True Courage

Pain essence, the distillation of pure suffering that could only be formed in the rarest of circumstances. This was an amazing item for many mages, especially illusionists and cursemasters. Many would be willing to trade their life’s earnings for just a single fragment of it. Even Demi’s abilities would grow by half a fold if she had this item on hand.

The fact that an entire three pieces of pain essence had been formed showed just how long this root of corruption had been refining the astral beast’s skeletal energy. The oldest piece was twice the size of the smallest, and in total the three were worth a little over four beyslace spider crystals. Even ignoring the priceless nature of the astral beast skeleton, this journey had not been in vain.

Richard placed the three...