Several more days had to pass before Kayn woke up. During this time, he was force fed nutrient potions since he wasn't conscious enough to eat. When he woke, he learned that he had been unconscious for over half a month. This flabbergasted him as it just didn't make any sense to him, nor did it feel that long. Why would forming a core force him to sleep for over half a month?
Before he even examined himself, he knew that he succeeded, mainly due to the fact that his body was brimming with energy and mana that he didn't have before.
He didn't have a way to view his core yet, but he knew that he would have the chance to see what his elemental aptitudes and affinities were once his parents allowed him to use an Aptitude Orb.
The Aptitude Orb would reveal which elemental energies his core held inside of it and which elements had the largest concentrations. Kayn assumed he would carry fire mana in large amounts, since that would be passed down from his progenitor bloodline, but he was hoping that his efforts worked and forced the core to form around the all-attributed mana from the potion and the mana that naturally occurred in the environment.
Aptitude Orbs were expensive and only a one time use object. Many would not even use them to determined their affinities for elements due to the cost, but this wouldn't be a problem for Kayn's family.
The second aspect about Aptitude Orbs was that fact most people would keep their orb after use to show their affinities while trying to apply for certain positions or jobs, but Kayn would prefer to destroy his if it came back as he expected.
…
After making Kayn rest for a few more days after he had woken up, Ezekiel bought an Aptitude Orb. Kayn, Lydia, and his parents all gathered in the living room of the house while sitting on the couches. After handing to Kayn a small clear sphere, Ezekiel began to explain how it works and how they will interpret the results.
According to his father, the orb would show the colors of the elements that a mage had an aptitude for and any color that was radiating stronger than others would mean a higher affinity for that element.
Unfortunately, the orb could not show aptitudes for deviant elements such as lightning, plant manipulation, ice, and so on. It would only display the main colors; Red for fire, blue for water, green for wind, brown for earth, black for dark, and white for light.
Kayn began to inject the mana from his core into the orb as his father instructed until his core was completely drained. Even though he was feeling exhausted afterwards, he was too excited to see the results to rest.
The orb had a gaseous substance in the middle that seemed to be thinking. After a few minutes, his elemental aptitudes became visible as well as which elements he had high affinities for.
To Zerana, Ezekiel, and Lydia's surprise and Kayn's joy, every color appeared inside of the orb. However, fire, dark, and light were shining brighter than the others, being his highest affinities.
The three adults couldn't understand how someone could form a core that had an aptitude for all of the elements, it just didn't follow the rules of the world. People could have two maybe three aptitudes maximum, but here was Kayn's orb, with all the elements showing brightly inside of it.
At this moment Lydia spoke up, "Sir and Ma'am, if you don't mind, I had noticed an oddity during my hastened examination at the compound, would you two be okay with me using a more in-depth mana core examination spell?"
"As long as it doesn't hurt him and can gain us answers, go ahead." Zerana stated without any expression.
She was still having a hard time understanding Kayn's aptitudes. Having high affinities for light, dark, and fire could be explained between each of the three races that Kayn was made of, but having the other three aptitudes made no sense, especially earth.
Lydia placed her hands on Kayn's dantian and cast a core examination spell that would reveal the appearance of Kayn's core inside of her mind. Only those with a stage 4 core or higher, had strong healing prowess, and a high ability for analysis could use this spell. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to picture the results clearly or would be unable understand them.
Kayn's core appeared in her mind and left her more confused than she was before. Both Ezekiel and Zerana noticed the confused expression on Lydia's face and pressed her for an answer.
"His mana core isn't the typical color that should appear for a mana core. It's more like a half transparent black sphere that has even darker colored clouds rotating in its insides rather than a solid or multicolored sphere sphere like normal.
"I've never seen anything like this and I have no answers for you. Even the process of his core forming with the explosion of fire and lightning makes no sense to me. Especially that mysterious fire, it defied all the laws of the world and burned everything, even with it being produced by someone who only just formed their core."
Lydia was as transparent as she could be with her knowledge. Never in history had anyone had a rotating mutated core with clouds of an unknown substance inside of it. At most a core could have streaks of their highest elemental affinities coated around the base main color.
A rotating translucent sphere was unprecedented and none of the three that were there knew how to approach the matter.
Before anyone else spoke up Zerana decided to speak, "Well for now all we can do is keep our eyes on him and ensure that no problems come while his core gathers mana and he heads towards his next breakthrough. Typically, those who have the potential and knowledge will reach the 2nd stage in 5 to 7 years. For now, we just train him and pass him our knowledge so that we can to help him grow."
All three agreed to her statement, but Ezekiel still had a question in his mind that he wanted answered.
"There's still something that I don't understand. He was unconscious for over half of a month. A few days due to exhaustion and everything that happened I could understand, but that long?" Ezekiel was about to finish speaking when a thought occurred to him, "Wait Lydia, do you have a spell to examine his mind at all? Maybe we can see if it got damaged because of the trauma."
Lydia answered positively that she indeed did by nodding her head, and while surprised expressions appeared on the two women's faces once again, only a confused expression appeared on Kayn's.
Lydia began her spell and shortly after confirmed something, but it wasn't what they all expected. "Kayn's mental resistances are stronger than before. Rather than the trauma weakening him, it seems to have strengthened him. As for what this means, I haven't the faintest clue, your son is an anomaly."
Zerana began to speak at that point, "Well every individual who forms a mana core has some amount of information inserted into their mind due to the innate understanding that is forced upon them about the elements their core used to form.
"Since Kayn has every element and obviously has some ability to use their deviant forms, a large amount of information must have been forced into his mind. Thinking this way, it only makes sense that it would have caused some sort of resonance, right?
"The amount of information he has read and processed in the last year alone is astronomical, with the addition of the forced understanding, it is easier to accept that he has an ingenious mind.
"We know that generally the more information you retain and can process in your mind the higher your capacities are, but most reach a limit before the 2nd stage. Time will tell if Kayn has some innate ability to continue expanding his mind after he passes this stage."
This was the first time Kayn had heard that he was somehow an anomaly with stronger mental capacities? How did this even happen?
'Maybe this is what the mysterious voice was hinting at, saying that my increase in intelligence would be a great boon to me. If I can keep expanding my mind, I should be unparalleled against those deemed my equals.
'No one ranks people by their intellect, in fact they hardly pay attention to it since power is what really matters. From what I can tell since I was born, my reading speed, processing speed, memory, thinking ability, essentially any cognitive process is countless times faster than in the past.
'Assuming my first milestone was the day Mom told me about our family history, it makes sense now that I was able to understand the beginner spells and theorize new methods for simple tasks as easily as I did.
'Also, the fact that my Analyze ability showed me more information is important. Maybe each time I reach a milestone is when I can say that my mind has "expanded". So, for now I'll classify my mind as rank 2 so I can document everything correctly if we assume the base state as rank 0.'
As Kayn continued to think to himself, the three adults decided to talk and set up a schedule for his training and studies for the years to come.