1,050 shards, that's how much I’ve gotten from selling the stuff from the research center. Obviously, I keep the best items and data. Even then, that leaves me with just over 27 thousand shards. At that point, I decided to buy another epic passive.

Sure, I could save my shards and advance my plan to build a repertoire of rare passives, and try to learn a thing or two, but with what's happening around me, that might not be such a good idea.

The Veil Guardians have been sniffing around, the Veil itself is acting weird, and my duplicate has been cooking something up. I mean, I have [Tether] too, but how the heck did he teleport a giant mana crystal from the bunker like that, and where did he send it?

“Master, another one!” Vega rushes closer and hands me a few small mana stones. After examining them, if they aren't useful, I sell them as well, getting a few more shards.

“Good job, minion, did you keep any for yourself?”

“I’ve done exactly as master said. I’ve already started practicing.”

“Good, keep doing that. You can push yourself harder, I will step in if you lose control.”

“It's hard with all of the items the mister gave me and all this mana floating around, but I will try.”

As she goes back to her training, I open the system shop and look at the passive I’ve been eyeing.

Cognitive Fortress (Epic) - Bestows upon the user a remarkable capacity for sustained mental engagement. This passive bolsters the user's cognitive stamina to extraordinary levels, helping them endure prolonged periods of intense cognitive activity.

It's a bit expensive, just over 15 thousand shards. With epic passives starting at 8 thousand, this is probably one of the better ones. If there are hidden low, mid, and upper ratings like I think there are, then this one is probably in the upper tier, maybe high mid.

My current passives are as follows:

Mana-Fortified Resilience (rare)

Mana Reservoir (epic)

Arcane Resilience (epic)

Phoenix Embrace (epic)

Mana Overload Absorption (epic)

The rare passive isn’t even worth speaking of at this point. Mana Reservoir is my current favorite.

Arcane Resilience says it reduces the physical toll of casting. Through testing, I’ve learned that it refers to my tendency to overload my brain and eyes, though not so much as it protects my body from my ever-growing stat imbalance.

Then there is the beautiful passive skill known as Phoenix Embrace, granted this will surely lead to a lot of trash-talk from Lily and she’ll likely demand that I sell it.

I won't, I love it.

Mana Overload Absorption is like Arcane Resilience, though it works differently.

So, Cognitive Fortress should help me deal with the strain my eyes subject me to. My new trait is powerful and difficult to handle, even now. And that's good. The more dangerous it is to me, the more dangerous it should be to others.

Or something like that.

It should also help with my attempts to power [Focus] and my other skills with the black mana, even if it doesn’t do as much as the other two.

Okay, let's buy it.

I buy Cognitive Fortress and confirm, and watch with a touch of sadness as over 15 thousand shards disappear.

For the next few minutes, I focus on resisting the burning sensation that courses through me. It feels like someone has set my head ablaze from the inside, but I refuse to let it show as I continue observing Vega’s training.

Then, as we are leaving, I even sell some tables that are basically enchanting tables. It doesn't get me that many shards, but after spending so much on my new passive, I intend to sell anything that isn't nailed down. Even if it is, I mean to remove it and sell it. I don't care if it's only worth 1 shard. Hell, I would sell the entire station if I could.

“So, Minion, how was the week back in your village?” I ask while waiting for the pain to abate.

It takes her a moment to refocus from the mana stone she was observing and look up at me with her ruby-like eyes.

“I appeared at the same place I disappeared from. I then tracked and killed the monster that was hunting me before! Master, it was so weak I can't believe I was so scared back then, I even cried while running.”

“It's fine to be scared, minion. It helps us survive.”

“But master isn't scared. You even block your fear,” she tilts her head.

“Only a little and less of late. Sometimes I enjoy the feeling of fear, minion. It makes the fights more fun.”

“Master is weird.”

“Yup.”

“So I killed the monster and then returned to the village. I spent the first few days much as I did before, I didn't let anything slip and kept hiding and observing different people’s strengths. A few times I went to hunt in the forest too. Then a few days before returning, I masked myself and started asking questions.”

I'm trying to imagine my silly minion beating a bunch of old men and find the thought amusing. Even she is smiling at the memory. Vega swings her arms, acting out the way she dealt with the men, and describes how she made them talk and where she kicked them.

She thanks me for teaching her the kick and describes how scared some of the men were while adding things they did to her before she became my disciple.

As amused as I am by her antics, I'm also angry. I can’t help but think that if I were there, those people would have ended up much worse.

