Lindsay raised her hands defensively, only to let them drop back into her lap a second later. “I’ve got nothing to say on this one. I protested and said the same thing when my parents brought the subject up last night. It didn’t help. They have it stuck in their heads that Angie’s entire family is a bad influence, and this is simply another example of that.”

“I mean, they’re not wrong,” He smirked. “She did encourage me to skip school just yesterday.”

Angie rolled her eyes. “Sure, that was all me. Remind me again who it was that first suggested we skip in the first place?”

Lindsay looked out the window and whistled tunelessly.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Bad influence my foot, you’re the bad influence. Your entire family is a bad influence.” She stuck out her tongue and enjoyed the victory before changing the subject to something else for the remainder of the drive to school.

When they arrived, Jace was once again waiting for them. He was leaning against the front doors of the school, watching as Angelica’s car rolled to a stop at the curb.

“What is it this time?” Nate grumbled under his breath as they exited the car.

They were tempted to skip again, but since Jace’s parents had even made an appearance to talk things out, they decided it wasn’t worth it. It was better to face him now and get the matter over with once and for all than to continue avoiding him.

There was only one problem. When they stopped in front of him, Jace wasn’t staring at the girls. He was glaring at Nathan. For several long seconds, he didn’t say anything, choosing instead to simply stand in their way and make a nuisance of himself.

“Don’t think for a second that the matter of our engagement is over, Angela, no matter what the official papers say.” He said at last. “And you… I’ll be watching you.” He walked past them. “I’ll be going back to my old school starting today, so thanks for that. The teachers here were terrible.”

The three watched him leave with different annoyed expressions.

“Did he really just wait outside a school that he no longer goes to just to be annoying?” Nate grumbled, reaching for the door.

The two girls nodded as they walked inside.

“It was a tad-bit stalkerish on his behalf, if you ask me,” Lindsay muttered, looking over her shoulder. “Someday that boy is going to try and wear one of our skins like a mask.”

“Why just one? He’ll probably go for all of us and just stitch them together.” Angie’s opinion of Jace couldn’t get any lower if the other boy tried.

“At least we don’t have to worry about him at school anymore.” The morning progressed fairly quietly after that, with most people leaving Nate alone. The few goons who had crowded around Jace were nowhere to be seen, even at lunchtime.

Of course, the girls had their usual hanger ons, and were continually being swarmed by people.

“How have your classes been so far?” Nate asked them as they finally managed to break away from everyone and sit down.

“About the same as you saw earlier in our last class. Things have mostly gone back to normal from before he showed up.” Angie told him. “In the end, Jace was a short but incredibly annoying interlude in our lives.”

Lindsay nodded. “Maybe now that he’s gone, my parents will back off and let us be on the same team after we form our cores.”

“How likely is that to happen?”

Both girls sighed and stared forlornly down at their sandwiches.

“I don’t suppose you’re making quick progress on being able to form your core again, are you?” Lindsay asked with a hopeful smile.

“I am,” He told them slowly. “But, not superhumanly fast. It will still be a bit before I am ready to try again. I had some energy left from before, and this whole ordeal came with some unexpected benefits. So, it isn’t like I’m starting from the absolute beginning again, but it’ll still take some time.”

Nathan needed to give people a reason for why his cultivation was inevitably faster than normal. A simple, and yet believable reason like this was the answer he had come up with.

Angie tore a savage chunk from her sandwich. “Just so you know, Linds, if your parents don’t let you party up with me because of Jace, I’m going to bite you.”

“Ooh, I’m scared.” Lindsay waved her arm at her friend and then put her head on the table. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep talking to them. This entire situation is messed up. I can’t believe they’re blaming you guys for what he was trying to do.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Nate sat and watched their back and forth with a bemused expression. He may have simply fallen into being friends with both of them, but he had to admit they were entertaining to be around.

It was so much different from how things had been in his last life. It was refreshing and interesting and he liked not knowing what was going to happen next. He had read the stories where the mc was always second-guessing themselves because of their future knowledge. It never seemed like they were having fun. Instead, they were working towards an agenda, power, or money, nothing more.

He didn’t have to worry about that, and he liked it that way. The little he did know was enough to help, but not complicate things, usually. Unless he got careless and mentioned something like anime where it didn’t belong.

That was an occasional worry, but it was something he would deal with as it came. There was little point in worrying about something that hadn’t happened yet and that he had little control over. It wasn’t like he had meant to mention anime at that time; it had simply slipped out. Even now, he wasn’t entirely sure what subjects were anathema to talk about.

