“Woah…” Micro’s mind was overrun with unfamiliar imagery, complicated ideas, and a strange language. At first, he thought the card was defective, but the strange thoughts began to make sense to him in time. As his head cleared, he confirmed that the Core Card was still lying safely in the bed of the truck, now a part of his soul, and shrugged. He walked out of the garage, closing the door behind him. He wasn’t sure how, but he was now confident that he understood the contents of the card.

  “I think I did it!” Micro shouted as he awoke, still seated before the sect leader. “It’s like learning to read a map of your own body. You learn all the little roads your energy needs to take, and where the energy slows down or stops, and then you can make a shield!”

  “It’s been mere moments since you began, young one.” The sect leader shook his head and chuckled. “You must be mistaken. Internalizing the teachings of a Core Card requires powers of imagination, visualization, and concentration that do not come easy to mortals. Even I struggled for many years to safely open my core and absorb the card. But your card is still… Wait… Where is your card? Did you drop it?”

  “I threw it in the truck bed,” Micro replied with a wide grin. “It’ll be safe there as long as it’s parked in the garage. Maybe the glovebox would be safer on the road…”

  “For your consciousness to safely enter and exit your core and observe your soul is not so easily accomplished, and not in such—”

  “I just opened the door,” Micro explained briefly, miming the act of pressing the garage door opener’s button with one hand. “The motor is old and noisy, but it works.”

  “What human could possibly construct a door in their own core?!” the sect leader shouted, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. “No genius or prodigy, regardless of their core level, could defy their own nature to such an extent. To simply pry open a piece of your core like a door without damaging it irreparably—”

  “I didn’t exactly open it myself,” Micro interjected. “I just push the button and it opens by itself.”

  “You pushed…”

  “I was worried at first, but your instructions were clear,” Micro went on. “Thanks, master!”

  “Kel did warn me, but you are certainly incomprehensible…”

  “That was weird!” Blue suddenly shouted, waking from her meditative state with a flash of light. “Cramming a turtle into your soul felt as gross as I thought it would.”

  “You too…?” The sect leader asked expressionlessly. “Was this such a simple exercise…?”

  “What, did the boy beat me to it?” Blue gasped at Micro, whose reply was a thumbs up. “It took a while to squish it down enough to fit inside.”

  “Squish…?” The sec leader whispered.

  “Ya, it clearly wasn’t designed to fit in a pixie core,” she replied. “It took some wrestling. Alright, let’s see what you got, boy!”

  “Sure!” Micro answered enthusiastically. He stood up beside her and made a similar pose to what he’d seen the sect leader do not long before.

  “One, two, three…!” Blue shouted as the two of them began to glow.

  The sect leader could only watch with wide eyes as the pair of novice cultivators before him coated themselves with the same turtle shell armour he had displayed earlier. Though their armour was the same jade colour as the sect leaders, Micro’s armour seemed to radiate a white glow, while the pixie’s aura was unsurprisingly blue.

  “Oh, not bad kid!” Blue jumped up and down while comparing her armour to Micro’s. “But yours definitely lacks finesse compared to mine. Look how smooth it is—”

  Blue’s proud display was cut short as her armour suddenly disintegrated and she fell to the ground panting and gasping for air. Micro bent down to pick her up, but she slapped his hand away with an awkward face.

  “I’m just a bit too tired for that, it would seem…” she admitted as she picked herself up off the ground with some difficulty. “Just tired…”

  “To be able to summon such armour mere moments after mastering the Core Card…” the sect leader wondered. “Pixies are more terrifying than we ever realized…”

  “Ignorance is bless, eh?” Blue mocked the sect leader.

  “You say you are weakened, but how much stronger could you be?” the sect leader inquired.

  “How strong am I?” Blue said with a sideways glance. She looked around for a moment as she regained her composure, then picked a small pebble up off the ground. She tossed in the air and caught it, then continued. “Say this rock is the energy I’ve managed to recover since those ingrates sacrificed me to summon this guy over here. This mountain would be the power I had before the magicians started harassing me.”

  “That’s pretty strong, isn’t it?” Micro remarked as the sect leader appeared to turn to stone. “How did they catch you if you were so strong?”

  “They didn’t just walk up to me and put me in a cage, you bonehead!” She huffed. “It was fun at first, but the magicians just never stopped coming! Even the war didn’t feel as tedious! And the powers they used kept getting weirder and weirder—”

  “Such a battle…” the sect leader mumbled, unable to form a coherent thought or reply. “I didn’t realize the lengths the magicians have been going to. Such vile beings…”

  “Whatever,” Blue continued. “Things are different now.”

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  “You mean now that you have a core?” Micro asked.

  “That’s right. Pixies don’t really think about gathering energy like this. We just wait for the energy to come to us, which is a problem when magicians won’t stop badgering you. But with this core,” she said a dark grin crept across her face. “Now I can recharge as fast as a human…”

  “What have I done…” The sect leader whispered in horror.

  “That’s great!” Micro replied. “And you can use Core Cards now. Let’s find some more!”

  “Hmph.” Blue turned her head away with a condescending look. “I’ll allow you to accompany me for the time being.”

  “Thanks, Blue!” Micro answered happily. “Hey, Trill. Give me the rest of the cards!”

  “Which ones…?” Trill’s unenthusiastic voice replied.

  “All of them!”

  “Fine…” Trill grunted. With a dissatisfied grunt and a flash of light, more Core Cards of various colours and designs flew out of Micro’s pocket and landed on the ground. Micro quickly arranged the cards in front of him while thinking about which one he would use next, but something made him pause.

