“Roka… Roka…”

A smile crossed Greg’s face as his mother’s voice roused him from sleep. Given the schedule he maintained since coming to this world, Greg was already an early riser. Ever since the day he gave his mother her first, massage, however, she would come into his room just a minute or two before he usually woke up and pretend to wake him up. Greg knew it was a pretense not because of anything about her behavior but because of the DISCERNING ring. Ever since they had crossed that line into the taboo, rather than try to pull back and go back to the way things were before, his mother had leaned into it fully.

She played the role of the innocent mother while Greg was the lecherous son taking advantage of her. Greg didn’t know why the fantasy of having her son take advantage of her turned his mother on so much. But so long as they were both happy, he didn’t care either way. Opening his eyes to find her seated at the edge of his bed, Greg smiled even as he reached up from under his covers and grabbed one of her breasts through the dress she had on and began to massage it. “Roka! I am your mother, you shouldn’t touch me like that,” She protested in mock outrage. Greg, however, didn’t miss the way she subtly pushed even more of her chest into his palm, or the fact that she made no move to stop him despite her words.

“I just can’t help it mother, it’s your fault for having such perfect breasts,” He cheekily countered, catching her nipple between his thumb and index finger and gently tugging on it.

Color spread on his mother’s cheeks at the compliment even as she bit her lower lip at the pleasure radiating throughout her body from her nipple. “You… you will be late,” she weakly protested.

Even though there was no force behind her words, Greg smiled as he made a show of complying. With an exaggerated sigh, he pulled his hand away from her breast. Greg didn’t miss the slight look of disappointment on her face when he did. “You are right,” He said in the tone of one who clearly didn’t want to admit so. With an impish grin on his face, he continued. “I need to get ready,” he said pulling off his covers and revealing his naked form, his thick veiny cock standing at full mast as a result of morning wood. Greg had taken to sleeping naked shortly after his mother began her routine of waking him up.

His mother lightly slapped him on the chest. “I keep telling you not to sleep naked, you’ll catch a chill,” She admonished him. Given the fact that winter was fast approaching, her caution wasn’t entirely misguided or contrived. Which was why Greg had bought the lamp by his bedside. It was a low-grade, tier-one item simply called a HEAT LAMP, but it could keep even a straw hut toasty through the harshest of winter. Given the basic nature of its function, the item didn’t even need that much mana. All it did was keep the air warm within a certain radius around it. One infusion of mana by Olivia would keep it running for two weeks straight before it needed another recharge.

Greg had already told his mother about the lamp, not bothering to go into details about where he got it. His mother was already the type to not ask too many questions. After Greg had assured her that they weren’t stolen or illegitimately gotten, she was content to allow Greg to keep his secrets. Greg had gone on to buy one for every room in the house, ensuring that neither his mother nor sister would suffer as a result of the coming winter. That’s why Greg knew that his mother was still playing a role and not actually reprimanding him.

Rather than climbing down from the bed, Greg stood on the bed, the head of his nine-inch cock dangling just a few inches away from her face. “You’re right, Mother, I do feel a bit cold,” He said with a roguish smile. “But your kisses always leave me feeling full of warmth, Mother. Will you do me the favor, Mother?” He said flexing his Kegels causing his cock to bob up and down before his mother’s face.

Without warning, his mother stuck out her flattened tongue and sensually licked the underside of his cock before wrapping her lips around the bulbous head. Greg couldn’t help but let out a low moan as the waves of pleasure hit him. But as quick as it had begun, it ended as his mother pulled back, an equally mischievous smile on her face. “That should help,” she said, rising to her feet. “I’ll go prepare breakfast,” She said turning around and making her way out of the room, her hips swaying hypnotically behind her. Greg just smiled, already planning how he would get her back.

