Where the fate leads to...

Nobody knew how long the awkward silence continued, but when the last slave woke up, Jewel spoke again. "Didn't you want to know about the mana beast essence?"

'Mana beast essence?' That was something that Aiden was very curious about. With Aiden's nod, Jewel said, "Come with me. Kaiser, come with us."

Kaiser put down the branding iron and poured some liquid on his wound before following Jewel.

Looking at the dead eyes of the slaves for one last time, Aiden sighed and followed them. He followed them through the between the stacked up cages. They soon arrived at the intended place.

The place had a lot less light, but it was a lot cleaner. But more than anything else, it was the magic circle on the ground that had attacked Aiden's attention.

"Bring him in." As Jewel spoke, one worker brought someone whom Aiden knew. It was the same one-handed slave he'd seen before. However, the air around him was different. He was much calmer now with a blood tattoo over his face.

He moved to the middle of the magic circle under the order of Kaiser. Only then did Aiden scrutinize the magic circle on the ground.

Apart from the inherent artwork and intangible language outside the magic circle, there were only two circles in the middle. They overlapped each other with a common space between them, where the slave stood.

The workers put a few mana crystals in one circle and a child's head size grey crystals inside the other.

"That is the mana beast essence. Extracted from a living beast." Jewel explained even before Aiden could ask. "As humans don't cultivate, they would need mana crystals during the absorption process."

"Is there specific mana for this, too?"

"Of course. Even if the humans don't cultivate, we need to check their innate mana type. We need to use the essence of the same type of mana beast to increase the chances of success. And the mana crystal will also increase their chances of survival."

As they spoke, the whole magic circle lightened up, and the essence of the grey mana beast melted away. Next was the crystals of mana. Both liquids moved on and were absorbed into the magic circle.

The slave in the middle looked around in fear, not knowing what was going on. But as soon as it absorbed the crystals, his eyes turned white, and it petrified him. In the next instance, the glow of the magic circle intensified.

"We did everything we could. Now it is up to his will, whether he wants to absorb the essence or to be devour by the beasts." Even if Aiden had heard that he did not pay any attention to Jewel's words.

"You can still absorb the essence, even if you don't have mana?" Jewel didn't know why Aiden suddenly looked so happy, but he confirmed.

'If one without mana could absorb the essence of mana beast, then one with mana would have no problem either.' Thinking about it, Aiden had a hard time hiding his excitement. He asked, "Then what about me?"

"What about you?" Just the moment Jewel realised it and it shocked him, "You want to absorb beast essence? Do you know how dangerous it is? You're strong enough, why do you need to absorb it?"

'Strong?' Aiden cursed in his heart. He just couldn't tell Jewel that he could no longer cultivate mana. 'But even if I can't cultivate mana again, it won't be a problem.' He asked in impatience, "Can I?"

'I can never understand these muscle heads.' Looking at determined Aiden, all he could do was sigh, "I don't know." As Aiden was about to say, Jewel added, "But those with totems have a better chance of absorbing mana beast essence than those who can't use it."

'Totem?' Aiden couldn't help but smile in his heart. 'Even if they could use the mana of another beast, they could still absorb the mana beast essence. Though I don't know if mana inside me is enough…"

"As long as your mana matched the beast, you will not have a lot of trouble. Provided," Jewel washed away all the worry within his mind and said, "you have a powerful will and enough mana crystals."

"Stong will, huh? That will not be a problem. And the mana crystal?" Aiden looked at Jewel and was going to say something, but...

*Khhhhhaaa*

It was a sound that the insect would make, but now it was much sharper. He didn't notice it while he was thinking, but now that he looked at the one-handed man, a chill ran down his spine.

He didn't look like a human being at all. The eyes appeared on the forehead and the cheeks, and they were all round and black. His mouth changed too, and a pair of chelicerae with black fangs had replaced his lips.

His face was not the only thing that was going through the transformation. Soon his body arched back, something came out of his back.

"These are the legs of incest," Aiden mumbled unconsciously. "One, two — four black legs. It's just some kind of insect."

[It is a spider.]

"It's a skull-crusher tarantula." Jewel and ESS responded at the same time, and he continued, "Now that the struggles have begun, you should be careful. Anything could happen right now.

"Careful?" Aiden hadn't noticed it before, but many of the workers were holding weapons. Spears, swords, shields and spikes. There were a lot of weapons, even Jewel had taken out his gun.

Instinctively, Aiden took hold of his blade as Jewel spoke again, "Right now a war rages within his mind to control the body. If he can not control the will of the beast, he will end up like those halflings."

"Halfling?" Aiden dared not take his eyes off, as he asked.

"You've seen those in the skull forest. The humans who looked half-human and half-beast. They're failures. Haven't you seen those enormous fellows walking around the city with their bodies covered in a robe?"

'Halfling?' Aiden scolded himself in his heart, 'What were you thinking? Did you really think it would be without dangers?'

"Looks like he has suppressed the will of the beast." Jewel's words brought him back as he turned to the man. His mouth was becoming normal again, the four legs had resided in his body and the eyes were covered in the skin again.

A moment later, the magic circle had lost all its glow, and the man fell to his knees. His breathing was uneven as if he was struggling for air, but he cried out at the next moment, "Ahhhhhhhh."

Aiden wasn't sure if it was due to pain or frustration, but he never expected what happened next. His limbless left shoulders bulged up, and his left hand burst out of it, spraying blood everywhere. He fell unconscious in the next moment.

Kaiser pounced towards him and poured a potion in his mouth. Only then did the colour return to his face.

"Don't you know, the spider can re-grow their limbs," Jewel said, pointing to the slave, "That human hand is the proof. If he hadn't subdued the will of the beast, that limb would have been a spider's leg rather than a human's."

Before Jewel could look at him, Aiden asked, "Don't you want to know about our cultivation technique?"

Looking at his face, Jewel could understand that Aiden was dead serious. But he hesitated, "I want it." He pointed at the slave and said, "But it is not a full-proof process. Any wrong step and you might die."

"You don't have to worry about that."

Looking at him, All Jewel could do was sigh in his heart. "Sure. Should we go back now?"

Aiden nodded but stopped, "I want another thing." Jewel looked at him with confused eyes, not knowing he was intending to ask. "I want to enter the mine."

"What?" Jewel frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"There is one, isn't it? It might be under the giant tree stump." It wasn't like Aiden was blindly guessing. He saw the giant tree in Irupax that used the energy from the chaos ore to grow larger.

Even if the 'world devourer tree' absorbed human beings, the amount of mana that they would need to grow to the giant size would never be enough.

The heavily guarded dead tree stump and the abundance of the mana crystal city made him believe that it must be a giant deposit of mana crystal underneath it. Even if he wasn't sure about it, he'd have to take this chance.

"You can't get in there." Jewel's frown deepened.

"If they can enter," Aiden pointed at the slaves and said, "I can act again. And you can have the cultivation technique."

Looking at determined Aiden, Jewel sighed and said, "Let me think about it."