Requirements for the Artificial Core didn't move Murai's heart, but it impacted his mind and future for sure. There were concerns, but also advantages that could come with a higher ceiling.
In most facts, it meant talent that his fusion could be incredibly efficient because his core would take more essences. The second thing was that his body was taking mana much better than anticipated. It was weird because his mind wasn't all that adapted to his body, but his body was taking mana easily.
So with more fights, that meant more mana coming and flooding into his mana space. With that in mind, he was handling different kinds of styles of mana. Core Defying Fusion Technique or even essences were outside of many ideas and norms. Murai knew that his moves on essences were good for him.
But that wasn't the case for most, if not all Challengers of this temple. Everyone was taking essences into their cores, improving them straight away, or they stored them if they could.
Murai was fighting for days already and every damned battle followed another. He could stop himself any time, but he kept going for a long time, which was quite a rare occurrence when human mages and their limits were apparent. Those needed more time to mend their mana, steady foundation, and rest up.
Essences helped with some of these issues, even though not everything can be solved with treasures or money.
Murai was out of that idea. He understood it after getting practical answers with clear consequences. His knowledge helped in some parts, although taking essences for direct power correlated with a very potent boost in Mana Flow, or other various benefits.
If he took them into his Beast Core, boostless, he would enrich his mana space substantially, but not far in stages. Beast Core would get to the Middle Success of the Initialization Core at best.
Right now, it wouldn't help him much at all, apart from giving him more flow. Mana space and Artificial Core had weird aftereffects that no Anatidae ever had, and Murai never saw or heard anything about them. Beasts and Core Defying Fusion Technique was a delicate topic, as it was a technique that was primarily followed by human races.
Used to. Murai long uncovered many secrets about it, so using it had many faces and possibilities. Through trial and error, handling the Artificial Core was similar to the primary core as long as one was clever about it. Anyone could touch this ridiculous technique that defied the heavens.
His past lives helped and gave him some ideas about his approach, but practicality was worth much more because he had never seen or felt what a magical beast was like.
He got the front seat of this concept. And even as a prime member of the Anatidae Species, he shouldn't complain. And he wasn't... too much.
Not anymore. Not after what he had learned and gathered in this Gate. It gave him the most substantial change of pace he had ever felt. His abilities adjusted like his outlook, although some anger issues or his personality still prevailed.
Cheering and taking the essences in, Murai accepted them all. The quality and speed of the mana fusing into his Artificial Core were all incredible under his care. It didn't leave him speechless or poor, because he was taking full control of half a dozen of them at a time.
Comprehending his body and aspects was one of his priorities. Mana was less of an issue, as it was fuel, while the actual arsenal of his body mattered much more. He was quite the opposite of some clueless duck. Lorry and Lisa both understood it in a much brighter light.
Alas, only one of them was truly in the grasp of his essential situation. That was Lisa, who knew much more about him than Lorry. She spoke to him through his technique quite extensively, hoping to discover and see its secrets. Her interest was substantial and time not limited thanks to the harder Islands.
Murai's willingness to talk about it was also much better if she mentioned something good in return.
She found a way how to talk to him. It wasn't about how exactly to do it, since nonsense wasn't what Murai wanted.
She figured out the requirements to make their exchanges work, by training information for information. He told her about Core Defying Fusion Technique after he gave up trying to hide it. There was no point when she existed and connected to his soul space, so she got the hang of his ideas and power.
After many tries, some things were still confusing. Managing the Core Defying Fusion Technique was incredibly hard and individual to learn.
Because Lisa was feeling it herself as his Life Companion, she saw its effective ways to change the flow of mana. Few secrets wouldn't pass through her hands, so she knew how his mana space was acting, how he worked with essences, or how his Beast Core functioned with the Artificial Core and other problems.
Of course, she couldn't feel it on a personal level. She could only guess that by her experience and knowledge, figuring tips and bits on the go.
Lisa didn't know the fundamentals, nor did she comprehend the types, tiers, or stages within this technique as a whole. Murai did mention the starting processes and how strange or great they were, which Lisa appreciated and memorized. She wouldn't mind using this herself, but her current life form wasn't meant for this technique at all. It was a shame.
