chapter 69
As soon as the lizard monkeys noticed me, I fired, aiming at their bodies instead of their heads, as there was no point in making their heads disappear. My looting ability wouldn’t be able to make something that doesn’t exist into currency.
There was so little time between the kills that it was hard to concentrate. Whenever this ability of mine started to work, it connected me for a brief moment fully to the being I had just killed. That allowed me to understand them fully—just for a moment—after which everything they were was turned into currency.
It was in this brief moment that I could concentrate on parts of the being that would then be turned into currency, leaving anything I didn’t focus on behind. It was harder than I expected to focus on everything but the two claws on the monster.
The fact that I had killed them so quickly meant that I failed with the second lizard monkey. It made a mess. About half of it disappeared, while the other half splattered against the ground. Everything was so messy, but a moment later, everything seemed to wither away.
“Well, that was lucky.”
It would have been a pain to clean everything. Unfortunately, even the first monster’s claws withered away.
“Well, that’s just… I really did hope that if everything else was gone, the claws wouldn’t wither away.”
My drones collected the coins while I walked closer to the tree and snapped a low branch off. In just a few seconds, it started to wither away exactly like the lizard monkeys.
What I had read from this portal guide was that there was actually one or two trees here that you could chop down and bring out, but that was it. They also weren’t valuable enough to bother with.
Crouching down, I scooped a bit of dirt from the ground. This didn’t wither away, but it should after I exit the portal. To test it out, I put a little bit of dirt into one of my pockets. Nearby was also a small rock, and I added that into the pocket as well.
There was a way that you could keep everything here. You needed to let the portal sit for possibly years without clearing it. Slowly, the accumulation of mana was supposed to make everything real. When everything was real enough, it could exit the portal without any problems.
When I questioned Varkun about it and why they didn’t do it, his answer was quite simple: it was more profitable to run the portals constantly to get the very best they could give, instead of waiting so long to get mostly worthless stuff.
Of course, there could be exceptions to that rule, and of course, it would be more dangerous to the outside world if you waited so long that the monsters could leave.
Moving on to the next pair of monsters, I did the same thing—but this time, I waited a bit longer between the kills. I managed to do it properly. But again, the claws withered away.
I definitely needed some skill to help boost my mental speed and stamina, as this choosing thing was kinda exhausting.
I continued to kill but stopped after my 16th. I should have already gotten like 4 or 6 claws with the amount of kills I had done. The guide said that the claws got saved pretty regularly, so something was definitely wrong.
So, for the next 10 kills, I just made a singular pinky finger of the monsters disappear. By the end of those 10 kills, I already had four claws.
Using my mana sense, I had observed the process and came to a possible explanation. When I made my choice on what to turn into currency, I picked everything—including the mana the monster possessed. Yet every time that I observed now, it was the mana that moved into some of its parts, and then they were saved from withering away.
With quicker steps than I meant to, I moved toward the next pair of monsters. Slowing down, I forced myself to relax so I wouldn’t be so excited. This time, as I fired, I felt the connection and then chose everything except for the monster’s mana supply and the claws.
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I watched as it disappeared while I dodged the other monster’s thrown nuts, as I didn’t want to kill it before I observed what happened. Unfortunately, the claws still withered away, and the monster’s mana seemed to just disappear into the surroundings.
Why didn’t it have the same type of purpose as before? After dodging another throw, I fired and killed another lizard monkey. This time also leaving its brain. Still the same result. Damn it. Does this really not work?
Moving on to the next one, I repeated what I did before, just in case, but the results were still the same. Could there be something else? Should I just trial-and-error it and see how much of the monster needs to remain for at least some parts not to wither away?
I was getting tired of dodging and thinking at the same time, so I shot the next one. This time keeping its brain, its entire skeleton, its soul, its mana, and the claws. To my surprise, this time it worked. The mana didn’t disappear. It moved to keep the claws, some bones, and even its brain.
Were the bones necessary? Or—wait—there's no way...
Leaving everything but the coins and claws behind, I moved to the next pair of monsters. This time, I chose everything except the claws, its mana, and its soul.
The coins hit the ground—and so did the claws—and this time, all of the mana moved into the claws, making them completely real, which would allow me to bring them out of the portal.
Just as I was about to go pick them up, my sensors’ alarms went off. There was an irregularity. My drone’s camera footage showed nothing, but I knew the lizard monkey boss was there.
While it could somehow hide itself from visual detection, it was still giving off a heat signature, and its movements—while incredibly silent—still made some sound.