For some, he could make a fairly reliable guess, but for others, he wouldn’t know until they came up in conversation.

Shaking his head, he dispelled those thoughts and picked up his empty plate. The next class was one none of the three wanted to miss again. The teacher was scheduled to talk about the process of forming a core.

It was nothing new for any of them, as it was a discussion they had all heard many times in the past. However, as they got closer to creating their own core, people found they inevitably gained different insights from the discussions. Nate was hoping to get some himself since he had already gone through the process of creating a core, even if he didn’t actually remember it.

Unfortunately, that lack of memory might be just as big of a barrier as he thought as no miraculous insights were immediately forthcoming.

That was an annoyance, but nothing more. He didn’t need those additional insights, for when he later created his core once again, they merely would have been helpful. Despite thinking that, Nate made sure to take down as many notes as possible.

After the class, Lindsay and Angela passed their notes to him as well, allowing him to cherry-pick from what they had written. It gave him the chance to include their insights, a chance that he was grateful for.

He stuffed the notes into his bag and followed the girls to their next class. It would have once been considered science class, now with the introduction of ‘cultivation’ it had taken on another aspect as well. Over the years ‘metaphysics’ had become a very real addition to the technical world and their studies.

Combining technology and metaphysics had so far experienced limited success. However, everyone knew it was the way of the future and was the direction they needed to move in. While their efforts to combine the two had struggled, older styles had been met with more success.

That was how their most successful weapons were made. Using a mix of beast parts and metaphysics in their construction.

The class itself was somewhat dull and full of a lot of dry formulas and information that meant little to them. Unlike the classes from Nate’s Old Earth, they did not spend a lot of time performing experiments. Instead, they mostly just listened to boring lectures.

It was the sort of class you would have expected to experience in a college setting, not in a high school. Not that it made it a good way of teaching anything either way. When people were this bored, they rarely paid attention as sharply as they were meant to, and yet teachers persisted with this style of teaching.

It blew Nate’s mind that they could get away with doing so little… Then again; he had never taught anyone anything, so maybe he had it all wrong and even doing this much was incredibly hard. All he knew was that the fight to keep his eyelids from drooping down was one he was losing.

In a last-minute bid to stay awake, he pulled up the screen for the dungeon and saw that there was a notification waiting for him.

‘The Dungeon Core has been successfully upgraded to the second level. A second dungeon may now be constructed once enough resources have been gathered. At this time, a second level for the first dungeon may now be constructed. This additional level will exist inside their world as a buffer before they reach the existing portal. Operations for the existing floor can now be overseen primarily by the Dungeon Core.’

Nate swallowed and felt his stomach clench at the message. There was so much to unpack there that it was frankly a little frightening.

He had been somewhat hoping that the Core could take on some of the dungeon duties, so that part was fine and even welcome. It was everything else. He had already gotten to the point where he could ostensibly create a second dungeon, depending on the cost, of course. Then there was the level that was going to be created on the other side of the portal.

Both items were a little much for him. Sure, he had known both were possible and would eventually happen.

But… there was a distinct difference between something happening in the unknown future and suddenly being faced with it. Everyone knew they were eventually going to die, but how many of them were prepared for when it actually happened?

That was a somewhat extreme example, but it encapsulated the same feelings in this case.

He hadn’t been expecting such a large change just from upgrading the Core a single time.

Nate closed the message and watched as the dungeon went about making small adjustments to everything. The layout and traps all became more streamlined, fixing the deficiencies that he hadn’t even thought of. This was what the Dungeon Core was meant to do, whereas he was simply a person who had been doing his best working with half-baked ideas.

The dungeon had made it all work, but the efficiency had been low. Now, with a trained operator at the helm, things could slowly become like a well-oiled machine.

Of course, at the moment and probably for the next while, resources were once again at a premium. All of these changes came at a cost, and while there had been a certain amount of stock built up, it was dwindling fast.

Even if he wanted to begin work on the second level or an additional Dungeon Core, it wouldn’t be right away. He needed to build up some reserves first, before he even thought of doing that.

Luckily, he no longer needed to micro-manage the first floor and could even copy some of what had been changed when he created the second level. With any luck, he would soon have a little more free time for other activities again, like training or cultivating.

Spending time with friends? Playing games, studying?

What did someone even do with their free time these days anyway?