Kyrion’s core appeared like a seed about to germinate, roots peaking out as mana of a high quality slowly seeped out in a pale green mist. Resting around the center was a small silver fox and a young goose who seemed to be absorbing it. From Jala, the mixture of pink and silver mist left her and entered his center, while Issac produced a deep blue mist. What the creatures didn’t absorb flowed into him at a similar rate as the other two. Kyrion could feel that it would take around two months before his core was full enough for rank four. He searched for the consciousness of the odd creature bumming around in there.

What was their name again? Cy, Psychic, no…. “Hey, Psycho!” Kyrion’s voice echoed through his center, creating a ripple in the hazy environment

“Cycle!” It yelled. “I’m not the psychopath here!”

“What does that even mean?!” Kyrion yelled back.

“What do you want!?” The voice seemed to get closer

“Why are we yelling!” Kyrion yelled back.

“You started this.” Psycho took a deep breath despite not being real.

“Oh, I’m going to be traveling with my master to get my affinities tested. What does that even mean?”

“Oh? Where is he going?”

“To the Chroniclers, or something.”

“I can tell you those quite easily. I would keep them a secret.”

“Yeah… but then I wouldn’t get to go on my adventure.”

“Adventure?”

“Don’t you hear everything I do?”

“No. I can’t do that until I’m unsealed.”

“Didn’t you say that my family would be in danger twelve years from now? The kingdom was attacked by an army from the south and I hear that the outer farms were the first to be razed. That isn’t supposed to happen right?” Kyrions voice quivered a bit as he asked the question.

“Attacked you say. That is very wrong. Something changed, something big. Kyrion, it looks like the info I had on the future is now obsolete if there is someone causing waves.Keep an eye out for anything suspicious as you go forward.”

“Is my family dead?” Kyrion asked. The worry he had been carrying all day starting to show.

“I don’t know, though I highly doubt they would go down easily. Was your brother at home when you left for training?”

“Yes.”

“I see… Well I’ll tell you about your afinintes along with their quality.”

“Yeah.” Kyrion’s voice seemed to be on the brink of breaking.

“Affinities have three inate qualities; Control, Intensity, and Polarity. Control is how well you can manipulate the element, Intensity would be how much power you can produce with said element. Polarity is the nature of the ability, positive means it’s capable of healing and protection while negative means it can only be used to disrupt. Neutral is the rare in between that can do both. Your abilities fall into the neutral category which account for lots of flexibility in your growth though you may never out damage a pure negative polarized warrior, nor would you out heal a fully positive polarized healer.”

Kyrion scratched the back of his head, finding himself back in the real world, where Nico was lecturing the others on the various effects of fire. A tear had made its way down his cheek.

“You see fire can also heal though and promote growth when applied…You alright there Kyrion?”

”Yeah, my eyes felt a bit dry for a second. Just going to close them for a minute.” Kyrion quickly reentered his center and found Psycho waiting for him

“You’re back! Now where was I? From the one you call Jala: Wind, Control Average, Intensity, High, Polarity Neutral. Space, Control weak, Intensity weak, polarity Neutral.”

“What’s Space?” Kyrion interrupted.

“Its one of the higher affinities that tend to come along with abilities that have to do with creating something out of nothing, breaking the laws of conservation of mass or creating extradimensional spaces or transferring different planes. Your fruit ability, the reason you can only make so many is because that’s how many have had time to grow and then be stored where you can reach them.”

“That makes a bit more sense. No wonder I didn’t feel drained when I pulled them out.” Kyrion said with astonishment on his face.

“With the right core it could become powerful…Oh well, as for Issac, Water: Control High: Intensity Medium, Polarity Neutral. Beauty, Control Average, Intensity High, Polarity Neutral.”

“Beauty!?” Kyrion interrupted. “How is that even an affinity? Can I trade it for something useful?”

“Sadly no, well you were a bit hard to look at previously so this helps quite a bit?”

“Your saying I would be ugly without it?”

“No, I’m saying you had to go around in a mask for a good portion of your adult life. Don’t discount beauty. This puts you around average in terms of appearance, it improves the purity of your mana along with increases your innate balance.”

“So it is useful. Now that I think about it, I haven’t been tripping as much… wait no I did it earlier” Kyrion felt as though Issac wasn’t the only vain spirit in his body anymore.

