2025-12-11 20:34:05CHAPTER 005
Then he heard voices loud, rough laughter that bounced off the walls.
“Davin and Rory are back… early,” Kieran muttered, his stomach knotting.
“No time,” Kieran hissed.
He sprinted to the pen, gripping the metal bar tightly. The lock was simple. He didn’t even try to open it properly. He slid the bar into the hasp, twisted hard
Groooan snap.
The metal broke free.
He slipped into the pen.
The Stormcloud Lynx lay on its side in fresh straw. Its breathing was shallow, each exhale sparking with a faint, dying crackle of lightning. Up close, it was both breathtaking and heartbreaking. Its silver eyes usually bright and intelligent were cloudy with pain and sedation.
The Lynx saw him.
A low, weak growl rumbled in its chest. Not a threat more like the last flicker of a dying fire.
Kieran raised his hands slowly. “I’m not here to hurt you,” he whispered, voice shaking. “I swear.”
He took one small step closer.
“I… I can use your pain,” Kieran whispered. “I can give it meaning. I can give it a purpose.”
But the System needed the lynx to die first. He had to wait. And every passing second felt like a knife scraping across his nerves.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel outside the pen.
A key jangled in the lock.
“Oh no…” Kieran breathed, pressing himself deeper into the shadows.
“—let’s just get it over with. Nasty job,” Davin muttered.
“The pelt might still sell for a few spirit stones,” Rory answered.
The main gate creaked open. Two figures stepped inside, their lantern throwing long, shaky shadows across the enclosure.
Davin lifted a long metal needle filled with glowing green fluid. “Alright, big girl. Last trip.”
This was it. The moment the lynx died. The moment Kieran needed.
The System’s urgent voice flashed in his mind:
[Resource state shifting to ‘available’ in 3… 2…]
Davin leaned close to the lynx’s neck.
“Hold still,” he said gently.
1.
The needle plunged in.
The lynx’s huge body gave a soft, final shudder. The sparks in its fur went out. The silver in its eyes dimmed to nothing. A single tear slid down its cheek… then vanished into a thin curl of steam.
[Target expired. Salvageable.]
“Done,” Davin said. “Let’s grab the winch. She’s heavy as a boulder.”
“Yeah, come on,” Rory added as they turned toward the gate.
Their backs were facing him. Kieran’s moment had arrived.
He dropped to his knees beside the still-warm creature and pressed both hands against its flank.
“System now. Take everything! Salvage it all!”
[Initiating Full-Scale Salvage.
Target: Deceased Stormcloud Lynx (Corrupted Core).]
A rush unlike anything Kieran had ever felt exploded through him. It wasn’t a pull it was like the beast’s entire body was collapsing inward, a torrent of invisible energy rushing straight into his core. Cold, electric, wild… and full of grief.
In just three heartbeats, the massive 800-pound lynx was gone. No bones, no claws, no fur. Only a faint outline in the straw and the lingering smell of ozone and decay.
The blue System grid erupted with notifications:
[Salvage Complete!]
[Total Yield: 117 Units of Primordial Essence.]
[Warning: Essence contaminated with emotional residue (‘Primal Grief,’ ‘Betrayal’). Integration may have side effects.]
[Cumulative Essence: 127.2 / 1000.]
Power surged through Kieran like a tidal wave breaking through his shattered body. He doubled over, gasping, as the grief-tainted energy tore through his broken meridians. Pain and exhilaration collided he felt… real. Solid. Strong. For the first time since the pit.
“What the—what in the hell?!” he shouted, voice cracking.
The shout stopped abruptly. Davin stood at the gate, lantern raised, the empty winch cart behind him. His face was pale, eyes wide with fear and disbelief. The straw bed was completely empty.
“Rory! GET OVER HERE!”
Rory came running, panting. He froze, staring at the vacant pen. “Where… where is it? Did it just… get up?”
“It’s GONE!” Davin yelled, eyes darting wildly across the pen. Then they landed on Kieran, crouched low, shaking from the raw surge of power.
“You! Trash-rat! WHAT did you do?!”
Kieran rose slowly, feeling the jagged steel bar cool in his hand. “I didn’t do anything. It… it was just gone when I came to clean.”
“Liar!” Davin spat, storming forward. “You were in here! Some kind of demonic trick—” He reached for Kieran’s collar.
Instinct kicked in. The new Essence coursing through Kieran reacted. He didn’t think he moved. Sidestepping Davin’s grab, he moved faster than either of them expected. Not cultivation. Pure, Essence-fueled reflex.
Davin stumbled, off-balance. “You little—!”
“Davin, look!” Rory’s voice trembled. He pointed at the straw.
Where the lynx had lain, the once-clean bedding was now blackened and withered, scorched as if soaked in sorrow. And in the very center, a single object lay.
A small, smooth stone, dark as a storm cloud, with a jagged lightning-shaped crack down the middle. It pulsed with a faint, mournful light.
The lynx’s corrupted core. The System had taken everything else, leaving this condensed, potent remnant behind.
[Alert: Secondary resource detected: ‘Heart of the Storm’s Sorrow.’ Condensed Withering Flux and emotional residue. Extreme toxicity. Extreme salvage potential.]
Davin’s fear melted into greed. “A beast core! Condensed! A treasure!” He lunged for it.
Kieran was faster. He dove, fingers closing around the stone just before Davin’s boot slammed down. The core was ice-cold, thrumming with a sick, intense power.
Kieran’s eyes went wide. “This… this is mine.”
He rolled away, clutching the core to his chest, and scrambled to his feet. He planted himself between the two handlers and the broken rear door.
Davin’s face twisted with rage and greed. “Hand that over, you thief! That’s sect property! Stealing a core flogging at least, maybe death!”
Rory stepped in front of the main gate. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Kieran was trapped. Panting. One hand held a priceless, deadly treasure; the other gripped the jagged steel bar. The Essence in his gut boiled and churned wild, unstable, overwhelming. He had the power of a hundred spirit stones, but the skill of a crippled janitor.
Davin cracked his knuckles, a cruel grin spreading across his face. “Fine. Let’s do this the hard way. We’ll take the core from your broken body.”
The two men advanced.
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