Jonah's new goal was clear: create a Grade-4 Progeny. A Nexus Progeny.
The idea was so big, so revolutionary, it made everything he had done before feel like a child's finger-painting. This was the real thing. This was master level work.
"Okay, let's map this out," he said, his voice buzzing with an energy that chased away all his fatigue. He grabbed a piece of chalk and stood before the large chalkboard that had come with his room – a feature he'd never thought he'd use.
Vanessa grabbed a chair and slid it closer, that familiar spark of curiosity lighting up her eyes. "The Nexus Core is the foundation. It has to bind at least four separate essences. But which ones? It can't be random. We need synergy."
"Right," Jonah said, sketching a large circle on the board to represent the core. "We can't just throw a bunch of parts in a box and hope a car comes out. Every piece has to have a purpose."
He drew four lines branching from the circle. "What do we want it to do?"
"Everything," Vanessa said instantly, then laughed.
"Okay, not everything. That's how you get a chimera. We need a clear purpose. A scout? A tank? An assassin?"
"An assassin," Jonah decided. "But not a brute like Maul. Something fast and impossible to pin down. A perfect infiltrator."
He tapped the first line with his chalk. "So, we need stealth. The Glimmermoth essence gives us illusion and air properties. That's a start." He wrote 'Glimmermoth (Air, Illusion)' on the board.
"For an assassin, it needs a weapon," Vanessa added, leaning forward. "Something that can punch through defenses. What about the Iron-Billed Woodpecker essence? The piercing attribute is strong."
Jonah nodded, adding it to the board. "Good. That's two. But it's still just a spooky bird. It needs better defense and movement. The ability to hide, to truly vanish."
"What if we add a chameleon-like ability? Something that allows for perfect camouflage, not just illusion." He didn't know of a creature with that essence yet, but he wrote Natural Camouflage and circled it.
"And for movement?" Vanessa prompted. "Flight is good, but predictable."
"We need something… unpredictable. The ability to be somewhere else, instantly. Teleportation," Jonah said, the word tasting powerful on his tongue. He wrote Short-Range Warp next to the last line.
They both stared at the board. It was a theoretical masterpiece: a silent, camouflaged, teleporting assassin with illusionary defenses and a piercing attack.
There was only one problem.
"I've never even heard of creatures with essences for camouflage or warping," Jonah said, the excitement in his chest deflating slightly. "How are we supposed to study their properties if we can't find them?"
Vanessa tapped her chin, a thoughtful look on her face. "The main library is for standard curriculum. It focuses on common beasts and established combat theory. But if information on rare and forbidden creatures exists anywhere in this Academy…"
"...It would be in the Restricted Section," Jonah finished for her.
The Academy's library was a massive cathedral of knowledge. But its most sacred, and most dangerous, texts were kept under lock and key. The Restricted Section was a place of legends and rumors, said to hold books on soul magic, demonic pacts, bio-mancy, and rituals so dangerous that reading them could get a student expelled. Or worse.
"How do we get in?" Jonah asked. "It's for senior students and professors, right?"
A sly, confident smile spread across Vanessa's face. "It's for students with high-level research clearance. And as it happens, my 'special research project' on synergistic life-force applications just got approved." She pulled a folded document from her pocket. At the bottom was an official stamp, and a signature that was unmistakably Seraph's.
"She approved this?" Jonah asked, amazed.
"She quietly pushed it through the Headmaster's office last week," Vanessa said with a wink. "Our cover story just became our reality."
The librarian guarding the heavy, iron-wrought gate to the Restricted Section was a woman who looked like she'd been carved from a block of granite and given a permanent scowl.
"Project Codename: Synergistic Life-Force Applications," the librarian read from Vanessa's paperwork, her voice gravelly. She eyed the two of them, a first-year Mage and a first-year… something… with deep suspicion. "This is highly irregular."
"The work is highly advanced," Vanessa replied smoothly, her tone respectful but firm. "It requires access to data on variant biological and arcane energy patterns."
The librarian grunted, giving them a long, hard stare before she finally took out a large, ornate key and unlocked the gate. "Any books removed from this section must be signed out in triplicate. Any damages will result in a full month of sanitation duty and a mark on your permanent record. And if you start glowing, twitching, or whispering in dead languages, I am required to report you. Understood?"
"Perfectly," Vanessa said cheerfully.
The gate swung open, and they stepped inside. The air was different here – cool, dry, and heavy with the scent of old paper and latent magic. The shelves were packed with dusty, leather-bound tomes, some chained to the shelves, others pulsing with a faint light.
For days, they lost themselves in research. Jonah and Vanessa became a familiar, if strange, sight in the Restricted Section.
They'd claim a table in a dusty corner and work for hours, whispering excitedly over ancient diagrams. Other students, the rare seniors who had access, would see them – the brilliant Mage and her strange partner from the Undercroft – and whisper about the research duo. They had become legends in their own right.
They learned about Phase Spiders that could step through reality, whose essences granted spatial warping. They found texts on Shadow Panthers whose skin could bend light, providing perfect camouflage. They read forbidden treatises on bio-mancy, which, while twisted and cruel, contained bits of truth about how to weave flesh and bone.
Finally, after a week of intense study, they sat back at their table, a new blueprint mapped out on a fresh sheet of parchment. It was detailed, precise, and breathtaking in its ambition.
A flying, armored scout, designed from the ground up.
Genesis Core: To be modified into a Nexus Core.
Essence 1: GlimmerMoth (Air, Illusion) - For silent flight and decoy creation.
Essence 2: Iron-Billed Woodpecker (Air, Piercing) - For a precise, armor-shattering strike.
Essence 3: Shadow Panther (Dark, Camouflage) - For true invisibility.
Essence 4: Phase Spider (Spatial, Warp) - For short-range teleportation.
They looked at their design, then at each other. They had done it. They had created their theoretical masterpiece.
"It's perfect," Jonah breathed, tracing the lines of the design with his finger. It was more than just a plan; it was a promise.
Vanessa smiled, a genuine, tired, triumphant smile. "Theoretically," she said. "Now comes the hard part."
Jonah knew what she meant. They had the blueprint.
But now they had to find the parts. And a Genesis Core rare enough to handle the strain of becoming something entirely new.