Artie sighed and began tying her hair in a pony tail. "I'll absorb it."
Eliron nodded, "Alright…"
Unlike implantation where the spirit shard is placed inside the core of the person, absorption was a completely different process.
Although the mana in beasts was still mana, it was a little different from those found in humans.
So the first step to absorbing a spirit shard is to saturate it with mana, this mana would help attune the monster's mana to that of the elves.
That way, there would be no reaction when the mana floods her body.
Like before, the spirit shard levitated in the air above them, right between Artie and Eliron.
He looked at her, his expression serious. "You know what to do right?"
Artie nodded, her complete focus on the crystal in front of her.
Before he started, Eliron secretly activated his luck skill, and then they both began to pour their mana into the crystal, waves of steamy white mana coating the crystal and circling around it.
The process continued for quite some time. Eliron was sweating buckets, and he could see the visible signs of exhaustion in Artie's posture.
"This is taking longer than usual…" he muttered.
Although he had not absorbed a spirit shard before, the novel had clearly outlined the process, and it definitely wasn't this long.
[Mana Breathing]
Eliron activated the skill in order to sustain his mana, and empower the mana Yennefer was supplying.
"You are pretty lucky Artie…" he said in a strained voice, a small smile on his face.
Since the burden of applying mana was more on Artie than him, she could not speak, instead, she raised her brows in a questioning manner.
Eliron smiled. "It's taking this long because the mana core is saturated with mana, you got a really good shard."
Artie could only nod, and then a few seconds later…
Crack!
A thin hairline crack appeared on the spirit shard, and then the shard split open like glass, a wave of concentrated aura pouring out like a flood.
Flowing right into Artie.
She tensed the moment the mana crashed into her, her body jerking slightly as they flooded into her core.
The mana kept rushing into her, the quantity so great that she gritted her teeth, her core being overwhelmed by the force.
Whoosh!
There was an electric buzz in the air.
Yellow currents surged out of her, rolling over the floor as they exploded outwards, rushing past them and tingling their skin.
A tree by their side was split apart, the wood splintering like it were a toothpick, then a shockwave cut past them, followed by a rush of wind and wild mana.
Eliron remained seated, a smirk on his face as he watched her.
Thankfully, Artie seemed to be able to control the lightning to an extent, if not, they would have already been hit by one of the strikes.
'She's gained the lightning affinity, hehe.' He mused as he watched her.
Finally, her mana core had gotten enough. The residual mana exploded outwards, as though being repelled by an opposite force.
And the mana flew right at Eliron, encasing him just as it had done Artie.
Normally, this would have washed past him as it was a normal process during shard assimilation.
What Eliron did not expect was for the mana to seep into his skin.
'What the hell?'
His Mana breathing skill was sucking up every single of mana it could latch on and depositing it in his core.
And then a few seconds later, the mana completely disappeared, and the forest returned to its normal serene state, albeit a little messy.
Eliron sighed, beads of sweat forming on his face. 'That was a lot…'
He had been absorbing mana every night since he got into this forest, to grow his capacity. But never had he received such a huge rush of mana.
In front of him, Artie was staring at her hands, a surprised look on her face.
There was a soft hum of energy surrounding her skin, the mana floating just above it like mist shrouding a mountain.
The energy had become hers…
It was a pale golden colour, with a light shimmer that was accompanied by an occasional electric sparkle.
Eliron could sense it, she had gotten stronger from just the mana alone, and if he could notice it from just seeing her, then Artie should be able to sense it in full.
But just when he thought that was all, Artie mumbled. "I… think I got a new skill."
"That is excellent!" Eliron said while smiling wide.
Still, that was not the only surprise for the night, as soon, a notification flashed in front of him.
[You have been exposed to stray mana from two supernatural monsters]
[Strange mana is coalescing in your core]
[You have successfully gained a new attribute]
[Attribute name: Lightning]
Eliron blinked at the screen, shocked by what he was reading.
'Was mana breathing really enough to gain that much mana?'
What he had gotten was nowhere near what Artie had absorbed, so the chances of him gaining an affinity from it was extremely low.
But it seemed the system was not done with the surprises…
[— -New achievement unlocked!- —]
[You have significantly raised the strength of your army.]
[Army Strength: 5% ~> 6%]
[Rewards: SSSR Skill Gacha]
[When the SSS skill gacha is summoned, you have a 20% chance of summoning a skill perfect for the current situation.]
Eliron nearly laughed out loud, but remembering that Artie was still sitting in front of him, he swallowed it and smirked.
Before, he had to rely on his knowledge from the novel, but the Primodial collection had far too many skills to have even been mentioned in the book.
Even if 20% wasn't guaranteed, it was a very high percentage and with his luck skill, he could probably raise the chances to 40 or maybe even 45%.
'Now we're talking!' He thought as he rose to his feet, offering Artie a hand.
•••
The next morning, the hunting party organised all their luggage, hurling it into the cart as they prepared to leave the camp.
It took nearly thirty minutes to finish cleaning up, and then they had a quick breakfast and prepared to set out.
But before they left, Yennefer brought Eliron's attention to something in the camp.
"What are we going to do about him?" She asked, staring at Razaki, the goblin they had captured.
Razaki had been rather quiet after news of his king's death reached him, but it was not out of sympathy but rather of fear of his own life.
He had also grown more respectful to Eliron, because in the goblin law, whoever killed the king became the king.
But that did little to quench his fears, the more time went by, the closer their party was to leaving.
And he most likely knew they would not take him with them. Which meant one thing, death…
Eliron walked up to him and stared down at the goblin while stroking his chin.
'I could kill him like I did the rest…' he mused.
Although Razaki looked helpless, it would have been a different situation if they had raided their village.
Razaki would have personally killed many elves and taken women back to their camp as rewards.
Goblins were goblins after all…
Eliron frowned.
But that didn't mean goblins could not be useful, especially considering his plans for the future.
Goblins bred fast, and as their king, he could command them to go to war for him, hunt for him and even perform raids if need be.
As oddly as it sounded, they were an invaluable resource.
He sighed and raised his saber before bringing it down at the goblin.
Razaki winced, closing his eyes as the sword descended. But when he felt no pain, he opened his eyes to see that his restraints had been cut off.
His eyes widened as he stared at Eliron, completely shocked.
Eliron raised his hand. "Just two rules…."
"Number one, no more eating elves or humans. Number two, no more rolling in filth, understood?" He asked in the goblin's language.
The goblin grinned wide and nodded his head repeatedly.
"Good, now run along."
Without a second thought, the goblin dashed into the forest as fast as it could.
Eliron sheathed his sword and turned in the other direction. "Alright, let's go home!"
A wave of cheers erupted from the hunters, as their grueling time in the forest was finally coming to an end.
[End of volume 1]
[Reincarnated Lord]