Complicated processes with many stages sounded like a cup of her tea, but only one mattered at the very end. The successful fusion. It meant a great deal of insanity, where failure was very harsh and brutal. Anything before that was like walking on thin ice. There could be failures, but the fusion was the embodiment of this technique. It was like sculpting a mountain of ice with a hot needle. The finishing line was big and the journey wasn't easy.
Failure almost always meant crippling wounds, or straight-up dying in a cycle of exploding cores, losing one of the cores, or at best, surrendering any possibility of advancement.
Murai barely let her know these stages, opting to be vague because he wasn't that far into it in this life. He knew why. He was working through the starting stages at the same time as figuring out the later stages. The few starting stages were establishing the Artificial Core itself, letting the flow and cycling establish its influence without causing any trouble to the primary core.
It was called Growth for a good reason and stage. The Artificial Core was slowly stabilizing and growing in its revolutions, outside of the main core, but enough to touch and utilize the mana space as a whole. That was where the flow of his essences always went, so it was inevitable that many things were touched and influenced.
Growth was an endless stage as long as mana space was stable. At the point where it will be sufficient enough for the individuals, it will be a time when the finalizing stages become clear. Murai did not have much will to think about them right now.
It wasn't fitting, especially when he needed an incredible amount of essences. As long as his mana space can take it, which it seemed it did, then he will keep feeding it until his Artificial have Grade 5 or above equivalent of Mana Essence. Such essence was valuable to anyone above Level 50 and potentially harmful to anyone below that.
Low-Grade 5 Mana Essence was a stage where the quality of mana increased, and fusing with it was taking time and a certain toll. It was also the most prominent grade of essences for crafting high-level tools, or where their quality or details became complicated and worth a lot of value.
Troubles haunted Murai at some points because he was chaining his current potential, but long-term gains were tremendous. He knew that even if he put some essence into his Beast Core, it would destabilize the current pace and stability of his mana space. He maintained no balance after all, but a squeezed clutch between both cores of different origin and mass.
The Artificial Core was sturdier after this Gate. It had no affinities. It was pure, unlike the Beast Core which was still full of those... feelings. Chaos. Unkeptness. Unease. That was what his Beast Core felt to him. It was close to the Demon Core he had once, although he had some affinities.
Thinking about the problems ahead wasn't up to his mind, so he opted to think about the gains and what he needed.
Lisa understood it, so she wasn't always nagging him about the Core Defying Fusion Technique. And since there were a lot of things she was curious about, finding topics wasn't that hard. It was up to her interests, which Murai accepted because he was curious about some of her knowledge as well. That was especially apparent when he was often willing to take her trading offers.
It was a welcoming change of pace for both of them and something that both liked in different ways.
Figuring out the full stages required at least written forms, or a fully acknowledged technique manual that Murai could send to her mind at any time. That was something that Murai refused to give her no matter how she insisted. It wouldn't hurt him in any way, but it would surely made things much easier for her.
Why?
He basically confirmed that with enough time, he would bend his knees and give it to her if she would give him something in return.
That hyped her up more than seeing this bloodied Island, and if Murai knew it, he would be surprised and curious.
Lisa wondered how Murai killed so many enemies above his level one by one, and that boy or the armor aside was interesting as well.
Ending Isle of this quality seemed very harsh and attested to her idea that Murai was improving significantly better than she thought. It wasn't all that shocking, even when she often regretted she didn't watch these shows. She could. By all rights, her status went hand in wing with Murai's Blessed and Challenger status, but she didn't want it.
It poised an interesting idea because she looked at the skull aflame and armor of... interesting value and quality. Its quality wasn't for anyone around Level 40 for sure. Smoke was coming out of some of its small gaps and crevices, and captain's Soul Flames struggled in heat and flames.
She eyed it with quite some mocking interest because it seemed way out of this Island.
She wondered what Mindarch did with this in mind, figuring out the truth and facts. Murai did something he shouldn't have done, spitting onto the rules of this place. It wasn't his fault, however, which she at first questioned, but nothing about him was ever normal.
Clever tactics and Anatidae specialties all crushed into Mindarch's plans, which were partly his fault anyway. The specific courses of most Ending Isles were all set into his rules and acts. There were many sets of missions and variants of stakes, giving every challenge unique and personalized touches. Be it waves of enemies or the last bosses, everything was set in rules.
