While gob- changeling Andrew was dealing with the mess caused by his Evolution, Beast Andrew couldn't get the image of his cores being pulled apart and fit back together out of his head. It was just so… beautiful! It spoke to him on such a fundamental level that he couldn't even express it! The delicate touch piecing the cores apart, the artistry as they were put back together, binding the disconnected parts into a unified whole! It was pure poetry! Andrew longed for that capability, to be able to tease cores apart and remake them into something more.

"Okay, you need to chill." Cathryn insisted, giving him a worried look. "You're acting like a horny teenager who just saw his first boob! What is up with you?!?"

Andrew blinked at her, before flushing in embarrassment. "Sorry, it's just… fuck, I don't even know how to explain." Andrew groaned, wiping his face with his hand. "Okay, so, in the other world, I… so apparently when a beast kills- uh, I met the requirements for something called 'Evolution', and in the process, the cores I'd collected were… merged. It was… fascinating…" Andrew trailed off with a distant look in his eye, before shaking his head. "I just can't stop thinking about it." He finished with a sigh.

Li Jing leaned over to poke him in the side. "You're going to try merging your cores, aren't you." She stated more than asked.

"Not my cores." Andrew snorted. "At least, not ones I value. Not until I've practiced a lot…"

Cathryn glared at him. "Andrew, this seems a lot like the kind of thing that ended with you being reborn as a goblin, don't you think? Maybe it would be best to avoid that kind of thing for now?"

Andrew frowned. "I don't think anything like that could happen… worst case scenario, I make some kind of fucked up core that doesn't work, but that shouldn't affect anything, since I'm not dependent on any one core."

"Andrew-" Cathryn began in a worried tone.

"Cathryn, just trust me, alright?" Andrew cut her off with a sigh. "I don't know what but… this is something I need to explore. If it ends up leading to more me's somehow, I'll stop, but I honestly don't think that's going to be an issue. The cores should never leave my body. I'm just… figuring out how they work."

Cathryn still didn't look happy, but she eventually let out a sigh and nodded along. "Fine, whatever. But seriously, if you start popping up in different places…" She waved a fork at him in warning.

Andrew grinned. "Don't worry. I think I have a solution for that too. I didn't know to look for it last time, but I think I can just drag the core back before it gets settled somewhere."

"Why can't you drag the core back at any time?" Li Jing asked.

"The aura." Andrew replied. "It can stretch out between the two worlds a little bit, but… well, it's like a rubber band. Stretch too far and it wants to snap back. So once I have aura somewhere, I'm pretty much stuck."

Li Jing frowned. "But isn't the core the important part? If you took the core back, what would happen to the aura?"

"Well, I can only move aura between… huh." Andrew paused. Aura was anchored by the core, he knew that much. Without a core, the aura just dissipated, like when he'd killed the elf. So, theoretically, if he disconnected his aura from his cores, it should just dissipate… he'd just never thought to try disconnecting his aura from his cores. "I… may need to test that."

The two girls looked at him expectantly. "Well?" Cathryn prodded. "What are you waiting for?"

Andrew looked around the busy cafeteria. "Well, this isn't the best place for it, is it? Besides, aren't you the one who's always pushing me not to experiment?" He asked skeptically.

"If it gets you out of that goblin dream, you can experiment as much as you want." Cathryn retorted in a slightly bitter tone.

"Plus, no one can see your aura." Li Jing added. "You can do whatever you want."

"True…" Andrew muttered absently, more focused on the bitterness from Cathryn. Did his other life really bother her that much? He'd known she wasn't happy about it, but he figured that was because she was worried he was delusional or something… or maybe it was because she hoped he was delusional. Particularly after she learned what goblins did to procreate… He sighed. "Okay, give me a moment."

Andrew slipped into his inner sight state, focusing on his aura. He stuck out a tiny thread and carefully pinched off a small piece, observing it to see what happened. Quickly the piece of aura lost all color, and then… it just sat there. Andrew opened his eyes, blinking at where the small bit of aura sat. Why… could he still feel it? He moved it to the side, then back the other way, then sent it in a loop around the cafeteria. "Huh." He grunted, scratching his head in confusion, before shrugging and sending the little piece of aura shooting towards the edge of his aura sight, thinking that maybe somehow that was what was keeping him connected to it, but all that happened was that he lost sight of it. He could still feel it, flying around out there. He'd even catch a glimpse of aura when the little piece flew through something.

