3 - The core

Time passed quickly and Kura was still injured in the grass, but soon changes began to appear, first the wounds he had began to heal, the missing flesh regenerated and his open wounds closed, when his body finished healing the clothes he was wearing began to repair themselves until they were the same as when he picked them up.

Shortly after Kura's clothes were restored he sat on the grass breathing heavily and began to touch his chest looking for the wounds, he stopped when he realized that there was no trace of the wounds anymore.

-What did I do there? - Kura wondered, he did not remember his past life but he knew that he was not a warrior, but his fight against the parasites felt natural as if he had done it many times before, he realized that whatever the academic had done had changed him turning him into a true exterminator.

He closed his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh, he should stop thinking about it, it would do him no good, getting up from the grass he turned to look at the forest, he deduced that it was full of parasites and that the meadow he was in was the only safe area, he could not leave the forest easily with his current strength.

Remembering what the academic had said, he wondered if he had become more powerful after having eliminated the three parasites, he thought about going to the forest again to face the parasites once more, but he quickly regretted it, he had recovered from his wounds but he did not want to risk being fatally wounded once more, plus there was that large group of parasites, he did not think he would survive if he faced them.

Temporarily discarding the idea of ​​returning to the forest he set his gaze on the tower in the center of the meadow, for now it was the only option available besides doing nothing, taking his sword he went back into the tower to look for something useful, he climbed the spiral staircase until he reached once again the study with the stone table on which he had woken up.

First, Kura began to search the bookshelves thoroughly to make sure they were really empty, she quickly found some loose sheets with something written on them, she noticed that the writing was the same as the one in the academic's book, but now she could read it perfectly, trying to find something that could be useful to her, she grabbed one of the sheets and began to read it.

-... Is this poetry? - She said with disappointment before throwing the sheet away, she hadn't found anything useful on the sheet and had lost some expectation for what she would find on the other loose sheets, she began to read the loose sheets, and as she had predicted the sheets had nothing useful, the sheets had poetry and parts of research that she didn't understand at all and were incomplete.

Kura considered stopping reading the remaining sheets but when she read one of the last ones she realized that she had found something that could be of help to her in her current situation.

It was a sheet that had something written about the power system of that world.

"Core strength users are divided into four realms, empowerment, awakening, elementalization and celestial, users in the empowerment realm are able to wield power up to five times greater than normal individuals of their race, but that is the limit of the empowered realm, the next realm of awakening that is based on releasing the potential of the individual's inner core, is divided into three stages, to reach the first stage known as recognition the individual must find the core within"

That was all there was on the sheet, he tried to look for a second part of the writing but he couldn't find anything useful, he was disappointed but now he could do something else to strengthen himself.

If he wasn't mistaken he was in the empowerment realm, if he reached the recognition stage he would have the confidence to enter the forest once again.

-And now the question is... How do I find my core? - Kura wondered as he looked at his hands.

After asking that question Kura spent the next few hours trying to find the core inside his body, he tried meditation, it didn't work, he tried body scanning, it didn't work either, he quickly ran out of ideas to find his core.

-Core, core, do I even have a core?- He asked himself as he lay on the stone table he had woken up on. -I wish I had a clue- he said with his eyes closed, until he opened them tightly as he remembered something, he quickly went back to the discarded pages of poetry and searched among them for a specific one.

"... The beating of my core is dedicated to you..."

-It was so obvious, it is the source of life in the body, the heart- He said with a smile quickly putting his hand on his chest hoping to feel his heartbeat... Nothing, he felt nothing, he had not realized that his heart was not beating until this moment, if he could not feel his heart he could not reach the stage of recognition, but he thought that he still had another option to feeling his heart, taking only a moment to make the decision Kura took off the top of his clothes.

-... Partner I trust you- He said holding his sword, he had made the decision to take drastic measures, if he couldn't feel the beat of his heart now he would feel his heart in a more literal way, with determination he pointed his sword at his chest and buried it lightly between his ribs, quickly moved his sword horizontally cutting the flesh and making an opening.

He didn't feel pain, just a numbness in his body, with the opening in his chest Kura released his sword and put his hands in the opening and separated his ribs to have access to his heart, he put his hands in and took his heart, although it didn't hurt he felt that if he continued for a long time he wouldn't survive, but he also felt that he was on the right path.

Kura still couldn't feel the power of his core and felt like he was running out of time, subconsciously he knew that if he stopped now he wouldn't have another chance, knowing that it was all or nothing he pierced his heart with his fingers he felt death on him but he didn't hesitate as he continued to penetrate inside him, when he began to lose consciousness he finally felt something, deep in his heart he felt a spark of something powerful, with his goal accomplished he took his hands off his chest before falling unconscious.

When he woke up again his wound had closed just like the last time, but now it was different, subconsciously he knew that he had slept less time than before, he also felt that he was stronger as he could feel the spark inside his heart, he had reached the stage of recognition.

Smiling at his new power Kura put his clothes back on, it was time to go back to the forest.