Chapter 189: Strange Dream (5)

Red might have some clue regarding the elemental aspect. The Blaze Iron Ingot, for example, gained Fire Aspect because of the mixing with the Fire Stone ore. But why did they mix it with other metals? Wouldn’t the firepower be much better if they used the pure Fire Stone Ingot to craft the weapon?

What was the point of mixing the metals? What was the use of that Zino Metal? There must be a reason why the Mana Smith used Zino. He wanted to know why. He wished for the answer to appear magically in his head, just like the other information. Unfortunately, there was no answer. There was no sudden new information that popped out in his head.

He was about to look at the other workstation. Maybe he would get some clues from watching them several times. But that didn’t happen as the surroundings changed once more.

It was different from the previous ones. There were no workstations or piles of ore; it was empty. He was standing in the middle of an empty chamber, a big chamber that easily fit hundreds of hobgoblins. It was so tall that even the Chief had no issue entering the chamber.

The floor was made of copper-colored stone with several pillars to support the ceiling. The wall was made of the same material. He stood alone in the middle of the chamber, but not for long, as his own people entered the chamber.

He thought of his own people. It was the red-skinned with sharp ears, not the green-skinned hobgoblin or goblin. They wore leather pants but were topless. They had well-refined muscles that put Red to shame.

He looked down at his belly, then at the bicep on his arm, then he looked at the others. They put him to shame. He was not bad compared to the protruding belly of the Chief or the Hobgoblins, but he was ashamed when he compared himself to these people.

Initially Red was unsure whether he was a goblin or not, but this dream or whatever it was, convinced him that he was not a goblin. These were his people, tall and red but not overly tall like the Chief.

He was convinced now that he was not a goblin or even a hobgoblin. It was kinda obvious with the difference in their skin color. The Shaman deemed him to be a bad omen that would bring a disaster to the village.

Back then, he half-believed what the Shaman said. That might be the case, as that was the only explanation as to why his skin was different. Now he found out that the Shaman’s claim was just a pure, stupid fabrication.

He found out that he was not a goblin now, but what should he call himself? That question naturally came up in his mind. If he was not a goblin, what was he?

He was soon distracted because he felt a surge of mana in the chamber. His Mana Sense pinged him crazily as the mana came from all directions.

Red looked around and quickly found where the mana came from. The surge came from these people as he sensed it; their mana was circulated through their bodies, and some of the mana came out of their bodies.

[Mana Sense has reached level 20!]

He quickly swatted the notification away, focusing on the mana inside one of his kin. Through his Mana Sense, he could feel their mana didn’t rest in the core. Their mana flowed through the channels in their body, reaching the head, arms, body, and legs.

He was confused about what they were doing. They were drawing the mana from their cores, then circulating the mana through their bodies.

He fully focused, trying to check what actually happened. His senses tried to enter his body, trying to feel it. He didn’t know if it was possible, but he tried it anyway.

Red focused on the core first because he knew the location of their core. The location was exactly the same as his, between his belly and chest. It was glowing bright blue, and then the mana surged from the core, traversing through an established channel.

The only channel he knew was in his hand. He didn’t know there was a mana channel that could traverse around his body and legs, let alone the head. He followed the mana surge through the channel, wondering where it would end up.

The first path was through the chest, then going up to the head. There was a sinuous channel in that head, and the mana traversed through that path. He noticed how the flow of mana was slowing down when it reached the head.

The mana then came back down to the chest. That was when he noticed the mana was split into two directions, going to the left and right arm through different channels. The mana channels in the arms were pretty simple compared to the one in the head. He noticed that the mana flow increased, going faster.

Then the mana returned to the body and went through a winding channel. It looked like the mana must pass through a certain point, which is why the path was winding. The mana converged in the core location, but not at the core itself; more like there was a path below the core, and the separated mana met in that channel.

Then the mana separated once more, moving to the channel in the legs. He was curious where the mana would go after finishing the leg channel. The mana finished traversing through the channel in the legs, then it shot up to the chest.

He thought the mana would return to the core. His guess was not wrong, but not exactly accurate either. The mana returned to the core, but the second core was located above the mana core. He found out there was another core above the original core. The second core was located on the sternum.

Red quickly noticed the difference between this second core and the mana core. The mana in the second core was brighter and purer; likely, the quality of mana there was higher as well.

[You have learned a skill, Heradin’s Mana Circulation and Body Forging!]

[You have learned a skill, Heradin’s Essence Forging!]

[You have formed a second core, Essence Mana Core!]