The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 192: The black swirl (2)

Chapter 192: The black swirl (2)

Hex sat cross-legged on his bed. Looking at the twenty beast crystals his eyes glimmered with hope.

Sensing the weak energy inside the Demon crystals Hex couldn’t help but remember the first time he got his hand on such a crystal.

’I was weak, naive, and reckless. I killed that bear with cunning and luck. And even then it only worked thanks to the beast being poisoned by the Dawnbringers. Yet, I believed that with that dust-like power, I would beat the baron and rule like a lord.’

The more he remembered stuff he said and did, the more he cringed. Only a clueless mountain recluse like him would embarrass himself like that.

Memories were like that. The good surfaced first but the bad ones followed closely behind them. And the embarrassing ones never left. They fluttered around the eyes, repeating the scenes with much more clarity and details than anything else.

With a sigh, Hex picked the crystals up and studied each individually. The faded colors inside the crystals indicated the elements it possessed. After sensing the earth element in the first five crystals, he finally noticed a dark stint mixed with the other colors.

’Is this it?’

Hope filled his heart but he didn’t lose his head. He continued to check out all of the crystals. Ultimately, he would assimilate all the content of the crystals but he wished to deepen his understanding. The black swirl promised to become his biggest trump card in the short run.

’There are few crystals that seem to possess the dark stint.’

Hex sighed as he looked at the three crystals into which he sensed something dark. Three out of twenty didn’t seem a lot. But, he thought, a few hours ago he didn’t have any.

’Sometimes it’s hard to suppress the greed in our hearts.’

With a wry smile, he picked the first crystal from the pile of crystals without the dark stints. As he assimilated the elements from the crystals, the colors in his inner space deepened and gained warmth.

The process was very comfortable but took time. By the time he finished the seventeen crystals, it was already late into the night.

’Now, the moment of truth.’

Hex put off working with these crystals due to the excitement and hope in his heart. It brought some nervousness and fear of failure with it.

But he quickly pushed that feeling down. It wasn’t his style to procrastinate or fear the outcome of his actions. He preferred dealing with the consequences than with regret.

The crystal glowed softly in his hand as he started the process. It was similar to how he refined the chaotic energy of crystals. At first, he sensed a blob of chaotic energy enter his body. At one point in his life, such an amount threatened his life but now he refined it without feeling even a sting.

Roar!

Suddenly, a dark outline of a feline creature appeared inside his inner space. Its red eyes locked onto Hex immediately.

’This is it! The bear appeared exactly like this.’

During his awakening ceremony, he encountered a similar situation. At that time, the chaotic energy and the appearance of the bear’s soul almost cost him his life. But he wasn’t the same person anymore.

The feline creature roared and jumped at Hex. Without batting an eye, Hex clenched his fist. His energy coalesced into a dragon bear and pounced at the dark soul. As soon as the dragon bear appeared the feline’s roar turned into a whimper. It tried to retreat but wasn’t fast enough. Amidst cries, it shattered into dark bits that flew onto the ground. Slowly, the dark bits drifted to each other and became a swirl of densely packed particles.

’Fascinating. The first time I fainted as soon as I was done with the bear and the second time the souls inside me fused. Only now, the feline creature seemed too weak to resist and perished in one move.’

Hex quickly understood the process, at least most of it. There were details he had to discover along the way but the general gist seemed simple. The black swirl appeared after the remnant soul energy clustered with each other.

He surmised that the feline’s soul wasn’t comparable to the souls of the other beasts and disintegrated instead of fusing like the Kobold and the bear did with each other.

’As I gain more experience, these secrets will reveal themselves,’ Hex thought. A broad smile appeared on his face. "Whatever the reason, I have the black swirl!"

The black swirl was akin to having the power to survive against a Calamity. Motivated by his first success, he took the second and third crystal. The souls of a deer and a boar appeared, both easily destroyed by the dragon bear.

The black swirl increased in size with each destroyed soul. The black swirl was a bit larger than the one he had before but he sensed some differences. The swirl felt less dense than the previous one.

’I wonder if it matters which stage the beast was before its demise,’ Hex pondered. ’It makes sense if I think a little bit more about it. According to the Knight’s Path, a person’s soul strengthens with each stage. I assume it’s the same with beasts. The Kobold was at a Disaster stage and the bear’s soul strengthened with me.’

The complexity of the soul and its powers baffled many over the years. It wasn’t easy to understand, especially for someone like Hex with a shallow fundament. His study of the Knight’s Path didn’t fill all his gaps. It would take time and effort from his side. The content was too much and he studied on his own. Without a master to guide, he needed to uncover many things by himself.

Hex spent the entire night thinking about his powers and the concepts he lacked knowledge of. His power increased at a satisfactory speed but his knowledge lagged.

’After securing my place and deed, I will seek tutors.’

With that, he threw his ponderings to the back of his mind and stood up. It was time to start his mission, a mission few expected him to return alive from.

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