Assassin Crow Evolution

Chapter 48: Human Core; Stolen!

Jimmy could not understand a single word the man in front of him said.

Communication was a major issue. He knew that he could get rid of this problem with a single purchase from somewhere within the Evolution Tree, but he didn’t want to buy it. It was not worth the system points right now.

After all, he only wanted to loot the Fire Mage’s corpse. Other than that, he knew that a purchase that big could mess with his head, or his entire body, which in this situation, would open doors to new problems.

He could not risk spazzing out right now. The man who welcomed him here, fed him, and generally treated him well, had sunk into a tense mood. Rogbeard’s continuously descending tone gave him away.

With that considered, Jimmy changed his game plan.

Slowly and cautiously, he walked to the other side of the table, grabbed his hammer, and then floated down from the table. He then sat on one of the small marble benches across the room, and pretended that he was going to take a nap.

"I just have to wait him out, I guess?" Jimmy plotted, "He’s old, he looks tired. He’ll fall asleep eventually... hopefully before anyone else walks in here."

Rogbeard was pleased with this. He could work in peace now, and so he did.

With a hammer and a spike, he cracked the corpse’s skull open. Blood poured out, and just before it was about to drip down from the table and into the ground, Rogbeard propped a cast-iron pot below the stream.

The process seemed brutal overall, but it did not bother Jimmy at all. He saw the bags of salt which were stacked at the corner of the room. He knew that the man was performing some sort of mummification ritual. Other than that, he was no stranger to tearing creatures apart.

Two hours into the ordeal, Rogbeard was done draining what remained of the corpse. He was sure he had sapped out every drop of blood.

The next part of the process relied heavily on salt.

Rogbeard grabbed a fifty-pound bag with surprising ease, gently laid it on the table, and got to work.

With what could be best described as a silver gravy boat, he poured some salt straight into the corpse’s head. The tip of the tool was positioned in the hole he had opened in the corpse’s head, allowing the salt to slip in there.

He repeated the process three times.

Jimmy saw this, and thought, ’I guess that’s easier than ripping the brain out of the guy?’

Rogbeard poured several pounds of salt in the silver bowl of organs afterwards, covering them with a thick layer.

This made Jimmy nervous. The core that he was after was in that bowl. He didn’t know if salt ruined it, but if it did, then he failed his mission already. The time he spent here was nothing compared to the sleep he sacrificed on behalf of his goal. He did not want to fail.

Jimmy focused on the bowl, and even from across the room, he could see some movement from within the salt. The core was still beating as irregularly as it always did.

For a moment, he considered rushing there, so as to take the core by force, but he didn’t want to fight the man. Considering how fit Rogbeard was for his age, he wasn’t even sure that he could win the fight.

Jimmy had no other choice but to wait, and hope that the salt wouldn’t ruin the core.

The break of dawn slowly approached.

So far, Jimmy had forced himself to stay awake. The passive healing process that had followed him throughout the city, drained his energy thoroughly. The cashews he ate didn’t keep him energized for long.

Rogbeard had given him a couple of odd looks when he saw a small, dark mist engulfing Jimmy every now and then, but he wasn’t interested enough to investigate it. He had seen worse things over the years, and besides, he was quite focused on his work.

Other than that, he too was beyond tired.

After covering the corpse with a whole layer of salt, directly on the table, his exhaustion caught up with him.

Rogbeard wanted to sleep, but before he could, he knew that he had to kick Jimmy out of the temple. His hospitality met an end once the sun rose.

Of course, he was gentle. He grabbed Jimmy as softly as he could, and took him to the temple’s exit.

Jimmy expected this, and had already formulated a plan in response. He played along.

First, he bowed to the man, so as to show his gratitude, and afterwards, he flew away until he was out of sight.

Twenty minutes later, he flew back to the temple. After making sure that the gentle mortician was nowhere close to the door, he landed on one of the statues outside of the stony temple, and tried to see if this was the best time to carry out his plan.

"Virena, I need you to go scout for me." He said, "There’s a Beast Core in there, it’s covered in salt. I want it. But to avoid trouble, we have to be sure that the old guy who fed me is asleep, or no longer in the room."

"Arlight," She said.

Virena was exhausted as well, more than she had ever been in a while, but she cooperated. She figured that the sooner this hunt was over, the sooner she could sleep.

With that considered, she flew into the temple, and scouted the area. She was hoping that the mortician would confuse her with some other, random mantis, which in turn would give her free reign to scout.

Virena found the man in the same room they left him in. He was asleep on one of the short marble benches. It looked very uncomfortable overall, but odds were that he had been so tired that he didn’t care where he fell asleep.

The fact that he was asleep served their purpose. She got back to Jimmy, and reported what she found.

"Good good..." He said, "I expected him to fall asleep, but not in the same room. It’s almost as if he expects the damn corpse to run away... Hmm... it doesn’t matter. I can still steal the core."

Jimmy then floated into the temple. He had placed his hammer on a rooftop nearby, so he wasn’t burdened by it.

Within ten seconds, he made it into the room where the corpse was laid out on, and jammed his claws in the silver bowl which was filled to the brim with salt.

Once he got a hold of the only organ that thumped like a damaged heart, he flew out of the room immediately after.

Speed was a must. He feared that because he grabbed it, the core would break, and seek a host to absorb it, and the host would be him in that case. He feared the pain it would cause him, and he feared that he’d faint somewhere within the temple.

Jimmy managed to get the core out of the temple, and on a rooftop nearby rather quickly! Despite his fears, it did not break.

"That doesn’t look right." He said, "It can’t be the wrong organ... it’s still beating. It has to be a core... but maybe it’s harder to break it?"

Regardless of the result, his mission was a success. The old man didn’t see him take the organ.

Knowingly, Jimmy disrespected the one wish of the only human that had treated him well in this city. He tampered with the corpse.

Unknowingly, he also cursed the man. Rogbeard was to be haunted by yet another soul who could not pass on to the afterlife. A fate that he didn’t nearly deserve.