He knocked on Margrethe’s door, but there wasn’t an answer. He followed Sillon’s example and opened the door, but he just leaned in instead of barging into the room. “Margrethe? Are you here? It’s Serenity.”

“Come on in. Close the door behind you.” Margrethe’s voice, but he couldn’t see her. “I’m in the next room.”

The next room turned out to be a small sitting room. Margrethe was laying on the couch with her eyes closed, but she turned to look at him as he walked into the room. Serenity started to walk over to her, then found himself enveloped in her aura.

Her aura was heavily laced with something he could only describe as death-tinged monster cores, and it felt wonderful. He felt a pleasant buzz across his entire body. “Oh -” He couldn’t stop himself from reacting.

“Come on over here.” Margrethe’s voice was low and sounded like she was in pain. “Did you know that you have black patterns on your face right now?”

Serenity looked down at his hands. They were there too, and they didn’t disappear when he tried. “I can usually make them vanish, but it’s not working …”

Margrethe’s aura suddenly whipped away from him, and Serenity stumbled. He knew she’d just pulled it close about herself, but he hadn’t been expecting it, and the disappearance of the pleasant feeling startled him.

“They’re gone now. Interesting.”

Serenity looked at his hands and found that Margrethe was correct; they were gone. He walked the rest of the way across the room but politely stopped outside where she was holding her aura.

“Sit, sit!” Margrethe gestured at a chair. “I can tell we have a lot to talk about. I should probably start. I’m afraid you’ll have to deal with my aura, though, I can’t hold it in check for long right now.”

“What’s wrong with your aura?” Serenity didn’t understand why Margrethe was warning him. Nothing had felt unpleasant about her aura. It wasn’t even particularly strong.

“That woman in the infirmary - you were the one who warned us, right? I’ve been pulling essence corruption out of her ever since. It’s not cleared up, either, but I need to let it bleed out of my aura before I can do more. Really, don’t feel bad if you don’t want to be near me right now, I’m used to it. We can talk later.”

“No - I mean, it just feels like monster cores do. It’s -” Serenity paused for a moment, trying to find a word without any unfortunate second meanings. “- nice?”

“Nice?!?” Margrethe sat up on the couch, her fists clenched in anger. “Don’t you lie to me - “ Her aura pulsed and SLAPPED Serenity.

It was a rush. Stronger than the monster cores he’d eaten - even the boss core. He was unable to suppress a low moan as the sensation swept through him. He wasn’t sure how long he spent reveling in the feeling before her aura relaxed and he could concentrate on the outside world.

He hadn’t even realized he’d closed his eyes.

[Pleasure Resistance initiated]

Margrethe was sitting upright on the couch, staring at him. Her aura still surrounded both of them, but it was no longer aggressively pushing the essence at Serenity.

“What?” Serenity felt embarrassed. He wasn’t sure which was more embarrassing, her aura overwhelming him or the fact that it had been so undeniably … nice. Yes, that was the word he was going to use. Nice.

“You weren’t lying. You actually enjoy it.” Margrethe muttered. “And you’re pulling the corruption out of me faster than I can bleed it off normally…”

Serenity and Margrethe looked at each other for long enough that it began to feel awkward, before Margrethe broke the silence. “So, ah … I bet if I were to check you now I still wouldn’t find any corruption. Do you mind if I check?”

Serenity shook his head, and Margrethe stood and once again put her wrist on his forehead. This time, he could feel her attention move through him as she slowly looked his body over.

“Still none. I can feel the energy entering your body, but for some reason it’s not changing you. I can’t tell why. I’ve seen people who like it, but - there’s always some corruption. So you have some, even if I can’t see it. You need to - ” She looked at him and laughed sadly. “You have no idea what I’m talking about. I guess I need to start with the basics.”

“We divide creatures into three types - unintelligent, monsters, and Pathed. Unintelligent beings cannot walk the Paths. If they also don’t have a Core, they are stuck as what they start as and cannot grow beyond their original limits. This is very common, especially for plants, even on later tier worlds where many animals will have created a Core. Monsters with a Core can be at any level of intelligence, but they don’t have support from Heaven’s Order. That’s reserved for the Pathed - you already know about the Paths.”

“It’s possible to move from being a monster to being Pathed, but it’s very difficult. The monster must figure out how to destroy its own core without dying. Generally, if you are the child of a monster you will be a monster, and if you are the child of a Pathed, you will be Pathed - but exceptions happen, especially when there is crossbreeding. Monsters who are one of those exceptions are the most likely to succeed … possibly because they’re the most likely to try, or maybe they’re just more likely to be able to live without a core. I don’t know.”

Margrethe paused, clearly thinking, before continuing. “I was one such monster. That’s why I can handle the energy from cores. Becoming Pathed - became my Path. My Path has ended, now, so I come to tutorials and help where I can, try to keep others from falling.”

