Digging his sword into the carapace of a fallen Rock Crab, Blaine fished out an Indigo coloured with two black circular dots visible in it.
Rick, who was standing nearby, let out a short whistle and looked at the orb in Blaine's hand with a mixture of surprise… And a tinge of greed.
"A Rank-2 Ogre core is quite a find. It's almost a shame to consume it."
There were two main uses for a collected mana core.
The first is directly consuming it.
Doing so would increase the maximum mana limit of the consumer's mana core, bringing it closer to their mana core's absolute limit.
Not only that, but there was an infinitesimally slight chance that humans would inherit a characteristic from the slain creature.
These characteristics were collectively called Core Spirits, and could be anything from gaining an exoskeleton-like armour to being suddenly able to breathe fire.
While it didn't seem possible to directly gain the mana art of a slain human, it was very much possible to gain the characteristic of a Magical Creature or an Unknown.
Humans can only possess one Core Spirit at a time. Even if they absorbed a second, they wouldn't be able to use either until they removed one.
On the other hand, the second use was utilized entirely by humans. Instead of being crushed and consumed, the mana cores were used to create objects known as Artifacts, which could harness the wielder's mana to perform various effects.
These artifacts could be anything from weapons and armour to tools designed for utility.
Certain humans, collectively dubbed 'forgemasters,' possessed utility-oriented mana arts that allowed them to create these artifacts.
While the process of creating artifacts may differ between various forgemasters, the general effects were roughly the same.
By combining the mana core with the desired object, the created artifact would be imbued with the mana core's unique mana and gain some of the properties of the creature from which the core was taken.
For example, if a mana core in Blaine's hand was given to a forge master and imbued into a set of armour, the armour would become as durable as the Rock Crab's chitinous carapace.
It didn't just have to be armour, either.
Any article of clothing could be imbued with mana as long as the material was durable enough to withstand the imbuement process.
…Just like the white, blue and gold military uniforms they were all wearing.
The reason their uniforms were only lightly damaged after such a harrowing battle was due to this reason.
The silk that was used to make the military uniforms was harvested from arachnid-like Magical Creatures that were captured and raised as pseudo-livestock.
Regular silk wouldn't be nearly strong enough to be used as material for an Artifact.
Though Blaine and the four officers had the option to do so, none of them had focused their mana on triggering these defensive properties in the battle with the army of Rock Crabs.
Due to the nature of their extended confrontation, it wouldn't have been a feasible idea.
Expanding mana for their weapon and mana art was already hard on their rapidly depleting reserves, so most of them completely abstained from increasing their uniform's durability.
But even then… None of their uniforms, at least those belonging to Blaine and the four 2-Star officers, were imbued by anything as powerful as a Rank-2 Ogre, especially one so defensive-oriented as the Rock Crabs.
Even Blaine's various sets of uniforms were all made from the cores of Rank-2 Goblins, which was already considered quite extravagant.
The Officers were even worse off.
They possessed only one, or maybe two, uniforms that were imbued with the mana core from a Rank-2 Goblin or Imp.
So, Rick couldn't help but eye the mana core in Blaine's hand longingly.
But ultimately, he sighed and shook his head.
Sadly, there wasn't any forge master nearby to create fresh new sets of uniform artifacts.
Patting Blaine on the shoulder, Rick walked past him to harvest the corpse of another nearby Rock Crab.
On the other hand, Blaine didn't share Rick's reservations and emotionlessly crushed the mana core he was holding.
Feeling the surge of foreign mana enter his body, Blaine's own mana core greedily absorbed all it could and filled slightly, growing ever closer to its absolute limit.
He had never seen so many magical creatures killed en masse before, as finding so many Magical creatures in one spot while having enough strong people to kill them was extremely hard.
But with their current group, it was very much possible.
If they found more groups like the Rock Crabs deeper inside the tunnel, it would be very possible for Blaine to completely fill his mana core during their mission.
After all, he was already over 98% there.
Just as Blaine was greedily consuming the mana cores he collected, everyone else was doing the same.
Since accurately distributing the loot based on contribution would take too much time and effort, they simply took them on a first-come, first-served basis.
The only two who abstained were the princess and her protector.
The latter was not even a 1-Star yet, while the other was presumed to already possess a completely filled mana core.
…Though that was purely speculation on Blaine's part.
Truth be told, he knew very little about the enigmatic figure Lyn.
He had never heard her name before, nor had he even known that the princess had a protector as strong as her.
Though he was a little perplexed by the intricate secrets that Lyn seemingly wore as a mantle, he was inwardly grateful for her presence, although he didn't show it.
After all, her being there made his own job easier.
Just as Blaine was preparing to harvest the core of another nearby Rock Crab, he sensed something move up from behind him in his peripheral vision.
Turning his head, he saw Princess Cecelia approach an unlooted corpse.
Awkwardly holding one of Lyn's daggers, she thrust it at the deceased mana crab's abdomen.
However, she didn't correctly aim her blow, so the knife hit the chitinous shell and ricocheted backwards.
Having thrown her entire body weight into the blow, the rebound force's knockback caused her to become unsteady and fall backward.
Cecelia closed her eyes, wincing in anticipation of the incoming pain.
But before she could fall to the ground, she felt a soft yet firm hand grab her by the shoulder, catching her just in time.
Surprised, she opened her eyes and turned to the owner of the hand that caught her.
It was none other than the familiar auburn-haired boy.
As soon as she laid her eyes on him, Cecelia hastily pulled herself up and backed away.
"Thank you… But I never asked for your help."
Although there was gratitude in her eyes, it was overshadowed by another much darker emotion.
Loathing.
Turning around, she walked away from Blaine and found another corpse farther away to try again.
But having learned her lesson, she first squatted next to the body and precisely thrust the blade from a much closer location.
Furthermore, she also targeted an area where the chitin had already been thoroughly cracked and opened.
From the horribly smashed carapace, it was most likely done by Rick's war hammer.
Though it normally took considerable strength to cut into even the flesh of a Magical Creature, especially for a normal human, the Rock Crab Cecelia was butchering was only a Rank-1.
Not only that, but her knife was exceptionally sharp, so it could effortlessly cut through even the chitinous exoskeleton in Lyn's hands.
Even though Cecelia couldn't bring out anywhere near Lyn's strength and skill, it was enough to cut through the deceased crab monster's flesh, albeit barely.
As she was doing this, Lyn walked up from behind her and began to slowly instruct her on the proper procedures for butchering creatures.
Guided by Lyn's hand and knowledge, she was able to better exert her strength to cut through the creature's skin with less effort.
Turning away from the pair of women, Blaine looked down at the Rock Crab, who was the princess's original target.
Since the princess had left, it was up to Blaine to butcher this one instead.