189. Core (I)
His next two Levels came in the same night over the course of about nine intense hours.
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟡𝟞 -> 𝟙𝟡𝟟
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟡𝟟 -> 𝟙𝟡𝟠
After she tapped out he lay there as her pillow, drinking vials of elixir nonstop.
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟡𝟠 -> 𝟙𝟡𝟡
He was so close he could feel it. He kept going.
***
He managed to deposit Reina on a pillow around noon, freed himself to wander. He found Evan playing outside.
Evan was second to Zane in Leveling—he'd gotten up to the low 190s. He'd gotten a lot done in their little training camp. He made it through the first stage of his partial Light Inheritance, the 'Path of Laserbeams,' which he was quite excited about.
"Look!" he cried. He was moving so fast now Zane had a hard time tracking him with his eyes—he could only find Evan with his soul. Eventually Evan ran into a tree and crashed. "Ow…"
The boy popped up a second later, eyes wide. "So what'd you think? "
"Good job."
Zane ruffled his hair. Evan beamed.
He kept running in circles, running into things. He couldn't wait to hit Level 200.
Reina woke after a bit, recovered enough to finish up her Law of Earth in the mid-afternoon. She also settled some dispute over Pacific trade in the evening. She was a trooper. Zane felt kind of bad about the whole thing.
On the bright side she was also up to Level 190 too.
All this time Avery had been Leveling nonstop too. She spent most of her days napping and eating. She was Level 188. She was, in her words, just chilling.
She floated here and there, taking stuff as she pleased—nabbing food from the kitchens, Moon Fruit from the orchards. She went wherever the wind blew her any moment. Zane almost accidentally stepped on her a few times—a little lump snoring in a hoodie.
***
That night the Earth's dungeons hit 99% Completion. The S-Rank was the only dungeon left to clear.
Meanwhile, Zane was pretty much done Leveling. He needed only a little more in the way of elixirs to get to Core.
No one really knew what it involved. To get to Foundation you just Leveled up, which was pretty simple. He didn't feel any big hurdle separating Level 199 and 200. Maybe it was the same sort of process. He could just Level and he'd be there. Maybe he'd already cleared the hurdle once he'd gotten True Stormfire.
He knew there were different kinds of Cores. Inferior grade was what those Bosses in the trench had. And that was already an overwhelming density of essence. He wondered what it would take to get a higher grade.
Reina's theory was that all the essence inside you got condensed into a ball. A Core. That was what made Core Cultivators' essence so dense. Only the more essence you put into it, the denser it got. And that density determined the grade.
So really after he got past Level 199, the essence he'd gathered in the past 200 Levels would pay off in his Core. The higher the grade, the denser the essence. And Zane noticed there was quite a stark difference between dense essence and normal essence. He wondered if the difference was as stark between Core grades too.
Reina felt Zane didn't need to worry about his Core's quality—if her theory was right. She was also only somewhat worried about her theory being wrong, which meant it had a 99% chance of being right. Her brain was very big.
Zane wasn't lacking in essence. He wasn't sure if it had to do with his Title, or his Soul, or his body, or all of them. Mostly his soul, Reina said. But he had enough that he never even thought about it in a fight. It felt like a bottomless well to him—it never ran out.
Only when he really started burning for his Behemoth Muscles did he start to feel any kind of strain on his essence reserves.
He wondered what Core grade he would get.
***
He finished up that day's training on the very cusp of Level 200. He closed the day swallowing Steel A+-rank treasures, though. He wanted to start his Core breakthrough first thing tomorrow morning. Fresh and rested.
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔹𝕖𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕔𝕝𝕖 𝕀𝕀 -> 𝕀𝕀𝕀
Good stuff.
He flexed an arm. The trouble was that there was no good way really to benchmark his strength. Nothing in the Warrior Dojo could contain him anymore, even briefly. And his kind of strength now was like a snowball rolling down a mountaintop. You would almost have to measure how fast it increased to see the difference. It felt to him that he had no 'peak strength'. At least—none he could reach before the rest of him gave out.
He could always tell, though, that each Level made him a good deal stronger. It shaved a good chunk off that 0-60 time. Though each Level also meant he'd need a lot more treasure. Getting past Level III would take things he would not find even in S-Rank dungeons, he felt. Maybe in the Superdungeon.
That night, he held off on essence Leveling. He gave poor Reina a break. He had put her through a lot these past few days.
He was close enough now; he didn't need to push that hard. An elixir tomorrow morning would suffice.
For now, he settled down with her to watch the end of the Heaven's Peak raid. They relaxed on the bed. Zane used the plush headrest as a pillow. Reina used Zane as a pillow.
She had brought bottles of Spirit Wines. A tub of popcorn so dense in essence it amounted to an A-rank treasure—still not enough to push Zane over the top though.
