Nate continued working on the dungeon for a while longer. He kept adding more rooms while not worrying about the traps for them just yet. There would be time to do that later. For now, he simply wanted to slow everything down.

He wasn’t creating another labyrinth, but a near-endless stream of trapped rooms he could do.

Well, as long as there were enough resources he could, anyway. At this point, he was even fine with the traps repeating. He was less worried about them being unique and more about their effectiveness above all else. It was too difficult to keep coming up with even semi-original traps for the dungeon that worked with the theme and restrictions he had placed on it.

He would need to put more thought into both of those things when he started the next one. The restrictions were a good thing, but the theme might not have been needed.

You live and learn. Nate never claimed to be perfect or know what he was doing when it came to all of this.

Frankly, he doubted anyone could make those claims. The best he could do was work with the feelings that he got from time to time. Those feelings had been a guiding influence on how he created parts of the dungeon, for better or worse. He still hadn’t entirely made up his mind on the matter.

The basic layout for the floor was a bit costly to implement. It was a simple snaking path of rooms, one after the other, with small halls or corridors in between. There were no complications or split areas where anything could get lost. It was a space maximized for trap deployment, and killing everything that entered its areas.

Failing all of that, it would at least slow them down considerably, either one was a win.

Even with the advantages of working through the wrist computer, it was still a slow process doing everything one-handed. By the time dinner rolled around, he had only finished creating around a quarter of the needed rooms. No new traps had been added to them either.

The beasts that entered were able to stroll through with impunity.

There were two rooms where he had managed to integrate traps that the Dungeon Core had previously created. Both rooms caught the monsters unaware and whittled down their numbers magnificently. It still wasn’t enough, but they helped.

The previously steady stream of attackers entering the first floor had slowed. There was still a line at the bridge, but now it was keeping things under control.

He had managed to contain the threat for the moment.

Closing his notebook, Nate quickly typed up a few notes on his laptop before putting it away and hopping off his bed. He had heard George knock on the front door a few minutes earlier.

Downstairs, he found them sitting in the kitchen, while dinner finished its last few minutes cooking in the oven.

George had a few different items sitting on the table with them and was pushing them idly around as they talked.

“Oh, there you are,” Nina said as Nate joined them.

He waved wordlessly at them and joined them at the table. “Hey George, been a couple of days.”

The healer eyed the young man and slowly nodded. “Indeed, a lot has happened since I last saw you. I was rather impressed with how you managed to diffuse the situation with Jace. That boy might not be as stupid as he acts, at least not in this case.”

“It was a group effort.”

“I’m sure it was, though the report I received from the Chrightons and Travers seems to say otherwise.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose and cracked his neck. “I’m beginning to wonder if mentioning you to Angela was a good idea. She seems to have brought nothing but trouble to your life.”

Nate couldn’t help but chuckle at how true those words were. “I’m not going to lie; things have been more interesting since I met her and Lindsay. I think that’s a good thing though. I wasn’t exactly swimming with friends at that point, you know? Most people were avoiding me. It was actually rather lonely at times.”

He began drawing circles on the table with his finger. “Sure, things have gotten messy ever since I met them, but it’s also been a lot more interesting than before. All I had before were my parents and studying. Now I have two possibly insane friends who haven’t abandoned me at the first sign of trouble.”

There had also been the computer on his wrist and the dungeon, but no one else knew about those. Besides, he hadn’t known at the time just how much time the dungeon could take up if he let it. Messing around with it could easily have taken over his life, to the point where he was no longer even trying to cultivate.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

It was better this way. The girls provided a reason for him to strive to improve.

George chuckled at the boy’s description of Lindsay and Angie. “Of course, they’re insane Nate, they’re teenage girls! The two go hand in hand.”

Nina flicked some water from her glass at him but didn’t say anything to refute him.

“Anyway, have you told anyone about the…?” George tapped the area on his chest where Nate’s backup core would be.

“I haven’t. It hasn’t exactly come up in conversation and I don’t know how to explain it.” Nate flicked his eyes to his parents, feeling more than a little guilty for keeping them in the dark about this particular item.

“Ah, well you could have told them, but I suppose doing it this way will make things easier to understand.” George pulled a lone sheet of paper from a bag at his feet along with a pencil. “I was able to do some research into what happened to you after I returned to the guild. I found it mentioned in exactly one book. Which means that since the dimensional zones began appearing, something like this has only occurred one other time.”

