Chapter 27: Preparations
Chapter 27: Preparations
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Deciding to sleep in Terra, Frank was woken up early in the morning by Annabelle, who had begun to jump over his bed and body annoyingly.
“Wake up! Wake up! Frank! You have to get your citizenship today!” said Annabelle, as Frank’s eyes opened wide open, quickly realizing that he had woken up in Terra.
“That night was surprisingly relaxing… even more than sleeping in the middle of Tokyo, nights are so tranquil in here…” he thought, as he stretched himself and glanced at Annabelle who jumped out of the bed.
“Go downstairs to take a bath and then have breakfast with us! Hurry or I’m going to eat everything, hehe!” laughed Annabelle as she ran downstairs while waving her fluffy fox tail around.
Frank sighed due to the teasing personality of the little vixen, but then remembered Ruby, who he had left outside the whole night, rushing downstairs and meeting Gwendolyn preparing breakfast.
“Good morning, boy, go take a bath, quickly,” said Gwendolyn.
“I’ll go look at Ruby for a bit…” said Frank as he opened the door without waiting for Gwendolyn’s response.
Frank left the house as he glanced at his surroundings, the vast green plains, the faraway forests and the road the led to the town were all peaceful and tranquil, with a slight cold breeze and the early light of the sun, bathing it all.
“Ruby? Ruby!” called Frank everywhere, Ruby seemed to not be present…
Frank began to become concerned, what if Ruby had gone somewhere else and gotten itself lost?
“Ruby?! Where are you girl? Sigh… I hope she didn’t simply go to a forest or something- Ah!”
Frank was about to rush to the nearby forest until he glanced at a small figure running towards him from within a small group of bushes, Ruby jumped out of there and ran towards him with blazing speed while carrying a horned rabbit in her mouth.
“Ah! Ruby!” said Frank, running towards his beloved pet as he received her charge with full strength, falling into the ground as Ruby left the corpse of the horned rabbit on the floor and began to lick his face.
“Grawr! Grawr!” she groaned happily.
“I missed you too… Geh, don’t lick me! You were just carrying a corpse with that mouth…” muttered Frank as he moved away from the energetic Ruby who couldn’t stop licking her beloved tamer.
“Grawr!”
Ruby groaned as she grabbed the horned rabbit corpse again and began to eat it.
“So you went hunting by yourself? Were you hungry? Sorry… I was actually going to give you another horned rabbit I stored in my inventory… But I guess I didn’t need to be so preoccupied about you!” said Frank as he took out a pot filled with clean water from the earth, giving it to Ruby.
Frank noticed that Ruby’s presence seemed a bit stronger, as she had most likely eaten another Horned Rabbit before, and through that, had ended up eating a Mana Core as well.
“Did you eat a Mana Core?” asked Frank, as he asked the system if it could tell him how many Mana Cores, she needed to form her own.
[Necessary Mana Cores for [Ruby] to begin Mana Core Creation: 2/20]
“You actually ate two through the morning?” said Frank as he petted Ruby’s head as she enjoyed her meal.
After a few seconds of eating the rabbit, she found the purple-colored mana core and began to munch it as if it were a crunchy treat, eating it entirely.
Ding!
[Necessary Mana Cores for [Ruby] to begin Mana Core Creation: 3/20]
“I suppose I can also let her absorb them quickly by offering her one through the action, but she can also consume them on her own and form it anyways… I wonder if she has something similar to World’s Traveler Body, giving her the ability to adapt to any world I bring her? …She didn’t have any Skill like this, but perhaps being my tamed pet gives her such benefit” thought Frank as he rubbed his chin, petting Ruby for the last time before taking a bath and then joining Gwendolyn at the table, today there was fried eggs with bacon, mushrooms, and soft, recently baked bread.
There was also a beverage similar to coffee, but it had a more aromatic, herbal scent, but it seemed to possess a similar taste on its characteristic bitterness, while also giving a lot of energy to whoever drank it.
“By the way, where might Cathyl-san be?” asked Frank, thinking about the hardworking Minotaur mother.
“Ah, Cathyl-san is still in her home, she’ll bring her child today, I think she might be coming in a few hours,” said Gwendolyn.