  “Did I have this many cards?” He asked aloud while Blue and the sect leader leaned in to take a closer look.

  “I’m pretty sure you had nine before, eight if you don’t count the one you just ate,” Blue replied. “I’m not the best with numbers though.”

  “Sapphire…? A Ruby Spirit Vision Card…?” the sect leader mumbled in shock as the cards scattered on the ground sparkled in the sun.

  “Here’s the yellow snake and shield cards from Ray…” Micro said as he began to collect the cards he was familiar with. “These are the four cards we found on Kang’s skeleton… This is the red one Feng gave me… And this green one was the other card the turtle gave me.”

  “The guardian truly bestowed the Jade Armour Trait Core Card upon you?!” the sect leader remarked. “Few among my ancestors could say the same…”

  “But what are these two cards, Trill?” Micro asked the pixie still pouting in his pocket.

  “Those…? Oh, I found them…” he replied curtly. “Just lying around… somewhere…”

  “Where?” Micro asked.

  “It was a long time ago,” Trill replied impatiently. “I don’t remember!”

  “I wonder what they are…” Micro wondered as he picked up the two remaining cards.

  “I can help you with that!” Kel suddenly shouted from a short distance behind the sect leader. “I mastered the Appraisal Skill for a reason!”

  “What of your mastery of the Turtle Art?” The sect leader asked Kel as he approached. “You should focus on—Wait, don’t tell me…”

  “I mastered it a moment ago!” Kel replied as he effortlessly summoned a similar armour to his grandfather’s own without missing a step.

  “Impossible…” the sect leader frowned. “You were raised on the teachings of our sect alone…! To rush through the process of mastering our most sacred art would be reckless and—”

  “Forgive me, grandfather.” Kel bowed as he came to face the sect leader. “I will honour my sect in life and death, but I have seen beyond my limits.”

  “Good job, Kel!” Micro shouted.

  “It is thanks to you, master,” Kel replied with a bow. “After witnessing powers so far beyond what I thought my own limitations were, I began to view myself in a different light…”

  “You wouldn’t dare—” the sect leader interjected with a mountainous aura.

  “I plan to succeed where my father failed.”

  “Insolent child!” the sect leader roared. “You would walk the path of self destruction!”

  “I will bring honour to this sect, grandfather,” Kel asserted, not letting himself be pushed back by the sec leader’s mountainous aura. “I will lead the alliance to new heights! The time for caution has passed. We must ascend if we are to survive!”

  “Our sect has survived this long by embracing the path of the mountain and the turtle!” he continued with a calmer but colder tone. “We witness this turbulent world as a constant, immovable entity. We endure the passing of time and we outlast every tribulation…!”

  “But that is not that path of the turtle which I witnessed, grandfather,” Kel replied confidently. “I witnessed a path through the turtle’s trial not simply of patience, but of selfless determination. Did you not learn in your own trial that time is not only to be endured? It is to be forgotten!”

  “You dare lecture me?” the sect leader growled, but he was unable to find the words to argue.

  “I have also studied the testimonies of our ancestors who passed the trial before us, and I know well that there are those who passed the trial through endurance alone, but that is not how Micro earned the highest honour which the guardian of the Jade Fire Turtle Art Dungeon could grant.”

  “The boy…” The sect leader’s face softened slightly as he considered what he had already learned from Micro in their short time together. “Indeed, but there is an order to things…”

  “I believe my father was right to pursue higher realms of power. Just because he didn’t survive his own ascension to the amber core stage…” Kel’s voice waned slightly, and he took a deep breath before continuing. “I will not abandon your teachings for as long as I live, grandfather… But I have seen beyond the limits we set for ourselves here.”

  “Limits we set for ourselves…” the sect leader repeated as his eyes wandered from the cultivating pixie to the otherworldly boy. He looked at the unbelievable assortment of Core Cards in the newly armoured hands of the boy, and he let out a long sigh.

  “You see it too, don’t you, grandfather?” Kel asked with a softer voice. “You see the limitless potential of our arts with your own eyes.”

  “You passed the trial with such beliefs in your heart, Kel?” the sect leader asked.

  “As did Tae, grandfather,” Kel answered sincerely. “We have seen the future of our sect.”

  “Then who am I to question the path of a worthy heir…?” The sect leader’s aura returned to normal, then he smiled warmly at Kel and nodded. “I may have confused endurance with stubbornness in the years since I passed the trial of the Jade Fire Turtle Art Dungeon…”

  As the sect leader and his grandson enjoyed a moment of mutual understanding beneath the morning sun, they were abruptly distracted by the shrill voice of a small pixie.

  “Wait, maybe you should stick to the green ones for—”

  BOOM

  Her warning was cut off by a brilliant flash of light that flung her, Kel, and the sect leader back several paces.

  “Ouch…” Micro’s voice echoed through a cloud of dust. “The yellow ones are way too heavy for my springs…”

  The dust settled on his shoulders as he coughed up some blood, but he laughed as he stood up and picked his Core Cards back up off the ground around him.

  “Micro…” Kel coughed. “You just tried to absorb an amber level Core Card with a jade level Core, didn’t you…?”

  “Sorry, Kel…” Micro bowed, wiping the blood from his chin.

  “You know what I’m going to say next, don’t you, master?” Kel asked with a sigh.

  “I know…” Micro bowed again. “I should have read the signs. Yellow means slow…”

  “That’s not what I—” Kel sighed as he stood up and adjusted his robes. “Oh well… Are you okay?”

  “It hurt a bit, but I think I can fix the damage…” Micro replied.

  “I’m glad you’re safe, master,” Kel said, shaking his head.

  “Thanks, Kel…”