Chapter 22: Soul Core Transplantation
"Oh? You mean the High Elves and the Primordial Dragon you mentioned earlier?" Abium asked curiously and then looked deep into the crystal.
Meanwhile, Azolla nodded her illusionary head and continued.
"Yes. Anyway, let's come to our current situation. While I'm in the dormant state, you should construct the Zero-Tier spell models in your mind and join any magic academy to get some direction. That may help you to bend into the magic community."
'Why should I want to go to the magic institute when I can learn everything from her?' He thought in puzzlement.
"Don't think lightly of any mages, kid; you just witnessed a drop in the ocean. I may have enough knowledge to help you in many ways, but you still need a teacher's guidance." As if she was reading his mind, she patted on his shoulder with her illusionary hand and warned him.
Then, she moved closer towards the Tower Core and asked him to put a few drops of his blood on the blue crystal-like core.
Like the last time, he took out his sword, made a small cut on his palm, and let a few drops of blood fall on the spooky crystal.
Once he did that, a bright red light appeared on the crystal and illuminated the whole room.
Its blinding light shone like the sun's light, and its color was impossibly bright. Then, a magnificent rainbow aurora surrounded the Tower Core, giving off an ethereal glow.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
The whole Start Tower began to vibrate the next instant and soon trembled slightly.
In the meantime, Abium sensed that his mind got connected to the tower core and soon widened his eyes.
He saw the entire Tower in and out within his mind and was stunned.
It was the first time he had experienced this kind of feeling.
As Azolla saw his expression, she mimicked like a regular human, clearing her throat and spoke with a deep voice,
"I grant you full control over this tower."
Saying so, she started explaining what he had to do once she rebooted her spirit core for another hour.
Once the explanation was over, she touched the tower core and vanished from that place.
Instead of her illusionary form, Abium saw a 5 cm cubic gem that contained numerous symbols, weird letters, runes, and even elven words formed in circles and were revolving around the cubic gem.
It glittered like the sun-kissed ocean lapping the sands. The brilliant red hue was so vivid, and it appeared more like the crystalline blood from the legend.
Suddenly, Abium heard a cold, clear voice with a synthesized edge.
It was perfect diction. No soul.
[Do you want to implant tower spirit within your body? Yes / No]
He was genuinely astounded by that soulless voice and guessed it must be Azolla's voice in a dormant state. After a slight pause, Abium snapped out of the shock and confirmed with 'yes' in his mind.
A second later, the atmosphere started to change in the room. Many types of runes and the mysterious divine letters emerged from the tower core, moved closer towards the cubic red gem, and started revolving around it.
All those runes were organized in an orbicular form and started shining in golden color.
Then, a single drop of blood-like crystal came out of the Tower Core, flew towards Abium's forehead, and entered deep into his head.
At that moment, the reddish cubic gem also flew towards his forehead and went inside!
Abium couldn't even understand what had happened!
What astounded him most was that no blood appeared on his forehead.
It looked like the cubic gem, and the strange drop of blood crystal disappeared inside his head without injuring him.
Just as he thought that it was over, a massive burning pain struck him from his head, causing tears to appear from his eyes.
His head went chaos and a mess.
Meanwhile, the cubic gem moved deep into his head, started to shrink in size, and soon appeared more like a small molecule.
Then, the minute cubic gem entered a Dark Space and finally entered a new world filled with white clouds of memories.
It was Abium's Sea of Consciousness.
In the meantime, some weird foreign power came from an unknown link, merged with the blood crystal that entered his forehead earlier, and formed a unique golden essence in his body.
The next instant, the golden essence moved everywhere, entered his bloodstreams, and started to strengthen his Elven Bloodline!
The golden blood essence with divine power slowly merged into every part of his body and created a strange mutation!
At that moment, Abium stood there in the core room while panting heavily and appeared to be in great pain. His muscles and bones started to ache like never before, followed by a piercing headache.
