Riwall took another year to grind his |Intelligence| attribute to level 10. He was now a three-year-old, and the bonus seemed to wear off at some point, with each attribute level taking longer than the one before to increase.
{Finally |Intelligence| capped too! Before bonus the progress rate was completely flat, it took precisely the same amount of time to go from attribute level 1 to 2 as it did to go from level 9 to 10. But now I had to spend four months only to go from level 9 to 10!}
[Even so, I think there is still a bonus in play, I had not reached the most difficult exercises before you capped this attribute.]
{Oh, cmon, I doubt anyone in this world would be able to complete them, even people on Earth would take at least one decade in the field to achieve this same level of proficiency! Cut me some slack, will you?}
[Fair enough, I still have not been able to get a glimpse of what mana is. We are still not allowed to watch Hellen or Erika working with magic, so we don't even know what to look for.]
{As much as I want to be able to use magic, there may be a reason for our inability to perceive it. Maybe it's some kind of hard limitation imposed by the System?}
[It's either this or we are missing something important.]
Despite Riwall frustration about not being able to use magic at all, he kept living leisurely. He had no responsibilities and could not even leave the house. At first, he thought it was because of the temperature or something like that, but after asking Erika, he finally learned the reason for not leaving and why he could not feel his mana at all.
"It's not only because of the cold out there, but there are also lots of different kinds of sickness that can kill a child that has not even developed her mana core yet."
"A mana core? What is that?"
"A mana core is like the second heart of any living being. It is essential to wield mana and works like a heart, but instead of blood, it pumps mana. Without it all the mana in your body is dispersed and uncontrollable, it is by forming his mana core that a person can feel his mana and circulate it in his body to cast magic or improve himself."
"And how can I develop my mana core?"
"It's not something so simple that can be done on your own. Usually, you have someone cast a channeling spell in you. Although it's impossible to feel and interact with your mana, being subjected to a channeling spell makes you temporarily ultra-sensitive to mana. Then it's a long and arduous process of choosing a place you want to form your mana core and focusing on redirecting all your mana to it. There is a tradition that the father will help his kid and it usually takes a year for the mana core to form, then there is the matter of meditating and creating the paths through which your mana will flow, most people follow a mana path design provided by their lord or one that his family passes down through the generations, in your case it will have to be a design provided by the Marsastor's Lord, but it's a matter for the future Riwall to worry about."
"So a mana core is like a deposit of mana made physical?"
Erika furrowed her brows in thought. Riwall would usually speak only a few words, which was already a lot more than his peers at his age. But this simple question showed a deeper understanding of the world than he could know, and she was pretty sure that neither she nor Hellen used these words before. He was extraordinary both in physical and mental prowess to his age, but something else was in play, and she knew that there was only one explanation to this.
Erika's silence was not a good sign. She noticed something and Riwall got scared that she would somehow discover he was not a simple three-year-old. He always made sure to act and talk like a child, but his curiosity betrayed his previous efforts, and Erika did not let it slip.
"Riwall, I will ask it once, and I want you to be honest."
He gulped.
"You may not know, but your development is already leagues ahead of kids of your age, your vocabulary is already very well developed, and you are never unsure of something me or Hellen said. No matter what word we use, you always understand it."
If not for Friday interference he would be drenched in sweat by now.
Erika went to a trunk beside her bed and took a stone tablet from inside. She whispered a few words that Riwall was not able to hear, and the stone tablet started emitting a weak but perceivable green glow.
She kneeled in front of Riwall and extended the glowing tablet in his direction. Erika noticed how anxious and nervous he was, but she needed him not to take this whole thing lightly.
"Touch the stone and do not let it go for a minute."
Riwall did as commanded and felt nothing for a minute. Then he felt something prickling him inside his brain, suddenly Friday screamed in his head.
[Release the stone now!]
It was too late, the glow dimmed, and Erika's eyes widened. The prickling sensation and the fact that it was a tablet had him immediately guessing that it was a panel like the one generated by Friday to check his stats and skills.
"By the Gods!" Erika's hands were shaking hold the tablet. Riwall could already imagine his mother's face when she learned how most of his attributes were capped.
"What? What is it?"
"You... you are blessed by Temelth herself! And a grade 5 blessing at that!"
{Wait, the blessing is what drew her attention?}
"I am what now?"
