Chapter 267 Lining up those ducks (1/2)

The rare core sat on the ground in front of me and I knew it was time to pay the piper. As much as I'd derived a strange sense of joy forcing the hatchlings to absorb a special core, this process seriously hurts. I've already maxed out my core AND absorbed a special core. If I absorb this rare core, will I really be able to take it?

Or will my core just detonate and rip me apart from the inside?

Hoo boy.

Here we go.

Taking a deep breath I gingerly reach down with my antennae and touch them to the cold surface of the core.

[Compatible Rare core detected. Would you like reinforce your core or reconst.i.tute the monster?]

I sure as heck don't want to create one of those crocs as one of my pets, I have to many bad memories of them to even consider it.

Nothing for it. Gimme dat core juice!

As soon as I give my mental a.s.sent, the densely packed energies contained within the gem-like sphere begin to flow into me, swirling throughout my body before settling in my core core, adding their strength to my own.

And it hurts immediately.

I'd gotten used to the vaguely stretched feeling of my maxed out core to the point where it didn't really bother me. I'm not sure if that was just because I'd become accustomed to the pain or if my body had adjusted to the extended core size. Ultimately it doesn't matter, as the vast energies within the rare core pour into me and my core starts to grow, the pain is instant and intense.

My body was not meant to hold a core of this size!

d.a.m.n that stings! Holy Moly! With a capital M!

This must be what it feels like to have a swollen stomach that is not a stomach but actually a stone formed of condensed mystical energies. The pain isn't even localised around my core! Unlike before, it is radiating outwards, zapping along my nerves to the ends of my limbs and rebounding off my extremities to come back to my centre even worse than before.

How delightful!

In complete agony, all I can think of is to endure as best I can. I don't know why, but the idea to immediately stop and just walk away doesn't occur to me. I don't need this in my life. I've suffered plenty in my new existence, perhaps someone else could pick up this burden for me. I've done more for the colony than every other individual in it bar the Queen herself at this point.

And it isn't as if I want to be all powerful, lord of all he surveys sort of monster. I don't especially crave individual power, I'm not deeply ambitious, I'm far too lazy for that!

And yet, I grit my mandibles and hold on.

Perhaps it was watching the twenty hatchlings be so stoic and selfless in their att.i.tudes. Perhaps it was the acceptance of the Queen to what I had done, creating so much change to push the colony forward. Perhaps I'm just stupid. I haven't ruled that out.

Whatever the reason, I hold on.

It hurts and I hold on.

There is agony and I hold on.

I feel like my body and mind are breaking into a thousand pieces, but I hold on. As strange as it sounds, I felt clarity in those moments. As if the pain radiating out from my core as it grows is searing away the clutter and doubt that normally rattles away inside my mind.

I feel clean. I feel pure.

I'll endure this. I'll survive. There are things that are more unendurable than this. I have a family now, something I've never really had before. I won't allow them to suffer. I won't allow them to struggle. Deep down, I'm prepared to shoulder burdens to help them.

This core needs to be used and I'm the best one to use it. For whatever reason, there is no member of the colony as advanced as I am. For the time being it has to me.

And so I hold on.