Sitting around a rock in the middle of the village's outskirts, a small group composed of four green, child-sized humanoid creatures was eating dead rats. Goblins were ugly, their teeth would rot shortly after being born, their eyes were extremely nearsighted, and they could only eat raw things. With a life span of only five years, such a lifestyle was to be expected.
In the middle of their eating, one of them saw a single human approaching from the side. Startled, the goblin slipped and fell face-first on a group of chewed rats. Fresh blood covered a large part of his face, but he was used to such conditions. "Wah! Wah!" He pointed at the approaching human who was only ten meters away.
The four goblins took a few steps back and grabbed their weapons. One had a rock, the other a small stone knife, one had a wolf's tooth, and the smallest one was bare-handed.
The black-haired human opened his right palm and, with a single thought, made a Bone Dagger appear in his hand. The goblins charged thoughtlessly and fell right into Zel's trap.
All of a sudden a silver-haired woman with golden eyes appeared from the side without making a single noise and used her sword to behead a goblin in an instant. The man was merely a decoy! Thanks to Zel having all of the attention, she was able to sneak up on the group slowly and attack it all of a sudden. After the first goblin died, she proceeded to slice one in half.
The other two turned around in anger and tried to kill Lira, but they were so slow and easy to dodge she simply kicked one of them into the air. "Catch!" She said.
"You don't have to tell me." Zel reminded her. As the flying goblin was about to land on the soft grass, Zel kicked him back into the air. His girlfriend, entertained, kicked it as well. They were now playing with the goblin as if it were a ball. Fighting goblins couldn't be considered earning combat experience, so at least they got to train their kicks until they got bored and let the deceased goblin fall to the ground.
"Killed the last one," Zel said, removing his dagger from the last goblin's skull.
"Let's split half and half." She suggested.
"Fine by me."
They gathered the corpses into a pile and, one at a time, crushed the goblins' heads on the same rock where they used to eat raw rats. With just a few hits, their weak cranium eventually broke and with a single cut using his Bone Dagger, extracted the Cores from their brains. "Here's your share." He tossed her two white lumps of light at her, which were two Cores.
With a smile, she gladly absorbed them and earned a total of twenty Soul Shards by destroying the Core itself. This was the usual way of doing things. Kill, take the Core, check for rare drops, and absorb the Core.
But for Zel, this was different after receiving his Core Ability.
"I want to try something, protect me for a minute or two."
"Take your sweet time, keep in mind we aren't in a nice spot."
"I would have never guessed that without your help. Thanks."
After absorbing the two Cores he had just obtained, he sat cross-legged on the grass, closed his eyes, and entered his Core. Everything was normal except for a few things. First of all, his black soul was still staring at him, but it had changed shape slightly. It wasn't identical to him anymore. It was a few centimeters shorter and had slightly longer and pointier ears like those of a goblin! Not only that, but when he inspected his mind, his Soul Shards had not increased and as if that weren't strange enough, there were now two white orbs on the ground surrounded by grass. At first, he only knew they were Cores, but as his thoughts expanded, his own Core provided him with the necessary information. Not only was he able to tell that they were the Cores he had absorbed, but he was also aware of which goblin gave which Core! He stepped closer, picking up one of them.
Without a warning, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm, the one that was holding the orb, but he gritted his teeth and looked at the horrifying change that was happening to him. His human flesh had been torn apart and thrown to the ground, his muscles weakened and his eyesight worsened. Knowing something was clearly wrong, he focused on his Core Ability's description and found out that new pieces of information had been revealed to him.
"When you absorb a Core, you will not get Soul Shards. In exchange, you get to keep their soul to use as you wish. When you have one or more of any living being, you can transform any part of your body into theirs, allowing for powerful combinations but at the cost of Core Energy being expended rapidly. Warning, this effect is based on species and not on the individual. Having duplicates will merge them into one and make it stronger than before."
As he listened, the light orb he was holding suddenly flew upwards along with the one still on the grass, and clashed in midair, creating a few sparks as they slowly fused into one, resulting in an improved version of the goblin.
"I wasn't cautious enough and my arm turned into that of a goblin, which is not good. Luckily, this place is hidden from anyone else. I wonder, how easily can it be controlled?" Zel looked at his green arm and created an image of himself in his mind. With a simple thought, the green skin fell off and his normal human arm was back. Now, only his hand was left. "Normal goblins have sharp nails, but they are usually broken to the point where they are unusable. My fingers though… They have perfectly fine nails as sharp as a knife! Interesting… It seems that what I decide to transform into automatically adapts to my body, but I doubt it's that simple. If anything… My soul could be the main cause."
