Cultivating Talents [LitRPG Mana-cultivation]

Jodie twisted hard to the side, barely dodging the creature's wild swipe—but not fast enough. Pain laced across her arm as a claw nicked her, slicing fabric and flesh. She hit the ground in a roll, biting back a cry, then came up to one knee.

She reached into the back of her mind, tugging on the power that waited.

Flame erupted to her side, blooming into a pool of orange heat. She squinted sharply, forcing her eyes shut and retracting the power that filled them. With a sharp breath, Jodie mentally thrust the growing fireball forward, and a moment later, it launched free from above the pool, towards the retreating beast.

The creature leapt—not back, but sideways—landing against the tunnel wall, claws biting into stone, body low. It was surprisingly fast for its size. Scurrying towards her blind spot, it seemed to blur.

Too fast.

Jodie's breath caught. Her mind scrambled. She didn't have the time to plan an attack.

So she didn't.

She let her body move.

The deep, ingrained memory stirred—fragments of the power she could take on only if she could figure out how to do so willingly. Her knees bent, her feet parting just so. Her eyes tracked the subtle curve in the beast's path, the twitch in its shoulders before it pounced again.

She jerked her head to the side, twisting low as a fireball shot over her shoulder. The gathered flame blasted by her and slammed directly into the creature's chest mid-lunge.

The tunnel lit like dawn.

Knocked back. The beast shrieked once, then collapsed in a heap, its ribcage charred and open, its flesh glowing red with embers. Smoke pooled from its corpse in thin waves, wafting away as the air settled.

Jodie staggered back, panting. Then she froze.

Mana. She glanced up at the corpse.

Its mana was moving.

How is that possible? It's dead. Isn't it? Dead things can't move mana.

The mana didn't disperse. It pooled. It was faint, but somehow she could sense it. The mana was gathering somewhere deep inside its corpse, like it was being pulled in by something.

Jodie hesitated, then took a slow step forward, leaning on the faint trace of Battle Intent to sharpen her senses. She'd be ready to launch another fireball if the creature so much as twitched. But it didn't. Its ribcage remained crisped, open, and still. Even the faint pulsing light along its ridged spiked spine had faded.

And yet… the mana kept moving.

She crouched, one hand outstretched over the creature's body. The heat still clung to it like mist. Beneath the scorched fur and cracked layers of skin, she could feel it. A faint current, not wild or chaotic, but steady. Controlled. Like it had direction. Purpose.

Something was holding on to the creature's fading power. Or maybe… drawing it in.

Her hand clenched.

She had her suspicions, but she had to know for sure what it was.

Jodie turned and lowered slightly, reaching out behind her. With a grunt, she hooked her fingers under the beast's forelimbs and began dragging. It was heavy. Even with her Gravity Forging-Two enhanced strength, it was a bit much.

Stone dust fell loose as she moved it inch by inch. Jodie willed the flame pool to crawl behind the corpse, keeping the way back to the cavern lit. Her wounded arm burned, but she didn't stop. Mirae was waiting for her. And besides, whatever this thing was, its corpse might explain why it was here. Or at least, Delworth should be able to tell them what it was.

A few more steps. She could already see the shimmer of light the dome produced by Mirae's Talent gave off from here.

She turned her head, glancing at the corpse. "I'm cutting you open," she muttered under her breath. "If you have what I think you have inside you, it could be a game changer."

Past the flickering flames of her fire pool, in the dark of the tunnel beyond, something shifted.

She blinked. But nothing moved.

Though the feeling that she was being watched pressed on her.

—- —- —- —-

The dome's shimmering boundary rippled as Hector stepped through, cradling Nyx against his chest. Her black hair was brushed to one side. A blank look, as usual, sat on her face. Behind Hector, Emela followed closely, her eyes casually sweeping their makeshift camp.

Jodie barely glanced up from where she knelt beside the mole-like creature. With its chest charred open, fur matted, and forearms awkwardly up in the air. The rigid spikes on its back sent a wave of confusion through Hector. Since when did moles have spines like that?

