Chapter 11: Devouring Water Pearls

Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Devouring Water Pearls

Krono decided to venture down toward the sea to see if he could find some marine life to Devour.

​Without delay, he locked the front door of the house from the outside and departed.

​As he walked down the bustling coastal path, a particular stall caught his eye. The wooden table was covered in an assortment of colorful but unpolished gemstones.

​Curious, he stepped forward and began examining them one by one.

​The vendor, who was a rough-looking man with an unkempt beard, noticed the little boy pawing at his wares and immediately snorted in disgust.

​"What are you doing, brat? Keep your grubby hands off! These precious gems aren’t toys for kids like you. They cost real money," he barked ruthlessly.

​Krono paused, and sneered back,

​"Don’t act as if these are some high-grade magical resources, old man. All I see is polished waste. I don’t think this entire table is worth a single silver coin altogether."

​He was of course bluffing in order to drive the price down to something affordable.

​The vendor’s face flushed. What the boy said was actually true after all. To the vendor’s knowledge, the stones were worthless fakes he had literally scavenged from a local dumpster.

He was now sitting here hoping to swindle some gullible tourists.

​What the vendor didn’t know, was that the stones actually contained hidden value.

​But thanks to his innate voracious affinity, Krono could feel the rich energy contained within.

​If he could buy them and Devour that energy, he could gain a significant boost to his stats without ever having to lift a sword.

"Don’t speak utter nonsense, boy! What do you know about identifying precious gemstones? Get the hell out of here!"

​"Oh, really? And here I was about to offer you a whole silver coin just because you look like you’re working so hard out here. But alas, it seems the world doesn’t favor my kindness today. Alright, then. I’ll take my money elsewhere."

​Hiding a wicked smirk, Krono turned on his heel and started walking away.

​As expected, it took less than three steps for the vendor to completely panic.

​"Wait! Hold on!" the man shouted.

​Krono paused and glanced back over his shoulder, raising a questioning eyebrow.

The man was practically stammering now.

​"You— you said you’d give me a silver, right? Here, take them. Take all of them."

​He hurriedly gathered all the ten gemstones into a small cloth pouch and offered them to the boy.

​In this Kingdom, 1 silver coin was equal to 100 copper coins, which was more than enough to feed a poor man for an entire week.

Naturally, the swindler wouldn’t dare miss out on a payday like that, especially for stones he had pulled out of the trash.

​Krono handed him the silver coin without hesitation and took the pouch.

He had initially started his journey with exactly 5 silver coins he received from his mother and his second elder brother, Cedric.

​Ultil now he hadn’t even touched them, since there was never a need for currency while surviving in the wilds.

The vendor was in glee after receiving the coin, not knowing the gems’ real value was much more.

​Meanwhile, Krono took them behind a fishing boat.

​Hiding from prying eyes, he started swallowing them.

​First was the fiery red gemstone.

​It was tasteless, just like a regular cold rock. But upon settling inside his stomach, it burned like warm fire.

​Ding!

​[ You have digested a Flamefish Pearl. ]

​[ Received +10 Mana (Automatically converted to Miasma) +1 Skill Fragment ]

​"So it gave me more energy to use... Let’s see what this one does..."

​The next one was dark green.

​He popped it into his mouth and swallowed. And unlike the fiery heat of the red pearl, this one felt cool and refreshing as it dissolved in his stomach.

​

​[ You have digested a Moss-Turtle Pearl. ]

​[ Received +2 Vitality, +1 Skill Fragment ]

​

Alongside the notificatiom Krono felt a sudden rush of physical energy wash over his limbs.

As a result, the lingering fatigue from his morning training instantly disappeared.

​"Vitality, huh? that’s good. It will make my body tougher."

​The third gemstone was a pale, cloudy blue.

​He swallowed it down as well.

​[ You have digested a Swift-Fin Pearl. ]

​[ Received +2 Agility, +1 Skill Fragment ]

​ One by one, he swallowed the remaining seven gemstones. Some were red, giving him more Miasma capacity. Some were green, increasing his Health. One was a rare yellow pearl that gave him a sharp boost to his raw Strength.

​[ You have digested all 10/10 Pearls. ]

​[ Total Stats Gained: +40 Mana (Converted to Miasma), +6 Vitality, +4 Agility, +3 Health, +2 Strength ]

​He clenched his small fists and felt the clear physical difference in his muscles. He could now confidently say that he was almost equal to a average adult man in terms of raw physical strength.

That meant, he wouldn’t have to unnecessarily fear them anymore.

​But that wasn’t the best part.

​[ System Alert: You have accumulated 10 Skill Fragments. ]

​[ Would you like to merge them to create a random low-tier Skill? (Y/N) ]

He immediately mentally selected Yes.

​After all, structured skills were the absolute best medium to efficiently channel the growing Miasma reservoir inside his body. Without a proper skill to guide and condense the power, using raw energy was incredibly inefficient and resulted in it getting wasted far too fast.

​Ding!

​[ System Alert: 10 Skill Fragments successfully merged! ]

​[ You have obtained a new active skill: Water Breathing (Rank: F) ]

​[ Description: This is an incredibly useful active skill that grants the host the ability to extract oxygen and breathe freely underwater. ]

​[ Cost: Consumes 20 Miasma to activate. Effect lasts for only 5 minutes at its current level. ]

"Oh, so it grants me 5 additional minutes to breathe under water. In total, I may survive for more than 5 minutes. It will give me emough opportunity to hunt for more marine creatures."

He tunred his eyes toward the blue water.

"Alright, let’s do this "