Challengers would get to know them as they set into the arena, but Mindarch's idea was poor or deliberate. He hadn't mentioned what he was supposed to give, which played a big role in the current mess he was taking. Perhaps Murai would acknowledge some loss if he knew he would cease the fighting madness with a negligible amount of lost points and essences.
It was all about the last boss anyway.
Alas, it was too late. The essence of the Undead Captain was part of the loot, but it had something better on the ground, free for his taking. As part of the fundamental rules of Levandis Temple, the armor was his possession the moment he killed the undead.
Lisa knew the rules like some Laws. Everything that Challenger fought for, be it from the surroundings or the incoming foes, everything was up to their taking.
In the end, Lisa only watched the armor without making her move. It wasn't her stage to shine yet.
Murai kept absorbing the essence. Not very fast, each passing minute furthered his requirements, feedback, and comprehension the calculations flickered in his soul. His Artificial Core was stable, unlike the Beast Core which will always prevail as the primary core.
It was impossible to create and think of the Artificial Core as the true core. It was man-made, forced, and only workable with a true core in sight. Handlers can't create it, nor use it as a substitute for their magic. Shapers could use their mana to empower the primary core, but it can't absorb the world's mana that well. Essences were one of the primary sources to fuel them.
It was the same across any species or race, and Anatidaes was no different. It gave Murai increased validity in his research and his overall thoughts and mana space, creating answers or wonders.
That included pretty much everything about his mana, leaving his soul behind. Soul wasn't that important, but magic as a whole wouldn't work the best with poor souls. Murai wasn't someone like Lisa, who was a unique life form that lived by having a fusion of mana and soul called Sona.
According to his calculations, the need for more essences was a fixable issue. Mistakes weren't. How he calculated his options before Gate 2 hadn't changed. Essence hunting will be quite an ordeal that will need a lot of points, killings, and work.
Thankfully, all of these things were here in this place, right for his taking.
Murai only hoped for more fights and Islands such as this one. Well, not in the premise, but in execution. He didn't want to be a bodyguard to some poor kid. Even if it was a painful reminder of how his mana space wasn't infinity, he wasn't fearing the difficulties ahead of him. If it was infinite, that would pose more questions, so he kept his expectations lower just in case.
Everything went into his Heaven Defying Fusion Technique that gobbled them up, fusing into the mass of his Artificial Core. It sizzled and dazzled, becoming better. It should be slightly above a single Low-Grade 6, so that meant... not good things.
Differences and fusions across the essences were difficult when the whole grade became important.
Creating Middle-Grade essences out of Low-Grade ones was easy. So were the High-Grade ones with a bit more numbers, but getting into Grade 6 territory raised the ceiling. Essences of Low or Middle-Grade 7 quality were turning out less ineffective.
Quality mattered more, which made the current Island a rarity because it provided him with an incredible quantity of essences that disregarded quality for his absolutions. He grew his Artificial Core quite a bit this time around.
He was far away from Middle-Grade 6.
High-Grade 7 essences poked into his current Artifical Core, leaving much to be desired. He needed half a dozen of them to notice some changes, which meant his growth became stagnant after this Island gifted him far too many essences.
Murai discovered the poison in the blissful treasures. It increased his ceiling once again...
Now, he needed more enemies and greater essences to make a change. The biggest hurdle will be improving the High-Grade 6s for sure. According to Lisa, they should be way out of his league of foes, but that was a significantly reduced problem because the Core Defying Fusion Technique worked best against this problem by handling lower essences by fusing them bit by bit to increase their overall quality. In a sense, it was a cheat.
Lisa chirped and cheered how great and overpowered it was to fuse them in mana space. His technique was acting as some sort of internal mana formation that worked with essences in mind.
They did exist in external forms, looking like circles that worked with runes, or by various mechanisms that took essences and clashed them together. That usually worked with diminishing returns and lowered efficiency the poorer these formations were. Murai's technique increased the efficiency to the maximum.
Lisa realized it. Her assessment wasn't wrong. His technique acted like an essence-gathering formation from faraway places.
Murai ended up cheering happily after taking the last essence inside of him. This loot might be feeling great, but not better than the harsh training he got. His abilities needed it, similar to his body and experience. Getting essence in return was more of a bonus in Lisa's opinion, even though Murai would disagree because his eyes usually turned to essences whenever he finished each Island.
It was a time with almost no negatives, besides some exhaustion and rest afterward.
