Chương 137: Chapter 120 – The First Elder’s Lesson

Varosk continued toward the Great Tree, each hop carrying them out of the rapidly growing swamp and closer to the immense root-pillars at its base. The mist thinned as they approached. Cade tightened his grip on the fold of warty skin beneath his wooden fingers and looked up at the Great Tree towering above him.

"Is it just me, or does the Great Tree look a lot bigger?" Cade asked.

"Size is a matter of perspective," Varosk said.

"The incarnation you currently embody likely warps your perception compared to your human body."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Cade blinked, then frowned.

"Wooden eyes are probably pretty terrible. Everything looks much larger than when I float around as a disembodied consciousness." Varosk continued toward the root-pillar tied to the frogs' Path. The massive root rose from the ground in an angled column of black wood threaded with rainbow veins that pulsed faintly with prismatic lightning essence. When the giant toad reached its base, he slowed and pressed his broad golden body against the immense root. Cade looked down at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Feeling the essence within the Great Tree," Varosk said, as if the answer should have been obvious.

"What? How?"

"We frogs sense essence through our skin," Varosk said.

"Water and lightning essence can be sensed from a distance, but life essence requires direct contact to inspect properly."

"I think I prefer the ash tortoise's method. Seeing essence directly seems more convenient," Cade said. Varosk gave a dismissive croak.

"Sight can only tell you so much. To truly understand essence, you must feel it. Pressure, texture, resonance, and stability are all revealed through contact. You would be wise to remember that."

"Okay, that actually sounds pretty useful," Cade admitted. He had only relied on [Essence Sight] to detect essence. But if frogs could feel essence through their skin, then sight and touch weren't the only options. What could sound reveal? Or smell? Or taste? How much had he been missing because he only knew how to see essence? Another thing to work on later.

"I'll get off, then," Cade said.

"Probably easier for you to inspect the Great Tree without me sitting on your back." He shifted his weight and tried to climb down but his rigid wooden body refused to bend properly. He tipped sideways, slid off Varosk's back, and hit the ground with a wet thud. For a few seconds, he just lay there in the mud at the base of the massive root-pillar. Fuck this incarnation. Next time I come to my Core realm, I'm figuring out how to make a different one. Something that can actually move properly.

He pushed himself upright with a groan and settled into a seated position while Varosk continued his inspection. The golden toad kept his body pressed against the black root-pillar. He slowly shifted around its base, rubbed his sides against the bark, and even licked it with his meaty tongue. Cade watched in silence as the First Elder inspected the Great Tree with all the dignity one might expect from the leader of a clan of magical frogs.

After several minutes, the giant toad finally pulled away and settled beside Cade with a heavy plop.

"The Great Tree will be fine," Varosk said. Cade looked up at the drooping branches.

"Are you sure? Because from here, it still looks like it's dying. The branches are sagging, the leaves have lost their color, and I can still see that the life essence inside it is much thinner than before."

"Yes, it has lost life essence," Varosk said.

"But not enough to endanger it. The Great Tree has more than enough remaining to recover."

"So why does it look like that?"

"Because its body is young and dramatic," Varosk said. Cade stared at him. Varosk blinked slowly.

"It is withering like a young plant deprived of water for a day or two. It may be unpleasant, but certainly not fatal. More akin to a froglet throwing a temper tantrum than a creature approaching death." Cade continued staring at the toad. Maybe I really do need to learn how to sense essence through touch. I never would have figured that out just by looking at the Great Tree's essence.

"This stress may even strengthen it in the long run," Varosk continued.

"Recovery after strain is an essential part of growth." Cade let out a slow breath.

"That's a relief. I really thought something was wrong but I guess I was worried for no reason."

"Concern for the life you are connected to is not without reason," Varosk said.

"But in this case, the Great Tree will endure." Cade looked up at the Great Tree again as Varosk settled more comfortably beside him.

"Since we are here, and the Great Tree is not in immediate danger, I can take a brief rest from my duties and instruct you on the next step after Core formation." Cade turned toward him.

"Sure," Cade said.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that anyway."

"Normally," the First Elder said, "when a frog first forms their Core, that Core is empty of essence. The connection to the soul exists, but it is weak. The amount of essence drawn through it is so small that the newly advanced must sit quietly and meditate on the connection to fill their Core for the first time." Cade nodded, but that sounded very different from his experience. The moment he had bound the Dungeon Core to his soul, essence had flooded through his channels.

He hadn't needed to sit down and slowly fill an empty Core.

"As the frog grows more familiar with their soul and their Core," Varosk continued, "essence begins to flow from the soul into the Core without active focus. Eventually, the process becomes natural and the flow becomes consistent. But meditation always increases the flow of essence. Focusing on the connection allows more essence to pass from the soul into the Core." Cade tapped a wooden finger against his knee.

