Seeing all the notifications flashing across his eyes, the sides of Harry's lips quirked up into a smile.
He had gained 21000EXP just from killing one beast alone, and Harry didn't plan on leaving the forest until he at least, levelled up.
He deactivated [Accelerate] since he didn't want to waste too much energy.
He pulled out the daggers from the pouch, their silver blades glistening slightly before slowly approaching the dead mana beast.
There was blood on the ground close to the body, however, Harry didn't seem to care as he slowly crouched.
Although he had already killed it, he still didn't let his guard down.
He rubbed the fur for a few seconds as he smiled wryly.
After the beast's death, each strand of fur that formerly pointed up, had already fallen down, so touching it was now possible.
Pointing the sharp blade of the dagger to the beast's head, Harry rapidly dug it in, causing thick red blood to coat the blade.
What he wanted to do was search for the beast core that lied in the body of the mana beast.
From what he knew, the 'stone' was either in the head—in the middle of its brain, of the mana beast or the chest—in its heart.
To get it, one would need to dig through the body of the mana beast. Fortunately for him, the weapon was sharp enough to cut through the body.
In this case, Harry hoped to find it in the head. He didn't want to go through the stress of cutting open the chest, since that would br a lot more difficult.
His skill [Mana sense] was also active and he was using it to search for the part where the mana was densest—there was a chance the beast core was there.
After 'digging' for a few seconds, he finally came across a shiny blue stone.
The 'stone' was quite big when compared to the stage four beast core that was given to him by the AMO, however, he didn't care about that.
He dipped his finders into the head, staining then with blood and then grabbed the beast core.
The moment his hands came in contact with it, a set of tabs appeared in front of him.
======
[Does the Host want to absorb stage one beast core?]
[Yes/No]
======
He ignored it and stored the beast core in his storage device.
His plan was to sell it and not absorb it.
It wasn't like he would gain that much EXP from it anyway, at most, he would get 5000EXP. With his current level, that was barely enough to make him level up.
A strange glint flashed through his eyes as he stared at the dead body.
It didn't look like anything pleasant with blood and brain matter gushing through the head.
The scene could only be described with one word: Gruesome.
Yet, even with that gruesome and stomach-churning image in front of him, his mind felt oddly calm.
'Am I not doing all these… a little too easily… a little too calm?' He couldn't help but wonder.
Ever since he evolved, he had noticed that his thoughts process and actions seemed to change.
It felt as if things that mattered before, no longer mattered as much anymore.
The first was with his parents; after he moved away from their house, one would expect them to come after him or at least, make even a little effort to find out where he now lived, but they didn't.
It was as if he never existed to them from the beginning anyways.
Although this wasn't too surprising considering how they had treated him before, Harry knew his past self would have cared.
However, the current him didn't.
A part of him felt like it was related to his high mental stat, while a part of him felt like it wasn't—at least, not completely—and was something more… serious.
This thought only lingered on his mind for a few more seconds before it vanished like it never existed.
Placing his hand on the dead beast's body, Harry mumbled two words: "Mana steal."
Immediately, he felt a warm sensation rush into his arm. It wasn't refreshing like his energy as it was more of a feeling coursing through his veins, however, he was familiar with that feeling.
[+2000EXP]
His eyelids trembled slightly as a notification flashed through his eyes.
[+500EXP]
And after the last one, no more notification appeared in front of him.
Harry sighed and then withdrew his hand from the beast's body.
This was something he had thought about earlier when he killed the rabbit; if he could steal mana from human beings, he should also be able to do the same to mana beasts as long as they weren't above the third stage.
Even though he had removed the beast core from the rabbit, there was still some residual mana in the body. It was this mana that he 'absorbed' through [Mana steal].
The only bad thing was the low level of the skill, he couldn't continuously steal mana as much as he wished as [Mana steal] also had its limits.
The amount of EXP he gained from this mana beast was a lot lesser than what he gained from Trent, but he wasn't complaining.
As for the beast's body, he doubted he could still sell it.
Due to him draining the body of mana, it was now slightly shrivelled and even the furs had thinned.
Coupled with the crude and roughly dug out 'hole' on its forehead, its value had dropped considerably.
He stood up and walked away in search of his next opponent.
Just then, a system notification appeared in front of him.
======
[Optional Quest]
—Hunt Down 5 stage one Mana beasts [0/5]
—Rewards For Completion:
+50 Stat points
—Time Limit: None
—Punishment for quest failure: None
======
Reading the message that was flashing across his eyes, a smile quirked up on Harry's lips.
Though he wouldn't gain any EXP from the quest, he was more than satisfied with the reward.
Stat points were a lot harder to gain than EXP, he could always get EXP from his daily quests.
He felt a little pain when he saw that his horned rabbit kill wasn't included in the quest, but he didn't ponder on it too much.
After walking for a few minutes, Harry finally came across another mana beast.
It had the body structure of a pig, except that its snout was twice bigger than that of a normal pig.
It had a very robust body and two pairs of short, thick legs.
Its skin was yellow and its back and some parts of its face were adorned with dark blue scales, a few scales were also on its feet.
Harry's heart beat quickened slightly as he stared at the beast some meters away from him.
The 'pig' hadn't noticed him since he was hiding behind a tree.
From the scales that were on his body, Harry could already guess that it was a beast that excelled in defence.
He couldn't just attack aimlessly.
Just then, the pig-like creature paused its movements as it raised its head slightly.
It sniffed the air a few times with its snout twitching rapidly.
Suddenly, it turned his head towards Harry's location and then dashed forward.
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