Chương 138: Chapter 121 – Not a Chew Toy

"Do you know where Aquelion is?" Cade asked.

"I need to talk to the not-so-little gator about something." Varosk blinked." That is your next question?"

"For now," Cade said.

"You've already given me a lot to think about and I'd rather try applying some of it before I get buried under more things I only half understand." Varosk's throat pulsed with a low croak.

"A reasonable choice. Come. I will show you where the Viscount has made his nest."

"Nest?" Cade asked. Varosk ignored the question and crouched. Cade stared at the golden toad's back, then sighed and started climbing. His wooden body did not make the process easy but after an undignified struggle, Cade finally settled onto Varosk's back. As soon as Cade was seated, Varosk hopped away from the base of the frog's root-pillar. After only a few more hops, they stopped near the base of the third root-pillar. The one Cade had grown to represent his Path of choice and self-determination.

To his surprise, new growth of fresh green wood hugged one side of the pillar's base, forming rough walls and a low roof around a large opening carved into the ground. The entrance was easily wide enough for Aquelion, and the tunnel sloped downward as it led into the darkness below.

"The Viscount made this for himself after you left the realm," Varosk said.

"He spends much of his time inside." Cade shook his head and slid off Varosk's back.

"Just what are you up to?" he muttered. Varosk crouched slightly, waiting until Cade found his balance.

"Seek me out if you require further guidance."

"I will. Thanks again for the lesson." Varosk dipped his head, then hopped away. Cade turned toward the den but stopped short of the entrance.

"Hey, Aquelion," Cade called.

"I'm back to check on you, bud. You in there?" Cade heard movement from deeper in the den, and a moment later Aquelion's massive head emerged. His aquamarine eyes fixed on Cade's wooden body. For a second, the gator froze. Then his jaws opened, tongue lolled out to one side, and he bounded forward like an excited swamp puppy. Cade smiled.

"There you are." Aquelion lunged and Cade's smile vanished as the Viscount's maw opened wide.

"Wait—" Aquelion's jaws snapped shut around Cade's torso. Wood groaned under the pressure. Cade felt the force of the bite, but no pain. He looked down at Aquelion's snout clamped around his middle and realized his mistake. His [Rootbound Incarnation] was made of wood. And Aquelion loved nothing more than chewing sticks.

"Oh, come on," Cade said.

"Aquelion! It's me, Cade. Let go, I'm not a chew toy." Aquelion's tail thrashed happily. The next thing Cade knew, the world around him spun. Mud, roots, and mist blurred together as Aquelion death-rolled with Cade's wooden body caught in his jaws. The incarnation creaked, splintered, and finally shattered. Cade's awareness tore free and he found himself floating as a disembodied consciousness again.

The gator continued to gnaw on the remains of his [Rootbound Incarnation] even as his aquamarine eyes shifted toward Cade, and he let out a low satisfied huff.

"Your first reaction to seeing my new incarnation was to chew on me?" Cade asked, exasperated. Aquelion stared up at him with wide, pleading eyes. Cade sighed.

"Okay, I'm partially to blame. I probably should have seen that coming, considering how much you love chewing sticks." Aquelion thumped his tail twice in agreement.

"Anyway," Cade said, "since you destroyed my incarnation, I'm going to skip straight to the question. Why did you want Kharvaxis' Core so badly?" Aquelion perked up, then turned and lumbered back into the den. He paused near the entrance and looked over his shoulder, as if checking whether Cade would follow.

"Okay," Cade said.

"I'm coming." The passage sloped down into a large chamber carved out beside the root-pillar. One side wall was the pillar itself while the others were made of earth held back by interwoven green roots. At the center of the chamber, roots rose from the ground in a five-pointed star formation large enough to fit Aquelion's entire body, tail and all. Kharvaxis' Core rested at one point of the star, held in place by a root that protruded from the ground and curled around it like a wooden claw.

Blue-white light flickered beneath the Core's surface. Thin lines of essence moved through the wood but faded before it fully reached the base. Cade drifted closer. Four other protruding roots waited at the remaining points of the star. Each one an empty wooden claw just large enough to hold a Core.

"Aquelion," Cade said slowly, "is this for your Core formation?" The Viscount's tail thumped twice against the ground. Cade studied the four empty sockets.

"And you need four more Cores." Aquelion thumped his tail twice again.

"Right. Do you want to explain?" Aquelion thumped once before he opened his jaws in what was unmistakably a toothy grin.

"Okay," Cade said.

"I don't really know what you're trying to go for here, but I get the general idea. When you have all five, this ritual or whatever will somehow help you form your own Core. Is that right?" Aquelion thumped his tail twice, then positioned himself at the center with obvious satisfaction. Cade sighed.

