Mithal, why didn't Mona wake up yet?" Reithar looked to the older of the Varlier brothers, confused. Mithal is rarely wrong, but Mona still hasn't wake up.

Mithal looked back to Aeron and Reithar's perplexed faces, his own a bit unsure. I was certain from his body's reactions that he would wake up yesterday. All his injuries were largely settled then. But now...

He used his Aura once more on Mona, carefully examining the young noble on the bed. With each slightly different wave of Aura, Mithal was able to see Mona's veins and arteries, his organs, his bones, his skin all down to the smallest cell. This level of Aura control was very useful for detecting ailments like cancer in mortals, then using Aura to treat them.

Mithal shook his head, Reithar beginning to worry more with each shake. Although Mona's body was fully healed, it seemed his mind had not yet waken up. He couldn't tell what was wrong at all.

From Mona's vitals, he understood Mona was not in a coma nor was he sleeping. Yet at the moment, Mona had not regained consciousness. Is this a rebound of the poison?

His Aura poured into Mona's body with greater intensity, almost to the point of being visible. The gray wisps of Aura he created as the Primal Fold technique was channeled quickly disappeared into the air. Hundreds of wisps flew parallel to his hands, vanishing out of oblivion as Mithal exhausted over half of his Aura Core.

Reithar and Aeron followed in suit, their Aura pouring into the frail body beside them. So much Aura came into existence the whole prison cell had a lingering pale white haze as the three continued on. As soon as the gas approached the cell bars, it quietly dissipated into the air, leaving without a trace.

Mona's body began to tremble, a strange vacuum seeming absorbing all the Aura being poured in. The earlier situation quickly ended as the fog of Aura disappeared, leaving Mithal and the others gasping for air beside the bed. After exhausting all of their Aura and their energy in a frenzy, they began taking ragged breaths.

Mona opened his eyes, his face a bit confused. His consciousness had been in the Bubble this whole time as he was trying to understand what was refining the Aura. He had spent in fact 48 hours simply using his time to probe the Bubble. After all, he couldn't probe the cloak or the ring without getting ejected.

After studying the Bubble these several dozen hours, he had realized that the treasure had special symbols marked on the surface. He wanted to call them Designs, but they were nothing like the rudimentary ones he had to study under his father. Instead, they seemed enigmatic and complex, different lines and points fazing in and out of existence.

After watching one specific region for several hours, he found that the marked regions fazed in a cycle. Every 15 minutes, a new sigil or rune would appear where the previous was. Until one hour passed, the same symbol would not appear. The spherical Bubble had about 36 of these symbols all parallel to one another along the orb.

After several hours of watching this one symbol, Mona had managed to memorize it over these hours. The problem? Deciphering what they were. Although one could look at a painting and follow the shown strokes to make another piece, if one didn't understand how they work together, one could never use them out of that situation.

In other words, even if Mona memorized all of the signs on the outside of the Bubble one day, he wouldn't be able to use them if he didn't understand what they were for. Also, it would take time to practice drawing all of the sigils. If he made an error while attempting to make another Bubble, that item could very well end up killing him.

Creators were treated with great respect for mastering Designs and making from them Creations. Only those that reached high in Creating understood that some great geniuses would die from Creating. They died because their design was flawed in one way or another for their treasure, their grand creation killing them as it broke down.

Just before Mona began to ponder the intricacies of the lines that made up the first sigil, he felt a strange feeling as he was forcibly awakened through an overdose of Aura.

Mona's core had been largely consumed by the white poison, forcing him back to an Aura Mortal Level 0. Through a few cycles of the Primal Fold techniques he had eventually regained the minuscule dot that was his Aura Core, returning him to Aura Mortal Level 1. Now in his Aura Core region there was an extremely dense amount of Aura, all bursting at the edges of the core region to leave.

The internal pressure urged Mona's consciousness out of the orb rapidly, waking him up on the bed. He held his stomach as he looked to it, his Aura Core steadily trying to absorb all the energy without breaking into pieces in the process.

Mithal and the others looked at the pained expression of Mona's face. Each of them tried to move and help Mona, but their bodies hadn't recovered yet. They could only look on as Mona held his arms against his chest, his veins wriggling through his skin like worms.

Deep inside Mona's body, his small Core of Aura steadily grew. It grew in size over and over, until finally it was the size of a speck sand. The originally tiny Core was filled with Aura, and Mona could easily advance to Aura Mortal Level 2 once he cleared the Mortal Curse's second blockage.

But at the moment he couldn't. Mithal and the others were watching, and even if Mithal suspected a treasure, it was simply suspicion. Mona knew that this treasure was extremely rare, and his friendship with the Varlier brothers wasn't deep. He didn't trust they would stay quiet if placed under pressure.