This was the game they each played. Every three days, Greg would have his picnic with the healer. Meaning that he’d have his mother and sister do the cooking for it. Since it was always a small feast, it would tire out the two ladies. Which would give his mother the perfect excuse to allow his sister, Tayani, to go to sleep early. With her out of the way Greg would give his mother a ‘massage' to help ease her fatigue. If, for whatever reason, Tayani was still awake, then they would just skip that day and wait for the next picnic day. However, between one picnic day and the next, they would flirt with, and tease each other, fanning the flames of lust in each other culminating in them almost devouring each other in their rigorous lovemaking when the day finally comes. Greg had even been forced to deploy silencing charms to keep them from alerting Tayani to their taboo little secret. When Greg finally walked out of the house a while later the two of them had gone back and forth with their teasing a few more times.

The smile on Greg’s face only lasted until he moved past the gate. In truth, Greg was both looking forward to and dreading this first lesson with the healer after his break. His mind couldn’t help but turn back to the day before, remembering the feeling when he first caught sight of the beast-core from the obsidian earthmover. Just a few minutes before that moment, his willpower had proven formidable enough to resist the urge to slap the Earth’s bane potion out of his familiar’s hand. When he saw the beast-core, however, what little willpower he might have boasted of having was immediately torn to shreds. Like a steel vice, the desire to get the beast-core had taken him over and wouldn’t let him go. Greg wasn’t even sure what he would do with the core once he had it. It’s not like the thing came with a manual.

Unfortunately for Greg the one who had the beast-core was the healer and she wasn’t very happy with him. Greg got to feel firsthand what the Obsidian earthmover must have felt when his body was taken over despite his will. He had been moving to get the beast-core when suddenly, he slowed down and stopped without intending to do so. His hand which had been outstretched towards the amber-colored gem fell back to his side and like a spectator in his own body, Greg found himself standing motionless like a mannequin. Despite this, his mind hadn’t even registered this fact, still wholly enthralled by the all-consuming desire for the beast-core. It was only when the healer turned around to glare at him that enough of his self-preservation instinct kicked in and cleared his mind a bit.

“What do you think you are doing?” The healer had asked in a glacial tone.

It took a second for Greg to realize that while the rest of his body was still frozen, he’d been granted control of his neck and head back once again. Had he been more clear-minded, Greg would have felt a deep chill of fear to note just how much control the healer could exert over his body at a whim. At the time, however, his desire for the beast-core had been warring with his survival instinct, neither one getting the upper hand. In an odd twist, this left him clearheaded enough to know that he needed to be cautious but not enough to leave him paralyzed with fear at the healer’s clear displeasure.

“Do… do you remember how I was after Olivia‘s power overflowed and I was affected?” He asked. In reality, it wasn’t Olivia’s power that had overflowed and caused him to be completely lost in the haze of lust. It was her true self that had been channeled through her avatar, leaving behind an aura of lust that caused Greg to lose all rational thought. His familiar, however, with the tacit agreement of the healer had lied that it was the result of an overflow of her power. As such, this was the line that he went with. Despite the look of confusion that crossed her features at this unexpected statement, the healer still nodded. “I’m in a similar state right now, only this time it involves the core in your hands,” He answered honestly, nodding in the direction of the core she was still holding.

Greg didn’t try to hide anything from the healer. He, himself, didn’t know why he was so strongly drawn in by the core. Given that this was the strange world of magic, there was a real chance that the thing wasn’t even good for him and his desire was the result of a trap. He had already made the mistake of not trusting the healer when he should have once. He wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake again. Whatever was going on, he would rely on his teacher and her wealth of knowledge about the magical world to understand it. “I don’t know why, but every cell in my body is screaming for me to get it. If you let go of me, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from trying to snatch it from you,” He confessed.

A look of confusion had crossed the healer as she turned to regard the core. The healer had stayed like this for a while so Greg could only assume that she was using her magic to study the beast-core to see if there was something up with it. When she looked back up at him, however, the look of confusion hadn’t faded, telling Greg that she hadn’t found anything in the core that she didn’t expect to be there. “It’s a normal beast-core,” She reported, clearly unsure what to make of Greg’s odd reaction to the thing.

