Chapter 45: Core Absorption

The blinding, white-hot flames around Daniel’s calloused hand continued to roar and hiss, scorching the air with unbearable heat.

Raviah Solomon stood a few meters away, her posture rigid as her eyes locked onto the diagnostic readings streaming across her medical scanner.

The digital display flashed frantic, high-priority warnings:

[ROOT ACTIVITY: RAPIDLY INCREASING]

[ENERGY ABSORPTION: UNSTABLE]

[CORE RESONANCE: 91.3%].

Daniel’s body trembled violently, his knees buckling under the sheer weight of the unseen atmospheric pressure.

The Beast Core remained locked inside the thick, lead-lined transport case, yet its raw crimson energy easily penetrated the protective metal lining.

Raviah immediately understood the underlying bio-energetic mechanism unfolding right before her eyes.

This was not a simple case of passive environmental resonance.

Daniel’s newly awakened Fire Root was actively trying to draw the Core’s concentrated power directly into his undeveloped biological pathways.

"Daniel, listen to my voice!" Raviah shouted over the crackling flames. "Do not deliberately draw that energy into your chest!"

"I... I don’t know how to stop it, Doctor!" Daniel screamed, tears of agony instantly evaporating on his flushed, sweat-streaked face.

"Then stop focusing on the containment box!" she ordered sharply. "Clear your mind and sever the connection!"

Daniel squeezed his eyes shut, his entire frame shuddering as the roaring white flames surrounding his knuckles flickered with erratic violence.

Raviah stepped closer, extending her scanner probe to measure his vital organs, central nervous system, and bioelectric pathways.

His cellular structure was shifting at a terrifying, unnatural velocity. His Fire Root was functioning like a newly opened dam, desperately trying to channel a massive energy frequency far beyond its current biological threshold.

She had witnessed this exact scene during the dark, desperate years of her past life.

Years into the original apocalyptic timeline, researchers had finally discovered that a rare subset of humans could absorb raw energy directly from harvested Beast Cores.

Not every survivor possessed this biological gift. Only specific Elementals possessed the rare genetic traits required to become Core Absorbers. Even among those gifted individuals, elemental compatibility varied wildly from person to person.

Some Elementals could absorb a compatible Core, experiencing an instantaneous spike in their raw elemental reserves and accelerating their overall rank. Others suffered catastrophic biological rejection.

Raviah clearly remembered the horrific failed experiments from her previous life. She remembered desperate test subjects whose bodies violently rejected incompatible crystalline energy. Their primary blood vessels had ruptured, and their newly formed Roots collapsed inward.

Some developed hideous, grotesque physical mutations as foreign, corrupted energy forced its way into incompatible tissues. Others simply suffered total organ failure and died on the operating table.

Core absorption was never a simple, risk-free shortcut to grandmaster power. It was a deadly gamble. Absorbing one wrong Core could permanently mutilate or kill the person attempting the process.

Raviah’s expression hardened into a grim, unyielding mask as she turned her head.

"Rhyder!" she called out.

General Rhyder Drakeheir immediately looked toward her, his hand resting on his sidearm. "What do you need?"

"Move that containment unit away from Daniel right now!" she commanded.

Rhyder did not hesitate or question her authority for a second.

He snapped his fingers at his elite squad. "Move the containment case to the perimeter!"

Two heavily armored soldiers stepped forward, lifting the heavy lead box by its steel handles.

The instant they carried the case several meters backward, the white-hot glare surrounding Daniel’s arm began to dim.

Raviah kept her sharp eyes glued to the diagnostic screen, watching the numbers drop.

[CORE RESONANCE: 73.6%].

The farther the soldiers carried the Beast Core, the lower the bio-energetic resonance fell. Daniel’s rapid, frantic breathing gradually began to stabilize.

The blinding white flame contracted, weakening into a feeble, trembling orange spark before flickering out completely. With the energy link severed, Daniel collapsed onto his knees in the damp dirt.

Medical personnel rushed forward with trauma kits, but Raviah reached him first, catching his shoulder before his face hit the gravel.

"Take slow, steady breaths," she instructed calmly.

Daniel gasped for air, his chest heaving under his scorched overalls. "Did... did I absorb any of it, Doctor?"

Raviah ran a quick diagnostic sweep over his heart and chest cavity. "No."

