"Essence is reality, a rope that tethers all things. For such an artifact to exist… it must be from a forgotten era, long before creation itself. Before history was ever recorded.

Dexter stared at the Golem as Nyo's words entered his mind. Dimensions inside of dimensions…

As Grav's explanations took hold, Dexter's concept of an Essence Core expanded, molding with his understanding of the Nexus.

"Uh oh…" Dexter's heart stopped. "We may have a problem."

"What is it?" Grav asked.

"I think I know what an Essence Core is, and I may have entered a soul contract to steal it."

"Explain," Grav squinted.

And so Dexter did, detailing his bond with the shadow dragon, further elaborating on the seal that contained a fragment of his original Class. "In exchange for the seal, he wants an Essence Core as payment. A Core that may very well power the Nexus."

"Impossible," Grav snorted. "Core fields are proportional to the power of their Core. An essence field would bend reality, warping nature to its will. Look no further to the corrupted Void Cores for your understanding. What I'm more interested in is that seal you recieved. Come here. No over here." Grav instructed as Dexter turned towards the golem. "Place your hand on my shell."

Dexter touched the elemental core, watching as its runes continued to rotate in spite of his presence. They reformed over his hand, detailing the record of Gorgrav Stonebark. The elemental was once a stone giant. A warrior shaman that died on a spirit journey when a turtle he nursed back to health betrayed him, siphoning his energy while his soul remained detached from his body.

"It seems like I'm not the only one who made a deal," Dexter said as he read through the description of a desperate Grav tying his fate to the Nexus.

"Without it I would have experienced a true death," Grav said. "Now get your clammy hands off of me, I've seen enough."

"What do you make out of it?" Dexter asked, wiping his palm on his robe.

"Hard to say. It seems to be rewriting your soul, aligning it on a path that you previously walked. Compatibility is at 100%, but synergy is a problem. Your soul can't withstand the energies contained within. Affinities that you once attained will rip you apart, if not for the binding that currently keeps them in check."

"That's all?" Dexter scoffed, hiding his worry. "No. There's a funnel written into the seal, a safeguard that should prevent such a disaster, increasing your affinities as you level. But I can't say for how long that will last. There's also the matter of whether it will interfere with your ability to select a Class. I suggest you hurry before your fate is sealed… no pun intended."

Dexter rolled his eyes. "Fine, now that that is cleared up, what about the Void Gate Kel'zar mentioned?"

"A teleporter. It connects this Zone to various ports throughout the quadrant. But the corrupted Void Cores under the demon's control will have to be cleansed by a refinery before they can be of use."

"Then we should work on that first," Dexter said as his eyes wandered to the throne.

"That's your seat of power, where you can arrange the layout of the Zone. It'll cost Tokens and resources of course. The more you feed me materials, the faster I will level and can defend this place."

Dexter looked at the Zone spirit as the introduction came to an end. "Very well, now let's talk about these skills you have to offer."

[ 5 Bonded Perks available! Increase Zone level to choose additional perks. Zone: lvl 1 ]

[ Perks available! ]

[ Adept Earth Manipulation (Bronze): My creation, the creation. Greatly enhances your control over the earth element, allowing you to sculpt the world around you. *Aids in the generation of earth aura, buffing damage and casting speed of related abilities. ]

[ Force Stride (Bronze): Your momentum, a rolling boulder. Summons the might of nature, buffing your actions with natural earth energy. ]

[ Earthquake (Bronze): Break their balance, break their bones. Sends a force wave in all directions, billowing out from your center. ]

[ Stone Cannon (Bronze): Fist or meteor, there's no difference. A barrage of strikes with a 6% chance to conjure flying boulders. ]

[ Mountain Spear (Bronze): Pillar of the world, advancing towards the heavens. Shoots a stone lance of reinforced iron that multiplies in weight with each meter it passes. ]

"You're broken," Dexter said after reading the description of the skills. Each ability of the Zone spirit was an advanced Bronze ranked skill. Dexter noticed that they didn't manifest in the usual manner, aligning with the 5 attributes. But it was expected, considering they weren't attribute skills. Like his attunement, the perks couldn't be linked to a skill slot.

