The metallic ferns of the Low Ashen Steppes cast long, tripartite shadows across the basalt ground as the vanguard stood over the slain Iron-Root Razorbacks. The heavy, sulfurous air slowly began to clear, replaced by the pungent, metallic scent of the beasts' dissipating life essence.
Following Markus's precise anatomical directives, the girls did not wait for the corpses to dissolve into the standard digital particles of the modern gate system. Here, the harvest was entirely physical. With methodical, steady cuts, Rosanne and Jessica used their daggers to extract the hunting trophies from the beasts' skulls.
Resting in their palms were four raw, thumbnail-sized crystals that glowed with a jagged, unrefined crimson light—Tier 1 Primordial Beast Cores.
"Sit in a tight formation," Markus commanded, his voice a cool, stabilizing anchor in the wild terrain. "Do not attempt to channel the energy through your standard system skills. The system is an external scaffold; what you are about to do requires you to rewrite your internal foundation."
The four girls crossed their legs on the warm stone, each cupping a crimson core between their hands. Following the breath-control exercises they had practiced during the alchemical audits, they initiated the absorption sequence.
The moment their mana pathways tapped into the cores, the reaction was immediate and violent. Unlike the diluted, filtered energy of the modern world, this uncompressed primordial mana surged into their vectors like liquid iron being poured into thin copper pipes.
[INTERNAL SYSTEM ANALYSIS: MONITORING ACTIVE]
[Status: Pathological Transition In Progress]
[Warning: External Mana Density Exceeds Modern Human Baseline]
[Initiating Cellular Compression Override...]
The sensation was agonizing but profoundly empowering. As the raw energy circulated, it actively stripped away the invisible, artificial limits the global ledger had placed on their biology.
Their mana channels were violently stretched, their walls cracking before being instantly rebuilt and reinforced by the core's dense mineral silica.
Within their chests, their modern mana cores spun erratically, greedy for the uncompressed fuel, slowly changing their internal frequency from a pale, systemic blue to a deep, resonant primordial crimson.
After an hour of intense, silent focus, the crimson glow radiating from their bodies finally receded, sinking deep into their skin. The beast cores in their hands crumbled into inert, gray dust.
When Rosanne snapped her eyes open, her pupils briefly vertical, she stood up in a single, fluid motion. She didn't just feel restored; she felt fundamentally heavier, yet lighter at the same time. She slammed her fist into a nearby metallic fern trunk—without using a single ounce of active mana, the sheer physical force of her knuckles left a deep, compressed dent in the ironwood.
"My bones..." Rosanne murmured, staring at her unblemished hand. "The density has completely changed. The atmospheric drag doesn't feel like a weight anymore. It feels like... I belong to it."
"Your cellular matrix is compacting," Markus explained, walking over to inspect her vitals. "A standard human's physique is designed to exist beneath a compressed ceiling. By absorbing unrefined primordial essence, your pathways are adapting to the baseline gravity of the universe. You have officially begun the transition to reconstruct your biology into that of a Primordial Human."
Mika stood up next, stretching her arms as small, natural wisps of dense flame spontaneously licked her shoulders, entirely unprovoked by spells. "There are no system notifications," she remarked, a breathy laugh escaping her lips. "No level-up pings, no stat increases. But I feel three times stronger than I did an hour ago. The power isn't a number anymore. It's just... me."
"The system gave you a crutch; the primordial universe demands a spine," Markus stated flatly, his silver-blue eyes reflecting the shifting celestial orbit above. "You are no longer climbing an artificial tier ladder. You are expanding your physical capacity to hold the raw weight of creation."
With the team's internal calibration complete, Markus stepped toward the cluster of fallen Iron-Root Razorbacks. He did not approach the carcasses with the messy pragmatism of a common hunter; to Markus, a dead organism was simply an assembled structure that needed to be systematically uninstalled into its premium component materials.
Drawing a sleek, heavy-bladed dissecting cleaver from his dimensional coat, Markus knelt beside the largest boar. His silver-blue eyes scanned the iron-plated hide, letting Fate's Eyes and Nyx trace the exact physical seams where the unrefined tectonic mana bound the flesh to the bone.
[SYSTEM CORE: NYX HARVEST ROUTINE]
[Target: Iron-Root Razorback Carcass x4]
[Deconstruction Protocol: Optimal Material Isolation]
[Analyzing Shear Vectors... 100%]
"Watch the blade placement," Markus instructed, his voice a flat, educational frequency that drew the girls' immediate attention. "In this universe, you do not force your way through a carcass. If you strike against the grain of the primordial silica, your weapon will chip. You must find the architectural faults where the elemental matrix uncouples."
With a series of fluid, mechanically precise strokes, Markus began the deconstruction:
The Iron-Silica Hide: Instead of skinning the beast blindly, Markus drove his blade into the hidden vent lines beneath the jaw. With a clean, longitudinal pull, the thick, overlapping plates of oxidized iron-stone peeled away from the underlying muscle sheets with a heavy, metallic groan. The hide remained entirely intact—a flawless, armor-grade textile highly coveted by the town's local blacksmiths for reinforcing defensive bucklers.
The Dense Tectonic Marrow: Markus executed a swift spatial fracture directly across the beast's femoral ridge, cracking the dense, mineralized bones without shattering them. He extracted the thick, glowing marrow paste, rich in localized earth essence, storing it in vacuum-sealed vials to serve as a high-density base for future alchemical stabilizing agents.
The Iron-Rich Prime Cuts: The muscle fibers of the razorbacks were a deep, dark crimson, heavily marbled with uncompressed primordial fats. Markus systematically carved out the loin blocks and the heavy bone-in shoulders. This was precisely the kind of heavy, nutrient-dense game meat that fueled the grueling labor of the primeval settlement—assets that would fetch a premium price at The Obsidian Hearth or the local merchant squares.
[INVENTORY LOG: RECLAMATION COMPLETE]
[+4] Flawless Iron-Silica Pelts (Grade-I Structural Material)
[+120kg] Primordial Razorback Game Meat (High-Density Nutrient)
[+8] Kinetic-Absorbing Tendon Strands (Runic Thread Base)
Within a matter of minutes, the chaotic pile of carcasses had been reduced to perfectly uniform, neatly labeled material bundles floating inside Markus's isolated sub-spatial storage. Not a single drop of valuable asset was wasted.