Apart from the near-end experiences, tougher foes to crack, and terrible times between the Island, most of that fell short against Murai's cheers afterward. He was excellent in disregarding terrible situations if enough time and output of his anger were put in place. Rewards and loot helped too, of course.
The boy was interesting in this regard as well, even if he was still crying and proving to be an excellent helper against Murai's outburst.
Murai felt he could go far and wide after finishing this Island. Success always felt great, making him feel as if he shouldn't care about anything!
No fear, no gain, or... something like that. Such belief should provide him with enough mental strength to go far unless a tougher wall in the upcoming Islands will crack his mood apart.
But that wasn't up to him, unfortunately.
With essences after him, this temple was proving his past doubts wrong. That fact, in itself, annoyed him slightly.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The reality he didn't want to acknowledge might soon approach. Once outside of this temple, he would have an exponentially harder time acquiring essences of great quantity. This temple provided an excellent artificial gathering method, which was one of the major factors of its existence.
The use of living beings as furnaces was kind of ridiculous to work this well. Few would bear with such an idea. Only those of Chaos would even attempt it.
Outside of it and around the wild Battleworld, such things as essence gathering places were rarer than meeting a Divine Beasts. So yes. They weren't incredibly rare, as every natural or artificial essence-gathering spot was a rich and important place for every power.
But for the world or one of the continents, they were small in comparison. Every power had many of them with various qualities, and the better such things were, the better the powers got, and more politics went into the Battleworld.
Resources were essential for everything in the Battleworld. Unsurprisingly any artificial gathering spot of this kind of quality was even more impressive, so seeing this temple held limits by entrance and difficulty made sense.
There were no such choices outside of this because this temple provided essences for basically nothing. Challenges and going deeper into the dangers were all about hopes for resources and challenging their Paths.
Murai wondered how it all worked in the end, but whenever he heard Lisa mention casualties and potential rewards, he understood the facts outweighed the norm.
Just the amount of Extremes that disappeared into this temple was in the dozens or even hundreds under some rumors. It was hard to tell the facts from logic, because of secrets, plots, and how Extremes were often lofty and independent individuals.
Hardly anyone knew how many treasures this temple had gotten because it was tempting powerful individuals in its internal and private Gates. It wasn't all about the essences after all.
Fighting the Gates provided excellent ways for comprehension and growth. Extremes needed every bit of it in their difficult stages.
Murai had no doubts a lot of beings died in this place for Levandi's sake and their hopes. So when he thought of the outside, he would have to find some way to purchase natural essences or look for some way to craft an artificial essence creation formation that he knew on top of his head. But these required materials and skills he didn't have as a duck.
He would require some great craftsmen that shouldn't be far from his experience, which was a terrible idea, because who would listen to a duck?
Another terrible point that Lisa mentioned was how expensive essences were outside of this temple, and anything related to them made material for essence constructs rare and expensive. With a rich history and established powers of all kinds, Murai had no doubts a lot of powerful tools were locked by Gods or mortals in power.
It wasn't anything surprising. Various factors made farming essences in any world incredibly efficient and enticing. Even some questionable parties or strong individuals could get a fortune in such places as Levandis Temple, even when dealing with Grade 7 essences at best. The lower one would get, the better efficiency and worth they would get out of their rules, but the tougher the Gates would get.
From further introductions and answers that Lisa provided, Battleworld was familiar to many worlds Murai carried in his mind. He hardly found it strange, even though his current case was kind of odd.
When considering the number of powerful beings this world surely possessed, the required essences and their demands were very high.
Murai was just one of the many.
The world was created this way, while mana ensured the endless flow, supplying it away. It was up to others to take it. Time gifted that idea, while living often took such gifts for granted.
Soon enough, Murai was left with the glistering armor, remains of the Undead Captain who still had some bones left inside of the armor, various other loot, a helmet, a pair of nice axes, and many weapons, tools, or armor.
It was unfortunate, but the scorching remains inside the armor weren't useful according to Lorry. As Murai spent nearly an hour focusing on absorbing essences, Soul Flames melted alongside the skull down the armor, fusing with the rest of the shimmering flames and mash of bones.
The flame was still going. The first captain that he killed hadn't ended like this. Its essence was an investigation into the drop rate, as it was right there around level 40. It left him with the only Low-Grade 6 essence he had gotten so far, which was lucky when Lorry saw it.
