Whispers from the Abyss

Luke was ecstatic, finding what looked like a normal rabbit in the forest. Luke was salivating at the thought of eating rabbit meat. While trying to sneak up on the rabbit, Luke noticed the rabbit spun its head around towards him. Around the rabbit's legs, Luke noticed some sort of magical energy. Right after Luke noticed the magical energy, the rabbit shot off, leaving a blur in its place. Luke was dazed by the shock of how fast the rabbit was.

Not wanting to give up, Luke took off the same way the rabbit did. While trying to find the rabbit, Luke thought of how he would catch it once he found it again. The only spell Luke had that could help was Abyssal Bind, which Luke could use to bind the rabbit in place. While Luke was searching for the rabbit, the sun started to set, forcing Luke to set up camp. There was no fire in Luke's camp due to his inability to start a fire. Luke was hoping that the core would have spells that he could use to help him survive in the forest. Luke started to meditate and go into his mindscape, into the library in the core. Luke went to the core and asked the semi-intelligent Ai if there were any spells that could be used to help him survive his time in the forest. The core said emotionless. “I'm sorry, host, but due to the core still being damaged, no new spells can be unlocked unless you find a grimoire or the rare arcane tomes.” Luke was dejected, knowing that unless he learned how to create a fire or create new magical spells, he had to either find new grimoires or repair the core with magical energy if he wanted new spells. Luke asked the core in a confused tone, “How can I help repair you? I don’t know how to give you magical energy.”

The core responds with its emotionless voice, “You can do a few things to help repair me. The most basic option is by meditating using AꚶɌĬtዛᙏiᕔᙁ ĬnꕷĬgዛt to absorb the surrounding magical energy and convert it into the two energies in you, Abyssal and Origin, to which I can absorb 20% to help repair the damage. The other option is to use objects filled with some sort of magical energy and let me absorb it. For the time being, those are your two options, but once you get stronger and repair me to at least 50%, then I can teach you more ways to repair me.”

Luke didn’t know where to find any object containing magical energy, so instead he got to meditating using AꚶɌĬtዛᙏiᕔᙁ ĬnꕷĬgዛt, absorbing the surrounding magical energy to convert it into Abyssal and Origin energy stored inside Luke. While meditating, Luke was also trying to fully comprehend the concepts behind AꚶɌĬtዛᙏiᕔᙁ ĬnꕷĬgዛt and not just be able to use it due to the core. Luke had not been exposed to too many different mediation techniques. Luke knew that AꚶɌĬtዛᙏiᕔᙁ ĬnꕷĬgዛt was a high-class technique due to how complex the principles of it were. Luke had made almost zero progress on the comprehension of the concepts behind AꚶɌĬtዛᙏiᕔᙁ ĬnꕷĬgዛt due to his weak grasp on magical knowledge. Luke decided to check back in the core to try and find more basic magical knowledge that he could actually comprehend. Luke appeared right in front of the semi-intelligent core and asked, “Are there any other books like introductions to magical energies to help build my magical knowledge foundation?” The core responded back with its emotionless voice. "Yes, just head to the basic knowledge section to find the books or grimoires you want. Just know that there aren't too many books there; you need to repair the core or find more books or grimoires yourself.” Luke just remembered that the core has other features besides the library; he asked about them before looking for the books. The core told Luke, “Before you are able to use the features to their true strength, you need to repair me to 100%; as of right now, you can only use 5% of the power of them." The core then made a list of features appear in front of Luke,

Available features

Library: Forms a library using accessible knowledge in the sea of knowledge and organizes it into sections.

Arcane Heart: Forms a connection to users' acarne heart to become a devouring acarne heart.

Core Feature: Seven Sins

1: Pride: Error

2: Greed: Greedy ingests all in the dimensional stomach, turning it into one's own property or power. (5% of your dimensional stomach is turned into one's own property or power.)

3: Gluttony: Devours targets everything and stores it in a dimensional stomach. (Only devours 5% of target everything.)

4: Sloth: Error

5: Lust: Error

6: Envy: Error

7: Wraith: Give into your rage and boost your combat ability by 10x, but it makes the user more aggressive and doesn't end until either the user or enemy is dead. (Not available for use due to too low core durability)

Luke saw how underpowered the available features were for the time being and decided to ignore them until he reached 10% repair. Luke started to head towards the basics section. Once Luke made it to the section, he noticed that even though the Ai said there weren't any new books yet, there was still a full shelf worth here—the most he had seen so far. Luke got right to looking for a new meditation technique that he could actually comprehend. While searching for the meditation technique, Luke also found a book called Basics to Magical Races. Luke was interested in these magical races, so he grabbed the book and went back to search for the meditation technique. Luke found two different techniques: “Mystic Awakening” and “Elemental Attunement” Each has their own unique feature that sets them apart from weaker basic mediation techniques.

Elemental Attunement: Beginner’s Guide to Magical Energy Absorption

Elemental Attunement: It attunes the user to the five basic elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Wood and gives the user access to Element Convergence, which is the meditation practice that comes with the technique. The user closes their eyes and visualizes that they are in the center of a circle surrounded by the five elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Wood. As the meditation deepens, the user slowly starts to absorb the first elemental energy until they are able to absorb all five elemental energies into their body, which in turn completes the technique, granting the user access to the great mage class. To keep going along the elemental mage path, the user must keep practicing high levels of this meditation or find a new, stronger elemental meditation technique.

Mystic Awakening: Essential Meditations for Harnessing Arcane Energies

Primal Essence: Attunes the user to the primal essence (not to be confused with primordial energy) and gives access to Primal Essence, the meditation practices that come with the technique. The user closes their eyes and visualizes them in a pure blank space with a pure, non-attuned magical energy sphere right in front of them. The user channels the primal essence into their own magical core. The essence settles in and fuses with your magical energy, turing it into primal essence as well. At the final step of completion, the user is able to turn their magical energy into a new energy of their choosing. Once done, the user must find a new technique that matches their new magical energy.

Luke didn't know which one to pick. He was leaning more towards primal essence.