“It’s possible to go the other way as well. For a Pathed to become a monster. Most often, though, the Pathed never succeeds at creating a Core. They simply … warp themselves into a parody of what they were and a monster, maybe several monsters. And then their Path ends, sometimes before it begins. Even if they do create a Core … doing so usually destroys who they once were. They go insane, and destroy things. Especially things - people - that once meant something to them. That’s … what I mean by falling.”

It was a lot to absorb, but somehow it wasn’t that surprising. Serenity hoped it was incomplete, because it looked like Heaven’s Order was trying to push him into forming a Core, and he didn’t want to lose his progress towards a Path - or his opportunity to take one. He also didn’t want to go insane.

He wasn’t sure how to ask, so he sat there, thinking.

Serenity looked at his hands. There was a new scar from the Oath he’d been given by Moira -

An Oath.

Serenity looked up at Margrethe. “I’ll swear to keep your secrets if you’ll swear to keep mine.”

“I have the feeling your secrets are more valuable than mine. Especially since I’ve already told you much of mine, and it’s not all that secret. Keep your secrets. If you ever find a way for me to progress on the Paths again - that would be worth keeping secrets.”

Serenity tried to think of a question he could ask without revealing too much that would still let him know what he needed to know. Once he thought of it, it was obvious what he should ask. “What does a Core actually do for a monster? I know they’re what makes the monster a monster, but … why? And why do some monsters have more than one?”

“There are several types of core. The monsters in the dungeon - you know how the bosses have better cores than the regular monsters?”

Serenity nodded.

“The boss cores are the only real cores there. The other monsters are echoes of the real monster, the boss. The dungeon is imitating something that happens in the real world there, one monster creating or controlling others that are like it. In the real world, though - outside dungeons - those cores often break when the monster dies. Subsidiary cores are similar, they’re not real cores, they just let the monster do something extra. Either way, only the actual cores are reliably recoverable.”

“As for what the core does for a monster … we’re not entirely sure, but … it seems to be a lot like Tiers for the Pathed. An animal - a creature without a Core - isn’t even what we’d call Tier 0. We don’t know if they can have special abilities since that requires sapience, but their stats are bounded by what they can physically achieve. The core lets monsters go past that, the same way a Path does for people.”

“So - do different monster types have different cores?” That might affect what Serenity did about his own Core, if he made one.

“Yes. It’s not well understood, but it’s well known that people who use cores take on aspects of the monster it belonged to. Theory says that should apply to monsters as well, but no one’s been able to confirm it, since we can’t really tell what monster a core came from.” Serenity wondered at that. He could always tell what his cores came from. Surely other people could too. Or maybe that was another monster thing.

If Serenity was half monster … maybe he needed a Core before he could take a Path? That hadn’t occurred to him before, but … it matched what Margrethe had said - well, except for monsters not being able to take Paths - and it just felt right.

The fact that it felt right probably meant it was correct. It solved his dilemma in a way - he didn’t have a choice, really. Oh, he could probably do what Margrethe had said monsters could do. Build a core, then sunder it to walk the Paths instead. That would probably work; it was very much the kind of thing Order’s Voice would permit as a way to change your Path. Difficult but possible.

It wasn’t something he wanted to do, though, so he wouldn’t go that way unless there was a very good reason. If having a Core actually blocked his Paths … yes, he would do that. Otherwise, no.

He was going to form a Core. So he needed it to be the Core he wanted. Which wasn’t any of the ones he had on hand.

A possible answer to his dilemma came at dinner. Echo and Lancaster were eating with the other three, talking about the final dungeon of the first set. It had a completely unexpected enemy: humans.

Unfortunately, the group hadn’t checked them for cores.

So Serenity would have to get through four more dungeons to get there.

They also mentioned that the dungeon had the first optional quest - and they’d skipped it, because they couldn’t figure out how to clear the dungeon without killing anyone. They hadn’t even really tried; they weren’t that worried about XP, and that was all the other quest rewards had been.

After dinner, Serenity decided to spend some time in his room before bed. He wanted to get his Core started the following day, because he wouldn’t have a chance to solo dungeons on Day 8. Day 8 was another mandatory Trial day.

Name: Serenity

Species: Human (Altered Template)

Path: Paths Available

Level: 55 (92/560)

Tier: 0, 0/55 Spent

Path History: None

Condition: Healthy

Healing Available: Full

Mana: 210/210

Stamina: 280/280

Might: 17

Agility: 20

Phys: 18

Understanding: 10

Will: 16

Mind: 11

Perception: 20

Luck: 13 - 111%

Ev: 6419

Resistances

Pain: 1032 (32 active)

Sleep: 1

Pleasure: 1

Unknown

Affinities

Death: 100.01%

Life: 8%

Mind: 30%

Arcane: 50%

Plasma: 40%

Liquid: 5%

Vapor: 10%

Solid: 15%

Energy: 40%

Void: 60%

Time: 15%

Space: 5%

Concepts

Death

Mind 15%

Time: 5%

Unknown

Aspects: Unknown

Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

Altered Template

Named

Ghost in the System