Feast of cores

Atlas simply stood watching the entrance to the cave where the mysterious person had disappeared. He had saved him and then handed him a mysterious emblem before disappearing.

Blinking a few times trying to see if it wasn't really all a dream, Atlas looked down at his hand and stared at the emblem.

'What is this?'

For a long minute he remained kneeling in complete silence, then hearing a slight groan of annoyance from Claire he looked up at her and narrowed his eyes slightly.

'I... I thought about leaving her'

Now that everything had calmed down, remorse and guilt assailed him. They were obvious thoughts at a time when one's life was at stake. Atlas's own survival instincts had led him to think that, but now he didn't know how to look at Claire.

Atlas may have been ten years old physically, but mentally he was much more mature. And in front of him was a little girl... completely unaware of what had happened and Atlas' thoughts.

Atlas simply sighed, stood up and walked over to Claire. Then, he carefully dragged her to what had once been Yendar's bed, covered her with several blankets made of animal skins... or monsters, and then walked away.

The campfire had gone out and strangely it was much colder than before. Atlas rubbed his hands together and realized he didn't know how to light a fire.

'Really... how useless'

With a sarcastic grin, Atlas looked at Yendar's research table. The mage had been reduced to a mere orb, most likely dead. 

On the table, dozens of cores lay ready for Atlas alone.

'I guess it's a blessing in disguise'

Taking advantage of the fact that Claire was still asleep, Atlas approached the table and took the first core to absorb it.

[You have absorbed an Inferior Monster Core]

[A random stat has increased]

[You have gained 100 points]

Soon the core turned to dust and disappeared. Atlas felt the man in his core fill up a bit and took another core.

Every time he consumed a core, he had done so with his own core full of mana. But apparently he could replenish his own mana by absorbing cores.

For a couple of minutes Atlas continued to absorb Cores until he stopped when he held a different Core than before. The core in his hand was a dark purple color.

'A magic core?'

It would be the first time Atlas would absorb the core of a magic monster, a higher rank than a Common monster.

'Then this is the color of a three-core monster'

Every time a mage, beast a mage managed to obtain another core, it would fuse with the one it already possessed and increase its power. Three fused cores was something Atlas saw far too far for himself, but now he was holding one.

Without much thought, Atlas absorbed it and then listened to the system.

[You have absorbed a magic monster core]

[Three random stats have increased]

[You have gained 500 points]

'500 points and three stats? So that's how it works?'

An inferior monster core gave 100 points and one stat, a common core 200 points and two stats. Now a magic core gave 500 points and three stats.

Understanding better how the system worked, Atlas looked at his stats and was quite surprised.

Name: [Atlas] [Level: 26] [Exp: 50/100] 

Race: [Human]

Stats: [HP: 11/11] [Mana: 14/14] [Magical Power: 5/5] [Strength: 9/9] [Agility: 6/6] [Dexterity: 13/13] [Intelligence: 10/10]

He had absorbed 10 cores so far from the ones Yendar had left. 7 of those were inferior, 2 common and 1 magical. That gave him a total of 15 stats split between all of them, plus, by constantly practicing his magic while Yendar wasn't in the cave, he also raised his mana and magic power slightly.

His agility and magic power were still low, but the rest of his stats were balanced.

Atlas clenched his fist several times trying to feel the difference in his stats on his body compared to a couple of minutes ago, but he was unable to feel anything.

'I guess it's a very small difference'

He looked at the table again and counted the cores on it. In total there were 20 more cores, two being magic cores, 7 common and the rest Inferiors. Atlas would increase his stats quite a bit by absorbing them all, but more important than that, the points.

Just by absorbing the ten cores, Atlas entered the system shop.

Points available: [2230]

2000 points were enough for two minor skills, but Atlas intended to save so he simply spent one minor skill.

[You have spent 1000 points on a minor skill]

[You have bought the skill [Minor fire spark]]

Atlas closed the system and then raised his hand and called his new skill. A small magic circle, even smaller than the emblem the mysterious person had given him appeared in front of his hand, then as he sent some mana into it a small fire spark appeared for an instant before disappearing.

'Pretty accurate' sighed Atlas making the magic circle disappear and heading towards the campfire. 

Fortunately Yendar hadn't used the fire in a while, so there was still wood ready to burn. 

Atlas arranged the wood, used some cloth that Yendar had also left behind and then set it on fire with [Minor fire spark].

The fire began to spread until it created a flame big enough to warm the cold cave. Which with each passing second began to grow colder and colder.

Atlas simply sat down next to the bed where Claire slept and placed his hands in front of the fire to warm them. Then he stared at the outside of the cave with a tired and, above all, disappointed look on his face.