A few hours later Tepo was sitting on his bed, thinking about everything that had happened today.

After leaving prison he had to reassure his mother countless times that he was fine. But Tepo enjoyed it. This was the motherly concern he hadn’t received enough in his past life. Not he gladly made up for it.

When his mother had finally calmed down, they took one of the big, public ships back. Just like everywhere in the city those ships were also filled with advertisement, but also news. Thus, Tepo had received a big shock, when the news suddenly published a certain story.

They claimed that an anonymous student went crazy during the awakening ceremony and madly insulted the mayor and missionary. Taren saw no other choice but to throw the student into jail.

Later that day the missionary came to plead for leniency. As the mayor also felt bad for the student, they benevolently pardoned him.

Tepo couldn’t believe his ears and even Reahva had been full of anger. Although the story wasn’t outright invented, it was published in a way which made the mayor sound like the benevolent person. Tepo had to admit that this had been a first for him. Never before had he been on the receiving end of propaganda.

Somehow making it through this ride without smashing all the audio devices in, Tepo had finally arrived at home. He had quickly informed his friends of his safety and thanked them after knowing how they searched for help, before eating something and going to his room.

Now Tepo had to sort out his thought and make plans for the future. But before that he had to deal with something else. Something strange has been going on since he left prison.

Relaxing his mind, Tepo lied down on his bed. He closed his eyes and stimulated what he suspected to be his soul. Suddenly his vision turned inward. A perfect projection of his body appeared in his mind.

Tepo thoroughly studied his muscles and bones. He was amazed of their pristine condition. Not a single injury was left. His wrists moved smoothly, his ribs were joined together, and his ruptured blood vessels had recovered. Narreck had done an outstanding job as healer. If he ever saw the man again, he had to thank him honestly.

Relieved that his body was in great condition, Tepo turned his vision towards the actual source of his confusion.

Right at this moment the young man felt another tiny movement in his chest. It didn’t hurt or was uncomfortable, rather Tepo was unsettled by its unfamiliarity. Something like this never occurred to him in the past, after all it was his core that was shaking from time to time.

Tepo focused on the golden circle. At the moment it laid dormant, with twelve symbols swimming within it. In school they didn’t learn much about what to do when you finally gained you core. Thus, Tepo had no idea why it was behaving oddly right now.

Not wanting to live with such an uncertain factor, the young man began to study his core. He tried to order it to move, but nothing happened. His core only radiated a feeling of weakness and exhaustion.

From Tepo’s perception it appeared to be in a strange state of slumber. Maybe it couldn’t even be called awakened.

But suddenly, the weird movement happened again. A word popped up in Tepo’s mind right next to the core: rebellious.

Not understanding what was going on, Tepo watched as the core shook slightly. Suddenly, the word shattered into millions of pieces and slowly disappeared.

What… was that?

Tepo’s thoughts churned. He tried to come up with a hypotheses, but he drew a blank this time. The clever investigator was stumped. But maybe he simply needed more clues. Thus, Tepo continued observing.

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Over the next hour multiple words appeared. Troublemaker, pitiable, weak, nuisance, loyal. But all of them met the same fate as they were shattered by his core.

Despite not figuring out what was going on, Tepo still came to one conclusion: after this hour his core had turned the tiniest bit brighter. The young man’s eyes light up. He might have found a way to strengthen his core.

Suddenly Tepo was pulled out of his mind. A loud knocking came from his door. Shaking his head, he cleared his mind before speaking with a smile on his face:

“Come in mom!”

Reahva entered slowly. She sighed as her eyes fell on the man lying on the bed. How fast time passed. Now her baby boy was already an adult about to embark on the path of a warrior.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Can I sit next to you?”

“Of course! You came at the prefect time. I have a question for you!”

A harmonious atmosphere settled in the room. Tepo was in a good mood as he made some space for his mother.

“You have a question? Let me hear it!”

“Yeah. It’s like this. My core has been shaking from time to time. I feel some words popping up, which get destroyed right after. Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

Reahva drew a sharp breath. As a mother she had never doubted that her son really had awakened a core. Despite all those ‘bigshots’ denying it, Reahva believed in Tepo and her own intuition. She was sure she would notice if her son lied to her.

But now Tepo suddenly asked such a question. The chance that he heard about such a phenomenon from someone else was rather low. Thus, it was a prove that her son really had a core. He was an awakened.

My… my son really has a core? Will he become a warrior? I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing for him…

But it’s still strange. Why was no one able to scan my son’s core? Could it be… does he have one of such a high rank? Too high for even the missionary to successfully awaken? It does make sense… after all he is my son!

Tepo was bewildered as he watched his mother’s changing expressions. What was she thinking about from his single question? After a few seconds the elegant lady ended up chuckling before hugging her son tightly. The young man didn’t resist but he still waited for an explanation.

“I knew it.”, exclaimed Reahva happily. “It seems your core is already working hard!”

“Mom, can you be a bit clearer?”

“Ok, let me explain it. Do you know about forces?”

“Ehm. I don’t think so.”, said Tepo after rummaging through his memory.

“They really don’t tell you much in schools in this world… Anyways, forces are the energy source which stabilizes worlds and keeps them going. An uncountable number of them surrounds us at all times.

Warriors absorb forces to grow stronger. But there are a few, which are purely supportive and can’t be absorbed.

One of those is the ‘Force of Natural Perception’. It is an extremely special force which carries the perception of all living beings. Whenever it collides with anything, it tries to change this thing, so it matches the collective perception. The only way to defend against it is by having a core.”

Noticing Tepo’s wry smile, Reahva felt a bit uncomfortable. It seemed her son didn’t quite understand. Coughing to hide her embarrassment the brown-haired lady apologized:

“Sorry, I was never good at explanations. In short: the words you see are the opinions of other people. Without a core they might slowly influence you, but your core protects your mind. Every time it shatters a word, its quality will rise by a tiny bit.”

Tepo nodded slowly as he processed this new information. He felt as if he slowly got glimpses into the world of warriors. The former investigator wondered if his old world also had forces. It was very likely! From his guess the World of Endless Depths had to be somewhere out there, waiting to be found.

Contemplating his mother’s words for a few seconds, Tepo suddenly frowned.

Mom said one needs a core for protection? But there are so many common people without cores. What if they were influenced by natural perception? Would they turn crazy? If so, then… they might become the outsiders we fought in my old life!

Drawing a sharp breath, Tepo hoped Reahva could clear his doubts:

“Mom, if one needs a core to protect yourself, then what about the common people?”

“For them it’s not that serious.”, explained Reahva patiently. “The amount of force needed to influence intelligent beings is immense. A common person almost never gets this much attention.”

Tepo felt relieved. Although this explanation didn’t completely reject his conjecture, but at least it became very unlikely. But suddenly he realized another point from his mother’s words:

“Wait, is this why there is so much propaganda in the city? Why heroes are being worshipped and storytellers are everywhere? Even the news should be a part of it, right?”

Reahva smiled as her clever son understood so much. She nodded slowly as she stated:

“Of course! Even strong warriors need to raise their core’s quality somehow. Even Phana and other popular musicians are using their talent to gather attention.”