Greg couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved at this. Although it looked like the healer hadn’t found anything in the core, this in itself was crucial information for Greg as it eliminated the possibility that he’d been ensnared by a trap of some kind. The fact that she saw it as a normal core and couldn’t understand why it caused such a reaction from him, meant that the issue was with him and not with the core. While they were still in the dark about the cause of his reaction, the scope of their ignorance had shrunk down, at least a bit.

‘Ask her if she has any other beast-core in her possession, particularly one that isn’t from a beast of the earth element,’ The familiar spoke up in his mind.

The healer must have noticed a change in his expression as she asked. “What is it?”

“Olivia is asking if you have any other beast-cores, particularly one from a beast that isn’t of the earth element,” Greg gave voice to Olivia’s question.

From the way the healer’s eyes went wide, Greg could tell that the suggestion had caused a few ideas to fleet through the healer’s mind. “I think I have a few,” She replied contemplatively.

Greg didn’t see where she drew them from. There were no storage rings on any of her fingers, but three differently colored gems appeared in the air before her. Though he was curious about it, Greg suspected that what one’s storage device was, was a private issue and asking would be inappropriate. As such, he just quietly turned his attention to the new beast-cores. The first looked like possibly the deepest oceanic blue Greg had ever seen while remaining clear. Looking at it left Greg feeling like he was looking at the clearest expression of what water is. Even without asking, it seemed self-evident what element the beast that the was taken from belonged to.

The second gem was a fiery red that made the air around it hazy as if it was scorching hot. Greg, however, was a few feet away from it and if it was that hot, he would at the very least feel some heat radiating from it. Rather than being hot, it was as if the beast-core itself was the crystalized essence of heat. Once again, the element of the beast didn’t need telling as it was clear just by looking at it. The final beast-core wasn’t any one color, but instead, slowly kept shifting color, almost as if it was trying to avoid detection by anyone looking at it. At times, Greg even got the impression that it had moved when it hadn’t. Greg didn’t know how it did it, but it even tried to fade from his awareness from time to time. Someone who wasn’t aware of the gem’s presence could very easily miss it even if it was right in front of their eyes.

The healer introduced the three beast-cores. “This first gem is from a water element creature called the invisible Karp. It’s a popular tier-three beast as anywhere it’s found, the water around it is usually very clean. The beast itself is actually transparent making it hard to spot in clear water, hence the name. The transparency, however, is just an effect of its skin as its blood and meat are red like most others. The second gem is from a tier-six fire crow. A creature that can only be hunted from afar or by fire element mages of a high enough tier to withstand its heat. Failure to meet at least one of these two criteria and the creature will reduce you to charcoal in the span of a single breath. The last one is from a Ghost butterfly, an extremely rare tier-three beast,” She explained.

“A butterfly?” Greg couldn’t help but repeat her words with a questioning tone. The core was about the same size as the one from the Obsidian earthmover.

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“Considering that just one of its wings can be up to the combined height of five tall men, this core is actually rather small relative to the actual creature,” She replied before bringing his attention back to the current issue. “Do you feel the same reaction to these beast-cores?” She asked.

Greg looked between the three cores for a while. He didn’t have to think long. The very fact that he even had to think at all was an answer in itself. As soon as he caught sight of the core from the obsidian earthmover, his body’s reaction was immediate and didn’t require any conscious thought on his part. With these three cores, while they were each beautiful and mysterious in their own ways, Greg didn’t feel himself being drawn to any of them the same way he had been with the earth element core. Shaking his head, Greg replied. “No, nothing,” He stated.

“So, not only is your attraction specific to the earth element, it’s not affected by the tier of the core or rarity of the beast-core if it’s not from an earth element beast,” She assessed. The researcher in the healer shined through from the simple assessment. Olivia had only suggested testing for different elements and from that simple suggestion, she had thought of other aspects to check for that neither he nor his familiar had even considered. “Okay, how about this,” She muttered contemplatively even as the three cores that weren’t of the earth element vanished and in their place a single core appeared.