"So that's why the [Meditation] skill increases resource regeneration." Varosk turned one large amber eye toward him.

"When I was offered it after my first racial evolution, the description said it increased resource regeneration while meditating,"Cade said.

"It didn't say anything about focusing on the connection between the soul and the Core, though. Must be some sort of System fuckery because I didn't have a Core back then but the System still offered me the skill." Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"I do not remember enough of the System to confirm," Varosk said.

"But I do know [Meditation] is acknowledged by the Record."

"So if the connection between the soul and the Core feeds essence into the Core," Cade said, "how can the Core ever be empty? I remember Pearl exhausted herself during the fight back when Aquelion was corrupted by Sildraxa. She said she used up her essence. But if essence constantly flows from the soul into the Core, shouldn't there always be more essence inside?"

"Not if she spent essence faster than her soul could express it," Varosk said.

"Pearl likely exhausted the stored essence within her Core. Whatever flowed in afterward was not enough to keep up with what her skills use."

"Okay," Cade said.

"But if essence comes from the soul, wouldn't the soul eventually run out? There can only be so much essence one soul can produce, right?" Varosk remained quiet for several seconds.

"The essence expressed by the soul is far more vast than what a Core can hold," he said at last.

"Think of the soul as an ocean, the Core as a bowl, and the connection between them as a thin reed. You can draw water from the ocean through the reed and place it in the bowl." Cade nodded. Varosk continued.

"You may empty the bowl and refill it countless times because the ocean remains vast in comparison."

"Sure," Cade said.

"But even if you only draw one bowl at a time, given enough time, couldn't you still drain an ocean?"

"You could," Varosk said.

"If the ocean did not refill faster than you could draw from it."

"What do you mean?" Cade asked. Varosk's throat sac quivered.

"The soul renews itself. The ocean refills far faster than you can pull water through the reed. Even once you can consistently draw from it, the soul replenishes what is taken faster than the connection can carry it away."

"So there's no upper limit to how much essence a soul can produce?" Cade asked.

"Only a limit on how quickly essence can flow from the soul to the Core?"

"That is correct," Varosk said.

"To my knowledge, there is no true limit to how much essence a soul can produce. The ocean will continue to refill. The true limitation is the reed. If you draw too much water too quickly, the reed can break from the pressure. In the same way, forcing too much essence from the soul into the Core can damage the connection between them."

"That sounds bad," Cade said.

"But if the true limitation is how much essence can be fed through the connection, can the connection be strengthened so more essence can flow?"

"Yes," Varosk said.

"The connection will strengthen over time. As essence passes through, the connection adapts by widening and reinforcing itself. Meditation can hasten this process by guiding more essence through the connection than the passive flow would normally allow. The key is pressure without rupture. You must create stress and strain without causing lasting damage." Varosk turned toward the canopy above.

"Much like the Great Tree. The strain it now suffers is not enough to kill it, only enough to force adaptation. When it recovers, its roots will deepen, its channels will strengthen, and it will be better able to endure such strain in the future."

"Shouldn't the same principle work on the Core itself?" Cade asked, following Varosk's gaze.

"If the Core is filled to the brim with essence, and I keep trying to draw more into it, wouldn't that pressure force the Core to expand, causing it to hold more essence? Or, to use your analogy, deepen the bowl so it holds more of the ocean's water?" Varosk's wide mouth curved upward.

"Yes, the same principle applies to the Core," the golden toad said as he looked back at Cade and settled lower against the damp ground.

"A Core may expand when filled to capacity and subjected to continued pressure as more essence is forced in. Controlled strain encourages growth." Cade leaned back, supporting himself with one wooden hand against the ground.

"That might be a problem for me."

"How so?"

"My Core contains this entire realm," Cade said.

"If I need to fill it completely before I can expand it, then I'd need more essence than I've ever encountered. More essence than is currently within this realm."

"No," Varosk said.

"It is more likely that your Core's essence storage is separate from this realm. While the Dungeon Core you used in your Core formation is far more complex than any Core a newly advanced frog would possess, its existing storage capabilities should be more than enough for now."

"If that's true, what happens when I eventually need to expand my Core?" Cade asked.

"Would I be expanding only the part that stores essence, or would the realm expand with it?"

"That I do not know," Varosk said.

"You have strayed far from the path of both frogs and tortoises. Vorduun and I can teach you what we know, but not all of it may apply to you the same way it applies to our kin."

"Yeah, I get it. At least I have you teaching me instead of Esmerelda. She really was terrible." Varosk let out a low croak.

