Silence made nest between them. She fell asleep not long after, prey to her sudden fatigue as most of her essence had been used up on her injuries. Resisting his own exhaustion, Avaln spent the time comprehending the knowledge he required for his next step. He didn’t need to access the blue book for this, as the information had already been granted to him, so he could remain alert while doing so.

His first choice, maybe because of recent events, was to comprehend the secret art for essence refinement the blue book chose for him. It was strange to treat the artefact as if it had some kind of sentience, but it was true that in order to access the knowledge inside the Tower of Babylon, a bit of intelligence was required.

All Avaln could infer was that the book held means way too profound for him to understand yet.

After putting the thought aside, he dedicated his attention to carefully analyzing the information he sought, and while doing so, his face showed a myriad of feelings, from hope to disappointment, to hope again, and after a few breaths of deep thought, his lips curled full of joy.

What he was going through wasn’t just an art for refining essence, as it also made use of one’s essence circulation in order to further increase its efficiency. But that was not the shocking part.

Basically, it was common knowledge that any adventurer who wanted to refine their essence needed to first slay a creature, then absorb their essence and assimilate it into their own. That was the only way to increase its size, richness and purity.

The concept of one’s essence circulation improving was something or extremely well hidden by masters at the peak, or it was not known at all except by Sgithe. The fact that he never heard of it even though he spent ten years studying how to become an adventurer could not be explained otherwise.

So what happened when you included the essence circulation concept into the act of refining one’s essence?

Avaln didn’t hesitate, and after putting some distance between him and Rei, quickly sat cross-legged. He concentrated and used his seventh sense to perceive his essence circulation, which had a clover-like shape, but this time, instead of entering its flow and letting go of his consciousness to enter his Tower of Babylon, he probed it and stimulated it little by little.

He adjusted his breathing as well, following the secret art’s instructions, as it also served the same purpose.

Soon, he felt its pace speeding up, more and more and more…

For a while, nothing happened. He could only hear the intertwined rhythm of his breathing and Rei’s, on the opposite side of the cave. Soon, he decided to split his mind in two, leaving just a tiny part to remain alert in case of danger, while the rest focused on his own circulation and breathing.

Avaln soon entered his own isolated mind space.

And in the time one brews a cup of tea, he finally detected a change.

His seventh sense had a ten step radius, and even though all near him was rock, which usually had a feeble presence, he felt a distinct essence stream suddenly gathering around him. It had a grey color, just like his own, and it swirled and probed him as his own circulation continued to speed up.

That was the world’s essence.

It seemed that everything in the world was born from this essence, giving form to the different elements: fire, water, air, earth, light, and darkness. These elements then combined and formed secondary elements such as wood, magma, lightning, mist, demonic, angelic… there were many, and the secret art didn’t mention them all.

But basically, the world’s essence was elementless. Every creature’s essence usually acquired an attribute, and adventurers would often try to cultivate theirs, as they gave them advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses...

But very few creatures had an elementless attribute, and Avaln just discovered he was one of them. Not possessing an element, as far as he knew, was considered the worst kind of essence an adventurer could have, for it had no strengths and was weaker than any other attribute. What’s more, elementless beasts were highly sought after because adventurer’s encountered no difficulties when absorbing their essence.

Such difficulties were quite common otherwise. For example, an adventurer with a fire essence would have a greatly reduced efficacy if they were to absorb the essence of a creature with a water attribute. The same would happen viceversa, and the efficacy would only reach its maximum when both sides belonged to the same element.

But elementless essence was the exception. In fact, creatures possessing it could be said to be almost extinct because they were hunted without restraint during the Blooming years, known as the time adventures first came to be.

That was why there were no adventurers with an elementless essence. Not only were they rare, but not many would be able to become adventurers in the first place, and even if they could, they’d be hunted as soon as someone found them to be elementless.

As adventurers were also considered creatures to be slain. Guild wars were often, and skirmishes more so. Opportunities and risk came hand in hand, and competition often resulted in death.

