Owen wasn't sure how long he had been trapped inside his core space for, but eventually he saw a spark ignite in his core. Energy slowly began to flow through his damaged meridians, but it flowed nonetheless. Owen did his best to not do anything that might use it and just focused on circulating it through his pathways to check for damage.
Most locations were fine, others would need work. His gut where he had been stabbed had already healed physically but a tear had torn through a large collection of both meridians and stars. He did his best to avoid cycling his mana through that area and just focus on slowly absorbing the experience that had formed a shell around his core.
He wasn't sure how long it took, but he could tell too much time had passed in the real world for everything to be okay. He still wasn't able to leave his core space which concerned him, but he had pushed that to the back of his mind long ago. There was too much damage still and while there was little he could do there were still things he could try. It didn't take him long to realize that while in his core space he could use mana however he wished. Perfect control over the movement and flow of the still so foreign energy, but as time passed he started using it to rebuild his meridians.
He began to create strings of mana that he wove together and began creating a patchwork frame to his pathways. The stars were too far above his understanding as they seemed more than just the intersections of meridians, but he was far out of his depth. Time slipped by as he wove a tapestry of mana to create new meridians and began connecting them to the original ones. As if a switch had flipped it became easier and easier as section after section was slowly fixed. It wasn't perfect and as he began a full circulation of his mana, some of it still seeped through his patchwork and turned into wisps of smoke.
He assimilated the rest of the experience, his core turning an odd mix of colors and it began to look somewhat yellow, but it quickly settled into an odd mixed of green and yellow. When he finished, he felt like his whole core space twitched and disappeared.
Everything ached, but he could immediately tell that it wasn't a result of his body hurting but his core space still not being entirely healed. He looked around groggily and was surprised to see he was back at their clinic lying in one of the beds. He tried to sit up and realized that he had large leather straps holding him down, perfectly keeping him from moving. He smiled as he was about to show off the benefits of having a strength stat as high as his, but as soon as he began to press against the straps, a wave of nausea swept through him. He fought to keep himself from throwing up and held it back only barely.
He took a couple minutes to settle himself and realized something was still terribly wrong with him. He knew that his pathways weren't entirely fixed, but he had thought it wouldn't be this bad since he had patched them. Seeing no other option though, he pulled up his notifications with his eyes bugging out at the sheer amount.
*You have slain King Roman Advika Level 45. You have gained 10000 experience, 7500 experience has been consumed by your 1st grade soul.*
Owen cursed under his breath, he had known he couldn't expect much else from having upgraded his soul temper, but a 75% cost of experience was enormous. If he wanted any chance at keeping up with anyone, he would need to do four times what they did just to maintain a similar level. He forced himself to calm down since he knew he had been able to at least partially keep up with Myra. Their fighting strength wasn't too different since if it came down to it he still had Briar to help him out and it was impossible for anyone to keep up with that monster. Looking back to his notifications, he hoped for better news, but was only confused.
*You have successfully completed a tier 3 gate. You have gained 3000 system credits, plus an additional 2500 credits due to your contribution.*
He was pretty sure these were supposed to be currency but he didn't know or remember where he was supposed to use them or even how he was supposed to. Choosing to ignore it for now, at least until he could talk with Peggy and Myra about it, he looked to the next list of notifications feeling his heart sink.
*Your core is mana starved
Your core is corrupted by chaos
You have lost skills*
He hadn't imagined it, he had hoped that the last messages he had seen were something he had hallucinated, but even ignoring the fact he had been forced into his core space, there were still signs something was wrong. He hoped the next notifications were slightly better since these were still from before he had started fixing his meridians, but he didn't have high hopes considering there was still a leak in his constellation.
*You have partially cleared the chaos from your pathways
Your core is mana starved
You have lost all skills
You have gained the skill Polymath's Keen Eye
You have gained the skill Mana Manipulator: Level 1
You have gained the stat Chaos
You have gained the title Wielder of Chaos - Grants a +10 to Chaos stat*
Owen was at a loss for words nothing made sense none of the other notifications he had been provided gave any answers either. He had lost all of his skills only to earn a few immediately afterwards. Worried about the first message he saw, he dove back into his core space and began searching for any signs of damage still, but while looking, he couldn't see anything to indicate there was damage and there weren't any remnants of the black energy that had invaded him earlier. Focusing his attention back to reality, he just felt lost, though he felt like he had to laugh somewhat. Despite all of the work put into trying to learn a new skill, he hadn't managed to learn a new one. Apparently all it took though was almost dying and being infected with some kind of energy called chaos energy.
