Even as Azotreh's body continued to try and rip itself apart, the four personalities tried to figure out solutions. Nicholas was still trying to meditate within the orc's body and was currently unreachable.
Azotreh was on the edge of panic. They tried to figure out a way to heal the wound in the wall of their soul, but made no progress. Worse, a second hole had appeared in the edge of the soul wall. Though this one didn't allow the Astral Infection to make its way in, and beyond was a swirling rainbow light.
Errazorrus was hoping that the astral vines might be able to help, and so was throwing more vines as they grew directly into the mouthy pit. Each time he converted the energy into potens, starting with the potens of the origin.
Even in an emergency, Errazorrus still wanted to make some progress in the best way possible. So he started with Plunder, the poten that granted better rewards from looting abilities.
[Poten: Plunder has reached F-Grade]
[Progress to F-Grade 89.92%]
He kept tossing any amount of astral infection as he could into the pit until he found there was none left.
[Poten: Avenue has reached F-Grade]
[Progress to F-Grade: 94.46%]
Errazorrus began to panic as he realized there was nothing left to feed the hungry pit. He felt that it was a bit of a waste to use it on poten advancement, since they'd discovered that those advanced on their own. But grades increase stability, and Errazorrus wanted to reach the next grade in hopes of stabilizing their core.
Just as he was about to start looking for another option, Fuzem appeared beside him. Her soul avatar moved and tugged on the mana flowing from within the obelisk. Tugging the cerulean energy through the walls, she began to channel it into the pit.
[Your ability: Dungeon Devouring has consumed 1 unit of your dungeon mana.]
[Synergy through the concept of dungeons has increased effectiveness]
[The Overlord of Gluttony is impressed with your ingenuity]
[You have gained achievement: Devourer of Mana]
[You have gained title: Mana Devourer III]
[Options for Devoured Energy: Create Relic, Generate 1st Stage of Conception Understanding, Increase Mana Resistance, Convert to Resource, Convert to Poten, increase Mana Attunement, Gain random Mana Alteration, Gain random Ability, Gain the Mana Attribute, Begin generating Mana Essence, Gain a new Technique, Gain a new Dao, Convert to X, Convert to DP, Convert to DX]
She selected convert to poten, and then selected Significance, the poten that determined the amount of unattuned Significance that the aspects hold.
[Poten: Significance has reached F-Grade]
[Progress to F-Grade: 97.14%]
She grinned, or did something close, as she kept pushing more. Finally, she reached the final poten.
[Poten: Affinity has reached F-Grade]
[Progress to F-Grade: 100.00%]
[You have reached F-Grade!]
[You have gained Grade Disparity (F-Grade)]
[Your aspects of existence have stabilized]
[For reaching F-Grade in all potens, you have received title: F-Grade (Tin Rank)]
But F-Grade wasn't enough. They could all still feel their core trembling, and their body was still a puddle in the array. So Fuzem kept feeding mana to the mouth.
With nearly 2,000 mana to spend and a heightened mana regeneration, Fuzem had a large budget. Especially since it was dungeon mana, which is denser than regular mana.
[Poten: Mana Regeneration has reached E-Grade]
[For using conversion to advance straight to E-Grade, you have gained further benefits]
[You have gained Ability: Mana to Mana Regeneration (Poten) (1)]
[You have gained Skills: Mana to Mana Regeneration Poten (A-1), Devourer's Transmutation (A-1), Soul Transmutation (A-1), Resource to Poten Transmutation (A-1)]
[You have gained titles: Cheater I, Transmuter I, Grade Skipper I, Skillful V]
Fuzem's eyes shot wide as what was supposed to help stabilize them further only worsened the situation. Despite being a pile of slime, she somehow communicated eyes widening.
[Core Stability Decreased]
[Core Damage Increased. 2.31% → 7.81%]
Nicholas felt the pain again and assumed the others had done something stupid. But he was onto something. So he attempted to re-enter the trance from before.
Before he truly could, he felt himself get pulled into it by force.
Nicholas stood once more on the sea of rainbow lights, a mere step closer to the core. But he wasn't alone this time. Instead, the semi-corporeal body of Azotreh stood beside his internal avatar. Nicholas didn't know how they'd gotten there, but didn't ask. The pair quickly communicated and began to push forward, much as Nicholas had mere seconds prior.
They felt as if the world around them was pushing back, as if everything that made up their existence was screaming for them to stop moving. To not push forward. But Nicholas felt that he was onto something. So he kept moving, Azotreh beside him.
Suddenly, with the sound of shattering glass, Azotreh's avatar vanished after taking a single step forward across the water. Before Nicholas could look around for them, they reappeared, one step further towards the cracking blue edge of the horizon.
Nicholas managed another step forward after Azotreh and was pushed out again. But with a pull from Azotreh, he was once again on the rainbow ocean.
Each time they stepped forward, one would vanish, and the other would pull them back. Each step was harder than the last, but that didn't stop them. The pair kept moving against the mounting pressure.
After nearly an hour of walking, they felt a third and fourth presence appear behind them. Turning, they found Fuzem and Errazorrus staring in wonder at the rather beautiful scenery around them. But Azotreh and Nicholas couldn't stop to tell them what to do. They just kept moving forward.
Each step brought them closer to the blue horizon, and each step intensified Nicholas' belief that somehow this would solve whatever problem was being caused.
Atu was pacing anxiously. Her child was back in their slimy state, the one she assumed meant that they weren't present in their own body.
She'd heard from Asergia that they had done something similar before, back in his home. After Viket taught them some of the language he knew. Last time it had been from learning a language, and this time it was due to something else.
She didn't know how to help. She had even been told without words by the lich that there was nothing she could do. But there had to be something. She was pacing anxiously back and forth before Ruby got her attention.
