Chapter 98: Arranging the Chaos Chapter 98: Arranging the Chaos The moment his avatar materialised inside his spiritual space—bearing the exact same plain appearance he had back on Earth, adidas shoes, hoodie and plain trousers—he was welcomed by another round of chaos. The more he looked, the deeper his grimace carved itself across his face. But unlike Earth, where he had to physically move every damn thing by hand, here all he needed was a thought. A single intention, and objects shifted, slid, or floated into place without even nibbling at his mental energy, moving things that already existed were life shuffling in inventory, and since nothing was created, there was so cost. So he got to work immediately. First came the corpses. There were a couple of dozen Peak 2-star beasts, a handful of pseudo 3-stars... but not a single Low 3-star beast beyond the ones he already knew. Looked like the instructors weren’t lying—Low 3-stars really were the bosses of their zones. Even when beasts converged around treasure points, he never spotted more than three Low 3-stars in that entire mess. One was the Male Alpha wolf. Another was the Elk. And the last was the guardian beast. The system claimed it was a mid-3-star, but that was only because of its intelligence. With how frail its body constitution had been, Leo guessed that was why the instructors completely overlooked it—its aura density didn’t surpass Peak 2-stars in any meaningful way. There had even been the female Elk. But her presence was so weak that she too could have slipped past their detection. A stray thought tugged at him— What if the injury she had when I found her came from the instructors? If they wanted a clear "boss," two Low 3-stars in one region would’ve been a problem. Maybe they’d chosen to eliminate her themselves. Or... maybe another Low 3-star beast existed nearby but simply never appeared at the treasure site. With a single thought, Leo cleared a broad patch of forest floor and began arranging the bodies according to the energy signatures they still leaked. Since the system didn’t bother telling the rank of dead beasts, he had to rely on their remaining aura and physical size. He directed Shyra and Niri through a mental nudge to extract all the cores, mana crystals, and soul crystals while he examined the rest of the loot. Next were the Earthpulse Heartstones. He inspected each one carefully and sorted them into neat lines. Cool, dense earth-element energy pulsed faintly from them like a sluggish heartbeat. Mid Blue-Tier Treasure Charged – 74% Charged – 41% Charged – 56% Charged – 12% Charged – 89% Charged – 92% Charged – 31% Charged – 22% ... .. . These were all the Heartstones Shyra and Niri had gathered while he rushed inside the canopy structure and they stayed outside to distract the beasts. Then Leo’s attention snapped to the ten Low purple-tier Heartstones. Four of them had ridiculously low charge. Charged – 5% Charged – 10% Charged – 18% Charged – 15% He couldn’t help but think if there was any way to charge them, because absorbing such low-charged cores was wasteful. Then the image of the treasure plant came into his mind. With a swipe of his hand, he summoned it before him. As it appeared, Leo found himself momentarily stunned all over again. The system had handled it beautifully. Not even a speck of damage. The three-meter-tall, roughly four-meter-wide glowing tree-shrub stood vibrant and full of life. Its stem and lower trunk were pulpy and swollen with dense vitality, almost breathing with stored energy. Tulip-like flowers circled it in clustered rings, each bloom shining a touch brighter than the tree’s own pale luminescence. And the roots, those were the most striking part. Bushy, tangled, and impossibly intact, much like the untrimmed pubi—Not a single root hair broken. With how far they stretched—nearly five to six meters in length—the thing must have had monstrous energy requirements. Leo reached out instinctively, letting his fingers hover over the glowing petals, feeling the faint hum of life and stored elemental power radiating from deep within its core. As he circled the glowing plant, something unusual caught his eye—a set of hollow, socket-like structures near its swollen base. Not many... only six. They looked like flower buds at first glance, but on closer inspection, they lacked reproductive organs entirely. It was like the plant had grown placeholder blossoms—slots meant for something else. An idea sparked instantly. He immediately planted it on top of a waterfall, on a small island between the stream, just before the river’s water fell down a long cliff. He formed all this with a wisp of his thought; he guessed, his soul power had increased to be able to make more changes in the island Leo grabbed the 5%-charged purple Heartstone and pressed it toward one of the empty sockets. The moment the core touched the opening, it slid in smoothly—too smoothly—as if the plant had been grown specifically to house them. At the exact same moment, a notification chimed. Low Purple-tier Heartstone charging – 5%[Estimated time: 4 days] Leo’s eyes lit up. He didn’t waste even a second. One after another, he slotted the remaining low-charged cores. Low Purple-tier Heartstone charging – 10%[Estimated time: 3 days 15 hours] Low Purple-tier Heartstone charging – 15%[Estimated time: 3 days 10 hours] Low Purple-tier Heartstone charging – 18%[Estimated time: 3 days 8 hours] Watching the pattern, he quickly pieced it together—about one hour for every one percent of charge. He reached for the other cores, intending to put as many as the sockets allowed, but paused halfway. Stats first. If he didn’t balance them now, the gap would cause issues later. Just to confirm, he checked the Heartstone production timers. Mid Blue-tier – 5 days → 1 High Blue-tier – 10 days → 1 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 Peak Blue-tier – 20 days → 1 Low Purple-tier – 40 days → 1 He also realised each tier had two tulip-like blooms assigned to it. Meaning the plant produced two Heartstones at a time for every tier—an organised, controlled cycle. Judging by how long the timers were, the Behemoth had probably been preparing for months, maybe years. Too bad for it... it met him. After a moment of thought, he decided—he’d consume Heartstones until all his stats balanced out. He began immediately. One by one, he crushed the stones in his hand. Each Heartstone burst into motes of whitish light, dissolving into streams of energy that seeped through his skin. His muscles tightened, and bones hummed faintly.