The Rats Scurry

Atop one of the highest buildings in the city ruled by the Astaire clan a middle aged man with graying cropped hair sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. The sounds of construction and people talking and laughing riddled the nearby area. The man was shifting his head to different angles as if something had caught his ear. Since early this morning he had been here, searching, waiting for something specific.

"I wonder how many people will end up awakening this year."

"I don't know about the others, but my Andril will definitely awaken his core just like his older brothers."

*ding ding dang*

"I heard one of the students didn't show up for the the trial today. He must have been to scared of the demons."

"Any weakling that is scared of the demons should not be part of our Astaire clan. If I see that kid, i'll show him something to really be afraid of."

Finally something seemed to catch his attention, and if someone were watching it would seem like he completely disappeared without a sign. Not a single sound could be heard from the top of the building, the busy town center none the wiser. A few seconds later the same man appeared in the northern part of town in one of the back alleys. It was quieter here as most people were either at work, or helping to get the town prepared for the celebration tonight. Standing with his arms behind his back and his head cocked to one side, the man seemed to be listening to something nearby.

"What do you mean you fed him to the dungeon! Don't you know who his grandfather is!" Jirman could be seen standing outside of his home, speaking in a forcefull yet hushed tone. "If his grandfather finds out what you did, he'll kill us all. Your uncle will not be able to save us Bamor, if Alistar wanted to he could overthrow your uncle as if it were nothing!" Jirman knew that he couldn't afford to yell at the young man in front of him, but the fear of Kantan's grandfather heavily outweighed his fear for the head family of the sect.

"Don��t raise your voice! Do you want him to find out through your screaming?" Bamor didn't hesitate to respond, the pride of his stance becoming more exaggerated as he spoke. Jirman could feel the kid's chi start to cycle in his channels as if he planned to fight him for talking back to him. It wouldn't be hard to win that fight, he was closer to sapphire than the boy and had more than a decade of experience using his chi. Not only that, but they both shared the same aspect of air so neither would have an inherent advantage.

"When I asked you to do something about him, i thought you would threaten him or challenge him to a fight! If you had gone through official channels Alistar couldn't go against the chief without hurting his honor. What in the world gave you the idea that killing a grand elder's only living relative would be a good idea?" Jirman couldn't help but berate Bamor, his regret at reaching out to the kid beginning to crescendo. If it werent for the fact that he was favored by the chief, he wouldn't have bothered to try and set his daughter up with the boy. Even now he questioned if it was still worth it to have made such a powerful enemy.

Bamor started to stutter despite his desire to look powerful, knowing that he couldn't really beat Lyra's father. "I didn't know who he was, its not like you told me his name! I thought that he couldn't be that important if I hadn't seen him in the clan's advancement rooms before." Thinking quickly to himself, he tried to convince Jirman that everything would be fine. "I made sure that he wouldn't survive, I disabled one of his arms and destroyed his core. Even if he somehow manages to survive against the dungeon monsters for a time, he won't be able to awaken his core. Without his core and without a safety artifact he won't be able to survive."

Listening to the boy's explanation even Jirman had to agree that it was basically impossible for Kantan to escape. The dungeon only ever gets harder and harder as you delve, and even if he fought nothing but erthi the entire way, he would still be killed by the floor guardian. Assuming he could even manage that, there is no way he could do so with only one arm and without sustaining injuries. Once he got hurt in a way that broke skin in any significant way, he would die due to demonic poisoning of the blood. Without chi to purify one's blood, any demonic injury was likely to lead to death.

"Alright alright, atleast you managed to do one thing right. The dungeon will take care of the body. Lets just pray that no-one saw you in the act, and let us never speak of this again." Jirman quickly rubbed his forehead and turned to enter his residence, slamming the door and leaving Bamor with a cold sweat down his back. Bamor only stood still for a moment before he turned and walked down the road toward the town's center. A few mumbles could be heard before he pulled out a communication artifact.

Standing still in the back alley, the middle aged man seemed to correct his posture, his head returning to a normal position. A vein on his forehead was thumping angrily, but no other outward change would betray his emotions to an onlooker. After a few moments the man let out a stressed sigh before removing a paper talisman from his pocket and double checking it. The vein in his head seemed to calm down at its presence, before he seemingly vanished from sight once again.

-In The Dungeon-

Lyra had just managed to get a hold of her breath following her fight with the impali, and she quickly searched the room to see if there were any spoils of war to be collected. It only took her a moment of searching before she found a small pouch behind the throne the imp had been sitting on when she entered. A quick check inside showed a series of coins amounting to a decent sum following the kingdom's currency. The sect was one of many that operated within Bedrasil, the kingdom that managed this part of the continent. As such the currency they used was that of the kingdom. Lyra was slightly sad that she got coins instead of soul gems, since coins were worthless for anyone above the base rank. If she had gotten even a single sapphire she could have traded for something that would increase her power.

Once she had picked up the pouch of coins, the wall to the right of the throne began to exude dark mist in the shape of a doorway. It was a standard sized door, letting her know that the next room would be through the black mist. She almost walked through after securing the pouch on her belt when thoughts of her core jumped to the forefront of her mind.

She had awoken her core, and she had managed to do it without getting hurt too! Quickly hopping into a cross legged position facing the door, she grabbed the essence conversion artifact and set it down in front of her. Taking a moment to follow the clan's cultivation technique, she could feel the energy racing through her and beginning to condense just below her sternum. It created a small sense of pressure, giving her the feeling that she was expanding slightly.

Focusing her attention at trying to feel all of the different affects of the cultivation technique, Lyra found that her ability to sense the energy was somewhat dull. It was almost as if she was trying to feel the words on a tablet that was covered in cloth. If she put in significant effort and mental energy she was able to feel some of the intricacies of the movement. An example of which was being able to tell that the energy became purer and purer as it moved throughout her different meridians. She couldn't tell the exact location of each meridian, but she could feel an almost gradient like purity that spanned throughout her channels.

Lyra spent a few minutes practicing moving her chi through her channels, after which the energy did not seem to become any purer. She sent cycled her energy one last time just to be sure before pulling the chi back into her core. Thinking back to the end of the fight, and knowing that everyone who awakened always started with a full core, she tried to get a feeling for how much chi she had used in that one strike. It wasn't something she could expressly see, but more something she had to feel since she wasn't able to sense essence very well. After a few moments of trying to quantify her state and failing, she eventually decided to give up and wait until it was a bit safer to inspect everything thoroughly.

Now that she had a foundational grasp on handling her chi, Lyra set about using it to activate the essence conversion artifact.