“Time out!” Zane shouted as he removed the spear that was lodged in his shoulder. “I've got places to be, and I can't teach today. Class is canceled.”

The assembled kobolds looked at him with disappointment, but they let him depart in peace. Zane used his regeneration ability to close the wound as he walked.

Initially the young man had thought regeneration wasn't worth purchasing. He had assumed a pure glass cannon build would be ideal. But the ability worked wonders for the bruises and fractures he accumulated whenever he fought.

His body had toughened up as he leveled. But Zane was still relatively squishy. He weighed the pros and cons of improving his durability. It would also be possible to upgrade his regeneration again, which might give more bang for his buck.

It would cost ten essence points no matter which he chose, and upgraded abilities stacked. Doubling up on regeneration might not prevent him from being instantly killed in an ambush, or if he met a truly superior opponent. But it would keep him going in a long drawn out fight.

Zane connected to the Mesh, accepted the level he had been holding onto, and upgraded his Kobold Regeneration. The chef looked at his stats, only one more level till he went up to tier four.

Hitting a new tier meant he could upgrade his speed again. Though, he might have to boost his agility to compensate as well. At the very least he knew what upgrades he was probably taking next.

With barely any essence left in his core, Zane focused on refilling his reserves as he jogged. He pulled on essence from the world around him and condensed it down to something usable.

That made him wonder if perhaps he might be missing something. He had two separate energy sources. One could be used for purchasing upgrades and another powered his abilities. But were they really separate?

He stopped by the side of the road and looked inside himself. If Zane wanted to get back to the restaurant in time for brunch he would need to run at full tilt the entire way. Currently, that wasn't an option.

His core would run out of juice after a few minutes and he would be left with no way to defend himself if bandits or cultivators attacked him. Zane focused on the connection between his essence Core and Lower Core. A thin thread caught his attention. It thrummed along with the rhythm of his breathing.

Essence condensed in his chest and trickled down to his gut along that pathway. At first he considered widening the connection. Then a mental image of all his stored essence flowing unrestricted into his lower core made him stop.

Widening that channel might not be something he wanted to do. In an absolute best case scenario his Lower Core would eventually fill up, stopping the flow. If he was unlucky, essence would continue to leak out of him like a ruptured pipe until he ran dry. Perhaps there was a middle ground?

Zane focused on pushing some Refined essence down that pathway to his lower core. His entire body shook as a wave of nausea hit him. It felt like a bowling ball was moving through his guts. The channel wasn't big enough to carry the additional energy.

He stopped and considered his other options. The thread was pulsing. It might be possible to boost output by increasing the frequency. But something told him that wasn't a great idea for the longevity of the connection. He would have to reinforce the thread first or risk it burning out like a lightbulb during a power surge.

The rogue cultivator tried to imagine small filaments wrapping around the connection like a sleeve. Zane wove them layer by layer along the fragile thread that linked his cores, shielding it. Then, he tried to increase the frequency.

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

Zane imagined energy pulsing up and down the channel like a bead on a string. He first matched the resonant frequency of the energy pulses, then attempted to speed them up. The thread inside of him glowed white hot, fused the protective outer jacket into a continuous tube, then disintegrated.

He barely had time to swear as refined essence traveled along this new, unregulated channel. It filled his lower core to the point of bursting. Zane realized in a moment of blind panic that unless he found a way to bleed off the extra energy, he was going to explode again.

The young man ran, dumping energy from his core to increase his speed. He marveled at how easy it was to keep up his accelerated pace. Then the pain hit.

Zane stumbled and fell, looking dumbly at his unresponsive legs. They steamed in the cool morning air. His ability allowed him to move faster, but it did nothing to counter the heat building up in his muscles. He had literally cooked himself.

Drawing on his core to regenerate fixed the damage, but not the problem. He had to keep burning off the excess energy by running and regenerating. Eventually Zane ran out of refined essence, and collapsed.

The good news was he hadn't severed the connection between his essence core and lower core. The bad news was that now they were directly connected. He went to work reinforcing the new tube that ran between them to lower the risk of future rupture. Then, the rogue cultivator worked his way through the problem.

The lower core was his main concern. The soft, spongy mass was tiny compared to the larger, tougher, essence core. The vibrating thread that once stretched between the two had acted as both conduit and regulator. Now, there was a hollow tube that directly connected them.

Potentially, he could reinforce the lower core with more spiritual duct tape, though that might reduce or change its function. It was impossible to tell. Restricting the tube that ran between them wouldn't work. Without a regulator, essence would still expand until it reached equilibrium, bursting the lower core.

The prospect of installing a valve was interesting, but something inside him was repulsed by the idea. Completely cutting off the flow of energy between his cores, even temporarily, felt like it might have vast and unforeseen consequences.

In the end, Zane decided that reinforcement was his only real option. He would end up with what was essentially one large core (and probably a boatload of random side effects) but at least he would be able to cultivate without exploding (again).

Never one to stop moving for long, Zane walked as he worked. The rogue cultivator pulled in enough essence from the outside to pressurize his cores, then he wrapped them in that same protective filament. Fearing possible weak points, he wove multiple layers over everything.

Zane pulled in a few points of essence and waited to see what would happen. He didn't explode, which was good. The young man laid down a final layer of reinforcement, reasoning that the added pressure in his cores might have deformed something. Then, he let out a sigh.

There was a very real possibility that he had just damaged his ability to contain refined essence forever. If the reinforcement on his lower core didn't hold, he would be unable to gather enough essence to purchase the upgrades he wanted.

The rogue cultivator thought of the exploding pressure cooker that had sent him down this path. One small mistake had snowballed into a cockup cascade. Zane knew from his previous experiences that if his core did rupture, he would probably still respawn. The permanent damage he might suffer was what concerned him.

Zane’s changes to the structure of his essence core had stuck with him. He didn't know if these would do the same. Either way, he decided to avoid dying again for as long as possible. At the very least, it would give his body and cores time to settle.

The side effects of his ill-advised experiment were already manifesting themselves. Hotwiring his cores together had made Zane feel like he was constantly on the verge of exploding. There was more energy than ever in his lower core. Energy his body was itching to use.

Zane alternated between sprinting and regenerating, making it back to the city later than he had liked. The rogue cultivator blasted past the guards without bothering to talk to them. They swore at the passing streak of red, but were unable to stop him.

There was a line wrapped around the block when Zane arrived at the restaurant. A hand written sign declared that they were closed due to unforeseen circumstances. Yet, hopeful people still waited outside, eager for their food.

Zane was about to dash inside when a hand the size of a frying pan wrapped around his throat. General Eric Badi, senior disciple of the Rock Mountain Mollusk sect, picked up the rogue cultivator and smiled.

“I wanted some breakfast,” said Eric, “But I'll settle for you.”