Nevertheless they were impressive, causing him great agitation due to the fact that he could only choose one. It was about time he got back out in the world and started grinding. For starters he had quests pending, but most importantly he wanted to level up his Wind Scythe to insert more Mastery skills into it. That meant he would have to return to the Garden of Tranquility, and it was right under the nose of a corrupted rift. The faster he leveled, the faster he would be able to take back that location and deal with his 'gift' that Kel'zar so graciously granted.

Focusing back on the bonded perks, Dexter ruled out the ones that were least optimized for his build. In actuality they would all improve upon his skill set, but he would unlock them all in due time. He still had a Class to pick, and he wanted to augment the future skills with his general skills, attunement and perks.

Advanced Earth Manipulation was ruled out immediately. Not only would it interfere with his skill set, undermining his primary skills rather than supporting, he essentially had the ability when he sat on the throne. From there he could reorganize the layout of Skyfall, and that was far more effective than manipulating a small area of earth outside of the Safe Zone. He suspected he would be able to alter the layout of dungeons, perhaps close up traps but that ability wasn't enough to make him choose the manipulation skill.

Force Strider was an enhancer skill that would boost both speed, strength and endurance, unlike iron Shroud. After learning that he had to enter a demonic void zone, he heavily considered it. But it reminded him of Kwame's attunement, Gaia's Punch, and he asked Grav if it was possible to give Kwame the ability.

"I can," Grav scratched the vines on his chin. "But due to my connection with you he can only obtain one. Once he reaches Bronze I'll generate a quest for him. But you should know, only two others can have one of my abilities. They are seen as your protectors from the Nexus' perspective."

"Okay," Dexter said. "I'll guess I'll get Nyo and Alina to fight for my favor." Both of the men laughed, as lecherous grins stretched across their faces."

"What are you thinking?" Grav smacked Dexter's head. "That's unbecoming of a Zone Lord."

"Ouch!" Dexter rubbed the back of his head. "You get one?" he warned. "Your hands are too damn big." Dexter was about to consider the rest of the skills when he turned back to the statue. "And another thing, keep your eyes to yourself. I don't want you peeping on people."

"I can't help it if they strip in front of me, by now they should know that I'm not for decoration."

"Grav," Dexter said.

"Fine," the elemental sighed. "And she was just getting to the good part…"

Dexter shook his head and then read over the third perk before he got distracted. "Who was getting to the good part?"

"No one," Grav said. "I can't see anything. Now hurry up and choose your perk so we can get out of here. I'm hungry."

And so Dexter did, visualizing how he would wield a skill like Earthquake. "It says the force wave spreads out in 360⁰, can the force be channeled?"

"Yes," Grav nodded, and it can be charged. But there's a drawback. You can't use other skills while it is charging. The building force will break your energy if you don't push it out in time. Even I have trouble handling it at times. You'll break under the pressure.

"And that's coming from an earth elemental," Dexter said. "Thanks for the warning."

Dexter consulted with Grav about the two last perks, Stone Cannon and Mountain Spear. He learned that Stone Cannon could be applied for weapons which was a frightening thought given how fast his spear moved. But after hearing about the perks' extra long cool down and roughly 3-5 boulders that it summoned, he considered Mountain Spear and Earthquake to be more complimentary.

It was the toss of a coin, really. What he needed was a devastating strike that would deal massive amounts of impact damage. Earthquake functioned in a similar manner to Iron Shroud, and could be channeled into a single strike. Whereas Mountain Spear practically begged him to become a sniper, shooting javelins from across the field. It could work, with his speed he could dash away to apply the weight bonus to the skill, but as he thought on it, such a strategy would be easily seen through like a raid boss cycling through its prescripted attacks.

"I've made up my mind," Dexter said, choosing Earthquake.

