I woke up just a few hours later, even before the alarm set on my room’s clock blared with its annoying ringing. I awoke from the feeling of a pit in my stomach–a subconscious anxiety that burrowed through my insides and made me feel so nauseous that I couldn’t stay asleep.
I sat up in my bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, then blinked quickly to adjust to the dim light peeking through the small window at the top corner of my dormitory. The light illuminated my shaking hands in an iridescent blue, sourced from the lines of light decorating the domed ceiling of the cave that enclosed the city.
With my eyes closed and exhaling heavily through my nose, I threw off my covers and dared to leave the bed. I planted one foot on the ground at a time until I was reasonably steady and could let go of the mattress. My head still hurt, and my surroundings seemed to spin around me in slow motion.
I glanced at the yellow bottle Nic had left on my desk that held a plethora of more pills I could take. It was tempting because the medicine really had made the pain go away, even if just for a few hours, but it had also made me feel strange and taken away my ability to think clearly. And I wanted to remain self-aware for what my day had in store. I still had to go to class. And my first work shift as a scout support started that evening.
I straightened my shoulders and pushed my feet toward the desk, grasping the bottle of medicine into a fist and then throwing the entire container in a waste bin next to the bed. Workers came around the dormitories periodically to sweep, dust, and otherwise clean our rooms. By the time I would return from my day’s itinerary, the medicine would be gone.
I can handle a headache, I tried to convince myself. Though, intense headaches were what had brought me to the infirmary in the first place. If it gets bad again, I’m sure I can go back to the doctor.
After another second of hesitation, as I stared at the bottle resting on the bottom of the waste bin, I finally shook my head and moved to retrieve a fresh jumpsuit folded underneath my bed.
As I dressed, memories of Nic’s and my talk from the night before slowly began to return to me. I still suspected that Nic hadn’t wanted to have a real, full-on, two-way conversation and had insisted I take the medicine before he’d explained things to me about my Codex shutting off. My suspicions of Nic and my questions as to why he would do something like that were most likely the cause of the anxiety brewing within me and making me feel sick.
Nic had also said that I needed to try to level up and make sure that cultivating still worke. He was definitely right there. And if cultivating with Codex still worked, would that mean other things would function normally? Like understanding foreign languages? I could still understand Doctor Halestrom and Nic. Maybe Codex was still translating for me.
I smoothed down the fresh jumpsuit and made my way over to the satchel I’d brought from Edrona–where inside, I still kept Priest Kane’s core and the Tier 4 Nagari’s core and heart. I opened the satchel and peered into its contents, catching sight of the cores and the wrapped heart.
I knew it was stupid of me to wait to absorb the essence of the cores and heart. I needed to always take advantage of what I could to get stronger. But… they were the only things that tied me to home–to Drayek. Sure, I had my Tier 2 armor and weapon he’d bought me and other things from my planet that reminded me of my past life, but… I couldn’t explain it. There was life pulsing through the cores and Nagari heart. Life that I had somehow affixed to Drayek’s life. Once I’d drained the items of their essence, they’d be worthless–lifeless.
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But my livelihood and future were more important than keeping items that reminded me of Drayek. Logically, I knew that. Emotionally… Well, I was smarter than to let my emotions win.
Even the Nagari heart still had essence. Monster hearts didn’t spoil for at least a couple of weeks. Though its essence would have depleted significantly by now, eating a Tier 4 Nagari heart was still worth it before it spoiled.
I decided to accomplish the easiest thing first: drain the cores. I tried to ignore the tears that bit my eyes and push away images of the Tier 4 Nagari catching Drayek in their fight and stabbing him through the abdomen. I forced trembling fingers toward the glowing marbles, then touched my skin to both of them simultaneously. A trickle of warmth that rushed through my arms helped me temporarily forget both my physical and emotional pain, but only for a second or two.
Without trying to think too much, I hurriedly pulled the Nagari heart away from its wrapping, plugged my nose, then chomped down on the juicy flesh. I tried desperately to focus on the warmth that came from the essence I consumed but instead continued to gag through each stringy, metallic-tasting bite. I was careful to not allow any of the dark blood from the heart to dribble onto my clothes or the carefully swept floor of my dormitory. I succeeded–miraculously–then, once I finished every bite, I tossed the bloody wrapping I’d used to store the heart into the waste bin along with the yellow bottle of medicine.
My bed was the most comfortable place in my dormitory to sit and meditate for long periods of time, so I found myself back on the mattress with my legs crossed underneath me. I breathed deeply into my nose and allowed my eyelids to flutter shut, forcing myself to relax against the pain that still persisted in my head.
There was so much essence. I don’t think I’d ever seen so much dancing around my core. It took a while to churn all of the streams and cultivate them, but once I did, the image of my core visibly grew in my mind.
Ding!
And there it was… My stat screen. Nic was right; it still worked.
STATUS
NAME: CLONE #52
TIER: 3
LEVEL: 20
I couldn’t believe how many levels within Tier 3 I’d just climbed. I should have absorbed the essence from those cores and that monster heart ages ago. Granted, I also had a lot of essence stored from my daily process of absorbing everything I could as I saw the streams. But still, I’d just gone up 18 levels since the last time I’d cultivated.
I tried to recall how many levels were within Tier 3 and half expected Dex to respond to my thought immediately. A pang of sadness shot through me as he still remained silent.
Maybe if I find the Lord Solomon AI, he can help me regain Codex’s normal functions.
Though Dex didn’t speak to me, as I wondered how many levels I had left in Tier 3, another line of words and numbers hovered underneath my current level status.
20 OUT OF 25 LEVELS REACHED WITHIN TIER 3.
Hope brought a small smile to my face. Somehow, Dex’s system in my head still catered to some of my needs. Maybe Dex was still somewhat aware and was trying to help me in the ways he could. With that happy thought in mind, I mentally flipped to the next screen.
STATS:
MIGHT: 21
AGILITY: 18
VITALITY: 16
INTELLIGENCE: 21
WISDOM: 17
WILLPOWER: 18
FREE STAT POINTS: 54
That’s a lot of stat points….
Without Dex to help me, I felt ill-equipped to allocate the stats by myself. I needed to start thinking about what type of warrior I wanted to be. My assigned Skills leaned toward the spell-casting side of things, but I was also adept with a spear and was becoming decent at a sword. I liked melee fighting.
Though I had mixed feelings about Nic at that moment, I decided it might be best to ask him what he thought I should do. I didn’t like not having someone to advise me–even if I didn’t follow their suggestions like I often did to Codex.
I stared at my stat screen for a moment longer, then finally dismissed the image away, deciding to allocate my stat points later when I had a chance to discuss it with Nic. If he was to be my mentor, I should let him mentor me in more aspects than just learning to fight better. Though, I wasn’t sure what Nic wanted to teach me.
I slowly came out of my meditative state and stretched my stiff limbs with a sigh. I became all the more aware of my never-ending headache once my trance had ended. But, headache or not, I had classes to attend.