I got something like a hero’s welcome when I finally got back to the temple. It almost brought a tear to my eye.

  The dungeon trip had a lot of benefits. Improving my financial state was a major motivation, though that was going to happen anyway. If the dungeon hadn’t worked out, I’d have taken a local job via the Mage Guild. And then recovering the treasure that Master Kostis wanted had also been an important goal.

  But the best thing was that my mana core had awakened. I had obtained an exciting new ability called Ignition Charge that did very interesting things to my Aspects. The success had my heart soaring.

  My happiness was just compounded to another level with how everyone else at the cult was so glad too.

  Sreketh gushed about how she couldn’t wait to go on her own adventure, while constantly demanding to hear all about our dungeon delve the day after the trip. The Scarthralls were even more excited to get going on their first official, guild-sanctioned adventure.

  When they heard about my mana core awakening and the fact that the implosion had destroyed the dungeon more or less, they were even more excited.

  “You can create your own little sprite?” Atholaine didn’t seem to believe me. “No way!”

  “I’ll show you next time I summon it,” I said.

  I tested Sacrifice later on too. One of the things I was wondering about was whether Windfall Affix would even work now that my mana core’s property had changed so much. It wasn’t drawing in a crap ton of mana to explode into being any longer. Although, I felt like it was still inhaling an avalanche of mana every second, but to power the Ignition Charges now.

  So, when I Sacrificed the next day’s breakfast, I found I got the same rewards as before. No hunger or thirst for the whole day. The notification even stated that Windfall Affix had activated. That was a relief.

  Then, with my spine trembling a little, I checked the status of my mana core.

  [ Path-bound Core: Ignition Charge

  Stellar Ignition rate: 0.99999/day.

  Ignition Charges remaining: 1 ]

  Ah. That was strange, but it made sense. Windfall Affix was still drawing on the enormous rates of mana that my core was naturally gathering. I was just glad Sacrifice hadn’t really changed.

  The rate change with a simple use of Sacrifice was really funny, though. Went from one per day to… one per day, essentially.

  It was then I realized that I didn’t need to keep Sacrificing things just to stay alive. I was free. Finally, finally, I wouldn’t need to keep a desperate watch on my status to see if I was going to explode.

  I laughed happily. Felt like years of stress evaporating off my shoulders.

  The elation made it hard to focus on other stuff. I figured I’d keep practicing trying to manifest my Aspects, despite not having the Affix yet. That didn’t take much brainpower.

  There were a lot of cult duties I needed to look over. Although, none of it was pressing. I paid a visit to the Ration House, which was working well. It was nice I had secured another line of finances because now I could donate to the Ration House via the cult and make sure it kept running well.

  I also collaborated with the hospital to finalize the way they could help the Scarthralls. They had prepared an improved salve that could suppress their vampiric bloodthirst.

  It tried to solve the real problem that their bodies derived nutrition almost solely from blood or bloodlike matter, even if other nutrition sources were available. That latter fact was what the hospital had decided to try and tackle, with the salve emulating blood via alchemy.

  Of course, the real problem was creating that salve wasn’t an easy process. It was expensive.

  A Ring Four hospital really wasn’t built to create something like that. In fact, they had needed to recruit an alchemist from the Alchemist’s Guild to complete the invention.

  I didn’t sigh at it. That was just life. Solve one problem and another one appeared. But ultimately, like so many things in life, it was a matter of money.

  Hopefully, with the Nether Vein discovery and the other rewards coming in from the Adventurer’s Guild, I’d be receiving a small flood of fortune before long. Plus, the Scarthralls themselves would be setting out on their own dungeon delves, which would further add to our coffers. In other words, income should be covered.

  “You ever thought about taking a salve like that?” I asked Hamsik when he visited to welcome me back. How nice of him.

  “Not at all,” he said. “Controlling one’s urges is something you learn to deal with as a Scarseeker growing up. Mastering them is vital for proper social integration. I still need nutrition, of course, but at a much lower rate than a newborn Scarthrall. Acquiring said nutrition isn’t really troubling.”

  Nutrition. He talked about it like he wasn’t talking about drinking the blood of living beings. But then again, if looked at extremely objectively, was eating their meat any less gruesome, barbaric, and animalistically carnivorous than drinking their blood? The state of this world meant that even internal organs and bones were almost never spared from consumption.

  The more curious thing we talked about was Zoltan. Hamsik was saddened to hear his brother had gone to such extremes out of his desperation for his family.

