Demon continent Alsace in the year 237 in the 8-month Mogum on the 30th day after the shattering of the empire.

She woke up after a few days, at least that's how it seemed to her, as she seemed to wake up with a hole in her stomach. To make matters worse, she had to go hunting, as she had nothing left in stock.

Hungry as she was, she didn't set out to hunt much but stopped by some traps she had set the days before. All the animals she had caught had died long ago and the traps were destroyed by other predators trying to get at the animals she had caught. She would have to repair them at a later time, not now of course, as she was hungry and still feeling a little drained. The adventure in the ruins had cost her a lot of energy, from which she still did not seem to have fully recovered, although she had the impression that she had slept for several days. This assumption of hers was also supported by the destroyed traps and dead animals. Therefore, she set off in the direction of a group of fruit trees, which were not far from the ruins she had explored a few days ago.

Now, of course, it made sense that there were fruit trees there. Before, she had wondered what this large cluster of fruit trees was all about, but not anymore after she discovered the ruins. Since it was obvious that it was a farm or a park where fruit trees were grown.

As she had already noticed in the ruin, she could see through certain obstacles thanks to her other senses. Not that this was new to her, since she had always looked through walls, but still she had neglected to look beneath or above, even though these two areas were covered by her senses. A mistake on her part, which she had to improve, also that she had to concentrate on it before she could see through the fauna, which had overgrown the golem, was an indictment of her. In the future, something like that had to happen automatically and she wouldn't even have to think about it. Until then, however, she would have to practice, practice, practice, which should not be very difficult for her. Still, she was glad when she finally arrived at the fruit trees and could fill her stomach.

She sat under one of the fruit trees for a few more minutes, thinking about how to proceed from here. What should her next steps be? The skeletons had been an interesting discovery, one where she wondered what the reason was for the larger cores of the demons of the time and if she could read the cores the same way she could read the cores of monsters and animals.

Only one way to find out, I need to go back to the ruins and examine one of the cores. Also, I would like to find and examine the golem which I defeated yesterday

She wasn't sure if she had really killed the golem or just robbed it of its body. Both questions she would hopefully find out with an investigation. As well as whether there was anything to learn from the cores of dead demons, as she could from monsters and animals. This discovery alone was one she had never made in her old life, and she did not yet know what it was.

Could it be my heightened senses and that I perceived more with them than before, or is that just the way it is here in Alsace? She shook her head to keep herself, as always, from ending up in an endless loop of questions she couldn't answer at the moment. Hopefully, I'll find some answers soon, because I can feel the lack of knowledge threatening to swallow me up. It's almost like back in my old life as Caleb, when I received Albia's blessing. Which did not let me sleep until I had solved the mystery of a question. I hope I am not still blessed by her. All the hairs on her body stood up as she thought about the possibility that she was still under the blessing of the gods. Pushing that thought aside, she set about finding her way back to where she had entered the city. To retrace her steps from there.

All in all, it didn't take her long to get back to the city and approach the place where she had fought the golem, traces of the battle could be seen from afar, but no golem. No remains of him, also no core or fauna that had fallen from him, nothing, and also the traces of her fight were about to disappear. The damage to the houses had almost disappeared, the remains of the wall that had fallen onto the street when the golem had run through it had disappeared as well as the tracks it had torn into the street. She could see the arcane energy being channeled from a runic mandala, repairing the damage. It was not yet clear to her where this mandala drew its energy from, but it seemed to be underneath the whole city, keeping it in order. Even at the end of the street where the golem had fought the Arjkakharda, the damage was about to disappear. When she could feel a slight tremor through the ground, she immediately hid in one of the houses and watched extensively what was happening out on the street.

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A golem came down the street, patrolling, without taking any notice of her, it continued on its way and was soon out of sight again. Only when she could no longer feel the slight vibrations in the ground caused by each step the golem took, did she reenter the street. The slight damage the golem had left behind was repaired just like the damage the road had suffered in the battle. She could see with her eyes and senses how the Arcane Energy, which was elongated by magical runes, was repairing everything around her.

