[Spirit force increased]
As he drained the Abyss creature's spirit energy, Emery began to wonder if this skill could be used on other creatures.
Of course, he was reluctant to use it on humans. But if it was capable of draining the spirit energy out of the Abyss creatures, given the abundance of them on the planet, it would indeed be of great help to fill up the 2,000 spirit force requirement needed for him to reach the magus realm.
The skill went on for a few minutes until finally, Emery felt as if there was a barrier that blocked his devouring ability within his core. Realizing this was his current limit, he decided to stop.
[Spirit force 1328 (1350)]
When Emery pulled out his claws from the body of the Abyss creature, he noticed its previously pale white skin had turned gray and wrinkled. It let out a shriek once again. But this time, the shriek seemed to be its death throe, as its body weakly tilted to the side and didn't move anymore.
Using his Spirit Reading, Emery was sure the creature was dead, as there were no more signs of life had come from it. However, just to be sure, he accessed the device on his hand and checked his current points.
[Personal points ranking]
[Rank 2 - 138967 points]
[Squad points ranking]
[Rank 12 - 339214 points]
Emery finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his points increase by 50,000, which meant the Abyss creature had indeed been killed.
At the same time, the 50,000 points reward from slaying a stage 5 Abyss creature had allowed him to blaze through the ranks and sit in 2nd rank out of the 900 acolytes who participated in the test.
After all, not even 24 hours had passed since the start of the test and Emery had managed to defeat a stage 5 Abyss creature. On top of that, his summons must have worked really hard to help him earn those points as well.
Emery then cast his gaze around his surroundings and found out he was currently trapped under a pile of rocks. There was nothing else, no sign of the others beside himself, the dead body of the huge Abyss creature, and rocks.
Another thing he realized was that the combat suit that had been torn by the Abyss creature's attacks was gradually returning to its original state. Fascinated by this interesting piece of technology, Emery watched closely as the tears in the armor regenerated slowly.
Now that the boss creature was dead, Emery thought of taking out Chiko to help him burrow out of this place and search for the other acolytes. However, before he could even call for the chubby creature, suddenly a striking golden glow shot out from the corpse of the Abyss creature.
He became even more shocked when he felt powerful spirit energy once again emerge from the body.
"What?! It's not dead yet?!"
Emery once again prepared himself for another gruesome fight, when he realized only a tiny part of the corpse was glowing. He approached closer and was surprised to see something crawling out of it.
It shone brightly at first, piercing his eyes for how bright it was. A second later, the piercing light dimmed slightly and allowed Emery to finally catch with his eyes what it really was.
A butterfly as big as his thumb that emitted a golden glow.
It flopped and was staggering on top of the corpse for a while, then Emery was speechless to see it was able to pass through the rocks when it finally managed to fly. Through the gaps of the rocks, he saw the butterfly fly higher and higher until it eventually disappeared from view.
'It's gone away.'
Even a fool would know at a glance that such a creature must be something of value. Thus, Emery immediately decided to send Chiko to follow the tiny butterfly. Receiving his master's order, the chubby creature swiftly burrowed into the ground.
After making sure Chiko was on the right track, Emery touched the rocks behind him and tried to find his fellow acolytes, who were supposed to be behind these rocks with his Spirit Reading.
It took quite some time, but he eventually found they were all still alive. Maybe hurt, but definitely alive.
He then fell into contemplation, as he gouged his priorities. In the end, instead of reuniting with the elite acolytes, Emery decided to chase the butterfly.
"All of you elites shouldn't die that easily, right? Stay alive. I will be right back." Emery said to himself.
Next, he focused his concentration on his [One Mind] skill and predicted where the glowing butterfly would emerge based on where Chiko was currently moving. Only after he was sure did Emery cast [Spatial Gate] and return to the surface.
Moments later, as expected, the butterfly flew out of the ground.
Immediately, Emery tried to catch him. However, he soon realized that none of the materials in his possession could contain and prevent the creature from phasing through.
Not willing to give up, he decided to try his new spell on the tiny creature.
Emery raised both his hands, the spirit energy within his core churned, as they moved according to his will. A while later, a small dark sphere that seemed to be anything but something formed in his hand.
[Aegis of Void]
This was the Divine spell Emery had practiced for the past 7 days. So far he had only been able to form something about a meter in size.
It was a spell that created some kind of a barrier that distorted space itself, and with the spell, Emery was able to successfully contain the glowing butterfly.
With a slight gesture of his hand, the dark sphere containing the mysterious butterfly flew to his hand.
Emery looked at the butterfly trapped in his hand, once again, he felt a strange sense of familiarity with it.
"You are the one who's been bothering me all this time, aren't you… You see, I'll definitely find out what you really are."
Emery naturally tried to use the scanner to find out what the butterfly really was, but the device didn't show much. Apparently, according to the device, the butterfly was only a powerful spiritual lifeform and nothing more.
With Arcana and the others still trapped underground, Emery decided to put this matter aside for now. Hence, he stored the butterfly inside his Spatial Space.
"Don't be afraid, okay? Twik will keep you company there. You hear me Twik?!"
"kuanng! ku.. ku!"
The wood creature actually asked to go out, but Emery said not now.