Fusion

James and Ivan took the elevator and began to go down after closing its door. They reached the lobby but the elevator did not stop as Ivan had expected; it continued to descend underground!

They kept going for a minute more under the ground before the elevator finally stopped and the door opened, revealing a long stone corridor. Two people in black uniforms stood at the entrance of the corridor and bowed to James immediately after they spotted him.

" We greet the Tower master!" They both said in unison while bowing their heads.

James waved one of his hands in response before walking through, Ivan walked right behind him under the curious gaze of the two people in uniform.

The corridor was like an ancient tunnel made of bricks with a few torches hanging on its sides to lighten the path; the discovery of such a place in the Tower had surprised Ivan greatly. He still remembered how tall the building of the tower was from outside, it almost pierced the clouds! Since their arrival, he had only been to so few floors and even this underground; what other secrets could those many floors hold?

They walked for about five minutes before finally exiting the corridor and came to an empty chamber with nothing but surging Nexus energy, the place looked like a typical cave that one could find anywhere with untempered walls and flat ground. To the side of this chamber was a stairway that led further down.

James explained that this was the first level of the Nexus chamber where the fifth position on the ranking could train, he also said that it has the worst quality compared to the other four chambers.

Ivan found this statement difficult to believe, he could very well feel the surging Nexus inside this chamber; it was so strong that he could faintly feel it brushing against his skin! He believed that he would be able to progress very quickly if he trained here.

At least an additional 0.03% to his normal speed outside!

It was only after they visited the other four chambers did Ivan understood why James had said that the first chamber had the worst quality!

In the fourth chamber, the Nexus there was so abundant that Ivan could clearly feel it in his skin. In the third chamber, the Nexus was so thick that Ivan felt that he could taste it if he tried hard enough. In the second chamber, he felt he would be able to grab the Nexus energy; of course, this was only a feeling of how much he felt the presence of the energy and for a fact that he could faintly see it mixed with the oxygen in the chamber.

The last chamber and the one meant for first place was what had given Ivan the greatest shock. This chamber looked even more ancient than the previous four, the walls of this chamber were a mixture of red and brown which spoke of their age, and in the center of the chamber was a small pond filled with pristine sparkling water that filled the chamber with a soothing scent.

The Nexus energy in this chamber was so thick that Ivan could see them, literally! They formed small red clouds and drifted about in the air while releasing red wisps constantly.

Ivan could not even dare to imagine how much progress he could make if he trained her for only one day!

"This…" Ivan stuttered while still standing in the middle of the stairway. He was too shocked to speak as he struggled to control his expression.

" Hehe, I like that expression on your face. I heard it's very difficult to make you change your blank expression, I know this would work" James chuckled when he saw Ivan's expression, he was pleased with it.

Ivan quickly calmed himself upon hearing James' words and walked down the stairway, James revealed a small smirk when he saw the boy quickly adjust his demeanor.

"Let me not take much of your time, this is your chamber and you can come here to absorb Nexus energy whenever you want. Of course, that's as long as you can keep holding onto the first place on the ranking" James said and patted Ivan's shoulder lightly.

"The two people we met in the corridor just then will help you return to the lobby when you're done, you can come see me when you come out. Good luck kid" James added before leaving Ivan alone.

Now alone in the chamber, Ivan approached the pond and deeper his fingers into it. The water was cold and spread a cooling sensation into Ivan's hand.

"It's not dangerous," Ivan said to himself. 

Taking off his tracksuit and gray T-shirt, Ivan was left with only his boxers.

Splash! Splash!

He slowly walked into the lake till it reached his waist, he took one last look at his surroundings before going down.

Blup!

Ivan sat with his legs crossed underwater, he closed his eyes and immediately began to absorb Nexus from around him.

He had exhausted all the Nexus in his Nexus chamber during his experiment earlier so he first had to refill the now empty Nexus chamber. This took only a few minutes which was way faster than usual!

After filling his Nexus chamber to the brim, Ivan started to refine the Nexus to increase his AP; he was once again startled by the result.

+0.01%

+0.01%

+0.01%

….

He would gain an additional 0.01 increase in AP every few seconds! This increase in speed shocked Ivan so greatly that he momentarily stopped defining Nexus to be sure that he wasn't dreaming.

'Such speed!' Ivan exclaimed in his mind before he resumed absorbing and refining.

With enough Nexus energy to circulate in his body, he did not have to worry about breathing for a few hours.

...

James had by now reached the corridor, he approached the elevator in calm steps but his face had an expectant smile on it.

"Even if his talent hasn't been figured out yet, his progress with an SS talent level should still be of great use to the tower in the future. Work hard kid, let's see how terrifying an SS-level talent is" James mumbled to himself as he entered the elevator and tapped on the ascend button.

…..

While Ivan was busy increasing his AP in the Nexus chamber of the tower, Ralph was buried in a pile of books in the library.

Five long rows of books created a miniature wall of books on the table with Ralph behind it sitting on a chair with another book in his hands which he read with a very serious expression.

The back of the book was a title which read: The fuse of both worlds.

In this book was information about the fusion of the dreamscape and the real world which happened once every ten years, the number of times and dates that such had happened were all written in this book and according to the date of the last fuse, the next one was just a few months away! To be more precise, it was expected to happen in the third or fourth month of the following year!

"Such a coincidence! That will be just a few months after we finish training!" Ralph could not help but exclaim at this discovery.

He had heard about the fusion of the dreamscape and real-world once when he was a kid but could not clearly remember what it was.

Now that he was reading this book, he realized that it was around that time that his mother got her injury which later led them to move to the outskirt. It was said in the book that when the fuse happened, all Nexulytes regardless of rank would be pulled into the dreamscape forcefully and unprepared. Their locations in the real world would be mirrored in the dreamscape and it was advised for every Nexulyte to be close to a tower branch during this period so they could team with other Nexulytes when required. There had also been cases of Nexulytes appearing a few distances from their supposed locations but the gap would not be too exaggerated, there had also been unlucky people who directly appeared in the midst of monsters and forbidden zones.

During this period, no Nexulyte would be able to return to the real world and the fusion usually lasted for days with the longest being a month!

If one were to be at a place that was far from a tower, one should try to locate one in the dreamscape as fast as possible because terrifying monsters and forbidden zones in the dreamscape are usually very active during those periods; encountering one would be a Nexulyte's unluckiest moment or a Nexulyte's most horrifying experience if they survived.

"Hmm, only three to four months after our training" Ralph mumbled as he fell into thoughts. He decided to inform Glen and Ivan about this so they could prepare more, he had also decided to train harder as he intended to challenge the top five on the ranking soon; he wanted to get his hand on one of the Nexus chambers.