CHAPTER 19.

As expected, Astrel was lying down in a pose I would have considered sexually provocative before my assault. Now, I could see her for the depraved predator she truly was.

She wore a sheer see through piece of cloth for a top, held together by two thin strips on her shoulders. The flimsy material did nothing to contain her perfect breasts and an equally sheer lacy strip of cloth at her waist, held together by a thin chain that subtly failed to hide another just as sheer see through panties that did nothing to hide her privates.

"Still rife with subversive thoughts I see?

"I assumed our time apart would improve your disposition, but it seems more stringent measures would have to be taken where you're concerned."

She turned to Marc, who was unable to take his eyes off her and was all but drooling at the sight of her barely hidden tits and pussy.

"You may leave us slaveborn, and ensure that under no circumstance are we to be disturbed. The next time word of your incompetence reaches me, I will not only destroy your house and put your entire household to the sword, I will also send their corpses to the night clerics for fell experimentation."

Faster than you can say jack, Marc disappeared from the room, leaving in the clutches of a sexual predator.

Since I'd been brought to this world and maybe shortly before, I'd started revising my idea of women a the frailer sex, unable to take care of themselves and in need of constant protection. Essence was indeed a great social leveler.

Only if you had more of it than others.

"Come here my pet," Astrel said to me in her deep smoky voice.

I tried to resist, but her control over me was overwhelming and I began to comply.

But my soul and implant worked together to impose countermeasures against her control and to both our surprise, I stopped one foot from her reach.

I noticed the flash anger that was quickly hidden by her more lascivious and dangerous smile. I tried to keep my face blank trying not to show I was jumping for joy on the inside.

"I was right, if further action isn't taken soon, you'll become too unruly to manage. Even your thoughts resist me."

But then she smiled and stretched out her hand. Like before I was pulled forward by some unknown force and she immediately wrapped her arms around

Without warning or preamble and faster than I could blink, I felt her fangs plunge into my neck as she began to drain me of my body of blood and essence.

My mind began to slip into languorous oblivion as her control over me tightened with each gulp of my blood.

All my effort for the past several days, going down the drain. I had to watch as men were eaten by monsters, all my efforts battling deadly monsters and eating their flesh all but raw, nearly crippled myself by absorbing unaligned essence, faced off against an actual god and lived to talk about it.

And this bitch treats me like some kind of midnight snack.

My constant and these days, my reliable companion; anger, flared through me and my soul responded with equal feeling.

I instinctively began to vibrate the essence in my body, but this time tried to focus only on affecting only my essence and not my body. I felt a small thrum move through both Astrel and I, but she was too caught up in her feeding frenzy to notice.

I was already experiencing early signs of blood loss and my implant informed me via virtual warnings of my falling blood volume.

As the vibrations increased in intensity, it spread from my qi to Astrel's, slowly destabilizing her essence and then reaching for her qi.

She had yet to notice the effect of my anger, my rage, my reckoning.

A great pressure filled my chest as my refinement technique grew in power.

I closed my eyes and centered myself, focusing on the essence flowing between the two of us.

Then I pulled strongly towards my core.

I felt a sharp pain in my head as the refined essence of a higher density slammed into my center and began to rush into me. I was surprised as I had no idea I could pull so much essence, especially of such density, but I suspected that my awakened soul was working overtime to get back at the blood sucking bitch.

The pain intensified as my cultivation was forced to handle refined essence of a greater density, the strain on my body was enormous. A huge pressure filled my chest, but I refused to relinquish my prize

The pressure increased and it felt like I was pulling a muscle inside my brain, but the muscle was my cultivation. My body began to vibrate as my control of the technique began to slip. But with the support of my soul and the implant, I slowly, but forcefully regained control of the technique.

By the time Astrel noticed what was going on, she had dropped several ranks, I queried my implant and discovered that Astrel was previously at the peak of the core formation stage and was on her way to beginning her core compression. I commanded my implant to scan her core structure for later review.

Who knows when I'll get access to a working core design.

I was quite lucky she had yet to begin the strengthening of her body in any way, or else, she would have crushed me like a bug.

She did not notice the attack until her core structure was already compromised and had begun to fracture. My vibration technique was devastating when used against another's cultivation.

She tried to pull back, but I wrapped my arms and legs around her. She struggled and nearly threw me off, but I refused to let go.

I felt a sharp pain as she began to pummel me with powerful blows. But due to our position, she lacked the leverage to cause too much damage

With time I began to grow stronger while she got weaker and her blows stung less and less. My qi also increased its drain on her core as I rose in rank.

I felt her panic through our connection and the absolute feeling of helplessness from our now reversed positions.

