"So I imagine you want to talk about that thing inside your chest there?" Karlinovo said the moment everyone had left the room. He hadn't moved from his chair.

"Amongst a lot of other things, yes. Has it really been you that whole time since my soul separation?" I asked. I fully believed it had been, but I wanted him to confirm it. The fact that the man essentially responsible for the cores inside of me, was both alive and here was still a bit shocking to me.

"I believe so. I don't entirely recall much before becoming aware of your presence around this planet. My best guess is my consciousness had gone into some sort of hibernation after the sabotage and waited for someone it sensed a familiarity with to latch onto, and with you having used my research, that made you the perfect choice," he replied, fiddling with his mustache, his eyes not looking directly at me as he spoke.

"Do you think you can replicate this design in others?" I asked, considering the potential of what we could do.

"I mean, sure, that's simple enough. It's the energy that's the problem. How the hell did you even manage to do that? You know what I was working with and what happened," he replied.

"Sanquar had given me an experience orb that I didn't have a lot of other uses for," I answered, no idea if that was a viable path for replicating this further. It had seemed rather dangerous for me.

"Interesting. I had never considered the idea of using refined experienced to power the grafting. How did your body handle that? One of the problems I was always worried about was core rejection," he said, finally looking at me, his eyes focused on my chest.

"Honestly, the experience was miserable. It took the Twinoges, Mel, and Elody to even keep me alive while I did it. But I also didn't try forming my core until I had the sockets ready to be inserted directly into it. Wasn't that how you did it?" I asked. I was reasonably sure that was what I had read about his experiment.

"That was my final compromise. I wanted to be able to add this to existing cores, as most people don't have the luxury of waiting. Not to mention, I was already reasonably sure it could be done at core formation. While I have no real proof, I will say that I'm sure several of the more powerful families made sure their children have multiple sockets for their cores," he answered, a hint of anger playing in his words.

"What makes you so sure?" I asked, curious about just what had caused the anger.

"There are a lot of things not in my books. Things I found best to leave out. I found an exiled lordling on a trip into chaotic space. I was in search of some new materials, but instead of that, I found a washed-up drunken man boasting of his old life. Now, obviously, I can't be sure of the truth of his words, but the man clearly had four orbs socketed to his core, and he described in detail a doctor who had been involved in the process when he was a child. I've never been able to locate said doctor, and I wasn't willing to push his faction for information either; that's a good way to die. Hell, it might even have been what ultimately led to my death anyway, who knows, but either way. Yeah, I'm sure they can do it," He answered, the hint having grown into a very pronounced rage.

"Yeah, I can understand that anger. We've had our own issues with larger factions trying to take over the planet. It's the core of how we met at all. Consider the possibilities before you right now. This entire universe is brand new to the Spiral. There are a whole three humans with cores so far. I assume you understand what that potentially means?" I asked. We would eventually need more Arena squads; that was just a given. I couldn't be the only one climbing it. Hell, we still needed to fill out my personal one. If we could form cores with more orb sockets, that would give us a huge boost.

"Yes, but do you even have the resource access needed for this?" He said, his anger gone, replaced by a tone I recognized. He was very interested in the possibilities now.

"Obviously not, but I have you, and no, I don't mean we own you, so don't start there again. I'm just saying your brain is one of the most fundamentally important resources we have. On top of that, I also unlocked a new piece of the System interface I haven't really shared with the others yet. I gained the ability to up alter, and upgrade my orb sockets themselves," I said. I had briefly looked at the menu, but all of it required materials I didn't have yet.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Now that's interesting. Did the System create that interface for you, or did it already exist for those in a station above us? Then again, the question of how the System creates anything is still a giant unknown. It was something I was strongly advised against pushing against, too," Karlinovo replied.

"Really, and this was the thing you chose to listen to?" I said, grabbing one of the trays of snacks, walking over to the man, dropping it on the side table, before taking the chair next to it.

"No, of course not, but it never interested me as much as the soul-core reaction did. What else can you do exactly? I know you have that class tied to your soul separations, but how does it work exactly?" He asked before grabbing some of the cheese and crackers, stuffing them into his mouth with a single large bite.

"That's actually part of a larger class. The Core Architect. It has three paths I've unlocked so far: Path of the Dungeon, Path of the Mana Weave, and Path of the Soul," I answered.

"Interesting, each path has a fully developed line?" He asked, his eyes narrowing in a look of skepticism.

"As far as I've found so far. Haven't had time to deeply explore them all yet, obviously. I need another dungeon core to progress the first one much further, and to do some more dangerous soul things for the third. But at least with the middle one, I can push that further faster thanks to the number of slots I have access to," I replied. That was the main reason I had managed to unlock as much as I had there. I just had a greater access to a variety of mana orbs than most people did.

"Hrm, I wonder how hard it would be to copy it. Though I guess I'll want my own core again before even worrying about a class. What does that path even have on it?" He asked. So his body had reformed without his old core. That likely meant he'd want to experiment on himself as well.

"Primarily, it has three subpaths I've found. One of them focuses on the types of orbs themselves, and that seems to cross over into my soul path, which lets me bond stronger with the orbs. Currently stuck on debating if I should awaken one of my orbs or…" My words were cut off by a suddenly very interested Karlinovo.

"Awaken, damn. Damn, damn, damn. You wouldn't happen to know if Henjen Klank is still alive, would you?" He asked, shaking his head and clenching his teeth as he spoke.

"Uh, I think I read a couple of his books, but no clue otherwise why?" I asked.

"Because we were both sent a letter by a reclusive expert on mana orbs. We had been invited to learn from the man, but I died before I could go. I'm sure Henjen still went, and as much as I may find the man's lack of vision infuriating, he is still one of the, or at least was one of the, most knowledgeable people I have ever met. We need to find out if he's alive, and then we need to figure out if I can trust him," he answered.

"That didn't explain why at all," I said, countering what he had considered an explanation.

"Yes, I suppose that's fair. You would have no idea that the letter talked about mana orb awakenings. You saying the words are only the second time I've ever heard of them. And based on what the letter had said about their danger, I would strongly recommend we try to find out as much as we can before daring to do it. I think I'm going to need you to go over every bit of your class with me, as somehow I feel as though I am already strongly connected to its future," He replied. this time, the explanation actually gave some clues into why he cared so much.

"Alright," I said, sharing my class and mana orb statuses with him. I had already decided I trusted him enough for this much information about me. He invented what was currently inside of me. There really wasn't any reason not to believe he was who he claimed to be at this point, and I highly doubted it was in his best interest to betray us.

We spent the next few hours going over each of my features as in-depth as we could. There weren't really any new giant surprises as he read through. He seemed to expect how they played off each other and built on my core. Even the fact that the dungeon cores could level up made sense to him, given how I had integrated Corey into my system. In the end, he surprised me by approving almost entirely of my decisions. Though he did make it clear he'd likely have made a few different ones, and doubted he'd have ever let a dungeon core that close to his own soul, but having now seen the results, would need to consider it for future experiments.

The scope of my work has grown beyond what I am capable of pursuing myself. It has also grown beyond what I am comfortable putting into official documents. From now on, the true value and discoveries I make will only be recorded in my personal diaries. One day, I will find a successor I trust to pass them on to, but for now, the things I have learned about mana orbs, dungeon cores, and the relation to the System itself feels far too dangerous to be shared. I do not understand the full implications of these connections yet, but I feel I have started on a path to a grand unification of my work.

Thykle's personal diary

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