Luck played some part in getting them, as Guides were their makers. Drop rate and Grade depended on the killed foe and luck.
Stomping toward the armor after watching over the significantly opened ground, Murai poked the armor a little with his beak, cluttering it with some left-out bones inside.
“Well, it seems the bones are almost gone... Have I overdone it?” Murai wondered.
“You should be glad for them,” Lisa argued. “Having some snack sounds good how I see you.”
“Oh... Nothing much can be done about it. Let's see what is left of them. Bones are interesting snacks, speaking from experience. Charred too? Hm. HM!” Murai began salivating, remembering how the crunchy and blissful bones in a cave at the start of his living tasted like. So without much shame, he looked to find a way to the bones, appearing like an addict trying to find some drugs.
Fortunately, it wasn't that hard for him at all. He found the opening just enough for him to squeeze inside the armor. It was still burly and shaped like a small boulder. It kept its shape because the folded layers of these plates were tight and crafted like a fortress. It didn't crumble even when the majority of bones crumbled to pieces or melted.
The opening was the hole for the skull, which remained in leftover physicality down below, as it was one of the thickest bones this undead had. So Murai kicked some remaining bones into the armor, as they were in pieces and half melted.
There was only discint charred dust left behind most of the bones. And they were strangely glowing because the flame wasn't over yet. It was hot inside, but not unbearably so.
Murai felt satisfaction after seeking his successful flames, but his interest in these bones wasn't just that. He glanced closer to the opening and jumped right into the hole that was enough for his body.
He disappeared from Lisa's and Lorry's eyes. They looked at each other in questionable glances, uncertain if they were supposed to joke or laugh. Lorry still laughed, finding this whole idea hilarious.
This left Lisa sighting, figuring that Murai was still the same duck she had seen in that cave. So she turned away from the armor and glanced at the crying boy. His tears had no end, similar to the unending flood of emotions that were making his face ugly.
Lisa smiled at such a picture, knowing he was way out of his wits, as far as she saw and felt him as her current race. She floated towards him without trouble, which wasn't the brightest idea.
Noticing a sudden light and some movement before him, the boy opened his crying eyes. They were more or less closed for the past hour. Before him was a monstrosity. An utter calamity.
He panicked after noticing the features of a demonic succubus, but he didn't meet this with his terrified expression. He was terrifying because of something else. He met succusses before. Not even once, or twice. Something was different about this one that made it even worse. It shook him as no succubus could.
“F-fairy...” He mumbled in fear and got an itch to go as far away as possible. It all came in instincts, trembling his bloodline and moving his body on its own. He crawled away, trying to save something from within his mind by reaching for the edge and going over it to meet his End. He was far, however, and Lisa wouldn't allow him this sort of End.
“Oh, they really put an elf to good use.” Lisa couldn't help but play with him a little. She looked at Lorry from behind, just in case he had anything to tell.
He did. “Well, what Lorry can say to an elf? They are good wares, all things considered. Their numbers are still hefty, but higher bloodlines are thinning out. War Slaves such as this boy are exactly that, but when the time is terrible, or their acts improper, some of them still don't know what is good for them. Or someone doesn't like them. That is that. A business, rather than anything else. Doesn't Lisa agree?”
“Who knows?”
“Lorry does. Lorry is sure that Lisa's acts in the past life disregarded a lot of things.”
“We've talked about it already.” She grunted as she shot him an annoyed look that Lorry took with substantial pleasure and a swirl of his Soul Flames. “Let's not talk about it without Space Cage in sight.”
Lorry laughed, figuring that Lisa was weird about some aspects that he couldn't understand. “Lorry still wonders...”
“Then let "Lorry" know, that Lisa has nothing to tell.” Lisa firmly said, half smiling, half laughing. Honestly, she found no issue with the topic of war, as slavery was such a prevalent power dynamic that one could hardly change or get rid of it on this planet.
But from Murai's little memories she got, he may find it problematic as an eternal slave to his living that provided unfathomable secrets and chaotic problems. There was something... deep. Something with the elves in his memories that was deep and numerous. Something interesting, important, and terrifying, or... tragic? The last one wasn't clear to her. Tragedy might be the wrong word to think when considering Murai's memories.