“I hope she has a daughter! Maybe we can play home together!” said Annabelle.
“She said she had a boy and a girl, but both are twins, so you better get along with the boy too, Annabelle,” said Gwendolyn.
“Hmm… okay! I hope he’s not a brute though…” said Annabelle.
“Well, he’s a minotaur, so it might be the case… But it is still a kid, so try to be nice” said Gwendolyn.
“Are minotaur known as brutes?” asked Frank.
“Well, mostly. They are a warrior tribe, after all, they’re oriented in battling and they naturally develop strong and muscular physiques, their nature is also competitive… although females are calmer than males” said Gwendolyn.
“Have you never seen a minotaur before?” asked Annabelle.
“I am ashamed to say that I have not…” said Frank.
“Well, for starters, the males have the heads of bulls, so I hope you don’t act impolitely in front of him when you see him, okay? They’re also hairier than the minotaur women” said Gwendolyn.
“Head of bulls? Just like in the actual legend of the minotaur from Earth… I guess only the females have more human-like appearances… but I wonder why there is such a difference, to begin with. Perhaps more beast-like traits are possessed by the males while the females may not? Though I doubt that fox-kin beast-people who are males have the heads of foxes… right?” thought Frank as he nodded to Gwendolyn’s words while sipping some more of the bitter coffee-like drink.
“I see how it is, don’t worry, I will make sure to not act strange, so he doesn’t feel uncomfortable with me,” said Frank.
“Good boy, it is nice to see a human not being a racist prick for once,” said Gwendolyn.
“Racist…?” asked Frank.
“Yeah… Well, there are some humans in the town, but they are often rare in the entire nation. We still treat them as citizens as long as they have the brand of Abraddon, so you do not have to worry. But yeah, the Human Nation likes to reject other races, due to our contrasting cultures, origins, and physical features… As usual, everyone hates each other because we are all too different…” said Gwendolyn.
“You’re a human but you’re not mean, Frank! You even let me treat you badly, hehe!” laughed Annabelle.
“Don’t mind my daughter, she is just playing around, we wouldn’t discriminate you like the others of your race would do if they were given the opportunity against us” said Gwendolyn.
“I see… Thanks for your consideration. (Lucky me I come from another world, so I don’t really care about ‘Human Pride’ in this world)” said Frank, as he considered how little he cared about having his ‘race’ being called ‘racist pricks’, mostly because he was not a human from Terra created by gods but one born on Earth.
Frank continued chatting with mother and daughter as he talked about Ruby, who had hunted three horned rabbits in the span of the night and even talked about how she even ate the Mana Cores.
“Even the Mana Cores?! Well, they’re just F-Grade so I guess it is not much of a loss” said Gwendolyn.
“Will Ruby grow big if she cultivates her Mana Core? Can we eat Mana Cores to grow like her, mommy?” asked Annabelle with enthusiasm.
“You can’t, my daughter. Only monsters can increase their cultivation by devouring other Mana Cores. When it come to us, we have to use several techniques using the knowledge we have been accumulating over the generations. We also have many tools that monsters do not, such as Magic Weapons, Grimoires, Potions, Elixirs, and Magic Items” said Gwendolyn.
“Meh! But monsters have it easier!” said Gwendolyn.
“Perhaps, but if the monsters in specific want to grow even stronger, they need to consume higher grade mana cores after reaching a certain point, they can’t become rank 10 just by eating horned rabbits, at some point they will be stagnant and will have to risk their lives again to fight monsters equal in strength or stronger to them to gain more power,” said Gwendolyn.
“So they can’t cultivate like us by using techniques and learning to use and handle Magic?” asked Annabelle.
“No, they are unaware of those techniques and are rather ignorant. Also, most monsters do not have much intelligence, and those that have it will still prefer to eat other monsters” said Gwendolyn.
As Frank heard what Gwendolyn talked about, he began to realize how he was capable of doing both things, strengthening by eating Mana Cores and also by using cultivation techniques… although he knew none.
“Wait… does that mean that I am considered a monster…?” thought Frank, thinking that perhaps a human from another world might be considered a monster in this world.
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Thank you very much for reading!