The new core was about ten times the size of the obsidian earthmover’s core in terms of size. In terms of power, to compare the Obsidian earthmover’s core to the second one would be like comparing a bonfire to a fusion reactor! Ironically, Greg didn’t feel the same strong attraction to this new core as he did to the first. While the first core had left him barely able to control himself, with this new core all his desire was dampened by the feeling of certain death any time he looked at it. Greg was as yet unsure what he would even do with either one of the cores. Whatever part of him was drawn to the two cores, however, seemed to recognize if it tried to do the same thing with this new beast-core that it wanted to do with the Obsidian earthmover’s core, Greg would be dead.

“Wh… What creature is that from?” Greg asked, unable to keep his voice from shaking with a mix of awe and trepidation.

“I was part of a certain expedition with three Eighth-tier and several seventh-tier mages to explore a certain ruin that we had uncovered. Unbeknownst to us, a tier-eight Rock Wyvern had made that ruin its lair and was nesting there,” The healer’s words were followed by a while of silence and Greg could tell that she was reliving that moment. “It’s one of the worst fights I’ve been in… I barely made it out with my life. By the time the beast fell, two of the Eighth-tier mages were dead along with about four-fifths of the seventh-tier mages that had been part of the expedition. Of those left, many died in the coming days as a result of the critical wounds that they had accrued from the fight. That includes the final tier eight mage,” She relayed. There was a bit of silence after she had told the story before she came back to the present. “Given the fact that you seem barely affected, can I assume, that it doesn’t affect you?” she asked.

Greg was already shaking his head before he even registered what he was doing. “I want it, badly,” he said, and much to his surprise, when he pushed past the fear, he found that it was true. “There is just a strange certainty within me that if I try anything with that core I’ll end up dead! It’s a bit of a downer on the excitement I would otherwise feel,” He went on to say trying to lighten up the healer’s mood which had taken a darker turn after the trip down memory lane.

Rather than smile, however, the healer’s brows rose on her face in surprise. “And you don’t feel this same threat from this core?” She asked, indicating the obsidian earthmover’s beast-core.

Greg looked at the core seriously looking to see if it would elicit the same mortal threat he could feel coming off the tier-eight core. Shaking his head Greg replied. “No, nothing. Why? Is there something up with it?’ he asked.

“Before I answer that question, tell me, what do you feel from this core,” The healer countered, her behavior and demeanor telling Greg that she was onto something and was testing it!

A new core appeared between the Obsidian earthmover's and the Rock Wyvern’s core. This new core wasn’t that much larger than the tier-three core, it, however, was several shades darker than either of the first two cores.

“A losing fight,” Greg replied after a few seconds of looking at the new core. From this new core, Greg didn’t get the same feeling of certain death that he got from the tier-eight core. With the Rock Wyvern core, there was the feeling that it didn’t matter what you did, you would end up dead. With this new core, there was the much more annoying feeling that you might put up a good fight, but in the end, you would lose. Not because the opponent was that better a fighter than you are, but simply because they were bigger and tougher than you. It’s like a ten-year-old who has been trained to fight being put up against a two-hundred-and-forty-pound linebacker. The boy might be a better fighter, he might even get in a few good shots. In the end, however, the result of the fight is almost certain to go a certain way. “It doesn’t give the feeling of certain death that the tier-eight one does. It’s, however, a fight that I won’t win,” Greg explained his brief reply.

The healer nodded in understanding. Watching her, however, it clicked in Greg’s mind that, his words made absolutely no sense. Just what exactly would he be fighting? The cores were little more than shiny gems, and yet for some reason, the healer seemed to think his words made perfect sense if her demeanor was anything to go by. “What’s going on?” Greg had in the end asked.

