“Ah, Arthur. Come in, come in, we were waiting for you,” Nadia’s voice called out, just as he was entering Miren’s tent.

He’d had to ask around to know which tent belonged to the Inscriber, since only Nadia’s and the Quartermaster’s were different from the others, but by virtue of the tribe’s size it hadn’t been too difficult.

Arthur had wondered where Miren or Nadia were, since he couldn’t find them after dinner was over, but now that he was here he had his answer.

Around a carpet serving as a sort of table, and sitting on the same mats the people here used to sit on during meals, Arthur found Nadia, Miren and Derin sipping on some tea.

Just like the last time Arthur had spoken to Nadia, the woman simply gestured for him to sit with them without much of a fuss for greetings or such, to which Arthur politely obliged.

Derin, the village’s healer, poured him a cup of tea, and then moved to sit behind Arthur’s back, to which he just looked towards Nadia in askance.

“We know you’ve had a stressful day, Arthur. Let Derin work his Magic, it’ll help you relax, and maybe even help you get through Miren’s boring lectures,” she reassured him with a smile.

Nadia took a sip from her cup of tea, while Derin brought both of his hands to Arthur’s temples. Although Arthur could only catch the glimpse of a glow on the corner of his vision, the healer’s hands glowed a gentle white light.

Arthur’s body, taxed from the morning training, relaxed almost instantly, and the strain he had felt on his mind since starting to work with the Quartermaster eased up significantly.

Miren coughed, and looked as if he was about to speak up, probably about Nadia’s comment on his lessons, but she interrupted him before he could utter a word.

“You’re probably wondering why me and Derin are here, rather than just Miren. It’s not just to ease you up, if you were wondering, although Derin mostly is. Rather, I’m here to offer my congratulations, and an apology,” she said, and waited for him to process.

Arthur already had an inkling of an idea, which didn’t make him a genius, since it was pretty obvious where she was going with this.

“So you were… testing me?” He asked, slightly confused as to why.

“Yes, more or less,” she took another sip of tea, “it’s pretty simple, really. Although I can tell you don’t have bad intentions towards us, I can’t tell whether you would uphold your end of our deal as best as you could. ‘We host you, you work with us’. If you didn’t put enough effort into it, we would have left you with the first group of Humans willing to take you in, when we came across one. We wouldn’t have abandoned you to die, as long as you did the bare minimum.”

Nadia chuckled. “Of course, I didn’t expect you to take it so seriously, that you would almost damage yourself by overexertion. You’re lucky Stiff, as a Quartermaster, has Skills which can tell whether or not his workers are about to die of fatigue,” she took another sip of tea, and murmured loudly, “I’ll still have to reprimand him for letting you go as far.”

Derin brought away his hands and moved back to his seat, as Arthur felt his shoulders droop and a contented sigh leave his lips.

“Alright, I guess that’s fair, although I wouldn’t mind if you told him to tone it down slightly, as well,” he conceded after composing himself. Nadia nodded, and Arthur continued, “I understand Stiff, but what’s the deal with Jackal?”

“Right, there was that as well.” This time, it was Nadia’s turn to let out a sigh. “You see, Arthur, Jackal is not my natural grandson. He was adopted when he was barely ten, after we found him in the remains of another tribe. From what we discovered at the time, and from what Jackal himself claimed, his tribe was raided by a group of Human slavers.

“Now, I’m not asking you to ignore his abuse towards you, since you have nothing to do with those who wronged him, and so his anger is not directed where it should be. But grief and vengeance is not something easily buried even after many years, especially for us Oni.”

Nadia didn’t elaborate on the last thing she said, simply shaking her head and resuming her explanation.

“I’ll have a talk with him, although I suspect you will have to gain his respect before you can go along with him.

“Still, don’t expect the training to get any easier. Although he may have been especially harsh on you, Jackal is still the best Hunter in our tribe, and as such the best teacher you could ask. His methods are solid, and through some suffering and sacrifices, you’re guaranteed to grow.”

Nadia and Derin left soon after, done with what they had come for and having finished their tea.

This left Arthur alone in the tent with Miren. Although he hadn’t spoken much with the man, Miren seemed to be a patient and polite person, so he wasn’t too worried about his lessons turning out as violent as the ones before.

For his part, Miren simply sat in his seat, scrutinizing him for a short while. When he seemed to sense the awkwardness in the air reaching a turning point, the Inscriber spoke up.

“Very well, I guess we can start with the lesson immediately, get the theoretical bulk out of the way first. Let’s see… first of all, do you have any questions before we start?” Miren asked him out of a sudden.

Arthur thought for a bit, before deciding that he did, in fact, have a question.

“When we met for the first time you told me that, while you couldn’t teach me Magic, I would still be able to learn how to inscribe. How is that, does inscribing not need Magic?”

“Perfect, that’s a great place to start,” Miren brightened up, not hesitating to throw himself in an explanation, “Although it is true that inscribing is done through the use of Magic, it is not done with your magic, but rather, using the Mana, or Power, from two sources.”

Miren took out a metal pen, very similar to one of those bulky, modern ballpoint pens, with a light blue crystal sphere secured on the back end.

“The first source comes from the tool used to draw the inscriptions, which gradually gathers Mana from the aura around you. The second source–“ he continued, taking out a familiar orb from a nearby chest– “is the monster core used as a focus. Like this Sand Wurm core, which you probably recognize.

