Ava was conflicted as Dirk gave her full access to the house. She was also emotional.

She now knew why he was quiet for the hour that they ate dinner. He was deliberating on whether he should give her the key. While one could say that the fact he was deliberating showed his lack of trust, she didn't see it that way. She instead realized that he was being open with her, that he was giving her a chance.

They were friends, but even good friends may not trust each other with sensitive things. Giving someone access to your home was a big deal. Allowing them to use it while you were away was an even bigger deal. And considering that these houses were not easily owned in the academy, doing this was unheard of.

Ava was almost overwhelmed by how much Dirk was entrusting to her. And it was all so she could train her mana. She wanted to reject it, but at the same time, she wanted to prove herself. Rejecting might also mean distancing herself from Dirk. She didn't want that.

The two walked back up to the living area, and Dirk saw Ava to the door. Before she left though, she turned and wrapped Dirk up in a big hug. It was brief but deep, and afterward she saw herself off. Dirk closed the door before cleaning the place and going down to the basement himself.

He pushed all other thoughts out as he sat down in the middle of the metal room. Since yesterday, he had been wondering how to go about creating his first Mana Heart. He had his AI pull up the book, and he read through the second section.

'After becoming Tier 2, one needs to accumulate and develop their Mini Heart. This Mini Heart is an agglomeration of an element, and upon creating it, the heart will act as a source of the element it's made out of. However, one needs to note that, until a heart is made for every attribute, the power to use an attribute will be lopsided. Because of this, it may be important for one to plan the order in which they plan to accumulate an attribute.

Once this is settled, one can move on to accumulating the Heart. The Heart will be placed on top of your physical heart. Once the Heart takes on form, the mana will saturate the heart and begin to travel outward through the blood and veins. Blood is a carrier for all types of energy, and the heart is the mechanism that drives energy transfer and, by extension, life itself. The process of mana being infused into the blood will happen naturally, and this forms the system by which mana flows through you. This Mana Blood system allows absolute control over the mana inside your body and also allows the uninhibited intake of mana from the outside. The Mana Blood will, by extension, augment the Mana Lungs, enhancing its effects.'

Dirk read through the section, and the more he read, the more excited he got.

Basically, he would create a core of mana on top of his heart. This core would be made of a single element. Once the core was completed, it would push him to Tier 3. However, Dirk had to be careful about his choice. If he decided to make an Earth element Heart, he would have lots of Earth mana at his disposal and enhanced control over it, but the same wouldn't be true for his other two attributes. The other two would lag behind until he could create hearts for them. So for however long it took to create the other hearts, he would basically be relying on one single attribute.

So he had to choose the most optimal one, but he didn't know which one that was. He hadn't learned many spells and developed his magical ability. However, he was able to quickly get ideas.

'Earth magic manipulates solids. I've seen spells in the books that can make walls of rock or launch spikes. But it's more defensive in general. Fire, though, is very much offensive. High heat, high damage. As for Dark, I'm having trouble with it. I may be able to make a heart out of it, but my understanding of its spells and techniques lacks behind that of the other two. Until I develop more, I don't think I'll be able to tackle it and effectively utilize it. So I should choose between earth or fire. Offense or defense...'

Dirk pondered for a long while. In the end, he chose Earth. While it was indeed more defensive, he also had the Metal specialization which, according to his teacher, enabled the creation of metal objects and in general stronger formations. This meant his walls and spikes would be stronger than normal. Earth was a mixture of offense and defense, and he preferred the well-roundedness. Plus, his affinities were higher than that of the Fire attribute. While he couldn't feel differences in his ability to detect and control the two elements, it may affect his ability to form spells or reduce their effectiveness. Until he knew for sure, he would rather take the more reliable route.

With that decision made, he decided to start. The book said he needed to condense the element in a ball on top of his heart. Do this for long enough and the mana would begin to remain there permanently, forming a core or heart. However, the condensation process was a bit special. It required him to continuously contract and expand the core, not unlike how he did when training Mana Lungs.

