Cosmic Ruler

Chapter 73 Tainted

Jake followed Sylans, who then performed a lot of tests on Jake, both through magic and science.

"Hmm, all your tests gave you a yellow signal," Sylans said, looking at the data he collected.

"What's the yellow signal?" Jake asked.

"It means you are perfectly fine, which is abnormal given you were sleeping for a whole month straight," Sylans said.

"So, yellow means fine but not fine?" Jake queried.

"You can say that," Sylans replied, allowing him to leave his lab.

"I feel like half of my blood was donated for the tests," Jake mumbled as he came out of the mad doctor's lab.

"He took a magic test and then a science test," Jake complained, remembering the torture he went through.

"I understand those check-ups, but is science even necessary here?" Jake pondered.

[Stop complaining already.]

[The people waiting for you are now feeling embarrassed about whether to talk to you or not.]

Jake took a deep breath to calm himself and then started walking back to his mansion. Just as he turned a corner, he found a bunch of teachers waiting for him.

"Can I help with something?" Jake asked politely.

"Yes, if you can, can you show us the memories of the War Monarch?" a glasses-wearing guy stepped forward and said.

"I can't," Jake refused.

The teachers nodded and then said, "We understand, but just the scenes of battles will be enough."

Jake nodded and copied the false story to the memory crystal.

"Thank you," the teacher said, handing Jake something.

"This is the code for a limited edition egg for World's End."

"We pooled our money for this," the teacher said, and others smiled and bid farewell to Jake.

"Wasn't the price of the limited edition egg around a million perfect mana stones?" Jake looked at the coupon code and mumbled.

[Yes, it seems they are really grateful.]

[Well, it is a given. They might gain enlightenment from a Monarch fight.]

Jake nodded and then reached his mansion.

"Luna, I hope you have made something delicious for me?" Jake said upon entering.

"I have," Luna said, and then a month's worth of food was displayed for Jake.

"I have been cooking every day for the past month," Luna said.

Jake looked at the amount of food and called his friends.

After some time, his friends arrived.

"Man, you're back," Mark and Jimmy hugged him.

"Welcome back," Emily hugged him too.

Jake looked at his friends in confusion and asked Luna secretly.

"They were told you were on a mission for special students," Luna replied.

And Jake facepalmed upon hearing her speak so loudly.

"We were told? What does that mean?" Emily glared at Jake and asked.

Jake then explained what happened, and the others nodded.

"So, you got a Monarch legacy. So cool," Jimmy said.

"Now you will be even stronger," Mark added.

"Congrats, Jake," Emily smiled.

Jake nodded and then asked, "Where is Dio?"

"We don't know."

"Suddenly he vanished too."

"According to teachers, there is some kind of problem at his home," Mark said.

Jake nodded, and together they had a good meal as Jake caught up with his friends and learned about everything that happened in the past month.

Outside Jake's house,

"Shouldn't we go and meet him?" Luna asked.

Your next journey awaits at My Virtual Library Empire

"Let him rest for some days," Myne said, and Michael nodded.

"We can always talk to him later."

"Let him enjoy some peace for now."

"Monarch legacy or not, he is weak anyway," Ragur nodded, and then all of them vanished, leaving only a handsome guy.

Rami looked through the wall of Jake's mansion, his eyes fixed on Jake's White Core. "He is from that clan!"

"It seems this guy will go under Myne," Rami smiled and left too.

//////////////////////////////////

Five days before Jake wakes up,

"Hey, what do you think Jake's mission would be?" Jimmy asked as they listened to boring lectures from the teachers.

"How would I know?" Dio replied.

"We can always ask him when he returns," Mark said.

"I will first thrash him. How dare he leave without saying goodbye," Emily clenched her fist and said.

Dio and the others exchanged amused glances and laughed.

"Ahh!"

"Ackk!"

"Argghh!"

"Laugh next time, and it won't be just a marker cap," the teacher glared at them and said.

Each of them rubbed their swollen foreheads and apologized.

After class, each went to their next class. As Dio was walking, a staff member reached him and told him to go to the students' office.

Dio nodded and reached there; he knocked and entered.

"Take this," the staff member in charge of student devices passed Dio his device.

Dio took his smartphone-like device and checked it. As he checked the messages, he dropped his phone and fainted.

