Chương 67: Dust Core II

The white layer of Layering wore off from Liesel's hand. Beneath it, her skin was burning red, blaring with almost negligible pain. Her pain tolerance had risen significantly after handling the Withering. The physical pains no longer seemed to bother her much. It was still there, and her brain didn't like it. But her brain didn't like too many things that were immaterial. It would accept this too, as it had accepted the pain in her temple as the norm until the pain went away.

The redness of her hand would soon take on a shade of purple. The Material Energy drawn from the Dust was purer and stronger than she could draw from the Nebulous Core. It was also greater in quantity. Her body, though trained and very resilient, couldn't withstand this borderline mage class of raw Materiality. When she used Enforcement to boost her speed, her muscles began to contract and strain. And then it would stay like that, an echo of her failure until she ate a fruit to heal herself.

The fruits were a miracle, but they also seemed to have the same kind of power the spirit dust had, at least as far as Liesel understood it. She didn't bring it up to Auram, who now wanted to see Fur.

"Fur is an animal?" Arval asked. They had been talking about the moonblessed creature for a while now. Auram was, at least.

"Yeah," Auram spread both her hands, "He's a giant guy, all warm and fluffy, and he likes to eat fish. And he likes to sleep." Arval's eyes were glowing in awe as she imagined something that most likely was nothing like the actual moon blessed. All she had for comparison was the scaly sand crawlers. Liesel couldn't say for sure Arval had seen a furred animal in her life. Liesel was not worried about Fur. The Mooblessed seemed to be well cared for since she last heard of him.

It was harrowing, in Liesel's mind, that this long stretch of time they were experiencing had not been ten days in the outside world. It was very close to that, though. What happens if the scholar leaves? Liesel exhaled, pushing that thought into a corner of her mind. Her limited capacity allowed her no personal capacity in the grand design; growing stronger was all the effect she could have on the situation.

"Auram," Liesel beckoned. The spirit floated to her side, leaving Arval, who was peeling another weird fruit the realm had constructed just for her. It might as well be a treasure worth starting a war over in the real world.

"You hurt your hand," Auram said. She didn't like seeing Liesel's body hurt, even though this was as close to nothing as anything could be.

"The imbalance is worrisome," Liesel said.

"Higher concentration of Materiality makes it impossible to employ a small amount of energy that I previously used. It was often less than a single unit of Materiality. Now, no matter how hard I try, it is ten to twenty times higher than that. Even with my practice, there is a floor of how little Materiality I can draw, and it has climbed higher than the ceiling of my physical body."

Usually a warrior would have Archetype-Specific traits that strengthened the body and raised the Constitution for this to never be an issue. And those Archetypes also have skills that are far less damaging than the basic attribute abilities that Liesel used.

"What will you do if you can't fix it?" That was the question. Without her tools, what would she amount to? She had no way to use her vast reserve of Materiality effectively. She was again toying with the idea of expelling all the dust from her core, and letting herself return to the equilibrium she was at.

"The better question is: what I had until now, was it enough to escape the Necropolis alive?" Liesel said, "And I believe not."

"Yeah... I can see that. Ashlord is on a completely different level than you," Auram nodded.

"The snake thing in the wasteland is another problem."

"Maybe I have touched the ceiling of power that my techniques can take me to. And it has only amounted to barely surviving the wasteland, and that too is by a miracle you created."

"I didn't do much." Auram shrugged.

"What's next is finding a way to use the Materiality I will have accumulated by the time my Core takes shape."

"I have no clue," Auram said.

"I have nothing that can hurt others." Liesel couldn't imagine Auram hurting a fly. The best that Auram had mustered was pulling a strand of Liesel's hair.

"I have a thought," Liesel said.

"For it to work, I will need to weave my Crest, and my Materializing ability to advance further as well." Her idea had many holes in it—a few of them would resolve once her core advanced. She had a trump card that didn't require her to limit her Materiality. A guaranteed victory so long as she had the time to execute it.

[Materiality: 1231/1231] Looking at this large, unreachable number, Liesel was left with a complicated feeling. There was a bit of pride. Only a tiny bit. A lot of relief that her curse was gone. She could be stronger. That her struggles had borne fruit. She was powerful now, and would be so much more by the end of it. Yet, the elation was tiny. The realm made it unimpressive. But it had also trivialized her struggles. How could it have been hard if it could be so easy?

"You are discounting your role," Auram said. She was usually patient. Today, she sounded somewhat frustrated.

"What do you mean it is trivial? No one can turn Materiality into dust. You achieved it through your dedication and discipline. A long, arduous struggle that pushed your magic to its limit."

"Even so, it feels trivial."

"Why?" Auram frowned.

"I am not sure why. It was easy, as I said. Remarkably so. Even preparing the rune cage had been harder."

"Oh, I see," Auram nodded.

