*Yawn*
Getting up from bed I felt sore all over. I had spent the night learning from Irean, she had thought me the basics of a core and stuff. What really made my day was when I showed her my core, she was completely shocked and the look on her face made me laugh.
Pouring my self a bowl of cereal I browsed the web to see if there was any news on The Realm. After a couple of minutes searching I found what I wanted, it was a form going over some basics of The Realm and even has some discussions about the head start.
. . .
[Lady bird: Did you guys hear how those people who were given a generation 1 pod we're given a head start in the game? How unfair!]
[StayAtHomeDad: Is it really though, look at it as a beta test, making sure everything works before it was released to the world. Would you want to play a game with a bunch of bugs?]
[GamerAtHeart: Yeah dudes right, also I'm one of those people and gotta say the games worth the wait, I had this dryad as my guide and she helped me create a type of tree for my core.]
[StarStruck: You had a dryad?! I had some sort of annoying imp that would always come at my mistakes! 🤬]
[ImmortalSin: I had this fairy and now my core is this type of giant mushroom where fairies live in, they became some sort of guardian to my core.]
. . .
*Pfft*
"What BullShit is this, their getting all these cool stuff while I'm stuck with a guide who barely says shit!"
'You know it doesn't even matter anyways now that I know my core is super rare, only see three times in every era or something along those lines. Quickly finishing my food I changed into normal clothes and laid down in the Pod.
Ten seconds later my view was once again met with the white walls of the game room and Ruby sleeping in her doggy bed. It didn't take much will to resist petting her, 'don't want to get another black eye.'
I didn't have much time to waste even though there was still three days real time and double that in game before main server opens I realized just how far behind I was compared to the rest. Most people already had level one cores while some people already had a planet.
The door to The Realm seemed to have changed a bit, the wood no longer looked so rotted and the spell diagram was a bit more visible. With a flash of light I was once again in my [Domain] before my [Core].
(A/N - Guys I like to put [] around some important stuff like core and domain when mc is in the game.)
Irean said that because of the choice I made I was currently below level one for my [Core], I would have to increase the size of the [Core] which meant I would have to meditate more to guide both my mana and pure mana into the drop.
"This is gonna be a pain!"
• • •
*Palace of Light*
"So what has the boy been up to?"
"The one you've chosen has been making strides in both magic and his [Core], he has...he has...!"
"Spit it out, what has he discovered?"
"First for his magic, he seems to be progressing well, he has chosen to go the route of cultivating so when he reaches his cap we can give him a good path of attaining ascension."
"See if you can figure out why he chose cultivation, at best his art can only have one or two stages, as for the second one?"
"He has attained that [Core] my lord, he formed a...nexus and already I can tell that it will be powerful."
There was complete silence before laughter escaped the beings mouth.
"Ha...haha he has what...this changes our plans, we must fully control him before he becomes too powerful."
"..."
"Do I make my self clear!"
"Y-yes my lord, it shall be done."
With a bow Irean disappeared from the palace.
"That girl, what has gotten into her?"
• • •
After cultivation for a couple hours I was able to reach the second stage of Mana Channeling, now moving my mana inside my body didn't feel like so much of a chore.
The whole time I was meditating I was able to let a constant stream of mana from both my mana and the slowly replenishing pure mana into my [Core] at a pace that was manageable. It was starting to gain some size and looked like a fingernail.
'I wonder how much more time it will take until your a level one core?' I could tell that my [Core] is pretty great because the mana in my [Domain] was replenishing at a fast pace. What would have probably taken a full day for the mana to replenish only took half a day, and that was before my [Core] grew in size.
"Looks like everything is progressing well, won't be long now until your [Core] reaches level one."
Irean showed up out of nowhere once again making me jump, 'She needs to stop doing that, I swear she's doing it on purpose!'
"To what do I owe the pleasure for you to visit this time?"
"What I can't just check up on you, I am supposed to be your gui-"
"Cut the crap, you and me both know that you haven't been much of a guide so what are you really here for?"
"Fine, I'm not supposed to be saying this but you need to watch your back, there are some pretty powerful beings out there that know of your...circumstances...and wouldn't mind taking advantage of them."
"What do you mean?"
"I have already said more then what I can, I'm risking my ass doing this right now!"
With a humph Irean disappeared leaving me to my thoughts. 'What did she mean by that, isn't this just a tutorial, why do I feel like I'm caught in some sort of main storyline with me being the protagonist or something? Or maybe some sort of epic quest!'
'A worry for another time, I'm so close to a level one core I can feel it!'
. . .
It didn't take that long for my [Core] to reach level one and when it did, it happened with a bang! I was meditating in front of my [Core] when it happened, a pulse of force that threw my to the edges of my [Domain].
*Cough* "That was...not what I expected to happen!"
Getting up I could see my [Core] was spinning at a fast rate, it somehow expanded to cover my whole [Domain] before quickly shrinking back down into it's liquid form. Instantly I could tell the difference.
There was a suction force pulling the surrounding mana into the core, and I even felt a constant drain of my mana, just under my replenishing rate. 'That's gonna be annoying.'
But that wasn't all, I also felt something different in my [Domain], it felt more...stable if anything. I could somehow tell that my [Domain] was developing it's laws, like gravity and time.
"Well done James, now it's time for the next step!"