Zel reflected for a minute before eventually exiting his Core.
"A Core Ability that allows me to transform parts of my body to my own liking… If I can absorb the Cores of multiple different beasts, perhaps I could improve my body! It basically allows me to evolve in a matter of seconds! But it has its own limitations… Not only does my soul get damaged every time I absorb a Core whether I like it or not, but if I'm not careful enough, my transformation could go out of control… It's truly an intriguing ability." He thought, slowly standing up from the grass. "Lira, did my arm become green while I was inside my Core?"
"Of course not. Why would you… Wait, are you messing with me again?"
"It seems you are getting better."
"You've been acting strange today, but I shouldn't inquire further since it's probably about your Core Ability." She stopped for a small moment before saying, "Shall we kill the lone wolf? We don't have all night you know."
"Yes, let's kill the wolf. How do we split the rewards?"
"There are three wolves in total, so splitting in half is hard since one of us could just lie about how many Soul Shards he received… How about the usual, I take the young ones and you take the old ones? Yours are rarer but worth more, mine the opposite."
"I know that already. I came up with it after all… But I'd like to switch roles this time."
"Oh? Why is that? Usually, it's more profitable for you."
"Does it matter why? You'll get more Soul Shards, just accept my offering and don't complain."
"I won't complain, you can be sure about that." She scoffed.
Knowing that time wouldn't stop for them, they quickly approached the lone wolf, sneakily passing behind bushes, avoiding fallen branches, and making noise in general. Zel had to be careful of where he put his foot, while Lira was able to walk more freely thanks to her skill, Feather Step. The stealth required to ambush a wolf was not something anyone could reach, but these two had been together for over six years now, even if they couldn't speak, their minds were almost the same and didn't need a lot of communication. This was also useful since wolves are very sensitive to noise, meaning even talking briefly could expose their location. If, for any reason, they had to communicate, they would just use their own hands to avoid speaking.
The male wolf was resting leisurely close to a small bush, not asleep but not on guard either. He was young and inexperienced, he didn't know that resting in such an open space was akin to offering himself to predators. As he yawned, his nose picked up a strange smell coming from behind him. He quickly turned, hoping for an easy meal, only to find a dark-haired human charging at him from behind with a dagger in hand. The wolf immediately got on his four feet and dodged to the side, but he was caught too unguarded and a Bone Dagger injured his left hind leg.
The wolf groaned in pain, saliva coming out of his mouth in rage, while a streak of blood dirtied the green grass. Zel obviously didn't give it any time to think and immediately charged forward. The wolf, knowing it was most likely physically stronger, also charged at Zel and raised his paws to attack. Right at that moment though, Lira appeared from the side and, using her sword, severed the right hind leg, resulting in the wolf losing his two most important limbs which were used for speed. Having lost its advantage, the wolf tried escaping, but his two only injuries were too incapacitating.
To finish off the beast, Lira and Zel attacked together in a coordinated attack from both sides. Having a sword and therefore having a longer range of attack, Lira struck first, lodging her silver-colored blade into the wolf's torso, severing his internal organs. Then came Zel who, using a dagger, stabbed the wolf's neck multiple times, effectively killing him with the first two strikes.
The wolf's body collapsed to the ground, dyeing the fur dark red and sending fresh blood into the air.
Zel kneeled down, placed his left hand on the fur, and gave it a feel, rubbing it as if he were petting the wolf. "The fur is smooth and the skin is regular with no marks, he's very young." He stated.
Lira, just to confirm, did the same thing and nodded in acceptance. "Fine. This one is yours."
Zel grabbed his Bone Dagger in a reverse grip and squatted next to the wolf's head. Then, with a violent strike, he cracked the skull and got access to the brain. Subsequently, he gave a strike with the pommel of his weapon and created a large hole in which his hand could fit. Using his blade, he dug into the wolf's brain and revealed the glowing greyish orb hidden inside the head. His hand reached for it and ripped it off the red glue-like substance holding it in place and stared at it.
Absorbing the Core, he said, "I want to try something one more time, let's get out of this blood-stained place at once."
"Again? You're making me curious now…"