E book 8: Chapter 24: Core Consolidation

Victor sat earlier than Dar, ready for his subsequent phrases. His grasp’s face was relaxed, the hearth in his eyes simmering low, however he knew, like coals, they had been able to ignite with the faintest breath of oxygen. So, he waited patiently, not keen to offer that gasoline. The Spirit Grasp had simply spent practically two hours describing the strategy of gathering Power from his numerous sources—find out how to weave the totally different facets collectively and pull them into his Core. Victor had been about to make his first strive at it, when Dar had mentioned, “I need to examine your Core.” After which he’d, apparently, begun to take action, gazing Victor, unblinking for practically one other hour.

Lastly, simply as Victor was beginning to concern Dar had fallen asleep together with his eyes open, the person’s stony countenance shifted, his eyes transferring to lock onto Victor’s. The grasp took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “The cultivation technique I simply described isn’t going to work. Not but. All the level of cultivating for you, relatively than rising your Core, is to study to harmonize your affinities and embrace each facet of your spirit while tempering the extra damaging facets by the lens of the extra constructive. Your Core, nonetheless, is in disarray. I see what you’ve achieved. I imagine I even perceive why you probably did it. It’s merely not splendid. No,” he chuckled, “not even an approximation of splendid.”

“What I’ve achieved?”

“Within the improvement of your Core. It makes a form of sense; I can see the way you’ve tried to create counterbalances between your numerous affinities—inspiration in opposition to rage, glory in opposition to concern, a form of gentle versus darkish aspect in your spirit, pushing and pulling in opposition to one another. The issue is that your affinities aren’t equal, and even when they had been—a close to impossibility—they take care of one another relatively than constructing upon one another.”

“Nicely, it’s not like I had a trainer. Not likely.” Victor’s thoughts flitted to Gorz after which Previous Mom—each had offered steerage, however neither had ever talked to him in regards to the precise construction of his Core. Not even Khul Bach had broached the subject.

“I do know. I can see the logic in your efforts. Power tends to compress right into a sphere; it’s the best option to construct up the density after which break it by into the subsequent stage. As you gained extra affinities, you naturally assumed it is best to have extra spheres of Power. It’s not a horrible factor, however there’s a significantly better, extra elegant design that I wish to educate you. It’s higher as a result of it would shore up the much less risky facets of your spirit, utilizing your stronger affinities to compress them.

“You see, Victor, contemplating this formation, I’m considerably astounded by the energy of your spirit and Core. You’ve basically cut up your Core into 4 smaller ones. Moderately than compounding them, utilizing the load of every affinity to compress those beneath it, your cultivation has revolved round constructing each individually, pushing them to a breaking level earlier than advancing the extent of your Core. I’m undecided you’d ever break by into epic tier with this construction.

“The design I’ll educate you’ll mix the load—the gravity—of every affinity, making a single Core that might be far denser and stronger than these 4 particular person ones. Furthermore, it would take your most respected facet and put it nearer to your spirit whereas holding the others, those that are inclined to overwhelm your spirit, at a little bit of a distance.”

“My most respected facet?” Victor guessed Dar would verify his suspicion that his rage was essentially the most useful a part of his Core, however he was stunned by the grasp’s response.

“Your inspiration, lad. It’s fairly a uncommon affinity and one which any Spirit Caster could be smart to domesticate if they might. In reality, I think that affinity is liable for a lot of your uncanny success and energy. You could really feel you’re ‘fortunate’ for studying a uncommon, treasured skill like Sovereign Will or that your laborious work is what led you to the Paragon of the Axe, and to a point, you’d be proper, however I imagine your simply impressed nature has been a big affect in your progress. Thank the outdated gods that you just’ve had some constructive influences in your current improvement.”

When Dar mentioned the final bit, Victor noticed a parade of faces run by his thoughts’s eye: Yrella and Vullu from the Wagon Wheel, Lam within the mines, Previous Mom, Thayla, Tellen, Tes, and even his enemies, just like the Warlord and his subordinates. He did take inspiration from many sources—there was no denying it. “So, despite the fact that it’s not my strongest affinity?”

Dar chuckled, clicking his tongue and shaking his head in admiration. “Aye, you lean towards the others extra, however your affinity to inspiration is in no way weak. Your entire affinities are absurdly sturdy.”

Victor nodded. He didn’t wish to argue. His rage had, surely, stored him alive in lots of determined conditions, however he favored his inspiration extra. If Dar thought he ought to carry that nearer to his spirit, no matter that meant, then he wouldn’t argue. “What do I do?”

