The moment his mana made contact with the flute it started to greedily pull it in. He wasn't expecting such a reaction so in a panic he let go of it and it dropped to the ground.
"What the hell was that?" The flute was an artifact and such a reaction was standard, but he didn't know of such things so he was left blind sided.
Artifacts were weapons, armors or trinkets that after proper nurturing would aid their user in a multitude of ways. They were usually used by cultivators, those who used mana to train their bodies, and their mage counter parts, those who trained the mind, were known as magic tools.
While not all of them drained mana, most of them did. But what was off about this one was the sheer amount that it was draining. The strength of an artifact is tied to how much energy is absorbed but the one he had in hand was so greedy that was it not him and a normal awakened or mage his age tried to claim it then they would have been sucked dry in an instant.
"Whatever that was it can't be harmful, it was already purified by my talent and even if anything went wrong after that it would still stop it. And it's just a little bit of mana anyway." If anyone else could hear him now then they would spit blood and strangle him to death. The conventional mana core forced those who use it to treat mana like it was a valuable resource.
Unlike him, they do not ambiently absorb that much mana and the little that they did is like a drop in the ocean. It had been a while since he interacted with normal humans so such a thing flew over his head and he had no idea of just how difficult it is to absorb more mana for others.
He himself took it in like oxygen and all of his instructors had massive reserves and were so familiar with their mana cores that with just basic meditation they could quickly top off if they spent wisely. But for others it was a lengthy and tedious process.
Since the flute didn't harm him and only seemed to absorb a comparatively little amount of mana he picked it back up and fed it more, which it happily accepted.
With not a care in the world he simply kept feeding it more and more mana. If someone with basic knowledge of things of the new world saw what he was doing they might have had a heart attack.
Not only did he pick up something that was obviously cursed, he started feeding it such a valuable resource with glee. Along with the basics of artifacts, curses were one of the very first things one should know about before entering the new world.
There are many different types of curses, but the draining feeling he felt was one of the more potent types. It was called life drain and only extremely deadly objects would carry such a curse, but this one was so strong that its effect could be felt for hundreds of kilometers.
Thankfully his talent gave him some sort of resistance to curses, otherwise without any protection he would have been dead long before he saw it. All of the hobgoblins that were pouring the strange liquid into the pit had special markings drawn somewhere on their clothes to protect them, but he didn't notice that. Even the chima had these markings on their leads.
He only had a month of training and even that could barely be considered as he was pushed straight into the furnace. He didn't even know what some of his instructors sounded like, so there was no chance that he would be able to pick up anything useful from them.
He tried pushing more mana into the flute, but it seemed to have a limit to how much it could accept at any given time. Thankfully after a bit of experimentation he found that it could also absorb from the ocean, so he made a separate shallow pool for it.
He still didn't know what it was, so if it blew up after absorbing enough mana he could only blame himself if either of the eggs got damaged, or worse, died. Those eggs were going to be a great boon to his strength so if they died before even being born then there would not be enough tears in the world for him to cry.
He returned his attention to his initial task and after a bit of proper consideration he was finally finished. Everything that he wanted was complete and while it used the crude way of combining soul power and matter, if in the off chance he needed to make more he was more than capable.
He was even more hungry now so he skillfully butchered the meat into smaller pieces to make cooking it easier.
"Unfortunately I have no supplies to cook with. No oil, no vegetables, and no salt, especially no salt. I hate to waste such valuable meat but I have no choice." While the building that the portal absorbed was sure to have such items, unfortunately they were all absorbed into the platform before it fused with the landmass. Unlike the water they weren't automatically ejected, meaning that he had no access to them.
The only thing that he had from the old world was the mask that he bought to meet with the guild leader. And that's only because he went out of his way to keep it.
"And how does such a large animal have absolutely no fat, do they not store any food for when they can't find any?" A bit mad that his only option was to roast such valuable meat he was questioning the anatomy of magic beasts. Unfortunately it wasn't uncommon for infant to juvenile beasts to have almost no fat and hunt constantly as they try to gain strength as fast as possible.
Most beasts are not raised by other members of their species. Meaning they can't afford to store any energy away, lest they become the meal of another. If the energy that would have been stored away could have been used to increase their strengths, then there was no question as to what they would choose.
With no protection they would rather plan for the short term than the long term. Doesn't matter if you have enough fat to last you a few days if you are dead. If they can't hunt they die and if they get hunted then having excess fat would only make them slower.
Not even draconic beasts were free of this, hence why it was so aggressive. While an adult would retreat after realizing that he wasn't an easy meal, the younger ones are not only too stupid to realize this, but even if they were smart enough they can't afford to miss when they commit to a hunt.
"I can't even make any soup out of it, meat and water doesn't sound appealing. Now that I think about it." He waved his hand and a box of liquid that he managed to grab before everything got demolished appeared. While the waving motion wasn't necessary he felt cool when doing so and there was no one here to judge him.
He opened the box and was met with a light blue glowing liquid, which besides radiating a bunch of mana looked no different from water.
"If they were feeding the flute with this then I can assume that it's meant to contain mana, but that doesn't seem all that useful to me." He thought about it before deciding to taste it, if it was what he thought it was then it was meant to be drunk.
"Yeah, I thought right. I can feel my body absorbing mana from it, not much but it's still there." The blue liquid was a potion meant to assist people in absorbing mana by cutting out a step and making it easy as it is already in the body.
While a miracle liquid for others, to him it was almost no different from water. "But it does taste pretty good though, kinda like tea but surprisingly cold."
With a plate of perfectly roasted meat and a glass of whatever the potion was called (he quickly made a cup out of the same material as the rest of his utensils) he started to plan his next moves.
There was nothing left for him in the forest, besides going back to the settlement and taking whatever was left. He had enough food for a few months, as far as he knew there was no water there, he would collect a few of the trees before he left and there were no more of the flowers in the cave.
"Plus whatever that is, it's still in the forest. I don't want to feel that ever again."
He quickly finished his food and went to sleep, setting an alarm to wake him up a few hours before day time.
He didn't feel like sleeping, but he wasn't going to intentionally handicap himself. He knew the importance of sleep and while a high vitality made him need to sleep less, that didn't mean he didn't need any sleep at all.
Even the legendary true dragons sleep from time to time, and so should he.