“Resting is part of training. Working too hard at your age might cripple your growth. Go inside, clean yourself from the sweat, and take a nap. I’ll wake you when it’s the time to practice again.”
He had prepared two different rooms, each with a spacious stone tub with a rough surface to not make them slip, and had filled it with steaming water.
Leria was about to object, but after sniffing under the collar of her shirt, she just said:
“Thanks, Uncle.”
“Keep them company, make sure that nothing happens, and call me the moment they fall asleep.” Lith sent the magical beasts inside while he could finally practice a bit for his violet core.
‘I think I know why fusing with the Demons of the Darkness allowed me to get close to reach the next breakthrough. A violet-cored individual can cast spells simply by moving, using their bones, muscles, and even their blood flow to trace energy runes.
‘While in my proto-Guardian form, each part of my body had one or more mana core. By controlling them with Spirit Magic, I could make the Demons cast in my stead even though I was too busy fighting to focus on spells.’ Lith thought.
‘During that time, I’ve been able to fight like someone with a violet core thanks to minds of the Demons working as a crutch. Also, the fact that I used energy that wasn’t my own significantly lessened the burden.’
‘In this form, instead, my organs generate vortexes that increase my mana flow and store mana. They support my mana core and improve all of my abilities, yet I have no conscious control over them.
‘To achieve a violet core, I must be able to control the vortexes and condense them into pseudo if not even auxiliary mana cores. The first step is to learn how to feel them, just like the first step of Awakening is the ability to sense the world energy.’
Lith sat cross-legged on the floor and focused solely on his breathing. He didn’t use any technique to not let the external energy affect his perceptions. Then, he started to actively circulate his mana from one part of his body to another while Solus used her mana sense to show him where the vortexes were.
‘I’m sorry, but nothing happens. Even when the mana flow overlaps with a vortex, there is no interaction between them.’ Solus said after several failed attempts. ‘We should-‘
‘Hold that thought.’ Lith cut her short, feeling one of the magical beasts coming to him.
As he had predicted, the kids had fallen asleep in the tubs. There was no risk they could drown, but once the water cooled, they were bound to catch a cold. Lith used water magic to dry their body and hair before putting the kids to bed under several blankets already warmed by fire magic.
‘What were you saying?’ Lith asked once setting up protections that wouldn’t allow anyone to disturb either the kids’ sleep or his training.
‘That I can’t wait to see you with children of your own.’ Solus replied.
‘Not that! About the mana flow.’
‘Fine.’ She sighed. ‘Try using Invigoration, but accumulate the energy where the vortexes are instead of spreading it evenly.’
Lith did as she said, but even with the boost from Invigoration, Lith failed to both perceive the vortexes and having them interact with his mana flow.
‘Okay, this might be tricky if not even dangerous.’ Solus thought. ‘Now try to use Accumulation, but instead of bringing the energy to your mana core, move it to your vortexes.’
‘What?’ Lith blurted out in surprise. ‘That’s a huge risk. Normal tissues can’t even stand small spasms from the mana core. Remember how it hurt when I used Accumulation during bottlenecks and the core forcefully dispersed the energy?
‘And that after it had already released the brunt of the world energy. If a mana core can explode, I don’t see why a much less stable vortex can’t do the same.’
‘You’re right, sorry. It was a stupid idea.’ Solus tried to think of some alternative but found none.
‘No, it’s a great idea, but I can’t risk suffering more damage than even Invigoration can heal. We’ll do like the kids and start with small steps. I’ll take a very short breath and lead the energy to the vortex in my right lung, away from vitals.
‘This way, we can collect data about how a vortex behaves compared to the core, and even if something goes wrong, between the healing spells stored in my rings and your help, I won’t suffer a fatal wound.’ Lith said.
With his next breath, the experiment began. Lith barely drew some air, yet it caused him significant pain as the world energy traveled through his flesh instead that through his lungs.
Lith couldn’t use darkness fusion because there was no such thing as bad data when one had no clue about what they were doing.
Pain was the feedback of something he was doing wrong and only by observing how different methods altered its intensity could Lith get closer to a proper control technique.
When the world energy reached the right shoulder, the pang of pain forced Lith to grit his teeth and compress the area with his mana flow to keep the vortex from exploding.
The agony decreased as the vortex slowly processed the dense world energy from accumulation along with that from its surroundings, turning it into mana. Lith grinned the whole time because the pain allowed him to perceive the process.
On top of that, after waiting until only a bit of world energy remained, he tried to consciously manipulate the vortex to have it accumulate the new mana into a new core. His attempt failed, causing a small but powerful explosion that damaged his lung.
‘Fuck me sideways. This is going to be though.’ Lith sighed in relief after noticing that healing his body repaired his vortex as well, leaving no permanent damage.
‘I know that time flies when one has fun or risks their life, but I think you should wake up the children.’ Solus said while taking extensive notes of her findings and showing him a replay of the failure in slow-motion.
Lith had been too busy limiting the damage and withstanding the pain to take a proper look in real-time.
‘Thanks, Solus. I don’t know what I would do without your memory. I really wish there was a mana geyser here. It would be the perfect occasion for the kids to “casually” meet a fairy of light.’ Lith thought.
‘Me too.’ She said.
It took Leria and Aran a while to find their enthusiasm for magic again. They were still tired and after sleeping in a warm bed with their belly full, they felt like a bear ready to go into hibernation.
Sluggish and with a craving for honey.
Yet they didn’t complain and resumed their training from where they had left it, without stopping until the trees hid the lower half of the sun. They were still a bit rough around the edges, but they both could now conjure ice and lighting with a moment’s notice.
“Isn’t it too soon? There’s still light.” Leria pointed at the sunset.
“No. You have worked enough for today and I want to avoid the rush hour.”
“No dinner again?” After Lith signaled them to stop, Aran had turned around just to discover that there was no fire no dinner waiting for them.
