Chapter 21

Antoine sat in the darkness, lit only by a single torch, and he contemplated whether or not he should kill Lo. He didn’t trust the monster. It was too intelligent, and possibly too high level for Tom to manage. It was cowed by Antoine’s presence for now, but Antoine might not always be around to keep it docile and obedient.

It knew when it was outmatched, and was clever enough to surrender in a bid to save its own life. That implied that it might be clever enough to circumvent the minion-master bond of Claim. Possibly, it might even be able to influence Tom, either directly or indirectly.

On the other hand, Lo was currently Tom’s most powerful and effective weapon. From that angle, the creature’s intelligence was a clear boon. Killing the Korgoath now might be depriving Tom of an effective and, possibly, loyal lieutenant in the future. Additionally, slaying the creature might impact Antoine’s relationship with Tom; the boy wasn’t suspicious enough by nature to detect the monster’s resentment of the bond between them. Nor was it likely that the boy had noticed the gnoll blood on Lo when they returned from conquering the dungeon.

Antione examined the boy, still unconscious from whatever that reaction had been when he had Claimed the second Core Stone. Antoine hadn’t been expecting it, but right before Tom had lost consciousness there had been a shift in the mana field that encompassed the entire dungeon. He hadn’t been paying very close attention to the background mana before, except to notice the discordance between Tom’s Core and the wild Core, which he had mostly put out of his mind.

Now, that discord was gone. The mana density wasn’t any higher than it had been, but some part of the quality of the mana had shifted, and both Cores were operating on the same frequency, so to speak. That was new, and Antoine hadn’t been expecting it at all. He’d never detected such a change when Marshal had conquered dungeons. Had this shift happened for Marshal and Antoine’s mana senses back then were simply too weak to notice it, or was this ability unique to Tom? Antoine couldn’t say. Perhaps it was related to the Progenitor subclass that Tom had chosen. Perhaps every Controller experienced this phenomena and only someone with absurd Mana senses would notice the difference.

“He sure faints a lot,” Sevin commented.

Jessica swatted his shoulder.

“What? I’m just saying, he fainted when he got his class upgrade too.”

“You don’t run on Mana, Sevin. I’m pretty sure he drained himself dry just now. I’ve only gotten close to empty, and when I got low I felt pretty light-headed too. I’ve got to be careful not to push too hard on my spell when I use it the second time so that I don’t pass out,” she informed him.

“Oh,” Sevin scratched his nose as he considered the information. “Yeah, I suppose I didn’t think of that.”

Antoine sighed. While he as more sure of Tom’s human companions than he was of Lo, he was sometimes unimpressed by Sevin. The lad showed some promise as a Warrior, but Antoine was less impressed with his personality. Especially since he had caught the boy attempting to put ants into Tom’s bedding the night before. Sevin had the grace to look ashamed at being caught, but Antoine doubted the feeling would hinder future pranks.

Jessica, on the other hand, was a rare find. The Mages in the capital would suffer apoplexy when they saw her abilities. Antoine was looking forward to it. He wished she showed more signs of loyalty to Tom, but he couldn’t begrudge her for its lack. She had just been summoned, and it took time for bonds like that to form.

