Chapter Fifteen — Harvesting Cores
"Sigh… are we really doing this?" Serena asked as they stood before the open elevator.
Sam hesitated for only a second.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "Let's go."
Serena released another reluctant breath, then stepped inside beside him.
Thud.
The doors slid shut.
A low mechanical hum filled the space as the elevator began its ascent, faint vibrations traveling up their legs.
Neither of them spoke.
Moments later, the motion slowed.
To anyone on the surface, it was nothing more than a forgotten corner of an abandoned facility—dusty boxes, shelves lined with useless scraps, and scattered debris.
But then—
A section of the wall behind a random pile of storage shifted.
Stone growled and slid apart with a muted rumble, revealing the massive blast door hidden beneath the disguise.
Soft hydraulic hisses followed. Muted clicks. Internal pressure released.
The door parted.
And from the opening stepped two figures.
Sam and Serena, encased head to toe in sleek armored suits.
Angular plating traced their limbs. Dim lights pulsed along embedded circuits. Compact thrusters rested against their backs. Strange contraptions hung from their belts and forearms, humming softly with stored power.
If anyone had seen them right now, they'd probably assume it was cosplay.
Very expensive cosplay.
Sam flexed his fingers experimentally, the red-heated tip of a plasma blade clenched in his grip.
"…Careful," he muttered, eyes sweeping the room. "We don't know what's changed since last night."
Serena glanced down at herself, then back at him.
"I know," she replied, visibly alert—maybe even more than Sam, nerves tightening her posture.
In her hand, she clutched a compact revolver-like pistol that definitely wouldn't win any beauty contests. One of the many weapons from the armory.
ATLAS had called it a semi-energy firearm—whatever that meant.
Moving carefully, they began inching toward the rift that had opened in their living room, each step deliberate, silent.
They already knew from ATLAS that no rift creatures remained.
That didn't mean they were lowering their guard.
Even ATLAS approved of that mindset.
Soon, they stood before the rift once more.
The number of green corpses scattered across the floor had risen to eleven.
Serena swallowed audibly.
But she didn't look as shaken this time.
The past few hours had given her enough distance from the initial shock.
And it wasn't like she was helpless anymore.
Growing up under Hugo Burn and Natasha Burn had guaranteed one thing—
Normal had never been an option.
"Well," Serena said quietly, breaking the silence, "what do we do now?"
Sam considered for a moment.
Then spoke up. "Let's start by removing their cores."
Without wasting time, he directly drove the blade of his short sword straight into one of the goblin's chest. Wet resistance gave way with a sickening tear as steel parted flesh. The weapon slid through almost effortlessly.
He twisted the hilt slightly, widening the puncture, before directly plunged his armored arm inside.
Serena winced. Sam barely noticed.
It felt… weird doing this—as if you stripped away the green skin. Ignore the discolored blood, the fangs, the claws—and the body underneath wasn't that much different from a human's. Just… a very muscular one.
The thought flickered across his mind for a moment, then vanished. Strangely, he felt nothing much about the fact and continued rummaging.
After a few more moments, his fingers brushed against something solid.
With a sharp pull, he withdrew his hand, a faintly glowing pearl-like object clenched in his palm, slick with green ichor.
He lifted it closer to his eyes.
"…So this is a core," he murmured, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Beside him, Serena stared with muted disgust.
"…Seriously?" she muttered.
Sam glanced back. "What?"
She pointed at the corpse, then at his arm. "Did you really have to go in like that?"
He frowned, his expression finally visible to Serena as his helmet plating retracted.
"How else was I supposed to get it?"
Then he added, genuinely puzzled, "And why aren't you helping?"
"Hmph. Because I'm not a brute like you."
She turned away with a huff and reached for her belt, unclipping one of the strange devices secured there.
Sam watched from the corner of his eye, curiosity piqued.
The device Serena placed on the floor resembled a miniature spider—its body carved from matte-black marble, delicate etchings running along its length.
For a second, it lay completely still.
Then it twitched.
Sam paused.
The tiny construct suddenly sprang to life, skittering across the floor with startling speed. In a blink, it climbed onto the nearest goblin's torso.
It paused—almost like it was searching.
Then—Chk.
A sharp, metallic snap rang out. Something extended from beneath its body.
A split second later, a glowing core popped free from the corpse and rolled onto the floor.
Sam blinked.
The spider didn't stop. It leapt to the next body.
Chk.
Another core… Then another… And another.
It moved with mechanical precision, hopping from corpse to corpse, extracting each core in seconds before moving on without hesitation. On the bodies, only a small, nearly negligible cut was left behind.
Serena crossed her arms smugly.
"…See?" she said. "Civilized."
Sam stared.
"…Okay," he admitted slowly. "That's cheating."
She smirked. "No. That's efficiency."
Within moments, eleven glowing cores lay scattered neatly across the floor.
The spider returned to Serena's feet and powered down, folding its legs inward like it was going to sleep.
Sam glanced at his own blood-slicked arm.
Then at the clean pile of cores.
He sighed.
"…Next time, I'm borrowing that thing."
Next, gesturing towards the cores he asked, "Now then… what are we going to do with these? Absorb them?"
Sam question was directed at Serena but before she could say anything, ATLAS spoke first.
"I would suggest you do." Her voice came from inside their suits this time, instead of the walls as previous.
"You are about to enter into a rift, and even though I've judged it to be of the F-ranks, there is no doubt that it would be dangerous." ATLAS continued,
"And besides… although you have studied the mana cultivation technique, you are yet to put it to a test. This could be seen as an opportunity to do so."
"That's true…" Sam nodded. "What do you say?" He added giving Serena a glance.
Serena nodded as well "let's do it."