From what Kayn could tell, Records of the Void was a complete history of the Obsidian Void Dragon race as well as a compendium of notes from the race's peak existences, including those that eventually ascended to the Celestial world despite the race looking down on such an act.
As Kayn continued to read the large tome, he learned more and more about the void element, which was an offshoot of the dark element. The race wasn't named after the void for no reason. Millennia of research had been compiled into concise paragraphs detailing how the element worked and the discoveries made thus far on the best way to utilize it.
The records strayed away from any repeating information and only had new entries when a discovery was made or an update was performed.
It took almost an entire month to read and reread every last detail of the book in order to study it in depth. He maintained his healing obligations as well as accompanying Kinzie once or twice every week for a mission, but other than that he didn't leave his room.
After studying the tome in depth for the last month, Kayn had a much better understanding of not only the void element, but also of Obsidian Void Dragons. There were several notable entries in the tome that Kayn took high interest in.
First, his body would be practically invulnerable to any regular sword, arrow, and so on used with a normal human's strength once he reached the middle of the third stage. Only those with magic, enchanted, or special blades like his own would be able to puncture his skin if they used base strength, which was calculated based on humans as they along with demons were the most populous races in the world.
His bones would also become much more durable, so anything below a C-class rune beast wouldn't be able to break his bones once he could reach the middle of the third stage, once again unless they had abnormal strength for their class.
The durability and sturdiness would only continue to increase as he continued through the ranks. According to the elders of the race, Obsidian Void Dragons had essentially the best body of any other dragon race.
It was important to note that this was in the dragon form, in a humanoid form their bodies were much denser. Unfortunately, since Kayn was mixed it would still probably be around the middle of the third stage before he gained these traits.
Whether it be durability, endurance, strength, agility, or anything else, Obsidian Void Dragons essentially had the best of them all or matched the best, according to records anyway, but you never know.
They did have a few weaknesses though, their weakness to the light element was the worst of them all. However, since Kayn was part High Elf and his affinity for the light element was quite high, he assumed that he didn't have this weakness, but he would need to experience an offensive light spell first.
Unfortunately, all three races that Kayn was composed of had extremely high pride naturally, so it was hard for Kayn to nitpick what may be a weakness by himself.
He also learned that it was possible for his race to eat other's mana cores, however if the elements conflicted with that of their own core, it would only poison their bodies and lead to death.
The few successful attempts where an individual had found a perfectly matching victim's core experienced a growth in their mana core and body proportional to the victim's strength. The core would decrease in strength depending on how long it was left in a dead body though, fully disappearing within one day of death unless removed and stored appropriately.
Kayn once again theorized he would have no problem with absorbing all of the mana from someone's core without being poisoned since he had an all-attribute core, but the thought of killing someone and eating a part of them made him nauseous.
He decided that he would only consider that option if he reached a bottleneck he absolutely couldn't pass or needed to gain a quick power up to help his family. He was willing to do most things when it came to his family as long as he didn't cross certain lines, for example killing innocents and desecrating their bodies, but an enemy's body was fair game.
Along with eating mana cores though, he was also supposed to be able to gain slight increases by eating rune beasts whose tissues contained large amounts of mana. Anyone was able to eat these beasts, but only a few could actually gain something from them. Obsidian Void Dragons body's would try and absorb whatever mana was remaining in the tissues rather than just digesting it like normal.
However, the downside to this was that he could explode if he ingested too much mana, and it was recommended to only begin this process once you had reached and had stabilized inside the 3rd stage, especially since any beast below B-class didn't have enough energy in their tissues.
It would also be very difficult for a 1st stage mage to kill a beast above the C-class since the difference between the C and B classes increased dramatically. Not to mention it was noted that this aspect only really appeared in individuals who had high potential and were inside the 2nd stage or higher.
A sidenote stated that a first stage dragon ate SS-class flesh, and promptly exploded. A 2nd stage ate C-class flesh and also exploded. Even with multiple tests throughout the years, they still hadn't completed figured out this aspect of their species.