"I guess I can help with that. It's not like I have a better use for those Cores anyway. And I already planned on going after the Lords of the Swamp." Aquelion chirped happily and waddled over to a pile of sticks. After a moment of careful inspection, he picked one out, and started chewing. Cade chuckled.

"The fearsome engine of humanity's destruction. Noble Viscount of the Swamp. Builder of mysterious Core rituals. Bane of plant life everywhere. Chewer of sticks and roots." Aquelion ignored him. Cade gave the den, Kharvaxis' Core, and the ridiculous Viscount one last look before he willed his awareness out of the realm.

A moment later, Cade's consciousness settled back into the endless black expanse of his soul space and he immediately focused on the Core nestled among the roots of his Law Sprout of Inviolable Self. There, the black-and-white orb rotated slowly, bound to the root he had once torn from his soul. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Cade studied it for a long moment. Varosk had told him to meditate on the connection between his soul and his Core.

To focus on it and guide essence through it. It sounded simple enough. Cade considered using [Hyperfocused Meditation] but immediately dismissed the idea. He did not need to accidentally lose track of time and sit in his hut for days on end. He refocused on his Core and tried to find the connection between it and his soul. The answer seemed obvious at first. The Core was attached to the root of his Law Sprout. That had to be the connection. But as Cade inspected it closer, the idea felt wrong.

He shifted his gaze to beneath the Core, where black and white roots spread outward, each one wrapped in void-black tendrils before vanishing into the darkness of his soul space. Cade knew those roots led to the channels in his body. Essence flowed from his Core through those roots, out to his channels, and back again. He had drawn essence from his Core plenty of times already to figure out that much. He had just not taken the time to actually inspect the structure within his soul space before.

His focus narrowed on one of the roots as he brushed his awareness against it. A sharp twinge sparked through his physical body near his ribs. That was odd, he didn't know he could feel his body while his mind was focused on his soul space. Curiosity itched at him and Cade brushed against another root. This time, a pinprick of pain welled up in his right forearm. He did the same with a third and a fourth, each one caused a brief flash of pain at different points in his body.

As he continued testing he grew more and more certain that he had felt pain at those points before. He had strained his channels while pushing essence into the Ashen Vortex that destroyed the old Great Tree. Pain had flared from strange points scattered all throughout his body. At the time, he had been too busy trying not to lose control to investigate what was happening.

He had only known that the rhizome was drawing something into his channels through those points, widening and deepening the pain he felt as he strained. Now that he focused, he remembered the strangest part. The points connected to his channels, but they felt decidedly different from the channels themselves. His channels made sense to him. They ran through his body like veins, only carrying essence instead of blood. But those points of pain had felt deeper than just his channels.

They possessed an inexplicable depth to them. A different dimensionality. He had thought that the pain he felt during the Ashen Vortex was simply damage from straining his channels. But what if he was wrong? What if those points were where the rhizome pierced beyond his channel's normal structure had connected to something deeper? The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He had expected one connection between his soul and his Core. A single reed, like Varosk had described.

But if he were right, then he did not have one connection. He had dozens. No, hundreds. All scattered throughout his body. Excitement grew within him but he had to test his hypothesis before he was sure. If his channels connected to his soul through hundreds of points in his body, then they should each be able to pull essence from his soul. The problem was that his channels were already full of essence coming from his Core. So he made room. Cade focused on the flow leaving his Core and willed it to stop.

The outward current stilled immediately. Cade watched through the roots of his soul space as the remaining streams of essence returned. The black and white roots dimmed as the last traces of circulating essence slipped back into the black-and-white orb. For the first time since he had forged his Core, Cade felt his channels were completely empty. He hated the sensation. He felt hollow and exposed, like he had shut off part of himself he had only recently learned existed.

It didn't hurt, but it felt wrong enough that every instinct screamed at him to restart the flow. But Cade ignored those instincts and focused on one of the roots, brushing his awareness against it again and immediately feeling a sharp twinge from his left shoulder. He centered his mind on that spot in his body and was about to pull when he remembered Varosk's words. He had specifically said not to exert too much pressure otherwise he might cause lasting damage to the connection.

So instead, Cade willed a steadily increasing suction focused directly on that point. As the suction grew, the twinge sharpened. Cade slowly increased the pressure, ready to back off at any moment if he felt like something was seriously wrong. The sensation deepened until it felt like something was about to pierce through him from the other side. Then he felt a pop, and a thin trickle of pure essence slipped through. His left shoulder throbbed, but the flow was proof his hypothesis was right.

His channels really were somehow connected to his soul. The essence entered the empty channel and followed the path inward. In his soul space, a pale thread of essence traveled through the root he had brushed against and was deposited directly into his Core.

