Chapter 28: Emotions and monsters ( VIII )

In the early hours of a dark night, before the moon had risen, near the southern forest, a fierce battle was unfolding, like a man battling a gigantic bear with his bare hands. Bone-chilling shrieks echoed around the area, and the frustrated curses of a man could also be heard, making the scene truly chaotic.Rowan, still gripping the fur of the Ratax general, came up with several strategies to handle his current situation, but none would work unless he hurt himself.

In battle, sustaining injuries to prevent death was often the only sane step to take. However, if Rowan followed this advice, he would lose the upcoming war, which would also mean death. He was in a tight situation.

['Blaze' wishes to offer assistance]

[Your pet says it could help]

These messages appeared in front of him. Rowan thought about it for a second before opening the divine beast plain.

Blaze floated out of the portal that appeared in front of the Ratax, causing the creature to stop its frantic movement for a moment as it observed the extraordinary phenomenon taking place.

It let out a low sound of confusion.

Taking this opportunity, Rowan climbed up and wrapped his hands around its neck in a choking motion.

"Blaze, use your fireball on its nose," Rowan suggested.

If Blaze were to use the fireball on its eyes, it would only make its movements more frantic and might even activate its RAGE once again, making it much more difficult for Rowan to win.

Blaze let out an obedient squeak before activating its fireball, shooting a ball of flame at the nose of the Ratax general.

The fireball started by burning its long whiskers away before scorching its nose, making it difficult for the creature to breathe as it began letting out heavy breaths in an attempt to recover.

Using this opportunity, Rowan summoned his sword once again and stabbed it as fiercely as he could into the neck of the Ratax general. He observed its health and noticed it dropped by 20% with the stab. Thus, Rowan continued stabbing until the Ratax general lost a large amount of blood and collapsed on the ground, weakened.

Rowan jumped down and, with a final stab, took the life of the Ratax general.

[You've slain Boss Monster: Ratax General; +2000 evolution points]

[100x rewards activated | 200,000 evolution points have been added]

DING [THREAT has been defeated]

[Challenge completed successfully]

[Reward +20,000 evolution points]

[100x Reward activated | 2,000,000 evolution points have been added to your account]

Seeing the messages made Rowan smile profusely, especially when he saw the reward for slaying the boss monster.

"I haven't evolved my power yet, even though I have more than enough evolution points," he muttered. If he had evolved, he would have easily slain the boss monster, but the evolution points he would have gained would be very few.

A C-rank Lord would gain nothing from defeating a Ratax general, and an F-rank would only gain a small amount of evolution points. As someone naturally greedy for evolution points, he decided to take the risky approach of endangering his life for more.

As Rowan was lost in thought, Blaze started making loud noises to draw his attention to the corpse of the Ratax general.

"What is it, Blaze?" Rowan asked, turning his attention to Blaze, who was using its head to point at the corpse.

When Rowan focused on the corpse, something caught his eye, making him dash toward it immediately.

"A monster core!" he exclaimed with exhilaration.

He couldn't believe he had obtained a monster core from killing the Ratax general.

Monster cores are condensed mana reserves that reveal themselves after a monster's death. For most monsters, it emerges immediately after they die, while for others, you have to dig into their skull to find it. However, it's very rare to get monster cores from F-rank and FF-rank monsters.

The mana from monster cores can be absorbed and used for various purposes like crafting. It can also be sold for money, though this option is out of Rowan's reach for now.

Rowan ran and grabbed the tennis-sized monster core. Now holding it in his hands, his eyes sparkled with excitement as his mind raced through different ways he could utilize the monster core. He arrived at a perfect decision—he made up his mind to give it to his pet to absorb the mana.

He turned to look at Blaze, whose eyes were already focused on him.

"You can use this, right?" he asked. seaʀᴄh thё NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Blaze nodded its head rapidly. Not wasting time, Rowan tossed it gently to Blaze, who leapt into the air to catch it with its mouth.

"I don't know how long it will take for you to absorb the mana stored in this, but I'm sure it will aid your culti—" Rowan was unable to finish his sentence when he noticed something extraordinary.

After catching the monster core, Blaze swallowed it without hesitation.

Blaze's body was suddenly surrounded by a faint, golden glow that lifted it into the air. Its eyes closed as it entered a deep meditation, the light pulsing gently around it.

As the glow intensified, Blaze's small form hovered in the air, absorbing the mana from the monster core.

Rowan watched in awe as this took place. He never expected that Blaze would be able to absorb the monster core just by eating it; normally, it would have to absorb the mana using the usual absorption/meditation method, which would take days or even weeks.

After a few minutes, the glow around Blaze began to fade, and Blaze's body gently descended.

At that moment, a series of prompts popped up in front of Rowan.

DING! [ Your pet (BLAZE) has broken through from (Low Stage, Foundation Realm) to (Mid Stage, Foundation Realm) ]

DING! [ Your pet (BLAZE) has broken through from (Mid Stage, Foundation Realm) to (High Stage, Foundation Realm) ]

DING! [ Fireball Lv 1 -------> Fireball Lv 2 | 30 minutes cooldown reduced to 5 minutes ]

DING [ Your pet has awakened a new skill - Flame Synchronization Lv 1 ]