As for himself … he had his own goals, and he knew that his personal ambitions might not align with what was best for Tom. He wouldn’t terribly begrudge the boy if Tom rejected his idea of breaking out and forming a new kingdom. He wouldn’t even fault Tom if he broke Antoine’s confidence and revealed the conversation that they’d had about the matter to the king, once the two were introduced.

~~~~~

You have unlocked the Controller Skill: Link!

Tom blinked at the words as he came to. A new skill? That was handy. Although this was the second time he’d fainted while getting an upgrade from the system, and he was hoping that it wasn’t something that would become a habit. He checked to make certain that he hadn’t leveled, but no. This wasn’t his level ten skill, assuming that Controller got skills every ten levels. It was something else. Something he had done had unlocked Link, and Tom wasn’t certain what it was that he’d done. Nor had he any idea what the Skill did.

He sat up. His head swam slightly, and he felt a slight lump from where it had bumped against the floor, but he felt fine otherwise. His companions immediately turned towards him.

“You feeling alright?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Tom confirmed. “Sorry to worry everyone.”

“We’re just relieved that you’re uninjured,” Antoine assured him. “Did you successfully claim the Core?”

“I think so. I gained a new Skill, and I’m not sure what it does. It’s called Link.”

Antoine frowned. “That’s not a Skill I’m familiar with. Do you have any idea what it does?”

Tom shrugged. “Hold on, I’m going to play with my status for a while. Maybe there’s something in there that will help me figure it out.”

Tom flickered through his many menus, regretting again that the interface for his class was so clunky. But then again, now that he was starting to unlock some of the features, he was beginning to appreciate that the clunky-ness he was experiencing was more due to the system simply having far more layers than the interface he’d had as a Child. The most complicated feature of the Child’s interface had been the note-taking section. Which his present class had as well, although it was in a different location. It worked the same once he got into it, he’d been relieved to learn. Mental writing was an acquired trick, far more difficult than note-taking with a pen.

But it was also convenient for making notes that were impossible to lose or forget.

He scrolled through the menus that showed his personal status (still level eight), his minion’s status, with a separate page for Klein, his familiar, who was currently licking his fingertips. The animal would vanish sometimes, but that never meant that Klein wasn’t around. Tom was quite certain that the creature had a high level stealth ability.

Finally, when he opened the Core status sheet, he came across a hint of what Link did.

Core Name

Unnamed (Linked)

Controller Options:

Link

Level

13

Level

HP

13/18

Expand

Mana

750/850

Reduce

Territory

Stolen novel; please report.

7851 M^2

Evolve

Floors

1

Summon

Inhabitants

14 Giant spiders, 7 Asps

Spawn

Experience

1.1*10^11

Customize

Core Name

Unnamed (Linked)

Controller Options:

Link

Level

14

Level

HP

14/19

Expand

Mana

750/850

Reduce

Territory

7851 M^2

Evolve

Floors

1

Summon

Inhabitants

14 Giant spiders, 7 Asps

Spawn

Experience

8.3*10^9

Customize

While the two entries were similar, there were slight differences. Tom was confident that the level fourteen core represented the one that he had just conquered. He noticed that both cores had lost HP, and he hoped that didn’t represent a permanent loss. He was uncertain what, if anything, he could do to help the Cores regenerate the lost points.

Another thing that popped out to him was that his option to Claim had been replaced with Link. When he checked his skill status, Claim and Link were still listed separately. He was uncertain of the significance to this change, except that “Linked” also appeared next to both Cores name.

He also noticed that the cores had the same amount of mana and maximum mana. To experiment, he tried pulling on the Core in his hand to Spawn a burrower. The level thirteen Core’s mana dipped down, but then the mana of the two cores quickly equilibrated. He saw that their Territory was exactly the same, and when he tried Expanding or Reducing the level thirteen core, the level fourteen core’s values changed by the exact same amount.

He explained his findings to his friends, and Antoine got a serious expression when he shared the news.

“Tom, don’t let anyone else know about your Link ability,” he warned.

“Why not?” Tom asked.

“Because it will upset the kingdom as things stand,” Antoine answered. He paused to form the words to explain. “I know that the Inheritor has an ability called Sunder. It breaks a Core, but it does it in a controlled manner. The individual units are still functional, but rather than being independent cores they remain parts of a whole. I believe that Sundered Cores and Linked Cores will behave in much the same fashion as each other. While this is certainly a good thing, it will cause the King to increase his watch and hold over you even further. Sundered cores are extremely valuable; every village, town, and city Core has been sundered at least once.”

Antoine paused to spit out his chewing herb and replace it with a fresh pinch. He continued. “The king has a map room that’s filled with one part of those Cores. However, those parts don’t generate mana. They only consume it. A significant amount of effort goes into keeping the mana level of that room in a constant state. Any disruption to that room or the balance that’s been established with those cores is, or at least it is supposed to be, immediately noted and investigated. That’s how your presence was noticed so quickly; when you leveled the Tilluth Core, its sundered shard in the capital began blinking rapidly.”

“So it’s like a Controller detector?” Tom asked.

“No, it’s a Controller hub,” Antoine corrected. “From that room, a trained Controller can interact with any of the paired Cores over vast distances. If the king has his way, once you’re fully trained you’ll be effectively locked in that room most of the time.”

“Oh,” Tom said, not particularly liking the sound of that. “But if Sundered and Linked Cores are the same, then why keep it a secret?”

“I didn’t say they were the same. Not exactly the same at least. I don’t know, Tom, and until we know the difference between Linked and Sundered Cores I think you should keep this ability secret.”

Tom looked to his other friends. Sevin simply shrugged, while Jessica looked thoughtful.

“I think Antoine is right,” she said after consideration. “Tom, I’m pretty sure that when you meet the king, he’s going to act like your best friend and try to give you whatever you want or he thinks you want. But the thing is, that he’s not your friend. He’s a king. If he’s a good king, that means that he can’t be your friend. A good king always puts his kingdom first. If he’s smart he’ll try to secure your loyalty with whatever means that he can afford. Money, power, possibly even girls. Or boys, if you swing that way. But in the end, those gifts are just a form of manipulation. I’m not saying you should reject them, but every gift you accept will be another hook that the king will use to manipulate you.”

Antoine raised an eyebrow at the girl, who returned his raised eyebrow with one of her own.

“What?” she asked. “I’m not just a pretty face!”

“I assure you that I never had any thoughts to the contrary,” Antoine said.