Chapter 164: Self-bestowal
“Another one.” Micky said, carrying an oversized rat carcass in his talons.
The distraction caused Percy to mess up the rune he was trying to carve on the snake’s body, prompting him to click his tongue in annoyance. Sighing, he shifted his attention to the new corpse, scanning it via Mana Sense. There was an Orange star rapidly dimming in its sternum.
“Micky… I said Yellow beasts only… I wish I could preserve all of them, but I don’t have the time. At least, not while keeping up with my other tasks.”
Percy had way too much on his plate lately. Besides piling up the dead animals for their operation, he also had to brew elixirs for the group, to keep up the appearance of a professional blacksmith for the townsfolk, and to work on his new spell. Orange beasts just weren’t worth the effort. They’d only give Micky a fraction of the mana when the time came.
“I’m trying.” the bird cawed in annoyance. “Yellows are getting harder to find.”
“Alright. Just drop it in that circle for now. I’ll mark it later if I have the time.” Percy said, pointing at yet another preservation rune carved on the ground nearby.
Shimmering in a faint teal colour, it was much larger than those he drew on the creatures’ flesh. And it wasn’t the only one. It was surrounded by dozens of similar circles. Most of them had Yellow carcasses lying on them, only a handful having Orange ones instead.
Had somebody paid close attention to the bodies, they’d notice all of them were covered from head to toe with even more preservation runes. That said, Percy had run into diminishing returns after trying to double down on the enchantment. The runes he carved on the bodies already accounted for over 80% of the effect, so the additional circles underneath them were just icing on the cake. Still, he wanted to preserve every last drop of soul mana they could extract from the animals, to maximize the odds of his experiment working.
Three weeks had already passed since his return from the Vault. He and Micky had amassed over thirty corpses in that time. Sadly, a quick scan via Soul Vision revealed that the first souls were crumbling already, the silver flames over halfway gone.