Andrew sighed, pulling the piece of aura back. "Well, that didn't work."

"Why? What happened?" Li Jing asked.

"Well, it disconnected well enough, but it didn't dissipate. It just… Well, I don't know what it did. I was still connected to it and everything." Andrew shrugged as the aura returned and seamlessly reconnected with the rest.

Li Jing frowned. "Weird."

"Isn't it?" Andrew smirked.

Cathryn groaned. "So you're still stuck being a goblin then."

"Actually, thanks to that Evolution, I'm a changeling now. Noble race even." Andrew replied. "Which essentially just means I don't need to feed off of anyone else to live or reproduce."

Cathryn blinked. "You- aren't a goblin anymore?" She asked in a hopeful tone, before frowning. "But you're still involved with that tribe…"

"Actually, I got picked up by…" Andrew paused. He'd actually never figured out what Justin's position actually was. "Uh, apparently people notice when something Evolves, and they send people to pick them up. This guy named Justin from the noble races picked me up, and now I'm in this city called Nobilis."

"Justin and Nobilis?" Li Jing asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Aren't those names a little too… normal?"

"Well, I don't know if those are the actual names. I got this trait which lets me understand people, so everything they say sort of gets adjusted for me." Andrew explained. "Like, I hear the words they're saying, which is gibberish, but I understand the meaning, which tells me the names are essentially Justin and Nobilis."

"Interesting." Li Jing muttered.

"Wait, let me get this straight." Cathryn interjected. "You're completely done with the goblins now? Like, forever?"

"Well… pretty much? When I have the ability, I'd like to make sure Corek and the Shaman are alright, but I don't plan on rejoining the tribe. It's just… I know they have to do it, but now that I'm something else… I don't want to be a part of it anymore."

Cathryn blinked at him, before letting out a choked, "Oh thank god!" Andrew raised an eyebrow at her as she flushed. "I-I'm sorry, I just- I know it was what you had to do, but I couldn't stand the idea of you being involved with something like- like that!"

Andrew sighed. "Yeah, I get that. I wasn't happy about it either."

"It's just so- evil." Cathryn grimaced.

Andrew paused. "Well, I wouldn't call it evil. Evil is knowingly causing unnecessary suffering. What the goblins do is necessary for their survival, so it can't be called evil… horrible maybe, disgusting definitely, but not evil."

Cathryn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm just glad you aren't a part of that anymore."

"Yeah, me too." Andrew agreed. "It sucks when good people are forced to do horrible things."

"Or whatever." Cathryn muttered. She wasn't sure if she could ever consider someone who did something like that a 'good person'.

*

Once they got back from school, Andrew immediately secluded himself in the beanbag room to focus on his cores. Specifically, the rabbit folk core. With the prospect of Evolution, the core had lost all its allure. Compared to just absorbing an ability crystal normally, the stat gain wasn't that great. Admittedly, if he could keep leveling at a steady rate, the stat gain could get pretty ridiculous, but he couldn't believe that every Beast would give him the maximum stat gain every time. Eventually he'd reach the point where the Beasts were 'on his level' and his gains would stop. Still, if he could keep it going, being careful about it, and only leveling when it was worth it, the stat gain would eventually reach a level where it was worth it, but unfortunately, by that time he'd be hunting intelligent Beasts, which meant Intellect. He'd just evolve again, possibly getting all his cores reset and incorporated into the system… He wasn't sure how that'd affect his Beast cores, but he didn't think it'd be good.

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So instead, Andrew was going to use the rabbit folk core for practice, taking it apart and putting it back together as well as he could. At least, eventually. First he was going to practice with some insect cores, which were relatively simpler, but once he started getting comfortable, he was going to try to build something interesting out of that core.

It was a good thing he'd picked up so many practice cores, because the first hurdle he ran into was that cores were… delicate was the wrong word, because it took a lot of effort to break them apart, but they didn't just break, they shattered. Taking them apart took precision, not just force. Andrew went through four cores before he finally managed to keep a piece intact, though he still lost the rest of the core.

Examining the small piece, Andrew could sense that it had something to do with the shape of a foot, though he couldn't see the specifics yet. He put it aside and worked on pulling apart the next core. Slowly he began to build up more and more pieces as he got better at taking cores apart, piling the pieces that gave him similar impressions together. Once he finished taking all the cores apart, he started going through the piles comparing the pieces as he tried to figure out what his senses were telling him.

