31 Monster core

Julie drew her sword and charged with murders intent, she was really pissed off

'How dare they try to steal something Mike nearly died for!?'

In her rage she quickly caught up with the first corpse thief and slashed her legs cutting them cleanly off at the knees, as the thief screamed out in pain and terror Julie quickly continued to her next target, she made an overhead slash and cut right through the collarbone of another thief before she cleaved his upper body in half, Julie then kicked off the ground and stabbed another thief through the neck from behind before she twisted her blade, as he slowly choked on his own blood she was already on her way to claim another life

'Looks like they pissed her off…'

Mike was one and a half times faster than Julie and had an even easier time to catch up with the thieves, he cut their leg tendons making them unable to run, meanwhile Serina was like… Well, a giant wolf in a flock of regular sized sheep, she swiped her claws ripping the thieves to shreds and even bit some of them in half, all in all, it was a short but bloody slaughter before all the thieves were either disabled by Mike or killed by Julie or Serina, Mike watched over them before he called out to the survivors

"Now if you want to live then clean this mess up! Get all the bodies in one pile, move it!"

The survivors did as they were commanded and quickly gathered the mangled remains in a pile before they looked at Mike with hopeful expressions, Mike gave a smile that chilled them as he spoke out

"[Drink]"

The survivors let out screams as they turned into dried husks, Mike gave a smile and walked over as he tore some igniter paper and threw it on the pile of corpses, Julie walked over dragging the thief she had cut the legs off after her by the hair before she kneeled down slightly and grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the fire, as a ghastly scream sounded out from the legless woman being burned alive Mike and Julie shared a look, both of them were smiling, Mike reached out and cupped her face with one hand before he gave her a quick kiss, Julie blushed and looked down at her feet while she played with her hair, meanwhile the scream finally died out along with the unlucky woman…

Half a day passed before the workers from the guild arrived at the scene at where the dead two headed Orger lay, but instead of getting to work immediately they looked over the Orger before a representative walked over to Julie and Mike and looked at them both before he turned to Julie and spoke

"35%"

Julie gave a smile, however her eyes were not smiling, the man quickly spoke again

"30%"

Julie gave a scoff which made the man sweat slightly before he spoke again

"27% is the lowest I can go"

Julie's smile widened

"25% and if there's a monster core it goes to us, or we make a story about how you never made it while you guys end up like the smoking pile of bodies over there"

The man gave a nod before he confirmed

"25% and the core goes to you, is that right?"

"Yep"

"....Fine, we have a deal"

Then they shook hands and the workers got to work disassembling the giant two headed Orger, meanwhile Mike and Julie sat down in the shade of a tree and watched the progress with sharp eyes, then Mike asked

"What were the percentages about?"

"It's how much of the useful monster parts they keep, while we keep the rest"

"I see…"

Mike gave a nod before he asked again

"What's a monster core?"

"It's the essence of a monster, if you crush one you gain experience and have a small change of obtaining a skill from the monster it was from"

"So it's the most valuable part of a monster?"

"Yeah, by far"

"I see, well then let's hope that there's a monster core in that thing"

Julie gave a nod before she leaned her head on Mike's shoulder for a few moments until a cry sounded out from the sky and Julie's griffon landed on the road before it walked over and rubbed its beak on Julie's shoulder, Julie gave a smile and stood up before she began petting it on the beak and the head while praising it

"Yes, you're such a good girl Molly~"

Molly the griffon let out some happy sounding chips as Julie petted it before it eventually laid down and rolled over as Julie began patting it on the stomach while still praising it, Mike watched over them with a smile on his face until he was nudged from the side by Serina's nose, Mike looked over and saw her sitting beside him while wagging her tail slowly from side to side as she gave her best puppy dog eyes she could while her tongue hang out of her mouth, Mike gave a sigh and also began patting Serina, after a few moments she also lay on her back as Mike rubbed her on the stomach.

The workers saw this and suddenly were much more honest about their work, after all just the two mounts were able to easily tear them all to pieces much less the two level 3's that rode on them, so when the magic core was found in the heart of the corpse of the giant two headed Orger it was brought out immediately and presented to the two lovebirds that were busy flirting once again, Mike looked at the core that looked like a glass bead the size of a babies fist and gave a nod

"So this is a monster core…"

Mike took the core and rolled it around his hand for a bit before he gave it to Julie

"Here, use it"

"M-Me? But Mike---"

"No buts, just use it"

Julie blushed a bit as she looked at Mike but still Mike could feel that Julie was not convinced so he gave a sigh and asked

"Is that a thing you can buy with money?"

"No…"

"Then it should be used or kept by us and since we are not powerful enough to keep it then use it now, before it falls into someone else's hands or brings us trouble"

"I see… Okay Mike then I'll use it now…"

Mike didn't know the implications of a monster core but Julie being a resident of this world knew full well how valuable it was, especially in a such a low mana density island as this, thus she felt real sweet inside as she crushed the monster core in her hand and felt a pleasant feeling wash over her as she absorbed the essence of the monster core for a few moments before she opened her eyes again and looked at Mike with a sweet smile on her face before she took his hand and spoke in a quiet voice

"Thank you Mike"

Mike showed a smile too and squeezed her hand back

"Don't worry about it"

"Okay… If you say so Mike"

Then Julie and Mike used the best part of a week sitting around, sometimes they dealt with lesser monsters that were attracted by the smell of the corpse and other (most) of the time they spent alone talking and flirting before eventually the last part of the two headed Orger was packed up and on a carriage on its way towards Morkove where it would be processed and then sold to the highest bidder, then Mike and Julie would receive 75% of the sales value while the guild would keep the rest

"Mike are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine, just a little low on blood…"

While Mike had killed some lesser monsters it was not nearly enough to keep up with the knife's blood lust, or rather need, so now he felt a little fatigued while the smell of Julie riding next to him was extra enticing which resulted in a certain part of his body taking over most of his sense of judgment, or at least that was what he was trying to avoid while he sneaked glances at Julie's body, suddenly Mike's ear twitched before he looked off into the forest and took a deep breath through his nose, Serina did the same before she began growling while showing her teeth

'Finally some bandits!'

Mike looked at Julie that gave a nod and spoke

"I'll wait here but be sure to be quick"

"Sure, I'll be right back!"

Mike patted Serina on the head before he spoke

"Go girl!"

Serina gave a bark and kicked off the ground as she sat into a full sprint into the forest after the smell of dried blood, rust and greed, or in other words bandits