Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Chapter 105  After

From the moment that Marc had turned his back, to his head being sliced off, only a second had passed.

Alex had been waiting for an opportunity to present itself to him, where he could launch a sudden attack on the unsuspecting black cloaked man, and he couldn't have asked anything better than him turning his back to him.

'This is it!'

In that instance, Alex activated the only move he had left that he hadn't revealed to the black cloaked man yet.

Inferior teleportation.

There were no sounds, no movements required as Alex appeared directly behind the black cloak, his sword already against his neck.

With a quick slash, the man's head was separated from his neck, taking the hood with it too. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

As it rolled across the floor, Alex finally had the chance to get a good, proper look at the person who had hunted him so relentlessly over the past few hours.

'Average looking. Just another forgettable face.'

Alex kicked the head off into the shrubbery, left to either rot or be some lucky beast's lunch.

'It's a shame I couldn't ask who hired him to kill me, but whatever.'

This was only a mild regret Alex had, but he didn't dwell on it. The situation had been too dire and Alex had no clue whether the guy would have another hidden trump card like that weird stone from earlier, so he couldn't take any chances.

He had to end it then and there.

'Let's see what loot you left me!'

Naturally, as soon as the danger was over and the man was dealt with, Alex's first thought was the spatial storage item he had on him.

He had no clue what form it took, so he searched every nook and cranny of the man's body, but found nothing that indicated it had a magical nature, or even vaguely gave off a little bit of spatial energy.

'Where did he hide it?'

He was stuck, he had searched the man's entire body yet the only things he found were his sword, which was quite valuable itself as an Ordinary class D- rank weapon.

But he had already confirmed that the sword wasn't the spatial treasure.

Suddenly, he had a thought and he couldn't help but kick himself for it.

'Stupid! I need to keep my emotions in check.'

Alex went over into the shrubbery, checking every bush and hole for the man's head that he had so stupidly kicked away earlier in his fit of anger.

'Aha! Here it is. Now, show me the money!'

Finally, after a few minutes of searching, he found it in a bush 30 metres away and retrieved it.

Ignoring the terrified expression on his face, Alex checked for any jewellery or trinkets, and he finally felt a faint aura of spatial energy.

'It's this earring!'

He tore a small, diamond earring out of the man's ear and inspected it. He poured a little of his own energy into it and immediately felt a connection to a small space outside of his own.

'Around 10 square metres, not too shabby.'

There were a few items inside, many of which raised Alex's heartbeat.

'Beast cores… so many beast cores…'

There were a total of 450 beast cores stored inside. All of them were above F tier, the lowest rank being E- rank, and they made up the lowest portion!

In total, there must have been over a million credits worth of beast cores inside alone!

If Alex wanted to, he could leave the Primordial Expanse right there and then and buy his ticket to the Solar system, where Capital Prime University was located.

But he wouldn't.

He still had a few months left before he had to leave, and seeing that he was still here, he wanted to make the most of it.

He made himself a goal to reach E+ rank at the minimum before he left this place. Even better if he reached D- rank!

'But first I have to get out of this shitty place…'

Alex looked around himself, gazing at the jungle scenery and the flickering sky above.

Taking away the constant attacks and the near death experiences, this place was actually a huge boon for him.

It enabled him to upgrade to Mutant class, and E rank at the same time.

Not only this but he had finally gained himself a powerful sword that would last him a lot longer than that shabby dagger he bought for himself the first time around.

All in all, things seemed good.

'Guess I'll try something before I leave.'

Thinking of this, Alex took out a D- rank beast core from his storage, which he had already hooked onto his own ear.

This beast core was only an Ordinary class, like every other beast core in the storage. It seemed the previous owner made sure to absorb any Mutant core, not even bothering to store them.

Holding the core in his hand, Alex started the process of absorbing it like he was always used to.

Only, the results were less than satisfactory.

Soul Classification: [Mutant - -0.1%]

His progress towards the next class had actually reduced, and since he was already at 0%, it went into the minuses…

[Warning! Beings below King class will only harm themselves by absorbing cores from lower classes. If your progress drops below -10%, you will almost certainly be demoted to the previous classification, leading to certain death from the backlash in 99.99% of cases.]

'It's just as I suspected.'

Alex wasn't the least bit surprised when he read the notifications of the system.

He had already learned that it liked to hide information from him, as well as drop sudden bombs like this from time to time.

But in retrospect, it made sense that beings of a higher class shouldn't absorb cores from lower classifications. They would only be diluting their higher class energy with low, poor quality energy if they did so, which would only be harmful to them in the long run.

It was like the system said, it would probably lead to certain death from doing so.

Though he didn't know why it only applied to classes below King class.

Now that everything was over and Alex was just about ready to leave, he received a notification from the system out of nowhere.

[Your mental fortitude and willpower have proven yourself worthy in the attack against your soul. The second layer of your talent [Soulforge] has been unlocked.]