Erik's spikes suddenly vanished as if they were a lie, and the Leylarhad's body suddenly fell onto him, staining him red with blood.
With some difficulties, Erik was able to get off him the corpse and throw it to the ground. Erik spent some moments observing its body. Though, as if taken by instinct, Erik tapped his fingers into one of his wounds and licked the blood.
[LEYLARHAD'S BLOOD ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
[50 DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE DNA.]
[1780 DNA POINTS DETECTED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION?]
"No..." As usual, Erik stopped the process; he needed to be home before starting the process, as it was dangerous to do so inside a thaid infested forest.
Then, Erik grabbed the thaid's head and started bashing it into a nearby rock, trying to open it to retrieve the brain crystal. After a lot of effort, he could finally split open the head.
After diving his hand for a little bit inside the cranium, the young man finally found the brain crystal that was, like usual, a small transparent bead, about half the size of a coin.
Erik carefully cleaned the thaid's brain crystal and then swallowed it whole. It was disgusting as usual since the young man could taste the residual brain matter attached to the crystal with his tongue. It was a taste he didn't wish his enemy to ever have.
[LEYLARHAD'S BRAIN CRYSTAL ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]
[50 DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE POWER.]
[1780 DNA POINTS DETECTED. EXTRACTION IS NOT ADVISED; THE HOST HAS INCOMPATIBLE DNA.]
[EXTRACTION ABORTED]
Now the only problem was that Erik's clothes were full of blood. Luckily, since the boy had the dirty clothes he used during his fight against Zakir, he could simply put them on. The young man used the stained clothes to clean himself as best as possible, then put on the sweaty clothes and placed the blood-stained ones into his backpack. Though, he smelled terrible.
<This will do, for now. As soon as I arrive at Mister Fox's house, I will clean myself at the water hose...> the young man thought.
He then walked for ten minutes more and arrived in front of the breach. He was already close to it since he ran toward it during the chase. Erik entered the wheat field and walked toward the farm.
He walked for ten minutes before seeing Mister Fox's farm in the distance. Once he got close enough, he saw the old barn, the field, the house, and the fence around it all. The machinery used by the old man to work the land was also present. Together with the now more than twenty people that worked on the field, the place had become busy.
As Erik arrived in front of the gate, Mister Fox greeted the young man, who could do nothing but keep his distance from the man to avoid getting his cover blown.
After exchanging some pleasantries, Erik went to the water hose behind the barn. Since it was summer, there was still a lot of heat around, and after having washed his body, Erik also washed the blood-stained clothes.
They weren't pristine anymore, but it was better than nothing. Erik also had to wash his stained backpack, but he couldn't do so here. He had to go back home first.
Later, the young man went to the field and started channeling mana to use his power and do his job, so he could quickly go home. Immediately, the heat wave typical of his power rushed over him, and the air suddenly grew hot and humid all around him. As the power seeped into the vegetation around, the aroma of flowers and plants filled the young man's nostrils.
Trees bore their fruits; they were bigger, juicer, and sweeter than any other fruit on the market. The grass became greener, thicker, healthier, and stronger than ever before.
Carrots as big as the palm of Erik's hands sprouted up everywhere, the crops increased exponentially until every plant looked as if it would burst out of its own soil and the wheat fields turned into giant golden plains.
All around the farm, bushes produced berries, flowers bloomed, and the ground beneath the earth churned itself up, giving birth to countless mushrooms, and the weeds became strong and sturdy as if they'd been made of metal.
The workers and mister Fox were now accustomed to the young man's power, so they weren't surprised anymore. But watching Erik use his power was an event itself, as what Erik did wasn't short of a miracle. Watching Erik use his power was always beautiful as it resembled an otherwordly phenomenon.
As the young man ended his work, the farm again returned to normal, except everyone started working, collecting the fruits, berries and vegetables.
After finishing his business, Erik headed towards the barn, where his backpack was located, and after having taken it, he went to mister Fox to receive his payment.
There he found the old man waiting for him with a smile, which was rare for this man. Despite Mister Fox sporting a huge smile, he felt awkward near Erik since he was usually stern with the boy, but the greed in the old man's heart was boundless.
The old man couldn't stop grinning as he saw the fields grow and expand. His eyes sparkled when he watched the trees bear their fruits, seeing those massive plums or pears growing and ripening and finally being harvested by the farmers. He loved the farming life, and he was even good at it.
However, the feeling of accomplishment he received each time he sold his stocks was incomparable, especially the stocks grown by Erik. For this man, Erik slowly but surely became a living money bag. The old man didn't have many words to say to Erik, but he knew he had to say something to him to give him the impression he cared about him. The only thing he could say, though, was but a "Good job, kid."
Erik nodded politely, knowing he was complimented, but felt slightly grossed out by Mister Fox's huge smile.
<The time this man takes advantage of me will end soon...> Erik thought.
Then Mister Fox handed the young man his money, and Erik left the property, heading toward the train station to return home. He still had to train his neural links and extract both the Leylarhad's DNA and the blood crystal power.
After a peaceful trip back home, during which Erik thought about his near-death experience, the young man finally got back home. Once there, he trained a little bit his neural links, and after a couple of hours, he stopped and asked the biological supercomputer a question.
"System, how much time is required to obtain the Leylarhad's brain crystal power?"
[ANSWER: SIX HOURS ARE REQUIRED TO ABSORB THE LOMALIN'S BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER. DO YOU WANT TO START THE PROCEDURE? 50 DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE EXTRACTION. IMPOSSIBLE TO START THE EXTRACTION, MISSING DNA DETECTED.]
"Yeah, of course... System, start absorbing the Leylarhad's DNA."
[UNDERSTOOD. SYSTEM READY. STARTING LEYLARHAD'S DNA EXTRACTION, 50 DNA POINTS WERE USED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION. HOST IS ADVISED TO LAY ON A BED.]
"Here we go..."
"SHIT!" Erik grumbled and made muffled sounds as the pain started ravaging his head. Holding back his screams was not easy, but he he had to do it. Once again, he could do nothing to stop the pain from traversing his body. As Erik's thought speed slowed down, the world around him began to spin erratically. Simultaneously his hearing declined, and he started having tinnitus in a matter of seconds.
As customary, the pain he felt increased during the process, reaching a level analogous to having his organs cut out of his flesh while being lit on fire. The usual routine. After fifteen minutes had gone, Erik started violently shivering, and the agony started gradually diminishing until it stopped, much to Erik's relief.
[PROCEDURE COMPLETE. HOST DNA IS NOW ABLE TO ACCOMMODATE THE LEYLARHAD'S BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER.]
"Good, now start the brain crystal power extraction..."
[SYSTEM READY. STARTING THE LEYLARHAD'S BRAIN CRYSTAL POWER EXTRACTION. 50 DNA POINTS USED. SIX HOURS REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE EXTRACTION. COMMENCING PROCEDURE. HOST IS ADVISED TO LAY ON A BED.]