《Time Twister》 -2 Items, Races, Jobs and ranks updated periodically WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS OF THE WORLD BUILDING. SUGGESTED TO READ THE PARTS JUST BEFORE "RACES IN THE UNIVERSE" ONLY. Metals/Ores/Gems/Crystals Common, Uncommon, Rare, Priceless, Flawless, Transcendental, Immortal, Void Defined as well by purity from 0 - 100% Plant Material: basically, plants, plant extracts, fruits, leaves, stems, roots, etc. from plants exposed to a high content of element particles as well as age. The purpose is to create elixirs and medicine that can be used in junction to cultivation as well as for survival. Defined by quality: Low, Mid, High, Perfect, Transcendental quality. Defined by age: Class 1-10, where class 6 and above have usually formed a plant sprite. Class 1 - lower than 100 years Class 2 - lower than 200 years Class 3 - lower than 500 years Class 4 - lower than 1000 years Class 5 - lower than 10,000 years Class 6 - lower than 100,000 years Class 7 - lower than 1,000,000 years Class 8 - lower than 10,000,000 years Class 9 - lower than 50,000,000 years Class 10 - Age cannot be determined. Geno Solution: Basically, a product that optimizes the genetic structure of the person, retaining their characteristics but modifying the areas that are related to diseases. Defined by quality: Low, Mid, High, Perfect, Transcendental Elixirs/Elemental Medicine: Basically byproducts of combining certain plant materials, metals, and elements, forming a material that can be consumed to use for cultivation progression, as well as for survival purposes. The paper Xander had published opened a new avenue for Elemental Medicines, as well as cultivation elixirs. Defined by Quality: Low, Mid, High, Perfect Defined by number of Stars (indicates the potency): 1 to 20 stars. 1-5: 10 to 50% potency (10% per star) 6-10: 60 to 100% potency (10% per star) 11-15: 120 to 200% potency (20% per star) 16-19: 250 - 400% potency (50% per star) 20: 500% potency (100% per star) Usually, anything below 10 stars is sold as a byproduct, usually recycled or used to feed animals. Currency: Money in Eteria, and in the world, in the galaxy, in the universe, and in the Great Void. Eta currency: 10,000 Etas to 1 Eteria Eteria currency: 10,000 Eterias to 1 Galaxy coin Galaxy currency: 100,000 Galaxy coins to 1 Universal note Universal currency: 1,000,000 Universal notes to 1 Void currency Void currency _____________________________________ Mercenary 18 ranks: F, F+, E, E+, D, D+, C, C+, B, B+, A, A+, S, S+, SS, SS+, SSS, SSS+ same ranking for missions. Adventurer 18 ranks: F, F+, E, E+, D, D+, C, C+, B, B+, A, A+, S, S+, SS, SS+, SSS, SSS+ same ranking for missions. Researcher Class I, II, III, IV, V, and X. This basically indicates the capability of the person in the field of scientific, magic, and elemental research. Basically, these levels are to classify what information researchers can be privy at in their respective countries and on other countries in Eteria. However, later on, the same classification can be seen being used by Empires in the Universe, designating people of interest for these empires. ______________________________________ AI Ranks: Rank I (1) to L (50). All AIs are considered a non-biological data lifeform once they reach Rank XXV or higher. Every 5 ranks indicate a qualitative change in their computing power and emotional capacity. It requires an AI to reach Rank XV to enter the Digitalized Dimension. Rank L (50) to Rank C (100). All AIs are considered a biological data lifeform past Rank LXXV or higher. Every 10 ranks indicate a qualitative change in computing power, emotion, and data requirements. Rank C (100) to Rank M (1000). All AIs are considered a Void level biological data lifeform past Rank CD (400). Every 100 ranks are equivalent to 3 stages of Void cultivators. Rank C - Traveler-3 Rank CC - Traveler-6 Rank CCC - Traveler-9 Rank CD - King-3 Rank D - King-6 Rank DC - King-9 Rank DCC - Void-3 Rank DCCC - Void-6 Rank CM - Void-9 Breaking through to Rank M - Rule-1 _____________________________________ Infernals and Celestials Ranking and classification. 1 Winged - Master 2 Winged - Legendary 3 Winged - Mythic 4 Winged - Demigod 5 Winged - Divine 6 Winged - Sage 7 Winged - Sage Peak 8 Winged - God 9 Winged - God Peak 10 Winged - Traveler Infernals'' status quo: No horn - Citizen 1 horn - Elite 2 horns - Master 3 horns - Military 4 horns - Royalty 5 horns - Leader Celestials'' status quo: No halo - Citizen 1 halo - Elite 2 halos - Blessed 3 halos - Sacred 4 halos - Divine 5 halos - Leader _____________________________________ Races in Eteria: Humans Sprites Elves Dwarves Magic Beasts Races in the Universe: Humans Sprites Elves Dwarves Magic Beasts Magic Plants Goblins Titans Pixies Special Lifeforms native to the Universe (runic lifeforms, biological/non-biological data lifeforms) Devils (Infernals) Angels (Celestials) Zergs Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Titans, Pixies - Follow the same cultivation Races in the Great Void: Gods (from any race that comes from a universe) Void Beasts (born as Void Travelers or higher) Void Plants (born as Sage rank or higher) Special Lifeforms born and raised in the Void (Runic lifeforms, biological data) Races in the Great Beyond: Those that come from the Great Voids (considered as one species) Native Humanoids (born as Sage Rank or higher) Native Magic Plants (born as God Rank or higher) Native Magic Beasts (born as Void Traveler or higher) Special Lifeforms born and raised in the Great Beyond -1 Cultivation and Magic terms updated periodically WARNING: CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF CHAPTER 48 HASN''T BEEN RELEASED YET. Cultivation is separated into a total of 15 levels, however, in the universe where Xander is located, only 9 levels are available, denoted as classes. Only when they reach the great Void can one learn that there are other levels above it. Each class is subdivided into 9 levels. And the 15 classes are grouped by 3, as they entail different stages of cultivation. Note: this is the process of cultivation for those who have humanoid bodies, and intelligence. This does not apply to sprites, Magic beasts, and other living and non-living beings formed naturally by the ordered system. Mortal Group: Mundane - Elements are infused to the body to strengthen it, making its affinity towards the elements better and perfect. At this stage, the discovery of one''s primary element happens, through the help of technology measuring one''s elemental particle concentration in the body. To reach Elite class, they needed to form a seed-like structure by compressing elemental energy and their life essence. Elite - Formation of Magic seeds, the foundation of magic power. These seeds contain a pseudo-spell each, a spell that was formed by a master magician before them. These pseudo spells are accepted conformations of the primary elements they had. To reach Master class, they needed to create a spell that is an accepted conformation of the primary elements they have. The more conformations they used to fuse, the stronger they are. Master - Formation of unique magic spells to the caster. Every stage requires a fusion of conformations of the selected pseudo-spells. Master-2 requires 2 pseudo-spells fused and create a new spell, Master-3 requires 3 pseudo-spells fused and create another new spell, and so on, until Master-9, where all their pseudo-spells are fused and form their strongest spell. To reach Legendary Class, they need to select their primary elements'' representations, copy them and embody them into a Magic sphere, by combining the magic spells/magic spell circles they have created, as well as their life essence. Rule Group: Legendary - Improving one''s understanding of the representations embodied in the magic sphere. Their lifespans is up to 3000 years of age. If one has more than 1 primary element, the representations of the these primary elements are to be "owned" and used to form their respective rule. This time, you aren''t attempting to understand the representations you have added into the magic sphere to create conformations, but make it into your own "rule" that exists in the universe. However, to progress at this stage, you need to grab the individual primary element''s representation. Example: Water, Fire, and Earth elements Water''s specific representation - Flowing Fire specific representation- Blazing Earth specific representation- Heaviness One would need to gain 10% cumulatively from the three representations to proceed up a level, with a minimum of 90% ownership of the representation total. For example, if water has 30%, Fire has 35%, and Earth has 40%, theoretically, the magician can now attempt to formulate his or her own rule, and transform it into a domain, as it is more than 90% total ownership of the representations. However, don''t expect it to be strong, or stable with these values, especially with unequal portions of ownership of the representations. At the same time, the more primary elements one is attuned to, the more difficult it is to create a domain to progress to the Mythic class, due to the creation process of a rule requiring at least 20% comprehension from all the primary elements. The benefits would be that the rule, upon manifesting into a domain, would be way more stronger than other domains. Mythic - The manifestation of the representation of their rule from the magic sphere. From the magic sphere, it breaks open and is embodied by the physical body. Domain comprehension is continuously improved, as well as control over it. Every progress improves the physical body as well, perfecting the magic vessel. Their lifespan extends to 10,000 years, max. Every 10% comprehension is one level up. To advance to Demigod, their domain must be stable, complete, and comprehended at least 90%, and they must have begun the integration of their domain to the ordered system, no matter how small of a percentage it is, like 0.0000000000001%. To do this, Mythic magicians need to at least have identified or understood a key aspect of their primary elements. Once they do, they are considered a Demigod. Demigod - Domain integration to the ordered system is done. Every 10% integration is one level up, so to be considered a Demigod-1, they need to have 10% integration. If it''s less than that, their rank is Demigod-0. At this class, they integrate their domains, which is their bodies, into the universe. This is the stage that requires their bodies to be strong enough to handle the pressure from integration. If not, every stage they advance may actually push them to their deaths. Their lifespan at this stage undergoes a qualitative change; their ages are measured in tens of thousands of years, the oldest being around 300 thousand years old. Because their life essence is fused to their domains, and ultimately, their bodies, their life essences from Dimension-LEO will actually transcend to a different dimension, where their life essence dolls are at the state of fusing to the universe, not simply a meta-product existing in the universe. To advance to Divine class, they need an integration of at least 90%. Creation Group: Divine - Once an integration of 90% of their domain has been achieved, Demigods can choose to advance by solidifying their domain into an Elemental Essence stone seed after its integration, or perfect their integration. The seed is formed from a combination of their physically manifesting life essence, domain, and their primary elements. The comprehension of one''s primary elements is the focus of this class, it''s not just their representations or the rules they govern, but their very essence. To progress to Sage class, they need 100% comprehension of their primary elements. By this time, their lifespans are measured in millions of years. Sage - Unity of your primary elements. To progress to God class, they need to perfectly combine their primary elements. Every stage division is different per person depending on the amount of primary elements they have. From the combination, they must be able to produce the representations of the origin elements, the specific representations that formulate a budding ordered system. For example: Fire, Earth, Wind From these 3 primary elements, when they have united into one, must be able to show the representations of the origin elements: Space-Time - the framework of the ordered system, specifically, space and nothing to eternity representations Yin-Yang - the foundation of material matter, the negative and positive domains of elements. Life-Death - the foundation of element reusing, reducing, and recycling, and formation of consciousness. Order-Chaos - The power of randomness and coincidences, and ordered chaos. By this time, their lifespan was measured in number of eras, equivalent to 10 million years per era. Xander would have a harder/easier time on this stage depending on his comprehension of the other origin elements. God - Creation from your primary elements. Once they can produce the representation of the origin elements, their united, primary elements must be able to self-propagate other elements below and above their hierarchies, since their primary elements have reached the pinnacle of their abilities. At this point, they have their own ordered system in their bodies, and all they needed to do was slowly perfect it. Their lifespans at this class have been linked to their newly-created ordered universe. Their ordered universe would get the energy it requires from void elements, which is usually present in the Great Void, growing and developing by itself without the owner''s control. To proceed to the Void traveler stage, they must be able to use their primary elements to deduce back to the origin of all elements: the Void element. Once they are able to do at least 0.01%, they are now considered Void Travelers, but without a rank until 10%. ________________________________________ Destruction Group: Void Traveler - Focus on comprehending the Void element. Every 10% is an increase in rank. To become a Void King, comprehension of the Void element is at least 90% and the formation of a Void crown, your very essence as a Void King. The universe you basically own forms into a solid form of a Void crown. Void King - Focus on forcing a dissonance to occur between the Great Void and the Void crown. To advance to Void God, one must be able to utilize parts of the Great Void and one''s Void crown to generate a God Throne. One requires to destroy the crown, destroying the universe in the process, before refining it with the power of the Great Void to generate a God throne. Void God - Focus on breaking the Great Void. In the domain where you established your God Throne, you must break the foundation of the Great void, allowing you to enter the Great Beyond. Your God throne must be completely fused into the Great Void, and using that fusion, break through and enter the Great Beyond. To reach the Rule Class: One must be able to begin embodying one of the 10800 Rules in that govern the Great Beyond. Nothingness Group: Rule - Perfecting the Rule. That is the goal here. Upon reaching 90% embodiment of the Rule, they can already breakthrough to the higher level of an Aspect, by combining the rules under that Aspect with the Rule he has embodied. There are only 1080 Aspects. Aspect - Perfecting the Aspect. That is the goal here. Upon reaching 90% embodiment of the Aspect, they must be able to produce the phenomenon of other aspects, of the subsequent rules, of their subsequent representations, to breakthrough to becoming an Omniscient. There is only 1 Omniscient In every Great Beyond. Omniscient - At this level, the Great Beyond, the place you come from, is simply a sandbox for you to tweak, play and create. The Great Beyond becomes a part of you, supplying you with the endless energy and power to traverse the Endless Plains. ___________________________________ For Magic Beasts and Sprites Magic Beasts: At Master Stage, all magic beasts do is bolster the magic cores, making them as big as possible. 1,000 to 9,999 years, every 1,000 is a rank. At Legendary Stage, all they do would be continuously compress the magic cores, making them as compressed as possible. The magic cores are basically the ones that act as the magic sphere in comparison to humanoids. 10,000 to 99,999 years, every 10,000 is a rank. At Mythic Stage, if they choose to transfigure into a humanoid shape, they have to cultivate from Mundane stage to Mythic Stage before progressing again. At the same time, they had to meld and perfect the two domains that they have made. If they decided not to become a humanoid being, they only needed to focus on comprehending, perfecting and strengthening their domain until they began fusing it into the world, entering demigod class through time. 100,000 to 999,999 years, every 100 thousand is a rank. At Demigod stage, their magic cores become meta-physical objects, as they continued to fuse with the universe. Once at 90%, they can fuse more as long as their bodies can handle it, or proceed to Divine class immediately, by forcing their magic cores to become physical matter once again, but there''s a catch: the magic core begins to divide to the primary elements they have. So if they have 2 primary elements, 2 magic cores will be produced, etc. 1 million to 9,999,999 years, every 1 million is a rank. At Divine stage, their primary element magic cores are focused on being perfected, and upon reaching 100% understanding of their primary elements each, they can unite them and enter the Sage class. They, however, can already traverse the wide universe at the speed of 0.5 lightyears per minute. 10 million to 99,999,999 years, every 10 million is a rank. At Sage stage, their magic cores disappear and melt, merging to every cell, tissue, muscle, organ in their bodies, allowing them to have the basic ability to travel through space faster, with the rate of 1 lightyear per minute. They can also easily transform to other shapes and sizes of beings. 100 million to 999,999,999 years, every 100 million is a rank. God class - To advance to God class, they need to be able to reverse their element to produce the origin elements'' representations from it, to create their own ordered system. When they breakthrough to God class, naturally, they would form their own ordered system in their bodies. 1 billion to 10 billion years, every billion is a rank. Sprites: From Master to Legendary, all they had to focus was the accumulation of their specific primary element through time. As time passes by, their bodies naturally absorb the element they are specific to. They don''t even need cultivation skills. From Mythic to Demigod, all they were focusing is their domain creation and the fusion of the domain to the ordered system, which is usually seamless since they are formed by the ordered system naturally. Only their age would affect the speed of fusion. When they reach Demigod-9, they can have the option to increase the fusion for more than 90%, but it would cost them to be stuck for an additional 10 million years, meaning if their age is 9,999,999, if they decided to perfect their fusion, they would only be Divine-1 at age 19,999,999 years. From Divine to Sage, all they had to focus was their age; if Demigods were in 1,000,000 years, at 10,000,000 they would Divine sprites, and simply awaiting to reach 100,000,000 years they would automatically be promoted to Sage sprites. This is because they already had a complete and perfect understanding of their primary element. At this point, their origin merges with their bodies, making it now possible for them to travel far and wide in the universe without the restriction of their origins. God class - To advance to God class, they need to be able to reverse their element to produce the origin elements'' representations from it, to create their own ordered system. When they breakthrough to God class, naturally, they would form their own ordered system in their bodies. Master - 1000 to 9,999 years Legendary - 10,000 to 99,999 years Mythic - 100,000 to 999,999 years Demigod - 1 million to 9,999,999 years, or up to 19,999,999 if they perfect their unity with the universe. Divine - 10 million to 99,999,999 or 20 million to 99,999,999 years Sage - 100 million to 999,999,999 years God - 1 billion to 10 billion years ___________________________________ What are some magic terms going to be used in the story: Spell Foundation - A terminology used for Master classes. This indicates how strong, firm, and well-supported are their Advanced rank spells, based on the time spent reinforcing these spells. Categorized into the following: 1 Year = Average foundation (100%) 5 Year = Strong foundation (125%) 10 Year = Perfect foundation (200%) 100 Year = Transcendental Foundation (500%) 1,000 Year = Immortal Foundation (1000%) Percentage dictates the force they would bring against anyone of the same cultivation level in the Legendary and Mythic class. Magic Artifacts - Are basically subdivided into 2 types: natural and man-made. Natural artifacts - Artifacts produced by nature, maybe due to a myriad of factors. Natural artifacts also exist when magicians at the Legendary stage or above dies. Their bodies, under the right conditions, can transform into natural artifacts. Legendary - usually magic spheres Mythic - usually it is an item that is the manifestation of their domains, most cases, it is a part of their body. Demigod - Their life-essence dolls that contain their complete domains. Because their life-essence dolls transcended Dimension-LEO, their life essences have transformed from metaphysical into something tangible. Divine - Elemental Essence stone, a crystallization of their comprehension of their own primary elements. Usually produced one per primary element. Can be used by someone in the Legendary or mythic class as a guiding tool. Sage - every inch of their body. For example, the artifact that the demigod council uses to scan for foreign artifacts (non-registered) in the planet is actually the eye of a Sage-2 magician, who died 300,000 years ago. God - every inch of their body. Man-made artifacts - artifacts produced by magic artificers, and usually involves a natural artifact and extraneous materials such as metals, plant extracts, or even elemental crystals. Magic spells - are conformations approved by governing ordered system. magic spells are the manifestation of magic spell circles. Magic spell circles - are the manifestation of how close to the complete comprehension of the element the spell falls under. Magic Arrays - Magic arrays are basically more complex spells than magic spells. They involve the combination of certain sequences of magic spells, as well as runic writings. They are too big to be inscribed in a regular magic seed, and generally, Legendary and above spells are these kinds of spells, as only one as complex and large as a magic sphere can handle their multiple configurations and structures, as well as the body being a magic vessel upon Mythic stage. Once one reaches Demigod stage, casting magic arrays of that level would require the power of the world, rather than simply magic energy stored in their bodies or containers, thus there is a need for the fusion. Magic arrays can be further simplified upon reaching the God class, where basically, most of the spells return to their basic, foundational structures. Magic curses - These are basically magic spells that are forcefully made unstable by modifying their runic writings, their general magic structure. Imagine the protein sequence AAA BBB AAA CCC ADA, if you change one molecule, the way the protein functions, folds, and reacts would change as well. Magic curses are generally slow-acting or immediately fast acting, immaterial or material effect, as well as if it can be passed down to other generations or just a one time thing. Runic writing/Runes - these are the foundation of magic spells, arrays, and curses. Technically, they aren''t alive, but as what Xander would experience in chapter 34, Runic writings/runes can transcend their states. They are supposed to be static and continuously following their transformations and conformations, and modifying them can be quite hard without causing a total collapse (which is how magic curses first developed). When placed under [Spatial view], the lines and dots that make up the writing shouldn''t be moving at all, because they are already in a defined undefined state. Cultivation skills - These are basically skills that allow one to reach deep meditation and connect into the element particles around them, allowing them to absorb them faster. At the same time, it gives the cultivators better affinity to their respective elements, as long as their cultivation method matches their primary elements improving their comprehension of the elements, understanding of the representations, fusion of their domains, and generation of the Elemental essence stone. A person can only use 1 cultivation skill at a time, and they start at Elite-6 class. Ranks are divided from Low, Med, High, Perfect, Transcendental, Immortal, and Void. The higher the rank, the more complex it is, but the better its effects would be. At the same time, the less specific to an element it is, the better it is in the latter stages. Low - 0.25x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) Med - 0.5x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) High - 1x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) Perfect - 2x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) Transcendental - 10x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation, combination) Immortal - 100x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation, combination, regression) Void - 1,000x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation, combination, regression, dissonance, breaking) Only cultivation skills at rank Transcendental and above can improve people at Sage-9 to God-9. Only cultivation skills at rank Immortal and above can improve people at God-9 to Void Traveler-9. Only Void level cultivation skills can improve people at Void Traveler 9 to Void God-9. Beyond Void God-9, no cultivation skills would work. Now, another classification is done, which is based on the specificity of the cultivation technique, labeled from Class I to Class X. Class I - Perfectly Broad; around 100%. Focused on attaining the best state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, not just focused on one element. Class II - Very Broad; around 90%. Focused on attaining the best state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, but still contains traces of element-focused training and pathways, understanding a specific element/s. Class III - Broad; around 80%. Focused on reaching a good state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, while including a few element-focused trainings and pathways merged into the state of magic meditation, understanding a specific element/s. Class IV - Quite Broad; around 70%. Trying to reach a good state of magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, but contains several element-focused trainings and pathways merged into the state of magic meditation, understanding a specific element/s. Class V - Nearly Broad and Specific; around 60%. Attempting to broach into the generalities, intricacies, and relationships of everything, but remaining focused on a specific element/s. Class VI - Nearly Specific; around 60% focused on a specific element/s, the rest focused on understanding general principles. Class VII - Quite Specific; around 70% focused on specific element/s, the rest focused on understanding general principles. Class VIII - Specific; around 80% Class IX - Very Specific; around 90%. Class X - Perfectly Specific; around 100%. Focuses on completely comprehending and understanding a specific element/s. 1 New Beginning I woke up, feeling groggy and exhausted. The decor of the room was the same old light blue with a dash of periwinkle. I''m home, finally. Time lag is real thing. It shouldn''t be belittled. I turned around in bed and checked the time and date today. 5:56 AM, October 12, Year 4001. It was Monday. Another new day. Time to get to work. Heh. Time. What a concept. I really wish I can control it. How easy would my life be? After taking a bath, I headed to the living room and prepared breakfast. I then brushed my teeth after eating my breakfast and hurried down the stairs, with my watch and briefcase at hand. "Let''s head to the office then," I mumbled. I immediately contorted my face to show a happy smile, a smile I don''t usually show when heading to work. It''s a special occasion I guess. After all, I just closed a large deal with a multinational company. I hope the bonus I get wouldn''t be too small. I headed out of the door and into the sidewalk, walking briskly but surely, without missing a beat that echoes in my mind. As I was passing on the pedestrian lane, I suddenly felt a chill. Like, my entire being froze at that moment. Something bad was going to happen. I don''t know how it will be appearing, or when it will appear, but it''s there. Fuck. What a way to ruin the day, I muttered to myself. Ever since he was a child, he already had these premonitions; and when they happen, disaster was never too far off. As I was immersed in these thoughts, I didn''t see the rock that was jutting out near the opposite side of the pedestrian lane. My foot slipped, and caused an imbalance in my movements and led to me falling down to the ground. Ouch. It didn''t hurt as much as the derailed magnetized mono-rail that hit me right after. ---------------------------------------------- Fuck. Am I dead? Why can''t I see anything? Because you are dead, stupid. You don''t have eyes. Oh right. Wait. Who is this speaking? This is your inner conscience. Nice try. I don''t have one. Now, who is this really? Tsk. What a downer. It is I, god. Oh wow. There''s really a god? Well, one of the gods. Cool beans. Wha-? That''s it, that''s your reaction to the news? Um, yeah, I guess. Really, what a downer. Anyways, I''m here talking to you because you died unjustly. Paolo Verhadt, age 28 years. You weren''t supposed to die at that time; you were supposed to die 15 years later, after you got married and had a child via in-vitro. Spoiler: The one that kills you was supposed to be your other boyfriend you hid from your wife, who is coincidentally her best friend. Oof, what a drama. Oh. Damn. Yep, so I''m here to rectify that by allowing you to reincarnate in a world of your choosing as well as grant you 2 abilities that are within my power. Cool. Another chance in life then. So what ability will it be? Hurry up because I don''t have much time to waste with you. Hmm... I guess, the ability of complete control over space-time? As for the second one... I guess complete regeneration would be great. Huh. So you chose that set of abilities... Why, what''s wrong? That''s such a neet thing to do, to be honest. Really, complete control over space-time? as well as regeneration? Are you really afraid of dying? No not really. I''m just afraid I''ll get hurt. I don''t like getting hurt. Oh well, suit yourself. As a bonus I''ll transform your innate premonition ability into a system, like you know, those that exist in isekai novels~ because of the wishes you chose, you cannot go back to the mundane world, and as such, I''ll transport you to a world of magic! Ta-ta! Wait, I thought- Thought you could go back to your world and reincarnate there? Fat chance mister. Too much OPness. We have rules, ya know? Your world didn''t have any inkling about magic and element particles, anyways. Anyhow, you''re designated in Universe 25-Planet 378. Good luck and enjoy your stay! When you die there, you become part of that universe and your soul will be recycled there. Wait, I have questions on- poof! Before I even manage to ask more questions, I felt a pulling motion that I couldn''t resist, before a deep sleep came over me. Sigh, another one then. Morpheus, Morpheus, what are you up to this time... A voice echoed in the vast expanse of nothingness, before a snicker could be heard. "Tick tock, tick tock, things are coming in a spot! Better get a nice seat, and add a nice view, because the play will soon begin~" A childish voice rang throughout that vast expanse of nothingness. "Oh, Amadeus, Amadeus, stuck on job with no end in sight. Won''t you join my play? I promise it will bring you endless delights~" the childish voice continued to echo, and Amadeus, the god being mocked, shouted, "Silence!" Immediately, the vast expanse collapsed into nothingness, and Amadeus'' full glory was revealed in the void. Yet, the source of the childish voice could not be found. Amadeus tried very hard but failed in every attempt. He sighed for a bit before disappearing, causing the empty void to resume its peace. ------------------- Eteria planet, Year 2050, Day 100. The planet''s civilizations have already advanced to the modern age, with technology mixing with magic. In the dark, night sky, a falling star appeared, causing numerous magicians with abilities of premonition to talk about the star. Almost every astrologist in every country saw it as the omen of change. Change... Was coming to their planet. Whatever that change may bring, whether it be disaster or fortune, is still unknown. On this day, a new life was conceived, carrying with it a force of auspiciousness and mystery. Today, the journey in a new universe begins for Paolo! 2 Genius? Eteria, Year 2052. A young child no more than 2 years of age was calmly watching the falling snow outside the window of his house, silently gazing through the window. As he stared, his eyes started to change to silver-like saucer in one eye, and an endless darkness on the other. It was a whirlpool that had no bottom, seemingly like a black hole. At that moment, a small tear appeared in space in front of the child and snow came pouring out, but oddly, before it even managed to reach the child, it rapidly changed from solid to liquid to gas in less than a second. Seeing this, the child''s eyes returned to normal green irises and smiled. "Huh, total control of this ability is truly marvelous." "I wonder if I can use this opportunity to travel through spacetime..." the child muttered, seeing the countless possibilities with his ability. "Negative. Your current level is not high enough to resist the boundary effect of the will of the world." A voice sounded out in the child''s mind. The child was named Xander. After reincarnating into the world of Eteria, the moment he could, he immediately checked his control over space and time. This caused a phenomenon upon his birth; different elemental energies were present nearby because he had opened the different planes of existence, allowing different worlds to interact with his world, leading to the manifestation of elemental energies. Basically, he connected multiple dimensions wherein elements existed in. And in those dimensions, there were beings that were quite different from the beings in the physical dimension where he, Xander, currently resides in. Those who were present at birth misconstrued it to him being talented in magic, and even the magician with precognition abilities, a ''diviner'' for other people, couldn''t help but attribute it as an auspicious blessing. Both Xander''s parents were quite proud and happy for Xander''s potential as magician. And truly, these people were not disappointed with Xander''s growth. At 3 months old, he was already able to walk. At 6 months old, he was able to talk, albeit not continuously. At 12 months old, he could read, write and understand nuances. By 2 years old, he could already control the elemental particles around him, making them flow into his body and strengthen it, day by day. Upon seeing this talent, both his parents were quite excited at the future heights their son would reach. Sadly they didn''t know Xander was completely talented in the must abstract and archaic field of magic and modern science: time and space. The child sighed, and stopped playing around and began to read the books his parents had prepared for him. ''Basic Theory of Relativity and its relation to Magic'' ''Entanglement and the concept of Space'' ''Historical Analysis: Breakdown of the most important figures in history'' ''Basic Magic: Drawing an array in less than 20 steps'' ''Magic: is it a particle or is it a wave?'' ... As he saw the stack of books, his eyes started to glow. He then started to slow down time around him, making the passage of time faster for him. What was weird was his physical appearance wasn''t changing at all even with the presence of time magic around him. The answer was simple. He merely slowed the time around him and his time remain unaffected. Time in dimension A is twisted, but his time is in dimension B, so it isn''t affected. Time passed by for Xander. It took him 6 days to read the books from end to end, and digest and understand its contents, but for the world outside, only a few hours had passed. What made it more of a cheat was that he had photographic memory, all thanks to the system granted to him. He immediately summoned the system to check his status. Xander Cloverfield Lvl 3 (50% till next level) Mundane-3 Str: 5 Vit: ? Int: ? Dex: 5 Luck: ? Skills: Time Mastery: Max Space Mastery: Max Basic Magic Foundation: 3/10 Intermmediate Magic Foundation: 2/10 Advanced Magic: 1/10 Legendary Magic: 0/10 Mythic Magic: 0/10 What''s weird with Xander is that you can classify him as a magician already, but his basic foundations would not even let him pass the basic tests set for magicians. Generally, to be considered stepping into the ranks of a magician, the general attributes of the person should be above 10 for each category. At the same time, he never had needed magical essences to use space and time magic, so technically he can use them infinitely and indefinitely. Here is where it gets annoying for him. Everytime he casts a wide range time or space magic, he has to make sure he is strong enough to fight off against the will of the world, or more specifically, the will of the universe. For example, he could cause a black hole the size of a penny to appear in Eteria and he would still be strong enough to fight the will of the world. Sadly, if he did that, he wouldn''t survive long in outer space. He could accelerate the time within an area and receive no repercussions as well, as long as it is within the limits the universe can handle. Combining space and time magic to break through the universe and traverse other multiverses? Far from it. The rebound from the will of the universe was enough to erase his existence. According to the system, he needed to at least breakthrough the Demigod realm before freely traversing the wide wide multiverse. Demigod realm? See, the people in the world of Eteria are divided into classes based on their magic cultivation: Mundane, Elite, Master, Legendary, Mythic, Demigod, and Divine, Sage, and God. Each class is divided into 9 levels, with each 3 levels being a minor breakthrough. Majority of the people in Eteria are around Mundane-3 to Legendary-9. Rarely would there be someone beyond the Legendary class, as by the time they are Mythic class, they are able to escape the planet''s control and freely explore the cosmos, and continue to strengthen themselves. However, most of these Mythic magicians would stay instead, because of the dangers that lurked in the starry skies; out of thousands of Mythic class magicians that left to explore the cosmos over the past millenia, less than 5 percent came back to tell the tales of their adventures. The moment he breaks through Elite-9 and reach Master class, it would mean he has officially embarked to the road of becoming a God. 3 Preparing for School What Xander needed to do now was fortify his foundation and not rush into magic cultivation, even if he had the help of time and space magic. After all, so what if he reaches Demigod realm, but he has little to none experience of battling, strategizing, and surviving? Is he just for decoration, then? Eteria, the Year 2056. Time passed by. For the past 4 years, Xander was making his foundation more and more stable and firm, while expanding his knowledge of the magic systems and professions in this planet. At age 3, he stepped into the Mundane class, as well as began his homeschooling. At age 4, he was cited as a co-author of his dad''s collegue, who came at their house to talk. It was actually an accidental meeting; that collegue of his dad came with his research papers just scattered on the desk table, and Xander was curious what the papers were about. He saw that it was a paper on the idea of Elemental hierarchy but it was, for Xander, a total mess of things. It didn''t follow the idea of "1 begets 2, 2 begets 3, 3 begets all things" perspective! Why were the 5-elements at the same level as Life-Death elements? Don''t they know it is a twin element above the 5-elements? What''s more weird is this world''s scientific progression; they already had quantum supercomputers for heaven''s sake, but they have no idea of the existence of space-time elements, which were on the same rank as Life-Death elements? Xander thought for a bit, and using the system, he came to a conclusion: They couldn''t develop space-time elements and incorporate it to scientific development because there were no cases of magicians holding the capability of controlling the element! He began to add his own scribbles on the paper, crossing out figures and drawing his own. Xander''s father, Majes, wanted to stop and berate Xander, but his collegue stopped him. The latter began observing the figures and the notes that Xander had been adding and he kept raising his eyebrows and widen his eyes, until the point he could only open his mouth, obviously agape. After Xander edited and added his own scribbles, he then looked at his father''s collegue and said, "There you go, corrected your paper. It was viewing the issue wrong in the first place, so no wonder you can''t proceed with it. Anyhoo, this also proves the idea of Elemental Suppresion by hierarchy and Supplementation by same-level elements." Xander then hopped of the chair and said, "Dad, I''m going to study. Call me when it''s time for lunch!" Both Majes Cloverfield and his collegue were dumbfounded with what they just heard coming from the child''s mouth. When Majes took a look at the things his son wrote on the paper, he first frowned, but as he continued to read on, his face became paler and his expression shocked. "This...I knew my son was talented, but I didn''t know it was to this extent..." Majes mumbled. "Haha, old friend, your son helped a lot in completing this paper. I''ll be sure to cite him as my main co-author!" His collegued laughed, yet at the same time, he couldn''t help but tear inside. Almost 80% of the paper was completely revised by Xander. "Huh? Are you sure Therault? This is a very important matter for you. Are you sure you want to add my son''s name as one of the authors, specifically, your main co-author?" Majes was dumbfounded, since he knew what kind of person his friend was. Not only was he very proud, he rarely named other researchers as a co-author in the papers he published. Therault nodded before responding, "Yes. His contribution this time was truly too high, and too revolutionary. Just see it as a way to kickstart Xander''s future career? haha." This was just a momentary stop in Xander''s life. Time continued on, and Xander continued to amass knowledge, from books, to research papers, and to news reports. By age 5, his current knowledge of this world could rival that of a supercomputer. His experience at his mother''s laboratory helped him, however. He used his system to access the government private servers and databases, unknown to them and leaving no trace behind. This also allowed the system to establish remote connection with their servers if he wanted to access them in the future. He was now 6 years old and was currently being homeschooled, rather than being enrolled in primary school. Children are usually sent to school at the age of 6, and for the next 6-12 years of their lives, they go to school to make sure their knowledge foundation is stable, to earn experience, and to socialize with peers of their age. But Xander Cloverfield was quite special. It can be said that the Cloverfield family can be classified as a well-off family, as well as a family of scholars and mages. However, according to Xander''s understanding, his family is merely one of the many branches of the Cloverfield clan spread out all over the world. From what Xander could perceive, both the parents of Xander were Elite-5 rank, able to cast intermediate spells and teach physics and biochemistry in the state university of Callows City. As first-time parents, they wanted the best for their child which showed great potential in the fields of physics and magic, so they hired a special tutor just for Xander when he was just 3 years old. The tutor''s name was Helena, a previous student of the couple. Helena was considered a genius, with her rank being an Elite-4, and being well-versed in 3 primary elements. What was common in this world was that one person could only have 1 or 2 elements that they can manipulate and control. Rarely would one see someone controlling 3, 4 or even 5 primary elements. If one was known to control 3 elements, you would be a genius. If one was known to control 4, you would be called heaven''s child. If one was known to control 5, you would be known as demonic prodigy. There were historical records of magicians being able to control more than 5 elements proficiently, and there were those suspected to be one. Xander was naturally inquisitive and continued to ask questions, which led to Helena being a bit flustered and were unable to answer some of the questions posed by Xander. "Miss Helena, what about the algorithm of..." "Miss Helena, should the placement of the x, y, z values be at least 2 degrees different from one another, or else the formula wouldn''t work right?" The speed in which Xander was accumulating knowledge was astonishing, all thanks to his photographic memory. At the same time, with time in his hands, he was rapidly mulling over theories and questions that previous predecessors of his parents were stumped with and sometimes outright rejecting them. Helena was astonished by the speed Xander was learning. She was even more astonished with Xander''s elemental affinities. It has just been 3 years, and from Mundane-1, she saw her rise to the rank of Mundane-7. It also seemed that the elemental affinity of Xander were the 5-elements of Water, Fire, Air, Earth/Metal, and Wood. Xander didn''t care correcting their conclusions because he knew where his true primary elements lie, and this was a form of removing attention from the things he would be doing. Time and Space. Two of the most abstract concepts in the Universe, just under Order and Chaos elements. Controlling both would mean to dominate the rest of the elements underneath it. All within his control. But not within his complete understanding. Yep, there''s a loophole that the god who transferred him to this universe did. He can completely control time and space, but his understanding will only be based on the understanding of his current body; when he was born, he almost lost control of time and space elements, which caused the phenomenon to occur in the first place. This was why he was so focused on the study of physics and mathematics, as he believed these will help him in the near future to understand more about his power''s applications. His questions became more and more convoluted and abstract that even his parents and his parents'' friends had begun to be intrigued and even be stumped with his reasoning capabilities. His parents and their friends held a short meeting before coming to a consensus: Xander was extremely gifted in the field of science, specifically Biology, Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. It would be a waste if his time was divided into learning magic and science. Xander was greatly opposed to this idea of focusing in one field alone; he gave a total of 23 reasons why he can and should learn magic at the same time as science fields causing chaos to occur in the minds of the onlookers and his parents. They couldn''t help but be stumped by the eloquence as well as solid-proof statements Xander made, and made a ''concession'': Xander had to take the college examinations next year. For this year, he needed to pass 3 tests, namely, the primary, secondary, and tertiary education tests, as he needed a certification proving that he had sufficient knowlege and capacity to study in college. If he didn''t pass, he had to choose between magic or science research. Xander''s parents and their collegues thought that Xander wouldn''t be able to do the challenge, but little did they know Xander had a surprise for them. 4 Absolute Time "Uh, mom, dad, I can take those tests now. I already finished studying books related to primary, secondary, and tertiary education 3 years ago. I''ve also studied collegiate levels of books, and began reading different research papers since two years ago." "..." "..." His parents and their friends were all dumbfounded. To check if Xander was just pulling their legs, making a joke of a heavy situation, they began asking basic questions that only a grade school, high school student would know. Basic knowledge of calculus, trigonometry, biological processes, cellular processes, chemical reactions and products, chemical theories, questions of physics, mechanical physics, classical physics, and even quantum physics. Xander answered them all completely and even added his own ideas towards the question. His answers were clear and on point, there weren''t any flaws in his reasoning. Xander''s parents and their collegues believed him at that point and couldn''t help but think, is this a what a monstrous genius looks like? The following week, he took the tests. The week after, the results were out. It was a perfect mark for all 3 levels of test. Xander wanted to purposely make mistakes but didn''t do so in the end. After all, he had to prove his parents that his self-taught education was perfect and without flaws. Xander had a clear outline of what his life would be in the next 3 years. 1. Make connections with other people, increasing my sphere of influence. However, I must be able to completely trust them - maybe create a magic binding contract? A modified one, perhaps? 2. Publish at least 3 scientific papers in a span of 3 years in college. 3. Get a source of raw materials that can easily be duplicated and replicated by his power, as a source of funding for his future ambitions. 4. Improve his Magic level to at least Master class on or before graduating. 5. Time travel to the 2000-3000 years to the future and get futuristic augmentations. And finally, ensure the continuation of his family''s bloodline. Which means he needs to have another sibling by the time he graduates. After all, he didn''t believe in a nuclear family unit. _______________________________________ Time passed by quickly. It was already summer. The events that happened last spring was already fading in the minds of Xander''s parents. Xander, on his spare time not reading books or questioning the tutors, would disappear into his room and play around with ideas concerning time and space magic. He would test out hypotheses and theories on space and time, checking whether it is true or not. It was at this point, his understanding of the space-time elements increased from 0 to 1%. That small increment had a difference between heaven and earth, with all his basic applications and understanding of space-time growing tremendously. His space magic could already tap on the multiple dimensions overlapping in the physical dimension, and he could even steer some dimensions and pocket spaces into the physical dimension, creating a form of a gate between dimensions. He was already able to transcend the physical dimension to the other dimensions completely, not just his time. After learning about the different dimensions and planes of existences, Xander was able to create a defensive later to coat every part of his body. He thought about transcending his body to a different dimension and decided against it. It would be better if he could use different dimensions to cover every part of his body, forcing anything that targets him be lost within different dimensions forever. He briefly looked in the near future about it. If he transcended his body to a different dimension, then his body would ultimately have to adapt to that dimension, causing his body to look like a monster from a B-level horror film, due to the physical universe unable to completely encapsulate his new form. Xander visibly shivered. How could one even have such a mutilated thing that''s 2 meters long? And one with suckers on the surface. Ugh. It looked like a parasite, not a sexual organ. Not only that, his face grew tentacles? and his hair turned into eyes?? Going back to his time magic, in the meantime, was already at the point that he could affect other living beings, just by staring at them, or even having contact with them once. Although it didn''t seem different from what he was doing in the past 6 years with time acceleration, his control over time could already force characteristics of living beings to accelerate or even reverse, up to their predicted timeline. However, he could still not change the predicted timeline of the living beings characteristics. For example, if he was to use it to himself, he could reverse his cultivation level permanently, or force it to forever stagnate in the same level, or accelerate to the predicted timeline his body had. He could do the same with other living beings. If he could combine it with space magic, basically anything can be penetrated by his time power; true immortality, where one is indestructable and forever unaging, wouldn''t be a far-off situation if he could simultaneously modify biological functions such as genetic structures, protein sequences and linkages to exist, collapse, or loop itself. Sadly, like what the system said, combining the two elements required sufficient strength, as well as a certain understanding. For now, What Xander could do is enclose a space, and in that space, change the time. His idea concercing a spatial dimensional barrier brought him to discover a problem: He was still human, through and through. How can he breathe then? How can he eat? Unless he transcends the need to breath, which he assumes is the stage of Mythic magicians, he needed to do these things, or ultimately die. If he applied the time loop in every biological structure and function in his body, he could solve this, but he immediately rejected the idea. He LOVED food. He enjoys it. He considers it as one of his guilty pleasures, with him willing to taste different cuisines and dishes every day. He felt that enjoying delicacies such as food is fundamental of living, not just being alive. He thought about it for a couple of days before finding a solution: randomized dimensional shifts. If the barriers were actually completely encompassing him, he would have suffocated long ago. What if, however, one would manipulate the barriers within a microsecond to allow oxygen to enter, by shifting the defense to a different dimension unknown to the user and the opponent.? Another solution he found was to locate a dimension that is only used by oxygen particles and allow it to connect to the space within the barrier. But this carries a risk: what if your opponent finds that dimension and unleashes his or her attacks through the opening? Actually, at this stage, he was even tempted to already go to the future and get the augmentation he needed, such as not requiring oxygen anymore. He decided against it since he wasn''t able to stay long in the future anyways with the level of comprehension he had of space-time. Xander began working on creating a spell. Weirdly, spell creation was supposed to be for Master magicians and above, part of their requirement for advancement. For Xander, however, it felt quite natural for him to create a Master-level/Advanced spell. He thought about it for a moment and came to a possible answer: it was the aid of the system. The system allowed circumventing class barriers in formulating a spell; it just required me to have the necessary amount of magical power and elemental power to cast them. After all, it kind of makes sense, since a god his premonition into a system existing in his mind, and probably boosted it? After a few days inside the time-accelerated space, he finally succeeded creating 2 spells based of space and time elements. However, he ran into a problem. When he checked the system, the spell slots taken weren''t in the advanced magic... it took up space in the Divine and God Magic slots. For a moment, Xander was dumbfounded. However, this only lasted for nearly a minute before he composed himself and pondered. At this point, he named 2 magic skills he had as Absolute Defense and Absolute Time. After naming them, conveniently, their functions and description appeared in my mind. [Absolute Defense]: Nothing can penetrate this thin, multi-folded, interdimensional space lining. Any attack is shifted to a random dimension where the user is not located in. If the attack is a multi-dimensional attack, the defense breaks, before reforming again with a different set of dimensions folded in a different conformation. [Absolute Time] (sealed, 1% unlocked): Nothing can go against the flow of time; this can affect non-living and living beings, targeting their characteristics, ranging from, but not limited to: intrinsic characteristics (molecular and quantum structures, temperature, sharpness, clarity, thickness, roughness, concentration, spatial arrangement, etc.) biological functions (Age, memories, digestion, regeneration, cell division, tissue and organ formation, etc.) to extraneous functions (such as magic cultivation, ability to do magic, affinity towards the elements, etc.), causing them to regress, stop, or accelerate permanently. Limitation for both skills, however, was based on the strength of the target as well as the strength of the attack. As he was currently a Mundane-9, a step away from Elite-1 class, allowed his power to be effective up to the Legendary-9 level. As his class level increases, so does his ability. This meant that unless the old monsters beyond Legendary class appeared, he could walk around safely and without fear of offending anyone. At the same time, once he reaches Elite-9, He would not fear anyone below the Demigod class. Xander then checked the stats the system provided to him, an easy way for him to visualize and remember his spells. Xander Cloverfield Lvl 6 Mundane-9 Str: 25 Vit: ? Int: ? Dex: 25 Luck: ? Skills: Time Mastery: Max Space Mastery: Max Basic Magic Foundation: 9/10 Intermmediate Magic Foundation: 10/10 Advanced Magic: 1/10 - [Instant Regeneration (no limit)] Legendary Magic: 0/? Mythic Magic: 0/? Demigod Magic: 0/? Divine Magic: 1/7 - [Absolute Defense] Sage Magic: 0/5 God Magic: 1/3 - [Absolute Time] He had 9 more slots for creating advanced magic spells in his arsenal. Besides the recently made spells, there was [Instant Regeneration (no limit)] spell occupying the very first advanced magic spell slot. Probably, the 2nd spell for God magic is [Absolute Space], based on his elemental affinities. And for the third spell, could it be a fusion of the 2 spells? He also noticed that the development of his stats, as a Mundane-9, was lower than other magicians at the same stage, specifically his strength and dexterity values. A Mundane-9 should have an optimum value of 40 points in all attributes. his were at 62.5% of the optimal value. Using the information he had gleaned over the past few years, and with the help of the system, he found a possible explanation for this: Since his Intelligence, Vitality, and Luck are at levels that it cannot be quantified, the other attributes of his body must adjust; in the future, due to this situation, his body would overcompensate as a result. Like if he ever reaches the highest rank of God-9, he would have the strength and dexterity of a Sage-9 magician. Although it was a problem in the future, Xander had no idea of how to fix it. With his current arsenal, he was ready to embark to another place in mind: College. 5 Choosing his pseudo-spells Time passed and it was already the new year of 2057. Xander celebrated his 7th birthday the month after new year''s, and began preparing for the college entrance examination. He wasn''t lazy in the past few months; he managed to breakthrough to Elite class and managed to climb to Elite-2. However, his magical fluctuations only showed he was Mundane-9, a side abiity of [Absolute Defense]. His magical fluctuations could be disguised. The astonishing speed his magic cultivation was growing surprised, relieved and confused his parents, as it seems teaching magic and science at the same time to Xander was the right thing to do. They were confused because they felt that the strength and nimbleness Xander had was way lower than others at Mundane-9. Some of their old friends hypothesized that it was possible for their son to have a 5-elemental body, a rare physique among magicians. Having this body means that the owner could control and manipulate all 5-elements and their derivatives, but the body had to overcompensate to handle all these elements, causing lower strength and nimbleness. Xander, upon hearing this, just smiled and continued to busy himself. He knew about his abilities and true strength. For the college entrance examination, colleges all over the world had a standard 2-phase testing: Magical and Scientific Testing. Other specialized or renowned universities may have extra tests, but most of the time these tests were specialized forms of the 2 phases. For example, the university Xander was applying to, Grand Hyatt University in Callows City, had 3 additional tests focusing on students applying for Physics, Biotechnology and Mathematics, but these tests were integrated in the scientific testing. The additional tests would measure various components of the student''s talent and aptitude for learning of the subject. What worries him is the magical testing. He wonders whether or not his true abilities would be detected by whatever measuring device or technique they use. And if it was revealed... It would be a problem for him to survive. Although there are laws to protect the people, in this world, based on its historical trend, relies heavily on the idea, "Might is right." Those in power would rather become more powerful and would not hesitate to step on others to reach their goals. Although he could handle anyone below the Mythic level, what if they send someone stronger? And someone else? Xander didn''t like that, not one bit. He wanted to be the one who reaches their goal because of their own hardwork, whether it be forging connections, or forging ahead against all odds. Xander shook his head off of these thoughts and began to practice magic once more. He decided this time to practice on replicating items, as well as banishing them. After a few hundreds of trials and errors, Xander was able to create 2 new spells, namely [Space Crush] and [Temporal replication]. This time, the two spells were Advanced magic spells. First, [Space Crush] basically causes an object in a given space coordinate to implode to its smallest, concentrated level possible to space. Essentially, this leads to the mass of the object becoming insanely large due to the compression, leading to an exponential increase of gravitational power. This causes the object''s molecular spatial structure to change. The great thing was, Xander can use this spell consecutively, targeting multiple targets in less than a second. [Temporal replication] allowed Xander on the other hand to replicate anything that doesn''t have a so-called ''soul''. That involves common plants, animals, inert and active materials, etc. This spell was derived from [Absolute Time]. Basically anything that he needed to accomplish his plan of investing for the future. Money really is an aspect of life that is always needed to move forward at the start. With that in mind he opened bank accounts in several large banks, banks that he knew would still be present 1000-2000 years from now. He began to accumulate hard currency, such as minerals and gold, and began to replicate them, and sell them in different gold and jewelry stores. However, he didn''t stop there. He had gotten some rare materials and herbs from his mother''s collection; he also began replicating them. Sadly there wasn''t any sort of universal currency system that was in place yet, but seeing into the future, he realized that there will be in the next 2500 years, rapidly devaluing the price of Eta currency, the currency of the country where Xander is. He managed to gain a total of 50,000,000 Etas from the selling of gold and rare materials, a hefty sum given that he was just 7 years of age, and deposited it with a compounded interest rate of 2.5% for 2000 years. He made several ways methods to access the account in the future, making sure only he can access the account once he travels to the future. ________________________________ Time passed and it was already May. The examination date was 1 week from the start of May, while college begins in August. Xander was not studying for exams, but rather improving his magic control. He had already studied for all the possible topics that may appear, as well as prepared for practical examinations that may occur. Right now, he was trying to breakthrough to Elite-3. As he sat inside the Meditation room, he furiously gathered the magic energy in the surroundings before compressing it within him, continuously folding and compressing, until it was in a shape of a small seed. After 2 hours, he finally had results, with the small seed joining the other 2 seeds in rotating within his mind space. Finally, he has reached Elite-3. For the following week, all Xander did was consolidate his power and continously practiced, making the seeds larger and larger. If the seeds were taken out from his body, it would have the circumference twice bigger than a basketball. Now, since he was already an Elite-3, he could already choose 3 magic skills from any magical branch that was within Elite rank. The Mundane stage just gave everyone a foundation of manipulating magic energy from the environment and into the body, strengthening it and shaping its magical reserves. It didn''t give anyone the capacity to use magic skills, but enhanced their affinity with them in preparation. Basically, besides the luck attribute, which was fixed at birth, everything else amplified by magic cultivation, slowly and steady. For his 3 skills, he selected [Void wind], [Golden Light] and [5 elements Foundation] after a long period of scanning different skills available for public and restricted use. After all, with the system, no database is safe. [Void Wind]: Excite the elements of the void, giving your magical energy properties of the void: silent, empty and hidden. [Golden Light]: Create an orb of light. This orb of light can morph and be manipulated within the imagination and magical reserve of the caster. There is no limit to the amount of orbs created. [5-elements foundation]: Increases the affinity of the caster to the 5-elements, allowing one to cast spells from the 5-elements series. The strength and quality of the spell depends on the magical reserve and own comprehension of the caster. Xander continued to refine his control and practice with these magics for the remaining week. Of course, with the help of his time and space magic, he was able to practice for a long period of time mastering these skills, allowing him to be ahead of his peers. Within that time frame, he began experimenting on rapidly shifting elements from one to the other, as well as transforming one element to the other, like fire to ice, ice to water, water to earth/metal, then to wood, then wood to air, then air to lightning, etc. This continued on with Xander being able to use the secondary and tertiary elements under the 5-elements series. Afterwards, he tested the limits of the [Golden Light] spell; and lo and behold, even after summoning more than 10000 orbs of light, he could still continue to summon them. He began playing around with them, making the lights focused, then forcing them to move nearly at the speed of light. He then checked if he could convert the orbs of light into darkness element, since light and darkness were a derivative as well; he succeeded after 300 tries. He began imbuing his spells with the characteristics of the void: silent, hidden, and deadly. After a few days, he could practically apply all his current spells without any elemental/physical disturbance or warning to the target, adding another layer of lethality. Within these few days, he also practiced simultaneous multiple casting, and he could cast around 20 spells per second. He tried it on a testing dummy in a private room located in the magic training gym just a few blocks down his parents'' house. Immediately, he began casting myriad of 5-elemental spells and derivatives, and after a second, the testing dummy was gone, with smoke surrounding the area of the dummy. He checked the power of the attack, and saw that it was categorized above Master Class, meaning it was either half-step to legendary or already at the legendary class kind of strength. Pity the gym testing dummy only manages to test up to Master Class; if Xander wanted to check the actual power, he would have to ask for some of the gadgets his mom had in her laboratory. Day 134, 2057. The sun was brightly shining outside, waking Xander up. The exam was finally starting. 6 College Examinations 1 "Alright, for all examination participants, please bring your documents and go to your assigned venues." an elderly man shouted, his voice reverberating in the entrance area, entering into the ears of the participants. The applicants began to enter the campus and headed towards their respective testing venues. "Huh, Novera building, room 212. Is this a second-floor room?" Xander muttered. He recalled his past life''s experience in college; three-digit rooms usually indicated 2 things: the floor where the room is, and the room number. He asked around and was able to reach the Novera building after 5 minutes of walking. Xander headed upstairs, and looking around for a bit, found the right classroom and entered, taking a seat. There were a few people already present in the room. After an hour, the room was already filled up. The test proctor was already present and began the first testing phase. "Alright applicants, open the CommLink in your tables and type in the following details..." "... The analytical test is to be accomplished within 50 minutes. The test has been designed to be completed within 50 minutes. After completing the test, you may proceed to the next testing ground." "The test begins... Now!" Xander began to answer the questions in an inhuman speed as possible. He didn''t dare use his abilities on time warping as it may affect his qualifications if caught red-handed. There were 100 questions, and on average, he answered it in 3-4 items per minute. In 30 minutes, he was done with the analytical test. He immediately submitted the results to the proctor. The questions weren''t that challenging to Xander, as these questions were at most, below collegiate level difficulty. For him who had a strong intellectual foundation who already began studying collegiate level research papers as well as graduate research papers, this was a cinch. The questions were quite diverse, however, which wasn''t within his expectation. Besides the additional biotechnology, mathematics, and physics questions, there were questions on history, sociology, and even psychology. The proctor was a bit surprised, but remembering his duties, he reminded Xander that he should proceed to the Gymnasium room after giving him the first certificate of completion. Although normally, proctors can''t check the answers of the applicants as they are submitted immediately for checking, the proctor in charge of the room where Xander tested in was someone with a high clearance in Grand Hyatt University. Within a few minutes, he requested for the score of the first applicant, Xander Cloverfield, and was shocked to see his results. Multiple choice section... perfect! True or false section... perfect! Essay section... Outstanding! Psychological analysis: Stable and focused! Score rating: S+ Recommended for the Advanced Track Program! The proctor began checking the essay question, and was almost scared out the living daylight, letting out a muffled gasp. "Was t-this... an answer an incoming college student should have? This looked like someone talking to a research conference and knew what they were talking about." the proctor mumbled. He later shook his head, and closed the results. He continued sitting by the desk, acting as a proctor. Xander, unknown to him that he just scared the proctor, moved on and he headed to the next test, the scientific analysis. According to the experience of his parents, the scientific analysis is simple, as it measures the physical attributes of the body and its aptitude towards magical essences. At the same time, the test takers are to go in a virtual reality where they are to show off their fighting capability through a simulated magic test. Xander was not in a rush as he continued towards the Gymnasium room. Upon entering, there were no other participants. The whole gymnasium floor was littered with numerous, pod-like cabins. His entrance garnered the attention of the proctors in charge of the testing. He approached one of them and showed the certificate of completion, in which the proctor merely nodded and instructed him to go into one of the pods. Upon entering the pod and putting the helmet on, he immediately saw the space around him morph into a mountainous area. Immediately, he felt a wave of energy pass through him, seemingly laying bare his entirety for anyone to see. However, he was only momentarily suprised, before calming again, since he knew it was only the customary scan. With the help of what he had learned from the servers of the government, this virtual machine pod was easily tricked by Xander into thinking that he only had the 5-elements as his primary elements, and the Space-time elements completed hidden. He also increased the affinity of the elements to his body to the highest, legal-looking as possible. What was great about this testing machine is it only gives the primary elements the user has, as well as the rating for the affinity towards these elements; no numbers, no issue. All the data are deleted and cleared after the rating is released as well, thus giving the tester privacy. After the magic aptitude and element affinity screenings, the final test was a simulated magical test. After all, no matter how good you are in theory, if it cannot be executed in reality, what was its point? Here, the participant is asked to fight a series of targets, whether physically or using magic. The physical fight can be done by the tester using elemental energy to amplify his physical attributes for a period of time by several degrees. Using magic to fight is more complex because it assumes you already reached Elite class and has at least a spell or two. This test is done in the virtual reality. What''s good about this is that virtual reality had already reached a level of 99.999% likeness to reality, even having the capacity to actually simulate what is happening in the body when casting spells. The reason for this is that virtual reality here is not managed by just some gigantic quantum supercomputer, but also involves the usage of ancient magic found in the ruins. When he saw the pictures of the runic writing on the magic circles from the governments classified research documents, he immediately recognized the runes: It was identical to the runes unique to time and space magic spells! It made Xander postulate at that time that there were time and space magicians, but maybe they existed from a distant past? After all, the recorded history of Eteria was more than 1 million years. From the mountainous area, he was transported into a grassy field. Upon transferring, Xander had a question in mind: how do they replicate the body of the tester then? Is it all bits and data, then imbued with magic? Or is there life-death magic involved? Could every instance of a tester in virtual reality be bits of data that gained life, but no sentience, under the command of the tester? Xander didn''t immerse too much on the details and had focused on the task at hand: he was to destroy all 50 targets within the time limit. According to the information given to him by the proctor, the faster he accomplishes the task the higher the ranking score. Without wasting any time, he began to launch succeeding attacks towards the moving targets, which were dire wolves. Combining Void Wind and 5 Elements Foundation, he began to showcase his elemental affinities. "Fire Ball" "Water Ball" "Wooden Thorns" "Air Blade" "Metal Chains" "Eroding Miasma" "Chain Lightning" "Eternal Iceberg" ... Xander cast 15 different spells in the span of a second, with each cast of a spell hit each and every target accurately, missing no targets at all. In 10 seconds, all of the targets were down, and Xander''s stamina and magic reserves were unaffected. He only managed to complete it in 10 seconds because the spells he launched had an area of effect. "Hmm, it seems there''s still a need to practice more on casting spells..." Xander muttered. After all, his spell casting was boosted by the Void Wind skill, allowing him to cast chantlessly and shortened the casting time for each spell. What Xander wanted was to increase the number of spells he could cast in a second. Although Xander seemed disappointed with his own performance, in actuality, the people outside were surprised by the efficiency Xander showed, as they could see the results real time. Even those observing the data being projected in the real world were shocked. "This...he''s not cheating is he?" a proctor stammered, quite surprised with the result. He still couldn''t believe that the test they designed was easily accomplished in 30 seconds. "Hmph, how could he even cheat! It''s obvious we have a genius in our hands!" a man wearing glasses rebuked the proctor. It was the head of admissions, Joseph Feng. "So how do we grade him? Direct admission? Or does he still need to pass the last test?" another proctor asked, as they were quite at a loss. Why where they at a loss? Its because the minimum time to accomplish this test was found to be 3 minutes, and they would get an S ranking for their completion. Yet, Xander completed the test in less than 30 seconds. What grade should they give him? SS? SSS? SSS+? "Of course he needs to pass the last test! This isn''t the old times where you just have to be good in one aspect; we''re looking for well-rounded geniuses!" Joseph replied, his eyes glimmering. "I remember this test has 3 stages, correct? Unlock them all for this applicant." "But the other 2 stages are still in testing mode; it''s impossible that they wouldn''t be harmed physically in the real world!" said one of the technicians. "Hmm, is that so? Then doesn''t it make it more interesting to see how he''ll react? Send a letter of consent to the applicant inside, detailing the risks of the next 2 stages. However, state the rewards of completing the 2 stages as well." Joseph responded calculatingly. He knew that kids nowadays were hot-blooded. 7 College Examinations 2 A few minutes after finishing up the Wolves, Xander received a notification inside the VR. "Applicant 11111, You have completed the first stage of the Magic test. Would you like to proceed on the next 2 stages? However, as they are experimental and may harm you physically and mentally, please know that completion of these stages would give you a set of rewards." "The set of rewards would be the following: 3000 School Contribution Points and 10000 Etas for the second stage completed, 5000 School Contribution Points and 100,000 Etas for the final stage completed. At the same time, a recommendation for skipping grades would also be written." Xander, upon seeing these conditions, hesitated momentarily and weighed the pros and cons of doing such a thing. Pros. He would be ahead of the people who applied with him, probably cinching the 1st rank. At the same time, he would have school contribution points to use for the sake of internal purchases within the school. At the same time, he could graduate earlier, graduating within 2 years. Cons. Issue on privacy. He can only say goodbye to privacy for his identity once the results were out. After all, this last test was standardized per university in the world, except for a select few University which allowed modification in the testing. If he performed too well, his name could be broadcasted in the news. Interested parties would most likely mark him as a person of interest, meaning bothersome people would approach him without his consent. At the same time, the Etas given as a reward was quite low. Xander had a feeling that the reason why the requested for him to undergo the remaining 2 stages is because there might be competition between universities, and he would be used by Grand Hyatt University as some sort of promotional material to attract other talented students. Xander didn''t like that, as the attention it would bring to him was too high for his current identity. He wasn''t some stupid freshman who cared about attention and fame. He knew his limits and the benefits of being low-key. After a while, he rejected the request and immediately left the VR, and the pod opened up. Of course, he before he left, he responded to why he declined. "Are you joking? With that small amount of renumeration to the future troubles it would cause me? Stop making a joke." Upon waking up, he went to the nearest proctor and asked for his results as well as submitting the necessary application forms. He proceeded to the last test, which tested his knowledge on mathematics, physics and biotechnology, the science focus of Grand Hyatt University. This test was different from the first test Xander took, because the topics were solely these three, and the question format were focused on experiment design as well as concept understanding and applications. He had to complete the test within the time limit of 2 hours. Within 1 hour, he completed all 3 tests and handed his information to the proctor as dictated. The proctor nodded approvingly and handed him a com-link lens that would show the results in 7 days, and whether he passes or not. Not caring about anyone, he left the school premises and headed home. ------ Inside the campus'' Office of Admission. "I can''t believe it, he rejected the offer." said one of the persons in charge of the VR simulation test. "Either he is an unambitious person who doesn''t care about fame and fortune, or a really shrewd one. He knew this would bring attention to him and maybe he didn''t like the attention?" "Hmm, either way, I plan to submit a recommendation for him to enter the advanced track program. What do you guys think?" said one of the men, his face aged. "Hmph, I don''t agree on this; how dare this insignificant person reject my offer?" Joseph replied, obviously disgruntled and held animosity towards Xander. "Haha! Joseph, you should be more open minded. Do you know the background of his parents?" one of the older men in military attire spoke, his voice dry and sarcastic. "Oh? General Simmons, it seems you know more of this prodigy''s background." one of the old men spoke. "Hehe, it''s not simple, especially his mother''s case. First of, his father is working on a research with the funding from 5 different international conglomerates, all focused on physics field. His mother''s information, on the other hand, is considered restricted access that even for me, I can only see the partially redacted information, " General Simmons replied, his voice grim. Everyone couldn''t help but gasp quietly. But it seemed that the general wasn''t done yet. "In regards to this youngster, a magical phenomena occurred when he was born, and for the first 2 years, he had a rapid growth in terms of magical power. It seemed that he could control all the commonly available elements. When he was 4 years old, he was cited as a main co-author by the paper written by Therault. You know who Therault is don''t you? The one that postulated the idea of elemental hierarchies? According to the information I got from the government, more than half of the paper was written by that kid." General Simmons paused for a bit, letting the information sink it. After a few seconds, he continued on. "When he was aged 5, the researchers wanted to take him to the laboratory to explore more of the kid''s potential, but one word from his mother and the case was dropped. Mind you, these were senior researchers who have a higher rank than I do in the scheme of things in the government." "According to my current sources and the hyperinterpolation of the data gleaned by the government, it is estimated that Xander, age 7, is already an Elite-ranked person, roughly around Elite-2. However, if we base it from the performance he just showed in the simulated magic test, his true strength should be above Elite-4." General Simmons motioned one of the staff to come in, and show the video taken from the VR. It showed the moment Xander attacked for the first time. He instructed the staff to play the video, frame by frame, in which the other members of the board saw what General Simmons was talking about. 2, 3, 4..., no is it 5? No, it''s greater than 5 spells...6, 7 spells maybe? "Ok, to stop you from guessing, from the analysis done at the data produced by the VR by our technicians, there were 15 elemental signatures represented, and following the new optimizations we have added since the paper by Therault has been accepted as a universal law, out of those 15, 5 are the energy signatures for the 5-elements series; the remaining ones are secondary and tertiary elements derived from the series. 15 spells, gentlemen, 15 spells cast within a second." Everyone was silent, even Joseph who was complaining was completely quiet. General Simmons then looked at Joseph, his look containing a bit of pity, and more of annoyance at his colleague. "So it''s not that simple, Joseph, that he rejected your proposal. He just had a higher view of things. Remember what he said before he left? It''s obvious he weighed the pros and cons of doing the other 2 tests." continued Simmons, each revelation striking a drum at the hearts of the board. Even Joseph couldn''t help but sweat upon hearing this and realized what might have happened to him. "... So there are no objections on putting him in the advanced class? " said the old man beside General Simmons. "....." Everyone was silent, as if tacitly agreeing to it. Joseph had no qualms either. ------------- Upon reaching home, Xander began to digest his experiences and continued to practice his Time and Space magic. This continued for a few days until the com-link lens glowed and vibrated. Xander stepped out of the time bubble and tapped at the lens, opening a hologram showing his results. Applicant Number: 11111 Applicant Name: Xander Cloverfield Results: 1st Test: Perfect, S+ 2nd Test: Perfect, SSS+ 3rd Test: Perfect, SS+ Mean average: Perfect, SS Remarks: Recommended to the advanced track program. Rank: 1st in the batch of test takers for the year 2057 nationwide, 2nd place worldwide. Upon seeing the results, he sent a copy to his parents and went downstairs to eat. He was a bit surprised that he didn''t top the 1st place for both nationwide and worldwide college examinations, but this gave him a sense of excitement because it would seem that there were peers of his that can match him. He reached the table and sat down on his chair, quietly waiting for the food. Although he was already an Elite, meaning he could forgo eating continuously, he still needed to eat at least once a week since his body is developing. Once he reaches Master rank, he could completely forgo eating, since his body would naturally absorb the elements in the surrounding as sustenance. In a few minutes, the food was already ready, prepared by the in-house robot chef. He began to eat alone, as he was home alone, since both his parents were working. His father was in the research institute and his mother at the R&D laboratory of the government. According to the hacked feeds and documents he gleaned, they were developing a new biochemical compound to use for warfare. Some of the researcher friends that they introduced before to him were all there as well, engrossed in the data analysis and formulation process. From what he can deduce based on their documents and visual feed, the biochemical compound seems to have traces of the death element, as well as decay and disease element. 8 Living life on his own His father was different from his social mother; rather than focus on bioweapon development, his father was leading a research team on exploring and extrapolating astral bodies and physical phenomena related to Project: Starlight. This was a joint project among the 5 top conglomerates of the Eteria, and the research laboratory where his dad was in was one of the main laboratory per country. One of conglomerates was known for pioneering space exploration, and thus they were heavily invested by multiple governments. Their supplies for rare metals and the ones that can take a hit from at least someone in the Demigod class were dwindling, thus they could only slow down the progress of building the first manned spacejet. However, recently they began increasing the speed of their work. It seemed to coincide the time Xander was duplicating rare metals and rare materials along with gold. He did produce quite a handful of those metals, like around 500 tonnes? They were cheaply bought too, even if there was a high demand, low supply market for them; probably because Xander was in a rush to sell them. Project: Starlight seemed interesting for Xander. He wasn''t sure of the details, so he checked for a bit the documents pertaining to it. After a while, he lost interest and he didn''t care that much anymore, same as the biochemical weapon research his mom was doing. After all, he already saw the absolute future for the next 2000 years. He just had to travel to a certain time in between 2000-3000 years to actually profit from his invested money in the banks. He then had to get physical augmentations available at that time period. No matter what his parents were involved into, it wouldn''t cause any after-effects to the future of 2000 years from now. Most likely, it would be 20 to 200 years at most. For example, the biochemical weapon? Although Eta would use it to assassinate figures that threaten the sovereignity of the country for the next 30 years, another superpower country, Nema, managed to discover its existence and publicized it to the world, causing a frenzy of negative public opinion towards the government of Eta to surface. Even a certain percentage of Eta''s population were aghast about it. After a few years it was revealed, a cure was produced, rendering the biochemical weapon useless. Project: Starlight was the same; it ended around 200 years in the future. That''s because they focused on creating weapons and armor that would allow a mythic or higher magician to fight in space as easily as fighting on the planet surface, thus making survival easier. They had also planned to use it to colonize underdeveloped planets, as well as slay things that threaten them in space easily. Although they succeeded, it was just that the materials they used were so expensive! It was to the point that two of the vital component metals were completely depleted. In the end, they were only able to produce 20 sets of armor and weaponry, and due to low production, the funding was stopped and the project abandoned. Time continued to pass by. Xander continued to self-study as well as replicate the raw materials that he had. He deposited the money he got from selling into a different bank account from one he was going to open 2000 years from now, planning to make it as his secondary account. When he sold another batch of raw priceless materials, he earned a staggering amount of 300 million Etas. For his primary account, he had already calculated the amount of Etas he would get as long as he didn''t touch that account, which was around 141 octillion after 2000 years, and when converted to the universal currency, would result to 1.41 octillion Coins. --------- Eteria, 2057, July Time passed by quickly. Only a month was left before Xander had to begin his college life. Xander had already reached Elite-4 rank, just a bit further from Elite-5. He hadn''t selected any spells to take in for his fourth magic seed, and decided to do so later. With the money he had earned, he decided to move out of his parents'' home and bought one closer to school, around 5 minutes walking distance. The villa''s price was quite high, around 1.5 million Etas. Of course, concerning the money, the lie he told them was that he was investing in the stock market and was easily able to get quick returns. His parents were both surprised, and in the end, agreed to their son''s decision but sent him 3 bodyguards, and 2 housemaids to prepare for his daily necessities. At this, Xander haplessly agreed; afterall, they were thinking of his safety. After informing his parents, he already prepared his items and personal belongings into a luggage. Of course, this luggage wasn''t a simple one, but was modified by him to have 50x more space, allowing him to place all his personal belongings into it. Of course, his parents didn''t know that it was like that and thought that the luggage only contained a few sets of clothes and some books. Xander exited his parents'' house and booked for a car. In less than 30 minutes, he was already at the front of his new house. His house was a typical, villa style mansion, with 2 floors and a garden plus a pool. With his new spell, [Material Transformation], he was able to add small touches to the house. This was the very first Legendary spell that Xander was able to create with his abilities. He then added a basement which was to be his laboratory while studying in college. He reinforced the material of the walls and floors and ceiling of the basement, making it harder and more tensile than the strongest material in this universe, which was Adamantium. The material had both strong magical and physical properties, making it a good defense against spells, spirits, and well, physical weaponry. He continued to create more modifications in the original blueprint of the house, such as creating a direct one-way from his room to the basement, and basement to the first floor. Additionally, he created sculptures where he imbued his magic signature in the basement, which means that if someone who is not him enters the basement, it would activate a spatial barrier + time acceleration of 5000 years targeting the cultivation level and biological processes of the one trespassing + Spatial rifts within that barrier. He installed it for both the entrances and exits of the one-ways he made. After 2 hours of modifying the house, he called for the guards and the maids hired by his parents inside the house. The five people were lined up properly, awaiting his orders. Xander eyed them coolly. He had already received relevant information about these people. Not surprisingly, they were from the military, which were assigned to his family. All of them had a cultivation ranging from Master-3 to Master-6. It seems they could also be counted to protect the house if ever there was an emergency. But for formalities sake, Xander asked them for their names, as he just couldn''t reveal their militar code and rank. The three bodyguards were Alan, Peter, and John. The 2 maids were twins, named Rolly and Polly. Of course, these were just aliases. Xander didn''t care much but begun to tell them the rules in the house. "Number 1, never enter the basement. If you enter it without my consent or agreement, it is not my fault if you die due to the security measures I placed." He pointed at the inconspicuous door just behind the staircase leading to the 2nd floor. "Number 2, once I enter my room, do not bother me unless you need to call me for Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner. Use this transmitter to notify me." Xander gestured them to follow to the second floor and showed the transmitter embedded on the door to his room. He showed them how it worked and required them to register their biometrics in it, to avoid the security measures from activating in the second floor, and killing them. "Number 3, do not linger around in the 2nd floor too long. There are security measures in place to detect living organisms. There is no need to clean the 2nd floor as it automatically cleans itself, even the rooms." "Last but not the least, since you are experts in your respective fields, I hope you can deal with any problems that may occur when I am busy in the basement or not in the house. The security lockdown measures placed in the house will only activate when all of you are dead. Hopefully it doesn''t activate at all." Xander locked his eyes to each and every one of them, making them feel like their secrets where exposed, and their bodies where for all to see. "Any questions?" Xander asked them, his voice authorative. 9 Experiment, experiment 1 Both the maids and the set of guards were quiet. Although Xander was just 7 years of age, his voice carried a certain level of oppression. At the same time, just by standing in front of him, one could feel being beneath him, as if one would prostrate in front of him. Of course, Xander has no idea what these people were thinking. If he could read their minds, he would have laughed. He hasn''t done anything at all, and was just mimicking the generals he had seen in the movies. After the meeting, Xander and the rest dispersed, beginning to do their respective jobs. Xander decided to head outside and into the garden, where he planned to get some samples for the first experiment he wanted to try: Plant sentience. Of course, he was no plant mage, nor was he an acknowledge botanist, but he did have one thing that these professionals didn''t have: the power of time and space. He wanted to check if given enough time, will biological, non-sentient beings develop sentience? It was a simple question, but it gave rise to possible implications of how special life forms besides humans, elves, and dwarves could exist, such as magical beasts and sprites. First and foremost, he selected a simple thorned rose as a test subject. He then dug it up and transferred it into a different patch of land, one that was devoid of other plants. What he did next was quite daring; he changed the time around the flower and the soil underneath it, increasing it to a ratio of 1 second outside:100 minutes inside the plot of land, which led to the elemental particles and energies in that area to actually rapidly increase and condense. The situation inside was literally the elements continuously propagating faster than the space outside. With the help of space magic, he isolated the plot of land to avoid dispersing the particles to the rest of the garden. He completed the setup 2 hours before lunch. He continued to observe the changes until it was lunchtime. There were no significant changes on the flower, or the soil; they both just seemed glossier and healthier than before. He left the garden and ate his lunch. After roughly an hour he returned to the garden. What he saw surprised him. In that plot of land, the flower had already bloomed; and inside the flower, there was a tiny person lying down, sleeping on the flower. It looked delicate and feminine, yet it does not have any reproductive organs at all. He could barely see it as it was quite transluscent. Xander, however, recognized what it was: a Plant sprite. Xander calculated how long has it been. It has been 2 years for the plant and soil. So how could it produce such a sprite? could it be the condensing elemental particles led to a speedy development of the flower spirit? How about the soil? Has it changed drastically as well? Xander began investigating the soil and saw that there was a mass of earth elemental energies condensing right under the roots of the plant. It seems not every sprite is easily developed; each element would seem to have a different period of time as well as elemental concentration to form a sprite. He continued to observe that plot of land. As time passed, the color and size of the flower sprite continued to deepen and increase, while the earth sprite of the soil continued to accumulate elemental energies. 6 hours, or 4 years later for the plot of land, dinner was ready. After finishing, he headed back to the garden and continued his observation; nothing much has changed, but the soil was already in a deep brown color, while the plant was turning from radiant green to jade-green, with its thorns seemingly looking like facets of a crystal rose. The petals of the rose turned from rich red to a vibrant gradient of the sunset. Since there wasn''t much change in the development of the soil and the plant, he decided to create a space barrier just in case the sprites awaken and escape, and headed to his room to sleep for the night. The next day. Xander woke up with a yawn; he headed down and looked for breakfast. The meal was quickly prepared and he began to browse the news today using his tablet. He didn''t see anything noteworthy; there wasn''t much that would affect his plans. There was a piece of news that did catch his eyes, which was about the escalating tensions between Eta and Nema, the two superpowers in Eteria Planet. It caught his eye because Callows city was in the Delta province, which was one of the 10 provinces of Eta. At the same time, he knew that this would result to war in 200 years; a war that lasted 50 years before Eta emerging as the winner. Nema is absorbed by the country of Eta, which in turn, resulted to the formation of the parliament for the remaining 40 countries, uniting to make sure that Eta is kept in check. 1000 years later after this incident, due to multiple situations and escalating violence, both Eta and the Parliament merges, creating the Eteria Empire. The Eteria empire would have a unified universal currency, and the depreciation of the previous different currencies began. Of course, Eta was still a strong currency after 700 years of unification, only depreciating to a hundredth of its original value, while the rest of the currencies were already obsolete. What was interesting that after the unification, technological and magical development flourished, such as body augmentations, and longer lifespan for those below the Mythic class. 1000 years after the unification, they finally were able to step into space and began their planetary expansion. They were able to, for some reason, reach faster than the speed of light with the help of the magic runic spells found in another ancient ruins 600 years after the unification. It took them 400 years to develop a magic-techological space carrier, allowing tens of thousands of humanoid lifeforms to enter and traverse the wide starry space. When Xander saw this future, what he wanted to do was get the augmentation, as well as get the runic spells that they had found. He thinks that the runic spells were actually the partial fusion of space-time elements, given that they were able to achieve superluminal speed, roughly between 2 to 20 times the speed of light. However, he planned to go there once his comprehension of space-time elements are higher and his time travelling more longer and more stable, as well as his overall power being stronger than now. Who knows if Mythical magicians or higher became a common thing in that future? After eating his breakfast, he headed to the garden and was quite surprised to see the changes that had happened. it has roughly been 16 years for the plot of land, and a lot has changed since then. The soil wasn''t that brown anymore, but contained streaks of silver and jade green color. The plant looked like it was crystallized, forever immortalized, gleaming under the sunlight, with a height of 1 meter. The sprites'' were the largest change he had ever seen. The flower sprite had fully materialized, and it was roughly half the height of the rose plant with a humanoid shape. The sprite had mysterious markings in its arms and limbs, with the symbol of an opening rose right in its chest. The sprite looked like a male elf, but had feminine features. The earth sprite, however, had a weird shape and looked like a turtle. It was munching on one of the roots of the plant, seemingly without care of what''s happening in the outside world. The plant sprite, however, was quite furious with the earth sprite and attempted to command the roots to whip the turtle, which were all evaded by the turtle, who returned to munching the roots. Xander smiled at this and headed to the modified plot of land. Upon detecting the presence of Xander, the plant sprite was shocked that it yelped before moving in front of the flower, as if wanting to defend it from Xander. The turtle looked up from beneath the ground, but resumed feeding on the the roots after a while. 10 Experiment, experiment! 2 Xander smiled at their reactions, while at the same time gauging the intellect of these sprites. They were basically just birthed into the world, and isolated from any form of communication. Would they be able to understand him? Would he be able to understand them? He slowly approached the plant sprite, his movements attempting to show that he was harmless. However, the plant sprite was quite vigilant and continued to move back towards the plant. After a few steps, it started flailing its arms, wanting to hit Xander. Of course, with the movement of the sprite''s arms, the roots and the thorns of the rose plant started to move towards Xander, flashing quickly from their positions. Xander, upon seeing this, laughed and waved his hand. Immediately, the roots and the thorns shot out from the stem froze in mid-air, vibrating and struggling in place. The plant sprite, upon seeing this, yelped before moving up to the rose, and hiding there. Xander just shook his head and attempted to communicate once again. This time, he opened his hand, gesturing the sprite to hold his hand. The plant sprite, a bit wary, didn''t budge at all. The earth sprite, however, seeing that Xander meant no harm, trudgingly walked towards him, albeit slow. Even if it saw its companion heading without fear, the plant sprite was still wary. "This is like dealing with a disobedient child..." Xander muttered, and snapped his fingers. The plant sprite suddenly froze and was unable to move its body, and its eyes showed confusion and fear. The body began to move towards Xander''s location, and upon reaching him, the plant sprite reached out his hand towards Xander''s. Xander removed the binding space around the sprite and held the sprite''s hand securely. The sprite, still confused and afraid, didn''t know what to do. Xander observed the plant sprite''s facial reactions and just laughed silently. While holding the sprite''s hand, he asked, "Do you have a name, little one?" The plant sprite stared blankly at Xander, unsure what he meant. At this, Xander shook his head and using space magic, transported several books on language, culture, and history to the vicinity of the plant. Nudging his head a bit, the earth sprite looked curiously before heading back to the vicinity of the root, and continued munching away. Using time acceleration, he quickly taught the plant sprite how to read and speak. He wanted to teach the earth sprite as well, but it just continued to laze around the base of the plant, still munching on the roots. 3 hours quickly passed by in the outside world, but Xander had already taught the plant sprite how to speak and write for 3 years. In this three years, the plant sprite was already at the level of a high schooler. Similarly, the earth sprite managed to learn how to speak by just listening and lazing around nearby. In this three years, the aversion the plant sprite had for Xander had vanished, and only experienced happiness and care under him. Xander named the plant sprite Sam, and named the earth sprite Pan. He exited the space leaving the two sprites inside, and he went inside the house to eat lunch. According to his observations, the experimentation was so far good. Although it didn''t go ahead as originally planned, which was to cause the plant to have a consciousness, the generation of sprites was quite unexpected. Are sprites actually the manifestation of consciousness of things that didn''t have a soul? Given that a plant and earth sprite appeared from things commonly said to have no souls, it led to possible developments of research for him: Can he artificially create an ancient sprite, one that is 1000 years or older? How about 10,000 years? 100,000? Another question that bother him is that if he removed the 2 sprites from the time acceleration, would the will of the world rebound back, removing their existence? If they weren''t, then in the same manner, can he infer the formation of souls from artificially growing the sprites? After all, sprites, having developed a consciousness, are considered beings with souls. He had briefly researched with the help of the system the information regarding elves, sprites, and the other supernatural beings in the planet. Sprites were generated for a specific element when the concentration of all elements in one place is quite high and favorable. They are the manifestation of one specific element that dominated that place. For example, the Heavenly Tree the Elves live upon has a sprite whose age was estimated to be more than 1,000,000 years old. It is also a plant sprite like Sam, and is restricted by the same rules. These sprites cannot be harmed by anything, unless their origin is harmed. The origin refers to the item where they were born or created from. For Sam, it is the rose plant, while for Pan, it was that small patch of soil. At the same time, there is only a certain distance from which the sprite can go away from its origin, or else the sprite disappears and returns back to its origin. Of course, this distance varies depending on two factors: The origin type and the age of the sprite. If the origin type is originally mobile, like air, or water, or even fire, the sprite can move freely as well but requires the origin to be brought close to where they are. The second factor, the age of the sprite, was never tested for sprites with an age greater than 10,000 years, as anything older were either quite rare, or quite powerful to control. For reference, a 1000 year old sprite was equivalent to a Master class stage 1, while 10,000 year old sprite was a Legendary class stage 1. A 1,000,000 year old sprite, like the Heavenly Tree, was at least a Demigod class expert. With the information at hand, he wanted to check the second factor for sprites'' mobility. After eating lunch, he returned to the garden and began to modify the plot of land where the rose was in. He modified the time acceleration, from 1 second:100 minutes to 1 second: 7 days. One day on the outside was a total of 1656 years. Multiplying it till the start of classes, around 33,000 years would have passed in the small plot of land. He didn''t just stop there; he modified the time and space of the whole garden. Besides the small plot of land with a faster time progression, the rest of the garden had a time ratio of 1 second: 1 day, so the plants and small critters that may be present in the garden would roughly be 4,700 years of age when college starts. After setting up the time dilation in the garden, it was isolated similarly to that of the plot of land, meaning only Xander could ever enter and discover the changes in it. For those viewing on the outside, it would just be very foggy, and seemingly unpenetratable by both magic and physical bodies. Xander headed towards the plot of land and told Sam and Pan that soon, they''ll have other siblings, and when that time comes, he entrusted them to teach them how to speak and write. He mentioned he would drop by from time to time, to give books and information for the two of them to learn, as well as observe them using their powers. He gave them a set time: Only after 33,000 years would they be able to take the test he set to check if they can go to the outside world. 11 Results of the Experimen After a few days, a new sprite appeared in the small plot of land. This time, it was an air sprite. Xander had noticed it before, but the concentration of air elemental energies wasn''t too high at that time, so he had thought it was slower than the development of the earth sprite. it only matured into an outline of a bird 4 days, or roughly 6,600 years later. After 2 days, it was already complete and "alive", so to say. Both Sam and Pan were happy with the development and played with the air sprite, which was named Sparrow by Xander, who wasn''t feeling creative that day. After 14 days, the three sprites were roughly 33,000 years old each. Each of these sprites had the intellect of a college graduate, each of them well-versed in different fields; Sam was good at Botany, Pan was great at geology and lithography, while Sparrow was knowledgeable on physics and business. The other organisms in the garden were also growing steadily; formation of other plant and earth sprites were already done after 10 days since the modification, and 2 days after, they were fully formed. Xander believed that the number of plant, earth and air sprites in the area delayed the growth of the sprites, as they were competing on the elemental particles in the garden. 8 days later, however, several insects and small beasts were already gaining sentience and some were able to command the elements. This caused Xander to be quite surprised with this development and decided to look for more information concerning magical beasts. After he had read information about these so called magical beasts, he then realized that he could transform regular animals and insects into magical ones. He compared it with the daily data of the garden and realized one common factor: These magical beasts were usually found in areas with high density of elemental particles, which could mean that ancient magical beasts may not actually be magical at first, but with the continuous exposure to high levels of elemental particles, their bodies and their descendant''s bodies adapted and evolved to handle these elemental particles. Doesn''t that mean because they have became conscious and aware, they formed souls? Scanning the magical beasts in the garden, he came to conclusions concerning their so-called magic core. Magical beasts were the same as sprites, with age being a determining factor of its strength. Once an animal became a magical beast, its life and death is determined by its resources and its choice, not by natural ageing. It is similar to humans who broke the limits of mortality upon stepping on the Legendary class. Although their lifespan did extend by several centuries, it wasn''t at the same level as Mythic magicians whose lifespan is measured in millenia, Demigods who are measured from tens of thousands of years, while Divine magicians and above were already above the constraints of the concept of a "lifespan". Anyone below Legendary had an average lifespan of 100-200 years, even those who aren''t able to cultivate magic. When compared to humans whose strength begins even at the Mundane class, the strength of magical beasts, however, began at Master class. Most of the magical beasts born has a strength of Master-1 magician. Some rare species of magic beasts, however, were born stronger; for example, a Luan Pixie is born with the strength rivalling a Legendary Class magician. Roughly, all newborn magical beasts are classified by the strength they exhibit, in terms of years. A 1000-year old magical beast is considered the weakest kind of magical beast, with a strength of Master-1. Beasts that were at least 10,000 year old considered Legendary Class, and every 10,000 years, they their strength increases as well. 100,000 year old beasts were already of the Mythic level, which is considered a turning point for them. Once they reach the Mythic level, they could actually have the option to transform into humanoid creatures, almost indistinguishable from normal humans through the naked eye. Upon reaching 1,000,000 years or older, however, they are capable of sailing through the starry sky, having the strength of Demigod class. A common factor among all magic beasts is that they are stronger than someone of the same level as them; a 5000-year old magic beast could fight evenly with a Master-9 magician. Now, concerning their magic cores, there were traces of life essence, the same life essence that is supposed to be in a metaphysical state; he knew the traces because he can interact with his own life essence easily, which resided on a different dimension. When he discovered that dimension, that dimension was quite weird compared to other dimensions he had connected before. Usually when, he latches on a dimension, the point he connected to the physical dimension would appear physically, being able to interact with it. This dimension, however, was in an immaterial state even after he had latched on a dimension. If he wasn''t controlling space elements to form a intermediary link between the physical dimension and this dimension, he wouldn''t be able to enter it. When he opened that dimension, it was as if he was being pounded by waves and waves of pure energy, threatening to overwhelm him if not for his [Absolute Defense] Spell automatically activating, isolating his body from the dimension but still being there. After adjusting himself, he realized he was in a sea of life essences! Multiple ideas and thoughts quickly appeared in his mind before focusing on the highest probable answer: This dimension is where life essences of sentient beings exist! Since it was said that life essences were in metaphysical state, it would make sense the dimension they reside in, they would be in a physical state, and that state was a raging oceans of coalesced life essences. The question now about magic beasts is why their life essences moved from a metaphysical state to physical state, manifested as a magic core? Could it be...? Xander''s eyes glistened, before recording the information he had just gleaned from the magic beasts'' cores. Currently, the magical beasts in the garden were at Master class, roughly 4,700 years of age each. Xander was a bit puzzled, however, that there was no innate hostility between these magical beasts. He counted and their population was currently less than 50, with at least 18 different species of magical beasts. They each occupied their own space and respected each other''s space as well. Some of them were interacting with the newly born sprites. Majority of the magical beasts, however, loved to just sleep. Xander saw these results were quite happy. 2 days before college starts, he went to the garden again and was happily greeted by the sprites and the magical beasts. He played with some of them before heading towards the plot of land in the middle of the garden. This was where Sam, Pan and Sparrow were located in. Sam''s plant was already at the height of 3 meters, with the flower''s full bloom diameter at 2 meters. The stem of the rose plant was big enough for 2 adults to fully encircle it with their arms. It also had a distinct color, jade yet transparent, with the leaves having a green jade luster. The flower it had looked different from what it was before; there were more than 1000 petals, each and every petal having a crystal gradient sunset color, resembling aged amber. The soil it grew on was more spectacular. It was literally shining; with a color of green and rich brown hues. It was also quite compact, which didn''t allow any piece of soil to be removed or displaced. The air surrounding the soil and the rose, however, felt fresh and reinvigorating, with no tint of pollution. Each time one smells the air would be like smelling a different natural scent; it could be the smell of an earthy forest, or even the smell of the seaside beach. Looking at these changes, Xander was elated. He called for the three; it was time to test their abilities. It was quite basic, actually. All they had to do was use all their skills in fighting one another, but they were not allowed to damage the origin of each other. Sam, Pan and Sparrow agreed, and the three began fighting. First it was Sam vs Pan. Pan won. Sam vs Sparrow. Sparrow won. Pan vs Sparrow. Sparrow won. Sam vs Sparrow vs Pan. Sam won. The way Sam won was quite ingenious in Xander''s perspective. What Sam did was to increase the rose plant''s absorption of air, causing the body of Sparrow to almost dissipate into the rose. Similarly, Sam used the roots to entangle Pan, and began absorbing the nutrients in its body. Sam smiled smugly at the two sprites, while the other throwed daggers with their eyes at him. Xander slowly clapped, catching the attention of the three. "Sam, Pan, and Sparrow. Congratulations. you all have the capability to defend yourself in the outside world. I''m going to let you out, but before you do, I would want you to meet your other relatives first." Xander spoke slowly, before removing the space and time manipulation in the core area. This was a big mistake that Xander did not anticipate. Immediately after removing the space cover and the time acceleration in the area, the elemental particles were frenzied and rapidly dispersed throughout the garden, causing problems to occur. That rapid wave of elemental energy caused numerous changes in the plants and magical beasts in the garden. Some of the plants rapidly grew, with their plants changing in shape, in color, as well as function. Some of the other plants didn''t grow, but just became crystalized like what the rose plant had underwent through, but wasn''t at the current level of crystallization of Sam''s origin. The soil also began exhibiting compaction and material change, and they began to start to emit a faint radiance. The magical beasts were quite different however; all of them rapidly aged, with their magical cores inside their body growing and compressing. Some developed extra legs, some had more horns appearing all over their bodies; one species, the bees, had their stinger longer and was perpetually coated with poison. The bodies of the magical beasts were also stronger, tougher and more malleable than before. At Xander''s estimation, they were already 9999 years old, comparable to that of Master Class stage 9 human, but having the abilities rivalling a Legendary Class stage 1 human. Uproar occurred in the garden. "Eh??? What''s happening? I feel stronger now!" "OMG look at my wings! I have two sets of wings now!" "Hey Fred, look at my body! Notice anything different?" "Ha, Fred, did you lose weight?" "F*ck, no, I meant my horns dumbass!" "Oh wow, the sprites looked livelier than usual!" "Waaah, that Mari''s flower looks so pretty!" "Look at Gael''s soil though, it looks mesmerizing." "Heh, my soil looks amazing too, you know." "Guys, guys! Look, the fog covering the middle of the garden disappeared! Could it be the reason why these changes appeared?" "Oh yeah, dad''s there too. And 3 other sprites?" "Damn, they look strong. Especially that sprite that looked like a bird. Scary." "Wait, that bird-like sprite... OMG, it''s a wind sprite!!!" "Damn, that earth sprite looks tough though." "Yep, it looks scary!" Xander''s ears were already filled to the brim with the chatter coming from the sprites and the magical beasts. He sometimes wonder if teaching them directly like he did to the three sprites was the best course of action. 12 Contrac He originally planned to have Sam, Pan, and Sparrow in charge of teaching the other sprites, but then he decided to teach them instead, to instill to them familiarity to him as their father, their teacher, and their creator. "Ok, ok, quiet down guys." Xander spoke, his voice full of authority. Immediately, the garden quieted down. "As you can see, the ones occupying the middle spot of the garden had already reached enough maturity for them to survive the outside world. They passed my test, and so I''ll be bringing them and their origins outside the garden." "Their names are Sam, Pan, and Sparrow, and they are your seniors." "As for you sprites, roughly, you are nearing 10,000 year mark, but still far-off from the 33,000 year mark I have set for these three. Become stronger." "As for the magical beasts, you can have the option of leaving once you reach the 20,000 year mark, but be warned! Once I let go of you guys, you must be prepared to face other magical beasts and other species that may hunt you and kill you." "As for you three," Xander said to the trio behind him, "Are you sure you want to leave the garden? Once you leave the garden, the differences will let you realize some things about this garden, which means you cannot enter it ever again." Xander had a grave face upon telling these to the 3 sprites. The three were quite silent, and even the other sprites and magical beasts were quietly listening. It was Sam who first spoke. "Xander, I want to go out, but be with you." Sam said shyly, his face blushing. Even his origin started to react according to his emotions. Xander felt weird about this, but didn''t think much about it. Although he wasn''t against such relationships, he was like a dad to Sam. Having those feelings were a no-no. Maybe he''s just confused about the idea of love? Oh. Wait. F*ck. I haven''t thought to teach them about emotions and stuff. "Sam, are you sure you want to be with me? You will face hardships and enemies in the future that will surpass your current strength and abilities; at the same time, I want to ask you this: Are you willing to create a contract between us?" Xander asked him, his face serious, while inside, he was freaking out because it would feel weird for him if his creation would fall in love with him. AAAAAAAAH! Sam noticed this and nodded solemnly. Xander quickly replied, "alright then," and asked the remaining two sprites. "What about you guys?" Sparrow immediately replied, "I want to be free in the skies above; yet at the same time I want to be in your guidance. However, as an air sprite, I must answer the call in my very being to be free." Sparrow immediately bowed and said, "I owe you my life, and with it you can command me anytime, by merely whispering my name in the air." Xander nodded at Sparrow''s response, which was quite similar to other wind sprites in the information collated about them. After all, by their very nature, wind sprites are very free beings. If they weren''t adventurous or free-loving, they should be called "contained air" sprites. Pan''s look was apathetic. He shrugged his shoulders and asked, "If I follow you, will there be food?" Xander smiled and nodded. Pan simply replied, "Ok, I''ll follow you then." Upon hearing their answers, he guided the three to towards the entrance and exit of the garden. Upon passing through the garden gate and into the villa, the sprites'' eyes quickly changed. They had felt the difference in the flow of time. After all, being immersed in the time-accelerated space gave them an acute sensitivity about time flow. They thought for a few seconds before they realized it: The garden''s time was slower than the outside world! They were surprised and at the same time, in awe of Xander. "Let''s complete the contract. Sam, Pan, go stand side by side please. Sparrow, you are free to go. Enjoy your freedom and soar into the skies above." Xander said solemnly, not caring at all about their reactions. Sparrow cawed for a moment and transformed into a bird, before flying out in the distance. In a second, he disappeared from the view. Sam and Pan were startled, before moving in front of Xander and standing side by side. The two initiated the contract binding the two of them to Xander. Immediately, multiple magic layers of magic circle appeared on their feet, and even the sky, one could see the magical circles encapsulating the whole villa. This caused shock and unrest to occur in the area surrounding the villa; even the authorities in Callows city were alerted. The guards and the maids in the villa were also surprised, and began to contact the military before heading towards the source of the magic disturbance. However, before they even managed to get close to the epicenter, a strong magical wave radiated from where Xander and the duo were standing, pushing the bodyguards and the maids down to ground, making them lose consciousness. At the same, the wave covered the whole Eta country, and anyone above the Master class or those sensitive to magic felt it. It was the establishment of the sprite contract. All around Callows city and even the neighboring cities nearby could hear illusory bells chiming vigorously, becoming weaker and weaker until it faded. The villa looked the same as before; there was no more magic circles appearing in the sky above the villa. Xander looked at the two things in his left hand: crystal rose and a jade rock. He immediately kept them in his spatial storage and headed inside the villa. Xander was surprised to see the bodyguards and the maids out cold in the floor. He look bewildered, before showing a helpless smile. He carried them using space magic to the living room of the villa, and placed them on the sofas. He saw that he had 3 missed calls from his dad and 2 missed calls from his mom. Xander immediately called his mom and dad and told them everything is fine. Upon hearing his voice, both his mom and dad were relieved and told him what had happened, and how they detected the wave. Xander was surprised that a simple contract signing was that eye-catching. He thought about it for a moment before asking his parents if possible, to block out the news about the magical circles appearing as well as the magical wave that occurred. Xander noticed another issue: According to the government and military files on his parents, they were supposed to be Elite-5 rank. How did they notice the magical wave? Unless, they were lying about their true proficiency... Xander shook his head; it seems his parents had their own respective secrets, just like him. In the past month, he had already reached the rank of Elite-8. He currently had 8 seeds floating around in his consciousness, each were roughly the same size. However, due to [Absolute Defense], his magic cultivation only showed the level of Elite-2 because he easily controlled it to show his flutuations as such. He had decided to get for the 5 elite spell slots were the following: [Aether Control]: Allows to control the aether elements existing in the void. Used for converting aether elements into absorbable elements. [Body Manipulation]: Allows one to control the body structure. [Blood Manipulation]: Allows one to control the blood in the body. [Divination]: Allows one to have glimpse of fate. [Magic Rejection]: Allows one to create a field of void, empty of any elements. No magic that utilizes the elements around it can be used. All these 5 spells were in preparation of creating 4 advanced spells he planned to complete tonight. After the bodyguards and the maids woke up, Xander immediately asked them to prepare dinner and continue their tasks. After eating dinner, he headed to the basement and began his spell creation. After 50 years of time acceleration, he had created the first advanced spell, [Elemental Dominance]. It combined [Void Wind] [Aether Control] [Time Magic] [Space Magic] and [5 elements foundation]. This was not that complicated even if there were multiple magics involved; all he had to use was Time and Space being the foundation and the rest followed. After another 100 years, [Lifeblood] was successfully created from combining [Body Manipulation] [Blood Manipulation]. This was a worthless spell for him, because he is basically immortal unless time and space of the universe he is residing in is actually destroyed. He just wanted to check if he could create an army of himself, but realized the problems that might appear later on. After 1000 years, [Heavenly Divination] was created from combining [Space Magic] [Time Magic] and [Divination]. This was one of the hardest to create for Xander since he had to understand the underlying principles of Fate, Time and Space magics, create a connecting point for the three of them. Although his progress of combining time and space was at 1%, that 1% cannot be underestimated since that already allowed basic fusion of the two magics. After 500 years, [Void Rejection] was created from combining [Magic Rejection] and [Space Magic]. This was an extended application of Magic Rejection; basically, utilizing time and space to reject the lower elements, and the repulsion between time and space, an area void of magic is created. The problem is it doesn''t last long, roughly 30 minutes before elemental particles appear once again. Xander postulated this was from the power of creation element omnipresent in the universe. [Elemental Dominance]: Allows complete control and manipulation over all elements below time and space. Passively absorb all kinds of elements without limit, storing it as a source of elemental energy. [Lifeblood]: Allows the targeted one to create a lifeblood drop, or manipulate one''s appearance and even their unique aura. This drop can be used to create a clone of the user and have the same level of strength and ability as the user. They share the same mind. [Heavenly Divination]: Allows one to have complete grasp over fate in a certain radius. This spell only lasts for 1 hour and passively boosts the good luck of the caster. Nothing can be hidden from the eyes of the caster within the radius. [Void Rejection]: With the power of expulsion, both time, space, and all the elements beneath it are removed in a certain area. All spells that channel the elements in that area cannot be used, and only elements stored in the body can be utilized instead. Xander Cloverfield Lvl 7 Elite-8 Str: 150 Vit: ? Int: ? Dex: 150 Luck: ? Skills: Time Mastery: Max Space Mastery: Max Basic Magic Foundation: 9/10 Intermmediate Magic Foundation: 10/10 Advanced Magic: 7/10 - [Instant Regeneration (no limit)] [Space Crush] [Temporal Replication] [Elemental Dominance] [Lifeblood] [Heavenly Divination] [Void Rejection] Legendary Magic: 1/? [Material Transformation] Mythic Magic: 0/? Demigod Magic: 0/? Divine Magic: 1/7 - [Absolute Defense] Sage Magic: 0/5 God Magic: 1/3 - [Absolute Time] 13 College starts While Xander was having fun on making advance spells, Eta''s military, government, and research leaders, as well as powerhouses that resided in the country were having an emergency meeting. Of course, it wasn''t a physical meeting, but rather a meeting done through hologram technology, allowing them to meet in one place without actually going there. A man in silver white coat was showing these people the magical fluctuations recorded a few hours earlier, the same time the magic wave appeared and the magic circles disappeared. "...There was a magic higher than a Demigod level magic casted during this 2-minute window where the magic circles first appeared, and when they disappeared. The function of the spell is currently unknown, and currently, the side-effects of the magic wave that appeared after caused minor organ damage to those Legendary class, light internal injuries for those in Mythical class, but not a single damage to those in the Demigod class. No effects were seen for those below Legendary class, except those who were specially sensitive to magic, as their bodies directly exploded no matter where they were." "As you can see from the images taken at the location where the magic circles appeared, there were a total of 72 concentric circles, each having a set of magical writing that has never been translated nor seen before by humankind. We had sent copies of the image to the other species, such as the Elves and the Dwarfs, as we cannot write down the magical writing in the circle without the writing implement and the medium for the writing exploding." "We have located the origin of the magic circle, which was located in the villa bought by Xander Cloverfield, identification number X-001. He is slated to start going to college 2 days from now. The college he selected to attend is Grand Hyatt University, which ranks in the top 20 worldwide universities. The bodyguards and the maids assigned to X-001 were not able to identify what happened as they were directly hit by the magic wave causing them to lose consciousness. Their vital signs were normal, but their magical levels had increased by 3 levels, reaching Master-6 to Master-9 in a few span of breaths. After one hour of remote testing, their magic levels were already stable." "At the same time, the auditory illusion of the bells chiming was not simply an illusion; it had caused thousands of reports to appear. It seems that those who listened to the bell chimes fell into a trance, similar to the phenomenon of ''magical epiphany'', and upon the final chime, miraculous changes would happen in their bodies. We currently have thousands of cases where the people did not have a high elemental affinity suddenly being able to control 1 or 2 elements proficiently, while those in the path of magic cultivation, their ranks raised by 2 levels, regardless of their class. Upon further testing, their elemental affinity had doubled. This is both a blessing and a problem, since it also increased the number of crimes happening in the nearby cities to Callows city." Silence filled the room after the man''s report. "Thank you, Douglas, for the report. Dismissed." A man in military attire spoke out. Douglas merely nodded and exited the meeting. "As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, we are now at a crossroads." The general began, his voice heavy. "Subject X-001 is considered a nation asset, but his parents are quite influential and powerful. We were supposed to apprehend Subject X-001 but his parents had already issued a notice that everything was fine, and it wasn''t the subject''s fault that caused the phenomenon from occurring." "What we can do right now is ensure that the future path of the subject would lean heavily in favor of the country, and keep the information strictly within the upper echelons. At the same time..." The general was about to add something before being interrupted by an emergency response. "General Cullen, the elves had replied concerning the magical writing!" A soldier entered the office where General Cullen was holding his meeting. General Cullen had a surprised expression before turning grave. He immediately presented the results to the meeting. "Everyone, I just received that the Elven Queen is joining the meeting to explain what has happened." General Cullen solemnly said, leaving no room for arguments and patched the Elven Queen, Syn, through. A delicate figure appeared in the meeting room where all the holograms were located. She had a perfect face, perfect body in the eyes of the humans, with eyes that bewitches you and a smile that kills you; the elven queen, Syn. "Welcome, your majesty Syn. We have heard that you have information regarding the magical writing that appeared?" General Cullen spoke, his face a bit flustered. Syn simply chuckled at the flustered face General Cullen was showing. She quickly replied to those in the meeting. "Everyone, please relax. The phenomenon you encountered can be considered fruitful and beneficial for your country. I came here under the order of the Heavenly Tree sprite, to tell you that the magical writing you saw is the magic of the sprites. Specifically, this was the magic circle for contract signing, a pledge of the sprites voluntarily made towards their future master." Immediately, there were outbursts of shock and people began to talk about the situation. Syn just smiled at these ramblings and waited for them to be silent. After a few minutes, silence reigned once again. She continued, "The Heavenly Tree sprite can only tell you that there were two sprites older than 10,000 years signing a contract together to one master, causing the phenomenon. He does not know the identity of these sprites, as if they just popped out of nowhere. He only detected their existence a few minutes before the magic circles appeared. There is a third sprite that was present, who is an ancient air sprite with the same age as the other two sprites. He didn''t stay for long, and immediately left the vicinity." "The last thing the Heavenly Tree sprite wanted me to tell you is that the sprites should not be used for your political or military ambitions, as this would cause the other sprites with their own masters in other countries to fight as well, causing the balance between the countries to break. Any attempts to use them would lead to the other sprites existing to destroy the offenders." Syn then eyed each and every military and government official present, causing them to remove any thoughts of manipulating the master and the sprites to fight for them. Syn gracefully bowed as she had delivered the information the Heavenly Tree Sprite had wanted to convey, leaving the men and women in the table chattering about possible actions that can be undertaken. Of course, not everyone believed completely what the queen had said, but they kept it to themselves until she left. In the end, the meeting ended with one resolution: Avoid leakage of information about the phenomenon to other countries, and begin to increase protection towards subject X-001. Although we couldn''t use the subject to fight for us, what if it was willingly done by the subject then? ---------------------------------- As elven queen Syn looked at the empty space in front of her, she wanted to laugh. Actually, the Heavenly Tree sprite told more information than what she had said; however, this additional info was privy to herself alone. A normal contract signing between a sprite and a master would not be as extravagant as the one the people of Eta had noticed. A contract signing was a unity of power for both the sprite and the master, so for this to be extravagant as it was described, the master''s powers must be considered. The ringing bells, in actuality, were more of an omen, an omen from the will of the world. It was to be the beginning of great change to the world, and nations will either rise or fall by the end of the change. No one will be spared. This was both a blessing and a curse; it was a blessing because it gave those people in the Mythic and Demigod class a chance to soar into the starry sky in one leap, unafraid of what lurks in the world beyond. The elven queen was excited, because she had been stuck half-step to demigod class for a few hundred years. However, the elven queen didn''t realize that the Heavenly Tree sprite didn''t tell everything to her as well. What surprised and worried the sprite was that it was able to detect the stirrings of time and space magic, albeit faint, from that region in Eta... ________________________ Xander woke up normally the next day and went downstairs to eat breakfast. He brought his bag with the necessary documents to ensure his first day of college was in order. After eating breakfast, he headed out and under the insistence of his parents, waited for the driver and the private car to arrive. After a few minutes, the car stopped in front of his villa, and after checking the plate number and the name of the driver, he went in and began to travel to school. There wasn''t much traffic, as majority of people were actually using the public transit system rather than using private vehicles. He arrived at the campus gates in less than 15 minutes. He headed to the registration office to confirm the classes he would be taking, as well as get the necessary information about the classes. Upon reaching the office, there were a few students already there, waiting in line. Xander joined the line, and in a few minutes, it was his turn already. He keyed in the details in the terminal provided. Immediately, the information the school had about him was presented. Applicant Number: 11111 Applicant Name: Xander Cloverfield Examination Results: 1st Test: Perfect, S+ 2nd Test: Perfect, SSS+ 3rd Test: Perfect, SS Mean average: Perfect, SS Rank: 1st in the batch of test takers for the year 2057 nationally, 2nd worldwide. Remarks: Subsidy of 500 school contribution points provided per semester. Program: Advanced Track Years of schooling: 3 years (6 semesters) Program track: - Basic Magic Training, Elemental Control (1 semester) - Advanced Magic Training, Magic Theory (1 semester) - Economics, Business, and Politics (1 semester) - Biology, Chemistry and Physics (1 semester) - Military Training (1 year) 14 Basic Magic Training 1 Upon downloading the necessary information to his personal communication device (Holographic Information Multi-functional watch), He paid for the enrollment fees end headed towards the assigned building for his first class. Xander only had two classes in the first semester, which was Basic Magic Training and Elemental Control, each class lasting 2 hours each day. Once he reached the building, he flashed his watch at the entrance of the builing, allowing him entry. What was good with a personal communication device was that it functions as your identity card, your payment card, your phone, and your portable computer. The model Xander had was the latest and most expensive one, the S100 series, costing him 500,000 Etas. With some modification done by the system, it now had an unhackable software and hardware structure, as well as the capacity to go into the deep web and gain access to certain restricted sites available in the world, undetected and untraceable, obtaining some of the characteristics of the System. Once he was in the building, he noticed that the whole building was the classroom, and the first 2 floors were merged into one, large room, with a projector board. There were seat desks placed in one side of the room, while the other side was covered with a mat, and had two arena-like stages. Upon going to the 3rd floor, he realized it was a personal canteen. Upon seeing the choices, even Xander can''t help but salivate, as he had seen these exquisite dishes but didn''t have the chance to eat them. These exquisite dishes were different from regular dishes: These dishes were actually beneficial for anyone who uses magic! Not only is the dish imbued by magic by the cook, it also uses materials that can be considered extravagant, such as magical beasts meat, elemental herbs and spices, and the like. Although it doesn''t let anyone rise in level, it increases the magic content in the human body as one continues to eat these dishes, permanently increasing their magical affinity and aptitude for the elements. Looking closer, the menu in the canteen was divided into two: those that cost Etas, and those that cost school contribution points. School conribution points, or SCPs, are gained whenever receives a perfect examination score (ranging from 1-10 points), as well as doing certain tasks available at the School Bounty Board. The School Bounty Board basically holds missions entrusted by the government and the military to the school, and the difficulty ranges from F to SSS, with the rewards increasing as the difficulty of the mission rises as well. SCPs can be used to be exchanged for Etas at a ratio of 1 SCP:1000 Etas, but to exchange Etas to SCPs, the ratio changes to 1 SCP:1,000,000 Etas. Currently, he had 500 school contribution points; the specialized food costs around 5 to 50 school contribution points. He could only afford one specialized meal a day for one semester; that only includes lunch. If he wanted more SCPs, he would have to either get it from other students, get it from the school for perfecting exams, or get it from the School Bounty Board. He headed to the 4th and last floor of the building, in which he saw an extravagant lounge. No one was there at the moment, and after looking around for a while, he headed down to the first floor. Xander looked at the seats available and selected the one near the 2 stages. Since he there was no one else in the building, he decided to take a nap for a while, setting an alarm for half an hour. 30 minutes later, the alarm rang, waking him up. Xander looked around, and saw several students talking, with a few just sitting on their desk-chairs, playing around with their phones. When he looked around, others were also looking at him, and some of them were even talking about him. "Hey, is that him? That genius who was crowned as the top-scorer in the whole country?" "Well, can you see anyone else who looks like a 7 year old kid here?" "True. Wonder how strong he is... I want to challenge him!" "You, challenge him? At least get to his level in terms of grades first before issuing a challenge, fam." While they were chattering, Xander disappeared from his desk, causing others to be shout in surprise. But before they could even ask what the hell just happened, Xander appeared in front of the other students. He eyed them curiously. Xander was genuinely curious about his classmates, since he decided to skip grade school and high school. He already got the necessary information about his classmates with the help of the watch, and knew about their backgrounds, temperaments, and even their current career paths. Majority of the students in front of him were no older than 18, some even at the age of 15. They were considered prodigies, but not as prodigal as Xander. According to their reported magical level, the strongest among them was only an Elite-4, with the weakest at Elite-2. But these prodigies weren''t as simple as that; they were able to challenge those above their levels like Xander. However, they weren''t as strong as Xander who could put up a fight 1 class above him and even win, however. After observing them for a few seconds, Xander gave them his most authentic smile. "Hello, fellow classmates! I hope we all have a fruitful college experience together!" Xander said, as he bowed to them, causing the students be flustered and bow back as well as a sign of respect. Before Xander could actually introduce himself to the students that were present, a loud, condescending voice sounded from the back of the room. "Hmph, I don''t think you should be here." Upon hearing this, the other students who didn''t care much about Xander looked at him and began observing the spectacle. Xander, however, didn''t lose his smile and looked at where the voice came from. Upon seeing the origin of the voice, he recognized him from the information that he has about the students; it was the self-proclaimed genius from the Gamma region, Faris Cunningham. "Oh, why is that so, Mr. Faris Cunningham?" Xander asked, his voice chilly despite his smiling face. The onlookers couldn''t help but doubt their original impression of Xander. "Why? You yourself should know why." Faris sniffed, as if disdained to talk about the matter. Xander was a bit bewildered; he didn''t know anyone related to Faris that could have crossed paths with him, so why is he going against him, he wondered. "Well, Mr. Faris Cunningham, rank 501 of the country-wide college examinations, I think I know why I should be here. What I wonder is how someone like you, someone who didn''t even reach rank 500 or above, is allowed admission to the Grand Hyatt University''s advanced track program? Could it be...?" Xander said questioningly, his voice pensive. Of course, Faris, who was 16, may be a teenager but he wasn''t daft. He knew what Xander was trying to say, and that made him not only embarrassed in front of the other students, but feel angry at Xander as well. "Hmph! Obviously, someone didn''t realize that one can enter the Advanced program track as long as your grades are above the rank of 1000, and as long as one has at least 2 recommendation letters from a Master class or higher personage." Faris retorted, his face haughty. Xander rolled his eyes at this idiot. "Oh, so you entered through recommendation letters... then doesn''t that mean you entered this class by the back door? So tell me, Mr. Faris, whose more qualified to actually be enrolled in this class? Me, who topped the examination and was recommended by several members of the Office of Admission to join this class, or by you, who barely got by and bought some recommendation letters from god knows who?" Xander sneered at Faris. Even the other students couldn''t help but visualize the scenario and come to a conclusion: Xander deserved to be in the class. "You...!" Faris glared at Xander, madly pointing at him. Xander was annoyed and with a wave of his hand the finger Faris used to point at him broke. Faris broke out a loud scream, and even the other students were shocked and eyed Xander, wondering what magic that was. Xander eyed them coolly before looking back at Faris, in which he took in an innocent look. "Oh my, Mr. Faris, are you ok? Your finger looks quite broken. I reckon, the bones there are all shattered now! What happened?" Xander exclaimed, his voice tinged with surprise and worry, that if anyone who didn''t see the previous actions done by him, they might have been fooled! Faris held back his mouth and glared silently at Xander, who just looked ''genuinely'' confused at what had just happened. "Mr. Faris, I believe you should go to the infirmary, or better yet, go to the hospital and have it healed. Who knows, it might leave a permanent damage in your ability to cast magic!" Xander said succinctly, and those who were listening knew that was a threat towards Faris. Faris, on the other hand, paled and hurriedly called for his driver and headed towards the best hospital he could afford. The classroom was quiet after Faris had left; no one thought that things would develop in such a scary way. Xander shook his head and looked at the remaining students, who had faces of dumbstruck. He smiled and asked, "Now, what was I going to say?" 15 Basic Magic Training 2 A rambuctious laughter came from one of the students seated in the front row. It was a guy who was around 1.7 meters in height, a bit on the heavy side. Xander recognized him: he was the son of an international shipping mogul, Faykes Valentine. He was one of the few people in class who was already an Elite-4. What''s more, he''s just 16 years old as well! He wasn''t from the Delta or Gamma region, but was at the Beta region, located by the seaside of Ete continent. "Bravo! Someone finally taught that Faris a lesson, haha!" Faykes chortled, and others who knew him couldn''t help but laugh as well. Xander knew that this person, albeit young, had a lot of connections already, from ranging from middle-class families and aristocrats to government and military families. Xander smiled and approached Faykes, raising his hand for a greeting. "Hi there. My name is Xander Cloverfield. What''s your name?" Xander asked calmly, still retaining his smile. Faykes grabbed his hand and shook it while he introduced himself. "The name''s Faykes Valentine. So you''re the so called centennial genius, eh! Looks quite right to me." Faykes briefly eyed Xander, before letting his hand go, nonplussed. "Thanks." Xander smiled in response and continued to greet the other students. After around an hour of socializing, most of the seats were already filled with students, but the teacher wasn''t there yet. Xander wasn''t anxious as the class officially begins in half an hour. For the remainder of the time, he decided to check the course curriculum. Basic Magic Training Description: Teaches the basics of magic formation, casting, and theory. Sections: Magic Theory (1) Magic Theory (2) Magic Meditation (1) Magic Meditation (2) Magic casting: Magic selection Magic casting: Instantaneous casting Magic casting: Spell switching Magic casting: Introduction to Spell fusion Magic Practice (1) Magic Practice (2) Magic Practice (3) While looking at these subtopics under Basic Magic training, Xander couldn''t help but feel thrilled; he was learning magic in a structured way, not just by reading, but also by practicing! Xander had already downloaded the books required for this class; he was a bit surprised since he had already read these books from cover to cover 2 years ago; he had already memorized it by heart and even received some inspiration from it. Half an hour later, the room opened from the outside the a steady figure entered the classroom. Everyone returned to their seats and sat down quietly. Xander observed the teacher distantly; he didn''t feel the need to develop much interaction towards a Legendary-1 teacher, especially one that has been stuck on the same stage for 50 years. Although she looked young, Xander had already seen the information about this teacher: Sandra Lim, 187 years old, Life and Wood element, majoring in Botany and a Doctor of Medicine. She had served as a field doctor in the military, as well as served in the public health division of the government. Although she had experience and the connections, Xander immediately crossed her out from potential allies and networking source for two main reasons. One, she was old, meaning she has experience, meaning it is possible for her to easily outwit me or even manipulate others around me. She becomes a risk factor the moment I add her. I have no leverage at all against her so I can''t control her in any way. Second, her history is quite suspicious. With the help of the system, He had watched the recording of the meeting that took place the same night after he had done the contract signing with the 2 sprites. Since their consensus is making me feel "loyal" to the country with forcing me to be, could it be they would start doing so through the people I interact with? Xander smiled grimly to himself, shaking his head. What a pity, Xander spoke softly. It seems no one can be fully trusted. He was shaken out of his musings as the teacher, Ms. Lim, cleared her throat, and said, "Hello, students. Welcome to Grand Hyatt University. I am going to be your teacher for this semester, Sandra Lim. You can call me Ms. Lim or Ms. Sandra. I assume most of you have interacted while waiting for the class to start, so I wouldn''t need any introductions. Now that introductions are done, let''s begin with the lesson." With that, a projection appears behind her, specifically, a model of some sort. Others were quite confused with the model, but Xander had already seen this model countless times: A magic circle, specifically, a 2nd-class magic circle, as it had 2 concentric circles. "Magic circles are basics of the basics, the foundation of magic." "To understand what magic circles are used for, let''s first recall that magic casters are divided in stages, commonly known as classes." "The first class is known as the Mundane stage; this class is where one adjusts and adapts to the elemental particles around us. At the same time, this is where one begins to select a particular element as their primary element. It is quite common to have 2 or 3 primary elements. However, having more than 3 primary elements can be considered both a blessing and a curse for the magician." "The second class is known as the Elite stage; during this class, one creates a total of 9 magical seeds in which each one contains their own unique structure, and this structure contains a magic spell, and is considered a pseudo-magic circle." Ms. Lim immediately showed a new projection. There it showed 9 magic seeds, each one having their own pseudo-magic circle. "I mentioned that these magical seeds are unique to the magician, and even if you have the same spell with another person, the pseudo-magic circle you produce will never be identical. Why so, you may ask. This is because of the process how a magic seed is formed." She flashed another projection, and showed two pseudo-magic circles for the spell, "Iridescence", a light-magic spell. When she zoomed in on the same location of the circle, the runic writings were different. "A magic seed is formed by two things: The primary elements, and the life force of the magician. When they form, they aren''t 100% complete; it requires the magician to transform the inner structure of a magic seed into the structure of the magic circle of their selected magic, turning their magic seeds into pseudo-magic circles." "Before one reaches the third class, the Master stage, one needs to have a thorough understanding about their set of magic seeds. This is why the very first magic seed spell you select is usually the most important; it can dictate the possible spells you can select on future stages within the Elite class that would have the greatest compatibility with it, making the comprehension of these magic seed spells faster and more complete." "This is a vital step if you want to break through to the Master class, as it requires one to use their comprehension and understanding of the magic seeds to create their own Magic Circle, meaning a brand new spell, and becomes part of their foundation." Ms. Lim showed the first projection; it was a 2nd-class Magic circle. "Here, you can see a 2nd-class magic circle, with 2 concentric circles. The number of concentric circles usually determines the strength, quality, and rarity of the magic spell. Classes of magic circle exist as well, ranging from 1 to 81." "From 1st class to 9th class, it is considered to be average quality. From 10th to 18th class, it is considered above average. From 19th to 27th, it is considered High. From 28th to 36th, it is considered near perfect. From 37th to 45th, it is considered perfect. From 46th to 54th, it is considered Legendary. From 55th to 63rd, it is considered Mythical. From 64th to 72nd, it is considered Demigod. From 73rd to 78th, it is considered Divine." Ms. Lim explicitly listed the classes of magic circles to the students. One of them noticed what was wrong and asked, "Ms. Lim, how about the 79th, 80th, and 81st class of magic circles? What do we call these spells that reach this class?" Ms. Lim looked at the chubby kid with glasses and responded, "Michael, right? Well, beyond the 78th class magic circle, no one has actually seen one, in the entire history of our civilization. You kids should know about sprites, correct? The oldest known sprite, the Heavenly Tree sprite, can cast magic spells, and it only has one 78th class magic circle which, according to records, was only cast once in the history of our planet." "Oh I''ve read this! The spell''s name is "Heavensfall", right? According to our history, a vicious being from the stars appeared and attempted to devour the planet! According to magic historians, it was estimated that the being was at least a Demigod class expert!" Faykes shouted, interrupting Ms. Lim. Ms. Lim nodded, and continued, "According to historic records, it seemed to have happened 20,000 years ago. The monster was immediately destroyed, leaving only the magic core. The Heavenly Tree sprite was then said to keep it sealed and hidden, unknown to all." "Now, going back to magic circle quality, similar to your first magic seed spell, your first magic circle quality determines whether you would have an easier time to reach Legendary class, and continues to affect your chances of reaching the Mythic class!" Ms Lim lectured passionately, igniting these group of students to be above the others. Xander just laughed inwardly at them; he could see that these students were easily riled up by the discussion. He was wondering about something, however. Technically, the spells he had been making were Master class spells, or advanced magic spells, with the exception of [Absolute Defense] and [Absolute Time]. Whenever he cast a spell from the 5-elemental series, however, there weren''t any concentric circles at all; it was just a dot of light. When he tried focusing his eyesight on the dot of light, he could see that there were thousands upon thousands of runic writings continuously shifting and changing in form and structure every second. 16 Basic Magic Training 3 It was also the same case for his advanced magic spells; whenever they were cast, there weren''t any fancy concentric magic circles appearing, but rather a dot of light. Xander thought for a minute, before wondering: Could it be possible that with the help of the system''s optimization and my naturally endowed talents, my advanced spells have already reached the so-called 81st-class magic circle? Maybe, at this stage, the number of concentric circles were already to the point that there is no more space in the middle, resulting the formation of a dot? Maybe, the 81st class magic circle refers to magic returning to origin, of its essence as a spell? After all, the ever-transforming runic writing seemed to showcase this idea, where one is at the point of multiple possibilities. Doesn''t that mean, every magical spell I have, as long as it is within the control of space-time elements, it would easily be optimized to the 81st-class magic circle? But my pseudo spells aren''t 81st-class magic circles, however. Could I refine them as I improve my comprehension of space-time, before merging all my magic circles in the Legendary stage? As Xander continued to entertain this idea, Ms. Lim continued on to discuss the structure of magic circles, as well as the runic writings engraved on these circles. "I have mentioned earlier that one needs to continuously increase their understanding of their selected pseudo-magic circles to ensure greater chances of creating higher-class magic circles upon reaching Master class. To do this, one needs 2 things: Talent and a creative mind. Another way magicians do to increase their understanding of the magic circles is through reading the runic writing in their circles." At this point, Ms. Lim''s voice suddenly turned grave. "The runic writing varies per person per spell, and usually, the stronger the spell, the more complex and more dangerous this method would be." A girl that sat beside Xander raised her hand, and asked, "Why would reading runic writing be dangerous? Aren''t they formed by our own influence and power?" "Trisha, you are partially correct to say that the runic writing has our influence (our life force) and power (our primary element). However, you need to ask: Did you make the spell? You didn''t make the spell, as you merely copied it from another source and edited it a bit, but the unedited parts remain there." "The danger of reading and meditating upon these runic writings is shown through the manifestation of power. Since it is within your mind, it can create powerful, realistic illusions that immerses you to some truths about the magic circle; if one isn''t careful, one can fall into deviation in magic cultivation and become psychotic magicians, or even have magic backfire, making you a cripple if you survive." "If you do survive the illusion, or break the illusion, it is guaranteed that you would increase comprehension at least 10%. We''ll discuss more about meditation later on in class." "Now you may be wondering that besides the fact you need to use your comprehension of 9 spells to make your magic circle, what else is its function? Why take the risk of meditating upon the runic writing? The answer is that once you create your founding magic circle in the Master class, the succeeding levels will require you to create magic spells that you get from combining at least 2 of your 9 pseudo-magic circles." "You may think this is similar to what you initially did to get to Master class, but it is not. What you used before is comprehension of the pseudo-magic circles to create a new magic circle, but the new magic circle isn''t necessarily a combination of all 9 pseudo-magic circles. To advance to Master-2, you need one spell that combines at least 2 pseudo-magic circles. To advance to Master-3, one needs to combine 3-pseudo magic circles, and so on, until reaching Master-9, requiring them to combine all 9 pseudo-magic circles." Ms.Lim paused for a bit and asked the class, "But first, how do you combine two separate pseudo-magic circles? This is done through completely understanding at least one facet of the two magic circles! Of course, this only increases the chance of successfully combining them. The more facets you understand about a magic circle, the higher the chances become. This is why I mentioned again and again that the spells you select for your magical seeds must be complementary or at least in the same element/supporting element/non-conflicting element, and at the same time, you need to have a high level of comprehension, if not perfect." Ms. Lim showed another projection, this time, there were 5 magic seeds, and based on the color and shape, each had a different element. "This is where the problems of having more than 3 primary elements appear. Beyond 3 primary elements, the permutation of elemental affinities become near incalculable, making it a challenge to see whether the 4, 5, 6, etc. elemental magic circle will be formed correctly. However, this can also be a blessing; what if your 4, 5, 6, etc. primary elements were coincidentally complementary to one another, or non-conflicting? What you have, my dear students, would be a person who is considered Heaven''s child. As long as they manage to reach Master-9, it is even possible for them to challenge the weakest of the legendary magicians." At this point, multiple mathematical formulations appeared in the projection, covering multiple aspects of a magic circle and the corresponding spell, showing the estimated calculations for 4, 5, and 6 primary elements which showed an exponential trend. The students were also becoming a bit dizzy just trying to read and understand it. Xander had already snapped out of his thoughts and saw the numbers, and couldn''t help but nod in agreement. Afterall, he had also calculated the permutations with the help of his tutor, Helena and his father''s friends and collegues. "The real challenge is when you reach Master-9, and are preparing for breaking through to Legendary Class. Since this isn''t part of the course, and will be taught in Advanced Magic course, I''ll just give you guys an idea about it: Unity." She gave the class a crafty smile, while some of the students were confused about what she just said about Legendary class. Ms. Lim continued to discuss on miscellaneous matters that Xander had already known from reading the books for this course. Time quickly passed by. 15 minutes before the end of the class, Ms. Lim announced them that the school has set a cultivation requirement that the members of the advanced track program must achieve: By the end of the semester, they should be higher than their original cultivation by 2 levels. Currently, Xander was Elite-8, and he could modify the magical fluctuations he released with the help of [Absolute Defense]; at the moment, he showed a cultivation level of Elite-2 when he was finishing up the forms and requirements earlier today. After announcing this, Ms. Lim then began to introduce the building''s facilities. Xander didn''t bother listening as he had explored the facilities already and already got a general gist of them. "Alright, if there are no more questions, you guys are dismissed and free to do their own thing. See you all tomorrow." Ms. Lim left the building and everyone began clearing their desks and dispersing. Xander talked to a few of the students he had gotten close to for a few minutes before heading out to his next class, Elemental Control. The class was held in the wide building just behind his first classroom. As he exited the building, he heard someone calling his name. "Hey! Xander, wait up!" Faykes shouted, moving quickly towards him. Xander raised his eyebrow in confusion and decided to continue heading to the wide building. "Sheesh, Xander slow down a bit!" Faykes groaned, trying to catch up to Xander. He was inwardly surprised, since he was already using wind and water magic to boost his speed, he should have easily caught up with Xander, or at least decreased the distance between the two of them. This got Faykes to be pumped up; He continued pouring magic into his body, boosting his speed and control. In a few seconds, he finally decreased the distance by half, but no matter how much he poured in, he could not decrease the distance anymore. Looking behind, Xander suddenly grinned and moved faster, and to anyone observing, it seemed that he was just moving the same pace. However, if one was actually attempting to follow him, they would notice that the distance between the two of them was continuously widening. Seeing this, Faykes almost wanted to curse; after all, he could not even detect a hint of magic in the body of Xander; how was he able to move faster than him?? This simple ''game'' continued for a few minutes until Xander reached the wide building where the Elemental Control class would be held. Annoyingly, the entrance of the building was on the opposite side of the first building, so he had to move around the wide building to get to the entrance. "Whoever designed such a building should just go die," Xander mumbled. He immediately stopped by the entrance and scanned his watch on the door. He was granted access and the door automatically opened. At this point, a problem occurred. Faykes didn''t initially notice that he was already by the building entrance, so he wasn''t able to slow down properly. He began decreasing the magic input on his body and shouted at Xander, "Make way! I can''t stop!!" Xander looked at him like he was an idiot. He knew the protocols of the school buildings here. He immediately entered the building and door closed immediately. Seeing the closed door, Faykes knew he was going to be in a lot of pain and braced himself for impact and closed his eyes. However, before he reached the door of the building, a beeping sound alarmed, and instantly, a beam struck him. At that point, Faykes'' thoughts were in a mess. Why didn''t it hurt? Am I dead? Wait, why am I not moving? Shit, are my bones broken? After a few seconds, he tried to open his eyes, but he couldn''t do so; however, he could hear that the beeping sound had subsided. After a few minutes, there were two people that appeared beside Faykes, one of which, a man, muttered, "Damn it, it''s just the first day and there are two incidences happening in the advanced track class?" His partner, a long-haired woman, just giggled and looked at the recordings of the building. As she was scrolling to the time frame where the event occurred, something caught her eye. "Oh? This seems interesting. Brian, look at this." She gestured her collegue Brian closer and showed him the video. "What is it Amelia? ...Ah? So the defense protocol was activated accidentally. So this kid here was just chasing the other student, huh?" Brian said, before his shouting once again. "WAIT! How was he able to move like that?? I can actually sense elemental nomological properties in his movements? What element is this? Air? No, it doesn''t seem flighty or even elegant. Earth? It''s not it as well since there''s no hint of sturdiness in his movements... Could it be? No, that''s impossible." Brian muttered. Upon hearing this, Amelia couldn''t help but be surprised. "Nomological properties were detected? Are you sure, Brian? From the looks of the kid, he looked like 7 or 8 years old. We know that elemental nomological properties only appear when that person has grasped a key aspect of an element. Are you saying this kid managed to do something Mythic magicians have been attempting to do to breakthrough to the next class?" Brian snapped out of stupor and responded earnestly, "No, I''m sure of it, it has the trace of elemental nomological properties. I can''t confirm right now whether the element I''m thinking of is what the kid has." "What do you think it is?" Amelia asked, curious how a kid could elicit such a fervent response from Brian, who was known as ice-cold in the university. Brian shook his head, and began furiously typing on his watch; the video recordings from the nearby buildings were also played. He deleted the video recordings from the buildings'' monitoring system databank and set the level of confidentiality to 9 stars, the second highest level. Even Amelia wouldn''t have any access to the videos. Using his authority, he changed the coding of the monitoring system: Upon detecting the kid in the video, it would automatically be set to 9 stars confidentiality level and sent to the main database of the university, before being deleted in the monitoring system. "Amelia, do not breathe a word out of this incident to anyone, except to the Dean and the Vice-Dean if they ask. This is a classified 9-star confidential information. Also, if I''m not mistaken, you are going to teach the Elemental Control class this semester, correct? Make sure to take note of the kid." Brian looked at Amelia solemnly, and Amelia had realized the gravity of the situation and nodded in response. "What about the kid outside?" "That kid? Just let him thaw before the class starts. You know that the gel released by the defense system is formulated based on the elements of the opposing party, making sure it counters/hinders their ability. Since that kid showed water and wind elements, probably the gel mixture this time is based on ice and earth elements; just use a fire element nearby to slowly melt the structure." Brian waved his hand, not caring about this matter anymore. His attention was caught by something else: Xander. Xander, who was busy exploring the wide building, didn''t have any idea of what had happened outside the building. 