While he had been talking, he had also been drawing a rather decent facsimile of a person on the paper.

“Or at least been recorded one other time. I will admit that the exact events needed for this to occur are rather peculiar and unlikely under normal circumstances.”

Niall forcefully tapped the table with his finger, jostling the glasses of water on it. “Nate, what is he talking about? What did you not tell us?”

“I actually already had a core of sorts before the other night with Jace forced me to form a proper one. This other one is in a different location, and was created from the excess energy I guess from when I was healed.” He answered somewhat timidly.

“That’s only partially true. The energy for the backup core, because that is what it is, came from several different sources in this case. Nate kept increasing the amount of qi energy inside his damaged meridians, using the few that were still intact. There was also the remnant energy that he had initially built up to form the core that hadn’t quite dissipated just yet.

“There was also everything contained inside the medicine, and I’m sure there was more from other places that I’m not even thinking of at the moment. The point is, his body was still primed to create a core. That is what it had been doing when the process was interrupted. So, when the medicine healed him, the process started again, but since everything had changed, the location of the core also changed.”

Nate let out a sigh of relief. He was glad there was an actual explanation behind the thing’s presence and not just the computer messing around with him. He had little doubt that it had helped, but it was nice knowing it hadn’t simply created an unknown miracle just for him.

George continued to explain the process to them all, before finally getting to the salient bit of information. “I think the backup-core has a function that will help to increase the level or grade of Nate’s core. I can’t be sure, but the report on the person who had this before had his core grade increasing fairly regularly. So, either he was remarkably lucky at finding the herbs needed for the process, or-“

“Or the backup core does something to the main core that makes it easier to upgrade.” Niall finished for him; his forehead creased in concern. “I understand now why you told him not to tell anyone about it. If news about something like that ever got out, he would get swarmed, and possibly torn apart as a research subject.”

George nodded solemnly. “There is also the potential cost for future cultivators who would throw their lives away on the mere chance they might be able to replicate the circumstances. No, knowledge of what he has is best kept among us, and never mentioned again. Is that clear?” They all nodded. “If he has an easier time in the future upgrading his core, then that is simply proof of his outstanding talent, nothing more.”

“There is one other thing,” Nate brushed his finger across the drawing George had done to illustrate the placement of the two cores. “I think the backup core was the reason why I was able to choose the proper elemental energy core. I felt it react at the time, like it was telling me which ones wouldn’t work for me. It might have other functions as well.”

The adults breathed out in stunned silence.

Finally, George pushed an item toward him. “We need to find out what your elemental affinity is. I brought over some items that might help.” Since there was nothing he could do about what Nate had just said, he was simply going to ignore it for the moment.

The oven timer dinged right then, letting them know that whatever Nina had been cooking was done.

“That can wait until after we eat dinner. Right now, I still want some time to process everything that you both just told us. So how about we eat in silence for a bit?” She hurried over to the oven and pulled out the lasagna she had made.

It was a sad fact of life that it would be a little more bland than the ones he had eaten in his past life. It wouldn’t be bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the lack of certain herbs and spices was tough to get past. Whenever the merchant groups like the one Angie’s family-owned rolled into a city with a new batch of spices, they made bank.

Few groups were willing to make trips to the cities so far away that might carry the exotic items.

The city they lived in grew different chiles, peppers, and anything else that might grow in the climate. Unfortunately, that didn’t include fennel seeds, which were used in sausage. They also didn’t have access to ricotta cheese and had to make do with cottage cheese instead.

As a whole, it worked, but it was different from what he was used to.

Nina put down her fork and glanced at her husband, who nodded. “Alright, we’ve had some time to process everything, and it is indeed concerning. A little strange, I admit, but little about Nate is normal these days.” She finished wryly, her eyes twinkling in sad amusement.

The pain of losing her original son, while gaining another in his place, hadn’t entirely faded. She wasn’t sure it ever would. They might be the same person in body, but the things that made them different people were there. Even they were simply different sides of the same soul… Her Nate… the one she had given birth to had been different. That didn’t mean she loved the current one any less. Only that the hurt was still there.

Nate reached over and held his mother’s hand. It wasn’t hard for him to guess where her thoughts had gone. She was the only person he had told the truth about who he was to. He supposed he had always been a bit of a momma’s boy in that regard.

Letting go of her hand, he turned to George, who had arranged the items he had brought with him on the table. “Good, let’s get started, shall we?”