She chatted happily to him about the intelligence she'd gathered on the raid, the way the A-team worked together, their specific dynamics and roles. He mostly just listened diligently, popped in a question here and there. When they were together, she talked most of the time, and he listened. They both seemed to like it that way.
A screen of essence opened up in front of them.
A snowy landscape. A smattering of thick furry yurts ranged around a campfire. Some servants in moccasins and parkas scurrying about. The weather here was deep in the negatives.
It wasn't the dungeon—"This is News Crew Two, checking in from Heaven's Peak base camp!" said a silver-haired reporter. He had a slight Spanish accent. The name 'Teofimo Andres' popped up on screen. He smiled at the camera, baring a set of perfect white teeth. He was spiffily dressed, his hair all oiled and done up.
"We're here with the European B-Team—watching on as their compatriots make the final push!"
The scene focused in on a new fighting crew. They were staring up at a projection hung over the camp—a projection of the A-team marching. Zane recognized a few of this new crew. Cain Hastings and the ice princess Vanessa Volkova. She seemed stiff as a sculpture.
"Let's see if we can't snag a quick interview," said the reporter smartly. He strode up to Vanessa. "Vanessa, Vanessa! Your mother's about to face some of the most challenging Monsters she's ever fought. Any thoughts you'd like to—"
"Fuck off," snarled Vanessa. She turned away—back to the projection.
The reporter blinked.
"Uh," he said, laughing awkwardly. "Clearly it's a very tense moment for many of us—and for good reason! High drama's about to unfold up in the mountains. Let's get back to that main broadcast, eh?"
The scene shifted.
"We bring you this feed live from Heaven's Peak, third floor! Things are about to get heated…. in moments, the A-Team takes on the Level 200 Boss: Yeti Chieftain!"
A new crew popped up—the A-Team, marching down a cave.
The Boss stood at its end.
The Chieftain was forty feet of shaggy hide and bulging muscle, a mountain of a Monster. Its bellows sent hurricane winds howling down the tunnel.
Irina Volkova snarled right back—and rushed straight for it. The rest of the crew went in after her.
It ended up being less of a fight than Zane had expected. They pretty much just demolished it. Irina did most of the heavy lifting—she lashed her chains around its arms, brought it to its knees, bound it so tight it could hardly even move, thick plates of Law-dense ice crystallizing all over it—
"It seems she's got a similar Bloodline to yours," Reina said, cocking her head. "High-grade with a strength specialty. But where you tend to use explosive movements, she freezes and strangles. She fights like a python."
Zane grunted.
Sure enough, the reporter said moments later—"Look at that otherworldly strength! That's the Worldserpent Bloodline right there, famed the galaxy over for its crushing power!"
The chains coiled layer after layer. The ice grew thicker, shinier, teeming with essence and Law, smothering the boss—it managed to smack her a few times but she hardly gave ground. It only busted up her lips, bloodied her mouth, bruised her arms—but she was back on it in a moment. And the rest of the team poured in a brutal barrage of Skills…
"Impressive work," murmured Reina. Zane agreed. He didn't think Irina could beat him. But she was strong enough to intrigue him. It would be an interesting fight.
"What a total beatdown!" cried the reporter. "They handled a Core Monster with ease! And now they're headed for the very top, the Final Boss…Stay tuned, folks—you don't want to miss this!"
The A-Team did a brief check-in. It looked like Irina didn't get under 50%. They took some elixirs, healed up—and were on the move again within half an hour. This was it.
Near the peak, the winds were jet streams. Their hair all flapped wildly. There were no clouds for cover—those were spread in a fluffy layer thousands of feet below. The sun beat down heavily on all of them. Each step saw them sinking a foot or two into slick, steep sleet.
The conditions were terrible. Just like when Zane and his friends reached the farthest depths of the trenches. But these were all top World Rankers. They handled it with grace.
Soon they made it to the very peak—a jagged hunk of obsidian-black stone.
There they stood. Still.
Seconds passed. "…What in the world are they doing?" said the reporter. "What's going on?"
It was like he was voicing Irina's thoughts—the camera zoomed in on her face. She was frowning fiercely, squinting, looking around. Searching for something.
A voice cut into the feed—"Field Reporter Christiansen here—it seems like there's no red dot on the mini-map! The Assassin-King just deployed his anti-stealth measures—they're coming up blank…there's nothing there."
"How is that even possible?" said the reporter. "Is—is there no Final Boss?! But—but the dungeon's still not cleared! What's going on?!"
Nobody answered him.
Another heartbeat. Two.
Then the mountain began to tremble. From the tip to the base—like the tectonic plates themselves were shifting beneath it…
The dungeon boundaries began to flicker.