Chapter 71: Monster cores

‘You can at least answer these, right?’

Even he didn’t know if she would, but it was worth a try.

Silence lingered in his mind for a brief moment.

Then—

[Fine.] Akasha replied, making him internally sigh in relief.

[For your first question, no,]

Her tone carried a faint note of disdain, as if the very comparison irritated her.

It almost sounded like she found the question ridiculous.

[Her bloodline is rare, that’s all. It’s nowhere near yours.]

She huffed lightly, sounding oddly offended, as if he had personally insulted her or something.

[As for the second question, it’s simple. Your skill is still low-levelled, so you cannot see much information.]

Lucian listened carefully while giving Lia a hand to help her stand up.

Lia didn’t even glance at the goblin’s corpse lying beside her.

She still seemed a little dejected, something Seraphina noticed but chose not to comment on.

Lucian had just finished listening to Akasha’s explanation and was about to ask more, before he could continue the conversation—

A sudden sound shattered the quiet atmosphere of the room.

“Graak!”

A goblin’s shriek grew louder.

All three of them immediately turned toward the source.

One of the remaining two goblins was moving.

Not standing.

Not exactly.

More like…

Crawling.

Blood covered its face and arms.

One of its legs bent at an unnatural angle, clearly broken from Lucian’s earlier assault.

Still, the creature refused to stay down.

But the tone was unmistakable.

Rage. Desperation.

The goblin was crawling toward them.

Lia and Seraphina’s bodies tensed instantly.

Both of them flinched slightly.

Even though they had just killed a goblin, that didn’t directly make them capable of fighting one.

Killing someone while they were already incapacitated and killing—no—

Even fighting someone who could actually move was completely different.

Instinctively, both women took a step back.

Their bodies reacted before their minds could catch up.

Lia lightly grasped the sleeve of Lucian’s shirt.

“Should’ve just stayed down,” Lucian mumbled, his voice quiet, almost laced with annoyance.

He dashed forward from his spot.

In a second, he appeared in front of the goblin, grabbed the creature by its head, and slammed it violently into the nearby table.

The goblin shrieked in agony.

This time, he used much more strength, since he no longer had to worry about them dying too quickly.

He needed them alive long enough for Lia and Seraphina to face them.

But now—

There was no need for restraint.

Lia’s eyes widened as she barely registered that Lucian had already moved from beside her.

Even Seraphina stilled for a moment, but strangely, she didn’t feel as surprised as she thought she would.

After all, she had already seen the condition of the goblins earlier—even the one that had already been dead.

The bone dagger Lucian had taken from them didn’t look particularly sharp, yet it had still been embedded deep into the goblin’s skull.

So it was somewhat obvious that he was far stronger than they were now.

But that realization didn’t make her surprise completely disappear.

Seeing the goblin twitch weakly, Lucian slammed its head once more while it was still alive, then threw its body down onto the ground.

It lay there, completely still.

It didn’t move again.

Lucian exhaled slowly.

Then he turned his head slightly toward Lia and Seraphina.

“Wait for a minute.”

His voice was calm, almost casual—as if he had just finished some mundane chore.

He walked over to the goblin Lia had killed earlier.

The knife was still lodged in its chest.

Lucian bent over and pulled it free.

Dark blood coated the metal.

He didn’t bother cleaning it.

Instead, he walked toward the last remaining goblin.

The goblin was probably unconscious, since it hadn’t moved much. He would’ve considered it dead it not for the rise and fall of it chest.

The rest should be self-explanatory.

He drove the blade straight into the goblin’s heart, and it died.

Both women watched the entire scene unfold.

Neither of them spoke.

Neither of them moved.

They couldn’t believe how cruel he had turned.

Neither of them said anything about it.

Because deep down—

They both understood something.

The world had changed.

And Lucian…

Had simply changed faster than they had.

***

After that, Lucian explained to them about the monster core that existed inside the body of every goblin.

He told them about its uses and how it could be used to strengthen themselves.

He even brought out his bag, showing them the few monster cores he had taken from the dungeon.

When he mentioned that the cores had to be removed from the monsters’ chests, both of their lips curled in visible disgust.

Lia even took a step away from the bag, as if she had just seen the most disgusting thing in her entire life.

Seraphina, however, reacted very differently.

Instead of disgust…

She felt curiosity.

