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It was weird to see it physically there, as living entities didn’t create physical cores, but had them exist entirely in their spirits. It weighed almost nothing, despite being spiritually heavy, as if it was still the black hole it had once inhabited, which explained why it was so useful in crafting. With just that effect, Matt could think of a dozen enchantments he could layer upon the core without actively integrating it, as well as expending it to enhance an existing item to give even stronger effects
That gave him an idea, and he looked down at his gloves.
If they didn’t bind to him as a growth item—which he doubted they would, now that the house had left his spirit feeling somewhat bloated—he thought of a few ways he could increase the gloves’ gravity prowess with the Heart of the Black Hole. Or he could at least take the Heart and the gloves and use them as the core and blueprint to create something stronger.
A Tier 14 core of a black hole would be useful for a dozen Tiers above its own, at a minimum.
Liz hadn’t been wrong about it being illegal to harvest a core of a planet, or some other celestial body, in the Empire and the rest of the Great Powers, but it did happen on occasion. It was legal if the system was being abandoned for some reason, which was beyond rare. The other exception was if someone personally ‘raised’ the celestial body themselves, from Tier 0 to the desired Tier.
That was such an expensive and time-consuming process, it was only done by a single guild, and they only brought the bodies to Tier 10, or possibly Tier 15, upon request. Even then, they only created a single sun to harvest every ten thousand years or so.
Matt hadn’t done much research beyond that, but he had asked Erwin why they didn’t use higher Tier rifts to accelerate the process. The older scientist explained that in rifts, no matter how large the planetary body inside it was, the body would never form a core. Instead, their essence was spread through their material evenly. If brought outside of the rift, that essence could condense and form a core, but it was so inefficient, a moon from a Tier 47 rift would only create a Tier 1 moon when brought out.
As for why that happened, no one was sure. But it was one of the main reasons why any space-themed, galaxy-sized, higher Tier rifts weren’t able to be harvested for thousands of higher Tier planets.
While the others had started doing their own thing, Matt made a small wand and created a containing rune that encased the Heart in the wand. Then, with a release function, he was able to make it increase gravity in a small area where he pointed the tip of the wand.
It wasn’t an elegant use of the core, but it was quick, useful, and wasn’t permanent. Considering it only took a trickle of mana to activate the enchantment, it only served to redirect the power of the core, rather than consume it.
They were nearly at the next ruin, which they could see was a desert of some kind, when Liz noticed that the compass was pointing above the ruin, so they shifted their trajectory to avoid it. After a little flying, they found a pitch black asteroid that had been completely hidden from their spiritual perception and housed a small cave in its side. Inside the cave, they found a large, concealed pillar of crystal.
A challenge room.
Everyone got off, and in a bubble of air, inspected the pillar.
Matt frowned as he tried to get a feeling of the challenge inside. It didn’t feel like combat, but it also wasn’t a puzzle either.
It felt more…testy.
Liz identified it before he did.
“I bet it’s Careful What You Wish For.”
Matt wasn’t entirely sure she was right, but it was better than any of his guesses.
The test was simple, if difficult to pass. It usually could be found somewhere in Folded Reflections, Mind over Matter, and Spiritual Journey, if any of them appeared in a cycle.
Minkalla found your deepest desires and then put you in a situation where you got to enjoy them. Whether it be carnal pleasure, food, lavish living, or the power to crush your foes, it gave it all to you, and would keep you there forever if you allowed it.
Beating the test required one to reject the contents of the illusion. In some cases, that came from love slowly turning to hate or apathy, as too much of a good thing became unbearable. In others, that was more straightforwardly resisting your desires and pushing yourself out.
Ultimately, the quality of the reward came down to how quickly they could extract themselves, though some considered the reward to be more so the experience itself.
Of course, if the testee wasn’t able or willing to wake themselves up, they’d stay in the room forever.
Aster immediately perked up and jumped for joy. “Me, me, me. Let me do the challenge. I want ice cream bunnies! I want it soooooo bad. Pleasssssse!? I’ll only say for six hours real time, I promise!”
In the end, they all decided to participate in the test, and were brought into a holding room where Aster immediately vanished.
Unusually, the room allowed them to watch. Matt guessed that part of her desire was explicitly that they could all see as Aster was placed in a psychedelic land of candy, with bunnies made from ice cream that covered the landscape.
Instead of resisting, she dug in and tore the rabbit apart in a spray of ice cream and raspberry syrup while chowing down.
None of them expected anything else, and Matt chuckled at his bond’s enthusiasm.
What he didn’t expect was that once she was done eating the first rabbit, she immediately pounced on the second, then third. None of them resisted, and they all seemed unfazed, even as their neighbors were eviscerated in sprays of fudge, caramel, and various fruity syrups.
He had thought she would control herself, but she seemingly had no intention to do so and started going wild, tearing into and devouring each and every rabbit she encountered.
Matt facepalmed as he realized she was going to eat her heart out.
And she did exactly that.
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