The violet core became the most carefully guarded object in Sia's possession.
Technically.
In practice, Marike guarded it.
Sia merely complained about that fact.
"I know what I'm doing."
"No."
Sia stared at her mentor.
Marike stared back.
The sealed container containing the Epic Lord Tier Breaker core rested several feet behind her.
"I am not going to absorb it."
"Good."
"I simply want to examine it."
"You examined it yesterday."
"I may have missed something."
Marike moved one leg sideways, blocking Sia's path.
"You are a Master handling an Epic Lord Tier Breaker core."
Sia's eyes narrowed.
"I am aware."
"Then demonstrate that awareness by leaving it inside the container."
Keizeix watched the argument from beside Shirespoke's healer bed.
His mentor was propped against several cushions with his chest bound beneath layers of bandages.
He looked terrible.
He also looked extremely pleased with himself.
Keizeix pointed toward the container.
"Maybe Marike thinks you'll lick it."
Sia slowly turned toward him.
"Why would I lick a core?"
"Curiosity."
"I am not you."
Shirespoke laughed.
Immediately regretted it.
One hand flew to his chest.
"Ow."
Marike didn't even turn around.
"I warned you."
"Apparently humor interferes with healing."
Keizeix nodded toward Sia.
"Worth it."
Sia lifted a threatening front leg.
Marike sighed.
"Neither of you is fighting today."
Both answered simultaneously.
"What?"
Marike turned toward Keizeix first.
"You were burned in four places, one rear leg was injured, and you depleted most of your Mana."
Keizeix opened his mouth.
She turned toward Sia before he could speak.
"And you have two puncture wounds, a damaged shell, and almost completely exhausted your lightning."
Sia opened her mouth.
"No."
Sia closed it.
Shirespoke smiled smugly from his bed.
"Rest is an important part of becoming stronger."
Keizeix looked at him.
"You're saying that because you can't stand."
"I can stand."
"Then stand."
Silence.
Keizeix smiled.
"Thought so."
Shirespoke pointed toward him.
"When I recover, we're sparring."
"Suddenly I'm very supportive of extended bed rest."
---
Their forced recovery lasted two days.
Keizeix hated the first.
By the middle of the second, he was forced to admit Marike had been right.
His Mana returned properly only after food, sleep, and time.
Tiestra's weaker Mana-restoration draughts helped accelerate the process, but even those weren't instant miracles.
One bottle after a heavy meal.
Rest.
Wait.
Let his body process it.
Then another slowly.
Keizeix preferred that to discovering the consequences of drinking six at once.
He opened Tiestra's private channel.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*The Mana draughts work.*
Her answer arrived quickly.
**Tiestra:**
*You sound disappointed.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*I was hoping they were useless so I could demand my cores back.*
**Tiestra:**
*There are days I understand why monsters attack people.*
Keizeix laughed.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Send another twenty.*
The reply was immediate.
**Tiestra:**
*You're my favorite customer.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*That changed quickly.*
**Tiestra:**
*Twenty bottles changes many things.*
Keizeix approved the exchange using Beginner cores.
He still possessed enormous numbers of them, and their individual usefulness to him was declining.
To Tiestra, they remained advancement resources her peaceful world struggled to produce.
That difference in value continued working beautifully in his favor.
---
Estros was considerably less impressed with him.
**Estros:**
*Sixty-nine thousand Magic.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Nearly seventy.*
**Estros:**
*Should I organize a festival?*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*A small one would be appropriate.*
**Estros:**
*No.*
Keizeix stared at the answer.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Terrible mentor.*
A pause.
**Estros:**
*Still not your mentor.*
Keizeix smiled.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*You answer many questions for someone very committed to that distinction.*
**Estros:**
*I'm trying to prevent a newly awakened Earth survivor from eating the wrong core and becoming a crater.*
Fair enough.
Keizeix deliberately opened Marketplace appraisal and began sending Estros information on the Master-level magical cores he'd received from the battle.
Several carried relatively neutral magical development.
Useful.
Two possessed strange residual affinities that Estros advised against.
Another contained concentrated flame power far beyond the others of its grade.
Keizeix stared at that one.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*It's still Master.*
**Estros:**
*So are you.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Exactly.*
**Estros:**
*That is not the intelligent conclusion you think it is.*
Keizeix frowned.
