Noah fell unto his bed completely exhausted. He had already taken a bath but one could still smell the faint scent of blood coming from him yet the youngster didn't mind (I'm going to refer to Noah as his younger transmigrated self from now on). As for the owners of this smell, it was rather easy to guess this.
The three mercenaries were currently far away, down in the raging rivers, their bodies chopped to pieces and/or were probably already eaten by aquatic Essence Beasts.
As for his questions? Indeed, they had been answered. He hadn't spent a few years in the military for nothing. Plus his past world was one where the study of the body was at its peak, his torture methods were just too many to count, each more bone chilling than the last.
Turns out that the driving power for Pseudo-Intents was an additional phenomenal energy called Soul Essence. It could only appear upon the Adept Stage and even then one couldn't utilize it. Only when a Battlesoul master had recognized and acknowledged his/her Pseudo-Intent could it be used. So the Soul Essence resting outside his Essence core was practically useless for now.
He also found out that the Adept Stage was a stage where one's foundation had been set and all that remained was to purify it. Each successful purification led to a minor advancement towards a Level. And with each purification a phantasmal object called the Soul Core would appear within the Conscience of a Battlesoul master, its creation would lead to the evolution of the Pseudo-Intent to its true form, Intent.
What truly shocked was a discovery about the body he now possessed. Apparently he wasn't supposed to be able to transform his arms into draconfied arms, the normal way through which a Battlesoul master genius enough to awaken Blood Essence was buffed was through a virtual image of his/her respective Battlesoul on that body part. They were never able to transform their body, it was more like the Battlesoul would enhance the circulation of Blood Essence within their body granting them more fleshly strength.
At first he had questioned why Luke had never bothered to tell him but he then remembered that he only ever showed his Battlesouls, he never used their buffs before the small Norton family so they probably never found out.
Even he had only been able to find out by experiencing the hunger that ravaged his being as he had stared at the bodies of the trio. Essence Beasts were known for two things; Being able to reproduce like freaking rabbits and the more dangerous, being able to grow stronger simply by devouring the Essence around them and those within living beings.
Faced with the hunger that overcame him when he laid eyes on the bits of Essence and Soul Essence leaving the trios' bodies, he immediately noticed a problem. Something within him had wanted to devour their Essence Cores. The Silver Dragon part of him.
"Hah~" The transmigrator sighed staring at the two dim orbs lying in his World ring with his Internal Sight. The reason why there were only two? He had of course devoured one to check on the effects. The pros were quite much, devouring cores were much more efficient and wasted less time than actually training but the cons were also severe. Taking too much would weaken his foundation, practically making him as hopeless as Devilsoul masters. The only difference between him, if he decided to walk this path was his stable mind but that would, in some ways, make him worse than Devilsoul masters as he was killing with a much clearer mind.
Actually, Noah being Noah wouldn't have given two shits about that, a lot of blood had already stained his hands, he would never mind adding a few more. As long as they were on his list at least. But the loss of foundation was really crippling, so for now he settled on simply taking cores when he was sure his foundations wouldn't be damaged.
It was pretty hard to overcome the massive temptation, watching as he witnessed the white mist almost double in volume and his Essence becoming much brighter and purer.
"I wonder which of the parents was the dragon." The youngster thought, but then shook his head. He brought out an elixir from his World ring, a whooping Middle grade one along with a Middle grade Essence Gathering Array. He whistled. "I suddenly remember why I so easily became a killer, you get to keep the victim's stuff."
With a gulp, Noah swallowed the entire Elixir, feeling as his Essence Core rocked with violent energy before finally calming down. Breathing out, he sent out three successive slashes at the air. A burst of air blew forth as three Essence projectiles flew out at the dummies opposite him, a flicker of a azure claw materialized but, in the end, faded once more.
Seeing this Noah sighed. Since his fight with Evan he had been trying to replicate the External Force he had used then by replacing the required life force with Blood Essence or Essence but nothing seemed to work. Even using his life force was useless because the intervention of Battlesouls and Essence messed up his former understanding of Life force.
"I wonder if I can do it with Pseudo-Intent or Intents, the representation of Martial arts did have something to do with the wills of warriors." He sighed glancing inwardly at the circulation of Essence and Blood Essence within his body. "These are the rare times I miss Earth. The power system of this world is so much more complicated, I thought I wouldn't need those shitty Manuals about the cultivation of this world but it seems like I'll have to get them when I get into the Soaring Star Academy. Fuck, the draw backs of having rare and unique are really annoying, there's a limit to what Martial arts can do in a fight."
He knew that even now that he had the ability to extend Essence from his body, gaining long range attacks, those still consumed a lot of Essence. "I need to get stronger, fast."
***
Staring at the busy streets of Ivory City, Noah's look was as ice cold as ever. His business here had been finished a long time ago. He had used some of the money gotten from the Equipments to buy a high grade Cultivation manual, his World ring was already filled to the brim with Elixirs and Arrays that were of either the medium grade or, more rarely, the high grade. His next course of action was to travel towards the Soaring Star Academy as planned. "I still have about 8 months to reach the Soaring Star City. There's still a lot of time for travel, guess I can take it slow." He turned around and walked out the gates, casting one last glance at the city. "Goodbye, Ivory City, I won't be missing you at all." Looking forward, he could imagine the faces of those waiting for him. Luke, Aina, Leonel... Along with the slightly blurry image of Alyssa.