"Are you guys okay? What happened" Gus asked, obviously oblivious to the fact that he had just saved their lives.

"Gus..." she said, her voice sounding fragile for a moment, before roaring back to life, "What took you so long!"

"Gus..." Alwin finally regained the ability to speak. Why couldn't that crappy Mana Pill work faster? "I love you! Thank you!"

"Sorry, I'm not really interested in dating right now," the Furball replied.

"And you, Alwin!" The quiver in her voice was long gone. "What were you thinking? Why did you waste all your mana like that? You went into mana exhaustion! Are you stupid? Do you want to die?"

Ah, the sweet allure of Uchronia scolding him—it was as aggravating as it was pleasant. As much he enjoyed being berated by her since it meant that they were both well and alive. This time, he was ready to fight back, to unleash an array of arguments that would leave her stumped. He would scold her right back for staying by his side instead of finding Gus to kill Gu Jia. She would have been fast enough to get Gus and return before Gu Jia even had a chance to kill him.

That was the plan. He had it mapped out perfectly in his head. All he had to do was vocalize it exactly and Uchronia would have no choice but to admit defeat. Unfortunately, what came out was a butchered version so different from the original that no one would've guessed they were related.

"Well, why didn't I—wait, I mean—why didn't you—you—you... get Gus, but—but—but stay with me? Kill Gu Jia?"

For some reason, there was a disconnect between what he wanted to say and what he did actually say. It was probably the result of mana exhaustion and not because he was a bumbling buffoon. That was what he was going to tell himself, just to make him feel better. He may have lost this battle and all of the previous ones but he was going to win the war—eventually.

"What are you talking about? Never mind, just forget it. Let's just get their essence and head back to the village."

"About that... There's still two more humans at the village. The two young masters in charge." Oh, now Alwin could speak properly. What was up with that?

"Great." Uchronia rolled her eyes. "Gus you go and absorb this guy's essence, he seemed like the strongest human out of this group. Me and Alwin will absorb the essence of the other humans that you took out. We still need enough to evolve after all. Then we rush back to the village and deal with those two. Got it?"

"Got it." Gus smiled.

"Got it," Alwin sighed. At least he could finally get some essence, he deserved it after that harrowing experience.

Gus hopped on top of the fallen Gu Jia and proceeded to absorb his essence. Their bodies shining bright. Meanwhile, Alwin and Uchronia hopped over to the other dead humans. Uchronia's hop was more of a stomp and Alwin's was more of a flop. His gelatinous body jiggled with each attempt, the gap between him and Uchronia widening with every awkward hop. Hey, it's not his fault that he was still weak from mana exhaustion—okay it technically was his fault, but he wasn't going to admit that.

Emerging from the bushes, Alwin could finally see the aftermath of the battle. He caught a glimpse from high in the sky, sailing over the scene. It was a one-sided fight where half the humans were already dead while the other half clung to life. Now, only dead bodies remained. Seeing it up close, he realized how terrifying Copper Body combined with Fur Quills could be.

Thousands of hardened quills littered the floor while hundreds of them protruded out of every lifeless body. Humans who weren't lucky enough to be instantly killed died by blood loss instead, pools of blood gathered on the ground around them. Talk about horrifying. Maybe it was the mana exhaustion talking but it felt like his tolerance for gore had been shot. If Alwin still had any food left in his stomach it would have certainly forced its way back out. Good thing he'd already thrown up three times today!

Alwin began absorbing the essence from his half of the humans—they both got five each. Gus already had his fill today, now it was finally their turn. Although it would have been better to put all of their eggs in one basket—Gus. After he reached his limit then he could use all of his newfound skills to pay back his debt and help Alwin and Uchronia absorb enough essence to evolve. Oh well, too late for that. Uchronia had already started, evident by the soft glow of light in the corner of his eye.

There's no time like the present as they always said. No idea who 'they' was, but 'they' sounded like a smart person. Alwin got to work and hopped over to one of the humans, this one was wearing blood-soaked leather armor. That leather was as good as ruined with all of that liquid coating it. Although the hundreds of holes peppering it probably meant that it was already beyond saving, so his earlier statement was redundant.

The effects of mana exhaustion were gradually lifting and he finally found the strength to summon out his Spirit Hands. When they emerged they began to fire questions at him in their usual sign language, fingers flicking rapidly. Questions like if he was okay and what happened. The concern was touching. Of course, Alwin told them that he was fine, but right now he needed a teensy tiny little favor from them.

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He needed them to move the body away from the pool of blood so that he didn't have to touch it. Think about all of the diseases the human might have! What if Alwin contracted something from them? Thankfully, the hands didn't complain about moving a corpse.

Once the human was safely out of harm's way, Alwin got to work. Instead of his usual routine of jumping atop the corpse—he didn't want to be poked by the layers of quills still sticking out of the body—Alwin moved close enough to touch his head. Closing his eyes, Alwin could sense his core glowing bright. In the darkness, there was another ball of light: the humans.