[ Perk selected - Earthquake (Bronze): Break their balance, break their bones. Sends a force wave in all directions, billowing out from your center. Proficiency - Basic: lvl 1. ]

"Don't use that in here. I don't want the entire building to fall on top of me," Grav said.

"Are we under the nodes?" Dexter asked.

"Under more than that, you haven't seen the garden I've built," Grav placed his hand on Dexter's shoulder and they both vanished.

"Why isn't that perk available?" Dexter asked, swaying from vertigo.

"It's not a skill of mine," Grav said. "More like I'm willing the dimension to create a road for me to travel. You should be able to do it now that we're bonded, but I'd like to go a day without you dying so let's attempt that another time, shall we?"

"Sure," Dexter said, heeding the warning. Who knows what would happen if he got stuck in a wall. "Luckily there are no washing machines around," Dexter muttered.

Following Grav, Dexter eyed the plants that lined the roof of the citadel. "It's a gathering formation," Grav said. "You won't have much use for it. Even with our bond your affinity won't increase to a significant level.

"Could you add more plants here?" Dexter asked, reaching in his gig bag for rosha berry seeds.

Grav nodded. "Place them in one of the nodes, and I'll have the plants exchanged by tomorrow.

"I'll see what I can buy from the Shop to add here as well," Dexter said. He imagined his own personal Heaven's Fury trial, and couldn't wait to temper his wind blade.

After parting ways with Grav, Dexter sat down on the bench surrounding the massive node that connected his Zone to the Nexus, and entered the Shop. The radiant blue inside the crystal fragment flared, and multiple screens appeared in front of him. Together they combined to form his loadout with a drag down option to buy equipment, skills or Classes. But rather than choosing either of those options first, he selected miscellaneous. The miscellaneous tab dealt with food and Zone equipment.

Dexter then searched for containment wards and an image of the crystals appeared. Like Grav, they had runes around them, but there were six in total, linked together as they rotated in a circle. They cost a total of 500 Essence Tokens, which was rather cheap in Dexter's opinion, but they were only available for purchase in the Bronze tier.

The second thing he noticed were teleporters after searching up containment wards. The teleporters functioned as a way to expand the reach of the Safe Zone, making it easier to transport resources and build outposts if needed. However, unlike the containment wards the teleporters had one unit that could be purchased by someone who was Unranked. It ranged for 50 miles at 500, whereas the distance increased into the Bronze tier after that, scaling by 100 miles until it reached the longest range of 500 miles for a total of 3000 Essence Tokens.

After calling over one of Grav's statues, he told the elemental to send the word out for everyone to buy them. In reality he wasn't the leader of the group, and had essentially subverted Yassa's authority. But if it wasn't for him they'd have been stuck in the wilderness. Then again if it wasn't for him, Kel'zar would have never intervened in the first place.

Shrugging, Dexter cycled back to the equipment tab, and released a sigh of relief when he confirmed that storage bags existed. Like the chests, they contained a pocket of space that stored items. The pack he bought held 25 inventory slots, with a max of 50 identical items per slot.

Dexter replaced his bronze ranked ration bars, adding 30 of each flavor after that. The consumables were far weaker than the standard healing potions, although they lacked the side effects that potions contained. Apparently consuming too many potions or mixing them, stunted the users vital energy rejuvenation.

After buying 5 health, mana, and stamina potions, Dexter bought Bronze ranked ration bars for his motley crew. They would reach Bronze rank soon, and could afford the gear on their own. But after Anna was snatched, he wanted them to be prepared.

Next, Dexter looked over armor and his eyes almost shot out of his head. Armor came in sets which meant he wasn't allowed to buy individual pieces. Weapons were cheaper, but the more advanced weaponry contained abilities and had an additional cost of resources to purchase the weapon.

