Once everyone is awake we all get up and head to the dining room for breakfast. Luckily, meditation is almost as restful as sleep so I am feeling pretty good. My hands might be a little shaky from nerves, but the experiment won't require me to use my hands.

When we reach the dining room I don't see Myria, but that isn't too surprising. She probably doesn't have much of an appetite, which is completely understandable. I didn't think I would have one, but once the food is in front of me I find that I do.

While eating I try my best not to let my mood drag everyone else down. Everyone but Ekard and Haku know what is going on, so the table is pretty quiet. It is probably a good thing Myria isn't here, the awkwardness would hit a whole new level if she was.

"Yui, where is Myria?"

Yui says "She is in the ritual room getting ready."

"Is everything prepared?"

Yui says "Affirmative."

Core says "We can begin once you finish your breakfast."

Hearing that I quickly finish my food, in fact I am the first one to finish. Everyone stops eating and watches me as I leave the room at a quick walk. One of the sprites appears to guide me to the experiment room, but I freeze when I see Myria.

"Why are you naked?! Why is she naked?!?"

Yui says "She insisted that clothes might interfere with the procedure."

Myria says "What, Ash, don't you like what you see?"

Looking around I quickly spot a sheet and throw it over Myria's naked body. I have no idea what look is on my face, but whatever it is it makes Myria start laughing. As she is laughing she sits up, making the sheet fall and me turn away.

Myria says "At least this way I know if something goes wrong you will remember me!"

"Don't talk like that, you are not going to die!"

Myria doesn't respond, she just lays back down and pulls the sheet over herself. Once I am sure she is covered I turn to face her and take a seat on the chair beside the table. Before we begin I place my hand on Myria's stomach and run some sacred power into Myria.

After scanning her body I fix everything I can and then use some power to boost her systems. This should help prevent her from going into system shock, at least that is my hope. When I open my eyes Myria is smiling at me, from her look I'm guessing she enjoyed the boost.

"Yui, Core, start the ritual please."

Yui says "Alright, where do you want the mana held?"

"Right here, above her stomach."

Yui says "Understood."

While I wait for the mana to start gathering I go over how I plan to do this step by step. Myria's smile fades once the mana becomes visible and she starts to look nervous. At this point there is really nothing I can do to reassure her, so I just give her a smile.

"Alright, I am going to begin. I have no idea if this will hurt or not, but try to stay as still as you can."

Myria says "I will try!"

Once she is ready I close my eyes and focus my sense on the mana floating above her. Using my will I grab a bit of mana and pull it out as a short strand, then I feed it into Myria's stomach. Once it is inside I carefully move it to the same place where my core is before rolling it into a ball.

Then I split my focus, one part to hold the ball in place and the other to grab another strand of mana. The new strand of mana I slowly wrap around the ball of mana made from the first strand. Then strand by strand I slowly increase the size of the ball until it looks like a ball of yarn.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Mana Manipulation has progressed to level 4!

Mana Manipulation

Level: 4

SP Cost: 20/3 minutes

The ability to manipulate mana into new shapes.

The skill up makes moving the strands of mana a little easier, but I am too focused to notice. Once I have added enough strands to make the ball inside Myria about the size of a softball I stop. Then I focus all my will onto the ball and start squeezing it to compress it.

As the ball compresses the lines from all the strands disappear and the surface smoothes out. When I can squeeze the ball no more it is about the size of a golf ball, but it is smooth. However, it is far too small for a core, so I start adding more strands of mana.

In the end I repeat this process five times before the ball of mana is the size and smoothness that I think it should be. Now it looks like a core, except it is still bright white, the color of purified mana. I slowly release my hold on it to see what it will do without me keeping it in place.

After I release the ball of mana it stays in place all on its own, but it does nothing else. I know that I need to create mana conduits and channels, but that is the last step. Before I do that I need to see that the core is functioning properly, but that might take time.

"Myria, how do you feel?"

Myria says "I feel okay now, there were several times when it felt like my organs were being squeezed."

"Sorry, that was probably when I was compressing the mana."

Myria says "That's okay, did it work?"

"Well, so far it has gone according to plan. Now I am waiting to see if it merges with you or rejects you."

Yui says "Ash, you have gotten quite skilled at manipulating mana."

"Actually, it isn't all that good. My skill is only at level four out of ten, so there is a lot of room for improvement."

Core says "The elves never learned to manipulate raw mana like that. How did you?"

"Just by experimenting I guess."

Myria says "Ash experiments a lot! He gets in trouble for it all the time!"

Yui says "That's because a lot of his experiments are dangerous!"

"I just do what I need to do to figure things out!"

Myria says "Not according to the goddesses!"

"You stay still! The core isn't stable yet!"

Myria says "Sorry!"

After pushing Myria back down I quickly check on her core, but it hasn't moved or changed. It isn't a core, it is still just a ball of pure mana, it shows no signs of integrating with Myria's body. By now I expected the core to at least show some signs of change, but nothing is happening.

"Seronia, I could use some advice!"

Seronia says "About time you asked! You can't just make a new part of a body because you want to!"

"Okay, so I need some kind of trigger to get it to merge with the body?"

Seronia says "Yes, but it can't be your sacred power, that would alter the mana."

"Will divine power work?"

Seronia says "Yes, but it will have side effects."

"What kind of side effects?"

Seronia says "I can't be sure, but it won't be a normal core. It will be an artificial core, meaning once you are done it won't change. She won't be able to improve it like you did with yours. The path to becoming a sacred being will be closed to her."

"Are there any other options?"