CHAPTER 4

When the Core reappeared, it was in a black space where nothing save for the outline of an inactive gateway could be seen. If you concentrated on its framework, you could vaguely perceive it to be made of stone blocks, and it seemed big enough for an adult to walk through comfortably. The space in the portal was like the still surface of a completely black lake. If you looked even closer at the stone, you could make out scratches, but it was too dark to see if they were just that or maybe some kind of carving.

Testing of dimension successful…,

Don’t tell me teleporting me into my dimension is the best way to test its stability?! I am beginning to hate this System thing and its creators. I AM NOT SOME LABRAT!!!

Unbalanced energy values detected… Checking origin… User is an immigrant… User may reset energy values…

Unbalanced energy values? What does that mean? Is this in relations to mana? And what does resetting my energy values encompass?

By resetting the energy values, the user will release all energy.

So I will start out again as a mortal cultivator?

The user will release all energy.

… You really could just have said yes.

So I have to release my energy and have to become a mortal cultivator again to rebalance my cultivation. If there is some truth behind that line of thought, I think I understand why we never found a way forward. Cultivation really is difficult if you take a path you have to follow it to the end even if it is a dead-end.

So I have to go back to the mortal level if I want to cultivate more energy types to get stronger. After all, it sounds like cultivating any other energy isn’t possible for me because I left the Mortal Realm behind.

But do I really want to go back? I want to go forward. Do I really trust in all this and let them destroy my cultivation? A new way to get stronger versus no way of knowing how to get stronger. Why do I even consider? I already decided to go all in when I let those ungrateful brats transform me into a Core. I did live a long and enjoyable life. It just got boring the last millennia. A new beginning does sound exciting. I might as well go for it.

User may reset energy values…

Damn you. Yes, I want to reset my energy values.

Please don’t move! Releasing energy...

Funny I don’t think I can even move on my own yet since I don’t have a way to propel me.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh THE fuuuuck?

The Core slowly releases a vapor into the surroundings.As it discharges the energy, it shrinks. If he still had a body, you could have heard him scream in unbearable agony until his voice would give out. But alas he was just a Core, so there was no way for him to give voice to his anguish as he slowly shrank and the vapor around him filled the whole dimension. When the Core reached the size of a pill the process stopped.

Hahahaaa. I thought I knew what pain is when I cultivated chi.

But no, being turned into vapor and then compressed into a Core hurt a lot more than anything I have felt before.

I never ever would have imagined there could be anything more painful. I really should have guessed that there is always something worse…

I hope I won’t ever have to experience anything even a tenth as intense.

Some warning next time fucking System.

Energy value reset completed…

User has Concierge status… Creating personal assistant… No viable form of communication found... Integrating personal assistant into user essence...

Wait stop no. That doesn’t sound good. Ahhhh… *cough* That wasn’t so bad.

Personal assistant integrated… All steps completed… Releasing User from quarantine…

A small popping sound was heard, and the Core fell to the ground.

---

In a dome, a man with a muscular yet lean looking build was having a confused look around. His hair was cut short and the color of polished obsidian. He truly looked like a model and had a charisma that would let you feel at peace just by looking at him.

The most unusual part about him were his eyes. They were identical to the beggar who got turned into a Core, the only difference was the black hole like pupil didn’t have the same force of attraction and the white seemed to shine a lot less, but there was still this vast wisdom in them that spoke of an age older than mountains.

The man appeared to take in his surroundings slightly surprised.

“Why did I come here without meditating? Something feels off…” he slowly turns around.

Well, this doesn’t seem all too different, only that there are now four exits to this room and it feels bigger than before. But most importantly:

“Who are you?” he asks a stunningly beautiful Foxkin-woman.

Wow, the perfect woman just appears in my soul palace, no it’s not the least bit suspicious, not after the fucking system put something into my essence.

“I am your personal assistant.”

The man just stares at her.

Even her voice has the perfect mix of Japanese and German accent I always envisioned listening to. Not at all suspicious…

“And what exactly does this mean?”

“I am your personal assistant, a subroutine of the System tasked with helping you in regards to the System. My functions include a calendar, mail answering services, and other typical assistance workload functions.

