I clearly used the skill, but there was no reaction.
While I was pondering whether to withdraw my extended hand in bewilderment...
"Hm...?"
About 30 seconds passed before a change finally occurred in the gnoll's corpse.
Crackle.
The gnoll's belly skin split slightly.
Then, a small clump of blood popped out.
"Eek?"
Jang Ho-seop jerked his head back in surprise.
Thud.
The protruding piece was sucked into my hand.
It had a hard texture.
After wiping off the green blood, it really did look like a stone, just as Jang Ho-seop had said.
"Is this a mana stone?"
"Probably... This is my first time seeing one in real life too."
"What do we use it for? How?"
"That depends on the worldview..."
Questions filled my mind.
I had no idea why I'd even acquired such a skill.
"Anyway, this came from inside a monster's stomach."
"Yes."
"Should we cut it open? Maybe we can get them without the skill?"
"Huh? Yeah? That could be possible?"
"Exactly. Let's slice it open."
Jang Ho-seop stared at me blankly.
I nodded toward his utility knife.
"Me? Ah... yeah, okay."
Jang Ho-seop grimaced as he moved to another gnoll corpse.
We were going around wearing disposable masks and gloves.
The streets were filthy, and the smell was unpleasant.
We had gas masks but were saving them since there weren't many.
"Urk. Blegh."
Jang Ho-seop sliced open the gnoll's abdomen and immediately jumped back.
With his back to me, he retched like he was about to vomit.
"Don't puke."
I said to his back.
Vomiting was a luxury we couldn't afford right now.
"Boss..."
I drew a small knife and positioned myself in front of a gnoll corpse.
Jang Ho-seop barely held back his vomit and spoke to me.
"Do it now. I think we need to put on gas masks."
"It's not that bad."
"No, really, it's like some gas hit my face."
It wasn't like visible gas was leaking from the corpse.
After a moment's thought, I pulled out a sports towel.
I draped it over my mask like a hood.
Then I cut open the gnoll's belly skin.
"See? Told you."
It covered my nose and mouth so tightly it was hard to breathe.
Even so, an indescribably foul stench pierced my nose.
'The skeleton's similar.'
Ignoring Jang Ho-seop, I examined the corpse.
The gnoll's bone structure was similar to that of typical vertebrates I knew.
'Ribs... pelvis here. No separate bones enclosing the abdominal organs.'
When I'd used Mana Stone Extraction, the gnoll's belly had torn a bit.
In human terms, right below the solar plexus.
I roughly estimated the same spot and cut it open, but nothing was immediately visible.
"No way, boss? You okay? Urk?!"
Jang Ho-seop came over to my side, smelled it, and freaked out.
"Hah. What is this? Is it because humans are toxic or something?"
He muttered as he backed away.
"This looks like the stomach. Is the mana stone inside the organs?"
"Uh... probably not separate?"
"Yeah, probably."
I could see two plump, swollen pouches.
Both looked like the gnoll's digestive organs.
Referring to Jang Ho-seop's opinion, I rummaged through the corpse's insides.
Visibility was poor, so I applied more force and sliced the belly wider.
Squelch, rip.
As the peritoneum tore, murky green organs spilled out.
I pushed the organs aside with my knife and diligently searched for the mana stone.
"Guh... bleeegh."
In the end, Jang Ho-seop vomited.
The smell was truly unbearable.
Still, grimacing but persisting, we thoroughly searched the gnoll corpse.
"Found it."
Finally, I discovered a small mana stone.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Jang Ho-seop and I cut open three gnoll corpses together.
All were adult female gnolls, and each had a mana stone.
"Boss... sorry."
Jang Ho-seop suddenly apologized.
He looked completely cowed.
"For what?"
"Aren't you mad? Because I puked..."
"Not mad. It's a physiological reaction."
Jang Ho-seop had struggled but diligently searched the gnoll corpses.
And he'd found one mana stone on his own.
"You kept frowning and weren't saying anything..."
"The smell's awful."
"Ah... okay. So you're really not mad?"
