The night passed by before he could blink. Elijah had slept through the last hours of it, but the first many had been spent in deep concentration as he followed each step detailed in the tome.

While he had been expecting a tough read that would force him to cross-reference many of the words used, the book was surprisingly beginner-friendly for somebody who had read less than five books, even making hints about the structure of magical theory.

Maybe it was because this was so far away from the standard curriculum. When talking with Grace about what she was learning, he’d certainly never heard her talk about layer-based organic-inspired growth types for increasing one’s capacity, or the intricacies of Body-Core branching to make the transfer of Mana for most purposes much more efficient.

Both were very good but with enough warnings about their usage that they filled just about half of every page. The tome did indeed explain to the reader how to perform both of the techniques, how it was done safely and by one’s lonesome, but it explained the heavy drawbacks of it. Most of it was things that Elijah had already been told by Rubeus, of course. The alterations made with the techniques could rarely if ever be reversed, and the individual growth that came from the usage of the techniques was far from standard which meant a person could gain very little.

In short, it was a set of methods that was only to be used in the event that all knowledge about proper ways to strength was out of reach, or if the person in question was to be stopped from ever using the more effective ways to grow.

That it had several examples of being used as a form of punishment was amusing for Elijah, if he had to be honest, though that was likely because of his heavy bias. Most who would ever read the tome would’ve already been put on a path far superior to what this could give in the best of circumstances.

But, regardless, the night had been spent figuring out the first of the techniques. A sub-type of the Layer-Based Growth focused around the group of Affinities that Biomancers were a part of.

Though it was a gross oversimplification, it was possible to ‘peel off’ the outer layers of the Core without suffering any instant consequences. The surface of the magical organ, while still able to complain if damaged, was mainly there to protect the internal parts from being corrupted by outside forces and malicious agents. Without it, the amount of force needed to manipulate the Core was significantly reduced, to the point being in the presence of the wrong magical item could cause irreparable damage.

There was, of course, a very extensive list of items, areas, and monsters to avoid when performing this step. None of it was pertinent to Elijah, who wasn’t in possession of any ‘Type 4 and above Arcane Sigils for Mental Fortitude’ or ‘Implanted with eyes of a shoggoth in the last three years.’ That the latter scenario was mentioned several times throughout the book made him worry about what the higher-ranked Mages were doing in their spare time.

Moving back to the technique, the basic theory was to create a pocket of empty space between the separated layer and the inner ones before slowly allowing foreign energy to invade the space. The time spent on this step varied wildly depending on how many times it had been done, and the density of Mana surrounding the Mage, but it personally took Elijah three hours of waiting for the energy from his kills to filter into place.

Then came the hard part, which was balancing forcing the energy to crystallize in place while being non-specific on how it crystallized. The final structure was meant to be as natural as possible, to increase the potential positive effects, so you had to mentally separate the two forms of controlling the state of energy in your mind. Forcing it to act in a certain way, but allowing it free control on how it accomplished this feat.

It didn’t make sense how doing such a thing was even possible, and Elijah struggled in this transitional phase for a long time before he was able to progress. It was only when he started attempting the same method of communicating as when he spoke to plants with Animal Bond that it started working, natural crystallizations slowly but steadily filling out the space between the inner and the outer layer of his Core.

Another hour was needed for everything to fully crystallize, but the final iteration was one he was most definitely proud of. At that point, night had arrived and been around for a while, and his mind had been more than ready to rest, but the next and final step needed to be completed before that.

While the natural crystallization did sit in between two layers that he had control over, it was still not his. It was inside him, he could manipulate it almost as well as any other part of himself, but that ‘almost’ made it impossible for his body to fully recognize it as a true part of him.

How to fix this? Simple adaptation through repetition, along with five more pages worth of texts giving fine details and graphs that explained something that could be said in a few words. The truth to the final step was to cycle the original Mana between the old and new parts continually, until the point where it began to naturally circulate without any distinction on where it was located. And only then could the new change be trusted to stay stable.

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All in all, the process was a long one, and Elijah could only do the final tests that confirmed it had all worked out before his eyes closed and darkness filled his mind. And, sadly, the morning came so soon after that he wasn’t convinced he slept much at all, the darkness merely disappearing in the blink of an eye.

