Tiria looked musing to the others around the table, “You can all watch the lesson, not that you would be able to do this yourself as you aren’t dungeon or city cores yourself, but maybe Galen and Nala here will somewhere in the future be able to do this because of their connection to Marcus as city guardians.”

With a turn of her hand two seeds appeared on the table but I couldn’t identify any one to my shame.

“Now, Marcus, these two here are a rose and a nightshade seed. You will create a new plant out of these two by combining them and drawing out the thorns and the nightshade poison. I will guide you through the process, so listen closely and don’t do anything beyond my instructions. Focus on this one first,” Her left index finger pointed to the right seed that was a little bit bigger than the other, deep black and its shape looking like a drop of water.

“That’s the nightshade and I want you to focus as hard as possible on it. Try to magnify it with your senses until it fills all of your view.”

I did as she said and focused on the seed, making it almost jump into my view. The hull was rough and with small holes in it leading to the inside.

“Good, and now take a look inside following one of the holes inside the seed. There will be a path that leads you deeper into the plant. That’s a mana channel by the way, you are using to connect to its core…..Good, I see you can follow instructions quite clearly, so now explain to me what you see and feel.”

I saw the core clearly before me and it was amazing. Colours in every shade swirled around it and through the seed. Mostly shades of green and blue but also some red and a bit of black. I told Tiria what I saw and she seemed satisfied with my words.

“The green is life magic connected with its ability to grow. The stronger this colour is, the faster it can grow by providing life mana. Blue represents water mana and if you provide it with water mana, it will strengthen its ability to survive longer without water and by changing some of its shades perhaps even add a healing power to the plant, but depending on its other colours it possibly will resist you changing its true nature. The red colour connects with its need of warmth and its ability to resist heat. That’s basically what you did with the tree and the vines instinctively. You strengthened the fire mana in the plants to the point where they could resist smaller heat sources easily. Now they could stand in a desert and the heat wouldn’t burn their leaves or they could survive even in the coldest surroundings because their fire mana would keep them warm enough as long as there is enough magic around, “She took a short pause and let the knowledge settle.

Galen and the others sat on their chairs and watched a hologram above the seeds showing what I saw. All of them were silent and totally focused, not seeing Tiria’s knowing smile.

“What you want to strengthen in this seed is the black colour representing death mana and mostly any poisons any living being produces. As soon as you discover more of your old world’s knowledge again you will find ways to find new ways to change plants more directly and change their abilities but until then you will have to manipulate their mana to get results. Not always will you get what you wanted but there has to be some challenge in life, don’t you think? Now, let’s change the object.”

I withdraw from the nightshade and concentrated on the rose seed. Its hull was more smooth than the other one but I could now easily see the mana channels leading inside. I felt a bit idiotic for just pumping mana in the plants now without knowing anything about what I did. When I reached the core I saw much green shades again, but not so much blue and red and no black at all. Instead there was some brown shades there, I hadn’t seen in the nightshade.

“Alright, my young student, there is something new here, right? The brown represents earth mana and in general that means sturdiness and defense. In case of a rose that’s thorns. Most plants will accept earth mana imbuing quite easily, likewise life and water. Air mana, which is yellow by the way, takes a bit more power to imbue because it’s opposed to the earth mana. And as you surely already guessed fire mana causes the most resistance, because plants generally are not very fond of fire, which should tell you that all changes made through mana imbuing depends on the object or creature changed. If you strengthen fire mana in a creature that’s already affiliated with it like a salamander for example, then it takes much less work for getting the effect permanent. And stop this idea of creating a dragon right now. The last dungeon that tried to create dragons this way was incinerated by its own creations. Fire mana makes most thinking creatures extremely aggressive, so if you don’t want to get your city abolished, refrain from using to much fire mana for anything that’s able to move faster than a slug.”

Hey, I didn’t think about dragons!.... Ok, perhaps a little bit, but only for the far future. I felt Tiria’s gaze on me and dropped the thought immediately. Damn mind readers!

“Now let’s change the rose seed a bit by draining the death mana from the nightshade and imbuing it into your new creation. Concentrate back on the nightshade and pull at the black mana, preferably taking it completely with you through the mana channels to the rose.”

I grabbed with my mind at the black strands in front of me and wrapped them in my mana, noticing that it was without any colour. It resisted my pull and I had to invest more power straining me more than I thought possible from a small seed.

After fighting against my grip for some seconds I felt it come loose and following me through the mana channels outside. Along the way I felt it draining mana from me constantly. Tiria’s voice almost broke my concentration when she suddenly snapped at me, “Don’t let it wither! You have to provide it with your mana to keep this ability of the nightshade alive as long as it hasn’t taken root in its new seed. That’s the reason why most dungeons only start manipulating things after they have reached sentience and a very big mana pool. That’s your biggest advantage right now, because your guardians and the elves provide you with enormous amounts of mana. Young cores are almost always half starving because they don’t get enough energy from their territory which leads to inspire adventurers to explore the dungeons and be killed in the process. Most sentient creatures possess a much higher mana density than anything else, which makes them such a wonderful appetizer for the dungeons. Giving their mana willingly to you is therefore something that makes you a very powerful existence among my creations. Some of them on other worlds have already shown interest in your progress and bug me about giving them updates now and then.”

In the meantime I had moved the strands of death mana to the rose’s core and waited for Tiria’s next instructions. She really liked to talk a lot if the topic was about her cores. Sometime I should use that habit of hers to get more information out of her.

Oh, little one, believe me, we will talk a lot in the future! You are much too interesting for leaving you alone.

Did I already mention, that I hate mind readers? I only heard Tiria giggle beside me, smirking and ignoring the unsure looks of the elves.

Tiria became serious again and continued with her lesson, ”Now form a mana thread between the death mana and the core and prepare to use a lot of mana in the process.”

Following her command I created a connection between the two pieces and watched them interact with each other. The core sent out its mana, with all different colours intermixed, and the death mana piece sent its black mana from the other side.

She had said that it take some serious mana from me but I wasn’t prepared for my energy falling almost rock bottom. In my sudden mana deprived state I grabbed at my guardians energy and draw from them without reservation, making Galen, Nala and Kitara go pale immediately. I also felt Chara falling to her knees because of my actions, but at the moment it didn’t bother me at all. Imbuing the rose seed with the death mana of the nightshade took more power than I had available personally and my guardians had to pay the difference.

Tiria watched the whole action with eager eyes, smiling brightly when the rose seed took in all the death mana and returning its own mana threads to its core.

I was tired as never before since I became a city core and a slight headache disturbed my concentration on the core, making me lose the view on the core.

“I didn’t know that I could have a headache with being a core,” I said accusingly at the goddess.

“Hmph, you can think, so you can hurt. Nothing changes just because your body consists of crystal. Your small seed over there is now a very dangerous plant and you should warn your citizen to not come into contact with its thorns after you have let it grow outside your walls. Although you should perhaps strengthen its earth mana a bit more too to make it sturdier and the thorns a lot bigger in the process.”

I nodded only knowing that that would also create a new headache but wanting a good and efficient result I would man up and get the job done.

Suddenly I new idea struck me and Tiria squeezed her eyes almost shut.

“Sorry to ask you that suddenly, goddess, but would I be able to subjugate a dungeon core into becoming a city guardian?”