back into Raw Mana.

As such, around ten minutes later, a new occurrence sought Adamu’s attention.

The first sign was the Silver Pattern no longer acting up. Instead, it dimmed until it no longer existed, literally in this case, when the Silver Pattern vanished entirely from the Monster’s black hide and gray-striped camouflage mimicking a tiger's marks.

Right after the Silver Pattern vanished, as if it were a one-use item, Adamu noticed the Black Mana, representing True Darkness, making the foundations of its body flare up. When it reached the peak of its activity, the Black Mana tried to leave the giant Monster’s Body only to be hindered and purified from existence by the True Light surrounding the Monster's physical form.

Having seen what he had seen, Adamu immediately realized what was going on.

The Monster had finally crossed the threshold of mimicking a functioning living being. Hence, Black Mana attempted to return the Monster to where it had spawned in the first place to attain a new physical shell. Once there, it would be reborn weaker but still alive because that was what Dungeon Monsters did when killed.

Regardless of the hidden wants that came with the existence of Dungeon Monsters, seeing the confirmation was enough for Adamu to dismiss the process as now he knew what and why the True Light had allowed the rat/cat he had killed and consumed to remain behind.

Instead, Adamu focused on Essence Sight to understand what actually occurred when a hybrid got killed, although, as Adamu now realized, not permanently.

Watching through the Magical floating eyeball, Adamu monitored the glowing bulb inside the giant head of the bear/cat Monster's body. Unfortunately for Adamu, this was much harder to understand as he had yet to perfect the Essence Sight configuration of the Mystic Eye to allow it to deliver him the most precise images.

Still, having experienced the end results, Adamu had a hunch on what was going on.

Seeing, watching, and hypothesizing, Adamu understood the underlying theory of the flaring that was going on. However, just like the Silver Pattern, there seemed to be a distance limiter between the killed Monster and the person doing the killing.

However, that was where the familiar ended since Adamu was not even close to being near the Monster to receive a reward.

Still, there was one thing Adamu was confident about. Regardless of why or how everything got established as it presently existed, a backup plan for everything had to exist. Since that was the case, Adamu knew it was about to happen by him not allowing the Black Mana to disintegrate the Monster to be reborn.

As such. the glowing bulb also had to stay in place as well. Yet, since the Monster was dead, it could not remain as it used to be. As such, instead of being taken away, the glowing bulb inside the giant Monster’s head withdrew every single bit of Essence inside the Monster’s body. As such, just as it happened with the Silver Pattern, the Gray Pattern also ceased existing.

Though at a much slower pace compared to the Silver Pattern.

Either way. When the whole pattern vanished, and every bit of the Essence got concentrated into one tiny spot, it crystallized. At least, that was what Adamu interpreted since he had yet to dissect and confirm the truth. But he was somewhat sure of it since High-Level Beasts did something similar, only in their case, the released Mana concentrated itself into certain body parts.

Which parts depended on a few factors that mattered very little right now? Not to Adamu, since he had a very different problem.

“Now… How do I loot this thing without an actual Looting Spell.”

From the earth, a great hand arose.

It arose beside a giant Monster bearing the signs of bear and cat lineage.

When the earthen hand rose to its full size, it towered over the giant Monster. As such, the giant earthen hand managed to envelop the giant bear/cat over the spine and stomach to lift the dead multi-ton carcass from the ground to slowly lug the body right where Adamu desired it to be.

In today's case, that was his Sanctuary.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Once it was near, the great earthen hand released its grip, and the Monster plopped to the ground with a mighty THUD due to its sheer weight. However, right before Adamu had cast the Earthen Hand Spell, he had paid much attention to how to make the monster lay on its back without accidentally sliding on its sides.

As such, a simple Earth Spell had modified the ground on which the now dead body lay with its legs spread out.

With the deed done, the great earthen hand slowly retreated into the ground.

Adamu, on the other hand, exhaled a sigh of relief from the pressure of channeling a Spell instead of just paying the usual upfront expenditure of one-use Spells.

That done, he picked up the Obsidian pocket knife, which was no longer pocket-sized but much closer to an actual knife, and cast a Spell upon it to temporarily toughen and sharpen the glass material. Yet, regardless of those benefits, the best part of the Spell lay in the Dismantle temporary Enchantment on it.

It would not last for long. Regardless, it was re-applicable, and as long as it stayed on the pitch-black knife, working with dead flesh would be at least a hundred times easier. A consequence was that it made the temporary Enchantment useless on anything else not of living flesh. But Adamu cared little about that since bones belonged in that category for some time if the kill was fresh, and undoubtedly, this Monster would remain fresh for quite some time.

Instead, with the pitch-black knife in hand, Adamu left the Sanctuary and climbed the now-dead body.

Right where the Lightning and Ice Arrow Spells had hit, Adamu stabbed with the pitch-black knife to widen the entrance somewhat so his hand could fit right through to connect with the Ice Magic, still chilling the body.

Once Adamu’s Spirit resonated with the Ice Magic, he released the Spell. That done, he waited a few moments before testing out the hardness of the hide around the Monster's throat. Frowning for a moment, Adamu shrugged his shoulders before stabbing the pick-black knife and slowly pushing the now-inserted knife toward the stomach of the Monster in one straight line.