He was slow, but that didn't make me angry.
I thought Jang Ho-seop was working hard and doing well.
"I said no."
"Got it! But these mana stones we extracted ourselves."
As I reaffirmed, Jang Ho-seop's tone brightened.
He looked at the four mana stones lined up after wiping off the blood.
"Don't they seem a bit small?"
"Yeah, a little small."
The mana stone from Mana Stone Extraction was slightly larger than the others.
"Boss, your new skill seems OP too!"
Jang Ho-seop quickly got excited and chattered on.
"Using Mana Stone Extraction is way cleaner. And the stones are bigger."
"Cleaner, sure... but the size difference might just be coincidence?"
"Not certain yet. But if mana stones from the skill keep being bigger than hand-extracted ones... that'd be huge."
The fact that it took 30 seconds but cleanly extracted just the mana stone.
The impression that skill-extracted stones were larger.
Jang Ho-seop raved about these advantages like they were praises.
But for them to be advantages, one prerequisite was needed.
"The skill's only useful if mana stones are useful..."
"Next info check with a mana stone. But obviously, they'll be useful. Mana stones have to be."
Jang Ho-seop was convinced.
I agreed and moved to a pup gnoll corpse.
Mana stones were small and light.
So even without knowing their use, collecting them wasn't hard.
"Boss?"
I extended my hand over the pup gnoll corpse.
But the words wouldn't come.
"Won't activate."
I felt like I couldn't use the skill.
"Huh? Ah... pups don't have mana stones?"
"Dunno... not sure."
After a moment, I decided to check manually.
I told Jang Ho-seop to open the pup gnoll corpse.
"Okay. Whew..."
Then I headed toward the pile of human bodies.
'Will this work?'
Even if Jang Ho-seop's guess was right, I still wasn't thrilled about my second general skill.
Mana Stone Extraction was just convenient.
We could get them without the skill anyway.
And even if skill-extracted stones were truly larger, the difference might not be significant.
So I hoped my suspicion was correct.
"Mana Stone Extraction."
I extended my hand over a man's corpse and said quietly.
It felt similar to using it on the gnoll corpse.
"Boss? What're you doing?"
A moment later.
"Wha? No way..."
Surprisingly, the corpse's abdomen split, and a small mana stone popped out.
Much smaller than the gnoll's.
"It works."
My fundamental skill said I could gain experience from all enemies.
That included humans.
Same with Mana Stone Extraction.
Since it said from all enemies, I tried on a human corpse, and a mana stone came out.
"No... this can't be. Mana stones are like monster cores..."
Jang Ho-seop was confused.
Ignoring his mutter, I tried the skill on the remaining corpses.
"There must be conditions."
From this huge pile of bodies, I only got three mana stones.
"Seems like only from awakened people?"
I said that and looked at Jang Ho-seop.
"Huh? Uh... yeah, seems so?"
Jang Ho-seop met my eyes then quickly looked away.
"But you only opened one so far?"
I started walking toward Jang Ho-seop to help with the pup gnoll check.
He flinched and backed away.
"B-boss! No! I'll do it fast..."
He clutched his solar plexus with both hands.
I was dumbfounded.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Jang Ho-seop really was peculiar.
'Boss might use the skill on me.'
He was scared I'd use Mana Stone Extraction on him.
I told him it doesn't work on living people.
Even so, he still occasionally watched me warily.
I had no idea what he thought of me.
'Am I... no, is the skill itself scary?'
Now we were leaving the gnoll habitat and on the move again.
We'd come down from Olympic Boulevard.
'Walking's easier that way.'
Moving through collapsed buildings was far more taxing than walking on flat ground.
You had to watch your step and climb obstacles often.
Olympic Boulevard had less of that, but visibility was wide open.
We could easily be spotted from afar.
'No people wandering around either.'
We hadn't encountered a single person out and about so far.
A few times, I'd locked eyes with people peeking from intact buildings.
And monsters weren't wandering much either.
Maybe they didn't need to hunt right now.
"Boss."
While walking warily, scanning surroundings...