It was an armed robbery as far as he was concerned. He could buy a new set of equipment, but the cost and quality wasn't worth it. Better options would become available after the contents in the shop expanded. For that he would have to increase his Renown and submit high quality items to the nodes. Deciding to upgrade, rather than buy new gear, Dexter window shopped for a few minutes before looking at the list of available skills.

The first list contained common skills and he found the skill that he had been waiting for; Meditation. However he could choose up to Bronze ranked skills so he decided to hold off on the purchase. Uncommon was the next tier above common and had variations of the skills he scrolled over in the lower tier. Finally, after he scrolled through the Bronze skill list, he was sure the two skills he had in mind to fill his two remaining skills slots, were more than adequate.

"Wind Manipulation," Dexter said, watching the list scroll until it landed on the desired skill.

[ Adept Wind Manipulation (Bronze): Greatly enhances your control over the wind element, granting you sovereignty over the air currents around you. Skill Link: +5 Magic. *Aids in the generation of wind aura, buffing damage and casting speed of related abilities. ]

"Perfect," Dexter said. Without potent sources of natural wind energy around, the new skill would double his ability to absorb the energy. He bought a Bronze ranked Meditation skill after that: Vipassanā. It was unique out of the other meditation skills and focused on Perception for its Skill Link, rather than the usual Constitution or Magic.

[ Vipassanā (Bronze): Transformation through observation, mindfulness bends reality. Rejuvenates vital energy to sustain a heightened state of mental clarity. Skill Link: +5 Perception. ]

Moving over to his loadout that showed his attributes and stats on a spider graph, Dexter clicked on the recommended tab and out of a list of 20, 5 Dexterity based Classes were highlighted. One focused on his spear and was practically called Spearman. The ability it had was blocked, but the description spoke of a warrior that would carry the world forward. Nevertheless, Dexter was more interested in honing his affinity, so he continued down the list.

Surprisingly he had found a perfect fit, and had even bought one of its requirements just a few minutes ago.

[ Nightingale (Bronze): Usher in a storm shrouded in blood. ]

The emblem over the Class was of a dark harpy shrouded in mist with gales surrounding it. Unlike the Spearman Class, Nightingale was a variant of the Assassin Class that was second on the recommended list. It cost a staggering 50,000 Essence Tokens, nearly breaking his bank. He had already spent 12,500 Tokens on the containment wards and bought 2 teleporters.

But he had made up his mind and the only thing standing before him now was the Path Token's quest: Adept Rogue. He had nine remaining elites to kill and soon the beast lairs surrounding Skyfall would be drench in blood. Exiting out of the tabs, Dexter bought the materials needed to reinforce his gear and headed to the nodes at the lobby of the citadel.

Upon placing the request, his gear was magically unequipped, leaving his clammy skin exposed for the world to see. The clothes he had worn under the armor needed cleaning as well, so Dexter headed back up to the Shop, looking for gear to wear under armour. He found an item called Turtle Shell, which was a bodysuit that covered his entire body as well as his face, leaving an open slit for his eyes. The material was extremely flexible around the joints, and had thin plates of stone protecting his vitals. The 5000 Tokens set him back, but after tomorrow he would only need to kill roughly 200 wild beasts ranging from levels 15-20. Each kill would grant him around 30-45 Tokens.

As his clothes were being washed and his gear reinforced to increase the durability cap, Dexter had Grav show him to the showers. It was then he learned that he had his own private quarters below the garden on the roof. He had to buy a mattress, but other than that inconvenience the room was rather nice. Spacious, along with a view that encompassed the sprawling vista of his new home. He would have to clear some of the trees, but the flora and halo mirroring a setting sun, added a mystical touch to the surroundings.

Stepping out of the shower, Dexter had Grav teleport him to Yassa who stood with Alina, George's wife, and the pariah himself. He had held off on the encounter, hoping the old woman would take the initiative as she promised. But apparently he wasn't the only one who had trouble taking protection away from a pregnant woman.

Dexter appeared before the group, handing Alina the rations he bought her, and with only a second of eye contact he knew her rage would explode if George wasn't severely dealt with.