The first beast essence crystal

"What are you doing?" cried the man, who stopped Aiden from coming out first.

"What?" snorted the pair of boys holding the guns. With just one look, others could understand that they were twins, but they weren't even 20 years old. "We're killing the monster, what else?"

"Yes, what do you want? Do you want to keep it as a pet?" where one of them stopped, the other one began.

"Didn't you see that he was fighting with the beast? What would have happened if you hit him?" The man pointed to Aiden, who was shaking off the snow of his dress.

"Fighting? Fighting with what? Wasn't he just tickling the beast?" said one of the twins in disdain.

The man wasn't at a place where he could see that Aiden's punch had punctured the beast's stomach. And the freezing effect of Aiden's mana stopped bleeding in just a second. Since the blood didn't come out, it was natural for him to believe that the punch was ineffective.

Even though Aiden's kick had brought it down, he couldn't dare believe that Aiden could have killed it barehanded. However, he still said, "At least you should let him know before firing. He could have died."

"It's more important to kill that monster. Didn't you see what it could do to the transporter? If it left alive, it would have killed all of us."

"Yeah!" His brother supported him. "And what was he doing there? If it weren't for us, the beast would have killed him…"

*Slap*

The thunderous slap silenced the younger brother, and he fell to the ground. It wasn't just the older twin, even the other man didn't realize when Aiden came so close to them. And what was so surprising that the younger brother didn't move at all.

"What are you doing?" The older brother was quick to jump back to create some distance between him and Aiden, but it was futile.

He had every intention of aiming the gun at Aiden, but before he could do that, a punch at his solar plexus sent him to his knees. He couldn't show the rage in his eyes, and the kick on his face knocked him out with a bloody nose.

It just happened too fast. Even if the other man had seen everything his brain could not compute a solution. And when he saw that Aiden was coming towards him, his body stepped back on its own.

"We should move away from this place as soon as possible." Aiden said with all seriousness, "Blood will attract more monsters in the vicinity."

The man wasn't sure that the twin was dead or alive, but he didn't dare say anything about it. He could understand that Aiden was angry because of their action. But he had never imagined that Aiden would be so decisive.

"That..." he stumbled at the first word, but he recovered, "We couldn't do that? There are too many injuries. We can't leave them alone."

Seeing the man pointing to the upturned transporter, Aiden understood what he meant. 'It wouldn't have been a problem if I was alone.' Aiden sighed, but he knew he couldn't leave so many of them.

"Can you contact Stronghold 11?"

"I think I can," the man confirmed. "If we had been going in that direction for half an hour, we'd have reached it. It's close. We might be able to contact the transporter's emergency system."

"Good. Please contact them." Aiden said and moved towards the corpse of the ice troll.

"What is your name? Oh! I am Cooper. First lieutenant. Ranger."

'Aren't you too docile to be an office?' Aiden wasn't happy with the twin's attitude but now knowing Cooper's rank he became angrier. 'If you are an officer, shouldn't you have stopped them?'

However, he hid his discontent and said, "I am Aiden. Recruit. I am not assigned to any team."

"Oh!" On the other hand, it surprised Cooper. 'A recruit who charged at the enemy empty-handed? Looks like they have trained him well.' He sorted his mind and said, "Can you help me to take care of the wounded?"

"Huh!" Aiden hesitated, as he looked at the monster's body before agreeing to his request.

The transporter was a driverless vehicle, so there were twenty of them. As Cooper tried to contact the stronghold, Aiden checked on the remaining sixteen.

After checking, he found that three of them were dead. The attacks heavily injured nine, and four of them had minor injuries.

Cooper soon returned and informed Aiden that the stronghold had already received an automated distress signal from the transporter. And the rescue team will be here soon.

Then, with the help of Cooper and a few others, they removed the heavily wounded one first, then the dead bodies.

It was only then Aiden realized from where that twin got the guns. There was a set of weapons and a first-aid box under each seat, but they could only remove it in the event of an emergency.