Her core was flush with dense essence and it would have been impossible for me to directly attack her core if she had not gotten greedy and made an essence connection directly to my core between us to not only take my blood, but also my refined essence.

My vibration technique kept destabilizing her attempts to control our connection, plus her mind was beginning to unravel from the excruciating pain of a damaged core.

"How you like me now, you rapey bitch," I sent through our connection and received a resounding scream as a reply.

She was still draining me of blood but that felt inconsequential in comparison to the amount of essence that was leaking from her core. A small part of me analyzed the irony of draining a vampire, but I just shrugged it off as poetic justice.

More cracks appeared on her core and the flood of essence increased by several folds into me. She pulled her fangs from me and tried to scream, but I clamped my hands over her mouth and held her pressed to the bed.

Her struggle increased as she slammed her fists into my back leaving several bruises and breaking a couple of ribs. Even with the amount of essence flowing into me, she had already reached the peak of the core compression stage which increased her power exponentially, coupled with her unnatural vampiric nature, I knew I was no match for her. My only chance was to keep her close to prevent her from leveraging on her inhuman speed and strength.

I continued to rise in ranks and my body felt almost full to bursting. I was now at the peak of the absorption stage and would need to make use of the essence entering my body before I lose the excess essence, or worse explode. I considered strengthening my body but dismissed the thought as I had no idea how to begin the process and my previous failed experiment had shown me that the successive ranks required even greater amounts of essence than previous ranks advance.

I had also yet to filter out whatever essence type Astrel actually cultivated.

Because the refined essence I was taking was refined with her essence affinity and cultivation in mind, I had no idea how the essence type of a vampire would affect my body.

In between my musings, she'd switched to claws and my back was now burning something fierce, but I simply tightened my hold, pinning her hands to my back using the bed, all the while reining in my disgust at touching this vile but beautiful creature.

Finally, I settled on using the essence to create a core. As I had no proper example of what a core should be like, I instructed my implant to provide me data on Astrel's core structure.

At least, the cliff notes version.

<><><><><><><><><>

Core design Acquired.

Astrel's vampiric core.

Type: Advanced Spiral (Basic)

Core Layer: 3

Number of nodes: 120

Core Attribute:

Strain absorption: Core absorbs 20% of accumulated strain from essence use. (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Resistance: Core gains 20% resistance to blood, fell and water essence directed towards the body. (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Impact absorption: Cultivator gains 20% resistance to kinetic attacks. (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Feedback Reduction: Feedback from failed or countered technique is reduced by 10% (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Improved resistance: Core design increases resistance to harmful elemental effects like fire and sunlight by 6%. (Not compatible)

Mental resistance: Core design increases mental resistance to external mental manipulation by 30%. (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Essence Drain: Core design allows for a single vampiric tentacle to connect to a host's cultivation and absorb essence directly from their center. (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Mental Subversion: Core design allows for improved ability at mental manipulation.(Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Improved regeneration: Physical regeneration and resistance has been improved by 250% (Not compatible, restricted genetic prerequisite: vampiric race)

Blood manipulation: Core design allows for improved ability to manipulate unbound blood (Not compatible, restricted genetic prerequisite: vampiric race)

Empowered body: All physical attributes are improved by 200%. (Not compatible restricted core attribute: vampiric race)

Improved essence manipulation and control: Essence control and manipulation are improved by 200%. (Partially compatible, will require further analysis)

Several core attributes are inaccessible due current cultivation level, data has been shelved for further review.

Several techniques have been infused into this core, but there is insufficient data and insight to allow for proper analysis.

Recommendation.

Core is incompatible with symbiont’s cultivation and should not be appropriated. Regardless, sufficient data has been acquired to facilitate unique core formation.

<><><><><><><><><><><>

I'd been bumped up from host to symbiont. Didn't seem like much of an upgrade to me.

No use looking a gift horse in the mouth, I'll take it.

The truth was that I didn't really want Astrel's vampiric core, but I was surprised to learn that my implant already had a working design based on her core.

Astrel's core design was simple and elegant, it looked similar to a microbe or parasite and had a single translucent filament stretching out from the core body.

From Zalla's description of cultivation cores, the filament did not seem to me like a part of the standard core design. If I had to guess, this filament was designed to make connections with another being, like a mosquito’s proboscis or a vampire's fangs.

Maybe her body was not the only thing that changed when she was turned

Her core had three layers, also similar to a microbe and contained 120 nodes. I had yet to determine the functions of these nodes and what determined their number.

My current situation did not leave room for proper examination and analysis.

At this point, the strain on my body was enormous and my body started to fall apart from the pressure.

The problem was the power difference between us. Astrel’s cultivation held four times the amount of power that I'd expected to find in a core at the peak of the formation stage.