For the most part, the pieces were focused on form. This part said what a foot looked like, this part a leg, this part said how many legs there should be, and so on. Andrew got the feeling he could probably break these pieces down to even smaller subdivisions as well, possibly all the way down to the cellular, or even atomic level. In fact, he was beginning to suspect that was what was happening initially. He was breaking the cores into all their pieces, but once they got too small, he couldn't even recognize them. The core seemed to be a complex blueprint of what the body was, down to the smallest detail.

However, the core didn't just focus on form, it also focused on function and needs. Andrew found pieces that essentially amounted to 'legs do this' and 'food is good'. Not exactly, obviously, but that was the gist of it. He even found pieces that gave off the urge to procreate. It was as if the core was built to teach something that had no concept of life how to live. Andrew opened his eyes, frowning at that thought. Why would that be necessary? Who was using these cores? Or was that how everyone worked? Did people need cores to tell them how to live? What about biological urges? Wouldn't they cover it? Or did biological urges come from the core? Andrew started to get a headache, before dismissing the thought. It felt like a chicken or egg scenario, and it wasn't why he was doing this.

Andrew started grabbing pieces from the piles and putting them together. Almost intuitively, he could see which pieces would slot where, almost like a jigsaw puzzle, except instead of patterns, it was more… continuity. Like putting the puzzle together based on the picture instead of the pattern. Or something. However he did it, putting the pieces back together was a lot easier than taking them apart, so it didn't take long before he had had a shiny new core to try out.

Andrew let out a breath, standing up and walking over to a small mirror set up so that he could see himself even when he was tiny. "Alright, here goes nothing." He muttered as he sent his clothes into his storage ring, before his body shifted, and sitting in his place was the ugliest bug he'd ever seen! He'd mostly used flies, ants, fleas, and the like, the bugs that were pretty much everywhere and all looked vaguely similar, so he didn't think he could have fucked it up too bad, but boy was he wrong! Somehow he'd managed to include not one, not two, but four sets of legs, giving him twenty-four mismatched appendages, all clustered around the tiny body of a flea, with a (relatively) gigantic set of wings, and a head that was just a large set of eyes and mandibles. *Oh, I have got to show this to the girls.* Andrew cackled evilly, carefully taking flight, though his current form was a lot less graceful than he was used to.

He buzzed down the hallway, heading towards the kitchen where the girls were chatting and preparing for dinner. Once he got closer, he landed on the ceiling, creeping along until he was hanging just above the table, before letting go and dropping. *BOO!* Andrew shouted through his connection with Cathryn as he landed right in front of her, causing her to shriek and jump out of her chair, tripping and falling in the process. Andrew was laughing his ass off when a hand slammed down on top of him as Li Jing tried to squish him.

"Wait! It's Andrew!" Cathryn cried in a panic, scrambling to her feet only to find Li Jing frowning down at a perfectly healthy insect. "Uh…"

Andrew snickered. *Even if I'm small, I'm still a Beast. It's going to take more than a light slap to even hurt me.*

"This is Andrew?" Li Jing asked skeptically, examining the bug a bit closer. "No wonder it's so ugly."

*Hey! No need to be rude.* Andrew pouted.

Cathryn rolled her eyes. "You know she can't hear you."

*That's why you're supposed to translate. Chop, chop!* Andrew retorted. Cathryn responded by flicking him, sending him flying across the room with a yelp. Durable he may be, but he wasn't heavy. Andrew shifted back to normal with a grumble, walking back over to take a seat at the table.

"Put on underwear." Li Jing demanded before he sat, raising a warning finger.

"But I left my ring in the other room…" Andrew complained, but when she didn't relent, he sighed and headed back to the room, before returning fully clothed. "Happy?"

"Very." Li Jing smiled.

"So, do you mind telling us why you decided to grace us with that… thing?" Cathryn asked with a disgusted expression.

"What, don't you think it looked neat?" Andrew asked with a grin as he sat down.

"It looked disgusting." Li Jing commented.

"As I said." Andrew chuckled.

"But again I ask, why?" Cathryn insisted.

"Well, remember how I was planning on messing around with cores, seeing if I could take them apart and put them back together?" Both girls nodded. "Well, that's what happens when you mix a bunch of pieces from ants, fleas, and flies. Not pretty, with a slight thirst for blood."

"Did you add in a mosquito?" Li Jing asked.

"No, I think it came from the flea." Andrew shrugged.

"Ah, that makes sense." She nodded.

