After the dinner, Jareth went up to sleep while the girls left. The comfort of the bed drew him into a blissful sleep after spending nights on the hard ground and against the wall, always worrying about what might happen next moment.
When Jareth's eyes fluttered open again, it was 9 AM the next day.
He slowly stood up and stretched, listening to the cracking sounds from his stiff body. He felt refreshed.
Opening the window, the sun shone on his face. Peering at the quiet space outside, Jareth pondered, 'What am I going to do today? First, let's absorb the cores of the beasts in my arcanist badge before going to sell them to get a sharp sword and a full body of tough armor.'
Jareth sauntered out of the room, not surprised that the house was empty.
'Come to think of it, what is Esta's job?' thought Jareth as he descended to the basement. 'Well, let's leave that for later.'
He spotted the other Jareth standing in the center of the basement.
Retrieving the corpse from his badge, Jareth went to the weapon rack and got a sword.
"Let's try this experiment," mumbling under his breath, he slashed at the snake's head.
The knife merely left a scratch on the scales of the head.
Then he focused and activated [Infernal Torrent], sending crimson flame slithering from his palms onto the blade, tracing the outline and compressing on the blade, which made the blade look like a crimson molten sword.
He slashed at the skull. The blade left a shallow slit, just past the scales.
'Isn't this as deep as my claws? I thought my claws were sharper than Rank 1 weapons? These weapons are all Rank 1 weapons. Or is it from the head losing some of its durability after being mangled a bit?'
Switching his sword to his left hand, Jareth activated [Quintessence Claws], wrapping his right lower arm in a black misty gauntlet.
'The attributes I borrowed from the feline bull are gone? Did they vanish after I dismissed the spell?'
Jareth shook off the thoughts and slashed with his claws over the head.
Looking at the scratch that was deeper than the blade when it was in its natural state, Jareth concluded the head was normal and his claws were sharper than Rank 1 weapons.
Crimson flames then slithered from his palm back into the misty gauntlet, transforming it into a fire gauntlet.
When he tried to compress the flames, it got disrupted.
Shrugging slightly to himself, he slashed with the flamy gauntlet at the head, marring five shallow gashes into the head.
Squatting, Jareth observed the gashes, comparing them with the one from the fire sword.
Dismissing his spells, he massaged his jaw.
'It's the same despite my claws being sharper? Is it because I don't know how to use claws compared to my sword? Hmm… Wait! What if it's about the flame compression? The sword has a higher compression while the claws rejected flame compression.
'That means if I combine a sharper sword with my Caniblaze fire, it should spike my damage. But I can't rule out the claws. The attributes borrowing make it indispensable for certain situations.'
Nodding to himself, he returned his sword to his right hand and covered it with crimson flames before cutting into the head of the monsters to extract their cores.
After making sure his shock bracelet was okay, he sat on the floor and absorbed them one by one.
He soon reached one hundred core value, where he felt the warming sensation again.
It took one hour to be done with all the cores.
Exhaling, he clenched his fist and stood up, before running around and punching the air to get used to his physique.
Seeing the robot, he was tempted to test his physique to confirm if it was already at the level of an Elite arcanist despite being an Awakened arcanist by rank. But he suppressed the urge and summoned his Sorcerer's Chart.
–––
SORCERER'S CHART
[Name]:Jareth Idren
[Race]:Human
[Body]:⟨5% Mana | 95% Oblivium⟩
[Source]:[Oblivium Forge], [Caniblaze]
[Spells]: [Weeping Ward], [Grieving Echo], [Quagmire], [Infernal Torrent], [Quintessence Claws]
Rank: Awakened
[Core]:126/200
–––
'Woah! 126? Almost done with this. I better do and get past this rank. Awakened rank feels… puny.' he chuckled at his thoughts.
"Let's go sell these, and find a nice bar," Jareth muttered and sent the corpse into his badge.
Then he cleaned the mess he made before going upstairs to have a quick bath, dressing in a comfortable shirt and free pants before leaving.
Upon getting to the road, he remembered his account was empty.
He palmed his face. "Ughhh…. Another trekking… Let's go get my money before I trek my life out."
With that, he began running, feeling the rushing wind and relishing in the new speed that still felt foreign to him.
He soon got to the Arcanist Court, but still felt energized.
This time, he used the front door. Walking inside, he still saw arcanists lining up.
Looking overhead, he saw a sign over a passage: Beast Corpse Selling And Buying.
Jareth walked through the passage, leading to a door inside. The door opened as a person came out and Jareth entered the room, which was wide and a bit chilly with many people queueing in one long line.
Looking around, Jareth squinted at the sight of a girl in glasses, dressed in a tracksuit with a bald man beside her. The girl was doing the work with the man just watching with a smiling face.
Jareth joined the queue until he got to his turn.
He copied what others had been doing, dumping his beast corpses in a scanning machine beside the girl.
The girl, who had been focusing on the tablet in her hand, read, "Three coreless Rank 1 Sand Leopards worth nine hundred aures, a coreless Rank 2 Level 1 Club Monkey worth six thousand aures, a coreless Rank 2 Level 2 Feline Bull worth ten thousand aures, and the head of a coreless Rank 3 Level 3 unknown snake worth thirty thousand. Everything can be bought for forty-six thousand, nine hundred aures."
"46,900?" Jareth mumbled, ignoring the murmurs behind him at the mention of Rank 3.
She raised her head from the screen while pushing her glasses, "Yes for—oh! You! Jareth, I never knew you were special."
"Me? I'm surprised you still remember, but even though I'm very special, I didn't get the head because of my… specialness," Jareth replied with a smile. "I'm just joking. I was never special."
"Oh! Sorry about that. So, do you accept the quoted price?" she asked.
"Oh! Can I reject it?" Jareth arched an eyebrow, ignoring the bald man's calm gaze.
"Yes."
"So, do you know anywhere else they buy beast corpses?" Jareth asked.
The girl smiled strangely, which Jareth couldn't comprehend.
The man from behind replied instead. "You must be new, kid. Only the Arcanist Court is legally authorized to buy beast corpses in Terminis Dominion."
Jareth thought for a moment before speaking, "So I'll have to accept any price they quote."
The man shrugged. "Unless you go to a Fort, but it isn't advisable to sell here. The prices at the Forts are even lower than the Arcanist Court, except in some special situations. But the Arcanist Court always gives a fair price."
Lowering his head, he thought, 'What price is considered fair without an option to choose?'
Then he raised his head. "I accept."
People at the back were already grumbling for him to hurry up, even if it was low. Maybe because of the snake's head.
"Pass me your arcanist badge."
Jareth passed it to her and she collected it.
A ringing from his comm band drew his attention, and he saw a 46,900 aures alert.
"So, do you guys also have equipment?" Jareth asked as he received his badge.
"What is with that look? We are not a monopolistic association. I'll take you to the place, since it seems like you're not familiar with how things work," she said while removing her gloves. "Uncle, I'm leaving first to show him the way."
"You're just searching for an excuse to leave your boring uncle alone here. Well, you can leave." The man waved his hand before taking her post.