Time passed, and Mosh remained immersed in the book. Occasionally, he would take a break to eat from his dwindling supplies, but the pull of research, of wanting to unlock the secrets within the book drew at him. It was as if he were compelled. It felt like his will had been drained, and he had no choice but to study. For three days, he fell into the trance of eating, studying, eating, studying, eating, studying, and sleeping.
‘KID’, Midkar's mind shout, was loud and disrupted his thoughts as he lay down to sleep at the end of his third day of immersion. He replied, irritated at the shout, there was no reason for Midkar to be so disruptive!
‘What is it? Can’t you just talk normally to me? No need to shout!’ He shouted back hoping his shout was as irritating as Midkar’s had been.
‘I tried, I have been trying for two days! I suspect that you have had a compulsion imprinted on you. Most likely a combination of the Telepathic link from the Progenitor Golem and then meeting whoever was behind that face. You need to wake up, studying that book is important, but not so important you can forget where you are!’
Mosh struggled with his thoughts, trying to make sense of what Midkar was saying. He could remember studying, and he could feel his satisfaction at learning, but he could not fully grasp the time, he could not count the study sessions or how when and what he had eaten. He shivered, his mind had again been compromised. He had to learn a mind defence skill. Then a thought struck him, and he fearfully dashed to where Silky Two lay, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw him lying there, still hibernating. He stroked his soft fur, hoping for some sign of his waking and then paused. Whereas before Silky’s head had been the size of his thumb, it was now the size of his palm. Examining him further he could see a collar of spiked scales encircling his neck and claws with a slight metallic sheen on the ends of his larger feet. ‘Midkar, do you have any idea what he is evolving into? It definitely looks more combat-oriented.’
‘I do not know the evolution path of his species, but I commend your observation skills. He is most definitely evolving into a more combat-oriented form, but how many evolutions and what form it will take,’ Mosh could feel his mental shrug, ‘perhaps the librarians at the Greater Mileu Repository of knowledge would know, I doubt there are many who have studied the tigermouse and their evolutions. Everyone just assumes they are a pet species and treats them as such.’
Mosh gave Silky a last scratch, then lay down. He may have been compelled in his schedule for the last few days, but he was still exhausted and needed to sleep. In the morning he awoke and looked at the book and crystal, and the knowledge bloomed in him. Midkar had not awoken him from the compulsion, it had passed because he had completed the task. He knew what he had to do, and he wondered if he could. Well, technically he could, but he did not know if he had the courage to do so.
He centred himself and meditated as he felt for his cores. He dove into his spiritual self and connected to the totality of his being. He thought about his family, and his friends and those awaiting him on Earth. He looked at the jagged and sharp edges of the Aether Crystal and thought of the power a fourth core would bring. He sucked in his breath as he reached for his knife with one hand and the crystal in the other.
Office of Arbiter Zak
Zak looked up as an insistent beeping started up. The screen that had been showing Candidate Mosh Barmenash had gone dark again and he could already hear frantic steps down the hall rushing towards his office. The last few days he had watched the boy study, obvious to anyone with a modicum of knowledge and insight that he was under a compulsion, but what it was and whether or not it was benign was not solvable from the images he saw. He waved the door open as the footsteps stopped outside before Kai’Rop could even knock, his footsteps had a characteristic gait and Zak expected that he would be the one to inform him.
“Arbiter Zak” Kai’Rop paused to gather his breath after running to get here as fast as he could, “the candidate from Earth we are monitoring has gone offline again!”
“I know,” Zak smiled and waved in the direction of his dead screen, “Has anyone any theories as to what may be causing this?”
“Yes, Arbiter, one of the manatech researchers has proposed a reason, though it seems farfetched, given the time since reintroduction of mana.”
“Oh, and what is his novel theory?”
“Kai’Rop paused and a smile flitted across his face. “He proposes that the boy is a paragon, or rather a base paragon at this point in time, and has an aether source.”
Kai’Rop may have suppressed his smile, Zak did not suppress his laughter. “A potential paragon after only three centuries? It is an outlandish theory, especially when it is combined with postulating an aether source. I don’t believe we have to pursue it too seriously, though let’s give it some lip service. When he returns home after entering the First Ring, have a scan team nearby. It can’t hurt and the Earth Mileu need not know.” He chuckled as Kai’Rop left the room. Imagination was always good, but excessive imagination needed to be curbed. He would examine the source of this speculation and check their work output, if flights of fancy were too frequent, perhaps they may be better suited for a different role.
Mosh
Mosh breathed deeply, almost hyperventilating as he looked down at his bare torso. He followed his energy flows, chi going to his body core in his abdomen, Mind between his eyes, mana above his heart in his chest, soul an ephemeral crystal manifested in his throat behind his windpipe and oesophagus. There was no aether core, and he needed to insert it. He would have to cut open his chest, break through his sternum and embed the crystal just before his lung on the right-hand side. He reached for Midkar, hoping to call on his support, but found nothing but a void. His mentor had been cut off.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
He braced himself, preparing to cut into his chest, to break his ribs so he could get the crystal to where it needed to go. To the side, he already had water, bandages, needles with thread laying in a basin of boiling water atop a fire and every healing poultice he could find, including one from within the scrawls pack that had been granted to him as reparations. It shone faintly blue and was alive to his mana senses, it was most likely the most potent one he had.