After Aiden and co. had taken them out, Aiden moved to the monster corpse. Aiden could see a few whiffs of white smoke coming out of the monster's body. After confirming from Cooper that he couldn't see it, Aiden realized that it had something to do with his mana circle.

'So? How am I going to absorb it?' Standing close to the corpse, he asked Mraz.

"You can't." Mraz words blew his mood. Before he could ask for the reason, Mraz said, "You didn't kill it."

'I didn't kill you, but I absorbed your essence.' As soon as he said it, he realized that he shouldn't have said it. Naturally, a silence followed from the other side conversation.

"It's different to absorb the beast essence for the first time and use your mana circle to absorb it," Mraz replied after a while.

"If you use your innate mana circle to absorb the essence, it will only enhance your physical body, and if you are lucky, you may be able to learn one of their innate spells, but the probability is too low, and you will still have to use mana to use it."

'Innate spell? Didn't you say that I needed no mana to use them?' Mraz's word confused Aiden.

"Those are their innate spells, the mana circle of those spells are merged into their mana space, not yours. So when you absorb it, what you will get is the mana circle. So you can use them as a spell with mana. But since it isn't merged into your mana space, it won't be your innate spell."

Aiden couldn't help but wonder whether Mraz was angry with his words or happy because of an unknown reason, as he calmly explained everything to him. But Aiden didn't hesitate to ask more.

'So is that useless to me?'

"No." After an abrupt answer, a silence followed. Only when Aiden was about to give up, Mraz said, "You can extract the beast essence and make an essence crystal."

'Oh!' Aiden was a little happy that he could at least extract the essence. 'So, how do I do that?'

Aiden could hear Mraz sigh in his mind. Then he said, "direct your mana first to the obelisk, then to the mana circle."

Aiden did as he was told. But as he did that, things around him changed. The mana circle that was drawn around the obelisk spread out from his feet. The white whiff of smokes began to come out of the monster corpse and was getting absorbed into his body.

Unbearable pain replaced the happiness of the first absorption in a blink.

"Kukkhh" Aiden groaned in pain as the essence cloud passed through his mana channel like a violent tide of molten lava.

"Idiot." Mraz cursed into his mind. "Use your ice mana to guide it to the mana space."

Aiden gritted his teeth as ice mana to assault the beast's essence. The essence was no match for the overwhelming amount of ice mana, and it was soon subdued. Still, Aiden felt the burning sensation as the white whiff of smoke passed through his mana channels.

By the time it reached his mana space, beads of sweat had appeared on Aiden's forehead and his back was wet with sweat. As he directed the beast essence to his mana circle, it became violent again inside his mana space.

It was like a pig to slaughter, struggling its best to escape the mana space. Alas! It was too late.

The obelisk glowed, and an attraction force spread from it. And in the next moment, it dragged the whiff of white smoke into the mana circle.

The radiance of the obelisk and the mana circle became brighter, and the white whiff of smoke became more docile. When the light vanished, it transformed the violent white whiff of smoke into an obedient blue gas ball.

But Aiden felt all the energy had left his body. His leg was weak and his mouth tasted blood.

"Direct it through your mana channel. Gather it on your palm after you've completed a full circulation."

Though he was fatigued, he obeyed the command. At the next moment, he was happy that he did it. This time, however, when the blue ball of gas entered his mana channel, the feeling was fresh.

Rather than the violent burning sensation, a satisfying warmth spread from all the places it passed through. As if to apologize for its rude behaviour, it was healing Aiden's mana channel.

By the time it completed full circulation, all the pain in his mana channel disappeared. Though Aiden didn't want to part with it, still, he directed it to his right hand.

As it reached his palm, the blue gas ball escaped his body through his skin. It startled Aiden, but before he could do anything about it, all of it had left his body.

As soon as it came out, it began to beat like a heart. With every passing moment, it continued to shrink. Aiden looked in utter surprise as the gas ball was transformed into a blue crystal no larger than a little finger.

"This... This is the beast essence crystal," Aiden mumbled.