He felt that someone was smacking his head using some iron rod and went pale.
As the pain rose continuously, he couldn't be able to stand still and fall backward.
He fell on the concrete floor with a thud and felt his vision turn blurry.
Alas, he endured the pain and remained conscious!
Seconds passed slowly, but the pain in his body didn't reduce a single bit. Abium even heard bone-cracking sounds from time to time and moaned from time to time.
After a long time, he felt that the headache and the body pain started to reduce slowly.
At the same time, he also noticed a significant change in his outer experience and widened his eyes. He hurriedly stood up, moved towards the opposite side core room's glass window, and looked at his reflection.
His blackish hair was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his hair had turned into a blonde one, and his eyes also changed from black color to amber.
'What the f*ck happened to me?'
He touched his smooth face and discovered remarkable changes like elongated ears, broad forehead, and even his gold-like skin tone.
He now resembled more like half-elf outside.
But what started him deeply was his current strength.
He somehow felt that his muscles became so hard for some odd reasons and got anxious inside.
He gripped his fist tighter and punched the glass window.
His fist moved at terrific speed while leaving blurry images, appeared before the hardened glass window, and collided.
The next instant, a bang sound echoed in the Core Room, followed by multiple cracks on the glass window and a rippling shockwave. He even felt a strange forceful movement in the surrounding air and widened his eyes in shock.
'Sh*t! My current strength might rival any ordinary second-tier warrior.'
He also sensed an enhancement of his all six senses.
'Damn it, will I be able to cross the borderland safely?' He showed an anxious look on his face and called out in mind,
'Azolla, are you there?'
Suddenly, he saw a blue screen that appeared in front of his eyes.
[Yes]
[Azolla needs the Host's approval for a whole-body scan to gather more data. Yes/No]
Abium confirmed 'yes' in his mind and soon sensed some waves washed over his body.
The next second, a row of data appeared before his eyes.
...
[Name: Abium
Age: 16
Race: Half-elf (???)
Class: Apprentice Mage (Tier-0)
Health: Normal
Attributes
Strength: 3.4
Agility: 3.4
Vitality: 3.2
Mana: 3.0
Spirit: 2.5
Skills
Master Swordsmanship, Intermediate Sword Aura.
Zero-Tier Spells: Fire Orb.
Affinities:
Fire- High→ Good.
Darkness- Average→ High.
Space- Average→ High.]
(A/N: Affinity Levels: Low→ Average→ High→ Good→ Genius→ Prodigy→ Divine.)
...
"Wow! Did I become a Half-elf? Moreover, my body physique increased more than three folds. But why didn't Azolla say anything about this? Even she knew nothing about it?" He couldn't help but mutter.
'It seems I've no choice but to wait for more answers about my current situation.' He nodded his head and shifted his gaze towards the status bar.
But at that moment, he felt a strange vibration from below and flinched suddenly.
Simultaneously, he heard a creaky noise from behind and soon squinted his eyes.
In wariness, he shifted his amber eyes towards the tower core and soon noticed that the tower core was shaking fiercely.
'What's going on?' He got confused.
Whizz!
Before he could even understand the situation, a tremendous amount of elemental energies came from the outside environment, gathered into the core, and soon released eerie black-colored electric sparks.
'I have a bad feeling about this!' Abium's face stiffened.
A second later, he heard a cracking sound from the blue core!
'I-Is the tower core going to crack-?' Before he could even think, multiple cracks appeared all over the bluish core.
'F*ck!' He cursed inside his mind, sprinted towards the Core Room's exit, and went downstairs.
Bam! Bam Bam!
As he moved on the circular staircase, loud noises echoed from the outside and caused the whole Tower to shake violently.
'What is that sound?'
He looked outside through the glass windows and saw that the outer tower wall was breaking apart at many places!
An uneasy feeling appeared in his mind.
'I need to escape quickly. The Tower is going to detonate!'