Yet Avaln didn’t feel discouraged. In fact, thanks to that secret art, a rush of excitement was invading his chest as he concentrated on speeding up his circulation.

For what he was about to do, was something unheard of.

He was about to absorb the world’s essence to refine his own.

A short breath later, the essence around stopped probing him, and as if making a decision, it entered his body and quickly flowed into his clover-like shape essence circulation. Avaln felt a hunger waking inside him, as if he had been thirsty for days and had suddenly found a river from which to drink.

In fact, it wasn’t far from the truth, as he had never refined his essence, not even naturally, for ten whole years. His entire being was desperate for essence.

But he didn’t allow that hunger to take control, and focused on maintaining his current circulation speed instead. He was, after all, not refining any kind of essence, but the world’s, doing so was akin to diving into a lake the size of an ocean in order to satiate one’s thirst.

If he wasn’t careful, he’d suffer a backlash with no good end.

However, it took all of his will to not give in and let all of that essence enter his being, for the exhilarating sensation invading him was almost like being reborn again. His accumulated fatigue from last night and today, after healing Rei, had completely disappeared, replaced by a sudden strength instead.

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At some point, he spit a mouthful of dark blood. He recognized them as impurities his body had accumulated the past ten years. The blue book had enhanced his essence circulation, which in turn had improved and maintained both his body and soul, yet he also suspected that his approach to reach its last page had been self-destructive.

However, he put such thoughts aside to focus on his refinement again.

Half a day later, Avaln opened his eyes in surprise as the world’s essence around him swirled violently, like a group of snakes circling their prey. Yet, he didn’t panic, as a part of him felt such an event was normal…

So he steeled himself instead, closing his eyes once again. A short breath after, the world’s essence pounced. One, two and three and four and five… Avaln lost count of how many times he was hit, causing him pain and distress when receiving each strike, as if it was trying to test his endurance.

Finally, after moving back for a breath, it flew in all at once, burdening his essence circulation greatly. He reacted by speeding it up once again as much as he could while trying to keep his breathing calm.

Avaln reinforced his will once again, and received it all. He felt how his essence circulation expanded, coursing through every vein in his body like hot milk, nurturing it, remodeling it...

By the time he opened his eyes, a fearless smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

“Nascent Essence… second stage!”He couldn’t help but mutter excitedly, as he reexamined himself with his now more powerful seventh sense. His essence circulation was pulsing, still feeling the new change, and Avaln knew that the process wasn’t over.

He needed to stabilize his circulation.

Alary cleaned her sword off demon boar’s blood.

Any adventurer with at least two fingers in front of their nose knew that sheathing their weapons while dirty would damage the blade, and in the case of blood even make it harder to draw later on, as the crimson liquid would harden and expand. Even if it was just a quarter of a breath slower, it could still be too slow.

“That’s already the third pack of them we’ve found.” Said Harold to her right, matter of factly. “It’s getting dark as well, we should look for a place to set camp, squad leader.”

Alary nodded, her ponytail waving, but before she could add anything her seventh sense was stirred by a rushing presence, and her expression turned stern. “It seems we’ll have to deal with the fourth. Ready up everyone!”

A few breaths later, a mass of essence shot straight towards her, eyes shining red, and fangs pointing to the sky in a defiant curve. No one noticed when Alary’s sword appeared in her hand, and with an overhead jump right above the beast, she readied it as her essence swirled and manifested in the form of a slashing wind which crashed against her enemy with a thrust of her blade, stripping flesh, blood and painful squeals followed by a dull sound.

“One less…” She thought.

Five more masses shot towards the group right after, against which Harold took point, flanked by the skinny body of Gallathorn and Garry’s burly figure. As the mass of essence approached him, killing intent quite evident, Harold readied his tower shield, then pushed forward to meet the demon boar’s tackle and bashed it, crippling its momentum, then finished his counter with an overhead smash of his mace, step forward, which impacted the creature’s skull head on, caving it in along with a splash of bone and blood.