“Magic isn’t just bone-deep, Roka,” His teacher had replied enigmatically. Unsurprised by the look of incomprehension on his face, she had gone on to explain. “If you cut a mage open, you won’t find a mana core or mana pathways anywhere in their body. If a mage is physically injured, they won’t leak mana in the same way they would blood. The detailed reason for this is far too complicated for me to get into at the moment but let me give you a simple analogy that might help you understand. The human being along with most creatures out there, can be thought of as an onion, that is, they are composed of layers,” she relayed.

“Take the skin off, you find the muscles, take that off, you find the organs, take those off you find bones, take them off you find the spirit-body, and right at the core of that is the soul. Now, don’t take any of that literally or think that you’ll find your spirit body inside your bones just like you’d find marrow. I’m just offering a mental picture to help you understand. The reason you won’t leak mana the same way you’d bleed blood from a physical injury is because the physical body is the outer layer, whereas your core and mana pathways are found in the second layer, which is the spirit-body,” She laid out.

“But while these three layers are distinct from each other, they are not separate. Each layer affects the other layers it’s in contact with. That’s why, if a mage loses a hand, while they may not leak mana from the injury, they also won’t be able to cast magic solely with their spirit-body's representation of that hand. At the same time, if that hand is healed and restored, you don’t have to regrow the mana pathways in that hand because your spirit-body was never touched. In the same breath, if your spirit-body is broken and damaged the way mine is, then despite being completely healthy physically, as I am, your magical abilities will suffer for it if not completely lost. Soul injuries are the worst of them as they don’t just affect your body or your magic but the very core of who you are. Take a serious enough injury to your soul and your very personality may be rewritten as a result. And that’s only if you don’t outright die!” She explained.

“However, it doesn’t take a lot of thinking to see the issue with this picture. And that is, inanimate objects that have no soul or spirit body to speak of can still be imbued with and hold mana. The answer to this question is both simple and complicated at the same time. The simple answer is this, mana affects all available layers. It makes no difference to the mana whether it’s one or one hundred layers. Inanimate matter which only has the physical layer will be affected on that level, just the physical. Where the picture becomes more complicated is that the more the layers one has, the more mana they have and the more control over that mana they can exercise as a consequence,” she explained.

“The inanimate objects may be imbued with magic, but unless someone comes along and uses it, then it’s no different from any other dead object. It has neither the ability to store mana of its own nor to control the ambient mana. Creatures such as human beings with physical, spirit-body, and soul layers to them, have the ability not only to gather mana within themselves but also to manipulate it. Are you with me so far?” She questioned. At Greg’s nod, she continued. “Naturally, the next question that follows is what determines the number of layers that any given living creature or entity has?” she posed rhetorically.

“Sentience?” Greg voiced his opinion on the matter. Though it was only a guess, Greg was reasonably certain that he was correct. The reason for this wasn’t his great powers of reasoning, but remembering a brief conversation he once had with Olivia about the ranking of different life forms. Orders of life is what she had called it. It was back when she had first detected his cousin or more accurately the aura of magic attached to him. Part of the reason she had been so scared by the aura was because she couldn’t tell much about it. Apart from the possibility of it being a tier-four creature, only a being on the same order of life as she was could hide themselves from her. They had never quite gotten around to having that discussion in detail but from what he was hearing from the healer, it sounded a lot like what his familiar had been speaking of.

The healer gave a single nod accompanied by a shrug. “Like most things, you’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask. Some claim that it’s intelligence and not necessarily sentience in itself while others argue that sentience is a prerequisite. But they are both facets of the same coin if you ask me,” She relayed. “Is sentience the prerequisite, or the result of going past a certain level of intelligence? You can turn that question over in your head for a few hundred cycles and still, you won’t come to a clear answer. If anything, the more creatures you are exposed to, the more murky the answer to that question becomes,” she stated.

