NOVEL NEXT B2 C58 - Fallout
It took two days.
Two long days. Days of dumping Mana into the injured delvers. Sleepless nights of research in an attempt to figure out the best cures for each of the four. Hours of yelling at the med center's staff for their inefficient layouts, at the guild leaders' constant questions about when the kid would be ready to talk, and at the delvers' teammates for not leaving them the hell alone!
But eventually, Sarah Cullman's efforts paid off.
The first to recover was the A-Ranker. She didn't recognize him, even though he was an older delver. He must've been a permanent resident at the fortress, not someone on shift duty. The system said his name was Warren Carrol. He said he was a lieutenant with the Coyotes. An absolutely massive man, even before the system had empowered him all the way to A-Rank. He could probably shatter boulders with his fists and bend I-beams if he flexed right.
But he'd been knocked out by a killing blow from a monster in the opening moments of their fight—or at least, that's what he'd thought had happened. The support and healers' stories lined up with that, and the Spark of Life didn't care all that much about finding the truth. That was Angelo's job. Hers was to make sure everyone lived to tell it.
Then the C-Rank tank. Jeff Carlton. He was up and walking by the end of the first day; the C-Rank healer's magic had saved his nerves, but also fused them, and it took time for Sarah to untangle and un-melt the knot of synapses. But he was fine—as long as he stuck to the walker for the next twenty-four hours or so, he'd be as good as new.
That was the trouble with injuries like these. The longer they went without real healing, the more resistant injuries became to healing—and the poor girl who kept saying she was responsible for this mess had already been low on Mana when the fiasco kicked off. If Sarah had been on the scene, they never would have developed and set in. But Sarah couldn't be everywhere, and un-healing and re-healing were harder than just healing.
The mage's problems were worse—but they were predictable. There was little Sarah could do for her except keep the Mana around her stable, feed her every drop of it she could, and wait her out. She didn't wake up until the next day, and she couldn't really move, hear, or see anything without triggering migraines—the bad kind, with the auras and nausea. Mana Burn was hard to recover from, but it was a known process. Sarah Cullman wasn't worried about Eleanor Traynor. She'd be fine in the long term.
But she had been worried about Kade Noelstra—and she still was.
There were no manuals to follow for treating a broken core. It wasn't unheard of to see them. A couple of delvers shattered themselves every year from trying to progress too quickly. At first, she'd thought Kade was one of those cases. An unrecoverable core. A broken body. Unconscious—or in a coma.
But when he woke up on the second day, he didn't treat that as a victory. And even more strange, he didn't slip into depression like the few reports Sarah had been able to scrounge up had said would happen.
Instead, he tried to push himself too quickly. Again. He didn't listen when she told him to slow the hell down. He was driven. Determined.
A maniac.
He was already up and walking—slowly, but without assistance—and visiting his teammates. That shouldn't be possible. And it was the worst-case scenario for the kid, because as soon as he left the med station Sarah had appropriated for her four worst cases, he'd be out from under her protection.
And when that happened, Angelo and Terrel would come for him.
User: Kade Noelstra
Broken Core
Stamina: 15/30 (380), Mana: 10/20 (490)
Skills:
1. Stormsteel Core (C-10, Unique, Merged, God-Touched)
2. Thunderbolt Forms (C-09, Altered, Merged)
3. Mistwalk Forms (C-09, Altered, Merged)
4. Cyclone Forms (C-08, Altered, Merged)
5. Stormlight Bond (C-07, Altered, Merged)
6. Shadowstorm Battery (E-10, Altered, Merged, Dual)
Path: Stormsteel Path
Laws: First Law of the Stormcore, Law of the Shadowed Storm
The fighting outside wasn't over.
Carlsbad Fortress was still crawling with Queen Mother Yalerox's children, and the strike team and B-Rank teams had their hands full beyond the bunker's perimeter. My broken core could feel the skills going off all around me. Feel the fighting. The pain. The struggle.
I wanted to be out there. To be helping. But Sarah had made it abundantly clear that my help was neither required, appreciated, nor wanted. In fact, it'd be more trouble than it was worth.