Estros continued.
**Estros:**
*Same overall grade does not mean identical internal composition. You already learned that equal-ranked fighters can differ substantially. Cores are no different.*
That made sense.
**Estros:**
*If you don't like the compatibility, trade it.*
Keizeix listed the flame core for barter.
Offers began arriving within the hour.
Most were terrible.
Six weeks earlier, Keizeix might have accepted one.
Now he rejected them without needing Estros.
Eventually someone offered two magically developed Intermediate cores and two refined mana-rich supplements.
Keizeix countered.
The buyer refused.
Keizeix walked away.
Twenty-three minutes later, the buyer returned with a slightly better offer.
Keizeix accepted.
Estros sent only one message.
**Estros:**
*Better.*
Keizeix smiled.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Was that praise?*
**Estros:**
*Don't ruin it.*
---
By the third morning, Marike finally allowed Keizeix and Sia back onto the battlefield.
Shirespoke was not so fortunate.
He could stand now.
He could walk.
Marike still refused to let him fight.
Shirespoke complained constantly.
"That wound nearly reached your heart."
"It didn't."
"Because you were lucky."
"Skill."
"Luck."
"Skill."
Marike stopped.
"Would you like me to reopen it?"
Shirespoke became quiet.
Keizeix whispered to Sia, "She won."
Sia nodded.
"Completely."
Shirespoke looked toward them.
"I heard that.
---
Commander Vaelcor had changed the battlefield assignments after the ambush.
The magical beetles hadn't vanished.
Instead, small groups of Master-level magic users now appeared among the ordinary formations.
Anything stronger was intercepted farther forward.
Keizeix liked that arrangement.
Dangerous enough to force improvement.
Not so dangerous that his survival depended entirely on his mentors.
Marike pointed toward three beetles glowing faintly green.
"Those are yours."
Keizeix looked at Sia.
Sia looked at Keizeix.
"Mine," she said.
"She said ours."
"I heard mine."
"You hear many things incorrectly."
Marike stepped between them.
"Together."
Both sighed.
Then charged.
---
The next five days passed quickly.
Keizeix preferred it that way.
No great catastrophes.
No Epic Lord Tier Breakers dropping from the sky.
No Heroic opponents ripping off pieces of him.
Just war.
Painful, exhausting, productive war.
Sia won the first day's kill count by eight.
Keizeix won the second by thirteen.
The third ended in another tie.
"We need a secondary category," Sia announced afterward.
"No."
"Master magical kills."
"Absolutely not."
"I killed six more."
"Which is exactly why your suggestion has been rejected."
Marike laughed.
Shirespoke sat beside the command post with his bandaged chest and shook his head.
"I nearly died protecting these two."
Keizeix looked toward him.
"Nobody asked."
"Next time I'll remember that."
Sia answered instantly.
"No you won't."
Shirespoke looked at her.
Sia went strangely still for half a second.
Then added, "Because Marike wouldn't allow it."
Marike nodded.
"I wouldn't."
Shirespoke sighed.
"Everyone here is against me."
Keizeix smiled.
"Correct."
---
Their actual training became more serious.
With Shirespoke unable to fight, he watched.
And apparently watching made him even more annoying.
"Keizeix!"
Keizeix ducked beneath a horn.
"What?!"
"You're telegraphing your silk!"
"I'm fighting!"
"So is the beetle!"
Keizeix fired three strands around the creature's rear legs.
It twisted.
One strand missed.
"See?!"
Keizeix dodged another attack.
"I dislike injured you!"
"Why?"
"You have too much time to watch me!"
"Then improve!"
Across the battlefield, Marike was doing the same thing to Sia.
"Stop using lightning to correct bad positioning!"
Sia avoided a green magical projectile.
"I wasn't badly positioned!"
"You were nearly hit!"
"Nearly!"
"That is exactly what badly positioned means!"
Keizeix laughed.
A beetle immediately slammed him into the ground.
Shirespoke shouted from fifty yards away.
"PAY ATTENTION!"
Keizeix groaned.
Sia called across the battlefield.
"Nicely done!"
"I hope your next one steps on you!"
---
Keizeix's Magic continued climbing.
Not quickly.
Safely.
He absorbed selected cores.
Sold others.
Traded beetle materials for compatible magical resources.
