Jin stood in his shorts in the middle of an underground safe room, white tube lights casting harsh shadows across concrete walls. This was the very same room where he'd learned the hard way that his body had limits on how much power he could cram into it before things went wrong.
That particular lesson had involved blood coming out of places blood really shouldn't come out of.
Joe sat in a folding chair pulled from one of his doors, munching on seasoned nuts like he was watching a sporting event instead of preparing to help Jin do something profoundly stupid.
Jin was still in awe and envy at Joe's apparent dimensional space. The space he had available was ridiculous. During their crafting discussions, all Jin had to do was say, "Hey Joe, you know about..." and Joe would produce it. Jin was certain the prototypes of the alchemy injector and mask were looted from a research facility, probably ASEDA. He didn't remember much about the facility apart from it being the Araxana Empire's version of Area 51. The markings had been clearly scraped off, but Jin was sure about their origin. No one on this continent had that much focus on military applications.
"Are you sure you wanna do this now?" Joe said, bringing Jin's attention back.
"Yes, I'm sure, but I'm not sure of this." Jin gestured at himself, very aware he was mostly naked.
"Well, there's a chance it's going to be bloody and filthy. Better save your clothes." Joe popped another nut into his mouth, grinning. "Besides, I'm curious. And you're the one who asked for my help, so you gotta do this my way."
Jin sighed, his mind wandering back through the chain of decisions that had led him here. Waking up in Vienna. The dungeon. Finding out he was a fictional character made real. The endless nightmare Vienna had become.
And now this.
"Yeah, you're right." Jin dropped into a lotus position on the cold floor. The concrete bit into his bare legs, unpleasant, but he'd be feeling worse than cold concrete soon enough.
Are you certain this is the way? He asked the narrator silently.
? Yes. Of that I have no doubt. ?
The voice in his head carried its usual cold certainty, and Jin had come to trust that voice.
Time to stop fumbling through magic like a kid with half-baked knowledge and start truly learning it. One-verse sorceries won’t help in dire situations anymore.
"So explain what you're planning." Joe brushed crumbs from his fingers. "More precisely, what do you need me to do?"
Jin met his gaze. "I'm going to harvest and form my core at the same time. The moment I hit the final stage of the harvest, I need you to jolt my system with your essence so I can start making my nodal points."
Joe's eyebrow went up, but he nodded. "Why tie the harvest into it? To form your core, all you need is initiation and essence." His grin widened. "I'm providing the initiation, and you already have more essence than anyone at your rank has any right to."
"About that..." Jin paused, choosing his words. "The cultivation path I'm following is different. I need three stars. First was the soul star, which I've already made. Next is the body star, which—"
"—You're using as your essence core?" Joe finished, standing up. The amusement didn't leave his face, but something sharper entered his eyes. "It's not unheard of. Risky as hell if we screw it up, though. You understand that?"
"We won't." Jin forced confidence into his voice, but he didn't entirely feel it. We're sure, right?
? Yes. ?
"If you say so, boss." Joe gave a mock salute, moving to stand behind Jin. "How many nodal points?"
"Eighteen."
The silence stretched for three heartbeats.
"You..." Joe's smile deepened into something genuinely delighted. "Alright, let's do this."
Jin took a slow breath, centering himself with the Eternal Sovereign pattern. It had been so long since he'd actually sat down in meditation. After telling Joe to give him five minutes, he leaned into it. In and out, feeling his heartbeat slow, his mind calm.
Joe snapped his fingers, pulling Jin from the realm of meditation.
A door opened, and something large slid through.
Nourma's corpse.
The Hollow transformation had ended when it died, reverting it to its original form—what was left of it, anyway. They'd already harvested the core and several key components for crafting. What remained was still substantial and something that wouldn't give Jin a stomachache.
"Ready?" Joe asked.
Jin's hands shook slightly, remembering the last harvest of the ORDER IV cultist. He clenched them into fists. "Do it."
"Harvest."
? I'll keep an eye on the process. You focus solely on forming the star. ?
Seven chains erupted from Jin, snaking through the air toward Nourma's remains. They moved with hungry purpose, piercing dead flesh and burrowing deep. Jin felt the connection establish, a circuit between himself and the corpse.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Then the floodgates opened, and power slammed into him.
Jin's back arched. His teeth clenched hard enough to make his jaw ache. The influx was massive—an ORDER IV entity's accumulated strength pouring into him in a torrent that threatened to rip him apart from the inside. Every other harvest, he'd let the Synthesis Matrix do the work subconsciously, filtering and integrating while he recovered.
Not this time.
This time, he had to stay conscious. Had to stay present while foreign power wormed its way into his being, rewriting parts of him at the fundamental level.
? Harvesting ORDER IV Abomination Corpse: Nourma ?
? Current Integration: 12% ?
? Maintain consciousness. Do not resist the flow. ?
The narrator's voice cut through the chaos in his mind, cold but grounding. Jin latched onto it.
The power kept coming. Essence flooded his channels faster than his body could process. His Synthesis Matrix spun at maximum capacity, converting and purifying, but it wasn't enough. He felt his channels beginning to strain, microscopic tears forming in the pathways.
This is going to hurt.
? Integration: 31% ?
Jin's breathing came in ragged gasps. Sweat poured down his face despite the cool air. His hands clutched his knees hard enough that his knuckles went white.
He could feel Nourma's essence and power mixing with his own. It had been powerful, corrupted, but undeniably strong. That strength was becoming his now, burning away impurities.
? Integration: 54% ?
? Prepare for initiation. You should notify Joe. ?
Jin tried to speak. What came out was a sound somewhere between a grunt and a wheeze. Jin coughed up darkened blood.
"Got you, boss. This is going to suck."