The demon boar’s toughness was not to be underestimated however, as it took Gallathorn’s spear thrust to finish it off. They both were at the Tempered Essence second stage realm, so their strength was quite above the beasts, yet their vicious nature made them incredibly tenacious, and would often try to at least injure their prey before dying.

Garry’s weapon of choice was a two-handed hammer, and although he lacked Alary’s agility, he compensated with experience and a good measure of his range. As such, when the demon boar was right in front of him, his hammer impacted the beast first, nailing it against the ground with a dull sound and a squeal of pain.

Behind the trio, however, lay Alice, with her staff at the ready and eyes shining orange, as her mouth muttered inaudible words and her right hand moved in front of her, drawing a spell in the air. Alary covered her, extinguishing the life of a demon boar who had gotten too close for comfort with a flourish, slicing winds dancing silently around its burly mass.

A short breath after, Alice poured her essence with the help of her staff into her finished spell, from which a giant fire snake surged, its glance fixed on the two charging demon boars left. At Alice’s command, the snake spat a ball of fire towards one, hitting it dead on and filling the air with the smell of burnt flesh, then pounced at the remaining beast, caging it between her jaws of pure fire essence, reaching its insides by shaking the creature in the air. Finally, it threw its dead body against a tree.

Soon after, Alice ended the spell with a wave of her hand.

Harold repressed a cold sweat. Every time he’d see the spellcaster in action he couldn’t help but wonder if there really was only a minor realm of difference between them, for such power was something he could only dream of accomplishing. He also repressed a shiver when he thought what would happen if that woman were to break through the Manifested Essence realm...

“Let’s move. That last attack may have caught the attention of another pack.” Ordered Alary, while throwing a glance at her spellcaster friend, who just winsomely smiled back.

A stick of incense later, they found themselves in a clearing. After some discussion, an unanimous decision was made to not light a fire, as everyone tried not to look at Alice, who just nodded along.

“It’s just the first day… and we’ve fought four packs?” Alary said as she lifted her gaze towards the night sky, filled with stars.

“We are taking the most direct route towards the temple, but so many of them so soon is indeed strange.” Alice concorded.

A few breaths of silence followed. Given their joint strength, they wouldn’t have any problems against the demon boars, even if a really huge pack were to appear. In fact, Alary could survive on that mountain by herself.

No, the real issue laid somewhere else…

The temple was the origin of the barrier surrounding the Demon Boar Mountain range, so if they wanted to restore it all, they needed to arrive there. The whole area was too huge to cover otherwise, and given the current state of the barrier, they needed to make haste. In fact they weren’t going to rest all night, but just the absolute necessary to keep moving.

Even if they were to be ambushed by a pack of demon boars, they wouldn’t be in danger. Not really. However, to reach the temple they’d take at least a week even by the most direct route, so right now they were fighting a battle of attrition.

And if Alice’s suspicions were right, their real enemies weren’t the demon boars, but a third party who had entered Greenleaf’s territory without their consent, and somehow had messed with the barrier surrounding it. The barrier was there for a reason, and the demon boars were a plague which could easily get out of control without it.

But the real problem was the demonic essence which emanated from inside the mountain range. The barrier existed in great part to contain said essence within its boundaries.

Alary already had a few ideas of who their enemies were, but she didn’t allow her speculations to narrow her mind. Their objectives were clear…

Reach the temple.

Repair the barrier.

Everything else was secondary.

Suddenly, her gut made her turn towards a certain direction, as a positive familiarity stirred inside her chest.

“Squad leader? Have you detected something?” Asked Harold from her left, as her sudden move caught his attention. Alary’s refinement level was already at the Manifested Essence first stage, so it was only normal she may detect dangers he was unaware of.

However, she shook her head and didn’t explain anything more, and after a few breaths he just went back to his improvised dinner.

Alary also dismissed her idea as nonsensical. “He can’t be here”

He just can’t be here.