The staff cursed and quickly checked him.

"Sh*t, I knew it," the staff cursed and called the medics.

Various teachers reached the office and took Dio to the emergency ward.

"What happened to him?" Sylans asked as he looked at pale Dio.

"He is from the Dryad clan of Fey folk; he just received the message of his mother's death, so his Emerald core stopped working."

"No wonder," Sylan nodded and attached him to life support until the healers appeared and started healing him.

"Poor guy," Sylans said.

A peculiar quality of Fey folk is life connection; their life cores are connected both ways, usually to strengthen and to keep tabs on others' well-being.

If one of them dies, it won't matter much, but if the two connected cores belong to the closest bond, like Dio and his mother, who only have each other as support, the demise of one of them will cause a sudden arrest in the activity of the other core.

It is a common phenomenon known as Bond Severance, and its consequences are severe.

After seven hours, Dio's core stabilized, and he opened his eyes an hour after that.

"MOM!" Dio shouted as his memory returned.

"Why? WHY, WHY, WHY!!!" Dio cried and cried. Sylans looked at him and shook his head, then passed the sleeping gas into his room.

"This kid will harm himself," Sylans muttered as he looked at the dark marks spreading from the area of his Life core.

After Dio fell asleep, Sylans approached him and inspected his core. "He is Turning."

Sylans sighed as he looked at the dark runic markings. These markings are the consequence of Bond Severance. "His Life Core is turning into a Tainted Life Core."

In anguish and pain, Dio's resentment is tainting his own pure Life Core.

"Soon, all the Fey folks of his bloodline will sense it."

"And it will be a bloodbath after that."

"Granvis Clan will soon perish," Sylan said.

"It's a given; Fey folks aren't forgiving," Ragur, who was listening to Sylan's reports, nodded.

"But I am more worried about him," Myne said as she looked at Dio.

"We can't do anything," Michael said.

"His mother seemed to be tortured," Luna looked at the markings on Dio and said.

"Yes, a significant amount of resentment is also coming from her," Rami nodded and said.

"How should we handle it?" Ragur asked.

"Let him do what he wants and cut all the connection with Granvis Clan" Rami said as he looked at Dio.

Ragur and others looked at each other and then Myne said " But Tainted ones are dangerous to Living..."

Myne stoped as Rami looked at her.

"then what do you suggest?, we kill him?" Rami asked.

"Tainted ones are uncontrollable beasts, we can't risk others just for him" Ragur said.

Rami looked at each of them and said " pathetic" He then picked up Dio and vanished from there.

"what should we do?" Sylan asked.

"What can we even do?" Michael and others wryly replied.

Tainted ones are a collective name for Nature Wrath; it is a manifestation of the sins every living being has committed, and this manifestation's only goal is to kill until it is killed or destroyed.

Normally, it is found in spirits who are harmed by their contractors, but in rare cases, Fey folks also show this phenomenon.

"Well, it's Rami we are talking about."

"Surely he won't let him loose."

"By the way, how can the Granvis Family make such a low-level mistake?" Luna asked.

"He is dual-core; he must have hidden his Life Core," Sylan said.

"That is indeed possible."

"Which means he is either from a branch family or a bastard child."

"He must be, or there is no reason for him to hide his dual cores."

"Now, that I think of it, won't it solve the problem of his Tainted core?" Sylan suddenly said.

Everyone looked at him and nodded.

"That is true."

"He might have some anger issues, but that's it."

"Does Rami know of this?"

"He might; his eyes are special, even more so than mine," Ragur nodded and said.

"Well, it is solved then," Michael shrugged and said.

"Does he have any friends?" Luna asked.

Sylan nodded and passed them a file.

"Great, now even if Fey leave them, I doubt he will," Ragur said.

"It seems even the Gods want the Granvis family to be destroyed."

"Is there someone special among his friends?" Myne asked.

"You were sleeping, so you didn't know, but this Jake Dreamstar is now the chosen of the War Monarch," Ragur said as he showed Jake's file to her.

"It's still not decided, you know," Michael said.

Myne looked at Jake's photo and read about him.

"Given his personality, that seems to be the case," Myne nodded, agreeing with them on the topic of Jake killing the Granvis Clan.