Two days later, the group of four were all awake together. In truth, it had only been an hour since the three who had collapsed from fatigue stirred again, and in that time Adela had proven her independence by managing to slay a stray Enraged-rank beast that crossed their path, adding to the meat they carried.

Fortunately for them, it had not yet begun to decompose; being the flesh of a mutated creature, it remained quite edible. Had it been before the chaos fifty years ago, even if the meat had been technically edible, the human body would never have been able to adapt to the world's altered mechanics, and thus could never have consumed such fare.

Naturally, even now, every mutated creature carried corrupted energy in its core, a substance that served as a fatal trigger to any human who absorbed it. Yet, thankfully, corrupted energy could neither be transmitted nor passed on through the consumption of their essence cores.

Demons and Dragons, along their path, were usually devoid of essence cores; thus, to draw spiritual energy from them required killing them outright, as Kyle had done when he slew the Demon of Virtue, earning himself additional rewards.

After they had lain in slumber for two full days, they managed to recover only sixty additional points of stamina. For Kyle, who had been left with a mere five, this brought his total to sixty five. That gave him enough to walk and move, perhaps even to endure two or three more battles before collapsing once again.

He had not yet obtained anything that might restore his stamina to its peak. Without aid, a complete recovery would demand five days of rest for both Orion and Kyle, while the beautiful stranger would require a full week.

"Time to eat, everyone. I think… it is cooked well enough now," Adela giggled, holding up a burnt piece of meat over the fire.

***

After eating all the poorly cooked meat that Adela had prepared on her own, the four of them sat together on the forest floor, still stained with dried blood, with the carcass of the Dematus lying nearby, to divide the total of seventy-two essence cores. This excluded the two Kyle already had with him and the one remaining with Adela, since she had consumed the one Na-Ri had given her.

Unfortunately for Kyle, he had been unable to harvest the core before it faded, as he had already fallen unconscious.

Even now, he had yet to examine his new weapon, which was the final message he had heard from the Manual.

Orion's gaze settled on the essence cores piled in the centre, wrapped in his cloak.

"So, how do we share the essence cores?"

They all turned their attention to the trove.

Ordinarily, each core harvested from an Enraged-rank beast carried five points of spiritual energy. That made a total of three hundred and sixty points, a figure significant enough to alter their balance of strength if distributed carelessly. If absorbed by only one of them, it would be sufficient to raise that person to the next rank.

The beautiful stranger sighed wearily.

"We will divide them equally. It is the simplest method, anyway."

Kyle glanced at her, resisting the urge to scoff. As was known, equal division was always the surface answer, but never the practical one. His eyes lowered to the heap. They could each take ninety points, if cut evenly, and that was more than enough for him to finally reach the Layer Five path and, with further opportunities along the way, achieve his third Breakthrough and at last catch up to Na-Ri, if she had not already advanced further by then. Perhaps even one leap above him.

Of course, this seemed somewhat of a greedy train of thought, but his ambition to reach and surpass Na-Ri compelled him onwards. At this moment, he needed all the strength he could gather to protect himself against the dangers of this world. He could not rely on the Abyssal Orb and become a fool who embraced death, as he had already discovered it came with a cost and that the first use had merely been a trial.

For the present, he was unwilling to lose more of his Spiritual energy, as he needed it to grow stronger. With that, use of his Black Thread skill was prohibited. Better still, he had finally obtained a weapon, although he was yet to discover its flaw.

Honestly, humans were at the greatest disadvantage in this world.

Orion gave a slight frown as he shrugged.

"Well, by ordinary logic, we did not fight equally. Lee and I dealt with the Scraggers and harvested the cores. Eh?"

'Why is he suddenly awakening his clownish traits now? Or is that truly his Name? Ugh. Whatever.'

Adela folded her arms with her chin lifted slightly.

"Umm... I fought as well. In fact, alone, when the rest of you were unconscious, I managed to kill an Enraged-rank beast. Not only that, but it was not insignificant, was it?"

At her last words, she fell crestfallen. Among the group, she was the only one with the lowest kill count and was still yet to face a truly powerful beast alone unlike the others.

"Come on, I was only joking, of course." The handsome youth instantly covered himself as he watched the grey-haired beauty lower her head in self-reproach.

On the other hand, Kyle rubbed his jaw, weighing the numbers in his mind. If Na-Ri and Orion took the lion's share, should the beautiful stranger later decide upon that, it would leave him and Adela at a disadvantage, and he had no intention of walking blind behind them, weakened by a poor bargain.

"What if we simply divide it equally without counting kills or contributions, since we all need to grow stronger?"

The beautiful stranger narrowed her eyes but offered no reply.

Orion gave a slow nod, considering the suggestion, while Adela glanced at Kyle with faint approval, though she too remained silent.

The handsome youth leaned forward and began to portion the heap into four.

"Very well then, we each take eighteen. That leaves nothing over, since eighteen apiece makes ninety points. With that, no one is short-changed."

Na-Ri's gaze lingered on him before it shifted to the heap.

After a brief pause, she inclined her head in assent.

"That will suffice."

Adela gave a small smile, clearly satisfied, and reached forward to gather her share.

Kyle's hand brushed his portion. It was not as much as he had once hoped for, yet more than sufficient for survival. Besides, he had two extras with him, making it twenty in total. That amounted to one hundred points, which was more than enough to raise his strength to a workable level. He glanced across at Orion, who calmly took one of the Essence cores.

Upon consuming it, Orion's skin glowed brightly for a moment before settling into a paler tone than before, though not yet equal to Na-Ri's complexion, which seemed almost divine.

A faint smile tugged at Kyle's lips as he looked at the three with an appealing gaze.

Ordinarily, such intake ought to have triggered a breakthrough, but he had expended most of his Spiritual energy during battle. Much of what he regained now merely restored what had been depleted, and he needed only a little more before advancing further.

Na-Ri and Adela swiftly consumed their shares and felt the same replenishing energy course through them.

Kyle closed his eyes briefly and took hold of the first core. The moment it dissolved, energy surged through his frame, and soon the familiar chime of the Manual echoed within his mind.

***

[You have consumed an Enraged-rank Essence core…]

[You have consumed an Enraged-rank Essence core…]

[You have consumed an Enraged-rank Essence core…]

[You have consumed an Enraged-rank Essence core…]

[You have consumed an Enraged-rank Essence core…]

***

'Perfect. Summon tab,' Kyle commanded, calling forth the Manual's complete information within his mind.

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