Chapter 146: The Green Beast Core

Jimmy was not splattered with blood.

In more natural situations, when a creature fell from a high place which they could not handle, such as a cow falling from a skyscraper, one would expect blood. In fact, they would expect the poor cow to explode upon contact.

In this case, since the alligator fell from a height of a hundred kilometers, and caught on fire along the way, he did not expect to see blood. The fiery momentum had likely boiled the fire out of the poor thing anyway.

In fact, he was surprised that the whole alligator did not burn up fully to begin with. Its endurance was beyond tough, he understood that, as he had failed to melt even a single one of its scales earlier, but he had no idea how its body survived long enough to hit the ground, and even leave a crater!

It wasn’t supposed to.

Jimmy approached the crater, which was roughly ten meters, or thirty-two feet wide, and waited for the smoke that sizzled from it to go away.

It took a while. It didn’t help that the surrounding grass, and even a few trees, had been set on fire. He could barely breathe, and yet he still stuck close to the crater.

At last, ten minutes later, some of the smoke cleared, and now, he could have a better look.

Above him, he heard his friends. They were likely trying to determine if he was still alive. He assumed that they were relieved to see him fluttering within the smoke, in one piece, though their attachment towards him ended there.

In other words, they knew better than to approach him right now.

Zoey watched him concoct this disaster from up close, and yet she may be amongst the most confused crows amongst them. Unlike Jimmy, they refused to approach what they did not understand.

"Well... that makes less sense..." He muttered.

The alligator was not alive, thankfully. He’d feel bad if it survived this disaster, because he knew he would’ve caused internal injuries on the gator that would give it a slow, painful death, but what he was looking at confused him beyond bounds too.

Most of the alligator was intact. Only half of its coat of rough scales were gone.

There were some open wounds across its back, where its charred flesh was visible, and where its scales had been destroyed, but that seemed to be about it. Any internal damage was hard to determine right now, and he didn’t care about it either.

Its tail was in great shape, maintaining most of its scales. Its head too.

Jimmy landed near the gator, and pecked at its open wounds. Beyond it all, curiosity, chaos, and everything that entailed, he was hungry.

"Hmm... a bit sour, but... pretty well cooked." He spoke through a mouthful.

From the looks of it, the alligator’s insides were cooked through. Surely there was internal damage.

Anyway, eating predator meat was usually risky, but for humans. As an omnivorous crow, however, he didn’t care as much about the risks.

Other than that, he believed that not a single potential parasite within the alligator could’ve survived being either cooked, or boiled alive. Yet, he was still a bit paranoid.

’I hope to fuck its parasites aren’t indestructible or some shit.’ He thought, ’I don’t know how to fix that.’

After a few mouthfuls, he heard his friends land nearby. The smoke had cleared up enough for them to land.

Vorin looked like he wanted to ask a thousand questions, but he refrained from doing so. He was sure that he wouldn’t be able to understand anyway.

"This fish looks weird," Vorin said, "Is its meat any good?"

"Yeah," He nodded, "It’s heavy duty stuff. Eat, and you probably won’t feel hungry until tomorrow night."

The rest of the team joined the feast.

Virena sliced a chunk for herself, and then she climbed up, and made herself comfortable on Jimmy’s back.

"Vorin’s back is too bony," She joked.

"Give him a break, he’s young." He chuckled lightly.

"We’re the same age," Vorin said, and aggressively pecked at the gator.

Everyone ate until they were full. Most of the feast was left over.

Jimmy thought, ’What a waste of a gator. I wish I could throw him in salt and bring the meat with me. Or, just leave it here? If I had salt, I could leave the meat to dry here, and then come back to it later.’

Jimmy bargained with the idea of heading to that village to look for salt, but he abandoned that idea quickly when he saw something shiny within the alligator.

Below the spine, at the bottom of the alligator’s ribcage, he spotted something that looked a lot like a Beast Core.

It was green, just like the gator, which was fitting. He figured that he wouldn’t be able to spot the core if it was painted in blood instead.

’I can’t believe the cores survived the fall,’ He thought, ’I had a feeling this indestructable fucker had a core.’

After he spotted the core, its color mattered less. What the core could provide once it was broken, was infinitely more important!

Naturally, he was hesitant to touch it. The core was just too foreign for him, or anyone else in the team.

Neither of them were reptiles, for one thing, and they hadn’t tampered with immense durability either, which he expected the core to be all about. Jimmy barely upgraded that part of his Evolution Tree.

When he pointed out the core to the rest of the team, they were hesitant too. Virena was not interested whatsoever.

They were thinking of abandoning the gator altogether, including the core, and finding another tree to sleep on. The one they picked earlier on had caught on fire.

The team’s ears were ringing from the shockwave. Vorin was hoping that Jimmy could heal him.

Julia, after a couple of minutes, got interested in the core. Despite her immense skills with her dagger, she felt like dead weight recently, as in, she hadn’t contributed anything at all, other than being good company.

She wanted to change that.

"What are the risks, exactly?" She asked, "If I... take this core?"

"I have no idea," Jimmy answered, "You might explode. Or not?"