Heaven's Greatest Professor

"As per our earlier agreement, I claim the heart and core of the Moonspawn," Agnes said, her darkness power twirling around her slender frame, swallowing all the blood on her person. "Of course, as long as you don't—"

"Nah, it's good," Warden interrupted, cutting her short. "I already got more benefits than I deserved. You can take it all, without feeling bad."

Besides, the dark essence would be of little benefit to him, but for Captain Agnes, whose path was based on this very power, it would be immense.

She drew her sword, which had soaked up all the blood she reaped from the Forsaken, and advanced towards the headless corpse of the Moonspawn. Her blade sliced through the dead flesh without much problem. More and more dark blood, full of essence, bubbled up as she pried it open to collect the heart of the creature.

The heart was as big as a human head, pulsating with dark essence. Agnes smiled a little as she stored it within her Dimension Cube. Next, she moved to the head and fished out a marble-shaped dark core.

She held it before her eyes and cast a look at him. "You have no idea what you're giving up, do you?"

"Well, my amnesia makes it difficult to disagree, but I'm aware of what those two things can do to a ranker," he said. Not only would the essence power strengthen the captain's Darkness essence, but her aura would be strengthened as well. It would have gained a part of the domineering aura of the Moonspawn, though the quality would be dependent on the captain's ability to digest it.

Honestly, Warden had no trouble imagining her absorbing all of it within a couple of days.

"You won't stand a chance against me when I'm done absorbing the heart and the core," she said.

"I wish you luck," Warden grinned. He had his own path as well; jealousy didn't come easily to him. The only power he was jealous of her was how easily she could devour all the filth from her body, while it would take him many a minute. "That reminds me, are you going to directly eat the heart and absorb the core's essence?"

She narrowed her eyes, examining the jet-black core. "I would have liked to find a great alchemist to help me cleanse the residual intent of the traitor god's spirit, but considering the circumstances, I have to do it the hard way."

"It's cleansing, right? I think I can help with that," Warden said, rubbing his chin.

"With your light attribute?" A knit appeared on her brows as she mulled over his chances. "Can you do it without weakening the dark essence?"

"I'd have to see," Warden said, casting his gaze at the humongous corpse of the Moonspawn as well as the other Forsaken. "You said all parts of the body of the Moonspawn are treasure, right?"

"Yes, but unfortunately, we cannot take away everything from it—"

Before she could finish, a gate to Warden's [Void Space] manifested under the huge head and stowed it away.

Agnes shot him a look. Warden winked at her.

"You have too many secrets," she muttered, allowing him to proceed as he wished.

Warden cut the massive form of the Moonspawn into four pieces and stored them all, one by one, into his subspace. He did the same for the Forsaken as well. At least those could be used as fertilisers.

"How big is the subspace... thing you have," she said. Warden parted his lips to answer, but she waved off. "Never mind, don't answer that. I still have a hard time believing your story."

Warden followed her wish. "I can give you your share when you need them."

"No, keep them. I have no interest in corpses."

"So, what now?" Warden asked. "We have hunted a Moonspawn, and it hadn't even taken much effort from our end... Are you going back now?"

"The Forsaken could be hunting more of them," Agnes said. "But before that, I want to at least absorb the heart."

Warden nodded as they crept away from the crime scene. They didn't camp far from there; with the Moonspawn dead, there was nothing in the territory to hinder them while resting.

As always, Warden took charge of the food while the captain handed him the heart of the Moonspawn to cleanse with his light attribute.

"I'm going out for a bit," she said as she flew away. "Use the cleansing crystal to refresh yourself; you have accumulated quite some filth."

"Are you going to take a dip in that stream?"

"No," she said curtly. "Just going to scout for more Forsaken and use a crystal to bathe as well. The steam gives off the vibe that I'm training. For now, I want to relax before I absorb the heart."

***

Jenni was alive, though she wasn't sure for how long she could keep herself that way. Her whole body was shivering as she crawled her way out of the tainted stream. The dark essence of the water had invaded her system, freezing her energy usage completely.

Without her energy, Jenni had no way to defend against the horrifying chill that brought her to the verge of losing herself.

No, not now. I still have a few hours in me. I won't fall so easily... I will make it... Jenni scrammed those positive words into her mind to keep herself motivated against the terrible power ravaging through her.

Thankfully, she hadn't lost her dimension cube when she fell into the water. She rummaged through her wet clothing, wrestling to fish out the cube. Now, she just needed a trickle of her energy to open it... Inside, there should be some rune construct to help her condition. Hell, even a common heat construct could delay the deterioration of her condition.

Cursing herself and her foolishness, Jenni searched for unity, summoning her energy. The darkness and chill seeped through her channels at once, making her feel that death would be a better option. But she couldn't stop now. Even in terrible pain, she couldn't give up.

She didn't know how long it took her, but each second stretched into a minute as she finally managed to get hold of a trickle of her energy. She immediately drew it into the dimension cube. Various shapes of items resurfaced in her mind's eye...

Jenni had lost the capacity to recognise what they were; she simply set her awareness around them all and pulled. Whatever came out, there should be something of use...

But what she found first was something squishy. Jenni didn't have to see to know what it was.

It was those disgusting mushrooms that burned within her with fiery intensity when she had eaten them.

Fiery intensity, huh? Jenni mulled over those words and didn't waste any more moments before gobbling them up.

At least they could be of some use. Hell, these disgusting mushrooms might just save her life.

The fiery intensity that began burning in her stomach gave evidence to that.

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Comment down your favourite character so far into the story... Gonna announce the result on the 15th. The mass release will be that day as well.