Psycho moved on. “Next is the seed, that you haven’t named as of yet. I don’t know what that plant is yet, as it seems to die and start over multiple times, but I do know it’s some sort of tree. Currently, it gives the plant affinity, Control high, Intensity high, polarity neutral. Along with Life, Control low, Intensity high, polarity neutral.”

“I could make a super farmer with those affinities.” Kyrion muttered in disbelief.

“Or a healer, warrior or some sort of hybrid.”

“All that work and all I get is a better plant growing ability than my siblings.”

Psycho looked at Kyrion with an odd look. At least Kyrion assumed it did, from within the faceless hood.

“What?”

“Nothing. Well you should at least have some time to think to yourself before going on your little adventure.” Psycho told him.

“Thanks Psycho!” Kyrion waved goodbye.

“My name is not….”

Kyrion left his center. leaving Psycho alone to think on a few things.” So many changes, it isn’t right. Maybe it’s better this way.”

“Without Oxygen a fire can not burn, though mana can compensate, the drain is exponential therefore I recommend not using fire in a vacuum, but instead find another way around it.”

Kyrion stood up and stretched. “Nico I’m going to go research spirit cores and by research, I mean pick the ones that sound cool. May I be excused?”

“Do you need any help?” Nico replied.

“No, I’m sure the others have a lot to learn about fire and stuff. Most of my stuff just puts it out.”

“May I be excused as well? My ability is ice, there is no overlap.” Kiara tried to join in.

Damian stayed silent, looking at Nico with a blank expression as though he was paying very close attention. Noah took notes while Everest was working on a scarf under the table. Asela and Wura were the only other two who didn’t seem lost.

“Well so long as you’re studying then I won’t stop you.” Nico eyed the two leaving the lecture.

The latter spoke first as Kyrion and Kiara made it out of earshot.

“Thanks for finding an opening in the conversation, I can’t do much with knowledge of fire other than smother it.”

“Nico can be a bit enthusiastic about what he likes to talk about. I learned a long time ago how to deal with said spontaneous lectures, the main method being redirection. I also heard this exact lecture before, but it seems Asela and Noah haven’t gotten it yet. They should have since pyro’s odd.” Kyrion thought for a moment. “Well I really do need to look at spirit cores and then talk to my master.”

“Mine will be an Ice serpent. It should provide me with some endurance along with ice that slows and weakens enemies struck by my ice attacks.”

“I see. You must have a lot of this figured out.”

“My family has been going over what, spirit cores, I should take from before I was even born.”

“Before they knew what you would get?”

“There was a high chance I would get an ice based ability, though the one I have is mainly utility for now and didn’t give many any defensive powers.”

“Can’t you just make Ice armor then?”

“I don’t have the mana for that yet. At this rank it would just melt.”

“Ah…” Kyrion stood outside the library for the second time today. “Well I’m here now. Just going to start doing some boring research, feel free to go do whatever.”

“I’ll stay, so you can bounce abilities off of me.”

“Fine with me.” Kyrion entered the library.

Kyrion looked around the study room, soft bean chairs in the center. Shelves of books blanketed the walls. A single chalkboard was in front of a table paired with wooden chairs.

“Lets see, for cores Nico told me to use Horgash’s core for dwarves. What’s a dwarf?”

“I think it’s a race. Never met any though.”

“A race? Like how Wura is a half-orc?”

“Yes there are races other than humans and orcs. I hear that there are elves somewhere on the continent though they tend to be very secretive.”

“Got it. There are dwarves out there somewhere and I just got to find them.”

“Need anything else here?”

“Quite a few books actually I’m going to be here for a while.”

Kyrion had gone through quite a few books as hours passed. Kiara left exhausted from the long day. moving on to the wind. “Tomorrow will be a busy day… Must not sleep now.” He read through the list of wind elemental cores that he liked.

Boom Ferret: A fast creature that can move at speeds so fast that a booming echo is all that’s left behind. When used as a core, the Intensity of the spirit masters wind abilities grow exponentially. Most spirit masters with this core have reported a boost in running speed as well.

Teveran Devil: A doglike marsupial that defends its territory by rapidly spinning in circles, forming localized twisters. Those who use this core have reported more efficiently controlling the wind close to their body.

