Soul core
Confused, Jin made his way down into the central plaza. A crowd had already gathered, people stood around talking, their voices echoing through the open space.
There were too many to count, and more kept arriving, descending from rooms above and filling the area quickly.
Jin recognized a few familiar faces from his neighborhood, but most were complete strangers.
He moved between groups, trying to pick up bits of conversation, hoping someone had answers. But everyone seemed just as lost. The noise grew overwhelming, so Jin turned away and headed for the exit.
Passing through the giant stone archway, he was greeted with grassy plains, a few people were already wandering around.
Off in the distance, to the west, Jin spotted a forest. Curious and still seeking answers, he made his way toward it. Just as he reached the edge, a sudden commotion caught his attention.
A man and a woman came sprinting from the forest, screaming. Alarmed, Jin hid behind a nearby tree and watched.
Chasing them was a massive butterfly, its wings as wide as a person was tall. Its body was strange and sharp, and it moved with unnatural speed.
As they fled the man tripped, the butterfly saw its chance and pounced, its six spindly legs locked him on the ground with a few digging into the man's flesh. It then unfurled its stinger like mouth and pierced the man's right eye before beginning to suck.
Jin stood just a few feet away, frozen. Luckily, the creature's back was turned to him. The man's screams echoed in his ears. He glanced around and spotted a rock nearby.
He was about to reach for it but stopped himself. Could he even help? the creature was huge, he could die.
"AAHHGG SOMEONE HELP ME!"
The man screamed again and without thinking Jin snatched up the rock, as adrenaline surged through him he crept forward, and slammed it into the butterfly's eye.
The eye burst with a wet pop. The creature shrieked. Before it could react, Jin struck the other eye, smashing it to pulp.
Blinded and in pain the butterfly went wild, Jin quickly hid again as it thrashed wildly, crashing into trees injuring itself even more, before falling to the ground and twitching for a few seconds.
At the exact moment the butterfly stopped moving Jin heard a strange voice in his head.
[Common Beast Turquoise Butterfly slain. You have received beast armament of Turquoise Butterfly. Absorb Soul core for Ascension]
At the same time a string of information was presented to him.
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Name: Jin Riugi
Race: Human (M)
Rank: Primeval
Soul cores: N/A
Beast armaments: Common Beast Turquoise Butterfly
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Confused at what it meant when Jin thought of the Beast armament, a dagger suddenly appeared in his hands.
Jin stared at the dagger made of a cyan material reminiscent of the butterfly. The blade was long and slender, more stiletto than dagger, yet undeniably menacing in design.
As soon as he thought of dismissing it, the blade vanished. Fascinated by the strange mechanism, he was about to summon it again when a piercing scream shattered his focus, followed by the sound of uncontrollable sobbing. It jolted him back to the reality of what had just happened, why he'd attacked the beast in the first place.
What he saw next stopped him cold.
A man lay still on the ground, deathly pale and motionless. Clearly dead. Beside him, a woman sobbed, her anguish raw and overwhelming. There was something about them, perhaps a resemblance that suggested they were related.
Jin had never seen a dead body before. The sight turned his stomach.
Just then, people from the surrounding area and made their way toward the scene. A man at the front stepped forward and asked what had happened. With the woman too stricken to speak, Jin explained everything as best he could.
Uncertain of what else to do, he stepped away, leaving the weeping woman and the small crowd that had gathered around her. Most simply stared at the corpse, murmuring among themselves, though a few tried offering her comfort.
Jin went to the body of the slain butterfly. A few people surrounded it as well poking and prodding at it, joining the group Jin saw a girl he recognized, Lily.
She was staring intently at the area where the eyes had been previously and did not notice when Jin showed up next to her.
Curious Jin asked "What are you looking at?"
She became startled when she recognized him but quickly composed herself , "Do you also see a red glow in its skull, I don't know if I'm hallucinating but there seems to be something shining".
Looking closely at the destroyed eye sockets, a slight reddish light dimly illuminated the inside of the monster's head.
Remembering something, Jin approached the skull much to the girl's surprise and summoned his stiletto before prodding around in it, eventually fishing out a red orb.
Hands covered in translucent insect blood, an unpleasant musky smell permeated his nostrils, as Jin stared intently at the marble.
Remembering the system message about absorbing the soul core for ascension, he took a deep breath and plopped it into his mouth, under the horrified gazes of the people around him.
Surprisingly as the core entered his mouth it dissolved, turning into a cold liquid. The liquid spread throughout his body, giving him a refreshing and energized feeling.
[You have gained one Common soul core]
Hearing the message he checked his information again.
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Name: Jin Riugi
Race: Human (M)
Rank: Primeval
Soul cores: Common 1/50
Beast armaments: Common Beast Turquoise Butterfly
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'So it really did give me a soul core. It seems I need to collect 50 but then what, I ascend, what does that even mean?'
Before Jin could question it any deeper he was interrupted
"W-Why would you eat that?", Someone blurted.
Jin blinked. Right, he wasn't alone. Several people were staring at him, confused and unsettled.
"Probably should've cleaned it first," he muttered to himself, as an unpleasant metallic aftertaste remained in his mouth. Then he addressed the group.
"What I just did was absorb a soul core. Looks like these beasts have them. According to what I saw, collecting fifty is necessary for… something. Ascension, apparently."
seeing that they all looked confused he sighed.
"Everyone think of the word status or information, something should appear before you".
A few hesitant moments passed before people began exclaiming out loud, although their status was mostly blank it still surprised them.
Lily then said, still somewhat confused, "Alright, but what was that weapon you used, did you find it somewhere?"
The other people were also curious and wanted to know the answer, as there were likely more beasts out there and they would need to be able to defend themselves.
"After I killed the butterfly I gained the stiletto, If you want one you would need to kill one as well".
The group fell silent. Just minutes ago, a man had died. No one wanted to take that kind of risk.
People began walking back to the colosseum, as staying out here was dangerous, no one knew if or when they could get attacked.
Jin agreed, while having a weapon made him feel safer, if a butterfly was already as large as a human he didn't dare think what other horrors were out there.