“This won’t be simple, particularly along with your Core sitting on the cusp of epic. If I recall accurately, you advised me it’s ranked advanced-nine, sure?”

Victor nodded however appeared on the Power and Core part of his standing once more to make sure:

Breath Core:

Elder Class – Improved 3

Core:

Spirit Class – Superior 9

Breath Core Affinity:

Magma – 9

Breath Core Power:

2200/2200

Power Affinity:

Frowning, gritting his tooth in angst, he turned his gaze inward and tried to regulate his racing ideas. He took a number of deep, calming breaths, after which, staring on the 4 orbs of his Core, he gathered his will, considering the strategy of his assault. He determined to attempt to transfer his inspiration-attuned Power first, pushing it nearer to the opposite three orbs. Numerous instances, Victor had pulled Power out of the orbs in his Core. Equally, he’d gathered and pushed Power into them extra instances than he might rely, however he’d by no means tried to maneuver a kind of densely packed globes of thick, pulsing Power.

When he started to exert the strain of his will in opposition to the sphere of inspiration-attuned Power, he felt it begin to deform, bulging with the strain, however then it stopped, and nothing extra occurred. Victor doubled down, pushing more durable. He scowled in focus and energy and bore down. Slowly at first, then with increasingly momentum, he pushed it the place he needed it, close to the middle of his Core house, and undoubtedly out of the unique, nearly round sample his 4 orbs had as soon as maintained.

Nodding with satisfaction, Victor repeated the method, transferring his glory-attuned orb atop the inspiration. It shifted extra simply, maybe as a result of he’d began with a vicious jab of his will relatively than a gradual ramp-up. Wanting to take care of his momentum, Victor buckled down and drove his will in opposition to his rage orb, growling with the hassle as beads of sweat emerged throughout his scalp, working in rivulets down his brow. Like a boulder breaking freed from the stony soil, the pink, glowering orb started to maneuver, and Victor pushed with all the things he had, driving it up and over to the highest of the stack.

His preliminary placement of the inspiration orb was paying off; he’d organized his three orbs so the empty spot close to the highest was near his orb of fear-attuned Power—he’d guessed it might be the toughest to maneuver. His concern—Victor snorted on the thought—proved well-founded. The darkish, purple-black orb, pulsing with gradual, dread-filled beats, resisted his will for a number of lengthy, strenuous minutes. Victor felt his ire rising however pushed it again, clearing his thoughts; rage would possibly make him really feel higher, however it wouldn’t assist his focus, and it might nearly actually undermine his will.

He took a large breath, filling his lungs to bursting, then bore down, concentrating on what he meant, bending that orb, that a part of himself, to his resolute want for it to maneuver. If the fad orb had been a boulder, Victor’s concern moved like a glacier—a mountain—slowly, painfully, with large gravity, sliding into place. “Chingado,” he hissed, brushing the rivulets of sweat off his face, shaking his head, and sending a high-quality mist of perspiration across the chamber. “That was the simple half?”

Victor stretched and breathed, attempting to recharge his reserves as he realized he’d solely simply begun the duty Dar had set earlier than him. When he settled down and turned his gaze inward once more, he was dismayed to see that his inspiration and glory-attuned orbs had begun to slip out of formation, pulled up across the rage by the fear-attuned orb. Victor cursed and compelled them again into place, holding them nonetheless together with his will. It was clear that, outdoors of the semi-circular, lopsided “stability” he’d managed to push his Core into, the concern was attempting to take the central place. It was attempting to tug the opposite orbs right into a form of orbit.

As soon as once more, Victor took a deep breath, and, pushing all ideas from his thoughts, he willed his glory-attuned Power to start stretching out. He pulled the most important tendril of Power out of it that he might management, stretching it across the inspiration-attuned orb. The tendril stored attempting to fly free, to float by his Core house, again towards the orb of glory-attuned Power. Victor held it agency, wrapping it down and across the inspiration orb after which up and again into itself.

As soon as he’d created that loop, issues turned somewhat simpler—despite the fact that the Power flowed again into the glory orb, his will held it agency across the inspiration orb, so it flowed like a river with a fats bulge on the prime. From there, Victor used his will to govern strand after strand, flattening the orb as he constructed up one loop after one other. When he might not see any proof of the glory orb, and he simply had a dozen thick strands of glory looping the inspiration orb, he pressed them collectively, squeezing, keen all of them to mix.