She only knew of a couple of glances; a few glimpses, which she had no intention to seek without proper opportunity or confidence. Or Murai's willingness to seek his memories in better pictures. He could allow that, she believed. It seemed that memory had come, as wing bruises were visible on this boy's face. Murai slapped him well.
She figured some answers for these glimpses may come out of this meeting.
So, with that said, Lorry seemed reluctant to continue with this topic, and rather lazily floated around, hoping that Mindarch would figure something about that armor, rather than leaving him as a scapegoat.
With Murai gone, waiting was a good idea.
Lisa turned back to the terrified boy, who continued to weep, but this time, while crawling away from her as she looked away. Followed by a dreadful face, and thinly sounding grunts, he was as terrified as if hearing Murai's Will.
In Lisa's glowing eyes, he had a face of sadness, grief, gladness to let the tears away, and who knew what else. She was watching and feeling many things when strands of her Sona left her body, going over to touch his face and tears.
“Oy. Calm down, will you?” Lisa said in an elven tongue, quickly catching up with him and glaring at his face. It was a profound tongue that worked with high-pitched syllables, sounding quite elegant and nice.
It made little sense for the boy to hear that, as it wasn't something he heard very often in the Hell Haven. But he heard that right, and his efforts to crawl away didn't seem to work. He gulped down whatever was in his throat, and looked at Lisa who was more than curious about him.
“W-what.. this one can this do... An offer? T-task? Am I...” he mumbled without any sense of what to say. It was the voice of a helpless slave who looked up to a punishing authority or the Death itself.
“Well, you lost a screw in your head and found it broken, I suppose. Good for you, but I am not looking for something great. Just some wordy efforts, alright? What did that duck do to you? Something bad? Terrible? Curious? ” Lisa asked openly, but the boy didn't seem to take it lightly, because the picture of her floating, glistering, and azure-looking body with wings and little limbs, terrified him even more than Murai's voice.
More tears left his eyes, but he stopped crawling as if fear had taken its toll.
“Wait, this is awkward.” Lisa slapped her face. “It seems like I bully you. Where are my manners when speaking to a high elf, huh? A kid, but what is your name? My name is Lisa, and just so you know, I am no Fairy. Am no longer alive, you see. That is the difference between insanity and Chaos. So don't be so afraid. I can kill you the same way as them anyway. Could eat you up too. Slurp you like a speck of essence and soul dust.” She shrugged.
It seemed her words went past whatever obstacles were within the boy's mind. He stopped crying, but his body trembled and his mouth opened to speak.
Nothing came out, but he did choose to trust her words because what choices did he have? In his memory of elven legends, Fairies were like Lisa. Not exactly, but he knew of elves, stories, legends, and so on. Battleworld was full of these things.
Lisa's body was see-through and made of mana and soul so... She was looking like a Fairy, or a ghostly being filled with sona and sweet talking. Even a young elf such as him knew to fear these aspects.
Calming down a little, the boy channeled the remains of his bravery to speak “Tori.”
“Good start, Tori. But... That doesn't seem to be an elven name, does it? Not for Your Highness anyway. ”Lisa asked, obviously trying to seek the origin of this elf, who had something onto him other than misery. His core at this age was notable in its light, but dull in forceful crippling anxiety and chains of some sort.
His ears were long too, hidden behind the filthy blond hair. Add to that the very little residues of light coming from the roots of his hair, even through the filth of his hair, it was there. A quality of a High Elft who were bearers of Light and carriers of Order.
Tori shook his head, hiding his ears that were pointy and long. His haggard and long blond air was in terrible shape, so hiding most of his features was something he was familiar with.
Lisa chuckled, finding his actions familiar and laughable. “Well, I see an elf anyway. Nothing else. Even if you show me some tears or whatnot, I don't care. What about that duck? What happened in this arena?”
“It... That duck... Duck! What is it? Why am I still here? Alive...“ Tori hesitantly asked, his voice crackling in anxiety. He felt a big headache forming in his mind, which was slowly returning after a surge of adrenalin, a slip of a chance, and hope.
Lisa was the cause of this, but Murai was the epicenter since his Will hadn't left the boy. It was just temporarily muted because Murai was hunting the remains of that captain inside that armor.
“Can't speak? He is a Challenger of this temple that is your home. And as far as it looks like, have he protected you? Slapped you a few times, and got your sense sharper too. I wonder why.”
