TF Chapter 58 Spirit Core

Standing a few meters away from the corpse of the creature, I weighed the stone within my hands, grasping every nook and cranny of its surface in my spiritual senses. I was trying to gauge the weight and speed needed for it to have the capability of shattering the skull exoskeleton of the creature.

I had to hurry as I had already wasted way more time than necessary. But the treasure within the brain of this creature was going to be the key I would need to survive in this world. Luck was an illusory and intangible thing, yet right now I was giddily thanking my lucky stars that this corpse had appeared.

I entered into a throwing stance, priming every muscle that was needed for me to hurl the stone to perfection. It was taking a few seconds, but had to be done. If I had been in the second level on the forger path, this would have been easier since at that level, the spirit could permeate into the body, allowing for far better control. It was really puzzling how the spirit couldnt be used to scan the inside of a biological lifeforms at my level...and even at higher levels, it couldn't scan those that were sentient.

I felt all my muscles that were going to be used in this throw tense and at the ready. After double checking my stance, I took a deep breath, moved my dominant hand which was holding the stone, and...

I felt as if my arm was about yo be ripped off after the stone left my hand, travelling at a very high velocity.

Crack!

It shattered, the fragments near the impact even flying away with some just skimming a little bit closer to my body. Walking back to the corpse, I could see some black liquid trickling through the hole the stone was embedded in. I was elated because my idea had been successful.

The smell of the black fluid was revolting causing me to feel the urge to puke out the contents of my stomach, but I held on and dug out the stone, then pushed my hand inside and scrounged around within the brain matter. I was sure that if someone were to look at my current expression they would have been shocked into speechlessness due to how ugly It must have appeared to be.

After rummaging through gross, sticky, dark and revolting brain matter, my fingers finally managed to feel something solid. It was round and its diameter made it so that my palm could enclose itself around it. My heartbeat sped up at the sensation within my hands. Had I finally managed to find it?

I grasped it and pulled from the biological matter that had been connected to it and withdrew my hand from the shattered remains of the creature's head.

Upon unfurling my fingers, a glass-like orb with a misty substance within entered my vision causing my heart beat to once again increase in rate due to the excitement within. I had found my first spirit core! This thing was going to be the most important useful thing here in this planet during the duration of our stay... And luckily, I had stumbled upon one without the need to fight or scheme!

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

It was somehow beautiful, with the white mist within tumbling around as if it was on the verge of birthing something from within. This orb was so important to us apprentices that many of us were going to kill each other for them. And even I wouldn't blame them because if you absorbed this spiritual mist within, you would instantly become a forger, albeit, you needed ten of these to successfully pull it off.

But its functions didn't stop there. It was as light as a feather if you tried to lift it with your spirit, which I was in the middle of doing now, causing the sphere to circle around me with ease. It surprised me very much as in my hand, it had appeared to be heavier, yet now, it was lighter than a feather.

I could have absorbed the mist within now, but that would be akin to being shortsighted. This sphere was the only thing that could count as a weapon on this planet, capable of being driven by our spirits to cause untold damage due to high velocity.

Absorbing this pearl would make my spiritual prowess increase a little but I still would have almost zero combat power on this planet. All the training I had gone through would only allow me to survive by dodging or running away since the bodies of the beasts and aborigines were more powerful than mine. If I was even the slightest bit careless and allowed even a single blow to get through, I would be severely injured or die instantly. Both of these options were unacceptable!

After getting familiar with my current prowess with the core... Where I could tether just a sliver of my spirit into it and use it as a projectile, I also got to learn of the limits, such as not being able to surpass the five meter diameter with it and also the fact that the faster I moved it, the more impact force that I could accumulate.

I heard a rustling at the edge of the crater, causing me to turn in its direction only to glimpse nothing. My ears strained, my body frozen, not out of fear but to accumulate energy should anything pop out.

A spiritual sense crashed against my own in the next second, lingering, giving me the feeling that something was looking my way. The spiritual powers clashed with my own, trying to pry them apart and get a glimpse at me. Whatever was scanning me probably only knew that I was humanoid due to my spiritual defense, but in order really get more information, it wanted to pry my spiritual defense apart.

I placed all my might on resisting the spiritual powers which were greater than mine by a little. Make no mistake, if I let up even a little, then it would mean that I was the weaker party, giving whatever was observing me the chance to strike. It wasn't just prodding my defense, no, the aggressiveness of its spiritual powers were portraying an intention to challenge.

I felt a unique vibration on the surface of my spiritual defense, probably conveying the intent to communicate. This was the way all the creatures on this planet interacted.

But I couldn't do that as I had zero knowledge on the language of these creatures, not to mention the fact that I had zero intention to learn. Seeing that I hadn't communicated back, the vibration ceased and instead, the spiritual aggression resumed, causing me to feel discomfort.

If I didn't do anything, my weaker spiritual powers were going to be exhausted first, so I started contemplating what to do.

I didn't know which direction the spiritual pressure was originating from since I was being pressed from all sides. Except for the initial sound of the foliage, everything was eerily quiet, causing a burst of rising fear within my mind. This beast was most definitely dangerous, considering its patience and hunting skills. Though, I didn't rule out the possibility of the creature being one of those native aboriginals.