Side Story 1 : Rimuru visits Tbate (13)

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Arthur pov:

After my surprise of the healed arm faded away I saw Tess coming towards us while panting a lot.
"Can I please take a break?" Tess asked pleadingly.
"Sure, after lunch you start with core refining." Rimuru said and I could see Tess letting out a breath of relief.
"Can I join the conversation?"
Asked Tess with a curious expression.
"Yeah, sure." Rimuru replied and asked "What kind of questions do you have for me, Tessia?"
"What core stage are you at right now?" Tess asked and I was also very curious about that.
"I'm currently at white core stage, in a few days I should breakthrough to the integration stage." Both me and Tess were shocked, but when I tried to check her core I could feel a resonance from my beast or more accurate, the energy resonated not the will itself.
All of a sudden i felt my beast will coursing throughout my body and connecting to Rimuru.
Rimuru noticed and started feeding it that strange energy. After 10 minutes of silence, Rimuru looked up at me and said "Within 9 months you'll awaken the beast will." I was happily surprised, but when I looked at my core, there was a purple glow surrounding it, when I tried to interact it, it didn't budge, but then I tried to guide it to my core and absorb it, but I only succeeded in drawing it to my core, then it started purifying my core.
After an half hour, my core was dark-silver nearing cracks.
Rimuru held my hand and shocked me with a sudden outburst of mana, I looked up at Rimuru to see my reflection staring back at me with purple glowing eyes that disappeared after a few seconds.
"What was that?" Tess asked with an innocent curiosity, but I was also curious.
"Yeah, what was that purple energy around my core, when I absorbed it, my core got purified until the dark-silver stage." I said shocking both Rimuru and Tess.
"That purple energy is aether and you being capable of absorbing it makes things much easier than I would've expected." Tess looked at me with confusion and a bit of worry, afraid that something would happen to me she clung to my arm, I felt my arm lose all blood and warned Tess "My arm is dying Tess, please stop putting so much power into the hug." She let my arm go and apologized, my arm regained it's color within seconds.

Tess and I were talking when Rimuru sat down on a picnic blanket and surrounded by a dirt hut.
Rimuru motioned for the carpet left of her and pointed towards Tess, while pointing to the one in front of her she said, sit here Arthur.
Tess was told to start refining her core and maybe get it to the next stage, while she started sending aether into my body.
The aether went straight towards my beast will, but Rimuru forced it to stop and instead made it form around my core in a purple-red layer.
The sudden burst of aether I felt, coursed through my veins into the purple-red layer solidifying it.
"What is that purple-red layer around my core?"
"That's an Aether core, in your case it's an Aether layer, but the moment you breakthrough into the integration stage it will become a core instead of a layer."
I kinda understand what she means, but why do I need it? "Why are you giving me this?" I asked.
"Because it'll help in your endeavor to master aether to the next level." She replied.
Tess was still focusing on her meditation when I noticed her core shifting into the next color.
She snapped open her eyes and happily yelled "I'VE FINALLY GOTTEN INTO THE YELLOW STAGE!"
While she was still only at dark-yellow, that was still an achievement for a five year old.
Rimuru also said that it'll take us at least till we're eleven to reach our peak, but I'm gonna try and beat that, hopefully I'll reach the integration stage before I'm 11, Tess also seems to want to beat her expectations, but according to Rimuru, she will take until the end of her 11 years at the fastest.
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Rimuru pov:

I've finished Arthur's first layer and and Tessia finally entered the yellow stage.
I do have to inform Arthur about the processing stage for the aether core, it's different after all.
"Now before you leave and enjoy your date with Tessia, I'll explain the refining process of the aether core."
"It's not a date." Sputtered Arthur, unfortunately Tessia didn't hear it, mostly because she was already on her way to Virion.
"Not that it really matters, but the process of refining is over-all different from the mana core.
For the aether core you're gonna need this aether stone as well as a lava bath." I gave him the aether stone, meanwhile he had this terrified look on his face and asked "Is the lave bath necessary?"
"No, but it's the most painless way." He looked even more terrified and asked again "Why doni need the lava bath in the first place?" "To create your aether passages, I can also make them right now, but you'll probably be screaming for a couple of hours every day for the next month or bath in lava and take six months, it'll also be less painful."
Arthur started thinking about it and left while saying "I'll think about, I'll let you know the answer after my walk with Tess."
"It seems you've finally detached yourself from Grey, good job."
He looked a little comprehensive, he probably doesn't even realize that he doesn't think or feel like Grey at all, he even moves in this body like it was his from the very beginning.
--
(Later that afternoon)

Arthur is walking towards the dirt hut I made and I quickly sat up into a welcoming position and asked "Have you determined your answer?"
"Yes, I'll be trying the one month method, but if it's too painful then I'll switch to the lava bath."
I could see the determination in his eyes and gestures for him to sit down in front of me.
I gently placed my hand between his shoulder blades and channelled aether into his body and started to push it out, luckily I can use my own aether for this, since I'll have to push it all out anyway, if I allow him to refine his core with my aether, then he'll be connected to the voice of the world and it'll be a huge mess, so id rather not have that.
But now I'm focusing on pushing all the aether out of his body in other to enlarge his aether passages and using massive aether clumps, pushing it out of his body to enlarge his aether passages, he passed out after the first clump, but woke up when the second one came.
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The end.
Hope you enjoyed.

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