After they finished, the young man approached the Conan and asked, "Little brother, what brings you to the middle parts of Willow Woods. You know it is dangerous for common people to be around here." He didn't feel any mana coming from Conan and thought Conan was a commoner.

Conan said, "I didn't come here on purpose. I just happened to fell in the river and got drifted away to a shore not far from here. Since then, I was looking for a way out of this woods."

From beside, Vindra said, "Is that true? That sounds absurd."

The young man said, "Don't mind her. Although she's rude sometimes, she means well. By the way, I am Theo, this is Vindra and the dwarf there is called Igor, and he doesn't talk much. The huge person standing in front is our leader, Jack."

Looking behind, Jack asked, "So the river brought you here. Where are you from?"

Conan already thought about it and replied with a grieved look on his face, "It's a small unnamed village in the Tristan Kingdom. My sister and I were at the cliff of a mountain picking some herbs. She slipped and fell into the river below. I followed suit and jumped to save her, but the currents were too strong. Alas, We got separated. Now I don't even know whether she is alive or not."

Vindra cast a doubted glance at Conan and relapsed into a brooding silence. Theo, on the other hand, was feeling sympathetic. After tapping on Conan's shoulder, he said, "You have suffered enough, little brother. I hope your sister is still alive, and you can find her one day."

With a serious face, Jack said to Conan, "Right now, we are in the middle parts of Willow Woods. Although Willow Woods is part of the Tristan Kingdom, it also expands till the Kingdom of Nassau, and the area we are in is part of the Kingdom of Nassau."

With a slight frown, Conan replied, "My sister was the only kin I had. With her gone, there's no use going back to my village. So it doesn't matter where I live now."

Jack proposed, "Why don't you join us? Once we harvest the materials from the beast, we will be on our way to the Adventurer Guild. The nearest Adventurer Guild from here lies in the town called Rimevale. If you want, you can tag along with us till there."

"Thank you, wouldn't have it any other way. I was lost here till you guys found me, so I'm glad I can leave this place safely." Conan said as he accepted Jack's offer.

While Jack stood guard, the other three surrounded the beast to harvest its skin and other useful materials. Vindra harvested the pelt and hide of the beast, then she rolled them up and put them to the side. The demand for beast hides that can be crafted into leather armor is pretty high among the warriors, especially if it came from Dire Warthog. With no qualms, Theo got right to work on the meat. The meat of a warthog usually tasted pretty good, and no doubt, it would fetch a fair price in the town. Igor extracted the tusks and claws from the beast carefully. The larger the tusks, the higher the value as a crafting material. Item value was one of the main things an adventurer needed to pay attention to when fighting a beast. If the beast's corpse is severely damaged, then their efforts wouldn't have paid off. If harvested properly, a single mana beast can provide enough material to create a single suit of light or medium armor.

Conan watched as Theo pulled out a small gem-like object of a brownish color from inside the beast. With absolute amazement, Theo said, "Look, it's a level 2 mana core" and tossed the object over to Jack. Jack caught the gem and held it in his hands to analyze it.

Conan wondered what that small gem was, and being curious, he let Heather get that information from Eunice. He could have asked these people too, about the same thing. But if that was common sense in this world and he didn't know it, they would find him suspicious. Furthermore, he did not want to use the same excuse as before and say that he has also lost his memories. To avoid drawing any suspicion towards himself, he just stood there silently.

Soon Eunice began to explain, "All magical things, without exception, had a core. Not just mana beasts, even magus, elves, and dwarfs had one inside them. Mana core is responsible for converting absorbed mana from the atmosphere into something more suitable for the user possessing it. It comes in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Some are so large, as large as an adult male, while some are so small, as small as a peanut. But that doesn't necessarily mean that a larger mana core can store more mana than the smaller one. What matters is the level of mana core, or simply put, the level of user. Also, the color of a mana core represents a user's affinity towards the elements. Mana core with earth attribute was brown, fire attribute was red, wind attribute was transparent, and water attribute was blue. There were still more attributes, with each having a uniquely colored mana core.

