After having a brief emotional moment, Drake feels that he seems to forget something.
He holds his chin and stares blankly at the space, thinking hard about what it could be.
After pondering for a few seconds, Drake finally remembered what he was forgetting about.
"cores" Drake muttered the name of the thing he just remembered.
Since it was just the first day after the system descended. Drake set aside this piece of information.
Encountering this type of creature on their first day or even on their first week has a low probability or even impossible of happening. But he just happened to encounter this seemingly impossible scenario.
Drake didn't know if he was being lucky or not. But there's one thing he knew. That he would probably die if the little dragon wasn't by his side.
Drake once again felt grateful that he was the first to finish the hundred kills and received the dragon egg.
…
If Drake could remember it right, generally, you would only get a core once a creature manages to step into master tier. But there are also instances where creature's would undergo mutation at common rank, creating core in advance.
Making them far stronger than common mobs. Having double or triple stats more on one specific stat.
For zombies, their cores were always at their head.
As for their uses? a creature's core has many uses that counting on both his hands won't be enough.
For example, cores can be used for alchemy. It can also be absorbed by other creatures as it is. But making it into elixir would maximize the benefits one could get.
…
Drake felt stupid while fetching the head he kicked, blaming himself for doing something unnecessary.
Arriving at the head, he grabbed it and chopped it open.
If Drake would describe the feeling he gets while prying open the mutated zombie's head. It was like he was slashing a coconut fruit.
Now that Drake was focusing on the bloody head. He felt sick in his stomach. He suddenly has the urge to vomit.
Before, he didn't feel much psychological burden when killing zombies. Drake felt that back then, everything felt unreal.
But after he pried open the mutated zombie's head and saw its brain matter with black capillaries around it, his urge to vomit suddenly surfaced.
Having no time to react, his gastric juices burst out of his mouth, soaking the half-open bloody head wet. His eyes tear up as he keeps vomiting the food he ate earlier, emptying his stomach.
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After having no more to vomit, he wipes his mouth clean, removing the gastric juice residue on the corner of his lips.
"G-give me water please," Drake said to the little dragon with a quivering voice, hearing Drake asking for water. The little dragon landed beside Drake and looked at him worriedly.
The bottle of water floated in front of Drake and caught it. He opened its sealed cap and downed the water in the bottle as he gargled it, removing the bitterness and sourness lingering in his mouth.
After no more unpleasant taste in his mouth, he drank all the remaining water in the bottle to replenish the liquid in his body.
The nauseous feelings now subside a bit.
Drake looked at the vomit soaked head of the mutated zombie.
Suppressing his disgust, he reached out his hand and searched for the cores on the mutated zombie's head.
Amidst the soft brain matter, Drake feels something hard and beady inside the soft brain.
Drake pulled the thing's out. Its appearance looks like a fingernail size pearl. It was smooth and white just like a genuine pearl. The only difference is that this one has a magical effect that a mere pearl won't have.
After Drake was finished inspecting the core. He planned to hand it over to the little dragon for safekeeping.
He turns towards it but notices something weird in its expression.
The little dragon breathed rapidly with its tongue out. It's salivating while looking at the beady core on his hand.
Seeing its expression, Drake remembers that this little Dragon loved to eat this rich mana content core.
Drake changed his mind and presented the core in front of the excited little dragon.
Since he was not in urgent need of this stuff, he might as well feed it to the little dragon and make it happy.
To begin with, it was the one who defeated it. It was only fair for the little dragon to have it.
The little dragon opened its mouth and ate the core that Drake offered, munching the core with delight.
After having finished with the matter relating to the mutated zombie. The duo resumed their journey.
On the way, Drake held the loot dropped by the mutated zombie.
He keeps on staring at the skill orb as he hadn't come into decision.
At first, Drake planned to give it to his sister, hoping that it would help her to have some means to keep her life in a difficult situation.
But after the encounter earlier, he also feels the urgent need to become strong. And if he was strong enough, he could keep his and his sister's life safe.
Coming into decision, Drake chose to learn it himself.
The skill orb disintegrates into tiny light particles as it sinks in his skin.
Not long after, information of the skill appeared on his mind.
[Drake Williams-
Age: 19
Lvl: 13
Race: Human
Talent: N/A
Job: N/A
SP: 5→0
Health: 75/75
Mana: 25/25
Stamina: 20
Strength: 20
Agility: 20
Vitality: 20
Intelligence: 14→15
Magic power: 1
Perception: 1→5
Skill:
Active: Accel(1 star)(new)
Passive: Detection (6 stars)
Title: N/A ]
…
Seeing the skill; accel on the skill column makes Drake sigh in satisfaction.
He also noticed that he has a passive skill; detection on his passive skill column. Curious, Drake wanted to see the skill description.
[Detection (6 stars): Can detect any form of intent aimed at the user on a 50 meters radius.]
Seeing the skill description, Drake was amazed.
This skill was amazing! It was like a mind reading skill.
With this skill, he can partially guess what people are thinking about him in a 50 meter radius.
This Detection skill is pretty handy in this dog eat dog environment. He can distinguish between those people who want him harm.
Well, only one thing awaits those foolish people. They are in for a world of pain!
The gain this time made Drake really satisfied. Making him completely forget the earlier near death experience.
…
After 30 minutes of detours, the duo finally arrived at a big warehouse. The smell of grain is still lingering in the air.
Drake and the little dragon entered the warehouse building and saw the previous workers on this facility making their way towards him.
They certainly are not coming over to welcome him. Zombies don't have enough intelligence to welcome anyone.
As usual, the duo made quick work with the zombies on every building they looted.
Drake could see sacks of rice stacked upon each other, forming a little tower.
With this much, it could feed thousands of people for a month.