Oliver was still huffing from the experience he had just gone through while, Goldie, who had been standing beside him the entire time, looked confused and made a series of questioning squeaks.

Oliver looked at the squirrel with a questioning gaze.

"What?" he asked. "You don’t wonder where I just teleported to?"

Goldie tilted his head and looked even more confused at his question.

The squirrel pointed at the ground, then at Oliver, and shook his head repeatedly as if trying to say that Oliver hadn’t gone anywhere at all.

"Wait."

Oliver pointed at himself asking the million-dollar question.

"I disappeared for a bit, right?"

Goldie immediately shook his head in a no.

Oliver was both shocked and confused, and so he questioned more to himself than to Goldie,

"Was all of that just a hallucination?"

Goldie just shrugged while Oliver immediately turned towards the painting. His figure was still in it, so, it definitely wasn’t just a hallucination.

Oliver then looked back from the painting to Goldie.

"So, you’re telling me I was standing here the whole time?"

Goldie just nodded, while, for a few moments, Oliver didn’t say anything.

’Then what the hell was that?’

In the end, he had no answer and could only sigh.

"Whatever. Future me can deal with that problem."

With that, he and Goldie finally began heading toward the cave entrance.

Had Oliver looked back one final time, he would have witnessed something impossible, as a tiny black hole had suddenly appeared in the center of the mural.

It silently expanded and swallowed the entire painting of the red-skinned people, the yellow-suited man, the battlefield, the corpses, and even Oliver’s own newly appeared figure.

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the black hole disappeared and the wall became blank as though the painting had never existed.

Meanwhile, Oliver had already reached the section of the cave depicting the island beneath the five moons and nearby lay the corpse of the Ebon Viper.

Goldie had asked him to follow him deeper into the cave earlier and that is why he had not bothered to search for its soul core at the time. But, now that things had calmed down, he intended to collect it.

Using his spear, he cut into the corpse and soon located a small purplish crystal embedded within it.

"If this were any other beast, I would’ve happily eaten it." he muttered while looking at the snake. "But unfortunately, it just had to be a snake."

Normally, the venom of most snakes was stored only within specialized glands near their eyes and the meat itself could often still be eaten. But, it still felt strange and disgusting.

And so, while he could still eat it, Oliver had decided not to take the snake’s body.

Then, without wasting further time, he pressed the soul core he had gained against his palm and began thinking about absorbing it.

The crystal then dissolved into particles of light and the system’s cool voice emerged.

[Soul Core of Aether Beast: Ebon Viper being absorbed.]

[Grade: Tarnished | Rank: Feral]

[1 Essence Shard absorbed]

[Essence Shards: 4/500]

The moment the essence shards entered his body, Oliver felt the change clearly.

Last time, he had absorbed three essence shards at once, and they had ended up strengthening him with their focus almost entirely on his physique. His body had become stronger, faster, and more resilient as a result of those essence shards.

Looking back on the fight with the Ebon Viper, Oliver realized that was probably one of the main reasons he had survived.

Sure, his body moving on its own had played a huge role. If it hadn’t randomly dodged in the opposite directions he intended, he probably would have ended up as snake food. But his physical advancement had also mattered.

A weaker version of himself might not have been fast enough to capitalize on those opportunities, nor would he have been able to drive the spear through the beast when the chance finally appeared.

This time, however, the feeling was different.

The increase in strength was still there, but it felt secondary. The biggest change seemed to be connected to something else.

It was as if the essence shards had finally pushed him over some invisible threshold.

Oliver looked at his hand and then he extended it forward.

Firecraft

He focused on the attribute and tried summoning flames without using an external source, and slowly, tiny sparks appeared above his palm.

Oliver’s eyes widened, as the sparks danced weakly through the air, before slowly growing brighter.

At it first, it was just a few sparks, but then even more appeared.

Then more.

The small sparks then gradually joined together into flickering tongues of a flame; though still weak and unstable, they were flames.

Flames that he had created on his own, from his own power.

As he continued focusing, the flames gradually became larger, hotter and madder. Looking at it, a huge grin spread across his face.

"So that’s how it works."

"Now this feels like real power."

After spending some more time testing his newfound control over Firecraft, Oliver finally left the cave. The moment he stepped outside and saw the river flowing peacefully nearby, he suddenly remembered the reason he had followed Goldie in the first place.

He stopped walking and slowly turned toward the squirrel sitting on his shoulder.

"Wait a second."

Goldie looked back.

"Didn’t we go in there to figure out why there were barely any beasts near the river?"

The squirrel blinked as he looked back at him.

"What exactly did that have to do with ancient paintings, mysterious treasure chests and all that...hmm?"

"And what about that snake?" Oliver continued. "What was it even doing there? Was it guarding the cave? Was it living there? Was it also looking for treasure? I feel like we’re forgetting important details here."

The squirrel stared at him for a few seconds and then it gave him a look.

A very specific look.

The sort of look a teacher might give a student after explaining the same thing ten times only for the student to somehow become even more confused.

Oliver frowned.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Goldie pointed toward the river, then toward the cave, then toward the river again.

After that, it simply covered its face with its tiny paws.

Oliver’s eye twitched.

"Don’t do that."

Goldie sighed. Yes, it actually sighed.

The squirrel then looked at Oliver as if it were completely his fault for not understanding the lesson that Teacher Goldie had worked so hard to provide.

And so, for the first time in his life, Oliver felt insulted by a squirrel.