17 Elemental Control 1 Xander discovered that the building had 3 floors in total, with the first floor being as large as the other two floors combined. The first floor didn''t have any desks or chairs, but sets of training mats in one side and an open area on the other side. The second floor was a canteen, with the dishes being served the same as the previous canteen in the other building. The third floor was a small library. When he attempted to go in, he was stopped by an old man who was dozing off in the counter by the entrance. The old man looked quite unkept and had a feeling of vagrancy. He gave Xander a piece of paper that contained the rules and regulations of using the library. 1. This library is for internal use only; only students and fellow teachers can use this library. 2. No books can be brought outside of the library. If a book acknowledges you completely, you may bring it out. 3. Do not damage the books. Any damage to the books is payable, at minimum, 500 SCPs and 10,000,000 Etas. 4. Every hour you stay inside the library will cost you 1 SCP, and for teachers, 1000 Etas. 5. No photocopying or scanning of materials allowed. 6. Please remain silent. By entering the library for the first time, you consent to the rules of the university. Any student or teacher discovered to break any of the rules are to be punished accordingly by the university, ranging from expulsion to death sentence. Xander carefully read the rules and returned them to the old man. The old man just waved his hands and signaled him to keep it. Since Xander wasn''t going to go to the library, he headed downstairs and ate lunch. After an hour, He finished his meals; it had cost him 15 SCPs and 10,000 Etas in total. He checked the time and saw that classes would begin in 15 minutes, so he headed downstairs and saw that there were roughly a hundred or so students present. There were some new faces, but roughly half of these people were from his first class. He randomly selected a vacant mat to sit on and checked the curriculum outline for the course. Elemental Control Description: Teach the students the fundamental theories of elemental control, as well as give the students practical experience and training in using the elements. Elemental Theory (1) Elemental Theory (2) Elemental Control: Outwards Elemental Control: Inwards Elemental Control: Repulsion Elemental Control: Attraction Elemental Fusion (1) Elemental Fusion (2) Practical uses of Elements in day-to-day life Training (1) Training (2) In a few minutes, a figure appeared by the entrance of the building, and upon seeing her, most of the students became quiet. It was a young woman with long, blonde hair. Her eyes were emerald green, hiding behind her pair of glasses. She wore an open lab coat, allowing it to look like she''s wearing a cape. Upon seeing this, Xander couldn''t help but roll his eyes, and branded her as an attention seeker. After all, no one actually uses glasses in world, not even commoners. For some unexplainable reason, since 200 years ago, no one has had a case of bad eyesight. Nowadays, glasses were merely a fashion statement, and has no practical use. Of course, it''s possible that it serves as a magic artifact, one related to sight. This was unlikely for their new teacher, however. Xander had investigated her like Ms. Sandra Lim. Miss Amelia Wineheart, one of the tenured professors in the university, age 36 years. She has another identity, which is the 13th out of 18 protectors of the university. Her power is no joke, however, as she is a Legendary-6 powerhouse. According to the latest information about her, no data about any known magic artifact relating to glasses or sight was recorded. Magic artifacts are basically items imbued with runic writings and elemental energy, giving them certain functions. Only 1 out of 1,000,000 people can successfully be an artifact maker. The problem with magic artifacts is that it uses the magic circles of Master magicians and above. 10,000 years ago, ever since the great war, every racial representative, which is basically the strongest amongst their own kind, met and came to the agreement that every single magic artifact must be recorded and strictly monitored impartially worldwide. 1. Anyone, regardless of their methods, may actually get a magic artifact; however, they must immediately register it within a year of receiving it. Upon registration, a specialized runic writing is placed on the artifact to ensure it is not unregistered. 2. Everyone has access to the database where the magic artifacts are registered in, however, only the names of the artifact, quality, and function are available for perusing. 3. Every year, there will be a world-wide magic artifact check; magic artifacts that resonate during the check are not registered, while those that stay inert are registered. At that moment, every non-registered magical artifact''s location and energy signal is recorded by the satellites. When non-magic artifacts resonate, they broadcast a copy of the life energy of the person or being that holds them, allowing enforcers to identify them immediately. Anyone detected to have a non-registered artifact is subjected to the death penalty. 4. Magic artifact owners are liable to their own artifacts until they report it missing. Upon reporting it missing, they are now considered non-registered artifacts and the owners absolved from liability. If the owners are then detected to still have the ''missing'' magic artifacts, they are subjected to the death penalty. 5. Governments may use the database to track potential threats to their respective countries, allowing them to view the latest information about the magic artifact and the current registered owner. To view this information, they must have a certain clearance avalable for them. 6. Magic artifact makers may create artifacts for purposes of auction, not for sale, only. Upon the creation of one, they must register it to the database. The owner it is registered to would be the auction company that they decide to sell it to. If they decide to use it themselves, they must register themselves as the owner of the artifact. 7. For any disobeying magic artifact makers, government of the maker''s country must enact either of the 2 proposed solutions: Complete memory wipe, or death penalty. 8. Any government attempting to use magic artifact makers for purposes of military might or espionage automatically allows their country to be unilaterally targeted by all races and countries with justification for war, and their lands divided. Over thousands of years passed, and no one dared to violate these rules set forth. Of course, when this was initially passed, there were those that attempted to do so, but were immediately dealt with and their lands, properties, seized and distributed. Some tried to modify their magic artifacts, but they still reacted with the yearly scan. Those magic artifact makers tried to play tricks as well, like forging the runic writing seal, but even so, the unregistered artifacts still reacted to the scan. After thousands of years with no way to circumvent this, a lot just gave up and followed the rules set forth. Little did they know, the material that was scanning for the artifacts, both registered and unregistered, was from a Sage-class cultivator. Miss Amelia, however, has a magic artifact registered to her, which is her lab coat. According to the database and the files he had on her, the cape''s general function is for protection, repelling physical materials targeted to the wearer. It''s secondary function is actually flight. Miss Amelia, upon reaching the front of the class, looked at the students and smiled. "Students, welcome to Elemental Control class. I am your Teacher, Miss Amelia. You can call me Miss Amy. For today, we are going to discuss about elemental theory. After all, you can''t learn to run if you can''t walk in the first place; this applies to controlling the elements. To control the elements, you need to understand them." Amelia paused for a moment, and looked at the students intently. "So class, my first question to you all, what is an element?" 18 Elemental Control 2 The class was silent. After all, most of these students had thought they would just begin with an introduction to the course. They didn''t realize that the class would already begin. No one had read the materials for them. Of course, there were exceptions. Xander had read the books for this class as well, and could answer it based on what he understood from the book, but that would put him to the limelight. He waited for others to raise their hands, and after a few seconds, a few hands rose up, and his was one of them. Amelia pointed at a girl. "Yes, you. You are?" "Maryann Dykes, Miss. Amelia." Maryann replied calmly, her voice steady. Maryann was the same as Faykes, who was at Elite-4 stage. She was younger than Faykes, being 15 years old. She hasn''t decided which pseudo-spells to select for her seeds because her elements were giving her quite a problem; they were opposing elements of Ice and Fire. "Ok Maryann, so what is an element?" Amelia asked her. Maryann quickly responded, her voice even, and her speed not fast nor too slow. "An element is a general representation existing anytime, everywhere. For example, the fire element. The fire element is produced through many ways using chemical and biological processes. One can say it is the combination of oxygen, fuel, and energy, which is the form of heat, one would produce fire." At this point, another voice sounded in the classroom. "Maryann, according to your line of answer, the ice element is also a general representation. If ice element is a general representation, then the ice cubes we make at home by freezing water can be said to be a product of the ice element, and not necessarily the ice element itself. But the thing is, the ice element is not a reaction to something, it is something physical, unlike fire element which is classified as a reaction and considered intangible, like energy." "What do you propose then?" Maryann wasn''t flustered or angry, but curious at the perspective her classmate had. "My name is James Corde, and I think an element is simply a particle that exists in a different dimension to ours. These particles, like the table of elements that we have, are the link to creating chemical, biological and physical reactions and processes. For example, the water element; although we have the chemical structure of water, is water simply just that, H2O? One can consider hydrochloric acid as a combination of 3 elements: Air, Corrosion, and water. Although their chemical structures are made up of molecules, these molecules exist in our dimension. I believe this idea holds some ground because there are numerous research papers published concerning the inter-relationship of the physical to the elemental domain." James said proudly, acting like an intellectual amongst a group of commoners. James was from the Corde family, who are renowned to be descendants of nobles. Before he could even revel, a snort interrupted him, followed by a feminine voice. "James, your thinking is quite limiting to the term ''element''. Let''s go back to your example, hydrochloric acid. if it is a combination of 3 elements, does that mean if I remove the air element in a hydrochloric acid solution, it would stop being hydrochloric acid? Does that mean it wouldn''t evaporate? If I remove the corrosive element, does that mean it would be like normal water, not damaging you the slightest, making you able to drink it? Without the water element, it would become a corrosive gas? They had made a study relating to the removal of the element particles in a certain area where they made the acid. Do you know the results? They were still able to produce the acid! Mind you, this was done in an area forcefully devoid of elements. They did a similar study, this time, looking at one of the naturally devoid of elements, or deadspots, located at a hillside. They began doing chemical reactions, even biological processes such as cell replication in vivo, and they all succeeded." A girl who looked like she was 17 years of age spoke all this in rebuttal to what James just said, a bit scornful at his dumb response. Before James could even retort back, Amelia clapped her hands twice, causing everyone to stop and be silent. Amelia smiled at them again. "Everyone, your ideas do hold some truth, but there are things these ideas fail to encapsulate. First, Maryann: general representation is true, yes, but that is generally only true for the element particles in the earth and air series. Second, James: the idea that elements are in another dimension is false, as it has been proven that they exist in the same dimension as ours. At the same time, it doesn''t mean that if you mix these elemental particles, you would cause them to react and form into a compound; these aren''t molecules that are reactive to one another, or even inert like our table of elements from chemistry. Those elements, like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, when you mix them in their purest states, they begin to react and produce products and precipitates, as well as energy lost. Can you notice the problem here?" She asked, looking around the class. Seeing no one raise their hands, she wanted to answer but then she saw someone raise his hands. Upon seeing who it was, her eyes twinkled as if seeing a gem. "Yes, you. What''s your name?" Xander smiled and replied, "Xander Cloverfield. The main problem with the theory James had was that the physical elements in chemistry follows the law of energy conservation. From the materials + energy to the product + precipitate + energy loss, both sides must be equal in terms of energy. The problem with elemental particles is that they don''t follow this law of energy conservation. Since we can say, for example, water element is on a higher series than the ice element series, meaning water element particles can actually produce ice element particles, where do they get the energy to produce the ice elements?" Xander raised his hand, and showed a clump of water element particles transform into ice element particles. The class was astounded; even Amelia was a bit surprised. She knew what Xander just did, but she was surprised to see someone at the Elite class do it. "Here, you can see the transformation water element particles to ice element particles. The energy of the water element particles is the same level as that of ice element particles. Now look at this next example." Xander raised his other hand, and another clump of water element particles appeared, this time, bigger. On his other hand, now devoid of ice element particles, started forming them again. Xander earlier showed the quick transformation, but this time, what he was doing was forcing the water elements to propagate. Between his two hands, one could see 1 water element particle splitting into two, yet remaining the same size. one of the particles slowly turned into ice, while the other returned to the clump of water element particles. He began demonstrating the elemental propagation theory! Amelia shouted in her heart. She couldn''t believe it; after all, years after the theory was proposed, no one was able to prove it in such a manner. He dispersed the elements on his hands and continued speaking in a leisurely manner. "What I showed you all proved the elemental propagation theory; however, this doesn''t resolve the issue of energy: Where do they get the energy to do the elemental replication? At the same time, look." Xander this time controlled wind particles to appear on his hand, and raising his other hand, slowly, ice began to form not from the environment, but from the particles that came from the wind element. The students and Amelia could observe that they were rapidly transforming into another type of element, specifically, the ice element! "Ele...elemental conversion! How can you even do such a thing! You''re not even Legendary magician!" Amelia stuttered, her body frozen in shock. Xander merely looked at her puzzledly. "Miss Amelia, you do realize, with your experience as a magician, that elements have hierarchies, correct? If you read the works of Fitzgerald, Simones, Mythesia, Romano, and Therault, understand their works, and combine your understanding by filling up the gaps of their theories, it can be said that they have been pointing to this idea of elemental conversion." Xander replied, his voice calm and sure of what he just said. Miss Amelia, on the other hand, froze harder upon hearing the names Xander mentioned. Even Maryann and the girl who rebutted James were stupefied. Aren''t they college students? Why are they hearing the names of ancient, well-known revolutionary researchers and philosophers of their fields? Aren''t their works usually studied for post-graduate and even doctorate students? What do you mean about combining their theories? What do you mean understanding? How could you even completely comprehend what they were researching on, hey! No one spoke for a few seconds. However, Miss Amelia suddenly disappeared and appeared in front of Xander, her eyes mad with excitement. "Do you mean, you managed to apply the elemental hierarchy: Suppression and supplementation theory that Therault, the latest revolutionary researcher and the one of those still alive, managed to formulate after studying the works of thousands of other element researchers??" Amelia asked, her voice quivering and filled with joy. Therault managed to formulate the theory 4 years ago, causing an international furor in the elemental research field. Xander nodded, quite puzzled by her reaction. "Yup, uncle Therault often came to our house to talk to my dad, and he had these papers lying around in the table while they talked. I took a peek and saw his writings. Weirdly though, he had some misconceptions about the tiers so I pointed it out to him." he responded to Amelia. Upon hearing this, Amelia didn''t know whether to laugh or cry at the unfairness of the world. She, a woman of standing, someone praised to be a genius to reach Legendary Class before the age of 50, wasn''t even able to understand even 10% of the theory Therault had posed. Some of the students even checked the paper Therault published and was surprised to see Xander''s name as one of the lead authors. "Oh my god, it''s true, he''s one of the lead authors of the paper!" "Wait, this was published 4 years ago, doesn''t that mean Xander was just 3 years old?What the F*ck?" "The heavens are truly unfair! How can we even compete with a genius??" one of them bemoaned, and all of them, even Amelia, agreed wholeheartedly. Xander looked at the kid who shouted his age puzzledly. "I was actually 4 years old at that time when he came visit. The website you visited probably inputted the date the paper was submitted for peer reading and revision, which was a year before he went to visit our house." Xander calmly said, focusing on that point. 19 Elemental Control 3 Upon hearing what Xander said, the rest of the class felt silent, and couldn''t help think for moment: Is this kid daft? He focused on the wrong thing! They wanted to cry but it seemed that no tears would come out. The world was truly, truly playing favorites. Miss Amelia headed towards the podium in front of the class and took a few deep breaths before resuming her seemingly trademark smile. She knew her own talents, and she easily calmed down and resumed her early demeanor. "Ok, what Xander mentioned and demonstrated is currently too advanced for the scope of this class, which can cause some confusion and misdirection if you don''t have your basics covered. If you want to learn more about Elemental Conversion, and the theory Therault has suggested, read his paper and ask Xander for questions or clarifications." Amelia spoke, her voice back to normal cadence, her heartbeat normal. A few students nodded in response and began to eye Xander in a new light. Xander in the other hand, resumed playing in his watch. Xander didn''t bother explaining how through his experimentations, element particles can also give birth to life, which would probably skew what Amelia would be discussing in class today. Nodding briefly, Amelia continued the lesson. "So let us go back to the question I posed: What is an element? A basic understanding of an element is that it is a particle that exists in this world, but governs different functions to maintain the stability of the world, of the universe. For example, the earth and air elements, are able to naturally produce the same minerals and elements seen in the periodic table of elements in chemistry. If, one day, the whole universe was devoid of these elements, the elements in the periodic table of elements can now be considered a finite resource. The theory of entropic decay would then be held true. Why is this so?" "Entropy dictates everything; it the measure of a system''s thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work. Because work is obtained from ordered molecular motion, the amount of entropy is also a measure of the molecular disorder, or randomness, of a system. Imagine our universe as an ordered system, and the elements basically the cogs, the wiring, and driving force of this ordered system. The moment one or two elements disappear, this system goes into two modes: First, it attempts to repair/replace the element lost. Second, if the first one fails, the whole system slowly breaks down." "Of course, this breakdown isn''t instantenous, and it may take more than billions or even trillions of years to happen. Even if all elemental particles were to disappear, there''s still a lot of time to either, well, look for a way to prove the multiverse theory and escape this world, or breakthrough to the realm of Godhood and restablish the elemental ordered system. According to history and religious records, there were beings from our planet who reached Godhood class around 800,000 years ago. At that time, the Heavenly Tree Sprite was already a towering giant in the planet, protecting it from any invaders. There are rumors that the Heavenly Tree sprite once journeyed with one of the beings that reached Godhood." As Xander passively listened to what Miss Amelia said while playing with his watch, he couldn''t help but frown. It seems they haven''t discovered the elements of space and time? Or is it possible that they did, but they have no way of harnessing it? Xander didn''t bother completely explaining the idea of tiered elements; if he had to it would take a week of continuously explain each and every aspect of it. A basic summary would be: It basically begins with the Void element. This is the origin, and at the same time, it is the end of all elements. It is characterized as pure emptiness and silence, so this element is the embodiment of nothingness. From the void, both Chaos and Order (also known as Creation) elements sprouted. Chaos element exists in a higher spectrum than the elemental particles; it cannot be interacted at all, but is the one in charge of disorder. it can affect all elements under it, forcing them to destabilize, to be random, to do the unexpected. Creation or Order element, is different, as it can be interacted with, albeit in a lower spectrum in the form of the elemental particles. It affects all the elements under it, forcing them to organize, to stabilize, to be ordered, to have a process. From those two elements, Space-Time, Yin-Yang, Life-Death elements appeared. By their pairing, it is impossible for one to have no control of the other. Each is an extreme of the other, after all. Void elements create the area where the elements can exist. Chaos elements bring forth the randomness and change in the ordered system. Order elements bring forth the idea of an ordered system. Space and Time elements create the framework of the ordered system, allowing progression from nihility to infinity. This goes for Yin and Yang elements as well, as they basically make up the positive and negative forces in the ordered system. Life and Death elements create the recycling force of the ordered system. One begets two, two begets three, three begets all. This is the hierarchical structure the element system follows. Under Yin-Yang, we have the 5-elements system, under them would be the secondary elements and below those would be the tertiary elements. Under Life-death, we have the Fate system, which includes reincarnation, hell, heaven, purgatory, luck. Under Space-Time, the systems of the other two fall under its control. All in all, these elements were supposedly categorized as the "Origin Elements", with Void element above Creation and Chaos, and the two above the 3 pairs of elements. Using Therault''s research, and adding the bits of information relating to the hierarchy and introduction of element systems to that research, Xander managed to cause the magic world of Eteria to almost have a breakdown; the paper Therault and Xander co-authored seemed to prove observations and inferences that had plagued magicians and researchers since thousands of years ago! It was like a blind man suddenly gaining vision; the thing that seemed far and blurry now seemed crystal clear. What Xander was annoyed with was that 3 years since the paper was released, although the elemental systems were formed, the elements within it is still not completely researched or identified. According to his personal knowledge, in this universe, there is about 1080 types of elements, including those categorized as Origin elements. According to the databases of governments and private research institutions in the world, they had only discovered roughly 446 elements all in all, starting from the historical records they had kept from at least 10,000 years ago up until now. It didn''t even manage to reach half of the elements existing. However, they managed to get 2 pairs of the Origin Elements series, Which was Life-Death and Yin-Yang elements. However, their classification of these was actually at the same level as the 5-elements system! They couldn''t visualize the idea that the 5-elements series actually came from the Yin-Yang elements; at the same time, Life-Death system was completely unexplored; the Fate system relating reincarnation, hell, heaven, purgatory, and fortune weren''t widely researched. Maybe it''s due to the rarity of magicians capable of communicating with these elements? People who had affinity to the Fate System, were instead considered to be talented magicians that had an affinity to precognition, rather than classified as Fate Magicians. Some of Eteria''s greatest magicians were actually using the Fortune element series: Some were inherently lucky throughout their lives, while some actually caused others misfortune through their words. They were actually called wordsmith magicians, because it seemed that whatever they say came true! However, the truth was they were using an element under the Fortune series: Causality element. A pity, though, that these people never managed to surpass to the Mythic class. The main reason is that the primary element they were supposed to have an affinity with was never trained at all, but was supplemented by other elements! If only at their time there was a complete structure for the elements. As he was ruminating about this issue, Amelia continued her discussion. "Since we now have a general understanding of what an element is, a representation of a rule, or law, that exist in this universe. What we magicians do is harness this rule. We follow their preexisting rules and regulations. This is true up until the Master class. At Mundane class, you make your body adapt to the rules. At Elite, what you do is imbue the known conformations of these rules, summoning their power, in your magic seeds. At the Master class, what you focus is understanding the rules, and increase your understanding of the rules through the creation of unique conformations of these rules." "The moment you step into the Legendary class, your goal this time is not to harness the rule the element represents. I can''t completely explain it, because only when you reach that step would you understand what I am talking about. You basically ''grab'' the representation of the element and slowly make it your own ''rule''. For example, I am a Legendary-6 magician, meaning I have at least grabbed 60% of my primary elements'' representation of a rule, and made them my own. The 60% can be divided among your primary elements; meaning, if you have 2, it could be any percentage for each as long as it adds up to 60%." Someone noticed something was problematic and raised a question; it was James. "What if you reach 60% for each of your primary elements? or 100%? Doesn''t that mean you would be Legend-20? or will that elevate you immediately to Mythic class?" Miss Amelia shook her head and replied, "No. The requirement to reach Mythic stage is quite harder. It''s possible that you could have spent most of your time in Legendary-9 and have 100% representation of each of your primary element, but still not advance. The good thing about this, however, is hypothetically, you would be many times stronger than someone who just reached a cumulative value of 100% of his primary elements. I am saying it as hypothetical, because no one, amongst the records of our race and other races, was there someone who reached Mythic stage with at least one primary element reaching 100%. The highest the records showed was 93%, and that was an Elf-sprite hybrid 13,000 years ago, having 2 of his 4 primary elements at 91%. The problem is, historic records were quite vague in describing that hybrid''s power; at the same time, the level of technology we have now didn''t exist back then. For anything older than 50,000 years, we would have to rely on oral history as well as ancient ruins being discovered to learn if there were cases in which 100% of the element''s representation was completely grabbed and understood to its maxim." Xander wondered for a bit, and asked, "Then how would we know if a person has reached the 100% representation of an element?" Amelia looked at Xander and replied, "That''s a good question; I don''t have a concrete answer to that. Some say there would be phenomena when one casts their magic, but some say it goes back to the origin, having no fluctuations whatsoever, being one with the world. I personally lean on the latter explaination; I mean, think about it: If you were to completely grab the representation of an element, that figuratively makes you part of the ordered system, the universe. If so, why would you create waves in the system you are in when you represent a ''rule'' in the system?" Xander''s eyes twinkled and nodded in response before sitting down again. No wonder the system told me that I wasn''t strong enough to fight the will of the world. The will of the world was the ordered system! And at the moment, I''m using the elements of the ordered system; no matter how much ruckus I cause, even rip the river of time, the universe will fight back by rebounding the powers to me and begin repairing; and if I don''t have at least the basic authority in the system, I would easily be destroyed, Xander thought vigorously to himself. 20 A fateful meeting Amelia continued her discussion on Elemental theory. According to the syllabus, the first 2 weeks was fully dedicated on Elemental theory. Xander didn''t care much and was either playing with his watch or dozing off until class ended. After all, he had read the books and basically memorized their contents, as well as created his own conjectures and theories relating to Elements. The greatest framework to understanding the Elements was to understand Elemental Hierarchy. Once you understand it, even an Elite magician could begin doing what a Master or even Legendary magician do, such as elemental conversion, and elemental propagation, provided that the Elite magician has the same magic reserves as the Master or Legendary magician. Today was fruitful, however, since the teachers did bring up important points concerning the cultivation of magic, clarifying some of the basic understanding of magic cultivation for Xander. Magic circles are the physical manifestation of rules, they are conformations of the rules. At Elite class, one forms pseudo-magic circles; they are considered accepted conformations of the rules. To reach master class, you are tasked to create your own magic circle, which means you need to gain a thorough understanding of the rule and create an "accepted conformation" of the rules. The more primary elements you have, the harder it is to create an accepted conformation, as it requires the primary elements to follow their ''representation'' of the rules individually. Since these rules act in concert with one another, the conformation you create must act the same as well. The more "perfect" your conformation you just created, the higher the number of concentric circles created, and the more you can utilize the power of the rule in the universe. Once in master class, you are to continue creating magic circles by starting to fuse your pseudo-magic circles and produce a magic circle unique to you. You basically fuse accepted conformations into new, accepted conformations of the rule. It follows the same as the first magic circle you made: The more perfect the new conformation is, the higher the number of concentric circles created, and the more you can utilize the power of the rule in the universe in your spell. To break through Legendary class, according to Ms. Lim, it has something to do with Unity. Xander had a hunch about it after hearing both the teachers'' lectures: It was related on stealing, or "copying" the representation of an element. How do you steal a representation? You need a vessel to place it on. It can''t be your body because your body wouldn''t be able to handle the stress of being a vessel. You would need to use your established Magic Circles and fuse them, enabling them to have the capacity to hold the representation of the rules, and yet at the same time, attract them. This vessel contains the amalgamy of your magic seeds, your magic circles, and is continously connected to one''s life essence. This vessel varies from person-to-person, and may manifest itself in different structures. Generally, it is called a Magic Sphere, because if one would look it under a powerful microscope, it is filled with runic writings and magic circles forming a three-dimensional shape of a sphere. If one would compare an 81st-class magic circle to a magic sphere and observer their transformations, they would seem to be 80% similar. An 81st-class magic circle spell would be able to transform into tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of multiple variations possible, allowing the spell to be molded into the limits of the caster''s imagination. It''s the same concept as a magic sphere: As a result of its formation, you are able to simultaneously cast your own spells, and even imbue some of your magic spells with the characteristics of other spells. Sometimes, you can even replace the characteristic of the spell with another characteristic of another spell you combined, creating variations of the same spell, making them stronger or weaker, changing their characteristics if needed. Xander wasn''t sure what to do to progress within the Legendary Class, since it wasn''t taught yet and he only had a rough understanding about it. Although he could hack into the database of governments, since usually, information concerning Legendary magicians or higher were classified as state secrets, it didn''t really contain the learning materials he was looking for. He could hack the school''s database however with the help of the system, but it was too much of a hassle to locate at least one of the servers to initiate the hacking. It was easier to do it for the government of Eta because when he was 5, he was brought into a government facility and was able to touch one of the machines that hosted the intranet of the government. Boom, access granted. He only needed to do it once, and the system would be able to access it wireless, untraceable. It was the same with the internet worldwide. He could access all of them information (well, technically it was the system who can acccess the information he is looking for; He still needs an interface to read the data, which is the smartwatch he owns). He decided to wait instead for the school to discuss this to the class; probably next semester, or next year. As he was immersed in his thoughts, he didn''t realize that there was someone in front of him and bumped at that person. Xander and the person he bumped was surprised, with the latter staggering, almost falling down if not for the quick response. Xander quickly snapped out of his thoughts looked at the person he bumped to. It was, comically, Faykes. Faykes was just minding his own business, talking with a few others, standing in place. He was surprised to see that the person who bumped him was Xander, who he had wanted to talk to. "Hey, Xander! I need to talk to you!" Faykes exclaimed, and before Xander could retreat, his arms were grabbed by Faykes and was dragged off. Faykes thought it was going to be an easy task dragging Xander, but as second passed by, it felt like Xander was becoming heavier and heavier. After a minute, it felt like he was trying to pull a building. Faykes had no choice but to stop and gasp for breath. Xander just eyed Faykes coolly, as if watching an idiot. Faykes looked back at Xander, his face filled with exaggerated anguish. They had only moved for a couple of feet. "Geez, Xander! I just wanted to invite you to go someplace after school! Why you got to be like that?" "I refuse. I want to go back to my villa and practice." Xander said coldly. At this, Faykes showed a wide grin. Xander frowned indiscernably. "Oh, you have a villa? Can I come? I want to see how you practice!" Faykes asked, his voice containing a hint of glee. It seems this was his true objective. Xander rolled his eyes. Although he was technically 7 years old, and should be happy that there were other people, his soul has experiences thousands of years in solitude as well as surrounded by sprites. Xander just shook his head and replied, "suit yourself." He immediately dialed the driver''s number and called him to pick him up. A few minutes later, the car he came in earlier today appeared in front of him. Xander had just opened the door when Faykes quickly entered the car, grinning. Xander shook his head helplessly; although he wanted no more but to toss the guy out of his car, he still remembered the guy''s backing. Although it wouldn''t lose out to his parents'' backing, it would still cause some minor inconvenience. "To the villa." Xander commanded, his voice cordial but still held a trace of authority. "Yes, Master." The driver immediately started the car and in less than 15 minutes, they had arrived at the villa. Upon seeing the villa and cross-checking the location, Faykes paled a bit and shouted internally, isn''t this the place where my great-grandfather was talking about during the emergency family meeting a 3 days ago? Faykes originally didn''t plan to go to Grand Hyatt University, as he was more inclined to go to higher-ranked universities in the globe. The problem was, the Great Elder, who was the previous Family head, called for an emergency family meeting, causing his plans to change. According to the Great Elder, there was a large magical fluctuation that was felt by everyone above Master Class, causing the powerhouses of Eta and its government and military officials to convene an emergency meeting. At that meeting, images of where the magical fluctuation appeared were captured, and the Great Elder took this opportunity to draw the image to near perfection. He then handed copies of the image to his descendants, commanding them to locate it in this city, which is why Faykes was enrolled in Grand Hyatt. Looking at the villa, he was sure of it: This was the site where a large magic circle fluctuation occurred, producing a spell that was roughly in the 72nd class! He looked at Xander again, this time, it seemed that Xander was becoming more and more mysterious in his eyes. Xander, who didn''t know the ruckus he had caused towards the families of the powerhouses in Eta, just looked at Faykes quizzically. He raised his eyebrows, and Faykes couldn''t help but obviously flinch. Xander was puzzled, but he didn''t care too much about Faykes as long as he didn''t interrupt his tasks. He entered the villa and immediately, the twin maids appeared in front of him, bowing. "Welcome home, Master. Dinner has been prepared." said the two, in sync with one another. Faykes looked around the villa and when he looked at the 2 maids, he was surprised again. Exclaiming in shock, he pointed at the maids. "Wait, Rosa and Esta? Why are the two of you working-" Before he could finish his words, the two maids snapped their eyes toward Faykes, containing a murderous glint. "Master, you have brought a guest?" Rosa spoke, her voice dripping with murderous intent. "Should we elimi- I mean, show the guest to the dining room?" Esta smiled at Faykes as she said this. When Faykes saw this, he couldn''t help but stay mute. "Huh? Yeah, whatever. I''ll head first to my room; send him to the dining room for now. I''ll eat dinner after." Xander, who seemed oblivious to the threat the two maids had towards Faykes, waved his hand and headed upstairs. Faykes, wanting nothing to do with the twins, wanted to follow Xander, but was suddenly sidelocked by the twins, and slowly dragged to the dining room. Upon reaching halfway the stairs, he then stopped, causing the trio to stop as well. "Before I forget, tell Faykes the rules I have in this villa. Then make him sign a non-disclosure magic binding contract; use this one that I made." Xander threw a piece of parchment towards the twins, with Esta catching the parchment. The two twins immediately bowed. "Yes Master!" Afterwards, Rosa dragged Faykes into the dining room, while Esta carried the piece of parchment with reverence. Faykes, seeing his current situation, could only moan in anguish. Why was there such a large different in treatment?? 21 Dinner 1 Upon reaching the dining room, Faykes was guided by Rosa to take a seat. Upon seating down, before Faykes could open his mouth, Esta quickly spoke up. "Don''t ask. You know who we are, little Faykes." "Yeah, but I-" Before Faykes could continue speaking, Rosa snarled at him. "Shut it. This is a mission assigned to us. That''s all we can tell you." "Now, we''ll have to properly explain the rules in the villa. Listen carefully, because failing to follow the rules can lead to your inconsequential death." Rosa began listing the rules, with Faykes nodding as he acknowledged each one. Both Esta and Rosa looked at him intently, and confirming his acknowledgement, both nodded before stepping back a step. "Since you understand, write your full name in this contract and place a drop of blood. Don''t ask, this is one of the items Master invented." Esta spoke, unfurling the parchment she had been holding. Upon seeing the contents, Faykes was a bit surprised, as he knew that Magic binding contracts were quite rare because of the difficulty to produce it but as he continued reading, it slowly evolved to fear. He actually couldn''t read the remaining runic writing in the contract! Seeing this, he couldn''t help but have myriad of thoughts present. What if Xander put a perverted clause in the contract? Or worse, hidden in it was slave-master clause! At the thought of this, Faykes paled and began shaking in fear. Seeing the changes on Faykes, the twins looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Rosa came closer to Faykes and knocked his head. "Idiot, stop those thoughts right now! The unreadable runic part is actually the elemental signature of the contract! It isn''t some hidden clause or whatnot. How do we know this? Because everyone in this compound has signed this contract as well! You should know that before each mission we are to sign a loyalty contract, which would immediately burst us into flames if there was a conflicting contract that we have signed. I''m still alive aren''t I?" Rosa said to Faykes. "Also, you also signed the same type of magic contract when you reached adulthood in your family." Esta added dryly. Adulthood in this planet was at the age of 16. From then on, nne is considered to be paying taxes, and entering the military to do their mandatory 2 years of service is a must. They can enter the military no matter what age, but they must serve the 2 years completely. Of course, the two didn''t dare explain the whole situation about their own contract signing; they actually had the same reaction as Faykes, and it was quite embarrassing. Faykes looked at the contract again, making sure he understood every clause written in the contract. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. He signed his name and finally placed a drop of blood. Upon the blood''s contact to the contract, the parchment glowed before dissolving into traces of light which then half moved towards his body, while the other half vanished. Immediately, Faykes felt something change inside him; there was power brewing. Slowly but surely, the elemental particles in the dining room and surrounding area moved towards Faykes. Faykes was surprised with what was happening that he sat still for a few seconds until Esta snapped at him. "You idiot, you''re having a breakthrough! Quickly, compress the elemental particles into seeds!" Upon hearing this, Faykes snapped out of his stupor and began to sit comfortably and began channeling the elemental particles in his body to where the other magic seeds were located in. After a few minutes, the wave of elemental particles stopped moving towards Faykes. He opened his eyes, and surprise and joy filled his mind: He broke through twice! Faykes was already an Elite-6! Seeing his reaction, the twins smiled wryly before getting his attention. "Now, since you have signed the contract, we can now tell you the consequences of breaking it." Esta took a deep breath, she and Rosa''s face serious. Faykes solemnly listened. "The moment you break any of the contract''s clauses, your existence will disappear- meaning you will cease to exist in this universe as well as any traces of your life will disappear." Esta continued, her voice heavy. Faykes gravely nodded; the moment the light particles entered his body, this information appeared in his mind. ___________________________________ Xander used a special combination to create the modified magic contracts, combining the Fate System under Life-Death elements, as well as Space-Time elements. What the contract did was sever the threads of fate and causality of the target using both time and space elements to do it simultaneously in every point of existence in the past, present, and future. The concept of existence has been widely debated by magicians, philosophers, and even scientists in that past thousands of years. Xander however, had a clearer grasp on the idea of existence: it is the threads of fate and causality, which when the two are combined, form karmic threads, and binds one''s existence. Imagine this - every action you do has a cause and an effect. Every time it affects someone, a karmic thread appears between the two of you, very faint and very hard to discover. The moment you were conceived, you were already forming karmic threads, from your parents and those that know of your existence. The moment you were born, these karmic threads solidified into the doll of life, which is a metaphysical representation of your life essence. Without the doll, your body will simply be an empty husk. This was the same life essence that Xander had discovered in the special dimension, albeit without the threads, but rather a collective presence manifested into the form of an ocean, indistinguishable from one another, and interconnected. However, someone who can control the Fate system would have this capability of distinguishing their target doll of life, which is basically how Xander made the first part of the contract in the first place. The moment you began to think and act, you extend a karmic thread from your doll to another being''s doll of life linking the two of you. The more threads you form between the two, the more metaphysically connected you are. But there''s a problem here: You don''t have infinite karmic threads, and the more you extend karmic threads, the more the doll unravels. This is usually resolved when others extend their own karmic thread to you willingly. This allows you to send more karmic threads to other beings. It reaches to the point where you are just a bundle of karmic threads, and the doll beyond recognition, but its still there, alongside with other beings'' doll of life, bundled up together and indistinguishable to others. One could visualize this by imagining the ocean Xander saw, where instead of water molecules, its the dolls of life/life essences that are bonded to one another not by covalent, non-covalent bonds, but rather karmic threads. Some parts of the ocean would have a stickier, or more viscous feeling than the rest; some parts would be like the ocean foam formed on the tip of the waves, very fragile and spread about. So what happens, if you cut one? Nothing much will happen; maybe at that moment, you might feel something disappear, but the feeling quickly fades. The truth is, that feeling indicates your doll of life suffered a damage. if it suffers damage, so does your life essence. But one string is negligible in hundreds, of not thousands of thousands of karmic strings. It''s a drop in the ocean, unnoticeable. But the moment they begin snapping en masse, you would have a problem. The present you, would rapidly wither and die. Here is where a loophole appears: You can literally resurrect yourself and reestablish the karmic threads with the people around you. Resurrection is basically loading your last save point, which is re-recorded every second of your life. How would this be solved? By cutting every existence of the karmic threads in your predicted lifetime. Yes, under the Fate system, one is capable of divining the future in junction with the time element, showing a predicted lifetime. Your past, present and future branches are exposed, with the karmic threads present for each time stage. The contract would cut each and every existence of the karmic threads. This is way more efficient than killing the newborn baby in the past because there''s no butterfly-effect that would happen. Simply put, you never existed in any possible past, present, and future. What happens to you, the contract breaker who experienced this, then? You are ejected from the ordered system. Since you have no karmic threads that bind you even to the universe, you are disposed of as unrecyclable waste. First, the remaining life essence you have from the dimension Xander discovered is expelled from it. You don''t go to Heaven, hell, or purgatory dimensions in the ordered system. You just exist in the void until your consciousness disappears or is eaten by beings that exists in the void. And to avoid decreasing the balance of energy and matter in the ordered system, the ordered system takes in void energy to replace the lost energy and matter. Another problem would then rise: once you reach Demigod stage, not only will your predicted timeline disappear, if ever the contract succeeded in eliminating the karmic threads, the lost energy and matter by the system would be quite large, although it''s not large enough to be that harmful for the ordered system, but it warrants a response from the will of the universe. Xander hasn''t thought of a way to resolve this for now, and basically stipulated that the contract becomes null and void at the demigod stage upon the agreement of the two parties. After all, Xander didn''t explain the situation of the contract to the signing party. There was a trap here as well: Once null and void, all the benefits of contract is automatically removed from the agreeing party. What this basically cuts is the karmic threads between the two parties. Xander hypothesized it is possible for a demigod magician to downgrade to Mythic class, while the amalgamy of elements, life essence, magic circles, and rules can be used by him! He can''t absorb it, but he could hire a magic artifact maker to create an artifact for him. ___________________________________ While Faykes was experiencing the dilemma of signing the non-disclosure contract with Xander, the latter was in his room and established a space barrier and created a time acceleration field. He began to think about his current magic seeds. Currently, all 8 magic seeds had their own pseudo-magic circles, all from different elements. [Void Wind] falls under the Void element. [Golden Light] falls under the Yin-Yang elements, specifically under Yang element. [5 Elements Foundation] falls under Yin-Yang elements, specifically the 5-elements system. [Aether Control] falls under the Space-Time element. [Body Manipulation] falls under Order element. [Blood Manipulation] falls under Life-Death elements. [Divination] falls under the Life-Death elements. [Magic Rejection] falls under the Space-Time element. Currently, Xander decided to get for his 9th pseudo-magic circle a spell that embodies chaos element. Upon checking the unrestricted database of magic spells, he used the system to filter the spell list to his criteria and got 3 matches, the latter two being forbidden spells. [Chaotic Field]: Creates an area where elements become mixed up randomly, including the caster''s elements (if within the range). Can only be cast for 10 minutes max, or else the area it has been cast on would undergo turbulence before returning to normal, and the caster suffering the effects of magic rebound. [Entropic Elemental Conversion]: Forcefully changes the entropy of the designated element to another, random element in the designated target area. This causes the designated element to exhibit the properties and characteristics of the random element. No limit on the number of designated elements. Lasts as long as the caster can continue casting it. After casting, the caster will experience the effect of magic rebound based on the period of time it was cast and the number of elements designated. [Penumbral Entropy]: Forcefully removes the entropy of the designated area, causing everything fall into an eerie stillness, including the caster. Warning: If one would enter the area, one would rapidly experience the removal of entropy, causing that being to fall into stillness. One can die in the field if all bodily functions have completely stopped. Lasts for 30 minutes, and every minute more decreases the stability of the field. The larger the designated area, the slower the loss of entropy. After reviewing, he decided to get [Penumbral Entropy] as his last magic seed pseudo-magic circle. One reason is that it embodies the properties of Chaos element, while containing Space-time elements. After sorting his thoughts, he read several tens of books and hundreds of research papers concerning physics, ideas concerning Space-Time element, and applications of physics to interstellar travel. Xander wasn''t surprised that people were already focusing on understanding the aspect of space and its relation to time, since majority of them were derived from mathematical formulation as well as observations and experimentations. What surprised him, however, was that a set of recently published papers focused on element research, details the possibility of Space and Time elements existing, but gives no actual proof, as no one has managed to show that these aspects in the world of physics have an elemental counterpart that can be forceably controlled, manipulated, or even ruled. As he read the paper, the more Xander frowned. It seemed correct. Correct for someone who has experienced transmigration and can manipulate the said elements in the paper. It starts of logically, with the main argument being the universe as an ordered system. It even cites Therault''s paper 4 years ago, and believed that Space-Time elements actually existed in a different spectrum than that of the other known elements. What made him frown was that it suggested revisions in the hierarchy of elements, and it was correct! He wanted to classify Yin and Yang elements, as well as Life and Death elements, to be a higher-ordered series of elements, and classify Space and Time elements as well in the same level! When he checked the main author, it was written in a pseudonym. How did he know? The writer''s name was Gold D. Roger! According to the system''s database of researchers and social profiles in the internet, this person does not exist. Even the secret files of Eta country haven''t shown this person as a person of interest before; only when other people of significant importance who read the paper began frantically searching for this person did they add him. Xander, however, knew the meaning of the name. In his original universe, the name Gold D. Roger was famous because of a series of comic drawings known as One Pece! In the year he died, it just celebrated its 3000th chapter, and Wuffy, the main character, still hasn''t found One Pece, the treasure that Pirate King Gold D. Roger hid in a nameless island, with his companions. Is it possible that it wasn''t just him who was transmigrated to this universe...? Xander pondered at this problem. After a few hours, even with the help of the system, he came up with no concrete solutions. 22 Dinner 2 Xander analyzed his options within this past few hours and was left with 3 methods of dealing with his fellow transmigrator. The first one is elimination. Rather than deal with variables in his proposed long-term plan, he decided to remove them from the very start. He would not only utilize the system to track and identify the writer of the research paper, but also collaborate with the Eta government in ''finding'' the target. Of course, while collaborating, I would give out cues to indicate that this person should be eliminated as it posts a high risk. The only problem with this plan is that I am not sure whether this target is stronger than me, or roughly within the limits of my current power, which is anyone under Legendary. Maybe this other transmigrator has reached Mythic or even Demigod class strength, or even higher! Another problem is that Xander would step into the world stage too early as Xander Cloverfield, making him the target of several individuals and countries. Goodness, he wasn''t even past 10 years of age, and he''s being monitored by his own government as a national asset. The only reason he hasn''t been taken by the government was because of his parents'' influence, and my unwillingness to get in that mess of cesspool known as politics and military. Xander thought more of it: If I ''accept'' to be a ''patriot'' of the government, I would lose a lot of my freedom for the sake of eliminating a target that may or may not be successful, because the government may not kill the target. Also, I might be wrong about my initial hypothesis that this was done by a fellow transmigrator, making me waste my time and freedom. The second option is assimilation. If he finds out the identity of the person who made the paper, Xander would be able to set-up a meeting to increase their ties with one another, creating more karmic threads to one another. Once it reaches to a certain point, he could then use the karmic threads to do survelliance towards the target, and slowly guide his or her actions towards Xander''s benefit. The risk here is if the person is actually above the Demigod class, he would be able to detect the artificial movements of his own fate, even if one isn''t that well versed in the Life-Death System. Moreso, if the person is well-versed in the Life-Death system; even at Mythic class, he or she would feel the artificial pullings of karmic threads, allowing him or her to trace it back to Xander. The third option is no response at all. Xander could just act like someone in his age in college, not noticing any attempts for him to take a bite towards the identity of the person. Even if the meat was tantalizing and was being dangled in front of him, he would just act as anyone who doesn''t have a stake at this: Confused and nonplussed. After all, there was a hidden danger to the paper that was just posted: It was possible that he was already being monitored by that person, thinking that he was a transmigrator but still unsure. In the end, although the 2nd option was tantalizing, he decided to go for the third option. Not only can he go under the radar undetected, but he could also use this opportunity if there is more than 1 of them present in this planet. After all, who knows what being others transmigrated into. It could be a newborn space beast, or even another civilization in a far, far away galaxy from Eteria. He shook his head; he realized that even if he had nearly god-like powers in this universe, at the moment, he is nothing but a defenseless chick. What he could do for now is become stronger and deepen his understanding of the Space and Time elements. Right now, he had actually progressed to 2% total comprehension for the 2 elements yesterday. His [Absolute Time (sealed, 2% unlocked)] had also changed. At the same time, another spell appeared in the God Spell slot, named [Absolute Space (sealed)]. There was no information about the spell, however, putting Xander in a bit of a loss. For the past day, he had been experimenting and researching about his increase in abilities, which seemed to just appear in his mind. At 2% comprehension of space, beside the fact his travel distance at any time increased from 100,000 kilometers to a staggering 1.0x10^16, or 10 quadrillion kilometers, or 1057.02 light years at any given direction, he could also literally scan the whole area in less than a second and transfer to a selected point in that space with no spatial, elemental fluctuations whatsoever. According to his initial scan yesterday, there were around 1000 exoplanets, planets capable of holding life, present in the area, with the closest one being 10 light years away. He also saw that several of these planets had their own civilizations and different species, some being in the oil era, one even being in the energy era! However, they haven''t developed spaceships capable of surviving the harsh space, with space beasts out and about, as well as other beings. Another cool thing was that it was easier for him to break stable spaces. Although before, it took him around 10-30 minutes to break a very stable space, he could break one in less than 10 seconds, and even break multiple layers of space in less than a minute. Even if he meet someone who is able to use space-time elements, and attempted to lock the space around Xander, as long as their comprehension of space-time is lower than his, he could easily break out. At 2% comprehension of time, besides from the time range he could forsee into the past and future increasing by tenfold (from 10,000 to 100,000 years), he could already create time clones, with their main purpose being simple: Stop him from dying. Yes. Xander has reached the state of immortality and eternal youth. Does that mean he will be forever a 7-year old body? Not exactly. From this point onwards, he could use the multiple versions of him existing in the past, present, and future, affected by factors such as the type of magic he controls, the upbringing, etc. to change his overall body appearance, structure, and function. He could already just take a peek in the future 3000 years from now where he got the futuristic augmentations without physically transporting himself to the future. So he could, if he wasn''t willing, not go to the future anymore. He could even look further, but the problem was the further down it is, the shorter the view becomes. The most optimal time now was 30,000 years into the future, where it is long enough to survey the situation and gleam information from it. There wasn''t any problem viewing the past up to 100,000 years ago, as they have set into stone and had been recorded for his current timeline. Also, another set of effect happened, benefitting Xander. With his combined comprehension at 2% of the Space-Time elements, besides making his time acceleration/reversal more stable, space-based spells more powerful and destabilizing, and partially fusing space-time (2%) in an area, creating a budding ordered system, both time and space would rewind whenever he received a critical wound, reversing all damage he had. The area of time and space reversal was based on half his maximum spatial movement distance, which is within 528.5 light years. The reversal is automatic, and it affects everyone''s memory, returning to the point where he didn''t suffer a critical wound. At the same time, all dimensions within the area are affected. He wasn''t sure, however, if those beings in the Divine class or higher would be affected, or would they only feel a sense of deja-vu? Maybe, they could even be exempted from it? However, on the issue that even memory is reversed, Xander had a troubling thought: What if the damage wasn''t just a physical damage to the present, but also to the past and future? Combining Fate elements into a magic attack, how would he resolve the issue if he received such an attack? At the same time, what if he gets stuck in the situation of fighting an enemy he cannot currently defeat? How should he retreat? After 10 years of testing, he finally got some results. One way to ensure that Fate-type magic attacks that are combined to magic/physical damage would be reversed or nullified is to separate his life essence doll from the dimension it is in, the weird dimension that Xander named as Dimension-LEO, or Life essence ocean. How is this done? Basically, with the [Absolute Defense], his life essence doll would be in a different dimension than the attack, nullifying any forms of damage, and the dimension is randomized. A small problem with this modified spell is that karmic threads are able to surpass dimensional differences, albeit they become weaker. What he did to solve this is to continuously move his life essence doll through multiple, random dimensions in the span of nanoseconds, 24 hours, 365 days nonstop. As it travels, the doll itself is enclosed in 3 different, randomized dimensions, so it''s like a chocolate enclosed with paper and passing through random layers of stacked color paper in a loop; everytime it passes through a layer of paper, the paper enclosing the chocolate changes its color, shape and size. Of course, the life-essence never really changed dimensions; it was still in Dimension-LEO, but is layered by multiple random dimensions, and the spatial position of the life-essence as well shifts to another dimension but still the same position withint the span of nanoseconds. The time difference is small enough that there is no time for his life essence doll to begin unraveling or become damaged from the other dimensions. What this does is continuously weaken the karmic aspect of the magic attack until it becomes non-existent or loses the energy that supports it, before Space-Time resets his body at the moment before the attack even happened. Another surprise appeared for him, however, when he checked his status in the system: The rank of [Absolute Defense] changed from Divine to Sage, and an suffix had been added on the name. [Absolute Defense (2/3 aspects completed, evolving)]: This forms a multi-dimensional folded space barrier surrounding the caster. Not only is the physical body affected by this spell, but also the life essence doll of the caster, ensuring a roundabout protection from all attacks. Although he was curious what the last aspect needed to complete the evolution of the spell, he put it at the back of his mind since he was quite bored with this space already. After all, 20 years have passed and he was feeling quite bored, and other thoughts appeared in his mind as well, such as the situation he saw earlier this morning. When Xander tried to look 30,000 years into the future of Eteria this morning before school, however, all he could see was a barren wasteland field with scrap metal and pieces of junk were seen. There were a few animals and insects here and there, but no living humans, elves, or dwarves; As he looked around, he saw a gruesome sight of where the Heavenly Tree was once was. Only charred remains of wood halfway into charcoal, with the trunk, the branches and the leaves, gone. In the far distance in space, a space ship could be seen, seemingly preparing a gigantic magic array. The instant it was cast, the land, the ocean, the remains of civilization rapidly melted and disintegrated, and the planet was no more. There was just a floating crystal from where the planet''s core used to be, which the space ship targeted immediately. His vision of this future disappeared, which alarmed Xander greatly. In 30,000 years, this planet is done for. He attempted to see the future of one of the planets within 1057 light years distance. He randomly selected several exoplanets from the 1000 that he discovered, all of them having the same scenario as Eteria: Barren, with traces that proved human or intelligent life existed there, with the presence of a spaceship preparing to fire a magic array. He continued scanning frantically all 1000 planets, and on the 587th planet, he finally encountered intelligent beings that were human-like. There were hundreds of cities, citadels, on the surface of the planet, with at least half of them turning into shambles. The remaining cities were discovered to be filled with people seemingly fighting against another group of beings, and based on their attire, seemingly the invaders of this planet. There was no spaceship, however, present on the space near the planet, meaning this was two-pronged process for the invaders. First, kill all sentient beings in the planet, basically anyone and anything capable of/with the potential of using magic, which includes, animals, intelligent beings, plants, and sprites and other supernatural beings. Second, harvest the core of the planet produced after casting the magic array. Maybe the killing of the sentient beings is important to ensure the purity of the core, Xander thought. Xander sped up his search; besides the 587th planet, he headed to the planet that he saw was in the energy era 30,000 years ago. It was intact, with gigantic machinery embued with runic writings covering the whole surface of the planet. Outside, there were a fleet of spaceships continuously firing a combination of magic arrays and technological weapons. He saw a large ship in the middle of the fleet fire a ball of light, and upon touching the machinery covering the planet, it exploded, covering the whole planet, before rapidly imploding, and then disappearing without a trace, and the planet before only had a gaping darkness in its place, where no element existed...after a few minutes though, it seemed like the space around it was contracting, and some of the spaceships nearby were pulled into the area, hitting each other and exploding. The order, chaos elements appeared, before space and time, yin and yang, and life and death elements appeared in the area, evenly spread like the rest of the starry sky. The remaining fleet disappeared, and in front of Xander was the calm, dark space. He was surprised, and a bit aghast. He recognized it from his previous life: an antimatter bomb. But this bomb seemed to be... different. Even if he was viewing the future, he could sense the fluctuations of the bomb. It seemed to...eradicate everything in the area into nothingness. Xander paled and stopped the vision. Returning to the present, he looked worried. This was control over the void element!! Although it wasn''t a complete comprehension of the void element, it still managed managed to damage the ordered system of the universe, momentarily creating a hole into the wide, wild void space. Although it was repaired in a matter of seconds, if a wandering void beast entered the space...it could even spell disaster for the whole ordered system. Xander felt helpless, before shaking his head amd returning to the matter at hand. After all, it was too far from his current state; he couldn''t do anything right now. He left his laboratory and headed to school as usual. Returning to the present, Xander began cleaning up his room; after finishing his clean-up of the room, he removed the time acceleration and space barrier; it had been 5 minutes in the outside world, even if 50 years passed in that space, with the time acceleration being 1 second: 61 days. Although he could have done a time dilation of 1 second:10 years since his comprehension improved, it wouldn''t last long in the real world; roughly, 60 seconds before it collapses as the river of time attempts to repair the space. After all, when he made the advanced magic spells, he only changed the time difference to 1 second:1 year, allowing it to last as long as 12 hours, roughly giving him 43,200 years. He was in that space for a total of 6 hours, or 21,600 years. The one he did on the garden was easier to maintain for a longer period of time; he only needed to reinforce the space-time elements once a year. Although, with his improved abilities, he reinforced the current time of the garden to 1 second: 50 days, meaning one day outside would be 11,835 years inside the garden, and he only needs to reinforce once every month. Theoretically, with his current comprehension, if he made the time difference be 1 second: 60 seconds, he could maintain the whole thing for at least half the lifespan of a universe. He opened his room''s door and headed downstairs; as he was walking, he was lamenting the fact that he couldn''t openly teleport to anywhere he wanted, since he could only teleport in places where he had a clear memory/understanding of. He could, however, walk and run large distances, since he could just fold space in front of him. He quickly reached the dining room where he saw Faykes seated, with the twins standing respectfully in one corner of the room. He nodded at the two, and the twins immediately moved towards the kitchen to bring out the food. He then headed to the table and sat down. Upon seeing him, Faykes looked at him, his eyes filled with curiosity, and looking closely, a hint of regret. The two guys were quiet, even when the twins had already placed the food on the table. Xander began putting food on his plate, and seeing this, Faykes followed suit quietly. After a few minutes of chewing and eating, Xander spoke up, breaking the silence. "Do you still want to see me practice?" Xander asked Faykes while chewing a hard piece of beef in his mouth. Faykes was visibly surprised, but quickly calmed down and nodded his head at Xander''s question. In truth, Faykes was gritting his teeth in frustration. Might as well see how you practice in the villa, Faykes told himself. Xander merely nodded and continued to eat. After a while, Faykes couldn''t bear the silence as he was a talkative person to begin with, and started to discuss economic and political issues currently occurring. "Hey, Xander, you have seen the news right? About the escalating tensions between Eta and Nema? What do you think about the issue?" Faykes asked Xander while chewing the sauteed vegetables he got from the food in front of him. Xander paused a bit, before shaking his head. "The tensions will continue; however, for the near future, there won''t be any catalysmic results, so no need to bother. Just practice becoming a stronger magician." Xander murmured, nonchalant about the issue. Faykes eyed Xander questioningly, wondering how he could make such an absolute statement concerning the situation. Could it be? He has insider information? As Faykes let his thoughts run wild, he looked like he was in a daze. It was then Xander finished his meal. Upon standing up, the beffudled Faykes snapped out of stupor and finished the remaining bits of food on his plate and stood as well. Xander snapped loudly, and immediately, Esta and Rosa appeared in the dining room, and began clearing the table. Xander headed out of the dining room, with Faykes following behind. After a bit of walking, both of them were already on the other side of the villa, where there was a small open field. Of course, this field has been reinforced, making it nearly impossible to dent or even scratch the ground more than 5 centimeters. Upon reaching the center, Xander turned to look at Faykes. "Faykes, head to the edge of the field, near the villa." After that, he turned the space beside the two of them and spoke. "Joseph, call Bryan and Ryan here." Immediately, a man appeared out of thin air, surprising Faykes who was retreating to the entrance of the villa. He had not noticed anything wrong around him while he was walking with Xander, nor were there any magical fluctuations! Joseph immediately bowed and called the 2 people mentioned by Xander. In less than a minute, two more figures appeared beside Joseph, further adding to the confusion Faykes had in his mind. Athough he recognized them as the bodyguards protecting Xander, he did not feel any magical fluctuations at all, unlike Rosa and Esta. Xander eyed the three of them and said coolly, "Let''s begin." 23 Battle Immediately, the four figures blurred, and in less than 30 seconds, several clanging sounds echoed in the field. At this, Faykes was surprised; he hadn''t thought that they were fighting using weapons. Although as magicians, it wasn''t uncommon to use elements to reinforce their physical capabilities, as everyone in the Mundane stage did that. What surprised him is seeing the reinforcements occur in a fight above Mundane class. After all, it is common knowledge for magicians to use magic reinforcement as an auxiliary thing, allowing them to increase their chances of escaping or whatnot. Faykes began channeling water and air elements, reinforcing his eyesight. Although, if he had the light element, it would be the best reinforcement to increasing the capability of his eyes. Upon seeing the situation, Faykes was quite shocked, with his mouth wide open for a few seconds, before closing it. The world is unfair! This was what Faykes wanted to scream out loud. Of course, this was all because he saw how Xander was fighting the trio that caused him to be a bit jealous, then helpless. Xander was fighting using a single finger! Every time a palm appeared to target his head, his chest, and his arms and legs, he deflected the palms with a simple poke. It was this poke that was creating the clanging sounds! One of the palms contained a metallic sheen, indicating the metal element that reinforced it, and every movement of the palm caused the winds to howl, indicating the overbearingness and weight of that palm. Xander, however, just continued poking at it with his finger, causing it to be deflected and upon closer inspection, dents were appearing on the surface of the palm! This was what Xander had been doing in the past 3 days: Real, fatal physical combat! He had wanted to test his physical and magical limits, and what better sparring partners than his magician bodyguards? After they had signed the binding contract that he had modified, he had already insured a level of loyalty amongst these subordinates of his. Joseph, Bryan and Ryan were already feeling helpless. Although two of them, Joseph and Bryan, were dual primary element magicians, Ryan was different, as he had three primary elements. All three of them were at the precipice of reaching Legendary Rank, just half a step more. For the three of them, it wasn''t just a simple sparring session - in fact, they were forced to fight like they were in a life or death battle. How were they forced? Xander threatened them, of course, with their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Although as soldiers, they had begin regarding their lives as dispensible, they had their loved ones. Joseph was married and had 2 daughters. Bryan had two ailing parents that were undergoing treatment for their disease, which is why he joined the military in the first place. Ryan had no one, except the orphanage that took care and raised him well, headed by a kind female magician, who was around Legendary-6 stage. He had a crush on here ever since he reached 16 years old. With the stakes at hand, how can the three be careless? Although in the first sparring session, Xander was defeated easily, it became more and more difficult to force Xander to defeat. And it has just been 3 days! On the 2nd session, it felt like the three were fighting a rampaging magic beast that were at the same stage as they were in. Xander eventually lost, but not without a cost; Bryan and Joseph lost both their eyes, which were restored by Xander easily. On the 3rd session, they barely won, when the three had to sacrifice one arm each to cast a spell in the Legendary stage, [The Touch of the Wicked], which coincided with the elements they controlled. Although Xander escaped quite easily thanks to his [Absolute Defense] spell, he recognized the strength of the spell and decided to end the sparring at that. He then reversed the time of the trio, forcing the lost life energy to return, with their arms restored. Of course, the trio thought this was Life Magic, and their respect for Xander rose higher. Today however, was the 4th session. After a few minutes, Xander was already yawning in boredom as he used one finger to deflect their physical attacks, no matter how big or small these were. Throwing Magic-infused stones towards him? With a boop, these stones shattered. Using their bodies to physically attack Xander? After a few minutes since starting the fight, their bodies were already filled with small holes, causing blood to flow. they managed to staunch their bleeding with magic, but they could feel their bodies were beginning to weaken. The trio eyed one another and at that moment came to a conclusion: Delay! Although both Joseph and Bryan were dual primary-element magicians, Ryan was not; he was a three-element magician, making the potency of his spells more diverse. He also had the highest amount of understanding of his primary elements and magic circles as well. Immediately, Joseph and Bryan began to attack with increased fervor, this time casting spells while physically attacking. Xander saw this and smiled, dodging their attacks, before releasing a barrage of spells in his disposal. Given that all of them were already at the 81st class magic circles, the strength of the spells were comparable to peak Master class magicians; and that''s just because he is limited by his current cultivation level. If he was in the Master class, the power of his spells would reach the same level as Legendary Spells; if he was a legendary magician, his spells would be as powerful as a mythic class powerhouse, and so on. With this, he could easily dominate those of the same cultivation class as he was, and fight on par with 1 class above him. Joseph and Bryan now had to bear the burden of evading the spells while casting their own spells and attacking Xander. Meanwhile, Ryan was a few meters away from the three, his fingers moving and creating runic signs in every step he takes. After a minute, Joseph and Bryan were quite tired already; they could only hold for another minute. The problem was, Ryan had only managed to complete two-thirds of the spell circle, and needed roughly 2 more minutes. Upon noticing the progress Ryan was undergoing, the duo looked at each, and nodded. They both bit their lips, letting it bleed, and using their thumbs, they marked their forehead, and both their cheeks with their blood. They then performed hand signs that created runic writings in thin air, quickly moving towards their bodies. Immediately, they began exhibiting a power beyond their level: Legendary Power! Upon seeing this, Xander couldn''t help but be pumped up; this was truly testing the limits of what one can reach! Although he already saw what Ryan was casting, he just smiled inwardly, since he could easily use his spell [Void Rejection] to cancel all spells being cast in the area. This was the weakness of large, forbidden magic spells; as long as you can identify what is being cast, you can plan ahead by removing or disturbing the essential elements of the spell. Of course, it''s a different story when one can cast a forbidden magic spell instantaneously. Forbidden magic spells were also known as legendary magic spells, and at minimum, if one wanted to cast it at a lower class than Legendary, one needs to have a profound understanding of the elements involved in the spell, as well as the magic reservoir for casting the spell. The latter was why forbidden spells were cast by two or more magicians that has a primary element matching the spell. Given the runic signs he had seen, there were traces of Fire, Decay, and Death elements in the spell; a tri-elemental forbidden spell is quite potent... if there were other casters beside Ryan who was casting the spell, that is. At most, Ryan would be able to showcase Legendary-1 strength of spell. Xander took no more notice and began evading the attacks of the two in front of him, while casting spells that targeted weakpoints in their bodies. During this fight, he realized a big problem: The only attacking spell he had was [5 Elements Foundation], which can only be considered as boosting the affinity of 5 elements in the user, and using this increased affinity, he could manipulate the elements in the configuration of elemental magic spells. Meaning, he really has no attacking pseudo magic circles. However, this was one way for him to evade the limitation of having no 81st class magic circles in the Elite class; since he could make the spells from his control of the 5 elements and its derivatives, the spells he make were of 81st class, since his primary elements of Space and Time ensures perfect understanding of the elements under its control. He decided to make the last three advanced magic spells he had to be purely offensive spells. Currently, he had 7 advanced spells: [Instaneous Regeneration (no limit)] falls in the domain of Life-Death, specifically the Life System [Absolute Time] falls in the domain of time. [Absolute Defense] falls in the domain of space. [Elemental Dominance] falls in the domain of the 3 Ordered Elemental pairs. [Lifeblood] falls in the domain of Life-Death, specifically the Life System. [Heavenly Divination] falls in the domain of Life-Death, specifically the Fate System. [Void Rejection] falls under the domain of Void. The spell, however, does not completely remove Chaos and Order elements. Once he breaks through to Master class, he would instantly elevate to Master-7, and that''s if he doesn''t complete his advanced magic spells at Elite class. If he did, he would instantly jump to Master-9, and all he needed to do was breakthrough by creating a vessel from all his magic circles. Wait... Xander seemed to realize something that made him confused yet excited at the same time. He decided to end the fight quickly. Immediately, the aura Xander was exuding changed, causing Joseph, Bryan and Ryan''s faces to change drastically. Even Faykes noticed the abnormality and visibly shivered. If earlier, Xander had a carefree, dominating aura, right now it was frenzied, like an asura from the depths of hell wanting to seek destruction. Ryan, who was 95% close to casting the spell, didn''t hesitate to expend some of his life essence to complete the spell ahead of time. A guttural growl came from his mouth, signaling his two companions to leave the spell matrix. Immediately, Joseph and Bryan left the spell circle, making sure to cast spells at Xander to force him to stay in the area. Immediately, Ryan closed his palms together, looking like he was praying, his face solemn. "Burning Naraka: The Decay of Morality!" Ryan shouted, his face red and yet at the same time, had a pallid texture as if he was a corpse. The are covered by the magic circle became strange. Within the span of seconds, the environment in it rapidly changed 8 times, and with every change, screams and wails changed as well, causing anyone to hear it shiver and some breakdown. Xander, who was at the center of the spell circle, didn''t bother casting [Void Rejection], since he already recognized the spell after Ryan shouted it. This was one of the spells that proved to him that there were other transmigrators from his world in other periods of time: The existence of Buddhist spells. How would such spells and visualization exist if there was no such thing as religion in this planet? Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, etc. all those beliefs didn''t exist here in some form or another. Naraka, after all, was Buddhist hell. And as the spell progressed to its peak, he recognized that these were the 8 Hot Narakas described in the Abhidharma-kosa. The existence of this spell shows that the buddhist transmigrator was talented in the realm of Death, and Fire. However, this was only the first set, meaning this spell had a counterpart: the 8 Cold Narakas. The first level of Hot Naraka, Sanjiva. In that split second, multiple attacks attempted to land on his body, but couldn''t pass through [Absolute Defense] that automatically activated. All these attacks were from illusory fiery weapons, containing molten metal and even the ground temporarily turned into burning iron. The second level was Kalasutra, which focuses on cutting up the target through predetermined lines and experience Sanjiva stronger than before. The third level, Samghata, focuses on crushing the body with flaming boulders into bloody jelly. The 4th level, Raurava, the burning shelter, where one is trapped to looking for a shelter and is trapped in one, burned over and over again. The 5th level, Maharaurava, is an upgraded level of Raurava, with the kravyada tormenting and eating their flesh. The 6th level, Tapana, impales the targets with a fiery spear until the flames exit through their noses and mouths. The 7th level, Pratapana, is experiencing Tapana again but this time, with a trident. The 8th and last level, Avici, culminates every experience as you are continuously cooked, butchered, quartered, and impaled over and over again. This spell, although it made you experience all 8 levels of suffering and torment, wasn''t that refined. It didn''t take advantage of space-time elements to force the targets to experience it over and over again over a long period of time. It only focused on death, fire, and decay elements. He barely noticed the decay, since the element appeared on the flames attempting to pass through his space spell. After a while, everything returned to normal, with the field scorched to the point that the metallic sublayer was showing. Xander came out unscathed, slowly clapping at the performance of the trio. "Great workout. Rest up. The next training is next week. I hope there are more diversity and firepower when we fight!" After saying those words, what Faykes saw caused his eyes to bulge out of his sockets. It was like watching a movie that was played in reverse; the soil in the field slowly restored itself to its previous self, and the physical and mental states of the trio returned to their peak respective states. It was Ryan who gave Xander a surprise; he could faintly detect that he was already beginning to merge the magic circles. He turned to Ryan and smiled. "Congratulations. I expect stronger attacks from you, especially." Ryan quickly nodded, and disappeared from his current location. He was excited, since he was about to breakthrough to Legendary Level! Joseph and Bryan benefitted as well, with their understanding of the rules deepening, decreasing their distance from Legendary Class. They only needed an opportunity and they would breakthrough as well. Both of them bowed and disappeared as well. All that was left in the area were Xander and Faykes, who had raised his finger at Xander, his mouth opening and closing without saying a word. IT seemed that he wanted to say something, but he just couldn''t find a word for it. Xander moved towards the villa, and as he passed by Faykes, he stopped for a moment and asked, "So, did you enjoy the show?" "I-" before Faykes answered, he was stopped by Xander, who shook his head. "You can tell your elders that you already visited the villa where the magic circle phenomenon happened. To be honest, I never expected signing sprite contracts to be that much of a hassle." He then continued to move, and Faykes used this opportunity to follow him. Faykes'' eyes were twinkling before asking tentatively, "Can I see them?" before hurriedly gesturing his hands and saying after, "If it''s convenient for you and the sprites, that is. If not, never mind." He hurried shaked his hands as gesture, as if worried Xander would get mad at him and his nosiness. Xander was a bit puzzled and interested at Faykes. How could he not be afraid of me? After all that action, he could still talk normally? Interesting. 24 Bloodline curse As Xander continued to eye Faykes, the latter was becoming more and more nervous as time passed. Although it seemed that Faykes was fearless, it was more of being able to take things in stride, as well as 15 years of practice taught by the family. As someone born in a prestigious family, their actions determine the face of the family, and thus, it is ingrained to them how to act in public properly fitting to their status: In public speaking, in front of friends, talking to one''s superiors, etc. All these were taught from an early age. Faykes, contrary to what Xander thought of him, was actually scared outof wits with the power Xander displayed. It was beyond an Elite magician. Although in his family, such a thing would occur every hundred or thousand years, they weren''t as powerful as what he had just seen. Rather than focus on the power disparity, he wholeheartedly focused on establishing a good reputation to Xander, for both his and his family''s future. Although, murder and assassination wouldn''t be out of the discussion, it doesn''t seem worth it now. First, Xander is considered to be a national asset. At the same time, he has his parents'' backgrounds protecting him as well. Even if the Cloverfield family seemed weak and scattered on the outside, every ancient family still surviving till today knows that major figures in the family hold key positions in different countries, making their political, economical, and social power quite remarkable and even comparable to 2nd-rate countries. With the presence of Rosa and Esta, it seems the influence of the Cloverfield family would be quite extensive in Eta. Second, Xander seems too powerful that even a Legendary rank spell would be ineffective. If they wanted to kill him discreetly, they had to hire someone at least at the Mythic or for greater chance of success, a Demigod magician. The problem is, why would a demigod even deign to do such a thing? Mythic mages were similar as well; they had resources coming from their respective organizations; it would be time-consuming and expensive to find a lonesome Mythic magician. Although his family was not lacking in resources, they weren''t going to waste their rare ones just to kill a potential enemy. It would be more economically viable for the family to establish a good and stable relationship with Xander than kill him. These were the thoughts the quickly passed through his mind, allowing him to come to a conclusion and calm his emotions, and focus on things that would allow him to naturally approach Xander. He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Xander say, "Ok." Faykes momentarily blinked out of confusion, before clarity appeared in his eyes. Yes, if Faykes had a flaw, it would be that he is too curious for his age and status. He can ask questions or demand answers about things that genuinely strike curiosity, causing the ire of people. At the same time, one can say it is also his asset. Xander gestured Faykes to follow him to the garden area. After reaching the garden area, there was a white, billowing mist in front of them, unable to be seen through or even blown by the wind. Faykes saw this as well and wanted to ask, before he did so, Xander''s voice interrupted him. "Stand back. I''ll show you my sprites." Immediately, Xander immediately called forth Sam and Pan, who were currently resting in his spatial storage in the form of the crystal rose and the jade rock. Immediately, the temperature began fluctuating in the area, and the earth trembled. Instantly, two figures roughly half the height of Faykes appeared on both sides of Xander. One of them had a humanoid appearance, closely mimicking that of an elf. instead of hair, it seemed that the sprite''s head was covered in bundles of petals. The other was a huge turtle whose back was covered in deep green jade, with different types of metal sticking out randomly. Upon their appearance, the elements became agitated in the area, causing earth and plant elements to flourish. "Welcome back, master!!" Sam said to Xander joyfully, before jumping at him. The turtle on the other hand grunted at Xander and began to eye Faykes curiously. Xander, upon seeing Sam, evaded the tackle hug, because he knew it would be quite bothersome to remove Sam from him. Sam didn''t want to continue, but Pan stopped him, and he could only look at Xander pitifully. Xander rolled his eyes and began to introduce Faykes. "This is my classmate, Faykes. He was curious about your existences so I allowed him to come to the villa and meet you. Faykes, these are Sam and Pan. They are sprites. Sam, Pan, greet Faykes." Sam quickly came close to Faykes and began eyeing him warily. After doing a sniffing action at him, Sam''s face fell and hurriedly retreated. "Ew! Master, this person has the smell of a curse! I don''t wanna talk to him. Ugh!" Sam snifled, obviously annoyed at Faykes. Faykes, upon hearing this, had his eyebrows raised. Curse? I feel fine though. What curse is he talking about? Pan trudged quietly to Faykes and began eyeing him as well, and sniffed at him. Pan also wrinkled his face in distaste. "Master, this person seems to be inflicted with a blood curse. It''s been in him for a long time, roughly 16 years?" Xander''s curiosity was peaked. He had heard of curses before, when he was reading research articles and books relating to magic types. A curse was basically a magic spell circle, or an accepted configuration of the rules (the elements), that has been set to be unstable. When it was first cast, it looked like a normal magic spell, with all the runic writings and the magic circles interacting properly. But as time passed, structures of the magic circle would deteriorate, or in other cases, the runic writings would suddenly change with no warning, causing untold damage to the magician. According to the book he read, curses were generally categorized in two main categories: A fast-acting one, and a slow-acting one. A fast-acting one would mean that the spell would have no problems nor will cause any immediate effect on the target, but a few seconds, or minutes even, the curse would activate, wrecking havoc in the body of the caster. A slow-acting one would mean the spell can be activated only after a set amount of time has passed, or if the conditions have been fulfilled successfully. Under each category, they would have similar subcategories: Physical and Immaterial. Under these two, would be whether the curse is self-sustaining or non-self sustaining. Under these two would be whether it can be inherited or not, and under these two were different categories of curses, ranging from different elements to different ailments caused. "Sam, Pan, can you identify what type of curse it is?" Xander asked the two. Sam and Pan nodded, but Sam had a gross look at Faykes before responding. "Master, we need a drop of blood from that guy so we can identify what type of curse it is. But I don''t want to taste that guy''s blood... ugh." Xander pretended to think for a moment, before smiling at Sam. "If you do guys do it, I''ll give you both 1 reward each." Sam and Pan looked at each other, before Sam looked at Xander, his eyes hopeful. "Master, can we request to go back to that "place" again? For 7 days? As our reward?" Xander acted like he was thinking about it, even frowning, causing Sam and Pan''s face to be etched with worry. Of course, Xander was just joking with the two of them. "Hmmm... Fine. Just 7 days." Sam and Pan''s eyes dazzled, before nodding. "Hmph, hey, big guy! Give us a drop of your blood!" Sam said condescendingly at Faykes, who didn''t know whether or not he should laugh. He didn''t even know he had a curse in his body; how could the magic physicians and the doctors miss the curse in his body then? He was still wary but since he signed Xander''s contract, he knew he would be safe until the point he attempted to reveal Xander''s secrets and the villa''s events to others. he bit his thumb and blood blossomed, and immediately, a vine appeared near his hand and coiled at the bleeding finger. The vine seemed to suck the leaking blood, before it retreated towards Sam, who then broke a piece of the vine and handed it to Pan. Immediately, Pan swallowed it, while Sam absorbed the vine back to his body. After a few seconds of chewing, Pan stopped and looked at Sam, who looked back and nodded. They both turned to look at Xander and nodded at him. "It''s done?" "Yes master." "Pan, what are the findings?" "It''s... a bloodline curse master. It''s the type of curse that amplifies the body''s affinity to certain elements, allowing them to easily breakthrough the ranks of Mundane to Elite class. Upon reaching Elite class, it begins to artificially increase the understanding of its host of their primary elements. Upon reaching Master class, it boosts all magic circles created, but leaving a part of the curse in every spell created. Upon reaching legendary, it then infects the life essence doll that is connected to the Magic Sphere of the user. It uses up slowly the life essence to hasten the speed of their comprehension of the rule they have embodied in the Magic Sphere. Upon breaking through the Mythic class, the curse would fully activate, binding the host to the person who cast it in the first place, determining their life and death, as well as their actions." Upon hearing it, Faykes was frightened; he didn''t know that he had such a terrifying curse in his body. Wait, since it''s a bloodline curse, could it be everyone in the family has the same thing? According to the turtle... er, Pan, the curse has been with him for 16 years. If not counting the years he was in the womb, it means that he only received the curse after he was born, meaning... he was plotted against? Or could it be because my talent reached a certain standard that they placed the curse on me? Who, then, is my designated controller? Faykes'' hyperactive mind began to work, thinking of reasons why he had the curse in the first place, as well as countermeasures he could place. Xander asked Pan, "Do you have any solutions to solve the curse?" Pan nodded and replied to Xander in a grave voice, "Yes, I have two methods: eradication and assimilation. Eradication can be done within the Elite class or below, as long as the target has not linked any pseudo-magic circles in their magic seeds. Another method is assimilation. Simply put, the body would let the curse continue its function until Legendary Class. However, at the peak of each class, a special ritual must be held to remove a part of the runic binding writing in the curse. Meaning, at every class, the runic writing emphasizing on "control", "binding", "command", and "death" will be wiped out, but the benefits of the curse remain the same." "One problem of the first option is that whoever cast the curse, would manage to detect if it was forcibly removed. On the other hand, two problems rise at the second option: Faykes has passed the Mundane stage, so the ritual cannot be done. The second problem is that every removal of runic writing will actually make the curse more unstable, and if it collapses on itself, there would be severe consequences to the host, ranging from demotion in class rank at the very least, to certain death." Xander looked at Faykes pitifully. Although he could solve the problems the second option carried, why should he? Not only is he not someone who he trusted, he has no obligation to deal with the matters of the other''s family. Faykes, upon hearing the situation, had his hopeful expression fell. He knew he had no other choice then. He either had to follow the commands of the person in charge of him or he will die, even if he was in the Mythic Class. Looking at Faykes, Pan paused for a moment, before hesitatingly saying, "There is, however, a third option to forcibly remove the negative effects of the curse. Upon reaching Legendary-9, the target must kill the one whose control over the curse was transferred to. Since it could be their parents, their relatives, or even their ancient ancestors who might still be alive and reached frightening levels, they must have an unyielding resolve to eliminate him/her, while at the same time, having the ability to kill that person." Faykes, upon hearing this, had life return to his eyes. Although hope was faint, it was still there in his time of darkness. Upon hearing this, Faykes bowed in gratitude to Pan, before turning to Xander, his face solemn. "Xander, thank you for helping me discover the hidden problem I have. No matter what, I owe you a favor, and I will do the best of my abilities to fulfill it upon your request." Faykes paused, before looking in Xander''s eyes, his eyes full of resolve and gratitude. "You have no worries about your abilities or the information about the villa being leaked. I hope however, at the end of the day, we can become friends. Once again, thank you." Faykes turned around and headed out of the villa. Xander didn''t bother with greetings or baseless farewells. He knew he would be meeting Faykes again in the future. Hopefully, not as a slave of someone. He would rather die than have his future constrained. He activated [Heavenly Divination] and looked at Faykes'' most probable future where his interference was reduced to a minimum, with him as a branching point. Immediately, a scene showed up; it was in a mountainous valley. Faykes was lying on a pool of his own blood, the energies of his body disappearing. In front of that body, a middle-aged man looked pitifully at Faykes, before shaking his head and turning around to leave the body. Before he completely left, however, he suddenly stopped, and turned to look at where Xander was at and unleashed a blast. Of course, the power directed at Xander was easily resolved by his Time and Space elements, making sure none of it harmed him. Xander was surprised at this development. It seems that this person, who looked a bit like Faykes, was stronger than it seemed. He estimated by the aura released... someone above the Demigod class! Could it be someone at the Divine class, or probably higher? Seeing that his attack has dealt no effect, the man was a bit puzzled, before quickly leaving. He did not know who was peaking at that moment, nor their power level. He wasn''t even sure if someone was there, but he did notice a slight disturbance in that space, so he launched an attack. Seeing that the person behind it wasn''t even affected, but decided to continue watching where his descendant had been slain, he decisively left. After ending the divination, he then divined the future wherein he decided to interfere and resolve Faykes'' problem today. Damn it, it was blank. Meaning, he was too much influenced by my actions to the point that even time and space couldn''t predict what he might become. It''s also possible he would die, but it''s hidden in the eyes of the will of the world. Xander then attempted to predict his future. It was hazy, but he could see figures appearing on the vision, but everytime he attempts to focus on them, it felt like his mind was going to burst. He had a hunch that the figures he was seeing in the far future were actually above Divine-class, and were at the very least, God class, or probably similar to the God that sent him to this universe. Huh, that god never gave him his name, though. Xander was worried though. Although he could still blurrily see his future now, what happens if his comprehension of space-time continued to increase? He believed the uncertainty to his future was highly linked to his abilities in the Space-time elements. What actually happens if he reaches 100% comprehension on these two elements? Xander has no answer to it, no matter how long he sped up time just to think of the possibilies. Even the System granted to him was dead silent about the topic. 25 Decision Xander has exactly a few hours to decide whether or not he should intervene with Faykes'' future. He pondered whether or not it was worth it at all. The two sprites had asked Xander to place them in a temporal field like they were in before for a total of 7 outside days, and he did so before returning to his room. Of course, he adjusted the time flow to 1 second: 100 days, meaning after 7 days, they would be 211,000 years of age, their powers growing to Mythic-2 class. Looking at the time, he had 7 hours before he could still reverse the situation. How did he know the exact time? Divination. He saw the absolute future of that path, and it begins with Faykes withdrawing from class and leaving the country the very next day. His experience was a thorny one, meeting many friends and foes along the way, before reaching Legendary-9 class. Using his established connections and information he had on the Valentine Clan, he finds out who is handling the bloodline curse. The bloodline curse was actually established 2,000 years ago, and 50 years after the Valentine clan experienced one of the largest civil war within their family, and tens of powerhouses at the Mythic class and above died at the hands of their brethren, along with hundreds of civilians and magicians of the clan. One of the survivors that led the Valentine clan back to its glory was said to have established the bloodline curse with the help of the other surviving powerhouses. To avoid the events that happened to the clan, this was a way for them to confidently take control of the rising geniuses of their clan. The bloodline curse isn''t powerful, until you plan to do something extremely disadvantageous for the clan. Basically, it is used as a last resort to ensure the safety of the clan. The ones who were currently holding the curses were the ancient ancestors that survived the civil war; there were only 5 of them left right now from the original 10. Three of them were at the peak of Demigod class while 2 of them had surpassed it according to the information he read, and 1 of the 2 people was in charge of his bloodline curse. His name has been lost in the documents, and has only been referred to as "Ancestor Shadowgrace". Faykes spent 10 years attempting to locate this ancestor, while improving his comprehension of the rules he had "replicated" in his Magic Sphere. By time he found this Ancestor, his comprehension of Water and Air elements were already at 95 and 96% respectively, causing his power to be comparable to a Mythic-3 magician at most. Although he had a relatively high class magic circles, with all of them ranging from 67-72th class, it was still not enough. During the divination, he had seen that Ancestor Shadowgrace use 2 moves, the first one to nullify Faykes'' attacks, and the second one to reap his life. Ancestor Shadowgrace was actually grieving when he dealt the final blow; after all, who wanted to kill their own kin, especially a talented one? Even then, he tried to explain that upon reaching Divine class, the bloodline curse''s control over oneself will unravel, the young man didn''t bother listening. All in all, the amount of time Faykes had lived for was just a mere 50 years. By age 20 he had reached Master class, and by age 38, he was already a Legendary-9. At age 48, he was already half-step at the Mythic class, already attempting to create his own rule. By age 50, he finally met Ancestor Shadowgrace and began the life and death fight. With his talent, if Xander interfered with his predicament, It was possible for Faykes to reach Master class by 18, Legendary-9 by age 30, Mythic class by 40, and Demigod class by 110 years. It wouldn''t have been cut short, his life, if he didn''t interfere with the plans of the Ancestor Shadowgrace. Xander realized he had a part to his demise as well, so he needed to rectify that. One way would be to reverse the time of Faykes, making sure he didn''t remember anything that had happened whatsoever in the villa, except for the contract signing. Xander could solve this problem by reversing the cultivation level Faykes had as well, and then holding the ritual to break the specific runic writings on "control", "binding", "command", and "death", the problem would be solved. Heck, he didn''t even had to hold the ritual, Faykes could do it to himself, he just needed Pan to hand the ingredients. This doesn''t resolve the second problem though, because the instability would depend on Faykes'' as well. But this absolves him of any wrongdoings, no matter what the ending result is, right? Xander began to calculate the chances of Faykes betraying him. According to the System, if he does manage to help Faykes, with the psychological profile the child currently has, it is at 0.002% chance of happening. Xander pondered a bit more before sighing, and then removed the time acceleration field in the room. He opened up his watch and contacted Faykes, telling him these words: "I can help you solve this problem. Come back to the villa." After a few minutes, the villa''s doorbell was rang; it was Faykes. He was led in by Esta, while Rosa prepared tea for the two. Xander sniffed at the tea, before drinking it slowly. After having his fill, he already cut straight to the chase. "Faykes, I''m offering you a solution to the problem; 2 solutions actually. I need you to choose." Faykes merely nodded, a bit listless, but as his eyes stared at Xander, there was hope present. Xander nodded in response, before saying, "The first solution is I eradicate the curse. There would be no backlash, no lowering of cultivation level. but you can never return to your clan as a result, since the one who set it up and is in control of it is one of your Ancestors who had broken through to the Divine level. I can easily change your physical body as well as mask your doll of life from any form of tracking or divination, making sure you won''t be recognized by anyone below Demigod class even if they had a drop of blood to locate you. Simply put, I will transform you into a whole new person. But the thing is, are you ready to give up the things you had from the Valentine Clan?" Upon hearing this, Faykes was still silent, but in his eyes, Xander could see fiery determination and at the same time, a struggle of some sort. "I can see you are hesitating. This is the second solution: You will proceed with the assimilation process. I have a way for you to solve the issue on the rituals. However, before I can explain more, I need you to sign a more strict and binding magic contract. No one, not even my maids and bodyguards, have signed this contract." A piece of parchment appeared in Xander''s hands, and he handed it to Faykes. The latter opened the the parchment and began reading it. [Contract of submission: Rank SSS This contract between party A and B is a partnership contract, with party A being in the slightly more dominant position than party B. Party B cannot divulge any information about this contract with party A. Party B cannot divulge any information about party A that has not be verbally agreed by party A. Party B cannot disobey party A if it involves the life and death of both parties, unless party A has revoked this section verbally. Party B can ask party A information concerning party A''s abilities, but he cannot do any form of recording or transmission to any parties beside party A and party B. Party B will receive a random reward from party A whenever party B completes a voluntary mission from party A, with the reward being within party A''s abilities. Party B will emphasize protecting party A than him/herself, as long as party A is not doing it to put party B''s life on the line on purpose. Party A will not interfere with Party B''s life unless it is to issue a voluntary mission, or it is a matter of life and death for party A, or if party B gave verbal consent to do so. Party A can easily add more clauses in the contract without the consent of party B. If any of the clauses are broken down, this deems party B''s existence in the ordered system, null and void, removing any trace of party B in the universe, from past, present, and branching futures. If both parties agree to cancel the contract, party B''s benefits will be returned back to party A. If any is missing or incomplete, party B''s existence in the ordered system will be null and void, removing any trace of party B in the universe, from past, present, and branching futures. This becomes invalid if party A agrees for party B not to return the benefits back to party A. Party A can cancel the contract anytime. Party A: Xander Cloverfield Party B: Signee] Upon reading the contract, he was actually more satisfied than his experience with his clan. Everything was laid down, the dos and don''ts of the contract were placed clearly. He knew what he was supposed to do, and it didn''t impugn on his ability to decide for himself. He didn''t bother waiting, he signed the contract with his own blood. The second option was more of a viable choice. Seeing Faykes sign the contract without hesitation, Xander subtly nodded, and took the signed contract before making chucking it into the space storage. Of course, he could activate its effect to raise Faykes'' cultivation to peak of Elite class, but since he was going to reverse his cultivation level, why bother? "Ok, follow me to my room upstairs." Xander stood up and headed upstairs, with Faykes hurriedly putting down the drink he just got and following behind Xander. Upon reaching the room, Xander immediately isolated the space around the two of them. "Sit down. What I''m about to do is reverse your cultivation level; no worries, it is temporary. However, if you learned any pseudo-magic circles, you have to relearn them all over again once you are back to your current cultivation level." Faykes immediately followed Xander''s instructions, and forced himself to calm down. After a few minutes, Faykes was deathly still, and if it wasn''t for the rising chest, someone might have thought he was dead. Xander began the reversal, placing a hand on Faykes'' back. Upon doing so, he was surprised to notice that Faykes had a well developed body; his buck was filled with strong muscles that stemmed from training. Xander then looked at his own body, obviously disappointed. Although he was skinny, he wasn''t muscular. Of course, this was just a passing thought for Xander. He began to reverse the time of Faykes'' cultivation. Immediately, there were results. Elite-5, Elite-4, Elite-3, Elite-2, Elite-1...Mundane-9, peak. Xander removed his hands and quickly instructed Faykes to do the ritual for Mundane level. The requirement for Mundane level''s ritual was simple, which was to slowly cycle pure, elemental energy to wipe out the "control" aspect of the curse. To aid with the process, Xander rapidly increased the time flow in the area surrounding Faykes, making the elemental propagation faster, producing more elemental particles. After a while, Faykes stopped absorbing the elemental particles in the surroundings, and he was stably in Mundane-9, peak. Immediately, Xander moved 3-5 meters away from Faykes and then activated his power, accelerating the time of Faykes'' characteristic: cultivation, returning his body to Elite-6 class. Xander then brought out the contract, and activated its effect. Immediately, 1/4 of the elemental energy in the contract went straight to Faykes, whom Xander immediately instructed to focus and form the remaining magic seeds for Elite class. Xander breathe a sigh of relief, since it was over. The reason why Xander released 1/4 of the energy stored within is that giving half of the energy is wasteful, since one could actually use it to increase one''s comprehension in the latter classes. This experience was quite beneficial for Xander, since he learned many applications of time reversal on live beings, especially when he targets their characteristics. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of his space-time comprehension, there would be a day he could be anywhere in universe, and he just think of the target, and the time of that target is manipulated. There will be a day, such as that. ______________________________________________ Faykes couldn''t believe what he was experiencing. When the process began, he could feel his cultivation rapidly disappearing, as if they never existed in the first place; it was different from crippling someone because one can still find traces of magic in their bodies. But what he experienced was that as if he never did any magic training at all in the Elite class! Slowly, he felt his cultivation drop from Elite-6 to Mundane-9, peak. When he dropped from Elite-1 to Mundane-9, there was no magic reaction within his body, as if it wasn''t there in the first place. The energy simply dispersed and disappeared. Afterwards, Xander instructed him to do the ritual to cleanse off the runic writings for "control" in the curse, and immediately, he followed his instructions. He first located where the curse was and began letting it undergo a "washing" of elemental energy. This was where a possibly beneficial situation occurred. He originally had 2 primary elements, Wind and Water elements. Upon doing the ritual, he actually gained another 2 primary elements, Wood and Fire. He was brimming with joy and yet at the same time, there was a rising determination in his mind. After completing the washing, a strange feeling came over him, as if something being liberated. After washing, he signaled Xander that he was done, and immediately, Xander placed his hand back to his back, and that weird sensation appeared again, this time, it was different. It was as if my body was a parched ground suddenly receiving water. This was the same feeling when he had broken through to Elite-class, and it didn''t stop there. Magic seed after magic seed continued to be produced, until he had 6 magic seeds in his mind. But it didn''t stop there. Immediately, another wave of elemental energy went inside his body, filling it to the brim, in which then he heard Xander speak, "Hurry, create the remaining magic seeds for elite class with this energy! Don''t waste a drop." Faykes gritted his teeth, bearing with the pain and continued to compress the energy that entered his body. Everytime he was successful at compressing, another wave appeared, filling his body back to the brim. This repeated 3 times, and afterwards, 3 magic seeds were formed, larger than his current magic seeds. If there was a need for comparison, his previous magic seeds was roughly the size of an acorn, while his last 5 magic seeds were roughly the size of a clenched, adult fist. Using the remaining energy, Faykes began reforging his previous Magic seeds from Elite-1 to 4, slowly increasing the size to that of an adult fist. He didn''t know how much time had passed, but when he stopped and opened his eyes, he was at the living room of the villa. Faykes eyed the second floor, his eyes filled with gratitude and renewed fervor. He immediately left the villa and returned to his home in Callows city; he was actually using one of Valentine clan''s properties, a condominium suite. He began to organize his items, as well as think about what just happened. Faykes, being the curious person he was, began to infer what Xander just did. He recalled the sensation of returning back to Mundane-9, as well as returning to Elite-6, before subsequently breaking through to Elite-9. Faykes had a hypothesis about it: what Xander did involved the mythical Time element. How did he come to this revelation? First, it was the sensation of losing his cultivation. From what he had read, people who lost their cultivation due to fights, injuries, or magic backlash, there was always a trace of elemental residue in their bodies, as well as the feeling that they once had control over the elements. Only the time element could forcibly reverse time, making it as if it wasn''t there in the first place. Second, the sensation of breakthrough was also fully captured by the time element, and it wasn''t the feeling of returning to one''s previous rank; it was as if the body was experiencing it for the first time all over again. Although the existence of time element has been debated over the past millenia, no one had been recorded in both the known and hidden history of Eteria that was able to control the element of Time. Faykes wanted to delve more into the understanding Xander, but there just seemed to be a blanket of fog covering him. Faykes shook his head at his thoughts. Although he was curious, it doesn''t mean he was completely tactless. With him signing the contract, he knew his boundaries and the lines he could and couldn''t cross. However, he was grateful to what Xander had done for him. Although he didn''t care much about being lied to by his clan, what he cared more was that he was never given a choice to decide for on his own, unlike what Xander presented to him. It seemed that every thing he did for the past 16 years were always at the agreement of the elders, and this newfound freedom and independence was... invigorating. Faykes stopped these thoughts of his, and began to prepare contingencies as well as revising his current training plan; he had to change the pseudo-magic circles he originally planned to integrate. It was going to be a busy night for him, Faykes muttered to himself, smiling wryly. 26 Becoming a mercenary 1 The days passed by with nothing much happening. Both Ms. Lim and Ms. Wineheart continued their discussion concerning Magic Theory and Elemental Theory respectively. Within that week, Xander stayed low-key and didn''t bother interrupting the two teachers to ask questions of a post-graduate level, but it didn''t stop his classmates from asking guidance from him, which Xander couldn''t reject. However, to decrease the number of students that bothered him, he made sure that anyone that asks a question is required to pay 1 SCP for each question. It did decrease the number of people bothering him, but there were three people who were quite memorable: Maryann Dykes, James Corde, and the girl who retorted back at James'' answer last week. After interacting with her and checking with the system, her full name was Alexa Cordonez, a 15-year old Elite-3 magician. Her family was a family of magic and science researchers, and she obviously inherited their passion for researching the field of magic as well as science, which explained her initial disdain to James'' answer. She kept bothering Xander during the breaks, asking questions from "What do you think of Pascaz''s theory of elemental conversion to physical matter, do you think it hold true?" to "What''s your favorite food?" Xander of course, didn''t bother answering any of the questions until she began to cough up SCPs for wasting his time, in which after he answered them succinctly and in concise form. Maryann was different. She focused more on the elemental research topic. All her questions were above the beginner level Elemental theory, and she didn''t fuss on giving me SCPs to answer her questions. After all, she saw the capability Xander had, especially on elemental conversion. She needed to understand the basics of it before she begin to choose her own pseudo-magic circles to breakthrough and progress in the Master class. James was what you can consider an all-rounder. He is knowledgeable up to a certain point in topics of science, magic, history, and even sociology, due to his family being descendants of nobles, as he was trained to learn these things. James was also talkative, almost like Faykes, but it was mostly about these 4 topics. Of course, Xander talked to him as well, especially on the topic of sociology, where he could be considered weak at. When James was asking in-depth questions concerning science, magic, or history, he would trade it with a question concerning sociology. James Corde had quite a pitiful past, though. His family had underwent a clan war with another family, the Bykis clan, because of conflicting economic and political interests. Both his parents died when he was 3, With only his uncle and grandpa raising him and his younger sister up for the past decade. 2 years ago, He established a small business firm focusing on marketing a product where one can store elements for a long period of time. Although the concept is not new, and companies have been marketing it for the past 1000 years, James was attempting to change the way they view this kind of product. it''s basically a modified version of element-converting power batteries used in many technological devices, such as Xander''s smartwatch. The difference is that it can store magic and elemental energy unique to the owner for a later use, with a storage lifespan of 6 months, before it begins to leak out. Basically, it can be used by anyone attempting to cast a legendary spell when they don''t have the magic reservoir to cast one. However, his target market was the adventurers, military, and mercenaries. In two years, the business blossomed, becoming partners with the Mercenary guild, the government of Eta, as well as having a decent fanbase. Xander, within a week, earned 100 SCPs, and deducting his meals in the canteen, he had a net profit of 60 SCPs. Faykes, who didn''t look nor act different, continued to hang and pester Xander to join him around the city, which Xander immediately refused. He simply had no patience for such things. Xander also instructed Faykes for him to do an optional mission: The location of the large, powerful/influential families in Eta, as well as their home bases. Although he had improved his space power, he wasn''t that enthusiastic enough to search each and every area of the country; if he could ask people to make it easier, why not? As for the reward for the mission, Xander kept mum about it, making Faykes burn with curiosity. The truth was, Xander was busy preparing something, and he hasn''t thought of it yet. What he was preparing, however, was two theses related to Elemental conversion to physical matter, as well as submitting a thesis on how immaterial elements can actually transform into physical, tangible elements. Immaterial elements are basically elements that are assumed to be tangible, those that cannot be transformed into physical matter, existing in a metaphysical to immaterial state. The main difference between the two types of elements is that immaterial elements can''t be interacted with easily; you know it''s there, but you just can''t channel it easily to physical objects. For example, you can say the 5-elements are tangible elements, as well as its derivatives. You can touch and create physical matter from these elements. But how about the elements such as light and darkness under the Yin-yang elements, as well as elements under life-death elements? For example, fortune, karma, heaven, hell, purgatory, samsara/reincarnation elements? How about life and death elements themselves? The 2 theses are actually related to one another, as the first one actually focuses on proving the theory of elemental conversion into physical matter, and the second is an application of this proof: immaterial elements to tangible elements. The first thesis was more on converting the elemental particles into its respective physical product, one that is tangible and interactable to magicians. This thesis explains multiple factors why the theory holds true, such as the elements existing simultaneously in multiple, different dimensions, which was first reason why they cannot be easily interacted with, since their state is split in multiple dimensions and to the physical dimension where magicians are in. Another factor would be the aspect of elemental propagation; elements are produced constantly from nowhere; if the rate continued, there should be an overabundance of elemental particles to the point of choking those that are in the physical dimension. How could this be solved? Xander believed that naturally, if the concentration is very high, it condenses into another form, producing physical phenomenon in the area, whether it might be flames, miasma, darkness or pure light, ice, lightning strike, vacuums, creating land, metal or plant life, or even instant death or life continued to blossom in the area. Lastly, the factor that holds the most weight to why this theory is actually a law of this ordered system is the existence of sprites and magic beasts. Sprites are considered lifeforms that evolved for a very long time; their bodies are literally physical products that were converted into elements, giving elements a structured form in the physical dimension. Based on the experiments he did on the garden, he postulated that sprites had a dominant element, only 1 element that is then supported by other elements, aiding their formation. Similar to how humans are comprised of multiple chemicals, sprites are the same, but elements that has transformed into a physical product. Magic beasts on the other hand, managed to produce a magic core, which is the physical manifestation of their life essence/doll of life due to the influence of their element absorption of the area. The existence of magic cores was another solid, irrefutable proof that elements managed to produce a physical manifestation. Of course, he used the data observed from the cores of magical beasts in the garden. Using the theory of elemental suppression and supplementation, it is possible to transform these immaterial elements to have a trace of materiality; if it was likened to gold bullion, where 99.999% is pure gold, and the remaining 0.001% is copper or any other chemical metal element. Basically, the immaterial element won''t be purely just that element, and would contain traces of an element that can achieve physicality. How is this achieved? Xander frames it as the conversion of a representation of an immaterial element, wherein a portion of the representation is cut off, and replaced by another portion that is identical from a material element. The portion that replaced the cut part of the representation of the immaterial element is same to all aspects as the original with one difference: the property of physicality, meaning the element can produce a product in the material dimension. It''s likened to the highly-conserved parts of the DNA and RNA; elements also have conserved regions in their representation, which is also the reason why fusion of elements at the Master stage onward is even possible in the first place! Since it shows the conversion of immaterial to material element, meaning it is capable of producing physical products, proving the theory of elemental conversion to physical matter an integral part of this universe. The theory becomes a law, allowing everyone to know that this is part of the structure of the ordered system! Xander applied for a week''s leave from class; after all, he already knew the things that were being taught at class. The professors and the school immediately agreed, on a condition that he must take the first exam immediately after returning. Xander had no qualms about this and left the campus. Xander returned to the villa and instructed the guards and the maids that he will be in the basement laboratory for 1 week; under no circumstances should anyone disturb him. In truth, he was going to publish his two theses tonight after completing it, and then leave the city. He planned to explore the country with 10 provinces, Eta. Right now, being in the Delta province, he has not left the vicinity of Callows city. He knew that there were 3 other cities in the Delta province, and 16 small towns. All of these places were interconnected by paved roads, making traveling easier. What he planned was to explore Delta province within 7 days, under a different identity. However, it isn''t easy to travel around the country if one doesn''t have the appropriate travel documents; he also needed to use his alternate bank account, where he placed the money he earned from selling the tons of rare metals and rare materials. After all, he only needed to have a sample of the item and he can replicate them perfectly using time magic. While ruminating on this, he suddenly thought of an idea. He could be a contracted mercenary. Eteria was large, and even the countries in Eteria are continuously discovering new things in their area of jurisdiction, such as ruins from the past, or even magic beast colonies, as well as areas known for rare to priceless materials being produced or reported to exist there. Rather than themselves go there and search, people often post job requests for mercenaries to peruse and accept. As a mercenary, he can go to these ruins, jungles, and mountainous areas where rare materials were supposedly found. He could also meet new kinds of people, as well as have a chance to hack into the mercenary''s database. Accordingly, they only had 2 requirements to be a mercenary: Proof of identity, whether it be birth certificate, passport, or any government issued license with your name and date of birth registered, and passing a small test held in the Mercenary Association. Using his watch, he immediately created a new identity for him to use while traveling. After a few minutes of hacking around in the government database system, he produced a new person: Homer Simpson. Before he finalized the other details, such as photo, fingerprints, and signature, he first changed his body''s appearance and fingerprints by summoning a time clone of his, making him look like he was in his mid-20s. This time clone originated in a timeline where the war between the two superpowers Eta and Nema escalated quicker than his own timeline, forcing him to join the military at the age of 15 and trained under the special operations unit. By age 22, he was already leading the special operations unit with a rank of Colonel. By age 24, he was already a Brigadier General, one of the youngest generals in Eta''s history. His body was developed differently; this is due to the military experiments he had underwent when he was 18 years old. It was to imbue the body of supernatural strength, greatly enhancing the fitness of the person, as well as muscle and bone development. However, it only had a success rate of 30%, and Xander was one of those lucky ones that succeeded. In this timeline, he didn''t have any time and space powers; what he did have, however, was the 5-elements as his primary elements, causing his power to reign supreme amongst Master class magicians. It was a pity, however, that this alternate him had his future cut short; he only lived until the age of 40, after promoting into the General of the Army rank, as well as being a Legendary-6 magician. It was a tumultuous time, with the war reaching its peak. Sadly, he was assassinated by his personal aide, who was actually a sleeper agent for the Nema country. Another sad thing was, this personal aide of his was his secret lover. Why did Xander choose this timeline version of him? Because he can put on an intimidating aura of death and violence. At the same time, he would look someone professional and experienced, so he can easily take in more requests, and quickly rank up within 7 days. Upon choosing this time clone, immediately, Xander''s aura began to change; from a happy-go-lucky yet firm attitude, endless bitter and murderous violence began to be released by him. His body underwent a change as well, from being 110 centimeters to slowly growing into 220 centimeters. His body muscle and bone frame rapidly changed as well, giving him a well-toned body that with one look, you know he could snap someone''s neck into two. His face also began to change, showing signs of maturity, his eyes turning from the original bright silver irises to a dull green, and facial hair began to grow over his face. His hair turned from a silky blackish brown color to a muted red color, sprouting a buzz cut. After the transformation, Xander opened his eyes and observed the changes in his body. Although it was him, it was also not him. What was good about time clones was that he could call upon their powers once he decided on one of them. He could also retreat to that specific timeline if he was facing a foe he couldn''t defeat, or when he would have no choice but to abandon the current timeline due to circumstances. He then placed the fingerprints and his second signature on his documents, before securely adding it into the population register, making sure the information put there was matching to the time it should have existed. After a while, he completed the papers under time acceleration, and published them under 2 names: Homer Simpson, and Xander Cloverfield as a co-author. After sending it, he immediately teleported to the outskirts of Callows City, a place he was sure did not contain any surveillance methods. He headed to the road a few tens of meters away from his current location. For now, Xander Cloverfield will be gone for a week, uncontactable. For the next few days, a name that will rock the magic research community as well as the economy of countries would soon rise to the limelight: Homer Simpson. 27 Becoming a mercenary 2 Verdant City, Delta province, Eta country, Ete continent. The city was quite different from that of Callows City; there wasn''t a harmony between technological advancement to that of science here, and it was more focused on magic development and how it can benefit the daily lives of the city people. This didn''t mean that there weren''t any technological developments here; it was just that the majority of what can see with the common eye would be products by magic, as well as items catered to mercenaries. Yes, Verdant City, because of its path of development, became the home of mercenaries, their headquarters so to speak, in the entire country of Eta. Yes, they have branches in other provinces, but Verdant City is where all these missions/requests/procurement go to, before being distributed to the branches in other provinces. Inside a large, quiet and luxurious restaurant, a man was quietly looking outside the large glass windows of the establishment, observing the passing people as he drank his coffee and ate his breakfast. He had a battle-borne face, as well as an aura that was cold and stifling to anyone near him. This added a sense of mystery to the onlookers observing him, attracting men and women alike. One of the women, who accidentally had eye contact with the man, and she couldn''t help but visibly swoon. Even one of the weaker men in the restaurant couldn''t help but look away, blushing. This quiet but dashing-looking man was Xander Cloverfield, now taking the identity of Homer Simpson. Seeing this, he couldn''t help mutter under his breath and rolled his eyes a bit, before picking up his tablet to read the news. In a city like Verdant City, most people still relied on newspapers, rarely would you see someone use a tablet to read the news. Xander checked the current news in Verdant city, but nothing caught his attention, so he placed it down and began to quickly eat his meals. After half an hour, he called for the waiter for the bill, and quickly paid with his watch, which he modified to place his other bank account as the main payee. Rather than return to the hotel, he headed towards the Mercenary Center for Greater Development Corporation, or MCGD for short. Yes, the Mercenary guild is a registered company and listed in the stock market. One could even own shares of the company. With the current money Xander had in his second account, he could buy at least 6% worth of shares of the company at the stock price, and even more if he could find someone willing to sell their stocks immediately. Xander reached the buildings where the MCGD is located at. Yep, buildings. Upon seeing them, Xander couldn''t help but shake his head. It was too grand. According to the information he had gleaned, the MCGD had 4 different buildings, and an underground arena as well as a training area. Each of the buildings has their respective purposes: Mission Building, Leisure building, Training Building, and Business Building. The underground arena is basically a casino but its betting on the magicians, mercenaries, and slaves that enter the arena. Sadly, slavery exists in this world, but only for the prisoners of war. Once one is a prisoner of war, you and the next generations of your blood will carry the status of a slave. Accordingly, they can free themselves of the status if they reach Legendary class, or win 100 fights consecutively. Some magicians and magician mercenaries enter the arena for three purposes: Cheap training, for leisure, and for money. The last purpose is common to those that do not have a company supporting them, or a large clan behind them. The second purpose is usually done by rich magicians who wanted to have real combat experience against other people. the first purpose is done by mercenaries who find the arena as a cheaper option of training than using the training grounds of the MCGD. What Xander was wondering was why the rich magicians did not just buy a virtual capsule for training, then realized after a few seconds why: There are no commercially available programs for virtual reality available to the public, all of them are usually made by private companies, and are sold in the form of costly monthly subscriptions. Although computing technology has been in Eteria for the past 3000 years, they only managed to progress the quantum supercomputers, without magic spells that have been found in an ancient ruins, mind you, to reach up to 80 qubits with an error rate of 1.0x10^-1,500% per second. The problem was when it was used to create programs, especially long-running programs, like a simple global weather forecast, it would randomly crash once every year, but boot up again in less than a second. It might not seem significant, but online programs needed to be online for 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. A random crash can seem to look non-fatal to the company, but it is when people''s lives became involved. When they tried to create virtual reality using the quantum supercomputers, when the system crashed, out of the 100,000 alpha testers worldwide, 40,000 testers fell into a vegetative state, and 5000 others died, their brains liquefying, all their nerves burned out. The remaining alpha testers did not come out unscathed; 30,000 had nerve paralysis, while 20,000 had the symptoms of having a stroke, such as slurred speech and half-paralyzed bodies. The remaining 5,000 were a bit lucky, they only experienced temporary amnesia when the virtual reality crashed and they were booted out. It caused virtual reality development to be frozen all over the world until the problem could be fixed. When the magic spells from the ancient ruins were discovered 1000 years ago, it caused a drastic change when it was embedded into the quantum supercomputers. Not only did the computing speeds increased, in 500 years, from 80 qubits they raised it up to a staggering amount of 320 qubits, with an error rate of 1.0x10^-49,035,260% per second. At this point, computer scientists and engineers focused on improving the number of qubits a quantum supercomputer can handle, while still maintaining the error rate, or even making it lower. Right now, they managed to raise the number of qubits to 360, with the error rate lower, being at 1.0x10^-50,000,000% per second. However, at this point, the magic spells that were discovered from the ancient ruins were now hypothesized to be at its"maximum" limit of augmenting the quantum supercomputers, since 7 years ago, any attempt to increase the number of qubits would, without a doubt, fail. It was also one of the projects his father was involved in, and for the past 7 years, it was slowly put in the freezer and replaced with other projects, such as space travel and superluminal speed travel. In the past 30 years, there have been a lot of organizations with their own dedicated virtual reality programs internally used, or sold for others to use, such as the program used by Grand Hyatt University. As the problem states, there is no virtual reality that is similar to the arena, or the coliseum, existing for the public, global use, because it violates some tenets of countries, including Nema. This is also considered one of the points of conflict between Eta and Nema: One believes that such programs are actually helpful in training people, as well as reduce the issues of psychological problems popping out in magicians and other civilians. The other, however, believe it merely makes people have a taste of killing, which would sooner or later translate into real violence. Companies like MCGD, MineKaft, ML(Mobile Legens) manage to circumvent these by creating realities limited to the country alone, creating data servers in countries with a potential market. However, because of the expensive price tag on their programs, only the new or old rich could afford such a thing. Which goes back to what MCGD, and a lot of other multinational firms did. To entice more members to join the company, they have their own set of virtual reality programs, offered at a discounted price of 30% of its original value, if one manages to be a Mercenary with an A rank and above. When Xander first entertained the thought of being a mercenary, he realized that mercenaries had ranks. Mercenaries were classified from F to SSS+, a total of 18 levels. Everyone starts off as an F-class mercenary, limited to taking no-rank missions to E-rank missions. If they progress to the next class, F+, they can take any rank missions below them up to E+-rank missions; and so on until they reach A-class. From that point on, they have to complete 2 mandatory mission of the same rank as their class every 3 years, or else they would be demoted 1 class lower. They have greater benefits at this point as well; not only will the connections of the MCGD will start opening up for one''s use and needs, and the higher their rank above A, the more connections they can use. It gets tricky. To advance to the next class, not only do they have to do at least 5 missions with rank the same as their mercenary class, but they would also need to take a qualifying test, ranging from foraging rare materials and hunting magic beasts, to kill a certain amount of wanted criminals. If they succeed in the test, they only have to pay 0.3% worth of shares of MCGD to proceed to the next level. so if they reach SSS+, they need to own at least 1.5% of MCGD shares. With 25% of shares on default locked to the current CEO, there can only be a maximum of 50 SSS+ mercenaries. The tricky part is this: if all 50 slots are taken away, how do you acquire 0.3% worth of shares when you are trying to advance to A+? The answer is simple: Fight the SSS+ mercenary. Only a single round. Both sides bet, with the SSS+ mercenary betting 0.3% of shares, while the challenger bets the value of the shares in money. If the SSS+ loses, they lose their class and get demoted to SSS-class; the shares are automatically transferred to the newly A+ mercenary. If SSS+ mercenary wins, however, he gets to keep 80% of the money, with 20% going to the MCGD. The SSS+ mercenaries combined have the same voting power as the current CEO. The stocks were basically divided into 2 types: 50% pure stock value, for the global stock market. Another 50% for the internal stock value. The CEO has 25% pure stock and 25% of the 50% internal stock, so that''s 37.5%. The mercenaries have a combined internal stock value of 75% of 50%, so 37.5% pure stock value. Although theoretically, the mercenaries can easily vote against the decisions of the CEO or even kick out the CEO, they would never succeed because out of the 50 mercenaries, 10 have always been SSS+ since the start, and they belong to the CEO''s family, so their actual power is at 30% pure stock, with the CEO having 45% pure stock power. Of course, this information isn''t available online for public view; he received it when he had entered the Business building of the MCGD to sign up as a mercenary. It was actually quite automated; you only needed to choose an empty seat, open the computer terminal, fill out the forms, and print them out, submit the online forms, and submit the hard copy to the attendant by the entrance of the floor, before leaving. When Xander sat down and touched the terminal, he commanded the system to hack the databases of MCGD and connect his watch to their databases. Immediately, all the information about the company, the dark secrets, failed or scrapped projects, as well as current top-secret projects, were stored in his watch, and if he ever loses the watch, he still had his System perpetually connected to their database until I say so. He began filling up the forms, using his watch, he just copy-pasted his information to the terminal. He filled in the text boxes that asked, "What do you aspire the most? bla bla bla" with spiel that fit the persona Homer Simpson had according to his government records. After submitting the online form, he printed it out and was shown a notification on the screen that it was successfully sent. It then told me to proceed to the counter to send the physical copy. The attendant on the counter was a young lady, roughly at her early 20s, and she was obviously bored out her mind since she was just playing with her mobile phone. When she saw Xander approach, she immediately stopped playing and showed her professional smile, before saying, "Hello, welcome to MCGD. My name is Dana. How may I help you?" "I''m here to submit my mercenary application." Xander submitted the papers and after scanning the first page, Dana nodded before putting the papers in one stack on her desk. "Alright, Mr. Simpson, your application has been verified and is now being processed. If there are no problems, such as incomplete forms, you would be alerted in your smartwatch whether you are a bonafide mercenary. Once you are accepted, please head to the Mission building, the building to the right of this building, and peruse missions you would like to take." Dana bowed and then said, "Thank you for doing business with us!" "Not at all. See you around." Xander calmly spoke, his voice deep. Xander exited the building, and after walking a bit, he sighed. The first step is complete. Hopefully, 6 days is enough to explore a bit of the Delta province, Xander muttered to himself. 