Nero exited his room, walked to the fridge and grabbed himself some juice. Since the bathroom was currently occupied, he washed his face in the kitchen sink as well.
"Feeling drowsy?" Anthony, who was eating a meal and studying, asked.
"Yeah, I need to memorise a bunch of stuff for card crafting class, but I'm having trouble focusing," Nero said as he wiped the cold water off his face.
Anthony only groaned, as if he understood exactly what Nero was going through. Nero returned to his room and drank the juice, allowing to absorb the sudden influx of sugars. Then he activated Enhanced learning. This card was only supposed to be used once every 30 hours, and Nero normally stuck by that guideline. But today he had to push it a little since he couldn't afford to wait.
He absolutely could not afford to keep this letter lying around if the information it carried was so valuable. He intended to learn the recipe and then burn it. Nero even went as far as meditating, to clear his mind of all straying thoughts.
Generally speaking, Nero had a good memory, but it was far from the level of being eidetic. For something as important as his, he couldn't afford to be forgetful.
Once he felt like he was ready, he used Enhance learning on himself, and then once again activated Luminalink. Rather than listening to the whole message again, he used the card to fast forward to the part where he left off.
"The basic format for the recipe will stay consistent. The only difference is that the card is specifically designed for each level, Neophyte, Initiate and Arcanist. That means that while you're an Arcanist you can still get by with a card meant for Neophytes, with reduced effectiveness, but the opposite is not true.
If you try to use a card meant for an Arcanist at your level, you will suffer an injury instead.
"That's because the recipe for the card used for Neophytes is the original, and the following two are derivatives, researched by later generations after studying the original. First, I am going to go over the recipe, as well as how to use it, before moving onto the second part of the technique.
"First things first, the base of the card is going to be a plant fibre amalgam that you're going to have to blend yourself. The steps will be…"
The card recipe was, predictably, not simple at all. To be fair, the complexity of the initial recipe was not because the materials were too rare or difficult to handle, but because they were so specific that he would have to manufacture each one himself.
As for how difficult it was to actually craft the card, Nero would not be finding out anytime soon, unless he rapidly improved his card crafting skills.
Then came the recipes for the Initiate and Arcanist versions of the card. Compared to the original, they were actually simpler to make. That's because many of the ingredients used were vastly more difficult to procure, and the ones available should be extremely expensive.
This was not Nero's own judgement, for he did not even know most of them, but was an observation his father made.
Nero went over the instructions a dozen times and repeated the ingredients in his head over and over, so that he would learn them. He was developing a mild headache due to the premature use of Enhanced learning, but it did not impede his memorisation much.
Eventually, Nero had to take a break because he once again heard the sound of his room door opening. Gabriel looked somewhat recovered after his shower, but he was still limping. Nero slipped the letter and Luminalink in his pocket, grabbed his own clothes and went to the restroom, turned on the shower, and then sat on the side as he began to go over the recipe again.
Eventually, when he was convinced that he had the entire thing memorised perfectly, he finally allowed himself to watch the rest of the message.
"Once you've mastered the recipe and finally crafted the card, this is what you should end up with."
Edward held up a 0 star card and showed it to Nero so he could familiarise himself with it and know what to expect.
Name: Radix Augmentation
Image: The silhouette of a tree with a massive root network
Type: Augmentation
Star rank: 0
Ability: [Use external aids to enhance aether absorption]
Flavour text: "From the earth we are nurtured and grown" - ???
Nero studied the card carefully, and was relieved to learn that the ability of the card did not outright spell out its actual purpose, though it subtly hinted at it. He was also intrigued by the fact that there was a quote, but the name of the person who said it was missing.
"At a glance, should anyone else see the card, it will look like a simple aether recovery card. In fact, if anyone else uses it, that's exactly what will happen, though you should never let such a situation occur. This is a very weak failsafe. To properly use it, you need to absorb vitality from external sources.
"In this situation, vitality is just a very nice word. What it actually means is that you need something that has freshly died. It can be an animal, plant or insect, and the stronger they are, the better the effect will be. All you need to do is hold them while using the card. Your body will naturally absorb the vitality and use it to boost your absorption."
"Yeah, that's not creepy at all, dad," he muttered.
"This is the tricky part, son. The longer the body, or body part, has been dead, the less effective it's going to be. This is another reason why joining the army will be a good opportunity for you. Not because you will be fighting monsters, but because you'll spend a lot of time outside cities. In my personal experience, plants are the easiest to use, even if they're not the most effective."
Edward paused, and his projection looked away into the distance. It seemed like something had happened while he was recording to distract him.
"I'm going to end the message here, son. There are more things I wish I had the time to tell you, but I've told you everything you need to know. Unfortunately, before you ask, my side of the family does not have any secret legacy I can pass on to you. I'm sorry if you find that disappointing.
The only thing I can offer you is… if things ever go bad for you, and you're in a tough spot, do whatever you feel like you need to do. As long as I'm alive, I'll handle the fallout for you."
The message ended quite abruptly, so Nero guessed that whatever had attracted his father's attention must have been extremely urgent. But even though the message had ended, Nero had a lot to think about.
Finally, he took off his clothes and walked under the shower. His distracted mind did not notice at all whether the water was hot or cold. It was not like it mattered much to him anymore.
*****
A strange sound pervaded the silent night, as if someone was choking on something. The leaves rustled whenever the wind blew, obscuring the sound, but whenever they stopped, the sound returned.
Up above, countless clouds obscured the night sky, blocking the moonlight. But the forest was not as dark as it should have been. Instead, a warm, golden light illuminated the forest floor, and revealed countless corpses, still bleeding and occasionally spasming.
Yet the heavy smell of blood did not attract any animals or wild beasts, as strange as that was.
A small distance away from the corpses, a man was kneeling on the ground, and in front of him stood an armoured figure, holding him up by the hair. A stream of golden energy seemed to be flowing out of the kneeling man's eyes, and gathering into a golden flame in the palm of the armoured man.
The scene was ominous, but it continued uninterrupted for a few minutes more, until finally the golden energy stopped flowing. At the same time, the kneeling man stopped making the strange, throaty noises, and fell over on the ground. He was not dead yet, but he might as well be.
"Is he the mole?" a voice asked the armoured man, its source unseen.
The armoured man crushed the flame in his clenched fist and absorbed the golden energy from it. A few moments later, he shook his head.
"He is just another messenger. He has no information about the mole. However, it seems he is carrying an important letter. It should still be on his body. Do you want me to retrieve it?"
"Grab the letter and bring it back for analysis. This was our last lead on the mole. If we let him slip, the situation is going to get even worse."
The armoured man looked at the countless corpses all around him.
"Yeah, let's try to avoid worse…"