After an hour of hiding and evading monsters Mark finally returned to his hideout.
He took off his clothes and started to wash blood and dirt from his wounds, occasionally hissing at the sting of torn skin.
Today's hunt was a close all.
Had there been even the slightest more miscalculation, Mark would be a vegetable by now.
The only reason he won was because crystalis belonged to [mind] category, had it been any [body] category monster, he would already be dead.
Maybe because the first two hunt was easy he got little arrogant.
And now he was paying the price for it.
After washing he took out the first aid box and started to apply ointments to his wounds.
With sightly burning sensation, he lay on the ground.
'They really were right, not all that glitters is gold.'
And Mark experienced that firsthand.
He checked his status,
--------------------------
Mana core: B
fragments: [5950/6000]
--------------------------
He was on the verge of breaking through to (B+)-rank it won't change his situation much, but would give him a better chance of survival.
But that was not what Mark was looking for, he went down on the subspace section and focused on the [The golden compass].
---------------------------
[The golden compass]
Cooldown: [00:00:00:00]
---------------------------
'Finally, it's done.'
Now Mark could find a way out of here.
Mark sat up excitedly, but lay back down groaning after his wound stung.
'Right, I should take a nap first.'
He had already set threads, some outside the passage and other around the stream.
Just in case something decided that it was perfect place to stop by for lunch.
And just like that, Mark closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.
Half sleep, to be exact, because in these mountains, no one knew what might happen if you slipped too deep.
Dream monsters were real thing after all.
Just to be safe, he set an alarm on his watch to jolt him awake every five minutes.
The watch was also almost out of battery, but its already a miracle that it had lasted this long.
'Modern tech is no joke.'
And just like that, Mark rested amidst the silence of the mountains.
*******
_beep!
After six hour of rest, Mark finally opened his eyes to the sound of the watch.
He sat up and inspected his wounds.
'Okay, mostly healed.'
As a (B)-rank superhuman his healing speed was much faster than any low ranking awakener.
Mark took out the mana core he had extracted from the crystalis earlier.
Every mana core possess fragments according to their purity.
The mana core he absorbed from first two crystalis was of mid purity and gave 30 fragments each.
Now, Mark clenched his fist holding the core and crashed it.
Mark closed his eyes and exhaled. The core burst in his grasp, fragments dissolving into light that surged into his veins.
A searing heat rushed through him, an untamed mana coursing into his body.
Soon it settle down in his core.
But Mark didn't felt the pain he was expecting.
He checked his status,
--------------------------
Mana core: B
fragments: [5990/6000]
--------------------------
'All that trouble for 40 fragments.'
Mark sighed, and took out the red crystal stones he had gathered earlier from the mountains.
'I really don't want to do this.'
One thing he noticed that crystal left by the living being who was turned into jagged crystals also contain fragments.
He had gather all the crystals of his comrades and make a tomb for them, and use their uniforms to make leather bags.
As for the other red crystals, he stored them away, reluctant to consume them, not knowing whether they had once belonged to humans or monsters.
The other reason not to consume them was that they were highly impure.
So impure that if taken in large quantity they can corrupt his mana core turning him into a horrifying monster, the man eater.
But now that he was short of ten fragments, he decided to consume them.
'Ten wouldn't do any harm.'
He carefully selected small crystal hoping that none of them ever belonged to human, and started to crush them in his hands, one by one.
By the ninth crystal, a groan escaped from his mouth as black lines started to appear on his arm.
'Just one more.'
He took the tenth small crystal and crushed it.
The tenth crystal shattered in Mark's grip, releasing a torrent of raw mana that surged into his body like wildfire.
His vision blurred as heat and agony ripped through his veins. The black lines crawling up his arm spread across his chest.
He dropped to one knee, fists clenched, as the mana roared in his core.
His breathing grew ragged,
Then, all at once, the dam broke.
The storm of mana that threatened to consume him folded inward, compressing into his core.
A violent shockwave rippled out, scattering dust and pebbles around him.
His aura flared brighter, sharper, and heavier.
Mark rose slowly, his eyes faintly glowing, the black veins receding as his body adapted to the new power.
He exhaled a long, shaky breath.
He had broken through to (B+)-rank.