System update

Tlou carefully inspected the changes brought by the new system fragment, trying to look for anything useful. Other than the addition of skills given levels there's nothing of use. Tlou then turned his attention toward the new information about Heydar. Poison avatar? Is Heydar not human? Or is everyone on this planet not human? It was strange enough that he apparently not human, but it seems as if he was less than 5 years old? It made very little sense, but this was a world of magic, perhaps Heydars rotting body had confused the system. Tlou was not willing to place too many limits on what was and was not possible, he was no different than an infant in this world. Perhaps a poison avatar is what a poison magi is known as once they reach a certain realm. Back on Earth in Xianxia, characters would enter realms with odd names and be given titles like immortal or fairy, etc. But those were inspired by Chinese mythology, Buddhism, and Taoism. It was hard to tell if similar religions existed here or not, the young Heydar and Yaghma never practiced any religion or belief.

Putting speculations and questions to the back of his mind, Tlou placed the old spell back where he found it and browsed for a few books on history and geography, he already had a few back in Heydars room but he planned to stay down for a bit longer. The vast array of books, scrolls, and stone tablets proved difficult to navigate. Heydar just barely knew how to categorize and organize them, but it was very clear that he would forget to return books to the appropriate shelf or even put them back on the shelves and at all, some books were left scattered on the floor or desks. 

He found what he needed and left the place with 5 books in tow. He set the books on the table in the hall that led to the library and went to fetch himself more bread and a small jug. He conjured a small ball of water to fill the jug, this left him a bit longing to break past red core stage 1 and cast spells again, using augmentations and spells inscribed within his limbs didn't feel the same as constructing and casting a spell. He took the bread and jug of water to the table and began his learning.

For the Geo books, he skipped through most of the scientific parts and concentrated on the social aspects, he came from a world way more advanced. According to the book Lefase (the name of the planet) was divided into 3 sections, Al arda ( where he was), Norm Kessfar, and Poissagua. A huge mass of roiling white sand called the salt pala made it impossible to cross from one continent to another. The sand would shred apart anything that dared cross it. Al Arda was a tropical wetland with a lot of forests and mountains, villages are scattered around mountain tops and cities are mainly on flat land. However, what was interesting to note was how certain environments were bizarre with no clue as to what causes them to behave the way they do. Nearby the end of the dragon river ( which ran through the continent), lay a region of fog that has proved impenetrable after the royal family issued an exploration of the place, often beasts would exit and cause havoc but nothing could get in. 

Tlou assumed that's where he currently was, as to how exactly Heydar managed to enter this place was a mystery. The book had managed to stir a lot of his memories concerning geography and the current landscape. This pleased him as much as it annoyed him, some things managed to make him remember things Heydar once knew as if they were his own, while for other things he still remained ignorant to. 

It would be nice if I could manage to recover all of Heydar's memories, but at this rate, I would need to experience and read a lot to recover them all.

The more he read the more he remembered which led him to skip a lot of the book's contents as he already knew them. He sat the book aside and decided not to continue with the others. It would be better to naturally remember things than to read for information. 

Tlou left the books on the table for later and went back to his room after finishing the bread. He stuck his head out the broken window and observed the fog, I'm glad I never managed to leave this place. The short reading session made him aware of how dangerous this fog was. 

I'll explore after bashing through red core, he told himself. He noticed his health deteriorating through the system and took his pills before ut could plummet any further. This is no good, I need to fix whatever issues are plaguing this body. Having a body that was dying at a fast pace made him feel as if he was a death row inmate, constantly having to plead for more days.

Sooner or later these pills will be exhausted, I'll have to learn how to concoct my own soon. Tlou planned to ask the Hall of artworks for help on that aspect. 

He sat on the floor with great difficulty and began tempering his core. He was already naturally better than Heydar when it came to controlling and manipulating glyphs but the experience gained from Heydar's dreams made it even easier for him than Heydar's first time.

With his eyes closed he created a suction force and attracted the neutral glyphs from his surroundings. The glyphs came crashing like a tide and constantly crashed into his core over and over. The core was slowly chipped away but recovered very quickly, even stronger than before. Oh shoot! Before he could even react, the glyphs came crashing at him like a tidal wave, even more than before. The core could just barely keep up, Tlou was afraid of the core caving it. He quickly made an opening in the core and allowed a few to enter. He manipulated them to crash against the interior membrane of the core, in hopes of countering the forces exerted on the outside

He thought of this after noticing that cores had a bit of elasticity. The collision of the outer and inner glyphs led to countless small holes forming on the core, but the core could maintain an equal recovery speed as long as he directed the glyphs from the inside to crash at the exact place those outside did.

Calm down! relax, relax, relax. Focus on the flow, the flow! Trying to predict where the glyphs outside would crash proved impossible, he could manipulate the glyphs inside but not those outside. Seeing that his approach was flawed he opted for another method. He focused his mind on the glyphs and tried to feel them out. After his core took another round of beating he could finally feel them out, he could feel the glyphs!

He used this odd new sense to be more accurate. His core kept breaking and recovering over and over. The surroundings stirred, 

stage 2

The air shook more violently

stage 3 

Tlou found it hard to keep up, he was growing exhausted. He could both feel and observe his core breaking past the stages and growing stronger, but another thing he observed was that with a stronger core came a stronger suction force. What felt like a wave of glyphs then now felt like raging storm, threatening to kill him and snuff out all life from the core. He could just barely stop it. Whenever he would try to dispel the suction force, his concentration was diverted to the cores inside, which threatened to destroy it from the inside 

Damn Heydar! Curse you! Tlou could tell that the suction force was abnormal and probably had something to do with all the poison Heydar had consumed 

Stage 4

Tlou was finally able to expel the glyphs inside the core and dispel the suction force. But that was only the end of one trouble. His core was now a lovely hue of red, but very unstable. It looked like a fuzzy puff trying to piece itself together. Tlou quickly tried stabilizing it, and after a long time, it finally looked stable again.

After taking care of all of this Tlou did not even open his eyes, he immediately fell asleep, the exhaustion winning.