Jang Ho-seop called me in a small voice.
"Use Stealth and follow."
"Yes."
I'd spotted our first destination.
A police substation.
The pharmacist had told us about key facilities nearby.
We'd made the neighborhood substation our primary target.
Fortunately, the building was intact, not collapsed.
'No monsters...?'
It was a small, single-building substation.
I circled the walls.
Even outside, Target Detection let me sense the energy inside.
"No one's here."
We entered the substation building.
Jang Ho-seop dropped Stealth and appeared.
"Looks like something happened, though."
No people or monsters, but the interior was a mess.
Glass doors shattered, half-lowered shutters bent.
Bloodstains everywhere.
"Any weapons left?"
"Gotta look."
The reason we'd targeted this place first was to secure weapons.
Pistols, tasers, batons, etc.
We expected useful stuff at a substation.
"Boss, think this is it?"
We found an iron door that screamed armory entrance.
The small building made it easy to find.
The door was open.
"Whoa."
Jang Ho-seop entered the narrow armory and marveled.
The storage lockers were open too.
"Heh... so that's what they look like. First time seeing one for real."
Several revolvers and live ammo remained in the metal lockers.
Also gas guns and tasers.
Neatly organized, some slots empty.
Jang Ho-seop and I checked the pistols first.
They were revolvers holding six rounds.
Click.
I'd never seen a pistol in person either.
But loading wasn't hard.
Straightforward structure: pull the lever to open the cylinder.
Live rounds and blanks clearly separated.
"Ah~ like this. Boss, gonna test fire?"
"Noise."
"Right, yeah. Gotta be loud, huh?"
Monsters might come running at the gunshot.
"Try the others first."
"Yes."
Unsure how loud the gas gun would be.
Decided to start with the taser at the bottom of the list, fiddled with it awhile.
"Boss, think it's broken?"
"Maybe. Feels properly loaded."
"No light at the bottom either."
Neither of us knew tasers.
Even so, it didn't seem that complicated.
"Damn, none work?"
"Try the gas gun."
Gas gun wouldn't fire either.
After agonizing, I aimed a pistol out the window and fired.
Tick.
"Boss, this is..."
"Yeah."
None of the weapons from the substation were functional.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The conclusion Jang Ho-seop and I reached was this.
'Penalty.'
All guns in the armory could be broken, sure.
But what were the odds?
Jang Ho-seop had once asked what if electricity vanished.
Penalties seemed to go beyond that.
We figured one penalty on humanity was restricted weapon use.
"At least we found clean clothes."
Jang Ho-seop had changed into a blue police uniform.
Lots of pockets, so he even wore the vest.
Found a hat too.
Same for me.
Found my size in the locker room.
Ditched the battle-soiled clothes, grabbed spare clean gym clothes too.
"Ah, but wearing this on the belt's surprisingly heavy."
Not just clothes.
Handcuffs, utility belt, etc.
Pistols and ammo too, just in case.
"Whew... last of the packed lunches."
After looting...
Jang Ho-seop and I sat side by side, eating cold packed meals.
Contents all mixed up.
Even tasted okay-ish.
"What about food from now on?"
Hadn't seen a single working fridge so far.
Food would spoil fast, obviously.
"Gotta tough it out. Long-lasting stuff."
"Yeah... have to. But no answers at all."
Thinking of the future was bleak.
But suicide, as Jang Ho-seop said, wasn't the answer.
"Worst case, eat monster meat."
"Huh...? You're right, boss... whew. The smell's too much. Imagining it nauseates me."
After eating, we shared lukewarm canned coffee.
The mushy lunch was just fuel, but the coffee surprisingly tasted good.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Late afternoon.
Arrived before sunset.
[Suksuk Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics, Postpartum Care Center]
A 10-story building with a huge sign.
Had withstood the earthquake well.
Gulp.
Jang Ho-seop swallowed dryly with a stiff expression.
Because this was his mother's workplace.
"Let's go. Keep your head straight."
"Yes."
We entered through the main entrance.
The first-floor lobby was covered in dried blood.
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