The rate of contraction and expansion was according to the rate of the heartbeat. Every time it beat, he would contract, and in the time between the beats it would be expanded. The only difficult part about this was actually making the mana dense enough. The book said that he needed to make it as dense as possible, and the most optimal density must be three times denser than environmental mana. As he got stronger, the density would increase until he finally formed a proper heart.

Finally, there was one final thing he needed to do upon forming the heart. The book said that when the heart took sufficient form, he was to enchant it with a single rune. This rune would be responsible for matching the beats of the mana heart to the beats of the physical heart. It would also allow mana to better inject itself into the bloodstream.

Technically, the rune wasn't actually necessary. However, the book highly recommended it. Not forming the rune should only be done if the person absolutely couldn't. Naturally, Dirk planned to form it. There was no reason why he shouldn't.

With that, Dirk assumed he was knowledgeable enough to start. However, he remembered that he had specialized attributes, and the introduction said something about a different kind of heart needing to be formed in that case.

"Interface."

[Awaiting orders.]

"Search the Mana Heart book for text relating to specialized heart formation."

[Searching...]

Dirk waited, and in a few seconds, results came up. Dirk took a look at the page.

'For those with a specialized attribute, a specialized Mana Heart needs to be formed. This heart will be similar in function to a basic heart, except one needs to mix the two types of mana with each other. For example, for the fire element and lightning specialization, one needs to condense an equal mixture of both fire and lightning mana in the process of heart formation. Should one only condense the basic fire element, they will become lacking in their ability to utilize the lightning element. And since a lightning heart will not be formed, this could remain permanent unless they take measures to remedy the fire heart. However, fixing a heart is extremely difficult, and the results of a fix may not improve one's situation much. Thus, it is advised to form a heart of equal mixture, even if it may be more difficult and time-consuming.'

Dirk read this and nodded. Applying the same logic to his Earth and Metal attributes, he would need to condense a 50/50 ratio of Earth and Metal element. This wasn't impossible at all, though controlling two different elements at the same time was indeed difficult. He had no doubt that it would prolong the formation process, but he wasn't really concerned about that. That would defeat the purpose of him choosing the earth element first anyway. He found the metal specialization essential.

With that clarified, he went on to officially start. He rid himself of other thoughts and concentrated on the elements around him. He could see fragments of darkness, chunks of brown earth, grey shards of metal, hot sparks of fire, and electric sparks of lightning. All these elements flowed around him like an atmosphere of elemental energy. In the outside world, mana wasn't very dense, almost like normal air. But in this basement room that condensed mana for him, it seemed more like a liquid, albeit a thin one. This ambient mana was about twice as dense as outside.

With that advantage, Dirk only needed to condense it another 50% before forming the heart. Knowing that, he grabbed both the earth and metal mana around him in equal amounts, pulling it in and condensing a ball of the mixture right on his heart.

It took a good amount of effort. He had to control two different types of mana, condense them both in equal amounts, and then do contraction cycles. For a while, Dirk struggled to do the multitasking, but after getting used to it some, he was able to move on to the contractions.

To do this, he steadied the rhythm of his heart at 60 bpm. From there, he quickly pressed the mana in on itself every second for a fraction of a second, matching the heartbeat. When he did this, he could feel some of this earthen and metallic mana seep into the blood in his heart. It was a weird feeling, but an oddly refreshing one. However, it was only a tiny bit, like a drop of ink in an ocean. It would take many, many contractions to saturate his blood.

The unfortunate thing was that this process of contraction and expansion was tiring. Dirk was only able to do this for 30 minutes, after which he stopped in exhaustion. When he did, the ball of mana dissipated, leaving nothing like a core at all. It was like he didn't even train for 30 minutes.

'Damn... This is going to take forever. I might be able to do this training 3 or 4 times a day. But if I train Mana Lungs, that'll go down. I don't want to stop Mana Lungs since it still helps my soul improve on strength, so I'll have to equal out the types of training. I'm going to be tired all day...'

