28 Advancemen (1/2)

Finn sat under the sunlight, gazing into nothing, his mind in disarray.

What happened? What came over me? Finn remembered everything now that his mind was clear. He had felt a powerful urge to kill the beast. Not just that, he felt the need to make it suffer for daring to attack him!

Something's wrong with me... Finn couldn't help but feel fear at this revelation.

Several theories popped into his head as he struggled to understand the cause of his sudden bloodlust and cruelty.

Anger, he was familiar with. His past life was full of memories of being angry or even enraged at things. This though... this was different.

There was anger, yes, but it was tainted with a feeling of... Finn could only describe it as bloodthirsty excitement. Joy in the suffering of something that tried to hurt him.

That, Finn was absolutely certain, was not something he ever felt in his past life.

Finn's eyes opened wide. An idea had popped into his head, something that he had never considered before.

Maybe I'm slowly being influenced by the instincts and biology of my new form! This harrowing conclusion made Finn shudder.

Am I slowly and unnoticeabley changing? Will I start becoming colder and crueler? Will I still be myself in the future? These were several questions that chipped at Finn's confidence for the future.

Will I... cease being me? This was the deepest fear Finn held. He shook his head, banishing the depressing thoughts.

No! I refuse to believe that!

Finn had always believed in the power of mind over matter. No matter what influences someone, they always made choices. People are ultimately defined by those choices.

Finn nodded resolutely. I will not let myself become something I'm not! I just have to be careful in the future... Finn made a mental note of the unfamiliar emotions he felt before.

I'm the future, if he felt it again, he would remember to focus to maintain his self control.

Pacifying himself for the time being, Finn decided to worry more about his immediate surroundings. It seemed no matter where he went, danger lurked everywhere.

The surrounding forest, once seemingly calm and peaceful, now had a hint sinisterness to it as Finn looked around. For all he knew, there could be some other horrible beast hiding in the shadows.

Picking up no strange smells or warning signals, Finn turned his attention to the cooked corpse that lay in front of him. Walking to its oversized head, Finn carefully pried open its mouth.

Finn winced internally. Its teeth were huge! Each one was as large as a small dagger and just as sharp. They resembled sharks teeth, but these also had serrated edges.

To think that these would have been the teeth used to slice me up... Although Finn felt guilty for enjoying torturing it, he still was quite glad he survived the encounter.

Although, Finn suspected the only reason he was alive was because of his rationality. A regular beast would likely not have been smart enough to escape its death grip like Finn had.

Unfortunately, you met me. May you terrorize other lizards in your afterlife... Finn considered what to do with the body.

The skin color was now charred black from the roasting Finn had given it earlier, but underneath there was definitely a lot of fresh meat.

Oh yea! If I recall, it was able to resist my attacks somewhat... Finn wondered if this river monster also had a magic stone or core of some kind.

Examining closely, he didn't see a stone embedded into its body. Must have a core then... Finn resigned himself to digging through the body.

With fresh blood staining his claws, Finn held in his claw a dark blue, almost purple gem shaped like a smooth rock. As he flipped and examined it, he could sense power flowing inside.

Interesting... As he gazed into the core, Finn realized that he had never thoroughly examined one up close before. He knew what they looked like, but he had never personally handled one.

It's really quite beautiful! Judging from its size and color, it must be a rank two core with a water affinity... Finn glanced at the mutilated corpse he pulled it from.

It made perfect sense, after all. A magical beast that lives and hunts in the water would probably have a water affinity.

Now that he thought about it, there were certain trends he noticed before when reading the bestiary. Most flying magical beasts had wind affinities, while most burrowing magical beasts had earth affinities.

Although as with everything else, there were always exceptions... Finn pushed the distracting thoughts to the back of his mind and focused again on the core.

Finn could feel the energy contained within. However, Finn could also sense that the glowing bluish-purple energy seemed... hostile, as if it was rejecting him.

Why is this? Naturally, this only made Finn more curious. He suddenly had a novel idea.

Remembering how he had once tried to force his own energy into a stick, Finn was interested to see what would happen if he tried forcing it into this stone that was rejecting him.

For science of course!

Gripping the core tightly, Finn shut his eyes and concentrated.

Finn could feel his power manifesting itself in his claws. Opening his eyes slowly, he saw his own warm, yellowish-white energy starting to surround and envelop the darker stone like a cocoon.

Finn could feel a repulsive force coming from the core, like if magnets of the same polarity were pushed together.

However, as Finn focused more of his power into the core, something began to change.

Finn watched as his own light energy started seeping into the core, overcoming its natural resistance and slowly changing its color.

Amazing! The core started turning from a dark, bluish-purple hue, into a color similar to his own energy.

My energy is converting the energy in the core to my own! This was a mind blowing revelation!

Now Finn was beginning to understand how and why people would hunt magical beasts for their stones and cores.

If they could convert and absorb the concentrated energy from cores, they could advance in rank and power much faster!