Chapter 45: Chapter 45 – Gluttony
Luna lay on the floor unconscious. She had completely overexerted her magic power reserves.
Elaine was atop the lifeless head of the Black magma leopard gecko. Her two hands inserting all her force into a pull to dislodge her shield from the head and retrieve it.
With a final grunt and tug the shield came out and the girl lost all strength in her body. Tumbling she fell off the head and fell on the floor.
Adam tried coming up to break her fall but his body felt too heavy and he couldn't make it in time.
Helping the girl get up he lent her his shoulder. With a swish of his hand, all of the gecko and its scattered parts were sucked into his storage ring.
All that was left now was an empty room with a pool of black water that occupied almost 2/3's of the place.
A glowing orb floated in the centre of the room. It had a hint of a turquoise colour to it which was the only distinction Adam could find from a celestial enlightenment stone that was pure white in colour.
Limping, Adam and Elaine made their way to Luna. Elaine had several ribs that were out of place and one of her knees had been dislocated while Adam had one hand burnt to charcoal and the other with several fingers and a shoulder blade fracture.
Both of them had taken full force attacks from the gecko. They felt glad that this was all they had suffered.
They had just averted a calamity. Having their lives at the end of facing a monster 7 level's above them would be something no one would believe.
Adam was about to sit down and pick up Luna whose head lay on the cold floor when he realised Elaine could not sit by herself with her foot injury.
Disregarding the pain he felt, he lifted her and sat down with her in his lap. Ensuring her foot didn't bend in the process. He pulled out a dagger and passed it to Elaine.
"Bite down on the hilt. This is going to hurt a lot." He said. The girl was too tired to speak and just followed his instruction.
Without a count or warning, with a twist and a pull he locked her knee back in place. A muffled scream was all that could be heard.
He pulled out two vials of a pinkish, red liquid and passed one to Elaine. These were potions. They were a level higher than medicinal salves and had a more direct regenerative effect. They were introduced to Adam with the migration of 3-star professionals that occurred due to the town gaining 3 and 4-star professionals. It could be said that similar's attracted each other.
Most of the girls in the lodge had taken up professions that were domestic in nature so professions like armour crafting and apothecary were out of the question. As a result, when the girls advanced above the 3-star rank the town had an imbalance in its profession's.
This gave the opportunity for travelling masters in the field to set up shop in the city. With this came better products like potions.
The two drank up. Adam pulled out some medicinal salve and applied it to his burnt hand. He needed to recover as quickly as possible. It was not safe to linger in the core room as he did not know if the core could spawn another Black magma leopard gecko.
He then pulled out an azure vial and force fed it to Luna. He then pulled her up and placed her head on his lap.
"Go to your soul world. You should recover at a faster rate." Adam said through his ragged breathing.
"Mmhm" Elaine nodded, she was about to lose consciousness. She did her best and entered her soul world, avoiding that outcome.
Only after he made sure of all of this did Adam enter his own soul world.
Complete Exhaustion.
All three of them had exerted more effort and force than they had ever had.
Elaine's shield bashes were top notch. For her to be able to exert enough force to daze a creature like that gecko was no laughing matter.
Luna's rain of ice was something she did not have the ability or the concentration to pull off before this. Not to mention her casting light magic.
Adam had moved quicker than he ever had before in this fight. He had even figured out a new style to exert more force into his blades. Most of all his tenacity and wit under pressure were put to the test and tempered in this battle.
His final plan was ingenious but also very simplistic. Using the opposing element of water against the fire attribute element was a matter of common sense. However, the monsters overwhelming superiority in strength completely negated any small advantages that were being provided.
It was seen how it's tangerine bumps were able to easily melt any frost that accumulated on its body. It was obvious that those bumps stored the magma in the monster's body which led to it being extremely hot on the surface.
Then how did Adam get the hide to crack?
Adam used the principle of repeated heated and cooling. This was a very basic concept that stated that when something solid is repeatedly heated and cooled in a short span of time it would turn brittle from constant contraction and expansion.