The Dismantling Enchantment on the pick-black knife helped tremendously with slicing the hide, all while the Eternal Light above Adamu purified away the Black Mana escaping from the Monster.

About half an hour later, thanks to the sharpness of the Obsidian knife, the hide on the stomach and the sides got peeled off right down near the spine to allow the hide to stretch out and become a large carpet on which to lay the bounty of flesh that would come soon after.

Still.

Standing aside, Adamu wiped away a bit of sweat from his brows. “Phu… I have a feeling this will take all Night.”

As prophesied, the whole night went by, and the job was still unfinished.

Halfway through, Adamu had to take a break from the intensive exercise by casually channeling Mana from the Realm Grid to strip into Raw Mana, only to use it that very same instant to create a burrow below right below the Sanctuary Ritual.

Thanks to the spherical nature of the Protective Circle of the Ritual, right below the center of the Sanctuary Ritual and the Core that maintained it, there was plenty of space, five meters if measured from the Core to the deepest point the barrier went.

The burrow design was simple.

Rather than making an entrance in the center of the Sanctuary, Adamu made the entrance right next to the golden barrier. Then, by hugging the inward curvature, Adamu created a spiral staircase that led right down to the bottom of the barrier.

With Earth Magic, it was easy to create rooms to be utilized in whichever way Adamu desired. Then, right after establishing the general shape of the burrow, Adamu declared the biggest room as the Ice Storage Room, with pinky-thick ice embracing every inch of the room’s walls. Adamu even conjured a door made out of ice because the main feature of Ice Magic was that it made engraving Rital Patterns on and within it effortless.

Thus, it was no surprise Adamu chose the said approach with the intent to make the Ice Ritual Pattern draw the cold inside the Room instead of spreading it outside.

Once the underground was in place, Adamu became a simple workman carrying all the meat and bones already dismantled before returning to become a butcher for the Night. When he sensed the first signs of the Oath within him, Adamu ceased butchering any further to hurriedly store what he could just in case his theory proved to be wrong.

Within said loot were the enormous sliced pieces of the Monster hide. Though, because they were heavy, it was a tough job to do.

Either way, once the vital loot was safe, Adamu turned his head to the one piece of loot he had purposely left for last, the giant head and what it hid.

Having experienced how tough it was to work on the Monster’s bones, despite the Dismantling Magic cast on his Obidian knife, Adamu avoided even trying to split open the thick skull.

Instead, he separated the spine and the skull at the neck. From there, he carved away the bony hindrance to reach the brain and that which it hid. After lots of slicing, Adamu stuck his hand inside the squishy brain, which was much smaller than the skull suggested, and grabbed at the only hard material inside his hand discovered.

Another sensation told him he was right on point the same instant he touched it.

Grabbing and pulling his hand out, Adamu rushed for the huge bowl of Ina’s Stone Idol, witnessed only inside the Illusion. With said water, he washed the brain matter to gaze at a white crystal about half the size of Adamu’s pinky.

Examining it with regular vision, all one would find was a normal crystal.

Nonetheless, once Adamu brought the Mystic Eye near the crystal and utilized Essence Sight, a very different scenario occurred because the small white crystal glowed with the resplendence of the gray color the monster once exhibited on its hide.

Additionally, after a better examination, Adam felt a presence within the white crystal. However, since he lacked the active state of Essence, he could not direct his still passive Pure Essence inside the crystal to understand what he sensed when touching the white crystal.

“Mmm…”

Stashing away the little crystal and the ideas it spawned, Adamu returned to looting.

When the first signs of the incoming Dawn showed themselves, Adamu ceased everything.

Returning inside the Sanctuary, he awaited what seemed to be an inevitable shrinking of the whole world.

“Oh… It seems I was right.” Adamu noted as he observed the remaining parts of the carcass not shrinking.

Regardless of that, though, what did occur was the ground underneath it shrinking. Hence, the carcass began wobbling in place as the unsteady nature it laid upon vanished. So enough, the tree roots and tree trunks displayed the same. In fact, they were worse since one particular tree even tried to overturn the remaining flesh and bones as it pushed everything out of its way.

Not desiring to clean that much meat and bone, Adamu quickly cast a simple Earth Spell and moved the now much smaller carcass to sit just right between two trees and his Sanctuary, thereby saving himself much effort.

Crack Crack Crack

Shatter

Flinching for one second, Adamu was back in the world of Light.

What followed was more work and even more work to store everything because his newly built ice cellar reached its limits. Eventually, Adamu simply gave up because it was not worth the effort.

Instead, what had remained, which was still a lot, Adamu simply buried deep with an Earth Spell before using a Water Spell to clean out the surroundings of all the gore, himself included.

Finally, Adamu made a nice little earth bed on the surface and simply laid down to close his eyes.

Though, he did not fall asleep. The manifesting Oath prevented that option. As such, Adamu busied his thoughts while waiting for Dawn.

Only after the Dawn Prayer got pronounced did he actually take a nap.