The snake’s wide expansive head turned sideways in a questioning motion before its charcoal black mouth turned its corners upwards and expressed a strange smile—not menacing but certainly not cute either, whilst thousands of small stringy feet danced in joy across Flo’s leg and hands.
The clear segments of its body exposed from the gaps in the components.
The snake seemed friendly to Flo as it crawled up his arm and wrapped around his neck.
The snake-like machine turned itself into a perfect black scarf with its tail dangling off onto his shoulder.
It Looked completely natural on Florian’s neck.
Fancying the new look, he walked down the stairs and greeted Biland a “hello” but instead of saying goodbye straight away, a cheery Bil complimented Flo:
“That new scarf looks lovely, but won’t you be too hot?” Florian, happy to know that people can’t tell, replied:
“I’ll be fine,” a small smile appeared on his face as he wished Biland a “good day” and left with the usual “goodbye”.
Now outside the antique shop/his home, he journeyed through the streets of Birnam and ignored the weird stairs of other people under the beaming morning sun.
Arriving at the Union building, he went to Emily at the front desk, this time sleepy but a lot more sleepy than usual.
Knocking twice on the desk, he quietly asked, “can I use a core appraisal room please?” The exhausted Emily glanced up her eyes flickering, barely staying open, she responded:
“Two rooms down the left hallway,” the response was sharp but filled with intense annoyance.
Unwilling to bother her anymore, Florian entered the core appraisal room and tapped the snake, which was the signal for it to unwrap itself.
As the snake released his neck he looked around the room and except for the plainness, the only other thing was the very large machine pushed against the back wall.
A huge vertical gap with a pad at the bottom was built for the beasts/cores to enter.
Placing the snake onto the middle of the pad, Florian pressed the on button at a wall surrounding the machine, causing it to gather life essence and let it float around the snake.
A few moments later, a screen similar to a plink menu appeared but for the snake.
It hovered by the same wall with the on button:
[Name – None
Age – 3 Months and 18 Days
Species – Unknown
Life Core Element – Light and Poison
Weapon Body – None
Realm – Unidentifiable
Realm Stabilisation – None
Companion – None
Location – Brimnar City]
Taking in the intel, Flo turned off the machine and took the snake, tapping his neck, the signal for it to wrap itself around his neck and mimic a scarf. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
As he was about to leave the boring room, a not-so boring and very elegant voice overtook the room.
It was the voice that Flo heard from the atmosphere, when he was in the soul plain, “Why don’t you name the snake-like machine, Flo?”
“Why are you still stalking me, pervert?” Flo responded cheekily.
“Just name the snake,” the majestic voice commanded with dominance as it vanished like it never existed.
Sighing as he opened the door, he named the snake, “fine then, your name shall be Hydra,” the snake now known as Hydra had its thousands of little stringy feet that were constructed along the bottom, rubbing with happiness the neck of Flo.
Leaving the Union building, he spotted Emily bent over her desk, but did not see Cath or Max.
Deciding to head out on his own, he headed to the front gates of the city.
As usual there was a crowd around the large city gates, however it was much bigger than usual and not only that, the gates were closed, the metal bars were lowered and didn’t seem to be rising anytime soon.
The edges of the crowd had already begun to disperse but some groups remained still.
Shuffling through them, he made it near the gate, where a line of soldiers protected it.
Plates of armour coated their bodies as various weapons were either on their backs or held in their hands.
Along with two figures standing to the side—it was Tom and Mabel.
Walking towards Tom and Mabel, his head shifted left and right, watching the different groups talk: some in panic, some in confusion and some in happiness.
Now in front of Tom and Mabel who stood away from each other as they kept watch, both of them paid attention to Flo, standing in front of them but between the gap the duo had created.
Tom cleared his throat as he started, “Do you need something Florian?”
A bit surprised, Flo responded, “Why have the gates been shut, uhh—what’s your name?”
“My name’s Mabel and that is Tom.
The gates are shut because of recent sun cultist attacks.
You can no longer go out when the sun is up but you can go out when the moon is up,” Mabel replied, causing Flo to shift his head in her direction.
Florian seemed to debate something in his head before making his mind up and thanking Tom and Mabel and then departing from the front gates of Birnam.
Shuffling out the crowds of adventurers, he arrived in front of the same coffee stand and bought a cup of coffee:
[Currency – 78 Shards 0 Sols 0 Eclipse Shards (Owes 250 shards to All Gunnery to be paid within 85 sunrises)]
Grabbing the coffee, he set off through the streets and arrived at the library.
Heading inside into the maze of books and shelves, his eyes darted across each book, trying to find something he wanted to read.
His eyes naturally gravitated towards the long desk at the back of the library where the same blonde-haired girl stood, her head hung down reading a book in peace.
After a while, a book took his fancy.
He pulled the book out and went to the same table as last time.
Sitting by the window he momentarily gazed out to the shops whilst taking a sip of his steaming coffee.
The book laid flat on the table with the simple title of ‘Companions’.
The contents of the book were also relatively simple and Flo quickly understood them. The source of this chapter is g.com.
He flipped the pages and began to read:
‘A companion’s purpose is pretty simple.
It is to serve as your lifelong companion whether that is as your lover, combat partner or a servant.
You can become companions with another core as long as it has a life core.
Companions are usually other sentient beings but can be trees if you like or you can take ownership of a dungeon, tower or essence plain if you make their core your companion.
You can become companions with a beast to make them your pet and train them into a combat partner or a transport method or whatever you wish.
You can become companions with a lover and seal the marriage with companionship.
Meaning you will be together forever.
In companionship, there is a main core and a subsidiary core.
The main core is the core of the person that initiated the process and used their essence to become companions.
To become companions you need to flood your life essence into the body of the chosen person and then control the essence to overtake the core.
By doing this your essence will now own the core.
This means a successful companionship.
Once done, the two are eternally linked til death do you apart.
Your core becomes the main core and the person linked becomes the subsidiary core who can store and use the essence in their core but with the same element of the main core.
The subsidiary core cannot level up itself and will always stay the same level of the main core.
Each core can always sense the condition of the other core.
If one person dies it doesn’t matter but if the main core is destroyed, the subsidiary core is destroyed.
If the subsidiary core is destroyed, the main core will stay alive.
If during the companionship process the core becoming the subsidiary core is at a different level compared to the main core the life essence from the main core will be forcefully used to override the subsidiary core and either build up its level or shatter it.’
Flipping through a few other pages, Flo finally closed the book.
Taking a sip of the now cold coffee, he gazed outside.
The shops remained as empty as from his last visit.
Not even Biland was there.
Leaning back on his chair, he stared across the library and to the girl at the desk.
Her head still hung down and her eyes trapped in a mesmerising dance of left to right reading.
Finishing his cup of coffee, Flo stood up and placed the book back into its rightful spot before leaving the library.
But as he exited through the door he swung his head round and took another look at the librarian.