The 'Guardian'[1]
[Ace POV],
After extracting the crystal cores from the two rank 1 fire eagles, I asked Anna if I could exchange them for the crystal cores in my hand, which she gladly accepted.
According to her, she needs a lot of crystal cores to upgrade her skill, and since the upgrade requirements did not specifically ask for rank 1 crystal cores, it benefited her more to exchange rank 1 cores for the unranked but plentiful ones I had.
Of course, I did not give her all of the crystal cores I had on hand, but the ones I did give her were sufficient to satisfy both parties.
Overall, I received the crystal cores, which was satisfactory. I also collected some blood from the two rank 1 fire eagles as it was an excellent alchemical material.
Aside from making pills, it could also be utilized as a catalyst for magic arrays, formations, and runes.
It could also be used to make potions or inscriptions ink.
I hadn't forgotten that two of my job quest requirements required me to use alchemy when killing monsters, so I harvested anything that looked or appeared useful from the bodies of the two rank 1 fire eagles.
Unfortunately, I couldn't do the same for the other two rank 1 monsters because the people who killed them weren't in any way related to me.
After taking whatever I could from the rank 1 fire eagle's body, I returned to the 'battlefield' with my team and exchanged the corpses of the monsters we killed for coins in the store's exchange section.
Perhaps we took some that weren't ours and exchanged them, but who knows, we weren't the only ones doing so. Everyone on the trial ground who could still move had a sort of mutual understanding regarding this, so everything went smoothly.
We also exchange the corpses of the monsters killed by the dead humans. It didn't matter whether they liked it or not, as the dead can't speak.
After that was done, I finally let the exhaustion that was threatening to cause me to collapse take control as I lay on the floor despite the blood everywhere.
I was that exhausted.
Chris followed my actions as well as he lay on the bloody ground near me.
For some reason, Emma and Anna persisted in standing.
It's their business, I'm tired.
As I lay on the ground, random thoughts racing through my mind, I turned to look at the humans who had survived this incident.
Well, barely.
Only 21 to 22 humans survived out of 50, including myself and my team. And among this group, the ones who still had all of their limbs and did not appear to be dying soon numbered no more than 11, and my team was among them. The rest of the humans had either lost a limb or two, become crippled, or suffered several boss losses.
They were unlikely to see the start of tomorrow.
As I considered these things, I closed my eyes for a brief moment to rest before being abruptly interrupted by a loud voice.
"Please help my girl!" said the voice, which was very close.
When I saw this, I opened my eyes and turned my head toward the direction of the sound, where I saw a man holding a girl my age.
She had a large wound on her chest that was so deep that one could see her bones if one took a close look.
It was obvious that if she didn't get help, this girl would die soon. But what help may be of use to her? Maybe one with magic?
Not that it matters because I wasn't the one the man was addressing.
He was seeking assistance from Emma.
Seeing this, I went back to resting seeing as I wasn't in need and preferred to rest now.
This was the plan till I heard Emma reply to the man with the girl in his arms.
"I'm sorry, but I can't help her," she said.
Hmmm, based on my observations of Emma, there was a 99.5% chance that she would try to help the man and girl duo. Other factors accounted for the remaining 0.5%.
'Has her mana pool been exhausted?'
...
[Emma POV],
'Is he really comfortable lying in blood?' I thought as I looked at Ace, who was completely exhausted.
Maybe it was because I was tired, or maybe it was because I was preoccupied with my thoughts and staring at his face, but I did notice it when a man carrying an injured girl appeared in front of me.
"Please help my girl!" he cried as he collapsed on the bloody ground, nearly dropping the girl in his arms.
His eyes were filled with hope when he looked at me, but unfortunately, I couldn't help him.
"I'm sorry, I can't help her," I responded as the man instantly began shooting when he heard this.
"Why can't you?" "Didn't you perform a healing spell on your teammate before?" "Don't you have healing powers?" he shouted back one after the other as we gradually drew the attention of the remaining humans on the trial grounds.
If it had been someone else, I would have been outraged, but not this man when I saw the resemblance on his face to the girl in his arms. They were almost certainly related. In this new world, they may only have each other to rely on, but one of them is leaving.
I couldn't blame him at all. He's only trying to save a life, but I can't help him since I don't even have the mana to do so. I'm so low on mana right now that I can't even cast a simple spell, so how am I going to cast one that could save someone's life?
I'd have to use all of my mana to get her health back to normal.
Of course, I could use pills to recover my mana, but I don't even have a single pill, and I knew that if I asked Ace for a pill bottle, he might give me one, but after today, we might part ways.
Sounds far-fetched, but after just a few days with him, I knew it was doable. So I couldn't help this man even if I wanted to.
I recall Anna saying once that the only way to get Ace to do something was if you had something he was interested in or from which he could benefit.
But what would Ace be interested in or benefit from?
Hmmm?
'Perhaps this will work,' I thought as I remembered a certain function of the primordial chronicle as I glanced at the man who was still pleading with me.
Deciding to give it a shot to see if Ace would have a reaction, I spoke.
"You must have some gold coins?" I inquired.
.....
If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.
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