CHAPTER 46: CHAPTER 46 - DUALITY

I brushed away the lingering prompts about Mana Burn with a flicker of thought, my attention fixed on the crater yawning before me. The edges still smoked, loose soil sliding inward to fill the cavity my axe had carved into the ground. I stood in awe of it---not the destruction itself, but the weight behind the knowledge.

This kind of power could definitely compete with a Crisis-Class beast. The sheer weight of the swing had proven that. But I could already feel it...how much of me it had consumed.

I climbed out of the crater with a huff, boots crunching against fractured stone, then pulled up my Status to see the cost in clear numbers.

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[Details]

Name: Axel Vorous

Titles: Professional Crash-Tester (Legendary)

Species: Human

Stage: Silver | Level 2 (5200/7750)

Health: 494/494

Stamina: 407/494

Mana: 410/510

Gift: Adaptive Regeneration (????)

[Attributes | AP: 0]

Strength: 61 (70.15)

Speed: 70

Mind: 34 (51)

Constitution: 38(49.4)

[Skills]

(Unique) : Mana Strain Resistance X

(Silver

) : Enhanced Pierce Resistance V - Enhanced Impact Resistance V - Enhanced Slash Resistance V

(Bronze) : Poison Resistance I - Fire Resistance X - Rot Resistance X - Ice Resistance X - Unease I - Darkness Resistance IV

[Mastery | MSTP: 0]

-Greataxe Mastery (Sub-Par) : 480/1000 (+)

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Exactly one hundred mana, for that single swing.

I took in the shattered clearing again, letting the scale settle in my mind.

Worth it.

My mana pool had grown, yes, but so had the scale of my power. Greater output required greater fuel. It was a simple equation. If I wanted to fight cleanly, efficiently, I would need restraint. Not every strike could be my maximum. Not every swing should leave a crater.

Control. Fine-tuning. Directing how much mana flowed into an attack, where it traveled, how it reinforced each strike. That was what the Manual described when detailing those Gold Rank forms---the art of channeling mana with efficiency. Just like how not every muscle in the body was required to punch, the entire body didn’t need to be boosted by the Channeling to reach maximum force.

But I wasn’t there yet.

My stage progress had outpaced my mastery by miles. I was still perfecting the basics. But the daily quests were relentless. They would push me there. Inevitably.

I found the toppled tree-trunk I had been using as a seat, heaved it upright, and brushed off the dust with my palm before plopping down onto it. The weight of exhaustion pressed into my shoulders, but I smiled in satisfaction as I took in my Status in its entirety.

My fifth day, and already Silver Rank.

Still low on the food chain, yes. Still climbing. But climbing faster than most could even imagine.

I leaned back against the rough bark and closed my eyes for a moment, the memory of the crater still burning behind them.

When I opened them again, I didn’t pull up Mastery, or the Quest. My thoughts returned instead to the System windows I had shoved aside earlier. The Amorphic Mana Core. The Bimodal Nerve Matrix. Both still waiting for me. Both still carrying that final prompt.

[Activate? (Yes/No)]

I sat there, staring, my pulse quickening. The air itself seemed to still in anticipation.

I gulped once, then tapped [Yes].

The Amorphic Core pulsed in my chest, luminescent blood-red veined with that unstable black. But the window only flashed once again.

[Activation Failed.]

[The Amorphic Mana Core can only be fully activated once it has achieved Complete Manifestation.]

I exhaled sharply, half a laugh, half a sigh.

Haah. I see. Too soon.

My gaze slid to the other window. The nerve matrix.

I guess the same is true for you as well... isn’t it?

I tapped [Yes].

I expected failure. Another denial.

Instead, the text shifted.

[Complete Activation of [Bimodal Nerve Matrix] has begun.]

A knife through my skull. No warning. No gradual build. A spike of agony pierced straight through the center of my brain, white-hot, immediate.

Shit. Not again.

I doubled over, palms gripping my temples. The world blurred, then split, as though someone had pried apart the seams of my consciousness.

