Esmond had finally left the Virtual Lab once he was finished with his project designing the F1 car and engine.
Since he wanted to create his own formula one team, Esmond was determined to make a car and engine that would give the other drivers a hard time, however it was also a very powerful car that needed a worthy driver to handle the beast.
Knowing he had gone over the limit on what to do on the car and engine because he was too focused, Esmond forced himself to walk away and leave the Labs for the day.
Carter had informed about the Getting Started quest that was completed, so Esmond looked at the rewards before accepting the finished quest and its rewards, but before that he asked Carter to enquire the system.
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"Where will the core form?"
Esmond asked Carter to check with the system because he had a suspicious feeling the core would form in the centre of his body and not near his heart, where he preferred it to form.
His reasoning was based on a magical life of his past as a student of an Ancient One.
They were considered to be one of the last generations to see the establishment of the Galactic Council in that particular lifetime with incredible power that could wipe out Empires without much consideration.
Esmond at the time was born as a lowly commoner who made his way through life as an adventurer who became a mercenary later once, he entered space.
He became a prominent member of the star sector he was living and working from, because if his previous knowledge on Spiritual Energy.
Learnt during another lifetime as a royal prince, Esmond understood Spiritual Energy would form in the world and atmosphere, but it depended on the conditions of the world to dictate the density of the energy within the air.
Spiritual Energy was about improving the body, mind, and soul through absorbing into the body and then reforming it to align with the Internal Body Energy so they could merge together without any complications.
The current Esmond is using the Imperial Xoplis training manual to help form the External energy into Xoplis essence within the body that would be the energy Esmond could use freely.
Strengthening his body parts to fight or whatever reason Esmond felt necessary, required the Internal energy to travel through his body and affect the specified areas.
All of this required a masterful control over your own body and knowing your limits as there wasn't a limiter built within his body.
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A limiter would be considered as a fuse within the body to stop anyone from overly filling their Internal energy pool beyond its capacity which could lead to massive internal problems and at worst it could mean the person would implode.
The current Esmond had no limiter within his body right now, however he knew the levels he could absorb, plus his Primordial Body increased the size of his Internal energy pool size to something ghastly.
But it still didn't mean Esmond would continually fuel it because of the time it would take him to fill it up as a level 1 practitioner.
Creating a limiter within the body wasn't a difficult thing either, however it required the user to make it through the might of their mental fortitude, which developed alongside their body if practised correctly.
It couldn't sync or gel together with the current training manual the user would be practising and instead would need the user to use the pure and unfiltered External energy to help fester out the original Internal energy of the body and fuse them together to create a limiter, which would like similar to a diamond within the lower gut.
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Because of his life as a space faring mercenary, Esmond used his past knowledge at the time to create this limiter within his poor body at the time and continued to develop it from the small diamond the size of a fingernail into a goliath that seemed close to the size of a four pack of cans.
It was formed within his body, so it wouldn't necessarily be that exact size as it would be condensed from the body pressure and Internal energy, however at that size, the amount of External energy Esmond would absorb was like a black hole that left nothing in its wake.
During those days, Esmond could use the Internal energy to create a small energy field around his body that let him travel outside in space without fear of dying from asphyxiation or being affected by the temperatures of dark space.
However, during his flights through space while he was finishing up a quest from the mercenary organisation of the Galactic Council, he came across an Ancient one who found Esmond to be his final student before he left the world.
It turned out he could sense the sheer depth of the limiter within Esmonds body when he would absorb External Spiritual Energy and would slowly track the trail, he left behind till he caught up.
Esmond didn't have a choice but to accept and left with the Ancient one to learn about the fascinating truths of the world but most importantly, he learnt about magic, and it's influence in the world.
It turned out that Spiritual Energy was different from Mana, though they used similar training and development methods to help the user improve their strengths and capabilities.
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His own case was unique according to his Ancient Master who believed Esmond could break the stereotypes people faced if they thought about practising more than one type of method.
Mana required the user to first establish a Mana core within their body by absorbing the External Mana of the world by using a breathing technique.
The process was similar to users of the Spiritual Energy, however, to create a Mana core one would need to open up the rest of their body as well.
Mana wouldn't reenforce the body like Spiritual Energy, as it's focus was on building the strength of the core within the body that would ultimately mean the user can conduct their spells without issue.
The Mana in the core wouldn't be used entirely for their spells, instead the Mana with the air would help the user conduct them, constructing the spell from External Mana and using the Internal Mana as the fuel.
More complicated spells might require the user to their own Mana to construct it, however it all depended on the level of the core and how connected one could be with Mana.
The origins of mana and spiritual energy weren't known; however, everyone knew Mana was more connected with life and creation while the other meant the evolution and development of humanoid species.
