Chapter 34
Ray didn't retrieve the two bodies without a purpose. He knew that humans also possessed essence cores, so he decided to try his luck.
During the battle, Ray's talent corridor had limited capacity, so he couldn't afford to waste a corridor on an unknown talent. He wasn't foolish enough to take such a dangerous risk.
Despite several days passing since the corpses were stored, they showed no signs of decomposition. The storage ring remained in good condition.
Ray took out a knife and cut open the chest of one of the corpses to extract the essence. It was a challenging task for him, being his first time attempting something like this. Touching the corpse made him feel dizzy and nauseous.
After some time, Ray successfully extracted a grape-sized crystal. It was a yellowish core belonging to the dog man.
Without hesitation, Ray activated his talent. Upon activation, the talent appeared covered in mist. Ray was pleased with this development and used Tesseract to scan the talent.
After scanning, Ray discovered that the passive talent was called "Rank D Dog Nose." As the name implied, it strengthened his sense of smell. Ray could now discern odors in the air more clearly and focus his brain on specific scents. However, the smells in the air became stronger and slightly uncomfortable, even his body odor was not pleasant to him.
After tinkering with the talent for a while, Ray felt satisfied. He placed the dog man's body aside for burial later.
Next, Ray approached the birdman's corpse. Using his previous experience, he extracted the clear essence core more efficiently.
Ray chose to examine the birdman's corpse, saving the better ones for last, hoping that things would go according to his plan.
However, when Ray activated his talent, he felt a bit disappointed. Not only was the talentless misty than before, but it was also of a lower rank, only an F-rank talent.
The talent, called "F-Rank Eagle Eye," sharpened the user's vision, allowing for ten times magnification. However, it was only optimal for objects within a 10-meter range.
Pondering over the talent, Ray furrowed his brow. These eyes wouldn't enable him to monitor or see in the dark. What use did this talent serve? Was it meant for him to see the pores on the faces of those closest to him?
Although Ray could faintly sense changes in the aura movement in the air, it was far from what he had imagined.
Disappointed, Ray tossed the corpse and core into his storage ring. He then proceeded to retrieve two rings from his storage pocket.
The rings belonged to the previous two freaks. Inside the dog storage ring, Ray found some random money and materials that weren't particularly useful to him, but still usable.
Next, Ray searched the birdman's storage ring. The items he found were similar to those in the dog storage ring, but two things caught his attention and piqued his curiosity.
The first item was a peculiar dark token. Ray wondered if it was the legendary memory stone, possibly containing a treasure map or sophisticated training techniques. Excitedly, he injected his consciousness to explore the token. However, his excitement quickly turned into disappointment. The black token contained no maps or advanced exercises, but instead neatly organized rules and regulations of the black market. It also had a black market map, functioning as a digital compass. Initially uninspired, Ray decided to set it aside for now and give it a try later.
Moving on, Ray discovered another interesting item in the birdman's storage ring—an old leather case about the size of A4 paper, with a thickness of no more than 4 centimeters. Intrigued, he used his spiritual sense to investigate it.
"Oh, isn't this a great find?" Ray exclaimed, feeling excited this time. The leather box turned out to be both a book and a storage space for human skin masks. It had three flat slots, each holding a human skin mask. The slots contained disguise techniques, ranging from using ordinary tools to slightly altering the user's posture and breath characteristics.
Impatient, Ray opened one of the compartments. Unfortunately, only one of the three compartments contained a human skin mask. He felt a bit disappointed but decided to immediately try out the available mask. After putting on the leather mask and practicing the techniques described, his face transformed completely, resembling that of another person. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Ray could only smile crookedly. His smile appeared lewd, even scaring himself.
After packing everything up, Ray suddenly remembered something. He took out the corpses of the two previous freaks. In a strange impulse, Ray began poking various parts of their faces. After a moment of probing, he tore the skin under their necks and realized that the thickness of the neck skin and facial skin didn't match.
Recalling the leather box, Ray became convinced that these two individuals were wearing human skin masks. Without hesitation, he removed the masks from the corpses, revealing the appearance of two very young figures behind them. They appeared to be recent high school graduates or college freshmen.
Ray didn't pay much attention to their identities; his main focus was preserving the two leather masks and placing them in the slots of the leather box. With satisfaction, he smiled as the three leather masks were neatly arranged in their respective slots. This increased Ray's confidence as he prepared to venture outside.
...
Another week had passed, and now it was Friday. Ray was prepared to go out as per his schedule.
"What did you say?" Yuvra exclaimed angrily.
"I want to go camping, Mom..." Ray said timidly.
"Can't you see that you're still recovering? And why do you keep running around and playing all the time? Can't you rest properly and teach your younger siblings something useful?"
Hearing this, Ray could only bow his head in silence.
Observing her son's silent demeanor, Yuvra's heart softened a little.
"What do you plan to do while camping?" Yuvra attempted to find a compromise.
Upon hearing this, Ray initially wanted to enthusiastically express his desire to go hunting. However, after careful consideration, he swallowed his words.
It was evident that he would face consequences if he insisted on hunting in his current condition.
Observing her child's conflicted expression, Yuvra felt a sense of contentment in her heart.
"See! You can't even answer. You're an adult and you know that what you want would harm you. What are you thinking, especially now that you're injured?"
Ray found himself further entangled by his mother's words. It wasn't that he disliked staying at home, but he was growing restless being confined there. Additionally, he felt a sense of urgency to become stronger after the battle with the two freaks.
Feeling that he had no convincing reason to leave, Ray could only let out a helpless sigh.
Observing her son's expression, Yuvra felt a sense of satisfaction within her heart.
However, in the next moment, Ray excitedly voiced his opinion.
"Oh, okay, Mom, I won't go camping. How about I go shopping instead? I'll be back home tomorrow, and there's no way I can go camping for such a short time," Ray suggested hopefully.
Hearing this, Yuvra initially wanted to argue again. But upon seeing the hopeful eyes of her son, she couldn't help but swallow her words and agree with certain conditions.
"Fine, but you have to promise Mom that you won't engage in anything dangerous!" Yuvra said with a stern expression.
"Okay, Mom, I promise!" Ray exclaimed excitedly.
With that, Ray hastily packed his belongings and bid farewell to his two younger siblings at home. Yuvra, witnessing her son's eagerness, could only shake her head with a tinge of bitterness.
...
On the outskirts of town, a young man stood, his eyes sparkling as he surveyed his surroundings.
"Ah, so this is the infamous black market?"