On the Dragon Core inactive topic, it makes me wonder if in Apocrypha's case this kind of stuff is a leftover from when it was a game. Not just Siegfried's dragon core, but other stuff.
Like, Mordred has Clarent but it explicitly got a rank down because she stole it and there is a lost function that increases the wielder's stats. But Mordred's original wish is a shot at pulling Caliburn. And then she gets an interlude later that Merlin talks a bit about Clarent's purpose and similar functions of being a king's sword, the interlude ends with a buff, as if indicating Mordred proved herself and unlocked that function.
Avicebron and Semiramis have skills and NPs that need a lot of prep time, though those were mostly fufilled by the story.
Vlad and Atalanta have transformation NPs that they never activated.

It makes me wonder if the original idea would be something like ''fulfill this sidequest first'' similar to the interludes we got.