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After having devoured a dozen of Souls, my soul began to develop and expand at a rapid pace!

It wasn't like this before, but after reaching a certain amount of Soul Density, my soul quickly underwent automatic changes!

<Your Soul Cultivation has reached the [Soul Energy Gathering Realm (Middle Stage)]!>

<Your Soul Cultivation has reached the [Soul Energy Gathering Realm (Upper Stage)]!>

<Your Soul Cultivation has reached the [Soul Energy Gathering Realm (Peak Stage)]!>

I suddenly raised through three Stages right off the bat, and I was at the pinnacle of my Soul Cultivation Realm!

I suppose that the Soul Energy Gathering Realm is like the first realm? Most mortals are probably not even in this realm, as I haven't seen Benladann even mentioning anything like soul cultivation, perhaps it is something way more advanced so not all low-ranked cultivators practice.

This could mean that the sole Soul Energy Gathering Realm might be something that only high-ranked cultivators have achieved, and I have already reached the Peak Stage of such a Realm.

I glance at my soul as it overflows with energy, like a large mantle made of yellow-gold energy, although most of it is slowly converting into my shape as if the soul were to take the shape of its body…

And even more, it feels as if it were growing crystalline scales and a draconic head was slowly forming from the misty appearance of the soul… If I keep upgrading it, my soul will continue to develop and take a more solid shape, most likely.

However, as I continued to feast in these souls until there was no more remaining, my entire soul began to glow even more!

I felt like I had suddenly crossed through some kind of wall, I had completely shattered it, in fact!

FLASH!

My soul energy began to concentrate into its nucleus, materializing into a… ball?

It was indeed a ball! It was materializing into a ball, and slowly crystallizing into a jewel of sorts, of transparent white color, leaking some bluish aura and yellow-gold essence from within…

The more I felt like my soul enhanced it, the stronger I grew…

What was this? The next step to soul cultivation?

I slowly concentrate as I quickly begin to use my soul energies to nourish this sphere, helping in the cultivation and making it faster.

<Your Soul Cultivation has reached the [Soul Core Creation Realm (Initial Stage)]!>

Flash!

With a second flash of ethereal essence, what was called a Soul Core was made, right in the middle of my soul…

<All your stats have increased!>

<The levels of some skills have increased!>

Amazing, even my stats increased, and some skills leveled up.

I glanced into my soul as I found my Soul Core.

Within it, my mana was being stored, so it was actually increasing my max amount of mana.

And even more, mana was being produced from it, while it flowed across my body freely.

So aside from my Mana Core, I had another core, a Soul Core! Although my mana didn't double or something, it was still a particular increase…

I opened my eyes as I found Benladann glaring at me.

"D-Drake? You began to glow a lot…" she said.

Ah! Right, I was in the middle of collecting slime…

"I think my soul went through an evolution of sorts… Well, let's says that it just became stronger," I said.

"Ohh! I see that's nice, a soul is something important, right? A person might develop their bodies but if the soul is too weak, it can be a detriment!" said Benladann.

"Eh? How do you know that?" I asked.

"Hm? You just said that the other day," said Benladann.

"Damn, do I sound that wise?" I wondered, we collected the last slime into large ice pots and flew back to Fuyu.

In the end, we had dozens of liters of slime…

"W-We have a lot," said Benladann.

"Yep… Though it doesn't stay as an authentic jelly… Unless I freeze it, but it simply becomes an ice cube," I said.

"Hm…"

The two of us, alongside Yuki who was eating pears, began to glance at the liters of slime.

The "intense" battle had ended, but there was an even more intense battle now!

How do we convert this slime into jelly?

"How about boiling it?" I asked.

"Boiling it…?" asked Benladann.

"Yeah, let's boil it into a warm liquid, and then let's rest it at ambient temperature, maybe it will become jelly like that. Usually, when you make jelly, you make it off warm water, pour the contents, and make up a juice-like substance, after it becomes cold, it turns into jelly," I said.

"Oooh! I see, I never made jelly, so I didn't know! Maybe it could work like this?" asked Benladann.

"Indeed, it is worth a try! Also, let's give it another thing too… How about cut pieces of fruits? And maybe fruit pulp for a sweeter flavor," I said.

"Nice idea!" said Benladann, quickly getting up and running into the kitchen, as she grabbed several pears from the kitchen and started to cut them into pieces. I also rushed into it, reducing my size, and beginning to smash the fruits with my claws into pulp, it wasn't hard at all.

We began to cook together- well, not cook, we were just cutting fruits and smashing them.

After that, we moved the fruit into the slime, as we separated a large chunk of it into another large pot, which we began to boil by putting fire down below. This special ice was designed by me to have a very low "ice attribute" on it, making it something like a crystallization of mana than anything else, an incredibly hard one, so it is kind of like a super glass, after some fire, it quickly warmed up and began to slowly boil the slime, which turned liquid and released more steam.

We slowly added the pulp so it could caramelize into it as it boiled, while we saved the fruit pieces after it finished boiling.

Oh, a delicious, sweet smell began to come out, it seemed that by boiling the pulp of the fruits, they became similar to marmalade… perhaps we could do it separately too.

"Uwah, it smells so nice…" said Benladann.

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