Studying the essence of a Singing Cricket was easy. it was like tuning into a soft, catchy melody that made your head bob without you even noticing. Studying the essence of a Moss-Shelled Turtle was like feeling the slow, steady calmness of an old rock.

But studying the essence of the Raging Boar? That felt like sticking his head into a blast furnace of pure anger. It was wild, hot, and dangerous.

Back in the safety of his room, with Vanessa watching curiously from a safe distance, Jonah decided to begin their "research project." He sat on the floor, closed his eyes, and retreated into his Beast Space. The red, churning orb of the boar's essence was waiting for him, a roiling ball of angry energy.

He'd studied essences before. It was usually easy – he'd just reach out with his mind, "touch" the essence, and the info would flow in. He figured this would be the same, just… a lot noisier

He extended his mental focus. The moment his consciousness made contact with the red orb, his world exploded.

RAGE. PAIN. HUNGER. FIGHT. KILL.

It wasn't information. It was a psychic scream. He was slammed with a wave of wild, raw emotions – the final, furious moments of the boar's life. His own thoughts were completely drowned out by the psychic echo of the monster he had killed. His heart pounded, his whole body tensed, and for a second, he nearly growled like the beast itself.

With a desperate surge of will, he yanked his consciousness back, severing the connection.

Jonah's eyes flew open. He was gasping for air, his body drenched in a cold sweat. He was shaking from head to toe.

"Jonah! Are you okay?" Vanessa rushed to his side, her face pale with concern. "What happened? You looked like you were having a seizure."

"The essence…" he croaked, his throat raw. "It's not just a blueprint. It's… alive. It has feelings. The boar's feelings."

He looked at his shaking hands. A crucial, terrifying lesson had just been branded onto his mind. The essences of simple, low-level creatures were just data. But the essences of more powerful, more willful beasts? They carried a piece of the creature's soul with them. A psychic backlash. He couldn't just use them like building blocks. He had to tame them first or be consumed by them.

He explained what he had felt to Vanessa, his voice still shaky. She listened, her usual academic excitement replaced by a grave seriousness.

"A psychic echo," she murmured, her mind already picking the problem apart. "That makes a terrifying amount of sense. The beast's raw life force, its mana, is what carries the essence. It stands to reason that its emotions, its very will, would be encoded in that mana as well. It's like… chaotic, corrupted data."

Jonah ran a hand through his hair. "So what do I do? I can't use it if it's going to turn me into a raving lunatic every time I touch it."

Vanessa started pacing, her brow furrowed in deep thought. It was the same look she'd had in the library when she was stuck on her own problem. But now, she was trying to solve his.

"We can't delete the emotional data," she reasoned aloud. "It's part of the energy signature. But what if we could filter it? Separate the pure information from the raw, chaotic emotion?" She stopped and looked at him, an idea sparking in her eyes. "It's advanced Mage theory, but it might work."

She asked Jonah for the small, clear crystal that Shard had shed for them in The Preserve. He handed it to her, confused.

Vanessa held the crystal in her palm. "Think of the essence's energy as muddy water," she explained. "The water is the pure information you need. The mud is the boar's rage. We just need to build a filter."

She closed her eyes. Her hands began to glow with a soft, intricate silver light. She chanted in a low, complex language that Jonah didn't understand, her fingers weaving delicate, complex patterns in the air around the crystal. Tiny, almost invisible threads of mana began to wrap around the crystal, forming a shimmering, multi-layered web. It looked like a ghostly, three-dimensional sieve.

The spell took a full ten minutes. By the end, sweat was beading on Vanessa's forehead, but she was smiling triumphantly. The crystal in her hand now pulsed with a gentle, silver light.

"It's a Mana Sieve," she announced, clearly proud of her work. "A custom spell. In theory, it should work. Now, try again. But this time, don't connect with the essence directly. Channel its energy out of your Beast Space and through this crystal."

Jonah was hesitant, the memory of the psychic assault still fresh. But he trusted her. He took the enchanted crystal, its surface cool and humming with contained magic.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and focused. He carefully attached a thin, mental thread to the furious red orb in his workshop. Then, very slowly, he pulled. He didn't let the energy enter his mind. Instead, he directed it down his arm, out of his body, and into the crystal in his hand.

The moment the boar's chaotic energy hit the Mana Sieve, the crystal flared. The raw, red energy flowed in one side, and as it passed through the shimmering web of Vanessa's spell, it separated. A stream of muddy, dark red psychic sludge was vented harmlessly into the air, dissipating like smoke. What came out the other side and flowed into Jonah's mind was a clean, pure, crimson light.

It worked.

He was instantly flooded with pure information, clean and uncorrupted by emotion. He understood the essence's core concepts: its profound connection to physical strength, its deep well of stamina, and a unique, terrifying trait he hadn't seen before.

`Trait: Fury. As this creature takes damage, its physical strength and pain resistance increase.`

It was a berserker trait. The more you hurt it, the stronger it got.

Jonah broke the connection, feeling tired but completely clear-headed. He looked at Vanessa with a new level of awe.

"It worked," he said, his voice filled with gratitude. "Vanessa, it worked perfectly."

She grinned, clearly pleased with herself. "Of course it worked. The idea made perfect sense"

Jonah looked from the crystal in his hand to his brilliant, smiling partner. He had the raw power, the impossible gift. But she had the knowledge and the finesse to help him shape it, to make it safe. His power was not his alone. From this moment on, it was theirs. And with their combined strengths, he knew they were on the verge of creating something truly extraordinary.