Chapter 61: Core

"Yeah, I just went out and encountered great existences at the third-tier fighting nearby, I wanted to view it but ended up fainting from the shock of the battle." 

His memory was fuzzy, but in his mind, this was the best outcome as he might have gotten more serious injuries, it was fortunate to be able to survive that disaster. This lesson had also taught him a lesson, and that was, never be too greedy or confident. 

Arrogance and overconfidence could kill a person, he was lucky to not die from it and learn the lesson while others would pay with their lives. 

But then he felt something was wrong like he had missed a very important detail but more importantly he didn't what he had missed. 

He had no collection of what had happened, or know what was wrong with his memory. 

'I encountered the battle of a giant of 10 meters and a 5 tailed green fox. After knowing about their battle, I rushed to it... I rushed to it?' 

'Strange... I'm not the one to rush to a battle recklessly...' 

'After hiding behind a rock, I watched the legendary battle of third-tiers. At the start, I was hoping to fish some benefits but then a third eye grew out from the five tailed green fox as it searched up the entire place' 

'My location was about to be exposed but with my perception, I succeeded in fooling it. It wasn't even a close call, even if the fox had 6 tails, he wouldn't have been discovered. So the battle started, I started to analyze what was different between an incomplete rune and a complete rune, he was at the border of enlightenment when the 10 meter high giant made a big move.'

'The move covered hundreds of kilometers, as I was unexpectedly in the radius of the fight.'

'I didn't expect the power of a complete rune would be that powerful, as I was unexpectedly in the radius of the battle. Giving up on the enlightenment, I tried to teleport using the dimension rune but the complete rune of the giant suppressed the nearby rune strings and rune, resulting in the teleportation taking some time before working.'

'So with serious injuries, I ended up fainting. Fortunately, the aura I radiated kept the monsters away from me. A really lucky shot...'

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how wrong the whole story was, it was too perfect. Even though he remembered the pain and analysis, the situation was just too perfect and coincidental to happen. 

...

With some doubt, he tried checking his status when he saw the continuous notifications issued by the status. 

[Host is inflicted under the State: Fear.]

[All status -100%. All skills regressed back to lv.1] 

[Host is under high-fluctuation.]

[Within ten seconds, host will be under the state of madness and irrationality. Within a minute, host will completely degrade into another creature]

[Analyzing...]

[Unknown creature 37%, demon 24%, unknown creature 10%, unknown creature 5%, unknown creature 4.9%, unknown creature 2%, unknown creature 1.1%, unknown creature 0.1%, undead 0.00001%....]

[Collecting data.... new species data created...]

[Suggested that host evacuate immediately]

[Starting the Self-Defense Mechanism: Irrationality]

[Host will be in a state of madness and irrationality once the self-defense mechanism had activated.]

[Starting the Self-Defense Mechanism: Rune]

[Runes comprehended by host will be controlled to counter the State: Fear]

[Due to the Self-Defense Mechanism: Rune, the state caused by fear will be 99.9%]

[High-Level fluctuation is gone. All debuffs would be nullified]

[To heal the injuries of host, host will be put unconscious for 5 days] 

...

Seeing all the notification, Cylius felt a chill in his spine. Seeing the notifications, he would definitely not think that the memory received by him were true. 

Just seeing all the unknown variables, he knew that the creature or the source of radiation was terrifying and beyond his imagination. 

He then ordered "Status, replay my thoughts and the scene"

[Affirmative...]

[3... 2... 1...]

As the countdown ended, he could see that he had arrived in another place, a place where he wasn't familiar with. 

In his vision, there was a desolate mountain without any energy left it. Within a kilometer radius, it was a dead place. 

Still moving forward, the scene in his vision changed as he was in another place where trees covered the whole place. 

A hand appeared in his vision as with a motion, an artifact appeared in his hands but this time, he recognized what it was! It was the artifact he got much earlier, from the 'silent dwarf monkey'. 

The runes inscribed in it was useful in his comprehension of runes, so he had snatched it for further research. 

As he saw the runes within the blowpipe, his eyes started to change as the three circles within his left eye spun as he directly saw the internal structure of the artifact. 

Layers after layers of rune fell off before his eyes, as he saw the black piece of wood used as the main material for creating this. The white circles within his eyes spun faster and faster until it had reached a speed that a normal eye couldn't see. 

As he was seeing this scene, thoughts started flooding his mind, these were his thoughts at the time. 