And she was right. Without a core and with the storm's energy completely dissipated, I was only slightly more useful than an unawakened human.
So instead, I stared at my status—and at the GC-standard tablet in my lap. I had a lot of studying to do.
Core Breaks:
Broken Cores exclusively happen when a system-awakened human attempts to push their progression well past the point of sustainable growth. They typically involve an attempt to complete a rank trial too soon after another. Core Breaks almost exclusively affect delvers attempting to reach S-Rank, although those breaks are most likely to happen in their attempts to reach C, A, and S-Rank.
Symptoms of a Core Break are simple. In the early stages, it manifests as a discomfort in the core—often characterized by physical cracking of the core itself when inspected. A Core Instability Warning will also appear within the delver's status. In the middle stages, this changes to a Core Instability Alert, and is a sign that the delver should step back for several months to allow their core to recover.
If the delver's core is not allowed time to repair itself, the unstable core will eventually shatter. At this point, there is nothing that can be done. No amount of healing will repair a core, and no known techniques can return a delver with a fully broken core to full functionality. Indeed, the break itself is often lethal. This stage is characterized by a complete loss of system access, inability to use skills, and loss of rank-associated strength, speed, and stamina.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
That…wasn't what had happened to me.
Yes, I felt weak. And no, I couldn't use my skills. But I still had access to my status, and what the God of Thunder had said…that implied that it wasn't over. Not yet.
I shut the tablet down.
The best thing I could do for myself was allow myself to rest. Instead, I stood up shakily, touched Ellen's hand, and let her squeeze my fingers. She was still in recovery from her Mana Burn, and the Spark of Life had made it abundantly clear that any talking or attempt to get her to open her bandaged eyes would result in the S-Rank healer incapacitating me. Violently. That would change when Sarah said it could change.
So I didn't say anything as I left, quietly shutting Ellen's door behind me. It clicked shut, and I turned.
Angelo Lawrence sat on a bench, irritation scrawled across his face. "Kade Noelstra. I have been waiting for you. We need to talk."
"The Spark of Life says—"
"I know what Sarah Cullman says. However, I have waited for two days to piece together what happened in that portal. The Coyote only talked to me until he realized who I was. Your tank, healer, and support were no more informative. All four of them together painted a picture that is unbelievable. A C-Ranker—with a broken core—soloing an A-Rank Paragon? They all act like it is the truth. And when I press them on it, they all laugh and say your name. Why?"
"Because that's what happened," I said. I sat on the bench next to the Light of Dawn.
"I refuse to believe that." Angelo stared at me. "As the delver in command of the Carlsbad Fortress convoy and the current highest-ranking delver in Carlsbad Fortress, I insist you tell me the truth about the events of that A-Rank portal."
"And I insist that you've already heard them," I said. Exhaustion was already weighing down on me. The Spark of Life had been right; I wasn't ready to do any fighting. Not yet. "I attempted to push to B-Rank after a fight with an A-Rank monster that put our A-Ranker out of commission. That failed, but I was able to hold things together long enough to use my skills. They perfectly countered what the Paragon of Hurricanes was doing and killed her. That's the whole story."
"No, Kade Noelstra, I do not believe it is. You should not have won that fight."
"No, I shouldn't have," I agreed. Then I stood up and yawned. The act of stretching sent a wave of pain down my spine. "I don't think I'm recovered enough for a full debriefing yet, Guildmaster Lawrence. In fact, I think my core might be acting up again. I'm going to lie down for a while and shut my eyes."
Then I turned around and slipped back through the door that sectioned off Ellen's little corner of the bunker's medical wing, leaving the Light of Dawn sputtering on the bench behind me. He knew I was lying, but with the Spark of Life nearby, there was nothing he could do.
The moment Ellen started talking, she apologized. Profusely.
I wasn't having any of her sorries, though.
"It wasn't your fault. We didn't have any other choice," I murmured as I tried to cut her off. Being too loud too early would only aggravate her migraine—and bring the wrath of the Spark of Life down on us. She still winced as I spoke, and I let her squeeze my hand harder than I would have liked. I missed my core so much—and with hers at B-Rank, she out-strengthed me by a ton.
