Kolt sat cross legged across from Micro, his eyes shut and his hands together. The night was much too cold for Kolt to keep himself from shivering more and more with every gentle gust of wind that passed through the dark forest, but his will to concentrate was impressive to Micro.

  “You’re very disciplined for someone your age…” Micro remarked while circulating his energy throughout his body. “The old man’s son couldn’t sit still for ten seconds…”

  “Is the boring story part of the lesson?” Kolt asked, opening one eye to glare at Micro.

  “No, sorry,” Micro said with a wry smile. “I won’t try channelling any energy through you, because I’m not sure how, but I might be able to help you see it.”

  “See energy?” Kolt asked. “Is energy that weird magic you guys use?”

  “It’s not magic, but— Well, it’s hard to explain, but I guess it’ll make more sense once you can see it,” Micro explained. “Just pay attention to what you sense around you, sounds, smells, the wind, anything at all.”

  “Alright…” Kolt nodded, and Micro began to release his aura. Mindful not to let his aura encompass the frail boy in front of him, the energy around him grew like an invisible wind.

  “Do you sense anything yet?” Micro asked.

  “It feels like you lit a fire between us,” Kolt answered. “I don’t hear anything. It feels… heavy.”

  “What do you see?” Micro asked.

  “I don’t see anything,” Kolt said quietly. “I saw that big turtle shell you made earlier though.”

  “That’s a bit different,” Micro explained. “You can use energy to make things that anybody can see, but you need to be able to see energy itself first.”

  “Explain it better,” Kolt demanded.

  “Hmm…” Micro thought for a moment while inspecting the boy once again. “You don’t have much energy in your body, but you do have some. It should be possible…”

  “This looks interesting,” Blue suddenly appeared atop Micro’s head, looking curiously down at the boy. She hopped down to his shoulder, then whispered in his ear. “But he’s basically blind. What’s the plan?”

  “He’s not completely blind,” Micro replied softly. “It seems like most people have a little energy, even in their eyes.”

  “Well it’s going to take a lot more energy than that before he can see it with those sad little eyes,” Blue said, stifling her laughter to avoid disturbing the boy. “That does make it more interesting though. Let’s see what happens.”

  “It should be safe, right?” Micro asked.

  “One way to find out…” Blue said, then jumped down behind Micro and rooted herself to the ground. She began to feed him energy, and the aura around Micro began to glow. It was difficult for Micro to keep it constrained to the area immediately around his body while the pressure around him rose, but he continued diligently while minding Kolt’s reactions.

  “Are you sure you’re doing it right?” Kolt asked with a skeptical tone, sweat beginning to drip from his face as he struggled to remain seated.

  “I think so. Just focus on your eyes,” Micro replied. “Energy is hard to see, until you see it. Well, you’ll see…”

  “Okay…”

  Fearing he was wasting the boy’s time, Micro resolved to push himself further, unleashing all the internal energy he had stored in his core at once. He attempted to keep it from simply exploding outward, resulting in an exhausting balancing act. The more he practiced controlling raw energy without the assistance of Core Cards’ teachings, the easier he found it to manipulate, but Micro was unsure how much energy he could control before it would pose a risk to the boy in front of him.

  “You can do better than that!” Blue suddenly shouted before increasing the amount of energy flowing into Micro’s core tenfold.

  “Ah!” Micro yelped as the energy overwhelmed him. He managed to erect a large shield around himself to contain the explosive energy before it reached Kolt, but realized too late that his core was now under immense pressure. He felt his soul shaking within his core as the storm of energy swirled around like a tornado. The bricks of the ethereal garage that contained his soul began to loosen in the raging torrent of energy he struggled to contain, unable to release it safely for fear of reducing the young Kolt to dust.

  He wished he could tell Kolt to run, rather than patiently sitting, unaware of Micro’s dilemma, but there was little time before Micro would have to choose between letting his core be slowly destroyed or unleashing his excess energy. He then attempted to retract his shield slightly, and realized it was still possible to condense the energy further despite the pain it caused him. He was unable to see through the energy around him, but he could sense that it was still safely contained within the shield. Retracting it even further, his core began to feel hot. He had no time to meditate, but he felt the fear of the dog’s soul beneath his own, while the bricks and shingles of the garage cracked and shifted.

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  Sensing the limits of his stamina, he did his best to condense the energy within the shield surrounding him until it was only slightly larger than his own core. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurred, but he pushed a little more. Finally, he felt the energy safely within the confines of the rings of water and fire that continued to protect his core, and he took a deep breath.

  “Oops!” Blue laughed beside him, looking up at his chest with a wide smile.

