Cimon watched Corven eye this core, before, to his horror, Corven gulped it down. "Corven!"
[Corven Umbrovante]:
Corven heard Cimon say that absorbing the monster core whole would kill him, but he was hungry and the monster core was screaming at Corven to eat it. Well, more like whispering the idea into his head, so he decided to just do it.
Strangely, he felt no pain. Instead, he felt an invigorating sense of power curse through his body, healing his wounds and boosting his recovery speed. Whats more, Corven felt his cultivation rank rise slightly — from the middle of mid-level, Legacy rank to the peak of mid-level, Legacy Rank.
"How… How are you still alive?" CImon asked, shakily, before getting a hold of himself at Corven's shrug. "I mean, how do you feel? Any discomfort?"
"No. none," Corven said, feeling refreshed. "Never felt better. And have you met me? I'm awesome," Corven said, laughing[cackling] madly, before looking at Cimon's confused face. "What? Am I wrong?"
Cimon just shook his head.
'It's like since awakening, Corven's become an entirely different person. He was louder, more shameless, more decisive and slightly mad. Maybe he's even…' Cimon just shook his head. No need to go down that rabbit hole.
"Come on, hurry," Corven said, knocking Cimon out of his head. "We need to cut this beast up before these griffons wake up or any more monsters are attracted to the corpses here."
Cimon looked at the knocked out griffons, as if just now realizing that they were within range of his Dreamscape ability when it was active. They must inhaled a lot of his dream pollen if they were still knocked out. He had almost forgotten about them, actually. Upon his glance, he counted three — the adolescent one guarding the egg and the little griffon, and the third adult griffon that he had surmised must have been an adult child of the two older-looking griffons that the great snake had already eaten before their intervention.
"But, before we begin, I want to try something," Corven stood before the head of the serpent, hand stretched out, slightly nervous as his face scrunched in concentration. His eyes glowed black in the sclera, his irises, glowing pale white in color, and Cimon watched in amazement as the shadow of the serpent begun to wriggle, then it began to rise and move from its main, forming its own…
[Corven Umbrovante]:
Corven knew he could have extracted the shadow of the Great Snake while it was still alive, like he had done with Eclipse, but he knew he would be out cold for hours if he did — and he was not inclined to to be passed out for that long, specially in a forest dubbed "The Dark Forest" which was full of bloodthirsty monster out for his literal life. It was an unsafe environment that was surrounded by monsters wanting to eat him with only a slightly homicidal shadow sphinx and an exhausted friend to look after him — Yeah, no, not the best conditions to be found knocked out in.
So Corven went with the logical approach — He pulled the shadow and soul from the dead carcass of his own dinner!
Corven sighed, comfortable, as a giant apparition, barely solid snake appeared, bowing its head before him in submission. "MASTER!" it hissed in recognition, startling all of Corven, Cimon and the elven scouting party hidden in the forests nearby.
Corven did not know his shadows could speak! He knew Eclipse had complex thoughts as she can share the with him, but he did not know that his shadows would be able to speak — Corven could not help but look over at his mount, Eclipse, wondering if she can speak, too…
Shaking his head, Corven looked back at the shadow serpent before him. It was different than before — Its scales, its aura, its magic affinity and capabilities were all transformed. Corven could sense its affinity with the element of night and shadow. It was not like that before. Its scales were now a gradient of black, purple and green and the underbelly scales were all dark green with black tints — It was pretty sick to look at, actually. Its eyes were now black and green at the sclera and purple at the slit for the pupil.
"I dub thee "Night Viper," first of its kind, and you shall be my general," Corven pronounced, his posture both regal and indignant.
"Thank you, my master, for this honor," night Viper voiced his thoughts. "I will not disappoint."
Nodding, Corven had the 30 foot long serpent enter his shadow space, and, after cutting the scales and bone from the body of the dead snake, Corven stored these materials in his shadow space, where he'd give them to the blacksmith to use to make his gear.
Corven then had Cimon kill the last adult griffon in its sleep, before using shadow space on the adolescent and young griffon and the egg they were guarding. He had plans for those three.
Then he and Cimon roasted the griffon and serpent meat. They took their fair share, and Corven left the leftovers stored in their soul space and shadow space respectively.