Continuous thoughts flooded his mind that if the average man got this much information, they would've felt their brain hurt as they would fall into a state of tiredness but he accepted all of it calmly. 

His brain working at a fast speed, it selected the useful information while discarding the useless ones. 

Just as he deciphered the rune artifact and admired the precise skill behind it, a sudden thought assaulted his mind. It was a very important piece of information that it left a deep scar in his mind, but this deep scar, he couldn't remember it. 

No matter how he searched his brain he couldn't remember this information. 

If the memory was erased and replaced by a fourth-tier or fifth-tier creature, even if his whole memory was wiped out he would've remembered a trace of this information since it left a deep scar in him. 

The existence he encountered was bound to be a terrifying existence. 

The thought was the question of 'What if a monster core was a material made up of rune? Or they contained rune in them' 

'Just realizing the question, he was sent into a huge dilemma. His mind was chaotic as he instinctively wanted to hide this information and question.

At this time, his pupils shrunk as he inadvertently looked at a branch not far from him. 

In his vision, a figure flickered from illusion to reality as it clung on to a branch, seemingly like a virus that infected the whole world. 

It was a blurry thing, all of it was censored as he couldn't view the details of the figure. 

But even though it was a blurry creature form his memories, he instinctively felt fear towards this creature. 

Trying to remember the details, his mind and soul experienced huge pain as he felt that if he tried to do it again, his soul will really shatter into many pieces and he would die. 

From the memory, he only remembered a few words which were:

"Worlds... invade" 

...

He woke up. 

Touching his eyes gently, he realized that his finger had become red and wet. 

"Ah, blood came out"

Just as he looked up blood came pouring out of his eyes, as it painted the nearby surroundings red. 

He didn't have blood, it wasn't necessary for his new body. More precisely, he didn't have any blood vessels and the use of blood was replaced by lifeforce by him. His cells were dependant from him, as they could survive on their own. 

This thing he called blood was rather his essence. The most precious part of the lifeforce. Even though his cells could survive on their own, they wouldn't last long alone, so he would nourish them with lifeforce once in a while. 

His essence on the other hand nourished his core, which is in the process of creation but it was a tiny piece. 

From the second-tier, one would start to create their core while in the third-tier would the core would be completed. 

The core was basically a container used to store rune strings and energy they had already purified, so it was a convenient storage. 

The energy contained in it would also be more powerful depending on the person. 

A loss of essence was a serious injury, just remembering its existence gave him this much of serious injury just meant that he shouldn't ponder or think about this matter. 

For now, the plan would be changed and he would try to restore his essence back to normal. 

If possible, he would devour some second-tier beings to restore his peak prowess. Even if he was weakened, with his two runes there was no way he couldn't kill and devour a normal second-tier being. 

... 

"Why are you doing this? Aren't you afraid of infringing upon the rule of the gorge? Actively seeking to kill creatures of second-tier and above would get you public hatred" 

Hearing this he sneered, there was no way a rule like that existed in the gorge. The whole world was founded upon strength, and the weak had no rights, not to mention this place was the infamous Gorge of Death where the weak gets killed while the strong get all the resources. 

It might just be that this undead was trying to deceive him, as he didn't recognize his face and thought he was new. 

It was indeed true that he was a newbie but he wouldn't get deceived by this small lie. 

Continuing his attack his body vanished in the air as he got a sword out from his back and slashed at the neck. The sword was dark gray with some scribbles inscribed on it. 

It had a cold glow as it emitted an aura that made people feel lost and agitated. This was his sword he got on the space ship, swords of this quality were rare, so he just decided to inscribe runes on it as an experiment. 

Metal appeared above on the undead's neck as it blocked the attack. 

But the sword didn't stop with the metal as it was cut off. The sword still kept going until the whole neck was cut off. 

"Pushi" the head of the undead wolf flew upwards as a shocked expression appeared on the wolf's face. 

But it didn't stop with the head being cut as dark gray energy spread out from the sword as it invaded the undead's body. The shocked expression of the wolf turned into a fearful face instantly as it had no chance as its whole body was infected with the death yin energy. 

The body of the undead rotted as its essence and the tiny piece of core had been eroded by him and devoured by him. 

With no time to plead for life, the wolf died out as its cultivation was devoured by him. 

"Haaa" 

A satisfied sound came out from his mouth unknowingly as he closed his eyes and grinned slightly.