The past few weeks, including the payments made by the customers—especially those who bought a lot of essence food—Finn had managed to hoard whopping thousands of awakened cores, not including the ones he had already consumed in between.

He had left them all in his room, filling up a corner bit by bit. He even let his sister chill amongst the small mountain. He thought maybe wealth could wake her up, but so far, there was still no such luck.

Anyway, he settled her cushion slightly further away from him. He was planning on upgrading with these cores, and he was afraid he'd accidentally hit her or something.

He placed a nice cushion made of yeti softness amidst the pond of cores. He grabbed a fistful and closed his eyes, conditioning his mind.

At first, Pang was worried about him taking so much. However, after they pushed the limits, they had pretty much mastered how much he could absorb at a time.

Finn also learned a lot about cores from his staff over the past couple of weeks.

The most important thing was that the basis of the usual absorption method and standards was only because their potential was also standard.

For the few people with A-Class potential, like branch head Thusallem, they could actually absorb quite a bit more. The gap between B-class and A-class was practically a gorge, and it was safe to assume that the gap between A-Class and S-class was an even deeper one.

If he were to use metaphors, common awakened and above only had one or two pathways for the essence. They had to control the energy coming from the cores to these pathways, which often took time. If they failed, they either could not pull out the energy or waste it and let it disperse in the surrounding area.

Speaking of which, when there were unclaimed cores of beasts or humans, they would also disintegrate into the atmosphere as the corpse degraded.

There had always been a symbiotic relationship between the body and the concentrated essence.

Similar to how a person needed to continuously consume essence to maintain what they had, a core would not be able to maintain its form for a long time without the organs of a living thing condensing it.

Of course, this degradation happened in the span of weeks to months (or years, for fortified level cores and above). Otherwise, people would have no choice but to use the cores they obtained immediately afterwards, rather than collecting them and selling them to towns.

This meant that as long as the body was still there, even if just bones, there could be a core to be harvested, but depending on the duration and the rank of the core, its value might be less.

It was not always the case though, because slightly 'expired' cores, even if there was less essence, were not entirely bad to purchase. This was because the core's "barrier" was gone, and it was easier to absorb the energy.

Of course, once this layer broke, it was difficult to retain energy, so it was generally not worth it if one was not able to time it well.

According to Micc and the rest of them, every core absorption took a while to start because of this barrier.

Normally, an awakened person would take several hours or so to absorb one core. A third of that was stuck in breaking this layer.

Not that Finn understood the struggle, of course.

What was interesting was that because it was so difficult for most, there were teachers who specialized in teaching techniques on how to break this layer faster or more efficiently. There were also tools as well as potions to do the same.

Some also made it their whole business to 'calculate' the exact time when the outer layer broke. After all, once it did, the dissipation of energy was exponential, which was why most people wouldn't risk just 'waiting it out' before absorbing it.

Anyway, there was a whole industry related to this, but since Finn didn't have a problem absorbing things, it wasn't his concern.

Finn did not struggle like this at all. He could grab several and absorb a few at a time, break barriers like breaking cheese, and absorb them into the many paths he had in his body.

He couldn't relate to normal people's struggles (ahem), but the best thing about it was that he could help.

According to Micc and Durgan, it was, in fact, easier to absorb cores within the Inn grounds. He reckoned it had to do with the [Increased Absorption] Inn function, and he wondered if there were ways to upgrade it.

Anyway, he continued to focus on the task at hand, spending hours and hours to absorb as much as he could.

He learned that he should not limit himself to numbers, and the quota was just there as a minimum. His body would be able to feel if he had absorbed enough for that day—mostly in terms of drained stats—but otherwise, he could handle as much as he could.

He also made sure to eat essence food in between, ensuring that he was maximizing the room's regenerative effects as well.

After what felt like several hours, it happened.

The pain from his awakening and the tier ups combined could not compare to this.

"AHHH!"

Whenever he placed meat in a grinder to mince the meat, he sometimes imagined how painful it would be to misplace a finger there.

What he was feeling now was probably what he'd feel if his whole body was thrown in, but it would also regenerate fast enough so it wouldn't kill him, nor would it allow him to lose consciousness.

It was torture.

"GAHHHH!!"

He rolled across the carpet, feeling the few remaining cores against his back. Internally, it was much more chaotic. He was ground, minced, crushed, mashed, and pulverized. That was how his internal organs were feeling now.

It felt like an eternity before the intensity calmed down, and by the end of it, he was so drenched in sweat that it looked like he jumped into a river.

The only thing that kept him awake in his half-dazed state was the glorious notification that came after that.

[Congratulations! You have now upgraded to the Toughened (Tier 1) Rank!]

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