Elrhain bit his lips with a face full of concentration as he wrote everything down on the page of parchment.

‘Frames, Realignment… Ah! I wonder what happened to all the ichor Annie accepted that night? Can someone use more than one ichor?’ Just as his mind was about to wander, Elrhain pinched his little finger and brought his awareness back to Rister’s words.

“Frames are weird things.” Rister said, “they say that after creating a frame, a dhionne’s physical body becomes slightly closer to the Astral plane than when he was a Mortal realmer.

The end goal of cultivation is, after all, the complete uniting of your Astral plane self with your physical self. Each step you progress in cultivation, you become closer to that goal and also closer to the natural laws of the world.”

“Ohhh!” ‘A new concept get!’

Rister slapped his chest proudly as if the little princeling’s awe was a momentous achievement… this habit must run in the family.

“After you construct the first frame, something inherently changes in the Totemic Soul. As proof, you can now feel the Astral Boundary and the flames that make it up. You don’t have to raise your hand, my lord. I ain’t no master shaman.”

“Um, can you only see that Astral Boundary thing after creating a frame?”

“That’s what’s written in the [Claw-Crimson Cultivation Technique].”

“I see…” Elrhain paused his pen, his tiny face squinting in deep contemplation.

Rister thought that the princeling’s expression was rather cute. “The Astral Boundary is what separates this plane from the immaterial astral one. Since a dhionne can only construct a frame after reaching the Earthen Realm, only after that can he harvest the flames of the Astral Boundary as per the instructions written in his cultivation scripture.”

Rister stopped. Before he had noticed, the princess had also joined in, nestling herself beside Elrhain.

The little girl smiled sweetly. Rister returned an appreciative nod.

“This flame is called the Totem Flame. And the first flame you harvest is the Seed Flame.

This Seed Flame is what a dhionne uses to forge his Nascent Totem. He uses the Marrow Core to transfer it into the real world from the other side and merges the flame with a suitable vessel. It can be like my spear here, creating the Nascent Totem [Claw-Crimson Spear]. Or like my old man, who merged his seed flames into his claws following a different cultivation technique.

I heard you can even put it in the wind, a real fire, or the words that you whisper. There are many strange cultivation techniques out there, after all.”

“Like Cadfael’s Shadows? Does sand work?”

“By Cadfael, you mean the supreme talent who is the Watch Commander’s son?”

“He’s the guy who gave you fighting advice earlier…. Sorry.”

“Oh, that little fella. Haha, don’t apologize my lord. He was right after all. And yeah, I think those wiggling shadows were a Nascent Totem if I’ve ever seen one. Sand should work too.”

“Ellie, do you have another pen? I forgot to bring mine.”

“Here’s my spare. Hey! Don’t poke me; I am not giving you this one!”

Rister had an urge to laugh seeing the two toddlers acting so shaman-like despite their adorable antics.

“Wait,” Elrhain suddenly stopped, “You need to be in the Earthen realm for a Marrow core, and the same to create a frame? So, wait… huh?”

“Looks like you’ve noticed. Yes, to feel the Astral Boundary and harvest the Seed Flame, you need to have at least one stable frame. And to bring that Seed flame outside, you need to have a Marrow Core.”

“Then why do Vesiphis and Cadfael have Nascent Totems?”

Rister grinned. “Well, my lord. Remember when I told you, frames are weird things?”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Elrhain rolled his eyes. “Duh! And that you can only create frames after entering the Earthen realm.”

“You can only ‘create’ them.”

“What do you mean?” Elrhain stared wide-eyed.

Rister patted his knees as he spoke. “The channels and nodes altogether in the Totemic soul create a spiderweb-like structure known as the Lattice. You know this, right?”

Elrhain and Agwyn both nodded.

“The thing is… even in their mother’s womb, a dhionne is already born with a few, innate, already formed frames in their lattice.”

“Then shouldn’t normal mortals also be able to cast spells and manna techniques?”

Rister shook his head. “The innate frames are fully formed but aren’t initiated. A Mortal realmer first has to locate them in their Lattice, which is exceedingly hard for people with such low manna.

Uninitiated innate frames are elusive things. After location, to use them, a dhionne also has to ignite the nodes in that frame. After which, they must even clear the channels too, so that they are strong enough to not tear under frame-augmented manna. And for that,” Rister stopped.

“…. You need extraordinary cultivation techniques.” Elrhain continued with an analytical expression.

“Techniques that only noble houses have?” Agwyn asked as understanding dawned upon her.