Hurting someone like me is fine, but hurting a kid? Trying to inflict so much trauma on someone as curious and cheerful as Vega here?

I'm glad I became her master. I'm glad I showed her a way out so she can stay as beautiful as she is.

I also remember the conversation I had with my duplicate and as I listen to Vega telling me her story, I come to the answer.

There is no way I would be able to hurt Vega like that. Yes, I will push her to become stronger and it might even hurt, but every time it will be for her good, and I will be sure she’s ready. But I will never hurt her the way others did.

My duplicate realized it before me and seems to have had some fun teasing me like that. Such an asshole. Biscuit truly is the greatest to realize it so quickly and keep calling me, us, out like that.

“Vega, one day I will introduce you to Biscuit. I think you would like each other.”

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“Is Biscuit also one of your minions?”

“Not everyone is my minion, you silly disciple.” I pinch her horn and shake her head. “You guys probably won't meet in the tutorial, but after I get out I will find your planet. It will take some years so be patient, okay? Until then become as powerful as you can so I don’t have to be ashamed in front of Biscuit.”

“I might be even stronger than master after that much time,” she says with a cheeky smile. “And then you will be my minion!”

Look at her.

“If you do, that’s fine. I’ll even call you Master Vega and ask you to teach me,” I say and watch as her eyes become dreamy and I lean closer, continuing in a whisper. “Just imagine that. Master Vega and her lowly minion Nathaniel. Your heart even more powerful than mine and then it would be me following you around, begging you to teach me.”

Her eyes widen even more, and I can see how much she would like that.

In the end, I stand up, the pain of acquiring the passive nearly gone. “So give it your best, but be careful, okay?”

“Will do, master!”

I look through a few more rooms, and I'm once again amazed by how much work has been put into this station. The walls have all been shielded, and optimized for extreme durability yet they still have a decent aesthetic to them. There are drains set into the floor in some facilities in case of toxic spillage or flooding.

Air filtration devices are all over the place and some of the things they’ve done with inscriptions remain a mystery to me even now. I can imagine myself spending months down here, trying to learn as much as possible.

Well, I might have better opportunities on higher floors. So I just examine the most interesting things and keep the best items while selling the rest and then head back into the destroyed control room where Duplicaniel and Nevan are already waiting.

“Out of curiosity, I jumped to the bunker we were using,” my duplicate says. “It's already been overrun by monsters and the doors are wide open so we’ll have to change our base.”

“So, plan B.”

“So it seems. I brought back a few items from the bunker, and you can do as you like with them. Consider it a show of my goodwill,” he teases.

“I had hoped that we could stay here. I don’t think they can pass by Gaiathra that easily, but there is the issue with the mana radiation.”

While I grab some items from the pile and sell them, my duplicate continues,“ We have a few hours, maybe six at most with all the stuff we have and maybe half of that if we move closer to the core. Am I right?” he turns to Nevan.

“Longer. I’ve still got items that I haven’t used yet,” the man answers. “Keep the girl close; we’re heading deeper.”

Then he leads the way, wearing a full set of items he made of a mix of metals. He grabs rods as well; his mana seeps through his chestplate. There are no inscriptions; it's just the alloy reacting to his mana by vibrating at an extremely weird frequency, and that greatly strengthens the effect.

Step after step, we trail behind him as the mana around us increases.

Even with all the protections we have, I feel pressure and channel more mana into the barrier I’ve placed around Vega and myself. To reduce my expenditure, I pick Vega up into my arms where she nestles her ear against my chest and listens to my heart.

As we pass through the next zone, the sheer amount of mana seems to be causing effects beyond the pressure. Some colors seem to have altered their vibrancy. Red, blue, and yellow grow much more vibrant, while others grow flat.

We notice the iron walls curve, looking more like waves frozen mid-movement rather than straight sheets of metal.

For a short time, all sound disappears, replaced by the impossibly loud beating of our hearts. I'm even able to differentiate whose heart is whose.

Then it stops, and as we continue, the air starts to look misty.

All of the epic rods crack and wear off, only to be thrown away, and Nevan uses even more of his mana to strengthen the effect of his chestplate, reinforcing the barrier around us. At this point, I'm sure the piece he made is a mere step away from arcane. The most he could do in the time given to him.

We pass through holes that have been torn in the walls and melted doors, and eventually enter a large circular room. Yellow and purple colors become much more vibrant and a pillar radiates light in the otherwise dark room.

It's much simpler than expected and much smaller.

The bunker we left did have a mana crystal to hold mana, and that crystal was as tall as a smaller skyscraper. This room is the size of a small apartment, and as expected, there is a mana stone in the center.