  Micro smiled back, but was still unable to divert his attention from his damaged core. He closed his eyes and retreated to the world of energy where his core resided, and was alarmed to find that it had all but dissolved in the roaring sphere of raw energy he’d accumulated. Through the chaos, he could only make out the shape of his soul, and was relieved to see the shape of a dog sitting stoically in the passenger seat.

  “I wonder how he got in there…” Micro wondered to himself, then set to work reconstructing his core amidst the swirling storm of dense energy.

  The process of building up his core while keeping a shield formed around it was difficult. Without the shield, his energy would escape in the form of an explosion, taking Kolt with it, but he wouldn’t be able to stabilize it until his core was rebuilt. Through his struggle, he began to notice other differences in the process compared to the last two times he’d formed a core.

  “So the denser the energy gets, the more evenly the elements are combined…” he thought to himself as he worked. “I suppose it would be easier if I only needed one type of energy to work with, but…”

  As he used up more and more of the energy in the construction of his garage-shaped core, it became easier to contain the remainder, and his work proceeded more quickly. However, by the time he was finally able to release the shield and allow his core to function as a natural resting place for his abundant energy, he was surprised to see that it no longer shone with a green glow.

  “I wonder…” Micro approached the garage, entering it tentatively while taking in the sight of its amber coloured walls. He could feel a big difference in the rigidity of the walls now, but he wondered if he’d be lucky enough to rebuild his core if such an accident happened at a higher level. While trying to dispel the anxiety which such thoughts brought him, he noticed a small scratch on the door of his soul, near the passenger side handle, then understood how exactly the dog had kept itself safe during the storm. “You’re quite a smart dog.”

  The dog barked happily back at him, content to stay seated within the truck, so Micro continued to the back. He summoned an amber Core Card from his storage, the Amber Water Spirit Vision Skill, and held it over the bed. He slowly lowered it onto the bed’s surface, hesitant to release it from his grip, and he was pleasantly surprised to see that the suspension of his soul was able to handle the weight of the card. However, as he released the card, an intense pain shot through every part of his body, and he immediately took the card back out without any of its knowledge passing into him.

  “Oh well. I’ll figure that out at the snake sect later.” When Micro awoke from his meditative state, he was surprised to see Blue looking at him with a scary expression, somewhere between rage and confusion. “What’s up?”

  “You went and got an amber core before I did, and I’m the one who helped you do it?!” she pouted. “Enjoy this fleeting victory, Micro. It shall be your last!”

  “Thanks, Blue,” Micro replied.

  “The boy did well, by the way,” Blue added, turning away with a short breath. “Look at him go, the funny little guy.”

  “Oh, wow…” Micro replied as he looked at Kolt. Though Micro could barely see anything in the dark with only one good eye, observing the energy around Kolt made it clear that something had come of his idea, other than his own sudden ascension to the amber core stage. Although his energy was still flowing freely throughout his body, the amount of energy had increased by several times. Furthermore, even though Kolt’s eyes were closed, he was clearly looking around at the world and perceiving something. “What do you see now?”

  “There was a flash, and then all these lights appeared everywhere!” Kolt explained excitedly. “It hurt my head at first, but it feels so normal now. Look, those lights over there look like a tree, and there’s a lit-up version of you there…!”

  “Very good,” Micro praised the boy with a smile. “You’re looking at the energy of the world.”

  “So you weren’t making stuff up!”

  “It’s especially useful at night,” Micro continued. “Oh, and try looking at yourself.”

  “Huh? Wait what the—” Kolt looked down at his hands and gasped. “This is inside me?!”

  “It seems like there’s at least a little bit of energy in most things,” Micro replied.

  “Even in children with no manners,” Blue added.

  “Wait…” Kolt said more quietly as he looked back and forth between Micro and himself. “How come you guys have so much more?”

  “I’ve been cultivating longer,” Micro answered the frowning boy, then he pointed to his chest. “Your next task is to form a core, though I don’t think I can help you with that. You’ll need a lot more energy to work with first, and it’s pretty dangerous.”

  “So I’m not a cultivator yet?” Kolt asked.

  “Sure you are,” Micro reassured him. “But you’ll need a good teacher. Don’t worry, energy gets easier to use the more you use it.”

  “Okay…” Kolt mumbled, opening his eyes for the first time in a while, only to squint them again. He nodded his head, then yawned. “I think… I’ll rest a while…”

  “Sleep well.” Micro waved.

  “Thank you, by the way…” Kolt said quietly. “For back at the camp, me and my sister…”

  Micro only nodded in reply as Kolt made his way clumsily back to the camp where his sister still slept.

  “This should be interesting.” Blue chuckled.

  “What do you mean?” Micro asked.

  “You’ll see,” Blue said with a wide smile, then yawned loudly. “You’ll see…”