Serpent

"Something like a Shadow Panther if you have one." Leonidas said. The clerk thought for a moment before going to check. He had some on the shelves of the store and so they decided to just look around themselves while the clerk checked the back.

'I wonder how they're able to tell what type of beast the core belongs to just from the core itself.' Leonidas thought as he picked up an orange beast core. He looked at it and the energy inside of it started swirling as an image of some lizard looking beast appeared in the core.

"Well that answers that." He muttered.

They heard the squeaking of a door and turned as they saw the clerk coming back with an orb in hand. It was a black core and they could feel the mana coming from it. It definitely had to be a strong mana beast.

"While this isn't the Shadow Panther, this is the highest class mana beast we currently have. It was taken from a AA-rank Golden eyed Serpent sitting on the outskirts of the beast glades. Apparently it took two teams of A-rank adventurers with AA-rank leaders to kill it." The clerk said.

The clerk handed the orb to Leonidas and he looked at it before he saw the chaotic mana swirl around like the other did. He looked at it hoping that he'd see what it looked like since he's never seen one before.

Sadly after 5 minutes of covering the orb in his mana, he didn't even detect a beast will.

"Hmm, it's regrettable that the beast will wasn't intact, but I think it still has use." Leonidas said with a small smile.

"We'll take it." Diana said as she gave the man three platinum pieces. The basic economy of this world was only slightly altered.

100 Copper = 1 Silver

1k Silver = 1 Gold

10k Gold = 1 Platinum

On special occasions the royal family can give out a special type of coin called a royal piece. It doesn't have a set worth, but it can usually buy most of anything with just one piece. For that exact reason the exact number that has been made is kept secret. Even Leonidas's family doesn't know how many have been produced.

Anyways. They gave the clerk three platinum pieces and walked off with the core in Leonidas's ring. At the end of the day they decided that he could just find one when he was an adventurer seeing as nothing actually complemented nor assisted him with anything.

…

Leonidas sat in his room with his window open as the moonlight poured in. The warm breeze flowed into his bedroom as he sat on his bed holding the orb in his hand and closed his eyes. A white light outlined his body and the core as he started to absorb the mana within it.

He felt the mana from the orb passing over, into his body. Suddenly he felt his heart skip a beat and his eyes shot open. He was welcomed to darkness like when he was being reincarnated. He looked at his hand and saw that it was empty and that he was naked.

"Where am I?" He wondered aloud as he looked around. The darkness made it impossible for him to distinguish distance and so he was left with a feeling of being stuck in some confined place.

"Leave this place!!" He heard a rather deep voice that sounded with a growl. His eyes opened again and he felt the sweat on his body. He couldn't feel the mana from the orb as he looked at it.

He sat the orb on his back and took off his shirt as he put it in his basket for dirty clothes. He got a towel and wiped his face.

"Was that the beasts will? It's the only plausible answer right?" He asked himself as he looked in the mirror. His hair was fuzzy and his bangs were coming over his eyes.

'Maybe I do need a little cut…' He thought with a sigh. He went back to his room and decided that he'd go to sleep. After all, his mom and dad decided that he'd help the Helstea's with planning and stuff for the auction in like, 2 months.

'So Arthur is back with his family already, so I should end up meeting him there or whatever. What else? Right, while I'm out, I should look for some more books about beast cores and magic circuits. That should be it for now.' He thought.

He gave a big yawn before nuzzling into his blanket and pillow and falling asleep.

…

—The Next Morning—

Waking up, Leonidas stretched his arms out as he got out of bed wiping his eyes. He looked at the orb that had rolled off his bed and onto the floor since he forgot it was on his bed before going to sleep.

He picked it up and his eyes widened as he clutched his chest, which was where he placed his mana core. He fell to his knees as he struggled to get a proper breath into his lungs and he soundly passed out.

…

—Mindscape—

"Tch, darkness again." Leonidas said with annoyance in his voice. He looked around just like last time, but as he was looking, he was able to see a speck of orange light. He started moving over to it, but as he went further he noticed the speck of light seemed to stay the same size.

He moved forward and rammed into something extremely hard. He grunted a bit and felt his head as he looked in front of him only to see nothing.

"What?" He asked himself in confusion.

He put his hand out and felt something as hard as iron, but as smooth as a baby's skin on his hand. He felt a warmth coming from the object and as he looked around it, he saw that speck of orange light.

He put his hand over it and immediately retracted it back. It burned. Like a lot. It was as if he just put his hand in a boiling pot of water.

"What the hell…" He muttered. He went back and made a fireball and saw that the light reached the object. He wasn't able to see it completely and so he made an even bigger fireball and made it float above him.

His head looked up and he stammered back as he looked at the huge snake wrapped around a gigantic black ball.

The snake had purple scaly skin that looked like plated armor. Spikes ran down its body and its sharp golden eyes looked at Leonidas as if he was a peasant.

"What the hell." Leonidas uttered as he stood there looking blankly at the serpent.

"Damn human, you've put me in quite the unfavorable situation." The serpent spoke with a low growl.

"What?! How is this my fault?!" Leonidas shouted.

"You idiot!! When you tried to absorb my mana you woke me up and interrupted my reincarnation process!" It hissed with rage. The snake tightened around the orb it was wrapped on and Leonidas felt a pain in his chest.

"Hehehe, you feel it right? The grip I hold on your mana core. If I squeeze too tight something might break." The snake laughed in a villainous manner.

"Tch, how did you even get in my body? I couldn't absorb anything, so how could you even get in here?" Leonidas asked as he held his chest.

"I let myself in. After all, why would I miss such an opportunity like this? Listen human, let's make a deal." The snake said as it leaned its huge head down.

"Yeah right, you'll just try to take advantage of me." Leonidas retorted.

"No, kid. With this deal both me and you will have benefits." The snake argued back.

"…How so?"

"Assimilation. I'll let you absorb my mana and in return you'll allow me to use your mana core as a nest for me to resume my rest and preparations for reincarnation." The snake suggested.

"If I'm absorbing your mana how will you reincarnate?" Leonidas asked.

"That's none of your concern."

"No, it quite literally is my concern. What if you're using my life force or some shit?"

"I don't need all of my mana to reincarnate. As long as I have enough mana to start the process, the rest is guaranteed."

"So you'll give me all of your mana besides the amount needed to start up the process right?"

"Exactly. So how about it. My power and all I want in return is to rest in your body."

"Are there any drawbacks to this?"

"During assimilation you can't progress with your mana core. The mana will need to be absorbed by both your bones and muscles."

"So how do I do it?"

"Slowly release the mana out of your core and don't be tempted to use your mana channels. Instead, let it seep out into your body and slowly have all of your muscles and bones absorb the mana. Distribute your mana evenly throughout your body." The snake said.

"I see. In that case…I have no reason to decline." Leonidas said.

"Good, my aboshould come to you naturally after some time and once we're fully simulated." The snake said.

Before Leonidas could say anything his eyes shot open and he raised up gasping for air. He frantically looked around the room he was in and noticed it wasn't his room. It was more like an infirmary at some Japanese High School.

He stood up out of the bed and saw that he was wearing an all whiye patient outfit. Going towards the doors he pushed them open and sitting in a chair, right outside was his family and Kathlyn.

They were sleeping bunched together on one couch. He looked behind him and up at the clock that was over his bed and saw that it was around 4:30 in the morning.

He went back inside his room and took the extra blanket from the dresser next to him. He went back out and put the blanket on them with wind magic, so they aren't disturbed by his movement. He then walked back into his room and sat in bed.