He rechecked everything, running his knife over the sharpener again, immersing it in the boiling water again, and then stopped. He knew what he was doing, just delaying the inevitable, procrastinating out of fear. Taking his courage in hand, he brought the knife up and with one quick stroke sliced his chest open. He screamed but still had the presence of mind to drop the knife, reach in, and use his superior strength to break two ribs. Tears streaming, the pain driving him to scream and want to pass out, he managed to harness his willpower, his mind and soul working in tandem to keep him thinking and conscious, and he fumbled with his left hand to push the crystal in, yet more screams coming as the crystal’s sharp edges cut into him in their new location, yet he had placed it correctly and his lungs were not nicked or perforated.
He felt like he would pass out, but he knew he could not. He reached for the needle and thread, using them to crudely sew shut the wound. Onto that, he smeared the poultice from the Scraw, and immediately felt a numbing sensation. He let out a sigh of relief as the pain dulled, finding the rest of the process easier. He used the last of the heated water to clean his chest, wincing as he pressed on his broken ribs and then wrapped the bandages around his chest tightly, feeling pain in his broken ribs, but they were simple breaks and to his probing fingers, now that he could feel with the pain dulling effects of the poultice, they seemed to be lined up. He glanced down, and without reading any notifications, he passed out.
He did not know how long he slept, but when he awoke the cave was in darkness and the fire had burned out, He was starving and quickly dove into his pack, extracting some of his preserved food. He put on his armour, wincing as it went over his broken ribs, but trouble could descend at any moment and better a bit of discomfort than being unprepared. He ate and drank, then relaxed, looking inward and reading the notifications he had neglected previously.
The candidate has illustrated control and will beyond the human norms. Active Will skill learned. Tier 0 Level 1
Active Will skill advanced. Tier 0 Level 2
Active Will skill advanced. Tier 0 Level 3
Active Will skill advanced. Tier 0 Level 4
Active Will skill advanced. Tier 0 Level 5
Active Will Tier 0 Level 5 has a synergistic effect skill Absorption Tier 0 Level 2. Skill Absorption will take effect at Level + 1 though it remains at Level 2.
Synergy will advance both skills to Tier 1 when Absorption reaches Level 5.
Active Will skill advanced. Tier 0 Level 6
Active Will skill advanced. Tier 0 Level 7
Synergy will advance both skills to Tier 1 when Absorption reaches Level 5.
Aether core detected. Compatibility with Aether core is being tested.
The candidate is compatible with Aether Core. Aether Core Tier is the average of Body, Mind, Mana and Soul Tiers. Aether Core Tier 7. Aether energy 70/70
Mosh raised his hand to where the aether core sat and winced as he did so, raising his arm stretched the muscles he had cut into and he worried that he had torn the wound open. He would rest until sunrise then remove the bandages, clean the wound and reapply the poultices. It would not be good if he got infected in here.
Morning arrived, and with it, better light and the return of Midkar.
‘I don’t know how they do it, Kid, but they seem to be able to cut off my viewing of what is happening. And what in the names of the Mana gods did happen? That is one nasty wound on your chest!’
‘Would you believe it is self-inflected?’ Mosh chuckled and then stopped as the movement moved his chest and caused pain, ‘Though the good news is that I now have an Aether core!’
‘That's,’ Midkar paused, an overly long pause Mish thought, then continued, ‘Good? Yes, it's good, though dangerous. Let's hope it can stay hidden and hide your paragon status as you were told, otherwise, I can foresee the Greater Mileu making sure you have an unfortunate “accident” when you are back on Earth and not being observed.’
‘Would they do something like that? They speak so much of honour of preserving life, would they just kill me for having something they disapprove of even though it is not forbidden?’
‘Honour? Value life? That’s the muck for the masses, the propaganda fed to the unwashed masses to keep them under control and not questioning. You are here because they broke a mana contract. Never rely on their so-called honour or supposed benevolence. Those are just the facades they adopt as necessary to maintain their control.’
Mosh fell silent, ruminating on what Midkar had said. He would rest a few days, then begin the hunt to raise his tier points and reach his class evolution then onwards to the First-Ring battle. After everything, mysterious wars, strange powers, and claims of conspiracies, he just wanted to sit for a while at home, maybe clear some fields and have actual kids there, not just the voice in his head calling him one.
Arbiter Zak’s office
The screen came to life again, but all it showed was a sleeping child. He panned the viewer, using what control he had to manipulate the cameras, and frowned at the pile of blood-stained cloth and the puddle of blood on the ground. He activated the low light enhancements and returned to examine the boy. Now that he knew to look for wounds, he saw tightly wrapped bandages, from the first aid kits within the packs most likely, around his chest. He couldn’t see the wounds, but he could see the location, on the right, a mirror to where the mana core lay on the left.
He stood and went to his shelves, activating his mana in specific pulses and with specific types, a code only he knew. A section of wall behind the shelf slid away and he withdrew a thin tome. Its cover looked blackened as if retrieved from a fire, and its pages crumbled at the edges when he moved to open them. He put it down, and instead of handling it, manipulated it gently with psi, letting his mental energies lift and turn pages with finesse and gentleness not possible by physical means. He knew what he was looking for and studied a drawing of what could be mana paths, but it was a mirror image. He quailed, gulped and activated his communicator, “Kai’Rop, when candidate Barmenash returns, make sure that the scan team is a senior one, I fear our scientist friend may not be as nonsensical as we believed.”