The lasting he wanted was to be dissected for valuables such as the Bubble, so Mona instead allowed the Aura to gently seep into his first meridian and various cells inside of his body. Only then did the feeling of inner turmoil subside, replaced by an energized feeling.

Mona looked at his three cellmates still struggling to calm down. From his own Aura, he could tell they were extremely tired, their hearts pounding with heaviness. Each of their faces still retained a shade of red as they began to reach tranquility.

"Mona, you didn't die!" Aeron was the first to get up, shaking Mona back and forth with his arms. He looked at Mona with a bit of mischievous joy. Now all those bits of bread that fell to this glutton will be returned. Justice shall reign once more! He couldn't wait to eat back the shares of meals he lost.

Just as he was about to help Mona get up from the wooden bed, he stumbled back onto the ground of the cell in shock. His eyes looked at Mona as if he was a carnivorous beast, a beast that preferred eating members of the Varlier family. His actions did not go unnoticed by Mithal and Reithar.

Reithar looked to Aeron, perplexed. He soon after got up to cheer with Mona about his return of health before freezing where he stood. His gaze was no less strange than Aeron on the ground.

Mithal looked at the other two, his chest still heaving air. He carefully used the newly regenerated Aura in his body to scan the room. Aeron and Reithar were both alright, ridding Mithal of his fears the poison could transfer by touch.

His grey Aura examined Mona before bewilderment overtook him. Aura Mortal...level 1? But he has the Mortal Curse! Mithal knew that such a contradiction would send waves throughout any nation in the Madrag Continent, no the entire planet of Deifor. In his mind, a thought arose.

What if I had this treasure? What would I be able to become?

Before the thoughts became greed, Mithal rejected the thought. At the moment, he was carrying out a favor for Mona. Also, with the upcoming third testing date, it would be possible for Mona to pass the test alongside all of them. With four users of the Primal Force technique, they could easily leave on their third week. This could guarantee their lives and Mithal a path to the Seafoam Federation.

Also, nothing good would come from trying to steal the treasure. Chances were Ardor had searched for a Creation on Mona's body as well back during the cell search, only failing in the process. Along these lines, Mithal knew that Ardor would be quite pleased if he found out Mithal now had the rare item.

Even if Mithal could hide the item, it was likely he couldn't even use it. Bloodline based treasures have existed since time immemorial, and for Mona to have a Bloodline artifact only he could use wouldn't be odd among a noble family like the Aurum nobility. He kept his thoughts buried under these reasons, waiting for Mona to speak.

Mona sighed as he watched the confused looks of his companions. Now that he was a true Aura Mortal Level 1 on the verge of becoming an Aura Mortal Level 2, his energized Aura Core gave off faint signals of containing the mystical energy. This meant that anyone who could manifest the power would be able to tell of Mona's strange constitution.

If he walked out into the courtyard, it would give rise to great suspicion among the cellmates. And it wouldn't be long before Ardor or whoever learned of the young noble that was an Aura Mortal and was afflicted with the Mortal Curse at the same time. Such a scenario was clearly undesirable.

"Reithar, Mithal, Aeron. I have something I need to say." Mona looked at the three, helping them up to sit on the two beds. Mona stood standing, their gazes trained on his scrawny figure as he stood in front of the cell.

Standing in front of the sunlight, his shadow covered the floor of the room. The faint sense of Aura came from deep within his body, seeping out. Only those three were able to sense it.

"Inside of my body, somewhere, I have a treasure. However," Mona watched their gazes flicker with more questions, "I don't know how to use it. Or rather, I don't know what else it does."

"What does it do?" Aeron asked. He couldn't help but feel intrigue over the noble known as Mona Aurum. Who wouldn't?

"It, well, the Bubble refines Aura. It takes strands of Aura and refines them. As to what purity, I cannot say. All I can say is, the Aura after it is refined is able to reverse the growth of the Mortal Curse." Mona spoke almost casually, but Mithal and the others couldn't help but feel dumbfounded.

So he doesn't use his meridians? Doesn't that mean the Aura he uses is exceptionally pure?

Mithal rose up, his arms clasped around Mona's shoulders. His Aura approached his Aura Core, allowed to enter the region surrounding the young noble's sand grain sized Core. It was a pure white, and very small. However, it flashed without end, energy sent out in waves.

"His core, it's whiter than winter snow!" Mithal looked shaken as he sat back to his seat.