The wet squelching of meat came from the creature's corpse as Jodie's hands dug into the thing. They sank into the creature's flesh, going past the wrist as she squelched around.

Hector narrowed his eyes at the sight.

He adjusted Nyx in his grip. His eyes met Mirae's as the girl looked up from the fire she was tending.

"Hector!" she practically chirped, shooting up and running over.

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"You alright?" he asked, glancing at the corpse Jodie was digging into.

Mirae nodded. "Yeah, Jodie took care of it. Though I don't know why she brought it back."

"I told you," Jodie said, not looking up from the beast's body. "It's got something inside it, drawing in mana."

Mirae looked at Hector, then her eyes dropped to Nyx. "What happened to her?"

"She'll be alright, just a little injured. Can you grab me something for her to lie on?"

Mirae shot off, coming back a moment later with a sleeping bag. They had actually gotten around to buying some the other day—well, they'd asked Jodie to, at least. Hector gently shifted Nyx, lowering slowly and placing her carefully onto the bedroll Mirae had placed near the fire.

Emela stood over them, mask hanging from her hip, twin braids lying against her back. Her gaze flickered between Nyx, the corpse, and Jodie, mouth pressing into a thin, hard line.

I wonder if Emela's having the same thoughts as me? With [Gentle Sanctuary] active, no beast below Gravity Forging-Four should have gotten anywhere near here. Did Jodie go out to kill it? If so, why?

Hector let out a breath and pushed himself up, coming to his feet. He straightened, rolling his shoulders, and stepped closer.

"Jodie," he said, his voice low but carrying in the expansive cavern. "Did that thing make it all the way in here?"

She didn't look up. Her extremely long and sharp nails pinched back a flap of ruined flesh, exposing the dull glint of something hidden deep within the beast's ribcage. A dull throb of mana passed over the bead-like surface. Then another.

"No, not a chance," she said finally. "I heard it fighting with some hairless rats in the tunnel a little way from here. I decided I had to kill it before it got too close."

"I see…" Hector said, eyes lingering on what was most likely a beast core. But what rank, and why was a mana beast all the way up here? Hadn't Delworth said it would only be the hairless rats this close to the sewers?

Jodie worked in silence for a few heartbeats longer, the wet sound of tearing flesh filling the space. Mirae hovered nearby, half crouched, half ready to bolt, wringing her hands in the hem of her shirt.

Hector turned his head, scanning the shadows that twisted at the dome's edge. His gut tightened.

"I can't believe that it wandered this far," Hector said, stepping around the corpse to get a better look at the thing. Its size was imposing. He'd been right when he'd assumed how big it would be earlier this morning. "I wonder why, though? There can't be as many hairless rats to hunt up here. The nests are all deeper in. Is it being forced up here?"

Jodie's hands paused, buried wrist-deep. She lifted her head just slightly, her ginger hair swinging with the motion. "Could be," she muttered, voice clipped. "But it was pretty strong. Fast too. I don't want to imagine the creature that could force this thing to come here."

Her eyes shifted to Emela. "So, how did the raid go? Did you get much?"

Hector then summarised briefly what happened. By the end, Jodie just blinked, a trace of anger flashing through her eyes. "I hope that was the last of those damn pills. The fool must have taken a bunch of them. I hate to say this, but it serves him right."

Emela shifted, her shoes grinding against the dirt and stone. "I can't say I disagree. Though I was more worried we were being followed."

"I told you. If we were being followed, my [Street Reader] Talent would have picked up on it." Hector said, rubbing Mirae's head as his little sister stepped under his arm. A hint of disgust, yet also some fascination, was in her eyes as she watched Jodie work.

Finally, Jodie pulled her arms free. Clutched between two bloodied claws was a glistening, pigeon egg-sized beast core. She stood up in a single, fluid motion, wiping the gore off one hand on her trousers.

