Connection

Madd kept pouring more and more of the shadow power coming from the formation into his shadow core. His core kept getting darker and darker and there seemed to be an unending depth to it. When Michelle noticed that she had a big smile on her face. 'He is actually forming a supreme core. I'm so glad that he is actually able to do this. He will have a bright future ahead of him. Well it should be coming to an end by now.' Michelle thought to herself.

The forming of a shadow core typically took about 10-15 minutes depending on the type of core that is formed. But after 30 minutes passed by and Madd was still absorbing power from the formation both Michelle and Korn were confused at what was happening.

Another 30 minutes has passed and it's now been an hour since Madd had started to form his shadow core. His core looked darker than the darkest black and seemed to be bottomless. Korn was ecstatic and couldn't wait to see what kind of person Madd would turn out to be. But then something weird started happening.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Madd was still trying to control the flow of the shadow energy to his core when he heard a faint booming noise. He couldn't figure out what it was so he just ignored it and continued what he was doing. After about 5 more minutes he heard another boom but this time it was a little louder. Madd assumed that this is what happened when someone formed a shadow core for the first time so he didn't think much of it. He heard that booming noise every 5 minutes until an hour has passed. Now the noise sounded like it was right below him and he could feel his mind tremble every time he heard it.

Then something unexpected happened. While Madd was still forming his core, specks of red started to form onto it. At first it was very hard to see and no one would able to tell what was happening. But every second more and more of this red would appear and start to expand. Now Madd's core looked like space with the a black sky and red bright stars. It made a very stunning image. To some people this image was more like something unimaginable.

'Could it really be?' Korn thought to himself.

Before he could think anymore a deafening roar sounded out from where Madd was sitting. This made even Korn, who was extremely powerful, shudder a little bit. 'It truly is. We finally have a descendant with the ancestoral core!' Korn exclaimed in his mind.

When the roar sounded Madd entered a trance like state and opened his eyes to what seemed to be an infinite space with red stars everywhere. When he looked at it feet he couldn't see what he was standing on. It was looked like he was floating in space but he could feel a solid ground. Madd was very confused and was about to freak out until he heard a voice.

"KEEP CALM MY CHILD. EVERYTHING IS GOING EXACTLY THE WAY IT SUPPOSED TO. KEEP FOCUSING ON YOUR CORE SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE EVEN GREATER POWER!"

The voice was extremely dominating, without any other choice Madd decided to listen to it and started to once again pull the surrounding shadow power to his feet.

"GOOD GOOD, YOU MAKE ME PROUD A PROUD ANCESTOR. I AM DRECORE, YOUR SHADOW ANCESTOR. YOU ARE THE CLOSET PERSON IN YOUR FAMILY HISTORY TO HAVE SUCH A CLOSE CONNECTION TO ME AND MY POWERS. YOU HAVE THE MOST POTENTIAL OUT OF ANYONE I HAVE SEEN ON THIS PLANET OTHER THAN THE OTHER ANCESTORAL CORE HOLDERS. SHADOW POWER IS THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS AND YOUR ABILITIES ALSO COME WITH THE POWER OF ETERNAL FIRE. ETERNAL FIRE CREATES THE SHADOWS THAT MAKE UP THIS WORLD SO THEY GO HAND IN HAND. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO MASTER BOTH, YOU WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE. BUT THAT IS FOR A LATER TIME. JUST KNOW THAT AFTER YOU ARE DONE FORMING YOUR CORE IT WILL TAKE LONGER FOR YOU TO FORM YOUR SHADOW RINGS COMPARED TO OTHER PEOPLE BECAUSE YOUR SHADOW RINGS WILL HAVE AN INCREASED CAPACITY BECAUSE OF YOUR CONNECTION TO ME. THIS ALSO MEENS YOU WILL HAVE FAR GREATER POWER THAN THOSE WHO HAVE THE SAME RANK AS YOU. GOOD LUCK MY CHILD AND I WILL SPEAK TO YOU ONCE AGAIN, ONCE YOU STEP INTO THE SHADOW INTEGRATION LEVEL."

The voice boomed throughout the space and when it was done Madd found himself back in the middle of the formation. When he looked around he saw his mother with tears at the corner of her eyes with a huge smile on her face while his grandpa couldn't stop doing his happy old man smile. Madd was confused at first but then remembered what Drecore had told him. 'So I must have a lot of potential huh. Now I need to use that and make myself the strongest there ever was so that I can protect the people around me. But I need to be careful of everyone I might meet and I need to have an unshakable heart that trembles only to the ones I love.' Madd was very determined to make his mom's life the best it ever could be. Madd couldn't really put it into words now but this destined him to forever put the ones he cares about above all no matter the cost.

