Chapter 17: Cores

Chapter 17: Cores

Nathan was sitting on his bed, staring at all 180 cores he'd got. He crossed his legs while saying, "According to the instruction manual, I'm supposed to swallow this core."

The cores had a round shape and a pale gray color. Each of them was as small as a candy. They didn't produce any smell.

"Are you going to swallow it now?" Fenrir asked.

"Yes. Normally, we would have to split these cores, but I guess I should be the ones swallowing all of these."

"Your quality is higher than mine, so you obviously need to be the one. But recording this process will allow your teacher to compare it with other students' results, you know that?"

"Yep. The result might vary, but there's simply no way for her to test one's aptitude. If I'm different, I'll just say that it's your fault. That's the reason I summon a beast instead of a humanoid familiar or something." Nathan shrugged.

"Fair enough. In that case, hurry up and swallow them. If you get stronger, I also want more Ena so that I can use more of my abilities."

"I know, I know." Nathan nodded. He grabbed one of them and put it into his mouth.

"It doesn't have a taste. I feel like I'm eating gum that has no more flavor in it." Nathan muttered. Unlike the chewy gum, the core gradually melted like ice. The fluid was gradually entering his throat.

His heart rate and body temperature increased gradually.

"Huu..." Nathan inhaled deeply, adjusting his breathing.

It was uncomfortable. It felt like there were ants crawling outside his stomach, lasting for a minute.

Fenrir was staring at him carefully, making sure nothing dangerous occurred or resided in Nathan's body.

After the itchy sensation died out, his heart rate went back to normal. The whole time, Nathan was just holding on to his stomach while closing his eyes, enduring the weird sensation.

"Should be about 189 if I calculate it correctly. It means I'll have a total of 273 Ena points after swallowing it all... about 4.5 times of my original Ena before summoning you."

"Great! The problem is how much Ena do I need to unlock my abilities. My level is 13, so I can't really be reckless since I don't want to make another contract recklessly since I'll lose another ability." Fenrir frowned.

"I don't know. Anyway, I'll be writing down all the answers I've written previously for Selena and studying for the rest of the day."

"Before that, why don't you check your own level? It's said that summoned familiars can increase their levels by absorbing the cores, right?" Fenrir asked.

"Now that you mention it..." Nathan almost forgot about it. Fenrir managed to increase his quality by increasing his level, so if he somehow surpasses basic quality and reaches the good quality, the amount of Ena he can get from each core might be different.

With that in mind, Nathan went to the mirror.

Name: Nathan Reckmoon

Level: 3

Race: Human

Quality: Basic (High)

"I level up too! But if I give you my Ena, will my level drop?" Nathan frowned.

"Probably. But I don't think it'll go down to zero. After all, your initial level should be 1 with 60 Ena."

"Fair enough." Nathan nodded in agreement. "If that's the case, my quality can increase and decrease depending on how much Ena I have. It makes summoning familiar more complex."

"True. With your current rate, you get 70 Ena with 50 cores. But if your quality increases, and you somehow get 80 Ena with 50 cores, it might not be significant at first, but it'll be in the long run." Fenrir nodded. "But if you're too greedy, it'll also cause our growth to be slow as well."

"I know. I'll just put more thoughts into it, not becoming greedy or paranoid." Nathan waved his left hand, his other hand writing down the answers.