"This ancient tablet is a family heirloom, different from Muller's Tablet, this one can identify blesses and curses."
Riwall let go of the breath he didn't even notice to be holding.
"A Muller's what? A blessing?"
"Oh, sorry, I got caught up in the moment.". After three years, Erika could not help liking the boy; it was impossible not to feel happy for the boy that she raised with Hellen. "A Muller's Tablet is an artifact that shows you your current level and an estimation of your attributes. One day you will learn all about it, it's literally everywhere. As for what a blessing is, you can guess its something positive by the name, but usually, one is only blessed by a Lower God, which means that the bless effect is singular and weak. You, on the other hand, is blessed by a Higher God."
Erika took a breath and continued.
"The power of each blesses effect is directly proportional to the number of effects. So, as you have five different effects, it means all five of them are really strong. Almost everyone with more than three effects has one of them being related to languages, which manifests in the form of the person having a fast early mental development because the bless helps them understand the world around them easier."
{That was close, if she was shocked by the blesses, imagine how she would feel about the attributes}
[I think I may be able to prevent that from happening again, I got caught off guard this time, but with enough practice, I am sure I will be able to block any attempt to check your information. Maybe even change the information provided and trick the tablet into showing lower numbers or hiding the blesses existence altogether.]
{That would be for the best, now let's focus on the mana core thingy, she seemed serious about diseases that could hit beings with no core.}
"Aunt Erika, can you try casting a spell on me? I want to try to feel mana" He made the best toddler begging face he could.
"Oh cut it you devil, you don't need to make false faces to convince me. I will tell your mother about having her help you out in the next months, but for now, I will satiate your curiosity."
Riwall did not argue and had a smile from ear to ear.
{Finally we will know what mana is Friday!}
Erika did a quick chant and put her glowing green hand on top of his head. A feeling os calmness washed over Riwall, and he felt his muscles relaxing so much that he would fall to the ground at any moment now. Meanwhile, Friday finally managed to feel the mana inside his body, although it resembled Erika's in concept, it was far more fluid and light.
Riwall could not help but drift to sleep after a few seconds, Erika just chuckled at the cuteness of the boy and put him on his bed.
A few hours later, Riwall woke up feeling refreshed. But he did not have even a minute to enjoy the sensation before Friday, in a rare and unusual happy tone, called for his attention.
[Riwall! It's incredible! It's marvelous! The way mana changes the world and bends reality exceeds my expectations by far! We can theoretically do anything with it!]
{Calm down Friday, I have just woke up, and you are already bombarding me.}
[Oh, sorry, got carried away, but nevermind, you have to listen to what I discovered.]
{It's not like I can avoid it.}
[Ok, first, mana is all over your body, from your hair to your saliva, everything is imbued with it. Without some stimulus, it's inert as it can be. But when Erika used that spell, your mana reacted and followed the spell like if it was magnetically attracted to it. Now that I know what we are looking for, even I can control it alone.]
{That's handy, I can have you automatically casting spells while I do other activity.}
[Let me finish before planning on another training schedule.]
{But you are the one that comes up with the schedules.}
[Hush! Let me continue. Your mana is like pure water, while Erika's is like mud. The amount of mana she spent in that spell alone was absurd. By my estimations, we could do the same thing using only a 1000th of it. Once I knew what mana should feel like, I saw Erika's core on her belly, right where the uterus is. The mana core acts as the commander of a person's mana, ordering it around and absorbing mana from the outside.]
She let Riwall take a few moments to digest what she told him before continuing.
[After forming a mana core, it is imperative to quickly develop pathways around the body to make the mana flow to all extremities. The spell is created at the core, travels to the extremity that is supposed to exit, and finally manifests itself in a physical form. As soon as we decide where to form our mana core, we will be able to do it in just a couple of months. After that, it will take around one or two years to develop the pathway plan I created. By my calculations, it should be the most optimized way of making mana travel in the body. Which would translate in faster spellcasting and reducing the waste of mana.]
{Ok, you seem to have it all figured out, what's the plan?}
[First, we convince Hellen and Erika to drop the whole helping develop the mana-core thing, they cannot assist us in any way. Second, I made a training schedule for the next two years, look forward to it!]
Her enthusiastic tone sent shivers down his spine.