Chapter 11: Core nexus awakening.

Adam’s POV

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Sooo…

I'm sitting next to Dona, the wizard lady, and now there's one more body next to the unconscious bald guy. It was Kastor’s unconscious body.

Not much happened after that dude snapped and charged at me with the intent to kill. I was about to defend myself, but in the end, I didn’t have to do anything. The leader of the group swooped in and threw an absolutely devastating haymaker at Kastor, knocking him away like a tumbleweed and making him unconscious.

Dona then started explaining Kastor’s backstory a bit to me, but long story short, the man always wanted to be an alchemist to the point he had ruined his relationships with all his friends and family, and in the end, was abandoned by everyone. He wasn’t really that good in alchemy either, but wasn’t half bad after years of practice. All his life he had been trying to perfect his craft to the point of being hated and shunned by everyone he knows. He still pressed on, knowing that one day he’ll be proud of himself...

Only for this dirty kid to come out of a hole, have amnesia, and then do things Kastor couldn’t imagine doing in his lifetime.

I guess I'd be pretty pissed off myself if I spent my entire life trying to achieve something and a 10-year-old comes up to me, says "goo goo gaa gaa," and then builds a particle accelerator out of the dirt he scooped from my hands. Definitely would make me question my life choices.

Regardless, right now, the main thing I want is information... and common knowledge. I don’t want to end up doing things on a whim that are considered insane by the people around... Actually no. Knowing me, I’d probably not care. But I still need to.

"Adam, what do you want to do now?" Dona asked me, and I looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"You have amnesia, right? What are you going to do until you get your memory back?"

"Hmmm… I wonder," I said as I started pondering.

I looked around, and the leader was attending to his two unconscious teammates. I say attending, but he’s just sitting beside them and reading a book. The twins had either built or taken out a whole research table and were studying the bones of some kind of creature carefully. My eyes then went to the unconscious alchemist and then Dona the mage. While everyone was doing random things, they were all giving me hints and ideas about what I could do next. For example, researching, reading, alchemy, but most importantly, I wanted to get better at Metalweaving so I could start making some crazy things.

"You know we won’t mind if you join us," Dona said, casting a hopeful glance at her leader, who nodded like he was giving her the green light at a traffic signal. "We can teach you various things and even help you out when you’re in need. And you’re alone right now. You’re going to need some company."

It didn’t sound like a bad idea. I mean, having some allies is definitely a good thing, especially since I’m here in this world with no knowledge except from everything I know when I used to be alive.

Almost as if she could hear my thoughts, Nove started talking in my head. “Alper, please reconsider, and go back to your family. Your family must be extremely worried. We also need to bring back the information of your attempted assassination and get rid of our relations with the opposing clan.”

Damn it, Nove, I’ve had enough of being a mobster. I don’t want to do anything that is related to that again.

… Wait. What if there’s a misunderstanding? And the clans are not exactly like mobsters? But something else, and I’m just making a big deal out of nothing?

“Dona… Can you tell me what you know about clans and minor clans?” It’s better to get an outside reference just in case, right?

Her eyes went wide, as if she didn’t expect me to ask that. “A clan, huh? Well, they’ll accept you in a heartbeat. But if you want to know more about them, then… Each one of them are powerhouses that govern the world. Even the minor clans are extremely powerful.” She paused for a moment, putting a finger on her chin. “In terms of how they are, it’s based on each clan. For example, the Verdentweave clan, who're ethical in all things and make sure to take good care of the environment. Or how about the House Celestium, who keeps order and fairness. They’re also the most neutral clan amongst all the other clans, and their mark on history is also amazing.”

Damn, I'm curious about which major clan House Luminari's is joined to.

Nove responded, "Your clan, House Luminari, belongs to the House Celestium."

… Seriously?

Dona made a small smile, "Besides that, it's not like all clans are scheming villains. Well, there might be some turf wars over resources or ancient feuds, but it's not a full-blown war situation. If any clan goes rogue, the others will team up to put them in their place. So, you don't have to stress too much about accidentally joining the wrong crew."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Huh… Maybe I've been overthinking this whole clan scenario. Well, at least I won't have to worry about mob hits, just maybe a few disapproving glares.

I mulled over my options, and in the end, decided it's better to play it safe. I'll gather intel on my clan, and if everything checks out, I'll consider heading back. Having the backing of a whole organization can be a game-changer. Plus, if they turn out to be genuinely good folks, I wonder what it's like to have a real mom and dad?

Not that I haven't had parents before, but it was more of a title than anything else. They didn't exactly win any "Parents of the Year" awards, mainly leaving me to navigate life on my own. Can't say I miss them, though. Heck, I don’t even remember their faces anymore.

"Okay. I've made up my mind," I announced, glancing at Dona, who seemed just as curious about my decision as the leader, who couldn't help but eavesdrop.

"I'm heading to the nearest town to dig up some dirt on my past, and if that doesn't pan out, I might consider joining a clan."

Dona's expression shifted, a touch of sadness appearing on her face as she contemplated my choice.

"What if you have a family worried sick about you?" she questioned.

"Well, if I become the talk of the town in a clan, they're bound to catch wind of it, right? I'll make sure to reconnect with them once they do," I replied, throwing in a confident smile.

Dona nodded, and even the leader seemed to approve of my plan. But then, Dona dropped a bombshell.