"No, we could have found another way," she said quietly. "There had to be another way. There were still four of us. We could have put our heads together and—"
"Ellen, you weren't there at the end. You were fighting your own battle. There wasn't time for anything else; the…boss…showed up just as I got myself under control. Another few seconds, and it would have been too late to do anything else. Besides…"
"Besides what?"
I shrugged. "I made a bunch of promises. To you. To Jessie. To Jeff, my dad, the team—to a lot of people. And this way, I'm keeping all of them."
"How?" Ellen asked. She tried to prop herself up, then groaned and let her head sink back into the pillow. "Damn Mana Burn. You said you'd be with me for the long haul. That you were stuck with me. And now you're…I mean…"
"I'm keeping that one, too."
"How?" Ellen repeated.
"I'm not sure yet. Eugene thinks he has a solution. That's all I can say here."
Ellen paused. With her eyes still covered by a thin layer of gauze, she could have been asleep. But I wasn't fooled. After a minute, she nodded. "Okay. And what about the core?"
"No idea. Either someone picked it up or it got stuck in the portal," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Either way, it's not like it'd be useful right now. Even if we do figure something out and repair my core, I'll still be C-Rank at the end of it. An A-Rank core won't help me now, and hanging onto it could mean…"
"Right. What Councilwoman Myers said—cores interact weirdly with the world. It's for the best that it's missing, then." Ellen's head bobbed up and down slowly. "So, you really think you'll be back at it?"
"I do. It might take a month or two, but I will be back. I promise."
"Okay. I'll be waiting. But be quick. You owe me that, and I owe you the patience." Ellen rolled over onto her side. "Right now, I need to sleep this off. That's what the Spark of Life says, at least. Night, Kade."
I gave her hand one last squeeze and let go. "Sleep well. Ellen."
I'd lied to Ellen.
And she'd known it.
As I walked down the hall toward the exit to the medical wing, I thought about why I'd lied. And it had nothing to do with her. As far as I was concerned, Ellen could hear most of my secrets—especially when it came to delving. It was less about her and more about the S-Rankers. Angelo and Terrel, but especially the Spark of Life.
Ironically, even though Sarah Cullman was the safest of the three—she didn't have a guild to look out for, and she seemed like she only worked with the Governing Council out of convenience—she was also the least trustworthy. The two guildmasters would do whatever they could to maneuver their guilds into positions of power. If that meant hiding information from each other, then so be it. But Sarah? She had no obligations. No rules. No predictability.
Even though she'd been friendly before, I couldn't trust her. Not with the God of Thunder's identity, or with the fact that he'd either replicated cores or stolen them from the Governing Council in the past.
I pushed those thoughts out of my head. Where the A-Rank core was didn't matter—and I couldn't use it anyway. The God of Thunder would either come through with it later, or I'd have to earn it when I needed it. But the core didn't matter. Only two things did right now.
I needed to get stronger.
That meant confronting Eugene. The lightning dragon was too powerful for me to fight—for now. But he'd let me in on something. What the average delver was doing with their cores wasn't enough. Their skill builds weren't enough. All the work delvers like the Light of Dawn and the Portal Tyrant had done to get to the pinnacle of power, and they were still missing something. And the God of Thunder had let something slip when we'd talked.
The Stormsteel Path was my way forward. And if he wasn't lying, and everything that had happened to me was part of his plan to move me along that Path, then this core break was necessary. Painful, but necessary.
But that didn't mean I'd forget what he'd done—or that I'd forgive him. He'd said something before my push to C-Rank. That we'd be enemies someday. I hadn't realized how soon it would be. But Eugene—the God of Thunder—wasn't my friend. And I'd told him that if he got my friends killed, I'd kill him myself. This…this could easily have killed them. That kind of recklessness needed to be dealt with. And so did his lying and his manipulation. I understood that I was entertaining to him. But that had to stop.
So I had to get stronger. Strong enough to fight the monster who was helping me grow. Strong enough to win.
But before that, I had to find Jeff.