Buttopia
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Chapter 21: Core Created
🕑 Added 2024-11-22 14:03:38 +0000 UTC“Oh god, why does everything hurt?!” I screamed. Wait, had I managed to form actual words? My brain was finally clearing, and while the pain was still there, it was no longer coming in new horrible waves. I thought that the pain might actually be decreasing slowly, but it already felt a little less intense than when I had screamed out.
“Dave, you’re doing great. I think we’re through the worst part. Just hold on in there.” Was that Elody’s voice? I tried to respond, but it seemed my scream of pain was all the words I could form at the moment. I was still thinking, though, and while my vision was blurry, there were shapes in front of it. I thought I could make out everyone, all still alive. Had we done it then?
I felt the new presence in my chest, where I had pushed the energy from my soul. We had done it, there was a new growing core there. It was hard to explain how I knew it, but I felt more connected to myself from it. The vague concept of a soul that had been growing within me since I’d started gaining experience had turned into a burning inner world that pulsated with life as it exchanged energy with my core. The flow went in both directions. My core transformed my native soul energy into the mana I would need to power my magic and other abilities. While most of it was sent out testing my newly developed mana channels, some of it was sent back to my soul, further reinforcing it.
This must have been how people were able to break through the level twenty barrier. It wasn’t just the new soul-mana reactor they created but the slow reinforcement of the existing soul itself. Both grew stronger together, pushing the person onward beyond what one alone could ever do. Was there a hard limit to how far even these two pieces could push me, or was the sky the limit? I wasn’t sure that was the best metaphor anymore, considering my circumstances, and I realized my brain was willing to judge my own train of thought again. That was a good sign for my long-term recovery.
Okay, I needed to stop musing about my own brain and focus more on the changes. I could feel my soul and my core and the energy going between them; that was great, but could I feel the new orb sockets? I tried to move one of my switches, and yes, there was something there. It felt empty, was that right? Weren’t the brothers supposed to be setting up my circuitry? As I started to run down the ideas of what had gone wrong, the simple, obvious answer hit me. I needed to actually take the orbs into my sockets. They couldn’t force that without my soul agreeing. So right now, everyone was watching my body convulse in pain, hoping they would see the orbs disappear, and I needed to validate that hope.
I pushed my perception harder into the cold emptiness of the socket and grasped something sitting above. I felt a clicking sensation in the socket and I seemed to register a feeling similar to a limb now in that socket. The socket now contained the unrealized potential of a life orb, and I was sure of that much. I probed the sensations the orb was giving out and found pathways of growth within it. There were different ways that I could push it as it developed, and that would further unlock more branches and forked pathways, but while I could feel the map’s existence, I couldn’t see any of the destinations other than a single starting point with five pathways off of it. I focused harder on it, causing a message box to pop into my brain.
As much as I wanted to try and use the life orb, I knew that rushing anything at the moment was the wrong move. I had five more of these orbs I needed to attempt to place into their sockets. I flipped the switch and the feeling of access to that socket vanished; glad that function was working as intended, I flipped on the next one and pulled the orb sitting above the socket into its new home. I was greeted by another System message.
That was interesting, and as much as I had already decided to focus on the life orb, I was glad that I had more options now. I moved on to the next orb, only to realize it was another of the same above. I wondered if similar mana skills would stack or not. This hadn’t been covered by the scant bits of information I had found about those with multiple sockets, as the users seemed to prefer different types of orbs. Pushing those thoughts aside for later practice, I switched over to the fourth socket.
There had been two of these elemental orbs as well. Did fundamental forces mean things like elementary particles and the forces that governed them, or was this a more magically intended meaning for creating cold snaps and lightning storms? There was always more to learn. I toggled the switches again, moving to the final orb.
That confirmed my thoughts on how Cecile had been able to change his hoe. How far was I able to push something like that? Some part of me had considered the implications of further testing this in the future, and the idea of imbuing the parts of the circuits before I added them into the system seemed like a good way to make it safer. That had mostly been a distant, idle thought. Once I returned to Earth and found a way to defeat the orcs, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to continue on any of this.
With the success of the core creation, other thoughts came through the floodgates, things I had ignored as irrelevant unless I could even finish these steps. How long could Sanquar keep time frozen? Would I return to a world even worse than I left it? Entirely subjugated to the orcs? I hoped I wouldn’t, but even then, what happened once the planet was free? There was no way everything would remain the same.
I forced myself to put those worries on the backburner yet again. I still needed to examine my core. I could feel the energy flow into my body decreasing, and with my sockets now firmly in place and full, the core should be able to handle what little was left. What I wanted to know was the potential for an affinity. The brothers had gained one. Had I?
I focused my will on my newly created core, trying to get a read on it. Just as I hoped, a message box swam into my inner eye just as it had with the man orbs.
Well, the core grade was terrible, but it had an S-ranked affinity. I didn’t even know that was something that was ranked. I would need to talk to the others about this. Considering the brothers’ core grades, I’d hoped for something a bit higher. Was it possibly, due to the way I had to create it that there just wasn’t enough energy for anything higher? It was possible, of course, to increase the grade of the core. I knew that much, but I also knew it was a long, arduous task, and the specifics seemed to be different for every person. From what I had read, it boiled down to becoming a better you and pushing yourself as far as you can go.
I blinked my eyes open again. This time, the room came back into view. While things were still blurry, that was likely just an effect of not wearing my glasses. I should see about boosting my attributes to get past the need; then again I had been wearing them most of my life. Could I imbue them to make them more useful? The possibilities before had become endless. The tickling clock that I had felt ever since this mess started had grown somewhat distant, and a little joy was flooding in. For the first time, I started to feel like it was possible to save my family and the planet.
How many levels could I gain in the time we had left here? Were the brothers ready to help me push myself even further?
