Serenity collapsed onto his bed. It had been a long day, and he wanted to use that Crystal. He guessed it would be a better start to a Core than using one of the boss cores. First things first, though.

He looked at the produce he still had. The berries seemed to be holding up just fine, and so were the nuts, but the last spike-pear was starting to look like it needed to be eaten.

Delicious.

He tapped the shimmering black fruit. Neither of them was quite ripe yet. Which was good, since he knew he shouldn’t eat it yet.

Second … monster cores or the crystal first? And should he spend his Ev before the crystal or wait?

He laid them out in front of himself on his bed in a pile. Monster cores first. They didn’t seem to do much other than add Ev, and he could always get more if he needed to spend them. For that matter, he would get a lot every four days … well, no, that probably wasn’t true anymore, since it would probably be Athletics Trials. Still, he didn’t really have much need of currency unless he wanted to buy more stuff people had gathered. Food wouldn’t cost him anything - he could always eat with the instructors if needed. That might change in the next Phase of the Trial, but it wasn’t worth worrying about now.

He separated out all of the boss cores. He didn’t want to initiate a Core of his own with any of them, which meant he didn’t want to eat them now. Perhaps he’d just use them to buy stuff.

And yes, he should spend the Ev first.

Serenity looked at the spread. He hadn’t realized it - they just kept adding up and getting dumped in the pile - but he had hundreds of monster cores just sitting there. This … was going to take a while. Especially if he tried to spend the Ev.

He ate a few cores, then settled in to snack on them while spending Ev. That seemed better, somehow, than just being a glutton and eating them all at once, even if it had the same end result.

Since his stat distribution affected his appearance, balanced was the way to go - well, balanced with a slight emphasis on Might and Phys. That should keep his looks from changing too much. Somewhat balanced was his preference anyway; whatever Path he took, it would be a hybrid Path, so he’d need some of all of the stats. Except maybe Luck. But … he’d done without Luck last time, and look where he’d ended up.

He quickly noticed that these higher points were much more expensive. It had seemed like a lot of points - and like a lot of cores - but he ran out before he’d expected. Even so, it was a tremendous boost.

Serenity checked the time remaining in the Tutorial phase. It was almost five in the morning. That had taken longer than he’d realized.

Still, there was probably enough time to use the quest reward. And … he was really looking forward to it.

He picked up the Untyped True Crystal. It was larger than the spike-pears, but he knew that wouldn’t be a problem. It was larger than any monster core he’d ever seen or heard of. That … was more likely to be an issue. Still, it should be fine. He was confident Order’s Voice wasn’t trying to kill him, after all. Use him, yes, but not kill him.

And it smelled so good.

No going back now. So I need to quit agonizing about it.

Serenity swallowed the crystal. Nothing happened for a moment.

[Untyped True Crystal available. Commence Core initialization?]

Yes.

[True Crystal material being used for initial Core creation]

[Initiating]

Serenity’s ability to think disappeared in a haze of pleasure. He saw other notifications pass, but he couldn’t think enough to want to read them, much less actually read them.

Eventually, it passed.

[Core initialized]

[Core Formation complete. Basic functions subsumed]

[Core level: Connecting]

[Specialized Core Capability disabled due to True Feature]

[Core Feature limit: 10, growth available]

[Current Features: True, Crystal]

[Additional reinforcement required to activate core functionality. All High Grade and higher Ev will be redirected to Core until Core Connection completes]

The messages sat in Serenity’s vision until he was able to acknowledge and dismiss them.

Serenity felt wrung out but somehow relaxed and at peace with the world.

It was time to get moving. As he got up, Serenity picked up one of the boss cores. It still smelled good, though not as good as he remembered. He swallowed it - it tasted good, if a bit bland.

[Poor Grade Core material detected]

[Warning - using Poor Grade material will degrade the Core]

[Reinforce Core?]

NO!

The messages disappeared. Serenity checked his Status, and was surprised to see that his Core was listed - but he was relieved to see that it was at 0%, while he Ev had gone up.

His Species had changed. He wasn’t sure what “Human Chimera” meant, and the Voice wouldn’t give him much information.

Human Chimera

A chimera of the Human species. This information may be restricted when shared.

It wasn’t very helpful. All it really seemed to do was name what he was. He supposed that was what the Species listing was, though, a name. It was interesting that it still recognized him as human, just a … subspecies?

Serenity was still unable to choose a Tier 1 path, but … the Core did say it needed “additional reinforcement”. Maybe the “connecting” stage had to finish first. He could wait.

He still wasn’t going to eat any more boss cores until his own finished “connecting”, whatever that meant. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Serenity was about to get ready for the day when he noticed that one of the shimmering black fruits was ripe. And it no longer seemed too early to eat it.

Sure, why not …

It tasted good. Cool. He hadn’t realized he was too warm, but now he wasn’t.

[Compatible High-Grade Core material detected]

[Reinforce Core?]

Yes

Mm … that felt good. Soothing and comfortable.

Serenity looked at the boss cores then at the fruit. He wondered if there was more fruit available by now…?

Name: Serenity

Species: Human Chimera (Altered Template)

Core: Connecting

Progression: 5.1%

Features: 2/10

True

Crystal

Path: Paths Available

Level: 79 (690/780)

Tier: 0, 0/79 Spent

Path History: None

Condition: Healthy

Healing Available: Half

Mana: 750/750

Stamina: 790/790

Might: 70

Agility: 65

Phys: 69

Understanding: 65

Will: 65

Mind: 65

Perception: 65

Luck: 65 - 165%

Ev: 57

Resistances

Pain: 1032 (32 active)

Sleep: 1

Pleasure: 23

Unknown

Affinities

Death: 101.83%

Life: 11%

Mind: 30%

Arcane: 50%

Plasma: 42%

Liquid: 6%

Vapor: 14%

Solid: 17%

Energy: 40%

Void: 60%

Time: 15%

Space: 5%

Concepts

Death

Mind: 15%

Void: 25%

Time: 5%

Unknown

Aspects: Unknown

Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

Altered Template

Named

Ghost in the System