Still, it is a good distraction and the results could end up being pretty valuable. I end my experiments for the day and go upstairs to join the others for dinner. The kids went into the shadow plane today, so they have a lot to talk about as we eat.

This time they left the city, so they had a chance to see the effect of all that training. Apparently, it has been worth it, they were able to deal with everything they encountered. Luckily, they aren't letting it go to their heads, they plan to continue training.

After dinner, Lin and I head up to the library and I ask Jarvis to fetch me any books about magical materials. The more I know about the materials, the better my experiments will go. Since we robbed several libraries, there are quite a few books about materials.

Because of that, a lot of the information in the books is redundant, but that makes reading them faster. After a while, I just have to look through the index for any materials I don't recognize. This allows me to get through all of the books by the time Lin is ready to head to bed.

We have our fun as usual and this time I manage to fall asleep shortly after Lin does. I sleep through the night and wake up feeling refreshed and energized. Thanks to that, Lin and I are a little late in joining the kids for breakfast.

As soon as breakfast is done, I head down to my workshop to continue experimenting. With what I learned from the books, my failure rate drops quite a bit. When I go to build more golems in the future, I will at least have a few more options.

I don't really expect to find anything amazing, this is mostly just for fun. I take a break to join the others for lunch and then go right back to work afterwards. By dinnertime, I have almost run out of combinations to try with the materials I have.

I have a lot of different materials, but I don't have anywhere near all of them. The ones I have are mostly the cheaper materials, I am missing a lot of the rarer ones. There are a lot of combinations that I learned from the books that I can't try.

However, I will keep them in mind just in case I manage to get some of the rare materials. Still, I am not disappointed in the least, I found an alloy that will be pretty useful. It only needs some of the cheaper materials that I have a lot of and it is decently strong.

That can wait for tomorrow, for now I go join the others to have dinner. After dinner I read manga with Lin until she is ready for bed and then make love to her. Once Lin falls asleep, I enter into meditation and start working on my core.

Core Upgrade Progress: 100%

Core Upgrade Completed! Rank 14 -> Rank 15!

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Rank Up Benefits: HP +2,000, MP +1,000, DP +500, Evolution Points +2!

'The benefits are even better this time and it even gave me evolution points! Not many, but still.'

Just as I am celebrating I notice that something odd is happening to my core. My core suddenly starts trembling, or maybe vibrating is a better word for it. It is slow at first, but it soon starts increasing in speed and I have no idea what is going on.

Nothing like this has ever happened before, my core has never moved unless I was working on it. I have to admit that I am scared, while this could be a good thing, it could also be horrible. Maybe I have been improving my core too quickly lately and this is the result.

I am hoping that this is just temporary and that it will settle down soon. However, just as I am trying to think positively, my core cracks like an egg. When that happens I am hit with a sudden wave of pain that throws me out of my meditation and makes me scream out loud.

Lin says "Ash! What's wrong?!"

The only answer that I manage to give her is another scream as my core cracks further. The pain is so intense that I am sure that my Pain Resist skill isn't working. Either that or this pain would be enough to kill me if I didn't have the skill.

Before I can even think of something to try to fix it, my core suddenly explodes. When it does, an even bigger wave of pain hits me and after screaming again all I see is darkness. When I wake up, I am laying on the floor with my head resting on Lin's lap.

Lin says "Finally wake? You scared me half to death! What happened?"

"I'm not sure. I was working on my core and ranked it up to rank fifteen, but then something went wrong. It started vibrating and shortly after it cracked. The pain from it cracking is what made me scream."

Lin says "Your core cracked?! That's really bad news, isn't it?!"

"It gets worse. Right before I passed out, my core exploded."

Lin says "What?! What does that mean for you? What did it do to you?"

"I actually don't know. I just woke up and haven't had a chance to check yet. I feel fine, nothing hurts."

Lin says "Well, what are you waiting for? Find out!"

"I was waiting so that I could reassure you so that you wouldn't worry."

Lin blushes a little and lightly smacks me on the forehead, which just makes me chuckle. I close my eyes, enter into meditation, and try to figure out what happened. However, when I take a look at my core I find that it is completely different.

What has taken the place of my core looks like a ball of fire with a silver disc around it. Honestly, the first thing I think of when I see it is a star with a ring around it. The ball seems to be completely made of fire, but the ring or disc seems to be made of lightning.

They are not causing me any pain and when I check my body I don't find anything wrong. Also, my stats page still shows me as rank fifteen, so I didn't lose anything. It seems like my core wasn't destroyed, instead it seems to have transformed.

I still have no idea what happened, or why, but at least it looks like it wasn't harmful. I also have no idea what I am supposed to do now, it doesn't look like I can work on my core anymore. At least not how I have been up until now, but I will worry about that later.

For now, I run through everything I can think of to make sure nothing is wrong. I even run mana through all my muscles and nerves to check for irregularities. Once I am sure that nothing is wrong, I end my meditation and tell Lin everything.

Lin says "Okay, so you aren't dying, that's good. In that case, I am going back to sleep!"