Chapter 12: Core Absorption

Asher's heart began beating super-fast as he opened the chest, the only thing in between him and what he would consider his own superpowers was a small wooden lid. The lid swung open with little effort, what was inside caused Asher to take a short breath in. The bear core he had gotten before looked like a tan stone with flat faces in the corners, it was basic looking. This core on the other hand was beautiful, it was a dark blue that threatened a light black with specs of white littering the inside of the stone. 

"It looks like it holds an entire universe inside," Asher said, picking up the core from inside the chest, the core was smooth to the touch and had more weight to it than Asher had expected when he reached for it. Asher sat in awe as he held the core, all he wanted to do was memorize every aspect of the core before he was forced to eat it like a barbarian. It shone with more beauty than any diamond and somehow had more detail than any piece of fine art. The director just stared at Asher with a smile, he let Asher spend a while taking everything in before placing his hand on his shoulder letting him know that they should move away from here and absorb the core. 

Asher was jolted from his trance the moment the director's hand came down on his shoulder, Asher could only take a second to look around realizing just how long he had been standing there in his trance. With an embarrassed look at Nick Asher nodded to the receptionist and began walking away following the director towards what looked like a small room. They walked down a blue walled corridor with paintings hanging on each wall. At the end of the corridor was a light tan door with a copper and bronze looking handle. 

The director was ahead of Asher and grabbed hold of the handle swinging the door open to reveal a small room with what looked like a yoga mat in the middle and a chair and table in the corner. The walls were a pretty blue color and had what looked like clouds painted on them. Asher walked in and couldn't help but stare at the walls, turning around a few times checking to see if all the walls were like that, Nick could be heard holding back a chuckle. 

"We painted the walls after we had a few people nearly go insane while they were absorbing their cores. The walls were white before, but this color seems to have helped," the director said, turning away from Asher when Asher attempted to give him a worried look.

"Wait, why were they going insane and how long does this normally take?" Asher asked when the director refused to make eye contact with him, Asher was starting to worry that he wasn't in for a clean and easy ride to becoming a superpowered individual. 

"That depends, each person has a different experience. The only thing we know for certain is that the difficulty is tied to the rarity of the core, as for how hard it's going to be for you to absorb the sword core I can't say," the director said, finally looking up to make eye contact with Asher. The director had definitely known about the absorption difficulty before Asher had made his decision on what core he wanted but had decided not to tell him about it.

"Why didn't you tell me before now, I might have changed my decision of what core I chose if I had known," Asher said with a tone in his voice, he couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed, the director knew that he knew nothing about this world but had deliberately left this important out.

"That is exactly why I didn't tell you, if you got so worried about the difficulty then you would end up taking the easy route, I'll tell you this now so remember it well, there is not one good adventurer that takes the easy route, when things get tough the good ones grit their teeth and work through it," the director said getting louder and louder as he went on showing his passion for this topic. All of Asher's anger got blown out of him seeing the director who had been nothing but calm around him becoming like this. 

Asher could only sigh and nod to the director who visibly relaxed when he was certain that Asher had taken his words to heart. The director then went and started going to each corner of the room and took out what looked like a cube of wax and then sat them down on the ground in the middle of a small steel looking bowl. Then with a whisper set the top of them on fire creating what looked like a tiny campfire, he then repeated this for each corner of the room and only began walking back over to Asher once all four were lit. 

"These candles will help you focus while trying to absorb the core, I will lock the door and sit down at the table over there while you absorb it," Nick said, Asher could only nod and look at him with a hint of hope in his eyes, this man had helped him more than anyone could have been expected to and he had yet to ask for anything in return. Asher quietly walked over to the mat in the center of the room and sat down in a crisscross position hoping that his legs would fall asleep after a bit. 

"Now all you need to do is take the core out and swallow it, after that you will need to focus on the energies that enter out from it, everything should work itself out if you go with the flow," the director said, answering Asher's question before he had the chance to ask it. All Asher could do once again was nod. With a mutter he opened his inventory and quickly brought the core out. Asher could only look at it, the enchanting aura threatening to bring him back into that trance he first experienced. 

"Information" Asher said in a quiet voice, realizing that he had yet to actually check what information the core would give him. It took a second, but the now familiar ding soon echoed through his ears as the blue system message appeared before him.

[Sword Core: Rare Core]

[Effect: 25% Chance: Offensive Skill, 25% Chance: Crafting Skill, 25% Chance: Support Skill, 24% Chance: Enhancement Skill, 1% Chance: Affinity Skill]

Asher took a deep breath while staring at the screen in front of him, he knew that this information wouldn't change no matter how long he waited, with a little hesitation opened his mouth and placed the core inside, it was heavy just like when he was holding it but it wasn't to the point where he thought that his jaw would fall off. Taking a few more deep breaths he pushed it back and swallowed the core. Asher waited and waited but nothing came. He began to look around the room hoping to find the director so he could ask for advice but before he could find the tiny table, he felt a burning sensation appear in his chest. 

The sensation wasn't much at first, but it quickly grew into what felt like a blazing inferno sitting right in the center of his being. The pain was so much that Asher's body froze up, his jaw clamping down and his eyes shutting tight. That's when he remembered the advice from the director, he slowly forced himself to focus on the burning sensation trying to see if he could find any flow that the direction might be trying to go. 

After a few seconds of searching he soon noticed that the burning sensation felt like it was trying to flow along his veins and through his limbs, as Asher noticed this and began by trying to let the energy go where it wanted, he could feel a pressure building in the center of his being, it only started to get slightly better once the energy began to flow from the center of his chest and into his limbs, it flowed through what he thought was his veins and slowly began to circulate through his body.

The burning sensation lowered bit by bit until it stabilized at an intense burning but manageable, all Asher could do was try to help it along the best he could, it felt like hours before the burning sensation died down enough to the point that Asher felt like he might be able to open his eyes, it took him a while before he slowly started to open his eyes, as the image came into focus instead of seeing the blue walls he had left what lay in front of him was what looked like a massive sword floating in the center of a universe.