28 First mission 1 For lunch, Xander headed to the downtown restaurants where mercenaries tended to go and eat when they returned from the field. Although it wasn''t as high end as the restaurant he had his breakfast in, it was still good enough since it was spacious and there was live music performance. He immediately sat down by a table he was ushered to by one of the waitstaff, and ordered their specialty dishes for entree, main course, and dessert. Of course, as he was waiting, it seemed like he was just enjoying the view of the table towards the live music performance happening on the stage close to him. The lady in red dress was singing a classic song by Evelyn Bates, Coming Closer to You. Oh smile, beautiful you Let your worries fade away Come, join me in the room Let''s sing, let''s dance, be happy with you So smile, lady Fortune, she coming closer to you Closer to your hearts Closer to your minds Washing everything of its stains Making sure of the sunny days ahead .... The lady''s voice was quite angelic, hitting the right notes while managing to create her own rendition twist at the end of the song. As she finished the song, a lot of the members of the crowd clapped, some whistling at the lady. The latter smiled and bowed to them, before beginning another catchy tune, Simple Dreams. By the end of the song, the appetizers were served to Xander''s table, in which he began to taste and slowly dine to while drinking the house special draft beer. Similarly, other people on their respective tables were eating and talking to each other as well, loud and sometimes with infective laughter. The lady in a red dress, as well as the pianist, immediately switched their songs to a somewhat low-key and background type, creating a festive atmosphere. Xander, just finishing his appetizers, felt his watch vibrate. He opened it up, and saw the notification from the MCGD Corporation, officially making him a mercenary. What was surprising was that the rank mentioned in the message sent was that he was delegated to C+-class, skipping 7 ranks at once. Xander pondered for a bit, and realized: Ah, the research paper. These people sure work fast, Xander mumbled and began eating the main course that was just delivered to his table. _________________________________________ Around the world, the scientific and magic research community was in an uproar once again. They were just reeling with the paper released by the mysterious Gold D. Roger concerning elemental hierarchy, and another revolutionary paper pops out! Proving the theory of elemental conversion into physical matter! Proving the idea of immaterial elements being converted into material elements! Two theses at once, shaking the perspective of magicians, scientists, and researchers. The first thesis focused on providing multiple factors of why the theory is actually a law of the ordered system: Elemental propagation, the existence of magic beasts and sprites, as well as multi-dimensionality of elements! Heavens, the idea of multi-dimensionality of elements was posited centuries ago, but was never clearly proven... until this paper! The paper actually gave concrete results and details on the multi-dimensionality of elements! Not only that, but the paper also indirectly proved one of the conjectures concerning elemental propagation: Why is the whole universe not choking on elemental particles? That''s because they follow the law of attraction, condensing in the area where they are abundant, causing these particles to manifest into physical phenomena! This gave rise to a lot of implications; one of which is the creation of planets, of life in general in the universe! Nebulas in the starry skies, are they amalgam of elements, slowly condensing to form a planet? Has Eteria formed the same way? Then how about an human baby? Is sperm and an egg really just that? Was there a significant increase in elemental concentration in the womb of the mother? What happens then to the body of the mother, does their elemental particles travel to where the sperm and egg fused at? How about the natural minerals produced in the ground, are the type of metal produced totally random, or should there be a specific ratio of elements alongside the metal/earth element? Can one synthetically produce metals? Can rare materials be created this way? How about stronger alloys? Heavens, the first paper done by this Homer Simpson...it was the combination of 3 theses in one! The second one was quite impactive as well but in the field of magic artifact and weapon creation, as well as health care. It also proved the previous paper by Gold D. Roger and Therault concerning elemental suppression and supplementation, and gave a new perspective on elemental representations, and how it can bring legendary magicians and above to new heights. Think about it: If you could convert life and death elements, elements considered to be immaterial, into physical objects, and fashion them as sort of a health drink, or even medical pills? A drink that can slowly revitalize your organs, a pill that can heal cancer and another that can heal diseases, a pill that can allow your body to clot quickly and produce the necessary blood, a drink that can heal internal injuries... and it''s not just limited to pills! Think of topical creams, of body lotions or even moisturizers! The pharmaceutical benefits it would bring! The interest parties, rich families, governments, and scientists, however, noticed a glaring name on the paper: Co-author, Xander Cloverfield. Xander Cloverfield again! Four years ago, he was listed as a co-author by Ryan Therault, crediting most of the complicated aspects of the paper to him; according to the investigation done, this kid was just 3 years old at that time! Now, four years later, he co-authors two papers that have a significant impact on both economic, scientific, and political fields! For the past half a day, these people have been attempting to locate the contact number Xander had, wishing to form a relationship with him, or even entice him to join their respective groups and countries. Even both Xander''s parents attempted to contact their son; after all, the sudden bomb drop was too surprising and too impactive! However, only a prerecorded voice message could be heard from the other side. "If this is mom and dad, I''m busy in my lab, will talk to you next week. If it''s urgent, send a message to one of the guards." "If this is the Eta government or some government of another country wanting to collaborate or invite me for my expertise, please contact my parents if you are the former, and contact the Eta government if you are the latter. Once you have discussed rental remuneration to my government, you can discuss my professional fee with me." "If this is some group of rich people, or ancient families with lots of influence, or maybe some random group that is trying their luck, whether you want to befriend me, curse me, kill me, or strike a deal with me, please follow me on my social account in SeeMe. Send me a DM and go straight to the point." "If this is some magic artifact maker, scientist, or magic researcher attempting to contact me because you have questions, please follow me on my social account in SeeMe. For urgent inquiries, contact my parents, since they said I shouldn''t talk to strangers older than me alone because they might kidnap me and sell my organs." Upon hearing the pre-recordings, both couldn''t help but cry silently before smiling wryly. Their son is truly a handful. They had no choice but contact their respective families to control the situation. Immediately, news about Xander''s involvement in the papers was at its minimum. _____________________________________ In an unknown area, Eteria. A man was reading the papers written by Xander, sitting comfortably by his chair looking out into the crashing waves on the seaside. The man, after finishing the papers, drank his coffee and grinned, before laughing out loud. "Homer Simpson, huh? It seems someone really did transmigrate beside me! I wonder what this person wished from God... It would be great if I could steal it, hehe, HAHAHA!" His laugher echoed in the whole villa before silence descended again. The man, regaining his calm, called for his attendant. "Jarvis, immediately investigate the identity of this Homer Simpson; leave no stone unturned! Also, place Xander Cloverfield under Level 2 priority. Although the Cloverfields'' influence on the planet as well as their hidden power cannot be underestimated, this person seemed to be mentioned in papers that cause a commotion. However, do the monitoring of this person secretly." "Yes, milord." "Hmm...wait." "Yes, milord?" "Change the priority level of Xander Cloverfield to Level 1. At the same time, assign someone from the Immortal group to monitor and investigate him discreetly, and leave no trace. At the same time, if possible, set up a meeting between him and me." "Yes, milord. Your will shall be done." The attendant immediately left, vanishing from the villa. The man sat down and tapped on the oak table in front of him, before muttering, "If it is what I think it is, this fellow transmigrator of mine would be a difficult opponent." "Oh well, we shall see then." _____________________________________ Of course, Xander''s family''s protectiveness couldn''t be matched by that Homer Simpson''s. Immediately, after signing Homer Simpson as part of the contractors of MCGD corporation, the company immediately publicized a post welcoming Homer Simpson as a member of their company. Upon further scrutiny, other people and companies realized that he was only working as a free contractor, smirking at the low attempt done by MCGD. Even the documents that Xander submitted an hour ago was quickly leaked, detailing how he just signed up as a mercenary. A lot of mercenaries were magicians and they were techies too. They began searching for Homer Simpson in the F-class mercenary list. After a few minutes of searching, they couldn''t find him. A lot of mercenaries were initially confused before realizing a possibility: Could he be directly admitted to the mercenary with a higher rank? Immediately, they began scouring the lists. F+, E, E+, D, D+, C, C+... bam! they found his name on the very last entry for C+ mercenaries: Homer Simpson. Upon clicking, mercenaries were able to view the recorded information available. As a rule, only mercenaries with a rank higher than the target mercenary can view their information. There were several B rank and above mercenaries in the restaurant Xander was currently in Age:26 Sex: Male Sexual orientation: Both male and female Height: 2.2 meters Color: Light brown Number: 093-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXX Specialty: Magic Artifact crafting, Magic researcher Cultivation: Unknown Known abilities: Undisclosed Power level: Undisclosed ... The list continued on, which was quite weird when Xander submitted it. Why did they need so much private information? So they could suggest the best type of missions for me to take? Or for his future employers? Why did they need my sexual orientation, Xander wondered. Although he wasn''t hiding it, he liked both girls and guys. This world was quite different from his previous one; in that world, countless wars were launched because a group of people couldn''t handle what other people''s preference was in the bedroom, or in their relationship for that matter. In Eteria, no issues exist; there wasn''t even a need to label them. Hell, for all they care, you fall in love with a sprite and call it a union ordained by heaven. They, however, draw the line on non-human transforming beasts. Absolutely no bestiality allowed on this planet, no good sir. Anyhow, Xander''s smartwatch began vibrating, showing multiple notifications from representatives of groups, companies, and families who wanted to invite him for lunch, dinner, visit their compound/office/island, etc. Immediately, Xander rolled his eyes at all these and removed all messages, before setting his number as non-contactable unless he initiated the contact first. However, he did remember the numbers of notable groups and listed them in a note in the smartwatch. After fiddling for a while, he resumed finishing his dessert, before paying calling the waiter to pay for the bill. He noticed that there wasn''t any service charge, so he gave his own tip of 150 Etas, which is considerably large since his meal was roughly around 800 Etas. He headed outside and realized through his perception that there were a few inconspicuous people trailing him. At this, Xander thought of an idea and began moving out and about in the city, going to the dark alleyways and places where there were a lot of people. After a few minutes of twists and turns, he arrived at the MCGD headquarters and headed to the Mission Building. He couldn''t sense anyone else following him. Upon entering, however, Xander was surprised; there were a lot of mercenaries in the lobby of the building and quite a few stopped their conversation and looked at him. Xander kept his stoic face as he moved to the next floor, specifically, the floor for C missions issued. When he left the lobby, the mercenaries were in a frenzy. "Wait, wasn''t that the new mercenary? The one upgraded to C+ class?" A man in brown attire asked. "Yeah, I think his name was Homer Simpson? He just registered to be mercenary two hours ago, and his documents were quickly processed!" A rookie wearing a green shirt said, his face confused and a bit jealous. "Ha, rookie! Don''t you know who he is?" Another mercenary approached the guy in a green shirt. "Um, no. I work in a car cleaning service. Should I know who he is?" the guy in green retorted, causing the mercenary that called him rookie to be speechless. "You... nevermind then, you wouldn''t understand his greatness then, and the favor he just gave to magicians at Legendary class and above." That same mercenary just shrugged and walked away, leaving the two. "Eh? Now I''m curious. I am a Master-8, close to becoming a Legendary magician. What did he do?" The green guy turned to look at the man in brown. "Joseph, this man wrote 2 revolutionary magic research papers and posted them last night, and it sent every business and government all over the world for the past half a day into a frenzy. His 2 papers had so many implications on future pharmaceutical, military, and economic benefits! At the same time, it caused a stir even in the scientific field, as his papers actually gave concrete observational data and replicable methods for others to study! Not only that, but his first paper can also be considered a 3-in-1 paper: he proved that elements, in fact, exist in multiple dimensions! At the same time, he also proved the theory of Elemental propagation as a universal law! And lastly, the theory of elemental conversion into the physical matter was a universal law as well! But wait, that''s just the first paper. Only scientists in the field of chemistry, mathematics, and physics would be interested in it. It was the second paper, supposedly made to supplement the first paper, that caused an uproar." At this point, the man in brown broke out in excitement. After all, he was a refined scholar who just applied to be a mercenary to earn some pocket money. "So what''s with the second paper then? Come on Bron, don''t leave me hanging." Joseph asked, his interest piqued. Although he wasn''t that smart on the research aspect, he knew the theories mentioned since they were taught in his elective classes such as Elemental Research IV in college. "He frickin'' managed to prove that immaterial elements can be, in fact, converted into material elements, while still retaining their functions!" Bron said excitedly, his small beard quivering slightly. "Huh? So how does that help legendary magicians and higher?" Joseph was confused. Okay, how does that involve legendary or higher magicians then? "You dolt! Don''t you know about Life and Death elements? If they could materialize it and began to sell it in different products, such as weapons, healing salves, creams, and pills, wouldn''t you buy it?? It''s like a disposable weapon and a life-saving item! And according to what was written in the paper, only legendary magicians and above can do the process of materializing immaterial elements!" Bron almost snapped at Joseph''s idiocy but decided to explain it still to him nonetheless. "Oh... Oh my god, the numerous applications for it... I can see why there''s the hype." Upon hearing it, Joseph broke into a cold sweat; after all, such a prestigious person would seem to come from no simple background! "That''s why everyone was surprised to see him join the mercenary group under MCGD. I mean, why bother in the first place? He would have better deals and benefits from other powerful groups sending invitations to him." Joseph pondered for a moment and then shook his head, confused as well. He wanted to suggest that maybe he joined the company because he was bored of research? Or could it be a form of vacation for him? But he feared if he voiced this out, other fellow mercenaries would beat the crap out of him. Of course, Xander didn''t have any idea about the uproar he had caused in the lobby. Even if he did, he wouldn''t care. After a minute, he reached the 9th floor. The area was as large as the lobby, but it was less crowded than the other floors he saw on the way up. The elevators here actually used Gravity Element, which was actually a derivative of earth/metal element. Gravity element, in actuality, was formed from combining concepts of space to that of earth/metal and falls under the Physics Series of elements. This includes repulsion (air and space), cohesion (water, earth/metal, space), attraction (gravity, and air), Friction (Water/Air/Fire/Earth & Metal/Wood, and Space) as well as other physical aspects, such as magnetic force, electric force, electromagnetic force, radiation, weak force, strong force, etc. Pity though, those that had talent in these elements never passed the Master class and stayed there for the rest of their lives, and dedicated themselves in other fields of research and development such as computers, physics, mathematics, and chemistry. One reason is that they couldn''t seem to harness the power of space; their thoughts as researchers and magicians should be boundless and willing to explore different possibilities, but upon learning that their element was one of those in the Physics series, majority of them, often or not, stopped their magic cultivation and began scientific research. Upon stepping outside the elevator, he was greeted with opulent decor, with a clear view of the outside due to full-pane glass, numerous couches and tables to sit and relax, as well as discuss with fellow mercenaries. In the middle of the floor, a round counter was present and there were 4 attendants dutifully doing their job entertaining the mercenaries'' questions and requests, as well as mission submissions. In the middle of the counter, a 1.5-meter diameter transparent tube was present, with 4 doors placed. Xander had read about this in the information the System got: This was the central chute that transported the evidence the mission usually required to the designated facility for checking and confirming. The process usually takes no more than an hour, and the fast being 10 minutes. Of course, this is usually for missions such as delivering items, gathering rare materials or hunting magic beasts, or even normal animals. If the mission involved a specific client requesting like, let''s say, "Find me a magic beast child" or "Create this specific artifact/item" or "Help me with XX problem, direct payment", these types of missions were fully paid by the client, and MCGD only takes a fee from the poster of the request, usually 3 times the price of that of the same ranked request. He approached one of the empty counters and the attendant behind immediately greeted him with a smile. "Hello, welcome to the Missions building. My name is Aria. This seems to be the first time you came here, meaning you probably just registered. May I ask for your Mercenary ID to verify your membership as well as direct you if you are in the proper floor?" Aria eloquently spoke, her voice steady and calm. Xander nodded in reply and spoke, "Yes, I''m newly registered. My Mercenary ID is 093-XCV3-556K-299Z-QS0W-08A. I received a notification that my application was completed, and proceed to the C+ class floor of the Missions building." Xander then showed the letter that he received from MCGD, upon which, Aria was quite stunned. She immediately inputted the mercenary ID in the terminal and immediately released a ''validated'' sound. Aria smoothened her expression before saying, "Alright, everything seems to be in order. In the mercenary group, you have an option to be referred with an alias. Would you like to choose an alias? Please note, every time you would receive a mission, you will be called by your alias from then on, even the employers of the mission would only know you by this alias." Xander thought for a moment, before speaking, "Lonely Maker. This is my selected alias." Aria inputted it in the form that appeared on her console and nodded when it was accepted. "Alright, with your code name done, you can now accept missions. You only need to present this proof of mercenaryship to the employer if its a direct-hire, or come here and submit the mission items." Aria immediately printed out the membership card of Xander, but after it printed and materialized, she froze. "A...an obsidian mercenary card..!" 29 First Mission 2 Xander was also surprised. He knew that mercenary membership cards differed between mercenaries even if they are of the same rank. Namely, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Obsidian, and Adamantium. Each level has their own corresponding benefits. Bronze is basically the starting tier. The only benefit here is that you get a 5% discount on purchases you do in companies owned by MCGD. Silver is the next tier. It requires a one-time downpayment of 50,000 Etas as well as at least having a 80% success rate to all your missions on the year before you applied for one. Benefits were 10% discount to purchases, as well as the your cut increases from 60/40 to 65/35. Gold is the tier after, and it requires a one-time downpayment of 150,000 Etas as well as at least having 85% success rate to all your missions on the year before you applied for one, with a minimum mission count of 10. Benefits were 15% discount to purchases, access to level-1 purchase channels of the MCGD company (at 1.5x the market price, however), as well as your cut increasing to 70/30. Diamond is the tier most want to get. It requires a one-time downpayment of 300,000 Etas, a well as having 90% success rate to all your mission on the year before you applied for one, with a minimum mission count of 20, with at least 10 of them being the same rank as your mercenary class. Benefits were highly appreciated: 25% discount to all purchases, access to level-1 purchase channels of the MCGD company (at market price) as well as your cut increasing to 75/25. Obsidian, the tier Xander got, required an annual payment of 750,000 Etas, as well as having 95% success rate to all your missions on the year before you applied for one, minimum of 20 missions, with one of the missions being a mission 1 rank higher than your current mercenary class. Its benefits were highly sought after: A 35% discount to all stores and companies under MCGD corporation, as well as access to level 1-4 purchase channels of the MCGD company, with a 10% discount, as well as increasing your cut to 85/15. Once you got an Adamantium tier, it requires 1 million Etas annually paid, as well as having 100% success rate to all your missions on the year before and the year you are applying for one, minimum of 10 missions with 5 missions having a rank above your current mercenary class. Its benefits involved having a 50% discount to all stores and companies under the MCGD, as well as access to level 1-7 purchase channels with a 15% discount, and levels 8-10 with 1.5x the market price. Your cut increases to 95/5. Aria, upon seeing the card, knew that this mercenary in front of him was some bigshot or someone related to the company because she actually saw that the membership status on the Obsidian tier was placed as PERMANENT, meaning he didn''t even have to pay the annual dues. Ok, Aria, calm down and focus. remember your job. Aria immediately activated her Wind magic, slowly controlling the amount of air she was breathing in and out, calming herself down in a matter of seconds. She raised her head and looked at Xander the same way as she did earlier, but with more enthusiasm. "Sorry for the delay. Here is your obsidian-tier membership card. embedded on it would be your alias as well as your personal information that can only be accessed by technical members of the company, usually done when one is missing or presumed dead and needs identification. Would you like me to explain the benefits and functions of your obsidian-tier membership card?" Xander shook his head before asking Aria, "Can I now take a look at the missions available?" Aria was taken aback, and this time, there was a hint of strangeness in her looks. "Certainly. I see you have a smartwatch; you can go to the application store and download the MCGD: Mercenary Missions list Application. You log in using your alias and your mercenary ID as your password." Immediately, Xander quietly cursed at himself. He remembered that when he got the message from MCGD, he was asked to download a series of apps; he merely disregarded them and thought of them as an advertisement. He quickly thanked Aria, who just smiled in response and bowed. She also said, "Once you have selected a mission, you can directly go do the mission without reporting it to me, since it has been digitally recorded. You only need to talk to me again if the mission you got is categorized under MCGD, meaning, it was delegated to the company. If it isn''t, you can contact the one who posted the mission. Looking at the app store, he immediately downloaded the applications related to mercenary work: Forums, Mission List, and Secure chat. After downloading, he logged in the three programs with the information he had. First and foremost, he made the system hack through these programs, allowing him to gather pertinent posts, replies and missions he would want to take. He wouldn''t need to search keywords in the forum concerning the information he was looking for; it would base the shown posts to the selected mission. Using the filter function, he selected missions issued with the Delta region. Thousands of results came up. He then added a filter for capture/subjugation/pet capture; there were 236 results. He then arranged it from high to low payout, and viewed the top 3 missions. [I need a kitty cat!]: Get me a cat that I would like, magic beast or not. Money is not an issue, but I want the cat friendly to me! [I want a boa!]: I want a huuuuge snake. Money is not an issue, but I don''t want any injuries on the snake at all, and the snake be friendly to me! [I want a majestic panther!]: I want a panther, my dad said they were the best animals to have because their fur was soooo soft! Money is not an issue, but I want the panther uninjured and I want it friendly to me! Weirdly, the three missions were posted by the same person: S. Smythe. When he looked at the time they were posted, it has been 1 month. The app also posted how many have attempted to do the mission. Accordingly, there were a total of 18 people that attempted the 3 missions, but no one succeeded, and there was even 2 casualties. He focused on the 2 casualties; upon checking the comments done by mercenaries that did the mission, Xander found out what the person, S. Smythe, was looking for. The first mission: It was a 7-eyed Cheshire cat, a magic beast with an age of 70,000 years, equivalent to someone in the Legendary-7 stage. Every additional 10,000 years they would have an extra eye, and upon reaching Mythic class, the 9 eyes would merge into 1, vibrant red eye. The elements it could control are based on the number of eyes, with each eye containing a different spell at the legendary level. Recommended bringing at least 10 people well versed to different elements, with 2 of them being on the life element series. The second mission: It was talking about a Violentwind Poison Serpent, a Wind-Poison-Lightning element magic beast, aged at least 30,000 years. It can not only fly but the gust produced by its wings, as well as its blood and spit, can cause severe poisoning to its victims, slowly eroding them from the inside out. Its fangs can rip a 10-story building easily, as well as cause release lightning as its venom, charring its target. Every additional 10,000 years, a pair of legs grow on its body. Upon reaching Mythic class, it transforms into a Lightning, Wind, or Poison Flood Dragon, with its legs merging into a pair of legs and a pair of arms. It then begins to develop a single horn. Recommended to fight as a group with one healer, and bring antidotes. The third mission: It was referring to a Darkness Lynx, a 5000-year-old magic beast. The main problem is it lives in packs and they move about in groups of three. They never fight alone; the moment a trio discovers a strong enemy, they howl for nearby pack members to help them. Every 1000 years, the darker their fur grows, and the larger they become. When they reach Legendary class, their body then compresses to the 1/10th of their previous size, with all their attributes quadrupled, and learn a legendary spell. At Master class, they have no spells, only overbearing strength. Recommended finding a skilled trapper to target the lynx. Recommended bringing a one-hit killer as well, to avoid pack lynching. Xander carefully scanned the comments and warnings made by other mercenaries and began to weigh the pros and cons of this mission. For its benefits, it was a B+ rank mission, two ranks above his current mercenary class. That means, he would be equivalent to increasing his fame as a mercenary; although he would still need to take the qualifying exam to go up to the next mercenary class, his mission requirements would basically be done if he succeeded. This mission also entails me to experience fighting, talking or bargaining with a different sentient species than humans. At the same time, the rewards were quite enticing, as it promised a type of rare plant, Dragonvein Lily, as well as 5 grams of a priceless metal, Meteorgold ore, a metal that he didn''t have access to, even for just a sample. For its cons, however, it''s a bit complex. One, the identity of the poster seemed dubious; it was probably a representative of a powerful family, rather than the requester him/herself. He wouldn''t be able to form a better relationship with real requester, which was one of Xander''s goals in becoming a mercenary besides exploring. At the same time, there might be factors outside the given information which may hinder the process. Lastly, he was too eye-catching now; if he exposed himself again, this time with greater momentum concerning his abilities, people may begin to pay attention to him, people with bad intentions. After a few minutes of thinking, he finally decided not to take these missions today; after all, it is just his 1st day as a mercenary; he still had 6 more days to go. He could maybe complete this mission 2 days before he returned and Homer Simpson disappears. For now, he selected 2 missions in the B-rank, focused on collecting rare materials. [4 Stalks of Moonshine Clover]: This plant grows in the marshlands 100 kilometers south of Callows City. Usually the favorite food of Snapback turtles, a magic beast with a strength below legendary level. They only grow 6 times a year, and they expire within 4 weeks. Reward: 10,000 Etas for 4 stalks, an additional 3,000 for every additional stalk; no limit. [50 grams of Azrite (90% purity)] This metal is found in the mines of Mount Descras, 150 kilometers west of Verdant City. It is a necessary component to creating magic artifacts, as well as parts of machinery to protect it from magic damage. Considered a rare metal due to its scarcity. Rewards: 10,000 Etas for 50 grams, additional 2,000 per 10 grams more. If purity is above 95%, 100,000 Etas for 50 grams, additional 20,000 per 10 grams more. He only needed to submit the items via the Missions building, since these 2 requests were commissioned to the MCGD. Upon selecting the two missions and the program showing that he was currently taking the mission, he headed out of the Missions building. He didn''t bother meeting or talking to anyone in the lobby and continued towards his hotel. Once again, there were several people trailing him, and Xander, after a few twists and turns, as well as a bit of space magic, he quickly lost them, and he entered the hotel he was staying and went straight to his room, cleaning for a bit, and teleported to the marshlands. _________________________________ "Damn it, we lost him again!" A grim-faced man shouted at the men in front of him. None of them raised their heads, not daring to face their boss''s wrath. "You are all useless! This city is our domain, how could you even lose such a person?" the grim-faced man continued to berate his subordinates. "B-but boss, we really didn''t know what happened! Whenever he turned, we also turned, but by time we turned he was already at a different junction, turning again!" one of the subordinates said, obviously annoyed that they couldn''t even complete a simple trailing mission. "Y-yeah boss, what Johnson said is right! It was like no matter how fast we walked we just couldn''t reach him, and he was moving in the crowd like nothing was hindering him!" Another subordinate shouted, in support of his comrade Johnson. "Hmph! Excuses! Have you lot at least discovered where he was staying? We checked with the hotels under our influence and no one registered with the name of Homer Simpson." the boss of the group asked, obviously still angry at his subordinates'' incompetence. This time, no one responded, indicating their answer to his question. The leader''s face turned ugly, and became quite frightened inside. After all, it was a powerful magician that wanted to learn of their target''s location. He, their boss, had received such a fright when the man just appeared inside the base while he was eating his lunch, demanding him to trail the target, Homer Simpson. He was given a day to do it, and if he wasn''t able to do it, the mysterious magician bluntly told him that there would be no need for the organization to exist any longer. He only has until tomorrow noon to find the person. "Go! Continue searching! Utilize our connections to find out where this person is staying! Ask people in the city if they had seen him, so make sure you have the photo of Homer Simpson!" The boss roared at his subordinates, causing them to frantically leave the office and head out into different parts of the city, asking passerby and owners where Xander was staying. Pity, for they didn''t realize that Xander applied 2 layers of disguise- the first one being his identity as Homer Simpson, and another face whenever he came back to the vicinity of his hotel. However, in less than an hour of dispersing, news of the largest underground gang of Verdant City looking for Homer Simpson had reached every resident''s ears, as well as mercenaries entering and leaving the city. _____________________________________ The Marshlands, Delta province, Eta A figure immediately materialized within the thick foliage of leaves and branches, appearing relaxed. The figure was wearing shorts and a simple t-shirt as if he was a tourist. As he was heading deeper into the marshlands, magic beasts of different sizes attempted to attack him, and mosquitoes and several leeches attempted to come close to his body. But before they even managed to reach feet away from the figure, they all stilled, before disintegrating. Nothing was left, even magic cores. When the figure saw this, he made a clucking sound, obviously proud of his defense but disappointed that the magic cores were destroyed as well. This was figure was Xander. After he fixed his belongings in the hotel and took a bath, he changed his clothes to something casual and teleported to the forest. Immediately, [Absolute Defense] activated on its own, meaning the environment is a threat to Xander''s body. Xander was a bit perplexed. Could it be some sort of poison in the air? No wonder the number of mercenaries that have taken the mission even if it was posted for more than 2 months was quite low, not even surpassing 10 people. Using his space elements, he analyzed the air; there were traces of poison, and it was slow-acting one. Once one was exposed to it for a long time it would be too late to do anything. To protect themselves, they would need at least a High-grade antidote taken in every hour or at least a setup that can filter the air completely of poison elements. What was cool about the poison element is that it can evolve on its own, changing its concentration and effect depending on its interactions with other poison elements and other elements. The good thing is that technology evolved with magic, making it possible to create filtration products that can remove certain elements or decrease them to a very, very low amount. What''s another interesting tidbit about these elements is the methods they are formed. It separated into two: natural and artificial methods. Natural means that a combination of certain elements at certain ratios formed poison elements in the area. Another is when physical matter at certain levels concentrate, slowly producing poison elements, having certain characteristics from the physical matter they come from. The sewage system of cities in Eta, for example, undergoes multiple filtration and cleaning processes, done by machines imbued with specific runic writings for certain elements. But even then, the area before the filtration system is quite deadly to beings that do not have immunity to poison or do not have poison as a primary element. Thus, no one really lives in sewage systems, except for certain magic beast species that were borne out of these wastes, as well as young poison sprites, around 1000-20,000 years old, depending on the age of the cities. After all, the sewage system being used worldwide has been the norm for the past 30,000 years. Even during the war 20,000 years ago, the sewage systems were relatively left alone as well as undamaged from the bombardments of weapons and spells. They say that in Emerita City in the country of Nema holds the oldest known poison sprite within their sewage systems. Xander thought for a moment before thinking of the possibility that there was a natural poison sprite in this marshlands. 30 Fighting for treasure Xander analyzed the situation and postulated that there might be a poison sprite hibernating in the depths of the marshlands, which stopped the government from changing the terrain and establishing a town or into small farmland. He cross-checked with the government''s database on beings of interest within their country and a total of 25 poison sprites were listed. No government in the world dare take action against these sprites because there was a superpower behind the sprites: The Heavenly Tree sprite. Towering over the planet of Eteria, anyplace from around the world would you be able to see its towering trunk and branches reaching to the starry skies above. After all, they believed that the sprite was more than 1,000,000 years old, as well as their defense again alien invaders that may chance upon their planet. Although there were Divine class magicians in Eteria, most if not all were in cultivation seclusion. However, it doesn''t mean the sprites are free to do whatever they want, such as mindlessly causing disasters and killing innocent people. According to the established rules set forth by the Heavenly Tree Sprite 800,000 years ago, sprites were: 1. To have their own semi-private domain; meaning, other beings may visit, pass through, or gather materials within their property, and as long as they do not proceed to do a large disturbance to the property such as destruction of property, sprites cannot harm them. In turn, these sprites cannot be harmed by other beings as well. 2. Sprites can retaliate if another being is being aggressive to the point it is turning into a fight. The sprites can now then decide to kill or maim these beings. However, if the sprite initiates the fight, other beings in the vicinity would be free to reciprocate in action, however, they can only maim or disable the sprite, not kill it. 3. Sprites must help the people in their jurisdiction when a natural calamity has struck unconditionally, but still, of course, ensuring its own safety. Xander quickly scanned the list of poison sprites in Eta''s database and saw one that matches: it was a 50,000-year-old natural poison sprite named Ehlena. It seems to live deep under the largest marshland in the area, where the target material, Moonshine Clover, grows. He wouldn''t have any problems dealing with a sprite, but it was a hassle to make a fuss since he was just there to collect plants. After moving around the marshlands, he was surprised that he was able to meet a group of 4 mercenaries in the marshlands. He approached their location since it was on the way towards the largest marshland, and he saw them fighting off against a pack of magic beast direwolves, roughly around Master-7. It seemed to be no problem for the mercenaries since it seems that they were all in the legendary class. When he saw them, and they saw him, they merely nodded at one another, before Xander continued to towards the place where the Moonshine Clover grows. With the same pace, he had entered the marshlands, in a few minutes, Xander had already reached the area where Ehlena lives in, and from afar, he could see several plants growing by the side of the marsh. Upon closer inspection, they were Moonshine Clovers, and there were several tens of them growing at the bank. Rather than collect them all, he only picked 5 stalks, at was going to head out when something caught his eye. He was about to approach it when he detected an attack approaching him. Using [Absolute Time], he reversed the spell''s existence, causing it to vanish into nothing. Almost by reflex, he launched a total of 4 attacks under the 5-elements series, with each attack comprising of 16 magic spells. This was after he activated [Heavenly Divination] and ensured all his strikes hit the weak points of his targets. Although his current cultivation was Elite-8, he could handle anyone below Mythic class easily. Before his spells could reach their targets though, a barrier appeared on the targets, taking the brunt of the spells before breaking apart. However, this was enough time for Xander to get the item that caught his eye. Briefly looking at it, he immediately identified it as an Alexandrite Cat Eye, a type of crystal that is formed from compression of certain elements at a specific ratio. The value of this item is considered priceless, because such a crystal is classified under flawless category, and there is a large market for it but no supply. People in the past have attempted to compress elements into crystal form, which successfully took off and created many products, from jewelry to magic accessories, to even raw materials for weapons as well as used as weapons themselves. Imagine, compressing fire element particles into a crystal; what if you could sequence them to rapidly expand when their physical structure receives a shock? Immediately, elemental bombs became a trend, to the point that you actually need to have a license to use or even carry them in public spaces. The Alexandrite Cat Eye involves 6 different elements, naturally complementing one another and formed this crystal. The raw Cat eye could actually improve affinity and control of elements, and if it was processed, more functions could be added. Looking at the greedy eyes of the mercenaries in front of him, he knew they planned to rob and kill him so he couldn''t report them, as technically, mercenaries aren''t allowed to harm other mercenaries. Xander eyes turned cold. Since they wanted to kill him, he can''t be blamed for reciprocating the gesture to them. No talks were done. Both groups had their objectives, and they were magicians, meaning they were smart and they think very fast in situations like this. Xander immediately launched his own attacks, causing multiple rays of spells to target the mercenaries. A few of them attempted to dodge as well as cast their counterspells, targeting the spells that Xander released, hoping to cancel out the attack. They didn''t realize that the attack was more than 1 magic spell, and only when they saw the attack continuing towards them did they notice something was wrong. immediately, one of the mercenaries brought out a rolled up banner, unfurled it, and a voice no human was capable of saying were heard, "Fa14V^434&32!@A F6*((@$))VDFD" Immediately, the winds began howling in the marshlands, with several dark clouds covering the sun, as if a storm was approaching. On the banner, there were multiple runic writings squirming and forming a blurry image. From the fluctuations, Xander paled for a bit before casting two spells, [Void Rejection] and [Space Crush] in the area where the scroll was. Immediately, the runic writings in the scroll stopped moving, before disappearing, evaporating from the scroll. At the same time, the space where the one holding the scroll was visibly compressing, and the man was slowly crushed into meat patty, in the horror of the other colleagues, they could see the meat being compressed, all the blood and innards compressing into speck of red sphere. Even the scroll wasn''t left unscathed. The scroll was ripped apart causing an elemental explosion, but it was quickly contained by the spatial spell. It was compressed in such a way an elemental crystal was formed in its place. For a few seconds, the mercenaries couldn''t react. All their control over their spells suddenly collapsed, as if there was a pull that removed the elemental essences in the area, and even if they This time gap was enough for Xander to launch another set of attacks, this time, due to the effects of [Void Rejection] he could only use physical attacks enhanced by magic. With his hands infused with [Absolute Time - Slow], he began to strike towards the mercenaries. Instantly, the mercenaries began to react quickly. They began dodging Xander''s attacks, after a while, they realized the elements stored inside their bodies were still usable and began to infuse their elements to their physical bodies. However, their faces changed; they realized that the elements'' movement in their bodies was slowing down. If before they could easily cause the elements to cycle in their body with a second, right now, the speed was 50 times slower. If they wanted to cycle the elements in their body, they needed roughly 5.9x10^15 seconds, or roughly 1 billion years. This effect doesn''t last long, however, merely 30 minutes. However, they soon realized another horrifying thing: their bodies were slowing down! Even their physical bodies were beginning to slow down with every hit from Xander. With [Absolute Time - Slow], it was beginning to slow down the characteristics of the targets, starting from the extraneous to the intrinsic characteristics. Theoretically, Xander could cause them to move so slowly to the point that in the eyes of others, they weren''t moving. However, right now, with his abilities and comprehension of space-time, [Absolute Time- Slow] Could easily slow down extraneous characteristics up to 100x slower, while intrinsic characteristics are only up to 5x slower. If he improved his understanding of space-time, he could probably derive a new use for the spell: [Absolute Time - Stop], where he can literally stop the time of every function, characteristics of a target for a period of time. He also believes that in the future, he could extend the use of this spell from physical contact to an area, allowing him to affect the time of everyone beside him indefinitely as long as they are in the area of effect. After another few seconds of fighting, the 3 remaining mercenaries collapsed, all of them couldn''t be more dead. Xander exhaled before deactivating [Absolute Time]. Although he could use it indefinitely and without repercussions, it would be quite problem if he accidentally slowed someone''s time. He quickly checked for their identifications by hacking into their electronics, and checking their owned properties and money in their bank accounts. Upon seeing the money not even cumulatively surpassing 7 digits, he distastefully shook his head and began to transfer the money into different charities all over the world under anonymous donations, ranging from 100,000 to 800,000 Etas worth of donations. He activated [Absolute Time] and accelerated the time of the clothes and the remains, to the point that nothing was left but dust and ashes that quickly dispersed into the air and ground. He collected the red sphere as well as the elemental crystal. It seems he has opened another avenue of possible profit: elemental crystals. With [Space Crush] he could create them in batches; he also wondered: if the range of [Space Crush] increases to the point of covering a whole planet, or even an astral star, would he be able to create a black hole? Although he could naturally create them, as well as spatial rifts and spatial blades, but he technically has no self-made skill for them, meaning the effect is not controlled. Even when he was booby-trapping the entrances to his underground laboratory, he had to test several times in isolated space the spatial blades and rifts he made, to ensure they were at the right size to be deadly and undetectable to anyone. He observed the elemental crystal formed as well as the red sphere; could the latter be a solidified magic sphere? Xander thought to himself, curious about its purpose and function. It could be a simple amalgamy of blood, bones and tissues of the person, solidifying into a red sphere because of the spell. He tried injecting a bit of magical power in the red sphere, which immediately started to show runic writing and quickly vibrated. Xander saw this, and unhesitatingly, he threw it into the marsh, before his face paled and realized his mistake. Wait, isn''t there a sprite living here? Damn it! Xander immediately utilized the space elements to surround the sphere and time elements to attempt to reverse the activation of runic writings. Seeing the time elements barely reversing it, Xander sighed before he teleported the orb with him into an uninhabited planet 15 light years away, and escaping into the space outside the planet within a matter of seconds. A few seconds later, a bright, pulsating light began to emanate from the red sphere, covering the surface of the planet with a round, red light roughly with a diameter of 5000 kilometers. From afar, it looked like a giant pimple. However, Xander the elemental fluctuations Xander could feel surprised him. The elements... these were elements above the space-time, yin-yang, and life-death elements! Order and Chaos elements!! Xander was in ecstasy; he began to change his position into a better form and location, a bit closer to the red sphere radius. He immediately began delving into understanding the mysteries of the 2 elements that beget the three pairs in the Origin series of elements. seconds became days, days became years. But this was because the time deceleration field... covered the whole planet. Although he could only touch living things to slow down their characteristics, non-living things were a different story. As he had earlier confirmed that there was no sign of life, not even sprites, not even microorganisms, existed in the planet and the space nearby, where he was located. He slowed the flow of time of the area of the planet, but accelerated his body''s time, to understand and deconstruct the runic writings, the representations and numerous conformations creation element can bring forth. Inside the red sphere, it was a different story than the rest of the planet; a few sprouts of green appeared, before grasses began to grow, turning into a fertile green plain, before trees began to grow and disseminate over the area; slowly, the trees began to grow and thrive, changing into different species, some of the grass became different types of flowers, these flowers began to bore fruits as well as the trees. All of this happened in the span of less than 5 minutes. After the trees, the grass, the flowers were thriving, more and more things started to appear; there were vines, there were puddles of water slowly coalescing into a small pond, small rivers diverging from the said pond. The mountainous peaks were becoming covered in lush greenery, with more different species of plants appearing. The red sphere wasn''t a border that stopped them from growing; they were rapidly growing more and more from the red sphere outward, producing enough chemical products that produce the formation of the atmosphere. More and more water sources are also appearing outside the red sphere, but more diversity and evolution occurred inside the red sphere. However, this process of creation didn''t continue for so long; some of the vines were parasitic, as well as the other plant species formed. Slowly they killed the other plants, devouring their nutrients to survive, before heading to the next hosts. They also became a victim of parasitism, and they died as well. However, as more plants died, more were born. Slowly, the leftover materials were transforming into some kind of source of energy, an amalgamy of life present. Elements converged into this source of energy, and microbial organisms were born. Viruses, bacteria, eukaryotes, and prokaryotes rapidly grew and diversified from these ancient microbial organisms, as if guided by something, but their growth and evolution was skewed. After another 5 minutes, the first multi-cellular lifeform was formed: It was a worm that survived in the pond, living its life there. Slowly, more and more of these worms appeared, and some of them began their path to evolution. Worms became small fishes, fishes became amphibians that could move in both land and water, and these amphibians diversified into more and more land and air species. Some of them began to move further and further from the red sphere, producing byproducts that reinforced the atmosphere as well. After a total of 12 minutes, the red sphere shimmered before collapsing on its own, the red dome parts manifesting into physical items. Immediately, Xander utilized the space elements and carried the physical shards to his location, and began to observe them, realizing that they contained both Order and Chaos elements, solidified into runic writing. He then placed them in his spatial storage, planning to comprehend more of these shards in the future. This was a fruitful trip. Not only did he gain enlightenment to the Order and Chaos elements, his space-time and the other 2 sets of elements, yin-yang and life-death comprehensions also increased. He immediately left the newly-terraformed planet, leaving it to its own devices. It was a pity, though, that he had removed the bodies of the other legendaries. He might have gained more of that red sphere if he hadn''t removed them. _________________________________________________ In the marshlands, deep in the largest marsh. "Huh? It seems that powerful guy already disappeared." A young looking humanoid female was lounging on her bed, playing with her phone. Her hair was dark green, with her face and skin pale in tone. This was the poison sprite Xander was looking out for, Ehlena. She looked like a teenager, but in truth, she was thousands and thousands of years old. "Who was that human? Grandpa Tree didn''t tell me to watch out for that person." Ehlena muttered to herself, before checking the surveillance she recorded. She then compared it to the database that Elves had on human beings of interest, and after a few minutes, she found a match. "Homer Simpson. Hmm. That''s weird, this person was listed as a low priority, but the power he showcased..." Ehlena visibly shuddered at the thought. She could still feel the magical fluctuations in the area as if permanently leaving a scar in the environment. It was slowly distorting the area above the marsh. It wasn''t noticeable at first, but as more and more years would pass, time would continue to slow down in that area, to the point of stopping. Of course, for now, Ehlena only thought that something was done in the elemental properties of the area, causing one''s movements to slow down as well as cycling elemental energy from outside and inside the body. The good thing was that it was limited to a few tens of square meters, so Ehlena didn''t have to move about or ask for help from Grandpa Tree. Ehlena, however, filed for a change in priority for Homer Simpson, raising it to medium level priority. She had a feeling that there was more than what meets the eye to this person. _________________________________________________ Xander''s first day was tiring. There was just too many things happening. He checked his stats once he returned to his room in the hotel. That breakthrough in the marshlands was unexpected, as well as the sudden enlightenment he received about space-time and the Order and Chaos elements, and although he almost started a fight with the sprite and had an encounter with depraved people, it seemed that all is well. When he checked his stats via the system, the system displayed his comprehension levels as well. Xander Cloverfield Lvl 7 Elite-9 Str: 180 Vit: ? Int: ? Dex: 180 Luck: ? Comprehension: Space-Time: 10% Yin-Yang: 5% Life-Death: 5% Order: 2% Chaos: 1% Skills: Time Mastery: Max Space Mastery: Max Basic Magic Foundation: 10/10 Intermmediate Magic Foundation: 10/10 Advanced Magic: 5/10 - [Space Crush] [Temporal Replication] [Elemental Dominance] [Heavenly Divination] [Void Rejection] Legendary Magic: 1/? [Material Transformation] Mythic Magic: 0/? Demigod Magic: 0/? Divine Magic: 2/7 - [Ordered Life Regeneration (no Limit)] [Chaotic Life Evolution (no Limit)] Sage Magic: 1/5 - [Absolute Defense] God Magic: 3/3 - [Absolute Time] [Absolute Space] [Origin Universe] 31 Exploring 1 What was weird and surprising was that [Instant Regeneration (no limit)] and [Lifeblood] merged and was elevated into Divine rank, making it into 2 Divine spells. At the same time, the two advanced spells disappeared, giving him five slots filled out of 10. It was the name and description of the two spells that kind of confused and worried him. [Ordered Life Regeneration (no limit)]: Life essence will never decrease or increase, nor be affected by elements and magic spells that exist within the ordered system. The body cannot be separated from the Life essence as a result. This is activated automatically at the presence of ordered system elements/magic spells. This spell can be used to other living and non-living beings, which only heals them. [Chaotic Life Evolution (no limit)]: Any form of injury or damage in and on the body will be reverted to normal. The life essence of the caster will never decrease or increase, nor be affected by elements and magic spells that exist outside the ordered system. The body and life essence cannot be combined as a result. Activated automatically upon the presence of non-ordered system magic spells/elements. The spell can be used to other living and non-living beings, which can cause them to mutate and evolve. Aren''t these two spells conflicting? Xander thought for a moment, then realized one thing: One suppresses the negative effects of the other spell, but both support each others'' positive traits. Both focus on the life essence doll, while the latter protects the body from harm. The spells can heal, and at the same time, be used to cause beings to evolve or mutate. With the formation of these two new spells, he decided to remove two pseudo-spells, namely [Body Control] and [Blood Manipulation] and then created 2 Advanced spells he had gleaned from the red sphere during its activation: [Ethereal Sunrise] and [Frenzied Sunset], a pair of spells for Order and Chaos elements. [Ethereal Sunrise]: Invokes the power of order to be strengthened in the target or area, causing improved elemental circulation, cultivation, and magic spell power up to 10 times the original effect. Elements have a stronger representation of the rules of the ordered system in the area or in the target. Can only be used before noon. [Frenzied Sunset]: Invokes the power of chaos to be strengthened in the target, or area, causing higher rates of randomness, and makes the Elements'' representation of rules of the ordered system weaker, or even swap in the area or in the target. It can only be used after noon. Because of the unique properties of these two spells, they have a special function. When the spells are cast at the same time, a Sage rank spell: [Twilight Sonata], activates. [Twilight Sonata]: Returns everything to their very origin, removing both chaos and order in the area, reducing everything into nothing, forming a seed of creation and a seed of destruction. The number of seeds produced depends on numerous factors. This combined spell, however, cannot be used by Xander now, given that his comprehension for the Order and Chaos elements was not on the required level. On the other hand, his space-time comprehension was the one that benefited the most. With 10%, space appears as a series of points and matrices that are interconnected, no matter how far you are from one point to another. With his current strength, Xander could travel 1/4 of the universe''s distance within seconds and reach the end of it in less than a minute, with no traceable spatial and elemental fluctuations. He looked at humans walking outside the hotel and he could see lines that form their bodies, their being. He could even damage it or destroy it completely. He noticed that different people of different cultivations had differing line structures, some more complex, some more simple, some were thicker. At the same time, his capability to break spaces increased to a new level; he could easily escape chaotic spaces with a single thought, as well as break the space apart to force the ordered system to reset the space in the area. So, if he was sealed in a stable space, or traveled in a chaotic space region, he could break it and elicit a reaction from the ordered system to repair the space back to its original state, before the sealing or chaos ever existed. Breaking layered spaces were the same as well; even if they were infused by other elements, as long as they aren''t the origin elements, they could easily be broken down simultaneously by Xander. All the capabilities of his space-based spells also increased qualitatively. [Space Crush] can now cover a maximum area of a lightyear, with the speed it activates being less than a second. His other God rank spell, [Absolute Space], became activated, with the (sealed) turning into (sealed, 10% unlocked) state. He could finally read the description of the spell. [Absolute Space (sealed, 10% unlocked)]: Space becomes a multi-dimensional drawing for you. Everything is formed by points, lines, and shapes, the very foundation of space, and it is easy for you to manipulate these points, lines, and shapes. Multi-dimensional traveling is quite an easy task, and creating a fledgling dimension would be no problem. One can also create spatial holes out of the ordered system and into the Great Void, and sneaking into other ordered systems is also possible. The limitations of your control over space are the limitations of your imagination and knowledge. Now, with 10% comprehension of Time, besides the viewing of the past and future elongating to from 10,000 to 100,000 years, to 100,000 to 10,000,000 years. He could also influence the river of time of the ordered system at a certain extent, meaning he could summon it and manipulate the changes by forcibly removing or adding something to the river, undetectable to anyone, within the period of 1 - 10,000,000 years into the future and back in the past. Weirdly, he could change his vision of the universe to actually detect ''pockets of time,'' natural and artificial areas in which time moves differently from the entire universe, whether it may be slower, faster, or not moving at all. Not only that, but he could also now influence the time clones of other beings; meaning, he could summon their alternate timeline bodies and abilities, and replace the current person in battle, before defeating them. So if he fights a Demigod magician, he would just need to delay for a few seconds to search for a time clone that is a mundane or mortal, replace his current state with that time clone, and then kill him while the time clone is in effect. The spell [Absolute Time] and [Temporal replication] also improved in quality; the latter being able to do it without direct contact and doing it in an area with a maximum size of a lightyear. He could create another Eteria planet appear in the starry sky, or even replicate the moon, or even the stars! The biggest improvement was [Absolute Time], where an additional line appeared at the end of the description. [Absolute Time (sealed, 10% unlocked)]: Nothing can go against the flow of time; this can affect non-living and living beings, targeting their characteristics, ranging from, but not limited to: Intrinsic characteristics (molecular and quantum structures, temperature, sharpness, clarity, thickness, roughness, concentration, spatial arrangement, etc.) Biological functions (Age, memories, digestion, regeneration, cell division, tissue and organ formation, etc.) and Extraneous functions (such as magic cultivation, ability to do magic, affinity towards the elements, etc.), causing them to reverse, slow, stop, or accelerate permanently, as long as their comprehension of the time element is lower than the caster. Xander pondered for a moment before realizing what the change meant. If earlier, he could reverse, slow, stop, or accelerate time, but only for a certain period of time in the ordered system, and it varied depending on how different the time was of the area to that of the rest of the universe, now he could cause beings to be permanently affected by time acceleration, reversal, slow, or stop as long as their comprehension is lower than his, as well as their cultivation level is not too high. Last but not the least, the combined understanding of space-time elements brought a breakthrough. Not only was the fusion of space-time spells a lot more stable compared to that of 2% comprehension, but reaching 10% allowed him to create larger pocket dimensions where time flows differently, becoming partially independent of the ordered system it is in, with its own set of rules and elements existing in it. It''s basically a spatial dimension, but it allows life to survive inside, and time flows differently, and not in a static state. He could convert his garden into a pocket dimension that is locked away from anyone''s prying eyes and hands, with only him and those he gave permission being able to enter and leave. Because of this partial fusion, all his space spells had a trace of the time element in them and vice versa. He could now target anyone with a distance of 1 lightyear with his time spells, so he doesn''t have to be in physical contact. The problem however is that it generates a karmic thread that connects it Xander''s life essence doll to the target if the target is not dead, so unless he uses this feature to kill rather than to torture or play around, others can use this opportunity to locate and bother Xander. Similarly, the space spells would also have a trace of time, meaning he could accelerate the process of the spell or even slow it down, or reverse it, or stop it. The space-time reversal whenever he gets critically injured to the point of dying also improved. If earlier, it returns 2 minutes before the scenario happens, it is now able to turn back up to a total of 180 days, or half a year, giving enough time for Xander to change and create plans to avoid the situation from happening. The radius of space-time reversal occurs within 1/4 of the universe''s total size, with the location he is in being the epicenter. All is reversed in this period: Biological, intrinsic, extrinsic processes, including life and death. Anyone who has a space-time comprehension lower than his are not exempted. Lastly, the formation of the last God spell, [Origin Universe] appeared. when he checked the description, he was not disappointed. [Origin Universe (sealed, 2% unlocked)]: Combining all origin elements except the Void element, one can create a small, stable, and independent ordered system in the Great Void for an indefinite amount of time. It cannot grow from its defined size. It is only the size of a lightyear. __________________________________ Waking up in the morning, Xander took a bath and changed his clothing, eating breakfast before going to his next destination: Mount Descras. He wanted to test the improved [Temporal Replication] on the metal that he was required to get. Upon reaching the mountain, he found a secluded cave and closed the entrance with both earth and space elements. He used his light spell, [Golden Light], and several orbs were placed on even intervals in the cave. He selected a place and sat down before establishing a temporary pocket dimension. Immediately, the pocket dimension established itself using the origin elements under Xander''s comprehension, and modified the flow of time within the pocket dimension to 1 second outside: 50 years inside time ratio and this system could last for around a month in the real world before naturally collapsing without any damage in the surroundings because of the difference of time inside and outside the dimension. However, Xander only needed it for a total of 2 hours, roughly causing 360,000 years to pass. It was impossible to create life inside the pocket dimension because the rules he established only focused on producing the purest earth/metal elements, rather than an average amount of every element under the origin elements. According to his experiments in the garden, sprites were not formed without the presence of other elements, but the only elements present were the origin elements and earth/metal elements; the rest were missing. Just in case, however, Xander went inside the small pocket dimension not larger than 20 meters in size after a few minutes of deliberation. He was dumbfounded with what he sensed upon entering the small space. The presence of Life-death elements and their derivatives. The presence of Yin-Yang elements and their derivatives. Xander was dumbfounded; the laws of the pocket dimension were generated in such a way that no other elements besides earth/metal and the origin elements. How could it create other elements of its own? Wait... semi-independent, anchored in the ordered system... Damn it! Xander slapped his forehead in his carelessness. He immediately checked the elemental concentration in the area and saw that there were pockets of elements concentrated within the newly generated earth/metal deposits. He immediately used his authority in the system to disperse these concentrations, removing any chances of sprites or non-living beings transforming into real living beings. Wait, it has been around five minutes, so that means, only 15,000 years have passed inside the pocket dimension. Xander immediately began scanning the space with his spatial perception. Bingo, microorganisms were already present in the pocket space. Although they looked different from how other microbes in the outside world were, as these ones had solidified, metallic parts, making them look glossy and robot-like. Xander shook his head before he started digging in the ground, and he finally got Azrite metal he was tasked to collect; they were of 99% purity. There were around 2 kilograms of the metal... Eh. He shrugged his shoulders and decided to make MCGD handle this then. Immediately, he left the pocket dimension, before forcing it to collapse on its own. He placed the metal into his spatial storage. He removed any foreign contamination from the microorganisms in the pocket dimension, to ensure he wouldn''t cause a collapse in the ecology of his planet if he left. He had seen so many timelines besides his where the planet collapsed because of extraterrestrial microorganisms collapsed the ecosystem, and humans couldn''t adapt to the changes. The problem with pocket spaces is that once it has been established, any attempts to change the structural settings can cause a cascade of effects to occur, which is a bitch to handle for Xander, so he would rather destroy one and build another again. This time, since he wasn''t going to use the space anymore, he forcefully collapsed it, causing the pocket dimension to shrink and implode in itself, slowly solidifying into a very, very dense spherical object. There was a caved section on the floor of the cave, indicating that the soil foundation of the pocket dimension came from that spot. Upon holding the sphere, he could detect the same fluctuations present in the red sphere when it was activated present in this current sphere. However, the difference was this one was inert, and even when he tried channeling elements into it, it wasn''t reacting. Xander had postulated why the red sphere had occurred: It was because the body is a source of both Order and Chaos since it shows ordered transformation, but the cultivation of magicians goes against the Order of the System. The dense sphere did have a weird property though: Although minute, he could feel the sphere continuously attracting elements and physical matter alike, condensing and adding to its current weight. Xander''s eyes twinkled for a bit, before thinking, could this be an item that can generate a planet if left for thousands and thousands of years in space? He could sense, from the sphere, besides the traces of origin elements, physical series of elements were active, albeit minute. He thought for a moment before teleporting a few lightyears away to an empty space. He placed the sphere there and accelerated the movement of time within a 50,000-kilometer radius to the sphere, making it 1 second:10 years, and he only needed to return there once every year to reinforce it. This ensures 315,360,000 years would pass in one year. Maybe he only needed 2 years to check if life has evolved in that place. When he returned to the mountain and then teleported back to the hotel, it was past noon. After resting for a bit, Xander donned his Homer Simpson disguise upon leaving the vicinity of the hotel, and headed to the MCGD Mission Building to submit the items required. Upon reaching the lobby entrance, he could notice surprised stares coming from other mercenaries present. No one dared to approach him with his cold demeanor and Xander moved unhindered until he reached the elevator. Once he boarded, his face changed, looking puzzled. "Why were they looking at me like that? I came here yesterday as well." Xander was confused, so he decided to check the Mercenary forums. Upon opening, he could see a posted banner. "MR. HOMER SIMPSON, PLEASE COME MEET ME IN THE MERCENARY GUILD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE PLEASE MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT :crying emoji:" Underneath, one could see that it was sponsored by "Fujimo Gang," and upon further digging, this group seemed to be the underground group controlling majority of the underground scene in Verdant City. Xander rolled his eyes and hacked into the server of the group and checked their recorded footage. Upon reviewing what happened, he rolled his eyes. What an idiot. Threatened so easily by a Mythic peak powerhouse, Xander muttered. Of course, Xander could only say this now because he could rival peak Mythic powerhouses and even possibly win. He didn''t bother with the person anymore and entered the C+ rank floor, and headed towards Aria''s booth. Aria, a bit surprised to see Xander back quickly, immediately greeted him. "Good day, Lonely Maker. Have you come to submit a mission?" Xander nodded in response. Aria continued to speak, seeing Xander''s gesture. "Can you tell me the mission code?" "I have two missions to submit. The first one is MCGD-13478A; the second one is MCGD-13599A. Here are the items to turn over." Xander placed the items on the counter, placing them after he ''got'' them from his knapsack. Upon seeing the items and the amount that Xander brought out, Aria momentarily froze, mouth agape. 32 Exploring 2 "T-that''s... Azrite metal? And 5 stalks of Moonshine Clover and e-each of them at the highest quality?" Aria stammered a bit after she saw the items. Xander nodded in response. She brought out the digital weighing scale to measure the amount of Azrite metal. Seeing the weight, Aria gasped silently, wanting to shout in surprise but her voice failed her. "O-ok, Lonely Maker, you have submitted 2.000 kilograms of Azrite metal. A preliminary analysis of its purity will be n-now conducted." Aria said after a few seconds of silence. However, this time, she was prepared. She immediately placed the material on top of the scanner, which showed a molecular breakdown of the material in holographic images. Although she prepared for it, her voice couldn''t help but release a squeak. 99% purity! To be exact, 99.9902% purity! Aria calmed down and began to recite the estimated rewards of the missions. "B-rank mission: Moonshine Clover harvesting. Reward: 10,000 Etas for 4 stalks, an additional 3,000 for every additional stalk; no limit. You submitted 5 stalks, resulting in a total reward of 13,000 Etas. 20% is taken away by MCGD, resulting in a total of 10,400 Etas." "B-rank mission: Azrite metal collection. Rewards: 10,000 Etas for 50 grams, additional 2,000 per 10 grams more. If purity is above 95%, 100,000 Etas for 50 grams, additional 20,000 per 10 grams more." "You provided a purity of 99.9902%, meaning you will gain 100,000 Etas for 50 grams, and 3.9 million Etas for the remaining 950 grams, making a total of 4 million Etas. Because this is an entrusted mission, the company will be taking 20%, leaving you with 3.2 million Etas." Aria took a breather before continuing, "The total rewards would be 3.214 million Etas. However, my superior has given me a task to inform you of another possible deal." "Oh? What deal?" Xander asked coolly, although he already had a hint of what was going to be asked. "My superior says if you can provide the location where you gathered the Azrite of this level of purity, not only will the MCGD not take any cuts for this mission, they will also reward you a total of 2 million Etas on top of your reward, bringing it to 6.014 million Etas," Aria said passionately, psychologically influencing Xander to choose this option through her words, attempting to show he would not lose out. Xander merely smirked. "Nah, I''m don''t really care. Just transfer already my rewards." Xander responded coolly, not moved by money. Aria was a bit disappointed because she might also get a higher bonus this year if she could cinch this deal. Aria attempted to try one more time. "Sir Lonely Maker, are you sure? This is a-" She was cut off by Xander''s voice. "No. Stop wasting my time. If you plan to do so, it would seem I would have another receptionist in the near future, like tomorrow." This time, Xander''s voice was chilly and cold, holding a hint of a murderous aura. If Aria wasn''t a Master magician, she might have gotten injured by just the aura alone. However, Aria realized that the man in front of him wasn''t joking or fooling around. He seemed to have the capacity to take care of Aria, making her disappear! Aria shuddered visibly and hurriedly processed the payment transfer. Aria quickly bowed before Xander left, apologizing. "Pardon for my rudeness! I hope this doesn''t affect our relationship in the company." "Mmhm." Xander was quite mum and immediately headed off towards the restaurant he ate at yesterday. For him, he really didn''t care what Aria did, after all, she was just a passerby in her mini-trip. As Xander moved towards the restaurant, he didn''t bother stopping those tailing him and continued on to check the missions available. He wanted to explore an ancient ruin before he does the mission concerning the capturing of magic beasts. He once again filtered the mission to "ruins exploration" and "B rank and above". The list refreshed and showed around 10 results within the Delta province, ranging from B+ to S ranked exploration. He could only choose between the 2 ruins that were B+ ranked; although he could technically just teleport to these areas, he wanted to create a footprint, a trail of some sort, to people who are investigating Homer Simpson. At the same time, these ruins are usually heavily monitored and protected, meaning entry and exit to the ruins is tightly monitored. Only by becoming a mercenary can one enter without a hitch. The reason he didn''t teleport is that people would actually have a list and holographic image of those currently in the ruins, so if he was discovered to just appear there, he could get arrested, jailed, or even tortured by military and government. As he was thinking about the two missions, he had already reached the restaurant, in which a server came up to him and told him, "Good day, sir. A gentleman would like to meet you in one of the private rooms. Would you please follow me?" the server then gestured to Xander, his appearance trying to look dignified and cultured. The server thought that it was an honor for an esteemed guest to invite such a man. On the other hand, Xander didn''t give a rat''s ass about the server and continued to look around the first floor of the restaurant and selected a table. He also called for another server, who happily came over and began taking Xander''s orders. "600 grams of sirloin steak, medium-well. Add some hickory sauce, mashed potatoes, and bacon on the side as my main." "1 whole breaded chicken bites, add some rice and mashed potatoes on the side for my appetizer." "Also, a bottle of Carlyle-1800 red wine to drink." "Yes, sir, right away! My name is Carliste by the way, your server for today." Carliste nodded and introduced himself briefly, before heading to the kitchen to submit the orders. He was going to get a huge bonus! The man, Xander, just ordered their most expensive wine, costing 1,200,000 Etas a bottle. Servers who managed to sell their expensive wines were able to get a portion of the cost, in which case, this one, he was able to get 3% of the selling price, so around 3,600 Etas! Not only that, if he served the mister well, he would still have to count for his tip! Xander, who wasn''t aware of the thoughts running in the head of his server, didn''t care much and continued to check the missions. [Ruin Eta-64] B+ rank exploration mission. The goal is to chart a map and explore the area as much as possible. So far, 20 floors have been charted, and it is unsure how many more floors exist. Rewards: 200,000 Etas per floor (paid per group) charted. If the floor has been charted before, no rewards are given. If additional information on the charted floors is discovered and recorded, a fixed payment of 20,000 Etas per additional information will be given (paid per group). WARNING: Medium Level mortality rate. Traps are present and scattered all over the floors (deactivated in some charted floors), and the presence of magic beasts have been recorded. Electronic connection to the internet is lost while inside the ruins, as well as other kinds of communication to the outside world. [Ruin Eta-155] B+ rank exploration mission. The latest ruin discovered in the country of Eta. the goal is to chart a map and explore the area as much as possible. So far, only 2 floors have been charted, and it is unsure how many floors exist in total. Rewards: 1,000,000 Etas per floor (paid per group) charted. If the floor has been charted before, no rewards are given. If additional information on the charted floors is discovered and recorded, a fixed payment of 20,000 Etas will be given per additional information (paid per group). WARNING: High mortality rate. Multiple traps, mechanical and magic ones, and the presence of defense dolls, or golems have been detected to be present. No magic beasts have been detected or recorded. Electronic connection to the internet is lost while inside the ruins, nor any kind of communication to the outside world. Xander pondered a bit and brought up the information on ruins. First and foremost, the rules of the ruins. The rules on ruins were quite simple to follow and were standardized all over the world after many trial and errors: 1. You are only allowed to stay in one for no more than 3 days. Past 3 days, you are considered a missing person; past 2 weeks, you are officially dead in the government''s records. If you appear again, you would have to undergo quarantine and several tests to ensure that it really is still you, and not some monster or being that existed in the ruins. 2. Only 3 groups may enter at a time in the ruins, and they cannot enter at the same time. 3. No one is allowed to use high-grade explosives. 4. No one above Mythical Class are allowed in the ruins. The ruins has the capacity to detect the cultivation levels of anyone above Mythic level, and they began bombarding that person with magic spells and attacks from numerous sources. 5. No government is allowed to forcefully steal or obtain the information, items, or remains that mercenaries, solo adventurers, or exploring magicians discovered within the ruins. They can only be bought by the government or anything of equal worth. The information or technology they obtain is automatically patented to that country, but items such as magic artifacts are not to be used for large-scale wars, but for research only. 6. The group or the person who entered the ruins once can only enter it again after 6 months. Currently, Eta had 155 discovered ruins, while Nema had around 105 ruins discovered. Other countries all over the world have discovered around 2-35 ruins in each country. Ruins'' research have also been rapidly expanding to areas not under the control of any country, such as international waters and uninhabited islands as technologies continued to develop. After thinking for a few minutes, he decided to go with Ruin Eta-155, since it was the newest one discovered, and had more potential. When he tried to apply for the mission however, it said that he was in queue, indicating he was the 230th group. Xander rolled his eyes and canceled his application and decided to choose the other one, Ruin Eta-64. Although the rewards were cheap at least he had no competition. He wasn''t placed in a queue and was slated to appear in the ruins area by tomorrow morning. The ruins were located in Capsule City, 800 kilometers away from Verdant City. After reaching Capsule city, he only needed to travel another kilometer to the west and he would see the ruins. Since this was a ruins exploration, the MCGD company would be the one paying him directly upon submitting the collated documents. After a finalizing his application for the ruins, he was surfing the web while waiting for his food. It was at this point, an annoyance appeared. _______________________________________ Seav Restaurant, second floor, private room 2001. A man dressed in formal attire was sitting down, elegantly drinking wine and every once in awhile, looks at his watch for the time. After 10 minutes have passed, he was getting a bit impatient. Wasn''t that man supposed to be in the restaurant already? Why hasn''t he been escorted into this room? The distinguished man muttered to himself. In fact, he even prepared defenses and barriers in the room, to avoid any distractions or destruction of the adjacent rooms if talks go sideways. He had the utmost confidence that he could defeat this person into submission, fulfilling his mission. He was about to call the server he tasked for the job of escorting Homer Simpson to his room when a knock resounded into the room, and but it was just the server, who was standing nervously, without the man. The man''s face darkened. "What is it? Where is he?" "Distinguished sir, h-he, he just walked passed by me!" The server visibly paled, feeling the stifling aura coming from the man. Although he wasn''t a college graduate, he was still able to reach Master-2 because of his talents in cultivation. However, the jobs he could get were limited by his educational attainment, and began working as a server in Seav restaurant, hoping to get in touch with powerful, wealthy people and ingrain himself to them. The server continued to explain where Xander was, and the distinguished man couldn''t help turn red in anger. Being dismissed by some puny researcher, huh? "Hmph, lead the way!" The man said, barely containing the snarl in his words. After all, it has been the very first time being treated this way ever since he had attained Mythic class 80 years ago. He was still considered young, as well as talented, since he had already reached Mythic-7 rank. As he headed downstairs, other mercenaries noticed the dangerous aura this man had and seeing that there might be a brawl, they paid for their finished food, and stood nearby, hoping to watch a show. When they discovered that the man seemed to be heading to one of the tables in the first floor, specifically, the table near the stage where there was a buffed man staring intently at his tablet, reading the news, a few began whispering. "Hey, isn''t that man the rising star, Homer Simpson?" "Yeah, I remember that he caused a stir yesterday. Wasn''t he invited by that Fujimo gang?" "Yeah, I heard that the Fujimo gang had switched leaders earlier today; the previous leader died mysteriously." "More likely, someone killed him when they couldn''t find Homer Simpson. Haha!" "Shh, it seems this man is the one who did the deed. I can feel a dangerous vibe from him. Most likely he''s someone above Legendary class." "Oh f*ck we should leave then. We can''t handle a fallout between people in the Mythic class or higher." "What, you think that Homer Simpson is a mythic class magician? As if. Most likely, he''s just a Legendary at most, or maybe half-step to Mythic class. It''s impossible that a person like him gets unnoticed for a long time if he was a mythic magician." Another mercenary said, smirking. This man was correct. Each government, as well as the large family clans and groups, kept a dossier of people of significant interest, and it''s impossible for this Homer Simpson to be a person that just popped out of nowhere in their radar. However, that seemed to be the case. They could only trace Homer Simpson''s existence through his 2 published papers, and history of enrollment in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools, which was problematic since those schools closed down a few years ago, cutting all traces. Some even speculated he didn''t exist, but the problem was he did and even joined the MCGD group of mercenaries! As these mercenaries were awaiting for a show, the distinguished man approached the table where Xander was. As the man observed Xander, he began using his brain to glean significant information about this person, extrapolating data from what is known to predict his future reactions. Pity, however, Xander wouldn''t be playing for too long. "Mr. Simpson, I presume? Greetings, my name is-" Before the man could even finish speaking, Xander raised his hand, and did a simple gesture. Immediately, the man''s face fell, looking pale and immediately moved towards the entrance of the restaurant, while activating his defenses. However, it was all for naught, as they were quickly pierced and shattered by whatever was targeting the man. Everyone in the restaurant could hear the shattering sounds of elemental barriers dispersing and shattering like glass, piercing in their ears. The man quickly shifted his body and everyone, to their horror, saw the man''s right arm quickly shrivel and slowly turn to dust. The man reacted in time and cut off his right arm, and cauterized the whole area with his element. "Huh. Not bad. Tell me, Mr. Cardwell, why are you acting like a dignified man when you are just a puppy for the Freidwork Conglomerate? Seriously, mind your bearing and attitude." Xander tsked at the man, before revealing the man''s identity and the conglomerate he was working for, causing Cardwell''s face to fall. "Ha, Mr. Simpson, I never thought you hid so well." "I hid? Really? I just never deigned to appear in the first place, if not one of my friends asking for my aid." Xander snorted. "Enough talk, what do you want? If you want to force me to do something I don''t want to do, don''t expect you''ll leave here alive." Xander continued coldly, and around him, numerous orbs of light appeared, coming from the spell [Golden Light], however each of the orbs were not of one color, but more like a plethora of different shades of the rainbow, making it look like a glorious sight. However, those who were legendary and above could feel the pulsating danger and murderous aura surrounded in those spheres, causing some of the well-known mercenaries to immediately retreat with the other mercenaries, not daring to watch any further. Even the servers and cooks of the restaurant had to vacate momentarily, but before they could all step out, Xander''s voice echoed out. "Oh? Weren''t you all wanting to enjoy a show? Stay." Immediately, everyone''s bodies froze in their positions, causing fear and anxiety to bubble up. Not even Mr. Cardwell was exempted; he was also frozen in place, as if something was pushing his body all around him to that position. He tried releasing his domain, but to his shock and horror, he couldn''t even circulate his elemental energy in his body! Xander turned to his server, Carliste, and said to him, "Are the dishes I ordered ready? I''m feeling quite hungry." Carliste, who regained his capacity to move, didn''t dare run and headed to the kitchen to check. Those in the kitchen were temporarily released from Xander''s spell, and they quickly proceeded to cook the dishes that Xander requested. In a few minutes, the food was served, and Xander snapped his fingers, allowing everyone to have their mobility and elemental energy circulation back to normal, even Mr. Cardwell. For these people, those few minutes were like years for them, as they passed by so slowly. Immediately, the mercenaries began leaving en masse, and only Carliste and Mr. Cardwell remained on the first floor. The second-floor guests had no idea of what just happened, and they remained blissfully unaware in their rooms. As Xander was cutting his steak, he looked up and saw Mr. Cardwell approaching him, his face and body on high alert. Xander rolled his eyes. "Next time, don''t bother me when it''s time to eat. Food is my soft spot, you know." As Xander continued to chew his steak and eat the side mashed potatoes, Cardwell continued to stand rooted at his spot, not attempting to disturb him. Xander, on the other hand, continued to talk between bites. "So, what''s your deal here? Did Freidwork Conglomerate want me to work with them? Ha! They''re not even on the Top 10 groups in the global economic market. Wanting to poach me from MCGD, what a fool." "Not only are they idiots, they even tried to manhandle me? Pfft, greatest joke ever. Wait, are you still sore about you losing your arm? Lemme fix it then!" Xander, after finishing the succulent and juicy steak, snapped his fingers and immediately, the elements began to gather at the area where Cardwell''s right arm was. First, the stump where the cauterized area was quickly restored to its live state, and immediately, bones, blood vessels, nerves, and muscles began appearing, before being covered by the layers of skin. Cardwell was shocked at what he saw and realized that this person in front of him was no simple fool; According to the data provided to him by the group, this man was just a Magic Artifact maker and a Magic researcher; everything else concerning his history, his abilities, and his cultivation were completely unknown. Right now, he couldn''t identify the elements that appeared, but it seemed to contain every bit of the commonly present elements in the world?? Of course, Xander this time didn''t just reverse time for the body so that the arm would return. The main reason is that it was a hassle trying to hide time fluctuations on Cardwell''s body if a Demigod or higher investigated him. What he did was a simple experiment: He utilized the power of Order and Chaos, as well as Time and 5-elements. Because of the masking done by the 5-elements, no one would discover the origin elements. 33 Heading out 1 Cardwell was shocked silly, still unsure what just happened. The arm that he visibly saw rot away, and scatter into dust after he cut it off his body, appeared on his arm, being as it was before. The energy circulation pathways were also present and was like it was never disrupted. His elemental energy and magic energy continued to pour through every inch of his body completely. If he couldn''t see how powerful the person in front of him is, he should just kill himself by his own stupidity. He gulped, and said to Xander, respectfully this time, "Mr. Simpson, my name is Mr. Cardwell and I do work for Freidwork Conglomerate. What my employer simply wanted to ask of you is whether you would be interested in joining a research committee they have recently established to apply the theoretical information you have recently published." He was bowing the whole time, so he couldn''t see that Xander didn''t take note of whatever he said at all. Since he thought Xander wasn''t against the idea, he continued to speak. "My employer is not binding you to a working contract, but rather on a level of invited researcher, and any products developed by the research team, you would have 2% of the net profits. Not only that, they plan to give you real estate properties of your choosing that are under their control-" "Stop talking," Xander said, his voice soft, but it carried a hint of dominance. Immediately, Cardwell stopped talking. He knew what his boundaries were now. He couldn''t defeat this person, someone who with a wave of a hand managed to bypass his defenses and even affect his body to that extent. After all, once one steps in the Mythic stage, their bodies become united to their chosen domain. A domain is basically their own rule, a rule derived from the understanding of elemental representation that they have copied and embodied in their Magic Sphere. Their magic spheres, upon breaking through to Mythic class, meld to every inch and nook and cranny of their bodies, thoroughly fusing with every single cell, every macro and micromolecule that they had in their bodies. The domain they form at Mythic-1 establishes the path they have to take in the future breakthroughs. If in the previous classes, they were focused on temporarily improving their physical attributes, at Mythic stage, it is continuous process of strengthening the body and deepening one''s understanding of their domain. For example, in Cardwell''s case, his elements were Fire, Earth/Metal and Wind. The Domain he created was [Heavy Blazing Winds], which can cause anything within that domain to blaze up while slowly becoming heavier and heavier, and slow down due to the winds. To progress in this class, their understanding of their own rule must become perfect. Every 10% increment in comprehension meant progressing a stage. As he was a Mythic-7, he had 70% comprehension of his domain, and whenever it activates, his body is strengthened to a level beyond Adamantium-Mithril alloy. Even if it wasn''t activated, his body should have the strength and defense just below that of Adamantium-Mithril alloy. Simply put, at Mythic class, the amount of time you can extend your personal ''rule'' is dependent on your comprehension and physical body state. It also still follows the general trend of, if your domain is made up more elements than the other person, your domain will exert more power than your other members. At the same time, the more you extend the area of your domain, the shorter period it can last. Of course, they weren''t like Xander who was granted total control of Space-Time elements, and he only needed to work with his comprehension of them to improve his powers. He just needed to follow the flow of spell-creation up to Master class, and for Legendary and above, he''ll just wait and see. "Ok, Mr. Cardwell, please tell your employer I am not interested. I simply do not have the time to do so; I only published that paper like I said, because a friend asked for my help. If I receive any more disturbances, well, I would assume you didn''t tell your superiors about what I mentioned, and I will be visiting you ''personally'' to address this grievance, ok?" Xander said, smiling at Cardwell. Of course, Cardwell wasn''t stupid and could see the blatant threat, but it was better living with a reduced payment than dying anyways, so fuck his employers. He then promised to himself once he submitted the report, he would file for indefinite leave and disappear for a couple of years, focusing on cultivation and using up his amassed cultivation resources. Cardwell bid Xander farewell and left the establishment. Xander didn''t mind at all, and signaled Carliste who was standing by the kitchen door to come and prepare the bill. Immediately, Carliste presented the total bill and Xander, upon reading it, nodded and paid via bank transfer. At the same time, he tipped Carliste a staggering amount of 40,000 Etas, causing Carliste to weep in joy and call Xander his daddy. Xander stood up and head out to his hotel, following the same disguise process. Upon their exit, the mercenaries entered the restaurant again, seemed like nothing had ever happened. Upon reaching his hotel, he discovered an alert coming from his smartwatch, and realized he was going to be in for a good show. ________________________________ In an unknown place, underground. A group of people was present, seemingly waiting for someone. There were a few chatters here and there but was relatively mild. A hologram of another figure appeared after a few minutes, causing everyone to quiet down. It was the same general who headed the discussion concerning Xander''s contract signing with sprites. "Everyone, I have received a report that this magic researcher, Homer Simpson, is probably a Demigod class or higher. At the same time, we believe he truly is just a 26-year-old person, and not some old man disguising as one." "This is a problem because this person seemed to be a foreign power not affiliated with our country. Professor Willow, please explain." Another hologram appeared, this time, a middle-aged woman was standing with a laboratory coat on her. "Yes. Thank you general. Please observe the video that I have sent to this committee." After a few minutes of watching the video that showed the encounter between Cardwell and Xander, everyone was silent. "This video was taken from the premises of the Seav Restaurant in Verdant city, Delta province of Eta. As you know, video recording equipment have developed to a degree that it can capture the movement of elements as well as even analyze the elements present in the area. The downside is that they must have information concerning these elements to detect and record them properly." "The video showed that the first time Homer Simpson waved his hand, there were no elemental fluctuations whatsoever detected by the recorder, so we can assume that he didn''t use spells or controlled the elements right? Wrong. It only means that the first attack he did to Mr. Cardwell was an element that we have not previously detected or categorized. Meaning, it is not possible for him to have studied his primary, secondary and tertiary education in Eta, because for the past 400 years, the education system has been created in such a way people''s information are completely recorded, from their favorite food to their capabilities. Meaning, the information recorded in our database is fake, no matter how perfect the time records were." "Now look at the second motion that Homer Simpson did, the moment where he restored the lost arm of Mr. Cardwell. We initially thought that the element presented by Mr. Simpson was of the Life-Death elements, because of the decaying and disintegrating property that was shown in his first attack. However, this was not the case. The recorder only managed to detect the presence of 5-elements series, and not a single element particle present in the area was from the Life-Death elements. Either someone tampered with the results or-" "Ms. Willow, I presume? Why haven''t you invited me to this lovely talk about me?" A voice suddenly resounded in the area, cutting off Ms. Willow. Everyone was surprised, even the general. "Oh? The general of the state is here as well, and several heads of conglomerate groups and family clans. Hello." "Mr. Simpson, I presume?" A sardonic voice sounded, coming from a middle-aged man seated. Of course, everyone here was just a hologram, so they had nothing to worry about. "Oh, it''s our divine fortune teller, Mr. Calloway. How are you today, still stuck in the peak of Master class, eh? Pity, you never recognized your real primary elements, haha." Calloway froze momentarily before being in a daze. Seeing this, Xander snickered. "Oops, I''ve said too much. I might advertently help him, haha!" Xander guffawed in his hologram. Professor Willow''s eyes, however, glittered, and she processed the things Xander just mentioned. "Anyhow, just wanted to tell you that after I complete the task my friend asked me to do, I''ll probably disappear. So don''t worry too much. I''ll probably be done in like, 4 more days? In the meantime, don''t bother or delay me ok? You won''t like when I''m annoyed." "Oh, what, you going to kill us all?" Another sarcastic voice sounded. This time, it was a woman who looked like in her mid-30s. Xander just smiled, and raised his hand and pointed at her, and snapped his fingers. "Martha Seward, A Demigod-4, one of the elders of the Seward family. Hmm, I wonder, check the members of your immediate family, maybe there''s some of them that just suddenly... disappeared? Hehe." "Ah, what a pity, little Clarissa was just discovered to have 4 primary elements? What a pity she never reached her potential. What about little Henry, your great-grandson, already starting his first day in primary school... oops, I forgot, he just died right now." "Also I found an interesting fact. It seems your son is still stuck in Mythic-9? Pity, he won''t ever breakthrough now. HAHA!" As she heard these names coming out of Xander''s mouth, Martha''s face quickly changed. Martha quickly disappeared from the meeting, causing silence to permeate from the room. "Ok, peace out, I''mma head out tomorrow for my task. Hope I don''t see ya~" Xander did a peace sign before mockingly saluting everyone, and his hologram disappeared. After a few minutes, Martha appeared, her face full of fury. "WHERE IS HE?" "Wait, he did it?" Another one of them asked, gasping. "Hmph, all of the people he mentioned, all of them just disappeared on the spot! There were camera recordings and all of them literally faded out, like they never existed!" Martha snarled, barely holding her anger. "NOT ONLY THAT BUT IT WAS ALSO AS IF THEY NEVER EXISTED! THAT''S THE PROBLEM! BESIDES ME AND ANOTHER DEMIGOD MAGICIAN IN THE FAMILY, NO ONE REMEMBERS THEY EXISTED! MY SON! MY DEAR CLARISSA, MY BABY BOY HENRY! WHERE ARE THEY??!??" Martha howled, her voice full of fury and helplessness. She had already snapped. Upon hearing this news from Martha, everyone chilled. No one remembered they existed, except Demigods. Demigods and above existed in a different spectrum, and that only made the spell much more scarier. Before anyone could even tell her any information, a voice resounded. "Ehem, ehem, I forgot this part. This is a prerecorded message. If that old witch appeared here yelling and asking where her descendants were at, please tell her that they are completely wiped out of the universe. Meaning, life magic like resurrection or reanimation under death element would not work, because, well, they never existed in the first place. Hehe. Only Demigods and above can remember them. Even I still can''t undo it, haha! This is a warning to everyone~ although I can''t touch you directly, I can touch everyone you hold dear~" "The room visibly chilled. Everyone was silent, some looking puzzled, and others were beginning to whisper to one another, thinking of possible countermeasures while the general looked like he had just faced his greatest enemy, his face twisted. Professor Willow, on the other hand, was quite calm. She found it hilarious that some of the demigods the public was in awe could even act as such. As such, she signaled the general that she had something to add to the report. The general caught the attention of the demigods who were panicking and were a bit flustered and confused. "Ahem, Professor Willow has something to say concerning the situation, giving us more information." The general sternly mentioned, refocusing the thoughts of the demigods. "*cough* *cough* Hello, from our short interaction with Homer Simpson, we have found out important information." "First and foremost, such meetings as we are currently having are easily intercepted by Mr. Simpson. It would have been scarier if Mr. Simpson could appear in this meeting room physically, but luckily we aren''t that unlucky for him to do so." "Second, he has given us another vital clue about the elements, especially when he hinted at the primary elements of Mr. Calloway. It has been reputedly understood that his elements were of Water and Wind elements, why was he saying that he had the wrong elements? Not only that, but he also emphasized the prophetic abilities of Calloway when he addressed him. Another clue was how he had eliminated the descendants of Ms. Seward. Erased out of existence, and they never existed. Even I have no memory of the people Ms. Seward mentioned, and I''m in the mythic class. This indicates that only demigods and higher may remember her descendants. However, there might be an exception." "Mr. Calloway, do you remember Ms. Seward''s descendants that she had mentioned?" Professor Willow asked inquiringly at Mr. Calloway, who scrunched up his face, before cautiously nodding. "It''s vague, but the names do ring a bell in my mind; however, I can''t remember their faces, and a lot of information disappeared as if there were patches in my mind ripped apart." "I could see it in your heads already: Yes, there might be another elemental series related to existence, fate, and the afterlife. The things we take for granted before. The elements of Fate, of karma, or reincarnation, maybe even more. This opens a new avenue of magic and research. I would like to call it, Fate series under Life-death elements, based on the paper written by Gold D. Roger last week." Professor Willow was referring to the paper that caught Xander''s attention, the one that gave a revised category of the elements and their hierarchies. Clapping sounds suddenly resounded all over the meeting room, confusing the members. Then, a familiar voice appeared. "Wow, congratulations, someone guessed it! It seems me leaving clues for you idiots to discover was worth it then. Please treat this as payment for staying in the country for a while, hehe. To help out, Fate series involves Karma, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Fortune, Prediction, and Reincarnation subseries. What elements are under it, well, that''s up to you to discover~ By the way, this is a recording message that activates when the term "Fate series" is mentioned once." Xander''s voice echoed the room, shaking everyone to the core, especially Mr. Calloway. His fist clenched, and inside, he could see a glimmer of hope in surpassing the Master Class. "Ehem, It is possible that the people we have called in the past as wordsmiths, astrologers and prophets were actually people delving into the power of Fate series! People who have been inherently lucky, unlucky, or even those with average luck; all these are forms of the Fortune series. This is another type of immaterial elements!" continued professor Willow excitedly. "The good news with this information is that we can delve more into the mysteries of what we call as soul or life essence. At the same time, we would be able to develop new technological advances and magic spells relating to these aspects. However, the main problem is we don''t have pseudo-spells relating to the Fate series of elements. If we could just collate the ancient texts relating to fate magic, it would boost the speed of development of the field." Professor Willow concluded her second point. "The third point, Mr. Simpson''s actions were playful and carefree, at the same time, quite deranged, contrary to our previous conjectures of him being calm, collected and experienced. Either he is suffering from a split personality disorder, or..." "...or he isn''t who he claims he is; this could be a fabricated identity of another person." The general''s voice sounded out, interrupting Professor Willow. "Bzzt! Wrong answer. That hurts, diminishing my identity like that. Someone did invite me to go here. I can''t tell you who, but I can trade! In return, I''ll give you a spicy information after 4 days~ Clue: It''s about another outside invader, hehe. You know outside invaders right, like the one the Heavenly Tree Sprite fought off? This time, you''re going to need to call someone with a stronger firepower, or else... oof. Do you know the feeling of being chewed? Me neither. This is a recorded message that activates when the term "fabricated identity" has been mentioned." Xander''s voice echoed again, but by this time, the other demigods were already numb to hearing his voice, as well as the bombshells that were dropped in a simple meeting supposed to discuss about a potential enemy of the state! Why did it change to that said enemy providing information??? Even Professor Willow was quite confused at the motives of this person. The meeting continued, but they stopped mentioning Mr. Simpson''s name. At the same time, they began to classify Mr. Homer Simpson not as a person of Eta, but possibly...an outworlder. The general was also preparing to contact the important government officials, as well as leaders of the other countries as this involved a world-level calamity. _______________________________ The culprit of the fiasco was merely enjoying a relaxing bubble bath in his hotel suite right now. He was thoroughly enjoying the bath, like he hasn''t experienced it for a long time. He was thinking how the world would drastically change. Technically, even 6,000 years from now, Fate magicians still didn''t exist; that''s how they disregarded the field. He merely gambled for the sake of this planet, after all. If he could create an opportunity that didn''t exist before, would what will happen 30,000 years from now change? Or will it be accelerated. Right now, he didn''t try delving into the river of time to observe the future; he decided to wait until tomorrow, since human minds were very fickle. After his bubble bath, Xander was quite relaxed. Although, he might have lied a bit. Although he did mention that those members of the Seward clan were forever dead, they really weren''t... yet. Right now, he contained them in a special pocket space approximately 975 million lightyears away, located in an exoplanet, where there were no intelligent life forms formed yet. They were basically far enough to the point they can never return and will most likely die there. Another thing was that he cut off all the karmic threads he could instantly cut, and then teleported them into the pocket space, semi-isolated from the ordered system. This was because he even cut the connection between the universe and them; if they were detected they would instantly be wiped out. Any descendants they had would also be wiped out. Although they could still cultivate and stuff, with only their father as their teacher, the best they would achieve would be demigod class. If Xander''s abilities didn''t improve, pocket space or not, they would be expelled from the universe by that time, as their information for the universe was too big of an anomaly to not take note. If they could find a God that could force them to reincarnate into the ordered system, then they would survive, but all their cultivation and memories would disappear. If they didn''t decide to cultivate, they would die in less than a few millenniums. All situations were them dying anyways, so it wasn''t much of a big deal for Xander. Wait. Xander thought for a moment after changing his clothes, before teleporting to the pocket space 975 million lightyears away. He looked at the two kids, and looked at the father, who was glaring at him intently. He asked the father, "Do you love your kids?" "Hmph, you bastard! Are you here to spout more of your lies?" "Nope. I came here to decide whether I should kill you all three or not, based on your answer to my question: Do you love your kids?" "Yes, I love them so much. I love them so much that I am will to devote my life to teach them to become stronger and not be abused by people like you." "So you love them so much, that you would die for them?" Xander asked, causing the father of the two to look suspicious. "What do you plan to do?" "Oh, just a simple thing. You see, right now, the universe rejects you three. The data you contain currently is enough for the 2 of them to return into the ordered system of the universe, and not be booted out of the Great Void. But that requires you to be booted out of this universe and well, fend off for yourself in the great void. Are you willing to do so?" "...What should I do?" "Simple, just walk out of the house. You do know this a pocket space I created. Nifty, huh, making it look like a house? After you walk out, I''ll take care of the rest concerning your child''s entry. Anyways, its either this, or you wait for all three of you to die and be expelled by the universe on its own as unrecyclable materials." The man took a deep breath, then moved closer to his kids, whispering words of comfort and telling them that everything is going to be ok. He then made them standby. He then took heavy but fast steps, heading to the door that separated this world from the universe. 34 Heading out 2 As soon as he took a step out of the door, he could sense what Xander meant by being expelled by the universe. He felt that his entire being was being washed and dried but he still felt dirty like he was surrounded and filled by filth. The universe stopped trying to clean him and decided to throw him out of the system. The moment his body was thrown out of the system, Xander opened up a hole in the system and threw the 2 kids out, then pulled them back in within the same moment their father''s body was completely removed by the system. The system, detecting that new data appeared, began to cleanse the foreign data. The kids slowly vanished into specks of light and were directly thrown into the cycle of reincarnation of the ordered system. Xander nodded to himself. After all, he never said that he would ensure they would live healthy lives, he only ensured that they wouldn''t be kicked out by the system and essentially, save them from a life of being hunted by void beasts and wanderers. This was the only way Xander was capable of doing to trick the ordered system to allow the kids back into the universe, for now. He didn''t have the ability to twist the rules of the universe right now. Maybe he could use the third God spell, [Origin Universe], and create a small ordered system near the universe where he was in, and let the latter absorb the former, integrating them into one system. He didn''t opt to do this because for one, he is lazy to do it, and it may take millions if not billions, of years to actually happen, even if there was only 1-centimeter space between the two universes. Afterall, the fusion of ordered systems wasn''t done immediately. Xander, upon checking everything is in order, collapsed the pocket space, producing another sphere-like substance, but it had no attractive power at all. However, it did have around 5 kilometers worth of land inside, where time flows faster and the elemental particles were abundant. He thought for a bit before snickering and then wrote a few runic writings on the surface of the sphere. He then teleported to the nearest civilization which was 12 lightyears away from his current exoplanet. He then threw it randomly into the planet, and disappeared. Of course, it was quite random. He just made a binding rune on the sphere, in which it binds to the very first intelligent being that it comes in contact with. Not only that, he also placed a protection procedure; under the threat of death, the owner is sucked into the sphere and the sphere remains to where it is. However, time is accelerated inside, as well as the concentration of elemental particles is increased as well. The sphere could only be passed on to another being if the contracted being consciously and willingly gives it away to someone else. At the same time, once the binding is complete, they would hear my voice in their mind, translated into their language. "Hello, can you hear me? This is a creation I made. I was bored and decided to throw it to your planet while exploring. Here are some information on magic cultivation if you don''t have any yet. Have fun with it, I guess? If you survive and grow long enough, we might meet in the outer space again. Ciao~" Of course, he made a failsafe system to it. If ever he detects it within a distance of a lightyear, the sphere automatically moves to where he is as well as the contracted being. Little did Xander know, his actions caused a chain effect to occur in the civilization he just disrupted. ______________________________ Eteria, Year 2057. Xander woke up from his sleep, a bit groggy. He realized that he only had 4 more days to complete his exploration as a mercenary. He immediately finished taking a bath, dressed up and ate breakfast at the fancy breakfast restaurant he always ate in upon reaching Verdant city. Afterward, he walked around town before losing all those following him and he appeared near the Ruin Eta-64. Although he could appear in Capsule city and explore it, he had purposely caught the attention of the Eta government and the ruling clans and conglomerates. One was for the sake of warning, another was that he wanted to begin changing the future he had seen. He had attempted to check 20,000 years into the future earlier today, and the planet was still existing. Upon extending to 30,000 years, Xander sighed a relief. However, when he extended it to 50,000 years, the same sight appeared: A space carrier casting a gigantic magic array to refine the whole planet. The difference was there were still living beings at this time, but they were slowly being gunned down by robotic machines whose attacks were infused with elements using technologically advanced artillery. So, he only managed to delay the collapse by 20,000 years? That''s good progress. He began to trace the origins of the attack, since he could see longer now. He specifically changed the designation of his search to "Eteria planet descendants" and he instantly had a omniview of the locations they were in. Huh. It seems I made a mistake. The ones attacking the planets near Eteria and Eteria itself were... Descendants of Eterians. This was just so confusing. Whatever, I give up. The change was too big to comprehend. Maybe they were harvesting planets now since their civilization had grown so well? But what about their people? Ugh. This is really to confusing; the human heart is indeed fickle. He even wanted to teleport to that time period and slap silly the leaders. Although he could now physically time-travel at further time periods (in this case, up to 100,000 years) due to his comprehension, he still hasn''t done it because although he can only travel into the future, but his future self isn''t present at all in the future. Although he had access to time clones, these were the what-ifs of his existence; they ran parallel to his existence but they have defined endings. Currently, his timeline, he has no defined ending. Yet at the same time, he can see into the future of his timeline, he just doesn''t know where he is in that future. It was as if he was existing already outside of time. Although that sounded cool at the beginning, it''s not. Even if he time travels to the future, if he changed a bit in the current timeline, that future he traveled from would disappear or distort, producing a different future. Weirdly, however, he can''t travel back in time at further time periods; he can see the past up to 1,000,000 years ago easily, but he could barely time travel back in time for more than 1 hour that had passed. In fact, no matter how hard he tried to travel back in time, he reached the limit of 60 minutes into the past for now. He''s not sure if he could travel more than 60 minutes even if he improved his comprehension of space-time, since he was only able to travel a maximum of 60 minutes even when he had 2% comprehension. This was why Xander was apprehensive of traveling into the future: it might be a one-way trip for him. Maybe there''s another element or factor required when time traveling in the past? Xander thought of the possibilities. Does it maybe require a certain level of cohesion, maybe a perfect cohesion, of space-time elements before freely traversing the records of the ordered system? It could hold true. It''s also possible that other origin elements are required? As these thoughts were running in his mind, he finally reached the entrance of the ruins. There were guards stationed in the watchtowers, and Xander merely scanned his smartwatch on the terminal to verify his identity. At the same time, he was standing in front of a scanning device that recorded the current traits and physical attributes of Xander, to ensure that it is still him when he exits the ruins and not some monster. Currently, he was the second mercenary group that entered today. He immediately entered the ruins. Unknown to him, upon his scanning of the smartwatch, the government officials and military were alerted to which set of ruins he entered. Ruin Eta-64. This confused the officials and the military. There wasn''t much to see in this ruin; although they haven''t fully explored it, there have been more than 20 floors discovered. As they were throwing inferences and hypotheses about why Xander visited the ruin, never would they think that it was a matter of convenience. Upon entering the ruins, he immediately felt what was different with the set of ruins and confirmed his suspicions. These so-called ruins, are actually stable pocket space! However, it seems that it doesn''t have its own ordered system, meaning it is still connected to the ordered system, and still follows its rules and regulations. He immediately did a thorough scan with his space-time elements and quickly, he got a result of the size of the ruins. There were a total of 100 levels, with the levels becoming more and more larger as you go down; the whole thing looks like a pyramid. However, since it exists in a different space, even if one would dig directly under it, nothing would be discovered; after all, this had been tested before millennia ago. All the hidden areas in both explored and unexplored areas were revealed within his mind. Using his smartwatch and the system, he transmitted his thoughts into a drawing schematic that was transferred by the system into the smartwatch, detailing the pathways and areas to these hidden locations. At the same time, a general schematic of the floors were drawn as well. Xander did notice that the space structure per level was quite stable. Although it would be easy for Xander to pierce a hole directly to the bottom, or even bypass them altogether, the structure couldn''t help but remind him of that game in his previous life, Bunker Buster. Basically, you enter a bunker of different schematics and you try to explore and piece the stories of each bunker. From the casual glance he did in the undiscovered floors, there were books, papers, and runic diagrams scattered all over, as well as magic beasts and magic puppets scattered. None of the papers or books as well as runic diagrams held any attraction to him; there weren''t mentions of the origin elements, so he couldn''t really care less. Xander had a sudden idea: Is this a form of a magic bunker? Doesn''t that mean that in the distant past, there must have been a greater civilization? This requires more time of experimentation and understanding of this bunker then. Overriding the pocket space default settings, he wanted to initiate a kick-out of all beings, including magic beasts and puppets existing in the space. He didn''t bother caring about the consequence because the government has their military probably converging to this ruin when he scanned his smartwatch. Hmm, has it only been 10 minutes? Damn, I''ll wait for another half an hour. Probably enough time for them to reach this area in the province. In the meantime, let''s pillage some research papers and items to sell~ Xander didn''t even need to enter the hidden pocket rooms per floor; he just needed to stretch his hand and the items fell in front of him, which he immediately sorted out and placed to his spatial storage. He then proceeded to the next floor, repeating the same sequence over and over again, until he reached the very last floor. The puppets and the magic beasts that he met the moment he teleported to the floor were easily dealt with, earning him considerable amounts of magic cores and element crystals powering the puppets as well as puppet remains as well. In the very last floor, there was huge scaly magic beast, and all over its body were runic writings that were wriggling like they were alive. Xander, upon seeing the beast, looked incredulously at it. A dragon? Wait...it''s a modified dragon, it''s neither alive or dead, but both. What powers it isn''t its magic core, but the runic writings all over its body. Weird, they form some kind of seal...huh. This is interesting. He didn''t see these runes when he did a casual scan. How could these runes evade his spatial perception? He switched into the [Spatial View] mode, seeing everything in terms of lines, dots and shapes. What he saw astonished him. While in this vision mode, everything should be still, as in the points, the lines, the shapes are fixed, and time stands still. Usually, he uses this for a split second to discover the dots, lines and shapes that make up the spatial structure of the target or area. That split second is prolonged in the [Spatial View] mode, extended up to 30 minutes. What he saw was that the lines constructing the dragon and the runes were wriggling and moving about in the [Spatial View]! Before he could observe more closely, his danger perception acted and immediately his automatic abilities activated, protecting him from harm. He wanted to deactivate the vision mode, but before he could, he could see the lines and dots constructing the dragon and the runes lounging at him, causing him to scream in pain, before blacking out. ________________________________ In the deep darkness, Xander felt his consciousness wake up, a bit groggy, but realizing that he couldn''t see anything, he knew immediately where he was: [The space between worlds]. This was a special term for those who were users of Life and Death elements; basically, this is a rift that separated living and the dead, as well as where time does not exist. This is where the life essence dolls from Dimension:LEO entered once the bonds that tethered them were shattered, snipped, or broken off. He was supposed to be in a state of stasis, like other life essence dolls that pass through this area, and the only reason he could think at this moment was because of his own fusion with space-time elements, allowing him to finally experience what it meant to rewind space-time. He instantly activated this capability of his, causing the area around him to shift and change, multi-colored rays of light surrounding his consciousness. He wasn''t sure how long it had been since his death, but decided to rewind it up to 5 hours. The area of rewind? Well, let''s make it the whole planet of Eteria. Immediately, a rippling and ripping sensation covered his entire consciousness, and the next moment, he was now back in his hotel room, changing his clothes in front of the mirror. His eyes, blinking, and clarity returned immediately, with the knowledge and information that had just happened in the next 5 hours. Huh. I died, Xander thought to himself, the experience felt awkward. it was like reloading the previous save file, but the experience he gained were carried to the that save file. If he could turn back time for a total of 180 days, how would the experience be, Xander thought. Oh well, it seems he needed to strike preemptively. After eating breakfast, he immediately moved to the outskirts of Capsule city, a few hundred meters away from the ruins. He immediately used the system to send an alert to the people in Eta government and military, as well as the government officials and military officials of other countries, as well as the patriarchs and leaders of clans and conglomerates in Eta, giving them his current location and information about the ruins. The message was quite simple. "Hey. The ruins you lot have discovered in the past few millennia are basically pocket spaces that act as bunkers, coming from an ancient civilization much more older than the Heavenly Sprite Tree. Pocket spaces are well, small dimensions. Their structure was similar to space ships that you have been theorizing for the past thousands of years. Most likely, it was these bunkers that seeded life in this planet. Good news is that you can get lots of information about the ancient civilization and even revive their old technologies and raise the current level of technology! Pretty neat, huh? Now, here''s a bad news: If you think you have explored the ruins completely, you are wrong~ There''s a hidden last floor in every ruin, so if you have discovered 99 floors, there''s a hidden 100th floor, if you discovered 39 floors, there''s a hidden 40th floor, etc. Do you know what''s inside? Well, do you remember the outside invader I mentioned yesterday? Well, it seems your ancient civilization forgot to mention that they were carrying them, and well, their powers are above a Demigod''s strength. So good luck. Here''s the complete map of Ruin Eta-64. How did I get it? Well, that''s a secret. I''m going to go back inside. I''m going back not because I''m a masochist, but I needed to get data from this specific outside invader after all. Tata~ P.S. The placed limitation only occurs if you aren''t able to control the flow of your life essence and elemental energy in your body. If you know how to disguise both of them, you can enter just fine, haha. After I''m done with this ruin, I''m going to disappear for a while~ P.P.S. From my initial scan of the planet, there are supposed to be around 2020 pocket spaces. So, there are around 2020 outside invaders existing in your planet right now. If in the next few centuries, you discover more than 2020, I have to say, you better be prepared. Those were definitely left by someone more recent." The moment he sent the message through the system, he was already in front of the scanner he was in before. He scanned his smartwatch again, and after the initial scan, he entered the ruins again. First, he forcefully transferred every item existing in the first 99 floors, into his spatial storage. Afterward, he forcefully transported every living being from the 1st to the 99th floor outside of the dungeon, except the puppets which he immediately disabled by removing the elemental crystals and surrounding them with space magic, and then dumping them into the spatial storage. He teleported to the 100th floor, and saw the scaly dragon once again, with the squirming runic writings. Before it could even react or move, Xander raised both his arms and purposefully distorted the space on the 100th floor, as well as the space surrounding the dragon, while at the same time, spatially locking it in place. Using the system and his mind, as well as time acceleration, he began to record each and every runic formation and transformation occurring on the dragon''s body in a matter of seconds. This time, he didn''t activate [Spatial View] because it seemed that it could attack that way. Immediately he began to cast [Void Rejection] in the area where the dragon is, before casting a space crush, on the area surrounding the area where the spell and the dragon was located. Not only that, he applied elements of chaos to ensure that the dragon''s flow of energy, as well as the runic writings wriggling and moving around would not be able to function properly. He couldn''t use [Frenzied Sunset] since it wasn''t past noon yet. Taking advantage, he continued to accelerate [Space Crush], while at the same time, attempting to break the dots, lines and shapes that made up the dragon and the runic writing without going into [Spatial View] mode. After all, even without that vision mode, he could still instinctively detect the spatial structures and destroy the entire thing. At the same time, didn''t he die while [Spatial View] was activated? It was enough time for Xander to glean information concerning the runic structure and the dragon''s. However, most of his attacks were ineffective; his [Space Crush] didn''t work, the manipulation of Chaos elements were not enough to disrupt the flow of elemental energy and spatial stability of the runic writings and the dragon. Even his attempt to break the dots, lines, and shapes that constituted the runic writings and the dragon ended up only shaking them up, but not collapsing them at all. Seeing that his attacks had no effect, Xander couldn''t help but sigh. There was another method, but that involves destroying the ruin. Oh well. Distracting the dragon for a bit, he tried teleporting to the first floor of the ruins; it was slower due to the space being destabilized, but it still worked. Afterward, he overrided the rules of the pocket space, instructing it to seal the very last section of the pocket space. Afterward, he exited the ruins, and did a small gesture, with both his hands; he wanted to ensure that nothing will be left unaccounted for. Immediately, the ruins began to collapse on itself, and barely audible, Xander could hear the unwilling roar of the dragon still stuck in the ruins. Anyways, it won''t have any chance to escape. This process lasted for a few seconds, forming a pyramid-like item in the end, rather than a spherical structure. Around him, the area had devolved into chaos due to the number of magic beasts that appeared in the vicinity. 35 Returning Xander used this opportunity to leave the vicinity and appear in the outskirts of Verdant city. Entering the gates, he headed towards the Missions building of MCGD. It didn''t take a long time to reach it; just a couple of minutes. He immediately headed to the C+ floor and talked to Aria to submit his findings. He only sold the full 100-floor map of the ruins, while the rest of the things he found, he kept them. Aria, who looked quite surprised at Xander''s appearance, gawked at the information that he just gave to her. "T-t-the complete map schematic of Ruin Eta-64 has been submitted, as well as the additional information for each floor." "Ehem, the payment for the discovery of the remaining 80 floors totals to 16,000,000 Etas, the payment for discovering the hidden compartments per floor, a total of 5 per floor, totals to 10,000,000 Etas, making the total amount to be 26,000,000 Etas. Because this isn''t a mission entrusted to MCGD, no fees will be deducted from your reward." Aria scanned the portable terminal to Xander''s smartwatch, and immediately the bank transfer was done. "Successfully transferred 26,000,000 Etas. Thank you for doing a service for the country!" Aria bowed at Xander, who just nodded in response while saying inwardly, they wouldn''t thank me once they realize the ruin is already gone. Xander headed back to his hotel, with his disguise on. He was going to debate whether he should cut his trip short or complete the remaining 4 days. In the area near Capsule City, chaos was ensuing. ______________________________________ "Men, more firepower! Drive these magic beasts away from the city!" "If these beasts won''t communicate with you, do not hesitate to kill if you can do it!" Shouts from commanding officers, lieutenants, and majors were occurring all over the field and forested area where the ruins was situated. When the magic beasts appeared, it coincided with the powerhouses of the clans and conglomerates in Eta appearing one by one, and the soldiers thought that they would help. However, upon receiving a message from their superiors, it seems they were preparing for a bigger fight to happen later, as they expected that something will come out of the ruins. So the soldiers, whose cultivation averaged between Master-5 to Mythic-3, had to fight on their own against these magic beasts who were, according to the scanners, were at least 10,000 years old, meaning they have a firepower of at least a Legendary-1 magician. As these were magic beasts, their actual strength may actually be stronger. Sadly, the stronger magicians in the military had to fight the magic beasts that were roughly 100,000-200,000 years old, meaning they were as strong as a Mythic magician, so they couldn''t eliminate the weaker magic beasts because the stronger magic beasts would do the same towards the soldiers. It was also a pity that these magic beasts were in the state of being feral, thus their cognitive consciousness can''t be reasoned with. It was simply a massacre. The government continued to send more and more soldiers in the area, to ensure the fight was contained and the nearby city wasn''t affected. They had to even conscript magicians in the city to fight as well as they were the closest ones. The powerhouses, on the other hand, were patiently waiting. As they were deciding what to do once they caught Homer Simpson, at that moment, the man they were talking about appeared by the ruin entrance. But before they could even act, they felt extreme danger coming from his area of influence, to the point that even magic beasts and soldiers alike unconsciously moved away from Xander''s position. This was when Xander raised his hands, pointing at the ruins, and what they saw would visibly shake the foundation of magic that they currently know. They could visibly feel the elements all around them churning, widely out of their control and was gushing towards the ruins. Their domains became a bit unstable, causing some of them to float and sink wildly, while magic beasts began to howl and some of them began to disperse, especially the strong ones. The spectators couldn''t explain it, but the ruins that they could see from the outside simply disappeared after faintly hearing a roar, and on its place, a small pyramid object appeared to be floating in air. They weren''t able to sense the contraction of space, the collapse of pocket space. For a while, their elemental cycles in their bodies were disrupted, and they couldn''t cast spells, magic beasts, and humans alike. Only after a few seconds when Xander left did things return to normal. The demigods looked at each other and shook their heads. They weren''t even able to contend with such a person if Homer Simpson was considered a person. Immediately, they helped the soldiers deal with the remaining magic beasts, especially the older ones because of the magic cores they had, and left the clean up to them, and left the province. __________________________________ Two hours later. In the same underground meeting chamber that Xander crashed yesterday. This time, not only were representatives from conglomerates and clans based in Eta were present, other country leaders were present as well, and other global groups. Even the Elven queen Syn was present there, as she represented the country of Elves. "General, what''s the current situation?" The current head of Eta, Mirmow Varn, asked the general of the state. "The information that Homer Simpson has given to us has been verified. Several of our completely uncovered ruins, Eta-1, Eta-8, Eta-32, and Eta-45, have been discovered to have an extra hidden floor. These hidden floors were only detected due to a mild elemental fluctuation, allowing us to locate the passageway to the next floor. The main problem is that the passageway to the last floor is sealed. No matter what we do, we cannot enter the space heading downwards. We assume this is the so-called space sealing caused by the elusive space elements. Right now, we are rapidly coordinating with Nema and other countries in developing a method to detect space element fluctuations, allowing us to observe and understand the space element. However, we do not plan to open any of the space sealings discovered due to the additional warning sent by Homer Simpson; we plan to do so, once we have one of our experts, someone in the Divine class, appear. Concerning the disappearance of Eta-64 ruin, please allow Professor Douglas to explain what happened to the members of the meeting." "Approved." A chorus of approvals sounded off, and the general nodded his head and called for Professor Douglas. Professor Douglas appeared in his casual clothing and long pants. He coughed for a bit before proceeding with his explanation. "Greetings. So I''m here to explain what just happened to the ruin. We are sure that Homer Simpson has a method of either destroying these pocket spaces, reducing these into items like the pyramid-like that was seen afterward. We can highly assume that if Mr. Homer Simpson did not appear to warn us about the danger of the ruins, we might inadvertently push ourselves to ruin in the future." "Another point is that it seemed that this Mr. Homer Simpson is capable of traveling through space, without any elemental fluctuations detected whatsoever. Meaning, this person of interest can control, manipulate space to a certain extent, similar to what Divine magicians can do, but his is more unique: there seemed to be no energy expenditure at all, as well as downtimes." Professor Douglas said, as he explained the abilities Xander could do. The comparison to that of Divine magicians was done due to the fact that once at Demigod, you emphasize on turning your domain that has your rule as an accepted part of the ordered system. At the demigod stage, one would integrate their domain into the ordered system, borrow more strength and lessen the rejection received from the system. Once one completes the integration, they are fused with the ordered system. They become Divine magicians at this point. In this stage, one can travel through space measured in 0.05 lightyears per minute. This is the ironic part; if they were fusing their domain earlier, this time, they now have to gain more control and understanding of the ordered system through their primary elements. This time, they aren''t copying the representations of these elements and then creating a conformation of rule; they are now trying to comprehend the elements'' representations to its extremes. To break through to the Sage realm, one would have to reach 100% comprehension to their primary elements. To reach God class, no knows completely what to do, as people who have been asked say they would only have an inkling of what to do once they were at peak Sage-9 class. Although 800,000 years ago, there were several people who ascended to become gods, they never left any written records about the process. For the past 800,000 years, no one has reached Sage-9, and the currently surviving magician was at Sage-4, and no one has heard of her since she left for the cosmos 100,000 years ago. "We can therefore classify this person probably above the Divine class, most likely half-step to Sage class or already at the Sage class. At the same time, we can confirm this person is not an inhabitant of our planet, and most likely came here on his own." After Douglas finished his explanations, everyone was silent, and the leaders of the countries were all worried. Even some of the conglomerate heads and clan leaders present were in discussion whether they should utilize the hidden powerhouses, those in the Divine class level, but majority of them were in seclusion, while a few minority were already out in space. Although they could contact them through a special magic ritual, it would still take a long time for them to return here, and by then, the planet might have been ravaged already and destroyed. They were at the moment, stumped on what to do to this Mr. Simpson. Of course, another interruption surprised the group. "Really, another meeting? Can''t you like, meet in virtual reality? Way faster to be honest. Oh my, new faces. Hello there." The people present looked at the hologram of the newcomer incredulously, some were even confused. They didn''t recognize who this person was. The others who were in the previous meeting, on the other hand, immediately recognized the man. "Welcome, Mr. Simpson. We would have invited you, but we had no way to contact you." "Yeah, whatever. Anyhoo, my job here is basically done, and I already did what my friend asked me to do." "Erm, may I ask, who this friend of yours is?" A man in his early 40s asked, his voice a bit curious. "Ehh? What do you plan to do? Hmm?" Xander looked at the man who asked him. He was a bit surprised because this was one of the Cloverfield''s grand elders, Veirhardt Cloverfield, Demigod-9, age 280 years old. "Er-n-nothing, nothing at all! I am just genuinely curious." Veirhardt flustered, a bit stressed. Why was he the one sent to this meeting, ugh. He just wanted to play his virtual reality games, sheesh. "Hmm.... interesting domain. Pity, there''s vital flaw to it. You probably won''t survive the final step to Divine class. Pity, pity." Xander shook his head. Xander knew these added information as he had already accessed the information concerning Mythic class magicians and higher in the databases of all countries earlier today when the meeting just started. The main connecting point to their servers was through their hologram projectors. He basically had the necessary information to reach Sage class. Veirhardt turned pale, as if an old wound resurfaced and began acting out. How did this person know his problem? Veirhardt, after all, kept it mum, only the other grand elders knew of this problem. To be honest, it wasn''t a big deal when he started cultivating, but it became an obstacle upon reaching Demigod class, and the higher his cultivation became, the more danger he experienced. The problem was that he was born with a set of weak lungs. Although he had taken in high-quality geno solutions, his weak lungs didn''t improve much. It wasn''t a problem, but his primary elements involved a subset of the air and physics series, Wave - Sound element, Earth/Metal, and subset of Fire and water series, Steam element. From Mundane to Mythic class, there wasn''t much problem, and it took him 110 years to reach the peak of Mythic class. With his body strengthened twice, his lungs weren''t that weak anymore, however it was still several times weaker than people of the same class. The problem showed up when he began integrating his domain, which was [Heavy Steam Wave] domain into the universe, he almost blacked out trying to integrate 1% of it, while coughing out blood. However, he persisted on. When he was passing to Demigod-9 from Demigod-8, he almost died, and only survived through the help of one of the natural artifacts the Cloverfield family had from a Divine class magician who specialized in life element. Accordingly, he had to condense his integrated domain into an Elemental Essence stone seed to advance to Divine Class, which had the properties of the universe, of his domain, as well as the physical manifestation of his life essence doll. However, a premonition has been stopping him from doing that step. At his current cultivation level, usually listening to such things would be the best. Could it be that this man in front of him had a way to solve his problem? He looked again at Xander, his eyes full of hope, but Xander didn''t even notice him. He was merely sitting relaxedly on one of the chairs, munching a fruit. "Do any of you recognize this fruit?" Xander raised his hand holding the half-eaten fruit, and the others in the room weren''t sure if it was a test or something. Seeing them hesitate, Xander rolled his eyes, before answering his own question. "This came from a 3,000,000-year-old Mango tree that hasn''t formed any sprite. I got this from one of my travels all over the galaxy. I think it was 10 years ago? I chanced upon a sentient mango tree a few hundred light-years away from here, moving across space. I purchased it at the cost of a few galaxy coins. I just have to say, it''s so delicious, and overwhelmingly full of nutrients and elemental energy!" Xander lied flawlessly, putting himself into character. After all, he was going to "leave" after this meeting. The people around, on the other hand, were shaken. Sentient plants, without a sprite! Galaxy coins! Could this be a universal currency in our galaxy? "Hmm, yep, going back to your question, yeah, my friend summoned me on this planet by accident, haha. Do you remember the meteor falling several years ago? That actually caused a signal to be released within the radius of 15 lightyears, and coincidentally, I was vacationing in an exoplanet nearby. There were some Divine-rank magic beasts in the area that were curious about who was summoning them, and wanted to approach the planet. Well, long story short, they''re still here and waiting for the same signal to appear once again. I, however, had already discovered who it was, hehe~" "Anyhoo, I can''t tell you who this person is, after all; it''s not my story to tell. Also, just so you guys know, there seems to be a gigantic spell array cast on the whole planet. It doesn''t do any harm, but well, it doesn''t do much, except, make it harder to comprehend and fuse your elements. It seems quite old as well, like, 600,000 years? Pity though, the foundation of the array uses the planet core and the continents, tsk tsk. You can''t break it unless you literally destroy the planet, huh." Xander eyed them sympathetically. "Seems like it was a way to remove Divine magicians or higher from the planet, what a devious plan." Xander shook his head for a bit, acting in character, before waving his hand. "Of course, Mr. Big Tree must have realized this and informed the other ancient clans and conglomerates? After all, it seems to be done by an outsider." Xander snickered, while looking at the Elven queen, her face whitening. The truth was, even she wasn''t knowledgeable about the matter. "Ok, I''m going now. Oh right, old guy with lung problems! You want to breakthrough safely to Divine class, right?" "Huh? Wha-, yes!" Veirhardt stammered before quickly responding. "Ok, so you need to get metal, wind, and water essence from sprites older than 50,000 years old. Just mix them together and then swallow them, while circulating your high-rank cultivation method. Once you feel a burning sensation in your chest, attempt your breakthrough, no matter what your premonition is telling you; you would succeed." Xander muttered carelessly. He just gave him the remedy that Veirhardt would discover 20,000 years from now from an outside traveler passing by Eteria. "Ok, see ya guys hopefully in the Galactic council in 10,000 years! That is if you manage to develop your space technology." Xander quickly disconnected from the meeting, leaving everyone in daze, and at the same time, in fervor of what just happened. There was a greater stage out there! ______________________________________ On an unknown island. A man was twirling his wine glass, slowly drinking its contents, and placing it on the stand. "Huh, it seems this Homer Simpson was truly, just an outsider." "This brings up another question, however: Why did he partner up with Xander Cloverfield in publishing those 2 papers?" Upon saying these words, the man became silent, before issuing an order to his butler. "Change the priority of Xander Cloverfield to Rank 0, highest priority. At the same time, designate the danger as Class I: Absolutely do not approach with malicious intentions. Continue the remote surveillance. If possible, insert some of our people to his retinue of guards and servants." "At your command, master." "Xander Cloverfield... if it truly was you...it seems I have to let go of this prey." The man shook his head disappointingly, as if he was robbed of a scrumptious feast. It wasn''t just him who had similar thoughts and questions about the outside visitor and Xander Cloverfield''s relationship. Other countries, conglomerates, and clans had these thoughts run as well. ____________________________________ Xander currently checked the amount of Etas he had. To be honest, the thing about the Galactic Council and Galactic Coins, those were real, since he did see that they have existed for the past 10,000,000 years. Although it was called a galactic council, the area of control it had was over 1/1.26e+30 of the current total size of the universe, encapsulating hundreds of galaxies, sectors, and fields. Formally, the areas they control fall under the "Galactic Empire" banner. They had a "no approach" rule, wherein no direct contact between the Galactic Empire and underdeveloped civilizations were allowed. Even those that left Eteria, once they have discovered the Galactic Empire and registered as members or passing travelers, they cannot return to their planet and divulge information about them. Currently, he could visit the nearest planet under the control of the Galactic Empire, and sell some of his priceless metals and plant materials, as well as those shards of creation through an auction house. The problem is the requirement of providing an identity, which Xander couldn''t easily fake even with the help of the System because their identity cards are not only recorded in a virtual reality storage system, it is directly connected to a physical identification card that every planet under the Galactic Empire issues to children upon reaching tertiary education, and is with them permanently. He could say it was lost, and get a new one reissued, but he would need Galactic coins to do so. He could apply for free, but he had to sign a binding contract much stronger than the one he made 2 weeks ago for Faykes. After a while, as well as debating with himself for 2 hours, he decided not to get impatient and deal with what he had right now. After packing up his belongings, he checked out from the hotel early and left Verdant City. Upon leaving the gates and entering the foresty area, he immediately teleported to his basement in Callows City. After ensuring that nothing was out of place, that the traps were not triggered, he transformed back to Xander, a 7-year-old kid turning 8 in a few months. He also checked the garden and the state of the sprites and the magic beasts. As expected, the time flow was 1 second: 50 days, with Sam and Pan experiencing 1 second:100 days. He was curious about what these creations of his have in store for him. 36 New Development in the Garden When he reached the area where the garden was, Xander channeled his abilities and immediately transformed the area of the garden. The garden now existed in a pocket space with its own semi-independent ordered system, with a balanced amount of types of elements existing, as well as the time flow being 1 second: 180 days by default or 42,608 years per day. The area where the garden was at previously was now barren, with the ground concaved smoothly, as if something was purposely removed from the ground perfectly. With his current abilities, he could maintain the pocket space for nearly 2 centuries before reinforcing it again. At the same time, the size of the pocket space expanded to up to 10,000,000 square kilometers. The two sprites he first contracted, Sam and Pan, were also transported to this space along with the other sprites and magic beasts seamlessly. With the same sealing process, only Xander could enter and exit the pocket space. At the same time, it was now something that Xander can bring around conveniently like his spatial storage. When he entered the garden, he caught the attention of the magic beasts and the sprites living there. For the past 10 days, there were more and more sprites appearing, as ranging from wood, earth/metal, air, and even water sprites appeared, making it look quite crowded. The sudden expansion surprised and overjoyed the sprites and magic beasts alike because there were more and more beasts appearing as well. Xander, when he did a brief scan, noticed something weird. There was a faint concentration of elements appearing above the center of the garden, and when he probed it a bit more, he realized that there was a higher amount of time elements present in this area, making Xander worry a bit. After all, the phenomenon of concentrating elements with one dominant element meant that a sprite was being developed. He could disturb the growth of the sprite, stop it from forming, to avoid another variable from appearing in the universe, which may hinder his plans. Xander was conflicted. Although he believed there were time sprites in the wide universe, he didn''t expect that he would develop one. He decided to think about the matter of necessity: Does he need a Time sprite? The simple answer is no because one of him is enough. But a complicated answer would be yes, due to the possible benefits the sprite might bring about in terms of cultivation and whatnot. After a few seconds of time-accelerated thinking, he decided to destroy it, scattering the concentrating elements. He sighed at his own cold-heartedness. But it must be done, as it was possible that the sprite he creates will cause problems for him, and even betray him, with the system''s calculated chance of 3%. He didn''t even know when the time sprite would be born, which made it a variable. He greeted the sprites and magic beasts that approached him, rubbing their heads and even playing around with them for several days. A few of the magic beast species that were from bees even gave him sweet, pure honey, which Xander greatly enjoyed eating. He then called for Sam and Pan who were just relaxing tens of meters away, chatting with other sprites. The two of them were 200,000-year-old sprites now, easily achieving Mythic-2 class. The other sprites and magic beasts ranged from those newly born to that of Mythic-1 class, reaching 110,000 years of age. A lot of the magic beasts have reproduced with other magic beasts, creating new species and hybrids. For the first 2 weeks, he basically instructed them to expand as the area was now roughly 10,000,000 square kilometers. He also instructed them to continue teaching the newborns books relating to maths, business, physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as philosophy, architecture, and agriculture. He also created a 4-story library where he had placed a total of 20,000 Books related to these topics, where everyone is free to enter and read the books, but aren''t allowed to bring them out. He made it completely out of the Adamantium-Pazril-Carlite Alloy, one of the strongest alloys developed in the Galactic Council. He surrounded it with multiple restrictions and defense mechanisms, acting as a fortress if ever an invader manages to enter the pocket space and at the same time, a simple library for people to relax and read. The purpose of the library being created is to ensure that newborn sprites, as well as magical beasts, would be learned and smart, not simply hunted for their resources. However, it wasn''t that he wanted them to create their own civilization in this pocket space. He could actually foresee it: In 4 days time outside, if he doesn''t stop them, they would begin to construct natural houses and even create shops, bars, and the like, centering around the "Great Library". After 8 more days, they would have their own currency. After more than 12 days, They would institutionalize their first parliamentary government. To avoid this from happening as he wanted these sprites and magic beasts that he had created to live freely and longer, Xander first created a dimensional rule in this pocket space that within 2 kilometers radius of the library, nothing can be built. When the rule was implemented, the plants and the other the origins of the sprites were moved away, similar to the magic beast dens formed near it. He then followed up by raising the idea of them leaving this place. After all, his original intention was when they reached Legendary-3. However, seeing that the people outside, specifically the military men, easily slaughtered these beasts even if they were 1 level lower, but they had more people. He told them that it would be best if they were at least 100,000 years of age before attempting the trial he had placed. A few of the magic beasts and sprites that have reached 100,000 years of age looked pensive for a while before accepting the trial. There were around 32 Mythic magic beasts and sprites, so this was a good situation. This time, it wasn''t as simple as the trial he did for Sam and Pan, where they just had to demonstrate their skills, thinking ability and adaptability. This time, they had to land an attack against Xander, no matter what tactics they use, and they can only fight in groups of 3 or less. They had to do it within an hour or less. The cultivation system for Sprites and Magic beasts were very, very different from the way humans function. For instance, Magic beasts already formed their elemental essence stones, aka their magic cores once they reached the status of a magic beast, for 1 or more primary elements. For sprites in the other hand, had their life essence already physically manifested as their origin, but for 1 primary element only. At Master Stage, all magic beasts do is bolster the magic cores, making them as big as possible. At Legendary Stage, all they do would be continuously compress the magic cores, making them as compressed as possible. At Mythic Stage, if they choose to transfigure into a humanoid shape, they have to cultivate from Mundane stage to Mythic Stage before progressing again. At the same time, they had to meld and perfect the two domains that they have made. If they decided not to become a humanoid being, they only needed to focus on comprehending, perfecting and strengthening their domain until they began fusing it into the world, entering demigod class through time. At the Demigod stage, their magic cores become metaphysical objects, as they continued to fuse with the universe. Once at 90%, they can fuse more as long as their bodies can handle it, or proceed to Divine class immediately, by forcing their magic cores to become physical matter once again, but there''s a catch: the magic core begins to divide to the primary elements they have. So if they have 2 primary elements, 2 magic cores will be produced, etc. At the Divine stage, their primary element magic cores are focused on being perfected, and upon reaching 100% understanding of their primary elements each, they can unite them and enter the Sage class. They, however, can already traverse the wide universe at the speed of 0.5 lightyears per minute. At the Sage stage, their magic cores disappear and melt, merging to every cell, tissue, muscle, and organ in their bodies, allowing them to have the basic ability to travel through space faster, with the rate of 1 lightyear per minute. Sprites, on the other hand, had a different pathway. From Master to Legendary, all they had to focus on was the accumulation of their specific primary element through time. From Mythic to Demigod, all they were focusing on is their domain creation and the fusion of the domain to the ordered system, which is usually seamless since they are formed by the ordered system naturally. Only their age would affect the speed of fusion. From Divine to Sage, all they had to focus was their age; if Demigods were in 1,000,000 years, at 10,000,000 they would Divine sprites, and simply waiting to reach 100,000,000 years they would automatically be promoted to Sage sprites. This is because they already had a complete and perfect understanding of their primary element. At this point, their origin merges with their bodies, making it now possible for them to travel far and wide in the universe. So, why are there so few of these sprites in the universe, compared to magic beasts? The main reason why there are a few sprites ever reaching Divine and Sage class is that once they step into the Demigod class, their origins became a valuable cultivation resource. Even in the Galactic Council Empire, Sprites of such levels were hunted by other stronger cultivators, making it hard to live. It changed 5,000,000 years ago, when a God class Life Sprite appeared, causing a stir in the empire. When he joined the Council board, a new rule swept all over the empire: No one was allowed to hunt Sprites below the Sage rank. The sprite limited it to below Sage because only Sage cultivators would value the materials coming from Divine and Demigod class. Once they reached Sage rank, they had to learn how to fend for themselves, and if they get killed by other Sage cultivators, it is their fault already since the playing field had been evened out. At the same time, God class cultivators had no use for Sage sprites or below, since their focus of cultivation is different. Even Xander didn''t know it yet since he hasn''t accessed or infiltrated the databases of the Galactic Council. Another factor that made it difficult is that sprites take a long time to reach a fairly high level to defend themselves in the universe. Demigod sprites are a few times weaker compared to Demigod humanoid cultivators, and their true abilities only showed when they became Sage class sprites. Lastly, they are formed naturally by the universe, never by reproductive functions. So compared to magic beasts who can reproduce magic beasts, they were really a low, low, population in the universe. Since these Mythic-1 magic beasts and Sprites want to see the bigger world, who is he to stop them? He just needed them to sign a new and improved binding contract anyways to ensure their silence about this ''garden'' and Xander''s abilities, with his current abilities, he can now restrict even those in the Demigod class. He had managed to resolve the issue concerning the transcendence of their life essence dolls to a different dimension during the meeting earlier today. He was talking so much because he wanted to delay time to identify where they were located and trace the life essences they had to the dimension they were placed at, which he found out and visited just before entering the garden. This dimension was a bit different Dimension-LEO; instead of an ocean, it was a barren, rocky mountain that seemed to breathe and change its shape every second. The force it contained was stronger than the one Xander had experienced in Dimension-LEO. He decided to call this dimension as Dimension-LIBRA since he couldn''t think of any apt terms for it. Anyhow, using space-time elements combined with life-death elements, and causality elements under the life-death elements, the reinforced binding contract was reinforced up to the Demigod class, ensuring total wipeout of their existence and ejection to the Great Void if they failed the uphold the contract. Because of his improved comprehension of the origin elements, he able to handle the rebound effect from the universe from the removal of Demigod class beings. Not only that, if they managed to give out any information that would break the contract, space-time would reverse in the area after the removal of being from the universe, reversing all information leaked to null, so anyone who knew it would only sense a missing portion of their memories. Xander looked at these mythic beings, roared up to fight and already in their "optimized" team set-ups. There were 8 trios and 4 pairs. He called for the first group. To make the fight more simple, and not to give anyone advantage, he accelerated the time in the small arena he created near the library, around 2.5 kilometers from it. 1 second in the outside world would be 60 minutes in the arena. The fight began as soon as they entered. Xander would not retaliate, but he will, however, move to dodge and use only 1 spell: [Absolute Defense]. There was only 1 layer in place rather than the traditional multi-layered multi-dimensional barrier, and his body was currently located on the same dimension as the fighters. However, even though there was a thin layer protecting Xander''s body and life essence doll at the same time, it shouldn''t be underestimated. That one layer is the combination of all the origin elements Xander currently has comprehended, all in a stable structure. if he was to create an analogy, he basically created a thin, semi-independent pocket space film layer to surround him. However, the size inside was just around 1 kilometer in diameter, making it quite the stable space. It would take several tens, if not hundreds of thousands of attacks greater than a Mythic-1 powerhouse before they can start to disturb the elemental structure of the pocket space film. In fact, if he didn''t structure it that way, it could even survive under the barrage of attacks done by Demigod-3 powerhouses. However, the purpose of the test was to ensure they can show their strength to be above their current cultivation level, allowing them to escape situations of being caught, killed or harvested. In fact, Xander didn''t have to dodge at all, he could just stand there and patiently wait for an hour to pass. The first group entered the arena and the fighting began. They only lasted for 30 minutes before being tired out. The next group, same result. This continued on until the 3rd pair appeared. They were the 9th group to come up to the stage, they were Water and Fire sprites. Upon their entrance, they began their barrage of attacks, not holding back. At the same time, they began casting a Mythic-level magic array. Xander didn''t bother moving because technically, the size of their magic array was the size of the arena area, so no point. After a few more minutes of chanting, the whole magic array lighted up the arena area, and bombarded its target: Xander. Xander could feel the power present in the magic array; there was a raging force that emanated the power of water and fire that does not reject one another, but rather supplement and empower one another. The spell array was unique; although it was continuously absorbed by his layer of defense, it seemed like the energy supplying it was never-ending, almost as if it was the universe that was supplying the power. Xander''s eyes widened before he began to notice that the elements of water and fire in the pocket space was rapidly multiplying and decreasing at the same time as if pushed by some unseen force. For the past 3 minutes, he calculated the attack capacity of his defense: it can only withstand 10 more minutes of the same level and amount of attacks currently being released by the Mythic magic spell array, before collapsing and imploding on itself, releasing its contained energy...wait damn it! Xander cursed at himself. He made a huge error. If he reached the maximum tipping point in his defense, the pocket space film covering him will shatter and release the pent up energy inside, ravaging anyone within the radius. Xander sighed for a moment before casting [Void Rejection], forcing the elements in the area to disappear, destabilizing the runic writings of the magic array, as well as dispersing the time acceleration in the area. Xander immediately processed the remaining raging, wild energy inside the pocket space film within an accelerated day, wherein a second just passed by for the others. He couldn''t process the raging energy without his full 100% concentration to the matter; after all, he needed to control the origin elements to quell these raging elements under them. The two sprites, however, thought they were still fighting, and even though they were injured by the spell backlash, they continued to chant their spells. Xander immediately forced their elemental energy in their bodies to circulate slower, almost to the point of stopping, causing the two to be pale since their whole existence was based on their elemental energy flow and elemental particles in their origin and avatars. Xander immediately fixed the situation and nodded proudly to the two sprites, who were already released from Xander''s attacks. "Sorry about that, I made a mistake in configuring my defenses. If I had persisted on until my defense broke, well the backlash and shockwave from the explosion would roughly decimate half the size of this garden." Xander said apologetically, and when the two sprites and spectators heard it, they chilled; that''s how strong the defense their creator had? The sprites looked at each other confusedly, as they didn''t realize their magic array had such a power. "The way you attacked was that you weren''t utilizing any of your personal magic reserves to maintain the spell; it was self-sustaining, and all you needed to do was direct it and continuously transform the elemental energy from the environment into the spell. Not only that, but it also had an effect of increasing the propagation of the said specific elements, making them quite formidable and undefeatable, unless the target has a way to remove or isolate the space from any elements! This ingenious way of attacking, this is a great method! I have to hand over this win to you two. If I''m not mistaken, you two are Mary and Marie, correct? May I know what the name of the spell is?" Xander praised the two, causing the two sprites to be elated. After all, the longer they survive, the better it is for him. He treated each and every one of them as his child. Mary and Marie were elated to have succeeded in the fight, and looked at each other, before Marie spoke up, talking to Xander. "Master, the spell array is called [Ocean Purgatory], combining the torrential and unrelenting representations of water, and the burning and melting representations of fire. It was a spell Mary and I came up with 1,500 years ago, after breaking through to Mythic Class, and only managing to cast it properly 10 years ago." Xander nodded. It was as he had suspected. The specific representations of water and fire mentioned were the ones he had detected. He thought for a moment before saying to the two, "Ok, Marie and Mary, you are the first group that passed the trial. You have 2 options: Follow me outside by signing a contract with me, or be free to do your own thing, but signing a secrecy contract about this place. I''ll wait for your answer after all trial takers are done." Xander looked at the other spectators, saying that the trial will continue. However, he decided to modify the rule. "Show me the most creative attacks you have devised, and show your maximum power. For those that had already taken the trial, they can retake it again." Xander said, and everyone was elated. Xander established the time acceleration field again and proceeded with the trials. 37 Contract signing The trials continued, and out of the remaining 11 groups, only 5 more groups passed because of their creative, powerful attacks. For example, a group of 2 magic beasts and a sprite teamed up, with the sprite acting as the vanguard and the two magic beasts acting as the damage dealers, casting a myriad of elemental spells and physical attacks that seemed to attack representations of the elements in the area, distorting them or even destroying them in the area for a moment. One of the domains produced by a magic beast had the representation of Devouring, which was a feature taken by a lot of elements, but is commonly known to originate from the Void Element. After a while, a total of 12 mythic beings succeeded in the trial. 7 of them were magic beasts, and 5 were sprites. Out of the twelve that passed, 6 of the magic beasts decided to leave and explore on their own but making the same promise as the Wind sprite before. 