Wind Fairy: A tiny insect-like creature, very reclusive. Some reports say that they look like tiny humans. They are experts in illusion magic and can heal with wind magic. Unfortunately, their cores rarely make it to an open market due to their exclusiveness.

Sky Drake: A lesser sky dragon that is known for its ability to fly and breathe lightning. Their cores allow the wielder to gain access to the higher lightning affinity if their wind affinity is high enough. If not, it raises wind affinity by a few degrees of power. These cores are popular for budding wind spirit masters.

Kyrion reviewed his four selections for a wind-based core before deciding that it would be best if he consulted his master.

Master Gan was found sitting around a table with three other teachers, playing some kind of card game. Kyrion approached the table with determination in his eyes.

“Master Gan! I need to speak to you.” Kyrion said.

“Can it wait? I have a really good hand.” Master Gan said more to the other players than to Kyrio

“Urgent!” Kyrion yelled. “More important than some card game.”

The other players did not take the bluff. “Sigh. Fine I’ll fold then. I need to step away for a minute,”

Master Gan followed the boy back to the room Kyrion had been using in the library. Quite a few books were sprawled about. Some footprints could be seen on the bookshelves as well. As though someone climbed them, like a mountain. Master Gan looked around the room, not noticing a ladder or other device capable of getting to the higher shelves, and sighed inwardly.

“A kids gotta do what a kids gotta do, I guess.”

“Exactly. I managed to figure out my affinities so now I need help picking out cores.”

“You figured out your afinites? How?”

“You could say I asked my spirits.”

“Well that saves some time. How any do you need exactly? I know you have multiple spirits but with one core per spirit how many do we need to hunt?”

“How do you know that?”

“Your speech, abilities, and innate mana capacity. Growing flowers and cutting things with wind don’t overlap much.”

“Ah…” Kyrion made a mental note to be more careful with his words. “I have three.”

“Not bad. Not bad at all. Now your affinities.”

“Wind, Space, Water, Beauty, Plants, and Life.” Kyrion stated.

“Beauty…I don’t see it.”

“Hey!” Kyrion protested.

“Space may be useful to you in the future though going by your list, attacking is your priority. You don’t need more attacks, you need some good ole fashioned utility.”

“I don’t have any attacks.” Kyrion told him.

“Of course you do. Basic elemental Control can be fine tuned towards attacking, if it helps I’ll allow you to pick up some of those attack increasing cores when you’re in the practitioner rank. The fairy is a bad choice for you, since you don’t have an illusion affinity, you would only get half the potential out of it.”

“So I need something that combines the two, Space and wind.”

“Don’t you worry, I think I can get a core for that one pretty easily.”

“Isn’t Space rare?”

“To have yes. To find? Depending on what you’re looking for, I happen to know of a Space wind core that tends to go overlooked due to a lack of people capable of using them to their fullest. A bag gremlin would suit you perfectly.”

“Bag gremlin. Is it strong?”

“Nope. Though you will thank me later. For water and beauty, how about a lotus of longevity. It should give you a way to cure diseases and other ailments of the body, along with providing you with a longer lifespan.”

“Don’t I already get a longer lifespan?”

“It increases your youth, allowing you to benefit from the perks of being a young spirit master quite a bit longer than most.”

“Do I want that?” Kyrion asked.

“Yes you should.”

“That’s enough for me though it seems like it falls into the plant category.”

“It actually touches on all four while only taking up a single core. Though it won’t make you hit harder in the long run.”

“Ok plants and life, what do you have for me?”

“You said you wanted a powerful attack. This one would probably be a core from a steelbox tree, with it you should be able to create fruits that detonate when triggered, spreading a hundred or so needle-like seeds which will grow into trees when given the mana. You could potentially clear out a battlefield with an army of exploding invasive trees. It’s only limit is your mana, the stronger you get the stronger they get.”

“A super attack! I want it.”

“Yeah I’m sure you do. Know this however never use this ability in a tournament of any kind until you have full Control over it. Because the explosions could catch you along with the crowd judges and ect. It is literally a last resort ability.”

“Great. I think that’s all my spirits, going to bed now. It’s been a long day” Kyrion climbed into a comfy-looking bean chair, and everything faded to black.