"I was right," Cade said, grinning despite the ache. He found the matching root for his right shoulder, repeated the process, and another trickle of essence entered his channels. Only this time, immediately after the pop, he also felt his soul space shudder. Cade waited a few moments and his soul settled. He knew he could keep going, but just because he could doesn't mean he should. He wanted to open more.

Hundreds of points throughout his body waited for him, and each one could probably add another thread of essence to the flow. But his soul felt tender. Two would be enough for now. The streams were small. They were barely anything compared to the amount of essence he had spent yesterday. But he could let the pair continue feeding his Core, replacing at least some of the essence he had used. Then he pulled his focus away from the depths of his soul space and his awareness rose back into his physical body.

He opened his eyes to see faint morning light peeking in through the gaps in the door. For a few seconds, he just sat there and felt the flow of his essence. His shoulders felt sore as essence trickled into his channels, but the pain was manageable. Stopping at two had been the right choice. He had big plans for the day, and he didn't want the pain of opening more connections between his channels and his soul to get in the way. He could open more later.

Cade rolled his shoulders, winced, and glanced toward the door. Before he left the hut, though, one more thought crossed his mind. With a flick of his will, Cade brought up his Status screen. He had gained five levels since the last time he checked, created a Legendary Skill inside his Core realm, and even earned a Title that still felt a little too generous for the amount of help he received in creating the skill. But his attention skipped past all of that and locked onto the new section near the bottom.

Core: [Inviolable Realm Core (unique) - Cynthia's Legacy]"Well, that's new," Cade muttered to himself before his eyes returned to the end of that line. Cynthia's Legacy. That name didn't feel right anymore. It had been Cynthia's Legacy before. But Cade had burned away the corruption, regrown the Great Tree, and bound the Core to his soul. The realm had changed ownership and it needed a new name. Cade immediately grimaced. He hated naming things. When he was a kid, he had won a goldfish from a carnival.

One of those games where you tossed a ping-pong ball and tried to land it inside a small fishbowl with a live fish in it. Only the goldfish he won had no eyes. In his clever eight-year-old mind, Cade had named it Fsh. He still thought it was funny, but his sisters had relentlessly teased him about it for years. Cade sighed.

"Okay. Don't overthink it. Cynthia named the place after herself, so why not just do the same? Call it Whitehollow." Except the moment he said it out loud, he disliked the name. The realm was not hollow. It was filled with creatures and essence. It held Varosk and Pearl and the rest of the frogs. Vorduun and Brahm and the rest of the tortoises. Aquelion was still inside. The Great Tree. Even the flower he'd grown from part of Richard's soul.

Cade leaned back against his ashen cloak, hardening it to support his weight. The realm was where he had truly started walking his Path. It had reforged his body, shaped his Laws, given him his Core, and changed what he thought was possible. If any place was sacred to him, it was this realm. A slow smile tugged at his mouth. Caylee and Cassandra would absolutely make fun of me for this. But for some reason, that only made him like it more. Cade focused on the Core section of the Status screen.

He had already changed how his Statistics had been displayed, forcing the page to show both his raw stats and his Title-boosted stats. If the Status page had responded to his will before, then it should again. He held the new name in his mind and the text flickered, then changed. Cade smiled to himself as he reviewed his Status sheet one more time.

STATUS Name: Cade Whitehollow Age: 26 Race: [Human (F) – lvl 22] Health Points (HP): 1947 / 1947 Stamina Points (SP): 1584 / 1584 Mana Points (MP): 1991 / 1991 Statistics: Strength: 55 (82) -> 80 (144) Dexterity: 54 (81) -> 79 (142) Endurance: 55 (82) -> 80 (144) Toughness: 52 (78) -> 77 (138) Vitality: 71 (110) -> 96 (177) Wisdom: (124) -> 108 (194) Intelligence: 76 (114) -> 101 (181) Willpower: 90 (135) -> 115 (207) Titles: [A Brutal Welcome], [Coreless Conqueror], [Shepherd the Young], [111th Integration Pioneer], [Perfectly Reforged Body (F-rank)], [Coreless Lawbearer], [Core Forger], [Usurper of Fate], [A Legend in the Making] Laws: Seeds: [Dissolution], [Renewal] Sprout: [Inviolable Self] Core: [Inviolable Realm Core (unique) - Cynthia's Legacy Whitehallow] Quests: Tutorial Quest: Lords of the Swamp Race Skills: [Unbroken Will], [Hyperfocused Meditation (rare)], [Greater Identify (epic)] Skills: Essence Overload (rare)], [Essence Sight (rare)], [Flames of Desolation (rare)], [Essence Manipulation (epic)], [Prismatic Conduit (epic)], [Corebound Incarnation (Legendary)], [Mantle of Dissolution (Law-bound — Immemorial)]