He decided to look through his skill list, if only to prove to himself it was all real. Sure enough, he was missing every single skill, including the self creator skill the system had gifted him at the beginning. The only ones left were the polymath's keen eye skill he had taken for his own and a skill he had managed to learn after the damage had been done. Trying to look on the bright side, he pulled up the description of his new mana skill.
*Mana Manipulator allows the user to control the movements of mana in the environment, using it to create, shape and move the world at large.*
He immediately began trying to move the mana in the environment and with the activation of his skill it was as if he could see a whole new world. Microscopic particles floated through the air and as he took control of the skill, he was able to push the particles in the air and shape it. His hands braced against the straps as he instinctually tried to follow the movements in his head as he slowly began to shape the mana into a ball. It slowly gathered together and seemed to congeal together into a blob, before he began to smooth out the shape until an almost perfectly round sphere of mana floated before him. He tried to throw it at the wall, but as if it were made out of snow, the mana burst into pieces before slowly breaking back down into particles.
Owen tried to think of all of the uses for it, but not many came to mind. So far it didn't seemed like there was much structure to mana by itself and that it would need some external force to give it power. He started by creating another ball then tried to infuse some of his mana into it. The sphere seemed to solidify and this time when he threw it forward it splattered against the wall holding together with a viscosity similar to cottage cheese. Small remnants still stayed together, though they immediately fell apart as he let his infusion of mana drop.
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He then had an interesting thought. He had gained another stat recently and stared at his new chaos stat.
*Chaos = 10*
Curious he tried pulling up a description of the stat since he had gotten one when he had gotten all of the other stats and was satisfied when he saw a message window pop up.
*Chaos is antithesis to mana, where mana is the essence of the world itself, chaos is the catalyst of change and causation for the creation of new things. Cannot raise this stat under normal circumstances. WARNING any attempts to use Chaos energy will often result in things outside of expectation and frequently result in death.*
Owen wasn't sure what to think, it seemed like something really strong and when thinking about the boss fight, there hadn't been anything the seemed out of the ordinary. His Keen Eye skill had clearly shown him that it was an energy the boss had managed to utilize somehow, but he hadn't seen anything that didn't look like there wasn't some measure of control behind it. He knew it was stupid, but he once again activated his mana manipulator skill and this time reached out to the foreign energy. It was easier to move than he had expected, so without putting much more thought into it, he took the ball of loose mana he had created and tried to force some of the chaos energy into it.
Pressure unlike any other he had experience appeared in the same moment he pushed the chaos and mana together. It sounded like tiny explosions were going off and when he tried to look at what was happening it felt like glass had been shot into his eye. He struggled in the restraints screaming in pain as the energy and pressure seemed to build. He tried cancelling the skill, but whatever he had done couldn't be stopped now. Hot flashes of pain wracked through his entire body. The whole world seemed to freeze as the energies seemed to have reached a climax, before a blast of energy tore through the room he was in destroying the wall and door. Fractures now decorated each of the other walls and Owen could only feel grateful that the building hadn't fallen down on him.
He felt a shiver run down his spine as he could tell he had almost died due to that tiny moment of curiosity. He heard shouting coming from outside the building and he sank further into the bed than before as a wave of exhaustion hit him. He saw a system notification appear and was surprised.
*You have gained 2 stat points in your Chaos stat*
Despite almost having died and the system itself warning him, he couldn't help but marvel at the power displayed by such a small infusion of his energies. It was something he wanted to try out on his own, but he would need to figure out a way to test without immediately killing himself. He already wasn't sure where he accessed the chaos energy from as using his mana manipulator skill didn't make it look like there was any chaos energy floating around with the wisps of mana.
He also didn't have a new resource bar listing out how much energy was left. It had sort of just appeared when he had called out to it, which he supposed was better than it being stored somewhere in his body because as he put more thought into it, he realized his whole body functioned partially off of mana, so if chaos energy had been injected into him, he might've exploded on the spot.
It didn't take long after he had heard the shouting from outside that he had people start rushing towards him. There was a brief pause in the hallway just out of sight of where Owen was strapped down, but less than a second after the pause, Myra, Peggy, Lucas, and Briar poured into the room. A wave of relief washed through him as they all said their hellos and he was happy to see that everyone else was okay. He smiled warmly as they all just shared in each others company for the moment, leaving everything else system related behind, at least for now.
