Lucian has just returned from Ruby's house, and is heading towards his home on Ferrilhada Street.
He has already made his decision, he will consume the Core he took from the Corrupted Josh, whom he killed two weeks ago, after dinner tonight.
He had kept the Core at home, hidden under his bed in a cardboard box so as not to attract attention. Besides, it's very unlikely that one of his sisters would enter his room.
During the two weeks after the accident at Josh's house, he dedicated himself to training and managed to improve his physique, reflexes and aim with a gun.
Finally, he could make himself more useful in combat.
In the fight against the Corrupted Josh, he ended up paralyzed with fear and only managed to act after receiving a little help from Ruby.
He was afraid... but maybe now he's less afraid of this kind of situation.
Ruby explained to him the benefits and harms of consuming the Core, and also explained how to consume each Core.
Power Cores grant you a special ability, where with each different Power Core you consume, the Cores that came before it get stronger and stronger.
Weapon and Artifact Cores are different, they are not tied to the person, they can be used by anyone, as long as they carry them or are in their area of operation.
For example: Mannie had a Weapon Core, which was the Sabre he carried. The Sabre had greater resistance and strength, but nothing else, and it was something attached to the weapon, not coming from the bearer, so anyone could use it.
Artifacts are the same, but unlike weapons, they can be used to your advantage and disadvantage at the same time.
In addition, many Artifact Cores are usually kept in a basement in special police organizations.
Ruby gave the example of an artifact called the “Wise Mirror”.
This artifact had a very good function, where it would give him the chance to ask a question and he would answer, he almost always knew the answer.
But the downside of this artifact was that the person asking the question had to choose between Truth or Dare.
If you chose truth, the mirror would ask you a question and you would have to tell the truth. If you said challenge, it would give you a challenge.
Ruby laughed when she said that in the mission she took part in when they used this mirror, the leader had a very shameful secret revealed by this mirror.
She didn't go any deeper to preserve this poor man's dignity.
The disadvantages of the artifacts are different for each one; they can sometimes be similar, but never the same. In addition, the degree of danger of these disadvantages is different.
They are graded from 4 to 0, with 4 being the least dangerous and 0 the most. The mirror was Grade 3, since it depended a lot on luck, and also if the person chose challenge and fell something dangerous.
Ruby said that the only types of Core that could lead to madness and become Corrupted were those of Power and Artifact.
Weapon types rarely have that chance, usually only if the weapon is very strong.
She also explained how to consume the Power Core. It was simple, he needed 3 black candles, herb powder and chalk to make a specific symbol and she gave him a piece of paper with the symbol on it.
He walks down the street and looks at the paper in secret, the symbol is slightly complicated for him who has no artistic skills, but it can be done.
The symbol is a circle with a triangle inside with several horizontal strokes to either side of the triangle's inner area.
He puts the paper away again, then takes out his pocket watch and looks at the time. “11:43... Evelyn should be home from school soon, Mary will take a little longer to get back from her job at the bank. Her shift ends at 14:00... I'll prepare lunch for me and Evelyn and then I'll take it to Mary at work”.
He organized what he was going to make, and then tried to remember what he had at home, and he remembered, “I've run out of ingredients! I've only got a bit of bread, rice and beans... I'll go to the grocery store again.
He then changes his destination to the market, which has become a regular place for him to visit during the week.
As soon as he arrives, he sees how busy the place always is; he's got used to the huge number of people who walk around here.
He goes from counter to counter looking for ingredients to prepare lunch.
He then went shopping and bought all the ingredients, he needed to save up a bit, he'd been spending too much over the last few weeks.
“My salary at the moment is 4 Gold coins, 5 Silver coins and 20 Bronze coins... It's quite a lot, but I'm also spending my savings on things other than things for my sisters... Let me see... I've spent on Evelyn's school, on our food... I share the house payment, water, coal and other household things with my sister, Mary. I'm spending on bullets for my revolver, and I recently bought a dagger to use as a melee weapon if I lose my revolver in a fight... I currently have 3 Gold Coins, 1 Silver Coin and 47 Bronze Coins. I've received my week's wages three times already, first in advance when I joined the Night Breezes, and then over the past two weeks, for a total of... 12 Gold, 15 Silver and 60 Bronze coins... My God! I spent too much! How did I spend 9 Gold, 14 Silver and 14 Bronze coins?!” He soon regrets the amount he's spending, his financial situation at the moment not much different from when he was on earth.