Tori shook his head, but then he remembered the flashes of painful sights and feelings he remembered. It really did. The duck was there, slapping him aside, slapping his face, and even hitting his head with its beak. It wasn't filled with malice, as far as he knew. It was just... annoyed. Very annoyed.
Tori spoke. “It... killed a lot of monsters. They tried to kill me. I hoped for release. They... were close to it. I... I..” Tori seemed to recall the suffering, so the tears emerged once again after stopping for a few moments. Sometimes, it was hard to stop the unstable emotions.
Lisa didn't care much for his suffering. Many suffered the same, if not worse fates.
But when he started to hyperventilate, and his trembling fastened, Lisa shook his head in disappointment.
Trying to look for more information was not working. Sometimes, Murai wasn't one to talk with too many details about his Islands or his fights, so he left many details forgotten. Lisa was quite curious about how he killed that Undead Captain and how he conquered this Island. That was it. Some bones or demons didn't matter to her.
She wanted answers, so her Sona came in clutch He touched him, figuring that taking his clustered and weak emotions shouldn't destroy him. She dug for brief and limited memories, so it didn't hurt the boy if she was careful or specifically looking for them.
The first captain was underwhelming, as far as she heard Murai talk. He kept the details behind, forgetting even how long it took to kill. Managing to kill it with a lot of effort was pretty much guaranteed, but after being done, Murai was often downplaying everything, his tactics included.
From her recollection, the first Undead Captain had a bow and a pair of daggers for a weapon, alongside much lesser armor that even revealed its bones in thin gaps. This time was different, clearly indicated by that overpowered armor, while even the pair of axes weren't looking that shabby.
“Oh...” She huffed a breath and stopped her sona from touching him. “Interesting.”
Murai bid for his time against the first captain, unlike this one, who required much more care for the kill. Or... far too much care to reach even that chance or possibility. The first one was a straightforward duel, where he dodged and took his time until the bow ran out of arrows. Then, it was a wild battle for a chance to seek the head or bones.
Out of every battle so far, that was one of the toughest ones, right behind the Low Lich, or... this one. Everything afterward was progressing with the same idea, but some Islands were easier than others, simply because of the setting, their unique aspects, or foes that challenged some parts of Murai's species.
Now, it was probably the same, if not worse in comparison, yet Murai remained in his Satisfactory Tier, which wasn't wrong. It should made the points from this Island quite massive after dozens of kills.
Without terrible injuries, but tired mind and core, he did what he could, which left Lisa wondering how he was doing it. She remained waiting for him, asking Tori some questions. He didn't provide very nice details, so she got pissy about him a little because his memories were kind of dull. It ended up making him cry.
She wondered if she should push the full-on Memory Extract, but that would seriously endanger his mind.
In the end, she got angry with words alone.
5 minutes later, a cluttering sound revealed Murai, who was finally over his "meal". His grin was notable, similar to notable pieces of charred bones around his feathers and head. He didn't care for the appearance or what was in that armor.
Then, a loud quacking sound echoed, revealing his mood, or head that poked out of the armor. “What a haul. What a haul!” He quacked the sounds of a happy duck and trembled his feathers. The mess around him or the glistering armor weren't in his eyes.
He let go of the filth, dust, and charred particles around his feathers. It took just a couple of motions for him to appear pretty much the same as he was a few minutes ago: still filthy and haggard.
However, the glint of his longer feathers proved to say otherwise. The glitter or filth wasn't entirely gone. Their color was still a little dull, but brighter at some points as if they were hot.
Seeing and hearing him fine, Lisa backed from Tori, floating towards Murai. “What have you found to be like that? Snack alone, or... something else?”
“A good meal, I suppose,” Murai said with a face satisfied as his stomach. The bones were crunchy and hot, filling his stomach with an absolute bliss that didn't seem to hurt him in any way, even though it felt like being inside a furnace. He felt something else coming within, but he ate it all the same.
“What was that smoke about?” Lisa asked straight to the point.
“Curious, ain't you? Well, I played the role of a firestarter, by turning that pile of bones into a campfire. Who knew they would fire up that well, huh? That armor made a nice tool indeed.” Murai mischievously smiled, thinking that his tactics were way more profound than they were.
