Chapter 13- Core Formation

*A few hours later*

Inside the laboratory, a young boy and an older man were sitting in front of a computer screen. The boy was sluggishly trying to type on the keyboard while the man stared coldly at him and gave harsh comments every now and then.

"Wrong! You forgot a letter! Go back and type them all again!" Cipher yelled as he noticed a mistake.

Malice clenched his teeth as he deleted everything he wrote and started over again. It has been this way for a long while now. Cipher had started teaching the boy the alphabet and basic words that he needed to write.

But, the problem was, after telling Malice once, the boy had to memorize the word and how it was written while also trying to get accustomed to writing with his hand on the touch-screen. In other words, it was extremely difficult and very fast-paced.

'This… is… hell! Get me out of here!!' Malice cried in his head as he tried again. One attempt after the other, he was forced into a monotonous state where he repeated the words, again and again and again and again. 

Each mistake garnered him a harsh correction and a penalty of repeating from the start. He felt like his brain was being cooked alive. For a second, he regretted that he even accepted going with Cipher.

The man wasn't just quick with his explanations, but also didn't repeat himself much and was extremely harsh with each mistake Malice made. 'Is this what the other kids go through when they go to school? I'm glad I never went there!!'

But, even with all of that, Malice quickly noticed his progress. Since his mind was quite developed and he had a very good memory, he almost memorized the alphabet in less than an hour. Then, when they started learning words, he almost learned the words after reading and writing them two or three times at most.

In a few hours, he was able to learn and memorize dozens of words and even learned how to introduce himself and have a normal conversation through text. It made him feel good, for as long as it lasted before he made another mistake and got absolutely destroyed by Cipher's sharp tongue.

Meanwhile, the man himself was watching the screen with a stoic expression. 'This kid… He is quite the smart one… I thought it was going to take a little longer for him to learn how to read and write. But his progress is quite good.'

The reason Cipher was this harsh was because he wanted each mistake to be etched into Malice's mind and consequentially into his subconsciousness. That way, he would never forget how to write or read that word.

That method seemed to work like magic with Malice as he was quickly catching up. If Cipher had to guess, the boy might learn all the words necessary, the grammar and tenses in a few days at most.

Unbeknownst to the kid himself, who was only hearing the harsh words while unaware that he was doing something rather impressive for a slum dweller. 

***

The night fell and the shadows of darkness cast themselves upon Neo Nexus. The dark, murky moon ascended into the sky, casting its faint, ethereal light on the massive city. If one looks at the moon long enough, one will notice a few different details about it. Apart from its drastically smaller size, it also had another change.

The moon had a long-running crack across its surface that almost covered half its size. It appeared like a scar of sorts or a remnant of a heavy blow it sustained. However, what made that crack weird was that… Nobody knew where it came from or why it was there.

Even with the advancement of science and Astronomy, 'the moon's scar' as they liked to call it was unexplainable. Some scientists theorized that it was hit by an orbiting asteroid some millions of years ago while others said that it was the result of some kind of clash between two ancient beings in the old times.

Either explanation had no real evidence behind it so it was left for speculations even to this day.

After spending almost 8 hours studying non-stop, Malice was allowed to retire to his room finally. Leaving the laboratory, he felt so exhausted that he could barely see the path ahead of him.

His brain was overloaded with information to the max. He didn't even know how he was able to handle all of that. Perhaps because of the Soul Essence generating within his body, even his memory and cognitive abilities have improved considerably.

But, that didn't help his exhaustion much as he entered the room and threw himself on the bed. 'Ugh, that was horrible. Couldn't he go easy on me for the first day?!' Grumbling under his breath, he felt his body slowly relax on the bed and his eyes slowly closed.

'But… At least I felt like I learned many things in such a short period of time… Maybe I can actually do something. Tomorrow is definitely going to be harder... So... I should... Sleep...' He thought to himself as his consciousness finally slipped away and he fell deep asleep under the rays of the moon seeping through the window.

In a few moments, his breathing turned rhythmic and his heart calmed down. A while passed like that without much happening on the surface. But, completely unaware of it, Malice's body was going through drastic changes at the time.

The Soul Essence pulsating through his body has been accumulating near his heart for the past 12 hours and slowly forming into a weird shape. He couldn't feel that change outside but it was happening. Now that he was asleep, that process seemed to accelerate again as the energy chaotically danced within his chest.

The more time passed, the more condensed it became, and the more the object that was forming turned brighter. Its color was a dark shade of red that seemingly mixed well with the red color of blood around it.

One hour passed, then two, and then three, and the condensation process intensified gradually. Eventually, the pressure grew so big that it finally exploded, sending energy waves across Malice's body that violently rippled through his bones and muscles.

"Mm…" The boy frowned during his sleep as if he sensed something but then immediately relaxed again. It didn't feel like much even though what was happening was considerably powerful.

The ripples of energy seeped into Malice's entire body. Cell by cell, the energy merged with him, changing his anatomy from the ground up. His weak muscles started growing rapidly, his raddly bones started getting more fortified and then slowly started growing in length.

Even his hair which was a beautiful mix of red and white started growing longer, reaching his neck and covering his entire face. Meanwhile, in his chest, a beautiful red orb formed and floated silently near his heart, still pulsating with unbelievable amounts of energy.

Slowly, the night passed as the process finally reached a halt. At the same time, the skull Mark on his hand started increasing in size, reaching a little over his wrist.

[Soul Core Has Been Formed.]

[Your strength has increased.]

[Your stamina has increased.]

[Your agility has increased.]

[Bodily functions have been improved.]

[The link with the World Beyond has been formed.]

A series of notifications appeared in Malice's retina that he wasn't aware of. All he felt at that moment was that his body felt more comfortable than usual and an almost blissful look appeared on his sleeping face.

***

The morning came and Malice's eyes slowly parted open as the rays of the sun hit his eyes. Slowly parting them open, his blurry vision instantly cleared up as he blinked.

"..." Slowly rising up from the bed, he didn't feel sluggish like he usually does when he wakes up from sleep. Instead, he felt rejuvenated and quite energetic. Looking around him confusedly, he was shocked to notice something.

"Huh?"

Blinking a few times, he made sure he wasn't hallucinating. "Did… Did my vision get better?" He asked himself.

It wasn't a subtle change or something that he could be mistaken about. Looking around him, he could definitely see far clearer than before. Some details that his eyes couldn't catch before were now as visible as the sun.

The entire world around him seemed completely different. More vibrant, more colorful, and weirdly enough, more interesting to look at. It was as if Malice was bestowed with a different perspective of this entire world. Slowly moving his hand up, he looked at it as if it was a foreign object.

"... I can definitely see a lot better. Also…"

The second thing he realized was that his body felt a lot more powerful than usual. There was no more sickening feeling of weakness or fragility that plagued him his entire lfie. He felt like he could do some things that he deemed impossible before.

Standing up, he felt his legs pulsate with energy as he stepped on them. "What is this? Wait…" That's when he remembered something.

A detail that Avatar told him. ''When your Core Formation is over, you will feel it.' Is this what she was talking about?'

No matter how he looked at it, that was the case. He was different now, way different than before. Jumping in place, Malice found himself reaching a meter in the air without trying too hard.

"Haha! This is amazing!" He murmured as his red eyes lit up with excitement. "My core has finally formed!"