Chapter 14: Plans

It took another ten minutes before Asher could see the director's eyes finally open, he slowly pushed himself up and began rubbing his eyes, he had clearly been asleep for a while. The promise he had given Asher passed through his mind as the director did this, his rage once again building. The director slowly looked around after a second; looking for Asher until his eyes eventually found him, widening in surprise as he did. With a jolt the director quickly stood up and took a step back from Asher, not bothering to hide the surprise plastered all over his face. 

"So, you weren't going to tell me about any of the pain I was going to experience, were you?" Asher asked after taking a second to calm down enough to ask his question without leaping from his chair and trying to behead the director. At the same time, he could feel a sharp feeling coming from the center of his being, it felt like he could throw that feeling if he tried hard enough. Asher could only assume that this was how he would activate his ability, he didn't know how far he could throw it or if he was throwing it at all. That would have to wait for now, the director was starting to look around and Asher figured he was about to get his answer. 

"If I had told you what was going to happen would you have still chosen the rare core?" The director said after a moment of silence, he stood firm and seemed to firmly believe that he was in the right, the rage Asher had been feeling before was nothing to the rage he was feeling now. Every part of him wanted to lash out at the director, using the power that he could feel at the edge of his consciousness to take his revenge. It took everything Asher had to stop himself from doing that, he knew that if he wanted to last in this world then he would need the director for now, he could always get his revenge at a later date.

"Who knows what I would have chosen? It wasn't up to you to decide what information you kept from me, especially when you knew that I had no way of knowing! You just wanted to push your own agenda!" Asher screamed at the director, his face red from rage. He knew he had to hold back so that he could get some form of revenge later, but that didn't mean that he couldn't put on a show now, he had to use the director while he could, and if he played into his hand then he would be able to use him better later on. 

"Well, there is nothing we can do about that now. What's done is done and it's best we just move on from here," the director said after Asher finished, he was planning something, but Asher wasn't completely sure what. For now, he would just have to let the director be and he would figure his plan out and how best to use him later. Asher let the red drain from his face as he pretended to forgive the director, the director clearly happy to go along with it.

"The good thing is that you absorbed the core with little issues, what ability did you get?" The director asked after a few seconds of silence, trying to break the silence and move them into a new direction. Asher could only state for a few seconds before sighing and shaking his head while staring down at the ground. While he was shaking his head making sure that the director believed him, he made his decision.

"My ability is that I get pulse ten percent damage from bladed weapons," Asher said while looking up. The director broke out into a smile clearly very happy with what he heard. This surprised Asher as he only told him the first part of the ability, he figured that part was the least impressive and would be considered very basic by anyone else's standard.

"I was afraid that you would end up with a support ability or a crafting ability, the fact that you got a combat ability that can easily be combined with any other ability you get is amazing," the director said, leading them out of the room, opening and holding the door for Asher. They both walked out of the room and started heading back towards the reception desk, the director leading the way once again. Asher looked around trying to figure out how long he had spent in the room, but the light outside looked exactly the same as when he went in.

"You were in meditation for about a day," the director said, reading Asher's mind. He needed to be careful, if the director was able to read him that easily for simple questions, then if he didn't get a better poker face soon his revenge plans would get much harder down the road.

"Wow a full day, I figured it would be much shorter than that," Asher said, going along with what the director said. He was telling the truth as well when he had been told that all he had to do was eat the core he assumed it would only take a few hours to absorb everything. But Asher quickly realized that a day might not be as slow as he thought, he saw the director scoff at his remark, lifting his chin slightly as he did so. 

"A day is nothing, from what other adventures have reported most common cores take between six to ten hours, uncommon cores take twelve to twenty-four and rare cores can take one to five days." The director said quickly while they walked, his jealousy showing more than Asher assumed he expected. Clearly, he had spent a long time absorbing his cores when he got them. 

"And that's just the first core, every core after takes longer based on what your first core was," the director said, causing Asher to stop dead in his tracks. If what the director said was true, then he was going to spend at least a day absorbing every core form here on; no matter the rareness. Rage once again boiled in Asher's stomach, this time though he did his best to hide it and quickly resumed walking, catching up with the director in a few seconds. His thoughts were racing, while he had gotten through it, he had no desire to feel that level of pain ever again.

"How do I get new abilities for this core?" Asher asked after taking a second to calm himself down. He needed to get all the information possible out of the director as quickly as he could, if he wanted to live in this world without people finding out his situation then he had a lot of catching up to do.

"That's easy, just eat another sword core," the director said while shrugging, he didn't even bother to look back at Asher and instead just kept walking at a brisk pace. Asher couldn't help but let his emotions show on his face this time, fear of having to go through that level of pain every time he wanted a new ability, was plastered on his face.

"You mean I have to go through that level of pain every time I want to get just slightly stronger?" Asher finally asked after taking a few seconds to catch up to the director who had managed to gain some distance on Asher, his pace seemingly quickening. 

"Not the same level of pain, it is considerably easier and quicker to absorb the same type of core that you already have, if a common core takes six hours to absorb the first time, then any cores of the same type will take about two hours to absorb after that. I can only assume that since yours took a day then when you want a new ability, you're going to take about eight hours to absorb your next sword core," the director said, stopping for a second to explain all this to Asher, letting him not only catch up but also catch his breath a little. 

This information helped calm Asher down a little, while the pain might be just slightly less than what he had experienced the first time, at the very least he wasn't going to have to deal with it for nearly as long. This little bit of information gave him some hope that things would be alright as long as he continued to press on. Then without any warning the director turned around again and continued his march. It took the two of them a little over ten minutes of walking before they reached what looked like the reception area that Asher had bought his core from; but this one had adventures all around and what looked like a massive notice board was behind the counter, an unbelievable number of papers were attached to the board and receptionists were adding and removing papers every few seconds. Asher knew without any explanation that this had to be the job board.