She took one of the cores in her hand—the hobgoblin’s E-rank core.

She held it carefully between her fingers, feeling something faint from it that she couldn’t quite understand.

She was slightly confused by the difference, noticing how the E-rank core was larger and somewhat different from the others.

But she didn’t think too much about it.

Lucian hadn’t told them that the one she was holding was an E rank core.

Lia might have forgotten something—but she hadn’t.

She hadn’t forgotten what Lucian had told them.

She clearly remembered that he had said he had fought only one—just a single goblin.

Then how did he end up with more than one core?

Seven of them, even.

Her gaze flicked briefly toward Lucian.

It meant Lucian had fought at least seven goblins alone—without them even knowing that this was barely ten percent of what he had truly faced.

And another question quietly formed in her mind.

How did he know that something like this would be inside their chests?

Still, she didn’t ask.

She knew he was hiding many things from her.

That much was already painfully obvious.

But for once, she chose to simply believe him—though, in truth, she almost always did.

After that, Lucian took out the knife and began removing the cores from the goblins’ corpses scattered around the house.

For both of them, it was the most disgusting sight imaginable.

Lia instantly covered her eyes halfway, peeking through her fingers like watching a horror movie they couldn’t fully look away from.

Seraphina wasn’t much better.

She didn’t look away completely, but her expression tightened just slightly.

It was almost like watching a surgery happen right in front of their eyes.

Lucian, meanwhile, was more worried about the shattered window, since more monsters could arrive through it at any moment.

So, he decided to take them somewhere safer.

[But first, devour those goblins. The scent of blood might attract more monsters.] Akasha warned before he could do anything else.

He wiped his recently washed hands and stood in front of the corpse.

“What are you doing?” Seraphina asked when she noticed him staring at the bodies for a few seconds.

“Should we move them away?” she added, thinking about the rotten, metallic stench coming from the corpses.

Her nose wrinkled slightly in disgust.

Lia, on the other hand, was sitting on the couch, staring down at her phone as she tried to call her friends, but—

She couldn’t.

No signal.

She checked again… but there was still nothing.

There was no network working anywhere nearby.

Frustrated, she let out a long sigh and tossed the phone aside.

Right at that moment—

Lucian spoke.

“I am going to devour them,”

Seraphina blinked.

Lia’s eyes widened dramatically.

“You are going to eat them?!” she asked loudly, horrified.

Her voice echoed throughout the house.

In that moment, she even forgot that there might be more monsters lurking outside their home.

“That’s not what I’m saying… let’s just say it’s something like a skill of mine.”

Lia finally calmed down after hearing that.

But then her expression brightened almost instantly.

Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Oh, so like you can shoot laser beams?”

Lucian’s lips twitched slightly as he looked at her, clearly bewildered.

“Why are you so fixated on those laser beams?”

Lia simply shrugged in response.

Seeing that, Lucian decided to ignore her and knelt down in front of the corpse.

“My skill allows me to devour beings,” he said calmly.

Then—

His palms suddenly turned ink black, the darkness spreading outward as it covered the goblin’s body.

His eyes deepened as well, turning into something hollow and void-like.

Both of the women watched in horror as the goblin’s body began to disappear into his palm, as if his body itself had swallowed it whole.

Lia abruptly stood up from the couch she had been sitting on.

“W-what?” she stammered, completely unable to comprehend what she had just seen.

What had just happened?

How did the goblin just disappear?

But she had seen it clearly.

It hadn’t vanished from its spot—it had somehow been absorbed by Lucian, as strange and unbelievable as that sounded.

How could a goblin, half her size, just be swallowed into him like that?

Again and again, Lucian was showing them things that neither of them could even begin to comprehend.

Meanwhile, Lucian’s eyes flicked to the notification that had appeared before him.

[You have devoured a goblin.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

Again, no skill. No memory fragments either.

Lucian wasn’t sure whether he should feel disappointed about not obtaining a new skill, or relieved that he didn’t receive any disturbing memory fragments from the creature.

Without overthinking it, he moved forward and walked toward another goblin.

He repeated the same process once more.

[You have devoured a goblin.]

[You have obtained 1 Attribute Point.]

[You have obtained a memory fragment.]

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly as he read the last part.

His heartbeat quickened.

Because he already knew what that meant.

Then he heard Akasha’s voice.

[Brace yourself.]

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