PART 1
There it was: the empty jar Mother rarely used to keep leftover stew. My plan was simple. During my incomplete awakening, I noticed something about how mana flowed in my body; it behaved fluid-like, with each type having its distinctive presence in a weird way. Turning my head around the kitchen, looking for the ingredients I knew Mother would have access to, I said aloud, "Where is it?" as Father seemed to be still asleep upstairs. "Where does Mother keep the salt again? Ahh, ahh, there they are." Grabbing the salt and pulling out four bowls, I thought, "Mother's not going to like this; she might even scold me for using so many items."
Just as I heard the voice of Mother, "Astraga, are you not done yet? What's taking you so long?" I rushed out, showing myself at the front door. "Coming, Mother, almost done. Be right there."
Astraya replied, "Hurry up, Astraga, I'm hungry."
"Alright, need to get this done fast." Grabbing two bowls, filling them with a similar quantity of water, and I searched for two more items I would need. Rubbing my chin, I remembered the olive oil Mother usually used to rub her hair. "Yes, and one more ingredient. I need a thicker liquid," I thought, rubbing my temple. "Wait, Mother did have some spare honey." Looking towards the very top shelf, there it was, the last item I would need: the honey. "Crap, how am I supposed to reach that?"
As I heard footsteps on the stairs heading down, it was Father. "Perfect timing! Father, you're awake."
He grinned. "Of course. I'm hungry. Is your mom still teaching you guys lessons?" Father asked as he stared at the table where I kept all the items I would need. "Astraga, what's all this? You know your mother doesn't like a mess in her kitchen."
I explained to him that this was for our lesson on seals, as I wanted Mother to try more useful application of seals. Father was shocked that we got Mother to even open up about stuff like that. "So why are you trying to reach the top shelf?" he asked.
"Well, Father, I need the honey to complete the test for Mother."
"Oh, really? You know your mom is very competitive; she would definitely want to prove you wrong. Alright, let me help you with that then." As he brought the honey down, all I needed was now at my front: salt, two bowls of water, honey, olive oil, and a transparent glass jar.
As Dad stared in curiosity, I wondered how advanced their knowledge and application of fundamental sciences here were. Would Father understand what I was trying to do? I was immediately proven otherwise, as Father asked if I was about to give myself a bad stomach ache with all these items. "Your mother will also find this interesting, haha. You took your father's curiosity, I see, Astraga," he said as he patted my head, heading outside to see Mother and my sister.
Opening the door, Mother, already realizing how much time she had spent outside and that food wasn't ready, yelled, "Oh dear, you're awake! I will come make food now." She sounded like she was heading inside.
Father said, "Oh, no worries, let's see what Astraga has for you, haha."
"I came wait to see," Mother said.
Father replied, "He has a challenge for the seals of the Ashborn, haha."
Mother looked intrigued. "A challenge?" she replied.
PART 2
"Oh, yes. He is in the kitchen making some kind of weird liquid concoction. I really want to see how it plays out now." Close to Mother and Astraya, he then turned to face the house. "Come on, Astraga, we are all waiting, haha," he said.
"No need to wait any longer, my concoction is ready." I poured the honey first, as it was the thickest of the four liquids. Then, I carefully poured saltwater, repeating the precision for the next two, which were water and finally the olive oil, according to their weight or the more scientific term "density".
From what I could see here, I needed to be careful as I didn't want to shake the jar, as it would ruin my plan. I closed the jar and now, carefully heading out, this was it: the moment to test how advanced Ashborn seals were.
Getting there, Mother and Astraya waited in anticipation, as they were really curious about what was in my hands. I yelled, "Behold, Mother... this is the challenge!"
Father, Astraya, and Mother all looked at the jar in surprise. "Wow, Astraga, what's this? Why aren't they mixing together?"
Smirking to myself, this was it. The first step was to give Mother a visual image. I needed her to conceptualize what I wanted first.
"Really, Astraga, did you awaken your mana?he said jokingly as he knew it wasn't possible. How are you able to separate them? It looks very nice," Father said, already lost in thought.
"Okay, Astraga, what's the challenge you have for me that you want the seal to do?" Mother was now invested. "What exactly is inside, as I can only recognize the honey in this jar?"
"Well, Mother, this jar contains four things: honey—"
"My honey!" she said, already thinking about how I had wasted food.
"—then olive oil, water with salt, and then normal water."
She seemed to understand. "Well, I do know they usually don't mix well together," Father said, "but I had never seen them in this condition, especially salt water and... umm, you say normal water, meaning no salt? Right?"
I replied, "Yes, Father." My idea was this: If mana flowed like a fluid, the catch that made me think was how they entered my body with a certain level of presence, as some felt lighter, while others had properties of earth—thicker, and air and fire being the lighter manas. Hence, this gave me the idea, as it reminded me of my biology project back in high school, which gave me the final conclusion: different fluids in this case, in one jar. The fluids here would act as mana elements especially of quad cores would. As honey was earth, oil was air, and fire would ironically be water, and water being salt water, the representation didn't really matter. The issue I wanted to see if it would work out was what would happen, as the core's major flaw was creating "null mana,"due to its inability to separate them properly. meaning it actively mixed mana types, either intentionally or just due to the fact that they had different densities, if that made sense. This jar would act as my quad core, and the liquids would arrange themselves according to density, but only if they don't mix easily. It was clear that saltwater and water would be the most difficult to separate once mixed. So, now time to move to phase two. "Mother, have you gotten a good look?" I said as she stared one more time.
"Yes, Astraga, I see it. It's quite interesting as they layer themselves equally."
And then, without warning, I aggressively shook the jar, to everyone's surprise, as Mother, Father, and Astraya were in shock. I continued shaking.
"What are you doing, Astraga? No!" Father reacted, as he wanted to still look at the layers more and check it out himself some more.
Well, what was left after the shake was messy, cloudy, golden streaks swirling, and tiny bubbles of oil everywhere (null mana) inside the jar.
"Now, Mother, I asked, "use Khetemu to separate them back again."
Father looked surprised. "Well, that's impossible now. Don't think your mother can do that."
As Mother smirked, she said, "We won't know until we try…."