Two hands pressed against Jin's bare back. They felt cold, and the cold only increased as Joe's essence flooded into him.
If the harvest was like getting hit by a truck, this was a tsunami.
Jin's crude, still-forming essence channels recoiled instinctively from the sudden influx of density. Joe's power was deep, layered like an ocean with currents Jin couldn't even begin to map. It felt ancient and patient and utterly overwhelming.
Joe's superior will and Jin's current crumbling resistance because of harvesting Nourma made it trivial for Joe to bypass Jin's natural defenses.
The essence kept coming, controlled and precise despite its overwhelming force.
Jin felt himself starting to drift out of his body, consciousness fragmenting under the pressure.
? No, stay present, Jin. Start interweaving your essence with Joe's and Nourma's essence now. ?
The narrator's command jolted him back. Jin forced his will to the surface, grabbing hold of both the roaring harvest-power and Joe's guided essence. He pulled, braiding them together with his own crude energy.
Joe said something, but Jin couldn't hear it. Every scrap of attention was focused on not dying.
The essence channels throughout his body were burning, Joe's power scouring them clean, preparing them for what came next. It felt like molten metal being poured through his veins. Jin bit down on a scream, tasting copper as his teeth cut into his lip.
? The first wave is complete. Your body is now primed with essence, and all channels are widened. Nodal points may now be formed. ?
"Now!" Joe's voice cut through, somehow reaching Jin despite the maelstrom. "Form the nodes!"
Jin's chains responded before conscious thought finished forming. Sixteen new chains manifested, splitting from the original chains like hydra heads, snaking through and around his body.
The narrator had done an excellent job analyzing and preparing the exact locations of Jin's nodal points. All that information poured into Jin's mind.
Four wrapped around his skull, positioning themselves like a crown. One coiled around his throat. One pressed against his sternum. Two more found his heart, one on each side. Another settled on his stomach, just below his solar plexus. One wound around his lower back. His shoulder blades each gained two. Each hand received two more. His thighs, two. His feet, two more.
Eighteen total nodal points, each marked by a chain-head pressing against bare skin.
Then they pierced.
Agony flared across Jin's being.
The chains didn't draw blood. Instead, they sank through flesh and bone like diving into water, disappearing into his essence pathways. Each one found the precise microscopic point the Narrator had calculated and began to condense.
Jin screamed.
He couldn't help it. The sound tore out of him before he could catch it, ripped free by intense pain. His body locked up, spine arching as his hands clawed uselessly at the air. His fingers curled tight as if he could grip the sensation and force it somewhere else.
He had known this would hurt. He had prepared for it, planned around it, and accepted it as a cost. None of that mattered once it started.
This part was necessary. Each nodal point was a microscopic star of hyper-condensed essence acting not only for accumulation but also as relay stations that would connect his entire system of nodal points along with the essence channels to his essence heart in a closed loop.
Four nodal points ignited in his skull, and Jin's vision went white. The throat node formed, and he couldn't breathe. The ones in his heart were the worst.
Joe's essence surged, wrapping around the burning pathways, soothing and stabilizing. "Easy, boss. Let it happen. Don't fight the formation."
Jin couldn't have fought even if he wanted to. His body was locked.
One by one, the nodal points manifested. Power drawn directly from Nourma's corpse condensed into each location, transformed by Jin's Synthesis Matrix and guided by the Narrator's cold precision.
? Nodal Point Formation: 7/18 ?
? Nodal Point Formation: 11/18 ?
? Nodal Point Formation: 16/18 ?
Blood trickled from his nose, his ears, and the corners of his eyes. His body was rejecting the change even as it accepted it.
? Nodal Point Formation: 18/18 ?
? Nodal system and essence channels are established. Proceed to core formation. ?
"Good!" Joe's voice sounded distant despite being right behind him. "Now go for the core."
Jin coughed, spraying blood mixed with chunks of his insides across the floor. His chains withdrew from his body and struck outward, all of them converging on Nourma's corpse. They sank deep, dragging everything that remained.
This was the dangerous part.
With every pulse, more of Nourma's body turned to ash. The power flowed into Jin, and he could feel himself approaching his limit.
Joe stepped back, hands weaving complex signs. A circle manifested around Jin, sealing all the essence and power within. No leakage. No escape. Everything had to go into the core.
Jin was alone now. This part, Joe couldn't help with.
The Vow of the Eternal Sovereign resonated in his mind, words he'd spoken in what felt like a lifetime ago. The soul star in his essence heart began to spin, faster and faster, linking with the newly-established pathways and nodal points.
The essence fought him. It didn't want to condense. It wanted to expand, to disperse, to follow the natural order of things.
Jin's will was the only thing holding it together. He imagined phantom hands made of pure determination reaching into the maelstrom and squeezing. The power compressed.
Slowly. Agonizingly slow.
The Synthesis Matrix worked so fast that Jin thought it might shatter. The soul star's light grew blinding behind his closed eyelids.
And then, finally, a second star began to form.
The body star manifested a few finger-widths below the navel.
His essence heart expanded to accommodate the change. The pathways burned clean and bright. Everything clicked into place with a sensation Jin could only describe as right.
? Core formation complete. Your stats have strengthened. ?
? Congratulations. You are now a proper mage. ?
Jin had just enough time to hear the words before his consciousness shut down completely, his body deciding it had endured quite enough for one day.
The last thing he felt was Joe catching him before he could face-plant into his own blood on the concrete floor.
Then nothing.
~~~
(^-^)
PS: Psst~ Psst~ Advanced chapters are already up on patreon, you can read upto one month ahead... It would be awesome if you guys, you know...
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Should I change the UI for the systems, Ckills, and Items?