The second layer of nerves---the ones spun of chaotic mana---began to pulse violently, drawing raw streams from the Amorphic Core. I felt the black-red haze coursing through my spine, threading upward, flooding into my skull. Each neuron, each fragile strand of thought, was overlapped, copied, doubled.

The sensation was invasive, suffocating. A lattice of mana overlaying the matter in my skull, neuron for neuron, synapse for synapse. Every impulse mirrored, every thought replicated.

Then the overlaid brain lit up, and the pain became something else entirely.

A shout of agony escaped me as signals surged along the new pathways, running in parallel with the old. My thoughts didn’t double.

They split. Multiplied.

I gasped, clutching the haft of my axe for grounding as the pain dulled, then disappeared entirely.

I breathed for a moment, realizing just what the full activation of the Bimodal Nerve Matrix entailed.

One part of me was staring at the System prompt still hanging in the air. Another was cataloguing every sensation in my body with cold precision: heart rate, respiration, blood flow, the faint electrical hum of the mana-nerves still adjusting.

Two thoughts, simultaneous. Two awarenesses, layered seamlessly.

I tried it deliberately. One thread of thought ran the numbers: Mana pool, 410 out of 510. Mana expenditure, 100 per swing, sustainable in bursts of four at best before danger.

At the same time, another thought wandered idly: The crater’s edges are unstable. Another rain and this clearing will swallow itself into a sinkhole. The smell of overturned soil is rich, wet. The air tastes like iron.

I blinked, shocked. I had thought both things at once, without effort. Both had clarity. Both belonged to me.

Parallel thought.

The second mind wasn’t a voice. It wasn’t separate. It was me, split across two perfectly synchronized channels, processing and storing information simultaneously. I could feel it already---how it would affect battle. How reflexes and tactics could run in parallel. How decisions could be weighed in one thread while instinct fired in another.

I straightened slowly, breath ragged but steadying. My vision was sharper, my awareness broader.

The Bimodal Matrix had finished its work. My body’s dual nervous systems were finally complete.

The silence inside my skull was different now. For a moment, I just sat there, listening to the rhythm of twin currents in my head. Never colliding. Never slowing. Two minds. Perfectly in step.

My fists clenched as I breathed once. I knew there was nothing more to do here.

So I stood, dismissing the System Panels and beginning to gather my things. The greataxe slid easily onto my back, its weight negligible.

I had carved two entire Shadestalker corpses clean to the bone, all used during my training. The final corpse’s meat was cubed and placed in my inventory, opting to carry my pack on my back instead. Its weight had also become negligible now that I was Silver-Ranked.

And that was everything.

I glanced once more around the clearing, a distant thought and a faint ache pulling at me.

This place.

Here, I had watched a battle between four Crisis-Class beasts shake the earth. Here, I had helped slay one of them, against all reason. Here, I had buried another, giving it rest. I had eaten until my body screamed, trained until my bones cracked, grown until my own Mastery struggled to keep pace.

I had entered this clearing as Bronze. I left it Silver.

It was time to move on.

I used what I’d learnt about Sky-tracking to figure out which way was West, adjusted the straps of my pack and stepped forward, away from the light of the open sky and back into the darkness of the Core.

It had always felt daunting before.

But now...my body thrummed in anticipation.

It knew. Battle was never far.

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A/N: I’d just like to thank everyone for all the Golden Tickets! For a brief moment this morning, we peaked at 122nd on the Golden Ticket Rankings, the Most Prestigious Leaderboard on the Platform! And I owe that to you. That accomplishment means so, so much to me. I don’t know if we’ll remain on there for much longer, but man was it a sight to see!

Additionally, I’d like to do a special shoutout for SquintoBean25! This Absolute Legend gave me my first gift, a Massage Chair! My gratitude is immeasurable. Thank you. Truly.

There’s one more Chapter today so stick around! Just running some final edits.

Today was a good day :)

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