“I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping of themes to settle themselves in my brain.”

Claude Monet

“I still don’t understand. What is a core? No one has ever mentioned one to me before.” I asked confused as I quickly thought through the conversations that we had. No one had ever mentioned having a core.

“Try the light spell again.” She avoided answering my question while giving me my next task.

“Phos.” I quietly whispered a little fearful of the result. A ball of light formed perfectly in my hand. Crisis adverted . . .

My thoughts were interrupted by my sister’s gasp. “Kai you’re glowing.”

Looking down at myself I could see that while I did indeed have a strong ball of light in my hand, I was also erupting with light from every other patch of skin even including my hair which was also lit up.

“There is the proof that you haven’t formed your mana core.” She said gesturing at my glowing body.

I might have cast the spell but it appeared that I was releasing mana from more than just my hand. Which was visibly obvious now that the amulet was not absorbing all of my excess magic.

“But I can cast spells. Why is a core important?” I asked confused seeing as I was able to do it without one.

“That is indeed truly magical. Most mages need to have solidified the core before they can cast, but you are somehow managing to do so without having formed your core. I believe having the Source of Mana trait you can cast spells without naturally forming your core. It would appear, that since this amulet has been absorbing your excess mana since you started to wear it, it has also been stopping the formation of your core. It may have been providing you with enough resistance that you have had to push through for every use of magic. But you haven’t formed your core or built your control over the mana you can wield. Something that would or should have happened naturally if you had not been wearing the amulet.”

“I don’t understand.” My magic had always worked for me sure I had hiccups now and then but it fundamentally did what I asked it to do.

“Use your mana sense to look at yourself and see the effect you are having on the mana now that you are no longer wearing the amulet.” She gestured towards me. It had been so long that I had been standing without my amulet. I wore it all the time. It was part of me it never came off.

I carefully activated the skill and saw that I burned with mana. Like a molten flame, the mana was flickering across my skin or pooling collecting and running off to create the equivalent of molten mana which was fuelling my spellcraft not only in the palm of my hand where I wished to have the light but anywhere else it was escaping my physical vessel.

“Oh,” I murmured.

“Exactly, Kai. You seem to have rushed through so much so quickly it is not surprising that you have missed out a few steps. Unfortunately, one of the steps you have missed out on is forming your mana core. This is essential for calm and controlled spellcraft without it you will continue to have explosive results. The amulet may have controlled the excess but it has also stopped you from developing the core and without it, fine mana control is significantly harder.” She explained.

“So how do I form my core?” I looked for the next steps.

“Step one is that you will have to stop wearing the amulet.” She outlined my steps.

“But won’t I have a burst of mana again like when I first gained the trait?” I remembered back to when I first gained the trait.

“Yes you will have bursts of mana but at the same time, each burst will be pushing your core to develop to form a skin so to speak. In time once it has formed then you will be able to regain finer control.” She talked about the process. “For Elves, this core will generally be formed by the time that they can access their stats so it has never been an issue before.”

“Does this mean we have to stop the lessons?”

“Not at all. We can continue just to be prepared for excessive results until your core is properly formed. Once it is with your mana pool in one place rather than filling and overflowing from your entire vessel it will be significantly easier to direct and control the flow of your magic. If you look closer at me using Mana Sight I will open up my shield and you will see my core.”

I looked closely and watched as she suddenly opened up to my mana sight and I could see a large green ball of energy floating in the centre of her chest. All her mana seemed to be contained within it rather than rippling out across her vessel as mine was. I turned to look at Aleera and she too had a smaller cyan ball of energy holding her mana floating slightly higher at the base of her throat. I realized looking at the amulet in her hand that the green jewel would have hung between my throat and my chest and given the appearance of me having a green core despite having failed to form one when Lady Acacia looked at me. My false green core is one more reason for her to assume my Elven heritage if the colour of our cores is related to our races.

“Can you see mine as well?” Aleera asked.

“Yes,” I turned to look at Grandfather in the distance but he was either beyond my sight or had hidden his somehow. This was something I should have noticed before and wondered about. But if it wasn’t broken I wasn’t going to fix it and my mana had worked well enough for me, till now.