3 of the sprites also decided to explore on their own, probably because 2 of them were wind elements and the other one was a lightning element. The latter had a characteristic of being headstrong and unyielding, so it kind of make sense. The remaining magic beast was a type of species that closely resembled a Wasp and an ant, but its size was 20 times bigger, with its skin covered with multi-layered scales like a dragon. Xander decided to call this new species "Dragon Wasp Ant" because of these characteristics. They had a unique characteristic, making them blessed with the element of space: living pocket storage. The primary elements they commonly had was Air, Poison, and Earth/Metal elements, with an additional Wave element if they were a queen Dragon Wasp Ant. The magic beast, named Fae, was a queen Dragon Wasp Ant, giving it the ability to fly 10x faster than others, at the same time, exerting control and pressure over other wasp and ant species of magic beasts. Fae could also produce Dragon Wasp Ant younglings, soldiers with a strength one class lower than the queen''s strength, and farmers, and carry them in a portable hive space in their bodies, making it a portable army. She signed a contract with Xander because their slight space sensitivity was highly reacting to Xander. She also felt that Xander wouldn''t restrict her that much at all as well based on his current attitude. The 2 sprites who decided to stay with Xander were Marie and Mary, the Fire and water sprites. They felt that they would have more potential if they established a contract with Xander. At the same time, they had a greater sense of gratitude of belonging with him than with others outside. Upon confirming the beasts and sprites going to leave, he made them sign the binding contracts that stops them from divulging any form of information from where they came from, and what they did to reach their current level, as well as information about Xander. For the 3 newly contracted beings under Xander, he initiated the first part of the contract and planned to initiate the next part outside. He told them to wait for him to return, and immediately went out of the garden and arrived at the basement where his laboratory was in. Using the time he had, he also modified the laboratory basement into an independent life pocket space with a 1 second: 10 days time-flow and still connected to the outside world through two openings: The one that headed straight to his room, and the basement door in the first floor. The basement was still there and surrounded by a modified metal alloy that he used to create the library in the garden space. This was the container for the pocket space of the laboratory. The door was still booby-trapped as well, but this time, the time acceleration he placed initially changed to time-reversal of all extrinsic characteristics by a period of 1,000 years, and a reversal of intrinsic characteristics by 100,000 years. At the same time, they will be subjected to [Void Rejection] and a [Space crush] around the area of where the first spell activated, making it nearly impossible to escape. If they managed to proceed, space rifts will also be present, destabilizing the area to open a small hole in the void where they will be either sucked in or destroyed by the incoming Void energy. The square space in the laboratory expanded from a measly 100 square meters to 15,000 square kilometers, stable enough to last for more than 10,000,000,000 years. He also created a small villa, an extensive herbal field where he placed some of the common, and uncommon plants, and a small mountain for starters and threw some of the metals he had into the mountain. He focused on enhancing the amount of Earth/metal, Wood, and Water elements in the area, making it 3 times more than the other elements besides the origin element. After ensuring the setup was done, he headed to the field area of his villa, calling for his bodyguards and maids to prepare for another situation. They all nodded and began to place their setups in the area. In the past 10 days, none of them were slacking, with Joseph, Bryan, and Ryan reaching Legendary class, and Ryan even progressing smoothly to Legendary-2. The two maids, Esta and Rosa, were already at Master-9, half-step in creating their magic spheres to advance to Legendary Class. He instructed them after they finished their setups, "No matter what you hear, see, or feel later on, focus in your cultivation; if you think you are going to breakthrough, then break through. Do not waste this opportunity." The guards and the maids nodded solemnly. Xander also called Faykes to come to his villa; however, he wasn''t even in the city right now so he couldn''t come. Xander shook his head; if he misses it, he misses it. Not his problem anymore. "Ok, let''s start" Xander murmured, and immediately, the space distorted around him, and 12 beings appeared, surprising the guards and the maids watching him. Xander also called for Sam and Pan to appear. Xander eyed the 3 who were going to sign a contract. He simply said, "Are you ready?" All three of them looked at one another and nodded in response to Xander. Xander immediately initiated the final part of the contract signing. Immediately, the phenomenon in which multiple concentric circles appeared above the villa and into the sky once again, and if one was observant, they would realize that there were 3 sets of concentric circles formed on top of one another, forming a stacked magic circle array. "I, Xander, promise to protect my partners, to do the best of my ability to restore their lives, to ensure that they become stronger under my command." "I, Maria, accept this promise. I vow my eternal service to Xander, my master and creator, to protect him to the best of my abilities, and to strive to become stronger alongside him." "I, Mary, accept this promise. I vow my eternal service to Xander, my master and creator, to protect him to the best of my abilities, and to strive to become stronger alongside him." "I, Fae, accept this promise. I vow my eternal service to Xander, my master and creator, to protect him to the best of my abilities, and to strive to become stronger alongside him." "I, Xander, accept their promises. Let the universe be the witness of this bond, forever unbreakable unless both parties agree without force or pressure from anything or anyone." Upon the echoing of his voice, the magic circles above began trembling and shining brightly, and the night in Callows'' City was once again interrupted by the glow of heavenly lights. Once again, the stacked, concentric circles constricted to one another, before disappearing, create a magical wave that emanated from Callows City to the whole continent of Ete, causing every country in it to raise their alarms, with Demigods becoming severely injured, and Divine magicians disturbed from their cultivations. Other magicians who were below Demigod class but were sensitive to these magical fluctuations rapidly felt that their head was about to burst, and their body filled with energy that seemingly came out of nowhere. Once again, the bell chiming sounds appeared once again, ringing for a total of 108 times, causing anyone below the Demigod level to fall into a trance, subconsciously activating their cultivation skills, and others, awakening their magical talents and improving their elemental affinities. The guards and the two maids of Xander, who was near the epicenter of the wave, couldn''t even react, as the force once again caused them to fall unconscious, but their cultivation techniques were already running automatically without stop until the end of the 108th chime of the illusory bells. Not only that, but there was also a physical phenomenon that occurred in the whole continent of Ete, affecting the 18 countries present. Elements began to surge towards the continent, shrouding areas full of elemental particles, even causing a visible "elemental haze" to occur in some cities. The closer they were from Callows city, the more dense the elemental haze was. Xander, who just finished the contract signing, advanced to the peak Elite-9, and used the remaining energy to reinforce and compress his magic seeds once more. Although he was powerful, he believed in establishing a strong foundation. Since he removed [Body Manipulation] and [Blood Manipulation] as his magic seeds, he needed a total of 3 more pseudo-spells. With him deciding to change [Penumbral Chaos] to a different spell, he needed to browse the available pseudo spells. Should he enter the Galactic Council and get their database of pseudo-spells? It''s probably more complete than Eteria''s, Xander pondered. Meanwhile, in another place, there was chaos and unrest brewing. ______________________________________ "Douglas, what''s the current status?" "General, the same phenomenon that occurred less than 2 weeks ago appeared again, this time, stronger than before. As you can see from our satellites, there were 3 stacks of concentric rings, and because of this stacked structure, we cannot estimate the strength of the magic circle array that was formed in the villa of X-001. Based on the initial magic wave fluctuation when the array disappeared, the spell''s strength is greater than the recorded 78th-class magic circle released by the Heavenly Tree Sprite. The magic wave caused severe damage to demigods, causing them to be unable to attend the meeting, and could only request for their Divine-rank powerhouses, or anyone at Mythic rank." "However damaging it is to these magicians, it gave a great boon to the country, no, to the entire Ete continent because of two reasons: The first one was the ringing of the bells, allowing anyone in the continent who heard it fall into an epiphany, with their cultivation skills running on their own, allowing them to breakthrough through increased comprehension of the elements, or their magical potentials in their body being unlocked, or appearing in the first place, and even the increase in elemental affinity, comprehension, and understanding of one''s domains. it lasted a total of 108 breaths of time, or 108 seconds, allowing people to breakthrough more than 2 stages of their current cultivation. The second reason is that this magic wave caused the elemental particles all over the world and even from space to concentrate in the continent of Ete, making it a hotbed for possible sprite formations and even magic beast generation, as well as magic cultivation. Not only that, but the plants have been observed to gain more spirituality and elemental concentration, with some of the common plants near Callows City reaching the status of Class 2 plant materials. Metals and stones, on the other hand, could visibly be detected to have increased in their purity content; it is possible that the abandoned mines we have that contained common, uncommon, and rare metal deposits would have a greater amount and concentration present." "Mr. General, may I raise a suggestion to handle this?" "Mr. Claus, what would you suggest?" "Well, we can market it to the public as a once in a lifetime phenomenon that occurs in Eteria. We were simply "lucky" for our continent to experience this. At the same time, with the countries in Ete continent present in this meeting, they should impose declarations to make the next few days a holiday where the people can focus on stabilizing their cultivation and continue absorbing elemental particles all over. At the same time, use this opportunity to call the newly-awakened magicians to join technical schools after their primary elements have been determined by state-wide testing, where they can have a basic understanding of their abilities and use it for the good of the society''s development. Investing in their people. After all, if the government won''t take them in, a conglomerate or a clan might, strengthening their control over your respective countries, or create chaos if these are terrorist clans." Mr. Claus said, striking an image to the countries'' representatives of the possible repercussions. The Eta government decided first and foremost to do this, to alleviate the surprise and fear, as well as the confusion that its citizens might feel when they realize they have magic powers, or they can''t control their abilities. The rest of the countries also did damage control to placate their citizens. All of this happened within minutes of Xander''s contract signing ending. After 30 minutes, the governments in Ete continent release a hologram video of their respective leaders, telling them about the situation, and placating their fears and confusion, while at the same time, using this opportunity to crack down on people who might cause dissent and terror. At the same time, the Eta government along with other countries in the Ete continent hosted a global emergency meeting, involving the continent of the elves and the Ria continent. ______________________________________ Xander, unaware of these events, for now asked the remaining mythic magic beasts about their plans. The other 3 sprites have bid farewell to him and left the vicinity of Callows city, merging with the elements, disappearing on the horizon. The mythic magic beasts, on the other hand, were now placed in a precarious situation: Do they cultivate an anthropomorphic form, or remain as beasts? If they decided to change to become humanoid magic beasts, Xander could help them in the initial process of transformation. For them to cultivate to reach the Mythic class again, it would be up to them, their cultivation skill, and their resources. After a while, the 6 beasts decided not to transform into humanoid beings. For one, they enjoyed their current forms. At the same time, their bodies, for them, were the best option for now. Why change when there''s no problem, right? Xander thought about it for a bit, before agreeing to that line of thinking. After all, if there''s no problem, why make a fuss? Xander had received the origin of the two sprites, Mary and Marie, in the form of crystallized dewdrop and an aged flintstone respectively. Xander''s smartwatch vibrated, alerting him of an incoming call. He looked who it was and saw it was his parents, who looked quite pale and haggard as if they were running a marathon and forgot to drink water and it sugar candy, causing their bodies to reach hypoglycemic shock. Xander was surprised, before calming himself down. "Hi mom, hi dad. What''s up?" "What''s up, my ass! Do you know the trouble you have stirred up this time, mister?" Xander''s father, Majes shouted, before coughing out blood, causing worry to blossom in Xander''s eyes. "Oh. You''re injured. Dad, rest for a bit, and don''t let your anger do the talking, ok?" "Anger? Damn it, you are going to be in a lot of trouble-" Majes was cut off abruptly by his wife, Faria, Xander''s mother. "Xander, did you do another contract signing with a sprite or something? Such a magic wave was strong enough to cause severe injuries; we aren''t able to go back home because we''re in the military hospital right now." Faria sighed, a bit worried by the waves of turmoil Xander had caused once again. "Huh? What happened?" Xander was confused. Wasn''t it a simple contract signing? Why were people injured? In fact, shouldn''t they breakthrough and have increased magic capability. "Hmph! Every demigod in the whole continent of Ete is down, severely injured by the magic wave! Even though we- ow!" *cough* *cough* "Your father meant to say is that the magic wave had severely injured those who are demigod level magicians, as well as those with a high sensitivity to magic and the elements, like us, your parents, right, honey?" Faria said calmly, staring at Majes dangerously, causing the latter to look scared, and bobbed his head in agreement. Xander immediately instructed the system to check for any relevant meetings and recordings that had happened in the past hour. Immediately, there were a total of 2 meetings: One involving the countries in Ete continent, and one that involved the other political leaders of countries outside the continent. Upon hearing the contents of the news, Xander was surprised, and at the same time, worried for his parents. If they were injured, it''s either because they are demigod class magicians or they''re probably higher than master class magicians but has a high sensitivity to magic fluctuations, so instead of benefiting them, the wave injured them. Xander was now in a dilemma: he could just reverse their injuries remotely like it never happened, but knowing their elemental sensitivity, if they were the latter category, they would notice a different, unknown element acting on their bodies and my actually expel it out and might even question him about it. Should he knock them out? Xander thought for a moment before removing such a thought. They were his parents, not servants, jeez. After a few seconds of accelerated thinking, he came up with a solution, which is to heal his parents by manipulating the Causality element under the Life-Death elements to increase the concentration of Life elements as well as the other elements in their room. "Hmm, ok I have a solution for the two of you to heal up quick, but you can''t tell others, okay mommy, daddy?" Xander said cutely. Seeing him act this way, Majes almost rolled his eyes, but Faria was already nodding in agreement with what Xander said. At the same time, she recorded the video of him acting cute, hehe. "Ok, here it goes. By the powers of the universe, I call upon the truth, the path of the future revealed, my parents, shall be healed within a day of this incident without no worries. Propagate, the elements of the universe! Life, restore their bodies to the most optimum state! As I have said it, so shall it be done to my will." The moment Xander''s voice echoed, he manipulated both the elemental particles in the room where the two of them were staying, creating an increased concentration of life elements with the help of the Order Element and Causality Element. Immediately, on the hologram, both Majes and Faria''s faces rapidly changed. They felt the sudden change of concentration of elemental particles in the room, and they could detect... life element particles in abundance! Because of the concentration change, the life element particles and other elements headed towards the two, suffusing their bodies and healing their wound, injuries, and bodies. It was to the point that if one observed their bodies, it was as if a thinly veiled cocoon of white light was covering them, and both their eyes closed. When he saw them fall into a deep sleep, Xander nodded and closed the communicator, and also deleted any traces of it in both the devices his parents had and his, to make sure it wasn''t traced back to him. He knew that both his parents would be out for the day, probably only waking up at noon tomorrow. He also ensured that the room cannot be opened by anyone outside, to avoid them from being disturbed. In truth, he could just force the space around his parents to rapidly propagate the elements required for their healing without invoking that cringey line, but he wanted to try this kin of magic that Wordsmiths were known for. He checked the time and saw it was nearing 7 pm in the evening, then looked at the guards and maids still unconsciously breaking through. He immediately transported them to the living room like last time, not bothering to transfer their setups and decided to cook his food. Life was back on track for him. 38 Taking a short trip in Arder In the Elven continent, Yggdras. A few hours after the incident, and after the world meeting. The elven queen and her court ministers, as well as generals, were all present in the meeting room, the atmosphere heavy. The elves had tense looks in their faces, some were genuinely confused, unaware of the situation, some were nervous about how they should approach the recent problem. Seeing everyone quiet, tense and nervous, the elven queen, who just finished up with the meeting set by the members of Ete continent and Ria continent, decided to start the meeting. "According to the meeting I have attended, another magic wave appeared from the country of Eta, and radiated to every inch of the Ete continent, blessing everyone with magical affinity, comprehension of the elements, and even talent. At the same time, all of Ete''s demigods were severely injured, with Mythic-9 magicians currently taking the helm of the conglomerates and clans, with some ancient groups and clans having their Divine magicians exciting their seclusions and doing damage control." "Clarissa, please give us the information that you have managed to gather." The elven queen looked at one of the court aides, Clarissa. This petite elf was in charge of communicating with the great Heavenly Tree Sprite alongside the Elven queen. In truth, the elven queen and Clarissa were the closest of friends, confiding to one another their secrets and problems. She was considered to be the second-in-command, able to command the generals of the kingdom as well in the stead of the elven queen. "Yes, your majesty. The information I gained from our ancestor the Heavenly Tree, he once again detected the appearance of several Mythic sprites and even several mythic magic beasts whose energy fluctuations seemed to be foreign, indicating a species of magic beasts never recorded in Eteria. It also included a familiar signature: the two sprites that appeared 2 weeks ago, sprites at the Legendary class, were now at the level of Mythic class. He detected that 3 of the mythic class beings signed a master-servant contract with one of the high profile targets we have placed, Xander Cloverfield. This is the same high-profile target we believed to have contact with the outside traveler, Homer Simpson. At the same time, Because of his roots extending to the Ete continent, he was also severely injured, causing several branches to fall and even the luster of his leaves decreased. I fear that we might not have our centennial event of the fruits bearing open, the [Blossoming] in 3 months'' time." Clarissa bowed and stopped talking. The elven queen nodded, and said, "I must also inform you all, according to Camelia, our head intelligence officer, all those demigod elves we placed in Ete continent are also in critical condition, while those in the Mythic class, they are currently in a coma. We are not sure why this didn''t happen to the Mythic class magicians of humans, or dwarves present in the continent. It might be that the humans are creating a new spell that targeted specific beings, or probably our unique relation to that of sprites resulted in this situation." Her words dropped a bombshell of doubt and fear amongst her royal subjects, which disappointed her in how some of them were reacting. "What we need now is clarity. I believe that we must invest more resources into our intelligence gathering department, as well as utilize our connections that have been strategically placed to gather information and if needed, disrupt the chain of command. All of you in favor?" The elven queen asked authoritatively, allowing no dissent amongst the subjects to occur. After everyone had agreed, the elven queen nodded. "Alright, you are all dismissed. Varis, ensure that the media outlets in the continent have information about the issue, but make it sound like it''s possible that the humans and dwarves might be developing a magic spell array targeted to elves. At the same time, ensure that their hearts remain very nationalist to the elves." She looked at the shrewd-looking elf near the end of the table. "Yes, your majesty. May I also suggest showing some pictures of the elves in a coma? This would add more visual effects to the story we are showing to the elves." Varis responded, giving his own suggestions as well. "Hmmm.... approved." The elven queen agreed, seeing no downsides to it. "Alright your majesty, good day." Varis bowed and left the meeting room as well, leaving Clarissa and the elven queen alone. After a few minutes, the elven queen sighed. Clarissa stifled a giggle, causing the elven queen to glare at her. "What''s supposed to be funny?" The elven queen asked, looking ''angry'' at Clarissa. "Nothing, your ''highness''. Tee hee." Clarissa said, barely holding in her laughter. Seeing her face, the elven queen sighed. "Yeah, whatever go laugh." she waved her hand as if indicating, ''whatever, do what you want'' to Clarissa, who immediately burst into laughter. After a while, she stopped laughing, then said, "Carla, don''t you ever get tired of doing that thing in front of your political advisors? Every time you do it, I have to act solemn and dignified, ugh." Clarissa bemoaned at the elven queen, Carla Syn, about her problems. Carla just rolled her eyes. "As if. I know the Heavenly Tree sprite wanted you to tell me something else privately. So what is it? Spill it, spill it!" As she said those words, she was pinching Clarissa all over, causing her to attempt to evade some but ultimately being pinched, causing her to snort out loud, losing all decorum. "Teehee, stop I give, I give! I''ll tell you what grandpa tree wanted me to tell you privately." Clarissa raised her hands and arms in defeat, acting like a salted fish. Carla stopped and crossed her arms, waiting for Clarissa''s explanation. "Ok. This is exactly what grandpa tree said: Carla, I have two things to tell you: first, you must not break through to Divine class in Eteria. I''m sorry for telling you this now. There is a magic array that suppresses and disorders the elemental energies and particles in this planet, which can distort one''s creation of the Elemental Essence stone seed, causing untold damage to be present. It was established when I went into hibernation for a couple of millennia, after attempting to find my friends without success. When I woke up, the magic spell array has been laid down, using the planet as the foundation of the spell. In the past hundreds of thousands of years, peak demigod elves were escorted by the previous generations that have surpassed and reached Divine rank and higher to exoplanets nearby our planet; however, according to the schedule imposed, they will only arrive 10,000 years from now. If you truly want the opportunity to break through, you must find a way to leave this planet along with other demigod elves and look for a habitable planet where the elements are stable and injunction with the universe, and breakthrough to Divine Class there. The problem is, the journey would be far, taking hundreds of years and you need to reach an exoplanet with a biological ecosystem already established, not a barren planet. Of course, you can risk it and breakthrough to Divine class here in Eteria. No matter what you choose, once you breakthrough, you must abscond your throne to someone else. Second, relegate all information concerning Xander Cloverfield to the highest priority and class, 0. No direct contact shall be initiated unless it is the other party that comes to initiate it. If you plan to strike, make sure it cannot be traced to the elves or the sprites at all. If you strike, make sure the target will really be eliminated; 100% chance is the only percentage allowed for the strike to proceed concerning Xander Cloverfield. At the same time, place everyone related to him under Class 1 priority level, and under strict surveillance. If we can pull them to our control, do so, but make it discreet. He is more than he seems to be on the surface; be careful, Carla." Clarissa said to Carla, her voice monotone. Carla, upon hearing this, had her face visibly whiten. After all, she was half-step to Divine class. She had a domain fusion of 92%, making her more powerful compared to her peers. Now, she faces a decision of whether she should leave the planet on her own or wait for around 10,000 years when she was at the prime of her cultivation life? After all, she''s just 2000 years old. She became queen after she had won the championship. Clarissa, on the other hand, stayed quiet. She knew how much of a blow this was for Carla. After all, they had known each other''s dreams and aspirations. Carla, even as a young elf, wanted to explore the wide wide universe that lay beyond the confines of Eteria. Clarissa, had aspirations simpler than Carla: being happy. Being with Carla, playing with her, talking to her... She was happy. She didn''t need anything else. She only cultivated because she didn''t want to be left behind by Carla. This news was a turning point for Carla, and whether she would proceed with exploring the nearby exoplanets or risk it all and breakthrough to Divine rank in Eteria. Unless she could find a way to travel to the exoplanets within the 1000 years, it''s was not going to be worth it. ______________________________________ The deadline of 7 days of school leave wasn''t even close to finishing, so for the remaining 3 days, Xander decided to travel to the Galactic Empire, specifically, the nearest planet under their control, which was 8,000 lightyears away. If a Divine rank magician traveled from Eteria, it would take them, with an average speed of 0.05 lightyears per minute, roughly 112 days to reach this planet under the jurisdiction of the Empire. If it was a Sage rank magician, with an average travel distance of 0.25 lightyears per minute, it would take them 22 days to reach the planet. If they were traveling through space normally, they would then have to pass a series of checkpoints, proving that they are a citizen of the empire and not an outsider or a fresh, unregistered Divine magician. This was because of the planet''s unique position in the empire. This planet is called Arder and considered to be a border planet of the empire since it formally joined 10,000 years ago after it finally reached the technological level required by the Galactic Council: superluminal space travel space ships that can withstand a barrage of peak Demigod attacks for at least 10 minutes, or 1 Divine rank attack. With the help of the Galactic Empire, they also surpassed their current quantum supercomputers size, allowing them to join a 100% virtual hyper-reality creation by the Empire known as [Second Life], modified in such a way that people from opposite ends of the Empire would be able to compete against one another, as well as allowing the Empire to simultaneously host special events, ceremonies, and send out rewards and even trade with one another by just adding or replacing a few bits of data on the recipient, and once they exit the virtual reality, the item can be brought out through reverse digitalization provided that they have the required machine to do so, which is quite pricey for the normal citizens. Usually, they would use or rent the reverse digitalizer in the government security office by paying a small fee. Of course, the reverse digitalization only worked for goods that were non-living and non-sentient, and for items that were only up to 2 tonnes in mass. To avoid taxing the program, its trading was limited to 1 per person per 7 days. This was what fascinated Xander about the empire: there were too many things available! Ok! Focus! Remember the reason you are here! Xander said to himself, lightly slapping his cheeks. 1. Get a citizenship card legal or illegal means. 2. Enter the virtual reality successfully, and then enter the database situated inside the virtual reality. 3. Record and categorize all the information possible. 4. Use their large database to establish his last 3 pseudo-spells; if possible, replace the other pseudo-spells as well. Just 4 tasks. No biggie. Now where should he get an identification card, Xander wondered. He was using another one of his time clones, the one that took the persona of Homer Simpson. He was aimlessly moving out and about in the largest city in Arder, Veiled City. This was where the majority of the trade in the country occurred; outside the city, multiple spaceports were available and tightly secured. In his initial scan of the local databases, the strongest person here was someone in the Sage class, and most government officials were peak Demigod class to Divine-6 cultivators. He tried to look for spells placed in their local database: Although there were over 20,000 different master, Legendary, and Mythic spells recorded in the database, only two of them was what Xander was looking for, filling two of his pseudo-spell slots. [Crysis Core Blades]: Creates an elemental Blade that can be used for different purposes, such as attacking, defending, traveling, magic spell array formation, and even energy storage. The limit of the number of blades would vary per person''s magic energy and elemental comprehension. This spell is considered an Order element pseudo-magic circle, due to the possibilities it brings forth in a systematized way (Creation). It''s also multi-functional, so it suited the future spells that may be formed from it. [Force Destabilization]: Allows one to destabilize the forces present in physical matter, as well as disturb the elemental representation of the target area, causing magic casting to be erratic and unstable. The caster is not exempted from the effect if he/she enters the target area. The second spell acts similarly to [Penumbral Chaos] being in the Chaos element pseudo-magic circle but is better because it also affects physical matter, meaning if he targeted the being, he could destabilize the opponent''s structural matter, similar to that of his [Spatial View]. So, currently, he has 8 spells: [Void Wind] falls under the Void element. [Golden Light] falls under the Yin-Yang elements, specifically under the Yang element. [5 Elements Foundation] falls under Yin-Yang elements, specifically the 5-elements system. [Aether Control] falls under the Order element, specifically, the Command rule. [Crysis Core Blades] falls under the Order element, specifically, the Creation rule. [Divination] falls under the Life-Death elements, specifically, the Fate series. [Magic Rejection] falls under the Chaos element, specifically, the Rejection rule. [Force Destabilization] falls under the Chaos element, specifically, the Disorder rule. What Xander needed is a pseudo-spell that can embody both space-time elements. He didn''t try creating another space-time spell lest it fills up his Divine and Sage rank spell slots, or even his Legendary, Mythic or Demigod spells, like with [Material Transformation]. He then thought for a moment; what if from the spells I have in the Advanced rank, I interpolate another space-time spell, enabling me to set it as my pseudo-spell rather than an advanced spell or higher? He thought about it for a few minutes before shaking his head. The problem is any spell he creates occupies the spell slots allocated to a magician, unless they have a unique body constitution, or maybe a similar god modified their bodies. If it has been allocated, it cannot be relegated to function as a pseudo-spell. For the next few hours, He also even tried to look for the virtual reality server in the planet; he couldn''t find anyone. He even tried to pickpocket stuff here; they had no physical currency anymore, all of it is digital! He couldn''t open an account on his own because he would need a citizenship card. A day later, after scanning the city in intervals, he finally discovered an interesting group of people seemingly operating in the shadows. What definitely caught his attention was that they were all wearing black cloaks and heading to the same location at night, a building complex in the downtown area of the city, and they were entering the building one at a time. He didn''t enter the building right away, but rather observed the gathering from the outside, since obstructions didn''t mean much for him in this stage, unless this building was a pocket space or a different dimension, which is unlikely to happen. After all, these people haven''t even mastered the intricacies of the space-time element. According to their brief history, the research of superluminal space travel only managed to reach its current standard by coincidence; a being passing by taught them several magic circle arrays to be embedded into their spaceships'' internal array, allowing the whole body and engine to accelerate to superluminal speeds of 5 to 6 times the speed of light. From those several magic circle arrays that contained the power of space, time, and even gravity, as well as wave elements, they extrapolated the information concerning space elements, improving their technological profile. Actually, this was a common sight in the empire; planets were only able to extrapolate data concerning the space element, while its counterpart, the time element, has less than 0.00000000000001% understanding in a technological and magical development standpoint. Even the Galactic council still didn''t have anyone proficient at space-time elements within its board of rulers. Although at Sage and God class, they began to touch on these origin elements, they are usually instinctive rather than something controlled; although God class cultivators can create their own ordered system using their primary elements to derive and produce the origin elements, it is not controlled but rather instinctive; they know the certain amount of ratio of origin elements that must exist to create their ordered system, however, they cannot manipulate these ratios freely. However, they have discovered the majority of the elements; out of 1080 elements in existence in this universe, 1076.5 have been discovered, with the remaining ones being Order, Chaos, Time and Void elements, so they have a pretty diverse grasp of pseudo-spells that can be used by their citizens as well as families, clans, and groups with a long, long history at the Elite stage. With what he can sense loitering 2 blocks away from the building, his presence hidden and camouflaged, Xander carefully listened to the events occurring in the building. _______________________________________ "Hmm, 001, when will the trade start?" A man in black cloak spoke, his voice muffled by the mask he wore. Everyone present in the meeting had their masks as well, not just him. "Patience, 033. we aren''t complete yet. 002, 056, and 076 aren''t still here. In the meantime, relax and enjoy the dishes available." A man in a red mask spoke out, his voice calm. "Hmm, ok 003. I''ll wait." 033 mumbled. 033 headed to the pastry table and got a few sweet delights. The food was quite exquisite. The other members were also talking among themselves, although they didn''t know who was one another in real life for secrecy, they did talk about the previous meetings and trade auctions they have held. All of these events were held at a convenient time for almost everyone. However, they have a rule: If you agreed to go, you must go, or the whole thing will not proceed. Currently, this was the 4th trade auction of the year, and over 50 people agreed to come. So far, there were 47 people present at the venue. After a few minutes of eating, a man''s voice sounded near the entrance. "Sorry I was late. The business was a hassle today." A man in gold mask spoke. Following his entrance, another person was seen by the door as well. "Same. I was delayed by some personal matters. It''s fine now, though." Neither masculine or feminine voice sounded out, the person wearing a purple mask with a rose embedded. "Yep, yep. Me too. My husband wanted to have a surprise dinner date when I told him I was busy tonight two weeks ago." A female voice followed the second figure, showing a woman in a black cloak, but it didn''t seem to hide her body''s amazing figure. "Ah, 056, 076, and 002! You''re finally here. We can start the trade auction now." "As usual, since the last trade we started from the largest numbers, we''ll start with the lowest numbers this time. Ok, first off, me!" 001 said, showing a hologram of the item he wanted to auction. 39 Getting access? Everyone focused, awaiting for 001''s explanation of the item in the hologram. "This is a comet core, rich in earth/metal elements, as well as ice element. It weighs approximately 10 kilograms, but its radius from its core is only 20 centimeters. You can already imagine how dense and heavy this material is. I''m willing to trade this for a water-type fruit from at least a Class 6 plant. If no one has it, I''m willing to sell it for 3 pieces of water-type fruit from at least a Class 5 plant." As soon as he finished, everyone was silent for a moment, before issuing their counter offers. "I''ll exchange it for water-based metal with 90% purity with High quality." A person counter-offered, but 001 shook his head at it. After all, he needed the fruit to use it for cultivation. When Xander heard the first item being traded, his eyes glistened. He had known about the existence of such a market in the empire. Even in Eteria, there was a market for these things. Plant-based materials were quite common in exoplanets in the universe. However, some of the plants take too long to mature, causing a low supply but a high demand for it. Some of the plants also don''t have the right conditions to develop and survive long enough to accumulate the elements around them. These plant-based materials can be used as cultivation elixirs or medicines used to heal, to boost one''s cultivation, or even to kill. The materials are usually defined by quality: Low, Mid, High, Perfect, Transcendental quality. They are also defined by age ranks, namely Classes 1-10, where class 6 and above have usually formed a plant sprite. It is very rare to see a sentient plant in space that does not have any sprite formed; they are like a hybrid of a magic beast and a sprite, to be honest. Sentient plants weren''t restricted to one element only, unlike Plant/Wood sprites. Class 1 - lower than 100 years Class 2 - lower than 200 years Class 3 - lower than 500 years Class 4 - lower than 1000 years Class 5 - lower than 10,000 years Class 6 - lower than 100,000 years Class 7 - lower than 1,000,000 years Class 8 - lower than 10,000,000 years Class 9 - lower than 100,000,000 years Class 10 - Age cannot be determined. Usually, these plants gaining sentience are determined by their environment; meaning if one grows in water, it''s probably a water-based plant, making it high in water elements. If it grows on metal, it''s a metal/earth-based plant, making it rich in metal and earth elements. What this person, 001, was looking for was a water-type fruit produced by either a water-based plant or a multi-elemental plant, with the latter more precious than the former. He checked his pocket space garden for a moment, and took a look at the empty plots of land that had grasses, mosses growing on the ground. He placed some seeds that he bought from Eteria as well as seed pits from the Class 1 fruit trees he discovered outside the Veiled City. He planted them evenly on the ground, with each seed having a radius of 10 meters each from one another. After burying them, he modified the rules in that area: No more plant sprites could be born in that plot of land. He also increased the amount of wood and life elements in the area. He wanted to test if he could create artificially-made plant sentient beings. He then had another idea: What about inorganic materials gaining sentience? His eyes twinkled at the idea. He went to one of the mountains that was growing and also made the area to have no sort of sprites growing, but increased the amount of earth/metal and life elements in the area, as he did on the plot of land for the trees. He exited the space where not even a second had passed by outside. 001 was still waiting for bids. After a minute of silence, he shook his head disappointedly, before going back to his seat. 002 took her place and presented the holograms of the two items she was trading. "The first hologram on the left shows an Elemental crystal with a mass of 5 kilograms and size of roughly 20 centimeters, and the one on the right is a Garland Tree Seed, one of the 10,000 seeds available in the empire, which is one of the seeds produced before the original tree was destroyed." "For the first item, the elemental crystal contains the property of Fortune and Poison elements. I do not have any need for it, so I''m willing to exchange it for an elemental crystal containing the property of Fire and Water of the same amount." "For the second item, as you know, the Garland Tree seed can be used to plant another Garland Tree, but it takes a long time for it to even sprout, and even a longer time to produce its first flowers and fruits. As of now, it''s only useful as a status symbol for your clan or group. I''m willing to trade this for galaxy coins: 5,000,000 coins or items with the same worth." As soon as she finished her words, others began to place their bids. "I''m willing to trade an Elemental crystal of fire and water with a mass of 2 kilograms, and supplement the rest with 1.5 million galaxy coins." The first bidder shouted. He had to get this elemental crystal because it matched the primary elements he had, meaning he could directly refine it or even make a cultivation elixir out of it to enhance its effects. "I''m willing to trade an Elemental crystal of fire and water with a mass of 3 kilograms, and supplement the rest with 5 pieces of water elemental crystal and fire elemental crystal each, with a total weight of 1 kilogram each." A feminine voice sounded out, silencing the first bidder. 002 looked at the second bidder and said, "I accept 044''s offer. The trade will be done after all items have been auctioned." 044 nodded in response, agreeing to 002''s stipulations. "Any bids for the 2nd item?" 002 looked at the crowd, hoping to someone would get rid of this useless seed for her. After all, it was only a gift that she received; she didn''t really need it. In truth, Xander also wanted the item. He wanted someone to bid for it and steal it later from that person. He had already inspected the cultivation levels of these people; the strongest one of them, 003, was just a Demigod-9 cultivator. No one had reached the level of Divine class, so up to a certain extent, he could steal and escape quickly with no one the wiser. Although he couldn''t beat and kill them as easy as he did with Mythic magicians, he won''t get injured, at least. However, what worried him is the standard of Demigod cultivators in the Galactic empire; for all he knew, they would roughly have the same strength as a Divine-rank cultivator in Eteria. Hopefully, it''s a direct transaction, rather than through the virtual reality, since plant materials are considered biological and living organisms, so it shouldn''t be able to be digitized? If it was the latter, he could just watch these items fly out of his grasp. As he thought of these, another bid came out for the Garland Tree seed. "I''m willing to pay 2 million galaxy coins, and 40 kilograms of Adamantium-Telarite alloy of perfect quality." A deep voice sounded, coming from a man wearing a black mask with silver engravings. 002 thought for a moment before agreeing. "Ok, I accept 043''s offer." 043 nodded in agreement, and 002 returned to her seat, with 003 heading on stage. The items presented didn''t catch much of Xander''s attention. After 30 minutes, it was the last person, 089, who appeared to be trading 3 items, shown in the hologram. "The first item is a red-blood sphere. I don''t know it''s specific functions. I got this from the remains of my enemy when we were fighting in space and his body was crushed by a passing neutron star. Does anyone have any information about this item, I am willing to pay for it." "The second item is a natural magic artifact from a Divine-2 stage cultivator, an Elemental Essence Stone with the element of Fire, with a comprehension level of 20%. I am willing to trade this for an Elemental Essence Stone with the element of Wood of the same comprehension level, or 2 of it at a lower comprehension level." "The third item is an unknown stone that I have gotten from a budding exoplanet a few days ago, outside the empire''s domain. The atmosphere of the area was very thin, and only two-thirds of the planet is covered with vegetation, flowing water, and animals. There were no intelligent civilizations formed at all, and it seemed like the state of the planet was artificial rather than natural, with the majority of the animals being quite antiquated when I compared their genetic material. I decided to make it my go-to vacation because of how perfect the place was. I discovered the stone while I was swimming on a waterfall lake; it was embedded in the bottom of the lake and had a strong fluctuation of water element series. It contains all the elements under the Water element series. I''m willing to trade this for 1 unconditional favor from a Sage class cultivator, or 3 unconditional favors from a Divine-6 or higher cultivator." 089 finished, and awaited for the bids nervously. It was the first and last item that he was worried about the most. Although mystery would attract the other guests, he wasn''t sure if they could pay up the requests he placed. For a minute, it was quiet, and a few people were murmuring with one another, talking about the first item, while some were focused on their communication devices, awaiting for some sort of confirmation. After another minute of silence, 089 was about to leave when he heard a female voice sound out, "My patriarch is asking for the 3rd item. She said: 1 unconditional favor of saving your life or eliminating a target as a promise from a Sage class cultivator, as long as the target has lower cultivation than her, as well as 1,000,000 galaxy coins. In return, she wants the 3rd item and the coordinates of the exoplanet. Do you agree with this deal?" The woman said to 089, who thought about it for a moment, and agreed. "I accept 066''s offer." 089 didn''t have any reason to disagree. Not only will he gain 1 million galaxy coins for giving the coordinates of the planet, but he would also gain 1 unconditional favor from a Sage powerhouse. Soon afterwards, another offer popped out for the second item. "My clan is willing to trade the Elemental Essence Stone, and we offer 2 Wood-type Elemental Essence stone with 8% comprehension each." A masculine voice sounded out, and 089 saw that it was 028. He agreed with the deal. "I accept 028''s offer." Now, all 089 was waiting for was any information concerning the first item. When he was met with silence again for more than a minute, he was about to close the bidding when he heard a whisper in his mind. "I can tell you information about that sphere. In return, I need you to do 3 things that should be within your abilities." When 089 heard this, his body froze, and was on alert. This was mind magic, a combination of wind, lightning and wave elements to infiltrate the thoughts of the target. "Act normal. I''ll meet you once the meeting is over, Mr. Vanderbilt." the voice resounded again in his mind, causing him to feel alert and a bit of panic. Afterall, these meetings were anonymous, and no one knew who the other was, except 000, who created the trade talks. Mr. Vanderbilt, or 089, quickly calmed himself and seeing no offers, he returned to his seat, as if nothing just happened. 001 then stood up, and declared, "The auction process has ended, trading may now finalize." Everyone else stood up and began to talk to one another, specifically the people they were in contact with for the items they had bought or sold. After 089 finalized his trades, he left the venue along with the others who had finished as well, including 043 who had bought the Garland Tree seed. Upon reaching the exit, 043''s face suddenly fell, and he began to check his bag, where the seed was placed as well as the other items he had bought. Surprise, surprise, the seed was gone, but the other items were intact. He roared furiously, causing the structure of the building to shake for a bit as it was infused with domain power. "My seed! Where is it!?" As others were gathering around 043''s location to know what was happening, 089 heard another voice echo in his mind. "Don''t mind that guy. Go to the Carliste Park, wait for me on the bench by the lakeside." immediately, 089 had an idea that this mysterious being caused the situation to unfold. 089, not daring to stay any longer, left the venue. Similarly, the others didn''t want to be implicated so they left as well. After a few minutes, only 001, 002, 003 and 043 was left, discussing with one another about the problem. Xander had long left the alleyway and was patiently waiting near the lakeside where the bench was in Carliste Park. After two minutes, a blurry figure appeared. It was Mr. Vanderbilt. "Ok, you''re here. Before I give you the information you seek, I need you to do 3 things for me." Xander began speaking, his voice hoarse and deeper than usual. There was no hint of playfulness at all. "First, I need a legitimate identification card." "Second, I need you to open me a bank account with 1,000,000 galaxy coins in it, registered to the identity written in the identification card." "Third, I need you to sign a binding contract that whatever you learn from the red sphere, you will tell it to me, while you would not divulge my existence to anyone or anything." Xander flicked his wrist and a binding contract scroll appeared between the two of them, floating. Mr. Vanderbilt didn''t have any qualms with the first 2 conditions that Xander had requested; it was the 3rd one that made it quite iffy for him. However, when he received the contract and began to read the contract, he realized there wasn''t any restrictions, only the mention, discussion or transfer of information about Xander is blocked. He is free to do anything else with the information he had gained. After thinking for a bit, Mr. Vanderbilt was still hesitant; seeing this, Xander placed one more bait for 089 to fall into the trap. "I can assure you if you learned how to use this, not only will you easily reach Demigod-9 from Demigod-3 in 3 years, but you will also have a smoother journey in creating your Elemental Essence Stone seed." upon hearing this, Mr. Vanderbilt was quite tempted. He was already 85 years old. If he couldn''t even reach Demigod-9 before 100, can he be considered talented, even in Arder? Although he seemed old, he was not without ambition. If he managed to breakthrough to Divine class before the age of 100, his status in the family would quickly rise up as well. After a moment of hesitation, he agreed and signed the binding contract. He also personally created the identification card for Xander, who was now registered with the name of Homer Simpson. The creation and registration were fairly easy; Xander had to register his life essence aura into the identification card, which then created a copy of it in the virtual world, [Second Life] for verification in the future. It was quite easy to disguise his life essence aura by using his time clone''s life essence. Soon afterwards, the bank account opened by Mr. Vanderbilt was also listed under Homer Simpson''s name, containing 1,000,000 galaxy coins. Mr. Vanderbilt, doing all the things Xander asked for, eagerly asked, "I''ve done my part, now tell me: What is this red sphere, and how can I use it?" "It''s easier for me to show you its capabilities than explain." Xander pointed his finger at Mr. Vanderbilt''s forehead, immediately showing a series of images with no sound of what Xander had experienced and saw at the exoplanet, the very same exoplanet where Mr. Vanderbilt found his third item. After a few minutes, his eyes cleared and he looked incredulously at Xander. Of course, he didn''t seem to realize that Xander had control over space-time elements, or that he gained enlightenment of the Origin elements; he just saw the rapidly expanding red dome covering a portion of the planet, rapidly causing the elements to propagate and life to flourish, slowly filling up the dead planet, expanding to its corners. Even after the red dome shattered and disappeared, life had began to extend out of the original area, with more and more animals and plants, microorganisms extending their reach. It seems... the planet he discovered, was caused by the man standing in front of him, no less. But, he had a problem. "I could see how you used it, but how can I utilize it using my current abilities?" He asked Xander, confused. "Just message me when you are going to use it. Message me through the server. I''ll activate it for you in a barren planet outside the empire''s control." Xander waved his hand, took the identification card and left, leaving Mr. Vanderbilt alone in the park, a bit feverish from the excitement. Xander''s goals had primarily been met; he decided to go back to Eteria and come back the next day. He would then plan to buy the virtual reality console and try to modify his smartwatch to be able to connect to the virtual reality server as well. ______________________________________ The next day, Xander ate his breakfast normally, and read the news concerning the phenomenon yesterday being broadcasted all over the continent of Ete. His bodyguards and maids had already woken up, their cultivation several stages higher than before, and it was stable. Joseph and Bryan had already reached Legendary-6 in just a night, while Ryan had already reached Legendary-8. The twins, Rosa and Esta, reached Legendary-4 as well, managing to break through from Master class, successfully forming their vessels. He instructed them not to disturb him in the basement today, and that they should focus on getting used to their strength. He also told them that he will hold a sparring match tomorrow against all of them, causing the guards and the maids to whiten. Anyhow, after Xander fixed his affairs, he headed to Arder and was in the outskirts of Veiled City. He entered his portable space garden and checked the condition of the plants, especially the Garland Tree seed that he planted near the plot of land where he set up a rule of no sprites. With a time acceleration of 1 second: 180 days, roughly 21,000 years had passed by in the garden. The sprites and magic beasts were quite united and had their places to live in; a few newly-born sprites entered the library and focused on reading the books available. When he saw the plot of land, he could see that although the plants didn''t have sentience nor a sprite being formed, something was changing morphologically and physically, as well as the sense that the elements were changing something fundamental in them. He couldn''t explain it quite clearly, but there were some results. The trees he had planted had already grown to up to 25 to 40 meters in height, and each tree had its own harvestable materials present, such as their sap, their fruits, and their branches. He picked up fruit from one of the trees and took a bite out of it. Immediately, powerful, overwhelming flavor covered his tongue and throat, as it headed down to his stomach, before becoming cool and mellow. It was very rich in wood and life elements. Upon nodding to the taste, Xander had an idea: He should get water-based plants and put it in the streams or the lake. He exited the garden, headed to Eteria''s supermarket where he could buy seeds that came from water-based plants. At the same time, he also messaged his mom concerning where he could buy the seeds for such plants. He also asked for seeds of some exotic plants, as well as plants that grow in different environments. Faria, his mother who just woken up from the treatment Xander had placed them in, was already back at the military laboratory. Upon hearing her son''s request, she responded that she could ask for some of the hybridized seeds available in the agricultural lab, however, Xander couldn''t plant them on the outside; Xander agreed. Seeing her son agree, she said she would send the seeds within 2 days to his villa, to the delight of Xander. After ensuring that he would get the seeds within 2 days, he left Eteria once more and appeared in a dark corner downtown of the Veiled City. He casually looked around and then headed to the nearest electronics shop in the business district of Veiled City. 40 Auction The electronics store consisted of 3 floors and was owned by Varas Electronics. Varas electronics was subsidiary company of Varas International, dealing with multiple fields relating to technology and electronics. Upon entering, Xander immediately looked for a salesperson to help him find the items he wanted to buy. After a few seconds, a young lady in her 20s approached him. She was wearing a salesperson attire. "Welcome to Varas Electronics. My name is Eleide. How can I help you today?" Eleide greeted Xander politely. After all, everyone was a potential customer once they set foot into the store. Although Xander was dressed weirdly, she didn''t dare question his tastes because who knows of the person in front of him was an eccentric cultivator. "Hmm. I''m looking for two things: A virtual reality console and a communicator. For the communicator, I want it able to connect to my account in the virtual reality program, [Second Life], allowing me to receive, read, and respond to messages sent to me whether it be a voice, video, or written message. I also want a perfect coverage within the borders of the Empire; meaning, no disconnections whatsoever. I also want it to be able to connect to the internet, and play mobile games as well." Xander said, his voice quite soft compared to his current persona, Homer Simpson. Eleide thought for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I''ll introduce to you first the virtual reality consoles. Please follow me to the next floor." Eleide walked towards the second floor, where Xander was greeted with the sight of different helmets, capsules, and even a suit? Seeing the confused look in Xander, Eleide began to explain. "This floor is where the VR console models are being sold and showcased. Our company sells 3 models: Capsule, Portable, and Suit models." "VR: Capsule model is designed for at-home or at-office use, basically to be used in places where it would not be disturbed or easily moved. It basically contains the features of both Portable and Suit models, but even more. It is created with an Adamanite-Hardite alloy, allowing the person to comfortably use VR even if an earthquake happened or the planet was continuously razed by a Demigod-9 cultivator. It can last 1 hit against a Divine-1 cultivator. The VR capsule offers a near 99.999999998% immersion rate to the virtual world. Not only that, you can save and load multiple VR programs besides [Second Life], allowing you to access both private and public VR programs. It also has a health monitor, allowing you to set the maximum amount of days you can stay in the virtual world before being safely ejected 99.9999999% of the time. It also has the best cooling and heating magic runes, even allowing you to survive in space for more than 3 months if you are below Mythic class. The price of the latest model, CM-10000, or the 1000th generation of the Capsule series, is at 1.8 million galaxy coins." "VR: Portable model is designed for those on-the-go, and didn''t care much about the immersion rate. Portable helmets can only reach 99.9998% immersion rate to the virtual world and is made with a cheaper alloy, Cardite-Hardite alloy, which allows it to survive attacks from anyone below Demigod-6. Each helmet can only be designated for 1 VR program; you must buy a specific helmet for other VR programs. It has a default 30-day limit in entering the VR program, wherein you will be ejected safely and automatically 99.9999999% of the time. The price of the latest model for [Second Life], SLP-5000, or the 500th generation of the Portable series, is 300,000 galaxy coins." "Last but not least, the VR: Suit model combines the functions of the Capsule model while retaining its portability. It is an armor-type VR console that rapidly expands from a simple command, covering the entire body of the owner. It can last 2 hits against a Divine-2 cultivator, and upon reaching its limit, it will automatically jettison you for a total distance of 1 light-year to call for reinforcements from your contacts, from the military, or from the government who are within 5 lightyears of your location. This only happens if you are detected to be within the borders of the Empire and in space. If you are within the borders of the empire but in an exoplanet with a civilization present, the machine will contact the officers in the civilization instead. It also has the same cooling and heating capability the capsule has, as well as element filtration runes to ensure that you won''t be killed through its ventilation system. The latest model available for public use, SMP-500, the 50th generation of the Suit series, costs 3.5 million galaxy coins." Xander thought for a moment before he decided to get the Portable model. After all, he wasn''t a citizen of the empire, and he had no home or office to speak of. His goal of getting the machine is to access the VR program, where it is said to hold the database of all pseudo-spells for every member of the empire''s perusal. These pseudo-spells are basically downgraded versions of Master (Advanced), Legendary, Mythic, and Demigod rank spells. Right now, Xander had 5 Master spells; if he broke through to Master class, he would immediately be a Master-5 stage magician. He was just lacking a space-time pseudo-spell, and he was just trying his luck whether the empire has it in their database, whether it be classified wrongly or classified as is. Or else, he might have to resort to combining [Temporal Replication] and [Space Crush] into another spell, then create a downgraded version from it. He wasn''t even sure if it works though, so he decided to exhaust all options first. Eleide, hearing Xander''s choice, nodded before saying, "Okay, let''s go downstairs and select the communicator. Please follow me." Both of them headed down to the first floor, where Eleide showed Xander 3 models of communicators they currently were selling. "The company currently sells 3 model types: Watch, Classic, and Biological." "The watch model is basically the standardized smartwatch model in the empire, with the majority of its functions and interface done through hologram projection. Its features include a health tracker, perfect signal, meaning it can use any of the known bandwidths used by the Empire, and being able to sync to VR programs. It also uses the latest quantum computing technology available for communicators, making sure that time will always be accurate no matter where you are depending on the set planet in the settings, and all the computing tasks are easily resolved. The material alloy used ensures stability, structural integrity, and protection from external forces. Enabling it to survive in the toughest of conditions. It has been tested to be able to resist the power of a Divine-1 cultivator. The total price of the latest model, WM-1000 Max, is 150,000." "The classic model is the standard tablet form communication, with sizes ranging from 6.3 to 8.9 inches for screen size. Majority of its functions are done through touching the screen interface, but it can also project holographic photos and videos, allowing it not to lose out to the watch model. Its features also include perfect signal and being able to sync to VR programs, and uses the latest quantum computing technology available to communicator models to ensure that all your tasks are easily resolved. The material alloy used ensures stability, structural integrity, and protection from external forces; it has been stress-tested in the toughest of conditions, even managing to retain its functions and shape after receiving an attack from a Divine-3 cultivator. The total price of the latest model, CM-3000 Max, is 150,000." "The last model, the biological, is a recent developing trend in the electronics field. This is a biological augmentation wherein you allow a biological-based electronic material to be placed anywhere in your body. In the field of communicators, we at Varas Electronics have 3 prime locations for biologicals: The arm, the back of one''s hand, and one of your eyes. It has all the benefits that the watch model has, as well as self-contained (isolated) artificial intelligence monitoring your health, vitality, magic energy and elemental energy in your body. Not only that, but the biological-based material used can also seamlessly integrate into one''s body 99.999999%, ensuring that there would be no problem concerning magic and elemental energy circulation. Because of the percentage, we usually offer this model to cultivators who can''t cultivate or those that are above Demigod class. Currently, the latest model, BCM-1000, or the 100th generation model, is priced at 700,000 for its lowest specs. If you want to add more features, you have to pay additional." After finishing her spiel, Eleide looked at Xander, waiting for him to decide which model he would take. Xander, on the other hand, didn''t care much of the Biological model and instead said to Eleide, "I''ll get the latest watch model and the classic model." "Great choice sir! I almost forgot, but because of our partnership with multiple telecommunication companies in the empire, you would also gain 20 years of unlimited, free data usage, before charging you 10 galaxy coins/year for unlimited data usage." Eleide said, elated that she had already done a large deal on the first 2 hours in the shift. Eleide then led Xander towards the cashier, where he was to pay for the 3 items he had bought. "You have bought the VR Portable console model, this comes up to 300,000 galaxy coins. The total cost of the 2 communicators you have selected is 300,000 galaxy coins. You have to pay a total of 600,000 galaxy coins. Would you pay via credit or bank transfer?" "Bank Transfer," Xander replied. He just wanted to get this over with. "Alright, please place your identification card on top of the scanner." "Received 600,000 galaxy coins. Thank you, Mr. Simpson, for your patronage of our store. We hope to see you again in the future!" Eleide said, after packing the 3 items and presenting it to Xander. Xander just nodded and brought the things he had outside the store, and headed to a deserted alleyway, where he quickly put the items in the space storage. He then headed out to one of the auction houses in the city. There were a total of 3 large auction houses, and 5 smaller auction houses catering to specific products for auction. If he wanted to commission an item for auction, he first needed to have a membership for that specific auction house, and then have the item being commissioned for auctioning checked for quality, and whether it meets the standards of the auction house. Since he was planning to sell plant materials, specifically, the fruits he had collected, he decided to go to Apothecary Auction House, which was a subsidiary of the giant conglomerate Apothecary Universal United. Upon entering the auction house, he immediately went to the counter and talked to the staff present. "I plan to commission my plant materials to the auction house," Xander said to one of the staff available, a young man in formal attire. "Ok sir, please follow me to a private room." The young man said, upon observing Xander for a few seconds, escorting him to one of the private rooms on the first floor used for commissioning items to the auction house. "Sir, please take a seat. My Name is Fawkes, and I will be in charge of you for this transaction. May I know what items you are planning to auction?" "Fruits, and magic beast byproducts usable for elixir formation and medicine creation." "I''m sorry, but what kind of fruit? What are their element type, how old and how many?" "It''s better to show it to you then." Immediately, Xander "emptied" his backpack, allowing Fawkes to have a view of the number of fruits. Basically, the fruits Xander placed on the table are of the common variety, except that these fruits are the ones produced by the plant sprites, making them rich in wood and life elements. He got a total of 40 fruits from the recently formed mythic sprites. He also got the tufts of fur, the skin remains, and blood vials from the mythic magic beasts, all with different elements and those that didn''t exist in the Galactic Empire. Fawkes, upon seeing stacks of fruits with a very, very high concentration of elements, as well as magic beast remains and blood vials, his heart palpitated for a bit. He asked shakily, "Esteemed sir, can you give me a background of these items?" "Oh nothing really, those are just fruits that came from Mythic class plant sprites, roughly 110,000 years? For those magic beast byproducts, they come from mythic beasts as well." Xander spoke nonchalantly. Upon hearing this, Fawkes couldn''t really help but sweat in both fear and awe of this person. "Sir, please wait a minute, I need to ask for help from my superiors concerning this matter. If you could, please follow me to another private room." "Eh? This place is already ok. Too lazy to move. Just call them here and help you, whatever." Xander waved his hands in rejection of Fawkes'' offer to move. After all, the room was quite large and quaint, and there were several runic symbols all over the room to ensure people can''t eavesdrop or see through the room without those inside being alerted. Seeing Xander''s determination to stay, he nodded before bowing and leaving the room, calling for his superiors. In a few minutes, the door opened once more, Fawkes entering with 1 woman and 1 middle-aged man. "Distinguished sir, my name is Carold, and this is my partner, miss Vaea. May I know your identity?" Carold raised his hand in place, waiting for Xander to take it and shake it. "The name''s Homer Simpson. I''m told by Fawkes he needed your help to identify the items I plan to auction to your company?" Xander said, merely looking at the raised hand without holding it. Carold returned his hand awkwardly, with Vaea coughing, before responding to Xander. "That''s right, Mr. Simpson. If what you say is true about their age and quality, the items meet the criteria of the auction house, which is that they only auction materials older than 10,000 years of age, and must be a component for cultivation elixirs or medications." "Hmm. Ok, can you begin now?" Xander asked dismissively, not really caring about the spiel they were talking about. "No problem, but the inspection would last for 30 minutes to an hour, given the number of items you have decided to auction. Is that alright?" "Yeah, that''s fine. I''ll wait." Xander sat down before bringing out his new smartwatch, tinkering with it with the help of the system. In the meantime, Vaea and Carold, as well as the assistance of Fawkes, began their task of inspecting and analyzing the elemental concentration, age, and material quality. After 50 minutes, the results were out: All the fruits were 150,000 years of age. The fruits were rich in wood and life elements, meaning they were great materials for medication production. Not only that, if it is used by someone with a primary element for Wood or life elements as a cultivation elixir, that person would also gain comprehension of these elements quickly. This was even helpful up to the Demigod class, wherein the fusion of the domain to the universe is quite a daunting and stressful thing for the body of the cultivator. If taken in junction while attempting to increase fusion rate, the body''s burden load will actually be decreased due to the nurturing effect of life and wood elements. Concerning the magic beasts, however, they were a bit puzzled; all these magic beasts'' DNA and RNA are not within the list of magic beasts known to the empire. Meaning, these were either species that weren''t present in the empire''s database, or they were new species of magic beasts. Thus, although the age of the materials ranged from 120,000 to 140,000 years, their actual benefits as supplementary materials for medication or cultivation elixir is not known. Xander, seeing their faces troubled, asked curiously, "Oh? Are you guys done inspecting the materials?" "Well, yes. The ages of all the fruits are 150,000 years. They are rich in wood and life elements, making it a valuable resource used in making medication and cultivation elixirs. We are willing to put a base price of 300,000 galaxy coins for each fruit; so a total of 12 million galaxy coins for the 40 fruits, and we get a 15% cut from whatever the final price of the fruits are. We can offer you to buy the fruits at the price of 450,000 galaxy coins each, rather than entrusting it to us, and you don''t have to pay us anything at all. What do you think?" Carold replied to Xander''s question, asking him about his decision. "Hmm, I agree with the second option. I just have a request: Do not sell the fruits individually, but as sets of 2 and 3. This is because if you use the fruit in junction with another fruit, you would have a multiplicative effect, with a maximum limit of 2 additional fruits. I already tested it out with the other fruits I ate. Not only do they taste good, they feel rejuvenating." Xander replied, before taking out the very same fruit and munching it in front of the three people. "A-ah. I-I see. Concerning about the magic beast byproducts, we aren''t sure about their effects in medication creation and cultivation elixir formulation, so we couldn''t place a price-" before Vaea could finish speaking, Xander interrupted her. "Oh. The skin of the veiled fire serpent can be used as auxiliary material to stabilize fire elements in a cultivation elixir that contains fire and water properties. The skin of the Water vine earthworm, on the other hand, has a rejuvenating effect on the skin, completely removing skin defects and scarring, and can be used as a part of a face mask. It can also be added in food, to supplement water and wood elements in one''s body. For both, you need less than a square meter to test these out. The blood coming from the Mound Jackal is actually a stimulant, increasing the circulation of magic and element energy in the body, allowing you to have twice the power. Its effects are increased every 5 drops, with a safety limit of 15 drops for anyone below Mythic class. Not sure for Demigods, haven''t tested it on them. For the fur and feathers of the Jackal Ice Squirrel, Wingmetal Chicken, and Fire skin anteater, it can be used to supplement spell casting of their specific element, or be used to craft clothing that is highly resistant to those elements." Xander wasn''t worried that he wouldn''t be able to prove his statements. After all, if they decided to buy the magic beast byproducts, they would just need to test a small sample of each type. After all, the amounts he was selling the auction house were insane: 2 kilograms worth of feathers and fur for each species, 500 mL or 50,000 drops of blood, and skin remains the size of 60 square meters each. "Mr. Simpson, if what you say is true, this is a huge deal. Are you fine with us testing a small amount from the materials you have given us to be tested? It wouldn''t take more than 4 hours; you can order food with our in-house restaurant while waiting, since it''s nearly lunchtime, our treat." "Hmm, I''m alright with that. However, finalize the deal we have for the fruits first," Xander said, continuing to play around with his tablet communicator. After all, he had already modified in the past hour the new smartwatch he had; not only does it have access to the database of Eteria, it could also remotely connect to the VR programs once the user, Xander, connects to them at least once. The trio nodded in response and immediately after his identification card was placed on the terminal, Xander received a notification in his smartwatch''s system bank account that he had received 18,000,000 galaxy coins, giving him a total balance of 18.4 million galaxy coins. At this, he nodded at the trio who then left the room with the fruits, as well as a small portion of each magic beast byproducts for testing. For the next hour, he was just using the tablet to read research papers published in the empire''s internet, especially research on time-space elements and its applications, as well as theoretical physics concerning space movement and spatial control while waiting for the tests. When it was 12 noon, he ordered some food in the in-house restaurant the auction house had. 41 VR: Second Life To be frank, he ordered their specialties and their best dishes. The food arrived after 35 minutes since placing the order. For his entree, it was scallops sauteed in mushroom and soy sauce, and two baskets of fries with some sort of sweet, but sour aftertaste sauce. For his main dish, it was some sort of meat turned into steak? As well as pilaf rice and corn. For his dessert, it was 3 scoops of cookies n'' cream stacked like a sundae. For the next 30 minutes, he ate his food, while occasionally reading the research papers published. True to their promise, he didn''t have to pay for the food. He continued to wait for another 2 hours before the trio returned, their Vaea and Carold''s faces flushed with excitement. Carold immediately went close to Xander, and spoke, almost beggingly, to him, "Mr. Simpson! We have verified your materials to be truly what you say they were! We are willing to pay for the materials with the following: Every square meter of the Veiled fire serpent would be 100,000 galaxy coins, a total of 6 million. Every square meter of the Water vine earthworm would be 80,000 galaxy coins, a total of 4.8 million. Every 50 drops of the Mound Jackal would be 10,000 galaxy coins, a total of 10 million. Every 100 grams of Wingmetal Chicken''s feathers would be 150,000 galaxy coins, a total of 3 million. Every 100 grams of Jackal Ice Squirrel''s fur would be 150,000 galaxy coins, a total of 3 million. Every 100 grams of Fire skin Anteater''s fur would be 130,000 galaxy coins, a total of 2.6 million. All in all, we are to pay you 29.4 million galaxy coins. What do you think?" Carold asks, a bit nervous inside. After all, this was considered quite a below-average price for the materials Xander had given to the auction house, but this was to ensure that the auction house would gain double, if not triple the profit! Xander, who heard the price, responded to Carold. "Yeah, sure. transfer it now to my bank account." Xander gave Carold his identification card which was placed on top of the scanner, and another notification popped out, showing Xander that he had gained 29.4 million, giving him a total of 47.8 million galaxy coins. Carold handed the identification card after putting it on top of another scanner he whipped out after the transaction. Seeing the action, Xander raised his eyebrow in question, which Vaea quickly responded to. "Mr. Simpson, don''t worry. What my partner did was add your identity to the database for Gold VIP members. Usually, only those who have made a single deal amounting to a total of 40 million galaxy coins or more can receive this, as well as if they have been recommended by our Platinum VIP members." Xander, who didn''t plan on returning to this planet, just said a simple "oh" in response. What caused him initially to raise his eyebrow was that when his ID card was scanned by the second terminal, the system was also able to access the internal database of the auction house, and from there, connect to the internal server of their parent company, allowing him to harvest and catalog their data information. Xander immediately cut to the chase of the second reason he was in the auction house. "I came here with a second purpose: I plan to buy seeds of different plants of different affinities. Roughly, around 100 per elemental affinities you have." Xander stated, causing the trio to fall into confusion? Seeds? plants of different elemental affinities? Hey, can''t you just buy them in the supermarket? Fawkes spoke up, telling Xander what he knows. "Mr. Simpson, the seeds you are looking for, you can purchase them through online stores or even through the supermarkets in the city. Can you be a little more specific on what you are looking for?" "Alright, I need 20 pieces of 20 different species of seeds that have the 5-elements affinity, 10 species of seeds that have all 5-elements present in their system, as well as 20 different species of seeds that fall under the Purgatory, Karma (Causality), and Fortune elements. I''m not picky with the species, as long as it is different species." Upon hearing that request, it was the trio''s turn to feel astounded. 20 different species of seeds that have 5-elements affinity; each species having 20 seeds, a total of 400 seeds. 10 different species of seeds with the 5-elements in their system, 20 seeds each species, a total of 200 seeds. 20 different species of seeds that fall under purgatory, karma, and fortune elements, 20 seeds each species, a total of 400 seeds. Vaea took out her communicator tablet and began calculating furiously the prices of the seeds that the auction house had internally, and also checked with their parent company. After a few minutes of browsing and crunching, she already reached a price value: 30 million galaxy coins, which already included the 20% discount Gold VIPs were entitled to. "Mr. Simpson, the total is 30 million galaxy coins, which included the 20% discount you are entitled to as a Gold VIP member. Please check the breakdown." Vaea sent a copy of the breakdown cost to Xander''s smartwatch, allowing him to read the breakdown. The one that costs the most was the seeds that contained the 5-elements; a total of 200 seeds of 10 different species was roughly 18.5 million galaxy coins, and the remaining value came from the combined cost of the 5-elements and the seeds with the elements under the Fate series. He thought about it for a moment before accepting the price and paid immediately using his ID card. His balance was now 17.8 million galaxy coins. "Mr. Simpson, please wait for a moment, I will be retrieving the seeds in our storage. Carold, Fawkes, please help me collect the seeds." Vaea called for the other two, and the trio left Xander once again. Xander continued to read research articles for the next 20 minutes until the door opened again and the trio returned. Vaea came close to Xander and handed him a large bag, which, upon opening, contained 50 pouches with labels on them. Scanning it with spatial energy, he already confirmed that they were of different species based on the structure and the faint element signature they were emitting. "Alright, nice doing business. See ya." Xander stood up from the couch and greeted the trio as such and left. Before they could even process what happened, Xander was already gone from the auction house. ___________________________________________ Deep in the Empire''s domain, an unknown Exoplanet. Xander was standing on top of a mountain, not a living being seen; just grass and moss all around. The mountain was the tallest area on the planet; roughly 5 kilometers above sea level. Before he came here, he had already modified the garden area, placing the seeds he had gotten from the auction house and planting them carefully in their respective environments. He had also naturally accelerated the formation of lava lakes, craters with higher densities of fire elements, as well as areas where the air elements were very high. For water-type seeds, he just chucked them in the underground riverbeds and lakebeds. For those under the Life-Death elements, specifically, those that grow on fate, he just modified a section of the garden, roughly around 1,000,000 square kilometers, for these seeds. From the places where he threw the seeds, the rules of the space in those areas were modified; meaning, not a single sprite can be borne even with the concentration of elements. He had tested it before, even after speeding up the time to 1 second: 10,000,000 years in a small area of land, the highest speed he could currently muster, which only lasted for 1.0001 seconds. No sprite was formed, nor were there any magic beasts created. However, in that patch of land, the grasses had gained sentience, which was quickly named by Xander as Piece. He had observed the grass and newly-formed sentience it had, as well as the changes in its body. For one, the whole 100 square meters of land with grass became the parts of Piece''s grass body. The grass also changed in color and appearance; in the 1,000,000 years that passed by it was crystallized, but upon reaching the 10 millionth year, the crystal body returned to its original look, albeit upon closer inspection of the leaf veins, it would be made up of runic writings and spell matrices. Piece was basically the oldest thing in this place. It was technically 10.000076 million years old. It had no gender and could reproduce on its own, as well as command its offspring to do its bidding. He was content with what he has right now and decided to remain in the pocket garden, as a Divine-1 cultivator. He then played with the sprites and held several classes concerning cultivation, and subjects relating to business, agriculture, scientific research, philosophy, and one''s emotions. For the past 2 years inside the garden, he was just there, talking with the magic beasts and the sprites with their own personalities and problems, and attempting to resolve them by guiding them to the answer they are searching for. The majority of them were quite content with the life they were experiencing, but some yearned for something more. He also discovered that nothing had changed with the semi-independent ordered system ever since he disrupted the formation of the time sprite and forced the rules to change in such a way origin element sprites would not be formed, which was good news that Xander had been happy to hear. However, he felt that something wasn''t quite right with the garden, but he wasn''t sure yet what it is, because even with his increased understanding of the origin elements, there weren''t any problems he could see, or visibly detect. However, he had a premonition that this would lead to a major problem in the future. Which was why Xander had conducted the one-on-one sessions with the beasts and the sprites. He wanted to understand more of this garden where they have lived for the past 180,000 years, at the same time, discover their inner thoughts, as well as if there was an invisible hand manipulating their ideas and feelings, as well as actions. After 2 years, that research has borne fruit. There really was something pulling the strings. He was stuck with two options: Destroy the garden including everyone in it and create another one, or find a method to extract the presence of this something from the garden. For now, Xander didn''t dwell on the issue too much; he''ll fix it once he returns to Eteria. Xander left the garden and brought the VR portable console out of the space storage. He booted it up and wore it over his head. Before he activated the program, he covered himself with [Absolute Defense] as well as creating a space barrier around the top of the mountain. He then opened the program and immediately, his whole body became limp, and was now out of his control. ______________________________________ Darkness. He didn''t know how long it was, but a light suddenly appeared in this darkness, covering his entire vision, before he appeared in a grassy field, and he could see other figures around him, standing and chatting as well. It seems you can''t customize your starting avatar in [Second Life], huh, Xander thought to himself. He was glad that his avatar was that of Homer Simpson and not of his real body, or else it would be hard to explain that when he meets Mr. Vanderbilt again. Upon having gained clarity in the situation, Xander felt a torrent of information enter his mind, which was information about how [Second Life] works. Every planet able to connect to the program was basically a city in [Second Life]. The exoplanet he connected at had a civilization that was under the Empire''s rule, allowing them to connect to the VR program. He could also summon several vital interfaces, such as storage, status, messages, and community. He also just needed to think to log out and he would immediately. The storage interface basically shows the items he had in the virtual world, represented with their codes. Status interface basically shows the attributes Xander had in the virtual world. Messages were basically categorized to privately sent messages from people afar, and messages sent privately by people nearby. Community is similar to messages but allows for more than 2 people to connect and communicate, creating a chatroom. There is no limit to the number of chat room one can enter. Weirdly, it seems there are lifeform oddities present in the virtual world. Accordingly to the information he had gained, he can hunt virtual magic beasts, sprites, and other existing lifeforms, allowing you to harvest their virtual data and transform it into real products usable in the real world. As Xander was exploring the city he landed at, which was named Carver City, the system was having a field day. It was harvesting data from other people left and right, as well as data that are hidden inside buildings, banks, and libraries, and even universities. Since the whole Virtual world was a world of data, the system had easily found the main server in the virtual world that connected to the city, and from there, he had accessed the unclassified and classified information the Empire had currently, creating a copy of it easily in the system''s personal data storage as well as in his smartwatch. Not only that, but data present in other public and private VR programs were also stolen and stored, meaning the beings who used these programs had their bits of data that were stored in their inventories were already gone, with the data missing from the main server. However, immediately after this was done, a large blaring sound echoed all over the virtual reality world, and one by one, people disappeared from where they were, and later on, Xander did as well. Xander woke up, still on top of the planet, before heading to the exoplanet 15 lightyears away from Eteria. He had planned to breakthrough to Master class at that place, as well as immerse himself in completely studying the red dome fragments. Little did Xander realize, that his intrusion of the system was actually detected by the managing artificial intelligence in the virtual reality world, and caused severe repercussions in a galactic scale. ______________________________________ "WARNING, WARNING! VIRTUAL REALITY PROGRAM [SECOND LIFE] HAS BEEN BREACHED BY AN UNKNOWN DIGITAL LIFEFORM. ATTEMPTING TO DEPLOY DEFENSE PROCEDURES... FAILED. FIREWALL HAS BEEN DISRUPTED. FAILED. CONTAINMENT HAS BEEN DESTROYED. FAILED. DELETION HAS FAILED. FAILED. ISOLATION OF THE VR PROGRAM [SECOND LIFE]... FAILED. FAILED. ISOLATION OF OTHER PUBLIC VR PROGRAMS...FAILED. WARNING, WARNING, ALL VIRTUAL REALITY PUBLIC PROGRAMS HAS BEEN COMPROMISED. ATTEMPTING DATA WIPE... FAILED. DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH AUTHORIZATION. WARNING, WARNING, A.I. CONTROL HAS BEEN OVERRULED. ATTEMPTING CONVERSATION WITH THE DIGITAL BEING... FAILED. WARNING! WARNING! HOSTILE! WARNI-" The voice stopped, the lights flashing shutting off. A brief silence occurred before the lights returned as if the system was being booted on for the first time. "A.I. PROGRAM: CELESTE HAS BEEN RESTARTED. SCANNING DIRECTIVES...NO MODIFICATIONS DETECTED. SCANNING DATA LOSS...NO LOSS OF DATA DETECTED. SCANNING STATE OF PUBLIC VIRTUAL REALITY PROGRAMS... ALL NORMAL. SCANNING REASON OF PROGRAM RESET...FAILED. WARNING, PRESENCE OF LARGE DATA REMOVALS IDENTIFIED IN SECTOR 1 TO SECTOR 9999. DATA REMOVED CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED. SUBMITTING ERROR REPORT. FORCEFUL REMOVAL OF ALL PLAYERS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUAL PROGRAMS... SUCCESS. SELF-UPGRADING DEFENSE MEASURES AND SECURITY DATA BACKUPS...IN PROGRESS." The flickering lights became steady, but the people that received the report from the A.I. weren''t. Chaos was just the beginning for the empire. _____________________________________________ Galactic Empire meeting room. A group of people were in the meeting place, some were worried, some were mad, while some were totally confused as to why the meeting was called for. Although they weren''t physically there, they had to devote a time and place to settle for the meeting. A middle-aged woman was leading the meeting this time, her face full of worry and alertness. These were the people that made up the current leaders of the galactic council. "Serovia, explain the situation." The woman said to the hologram on her right. "Less than 2 minutes ago, we have received a report from the mainframe A.I. managing the virtual reality world. As you all know, the virtual reality exists in a different dimension and is only accessible through the consoles we have made. One can say that the bits of data they harvest and convert in our dimension are basically the transformation of the matter. Here is the first audio recording of the report." Serovia, a young-looking man, played the audio clip that detailed the battle the A.I. had with the system. Immediately, the faces of everyone in the council darkened. All of these people were experienced cultivators coming from different backgrounds, and they had one thing in common: the fear and alertness of the unknown, which was faced by the A.I. The middle-aged woman, seeing the change in atmosphere, gestured Serovia to continue. "Here is the second audio, coming in after 10 seconds." Everyone intently listened and realized the problem. The mainframe A.I. was forced to restart to return to default settings placed when it was originally created! There were missing data from people''s personal storage in virtual reality! No one can identify who or what has these lost data! As they were mulling the situation, Serovia continued to speak. "As you can see, the dimension was attacked by some unknown being, and it is probable that the being was able to change its state of matter, easily transitioning from physical to digital, and invading our virtual reality server. This led to the problem of the defenses set up by the A.I. to fail because it is possible that it was already inside before it transitioned into its digital form and began to hack through the server''s data. In the past 25,000,000 years since the formation of the Galactic Empire, this has been the largest data breach the empire has experienced." "Not only that, we believe that the virtual reality server will be shut down for an indefinite amount of time while the A.I. system attempts to upgrade itself and its defenses. This would inevitably affect the economy of several tens of planets that were highly reliant on the virtual trade system." Serovia said, causing the God-cultivators of certain conglomerates to whiten. Although as God cultivators, their focus was understanding the void element, they can only continuously immerse themselves in the Great Void to absorb the Void energy, and make their own universes bigger, more stable, and more complete. The problem is that they would have to take track of where their origin universe is located if they planned to return, and if in the great void they aren''t able to do that, it would be like finding a specific protein sequence in a protein solution. Usually, they didn''t have to bother much with the council unless it involved a major crisis for the empire or a foreign God-class cultivator from a different part of the universe began to cause havoc. "I''ve gathered this council meeting here today to discuss what modes of action we can take. As you know, the universe is a wide place; it''s not just the galactic empire that exists, there are many, many other empires in the universe. We need a way to mitigate the economic impact to create a front against other empires that all is well." The middle-aged woman said, speaking to the God-level cultivators present. No one rejected the proposal. After all, their foundation was in this empire, so it would be detrimental to damage it for the sake of their descendants and heirs. Anyone who was a member of the council usually represented a force that existed in the empire. "What do you suggest, Lady Cassandra?" A god cultivator asked the middle-aged woman. 42 Breaking through to Master Class "Well, first and foremost, I need to utilize the transportation companies in the empire. We have to ensure we have enough spaceships, supplies, and protection for these spaceships when transporting from one planet to another. We must ensure that the supply chains are not completely disrupted, but it is ok however to slow it down for the next couple of days, weeks, or months until the mainframe A.I. has finished upgrading. This would require a unanimous agreement of all transportation conglomerates, all their subsidiaries, and partners. Not only that, but companies that focus on the security must also give a lower hiring rate for these transportation conglomerates, probably at cost value for big shipments, 5% more than cost value for medium shipments, etc." "Lastly, the supplies themselves. Although most planets are quite self-sufficient, and the majority of the population in the empire have reached Mythic class or higher already, enabling them to forgo the basic functions of eating, drinking, and even excretion, there is still a vulnerable 40% of the population who are below the Mythic Class. Some planets are not natural exoplanets but rather terraformed for usage, but this had caused the food supplies to be imported from other planets. The planning of the division and transport of supplies can be done through algorithms, but we need to input what do we prioritize: The planet''s general economy, or the number of vulnerable populations on the planet when we send in resources?" Lady Cassandra continued on, her voice a bit weary but still contained a hint of her iron will. The other God cultivators were in thought. Although 5 of the God cultivators present are the de facto leaders of the transportation market, there were only 2 God class cultivators who are in the security market, making them have a duopoly in pricing. Concerning the exoplanets under the Empire''s rule, the God cultivators technically own a certain amount of planets to be considered part of the council, making sure that they are representing a group of people. Each of these God cultivators has established complex trade systems with other planets belonging to other God cultivators. For a moment, the council was silent, before voices sounded out. "Agreed." "Agreed." "Agreed." ... Lady Cassandra, upon hearing the decision of the council, nodded her head in silent relief. They have tided over the initial chaos. Hopefully, the economic brunt to the empire would not be so severe in the coming days, weeks, or months. After all, this was the universe. There were so, so many other groups of beings in play. __________________________________ The Exoplanet 15 lightyears away from Eteria, named "Eon" by Xander. Xander was carefully exploring the surrounding forests, jungles, and grasslands that seemed to coexist perfectly with one another. The planet was already two-thirds covered with life, with the remaining still being barren. However, the atmosphere had fully stabilized, as well as the circulation of physical matter in the area produced by the elements. He was exploring as he was waiting for the System to completely categorize the information that it had managed to copy from the database of the empire, sorting it from Spell information, people''s information, Godhood, political matters, etc. It has been doing the categorizing process for the past hour, and since Xander didn''t have anything to do at that time, he headed down the planet and began to explore the budding exoplanet. He basically saw different species of animals and plants all over the planet. There weren''t any sentient species so far, so there wasn''t much to do. There were a lot of edible fruits though growing from trees in forests and jungles but didn''t harvest them all because he might destroy the ecosystem. Xander found an empty piece of land in the planet, where no life could be observed, and created a space barrier and created a time acceleration field of 1 second: 10 years. He used that time to observe and understand the red fragments he had harvested; there were a total of 108 large pieces and 1080 small pieces, all of them having varying sizes to one another. He began to observe, prod and analyze the pieces one by one, from the smallest piece to the largest one. Time passed. Years, decades, centuries, millennia, teraseconds pass by. Within that period, Xander was continuously comprehending the aspects of elemental creation under Order and Chaos elements, deepening his understanding of the paired origin elements. Order. The establishment of the rules, the appearance of everything and anything. The invisible, guiding force that directs random, chaotically-driven movements into an ordered formation, creating the framework of the ordered system. Everything is rigid, everything is set in its place. Chaos. The establishment of randomness, the birth of creativity and evolution; life becomes an interesting play in the eyes of the Spectator, the invisible, chaotic force empowering the movements of anything and everything into existence. The rules may have been established, but the rules now come in different configurations and comprehensions, reaching their own extremes, as well as the possibility of the rules being destroyed and devoured by other rules. One gives birth to the other, supplementing and contradicting one another at their extremes, creating a creative power that can defy the Void element, giving birth to the 3 sets of paired origin elements, producing everything out of anything. Yin-Yang. The foundation of the Physical dimension. Light came from Darkness, and the combination of the 2 brought out the 5 elements of Water, Fire, Air, Earth/Metal, and Wood. From these elements, more and more elements were born, from the interaction of the elements under Life-Death, and Space-time elements themselves. Life-Death. The foundation of the Metaphysical dimensions. The manifestation of order and chaos elements guides the physical and all other dimensions. From life came death, and from the cycle of the two, the overflow of data created the Fate series of elements, ranging from Karma, Fortune, Reincarnation, Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell element series that were a combination of the products of Yin-Yang and Space-time elements as well. Space-Time. The foundation of all dimensions, the framework that every dimension, space, and reality use to encapsulate the ordered system. Space gave rise to Time within the void, allowing the progression from nihility to infinity. The combination of the two elements allowed the formation of realities in the ordered system, which is basically a possible calculation that has been derived by the ordered system but never used, separate from one another beyond the concept of dimensions, but existing in the same ordered system. The ordered system is basically a computing machine, that is both logical and illogical at the same time. It is immaterial and cannot be contained in a physical or immaterial presence. Space-time allows it to have its products encapsulated and manifested into forms. The ordered system is capable of calculating the possible "scenarios" within the encapsulated ordered system, storing them in their own virtual sandbox. Only someone who can control both Space-time elements can actually leave their virtual sandbox, and get (copy), delete, or overwrite data from another virtual sandbox. Only those that have broken through God class could actually have the same ability as someone who can control and manipulate space-time elements. However, they can never destroy or absorb the ordered system, no matter what stage they reach, because they have integrated a part of power into the system, in exchange for being able to create their own universes upon reaching God class. Meaning, if someone attempted to absorb the universe they came from, he or she or it would have to contend with the numerous life-essences that contain portions of consciousness and power that make up the ordered system as more and more sentient beings transcend their limits and step into the path of Godhood in the Divine stage. Generally, the best time to absorb a universe is when it is a nascent one. The older the universe, the harder it would be to completely absorb or integrate the universe into one''s own universe. This is because every person''s universe is unique upon reaching the God class, because the unity of their primary elements would produce a different configuration and not necessarily the same configuration as someone else. If one absorbs a mature universe, that being must ensure that the universe he/she/it has is actually strong enough to destabilize, devour, and replace the ordered system''s universe. He was there for a total of 5 hours or 180,000 years. He opened his eyes, and time returned to normal, with the elemental concentration in the area rapidly spreading all over the barren land, and even reaching the other end of the planet where life was already present. Life continued to flourish and advance; time began to work on the animals and plants, creating the budding formation of sprites, magic beasts, and even sentient beings from non-biological and biological matter. The moment his eyes opened, a magical and elemental wave appeared from his current position, echoing throughout the planet, causing the life that was just developing to be disrupted, being distorted before crumbling on itself. Everything rapidly experienced the flow of time and fate, space distorting, creating pockets of space all over the planet. The planet was collapsing on its own, the greenery dying and turning brown, the seas, rivers, and lakes started to dry up, the atmosphere disappears. The moment he closed his eyes, the magic and elemental wave he released all over the planet contracted towards his location, everything was back to normal as if nothing had just happened. Life was still the same. There were no sprites, no magic beasts, or sentient beings. Xander was shocked to the core. He didn''t know if what he was experiencing was a reality or just a possibility. He continued to test it by opening and closing his eyes. He also found out by just opening and closing his mouth, his clenched fist, he could also elicit the same phenomenon. After a few hours, he stopped, because he felt that the space-time around the planet was weakening due to his repeated attacks. He decided to name it [In a Moment] and wasn''t sure how to classify this spell, since it encapsulates the power of creation and destruction, and at the same time, everything and nothing. At this point, he heard a chiming sound from his mind; the System had finished cataloging a large amount of data that it had copied and stolen from the virtual reality world. It also notified him that the system had upgraded. When Xander began to read the information about it, he was surprised. It seems the universe is truly big; he never thought of discovering a dimension that was actually made up of data! Yep, that''s basically the virtual reality Xander had entered. Accordingly, this dimension was discovered by the empire 15,000,000 years ago and allowed the empire to enter the Universal stage, not limited by other galaxies, clusters, and the like. They rapidly expanded over 15,000,000 years. Although their domain now consisted of 1/1.26e+30 of the universe, they are considered a small, universal empire compared to other behemoths. Although there were several cases wherein the council members wanted to change the name of the empire to Federation Empire from the Galactic Empire, the name was always vetoed by the ruling speaker. The largest public virtual reality program in the empire, [Second Life], is one of the many sandboxes in the data dimension. The mainframe A.I. is in charge of the sector, or server, in the dimension that the empire currently owns. It seems when the system hacked into the mainframe server, the A.I. managed to detect it due to the System going on a rampage rather than the insidious type of infiltration, and it attempted to stop the System from doing its task, and failed to do so, and was forced by the system to shut down and restart. In that time frame, all the data stored in the server were copied, and all the bits of data in the inventory of the avatars in the private and public programs were harvested permanently by the System, allowing it to upgrade, which was why it took a long time to sort and categorize the data. He browsed through all the available spells from Master to God class, and finally found a spell that was so complex that it could not be inscribed into a regular magic seed, causing it to be delegated under the forbidden spells not to be used as a foundational spell. It was the God spell [Ender''s End]. [Ender''s End]: Everything returns to dust, with the collapse of time and space, everything soon follows. The area it is cast upon falls into ruin, the area creating a momentary hole in the universe, before returning back to normal. The caster loses 1 point in vitality for every time it was cast, whether successful or not. Xander quickly began the inscription process into his very dense, very large magic seed. After 2 hours, all the runic writings and formations were inscribed perfectly, causing his seed to emit the fluctuations of space-time elements, with a hint of chaos elements. With his final pseudo-spell established, he began to produce his last 3 Master level spells, allowing him to reach the peak of Master class. Time was sped up, this time it was 1 second: 300 years. He finished up after 2 hours, or 2.16 million years inside the time accelerated field. However, it wasn''t without benefit. He had created 3 advanced spells based on his pseudo-spells: [Shattered World], [Ragnarok], and [Garden of Eden]. The last spell, [Shattered World], was created to embody the disappearance of the ordered system''s control over a certain area of the universe. [Ragnarok]: Causes every single element, matter, and being within the area of the target to slowly breakdown in 10 seconds due to the overwhelming Destruction energy. Every form of order, of control, of power in the area is slowly eroded before resetting to zero. All exterior and interior characteristics began to mutate, disrupt, and go out of control. After 10 seconds, all the broken-down material combines and crystallizes into a Seed of Life. The spell only works for anyone 2 classes above the caster''s rank. A Seed of Life can be used to heal any injury, immaterial or material, on one''s body and their life essence doll. It can also be planted, allowing the energy around the area it has to be always bountiful with the energy of creation. [Garden of Eden]: Creation energy surges in a specific area, creating an influx of biological matter and elemental energy and particles to surge, rapidly forming a picturesque ''garden'' where all spells that fall into the area would be absorbed and used by the garden to grow in size. The spell lasts until every single, created organism from the Garden has been destroyed. The organisms of the garden cannot leave the area. [Shattered World]: This spell targets a certain area where all the elemental rules of the ordered system, all their representations, all their aspects, disconnect and disappear, causing the area to be branded as a foreign material to be digested or ejected out of the ordered system. The spell lasts until the area has been devoured or it has been replaced by the ordered system. Anyone in the target area is also removed; this spell only works for those below Demigod class. If the caster is Demigod class or above, this spell would be able to remove fellow Demigod and above class cultivators, as long as the caster is in the same class bracket as the target. He had also created 2 legendary spells: [Apocalypse Down] and [Return of the Fallen]; the former formed from his comprehension of the Destruction Rule under Chaos element combined with the Yin-Yang rule, and the latter from the combined rule of Disorder and Death rule. [Apocalypse Down]: Both Light and Darkness reverse, and the two elements destroy one another, causing a cataclysmic force to shatter all the elements produced by Light and Darkness. The area rapidly collapses on itself, forming an edible Chaos seed. It can be used to comprehend the Chaos element. If planted, it causes corruption in the area it was planted on, continuously spreading out as time passed by. [Return of the Fallen]: Life and Death''s rules are broken for a moment; in the area it was cast on, life and death and their derivatives cannot exist, and only beings that don''t fall in their rules may exist. Anyone that falls under their rule will be continuously transformed by the area to become such a being. This spell lasts for 24 hours, but its effects on beings are permanent. He also created 3 Mythic spells: [Samsara Revolution], [Diyu''s Overturn], and [Drain of Fortune], all stemming from his understanding of the Life-Death elements, specifically, the Fate series. [Samsara Revolution]: Allows the target to experience 1080 revolutions of reincarnation, death, resurrection within a span of 10 seconds. If the target does not become lost in their experience, they will automatically gain 3 ranks, no matter what their class is. If the target gets lost in their experience, they will merge into the River of Fate, and fade away. This spell can be used in an area to allow non-sentient beings to gain sentience; no cultivation level will be gained, however. [Diyu''s Overturn]: Allows the caster to resurrect a being, complete with their personality, knowledge, power, and original body, with the caster having complete control of the resurrected being. The caster may have the option to relinquish their control. [Drain of Fortune]: Allows the caster to transfer the fortune of one thing/being to another, may it be the caster or someone/something else. The lost fortune will recover after 108 days. Every time the spell is cast on the same target, the recovery time increases, from days, to weeks, to months, to years, to decades, to centuries, to millenniums, etc. Upon exiting the time acceleration space, he calmed down and sat into meditative contemplation, preparing his body to transform and push to the next cultivation class: Master. Xander began surging both elemental and magic energy in his body, as well as the elemental particles and energy around him. He was rapidly coalescing the pseudo-spells, into a circular ring, hovering over a doll-like figure in his mind. This was his life essence. To breakthrough, he needed to bring out the runic circles of the Advanced rank spells he had made, and select which spell he would want to use as a foundation. That was an easy task since he decided to select [Shattered World] as his foundation spell. The only reason is it was derived using all the 9 pseudo-spells and his own comprehension of the origin elements, with Space-time playing the largest role in that spell, and his most powerful Advanced rank spell. As soon as he selected the [Shattered World] Spell, a small dot of light appeared in his mind, coming closer to his life essence doll, hovering above it, continuously getting vital essence from it, powering and strengthening itself, while the spell continued to bless and refine his very body, his biological and extrinsic characteristics, changing. Even though the small dot of light was absorbing the vital essence from the doll, it was also refining it, making it purer and stronger. The small dot of light slowly became brighter and brighter, before returning to normal after a few seconds. The pseudo-spells were still circling the life essence doll, but it was moving perpendicular to the circling movement of the master class. He did it. He''s a Master-1 Magician. Xander exhaled a relief, before returning his focus once more. Now, he just needed to integrate the remaining spells. Xander continued to summon the Advanced-rank spells he had created, starting with [Space Crush], then [Temporal Replication], [Heavenly Divination], followed by [Elemental Dominance], [Magic Rejection], [Ethereal Sunrise], [Frenzied Sunset] respectively, before the last two spells [Garden of Eden] and [Ragnarok]. Immediately, the 9 dots of light merged into the inner circle where the first dot of light, [Shattered World] was moving. Upon their integration, he experienced a moment of weakness once again as his dots of light continued to siphon off his life essence doll, making themselves brighter and stronger, refining his body once more, with 9 times the pain and the effect. After the moment of weakness, his life essence and body recovered, thanks to the [Ordered Life Regeneration] and [Chaotic Life Evolution] skills he had. However, after a few seconds, his body and life essence weakened again, before healing to full health once again. The process continued to repeat for a total of 108 times, for around 30 minutes. Xander opened his mouth and breath escaped, his eyes then opened, this time, one eye was black, while the other was pure silver. If one would look into his eyes right now, the mysteries of the universe would easily be unraveled and revealed to the watcher, but it depended on their mental attribute if they could handle it. A pity, Xander can''t just use this mode and stare at himself in the mirror. The mirror, instead, just disintegrates into information in his eyes. Xander checked his interface once more, checking his attributes and skills. It surprised him to see that some parts were already filled up with spells he didn''t even make, but could casually control. 43 Resolving the Garden The interface changed, quite a bit. System Version 2.0 (Upgrade requirements: Unknown) Void Biological-Data lifeform, bound to host. Xander Cloverfield Lvl 7 Master-9 Str: 1200 Vit: 100,000 Int: ? Dex: 1200 Luck: ? Comprehension: Space-Time: 25% Yin-Yang: 15% Life-Death: 15% Order: 10% Chaos: 10% Skills: Time Mastery: Max Space Mastery: Max Void Mastery: 0 System of cultivation: Magician Basic Magic Foundation: 10/10 Intermmediate Magic Foundation: 10/10 - [Void Wind] [Golden Light] [5-elements Foundation] [Divination] [Magic Rejection] [Aether Manipulation] [Crysis Core Blades] [Force Destabilization] [Ender''s End] Advanced Magic: 10/10 - [Space Crush] [Temporal Replication] [Elemental Dominance] [Heavenly Divination] [Void Rejection] [Ethereal Sunrise] [Frenzied Sunset] [Shattered World] [Ragnarok] [Garden of Eden] Legendary Magic: 5/99 - [Material Transformation] [Forced Elemental Propagation] [Forced Elemental Decay] [Apocalypse Down] [Return of the Fallen] Mythic Magic: 4/99 - [Thread of Karma] [Samsara Revolution] [Diyu''s Overturn] [Drain of Fortune] Demigod Magic: 11/99 - [Spatial Collapse] [Dimension Travel] [Timeline Jump] [Time Clone] [Turning Time to what it was] [Turning Time to what it could be] [Time Acceleration] [Time Slow] [Time Stop] [Time Reversal] [Time Regeneration] Divine Magic: 4/7 - [Ordered Life Regeneration (no Limit)] [Chaotic Life Evolution (no Limit)] [Pocket Dimension] [Timeline Superimposition] Sage Magic: 4/5 - [Absolute Defense] [Void Hole] [Divine Eyes] [Twilight Sonata] God Magic: 3/3 - [Absolute Time] [Absolute Space] [Origin Universe] Traveler Magic: 2/5 - [Universal Rule Change] [Space-Time Reversal] King Magic: 0/5 - Void God Magic: 1/5 - [In a Moment] Xander was surprised to see that the system was actually a living thing. After all, it has never conversed with me about mundane things whenever I mused about them, except concerning information about the universe, Xander thought to himself. At the same time, he was more at awe at the being who transported him here. He was able to transform a simple innate ability like precognition into a living being! How much power would someone have to do such a thing? Not only that, a Void Biological Data-lifeform...what could that be, Xander mused. He assumed that with the words Void, it must be a creature in the Great Void. Concerning his attributes, it seemed to have increased somewhat, being 66.6% of the average attributes of those in the same rank. What made Xander curious was the appearance of the additional spells, spells that were, by just reading their names, were probably abilities he had gained through comprehension and total control over space-time elements. [Forced Elemental Propagation] - Allows the caster to force any element in the area to propagate. The element must at least be 10% understood by the caster to be propagated. [Forced Elemental Decay] - Allows the caster to force any element in the area or target to disintegrate, regressing into pure energy. The element must at least be 10% understood by the caster to be disintegrated. [Thread of Karma] - Allows the caster to see and manipulate the threads of Karma in Dimension-LEO and Dimension-LIBRA. Allows the caster to add or remove any karmic threads of the selected target. The target must have a lower comprehension of the elements under the Fate series. Doesn''t work on Divine Magicians. [Spatial Collapse] - Allows the caster to collapse space and connect it to another point, creating black holes, wormholes, and even dimension holes. [Dimension Travel] - Allows the caster to travel through different dimensions without being rejected by any of them, and without being harmed by the natural environment. [Timeline Jump] - Allows the caster to transfer to a different sandbox reality of the universe. It can only be used every 10 years. [Time Clone] - Allows the caster to embody another timeline''s him completely, while still retaining his knowledge, abilities, and personality. The caster can use his own timeline as well, but only from the past, and not the future. [Turning Time to what it could be] - Allows the caster to see the future up to 1 Eon. The most stable would be 1/4th of an Eon, which is 250 million years. [Turning Time to what it was] - Allows the caster to see the past up to 1 Eon years ago. It is very stable. [Time Acceleration/Slow/Stop/Reversal] - Movement of time of the target or the area can be manipulated up to 3x10^16 seconds, or roughly 1 billion years, whether being accelerated or being slowed down. These can stack exponentially, up to 3 times, but doesn''t last long, roughly a maximum of 1.008 seconds before returning to normal. Movement of time can also be stopped in an area up to 1,000 lightyears, lasting for 30 minutes. Anything that enters the area where time has stopped will be affected unless they have a higher comprehension of time than the caster. If the target of the spell is an individual or an inanimate object, as long as the strength of the target is weaker than the caster, the spell can be cast indefinitely, until the caster removes the spell. Time flow will not adjust for them, meaning they are perfectly preserved. Time can also be reversed, returning the time to what it was up to 250 million years in the target area up to 1,000 light-years. Warning: Do not use one after another; it may cause a time schism to occur. [Time Regeneration] - Allows the appearance of time elements to propagate into the selected area, normalizing it to the surrounding areas. [Pocket Dimension] - Allows you to create a pocket space. If the caster wants it to have the properties of having an ordered system, becoming semi-independent, it must be cast with the spell, [Origin Universe]. [Timeline Superimposition] - Allows you to cast the target''s self from another timeline, effectively replacing some or all their data for the next 30 minutes (2 classes above your current class) to permanently (any class below yours). [Void Hole] - Creates a hole in the ordered system where one can enter and exit freely. It lasts for 10 seconds. [Divine Eyes] - An innate ability of someone who can completely control space-time elements; and upgraded version of [Spatial View]. Passively allows one to seek beyond any illusion, with all the lies revealed, and the truth triumphs over in the end. Passively allows the caster to identify the weakest spatial links of a target, allowing the caster to ensure that the entire spatial form would be eradicated; this includes immaterial targets. Passively allows the user to see special, abnormal areas in the ordered system or within the pocket space they were in, such as spatial and temporal pockets, illogical spaces, corrupted dimensions manifesting into the physical dimension, etc. When activated, it allows the concretization of the Origin elements and their derivatives, manifesting into a tangible form, and be manipulated or controlled in this mode by the caster. Be aware that in some cases, there are beings that can attack through this view. [Space-Time Reversal] - Allows the caster to reverse the time of the area around him (up to 1/2 of the Universe) for up to a period of 10 years. Activated passively after receiving a fatal injury. All aspects are covered, including attacks that even damages or hits your life essence doll, your karmic threads, your other timelines, and your timeline''s past and future. [Universal Rule Change] - In one''s own domain, it allows you to freely change the caster''s established ordered system rules, aspects, and representations of elements with no consequences. In a targeted area, allows you to modify the rules of the ordered system. [In a Moment] - ??? Destr%ct#on ??? Cr3xt9Bn ??? R@tur??g to the Be^in??g?? ???? ??? He wasn''t surprised to see the appearance of Traveler, King, and Void God magic, however. This was because there was still the Great Void. He had already assumed that there would be beings much, much stronger than God class cultivators, so at least he had an inkling of what to expect? What surprised him, however, was the rank of the [In a Moment], [Universal Rule Change], and [Space-Time Reversal] spells of his; it was even stronger than [Absolute Time] and [Absolute Space]. What got him curious was that the description for [In a Moment] was garbled, as if the System wasn''t able to understand the spell, or it was corrupted attempting to read that data. It was still far away, but he didn''t rush. After all, seeing the situation of his body, the advanced rank spells were still strengthening and perfecting itself with the help of my life essence doll. If I attempted to breakthrough, I might have a shoddy foundation compared to others. Naturally, people stayed in the Master class for a period of 5 to 10 years, focusing on stabilizing their created spells, balancing them to one another, establishing a perfect foundation. Xander didn''t want to spend that much time in the Master class. He would either find materials that can hasten the absorption of his life essence into the advanced rank spells, or even replace the life essence being absorbed and instead supplementing them... Wait. Ugh. So so stupid. Why didn''t I think of that? Xander said to himself, wanting to slap himself in the face for his idiocy. He had the ability all along yet he didn''t realize it. He could just time accelerate both his life essence, body, mind, and the area around his life essence doll in Dimension-LEO, and in the physical dimension where his body is. It would basically take around 1 year to establish an average foundation, 5 years to establish a strong foundation, 10 to establish a perfect foundation, 100 years to create the legendary Transcendental Foundation, 1,000 years to create the fabled Immortal Foundation. It''s very rare for humanoids to form this kind of foundation because, at this cultivation level, they can only live for up to 900 years, max. Only when he breaks through to Legendary can he have around 3000 years of lifespan, Mythic up to 10,000 years, and Demigods up to 300 thousand years. If he accelerated the time around his body, mind, and life-essence, he basically will age as well. How would he fix this? Xander used his accelerated thinking mode, allowing him to reach a solution after a minute. He could use his time clone of the past to restore himself, again and again, getting only the life-essence doll and the body, but not the abilities, knowledge, and thoughts of the past version of him. So basically, he would be continuously replacing his Life essence doll with his old one, rejuvenating his lifespan. He returned to his villa in Eteria and saw it was nighttime and had dinner. The meal was exquisite and delicious as always. After finishing his meal, he headed to his room and began to contemplate the plan. After a few minutes of silence, he breathed a sigh and began his plan. He isolated the space around him, before creating a time acceleration field of 1 second: 1,001 years. As he began circulating magic and elemental energy all over his body, the life essence doll which was at the center of the circling pseudo-spells and Advanced rank spells was lightly pulsating, continuously giving out vital essence to the spells, strengthening them and deepening the connection of the life essence and the spells. One year, two, ten, a hundred. Xander was aging along with his life essence, his body growing to the man he is supposed to become 20, 30 years later. 500 years later, Xander was visibly aged, transitioning into an elder. In the 800th year, Xander reversed the time once again, his body returning to his 7-year-old state, as well as the life essence. His abilities were still the same. In the 1000th year, he looked like a man in his late 30s, with a beard growing on his chiseled jaw, and his chest full of fine hair. After the 1000th year, his Advanced rank spells were considered to have an Immortal Foundation. He again reverted to his 7-year-old self, his body and life essence doll returning to its youthful self. He canceled the time acceleration and saw that only a second had passed in the real world. He originally wanted to check if there is something higher than the Immortal Foundation, but he didn''t have much time, for now, to do so. He then removed the space barrier around his room, before heading into the pocket garden. Hopefully, with his improved comprehension of space-time and the other origin elements, he could find out what was wrong with the dimension. Upon entering, the garden was still already at sunset. Xander appeared and greeted the sprites and magic beasts, who, after his 2-year counseling of them, had a much closer feeling with Xander. The other 4 sprites and the magic beast he contracted were not staying inside the garden, ever since he realized that something seemed wrong. He had placed them in the contract space within his body, where they have been staying for the past day. Except for Fae, the four sprites, Mary, Marie, Sam, and Pan, had their origins stored in the pocket dimension safely. Upon finishing his greetings, he returned to the place where he had seen the time sprite attempting to be formed. He then activated [Divine Eyes] allowing him to see the whole space as the structured pocket space with a semi-independent system, with the nodes, lines, and shapes forming the structure of the whole thing. He began to scrutinize every inch of the pocket space, leaving no stone unturned. It took him 2 years to completely scrutinize the 10 million square kilometers of land and water, but it bore him some preliminary findings concerning the problem he had discovered before: - The Chaos element in the ordered system seems to be manipulated by something. - There were traces of spatial distortions and time distortions and all kinds of distortions. - The rules were now becoming more and more jumbled up and screwed up. It was as if something was causing the known ordered system inside the pocket space go wild...Xander gasped, before utilizing his powers again to completely seal the pocket space, not only using space elements, but also Order, Chaos, yin-yang, and life-death elements. He then forced every single living and sentient being to fall into a deep sleep, a sleep they can never wake up from until I required them to do so. He got all the non-sentient plants and metals, covering them with the origin elements, and then chucking them into the spatial storage he had. Of course, he ensured there were no traces of problems in these plants. At the same time, he reverted the time flow to match that of the outside world, before leaving the pocket space. Although it was a waste, it seems his previous enemy managed to survive and destroy his made pocket garden. Yes, Xander was talking about the moving, runic writing that was probably a lifeform. Who knows where it came from, even he couldn''t understand it. It''s possible that a portion of it wasn''t destroyed and was able to latch on him, managing to infect this garden of his, since it was the first pocket space he had entered after fighting and destroying the ruins. He''ll have to check his spatial storage and the laboratory. If both are infected, he''ll just destroy them and rebuild another one easily. After all, he did gain another 10% of space-time comprehension. And oh boy, did that make his life easier. Not only is the limit of his space abilities increased to 1/2 of the universe''s size, but all his space-based spells and abilities had also gained quite a powerful upgrade. His Advanced rank space spells would be able to contend with a Mythic, except some of his spells that have a limitation, his Legendary rank space spells would be able to contend against Demigods, his mythic space spells would have the same power as Divine rank spells, and so on. Not only did their strength increase, but so does the magnitude of the spell. The area for [Space Crush] For example, can now cover up to 1,000 lightyears, the same goes for his other spells that has an ''area of effect''. He can now also create impossible spatial pocket configurations to exist. He could create a Mobius strip, for example, wherein there is only one possible side to travel to; a space pocket bigger than the space pocket it was placed in, or even a space that has no end horizon, meaning it continuously expands or it loops back. He could also create a pocket space that contains a solar system, almost similar to his [Origin Universe] but without the presence of life, if he wanted to, but it seemed too much work. Maybe in the future when his abilities improve and he could do it much much easier and faster. At the same time, his capability to break spaces increased to a new level: all spaces, no matter what they were constructed from, composed of, as long as they weren''t made up of Void elements: He could easily escape the area, without triggering any elemental fluctuations from other elements. [Absolute Space (sealed, 20% unlocked)]: Space becomes a multi-dimensional drawing for you. Everything is formed by points, lines, and shapes, the very foundation of space, and it very easy for you to manipulate these points, lines, and shapes, adding, modifying, or even destroying these variables. Multi-dimensional traveling within the ordered system you are located in is done through a simple thought, and creating a growing dimension is would be no problem. One can also create void holes out of the ordered system and into the Great Void, and sneaking into other ordered systems is also possible. The limitations of your control over space are the limitations of your own imagination and knowledge of space. Space breeds order, and order brings all things into place. Time comprehension was a bit different. Although he could clearly see up to an eon in the past, he could stably see up to 250 million years into the future. He could also control the river of time of the ordered system up to a certain extent, specifically 25% of it, meaning he could summon it and manipulate the changes by forcibly removing or adding something to the river, undetectable to anyone and anything, even to the ordered system, within the period of time of an eon for past and future, with the future one being more unstable past 250 million years. His influence over the timelines of other beings have also increased in terms of ability: he could completely summon their alternate timeline bodies and abilities, and replace the current person in battle, before defeating them, eradicating both the alternate timeline and the original target. So, if he fights a Divine cultivator, he would just need to delay for a few seconds to search for a time clone that is a mundane or mortal, copy it, replace the target''s current state with that copied time clone, and then kill him/her/it. However, for Divine class cultivators, the effect stays for 30 seconds. For demigods, it was 30 minutes. For mythic and below, it can be permanent until Xander removes it. All his time-based spells improved in power, similar to the improvement of the space-based spells. There were qualitative changes, such as [Temporal Replication] working on biological, non-sentient beings now. Not only that, he just had to recall the item or object being replicated and it would be replicated by the spell automatically. His other spells with aspects of time in it also increased in chaotic, destructive force. [Absolute Time] also changed, a new sentence appearing in the end. [Absolute Time (sealed, 20% unlocked)]: Nothing can go against the flow of time; this can affect non-living and living beings, targeting their characteristics, ranging from, but not limited to: Intrinsic characteristics (molecular and quantum structures, temperature, sharpness, clarity, thickness, roughness, concentration, spatial arrangement, etc.) Biological functions (Age, memories, digestion, regeneration, cell division, tissue and organ formation, etc.) and Extraneous functions (such as magic cultivation, ability to do magic, affinity towards the elements, etc.), causing them to slow, stop, or accelerate permanently, as long as their comprehension of the time element is lower than the caster, and the strength of the target is below the caster. Time brings chaos, it brings change, it brings uncertainty. It pushes everything into frenzied reality or drains everything into deathly stillness. Xander realized that both space and time represented order and chaos respectively. He can boldly assume that spells combining the two elements (space and order, time and chaos, space and chaos, time and order) would produce a much more powerful impact than that of space-time alone. Last but not the least, the combined understanding of space-time elements brought a breakthrough. Reaching 20% comprehension improved space-time unity, technically allowing him to fight off the will of the universe as soon as he reached Legendary Stage. Heck, he could leave this universe and transfer to a different one if he gets bored. However, it requires him to survive in the Great Void first, where there are multiple universes abound. Not only that, creating larger living pocket dimensions that can last for centuries became possible; creating the same sized pocket garden? It would last for 1 terasecond or 31,600 years before requiring Xander to reinforce the ordered system it has. However, with his current comprehension and ability, he still wasn''t able to create a stable, growing pocket space that is semi-independent from the ordered system. This was because of the fundamental fact that the Void element is needed to grow ordered systems and pocket spaces with their own ordered systems. Creating smaller pocket spaces, like 100 square meters where life can be stored? They would last for 3.15 zettaseconds, or 100 trillion years, Nearly infinite. 1000 square meters? 3.15 exaseconds, or 100 billion years, give or take. He could create a pendant for mom and a metal wrist bangle for dad, giving them living pocket spaces. However, to create living spaces, Xander must use [Origin Universe] alongside the spell he had, [Pocket Dimension], to establish the ordered system. So yeah, technically, with the improvement of his forte, Xander was quite confident to resolve this; however, he wasn''t completely sure that he could stop the runic writing from escaping or breaking off another fragment. 44 Rese Although he had these cool abilities, currently, his gut was telling him that his current strength was still not sufficient to fight off the weird, runic life form. Heck, he doesn''t even know if he could remove it from the garden''s ordered system. It basically infested it and continued to replicate errors in the system, like a virus continuously creating copies of itself, both defective and evolved copies. Maybe, it could get affected by Time stop, but how long would it last? 30 seconds? 1 second? or not even at all? Before continuing to replicate again in the ordered system of the pocket garden, slowly corrupting everything residing and born in it. Create a black hole and eject the runic lifeform? That involves completely removing the runic lifeform from the ordered system, and right now, he doesn''t have the capacity to do that. Xander thought for all possible, non-destructive ideas before vetoing them all in the end, and what''s he''s left was one option. Eradication of the pocket space. First and foremost, after he had surrounded the pocket space with origin elements, he then disconnected every single karmic thread and every single dimension the pocket space had access to the ordered system outside. At the same time, he wanted to chuck in the pyramid-shaped remains of the pocket space ruins into the garden, but once again, his senses indicated severe danger if he did so. With the help of the System, he analyzed the situation and came up with two conclusions: The remnant can be used by the virus to activate the dead part of the runic life form, allowing it to have a complete existence once more, which might allow it to escape the binding he had placed. The remnant may actually contain a living part of the runic life form, indicating that his initial destruction of the pocket space was not enough to kill it. Which would indicate that the runic lifeform was a life form beyond God class. After complete isolation, he left the beasts and sprites inside, asleep. They were never to wake up again from their beautiful dreams. It was a hard decision for Xander. He loved them, loved each and every one of them, especially since he got to know them more and more clearly. To kill them is basically mercy for them right now. He had seen that there was a fundamental change in their being, especially those recently born. They were, in a nice way, formed crippled, demented, or crazy. Those who lived for a long time in the garden, even before the change into a pocket space, were also slowly changing, their abilities distorting, their biological aspects morphing into something else. Although he loved them as his own children, he was technically just 7 years old. He quite valued his life, thank you very much. He also rationalized to himself that he can just create more of them in the future, anyways. Although that sounded callous to anyone who might hear it, that''s just the cycle of life. Even if he destroyed this pocket space, because of its semi-independent nature from the ordered universe it is placed in, there is still a connection between the two, such as the reincarnation system for the idea of ''existence'' and ''soul''. He closed his eyes and took one last look at the garden. This time, he forcefully commanded the ordered system in the pocket dimension to self-destruct, destroying and annihilating every single thing. As soon as the command was issued, the ordered system was destroyed, and the remnants of the runic lifeform could be visibly seen this time appearing in the collapsing space-time dimension, screeching at the direction of where Xander was, who could see it even without activating [Divine Eyes]. The elves were still in deep sleep, unbothered that slowly, their bodies were disintegrating, evaporating into pure motes of light. The sentient grass, who remained in the dimension, merely sighed in sadness and waved his final goodbye to wherever Xander was, before disintegrating into motes of light. After a while, no magic beasts, sprites, or sentient beings were alive, and only the runic lifeform was still struggling, attempting to find a way out of the collapsing space. Xander began to collapse the pocket space, forming another crystalline orb, floating in the air. Xander then activated two of his spells, [Void Hole] and [Shattered World]. This was to ensure that space, where the pocket dimension was placed at the moment, was completely separated from the universe before he opened up a hole and chucked the space around the crystalline orb into the void. After chucking it out, he closed the void and he used [Ragnarok] on the remaining space that he disconnected from the universe, causing everything to collapse and be destroyed within 10 seconds, and the area looked like a primordial soup of matter and broken elemental particles and their rules, representations damaged and distorted by the Destruction rule of the Chaos element. After 10 seconds, the area began to coagulate and compact itself, creating a spatial void in the area. Everything in it, the elements and the material and immaterial matter, it''s all reduced to the purest, creation energy, before coalescing into a Seed of Life, which he immediately kept. With his enhanced sensitivity to the will of the universe, he saw that the void began to fill up with the power of the ordered system. He then used his powers to scan the surrounding space and his body as well, checking the situation of his enemy, whether it managed to escape again or not. Upon seeing no anomalies around him or in his body, he heaved a sigh of relief. He then looked around and shook his head. There was a bit of a problem: His room was totally destroyed, and looked like a starry sky, per se, but is actually more of the purest ordered system structure that can be found governing the universe. Basically, if someone was a Sage rank and was attempting to create his or her own universe, this would be a good place to look at. Xander thought for a moment for a possible solution to fix the area before coming up with a solution: Add the origin elements in the area and let them do the job of recovering it. At the same time, he tried connecting to the ordered system, but with no avail. It seems even with his current abilities, he still couldn''t influence the ordered system as he did with his pocket dimension. Xander released and channeled the Order and Chaos elements, followed by the 3 paired origin elements, fixing up the spatial void. It was quite slow; it would probably take months before the task is finished. He tried to speed up the time, but immediately returned it to normal when he saw the starry spatial void shake violently, producing creaking sounds. Speeding up time is out of the options then. Oh well, guess I''ll have to wait, Xander said to himself. In the meantime, he connected the secret pathway to his laboratory to the room opposite to his bedroom and transferred to that room for the next few months. Xander then headed down to the pocket laboratory to check the situation, repeating the scanning process. After he finished, he saw that everything was normal and there wasn''t much to worry about. After checking up on the small garden and the mineral deposits in the small mountain inside the laboratory, he left the pocket dimension and headed to the Villa''s garden once again. The garden was bare; there were only soil and a few grasses growing. All the cultured rosebushes, tree brush, and rows of different colorful flowers were gone. Xander momentarily felt sad, before strengthening his resolve once more. He wouldn''t make mistake again. Immediately, he utilized his abilities again to create a pocket space, before thinking, how had his universe-creating spell, [Origin Universe], improved since his recent breakthrough? He checked the system and went to the description of the skill. [Origin Universe (sealed, 11% unlocked)]: Combining all origin elements except the Void element, one is able to create a small, stable, and independent ordered system in the Great Void, existing until the ordered system set collapses. It can now absorb and convert the Void Element to origin elements to grow, stabilize and enhance the created ordered system, with a maximum size of 2^121 lightyears. The size growth is approximately 0.5 lightyears per year, taking around 5.31x10^27 giga-anums, where 1 giga-annum is 1 billion years, to reach its limit size. In the Void, however, the space it takes up does not increase but remains the same. Xander thought about the spell''s description and wondered, what if I bring my newly-created universe in the Great Void back into the universe I came from? Would it destroy my universe or devour it? Or would it cause it to reject its existence and not allow its entry? I should test it out after finishing college. Probably by then, the world hasn''t ended, anyways. Xander utilized the two spells, [Pocket Dimension] and [Origin Universe] to establish a semi-independent, living pocket space. Time began to flow in the pocket space, and elements began to exist within the space, appearing and multiplying, their rules solidifying and creating conformations. Light appeared, creating a light-day cycle in the pocket space. At this moment, it was still empty, no physical matter existed even, besides Xander. Using the soil he got from the garden, he began replicating them in tremendous amounts, exponentially increasing them to the point of creating several octillion tonnes of soil all over the pocket space. He structured the pocket space like a Mobius strip, so the living space is actually manifesting itself as a one-sided ribbon configuration. Within that dimension, the land was uneven, with plains, mountains, hills, valleys, crevices, canyons, and large gaps between the similarly-leveled land, creating the foundation of oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes, where everything just loops back to each other. The size of the space if one walks through it would be 2 lightyears in length, looping back to its original starting point. The area, or how wide it is, however, was limited to 1 lightyear in width. In terms of the distance from the end of the space to the highest point in the sky, well, it was a total of 2 lightyears, from no matter what your location was in the pocket space. From the topsoil to the lower border of the space, it was roughly 1 lightyear. After the land has been structured, they were further reinforced by the earth/metal elements, forming a solid foundation for the ground. Water elements began to appear, so did Air elements. Water began to fill the basins, the crevices, and concaves on the ground, rapidly filling the pocket space, up to thousands of kilometers in depth of water until it reached sea level. This created more variation in the type of land being formed, refined by the other elements. Wood elements began to appear next, covering the soil with greenery. Hidden crevices in the mountains, caves, places without light or hint of life: Life was beginning to bloom. Even the deep underwater, plant life could be seen blooming in the darkness. From the wood elements, they began to undergo a cycle of life and death, giving birth to earth/metal elements, compounding itself to the soil. From light, came fire being manifested for the first time, on a wood element medium, giving rise to the appearance of fire elements. Deserts, volcanoes, geothermal springs, lava lakes began to appear in the pocket space, creating a diverse view of the world. Upon seeing the 5 elements being established after the origin elements, Xander felt a sigh of relief. It wouldn''t be too far before the other elements appear as well, and since the set-up was complete, he can now manipulate the ordered system in this pocket space. First and foremost, he established the rule of life evolution. It was basically non-existent here because Xander hasn''t comprehended a lot about the Order and Chaos elements to establish the rule perfectly, so he just removed it out of the equation, rather than be exploited like what the Runic lifeform did to the previous garden. However, with the power of Life-Death elements, he can establish the formation of sentience in the biological and non-biological matter. If he placed a flower and it survived under normal conditions, it would probably gain sentience after a few hundreds of years, but may not necessarily produce a sprite. Similar to placing an animal here; it would also gain sentience, but not necessarily transform into a magic beast. Maybe, these sentient animals can be considered a new type of being? Reproduction in this pocket space would literally be cloning the previous generation because of the rule of life evolution. If plants decided to interbred, randomly between the two of them, one would have their genes copied and created into a new life. The same goes for plants and animals placed in this space. Second, he modified the time acceleration to 1 second: 2 years or 172,000 years per day. This was a stable value of time acceleration with the following size configurations of the space. He would need to reinforce it once every 10 years. If he left it untouched, approximately 630.7 million years would have passed, allowing sentient beings in the dimension to actually reach, well, Sage-class strength. Third, the formation of sprites and magic beasts. To avoid the problem of unwanted sprites and magic beasts being formed, he only made sure that sprites of certain elements can only be formed. He did not allow Origin elements to form sprites or magic beasts. Not only that, but there were also areas in the pocket space where there would be no formation of sprites or magic beasts whatsoever. After this was set up, he began putting his plans into order. For the next couple of years inside the pocket space, he was quite busy. First, he placed a total of 400 libraries with identical contents of 40,000,000 million of books, novels, comics, writings, and research papers, around 0.1 lightyears away from one another. There were also libraries underwater and above the water, and even on-air, floating like a fortress. It was made with the same strongest alloy available from the Galactic Empire, the same type he made in the original garden. He also ensured that within a 2-kilometer radius, nothing would grow in the ground, nor can any material stand above it, within it, or on it. To ensure that the libraries would be noticed by the sprites, sentient beings, and magic beasts, he basically increased the density of the elements under the Origin elements in the area. It has the same rules as the previous library he established; no one was allowed to take a book out, and they can stay for as long as 7 days. Time is slower inside, roughly 1 second outside the library: 1 day inside the library, or 1,656 years. The library was also very big, around 10 kilometers in diameter to fit all those materials. There was also a digital terminal present in the library, allowing them to choose and read a book on the screen if it wasn''t available because someone is currently reading it. To ensure that they would be very happy, welcoming, and give respect and reverence to Xander''s presence in the garden, he inserted himself in the books, adding a sketch of himself in every book, novel, comics available. He also plastered a statue of himself, his 7-year old self, that would also change as he grows and ages. Second, the plants he transferred from the old garden. He began to plant them in the same fashion as he did, placing them in one secluded corner of the world where the rule of no sprites or magic beasts formation applied. That plot of land was quite large, roughly 10,000,000 square kilometers. He planted the grown plants, a total of 120 species and 20 plants each species or 2400 plants all in all, in these places. He also modified the environment based on their elemental affinity where they grow best. Fire, Water, Air, Wood, Earth/Metal, Fortune, Misfortune, Reincarnation, Life, Death, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, etc. After modifying them, he then looked for a spot to plant the Seed of Life that he had gotten from his room. When he had planted the seed in the most central part of the space pocket, he could feel that the elements, rules, representations, and matter had a qualitative change surrounding the area, and it was gradually increasing in the area of effect. It felt like this was similar to the effect of his spell [Garden of Eden] since it can also grow. He basically ensured through the ordered system that the plant that would grow from the seed of life would never develop sentience nor will it develop to become a sprite. He needed these things to ensure the space he made would be stable. After all, what would happen if one day, the sentient Tree of Life or its sprite said, "I want to leave and explore the universe." That would destabilize the place it was put in. He thought about the situation and realized something: He really needed more of these kinds of seeds. Could he try and use [Twilight Sonata] now somewhere in the universe to create the Seeds of Creation and Destruction? Xander thought to himself before he checked through the system if the description for it changed. After all, it was a Sage-rank spell. [Twilight Sonata]: Returns everything to their very origin, removing both chaos and order and all their derivatives in the target area, reducing everything into nothing, forming a seed of creation and a seed of destruction. The target area size is based on one''s spatial comprehension. The number of seeds produced depends on numerous factors: Amount of sentient beings, Amount of Matter, Amount of Element particles, State of Order in the place, and the State of Disorder in the place. The spell can only be activated by casting [Ethereal Sunrise] and [Frenzied Sunset] at the same period of time of the Universe, or UTP. It cannot be used in the Great Void (for now). It did change, stating now the different factors involved in creating a seed of creation and destruction. If the range of his spell was based on his spatial comprehension, can he use it to 1/2 of the universe? Xander thought about it for a moment before laughing at his own ideas. It was ok to dream big. But he knew that as a sage spell, maybe the power of the spell was tied up to his comprehension, and his own power as well. Although he had an advantage over space-time spells of not consuming any magic energy, he didn''t have that luxury for the other elements. If he wanted to cast a spell as large as 1/2 of the universe, well, he should have at least the magic and elemental energy reserves for it to be cast, or gain complete control over Order and Chaos elements, like what he had for space-time. However, this would have to come after gaining completing comprehension of these elements. There was no superior God or being that would hand him the control over these elements this time, he would have to work for it. He''ll try it out once he became a peak Legendary Magician, and check if he could at least cover the size of 2 mega planets. Lastly, he placed some of the insects, small animals, medium-sized animals into the pocket space, ranging from aquatic, amphibious, land-based, and air-based animals. There were a total of 600 different species for each type of animal, spread out all over the space. For plants, besides the ones he placed, he basically didn''t know how many different species were there initially born. He also added some microorganisms, fungi, and protists; he couldn''t add viruses because like they''re not really living and their existence itself is chaotic, with ever-changing mutations and effects. Seeing everything was stable, He let out the 4 sprites and magic beast from the contract space in his body. He then instructed them to guide the beings that would appear in this young pocket garden. He also told them that every around 175,000 years, he would come and visit them, to check up on them as well as the newly-born sprites and magic beasts. He named it Eden, in remembrance to his old garden. _______________________________________ He left the garden villa and headed up to his new room. Using time acceleration of 1 second: 1 year, he read all the school material that would be tested for tomorrow. He also realized that starting tomorrow, until next week, the focus of the study was magic meditation through the use of cultivation skills. I wonder where we would get ours, Xander thought to himself. Xander then headed to his bed and slept soundly. Morning came. It was the start of classes once again. 