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Everything Esmond was taught came from the Ancient one in regard to Mana and so with his help, Esmond turned his limiter also into a mana core within his body and started to awaken his body circuits that would help him to conduct his spells with ease.
He had to infuse the limiter with External Mana which was supplied through Mana stones that were highly pure, so he didn't need to waste time refining the energy.
Once the limiter began to change from the colour of his body essence to a transparent core which had a tint of the body essence around it, his master showed him how to move his core to the heart.
Though it required mental energy, Esmond had sufficient strength so it wasn't difficult, but the following pain he experienced was something he wouldn't wish on his worst enemies, as it felt like dying and reviving for centuries while the heart, soul and body fused to allow him to practise both energies.
Because his original body was poor in aptitude, the pain was a great deal more vicious on his psyche, but at the end of it, Esmond became a fearful individual that could rival some of the strongest people within the world and survive the aftermath.
Only problem… his dear master used this opportunity to send his existence into Esmonds body and slowly destroyed his soul while he took over the body, leaving the poor helpless Esmond to only watch as the Ancient one used his body to wreak havoc on the galaxy.
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The reason Esmond asked Carter to find out was to help him prepare for the painful experience if the system wouldn't form the core near his heart.
It was considered to be the home of the soul, as the soul was the carrier of emotion, freewill and the personality of the person, so by having the core form near his heart, Esmond could infuse them together and create the connection with his damaged soul which needed to be healed slowly.
While it did open more problematic issues, like his soul sustaining damage if his body was greatly harmed, but since he had the Primordial Body, Esmond knew he wouldn't need to worry about anything like that happening, especially with the space around, his growth rate would be terrifying.
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"System has said within the centre of your body; however, you can make the changes now before it begins the process to form the core."
Esmond, who was back inside the family cabin along with Carter were sitting around the family lounge room, with the TV on, trying to figure out what to do next with the time remaining in the day.
Eddie had been contacting Carter with positive news about the changes and improvements it's made within the business operations of Primal Management, but in the general methods being conducted by staff members were all improved.
It meant that the company was in good mans and didn't need his attention like earlier to help it be established.
To his surprise, Viktor the minister from Ukraine had called back and asked for certain data pertaining to the business operations which Eddie took care of, but it left Esmond thinking if he might have rushed too far to enter eastern Europe.
Eddie informed him the decision to move for Europe was too early as it would raise suspicion why someone with little business experience would head straight for eastern Europe to establish part of their international expansion.
There wasn't much he could do as it was part of the Making Bank! Quest so Esmond left it be for now and told Eddie to inform James to take care of it.
In the meantime, he sat down with Carter in the family lounge room and got him to relay the information to the system so the core would form where he needed it.
With confirmation of his decision, Esmond accepted the final check with the system before he steadied himself for the excruciating pain he was about to experience.
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*Ding*
[Soul and Body Core (Upgradeable) – Common Grade preparing for installation…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Done… Host please confirm final for installation of Soul and Body Core]
[Accept?]
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'Bring it… bitch…'
…
..
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[SYSTEM ERROR!!]
[!!!
[Host as well as Artificial System Spirit Core have gone offline due to Soul and Body Core]
[Rerouting authority to the next figure within Space Ark Land with sufficient administrative powers…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Individual found…]
[Artificial Intelligence – Echo – has been designated with temporary authority!]
[!!!
[Artificial Intelligence – Echo – operational systems will not be able to cope with temporary authority!]
[Insufficient funds to purchase required upgrade for Artificial Intelligence – Echo]
[Searching for solution…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Finished…]
[Retail Market – 5,000,000 Credits] [Purchased!]
[- Online marketplace connecting buyers and sellers from across the spectrum of System Operations existence]
[- Host of System Operations can connect on the Retail Market with other Host users, purchasing and selling all kinds of goods]
[Access Granted to the Retail Market!]
[System has connected with mainframe of Retail Market for direct access]
[Connecting with Hosts Inventory function…]
…
..
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Just as the system was about to access the Inventory so it could sell some of the products that were stored, Echo interrupted the Systems intrusion.
It was wondering why Carter's load of work was somehow forced onto it, but once Echo swept through the space, he found Carter was undergoing an upgrade along with Esmond when he found the two in the cabin, partially glowing.
Both were unconscious so they had no clue what was happening to them, but Echo could see it wasn't anything pleasant.
Using the humanoid droids, Echo moved the two into their bedrooms while it was trying to reason with the system from selling whatever it pleased.
Eventually Echo have access to particular goods that were in excess like minerals and food that was processed within the space.
Because the huge amount they processed daily, there was more than enough materials in Inventory to last for a long time.
Echo gave a portion of the materials with and without ogryx to the system to sell to the Retail Market.
Much to its surprise, they sold for a reasonable price and not before long, Echo was also undergoing an upgrade, however it was much shorter and less painful than Carters current changes.
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