Synexus realized he was being tested twice at one time. The System was testing him by putting together this trial dungeon and having him confront his personal history while the Living System was testing him by having him confront the legacy of his class. All this meant was his days would be busy.

  Mornings would be filled with exploration of his home to discover his personal history. Afternoons would be Mana Weaving lessons with Gene. Of course, he was excited to finally learn about where he came from, but now there was the bonus of learning where he was going as well.

  As they strolled through the city streets under the morning suns, they chatted about the architecture and all the different technologies. Plants made of metal or living metals lined the streets and the buildings lit up at all times of the day. Gene pointed out some points of interest to check out once they got into the swing of things and even talked about their favorite places in the city. Synexus smiled the whole time, knowing that all this technology, all these places, and the people who created them were a part of him and he would carry that with him proudly.

  A slight tug on his mind directed him down a certain street and Gene suggested they follow it since it was the System guiding them to a personal history spot. To Synexus’ surprise it led them to a medical facility. The walls inside were the blinding, sterile white that the System itself would produce sometimes. Glass walls divided rooms inside and all the instruments of the healers were pure silver. Technologies that he had never seen were present in every room and he added every component to his Material Database.

  When they arrived on the third floor, three locked memories attacked, and he quickly dispatched them by turning his arms into a strong metal he had recorded that day to block off attacks and then using his katana to deliver the final blows. For his reward he unlocked the memories, silver liquid turned into soothing ethereal light before forming into figures. One of the figures he would know anywhere. It was his mother.

  She was crying like he always remembered she was except this time he could tell they were tears of joy. A tall man with the same black hair and silver eyes was standing at her bedside with his hand resting on her shoulder and they were both looking down at a baby wrapped in silver. Profound excitement hit him as he realized he was witnessing his parents on the day he was born.

  His mother wiped away the tears and spoke in the same voice that Synexus has known his whole life except this time it sounded happier.

  “What do you think we should name him?”

  “My first son should take a part of my name.”

  “I agree. It is the custom passed down by our ancestors after all. Now let’s see, I’ve always loved the “Syn” part of your name. I think we should keep it, Synillic.”

  “That’s fine with me. We could call him Syn as a nickname like my family once called me. Now we need something more and I think I have just the thing, my silver light. He isn’t just my first-born son, but also yours. Let’s pass down part of your name as well. How about Synex?”

  “Are you sure? I’ve always hated my name.”

  “Why? Anexi is such beautiful name. When I first heard it, it was like both stars that grace our planet shined down on me. All the silver glistened even brighter. Our cold metal city even became more full of life and warmth to me. I’d be honored for our son to take a part of that.”

  “That was a bit dramatic.” They both laughed a little. “But it was sweet, I suppose. You can stop trying now that we’ve had a child. We can safely say you got me.”

  “I will never stop trying. You deserve it all and more. I’m sure Synex will know he has the best mother in the world.”

  Anexi rolled her eyes. “Of course he will.” Another beautiful laugh rolled out her mouth. “The only thing about Synex that I don’t like is that we are forcing him to carry our names forward. I think he should have something that is his own. Don’t ya think so too?”

  “Okay, a bit of an original part to show that he will be more than the sum of his parts.”

  “His parts? Is that all we are now?”

  Synillic let out a low chuckle. “I just mean he will be greater than either of us. How could he not be? Together we are unstoppable. He will be us and more.”

  “Us and more. I like that a lot. Hey! That’s it! Us. Synexus.”

  “Synexus. That is a name that will be synonymous with greatness.” His father reached down and brushed his thin black hair.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  He watched himself give a little baby smile to his parents not knowing that he would only have three months to appreciate them. The memory faded and his parents returned to silver liquid before dispersing. Silence filled the room as Gene placed a wing on his arm for comfort. Synexus was glad he didn’t have to face this alone.

  That afternoon they travelled to one of Zunzutoxsian’s favorite spots to train. Gene showed Synexus how to operate one of the various vehicles they had in the city to get there a bit faster since it was a bit outside of the gates.

  Several small ponds cascading down natural stone steps with little trickling waterfalls in between each before finally ending in a slightly larger pond were surrounded by flora of different colors. Vibrant blue grass, trees with different shades of pink leaves, bushes that looked like they were glowing red hot. It was beautiful and Synexus didn’t have to question why Zunzutoxsian would train here.