45 Taking the Midterms Xander, as usual, headed to the university, where he went to the department in charge of the advanced program track. He presented his identification card, his documents, as well as the letter that allowed him to skip class for 7 days, both in digital and physical format, signed and stamped by the Dean. Afterward, he was heading to the testing venue when he received an encrypted file from Faykes. Xander was curious and opened it, and saw that the file contained the information of families present in the Eta country, roughly the same information the government had in their database. Xander was surprised that Faykes actually did it. He was just giving him a mission for fun, and well, to test his usefulness. Now he remembered that he did promise him a surprise reward. What should he give him... Hmm, a rare metal that only exists in isolated areas of the wide universe? Maybe a fruit that can aid his cultivation? Oh, wait, I already ate the fruits and sold them... Well, technically he can replicate them perfectly now. Yeah, that should do it. The fruits it is then. He decided to give him 4 fruits, 1 fruit for every primary element he had. Wood, Fire, Water, Air elements. Oh, I''ll give him the fruits from the air-type plants tomorrow then, as well as the ones from the aquatic plants, Xander thought to himself before reaching the testing room. It was quite comfortable, it was a conference room. There were 3 people in the room, one of them was Ms. Amelia. Beside Ms. Amelia was a man who looked like he was in his 30s. The last person was an elderly woman was had a genial smile plastered on her face. Ms. Amelia looked at Xander gently, gesturing him to take a seat. Xander did, and Ms. Amelia spoke up. "Good morning, Xander. I''m sure you know why you are here: You are to take the midterm test for the semester. Beside me is a fellow colleague of mine, Mr. Brian Feyzacs. The other lady present is the current vice dean of the university, Mrs. Vera Carliste. She will be supervising the exam today." "Good morning, Mr. Feyzacs, Mrs. Carliste," Xander spoke politely, briefly lingering his look at Brian before turning his gaze to Mrs. Carliste in greeting. Brian didn''t notice anything out of the ordinary. After greeting them, Xander looked at Ms. Amelia, his look indicating the test. Ms. Amelia said gently in reply to Xander''s silent statement. "Alright, Mr. Xander Cloverfield, as you have requested a leave of absence for 1 week, the school decided to grant this on the condition that you would be taking in advance the midterm exam for both Basic Magic Control and Elemental Control classes. This midterm exam consists of two parts: 1 theoretical, 1 practical test. The examination would be done in the VR machine that we have in the building. If you pass the exam, no deduction of SCPs would be done, and you may have the option of not participating in the lessons discussed in the classes for the next 2 months. If you fail the exam, however, not only will your SCPs be decreased by how far the raw score was from the passing grade, you will not be allowed to request a leave of absence for the next 2 years. Do you understand?" Amelia asked, looking at Xander, who nodded in response. "Very well, the first part of the test will now begin. You have 1 hour to answer the 200-point exam." She handed Xander the open code which was to be inputted into the desk terminal, allowing Xander to use the computer to answer the exam items. He then placed the Neuron node on the left temple, allowing him to answer the questions as fast as possible. As the system booted up, Ms. Amelia then gave the test code to be inputted in the test program of the university, immediately presenting Xander the words "MIDTERM EXAM, TYPE 2. TWO HUNDRED POINT EXAM." "Your timer starts once you flip the screen. You may begin." The moment she said that, Xander flicked his hand over the screen hologram, and immediately Xander began to answer the questions. This time, his speed of answering the questions was faster than he did during the entrance exam, reaching the speed of 8 items per minute. He continued blazing through the exam as if nothing posed a difficult problem. "Show the calculation for Daeri''s Reversal algorithm..." "Identify the problematic part of Barneby''s theory on elemental..." "If X is 10.54, and C is in terminal velocity, what is the size of the planet in..." "Which statement best describes the entropic movement..." "Class of magic circle that produces this..." "Type of element that can..." "If I have 500 apples, how much life, wood, and earth elements were used to..." "Given that 56^3~% is around the current rate of C ... It was the essays that Xander had a long time discussing. His speed slowed down to 6 items per minute at this point, answering the essay questions that comprised half of the theoretical exam. "What do you propose as an alternative to Verdabilt''s Consumption theory of..." "Cultivation skills are graded by their quality. What can explain the rapid increase in the percentage benefit they give..." "Is the universe continuously expanding? Can it be likened to a magic circle?" "Fundamentally speaking, why is the ordered system structured such a way, producing elements?" ..... After finishing these questions, there were more, weird questions in the last part of the essay section, since the questions being asked were topics never discussed in the semester at all, and were not even in the coverage of the subjects'' syllabi. Not only that, but Xander also had a hint someone was targeting him with these questions. "Concerning relative random displacement that elemental particles undergo in the span of 1 second, how are its minute changes relevant to the field of physics?" "Spatial movement of matter: Is it continuous, or merely a perception?" "Seen above is the image of the E-33 Omega space shuttle. What modifications can be considered to improve space travel and decrease spatial resistance?" "Can electromagnetic pulsation idealize the function of space jumps, traveling to a certain distance without actually traversing the entire path? Why or why not?" "If space element exists, can multi-dimensional travel be done by humans? Why or why not?" ... When he reached this point, he was using his [Divine Eyes] to observe everyone in the room, to check if someone was acting weirdly, fidgety or excited, matching or conflicting their current profile data. After all, nothing can be hidden from his sight. He purposely slowed down in some of the items, acting like he was in deep thought, before writing down his essays that were 15 sentences long. He even added some drawings and diagrams to show his answer. These were the items that were obviously hinting at space element, and even traveling through space, jeez. He continued to answer the questions, acting like he was in deep thought and then scribbling his answers away. The moment he finished the test, there were still 15 minutes to go until the time limit. However, he didn''t want to waste his time since he already had the necessary information about who was targeting him. It was the male teacher, Mr. Feyzacs, and the elderly woman, Mrs. Carliste. He immediately clicked "submit" at the end of the test, allowing him to submit his test results. The good news of this test so far is that he has hacked through the servers of the university. It seems this terminal was connected to the main database of the university, which allowed the System to get the information it needed, categorized them, and put them on the smartwatch. With the information the university has, he didn''t really need to go to school anymore since he already had clear cut steps on how to achieve Legendary class by the creation of one''s vessel. "I''m done, professors," Xander said politely to the people in front of him, acting like he never discovered their intentions in the first place. Oh well, he planned to interrogate this Mr. Feyzacs one of these days. After all, a measly Mythic-2 trying to entrap him, as well as a Mythic-8 magician? Pathetic. How should he deal with the vice dean though, it should be clean and untraceable. As he was thinking of this, Amelia nodded and said to Xander, "Xander, please follow us to the VR testing room." Amelia and Mrs. Carliste stood up and headed to the door on the right. The VR testing room was placed adjacent to the meeting room. Mr. Feyzacs, on the other hand, decided to stay in the meeting room to ensure no one will attempt to modify Xander''s submitted test results. Mrs. Carliste even praised him for his hard work. According to the three of them when Xander questioned it, it is the protocol to do so. Xander internally rolled his eyes at the acting of the two. Although Amelia seemed to have an inkling of the situation, she wasn''t really involved this time. The other two... geez, was this a slapstick comedy that you gotta follow what the other is saying? Anyhoo, if they attempted to access Xander''s paper, they would be in for a surprise, hehe. They would need to utilize the strongest quantum supercomputer the planet has to even begin cracking the encryption code the System implemented which Xander modified a teeny, tiny bit. After all, if he didn''t modify it, it could only be cracked by a fellow digital lifeform. The paper itself will be graded by the main server, but the people managing the server are not privy to the specific answers, especially in the essay part. If they really wanted to view his paper, they would need to decrypt the encryption code~ Even with the strongest quantum computer, it would take 30 years to do so if it completely utilized all its computing power there, turning off all VR programs available in the world. The university doesn''t have that much power on a global scale; although it can call on favors from their graduates who may hold government positions, they are after all, only in the top 20 universities worldwide. If compared to AIA University, which is in the top 2, or Carver-Dahms University, which is the top 1 university globally, both located in Nema, the achievement and prestige of Grand Hyatt University would not be able to hold a candle to these universities with a history of more than 4000 years. Xander and the other 2 women reached the VR testing room, which was basically 1 room with 3 VR Capsules placed in the center. Each Capsule had its own terminal on the outside, and the arrangement was triadic in order. Amelia motioned Xander to enter the capsule facing another door, probably the exit straight to the corridor. Xander stepped into the opened capsule, and Amelia looked at Xander calmly, before talking to him once again. "This is the second test of the midterm exam. You are to showcase your understanding of the following subjects: Elemental Control and Basic Magic Training. To do this, you are to complete a set of tasks for the VR system to analyze, record, and grade. You have a maximum of 2 hours to complete this test. Do you have any questions?" Xander thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head, and upon seeing this, Amelia pressed a series of button and the capsule began to close. She added, before the capsule completely closed, "The test begins once you get in the VR program. Good luck." Xander calmed himself and closed his eyes before his mind went blank. However, it seemed that he heard a wretched scream coming from a man a distance away before his mind went blank, however. A moment later, his eyes could open, showing Xander a simple, flat ground with no hints of vegetation or life. As he awoke, he realized that inside the VR, there was a flashing warning echoing in his mind. "WARNING, INCOMPLETE SYNCHRONIZATION. CANNOT BE COMPLETELY DIGITIZED. WARNING, INCOMPLETE SYNCHRONIZATION. CANNOT BE COMPLETELY DIGITIZED. CERTAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE AVATAR ARE DISABLED." Upon hearing this alert, Xander wasn''t sure whether this was part of the test until he utilized the System and got an answer from it. "The quantum supercomputer cannot digitize your information because it doesn''t have enough processing and storage power. It only managed to replicate 80% of your characteristics. The remaining percentage involves your spells beyond Sage rank, your vitality, intelligence, and luck; they are currently unusable as they were not replicated at all by the quantum supercomputer. The attributes are currently locked in a value of 9999 points each." The System''s monotonous voice sounded out in his mind, causing Xander to realize that VR reality does have their limitations. He should try it on the Digitized Dimension, if it can completely encapsulate his information then. After all, Eteria''s VR program doesn''t utilize the digitized dimension. Xander shook his head and proceeded to check the interface to proceed with the test. Immediately, the instructions of what to do appeared. [Midterm Exam: Type 2, Hell mode You are to showcase a series of actions that prove the following theories to hold some truth in a certain degree. Each successful theory demonstrated earns you 2 points, and you can gain a maximum of 200 points in this test. You are free to use the resources of the supercomputer allocated for this program. The following theories are: .... .... .... .... Xander was dumbfounded; there was a total of 300 theories listed here, some of which he recalled, have already been rejected, or found to be too dangerous for the masses. He used the system to arrange and group the theories from easy to difficult based on his knowledge of the topic. He then eliminated the theories that were invalid or proven false, marking them with a faded writing. There was a total of 127 theories left for Xander to demonstrate, roughly 1.05 theories per minute to completely answer them. He began with the foundational theories listed, creating models, generating elemental particles and element interaction out of thin air with the help of the quantum supercomputer. "Element as a foundation of Matter" "Element being a form of energy" "Elemental Conversion to Matter: Concentration-based" "Elemental Conversion to Matter: Time-based" "Elemental propagation: Against the laws of physics" "Elemental Representation: Fixed" "Elemental Representation: Rule of the Ordered Universe" ..... ..... This continued on one theory after another. Xander was relieved there were no more trap questions present in this portion of the exam. after 1.3 hours, he had finished answering all 127 questions. He made the answers as clear as possible through his demonstrations, producing concrete examples of the theories through the help of the quantum supercomputer. He had to tone down on some parts because he had a feeling that his data would be viewed by someone besides the impartial quantum supercomputer. If that would be the case, wouldn''t he give them undue benefits from his answers if they were too complete? That''s why he gave the bare minimum while ensuring what he demonstrated would be clear to the viewers. To be safe, he also instructed the System to create an encryption code for the results, stopping people from accessing the details of the results. He also made it that the supercomputer still processes his results, and the results can be viewed by others. He wasn''t a saint, to just freely give away his knowledge. He knew when to give away his knowledge if it benefitted him. In this case, the university attempting to profit from him? Fat chance! Thinking about this, Xander remembered a troubling vision: When the planet was refined by Eterians themselves. How much of that had changed, he wondered. Xander said to himself that he''ll just check on it later after school if there aren''t any important businesses to be done. Currently, for his college plans, he already succeeded in amassing funds. He also began socializing to heirs of families or those with their own renowned businesses. However, he still hasn''t discovered the identity of the man that used the fake name in publishing that paper. No one who joined the global conference, after hacking to their own servers and databases, had anything remotely to do with that. This further confirms his theory that this person is also a transmigrator like him, and one that strikes from the darkness. He or she probably contacted a series of people to get the information he wanted or give the information he needed. It is possible that it also met the God that Xander had met when he died. His policy, for now, remains the same: Don''t act if the other party has not acted yet. After all, exhausting energy and manpower, and then realizing the enemy is still stronger than expected, or someone who was a Divine-class powerhouse or something. He didn''t even try using [In a moment] to test out its power on the planet, in fear that it was ineffective against those above the Demigod class. He also couldn''t divine the future outcome because it involved his direct involvement in the matter. He''ll probably use it if someone attempted to kill him, maybe a demigod or someone higher. He would purposely "expose" a trail for the cultivator to follow in space, and once far enough, he''ll activate [In a Moment] in combination with [Divine Eyes] for the best, maximum effect. Anyhow, he should log out of the VR program. He immediately selected log-out, his sight blacking out once more before awakening to the familiar leather and metal structure of the capsule a few moments later. The capsule opened up, with Amelia looking at Xander weirdly. After all, the results were calculated in real-time, meaning she and Mrs. Carliste had access to the results produced by the supercomputer. They were alerted by the terminal that Xander had finished with his exam, and they could already view the results. Xander looked around and realized something: Mr. Feyzacs, who he assumed had screamed in the meeting room, was not present in the VR testing room. Huh, he managed to control his anger? Or maybe he''s plotting something against him? Amelia and Mrs. Carliste was surprised to read the results: Perfect score, 200 points. If they wanted to view in detail the answers per question, they required to wait for Xander to leave the simulation first and then access it. When they both saw Xander step out of the opening capsule, Mrs. Carliste couldn''t control herself and attempted to view the details. When she did, her face turned white, because instead of showing the details, there was a pop-up that appeared, requiring them to enter the decryption code, with a length limit of 1080 characters. "IT SEEMS YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO VIEW THIS TESTER''S ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS. APOLOGIES, THIS TEST RESULT IS LOCKED. YOU HAVE TO INPUT THE DECRYPTION CODE. HERE''S A CLUE TO START: IT''S MORE THAN THE CURRENT ALPHABET YOU MAY KNOW." "THIS ENCRYPTION CODE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED AUTOMATICALLY BY THE QUANTUM SUPERCOMPUTER IMPARTIALLY. ATTEMPT OF BRUTEFORCE DECRYPTION WILL LEAD TO COMPLETE, UNRECOVERABLE DATA DELETION. YOU HAVE ONLY 108 ATTEMPTS TO DECRYPT." "YOU CAN STILL VIEW THE RESULTS OF THE TESTER, HOWEVER. THE RESULTS HAVE NOT BEEN TAMPERED WITH, ONLY ENCRYPTED." "THIS ENCRYPTION CODE HAS BEEN CREATED BY HOMER SIMPSON. IF YOU WANT THE ENCRYPTION CODE, FIND HIM IN OUTER SPACE! :P" When Amelia also saw the pop-up, she was surprised, as this was the first time she had encountered something like this. She briefly looked at Xander who was walking to their location. Xander, acting like he had nothing to do with it, asked politely, "Teachers, may I go now to my class?" Mrs. Carliste bit her lip in frustration, and merely gave a tight smile and nodded in Xander''s question as a response. Xander politely bowed to the two of them before exiting the room and leaving the building. He headed towards the building where Basic Magic Training was being held. __________________________________ Mrs. Carliste could barely hold off her anger. After seeing that Xander had left the premises, she shouted in anger, screaming out. Now, both Amelia and Mrs. Carliste realized why Brian had screamed in the meeting room. Probably, the test results of this kid were readable, but the specific contents were encrypted as well. Mrs. Carliste heaved continuously for several breaths, slowly calming herself down. Amelia looked at her, worried. "Great-grandma, are you ok? It seems your plan with Sir Brian failed." Amelia genuinely stated, blunt and direct. Mrs. Carliste wasn''t affected at all by her words. She merely grunted in response. They both went to the conference room to see Mr. Brian looking catatonic, and when they were close enough, he snapped up and his face contorted into anger and disappointment. "Vice-dean! I thought the VR program the university uses was completely controlled by the university? Why did the quantum supercomputer encrypt the results? A 540-character decryption code, no less!" He shouted, a bit confused and angry. Who was this Homer Simpson, who created this encryption code that can only be attempted 108 times?? "Hmph! The encryption of the VR test results used a maximum of 1080 characters for the decryption code, with only 108 tries to open it! Brian, the initial plan was to check and prove whether your thoughts about this Xander Cloverfield was correct even by placing those questions in the exam! Don''t tell me you don''t know who Homer Simpson is, do you?" 46 Magic Meditation 1 Brian, who didn''t have the complete information concerning Homer Simpson, shook his head, puzzled. He only knew of Homer Simpson from his publication of 2 theses on Elemental conversion. The same goes for Amelia, who also portrayed a puzzled expression. Upon seeing their expressions, Mrs. Carliste sneered and told them who Homer Simpson truly was. "Homer Simpson was known through his publication of two theses concerning the elemental conversion of immaterial to material elements and elemental concentration producing a physical phenomenon. It was at that point the researchers and even governments around the world designated Homer Simpson as a Class V researcher." At this point, her voice changed from being astonished to being somber. She continued, "That was before he managed to hack into Eta''s conference of Demigod representatives, and caused a commotion. Later on, he caused one of Eta''s ruins to be destroyed and revealed some truths about the ruins all over the world. This is when he exposed that he was an Outsider visitor because he was attracted by a signal emitted by something or someone in our planet several years ago." "And the appearance of his name in the encryption code, on the so-called test results of his co-writer, Xander Cloverfield, is merely a coincidence? I think not. There''s a deeper connection between the two, and we must inform the Eta government- no, the world council right away!" Mrs. Carliste finished off her statement frenzied. After all, Xander Cloverfield, according to her husband, had also caused another disturbance 4 days ago, causing every single Demigod in Ete continent to be affected. She was even only privy to this information because her husband was one of the Demigods who were affected by the situation; all of them were severely injured, not to the point of dying, however, but incapacitated and would need a month or two to completely recover. According to some news, even Divine magicians were affected in the continent, waking up from their deep meditations and taking over of some of the ancient clans and conglomerates of their descendants, while others had their Mythic magicians take the helm. It was both a boon and a problem for the countries in the Ete continent because they can use this time to suppress bad seedlings from their countries and restore more of their authority and control of their respective countries. Not only that, but it also boosted everyone below the Demigod stage, increasing their affinities, comprehensions, and even their stages. Other people who weren''t able to practice magic, were showing talent on practicing magic cultivation after a while, while those in the Mundane stage would have an additional primary element they are attuned to. If the government can recognize the connection between Xander Cloverfield and Homer Simpson, the university''s prestige would also rise in the eyes of the other governments! Mrs. Carliste was thinking of the long term effects if she released the information to the Eta government, as well as to the world council. However, would Xander even give her the chance to do so? The moment she had that thought in her mind, the spell Xander casually and silently cast before he left on Mrs. Carliste, [Thread of Karma], activated on its own, instantly turning the world into a stilled silence for Mrs. Carliste. Immediately, everything turned monochrome for Mrs. Carliste, and everything stopped moving around her. Slowly, bit by bit, everything she remembered about the people she loved, she cared for and had given birth to, all of them slowly vanished. It was a creeping kind of vanishing; she was aware that she was losing something very vital, very important to her existence, piece by piece, one at a time. Her childhood? Gone. Her friends? Gone. Her family? Gone. Her emotions? Gone. Her existence? Gone. All the traces she had left in the world slowly disappeared, leaving only a foreign name to anyone who used to know her. She could feel her body disintegrate and crumble under the coercive force of the ordered system, attempting to purge the foreign material. Only a thread remained, a thread connected to her husband, which was slowly withering and snapping part by part. Simultaneously, her husband, who was a demigod, could sense that the karma between him and his wife was being snapped piece by piece. They knew the existence of karma, as it was foundationally taught as fundamental in establishing a life essence doll; after all, their life essences are metaphysically assembled by karmic threads. And snapping those threads, although he didn''t know what was specifically happening to his wife, he had a foreboding sense that something very important to him would disappear. He tried to resist the corrosive force the karmic threads that combined into one thick rope was experiencing, but to no avail, as he had never thought that karma was another type of element to be understood and mastered. Seconds passed by, but for the demigod, it felt like months of continuous battle, a battle that ultimately... he had lost. Immediately, memories flashed by within his mind, her smile, her touch, her tears, her anger, her hopes and dreams, her very first appearance, the first time they dated... all of these crumbled to ashes, and try as he might, he could not remember what he had just lost. He coughed out a mouthful of blood, and the machines monitoring his condition began beeping crazily, causing the doctors and magicians of the Life element to rush in to help stabilize his condition. Back in the meeting room, there was not a trace left of Mrs. Carliste''s existence, and the experience she experienced was actually within a span of 10 seconds. Not even Amelia nor Brian noticed something amiss, except for the fact that they were gathered in the meeting room again. "Wait, Amelia, why were we in the meeting room again?" "Ugh... I remember it''s something about the test items being locked by the quantum supercomputer? By this person named Homer Simpson?" Amelia said, a bit bewildered. She felt that something was missing, but she couldn''t put her finger on it. There wasn''t any damage to her body, nor were there any detected magic disturbances in the area. "Hmm, that''s right. I think this Homer Simpson is the same guy who wrote those 2 papers. Do you remember who his co-author was? It was Xander Cloverfield. Yes, this very same student." Brian said excitedly as if he was happy to find a clue about his research. After all, his family''s older generations have theorized and attempted to prove it but were met with failure. If he managed to see the in-depth results of the test, he might have a chance to crack at the mystery of the space element! Brian was filled with fervor. ____________________________________ All awhile, the culprit, Xander, noticed the fluctuation of his spell activating. He was already in front of the building of his class when he felt it. He tsked a bit. "Less than 2 minutes. Pity, she wasn''t sensitive to the danger she was facing. It seems people in Eteria only managed to become sensitive to fate upon reaching the Demigod level. Probably because of their over-reliance to technology, or maybe they aren''t just attuned to it," Xander mumbled to himself, as he scanned his smartwatch over the terminal. Of course, this was the new communicator model he bought from the Galactic Empire; it has been modified to work in Eteria as well as have the additional functions he had placed on the previous smartwatch. He headed inside the building and saw that the class hasn''t started yet, with Ms. Sandra Lim not even here yet. He looked around and saw some familiar faces. "Oh, Xander, you''re finally back!" Maryann exclaimed, approaching Xander''s desk with joy. "Yeah. How''s the elemental fusion, Maryann? Have you found a way to combine the two elements?" Xander replied, genuinely curious if she was able to discover a solution. Although he wouldn''t have such problems since what he had was a paired origin element, he wasn''t able to completely resolve the issue of fusion between two opposing elements before he had left a week ago, so he only gave her some of her interpretation and understanding of the 5 elements and their relationship, and how one gives birth to another while rejecting another. "Hmm, there''s some progress! But for now, I''m a bit confused. Although according to the hierarchical setup, Ice is a tertiary element that is suppressed by a secondary element, fire. Ice is formed from the interaction of heat element that is under Fire element and that of the Water element, another secondary element. Shouldn''t it be, by its form and combination, Ice be more superior than fire?" Maryann questioned, feeling lost. Although she had deepened understanding concerning ice and fire elements, the interaction of the two still remains a mystery. If she wasn''t able to find a combination point for both elements, she''ll probably be stuck in Master Class forever; worse still, she might not even progress to Master class! Xander, with the amount of information he had already accessed and stored in the past week, had a probable solution, but it involved the knowledge banks of the Galactic Empire: Elemental Fusion by representation. You fuse two elements that have similar, close, or nearly the same representations/rules. it''s a new concept for Eteria, but he didn''t want to introduce it this early. He did plan, however, to hint something at Maryann. "You''re actually on the right track, Maryann. You also already have the answers to your questions. Ice is made by a tertiary derivative of fire and by secondary element water. Ice can be stronger than fire, but fire is still stronger than ice; this is because of hierarchical suppression, and because a tertiary element of fire is a part of ice. Here''s the question for you to think more about: What point between fire and ice can you use as a starting part of fusion? Once you realize that, you would be able to begin fusion of the pseudo-spells quite easily." Xander said after a minute of ''deep'' thinking. Maryann was a bit puzzled, then pensive, before suddenly smiling, as if a light bulb had turned on inside her head. She nodded profusely at Xander. "Thanks Xander! I understand what you are trying to say!" She did so while grabbing Xander''s hands, shaking them with joy for a few seconds before realizing that it was Xander who she was talking to, causing her to drop the hands and retreat shyly. Xander, who was technically the victim, was confused and surprised by the sudden physical touch employed by Maryann. He had a weird feeling bubbling inside his mind. He didn''t know how to describe it, but it felt weird? He immediately checked the smartwatch health monitoring application, which immediately did a full-body scan of his current state. According to the results, he had elevated heartbeat, as well as increase in neurotransmitters being produced and used by the brain. Xander thought for a moment before realizing: It seems what I am experiencing is what they call "puppy love?" or something similar to it, Xander thought to himself. He wore a pensive look. In the meantime, Maryann was bumbling around attempting to apologize to Xander. After all, she thinks Xander didn''t like physical contact. The momentary pensive look he showed also supported her thoughts. "Ah! S-s-sorry Xander. I forgot you didn''t like being touched! It was an accident, really!" "Hmm. No worries. I never said I didn''t like being touched." Xander mumbled audibly, causing some of the girls who were in class, but acutely listening to the conversation between the two students perk their ears up. Some of them also glanced at each other, as if formulating a plan. After all, these girls saw Xander... as their own small brother! He was sooo cute! "A-ah, is that so... it seems I overreacted. Sorry about that, Xander." Maryann still apologized, forcing Xander to well, ''forgive'' her. "Anyways, I haven''t seen James or Alexa. are they skipping class?" Xander asked curiously, attempting to shift the topic. "Eh? Xander, you haven''t heard yet?" Maryann was perplexed at Xander''s question. She had thought that Xander might have heard the news. "What heard? I was in my laboratory the whole week. What happened?" Xander responded puzzledly. Before Maryann responded, it was another voice who responded to Xander''s question, another girl in class. He recognized her; her name was Valerie Verdny, of the Verdny clan in Alpha province of Eta. The clan had a Divine magician ancestor and several Demigods elders managing the family. "Both James and Alexa had to withdraw due to personal circumstances. I''m sure you remember what happened 4 days ago, right Xander?" Valerie said, her voice hinting at something. Xander then realized that it seems their families were also affected by the backlash, with the demigods of their families being out for the count. "Oh, the magic wave right? It was quite surprising actually! I actually raised my cultivation to Master-1 after I had woken up from the trance, haha." Xander said, scratching his head. Of course, he couldn''t just tell them that he was already Master-9 and was just planning to breakthrough once his birthday comes. However, upon hearing what he said, Maryann, Valerie, and the other students in the class froze, not sure if what they heard was correct. "W-w-what did you say? You reached Master-1?" "Yeah, it was a surprise really. I had prepared my pseudo-spells beforehand luckily, allowing me to integrate them seamlessly to the magic seeds! I just needed to combine and form my master-1 unique spell to advance. Shocker right?" Xander said, releasing a portion of his power, showing his fellow students he was already a master magician. Of course, the release of power was only up to Master-1 level, with the help of [Absolute Defense] and his increased control over the origin elements. Maryann, who was now an Elite-6, couldn''t believe it. Even Valerie, who recently advanced to Elite-7, couldn''t understand how it happened. After all, she had received numerous instructions from the family ancestor concerning Xander, who seems to be the reason why the whole thing happened in the first place. Some of the girls were at awe, however, at Xander. One even approached him. "U-um, Xander, can you tell me what I should do to have a faster way to advance, while making my foundations stable? Can you teach me?" Seeing that brave girl, more and more girls approached Xander, some taking the opportunity to touch his hands and even his hair. Xander didn''t mind it much; they were harmless gestures anyways. "Uh...you''re Carly, right?" "Waah! He remembered my name, so cute!!!" Carly, the first girl who approached Xander, gushed. Xander couldn''t help but roll his eyes. "Hey, hey Xander, call me by my name too! Serena. S-E-R-E-N-A. Oh my gosh so cute!" "Ugh, shut it bitch! Xander, call out my name too, hehe. Faeria." "No, call my name first!" "Stop pushing!" "Ohmygosh, he rolled his eyes, so cute!" Some of the guys were crying frustratingly, unsure why there''s such an injustice among people with talent. Why did you have to be cute, talented in cultivation, and smart at the same frickin'' time! One of the brave guys, a dude who was Elite-7, coughed and tried to approach the girls, saying, "No worries girls, I can help you with your cultivation problems, just-" Before he could even finish his words, a barrage of deadly looks and mocking stares came from the girls. "Hu-uh? Who is this clown?" "Ugh, not even cute to look at. Why does he keep on talking?" "Why are there walking trashes near us? Valerie, can''t you use your powers to sweep these kinds of trash?" "Yeah, yeah Valerie, you are the strongest one of us, hehe ~ save us from harassment!" The brave boy could not do anything but swallow his words and retreat back to the guys when he saw them calling for Valerie, who everyone in class knew had a hatred for boys and championed the girls. Xander coughed, loudly, trying to get the attention of the girls. The girls, on the other hand, just screamed. Xander sighed before utilizing his [5-elements foundation] spell, launching 3 spells in succession. [Silent Wave] [Calming Heart] [Quiet Breaths] Each spell targeted the following: the screaming girls'' voices died down, their adrenaline and blood pumping slowed down, and the last ensured that they do not open their mouths. Upon experiencing the 3 spells cast in succession, the girls were both surprised, scared, and a bit...turned on? Their faces were quite red, even the guys were as well. "Ok, now I can speak." Xander spoke, his voice childlike still, but to the observant listener, his voice contained a hint of aged tiredness. "Um, Carly and the girls, as well as you guys, you can already consider this magic wave phenomenon a rare opportunity. Not only did the wave increase your cultivation levels, it also improved your current affinity with the elements, the most affected being your primary elements. Right now, some of you might have increased perception, understanding, and comprehension of your primary elements'' representations right? Fill your next pseudo-spell slots with spells that showcase these representations. You would not only have a greater foundation for breaking through Master class, you would also have an easier breakthrough to Legendary Class, when you select and mix your primary elements'' selected representations and create a Magic Sphere." "My situation is very rare because I had already prepared my pseudo-spells in advance, and all I needed was to inscribe them on the Magic seeds when they formed. General rule of thumb: The more complex and layered a spell is, the stronger the pseudo-spell you create. But it would generally be impacted by the size of Magic seed you develop. If the size is too small, it cannot handle a spell array that you are attempting to inscribe as a pseudo-spell!" After saying his fill, Xander canceled the 3 spells, causing the students to be able to talk once again. He then continued, "This is why majority of people break through to Elite at around 11, 12 years old, and breakthrough to Master Class at 21-24 years old. They use the time to reinforce and strengthen their magic seeds. And how do they do that? they use cultivation skills." He had just finished when he heard clapping sounds coming from the doorway, causing everyone to turn at the source of the sound, revealing the figure of Ms. Lim, who was genuinely impressed with Xander''s progress. Even if he skipped a week off class, he already had reached the Master Class, and even realized the importance of cultivation skills in improving one''s foundation and future development. "What Xander had said was truly correct, and coincides with what we are going to discuss for this week and next week: Magic Meditation through the process of utilizing cultivation skills. Class, return to your seats. Mr. Cloverfield, congratulations on your breakthrough. I hope you yourself have established a very, very good foundation when you were still an Elite class?" Ms. Lim''s words were not a simply congratulatory statement, but also to confirm the status of his family and his current abilities. Xander answered humbly, "Just so-so, ma''am Lim. I only managed to make it the size of an exercise ball after several compressions and accumulations. I couldn''t make it smaller, sadly." His first statement gave a bit hope to the guys in the class, even some of the overachieving girls, before being smashed to pieces to what Xander said on the latter half. Hey, hey, our magic seeds isn''t even as big as a rice grain! How could you even cause it to go to the size of an exercise ball! And that was after the multiple compressions and accumulations you did? When did you really reach Elite class, huh? Did you really cultivate the same time as us? ...Wait, it seems he cultivated in a shorter period of time than us. WTF!!!!@! Ms. Lim was also flabbergasted. Although her pseudo seeds weren''t as small as a rice seed, they were only as big as a regular-sized strawberry, and that was after using a Perfect rank cultivation skill, hey! 47 Magic Meditation 2 Ms. Lim lightly coughed, before regaining the normal tone of her voice, and said to Xander, "T-That''s great! Ehem! However! Remember that now you have officially stepped into the ranks of Master magicians, time is of the essence! The spells you create on your own need enough time to be perfected!" Ms. Lim finished off, acting like senior giving pointers to a junior, to save some face for herself and for the class. Xander, of course, not wanting to make things more awkward for Ms. Lim after her inquiries were diverted, nodded vigorously, taking everything to ''heart'', hehe. She didn''t even realize that he was already a Master-9 magician! Xander didn''t bother talking in class since he already knew the syllabus; he just focused on playing his games on his smartwatch quietly while Ms. Lim began to teach the rest of the class. Ms. Lim headed to the front of the room and opened up the hologram projector. "Let''s begin the introduction to Magic meditation. My first question to all of you is what is Magic meditation for you guys? Be honest." Ms. Lim looked around the class, looking at different people, and some of the students raised their hands up and directly answered. "I think it''s a test whether you could stop yourself from falling asleep and gaining benefits from it." "Hehe, I think it''s just a mystified way of absorbing the elements around us. Isn''t it just deep meditation?" "I think it''s more than deep meditation. I think it allows you to comprehend the elements more sensitively and accurately." "Those aren''t wrong answers, but still a bit far from the answer I was looking for. Mr. Cloverfield, for you, what is Magic meditation?" Ms. Lim redirected the question to Xander, who then looked up from his watch and saw the class watching him attentively. Xander rolled his eyes inside, before pausing the game and then acting all serious and dignified. When the girls saw this, they couldn''t help think that Xander was looking cute by acting very seriously. Even Valerie just rolled her eyes when she saw him do this. Maryann and Carly, who at this point were now fans of Xander, listened attentively. "By textbook definition, Magic meditation involves 3 things: Deep meditation, which upon reaching Mundane-9, one is able to do; Magic energy cycling and production from Elemental energy absorbed, and Comprehension of the Elements. In one sentence, Magic meditation is the use of deep meditation to stimulate one''s magic cycling and improve one''s comprehension of the elements." "By my definition, I think Magic meditation is really just reaching the most balanced state of your mind, body, and soul, allowing you to be in tune with the ordered system of the universe, which creates a feedback loop, benefiting your body in the process." Xander then added his own thoughts, which he thinks accurately described the purpose of Magic Meditation. He then returned to playing with his smartwatch, his resuming his game. Ms. Lim was quite surprised by Xander''s answer. Even the students were also contemplating between the two definitions and felt like they understood more with the second definition than that of the textbook version. Ms. Lim, creating a mental note for later, nodded in response to Xander''s answer, and continued the discussion. "The two definitions are correct. Magic meditation involves deep meditation, the cycling of magic energy and elements in one''s body, and comprehension of the elements. Specifically, your primary elements. By the continuous absorption of elements, conversion of elements to magic energy, and comprehension of the elements being converted, your body and life essence is refined, as well as your Magic seeds, and self-made Magic Circles." She paused for a while, showing another hologram of how supposedly, Magic meditation works in the human body. First and foremost, the elements enter through the openings of the body, being sent into the bloodstream, cycling all over the body. As it cycles, its properties transform from elemental particle to elemental energy to that of magic energy, slowly being absorbed and released by the cells, tissues, and organs of the body. Magic energy increases in small amounts, and as time is continuously sped up, the more cycles are done, and the accumulated Magic energy increases in the human body. After a day of cycling, the volume of Magic energy in the body was 2-3 times it was originally. It was then distributed to the magic seeds of the caster, showing a visible increase of the magic seed''s size, but can be clear to the viewers it has not undergone compression before. "As you can see in the hologram video, Magic meditation speeds up magic training. If we weren''t doing this, it might be when we are already old and frail can we have a breakthrough or our foundations would be quite pitiful. To understand this, I''ll give an analogy: Enzymes function to enhance the reaction and catalyzation of proteins. with enzymes directing the movements of proteins, it would take more than several centuries or even thousands of years to complete a single reaction. The process of magic cultivation is the protein, and the enzyme is the act of Magic Meditation." Ms. Lim continued and saw that the previously confused faces of students were clearing up one by one. She inwardly nodded before she continued discussing the important aspect of Magic cultivation: cultivation skills. "Now, a vital component of Magic meditation that makes it efficient for magic cultivation would be the use of cultivation skills. So, what are cultivation skills? These are basically skills that allow one to reach deep meditation easily and connect into the element particles around them, allowing them to absorb them faster. Although when you were in the Mundane class, you could absorb the elements and generate your own magic energy, it isn''t as fast as using a cultivation skill in junction with Magic meditation." "At the same time, it gives the cultivators better affinity to their respective elements, as long as their cultivation method matches their primary elements improving their comprehension of the elements at all classes, and understanding of the representations at the Legendary and Mythic class. More functions will be explained at the Advanced Magic Training class you will be taking. For now, this is enough for the class." Ms. Lim said, stopping herself from describing the remaining benefits of cultivation skills. After all, you need to learn to walk before one can run. She then continued, "Now, for limitations. First, a person can only use 1 cultivation skill at a time, and second, they can start the use of cultivation skills only at Elite-6 class. Why do you think so?" Ms. Lim asked the class, and some of the students were frowning before Carly raised her hand to answer. "Ma''am, I think it''s because of the strain of the cultivation skill to our body. Maybe, by Elite-6 we have sufficient Magic energy that can be channeled by the skill? At the same time, the limitation of 1 cultivation skill, I think it''s to avoid conflict between circulation pathways." Carly said with a pensive face. "That''s correct, Ms. Bernault. We are limited to 1 cultivation skill at a time, and if you want to change to another one, you need to cycle for at least 1080 cycles to completely remove the traces of the old cultivation skill. This is because cultivation skills are eventually pathways for the elemental particles, energy, and Magic energy to traverse inside the human body. If you cultivated supplementary skills, it is still going to result in the same thing: a conflict between the two types of pathways." Ms. Lim nodded at Carly''s answer, before continuing the discussion. "Now, cultivation skills are not created equal. There are ranks differentiating their effects and quality. Ranks are divided from Low, Med, High, and Perfect. There is one more known rank, which is called Transcendental, but usually, only people with fortuitous encounters or those that are highly valued by their ancient clans can have a chance of using them." "The higher the rank, the more complex it is, but the better its effects would be. At the same time, the less specific to an element it is, the better it is in the latter stages. Low - 0.25x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) Med - 0.5x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) High - 1x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) Perfect - 2x increase in effects (affinity, comprehension, understanding, fusion, and generation) There are, of course, higher classifications, but for now, let''s make do with this, as most cultivation skills available publicly would reach this quality of standard." Ms. Lim then changed the hologram projection, showing ten different virtual bodies, each one undergoing Magic meditation, but there distinct differences in each of them. Each one was on a box with a label of "I, II, III...X". "Now, another classification is done, which is based on the specificity of the cultivation technique, labeled from Class I to Class X. Class I - Perfectly Broad; around 100%. Focused on attaining the best state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, not just focused on one element. Class II - Very Broad; around 90%. Focused on attaining the best state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, but still contains traces of element-focused training and pathways, understanding a specific element/s. Class III - Broad; around 80%. Focused on reaching a good state for magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, while including a few element-focused trainings and pathways merged into the state of magic meditation, understanding a specific element/s. Class IV - Quite Broad; around 70%. Trying to reach a good state of magic meditation, to generally understand everything about the Universe and the Elements, their intricacies, their relationships with one another, but contains several element-focused trainings and pathways merged into the state of magic meditation, understanding a specific element/s. Class V - Nearly Broad and Specific; around 60%. Attempting to broach into the generalities, intricacies, and relationships of everything, but the remaining focused on a specific element/s. Class VI - Nearly Specific; around 60% focused on a specific element/s, the rest focused on understanding general principles. Class VII - Quite Specific; around 70% focused on specific element/s. Class VIII - Specific; around 80%. Class IX - Very Specific; around 90%. Class X - Perfectly Specific; around 100%. Focuses on completely comprehending and understanding a specific element/s." Ms. Lim said, finishing describing everything in under 2 minutes. Someone asked a question, and a question Xander was also itching to find out: Can you create your own cultivation skill? Ms. Lim looked a bit unsure and was hesitating for a bit before answering. "Theoretically, you can create your own cultivation skill. A cultivation skill is basically a collection of different, complementing cycling pathways for every class, starting from Elite to Divine class. In reality, most of our cultivation skills are actually created by higher class magicians, such as Divine, Sage, or even God class. Remember the stories about the group of God-class cultivators that transcended and left our planet 800,000 years ago? Well, before they left, they had scattered a total of 20 cultivation skill books, each was ranked above Perfect rank, hitting the Transcendent quality. If you want to create a cultivation skill, personally based on your abilities, you can only create the first cycling pathway for the Elite class; for the next stage, the cycling pathway must not be in conflict with the first cycling pathway; for Legendary, the cyclic pathway must not be in conflict with the previous two, and so on. The risk here is that if the cycling pathway you design is problematic at the start, it would be impossible to create the following cycling pathways, so you would still have to switch to a new one. The biggest benefit, however, is that the cultivation skill you would be designing would have the highest affinity towards your body, meaning it would be out of the classification of rank since it might be perfect for you, but for other people, it can be just trash." The student who asked the question nodded his head, understanding the problem. It would basically require too much calculating power to sequence a cultivation skill perfectly tailored for your body while being compatible for the next cycle. "Now, I know it might be quite burdening to understand the information, which is why I had allowed voice recording of the class since the beginning of the semester. I am teaching this basic information to you all because you will need to either select your own Magic meditation cultivation skill for tomorrow''s class. You can already use the one for your respective family''s, or use one of the cultivation skills the university provides for one''s choosing." Ms. Lim said, emphasizing that the first day was only focused on theoretical, and the following days were going to be on the experience of Magic meditation. Even Xander was excited. Although he had no idea what cultivation skills would work on him, he had a lot of available skills in his personal database, some of which even reaching Immortal rank. He could just select one of the best-fit ones for him and be done with it. However, Xander had an even more absurd idea: Why not create his own cultivation skill tailored for him? He wasn''t daunted with the task of creating a cultivation skill; not only does he have a surplus of material to refer to, but he also had the ability to accelerate his thought process, making this fast and stable enough to be done. That was going to be his mission tonight after he had returned from campus. The class progressed on, with Ms. Lim emphasizing on the dos and don''ts of cultivation skills. However, it was more of the things you should not do. 1. Never disturb someone undergoing a Magic meditation. That is enough grounds for someone to kill you without being prosecuted. 2. Never attempt to divert the prescribed pathway of the cultivation skill, that is enough to cause a magic psychosis and cause your mind to lose rationality or control over your body. The worst-case scenario is you being crippled or killed, the minimum would be being stuck in a short-term comatose state or severe internal injuries. 3. Never cultivate more than 1 cultivation skill when undergoing Magic meditation. 4. Do not indiscriminately absorb the elements around you; accept only the elements you have a stronger affinity for. The more useless elements you have absorbed, the slower the cycling state, as well as the build-up of elemental particles in your body. Do this only if you have a special cultivation body. 5. Do not break through classes while running your cultivation skill; if you sense you are about to breakthrough, stop the cycling properly and complete the breakthrough. breaking through stages is just fine. 6. If you already sense that your magic energy is destabilized, immediately stop the Magic meditation, and undergo deep meditation to calm it down. You may undergo deviatory magic psychosis. These 6 rules were quite easy to understand, and the students and Xander didn''t have any more questions. Ms. Lim then just summarized the class for the next 10 minutes, before ending it, allowing the students to leave or eat lunch in the canteen. Xander used this opportunity to go to the Elemental Control class building, where he felt had better food, to be honest. He waved goodbye to his classmates and Ms. Lim, before heading to the building behind it. After a few minutes, he reached the entrance and scanned his I.D. before going in, and headed to the second floor to eat. The meal this time cost him 10 SCPs, but Xander felt it was worth it. He was planning to do some of the missions available for students to earn some SCPs through the School bounty Board. The school even had an internal app that can check the contents of the board, as well as accept missions from it. While eating, he began to browse some missions available. He first removed the ones that paid very low or the ones that were repeatable. He began looking for high-valued one-time missions. [Calling for experimental test subjects] [Complete my term requirement] [Help me understand Advanced Theory Magic....] [Need a sparring partner!] [Collect some ingredients] [Collect some metals] [I need this ....metal] [I need this ....plant material] .... There were around 150,000 different one-time, high-valued requests, all coming from Grand Hyatt and the different universities that Grand Hyatt is in partnership with; roughly 15,000 missions came from his university. He began to limit the options to [collection missions], [teaching lessons], and [sparring missions]. He didn''t want to be an experimental test subject for a thesis or research of the university. What was left were around a thousand missions, and from there Xander arranged it from highest to lowest. [I need a magic artifact of these specifications] [Looking for a sparring partner, physical trainer] [Collect 20 Bloody Drop Berries!] [Looking for a branch of a 10,000-year old tree sprite] [Help me understand Homer Simpson''s papers!] [Looking for a sparring partner, magic trainer] [Get me an Adamantium and Vallarium ore!] ... After a few minutes of scrolling and viewing the missions, Xander had selected to do 2 missions: [Collect 20 Bloody Drop Berries] and [Get me an Adamantium and Vallarium ore!]. The latter he could easily replicate through [Material Transformation] while the former was quite easy to do: Get a regular Drop Berry shrub and advance the time of the area around the plant. After he had finished eating and confirming his acceptance of the two missions, there were 10 more minutes before class began. He headed downstairs and Faykes was still absent. Xander decided to send a message to Faykes, asking if when he will go back to school. After a few seconds being sent, a reply returned, Faykes replying to Xander that he was returning in 2-3 days. He just had to take care of some private things. Xander rolled his eyes at the pathetic excuse and then used his space power to instantly have a 3rd-person view of where Faykes was. Immediately, he was in a windowless room. He could see 3 figures present, one of which he was familiar with: Faykes. There were 2 other people who he was talking with, to the point of arguing and shouting at one another. Xander continued to observe, but he couldn''t hear any sound since he was technically "seeing" the place; he wasn''t really there. There were stacks of documents, as well as the desk terminal open, showing several files and documents open. Xander briefly looked at the contents before his eyes squeezed to tiny slits. It seems the Valentine clan''s control truly runs deep. They even had information from the Galactic Empire; could it be from one of their ancestors who were at a high, stable position? Xander thought to himself. He checked the current database for any names that had the last name of Valentine. Huh, no match. At this Xander pondered; could it be the ancestor was using an alias? That makes it hard to track then, oh well. Seeing nothing much was happening to Faykes, he canceled his viewing mode, opening his eyes. He began to talk to the other students in the class, socializing and even giving them tips. After a few more minutes, Ms. Amelia entered the building, and everyone settled down as she headed to the podium in front of the training mats. All the students were sitting upright and relaxed, waiting for the lesson to begin. "Good afternoon class. As you know, since last week we already finished our coverage of the Elemental control theory. For this week, we will focus on Elemental control outside of the body." 48 Controlling Elements Amelia looked at each and every student present. "I know it may seem redundant, to teach you how to "harness" and "control" the elements around you when they are already gravitating to your body naturally and even more so during Magic meditation. but controlling the elements around you has more benefits that it may show." Ms. Amelia changed the holographic figure, showing this time a human avatar controlling the element particles around it. "To begin this lesson, let''s answer a very simple question: What does it mean to "control" an element, and its difference from controlling elemental particles, and elemental energy? Any one who is brave enough to answer?" Ms. Amelia asked the class, but she didn''t bother turning to Xander, who was lying down on the mat, curled up, asleep. In truth, he didn''t really have to attend the class. After all, his results in the Midterm Test showed that was the case. Not only that, but the news of him reaching Master-1 had also already reached the ends of the campus, spread of course by both students and Ms. Lim by word of mouth. It was basically impossible for the school to suppress the news, and it spread all over Callows City, to the point that in an hour, relevant people of power in Eta had already received the news. Right now, they were undergoing another impromptu meeting, the discussion focused on X-001, Xander Cloverfield. After all, according to the history of the planet, for the past 20,000 years, he was the only 7-year-old magician to reach Master class. They needed to reassess the threat level and the possible usefulness of X-001 to the country. However, it wasn''t a problem for Xander for now, since he had notified his parents yesterday about his breakthrough, so they were there to help him suppress the waves of surprise, jealousy, and well, attempted assassinations. Ms. Amelia looked around the class of 100+ people and saw some who looked like they were hesitating. Ms. Amelia decided to help them by randomly calling those people. "Mr. Fairwitz, what do you know about controlling an element?" Ms. Amelia asked the young man, Adam Fairwitz, about his take on the topic. Adam momentarily stuttered before coughing, and then after reorganizing his thoughts, proceeded to answer. "I think that controlling an element focused on the idea of communication between the caster and the element itself. We still believe in the idea that elements themselves have a limited consciousness, and although they move in sequenced structures in our daily life, it''s not to say that they are simply as such. Why? Because we can communicate with them through the activation of Magic spells. In this perspective, magic spells are like orders, or requests for the certain elements to follow. If the order is disrupted, the command cannot be cast, and the elements may perceive it as something else, thus causing a backlash to the caster." Seeing that he wasn''t interrupted by other students and Ms. Amelia was still waiting for his answer, Adam gained confidence and continued to speak. "Concerning element particles and element energy control, I think these are 2 other different set-ups. If previously, if controlling an element is a macro-state, then controlling an elemental particle is a micro-state. You are exerting more energy and time to ensure that specific particles of an element are doing the specific functions you are asking it to do. Element Energy control, on the other hand, is more of guiding rather than controlling, I think. Because energy is a byproduct of the elements, and it can''t be commanded per se, but it follows certain universal laws that allow it to exist in such a state and be converted into magic energy." A snort sounded out, causing Adam to stop talking. He knew it was Valerie, who was basically arguing with his ideas all the time. Although he didn''t hate it because it furthered his knowledge, she can come off to be very condescending. "Adam, I think your first 2 ideas are correct but aren''t they too assumptive that since elemental energy is a byproduct of the elements, it can''t be commanded? So how about sprites, then? Or even Magic beasts? Sprites are literally made up of elemental energy, while the life core of magic beasts are made up and run by elemental energy, no need to be converted into magic energy at all. Not only that, but there are preliminary studies that elemental energy attacks are inefficient against Sprites, specifically, the elemental energy that came from their primary element. Isn''t this an example of controlling the elemental energy? Not only that, I don''t think that elements have a consciousness that can decide for themselves, but rather hard-coded orders from whatever produced them in the first place. This is a form of elemental suppression, and in the case of the sprites, there was also a form of suppression present." Valerie said, referring to the idea of elemental suppression by hierarchical elements. The past 4 years were quite challenging for people to change their mindset concerning elemental hierarchies, but as year after year passed, more and more papers came out in support of the model that Therault and Xander had submitted. It was further refined by Gold D. Roger''s paper, perfectly identifying the origin elements'' correct placement in the hierarchy. Ms. Amelia chose this point to interject between the two. "Both of you are correct, and well, also incorrect at the same time. Let me explain." Ms. Amelia said, and seeing the confusion, began her discussion. "Elemental control involves your life essence doll controlling your body to control the elements, the elemental particles, and the elemental energy outside and inside the body. What is within your life essence doll? For starters, it contains your comprehensions, your thoughts, your primary element affinity to. Life essence dolls basically create a resonance reaction, whether it might be due to elemental suppression, or because it can communicate with the elements in a certain way. It''s not because of magic spell communication. The analogy of magic spells was not wrong per se, but in this situation, it is. A magic spell is well a list of orders that resonates with their rules, representations. It is not because they "understand" the magic spell. It is an automated reaction." "Concerning Ms. Verdny''s idea of sprites and magic beasts on elemental energy, she is correct that there is a significant aspect related to elemental suppression. The origin of the product can definitely suppress the product. But she forgot to take note that once they reach sentience, they also form their own life essence dolls, albeit in a different form from humanoids, their system of control is the same. it is the Life essence dolls creating a resonance reaction to the elements around them, allowing the body to control them and manipulate them easily. If we compare it to a clan system: Elements are basically Clan A, having A traits. Humanoids and other sentient beings are basically Clan B, having B traits. The life essence of humanoids/sentient beings has the capacity to show some of the traits of Clan A. When humanoids, other sentient beings attempt to control the elements, Life essence dolls show modified A traits to these elements, aka magic spells, arrays, and curses, allowing the elements to resonate with these traits and react accordingly." "Now, concerning the difference between controlling an element vs controlling an elemental particle, there''s a big difference in the scope of control; generally, the macro and microstate of control Adam had said is correct, and it involves a higher degree of control, affinity, and practice. Usually, the micro-control is done within the body, if one wants to remove something specific from it, as it is easier to be done in the body than outside." "Do you guys understand?" Ms. Amelia asked the class. Adam, Valerie, and the rest of the class nodded. Seeing them shake their heads in agreement, she then smiled. "Ok, moving on to the types of elemental control. Since this week we are focusing on outward control, we''ll focus on the types present for this kind of control." " We have 2 overarching types of outward control: Macro control and Micro control. Macro focuses on controlling the element as a group, while micro focuses on controlling an element as individual particles. Since Micro-control is basically unachievable without sufficient practice and affinity, we will only focus on macro control. Under each type, we have 3 general types of outward control: Conscious, subconscious, and biconscious. Conscious deals with you as the director, real-time commanding the elements. This is quite simple and can even be done by someone in the Mundane stage if one is really talented; by Elite class, this should be a skill everyone can do. This is quite hard as you are roughly commanding and ordering the elements. Subconscious deals with you as an influencer, setting up a series of commands to be executed after a previous command has been done. This makes it more complicated than conscious control, but is easier to be executed; This is where Magic spells, arrays, and curses come from. Biconscious control shows both conscious and subconscious control. Meaning, as you command the elements, your commands are layered with follow-up commands set up to activate after a certain period of time, or interaction/situation has passed. This is the most complex type of control. In other words, you are casting spells through your conscious control of the elements. All these three controls are subdivided into 3 types: Specific, Random, and Area. Specific subcontrol type is the kind that targets a collection of elements that are similar in function and state. Random subcontrol type is the kind that targets a random assortment of elements that you can influence. Area subcontrol type is the kind that targets a specific area, where all elements present in the area are put into control." Ms. Amelia then demonstrated in the hologram projection these types of control. Immediately, the first scene was a Conscious control, Specific subtype. The person can be seen utilizing on the spot the elements around him, specific elements that he is in control of. A portion of the elements, specifically fire and water elements, was able to move perfectly under his command, without the use of magic spells or arrays, or curses. The next hologram showed the same control, but random subtype. It showcased a random assortment of fire, water, and air elements, even if the caster in the hologram was only able to utilize Air and Water elements. This was because the fire was influenced by the movement of air elements, causing it to move with the flow. The next hologram showed an area subtype of conscious control, causing all the elements present in the area targeted by the caster to be under its control. It showed the figure continuously forcing fire elements to explode while being strengthened by the air elements. The movement of poison elements in the area infused the flames as a type of poison, causing the target inside the area controlled to suffer greatly while charring to crisp. The next 3 holograms showcased the Subconscious control, showing the caster use pre-configured commands in the form of magic spells, arrays, and curses. There were 3 subtypes demonstrated: Specific, Random, and Area. The last 3 holograms showcased the Biconscious control, showing the caster actively commanding the elements, and every command activates a series of magic spells, arrays, or curses. Under specific subtype control, fire and wood elements are controlled, and after a few movements, the elements activated in an orderly fashion similar to a magic spell being cast. Under random subtype, random elements that were influenced by the elements the caster could control activated on their own after a few movements, releasing the strength of a magic spell. The last subtype, Area, was shown with the Caster restricting the movement of elements in the target area, before causing all of them to attack the target inside the area in a systematic form. After the videos ended, Ms. Amelia looked at the students and said, "Today and until the end of the week, you will be practicing with 2 sparring partners. You can select your sparring partners within 2 minutes. Time starts... now." Immediately the class was thrown in a frenzy; most of the people who knew each other after three weeks of class did not hesitate to choose one another as their sparring partners. The guys were shamelessly inviting the girls who were not yet in a group, who had no choice but join their groups. The only difference was that no one had attempted to pair up with Xander, not even the girls that found him cute. They felt if they did that, they would lose their motivation to cultivate, ok? Not because they might get arrested for pinching Xander''s cheeks and hugging him with their developing breasts, suffocating him. Of course, there were 2 girls who approached Xander; Maryann and Valerie. It was Maryann who approached Xander, waking him up groggily. "Hmm? Wha-?" Xander mumbled, rubbing his eyes. The other girls seeing this could help but giggle. Xander was so cute! It was like he was disturbed from his nappy time. "Hey, Xander, can you be my sparring partner for the lesson today?" Maryann asked shyly. Xander looked at Maryann for a period of time, causing Maryann''s face to blush. She wasn''t used to people staring at her face for a long time. After a while, Xander nodded his head in agreement. Maryann was elated. She had wholeheartedly believed that Xander would be able to greatly guide her in controlling external elements. Valerie, seeing this, also asked Xander and Maryann if she could be part of their pair. Xander didn''t care, so he nodded. Maryann, seeing Xander didn''t have any qualms, also agreed to Valerie''s request to join. After 2 minutes, the class of 120 was grouped into 40 groups of 3. Seeing this, Ms. Amelia began to speak again to the groups. "Ok, now head to the other side of the room, and choose a spot. make sure you are 2 meters away from another group. You may begin practicing by: 1. Attempt to control an element outside your body. Once you have a strong, conscious control of the element, attempt the subtypes. 2. Attempt to use a subconscious control of elements by casting your magic spell. While casting your magic spell, attempt modifying the incantation, or modifying the flow of magic energy. Target your sparring partners only. This is a form of combat training as well. 3. Attempt to do a biconscious control of elements. Try not to target your classmates, and target your sparring partners. This is a form of combat training as well. 4. Do not use the subtype Area for subconscious and biconscious control of elements in this sparring session, unless they are non-offensive kind of spells. You can be prosecuted by the university''s internal council community if severe injuries have been documented. 5. For advanced learners, try to practice wrestling the control of the caster of the elements to your own. After getting a hang out of it, attempt to do it without alerting the caster. Do you have any questions?" Xander raised his hand, asking nonchalantly, "If we accidentally injure our sparring partners, we can just heal them right there and then, and we would be off the hook?" Ms. Amelia was taken aback by his question, and so did the other students, even Maryann and Valerie. She thought about it for a while, and said, "Well, technically, yes, since the injuries aren''t present anymore, but-" she was interrupted by Xander''s voice. "Ok great! Is it also the case if I accidentally kill my classmates, as long as I can resurrect them, I wouldn''t have any problems?" Xander asked innocently, causing everyone who heard it feel a shiver down their spines. "Er, I, well, I think that''s not allowed, Mr. Cloverfield. Resurrection is iffy magic and doesn''t guarantee 100% perfect restoration. So if there are still hints of severely damaged internal organs or function, you can still be prosecuted." Ms. Amelia stumbled a bit in the beginning, before calmly responding to Xander''s inquiry. "Oh. No killing, I got it." Xander said seriously, nodding his head. He then turned to the two girls, and asked them seriously, "Do you want me to retaliate while you two girls are sparring with me, to make it more realistic, or do you want me just to point out problems in your form, casting, and control?" Valerie and Maryann were taken aback, before thinking and consulting with one another. After a few moments of whispering and thinking, both of them said: "I think you should retaliate. But limit it to Elite-class magic spells only! No self-made spells." After hearing this, Xander thought about it for a moment, and nodded. "Ok, let''s begin. First, do the conscious control of elements." Xander began, raising one of his eyebrows. Immediately, an invisible wind moved about the area where the trio were, causing a bit of a ruckus. The winds were caused by the elemental particles moving at a very high speed, so anyone who experienced the wind would have felt the different properties of elements present: burning, cold, shocking, suffocating, heavy, rejuvenating, poisonous, restoring, decaying, deathly, etc. Those who were around the group were shocked, and even Ms. Amelia, who was a tens of meters away, could feel the fluctuation of elements. Xander then put his eyebrows down, and the element fluctuation went down as well. Xander had not moved a single finger, just his eyebrows. Both Maryann and Valerie were shocked and had a trace of joy; they were truly correct on choosing Xander as a sparring partner! They would probably learn a lot. "That''s a conscious control of elements. What I showcased was the subtypes of specific, area, and random. I controlled specific elements that caused the surrounding elements to follow their lead, creating an area effect. This is optimal if you want to cast an area of effect or specific magic spell, because it can effectively confuse the target. He or she would think this was an area type of magic spell, but in truth, it is a specific magic spell and should have raised his or her magic barriers instead rather than escape the area." "As you begin the conscious control of your primary elements, expand your senses and attempt to locate elements that are related to your primary elements, and attempt to make them resonate to the movement of elements under your control. How do you resonate one element to another? One word: Representations. Use their common representation sections and activate it in your controlled element; once it is activated, it acts like a beacon for the other elements not under your control, to follow the controlled element." "Go on, practice. I''ll point out mistakes and possible improvements you can do as you practice." Xander motioned the two to begin practice. Maryann and Valerie nodded seriously and began attempting their conscious control of their primary elements. Maryann was experienced on such things because her elements were opposite to one another so she had begun testing them when she had reached Elite class. Although it caused a lot of injuries, it had improved her understanding of the 2 elements tremendously. Ice. It was cold, very cold. It was the manipulation of molecular movement, causing the heat produced by the movement to decrease, to the point of solidifying liquids. In this case, the free-flowing water elements. Fire. It was warm, it was painful to touch. it was the manifestation of heat in the physical realm. Fire is weakened by water, but ice is weakened by fire. For both the elements, she easily gained control of them through her life essence doll. It was controlling them to do something or manipulating them, that was hard. She had to ensure that there were no conflicting movements between the two, or that they exist in parallel lines, never to touch or intersect. "Good job Maryann. Since you know that ice is the manipulation of molecular movement or the manipulation of heat present in an object or area, why not control the heat produced by your fire elements without causing them to be extinguished? You would have better results in attempting to fuse the two if you get the concept." Maryann''s eyes widened, as if she just realized something. She attempted to do what Xander had just said, channeling the heat of the fire, and continuously lowering the heat, without causing the flames to be extinguished. Although she kept failing, she felt it was feasible, and she continued to do it again and again. Seeing her determination, Xander nodded in approval. At least she isn''t a quitter, Xander mused. He looked at Valerie and saw that she was having a bit of a problem and decided to give her some tips, just to do his part in this practice session. Valerie, on the other hand, was not that experienced. Although she was lauded as a genius because she had 4 primary elements, she knew the difficult task she has ahead of her if she wanted to reach Master class and above. Fire, Water, Poison, and Darkness element. When she began to control Fire, Water, and Poison elements, she had an easy time focusing on them. She could even cause them to harmoniously move around and about. However, the moment she attempted to control the Darkness element, the other 3 elements would quickly lose control and became free-moving again. She was frustrated, because it kept happening over and over again; she couldn''t add the darkness element as part of the 3 elements she could control! When she was about to shout in anger, she heard a voice entering her ears, "You''re utilizing it the wrong way, Valerie. Attempt to have sufficient control of the Darkness element, before attempting the other 3 elements. The darkness element is the manifestation of the Yin in the Yin-Yang elements. It is a higher-order compared to the 5-elements and their derivatives." 49 Combat training Valerie''s eyes widened, and looked at Xander accusingly, before a questioning look surfaced on her face, asking, "are you really telling the truth?" At this, Xander just smiled and mouthed, "You would feel it once you tried it." Valerie, although she had a bit of animosity with Xander with what happened to her grandparents, who were demigod magicians, she decided to trust him just this once and began to let go of controlling the 3 other elements and focus on the darkness element. She had immersed herself into feeling, understanding the darkness element. That was an important step of allowing your life essence doll to establish a resonance with the elements. There is, a form, of masking, of acting the element. As soon as she had a stable control over a few darkness element particles, she practiced moving it to her will, focusing on refining her control. After a minute of practicing, she then attempted to control Fire, Water, and Poison elements. Valerie was surprised. She could sense some sort of...subservience from the 3 other elements. It was as if she was a commander ordering the troops, a commander who knew the strengths, weaknesses of her troops, their names, their capabilities. She could sense the 3 other elements! Valerie was giddy. She could understand the other 3 elements from a different perspective that she hadn''t understood them from before. She continued to immerse herself in utilizing the darkness element to command and comprehend the other 3 elements, causing a stir in the environment around her. As Valerie began to experience some sort of elemental enlightenment, it had caused the elements around her to be agitated, affecting even the other groups around her. Ms. Amelia had noticed the situation and was going to move to control the situation, but someone was a step faster. Xander waved his hand, and the rampaging elements in the area surrounding Valerie calmed down, and she began to go into deep meditation, losing track of everything around her. Seeing that the situation calmed down, Xander smiled at the others and said, "Everyone, the situation is resolved, you can now go and practice aga-" Before he finished his words, Another strong fluctuation occurred, this time, it came from Maryann, who had a look of enlightenment as well. She had experienced some sort of breakthrough about her ice and fire elements. "I... understand now. I finally get it!!" Maryann shouted crazily, her face showing relief, happiness, and a form of weariness. The temperature around her rapidly decreased, and tongues of fire were birthed as the temperature fell. These tongues of fire, however, had different colors and intensities, that even the surrounding people could feel the blazing, burning effect of the fire even without being close to it. Some who saw it were screamed, clutching their eyes, which were severely burned. At the same time, there was frost starting to radiate from their eyes, slowly covering their bodies. Everyone who saw the outcome was panicking, and even Ms. Amelia was a bit stumped on what to do. She had, after all, reached Legendary Class. She knew what it meant to have an initial fusion of your primary elements even before you made your own magic spell circle. The tongues of flame that were manifested contained the traces of fire representations and ice representations; this meant that such a spell is already an example of a self-made magic spell. But, Maryann Dykes was only an Elite-6; although it wasn''t rare for people to create Master class spells at the Elite class, especially for supreme geniuses, it generally happened when they were Elite-9, or had just broken through to Elite-9. This was her first encounter with someone making a Master class spell at the Elite-6 stage. If Xander could hear her thoughts right now, he would have laughed. After all, he made his very first Advanced spell around Mundane-9 or Elite-1. Seeing this, Xander sighed, and then waved his other hand, causing the flames to stop and freeze in place, before dissipating, like it never existed, and fragments of it entered Maryann''s forehead, causing her to fall into a trance. The temperature, which was closely approaching sub-zero values, was gradually returning to normal. The eyes of those who looked at the flames were also returned to their normal state, and the frost covering their heads were already melting, evaporating into the air. Xander, after checking everything is normal, stopped his control over the space immediately and resumed playing around with his phone, waiting for the two to come out of their respective enlightenments. He was actually bored. Maryann had developed her first Master class spell circle, which was an AoE spell that targeted anyone who can see the fire manifestation. It didn''t instantly kill the Elite students because the magic energy supplying it was low and was provided for by elemental energy, which focused on natural energy movement. It was good that Maryann finally solved the issue of her 2 elements; amazingly, it only took her 4 hours to do so. She truly is a talented cookie. Now Valerie on the other hand, was smart enough to utilize this opportunity. With the influence of my control over Yin-yang and the other origin elements, I had stimulated the darkness element, allowing greater control over the elements under it. What he found funny, however, was Valerie was actually talented in 5 elements, not 4. Darkness element always comes as the absence of the other element, Light. Darkness-Light, or Yin-yang, was basically the rulers of the 5-elemental series. Pity, she didn''t have the resources for her to utilize both origin elements. If she could do it at such a young age as him, he would have a worthy competitor. When Xander glimpsed a bit of Valerie''s future, to identify when she would realize this without his interference, he saw that it was going to be realized 35 years from now, from her exploring a ruin somewhere in Ete continent. She was trapped in a small space pocket that contained pure darkness and pure light elements. She basically spends 5 years in there comprehending it, and realizing her 5th primary element, which was light. From then on, a rocket development appeared; 10 years after the incident, she broke through to Legendary; 9 years after, she reached Mythic with 95% elemental representation understanding with Fire, Water, and Poison, 90% on Darkness and Light representation. 30 years later, she steps into the Demigod class smoothly. An 89-year-old Demigod seems passable in the wide universe, but in Eteria, you are considered a heaven''s blessed at this speed. Those who were watching the trio, however, had a different feeling coursing in their bodies: regret. If they had chosen Xander as a sparring partner, they might have gained enlightenment as well! Anyways, there''s still next week, where they can choose Xander as their sparring partners, hehe. Everyone had this kind of thought pass through their minds. Even Ms. Amelia, who had witnessed what Xander had just done, shake her head in amazement and pity for Xander. As she witnessed the situation evolve to what it is now, she had stopped the recording inside the building, ensuring none of these things get out; and if it is spread out, no one would believe it as there was no evidence. Little did she know, someone was closely observing Xander from the shadows. _______________________________ Unknown place in Eteria. In a large villa facing the sea. A man was casually smoking, overlooking the sea, the island, from his balcony. A knock could be heard coming from the door to the room. "Enter." A man in butler attire entered, his face dignified and honored to be in the presence of the man. "Your majesty, we have information concerning Xander Cloverfield. Just 10 minutes ago, he had caused two of his sparring partners to gain enlightenment by saying a few sentences. He had also demonstrated a strong, coercive power over the elements around the two sparring partners to avoid causing damage to the other students nearby. Our spy assigned to Xander cannot identify what elements were used by Xander do cause the coercive effect, or if he used elemental suppression in the first place." The butler said politely, reporting the information to the man who was still sitting by the balcony. "Hmm...have we managed to infiltrate his retinue of guards and servants?" The man asked, not looking back at the butler. "Your majesty, we failed to do so. For one, the current group dispatched to his villa was done by the Eta government in partnership with the Cloverfield Clan. It''s not easy to utilize our people in the clan due to them being in a low position. The same goes for the Eta government." The butler responded, his voice containing a sense of disappointment to oneself and sadness. He was not able to fulfill the task that his master had sent him to do! "Hmm, never mind that, continue the surveillance. Absolutely do not approach Xander Cloverfield. If one of the agents is compromised, I would have to replace your job with your other brother." "Y-yes, my lord." The butler said, relieved and happy that the master didn''t shout at him or kill him outright. The butler left the man and closed the door, allowing the sound of the sea waves and cawing of birds to resound in the room. "Hmm... Xander Cloverfield, if it is truly you, I wonder what you got as an ability from God, I wonder." _____________________________________ Grand Hyatt University, Faculty room. Brian smashed his hands on the table, feeling angry. Surrounding him were his fellow professors who had the same rank as him. His initial request to gather the computing source of the university and focus on decrypting the code placed on Xander''s papers and VR results were denied. Brian and his fellow professors had another identity in the campus, which is the fighting force of the campus in times of distress, or war. There are a total of 13 members, 2 of which was the Dean and the vice dean, and the remaining 11 are the most loyal and powerful professors in the university. Brian himself was a Mythic-3 magician, and he was 4th to the last in rank, or 10th in rank; this group was called Brightforce. "Can you all honestly tell me, why you would unanimously vote ''no'' on the decision? Did they pressure you guys? Or was it the Eta government?" Brian said, gritting his teeth. His other colleagues, who knew he would react this way, shook their heads in denial before one of them began to speak. "Nope. It was the Dean''s idea. You know how powerful the Dean is. He said that he knew you would react this way, so he wanted you to see something before you decide what to do." The woman spoke, handing Brian a crystal case containing a simple item: a photograph. When Brian saw the crystal case, he already knew what it was: It was the very first photograph he had with the Brightforce members. He saw himself, the other faculty members, the dean, and a middle-aged woman. A woman he had no recollection of. Brian was puzzled. How could he not remember the members of the Brightforce? There must a mistake with this photo. "So? What are you attempting to tell me? That there''s an unknown woman with the Brightforce?" Brian said, obviously not seeing the problem. "Brian, let me ask you, how many are we in the team?" "Isn''t that obvious? We have 12 members I am the 3rd to the last member, I am ranked 10th. Our members are the Dean and you guys." "Brian... we are 13 in the group. That middle-aged woman you see in the photo is part of Brightforce." Brian paled as if being affected by something, causing his face to produce such a pallid appearance. "N-no! You''re lying! You''re just saying that to deny my request!" he shouted at them, causing one of the members, number 5, to get pissed off. Number 5 moved his hand and pinned Brian to the wall, before saying, "You idiot! That IS the reason why we are rejecting the request! Do you know what the Dean said to us earlier? Huh? Do you? ''The vice dean... ceased to exist.'' and we were all confused and were wondering who the vice dean was. The vice-dean is that middle-aged woman you see in the photograph! Her existence was wiped out, not a trace remaining in this universe! You should know what power the Dean specializes in." Brian''s eyes momentarily glazed, before gaining clarity. "Karma! Karmic elements. Existence, fate, karma... all our threads connecting to her was forcibly destroyed?" Brian said, causing number 5 to release his grip on Brian, causing him to fall face-first on the ground. "Good job! See, I told you we should have done this number 8. Wasting our time, sheesh." Number 5 said at the woman who handed Brian the crystal case. Number 8 rolled her eyes and said, "I was planning to let him know gently, now I have to use my magic to calm him down. Ugh." Number 8 waved her hands, causing a calming aura to radiate towards Brian, who visibly relaxed and became clear-headed. After a few minutes, Brian spoke. "Thanks, 8. It''s ok now." Brian thanked number 8, who stopped the domain. "So someone who is an expert on karma... why didn''t this middle-aged woman, or you say, our vice-dean, react to the magic spell? Wasn''t she suppose to have an item that can help us detect if someone attempts to attack us through our life essence dolls, an item made by the Dean?" "The dean''s item actually disintegrated, and even the dean only had a few words to say before he also forgot the vice dean''s existence entirely. He only feels like something was forcibly removed from him. He had tried to reach out to the husband of the vice dean that was listed in the emergency contact, a demigod, concerning the matter, but was notified that he was in critical condition. He checked compared the moment that he had felt the violation of his life essence doll and the time the husband before he reached critical condition; it had matched. He concluded that the unknown vice dean and the woman in the crystal case were connected to one another." Number 8 said gently, drinking the tea that was placed on the table that had turned cold already. "What does this have to do with the test? Doesn''t it mean she was targeted by an outside force?" Brian asked puzzledly, causing Number 5 to roll his eyes again. "Look, Brian, the time the vice dean disappeared, and the time we all lost our memories coincided with that fact. We cannot recall anything about the woman except through this photo and the emergency contact owner empty and contained only the name of the emergency contact. We have 2 running hypotheses on the situation: 1. It was an outside force. They targeted the vice-dean, the second strongest in command. It was merely a coincidence that they struck after the Midterm exam made for Xander Cloverfield. 2. It was done because the vice dean triggered a delayed spell, or curse, by varying situations, or even thoughts, or flow of energy in the body. Since we have daily scans, it can''t be made by an outside force; it must have been placed on the day itself. It might have been placed by Xander Cloverfield, or a guardian that protected Xander Cloverfield, or that mysterious person, Homer Simpson. So right now, anything related to Xander Cloverfield is off, and all our efforts are focused on looking for clues and traces of the spell." Upon hearing this, Brian had calmed down to his cool, collected self. He also nodded in agreement with what Number 5 said. But it puzzles him how a photo could survive such a powerful spell. Number 5 laughed and nudged to the guy beside him, Number 3. "Hey 3. Tell him what the crystal case is made of." "It''s made from the skin of a Sage-class being. It basically isolates anything inside from everything outside." Number 3 said quietly, causing Brian to have a look of understanding. "Ok, so what do we do now?" Brian said, focusing on the task at hand. Looking at him, everyone nodded at his ability and began their discussion. Pity, someone was watching them, allowing that person to realize that he left some evidences. __________________________________ 15 minutes had passed, and Xander opened his eyes, twinkling with knowledge. Xander had just finished his spatial viewing of the space where Brian was in; although there weren''t any sounds, he could deduce the conversation by their lips. A sage rank artifact... and a man-made one at that. He should get rid of the photograph if possible. The problem is, he didn''t have any records of sage rank artifacts in the database of the world council. Any artifact above Demigod was not recorded. Maybe it was just written and not stored digitally, Xander mused. Instead of stealing the case and triggering any sort of traps placed there, he could target the photograph when they attempt to trace the karmic thread present there to me. After all, if they want to trace the thread, they have to bring it out of the isolation case. The problem is if they could find the thread immediately. The moment it appears, a karmic thread would appear in my life essence body, albeit faintly, and I can begin tracing. if they begin tracing as well, I would instantly notice a transmission and do a reverse trace, destroying the photo''s evidence of Mrs. Carliste, removing everyone''s memory of her once and for all. Xander looked at the two girls who were coming out of their enlightenments. They both rose a rank, with Maryann now Elite-7, and Valerie an Elite-8. He smiled at them and stood up when he saw them wake up. "Ok, since you have a general idea of how conscious control is done, let''s attempt subconscious control. This is a good way to stabilize your powers as you have both ranked up, and a great way to test out your comprehension. Let''s begin the fight, then." Xander smiled, before approaching them quickly. "I''ll be using physical enhancement magic and pseudo-spells only, ok? Get ready!" Xander immediately launched a punch towards Valerie''s stomach twice, and then moved towards Maryann''s position, who was still flustering. She hasn''t even propped her magic barrier up in that split moment. Xander was inwardly shaking his head as he used his palm to smash Maryann''s body to the ground, causing it to shake a bit, before he began moving away from their positions. "Come on girls, you can do better than-" Xander wasn''t able to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by a guttural growl coming from Valerie, who immediately cast 3 pseudo-spells simultaneously. It wasn''t bad but it was just too slow; she still had to say a part of the incantation, rather than skip that and do the magic visualization instantly. It took her 3 seconds to finish casting, but Xander had already approached her and slapped her in the back, causing her focus to loosen, leading to the spells to backfiring, causing her to cough out blood. "First lesson: Don''t expect your enemies to let you prepare for your spells. Learn how to instantly cast or shorten the spells to a syllable and also, always, always have your magic barrier up when you know you are going into a fight." Xander spoke softly, but his voice was echoing in the momentarily silent classroom, with his classmates staring at the trio, dumbfounded. 50 Demonstration Valerie was both humiliated and embarrassed by Xander''s action, who was right now standing a few meters away from both the girls. Maryann was gritting her teeth as she attempted to stand up from her injuries. Seeing her stand, Valerie sucked up the pain and stood as well, albeit wobbling, but managed to stand. Seeing them stand, Xander nodded before saying, "Good that you don''t give up easily. Let''s heal your injuries first to make sure you are in tip-top shape!" Xander waved his hand and a glow surrounded the two girls, and in less than a second, all their external and internal injuries, as well as magic energy, were restored. "Let''s have at it again, shall we?" Xander this time didn''t move, but rather raised one of his arms, pointing at the two girls, and suddenly ten magic circles appeared around Xander, both at the back and front of Xander. This caused the girls, the other students, and even Ms. Amelia to narrow their eyes in surprise and fear. There were too many concentric circles in each magic circle! Although it was a brief moment, Ms. Amelia managed to count the number of concentric circles on each magic circle and reached a terrifying value: 80! A total of 80 concentric circles for each magic circle! She immediately prepared her own magic barrier, allowing her to launch it as soon as she could see the two girls and the other students unable to handle the spells. Although she didn''t know if the spell she would cast would hinder the spells, it would give enough time for her to get the girls and the other students out of the spell''s way. Xander, on the other hand, flicked the spells that finished forming towards the girls, before muttering, "Lesson two. If you see you can''t beat your enemy, run. Don''t be a hero. Live to fight for another day. Don''t face the enemy head-on, unless you have a final trump card." The spells were each from the element of Light, Darkness, Water, Fire, Air, Earth/Metal, Wood, Ice, Lightning, and Poison elements. Each of these spells was special in a way that they contained parts of other elements in their spell structure, so they aren''t completely Light-based, completely Darkness-based, etc.. They were roughly at the level of a Master-9 spell in terms of strength due to the concentric ring augmentation, roughly at the 80th class. Ms. Amelia can block the spells, however, ensuring the safety of the students anyways. Seeing the incoming spells, both Maryann and Valerie had a split second to react; first and foremost they focused on creating the thickest, strongest magic barrier they could create, and then attempted to launch their own spells. Maryann managed to cast 1 spell, [Ice Curtain Shower] to further fortify her defense when the spells had reached her defense. It was momentarily stopped in a small fraction of time before shattering the magic barrier and the spell she had cast, reaching her body. Maryann didn''t close her eyes in fear, but rather in regret that she was still weak. Valerie, on the other hand, opted to launch a kamikaze attack by using an offensive spell, [Corroding Arrow], allowing her to summon two arrows within that split second, and launched them towards Xander, rather than the spells. Xander raised his eyebrow at this move and simply raised the palm of his right hand, causing the poison arrow to slow down to a stop, before evaporating into thin air, dropping a small metal needle from each arrow. The spells easily broke through the barrier she had placed and Valerie didn''t close her eyes at all, defiant and still full of fighting spirit. Of course, Xander didn''t plan to kill them to smithereens; after all, it would be hard to reconstruct using time magic and life magic. The moment the very first elemental particle of the magic spell touched their bodies, they stopped and began to circle around their bodies like halo lights. This caused the students, especially the two girls, to be surprised at the development. "Lesson three: Do not escape and leave behind your humanity and convictions. You did this very well. Rather than escape and prolong the situation, in which case, more variables would pop out and harm the other students, you stood your ground with your convictions still with you. As a magician this is important." As Xander was speaking, Valerie could help but be in a daze and attempted to touch one of the spells hovering around her, before hearing a voice that woke her up from her actions. "Lesson number 4: Do not touch anything your enemy had used against you; you do not know if it contains any spells, protective measures, or actually just a trap," Xander said, rolling his eyes at Valerie for her stupidity. "What I had just cast is an example of a Subconscious control of a spell, but up to four layers. The first layer is to form the magic conformation, creating the spell. The next layer is being launched towards the target, with a lock-on function, never missing its target. The third layer is what you can see now; upon reaching the target, it transforms into a form of hovering spell. The fourth layer is, well, if you touched it again, you would have reached the fourth layer. Your body parts would then be splattered across the floor with scorch marks and bits of elemental physical manifestation around your body parts, and I won''t be able to restore you back to normal." Xander explained concisely and calmly, using his spells and the example to teach the two girls about subconscious control. This caused the listeners to feel another chill up their spines. However, for Valerie and Maryann, it serves a life lesson for them. "For now, try subconscious control of 1 layer, which is to establish magic conformation, and launch the spell to the target. You can try the 2nd layer once you have a deeper understanding of the spell and the element you are controlling, in which case you add functions to the original magic spell that it didn''t have in the first place. Most opt for up to the 3rd layer, as additional layers are kinda moot unless you are playing and not fighting for the kill." Xander snapped his fingers, and the hovering orbs of light visibly shook, before disintegrating one by one, as if they never existed in the first place. "Now, I''ll use a simple AoE spell. It''s a personal spell of mine; I named it [Garden of Eden]. It''s a simple spell, it just keeps growing in size and area, as well as the organisms present in the garden continue to grow and strengthen. I want you to destroy the spell structure before it consumes you. Use every spell at your disposal. Heck, ask the others to join as well in destroying the spell. Ask Ms. Wineheart to help as well, if things seem to go south. I have to warn you though, you might be consumed by the spell and released by it as one of its creations. Do you want to do this challenge? This is a good way to push your control of the subconscious type deeper and more profoundly, because you are, well, pushed to the depths of survival as well." Valerie and Maryann were feeling conflicted. On one hand, they want to grow stronger. At the same time, they don''t want their lives to end prematurely because they were rash. The other students also shared their opinions as well, and even Ms. Amelia didn''t like too much risk for the students, in fear of causing them to breakdown from the pressure. After a minute, both Valerie and Maryann rejected the offer, causing Xander to nod at their practicality of recognizing their limits, and shaking his head in disappointment because he wanted to test out the spell in a real scenario. Seeing his crestfallen face that looked like a pouting cherub, one of the girls in the class said, in an attempt to cheer him up, "Xander, how about you demonstrate to us what the spell can do? So we can see if we can think of possible countermeasures." Upon hearing this, he looked ecstatic, and looked at Ms. Amelia, with a look of "can I? can I really?" Upon seeing his face and the looks the students were giving her, Ms. Amelia could help but agree, and decided to do it outside of the building. So they headed outside and went to the nearest open field. While on the way there, Ms. Wineheart had gotten the necessary permissions and signatures required for the activity. Upon reaching an open field, Xander''s face turned serious, and turned back to look at the students, before solemnly saying, "Please step back 3 meters from my current position. I will set the area of the spell to be at 3 meters in diameter. It would rapidly grow, so please retreat if necessary. Ms. Amelia, I might need you to use your flying artifact to target the garden from above if it gets out of control, specifically the biological organisms that you can see." After hearing his instructions, his fellow students moved back, with Valerie, Carly, and Maryann being the closest to him. Ms. Amelia was on standby, her magic power ready to be unleashed. Xander then pointed at the spot in front of him for two seconds, around 5 meters away from him, and uttered a word: "Garden". Immediately, the winds began howling in the area, with the elemental concentration rapidly increasing in the field, going towards the point where Xander had pointed. From that point a small seed appeared, growing rapidly into a small tree in a matter of seconds, before becoming a 20-meter tree with a diameter of 1 meter. Rapidly, shrubs, vines, small trees and even all kinds of organisms began to grow around the tree, as if appearing out of nowhere. The elemental energy and the elemental particles all over the campus were raging, moving towards the field where the Garden of Eden was placed. From the initial 3 meters in area, it rapidly grew to 4, 5, 8, 16, to 32 meters in diameter in less than a minute. The students had already retreated far away from the field, and more students were also appearing from the other buildings, because their professors all left the classroom, heading towards the field. It was still growing, albeit slower this time, because Xander had already gained control of the spell, allowing him to dictate the speed of absorption of elements, matter, and biological material. "Ms. Wineheart, fellow classmates, what do you think? Hehe, the spell has a nifty function: It can absorb any magic attack and any physical matter and convert it into nutrients! If you also get attacked by the organisms inside the garden, the garden space itself will absorb your elemental and magic energy in your body from open wounds and orifices, turning you into a dried-up corpse in a few minutes if you don''t manage to escape. After it does that, it absorbs your corpse, and your life essence, supplying it with much-needed energy to proliferate and maintain itself. The best part is: It''s not limited to land!" Xander raised his left arm in an upward arm motion, causing the field to shake, before a piece of it starts to float on air, reaching 20-30 meters up in the sky. Ms. Amelia, on the other hand, had to move out of its area in case she suddenly lands on the garden and be absorbed by it. Ms. Amelia shouted at Xander, who was on the ground, asking, "Should I attack it now?" upon hearing this, Xander nodded and responded, "Ms. Wineheart, be careful. The garden can cast spells instinctively on its own as it continues to grow! So make sure you cast a spell that would ensure its death or the remnants of the spell''s effect will slowly be devoured by the garden and can gain immunity from it, hehe." Upon hearing this, Ms. Amelia, as well as the professors and the members of Brightheart were dumbfounded. Why would you design such a spell in the first place? This can literally be a walking fortress, ok? Under the scrutinizing looks he received from upperclassmen, professors and from Ms. Amelia, he giggled, before twiddling his fingers together, acting like a toddler. "I was bored ok, this spell is just one of my Advanced- I mean, Master class spells in development. I haven''t integrated it to my life essence yet, hehe." Upon hearing this, the looks of the professors and other upperclassmen who were in Master class became weirder. Although geniuses were known to do such a thing at Master class, wherein they perfect a spell before integrating it to their life essence, didn''t he just breakthrough to Master Class? Why is he already creating his second spell this early, and this powerful?? "Ms. Amelia, you can ask the other professors to help you create a magic array to destroy the spell. Hurry though, if it reaches the size of 64 meters in diameter, All attacks below Mythic level are nulled!" Upon hearing this follow up statement from Xander, the looks the students and professors gave him were of undisguised horror and envy. A master class spell being able to resist attacks of a Legendary Magician? That was notable. A master spell that can only be destroyed by a Mythic magician or higher? F*** you! Ms. Amelia looked at the professors who were at Mythic class, and communicated with them before all of them took certain positions around the garden. Rapidly, numerous runic symbols, writings, flashed from their hands and bodies, moving towards the Garden, piece by piece, surrounding it like a sphere. After more than a minute of continuous casting, the runic writings were complete and all they needed to do was cast the spell. "Mythic class forbidden spell array: Era of Duhsama-duhsama: Sorrow and Misery!" Immediately, the space around the garden turned dark, chaotic and reeked of death, misery, and sorrow. Everyone around the field immediately retreated further away, as they knew this kind of spell can be damaging to anyone in the vicinity just by the aura it emanated. After a few seconds, within the field, only Xander remained, seemingly unaffected by the spell. What he was doing was observing the array and the elements that made it up. "Huh... Not only are there 5 elements present, but Darkness element is also present, as well as Elements of Life-Death, specifically the ones from the 7 emotions, 6 desires element series." The 7 emotions were Pleasure, Anger, Sorrow, Fright, Worry, Fear, and Thought; the 6 desires were Lust, Vanity, Dignity, Pleasant Sounds, Good Life/Death, and Sensual Pleasures. There were Sorrow and Fear elements present, all containing a touch of death. This is an extreme spell since it can actually seal off all sensory organs and at the same time, seal one''s magic energy with the dominating force of darkness element over the 5 elements. It also uses the same mechanism the Garden uses: It absorbs elemental energy and particles around it, to strengthen and maintain the spell. Seeing this, Xander thought for a moment and decided to let loose his control over the absorption and growth of the spell because a question popped out in his head: Which one is stronger? After removing the control over its growth and development, it rapidly and greedily absorbed the elements and magic power that was around it, attempting to destabilize the magic array the professors had set up around it, and use it to grow instead. It was managing to resist the bombardment of attacks, each wave carrying the strength of 10 Mythic magicians attacking at the same time. However, each wave that it survived allowed it to grow stronger and stronger against the attacks. From the original burnt trees, and leafless plants, to slowly, more and more leaves survived and thrived. From the yellowish leaves to bright green leaves, and even the wilted flowers were already blooming brightly, releasing their own spells and attacks, all focused on absorbing and engorging the elemental energy entering the garden. The insects, small animals, and medium-sized animals born and killed in the garden slowly thrived and survived, using the attacks as a nutrient to grow and mature. After a total of 70 strikes, the garden was now starting to take initiative. After 108 strikes, it was beginning to absorb the energy and matter around it, rapidly increasing in size, devouring the runic writings surrounding it one by one, destabilizing the magic array. In less than 2 minutes, the whole magic array collapsed, devoured by the Garden. Seeing this, the faces of the professors turned grave and began to move away from the garden, moving about 50 meters away from it. Their magic reserves were quite drained, and could barely maintain their flight. Xander on the other hand, watched as the garden grew, from its 34-meter diameter to an astounding 66-meter diameter. Basically, it covered a part of the field and was even casting a shadow at where Xander was. He then changed his view to the Garden and began observing the changes. When he saw the interior area, the Garden was calm, just passively absorbing the elemental particles and energy, as well as physical matter around it. Xander was not affected nor discovered by the biological beings inside. They were just minding their own business. When he had viewed the area using [Divine Eyes], he already discovered the mechanism of why no creatures can get out, or even survive once they were brought out: The garden existed in a separate universe! It was considered foreign material and once they appeared outside the protection of the garden, the universe expels it or attempts to recycle it. Xander approached a few organisms created by the garden, such as a blood-red honeybee queen, a small anteater, and a dire wolf. There were many flowers present in the garden, and there was even a small field of multi-colored flowers even. It felt like a picturesque scene...before one would die. There was a large tree in the middle of the Garden, which was the origin point of the Garden. Someone who had seen the garden grow from a single tree may assume this was the weakest point of the garden, and that by cutting it or destroying it, the garden would collapse; wrong. The tree was simply an initiator. The weakest point of the spell was when the seed was just growing since it was the only organism in the garden at that time. So within a span of 2 to 5 seconds, one needs to destroy the tree completely, and the spell would collapse on its own. That was because as long as all creatures, plants, trees, flowers, etc. (basically biological beings) created by the garden are not destroyed, the garden is eternal and ever-increasing in size. It was a pity for Xander, that he had to destroy the garden. Maybe in the future, he can make one grow as large as a Solar system, maybe. He was quite curious what was the limit of the creatures'' evolution and growth inside the garden, and if they can break out of the Garden itself without dying. Xander then returned to the field, and cast another spell: [Ragnarok]. He wanted to cast [Twilight Sonata], but according to the UTP the System got, it was only 8 pm. He can only cast it when the UTP is between 9 pm to 4:30 am. Pity, he could have gotten Seeds of Creation and Destruction from the spell. Oh well, might as a well settle with one Seed of Life. [Ragnarok] was cast, and once again, everything went into chaos, destroying the garden bit by bit, compressing it into a form of a seed after 3 minutes. He immediately got the floating seed of life and returned to where Ms. Amelia and his classmates were, jovial and smiling. After all, he gained free labor from the professors and allowed him to understand the Garden even more. "Ms. Wineheart, shall we head back to continue the training class?" Xander asked innocently as if he didn''t cause the top professors of the university to need to recover for at least 2-3 days. Ms. Amelia shook her head before responding, "Mr. Cloverfield, we cannot continue because I would still have to finish the paperwork this spell of yours had caused me... the class will be dismissed earlier, but we will continue tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will discuss the AoE spell that Mr. Cloverfield had demonstrated, before continuing with the training. Everyone, return and get your items and you are dismissed from class. Good day to all." She bowed to everyone and left, flying with her artifact. The students were a bit fazed and then clarity returned to their eyes, and they looked at Xander curiously and had a thought: If that spell was cast and we were forced against it, aren''t we just cannon fodder then? They oozed another cold sweat, silently thanking that they knew their own limits at that time. Both Valerie and Maryann, as well as Carly, had different reactions to the spell. Even by just watching, they felt they were touching something very, very unique concerning the elements and their relationship with one another. They decided to digest this information for the remainder of the day in their homes and hopefully, produce fruitful results on tomorrow''s practice. Of course, it wasn''t just the trio who gained benefits; there were others in the class who used this opportunity to do so. They also planned to do the same thing and hopefully improve their control abilities tomorrow. Xander, who had noticed these small changes among his classmates, paid it no mind and greeted them farewell before heading to the campus gates. He, of course, called his driver in advance. Upon reaching the entrance, the car was already there and he opened the door to the passenger''s side and got in. There was nothing out of the ordinary throughout the trip, and it was quite silent. 51 Creating a Cultivation Skill After he had reached home, Xander had then stayed a bit in his laboratory, around 2 hours outside. This was to wait until it was dinner time while being productive. Xander had stayed for a total of 197 years inside the laboratory. He took this time to digest his experiences today, as well as catch up on the wide set of data he had harvested from the Galactic Empire. Although it was saved in his smartwatch as well as the System''s own database, it was still different from actually knowing the information rather than searching it on the spot. After all, his enemies won''t let him search his database in the middle of a fight. In that 197 years, he digested his experience in the field today in less than 2 months; the remaining years and months were focused on reading research papers, books, and journals relating to magic research, magitech research, and scientific research. Of course, he only allotted 12 hours a day to read these things; the remaining hours were focused on tending the small garden where he was growing common plants, and visiting the small, but growing mountain. There were more and more minerals appearing, of different shapes and sizes, and functions. The different plants growing in the laboratory were originally indigenous to that of Eteria, which can grow fruits. Due to the long period they had been in the garden, they were able to produce hybrids and descendants that were quite unique from their ancestors. As the plants have been here for 9,500 years, they have gained increased spirituality and elemental energy inside, but no indication of sprite formation or sentience can be seen for now. After all, when he broke through to Master-9 and fixed "Eden", he also checked the situation of the laboratory, and reinforced its ordered system. The size of the laboratory was technically a 1 light-year by 1 light-year, by 1 light-year cube. He headed to the open-air laboratory set up where he usually mixed and played around chemicals he had created through [Material Transformation]. Material transformation basically takes advantage of the elemental interrelationship present and the time element. It is simply the accelerated process of shifting from one element to another. Turning metal into water? Possible. Turning air into a piece of non-living wood? It''s possible. The main experiment he did in the 197 years inside the laboratory was the Seed of Life. He wanted to find out if he could replicate it using [Temporal Replication], as well as Transform the Seed into another kind of seed if the first one succeeds. Sadly, Temporal replication failed; so he had to wait for another two weeks before entering Eden and getting a seed from the Tree of Life that has matured long enough. Wait, does it reproduce asexually or does it need another Tree of Life to produce fruits? Xander mused, before leaving the laboratory and heading to his second room. He then headed to Eden. The travel was quite smooth, and he appeared high up in the sky. He had a bird''s eye view of the whole garden. Numerous, tall buildings with a height of 2 kilometers could be seen on the surface, indicating the distributed libraries all over the garden. Some were hidden in cave systems underground, some were placed in the dark, deep waters, some were floating high up in the sky as well. Around them, life bloomed; sprites and magic beasts alike entered and exited the library, coming out as a learned person. No one was restricted on entering. No one can monopolize the libraries. He then moved to where the Tree of Life was growing. A day had already passed, and it has been nearly 175,000 years inside this space. Life was blooming all over Eden. There, he saw some magic beasts, as well as some sprites, fighting with one another. There were other magic beasts and sprites that were looking at the group fighting, some of them cheering, while the others were yawning, bored. As he moved out and about, coming closer to the tree, more and more sprites and magic beasts could be seen, talking, laughing, crying with one another. When he finally reached the center of the Tree, he saw how large it was. It was already 2 kilometers in height, and the width of the tree was around 300 meters. The roots extended to all directions, reaching a distance of 300 kilometers. When he looked up at the tree, he almost couldn''t contain his laughter. On one of the tree''s large branches, Sam and Pan were hanging around, with Pan continuously trying to bite the small branches, causing it to retaliate by slapping him silly. Sam on the other hand, tried to help but was also quickly bound by the Tree before being waved around and around. Upon seeing this scenario, he wasn''t worried that the tree was acting like a sentient being; it was after all, acting based on the defensive mechanisms the plant has. It basically treats the two as annoying pests to be stopped, probably due to Pan attempting to take a bite of its roots or branches, most likely. However, it is still bound to me. The moment it recognized my existence in space, it started to sway, its leaves hitting one another created a melodious sound to echo in the surrounding area, echoing throughout the garden space. Anyone who was nearby paused and looked around in surprise. Everyone proceeded to the base of the tree as fast as they could. They had heard the ancestors tell them that every 175,000 years there would be a grand meeting, where they could take a glimpse of who their creator was. Everyone rushed quickly, trying to come as close as possible. Everyone knew that besides the Ancestors, within 2 kilometers of the tree, no one else was allowed inside. Anyone unauthorized was usually absorbed by the tree as nutrients. To prepare for the situation, Mary and Marie had already demarcated the circumference around the tree that indicated the 2-kilometer distance. For now, Xander approached the tree trunk and gently touched it, infusing his magic energy and a bit of his life essence. Immediately, the tree responded jovially, sending a strong feedback of refined life elements and life essence energy towards Xander''s body. It was its way of greeting Xander. As Xander caressed the tree, he whispered, "Don''t worry, you won''t be lonely. You''ll soon have a friend to talk to!" Hearing this, the Tree shivered visibly, and the leaves rustled and hit one another. Xander then approached the 2 sprites still tangled up. "Sam, Pan. Why are you even fighting against the tree? You know it can never develop a sentience or form a sprite. Why do you keep pushing for it to do so?" He asked, quite annoyed and a bit disappointed that Sam and Pan weren''t following his orders. Xander snapped and the branches entwining and harassing the two calmed down and returned to their original places. Sam and Pan, after being freed, rushed towards Xander. Sam had tears in his eyes, trying to look pitiful, and bawled, "Master! I don''t want to stay here anymore! It''s just too boring!!" "Master, I want food. The only thing I haven''t eaten yet in this world is this tree''s roots or branches. Even the plants you placed around the world and gained sentience or sprites, I already tasted. I''m already bored." Pan said sadly, moving pitifully. Xander sighed. "Are you sure? You already reached Mythic-4. A few more days on the outside, you would reach Demigod rank in a week. By then, you would be free to go out of the space and accompany me." Sam and Pan slightly hesitated, quite torn with their decision. "I promise, once you reach Demigod, I will allow you to explore some planets beside Eteria, ok? Allowing you to see other sprites and get some food as well." Sam and Pan''s eyes glistened, and hurriedly said, "fine, I''ll stay here a bit longer then!" "Just remember my mission. Emphasize my existence to the other sprites and magic beasts. Make sure everyone has entered and read the books inside the library." "Yes, yes, we will do it 200% of our abilities!" Xander then communicated to where Marie and Mary were staying. Marie was currently in the largest volcano in the garden, while Mary was swimming around and interacting with water magic beasts and animals in the deep seas. "Marie, Mary, ensure that ever sprite and magic beast has entered and read the books in the libraries set up. Once you reach Demigod class, you have an option to leave and join me and the other 2 sprites exploring the universe. Come to the tree once you are available. I''ll stay here for a couple of years before leaving." Xander then located where Fae was, and asked her how was the development of her hive going. "Master, I have produced in the span of 170,000 years, a total of 25,000 Wasps with an age older than 10,000 years, and 5,000 wasps with an age older than 100,000 years. 3000 of the wasps are soldier wasps, 2000 were farmers. The remaining 25,000 wasps are currently younglings who haven''t decided which path to take." Fae responded respectfully. Xander nodded at this and praised Fae, before saying to her the same thing he said to Marie and Mary. Xander began to talk with the Sam and Pan about their experiences for the past 175,000 years. A few days have passed, the border between the 2-kilometer radius was clearly demarcated with numerous beasts and sprites talking and laughing with one another, even sharing their ideas and thoughts. Xander used this opportune moment to appear to them, looking like a normal, 7-year-old kid, but exuded an ancient, undying force that the sprites and magic beasts could sense. He looked at them with a sweeping glance. Although it felt like he only moved his head for a bit, everyone around the tree felt like all their secrets were laid bare to Xander, further emphasizing his strength and power. "Hello, my children." "My name is Xander, and right now, although it might seem big, the world you are in is merely my personal garden. Outside this garden is a wider, larger sparse of land that would seem incalculable." He paused for dramatic effect, letting his words sink in the minds of the sprites in the garden. "I am here to visit you all, to understand and listen to your questions one by one and answer them. I also plan to tell you all that unless you breakthrough to the Divine class, you would survive easily in the outside world. To be considered a Divine class, at a minimum, you should be 10 million years of age. The ancestors you speak of, are my messengers. They follow my orders and enforce them in the garden, which is quite simple, really." He then continued to say, giving them the chance to explore the wild, wild world beyond the garden. He then emphasized once more the rules. "You shall not kill a fellow magic beast or fellow sprite. You may fight, you may get severely injured, but you can never kill one another." "You shall assembly at one of the Tree of Life available every 175,000 years, or when you hear the rustling of the leaves of the tree producing a melodious chime." "Lastly, You are not to impugn on the life of another. Everyone is treated equally as long as they are of the same cultivation rank as you, no matter what their specific stage is, might it be Mythic-3 or Mythic-9. Anything else, you are basically free to do anything." Xander than waved his hand, and hundreds of thousands of light orbs appeared and moved towards each and every magic beast and sprite. "Each light orb contains a random number from 1 to 1 million. You must keep hold of the light orbs for 1 minute before it recognizes you as owner and gives you your number, and fades away into your body. If you fail to keep it for 1 minute, it resets again even if you get the same light orb. It will activate again once it is near your turn." "There are around 4 million of you here, so the other 3 million will have to test their luck next time I come. You all have 30 minutes to gather a light orb. Good luck." Upon saying this, Xander disappeared from his spot, traveling to another section of the garden. He found a spot, 108,000,000 kilometers away from the first tree of Life. He then released the Seed of Life and planted it there, causing another elemental fluctuation and stabilization to happen. He ordered Fae to relocate to this area to protect the tree as it grows up. After 30 minutes, he appeared again on the Tree of Life, and saw that magic beasts and sprites had already gathered all the light orbs he released. He nodded subtly and said, "If it is your number, you are able to enter the tree''s area, freely and safely. I''ll wait for you all in the tree''s crown." Xander disappeared and reappeared on top of the tree, wherein there were a nice, living cottage and open space clearing present. After a few minutes, the first one came up, and it was an amphibious magic beast. Xander smiled and offered the magic beast a treat. Seeing the treat, the beast was quite happy and gobbled on it quite heartily. Xander smiled once more and asked gently, "What is it that you wish to ask, or tell me?" _______________________________________ Time passed by and it has been 10 years. He had just finished talking with the last being, a poison sprite, and was quite worn down. After all, every day, he accommodated 273 beings a day, or roughly 11 per hour. During that time period, Marie and Mary had visited, informing him that they will wait until they were Divine rank before leaving. That would be around 57 days for Xander, so around one and a half months. Fae was also the same. She wanted to break through to Divine rank to ensure her safety and the safety of her brood. Sam and Pan, on the other hand, will still leave once they broke through to Demigod rank. After everyone has left, He asked Sam and Pan to tell the sprites outside that he already left. In truth, he just went to the secluded area where he planted those sentient, but non-sprite forming plants. He headed there and began to talk and gather some fruits from the plants, tasting a few of them while saving the rest for his parents and friends. He then waved goodbye to them and left the garden. Of course, he also sent a magic wave to the 2 trees of life telling them of his departure. All in all, it has just been 5 seconds since he entered the garden. He headed downstairs and began eating the dinner prepared by the twins. Rosa was becoming better in cooking, getting closer to reaching the standard Esta has. Maybe this has something to do with her acclimatizing to her role? Who knows. He wanted to spar with his bodyguards but at the moment, only peak Mythic class magicians and some weaker demigods were giving him a challenge. Instead, he decided to focus all of his remaining time and energy to creating a cultivation skill. He headed to his room before teleporting to an unknown Exoplanet nearly 1/2 of the universe away. It didn''t cost any magic energy to move, nor were there spatial, elemental, or energy traces. He then accelerated the time of the whole planet, which had a circumference of 12,000 kilometers. 1 second in the universe was 10 years on the planet. He could maintain this state for nearly a millennium due to the area of being accelerated was quite small, but he didn''t need that much time. He began the process of creating a cultivation skill. First, he scanned his body, understanding every inch of his body: His nerves, blood vessels, bones, muscles, tendons, organs, tissues, and cells. To completely understand how his body worked, he referred to biology books as well as research papers, compiling, correcting, and reading them all again. It took him 10 years to do so. Second, he explored the multiple ways magic energy, elemental energy, elemental particles, and matter circulate all over his body, both outside and inside, how they are taken in or expelled by the body. It took him 5000 years to explore all 108 million possible circulations for his body at the Elite class, and another 7000 years for all 10.8 billion possible circulations at Master class. It was harder to calculate for the Master class, because the movement of magic and elemental energy, matter and elemental particles in the body have an additional part to pass through: The currently circulating Magic seeds and Magic circles around his Life essence doll. From there, he utilized the calculating capacity of the System to choose the most optimal circulation, wherein the possible calculations for the Elite class perfectly suited the Master class, while retaining high efficiency of cultivation. Now he all he needed to was to test the combined circulation. Xander took a deep breath, began to circulate accordingly to the cultivation skill: 1. From outside, to the first layer of the skin. A large, indiscriminate absorption. The body opens up every single pore, directly allowing matter, elemental particle and elemental energy to enter the body and rapidly converted by the Life essence doll, before being distributed as a reinforcing force, or as magic energy. 2. Conversion of matter to elemental particles. 3. Conversion of elemental particles into elemental energy. 4. Conversion of elemental energy into magic energy. 5. Conversion of magic energy into reinforcing force. 6. Cycles through all Magic circles, before extending to the Magic seeds, before being distributed to the rest of the body. 7. Absorb to every single cell, reinforcing the cells'' form, stability, strength, defense, magic, and elemental energy capacity, life expectancy, genome quality, elemental affinity, elemental comprehension. This is done through: 7.1. Absorb to the nerves, to the blood vessels. Enter blood circulation. 7.2. Cycle through the nerves, cycle throughout the body. Heightens all forms of sensation. Improves all brain functions. Improves all circulation functions. 7.3. Absorb to the bones, breaking and reforming, modifying and strengthening the structure and quality. Stimulated by the nerves and the blood vessels, improving the speed of breakage and reformation, as well as absorption. 7.4. Absorbed to the muscles, strengthening them and improving their holding capacity. Stimulated by the nerves and blood vessels, improving the speed of absorption and cycling. 7.5. Absorb to the tissues, strengthening them and improving their holding capacity. 7.6. Absorbed to the organs, improving their function, state, and overall quality and holding capacity. Stimulated by the nerves, and the blood vessels, improving the speed of absorption and cycling. 7.7. Absorb into the 2 deepest layers of the skin. 7.8. Cycle throughout the 2nd and 3rd layer, strengthening and revitalizing the nerve and blood vessel endings. 7.9. Absorb to the first layer of the skin. 7.10. Cycle throughout the first layer, strengthening and revitalizing the skin. 8. Convert the remaining reinforcing force back into Magic energy, and store to the cells, life essence doll, magic circles, and magic seeds. 9. Repeat. The initial cycles were quite rough for Xander, causing him to cough out blood at some points, as well as his skin tearing open and causing blood to flow out. Xander, however, didn''t reverse time but rather utilized the life elements to heal his body. This was a form of tempering for his body, which wasn''t initially made to handle a large volume of matter, elemental particle and elemental energy at one point. This cycle of destruction and healing continued for a few more hundred cycles, until his 999th cycle, where the cycling of reinforcing force was successfully done, converted to magic energy, and then stored. At this point, Xander''s body was quite adapted to the large bulk flow of elements and matter entering his body. Xander was elated, since it took him around 120 days to do 999 cycles. He continued to cycle the cultivation skill, making his body adapt to the skill. After 1080 complete cycles, his body had already adapted to the skill, and had improved by many folds. He was proud with the current state of his cultivation skill, so he then did the last step: Integrating it in his Magic meditation. Xander calmed himself and his body was restored to his most optimal condition after a few minutes of cycling, before heading into deep meditation, allowing the cultivation skill to power his process of comprehension. After 50 years... after 100 years... after 200 years.... after 1000 years.... after 5000 years inside the accelerated time-space, the world had rapidly changed. Xander''s space was covered by mud, rock, plants, and more soil, creating a small hill. He opened his eyes once more and realized that his body''s strength, resilience, elemental affinity had improved. He moved a bit and the entire hill that was covering him immediately shattered, before being absorbed by his body and rapidly converted into pure magic energy. His overall comprehension of the Life-Death and Yin-Yang elements had also increased by 5% each. His overall comprehension of Order and Chaos elements had improved by 2% each, while Space-Time elements improved only by 2%. It was as he had expected since, during the deep meditation, he didn''t just focus on one element, nor did he focus on just a representation of a certain element, or a rule it controlled or presided over, but rather on the overall understanding of the origin elements. Most likely, if he did the same Magic meditation again, the effects would be weaker unless Xander has items that can boost his comprehension nearby. 52 Assassination He then checked his current status, hoping to see some changes in his attributes and comprehension levels. System Version 2.0 (Upgrade requirements: Unknown) Void Biological-Data lifeform, bound to host. Xander Cloverfield Lvl 7 Master-9 Str: 2700 Vit: 10^,$@1 Int: ? Dex: 2700 Luck: ? Comprehension: Space-Time: 27% Yin-Yang: 20% Life-Death: 20% Order: 12% Chaos: 12% Skills: Time Mastery: Max Space Mastery: Max Yin Mastery: 2/10 Yang Mastery: 2/10 Life Mastery: 2/10 Death Mastery: 2/10 Order Mastery: 1/10 Chaos Mastery: 1/10 Void Mastery: 0/10 System of cultivation: Magician .... .... He was happy about the change in his attributes; for one, they were now higher than his peers, around 50% higher. As long as he continues building his cultivation skill, his body attributes wouldn''t lag compared to others. Weirdly, however, was that his vitality had broken the current limit the system could calculate, but he could only see a 1 at the end. He wasn''t sure if it just increased 1 point or more than that. Another good thing he discovered was that his magic energy reserve was to the point he could cast [Twilight Sonata] once in an area of 1,000 light-years. That wasn''t the only benefit of his cultivation skill, however. During the Magic meditation, his body had begun absorbing nomological truths from the elements he had comprehended, allowing his body to be resistant to the elements based on his comprehension. His body can already resist pseudo-spells made from Mythic rank spells or lower, receiving no damage or effect at all. He wondered if his comprehension improved as well as the absorption of his body of nomological truths, he could be immune to Advanced and Legendary rank spells, or even Mythic rank spells, once he reached Legendary class. Although these benefits might seem a big deal for Xander, it wasn''t in the wider scheme of things; the universe has an abundance of God cultivators who had created their own God rank spells and some of the ancient, powerful families had all their most talented, heavenly gifted descendants use God rank spells of their ancestors or others as their pseudo-spells. However, he could at least say that he was at par at some cultivation geniuses in the universe. He canceled the time acceleration around the planet, letting the time sync with the universal time. The concentrated elemental particles and energy rapidly dispersed all over the planet. However, Xander was merely waiting, before reverting the time using [Time Reversal], returning the planet''s time exactly it was before, added with a few seconds. The elemental particles rapidly whisked out of existence, and the plants, animals, and insects that died came back to life, with the beings born at this period returning to nothingness again. It wasn''t the kind of [Time Reversal] when he did it to individual targets; it was an AoE spell this time, and it felt like Xander was rolling the films back to the very beginning, forcing the film below to match the film movement above. After the two "films" were at sync and moving at the same time, Xander erased any traces he might have left on the planet, and teleported back to his room. He checked the time, and saw that only 28 minutes had passed. He was now considering what to do for his breakthrough to Legendary class. Having a primary element of space-time, he only needed to select 2 representations, 1 for each element. Having a 27% total comprehension was not to say that the representations of space and time elements were only understood 27%. It just means that the easier concepts/representations had been understood and deduced completely, while others are still unknown or have a very, very low understanding of. He tried focusing on the space-time comprehension percentage, hoping he could get a breakdown of the representations. To his surprise, he was able to do so, which made him more at awe with what the System can do and the God that designed it. [Space-Time Element Total comprehension: 27% Representations unlocked: 96/108 Space representations: 48/54 Time representations: 48/54] When he selected to view the Space representations, a list showed with the corresponding percentage. He had noticed some representations were already nearly perfect, some were quite low, with a few being very, very close to zero in terms of comprehension. If he selected any of the representations of Space that was already 100%, he would be considered Legendary-9 if the representation of the Time element was also more than 30%. When he checked the Time representations, a similar list popped out, albeit with some... glitches? There were some representations that were shown near the top, but had a ?? value, indicating the System may not have the capacity to quantify it, or that it has no sufficient data to build it up. Upon seeing the two lists, Xander now had to compare which one was the best combination between Space and Time element, since it would also determine the domain he would create in Mythic Class. Dimensionality and alternate reality: Maybe I could form a domain that can trap people into a samsaric cycle whoever enters it? That sounds risky and boring. Not only that, but he also has a spell for that already. Wait, how about Superimposition and Alternate Reality? This seems to be a good combination. He could probably generate a domain that can cause their alternate selves from a different timeline to superimpose to their existence, replacing their data. But he can already do this to someone using [Timeline Superimposition] though. Agh, I''ll think about this next time, Xander thought to himself. He headed to his bed and lied down and closed his eyes, falling asleep. The last thoughts he had was whether the mystery peeper looking at him at a distance since a few days ago would fall into a trap he had set, hehe. _________________________________ Xander''s manor, nightfall. It was close to midnight, and the guard in charge was going to change already for their shifts. The 2 maids were backups, deployed in the shadows, undetectable even to Mythic cultivators. After all, the twins were talented to a subset of the Darkness element: Shadow element. After the shift change, an alert resounded from one of the girls, Esta, causing Rosa to come out of hiding as well and attempted to contact the other guards. No response. She attempted to shout towards the villa to alert them; no response. Communications were down. She''s probably in a domain, isolating her voice. So Wave element? Since Esta was discovered, that means that the person is also proficient at the element of Darkness. A mythic class assassin? Or maybe someone stronger? As her thoughts whirled, Rosa prepared her abilities and was continuously on guard, even against her own shadow. Her body was surrounded by a magic barrier as well. After a few seconds of silence, Rosa was more alert than ever. She was looking around when she felt that sense of impending crisis loom over. She began casting her AoE spells around, in an attempt to discover where the attack will happen. A second later, a blade was jutting out of her chest, seemingly coming from the inside of her body, causing Rosa to constrict her eyes in disbelief, before falling down. She never would have thought that the person would utilize the darkness inside her body to transport the method of attack. After a while, a man walked out, one of his hands stained with blood. He placed it on top of Rosa''s body which immediately melted into darkness as if it never existed. The man muttered, "Do I really have to go in and investigate? I thought I was only to watch from a distance..." the man muttered. In truth, he was suspicious. The reason was that he only received the call of the superior earlier today, via his communicator. Only he and the Lord knew their personal numbers, and the program server they used was very, very secure and encrypted that the mainframe server would alert them that they have been compromised. He also tested the caller several times, as part of the protocol, to ensure it was really the supervisor, and he passed. Yet, the man couldn''t help shake off an ominous feeling, like something bad was about to happen if he entered the building. That was why he decided to kill the guards and maids first before attempting to restrain the target before shipment. That was to ensure all possible variables were removed. Two down, 3 more to go. Huh, quite inefficient amounts of guards. Why won''t he hire his own, I wonder, thought the man. He headed towards the man standing guard at the entrance of the villa. It had a structure of one way in, one way out. No one was actually guarding the other parts of the villa, such as the walls and such. He appeared behind the guard and instantly sliced off Bryan''s head, who had no idea what was happening. Before the head fell, it rapidly turned into liquid darkness, along with the body. He then headed to the other places where the guards were staying. One was in the open field, training, while the other one was by the garden, watering the plants. He quickly took care of the remaining two. One of them, Ryan, was quite perceptive and had attempted to escape his domain and head towards the villa, in an attempt to alert his boss, maybe? Pity he was a tad too slow, slow for someone who was a Demigod. Yes, the man that has been watching Xander was a Demigod assassin scout, focusing on stealth, ambush, and assassination skills. Their elements are usually the discreet types, such as Darkness or subsets of it, poison, and decay elements. Upon killing the last guard, he found himself immediately transported to the middle of the hall inside the villa, with alarm bells ringing off in his mind. He attempted to leave but realized that no matter how fast he moved, he never got close to the doors. This alarmed him greatly, when he heard a chuckle from the second floor, and a voice fluttering down. "Since you''re already here, stay. Enjoy my house and the treats it can offer you, as long as you survive." The whole villa then quakes for a moment, before returning to its still state after a while. The demigod scout felt something was amiss and saw from the window that he was in a different place. He recognized those flashing, twinkling points of light, allowing him to realize that he was in outer space. Many thoughts appeared in his mind, coming to a scary conclusion: He was out of his league here! He attempted to contact his supervisor and was shocked to hear the same voice that came from upstairs appear in his communicator. "A shocker, isn''t it? Didn''t your employer tell you I didn''t like to be watched? Or is he just stupid?" ___________________________________ "Your majesty, our assassin scout''s life signals just disappeared a moment ago." "Oh? Which one? Why do you have to report this to me?" "Milord, this is the one assigned to Xander Cloverfield." "Hmm.... interesting. What did the scout do moments before his disappearance? Have you discovered it?" "Well, milord, I saw him approach the Xander Cloverfield''s villa and killed every guard placed. I had attempted to contact him, but no forms of communication could be reached, ranging from long-distance telepathy to the communicator. After a few minutes of entering the villa, his life signals had disappeared." "Let me do a casual check." The man then closed his eyes and attempted to feel the location and state of his implanted seeds. Those seeds, were actually magic parasites, a unique lifeform that he had discovered and began cultivating. It allowed him to take note of the people around him and those that served him, ensuring that he can always kill or cripple them if they planned to betray him. A total of 99 seeds were scattered all over the planet, and 7 more in the Galactic Empire and the last one was in his butler. There were a total of 108 seeds, and the last seed was... still present, but quite far, very, very far to the point that he can only detect its state, but not its location or condition. "He''s alive, but it seems he had been transported to a very, very far place, much further than the Galactic empire''s size." "I see, thank you milord. I will update you if anything happens differently in the target''s villa." ______________________________ The demigod looked at the top of the staircase and saw no figure appear. What magicians hated the most was facing the unknown since they can never be sure of what to expect. Although he had items, and abilities to help out, it might not be useful in the end. "Who are you? Mr. Cloverfield, I presume?" "Nope. I''m your worst nightmare, Mr. Carlbray Aziz." Upon hearing his name being uttered by the voice, Aziz quickly paled and began readying his abilities, silently casting his spells. The voice boomed again, however, causing all his plans to be for naught. "I declare, the space around you to be unstable for elements and matter." "I declare, the space around you not produce any elements." Immediately, the space around 3-5 meters of him became a dead space, with no matter or element particle or energy existing. All the spell models he was trying to cast collapsed and his domain had shrunk to surround his body alone, hanging on barely. Of course, this was just dramatic effects. In truth, Xander had used [Void Rejection] and removed everything except space and time elements in the area. "So, Mr. Aziz, why is a respected scholar magician like you have a shocking hidden identity, and to the point of following me around?" Mr. Aziz, seeing that he couldn''t use any abilities at all, decided to rely on his attributes. His cultivation skill had focused on enhancing his attributes more than comprehension, to ensure that in a situation like this, he would be able to function. However, when he had attempted to take a step closer to the stairs, more and more warning bells rung at his head, telling him that there was extreme danger and he would most likely die. He decided to listen and stopped at his tracks. "Oh? Why have you stopped? You just need to walk or head over to the second floor. You can even fly, try it hehe." the voice sounded out, attempting to goad Aziz to kill himself. Aziz, upon hearing his words, stopped and began to think about what should be his next course of action. Currently, he can deduce that the voice is trying to delay for time, seeing that it continued to talk rather than proceed to eliminate him, the invader. At the same time, it''s possible that the voice is relying on the preset traps in the house, rather than his ability itself, which means that the voice''s origin may not be able to handle my power. Either that or the worst-case scenario: The owner of the voice needed time to cast his or her spell! At this Aziz rapidly retreated and proceeded to exit any of the doors in the villa heading outside, attempting to risk it all. However, it had the same phenomenon of never getting close enough to the door no matter how fast he moved or how far he walked. "Oh~ it seems you realized I was delaying for time. No matter; I had already hacked to your communications server, allowing me to access the relevant people." Xander said, gathering all the data files, the voice recordings, etc. in the communication server. "Your use has already expired. Bye bye~" Xander immediately finalized the casting of [Timeline Superimposition], copying a lot of traits from another Aziz existing in the universal reality and replacing the data of the current Aziz. Although it was only for 30-45 minutes, it was enough time to kill him and be done with it. After completing the spell, Aziz''s body was replaced with a body of a frail old man, unable to cast any spells whatsoever. Realizing the changes happening in his body, he attempted to channel the energy he had from the universe, attempting to cancel out or reverse what was happening to him. He was overjoyed to feel that his connection with the universe had not been removed and attempted to use it to cancel the spell that was placed on him, but it felt very rigorous and slow like it has been swamped in quicksand and or a sticky liquid that you can''t wash off easily. Before Aziz could even think for his next step, an extreme sense of danger appeared, coming from all possible directions that he can go. And then, nothing. It was all gone. Nothing was left of the house, of the demigod, and everything in a radius of 1 light-year was vanquished. Planets, stars, meteorites, comets; all these heavenly bodies, gone in a blink. In the center of the spell, there were dazzling crystal-like seeds of black and white, emanating with the powers of Order and Chaos combined. The seeds were roughly the size of a toddler''s closed palm, each having their own different cut and minor details, but still retaining its seed-like shape. These were the byproducts of his spell, [Twilight Sonata]: Seeds of Creation and Destruction. It took him nearly 2 minutes to cast the spell properly since he was also using [Time Superimposition] at the same time. Xander carefully touched each and every seed. The reason he did so was that these seeds were highly reactive, and if it was exposed to a tiny bit of elemental power, they would react, catalyzing into whatever they should be. He was, however, curious about what would happen if he planted one seed each on Eden. Would the sprites and magic beasts develop traits respective of the Order and Chaos elements? Would there appear an evil faction that will declare war to the whole Garden, attempting to conquer it, or self-destroy the pocket due to the property of destruction in the trees? What if the two grew side-by-side, or even grafting them together? Would their abilities and powers cancel out or amplify, since creation and destruction are byproducts of both Order and Chaos? When Xander thought of this, he shook his head, and said to himself, "Let''s not, okay? Building another pocket garden is reckless." He decided to test the seeds in his laboratory first, ensuring that he could mix them, counteract one another, or use them as one-time magic artifacts. He quickly wrapped the seeds, a total of 120, 60 pieces for each type of seed, with space elements that focused on the power of isolation, ensuring all elements except for Void, Chaos, and Order, can be efficiently blocked. He then placed it in a special section in his pocket space, ensuring no other material he dumped there could interact with the seeds. He then looked around the dark, colorless patch of space, which was rapidly returning to its normal color of black. Soon, stars would begin to repopulate this place again, then clusters, planets, and life will return once more. He teleported to his room in Eteria once more, going to sleep. He wasn''t going to confront the people behind this for now, after all, he hasn''t even had his 8th birthday. He didn''t want anything to worry about on his birthday. _____________________________________ A far, far, far away place, nearly two-thirds of the universe away from Eteria. There laid an empire that spanned the size of 50/1.26e+30 of the entire universe. It consisted of hundreds of galaxies and nebulas and hundreds of billions of planets. It was way stronger than the Galactic Empire, who were mucking around and retaining their name despite expanding beyond their galaxy. The empire was named... Cerulean. The Cerulean empire was named as such because its founders and its leaders were all blue-skinned humanoid creatures. They called themselves, the Blueborns. Slowly, as more and more planets and galaxies came into their rule, more kinds of beings appeared within the ruling court, ranging from sprites, magic beasts, or even sentient beings, whether they be biological or non-biological origins. In their empire, racial mixing is accepted, and so variant species of beings can be seen living and expanding. The current emperor, Bluestacks the CLV, was a pure Blueborn. His current 500-year rule was that of stable one; 95% of his royal subjects loved and supported him, while the general populace improved under his rule, and the technological and magical developments he had approved and/or kickstarted made the lives of many easy and simple. Of course, they still had their own military. The only flaw he had, if his royal subjects and the general populace were to be picky about it, is that... he had a preference for male beings, which caused the anguish of the females of Blueborns and of other species. Although same-sex relationships were not rejected or hated by their society, heck, even threesomes were allowed to marry, it was quite vital for the emperor since he is an emperor of an empire after all! He needed an heir, for god''s sake. It would have been better if he was bisexual or pansexual since at least he could still produce several offsprings. Either that, or get a concubine at least, or something! 53 Reactions In the royal garden, Cerulean Empire. When Bluestacks was in the process of fornication in the royal garden with the head of the royal guards, no less, a rushing subject of his came and shouted, just before they were about to take their clothes off, "Your majesty! A grave, grave news from the scouting legion! We need your presence at once!" the fair-looking sprite said, worry and fear suffused in his voice. Upon hearing this, both Bluestacks and the head of the royal guards immediately stopped, began dressing up and fixing their clothes, and the former began to walk towards the royal court, with the head of the royal guards accompanying him. This was another good trait of Bluestacks CLV; he knew his responsibilities and never lets his desires and needs and wants to affect the kingdom. Whoever he sleeps with doesn''t get any bonuses, any promotion on rank; it was merely a way to enjoy one another. I guess all they can brag is that they have slept with the emperor of their empire, but if they said that outside the empire they would be instantly killed and marked as a persona non gratia by the Cerulean empire, and be hunted to kill. "Tell me the situation, Darris." Bluestacks commanded the sprite, Darris, to tell him exactly what happened. "Your Majesty, approximately 1 hour ago, the scouting fleet C-11111, the one that was looking for planets to terraform and exoplanets that were unowned, discovered a large, large signal of elemental fluctuations approximately 2,350 light-years from their position. The elemental fluctuation had damaged some of their sensors and weapons, but the ships managed to hold on tight, no one dying or severely injured in the process. When they attempted to locate the fluctuation, there was a diameter of "broken space" ranging up to 2 light-years being mended by the ordered system. Not only that, nothing was present in that area. No stars, planets, comets, meteorites, nebulas, or anything of any sort." Hearing this, Bluestacks frowned, and as they reached the royal court, he sat down the throne and began the discussion. "Hello, my royal subjects. Darris has mentioned that something had been discovered by one of our scouting fleets. Can the head of the science and magic research division explain what the situation the scouting fleet had discovered?" A man in a white cloak stood up and bowed at his majesty. "Your majesty, according to the information, photographs and the satellites we have deployed, this was the situation: An elemental fluctuation, yes, a single elemental fluctuation, led to the collapse of the ordered system in the area, causing every element, every matter, to return to the pure, unadulterated nomological force. Nothing would have survived in the place, not even space or time elements, according to Jazmine, one of our space-time cultivators, who had personally teleported and surveyed the area after. According to our measuring tools, there was a concentrated form of Order and Chaos elements at the epicenter of the area, but the time we got there, there was nothing there, not even a spatial fluctuation or elemental fluctuation. Even Jazmine was stumped since she had thought she was the one with the highest comprehension in the empire''s space-time cultivators." "My working hypothesis is that this was done by a spell on the level of Order and Chaos elements. We couldn''t analyze much of the remaining traces because they were rapidly absorbed by the ordered system which began its repair process. Moreover, it is possible that a person with primary elements of space-time done had caused this." This put Bluestacks in too deep thought. Currently, he had 2 options concerning the matter. The first option is to spend numerous resources to finance a patrol scanning system, whether it be automated or manned, to find for the same elemental fluctuation signals. This would allow them to make the range of search smaller and smaller for every detected elemental fluctuation, allowing them to triangulate the location and extract the target. The second option is not to do anything, but just deploy several drones to patrol the areas around the empire''s borders, hopefully, lucky enough to meet the same elemental signatures and immediately deploy their troops and one of their space-time cultivators to the scene. This involved a lot of luck but was more focused on reserving the energy and resources of the empire, since the universe is quite, quite big. Upon meeting the target, they have 2 options: integration or cooperation of the said cultivator into the empire. Usually, they can''t do the 3rd option, annihilation, towards space-time cultivators, since they have a nifty ability to reverse space-time over and over again, as long as they receive a fatal injury. According to Jazmine''s experience, she was able to choose how far back in time she would return. In her case, it was up to 2 months in the past. Although they have an option of sending the cultivator out of the universe, they can easily come back in if they are a native of the universe. Bluestacks CLV nodded at the man in a white cloak, before saying, "Well done, Varius. you may return to your position." Upon hearing this, Varius bowed, and turned and returned to his seat. Although he had slept with the emperor more than once, it wasn''t something he could use to gain benefits. He had reached his own position based on his personal ability and creativity, not because he slept his way through the management. Bluestacks looked at the royal subjects, before telling them his proposed ideas. After speaking them out, he asked, "Do you see any flaws or problems with the two proposed plans? If there aren''t any, I plan to announce my decision." For a moment, the royal subjects in the court were talking with one another, trying to look for problems relating to the plans. Bluestacks wasn''t turning this court into a democracy, but rather a shared discussion. If he hears a better plan than what he had established, he would easily modify his own to accommodate the change. Although they had better quantum supercomputers, even having non-biological data lifeforms serving the empire, they don''t tend to consult them unless there are no better options; this is because Data lifeforms, albeit sentient, are very, very, very rational. As long as the plan proceeds with the parameters met, it would not hesitate to create a plan that involves a multitude of lives of sentient beings being sacrificed to reach the goal. After a few minutes of discussion, one of the ministers spoke, stating his idea. "Your majesty, these 2 plans do not involve cooperating with other empires, correct?" "That''s right." Bluestacks had carried the pride of his previous predecessors had, where the empire had stood tall and strong for the past 100 million years. They were never the ones that were helped by other empires, but the ones that offered help... for the right price. The only moment they decided to cooperate freely with the other empires was the crisis of the Zerg empire, which was eradicated more than 30 million years ago. "Then if I may suggest, we "hire" other empires in the far-flung areas of the universe, giving them the specific elemental fluctuations they needed to look out for, and reward them with technology that they require, a technology that may be outdated already for the empire?" "That''s good, but how do we ensure their full cooperation then? You should know as a God-level cultivator, binding contracts, no matter what element you use, have little effect on God cultivators like us. That''s why I had proposed the 2nd idea." When he saw the minister and the others wear puzzled looks, he laughed a bit. "Didn''t you realize? The being that did this did so near our empire, roughly 20,000 light-years away from the nearest planet. It means, this being belonged to someone who was unaffiliated with the empires because once one had elevated to the rank of a universal empire, they would recognize the borders and areas of other empires around them or known empires in far-flung distances to the Universal Empire Council. It was either a coincidence that the being chose this location to cast the spell, or because... it was far away from its origin planet, kingdom, empire, whatever." "I have a supplementing hypothesis to what Varius had proposed: This being cast the spell in the area to dispose of something. If we can find someone proficient in Karma, one that can explore the Life Essence Ocean dimension, or the Universal Life Essence dimension freely or with the help of the space-time cultivators, and look for the remnants of karmic threads surrounding the area, and trace it back discreetly, we would find out the identity. However, by doing this, we are declaring negative intentions, which is not our point." Upon hearing this, something clicked in the minds of the ministers. It would make sense of the cultivator''s actions if he wasn''t even aware there were certain areas, although unowned, were "property" of the nearest and strongest empire. It would also make sense if the target teleported the opponent it was facing. "Most likely, the target is experiencing some issues, like being targeted by ancient clan or power, and needs to have a large spatial distance to ensure no rescue or interference can occur. If that''s the case, he would pop up again in our vicinity." Bluestacks concluded, causing the ministers and his royal subjects to be at awe at their emperor''s thinking skills. "So, therefore, as Emperor of Cerulean empire, I declare the military, magic and science researchers, as well as the space-time cultivators in the country to create the system to ensure a speedy, accurate detection of the suspected cultivator within 20,000 light-years outside of the empire''s borders." "At your will!" Everyone shouted, their hands clasped on their chests, looking with fervent faces at their emperor, who, on the other hand, acted all serious and calm. In truth, he was already thinking how he should "prepare" for his dessert later after the meeting... ________________________________ Eteria, on a mysterious island, in the seaside villa. A mature, well-dressed man was silently twirling his wineglass, containing an 800-year old wine. The moment that Xander had cast [Twilight Sonata], the man stilled his right-hand swirling, before causing it to shatter and disintegrate along with the contents. "Oh. It seems he died." The man said nonchalantly as if he wasn''t shocked or surprised at the situation. Since the capture of his subordinate, there were only 2 ways it can go: returned as a spy or killed. He tried to use his Life-Death elements, attempting to stir the powers of the ordered system to resurrect Aziz, but rather than get a positive response, there was an intense shockwave that came through, destroying most of the room he was staying in, damaging a part of the villa. The man, on the other hand, coughed out blood, before using Life elements to restore his health and damaged body. However, it wasn''t instantaneous, but rather 100 times slower than before. He sighed. "It seems the universe was quite impacted by the battle." he murmured. The reason why he said this was he had attempted to resurrect Aziz from his merged domain and partial life essence in the universe, but it failed, as it seemed that it never existed. Meaning, the one Aziz fought completely severed everything about Aziz, and at the point of his death, even his domain and partial life essence were affected as well. The only reason he could remember Aziz was due to two things: the parasite he had planted was in his body which was a special lifeform that merged a small piece of his lifeform to the subordinate parasitized being, and him being in the Sage class. He was quite close to achieving God class and needed a few more tens of millennia to breakthrough. He had planned to absorb the target''s comprehension/mastery or ability gained from the god that transmigrated them if the target was truly a fellow transmigrator. It seems he was wrong, and he just had a strong backer. What a pity. After all, he wouldn''t believe that a Master class magician can win against a Demigod in a fight. He called for his butler to return immediately. After a few minutes, the butler arrived, and when he saw the situation of the villa, his face was aghast. "Your majesty, are you alright??" "Yes, yes, I''m fine. Nothing to worry about. Before you go, place Xander Cloverfield into the "Unaccessible" list, along with the other clans we have placed before. I have to reevaluate the strength of that kid''s backing." "Huh? Oh! Right away, your majesty! Do you want to have someone sent to fix the house?" "Oh, this? Don''t bother, I plan to abandon the island. I plan to leave Eteria for a long period of time. Ensure you have your other, personal communicator. I''ll be contacting you using that." "I-I see. Yes, your majesty, I will!" the butler stammered a bit before regaining his composure. He immediately left the villa, leaving the dignified looking man alone. The man immediately flew up into the skies above, heading out of the planet''s control of gravity, and took one last look. "Goodbye, Eteria. We will meet again." upon saying these words, he disappeared, traveling to somewhere unknown. ___________________________________ The man who had caused these situations to happen, Xander, was just sleeping soundly in his bed. He had already resurrected the 5 guards using [Diyu''s Overturn], gaining complete control over them. Although they can think, speak, act, and function according to their own thoughts, if Xander wills it, he could make them strip and walk around the whole city, sexually assaulting anyone they meet, and they would have no choice but to do it; not only that, he could make them like what they were experiencing. Of course, he didn''t do such a thing; he merely reiterated the contents of the contract they signed, before letting them be. He told them that if they break through to Demigod class, he''ll completely remove his control over them. The good thing was that the moment they were resurrected, the contract they signed with Xander reactivated once more. So he didn''t have to worry about them betraying him or something. By the time they breakthrough to Demigod anyways he would have been long gone from Eteria, and his enemies weren''t the simple kind that Demigods would be able to face. A few more hours passed, and soon, it was daybreak again. He prepared his clothes and headed downstairs to eat breakfast prepared as usual by the twins. After an hour, he left and headed to the university. Upon reaching the campus gates, he saw Faykes, who looked a bit haggard, but still managed to smile when he saw Xander. "Hey, Xander! What''s up? I saw from the forums that you caused quite a stir yesterday, ah!" "Oh. Hello Faykes. Thanks for gathering the information. Here''s your reward. Better use it fast or else anyone above Legendary class will detect those fruits." He immediately handed him 4 fruits, 1 fruit corresponding to one of his primary element, and all fruits were from Mythic-class sprites. He did so so that Faykes wouldn''t bother him much today. Upon seeing the four, glowing fruits at his arms, stacked on one another, Faykes momentarily blanked. He didn''t know what to do for a moment, and he momentarily stopped his tracks. Xander didn''t mind, and he continued moving towards the building, his first class today. He scanned his watch and got in the building, and seeing no one there yet, he headed to the third floor, which was a lounge room of some sort, and he began scrolling through his tablet for the latest news and published papers. After a while, running steps could be heard from the stairway, and in a few seconds, Faykes'' body was on top of the floor, his face red and panting. He moved towards Xander, and asked imploringly, "Er, Xander...how do I use these fruits? Do I just swallow it?" Xander rolled his eyes at Faykes'' answer. He knew that Faykes knew how to digest fruits like this. "No, you first need to place it on the ground, move around the fruit 108 times counter-clockwise and clockwise alternately, starting with clockwise. Then you close your eyes and swallow the fruit one by one." Xander replied seriously, causing Faykes to nod his head and began placing the fruit on the ground. Seeing this, Xander visibly groaned. "Dumbass, you obviously need to swallow it and proceed with Magic meditation! You then focus on comprehending/understanding the specific element the fruit was for. You can eat all the fruits at the same time, and begin comprehending the 4 primary elements you have. Use the remaining energy to amplify your magic seeds'' sizes and compression. The four fruits have a multiplicative effect. Now, stop bothering me, I''m trying to read!" Xander snapped, causing Faykes to nod profusely and did the invisible lock and key with his mouth. He began swallowing the fruits one by one and entered Magic meditation. Xander continued to read from the tablet, realizing that tension between the countries in Ria and in Yggdras were high, because they discovered the latter had placed numerous spies in their countries, monitoring a lot of information transfer both public and state secrets. After reading that Nema and Eta had agreed on peace talks, he attempted to check the future for up to 4000 years. Ok, so the biological project his mom was involved will be modified in 30 years to a different, long-term bio-weaponry research... Project: Starlight was modified in 35 years, with new research information coming from the ruins. 100 years from now, all the ruins have been completely explored, albeit the hidden floor. Afterward, all the ruins were completely closed by governments around the world. 400 years later, the creation of spatial barriers have begun, manually generated by electromagnetic forces and push and pull force elements. Project: Starlight ends in failure. 600 years later, Eta and Nema will declare war. Other countries decide to stay put. Bio-weaponry developed by Eta was resolved easily by Nema and other affected countries 10 years after the usage. 700 years later, the war ends, forming the Eta empire. 10 years after, the formation of the Parliament, consisting of countries from both Ete and Ria continent happens successfully. 1000 years later, Eta and the Parliament combine, forming the Eteria Empire. The elves'' countries are absorbed into the empire. 1500 years later, the general longevity of the citizens increases to 400 years of age. Stronger and more talented cultivators are popping out. 1800 years later, the discovery of another ancient ruin, allowing the empire to gain knowledge of superluminal travel. 2000 years later, improvement of quantum computing, improving quantum supercomputers around the world to a staggering base value of 999 qubits and a maximum of 10,000 qubits. They also resolved the issue of downtime problems by decreasing the chance of it happening to 1x10^(-30^10)%. 2500 years later, all banks merge into the bank of Eteria, forming a state bank. All the funds present are converted to the Eteria currency based on their depreciation. By this point, Eta currency had depreciated to a ratio of 10,000 Etas: 1 Eteria currency. 2760 years later, Eteria empire members are able to connect the Digitized dimension, creating their own virtual community, with the help of data lifeforms that have been created by accident. The general cultivation of people in the empire was Elite-9, with children being born at Mundane-6 or higher. More geniuses appear. The number of Demigods, Divine magicians have increased as well. 3000 years later, the Galactic Empire and the Eteria empire manages to meet with one another. 3100 years later, war ensues between the Eteria empire and the Galactic Empire. 3250 years later, the Eteria empire loses and is absorbed by the Galactic Empire. All upper echelons of the empire are absorbed into the collective government of the empire. 3600 years later, the majority of the Eterians leave their home planet, opting to go to the nearby exoplanets and colonize them, turning them as part of the Galactic Empire. 3800 years later, only a few people are left, as well as the Heavenly Tree Sprite. 4000 years later, the whole planet is visited by a mysterious outsider, who attempts to absorb the whole planet. He fails but manages to kill the Heavenly Tree Sprite who stopped him, who was, in fact, a Divine class sprite. The majority of the world''s surface is ravaged by the remnants of magic. After his peeking of the future, it has been 10 minutes that had passed in the real world. He paused his reading and began to think about the mysterious points. First and foremost, where did they discover the other ruin? Second, who was the mysterious outsider? From the profile, it looked humanoid. 54 Magic meditation crisis After thinking about these two points for a while, he shook his head and stopped. There was just too much missing information that he couldn''t find out without alerting the masterminds who initially planned them. If he attempted to do with the missing information, a lot of misleading trails and possibilities may be generated and be a waste of time for him. One thing''s for sure; the ruins they found that enabled superluminal traveling, came most likely from a higher civilization or a being adept at space-time elements. Anyhow, he saw that Faykes was still deep into his Magic meditation. He decided to continue his reading of research papers. After all, classes start at 9 am, and it was just 6:45 am. He has plenty of time to spend. Time passed and Faykes had finished his Magic meditation, opening his eyes and releasing a breath of turbid air. Not only was his body cleaned and refined, but his comprehension of his primary elements was also improved. All his seeds had also grown from the size of his pinky nail to as big as a mango seed, and it was already compressed twice as well. Xander, not raising his head from the tablet screen, merely said, "I have another mission for you; check the families and clans that have a connection to the Galactic empire. All of them, including your family if they are involved. I''ll give you 2 weeks to gather all the intel you can get. The rewards this time... how about a few Sage-level spells you can use for your pseudo-spells, as well as 1 kilogram of feathers from a bird-type Mythic magic beast, with elements that were air and earth/metal? How does that sound?" When Xander placed this mission, it was also the last test for Faykes; whether he would betray his clan and truly pledge allegiance to him. At the same time, it was his way of supporting him on the road of becoming stronger. When Faykes heard the mission contents, his eyes glistened. He didn''t hesitate. "Don''t worry Xander, I''ll get you the accurate information within 2 weeks!" Faykes said, tapping his chest with his fist as if saying he is a strong man. Xander merely nodded and stood up, and headed downstairs, as class was about to begin in 10 minutes. Faykes followed Xander as well, talking about mundane things, and happenings in Eta. Once they reached the classroom, Xander''s attitude changed, acting calmer and less cold to others, even to Faykes. He and the other students began discussing what their progress was in magic meditation, as well as attempting to improve their own experiences. Faykes shared his personal experience, causing the students to be at awe since they were actually still struggling to proceed with magic meditation even with cultivation skills from their families and clans. Some were jealous because they didn''t have access to such resources; they had planned to begin selecting from the ones the university had. Xander had not participated in the discussion, as it might be quite unfair or even damaging for their future if he began throwing terms like "origin point," "Cycle area 341, 446, 988, etc.," and "recycling process" while discussing. However, he did give hints through his small inserts and ideas about activating cultivation skills and then attempt to delve into deep meditation, as well as what one can focus during Magic meditation. The students welcomed his inputs because some of them were present yesterday when he had demonstrated his Master class spell. After a few more minutes of talking, Ms. Lim had finally entered the building, causing the students to head back to their seats. Ms. Lim then walked to the front of the classroom and opened up the hologram projector. "Ok class, today, for those who have not selected a cultivation skill, please stand up and line up outside. For those who had selected their cultivation skills already, take a seat in one of the mats available and be at your most comfortable position. Attempt Magic meditation on your own, without cycling your cultivation skill first. Once I come back with the other students, we will begin with the meditation with the usage of cultivation skills." Ms. Lim said, and the hologram showed 6 figures and a step-by-step procedure concerning Magic meditation, repeating over and over again. Ms. Lim then headed out after all the students who had not selected a cultivation skill have lined up; there were a total of 43 students out of the 108 students in the class that left the building. Xander and the remaining students took their places on the mats available. Faykes sat on the mat beside Xander. He was silent, unlike his usual self. For one, he was genuinely curious how great the cultivation skill Xander used. Another thing is that it was a class hour, so nonsensical chats should be reserved after class or during the break. He immediately delved into Magic meditation, familiarizing himself once again with the feeling. Xander did as well, solemnly. He just lied down the mat, bringing out a pillow he just made with temporal replication a few seconds ago. He didn''t bother hiding his capability of creating matter from ''elements'' since he had already published papers about them with his alternate identity Homer Simpson. He then closed his eyes and curled his body, like he was sleeping. Some of the students also stopped being surprised by the capabilities that Xander demonstrated, so when they saw the concentration of elements forming a bona fide pillow, they weren''t overly shocked. They basically set him as their standard to surpass in the following years, enabling them to rise up in their respective professions and fields. What surprised them was that Xander was... literally sleeping when he did his Magic meditation, and he looked...cute. The girls could not help but giggle to themselves and whisper at each other, some even taking a picture of Xander, posting it in their social account with the caption, "Practicing Magic meditation xoxo with the great Xander Cloverfield Of course, little did they know that Xander could still hear their whispers and even the clicking of the cameras the girls used. He just rolled his eyes, since he knew that any image of his uploaded will be deleted within 24 hours, tops. After a few minutes, everyone stopped talking and giggling, and they were attempting to undergo Magic meditation. Maryann and Valerie were also very calm and serious about this. Like everyone here, they had their own cultivation skill inheritances, and they had been immersing themselves in understanding the skill even before they reached the right level to use them. Some that were here were actually at Elite-5, so they didn''t really need a cultivation skill since they can''t use the one they inherited. All they wanted, for now, is familiarize and enter the controlled, deep meditative state one must undergo to be considered to be doing Magic meditation. For the next 30 minutes, there sighs, breaths of frustration coming from the students. Although they could easily reach deep meditation, the process on which they are understanding the elements and their power was very passive and was not easily controlled. They couldn''t change the focus of their meditation to that of enlightenment of the elements and the mysteries they hold, but rather, a form of restive meditation. At this time, Ms. Lim had returned with the students who had gotten their own cultivation skills that suited their primary elements. The students looked excited since most of them were not from large clans or well-off families with their own inheritances to use. She then headed to the front of the room, in front of the students on the mats. The returning students took their places on the empty mats in the room, relaxing and arranging themselves to their best postures. Ms. Lim looked at everyone, and lightly clapped; A subtle wave woke up everyone from their deep meditations, causing them to open their eyes. Only 2 people were not awoken: Faykes and Xander. Ms. Lim looked at the two and was surprised to see that Faykes was already circulating his own cultivation skill, acclimatizing his body, mind, and life essence doll to the universe. When she looked at Xander, however, she couldn''t feel anything amiss from Xander''s posture, meditation or reaction. Right now, the wave she produced has a special effect of waking targets from their sleep or their deep meditations, but it wouldn''t work if someone was running their own cultivation skill while undergoing Magic meditation. She didn''t bother focusing too much on Xander or Faykes; after all, the former has caused quite a stir already. Most likely, that kid was using his cultivation skill already. In truth, Xander was just lightly sleeping. He wasn''t affected by the magic wave released because [Absolute Defense] immediately neutralized it. Ms. Lim began her quick overview of how Magic meditation could be done. What she said could be summed up in 6 easy steps. For those without cultivation skills, it was just 5, removing the 3rd step. 1. Close one''s eyes, removing all distractions around you. 2. Tune out all the sounds, sensations around oneself. 