Neel often came to visit, though his health was slowly deteriorating due to his work in the mines.
Every time he came home, Lillian would try talking him into quitting, but he was adamant in staying there, at least until Gray and Armin went off to school.
Arya and Esla had made major breakthroughs in their study of mana cores. Sometimes when he would show his findings to Argen, he couldn't help but feel that Argen was hiding something.
They were so close to finding a way for him to use magic, Arya could feel it. However, most of his experiments ended in failure, even after all their breakthroughs.
{Esla, can you apply the calculations to 50% of the mana system,} instructed Arya, before preparing himself for another trial.
Esla had discovered a way to control parts of Arya's mana system. The fact that she could clearly see it helped of course, but the fact was that it felt kind of like it was a part of her, as if she were moving a limb
At first, this was a disturbing prospect for the both of them. However, after spending as much time together as they did, they grew accustomed to it, accustomed to each other.
Arya didn't like it, but he had grown dependant on Esla, they were partners in both research and friendship.
{Done,} replied Esla as a thick cloud of mana began gathering all around Arya's body.
{Trail number 889943, template-hexagram hybrid,} said Arya before taking a deep breath.
"Arcia," he chanted, before a series of golden translucent rings appeared in front of him, floating atop a purple hexagram.
He couldn't understand why the hexagram turned out purple instead of gold, but that was something he decided to tackle after he could use magic again.
A split second later, as if happening instantly, a small chunk of wood that Arya had placed in front of him began rising.
However, after rising about 2 inches off the ground, it fell down again, and the spell was deactivated.
{Calculations are still too complex for the miniature cores,} noted Esla as she began trying to find out where they had gone wrong.
The Arcia spell that Elsa, Arya, and Argen had created had the lowest complexity of any other spell they had ever come across.
It was something that even Streya would be able to cast, even with her smooth mana core. Well, that's if she had Arya's eyes at least.
You see, by adding a hexagram to the Arcia Virtu ring template, they greatly reduced the calculation stress being put on the mana core. However adding a static construct, to a constantly changing spell reduced its flexibility.
To overcome this, they had created a new construct. Argen heralded it as the god hexagram. It combined the effects of almost every spell in the Arcia class, allowing the user to move things around without having to cast multiple spells.
However, its uses were limited. Constructs were placed on things, and there wasn't much use for a construct that could only move a preset amount of things in preset directions.
It was truly a construct created to be used with a spell, however only Arya could combine spells and constructs. For everyone else, it would be like trying to place a string through the eye of a needle in the dark.
{It's like a mana core is a supercomputer, well calling it a supercomputer is an understatement, but still.}
{And the miniature cores are like a million tiny processors, each one with near-useless specifications,} Arya complained, thinking of a different way to go about this.
{The defragmentation hexagram is still an option,} she proposed.
{But it's still incomplete. If we use it as it is, there could be a lot of complications.}
{Sigh, just thinking about all the things that could go wrong scares me. But at this point, it's not like we have much of a choice.}
'Your limit at controlling the miniature cores is only 50% and without the defragmentation hexagram, I don't see myself using magic,' he said hesitantly, he was clearly averse to the prospect of using it.
"Arya, it's time to go hunting!" called Gray, from inside the house.
"Coming!" he shouted back.
The three boys would sometimes go hunting in order to hone their skills. Their hunting grounds were a distance away from the magical forest. With Gray knowing at least 3 knight techniques, and Armin equipped with at least a dozen of Arya's manufactured spells, they were quite safe.
However, Lillian was having none of it. She still wouldn't allow them to go hunting in the magical forest alone.
"There," whispered Gray, before rushing towards a small animal.
In a flash, he covered a distance of 10 meters. It was a knight technique called sword flash, that used mana to increase the user's speed.
A mana core wasn't required since no calculations were needed, one only needed to have a body strong enough to manage the strain.
"The animals here are pretty weak. I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to use your magic Armin," apologized Gray, placing the small squirrel-like animal into his pouch.
"That's oka-"
"Help!" interrupted a scream.
"It's coming from the forest," whispered Gray.
"Perhaps, however, I vote we go home," said Arya, raising his hand.
The fact that Arya had been betrayed by his colleagues in his past life hadn't changed. If anything he was more anti-social now than he had been then.
Of course, when it came to his family, he wouldn't hesitate to jump in. But a random stranger was out of the question.
"You two go home, I'll go check out what's going on myself," whispered Gray, before turning to leave.
"And what kind of logic is that?" asked Armin, holding Gray back.
"You have a point," smiled Gray, realizing that his brother was stronger than him anyway.
"Arya..." said Gray, turning to Arya.
"Sigh, we might find something interesting while we're out. I'll try not to get in your way."