Chapter 351: Another Evolution
"Aurora... give me some cores pleeeeaassee... I want them to have full core concentration before evolving. Please?"
Archana’s words echoed in the house as she pleaded for some cores for the hatchlings. From some source, she had heard this sister of hers had a great number of cores and wanted to have some for the children.
Hunting in the slime farm... all the spiders were already ready to evolve... now the only thing they needed was fully-blown cores, and then they would achieve perfect evolution.
"I already told you... all the cores are in Master’s inventory..." Aurora replied, trying to dismiss the matter.
Listening to her words, Archana gave her a side-eye and looked at the corner of the room.
"Then what is in that thing?" she said, pointing in a direction where a white chest was placed. From the strong mana saturation... there was no denying it was filled with cores.
"Those are for Alaric... let him come and If any are left after his consumption... you can have them," Aurora said, knowing the cores were exactly the same amount Azarex had consumed.
"T-That... tsk! If anything’s left... that will be mine... okay," Archana said, disappointed by the timing.
If she had paid some attention to these matters, she could’ve asked Master directly. Now that those cores were for Alaric, there was nothing she could do.
"Talking about Alaric... he reached the maximum level..." Aurora told her, wondering if she would get any cores in her fate or not.
Before Archana could say something... her shadow stirred as a being made out of it appeared behind her.
"Hello, guys..." Alaric whispered, looking at the ladies in front of him.
"Aghhhh!..." For some reason, Archana panicked a little sensing Alaric appearing like that.
"What happened!?"
Calming her beating heart, Archana looked at him and answered, "What... what happened?... why do you appear behind me like a pervert?"
"Pervert!?..." Confused why he was called by this term, he looked at Aurora for some confirmation.
Shaking her head, Aurora quickly denied her understanding of anything as well.
"S-Sorry, I guess..." Having no other choice, Alaric apologized.
"O-okay... just remember not to appear like that..." Giving him a side-eye, Archana replied.
"How much have you saturated your core?" Minding the conversation between these two, Aurora asked the question.
"67%."
Hearing the answer, Aurora looked at her sister in disappointment. The cores in the chest were only enough to fill the gap when one had a fully saturated core... and now that Alaric was only at 67%, there was no chance some would be left for Archana.
Understanding the meaning of it Archana looked at Alaric with a hint of anger... Controlling his emotion she sat on the chair. Not losing her hope still she began praying to whatever god was ready to listen.
"So... what are we going to do..." Alaric asked not sure about the plan.
"Nothing much... you see that chest there are cores in them and you have to absorb them until you can’t,"
Aurora replied, still not telling him about the Tier IV Epic core. What she told him was one can absorb core above 100% and how it is necessary during the evolution.
"Any reason those cores in particular?" Nodding his head Alaric asked.. Having something in his mind.
"No... nothing like that. They are your normal cores."
"Then... I can absorb the cores I have, right?" Not wanting to get help from Aurora until absolutely necessary Alaric asked once again.
"Of course... how much do you have?"
"Well, let’s say... I have plenty to spare..."As there wasn’t any storage on the island, all the valuable things were stored in Alaric’s shadow, and that included cores.
If taking into consideration the ones he had hunted himself, Alaric had more than enough cores to reach five hundred or so percent in core saturation.
"Ohhh! In that case... go ahead... absorb them until you can’t." Saying these words, Aurora looked at Archana and continued, "It looks like you are in luck, Archa-"
"Archana?"
Archana was nowhere in the room. The moment she heard Alaric had enough cores, she went ahead to bring the hatchlings. While Alaric was in the middle of his absorption, Archana came back with all her twenty children.
"They hatched already?" Alaric asked, looking at the little monsters following the sixth guardian like their blood relative.
"As you can see... they are. Aren’t they cute, Alaric?" With a face full of smiles, she asked.
"O-Of course they are..." Alaric understood that telling a lie wasn’t as easy as he had thought.
’She truly has some pretty powerful mana masking abilities...’ Aurora thought, remembering how Archana had slipped past the room without anyone noticing.
Thinking about whether this was the influence of her becoming a semi-mutant or if she already had the ability, Aurora watched as the Alaric and hatchlings began to absorb the cores.
As they were only at Tier 0, the most they needed was twenty Tier I cores to 100% saturate their cores. Because of their size limitation, a single hatchling could only get its core saturation up to 200%.
One thing that Archana made sure of was that the majority of cores they absorbed were at least of Uncommon rank, so they would have the chance to get the same rank evolution.
Soon all the hatchlings were ready to evolve, and so was Alaric.
"T-This is it... I can’t absorb any more cores..." With a pained expression, Alaric replied.
At first, because of his unique nature, Alaric had thought he could absorb the cores indefinitely... but soon enough, he realized there was a limit, and it was quite short as well.
Where Azarex could maximize 500%, Alaric was only able to go up to 400%.
"You sure!?" Aurora asked before making the final move.
"As much as one can be..." Alaric replied, knowing there was no way in hell he could absorb any more cores.
"Okay... then absorb this." Pulling out a core the size of a football out of her pocket, she handed it over.
"W-wait, how did you pull that thing... no more seriously, I don’t think I can absorb any more cores..." Alaric asked looking at her as if she was some sort of performer... pulling things out of her pocket like nothing.
Knowing it wouldn’t be easy, Aurora told him the benefits one gets from doing it like this.
"I-if you say it like that..." While shivering, Alaric hesitantly moved his hand forward.