“It seems the princess is no less smart than his highness.” Rister was not cheap with his compliments, which pleased her little highness very much.

“Hihi, Annie is actually smarter!” Agwyn puffed out her chest, and Rister laughed along.

“High-level cultivation techniques also describe how to bring the Seed flame outside without a Marrow core.

For normal dhionne, like we were before we became nobles, we could only forge a Nascent Totem after already in the Earthen Realm. At that point, there is one important event we would have already completed.

After getting ennobled, we certainly changed our cultivation technique to the better one, the [Claw-Crimson Cultivation Technique]. I, along with the other Haragol Earthen cultivators, even re-forged our Nascent Totem after destroying our previous ones. But our potential will nevertheless be less than someone who forged their Nascent Totem before reaching Earthen.” Rister said with a wistful sigh, but his sad look was fleeting, hiding itself deeply before the two kids could fully register it.

“Is it because of the ichor?” Elrhain speculated. “Since it realigns the aspects in our Totemic souls, can it also improve the Nascent Totem?”

“It can. Every cultivation technique created on Uorys Diosca is forever based on the aspects of the ichor the creator himself consumed. The Nascent Totem goes through an extraordinary kind of metamorphosis when a mortal absorbs an ichor. The very act of crossing the realm of the 1st circle, which is the Mortal realm, into the 2nd circle, the early Earthen realm, is a qualitative change in body, soul, and manna. This is the one metamorphosis most dhionne miss.

A Nascent Totem forged without missing this first metamorphosis will be far easier to complete throughout the Oceanic realms than a general one. Actually, in the Oceanic Realm, it is called the Spirit Totem. Since throughout the Earthen realm, a cultivator constantly blood quenches the Nascent Totem with the Totem flames he harvests.

This, when breaking into the 5th circle, the early Oceanic Realm, from the 4th circle, the high Earthen realm, induces a second metamorphosis. It’s the reason why one is ‘Nascent,’ and the other isn’t. I asked my old man once, but he didn’t really say much. Only that I will know when the time comes.”

Elrhain lifted the tip of the ink pen from the parchment after Rister stopped speaking. He lamented with a difficult tone, “Cultivation is so convoluted!”

Rister burst out laughing. This side of him was undoubtedly similar to Randuman.

“Damn as the undergods’ curses it is. Though since you both cured the swampling’s curse, maybe you could ‘cure’ this issue too for simpler folks like us.” Rister cracked his neck after exhaling deeply. His expression playful as if he didn’t take his own words seriously. He then brought his palm in front of his face and raised his fingers one by one.

“For regular folks, at the end of the Mortal Realm, they completely ignite all the nodes in their Totemic Soul. They consume an ichor after finding one themselves in the dangerous wild or receiving it from their master house in exchange for a substantial contribution. Then they begin forming a Marrow core.

Throughout the Earthen realm, they construct frames in the Totemic soul corresponding to whatever cultivation technique they can get their hands on. They forge a Nascent Totem with the Seed flame and quench it with more and more Totem flames as the number of frames increases. At the end of the Earthen Realm, their Marrow Core completes.

We can drop the ‘Nascent’ part of the Nascent Totem with the ascension to Oceanic. From what I heard from my father, the Oceanic Realm is all about creating even more frames. At high or late Oceanic, at the peak of the 7th circle, using that ocean’s worth of frame-augmented manna and harvested Totem flames, a dhionne metamorphose their Spirit Totem once again.

But for nobles, we, well, not me since I was too late. But for Ruba and you. You can forge a Nascent Totem even in the Mortal Realm. To nobles, the metamorphosis during the Oceanic to Sky ascension will be the third time, and not second, unlike the vast majority of commoners.

That’s why the three young lordlings out there can fight with early Earthen realm gheists toe to toe. I don’t think they are as strong as me right now. But when they, and you kids too, reach where I stand today. You will be far stronger.”

“Here!” Agwyn raised her hand eagerly. “T-Then what about the Sky realm? Beyonders?”

Rister shrugged, “Beats me. Too far away for me to care right now-“

“Hooowwieee! Don’t jump!” Ysbail’s cry suddenly jolted the two mini and one young adult out of their nerd talks.

Elrhain stood up and toddled to the boat’s edge with Agwyn. His mind prickled with a dull pain as his eyes zoomed in and focused, just in time to see Howell dive down into the lake full of confidence.

Meanwhile, sparkling sand and dark shadows rose around the other two as they warmed up their Nascent Totems.

The hunt for what the wild denizens of the disc called ‘fish’ was about to begin!