The little twin-tailed fox had been standing over Azotreh's body for minutes, trying to do something herself. Atu could tell the fox was at least as anxious as she was, if not more.
The body beneath the fox was releasing small amounts of black sludge, which was quickly absorbed by the circle beneath it. Azotreh had increased their grade. It was a relief to know they were still alive, but she still couldn't think of a way to help.
As she was getting ready to start pacing again, the fox yipped at her. A squirrel sat in her mouth, or something like a squirrel. Atu was pretty sure squirrels weren't purple and didn't have five legs, though that was only a guess.
Atu watched as the fox dropped the squirrel onto the puddle of slime, which quickly began to dissolve the squirrel's body inside of itself. Blue slime kept creeping up the squirrel's legs before covering the body itself as well. The moment the squirrel was completely encompassed in slime, it rapidly dissolved.
She watched as, instead of what normally happened when Azotreh ate, the slime grew in mass. The squirrel's nutrients dissolved to boost the biomass of the slime.
Unlike the rest of the body, which was flat against the floor, the new mass created a kind of dome atop the body. It was still semi-transparent and cerulean blue, but still visibly different.
She didn't know what else to do, so she ran back outside. Atu was a skilled hunter; she could hunt down some food for her child.
[Your biomass has increased]
[Due to your uni- ERR: 2114917215]
[Due to your nature as the Cerulean Slime, the physical manifestation of your core aspect has been empowered]
[Core stabilizing…]
[Insufficient Materials]
Fuzem, trying to push through the interference between herself and the blue distance, suddenly received a collection of notifications. She assumed the others had either shut them off or simply ignored them, but her mind began to race.
She pulled away from the effort. She had another idea, one that should work according to those messages. Her nature was calculative, though she knew that she developed her own personality because of the others, she still had her calculative edge.
She returned to the soul and began to tug on their substantial mana pool again. Last time, she discovered a new flaw. They gained more skills and were damaged more as a result. Even the stability gained from the grade up wouldn't have made pushing more worth it.
But the messages made her believe one thing.
She pulled mana out through the walls. With the others trying to reach their goal, she had no one to tell her otherwise. She pulled a stream of mana from the soul and poured it into the outer manifestation of their ability, Mana to Biomass.
While using mana within the obelisk caused abilities to grow, she figured that feeding mana to the outer manifestations caused them to activate the ability itself. If she was right…
The stream of magic fed into a massive blue crystal, surrounded in crimson flesh. It was held off the ground by tendrils of strings of tendons and muscles, and supported in the air by a mass of blue-stained bone.
She fed mana to the crystal and felt the ability activate. Just one unit as a test. Last time she fed too much. This time, she refused to.
Ruby leapt into the air as she felt something under her shift. She stepped off as the mass of slime grew in an instant. The puddle more than doubled in size, turning into a proper blob of slime instead of a puddle.
She yelled in that high-pitched tone only foxes can manage, and Atu appeared in mere moments. Ruby often forgot that Atu was not one, but two ranks higher than herself and Azotreh. She was at least a hundred times faster than both Azotreh and Ruby.
Atu was also stunned at the sudden growth as the body remained in the circle.
[Your biomass has increased!]
[Due to your nature as the Cerulean Slime, the physical manifestation of your Core Aspect has been empowered]
[Core Stabilizing…]
[Core Stabilized! You are no longer taking True Core Damage]
[Core Damage Threshold: 9.41%]
Nicholas knew the immediate danger was behind them. Even so, he didn't stop walking. It had been an hour, and he'd keep walking until he made it there.
Whatever was on the other side, he knew it was important. He didn't know why, but he knew it mattered. He was so close.
Azotreh, beside him, kept pushing. They broke through another wall, pulling each other back. They kept walking forward, their feet landing on the ocean. The weight was almost unbearable. But they were so close.
Then, it broke. One last border. A final pane of glass. It shattered, and suddenly the weight lifted from their shoulders. The pair suddenly stood on a bridge, much like the one they stood on outside the Soul Realm.
[You have forcefully gained access to your Core Realm!]
[Achievement Gained: Core Hunter]
[Retroactive Achievement Gained: Soul Hunter]
[Concept Advancement methods for the Core and Soul have been unlocked]
[Two of Six Reached]
Errazorrus returned to the soul to see sudden but rather slight changes.
Their outer wall had expanded outward, and the structures representing their abilities got their own slight area of expansion. The grass had been cleared, and the ground shifted to align more closely with the concepts of the ability.
While on the edges, the Astral Infection also seemed to slow in its expansion.
Errazorrus found Fuzem standing in front of the representation of the Mana to Biomass ability, looking up in slight wonder. Her form had solidified a bit and had begun to form hands. Before, the cold mass of slime had no form beyond its general mass. But it seemed to be reaching out.
Errazorrus reached down and grasped the hand reaching from the slime, before tugging. He pulled harder, and then pulled even harder. It took even more tugs, and each time something seemed to emerge from the blob.
Finally, he managed to pull on it enough to cause a humanoid form to be released. Unlike its previous attempts to sit in a chair with a humanoid body, this one was solid and not even dripping any slime.
She looked a lot like Nicholas, though not nearly as skinny. She was shorter than the overbearing human as well, or maybe not. Errazorrus was more than three feet taller than both Nicholas and Fuzem at this point.
Her skin was a translucent blue, though her eyes were a much brighter shade. Within her chest, a deep blue sphere was also suddenly present, one of the same shade as the horizon they'd been walking to because Nicholas had apparently figured something out. He didn't know what, but something had happened. It was probably related to the core aspect, but his memories were fuzzy on the aspects of existence.
Even so, having her as another humanoid was probably a good thing.