It is a clear white color, and inside of it, yellow and purple mana swirls lazily, and just the sheer pressure makes my disciple pass out, and I strengthen the barrier around her even more, reaching into my reservoir to do so.

Looking at the mana stone, I'm once again reminded that it has been leaking mana for a hundred years already. It's hard to imagine the sheer force it had to have in the beginning. The mana stone itself looks like a transparent crystalline pillar with mana swirling inside. It is only as tall as me, yet even someone with my level of experience can see how amazing it is.

The mana crystal from the bunker, even though hundreds of times bigger, can't compare to this. Not even close.

But there is a problem with it.

Lodged inside the core is an ax, leaving a crack, through which, that immense mana can seep.

Holding the ax, there is a burned corpse, a skeleton with bits of flesh hanging off of it. Half of the head is missing, the place where the heart would be is nothing but a big hole. Someone made sure the attacker was dead though they were too late, the damage had already been done.

A chuckle erupts out of nowhere, and I look at Nevan, who unbelievingly stares at the corpse.

Finally, more emotion appears on his face. The pain of finding the world in this state, the pain from seeing his dead wife and daughter. All of it surfaces as he weakens his concentration type skill.

“The ax that destroyed the core was made by Champion Niall and I,” he says as mana radiates from him, bits of metal floating into the air from his bags. “And this man is my father, one of our youngest Champions. He was the only one on this planet with a body strong enough to endure the destruction of a core of this grade. Having even this little left shows how strong his body used to be,” he smiles deprecatingly.

Then he points to burned marks on the floor, “This is where the core’s explosion burned Champion Niall’s first disciple. I can feel alloy melted into the floor from the armor I made for her.” He points at another spot, “Champion candidate Igred, I made a bracelet for him,” another spot, “Champion candidate Norret, I made a brooch for her, she gave me a design to follow, made by her 5-year-old daughter,” another spot, “vice guild master of Black Hand Jeal asked me for a dagger and I still remember how drunk he got while celebrating and constantly thanking me.” He points out more and more spots.

The emblems on his forearms activate and even in such intense mana radiation, he starts melting the pieces of metal floating around him, creating yet another alloy.

Then the armor on his chest also disconnects and starts melting under his emblem, the mana radiation immediately attacking the man.

At that moment, his face becomes clear. “I had hoped that my father would be alive as you said there might be some Champions left. I hoped for something. But this?” He gestures around. “I have nothing left. I'm tired after 20 years of losing my friends. I never wanted to hold my wife’s or my daughter’s dead body. I never wanted to see my father like that, it doesn’t matter if he was a traitor or if he tried to stop the ignition.”

Half of the alloy he creates moves towards the crystal where it surrounds the crack, causing the ax to fall out and crumble alongside the body of his father.

Nevan's body shows damage everywhere I look, even with as durable as he is. “I wish you had never brought me out of here and allowed me to wake up, Nathaniel.”

His metal surrounds the crack fully and the mana radiation weakens and continues to weaken even more. Though too late for Nevan.

“But don’t pity me; I’ve been dying ever since I awoke. You just find out what happened, learn from our mistakes, and never repeat them.” A big chunk of the alloy he made moves towards me and lands at my feet. “And take this, it’s an alloy I’ve created after my entire life of research.”

“You know you could just leave. You could join other survivors,” I say to the dying man.

“I could, but I have decided otherwise.”

I can do nothing in the face of his determination. “I will respect your decision then, Nevan. Can I do anything for you before you die?”

“Please burn my body with the Primordial energy you possess. You don’t need to do anything else.”

“I will.”

He smiles gratefully, and after a minute, he dies. Just a short moment without his equipment was enough. That and a hundred of years of lying down here in this radiation.

Maybe he could be saved; there are two healers on this floor, and even though they are of much lower level, they could help.

Yet, it was all his decision. To throw away his concentration type skill and allow his feelings to overtake him. The man was unwilling to live on alone.

I wish I could say I understand, but I do not.

In his place, I would hold on to my life and kill every single person who dared to hurt my dear ones before I would die. And I would not stop until their bodies lay at my feet.

My eyes activate and even though there is still so much mana in the air, the pressure remains manageable. I watch as the mana that until now continued to leak through the crack only seeps out slightly, the ring of multicolored mass blocking the crack caused by the axe.

Then there is the chunk of molten metal alloy he left to me along with the heavily damaged great ax that cracked the core. They’re both pretty high grade, yet it all feels a bit sour.