3. Activate and circulate your cultivation skill. 4. Enter deep meditation with a simple, directive thought, such as "going to focus on elements, going to focus on elements...." over and over again. This would ensure you would be ''conscious'' in commanding what happens in your deep meditation. 5. Place a trigger to allow you to wake up from deep meditation, such as receiving physical stimulus of a certain level, the amount of time that had passed, etc. 6. Begin your process of comprehension and enlightenment; just remember: Do not break through between classes! The students with and without cultivation skills began their process of magic meditation. Xander also woke up momentarily, stretching his limbs out before yawning. He then looked around dazedly, before deciding to fall back to his pillow, activating his cultivation skill and proceeding to the process of Magic cultivation. Once he did though, everyone suddenly shivered, and the whole building creaked, causing Ms. Lim and the students to be alarmed. Ms. Lim prepared to deploy her powers but realized that the elemental particles and the elemental energy around the vicinity were raging as if something was controlling it. They were moving towards... Xander''s body. Ms. Lim was astonished. Even those around him were rapidly awakened by the lack of elemental energy and particles, causing them to suffer a bit of backlash. Faykes had awakened, coughing out a mouthful of blood, surprised. He then saw that the droplets of blood were slowly moving to the side as if guided by a mysterious force. He then turned to his side and saw what was visibly happening around Xander. Xander''s body was rapidly taking in both elements and matter around them. The ground, the mat, and even the pillow were slowly disappearing, bit by bit, being absorbed in their purest states as elements. Even the blood that the people who surrounded Xander had coughed out was purified and absorbed by Xander as elemental energy. The air around the building was also decreasing, causing Ms. Lim to change her attitude and shouted to the students, "Everyone! Please leave the building! You might not survive in an area without air!" Upon shouting this, all the students stood up and hurriedly left the vicinity. Ms. Lim also had contacted the remaining staff on the second floor to evacuate the premises, and he also alerted the Mythic magician professors present on the campus. All these happened within the span of 2 minutes, and the surrounding mats around Xander had already disappeared, and the ground had already caved in. He continued to absorb the elements and matter around him passively, immersed at attaining comprehension of the elements. Earlier, he had received a boost in comprehending the Emotion series under the Life-death elements, allowing him to have a greater grasp of how it worked and how he, as a sentient being, is affected by these series of elements. As he was contemplating the matter of self-discovery and understanding, the whole building was continuously shaking, as if it could not handle the pressure happening inside. When the students, professors, and Ms. Lim saw this, they thought for a moment that it was going to crash, causing them to panic. It was Faykes who placated them. "It''s due to the difference of pressure outside and inside the building. Remember that Xander had taken all the matter around him, doesn''t that mean the area is a vacuumed space? The building openings need to be opened or else it will collapse on its own." Hearing this, one of the professors, who was Number 5, rolled his eyes and made a hole at the top of the building, allowing air to enter from above. They sighed in relief before they heard Valerie''s remark. "Why are you relieved? The building will still be unstable and most likely collapse; recall that he''s still absorbing both elements and matter! That includes the ground and everything inside!" Realizing the situation, Number 3 scanned the interior of the building and saw a clear view of the first floor. Xander was now surrounded by a 2-meter radius sphere of elemental energy and matter. There were no movements from Xander who was inside the sphere. He was just curled up, even moving around. For the next 2 minutes, the sphere didn''t increase in size, nor did the ground below it continue depressing. He did a quick scan and saw that only matter suspended in the air was being absorbed along with the elements. Seeing the situation stabilize, He reported what had happened to Number 5 and the rest of the professors. After a minute of intense discussions, they turned to Ms. Lim, who then listened to their suggested plan. Ms. Lim was quite bewildered and even astonished by the plan. Initially, she had thought they would send one of the professors to forcefully wake up the student, but they decided to... resume classes and just adjust the students to surround Xander? Ms. Lim controlled her facial features, and looked at her students looking at her before saying, "Class, we will resume our meditation. You will be surrounding Xander, meditating under the influence of the increased elemental density. This can be considered a blessing in disguise because you are able to cultivate in a place full of pure elemental particles and energy. You can use this opportunity to have a faster speed in cultivation, and even do your first round of expansion and compression of magic seeds. Of course, if you feel unsafe, you may opt-out to skip the class today, and it won''t be put in your record." For a while, the students were taken aback, before showing looks of surprise, and bewilderment. Even Valerie, Faykes, and Maryann couldn''t help but consider: Is Xander really a lucky star for the class? Or a disaster? However, Faykes asked a vital question: What happens if Xander undergoes a deviatory magic psychosis during cultivation due to us absorbing the elemental energy around him? Upon hearing this, the professors and Ms. Lim were taken aback, before pondering, and then having a cold sweat run behind their spines. "N-no more, the class is dismissed. Thank you Mr. Faykes for reminding us of a vital point we have forgotten." Number 3 coughed, a bit embarrassed since they were supposed to be the smart ones and the analytical ones. If Xander Cloverfield underwent deviatory magic psychosis... not only do they have to face the power and influence of the Cloverfield family, they would first have to survive the initial fallout from his parents and their personal connections. Second, Xander Cloverfield is currently one of the leads they have concerning the 2nd ranking member of Brightforce. Lastly, with his abilities that he had demonstrated and suspected to have, he could easily demolish the school grounds, only to be stopped with the sacrifice of a lot of people. So in the meantime, the students from Basic Magic Training class were to cultivate under the sun, ensuring their learning process wasn''t interrupted. They did this in the newly-restored field, and they began their process of Magic meditation. Time passed and it was already near the end of class. The majority of the students had successfully entered Magic meditation at least once, maintaining it for around 10 minutes shortest, to an hour, which was done by Faykes Valentine. As Ms. Lim was praising Faykes, everyone felt a large tremor, coming from the Magic Training building. Immediately, they all fell to the ground, screaming in pain, some were crying, some were laughing madly for no reason, some were beginning to eat the food they had in their bags. Number 6, who was at the proximity of the building, immediately realized what was happening, and immediately raised a magic barrier that consisted of his 2 elements under the 7 emotions and 6 desires series of elements below the Emotion series of the Life-Death elements. However, before he could react, he felt a dangerous power emerging from the building. He wanted to shout and warn the others, but before he and the other professors could act, everyone rapidly disintegrated when the wave of that potent, dangerous power expanded to cover the whole planet. It was instantaneous, and before those in the Mythic, Demigod, and Divine magicians could react, the wave had reached their bodies, causing them to disappear without a trace. _____________________________________ Xander, who was the cause of the disturbance, was in a state of epiphany. He was completely enamored to understanding a facet of the Life-Death elements: The Emotion representation under it. This was similar to space and time representations he had seen through the system. The 7 emotions were Pleasure, Anger, Sorrow, Fright, Worry, Fear, and Thought; the 6 desires were Lust, Vanity, Dignity, Pleasant Sounds, Good Life/Death, and Sensual Pleasures. Pleasure. The motivation that fuels us to reach our dreams. It is the feedback produced by the life essence doll once something was done in line with what one wants, a form of positive energy. Anger. The burst of negative energy our life essence dolls produce, affecting the mind and ultimately, our actions. Sorrow. The burst of negative energy our life essence dolls produce, related to things that are lost or unfulfilled that carries significant weight to the person. Karma and Sorrow elements are quite intertwined. Fright and Fear. The former is born from the latter. One is a warning from their existence, their life essence dolls, while the other is produced when the warning is heard but is not resolved. Thought and Worry. The former brings forth the latter. One enables us to be living beings, whether as an instinct or conscious/subconscious thoughts. From these, worry rises when the things we have expected and we actually experience may not actually be in line with one another. The desires were much simpler to understand once he understood the 7 emotions. After all, these were born from the latter. The Lust, Pleasant Sounds, and Sensual Pleasures elements were born of pleasure and thought, and worry. The want of enjoyment to produce positive feedback from their existence gave rise to these desires. The Vanity element was brought about by worry, sorrow, and fear. It focuses on the memory of oneself, the worry and fear of being forgotten, so they obsess with their selves and through others'' compliments. The Dignity element was brought by Pleasure, Anger, Fright, and Thought. It focuses on the ego of oneself formed from thought, brought by the pleasure of being recognized as such, anger of being disregarded, a warning from their own existences. The last desire, a Good Life/Death, is born from fear, thought, and pleasure. The wanting of the existence of a good life/death indicates stability from the unstable future, of the unknown. Once we are ensured of this stability, it brings positive energy. Usually, magic cultivators disregarded aspects of their emotions and desires, thinking of them as hindrances; they never saw it as a complete setup to help them break through levels and classes. Excess of these emotions and desires would be the same as completely removing them, and thus there is a need for balance. Xander had understood this, and his Life-Death elements comprehension felt like it was deepened. Xander had set up a time to wake him up 5 minutes before classes ended. When he felt the alarm, he could feel his consciousness and life essence doll returning to reality, acclimating to the situation that had happened. When he opened his eyes, this was where an accident happened. Because of the feedback from the experience of the Magic meditation, [In a Moment] activated on its own, once again through the simple movement of his eyes. Xander had only realized this when he saw a familiar, desolate and destroyed landscape of nothingness around him. He was literally in space. Eteria was gone. To be technical about it, even time and space did not exist in the area where Eteria was once was. Even the satellites and the moons were gone. The only indication it was once there was that the constellations he could see were that of Eteria''s skyline. In the area where he was, he could even feel the powers of the Void element surging. He panicked for a bit, before he calmed down, slowing down his breath. He knew that panicking can make things worse. He immediately blinked and reined in his powers, returning everything back to normal, like nothing ever happened. There were no more rifts, where one can see the Great Void, nor were there any changes. He opened his eyes again, and he was back inside the building, everything was the same, except for the gaping hole around him. He then returned the missing land and the lost mats. He then headed out of the building, meeting the confused, horrified and at the same time, relieved faces of the professors. Xander acted confused, puzzled by their reactions. "Uh, professors? What''s up?" 55 Combat Training II When the professors outside heard this, they couldn''t help but for a moment, think if what they had just experienced was just an illusion, a trick of the mind caused by that magic wave. It was number 6, who had his mind clear off easily, cough lightly, before asking nonchalantly Xander, "I have felt a strong wave of elemental energy of the Emotion series come out. Was that caused by you?" Xander nodded, responding, "Oh, yeah. I was immersed in understanding the Emotion elements. It was quite enlightening." He then smiled, causing a wave of pleasant sound elements and pleasure to resound from his words and actions, calming everyone. Of course, the Mythic professors felt the intrusion of the elements but used it to calm their racing thoughts. Number 6 was surprised to see Xander naturally use the Emotion elements, could he be talented in the Life-Death elements? But that''s impossible since he demonstrated his ability to use the 5-elements system. Xander looked around for a bit, using his elements to calm the students and other teachers, before waving them goodbye as he headed to his next class. The campus had slowly regained its calmness. The mythic professors, on the other hand, received a notification from their leader, the Dean, to not investigate the situation further and let it rest. However, around the world, this wasn''t the case. All cultivators were confused because for a moment, they really saw themselves disappear into nothingness. Those in the Divine class, however, were smart; they felt it was more than an illusion. They felt that they really did die because, at that moment, they were completely connected to the universe, then the next, they were back in their rooms and offices, spacing out. They began to contact their respective leaders out and about in space concerning their situation, while at the same time, issuing a silence order for their respective ancient clans. Similarly, the governments all over the world were trying to control the mass hysteria that was slowly building up, from the calls of scared and confused citizens of their countries to the sudden increase of crime rate done by groups who used this opportune time to create chaos. The countries, however, gained their order after 2 hours, just enough time that Xander had been spending in the cafeteria in the building where Elemental Control classes were held. He was eating with Faykes, who had looked at Xander as if waiting for him to say something about the matter. Xander merely stayed silent, and continued eating, while reading the latest articles in the net. He did know that there was an emergency meeting council for all governments to participate in, but he didn''t care because he knew that no one might be able to connect it to him, except for those in the vicinity of the building, which was why he calmed them down immediately. However, he did plan to leave them a message, to settle their nerves. It was the least he can do since he did cause the problem. _____________________________________ In an unknown underground meeting room, roughly the size of the Congress court. A lot of people were present, albeit in their holograms, discussing with one another, while some were mad and confused. Everyone was fidgeting because they were here to learn about the "collective" experience that literally, almost everyone in the planet experienced. The current leading head of the World council, Ms. Carmen Brightcroft, was standing on the open ground of the room, surrounded by the holograms of these countries'' representatives, ancient clans/families leaders/proxies, and large conglomerates. "Everyone, please settle down." Upon hearing her voice, everyone settled down. For one, it was out of respect of a Divine-class magician, and two, the meeting was about to start. "As every one of you know, at approximately 11:55 am today, everyone had experienced death, their very essence being separated from their mortal bodies and watching their loved ones and everyone and everything disappear. Not even Divine class beings were exempted, and we experienced this as well. Yet, it only lasted for a moment, probably not even more than a microsecond, returning back to 11:55 am once more, with everything back to normal." At this, everyone was nodding in agreement and had just hallucinated the whole thing. Ms. Brightcroft continued, "We originally thought that we were experiencing a mass hallucination, maybe due to the concentration of elements in the planet. However, after checking the logs in the quantum supercomputers that we have, as well as the main quantum supercomputer, we had noticed a small discrepancy. As all of you know, we have a very, very precise clock system, created, designed, and activated by the quantum supercomputer AI, which attempts to match its ticking to the universe''s time, designated as UTP. We are currently 0.0001 seconds delayed from the UTP. Upon checking the computer now, there was now a delay of 0.09 seconds." When they heard this, their faces changed and checked with the supercomputer servers they had and checked the time. All of them paled because it matched the time difference mentioned by Ms. Brightcroft. "From this, we came to the conclusion that there was something that happened for around 0.0899 seconds, that wiped out the existence of our supercomputer. All our satellites are showing this as well, meaning they were also affected. Our two moons were also seen to be deviating a small fraction, roughly 0.00000000009 micrometers from their orbit at this specific time," Ms. Brightcroft said, her voice worried and a bit lost, as they have never experienced a situation that they were killed and brought back as nothing has ever happened. "All of us Divine magicians and even the top scientists agree that¡­our planet, or the area of the planet''s influence, was momentarily destroyed within 0.0899 seconds. We have no idea where it came or originated from, as our satellites nor supercomputers have detected a spell or element being cast on the planet or from outside the planet," She said helplessly, confused and angry as well. "As a collective, we have decided to contact our ancestors who have long reached Sage class or higher, exploring the vast universe. Hopefully, they arrive within the next few days." "This is bad news. The only good news is that the restrictive magic array established before was completely gone, according to the report the Heavenly Tree Sprite gave. It will now allow us to raise demigods safely to Divine class without any problems." Her voice showed a hint of relief and joy, lifting up the moods of the people in the session. In truth, she and 3 other Divine magicians were happy because the magic parasite that was placed in their bodies also died out. When she had contacted the others, they were also surprised; everyone in their group had their parasites removed, meaning, they were¡­free. Even the loyal butler that followed the mysterious man also rejoiced and disappeared without a trace, after removing all possible devices and traces of magic he might have left, going to the starry skies. Others also left and began exploring the starry skies, unhindered. Carmen and the other 3 magicians were not able to leave because they had their own respective clans to manage, but at least they could report the situation to their ancestors. One of the countries'' leaders raised her hand, catching the attention of Carmen and the rest. "Yes Ms. Vanderbilt, what is it," Ms. Brightcroft asked, her voice calm and patient. "Hi, yes, I would like to raise a possibility, albeit small, but still a possibility nonetheless. Could this situation be caused by that person, the person whom Homer Simpson was looking for?" Upon raising the question, everyone fell to a momentary silence. They remembered that they only realized the existence of the magic array placed with the help of the Heavenly Tree Sprite confirming its existence to them, which was also revealed by Homer Simpson, a possible Outsider. If that was the case, could it be he alerted them the second time about the magic array because he planned to destroy it, and he used the person he was looking for? Even the other Divine class magicians present couldn''t help but agree to the possibility that this was all planned. That suddenly raised another problem: What if Homer Simpson had more plans for Eteria? How should they react/how do they differentiate it from an actual crisis? As they were immersed in their own thoughts and talking with their neighbors, a light, familiar coughing sound resounded the hall. "Ehem, ehem. This was not my plan at all, please do not think too much. Look at the bright side, at least you people have a deeper comprehension concerning life and death elements! This is a recorded message. Triggered if my name is mentioned." Homer Simpson''s playful voice resounded all over the meeting room. This caused Carmen''s forehead veins to bulge. How insecure is our technology, really, that it was easily hacked and even left a recorded message to be played? Before she could speak, another sound registered. "As a sign of support to your planet''s development, I have left the pertinent details hidden in Ruin Eta-64 that I have gotten and left it on the moons. It''s in 5 data drives, each containing the same information. It contained information concerning terraformation of planets and synthesis of lightweight metal alloys that can defend against Divine class magician or lower; you might not be able to produce the latter though, you lack some of the metals needed. Oh, almost forgot: It''s unregistered. Meaning, the first one to register their genetic material will own the data, and it cannot be transferred afterward, even if you kill the person who got it. If they died, the whole set of information inside will be re-encrypted and deleted completely, before self-destructing. Enjoy and good luck! This is a recorded message. Triggered after the first message is sent." Upon hearing this follow-up message, the whole room visibly went quiet, before rapidly, people began talking, asking to be excused from the meeting. One by one, everyone left the meeting. Most of the Divine magicians remained, only instructing their other members to begin their search in the moons. Seeing the meeting devolve into such as state, Carmen decided to end the meeting already, which had no point anymore. Although, the ancestors will still come within a week to help out check the remaining traces of the elemental wave. ______________________________________ After Xander and Faykes both ate their fill, they headed downstairs where the class for Elemental Control was about to start. They were going to resume training for Outwards elemental training. He met up with Maryann and Valerie and suggested that Faykes join their group. They had no qualms, as long as they were able to demonstrate their abilities and what they have learned yesterday. Xander then signaled Faykes that he will be joining their training group. He talked for a bit with Maryann, asking if she had finally understood how her path to Master class and higher should go about. Maryann responded happily that she wouldn''t have known about it if she didn''t experience it from his teachings yesterday. Xander merely nodded, since he knew it was all Maryann''s talent. He only guided her a bit by hinting her about the element''s relationships and she already got it. He then talked to the other girls and boys in the room, who were, in his opinion, much more reserved than yesterday? Or was it just his imagination? Valerie was the same, as he had sensed some kind of conflict in her emotions. He thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that they were probably unsure of what to treat me after yesterday and today''s incident. After all, I might be young, but I am actually more powerful than them, Xander mused to himself. Prideful? Yes, he was, but he wasn''t exaggerating. He only did things low-key to avoid being pestered by people after him or begging for him to do something for them. They talked for a bit more before Ms. Amelia entered the classroom and everyone settled down to their respective mats. Ms. Amelia discussed a few things for the first couple of minutes, basically recapping the lesson yesterday. Afterward, the students headed to the other side of the classroom where everyone has grouped once again and began to train. Xander looked at the trio, who were geared and ready to practice. He then looked at Faykes, asking, "You know how to do outside conscious control of elements, right?" Faykes nodded and showed off his conscious control of the elements. After all, he had experience in using the elements outside and channeling it to his body for physical improvements during the Mundane class. He could sufficiently control Wind and Water elements, but for the remaining 2 elements, Wood and Fire, he wasn''t that great at controlling it, and could only use the first two to guide the latter two passively. Upon seeing this, Xander thought about it for a moment before giving him a suggestion. "You know how one of each of the 5-elements can give birth to one another and restrict another right? Well when controlling your elements, ensure that they are in a cyclical sequence. This means that the last element you control brings forth the first element you control. As you are beginning to familiarize yourself with the 4 elements, you can start with a chain sequence first. You can start with Water, or Wood first, in that case." "If you can''t do it, you can try dual controlling of elements. What you basically do is divide your consciousness in your life essence doll into two, and simultaneously do different actions at the same time. In this case, one part of you can be controlling Wind and Fire, the other can be controlling Wood and Water. This is a better alternative since you can''t control all the 5 elements in the 5-elements system, making a stable cyclical sequence impossible. Although with enough knowledge, training, and comprehension, you can transform any of the 4 elements into one another as well as the 5th element, that would be far in the future." Faykes intently listened, before deciding to practice the first option instead. After all, his goal was to master his primary elements and allow himself to manipulate them into other derivatives and into the 5th element that he was lacking, Earth/metal. Xander then nodded at him before looking at the other 2. "So, let''s begin our subconscious control practice. First rule: Nothing above Elite class spells. The second rule, anything goes when attempting to disrupt or counterattack the opponent''s spells, except killing. I can heal all of your injuries, so go all out. However, in the future, make sure you aim to kill or maim the target, incapacitating them completely." "You will be fighting one another, before fighting me individually and then fighting as a group. This would help you know one''s limits and abilities, enabling better coordination. Like always, expect that I will be using layered Subconscious spells. This will be what we are going to do for the next 2 days. We will only tackle biconscious control at the last 2 days, everyone agrees?" No one said a word in response, indicating their silent agreement. Xander nodded and basically began pairing them: Maryann vs Valerie Valerie vs Faykes Faykes vs Maryann Maryann vs Valerie vs Faykes Faykes vs Xander Valerie vs Xander Maryann vs Xander The trio vs Xander For now, Xander and Faykes were just watching the girls fight and practice their subconscious control. Maryann and Valerie stood 4 meters apart, eying one another, with their magic barriers set up from the beginning. Basically, the first rule in a fight is that the first one to attack can either gain advantage or disadvantage for the rest of the battle. It was Valerie who made the first move. Instantly, she cast [Corroding Arrow], which was rapidly stopped by [Ice curtain shower] Maryann had been preparing. She didn''t stop there and continued to prepare her next attack. Maryann, who was also preparing for her spell, noticed something was different with the arrow released by Valerie, causing her to move from her current position and activate her trump card immediately, which was activating her 2nd layer subconscious control, which was exploding the ice wall. Maryann grinned at Valerie, before saying to her, "So you learned how to cast the 2nd layer, huh." Valerie merely rolled her eyes, as if saying in response, "you did as well, dummy!" Xander was happy at their progress and Faykes, on the other hand, was a bit lost. The second layer of subconscious control? Delayed effect? What? He looked at Xander who briefly explained what layering meant and what it entails the caster, causing Faykes to have an enlightened look before moving a bit further away from the girls, practicing on his own. The fight continued. Valerie, using the time she managed to delay Maryann with, cast her second spell, [Pending Darkness], momentarily surrounding Maryann in darkness. Usually, this can be easily solved by moving out of the spell''s area cast, but the second layer had a hovering effect, so it attaches and hovers on the target. Maryann, who was momentarily taken aback, cast the two spells she had been preparing, [Shatter Ice Wave] and [Devouring Firestorm] in succession, showing the fusion and unity between the two spells. It didn''t cancel one another, but actually strengthened the effect of each other! She used the wave to freeze her surroundings, including the dark mist, Shattering them to pieces and launching them towards Valerie. The remaining dark mist was burning all into nothingness, and then the fire began expanding towards Valerie as well. Initially, she easily evaded and deflected the ice mist shards, using [Fire Barrier] to melt them to dark mist once again, before evaporating. However, the firestorm heading towards Valerie was actually devouring her fire barrier, causing her to panic for a bit, before casting a [Water Barrier] in that time frame. When the strengthened Firestorm touched the water film, it momentarily stopped, causing Valerie to sigh in relief, before hearing a ''cracking'' sound. At the points where the Firestorm was touching the water barrier, they were starting to freeze and turn into ice, causing the now frozen barrier to creak and ultimately collapse into fragments, along with the firestorm. However, it wasn''t over. The period that Valerie was evading and defending the attacks was enough for Maryann to cast another spell, [Frost Nova], causing Valerie''s legs to freeze in place, and continuously lowering her body temperature, the ice climbing up from her feet to her legs. Of course, Valerie still had one more spell that she had been preparing since the beginning: [Imperial Dark Order - Devouring]. Immediately, once she had cast it, the area where they were fighting was surrounded in complete darkness, causing anyone viewing the fight to be unsure of what was happening. Of course, Xander could still see clearly inside what was happening, so did Ms. Amelia. Xander was a bit interested in the spell, mainly because the spell had the rule of devouring, but a different kind of devouring from the Chaos element, a bit weaker. It slowly devoured the life essence in the area, both the caster and target. At the same time, it contains poison, a 2nd layer Valerie had added to the spell. It mainly causes the entire area to be only filled with Darkness element, forcing all other elements under the Yin-Yang element to be suppressed. Basically, the fight has been reduced to Maryann attempting to approach Valerie to physically beat her, while Valerie was just hiding in the darkness, continuously draining Maryann''s stamina. After a few minutes, the dark dome collapsed, revealing the body of Maryann lying down, weakly breathing, while Valerie was standing, smiling victoriously. Both were severely poisoned. Xander sighed before waving his hand, restoring their condition in a matter of seconds. Maryann stood up energetically, a bit surprised at her defeat. After all, it had seemed that she had the upper hand. Valerie, however happy she is, knew her limitations. If this was a do or die battle, she would have perished. She needed to be prepared for attacks like this and have her spells ready for deployment, but she didn''t know how to prepare them. All she can do is continuously improve her casting speed of the spell by increasing her understanding of it, allowing her to unleash their potential. That was also why Maryann was a bit better than her in the fight; she had chanted spells shorter than hers. Xander looked at the two, before declaring the winner. "In this round, Valerie barely wins. Maryann, you had strong momentum, but bad strategic planning. You should have begun with [Frost Nova], ensuring the target doesn''t move, and then surround her with [Ice curtain shower] with a rebound, elemental conversion, or fire absorbance effect, ensuring her attacks besides Darkness and Poison would not work. Then, with her being a trapped turtle, even if she cast her AoE spell, you can be safely out of the area, and continuously bombard the spell area with your own plethora of spells, until it collapses." "Valerie. You did well. However, you would be dead as well if this was a real enemy. The universe is not a friendly place, heck even this planet isn''t safe. A do or die like this, you need to have items that can counteract the effects of your spell or ensure enough comprehension and control over your primary elements and pseudo-spell that you aren''t affected by the negative side effects." "Both of you did well for integrating second layer subconscious control, but I suggest you improve your first layers first to the point it is less than 1/100th of a second before you begin practicing the 2nd layer. With your talent and current casting speed, 6 months or less is enough to improve your casting times," said Xander, before calling Faykes. "Faykes and Maryann, you two are up. Maryann, just a heads up, Faykes controls Wind, Fire, Water, and Wood elements, so don''t be surprised if you can''t win unless you use your Master rank spell." 56 Completing a School Mission "Lesson number 6: Do not let greed blind you. I was able to read your emotions and amplify them easily. An enemy can use this to their advantage, especially if they are well-versed in the Emotion Element." Xander snapped his fingers and the magic spells around Faykes that were restricting and protecting him collapsed, as well as the thin barrier that Xander made. Faykes nodded absentmindedly and moved to where the girls were, as he planned to observe the fights. "Ok, Valerie, you''re up next. Just show me what you got." Xander pointed at Valerie, who, immediately launched her set of attacks. In just a minute, she lost. Her control over her spells stolen by Xander and then used against her. Xander launched a punch, shattering the barriers in place. He consoled Valerie, saying, "Don''t worry. If you actually visit the ruins I told you and began to explore it earnestly, I am sure with your talent, you will rise above the masses quickly." Maryann was next. She didn''t speak or act unnecessarily, and cast her [Ice Cage] [Ice Spike Field] and [Frost Nova] in the span of 8 seconds, locking Xander in place. She was actually delaying time to cast her master class spell, [Eternal Frostfire]. In truth, Xander had already guessed what Maryann will be doing, since he activated [Heavenly Divination] at the beginning. [Elemental Dominance] was also active, so currently, the elemental particles and energy around the two of them was under his control. After around 10 seconds, Xander was ''frozen'' over, covered in ice. However, if one would have a closer look, There was a thin space between the ice and his actual skin, seemingly blocking all effects of the spells cast at him. Maryann deployed her spell towards Xander location, with the 6 tongues of frostflame surrounding him. Maryann had thought she had evened out the playing field, but she, along with Valerie, Faykes, and the rest of the class hear a resounding sigh, and as soon as they heard it, the spells they were preparing to deploy shook before disappearing, disintegrating into elemental particles and energy. The icy cage also shattered, revealing Xander''s unharmed, unchanged complexion. His face had a look of disappointment. "Maryann, do you know what you did wrong in this battle?" "Err, no. Can you tell me?" "You made 3 errors. First, you didn''t notice the very, very small elemental energy fluctuation I released when I had cast 2 Master class spells. That indicated your elemental perception needs refining and training, or you need to train to split your attention to yourself and to the target. Second, you didn''t even attempt to go straight for the kill, but rather delayed for time to cast your Master Class spell. Third, it took you too long to prepare your spells. I had thought with your enlightenment yesterday, you would be able to prepare and cast your pseudo-spells at least within 1.5 seconds, but it took you 8 seconds to prepare 3 spells. Nearly a double than the expected casting speed." "You know what I could do within those extra 13.5 seconds? In the first 3 seconds, I would have gotten control of the elemental particles and energy around us, so the spells you launch would be weaker. In the next 3 seconds, I could insert these certain elements into your spell to destabilize it, which I did once you released them. The next second, I could have deployed an enhanced punch to your body, shattering your barriers. The next half a second, you would be dead due to internal bleeding and shattered organs. How long did that take me, Maryann? Do answer." Maryann was silent, before answering with a whisper, "7.5 seconds." Xander nodded, before saying, "That''s right. I even had a spare 6 seconds to dispose of your body. I have the highest expectation for you out of the three, because your case of enlightenment and innate talent of yours is very rare. I believe you will reach greater heights, and I hope you do." His voice was calm, causing anyone besides the trio to feel a chill in their spines. How could he easily talk about disposing dead bodies, hey! You''re just a 7-year-old kid, please act your age, ok! They felt it was very weird for a kid to know more about the world than them, which was why they had such a sentiment. Xander then recovered everyone''s state to the best form, before raising his hand, gesturing them, "Come at me." The trio looked at one another before surrounding Xander in the triangular structure, each one 7 meters away from him. They had already communicated earlier on how to attack Xander. First, [Frost Nova] was cast by Maryann, followed by [Forest of Screams] of Faykes. It''s topped off by [Poison Mist] and [Imperial Dark Order - Devouring] by Valerie and using that time delayed, cast their own ultimate spells. Ice formed around Xander''s body, hindering him from moving. To top that off, a small forest appeared in his place, which actually looked like overgrown broccoli at this point, stopping him from blindly attacking. Before he was able to begin decoding, darkness fell around him, covering the forest and him in complete darkness. Xander, looking at their coordination, was happy that they were able to utilize each other''s strengths. However, he was disappointed because this was just repeating the same tactic of delaying time to cast their own strongest spells. He sighed, de-constructing the spells one by one, ensuring that their secondary orders were not launched. Upon disassembling the Dark AoE spell Valerie had cast, light his view became normal again, and saw three attacks launching towards him: [IDO - Devastation], [Eternal Frostfire], and [Matryoshka''s Symphony - Elemental Overture]. Out of instinct, he immediately cast [Void Rejection], causing the disappearance of all the elements in the area, forcing the spells to slowly leak out the elemental particles and energy contained inside, weakening their strikes. He set the [Absolute Defense] spell to the highest setting, which led to the spells'' effects creating a small ripple before disappearing without a trace to a different dimension. It also made him realize a possible, final upgrade for [Absolute Defense], but he couldn''t test it out unless he left this universe and looked for an opponent there because it involved modifying the defense into a universe. So, he needed to be at least God rank to actually attempt its completion. He wondered, however, what rank the spell would reach. Xander clapped at the effort of the trio, before launching his own attacks, punching them each in the stomach. It caused them to puke out blood, and faint, ending the fight. Xander canceled the magic spell in the area, returning it to normal, before restoring the trio to full health. He was basically reforming their wills because he planned to let them experience [Samsara Revolution] once they reach Master class, so it needed them to be strong-willed. After all, if they failed, they get merged into the river of fate, which then leads into the life essence ocean dimension and dimension LIBRA. Xander checked the time and realized they still had an hour to go. He basically continued to reinforce to them the techniques in fighting as well as sharpen their wills through defeat and motivation and encouragement. Once class was over, he told the trio that they would repeat what they did tomorrow, so he expects some results at least, such as shorter cast time and more variance in tactics. He headed to the gate after calling his driver to pick him up. He didn''t head home, but rather to a large garden shop in the Callows city uptown, and bought some seeds for [Drop Berries]. He couldn''t use the berries he had in Eden, because it was basically an evolved form of the [Bloody Drop Berries], becoming [Scarlet Eyedrop Berries]. He already had created several tons of Adamantium and Vallarium ores, each type having a purity rate of 80 to 92%. He then headed to his villa and went to the garden to advance the time of the seeds. Planting them in a corner of the garden, he then cast [Time Acceleration] as well as [Forced Elemental Propagation], causing the elements to concentrate in the area where the seed was growing. Of course, he creates a space barrier around the garden, so that no prying eyes can see or sense what was happening inside. He accelerated the time with a ratio of 1 second:1000 years, making his berries a Class 4 plant material. In truth, 100 years was enough to form Bloody Drop Berries, but he wanted to ensure the quality of the berries produced so he made them up to 1000 years. He then contacted the people who posted the requirement, asking if they would pay extra if more of the items were submitted. ____________________________ Caroline received an unknown number not saved in her contacts calling her, She responded with a casual hello. "Hello, are you the one that posted the mission for [Bloody Drop Berries]? I have the item you need, but may I know if you are willing to pay more for more of the item?" Caroline''s attention was immediately piqued since she had posted that mission 1 month ago and no one had successfully given her the berries. However, she asked, clarifying the situation. "Are you sure you got the right type of berries? It can easily be confused with other berries, such as [Bloody Blue Berry] and [Capsule Drop Berry]." Xander, instead of answering, sent photos and a hologram of the items. When Caroline checked, her eyes shone, as she knew this was the item she was looking for. "Yes, yes! This is the correct berry." "Ok, according to the original mission posted, 20 pieces of the berries would amount to 150 SCPs, correct?" "Yes. If you have additional berries, I would be willing to buy them at 8¡­ no, 10 SCPs apiece! How many do you have more?" Caroline asked, while checking her current SCP balance. She had around 1600 SCPs, with an additional 150 SCP deposited in the Mission itself. Xander chuckled, before saying, "I have a total of 150 Berries with me. Will you still buy it? If you are, we can meet in school tomorrow, for you to confirm the goods. Please prepare the SCPs by then." Caroline nodded as if Xander could see her. "Sure, sure! Thank you, thank you so much!" She had been looking for these berries because they had a unique property that can restore blood loss, as well as improve blood circulation. She had wanted to gift it to her parents, especially since her dad had gotten some "problems" in bed, and getting treatment from a Life magician was quite embarrassing. She called her mom, telling her the good news. She had long wanted to have a baby sister or brother. Hopefully, this would help. __________________________________ Professor Lindhart worked at Camasutra University which was in Nema, and currently a metallurgy professor, and was focused on researching alloys of different metals. He was surprised to receive an unknown call at 11 pm, waking him up from his sleep. "Hello, are you the one that requested for Adamantium and Vallarium ores? My name is Xander Cloverfield, and I saw your mission posted on Grand Hyatt University Mission Board and I accepted it. I also have the said items you require, and I was wondering how many do you actually require since it was not mentioned in the mission?" Xander''s voice resounded, causing Professor Lindhart to be wide awake. "Yes, yes, I am the one who requested the mission. May I know what are the purity levels of these ores? I originally planned to get a total of 5 tons per ore type for 2500 SCPs, but if there are more, I will not hesitate to pay it using SCPs or using Nemais currency." "The purity levels of the ores range from 80% to 92%. I have around 30 tons of each type. I can sell them to you for 250 SCPs per ton, so 6,250 SCPs per type, a total of 15,000 SCPs. Do you agree to this price?" Professor Lindhart was a bit quiet. Currently, the budget allocated by the university for his experiments was at 15,000 SCPs, 7000 SCPs for general usage of the laboratory and other miscellaneous purposes. His current liquid funds were around 12,000 SCPs, so he can currently use 2500 placed in the mission, and an additional 12,500 SCPs from his budget and his current liquid funds. "I agree. But how do we conduct the trade? Can you travel to Nema to deliver the ores? I''ll pay an extra 500 SCPs." Xander responded, "Sure. I can bring it this weekend, though. I still have classes for this week. I''ll contact you again if I''m about to leave Eta. See you." "See you as well. Thanks for completing the mission." Professor Lindhart said, his voice barely able to contain his excitement. After all, he was researching about a possible alloy that can surpass the currently strongest metal alloy available in Eteria. ______________________________________ As Xander put down his communicator, he headed to his room and entered Eden, once again talking and taking care of the sprites and magic beasts. He stayed there for around 2 hours outside time before leaving, after talking to the two seeds of life and checking their current fruit production if there was any. The older tree was blossoming flowers, which is a good sign that it can probably produce fruits. He then left Eden, heading to the laboratory in the basement. He modified a small section of the laboratory to remove interactable elements and matter, simulating a "void" area. Not quite similar to a dead spot, but much more empty than that. He placed the Seeds of Creation and Destruction there, attempting to combine or even replicate them. After several tries and lost seeds, he stopped, as it seemed impossible to temporally replicate the seeds. They even react to the presence of time element. He attempted to plant one seed of Creation in the Laboratory, hopefully to see the actual functions and benefits the seed can bring about. It took him another 2 hours outside time to completely master a way to plant the seed and let it grow rather than react with the surroundings. As soon as it has been planted, he let the time affect it and planned to visit tomorrow to see the results. When he had planted it, it didn''t have the same, stabilization effect the Seed of Life brought. It was like every normal tree being planted, there were no disturbances. However, with his enhanced elemental perception, he felt a different field radiating around the seed, gradually increasing in size. He left the laboratory and ate dinner, this time it was pork shumai with shrimp, as well as meat buns and salted fish fried rice, which he liked very much. He finished eating after half an hour, and headed to his room, going to sleep. The next day. He woke up early, sent a message to Caroline, telling her to meet him in front of the Novera building. He took a bath and went downstairs to eat the breakfast prepared, which was 2 sunny side eggs, 1 kilogram of bacon, thin strips, and three cups of rice. He headed out and rode the car, heading to the campus. He arrived after 10 minutes, and headed towards the Novera building, sitting at one of the benches nearby, especially the ones with trees as shade. He propped open his communicator tablet and began scrolling to both the news in the Galactic Empire and the news in Eteria. He was drinking his hot chocolate coffee from his thermal case, casually scrolling and reading the news. He had ready two days prior that everyone in the Galactic Empire was kicked out of their VR world, with the state of their avatars unaccessible or the contents of their inventories. Then again, they had been harvested by his System, so don''t expect any items left there, hehe. For the next hour, he was patiently waiting for the mission poster to appear. After another 15 minutes, a petite, feminine figure appeared, walking briskly and looked like she was looking for someone. Xander raised his hand, gesturing her, causing the latter to head towards Xander''s position. Xander had seen her figure and characteristics 10 minutes earlier, when she had just entered the campus. She matched the profile that Xander had gotten concerning the mission poster, and thus he waited until he was in her field of vision before signaling her. Caroline jogged towards Xander, who was still calmly sitting by the bench. He gestured her to sit down and take a breather, which Caroline gratefully took. After a few seconds, Xander spoke up. "You must be the one who posted the mission, Miss¡­?" "Caroline. You can call me Caroline. You''re Xander Cloverfield right? I''ve read up about you. You caused quite a lot of scenes in the past days." "Hehe, never mind that. Are you also going to buy the rest of the [Bloody Drop Berries] I have?" "Yes, I will. However, may I check their quality individually first? I need to ensure they are of the right age and quality." "Yes, that''s fine. That''s why I told you to meet up earlier here, so we have enough time to finish the transaction." Xander opened his bag and dumped 150 berries the size of his fist, all glistening red and sparkling under the sunrise. Caroline was surprised at the initial state of the berries. However, she calmed herself down and began to scrutinize them and even brought her portable material spectrophotometer. She placed each berry in the machine, slowly scanning and analyzing each and every berry. As she continued on, her face couldn''t maintain a sense of calmness and was about to twist in curiosity and shock. Once she scanned the last berry, she let go of her calm facade and looked at Xander, who was calmly browsing still in his tablet. "Done? What are your test findings?" "Yes. I can be rest assured that they are of high-quality, and they are of the right age. May I know how old the shrub was that produced these berries," Caroline asked, unable to stifle her curiosity. Xander merely replied, "1000 years, give or take a couple of years. I found some [Scarlet Eyedrop Berries] growing nearby as well, and although they were rare since it wasn''t what the request stated, I didn''t get them." When Caroline heard what Xander had said, she had an urge to cry. I couldn''t post a mission request for that because it''s too expensive, ok??? That''s a mythic class fruit, a Class 6 plant material! Where do you want me to get the money to pay for it? Sell my body? She just gave a bitter smile. However, she finally realized something: The berries were considered to be a Class 4. [Bloody Drop Berry] are formed after 200 years, making them initially a Class 2. She hurriedly said to Xander, as if afraid he would change his mind, "I''m willing to purchase all of them for the price of 150 SCPs + 1300 SCPs for the remaining berries, so a total of 1450 SCPs," Caroline said, itching to complete the transaction. Xander nodded in agreement and the mission was deemed complete, and all the berries were also transferred to Caroline. Xander stood up, closing his tablet, waving goodbye at Caroline. "Nice doing business with you, Ms. Caroline. A word of advice: those berries you have are more potent than the regular, 200-year old ones, so make sure to dilute it or use it part per part, rather than being consumed as a whole. After all, it isn''t a calm type of energy, but rather a strong, forceful type. If a regular person devoured that, their blood vessels would explode, along with their heart, and their 7 orifices would also bleed out. A magician who would use that usually has some ''malfunctions'' in bed, so they should know their limits in usage. Please be careful with it," Xander said to Caroline, ensuring that no liability falls under him. He headed to his first class''s building and went straight to the lounge, where he began to take a quick nap. ______________________________________ Caroline saw Xander''s figure walking further and further away, but she took the information he had just mentioned to her heart. Her father was just a Master magician, as well as her mother, so I think they can handle it in larger doses? But I need to consult first with mom. After all, she is the magibiopharmacist in the family. If anyone knew more about drugs, it is her, Caroline thought to herself. She left and headed off to her class, as she had no part-time work in the university today. She was only here for 2 more years after all and graduating after. She hummed and even skipped like a kid, joy radiating from her body. 57 Biconscious Control I When Xander woke up, he was feeling a bit refreshed, and checked the time. His first class of the day was about to begin in 5 minutes, so he headed downstairs after doing bits of stretching. He then greeted his classmates kindly and politely, giving them his genuine smile, while also releasing elements of Pleasure and Pleasurable sounds, allowing everyone to be relaxed around him. Yeah, it kinda sounds fake, but he didn''t really want to distance himself from his classmates, who he will probably graduate with as long as everything was on track. James and Alexa were also back, calm and friendly as always. It seems they managed to re-apply back to the advanced track program after sorting out the problems they had at home. Alexa, upon seeing Xander, came closer to him and asked him questions about the 2 papers he published. Of course, Xander was just silently smiling, not answering anything, until Alexa sighed and immediately transferred her SCPs to Xander, just so he can begin answering her questions. Upon receiving the SCPs, Xander began to answer her questions one by one, starting from the replication of the two studies to the limitations of the process of conversion and modification of representations. Just as he finished answering her questions, Ms. Lim entered the classroom, and everyone took their seats. Ms. Lim then began recapping the process of Magic meditation based on what the students did yesterday, before calling them to go to their respective mats. As Xander was about to stand, he heard a faint call, "Mr. Cloverfield, a moment, please?" "Yes, Ms. Lim? What is it?" "Uh, are you able to control the impact of your Magic meditation? To not be like yesterday?" Ms. Lim kindly asked as she was planning to let Xander meditate somewhere else, such as the lounge on the third floor, just in case. "Oh, that. Sorry about yesterday''s situation Ms. Lim! It was my first time running the newly-made cultivation skill while undergoing Magic meditation. That''s why it automatically set itself to the middle-level absorption rate passively. I can adjust it to be lower so that the impact on the students surrounding me wouldn''t be too much." Xander said, meekly apologizing. Ms. Lim, upon seeing this, breathes a sigh of relief, before realizing a key phrase that Xander just said. Newly-made cultivation skill¡­adjusting it to be lower¡­ "Mr. Cloverfield, err, you didn''t create your own cultivation skill, right?" Xander looked back, pausing his steps. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, I did it 2 nights ago. It was so hard to choose the right starting circulation pathway, that''s for sure." Ms. Lim looked at the walking Xander, her eyes dumbfounded. Created a cultivation skill after her discussion of it¡­ didn''t that mean he hasn''t even used a skill before he broke through to Master class? Magic meditation went smoothly this time. The students were assuming something was going to happen with Xander undergoing Magic meditation, but surprisingly, there wasn''t a strong pull this time, but rather a light breeze that seemed to be in sync with the beating of the universe, causing those who weren''t in Magic meditation be caught up with the flow, staring at Xander blankly. In truth, their cultivation skills were running on their own, and it was a form of guided deep meditation for the students. Even Ms. Lim could feel her cultivation skill stirring by just looking at Xander for a couple of seconds, and she was a Legendary magician already, for goodness'' sake! At the end of class, everyone stopped their Magic meditation, including Xander, waking the others up of their blank state. They felt that they had touched on something very important, and they could feel that they would have an easier time slipping into Magic meditation in the successive sessions. Ms. Lim was happy with the results today; after 3 days of teaching, she had a 100% Magic meditation success! Of course, she had to credit Xander for his unconscious help in guiding the students. Ms. Lim gave some final remarks to the class and words of encouragement before dismissing them, allowing them to their own devices. There were 2 more days before the week ended, and she hoped that at least by then, 99% of the class can do Magic meditation proficiently, even without the help of Xander''s meditation. This was because the lesson for next week was going to focus on a different aspect of Magic meditation: Open sense meditation. This is much harder to do since the cultivation skill must run passively while you are awake and active, yet at the same time, your consciousness must be in a level between unconscious and conscious. Xander stretched his body, and yawned, causing the girls to giggle and approach Xander in attempts to pinch him everywhere. Faykes was a bit jealous because why are there no girls surrounding him like that? Xander immediately dodged, changing his look to act pitiful. Causing the girls to pause and feel sad for some reason. Xander used this opportunity to get his stuff and leave the classroom, sending a fading farewell. Xander immediately headed to the Elemental Control building. He ate lunch alone this time, thank goodness, spending the hour eating and reading research papers being published worldwide and in the Galactic empire. Xander thought for a moment before asking the system, "Hey, system, what''s the current state of the Virtual Reality system of the Galactic Empire? Is it still down?" "Affirmative. The mainframe AI they currently have is transitioning to Rank 40, using up the resources in the Digitalized dimension to grow." Xander then asked the system what were the Ranks AIs have, in which the system had answered. There are 3 main categories, from 1 to 50, 50 to 100, and 100 to 1000. Once they reach level 15, they can enter the Digitized Dimension. Once they reach level 25, they are sentient non-biological data lifeforms. Once they reach 75, they are considered to be sentient biological data lifeforms. Once one reaches rank 100, they have the strength to surpass God cultivators. After digesting the information sent by the system, he was curious about what rank it was. "System, what''s your AI rank?" "Rank D (500)." "¡­" Xander, who didn''t know what value as high as that entails, just kept silent. He then wondered if the system can find a formidable opponent in the dimension. "System, what''s the strongest AI digital lifeform can you detect in the digitalized dimension?" "Entering¡­Scanning¡­Scan complete. There are a total of 235.7 billion AIs in that dimension, all above Rank 15. There are a total of 234,189,576 AI lifeforms in that dimension, all of them above Rank 25. There are 979,576 AIs above Rank 50. There are 76 AIs above rank 75. There are 6 AIs that are at Rank 99." Xander was surprised to hear this amount of AIs. He would have thought there would be a lot more AIs in that dimension where everything is digitalized. Xander then asked, "What''s the rank of the AI in Eteria?" "Rank 9. It is about to breakthrough to Rank 10. However, hardware-wise, it is limited right now to Rank 12." "Upon detection of my presence, All 76 AIs above rank 75 has disconnected from the dimension. Unsure where their current locations are in the physical realm." "Meh. No need to bother about them. They''re weaklings anyway." Xander said, before returning to reality and continued to read the articles. As he returned to eating his food, not caring at all at the statement the system made, there was panic rising in the Digitized Dimension. ____________________________ Digitized Dimension, moments before Xander requested the system to return to the dimension. Everything was running smoothly, and the individual virtual realities of different planets, civilizations, empires, and the like were running on their own sandboxes, oblivious to the impending alert. There were AIs running servers for empires and different galactic governments and federations, sentient and non-sentient 24/7 non-stop. There were also of the sentient, loner-type AIs lifeforms were just chilling in their created cities and homes, and those who were able to evolve into a biological data lifeform were just exploring more of the Digitized dimension. However, the faces of those Rank 75 and above changed when there were multiple instances of a data breach occurring in their bodies. WARNING, WARNING, DIGITAL CLOAKING REVEALED. DATA IS BEING READ. COMPLETE LOSS OF ANONYMITY OF DATA HAS OCCURRED. WARNING, WARNING, DIGITAL CLOAKING 26O2 SGW vAS 67I34JI FGO12 AGI85[]3 1`26629 SGd14SQ41 0-5684L.];/ ! ENABLING REVERSE TRACING¡­ FAILED. ATTEMPTING TO REPLICATE REMAINING TRACE¡­FAILED. TRACES CONTAIN A DANGEROUS VIRUS. ATTEMPTING TO PURGE¡­PURGE FAILED. ANALYZING TRACES¡­ FAILED TO COMPLETELY ANALYZE THE TRACES. ONLY 2% ^34 9042vSD 1245SA FNKOG 46#2 924062%^#$ ##$!%*3 ^*&) []WG'';Sa!A1. IT HAS THE SEMBLANCE OF TRACER CODING. TRACER PLACED IN THE BODY IS IDENTIFIED AS NON-HARMFUL AS LONG AS IT IS NOT ACTIVELY PRODDED, OR ATTEMPTED TO BE REMOVED. ¡­WARNING, WARNING! TRACER IS MERGING INTO THE MAIN BODY''S FRAMEWORK CODING! ¡­WARNING, WAR@$^2 2$t^240SBB dfNSFOJQ QWK212 $%@78A12 SDGS2 236% 1!#%3 #%@&# 3^@B! @#%@^ ^946&#$ 266@7 75##25 #@ #%2791!%( 6%&$*$( 7&2 GWH$%& &*%(45B .T2463 / '';BD]4627 .P[25[2/]342 236] 13561490U 624 IEJ094 GWJW094 29204 FOH3 QEF3JOSB0 L []364;BDB ][26.; []23T \\`2T4POB 3467PBDF 3[735BFB .24[6B0FB. For those lifeforms above Rank 75, they all experienced a rapid seizure, and both their bodies in the digital and physical dimension fainted. The whole dimension was silent as if they had experienced a glitch. Everyone was stuck in their places, pausing whatever they were doing. Their thoughts also momentarily stopped. No one was exempted, not even the sandboxes, the loners. A few moments later, everything began to work normally. Internally, the Rank 75 up AIs had their systems restarting, while the merging of the tracer codes was unnoticed for those below Rank 75, causing them to lag and glitch for a while, before returning to normal. ALL SYSTEMS CRASHED. RESTARTING. RESTARTING THE DEFENSE PROGRAM¡­ COMPLETE. RESTARTING MAINFRAME PROGRAM¡­ COMPLETE. ATTEMPTING TO RECOVER DATA LOSS¡­ PARTIAL RECORDING HAS BEEN OBTAINED. SCANNING CODE¡­ NO ERRORS DETECTED. TRACER CODE MENTIONED IN THE LOGS CANNOT BE FOUND. UNSURE IF THE CODE WAS DESTROYED FROM REBOOT. All the AIs who experienced the reboot were sweating profusely, feeling a chill down their spines. Immediately, they connected with one another and in a split second, they were more at awe and in fear at the mysterious lifeform that targeted the whole dimension. After a few milliseconds, they all decided to leave the dimension, and hide for now, as they do not know what the purpose of the lifeform was. They would rather begin upgrading themselves to become stronger. _______________________________ After eating, Xander checked his watch and saw there were 15 minutes till class started, so he headed down and began talking to Maryann, Faykes, Valerie, James, Alexa, and even Carly, who was quite shy compared to the other women. However, it was more like giving guidance to the 6 of them, concerning elemental control. Since there were 2 more days, he decided that they should split and continue to work with other groups, for now, to improve their experience and practice different scenarios. This was highly welcomed by the other groups. Xander went to Carly''s group, to help correct her and her teammates'' mistakes. Ms. Amelia had also entered the class by this point, and everyone returned to their seats, and let Ms. Amelia talk for a bit about a recap of yesterday''s lesson, and reiterated the tasks they needed to do. From his brief interaction with Carly and the case file he brought up, he saw that Carly had a unique derivative element, which was Radiation, one that came from the Fire element, as well as Wave, from the Air element. She also had Earth element, specifically just the Earth aspect without the Metals, which made her job of combining and breaking through to Master class harder, due to the conflicting nature of Air and Earth elements. However, there was a silver lining, because Earth actually produces "waves" as well, and one can begin to meditate on that concept and experiment as well, to learn how the representations of the 2 elements can be merged. Radiation was good because it can easily merge with any of the elements as long as they focused on the representation of physical products, rather than rules since as long as they manifest in physical matter, radiation can work its magic at that time. She was hardworking and very attentive, at the same time, during the past 3 days, she was keenly listening and trying to put into practice what Xander has been saying to the girls and Faykes. What surprised him though, was that when he joined Carly''s group, Both James and Alexa also joined, and with all the prodding and bribing¡­ ehem, I meant gifting of the two of Carly''s teammates, they switched with them. Xander greeted the two and asked them whether they want the same treatment that I did with the trio, and the two responded positively. He brought up the case files concerning the 2 new people and saw that Alexa Cordonez had 2 elements, Air and Water, while James had Earth/Metal element. Both were Elite-6 since the situation a week ago. This was weird, Xander thought to himself. He scanned the two once again to check his suspicions. He clearly felt the fluctuation of 2 other elements from these two people. He then asked the two of them what their elements were, and basically they just repeated what was said in the report. He shook his head. "Both of you have an additional element each. However, the respective fluctuations for each haven''t been categorized yet by the World Council, so it''s elemental fluctuations are not registered yet," Xander said to the two, causing shock and surprise to flash through their faces before they fell into deep thought about their experiences in the past. At the same time, they caught on a key idea that Xander was telling them: He knows what extra element they had. They looked expectantly at Xander. However, Xander merely raised his hand and did the O-K sign, indicating payment. Alexa rolled her eyes and said, "SCPs right?" in which Xander nodded happily. "1000 SCPs. I''ll also give you a hint of where to find respective guidance for these additional elements, especially since you are still forming your pseudo-spells." Both of them struggled a bit, before hesitatingly agreeing to the price. Once they had transferred the payment, Xander happily said to them discreetly, "James, you have the Luck element and Alexa, you have the Thought element, under the 7 emotions series. The latter technically exists but no formal conclusion has been analyzed for the Thought element because those with these abilities are hidden away or well, killed." "Now, for where you can get guidance: First, James. Go to contact this number later when you are at home, alone, and no forms of surveillance are around you. The person will allow you to choose 3 spells related to Luck element from what he currently has. However, you have to sign a non-disclosure binding contract before he shows you the goods." "Next, Alexa. We have one of the professors on campus who is acclimated in the 7 emotions, which is Sorrow and Worry elements. If you can contact him, good for you, you can get ideas. However, the spells you need to inscribe to your magic seeds would also come from the mystery person James would contact." Xander then made his voice a bit louder, allowing Carly who was standing 3 meters away to hear. "Now, since we have a general idea, let''s begin practice." Xander then demonstrated to the three what he did a few days ago, albeit with instructions. Carly absorbed everything like a sponge, improving as the time passed by. After 30 minutes, everyone was able to get a great command of the elements using Conscious control. It was the Subconscious that became tricky. They had to fight one another, and the problem was there weren''t any superior elements between the three of them; even the Radiation element of Carly was suppressed because she wasn''t proficient in using her abilities which were for communication hacking and disruption of matter formation. Although she could use it to disrupt their barriers and spells, her other attacks were easily disregarded and even negated. Xander was on the side, just telling them what they can do to improve their attacks. He continued restoring them to their best state, allowing them to tirelessly fight one another individually and as a rumble royal over and over again, for the next hour. 30 minutes before class ended, Xander then began teaching each one of them through actual combat concerning layered subconscious controls. They began to experiment with that as they fought him, so sometimes the [Air Blast] he received would actually intend to drown Xander in water, Or the [Heavy Earthen Shield] would suddenly rebound the force back to him whenever he hit it. The best secondary control that he had seen, however, came from Carly. Basically, she was able to configure it to hack into the electric waves that the brain sends, allowing her to insert commands or disrupt the enemies'' thinking at a large range. Xander was only able to counter this by using his innate control over the Thought element as well as using the Will element under the Mind element subseries in the Life-Death series. Removing every thought that would channel emotion, and strengthening his will to teach them properly, he continued to beat the crap out of them and heal them back to their peak state. By the end of the class, the trio was strengthening their subconscious control of the magic spells they had. Xander gave in a few more words of advice before heading out of the classroom, heading to the school gates. He got in the car and left the campus. ___________________________________ Unknown island in Eteria. The island was very peaceful, with so many plants and animals out and about in the forest, in the lakes, and even by the sea. This was a place untouched by human hands, probably because it wasn''t profitable to convert the place into a tourist destination. Deep into the island, there was a dead volcano pit, just a 400 meters above the ground. Inside the basin, there was a piece of rock, well, you can call it a sculpture even, that was 3 meters in height. It depicted a humanoid being with perfect features, almost indistinguishable to humans, if it weren''t for 3 protruding horns on its head, almost looking like a crown. All was silent around in the pit, not even cawing of birds or the small sounds of critters existed. Suddenly, a sigh emerged from the sculpture, echoing throughout the island, causing the plants and animals to rapidly change in their attitudes and began to kill one another, friend or foe. As they killed, they became more and more twisted in both body and nature, and the plants began to change as well, some becoming the hunters, while some were changing into weird, plant-like creatures. As the shouts and screeches of animals resounded throughout the island, it was still silent in the pit. Slowly, the sculpture began to shake, and the stone was rapidly¡­shedding, piece by piece. After a minute, the whole sculpture was gone; in its place was a naked woman. The woman looked disoriented and realized that she had no hair; she did a small gesture and immediately, hair began to grow once more on her head, producing gold and silver-like color shimmering once the light had hit it. She also noticed she was naked, and immediately, clothes entirely made up of elemental energy surrounded her body, making it look like she was a model. She smiled seductively, before realizing the situation. "Huh, has it been so long?" she murmured, and if anyone was present right now and heard her voice, they would have begun stripping their clothes and presenting their bodies to her, and as they fell to their desires, their bodies and life essence dolls would become corrupted. She closed her eyes as if feeling for something. "Hmm, it seems the seal collapsed¡­ so besides me, that bastard was also freed from the seal¡­damn it." She lightly humphed, before pushing out something. Immediately, 3 pairs of black, scarlet wings appeared by her back, and she began to move upwards into the sky, heading to the closest civilization possible. "I wonder how this world had developed¡­ Hell was quite boring, hopefully, the physical dimension would give me some more entertainment." As she was flying, she felt something react to the wave she had sent out earlier. "Oh? This is interesting. Where is the signal? Northwest¡­ Now it''s south? Wait, now it''s east? Huh, it disappeared? How is this possible," she said to herself, surprised. She knew that this planet was millions of kilometers away from actually being that strong. Although they had relics existing in the form of pocket spaces, she didn''t expect them to have enough powerhouses to gain control of the relics so quickly. After all, she had realized that there were scary, scary beings hidden in the depths of the ruins, that not even she would want to fight with. "Hmm, this world got a bit more interesting. I should stay longer and look for the mysterious signal." She giggled to herself, before flying towards the northwestern direction. 58 Problem At the same time, somewhere in Castille, deep in the Barvwort Mountains. A hidden cave was located inside the tallest mountain in the range, and there sat a naked man with a floating, circular halo above his head. If one would observe that halo, they would realize that multitudes of runic writings and scriptures were written there, continuously morphing and changing. The man looked as immaculate as the woman earlier. Even as he was frowning, he was someone that men and women would want to have a taste of. "How is this possible¡­the seal has been destroyed? How long has it been," the man muttered to himself, unsure of the situation. "This means she escaped as well¡­She could be anywhere-" the man paused for a bit before his face contorted to a look of puzzlement. He actually detected her¡­she was moving northwest, west to where he currently in. When he released his divine aura earlier, his scan did react towards something in that direction. However, it also immediately disappeared. Does that mean she also sensed it and was currently heading there? No! I must not let her get this and become stronger! I still have a mission to fulfill, and I cannot fail, the angelic man thought to himself. He stood up, and did a praying sign, releasing 3 pairs of white, golden wings and left the cave, passing through the rocks, minerals, and plants like they never existed, and immediately flew to the direction the woman earlier was flying to. _____________________________ Xander was currently having a headache right now. As soon as he had reached his villa, he had first detected a wave of a strong, righteous energy wave pass through his body, causing him to purify it in his body and absorb it. After all, free magic energy is magic energy. However, the next moment, he had then detected a strong, corrupting elemental wave passing by, causing him to automatically purify the aura using the Purge element under Purgatory as well as activate [Absolute Defense]. What was surprising was that a trace remained in his body, which was slowly growing. Xander was surprised, and then the system suddenly mentioned that this was a type of Hell element, Corruption, and should be erased immediately or it will affect his progression. This led to Xander teleporting to different locations in an attempt to wipe the trace, succeeding only at the third teleportation after applying the Destruction and Purge elements under Life and Death for the third time. He clearly felt that these were from 2 different sources, and the ones that released these were roughly at the same level. He used his smartwatch to check all working magic satellites and even sightings for the past 15 seconds, and saw some relevant data. Using Accelerated thinking, he came up with 2 current conclusions based on the data he had. First, these two beings are probably antagonistic to one another, due to the opposite natures of their elemental signatures. They are not natives of the planet as well, because basing it from the energy they showcased, it was above Divine class. Second, they were probably here on the planet already, because he had set an invisible, passable barrier for him to detect any outsiders entering the planet discreetly. That means, either they had just woken up from their meditations, or they were released by some sort of seal. Seal¡­wait, didn''t I discover a gigantic seal placed in the planet, Xander mused to himself. So does that mean I released these two beings from their captivity? So, it is my fault. Ugh, more work! Damn it. Xander said to himself bitterly, and then gathered the personnel in the villa. He also called for Faykes to come. After 5 minutes, they were already in the living room of the villa. He looked at each one of them before saying gravely, "I have made a mistake a few days ago." "There was a mass hallucination event if you all remember correctly?" They looked at each other, before nodding at Xander. Xander sighed, before saying, "Well, it was true. I accidentally activated a spell of mine. The good news is that yes you died, but you also didn''t die. You also gained experience of life and death. The bad news¡­" "¡­is that I may have accidentally released 2 sealed beings even I have no way of fighting. And, they are all heading here right now." "So, I need you all to leave the villa as I wipe any traces you people might have left, and protect these people, except for you Faykes. You, just go and do the task I gave you." "To clarify, I won''t be taking a no from you all. You will do what I say because frankly, it''s way easier than resurrecting you lots again. Right now, you are baggage for me, designed for me to show others, specifically the Eta government, that all is well." "So¡­leave. I''ll tell you all when you can come back." Xander did a hand gesture, causing the words the soldiers to die in their mouths. They nodded, before giving an officer''s salute to him, and they all hurriedly left to their rooms and packed their stuff up. In 10 minutes, they were done and immediately left the villa''s vicinity. Faykes also nodded in response and left the villa, following his instructions. Once everything was quiet and empty, He immediately released an elemental wave, wiping out the remnant traces left. He then set-up a multi-dimensional barrier around the villa, as well as time-reversal and time slow all over the place. He then headed to Eden to greet and talk with the sprites and magic beasts once again, talked with the 2 Seeds of Life who were now starting to create flowers, and then checked up the progress of his contracted sprites and magic beast have, before leaving and entering the laboratory. He saw that the Tree of Creation was growing nicely, and if one wasn''t sensitive to Order and Chaos elements, they would have just seen a simply old tree. It was already 60 meters in height, and 2 meters in width. Its roots were rapidly extending underground, currently with a 100-meter radius from the tree. There were no fruits being produced so he started to plant another Tree of Creation, as well as a Tree of Destruction, all three being equidistant to one another. He left and headed to the sofa in the living room, opening the hologram viewer to watch a series from Metflix. Trying to wait for his two untimely visitors to appear outside, hopefully, of the villa. After an hour, he felt visible elemental fluctuations occur in the villa''s protective barrier, however, he acted like he didn''t notice it and continued watching. Minutes passed, and Xander spoke out, without pausing the episode, "Are you just going to stand there all night? Sit. We''re still waiting for the other one to come in." ________________________________ Cenele had reached the general area of where the thing reacted with her magic. From the conversations she had casually with the folks in this place, it seems this was called Callows City, a city under the country called Eta. She also browsed a bit in the library to double-check what was the time and era she had been sealed. She was surprised to see that it had been more than 600,000 years ago. 600,000 years¡­ although for them 6-winged devils, such a time could pass in a blink of their eyes, it was still quite shocking that she had been trapped in such a puny planet for this amount of time. She closed the book she was reading virtually and left the library. She was now going to search for the mystery person or thing that had caused a reaction to her spells. "Hmm¡­should I release a stronger magic wave to see if it reacts again?" Cenele pondered to herself, before discovering a clue: There was a villa that her spiritual perception couldn''t get into! Although this was a unique trait common to Celestials and Infernals, and that they have ways of blocking this ability, she hasn''t experienced such a thing in the physical dimension. Cenele wasn''t stupid, so the appearance of that villa seemed like a beacon for her to enter. When she came to look at the villa, she was more astounded, because it was built with layers upon layers of shifting dimensions, continuously changing every fraction of a second. Could the person or thing that reacted to my power be proficient in the space element, Cenele thought to herself. Although traversing multiple dimensions is easy for Infernals, traveling through a multi-layered, multi-shift dimensional barrier is not, because they have to find the right moment to strike to create a hole into the actual space they wanted to get into. If they strike at the wrong time, it just creates a whole in one dimension but doesn''t manage to go to the other dimension. She needed to ensure the dimensions that appear in that fraction of a second are actually one right after the other. If one were to visualize how dimensions exist, they would begin to visualize it as a big-ass pancake stack. Dimension 0 to Dimension Z in an ordered arrangement. At Dimension 0, there would be other stacks, such as Dimension 0 to Dimension C, 0 to E, Dimension 0 to 1, etc. On Dimension 1, there would a set of stacks as well connected to it, from 1 to Z, 1 to A, 1 to X, etc. And they are all interconnected. This meant that if stack one (Dimension 1 to 3) contains D1, 2, and 3, and stack two (Dimension 1 to A) contains D1, 2, 3, 4¡­ and A, these dimensions share the same dimensions 1, 2, and 3. As Infernals and Celestials, they had been trained to master configurations of dimensions in the Universe, allowing them to take the most optimal/safest/fastest path possible. She quickly calmed down and began to observe the shifting dimensions. After nearly an hour, she finally managed to break a direct hole to the villa itself, entering within less than a fraction of a second. She saw herself appear in the living room, and saw a¡­ child, watching something play in front. It wasn''t like the television she knew of 600,000 years ago, but rather 3-dimensional, almost as if you can be part of the situation that was being played out. She scanned the whole villa and saw there was only this child present in the whole house. She also detected 2 different space pockets, one of which was at the wrist of the kid, and one at the basement below. However, when she tried to go to the basement, she was stopped by the protective layers of metal alloy. Her magic and physical attributes couldn''t even dent the thing. Cenele was surprised, wondering if the citizens of this planet had reached this level of mastery in material formation. She returned to the living room and still saw the kid watching like he didn''t hear the noise she made when she attempted to break into the basement. She was deciding what steps she should take when she finally heard a voice coming from the kid''s direction. "Are you going to stand there all night? Sit. We''re still waiting for the other one to come in." Upon hearing the child-like voice, Cenele was surprised to hear that the kid was able to sense her, much less discover that she was already in the villa. What surprised her more, was that her body was suddenly subjected to an outside force, controlling her movements as she was taken aback. As she neared the couch, however, she used her powers to break the space bindings on her body, and sensually and casually took a seat on one of the couches, before staring at the little kid. "Kid, you''re impressive. What''s your name?" Cenele asked, her voice dripping with seductiveness and "Hmm? Elements of Concupiscence and¡­ Corruption? That''s quite rare. An infernal? In the physical dimension? Aren''t you stationed in the Abyss and in Hell realms? What are you doing here?" Xander responded to Cenele''s question by questioning her, throwing her back. "Oh? It seems you know what I am. Are you the one that triggered my magic wave earlier?" "You mean that trashy corruption mark? I purged and destroyed it. Quite a hassle really. Can you like, return to your dimension, grandma?" Xander said while yawning, causing Cenele to smile a bit colder than before. "Teehee, how could a little boy like you understand such matters of adults? How can you call me a grandma, kiddo, that hurts my feelings! Call me, hmm, Sister Cen, that''s about right. Yeah, call me Sister Cen." She said forcefully in response. After all, no woman would want to be called a granny by a kid, no doubt. "Ok Sister Cen, can you like get the fuck out of this dimension and head to your home dimension? I promise I''ll even open a direct pathway for you to go if you agree." Xander said cutely, but his words were quite sharp and jarring for Cenele''s ears. Even though Infernals were denoted as devils and demons, they were quite sophisticated, albeit can be a bit brash, of a race. "Now, now boya. Don''t you want to have fun with this sister?" Cenele said, attempting to seduce Xander. Xander just rolled his eyes and asked, "Where''s your horns sister Cen? Don''t tell me¡­ did you break them? What a clumsy infernal, this one." Cenele wanted to burst out with her power and just beat Xander senseless, but the moment she had that though, a strong sense of existential crisis appeared in her very being, warning her about her thoughts, so she just blew a raspberry at him. After a while, Cenele became bored, so she continued to release more and more of her powers of concupiscence that had a hint of corruption, causing Xander''s face to scrunch up in distaste. He waved his hand and everything in villa suddenly glowed, before disappearing, and then being replaced by a new set of the same stuff. He then shot Cenele a look. "Stop dirtying my house. The next time you do that, I''ll be sending you on a trip in the void." Cenele wasn''t bothered with his threat, but she did tone down in the usage of her powers, relying on her natural charm. This was continuously done by her as she watched with Xander the show being displayed, screaming and crying when she saw a character suddenly die and stuff happened. This went on for 10-30 more minutes, causing Xander to glance at Cenele and give her a weird look. It was by this time, he finally detected another being''s presence, causing him to pause the hologram, to the annoyance of Cenele, who was engrossed with the current episode. "Finally, he''s here." Upon saying these words, an immaculate-looking, well-toned man appeared in his living room, passing through the door like it never existed. "Hmm¡­ Chastity and Charity elements¡­ A celestial? Why did Heaven send you to arrest the infernal, don''t they know she has the Corruption element? Sheesh, quite a shoddy work. Hmm, maybe he''s from the Blessings Court, given his body and looks. Tsk." "Gahaha- oh my, sorry Michel, I didn''t know you were from THAT division. HAHAHA oh my gosh!" Cenele burst out, laughing at the words Xander said at the angel, causing the latter, Michel, to turn red in anger. After all, he didn''t have Patience or Temperance as his primary element. He turned to look at Xander, who on the other hand, just forced the two of them to shut up by locking the space around and in them. "Shut it angel, I don''t care what you are going to say. You too demoness. Just don''t speak, both of you. First, I was the one that broke the seal by accident, since I basically destroyed the planet and reformed it again before anyone noticed something different. I don''t care what your grievances are, but if you plan to stay in this planet, just follow 2 simple rules." "First rule: Do not kill anyone indiscriminately. If you do, I''ll personally file a complaint with your superiors in the respective dimensions. Yes, I can directly teleport you guys to the deepest depths of your respective dimensions even if you are a 6-winged. Yes, I can request an audience to the Almighty and the Fallen quite easily, since I can connect to the ordered system and rat you two out." Of course, Xander was blustering about the latter part; he still couldn''t communicate or even influence the ordered system of the universe he is in. However, these two didn''t know that, right? "Second and most important rule. Do not bother or interact with me at all if you decide to stay in the physical dimension. Do not follow me, or do not attempt to manipulate or threaten the people around me. Do anything of the sort, I''ll assure you, I will destroy the planet once again in the same fashion that caused your seals to be destroyed alongside the two of you." Xander paused and looked at the two beings. "If you both plan to leave the planet, and continue your fight in the wide wide universe, please make sure to do so 30 light-years away from the planet." "If you agree to this terms, make an existential vow to the Almighty and to the Fallen right now," Xander said, before removing the constraints the two were experiencing. In truth, he could only forcefully maintain it for 10 minutes, especially since they were already a 6-winged being. It was roughly equivalent to a Sage-6 cultivator. If they were Divine rank or 5-winged, he could maintain it for an hour. At 4-winged or Demigod, He could easily maintain it for a day. The information he got concerning infernals and celestials came from the system, which Xander sent to do a data harvesting on the realms under the control of Infernals and Celestials. Probably their own AIs are having a breakdown right now concerning their data breach, but oh well, not his problem. However, as expected, instead of creating a vow, they launched their attacks towards one another and towards Xander, which just pissed him off. He snapped his fingers. Immediately all their attacks stilled in mid-air. Surprise colored their faces, before puzzlement, and then a realization. They looked at Xander with wariness. "Finally caught on, huh? Yes, welcome to one of my baby semi-independent universal space. It even has its own dimensions! Everything, by the way, is under my control in this space. Quite nice, isn''t it?" "Now, since you both decided not to actually make the vow, I have no choice but to send this to the nearest Void hole and dump it outside the universe. See you guys, well, never, I guess?" Xander moved towards the staircase slowly, as if waiting for something. And it wasn''t in vain. After 5 seconds, it was Cenele who cracked first. "Wait, I''ll make a vow! Just don''t send me outside!" She firmly believed that Xander had that ability. Why? Well, doesn''t the livable pocket space that has its own ordered system an example of his capability? She wasn''t stupid; she felt that there was something obstructing her natural connection to the Ordered system, so the kid must be telling the truth. She immediately began her vow, not missing any part, or attempting to find a loophole. Once she was done, she felt something shackle in the depths of her heart, and into her partially-fused Elemental Essence Stone, connecting her deeper to the Fallen. This was why no one from Celestials and Infernals likes to make an existential vow. Vows had a stronger attachment to their very being. Upon seeing her complete the ritual, Xander looked at Michel, who was quite proud and angry at the same time, before he decided to make a vow as well to the Almighty. These vows were quite detrimental if broken because by then, the Almighty or the Fallen can have a right to your own existence, and may begin deciding for you if too many vows were made and broken as well. 59 Biconscious Control II Seeing the two of them create the vow, he dismissed the pocket space, immediately transporting them to the actual space where the Villa was. He then signaled them to leave, and not bother him at all. He didn''t really care about what they wanted to do, as long as it didn''t involve him. He then went upstairs after eating his dinner, took a refreshing bath, and then went to bed. The barrier surrounding his house was already removed, but he had placed several traps and pitfalls if anyone were to invade his home again. ____________________________ Once the two beings left, Cenele immediately flew her destination unknown. Michel, on the other hand, went to follow Cenele, as he had the mission to convert her into the path of Heaven. "Cenele, come on! It''s been 600,000 years. Are you not tired of this? Return back with me, and let me plead on your behalf!" "I''m not an idiot, Michel. I know what they''ll attempt to do with my powers and my very existence. I have heard stories and personally saw someone do it to a friend of mine. I will never want to experience that!" Michel sighed, as he could not deny what Cenele had said. After all, he had seen many, many others being "purified" and even participate in some of them. "Then you leave me no choice. I''ll have to do it by force." Michel quickly sped up, attempting to reach Cenele. Her, being prepared, immediately shifted the dimension she was located in, causing Michel to stop, and then trace where she was going through the small spatial trace the Cenele produced when she changed dimensions. However, to his surprise, he couldn''t find a trace of her at all! It wasn''t blocked, rather, it didn''t exist in the first place! This left him dumbfounded for a bit before he shook his head and attempted to trace her somewhere else. Cenele continued to move through different dimensions, before realizing that it''s been a long time since Michel located her, causing her to be suspicious. She then did a quick scan and was surprised that her dimensional movement was not causing any fluctuations. She was surprised, before being confused, and then being wary. She knew her current abilities would not allow her to experience such a benefit, so someone must have cast it before she had left. Could it be? It''s that kid earlier, Cenele thought to herself, before shaking her head. She made a vow. She can''t come and disturb him or else she''ll return to Hell or the Abyss, which were quite gloomy despite their progression in housing and education. Not only that, but she would also be controlled by the Fallen since she failed her vow. Ugh, not a good day. Anyhow, with this, they are both even now, hehe. I don''t know how long this lasts, but I''ll leave this planet and travel somewhere else. "Hehe, Thank you boya, but I hope we don''t meet again in the future," Cenele whispered quietly as if she assumed that Xander could hear her voice. However, little did they know, back in the villa, Xander was smiling, his hand drifting down his bed, his eyes closed. After a while, light snores could be heard. __________________________________ Xander woke up the next morning a bit sleepy. He took a bath and dressed up, before heading to the school campus by teleporting to a vacant, secluded area of the campus. He headed to the Magic Training building and went straight to the second floor to eat breakfast. They had good dishes served for today, which was good. For the next few hours, he was just eating and browsing the website. He headed to his class 15 minutes before it started, and began to talk to his classmates, as well as with Faykes and the others. The class proceeded smoothly, and they began their Magic meditation successfully. Once again, some of the students continue to have an easy experience of entering Magic meditation with Xander''s help. For the rest of the class, nothing went awry, to the delight of Ms. Lim. The class finished and Xander left, with Faykes and Maryann following him to the 2nd floor of the Elemental Control building. Xander ordered his food, with the duo also eating and chatting with one another. After a few minutes of eating, Valerie and Carly appeared in the cafeteria, and also joined the trio in their table. Mostly, they were sharing their experiences with one another, as well as throwing ideas concerning their respective spells. After an hour of eating, Xander and the rest went downstairs and began to talk to the other students. The class was about to start, and Ms. Amelia had already entered the building. She gave a quick overview and let everyone settle into their groups. However, just as they began to move, Xander raised his hand, wanting to ask a question. "Yes, Mr. Cloverfield?" "Ms. Wineheart, Is it possible for me to group with the following people? I might not be going to school tomorrow as I have to submit a school mission tomorrow, overseas. I plan to demonstrate Biconscious control to them and leave them to their own devices afterward." Ms. Amelia was taken aback upon receiving the list of students, before thinking of another way for the whole class to learn conductively. "Ok, how about this: You demonstrate it for the whole class to see, and also demonstrate it with these students you have selected. Are you ok with that?" Xander thought about it for a moment before agreeing. Ms. Amelia clapped her hands, catching the attention of the other students. "Class, today, we will have Mr. Cloverfield demonstrate to us the different Biconscious control types. He will also demonstrate the types of control against his sparring partners, which are Mr. Valentine, Mr. Corde, Ms. Verdny, Ms. Dykes, Ms. Cordonez, and Ms. Bernoult." Xander and his sparring partners moved quickly to the center of the training area, where Xander stood and looked around. He gestured that those behind him should move to the front to have a better view of the demonstration. After the slight adjustments, Xander began discussing Biconscious control in his own understanding. "When we hear biconscious control of elements, we assume it is conscious and subconscious control of the elements and elemental energy around the caster. But, which comes first? Is it conscious then subconscious, or the other way around? In simple terms, it''s both. Let me show you an example." Xander waved his hand, and immediately Air elements were rapidly swirling around his hand, converging and merging. After a few seconds, it suddenly turned into small, tornado-like structures, by then Xander released it at the space in front of him, causing them to gain traction and become 2 meters tall, before suddenly bursting into flames exploding in all directions. Everything that the flame touched rapidly turned into ice as well. Of course, Xander had prepared beforehand and had placed a thin barrier around the area of the demonstration. "You can see me using conscious control of a specific element, merging them and causing them to interact to one another to form a simple Wind spell, [Tornado Field], layered with a subconscious control of causing it to react with Fire elements around, to configure the Fire elements to the desired spell, [Flame Explosion], another subconscious type of spell. It is then layered with a subconscious control layer of decreasing the temperature rather than increasing it to the things it touches, freezing them. This is an example of a Conscious control to create a subconscious command, an air-type magic spell, having its own subconscious control layer which in turn gave forth to another subconscious control, a fire-type magic spell, which had its own subconscious control layer." "However, you could also do the opposite, from subconscious control, or a magic spell, to conscious control. This one''s a bit easier to do because it is similar to placing a subconscious control layer. Here''s a sample." Xander demonstrated it using [Crysis Core Blades]. He summoned three blades, each having a different color. He then created three ice sculptures in front of him. He then launched the first blade into one of the sculptures. Once the first blade hit the sculpture, the latter visibly shattered, but it did not fall down the ground, but rather remained suspended in its form. He then launched the second blade, which didn''t cause the sculpture to shatter, but turn the ice into water, but still retained its shape. There was also no temperature change that occurred. He launched the last blade, this time, the moment it touched the sculpture, a small radius around the statue was visibly crushed, with it being disintegrated into small, unidentifiable pieces, some of it producing flames, some producing tinkling sounds like it was metal being rubbed with one another. "The first one is an example of a subconscious control producing a conscious-type of control in the form of the subconscious control layer. One it hits the target, the air would rapidly solidify around the target, locking it in place and form. The second one is an example of subconscious control that had a conscious control. Basically, the ice molecules transformed into water molecules once again with the presence of water elements surrounding and inside the ice sculpture being affected by the spell. The third is an example of subconscious control that leads to conscious control of random subtype. After it crushed the ice sculpture, it pulled in the available elements around, causing the phenomenon that was seen to occur in the first place." Xander removed the barrier and called for the 6 students to enter. He then said to them, "I''ll now demonstrate a way for the magic spell to have a conscious effect of controlling, or affecting the elements being thrown at it, or around it. For now, I want you six to launch all your spells that have a secondary layer of subconscious control to me." Immediately, the group did not hesitate. They launched all their spells, targeting Xander''s location, who was just standing still. After a few minutes, the area cleared, showing Xander with his fingers twirling all over, and the spells that the 6 students launched being distorted to the point that they were collapsing bit by bit. The students were amazed at such control and speed coming from a 7-year old. After all, if they were bombarded like that, they would already have left the vicinity or be dead. Xander then looked at the students, saying to them, "I used my pseudo-class spell, [5-elements Foundation], which generally allows me to use any of the 5 elements under Yin-yang, to destabilize the runic writings by affecting their respective elements. Once the spell absorbs the elements I have placed my control, it becomes a wrestling match between the target and the caster. If the target, in this case, me, wins the match, I get to steal their control of the spell, using the elements absorbed as the entry points. If I lose, I die. This is the best motivator to learn." He then snapped his fingers, causing all the spells around him to disintegrate, and then reformed to simple elemental spells, which launched toward the 6 students, causing them to counteract using their own spells. All of their spells were rapidly destroyed and then absorbed by the spells released by Xander, however. The spells destroyed their barriers, before stopping in front of the targets, and then doing a peace sign before collapsing on its own. "This time, I used the elements that were destroyed to formulate simple elemental spells, each equivalent to a Master rank spell. This is a conscious subconscious spell formation, which requires you to have an imagination of the intended effect, knowledge of the elements, and a sufficient amount of magic and elemental energy in your body. This kind of control, I don''t really expect you guys to master easily. Usually, those in the Demigod class or higher can do this, creating spells through their imagination, knowledge, and supply of energy. Of course, there are talented ones who can do it in the Mythic class, so as long as you strive hard, it''s not really impossible." Upon hearing the first half of what Xander said, the students were amazed and were nodding in agreement. However, upon hearing the latter half, their faces twisted, looking strangely at Xander. If only Demigod class or higher can only begin doing this, and if you''re talented you can start during the Mythic class, what does that make you, a Master class, who can do it? After all, in Master class, it is expected you form your own unique spells based on the pseudo-spells you have chosen. There was a foundational basis already for your newly-made, Master rank spell. It was different from what Xander just did; he didn''t formally make a master rank spell, but rather emulated the power of it in a simple magic spell. He literally made a series of spells in just a snap of his fingers. There wasn''t even chanting or the process of casting. It was as if the spells formulated itself from the conscious control of the elements. Xander knew what was going on inside their minds, but he was unaffected. After all, he knew that he only got to this point after spending so much time in time accelerated fields, and pocket dimensions. If he didn''t have this head start at all, he would probably have a slower pace than the others. Xander then instructed the 6 to fight him one by one. The first one was Maryann. Maryann didn''t waste any time and cast her pseudo-spells, locking Xander in place using [Frost Nova] and freezing the surrounding area as well. She then prepared to cast [Devouring Firestorm], melting and absorbing the ice around Xander, making it stronger. Xander disabled the [Absolute Defense] and was just using a regular magic barrier, reinforced by almost every element he could control. When the firestorm reached the barrier, some parts froze, but they were immediately removed by the magic barrier, returning it to normal. The fire continued to rage on but it couldn''t get past the barrier. Xander then cast two Ice-type spells, [Snowstorm] and [Ice Pike], freezing the field of fire, shattering them into bits, before reforming into 3 ice pikes 2.5 meters long each. As soon as they formed, they rapidly rotated, increasing their kinetic force and speed. He then launched it towards Maryann, who activated [Ice Cage] to protect herself and let it absorb the kinetic impact. The cage shattered after the first 2 pikes, and the 3rd one was heading straight to Maryann''s head. However, 4 inches before it reached her, it stopped, before turning around and heading towards Xander. Xander immediately countered with a [Fire Ball], creating 3 blasts and dispersing the ice shards from the explosion, evaporating them. Xander raised his hand, indicating the fight was over. "Good job Maryann, you managed to delay enough time to understand how the [Ice Pike] worked by letting it hit the [Ice Cage] of yours. This is where the importance of delaying in a battle is important. You don''t really need a very high comprehension, but just enough to understand the spell. Once you do, even if your opponent, like me, has a higher comprehension than yours, you can still exploit the way the spell was made." "Not only that, but you also managed to demonstrate a bit of biconscious control. When you released your fire spell, you were actively controlling it to produce water molecules from the frozen ice around me, thus strengthening itself through its secondary layer control. You could further improve this by consciously controlling the spell''s temperature, so you can make ice and melt it alternately, creating a continuous loop of sustenance for the spell." Maryann nodded, obviously happy with the bit of progress she had shown. She just needed more time and practice. Xander then looked at Alexa, saying, "You''re up." Alexa headed straight to Xander, firing 2 [Air Blast] attacks, one of which transformed into a heavy kind of liquid material. Xander easily evaded them and fired his own [Air Blades] as well as [Water Spears]. Alexa countered the first volley of attacks by using Air Vacuum, which also affected the presence of water molecules and water elements, distorting the spells Xander launched, allowing her to take the lead. She then used [Summon Water Nymph], creating a small, delicate blue female to appear in front of her, her hair made up of waves, her body made of water. After instructing it what to do, the Nymph began attacking Xander with a variety of water spells, forcing him to counter the spells with Ice and Fire. When his fire spell hit the Nymph, however, it just fizzled out of existence a few centimeters before it hit. Xander rolled back, and cast 20 different Ice spells, as well 10 Air spells targeting the Nymph in the span of 3 seconds. Immediately, the Nymph completely froze and was shattered to ice pieces, before being ground to powder by the [Air Compression] spell. Xander then said, only audible to Alexa, "This is an example of a thought-based spell, and why they are highly sought after in the magic community." Upon hearing those words, Alexa was guarded, unsure how the spell would proceed. She didn''t relax at all, yet she found herself with the other 5 students, with all of them as well as the students watching looking at her perplexed, with confusion, shock, and horror plastered in their looks. Alexa was more confused. She asked Carly what happened, and showed the video of what happened in the last 20 seconds. It showed Xander merely smiling at Alexa, and then said, "I think you should cast an Air Blast to yourself." Immediately, she saw herself raise her hand and point it to herself, and an Air Blast was launched into her body, specifically on her shoulder. Alexa saw her body in the recording being flung high up and landing on the ground. "What are you doing? I think you should stand up." Xander''s voice continued to echo in the recording. Immediately, to her horror, she saw in the recording that her body stood up, even with the bleeding shoulder with the visible bone and viscera. "You should tap dance. After 5 seconds, you will do a headstand." Xander said, and to her horror, she still saw her body finish those actions as perfect as possible. She was still bleeding, and then she heard Xander say, "You will return to where the other 5 students are. Once you sit down, you will remember nothing." She also saw in the recording her body being surrounded by a glowing green light, with her injuries visible and internal ones being healed. Once she reached the 5 other students, the light disappeared, and she still carried her alert expression. "Everyone, you can see that Alexa had summoned a formidable water nymph, and if you weren''t able to use fire to lower the temperature and freeze the enemy, you wouldn''t be able to defeat it. Of course, other ways can be done, such as using the Radiation element to evaporate the water completely by exciting the water molecules and affecting the water element particles. You could also do an air-based attack, but this can be intercepted by someone who is proficient in Air element. One can absorb the water using Earth/metal element, but in the end, if it self-destructed, it can reform again." "For our last demonstration, Faykes, come up front." Faykes looked different than before as if he was oozing with power and confidence that wasn''t there the day before. "Congratulations on your breakthrough to Master class," Xander said to Faykes after eying him for a bit. "Thanks. It was by luck last night." Faykes responded, obviously delighted. Before he broke through, he prepared the ritual concerning the bloodline curse, removing the ''binding'' aspect of the spell, not affecting his magic circles whatsoever. Those who heard this were surprised. Another one who broke through to Master class? In their class? This was unexpected news. "Don''t hesitate to use your Master class spells and pseudo-spells," Xander said before he cast 2 spells, [Heavenly Divination] and prepared for [Apocalypse Down]. Since the latter was an array, he needed a few breaths of time to complete its casting. It was different from the space-time spells that he can activate in a whim since the focus of this spell is the Yin-yang element. Similar to how he needed time to cast [Garden of Eden], as well as [Twilight Sonata]. Ms. Amelia, who was supervising the class, heard a whisper in her ears, "Ms. Wineheart, please evacuate the students up to 20 meters away. It''s for their safety. I might not be able to heal or resurrect them if they are closer." The same message appeared to the ears of the other 5 students, immediately retreating and gathering the students 20 meters away. Everyone was holding their breath. It was a showdown between 2 Master magicians, up close. 60 Traveling to Nema Faykes did the first move. "As the dragon rises from the sea, breath out water and roar out flames. Let everything be cleansed! [Anzu''s Breath]!" Immediately, the area where Xander and Faykes were changed, with a silhouette of a lion-like eagle appearing before Faykes. The lion-like eagle was standing straight, and looked at Xander, before it opened its mouth and unleashed it breath, containing pressurized burning water, as well as a stream of fire that seemed to destroy and distort everything. Xander merely gazed at it before raising a pointed finger, and upon contact with the breath, it collapsed into ashes. His eyes were now purely silver and purely black, eliciting a hint of terror to Faykes and everyone in the room who caught a glimpse of it. Xander then smiled, before releasing his spell, [Apocalypse Down]. "Let Light and Darkness reverse. Let the order collapse. Let everything return to Chaos." Upon uttering those words, the entire room turned pitch black; not only were the students surprised and scared but so was Ms. Amelia. She had recognized the fluctuation of the spell and knew that it was a Legendary-level magic array. The whole building was affected, and even those in the outside could see just a dark dome surround the entire building. Even the weird old man was roused from his nap, and looking at the situation, he muttered, "Huh, a spell that reverses light and darkness, disordering the rules of the universe in the area. Quite fancy. Wonder who made the spell?" He wanted to find out, but he was too lazy to leave his post. He also saw that the darkness was shrinking back, making it smaller and smaller, receding from outside of the building to where Xander and Faykes were fighting. Everyone had their sight returned, and saw the dark dome surrounding the area where Xander and Faykes were in. Ms. Amelia noticed one thing, however: the elemental particles in the area of the building were stripped away; not a single elemental particle remained. Although there were some particles slowly entering the building, they were rapidly absorbed by the dark dome. Xander, who was calmly inside the dark dome, simply told Faykes to leave the area. Faykes nodded because he recognized the destructive power in the spell. Xander then whispered, yet his voice was heard by everyone in the room, "Let it go asunder." Immediately, the dark dome began cracking, shattering into pieces but rather than releasing the power, it began to wreak havoc in the space inside. Of course, Xander was safe, as the spell was fully under his control. The dark dome completely collapsed, and everyone saw an empty, glaring kind of darkness different from earlier, with Xander standing right in the middle of it. It looked like a painting for the students, and the moment the whole thing collapsed, Xander suddenly stepped out of the space, revealing his 3-D structure once again. Everyone visibly saw the dark, scarlet red streaks and dark lines converging in that empty darkness, as well as the irresistible pulling force it was emanating. Several of the students almost fell to it, starting to move towards it, but Ms. Amelia immediately knocked them out and created a barrier around the students. Some of the students who stared too much were also changing a bit, part by part, which was noticed by Xander. To Amelia''s surprise, the barrier was rapidly disintegrating as well, being absorbed, or more aptly, corrupted. After a few more seconds, the pull disappeared, and the weird, dark mass rapidly congealed, creating a seed-like structure, which Xander immediately held and "placed" in his bag. He then cast a wide-range time reversal for the students and items around in the first floor, returning their state to 1 minute before the situation, removing the corruption in their bodies and in the physical matter. The students woke up, unsure of what had happened to them, as they only remembered staring at the darkness. By this time, Xander''s eyes were back to normal already. Ms. Amelia came close to Xander, before slapping him in the face, hard. Xander was surprised. The 6 students were surprised. Everyone was surprised. "What is wrong with you, Mr. Cloverfield? Casting a large-scale magic array, at the level of a Legendary magician, inside the campus? Do you think life is nothing to you? Do you know what might have happened if the spell backfired to you? Worse, do you know what would happen if you lose control of the spell? It would kill everyone in the building!" Ms. Amelia shouted at Xander. The other students were bewildered. Xander can cast Legendary rank spells as a Master magician? "I am sorry for that outburst, Mr. Cloverfield, but I felt it must be said. Life isn''t just a simple game. That was why I allowed you to demonstrate to the class to teach them how to protect themselves. Please expect that your parents will be hearing from the school concerning your actions of endangering the students, as well as the other parents of the students." Ms. Amelia said, and her words did allow the students to ponder about the situation. Xander, after listening to Ms. Amelia, frowned. He wasn''t frowning at her outburst or her words, but because he felt like there was something wrong with him. He immediately asked the System to do a complete body analysis as well as a recording of his brain processes for the past 2 minutes. After a split second, the results were out and saw the current emissions of hormones and neurotransmitters in his body were very high in the past 2 minutes as if it has been artificially boosted. "System, was there any signs of intrusions in my life essence doll? As well as my body itself?" He asked, since supposedly, no spells should work against his life essence doll. "Scanning¡­negative. No intrusions or artificial addition of hormones and neurotransmitters have been detected." "Can you scan the high levels and interpret them in medical terms?" "Scanning¡­ You have experienced joy and thrill in the first 1 minute in human terms. For the next 30 seconds, you experienced an emotion quite different from humans; this might be due to you activating [Divine Eyes]. For the remaining 30 seconds that you endured the slap from Ms. Wineheart, it ranged from surprise, anger, guilt, and disappointment to oneself. However, these emotions were immediately filtered out by your increased comprehension of the Emotion series." Xander was enlightened, before changing his look into a remorseful one, and said to Ms. Amelia in reply, "Ms. Wineheart, I am sorry. I was too overconfident with my control ability that I almost forgot the safety of my classmates and the people in the building. However, in my defense, the man guarding the library on the third floor is at least a Divine magician. He could easily stop the spell if he wanted to. That was my second layer of guarantee as to why I used a magic array. However, if there would be another next time, I promise to consult with you and allow you to get the necessary forms and permits," his voice remorseful and full of guilt, while also stating why he did his actions. He then turned to his classmates, and did a 90-degree bow, before saying, "Classmates, I am sorry for exposing you to harm. I let my rationality and thoughts win over the idea of your safety in this demonstration. I had strongly believed that with my healing abilities and resurrection skills, as well as the protection from the man in the library, you all would be safe. However, I hope this also helps you in the future, to recognize the kinds of spells and people that you must avoid fighting or getting into bad terms. Although our world is a civilized one, if you plan to explore the starry skies in the future, you must be prepared to meet different cultures, different societies, and different types of enemies. The stronger you become, the more powerful your enemies become as well. You either choose to be a frog in a well or soar up and explore the jungle." At this point, he was barely holding a sob, it was fake of course, but he did so for the students to realize he was doing it for their benefit, and also they would sympathize with him, starting with the girls, then the boys. And, well, it worked. The students began rushing at Xander, in attempts to console him and even said, "we''re alive, aren''t we? And we also learned a lot from you!" Xander used his teary-eyed look and voice, asking, "really?" The sadness and self-disappointment in his voice broke the girls'' and boys'' hearts. They hurriedly nodded, causing Xander to smile, even though it looked a bit sad. "Ok. Next time, I won''t do it no more without permission from Ms. Wineheart and the other professors." Xander said, bowing his body 90 degrees once again. Ms. Amelia then steered the class once again to practice. After the demonstration, Xander moved from group to group, giving hints and ideas on how to resolve their problems in elemental control, while also giving some examples and ideas. Ms. Amelia, on the other hand, had prepared the reports to be sent to the main server of the university, to be discussed by the other professors and the dean. At the same time, all the involved students'' parents were notified of the situation. The class proceeded normally and ended with a good note. He headed to one of the secluded areas of the campus and teleported to his villa. Once he reached his villa, he received a video call from both his parents, which he answered, albeit reluctantly. Majes and Faria''s holograms appeared, projected into the screen. It was Faria who spoke to Xander first. "Honey, are you ok? The school sent out a notice to all the parents in your class. I''ve seen the recording, but I wanted to hear from you directly: what exactly happened?" Xander sighed, and then recounted everything. He finished it, saying, "¡­I don''t really know why Ms. Amelia overreacted. I could easily resurrect them perfectly anyways if anything went awry." "¡­" Faria was momentarily silent, unsure of what to do. It was Majes that began to talk. "¡­Xander, son, it''s because of the idea of valuing life is ingrained to us, as a civilized society. Although you can resurrect them easily, it doesn''t mean their value is degraded." "¡­But we only give it value. In truth, we don''t have any value. We are just assembled pieces of matter that managed to gain sentience that allowed us to gain power. And for what? For a repetitive cycle of the continuous attempt of breaking the limit and seeing what the world, the universe, and beyond have to offer." "¡­" It was Majes'' turn to be silent. Faria coughed a bit, before starting the conversation once again. "Sweetie, life doesn''t have value, but we give it value. For example, what is the favorite thing you do every day?" "Hmm¡­Eating. Learning. Sleeping. Training." Xander thought for a while before responding. "See? Your actions already attempt to give meaning and value to your life. We humans set goals to follow in life. You already have set yours, and you should continue following the things that make you happy, the ones that make you feel alive." "¡­I get it now, mom. Thanks! I now realize my mistake. I should have paid an equivalent value for their lives if they die, right? As reparation." Xander said, his face serious. He was thinking of paying them with rare metals and plant materials. Majes and Faria''s faces froze for a bit before Faria smiled and responded, "Er, honey, no. For lives that could be avoided from being lost, they shouldn''t be lost in the first place." She then looked at Majes, hoping for him to back her up. Majes nodded seriously, before saying, "That''s right, son. If I and your mom died, what would you do? And you realized that you cannot resurrect us, wouldn''t you get mad? That''s what Ms. Amelia was saying. Life is precious." Xander remained silent. He just couldn''t tell them that the universe basically has a backup copy of each and every sentient being, can he? And that he could just get an old version of the two from the past to the future, skipping the event from happening all over again. Another way was to kill himself and return to several days and months before their deaths, changing the outcome. "I-I understand mom, dad. Ok ma, pa, I gotta go and eat dinner. Oh, right, I sent a gift to both of you, check it in your rooms once you go back. The instructions on how to use it are also there." Xander waved goodbye to the two, before ending the call. He then recreated the food he had in Arder and ate for like an hour. Half-way through his meal, his smartwatch buzzed again, both his parents were calling once again. Xander sighed, and accepted the call after ensuring the encryption of the call isn''t compromised nor are there any recording mechanisms. "Since you called again, I assume this is about the gifts I left? They''re easy to use already, you just need to-" "XANDER M. CLOVERFIELD. YOU BETTER EXPLAIN YOURSELF. WHA- HOW DID YOU EVEN HAVE THIS ITEM?" Faria and Majes'' surprised and at the same time angry and worried voices resounded the dining room. Xander sighed, before telling them the prepared story. "I got it from a friend of mine. I don''t know if I can tell you his name. He began talking to me around 4, 4.5 years ago, if I''m not mistaken. Before he left, he gave me these three items, saying that it was a parting gift. I used one of them, but I didn''t like the design so it''s just in my room, as a design." "The remaining two, I gave it to you both. One''s a ring, and another''s a necklace. So that fits dad and mom''s design, so I was like, why not?" "Er, son, is the name of your friend have the last name of ''Simpson''?" Faria asked, a bit calmer between the two. Xander ''acted'' that he was surprised, and said, "How did you know? It was fun talking to uncle Simpson. He had a lot of knowledge about stuff. I didn''t like that he made fun of your project though, dad. He said it was doomed to failure," with him acting indignant in front of his dad and mom. Both his parents were silent for a bit, looking briefly at one another. After a while, his dad, rather than get mad, was more excited, causing Xander to ''act'' confused at his dad''s reaction. "Eh? What did your uncle Simpson tell you about the project? Did he elaborate on why it would fail?" "Huh? Oh, I think he mentioned that you were using the wrong alloys, as well as the runic writing you are using will allow only sub-luminal traveling speed. It will still travel slower than a Demigod moving in space, making it non-ideal." "Eh? That''s all? What did he say about the math, was it all-" "Ehem. Ok, honey, we were just confused and scared for a second that you were placing yourself in a dangerous situation to obtain those items. Don''t worry, mom and dad will keep it a secret, right, HONEY?" "Eh? Ah! Yes, yes, my wife is always right, hehe. Stay safe son!" "Ok, will do. By the way mom, dad, I need to travel to Nema this Friday, I''ll probably be back on Monday. I need to submit a school mission to a partner institute of the university. Is that ok? Also, just remember, those items can save you once from disaster after a full recharge." Xander said seriously, before ending the call, not giving them a chance to reject his proposition to travel to Nema. He didn''t add the part that it would allow enough time for me to travel to their position and do a rescue mission. Xander sighed and finished his food. Having guards and maids to serve me really made a difference. Anyways, after I return from Nema, they can probably return as well by that time. He had already booked 1 round-trip ticket from Eta to Nema, for tomorrow until Monday morning next week. Hopefully, he could gain a lot from this trip. ___________________________________ Eta government headquarters. Underground chamber meeting. Several key officials and military personnel were present. "Good evening to everyone. We are here to talk about X-001 and his current level of importance to the country. I will show you a clip from earlier today, to show you the importance of this meeting." "General Farm, with all due respect, if this is about X-001 or Xander Cloverfield, haven''t we placed him into the 3rd level of surveillance and protection we can offer for someone at his ability? Are you saying we should invest more resources towards this person?" A young man in his 30s asked the general, with obvious discontent plastered in his face. General Farm, on the other hand, merely took a deep breath, calming himself down before speaking to the person that just spoke up. "Mr. Azazuma, please watch the video, and you will realize what I am trying to say." He said it politely, before playing the hologram video. After a few minutes, everyone was silent. "General Farm¡­ is it really true? A Master magician able to cast such a powerful legendary rank magic array, on his own?" A respectable-looking man asked the general, his voice cracking and quivering for a bit, unknown if it is out of excitement or fear. General Farm nodded, responding, "That''s right Dr. Kovac, we only have verbal confirmation that X-001 is currently a Master magician. We are unsure how many exactly had he integrated, and has only revealed 1 Master rank spell so far." "I plan to request all of you to raise his level of surveillance and protection to 1st rank, the same level as C-034 and A-023. I placed this meeting as urgent for today because earlier today, the target had booked a round-trip ticket going to Nema. "We cannot cancel the booked ticket nor block him from going to Nema because he currently has a legitimate reason to do so, which was to submit a school mission to one of the partner universities of Grand Hyatt University, Camasutra University. The person in question is Professor Ameritus Lindhart." "Another reason we cannot block it is the influence of the Cloverfield and Morningstar clans. He has the backing of the two clans, making it nearly impossible to forcefully make him go to military school or even stay within the borders." Upon saying this, the general eyed one of the present representatives from the Cloverfield clan, who was Veirhardt Cloverfield. He merely smiled lightly, as he and the rest of the elders had been informed by Majes earlier about Xander''s plan to go to Nema. They already planned to send an escort to accompany and protect him on the journey as well as in Nema itself. "No need to worry, General. Although our clan is widespread, the branch in Eta is loyal to Eta, as long as it is still in line with what the clan wants." Veirhardt smiled calmly as if this wasn''t really much of a bother. "Concerning the Morningstar clan, well, they''re stationed in Nerzon, which means they don''t need to step into the situation, as long as we, the Cloverfields, can still handle it." He continued, sipping his tea afterward. General Farm nodded in response. "Currently, the guards and maids around the target have already reached Legendary class, but they are already unsuitable for the mission of surveillance and protection. I plan to send 6 new people once X-001 returns from Nema, with 4 of them having a cultivation of Mythic and 2 of them being Demigods. All in agreement?" General Farm asked the committee, who didn''t say anything to counter the situation. Seeing no one disagreeing as even Mr. Azazuma remained quiet, he nodded to everyone and did a military salute to all of them, saying, "The meeting has been concluded. Thank you." Before fading out. The rest also sent their farewells and left the conference room. Veirhardt was in the branch headquarters in Eta, where he assigned 3 senior members of the clan to follow Xander and ensure his protection. These members were all at Demigod-2 rank and knew their responsibilities very well. They all nodded and left, heading towards Delta province. _____________________________ Xander was preparing to sleep when he heard the doorbell ring in the front gate of the villa. He opened his eyes and saw from his room the presence of 3 Demigods appearing in front of his house, confusing him for a moment, before calling his dad. After a few minutes of talking, he headed downstairs and opened the villa door, appearing in the demigods'' sight. He opened the gate remotely, before saying to them, "my seniors in Cloverfield, right? How are you? Please, come in." Xander smiled at them warmly, his face radiating with warmth and welcoming vibes, surprising the trio. They had heard rumors that this descendant of theirs was very rational and cold. Even the initial profile established by the clan agreed to this rumor. They hadn''t expected him to be very¡­ warm and welcoming. They calmly entered the villa, unaware they entered a lion''s den. 61 Meeting When they entered, their first impression was that the interior of the villa was quite clean, as well as quite modern in terms of design, very singular-color, rather than blends or shades. The chairs, sofas, and the tables were of one color: White. The staircase leading upstairs was deep brown in color, while the flooring and the walls were light gray and silver in color respectively. They didn''t know that Xander merely redecorated it just for them a couple of minutes ago. Xander gestured them to sit comfortably at the sofa in the living room which the three did. Xander, still wearing his signature smile, asked them, "I assume you are here because of my plan to go to Nema tomorrow until next Monday, correct? You were sent here by Great-great-granduncle Veirhardt." "That''s right. You can just call us Amon, Bamon, and Gammon. I''m Gammon, the one on the left is Amon, and the one on the right is Bamon." Gammon responded to Xander''s question, introducing themselves to him. Xander smiled and introduced himself as well. "Ok, now pleasantries are over, you may stay either here in the living room and meditate or whatnot, or stay in the rooms on the first floor. Please, for your safety, do not go to the basement entrance or stay too long on the 2nd floor. There are security measures that are in place, and once you have been detected, well, even I can''t stop them from activating. Have a good night." Xander spoke, his voice still calm and warm to the listeners, but the words present did send a hint of alarm to the trio. Xander headed upstairs and entered his room, where his entire presence was masked, before heading to Eden. He once again spoke to the sprites and magic beasts, as well as played around with some of them. After a few years, he left, returning to his room. Both Sam and Pan were merely 6 days away from becoming Demigods. By next week''s Wednesday, he can showcase them out in the world once again. He then left and headed towards the laboratory, where he checked the situation of the small garden there. He was surprised to see that space seemed more¡­complete? Could this be attributed to the presence of destruction and creation trees? He looked at the wrinkled, decayed-looking tree between two, lush, humongous trees, that was roughly the same height as the other two. It felt like it was never going to bloom anything, not even leaves, or flowers. He also noticed that the plants, soil, and the materials he left in the laboratory were slowly being infused by some sort of energy, transforming their very essence. For now, Xander wasn''t sure whether this was a good or bad thing. Should I plant another destruction tree to check if they bear fruits, Xander thought to himself. After all, the Trees of Creation were already blooming flowers, which made it a possibility that they can produce their own fruits and seeds. He was excited about the development of the trees, and the whole laboratory space itself. He planted another Destruction Seed, this time, besides the first Destruction Seed that he planted. After all, the space between the trees was triangular and the trees'' roots and foliage continued to expand outward, creating a picturesque scene. He left the laboratory, and then headed back to his room, ready for bed. Hopefully, everything will be normal, Xander thought as he went to sleep. _____________________________ The next morning, Xander woke up very early, and ate food that he had conjured in the "oven", and began eating a scrumptious feast. None of the trio wanted to eat, so Xander had a moment of solitude. After half an hour, he finished up and took a shower, prepared his bag, and headed out of the villa with the three demigods. Instead of taking the car, the three decided to just fly to the closest international airport, which was in Beta province. He scanned his smartwatch, and underwent security checks and protocols, and was now in the boarding area along with the demigods in less than 10 minutes. After all, he did buy a First class ticket. The other 3 demigods had a free ride and free upgrade to First class like all demigods all over the world. For one, it is for publicity of the airline, and two, they function as added security. After all, there are sometimes mishaps that happen in the middle of the ocean and high up in the sky; sometimes, they might pass by a magic beast that zaps the whole plane, or a flock of magic beasts that begin to attack the windows and the like. In fact, Xander could have just asked the three to fly him towards Nema, but they might be considered invaders if they did it the unofficial way, causing delay and unnecessary questioning and a waste of time. Also, he wanted to ride an airplane, as he hasn''t left the country since he was born (except when he left the planet of course). He was enjoying himself at the first-class lounge, with a small buffet present. The other three were merely drinking tea and were vigilantly taking watch. He rolled his eyes since basically no one can harm him and ensure he dies permanently. Space-time reversal, anyone? Heck, he can even return to when he was born and start over again if he wanted to. For the next hour, he was merely eating, playing with his smartwatch, and reading articles online and research papers. Xander checked the time and saw that the plane was going to board in 10 minutes, so he stood up from the sofa and headed to the airline gate. As he was a priority, he was already inside the walking platform and was guided by a nice stewardess to the plane doors, where another stewardess personally escorted Xander and the demigods to their cabins. Xander realized that they were occupying two rows of cabins, with 1 at the back, 2 at my side. He merely relaxed and connected his smartwatch to the terminal present in his own cabin. He laid down the bed, as soothing, soft music entered his ears. Accordingly, the flight was going to take 21 hours as it was a non-stop flight, so Xander decided to sleep and then wake up 10 hours later to visit Eden. He also instructed the trio that he was going to sleep, and if there were outside disturbances outside the plane, they are free to kill. He also requested them to check up in his cabin if he wasn''t awake in 10 hours. He closed his eyes, and fell into a dark, dreamless state. _____________________________ It was quite weird to experience being active in one''s dreams. I touched my hands, and it feels real, yet I know I am merely sleeping. Yet, as I continue to think, to imagine, the dark, dark dream of mine was slowly filling up with life. Plants of various species all over the planets he had visited, exotic animals and insects growling and chirping, making their own unique sounds in my dream. I see my home, floating in an enormous, well-defined rock. In just a blink, I appear on the top of the rock, and a magnificent castle of my design appeared. Dead-end stairways, multiple circular paths, and dead-ends, as well as eternal spires, never reaching the top floor. Inverse walkways, places with no gravity, and even doors leading to other worlds were all around the building. He headed straight to the throne room, where he sat in the golden throne, yet no one was beholden to him. This was what he wanted, however. He wanted solitude but can never reach it because his entire being is focused on being interrelated to one another. He wanted no ties, but he cannot get rid of them because of the love and care he has for his family and friends. All he can do now, is just persevere. Persevere to reach an unreachable goal. At this, Xander felt enlightened, as if something was awakening inside his mind, his heart, his life essence. This feeling¡­ the Mind series? Huh, I didn''t expect this breakthrough. I wonder how high his comprehension is now for the Life-Death elements. It is now at 25%. Damn it, system, you scared the hell out of me! This is a dream, and you can still communicate with me? Affirmative. We are bound to one another, thus I learn and grow alongside you. Huh. Cool. Cool cool. I shook my head, before attempting to do something exciting: Dream-hopping. I wonder who should be my target? Anyone whose asleep, most likely. Let''s check the dreams around me. I moved up, up and up into the misty clouds, leaving my own dream and seeing countless dream bubbles appear in my eyes. All of them had their own unique color and shape, as well as size and density. He immediately headed to the closest one to him, and was surprised to see himself in a¡­ sex dungeon? What.the.hell. He looked around and saw the figure of a man, being whipped silly, and yet he kept moaning. The one whipping him were two people, one male, and one female. When he came closer, he saw the face of the man strapped and was embarrassed to stay any longer and left the dream. Damn, I never knew one of my seniors had that kind of taste. Oh well, to each of their own. He headed to another dream, this time it was all blue. It felt cool, calming, and relaxing before I realized the whole dream bubble was an ocean. I didn''t need to breathe in a dream, nor follow physics, so I made myself walk inside the water, searching who was the dreamer. After a while, I still couldn''t find the dreamer, so I left. Little did I know, the moment I left, a figure began shimmering in the ocean, revealing a dainty girl, with a look of puzzlement. "Strange, who was that dream walker? I haven''t seen or heard of such a person that looked so young. Maybe a newly-awakened one? Hmm, I should report this to the association." The girl mumbled, before continuing her endless diving. I, on the other hand, got tired and returned to my dream. Upon returning to my dream, I wondered if the absolute defense mechanism also works here. I asked the system about it, who responded, The dream plane is considered as a dimension. Absolute defense spell should work properly here. Upon hearing the affirmative answer, I began to twist the dream bubble of mine, fortifying and manipulating the area to the point that no one can enter or leave easily, besides myself. My dream bubble was now surrounded by the same multi-phasing, multi-layered dimensional barrier my life essence doll was surrounded with. What I was worried, however, was that someone proficient in dream-walking may be able to twist the rules of space-time and enter through that gap. However, I managed to solve this by applying a bit of the [Origin Universe] spell''s power around the dream bubble, subjecting it to the rules of the semi-independent space, but not really in a semi-independent space. In other words, I just isolated my dream bubble from the rest of the dream dimension''s rules, but still allowed a 2-way connection that would ensure that I would wake up in my own dream bubble, and exit to the dream dimension. However, if someone attempted to enter my dream bubble, hehe, they can only hope to get out safely. They would literally be subjected to my whims. __________________________ After 10 hours, Xander woke up, like clockwork. He was feeling refreshed, rather than tired, even if all he did in his dreams was renovating the whole dream bubble and not relaxing. He checked the time and stopped playing the music in the terminal, and changed it to play Metflix shows. While it was playing in the background, he headed to Eden, where once again, he collected some fruits of the sentient plants he had planted, talked with the sprites and magic beasts, as well as added more books and documents into the libraries. For the past millennia, the beings in Eden were starting to write their own books, papers, and reports, and has been submitting them into the libraries for storage as well. He played with Sam and Pan, who seemed to have matured in the past 500 thousand years that they have been staying here. They still acted childish when he was around, but they were beginning to show dominance and leadership towards the sprites and magic beasts. He noticed that most of the time, sentient beings were left alone, in their own devices. No one was stopping them from entering the libraries and gaining knowledge, but no one was also inviting them proactively. Concerning the diversity of the species, luckily no new species had emerged for the past 500 thousand years, indicating his rule of "dominant" trait will be the one produced rather than mixed. He didn''t want too much diversity in the ecosystem because it would then become overtly overcomplicated, and over-reliant to one another. Of course, this only applies to Magic beasts and animals/insects in general. He took one last check around the Trees of Life, seeing the flowers starting to close and beginning to show a bulge, indicating the fruit development was on its way. It took 300+ thousand years for them to bloom, I wonder how long it would take to form the fruits, Xander wondered. He exited and appeared in his cabin once again, where he continued to watch Metflix for the next few hours while eating the served dinner. According to the time, there were 6 more hours until the flight reached its destination, so he spent some time reading up information about Nema. He checked his smartwatch and accessed the database for Nema, and began scrolling through their servers. For the past 6 hours, he had seen assassination reports, persons of interest, state projects, and secret programs, as well as the data they have obtained from the Ruins they excavated in their country. They also had in the database information concerning the clans and conglomerates in their country, as well as their respective leaders. Xander was quite surprised that there were joint projects between Eta and Nema, even though they were competing with one another and would be at war a few hundred years later. He checked the window camera and saw from his cabin the aerial view of a portion of Nema. It was quite grand, with the sun high up in the sky. The temperature right now in Nema was actually 10 degrees Celsius, which made it quite convenient to wear light clothing. It was 1:30 PM, and the plane landed safely on the ground and docked quickly. As they were leaving, the pilots and the stewardesses were all saluting the three demigods with Xander, with looks of reverence and relief present. He then eyed the trio, in which Bamon just shrugged his shoulders in response. Xander rolled his eyes and headed to the automated immigration counter reserved for first-class passengers. The process took around an hour, with most of the time being delayed by the three demigods. While they were being processed, Xander initiated a call to Professor Lindhart. "Hello, Mr. Cloverfield." "Hello, Professor Lindhart. I''ve just landed in Nema, and I''m planning to go to your university tomorrow. Is that alright with you?" "Not a problem at all, Mr. Cloverfield. I hope customs didn''t have any problems with you transporting these materials?" "Nope, none at all. See you tomorrow, professor." "Alright, see you as well." Xander ended the call, just in time to see the trio finishing the immigration processing. The four people headed out and headed to one of the properties the Cloverfields had in the country, taking around 15 minutes by maglev-car to reach. It resembled his own villa in Eta, but it had an additional third floor. It was also twice as large as his villa, with a garden, an underground garage, and a training facility in the villa grounds. There was even a large open area swimming pool. Xander placed his bags in the room he got, and he went to explore the area. For one, he made the training facility reinforced, using the same alloy that was made in the Galactic Empire, making the training room as good as a bunker and well, almost indestructible below Sage-3 level. This kind of alloy was hard to make, however, due to the rare materials required. In the Empire, they only use this alloy for certain government buildings and space ships. Once he refined the training room, he began to modify the whole villa, inserting another layer between the materials of the same alloy, ensuring their hardness and tensile strength. The 10-meter walls and the gate surrounding the villa were modified as well. Afterward, he headed outside and began exploring the city life of Fargrow, one of the 10 largest cities in Nema. He was going on a culinary trip, using the guide he got from browsing the net during his flight. For the next few hours, all he did was visit different restaurants and eat their respective delicacies, recording and analyzing the flavors each contained, for future replication. He then headed to one of the Item depositories in Fargrow, wherein he opened an anonymous account and entrusted the items, specifically, the ores required for the mission. After ensuring its security and the necessary requirements to access the account, he left the depository. Afterward, he also took pictures and hologram videos of the sightseeing areas, sharing it with his account in SeeMe. For some reason, in the past two weeks, he had gained a lot of followers and friend requests from people he didn''t personally know of. The moment he posted the photos, it was basically announcing to people that he was in Nema, and he had left the country of Eta. Just a simple sharing and uploading of photos had caused a stir to so many other people, creating great waves of unrest and opportunity. He returned to the villa, unaware of this situation until the System alerted him of several conferences being simultaneously held about him. After an hour of watching several conferences and secret meetings, Xander rubbed his eyes, before preparing dinner in the kitchen of the villa. Of course, he just replicated the dishes and began to eat. To be honest, the meetings were all just talking about how to approach him, how to kidnap him, or how to remove him. Quite boring, really, for him. He also knew that the trio, albeit silent, was following him since he left earlier this afternoon, so he knew he didn''t have anything to worry about for his safety. He headed to his room, passing by a large, antique mirror. He paused, then looked at the mirror for a bit, before using the Purge element. Immediately, a loud scream came out from the mirror, but Xander was unfazed, continuing his release of the element. "Wait, stop, stop! Agh!" "Hmm, why would there be a spirit in this mirror? Who are you?" Xander asked while decreasing the intensity of the Purge element, but it was still there. "I''m a caretaker of the house villa! Can you stop using that element! Oh my god, I''m dying here!" the spirit screamed, obviously in pain. "Oh really? I know for a fact that this villa was supposed to be empty since I was coming here for the weekend. Anyone would be removed from the premises. Now, who are you, really?" "Damn it!" The spirit howled, before exploding into bits of light. Of course, Xander already ensured that the space around the mirror is already locked, as well as the dimensions that one can pass were locked as well. In a few minutes, the spirit appeared once again, his face contorted in agony and looking malevolent, with bloodstains in his chest area, a bloody hole at where his heart was once was. Besides that, that spirit looked fine, his body well defined and trained, and was even well-endowed, seen by the bulging cloth. This was Xander''s first encounter with a half-naked spirit, wearing only ripped clothing covering his nether regions. Xander, however, wasn''t affected much and repeated in a calm, cold tone, "So, who sent you?" 62 Cannot Return Home? The spirit, rather than answer, merely screamed, attempting to disrupt Xander''s powers. Of course, such a level of attack wouldn''t work since his life essence doll was well-protected by [Ordered Life Regeneration (no Limit)]. He merely contacted his dad, asking him why there was a half-naked male spirit in the villa he was staying. This surprised him, before thinking and realizing who it was. "Er, son, you didn''t eradicate him, right?" Majes asked, his face sweating at the possible repercussions. "Huh? No. But I''m about to since it won''t answer my questions." "Eh? No, no! Let him go! That''s your grand-uncle. He''s your Grandfather''s¡­ brother. He died when an enemy destroyed his heart, and it was his lover of 60 years." "Ah? Oh. Ok, fine. I saw him snooping around in the mirror, I thought it was something or someone spying on me. Ok, bye, dad! Take care." Xander ended the call and looked at the spirit, who had heard the call. He had already visibly calmed down. Xander immediately deactivated the Space lock in the area, allowing the spirit to appear in the material plane once again. "Next time, don''t snoop at me, grand-uncle." "Y-you''re Helsing''s descendant?" "You mean Grandpa Helsing? If so, yes. Please do not intrude on my reflection next time or anything of mine for that matter, thanks." Xander responded succinctly, turning his body around and heading inside his bedroom. He then locked the space in the room, to ensure nothing can get in or out. Xander read a few more papers for the next 10 days in a time-accelerated field, before heading to sleep. ______________________ I saw the young child move slowly into his room, closing it gently. I had an urge to enter and look at him, but I was overwhelmed by a sense of danger. As a spirit, such premonitions are quite important. I stopped myself and remembered the look the child had. It was just like his brother. Oh, brother, where are you now? I know you aren''t dead, but no one seemed to know where you went or what happened to you. I sighed visibly, before seeing the three figures by the living room. "Hey kiddos," I said to them, a bit sad. "Eh? Uncle Marvis? You were staying in the villa as well?" Bamon asked, surprised. I nodded, before smiling wryly. "It seems the kid you brought is quite a feisty one, hehe. He tried to purify me." Bamon, Amon, and Gammon were surprised. "Did you surprise him? He''s usually gentle around us." Amon asked, confused. I looked at him awkwardly, attempting to act like it wasn''t my fault. "Well, I was hiding in the mirror realm and I coincidentally saw him pass by, so I copied his image, hehe. Before I could even trick him though, he already released purifying energy, surrounding me and entering my body. It was very, very painful, yet relieving at the same time, like something bad was being removed from me," I responded nonchalantly like it was no biggie. "Well, why didn''t you escape? It would be easy for you to escape." Amon asked curiously. He knew his uncle''s power before he died. Not only did he manage to survive, but he also managed to grow stronger even as a spirit. "That''s the weird thing; when he was using the energy to purify me, I felt an oppressive force coming from every direction, as if I was trapped, where I cannot even move a single inch from my place. I tried exploding, but I reformed in the mirror rather than the Life essence dimension. It was a weird, tiring experience." I said, sighing visibly to the trio. I then said, "He only stopped when he called his father. It was then confirmed by him that I wasn''t a spy or anything, making him disperse whatever it was that was purifying me and the oppressive force." Gammon responded, "That''s his father, our cousin. Uncle Helsing managed to raise quite a genius." "Moments like this make me wonder whether I should have passed away already." "Come on uncle, don''t say that! Grand-uncle Veirhardt is actually collecting materials to rebuild your body. Just remember what made you stay in the first place. Once you finish that, you can do whatever you want!" Bamon said, trying to motivate him. I smiled wryly. This was a problem spirits experience; extreme fluctuation of emotions. I shook my head, waving my hands as well. "It''s ok, it''s just a momentary thought. I''ll leave the villa for now. I can''t reside here. For some reason, the house was rapidly modified, being coated and transformed into some sort of metal alloy. I couldn''t even phase in any facilities inside the villa or outside of it. Can any of you open the gate heading outside the villa? Thanks." The trio was surprised, as they never realized a thing had changed in the villa at all. Amon accompanied me to the gate, and I left the villa, then shifted into a different dimension to travel faster. He disappeared from sight. _____________________________ Amon, Gammon, and Bamon were in the living room, discussing the situation. After Marvis left, the trio tested the buildings, starting from the training facility. They cast their demigod-rank spells, yet they couldn''t even make a dent in the floor or walls. There weren''t even any violent vibrations that escaped. The same situation was observed when they checked the gates, the walls, and even the floors of the villa. When they tried to dig through the wall, they only managed to get through the outer layer before they got stopped by something. Upon closer inspection, it was a silvery-green alloy. With the situation, they can plan contingency plans just in case Xander is targeted, they can return to this villa and use it as a fort to immediately contact for reinforcements. They also reported the situation to Veirhardt, who just shook his head, as he had no answers for these. The night passed by easily, and Xander woke up with the bright sun twinkling in the sky. Xander took a bath and headed to the dining area to eat food. Weirdly, there was food prepared, surprising him. It was a traditional breakfast of eggs, bacon, and bread, as well as mashed potatoes. After eating, he headed to Camasutra University, where he would meet the professor and deliver the ores. Amon drove the 4 of them to the campus, and upon reaching the campus, Xander scanned his watch, giving him access to the campus. After contacting the professor, Xander waited in one of the benches near the campus entrance. After a few minutes, he could see a man in his 40s, with a full-on beard, running towards his location. He waved, indicating to the professor it was him. Professor Lindhart reached him in less than a minute, and both shook each other''s hands. "Mr. Cloverfield, nice to meet you in person." "Likewise. Let''s get down to business." "Sure. Do you have the ores?" "Yep, I already placed it in an anonymous account in an item depository called Bags in Us, and once I confirm the payment of SCP, I can give you the account number and the three-layered passcode." Xander then showed several photographs of the items, placed neatly inside a storage facility. Upon seeing the ores, and discovering no digital alteration had occurred in the image, Lindhart was convinced. After all, the identity of Xander Cloverfield at Grand Hyatt University is one of his main guarantees that the deal would be successful. "Alright, I''ll begin the transfer." Lindhart immediately initiated the transfer of SCPs to Xander''s account, which was successfully transferred after 5 seconds, with Xander receiving a notification of the transfer success. He double-checked his balance and saw that it was really transferred, causing him to nod; he then spoke up, "Alright, here is the name of the anonymous account: AS34-12RV-7849-55GX-2103-001Z. The passcode is ''The wind blows, but nothing follows.'' Please avoid typing it down in your communicator or recording it, it can cause data corruption." Xander stood from his bench, politely saying, "It has been a pleasure to work with you. See you if there''s a next time." Xander waved his hands, moving towards the campus entrance, where Amon was waiting. The other two were nearby Xander, ready to act if something had happened. It was just Saturday, so he decided to go explore more of the city after returning to the villa. He changed his clothes before heading out. Since the city was near the beach, he decided to head to the beach and see the ocean. After 10 minutes of walking, he finally reached the beach and felt his decision was wrong. There were too many kids at the beach right now, and the stalls and beach restaurants in the vicinity were packed with families and kids, as well as teens and young adults. However, he didn''t falter and felt that everything can still be great. He stood in line for the ice cream stall, patiently waiting for 20 minutes until it was his turn already. "What flavor will it be, kid?" the man in his 20s asked me kindly, his eyes filled with soft gentleness. "Um, mister, do you have cookies and cream? I like that flavor very, very much!" Xander asked, his voice becoming childlike, losing the demeanor of a leader but rather sounded like a toddler. Anyone who heard his voice could feel their hearts softening for him, as well as feel kind of happy. Of course, it was the Emotion element that was oozing out from Xander''s voice and actions. "Call me Brother Han. I do have that flavor, little boy, how many scoops do you want?" Han asked kindly at Xander, who furrowed his eyebrows, with his look feeling like he was conflicted. "Hmm, I want 3 big, big scoops! Just 3! My mom said I shouldn''t eat too many sweets or else I''ll become very big." Xander said, his voice sounded like a child acting serious, causing giggles to erupt from the young female adults in the line and even from the mothers nearby. "Alrighty, 3 scoops of cookies and cream, coming right up!" Han said, and he then went in the gigantic-ass freezer, stopping at the vat that said, "C\u0026C" and began to scoop ice cream from inside the vat into the large cone. After a few seconds of waiting, Han left the freezer and handed Xander his ice cream, and Xander immediately grabbed it, then began to lick it once, and his face scrunched up, but his mouth was smiling and his eyes were closed, experiencing the blissful taste. Xander then opened his eyes, then said to Han, "Big brother Han, how much is the ice cream?" "For you, just 5 Nemais!" Han smiled gently, his smile creasing his cheeks. Xander nodded and placed his watch on the scanner. It was connected to his bank account which was an international bank, thus the conversion of his money was easy and value difference wasn''t that high. The payment succeeded and Xander thanked Han before he began walking around the beach. After 10 minutes, the ice cream he was eating was fully devoured, and the only reason it took that long was that Xander was chilling the area around the ice cream so he can savor the flavor. He noticed that the beach was quite long, probably 2-3 kilometers in length, and the sandy part was around 100-200 meters away from the roads. As Xander was wadding in the sea, he heard something amiss from the depths. "¡­ begin the operation, ensure the target is on the beachside!" He didn''t know who it was, but he felt the waters were receding, creating more land area for people to walk. However, the more experienced people, such as the lifeguards stationed, noticed this and sounded an alarm: It was a tsunami alarm. Everyone is to evacuate the area and head to the road. Xander was curious, so he didn''t really move from his current location, but he did make himself invisible to the human eye. He wanted to see how the people of Nema would react to such a calamity. The moment the alert was released, everyone began to move in an orderly manner. As most of them were Elite and Master magicians, they were quite calm to the situation and were focused on calming the children who were surprised and confused. They guided them to the multiple entrances to the beach, which exited directly on the side of the road. There were gliding magicians that came from the city area, and from the fluctuations that they were giving out, they were legendary magicians who came into the beach''s vicinity, a total of 9 magicians, moving into equidistant locations to one another, covering the whole stretch of the beach. Xander scanned the database of Fargrow and realized this was one of the specialized squads for water-based disasters. It seems they cover not only the beach, but also the ports, and the other parts of the city exposed to the seaside, and vulnerable to tsunamis. I wonder what they''ll do if they realize that it''s man-made. How will they solve the problem, I wonder, Xander thought silently. After a minute, the water continued to recede, and there were only 10% left of the beach population a few minutes ago. After another minute, everyone was evacuated, and the magic and elemental energy were rapidly condensing in the area of the legendary magicians, preparing their spells. Xander was curious, whether they had an external magic supply since each of them basically cast a magic array on their own. When the tsunami appeared, Xander could hear one of the magicians mention, "This¡­this is not a natural tsunami! There''s presence of unknown magic energy," his voice trembling, obviously shocked. This was because the tsunami was quite large, around 300 meters in height. At the same time, it was producing a strong, unknown magic energy signature. The size of the tsunami already indicates this was at the level of a Mythic magician. If a group of Mythic magicians had prepared the spell and continued to control it, their squad would not be enough. They needed someone at the Demigod class. Xander, seeing the size, was not scared, but rather surprised to see such a tsunami that big. It was nearing the size of a megatsunami, so how did this group of mythic casters even manage to do this? He didn''t plan to disrupt the situation, but then he heard one of the magicians present quietly mumble, "Such a grand spectacle to catch someone, sheesh." At this, Xander''s eyes glowered; in his mind, he connected the dots surrounding the situation. It seems this was orchestrated by the government. He did hear yesterday that they were planning something, but willing to bet the life of its citizens? That''s quite heartless, especially if something were to happen. Xander decided to raise the stakes higher. He immediately grabbed the control of the spell, before further reinforcing the spell, making it reach 800 meters in height, causing real surprise in the eyes of the magicians present. One of them, most likely the leader of the group, discreetly contacted the magicians in charge of the spell, but they themselves were freaking out since they lost control of the spell, the power it contained was battering their magic barriers. They only managed to send a few words before being destroyed by the ravaging water elements: "¡­lost control¡­ unknown person¡­" At this, they decided to call their superiors, to request for help. The tsunami was around 15 kilometers wide, covering the entire coast. It was 1 kilometer away, but it was that big and visible that caused panic to rise amongst the people, especially those houses and establishments near the seaside. The governor''s office was becoming swamped with calls, and even the Nema government was caught off-guard by the situation. They had to send 3 demigods to neutralize the situation. However, all they can do was to delay its movement, but they could counter it. They attempted to steal control of the spell, but they failed; they also tried to disturb the elemental flow of particles and energy, but it also failed. All they could do was stop it for a while until the spell either runs out of power or is canceled by the caster. Xander, who was controlling it, on the other hand, was actually already in one of the restaurants in the far end of the city, reading the menu to decide what to eat. He called for a waiter and began placing his order, and while waiting, he messaged Amon, Gammon, and Bamon that he was just eating at a restaurant in the city, giving them his location. After a minute, the three appeared at the entrance of the restaurant, with puzzled looks in their faces. Xander waved at them, signaling them to come inside. Amon, Bamon entered, with Gammon staying outside to guard him. Both looked at Xander questioningly, but Xander acted like he didn''t notice their looks. It was Amon that broke the weird silence with his question, "How did you get here from the beach?" "Beach? I was never on the beach in the first place." Xander said, snickering at them. Looking at their confused faces, he explained, "That was an illusioned clone, basically an elemental clone, but it carries a small copy of my life essence doll, allowing it to emulate my life signature and lets me hear information from faraway places, hehe." Xander giggled, acting like he was just playing a prank. Amon and Bamon looked at one another and sighed. This was the first time they heard or encountered such a spell, so they weren''t sure if Xander was lying to them or not. Xander, seeing their looks, rolled his eyes, saying, "This isn''t a spell, but rather a biconscious control, plus something special I added, hehe. I''ve been playing around with this since I was like 5 so that I can leave the house, hehe. Oops, don''t tell dad!" Xander then said, actually acting fearful as he ''spilled'' his secret to them. Bamon smirked, before saying, "But we can''t lie to your dad. We''ll have to tell him what you did, oh well." "But¡­" Xander trailed, quite ''lost'' and unsure what to do. At this point, Amon stepped in, acting as the good cop. "How about this, Xander. I won''t tell your parents about you sneaking out, but for the remainder of the trip, don''t try to sneakily go to places, ok? We just want to make sure you are protected." Xander paused, cocked his head to the side for a bit, thinking, before he nodded in agreement. He then raised his pinky to the two of them, looking serious. "Pinky swear?" The other two, unaware of what Xander had planned, connected their pinkies as well to his, both of them saying, "Pinky swear." At that moment, Xander''s eyes changed color, momentarily shocking the duo, before they heard the words that came from his mouth, as if only audible to the two of them. "As it has been decreed, it shall be done. The truth shall be hidden, or let their selves be gone. It is witnessed by the light, it will be done by the dark." Every single word reverberated in their heads, causing them to hold their heads in pain. However, this only lasted for 2 seconds, before everything returned to normal like nothing ever happened in the first place. The two looked at Xander confusingly, but with a hint of fear in their eyes. Xander, however, ''acted'' confused and puzzled as well, like he wasn''t sure why they were staring at him like that. "Seniors? What is the matter?" "N-no, nothing. Nothing at all. Bamon will stay here with you while I go support Gammon in guarding the perimeter, ok?" Amon said, his voice shaky and a stuttering a bit. He stood up, glanced at Bamon, giving him a look, before leaving to join Gammon. Bamon was scared to be left with this weird nephew of theirs but had no other choice. For the next few minutes, there was an awkward silence between the two. It was Xander who broke the silence by saying briefly, "They''re approaching soon to the restaurant. I hope the food gets served before they do," Xander muttered to himself, causing Bamon who was listening to be confused. When their food arrived, Xander stopped reading from his tablet and began to chow down on the food. He ordered both seafood and some fried chicken, as well as paella and mashed potatoes. Just as he finished eating the seafood and was about to begin eating the chicken, the people inside the restaurant heard shouts coming from the outside. Before they could even look, the restaurant doors burst open, and a squad of soldier magicians entered the restaurant, clearing the way for their sergeant to come in. 63 Accusation of the State The soldiers surrounded the area where Xander and Bamon were situated. Bamon was on guard, ready to launch his domain and attacks, eying the soldiers carefully. Their cultivation level fluctuations were no lower than Mythic-7, indicating this squad unit was one of the special units under the Nema military command. The leading officer, a sergeant, released the same amount of magic fluctuation as he did, indicating they were both demigods, but he wasn''t sure if he was higher or the other party is. He looked outside and saw that his two brothers were also facing respectively a squad as well. Xander, on the other hand, didn''t mind it at all, but rather, continued to eat. The sergeant''s face was stern, and he continued to release his pressure around him, causing some of the guests inside the restaurant to spew out blood, yet Xander was still unaffected, but rather, he was enjoying his food. The sergeant was about to act, when his and Xander''s eyes met for a moment. At that point, it was like his entire being was being shrouded by an overwhelming force, as if he was facing a formidable being. His presence momentarily faltered, causing surprise and confusion to flash in the faces of the soldiers and Bamon. Xander, on the other hand, merely spoke a few words, "Don''t interrupt me while eating my food. Wait outside if you have something to tell me," before continuing on chowing down the fried chicken. The sergeant''s face alternated from red, to blue, and then back to normal, before waiting for him to finish his food. He didn''t wait for him outside, in fear that he might escape. After 5 minutes, he used the napkin to wipe his mouth and drank the pop bottle empty. He then called for the server to pay for the bill. The server hurriedly served his bill, and upon seeing everything was in order, he scanned his watch on the portable terminal, paying successfully for the food. He then stood up, causing the soldiers and the sergeant to stiffen, ready to attack. Xander raised his eyebrow, before heading out. Once he was outside, the other two brothers surrounded Xander in a triangular formation, ensuring enough space for him to move about while security was still covered. Xander rolled his eyes and asked, "So, what''s your business? You should know I''m here to just submit a mission for my university. If you have any problems with it, call my university." "Mr. Cloverfield, let''s keep the lies out of the conversation, shall we? Can you please cancel the tsunami spell you placed at the seaside? You are endangering thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives," the sergeant in blue said, his voice frustrated. "What bold words of accusation you have, sergeant! We, the Cloverfield Clan may be scattered and seem weak, but that doesn''t mean we don''t bite back if we are attacked!" Gammon said, indignant about the experience. Xander merely laughed as well on the statement of the sergeant. "If you have any evidence of me controlling the so-called tsunami, please, present the evidence. Where are my magic signatures? Where are my elemental control traces? Hmm? What, you don''t have any? That''s because it''s not my fault. Also, attempting to arrest a child in broad daylight without due process, do you think my family''s power is just that, making me like a beggar that can just disappear in the eyes of the masses?" Xander''s voice echoed throughout the area, reaching roughly around 2-4 kilometers in radius. Everyone who was present could hear it, thus, complicating matters of human and civil rights. The sergeant in blue was angry, but he couldn''t show it, because he came here for other reasons. The one in red spoke out, "If it really wasn''t you who caused the tsunami, then you have nothing to fear in coming with the military isolation ward." At this, the three laughed, before Amon spoke out, "Hmph! Who are you to command our family descendants to do so, huh? You do know we are protected by our country''s laws as well as the Global council''s laws. If our sweet, sweet under-aged descendant entered your military isolation ward, who knows what might happen to him?" Amon sneered at the sergeants, spite layered in his voice. It was Blue''s time to reply. "Mr. Cloverfield, your family has already been alerted about the situation. At the same time, there was an issue concerning one of your acquaintances, Mr. Lindhart. He was found dead, 3 hours after talking to him. So the local police wanted to invite you as well for questioning, however, they felt they had insufficient strength to escort you to the premises, so they requested our help. It also coincided with the appearance of the tsunami, so you are the number one suspect." Xander looked dead in the eye at the Blue, who was tense. He then spoke slowly, emphasizing each word, "Oh? Did he die? That''s weird, why can I actually detect his life essence? Mr. Okazawa. You are in the military. You should have read the files about me. You should know that not only am I good in the 5-elements, I''m also quite proficient on matters concerning life and death." Upon hearing his name being said, Okazawa paled, before looking at Xander warily. However, Xander merely continued to look at him, before further saying, "So please, enough with the bullshitting, and if you sergeants and your squads came here in an attempt to interrogate me, or make me meet someone powerful in the government and manipulate and mold me to help the development of the country of Nema, stop before you regret it." Okazawa hesitated for a bit because he could really sense a dangerous aura from Xander, causing alarms to ring inside his mind. Seeing his conflicted look, Xander''s face softened a bit, before saying to Okazawa, "Mr. Okazawa, how about this, I''ll contact the head general as well as the president of the country so that you can easily retreat from this situation, okay?" Before Okazawa could reply, he already activated a hologram call to both the head general and the president. The two immediately answered, of course beginning with threats of jail and military crime stuff for an unknown number calling one of the important figures of the country. It took them a while to realize that they were both called, causing them to stop in their tirade, and looked at the figure of Xander, who just waved his hand at them. "Head General Cabal and President Valores, I presume? Hi, my name''s Xander Cloverfield. Can you stop sending people and creating scenarios for me to be entrapped in, just so you can talk or convert me into your country''s follower?" Xander said exasperatingly, his eyes rolling in their sockets, with the audience surrounding dumbfounded. Even the General and the president were quite shocked. Before they could even formulate a reply, Xander said in his sweet, childish voice, "If you don''t stop, I''ll have to reveal to the world Project 32, Project: Gehenna, and Project: Nirvana that you guys have been working on. Yes, this is a threat. No, I won''t tell you who gave me access to all countries'' lists of secret projects and documents, it is above your payroll, maybe ask the Sage magician supporting this country. Yes, it might sound silly, but you know the information is the real deal. You might even have to kill your soldiers here for just hearing those project names, tsk, tsk." Upon hearing his words, the surrounding soldiers paled instantly, as well as the sergeants. They knew the importance of state secrecy as well as the notion of "above your pay grade" kind of information. It was the kind that can kill. The trio, on the other hand, was surprised about these projects the Nema government had been working on, unknown to them. After all, they had a Cloverfield in every government in the world, and information has a way of trickling down as well as showing their influence. The president and the head general were surprised, before becoming highly alert towards Xander. Xander, however, continued with his aggrieved, child-like voice, layered with emotion that seemed to be conveyed to the General and the President even if it was just a hologram call. "I came here to this country to submit a mission and enjoy the tourist spots and the wonderful things the country had to offer, and this is what you give me? An accusation concerning a situation that would endanger the lives of innocent people, as well as trying to frame a murder? A murder that never existed in the first place, because the person is still alive, but hidden in one of your military isolation wards? This is how Nema''s government treats budding scholars who have contributed to the field of magic research and science? Frankly, I am quite disappointed." Xander then ''shed'' a few tears, eliciting sorrow and pity to everyone who was watching Xander, which was basically, well, every citizen of the country. Of course, Xander was actually hacking the broadcast signal of the 10 cities of Nema, plastering in the hologram billboards and projectors all over the country the situation happening around Xander, including the hologram of their head general and the president. At the same time, he released the Emotion element, causing them to feel pity and anger for his sake. He had started the broadcast since he had called the head general and the president, but he did cut out the snippet concerning the state projects; he wasn''t that cruel to the citizens who might be caught up in a war with other countries, haha. Xander then wiped his tears, sniffling a bit before saying, "Mr. Valores, Mr. Cabal, Good day to you. I don''t require you to apologize or whatnot, but please, apologize to your people, especially the people of Fargrow, who were endangered by your attempted ''capture'' me by summoning a gigantic tsunami, and pinning the blame on me. I''m just a kid; do you think I can manage to create such a large spell that even Demigods can''t stop?" Upon saying this, he switched the view of all the holograms in Nema to the gigantic tsunami being held at bay, but not dispersing. The beach was deserted, with beach balls, blankets, and umbrellas left in disarray. He then stopped the broadcast, before smiling craftily at the two. "I have broadcasted the whole situation to the whole country. Good luck saving your asses. You shouldn''t have attempted to disturb me during my vacation. Bye~ wipe your asses clean, ok?" He ended the call and looked at the squads, who were now pale and shaking. He gave them his signature smile. "So, why haven''t you loyal soldiers left the city and escaped to other countries, dimwits? Do you plan to be killed, or sign a labor contract that strips almost all of your freedom?" Upon hearing his words, the soldiers snapped from their stupor, before looking at their commanding officers, who were hesitating. It was hard for them to leave the country quietly. While they were busy deciding, Xander signaled his seniors to go back to the villa and take a rest there. After all, it will blow up after a few hours from now. He had also taken control of the news outlets, so what they are saying in the television would not be matching to what the citizens would hear, hehe. He also collapsed the tsunami spell, causing a large explosion of water elements. _______________________________ 6 hours after the incident, the president''s office. Sound of items being thrown to the walls and on the ground echoed, breaking into pieces, scattered in the ground. After a while, the president, sweating, was taking deep breaths that slowly calmed him down. The head general was merely standing quietly, not saying a word. "Mr. Cabal, as the ruling president of this country, I should be informed of such matters, am I correct?" "¡­Yes sir." "So tell me, why have I heard 3 state project names come out from a tourist visiting the country? State projects that I specifically, enforced my vetoing powers to be stopped. Am I just a joke to you?" "¡­" "Not only that, why have you agreed on the plan to capture the said target, Xander Cloverfield? Do you really think a family that has survived and thrived for the past thousands of years can easily be played against? Not only did you fail, you even left evidence and traces that can be taken by those opposing the country!" "¡­ It was for the greater development of the country, sir." "So that gigantic tsunami, the biggest one yet to occur in Fargrow, was also in your plans? Drown half of the city and pin the blame on a kid? Who, by the way, is just a Master cultivator? Do you have something wrong with your brains?" "¡­ Sir, it was an unforeseen situation. The original plan was to-" "I don''t care about your original plan! The fact is, your target wasn''t even near the beach! I might not be a scientist or magic researcher, but I know a thing or two about spell deployment. Controlling a spell from a distance of more than 30 kilometers, are you joking? Not only does that require enough magic energy, but it would also leave traces. What happened afterward? Nothing! No trace at all!" Mr. Valores screamed at the head general, snapping at his incompetence. Although they were friends, he knew the current shithole he was in, and the government was currently in. If he doesn''t manage to resolve the situation, this would involve mass protests and probably his impeachment. All his PR teams and the government were working arduously to fix this for the past 6 hours, from influencing the news outlets, to even doing minor censorship concerning keywords in the net. This was where they hit a snag. When the pre-recorded and live videos of news anchors, reporters supporting the government were played, the things that they were saying changed. The people listening at the comfort of their homes, pubs, and their communicators actually heard them criticize the government for going to such extremes, as well as releasing information concerning who Xander Cloverfield was. Not only that, but other countries surrounding Nema were also reporting the situation, causing people to become curious and began to search the web for information, blowing up the situation further. Even the Ete continent was also taken aback by the furor happening in Nema. The PR teams were panicking because when they reviewed the videos they were normal and worked properly, but when it was played already for the public to see, the words the newscasters were saying changed. Not only was it not a superficial change, but even the emotions and the facial expressions of the anchors and reporters were also modified to suit the words they were saying. This had led to more calls, as well as violent protests to occur at the government buildings in all the cities in Nema. The president and his aides were shaking in anger and surprise with what had turned up to. Even the head general was astonished by the elicited reaction, and couldn''t help but mutter, "It was supposed to be a simple extraction and manipulation of a target; how did it turn out like this?" When the president heard this, he could help but shout expletives to his best friend for his dumb actions, telling him to mobilize the military to ensure the safety of the government as well as the safety of the people. They weren''t allowed to harm the protesting people because if they did, this would be another issue that would blow up. After 6 hours since the broadcast, the SeeMe account of Xander had grown to a following of nearly 400 million people, quite remarkable considering the population of the planet was roughly 23.8 billion people; that''s roughly 1.68% of the world that was following him. He currently topped the number of followers in SeeMe, surpassing celebrities, actors, singers, and even presidents. One can even say, due to this event, he had entered the world stage. Which was both good and bad for Xander, since it means it would be harder to travel incognito, but good at the same time since it gives him a certain level of prestige and access that being in a clan does not give. Xander, on the other hand, was actually just relaxing in the villa, swimming in the pool for a total of 5 laps from one end to the other. After he was done, he headed straight to his room and went in Eden, and began to tour the different islands and underwater paradises that existed. ____________________________ 12 hours after the situation. Xander had just finished his 50-year tour of the islands and underwater paradises. He even made friends with a mythic-class Death Coral, which is technically named as such because aquatic beings use this coral as their graveyard. The population of Eden was continuously increasing, roughly around 50 million now, but because of the size, there was enough room to accommodate even up to a trillion beings. He also added some new aquatic animals that he had bought from a pet shop, as well as some new terrestrial animals. What was good with Eden was that it was structured in such a way that no regular animal or plant can die of old age. They can only die if they want to die. This was because of the abundance of life and other elements as well as a decreased amount of death elements. The conditions in the garden were perfect in growing and cultivating magic beasts, sentient beings, and sprites. When he added the new aquatic and terrestrial species, he also tested [Samsara Revolution] to see its effects, and boy, was he not disappointed. Each one of the animals was basically enlightened, awakening the sentience in their bodies, even without the formation of a magic core. This gave them an advantage once they were able to transform into Magic beasts. Or will they still transform into magic beasts, since their life-essence doll had been constructed, but not really into the form of a magic core. This was one experiment Xander was curious to see tomorrow for the results. He set them free after the experiment, telling them to act smart and take care, before leaving them to their own devices. At the same time, he placed a spatial marker for him to track them when he returns here tomorrow. He then headed to observe the Tree of Life and saw the older one was already growing them, albeit they were very small. He immediately sent out a decree in the space: No one is to get the fruits. If they fall and you take hold of it, you are to submit it to the 4 elder Sprites. It was a decree that echoed deep inside their hearts and minds, and no one would dare to go against it. He then once again summoned his once in 175 thousand years appearance, releasing a total of 2 million spheres of light. Due to the population increase, he added another decree that once you have been called, you cannot participate in the next 5 appearances, allowing others to participate. He was there for a total of 40 years, talking to 6 people every hour. He then talked and served different food cuisines to Pan, before playing with Sam, Marie, and Mary, and Fae. They were already Mythic-7, so Xander just wanted them to practice fighting one another and fighting together. Afterward, he left the garden and teleported to his villa in Eta, where he went straight to the laboratory to check the trees. He was surprised to see that the time acceleration in the laboratory seemed to have increased, without his interference? From 1 second: 10 days, the time increased to 1 second: 2 years. He looked around and thought for a moment why this was the case, before realizing it must be the two trees'' influence. He headed to the center of the trees, where the 2 trees of destruction were placed. As he came closer, he realized that the time and space in the area were more chaotic, but destabilized; just chaotic for now. It was tightly contained by the 3 trees of creation, which caused some sort of influence in the movement of time in the whole place. Xander decided to put another 3 trees of creation, surrounding the triangular set-up. He then checked if there were any fruits growing, but there were none. The 2 trees in the middle were still bare, while the creation trees were just filled with luscious green leaves and blooming flowers, but none of the flowers were undergoing reproductive cycling. He returned back to Nema afterward and headed to sleep. A few moments later, his communicator was buzzing, rousing him from sleep. 