Rise of the Devourer

Book 3: Chapter 49 — Mana Hearts

Noah sat in a chamber within the Drakonian palace, in a chamber that had been assigned to him. Vion had quickly met up with the King, who’d taken her away alongside Zax, while Noah and Aurelia had each been given their own chambers to rest in.

He didn’t understand what that had meant and Noah wasn’t curious enough to pry at the moment. Their return was quiet. Kaelan and the rest had not yet been informed and the group simply remained in the palace, waiting for… something, apparently.

It took a few minutes, before an attendant walked up and knocked on the door before opening the gates.

“Your presence has been requested,” the attendant draconian woman said with a bow, as Noah got up from the bed he’d been sitting on, following her lead out. Aurelia waited outside, a similar expression of curiosity on her face as the two of them.

They were escorted by the attendant, arriving at what looked like a chamber to receive private guests in. Heading inside, they saw Vion sitting there, alongside Zax, and the King, who all turned to look at the two of them.

The attendant woman took a deep bow before excusing herself as Noah and Aurelia both stepped inside.

Aurelia gave a bow to the king, Noah simply looked around, feeling confused about what was happening.

“What’s happening?” he asked a second later.

“Nothing too serious. There were just some things we needed to get done,” Zax said, glancing towards Vion and then the king.

The king turned to face Noah, a smile on his rather scary face that only made the man look even more terrifying. “We got the chance to hear some of the things you three got up to. It sounds like you’ve had quite the adventure.”

“Come, take a seat. Some matters must be discussed with you two as well,” Zax said, and Noah and Aurelia walked up and took a seat.

“First of all, we would like to congratulate you three on successfully completing the task we’d assigned you. The purpose had obviously been simply to serve as a training exercise, so even if you had failed, as long as you achieved the root cause, it would not have been a loss of any kind,” Zax said, his gaze sweeping across all three of them. “But. Your efforts had not been for nothing either. There is a purpose for which we had had you obtain the heart of an adult wyvern.”

“What kind of purpose?” Aurelia asked.

“You are aware of what a monster core is?” Zax asked.

“It’s an organ which channels and holds the mana of a monster. The part which grows over time as a monster grows. It’s why stronger creatures cannot just wander into lower mana density areas,” Aurelia said, as if reciting a textbook.

“Correct. It is an organ, one of the primary ones for any kind of creature that grows and levels up via its race. But not all creatures hold their mana in their cores. And not all of them hold it just in their cores. For a wyvern, and for dragons for that matter, their hearts do the task,” Zax said.

Then, the dragon stood up and reached out a hand to Vion. “If you could hand me your heart,” he said.

Vion looked up at him for a moment, before a giant heart appeared in her hand as she manifested it from her storage space. The heart vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “You two as well,” Zax said as Noah and Aurelia both handed their own hearts to the dragon.

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Zax nodded in satisfaction. “Our goal, with this task, had been to create something similar for you. There are methods, known, albeit highly secretive methods, that allow people to mimic the abilities monsters have. And the reason why these creatures, with only one race to derive levels from, can still contest people and are so powerful. One of the many reasons anyway.”

“Wait… so… you’re gonna give us new hearts?” Aurelia asked, a bit taken back.

“I already had mine upgraded once, I don’t see why a second time will be any problem,” Noah said.

“Why would I need one?” Vion asked.

“The heart is a magical entity, the wyvern heart will simply be the vessel for the magical item this will create. All of which is to say, we are not going to add a second heart inside your bodies,” Zax said, looking at Aurelia.

A moment later, he turned to look at Vion. “As for your question. It is true, a wyvern’s heart will not do anything for you on its own. But as you currently are, your own draconian abilities are suppressed. Ours are too, a human form cannot sustain it. You know this much by instinct. But this heart will be something of a kickstarter, like a scaffolding that will allow you to utilize more of your powers while still retaining a human form.”

“Had you… planned all of this?” Aurelia asked, looking at Zax.

The dragon smiled. “We’d anticipated certain outcomes, certain choices and certain directions, but the result itself had always been in your own hands.”

“And the result is that all of you are now at the cusp of Rank-C. Which is good, as you’d need that to participate in the trials. We encourage all of you to not try to rank up just yet. As you are aware, there are a few things that tend to be required for rank ups. And for Rank C, it is the choice of a path focus,” the king said.

“Path focus? What’s that?” Noah asked.

“It’s what the name implies, something that focuses your path. Your paths follow certain trajectories, certain paths, like their name implies, and up till rank C, they are free, un-relegated and could diverge drastically. You could start off as a warrior and end up as a mage within the same path, in some broad constructs. But after C rank, your path will effectively narrow itself down. You can think of it as specializing in something. A warrior can use any weapon, but a swordsman’s path only goes ahead with a sword,” the king said.

“Isn’t swordsman already a path that can be chosen?” Noah asked, confused.

Zax answered this time. “Yes. But that same path will be broad still within that context as well. What kind of sword, what kind of blade, what kind of fighting style? These are all things not inherently tied to your path yet. But they will be, as you move ahead.”

“Precisely,” the king said. “So, you must pick a path focus for all of your paths. Pick a direction that each of your paths will be headed towards, and the evolutions you will obtain from here on out will be centered around that. But that’s not the end of it. A path focus… it is an object. You tie your path onto something. A sword, a gauntlet, a lute, whatever the object may be, you tie yourself to that, and center yourself within it, and that object will forever become a part of you, connecting itself to your very astral script and soul. It is a choice which can be changed later on, but not very easily, and thus, something to pick carefully.”

Zax nodded. “This is why the rewards from the trials you are about to give are often used as path focuses by many. The more powerful the thing you tie yourself to, the more powerful the path options that become available to you.”

“And it’s why we think you should wait till the end of the selection rounds for the trials at the very least,” the king said.

“But, do not think this is the end of your work. The people coming here have had much more time to train and practice compared to you, whereas all of you have only just barely caught up to the entry line. You must hone your abilities and your skills and keep on pushing them to the next level, as far as you can take it and further beyond still. Only then will you even have a chance of victory,” Zax said.

“We’ll prepare training areas. Vion has expressed her desire to join you two, and your group has been of immense help to her, so we would want to help you train as much as possible in the remaining time before the selections truly begin,” the king said.

Noah looked sideways at Aurelia and Vion, who all sat contemplating the words from the king.

“Well. I see no problems. The plan had always been to train more, and I have quite a few skills I’ve been itching to upgrade some of my abilities and test them out anyway,” Noah said, excited.

The king smiled at his words. “We expected nothing less.”

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