That was interesting but not what she was here for, she wanted to find her golem and an answer to the question of why the core in the corpses of the demons was larger than the demons of today and if she could read anything from them as with monsters. For nothing else she was here at the moment, any further discoveries would have to wait until she found answers to the present questions. For now, she would have to save those questions for later. Always new and newer questions, I have the feeling that I'm not getting any closer to an answer and with every new question the old fire in me gets stronger and stronger. I already hated it then that I was influenced by the blessing and now again. With a sigh she set about exploring the city further, possibly she would stumble across the name of the city somewhere, now that she knew the city could repair itself. Could she at least hope that this effect also applied to other things than just buildings.

The first skeleton was not far from the place where she had fought her first golem, and like the skeletons she had seen on her escape, the core of this one was a lot bigger than that of the current demons, making them a lot bigger than the humans he had met in his old life. The core simply lay in the chest of the dead demon and was fiery red, even if it was a bit dusted. Careful not to disturb the dead demon's rest and thus turn it into an undead, she fished the core out of the corpse's ribcage. After holding the core in her hands, she waited a few moments just to make sure she didn't miss anything or the dead person would run after her as undead. When nothing else happened, she set about making herself comfortable in a corner of the house and examining the core. All the while keeping an eye on the remains of the dead man.

Unlike the monsters, cores, and those of animals she had gotten her hands on through her hunting, it took some strength and energy to penetrate the core. She met the same resistance as with other living humans and demons. The core knew how to protect itself from manipulation and was not easily reached by anyone else. That this protective mechanism existed even after the death of a person surprised her. Well, people who captured the cores of their opponents were mostly necromancers and these were even worse off than psions as they could revive the dead and rule over the souls of others. In the end, she was able to enter the core and immediately had to fight the arcane energy that was about to flood her meridian system and then her core. Nevertheless, she managed to stop this flow of arcane energy and direct it in an orderly manner and then let it flow into her core. Her progress to level four got a little jump up and she was able to form a whole new layer around her core with the extra energy.

After the core was empty, she was able to enter it without any major problem and uncover its secret. It was almost as if she was reading a person's memories, only they were a little different, something foreign and yet familiar about them. She was cautious, not knowing how the memories in the core would behave if he supplied it with too much energy, but slowly, but surely, a picture of the core's owner began to emerge. The user of the core had been a mage, though he had only gotten to level four, as she could now see, or was it more of a feeling? How did she know it was a level four core, after all the core had no energy of its own anymore and no power of its own which she could have assessed, so where did she get the feeling that it was a level four core? She would have expected it to be a higher-level core and not a large level four core like hers. She would have to compare this one to other cores. Still, what the core did tell her was which spells the user had used most often since they were most clearly preserved in the core as if they had been burned into it.

So she set off for other houses always on guard against more golems, not wanting a repeat of the last time. One golem alone was not a problem and several were not necessarily one, but the escape had nevertheless cost her all her strength and she had not even really fought against the golems, but had only fled from them. She would fight several golems at a later time, possibly after another level ascent. Until then, however, she would continue to carefully explore the city and continue to see what else she could do. One shouldn't be a problem, but several could become one if she wasn't careful enough or didn't have the strength anymore.

The next cores told a similar story, even with these she couldn't really explain how she knew what level the cores were. Amazed by this new knowledge and also a little worried, she looked at a core in the light of the sun. As she turned it back and forth and looked at it with all her senses, she saw a detail that she seemed to have noticed subconsciously, the core had four layers and these four layers had smaller layers between them. Both details were hard to perceive, but through them, she could determine which layer was the core. But why had she perceived it subconsciously and not consciously? She let out a long sigh, question after question, and still no answer in sight. This couldn't be normal, she had to come across an answer sometime.