Now, I could just shoot it, but I was a bit curious about how it managed to stay hidden like that.
As I turned around and started to move toward the claws again, my drones could now see what was happening. It was somehow able to move alongside the shadows, and if it had even better camouflage than its brethren, then the amount of shadows around it would make it basically invisible.
So while my drones couldn't see the monster itself, they could see the unnatural movement of a shadow that didn’t correspond to the clusters of leaves dancing on the ground. When it was about ten meters away from me, it leapt toward my back.
It was easy enough to spin halfway around and catch it with my left hand.
It tried to stick me with its lower arm claws as its upper hands tried to pry my hand away from its neck. I squeezed hard, snapping its neck, killing it instantly. Having a cybernetic hand really came in handy.
The moment the monster died, I also felt the connection. As I started to focus on it, I realized that this monster had another body part that the others didn’t. That being a magic core, or as they were more often called, monster cores.
Once again, I focused on everything except its significantly greater mana supply, its soul, its claws, and that monster core. My grip loosened as most of its body disappeared into coins, leaving behind the two claws and the monster core. Then I watched as the mana it had moved into the claws and monster core, protecting them from being withered away.
The monster core stayed a monster core, which was unfortunate, because this is the thing that has a chance to turn into a skill stone. As I picked it up, I just admired it for a while.
While yes, most called this a monster core—that was just mainly to make it sound more palatable—but this magic core was actually what was inside of me as well and every other person who has gone through mana rebirth.
I had quite a good image of it, thanks to my nano machines, but seeing a similar core outside of me was quite a weird experience.
The claws it dropped were a bit bigger than the other lizard monkeys, and they seemed sturdier. Comparing them to the other claws I got, when I only made the pinkie disappear, these ones did seem stronger.
When I finally picked up the other claws as well from the regular lizard monkey, once again I was surprised to see that they also seemed to be better than the ones before.
Of course, why didn’t I think of this? There was always a chance for a lucky drop. The adventurers talked about it often. The times when only one part remained while everything else withered away, with that part always being of better quality than normal.
Now everything seemed to click into place.
Of course, if the entire mana supply of the monster only went into one part, it would reinforce it even more than it normally would. Yet I could make sure that there was only one part left.
Yeah, I needed to keep this secret for sure. And of course, I would have an even better chance at getting skill stones, because I could guarantee that the monster core would always remain and receive a large portion of mana.
As I looked at the claws and the monster core, I knew that I needed to leave them behind and let them disappear the moment I left the portal, after having killed every monster here.
That storage skill just moved up in priority. Buying one would still be incredibly difficult. Was there perhaps some place with a portal that I could farm for this skill? I should have a lot better chances at getting one. That’s definitely something to research.
Just in case, I killed a few more monsters, and I was 100% able to confirm that yes, I could keep whatever part I wanted, when I also kept the soul and its mana. This will allow me to target farm whatever parts I wanted.
Just in case, I killed a few more, and yes, if there were too many parts, there was a chance that some of them wouldn’t be kept, as there was a limited amount of the monster’s mana to go around.
Now I could keep going, but what would be the point? Instead, I think these monsters also offered a good opportunity to practice my telekinesis.
So, for the next pair, I killed the first one, just making its pinky disappear to conserve mana, and then tried to block the thrown nuts with my telekinesis.
The first one was barely slowed down, and it hit my shoulder.
The hit felt like a weak punch. It only had four more nuts available. It threw them pretty fast, and each time I managed to at least slow the nut a little bit. After it ran out of nuts, it leapt at me.
It died mid-leap, as the bullet stopped its forward movement.
On the third lizard monkey, I figured out that I could not just slow it down but also redirect it a little bit. Unfortunately, on the fifth one, just as I felt I was starting to truly make progress, I began to run out of mana. So, I just went ahead and quickly killed off all the rest of the lizard monkeys, clearing the portal.
As I stepped outside, the portal turned grey, and all the loot I had managed to gather disappeared inside that portal, never to be seen again. The dirt and the stone disappeared from my pocket, confirming everything I had read about portals.
Since I had full loot rights, I didn’t have to show anything, but there wasn’t actually much to show. This portal was incredibly unprofitable for me, as most of the monsters’ bodies I left alone without even turning them into coins, as I was simply out of mana.
This portal might have been profitable if I had, from the start, made it so that every claw could come out. But once again, this wasn't the point of this delve. The real prize was the knowledge, and that was most definitely worth more than what I paid to enter this portal.