Kal’s attempt at reading quickly became several hours of trying to manipulate things with the will channel extending from the palm of his hand. It took him over an hour just to replicate his accidental turning of the page but once he did he soon realized how it had worked.

The will construct he had created early still seemed to react with his will. Earlier he had been trying to interact with The Threads Of All but it didn’t have any effect on that book but that wasn’t the case with this more mundane book. The channel on his palm was more like a reinforced thread than an actual channel or construct but that allowed it to be manipulated with his thoughts just like when he weaved it together in the forced place.

How it turned the page was actually pretty simple. Kal had his hand on the spine of the open book and the will thread had moved into the back of the book to sink into a single page. Once it was in place it was actually surprisingly easy to get it to move. A simple flicker of will turn the page faster than he could even if he had both hands. Getting it to consistently move into the correct page was another story but reading through Algor’s Theory on the Unity of Resources had become a whole lot faster.

Kal practiced his new technique as he read through the first book and he continued to get faster with each page. Soon it had become second nature and his eyes speed across each page with almost no time wasted in the turning of each page.

As for the book itself, it was actually less dry than he expected. There was a whole lot of information that he honestly didn’t know enough to deal with but as he had expected there was quite a bit of foundational information that he did want. First of all, Algor went deep into the mechanics of what he called a base shell. There were apparently near-endless types of base shells but the ones he mentioned were human, elf, dwarf, and something called a slazik.

Base shells all had roughly the same attribute arrays, strength, agility, endurance, vitality, intellect, perception, wisdom, and will. A being attribute tended to also be the backbone and or template for their base resources. Base shells always had vital energy, physical energy, and mystical energy. Health, stamina, and mana respectively.

Kal didn’t like that part since it implied his shell was not normal but it also didn’t mention mana affinity so perhaps Algor hadn’t come across a person without any.

The book then continued on to describe several other shell types and how their attribute arrays often differed in some interesting ways. Apparently, elementals didn’t have either vitality or will and their resources were completely different. Instead of the normal three, they instead had cohesion and connection.

Cohesion worked much the same as health but elementals never truly died, they just simply lost cohesion and would break apart into the base form of their associated element. Connection was how much they were able to manipulate their element around them. To Kal, it seemed like they should have will for something like that but then again they are their element so maybe it was easier for them.

After several more examples that Kal kept in the back of his mind the author moved on to his reach into how the resources were actually generated. Annoyingly it appeared the author didn’t have any knowledge of Soul Forging so Kal couldn’t straight steal any techniques but it was still useful.

A person’s body or shell uses the power gathered by their core to both generate resources and reinforce its own attributes. Ultimately it came down to what organs each shell variant had and if they had an appropriate organ they got the associated attribute. Algor didn’t go into too many details on other shell types but he did go over the organs and their linked attributes with base shells.

The heart and blood are responsible for vitality which was pretty obvious but some of the others definitely weren’t. Agility required the shell to have not just nerves and tendons but also a certain kind of brain structure which was honestly way beyond Kal’s understanding of his body. Luckily endurance was a bit simpler.

The lungs were the source of a shell's endurance and therefore its stamina. The book described the lungs drawing both air and power from one's core to combine the two before dispersing it through the shell's blood or some other transportation system to the rest of its body. The shell’s maximum stamina was actually a measure of how efficiently it could continue to draw power from its core to infuse into the breathed air. That explained why he didn’t really feel fatigued until his stamina was very low when it was working far less efficiently.

As for how it actually improved the durability of his body was easy enough to understand, it simply sunk into the skin, muscle, and bone of his body. Looking at vitality’s working alongside endurance Kal could see that there was a lot of overlap between the two but it didn’t go much further in explaining it. Hopefully the next book Endurance and Vitality: The Cycle of Fortification and Renewal would solve that problem.

Kal’s pain had never really left but with his head in the book, it was easier to ignore. He didn’t stop reading once he was done with the organ to attribute charts. Kal saw no reason to rush, he was at least stable and he could deal with the pain long enough to make sure he got everything right.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Most of the last half of the book was on the topic of the book’s title. Algor theorized that all resources were one and the same and that they were simply aligned to different purposes based on the properties of the shell. It sounded to Kal just like the different affinities of mana but the resources had a measurable origin, unlike mana affinities.