Dirk sighed as he thought of the tiresome days ahead. If he pushed himself to the max, he would be mentally tired all hours of the day. While he didn't really want to go through such torture, he motivated himself by thinking of how he would be able to handle mental exhaustion better afterward.

'Struggle now so I can struggle better tomorrow.'

He closed his eyes and spoke a motto to himself. This was something Gray would say a lot. He believed that since Dirk would live a life of constant struggle, he should struggle hard now so the struggle in the future could be borne easier. Why fight the struggle if you had no choice but to endure it anyway?

Dirk eventually came to take up this thought process. It wasn't willingly though. It took several years of breaking him down to finally accept the life of hardship. Even then though, it wasn't accepted blindly. Gray gave him purpose in the things he did, and that ultimately allowed him to accept the struggle. He believed that the pain was always for something, even if he didn't know what it was. This kept him going. It kept him pushing even when he felt everything was hopeless. In times of despair, the future could be both bleak and bright. He moved forward to figure out which it would be. And he never stopped since there was always more future ahead.

Dirk brooded for a while, memories of Gray popping into his mind. When his chest started to hurt though, he pulled himself back to reality. He couldn't allow himself to indulge in grief. He had 12 years to do that. Now he needed to focus on his new life.

He calmed down as best he could before leaving the basement. Unfortunately, he wasn't as calm as he thought he was, and he went straight to bed without even washing up like he usually did. That night's sleep wasn't a comfortable one, a faint sense of sorrow permeating from his person.

.............

From that day forward, Dirk would train his mana throughout the entire day. While it was harder to do so outside where the ambient mana wasn't dense, that was just yet another way he pushed himself to do better.

He would alternate between developing his new Heart and training Mana Lungs before leaving school and going home to work out. Now though, whenever he came home, he would always find Ava in the magic workshop training her own mana technique.

Upon seeing him return, Ava would leave the room and join him in exercise as she did in the morning. The two switched between basic exercise and martial exercise. Every time they did combat training though, Dirk got progressively harder on her. He also started teaching her new techniques.

Thus established their daily routine of waking, training, learning, training, and sleeping. Both advanced steadily, and before they knew it, 3 months had passed.

It was at this time that Dirk was sitting in the living area. He was contemplating, and Ava was cooking their dinner. Ever since he gave her the house key, she had taken to cooking their meals. While Dirk had to help her at first, after a while she got the hang of it herself. Now, she never let him get up to do anything after they finished training.

"...Hey Ava."

"Yes?"

"Do you know if they sell masks in the academy?"

"Masks?"

Ava tilted her head while stirring a pot of soup. She thought about the question before shaking her head.

"I've never seen anywhere that does. Why?"

"I've finished destroying all of my skin, except for the skin on my face."

"Wait, you have to destroy that too?!"

She turned around, shocked. The other body parts were fine since they were mostly hidden and didn't inhibit many functions. But the face? That was out for everyone to see. Plus, what would happen if his eyelids or lips were destroyed too much? His lips would be in constant agony and he may not even be able to close his eyes.

Plus, just thinking of the hideous look he would have to walk around the school with was humiliating.

Hearing her, Dirk sighed before shrugging.

"Yes, but it's fine. I was thinking about doing half of my face at a time. Since there's no masks, I'll just go without one."

"No! That's horrible! You shouldn't have to walk around and humiliate yourself like that. This technique of yours is ridiculous!"

"It's fine. Do you really think I care about a bit of embarassment?"

"No... But still! Wait, you won't come out with any scars, will you?"

"No. I haven't gotten any so far."

"That's good..."

Ava sighed in relief. If this technique scarred him everywhere then that would truly be unbearable. He would have to go around looking like a monster.

"Hmm, it'll be interesting going around bald for a while."

"You'll be bald too?!"