  “I hope you don’t mind I didn’t really hold back,” I said. “I don’t know if I ended up… well, killing him, basically.”

  Hamsik’s glance very briefly fell to my torso, where my burning, spinning mana core was hidden behind my cult robes. Or rather, where his half-brother had impaled me with a very clear intent to kill. “I’d probably have killed him too.”

  Well, that was reassuring and concerning at the same time.

  Hamsik had no idea what could have happened to Zoltan there, because it was unlikely that my mana implosion had actually killed an immortal Scarseeker. In fact, considering the fact that I and the rest of my entire party had survived, more or less, then at least some of our enemies had to have as well.

  Which probably included both Zoltan and the Claw leader, Shagor.

  “If they’re getting bold enough to mess with adventurers like that,” Hamsik said grimly. “Then I’d be careful if I were you.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out.”

  Hamsik promised he would make enquiries too. He also apologized for not finding out that Zoltan had planned something as desperate as attacking us during a dungeon delve. I waved it off since it would be impossible for anyone to predict something like that. That said, Hamsik was right. We would need to remain wary. Of both the Claws and the disgruntled Scarseeker, if they were still alive somehow.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “And your parents?” I asked. “How are they going to deal with this?”

  Hamsik looked concerned again. “They’re… trying to get used to the fact that Zoltan is his own person. Just like me. Worry though they might, it will not help Zoltan.” Then the concern hardened into something almost accusing. “Their failure lay in raising him to be a person who takes these sorts of decisions. Now they will need to suffer for it.”

  I had no comment.

  Before he left—and I asked where exactly he went since it wasn’t like he lived at the temple, but he brushed the question off—he surprisingly provided some decent advice.

  “You should tend to your mana core well,” Hamsik said. “You’re nearing Gold, right? That means you’ll need to start thinking about your Icon soon enough.”

  I had so many questions about Icons. By now, I had seen both Hamsik and Zoltan use their Icons. The whole volcano we stood upon was supposedly an Icon too.

  But Hamsik already looked uncomfortable at having to stay at the cult longer. I also had a lot to focus on, so I could deal with Icons later. Just like I’d need to think about Compound Aspects later.

  First, I had an Ignition Charge to figure out.

  It was a little disappointing I only got one Ignition Charge per day. Of course, I technically wouldn’t need to use it every day, so I could let it accumulate. It wasn’t like I got into fights or had pressing need to use my Weave-gifted powers frequently. All I did was use them to train most of the time, so that when I did need to use them, they were as strong as they could be.

  Cerea had said that mana cores couldn’t rank up like nearly everything else the Weave granted, but that was fine. They could be evolved. Something I’d need to look into properly.

  Later. Just like thoughts about Icons.

  Right now, I focused on using my sole Ignition Charge of the day on my Aspect of Flare. Like with Illumination, I was focusing on manifesting it, on bringing it to life without the need for Manifestation as an Affix or as an Augmentation.

  But try as I might, it didn’t work. I wasn’t sure why. Trying that on light had created that mini-sprite, which was essentially a living manifestation of light, if not exactly a real sprite like Enrico.

  For whatever reason, focusing my Ignition Charge on Flare didn’t create the same blob of heat energy that I was expecting. I mused on what could be the reason.

  Mechanically speaking, literally nothing happened when I focused on Flare and the Ignition Charge and on my intention to create another manifestation of my Aspect. It should be possible. Flare was heat, another form energy just like light. In elemental terms, there was no real difference.

  I spent nearly an hour pondering over it and trying to make heat energy appear through the Ignition Charge and still wasn’t any more successful than when I had started. There had to be something I was missing here.

  Since my regular process wasn’t working, I decided to be a little more freestyle with it. Instead of focusing so intently on something specific that I wanted, I decided to try and simply channel Flare while concentrating on activating the Ignition Charge. This time, I would let the Ignition Charge itself determine what it was going to do to my Aspect.

  It felt odd to relinquish control like that. Letting the Weave decide rather than directing it myself wasn’t ideal. I still hadn’t tested if the little Affix-but-not-quite that it seemed to be granting each of my Aspects were permanent or not, though something told me they were.

  But I could spare one Ignition Charge for the sake of experimentation.

  The mana core whirred to life within me. Just like before, the blackness within affected me in ways I didn’t want to consider just then. I was getting better at ignoring the painful memories, but still. I needed to figure out what in the world was going on.