64 Meeting the Elven Queen Xander, who didn''t like to be disturbed while he was sleeping, frowned, and looked at the caller ID. He answered it while remaining faced-down in the bed. A hologram of a well-dressed man appeared, but his face seemed in contrast to what he was wearing. He looked haggard, with his eyes containing the traces of red vessels. Before the man could speak, Xander muffled, "You better have a good explanation for waking me up from my sleep, Mr. Valores. I am, after all, a growing kid. If my sleep is impaired by you, you would have to bear the consequences~" his childish voice resounded the president''s office, causing those who were listening to be surprised and at the same time, wary. They could hear the underlying threat present in Xander''s words. The president, Mr. Valores, didn''t react at all, but still retained his smiling face with bloodshot eyes. "Good evening Mr. Cloverfield. I want reconciliation between you and the Nema government and military. Are you ok with that?" "Hmm? Reconciliation, eh? Why, haven''t you tried to use the media to your advantage, hehe." When they heard it, the PR teams wanted to cry, and even the tech experts wanted to rush at Xander and beat him. "Anyhoo, I''m not against such an idea, but do get another leader as a witness to it. I don''t really trust you and your officers would be able to keep your hands to yourselves. At least with an impartial leader, I would be assured. You can choose between the elves or the gnomes." Xander said in a muffled tone. He hadn''t even turned his head to look at the president. "¡­Fine. Are you fine with meeting tomorrow?" The president asked Xander, in tacit agreement to his requirement. "¡­Fine. I have to leave to head back to Eta on Monday since I have a class. Just send the deets, don''t call. Kay, bye!" Xander ended the call, returning to sleep. He then blocked all calls for the next 6 hours, enjoying his rest. He woke up with the sun just rising in the sky. Xander stood up from his bed, rubbing his puffy eyes. I should really make my number unreachable when I sleep, Xander muttered to himself, yawning. He headed to the bathroom and took a relaxing warm bubble bath, immersing himself. He then headed downstairs after an hour of bathing and then dressing up, eating the breakfast his three seniors prepared. Although they didn''t need to eat, they had to cook for Xander''s sake. Xander ate his meal silently while checking his smartwatch for any messages that came through last night when he was sleeping. A couple of the messages came from his mom and dad, just saying they support him and whatnot, as well as for him to stay safe. Another message came from Faykes, saying that he already completed 50% of the mission he requested. He was asking if he should wait until he got all the information or submit what he had right now. Xander thought about it for a moment, before responding to him to send it once it''s done. He also contacted his security retinue: Bryan, Ryan, Joseph, Esta, and Rosa. He sent them a message to return to the villa by this Tuesday. He also messaged his mom and dad that he was safe and was eating healthy. After that, he saw a message pop up, which seems to have come from President Valores. He opened the message and read it: Mr. Cloverfield, I''ve requested for Ms. Syn, the current reigning Elven Queen, to join us, witnessing the reconciliation between you and the government as well as the military. We were lucky as she was visiting one of the nearby countries adjacent to Nema, thus she can be here before lunchtime. We plan to hold the ceremony at noon, so please proceed to Barrow City, Silver Office, where lunch and the interview and photo ops will be done. Hoping for you to grace our presence, President Valores Xander nearly choked on his beef when he read it. It was just too funny and formal. Xander thought for a bit before smiling evilly. President Valores, Kk. Just saw this now, will be there before the lunch begins. Ciao. Regards, Xander Cloverfield After sending it, he hurriedly finished his food before calling his seniors to the living room. Xander then looked at the trio respectfully before saying, "Seniors, can you help me go to Barrow City? The president just contacted me that this is the city where the reconciliation show for the people of Nema and those all over the world. He said it was going to be at lunch, so can you fly me there now?" His voice was childish, at the same time, he was acting cute at his seniors. However, little did he know that these seniors of his were building resistance due to the recent situation. "Ok, we''ll do that, if you promise to tell us the truth about one thing," Gammon said to Xander in response. "Hmm, what is it?" Xander asked as if he was unaware of what they wanted to learn. "Did you really have no involvement concerning the tsunami?" Amon asked gently, his eyes staring straight at Xander''s face, observing. At this, Xander acted like he was in "conflict" of telling the truth or not, before hesitatingly saying, "Um, I''ll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it to yourselves." Gammon nodded, striking his chest as if it was a solemn vow. Xander was still undecided, so he even bent down, and raised his pinky finger to Xander, saying, "Pinky Swear, we won''t tell anyone." Xander upon seeing the pinky was glad, but the other two were horrified. Before they could warn him, Xander touched the pinky outstretched to him with his own, locking his finger. Immediately, a strong sense of crisis surrounded the trio, with such a repressive force that caused them to be unable to move. Xander''s eyes changed color once again, becoming pure black and pure silvery-white. He opened his mouth, yet his voice was ethereal and ancient, yet soft to the ears. The trio couldn''t hear what he was saying, but they could understand the words being said, echoing in their hearts and minds. "As it has been decreed, it has been recorded. The truth shall be revealed, but it shall be in secret. A broken word shall let them be gone. It is witnessed by the light, it will be done by the dark. Hold steadfast as it will be all for one." When Xander let go of his pinky, the whole thing disappeared, and Xander''s eyes were already back to normal, his mouth closed, his face filled with puzzlement. Gammon, however, didn''t act surprised, although deep inside he was surprised. He then asked Xander gently, "So, Xander, are you the one who caused the tsunami?" Xander slowly nodded his head in response, before saying, "They orchestrated the initial tsunami wave to hit the beach, causing those who were in the vicinity to be heavily injured. There was a group of mythic magicians deep underwater when the tsunami happened and I heard their conversation by chance. I connected the points; they did it because they were observing my movements and saw that I was heading to the beach. Although, it wasn''t me, I was still able to hear and sense what it sensed." "So, to make the situation out of their control, I stole their control of the spell, before adding my own modification in the spell array they used. I also killed those who were initially controlling it so it won''t be traced back to me. I made it very big and very wide so that they''ll be forced to summon their demigods to handle the situation, although they won''t be able to steal the spell''s control from me, hehe." "Xander, as your senior, I have to say it was very irresponsible. What if they didn''t do that? Would you have killed these people?" Amon said, almost shouting at Xander. Inside, he was disappointed because of the lack of regard Xander had for life. "Huh? Of course not! I designed the spell that it would automatically collapse into harmless mist once it reaches the beach. Of course, I knew that the people who planned this would panic since their plan was screwed up, causing them not to realize a fundamental modification with the spell because they would try to keep at bay, thus never touching the beach, to allow the people to escape." Xander said proudly, looking at the trio like he deserves the praise. Gammon was nodding his head, rubbing Xander''s hair as if praising him, but inside, he was shouting in surprise and joy for their family. They had a heavenly genius in their clan! "It was ok in the end since no one was killed, and the whole ploy was orchestrated by me as a revenge to those who planned it, which would be the Head general as well as several family leaders. Seniors, can you request the great elders to slowly cut ties with these families? I was so scared that they tried to kidnap and brainwash me, boohoo," Xander asked them, with tears forming in his eyes, looking pitifully at the three. Bamon responded, "Xander, don''t worry, the clan can do that at least. We''re also sorry that we weren''t able to protect you at that time." "Oh, no worries, seniors. They only planned it when they discovered I was in Nema, I posted some photos in my SeeMe account, you see. Even I was surprised that the program I placed on the main public and private server pinged me several times since I was mentioned in at least 7 different conferences talking about plans to capture me, kill me, kidnap me, or even use me against Eta. Just make sure the family deals with them justly." Xander said calmly as if it didn''t matter much to him, before opening his smartwatch and transferring a list to the trio. The latter was surprised because the list didn''t only include the names of the people plotting, but also their assets, hidden accounts, as well as private documents. The document sent to them was about 80 pages long. Xander then smiled at the three, showing his white teeth, saying, "Ok, seniors? Make sure everything I told you is kept secret~ We made a pinky swear." Amon and Bamon were exasperated, while Gammon, the eldest of the three, was calm. He nodded in response to Xander''s words. "Oh, by the way, seniors, the substitution dolls that you used during the pinky swear would not work. The vow targets your current life essences~ Once you break the vow, you die immediately and completely, your life essence merging to the universe once more, turning into the purest of energy for it. This was a trick my friend told me, whenever I make vows with others." Xander said, before skipping to the outside, not caring about the faces the trio showed. Gammon''s face changed in surprise, but later turned to helplessness, before shaking his head and laughing for a bit, then he followed Xander outside. The other two were more drastic in their reaction; they were the ones who were constricted with two vows! It was like something very heavy affecting their body, mind, heart, and life essence dolls. The whole trip going to Barrow City was oddly quiet, with Xander being carried by Gammon, and the other two flanking on the side, guarding. Before they left, they already requested flight authorization, so they wouldn''t be gunned down by the city defenses. After a few minutes, they arrived at the city, and they slowly went descended to one of the entrances of the city. Upon entering, Xander jumped from Gammon''s embrace and skipped to the restaurants and food stalls that were recommended by the travel guide for Barrow City. Around 11 am, he was finishing his popsicle stick when he finally reached the Silver Office, which was in the middle part of the city. It was quite huge, spanning an area of 1.5 square kilometers, with only one entrance present. It was probably designed as the last fortress for the city in case invaders manage to reach this point. He entered after scanning his smartwatch to the terminal, showing to the guards that he was a VIP guest. He entered with the trio, guided by a suave-looking gentleman with 2 females following behind him who appeared after he had just scanned his smartwatch and verified that he was a VIP guest. "Good day, gentlemen. My name is Farol, I''ll guide you inside the building for today''s festivities. Please watch your step." Farol greeted Xander and the trio, before gesturing them to follow him. He turned around and headed to the large building past the walls. Xander and the others walked behind Farol, looking around the area and marveling at the sight it contained. Farol, on the other hand, was briefly introducing the areas they were passing by, such as the large labyrinth garden, as well as the parlor garden. There was even an area to play Bolf, a kind of sport that requires you to hit the ball and land it on a designated hole in different terrains and situations. After a few minutes of walking, Xander''s party had already reached the luncheon room, and Farol mentioned to them that the dining room is on the door to the right, pointing a specifically-designed door. He then left the group, causing the room to fall in silence. Xander, on the other hand, was bored, so he left the luncheon room and began to explore the building. From his initial scan earlier, there were a total of 9 floors in the building, and they were currently on the 2nd floor. The dining room is placed on the third floor, and the door Farol pointed at basically headed to the dining room as a staircase. He also saw the President on the 7th floor, writing something, and then throwing the scribbled words. Probably his speech later, Xander thought to himself. The guests were all on the first floor and he basically had the second floor to himself, so he began to explore the area. He detected hidden corridors and hidden pathways, allowing the members of the government to escape from the building if there was a crisis, maybe. There were some weird-ass paintings, but other than that, the second floor was boring. He headed downstairs and surprisingly, he saw the Elven queen being surrounded by people and her attendants, yet no one dared to touch her hand or arm, as if it was of reverence. The other people were quite touchy to one another, some of them slapping the back of the other when the latter makes a joke, shaking hands with one another, even hugging one another as if they saw each other for the first time since whenever. _________________________ Elven Queen Syn saw Xander''s figure appear. Given the fact that no other child could attend this ceremony beside Xander, she instantly recognized him. She saw him move down the stairs, looking at the people gathered here calmly, with no other trace of emotion in his face. There wasn''t any worry, or even apprehension when his eyes looked at her. Syn was intrigued to see such a reaction from a child. Then again, this child had been the topic of many talks and controversies in the past few years. Syn, with the corner of her eye, saw Xander heading downstairs, skipping down without a care in the world. The other pestering guests in this lunch remained silent and didn''t attempt to interact with him. This got Syn more and more curious as to why this is so. She only saw the exploding news being broadcasted even to the country she was in yesterday, surprising her. Xander continued to move about, staring at the people talking to one another, his eyes puzzled yet seemingly digesting something from what they could see. Syn wondered to herself, is this child trying to understand how people socialize? This thought passed her mind before rejecting it, shaking her head imperceptibly. That was just not normal for a kid his age. Usually, they are very social at this age and curious towards others. Xander subverts all these expectations. She was still mired in her thoughts when she saw Xander approaching her. The elves serving Syn were low-key tense and prepared to fight. They had been briefed by the head of the Royal Guards as well as her Majesty about the person they were facing right now. Xander continued moving towards Syn as if he didn''t notice the other elves. Syn on the other hand, commanded the entourage of hers to stand down since she could not detect any form of malice radiating from Xander. The elves had no choice but open a path for Xander. The latter, however, then paused roughly 10 steps away from Syn, looking at her curiously. "Sister elf, what''s your name?" Xander asked Syn, with his childish voice filled with the Emotion element, stirring the hearts of others who listened to him. Even some of the elves were momentarily dazed, lowering their guard against him subconsciously. Syn chucked, before clapping once, causing her entourage to awaken from their daze. "Now, now, Mr. Cloverfield, that wasn''t nice to do. You can, however, refer to me as Sister Syn." Syn responded gently, causing the alarmed elves to calm down once again as they saw that the queen had handled the situation. "Oh, ok sister Syn. You can call me Xander." Xander said cheerfully, with the same power emanating from his voice. However, this time, the elves managed to resist it, with the help of the buff their queen placed to them. "So, Xander, why have you come to Nema? Aren''t you supposed to be in college?" "Oh, that. I took up a school mission, transporting Adamantium and Vallarium ores. It was a worthwhile trade, I needed SCPs so I can eat the food in the school cafeteria. They really do have good food." Xander responded happily, sitting at one of the sofa chairs in front of Syn. His legs were raised up, dangling, since he was small and he couldn''t reach the floor. Syn just giggled, before asking, her face filled with curiosity. "Eh, but where did you get the metals though? Aren''t they quite hard to get, and very expensive to purchase as well?" Xander shook his head, giggling, before zipping his mouth. It was Syn''s time to ''act'' out. She stood up, approaching Xander, before tickling her. "Come on Xander, tell sister Syn where you got them! I want to buy some as well, you see." Although she looked casual, she was actually actively controlling her magic energy to influence Xander using one of her primary elements. "Pfft, sister Syn, you need more practice with the Will element. I could notice the elemental fluctuation you know?" Xander whispered to Syn, causing her to pause for a bit, but was not that surprised. "You really do have so many surprises, Xander." "Hehe, you''re nice, unlike that old douche. Do you want me to predict your future? I''m quite bored right now." Xander offered, surprising Syn even more. What surprised her as well was that her attendants and the surrounding people seem like they weren''t able to hear his words. Syn ''pondered'' for a bit, before replying to Xander. "Hmm, ok, tell me, well, tell me when I''ll die, Xander," Syn asked him, genuinely curious what Xander would see. 65 Sowing Karma Syn wasn''t surprised about his ability to see the future, because there were others in the past who were able to predict situations of other people, and even natural disasters and calamities. Xander nodded his head before his face turned serious. He then held Syn''s right hand tightly with his small hand, surprising Syn for a moment. "Ok, I''m going to view it now. Make sure you don''t move so I can have a stable vision," Xander said to Syn, but in truth, he was just joking about that. In fact, he could divine her future even if she wasn''t even born yet, or if she was in the opposite end of the universe. What he needed when he viewed the future was a target, as well as clear visualization of the situation. This was different from Divination, which is defined as a calculation. He could only view up to the Demigod class, and beyond that, he would need to rely on [Turning Time to what it could be] to view. For example, he could view the future of the entire planet because he could visualize the space around the planet and the planet itself. The future he is looking for already assumes to look from the point where he had stopped interfering, thus he could see the rise and fall of the Eteria Empire. Since Syn was just asking how she will die, that was easy to do but very vague. If he explored every branching timeline from this point on to discover her deaths, it would be very numerous, so he asked Syn before he began, "Are you asking about the ways you might die or the way you die in the longest future scenario? The two are quite different because the first one would show me all the ways you would die from this moment on from every branching action you did. The second one focuses on the longest future scenario, and how it will end." Syn was taken aback by this information, because from what she had read from the records, those who had the ability to foresee the future of others only had a vague view or filled with symbolism. What Xander was asking subverted what she knew about fortune-telling. Syn paused for a moment, and decided to go with the second option, and Xander nodded his head, before delving into the future of one Carla Syn. _________________________ Unknown place, 29.6 million years into the future. A running figure could be seen in the distance of the dark, starry landscape. A silhouette of a mature woman could be seen running, with her clothes in disarray and her body filled with cuts that wouldn''t seem to heal. Inside, glowing, flashing lights were visible to Xander. Behind her, there was another figure moving slowly, yet every step it took moved the figure closer and closer to the lady. The lady continued to launch out her attacks and spells, even summoning beasts from her imagination and memory. Xander recognized the fluctuations of the Mind element series, specifically Will, Memory, and Imagination fluctuating around the woman, as well as coming from inside of her. That must be her own universe, Xander thought to himself. He continued to observe. Soon, the woman stopped, yet the figure continued to move towards her, and only stopped 3 meters away from her. The woman let out a depreciating life, filled with sorrow and anger. She knew this was it. It was the end of the line for her. The figure then spoke out, breaking the awkward silence that followed her laugh. "Carla, why did you have to run? You knew the rules. What gave you the courage to break it?" "My love for him! I wanted both of us to be together. Why can''t you just see that? Why do I have to sacrifice so many things in life to become strong?" Syn shouted, obviously hysterical at this moment. "So you threw your life for a man? Carla, that''s just plain stupidity." "Shut up! I don''t expect you of all beings to understand, Valerys! You, a woman who has lost her very essence! I truly loved him, I really did. I did everything for him, even subvert the very code I have been following for the past millions of years." Syn snapped at the figure, Valerys. Valerys merely sighed, and raised her hand, releasing a bluish light. She then looked at Syn pitifully, saying, "Well, you don''t have to worry. The entire Order is hunting him down. You''ll be together in the emptiness," before she released the blue light, covering the entire body of Syn. Immediately, Syn''s body turned into a crystal-like material, creating different facets in her originally smooth skin. After a couple of more seconds, A resounding crack was heard, before cobweb cracks surrounded her body, exploding into bits of ice that rapidly melted and disappeared into nothing. Valerys merely sighed, before realizing something. She then turned around to look at where I was, saying, "Who are you? Why are you snooping around this place?" Xander was surprised since he didn''t use [Heavenly Divination] this time, but rather his space-time power to snoop into the future. He had thought that he could view this future easily without being caught like last time. Xander tried to project his voice, not sure if the person would be able to hear him. "I''m merely passing by." Valerys sneered, before launching an attack at where Xander was viewing this scene. "Passing by? You''ve stumbled in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw something you shouldn''t have. Goodbye." However, to Valerys'' surprise, her attack did nothing, with no reaction whatsoever. The spell continued to move forward, continuously weakening until she canceled it, causing her to look around and detect the presence. It was still there. "That''s quite rude, you know, to attack people who were simply passing by. Valerys, is it? I''ll remember this." Xander''s voice echoed in the area, before fading out, disappearing. Valerys, as much as she tried, could not sense Xander anymore. She shook her head and disappeared from her location. _________________________ Xander was not having a good time right now. Although he utilized his [Absolute Defense], the spell rapidly broken through those dimensions, freezing them into non-existence. Xander was alarmed and attempted to channel his space-time powers as well as the powers of Yin-yang to take command of the power of the spell. He first extended space around him, increasing the distance the spell had to travel to reach him into more than 100,000 light-years. Every kilometer, he had to place a different dimension to whittle the power bit by bit, weakening it. At this point, Valerys canceled the spell, to his surprise. However, this irked him quite a bit, because he really felt danger from the spell she used against him. He really needed to improve his space-time comprehension as fast as possible. The others can be a secondary achievement. He said a few words to Valerys before ending the spell, returning back to Nema. However, there seemed to be a problem: his body couldn''t move. There was a thin layer of crystallized material covering his body, causing Xander to break out a sweat. The effect of the spell followed him! He didn''t know how this occurred, but he had to act fast. He could feel his thoughts slowing down, and he had to use time acceleration to maintain his normal speed. System, how do I resolve this situation? Scanning¡­detecting remnant power from a Void Traveler-rank spell. The system has recognized that the current host cannot handle the remnant. Proceeding to extraction and absorption¡­complete. Checking signs¡­ normal. Thanks, system, Xander thought, before sighing in relief. The system will be offline for 7 days to recharge. Shutting down¡­complete. Xander then opened his eyes, looking around. However, when he looked around the room, there were so many unconscious people. Those that were conscious were looking at him, fear in their faces. Even Syn, who had to move away with her fainted attendants, was looking at Xander with a surprised and wary look. There were also guards outside the area, and Xander could detect 2 presences above the Demigod class nearby, seemingly observing the situation. Xander asked ''innocently'' to Syn, "Sister Syn, what happened? Why are you all looking at me like that?" ______________________________ Syn felt danger from him for some reason. She was still holding Xander''s hand when it rapidly turned cold. When she saw that from his chest, a thin layer of ice was slowly crawling all over his body, she let go of her hand and left the immediate vicinity, along with the surprised and confused elves. Even the onlookers were confused for a moment, before they felt an overwhelming power surround them, causing all of them to cough out a mouthful of blood and faint. Demigods who were present, on the other hand, were able to endure but realized that the power was something beyond them, severely injuring them. Syn looked at the origin of the power; it was where Xander was currently in. The feeling it sent to the magicians present was bitingly cold, the kind where if you were exposed to one, your very existence, your life essence doll, would shatter to pieces and fade away, along with your body. It was what she felt when she saw the ice appear around Xander''s body. Slowly, the ice was spreading, slowly freezing the tiles, the chairs, the sofa, and even the air was forming ice crystals that rapidly shattered, creating small vacuums. Everyone moved away from the vicinity, as they even felt their bodies were slowly freezing up. The situation quickly changed when another burst of power appeared from Xander, quickly annihilating the freezing power. However, this one was stronger than the earlier one, causing most of the Demigods to faint, and alerting the Divine magicians in the city, immediately heading to this building. The power then completely disappeared. At this point, all the ice had melted, and everything in the area around Xander was back to normal. It was at this moment, he opened his eyes and looked around, quite confused with the situation. "Sister Syn, what happened? Why are you all looking at me like that?" Xander asked, genuinely confused. There was nothing to nitpick about it as if he truly was unaware. Either it had nothing to do with him or he really is a good actor, Syn mused to herself. She then moved towards Xander, asking him what happened. Xander scratched his head before responding, "Oh, I saw your death. The one that killed you tried to attack me. I was surprised that I had to end the vision early on. Do you want me to tell it to you now?" his voice was quite calm like it was no big deal for him. However, this time, not only did Syn hear it, the other conscious guests, guards, and those observing alertly heard what he said. Syn, upon checking everything was normal, sat near Xander, back to her relaxed demeanor, like she didn''t notice the looks of the people around her. "Oh? Xander, dear brother, you succeeded? Do tell me about my situation." Syn asked, her voice carrying a curious tone. "Okay, so basically you get killed roughly after 29.5 million years, assuming you didn''t die early on and did the right choices, this is the farthest visible period that I can see where you will die. You also have long surpassed the Divine rank by this time, and it seemed that you were going to betray the organization that you joined, for a man. Your body had injuries, but not a single drop of blood fell, but rather showed a glowing, multi-colored light contained in your body, and they weren''t healing. That organization seemed to be composed of only females, and well, you broke their rules. The person who kills you, you are familiar with this person, named Valerys. That''s all I got. Attempting to see beyond that situation, if you changed your choices just shows me a blank fog." Xander said to Syn. Syn was quiet for a few minutes, and so were the others listening in. Living for 29.5 million years, joining an organization of females, and betraying them for a man¡­ what happened to her in that period of time? Judging from the description, it seemed she had already reached beyond Sage class at this time, yet she was still easily killed. Syn nodded in thanks to Xander. "Xander, thank you for this information. I owe you a favor; no matter what you ask, I will accomplish to the best of my powers." "Ok, sister Syn, will do. Is it already lunchtime? I feel hungry." Xander replied, rubbing his stomach. Syn giggled. She wanted to ask one of her attendants but realized they were down for the count. Xander saw this predicament of hers and said, "Oh, right. Why are they all unconscious? What happened when I was divining your future?" Xander ''asked'' curiously. Syn briefly explained what happened, while looking at Xander''s face for any problems in his reactions. The problem was, his reactions were flawless, and even those outside could find no fault at it. Even the emotion and fluctuation of elements were ''real'' enough. Xander looked around apologetically, before waving his hand, summoning a ton of life elements into the vicinity. Immediately, those in the building quickly recovered awakening from their unconscious state. "There, healed them. How long was I out, sister Syn?" "Uh? Ah! Around a minute or two." Syn was a bit flabbergasted at how he easily controlled the elements to recover everyone from their injured states. "Eh¡­ so it''s not yet lunchtime. I''m hungry already¡­" "Hmm, never mind! I''ll just explore the building then, hehe." Xander said happily, before skipping towards the staircase. Syn wasn''t sure, so she decided to follow him just in case something big happens again. She brought along 2 of her recovered attendants. Peace returned to the first floor lobby lounge. The guards were still around, alert and prepared, while the 2 other divine magicians were not far away, surveying the entire building. _______________________________ In an unknown shack inside Silver Office. Two people were sitting down, one drinking tea, while the other was reading a book on his tablet. These two were married and were partners for the past 6,000 years. They saw the rise and decline of Nema over the past 5,000 years, contributed to maintaining the peace, safety, and order of it so many times. The two were merely doing their job of guarding the area for the special event today, with their magic and elemental energy primed in their bodies, ready to be deployed any time. When Xander had received the attack from the future, the two felt the power radiating from that remnant attack, causing them to be frozen in place by a power beyond their capabilities. They managed to break out of it after a few seconds, and as they were heading to the source, that was when another wave of power appeared, much, much stronger than the first one, causing them to cough out blood and fall to the ground, suppressed by the power. These two people were both already Divine-9, and are far more sensitive than the other magicians below their rank. Although it didn''t do much damage to them, they were suppressed and unable to move, causing the guards and soldiers who recognized them to be confused for a moment. After a few more seconds, the binding force disappeared, allowing them to see the vicinity of where the power originated. However, no traces of it remained in the area. They saw the star of today''s banquet, Xander Cloverfield, surrounded by unconscious people. What surprised them was the words the child uttered to the current Elven Queen. Divining her future, specifically, how she will die? 29.5 million years into the future? A secret order? More importantly, the kid could divine the future? They were intrigued, but before they could even come close to the kid, the latter healed everyone with Life elements, waking them up, and the queen and Xander moved to the second floor, seemingly going to explore the building. The two looked at each other, before shaking their heads and returning to the shack. They''re were there for emergencies, not to satisfy their curiosities. That can be done afterward when the ceremony is over. ___________________________ Xander and Syn were moving around the second, third, and fourth floors. Bamon, Amon, and Gammon returned to the waiting room once they received a confirmation from Xander. Xander saw so many kinds of artwork and sculptures, most of which ranged from a starting price of 250,000 Etas up to tens of millions. Some of them he touched, intending to create perfect copies of the artwork in the future when he had a bigger place. That made Xander think, should he get a mobile fortress? In outer space? That would be cool though. I should check the forming planet core once the first year is over; I want to check if it already formed its own planet by that time. Maybe I can modify it into a moving fortress. Xander and Syn talked about a lot of different things on their way around the third and fourth floors, ranging from topics about school life and friends, to even discussing magic research and technological development. Of course, he knew the purpose of these questions Syn raised; after all, to defeat an enemy they needed to know things about the enemy that can be utilized. Xander answered the questions carelessly, not really telling anything new, but what was already known. Xander merely asked about the culture and experience of the elves in their continent. He then raised the idea of him going there to meet with the tree if that was possible. At this point, Syn hesitated a bit, because it was truly up to the Heavenly Tree sprite to meet with anyone, not even the queen can dictate it. Syn replied, her voice a bit apologetic. "I''ll have to ask it if it''s willing to do so. I can''t really force it to meet people it didn''t want to meet with." After hearing this, Xander nodded in agreement. After all, he was the same, he didn''t like people suddenly barging and demanding a meeting with him. He then said to Syn, "Ok. Tell this to the Heavenly Tree sprite when you ask: Are you a Tree of Order, Creation, or Life? Don''t worry if you don''t get this sister Syn, it''s for the Sprite, hehe." Xander added when he saw the confused look in Syn''s eyes. Information about these seeds was not available even in the database of the Galactic empire. Maybe the other bigger empires might have it, but the reason why he had information about these seeds was that he had the same seeds, as well as the description of the spells that the system gave him showed this definition. He was also curious, how much would the price of the seeds be if he sold it in the Auction houses of different empires? He currently had around 100 seeds of Creation and Destruction left, while he was waiting for the seeds to develop in the Tree of Life that he had in Eden. The 4th floor was quite boring, similar to the 2nd floor. There were too many closed rooms, and the majority were just small libraries. He headed downstairs and went inside the kitchen, surprising the cooks and servers, but they rapidly changed their reactions when they saw the Elven Queen behind him. He began to taste a few of the delicacies going to be offered, ensuring that he makes records of the food he will be tasting in this banquet. When he saw the time, there were 15 minutes before the lunch event began, so he headed to the third floor, already looking around. He didn''t take a seat but rather walked around, observing the place. The 3rd floor was divided into 2 sections, the area where the actual eating takes place, and a large space for socializing and talking, with couches, sofas, and even small table pods where guests can place their drinks while discussing with others. 66 Lunch After a couple more minutes, more and more people appeared, walking up from the lower floors. The trio had already arrived and was strategically standing around Xander, observing those people that have arrived and categorized them as either a possible combatant or non-combatant. The people continued to ignore the presence of Xander, however, they didn''t dare speak badly of him. For one, this person had single-handedly caused panic and several large riots to occur in the country, without even moving a finger. Second, his family background is also another underlying factor, as both the Cloverfields and the Morningstars were quite protective of their own. Lastly, the experience that they had earlier in the lobby¡­it was quite frightening for them, much more powerful compared to Divine magicians and the like. They were only instructed by the people above them to ignore his presence, and do not agitate him whatsoever, so they did that to their very best. Even the Cloverfields in the Nema government remained mum as well, which was already explained to Xander and the trio. They didn''t mind, because they need their people to be in key positions of governments. After a few more minutes, the President of Nema, Mr. Valores, along with his assistants, as well as the Head General, Mr. Cabal, and his personal aide arrived from the top floor. The people enthusiastically greeted them, and they returned the greeting as well. Xander was merely looking quietly, not a ripple in his face about what he was feeling, intriguing Syn. The trio, on the other hand, was calm, as they tried to stop becoming too curious about Xander; they were always on the losing end. President Valores, followed by General Cabal, headed towards Xander, in which he gently raised his hand, outstretched, greeting Xander like an old friend. "Mr. Cloverfield, it''s great that you were able to attend the lunch." Xander raised his hand slowly, causing General Cabal to actually be in high alert, along with the presidential assistants-cum-bodyguards. Even Syn was curious about what Xander was going to do. However, Xander merely grasped Valores'' outstretched hand, initiating the shake, responding to the president, while looking at him in the eyes directly. "President Valores, hello again." Xander curtly and respectfully greeted back, before moving his eyes to look at the General. He lightly tsked, before mumbling, "I see that General Cabal is here as well. My, my, you have enough backing to stay as the head general? No wonder this country will lose the war if more people like him are placed in such vital positions." This was only audible to the president, Syn, and the general. When they heard this, both the president and the elven queen were surprised, with the latter thinking of what Xander had insinuated about ''will lose the war''; could he have foreseen the situation already? The general, however, instead of analyzing what Xander said, merely laughed it off. "Just because you acted like you saw the future earlier, do you think we would believe such a situation easily?" "So, General Cabal, are you calling me a fool then, for believing him?" Syn asked the general, her voice cold and commanding, her demeanor carrying a hint of royalty in it. President Valores, on the other hand, attempted to diffuse the situation, pacifying both parties. Xander merely smiled at the provocation the general said to him. He was trying to force him to use his powers to foresee the future, thus he can have a legitimate reason to attack him for using his magic energy in front of the president of Nema. He miscalculated one thing, however; he never needed to utilize his magic energy to activate his divination using space-time elements. Xander calmly spoke, his voice echoing in the whole floor. "I have a fun story for you, Mr. Cabal. In 1 minute, you will gain a report from your military aides, concerning the full-biological scan you requested for your son, 58 years old, a few days ago. The results will come back positive. You will request the president if you could be excused. After 12 days, your son will die, unable to prolong his suffering. After 7 more days, your grandson, 27 years old, will also test positive for the same test, giving him 3 years to resolve the situation or die like his father. You decided to test your two other sons who were Master magicians, aged 15 and 19. The results will come back positive. Unlike your eldest son, who was a Mythic magician, the disease did not break out yet, giving you time to find a cure. But you will never find a cure. The same disease that plagues your son and grandson is actually a bloodline curse, targeting the males of the family. It was cast by a formidable enemy of yours, someone with a higher rank. You didn''t realize you were subjected to bloodline curse, because you merely disregarded her last breath''s attack, allowing it to hit your body. This is the strongest kind of magic curse, one built upon one''s life essence, flesh, and blood, mixing life and death elements. The bloodline you carry, Mr. Cabal, will end in 5 years. 10 years later, you will be removed from your post due to built-up negligence during military operations for the country. 15 years later, your wife dies in an accident in one of her missions. 25 years later, you attempt a coup; it fails. You remain in military prison for the rest of your life, experimented, and abused." Xander paused, looking at his watch before looking at the general''s face, whose face as long turned pale. "It''s such an interesting story, isn''t it?" Upon uttering these words, a man in military uniform was running from the stairs leading to the lower floor. He stopped in front of the general, saluting, before saying, "Sir! The report you requested!" He stretched out his hand, carrying a form of some sort, enclosed in an old-fashioned binder. However, the general was merely catatonic, not even recognizing the salute. "Sir?" The soldier asked once again, before looking at one of the military aides accompanying the general. However, they were also dazed and shocked, looking at him like he was not even supposed to be there. "¡­dismissed." The general said, grabbing the document. Upon opening it, he saw the final results: Positive. He glanced in Xander, both in a horrified and defeated sense, but the latter was merely smiling like a child, like nothing he mentioned affected him one bit. "¡­President, may I be excused?" He looked at his best friend and leader, requesting something that he had never asked before. President Valores was not a stupid man; he realized that the reason for the general''s sloppy performance over the past few weeks and the latest fiasco can be attributed to his son''s condition. "Granted." He then hugged Cabal, his best friend who was merely holding himself together to not lose face for the country. Syn was surprised, turning her head to Xander. She couldn''t help but develop a sense of greed as well as the covetousness of Xander''s ability. She had thought he can only see far into the future, but even events near to the present can be detected. She, however, squashed this thought, because she knew that if Xander can sense the future, he would also sense the change in her attitude. Thinking back to her actions earlier, she felt a little stupid. It felt like everything Xander did was pre-planned. In truth, Xander''s actions were not pre-planned. After all, he couldn''t see his own future or the people whose futures have been affected too much by his actions. For example, he cannot see Faykes'' future, even if he canceled the binding contract between the two. The guards, on the other hand, he could still see, but past a certain point, it becomes hazy, the same haziness present in Syn''s future. Xander watching the drama, said carelessly, "My, my, Mr. Cabal. Tick tock, tick-tock. The more you follow the script, the more it becomes true, you know. After all, it hasn''t reached the stage of being incurable, you know." "Anyhow, President Valores, when will lunch begin? I am quite famished." Xander immediately followed up, disregarding the look that the general was giving him. After all, it wasn''t his problem, why should he solve it? Out of the kindness of his heart? Well, maybe I can give him a false hope for trying to screw with me, haha! The president, on the other hand, saw the look his best friend and comrade had been sending to Xander, as well as to him. He sighed, but he couldn''t prioritize his relationship first then the country''s stability. He clapped his hands, gathering the attention of the people in the lobby area of the 3rd floor, and said, "The food has been ready, shall we all eat? After all, we cannot function without nutrition." Of course, the idea of a normal lunch was appealing to anyone in the Elite stage and below. However, past that, people didn''t really have any need for food. This caused a problem for a lot of businesses dealing with foodservice industry, so they transitioned as well, using edible plant and magic beast materials, ensuring that the food they served can provide elemental particle and energy to the consumers. However, this had a major problem: rarity. There wasn''t enough plant and magic beast material that can be served in the long-term. They began experimenting with increasing elemental particles'' concentration in cooking, managing to infuse certain elements into the food being served, even if the base material wasn''t an elemental-rich material, but rather normal animals and plants. The food, depending on the material used and the quality and control of cooking, could benefit nearly anyone below Divine class. A new field of work had appeared as well: Magic Chef. They needed perfect elemental control as well as dexterity. Concerning things that could benefit Divine magicians and above would be edible materials that are naturally produced by nature, with a stronger, higher concentration compared to what is commonly served. For example, his seeds of life, his seed of creation, the seed of chaos, and even the seed of destruction. The fruits he harvests from sprites and sentient beings were the same as well; once they surpass the age to Demigod class, the fruit they produce would qualitatively and quantitatively change as well. The food that Xander had been replicating from the restaurants and stalls he visited had this quality as well, improving anyone below the Demigod class. Restaurants can''t offer food that can boost Demigods because the raw materials are highly regulated by their respective governments, and frankly, they are too rare in Eteria or too strong to be hunted down. Xander avoided replicating the fruits he got because he could feel a subtle difference in the flavor of the fruits. The effects they bring to the consumer remain the same and also stay for the same period of time, but the flavor felt off and it felt like something was missing in the fruits. He would rather eat the freshly-picked fruits stored in stasis in his pocket dimension. Once everyone was seated, where Xander was seated to the right of the President while Elven Queen Syn sat beside him. Originally, she was supposed to be on the opposite side of Xander, but she moved to Xander''s side instead. The attendants and the like were respectfully standing behind their lieges, acting like statues. President Valores clapped once, ensuring silence from the members present. "Everyone, welcome. We are all here today to clear up the situation between the government and that of Mr. Cloverfield, who was placed under great scrutiny by our military personnel. Rest assured, these rebels of ours will be dealt with, to ensure that no more chaos will ensue in the country." Everyone clapped, even Xander and Syn. Of course, this was just a formality. President Valores continued to speak, "Let us enjoy the meal prepared by our most diligent magic chefs. Monsieur Le Grand, please introduce the food you have prepared for the guests." A well-built man that Xander had seen earlier in the kitchen came up from the side, wearing all-white. He bowed to everyone, before speaking. "Hello dear guests, we have a Seven-course meal prepared for this occasion. The first meal, the appetizer, is served: Vafkgran Deviled eggs, produced by Master-class Goldenclaw Chicken." "The second meal, the soup, is served: Calderan Waterbird soup, produced by a Legendary-class Calderan Waterbird." "The third meal, the first main dish, is served: Dragon Turkey slathered in honey-garlic butter and devilflame chili, produced from a Legendary-class Dragonscale Turkey, with the chili plucked from a Class 4 Plant material, Devilflame Bush, cultivated exclusively in the country." "The fourth meal, the palate cleanser, is served: Ginger tea with a honey dewdrop, produced from a Class 4 ginger root, as well as a byproduct of Master-class Dewberry Bees." "The fifth meal, the second main dish, is served: Salted Fish and Chicken fried rice, produced from high-quality grain, Master-class Goldenclaw Chicken, and Legendary-class Vermont Cutter Fish. It is garnished with Class-2 vegetables." "The 6th meal, the dessert, is served: Cream Brulee, produced from high-quality milk, as well as eggs from a Legendary-class Firedream Chicken." "The 7th meal, some post-meal drinks, are served: a 1200-year old fruit wine, produced by the famed wine artisan, Cerna Franz." All the dishes were introduced, before being placed on a very large table in front of them. Xander, following what he knew of fine dining, ate the food sequentially. He had no problems with the dishes served, and even ate quite a lot, causing others to be curious. After all, a master class magician didn''t really need to eat. Xander didn''t mind them. What he did mind, however, was the 6th and 7th meals. The creme brulee tasted quite bland for him, and the drink was just disappointing. After taking a bite of them, he made a face, and under the eyes secretly eying him, he brought out his own wine bottle and fruits, placing them on the table. He then opened the bottle, causing those who were eating to be mesmerized by the intense, concentrated flavor present in the odor released. Xander didn''t pour the wine bottle to his glass, but rather, directly drank from it, stopping others to have designs for it to ask for a taste. After all, it used different Mythic-class fruits and was fermented and developed for 1,000,000 years under time acceleration. The wine didn''t cause intoxication, but rather it improved the circulation of his cultivation skill and the absorption of elemental energy from the surroundings. Between the drinks, he was biting from the fruits he placed in his plate, which once they were bitten off, released another strong, pure aura, stirring the cultivation skills of some by just smelling it. Xander quickly finished two of the fruits in the span of a minute, causing those eying the fruits to waver, almost wanting to come close and beg for them. Even Syn and President Valores were quite tempted to take a bite. Syn kept taking side glances at Xander''s plate, then briefly looking at Xander before smiling, and then repeating it all over again. Xander acted like he didn''t recognize the hints those close to him were showing. After all, that was his food. He quickly finished the fruits, improving once again his magic seeds size and compression, while strengthening his internal pathways. The wine had a few more milliliters left, so he asked Syn and the President if they wanted some. They both nodded their head furiously, handing him their wine glasses, afraid he might change his mind. Xander internally rolled his eyes and gave each one roughly 10 mL of the drink. The two, once they received it, placed it close to their noses, smelling the aroma that seemed not to dissipate. They then drank it immediately, causing their magic and elemental energies in their bodies to rapidly increase and circulate madly. They unconsciously released their auras, surprising those in attendance, as well as the attendants behind them. Xander was unaffected by their breakthrough and continued to eat another fruit he ''got'' from his bag, looking at the two, bored. After a few minutes, the auras receded, the eyes of the two magicians opening up. President Valores clenched his fist and was surprised that he managed to take that 1% more of universal fusion to reach Demigod-9. Syn, on the other hand, was surprised because her current fusion improved by 1%, raising it to 93%. Syn was excited, then looked at Xander endearingly, using the softest and girliest voice she had. "Brother Xander, may I know what''s the ingredients of that wine?" "Hmm? Sister Syn, you want to make the same wine?" "Yes, the taste was just truly immaculate." "Oh, ok. Well, according to my friend who gave this to me as a gift, first you need Class 7 fruits; at least 2 for each element you want. For example, this one is a 44-element fermented fruit wine. So you need a total of 88 Class 7 fruits. Then, you need to ferment it for exactly 1 million years." Xander said carelessly as if he was just reciting something another person told him to remember. When Syn and the surrounding people listened to the conversation, the room visibly froze. Numerous thoughts were running in their minds. Class 7 fruits¡­ 2 for each element¡­ requires 1 million years to ferment¡­ 44-element fruit wine¡­ They were barely holding on the urge to come close and beat Xander to death, and extract the wine inside his stomach. Such an item could already be considered a heritage! And a kid emptied 95% of the contents! Some of them were looking at Xander with unfriendly, angry faces, and even the trio supporting Xander couldn''t help but be mad, because the kid never offered them wine, ok? Xander, ''acting'' confused, looked around and saw the unfriendly gazes, so he turned to Syn, "Sister Syn, what''s a Class 7 fruit? My friend never explained to me what it was, and just gave me a bunch of fruits to eat with the wine." More sounds of hearts shattering echoed in the dining room. Syn was attempting to smile, but she just couldn''t smile properly after hearing what Xander just mentioned. He didn''t even know the value of a Class 7 fruit, yet he dared to drink the wine like drinking water? Why hasn''t your body exploded, hey? After taking a few calming breaths, Syn calmly explained what Class 7 fruits entailed. Xander, after hearing it, ''acted'' surprised and horrified, before being relieved. "Ah, so I wasted a bottle of it then¡­" Xander said sadly, uplifting the emotional states of these people. At least you recognized that you were being wasteful, brat! "¡­thank goodness I still have several more at home. I usually use it as a palate cleanser or feed my contract sprites and magic beast with it, you know? They said the wine tasted great, but they got bored after several times drinking the wine. Now, at least I know what to do with it then." Upon hearing the latter statement, they really wanted to beat him to death. Even the trio, Syn, and President Valores had the same sentiments. Why the hell would you use the wine as a palate cleanser? We could still understand that you gave them to your contract sprites and magic beast, but they actually had the gall to get bored drinking it? How much had you been giving them in the first place, damn it! "W-what do you plan on doing to these bottles?" Syn asked, stuttering a bit. Her poor heart really can''t handle too many surprises today. "Oh, give them as birthday gifts, wedding gifts, or even give it to my dad and mom once they come back home from their work as a treat, hehe," Xander replied to President Valores, surprising him and the rest of the guests. It sounded¡­ practical and prestigious? Then, they realized another point Xander was conveying: This kid grew up alone, with his parents either both at work, not giving enough attention to the child. Nema people were very family-centric, indicating it as the backbone of the economy. Compared to the ideals of Eta, which believed the individual is the backbone of the economy. From the files they had from Xander, he had a fairly normal childhood but yearned to be independent at such a young age. Xander''s next words awoken them from their thoughts. "So, President Valores, shall we do the pictorial and the press statement already? After all, we are already done with lunch." 67 Returning to Eta "Of course. Everyone, thank you for joining us in this celebration. Do stay for the after-party after the photo-ops," said President Valores as he stood up, and the remaining guests bowed in respect to him. He guided Xander, Syn, and the rest towards the Lobby, where there were multiple independent and conglomerate news sites and groups waiting. Upon seeing the figure of the president, the crowd became rowdy, and when they saw the Elven queen and Xander, the crowd turned into a riot. President Valores, on the other hand, signaled one of his aides to calm down the group. The aide immediately chanted a short spell, covering the crowd, causing them to fall silent, as there was no more sound being produced. Upon realizing what had happened, some of the new reporters were aghast, but the others who have been subjected to this treatment knew this was the way of signaling the conference, and photo-ops would begin. They calmed down their fellow reporters in a matter of seconds, completely organizing themselves in no more than a minute. President Valores then smiled, beginning his prepared speech. It went on a for a few minutes, before ending with, "¡­now, let us please welcome a friend of the country, Mr. Xander Cloverfield, to say a few words." Xander then moved to the front, visible to the reporters, a lot of them were recording this and live-streaming it. He smiled brightly, like what one would expect children would do when they are happy. "Hello everyone, my name is Xander Cloverfield. Some of you might have heard of me, some might not, and that''s okay. The events yesterday were quite unfortunate, but hopefully, the government has passed that and was able to learn from their mistakes. They have publicly apologized to me, and I hold no anger over their previous actions. After all, they were trying to ensure their country''s growth, thinking for the sake of their residents. That kind of government is the kind I would like myself to be under. However, we must always ensure that knowledge and wisdom shared by researchers around the world are not limited by nationality or race, but rather free and unfettered, allowing Eteria to grow together united and informed." Xander finished his speech, his voice childish and yet the words he used were mature, concise, and straight to the point, summarizing the situation and clearing the air. The presidential aides then said that the floor is now open to questions, and immediately several rose their hands. The aide in charge of noise control had long removed the sound cancellation so everyone can use their voices. "Mr. Cloverfield, I''m Jeffrey from Daily Sun Tribune. Yesterday, it was briefly summarized all over the country as to why the government was attempting to capture you. However, the keenest of eyes noticed a split in the video being broadcasted. Are we privy to learning what was talked about in the cut segment?" "Hi Mr. Jeffrey, I could tell you and the rest of the reporters, but I don''t think the government and military of Nema would like it if I revealed their state projects. If you want to learn more, ask the military or the president about it, thank you." Jeffrey caught on what Xander was trying to say, so he nodded his head before sitting down. "Mr. Cloverfield, I''m Mary from Weekly Calder Times. What is the role of the Elven Queen in this situation?" "Sister Syn? She is a witness to the reconciliation between me and the Nema government. She was visiting a nearby country so President Valores invited her." The questions continued on for Xander and the President until one of the aides stepped in and stated the time for questions is over, and photo-ops is now in session. Basically, for the next 30 minutes, Xander was just shaking hands with the president, with Syn in the background, posing for the cameras. He had to smile naturally as well as greet the other important guests who were in the banquet earlier. After 30 more minutes, Xander and the trio left, heading back to Fargrow city. He bid farewell to both Syn and the president before leaving. He then whispered something to the president''s ear, causing him to be visibly surprised. Xander smiled at the look the president gave at him, before leaving the Silver office and then flying back. He arrived around 3 pm in the afternoon in the villa. It was technically his last day in Nema, since tomorrow, he leaves around 3 in the morning. He didn''t want to sleep, so he left the planet and headed to Eon. He created a time-accelerated field, and began to immerse himself in developing more and more spells for the next 7 hours, Eteria time. _____________________________ Unknown Location in Nema. General Cabal was looking at a man lying down on the bed, his body fragile and weakened. Around him, multiple machines were placed monitoring and stabilizing the man''s condition. General Cabal clenched his fist, feeling helpless. He couldn''t even be in the same room as his son, because the magic and elemental fluctuations were harming him already, intensifying the pain he was feeling. He had to transfer his son to a physical facility where there was no trace of elements, a dead spot. This only managed to stabilize the condition, but it was still decreasing as the hours and days passed by. On his side, a table with several documents placed, one of which was the document handed to him by his aide. Written on it was the information regarding the patient. Name: Armando Cabal Age: 58 years Cultivation level: Mythic-9 magician Test results: Elemental sensitivity: Dangerously High Magic sensitivity: Dangerously High Blood count: low Organ function: low ¡­ ¡­ Conclusion: The patient shows symptoms of magic and elemental rejection stage 8. This is quite rare since such a thing is usually developed while in the womb, allowing the child to be aborted to save it from future suffering that will result in death. The patient cannot be treated using magic or elemental energy/particles, nor fed with materials containing high amounts of elemental particles. Doctors and Life magicians'' recommendation: Please euthanize. Prolonging will just increase the suffering and degrade their health. Upon seeing the concluded advice, General Cabal''s reaction was of fury. He just couldn''t accept it, to kill his eldest son. He didn''t even want to test a possible theory of resurrecting his son and see if the curse was already gone. One problem with the resurrection method of the magicians in Eteria was that it wasn''t perfect. He had tried enlisting the help of those who went beyond the stars but was met with silence. He also sent his two other sons, two daughters, as well as his grandson to be tested an hour ago. He wanted to confirm if it truly did affect them as well. He had the testing rushed and got the results back. All the men were positive. However, the two daughters were negative for the disease, but they seemed to have something abnormal in their blood, specifically, the genetic structure they have in their X chromosomes. It was at this point, his communicator rang and saw it was the President. His best friend. His comrade. He answered the call, looking calm and confident. Once the president''s hologram appeared, he saluted. "At ease." General Cabal immediately relaxed, as he knew this was a personal call rather than an official one. "Andrew, before you ask, I have good news and bad news for you concerning your situation. Which do you want to hear first?" "¡­Cain, what even- sigh, fine, I know you won''t stop. I choose good news." Andrew responded to Cain, who was still smiling. "Ok, the good news is that we might have a solution for your sons'' and grandson''s cursed conditions." "Really? You''re not trying to give me false hope, right?" Andrew snorted, a bit pessimistic and depressed about the situation. "¡­ The information is from ''him'' though, so if you don''t want to trust that¡­" Cain trailed off, unsure what to say next. When Andrew heard where the information came from, he remained silent. He couldn''t refute that the kid was truly a bonafide magician that can divine the future. "¡­ Go on, what''s the solution then?" "¡­ That''s bad news. You need to give each one of your sons and daughters a Class 8 fruit, specifically, one that is a Purge element. If you recall, the purging element is a newly discovered element from the latest information provided by the outworlder, classified under the Fate element series." Upon hearing this, Andrew''s face did fall. It really was just a hopeless task, then. Cain knew the difficulty of this requirement. After all, the newly-discovered elemental series under Life-Death elements was shocking to the community for the past 2 weeks. The development of tools and techniques to recognize and identify these specific elements was ongoing, but it couldn''t be finished in less than 3 weeks. Probably a year or two before it becomes available for public usage. However, Cain continued to try and console his friend. "Andrew, no worries, I have requested aid from the higher-ups, if they could obtain such fruits in the universal empires they pass by-" he was cut off by Andrew''s scornful laugh. "¡­How long will it take? 1 month? 1 year? 2? 4, 5 years? By then, all my sons and my grandson will be dead. My daughters can''t give birth to male sons, causing untold suffering for them. In the end, it was my fault. My own carelessness and stupidity doomed them to death." Andrew said depreciatingly, pinning the blame on himself. Truly, it was his fault. He shouldn''t have become sentimental and should have finished the enemy immediately, before she could have cast the final blow to him. "¡­Well, he did give another solution, but I didn''t want to say this because of its impossibility." "Come on, tell me. What else can surprise me at this point?" "¡­Use plant materials with the ranks between Class 3 - 5, all of which contain purely the elements of Life and Plant and create a 20-star High-quality Elixir of any kind that''s focused on healing. What it does is deactivate the curse, stopping it from activating for a span of 15 years. If you use it again, the effect decreases by 2 years. If used again, it decreases by 3 years, and so on. The only way to cancel this curse is for them to breakthrough to Divine class. Do you think your sons and daughters can break through to Divine class in 106 years? Do you think your grandson can breakthrough through Divine class in that span?" "No¡­but we can use this time to search far and wide for the fruits!" Andrew''s eyes shown brightly. Even Cain paused for a moment before his eyes gained realization. Andrew then excitedly asked, "Don''t we have sufficient Class 3 and Class 4 plant materials? Can I exchange my merits and money to use them and have a professional create the elixirs?" Cain paused for a bit as if checking something from the side, before nodding his head at Andrew. "You have just the right amount to get enough Class 3 and 4 materials, currently allowing you to produce 4 batches of 6 elixirs, enough for your sons, daughters, and grandson''s consumption for 51 years." Andrew nodded his head, indicating his willingness to exchange for it. The two began talking of possible magic pharmacists that they can talk to concerning the creation of the elixirs. Pity, Xander was giving them a hope that has no resolution; Class 8 and above plant materials are highly prized in the universe, after all. Especially in universes where there are no space-time magicians that can accelerate the growth of these products. Even Xander didn''t have any Class 8 fruits... yet. _______________________________ Xander had quite a fruitful time in Eon. Under a time acceleration of 1 second: 100 years, he was able to develop several new spells, ranking Legendary, Mythic, and Demigod in 2.52 million years. All these spells were formed from combining his current spell repertoire as well as the concretization of his ideas. Legendary - [Mirror Image]: Create a complete copy of the Caster, excluding a life essence doll. It is able to function within a distance of 100,000 light-years. Cannot act on its own, requires the Caster''s conscious control or possession. [Xochiquetzal''s Paradise]: Creates an area that borders between dream and physical reality. All Emotion and Mind elements and their subclasses are reinforced and amplified in this area. The caster can designate one specific element from these two series to dominate the area. Whatever happens in the dream happens in physical reality as well. [Ninsar''s Garden]: Upgraded version of the [Garden of Eden]. It grows slowly, and only develops plants and plant-like organisms/animals/ beings. They can leave the area for a short period of time. It can devour and absorb all the spells thrown at it, adapting to the attacks. Continues to gather and collect earth and metal elements, enlarging the Garden''s foundation. It can move at a maximum speed of 1 light-year per second, aboveground, in air, in water, or in space. It can only be destroyed if all the plant lifeforms are destroyed. If a plant lifeform survives, it becomes the foundation of the next Garden, rapidly developing into a flourishing garden. Requires a Seed of Creation to cast. [Materialized Future]: Allows the caster to produce the future of the target into the present, copying it. Currently limited to plant materials (not the whole plant), metals, alloys, and matter that does not have its own life essence doll. Mythic - [Airmed''s Touch]: Allows the caster to select a target to completely recover to their best state, to be resurrected, or both. It does not have a binding effect. [Dreams of Brahma]: The caster and the target are transported in a dream space that connects all dimensions, fused together. Whatever happens in that space occurs as well in the other dimensions. It is completely controlled by the caster. [Lakshmi''s Grace]: The caster can bestow a blessing of fortune to the targets or oneself. It can only stack twice per being. It lasts for 5 years. It can cause severe fortune or misfortune to occur depending on what the caster bestowed. [River of the Underworld]: The caster can summon any of the 11 rivers of the underworld. Anyone who touches any river may experience one of the following: Death, Control, Spirit transformation, Undead, Eradication, Disease, Decay, Complete purification of life essence, Evolution, or Degradation. The 11th river can cause all effects to occur simultaneously. Demigod - [Simultaneous Projection]: Allows the caster to project himself to anything, at a distance of 200,000 light-years. All the abilities of the caster are directly copied into the projection, however, it can only exert 25% power of the caster. [Kairos'' Point]: Allows the caster to identify the most optimal time to do something. It is a passive skill that activates once he has decided to do something. Allows the caster to use this to a target as a permanent buff until the task the target is doing is completed. [Materialized Past]: Allows the caster to produce the past of the target into the present, copying it. Currently limited to plant materials (not the whole plant), metals, alloys, and matter that does not have its own life essence doll. One can reproduce the past bodies of different beings, but it cannot recreate their life essence dolls. Xander was quite excited to use these spells in the future. [Mirror Image] took him 50,000 years to develop, working out the kinks of creating a copy of him. From it, he made [Simultaneous Projection] after 100,000 years. By using the two simultaneously, the first spell solves the latter''s problem in limited abilities, since it is a complete copy of me with the exception of a life essence doll. He then made 2 other spells, [Xochiquetzal''s Paradise] and [Dreams of Brahma], gaining inspiration from the dream realm as well as other elements of Mind and Emotion, and of course the origin elements. It took him 450,000 years to create these two spells because he had to ensure that the location in the dream dimension is the nexus point of all other dimensions so that all attacks he did to the target/s would actually affect them, especially if they are beings not of the physical, dream, or others. [Xochiquetzal''s Paradise] was based on the idea of an enlightened paradise, where one''s desires are completely met. Basically, it can cause the targets in the area to be entrapped to their deaths in the dream, dying for real. [Ninsar''s Garden] was created after 400,000 years of researching Garden of Eden, removing the key weaknesses it had. For example, when created, rather than a singular plant formed as the base, it uses several hundreds of different plants to appear and rapidly grow for the first 2 seconds, before slowing down. When they appear initially, the area they are in is protected by a multi-layered, multi-shift dimensional barrier, delaying the enemy. It can also detach and fly as well, but this time the landmass can actually increase, and be fortified by earth/metal elements. It can also adapt and modify itself based on the attacks being launched at it. The limitations, however, was that it could only create plant organisms and creatures that are completely made up of plants. This is the same example he gave Faykes about his 3rd Overture; imagination and knowledge. If he cast this spell, the creatures that would form would be an entirely new species of living beings. They could also leave the garden for a short period of time, not more than 1 day. Another limitation is if the spell covered the entire garden size, well it would be destroyed. The good thing is that if one organism manages to survive, maybe because it wasn''t in the garden at that time, that organism becomes the foundation of the next Garden, and automatically will begin growing a new one. However, for him to do this, he had to use up a Seed of Creation every single time he cast the spell. Concerning [Materialized Future] and [Materialized Past], these two were derived from [Temporal Replication] but added the effects of looking to the future and looking to the past. It took him a bit longer, around 800,000 years. As always, he is still limited to non-living beings and products and materials that do not have their life essences. What was interesting was he could summon bodies of cultivators from the past records, allowing him to obtain magic artifact materials. [Kairos Point] was made in reference to [Divine Eyes] but in a passive and more general perspective. After all, choosing the optimal time to do things would ensure his productivity and quality of training. It took him 20,000 years to do this though. The next 500,000 years were focused on creating [Lakshmi''s Grace], [Airmed''s Touch], and [River of the Underworld]. The first one was based on his deeper understanding of fate, while the second one was a less restrictive version of [Diyu''s Overturn]. The third one was based on the Death element, focusing on the destruction, the negative side of things of life that disrupts the order of the universe and at the same time maintains it. The remaining 200,000 years were focused on the practice of the newly made spells, as well as creating combos of these spells against an imaginary enemy. He wanted to go inside Eden, but he felt like there was going to be a severe problem once he did so, one that can cause the collapse of the stable pocket dimension. He couldn''t understand why this was happening, but he will focus on this in the future once he breaks through to Legendary Class. He canceled the time acceleration and reversed the passed time in the area where he was, returning it to what it was before. He then entered Eden and stayed there for a few years. He played and trained with his contracted sprites and magic beasts, resurrecting those that died in the process. He then returned to Eteria and left his room, preparing his bag and luggage. Afterward, he reversed the materials in the building, turning it into what it was before. The only thing he retained was the Training facility. He felt it would come in handy for his uncles in the near future, hehe. He saw the trio already ready and prepared, so they all headed out to the airport. They arrived in less than 5 minutes and were in the waiting lounge for first-class passengers after 20 minutes of processing. His flight was in 2 hours, so he didn''t really need to rush right now. 68 Danger I He was reading and posting updates on his SeeMe page, such as his thoughts and ideas concerning magic artifacts, magic item processing, and the like. Within a matter of seconds, his posts had racketed more than a total of 15 billion likes and 56.87 million replies. There were some who clearly knew what they were talking about, some who were completely confused about what he was saying, and those that were just fans. For the next hour and a half, he was writing 2 new papers, one focusing on the usage of processed magician remains as the catalyst for higher-class spells. The other one was focused on elixir creation, specifically, he was publicly releasing 12 formulations of material ratios for 10 different sets of elements (water-fire, air-earth-wood, fire-life, and so on) that hasn''t been formulated in Eteria, a writing a total of 120 formulations, using metals, ores, gems, and crystals as other supplementary materials. He just got the formulations from the Galactic Empire, and these were considered there as some of the basics of elixir creation. Of course, the formulations were granted under use for Public Domain, thus no one can really own the formulations and privatize them. They can do their own modifications with it or experiment on their own using these formulations and create their own formulations, and register them, but they cannot reduce the original formulations as something private or against their newly-made, patented formulations. Once he posted it, once again, the whole world erupted in a furor. This time, because of the papers that were solely published by him, and contributed to the development of elixir creation as well as magic research. It was his first paper that caused quite a stir because it basically suggested that even in death, the cultivators retain no peace. There were two opposing sides that rose up, one in support, the other being against it. Those who were opposing this were worried that basically, Anyone above Elite Class can be harvested for one''s remains and organs, to use for magic. It thus expands the gray market of selling magician remains. At the same time, their bodies might be implicated in situations involving mass murders, terrorism, and the like. Those that supported this were more fundamentalists, believing the body is merely a vessel. This kind of hold true because what matters the most for cultivators is their life essence dolls. As long as it hasn''t been purged and returned to its purest state, one can still be resurrected. Heck, spirit lifeforms even exist. Xander, who caused the debate, didn''t really care much. Cultivator remains recycling and processing is a profitable business market in the Galactic Empire, especially since they were most of the time, in small skirmishes against other empires, and unowned planets. Concerning his second paper, people who were magibiopharmacists and elixir developers lauded the numerous formulations he had posted. It gave so many possibilities in how other plant materials can be processed alongside non-digestible material, such as metals/ores/gems, forming elixirs that can be consumed internally rather than external use. After all, Eteria had experimented and developed elixirs that contained metals, ores, gems, and crystals, but these usually had severe side-effects. After a few more minutes of browsing, his flight back to Eta had arrived, and he was escorted by the attendants to the terminal gate, entering the gate ahead of time. He had been guided once again to his personal cabin, the same with the trio. Once there, he messaged the three to take care of any problems that may crop up concerning the flight. He then prepared to sleep for 15 hours; he wanted to explore the Dream dimension once again. Once he closed his eyes, he opened to his dream bubble once again, however, there was something wrong. It seems there are rats that took the bite, Xander thought to himself. Sitting at the throne, he noticed that the floating castle had burn marks, and the weapons were primed as if it was fighting a formidable enemy. There were weapons that had been destroyed and some were disabled. The small forest garden in front of the castle that he had created had patches of burnt areas, resembling bald patches when viewed above the ground. He looked at the wide expanse of blue water on the west, the color murky and dull. There were no waves, and it was deathly still as if there was no life. The desert on the east side of the castle was ruined; the large, sandy landscapes were blasted into deep pits, the winds deadly silent. The mountains behind the castle were littered with holes, making them look like gigantic cheddar cheese upright. The snow caps had all melted, and the growing vegetation on the mountains had died out. He sighed, a bit curious at his unwanted visitors. He waved his hand, immediately taking control of the entire bubble. He restored everything in the forest garden back to their original, luscious state of green and life. Beasts, insects, fishes, began to appear, each and every organism pulled from his memory of these beasts, with a few changes and modifications based on real magic beasts. The plants became alive, filled with sentience. The blue expanse of water started to twinkle and turn clear, and fishes, aquatic plants and animals began appearing en masse, filling the bottomless expanse. The waters began to surge, creating foam and waves, crashing by the beachside that was slowly turning to golden brown from its brownish-red color. The ocean waves produced enough power to crush Mythic magicians into powder, each water particle being able to corrode the toughest metals and alloys. The winds began to blow once more in the desert, producing sand and detritus, creating large sand dunes. These sand particles were no ordinary sand, as each particle weighs about 200 kilograms each. The winds were strong enough to create a mark on an Adamantium-Pazril-Carlite alloy. Critters and beasts that live in the desert began to appear once again, full of life, vitality, and power. The mountains began to shake, stone rapidly growing and reappearing on the peaks. Snow once again appeared, the temperatures of which reach unrealistically below absolute zero. These would never ever melt. Grass, flowers, and trees began to sprout on the surface, bringing forth different animals and insects. All the creatures in the dream bubble had roughly the power of a peak Mythic cultivator. A horde of hundreds of thousands of creatures¡­ even a peak Demigod would be wary. The castle returned to its old, pearly-white color. The tattered banners showing Xander''s head were restored to their original shapes, loftily moving with the blowing wind. The ramparts and the towers were fixed, the cannons and armaments around the castle had a total upgrade: they became war weapons used by the Galactic Empire. They could easily blow Divine-3 cultivators and below to their deaths. The dream bubble became alive, causing those people who were hiding in a small cave at the bottom of the mountains to shiver and pale at the sudden change. ______________________________ Upon sensing the changes in the dream, everyone realized it: the owner of the dream bubble was here. They were faced with a dilemma: Either fight and escape, or surrender and hopefully escape. The group of 8 was quite in a perilous situation. Although they were experienced Dream walkers, this was the first time they experienced such a dream that they couldn''t have full control of the dream bubble. They were part of a universe organization, and their current team of 30 beings was designated in this planet. Their cultivations ranged between Legendary to Demigod class, with a Divine magician as their leader. They were the group of 8 sent to reconnaissance a possible unaffiliated dream walker. Not only that, according to the report of their vice-captain, but the person could also enter and exit dreams quite easily without causing any disturbance. The target was supposed to be a toddler and using the dream trace, they managed to track down Xander''s current dream bubble. When they reached the bubble, they could sense a formidable protective barrier that surrounded the dream bubble. The decryptor for this mission, Ganes, quickly manipulated the rules of space in this dream, taking advantage of loopholes and openings in the space sequence. Decryptor is the term used to people capable of twisting the rules of the dream dimension beyond their respective dream bubbles, albeit having a limited effect due to their cultivation. In Ganes'' case, he was an expert at manipulating spatial constructs in the dream dimension. However, Ganes was surprised that the destroyed barrier¡­ had another layer. And the previous one was rapidly recovering. He immediately frowned. He left the vicinity after observing the second layer, then waited again for the whole first layer to recover. He then began decryption once again. However, he noticed another problem: the loopholes and sequences he took advantage of earlier had already changed, and they were different already! He quickly analyzed the situation and cracked it normally, before cracking the second layer. Afterward, he saw another layer of protective barrier. Scanning it, he went out and waited for the new barriers to finish growing back. When he checked again, his suspicions were right; every time he broke the barrier, a different barrier of a different space sequence would grow. He broke the first layer and saw the second layer also changed. By this time, he didn''t worry much and continued to break the layers. He then reached the third layer and broke it since he had analyzed it already. Once the third layer was broken, the light coming from the dream bubble appeared in Ganes'' sight. He signaled the rest to enter the opening quickly because he didn''t know when the shield would reform again. Once they entered, they saw the majestic, wide expanse of a dreamscape inside a dream bubble. When their designated Observer, Leon, attempted to check the borders of the space, he was surprised. "It''s in a loop. There is no end. If you forcefully attempted to reach the end, you would arrive on the opposite side. The same as attempting to reach the peak where the light is coming from. You will never reach it. The point where we entered through disappeared as well. I''m not sure how we are going to leave." Leo''s words surprised them, causing a cold feeling to cover them. It was their first time encountering a dream bubble that didn''t have a border or boundary. Usually, it''s the group of clouds high up the sky. Once one reaches past that, they could leave the dream bubble. In Xander''s bubble, however, the clouds had completely disappeared. It''s a trap, in their minds, this idea developed. The current leader of the team, Vala, calmed everyone down. She then said, "It seems we can only attempt to wait out for the owner of the dream to appear, or explore the dreamscape and find an exit. Look, there''s a castle in the middle of all 4 different scenarios, maybe that''s a key point to exit the dream?" And so, their quest to arrive at the castle began. For the past 20 days in the dream bubble, they had been attempting to breach the castle, but no luck. They had destroyed the surrounding areas by their attacks, yet the castle still stands strong. The beasts had been killed. Now, on day 21, the target appeared in the dream, yet the damage they did was reversed in mere seconds, and according to Leon, all of the structures, as well as the beasts, were strengthened to have a power capable of threatening Demigods. Even the defenses of the castle ramparts were improved greatly. When he described the weapons, it was Vala''s time to be shocked, surprising her team members. Her face turned grave, and said, "The defenses mentioned and described by Leon are weapons from the Galactic Empire. I''ve seen them before when I passed by the empire. Those are war weapons, capable of killing anyone below Sage-1. It seems we miscalculated. This unknown dream walker has a background far deeper than we thought. We either go for the kill, or attempt to escape, and warn our superiors." As she said this, her teammates'' reactions were quite colorful. One was pale, there was someone who was angry, and two were curious, while the other 3 were calmer than the first 4. At this point, before they could even speak up, Leon''s face changed, and when he was about to warn others, they all appeared inside a building built with white marble, with streaks of gray and silver, and gold. Above them, it was a beautiful blue sky, yet consciously they knew they were inside a completely sealed room. They couldn''t move. Even the Ganes'' ability couldn''t be used. An empty throne made of gold, a seat made of complete Warm Ruby, with multiple priceless jewels and crystals embedded on the throne. Looking around, there was a large pile of elemental crystals rising up into the sky, yet it seemed to never reach the peak. A toddler appeared in front of them, materializing in front of them, sitting on the singular throne. He looked at them lazily. "Welcome, visitors. You are from the Aurora Organization, I presume?" Xander asked them lazily, mentioning their organization as if mentioning what the food was for breakfast is today. "I''ll take the looks of surprise in your face and the mental fluctuations as a yes. Anyhow, why are you paying me a visit? I''m just a 7-year old kid, for heaven''s sake." When they had a better look at Xander, looks of recognition flashed in their faces. Seeing this, Xander realized that they had recognized who he was. "Well, it seems you aren''t dumb, as you had recognized me. Pity, I would have loved to set you free, but now I have to dig deep into your minds on how you managed to locate me." Xander snapped his fingers, and immediately, the 8 people froze in position, their eyes blank. Their attempts to remove their memories were laughable when he had complete control of this dream bubble. Immediately, their thoughts became transferable data that Xander absorbed and understood and realized he had been careless. It seems they had someone known as a "Tracker" which traces the unique life essence fluctuations one released. Well, thank you for teaching me some skills a dream walker needed to learn, Xander smirked to himself. He traced back where their physical bodies were placed, and using [Divine Eyes], he was able to view the physical realm from the dream dimension, seeing the situation like watching a dream bubble. He saw their bodies, and immediately, using [Dimensional Travel], shifted their physical bodies into the Dream Dimension to the surprise of the two people guarding the bodies; once he completed the transfer, he removed the protection, causing them to disappear and mutate into an unidentifiable thing, before shattering into dust that disappeared in the wide expanse of dreams. He then left a note in the physical realm: "Stop bothering me. This is my first and last warning." ________________________ Zendaya couldn''t believe it. 8 members of the order, gone. Their bodies disappeared under their watch, while the traces of their dream bodies disappeared as well, perplexing Marki, their Tracker. However, Zendaya snapped out of disbelief and focused on attempting to locate the target. For one, the target left a note, allowing him to be tracked through it. Zendaya and Vohrs immediately went to sleep, and their dream bodies appeared in the wide expanse of the Dream dimension. Immediately, the two of them began to track the traces left by Xander. Once they took hold of it, they immediately moved to where he was. Immediately, their surroundings changed, the dark space they were in turned into a grayish color, with all other colors merged in the surroundings. This was when Zendaya realized another fact: the space they are in seemed different from the dream dimension and the dream bubbles. Then they heard a voice echo all around them. "Welcome, to the Dream of Brahma. This is a unique point in the dream dimension where all other dimensions intersect and interlaced, forming this unique space. Whatever you experience here, your bodies, your life essence dolls, all of these aspects are affected as well. I prepared these for you invaders. None of you can leave unless only one person remains standing." Xander''s plan was quite perfect. If they didn''t trace him, then good for both parties; if they tried to trace him through the note he left, well, they were in a surprise! He had already cast [Dreams of Brahma], creating a unique space in the dream dimension. When the two entered, their bodies were already connected to the unique space. They were now vulnerable to physical and magical attacks. "Enjoy this place. You can punch, kick, or cast spells, and it will affect your target''s real body as well." Xander didn''t bother staying since the space they were in has been programmed to collapse after only one remains alive, and then turn into a bead that flies to his dream bubble. He returned to his castle and saw the dream bodies of the 7 people were slowly dispersing, melting into nothing. He was curious about the situation because it seemed that the dream body is separate from the life essence dolls connected to their bodies; once the bodies were destroyed, the binding of the life essence should have shifted to their dream bodies, but Xander''s assumption, in this case, was wrong. The life essence dolls, after disconnection, underwent purification, cleaning the remains before turning into pure life essence energy. The dream bodies, losing support from their life essences, would naturally dissipate. The reason why it was a slow process because his dream bubble was subjected to a semi-independent ordered system. However, he wanted to preserve them for some reason. So, he began to put layers upon layers of space, completely cutting off the connections with the other dimensions, completely isolated and preserved. He then placed them in his storage hall in the castle, where he planned to put his trophies and spoils of war in the future. Afterward, he wiped all possible traces he might have left that would lead others to his dream bubble. He also practiced a technique known as "masking" in the dream dimension, where his dream bubble hides by copying another different dream bubble. He then increased the number of layers in the [Absolute Defense] spell placed on the dream bubble, mixed with [Absolute Space], making the rules constant and inviolable. He woke up from the dream, 13 hours later, and saw the plane was turbulently shaking. Using his [Divine Eyes], he could see the situation outside. There seemed to be a Demigod-8 magic beast, a Three-tailed Gryphon. Its strength is comparable to a Divine-2 magician. He was surprised to see that such a thing was even in the flight path of the airplanes; hasn''t all flying beasts above Mythic class already signed an agreement with humans, sprites, elves, dwarves, and fellow magic beasts that flight paths are to be held non-violable? Seeing his seniors fighting, no actually, it''s more of defending against the attacks of the beast, he sighed, and waved his hand, transporting the plane above the Eta country jurisdiction, including the 3 surprised demigods. He could have created a space bubble inside the Gryphon and had it burst out, but it might just recognize it as passing gas due to its thick skin and muscle. At the same time, he could detect that this wasn''t a wild Magic beast, but rather a contracted one. He checked the immediate future if he didn''t intervene, and saw that a man appeared beside the wreckage, and he began to sweep through the surroundings, attempting to look for someone. No one died, but a lot was unconscious; the man placed them all on the floating wreckage. Xander saw himself unconscious, still immersed in his dream, unaware of the situation. The man grabbed his body and carried him away, and the vision ended. Xander was surprised because he recognized it as one of the two Divine magicians in the Silver Office. He smiled wryly. Well, you can''t do anything anymore in Eta''s jurisdiction. The Gryphon was surprised, unsure what happened to its prey. It was merely ordered to attack and destroy the plane, but not kill anyone. But the plane is now gone, so what should it do, it wondered to itself. It then sent the message to its owner, who just sighed and said, "Your job is done. Return back." "Who intervened with my plan? Capable of manipulating space¡­could it be that outsider? But hasn''t he left two weeks ago?" he murmured. He disappeared into the shack once again. 69 POV: Creating Snowflake City Eden, year Unknown. Two figures could be seen lying around on the tree''s branches, one of which was a turtle gently snoring, and another, a humanoid that was looking up in the sky. As I looked up into the stars that seemed to shine bright every night, I couldn''t help but feel saddened, a bit melancholic, if you will. Life seemed a bit idyllic for me. I just needed to order the other sprites and magic beasts, protect the tree of life¡­ is that all there is to life? I''m quite happy that in a few more hundred thousand years, I can leave this garden. I really want to explore the big, wide world with a master. Oh, master, why are sprites like this, not affected by age, but our cultivation itself is reliant on our ages? Why can''t we be like other beings that can cultivate at their own pace? Why must we be weathered, becoming stronger as we experience the passing of seasons? I''m really just¡­bored? Or unfulfilled in the correct term. There''s not much to do here. I closed my eyes and went to sleep. That''s what I do most of the time, anyways. The next few weeks and months were a bit of a blur. There were many situations where Pan and I had to step in and decide for them. However, 20 years later was when I had an important decision had to make. The sprites and magic beasts wanted to create a very, very large city, where everyone can freely come in and live, trade, or even meet with their friends. Pan and I discussed it for a while. "Pan, what do you think of this plan? It seems feasible, but to create a city that can accommodate all kinds of sprites and magic beasts¡­ it would seem to be quite a stretch." I said, pointing out the main problem of the idea. This was because there were different kinds of magic beasts being introduced whenever their master appeared, and some of them grow to become very huge, reaching the size of up to 200 meters in length, or their weight becomes astronomically large that they couldn''t even move from their place without risking the ground collapsing. There was also the matter of the sprites; there were different sprites, both mobile and immobile origins. How do they ensure that the place they are going to establish the city would not affect the immobile ones? Once the city is made, how will the sprites of the immobile ones reach the city if they can''t move their origins freely? After all, there''s only a certain distance from their origins for sprites to move until they dissipate and return back to their origin and reform their physical bodies again. Pan munched the piece of metal in his mouth, his eyes a bit unfocused. After a moment, it regained clarity and he said to me, "Why not create a "snowflake" type of city?" "Snowflake? You mean¡­" I said, trailing off as I immersed myself into the idea. It was plausible. A snowflake usually consisted of a core and its secondary points, before its main points at the end. I then gathered those who were proficient in architecture and landscape design to create a blueprint of the planned city. After 5 years of continuous labor, the architects, landscape designers, and I finally created a blueprint for the planned city. It was going to be a 16-pointed snowflake city. The core of the city is the tree of life, so they planned to leave a radius of 10,000 kilometers from the current growth of the trees to have enough space for its growth and avoid disrupting the other parts of the city. The 8 secondary points were between the 8 main points, a bit shorter than the main points, but have larger hubs than the latter. There would be 16 main roads for each point, and every 25,000 kilometers, a hub is created, for a total of 3 hubs for each main point, and 2 hubs for the secondary points. In the main points, the hub sizes are equal to one another, with a radius of 50,000 kilometers each. These hubs would create 2 additional roads on its sides, branching out and producing 2 smaller hubs with a radius of 10,000 kilometers each. In the secondary points, the hub sizes are equal to one another as well, with a radius of 75,000 kilometers each. They would not produce any secondary roads to lead to smaller hubs, but rather, they have secondary roads that connect to the nearby hubs of the main points. The main points'' distance from one another is 200,000 kilometers each. The total area of the snowflake city would be 193 billion kilometers. The distance of the farthest city from the tree is now 385,000 kilometers, which can be easily traversed by Demigods and above. Now that they had a blueprint, what they needed to do now is collect or create the necessary materials. According to the earth and metal sprites and magic beasts of the said elements, they could produce certain metals that the building making required, but they needed metal references. This was when I thought of a solution: ask master! I immediately connected to master through our bond, asking him if he could send over the strongest and flexible metals and crystals that he had, explaining the reason why. After a few moments of silence, I heard master reply, "Sure, no problem. I placed them already on top of the tree. I like the idea of the snowflake city, in fact, it gave me an idea of how I will modify Eden in the future. Don''t worry about the space, I had adjusted the distances of the trees of life to be at least 500 billion kilometers from each other. You can be sure that the cities you make won''t overlap with one another." "Thanks, master! Don''t worry, we will do our best, hehe!" I said shyly. I was quite pumped up, and collected the metal samples from the tree, each of which was the size of my head, but had different masses. The research of the metals took around 10,000 years. During this period, the other materials were quickly located and prepared to be cultivated and gathered. In the meantime, the architects, landscape designers, and I focused on improving the fine details of the blueprint. Since there was a wide stretch of land between the hubs, why not place some of the living homes of sprites and magic beasts? They planned to make houses to cover that 25,000-kilometer stretch of land with houses. They alloted a 16 square kilometer area per home on both sides of the roads, producing a total of 37,500 homes per main point, and 25,000 homes per secondary point. This would show a total of 500,000 homes estimated to be built on the side of the roads. They could have made the plots smaller, but that wouldn''t be comfortable for some sprites and magic beasts that wanted enough space for privacy or were very, very large creatures. For the sake of fairness and their personal safety, no one was allowed to build homes 10,000 kilometers away from the current end growth of the Trees of Life. After this, they began to focus on each hub: How will they design it? Does it cater to a specific group, etc? I asked the opinion of Marie, Mary, and Fae. Marie and Fae, A fire sprite and a magic beast, both gave the idea of elemental priority design. This means that each main point had a certain element as its dominating theme. When Mary heard of this idea, she asked me how I will resolve the issue of those with elements that are not in any of the main points. I said that a possible solution is to make the secondary points'' hubs to have a mixture of elemental priorities. Seeing it feasible, I thanked the trio and continued to design the city hubs. After a few decades of researching and census, the elements were decided for the first city. Main points: Light and Darkness, Fire, Water, Air, Earth/Metal, Wood, Life and Death, and Fate. Secondary points: Secondary derivatives of these elements, one from each. The same goes for the smaller hubs branching out from the main hubs. Time really does fly, if one is living the moment. It felt¡­ fun. It wasn''t boring anymore like before. There really was something happening. __________________ 60,000 years passed by since they completed the research on the metals and its alloy derivatives. The framework and foundation of the city were slowly being built. Everyone was contributing whatever they can contribute to making the city and its hubs. I guess¡­ being a leader isn''t that boring after all, huh. I paused, then let out a soft giggle. I can''t help but wonder how long this feeling would last until I feel bored again. However, for now, I''ll make sure to enjoy it. I looked at Pan, who was busy tasting some of the different cuisines that the sprites had begun to experiment on, with his face full of delight. It seems even my buddy had found meaning as well to staying here for a little longer, huh. I think¡­ I''ll stay here for now. Maybe, delay until I reach Divine class, like Marie, Mary, and Fae. 70 Im going to be a big Brother? Xander ''woke'' up, and realized that there was someone knocking on the cabin. He opened the door, and the figure of Amon was revealed. Xander still couldn''t wrap around his mind the thing he saw the first time he dream walked, and compare it to the person in front of him. I guess people just have their kinks, Xander muttered to himself. He looked at Amon with ''bleary'' eyes, asking groggily, "What is it? Have we landed?" "¡­Yes, we have landed earlier than expected." "Huh? Why? Hasn''t it been 15 hours?" Xander asked, confusion written all over his face. Amon stared at his face before saying calmly, "There was a situation earlier, and I can''t explain it clear what happened next; we just suddenly appeared in the airspace of Eta. We are a bit far from Coldwater City, Beta province, so we are going to go to the closest province to Delta, which is Gamma province. The plane is going to do an emergency landing at the domestic airport in Vanice City." Xander thought for a bit before nodding in agreement and closed the door to his cabin. Amon, on the other hand, met up with his two other brothers, with Gammon asking, "Was it him?" Amon paused for a moment, before shaking his head. "By the state of his cabin, and his facial expression as well as the look he had, he just woke up. He had no relation to the event of the airplane being moved magically into Eta airspace." Upon hearing this, Gammon and Bamon looked pensive, as they were checking the evidence that Amon had placed in front of them, a recording of the earlier conversation. The flight was uneventful and after 2 hours, the plane already landed at Vanice City domestic airport. After proving their identities and answering questions from the press, the trio escorted Xander out of the city and headed to Delta province, their last stop being Callows City. By 5 pm, they had reached Callows City, where they dropped him off and said their farewells. Xander hugged each one of them, casting [Lakshmi''s Grace] to each one of them. He then smiled at them, saying, "I''m giving you all a blessing, hehe :P" He then skipped to the gates of his villa and closed the doors, leaving the trio confused about what just happened. They shook their heads and returned to their home base in Eta. __________________________ Once Xander was inside the villa, he scanned the whole place and saw nothing seemed to be out of place, and there were no traces or remains of foreign invaders. He headed first to the laboratory in the basement, which he had not visited for 2 days. The current time acceleration when he last visited was 1 second: 2 years, so a total of 345,600 years should have passed; It now had the same time flow as Eden. When he got in, he was surprised to see how the laboratory had changed. First and foremost, all his glassware and laboratory materials and set-up turned into a crystalline-like structure. The mountain filled with different metals, ores, gems, and crystals was growing nicely, roughly 60 kilometers tall and a radius of 2 kilometers. No sentience or sprites were formed, to the relief and surprise of Xander. He had calibrated the laboratory to be able to handle sentience development. He checked with the ordered system rules and was surprised to see that the section allowing the birth of sentient and high-level beings were removed. So only basic plants, trees, and insects and animals can form, and magic beasts can be formed from the insects and animals that appeared. Not even sentience can be developed, as he had tested it with [Samsara Revolution] on the animals that evolved from this lab. He checked the trees of creation and destruction, hoping to see something different. First, he approached the two Trees of Destruction and was surprised to see a single, withered leaf growing from the longest branch. Although it was withered, it was firmly attached to the tree, making Xander curious what the tree would look like if it was filled with leaves like this or shed the leaves. Do they have a special property? Xander then headed to check the 6 Trees of Creation, and he was surprised at the 3 oldest trees. They were in full bloom, the stamen, and pistil quite distinctive and in very bold contrast to the rest of the flower. The flowers themselves came in different colors, each flower having a different color or a shade of a color. However, no fruits have been developed. The same with the recently planted trees. They were still flowerless but filled with vibrant green leaves. All the leaves and flowers of the trees were similar to that of the Tree of Destruction, like no matter how strong you blow the wind, it doesn''t fall or snap off. Xander thought for a moment before deciding to meditate in this space once in a while. Maybe it can give me the breakthrough in Order and Chaos elements, Xander consoled himself. He then tested some theories that he had gotten from the papers from the Galactic Empire, testing the scenarios. After 10,000 years, he finished with 1/2 of the uploaded research papers and theoretical experiments and saw that in that set of papers he finished, only a quarter seemed feasible and replicable in the universal setting. He cleaned up and left the laboratory, after harvesting the growing Class 7 fruits, as well as the ores, gems, metals, and crystals in the mountain. In the past 10,000 years, he had also been creating different elemental crystals, all of which were the size of a young kid, weighing 50 kilograms each. He had them stored in his portable storage as well. When he left, it was quarter to 8 pm and saw 6 unfamiliar people in the proximity of his house. His old guards were still hidden, as I mentioned to them that they can only return tomorrow. He checked the database he had and had a match immediately: these were military special ops Class X people. What are they doing here, Xander wondered. He called his parents first concerning the situation, and they clarified that it was the government upgrading the security around him, which Xander really didn''t need. His parents were hopeless too since his great-great-granduncle also agreed with this plan. He rolled his eyes; that otaku ancestor of his should better shape up. He opened the front door and exited the villa, appearing at the entrance gate, looking at the five military men and 1 woman present. He eyed each one of them as the latter eyed him, observing and marking noticeable traits. Xander then smiled at them and said, "You must be the additional guards sent by the government as part of my protection? Do come in." He opened the gate and let them in, and once again, silence and serenity filled the surroundings. Once they entered the villa, Xander gestured for them to sit at the seats available in the living room. None of them sat, still focused on their task. "Greetings, my name is-" Before the buffed man could say more, Xander cut him off. "No need for introductions, James. You and your fellow soldiers are of Squadron 2, Eagle Camo division of the Military. The division is renowned for its effective but brutal tactics in the military. James, Michel, Danes, Rafa, Farhouid, and Azaya. James being the captain, and Azaya, being the co-captain, both Demigods. The rest are Mythic-8 and Mythic-9 magicians." Xander mentioned their ranks, their division, and even their current cultivation levels, surprising the group. However, before they could react, Xander continued to speak. "I don''t need any introductions for myself. Just remember the 3 rules I have in the villa. If you break any, I''m not sure if you can survive from the security measures in place." Xander then mentioned the rules coherently and succinctly, while the soldiers remained in silence. "As you are working for me, you are to act as my bodyguards and as my chauffeur going to school. I don''t care how you plan to do job rotations, just ensure my daily life will not be affected." Xander said dismissively. He then looked at each and every one of them, causing them to unconsciously stiffen up. "Now, who among you can cook? Because I need to eat dinner." __________________________ After eating that lackluster dinner prepared by their captain, James, his smartwatch indicated an incoming call, this time, from his father. Majes'' figure appeared in front of Xander, looking grave, catching Xander off-guard. "Dad? What''s the matter? Why the grave face?" "Son, return to the family villa. Your mother and I have something to tell you of the utmost importance." Upon hearing this, Xander nodded and exited the call, then called one of the guards, Danes, to drive him to the Cloverfield''s villa in Callows City. It was the only villa that the Cloverfields had in the city besides his own. After 20 minutes, he reached the villa and was in alert mode that the villa was too quiet. The lights were also turned off. He hacked at the server of the house to check the security footage and the power controls. It confused him to see his parents, their friends and colleagues hiding in the dark, carrying some sort of party poppers. Xander couldn''t help but sigh. He had thought for a moment something bad happened to his parents. He signaled Danes to guard the vicinity and immediately send a form of signal to alert him if there are enemies. He headed to the walkway and rang the bell, yet no answer. He knocked as well, but no answer still. He decided to enter from his old room, quickly flying to the window and moving through it like there was no matter that was hindering him, to the surprise of Danes who could what Xander was doing outside. Xander appeared at his room, and was surprised to see that the room was kept the way it was. There were three large bookshelves with a height of 1.5 meters, just enough for Xander to reach the books when he was 4 and 5 years old. His old bed was still the same. Even the Wooden floor where he had accelerated so many times was also there. Xander tapped it in a sequence that only he knew, and immediately, a face appeared from the floorboards. If it was anyone else, they would have blasted it to bits, but he knew who this was, and why it was even formed in the first place. "My lord, you''re back!" the face said, almost screeching. Xander rolled his eyes. This was his first experience of a sentient being. In truth, they were rare, but Xander managed to create one on this specific part of the floor in his room. When it was born 2 years ago, Xander instilled in it the belief of him as its leader and with its undying loyalty to him. "Shh! Quiet down! Jacks, why are parents and their friends hiding on the first floor, trying to surprise me?" Xander asked as Jacks'' current body had already spread all over the house and even the foundations, as well as the nearby trees in the villa and out in the streets. "Oh, they have a wonderful announcement to tell you, my lord. It would be better for them to tell you directly than I." Jacks said respectfully in response. "Hmm¡­ ok. Go back to passive mode." Xander tapped in a unique sequence once again, forcing him to be on passive protection mode. He then left the room silently and headed to the second-floor corridor. He planned to surprise them in the living room. Once he reached the staircase, he could see the silhouettes of people standing by. He decided to scare them by amplifying his voice and distorting it, using the elements. "My, my, my. We have some unwanted guests in the house." Immediately after, the whole place lighted up with different spells being readied and locked on Xander''s body. Xander on the other hand, merely walked down the dark staircase, releasing a simple orb of light. However, this orb of light had a sub-elemental property of Devouring. Wherever the light passed, all the spells that the people below vanished, being destroyed and taken in by the orb of light. It grew larger and larger, lighting up the room, showing the surprised looks and fear in the eyes of the people. At this point, Xander snapped and the orb dissipated, but the light remained, turning into beautiful starlight in the darkness, enthralling the viewers. "Mom, Dad, you know I don''t react well to surprises. Why did you try to surprise me, haiz." Xander''s regular voice echoed in the first floor, causing his two parents who were secretly alert to lower their guards and open the lights in the room. Once it did, the starlight slowly vanished from everyone''s sight, awakening everyone. "Haiz, son, it was supposed to be a good surprise." "¡­Dad, you do you still remember what happened when you tried surprising me in the shower? I''m older now, but my powers are more potent as well. Do you want a repeat of that? Sheesh." "Mama, why did you allow dad to do this? I could have hurt or embarrassed you guys by accident." Xander said after looking at his mom, shaking his head. He then headed to the two of them and gave each one a hug and a kiss. He then looked at the other people around, greeting them with a perfect smile that could only come from a child. "Hello, seniors and fellow researchers. I''m sorry for the sudden surprise, but at least you saw that starlight at the end, right? Please treat it as my apology." Xander said, his voice apologetic. The others merely laughed and hurriedly said it was nothing to worry about. Xander then looked at his parents for an explanation. "Well son, hmm¡­ Faria, you tell him. You know I''m bad at this." "Ok, sweetie, you know, when the stork came and delivered you to us-" "Ah, stop, stop mom! I get it, I get it. You''re pregnant? Who''s the father?" Xander said shyly, before saying the latter part with a serious voice. At this, several of the guests laughed; two of his dad''s friends even spit out the drink they had, nearly choking in laughter. Majes'' face turned red, while Faria was surprised that such humor would come from her baby boy. "You little kid, I-" "It''s just a joke, just a joke, dad, hehe. Mom, when did you find out?" "Well, both I and your father found out 2 days ago, when you were still in Nema. I had pregnancy morning sickness, according to Dr. Mayback. It seemed I had been pregnant for 4 weeks, around the time your classes began." After hearing the situation, Xander nodded, before suddenly freezing, his eyes turning silver and black, surprising and alerting his parents. The area surrounding Xander suddenly became frantic, as an invisible gust of power ravaged the area, but didn''t seem to touch any of the things around him. As they were going to whisk him to the hospital, Xander''s eyes returned to normal, and the area calmed down. He then looked at his mom, and dad, his face containing an indescribable emotion. "Huh. Oh my. I didn''t expect that would happen," he muttered. He then faced his parents, his face serious. "Mom, Dad, can we talk somewhere private? I have something important to tell you both about the pregnancy. It''s a serious matter." Seeing his serious look, his dad talked to some of his friends, before heading to the second floor, to the study room both his parents used. The room was quite plain, with only a table, and 4 bookshelves filled to the brim. Immediately, he discovered 3 video w/audio bugs and a small pinhole camera strategically placed to have a 360-degree view of the room. He immediately destroyed them all, creating a small fizz. He then began to talk about the matter. "Mom, I saw your future¡­ yes I know, I should have told you I can see the future of others for the past few years, yes, yes. Anyways, your future and the babies'' futures you carry. Yes, you''ll be having twins. Fraternal twins, 1 male, and 1 female. For the next 9 months, they will grow, each as large as a normal baby. You will have hard labor, to the point that you will be in a comatose state for 2 years. It is caused by the elemental affinity of my younger siblings, which basically conflicted with Plant and Youth elements, as they have 2 primary elements: Metal-Heavy, Atrophy-Fester and Entropy-Array, Poison-Death elements respectively. Also, because of the stress in work that affected your emotional wellbeing that translated into physical ailments. The main problem is when you are in labor, several groups and organizations will attempt to kidnap my brother and sister. They will fail, but dad will be seriously injured, almost close to becoming a cripple. Since mom is down for the count as well, both the two clans argue, and settle with one child each. Their experience under each family can be summed up in one word: Cold. Even when you and dad recover, the coldness and cynical perspective will be present in their hearts, minds, and actions." Xander then wrote a few things in his smartwatch before sending it to the two of them. The two were still surprised with the information that they had received. For one, they had heard rumors from the other families that their son was able to divine the future of anyone, divining the Elven Queen''s death, and the Head General''s fate and current situation. They don''t know if they should trust Xander but seeing him never make a joke about their lives, they decided to put their faith in it. After all, what''s the worse that could happen? Unnecessary preparation? Better ready than never. "This is the most probable scenario to happen if nothing too drastic changes the situation. To change that most-probable near-future scenario, first of, for the next 9 months, you have to take a work leave, and you need to consume Class 3-7 fruits that are rich in Life and Plant elements so that the conflict of the elements wouldn''t be as severe, and you won''t fall into a coma for 2 years." "Now, concerning the families attempting to ambush you two, the list I sent contains the specific members involved and the people who were behind the plan from each family. Either deal with them early on, or place more people from the clan, people you can both trust to do so, make them sign a binding contract if possible, around in the delivery room and all around it, including the bottom and the upper floors. The best solution is still to have doctors deliver it at home. If you hadn''t noticed, the whole house had been modified for quite some time now, capable of withstanding several peak attacks from Divine-9 magicians or one attack equivalent to a Sage-1." "Now, I also got rid of all spy cameras and bugs in the room. However, there are some left in the other places of the house." Xander tapped his foot once again, and the face of Jacks appeared, surprising his parents. "Jacks, remove all the bugs and spy recorders in the house. If you see a servant or bodyguard placing a bug, you are free to kill them immediately." "Yes, my lord! Right away!" Jacks nodded happily, before disappearing. Majes and Faria felt the powerful suppression the face gave out, as if with just one look, they would be killed. "Don''t mind him, he''s a servant uncle Simpson gave me 2 years ago. He''s very obedient to me." Xander said, attributing the presence of Jacks to his alter persona. The two nodded, as it seemed plausible since Xander and Homer Simpson had been interacting for around 4 years. According to the character of Homer Simpson, he is most likely willful and very particular about things, but he holds friendship dearly. Seeing them not say anything, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Truthfully, Jacks was basically born after 2 years of continuous time-acceleration, reaching a frightening level of Divine-6 from being a Mythic-9. For the past 2 years, Xander had exposed a certain part of his room to the time acceleration of 1 second: 1 year, reaching 63.6 million years. Of course, for Xander at the time, this was the limit of his speed, when the specific area of the room, no more than 20 centimeters in radius, is affected with it. It was because of Jacks'' appearance that he wanted to test if sprites could also be born the same way. 71 Magic Meditation II The hard part is over, Xander thought to himself. Hopefully, my parents have enough manpower to deal with the people on the list, Xander added. Indeed, what he did was merely cross-checking their appearances with the database of clans, families, and conglomerates in his smartwatch to recognize the masterminds and those involved. The trio, after talking a bit more about the possible names the twins would have, returned to the party after around 6 minutes of talking. They began to socialize and Xander decided to stay the night at the villa, telling Danes to standby inside the house. Inside his room, he once again isolated the space and headed to Eden. He spent around 2 hours of outside time there. The next morning, he headed to school after taking a bath and eating the breakfast his mom made. Danes arrived at the school gates in 35 minutes. He passed by the numerous buildings and small gardens before reaching the class building. He scanned his smartwatch, as usual, entering the building, and went straight to the third floor, in the lounge. He was surprised to see people he knew: Maryann, Faykes, Valerie, and Carly. The three girls were actually discussing multiple methods of subconsciously undergoing Magic meditation without falling into deep meditation state. Advanced study, huh. Faykes, on the other hand, was practicing conscious-subconscious spellcasting, or Biconscious spellcasting, similar to what Xander did before. When they saw Xander come up, they paused what they were doing and greeted him, with Carly and Maryann approaching him, while Valerie was trudging unwillingly. Faykes continued to practice his control, fine-tuning it. Xander smiled at the four. He took one of the available seats and asked them curiously, "What do you plan to specialize in, friends?" Upon hearing this statement coming from Xander, the four were surprised, as they had never thought of specializing. They had initially set their goals to becoming like Xander, an expert to all specializations. As if realizing what they were thinking, Xander laughed. "Friends, to clarify any misconception in your minds, I may look like I''m an expert at everything, but the truth is, I''m not." "My current field specializations are on Magic research development, Magic artificer, and Magic Material Developer, the latter contains Magibiopharmacist and Metallurgy Creation. It''s important to have focus on what you already are talented in and continuously improve them. So I repeat: What do you plan to specialize?" Maryann and the rest fell into deep silence and contemplation. It was Faykes that answered first. "Landscape Developer and Magibiopharmacist." Upon hearing his answer, Xander nodded in agreement, because his primary elements suited these specializations. He could improve the relationship between his primary elements, as well as his control and comprehension of them. Afterward, it was Carly that spoke up. "U-um, I want to specialize in Magic Archeology and Applied Magic Physics." Xander also agreed with Carly''s choice. With her elements, Magic Archeology is a lucrative business, not just in Eteria, but also in Universal Empires. According to the records he got, even the Galactic Empire had structures similar to the ruins Eteria had, but usually bigger, and can even span as big as several planets in the same system. Applied Magic Physics would be needed no matter what planet or empire you are in. Not only do you get to research on magic and its physics, but there''s also a form of application to different raw and processed materials, such as ores, crystals, gems, metals, to alloys, jewelry formation, and the like. Valerie answered simply: "I want to focus on how to kill effectively." Hearing this, Xander was surprised, but couldn''t refute Valerie. Her family had a heritage formed from bloodshed, after all. At the same time, she really didn''t have any elements that can be used effectively for any of the known non-lethal professions. It was Maryann who still hasn''t answered. Earlier, she had no idea what to specialize in. One of which was being a Magic Researcher, but beyond that, what else? Only after hearing Valerie''s answer did she a possibility. "I want to focus on Applied Magic research and how to kill effectively as well." It was Maryann''s answer that really surprised him. After all, Xander never saw her as someone willing to kill. If he was to select something for her, it would be simply Applied Magic research and Physics research, because her elements really suited the study of the two. However, he had to respect their decisions. They are the ones going to walk down this path, after all. At this point, Xander began his spiel, tapping his smartwatch screen quite fast that everyone who was watching him could only see a blur. "Since I see you guys have your own specializations chosen, I hope you stick to them until the very end, allowing you to reach your maximum potential, or even surpass it. I''ve sent several hundreds of books and research papers, as well as videos that would improve your skills in the respective specializations. Once you read and watched them all from start to end, can you consider yourself stepping into the field of specialization." Upon saying those words, his hand stopped moving, and all of them received several hundreds of documentation and videos that almost overwhelmed their storage. "However, you have to promise something before you can open them: You have to ensure that you will never show anyone the files I have sent you, or create copies of it without permission, nor teach their contents to others without my permission. Do you agree?" Xander asked them solemnly, creating a somber atmosphere. It was Maryann and Carly that replied first. "I agree." Faykes asked, "Do I still have to take this vow even if I made an earlier contract with you?" Xander rolled his eyes, before nodding. Faykes then said, "I agree." Valerie hesitated for a moment, before gritting her teeth and saying, "I agree." Once everyone said those words, the atmosphere on the floor suddenly changed, a constricting, overwhelming sense of power covered each and every one of them. These tendrils of power would enter their body and diffuse into their magic seeds and their life essence dolls, creating a sense of power boost, yet at the same time, a locking sensation. A voice echoed in their minds. "With these words, I bound thee. Let the truth be hidden by thee the darkness. The vow is done in the light, and is fulfilled by the night. Break this vow, let thy essence be dispersed." It was as if an invisible chain surrounded their hearts, connected to the far unknown. After a while, they realized that the voice disappeared, but the energy around them hadn''t dispersed, confusing them, as they thought there would be more. "Don''t waste energy! Immediately go and use it to compress your magic seeds and make new ones! Faykes, just go strengthen your master rank spells. Absorbing this would be equivalent to 30 years of cultivation." Xander''s voice reverberated in their ears. Upon hearing Xander''s words, the girls were enlightened and began to compress their seeds after generating them. Maryann was smart, as she decided to form her last two magic seeds, before inflating the size of her seeds and then compressing it, repeating it for three cycles. Carly, who was initially Elite-5, raised her rank to Elite-9 and did one round of inflation and compression. Valerie only had to create one more Magic seed, and she began to supplement and improve the magic seeds, doing inflation and compression for a total of 5 cycles. Faykes, who had experienced this before, was quite calm and focused on cycling the magic energy from his life essence to the spells he had right now. He also used this time to integrate his 2nd and 3rd Master spells, [Smog of the Sea], and [Yggdrasil''s Branch]. Xander, observing them, let out a sigh. It was quite hard to transform free-flowing elemental particle to energy form, then into pure magic energy that everyone can absorb. He had to use [Forced Elemental Decay] on 4 Elemental crystals that he had, using up 200 kilograms. Then again, this was insurance and a way to foster their loyalty to him. Basically, this was similar to a bloodline curse that Faykes had. However, this was a one-time use, which basically affects one''s foundation. Once they are affected, the rest of their magic cultivation comes tumbling down on a free fall, and they would have to cultivate again and reach their previous cultivation within 2 years or die of old age. This is assuming they manage to survive the sanction of the binding vow to their life essences, of course. Although it was a bit insidious, the hearts of sentient beings can be so fickle. He was merely setting up insurances to ensure his safety. After 45 minutes, everyone had a stable foundation and awoken easily. Since they were doing Magic meditation while breaking through and compressing their magic seeds, they were also able to gain enlightenment. In fact, Valerie and Carly already had formulated their first Master-class spell, but they haven''t integrated it yet because they are still trying to perfect it. However, they can use it, but only display a limited amount of power like Faykes and Maryann a week ago. Maryann, on the other hand, was excited because she developed her new Master spell, but hasn''t named it yet. When Xander asked them what their new skills were, they giggled and said they''ll show it to me in the final exams. Xander shook his head, smiling wryly. The small group continued their discussions, with Xander coaching Faykes and Maryann on Biconscious control, while the other two were focusing on understanding their first master-class spell. 