"I don't know, Hector." She tossed the core to him. He caught it on instinct. Its brown surface pulsed once in his palm, faint but powerful. "I mean, I can't lie. You have a knack for these things, and I wouldn't doubt your Talent. It's gotten us out of some pretty tough jams. I don't think leaving the Farmhand's hideout and the Hay Quarter would have been so easy without it. But the Collar Gang can be tricky when they want to be."

Hector turned the core over in his hands, feeling the slow, steady pulse through his fingers. It had to be a Gravity Forging-Two equivalent. Earth type. It made sense; they were underground. But even so—one shouldn't be on this level of the cave system. However, Delworth had been wrong before.

He shook his head, tracing its surface with his finger once more before tucking it into his pocket. This could also be an opportunity. Beast cores were worth quite a bit after all, even low-level ones.

I'll have to bring up that possibility when we all next meet.

His eyes shifted to Jodie. The ginger girl still held his gaze as if waiting for something. "I'm not worried. We kept our masks and cloaks on the entire time. No one we knew was there—I saw Adrien, but he didn't recognise me. So it should be fine."

Jodie raised an eyebrow at that, as her long claws retracted, becoming normal nails.

"And besides," Hector continued, confidence growing in his voice. "The sewers are like a labyrinth. Even if someone tried to follow us, they'd get lost a hundred times over. By the Great Lake, we only made it here because of Delworth. Half the paths down here don't even go anywhere. Just a lot of circles and dead ends."

Behind him, Nyx groaned a little. He glanced back, a hint of concern flashing in his chest. What were they going to do about her wound?

He then turned back to Jodie and Emela. "Don't get me wrong, we shouldn't let our guard down," he said with a sigh. "But as of now, we're safe. No one's finding us here unless they already know exactly where to look."

He paused. "And no one does."

Jodie raised her hands, her blood-soaked sleeves falling a little. "Alright, I will trust your judgment on this one. But we can't become too lax. Though I guess I should save that advice for myself. Because, unlike you, I don't have a Talent that can do that."

Is she hinting at wanting the [Street Reader] Talent? Though I guess giving her one wouldn't be too much of a hassle. I've got a couple I'm not using.

Even though he now had enough to upgrade the [Street Reader] Talent, he'd been holding off. Because so far, whenever he upgraded a Talent, he lost access to the original abilities. And [Street Reader] was too useful right now.

Emela's boots scrunched on the stone as she moved back over to Nyx. Hector's eyes flickered from the blonde girl to the black-haired one. Perhaps he could use that Talent he'd gotten the other day. It had said something about healing injuries.

Though there was always Lincoln's mom. However, that was a fine way to lose a lot of coin.

Hector's fingers brushed the core tucked in his pocket, feeling its still slightly warm surface. His mind whirred. Things were really stacking up. And they still hadn't even gotten a clue about where his dad's body had gone.

They needed to talk about the document that Emela found in the raid.

The potential danger of beasts.

And now, how to treat Nyx's injury.

They needed a plan to deal with things. Even though the Collar Gang needed to be put in the ground, he couldn't sacrifice everything just for that. He still had too much to lose, especially with his dad gone.

He glanced at Mirae.

"We need to talk," Hector said, voice carrying in the still cavern. Jodie and Emela both glanced at him. Mirae looked up. Confusion coloured her features. Hector sighed. "We need to get everyone here, preferably the day after tomorrow. That should give Nyx some time to rest as well."

His eyes shifted from Jodie to Emela. He focused, making his voice clear.

"I want us to fully decide on this Mercenary Company, and how it will work going forward. Because things are getting a lot more hectic and will become even more so. We have a lot of problems..."

Jodie nodded slowly.

Hector let out a breath, slow and measured. His gaze moved towards the mouth of the tunnel.

"And one thing that could become a big problem is not knowing enough about what's going on in this cave network." He jerked his chin towards the corpse. "That could just be the start."