It is bright red and is giving off a serious amount of heat, but I don't get the option to absorb it. Thinking it might just be this salamander I cut open the other three, but theirs are the same. First I eat the heart of the salamander, then I toss the four cores in my mouth and swallow them.

Devour Activated: Strength +20, Endurance +20, Fire Resist +5!

With that my fire resist has improved into immunity, which will definitely come in handy. However, I see no effect whatsoever from eating the four cores which confuses me. I didn't even get a message saying they had no effect or anything, what is going on with my core?!

I saw the fire elementals stop to eat the salamander's cores, so there must be something about them. Maybe I just need to eat more of them, or maybe some elemental cores. There has got to be a way for me to get my core to the next level so I can continue getting stronger!

With that thought in mind I get up and walk towards the lava lake and the ongoing battle. Some salamanders quickly notice I am still alive and move to intercept me. This time there are ten of them, all wielding spears, and they charge straight at me. It makes me wonder if spears are the only weapons they know how to make.

Not waiting for them to reach me I charge to meet them and start cutting them down. Their attacks don't hurt very much, especially since I am now immune to fire. So for the most part I just let them hit me since it makes it easier to cut them down as they attack.

In the end I manage to kill all of them and I don't even need to use a healing spell. The little damage they did to me is quickly repaired by my regeneration. Seeing that no more are coming at me right now I stop to cut all the cores out of them.

10 Flame Salamanders defeated! 200,000 Exp gained!

Instead of eating the cores right away I decide to collect a bunch and eat them all at once. Maybe if I shove enough energy into my core it will trigger an evolution. In that case, I should probably wait until I have some fire elemental cores as well.

Although, there is also a chance that I will eat too many at once and end up exploding. However, I can't really think of anything else I can try to get my core to upgrade. At least not without the help of a beast that has already reached the next realm.

Since I have no idea where to find such a beast, especially a friendly one, a gamble is my best bet. The girls and the goddesses would be furious if they knew what I was thinking about doing. Luckily, they aren't here and even the goddesses can't read my mind, so they won't know until after.

That probably means that even if it works I am going to be in for another lecture. If it doesn't work they will just have to settle for lecturing my corpse. Not that I think I will actually die, I might even be able to survive my body blowing up.

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As long as my head is intact I might just be able to heal myself, but I really don't want to test that theory. I will worry about that later, for now I need to focus on collecting more cores. After all, I can't experiment without enough cores, so I should get to work.

After putting the cores in my pouch I look around for another group to attack. The nearest group is a little over twenty salamanders and instead of waiting for them to move I charge into them. They are surprised but react quickly and move to surround me, their mistake.

Once I am surrounded a single Whirlwind Attack is enough to wipe out most of them. A few more slashes is enough to finish off the survivors, but more come to attack me. Another group of ten or so charges at me before I can claim the cores of the first group.

The first one to reach me gets lucky and hits me in the face with his spear. Before he can retract it, I bite the head off of the spear and spit it into his face. His eyes widen in surprise and stay that way as Blitz sends his head flying through the air.

The other nine don't even pause, despite the head flying past them, and come right at me. Each one of them manages to stab me with a spear in exchange for their lives. With how fast my wounds heal I am willing to make that trade, all I suffer is a little pain.

32 Flame Salamanders defeated! 640,000 Exp gained!

After cutting out all of the cores and putting them in my pouch I stand up and look around. The salamanders have finally realized that something is wrong and are moving. Those not fighting the elementals are all retreating towards a single cave entrance.

While I have no idea what is so special about that cave, I am far more curious about the lava. So I ignore the fleeing salamanders and make my way towards the battle. I pick a group of four salamanders fighting against one elemental and come up behind them.

However, when I cut the four of them down something unexpected happens. The elemental gives me a nod before running over to help another elemental. I was planning to fight the elemental as well, not have it thank me and run off.

With the salamanders no longer sending reinforcements the battle starts shifting in the elemental's favor. Curious as to what might happen, I run around killing the groups of salamanders. The more elementals I free up the faster the salamanders start getting wiped out.

16 Flame Salamanders defeated! 320,000 Exp gained!

Once all the salamanders in the battle are wiped out the elementals stop attacking. I was expecting them to leave the lake and attack the rest of the salamanders. It is starting to look like the salamanders are the ones who have been attacking the elementals.

Even though I am standing right by the lake, the elementals don't show any hostility. They have however taken all the cores from the salamanders I killed and eaten them. The remaining salamanders have all retreated into the cave and are not moving.

The elementals are just wandering around the lava lake absorbing fire mana. Out of curiosity I stick my hand in the lava, it feels warm but doesn't do any damage. However, I can't be sure that will be true if I go deeper into the lava, so the drake is my best bet.

While I am a little nervous about using the drake form again, it should be fine. As long as I don't use it for an extended period of time there shouldn't be any side effects. Besides, the side effects will be less annoying than leaving without satisfying my curiosity.