Other functions include a Managing Interface for EP, including but not exclusive for EP-Upkeep Management and information about upcoming sales and auctions in the Shop.

I will answer all of your questions truthfully, and will try to do everything you task me with .” the last bit was said in a sultry voice while she was batting her eyes.

Ok, that confirms it. Let’s test my theory.

“You answer all my question truthfully? And do everything I ask you to?”

“Ohh yes, Master!”

“Then tell me that 1+1=3.”

The fox-kin just stares for a moment and then slowly she begins to sniffle, and tears start to flow.

“*sniffle* Master hates me. *sniffle* I can not Master. I can not lie to you.”

Oh no I made her cry… As if! But I got to say excellent acting, but she definitely is distracting.

“Then tell me who is your master?”

“You are my Master!” she answers under continued sniffling.

“So how did you know to take this form and voice.”

“When I was fused into Masters essence, I got to know what you like and all of your wishes” answers the fox-kin.

This did go on for far too long, let’s just end it.

“So you can’t read my mind?”

“Master we are in your soul palace, and it is biiiig. But no I can not really read your mind only if you let me in willingly.”

“Are you spying for anyone?”

....

I knew it. At least they made it obvious. I can work with that. Let’s try it another way.

“Are you spying for anyone, besides the System, its Main or Hesterion?”

“No Master I do not spy for anyone else!” she whispered the last word so silently it nearly couldn’t be heard.

Good, I think I can trust what she says to be true. Now to get rid of future complications let me try something.

“I want you to take an asexual shape not really pleasing to the eye but also not displeasing just something anybody could ignore. The same goes for your voice but please don’t go into the robotic stuff.”

“Yes, Master!” With those words, her body begins to meld into itself. After some wriggling and slurping sounds, there was only a mass of slime left. After a moment the wriggling occurred again and slowly it took on a humanoid form without any defining shapes of either gender.

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“Is this pleasing Master?” a voice you could only call neutral asked him.

“Yes! A lot better, and now stop trying to flirt with me by calling me master, I don’t like it. I have had enough time to have fun in my life and now definitely isn’t the time for that. I just got thrown back to the mortal level and have to find a way to cultivate as a Core. And my name is Godric von Brandt, just call me by my name Godric.”

“A powerful name. No wonder you aspired to cultivate with a name literally meaning cleansed by the all-consuming power of the god of flames. I will, of course, do as you wish Sir.”

I never really thought about my name so much, but names do have power maybe that could explain why the Conscious Splitting Art created something as powerful as dragons and not just once but four times.

The manual said it would create an animal which is most suitable to my essence. I always wondered why dragons, but never really thought my name could be the cause. I still believed it to be just some really fortuitous encounter I had or maybe that I didn't interpret the manual right and made some alteration in cultivating it.

But Dragons are the embodiment of flames, and I always had the smoothest time to train in the Secret Arts of fire with quite a gap to wood, it really could be because of my name. Not that it mattered. What does matter is how I am going to use IT and what those two new rooms are.

“First of all what do I call you?”

“You can call me whatever you like,Sir. I do only have a Serial Number, but as far I know you would not like to call me 345A09213C0.”

“No, you are right I would not. C0… well, then it is Zero. What exactly did you mean by “mail answering services”?”

“I can answer your system mail.”

“System mail?” Godric raised an eyebrow at that.

“Yes, Sir.” Zero dutifully explains: “All entities within the System can use it to communicate with each other. The only prerequisite is they need to have been in personal contact beforehand and willingly have exchanged contact information. This is a precaution to prevent the use of the System mail for advertisement.”

“Personal contact and willing exchange? So how can I as a Core be in contact with anyone?”

“Sect Core, Sir, you are not merely any Core you are the first Sect Core!” Zero corrected him with vehemence in its voice. “I do not know how Sir. There is no information in the official or concierge database. It seems you have to find out about it yourself or wait until another Sect Core finds out the information and makes it accessible.”

“Databases? What are those?”

“There are quite a lot of different databases, Sir. But you and thus I, have only access to four.”