  But I wasn’t letting it distract me now. When I had woken up, I had found more of those ever-present cracks spreading out through my body, from my torso to my limbs, all centred at my mana core. There was that slow, constant pulsing from my mana core that I was starting to just get used to as a part of me now.

  Now, as I properly exercised it, the pulsing turned so frequent that it became a constant hum that buzzed along the cracks. That seemed to meld cracks together into flexible lines spreading throughout me. Like permanent threads of mana.

  A constant buzz emanated through me, similar to the thrum of mana itself. The difference with the core was that it felt a lot more tangible and physical.

  Like my core, my mana was coming alive too, growing heated within my body as I channelled my Aspect of Flare. The interaction between the Aspect and my mana core grew stronger. The buzzing of the mana was aligning with the frequency of the core’s pulsing somehow. It reminded me of the phenomenon when two things vibrated at the same rate. What was it called? Resonance?

  The Ignition Charge activated.

  [ Ignition Charge

  Ignition Charge empowers Aspect of Flare. Charges remaining: 0.

  Flare: Immolation ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Flare Aspect has risen by one Rank.

  Flare: Iron X ]

  I exploded. At least, that was the only way I could describe what was going on.

  A storm of fire had erupted around me, centring on my body. Livid flames roiled across my skin and clothes, turning me and about a dozen feet around me into a miniature inferno.

  But I wasn’t burning. That fact was the only thing that stopped me from panicking. Because yes, as soon as I had realized everything was on fire, my immediate instinct had been to stop, drop, and roll. But no. These flames weren’t hurting me one bit, even though I could see the evidence of their sizzling heat in how the temple floor was turning scorched and burnt.

  Slowly, I tried to see if there were other ways I was being affected. I had no trouble breathing, other than feeling like the air was harder to drag in with how superheated it was. My eyesight and hearing were fine, only affected by how the heat was influencing my surroundings.

  Honestly, I was just glad my seeming immunity was extended to my clothes too. Would have been extremely embarrassing to come out of experimenting with my Ignition Charges naked.

  Thankfully, I found I could control it. A little focus was all it took to turn the Immolation on and off. At least, for the hour it was supposed to be active from my testing on Ignition Charge durations.

  It wasn’t completely off. Just suppressed. When I touched the wall, I found myself leaving a black scorch mark despite putting the brakes on Immolation enough to make the external flames disappear. Huh. Looked like I’d need to be careful whenever I activated it. When I wasn’t facing enemies, that was.

  Because that was the easy use-case for it that I came up with. I could only imagine just how much of an annoying pain in the ass it would be to fight someone who was constantly burning hotter than a forge. It almost made me laugh.

  But there had to be other, synergistic uses, right? Because if Flare’s Ignition Charge made me immune to getting hurt by heat, could I use it to counter enemies who used something like a fireball?

  I figured a proper test of the Ignition Charge, especially for its effect on Flare, would need to me to experiment in some place like a dungeon. Something I’d need to remember for later.

  The rest of the day was spent on working with my Illumination Aspect a lot. Especially when I sparred against the Scarthralls for a bit. We were trying to see if the wounds delivered via light were actually permanent like we had thought, or if there was a way to recover from that too.

  “It hurts like a rusty spike,” Vandre complained. I had just burned a small incision into his forearm with a precise application of Illumination.

  Lujean patted him on the back. “Stop complaining like a cry-baby.”

  Vandre scowled at his fellow cultist.

  This was the first time we were trying this, so I wasn’t surprised we didn’t see a ton of progress. But there was the obvious workaround that they could simply rip off the flesh around the injury and have their actual healing factor rapidly replenish the entirety of the new wound.

  “We’ll keep working on it,” I said.

  Strange how far we had come. For me, specifically. From being reluctant to go overboard during sparring in fear of hurting them overmuch despite the fact they could heal pretty much every injury, to now actively injuring them to test and train said healing. From a certain perspective, the hurt I delivered was certainly torturous. But perspective was the key word.

  I was making mad scientists around the world proud, that was for sure.

  My training hadn’t resulted in any new ranks that day—besides the one for Flare—nor had I entertained any particular thoughts about any new Affixes or Augmentations or the like.

  I wasn’t too concerned, though. Having finally remembered to sign up for the Path Interaction Mage Guild class, it was time to check it out. With my Paths getting closer to their next evolution, I wanted to head off the potential for more annoying Path Interactions popping up at terrible times.