She paused, adjusting the sensor’s optical threshold. "At least, not enough to cause permanent cellular alteration."

Daniel let out a long sigh of relief, leaning heavily against her arm.

Raviah, however, felt no sense of relief whatsoever. Because the data on her scanner had just confirmed a terrifying reality.

Daniel had displayed genuine biological compatibility with the harvested organ. His Fire Root had recognized the crystalline Beast Core as a viable, usable power source. Yet compatibility did not equate to safety.

Raviah stood up, turning her attention back toward Rhyder. "Certain rare Elementals possess the biological capacity to absorb Beast Cores."

Rhyder’s sharp, analytical gaze fixed on her face. "Possess the capacity?"

"Yes," she confirmed, holding up her scanner. "Absorption depends entirely on the precise elemental alignment between the Core and the host’s Root."

She pointed a gloved finger toward the exhausted farm hand. "His Fire Root reacted so violently because the energy within that mutated wolf’s Core shared a compatible thermal frequency."

Rhyder looked toward the soldiers securing the lead box at the edge of the field. "And what happens if an Elemental attempts to absorb an incompatible Core?"

Raviah’s voice turned ice-cold. "The host body violently rejects the foreign energy."

"Describe the physical consequences," Rhyder pressed, his tone dropping.

"In the absolute best-case scenario? Intense physical agony, severe thermal shock, and temporary Root instability," she stated matter-of-factly.

She looked directly into his dark eyes. "And in the worst-case scenario?"

A heavy, suffocating silence descended over the field as the wind rustled through the scorched grass.

"Permanent biological mutation, total Root collapse, or immediate organ failure," she delivered without flinching.

Rhyder’s jaw tightened as he absorbed her clinical breakdown. "Death?"

"Yes," Raviah replied plainly. "Absolute, agonizing death."

The stark reality of her words hung heavily between them.

She glanced back toward the glowing containment case. "In the coming world, people will become desperate enough to gamble their lives on those odds."

Her mind drifted back to the ruined underground laboratories and shattered field hospitals of her past. She remembered desperate, starving survivors carrying small crystalline stones in dirty pouches, begging for a chance to break through their limits.

She remembered military officers voluntarily entering experimental chamber arrays, praying for power to protect their remaining strongholds. People drank crude, refined Core fluids because they foolishly believed a single breakthrough could save their dying families.

A fortunate few survived the process, advancing their strength to defend what remained of humanity. Far more perished, their bodies mutating into hollow husks that had to be put down.

"Core absorption is not a simple shortcut to godhood," Raviah said softly. "It is a brutal compatibility test where failure means execution."

Rhyder studied her face intently, picking up on the faint shadow in her eyes. "You sound as though you have witnessed this exact catastrophe before."

Raviah’s fingers tightened around the casing of her medical scanner, her knuckles turning white. "I have witnessed the bloody consequences of human desperation."

It was the most honest answer she could give him without revealing the secret of her rebirth.

Rhyder remained quiet, his sharp mind analyzing her every movement.

Then, his gaze shifted back toward Daniel, who was being helped onto a transport vehicle. "If this extraction process can actually strengthen an Elemental’s Root..."

"It could accelerate their rank progression by months or even years," Raviah finished his thought smoothly.

"And if an Elemental absorbs a perfectly matched, high-grade Core?" Rhyder asked.

"It could instantly trigger a breakthrough, pushing an E-Rank or D-Rank Elemental into a higher tier of power," she confirmed.

Rhyder turned back to face the lead containment unit.

The strategic implications were staggering.

If Beast Cores were already manifesting in mutated wildlife before the apocalypse officially began, then the future world would not merely consist of defenseless humans fleeing monsters.

It would spawn a ruthless class of human warriors who grew stronger by hunting and harvesting the very beasts trying to consume them.

Yet Raviah’s thoughts had already moved beyond the farm hand sitting in the transport. She stared at the crimson glow visible through the lead box’s thick viewport.

If Core absorption depended entirely on the host’s unique elemental alignment, a far more critical question remained unanswered.

Rhyder appeared to reach the exact same logical conclusion at the very same second. He slowly turned his head back toward her, his dark eyes narrowing into sharp slits.

"Doctor Solomon," he spoke, his deep voice cutting through the quiet field.

Raviah looked up, meeting his intense gaze without breaking eye contact.

"Could your body absorb a Core?" he asked directly.