Corven was surprised to find the energy gain by eating both some of the griffon and some of the snake meat was going to various areas in his body. A majority of it was boosting his cultivation and reinvigorating him while 1/3rd was going to his Progenitor Seed located in his brain — its information and data had been updated. Corven noticed key traits being extracted from what he ate becoming tainted by the element of darkness and shadow, turning into abilities he could use and his race[He has yet to name] could use, too, whenever it was finalized.
Tier A griffon strength and talons from the griffon and Tier A Poison Infliction and Immunity to poisons, toxins and venoms of the same, or lower, rank from the serpent," Corven muttered to himself as he ate.
Surprisingly, nothing exciting happened as they ate. Corven sensed the elves who were initially watching them, had left soon after Corven de-summoned the Night Viper and Eclipse.
Upon eating some snake and griffon meat, Eclipse reached the middle stages of Tier B, and Corven learned he could increase his shadows' rank through feeding them beast meat. He gave what was left of the griffon carcass to Night Viper, as even he wasn't sadistic enough to feed him his own previous body… Well, maybe he was. Honestly, Corven probably would do so later. Anyway, the griffon meat, while not leveling the snake up, had seemed to solidify the snake, making it have solid form, which was something else Corven had discovered.
When Corven used the shadow extract skill, his shadow summon would come out transparent, but, when they ate monster or cultivator meat, they became more and more solid until they were basically reborn. It was something that awed him. It seemed shadow extract turned them into ghosts of their previous selves, while consuming actual prey made them turn real. That was kind of cool to Corven.
Upon reaching Legacy rank, Corven still needed to sleep, but he had more pressing matters to attend to. Cimon did, too, and he said it was usually the only time he could talk with his father, the god Hypnos, the lord of the dream realm and the god of sleep.
Corven found it amusing. He had already figured out who his godly parent was, or at least a semblance of them, and, if what he thought of was true, then Cimon would, technically, be considered his nephew, and Corven, the uncle, which is wild to think about in Corven's opinion. Divine bloodlines were too confusing to keep up with, and, honestly, Corven had no desire to. It was too taxing. In the cultivation world, Achlus said that incest was commonplace amongst those related through divinity — that the fact that the Great Families often in-marry to keep their bloodlines as pure as they can be.
But it didn't matter much in Corven's eyes. Honestly, Corven did not care to know how he felt about that. He was just happy to call Cimon his best friend, and would continue to do so. As far as he was concerned, Cimon was a brother, through and through.
As he read the histories of the cultivation world, and more about the Great Houses from the books he had brought at the bookstore earlier that day, he found himself thinking more and more about Celeste Luminaris.
The Luminaris girl was beautiful to anyone who knew what beauty was. As a man, Corven knew she was beautiful. Before, when he was dealing with his school bullies at school, it never really crossed his mind to date; he was never really confident enough — Oh, sure, he was prideful, but he was also a realest. Who would date the pale-haired orphan that looked like a scarecrow? Who always seemed to get bulleid despite his intellect? He had long the constant rejections and criticisms from girls his age.
There's a part of Corven that also didn't care about women like that at all, too — they just weren't his main focus, honestly, especially now when he's learning about a whole new world of legacies and cultivation. Honestly, women aren't at the forefront of his mind – He wanted — No, he needed — to get stronger. He needed to get stronger and fast. He wasn't sure how, or why, exactly, but he had a feeling that his life was about to get much more hectic soon, and needed to be prepared. He needed to be strong, strong enough to protect himself and those he care about.
He thought about Little Bella and Korey. His emotions were being suppressed; he figured it was likely due to his"bloodline awakening", as Cimon had so eloquently put it. But he never once stop feeling his bigger brotherly feelings for Little Bella and Korey. He vowed he would not let anything happen to them. He could care less about his foster mom, Miss Blueford, honestly, he just did not feel the connection there, and that was ok with him. But the kids? They were to be protected at all cost, in Corven's eyes.
Corven was considering ways to protect them, should the need ever arrive, when he felt something — A stirring in his Shadow Space.
Corven quickly looked around him, before summoning Night Viper to guard his friend's sleeping form, the aura he released was that of a Mid Stage Tier A Beast. It was strong enough to deter any beast or malicious party nearby from attack Cimon's sleeping form just with its presence.
Then, after ensuring his surroundings were clear with his spiritual sense, Corven wave his hand, as a swirling violet, blue and black vortex appeared before him. And, without further adieu, Corven stepped into his Shadow Space.