He soon returns home and looks at the time on his pocket watch. “12:09... Evelyn should be home around 12:30, I'll prepare it soon, she'll arrive while I'm still preparing it, but I should finish it a little after she arrives, after all, I've decided to do something simple.”
He quickly walks to the kitchen and takes out all the ingredients he's bought.
Frostru noodles, considered one of the best to eat at the moment, used to be from Lukron, but because of the war between the continent of Murren and Lukron, Lukron stopped exporting to Murren, which meant that some ingredients from Lukron were rare.
Tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices, sausage and cheese. These are all the ingredients chosen to make lunch this Wednesday afternoon.
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He quickly grabs a pot and charcoal, puts the charcoal inside the charcoal stove and throws a phosphorus in there, creating flames to heat the water in the pot.
He fills the pot with water and then puts it on to heat up. After a while, the water starts to bubble, “There,” he says internally as he takes the noodles from Frostru.
He took the noodles out of the packet and put them in the pot, spreading them out and leaving a few pieces, but soon, the water softened the noodles and all the thin sticks of yellow with a hint of very light blue sank into the bubbling water.
Frostru's noodles were famous for their different appearance, having a yellowish color mixed with a very light blue.
He quickly leaves the noodles and sets off to cut up the tomatoes and sausage.
He then picks up a wooden board and a knife, and begins to cut them into neat slices, leaving the tomatoes and sausage in square blocks. “Looks like my dagger training wasn't just for combat,” he laughed internally.
He finishes cutting the tomato and sausage, takes another pan and pours the two ingredients into it, then mixes them with a wooden spoon.
He takes the tomato sauce that was in a simple square packet with a picture of a smiling tomato on it, and pours the tomato sauce into the pot with the tomatoes and sausage, then places it next to the pot of pasta, also heating it up.
Then he takes the pot of pasta, which has already been prepared, walks over to the sink, takes the lid off the pot and closes it, leaving a small gap, and then turns the pot over to pour the hot water into the sink.
When all the water has been removed, he puts the pot out of the oven and stirs the pot of tomatoes and sausage with a wooden spoon. After stirring well, he takes some spices and puts them in the pan, then mixes again.
When he's finished mixing, he turns off the stove, and then he hears the sound of the door opening.
Evelyn has arrived. She smells the tomato sauce with sausage and spices and feels slightly attracted.
-What a good smell... you really are an exemplary cook, brother.
-Thank you Eve. How was your class?
-Normal... I guess...
-Why do I think?
-I'm not sure, there was just something new.
-Really? What would that “something new” be?” Lucian pours the pot of tomato sauce with sausage into the noodles and starts mixing.
Evelyn sits down at the wooden table at which she, Lucian and Mary gather every day to eat and continues talking - A new student has arrived at school.
-A new student? I didn't know they were still letting students register after the start of the school year.
-I thought the same thing, Lu. But he seems like a nice guy, I've had a few conversations with him, he seems trustworthy.
-That's nice. But why did you find that strange? Just because he arrived at school after the start of the school year?
-That too, but there was something else.
-And what would that be?- He places a plate of pasta with tomato sauce, tomato pieces and sausage in front of Evelyn. The smell is tempting and delicious.
Evelyn swallows her saliva and picks up the forks that Lucian had placed next to the plate, and before she puts the first forkful of food in her mouth, she says - He kept talking about this violet eye symbol.
Lucian, who was about to sit down holding the plate of food in his hand, suddenly froze, and almost dropped the plate of food in his hands.
“Violet eye symbol?” He quickly remembers the eye symbol on his back.
Lucian controls his emotions and sits down at the table, his gaze worried, but he manages to hide it from Evelyn. He then continues - Did he say anything else?
-Yes, he said a woman's name, if I'm not mistaken it was... Xanny.
“Xanny...” Lucian doesn't remember anything about it, but he knew something: “This boy isn't normal!”.
He then says - I see, what's the boy's name?
