Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Chapter 181: Revelations

Mira's heart beat rapidly as she waited for Alex to speak.

"I can't tell you why, but I can't absorb this beast core." Alex revealed, his tone still as serious as ever.

"I-"

Mira attempted to get a word in, but Alex cut her off as he started speaking again.

"Nor can I absorb this one."

He spoke, as he took the beast core he had looted from the darkness beast that was summoned when the Count sacrificed the residents of Monty town.

'What?'

In place of the nerves and anxiety she was feeling just a moment prior, she felt utter confusion seeing a second Variant class beast core appear in front of Alex.

"Alex, what are you saying…"

She was finally able to get a word in, and she could only question Alex's actions at that moment.

Mira knew that Alex wasn't the joking type when it came to things like this, but it all just didn't make sense to her.

'Can't absorb Variant class beast cores? What would make it so someone couldn't do such a thing?'

She just couldn't wrap her head around the thought, as for most awakened it was a pipe dream to absorb one of these in their lifetime.

But here Alex was, saying that he couldn't even though he had two of them.

Mira was focused on one other aspect she had noticed, however.

"Where did you get the second Variant class beast core from?"

She hadn't seen anything like this as a reward for being in the elite class, or first on the freshman rankings, even though there should be, which could only mean one thing.

He had obtained it in the Primordial Expanse.

Considering this, Mira believed that there were two possibilities.

He had gotten extremely lucky and encountered a seriously injured Variant class beast; he had killed a Variant class beast and taken its beast core.

'It can't be the second, that would just be impossible without a team. So it must be the first. My, I didn't realise you were actually one lucky guy, Alex!'

With her assumptions clear, she returned back to the main topic.

"Why can't you absorb these? Find any random awakened on the street and they would kill a million people to get the same opportunity as you."

Mira actually sounded a little annoyed at Alex's bold statement, it was like he was belittling their achievements.

"I wish I could tell you, but I can't. You just have to believe me, you have to trust me, Mira. Some day, I will explain everything to you, but today isn't that day…"

Alex looked torn as he held himself back from telling her the truth, but he considered it to be the right decision.

"But why can't you tell me though? Why…"

Mira was stubborn, but seeing the torn and anguished look on Alex's face, she knew that he was struggling at this moment too.

She took a moment to think, and to compose herself.

"Okay… I'll believe you… for now."

She relented and accepted what Alex was saying, but that just left them with another problem to solve.

"What are you going to do with these two then?" She asked, as she pointed at the two beast cores lingering in front of Alex.

With this question, Alex's mood brightened once again, as he picked them both up and placed them in front of Mira, next to her own beast core.

"I think you know what I'm doing with them. More specifically, what YOU will do with them."

If anyone could see Mira's face at the moment, they would think that she was some crazy stalker, as she looked at Alex with a look only an obsessed fan would give to their favourite celebrity.

"I- I can't accept this." She stammered out.

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"You're gonna have to accept it! They're yours now, I won't accept them back!"

Alex knew Mira was going to react like this, as she wasn't the gift accepting type.

But he wasn't going to let her refuse this gift!

"Now go, go back to your dorm and absorb them before I start to regret my decision!"

***

Mira left shortly after the exchange finished, but she made sure to give him the most lengthy and loving hug he had ever experienced before she hopped over his fence into her own garden.

'It's time I get down to my own business too!'

In truth, Alex wanted Mira to leave so that he could do the one thing she shouldn't see yet.

He was going to absorb his Variant class soul orb!

It had been sitting in his inventory ever since he had left the Primordial Expanse, as he had either not found a private enough location to go through the process of absorbing it, or he just didn't have enough time to do so thanks to the tightly packed schedules the university had given them over the last week.

But now that he had some days to do whatever he liked before classes started, it was the perfect time to do so.

He had given Mira the excuse that he was just going to practise his Heart of the Phoenix technique, and she believed it pretty easily.

It wasn't really a lie either, as that was exactly what Alex planned to do, just after he had absorbed the Variant class soul orb first.

'Here goes nothing!'

He sat down in the centre of his training ground, and pulled the Soul orb out of his inventory, feeling the intense waves of energy exuded by it as it sat in his hand.

'Absorb!'

He activated the absorption process.

"ARGGH!!!"

Immediately, he was hit with a pain like no other.

He hadn't experienced anything like this in any of his other experiences absorbing soul orbs.

'I guess this is what it's like to absorb Variant class soul orbs! Ugh!'

The pain was a result of the remnant energy of the Variant class beast assaulting Alex's own, from within his body.

This was what made Variant class so different from Mutant class. Each beast, or human, would have something unique to them that differentiated them from other beasts of the same type, or other awakened in the case of humans.

In this case, the darkness elemental energy was the unique trait of the Variant beast that Alex had killed, and he was feeling the full force of it attacking him every second that passed.

'I can see now why Energy condensing techniques are so useful! Ugh!'

The chaos of his own energy didn't help, and Alex realised pretty quickly how much easier the pain would be for him if his energy wasn't so chaotic.

But he couldn't do anything about that for the time being.