The remnants of the lightning lingered in the area for a few seconds before subsiding and Silva steadily floated over to Seth's side since it was clear the battle was beyond over.
("Impressed?")
Seth was still gobsmacked at the sight before him, and it took a few more seconds before he could muster up a reply.
"Very; I didn't think you'd be that strong"
("Hah, this was only a small portion of what I can really do but this was my limit")
'What kind of absolute monster will he be at his peak?!'
("By the way, how do you feel?")
"What do you mean?"
("Do you not feel it?")
Confused, Seth tried to move his head and the rest of his body but the moment he did a wave of weakness flowed through him like he'd just finished a marathon.
'The hell, did that consume all my stamina or something?'
("There it is, I told you before I'm limited by what I can do; It's because I use your spirit to form my physical body so just a simple attack like that can wear your spirit down.")
"My spirit? What happens if it's all gone?!"
'The spirit is the link between body and soul, right? If it's gone, I'd die right?!'
("Stop panicking, you can't make it completely depleted you'd just wear it out at most, look use your spirit sense and take a good look at yourself")
He did as he was told, as his spirit sense activated the silver lights filled his view and he looked at his own hands; The luminous silver film that covered his bones before was now a lot dimmer than before and the flow was weaker.
"So, it's my spirit not my stamina? Then why do I feel so weak?"
("It may feel like you're out of stamina but it's a bit different, you'll be able to keep going as much as you want still but your body won't be able to bring out its full strength, it's the equivalent of suddenly having the body functions of a child than an adult")
'That sounds like what'd happen if you had low vitality, now that I think about it I remember having a similar feeling back when I was hit by a spell that drained my vitality before so maybe this means vitality is the equivalent of spirit like I thought, either that or they're closely linked'
("Got it?")
"Yeah somewhat, I have a better idea of what spirit is now"
("You're only scratching the surface boy, you should use spirit sense a lot more especially when fighting, observe the flow of spirit in the world and that of your opponent and it can tell you a lot you'd never even think of seeing before")
"Interesting, I'll give it a go next time"
'But for now, I'd better get some rest…'
"It should recover naturally, right?"
("What should?")
"My spirit energy"
("Yeah, just try not to do anything and it'll recover slowly, on that note I'll be needing to take a bit of a rest as well since I strained my form with that attack, I definitely overdid it")
'Rest? He sleeps?'
Without notice the small spirit animal turned in to a beam of light and shot towards Seth before merging with his aura before his eyes.
"Wait, what, hello?"
He wasn't expecting Silva to just go ahead and disappear like that, no matter how much he tried to call him out or contact him there was nothing.
'Well, nothing I can do but rest then'
He flopped down on the rocky floor and the light in his eye sockets dimmed entering a sleep like state, his bones now resembled yet another corpse like the many others that litter the ravine.
...…
After about a day worth of cold sleep his sockets lit up in a blaze with renewed (un)life and he jumped up with a spring in his movement.
"Much better, it wasn't as bad as when I used [Core Overclock] I feel I've had a good night of sleep rather than crashing unconscious"
He looked around, not seeing what he was looking for.
"Silva? You there?"
No response came.
'Guess he's still sleeping'
He shrugged his bony shoulders and took to walking towards the carcass that was left from the battle yesterday.
"This thing is a damn mess he didn't hold back at all"
'Or maybe he did if he went all out would there be nothing left? How scary'
It was basically a large piece of charcoal with no semblance of the pig that looked threatening yesterday, still there was something Seth could use it for.
He used his bony fingers to pierce the crispy charcoal like flesh and pushed deeper until he reached something hard, he had to widen the hole a bit more by wrenching his arm around before he managed to pull out the mana core that rested inside.
"At least this is in decent shape I'd be a waste otherwise"
It was the same type of blood coloured sphere from the first pig, but it was slightly larger almost the size of an adult fist, without any hesitation he cracked his jaw open wider than he did before so he could fit it inside and dropped it in.
[Mana Core Consumed]
[Calculating…]
[Mana distributed, Mana and Health recovered]
[Stat Increase:
Strength +3
Vitality +5
Mana +5]
[Ability Learned – Lesser Devour]
[Lesser Devour – Consume materials for a tiny chance to attain abilities or properties]
"I can get skills from them?!"
'And those stats are a nice boost! Especially vitality, if I'm right that'll help the capacity of my spirit energy develop as well!'
'I wonder what materials would be good to eat though?'
He glanced at the charred carcass before walking up to it and taking a bite out of it with his exposed bones, no hesitation.
'I don't have a tongue so who cared what I eat tastes like!'
After a few bites he felt what entered his jaw dissolved before passing through the route where his throat would be, before just exiting his body as dust.
'Nothing?'
He had already taken a bite so he decided to go all the way, consuming the corpse over about an hour, it would have been hard had it not been thoroughly tenderised by the lightning before.
Unfortunately, all that happened after it was gone was that it became a small pile of black dust under Seth's bones with nothing else to show for it.
"I guess it wasn't exaggerating when it said a 'tiny change'"
'Either that or there was nothing I could obtain but whatever, I should make my way to that castle now it shouldn't take much longer'
As he though that he took up a fast pace not quite running but not quite walking, after another half an hour or so the environment started to change slightly, there was an additional creamy white colour mixed in with the rest of the debris.
"This should be the materials used to construct the castle, I don't know what it is but from what I heard it could be reinforced with mana which is why it may have survived the passage of time"
As he kept walking more and more white debris littered the place before they started to form foundations of buildings and slowly, they seemed to build up forming full buildings and before long a white wall appeared in the distance.
'To think it survived to this degree! While it's fairly dirty and has cracks compared to the rest of the city ruins this looks brand new'
He approached the arch that acted as an entrance to the castle, the metal gates that blocked the way had along since rusted away to nothingness, but it was still a grand sight, he obviously never got the chance to pass through here back when he was alive since it was royal territory, so his core seemed to pulse wildly in place of a beating heart.
The walls were at least 25 or so meters tall and 4 or so thick, it took may steps for Seth to make his way through the gateway and he came upon a sight he was fairly familiar with yet a stranger to at the same time, the grand royal castle stood tall with a single spire in the centre, the other five that surrounded it were no longer there most likely broken to pieces, the ground was entirely uneven and parts of the castle were broken off and the entire thing was slanted.
Seth couldn't help but gulp at the sight.
'To think even the royal castle was cast to the bottom of the Ravine Abyss… I'm almost amazed it managed to stay in such good shape considering how much destruction it must have gone through'
He finally stepped on to the grounds and took in the sight, he inwardly lamented as this sight completely proved that the memory he saw before was true, his previous home was gone, and it was more than likely an uncountable number of years for a human had passed.
The lights in his eye sockets seemed to flicker in lament for a few seconds before stabilising.
'I should keep moving, I'm here now I should scour everything I can and hopefully I can find a way out!'