The only thing left for Lohan to complete his progression was Varkas’s magical staff, the [Staff of Blood Desolation].
Lohan picked up the staff, not intending to use it; after all, it was at least four times larger than Lohan’s normal size.
If he were to hold this staff normally, he would have to grow to the size of a person, which would make his and Lisa’s combat styles completely impractical.
So the idea Lohan had was to try to assimilate this staff after figuring out what it was for.
Lohan concentrated his biomass and formed two small human hands to hold the bone artifact. Using his [Superior Magic Core Harmonizer], he sent pulses of mana to test the item’s resonance.
He quickly realized that, despite the sinister appearance and the sickly green mana pulsing from the object, the power of this staff was merely to amplify the magical power of whoever wielded it, like a general buff.
There were no independent summoning spells or complex curses in it as he had initially imagined, given the cliché history that items like this had, with it functioning purely as a high-performance conduit.
Sure, even if the effect was simple, given the item’s appearance, Lohan still felt that the method of crafting it wouldn’t be as simple or natural as the items he’d seen so far, likely matching the sinister look it had.
Looking at the staff, Lohan pondered what to do with it.
"Lisa, this staff does seem like a powerful piece of equipment to me, but it’s very limiting in its physical form..." Lohan said, looking at it closely. "If I keep it stored in the [Astral Chest], it’ll just be a waste of potential. Even if I could lend it to Astralis members like the mage TunderPower, I believe it would be better for me to try to digest this and improve my own strength if the digestion works."
He wasn’t sure if he could digest this staff and take its magical properties for himself, or if he could gain an evolution by digesting something like this, but the test was worth the risk.
So far, the equipment of the players he’d killed had been nothing special, good-quality gear at times, but none of it had any truly potent magical properties.
Even though he had killed mages in the past among the group of humans hunting the pair of elven children, their equipment was so poor that nothing had sparked Lohan’s "hunger" to try digesting it.
But this staff was different; looking at it, Lohan felt the same sensation as when he looked at a digestible creature.
So the idea of digesting it became even more intense.
Lohan reasoned that, by integrating the staff’s amplifying essence into his own body, the benefit he could bring by digesting this equipment and gaining that amplifying effect would be far greater for the guild members in combat if he provided clones to each member in battle.Lisa then spoke, sitting elegantly on the ground and looking at him with smiling eyes.
"Halon, although our guild members are important, at the end of the day the only thing that will truly matter in our development in this world is our own development. As the creatures with the rarest Bases in the Guild, if we fall behind, the guild will likely fall; likewise, if we advance even further, the more the Guild advances, the stronger it will become. So go ahead. Even if we lose this staff, I’m sure we’ll find something better for Tunder in the future."
Without further hesitation, Lohan expanded his neon-blue membrane and activated [Efficient Digestion] on Varkas’s staff.
The crystalline gel began to corrode the magic bone as Lohan felt the artifact’s high-purity mana being filtered through his [Digestive Filter] and flow directly into his mana circulatory system.
The sensation he felt was as if he were digesting a creature with high magical affinity, as if this staff were a living being!
The Elysium interface began recording the assimilation process, and Lohan waited anxiously to see how his [Superior Magic Core] would react to absorbing a hidden quest reward item.
The digestion process for this staff could be completed in less than a minute, but considering this was the first item Lohan had ever digested, and that its sinister appearance still raised red flags in his mind, Lohan was much more careful than usual to avoid digesting a curse or something similar, making the process last nearly 10 minutes.
Fortunately, throughout the entire process, no abnormalities were found.
Satisfied, Lohan simply enjoyed the Biomass that the item provided, and the magical energy coursing through his body in a rather pleasant way.
Then, suddenly, a notification appeared in front of him.
[Superior Magic Core Lv 3 → Lv 5] - Total Mana 242 → 292
Looking at the two upgrades he received on his Superior Magic Core, Lohan was a little disappointed that he hadn’t received any new Evolutions, but feeling the magical power flowing within him, and the control he now exercised over that power, a satisfied smile appeared on his round, blue face.
Even if it wasn’t a major evolution, it was still a step forward on his path of development, so he was satisfied.
His only regret was that he still had too few spells to truly make use of this Magic Core, but considering how many development paths he already had, with so many different attack styles and ways to be useful in combat, that didn’t weigh too heavily on him either.
"Well, how did it go? Did you get anything useful?" Lisa asked expectantly, as if she were the one receiving a new evolution.
Lohan looked at her and smiled, explaining what he had received.
Even though she also thought it wasn’t a big deal, Lisa was still very happy with Lohan’s progress.
"Well, with good news like the progress we made today, I think a celebration would be in order, don’t you think?" Lisa suggested with a mix of excitement and shyness, leaving Lohan confused.