Gunnar thought about the two options for a moment but still in his mind he leaned towards the second option. Besides, if at any time in the next couple of years he decided that he knew enough, he could begin refining at once.
He looked directly at Narrick and spoke with determination. "I choose the second. I think I need to learn all I can so that I don't make any wrong turns. Besides that, I might have my fighting style or hunting style change and then I would be up shit creek and unable to change my decision."
Sheila rubbed his back fondly as Narrick and Lina both nodded in appreciation.
"Now that you have been pushed into the first level of refinement, you will have specialized classes. You can't be having combat class with kids who are not even half as strong as you." Narrick furrowed his brow and sat for a moment thinking about the problem.
Lina spoke up then with an idea. "Could he not have a special test to opt through the basic classes and only have the non-physical classes like strategy and forge theory with the basic class?" She then pointed at Sheila and Risa.
"I already know he could probably opt out of the forge classes as well,since you two raised him, but I don't have the specialty of forging, but of combat and mana theory. So I can't sponsor him to by-pass those classes."
"The advanced classes are too far away to send him there for classes that would match his fitness." Narrick nodded. At the same time a notification pooped up on the disk on the table and on Sheila's wrist pad. "I will bring up advance testing for him in the council meeting, Sheila, follow me and I will take you to the meeting room."
Risa walked over and took a seat where Narrick had been sitting. "We will be here talking with Gunnar until we are summoned then." She turned and looked at Lina. "I am Gunnar's mother Risa Everforge, who might you be?"
Lina nodded her head towards Risa and began her introduction. "I am simply known as Athelina. I will be the boy's tutor for his bloodline and body strengthening."
Narrick and Gunnar's grandmother left the room, heading towards the council meeting where the discussion of the vampire and his minions, would begin. As they walked down the hall, Narrick reached into his overcoat and pulled out the demonic crystal once again, passing it over to Sheila for her to inspect.
"This was the crystal of the beast. It was second rank, the only reason the two kids made it was because of their quick thinking and the fact that the vampire hadn't fed in what was most likely the entire time the beasts were on that volcano."
Sheila nodded while studying the crystal. "I saw the intentional cut on his arm. He split them up and used the blood to draw the vampire away didn't he."
A bit of a wan smile came upon her face. "If there is time to plan Cassie will almost always win a fight. But Gunnar excels in coming up with something on the fly to cause no end of trouble. This situation played to his strengths. Even so he most likely should have died."
As they got to the door of the meeting room, she handed the crystal back to the bear of a man. They shared a look of slight exhaustion for the trouble they were about to have to deal with, then opened the door and entered the brightly lit room.
Back in the room with Gunnar, he looked to his mother and asked a question he had been thinking about for the last little bit.
"Are there set ways or techniques of refining? I've been wondering about that for a while, if there is a know way to achieve a result, you don't have to waste time wandering in the dark to get there."
Risa's eyes met with Lina's and they had a silent conversation before risa looked at Gunnar and responded. "I wil let your new tutor answer that question. After all it seems to be one of her specialties."
Lina slide forward till she was sitting on the edge of her chair as a focused look came over her face.
"There are many different techniques across the universe. Different ways one can restructure the path of their natural mana circulation, or even change the pathways entirely. If I remember correctly ever major family on the three livable planets of this system have their own unique system. But the are always people coming up with new ways of building their mana circuits."
"What about your family? Does it have a special technique for refining?"
A wry smile came across Lina's face. "My family has the problem of being militaristicly independent." She shook her head nd tried saying it in a slightly different way.
"A better way of saying it is that they are pigheaded about not being told what or how to do something. They would fight anyone who tried to force a technique on them like that. If we did come up with a "family" technique, it would probably never be used ever again just to spite the rule."
"Well then, Miss Tutor, what do you advise for me? What is the recommendation for what I study going forward?"
The woman gave him a cheeky grin. "We will study whatever takes our fancy. If you have a week where you want to study forging then I will send you to study at the forges. If you want to study mana itself with all its mixture and permeations the things it inhabits then we will study that. If you gain an interest in the ways of the mages that will be learning and growing alongside you in The Forge then we will study the mages. I am betting we have about three years before you wish to set out on your refiing journey, so I will show you all sorts of thing I think will help you and we will study what gains your interest."
Risa raised her eyebrows at the lackadaisical attitude of the other woman but then shrugged. Gunnar was oddly stubborn about things when he gained an interest in them. It was why he got so good so quickly at forging, as early as four years old he was watching his mom and grandmother with utter fascination in the smithy or with their weapons as they practiced.
He may not hold an interest for long if it didn't challenge him, but he would learn a lot while it held his focus.