Extracting the beast’s mana core was gruesome. No one in the group knew where the core was located, so Neymar had to butcher the Seezeek with his claws. After a few minutes, Neymar found the core near the creature’s heart, or should I say the right heart? The monster had one on its left side too.

After cleaning the blood off the core, we started to see its true shape. The core was grape-sized and transparent, but inside it, one could see moving swirls of something. It looked beautiful and… Mysterious.

“Take it, kid,” Black Eye said, handing me the core.

“What should I do with it?” I asked.

“Absorb it.”

“How can I do that?” I asked, unsure of how to absorb the orb.”

“I don’t know, figure it out,” Black Eye said, annoyed.

“let’s get our Backpacks back before continuing to the capital city of the county,” Black Eye said.

The group returned to where we left our stuff with Ramses. After, getting our bags we moved deeper into the forest. The group went back to the formation we were on before getting sidetracked by the Seezeek, with Hugo at the front, and the rest behind him. Neymar went ahead of us to scout the road.

I walked next to the twins at the rear, deep in thought.

Seeing my contemplating expression, Art asked, “What’s on your mind Haitham?”

“What? Oh, it’s you, Art. Well, I was thinking why would Captain give me this,” I said, showing the mana core in my hand.

“Hm, I think he might be trying to cozy up to you after yesterday’s harsh treatment.”

“What? I would never trust that… bastard! He kidnapped me from my village for his selfish desires. Even if he gives me the sun, I’ll never warm up to him,” I lashed out. Angry at Art for suggesting that Black Eye was trying to be friendly.

“Yes, you're right,” Art said. He seemed guilty for what his captain had done. “But believe me, I will stand up for you if Captain ever mistreats you again,” Art said weakly.

“Yeah, I’m suuuure you’ll do so,” I said, disgusted by Art’s hypocrisy. ‘I might have gotten the wrong impression of Art, he’s probably acting friendly at the orders of Black Eye,’ I thought.

After saying that, I didn’t wait for Art’s response. I went to where Naya was, wanting to ask her what my family had said about my sudden leave. I hesitated a bit as Naya was with Black Eye, but at that moment my hate for Black Eye overwhelmed my fear of him.

“Hey, Naya. What happened with the message?”

Naya pretended not to hear my question, until… “Answer the kid Naya,” Black Eye said.

“Yes, Captain,” said Naya. ‘Is Black Eye trying to make me think he is standing up for me? Or is Naya a jerk?’ I thought when Naya ignored me.

“When I got to your family’s farm I told them of your departure, and they said they understand,” said Naya.

“That’s it?” I asked, unbelieving what I heard. I knew most of my siblings and I weren’t close and Father wasn’t attached to me but he would have never allowed me to leave without giving him a proper reason. Also, Teressa would have cried, as she was attached to me. ‘Is she lying?’ I thought.

“Yeah, that’s it. Should there be more?” Naya asked, nonchalantly

At that moment I got mad, and without thinking of the consequences I said, “Yes, there should be F*cking more!”

The response to my outburst came hard. I hit the ground from the strength of the slap that had hit my cheek. My hand went up to my cheek on its own, as I looked with shock at Black Eye, the one who had slapped me.

“It seems I might have been too lenient with you kid. In MY group, you’ll learn to respect your peers,” Black Eye said. At that moment I felt my rage boil inside of me. The slap wasn’t that hurtful, actually, the lashing that Hugo gave me yesterday hurt way more, but yesterday was different. Yesterday I was scared and confused, but now. Now I was angry! My anger was directed at this group for not only kidnapping me but also breaking its promise. ‘I have been a fool. What did I expect from a bunch of kidnappers.’

“You promised! You promised to let me tell my family about my departure!” I said, pointing an accusing finger at Black Eye.

“And that’s what I did. If you don’t want to believe me that’s your fault.”

I stood up while glaring at Black Eye. I said nothing as I went to the group's rear, even behind the twins. Everyone was looking at me. Black Eye with a contemplating gaze, Naya with delight, Hugo with a sneer on his face, Edger and Ramses with indifference, and lastly the twins. The twins were looking at me with a hint of pity.

“What are you looking at? Move on! We don’t have all day,” said Black Eye, as he turned his back to me and continued forth. The group obliged and moved on as if nothing happened.

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‘I’ll make you regret kidnapping me. You messed with the wrong guy. I’ll kill you all! All of you will die at my hands! I’ll take my revenge one day. One day for sure!’ I thought seething with rage.

………

The group was mostly silent as we marched on. After a few hours, the trees cleared, and we started walking on flat green plains stretching as far as the eye could see. I managed to spot a dot in the distance; upon closer inspection, the dot turned out to be city walls. As we got closer to the county’s capital, Hama, the roads changed from dirt to stone paved.

Throughout the journey, my mind was occupied with how foolish I had acted the last day. I shouldn’t have been chatty with the twins, friendly with Ramses, or respectful to anyone. But the most important part is that I shouldn’t have always been so scared. My fright of Black Eye clouded my judgment and made me more vulnerable.

‘Yesterday and today, I made mistakes, but tomorrow. Tomorrow is different. I won’t be so naïve as to act friendly with my kidnappers again!’

……….

It took us all day to reach the northern city gates. The gates were packed with caravans waiting to enter. Standing in the line, we reached the gate Guards half an hour later.