Kayn had wanted to hunt a C-class beast to try the theory for himself and see if his body was any different, so he attempted a solo hunt on one, only to discover it was near the peak of C-class and ended up having to run away as fast as he could after being severely beaten.
He then spent 25 silver coins, which was half of what he had altogether after these 3 months of work, just to purchase a cut of meat from a C-class rune beast. To his dismay, he wasted his money as he felt no nourishment to himself. It only tasted better than his normal meats, maybe he didn't inherit this aspect or he truly had to wait until he reached stage 3.
When it came to the void element though, Kayn was astounded. While there was no information on utilization of shadows, the flexibility of the void element was immense.
The void element could be nothing, but also everything all at once. It could mix and mold, be light or dense, the applications seemed endless. However, control of it didn't come easy. One had to have a high enough intelligence as well as understanding of the flow of the void in order to even begin to utilize it.
Kayn realized at that point that his understanding was quite shallow and he probably couldn't utilize it properly, if even at all at his current stage.
Lastly, a ring was placed in the middle of the tome with a note from his mother. The note stated that the ring was an aura sealing ring. His mother assumed he would need it since once he began to practice with the void element, he would naturally radiate the aura of an Obsidian Void Dragon in a wider radius.
The ring would suppress his aura without him having to do anything and the note explicitly told him to never take it off after he began his training.
The tome explained that the Obsidian Void Dragons were the only race capable of harnessing the power of the void, so any individual who radiated that aura was bound to be one. Thus, if he was discovered by the beings hunting his race, he would be immediately captured, tortured, and then killed, or simply killed on the spot.
Kayn shuddered at even the thought of being hunted down, and didn't hesitate to wear the ring on this right index finger. Even if he there wasn't a chance, he was scared that just reading the book alone was enough to have his aura awaken.
After reviewing the information several times, he was finally ready to try to create a technique that would assist his mana core to progress through the stages faster. Thus, he informed Kinzie and Elder Loren he would be busy for a while and not to bother him, hoping Kinzie would also take Shin's excuse of going home for a bit without becoming suspicious.
To make it up to Elder Loren, Kayn paid her a certain amount of money so he didn't seem like a freeloader, even though she said it was fine and he didn't need to.
His core was an oddity, it was translucent rather than a solid color, and had a faint rotation of dark and light clouds around the perimeter. Since his race could use external mana by ingesting it to strengthen themselves, he assumed that since he had an all-attribute core the natural mana in the atmosphere could be used by him.
His first task was to learn how to direct the mana in the environment around him to a specific spot. This was much harder than he expected as exuding his will over mana that didn't belong to him and was not element specific was nearly impossible.
He eventually made progress after the first month of solitude passed. Using a similar placement of his hands as when he created his core, he was able to redirect the external mana towards a spot in between his hands with a lot of focus.
It required his complete concentration to focus on the main elements in order to draw them all equally towards a specific spot and concentrate it there. If he lost control of any one element, it would all dissipate, sometimes causing a small explosion that he would have to recover from.
His next task proved almost just as difficult as he had no idea how to redirect the mana he gathered to his core. Kayn eventually came the conclusion that if he adjusted his hand placement to having his right hand in front of his body and his left behind, he was able to focus the mana to gather inside of himself rather than in front of him.
This gathered mana at his core, but didn't help in absorbing it into his body for nourishment, it only caused extreme pain as he felt like his body was bloating.
It was around this point that Kayn realized his head was in extreme pain, and recognizing that he had probably reached the peak of the rank 3 for Analyze, he stopped his practices and studies to return to his peak before attempting to break through to a rank 4 mind.
The first 3 ranks would automatically break through when the mind absorbed enough knowledge and gained enough understanding, but this wasn't the case for the 4th rank he discovered. Once Kayn had rested, he had to discover what would push him over that boundary.