  Before getting to look around five locked memory creatures of all different shapes and sizes jumped out to attack. Synexus reacted quickly by throwing seeds in an arc around them that he grew using Extreme Growth into a shield of razor grass. To his surprise one of the memories was speared by one of the sharp, long blades. The four others stopped in time and were deterred by the barrier. If Kumo was here she would use the vortex or a gust of wind to push them into it, but Synexus didn’t have that luxury. Instead, he activated Body Transmutation to have his legs adapt to the genes of the light rabbit he had logged on the island. This made his legs be able to move faster than normal It was nowhere near as fast as the rabbit itself, but it was still much faster than normal. Using his increased speed, he ran around the memories so now they were fighting him with their backs against the razor grass. Before they could realize what happened, Synexus had pushed two into the grass to be speared. The last two he fought with his katana before victory was his.

  A memory roared to life as the silver liquid turned to light, and he watched closely to begin lesson one of Mana Weaving.

  Zunzutoxsian stood underneath the biggest tree in the area and began to draw in atmospheric mana except there was more too it. Synexus could see what was happening, but not the finer details. That’s where Gene jumped in.

  “He is separating the various types of mana. With Mana Weaving it’s important to know what types you need for your purpose.”

  This was going to be a problem since Synexus couldn’t tell a difference. Maybe once he tried it, he would understand better. For now, he continued to watch.

  Mana coalesced and the Zaxillian directed it using his body to flow into a stone. Intense concentration showed on his face as the mana started to burn intricate pathways into the surface. To Synexus the pathways looked like circuits like the ones on Gene’s body.

  Hours passed as the mana continued to burn through the stone making finer details with complicated branching pathways. The pattern started to glow as Zunzutoxsian opened his eyes and then fell to the ground with an exhausted sigh. After a few minutes he laughed out loud and moved to pick up the stone.

  With some effort he took the mana infused stone and placed it in the larger pond and got in himself. The water started bubbling slightly and Synexus realized he had enchanted the stone to heat the water. All that work. All those pathways for a heating stone.

  As the memory faded, Gene started to speak.

  “This was early in my creators training, but a good demonstration for your purposes. He started with trying a basic enchantment which was to have the stone possess the ability to heat up water. We watched him gather the heat mana, and the water mana before separating them into the correct balance. When he had it, he then directed the mana into the stone using his will as instructions. Mana burned through the stone creating what we call Will Pathways. These are mana created instructions using one’s will to tell mana how to flow to create a certain effect. As you can see, even for basic enchantments, they can be quite extensive.”

  “Uh, yes. I was just thinking about how complicated it worked for something so simple. How will I know what mana to pull in?”

  “You simply have to think of the final result, and think about what types would make that effect, but be warned, Synexus, using elemental mana like my creator just did is far easier than trying to use more complicated mana such as emotion. This will not be something you can master even in the ten years here. You will be on this path for the rest of your life.”

  “Wow, so I probably shouldn’t try it yet. I was definitely looking for a suitable rock.”

  This earned a laugh from the owl. “Oh no, you are encouraged to try. My warning was simply to say that it is much more difficult than it looks. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t get it the first thousand times.”

  With a nod and a suitable stone, Synexus started to pull in mana from the atmosphere focusing on the elemental mana that Zunzutoxsian used. His mind went into intense concentration trying to sense the different types to separate them, but his senses weren’t good enough yet. He opened his eyes to ask Gene for some tips and realized it was dark. It had been hours since he started to pull in mana, and he hadn’t even noticed.

  “You certainly have the concentration part down. I was afraid that even a monster coming and biting you wouldn’t shake you awake. What did you learn?”

  “That I need to improve my senses to be able to separate the mana. Is there a way to do that?”

  “Most class masters have to wait until they max out their physical perception before their bodies will naturally start to utilize stat points towards mana perception. We do not have that time. In order to work on it you’ll need to start focusing on mana every day. Whenever you use a skill or work on levelling up, I want you to focus on the pull of mana even within your own body. Using your Material Database start to match up the types of aether with the types of mana you see. This will be the easiest way for you to learn.”

  Synexus stood and drove them back into the city where they found a safe place to sleep for the night. Concentrating that hard had made him exhausted and Gene said he would need to be well rested if they were to continue to train harder. One thing was clear; he had a lot to learn.