Alistair and Riseth rushed through Rathos, teleporting above the central teleportation hub. A steady stream of people exited the hub, filling the large central square with a mix of relief and awe on their faces. Alistair noticed many demons and humans, as well as a significant number of beastkin, particularly Oconoe's kin.

Without wasting time, they immediately stepped onto the outgoing teleportation circle leading to the shipyard, where the Kaiakos was docked due to extensive damage needing repairs. Upon arrival, they quickly found Nessyra, James, and Simon talking in an office space typically used by their shipwrights.

As they entered, everyone had a complicated expression, and Nessyra still wore a slight scowl. Her armor's cleaning enchantment hadn't managed to remove all the bloodstains covering her body.

"Nessy!" Riseth called out, immediately hugging her sister. Nessyra's scowl lessened upon seeing her. "Are you alright? What happened?" Riseth demanded as she inspected her sister.

Nessyra frowned. "I tried to lure out and kill assassins hidden among the refugees, and I almost took on a bigger loan than I was able to repay," her voice tinged with bitterness and regret.

James and Simon, who had already heard the story, remained quiet as Nessyra recounted the events. Alistair was baffled at the risk she had taken. If she had set a proper trap leading the target into an isolated room and assisted by her full retinue, he would have understood or even thought it was a good idea. While strong, Nessyra, even with Dexter's help, wasn't a combat specialist. Taking on a specialized assassin in such close quarters, even with a higher level and nearby assistance, was far too risky. He knew she chafed at feeling inadequate in combat and relying on others, but he hadn't thought she would take such risks to grow.

Riseth had a pained expression. "Don't do that again," she said, her tone clearer and sharper than usual, brooking no argument.

Nessyra nodded. "I won't. I should have led them into an ambush and detained or killed them instead of provoking them to act. I wanted to make sure myself before putting the life of a potential applicant at risk or risk tipping them off too soon and getting my assistants and guards killed, but I should have taken better precautions. I was too overconfident." Turning to James, she added, "I would like to request some of your power armor; my own armor seems to be quite lacking."

"I'll be busy helping repair the Kaiakos," James replied, "but I'll create a specialized power armor for you as soon as I can. Getting the Kaiakos back in fighting shape has higher priority."

"Naturally," Nessyra replied before briefing them about the Aegis Coalition and what she had encountered on Earth, Neshan, and Vacadis, Oconoe's home planet. Vacadis had been quite friendly to the Ryser Clan, with many young crabkin eager to join them into the unknown. In contrast, both Earth and Neshan had been embroiled in conflict and power struggles, resulting in numerous refugees and opportunists looking to sign up with them.

They decided to postpone addressing the Aegis Coalition until their planetary defense network was properly established to prevent or at least interfere with any orbital attacks, and they had a capable fleet to defend themselves. Currently, their largest fleet asset was barely operational. Many of its weapons were heavily damaged or destroyed, one of its reactors was compromised, and a hangar door mechanism had been reduced to slag after the pirate ambush. Although they had planned to do some upgrades while working on other projects, those plans would now have to be delayed.

"How is training with Sotarr?" Nessyra eventually asked once she had shared most of what happened during her trip, and James had rushed off to work on the Kaiakos.

Alistair and Riseth exchanged a glance, and Riseth was the first to speak up. "He's a wellspring of knowledge and insights. Unless it harms our path, he freely shares any information we request, or he deems important for us to advance, which helps a lot, but there's so much for us to work on," she said with a sigh.

Alistair nodded. "While he's usually busy, he had us fight in the arena array, giving us pointers before your return cut the session short."

Nessyra frowned a little. "I'm sorry."

Riseth shook her head. "It's fine. He would have likely left soon anyway, and he needs some time to search out some manuals and create a curriculum for us."

Nessyra nodded, brightening up a bit. "Is there anything that I or the others could use to speed up our progress?"

"Plenty," Alistair replied. "We put it up on the network, though we locked some of it to leadership only. We don't want to influence or harm people's progression by taking away certain discoveries. We've set it up in a way that allows people to discover things for themselves by giving clues or recommending certain books, techniques, and skills. Just like we did for the enchanters and the Arcane Substrate."

Simon added, "That trick with using intuition to tear yourself out of your Soulscape when somebody is approaching is really useful. It lets me use the time dilation provided by the skill a lot more, and it's a great way to train intuition specifically."

Alistair nodded. "Still, don't do it in public and preferably have somebody watching out for you," he cautioned.

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They had underutilized the Soulscape skill ever since they settled on Lacustrine due to the skill's inherent danger, especially since they didn't have access to their personal space in the Study Dungeon anymore. However, the fact that they could train their intuition to detect even non-hostile threats allowed for the skill to be used in private. This saved them valuable time while studying manuals or engaging in limited-skill training.

While they exchanged pointers and made recommendations, Alistair mulled over the lessons Sotarr had already given him. Sotarr had eventually lost patience and expanded on how concepts interacted with each other and what a core concept actually meant. He now had a ton of material on how kinetics and its other linked concepts worked to go through. It wasn't enough to just add this to his knowledge base with his Akashic Link skill; he needed to know this knowledge by heart. In the heat of battle, there wouldn't be time to browse through information on how his core concept, kinetics, interacted with elements like light or lightning, which was very little to none.

