Aether Core

An Aether Core is actually an Aether Rune. It is the simplest Aether Rune, the one that every Evolver, Player, and Aetherist learned first, and it was simply called the " Point ".

Many factions would judge an Aetherist's talent by asking them to execute that Rune. The larger the mass of concentrated Aether and the smaller the sphere containing that Aether, the better an Aetherist's potential was.

**According to Novice Aether Manipulation, Chapter 2 :**

## Uses of an Aether Core

Once established the Aether Core had a multitude of uses. It prevented excess Aether from escaping, could provide energy to the various Aether Skills and Spells, and could even nourish the host's body and make it stronger and more resilient in the long run. The soul and spirit also benefited from the proximity of an Aether Core. Like a black hole, the Aether and the energy contained in the Aether Core itself could not be used, as this would diminish the Aether mass of the Core and therefore its ability to attract the Aether. The mind itself being made of Aether, mentally or physically touching an Aether Core was one of the most admirable ways to commit suicide. However, as with a black hole, the accretion disc forming around it would emit an Aether radiance that could be exploited by the owner of the core. This Aether output was the process used by the bracelet to function and accumulate Aether over time.

A powerful mind was the key to attracting, controlling and manipulating more Aether. An Evolver with a powerful Soul could create an Aether Core in a fraction of a second, and not just inside his body. Aether Cores could also be used offensively. Creating and selling Aether Cores was also a recognized craft in the Mirror Universe. With sufficient output, it could provide enough Aether to live comfortably in an Oracle City without doing anything. It could also be used to provide power for the various vehicles, spaceships, and other Aether-based weapons. Creating an Aether Core was not simple for most people and time consuming. Therefore, a market speculating on this resource had naturally flourished over time.

It was also good to know that an Aether Core could be encoded to serve a certain function itself, or be generated using only a certain type of Aether. It was the original mana source for Enya] and Esya]. The only difference was that this Aether Core was formed from already transformed elementary Aether particles and that this process was semi-instinctive and automatic among the Egaen race. Not being powered anymore, their Mana Cores had weakened little by little during their few battles on B842 until they eventually vanished.

## Creating an Aether Core

Creating an Aether Core wasn't that difficult in theory, but it was a lengthy process that would take a lot of time and effort. An Aether Core was exactly what the term implied: a mass of Aether concentrated in a single point until it became solid or almost so. Similar to the interaction between mass and gravity, the accumulation of Aether at the same point would eventually generate an Aether gravity field attracting the surrounding Aether to it.

On paper, it looked as simple as opening a jam jar. Except that preventing such a mass of Aether from dispersing until it collapsed in on itself and formed the equivalent of an Aether black hole required a lot of Aether and a constant supply of Aether.

For beginners with low stats it was not possible to use this process. The alternative version for beginners was therefore to consciously control this Aether mass to generate a rotation, which would function as a kind of vortex. With sufficient speed, this Aether mass would rotate fast enough to resist the Aetheric forces trying to drive the Aether out of his body.

But then again, there was another issue. That spinning movement of the Aether wouldn't come out of nowhere, but from the focused mind. Simply put, as with Overloaded Aether stats, if the concentration was relaxed before the Aether Core was formed, the Aether would disperse and it would be back to square one.

The reason Extrasensory Perception and Intelligence needed to reach a minimum of 100 points was to attract and control as much Aether as possible. Controlling the Aether within 10 meters radius was the minimum that made the attempt to create the Aether Core possible.

Lastly, there was a final problem of size. If one wanted to contain the Aether Core inside their body, they would need to choose a part of theirbody that they could sacrifice. Because if the body was able to withstand high concentrations of Aether when it was shifted from one limb to the other for better fighting, the Aether density at the Aether Core level would be far beyond what the body could endure. Basically, the area of the body housing the Aether Core was usually just a hole! No flesh, bones, or organs. Just a void. For this very reason, it was too risky to choose an important place like the heart or brain to house the Aether Core. On the other hand, it had to be relatively centered to allow easy access to the Aether.

The Aether Core was originally just a mass of Aether belonging to no one. If its creator wasn't careful, he or she could spend days or even weeks at a time accumulating Aether, only to find that at the first move, the Aether Core had stayed behind in the very same spot. Though, most often by disintegrating all the flesh and organs that had been in contact with it... So the first thing to do before creating an Aether Core was to make sure that it was firmly anchored to the body of its creator and not spatially locked in the space where the Core was generated.

Luckily this problem had a simple solution, which was to anchor the Aethor Core to his own Soul. This was one of the reasons why it took at least 100 Aether points of Intelligence and Extrasensory Perception to do so. This was the minimum threshold where a Soul was considered stable enough. In order to anchor the new Aethor Core to his Soul, it was enough to mentally envelop it in order to isolate it from the rest of the world. The spirit of the creator had to be in complete control of the space where the Aether Core was placed.

This seemed easy since the Spirit body of an Evolver who had awakened his Seventh Stat extended over his entire body. Except that space, energy and matter were also part of his body. It was not possible to anchor the Aether Core to a specific part of the body, since it would be destroyed when the Aether density of the core became too high.

In order for this to work, the Aether Core simply had to prefer to anchor itself to the spirit rather than the void where it was located, and all that was needed for this to work was a strong spirit, attractive enough for the Aether Core to make this choice naturally. This was based on one of the fundamental principles of the Aether, which was that the Aether was drawn to the Aether and the powerful Souls. Once a Soul became stable, there was no longer any risk of the Aether Core binding itself to the wrong place.