“So what now?”

“Now I think we rest, for the moment. I am sure you have plenty of tasks you need to accomplish. I look forward to seeing you at dinner.” She dismissed us.

. . .

The days that followed were fine enough if a little embarrassing when my magic flared up and flowed over the bounds of my vessel. However, I had enough control that I could generally mitigate my mistakes or clean up after them.

. . .

It was finally felt that we had sufficient time to adapt to the gains in our stats from the pledging of our uncles and aunts to become Adals. Now it was time to do the same with a few of our cousins. The difference this time was the order and the focus on achieving a cascade with their support. It was to this end that those with strength were chosen to give me my final attribute and Aleera her first perk. Then Endurance gives her a second perk.

The oaths were exchanged as were our stats. Before another lesson in etiquette for us and the cousins.

Arise Farhoni Silverkin, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 Strength

Arise, Joyner Silverwood, Adal of House Silversea. +5 Strength

Arise, Sayer Silverwood, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 Strength

Arise, Ferris Silverstone, Adal of House Silversea. +5 Strength

Arise Ashby Silverseed, Adal of House Silversea. +5 strength

Arise Busby Silverseed, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 strength

The process continued to balance out my stats as we continued to focus on the areas in which I was the weakest, my strength. Six new Adals of House Silversea were enough to raise my strength to 101!

Ding! Congratulations on gaining 100 in Strength before your 5th Birthday you are awarded the attribute Supreme Strength

Level: 12

Title: Lord

Name: Callen Kai Silversea

Experience: 516,900/ 819,200

Age: 2 years 7 months, 0 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes

Health: 1430/1430 Stamina: 1233/1233 Mana: 1430/1430 Psi: 1430/1430

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted

Attribute: Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength

Vitality: 143 -3

Endurance: 126 +10

Strength: 101 + 30

Dexterity: 130

Senses: 143 -2

Mind: 143 -3

Clarity: 121

Magic: 143 +2

Charisma: 61

Luck: 7

Free Points: 40

But we were not doing this only for me but for Aleera too. Who received the perk, mighty. A good perk for the stat. My attribute seemed a lot stronger in comparison but then again I was achieving it 8 years earlier than she had. As they say, the early bird gets the worm. The downside to this particular method of force levelling our stats was I had decreased my overall Vitality, Mind and Senses. Not by a significant amount but I was alarmed by the fact that my numbers could go down.

Interestingly enough with all the magic practice that we had been doing and the skill levels, we had been gaining I now had 143 for not just Magic, but also Vitality, Mind and Senses. Charisma and Luck still had a long long way to go but apparently, Lady Acacia had a plan to help us with those.

Then we continued to gain our oaths that would support the growth of Aleera’s endurance.

Arise Rand Silversoil, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 endurance

Arise Rold Silversoil, Adal of House Silversea. + 5 endurance

I already had the trait of durability which had drastically improved my endurance allowing me to stay awake for a day at a time but now Aleera too received a perk, resilient.

Level: 12

Title: Lady

Name: Aleera Silversea

Age:10 years

Perks: Mighty, resilient

Vitality: 75

Endurance: 101 +8

Strength: 101 + 24

Dexterity: 80

Senses: 65

Mind: 65

Clarity: 60

Magic: 60

Charisma: 60

Free Points: 78

Lady Acacia cut the oath pledging off at that point planning on saving the final oaths we could receive for later to maximise our gains and ensure that our last Adals were chosen based on what would support our growth best.

The lessons with our cousins went well enough. I enjoyed sitting back and not having to do anything. We were still restricting what our wider family knew about my abilities. So I was praised for my ability to sit still and not mess around.

I took the time to relax, pretend to nap and work on my mind fortress that I had been neglecting with the amount of learning I had to do in the real world not the one I had inside my mind.

. . .

Another dinner, another lesson, “Now that I know what I am working with it is time to discuss our future steps of consolidation and how we plan to solidify your foundations.” This time though she was not talking about spellcraft, spellsong, enchantment, runes or glyphs. No today’s revelation came in the use of the system and how to consolidate our learning.

