Denwen begrudgingly moved toward the bodies, his hands turning into crystallized claws as he easily ripped into the poor corpses of the Crystalvores, pulling out their cores. The option to assimilate popped up each time, and he had to close the windows to avoid distractions.
"Huh, why are you doing that?" Riven asked with an irritated voice.
"Well, I can't have him viewing the changes in essence fluctuations when I do so," he explained with an eye roll.
"Screw the old guy, he won't even notice—look," Riven pointed at Kop, who was laid down sideways, sleeping with a snort coming out of his nose.
Denwen was in disbelief, his eyes wide open.
"How can someone fall asleep in these conditions?" he commented before letting out a sigh.
"But regardless, I can't be careless around him. I haven't even gauged how strong he is yet, and the stronger one gets, the better in tune they are with the world's essence," he explained.
That only caused Riven to rant.
"And don't you think I know that? What I'm saying is that guy wouldn't care about whatever you do. Think about it. So far, he's just been watching you and observing—probably because he feels it would be better to keep you closer than let you out of his sight or poke into your business directly."
He spoke rapidly, causing Denwen to place the third core in his left arm together with the rest as he moved to the next.
"Still, he has seen enough. I wouldn't want him to see me assimilate the cores. Sure, it won't cause the cores to disappear," he said, pointing to the first two cores that were dimmer than the third one, as they had lost vital parts of what made them, leaving them as just empty essence.
"I wouldn't want him to have more suspicions regarding the fluctuations of essence. So let's leave it at that."
He pushed Riven out of his face and moved to the next rank 2 body.
"Arrrghhh! How does one get so comfortable with a little power-up that they delay a chance to level up?" Riven lamented.
________________________________________
A bit of time had passed when, in the distance, essence rippled. A static sound echoed through the dungeon as an exit literally began forming within the space they were in.
Kop's snort burst as his eyes shut wide open.
"Ah, looks like our ticket out of here has finally arrived," he said with a yawn as he looked around, laying his eyes on Denwen—who now had a crystal trolley, pushing about a load of crystals.
Kop whistled.
"Now that is some loot," he said, pulling out one of the rings on his fingers and tossing it to him.
"Here, take this. Else you're just going to look like some shiny target for some people out there. Better safe than sorry."
Denwen caught the ring, using his essence to access it—his eyes widening.
"This is a high-grade spatial ring… why give this to me?" he asked, stunned by the vast storage space. Most people only had access to low-grade spatial rings with just a cubic meter of space. They couldn't store much—certainly not anything too large—but this one had almost ten times the capacity.
"What? I don't have a need for such trash anyway," Kop said, raising his hand to show four more rings on it.
"Besides, it's just better to grow your debt for later."
He burst into loud laughter, causing the face of gratitude that had briefly shown on Denwen's face to vanish instantly. Denwen shook his head. While transferring the cores into the ring, he noticed something bright within that even caused Riven's eyes to glitter.
"Hey old man," he called, getting Kop's attention.
"I think you forgot something."
He pulled out the shining Crystalvore rank 3 core from the trolley, a system notification popping up right after.
________________________________________
PING
[System Notification]
Event: Essence Core of Rank 3 Crystalvore Identified.
Available Laws:
➤ 60% Crystal Law
➤ 20% Reflection Law
➤ 19% Earth Law
➤ 1% Molecular Law
Action:
➤ You can assimilate the law with the highest concentration available: Crystal Law.
Result:
➤ 75% Crystal Immunity
➤ 100% Level 2 Crystal Law Assimilation
➤ Level 1 Resonance Armor
-- DO YOU WISH TO ASSIMILATE? --
YES or NO
________________________________________
The menu popped up with really interesting information. What caught Denwen's eye the most was the fact that absorbing just one rank 3 core could make up for the ten rank 2 cores he needed to reach 100% level 2 law assimilation.
His thoughts were interrupted by Kop, who just waved his hand lazily.
"Nah, I left that in there. I noticed you used quite a bit of essence during your battle, and you also had to create that trolley—which might not even be that big of a deal—so use the crystal to regain your essence or probably try to break through with it," he said with a nod.
Denwen was about to express gratitude again… before he remembered exactly who he was dealing with.
"Would this add to my debt?" he asked in a serious tone.
Kop burst out laughing.
"Hahahahaha," he laughed loudly before calming down.
"Yep. How did you know?"
Denwen rolled his eyes.
"Really? Must everything be a debt? You have who knows how many of these with you but still want to hold onto this one?" he asked, pushing the core toward Kop, who just raised his hands in surrender.
"Well, you know that there's no free meal in this world. Everyone has ulterior motives—mine are just laid out bare," Kop replied with a wry smile.
"How sure are you that I would even pay you back? I could just go MIA as soon as we leave," Denwen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nah, you won't. A debt is a promise. Failing to fulfill a promise is a sin—and you look like the honorable type," he said with a grin, causing Denwen to shake his head in disbelief.
"Besides, where do you want to go from here? You're practically lost till you find your direction back to Crimora. Luckily, you were thrown not too far in another continent—but just at the edge of the third continent—so it won't take you too long to get there."
Denwen's eyes opened in surprise. He had genuinely thought he was much farther away, but the mention that he was still on the third continent put a smile on his face.
"Hey," Kop called out, pointing at the gate.
"You better hurry up because this might not last too long… unless you want to be stuck in here any longer."
"With you? Hell no," Denwen said, shrinking the entire trolley into the ring in an instant. He quickly stepped through the gate, causing Kop to chuckle as he followed right behind.