*clap clap clap clap*

Madd heard clapping sounds coming from a corner of the room where Korn was. "Good! Very good! You are the descendant that posses the ancestoral core of our clan. Keep in mind a noble family will only ever have one ancestoral core holder at a time and sometimes they won't have one for years. But you are one of the last ancestoral core holders to awaken in the noble families so remember to be humble until you can back up your words with your own power." Korn excitedly told Madd.

Madd then looked over at his mom who was still standing near the elevator. "Good job my sweet son. I look forward to see where you go in the future. Just remember that your mother is still here." Michelle looked tenderly at Madd.

Mad started to tear up but stopped himself. Instead he stood up and walked over to his mom and gave her a bear big hug. "I will never forget about you mom. You will always be with me no matter where I am." Madd said has he snuggled into his mother's embrace.

*cough cough*

Madd heard a coughing sound coming from behind him and he realized that he was hugging his mother for a long time.

"I'm very proud of you Madd but it is not time to get cocky yet. You have only formed a core and nothing else. The only thing a core does in the ring formation level is tell you your potential. You still have yet to form a single ring and are powerless before even a single ring holder. But because of your core, your rings will take longer to form but in exchange for that they will also be more powerful than any other rings formed by anyone below an ancestoral core. But you are still too weak compared to a shadow integrator with an average shadow core. Even if you form all nine rings and condensed them down to three you still would only last 3 minutes against a shadow integrator. We will discuss more about that when you reach the peak level of ring formation. From today onward you will spend most of your time in one of the shadow veiled rooms that we have here. A shadow veiled room is a room with a formation similar to this one but it focuses more on just gathering shadow power from around and pushing it all into that one space. We also have different types of shadow veiled rooms with tier 1 shadow veiled rooms only providing a very small amount of shadow every minute. The tiers go all the way up to 10 which will be the one you will be going to because of your limitless potential that comes from your core and your mother. Unfortunately we only have one on this property and it's currently being used by one of your cousins. His name is Elijah and he has a top level supreme core that is somewhat close to the level of your core. But remember that only another ancestoral core can compare to you in terms of potential. Anyways I've been talking enough and we haven't even begun moving yet so let's go."

After Korn said all of that to Madd they all went back to the elevator. Once again Korn presses one of the buttons to bring them even further underground. They seemed to pass by a couple floors until it finally stopped. The doors opened and revealed a long hallway that seemed to never end. It was very dark and the only light sources were from the dim light bulbs that were hanging from the ceiling. It was made out of that drown brick material that the awakening room was made out of. On both side of the hallway were rows of metal doors. They looked quite menacing and creepy to look at.

Korn then started to walk down the hallway and Madd and Michelle followed behind him. The further they went down the hallway the further apart the doors would be from each other. The doors were the thicker they looked. It was like they were trying to keep something very powerful from escaping.

"You may notice that as we get further down this hallway the doors start to spread out more and start to look different. That is because there are different types of shadow rooms. We have 100 tier 1 rooms, 90 tier 2 rooms, 80 tier 3 rooms, 70 tier 4 rooms, 60 tier 5 rooms, 50 tier 6 rooms, 40 tier 7 rooms, 20 tier 8 rooms, 10 tier 9 rooms, and only one tier 10 room. The reason there is such a big gap between 7 and 8 is because once you get to tier 8 rooms they have to be made with the blood of powerful abandoned. The tier 10 shadow room we have is made out of the left over blood from a very powerful creature the was killed to make the ritual room."

They kept walking until they finally reached an end. At the end where two giant metal doors that had a drawing of a dragon wrapping around the sun on one door and a dragon wrapping around a moon on the other. It was so exquisite that Madd couldn't understand how someone made this door with such precision. He looked closer at the dragons that were on the door and noticed that there were very faint patterns moving on top of them. He then noticed that there were shadow patterns all over the door.

"You probably notice the patterns on the door. That is to make sure that no shadow power can leak through to the outside. The ritual room has something similar but it also has a sound prof formation that does not allow any sound to travel outside the room. Because if it did not the sound of the dragon roar that came from your ancestoral core would have been heard by every single noble family and you would most likely have been hunted down and killed before you could even think about entering the shadow integration level."

Madd felt a chill down his spine and he felt like he was extremely lucky to have come to this house. 'If I somehow naturally awakened in the world would I have been killed without knowing why? Probably, I need to change my mind set so that I can get used to this world I'm about to enter.'

"Grandpa, is the world of seekers a cruel place?" Madd asked Korn.

Korn then looked over to Madd with a serious expression.