"Okay, I'm coming with you," she declared, catching both me and the leader off guard.

The leader, clearly puzzled, asked, "Dona, what are you doing? We've got a mission in this cave."

Dona shot him a sidelong glance. "Oh, come on. Half the team is already knocked out. It's better to put the mission on hold for now. Besides, I'm just dropping him off in town; the wilderness can be dangerous."

The leader scratched his head for a moment before reluctantly nodding. "Alright, Dona, but make it quick, okay?"

Dona nodded and took my hand, saying, "Let's go," with a warm smile as she led me down the mountains. It didn't feel bad at all, being guided like a lost child.

With a staff in one hand and mine in the other, she skillfully navigated the rocky terrain.

"Oh, I forgot to give this back," I mentioned, realizing I still had the leader's dagger.

"That thing? It's just a piece of metal and some wood. It's barely anything," Dona casually dismissed.

Oh, right. Metalweaving was a common skill here. Almost as if she caught on to my confusion, she suddenly remembered, "Oh, I just remembered that you aren't able to metal weave properly, right?"

I nodded, playing up the innocent child act, hoping to trigger as many of her motherly instincts as possible. Hey, don't judge me; this was a new feeling motherly love.

"I'm guessing your nexus core helps you out in alchemy, but the downside is that you're not good with Metalweaving," she deduced, and I nodded in agreement.

"Correcting the host, I help out in all things. You don't know anything about Metalweaving," Nove immediately responded in my mind, as if taking offense to my agreement with Dona.

Shut up, Nove. Say that to Alper, not me.

I nodded again, and Dona chuckled, "Don't worry, you'll be able to make a core node that boosts your Metalweaving. But you can also increase your stats by practicing all the time. Just like increasing your strength; as long as you exercise daily, you'll increase your strength or agility or any other stat you want to improve."

Huh, I genuinely didn't know that.

"So, I can always increase my stats as long as I work hard?" I asked.

"Theoretically true, but it gets harder with more stat points. For example, a person with 1 stat in strength only has to do 5 pushups and will raise their stat by one point the next day. But a person with 50 strength will have to do about 500 pushups every day for a few days to increase their stat by even half a point," Dona explained.

"Ohhh, so that's how it works! That means there's a chance of turning my situation around in Metalweaving. YESSSSS—"

As I was happily contemplating the newfound possibilities, Nove dropped a bombshell on me.

"Alper, your other core is awakening. I'd advise going to your core nexus area just in case things go out of hand, since this is an impossible event happening."

Oh, shit. Really?

"Dona, mind if I check my nexus core area for a bit? Something seems to be wrong." Dona looked confused at first, but she nodded. I sat down cross-legged and imagined going into my core nexus area.

My consciousness started wobbling, and soon I found myself in the space where Nove had put me before. It was the same as before, floating deep in space with a small golden solar system in the middle. However, this time, there were four colorful orbs rotating around Nove—a brown dirt node, a grey stone node, a golden Caelum lapis node, and a red Chaos rune node.

I looked around for my other core, and it was far away. Before, it was completely black, and you wouldn't see it unless you really looked for it. But now, it was slowly pulsating with a white light. Every time it pulsed, it glowed white.

"Hey, other core thingy, what's up? You decided to join the party?" I said, as if talking to an old friend but it just kept pulsating.

"Now that I think about it, I thought it would take a long while for my other core to awaken, but isn't this quite fast?" I asked Nove.

The golden core nexus pulsated with each word it spoke, "It's because I have been feeding it materials so it can awaken as soon as possible."

"I see."

I waited for a bit until the other core started pulsating quickly until it kinda looked like it blew up. The dark black space I was in completely vanished.

"Warning! Connection with host deteriorating!"

"Nove!?" I screamed as I looked at her, and she suddenly got blown away from her spot as the center of this cosmic sub-space. A window opened up for a split second, and I saw this:

W̷̰̬͕̉̽̽Ȃ̴̯̙̮R̵̦͎̓͜N̶͓͘I̸̡͓͒ͅN̷̹͑͋̒G̷̜̒̈:̸͍̗́͆͜ ̴͎̞͕̋C̷̢̺̠̎O̷͉̒̃N̵̳̤̊N̴̟͎̉͛Ē̸̫̉̅C̵͇̍̕T̶̗̤̍́͝I̴̜͒͠O̷͖̗̽Ń̴̯̝ ̵̝̭̉͗̄W̸̻͎͜͠I̸̠̠͚͌͋͒Ť̷̫̗̬͐Ḥ̶̫̅ ̸̡̟̀͋H̷̘̃O̴̲̍̂S̴̱͠T̶̫͖͚̈̍̈ ̴͖̿̓L̴̢̘͎̿̍́O̵̡̦͘S̵̨̟͝T̷̴̖͔͔͐͗̚.

Ahh shit.

I looked back at the new Core Nexus, and the entire Core Nexus area had changed. The cosmic space had disappeared, and instead, a very familiar sub-space opened up. There was a clear blue sky above and a still ocean below my feet. There were no signs of any animals or any living thing.

Wait… Isn't this the place I came to after I died?

… Did I die again?

"Well, this is awkward. Uhh… is it to late to apologize for punching your face?" I mumbled to myself, half-expecting the fake goddess to appear and respond with an eye-roll.