Chapter 56: WTF is going on here
Alaric noticed that his master seemed worried about something. So, quickly emerging from the shadows he appeared in front of Dhruv and asked, "Is something troubling you, master?"
"Yes! there is indeed something that is troubling me.." he paused for a second before continuing "... I’m trying to fuse those cores but they aren’t fusing. And this hasn’t happened yet." Dhruv explained his situation.
"Oh, I see!... Have you any idea why this could be happening?.." Alaric stated. thinking for a moment, he added, "...From my understanding, the skill should be powerful enough to fuse those cores, especially considering that we are born as a result of its capabilities," Alaric remarked.
"That’s precisely what’s bothering me. With the level—that there isn’t even a level written over it—of this skill level being so high that... that it means there is something wrong with how I’m using it," Dhruv admitted.
Getting an idea, Alaric asked Dhruv, "Master, what was the description of the Skill?"
"I believe it goes something like this: any and everything shall be fused," Dhruv recalled and shared.
"This doesn’t help anything," Alaric pondered for a moment before continuing, "Master, how do you always activate the skill?"
"...I used to simply think about it, and the process would begin," Dhruv explained. As he was explaining, he raised his eyebrow, as a thought had struck him, ’Hold on a moment.’
"Thank you, Alaric. I think I’ve got an idea now why the skill isn’t working," Dhruv expressed his gratitude.
"Master, you are too kind to thank a mere servant..." Alaric responded with humility.
Observing that Dhruv was engrossed in his thoughts and not paying attention, Alaric fell silent and slipped back into the shadows once more.
Filled with determination, Dhruv directed his gaze towards the cores. With an intense stare, he extended his hand toward the pile of the cores and said..
"Fusion"
With the command being given, a white light came out from his hand and started to move towards the cores. The blob of light was moving at a considerable speed, yet from Dhruv’s point of view, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
He could see that the white blob was whirling as it advanced. After what seemed like an eternity, the glow made contact with the surface of one of the cores.
The instant it touched the surface of the core, a white dome emerged from the blob, expanding to capture everything it had been instructed to capture.
After a while, all ten cores found themselves enveloped within the dome of white light, waiting to fuse.
The wait didn’t stretch for too long, as the fusion process almost commenced instantly.
The cores began to get closer to one another. The distance between them was close enough, then they began to liquefy.
Once all of them had transformed into a liquid state, the main process of fusion began. In a matter of a second or two, they seamlessly fused together, forming a single liquid pool.
Approaching the final step of the process, the pool of liquid started to solidify. However, just as the change was reaching its conclusion, the white dome received an unexpected command.
The command wasn’t clear but from the sound, —This is actually a terrible idea, and he should refrain from proceeding— he was hearing, that the command was to stop the process.
Obeying the command, the liquid quickly divided itself into ten equal portions.
Before it could solidify those ten liquid pools to revert them to their original state, it got another swift command, and the command was to continue the fusion process.
The dome paused for a moment, showing signs of confusion, almost like it was a living being. Like a machine programmed to follow a command, it wanted to follow the recent command. But before that, he had to check the last command—the one instructing it not to proceed.
But to its astonishment, that command had now disappeared, as if it had never existed to begin with.
With no two commands conflicting with each other, the dome continued its process.
The ten liquids once again began to fuse effortlessly, forming a single pool of liquid. Right after that, the process of solidification started again, but this time there was no command opposing the revolution.
Barely a second later, the liquid solidified into a single piece of stone.
Having fulfilled its task, the dome began to dissipate, revealing a single monster core, the size of a football in size, emitting an almost blinding light.
Looking at the bright core that had just fused, a smile hung on Dhruv’s face.
He had found the issue behind the failed fusion - the solution was both simple and complicated all at once.
The problem was that every time he began the fusion, he himself would ’unintentionally’commands it to stop. The reason behind this ’unintentional command’ was the fear of the aftermath of the process that had subconsciously influenced his commands.
Upon realizing this, it wasn’t an easy task to gain control over this small part of himself, and it sure posed a challenge.
But the problem didn’t last long, and he had managed to calm himself down by repeatedly counting the benefits of the fusion. And some self-meditation sure helped a lot.
After some time, he eventually attained that state of control. Afterward, the challenge eased, and the fusion proceeded smoothly.
Dhruv mumbles under his breath. It wasn’t only shiny either, the power he could feel from it almost seemed impossible to capture, yet here he was thinking of fusing with the core.
"How shiny!" Dhruv mumbles under his breath. It wasn’t just about the shine either; the power he could feel emanating from it was also almost impossible to reach, yet here he is about to fuse with it.
The brilliance of the core drew Alaric and Vexar closer, their eyes fixed on the core. They, too, were struck with awe, just as Dhruv had been.
Dhruv wanted to fuse with the core as soon as possible, but he restrained himself, knowing that only two and a half hours remained until the start of the fifth wave.
He didn’t want to take any risks during the wave, so he decided to wait until the next wave. With nothing to do in the remaining time, they just resume their training.
Engrossed in their training, the gang found time passing at a speed similar to the speed of light, and the fourth-hour milestone was already neat to him.
Not wanting their first fight with the Tier 2 monsters a head-on collision, they chose to go with the same strategy they had employed during the third wave.
They stacked up the corpses of the fallen monsters on the side from which the Goblins and spiders were expected to approach, and then they all began to go in the direction of the sea.
After journeying for a short while, they reached the familiar location, the place where the Crystallce crack is located. Upon observing the crack, Dhruv instantly knew that something was wrong with it.
"Why isn’t there any shine in it?" Dhruv blurred his thoughts aloud.
And he was correct; the usual shine he had observed in the crack during the third wave was absent. The shine of the crack wasn’t just for it beauty, No! from what Dhruv had observed the shine was a type of clock.
The more it shines the more it reaches the fourth hour. And when the shineness its peak at the fourth hour, it would implode, allowing the monsters to emerge from the cracks.
He was in the middle of his thoughts then suddenly he saw something flashing in front of him. He got his head straight up and saw that a blob of fire was there, rising from the ground.
He was in the middle of his thoughts, when his attention was abruptly taken over by a light that illuminated his line of sight. Raising his gaze upward, he observed a ball of fire rising from the ground.
Witnessing the explosion, Dhruv shouted, " WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE."