Aura practitioners used Techniques to harness Aura, their Meridians to purify it, their Cores to store it, and then Arts to manipulate the energy source for various means. Of course, impurities would be cleansed out of the collected Aura by passing it through the Meridians. The leftover filth would would leave the body through pores.

But Mona, unlike them, had been using Aura that was refined to a higher level. So high, Mona didn't have to struggle with making his Aura Core. Mithal had spent at least 6 years to train to an Aura Mortal level 1, and that was after he trained his body to the peak a mortal could reach.

But Mona did not have to put any effort at all. Mona didn't, and couldn't, train his body due to his Mortal Curse. Yet now, Mona was an Aura Mortal Level 1, and from his words, the level of the refining quality was so high the pure Aura could actually heal what was considered incurable for life. Wouldn't Mithal, with his fourteen years of experience in Aura, feel amazed and depressed?

A person with the Mortal Curse not only was able to reduce his own illness with a treasure. That same item allowed this weakly person to complete Mithal's six years of brutal Aura training in a matter of days. It hurt Mithal's pride knowing that among Aura refiners, his speed paled to a person that started no more than fifteen days ago.

Such speed! I knew betting on this fellow was the right decision. Mithal didn't remain gloomy for long, remembering that such a figure was his ally, his lifeline to return respect to the Varlier family. And now, that dream of knocking the main branch's gates down without fear was much more possible. Happiness flickered in his eyes as he thought of returning back to the land of his ancestors with the right to do so.

From what his father had written in his diary, Mithal had found where that main branch of the Varlier family was. Where were the people that cast out his father for being untalented in Aura and ensured his reputation was marred in the Seafoam Federation. Those individuals, although he had never met them, Mithal planned to show them how terribly they erred.

Aeron saw the light flicker in his brother's eyes and felt a sense of calm filled him. How long had it been since Mother's passing Brother smiled like that? He couldn't remember the last.

Reithar had already accepted the situation in full stride. Such an occurrence. I was right. The Gods haven't forgotten Mona. Reithar felt his various prayers from before were answered today. As for stealing that treasure from Mona, he didn't dare steal what could be Mona's only chance of continuing further.

"If you can refine high level Aura at that, doesn't that mean if we infuse more, you will reach our level much faster?" Reithar looked at Mona for his response.

"This..." Mona didn't think of actually being infused with Aura. If I was infused with Aura from all of them and also cultivated the Primal Fold Technique myself, how fast would my rise be? Mona couldn't say, but he smiled at Reithar's suggestion. They're so willing to help me. I can't fail them.

"Then it's settled. We'll help you train in Aura through infusions. That way you can reach as high a level as an Aura Mortal as possible. Using that treasure of yours, I'm certain you will break through to at least level 4." Mithal thought for a moment, the others approving of their plans.

"But wait, if they know that you are alive, wouldn't they know about that Bubble of yours?" Aeron felt it was good for Mona to lug his own weight, but still didn't want to see Mona carted off for dissection. Treasures can inspire even the most noble of men into heavy greed.

"I plan on faking my illness for the following days. That way, no one will notice my Aura Core. I hope you guys can manage without me." Mona expressed his thanks soon after.

Doesn't that mean that I have to share food again? Aeron seemed to be worrying heavily over his meals. His stomach had shrunken more. He didn't know if he could make it sharing food once again.

Mithal extended his hand around his brother's shoulder and then spoke. "Don't worry about Mona, Aeron. He'll be fine, as long as we help with his meals." His grip tightened as he emphasized that Aeron would share his bread.

Reithar looked at Mithal with a bit of disbelief. Who knew he could be sarcastic?

At about the same time as days before, the sounds of steps came towards the cell. Mona revealed his newfound speed as he rushed towards the bed, lying down. He returned to the Bubble with his consciousness, his body seemingly asleep.

Reithar and the Varlier brothers neared the door, putting on acts of depression. They thought that by acting this way, the guard wouldn't attempt to check on Mona's body.

The guard came to the cell, his eyes seeing the downtrodden faces of the prisoners. His gaze moved back to the last one, possibly still ill. Ardor told me to watch that kid, but look at him. He's clearly still unconscious. To think the head guard would worry over a mortal.

The guard smiled as he remembered his idol, Ardor. He didn't know if he could reach Ardor's level of talent in Aura, or his ability in commanding the other guards.

As the others were led away by the guard, Mona looked at the sigils in the Bubble. Just what are these runes? Anticipation of finding the answer covered his thoughts as he carefully looked at the intricate marks. Indeed, so beautiful and mesmerizing, yet hard to decipher.

Ardor looked at the office before him where the head of the department resided. He quickly remembered that Gryfor wanted the prisoners to give blood transfusions, then knocked on the door thrice.