"She has taught our froglets for many Cycles and none have complained. She simply did not understand that a human does not possess the same instinctual knowledge as a frog."

"Okay, I guess that's fair," Cade said.

"Learning from you and Vorduun is useful. The more information I have, the better. I just have to figure out how your lessons apply to my own Path."

"A wise perspective."

"Don't sound so surprised," Cade said, his wooden mouth twitching into a wry smile.

"Wisdom is my second-highest stat now." Varosk let out a soft croak that sounded suspiciously like a groan.

"Oh, come on," Cade said.

"That was good and you know it." Varosk gave Cade a flat look.

"Okay, fine," Cade said.

"Back to Core stuff. I have a couple more questions."

"Ask away."

"Are you sure my Core's essence storage is separate from this realm? When I first connected the Core to my soul, it flooded my channels with essence," Cade said.

"And I used essence from my Core while I was back in the Tutorial."

"Your Core certainly is unique, but that does not mean its essence storage is connected to the realm," Varosk croaked.

"It was a Dungeon Core before you took it into yourself. There was likely essence within it already."

"It hasn't been very long, but I've never even felt close to running out of essence," Cade said.

"And I haven't meditated or felt the need to refill it at all. I haven't even felt it pull essence from my soul. I think I would notice something like that, since I'm sure it would be a pretty novel sensation." Varosk lifted one webbed hand and rubbed his throat sac thoughtfully.

"Just because you have not felt it pull essence from your soul does not mean your storage is connected to this realm. Besides, if that were the case, it would be more curse than boon."

"Why is that?" Cade asked.

"A normal Core stores essence in a readily usable form based on the individual's soul and Path," Varosk explained.

"As the cultivator grows, the essence stored within the Core becomes more attuned to the essence they use. For example, a Stormcaller eventually carries lightning essence in their Core."

"And this realm has more than one kind of essence," Cade said, brow furrowing in thought.

"As many kinds as there are Paths walked here," Varosk said.

"Life. Lightning. Water. Desolation. Fire. Pure. And many others in smaller amounts. A Core filled with such variety would be nearly impossible to use properly. So no, the essence your Core stores and the essence contained within this realm are not the same. They must exist in separate layers of the Core." The pieces clicked into place in Cade's mind as Varosk spoke, and a genuine smile pulled at the corners of his wooden mouth.

"The Great Tree," Cade said.

"It takes in the essence generated by each Cycle. The root-pillars I grew as its foundation represent the Paths of the frogs, the tortoises, and my own. Its roots spread throughout the realm, allowing it to draw in and process every form of essence the Cycle produces. It gathers what it can and uses it to keep growing."

"I don't see how that is relevant," Varosk said.

"Don't you remember? The Great Tree is also linked to my soul space through the root of my Law Sprout of Inviolable Self," Cade said.

"When I regrew it, I grafted part of my Law Sprout into its roots. Part of my soul is within this realm. Within the Great Tree." Varosk went completely still. Cade's smile widened.

"And if my soul is linked to this realm through the Great Tree, I don't actually have a separate essence storage at all. This entire realm is my storage." Varosk remained quiet.

"And if the realm is my essence storage," Cade continued, "then every Cycle happening inside it is adding essence back into that storage. The frogs express essence from their soul fragments. The tortoises use some of it in their cultivation, but they leave a lot behind. Then the Great Tree gathers the excess." His smile widened further.

"So not only do I have a big-ass essence storage, but my Core also generates essence on its own." Varosk stared at him for a long moment, then released a slow, reluctant sigh.

"You may be right," Varosk said at last.

"This is far beyond my experience." Cade's smile lingered for a moment, then faded as he looked up at the Great Tree. The drooping branches above were a reminder of the cost of drawing essence from this realm.

"I still need to be careful," Cade said.

"Sure, this realm is large and contains a lot of essence, but if I keep taking from it without giving it time to replenish, I'll put undue stress on the Great Tree. It will recover this time, and it will probably grow stronger from the strain. But if I draw too much, too fast, I might push it past what it can recover from."

"A wise concern," Varosk croaked.

"But you should not rely on the Cycle alone to replenish what you take. Spend time meditating. Draw essence from your soul and allow it to flow into your Core and into this realm."

"Yeah, you're right. I should actively replace what I've used instead of just waiting for it to recover on its own," Cade said.

"Yes," Varosk said.

"If this realm is your Core's storage, then maintaining it is part of your cultivation. Part of your Path. Take when you must, but replenish what you can. In time, that practice should strengthen the connection, the Great Tree, and even the realm itself." Cade nodded slowly, taking Varosk's words to heart.

"Now," he said.

"I have another question."