Science and Magic, despite their overlaps, didn't always correlate as one might expect. His kinetics affinity did very little to help him manipulate lightning or affect gravity. Still, his energy affinity, which was one of the concepts directly linked to kinetics, was much more helpful. If he wanted to use lightning effectively, he would need to train his affinity through practice and body enchantment, which, according to Sotarr, would be a waste of time.

One of the first things Sotarr had expanded on was how one's strongest affinity, or Core Concept, worked. After Alistair and Riseth had continuously questioned why he discouraged the development of certain skills, Sotarr eventually explained:

"Every concept is linked to all the others in an endless web of connections," Sotarr began. "Everyone has at least one core concept. In exceptionally rare cases, often found in mythical species, an individual might have two, and in a handful of examples across eons, three core concepts. These core concepts allow them to exceed what would normally be the skill ceiling because these concepts are part of who they are; they are ingrained in their soul. The concepts most closely related to the core concept, often called 'linked concepts' or 'branches,' can most often be trained with much less effort to reach that ceiling alongside the core concept but not exceed it until you become a god. Of course, that ceiling rises with each grade."

Alistair couldn't help but ask a question that had bothered him for a long time.

"What differentiates a god from, let's say, a Grade 2 or 1? Sol and Zaltom are powerful, but I can tell that you are more powerful despite not being a god yourself," Alistair questioned.

Sotarr looked at him with his draconic eyes but eventually relented. "It's impressive that you can even tell at your grade. This is something many withhold from their students, but I don't see the harm in telling you." Sotarr's words garnered the rapt attention of both Riseth and Alistair. "The difference is that the power a natural god possesses is purely their own."

They looked puzzled; he smiled at them and elaborated on his earlier statement. "Once you reach Grade 1, there are no more levels, new skills, or titles to gain. To become a god, you need to make that power your own." He chuckled dryly. "The System aids you on your path, ensuring you can feasibly reach that level of power, but to progress and advance beyond to become a true god, that power needs to be yours, not borrowed or using a crutch. That is what differentiates a god from someone still relying on the System."

"How does one claim their power and magic as their own?" Riseth questioned, and Alistair nodded in agreement.

Sotarr shook his head. "That I cannot tell you, even if I wanted to. It is something everyone must figure out for themselves, and it will be a long time before it becomes relevant for the two of you."

They fell into silence for what felt like minutes, digesting that information, until Riseth decided to ask another question.

"Can you tell us more about core concepts and their linked concepts?" Riseth requested.

Sotarr scratched his chin, contemplating the question.

"Usually, I'd use the fire and flame concept as an example, but I'll take Alistair's kinetic concept to explain," Sotarr said. "The Kinetic concept is desirable and powerful in its own right and has many strong concepts linked directly to its core. Concepts such as energy, movement, telekinesis, and force are all powerful. But let's take the movement concept; it is also desirable and powerful as it links to other concepts that kinetics doesn't directly link to anymore, such as teleportation, travel, and friction. However, it doesn't have access to force as it is linked to force through Kinetics and other concepts. Magic is a complicated beast, and some things you would expect to relate do, while others don't. Core concepts only elevate affinities directly connected to them, not those one or more steps removed. That is why kinetics has no direct link to lightning, while someone with an energy or storm affinity would."

Almost as an afterthought, Sotarr added, "Of course, sometimes you get unlucky, and your affinity for a directly linked concept is so poor that not even being elevated by the core concept can make it viable. Of course the opposite is true too, everyone can have a high affinity for concepts regardless of them being directly linked to your core concept. Those are often worth investing in, especially if they are complementary to your core concept. You can also often achieve certain desired effects resembling other concepts by clever utilization of available concepts. For example, Alistair rooting himself and others in place by utilizing his kinetics,"

Riseth had gotten even more material to read as manipulation was directly linked to many other concepts in relevant fields, such as social, crafting, and combat. Control, arcane, influence, and conversion, in particular, were powerful concepts directly linked to manipulation. While she didn't have a direct link to any basic elemental concepts other than gravity, as they were all connected over the energy concept one or two steps down the chain instead of directly to manipulation, her strong space affinity, which she had trained and used frequently, was something Sotarr was confident she could improve alongside her core and linked concepts.

Alistair was eager to get back to training, and fortunately, Nessyra felt the same. She had to help her people settle in the Clan's newest members, dragging Simon along despite his mild protests. Seeing this wasn't a good time to bring up that the clan had to eventually return to Riddickulus to manage the Wendigo infestation before it festered and spread to the neighboring system, he opted to add it as a talking point for the next planned Clan Leadership meeting.

"We should get back to sparring," Alistair idly commented.

Riseth shook her head. "I'd like to go out for dinner before we get back to training. With the influx of people, the best places are going to be crowded, and I'd hate to add to the burden."

Alistair tilted his head before agreeing, offering his arm for her to link. "Good call."