Her vampiric body was more powerful than a peak human, allowing her to absorb more strain. If I had to guess, there was a four to one differential.

This allowed her to contain far more essence at each stage of her cultivation.

Either I build a copy of her core with a fraction of the refined essence within her cultivation and break the connection.

Or I take everything, hopefully killing her, but most definitely, killing me.

Option one had a lot of problems for me. Any core I forged would have to be one at the initial stage. A core did not simply rise in ranks by throwing essence at it, I'd still need to forge and link nodes and several other things that Zalla's impromptu lesson did not cover.

Even if I built a core similar to hers, and filled it with essence, I would only be taking a fraction of her power and then I would die a grisly death as soon as she recovered.

Option two also had problems for me as well, absorb as much and hope she dies with me, another shitty idea that was most likely bound to fail.

Then I remembered my failed core experiments and a third option was available for me.

Each core design cost more with a heightened increase in complexity, so I simply had to come up with a core so complex that it would require all her available essence and mine just to reach the core formation stage and fully empower the core.

Still draining the bloodsucker and ignoring the pain of her attacks, I queried my implant for several compressor designs.

As it cycled through several designs from simple to complex, my implant discarded designs that were considered incompatible with my vibration refinement technique and several other factors, like available essence volume or essence density.

But while I was doing that, another part of me went back to my time with Nan.

If I wanted to survive in this world with all my disadvantages, I couldn't follow the path others had taken. The gap between me and others must be so vast that no one would dare oppose me.

With that in mind, I stepped off the well trodden path.

So far going off the reservation has paid off more than it has not.

So I queried my implant for the most complex design it had access to.

After a few moments, I was shown the schematic design for my implant itself.

If I was to guess the quartz-like, piezoelectric powered quantum computer in my head was the single most powerful piece of hardware from my Earth, seeing as it was based on actual alien technology.

Then I had another light bulb moment, while my implant assumed that it's design was the most complex piece of tech back on Earth, this wasn't necessarily true.

The most complex device back on my Earth, is still the amorphous quasi solid crystal used by the Veldar to communicate with earth.

It was not factored in by my implant because the knowledge to forge a blueprint on how the thing was actually made was unavailable and my implant machine that it was, focused on the more valid data of its own structure.

But I was in a world of magic. Most of the time the locals had no idea what went into forging their core. I'm pretty sure that a construct that stabilizes an extremely powerful and complex energy like essence requires more than centrifugal force or spherical geometry to regulate.

And I still had no idea why cultivation worked, why essence responded to my command.

Maybe one did not need perfect insight to perfect a core. I had a feeling that essence would make up for a certain lack in insight.

This plan felt right, I could feel it in my bones.

But just because it felt right, did not alter the logistical stumbling blocks in my way.

If a spherical core or a simple set of gyros, cost a massive amount of essence, how much will it cost to replicate a alien quantum crystal with barely understood properties and made from unknown extraterrestrial materials

The solution came from the core design itself.

Unlike the locals who had to visualize and build their core in one go, or with the help of another cultivator, my implant can store data across various formats with near perfect quality.

All it needed was access to all my dad's data and observations on the original crystal, video, audio, chemical and every other data acquired from the study of the alien device.

I liked my chances as I had several times more data than the locals attempting a simple spherical or gyro core.

My idea was not to build my new core but to grow it over time, from a simple quantum crystal to the amorphous construct used by the Veldar for communication.

By studying data acquired by the implant, I could create a projected simulation of how it evolved over time into what it currently was.

Imagine building a chair, but instead of throwing wood on the ground and wishing a chair into existence, I'm going to break down the process into parts and then work on each stage of the production process one step at a time.

A better example would be how a seed grows into a flower or a tree. All the information necessary for the highest growth is available within the structure of the seed and each stage of its growth is capable of sustaining itself.

I don't know how long this would take and this idea would not be possible without my implant and my soul to handle much of the logistics.

But I felt this was my best chance for survival.

Also, I'm pretty sure all the essence in Astrel's core would be insufficient to completely create my quantum seed core which was already lacking sufficient insight even at the basic level.

Using Astrel's core as a guide, especially how her core connected with other aspects of her body, I incorporated the positive aspects of her core structure into my design and then let my implant handle the rest.

While I was sure a core design of this level of complexity would grant me access to abilities that the highest Cultivators could only dream of, what those abilities were, I could only guess.

I had no idea how to create this special core. Without the implant and my awakened soul, all my plans would have amounted to nothing.

As expected, the seed required a massive amount of essence to stabilize and although Astrel was at the peak of the core formation stage and I was almost at the E ranks of the absorption stage, just the seed blueprint alone would require all our essence combined just to form the base seed structure.