“Fire? Your Flame? Undead such as that aren't prone to some elemental affinities, but their defenses are good against them. Especially the Undead Captain of level 43 and wearing such armor provides benefits to the body. Equipment does that, you see. Haven't told you that before?” Lisa argued, not believing his words at all. She already got the truth anyway, so she tested him instead.
“Who killed it huh? You or me?”
“You,” Lisa grunted that word.
“Though so. Allow yourself to hear that! What if I used a big chunk of my mana to put a dense flame onto a piece of cloth, using it to draw a Rune of Truth Flame to spread a high dense flame forth, and after cracking millimeters aside, leaving consuming to do the rest? From the inside out, the bones or effects don't matter. Truth works like that, so what if...”
“A Rune again? That... works.” Lisa fell silent, trying to calculate if it was a feasible idea to use this against this sort of captain because Tori hadn't seen much, or knew what he saw.
But Murai forgot about the Fire Shots that played a pivotal role as temporal fuel to the Rune. They also cracked the poorest rib a little, before crashing together to do the rest. Following up the explosion, a surge of oxygen from the opening, Rune then did the rest, the victory felt like looking at the burning house.
“Think as you wish. I did it anyway, whether it was plausible or not. Loot is good, you see? A pair of axes and... armor? Well, a bunch of stuff around is weird to me, but not as if I need them. Essences were my bliss. So is the stuff in my stomach. Quite nice!” Murai cheered, oblivious about struggling Lorry who wished to say something but couldn't.
Even Lisa wondered what was up with those bones, but if he ate it, nothing mattered. Undead Captain's bones should be fairly good treasure, because their bones were everything to them, right behind the Soul Flames which... Where were they again, if Lorry didn't destroy them? Souls were different than physical things. Had murai consumed them as well?
Lisa looked at him suspiciously. “Fine.“ She grunted as she couldn't take much out of her head.” What about rewards besides the obvious things? Were the bones good? Something I am unaware of?”
“Tasted like meaty crackers. Not terrible, if I say so myself. Added flood of flames added to it some quality. Oh, and my Status spoke after a long time of silence. Captains are that kind of Undead, huh? I thought it would be a fairly... normal skeleton, but they aren't that.”
“Status? Eater again? What did it say? Normal for your might be... not normal.”
“That is a secret. I will tell you if you shut up, and stop being a bother.“ Murai said and turned to Lorry and Tori. His stubbornness was back, leaving Lisa angry but silent.
Annoyed as she may get, what can she do against Murai, who turned to be like this whenever he felt like it? It made her that angry, because, as a Life Companion, very few secrets should be kept between them, yet here she was, unaware of something that Murai discovered. It was a questionable idea because she was keeping a lot of things away from him as well. It was mutual and fitting, even if she didn't like it.
Had something changed, or was she too preoccupied with Tori to notice it, or... was she the problem? She thought some problems would happen. She had to lay low.
So she appeared as if no anger was on her soul at all, focusing on her curiosity.
Eater, huh? Captains of this temple are known as Variant Undead, prone to mutations and unique Chaos Aspects. Did he discover something after eating those bones? What about the Soul Flames that are part of it? Lisa speculated in her head.
Murai turned his attention to somewhere else. It was time to move on and leave this damned Island.
With his mana better after his meal and Replenishment, he was ready to go to the next island after dealing with the remaining problem that was in his mind.
“Lorry, what about that kid?” Murai asked after thinking twice about this armor before his sight ended on the silent Tori who no longer cried.
“Kid? That slave? The slave's purpose is out of the current situation because Murai has succeeded in everything this Ending Isle provided. Lorry supposes it no longer matters, so the slave will await another time and be sent back to the Hell Haven where the slaves belong. As a slave of this temple, it works like that.” Lorry explained.
“I see.” Murai nodded, dismissing whatever issue was left, but internally, he wondered if Fate was a truly strange sick bastard or laughable prick.
“Or!” Lorry suddenly shouted as Murai pointed his beak towards the gates that appeared after Space Cage lifted its limits. ”If Murai wants, Lorry can offer the slave for some points. How about it? Slaves are quite popular for any Blessed or takers of Lady's temple. Lisa should know all about it, indulging in this topic like Lisa always did. So?” Lorry became a haggler again, hoping to act by himself, rather than by Mindarch's voices or orders.
But in the corners of his Soul Flames, the armor and pair of axes remained. He hoped Murai would forget about them, but.... he doubted Lisa would ever take them out of her mind.