"I think you are just not used to seeing anything move forward without pain. That's all. The rune cage was you basically destroying your body with weird substances and then struggling for ten minutes, and nothing more. You didn't do much, if I am being honest. Compared to how much time and energy you spent on this. Most of the rune cage was just potions that enhanced your ability to do basic things. So, it's the lack of pain that is bothering you."

"That makes no sense," Liesel said. But the thought of pain lingered in her mind. She was free from most of it now. Except for the ache in her Soul Form's wound, she was healthier and growing stronger. Her mind had found an impassive state in that pain, and being pulled so much to the left of it was hard to rationalize so quickly. If that truly was the case, then she would eventually find a new normal here. One that was incompatible with the world awaiting outside.

"It makes all the sense in the world. You don't have to be struggling in misery all the time. Sometimes you can just put effort, and it works. Not everything you have ever done could have been painful."

"The imperial academy was a blur. Never enough time to stop and think, look inside, and now, I recall nothing but an unrelenting march, sometimes painful, always exhausting," Liesel admitted.

"When I say it shouldn't work, I mean it is my inability to grow that destroyed my future. I can't be this easy. It feels like an illusion. There should be something more that I cannot find." Stolen novel; please report.

"Did it really?" Auram asked.

"What would you be right now? An imperial puppet? Forever subservient and loyal to the Empire. This is a much better future than that."

"Maybe..." Liesel had no retort to that. She was slowly rationalizing that she did want the achievement the title represented, but not the path it would ask her to walk. But what was this future? Where did it even lead to? Why was she even doing all this now?

"Why don't you rejoice that it is easy?" Auram asked.

"That's what people do, right?"

"I don't hate pain to rejoice in its absence. It will always remain a part of my life, no matter how the future unfolds. To feel anything now is to inflict an unnecessary helplessness when it inevitably greets me again." Auram huffed. She seemed somewhere between pissed and tired.

"You should focus on your practice. I will see how Arval is doing." Auram was gone, complaining. Liesel bobbed her head. She was juggling her mental muscles between three things. Refining her core, Materializing Materiality, and also channeling Materiality into the world. Rune practice was only a few minutes a day to maintain its speed, as her ability to Materialize was hindering her rather than weaving the simple runes.

Though her Soul Veins weren't damaged from her relentless use because of the Realm, they were growing sturdier from the constant strain, which was another blessing. One too many that made her feel conscious about it. Everything was going too perfectly this time. She was worried about the cost at the end. Auram tried to argue that this was just the fruit of her efforts until now. That was far too optimistic an outlook on reality. Her primary focus, other than her core, was Materializing Materiality like a mage.

The first step was expelling Materiality into the air, and then she used Imposition to gather the latent Materiality and clump it together. These two things were easier each time she tried it. But then they escaped her grasp as she struggled to pull them into the physical world. Something was keeping her from crossing this threshold. Even the Imposition was easier than Materializing for some reason. If she was having a hard time using a precious ability, the advancement was supposed to be impossible.

The Crest was a different case. She would only be able to weave it once she had a concentrated Core entirely of dust. It would be tiny compared to the actual Materiality Core. Right now, her core was taking up all the space in her Soul Form, except for the tiny elongated space where the Rune Cage was. She had consciously increased the size of the Nebulous layer, as that would hinder the consolidation of the Dust Core for now. The longer she held off, the higher her growth would be.

It was that evening at the end of the third week in the Primordial Core. Liesel stared at Arval. A mix of emotions swirled in her mind. There was a human inside her that shouldn't exist anymore. She had stifled it with her own hands. The child was holding both her hands together. Her brows furrowed in deep concentration. In her hands, the energy gathered, invisible still, like a flickering spark. And then, it came to life—a flame. A barely larger-than-pebble-sized flame.

A strain of Flame was a Natural Aspect of Arval, in the center of her consolidated core, imbuing all her Materiality with the nature of fire. What it would do was an entirely different question, but the child had materialized it.

"You crossed the Second Threshold?" Liesel asked.

"When?"

"It was your channeling technique," Arval grinned. She was glowing like a spirit.

"It is so difficult, but every time I do the Enforcement or Layering right, as you do, my Control jumps a point. It feels like cheating... but it's difficult, so it's not, right?"

"It is a fruit borne of your struggle, Arval." Liesel was also smiling, faintly. She couldn't feel anything but an unknown joy seeing Arval in a good mood.

"I am glad it helps you out."

"You were also practicing Materializing, right?" Arval asked.

"I still am," Liesel said.

"Still? It's not that hard to do, though." There was a hint of pride in Arval's voice over her achievement, over beating Liesel, which Liesel didn't mind. Arval's face was equal parts confusion.

"The act of Materialization itself is barely complicated. What I am trying to do is achieve the most efficient way, as easily as my techniques make the Enforcement and Layering."

"Oh," Arval nodded.

"Once you find it, you will teach me, right?"

"I see no harm in doing so," Liesel said.