An example of this would be if you boiled water in a glass container and then immediately transferred the hot container into a freezing environment, the glass would shatter.
Adam being able to link a glass container to the back of this enormous gecko was crazy, to say the least. This was his ingenuity at play.
....
An hour later.
Adam slowly opened his eyes. The two girls were still not awake and were laying on him. Not wanting to disturb them, he moved them aside slowly and got out of the way. He put Luna's head on the now seated on the floor Elaine's lap.
His body still ached all over and his fractures were still not mended but he could move. This was good enough for him.
He walked over to that turquoise core. This was the thing that he had been warned about so constantly by everyone.
He was curious to know why the dungeon would have these and why it would have a monster that was 12 levels higher than it's other monster's just to protect it.
'What is so special about this little glowing rock?' He thought.
He looked at it closely from every angle and even paced around it a few times to ensure nothing suspicious was on it.
Only then did he have the urge to touch it. He extended his hand and prodded the thing with his finger.
When his finger tapped the core he felt hostility and lightning run through his finger.
"Huh? What was that? Is this thing alive?" He was shocked.
He prodded it again but this time something within him awakened and a mild and calming aura were sent out from him.
'Enhanced charisma? Why the hell are you activating for a dungeon core?!' Adam could not figure out if this was a joke. Was he trying to seduce a dungeon core?
'What the F**k? this has to be some kind of sick joke. I'm not into dungeon core's' A deadpan expression assaulted his face, as he seemed to lose the will to live.
When his finger tapped for the second time on the dungeon core, this time with the skill activated he felt a shy response from the core.
'What has my life come to.' If there was anything like a bar to measure his level of sanity at the moment, then it would be dipping really quick with each tap of the core.
He tapped it a third time and this time the core trembled as if it enjoyed his touch.
'That's it I'm done. Nope, my curiosity has died. If this is a dream I would like to wake up now…' He was really questioning his reason for existing at this point. Was he sent to this world to seduce dungeon cores? Have a harem of rocks?
'one more time and that's it.' his curiosity still got the better of him and he tapped the core once more. His reluctance had reached its peak.
A bright light flashed the instant his finger touched the stone surface. The light condensed into a snake and twirled around his finger. It slithered and made its way up to his shoulder. The tiny snake of light made eye contact with him.
Its eyes showed no hostility whatsoever, what it showed was endless care. It was as if Adam was everything to it. Its forked tongue flicked out and licked Adam a few times on his cheek.
'A snake… hmm, that's not too bad.' Adam was relieved. He instantly categorized the creature of light as a pet. This didn't make him feel as bad as he did before. He felt like a monster tamer at this point. This was good, he almost lost his sanity in the previous few exchanges.
Swish! Before he could interact with it at all, the snake used its tail to spring up and drilled into his forehead.
He blanked out. Lifting his hand he touched his forehead to feel. There was no hole or anything of the sort.
Looking around the room everything was the same as before.
Elaine and Luna lay in one corner. The pool of black water that was a mixture of the water and blood still covered most of the floor and the rock of the core still sat in the centre of the room.
The only difference now was that the core had lost all of its white glow and only the turquoise glow remained.
'Notification!'
A notice from his sentient mind broke his stupor and assured him of what had happened was actually real.
Delving into his soul world, he opened up the message he just received.
'New title acquired: Conqueror of the children of heaven.
New unique skill acquired: Gluttony.
Integrating with skill card.'
Adam stood there with a bright smile on his face.
Turning calamity into a fortune. He truly had a personal taste of this statement right now.
…..
In the core room.
In an average and completely indistinct corner from the rest of the room, a change began to take place.
Space trembled and the image of that space began to crumble. It was like dust falling to the floor but dissipating before it hit the ground.
Little by little the space crumbled to reveal a dark void.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Abeini
Abeini Please do leave an honest review on the front page of the novel if you enjoy the novel or have any suggestions for me.
I would also like to thank you guys again for the continued support through power stones.
It really does motivate me to do better.
I really do appreciate it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone