Chương 135: Chapter 118 – Adapt to What Comes Next

Cade's awareness slipped inward as the outside world faded away and his soul space resolved in his mind's eye. His Law Seeds hovered in the darkness, one on either side of his Law Sprout of Inviolable Self, which grew in the center of the space. Its roots sank deep into him, and connected to one was the slowly rotating black-and-white Core he had bound to his soul. Cade did not enter it immediately. Instead, he turned his attention to the Law Seed of Renewal.

He had felt something shift while creating Kyle's prosthetic. Not enough to pull his attention away at the time, but enough that he wanted to investigate while he was here. The Law Seed hovered in front of him. Multicolored lightning flickered through cracked openings across its surface. The fractures spread for a heartbeat, only for the seed to restore itself whole again. Then the process repeated. Crack. Lightning. Restoration. An unyielding cycle of renewal. Visually, it looked the same as he remembered.

But as Cade studied the seed, he realized the feeling had changed. What has broken down may rise anew. That remained the foundation of the Law Seed, the principle that had allowed him to form it in the first place. But now there was something more woven through. Not enough to germinate into a Law Sprout the way Inviolable Self had, but more than it had been before. Cade stared at the seed for a few more seconds, then released a mental sigh.

Of course it couldn't be as simple as just staring at it in his soul space and figuring out what had changed. Maybe Vorduun or Varosk would know. They understood Laws far better than he did. The problem was asking them required a way to interact with them, and he hadn't been able to do that the last time he was here. One step at a time. Cade turned away from the Law Seed of Renewal and focused on the Core attached to a root of his Law Sprout.

The black-and-white sphere rotated slowly, its halves flowing smoothly around the void-black center. He willed himself forward and his consciousness passed into the Core. Cade soon found himself inside the hollow beneath the Great Tree. Three mighty root pillars rose from the ground, supporting the immense trunk above. Everything looked exactly as he remembered. But the moment he arrived he immediately knew something was wrong. He paused and took in each root pillar. One was ashy white and plated with rigid scutes.

Another was void-black, with rainbow veins winding through it. The third was formed from black and white roots spiraling together, a flowing band of gray marking where the two intertwined. Each pillar looked to be the same as before, but something still felt different. Cade looked around for Aquelion, expecting to see the Viscount's massive form somewhere nearby, but there was no sign of the gator.

He willed his perspective to shift and the hollow blurred as his awareness moved outside, settling near the base of the Great Tree's trunk. That was when he saw what was wrong. The Great Tree's massive branches, once proud and rigid, now bent under their own weight. Many of the leaves had lost their vibrant color. Cade watched a few fall free and vanish into the mists below. His stomach would have dropped if he had one. Cade's consciousness moved upward by will alone, circling the trunk as he inspected the tree.

The bark still carried its strange mixture of hardwood with void-black veins, but the vitality he remembered had dimmed. [Essence Sight] allowed him to see that life essence still flowed through the Great Tree, but not nearly as much as before. What had once moved through the trunk like a river now ran in thin, sluggish streams. That can't be good. He focused on the tree and tried using his [Greater Identify]. Inviolable Great Tree of the Three Paths —??? Cade stared at the notification in his mind.

For the first time since he received the upgraded skill, [Greater Identify] had given him almost nothing. The name of the Great Tree was apt, at least. The Great Tree had grown from three foundational pillars: desolation and purification, growth and renewal, and the path between them. He had hoped the skill would give him some explanation of what was wrong, but all it gave him were question marks—not even a description of the Great Tree.

Was it because the skill came from the System, and the System had no foothold here? No, that couldn't be it. His old [Identify] had worked inside Cynthia's Legacy before. So why had [Greater Identify] given him almost no information? Cade pushed the question aside and moved higher into the branches. There was even less life essence here. The upper limbs sagged, and some of the smaller branches looked almost starved, as if they had been drained. Cade's non-corporeal form went still as realization hit him.

The essence he had been using in the Tutorial had to come from somewhere. He had assumed it came from his soul because Vorduun and Varosk had told him essence came from the soul. They had said that when a Core connected to the soul, essence could be brought into the world. But they also said that a Core could store essence. His Core was no ordinary Core. It contained a living realm that both generated and stored essence. Had he been drawing from the stored essence ever since he returned to the Tutorial?

The Ashen Vortex that erased the horrors Richard had left behind. The huts and wall he grew from the rhizome. Kyle's leg. All of that essence had to come from somewhere. Cade willed himself higher. The upper branches blurred past as his perspective rose through the Great Tree's canopy. Even the smaller twigs up here sagged beneath their own weight. The life essence moving through them looked thin enough that Cade almost expected some of them to snap off at any moment.

Then he found the flower he had grown from Richard's soul. Or what was left of it, at least. It still grew from one of the highest branches and Cade noticed that this branch didn't seem to sag as much as the others. The flower's five pale petals still shimmered with pearlescent radiance and ivory veins still ran through each one. Rainbow threads wound around the pitch-black pistil at its center. It looked nearly identical to when he first grew it.

Through his [Essence Sight], he confirmed the flower continued releasing pure essence into the air. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. That was good. Unfortunately, the flow was barely a trickle compared to what Cade had been spending since returning to the Tutorial. It might help sustain the realm over time, but it was not enough to cover everything he had used.

Cade stared at the flower for a moment longer, then willed himself back down toward the ground. He needed to speak with Vorduun and Varosk. The First Elder and the Ashen Emperor both knew this realm and Cores far better than he did. It was likely that they could confirm whether his hypothesis was right or not. They might also know how to fix it. But just finding them wouldn't do him any good right now. He still needed a way to communicate. Cade paused for a moment as a thought struck him.

Why can't I just make myself a body? This was a realm inside his Core. It was attached to his soul. If there was anywhere reality should be flexible enough for him to will something into existence, it was here. He had grown Kyle a replacement leg in the Tutorial. Surely growing a temporary body inside his own Core realm should be even easier than that. Cade focused on the image of himself. He pictured a body forming around his consciousness. Bones would come first to provide the structure.

Muscles and tendons followed, wrapping around his skeleton in layers. Organs filled the torso. Skin came last, wrapping around the construct in his mind. Then he imagined essence channels running through every tissue. He didn't care about Mana or Stamina. For now, essence was all he needed. He imagined hands that could touch, legs that could walk, and a mouth that could actually speak. He reached for the Law Seed of Renewal and pushed the concept into his image. A body created for him.

A vessel shaped to answer his will. Nothing happened. Cade redoubled his effort, but still his will failed to produce anything tangible. He examined the failed attempts as he tried to understand what had gone wrong. Shouldn't this realm obey his will? So, why couldn't he form a new body? The answer came almost immediately after pondering it for a moment. He had no body in his current form. No body meant no channels. No channels meant that he had no essence to move and shape with his will.

He might be able to shape essence without channels, but he had no idea where to even begin. Right now, he needed essence he could actually interact with. Cade's attention drifted back to the Great Tree. It was partially drained, but even in its diminished state, the Great Tree still held more life essence than anything else in this realm. Taking more from it felt like a bad idea, but he didn't think he would need much. Not compared to what he had already used in the Tutorial. He would just borrow a small amount.

Enough to make a functional body for himself. With that thought fixed in his mind, Cade pushed his awareness into the Great Tree. Instead of riding the branches or drifting along the tree's channels as an observer, he pushed his consciousness deeper. He needed to feel its essence, guide its flow so he could use it to grow a new body. As his consciousness began to meld with the Great Tree, sensations exploded in his mind. Wind blew through thousands of his leaves all at once.

Warm sunlight pressed against his vast canopy. Sap crawled through his wood in slow, steady pulses. His roots stretched deep into wet earth, feeding from hidden reserves of essence underground. Countless smaller roots spread throughout the realm. Some drank in swamp water while others lay buried beneath ash. Cade felt all of it at once, every distant thread feeding into the same impossible whole. He tried to pull back, but he couldn't tell which way was back anymore. He was overloaded with sensations.

There were too many leaves, too many roots, too much essence moving through every part of him at once. For one terrifying moment, Cade was the Great Tree. Then something noticed him. An overwhelming presence pressed in from every direction. Calm and ancient. Patient in a way he had never felt before. It wrapped around his scattered awareness like a warm blanket, quieting the flood of sensations before they could completely overwhelm him. As it closed in, Cade felt his consciousness pull back.

Sensation after sensation was pruned away, cut loose before he lost himself. The world shifted. His vision, if it could even be called vision anymore, blurred through a thousand angles at once. Leaves became roots. Roots became ash. Ash became soil. Sensations flickered past too quickly to grasp. He felt swamp mist, warm mud, distant lightning, moist skin, and the slow pulse of essence moving through the realm. Then everything narrowed.

Gone was the overwhelming sprawl of the Great Tree, and his awareness settled inside something far smaller. Not the Great Tree. Not even close. He was inside a young tree with a narrow trunk and thin branches. His roots spread only a few feet through damp soil, and a gentle wind rustled through his leaves. A thin trickle of life essence flowed upward from his roots, through his trunk, and into every leaf. Compared to the chaotic sea of sensations from the Great Tree, this was manageable. Peaceful.

The presence remained with him for a moment longer, and Cade felt an impression—not in words but in intent. Stay. Then the presence withdrew and Cade remained where it had placed him. He could leave; he could will his consciousness to pull free and drift through the realm again at any moment. But he believed that ancient presence had directed him here for a reason. So he trusted it. A moment later, heat slammed into him. Fire crawled up his trunk. His branches ignited and every leaf was consumed by the blaze.

More flames roared downward, devouring his roots and charring the soil below. Pain tore through every part of him as his body was reduced to ash. Every molecule of the tree he once was had been broken down into something more fundamental. Then he felt a powerful suction and part of him was torn away. Cade felt a portion of the essence he had become ripped from the ash and pulled into something far more vast than his tree body. Then even that sensation faded. For a long time, there was nothing. No sight or sound.

No wind rustling through his essence. No sense of time passing. Cade existed as awareness suspended in pure essence and ash that had once been the tree. As darkness and silence stretched on, he realized what had happened. He had been a tree somewhere in the swamp, and an ash tortoise had found him. His body had been burned by the white flames of desolation and broken down into its most fundamental component, pure essence stabilized inside ash. Then mist touched him.

Cool, quenching vapor seeped through the essence that made up his form, soothing a burn he hadn't realized still lingered. Rain followed the mist, water soaked into the ash that held his essence. Cade felt the charge before he understood it. Lightning built overhead, sharp and alive with transformative possibility. This was it. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. The young tree had burned. Its body had broken down but its essence remained.

Rain had revitalized the ash, and lightning gathered above with the same transformative potential that had shaped so much of his Path. Cade pulled his will together just as the lightning struck. Prismatic energy crashed into the essence around him, and the darkness erupted with color. Power raced through his ash. Cade reached for his Law Seed of Renewal, drawing on the change he had felt while growing Kyle a new leg. Adapt to what comes next. He would not be restored to what had been before. He would adapt.

Reform into something new. Cade pushed his intent into the essence around him and pictured a body. Not flesh and blood but something grown from the cycle of this realm. Pure essence transformed by lightning, life essence shaped by Renewal. A vessel that could answer his will. Up until now, he could have willed his consciousness back into his incorporeal form at any time. But not anymore. Now he was fixed in place as a body formed around him, pulling essence inward as it grew. Roots twisted into limbs.

Wood layered into muscle-like fibers. Bark smoothed into something that faintly resembled skin. Fingers unfolded from braided strands, and feet pressed down into soil. Sensations returned in waves. Touch came first. The rain against his face and the mud beneath his feet. The ache of new growth stretching through unfamiliar joints. Hearing came next. Thunder rolled high above, deep enough to tremble through his wooden form. Finally, sight returned as Cade opened his eyes.

Mist hazed his vision, but it could not hide the new life pushing through the quenched ash around him. Green shoots split the ground at his feet while multicolored lightning danced within the clouds above. A System message appeared in his mind. Congratulations! You have created the [Corebound Incarnation] skill. [Corebound Incarnation (Legendary)] – Allows your consciousness to inhabit a constructed vessel within your Core realm. Forms may vary based on the essence and Laws used in their creation.

Each avatar's capabilities and limitations are determined by its composition and method of formation. While inhabited, it acts as a temporary body, allowing physical interaction while within the Core realm. Current Incarnation: [Rootborn Incarnation] [Rootborn Incarnation] – A living vessel of wood, shaped by Renewal and born through the natural cycle of your Core realm. New Title Earned: A Legend in the Making — Create a Legendary skill before evolving to E-rank. +15 to all stats +15% to all stats