“Most beasts have the physical layer, and I’ve seen necromancers make use of beast souls enough times that there is no question about whether they have souls or not. Most creatures, however, are not that intelligent, and I suspect that this is the reason they lack the second layer, the spirit body,” She explained. “And how do I know they lack a spirit body, you may ask. Well…” The healer indicated the cores before her. “Because unlike mages who have their core and mana pathways entirely in their second layer, magical beasts that advance far enough, develop a physical locus of control for their mana,” She stated

“Why is all this important, you might be wondering. Well, for the beast-core to allow the beast access to and control over their mana, it would have to be not only in contact with their physical layer but also with their soul. A thing to keep in mind is that beast-cores don’t form that quickly. They may take anywhere between tens to hundreds of cycles to fully form. All that time in contact with the souls of the creatures they belong to means that even after the beast itself is killed, their beast-cores are left with an imprint of the creature’s soul. A fragment, if you will,” She relayed.

It had been a long and circuitous explanation, but this last bit of information caused it all to snap together and Greg to go completely pale as it dawned on him why the gem-like cores were dangerous to him. He had wondered what he would be fighting inside the cores, he now had the answer. Some part of the souls of the creatures they belonged to, was still inside the cores. All of a sudden, the tier-eight core looked a lot more menacing than it had just a few seconds before. Greg understood that it couldn’t be the whole soul, otherwise, even the tier three core would have been too dangerous for him. However, even a fragment of the soul of a tier-eight rock wyvern, it seems, was enough to spell out certain death for him.

“At first, I thought that your strange desire for these cores was blind to the danger they posed. But your reaction to the tier-eight rock wyvern’s beast-core disproved that theory. So, next, I wanted to see if you can only pick up on it when the danger is extreme, so I presented you with a tier-five desert worm’s core. But from your response, I’m certain that you have a gauge for how much of a threat a given core is to you. I wish I had a tier four core of the earth element to further test just how sensitive this danger gauge is, but unfortunately, of the few tier four cores that I have, none are of the earth element,” She informed him.

“However, the fact that you feel that a tier-three core is safe, is in itself a very odd thing, Roka,” she continued. “It’s true that creatures below tier three don’t form beast-cores and that at tier three, only the weakest and most basic of beast-cores take shape. Still, you are a mundane human, Roka. The fragment of a tier-three creature’s soul should pose a significant threat to you,” She stated. “Why you feel that the obsidian earthmover’s core is safe, I don’t know,” she added. Though he didn’t voice it, Greg already had his suspicions. His three months of soul training through constant dungeon dives had made his soul far stronger than what a mundane human should possess. If it was a complete tier-three soul, Greg doubted he’d be able to contend with it. But against just a fragment of it, he had a chance!

“Be that as it may, however, I can’t afford anything happening to you,” She said, all the cores, including that of the obsidian earthmover, vanishing, probably back into her storage. Greg couldn’t help the plaintive sound that escaped his lips when the tier-three core vanished, his hand involuntarily reaching toward where it had been. The fact that his body had been released from the healer’s control barely even registered in his mind. An amused smile crossed the healer’s lips at his reaction. “I said I can’t take any risks, I didn’t say I’m taking the core from you. I know a few soul-reinforcing sigils that I can put together back in my cave. Whatever it is you plan to do with these cores, you’ll do tomorrow once you are empowered by those sigils,” She asserted.

Even without asking, Greg knew she wouldn’t be moved on this point. That, however, wasn’t what he was focused on. The healer’s words just now, caused Greg to blink a few times. All this time, he hadn’t known why he was drawn to the beast-cores. He, however, had assumed that, given her vast knowledge of magic, the healer would at least have some inkling as to why he felt so drawn to the things. But from what she’d just said, it would seem that that wasn’t the case. “Wait, you don’t know why I’m having this reaction to them?” Greg couldn’t help but ask, unsure how to feel about it.

“That is the strangest part of this,” The healer replied. “Beast-cores have several uses in the magic world, from being part of certain alchemical potions to being used as the core of certain magical items, to even being integrated into certain formations. This, however, is the first time in my almost eight hundred cycles of life that I have come across a mage craving a beast-core the way you do. Not even I can tell what, if anything, you plan to do to the core or what you’ll gain from it,” She informed him…