“Consolidation?” I queried.

“What is a consolidation?” Aleera asked.

“Consolidation is when the two skills of a lower tier are combined to create the same or similar skill in the tier above.”

“Is that possible?” Father asked. This was one more example of education that the nobles kept hidden from the commoners.

“Yes. If you look at the skills I have had Aleera learning there is a certain amount of overlap and redundancy to the number alongside the lack of variety. This was for a specific reason.” She explained her reason for teaching Aleera so many different types of table manners.

“However her talent in gaining these Tier 1 skills and the benefits of achieving so many will now shine forth.” She turned to address Aleera directly, “You will if you follow my instructions correctly be able to turn two tier 1 skills into a tier 2 skill for example deportment.”

“Why not wait to work up to it?” Mother asked.

“A tier 2 skill is by its very nature stronger. Using it will be twice as effective as your tier 1 skill. It is not as if the skills are removed more as if they are hidden subskills of your tier 2 skill.” She paused to let us absorb the new information.

Second, it allows you to continue to level your skills at a faster rate. Although the tier 1 skills will no longer appear on our status screen, they are not completely gone folded as they are into your new tier skill. It means that you can continue to gain experience from the same things that you did before but that experience is now being concentrated on a single skill. It will therefore help your stronger skill to level up faster than if it had relied on a single source of experience.”

I was suddenly very excited. If similar tier 1 skills could be folded into tier 2 skills then that opened wide, a vast array of possibilities for me who had multiple similar skills most obviously my musical skills and my language skills. Some of which I had hidden when revealed the list of my skills. This might be a way to hide them on my official status by wrapping them into more normal named higher-tier skills.

“What about tier 2 skills can you do the same with them to create tier 3 skills?” I asked excitedly.

“Yes as long as they are similar enough.” She answered.

“Can you give me an example?” I did not want to get my hopes up too high just yet.

“Well with a warrior having skills in knives and swords at tier 1 they can be consolidated into a tier 2 skill in blades. Then by combining tier 1 skills hammer and truncheon into the tier 2 blunt instruments. It would then be possible to combine the tier 2 skills blades and blunt instruments so that receive the tier 3 skill weapons.

I mentally ran through the tally of my similar skills. “What about languages? Would it be possible to combine eight Tier 1 skills into four Tier 2 skills, then turn the four Tier 2 skills into two Tier 3 skills and then finally take those two Tier 3 skills and create a Tier 4 skill?” I asked still attempting to keep my voice calm. “Would it be possible to get a Tier 5 skill in languages if you knew another 8?”

“Well Bussola is the language Franca but if you learned and combined 2 language skills you could technically get the tier 2 skill bilingual. Then it would be possible to combine two bilingual skills and you get to tier 3 multilingual. If you can combine two multilingual skills you can get the tier 4 polylingual. So in theory, if you combine all 8 languages for the lodestar races in the compass kingdoms you would have a tier 4 language skill. I am sure that many merchants and scholars work towards this skill. Having it would certainly help them in earning more experience.”

She paused thinking about the supposedly hypothetical question.

“I suppose in theory if you were able to learn the base races of the lodestone languages as well it might be possible to learn a tier 5 skill but I do not know what that skill would be.” She pointed out, “Besides trying to learn the base race languages themselves would be challenging enough as it is.”

I nodded excitedly I was sitting on another tier 4 skill in languages and could possibly get it up to Tier 5 after learning the compass kingdom languages from Lady Acacia. Then there were my musical instruments. Would that be much the same? Two individual string instruments would combine to create a tier 2 stringed instrument skill. Indeed that is how it seemed to have worked for me a pyramid of lower tier skills supporting my higher level skills… I could only imagine what might be possible.

Each meal time was another reveal and revelation. Lady Acacia delighted in saving the best lessons for meal time with which she demonstrated her importance to our house and make each meal a mini-lecture.

“So how exactly do you consolidate skills?” I asked.