Chapter 1310 - Hands and Muscles (Part 2) (1/2)

”Vortexes are akin to muscles I never used. The pain has at least allowed me to learn how to feel their position even when I don't use any breathing technique. The next step is exercising them.” Lith had a hard time staying awake while being cuddled, but he wanted to keep hearing Kamila's voice a bit longer.

”No offense, but the comparison doesn't hold. All Awakened with a bright blue core can see the vortexes with their breathing technique. If it was so easy, then why are so many mages stuck at your same level even after centuries?” She asked.

”Quite a bit taken, Constable Smartass. What do you suggest me to do, then?”

”I'm not an Awakened and I don't even qualify as a magica.” Kamila kissed his head again. ”What does a mana core do and what are the vortexes supposed to do?”

Lith had already had that conversation with Solus countless times ever since Faluel had shown him the violet dots in his eyes and told him that, somehow, merging with his Demon of Darkness was akin to the Hydra bloodline's secret technique.

Yet he didn't mind repeating it again. As a teacher, he had learned that it was by explaining his knowledge to laymen, by answering to all of their whys and hows about things that he considered too simple to give them a second thought that he could reach enlightenment.

Managing to dumb down complex concepts so that anyone could understand them meant to have truly mastered their underlying principles. Teaching others allowed him to understand how deep his understanding of a discipline truly was.

”Awakened or not, a mana core produces the mana that allows us to use magic. The main difference between us is that I can stimulate mine at will and fuel powerful spells whereas you can't without resorting to magical words and hand signs.”

”I'm sorry, you already lost me.” Kamila sighed.

”Imagine that we both have a crackling fireplace. To make it hotter, I need but a thought to make my hand pick up more wood and throw it into the fire whereas you have to tell your hand how to move and where to throw the wood to achieve the same result.

”It's akin to having a dumb dog for a hand that needs precise instructions every time you want it to do something right.”

”Okay, thanks. What about the vortexes?” She asked.

”That's an excellent question. My hypothesis is that to achieve a violet core, I must turn them into auxiliary cores like it happened when I was one with my Demons.” Lith projected two holograms for her.

One depicting his hybrid body with all the extra cores from Kolga's vengeful souls and the other depicting his human body with its vortexes.

”Which means?”

”Which means having many more hands that don't just pick and throw the wood, but even restock the woodshed.” Lith said.

”No wonder so few people achieve the violet core. It sounds like a pain in the a.s.s.” Kamila nodded.

”Wait. What do you mean and how is this any different from the analogy with the muscles?” Lith said, genuinely surprised by her words.

”Flexing a muscle is easy.” She said while giving him a warm smile to emphasize the concept. ”A hand, instead, is made of several bones, muscles, and ligaments that need to perfectly coordinate between them to perform their duty.

”On top of that, even the nimblest of humans is born with just two hands or one core, if you prefer, which means that the new ones have to be trained from scratch and that you must also learn how to coordinate them with your starting two hands.

”Imagine how hard would it be if you suddenly had a third leg and you had to relearn how to walk without it being a drag. No s.e.x.u.a.l innuendos!”