Alwin rolled his core closer to it. As he neared, a sudden burst of light illuminated the void, revealing the soul of the human who once inhabited the body. The human was tall and skinny, with hair that was gold and translucent. Her eyes were gold and translucent too. Basically, her everything was gold and translucent.

She sat cross-legged within her core, eyes closed in meditation. What a weird thing to do when you're dead. The first time he did this, the human was adamant in ensuring that Alwin couldn't absorb his essence. Maybe she didn't realize that he was there. That was the assumption he was going for and he was already preparing a sneak attack, but Alwin caught her taking a peek at him before going back to meditating. This human simply didn't care.

Alwin rolled his core over to her and smashed into it. He smashed her again and again, but still, she sat there meditating as cracks started to form. Alwin simply continued smacking until her core shattered into a brilliant burst of light. What came next was a rush of energy that flowed into him.

A small ping caused his eyes to shoot open. He was back in the physical realm with a message greeting him.

Human Essence Absorbed.

One down, four more to go.

Absorbing the essence of the other humans went exactly the same. The major difference was the gender of the human he was absorbing from. Other than that, he would use his Spirit Hands to move the human to a cleaner location, find their cores, wonder why they were all meditating inside, then smash their core and absorb their essence.

After absorbing all of his essence, Alwin looked at his status to check his gains. He didn't care about all of the other junk like his skills, the only thing that had changed was his evolution meter. That was what he focused on.

Evolution: 22/100

Not bad for having absorbed the essence of two humans. Although he did regret not checking his status before he had started absorbing essence. Sure, he had given his status a casual glance every once in a while out of sheer boredom, noticing the evolution meter creeping upwards bit by bit. If he knew how much he started with he could've set a baseline and guesstimate how much essence he would have to absorb before the meter was full. Ah well, he'd just have to do it another time.

Alwin continued to absorb the essence of the remaining essence. On the way to the next body, hopping over the dead bodies and around the sharp quills that protruded out of the ground, he found his bag, completely unharmed. What a miraculous find!

Once Alwin, Uchronia and Gus had finished their task, the three of them gathered once again—in a spotless tainted by death—to discuss their next move. To Alwin, it was obvious that the next move was to go back to the village and take down those two young masters. Apparently, it wasn't 'detailed' enough, according to the earful he received from Uchronia. Whatever, still beats dying.

First things first, she wanted to examine everyone's current progress. Alwin was betting that she just wanted to see what new skill Gus had received from Gu Jia. She was probably too embarrassed to ask. It was definitely not Alwin projecting onto her or anything. Of course, when Gus revealed his status he couldn't help but shove Uchronia away so that he could get a good look at it. That move was met by one of her glares, which paled in comparison to the sight of a man about to cleave you in half.

Name: Gelosus

Species: Furball

Core Skill: Devour (F)

Skills: Static Pounce (D), Spirit Hands (E), Spirit Barrier (A), Spirt Blast (F), Spirit Shield (A), Lightning Legs (F), Strong Slash(E), Copper Body (D), Fur Quills (D), Ossis Family Technique: Bone Harvest (F)

Evolution: 100/100

"Ew, you got that technique?" Alwin shuddered, his mind assaulted by the grotesque memory of Gu Jia yanking the bone out of his own hand.

"Is it that bad? I have a great idea of how to use it," said Gus.

"I don't want to know," said Alwin.

"Can we focus on the important things," said Uchronia.

"But this is important. We can, um... check out his new skill, and uh... it might be useful in dealing with those young masters."

"Fine. Then can we focus on the even more important issues," said Uchronia. "So Gus doesn't need to absorb any more essence. That just leaves me and Alwin. We deal with the last two humans, check up on Maple and her mom, then after that, it's probably another fifteen humans and we can call it a day."

No idea why she felt the need to say the obvious—except the estimate of how many humans they needed, which was useful. Uchronia did have a thing for control so maybe that's why she did it. Or maybe she assumed that some monsters—definitely not him—were so detached from reality that the obvious seemed as mysterious as the unknown.

"Alwin! Hello?" Uchronia tapped him with her tail. What happened to her usual slaps? And what happened to his ability to multitask? He should've been able to get lost in thought while listening to Uchronia babble on and on. Maybe he was just tired. Nearly dying had that effect on people.

"Do you know how strong the last two humans are?"

"No idea. They were the boss of the group. The young masters."

"Crap. They might be even stronger than Gu Jia." She started hopping around, biting her tail. Now it was her turn to be lost in thought, but at least Alwin had the decency to let her sort it out instead of yanking her back to reality like she always did to him.

"Okay, same strategy. We'll hide in the bushes and surprise attack them. Gus will focus on eating their armor and killing them. I'll provide support and Alwin just keep shooting them. MAKE sure you don't go into mana exhaustion. Got it?"

Both of them nodded, but as soon as Uchronia had her back towards him he followed up with a quick funny face, sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes in different directions.

Back to the village they went.