Chapter 89 Cores!

Taking a glance at Elena and seeing her eyes fluctuate for a second, Ethan knew the innate attraction was pulling at her.

However, he had no plans to take the cores back.

Instead, her reaction would help vividly demonstrate his point to the rest of the room.

"Monster cores, in this world where strength reigns supreme, are going to be a lifeline for a majority of the human race."

"Unlike most of us who absorb mana, understand principles, and build circles to get stronger..."

"Those who awaken abilities naturally can only grow stronger by absorbing these. Because of that, only those with the most cores can truly be counted as strong."

Saying this, he turned to look at Elena, who was already salivating, her gaze locked hungrily onto the pile.

"To make you better understand what I mean, let’s run a live experiment."

"Everyone, drop your cores on the table, and Elena, begin to eat them one by one."

"Let’s see it in action."

Giving the command, the veterans began pulling out the crystals, tossing them onto the table one by one.

One... two... twenty... fifty... one hundred and thirty!

In just a short while, the wooden tabletop was completely covered in bite-sized crystals of varying colors.

Though some still bore faint smudges of blood, their raw, crystalline beauty could not be hidden as they shone brilliantly under the room’s lights.

’Gulp...’

Swallowing hard, Elena’s eyes began to glaze over, and her hand started stretching out toward the pile of crystals on its own accord.

"Brother... are you sure?" she asked, her voice trembling with hesitation.

However, Ethan simply constructed a floating hand made out of mana and pushed the gleaming pile of crystals closer to her.

"Go on, they’re all yours. Now show us what you can do!"

Hearing this, Elena no longer hesitated. Snatching the nearest monster core, she hastily wiped the dried blood off on her shirt and swallowed it whole.

Boom!

In an instant, her entire body was flooded with overwhelming euphoria!

Euphoria! Swallowing the first crystal, Elena’s body went through unimaginable pleasure.

Her cheeks flushed bright red, and her facial expression relaxed into one of dizzying ecstasy.

Her body temperature began to rise, and she felt her heartbeat steadily increase.

Unlike when she had consumed just a single core earlier, the physical changes were now far more pronounced and rapid.

Yet she didn’t stop there. Having taken the first, she immediately grabbed a second, and then a third.

’Ungh~!’ Stifling a moan, her temperature spiked further.

The surrounding ambient mana began to stir violently, a phenomenon that the 2nd-Circle mages present were acutely sensitive to.

At this point, they couldn’t help but be deeply shocked.

Under their Mana Sight, every single crystal Elena swallowed caused her strength to spike exponentially.

Whether it was her muscle density or bone structure, everything was rapidly reinforcing itself.

The mana core within her body grew at a frantic pace with each passing second, a rate of progression that naturally stirred a wave of envy among the onlookers.

"Hey now, isn’t this cheating? Patriarch, are you sure those crystals don’t work on us? This old man is willing to test it out!"

Asking eagerly, Darius recalled how Ethan had previously explained that because of his forcible guidance, they wouldn’t be able to break through higher circle levels without him.

However, if they could absorb these crystals as well, couldn’t they increase their strength through an alternative path?

Unfortunately, Ethan’s next words instantly crushed any such hope.

"I’m sorry to tell you this, but that won’t work."

"As you can see with your Mana Sight, the mana from the crystal is being absorbed directly by her Awakener core, which in turn physically strengthens her body."

"Her magic circles are in no way being utilized or expanded by it."

Shaking his head, Ethan sighed. In fact, he had wondered about this exact possibility during the meeting.

Especially since, while he possessed an ability system, he was not only completely unattracted to the cores, but he didn’t even possess a standard Awakener core.

In that case, if he were to swallow a core, the energy would most likely just dissipate without reinforcing his physical vessel the way it did for Awakeners.

"Wait a minute, Patriarch, what you said makes sense, but what if, just like we extract mana from the atmosphere to build our circles..."

"...could we absorb the mana from the crystals to strengthen and increase the capacity of our circles?"

"Or better yet, if we can extract the mana from the crystals, couldn’t we store it like some sort of portable mana power bank to carry around with us in case our reserves ever get exhausted?"

"Overall, Young Master, I don’t think only Awakeners can use these crystals."

"We too should be able to figure out a way to use them to further strengthen ourselves!" argued Darius, unwilling to give up on a potential shortcut to power.

Boom!

Hearing those words, it felt as though an explosion had gone off inside Ethan’s mind.

’Wait a minute... he’s right. Why didn’t I think of that?’

’Could my thinking have been constrained by the rigid experiences of my past life? If so, I have to be careful not to fall into blind spots.’

Talking to himself, Ethan instantly activated his Max-Level Comprehension, continuously deducing and analyzing the suggestions Darius had thrown out.

Sure enough, each proposal was entirely feasible.

While the timeframe was too short to immediately figure out the exact method to achieve them, Ethan knew that as soon as the meeting concluded, he could spend a few hours meditating and analyzing the data to unlock those exact applications.

Thinking of this, he was about to offer his thanks to Darius for sparking such a breakthrough line of reasoning.

However, before he could speak, a sharp scream accompanied by a sudden, violent wave of heat instantly yanked his attention away.

"Arghh! What is this?! My whole body is on fire!"

Screaming in agony after swallowing her twentieth crystal, Elena’s body suddenly crossed a critical threshold.

Her eyebrows and hair shifted, their tips emitting wisps of smoky black flames.

The same phenomenon appeared across her fingertips and knuckles.

Her skin began to fracture under the intense internal pressure, only to rapidly heal the next second.

From the inside out, Elena was undergoing a massive, violent transformation.

She was forcefully breaking through to the E-rank across both of her awakened abilities!