"The technique destroyed the hair on my arms and legs so I assume it'll do the same for my head. While it'll regrow, I'll be without hair until it's finished."

"Why the hell did you ever choose this technique?!"

Ava shouted in unfairness for Dirk while slamming the pot of soup down on the table. Dirk went over to eat, and Ava stared at him as he did so.

He felt this stare and knew what she was thinking. He spoke before she could.

"You don't need to help me. I'll be fine. It'll only be bad for a week anyway. My recovery speed is much faster now that my Anima levels have gone up."

"...You let me know if you need anything."

"Sure."

Saying that, both of them dug into the food.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

At that moment though, there was a knock at the door. Dirk frowned until he heard a voice come from outside.

"Dirk! Open up! Or are you asleep?"

"Coming."

Hearing Rita's voice, Dirk smiled a bit and went to open the door. When he did, he could see her standing outside with a bright smile.

"Hey! Miss me?"

"That expedition was long."

"Most of them are like that. The dungeons are large, so... who's this? Wait, deer girl?"

After walking in, Rita went quiet as she saw Ava sitting at the table. Ava was confused as well since she didn't recognize Rita.

"Rita, this is Ava. Ava, this is Rita, my sister."

"Oh! Nice to meet you!"

Hearing the name, Ava quickly stood and walked over. Meanwhile, various thoughts ran through Rita's head.

"...Dirk, you're only 12."

"Yes? Wait, no. We train together. Did you not hear about that?"

"About what? I knew that you guys are friends, but I didn't think it was this crazy."

"We've been training together for 2 years. She would come over to the house and mom would train us both. We just continued at the academy."

"...Is that right?"

Rita looked between them both. Dirk rolled his eyes, but Ava became a bit flushed. Before the conversation delved any further, Dirk waved.

"Just come in. We only made enough food for us, but you can share some of my portion."

"Huh? Oh, no, it's fine. I already ate."

Sighing, Rita dropped the subject and entered. Ava also went back to the table where the soup was getting cool.

Ever since the start of the year, Rita had basically disappeared. She had told him that she was going on a dungeon dive, which could take a while. Most of the students in the higher years did that. Now, it looked like she had come back. Just looking at her, Dirk could sense a sharp combat aura. She really wasn't that happy-go-lucky child anymore.

"Anyway, I came by to ask about your progress. How's training?"

Rita spoke as she took up a spot on the couch. Dirk's table still only had two chairs.

"It's good. I'm about to reach Rank 3 and I'm already Tier 2. Spells are also coming together nicely. I'm close to learning several combat spells."

"Oh really? How many circles?"

"Only one of them is two circle."

"Very good! I have no doubt that you'll be prepared for next year."

Rita clapped excitedly. Spells were divided in power usually based on how many circles there were. More circles meant more functions and more mana input, so this naturally meant more power. The only other way to improve power was to form better runes, but those complex, high-level runes were still beyond Dirk.

"So what about Anima? What techniques have you learned?"

"I haven't learned any."

"None? Why not?"

Hearing this, Rita was surprised. Dirk shrugged.

"There aren't any for me to learn. The Anima class we're in hasn't taught any."

"Well that's obvious. But what about the one that came with your technique?"

"My technique doesn't have one."

"That's impossible. Nearly all decent techniques have one. Look through your book again when you get the chance. It may also come naturally when you complete a section. Keep an eye out for any weird feelings you get when you advance."

"...Alright."

Dirk nodded and continued to eat. After Rita finished talking with him though, she turned to Ava.

"So, Ava, how's your progress?"

"G-good. I'm Tier 2 and Rank 2."

"Not bad. Now what's your plans for dungeon diving? Are you going to?"

"I... think so."

Ava answered unsurely. She definitely knew about how they would have the option of fighting in the dungeons next year. The kids in her classes talked about it all the time. But she wasn't sure about making a decision now. She wasn't totally confident in her ability to fight monsters. They were different than people, after all. She wouldn't necessarily be able to apply her training with Dirk.