When the strands of glory-attuned Power mixed into one thick rope, it snapped into place—a shiny, golden, glittering ring round his white-gold, misty orb of inspiration. “Fuck sure!” he howled, pumping his fist. Victor felt like he’d simply defeated a state champion and confirmed his professional declare to the title. He allowed himself a couple of minutes to loosen up and examine his Core, basking within the pleasure of accomplishment.

What Dar hadn’t advised him was that it wasn’t a two-dimensional ring. In that house, issues had depth, and Victor felt extra like he was a multi-layered solar, one way or the other in a position to understand it in a cross-section. He noticed how the glory-attuned Power hugged the inspiration-attuned Power, how they interacted with one another, the wisps interlocking, clasping, pulling on one another. What he noticed was no stack; it was a bond, and Victor couldn’t think about the power of will it might take to undo what he’d achieved. The orbs of concern and rage, whereas heavy and dense, appeared far much less vibrant, much less very important. Had he actually had such an inferior Core all this time?

With renewed pleasure, Victor picked up the fruit. He chuckled at his reluctance to name it a berry simply because it was the dimensions of an apple. In his large hand, it appeared sufficient like a berry. Perhaps the world the place it grew was populated by giants. “Or titans,” he chuckled, plucking the stem and plopping the entire thing into his mouth. It was essentially the most scrumptious factor he might bear in mind tasting. It tickled his tastebuds—tangy and candy, however greater than that, it burst with uncountable flavors, one rolling into the subsequent because the juice washed over the flesh of his mouth, down his throat, and into his abdomen.

Victor’s eyes had been closed, however every new taste, from vanilla to honey to cloves to citrus to a thousand others, appeared to ship bursts of colourful gentle into his thoughts. He felt impressed however a thousand-fold greater than he ever had together with his inspiration spells. The whole lot felt potential. No, Victor determined, not potential—trivial.

He laughed as he thought-about his earlier struggles, and he turned to his rage-attuned orb of Power and pulled a skinny strand from it, looping his new inspiration and glory Core. It was simple, in fact, to govern a single thread like that, and he stored pulling, looping it many times across the Core. The thread needed to return into his rage orb, however it was nothing to maintain it away. It was really easy that he began transferring it quicker, looping across the fringe of the glory-attuned Power.

It wasn’t laborious to maintain the thread, now in 100 loops, bunched up. All it took was a slight strain from his will whereas he continued to tug. 100 loops turned 2 hundred turned 5 hundred, after which, to his delight, he not discovered any rage-attuned Power to tug. Victor had stretched his total provide of rage into an extended, looping thread round his Core. With a forceful exertion of his will, he pressed the loops collectively, and with a jolt like a thunderbolt to his coronary heart, the fad snapped into place.

He now had a darkish pink, vibrant band of scorching, indignant Power that slowly bled into the band of glory-attuned Power, turning from scorching pink to orange to yellow to white-gold because it seeped towards the middle of his Core. Victor needed to have a good time, needed to check the great thing about his new Core—the sturdy, dense, highly effective nature of it—however he was nonetheless driving excessive on the fruit he’d eaten and didn’t wish to lose his momentum.

Simply as he’d achieved with the fad, he started to stretch his fear-attuned Power round his new Core. He thought it might be more difficult, that there could be some hidden issue, however regardless of the density of that fear-attuned orb, his different three affinities, working collectively, had much more gravity. It was nearly easy at this level to tug his concern out in a ribbon, wrapping it many times, quicker and quicker, round his Core. When he’d stretched it to the restrict, completely diminishing the orb, he squeezed and, with a burst of blinding, soul-wrenching Power, it snapped into place. Victor’s new, absolutely realized Core started to pulse like a neutron star, and System messages danced throughout his imaginative and prescient.

***Congratulations! You’ve superior your Core: Epic 1.***

***Congratulations! You’ve constructed a unified, multi-layered Core. Your whole Power displays the potential of any of your affinities.***

“Hah!” Victor slapped his arms collectively in celebration, the crack of his thick palms echoing within the chamber. If he understood what he was studying, he was fairly positive he might now use his total pool of Power to gasoline a selected affinity. As an example, if he needed to, he might burn all his Power for Berserk. It might make managing his Power throughout fight 100 instances simpler.

A deep, tough voice rumbled behind him, “I felt that 5 miles away. I’m happy, apprentice. In the event that they thought you a monster earlier than, wait till they really feel the strain of an epic-tier Core behind your aura.”

Victor grinned fiercely, his white tooth shining within the dim chamber as he turned to treat Dar. “They?”

“Your silly enemies. Come. You’ve been at this for hours and should have a good time; we’ll be part of your pals for dinner.”