The instant that Edge acknowledged the prompt, his consciousness was peeled away from his failing body and pulled inside his core.

He found himself standing in a place that he had begun to think of as the central chamber. Unlike many of the cores he had visited while [Extracting] a skill, his took the form of an enclosed space rather than a natural setting.

The room reminded him of a blacksmith’s workshop. It had a grey stone floor and a high, arched roof. There were no windows or doors, and a row of lanterns hanging from the ceiling provided a bit of light. Although the circular wall was continuous, portions of it were cast in deep shadow, too dark to see what lay beneath.

The most striking feature of the chamber was the reactor jutting from the wall. The reactor was the heart of Edge’s core. The place where magicytes were consumed to forge the refined mana that powered his skills.

His reactor looked like an industrial furnace. It had a bulbous grate of black metal sticking out from the front, through which he could see an endless ocean of flame. A hellish horizon of searing conflagration, extending beyond the boundary of the wall with no end in sight.

The reservoir was mounted across from the reactor, where magicytes were stored until they were ready to be burned. It took the form of a tall bronze tank, with a series of pipes connecting to the reactor.

There was some manner of intake system on top, which continued past the ceiling. They were the tubes where the magicytes that were pulled in through his mana pores were deposited into the reservoir.

The last component of the central chamber was his skills. All six of Edge’s skills were socketed along the exterior of the reactor, arranged like a series of alcoves running along a museum wall. Each skill had a unique appearance. They all came alive when infused with mana, except for slash, which took the form of a small stone statue wielding a sword.

He wasn’t sure if it was because the skill was basic. Or perhaps because slash had been granted by the System, while the rest had come from living creatures. One of the many mysteries that he had no means of unraveling right now.

That’s odd. Everything seems the same as before. I would have expected some visible changes to come with something as significant as evolving to the next stage. Not to mention some notifications from the System giving me the details.

No sooner had that thought crossed Edge’s mind than the rumbling began. Soon, the entire chamber was shaking, like it was caught in the throes of a powerful earthquake. He could hear the cacophony of chains clinking together, as a howling grew to fill his ears.

When the clamorous vibrations reached a crescendo, his reactor burst into flame. Not burning magicytes from his reservoir, but igniting of its own accord, filling the room with incredible heat.

If Edge had been standing here in the flesh, it would have reduced him to smoldering ash within a handful of heartbeats. But since he was just a mental projection standing inside his own core, he was able to withstand the flames.

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Everything grew more intense over the next few seconds, becoming louder, brighter, and hotter until he could see nothing but his reactor shining like the sun. The sensations were overwhelming despite his disembodied state. Edge lost all sense of self and time as his entire world was reduced to blazing oblivion and an endless roar.

Somewhere in the distance, he had the impression that the room was expanding. That the components inside were growing larger and more complex. But he couldn’t make out the details while blinded by the light.

Eventually, the shaking stopped. The radiance and volcanic heat died down a moment later, until Edge found himself standing inside Skill-Eater’s central chamber once more.

His jaw dropped when he took in the extent of the changes.

The room was far larger than before, with decorative tiles lining the floor instead of bare rock. The ceiling was so high that it was almost lost in the distance, and dozens of lanterns now hung from the crossbeams, brighter and more intricate than their predecessors.

When Edge lowered his gaze, he saw that the reactor had grown in proportion with the room. The pitch-black surface was now covered in subtle engravings, reminiscent of the ones he had seen on the walls of the ruined temple. The grate in front was bigger too, large enough to let a buffalo pass through without feeling cramped.

When he looked over to the other side of the room, he realized that the reservoir had grown an extra tank, doubling the volume of magicytes it could hold. The pipes had become thicker and more numerous, able to feed his reactor at a faster rate. The intake device didn’t seem to have changed, likely because it was tied to his generation attribute instead of his core’s stage.

As remarkable as all of this was, the biggest change to the core’s interior had taken place in the space where his skills had been. The recesses along the exterior of the reactor were gone. Instead, each skill slot was represented as a marble pillar rising from the floor.

Edge counted eleven in all, including five that had empty sockets. But when he stopped to take a closer look, he realized that his skills weren’t resting on top of them. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw where they were.

Instead of being confined to one space like before, his skills were moving around the chamber of their own free will. Alive, even when mana wasn’t running through them.

His vines were crawling across the ground, and shadowy wraiths flitted through the air. Something small and hard to see darted beside a beating heart that was flopping around on the tiles, playing something akin to tag as far as he could tell.

His iceblade was floating near the ceiling, radiating a stark chill that felt refreshing given the heat of the reactor. The only one that wasn’t moving was slash, which still looked like a small statue of a man swinging a sword. It had, however, managed to move away from its pillar-slot. Slash was resting on top of his reservoir instead, watching the other skills play.

It's a skill garden, Edge realized, eyes wide with awe as he took in the collective changes. My core grew a garden at stage-one instead of stage-two. Skill gardens were a space where a cored individual could examine their skills at their leisure, learning more about them as they grew more powerful.

He ran his eyes across the upgrades to his inner world, which far exceeded his expectations. He waited for a menu to materialize in front of his face, hoping to see some of the specifics. But the list of System updates failed to appear.

In that moment, a cold truth came over him. This is fantastic, but it isn’t enough. If I don’t get something more substantial, I’m still going to die. There must be more to this stage. A way to grow stronger still. Then it hit him. If the System wasn’t going to give Edge the power he needed, there was someone else who could.

“Show yourself, Skill-Eater!” He yelled. “I know that you have more to offer. I’ve sensed you in there, watching, and I know you can understand me. We’re both about to die and we need to work together. What are you waiting for?”

Edge was so focused on communicating with his core that he didn’t see the chains coming until they struck.