Shadow parasite

Gorn proceeded towards the Mercenary Guild to empty his inventory and claim the rewards. The claws could be forged into weapons or other miscellaneous objects.

'It is adamant I know as fast as possible what is protecting this city and for how long.'

Seeing those powerful monsters was like a type of pressure that weighed down his shoulders. If one of them invaded, thousands upon thousands of people would die helplessly. Gorn sent a message to Elisa, telling her that he returned, and everything was fine. In a short period, he was in front of the enormous tree that was the base for the guild.

From time to time he scanned some of the people that were nearby. There were a few weird skills that attracted his attention, however, their level was either too low or the person too strong for him to be able to win.

Shortly, Gorn got to the area that was responsible for receiving all the completed missions. The person in charge was the same middle-aged man who gave him the mercenary badge. Gorn started to take out all the claws he gathered, for a total of sixty pairs. The man looked at him with surprised eyes. It wasn't because of the claws, but rather because he took them out of thin air. From the man's perspective, this was a special ability. He knew a few other people with such an ability to store things, but the capacity was very small compared to what he was witnessing. Hiding such information was possible, but Gorn had no desire to go through all that trouble.

"Sixty pairs. Is that all?"

Gorn nodded.

"That would make for a total of six hundred points. Minus the tax of five percent, the result is five hundred and seventy contribution points."

All this was recorded on a special type of paper that was very durable. Doing it this way was the best option available after careful consideration over the last few years.

"Do you want to receive the pay now?"

"Yes."

"Cash or monster cores?"

The same type of paper was also used to make the points easier to use.

"Medium monster cores."

His reward arrived shortly. With that being said, Gorn took his leave. After he left, the middle-aged man made a quick call.

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"I'm home!"

Entering the house, Gorn was greeted by the whole family.

"Welcome home!" said Elisa while inviting him to eat. She had prepared quite a few delicious-looking dishes. The ingredients used were from the free stuff one could receive.

"Did you bring something for me?" asked Ella with an expectant gaze.

Elisa sighed, she told her not to do that.

Seeing her innocent and serious face, Gorn smiled happily: "Of course I did!"

Hearing his words, the twins looked towards him with great anticipation as well, but did not dare to say anything out loud. Elisa sighed yet again, a little unhappy with the reaction of her daughters. Going to a nearby empty table, Gorn took out all the wild berries he collected, as well as the meat from the wild boar. Everything was just as fresh as they were the moment he put them inside.

In addition, he also took forty medium monster cores, putting them slightly to the side. The cores shined brightly under the light of the sun. It was like looking at some precious marble. The table was full of good quality stuff that could be obtained only by a very few selected individuals.

Everyone stared at the table with mouths open.

"This..." Elisa was at a loss for words.

"Ten pieces of monster cores for each one of you, as for the rest, we are going to have a feast!"

Ella was the first to react. Using her agility, which was five times stronger than a normal adult, she swiftly grabbed ten pieces of monster cores. Storing them inside her pockets, she then jumped in Gorn's arms, kissing him on the cheek and hugging him.

"You are the best!"

Elisa wanted to say something but stopped shortly. The twins also took ten pieces each while closely examining them.

"These are so beautiful! Thank you!"

It was their first time seeing something like that.

"You can use them to buy whatever you want, or you can absorb the energy inside to get stronger."

With their low talent, gaining twenty power per year was possible with some effort. Taking into consideration that the monster cores were of medium quality, those numbers were a little more generous. The limit, however, was around five hundred before the power increase became minimal. To change that, one needed, of course, a monster core of a higher quality.

"One low monster core absorbed equals one power, right?" asked Ella.

Elisa was surprised: "From where do you know this?"

"I learned this at school a few days ago," answered the little girl, feeling very proud.

"Then how much power can you obtain from the pieces I gave you?" asked Gorn in a challenging manner.

"One hundred!" Her answer was prompt, clearly wanting to show off.

"Not bad!" said Gorn while gently caressing her hair.

At this point, Elisa cut in: "Let's talk more after we cook this meat." Just looking at her face, one could tell that she was extremely eager to try the new ingredients.

And so, the girls got to work, sorting and preparing everything. Gorn also helped them, even though Elisa insisted him not doing anything.

Soon, a great feast was prepared. Everyone was relaxed and had a very good time.

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The next day.

Gorn got up early, ready to do some investigations. His first target was the library. Thanks to his new status, he had access to every book in there. The next week was spent mostly inside the library. There was a lot of useful information, but sadly, nothing on the matter that interested him the most.

Meanwhile, the winning rate of his farming system was around fifty percent. This improved drastically the moment he got the fire-resisting skill. His objective was still standing, so Gorn resumed his studies.

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Another week passed in the blink of an eye.

"Still nothing!"

He even asked the librarian and a few other people, but to no avail. Gorn's patience was already exhausted. It was time to look elsewhere.

Unfortunately, no matter where he looked or who he asked, no one had an answer to give him. Individuals such as the guild leader or other more important people could not be reached by normal means, and forcing the issue on them was not something he wanted to do just yet. The good news was that, after all this time, Gorn managed to obtain all the skills from the red fox.

"Status!"

Name: Gorn

Talent: Low

Auto farming system (Lvl1): 10/10 targets.

Power level: 1000

Abilities: Regeneration(lLvl2); Fast learner(Lvl2); Blink(Lvl3); Air steps(Lvl4); Fire manipulation(Lvl4); Fire control(Lvl2); Fire resistance(Lvl5)

Equipment: Black sword; Leather armor;

Shop (Lvl1)

Inventory: 10 cubic meters

Current Gold: 700.000

Current Missions: System upgrade mission: 16/1000 creatures killed* (expand to view more information)

Warrior, fireball, and control skills were discarded to make space for the new ones. Another huge discovery was the fact that his current gold stopped increasing after reaching seven hundred thousand.

'Sadly, there is indeed a limit...'

Completing the mission to increase the system's level was harder than expected. Gorn hoped that during all the time it took to do it, his gold would steadily build up allowing him to afford to buy all the new changes that might result, alas there was a limit to that.

Fire manipulation(Lvl4): You can turn your energy into fire and manipulate it freely.

Air steps(Lvl4): You can walk on air.

Fire resistance (Lvl5): Your body is naturally more resistant to fire.

After blinking a few times upwards, Gorn remained motionless for a moment before walking around with a big grin plastered across his face. It was just like walking on the ground, except there was no ground. This ability could easily be activated or canceled if he desired to free fall.

Next, he used some of his energy to create a fireball by using the fire manipulation ability. This ability was very flexible, allowing him to create fire spears, arrows, and basically whatever he wanted. There were, of course, some limitations. The more detailed or complicated the thing that he wanted to create, the harder it was to accomplish.

Extending his right hand, Gorn created a fireball. Focusing, he poured more, and more energy into it while maintaining its size. With each passing second the flame became hotter.

At first, the flame color was orange, however, it soon turned to white blue. Gorn's clothes were reduced to ashes. A small portion of them survived only due to his fire control skill that helped direct the heat in other directions.

The fire resistance skill was also crucial, and Gorn did not receive any injuries. Unlike the previous fireball skill, he could put his entire energy into one attack. That took time and left him pretty much exhausted, however, the force created was massive. Gorn stopped and slowly dispersed the dangerous fireball he just created. His breath was out of place, and his energy reserves were almost depleted.