-His name is Pete Yorks.
-Ok... Well, if you're finding him strange then be careful and watch out if he does anything else strange to you...
-Ok...?- She looks confused, but ignores it, and then starts eating, admiring her brother's food.
Lucian eats too, but he soon loses himself in his thoughts.
“Pete Yorks... does he know anything about the crown that caused that accident to Durf, Annie and Josh? What does he know about the violet eye? If he knows anything... then I need to get in touch with him at some point...”
Soon, the two of them finish eating, and take a simple lunchbox and fork, they're going to take lunch to Mary who was still at work.
Lucian asks Evelyn to drop off Mary's lunch. It may not seem like it, but Evelyn is very responsible. She had already taken Mary's food herself, so he didn't worry too much about letting her go alone.
Besides, he also had something to do that he couldn't let his sister or anyone else see.
For at this moment, he would consume the Core.
...
After saying goodbye to his sister and seeing her off to deliver the lunchbox to Mary, who was at work, he decided to use up his Core right now.
“I was going to consume it at night, but I've created a great opportunity for myself to consume it earlier, after all, it's better to do something like a ritual while no one's home than while they're asleep,” he said internally as he went up to his room.
He had already bought the three black wax candles, the herb powder and the chalk.
He entered his room and soon found the ideal spot in the center of the room to consume the Core.
He began by drawing the symbol on the paper he had been given: a circle with a triangle and the area inside the triangle filled in with horizontal lines.
He then placed the 3 candles at each end of the triangle and lit them.
He took the herbal powder and distributed it around the line of the circle, and then, finally, he took the Core of the Corrupted Josh.
The dark purple-colored, wavy-shaped Core was slightly eye-catching in Lucian's eyes.
To ordinary people it looked like a dark wavy stone, but in the eyes of people capable of using Spirituality, it was something unimaginable.
He trained his spirituality more, and with that, he would eventually improve his spiritual sight.
When he used his spiritual sight and observed the dark object, he realized that the Core emanated a reddish, distorted aura.
“Reddish color represents madness or danger...” he said internally.
The colors they saw had meanings: gray represents naturalness, blue represents stability, in other words, something good, green represents instability, in other words, something in between good and bad, and red represents iniquity, in other words, something bad that could harm...
The colors also represent the state of the person's emotion, but at the moment Lucian doesn't have the ability to really identify the person's emotion, only to receive small bits of information and deduce it himself.
The reddish color of the Core represented the iniquity, evil and malice that was within it, and that's normal, after all, Cores can grant you powers, but they can also drive you to extreme madness.
Lucian finishes preparing everything, then places the Core in the center of the symbol, and then takes the paper with the symbol on it and turns the back over, where there are the words he needs to recite in order to consume the Core and also other things to do.
“Pour a drop of blood from the person to whom you are going to consume the Core and then intone the following words out loud: I! (person's name) will surrender to the powers of the one who has gone mad before. I! I will exchange power for sanity and become a Spiritual. I! call loud and clear for the Core to join me and grant me its strength in exchange for my sanity!” When Lucian read the sentence he needed to say, he felt like he was making a contract against an evil being, but he had already decided on his path.
He then takes the dagger he had bought, a dagger with a black handle and a slightly curved blade, and then cuts the tip of his finger, letting a single drop of blood spill onto the core.
The symbol then glows a crimson color, and Lucian says aloud - Me! Lucian Berfor, I will surrender to the powers of the one who once drove me mad. I! I will exchange power for sanity and become a Spiritual. I! I demand loud and clear that the Core join me and grant me its strength in exchange for my sanity!” And just as he finishes these words, he blinks and realizes that the Core has disappeared.
He is startled for a few seconds, but his fright is interrupted by moans of pain coming from his throat.
His eyes go wide and completely dark, and he feels as if his body is shivering from head to toe.
He felt as if his skin was peeling off and beginning to wither.
It was a horrible feeling, is this being on the verge of madness?
He crouches on the floor and controls himself, trying to stay as conscious as possible, he bites his own lip until it bleeds to stay awake.
And just like that, his eyes return to normal and that feeling of goose bumps and his skin peeling off disappears.
“I... survived...”
“I... consumed the Core...”
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