"Hold on, were you trying to make that abomination?!?" Cathryn asked incredulously.

"Oh, no. I was just putting things together to see what happened. I'm honestly not sure how I managed to fit in four sets of legs… but the rest pretty much checks out. I'm not good at figuring out what's what yet. All I get are vague impressions." Andrew explained.

"And what's the end goal of all this?" Cathryn asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Andrew paused. That… was a good question. "Well… maybe I could combine abilities at some point?" He offered tentatively. "They're obviously associated with the core, so there should be pieces that determine how they work… maybe I could even develop new abilities at some point! But obviously I have a ways to go before I can do that."

Li Jing perked up at that. "If you get good enough at modifying cores… Do you think you could give us abilities?"

Andrew's eyes widened. "That… ooh, I think-! Uh… maybe?" He frowned for a moment. "If I could somehow transfer a Beast core to you now… how have I never thought of this before?"

"Wait, wait, hold on!" Cathryn protested, looking between the two of them. "You want to mess with our cores?!? The things that, if you fuck up, means we die!?!"

Andrew and Li Jing shared a look, before turning back to Cathryn. "Okay fair." Andrew nodded. "No fucking with your cores until I'm a lot more skilled."

Cathryn shook her head. "I just… why do you have to mess with our cores?" She asked, exasperated. "It just seems like an unnecessary risk. I don't understand why you would even want to."

"Security." Li Jing interjected. "Bonded- the human side at least, we're… vulnerable compared to the dangers we have to face. It keeps our growth slow, because we have to make sure our human side is safe before we do anything. However, if Andrew could make the human side strong… then we could do so much more. We wouldn't need to be tied to the base camps anymore! At least, not to the same degree."

Andrew nodded. "Think about it. When we start going out into the wild to hunt, wouldn't you feel more confident if you had some physical power to back you up? How much do you really think you could defend yourself if you solely rely on our abilities? A wind blast or two might scare some things away, but it's hardly going to kill anything."

"It's even worse because Andrew can't rely on mutating his abilities to give you more capabilities." Li Jing added. "You're stuck with standard abilities without the versatility needed to truly be a threat."

"Why can't we just… not?" Cathryn asked hesitantly. "Do we really need to put ourselves in danger? Sure we're tied to the base camps, but… we have the base camps! Why push ourselves to do more?"

Andrew and Li Jing shared a look. "That's… a philosophy." Andrew replied. "There are those who never leave the walls of the base camps, focusing on slow and steady growth, because we are immortal, so eventually you'll be powerful if you just keep going, right? No matter how small your gains are, they are gains and eventually they'll build up. The only issue is that you can't really mutate your ability if you do that, because you need the ability crystals you absorb to be on a similar level as you for it to work. Not an issue for us, but it'd still be a problem for Jing. It's just… the Outside is dangerous. We could live that way, but the only way to do so would be by depending on others to defend us. We wouldn't be contributing, we'd just be… subsisting. It just- it's lazy. And cowardly. And… it just doesn't feel right. Not when we could be doing more."

"But how much can we actually do?" Cathryn retorted. "Can we really catch up with people who have lived for thousands of years?!? What difference can we really make?"

"Enough." Li Jing answered. "We can do enough. It isn't about doing the most. It's about doing what we can. Even if it's just supporting those stronger than us."

Andrew nodded. "Yeah, it isn't about doing everything, it's about doing our best. And hiding away in the base camps… that isn't our best. We can do more."

Cathryn frowned, before sighing and shaking her head. "I guess I'm just not used to the idea that we're… threatened. It just doesn't feel like we're in danger."

"I mean… we aren't, but we are." Andrew explained. "In our area, we're… secure. The biggest threat is the Orcgod and his horde, which is definitely a problem but not a major one. However, the Outside is huge, and we're a small part of a tiny alliance in an insignificant territory. There are Beasts out there who could wipe us out in an instant, and the only reason they don't is because we're too insignificant for them to care. Too much of our survival is based on luck, and if we all aren't doing everything we can to grow, it's going to stay that way… I don't know about you, but I'm not lucky enough to trust that."

Cathryn's expression twisted. "I guess I'm not either…" She muttered, before letting out a sigh. "Fine, you're right. We need to get stronger, in any way we can. Just… be careful, alright?"

Andrew nodded. "Don't worry, I will. I don't think we can afford to be lazy, but… I can't afford to lose you two either." He reached out to grab both of their hands. "Keeping you both safe will always be my highest priority. No matter what."