Earl was running through the forest as he was rushing home, he left Nora's dead body in hopes that some beasts would eat it, even if they were weak beasts, it didn't mean they didn't eat flesh, plus there was a good chance they would, as they would not only be attracted due to the smell of her blood, but also because of the dead beasts carcass, after about 10 minutes of running, he finally made it out of the forest and his house was in view,

*Pant**Pant*Earl was panting heavily as he had been running for quite a while, he was drenched from head to toe, but at least now he had an idea of what Spiritual Energy was. It was the natural energy his body had, each time he got injured, his body would heal itself using spiritual energy, this was probably also the energy that was used by Alchemist in summoning creatures, activating special beast gear, and performing special skills, this explanation also fit in with the idea of why he had to consume life energy, as advanced Alchemy made use of something called life essence, which he could only assume was another name for life energy, and a component of Spiritual Energy, but there were still some gray areas he hadn't quite worked out like why a mental had drained so much of his Spiritual Energy, but it didn't really matter right now, that was a problem for later, right now he needed to get home, as he knew that what happened wasn't too deep in the forest, and there was a tendency that someone had heard her scream, but his thoughts were cut short by a message

[Spiritual Energy: 50/50]

[Fire Alchemist life energy consumed]

[Strength: 6]

[Fire Affinity consumed]

[Resistance: 3]

[Quest complete: consume life energy]

[Reward: 10 Exp points]

[EXP: 15/20]

He had not only received a reward for consuming a fire Alchemist life energy, but for consuming the fire Affinity itself, which he didn't even know he could do, this had given him a stat in strength and one in resistance, this only made him curious, due to the fact that the stat increase was specific, but now wasn't the time to think about that, as he had to hurry home

"okay then, have a nice day" said grandpa Ollie as he waved off a customer walking away holding a vase, he then took a smoke from his clay pipe and sighed, then he heard the backdoor open up, he went to see who it was when his eyes went wide open ,"Earl?", he said as he saw his grandson dripping wet from head to toe, "What happened?, I thought you were going out for a walk through the woods, why are you soaking wet?,... and....", he noticed that the bandages on Earl's left arm had a blood stain on it, "Your bleeding, Why are you bleeding?, what happened to you", Earl remained there speechless, as he hadn't thought of a lie to tell his grandfather, grandpa Ollie then grabbed Earl's arm and pulled it in for a better look, he decided to unwrap the bandages around Earl's arm to take a closer look as he adjusted the monocle on his right eye, but was shocked to find out that his hand was completely fine, "If your hands not injured, then what caused the blood stai-", but before he could finish his sentence, Earl had cut in " I was still feeling uneasy and a little sick when I was heading towards the forest, but then I suddenly coughed up blood, I wiped it off with my bandages, but I still felt sick, so I rushed back home", grandpa Ollie kept quiet for a while as he was processing everything his grandson just said, "But that doesn't explain why your dripping wet", grandpa Ollie said , but once again Earl spoke up, "Well, after I decided to head back here, I fell into a pond, I didn't even have the chance to talk that stroll any more, so I just headed straight here", the excuse was hard to believe, but based on the recent events that had occurred, it was a pretty believable story, he had even seen a pond on the way here, incase his grandpa didn't see the pond and wanted to see the pond, he would have solid evidence, thankfully, Nora's attack had only burnt his face, and not his clothes, or else that would have been hard to explain, his grandfather sighed after hearing his explanation, he took one smoke from his clay pipe before speaking, "It's always something with you isn't it?, I think that's enough for today, just head upstairs and take a nap or something, just get some rest", with that grandpa Ollie walked off while Earl headed up stairs. Earl got into his room and took off his wet clothes, be then took a pouch out of his wet pants pocket, and had a huge grin plastered on his face.

After consuming Nora's life energy, he was about heading back when he noticed something at the corner of his eye, it was a beast, the beast that he could only assume Nora had killed before getting into that beast trap, one thought came to mind when he saw its carcass, 'I wonder if it's beast crystal is still inside it', last time he checked, he could absorb beast crystals, or at least the magical energy within them, and if he could get a free one off a beast he didn't have to kill, then it was a win win situation, but first he decided to check Nora's dead body for it, as ravaging through a beasts body left off a certain smell, and it was a dead giveaway that whoever smelt like that had just recently killed or at least been with a dead beast, not to mention that he would have to ravage through its body as there wasn't a specific place where beast crystals were located, and it really depended on the beast and how it had adapted to its surroundings.

Eventually he found a small pouch with a lot of beast crystals inside, even if he was in front of a dead body, he couldn't help but grin at the thought of free stat points, but he then noticed something on her neck, specifically where he had bit her, it was an Alchemy circle, "Was that there before?" he said, but didn't have the time to think about that as he had to hurry back before someone arrived.

