The shrieks of a terrified young velociraptor-like creature echoed across the dark cavern as it saw its siblings being slaughtered by the terrifying monster…
It looked like the monster was playing with its siblings' necks as blood splashed around under the monster's onslaught and the younglings didn't dare to take a single step.
They stood there, like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
A few minutes later… Cyril was peacefully feasting over the not-so-tasty dinosaur meat… 'It tastes like the earth of the orcish wastelands under a marching Warband of orcs mixed with many little quills of a snorgehog…'
{ A.N: A snorgehog is a panda-sized hedgehog that spends most of its time sleeping - ( The wonderful name of this creature definitely doesn't come from the fusion of the words "Snorlax" and "Hedgehog" ) }
Even though Cyril couldn't eat all three of them, he still ate one's thighs and carried another one away as he silently disappeared from the crime scene.
As Cyril walked away dragging a poor velociraptor-like creature, he gathered a lot of his natural energy toward his head….
The energy entered within his still-growing spirit and started to change shape, from azure lightning, it slowly became a white mist… And disappeared.
A few minutes later, the velociraptor-like creature's temperature dropped to around 3°C (37,4°F).
'If it was yesterday, I would have never believed that casting a little rank 0 spell would have wasted so much energy… It almost completely drained my reserves of energy!
This won't do… My heart will hurt every time I cast a spell if I don't improve my ethereal body as soon as possible...'
As Cyril complained about the horrible energy inefficiency, he continued his search for a safe place to rest and eat the remaining creature.
An hour or so later… Cyril found a perfect rest place, and after thanking properly the gentle centipede that kept the place warm for him by releasing a bit of killing intent, he dropped the velociraptor-like creature in a corner and laid a few meters aside to rest.
This "perfect" resting place was, in truth, simply a small cave with the floor covered in earth and a weird kind of orange grass that grows underground.
Before even realizing it, Cyril was already asleep and time slowly passed…
He continued to assimilate the energy from the first beast he ate today and the natural energy in the surrounding area continued to be absorbed by his spirit unconsciously.
A few hours later… Cyril woke up after hearing a loud "click" resound within his mind.
When he opened his eyes, he felt… free… As if some invisible shackles around him, which he didn't even know existed in the first place, shattered into nothingness.
As Cyril breathed in the "freshest" air that he ever breathed in his new life, he also realized that analyzing the natural energy in the surroundings became far easier.
At this moment, however, the natural energy in the surroundings started to converge toward Cyril...
Only now did he realise that after waking up his spirit stopped absorbing natural energy for a few seconds.
Cyril was struck dumb… It's been less than a day since he was born… yet…
'My spirit sublimated on its own?
Where did the difficult breakthrough go?
And what about the bottleneck?
Is something like this even possible?'
Just as Cyril started wondering if he was becoming insane… He decided to ask Zephyr.
[Zephyr activated - Spell power selected: Low-level mortal - Initiating self-scansion….
True Name: None
Race: Unknown
Physic body state: Healthy, Low-level mortal - Currently assimilating natural energy.
Spirit state: Healthy, Mid-level mortal - The spirit cannot improve anymore unless the body were to undergo an evolution.
Ethereal body state: High activity detected… Impossible to analyze
Warning: The host's spirit has reached the minimum required level to start repairing Zephyr's formation core… Zephyr advises the host to initiate the repair procedures as soon as possible.]
Zephyr confirmed his thoughts, his spirit sublimated… Aside from that, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that he could already start repairing Zephyr.
'If I can already repair it with a mid-level mortal spirit, the damage shouldn't be too much…'
After eating a bit more dinosaur meat, Cyril closed his eyes once again and gave the order.
'Zephyr, enter in maintenance mode.'
[Order acknowledged, exposing the formation core in 10 seconds - Warning: The formation core will start to collapse as soon as it exits the host's spirit.
The host is advised to stabilize the formation core during the repairs…
...Good luck]
Cyril was stunned once again today… 'Good luck? Oh shit...'
As Zephyr creator, how could he not understand the meaning behind those words?
And just as he feared, the undeniable truth appeared in front of his consciousness 10 seconds later.
Cyril consciousness was nervously looking at his spirit, it looked like a scorching white star with millions of ethereal tentacles that moved on its surface, exactly 10 seconds after Zephyr's message, a golden gate appeared on the spirit's surface.
Usually, he would be surprised to see that gate, however, his attention was currently captured by what came out of that gate.
One should know that Zephyr's formation core originally looked like a silver ball, yet now, what presented itself in front of Cyril looked more like a just excavated piece of mineral.
Not only that, it had completely lost its original lustre and its surface was riddled with holes and cracks.
Multiple components could be seen floating outside the core, still connected by a few cables…
Cyril's heart skipped a beat and his back quickly got covered by nonexistent sweat as his whole body shivered in fear.
Not only that, but his mind was also blank as his thoughts failed to make any sense out of the situation in front of him.
'That thing that just floated in front of me wasn't one of the main SPUs (Spiritual Processing Unit), right?
There is no way that the bare channel over there is one of the MMECs (Main Magic Energy Channel)...
I must be imagining things, what I'm seeing within that giant hole can't be the super-insulated data archive filled with top-secret information…'
Just as the list was going to increase, an explosion woke him up from his stupor and a fragment of what-should-have-been an automatic repairs robot flew out of a crack.
Before the situation could become even worse, Cyril controlled his energy to stabilize the formation core and started to repair what he could.
He didn't even have time to think about how it was even possible… His brain was working on a single thing at the best of its capabilities… Stabilize the formation core and repair as much stuff as you can!
Thirty minutes or so later, Cyril reserves of energy were almost completely drained and he gave another order to Zephyr.
'Zephyr, return in standard mode'
[Order acknowledged, the return gate is going to open in 5 seconds - Warning: Keep the formation core stable until it completely crosses the gate]
5 seconds later, Cyril opened his eyes and laid exhausted on the ground… He never expected the situation to be so bad.
Cyril fell asleep soon after giving one last order to Zephyr. 'Wake me up if something happens'
[Order acknowledged]
A few hours later, Cyril woke up, ate some more of the not-so-fresh-anymore dinosaur meat and pondered about what happened before asking Zephyr what confused him the most…
'Zephyr, how did your formation core survive until now?'
[Insufficient data to give a complete answer…
Ever since Zephyr has been activated, it has been within an unknown area of the host's spirit, it's thanks to that area that Zephyr's formation core has remained stable until now.]
Cyril wasn't disappointed by the answer, instead, he was eager to learn more about this unknown area…
'Unknown area? Now, that is some interesting stuff…'
Soon, Cyril made up plans for the future and changed his priority… From now on, his priority will be to repair Zephyr, only after doing that would he feel safe enough to continue exploring.
After all, repairing the core is one thing, recreating it from nothing after it collapses would be far more difficult.
From this moment, Cyril's new life became a little monotonous as all he did was drinking, hunting for meat, sleeping, and repairing Zephyr.
Time passed, and Cyril slowly repaired Zephyr and became stronger bit by bit...