The process became increasingly organized.
Beginner magical cores were almost background material now.
Useful in sufficient quantity, but inefficient.
Intermediate cores remained reliable.
Master cores mattered the most but demanded greater care.
He never touched anything approaching Heroic.
And the Epic Lord Tier Breaker core in Sia's possession?
Absolutely not.
Keizeix didn't care how jealous she claimed he was.
Trying to consume something that powerful at his current rank would be less like advancement and more like suicide with extra steps.
Sia understood that too.
The core remained sealed.
Untouched.
A future resource.
Nothing more.
---
Tiestra became interested in the magical beetle carapaces.
Very interested.
**Tiestra:**
*You have more translucent shell?*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Possibly.*
**Tiestra:**
*Keizeix.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Tiestra.*
**Tiestra:**
*How much?*
He smiled.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Enough that you should make me a good offer.*
There was a long pause.
**Tiestra:**
*You're enjoying this.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Very much.*
Her family had discovered that thin layers of magical beetle carapace could be incorporated between Edenweave layers.
More resistance.
Almost no additional weight.
Better protection against magic.
That mattered.
Keizeix sent her several pieces.
Not all.
Never all.
**Tiestra:**
*You could send the rest.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*I could.*
**Tiestra:**
*But you won't.*
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*Now you're learning.*
**Tiestra:**
*You're deliberately keeping me wanting more.*
Keizeix considered denying it.
Why bother?
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*It keeps you motivated.*
Her answer arrived almost immediately.
**Tiestra:**
*One day I'm going to charge you extra simply because you're irritating.*
Keizeix laughed.
**Keizeix Silversilk:**
*You'd lose the business.*
Five seconds.
**Tiestra:**
*I hate that you're right.*
---
By the fifth evening Keizeix finally checked his full statistics.
**Strength: 99,184 / 100,000**
**Health: 98,713 / 100,000**
**Magic: 78,462 / 100,000**
**Intelligence: 99,607 / 100,000**
**Mana: 78,462 / 78,462**
He stared at Intelligence.
Three hundred ninety-three points away.
Strength was less than a thousand.
Health wasn't far behind.
Magic remained the anchor.
But seventy-eight thousand was nothing to complain about considering where he'd started.
Keizeix dismissed the status.
He still didn't know exactly what would happen when individual attributes reached their limits while Magic remained below its own.
He would find out eventually.
For now, forcing the issue would accomplish nothing.
He needed magical opponents.
Compatible cores.
Trade.
Patience.
Keizeix disliked the final item most.
---
That night Sia sat outside her tent while Marike inspected the container holding the Epic Lord Tier Breaker core.
Keizeix passed.
Sia immediately placed one leg over the container.
He stopped.
"Seriously?"
"Keep walking."
"You think I'm stealing it?"
"Yes."
"I have hundreds of cores."
"None like this one."
Keizeix looked at the sealed violet glow.
Then back at Sia.
"True."
Her eyes narrowed.
Keizeix resumed walking.
"I'll come back when you're asleep."
Sia stood instantly.
"Keizeix."
He started laughing.
Marike rubbed her forehead.
"You two are going to shorten my life."
Across the camp, Shirespoke shouted from his recovery area.
"JOIN THE CLUB!"
Marike turned toward him.
"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE RESTING!"
"I AM RESTING!"
"THEN REST QUIETLY!"
Laughter spread through the nearby soldiers.
Even Sia eventually smiled.
Keizeix kept walking toward his tent.
The northeastern front had stopped feeling foreign.
It was still dangerous.
Still exhausting.
Still filled with things capable of killing him if he became careless.
But now it also felt familiar.
Shirespoke insulting him from somewhere nearby.
Marike threatening everyone into behaving responsibly.
Sia turning every achievement into a competition.
Estros teaching him while insisting he wasn't teaching him.
Tiestra pretending she disliked him while watching eagerly for his next order.
Keizeix glanced toward the distant battlefield.
Somewhere beyond it waited Heroic Tier Breaker—the next threshold for someone at his own Master rank.
After that came Heroic itself.
Far beyond that stood the level Shirespoke had already reached.
And one day, if Keizeix survived long enough, even the Epic Lord Tier Breaker Shirespoke had just killed would cease to look impossible.
He smiled.
Not yet.
But eventually.