Zero raises one finger and explains: ”First is the database everyone has access to which includes all common knowledge. This means knowledge that is a commonly known fact for all mortals, also called the Mortal Database. It has mainly information about the history and how to use the System.”

A second finger is raised: “The next one is the Concierge Database. The name itself already implies that only entities with Concierge Status gain access to it. It contains all information about upcoming events that are entered into the System.”

After raising the third finger, Zero continues: “The third Database you gained access to is the one for Sect Cores. It just, like the Mortal one, has all knowledge common among Sect Cores. But there is also a subspace where distinguished Sect Cores can post their thoughts. All races have one of those.”

The fourth finger goes up. “The last database is the location Database. Those are Databases all important locations gain at their inception or discovery. It is the most common one but also the category with the most disparity. At the beginning all location databases were the same and could be accessed from everywhere after visiting the location, they showed all information you had gathered about the area.

This changed soon due to people being able to learn new information from afar. So the System changed it so you could only access these databases if you were on site and you had to confirm this knowledge for yourself before you had access to it in the database. So the databases for locations nowadays only works like logbooks. And most people don't really use them anymore.

But as far as I know, there are two databases for most Core locations, one for the “inhabitants” and one for the visitors. Where the visitor database only works as a log, the one for “inhabitants” has different functions.”

“Most Core locations? So there are more than just dungeon, academy and Sect Cores?” Godric cocks his head quizzically to one side.

“Of course, Sir! The System does, after all, encompass at least this whole galaxy.”

“At least this galaxy?”

“I am sorry Sir this information has to be found out by you personally, I could only tell you this much because you are one of the immigrants from another galaxy and already suspect this to be the case. But I can not confirm or deny it.”

Interesting so the System may even cover more than only this galaxy. I’m not here for long and already I see so much to do in the future. Gambling all on the chance to get through the rift really was worth it.

In deep thought Godric nearly missed the answers to his questions as Zero continued to explain .

“And yes there are more than just those Core types. Should I give you a complete list about all commonly known Core type entities?”

“No, that isn't’ necessary. But you could tell me what the database for me is.”

“Oh sorry Sir I forgot” Zero continues its explanation. “To tell you the truth I am not sure but it seems similar to the academy's. It seems like to gain access some requirement has to be met. And after that there are even different levels you as Sect Core can predetermine what your “inhabitants” have access to.”

“I will not have “inhabitants”, no the first level anybody joining my Sect will have is of course outer discipline. Later ones will come as we progress I think.

So this database is like a vault for knowledge? Can it be hacked?”

“No Sir even the System itself would have to meet the requirements to be able to read what is in there. As far as I know the academies use it to give access to the different spells. There you can buy access or earn it through courses.

Would you like to start using it?”

“No let’s wait with that I still have to look what changes came with releasing my cultivation and falling back to the Mortal Realm. Or do you know that already and can explain?” Godric looks at Zero hoping to get answers to why there were no four doors where he only had two before the reset.

“I am sorry Sir, I do not know and there are no answers in the databases.”

“Zero for the future please just say you don’t know. But please still check the databases but put it plain and simple I don’t really like this database talk.”

“Of course Sir as you wish.”

So the diameter seems to have gained 50 meter to about 150 meters, the height is still the same looks like what ever happened doubled the volume of this dome.

But something about this place just feels of. I should investigate the four rooms maybe I get an idea about what feels wrong.

With those thoughts Godric walked towards the room in front of him.

This room has a familiar feeling. If I am not mistaken it is the place of my qi Core. No wait it was the place of my qi Core. Ha-ah! I wonder how it looks now, and how do I even still have a room for qi? How is it here if I condensed it while cultivating?

As he walks through the doorway he saw another dome this one with the same height but a diameter of only 75 meter. The floor was dented in slightly in the middle and had intricate patterns of golden runes inscribed in circles around the dent.

Well this is definitely not what I expected. The dent seems to be the beginning of a qi sea, But what is with those runes? Are those draconic runes? Incubation and protection? I really hate it when I don’t even know what happened to my dantain. It shouldn’t look like this. If I released my cultivation there shouldn’t even be a room representing my dantain in my soul palace. And I definitely never heard of any runes in one, not even speaking of draconic ones. What is going on?