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Chaos was a dangerous tool that only the most daring gods took advantage of. It brought with it great power, but also there was no way to fully understand the result of chaos energy clashing with mana. Given that the essence of everything was mana, everything instantly became more dangerous with it's use.
Aesona herself barely dared to use it more than required to complete some of her projects. The forming of stars was a good example of the use of chaos energy, though the creation of life was even more fundamental to the process of merging mana and chaos.
She felt her wariness grow as she peered down on her newest inheritor that wasn't quite an inheritor. Walking down the path of chaos so early would either lead to an early death or one of the most powerful mortals in a span of only a couple millennium.
As she peered down she took the opportunity to check on the boys core that should've broken into millions of pieces, yet somehow he had managed to once again make something his, when by all means it was an impossibility. She knew that he had managed to steal her inheritance by absorbing a skill into his very soul, though it seemed like he was still not aware himself.
She was surprised the system hadn't needed to get rid of the keen eye skill as well, since usually anything related to chaos poisoning needed to be erased or the there would be risk of a soul fracture. Yet somehow his soul had managed to not only withstand the chaos energy, but he had somehow managed to absorb some of it, while keeping his skill and quickly gaining another one.
His core was slowly starting to recover from the mana starvation and in a short couple days he would be back to full functionality, even if it would still be infected by chaos. She smiled at his amateur effort to fix his pathways and decided it was worth breaking some small rules. Breaking off a part of her soul, she sent it down into the mortal world in search of an old friend.
She found Xerxes in short order, making the preparations for one of the other members of the zodiac to ascend. She felt bad for their process, but she chose to hold back her thoughts as she had other reasoning for the visit.
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Xerxes was tired, he had been slowly infusing different rare catalysts to further improve the array required for one of the zodiac members to ascend. He wasn't a fan of the array, but as a member he had sworn that when one of the others was on the cusp he would donate his energy to help them make the difference in their ascension.
He felt a familiar presence descend and thinking it was one of the other members of the zodiac, turned around in anger to address them. He had been being bothered day in and day out for being late on the selection of an heir, despite still choosing one by the agreed upon time, even if they had been the last heir chosen out of the bunch. He began to get ready to tell them off, but as he turned he saw a face he could never forget.
"Master, it has been... so... so long." Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, but he forced them to stay for now as he stared up at his old master. She smiled warmly at him and held out a hand to help him back to his feet. He hesitantly reached out and grabbed it, letting himself get pulled up. "You coming here is a breach of protocol, you will get heavily punished upon your return." Xerxes said not able to hold back the look of worry on his face. His master only nodded before a table and chairs appeared and she sat down gesturing for him to do the same.
"Owen has discovered the concept of Chaos while inside a mere tier 3 gate, I'm not sure how chaos was able to enter a gate as weak as tier 3, but he has corrupted pathways." She said simply, pausing for a moment to let Xerxes process the news. "He has also already started combining chaos and mana and as far as I could tell it doesn't look like his brush with death will be enough to dissuade him." She continued. "I would like to reward him though, as he has successfully knitted together some of his pathways, though the work is shoddy at best."
Placing a white almost translucent pill into Xerxes hands she smiled. "You will have the opportunity to give this to him soon. Let him know this is a gift from me as this is the last time I am going to be able to have any effect in the mortal realm. Lastly, please guide him, the knowledge he will be able to learn through the guild system isn't sufficient in explaining the situation he has found himself in. Also, most importantly, remember to take care of yourself, I know that soon you will be the weakest you have been in a long time soon. I worry for you and miss you my dear disciple."
As she finished speaking, her form began to shimmer and slowly disperse, but not before she pulled Xerxes into a tight embrace.
"Goodbye, it was nice to see you again!" Her form quickly disappeared after that, leaving Xerxes in tears and he sat at the table. He didn't even have the mental fortitude to realize that the table and chairs should've also disappeared since she brought them, but he was too busy thinking about his task. He gave himself some time to grieve however, gods could only descend a couple times, and he had long ago thought he would never seen his master again when he realized he couldn't ascend. Going through that rollercoaster of emotions again wasn't easy, even for him.
It was still several months away from when the first humans would reach level 50, then everyone would be given a second opportunity to meet with their previous sponsors and train for a month this time rather than a week. Xerxes immediately began coming up with what they would work on and go through, setting the array to the side for now as something far more interesting had happened. He just hoped that for now the guild resources would be enough to help keep Owen alive for long enough to have the meeting.