It wouldn't even put me at the G rank of the core formation stage.

No, to stabilize my seed core and move into rank G, by my calculations, I would need about twelve times the essence found in Astrel's core at the peak of her current cultivation

I began to pour essence into the already prepared design following the instructions set by my implant. There was no way I would have been able to properly analyze her core's structure and nodes on my own, while locked in a physical struggle and enduring body breaking blows.

I gave my implant an order to place a reminder for me to find a way to return to Earth and personally thank Avery for his very useful gift, even send him thank you ginger cookies, right before I make him choke on them.

I transferred as much of her highly refined essence into my core structure, seeing as it was essence from the peak of the formation stage, I wagered that my budding version would be stronger overall than hers.

I also had to break down the quasi-solid pieces of her heavily damaged core, relying on my highly empowered vibration technique to break down her core structure into refined essence.

As I filled the structure with essence, I felt something leave me, I called it something because I had no idea what it was. As far as I could tell, I was gaining a massive amount of high density essence, but for some reason I could not define, I started to lose myself and it became a struggle to hold on to my concentration. I was losing something and losing it fast, something my implant was unable to detect, much less define. Was there another aspect to core formation that Zalla forgot to inform me about.

Just when I was about to fade away from lack of whatever I was losing. My core awakened and began to supply the necessary resource.

<><><><><><><><><>

Soul-implant connection augmented.

Warning; Host authority insufficient to complete core creation process. Substantial loss of authority is fatal and will lead to total dissolution. No known countermeasures available.

Host soul has commenced authority infusion and transfer, please be informed that loss of soul authority will limit soul's growth and the effectiveness of total advancement progress.

Authority infusion successful. Host authority levels have been stabilized.

<><><><><><><><><>

What the hell is authority and how can being low on it "dissolve" me?

This is the third time I was coming across this concept and it seemed vital to cultivation even though it was absent from most of my cultivation instructions.

What concerned me was the part about limiting my soul's growth and effectiveness. I was running blind here and I've only been spared the brunt of my mistakes thanks to my awakened soul, case in point my current situation.

By taking "authority" from my soul, have I also doomed myself? How can I replenish authority when I don't even know what it is?

I don't know how long we spent trapped in each other's arms, I could barely feel my body, and only the pain of my flayed back, brought me constant reminders that I was still alive.

She had long since ceased her struggle and could only twitch in my arms. Her core was damaged and her powerful body could barely sustain itself without a steady infusion of essence of a certain volume and density.

I had finally drained her body of every single ounce of essence to fuel my new seed core.

I was about to untangle myself from her, when I felt something cold and dark reaching out from deep within her center. It felt slimy and for lack of a better term evil.

Every primal instinct was warning me to pull back, but all my attempts to sever the connection failed. Even though Astrel was at the moment barely at the initial ranks of the essence absorption stage and I had drained all her essence, I was unable to break the connection.

I had never encountered an essence type like this before. Unlike fell essence which acted spontaneously and erratically, this essence type seemed to act with measured and controlled malicious intent as it moved towards me.

I struggled frantically trying to escape but with no success. I tried to physically distance myself from Astrel but she tightened her grip on me with surprising strength. It felt to me like her body was a puppet and this entity in the shape of essence was her puppet master. What kind of strange essence was trying to reach me?

I attacked it with refined essence, but it merely absorbed my essence, grew bigger and moved faster.

Desperate for any solution, I reached within and queried my awakened soul. A lot of my progress so far has been me getting in way over my head and the little guy somehow turning things around.

I was expecting the usual deliberate slow response and mild condescension, but without wasting anything, my new core began to pulse, placing a high frequency vibrating effect on the connection between Astrel and I. As the connection became unstable, I pulled the essence back into my core.

I'm so stupid, why didn't I think of doing this first. Our connection was made of essence and in theory my vibration technique allowed me to separate and break down essence.

Despite being a clever idea, it took a little longer to sever the connection. My only saving grace was that although the evil essence (and nobody can convince me otherwise, you just had to be there), acted with calculation and determination, it was not actually intelligent, but was simply drawn to me by some blind impulse and to my soul which I may have crippled because of greed. I needed to find more authority, whatever it was.

Could that evil thing be the vampire disease, virus, curse or whatever made vampires. if it was, then I just dodged a highly lethal, blood sucking bullet.

Opening my eyes I looked down to see Astrel looking shrunken and haggard. Her face was drawn and shriveled dry. All her teeth gone save for her elongated fang. I was curious about what caused her rapid and near spontaneous decline, but just chucked it up to karma and put it out of my mind.

"Now which wood based furniture would be sufficient to make a proper stake" I said to myself, my gaze moving over the all but destroyed bedroom.