With that thought Godric turns to Zero who followed him to the doorway.

“Zero do you know anything about this?” He points at the inscribed floor.

“Sir, it looks similar to some draconic script in the database.” Godric raises an eyebrow and stares at Zero. “I mean some draconic script I have seen before.” Godric nods and moves his hand in a go-on gesture. “Besides that I have no information about this phenomena.”

“It is a draconic script from the milky way galaxy but in a formation I don’t fully understand it says something about incubation and protection. Oh and those symbols have something to do with water. Doesn’t really make sense so. I mean yes qi if condensed enough will have the symbolism of water, but that is only an abstraction here in my soul palace. There aren’t really any elements in Qi cultivation there are just types of phenomena people have an easier time to create.”

“Sir, I am sorry to interupt your musing. But there are elements.”

Godric just stares at Zero.

“Elements are considered a subcategory of mana. Mana has four different attributes or also called elements: Water, Earth, Fire and Wind. As they are called most often, this is quite imprecise but should suffice for now. What you call easier time would be called an affinity with an element.”

“Ok but it has nothing to do with qi, right it is mana!”

“You are not entirely right or wrong, Sir. As Qi cultivators use the energy of their mind also called Qi to change their surroundings.

Mana users on the other hand use their accumulated mana, of the elements they can control, to form “spells”. These spells can only be cast inside one's area of influence and then propelled outwards. This area of influence is also called aura and is the space around Mages and the like store their personal mana.

So the real difference is that mana users use “borrowed” power to achieve phenomena inside their aura, while Qi users use their own power to do the same without any real limit to their range of use only that it gets more power costly the farther away from oneself it is used. Also using mana has more power for the same energy usage.

That is also why most Mana-Types try to cultivate their mind. Imagine using your qi as the bridge to cast a spell outside your aura without using tools such as runes or spell-scrolls.”

“So elements are real and all the people with those special body's just happen to have an affinity for some element?”

“To put it crudely yes mostly, but there are some body constitutions that fall outside of this rule of course.”

“Of course there are. The figure of speech is something like: There are no rules without exceptions.” Goric let’s out a long suffering sigh.

It can never be easy, can it. The more you learn the more you understand how little you really know.

“But this still leaves another question: How can the draconic script here look anything like the draconic script you know of? It is after all from back home.”

“Sir, there are more than a few possible answers to this and intellectuals often debate about it. But to summarize:

Nobody really knows why, but the different galaxies tend to give birth to similar races that even have similar cultures. Never exactly the same but almost. If you compare Men of two different galaxies and didn’t know that, you could easily come to the conclusion that they are from the same planet only different communities.”

“So the thesis we had in our galaxy, that each race evolved on one planet and later expanded to others, also should be false?”

“Yes Sir! Most of the intellectuals are of one mind that as the different galaxies spawn the same races. It is a logical assumption that races do not have one origin planet in a galaxy. The strange thing is, it only applies to the so called Major Races there are still the so called Minor Races that just appear in one galaxy.

There are theories that the Major Races are somehow seeded into the galaxies while the Minor ones are true inhabitants that follow the path of evolution. At the beginning of the research the Minor Races were called lesser and there are still scientists who use the term but it is false.

An example would be the goblins. They typically are called a lesser race, due to being less intelligent but they also are one of the Major Races.

Another would be the Crushtal a race of rock elementals that uses whole mountain ranges to carve out their cities they are a Minor Race that comes from this galaxy. Even some Dwarven cities were built by them. I don’t believe they can be called a lesser race.”

“If any dwarf lives in a city built by them they can definitely not be called lesser creatures.” Godric says with a serious expression.

“But let me guess most plant life follows the evolution path?”

“That is right most plant life and also quite a few of the lower leveled monsters are specific to to one planet and only spread due to external influences.”

“As informative as all this is and I truly mean that I believe we could talk about all this for years. But sadly it isn’t constructive right now! So let's look at the other rooms and talk about it some more at a more opportune time.”

“Of course as you wish, Sir!”