“I’ll teach you later how to use the inscription tool, for now, let me explain how cores work, and how they are classified. Cores are, in essence, the string of life of the creature it came from, grown from its experiences and traits. As a seamstress would with a ball of yarn, inscribers unwound the core, and use that string to draw patterns and shapes to exploit this potential, using the Mana from their tool as a sort of glue.

“You’ll need to learn [Core Inspection], [Steady Hand], [Focused Mind] and [Power Inscription] at the very least, to make it all work. Anyway, for the type of cores–“ Miren stopped speaking, as Arthur politely raised his hand to interrupt.

“Sorry for interrupting, but… do I really need to learn all those Skills? Although I can see how the others may be helpful, wouldn’t [Power Inscription] and [Core Inspection] be enough?” Arthur really didn’t want to fill out his slots, if he could help it.

“Right, I forgot it wouldn’t be common knowledge to someone who hasn’t studied much, although you yourself seem to have an education of some kind… How many slots would you have, after learning all of those Skills?” He asked Arthur, after mumbling to himself a bit.

“None, they’re just enough to completely fill me up,” he answered honestly, since he didn’t see a point in lying about that.

“Ah, that wouldn’t be ideal, I see why you were worried. Let me explain. Since your ability to use Magick comes from a Skill set, are you familiar with how they work?” Arthur shook his head, and he continued, “A set is the combination of various Skills and powers, compressed into a single slot. They evolve over time in different ways, granting you a new Skill at specific milestones.

“Most sets grant three to five Skills, at the same intervals, until they reach Level 100, and from then on the set simply grows in power as the Level goes up. Usually, sets above Rare rarity are composed of more Skills, but it is neither a guarantee, nor a necessity for it to happen.

“Now, sets can be gained in one of three ways; by earning them directly through hard work and training, thanks to a Potential Crystal, as you did, or by combining specific Skills which have a synergy with each other. Guess where I’m going with this?” He asked him, although it was quite obvious that he did. It really didn’t take a genius.

“So, all of the Skills you listed before will fuse into the same set. When would that happen? As soon as I get all four, or is there another criteria? Also, when I get the set, what Level will it start from, and what Skills will it contain?” Arthur asked, finally curious to know more about the mechanics of the system he now had to live with.

Miren looked genuinely surprised and delighted that Arthur would ask him questions, as if he didn’t actually expect him to do so.

“It’s great that you have so many questions, I at least don’t have to explain how a lecture works to you. As for your questions, the answers aren’t completely set on stone, but here’s what I can tell you with certainty.

“A set acquired through combining Skills requires each one of said Skills to reach a specific Level, usually 20 or 25. When the set is formed, it starts back from Level one, and you only have a Skill in it.

“While this may seem like more of a loss at first glance, and to be honest it actually is at the start, in the long term you will gain much more than you paid for. First of all, you will get your Skill slots back. Second, the first Skill of the set will contain most of the useful aspects from the sacrificed Skills. Third, all Skills will be as powerful as the overall Level of the set, saving you from having to train all Skills individually.

“Since I was trained using this very same method, involving these very same Skills, I already know the set you will acquire, which is called the [Savant’s Inscriptions], an Uncommon Enhancement set. The first Skill I got from the set was [Advanced Inscription Studies], but often sets will give out different Skills based on experiences and needs, so it could also be something different.”

Miren took a pause to clean up and put away the teacups and the spare mats, and Arthur gave him a hand to avoid just sitting there. Then, the Inscriber took a sip of water to quench his throat, and continued with his lesson.

“Alright, I think this is enough about the sets themselves, I can teach you more when we get there. Where was I before we diverged from the main topic… Ah, right, I was about to tell you about the different types of creature cores which can be found.

“Mainly, in my school of thought, there are three cores with which we inscribers work;, Augmental, Elemental, and Phenomena cores.

“Going in order, Augmental cores are the most common of the bunch, but also the most used in our line of work. They are used in conjunction with other cores, to modify how they affect the world, either by manipulating their power output, their direction, and various other effects.

“Elemental cores are, together with Phenomena, also often categorized as ‘Basis’ cores. They simply manifest an event in the world, in the form of raw Elemental power. For example, an inscription written using a Wind core will simply blow out air directly in front, the strength of which is based on the strength of the inscription itself.

“Phenomena cores are rarer than Elementals, although not by much. As I said before, they are often grouped together with Elemental, and that’s because, much like them, Phenomena cores simply manifest a force into the world, although the effects they produce are more varied.

“Going back to the Sand Wurm core, for example, they are categorized as Phenomena cores, specifically Manipulation Phenomena cores, although the name isn’t very precise since the only thing you can manipulate with inscriptions based on this core are sand and dirt.”

Miren looked at Arthur, likely to gauge whether or not he was still following along with his lecture. It was quite a long explanation, especially since he didn’t have any paper to take notes with, but nothing worse than the average university lecture.

He wondered whether he could make paper with his magick… no, focus!

“Alright, I think we can stop with the theoretical explanations for today. We’ll spend the rest of the cycle trying to see if you can’t pick up [Core Inspection]. If you haven’t changed your mind?” Miren asked him, when he saw that his student’s eyes hadn’t glazed over quite yet.

Arthur shook his head, now convinced even more than before that gaining this set of skills, and Skills, would be a good investment for his future.

Miren smiled, and took out various cores to start with his training.