“Reason for visit?” asked a bored city Guard.

“We are Adventurer’s. We came here per request from the city’s Count.”

“Oh, You’re here for the Gnolls extermination mission. Can you show me your Adventurer’s card?” The Guard said, happy at the arrival of help.

“Sure,” Black Eye said, handing out a golden card to the guard.

“Gold rank!” The Guard said surprised.

“Excuse me sir for my disrespect. I didn’t know you were this high-ranked. Count Louis has provided accommodations for adventurers above silver at his estate, if you’d like, I can lead you there.” The guard said, going from bored to happy then to respectful.

“That would be good,” Black Eye said, unbothered by all the looks he was getting after showing his card.

“Then follow me.”

We entered the city. It was my first time seeing a city. The city was… amazing. The buildings were three to five stories high, and they were made of some kind of black stones. The streets were lively with vendors shouting their wares, and horses moving on cobbled roads. There were so many colors that I got dazed for a second. The street next to the city gates had a lot of shops, but after moving more into the city, the shops dwindled.

We passed over a stone bridge that was above a river. The river’s smell was bad, but I wasn’t annoyed as I sometimes worked at the ranch.

The closer to the city center we got, the more houses went from being built using black stones to white marble. The houses in the city center were dazzling to look at with their white marble and different decorations. Some houses even had guards at their doors guarding them.

At the center of it all was a high wall. The wall wasn’t as high as the one before it, but it was easily double my height. As we reached its gates, I could see a guard with polished iron armor guarding it.

The new Guard said, “What brings you here soldier?”

The Guard who brought us here said, “I have a gold-ranked Adventurer with me, sir.”

“Are the rest of his party gold ranked too?” The new Guard asked.

The Guard who brought us looked at Black Eye Questionably. Black Eye shook his head indicating that he was the only one.

“Then only you can enter. Is that okay with you?” The new Guard said.

Black Eye looked annoyed but accepted nonetheless.

“Neymar, get the group two rooms at any inn you like. Tomorrow we meet two before sunrise at the western gate.”

“Yes, Captain.”

………..

After Black Eye entered the smaller castle, I don’t know what it’s called, we went back to the shopping district. Neymar managed to find us a better inn than the one in my village. The inn was called “Volcanic Stones Inn”. Upon entering I was assaulted with the smell of food, my mouth immediately watered as I hadn’t eaten anything except for some dates this morning.

After Neymar got us three rooms, one for Naya and the rest for the boys, we went to the ground floor to eat. The food and the three rooms for a night cost us two silver, which I found absurd. ‘That was what my family lived off for two weeks! Adventuring is expensive’ I thought. The food was good. We were served some beef with a loaf of bread and hot milk.

After getting my share of the food I went to a different table than the one the group was eating at, as I decided to distance myself from the group.

After the food, I saw Hugo exiting the inn. I could only guess where he was going this late at night. The rest of the party went up to our rooms.

I was paired up with Edger and the twins. After glancing at the room, I chose to sleep on the sofa, as the two beds were occupied by the twins, who got to the room first. Weirdly Edger chose to sleep on the ground near the room’s only window. ‘What a weird guy.’ I thought.

Before sleeping, a servant came and took our dirty clothes to get washed. I didn’t give her my dirty clothes, even though I still had the money Uncle gave me, as she asked a copper for every piece. Instead, I used the room’s shower to wash myself and my clothes. I hung my clothes in the bathroom to let them dry and went to bed.

‘Rest at last.’

But before I went to sleep, I had one thing to do... The mana core.

Even though I hated black Eye, I was still going to use the core he gave me as it would make me stronger, and getting stronger was the best way to get my revenge.

‘I remember Black Eye saying that to absorb an ability I had to transform,’ I thought. ‘But I still don’t know how to do so.

After giving it a thought I got an idea.

I went to my bag and retrieved my short sword. Edger looked at me with interest. The twins were playing some kind of card game so they didn't notice, or they pretended not to.

‘I wish I’m not doing something I’ll regret later.’ Under the candlelight, I stabbed my hand.

Thankfully my hand transformed into the usual transparent liquid. I could even see the tip of the sword on the other side. Playing… Ahm, I meant experimenting with my hand, I brought it up to my face. The liquid was really see-through, it was like water, but not with the consistency of water. Also, I could feel the slow mana drain. ‘I think I can keep my hand transformed for a few minutes,’ I thought.

Now for the real experimentation. I lowered my untransformed hand and took a fist-sized scoop of the liquid from my transformed one. I instantly felt a huge mana drain. The drain on my mana didn’t stop even after taking the scoop, it continued until the deformity formed by the missing liquid regenerated. In the end, it felt like I had used a quarter of my mana, if not more. I didn’t get how I knew how much mana I had left, it was just instinctual, just like how one knew if he was hungry, half-full, or stuffed. The scoop that I took didn't disintegrate, but it became more fluid like water and flowed through the gaps between my fingers.

After that test, I didn’t want to do another one afraid I’d drain my mana as I still had one use for it. I held the mana ball, then I put it inside the transparent liquid of my hand. The ball immediately started to dissolve like sugar in water. I felt a wave of strength wash over me, but just as the wave came it went. I waited but the only thing that happened was that my hand turned back to normal.

Did a new ability awaken?