At least the hours that vanished allowed the world to recognize his achievement.

Name: Elijah Caede

Affinity: Biomancy

Mana: 512

His Mana, which previously at most filled up to 390 was now able to comfortably sit at just over 510. It was somewhere around a 30% increase in capacity. Not too extreme, compared to what it could’ve been, but to Elijah it meant the world.

The first real step in increasing his Core since he was a child, where it had been able to grow naturally. He had never truly sought to be among the best, even dreading having that kind of expectations being put on him, but to be able to step away from the person he was during his youth was… freeing in a sense. Enough that he could stand back and feel his steps be light during the morning preparations, almost smiling when Aleksi cracked a joke at breakfast.

Almost. He still had his pride to keep intact.

“Did you open the window last night?” the giant asked, as they sat at the table going through the last parts of tea. Aleksi still had a few hours of rest before he was expected to be back in full swing at the smithy, so they were enjoying the time they had. Just as well, since the youth were downstairs in the basement continuing the attempts at improvement from the day before.

“I did not,” Elijah finally answered after running through the events of the night before. While he’d been rather tired by the end, he would’ve remembered taking such a dreadful risk. “Do the locks need to be replaced here as well?”

The windows upstairs had required as much the year before, after a winter that had shown little mercy for the exposed metal. While the quality of the metal wasn’t lacking, time was an enemy that always won in the end.

“They do not,” Aleksi replied, standing to his full height to inspect the window better.

That… made both old men leave the air of relaxation they’d been able to build up, going through every window and opening in the house to check for any other places where there had been a ‘mysterious' opening.

No other spots were found, luckily, but it would do them no good to ignore this. The traps prepared long ago were lined at every window, hidden but ready to strike if somebody were to try and enter uninvited. Most weren’t lethal, of course, but many would be debilitating and leave the victim bleeding and weakened by poison.

“There’s too much risk in letting them stay here,” Elijah said, as they finished setting it all up. The hours were passing by quickly, and there would already be so many outside and about… “We need to get them out of the house.”

He regretted not moving them during the night, but they would have to make do with what they had now.

“Fake dark spots and injury could hide some of their faces,” Aleksi suggested, the giant already focused on how they could get them out without notice. “Separating them could help even more.”

“You wouldn’t get back in time for your work,” Elijah countered.

“Then I can just take Jack to the smithy instead of putting him with Cleo,” came the response. “He has been wanting to take a look since I mentioned the metals there anyway.”

… Not a terrible idea.

Having them separated would make the chance of being recognized even lower than it already was, and few would question injuries and whatnot when there had been such a massive stir the day before. The guards certainly wouldn’t feel like they needed to search those with a limp, and Elijah didn’t doubt that Sasha could fake such a wound if needed.

“You’ll take the man with you at the time you normally leave, and I’ll wait ten minutes before I leave with Sasha,” Elijah concluded, the giant voicing no complaints to the suggestion. Together they prepared the essential tools and supplies for emergencies, packing nearly double the amount of healing paste, energizers, and general tools for medical care, as well as a few knives, lockpicks, and some minor distractions that Elijah still had left in the laboratory.

As the giant began to go upstairs to deliver the news about their moving, knocks started to be heard from the front door. Two slow ones, then four in quick succession, before another three slow ones. A musical rhythm, one that nobody normally visiting would ever use.

“Make sure they’re quiet,” Elijah told the giant as he slowly went towards the door to open it up. He gave it nearly twenty seconds, plenty of time for Aleksi to give off the new order, before he lazily unlocked the front and opened it to see who had decided to pay them a visit.

No guards.

That was one positive about it, but the sight of two shorter women standing there confused him. One wore a bright smile and had a practical outdoor outfit that would only be found in the upper-class district for the rich to feel like ‘normal people,’ while the other woman looked on impassively while wearing clothing that had true function over appearance. The extra space in the sleeves for weapons didn’t go unnoticed.

And neither did the fact that the first woman had been seen before. She’d been the one impaled in the stomach that he and Aleksi had helped yesterday.