"Though I do not know if I can be quick enough to make it in time to teach you." Arval's face fell. She was very sensitive about the time. Despite everything, Arval had grown attached to her. Liesel felt that she had not escaped the mire of the mortal kind. It was something she would deal with in the world outside. Here it would only hinder her actual focus. Arval was still expecting Elder Ahura to open a way out.

At this point, Liesel was sure that the Realm had brought Arval inside to protect her from the mutated demon, and the child had no agency to leave. The only way they could escape was when the Primordial Heart gave Elder Ahura the link to open the passage. If there was another way, Liesel still couldn't see it. At least the realm stretched far, and it replicated enough of the real world that the child never felt isolated and trapped, and as an Ascendant, monotony and isolation were necessary things to practice.

Arval's past experience in the Heart and Auram's presence helped her not feel like a trapped animal.

"Just like Arval, you can also accept that spending time on refining Materiality is enough struggle to grow," Auram said once Arval went to sleep.

"She has a Perfect Soul," Liesel uttered.

"And I have accepted it at this point."

"How are you feeling?" Auram asked.

"How are you feeling, Auram?" Liesel looked up at the floating spirit.

"Don't you want to see the Custodian? You are trapped just like us."

"I am not feeling much," Auram said, shrugging.

"This place is as good a place as any for me. I don't want to be imprisoned forever, but if it is giving you the time to piece yourself together, I am more than happy to stay here for a while." Liesel nodded.

"How's your core?"

"I feel I am close to transition," Liesel uttered. The total size of all the dust was a sphere about the size of her thumbnail.

"Your techniques are kind of cool, if Arval can improve herself so far with it. Maybe you can open a sect to teach more students."

"I imagine that is her Perfect Soul playing its part. I have been using them for years, and I have not experienced anything close to her growth. And I'd rather not teach another child."

"I think you are a special case, rather than Arval's soul making that much of a difference. Hers is a potential not yet manifested."

"I find it hilarious that in just three weeks she has learned everything I have to offer," Liesel smiled.

"If we stay here too long, I might not even be able to beat her in a spar."

"I doubt you can do it now, either," Auram grinned.

"With the imbalance between your soul and Materiality. At this point, you are a mage more than a warrior." [Materiality: 3215/3215] Liesel flicked her eye at the number. It was large. Above-average mage level, and she'd grow it further before her Core fully formed. She didn't think she'd be able to increase her capacity after this, for a long while. The period of refining had lasted longer than Liesel was expecting.

The Dusts were not forming a core on their own like the Nebulous State's transition into the Condensed Core.

"Right now, I am neither. I feel transitioning into a mage is impossible, as I fail to even replicate the most basic of their abilities. It might be time to lean into the Weaver Archetype fully. The next skill I require is still unknown, and I do not have a way to raise my Dominion. Once I advance my core, the dominion is bound to jump multiple levels, so the only thing I am lacking is knowledge of the third skill. Hopefully that would be enough to receive an archetype trait."

"Maybe you need to have a Crest."

"But it is from a book. The System shouldn't require access to inaccessible knowledge to complete an Archetype," Liesel said. The book was Thread Cultivation, so maybe it was Weaver Construct too, but then the entire Archetype hinged upon a very specific book held by one of the most demented beings in the universe. Maybe it was common knowledge for the Weavers, Liesel thought, but the knowledge has been destroyed.

And because it is a lost Archetype, no Archive Master or Seer has updated the Archive that the knowledge has been destroyed.

"I don't know if my Soul Form will have space for the Crest until the core is fully formed."

"Then, we can only wait for now."

"My only worry is if the passage to the outside world opens now, I'd be a burden."

"I wish I could help with that. But all I can say is, don't worry about impossible things."

"If there is one silver lining, it is that I can at any moment expel all the Material Dust and accept this entire project as a failure, should I have to fight for my life."

"You are worried about an impossible situation." In the coming week, Liesel limited the time she spent practicing Materializing and Imposition and Rune Weaving to one hour, as stopping altogether would have wasted most of her training until now. She spent more and more time refining the Materiality. In the next week, she had crossed the threshold of six thousand, and another week, it was about ten thousand. Because the core was a sphere, the rate of its radius's growth was vastly lower than the increase in volume.

At the same time, the Dust Core grew heavier. She felt its weight in her soul consciously. The nebulous state of Materiality couldn't handle the weight of the dust any longer. At the core, it was beginning to solidify. On the outer layers, the dust was slipping out of the surrounding viscous Materiality layer. As Liesel couldn't increase the size or density of the Nebulous Layer without triggering a Condensed Core's formation, she decided it was time to refine the rest of the Materiality and assemble the core.

After gathering all the dust with her Soul Hand and Control, Liesel began applying pressure directly on the dust sphere. She imagined that just as the Materiality changed form under pressure, with enough external stimuli, they would stick together and become one solid orb of energy. She pushed her mind to the limit and spent half a day on it. Even her body was burning from the application of Control to its maximum extent. But the core didn't form.

As soon as she relented, the dust began to slip off the surface and fell out of her Soul Form. [Material Capacity: -32]