Kayn remained stuck at that bottleneck with an excruciating headache for more than 23 days before he decided to return back to his technique development, even with his head killing him.
'Wait, the void element! My core has a natural and high affinity to this element, and it is theoretically all devouring. Maybe, just maybe if I treat my core like a collapsing star or black-hole, and activate the void, I can cause my core to draw in the mana I direct at it!' Kayn thought excitedly before he promptly blacked out after a pulse exploded in his mind.
…
When Kayn awoke, he noticed that his mind was clear. He didn't have a headache any longer and the barrier that seemed limiting him was gone. However, he did discover he was unconscious for roughly 4 days by talking with Elder Loren and asking when she had last seen him get food, so he was extremely hungry.
He had even realized that his understanding of the elements in general had grown. It was as if instead of having to study them, the knowledge was just implanted into his head.
'I don't know if this is normal for this skill or if it's because I'm a special existence, but I will not waste this boon.' Kayn couldn't hold back his excitement as he thought of all he could accomplish going forward.
First and foremost, he needed to complete his technique. If his idea worked out as he had deduced, which his new analytical speed even confirmed that the probability was high, he would be able to push himself through the core stages faster than anyone else in history.
Using his previous gathering method while sitting in a lotus position, Kayn concentrated on gathering the external mana around his core and trying to rotate it to increase the natural rotation of the inside of his core.
After he achieved the rotation of mana he desired, he began to push the mana surrounding his core to cause pressure on it. This caused Kayn to feel like his core was being compressed inside of a vice, but he didn't stop.
Pushing through the pain, Kayn continued to compress his core while replacing the lost capacity with more mana from the surroundings that he gathered. He focused on picturing a dark void at his core's center that was similar to a black hole. He didn't know if just using his will and imagery would help to activate the void or not, but he was willing to try.
Just as he was about to stop because the pain was becoming unbearable and he thought he needed to think of another method, the rotation increased and a pulling force then came from the center of his core, drawing in the mana he gathered around it.
As the mana and his core continued their rotation, the mana began to integrate with the compressed core and rotate around as a smaller sphere at the center of his core.
The smaller sphere would devour the mana brought in, then release mana back out, causing his core to expand ever so slightly. This also increased the pushback of the force he was applying to his core to compress it, but there wasn't anything he could do about that.
Kayn stopped the process at that point and his core expanded immediately after to its regular size to replace the empty space inside of his body. He had succeeded in increasing the density of his core and placing more mana inside of it, but not without drawbacks.
'Hmm, my technique works, but it's almost too painful. No pain, no gain though I guess. I will have to play around with different aspects to find both the technique's limits and to reduce the pain it causes, but it's overall feasible.'
Kayn continued to make small adjustments each day for the next month until the technique wasn't as painful anymore and the efficiency of the absorption was almost maximized to his current level without major drawbacks, just as an injured core.
He calculated that he could use the technique every five days to maximize his training without injuring himself or causing a crack in his core. He discovered if he pushed his core too much, that it would need several days to heal and during that time any magic he used would cause him a great deal of pain and nausea.
Through these last months, Kayn was able to recognize the progress his core made, and he estimated that he had passed the halfway mark towards the 3rd stage. His progress was monstrous, no one would believe him if he claimed to have reached the halfway mark in so little time.
Kayn came out of his seclusion four months after he entered it. He was four months away from his 14th birthday now, and had already spent almost seven months in Myrem.
The only people to have any contact with him during this time were his parents, Lydia, and occasionally Elder Loren, but even then, they could tell he was always preoccupied so they kept their talks short.
As Kayn walked out of his room, he made his plans for the future.
'I'll work as a healer for a month to make it up to Elder Loren, as for Kinzie, I'll approach her for missions after I've stabilized my gains and feel that Elder Loren isn't upset with me for being a freeloader for so long. But finally, I was able to perfected my technique to my current limits.' Kayn smiled.
'Let's name this the Void Star technique.'