The flickering lights from bonfires pierced through the gloom that was beginning to settle over the wooden buildings of the Tribe.

The leaders of the Tribe were gathered in front of one such bonfire, in front of Ed’s tent where they usually discussed village affairs and shared meals.

“It’s good to see you are well, Warbringer,” said Harundal, flashing his tusks with a smile.

“And you, Harundal,” said Ed, smiling at the orc. Though they hadn’t known each other long, the orc had already become one of his closest friends. The battle, though it was against one of the weakest races of the invaders, had been one of the largest events that the city had seen since the Rifts.

“Hah! The battle has only made me stronger. I look forward to our next spar, Warbringer,” Harundal chuckled, demonstrating by flexing his biceps in a joking manner.

“Yeah, Ed won’t be sparring anybody anytime soon,” said Noel, a bit sharply. Perhaps she felt a bit guilty about Ed’s condition.

“Of course, I meant after he has healed,” Harundal said, looking a tad bit hurt that Noel would suggest such a thing.

Harundal looked a bit dejected after that, but Ed chuckled and continued on with the conversation. While outsiders found the orc intimidating, everyone in the Tribe knew by now that he was essentially an overgrown puppy. An always battle-hungry puppy, but still.

“What Noel means is that I’ll need another week or two to recover from the battle. It was… taxing, to say the least,” said Ed.

Harundal grunted in affirmation.

“Yes. Quite an impressive feat from you Warbringer. I have only rarely seen such massive amounts of blood manna being manipulated in such a way, and only from the most powerful of the Turuk shamans.”

Ed nodded, a somber look on his face.

“It certainly came at a price, I think. But Mustafa was an opponent far too dangerous to fight on even terms. Even a Blessed like Noel was caught off guard, much less the average Hunter we had there,” Ed said, noticing Noel stiffen at the mention of her defeat.

“Won’t happen again,” she mumbled through a mouthful of meat. They were eating from the haunches of a particularly powerful dog beast that Noel had caught by herself earlier that day.

The wild beasts were getting stronger and smarter, but had not formed any packs or groups, and Noel had apparently taken to hunting them alone.

Harundal grunted in approval.

“A warrior grows from every near-death experience. It is a good lesson to learn as a young one such as yourself,” he said.

Ed smiled.

“I wanted to ask you what you know about Cores, Harundal. It seems that I’ve ended up with a Blood Core, after condensing all of the blood manna from the battle into my Body.”

Harundal looked up in surprise, and Noel and Ranga looked at each other as well, this being the first time they were hearing about it.

“A Core? I do not know much about Cores, as only the Duruk shamans ever dabble in the arts of manna and the Mind. Even then, our shamans have an affinity towards the matters of the Spirit. I have only heard that they are the physical manifestation of manna, and that each Core is but potential, to be shaped and used by he who holds it.”

“But there are a few functions that all Cores share, and that is to act as a reserve of manna. The Body can only hold so much manna without any consequence. Heroes of old and in legends are said to either have had Cores that they formed themselves, or artifacts of great power that acted as manna reserves.”

Hm. Harundal didn’t seem to know all that much more than what the System had told him when he’d woken up. It seemed that Ed would have to figure out how to use the Core himself, through experimentation and meditation, or ask someone else. Maybe Sun Wukong, the next time the wild monkey god remembered he existed.

Mikhail had used an artifact to control vast amounts of manna, hadn’t he? He’d ask Noel to inquire about that without giving away that Ed had formed a Core of his own.

“Towards the end of the battle… Mustafa wasn’t himself anymore. I suspect that one of the other goblin’s gods, the owner of the necklace, took over his body and spoke through him,” said Ed.

“The necklace had already turned to dust when I came to,” said Noel. “Doesn’t seem like the goblin gods can just take people over willy nilly, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Ed nodded. He had been able to sense through his blood manna affinity that Mustafa had begun to die as soon as the being inhabited his body.

“Anyways. Harundal. I was thinking that you, Noel, and a couple of our Hunters could go to the Vault to ask for some reinforcements in dealing with the remaining goblins. The First Mother apparently wasn’t at the battle, and we can’t risk leaving any loose ends in the city.”

Harundal bared his tusks in a brutal smile.

“Ah, of course. I have been wanting to see these… ‘Knights’ from up close. I had my doubts, but I have heard of their courage in the face of even a hundred True Turuks.”

Ed smiled, though he shot a look at Noel, who nodded back with a smirk. It wouldn’t do to offend the only friendly human power in the city, after all. He had told Noel as much, and she had agreed to keep an eye on the excitable and always battle ready orc.

------------

Ed opened his eyes as the last of his Spirit Crystals turned to dust in his hand. He had been sitting in a lotus pose in his tent for the last three hours, alone for the first time since he’d awoken. That was it for Spirit Crystals, at least for now.

Without electricity and after doing physically draining manual labor all day, most people hit the sack almost immediately after dinner, but Ed always liked to meditate for a couple of hours before he went to sleep.

The habit was paying off now. Though it now took more than one Spirit Crystal for him to feel any noticeable improvement in his Spirit, it was as if his soul was eager to drink up even a single drop of the pure spirit essence to heal itself.

Wutang was with him, sleeping soundly while snuggled in comfortably on one of the pelts that Ed used as a blanket. Ed got up and stretched, fondly listening to the gentle snores of the tiny monkey as its chest rose up and down.

It was good to have a companion that couldn’t talk, just look at Ed with a mischievous and playful glint in its eyes.

Ed had been moving around quite a lot since he had woken up, and had expected to be tired. He had just woken up from a two week coma, after all. But it seemed that his high stats made recovery a lot quicker than before.

In addition to using the Spirit Crystals to heal his Spirit, his Blood Core had been sending out pulses of blood manna throughout his body with no effort on his part. The passive circulation of blood manna had done wonders for healing his physical wounds.

Ed wasn’t sure whether this was unique to his Core, or something that all Cores did. Ed suspected it might be a feature unique to his Blood Core, as constant circulation was one of the key characteristics of blood. The Core, Ed had noticed, seemed to almost act as a heart-like organ for manna circulation, pulsing in time with his original heart.

He could feel the thrum of energy beginning to build up in the circulating manna, and could sense that once fully healed, he would be able to access and utilize a significant amount of blood manna. It probably wouldn’t be anything like the amount he had had access to in the battlefield, but still.

The amount of blood manna he passively generated, however, was abysmal. Other than the passively circulating blood manna originating from the Blood Core, Ed only had a sliver of blood essence left.

Heaving a sigh and exiting his internal scan, Ed took out the Blood Crystal that the dagger had produced after stabbing Mustafa. Using his barely recovered spirit sense, he activated True Sight with some trepidation.

To his relief, he felt the strain on his soul, but not to an unbearable or painful degree as it had been when he’d first woken up.

Blood Crystal (34 Hobgoblins. 1 Blessed Human.)

A crystallization of blood essence of multiple beings.

Contains an abnormal amount of shadow essence.

A spark of something else lies at the core.

The System’s description was not reassuring at all, but his Body had been healed to a degree, and he desperately needed more essence to be able to do anything else regarding cultivation…