A mana core naturally draws in mana from one's surroundings, even when one is sleeping. When we use magic spells, that mana gets used up. Once that mana is exhausted, the mana core will take some time to fill up again. With this repeated process, mana core will eventually reach the limits imposed by the level of the user and will break those limits by advancing to a higher level. That is when we consider a magus or mana beast to have reached a higher level.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

There are many ways to quicken this process. One such way is to absorb the mana essence of another mana core with a similar attribute like that of a mana beast. A mana core is composed of mana essence, which is different from mana, but it is still another form of mana in its purest and condensed state. We only use mana within the mana core, while the quality of mana essence will progressively increase along with the user's level. There's no way to consume mana essence directly unless, as in this situation, kill a beast and then pull out its mana core to absorb it. Once a mana core is extracted from a body, whether it is a magus or a mana beast, they will soon die even if they didn't receive a fatal wound. As such, it is a crime to sell or buy mana cores other than that of a mana beast. To absorb mana essence from the mana core, one needs to focus their attention on the mana core and pull the mana essence into their mana core through the mana veins. Mana veins are similar to blood vessels that run along with them and are used to manipulate mana. Once mana essence is absorbed, the mana core will turn to dust, but in turn, it will raise the quality of the mana essence inside the holder's mana core. By luck, he might even advance a level in the process. The higher the level of a mana core, the higher the chances of that happening.

Besides its use to raise the user's level, they can also be used to craft enchanted weapons and items. The higher the quality of mana core, the higher the quality of weapon or item crafted, and hence higher the price of a mana core if sold in the market directly. Regular weapons will get disintegrated if we augment them through mana, but enchanted weapons help mana course through it without any damage. In a battle between magus of the same level, other than competence, the quality of the enchanted weapons will also make a difference in the outcome of a battle. Sometimes enchanted weapons and items are given unique ability as per the convenience of the user. There are also magic resistance weapons and items that reduce the damage of incoming magic spell by some amount."

Conan retrieved all this information from Princess Eunice through his consciousness in Heather's body. Conan now understood what the gem that Jack had in his hand was. Since it was brownish, he deduced that it might be an earth attribute mana core.

After analyzing, Jack glanced at Igor. Igor had already finished wrapping the tusks and claws in a cloth and was tucking it in their luggage. After a moment's consideration, Jack said, "Igor, It is earth attribute mana core. Go ahead and absorb it." The dwarf turned towards Jack and went up to him. From behind, Theo said, "Good luck! I hope you advance this time." With a slight bow, he received the mana core. Then he went beneath a large tree and sat down. From the beginning, he spoke not a word, but of his expression, he seemed grateful. Soon sweat beads trickled down his face as he tried to assimilate the mana essence into his body.

Vindra and Theo had already finished skinning the beast while Igor was incorporating the mana essence into his body. A few long minutes later, Igor gritted his teeth and clenched his hands tightly as the mana core turned to dust. It seems he finished assimilating the mana essence into his body. He gasped and stood up. Upon noticing, Theo asked him optimistically, "How did it go, my friend? Did you succeed?" To Theo's question, Igor just shook his head. Hence Theo tried to console him and said, "Better luck next time."

Jack nodded to Igor and said, "Well done all. How about we have some meat! I'm starving." With that, Jack got to start a fire. Although they had no fire magus among their party, Jack lit the fire in no time. He sliced up small chunks of beast's meat and started cooking them to a crispy brown over the fire. Strings of fat melted off the meat and trickled down on the sides, sizzling as it encountered the embers below. Soon others also joined him.

Looking ahead, Jack said to Conan, "You too, Conan. Come have some meat." "Thank you for your kindness," Conan said as he picked up a large piece of meat that Jack handed him over. Besides Heather, This was Conan's first cooked meal in this world, and it tasted incredible.

During the meal, Jack said while pointing out their mistakes, "Igor, you overestimated your strength and in-process, you lost your shield and the proper footing on the ground. If it were you alone, you could have died. Theo, you should have taken a shot at his lower body even before it reached Igor and should have tried to lower its defenses. Vindra, you did well relatively, but you need to work on your strength while swinging the blade." As the other three listened carefully, they contemplated their mistakes. He appeared to be a great leader who focused more on training his teammates than on rewards for a mission.

After they finished, they packed up their stuff and prepared to leave. Each one had baggage filled with the sleeping bag and necessities for an adventurer. Now there was one extra baggage filled with materials harvested from level 2 Dire Warthog's corpse. Looking at the backpacks, Conan suggested to the group, "Let me carry one of the backpacks. At least I can do that much as thanks to saving my life."

Vindra glared at Conan and said, "What if you run off with it?"

Conan said, "I doubt I can run while carrying that heavy baggage. Besides, I won't be able to outrun you guys."

Jack intervened and said, "Let's do that, but do let us know if it becomes harder to carry."

"Sure.", Conan replied while lifting the backpack.

The baggage was a bit bulky and heavy. Conan gritted his teeth and hanged it over his shoulders. Soon the adventurer party followed in the south direction, and Conan closely following behind.