Varian felt suffocated. The mere presence of the mother rat was enough for him to realize he wasn't strong enough to face it.
Step
Step
The mother rat saw the purple blood dripping from Varian's fingertips. The same purple blood inside it boiled and it let out a deafening roar.
"Roarrr!"
Varian covered his hears and stepped out of the cave.
He didn't run first. If he did, he'd be caught up in no time.
'Buy time—distract—avoid…' Various choices popped in his mind and Varian saw the four eyes of the mother rat turning bloodshot.
Time was pressing, and Varian took the initiative.
Pop.
He picked out a beast core from his space ring. It was a red-scaled rat's.
The mother rat's gaze was fixed on the beast core. Sensing the familiar aura of its children, it went crazy.
"Roarr!"
That was the final straw.
Mother rat legs bent and it was about to pounce on him.
"Take your babies." Varian hurled the beast core into the distance.
"Roar!" It roared and instead of rushing to him, it pounced toward the beast core.
'Alright. Here goes.' Varian dashed in the opposite direction.
He bet that the mother rat would value the beast cores more than him. He was right.
Beast cores were the most important part of any magic beast. They were akin to the aura storages.
The beast cores absorb aura from the surrounding automatically.
"Roarr" The mother rat's roar sounded from the distance.
Varian didn't hesitate and threw another beast core away from both him and the mother rat.
The mother rat bolted to the beast core.
Varian used this opportunity to widen the distance a bit more.
Humans used beast cores as the aura engines of star treasures. A thunder star treasure needed the beast core of a thunder beast and so on.
Since beast cores would replenish the aura within themselves, a star treasure could be used until a long time.
"Roarr" The mother rat roared once again and Varian repeated his trick.
This time, however, he threw two beast cores in opposite directions.
The mother rat also continued its chase to the beast cores.
Until dungeons appeared, humans were using aura crystals to create star treasures. It was incredibly inefficient since aura crystals needed to be replaced regularly.
Then beast cores happened and the star treasure industry reinvented itself.
The only downside was that humans couldn't absorb aura from beast cores. It was too chaotic.
"Crunch" The mother rat reached the beast core and devoured it. The beast core quickly dissolved inside it and its own beast core attracted the chaotic aura. It would slowly be refined.
Unlike humans, Magic beasts could 'eat' a beast core and absorb the aura. This worked only if the beast cores were of the same Divine path.
Varian continued to widen the distance. However, the thought of a mother eating the beast core of its own child sickened him.
"Roarr"
"Roarr"
A few more iterations and Varian finally threw off the mother rat.
The mother rat too stopped chasing him. There were two reasons. One Varian pulled too much distance and it would likely fail to capture him.
The second being the most important. It had to digest the aura inside. It'd take a long time.
Varian didn't top and sprinted back to his cave.
After habitually checking the perimeter for safety, he collapsed on the ground.
"Huh." Even with his greater human physique, he was drenched in sweat.
'If that fat rat didn't go for the beast cores and instead came for me, then I'd have had a hard time escaping.' Varian concluded.
It was a risky move. Even though magic beasts wouldn't kill their own kin, they would eat the beast cores without any remorse.
However, if the red-scaled rat was any sensible, then it would have killed him first and then picked up the beast cores.
'But that's not to say all magic beasts will do the same. Rats...are at the bottom of intelligence. If it was a monkey or an ape, they'd be smarter.' Varian felt lucky, but soon decided he was actually unlucky.
'It wasn't even a quarter hour, and it rushes back. Aren't you too worried, mother rat?' He mocked.
'But I'll reunite you guys once I get stronger.'
He wasn't a person to start enmity. But he surely was the one to end them.
'System, how long would it take for that rat to digest the cores?' He rubbed his sore legs and asked.
If only teleportation somehow worked, things would've been far easier.
[At least one full day.]
'Whoa!' Varian gaped.
[It can only absorb around 35% aura. The rest is wasted.] The System stated. Its mechanical tone somehow sounded smug.
'What about you? You also use the aura crystals, right?'
[100% efficiency, of course. Plus, this System saves you tonnes of time. You just need to fight and grow stronger instantly.]
'It sounds a bit too good to be true.' Varian rolled his eyes.
[...you'd need way more aura crystals than a normal awakener.] It stated slowly.
'I knew it.' Varian huffed and his shoulders slumped.
Then he checked his space ring. All the beast cores were emptied along the way.
Varian counted the pitiful aura crystals, and they amounted to only ten — they were Sarah's gift.
'I hope I can get out of here alive.' He sighed.
Aura crystals, spacorts and space stone appeared in his hands and he started meditation.
The cave was awfully quiet as the space fluctuated.
Varian practiced his space path for some time and devoted a greater amount to his body path.
After a few hours, the results were evident.
[+5 Xp
+20 Xp]
'Status'
[Body Path level 3: 5/400
Space Path level 2: 40/200]
'Why so slow?' Varian grimaced.
If normal awakeners heard his swords, they'd chase him to the ends of world.
If he spent all his time practicing on body path, he would easily reach the peak of Body Path Level 3 in 40 days or around 80 sessions.
That was a ridiculous speed.
'40 days is too slow.' Even if he were to accept it, Varian faced another problem and checked his space ring.
Another aura crystals was gone.
'Only nine left.'
It was time to replenish his stock.
"Aura crystal hunting." Varian stood up and exited the cave.
Aura crystals must be present in such an aura rich dungeon. The first one to find them would be magic beasts themselves.
The stronger the magic beast, the more likely their nest contained something valuable.
Thus, Varian checked around the abodes of various monsters. None showed any signs of possessing aura crystals.
'Continue.'
Three days passed with no results.
It seemed that despite having a dense aura, aura crystals were hard to form.
Of course, Varian wasn't slacking off.
[Body Path Level 3: 15/400
Space Path Level 2: 60/200]
The progress of space path slowed down.
'This is the thirtieth beast lair.' Varian glanced at the sharp mountain in the distance.
The mountain was in the middle of a huge forest and was home to a group of apes.
A river flowed by the mountain, and he saw the clues in it.
Varian found a few white shards floating in the river.
After careful inspection, he concluded they were pieces of aura crystals.
There was no major magic beast nest nearby except this one.
'I'm almost certain.'
Varian restrained his aura to the minimum and sneaked to the mountain.
'Time to fill my pockets.'
