Chapter 65: Concept Core
While on the surface the Bluehorn Earth Dragon unleashed its fury against Cedric, beneath the great stump the air was thick and heavy, charged like the sky before a storm.
Shadow remained perfectly still, concealed within the deepest shadow it could find. Through its eyes, Evan observed everything, taking in every detail with cold, measured focus.
Duke Veylan Greymark had risen from his throne.
The smile that had appeared on his face was not that of a governor. It was that of a man who had waited far too long for something, and was finally watching it arrive.
"Begin," he said aloud.
His voice resonated throughout the underground chamber, heavy with joy and the impatient anticipation of someone who could barely wait for what was about to happen.
The personnel who had paused due to the wave of energy the cocoon had released moments earlier resumed moving immediately, with a precision that betrayed weeks, perhaps months, of preparation. No unnecessary words, no hesitation. Every person knew exactly where to go and what to do.
Evan watched it all, missing nothing, and only then did he understand what had happened to the bodies.
They were being used.
They were being placed into metallic structures of a strange design, sealed containers unlike anything Evan had ever seen before, their surfaces engraved with symbols that pulsed faintly with mana.
Dozens of bodies per container.
Once sealed, the internal mechanisms activated with a low hum, and from the side valves different liquids began to flow out: some dense, some nearly transparent, some with a barely perceptible luminescence.
But one in particular caught Evan’s attention.
A thin tube connected one of those containers to a cylindrical glass vessel, transparent, positioned on a separate pedestal. The liquid dripping into it was crimson with violet hues, almost luminous, and it fell slowly, too slowly, as though each drop cost something.
’That’s not blood,’ Evan thought.
It was far too little, considering the number of bodies just loaded into that strange container.
It was clear that what they were extracting was not something the body produced in abundance. It was something deeper. Something every living being possessed in limited quantity.
It didn’t take long to reach the answer.
Life essence.
There were already ten cylindrical vessels. Ten separate extractions. Each obtained from a considerable number of bodies, far more than what they had brought that night.
It was obvious they had been running this operation for a very long time, exactly as that man he had interrogated had told him.
Evan instinctively scanned the bodies being unloaded into the containers, searching for Reiner’s. He didn’t find it among them. Which could only mean it hadn’t been used yet, likely still stored somewhere, kept intact, held in reserve.
The ten vessels were carefully retrieved and connected to tubes converging toward a movable platform, which was then pushed into position beneath the cocoon. Thick, intertwining roots held it suspended above, wrapping around it like natural restraints.
When everything was in position, the men stepped away.
Only one remained, the one who seemed to be coordinating the operation. He approached the bottom step of the raised staircase leading up to the throne, then looked up at the Duke still seated above. When he spoke, his voice carried a reverence that had nothing formal about it. Something absolute.
"Your Majesty, everything is ready."
’Majesty?’
Evan couldn’t help but notice the way that man referred to the Duke. He wasn’t a king, at least, not officially. So being addressed like that could only mean one thing,
the Duke had delusions of grandeur, and considered himself a sovereign.
Veylan Greymark did not respond with words. He simply nodded, with the unhurried slowness of someone who has waited so long that even the final step requires no rush. Then he moved from his position and drifted downward, no stairs, no visible effort, landing on the platform with effortless ease.
From within the folds of his cloak he drew a crystal.
Dark violet, nearly black, with internal veins that seemed to move like smoke trapped in glass. He held it between his fingers with the same delicacy one uses to hold something fragile and irreplaceable, then submerged his mana into it.
Evan, watching it, felt a strange sensation.
A familiar one. That specific quality of energy, hollow, absorbing, like a pressure pulling inward instead of pushing outward. He knew it.
Void Energy.
’Shit,’ he thought, instantly on alert as the scene unfolded before him.’Just what the hell is that guy trying to do?’
As though it had read his mind, the System’s voice resonated in his head.
[That is a Void Element Concept Core.]
Evan froze.
’A what?’ he murmured internally.
The System’s voice returned, this time carrying the tone of someone forced to explain the alphabet to a grown adult.
[A Concept Core. It is the next stage beyond a Mana Core, what you will need to develop once you reach the peak of A-rank. Without one, you cannot hope to advance to S-rank.]
Evan took a few seconds to absorb that.
’Oh... so it’s like that, but wait, if that’s a Concept Core of the Void element...’
The conclusion was obvious, and it wasn’t pleasant.
’...it means it was obtained from an S-rank Hollow.’
[Yes.]
Only recently had one appeared, and even that was because of Evan himself, who had decided that unleashing such a creature was the best way to ensure a successful escape, a decision that it was, in fact, but at a cost he preferred to ignore.
If another had shown up powerful enough to possess a Concept Core, the news would have spread across the entire kingdom. Even Overlords would have struggled to face one, it was not the kind of thing that went unnoticed.
Which left two possibilities.
Either the Core had been preserved for countless years, hidden away by hands that knew exactly what they were keeping. Or the Duke had managed to obtain one recently.
Either way, the presence of that object here promised nothing good.