There were a few holes that Kal had noticed but the one that bothered him was the fact the author mentioned nothing of what power was actually taken from the core to be converted to the other resources. Kal’s first thought was that it was probably mana but then he should have died years ago since he didn’t have mana to convert. It was always possible that unascended simply relied completely on their body for stamina and health.

And then he was finished… Wait, he was finished?

He checked the trial’s timer and saw that it had only taken him a few hours to read the entire book. It was over five hundred pages. Well, apparently increasing your intellect did have some benefits.

Kal didn’t waste any time and immediately opened the next book and continued his studies. Even with the pain he still felt constantly he couldn’t help but enjoy peace. He had often dreamed of getting a mage class when he was a child, he dreamed of quiet days of contemplation before stepping out from his study to smite deadly most-

Kalum’s heart bounded in his chest, tears fell from his tightly closed eyes as a mass of churning bloody flesh reached towards him. It cried out to him, its words beyond his understanding but every harsh scrape and groan of agony bore into his mind.

A strong grip clasped his shoulder and Kalum’s small frame fell backwards.

“I can’t take you from this place but I have a trick or two.” Fyborh said with a sad smile, “Come Kal, we will face this together. But first I will shoulder your burden for a time.”

Kalum’s world swirled around him then the blood and the flesh faded, replaced by the crackling sound of a fireplace. He was sitting in a small room with three bookcases.

“Good it worked… Nobody should ever have to see something like that.” Fyborh said this time his voice sounded weird, “I’m sorry I can only do this for a short time… If only those bas-” Fyborh cut off his words, “Nevermind.”

Kalum tried to speak but he felt wrong. He tried to look down at himself but nothing happened, his eyes remained locked on the flames of the fireplace.

His face twisted into a sad smile, “I have dulled your senses and replaced them with my own. I will explain more soon but for now, simply rest while you can-”

Kal gasped as he returned himself, Endurance and Vitality had fallen from his hand and were now face down on the ground. Kal let out another more controlled breath before reaching down to pick up the book. It had been a while since he had experienced a returning memory. He knew they were coming but this one was far more abrupt than any of the previous ones. This time there was absolutely no warning.

At first, he thought it would be as debilitating as the others but it soon faded and the reassurance of Fyborh calmed him. Kal wished he had a reference for when exactly the memory was from but hopefully, he could piece it all together later.

“Ok Kal, no more distractions,” Kal said as he fed the will tendril back into the book to continue his studies.

Once again Kal sped through the next much smaller book and he was immediately glad that he had read Algor’s Theory. It was complicated, to say the least, and got directly into the details of mixed interactions between vital, and physical energy, even mentioning a few more resource-generating organs that Algor hadn’t mentioned.

Bone marrow was a major component of several things regarding vitality, endurance, and even strength. The author described how many skills interacted directly with its target’s bone marrow to expedite blood production, the removal of certain types of foreign mana, and as a starting point for longer-lasting amplification skills.

What it didn’t tell him was a way to convert physical energy to vital energy. Annoyed Kal put the book to the side and closed his eyes for a moment while he brainstormed ideas.

“So. Some unknown power is drawn from my core and fed to my body. Physical energy is generated mostly in the lungs and vital energy is generated mostly in the heart. How does that help me?”

Kal brought his perception into his body and focused on his heart and lungs. Both were darkened like the rest of his body but still functioned fine. He focused first on the vital energy moving through his body as it feebly attempted to heal the mana burn. Kal could tell it was significantly stronger near his heart but he couldn’t actually see how it was being created, it simply oozed out of his beating heart.

How did it work? If Soul Forging had shown him anything it’s that everything was far more complicated than it first appeared. Every skill he had followed a strict series of constructs to perform its function and he had no doubt it was similar to his body, the only difference was that his body was a physical thing.

He looked over his entire body and as he looked over the veins and arteries throughout his body he was struck by an idea. Kal focused on his blood. Both vital and physical energy used it for different reasons but it was an important transportation method for both of them, like mana moving through his web work of mana channels but more complex.

It was a cycle, blood entered his heart and was fortified with his vitality to form vital energy before entering his lungs to be further imbued with his endurance to form physical energy. Then the combined energies flowed through his body fortifying everything else. His body was a construct and his blood was the mana flowing through it…

Kal grinned, ignoring the cracks tearing open on his face. Now he was getting somewhere.