Earl was lying on his bed while looking at one of the beast crystals, he didn't know what tier it was, as the only beast crystals he had seen were basic and intermediate, as those were the only tier of beasts that live in the forest, as a result, he had to guess that it was probably one of the two, although he heard that the brighter the best crystal, the higher the tier, he had no clue of how true it was, just thinking of all the things he could do with the stat points he would gain just made him grin even more, "Well, I guess there's no use waiting around then" Earl said as he looked at the crystal in his hand the system message appeared, it seemed like everytime he focused on something, that triggered the system's response.

[Intermediate beast crystal obtained]

[would you like to take it?]

[Yes/No]

Although he was curious as to what the system meant by take, that, however was not his plan for now, he had plenty that he could test it on

[No]

[Would you like to absorb it?]

[Yes/No]

without hesitation he picked the first option

[Yes]

He felt the rush of energy once again enter into his body, he could feel his body getting stronger, the feeling was addictive, as he enjoyed the rush of energy coming into his body, after a while it stopped and a message appeared

[Beast crystal successfully absorbed]

[Mana: 50/50]

[EXP obtained: 5]

[Congratulations You are now level 4]

[EXP: 0/40]

[You have 5 free stat points]

[Points can be used on speed, strength, agility, stamina, resistance, defense or mana]

Seeing the message made Earl grin, although he had noticed that the message said beast crystal absorbed instead of mana absorbed, it didn't matter, as long as it gave him free stat points he could use to enhance his physical abilities, although he was able to kill Nora, she was still able to injure him, despite being injured, so he knew he was still weak, and needed to be stronger, he still felt sick thinking about killing someone in such a way, but she deserved it anyway, at least that's how he felt.

Crystal after crystal after crystal he absorbed them, there were currently 5 more crystals in the pouch, and he had absorbed about 10, bringing his total free stat points to

60, he had also risen to level 6, due to the experience points he gained from it, and he would soon be strong enough to stand up for himself, he then grabbed a crystal out of the pouch and noticed that it was glowing brighter than all the other ones he had absorbed so far, upon looking at it a system message appeared

[Advanced tier crystal obtained]

[Would you like to take it?]

[Yes/No]

Earl was taken back by what the message had shown, Advance tier crystal, he was 100 percent sure that the forest only contained intermediate and basic tier beast, moreover, even if there was one, it was hard to believe that any student would be able to take down one, the different tiers of crystal were decided by how difficult it was to obtain them, a basic tier meant that common city folk could probably take one down while taking some few scratches here and there, if given the proper equipment, a intermediate tier meant that a talented Alchemist student should be able to take it down, provided the right equipment, an advanced tier meant that an adventurer would have to be called to take it down, a king tier meant that an entire squad of experienced professional adventurers would have to be called, a super tier meant that a high ranking alchemist would need to be called, while a legendary tier meant that only the best Alchemist could take them out, there were only 3 intermediate beast crystals in the pouch, at least the ones he had absorbed so far, and to be honest that was an accomplishment in itself, but if she truly killed one, how would she then get stuck in a beast trap, and be beaten so easily, sure she could have lost a lot of blood, and a lot of strength in the process, but even at that, she should still have put up more of a fight, although he really didn't care much, as long as he had it now, he didn't care, but he still wanted to store it in the system as he was exhausted from absorbing beast crystal after beast crystal, although the feeling was addicting, it was also exhausting, but he wouldn't just try it with his advanced tier crystal, he instead tried it with a basic tier crystal

[Basic tier crystal obtained]

[Would you like to take it?]

[Yes/No]

He immediately gave his answer

[Yes]

Suddenly the crystal began getting shrouded in a white light, similar to when he brought out his Grimoire, and soon after the crystal disappeared, he checked his system and saw a new tab had appeared,

[Storage]

And just like with others, concentrating on it let him access it, 'Im starting to get the hang of this', he thought to himself, he then saw the basic tier beast crystal inside it, he then proceeded to put the rest, including the advanced tier crystal inside his storage as he decided where he would put all 60 stat points into, he decided to put 8 into defense as the less he was injured, the less likely he would have to kill another, next he put another 7 into resistance as it was the lowest, he now had 45 remaining stat points and now had to decide on what type of attack style he wanted, after pondering on the matter be felt like increasing his speed and agility would match up well with his defense, as he was too slow when reacting, and wasn't fast enough to land hits, with that he put 15 into speed, and 15 into agility, he then put the remaining 10 into strength, he then put the remaining 5 into stamina , making his overall stats

[Strength: 16]

[Speed: 20]

[Agility: 19]

[Resistance: 10]

[Defense: 12]

[Stamina: 9 ]

[Mana: 50/50]

He was feeling pretty confident when he heard a knock on his door, "Hi Earl, it's Miss Edna, I've got a few questions for you", hearing her name made him panic, a female was about to step into his room and it was a mess, he began throwing tossing all his wet clothes to a corner, and the clean clothes to another, as he was throwing clothes around, the red dagger fell into his bed, but he didn't notice, he was still busy trying to arrange his room, 'First Mr Andy, and now Miss Edna, What are my teachers visiting