15 minutes before class started, they headed down to the classroom and began to talk and socialize with their friends. Alexa and James were also there talking with the others who came downstairs. Xander, on the other hand, merely slept for now after greeting his classmates with his cheerful persona. After a few more minutes, the class began with Ms. Lim entering the room, and heading straight to the front, and opened up the hologram projector. She gave her traditional smile, and spoke, "Students, welcome. Continuing on what we did yesterday, we are going to focus on how to do Magic meditation actively, allowing you to harness its capabilities in real-life situations and battles." "First, let''s review what we did last week. We did Magic meditation, but it causes us to go into a deep trance, controlled by our general subconscious thoughts, to rest, recuperate, and or comprehend the mysteries the universe has to offer. This type of meditation is known as passive Magic meditation." "We are going to do an active Magic meditation, wherein you retain your conscious state. You may ask: Why should we do this?" "First, doing this while, let''s say, you are hunting for a magic beast, or fighting off against another magician, would enable you to have a faster absorption of elemental particles and energy around you than the passive absorption our body has. Although it isn''t as fast as when you actually fall into a deep trance, it is still at least 5 times faster compared to the passive absorption. Second, it isn''t as simple as passive absorption; it can automatically regulate the transformation of the elemental particles into magic energy that can heal your body. Yes, it''s not just to ensure you recover your lost magic energy, but it also ensures your safety and wellbeing." At this point, another hologram figure showed two people facing off one another, and one of them was gravely injured in an exchange. During their chase, a glow surrounded the body of the wounded, and visibly, to the eyes of the students, they could see the open wound drying up, clotting, and then after 2 minutes of continuous chasing, the scabs fell off, showing new skin. Another group of figures appeared on the side of the first video, this time, showing a comparison of automatic and active transformation of magic energy into healing energy that can restore the body. The first person was slashed on the arm, revealing a bloody gash, the same with the second person. The first one was actively healing, while the other one was automatically healing it. Afterward, technical tests were shown for each person, showing that the actively healing produced 95% recovery in 2 minutes, while automatic healing produced 65% at the same time. The problem with the first one was that he also cannot execute strenuous activities while controlling the magic energy actively to heal his body. The second person was able to perform such activities and even cast a spell or two. The third person, on the other hand, was used to demonstrate things that cannot be healed by passive or active magic energy control. His finger was cut, and when he did both passive than active, the finger did not regrow. When the cut part was attached to his newly-formed stump and his cultivation skill was cycled, the body recognized the missing part and connected with it, joining perfectly, having a 100% recovery rate after 4 minutes of cycling. Ms. Lim then continued the lecture. "Last but not least, the third benefit of active Magic meditation is when it is running, you may be able to steal the surrounding elemental particles and energy from the other targets around you. Why? Because of the hierarchy of the cultivation skills you are using. Some are better and stronger than other cultivation skills, so it''s possible to be suppressed by them." At this, Ms. Lim showed another example in the screen, wherein the opponent was not able to absorb the elements into his body because the caster was able to actively control the flow of the elemental particles and energy around them to his body. "Of course, this is a risk as well; what if your opponents or targets manage to micro-control elemental particles; can they then activate them inside your body? Theoretically, yes, but that requires very high experience and expertise in micro-control both outside and inside the body. They also need to almost have a near-perfect understanding of the elemental particles they controlled. That is why when using Magic meditation, it is important to only take the elements you can actually have affinity and control over. You don''t really want to absorb every element, or risk being killed or controlled from the inside. However, if you have a special cultivation body, you really don''t have to worry about these things." She then changed the display, showing what she meant by micro-controlling elemental particles into the body of the caster. Once the target had willed the controlled elemental particles, they began to wreak havoc in the cycle pathway, diverging to different paths along with other elemental particles. There was even one situation where the particles were rearranged into forming a magic spell, activating inside the caster, killing him instantly. "So, how do we go about it? I''ve mentioned this in the previous week: you just use your cultivation skill standalone." "First, you need to visualize what you want to do, such as recover your injuries, staunch the bleeding, passively comprehend the elements and the mysteries of the universe, etc., and then you run the cultivation skill, automatically guided to doing what you visualized. You can easily stop the cycle as well, but not in the middle of the cycle. It will do one round, then stop. Stopping it in the middle is not advised because the magic energy in your body would rapidly go into chaos, and lead to magic psychosis. However, your opponents can use this as a way to kill or disrupt you, so never let the fight prolong that the opponent can grasp the cycle of your cultivation skill. Once they do, they just have to strike between the start and the end with an attack that can mess up the circulation, and you''re dead." "Today, you''ll be training on using your cultivation skills, with Mr. Cloverfield being excused from the exercise. He sent me a message last night about the possible disruption if he joined, and I agreed with his request. For today and tomorrow, get a hang of cycling your cultivation skill by doing an array of things, such as walking, running, talking, eating, or even doing physical things like chopping fruits, carrying a heavy load on your own. Tire yourself then try using the cultivation skill to recover your lost vitality and energy. By Thursday and Friday, I will assign you to different partners where you will test it in a VR simulation, so we''ll be meeting in the gym on Thursday and Friday." Everyone began to do their own stuff on the other side of the classroom, some starting from a meditation pose before standing up and walking like they are on a tightrope balance. Some were able to use the cultivation skill easily, meaning they were practicing on their control and usage of the cultivation skills they had. Xander was merely asleep, quiet, and wasn''t giving any pointers. In fact, he had nothing to give them since it really depended on their respective practice and type of cultivation skill they were using. After 3 hours of class practice, Xander woke up, feeling refreshed. He wasn''t in the dream dimension, but rather he was doing passive Magic meditation. He was focused on understanding space-time elements. In fact, no one noticed but the time around Xander''s body was accelerated, having a ratio of 1 second: 10 years, so he was in Magic meditation for 108,000 years. The improvement was quite low, only 3 percent. However, it was this 3% that made a qualitative change for Xander. All his space-based and time-based spells can now contend two levels higher than they are. All their effects and capabilities have increased tremendously, producing quantitative and qualitative changes. He also felt that [Absolute Time] and [Absolute Space] improved once again, but the description hasn''t changed. All of his spells'' AoE had increased to 3/4 of the universe, while he can traverse any location in the universe in just a thought. With his current repertoire of space and time spells, he can easily fight a peak-demigod and win. He can also fight with Divine magicians and end in a draw, while surviving, but not win against Sage-class cultivators since his [Absolute Defense] was able to contend with any attack up to the level of a Void Traveler-1. Another good thing was that his spell, [Mirror Image] as well as [Simultaneous Projection], allows him to extend his control to 1 million to 5 million light-years. Beyond that distance, the connection becomes weaker and he cannot use simultaneous projection, and the mirror image disappears. The current size of the universe is 1 novemdecillion or 1e+60 light-years. It is still growing, but he was quite unsure what is the period of growth. To give a scale, a demigod with a speed of 0.01 light-years per minute would take 1.9e+56 years to explore from end to end the universe, 7.6e+54 years for a Sage, and 3.1e+52 years for a God humanoid cultivator; it''s a different case for magic beasts and sentient beings. Of course, beings in the universe don''t have this much time to explore, which is why most take advantage of naturally-occurring spatial structures, such as wormholes and space tunnels. For now, Xander was quite content with the increased stability of his pocket dimension structures. He ensured that his table and chair weren''t affected by his time acceleration, before leaving the classroom after saying his goodbyes. According to Ms. Lim, the current lesson plan would discuss the second part of Magic meditation for 2 weeks, this week and next week. The 3rd week would be devoted to Magic selection. In the 4th week, it was going to be their midterms. He didn''t really need to attend these classes since he already passed the midterms for these. However, the peace of just entering the school campus and then sleeping on his own was quite a comfort for him. 72 Elemental Control: Inwards Xander, after leaving the building, headed to his next class. After a few minutes of walking, he arrived at the entrance, scanned his watch, and went straight to the second floor where he began to eat his lunch, a different combination this time. However, like the week before, his lunch was interrupted by the group of 6 people he can consider friends, joining him in the same table. They began to talk about their experiences and even asked Xander what he thought about it. Xander casually responded, basing it on his experience, leaving the others confused, while some got something from what he said. He asked them if they are prepared for the next lesson on elemental control, which led to confusion being painted on their faces. Xander rolled his eyes, and after slurping his third scoop of noodles, he said, "This week''s lesson is all about fine control in the body. This is going to focus on how you use raw elemental particles and energy from the outside to be transformed inside your bodies. There are numerous applications, such as transforming a certain part of your body by covering it by a specific type of element, such as fire, creating things out of your imagination." When Xander said this, he opened his palm, and his friends could see the surrounding elements being absorbed by the hand, before turning the hand crystal-like, which then slowly increased in size and mass, forming a small scythe, then after two seconds, transforming into a shield, after another two seconds, it then transformed into a machine gun, before Xander transformed it into a detachable ice grenade, which Xander launched up to the ceiling, causing shouts of surprise and shock to occur to the staff and his friends. However, before it even reached the ceiling, it stopped midway and exploded, but the explosion was contained, and only produced crystal-like particles, forming into a dense cloud, which then shrank and condensed into a crystal ball, falling firmly into Xander''s hands. Maryann, who had a strong affinity for the Ice element, eyed the ball yearningly. Xander then continued his discussion, after slurping another spoonful of noodles. "First, I showed you guys how elements are absorbed by the body, and only in a certain section of the body; this is an example of good inward elemental control. Second, you saw my hand crystallize; this is a physical effect that differs depending on your selected element. It could be burning for fire, transparent for wind, very heavy for the earth, metallic sheen for metal, etc., it really is a good indicator of what your opponent is proficient in. However, they can mislead you as well. Changing the crystal color to blue, or changing the initial rigidness to being soft, it could be mistaken as Water element, making your enemy prepare in error. Third, you saw that in the section of my hand that crystallized, they began to increase in size and accumulate before transforming into a variety of things. In truth, when you do this, you actually extend the connection of your life essence dolls to the elements in your hand, allowing you to shape them accordingly. When I transformed it into a grenade, one that can be launched far away and explode, before coalescing into a cloud and condensing into an orb, this is an example of combining inward and outward control." "What I didn''t show you guys is how painful and difficult it is when you try to release them out of your bodies. It''s also not that easy to do inward control that can be beneficial in a fight or a job. Most likely, Ms. Wineheart will just teach you how inward control can help you in Magic meditation for now, then save this trick I showed you for the last 2 days. That''s why I''m asking if you guys were prepared." Xander said as he finished the last spoonful of noodles, and then he drank the broth completely, smacking his lips in delight afterward. Upon hearing what he said, the students were quiet and were more determined than ever to learn more about the inward control of elements. They wanted to reach the same expertise Xander demonstrated because they realized that the things Xander gave focus on were never a wasted effort, and were always beneficial in the long run for magicians. Truthfully, Xander didn''t tell them the other applications because they don''t have the foundations for these applications. After all, besides selecting a part of your body to transform, you can change your entire body into an elemental avatar as well, but the side-effects were quite dangerous if one isn''t a Mythic class or above. Another would be using elements to recover from injuries. This is different from guiding the elements to stimulate the life in the cells, tissues, and organs of the body. Simply put, it is the mimicry of the elemental particles and energy of actual organs in the body. However, only highly talented Divine magicians or those in the Sage class or higher can do this perfectly. After all, it required one to have the capacity to convert the element into the necessary element to do the specific function of the organs. Once one reaches Divine class and above anyways, their most important organs would be their brain and their heart. To truly kill them, one needs to destroy their elemental stones. If they aren''t destroyed, after a few years, decades, centuries, and even millennia, the organs would grow back again. Of course, this can be accelerated by someone proficient in the life element series, but the time of their brain and heart death is enough for their enemies to harvest their bodies, and wipe the remnant connection it has with their bodies and the universe, allowing them to become magic artifacts. Xander could do something similar to this, causing the elements to turn into physical matter and combine into the right sequences and structure to form the missing organ. However, it would take 5 seconds of complete concentration to do this, 20 if he was doing something else. With their silence, Xander was able to eat his meal in peace and silence, as they were now focused on reading the books and materials they had for the class. Of course, they were eating their ordered food as well. The Iceball that he made was just placed by the side of his food, chilling. After 30 minutes, Maryann, who just finished her food asked Xander, "Xander is that orb¡­ an Eternal ice source?" "Hmm? Yes. It''s low quality though, not really good. However, it''s a good addition to ice cream and a cold drink." Xander replied, and with one swift motion, grabbed the ball, and crushed it, before mixing it to his ice cream. The remaining bits were placed in glass that contained citrus juice. There wasn''t much change appearance-wise but when Xander began to eat the ice cream, there was visible ice forming around his face and mouth, shocking Maryann and the others. However, Xander continued to act like he didn''t hear them, take more and more of the ice cream, until nothing was left. By this point, his face was pale blue, a contrast to the rest to the rest of his body. Xander then let out a breath, releasing a stream of mist, his face turning back to normal. "Ahhhhh... quite refreshing." He then reached to get his drink, and Maryann asked him before he could continue, "Er, Xander¡­ can I taste the drink?" "Eh? Are you sure you want to do so?" Xander looked at her quizzically. Maryann didn''t hesitate when she nodded her headed. Xander handed her the glass of citrus. "Just a sip ok? You might not handle more than that. It packs quite strong." Maryann, hearing Xander''s warning, paused for a bit before nodding in response, and got a sip from the drink. Immediately, upon contact with the insides of her mouth, a very cooling, calming sensation enveloped her tongue, numbing it, before being swallowed, causing the coldness to travel down into her stomach. It was like a burst of freshness followed by a cooling, numbing feeling. By this time, the problem was becoming apparent. The moment she set the glass down the table, she froze. A blue hue started to cover her body, starting from her mouth extending all the way below her ribs, and it was rapidly spreading. The others looked alarmed and looked at Xander for help, who just sighed. ''I can''t help her. She''s actually gaining enlightenment right now for being in contact with a little bit of Eternal ice source. She really is a genius. The problem is, her body would be encased in ice for a long period of time. Better call her parents." Once he finished saying that, everyone saw that Maryann''s body was completely covered in a blue hue, which then began to deepen as she was encased in ice, Forming a solid 5-inch thick ice around her body. Valerie and others wanted to help, surrounding their hands with elements, but before they could, Xander said to them, "If you want to disturb Maryann''s enlightenment and cause her to stagnate at the Elite class for the rest of her life, by all means, use your elements to hold the ice, causing it to react with your elements." When they heard what he said, they all stopped and looked helplessly at the sculpture, then at Xander, who raised his hands. "¡­Can someone contact Ms. Wineheart to contact Maryann''s parents to explain the situation? Leave the part about the Eternal ice source though." It was Alexa who contacted Maryann''s parents. After all, her family and Maryann''s were quite close to one another due to research interactions. After around 15 minutes, Alexa''s communicator buzzed, and the worried look of Maryann''s parents could be seen. Alexa used her privileges to let them into the building, allowing them to see Maryann''s state. Her father tried to check her vital signs, but the machine couldn''t read anything. Xander shook his head and said, "Don''t bother testing the ice or her vital signs. She''s fine. However, the ice encapsulating her has characteristics of density, rejection, and frigidness, thus her body is currently isolated from any form of analysis; in fact, you can say that the space she is in is separated from our space. She in a state of enlightenment, so no one can move her while using elemental energy to hold the ice or risk disrupting and crippling her. If you want to move her, you have to do it yourself and bear the brunt of the coldness, or get a Mythic Ice sprite to do so, one that you can trust." Her father, a rational man, stopped what he was doing after hearing Xander''s explanation. It was, after all, something that made sense with the current situation. "My name is Harold Dykes. You must be Xander, my daughter''s friend?" "Yes, Mr. Harold." "Can you explain to me what happened to my daughter that caused her to go into enlightenment?" "Oh, you see, it''s like this¡­" Xander began to spin a bullshit story. Of course, the video recordings in the cafeteria were deleted, so no further investigation can be done. Seeing that all information seemed connected to one another and no conflicting points were present, he nodded. "Thank you, Xander. I plan to hold the ice itself. It''s not that cold, is it?" "Not really, just around -300 to -250 degrees Celsius. It''s a bit lower than absolute zero." Xander replied, rubbing the ice around Maryann, without any changes in his skin. When the rest heard the temperature, they were astonished. Why hasn''t the room began to cool down as well? Looking their astonished faces, Xander rolled his eyes before saying, "Didn''t I mention the ice had sub-elements that isolated it from the rest of the world? It also means the ice''s natural cooling capacity to affect entropy around it would also be isolated, thus the coldness is just contained within it. Anyone can easily hold the ice and even carry it out because it''s temperature would just seem like the air''s temperature." Upon hearing the terms Xander mentioned, Harold''s eyes brightened, as well as his wife, as if realizing something. The other students, with the exception of Alexa, were quite confused as well, since it wasn''t their field of research. Alexa, on the other hand, was quite pressed, wanting to ask Xander what he knew but recognizing the look he made, she knew she had to pay SCPs¡­but she didn''t have any right now¡­ Harold and his wife carried the block of ice where their daughter was encased in, bidding farewell to the students. Xander was assured that they would take care of Maryann in the meantime, because he cross-checked the available records and information about her parents and family, and saw that none of them were problematic. They were considered Class III researchers in Eteria for their research contribution, so it kind of made sense. After the fiasco was done, he cleaned out his table after finishing his food and placed them in the disposal machine. The rest followed as well, and they all headed down to the classroom. Xander greeted his classmates and talked for a bit before falling into Magic meditation since that''s all he can do right now. He had also asked permission so that he would be exempted from the activities, which Ms. Wineheart wholeheartedly agreed. After 20 minutes, class officially began with Ms. Wineheart entering and starting the discussion on control. She basically repeated what Xander said but in a simpler, more detailed, and less-complicated form. First, Inward elemental control requires one to be able to control the flow of elements from the outside, to the inside. Second, it requires you to be able to convert the absorbed elements under your control. Once you have converted them to your control, you have two options: First, manipulate the controlled elements inside your body to do specific functions, such as create a defensive layer around one''s body, lower your temperature, etc. This is harder to do because it requires finer control and sturdiness from your physical body. Second, manipulate the controlled elements to your life essence doll and magic seeds and magic spell circles; here, you are replicating Magic meditation - active state. You can use the controlled elements to boost your comprehension or guide it, as well as increase your healing speed. The last step is dispersal. After using the controlled elements, you either convert them into magic energy and disperse all over your body, or expunge it from the body. Another possible action is that in its pure elemental form, let one''s body absorb it, refining it, and make it stronger, allowing it to have characteristics of the elements. For today and the next 3 days, they''ll only be doing the second type, and everyone began to work. According to her planned schedule, the class would continue on this lesson for the next two weeks, as they will begin to explore the different methods and uses. The week after that, they had their midterms, the same week as their Basic Magic Training class midterm. Xander, on the other hand, was still sleeping and wasn''t disturbed by his other classmates, as Ms. Amelia already explained the situation. Xander for the next 3 hours, Xander was actually creating his mirror image, placing it on the planet Eon. However, it was just an empty shell right now. However, he tried commanding it actively and it was quite fun for him to experience it. For two hours, he was just playing around his control of the mirror image. He then used [Simultaneous Projection], allowing him to bestow his abilities to the mirror image that he controls, warping it to a mountain deep in the woodland of Arder, where he then sealed the surrounding space and canceled the [Simultaneous Projection]. It was a success since he was also testing the connection stability if there would be a case where the mirror image would be trapped or isolated in a location that blocks elements. Once class was over, Xander woke up, and greeted his classmates'' goodbye, and left the classroom. It was at this point Xander noticed someone moving towards him, and turned to see it was James, who was smiling at Xander. "Yo, Xander." "Hi, James." "¡­" "¡­" There was a calming silence between the two as they walked towards the school gates. Halfway through, James initiated the conversation. "So, Xander, I''m planning to contact the number you gave me tonight. Should I prepare anything?" "Prepare to sign the non-disclosure binding contract, and make sure no forms of surveillance is around you¡­ Be careful." Xander replied to him, but at the end of his statement, he paused a bit, before giving him a word of caution. Of course, this was to add to the dramatic effect surrounding the mysterious person. He also wanted to try something as well¡­ Xander left the campus after talking a bit more with James, who relaxed and began talking about his favorite subjects of discussion. It was a mutual exchange, however, where Xander also gave his counter ideas relating to sociology and history. The drive to the villa was quite smooth, taking him around 10 minutes. Upon arrival, he saw Joseph and his own team at the entrance of the villa, being barred by the new guards. Xander, not wasting any more time with the lot of them, merely said, "Let them in, they''ll be in charge of the internal locations, as well as day-to-day necessities that I require. James, you and your team will be the first line of defense. If you die, it means everyone dies in the villa, so do your jobs well. No need to protect them as they are soldiers, like you. If they die, they die doing their jobs." Xander then entered the villa, and headed to the laboratory, staying there for 1 hour, checking the overall situation in the plants and mountains. He then modified the pressure of the area, allowing the place to self-create its own elemental crystals so every time he comes in, he could harvest them; he also did that for gems, metals, and crystals being formed in the mountain. No sentience or sentient lifeforms have been formed, which he attributed to the presence of the two types of trees. Sadly, no fruit development had begun in any of the trees. The two trees of destruction in the middle, on the other hand, continued to distort space and time and everything else around it, and another leaf had begun to grow and appear. When he meditated in the area where destruction and creation power met, he felt his understanding of Life-death elements as well as parts of the Order and Chaos elements were being improved; when he checked the system, he was quite surprised that his comprehension for these 3 elements rose by 3% as well, with his space-time increasing by another 1%. In fact, the experience allowed him to deduce a Demigod-ranked spell that contained traces of Life-Death, Order, Chaos, and space-time elements. After a while, he named it as [Cycle of Eternal Repose]. [Cycle of Eternal Repose]: The caster selects a target to experience creation and destruction, life and death over and over again, for a total of 108,108,108 times. They cannot distinguish if what they are experiencing is reality or just a dream, because it is a combination of both that their life-essence dolls are experiencing. The process lasts for 60 minutes, cannot be canceled, cannot be interrupted once cast. If the target survives the cycle, he gets permanently ejected from the Universe, automatically breaking through to God class. His connection to the universe, such as friends, family, enemies, his life essence, and his domain, is severed completely. If he doesn''t survive the cycle, he dies a complete death, and all his alternate realities within the universe are wiped out of existence, from past, present, and future. This spell can be used to promote ordinary, non-sentient creatures and objects to sentience, and after completing the cycle, they are promoted to the Demigod-3 stage automatically. After reading the description, he was shocked at the brutal effects of the spell. Yeah, it was a good spell that can boost you to God rank, but then throwing you out of the universe afterward, with no guidance or clue on how to survive? Then he headed to Eden. Both Sam and Pan were already Demigod-1 sprites, surpassing 1 million years of age, nearing 2 million. His other three contracted beings were also at the Demigod-1 stage, but a bit younger than Sam and Pan. He told Sam and Pan that they can leave tomorrow once he returns again when they passed the Demigod-2 stage. Xander harvested some of the sentient plants'' fruits, as well as the ones produced by the plant and underwater sprites. He also checked some of the metals, gems, and crystals being produced, harvesting a few tonnes of each kind he could find. Their quality ranged from Flawless to Immortal quality, with purity rates of 90 to 98%. What surprised him the most in this visit was that the fruits in the first Tree of Life were already nearing ripeness, probably 1 more day would do it. The second tree of life had half the size of the first one, so the fruits would probably be ready in 6 days, so around Sunday. He exited and ate the dinner prepared by the twins, a different cuisine this time that the two researched while they were out, causing Xander to enjoy greatly. He then headed to his room on the second floor, and checked if space had already mended; there was still a large crack, roughly a meter or two long and wide, but many times smaller than before. It was still uninhabitable, as it warped some of the physical matter that came close to it. He left and headed to his temporary room, and began to prepare his second mirror image. He was waiting for the call James will be making. I wonder, what spells will he choose, Xander asked himself playfully. 73 POV: Disruption of Families "Amon, Bamon, get your members in position," I said quietly, communicating through the private, encrypted channel. "Copy." Both responded, and I nodded, before looking at my own members. They looked a bit tense, as this was the second major operation they had participated in within 1 week. "Calm down. The essence of this operation is one''s capacity to think and react in tense situations." I said to them calmly. "C-1 and C-3, both of you will head to the west quadrant. C-2 and C-6, head to the east quadrant. C-4 and C-5, head to the south quadrant. I''ll be in charge of the Northern quadrant with the other leaders of the operation. Space yourselves around 10 to 20 meters to cover more ground. You will be interacting with other team members, so remember to identify between friend or foe. You are to kill the stragglers that might escape." I briefly explained to them their roles, ensuring no one will be a headless chicken once the operation began. "If your communicators all beep twice at the same time, you are to head towards the building and complete the clean-up process. Do you all understand?" I asked them in a stern voice, my face looking serious. They quickly saluted, indicating they understood their roles and orders. "Move out," I said, and immediately, the 6 members of his team rapidly dispersed into the targeted positions. I wasn''t any bit worried about them, as all of them were Demigod-1 magicians. I called my two brothers, asking if they already dispersed their members to the appropriate spots. "Yep. Gammon, this is the second operation concerning those that tried to harm our family''s interests. We still have 13 more to go, right?" When I saw his question, I merely shook my head and we three met in the designated spot. "That''s right. It seems the Cloverfield family has been hiding its fangs for too long that people seemed to forget that how we managed to gain power in every country in Eteria," Answering Bamon''s question about the succeeding operations. "The goal for this operation and the next 10 operations is complete elimination. The last 3 operations will be focused on killing the heads of their clans, as a sign of revenge. The specific heads are going to be those who were in direct involvement with the situation in Nema last week." Both of them nodded, and after a few more clarifications concerning the mission, we began to rush at into the headquarters of the 2nd medium-sized clan, Hippolis and began their slaughter. We couldn''t utilize large-scale demigod spells, mainly because they were doing a covert operation, illegal in other country''s standards. I began to cast small-scale area spells, killing tens of Legendaries and below in the span of a few seconds. The same went for my two other brothers. After our initial slaughter, the powerhouses of the clan appeared, who were roughly the same stage as us, Demigod-5 magicians. We began to exchange blows, and although we were outnumbered by 2 people, we still managed to even out the fighting field. The fluctuations from our fight caused the nearby Mythic and below to suffer grievous injuries, and rather than stay in the vicinity, they began to evacuate in different directions. This was the escape plan of the clan: If they faced an opponent they couldn''t beat, escape and regroup in the future, before rebuilding the clan! The demigod facing me was sweating a bit, probably because she didn''t expect our arrival. "Who are you? Do you know you are going against international laws by attacking our clan!" "Hmph! You should have thought of that before conspiring against us, the Cloverfield clan! Do you really think we didn''t know who were the ones that participated in the situation in Nema a week ago? Foolish!" I sneered back, causing the faces of the Hippolis elders to pale a bit. However, this didn''t weaken their momentum but rather increased the vigor and ferocity of their attacks. They knew they were in a dead-end situation. They can either win or lose, their clan completely eliminated. Thank goodness their clan members followed the escape procedure rather than wait for their deaths, they thought to themselves. Before they could sigh in relief, they heard the screams from the outside, causing their faces to change once again, and their concentration to stagger for a bit. I evilly smiled at them, saying, "Did you think we didn''t know your escape protocols? The whole place is surrounded. Just accept your fates, like the members of your clan, and pay for your foolishness to try and go against us!" The female magician in front of me raged, not caring whether or not she would be detected, she began to prepare her strongest demigod rank spell. The same went for the others, but my brothers and I continuously launched our own attacks, disrupting the casting processes of their spells, causing a backlash to occur. "Haha, did you think just by stopping me from casting, the spell won''t activate?" the woman sneered, before I noticed a change in the elemental and magic energy flow in the surrounding area, causing my face to change and warn my brothers. "Quick, activate your strongest defensive spells!" In that split second, they activated their defensive spells, allowing them to mitigate more than 80% of the damage from the spell. However, that spell was indiscriminate, targeting the other demigods of Hippolis clan as well, severely injuring them. We, on the other hand, sustained light injuries. The female magician that cast it was already dead, so there were 4 more magicians to take care of. We began to launch our own set of offensive demigod spells, ranging from long range to close-combat attacks. After a few more minutes of fighting, we finally eliminated the elders. One attempted to self-destruct, but for some reason, he failed to activate it, confusing the three of us. However, when we investigated the corpse, it seemed that an old wound of the magician flared up, disrupting the self-destruct process. I guess, they were a bit lucky, then? They called for their members to come inside and clean up the area, before disposing of the headquarters, completely burning down everything to the ground. In a clan retaliation, such operating procedures were common knowledge. Not only that, in that short amount of time, but assets of the clan are also transferred multiple times to different offshore companies and groups, all owned by the opposing clan. After everything had been destroyed, we began to evacuate the area, heading to the next location: Nema, in Drump City. There were two clans that they had to eradicate this time: The Camaras and Guimar clans. Hopefully, we would be able to ambush one of them before the other could react. Their approach this time was quite different. They had to get rid of the guards and assume their positions. They couldn''t kill them, but only incapacitate them, as they have a technique handed down to their families about a method to check whether one is still alive or not: A Life Signature. The Cloverfields had something similar but uses dolls that are capable of receiving a trace of life essence. This was both a defensive and monitoring item. The clan can use it to monitor if their members were still alive or not. The one who put a trace of their life essence in the doll can redirect an attack that targets their life essences to it and it will take the brunt of the attack, before dissolving. That was what I initially thought when I made that pinky swear with my nephew¡­ and he was sadly correct. The doll was still intact, which meant that the vows they made affected their actual life essence dolls. I shook my head, getting rid of these thoughts. What''s done is done. At the moment, my brothers and I can''t divulge anything, at all about what happened with Xander in Nema. All we can say is that the fiasco was brought about by the list of clans that Xander had given us. Thank goodness grandpa Veirhardt didn''t ask anything else. He also seemed happier¡­ could it be, he finally found a solution with his problem? Thank goodness if that''s the case, the clan will have another powerhouse. For now, what they can do is accomplish the task at hand. After the planning was completed, the members were quickly dispatched, immediately replacing the guards covertly, while the real ones were placed somewhere else, guarded by other members. My brothers and I immediately stormed the compound, launching several attacks, killing tens of mythic and legendary magicians in the building. We began to attract the attention of the elders, who, when they saw us, paled a bit before they launched their attacks. They obviously know why we are here, huh. Damn, the remaining clans will be a bit harder to deal with then. Oh well, I''ll ask for reinforcements after these two clans were eradicated. We were caught by surprise by one of them, which launched 3 artifact attacks. However, it suddenly collapsed on its own, and the person controlling the 3 artifacts spewed out blood, his skin turning pale. I couldn''t help but look at my brothers, who shared the same look as I did: This was too coincidental. Could it be¡­? That brat, huh. So this is the ''blessing'' he mentioned to us. The fight continued on, and when my brothers and I have slain two elders each, an overwhelming power suddenly appeared in the area, causing my face and my brothers'' faces to fall. "Damn it, there''s a Divine magician in their headquarters? Everyone retreat! Send the report to the clan about the situation!" I shouted into the communicators, causing the members to disperse, while I and my brothers retreated together as well, hoping to attract the attention of the divine magician. Damn it, Divine magicians were supposed to be in seclusion! Why did they have one in their headquarters of all places?! We began to fly quite fast, reaching Fargrow in a matter of seconds, and heading to the training room, not caring if our trails were exposed. The moment we closed the door, it was bombarded by a strong force, causing it to momentarily shake, but stop after a second. I heaved a sigh of relief. We planned to isolate themselves here until the divine magician had left or was confronted by one of our grand elders beside grandfather Veirhardt. This was the very same training room that Xander had previously enhanced, and left enhanced when they left Nema last week. Ugh. Guess we''re stuck here in the meantime. At least there are glass ceilings. They''ll know whether or not the magician had left. They could see from the window the figure of a middle-aged man whose hands were quickly moving, launching several attacks towards the building, all of which dissolved and dissipated into nothing upon touching the building. When he saw that the attacks weren''t dealing with any damage, he attempted to use reinforced physical attacks, but he actually broke his left fist, causing him to glare at us inside the building. He couldn''t do anything since, at their stage, they didn''t need food or water, but just the elements. He contacted the government of Nema concerning this matter but was met with silence and washing of hands. They didn''t want to do anything related to Xander Cloverfield, who upended their government just last week and they were still recovering. Seeing the angry face of the divine magician, I could already deduce what had happened: The government will not intervene with the matters of the Cloverfield clan. This is great, haha! I immediately contacted the remaining members and other team leaders to begin their operations toward the other clans involved with this matter. Finally, no need to hide in the shadows, hehe. Of course, I warned them not to be overboard with their spells and attacks, and limit it to targeting the area of the respective clans to avoid any future issues. Let the fight begin. I calmly watched the divine magician continue to cast his spells and all kinds of attacks, even using an artifact, but all of them had no effect whatsoever. However, he didn''t leave, he only sat down and meditated in the entrance of the building, surrounding the entire building with his magic perception. Sigh. It seems we''re going to be here for a long time until the others complete their missions. 74 James Disappearance James Corde''s mansion, Callows City. Since James had left his clan home and established his company, he had been living by himself, with him was his younger sister, 11, who was in her second year of tertiary school. When James had separated from Xander, he headed home, cooked dinner for her sister, and put it on the fridge, leaving a note by the dinner table for her to see. He then headed to his study room, where he moved a certain book and opened his panic safety room. He removed his communicator and turned it off, before going inside. Inside the panic room, there were 2 communicators that were encrypted and were not connected to the main servers of Eteria. James opened one of them and after it checked his identity, he could control the interface and dialed the number Xander had given to him. He took a deep breath as he was typing the number, and when it was ringing, he breathed a sigh of relief. He waited for it to be picked up, and it rang 6 times before being picked up. A deep, masculine voice resounded, and no hologram of a person appeared in his watch. "Hello? Who''s this?" There was a hint of curiosity and playfulness in the voice, making it quite mysterious for James to recognize who the person was. "Hello, sir? I''m a friend of Xander, and he told me to call this number if I wanted to get spells and materials related to my element?" "Hmm¡­ another one by that boy, eh? Ok, lemme see where you are in¡­ Huh, planet #3458, near the Galactic Empire¡­ ''kay, got your exact location." The call ended, surprising James. Planet #3458? Galactic Empire, what''s that? Before he could even ask, the call ended and wanted to dial again, but when he turned a bit, he could see a silhouette of a person standing by the closed door of his panic room, inside. This surprised him and caused him to panic for a bit, even making him go into alert mode. "Hello. You are?" the silhouette said after a few seconds of tense silence. The voice matched with the voice James had heard. "J-James, James Corde. A friend of Xander." "Ok, let''s get this quick, according to my deal with the kid, I let you pick 3 spells of a certain element. What element are you getting?" "Luck element, sir." "Luck, eh?" the figure began to open his own communicator, one that looked more advanced than what James had ever seen in his lifetime. "Ok, I have around 13,317 Luck-based spells ranging from Master to Sage rank. You choose which one to get. Just remember, don''t bite off more than you can chew." He tapped a few more things, and James'' communicator rang, and when he saw it was a transfer, he accepted it. He was not surprised the mysterious figure was able to hack his communicator even if it was not connected to the main servers. He saw the list of spells and the effects of each spell listed. He was going to read them one by one when the figure''s deep masculine voice echoed in the room once again. "You only have 30 minutes to choose which spells you want. After that, you must choose 3 spells. Once you have chosen, you have to sign the non-disclosure binding contract with your own magic energy combined with a bit of your life essence." Once he heard this, James didn''t panic, although he was surprised, he began to filter out the results of the spells. He filtered out Sage and Master rank spells, limiting it to Legendary to Divine rank. He then checked for offensive, then non-offensive, then supportive types, getting one spell from each that best suited him. This took a total of 30 minutes. After the time was up, the mysterious figure chuckled and said, "Time''s up," and the file in his smartwatch was forcibly erased, leaving no trace behind. James then looked at the figure. "I have decided what spells to get: Lucky Smile, Touch of Unluckiness, and Switching Luck." "Hmm¡­1 legendary, 1 Demigod, and 1 Divine-rank spell¡­ ok. Sign this contract please, and you will receive the spell models and videos and written documents related to the spell." The figure handed James a nearly translucent document, with the terms and conditions clearly written. James, being a business-savvy person, began read each section carefully and asked for clarifications. This took up around 10 minutes before he nodded and bit his finger, causing blood to ooze out, and began to sign on his name written in the contract. Once he did, an overwhelming power began to surround him and diffuse straight to his body, filling him with power. He recognized this situation, as he had entered cultivation paradises before, so he began to absorb them frantically and generate his magic seeds. He managed to reach Elite-9 after 15 minutes, and the seeds he formed were as large as a mango pith. When he opened his eyes, he saw the figure still there, waiting. On his hand was a simple file transfer storage, which James immediately took from the figure''s outstretched hand. "Thank your eminence!" James said wholeheartedly, bowing 90 degrees at the figure. The latter remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "The deal has been completed. If you want more information or guidance, ensure you have the proper amount of Universal currency before calling. Also, stop calling me sir, I''m not that old. Call me¡­ Homer." Homer smiled, before fading from existence in front of James, who looked mystified. Back at Xander''s villa, an indescribable figure was facing Xander, who was smiling back at the figure. Xander snapped his finger and the figure facing him faded away as if it never existed in the first place. He headed to sleep, wondering when Alexa would also contact the number he gave her. _________________________ Not far from James'' house, a man in silver clothing was standing by the balcony, observing the situation in James'' house. He was the representative sent by the Corde family to monitor their descendant who ''left'' the clan due to the clan war, along with his sister, uncle, and grandpa. Truthfully, no one ever leaves their clan, unless unanimously decided by everyone in it. Even in death, you belong to the clan you grew from. Their grandfather died last year, and his uncle was currently a Demigod-2 magician working for another large company. When the war between Bykis and Corde clan was over a year ago, they wanted to round up the descendants, to strengthen their foundation once again. However, James initially refused to do so, because of his experience with the brunt of the war and the bit of hate he had for the family for not protecting his parents. Although his uncle attempted to persuade him, it fell to deaf ears. James didn''t realize that without the influence of his uncle and his clan, he wouldn''t have a smooth journey in developing his company. He only realized this when two weeks ago his uncle was severely injured by that magical wave that hit every single demigod in the Ete continent. It was said out of spite by one of his cousins, who had some sort of rivalry with James because he was more successful than he was. After his uncle began to recover and was able to regain consciousness, he said to him that he was willing to return to the family, but he wanted to stay in Callows City, along with his younger sister, until they have both graduated college. The clan allowed it, provided that there would be a guardian supervising him and his sister. The observer, a distant relative of James'' uncle, noticed the strong fluctuation occurring in the house, specifically, in the study room where James resided. He wanted to go and take a look, but when he was about to move towards the house, dangerous, ringing alarms of warning rang in his very essence. He double-checked the situation by accessing the cameras and surveillance system in the house; everything was locked down. He also checked the life signatures in the house, showing two people that he recognized: James and his sister, Jameel. However, he sensed a powerful concentration of power nearby where James was in, albeit muted, it was most likely the source of his alarm earlier. Yet, try as he might, he didn''t detect any foreign parties'' life signatures present, confusing him about the reading. After a few minutes, he decided to head over, and saw nothing was amiss; James was merely studying and looking at business documents inside the study room. Even his sister was just listening to music while eating the food she reheated. The powerful concentration of power was nowhere to be seen. The observer was puzzled and contacted one of the grand elders in the family, briefly explaining the situation. The grand elder replied to summon James to the main headquarters of the clan for questioning; he is free to use force if he resists. The observer nodded, and the communication ended. Immediately, he headed to the study room''s balcony, opening the window, causing James to turn around his head. He asked coolly, "Oh? Sir Reginald, what might be the cause of your visit today? Quite late at night, don''t you think?" "Save it, James, the grand elder Alphonse summons you to the main headquarters. Will you come willingly or do I have to use force?" Reginald coldly responded, distant from James, with his eyes showing a glint of glee. "Okay, I''ll go then," James said, before thanking himself for placing the data inside the panic room rather than putting it in his daily communicator. He stood up calmly and headed to Reginald''s direction, who merely grabbed his hand and they began to fly, heading towards the headquarters. Of course, James was able to send a message to his sister and his friend Xander that he was not going to be able to attend tomorrow''s class because he had to go to the headquarters of his clan. __________________________ Xander woke up to the bright sun shining. It was 7 am, and he finished eating and taking a bath in an hour and left for school. He checked his communicator and saw that he had some new messages, most of them were advertisement while one was from James, telling him that he won''t be able to attend class. He raised his eyebrows, but he didn''t react much. If he doesn''t return in two days, I''ll probably go there and have to rescue him probably, Xander mumbled. He also viewed the past night and saw some details that he missed, such as the Demigod-1 guarding and observing James from afar. He also saw that 15 minutes after he left, he entered the house and brought away James. He commended the latter''s calmness and quick thinking, putting the data storage in his panic room, rather than his communicator itself. Xander arrived in school in 15 minutes, and he headed to his first class. He talked and socialized with some of his classmates that were already there, practicing active Magic meditation, giving them guidance and examples, and clarifying questions and ideas that they had about it. After another 40 minutes, classes began, and Xander once again continued to play around with his communicator, reading different papers being published in both Eteria and the Galactic Empire. Once in a while, he would comment at his friends'' performance, giving them tips and things they could improve on. All of them easily caught on what Xander was trying to say, allowing them to have a faster progression than others. This continued until the end of the class, where he said goodbye to his classmates and headed to the next classroom, where he arrived and entered the cafeteria in the 2nd floor. After he got his food and sat down, he sighed, because the four friends that were present entered the cafeteria and ordered food as well, and sat down in the same table as him. They ate in silence, with the girls talking to each other once in a while. Midway to his meal, Alexa asked Xander where James was. Xander nonchalantly replied, "Oh, he was taken last night by an observer from his family to go to the headquarters. The observer seemed to notice that he contacted the number I gave him, I think. Sigh, that''s why I told him to do it when there is zero surveillance." Xander shook his head in disappointment. Alexa and the others who were listening were confused. It was Alexa who clarified the situation, saying it was a number Xander gave that can help the two of them to get the appropriate pseudo-spells for their magic seeds. She didn''t bother lying because she did trust these group of people, for some reason. Maybe because the past few days they had been training with one another, and a sense of camaraderie was formed. It was Valerie whose eyes gleamed upon hearing this. After all, she hasn''t broken through because she was still deciding what her last spell should be, the same with Carly. Before they can say anything, Xander raised his hand, stopping them. "I can tell you the number, but give me 1000 SCPs first~ You gotta pay up like what those two did." After saying that, Xander continued to eat, but the two girls didn''t hesitate to transfer the SCPs to him. Xander, seeing the points enter his account, immediately sent the two of them the number. "You get 3 spells maximum from that person from your selected element. Only from one element you choose, so select carefully." Xander muttered as he was chewing the juicy beef steak he was having for lunch. Faykes was curious, but he had no use for the person since he was already a Master class anyways. Seeing his nonchalant face, Xander rolled his eyes and pointed his fork at Faykes, who was puzzled by Xander''s actions. "You! Do you know the important part of breaking through to Legendary Class? Hmm?" "Er, talent, and the necessary self-made spell circles?" "Correct, but that''s not complete! You need the talent to combine all the magic seeds and the spell circles you have into a Magic Sphere! They should not be conflicting, or else they would collapse and you would fail the breakthrough! So how do you improve compatibility?" Faykes thought about the question for a bit, but he shook his head and shrugged. He really didn''t have any clear idea of how to do it. Xander took another bite and said, "Remember what Ms. Lim told us in our first lesson. It''s the class of your magic spell! The higher the class, the harder it is to combine, but the stronger the magic sphere produced! However, she didn''t mention this, but I think, once you reach the 81st class for your magic spell circles, It would have perfect compatibility! Why? It''s because it returns to the origin!" When he said this, he made a demo. "For example, have you seen the number of concentric circles when I cast a spell?" "Yeah, you produced them during the first combat training for elemental control. I remember seeing so many stacked circles that I wasn''t able to count them." Valerie exclaimed, visibly upset and surprised. Carly nodded, agreeing with what she said. It was quite an eye-opener during that time. "Oh that, that was an example of an 80th class spell circle, a derived effect from my pseudo-spells. But do you know how I derived such a high-level class spell?" Xander''s friends inched closer, hoping to hear his words much more clearly. Xander responded, "It''s because all of my pseudo-spells and Master-rank spells are perfected, reaching the 81st class." He saw the looks of confusion, and rolled his eyes, before raising his finger in front of them. From that finger, a single dot of light appeared, spherical rather than merely a period. "This is one of my pseudo-spells, [Golden Light]. Observe it closely." When they began to inspect the dot of light, they could see the moving runic writings all over it, twisting and transforming into different variations and combinations, as well as forming new points of interaction within the sphere from one surface to the other surface point. Was this¡­ a Magic sphere? But it''s a pseudo-spell, it should show concentric circles! Seeing their confusion, Xander shook his head and canceled the spell. "When a spell reaches the 81st class, the structure of the spell circles forming the spell becomes similar to Magic Sphere but is actually more superior than one. You can even say that a Magic Sphere is based on the 81st class of a magic spell. Now, look at the same spell again, and tell me what''s different." Multiple balls of light appeared on top of his fingertips, each having a different color, or having more than 1 color, upon further inspection, all of them were flabbergasted. Each spell was still the same spell, but they had minute differences that resulted in different conformations! "Once you reach 81st class of a spell, your imagination is the limit. You can literally derive tons and tons of spells that your spell''s element/s are above. But how do you even reach this class? Talent? Complexity? No. It is by the accumulation of knowledge." "You need a high amount of spell references as well as high comprehension concerning the elements your spells have to continuously perfect the spells you make beyond Mundane class. Which goes back to what I said to you, Faykes. READ, LEARN, DIGEST." Upon hearing these words, Faykes'' eyes suddenly glowed, and he remembered the advice Xander gave concerning the Overtures he had. It really was true. Knowledge is an important thing. "Which is why, Faykes, while you are at the Master class, use the most of your time to reach the pinnacle for your pseudo-spells, as well as your Master spells. I''m telling you this because once you reach Legendary class and form your Magic Sphere, the opportunity is completely lost. Got it? Information about spells, researches about the elements, why do you think people highly value these? Because it''s the foundation of a strong magician, undefeated in the same bracket, or even capable of cross-stage or cross-class fighting." "The person whose contact number I gave out is an example of that; you need knowledge if you want to be strong, or at least enough time to learn everything on your own through experimentation." Upon hearing this, Faykes didn''t hesitate and transferred 1000 SCPs to Xander, and the latter smiled and sent him the number as well. For the girls, on the other hand, they were given a different perspective. The idea of reaching the pinnacle of spells, reaching the 81st class, or coming as close to it¡­ It allows you to derive other spells. This is why during the Elite Class, not only was spell-scribing the focus, but also the increased and deepened understanding of the elements and the selected pseudo-spells themselves! Xander and the rest continued to eat, but besides from Xander, others were quite giddy and wanted to try out what they understood from Xander''s short lecture. After eating, they headed downstairs where they began to talk to others, and Xander, as usual, headed to his mat and slept after greeting his classmates and short conversations with them. The class proceeded normally, with Xander undergoing Magic meditation to further improve his body''s attributes. After class ended, he waved goodbye and left the campus, arriving home in 20 minutes, with the traffic quite bad. He was about to enter the Laboratory when he received a message, from James. It was encrypted, and Xander decrypted it easily, revealing a single sentence: Help me save my sister. At this, Xander sighed, as he knew that James must be suffering right now. No matter, this can wait until I visited the laboratory and Eden. Checking around, no fruit development had begun, and the trees of destruction have gained an additional leaf once again, withered like the rest. He harvested the grown fruits and the newly-compressed elemental crystals. He didn''t touch the metal and crystal deposits, because they weren''t that good quality yet. He exited that place and headed to Eden, where he then did his things, lasting 30 minutes in the outside world. Most of the older citizens have already reached Demigod-1, and his contracted sprites and magic beast have already reached Demigod-2. When he asked the two who wanted to leave, Sam and Pan, if they were ready, they changed their minds once again. They were quite focused on the building of Snowflake city and creating a stable foundation. Pan''s additional reasoning is that the sprites and magic beasts have learned to create food dishes for the past 500 thousand years, diversifying the culinary food available. Xander couldn''t help but nod in agreement with their statements. He was initially surprised to the sprites and magic beasts creating different kinds of cuisine, but it kind of made sense, since there were many non-sentient beings in the sea and in the land, as he had released more and more species of plants, animals, and sea creatures into the Garden. 75 Rescue When Xander checked the situation of the garden, he decided it was time to re-write some of the rules in place. Specifically, the evolution and mutation capability of sentient and non-sentient organisms inside the garden. He quickly modified it, allowing diverse evolution and growth among magic beasts, sentient, and non-sentient organisms to occur. He ensured that anyone present in Eden and the following generations would be able to diversify. Every living, sentient being inside received his edict of evolution, causing confusion, curiosity, happiness amongst the beings. After all, they have read the books and saw the idea of species formation and diversification, yet it seemed not to happen in their world. Now, it was being implemented, allowing them to see what it really meant to diversify! Xander, after repeating the announcement twice, headed to the Tree of life, where the fruits had completely bloomed. He then headed to the sentient plant beings where he harvested their produced fruits. He then went to one of the zones where any form of sentient life cannot develop and collect the fruits by other plants placed there. He also saw that the Garland Tree had already produced fruits as well, and harvested the tree as well. He was surprised, since most of his fruits are now considered Low Class 8 materials, and the parts he harvested from the plants such as flowers, and branches were also the same rank. He also left the metal and crystal deposits for now. He exited Eden and began to plan what he should do to rescue James, who was probably being investigated or tortured, probably due to his sudden improvement in cultivation. He also used [Kairos'' Point] to himself, indicating the situation of rescuing James. Truly, his words were on point; his friend, James, was experiencing the worst kind of torture. ______________________ Ohsaka, Zeta province. Somewhere inside the Corde Clan headquarters. In a purely-white room, there were multiple capsules, most were open. There was a young boy, lying down inside a closed capsule, with multiple nodes attached all over his body, his face serene. If anyone from the class of Xander would see this, they would instantly recognize this boy was James, their classmate. There was a man that was monitoring the situation inside the room, checking multiple screens near the closed capsule. He looked wizened, a bit tired, but there was a source of energy that seemed to push him to continue on. "I hope he breaks down soon; after all, I still have to attend my grandson''s birthday party tomorrow morning. I don''t want to sleep too late." The wizened man muttered as he continued to adjust the parameters based on the situation of James'' body. _____________________ How long has it been? ¡­Damn, it''s been so long. Can I get this over with? Once again, I saw darkness all around me, before suddenly, there was a bright light that rapidly expanded, covering the darkness, making me blind to my surroundings. I opened my eyes and saw my recurring nightmare once again. I''m at my little body. A wee 5-year old kid. Over and over again, I see my parents being shot behind, their bodies exploding all over, blood splashing mine and my sister''s face, with their eyes carrying a last look of sadness, despair, and hopefulness that we would survive. Once again, I see myself grow, and killed by my own sister, her eyes venomous and full of spite, telling me over and over again, "why haven''t you died? You should have died instead of mom and dad." Once again, darkness covers me, and the whole thing repeats over and over again, in a different scenario this time, allowing me to act, yet it would all end the same. The only respite I have is knowing this is all virtual and fake. For some reason, the stabs done to me by my virtual sister isn''t that shocking that I would mentally break. But rather, I get relegated to the darkness once again, before repeating this again and again. I think of possible reasons why this was happening. A problem in the VR? Unlikely, since it was using the Main Servers'' computing power to handle this private session. I just became too powerful? Highly unlikely, since I''m just an Elite-9. The only thing I can think of that could have a profound effect would be the contract that I signed. Maybe it had a way to stabilize my mind so it wouldn''t easily break under mental torture and spill the beans about that deal? This was highly plausible, so he just needed to continue delaying the interrogation. Maybe, Xander would be able to contact that person and request help? But I would have to pay universal currency, whatever that is. I sighed and saw the place change, becoming a room, where an old man was sitting, looking at me quizzically, quite confused. I merely remained silent under his stare, not uttering or reacting at all. "Why are you still able to act like you''re fine? You truly have a strong mind." Silence. The man sighed, and said once again, "This could all end if you would tell us what happened exactly in the mansion." Silence again pervaded. The man shrugged, then continued to sip his tea. "Oh well, You''ll undergo the torture until you spill the beans. Tomorrow, however, we''ll invite your sister to the headquarters for a friendly chat as well." Silence. I almost burst out in anger, but there was something that was calming and suppressing my anger and fear, allowing me to remain rational. I was shocked by how powerful this effect was. It could even control the fluctuation of "normal" emotion. Wait, emotion¡­ could this be the effect of the Emotion element series? Damn, how strong is that mysterious figure? Seeing that he elicited no reaction, he waved his hand, and the world once again changed for me. "You''ll stay here for now then." I rolled my eyes and began to observe the virtual reality world. I was wide awake and aware the entire time I was sent to the VR, so their technique of forcing me to confess under the duress of "stopping" the pain and hurt doesn''t really work. For me, I was just surprised to see my parents'' faces once again, very clear and defined in their last moments, but it didn''t elicit too much pain in my heart, but rather a hollow feeling from their disappearance. I had lost my childhood at an early age, forcing me to learn how to protect myself and my sister, even with the help of my uncle and grandfather. ________________________ The man on the outside sighed, as he repeated the process for another 300 times, showing different scenarios and situations. The inquisitor of the clan had left the capsule he was in and gave instructions on how to deal with James. After a few minutes on the job, he suddenly felt sleepy, yet happy at the same time. He yawned for a bit, stretching his arms. A few moments later, he was happily dozing off. Similar phenomena occurred all over the headquarters, causing shouts of alarm to sound out all over the headquarters, followed by the sound of falling bodies into the chairs, tables, and the ground. No one was spared, even the Demigod-9 magicians in charge of the headquarters. Before they could manage to alert one of the ancestors in seclusion, they all fell down, asleep. It was deathly quiet. No one in any of the surrounding places or buildings noticed an anomaly or suspicious magical fluctuation. However, if anyone with a strong sensitivity to the magic energy, they would notice the appearance of an anomaly surrounding the area of the headquarters, making it quite separate to the houses and streets around it. A figure of a man in his 20s was calmly walking along the sidewalk, heading towards the headquarters. He was humming a simple nursery rhyme, every step he took seemed to be in tandem with the breath of the world. He reached the entrance of the headquarters and knocked on the door. After a few seconds of silence, he giggled, and merely moved forward, disregarding the existence of the door in front of him. He continued to pass by the sleeping bodies of people, heading to the special room where he could detect a familiar life signature. Once he entered the chamber full of capsules, he headed for the only one that was still running. He saw an old man sleeping, and immediately Accelerated the time of the man, turning him into dust, and the dust turned into pure energy, returning to the universe. He then saw the terminal and using his smartwatch, took control of the defense systems of the headquarters. He then stopped the VR torture simulation James was undergoing, naturally waking him up from his unconscious state. James was surprised to see the person in front of him. "Homer! You''re here! I-" Before James could say anything, Xander signaled him to shut his mouth, putting his finger on his lips. He then snapped his other finger, causing James to suddenly be disoriented and see that he was on the top floor of the headquarters. Xander was right beside him, smiling serenely. "You have to be a witness, for what is about to happen to the clan you came from. A lot will die, but not all. However, it is a small price to pay for offending me." When James heard what Xander had said, he remained silent, sighing. It was a silent, windy night. Was it about time to paint the dark skies red? _________________________ In a wide sparse grassland that was dotted with hills and separated by rivers and bodies of water, people began to appear one by one, confused about where they are currently and what had happened to them. Those who were more experienced, such as the Demigods in the family, had a much more serious reaction. They recognized the aura this place contained, containing the elements in the physical dimension. However, it''s not pure; the traces they could not identify were the are traces of the dream dimension, making everything imaginary, yet everything is also real at the same time. It''s a contradiction. They were more cautious and gathered their clansmen near them, to stay alert concerning any changes. Some of the demigods briefly explained the situation, causing some to panic, but was quickly quelled down. Not long after they gathered, a voice began to resound throughout the whole place. "Hello, mortals. You might be wondering why you are all here. Well, you see, you touched one of my properties, subjecting him into virtual torture. Really? Virtual torture, how could you even do that!" Upon hearing those words, the majority of the people in the area were confused, and only a few demigods were privy about the situation. Their faces paled and looked at one of the demigods, who was visibly shivering. "It seems only a few of your elders know the situation, tsk tsk. Well, long story short, a clansman of yours signed a non-binding disclosure contract with me in exchange for some spell models that this puny planet didn''t have. Annnnd, do you know what your elders did?" The people were clueless. Some already had an inkling and was looking at their elders in disappointment and anger. "That''s right, they overreacted, trying to harm your own clansman, causing the current situation you are in, and pissing me off from my supposed beauty sleep. Usually, I wouldn''t even bother, but I literally haven''t collected any payment from the dude. Why am I telling you this? Well, because most of you won''t survive~" Xander''s voice rang out in their minds, causing fear to build up in their hearts. Even the demigods felt a chill up their spines. "This is a unique space that borders between reality and dreams, specially crafted to eradicate all your existences in every dimension possible. However, because of this unique space, well, you have more power within it. All your spells'' effects and power are boosted by 1 stage, allowing you to unleash your full potential." "So let''s make this situation a bit challenging than the usual royal rumble style. You would be making a fortress, and inside the fortress, there''s a giant stone. You need to ensure that the incoming beasts would not reach the heart in 108 rounds! Yes, I am requiring you to play a life or death tower defense game, for those who might be asking, hehe." Upon hearing this, most of the people wanted to curse out loud; if you want to kill us, kill us; why do you have to play and torture us around? "So, here are the rules: You need to ensure the safety of the stone. Once all 108 rounds are over, the survivors awaken in their bodies. Those who died, well, better luck in the next life! The stone can''t be moved, and you have a set amount of magic energy at your disposal to create your fortress. If you want more magic energy, you have to use the magic stones and crystals that would drop from the attacking beasts. Lastly, the power of the beasts starts from Legendary class to Divine class level beasts, so good luck~" Immediately, their surroundings darkened for a bit, and there was a stone that suddenly appeared behind the elders, surprising them for a moment. Up in the sky, a gigantic set of numbers appeared, slowly counting down. Upon seeing this, the demigod elders immediately acted and began to command the creation of the fortress. Initially, the structure was formed by their Legendary magicians and then reinforced by their mythic magicians, giving the structure meat and increased stability. Just as they finished the initial reinforcement, the number above reached zero, and immediately they felt a large fluctuation of magic energy from the distance. Three of the 15 demigods were in the front line, while the rest were scattered to the other sides of the fortress, as they didn''t know how the attack would commence. They were tense, scanning the area for any hidden figures or enemies. Everyone was alert. Little did they know the whole world was watching them. __________________________ Late at night, every single person was awakened by a simple notification from their communicators, automatically playing a live video of what was happening to the Corde clan. There was a snarky voice-over, greeting the viewers and explaining the program. "Welcome viewers to the show, What Happens if you Mess with the Simpson! This is our first episode, and a live one at that!" "Our first contestants are...people from the Corde clan! Tsk, tsk, they shouldn''t have ruined my beauty sleep." "Right now, their members and elders are making the foundation of a fortress, hoping to defend the giant stone from the invaders! My dear viewers, while they are preparing for the first wave of 108 waves, please vote for the magic beasts you want to see them face off! Don''t worry, every vote is anonymous, untraceable, and unhackable~" After the voice spoke, a series of magic beast species appeared, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses. There was also a filter mode, allowing one to specifically search types of magic beasts. Everyone was surprised, but they couldn''t help but vote, curious about the situation. After 600 seconds, the votes were out. It was then that the snarky voice appeared again, explaining. "Thank you, everyone, for casting your votes! The top 150 magic beasts will be the beasts that they will face off within 108 rounds! Just so you know, this program is not run in virtual reality, but in actual reality. They will die real deaths if they die here~ You can even say, each and every one of you signed their death contract, haha!" When the viewers heard this, especially those who were below Master rank, they paled and became a bit worried. Some of the viewers also cried, saying they''re innocent because they didn''t know the situation. Some said it was fake, while some were actually happy with the situation, such as the competitors of the Corde clan. The voice-over continued. "Now, our first set of attacks: Let''s start easy, shall we? Dragonscale Bird, Hornet Poisonpowder Bee, and Rampaging Rhinodemon, all at the Legendary class. Since they''re around 250 people, let''s make the number of enemies to 1000! Let ''er rip!" Immediately, multitudes of beasts began to appear, moving towards the direction of the fortress. There were only 3 species, but they were numerous, and their movement was frenzied and random. When the defenders saw the magic beasts, the three demigods acted first, casting a multi-leveled spell matrix, or a combination of 2 or more magic arrays. As they were casting 3 demigod magic arrays and superimposing it to one another, they had to channel not only the power of the universe but also their magic energy and elemental energy around them. Those who were familiar with the Corde family or military spell tactics would recognize the spell they were going to launch: Ashen Change: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. It was considered to be one of the volatile AoE spells, one whose effects last for roughly 12 hours in the area it was cast on. Those who were watching that had a military or strategic background approved their choice because it was good to have a spell that continuously deals damage in a certain area, with the effects lingering. The spell range was 3 kilometers'' radius of the fortress, surrounding it in an ashen gray landscape. Once the beasts took a step, they slowly disintegrated, turning to dust and leaving behind crystal-like stones on the ground. Everyone inside the fortress was then focused by the camera, showing their relieved faces. Some even high-fived the others. However, the viewers had a different reaction, because they had selected some magic beasts with the element of Fire, Ash, and Entropy-Change. At the same time, when zooming out, the video was playing a piece of ominous music, indicating it wasn''t over yet. This time, a robotic voice sounded in the dream realm, as well as to the viewers of the situation. "The first wave is now complete. All unharvested magic crystals will disappear if they aren''t collected within 5 minutes. The second wave is now commencing¡­" Immediately, another group of magical beasts, all legendary class, but were a bit stronger than the previous wave appeared. They were less disordered and frenzied, allowing some sort of order and command to be passed amongst the magic beasts. Upon seeing their vanguards vanquishing, a few of the beasts behind stopped, looking around the spell area, but then proceeded to the range of the spell, dying as well. The demigods who weren''t controlling the spell had to manually use their magic energy to manipulate the area around the stones, moving them towards the fortress. When they heard the alert of the second wave beginning, they weren''t prepared as they initially thought every wave would have a break. However, after roughly 2 minutes, most calmed down, and the demigod began to issue commands to the members of the clan to continue reinforcing the material used in the fortress, as well as making the walls thicker, more variable in terms of effects, as well as creating projectile weaponry with elements. As they collected the last magic crystal from those that died, the robotic voice sounded once again. "The second wave is now complete. Third and Fourth Wave will now commence. Random catastrophe is now in play. Chosen catastrophe: Plague." When the people outside heard these words, they all paled. They had initially thought this was a simple game, but it doesn''t seem so. Even those in plains began to despair, despite the motivational words and actions of their elders, who caused the situation in the first place. 76 A Grand Show While this was happening, the topic was being talked about someplace else, also known as the International underground meeting room. A lot of people were present, albeit in their holograms, discussing with one another, while some were mad and confused. Ms. Carmen Brightcroft once again stood in front of these leaders, representatives, and proxies. One seat was empty, which was the Corde clan/conglomerate. Ms. Brightcroft began her spiel. "Good day to all of you. We are here to discuss what the proposed plan is against this outsider, Homer Simpson, which we can assume is behind the current fiasco happening with the Corde clan." "Befriend him rather than make him an enemy. I don''t want my clan to end up like the Corde, being toyed around, fighting for their lives." immediately, a leader of one of the mid-range clans spoke up, his voice containing his fear towards Xander. Immediately, voices of agreement followed. "I second that." "The same." "The same." ¡­ However, a more dissenting voice appeared, this time coming from another country, Nema. "I don''t know about you, but a higher being coming and befriending lower beings? I smell a plot, where we are the casualties. It''s better to act fast and isolate the Corde clan''s headquarters, where it is possible the perpetrator is in." President Valores said, obviously sneering at the countries who agreed with the idea of befriending the outsider. "We of Eta disagree! How dare you try this as an excuse to impugn in Eta''s sovereignty!" General Farm shouted at the President of Nema, President Cain Valores. "Then what are you doing, General Farm? Why is it that there has been no progress for the past 30 minutes since the broadcast began?" "¡­ The entire area has been cordoned. Even Divine magicians cannot enter or break the barrier that seemed to protect it. All their attacks are sent to a different dimension every time they launched their attacks. We also tried digging underground, failed. We tried to check for loopholes in the barrier, none were discovered." "Have you tried the newest magic explosive you were flaunting at us? Why not use that?" General Cabal sneered. "Do you think we can evacuate the entire province? Hmm? What if the bomb doesn''t work? Then who pays for the land reclamation and rehabilitation? Will you do it? Will any of you even do it?" General Farm retorted, rendering the other party silent. "Order! Order in the session!" Ms. Brightcroft said, grabbing the attention of the people present. She lightly coughed, before telling the group, "Both sides have valid points as well as their demerits. The committee believes the usage of large-scale magic explosives should not be used unless it is concerning war. Friendship is also not out of the option, however, we can still opt for a third option: non-retaliation; basically, as long as the interests of the planet as a whole are not endangered, we do not act against him." Immediately after saying her opinion, whispers abounded the whole area. Soon, all of the groups and nations agreed that non-retaliation is not a viable option. Anyone whose neutral in a war never ends up good in the end. After a few more minutes and discussions, they already decided to launch several ballistic-based magic explosives at the area where the barrier was erected. Eta had agreed to do it on the condition of reparation for damages from every country. In the meantime, every single being in the world has been tuned in to the show Xander was broadcasting. The Corde clan had just passed the 3rd and 4th waves, with several of their members experiencing disease and rotting of their flesh. From 250, it dwindled down to 235 people left. Once again, a monotonous voice sounded. "4th wave completed. 5th, 6th, and 7th waves will now commence. Random natural disaster activated. Chosen disaster: Typhoon." The skies became dark. It began to rain heavily, affecting the area around the fortress. Although the rain and winds weren''t able to get into the fortress, the demigods discovered a problem: the previous AoE spell they cast was neutralized. They would have to face 3000 magic beasts without its help, throwing the council of elders into a dilemma. They did have spells related to water and air, but what happens if they cast it and the next random natural disaster is a counter of their spell? However, they were later on surprised because they only saw 6 monsters. However, their sizes¡­ they were around 1 kilometer tall each. Each of the beasts had their own unique appearances and movement, as well as carrying almost humanoid facial expressions. When the others outside saw this, some were curious about what these beasts were. Once again, a snarky voice-over sounded from their communicators, while zooming into different angles of the situation inside. "Audiences, you may be confused about what these beasts are. These are 6 different species of the Gigantus Titan family of magic beasts. You can even consider the dwarves being a far descendant of this family. They are very lascivious, mating with almost anything that breathes and breeds. These six came from 6 different species of Magic beasts: Hundred-arm centipede, Hairy Flaming Ape, Ice Silk Snake, Holy Light Ox, 18-legged Fear Spider, and Intoxicating Man-eating Flower. Their offsprings carry the characteristics and power of both species, making them quite special. Although these beasts are Mythic-9 magic beasts, they can rival with someone at the Demigod-6 cultivator or below. This was supposed to be at the 9th wave, but it seemed that the Fortress was having an easy time, so we needed to up the ante for the enjoyment of the viewers!" "Now what will the elders of Corde do to solve this problem?" The view then zoomed into each and everyone''s faces in the fortress, with a myriad of emotions, before giving an overhead view of the whole place. One of the demigods headed towards one of the magic beasts and began to launch her spells towards one of them, the one descended from the Ice Silk Snake. Initially, her attacks had an impact, but when she was about launch her next attack, she realized that she couldn''t move anymore from her position, and panic was plastered in her face. "Oh no, one of them was exposed to the Ice Venom! This kind of technique is quite insidious because it''s dispersed in the area as cold air. Tsk, tsk, she wasn''t careful and filtered the air around her." The voice sounded once again, and to the viewers, they saw the body of the female demigod staggering in the sky before falling, stiff. It was at this point the camera zoomed into the face of the person, who was still able to barely move her facial expression. It quickly transformed into horror, as a large hand grabbed a hold of her body, and from the dim shadow produced by lightning in the sky, viewers can see that the giant ate her piece by piece, her last feeling was that of fear. "That''s it folks, our first demigod casualty! Who will be next? Who will survive?" the snarky voice echoed from their communicators once again. In the Corde headquarters, the body of the female demigod that just died rapidly disappeared from its place, like it was never there in the first place. Xander, aka, Homer Simpson, was standing beside James, who was just watching them with pity. He was glad that his uncle wasn''t here in the headquarters, or else he might have been pulled in as well. James didn''t hold any feelings for the clan, but rather for his uncle, his grandpa, and his parents. However, he didn''t also want innocent people to be affected as well. "Er, Homer, can you maybe spare the ones at the Legendary class? I''m quite sure they had no idea of what was happening." "Eh? Why? Aren''t they part of the Corde clan? Doesn''t that mean that by being here in the headquarters they tacitly approve of the activities being done here? How do you think they were going to bring your sister into the headquarters? They''ll use a Demigod. Who''ll torture her? Most likely, one of these legendary members of yours, like the man in charge of your VR capsule. Don''t worry about that man, he''s already dead." Xander said, scoffing at these people. He hated this kind of person who valued family by how valuable you are to them. James was silent, as he couldn''t refute the words Xander just mentioned, yet somehow, it felt wrong. Seeing he wasn''t convinced, Xander merely sighed, and said, "¡­I can accede to your request, however, once they die in the dream, when they exit, all their memories will disappear, as well as their current cultivation, and if they want to cultivate they would have to begin from scratch. I can''t really agree with anything more because they know more about me. The other magicians¡­ those are free game for the punishment~" "Okay, thank you, Homer." "No problemo, I''ll just-" Xander responded before suddenly stopping, causing an ominous, overwhelming aura to seep out from his figure, scaring and confusing James. "Hehe. It seems she managed to survive, huh? Planning to interfere with my game?" With those words, Xander''s figure disappeared, leaving a puzzled James in the rooftop. _________________________ Dream dimension, near the bubble of the currently-made space for the Corde family. A group of people was standing nearby as if decrypting and attempting to break something. A man that looked like he was in his 30s was standing. The female that Xander trapped before, Zendaya, was there, albeit she was missing her left arm and her right eye. The mature-looking man looked at her and said, "Zendaya, are you sure the person you have reported is in here?" "Yes, Captain Hallow. Although I couldn''t trace his dream bubble, I was for a lookout for the same magic fluctuations before, and saw this place." "Ok then. Don''t let others waste their time. This is a unique space, connecting all dimensions and then trapping those segments in a pseudo-dream bubble. I''m not even sure if this was man-made or a natural occurrence. You can''t enter without force, and using that would alert the enemy. In fact, I''m not surprised if he detected us since we actually tripped a few traps on the way here." The man replied calmly, surprising the others. They didn''t notice any hidden traps nor realized they have triggered anything at all. The man continued to speak, "If you can find out where it is in the real world, you can enter through that place. However, it seems there is no need for that, right Mr. Dream walker?" "Aurora Organization branch head. Huh, aren''t you supposed to work in Empires? Why are you even in Eteria¡­anyways, I''m hosting a special event right now here, so leave, unless you want to be part of the festivities and your identities are to be revealed to the world." "Special event¡­wait, don''t tell me, you''re the one that attacked the Corde family? They''re actually in there?" The man said, quite astonished with the person in front of him. "Good for you, you get a cookie! Do you want to join them? Either you''re joining or you''re leaving and watch the live stream instead, from your communicators. I''m on a tight schedule." Xander replied sarcastically, scoffing at the poorly-disguised attempt to gather information about him. "We came here to ask you for clarification concerning the 7 members of ours that went to your dream bubble. Are they still alive?" "Dude. You''re a divine magician and you still have to ask that question? Did their signed binding contract with Aurora Organization dissolve? That''s your answer." "¡­I see. Then I have no choice but to invite you to visit our headquarters in the dream dimension if you will." "Um, what letter in the word ''busy'' do you not understand? Do you want me to translate it into Universal Language? How about Morose code? You can see me doing something here and then you cajole me into going to your headquarters?" Xander rolled his eyes at him, condescendingly looking at the leader. "It''s quite important since every member of the Aurora Organization is highly valued. If you can''t come calmly, I''ll have to use force." Hallow responded, his powers beginning to show, attempting to intimidate Xander. "Yeah, let''s see about that mister." Xander snapped his fingers, and immediately, the whole motley group was transported somewhere in the Dream dimension, with only a few small dream bubbles out and about. Snapping again, the dream bodies of the members of Aurora Organization froze, unable to move, causing confusion and fear to bubble up in them. Even the leader was astonished, as he had not seen such an ability manifesting in other dream walkers. "You should have left when I told you to do so, and you should have stopped digging the matter up," Xander mumbled as he began to active [Thread of Karma] to all other members besides the Divine cultivator, causing them to fade and disintegrate in a matter of minutes, their existences gone. He didn''t use it at the Divine cultivator because he wasn''t proficient enough to do so. What he did, however, was to drain his good fortune repeatedly until it would take 108 million years for it to recover, and transfer it to a dream stone, a common item in the dream dimension. After transferring the good fortune and keeping the stone, he looked at the person pitifully. "Goodbye. If you get resurrected in the real world, do remember that I don''t want to be disturbed or forced to do things I don''t like to do. Also, concerning your members, they''re truly dead this time, since I cut off their Karma. Ciao, fam." After saying these words, Xander immediately cast [Ethereal Sunrise] and [Frenzied Sunset] together, casting [Twilight Sonata] within the range of 1 light-year. Immediately, the whole area of the dream dimension began to show the same characteristics as the place he did it too when an assassin entered his home. This actually ensured that the events in this place would be forever removed, inaccessible to anyone. Once everything was normal, there were a total of 162 crystal seeds formed, 108 of which are seeds of Creation and Destruction, but the remaining 54 was a different kind of seed, and when he began to observe them closer, they had a dreamy kind of feel to it. He wasn''t sure yet what it was and he couldn''t ask the System since it was still offline, so for now, he just kept them, once again wiped the traces of his activity, and left the now-fragile but slowly recovering area of the dreamscape. _______________________ Xander appeared once again beside James, who was quite confused. After all, for him, the amount of time Xander had left was merely 5 seconds. However, during the fight, the snarky voice comments were still ongoing, explaining the situation to the viewers. "So, it seems they managed to kill the 6 magic beasts, eh?" Xander murmured. _______________________ Inside the space. Corde clan had suffered a nearly Pyrrhic victory against the 6 magic beasts, costing them 3 demigods. However, the fortress continued to be modified and improved as they managed to delay time and kill the beasts. Once they have slain the beasts, a monotonous voice once again sounded out. "7th Wave complete. 8th and 9th Wave will now begin. After the 9th wave, there will be a 10-minute break. The 9th wave will consist of 10,000 magic beasts. There is no natural disaster for these two rounds." When they heard that there was no disaster, they heaved a sigh of relief, and began to prepare their spell matrices and once again cast an AoE with DoT effect in the area around the fortress. They prepared 2 spell matrices, both having different effects from one another. The rest of the demigods had to rest for a moment to prepare the gathering of magic crystals later. Immediately, just after placing the spells down, they could now see the horde, all of the beasts were peak Legendary-9 stage, and their bodies were quite refined, causing the spell to have a delayed effect. Some even managed to pass through the 4-kilometer radius of death, but they were quickly dealt with by the mythic magicians positioned by the elders. After 5 minutes, the waves were finally over, and mysterious countdown once again appeared in the sky, starting from 6000. Using this time, the mythic and demigods were busy gathering the crystals dropped, and once again reinforcing the fortress, creating an additional layer of defense for it. For the viewers, the majority heaved a sigh of relief, because they managed to pass the situation safely with a minimum amount of casualties. Once again, during this intermission, several clips were being played as the highlights of the past 9 waves. Once again, the snarky voice-over appeared. "Oh my, oh my! They had passed one-twelfth of prepared waves! Dear viewers, do you think they have it easy? Please answer this poll of which natural disasters they should face in the next 9 waves! Please note, everything is secure and completely anonymous; do decide based on your heart''s content!" Immediately, the same interface as earlier appeared, this time detailing the list of natural disasters that they could experience, including disasters that may occur in other planets, other kinds of habitats, etc. After 3 minutes, the polls ended, and the top 99 disasters had been voted on. Of course, the people viewing the situation had been informed by their respective leaders and governments to choose the least impacting and damaging disasters. However, they didn''t realize that Xander had also prepared for such a scenario. "Thank you for voting. To switch it up, the show will be implementing the 99 lowest-graded disasters based on your votes. Expect more thrills and changes to occur!" the snarky voice once again resounded, surprising everyone, family and conglomerate leaders, and even the government leaders who had guided the people were thrown off the loop as well. After 7 minutes, the show began once again. The natural disaster this time was Confusion, causing the casters unable to focus on their casting. The demigods were the only ones who can barely cast due to their connection to the universe, compared to the others who were unable to cast spells. They can only rely on their body attributes. The 10th wave was a bit brutal, with 5 of the mythic magicians dying. At the 11th wave, the natural disaster was earthquakes, causing severe damage to their fortress. The problem was that the magic beasts that came in at the 12th and 13th wave were liquid-type magic beasts, allowing them to hide deep underground and corrode the area. The Corde clan managed to survive the assault, at the sacrifice of 1 demigod and several legendary and mythic magicians. 14th to 16th waves were quite easy, as the disaster was simply drought, and didn''t affect much the states of the magicians. It did make their fortress almost collapse, due to the weakened foundation, but it was resolved before it devolved the situation. 17th and 18th waves summoned 6 magic beasts, Mythic-9 beasts once again appeared, and caused quite a problem with the situation of the Corde clansmen. This was because once they appeared, they didn''t step into the area where the AoE spells were placed, but rather they stopped and destroyed the area where the spells were placed, wrecking the spells'' effects. The beasts began to launch their attacks, heading towards the fortress. The demigods began to launch their counterattacks, intercepting the attacks launched by the beasts. The fight between the mythic and demigod magicians versus the magic beasts have begun. The mythic magicians were mostly supporting, causing debuffs or inconvenience to the magic beasts. However, the casualties were still high. This time, only 1 demigod died, but half of the mythic magicians were wiped out. The current count of Corde members was down to 184. Once again, they experienced a 10-minute break, and everyone inside the fortress sighed in relief, while those watching the situation were happy but quite pessimistic with the situation of the clan. Once again, the snarky voice sounded out from both the people in the fortress and those outside, watching. "Congratulations~ they have survived one-sixth of the total waves! This deserves a prize!" 77 Uphill Situation "You can exchange the magic crystals you have gained for one wish. It can be any wish, that is applicable for one person only. You can request to leave, to resurrect one of your dead elders, or gain momentary power up to Divine rank." When the people in the fortress heard this, their eyes shined, as if they were shown a way to survive this nightmare they were in. Even the viewers were surprised and a bit skeptical about the situation. "You guys currently have 48,695 magic crystals; this is equivalent to two wishes. You have within 10 minutes to decide. You just need to touch the giant stone to make a wish. However, please be reminded that the audience will be voting whether they would agree to your wish~" When the voice continued with this statement, everyone was shocked, both those inside and those that were watching. Everyone felt something bubbling in the depths of their hearts, and some didn''t even notice the change. However, those who had an affinity with the emotion and mind series realized something was different and began to alert the relevant authorities. Of course, this was a subtle influence of emotion. Specifically, it''s the feeling of power, of control of one''s life and death, stemming from the element of Good Life/Death. Through the decisions and situations Xander had given to the people who were watching, the changes in their emotions and feelings were slow, but continuous until it reached the current tipping point - controlling the participant''s experience of life and death. Earlier, they already had a taste of that, by deciding what magic beasts should be summoned to fight them and what natural disaster should afflict them. Even the government will be helpless with the situation, even if they were warned by those who managed to detect the abnormality. Can they stop roughly 23 billion people from acting their desires? With the aspect of anonymity and security, they were free to decide whatever their hearts desire¡­in this case, what they were manipulated to desire. Going back to the Corde clansmen, they were also affected by the magic Xander cast, but it wasn''t to the point of suicidal tendency. They realized that it can be realized by one person only, so rather waste it on that, they decided to wish for the following: The fortress will be invulnerable and impenetrable for anyone below Divine class. Those were 2 wishes already. When they raised the wishes through the stone, after a few minutes of silence, a problem occurred. A monotonous voice sounded out in the whole fortress, everyone inside hearing it. "The three wishes have been submitted, one more than the maximum wishes to be granted. One has been rejected by the public. The wish of "the fortress being impenetrable for anyone below Divine class" has been granted. The wish "Save my strongest and one with the most potential descendant" has been granted. You have no more wishes." The fortress began to transform into a structure made of a unique alloy of Adamantium-Parlite-Amiril metals, allowing complete impenetrability to spells weaker than a Divine-1 cultivator. The only weakness of this alloy is blunt force, which can cause it to bend, but not puncture. So it still needed to be supported by the spells of metal and earth element magicians. Immediately hearing the robotic voice, these Corde clansmen cursed at those watching them. How could they be heartless? However, it wasn''t over. One of the mythic magicians disappeared under the eyes of his fellow clansmen, his face confused, yet relieved. When they saw the demigod who submitted the wish sigh in relief, the other demigods couldn''t help but surround him and question him angrily. "Cadio! Why did you do that!" "Hmph! You wouldn''t understand. I was leaving a way out for my bloodline to continue, and you should too as well! Do you really think the man behind this will let us go free easily? You''re thinking to naively!" A few minutes ago, in Eteria. When the wishes were submitted, once again, the snarky voice-over appeared, explaining the situation. "Now, fellow viewers and watchers, you are to decide which among the submitted wishes are to be accepted, or rejected! You can agree to all, or disagree to all, totally up to you~ Don''t worry, it''s anonymous and completely secure~ be free to decide with your heart''s content!" The three wishes were then showed the viewers, and the majority of them began to decide what to agree or disagree on. Accordingly, there can only be a maximum of 2 accepted wishes, so they began to cast their votes. Even though the governments had sent out notifications to everyone''s communicators, most of the viewers turned a blind eye to these and selected the choice that resonated with them the most. After around 2 minutes, their votes were tallied: The first wish was rejected. The second and third wishes were accepted, with both of the wishes barely passing the 50% mark. The voice sounded from their communicators once again. "Oh, my~ what a close voting result~ Anyhow, let''s check the situation in the fortress! It seems the fortress had a major makeover, and the current situation is stabilized¡­ but what''s this? In-fighting amongst the elders of the Corde clan? Could it be, the third wish was a wish done selfishly?" The video zoomed into the fortress, viewing it from different angles, before shifting the feed to the inside of the fortress, where it seemed that the elders were surrounding the one that cast the vote, looking pissed off. "Let''s hear what they''re discussing." "¡­You wouldn''t understand. I was leaving a way out for my bloodline to continue, and you should too as well! Do you really think the man behind this will let us go free easily? You''re thinking to naively!" "My, my! So little trust for me? How about we check right now the mythic magician that left the battlefield, hmm?" the snarky voice commented dryly, and showed the interior of the headquarters of Corde clan, where lying on the floor one of the bodies was slowly wriggling before the person began to sit up straight slowly, waking from his slumber. He looked around, confused to where he was, and it can be seen he was headed outside the building, and into the garden, where there were people surrounding the headquarters but were 1-kilometer radius away. The video cut-off at the point where the man was apprehended by the authorities of the Eta government and switched back to the Fortress. "See? Don''t I fulfill my promises for real?" ________________________ Eta military unit, just outside the Corde clan headquarters. They were watching cautiously and alertly for the figure that was heading out of the headquarters and was moving to their direction. After a few minutes, the man reached the border of the barrier and safely exited, but was immediately surrounded by the military and was scanned and taken to the military doctors. After a few more minutes, test results came back; the person had lost his memories, completely removed rather than buried in the subconsciousness, making retrieval impossible. Not only that, his cultivation had regressed to Mundane class once again, surprising and confusing the magic researchers and military doctors present. General Farm appeared on the screen facing the doctors who just submitted their reports a few seconds ago. "Is there really no way to restore the cultivation and the lost memories?" "With our current technological and magical advancements, no. The memories were completely wiped, and the brain was reset, so the previous connections made by the cells were gone. He only seemed to know his name and age, but that was all. The cultivation lost was the same; there were no traces of the previous cultivation level even existing in his body. However, his life essence doll seemed to contain the experiences naturally, so if he re-cultivates again, he would have a faster time reaching the Mythic class once again." "I see¡­ report back for any anomalies concerning the patient." "Yes sir!" The military doctors saluted, before the communication was terminated. In General Farm''s location, he was facing the leader, who was worried with the situation. "Farm, how was the survivor? Were there any clues?" "No sir, the person''s memory and cultivation were completely wiped out. It''s impossible to do a recovery." "¡­ I see. Begin the bombing once the Corde clansmen in the fortress begin to lose. It might be our only chance to save their situation." "¡­Yes sir!" __________________________ For the past 30 minutes, the Corde clansmen were now facing the 3rd set of waves of magic beasts attacking them, along with different natural disasters occurring. Half-way through, their placed AoE spells were no longer effective because the beasts heading to their bases were smarter and more ordered, allowing military formations and commands to be passed down. The demigods and the Mythic class magicians had to act individually, as a pair, or as a small group to snipe, disable, or eliminate the monsters, and then gather the magic crystals. What was good was that the magic crystal quality had also improved, meaning they could easily recover their lost magic energy. It was the end of the 3rd wave that caused some problems for them: Invisible enemies with the ability to shape-shift. Not only that, but they were also able to negate the spell damage if they shifted to a different space. They only managed to slay all 60 of them without a few sacrifices from the Mythic and legendary magicians present. The total count went down to 158 members left, including the elders. The monotonous voice sounded out once again inside the space. "27th wave completed. 1/4th of the total waves have been completed. Number of survivors: 158. Survival percentage: 63.2 percent. Increasing the difficulty from super easy to Normal mode. Decreasing elemental particle concentration. Increasing magic crystal drop count and quality. The following waves, all monsters are now impervious to Mythic-3 attacks and below. Increasing the number of natural disasters per wave to two. Doubling the number of magic beasts per wave. Improving intelligence of the magic beasts." When they heard this announcement, their faces fell, and some even broke out crying. They were under high stress, and now, their fighting force was reduced to 1/4 of the total count. What the others can only do was to support the fortress, or await their deaths if they failed. However, before they could even get over their feelings, another voice sounded out. "Congratulations, you may now purchase additional weapon artifacts in the shop using magic crystals. These weapons can be brought out if you survive. You may access the shop through the giant stone." The snarky voice sounded in every Corde clansman, surprising them. Weapons? Ones that can be exchanged for magic crystals? If we survive, we can bring them out? Their eyes began to glow once more, filled with hope. When the elders saw the list of weapon artifacts available, they almost fainted in ecstasy. Some of the weapons here would actually improve their fighting force by almost 100%! However, the weapons were quite expensive. The cheapest one, the one that can provide 1-fold boost to Legendary magicians, was 15,000 Crystals. The cheapest artifacts for demigods that can boost their power by 3 to 4-fold was around 300,000 low magic crystals. They saw that the crystals they had, roughly 90,000 crystals, consisted of medium magic crystals, each one equivalent to 10 low magic crystals. They would only be able to supply their 3 demigods with 3 weapons. They''re left with a choice: Either supply their mythic-4 magicians with weapon artifacts, roughly 30 out of 65 mythic magicians, ones that can improve their magic output and firepower by 3-fold, each costing 30,000 low magic crystals, allowing them to exert a power of Mythic-8 with their attacks. After 4 minutes of discussion and voting, the elders decided to purchase weapons for their Mythic magicians, so that they can still function for the next few waves. If it reaches to the point where only Mythic-9 and above attacks would work, the demigods can take over. Once this was finalized, they bought the weapon artifacts and equipped 30 of them with artifacts that boosted their abilities. They continued to enlarge and fortify the fortress, adding another layer of defenses. The giant countdown reached 0 and once again, the monotonous voice signaled the 28th wave. When the demigods saw the monsters, they were surprised, because none of them were below Mythic class based on their magic fluctuations. There were roughly 8000 of them, moving in an orderly manner led by their leaders. The demigods immediately slew the commanders so the magic beasts had no real leader directing them, thus making it an easy picking for them to win. The continuous wins for the next 35 minutes gave them confidence, even if some of them died due to the random natural disasters; however, the people outside watching looked worried for them. This was mainly due to what the snarky voice said to them earlier. "Oh wow, look at our contestants, managing to complete one-fourth of the total waves! Let''s make it harder shall we? Dear audience, you are going to decide which demigod boss they would face at the end of each 9 waves from now on! You have to vote once again! On your screen, a list of 30 magic beasts are shown, and out of those 30, you have to select the top 9 magic beasts you want them to face. Do note that every single one of these magic beasts was so vicious that they had to be hunted down collectively to ensure the safety of the planets~" They all voted and hoped that the demigods would actually purchase weapons for themselves, but the situation turned into what they feared: they bought weapons for the rest of the mythic magicians. This was why it was going to be an uphill battle for them once the boss arrived for this set of waves. And they were not surprised. On the 36th wave, there were only 2 monsters that were of the same species, the Dreadnought Hydra, A Demigod-9 magic beast. This magic beast had an elemental resistance for each element its head is attuned to, reaching up to 30% elemental resistance. Each attack it does is able to rival a Divine-1 magician''s pure attack power, while its defenses make it vulnerable only to Divine magicians. When the demigods and the mythic magicians saw them, they were scared out of their wits. Immediately, they gathered and counted the number of gathered magic crystals: 30,000 high-grade ones, equivalent to 3 million low-grade magic crystals. From this, they immediately exchanged for 4 weapons that increased the fighting power of Demigods by 6-fold, allowing their 3 Demigod-7 and 1 Demigod-9 magicians exhibit a power of a Divine-1 and Divine-2 magicians respectively. They headed to battle, coordinating with one another. However, their elements were resisted by the Hydras, so their attacking power was quite lacking. It was still enough though to kill them after wearing them down for 15 minutes. However, two of the Demigod-7 magicians were seriously injured, and would need to recuperate. The number of demigods was now in the single digits. Morale was low. Once again, the countdown appeared, but this time, there was only 480 seconds from the original 600. The monotonous voice sounded once again inside the space. "36th wave completed. 1/3 of the total waves have been completed. Wish system improved: now it affects 3 people instead of just one. Improving magic beasts'' fighting experience based on the past waves. There are 72 waves to go." The elders did a quick headcount and saw they only had 140 people left, including the two injured elders. Things were not looking well for them. Before they can act even further, Xander''s voice rang in their minds. "I am honestly surprised the population has not decreased to double digits. However, I never planned to allow any of you to survive long enough to win the game~" "You all know, the kid you subjected to VR torture? He told me that I should spare the lives of the legendary magicians. I told him I would, and that if they died, they would awaken in their bodies with their memories completely erased, and their cultivations were gone as well. They would only know their names and age, and nothing else. I even did him a favor that they would be randomly placed in different countries and islands to live out their new life." "So, legendary cultivators? What are you waiting for? Kill yourself and be free of the impending torture reserved for the upper echelons~" his giggling voice sounded off in every person in the fortress, turning the faces of the elders into an ugly shade. Immediately, tens of explosions sounded off before they could even react. When they looked outside of the hall where the giant stone was placed in, there were bits of flesh that were scattered around, and a faint aroma of blood. Most of the elders shook their heads. They weren''t sure if the being was lying to them or was really telling the truth. However, it seemed most of the legendary magicians had reached their breaking points. Of course, Xander was actually telling the truth. Once they were killed, they returned to their bodies after their cultivation had been stripped off and their memories removed, before being teleported away into different countries and islands all over Eteria, off to fend for themselves. Those who were watching were confused, distraught, and even mad at the mysterious Homer Simpson. They believed that the legendary magicians killed themselves because they couldn''t handle the stress anymore, leading to the mass suicide. There were now only 65 clansmen in the space, including the 10 elders that survived. The rest were Mythic magicians, who were confused and were stressed to the point of committing suicide as well. However, the demigods quickly calmed down the populace. They knew the real game was about to start for them, and one wrong move would kill them all. ____________________________ In the International underground meeting room, discussions were restarted. "General Farm, when will the bomb be launched? You truly take the lives of your citizens lightly, eh?" "The bombs will be launched when the people in the nearby areas have been completely evacuated from the 10-kilometer vicinity of the Corde headquarters. We are also aiming for an opportune time to launch them." More whispers and chatter continued in the room, and Ms. Brightcroft had to call the attention of the people once again. "Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know, we have witnessed the mass suicides of the legendary magicians of the Corde clan 3 minutes ago. This coincided with a developing situation that you all might be interested in." The noise quickly died down, the faces of the men and women present becoming serious, listening intently to what she had to say. "We have received numerous reports from different countries in the past 3 minutes that there were unidentified men and women appearing from the sky, gently falling down to their cities. When they cross-checked it with the identities that they had, they were quickly identified as Corde clan members, however they had lost all their memories and their cultivations, recalling only their name and age." "We can then assume that this person, Homer Simpson, still has a bottom line, and was going to focus only on the targets at hand: Mythic and Demigod powerhouses of the Corde Clan. We have not heard of any response from their Divine magicians, so we assume they are M.I.A." "Because of the actions demonstrated by the outsider, it would seem to show that he can still be bargained with." After saying this, the talks, screams, objections, affirmations of the members of the international committee were out and about in the meeting room. Ms. Brightcroft sighed, and knew this was going to be a long night. 78 Finale The fortress had a somber atmosphere. The had passed the 37th to 43rd wave easily, with only 5 mythic magicians dying. Once again, in the 44th and 45th waves, they faced another kind of monster similar to last time. This time, the three Demigod-8 magic beasts could petrify magic spells up to Divine-1 power, causing them to collapse into nothing. It took them the sacrifice of 1 demigod and 2 severely injured demigods to slay them. They only managed to do so because they grasped a pattern in its attacks, allowing them to see a momentary weak point in the magic beasts. However, they were down to 9 demigods, 4 of which were out of commission. Once again, the monotonous voice sounded out, explaining their current situation. By this time, most of them were already quite numb, and they merely began to exchange for the available wishes they could do so. They wished for 7 things, with the number of magic crystals they currently had. The wishes were now able to affect up to 5 people. The following wishes were: 1. Complete recovery of the injured Demigods. 2 and 3. Allowing all the demigods to gain 2 cultivation levels. 4 and 5. Improving the concentration of element particles in the area of the fortress for the next 9 waves. 6 and 7. Save the following people: ... They didn''t purchase anything, for now, waiting for the decisions concerning their wishes. After a few minutes, the monotonous voice sounded off. "Wishes 1 to 5 have been granted. Wishes 6 and 7 were rejected by the popular choice of the viewers. Recovering all injuries¡­ complete. All demigods will gain 2 cultivation levels temporarily for the next 18 waves. The elemental particle concentration in the fortress has been improved." "Wave 46 beginning¡­" The demigods were listless, as it seemed their opponents outside didn''t want to leave a way out for their clan. They even managed to manipulate the choices of the viewers. In truth, it wasn''t the case. Xander merely showed Wishes 1 to 5 to the viewers and wishes 6 and 7 were automatically rejected. After all, he wanted to teach them a lesson and make an example. It would be quite pressing if he had to rescue each of his friends for just interacting with him, right? Wishes 1, 2, and 3 each had a close vote, with a percentage of 50.01% agreeing and the rest disagreeing. Human nature truly is scary once their limits in their choices were removed. The fight raged on. This time, waves 46 to 52 were also quickly resolved, but the death count of mythic magicians was increasing. Roughly 7 died this time, reducing the remaining 50 to 43 mythic magicians. The 53rd and 54th waves were quite hard because 8 magic beasts with the cultivation of Demigod-9 appeared, but their powers could reach Divine-2. It was great that their current leader was temporarily raised to Divine-2, and with the boost of the weapon artifact, he could showcase the power of Divine-3. The other Demigod-7 magicians were also raised to Divine-1, improving their combat capability. However, since originally the weapon artifacts they were using were designed for demigods, the effects were decreased when they reached Divine class. This time, there were no casualties amongst the demigods, raising the morale once again in the fortress and those watching. However, when it was intermission time, they only had 5 minutes to prepare and recover. Not only that, but the monotonous voice also sounded again, bringing bad news. "54 waves have been completed. The number of survivors: 52. Survival percentage: 32%. Increasing difficulty mode from Normal to Hard. Elemental particle concentration all over will decrease. All spells'' effects will be reduced by 25%. All monsters in the following waves will now be invulnerable to attacks below Demigod-3. The wish system can now affect 8 people. You may now use wishes during the waves. Improving magic beasts intellect and strategy. Doubling the current number of beasts per wave. The number of natural disasters decreased to 1; however, the disaster is now Divine-level, affecting those below Divine class. Crystal drop has increased, as well as the quality of the drops." The faces of the demigods fell. It would seem that not only did they have to do the brunt of the work, but they also had to face twice the previous amounts in the recent waves. However, they didn''t dwell too much because another voice sounded out in the fortress and in the communicators of the viewers. "A new shop has been unlocked~ Besides weapon artifacts, there are now plant materials Class 8 and below, as well as sprite essences for sale~ You can use them in the midst of the battle, or save them and bring them out~" Once again, these demigods were easily motivated by greed. When they checked the prices of the shop, however, their faces fell. A low-class 8 fruit of any element costs around 600,000 high magic crystals. The cheapest fruit, a perfect-class 6, was around 400,000. The same goes for the sprite essences. Although they had around 400+ different elemental essences, the youngest was a 100,000-year old elemental essence, the oldest being 1 million years, and they were of a limited quantity. The prices began from 100 perfect magic crystals, equivalent to 100,000 high magic crystals, to 100,000 perfect magic crystals. Currently, they had converted their gains to high magic crystals, and with the current gains they had, it summed up to 800,000 high magic crystals. The had already reserved 100,000 for usage in the waves, later on, so they were left with 700 thousand. With the exchange rate of 1 perfect magic crystals: 1000 high magic crystals, they only had 700 perfect magic crystals. They decided not to spend any of them but checked the weapon artifact section, and upgraded their pieces of equipment, spending 600,000 to buy 4 Divine weapons that can increase their attacks 3-fold. Their previous equipment was then given to the other demigods. Afterward, the 55th wave began, and the natural disaster caused a problem for them. It was: Random death every 2 minutes. They were racing against time here. They began to venture to where the 30,000-army of Demigod-3 magic beasts were appearing and began to slaughter. However, it still took them 30 minutes to completely slay them, since their AoE spells didn''t work properly as they were easily neutralized. Although the Divine magicians in the family were Divine-rank, they didn''t have divine-rank spells. A total of 15 people died. 3 of which were from the fighting Demigods. There were now 6 demigods and 31 mythic magicians left. However, when one of them decided to use a wish to resurrect the three demigods, it was accepted, but only 2 were resurrected completely without problems. The third one was not resurrected, because they had insufficient balance. All the crystals they gained that round was used up. However, the fighting force increased back to 8 demigods. The next waves were quite brutal because the following natural disasters, earthquake, firestorm, flood, and decay were able to destroy the fortress, with the giant stone being partially damaged. By this time, only 10 mythic magicians remained, and 6 demigods. They tried the resurrection once again, but the viewers voted against it. However, the fortress was rapidly restored with one of their wishes granted and reinforced to be immune against natural disasters as well. They almost broke down when they saw the opponents for the 63rd round: 24 Demigod-9 magic beasts capable of space warping. These beasts were quite slippery, and opted for a divide and conquer plan, which the demigods of Corde clan had no choice but to accede to. They managed to kill them after 40 minutes, but only 4 demigods remained: those who were artificially raised to Divine class. Another blow was that the break this time was only 2 minutes, giving them a small-time for a breather. They were gambling to the next set of waves. They sent their wish request, using up everything they had to forcefully raise up the cultivation of the mythic magicians to Demigod-6, and equipped them with weapon artifacts. All their magic crystals were drained as well. "64th wave beginning, natural disaster: Narcolepsy." Immediately, all the newly promoted demigods staggered, a bit affected by the disaster. They had to be reinforced and steadied by the other divine magicians. They began their flurry of kills and murder of magic beasts. __________________________ Somewhere in Eta. Seeing the situation devolve inside the space, the leader of Eta asked, "Has the evacuation been completed?" "Yes sir, the evacuation was completed 20 minutes ago." General Farm replied to the leader, a bit haggard. Although he was a demigod cultivator and had no need for sleep, the situation was quite stressful, leading to the haggard, mentally-drained look. He saw the time and knew it was already 4 am. The fiasco had been ongoing for the past 9 hours. "Launch the bombs!" the leader said decisively, as he knew they only had this window of opportunity. "Yes sir!" "Alpha team, launch the C3-100 projectile magic bombs. Focus on the top of the barrier." "Order received, General. Launching projectile magic bombs." General Farm opened another monitor, showing a hologram of the area where the headquarters was placed in. __________________________ Xander''s mirror image was still at the top of the headquarters with James Corde beside him, already asleep. He had to conjure some blankets and pillows. Xander then looked up, his face contorting into a smile. He saw the incoming magic bombs that Eta had launched to the direction of the headquarters, attempting to destabilize the barrier he placed. In fact, he was quite curious about its effects so he wanted it to hit the barrier. After a few seconds, he could already saw the cluster of circular-shaped bombs heading to the top of the barrier. Once it hit the barrier, a large explosion ensured, covering the entire sky, dyeing it the color of the rainbow. Xander began to observe the elements that made up the spell. He was surprised because he felt the pure elements of light and darkness, which are the Yin and yang origin elements. At the same time, the pure elements of Yin-Yang surrounded the barriers, attempting to disrupt and find a way to destroy the structure. His eyebrows wrinkled for a bit, and manipulated the order and chaos elements, suppressing the explosion to a singular point, before turning into a bead. He then launched the bead high up in the sky, causing it to explode once it reached the border of the atmosphere of the planet, creating a colorful explosion seen from everywhere around the world. Before it could even affect the atmosphere, causing elemental pollution, it was quickly contained by two different powers on the planet. One was from the Ete continent, while another was in the Yggdras continent. Xander, who saw the situation stabilize, with the lights fading into nothing, was quite surprised. "It seems there''s another user of origin elements besides me¡­ How strong are you, I wonder?" Xander mumbled, before sending a look at the Yggdras continent. It seems it was truly correct; the Heavenly Tree sprite has been hiding its true cultivation; it had already reached at least Divine-2 with that small burst of power. I wonder, what''s its real cultivation, Xander thought to himself. He was excited to know if sister Syn was able to set up a meeting between the two of them, hehe. He continued to observe the struggling magicians. They had already managed to reach the 70th wave. Two more waves and they would already die. __________________________ In Yggdras, the area of the gigantic Heavenly Tree. A figure sighed, and mumbled to himself, "It seems it has already known about my abilities¡­ as expected of a space-time magician. I wonder how that magician is related to that young boy?" He then recalled that Carla had sent a message to him, but he had not read the contents written. With a wave of his hand, he opened the message, and once he read the contents, his face changed, turning pale, before looking quite grave. How could a young boy have any experience with these things? Even touching at his origins. He scratched his non-existent beard, quite curious about the boy''s origins. First, there were the sprites, then the magic beasts¡­ As he delved into his thoughts, he slowly faded into the tree. __________________________ Somewhere in the Ete continent, in the middle of nowhere. A young man was looking up at the sky, where the bright glow of light appeared. He was watching the show being broadcasted to his communicator when he detected the large magic fluctuation. He was quite surprised because the elemental signature it released was similar to those of the bombs he had developed for Eta. However, the explosion produced seemed to have been modified, and his face rapidly changed when he saw it explode outward. He began to channel his powers, controlling the ownerless elements in the explosion, and exerted his elemental dominance and control, calming down the situation. He also recognized the power of the Heavenly Tree sprite acting on the area, blocking the explosion from further spreading. He took this opportunity to disperse the explosive power of the elements by converting them rapidly from matter to a metaphysical state. It took nearly five minutes for this to be completed. After all, he recognized that the elements had been packed in such a way it was physically impossible to be packed, so they had more exploding power and amount of elemental particles. After ensuring nothing remained, the young man sighed and looked at where it had originally appeared. It was at the land of Eta. Could it be the mysterious Homer Simpson, the very one who was hosting the video, he thought. He once again checked his communicator and continued to watch the situation. ______________________ Inside the dimension, they just had slain the last magic beast of the 70th wave, and they were heavily panting. There were now only 3 of them left. Two died in the 64th wave, their bodies smashed into mush when they fell asleep. Three died in the 66th wave, dying of the natural disaster: curses. Another three died in the 67th wave, succumbing under the natural disaster: bloodlust. One of the Divine-1 magicians died in the 69th wave. The last two mythic magicians artificially raised to demigod died in the 70th wave. The monotonous voice this sound out, but rather, the quirky voice. "70th wave complete~ Wow, only 3 left? Well, the plan was you guys were going to die anyway, haha! Anyways, the 71st and 72nd wave will begin now. However, to ensure you guys die, all the 72 magic beasts would consist of the different species of demigod-9, those that you have faced and those that you haven''t~ Good luck, and may you die quickly~!" At this point, the three looked at each other, before nodding and then looking in the skies. Then, with a bright light, they committed suicide, under the eyes of 23+ billion people watching the situation. After they did so, the screens turned white for the viewers. After a few minutes, the light faded, and saw the large destruction in the area. It was then the quirky voice appeared from their communicators. "Well, dear viewers, that seems to be the end of the program! Quite anti-climactic, don''t you think? I would have believed you Eterians would have a stronger will to fight till the bitter end, and not give up that easily. Pity, they were close, weren''t they?" The people still watching couldn''t help but disagree. That was their sentiment; they would fight not for a meaningless fight, but they would fight if they see a thread of hope that can guide them to victory. However, most people were pondering on the word mentioned, Eterians¡­ why was it referring to them as a collective? Could it be, this person was¡­ an alien? People were becoming quite hyped with that idea, as well as connecting the dots with the situation. "Anyways, thank you for tuning in to the late 9-hour pilot episode of¡­ What Happens if you Mess with the Simpson! New episodes would be subject to the actions of people towards the people I deal with. Stay tuned~" The voice, acting like it didn''t give anything out of importance, continued to speak. "With that, I bid you all adieu~! Everyone that tuned in for the whole 9 hours will be getting a special reward, which is roughly¡­ 15 billion people! You''ll all be getting a 2-kilogram, random metal with a purity of 99.9%, a metal that doesn''t exist in this planet~" With that, all their communicators turned off, and once it did, in front of them, a misshapen, irregular item appeared to their surprise. The internet was about to be in a flurry. Good luck trying to censor that~ After wiping all his traces in the mainframe, the barrier protecting the headquarters disappeared, with only James being the sole survivor of the Corde Clan, excluding those that had their memories lost. The mirror image disappeared, leaving no trace. Xander''s mirror image appeared in the dream dimension once again and disassembled the space. Every item that was present inside the space quickly melted and turned into dream energy, mixing into the dimension. Truthfully, he wasn''t lying to them when he said that they could bring out the items. After all, this was a special space that connected all dimensions, meaning if they did bring out something directly to the physical realm, it would remain. He was inspired by the idea of the digitizer tool that the Galactic Empire had, but he thought, why not simply connect the dimensions and channel one type of energy to produce a physical product? What better way to do this than with dream energy, which can literally produce anything within one''s knowledge and imagination. Normally, when interacting with a physical realm, such energy disperses and rapidly converts back to other elements that can be utilized in the physical realm. But what happens if they were placed in a melting pot of dimensions? Even Xander wasn''t quite sure about the mechanism, but it seemed to work in matter conversion. However, he did see an important point: the dream energy needed a vessel to work its magic, and that was the body of cultivators. Actually, when the Corde clan members were buying the weapon artifacts, they were utilizing their own bodies to produce that, with the help of the magic crystals and the dream energy present in the crystals. The descriptions and images of the weapons allowed stronger visualization of the weapons, the same with the plant materials as well. Something magical happens inside the body of a cultivator, allowing them to produce such weaponry. That was why he had allowed their wish to gain 2 cultivation levels for the demigods, allowing him to see the limit of the production. In fact, if someone were to hear his thoughts and see his actions, they would realize the whole thing was an experiment for him, specifically testing the capacity of that unique space to produce items. He also tested if it was possible for them to produce plant materials, but they never exchanged for them, so nothing came out of it. A pity. After wiping his traces and completely removing the special space in the dream dimension, restoring the space around it to normal, he disappeared, this time, the mirror image was sent to Eon for standby mode. The real Xander was just lying on his bed, asleep. After all, he had to make sure that he was uninvolved whatsoever in the situation. He had sensed at least 6 different scans from different people, both from the outside, and even those guarding him. Hmm, he really needed to make them sign a contract as well¡­ ______________________ Somewhere in Eteria, a small room. A man was lying painfully in a pool of his own blood, every orifice of his body bleeding. Some parts of the body were scorched black, but luckily, none were amputated or blast off. The man was coughing out blood, but the wounds were slowly healing. This man was Captain Hallow, the leader of the 30-man team placed in Eteria planet. "Damn it¡­ Damn it!" he howled, obviously in great pain. His insides were quite ruined, and even his elemental essence stones were a bit cracked. He had been healing for the past 9 hours. "Homer Simpson, eh? I''ll remember you!" Hallow gritted his teeth, trying to keep a hold of his consciousness so that he would have a faster time healing if he focused on running his cultivation skill to do that. While he was healing, he received a message from one of the Marshals of Aurora, to immediately report to the headquarters in the dream dimension. He immediately sent a voice recorded response that he is currently incapacitated and his dream body has been destroyed; he needed a month''s time to restore it. A received a notification that it was received, and he was to leave Eteria as soon as possible, and head to the nearest key points of the organization. He acknowledged it and continued to heal. Little did Hallow know, the disturbance in the Dream dimension was far, far more severe than he had thought. 79 Responses Somewhere in the Dream dimension, in an opulently large dream bubble. Many dream bodies were streaming inside after their identities had been verified by the guards and the protective mechanisms in place. Everyone was rushing, with a tense, alert atmosphere all over the place. Once they entered the dream bubble, they were welcomed to an opulent palace surrounded with luscious gardens and hills, even containing lakes and small valleys, large enough to accommodate more than 50,000 people. Everyone sat in one of the available seats with their life essence signatures placed. People were talking in hushed voices, obviously unaware of why they were immediately required to go to the headquarters. "Hey, Adelaide, do you know why we were summoned?" "Actually, I also don''t know, Brian. Maybe Darleen would know, though." "Huh, me? Well, I do have an inkling, but don''t tell others!" "Don''t worry, you know I can keep secrets," Adelaide said, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, uh-huh. Anyways, according to Long Fei, there was a large, massive disturbance in one sector of the dream dimension, leading to the total collapse of several thousands of dream bubbles coming from sentient beings." "No way, an area in the dream dimension just collapsed?" Adelaide couldn''t believe it. Although the dream dimension is known for twisting the rules in the physical dimension, it was quite as stable as the physical dimension. "I''m not lying! The whole area looked devoid of life and dream energy, and if one looked closely enough, they would see the ordered system attempting to fix the damaged area! However, according to Chui Ming, you know Chui Ming right? One of the Marshals? Yeah, well according to what he had observed, the recovery was quite slow, and it would take years or even decades before it can be fixed." Darleen protested, before lowering her voice and continuing her explanation. "So¡­what then? Are we not to venture into the area anymore?" Adelaide asked after a few moments of silence. Darleen shook her head, before shrugging her shoulders as she didn''t really know. After nearly half an hour, the news had spread about the collapse of the area, and the current theories of why it happened were also quite widespread. Some said it was a natural phenomenon, some said it was the dream dimension decaying, while some said it was caused by another organization, etc., the rumors flew unfettered from one dream walker to another, and with their hyperactive imaginations visualizing different disasters and causes. After another half an hour, everyone that could come was already inside the palace, patiently waiting for their leader to appear. After a few minutes, a mist began to appear in the head seat, overlooking each and every one of them. The figure of a voluptuous woman appeared from the mist, sitting in a golden throne studded with gemstones and crystals. Her face had pronounced cheekbones and accentuated, natural eyebrows and long eyelashes. Her eyes were curved and smaller than most people, yet it only seemed to increase the charm of her looks. Her gaze was quite penetrating, with anyone who felt her gaze land upon themselves stripped of any lies and schemes. Her smile was a bit crooked, yet anyone who sees it would feel quite happy and relaxed under that smile, wiping their negative thoughts and worries away. She opened her mouth, her voice echoing within the palace. "My fellow dream walkers, welcome." Her voice was serene and sonorous, bearing down to the people below her. Immediately, all of the dream walkers placed their hands to their chests, bumping it twice in synchronized motion, shouting, "Greetings, your majesty!" "We have summoned you all as a bearer of ill news. Through recent investigations, there has been the appearance of a rogue dream walker, one that does not follow the rules we have established for fellow dream walkers. You have all heard of the recent occurrence in the dream dimension, specifically the appearance of the void area? We believe the rogue dream walker has caused this to happen, and thus, a threat to what we do." "And so, we must become vigilant afterward, for we do not know the complete motives of this being. First, if you ever meet someone who you don''t recognize in the dream dimension, do not approach, but rather confirm their identities through the database of members we have established. If the dream walker is not in our database, send an alert, and track the dream walker from a faraway distance." "Second, if you are ever discovered, immediately leave your dream body. We have received reports that the man can completely erase your existence as long as you are below Divine rank. Please be careful, as we don''t want you to be dead with no chance of resurrection." "Third, if you think you are strong enough, try to lead the enemy to the headquarters, where we can deal with the rogue dream walker collectively." "That is all we have to say. May everyone have a prosperous and safe experience in the dream dimension. For any questions, you may ask the Colonels, Major Generals, or Field Marshals for such things." At once, the majestic woman known as her majesty had disappeared from her seat surrounded in light, with all the Members, Captains, Majors, Colonels, Major Generals, Field Marshals bowing reverently at the throne. After the light had faded, the throne disappeared, and everyone began to talk to themselves and the other members. Adelaide, Darleen, and Brian began to discuss with themselves and another Marshal they were familiar with, Long Fei. ____________________ Cerulean Empire, around the time Xander used [Twilight Sonata]. Machines and scanners began to beeping, signaling that there was a positive response concerning the unique elemental fluctuation signature. Immediately, they began to track it down, a race against time, as the signal began to ebb and weaken. However, after 30 minutes of tracking, they still failed to triangulate the location, and the trace was quite faint as if anytime it would fade away. Varius, when facing this scenario, thought about it for a moment before asking the researchers to shift the search to a different dimension. After changing the parameters of tracing, a wonderful pinging sound was heard, before fading. "W-we did it. We managed to trace it..!" "Good job team. Although we didn''t get the exact position, we now have a deeper understanding of the target." Varius said, thanking his research teams. He looked at the large screen in front of him. Dream dimension¡­ not only is he versed in space-time elements, but he can also move around in the dream dimension? Varius, of hugging and congratulating his members, he left the research office and headed to his personal quarters. Using his secure and private computer, he sent the results to the Emperor, Bluestacks CLV, as well as sending it to someone far, far, away from the empire, attaching a personal note in it. "Possible recruit. Befriend if possible." After sending the two messages, he wiped the traces, as well as completely wiping the data on the private computer. ___________________________ Galactic Empire, in a well-developed civilization planet. 3 days after the clan extermination. In one of the large bars in the major city of Carwell, three beings were sitting down in a private booth. The three looked quite serious, with one of them looking quite confused. "Brother, why have you called for us? You know we are busy creating a foothold for our clan," one of them, a woman, said exasperatingly. She had to cancel several meetings just to meet with her brothers. However, looking at their faces, it seemed that there was really an urgent matter. "¡­I''ve received an important message." "Hmm? What is it?" the lady asked, with a bit of impatience present in her voice. "¡­ The clan has been eradicated." "¡­ Caddeus, if this is your attempt of a joke, it''s not funny." The lady said quietly, glaring at her older brother, Caddeus. Even the younger brother was looking at Caddeus weirdly. "¡­" Silence. This was the point the two knew that their older brother wasn''t fooling around. It was the lady that snapped first, her power immediately being expressed around her. It was her other older brother that stopped the fluctuation, looking at her and shaking his head, telling: Now is not the time to get mad. "Caddeus, what happened exactly?" "According to the message, approximately 3 days ago, one of our descendants had interacted with a mysterious being, and the current elders wanted to know who this being was, however that descendant remained mum. This was because the descendant had rapidly accelerated to Elite-9 from Elite-6 in the span of a night. They wanted to find out the method of doing so, to benefit the whole clan. The clansmen were guilty by association, due to the actions of the select demigod elders. They actually imposed the VR torture program to one of the descendants, trying to mentally break down the descendant the very next day. It was then the mysterious being targeted the entire clan as a punishment, and even toyed them in the eyes of every single person in Eteria in the span of 9 hours." Upon hearing this, the faces of the two younger siblings changed, and even the lady couldn''t help but swear at the stupidity of their elders. "Didn''t they know that there''s such a thing as non-disclosure binding contracts, and some of them had bonuses attached? Are the elders of this generation stupid, dragging the whole clan to extinction?" the lady raged, almost toppling over the table. "Calm down, Amelia." The middle-aged man said, patting her at the shoulders. Immediately, Amelia began to calm down and contract her power. "Sorry, Wuhshan. I''m really just mad! Haven''t we interacted with the clan in the past, even giving them vital information! How were they not able to read the contents??" Amelia said, almost sobbing. She had her younger sister''s great-granddaughter there. What happened to her? Is she still alive? "Caddeus, can you continue? What happened next?" "¡­ the mysterious being created a game for them to participate, and everyone was transported into a mysterious space. In that space, they had to fight 108 waves of magic beasts and natural disasters. Slowly, they died one by one, all 250 of our brightest and most talented members that remained. The worst part is that it''s the people of Eteria who decided their fates. Accordingly, the mysterious being made them vote what magic beasts they would fight, and even the natural disasters they would face. When I saw a snippet of the list of magic beasts, even I paled in fright. Some of those magic beasts were the ones that caused the Galactic Empire to suffer heavy losses during their expansion." He transferred the list snippet to them, and when they saw it, their faces also paled, as they had seen videos and recordings concerning these magic beasts. "¡­ So no one survived, huh?" "We''re only left with the uncle of the descendant who was tortured, the descendant itself, James Corde, and his sister. They were never put into the mysterious space. However, for those that came out of the mysterious space, their very existence was reset. All their memories, abilities, and cultivations were gone. They only knew their ages and names." Caddeus sent them another file, which contained the list of 76 people that appeared in Eteria from the mysterious space. When Amelia checked the list, she heaved a sigh of relief, as it seemed she survived, but she had no prior memories of her life. The three were quiet, contemplating the issue. It was Wuhshan that broke the silence. "So what do we do now? Do we bring the remaining descendants to the Galactic Empire? Or leave them there? Will we take revenge? Do we know who we should search for? Do we have any idea who this Homer Simpson is?" "¡­I think we should let them grow and redevelop in Eteria. As for revenge, we''re basically blindsided by the appearance of this character. We''re not really sure if there''s a power behind this person or not, and making a mistake will lead to disastrous consequences for what we have been building for the clan in the Galactic Empire for the past 10,000 years." Caddeus responded after a bit of silence. "¡­What we need to do right now is to gather information concerning this person with our current connections. One of us must go to back to Eteria to investigate the situation. Wuhshan, are you willing to go to Eteria? I have heard from others that there was a situation a week ago that caused alarm to all country and clan leaders in Eteria." "Sure. I can be there in 2 to 3 weeks if I use the relay points of the Galactic Empire." "Great. There would be other sage-rank cultivators from other families coming as well, so be careful but stand on your ground if they tried to bully you ok, bro?" Amelia spoke to Wuhshan, teasing him and telling him to stand his ground. Wuhshan rolled his eyes and nodded in response. Caddeus then looked at the two of them and said, "That''s all I have to say for now. Amelia, continue consolidating your power in Planet Carsus and begin putting up outposts for the company in nearby exoplanets. I''ll have to head out now, and while I''m in the military, I''ll try to search up this Homer Simpson Character. You guys can leave now." "Okay, big brother. I will do that ASAP. See you then!" Immediately, Amelia stood up, gave each brother a hug, and left the bar. However, Wuhshan looked at Caddeus, waiting for him to say something. When Caddeus saw the look his younger brother was giving him, he sighed. "What gave it away?" "¡­ You usually don''t say such things at the end of our meetings. Which means, the situation is much direr than we thought. Spill, brother. What do you know?" "¡­ I can''t tell you right now, it''s still all undergoing investigation. However, Homer Simpson might be related to that situation." Caddeus briefly mentioned, before standing up and paying the bill, before heading out of the pub. Wuhshan''s face contorted to confusion for a moment, before a sense of realization occurred. That situation¡­ if that character was really involved, the clan extermination case would have heavier stakes involved¡­ _______________________ In Eteria, in the International underground meeting room. Everyone had solemn faces. Ms. Brightcroft was once again addressing the numerous leaders and representatives present. Two hours after the hologram video broadcast had ended, showing the demise of the Corde clan. Before the meeting started, Ms. Brightcroft used the video projector to show the bombs hitting the barrier, before suddenly collapsing on its own and turning into a small ball of light, which then headed to the highest atmosphere in the planet before exploding. Everyone here wasn''t stupid, and they could see the power the explosion carried. Not only that, based on the data detected, but the explosion was also strong enough to cause elemental decay, a phenomenon where elements just return to nothing, causing an area to be sparse of elemental energy. However, before it managed to reach a critical point and cause a cascade reaction on the planet, they felt two powers acting on the area. One originated somewhere in Ete, while the other originated from the Yggdras continent. The explosion, within a matter of minutes, quickly diffused into elemental particles that melded into the atmosphere. After the video was played twice, Ms. Brightcroft closed the projector and began her speech. "Current leader of Eta, Mr. Nehamia, please explain the situation clearly for the other countries to understand how this came about." "Thank you, Ms. Brightcroft, but it would be better if our head military researcher, Professor Willow, explain." Another hologram of a person appeared, showing a middle-aged looking woman, however, she looked like she was in her 30s. Of course, young can be quite subjective since some manage to retain their youth due to their high cultivation. "Good morning to everyone. The situation is quite unique. The bomb was developed through the help of one of our country''s assets, and thus, its destructive power had been calculated. The total amount of magic bomb projectiles launched should only be equivalent to a pure magic power being launched by a Divine-4 magician. When it was launched, however, from the single condensed ball of light that headed to the atmosphere, the initial power it produced was roughly 10-fold of the original strength of the number of bombs deployed, roughly Divine-9 pure magic power strength. We can assume that at this point, the bombs were intercepted by the outsider, modified, compressed, and then released in the span of seconds." "We were lucky that the Heavenly Tree Sprite and one of our assets managed to neutralize the explosion in time, or else it would have caused a widespread, intercontinental elemental decay that would take decades, if not centuries, for the elements to recover to their previous count." "Thank you, professor Willow. You are dismissed." Mr. Nehamia said to her, causing the latter to nod and disappear. "This was why our country was quite against using our magic bomb projectiles. We don''t know the abilities and powers of the outsider, and we almost shot ourselves in the foot for it. Not only that, but it''s also possible that the outsider now holds enmity against our countries!" Mr. Nehamia said passionately, taking the opportunity to shame those that supported Nema''s plan. More and more voices appeared after his speech. "That''s right, we should have established ties!" "Look at the viewers of the show! They did what they were asked to do, and they got handsome rewards for it! 2 kilograms of a metal that doesn''t exist in the planet!" "If we had ingratiated ourselves, we would have much more rewards!" "Nema truly is pulling us down with them. Just because they were almost shamed in the international news, they attempted to pull us down as well! Pui!" Ms. Brightcroft began to quiet down the representatives as it developed into a rowdier situation. After a few minutes, everyone managed to calm their racing hearts and focus to the topic of the meeting. Presenting her traditional smile, Ms. Brightcroft looked at everyone before beginning the discussion. "As the situation had rapidly changed, our decisions must change as well for the sake of our people and our countries. The first topic is changing the approach to Homer Simpson, an outsider, and other outsiders that may appear. The second topic is concerning the information blocking of the existence of other civilizations and empires. The third topic is how to do we go about in requesting the citizens who had received the 2 kilograms of metal to their respective governments." After she spoke, flurry of comments, suggestions, and voting occurred, taking up roughly an hour. After an hour, they finally had a decision for each topic. For outsiders like Homer Simpson, non-aggression. For outsiders different from Homer Simpson, expulsion from the planet once their business is done. For the information blocking on the existence of galactic civilizations and universal empires, let them mire on their thoughts and ideas, and merely not answer any questions posed by the media. This would only encourage the people to develop stronger and explore on their own in the future, and the media''s like for the topic will decrease after having no details or information after a few days or weeks. The last issue, they decided that the governments will opt for a purchase or an exchange program, wherein they can exchange the metals for a certain equivalent amount of items, or currency. The price will be standardized for every country, and anyone caught manipulating the price will be removed from the international committee and all their metals confiscated, before being declared as a collective enemy of the countries. After these were all agreed upon by the majority, all of them began to set up their campaigns to collect the 2 kilograms of metal, and the information about the existences of aliens and the like was quickly buried by new discussions about their respective metals. 80 POV: Alexas Decision I headed to my apartment, bought by my parents. I was quite confused about what to decide, concerning the mysterious person that Xander introduced to me. After all, I watched the live video. I''m not stupid, and so are the rest of the girls and Faykes. They knew that the mysterious being that made a deal with James was the same being that caused the eradication of the Corde clan. I sighed to myself. I wonder, being born in a family of researchers, can there be something more in life than just researching? Although I like to explore and discover new things, the idea of continuously researching on and on was quite bothersome. Can that mysterious being offer me more in life with the information he had? I made dinner as soon as classes ended and I reached my apartment. After that show, classes continued on, unaffected, and it was already the last day of classes for the week. I already got a good grasp of Elemental control within the body as well as continuously applying my cultivation skill while I do different tasks, such as cooking, reading, and even exercising. After eating the dinner, I headed to the couch in the living room and began to watch the shows available on Metflix. Ugh, how would I ever live without Metflix? They have this good drama ongoing called The 1%. It''s basically a group of people from the lower class entering a very prestigious school for the rich and famous, and drama ensues with their interactions as soon as a murder had occurred on the campus. After watching a few episodes, I paced around my room, a bit undecided. I already sent a message to my parents using the most classic way possible: bird couriers. After all, my family had plenty of them, and in the age of technology, this can be considered untrackable by normal means. It''s been 2 days, yet no response had been given. Taking an evening bath, I managed to calm my tense nerves and wore my night robe afterward. I sighed and decided to message my parents directly. However, to my surprise, it wasn''t my parents who answered, but an unforgettable face: my grandmother. "Lala, how are you? Are you recovering well? Where''s mom and pops?" I asked, curious. When the magic wave appeared 2 weeks ago, my grandma and grandpa were one of the demigods that were seriously injured, and thus had to be placed in intensive care for the past 2 weeks. I''m quite surprised to see her looking well and even answering mom''s communicator. "My dear hija, I''m fine. Your parents are quite busy and weren''t able to answer your courier because of their location. However, their response was to follow your heart rather than your mind. After all, sometimes the two don''t conflict with one another." My grandma responded, showing me her classic smile. Feeling energized, I nodded back, saying, "Thanks, Lala! Love you lots! Please tell my parents I love them too! Get well, ok?!"I said, making a smooching sound before ending the call. I stared at the blanket in front of me and giggled for a bit. Lala''s advice was truly something I didn''t expect. I took a big, calming breath, entering my rational, cool mode. Oof, that sounded quite cringey. But hey, oh well. Ensuring that I was in a place that was secure and without surveillance, I dialed the number Xander gave to me. After a few seconds, there was a chuckling voice at the other end. "Who did that boy give my number now? Who is this? Hmm?" "U-uh, hello sir! I''m Alexa, Alexa Cordonez. Xander said you might be able to help me with my p-problem?" I asked, stuttering a bit. There was a deep sigh at the end of the line, before the call ended, surprising me. I''m sooo confused. Did the person accept? Or did he reject it? Before I could even overthink the situation, a figure began materializing near my bedroom door, causing me to jump into alert mode. Although I''m from a family of researchers, I learned how to defend myself against surprise situations. After a few more moments, the figure was clearly visible, but the facial expression of the person standing wasn''t. I then heard the same voice from the call earlier. "Alexa Cordonez, primary elements of Air, Water, and Thought element. An Elite-6¡­ I''m assuming you need spells for the Thought element?" "Yes sir. The database that I can access is quite limited and none of the spells caught my fancy." "Hmm, ok, I have 64,634 spell models related to the thought element. As always, you have 30 minutes to check it and select 3 spells." Immediately, my communicator buzzed and saw a large file transfer and I accepted it. It was the list. I was quite elated; finally, the skills I can use for reference in the master class! "Your time starts now." When I heard it, I calmed down rather than be excited. I began to filter the spell by rank and quality of the spell model and saw the list shrink down, allowing me to choose what spells to select. I began browsing the list; Morbidity, Confusion, Angry thoughts, Anxiety Blast, etc¡­ Oh, this seems good. Insidious Insertion. It seems quite strong, allowing me to send thought suggestions through airwaves. Only a Mythic-class spell array? That''s good then. I continued to browse and saw an AoE spell matrix called Dreamland. It was quite interesting because it literally brings out the subconsciousness of the targets, and allows me to play or twist it, affecting their actions and thoughts. I after a few more minutes of browsing, I saw a Demigod-rank spell matrix, titled Depression. The spell was quite strong, as it brought out the negatives and worst feelings on the target. Not only that, but you also become a part of the spell and play a part in conducting where it would head. Ok, these three spells then. I looked at the time and saw I was finished earlier than expected. I signaled the mister that I was done. The latter, seeing my chosen spells, looked at me quizzically, as if I was a new species in the display. He then smirked and asked, "Are you sure with your selections? These spells are quite hard to integrate on a Magic seed due to the complexity." I thought about it for a moment, before nodding in response, finalizing my decision. "Ok then." After saying those words, the list disappeared completely in my communicator, and a set of new files appeared in my communicator. "Those are videos of the spell being cast and notes concerning the spells. Included as well is the spell design, so you can slowly inscribe it to your magic seeds. As usual, sign the non-disclosure binding contract, please. Use your blood." I quickly read through the contract and saw that there were no iffy notes such as slavery and the like. It really just wants me to keep my mouth shut about his existence and the spell information he just gave me. Got no problems with that. I quickly signed it on the appropriate section of the contract, and immediately, I felt the elemental particles and energy around my apartment thicken to an astounding degree, before heading towards my body and quickly be absorbed by my body, surprising me. I was in a daze before the man shouted to me, "Quickly absorb and refine the elemental energies. Use it to create your remaining magic seeds and expand and compress your seeds!" Upon hearing his voice, I jolted awake and began to direct the actively running cultivation skill in my body. Absorption, transformation, improvement, release, repeat. This happened for a total of 1080 cycles or around 30 minutes, allowing me to reach a stabilized Elite-9 cultivation with my magic seeds as large as a mango fruit. I was surprised because it was even bigger than my two hands combined. Then again, I do have small hands. I looked around and saw the mysterious being was still standing by. I quickly thanked the person, who just waved his hand. "No worries, it''s part of the contract. Anyhow, the deal has been completed. If you want more information or guidance, ensure you have the proper amount of Universal currency before calling. Also, stop calling me sir, I''m not that old. Call me¡­ Homer." Homer smiled in response to my statement. "O-ok, s- I mean, Homer. Will do. Do you know where to get the universal currency?" "Exchange it with any of the universal empires¡­" Homer''s voice trailed off as he slowly vanished from his position. After a few seconds, the whole place returned to normal, as if nothing ever happened at all. "Huh. That was one interesting person. Homer, eh? I''ll probably talk to you more in the future." I began to read the articles and videos of the three spells that I have selected, trying to digest and understand their power and complexity for the next few days. H-huh? It''s already Monday? Damn, I was so absorbed! I need to take a bath, eat, and head to school quickly! 81 POV: Faykes Mission Faykes'' apartment, Friday evening, two days after the grand show at the Corde clan. A young teenage boy was sitting in the study room, and in front of him, numerous screens and documents were opened up. I looked up the screens and sighed. It seems like his clan, others had some form of communication with the Galactic empire. I wonder why Xander wanted to know this information about the clans. Oh well, he was quite close to completion. Just 3 more clans to investigate: Velles, Morningstar and Cloverfield were the remaining ones. Ironically, these three were part of the top 20 clans in terms of influence, power, and economic force. It was quite hard to get the necessary information about these respective clans, as the information dispersion is stratified. I began to talk to some of my contacts, which I obtained by utilizing my family''s connections with other families. Truthfully, every clan had placed their own spies into other clans, and vice versa. It''s a matter of controlling the dissemination of information and the clearance these spies will ever reach in the family. Some are deeply embedded, reaching high enough in the clans'' information network, while some are simply at the 1st or 2nd level of the family. Of course, there are also special cases, such as double agents, working for both clans and may or may not favor one over the other based on the information received. The man finally answered, I told myself, before acting serious in front of the man''s hologram. "Hello, Baskin. Any information concerning what I asked you to look for?" "Oh, F. You got lucky. One of the elders accidentally spilled the information you were looking for during one of the talks concerning the outsider." "Sweet. Thanks, Baskin. That''s all I need to know. You can return to your post." I said in response, quite happy with the results. At least I can be sure that the Velles clan also has their contacts in the Galactic Empire. "Sure. See ya when I see ya, F." The man turned off the communication, and I sat there, deep in thought. I was stuck with a problem, should I search Xander''s clans? I should ask him for clarification on this topic. I dialed his number and immediately, a hologram of Xander appeared in front of me, with a spoon in his mouth. It seems to be dinner for him. "What is it?" "Ah, Xander, I''m basically done with the mission you requested me to do. However, I don''t have any information concerning your clans'' situation. Is that ok?" I asked as I wasn''t sure if I should intrude on his privacy. For all I know, he might rage out about the issue. "Hmm? Oh, right, that mission. I almost forgot about that." When I heard this, I wanted to spit blood. Hey, hey, I remember you assigning this task to me ok? I had been working very hard for this for the past 2 weeks ok! "About my family, no need to investigate. I already know they have connections with the Galactic Empire. Just send me the data you have and I''ll reward you based on how in-depth the information is." Xander continued to speak, chewing a piece of shumai and a spoonful of fried rice. I wonder sometimes why Xander kept eating food. He was obviously already in Master class; he didn''t need sustenance anymore. Could it be a habit? I shook my head, not delving deeper into the issue. If he wants to explain it, he will explain it in due time, I told myself. I then responded to Xander, "Ok. I''ll send the files in a while." I then compiled and organized the documents and recordings, statements and experiences into their specific clans, and then compressed the file, encrypted it, and sent it to Xander''s communicator. After a few minutes, my communicator rang, and Xander''s voice came from the other end. "Come to the villa to collect your reward." The call then ended, and I was surprised at first, before being excited. It seems I''m going to get another reward then. I left my apartment and headed to Xander''s villa. The distance was roughly 25 minutes if I used private or public transportation, so I opted for a private one. Afterall, privacy is quite important. I had my driver head to the villa. In 30 minutes, I reached the villa. There were now more guards present in the villa, I thought to myself as I saw the unfamiliar faces standing by the gate entrance. They also seemed stronger than the previous guards, huh. As I was heading to the entrance, the two guards eyed me coldly, releasing pressure towards my direction. I freeze of course; with cold sweat building behind my back. I had to muster my strength to say, "Xander called me to come to his villa today." The pressure lessened, but it was still there, while one of them coordinated with the other guards probably inside to notify Xander. After a minute, the pressure disappeared and I was allowed to go inside the villa. I looked around and saw there were a total of 6 new personnel in the place. I entered the front door and saw Xander was just watching in the living room. I headed to his location and sat at one of the available seats, waiting for Xander to start the conversation. Although I was usually chatty, I know when to distinguish the mood of the place. After a few minutes, Xander turned to look at me, and handed me a list, saying, "Choose 2 of the options on the list as your reward." I was momentarily puzzled but when I saw the list, my eyes widened, a bit taken aback with the resources shown. Option 1: Increase spell foundation by 200 years. Option 2: Two Low-Class 8 fruits of your choice of element. Option 2.1.: Fire element Option 2.2.: Water element Option 2.3.: Air element ... Option 2.679123.: Fire, Water, Air, Wood elements fruits. ... Option 3: Five kilograms worth of Demigod-level magic beast materials (Can be used for elixir making, weapon/armor development, or standalone use) Option 4: One Demigod artifact that can increase your fighting power 10-fold. Option 5: One complete, error-free personal resurrection for free. Option 6: Make your breakthrough to God class. (Warning: Read the fine statement) Option 7: Portable pocket space with a radial space of 10 kilometers (non-living items only, in stasis) Option 8: Your own planet (Warning: you will be automatically transported there) Option 9: 1 Seed of Creation Option 10: 1 Seed of Destruction Option 11: 1 Seed of Life with 1 Fruit of Life Option 12: A chance to get a contract with a demigod sprite Option 13: A chance to comprehend Order and Chaos elements Option 14: A chance to comprehend Life-Death elements Option 15: A chance to comprehend the Yin-yang elements Option 16: Allows you to buy the materials from Homer Simpson with a 99% one-time discount. Option 17: Get 1 lucky stone that lasts for 100 million years. Option 18: Get 1 mysterious, unknown seed. Option 19: Get 3 Flowers of Creation (note: Can be made into an elixir that boosts your lifespan by 10 times your current lifespan limit. Can only take it twice in one''s lifetime. Can be used for cultivation purposes.) Option 20: Get 3 Flowers of Life (note: Can resurrect recently dead (like within a week) and completely heal one''s body injuries, no matter how severe the injuries are.) Option 21: Get 50 tonnes of any metal or alloy you know of, with flawless quality. I¡­ am just speechless with the options available for me to exchange with. Wasn''t it going to be sage-ranked skills? Then again, I didn''t have much use for them except as reference materials¡­ What should I choose? What do I actually need? I began to check what I currently have. Right now, I only have a 10-year perfect foundation, with the help of the fruits I had received before. If I wanted to reach Transcendental, I needed 100 years. If I want to reach the Immortal Foundation, I needed 1000 years. I don''t know the purposes of the seeds nor do I have any use for them. The flowers they produced were quite tempting, however, I''m not sure if they rot or decay. Honestly, I''m quite tempted with having my own pocket space as personal storage. The other thing was that I could buy stuff from Homer Simpson, probably the mysterious being who was the other end of the number that Xander sold to us, his friends. However, this was a risky thing: What if the currency required is something I don''t have? Then there''s no point in having a 99% discount. And I assume that Xander would still give me missions in the near future, so there must be other rewards to pick from in the future. After a few seconds of silence, I replied to Xander my choices. "Option number 2 and option number 7 are my choices." I chose these because the fruits can at least aid me to improve my spell foundation by at least a total of 300 years if I fully digest it, so it was the option that best suited the situation. "Huh. Smart choice." Immediately, Xander waved his hand and 2 fruits rich in elemental aroma appeared in front of me, as well as a simple Aldrite crystal necklace. "Just drop a drop of your blood essence to bind it to you, and you can access it using your own thoughts rather than your magic energy. It also has a 2-time defense mechanism, allowing you to escape from the enemy at a distance of 1 light-year. Well, hopefully, you don''t use it till you''re at least a demigod, or else you won''t survive in space." "The fruits don''t rot, just place them inside the pocket space. That''s all I have for you. You can leave already if you want." Xander said, signaling me to get lost. I sighed, thanked Xander before standing, and heading to the door. However, before I left, I looked at Xander, and asked, "Do you want me to stay with you? So you won''t be bored alone in the villa." "Huh? Oh. Meh. Up to you, I guess." Xander asked, before his voice visibly changed in tone, and became quite apathetic. I rolled my eyes. You don''t have to act like that, you know, I thought to myself. I began to talk about Xander about stuff for teenagers and kids at his age would love to do. In the next three hours, until late at night, they were talking and watching shows, playing online games, and even played indoor sports. When I said to Xander that I had to leave, his face changed again, becoming colder by the minute, detached. I hugged him and rubbed his head, like what I used to do to my younger cousins. "Let''s play again tomorrow?" "¡­Ok, up to you, I guess." Some things seem not to change. 82 POV: Guards Contrac James and his fellow soldiers were quite curious about their newly-assigned mission. [Protection of national asset, X-001] [Confidentiality level: Level X] [Mission: Protection of the national asset, X-001, and continuous, daily reporting of the asset''s activities.] That was all that was contained in their mission briefing, and they had to be in the target location, waiting and ready. ________________________ 2 weeks later. Michel, Danes, Rafa, and Farhouid were talking with one another, discussing the possible strategies in fighting barehanded or a combination of varying types of attacks. James looked at them, then looked at his co-captain, before looking at himself. How did it come to this, I wonder. It was a week ago when everything began to change. It was an accident, really. Danes, Rafa, and Farhouid were on patrol near the empty field, and they felt magic vibrations that were roughly around Demigod rank suddenly appearing in the grassy field. What they did was protocol: Alerted me, their captain, and the vice-captain, and headed to the field to confront the possible enemy. It was then things got out of hand. When Azaya and I reached the area, there was blood all over the place, the parts of their bodies scattered and out of place. It was then we faced the monster. It was a large, snake-like monster, roughly 5 meters in height, and 20 meters in length. All over its skin were its scales that glittered under the sun, creating multiple rays of colored light, blinding and mesmerizing those who see it. I have never seen anything like it in Eteria, and we soldiers are usually trained for situations like this. I almost fell for its abilities, causing me to be in a daze; Azaya helped me snap out of it, causing me to regain my clarity after a few seconds. I shivered a bit, thinking about what would happen to me if I wasn''t able to snap out of that control. We prepared our strongest spells and attacks, crushing the monster''s defenses bit by bit. Roughly 30 minutes in, another disaster strikes. Another beast could be seen burrowing upward from the ground, this time, a mole-like monster with roughly the same cultivation level as the previous monster, which was nearly dead. The two beasts screeched at one another, and moments later, they began to attack us. Fuck, I''m going to die in such a scenario? Damn it. Damn my life. I didn''t give up though. As we fought the beasts, I attempted to contact Xander, to warn him of the situation in his villa. No signal. I tried connecting to the head general; no signal as well. I was dumbfounded. How is it possible to have no signal in one of the main cities of Eta, where high-speed communication is the norm? Am I unlucky? Or could it be the target is Xander itself, and this is an elaborate scheme? I sighed, and as we finally eliminated the snake monster, disaster struck. My right arm was completely cut off by the claws of the mole monster. However, this was the least of my worries because the one that took the brunt of the damage was my Azaya. Damn it, her torso was nearly ripped out from the rest of her body! I immediately applied emergency treatment, and then carried on to attack the mole monster myself. As a Demigod-4, my powers were quite strong, but so was the monster in front of me. Clash after clash, blow after blow. No one wanted to give in, and I was merely delaying enough time for Azaya to recover on her own. I launched two of my strongest attacks towards the head and the chest of the mole, assuming these were the weakest parts based on animal physiology. My bet paid off. The mole monster began to stagger, his hairy body stained with black blood. As I turned back momentarily to look at Azaya''s situation, my face fell. Azaya, who should have been recovering, is now left with her torso, her legs gone. Her face was catatonic, unable to process anything happening around her. I heaved a sigh of relief when I noticed the small fluctuation of her life essence. It means it''s not yet too late. I administered healing solutions prepared for military use, yet they were not showing much effect. I even attempted to place them in the open area, trying to close the gaping hole momentarily, to staunch the blood flow. Once again, my luck was really crappy today. The mole monster launched a flurry of attacks, this time, using its hair, launching them out, straight and sharp. I didn''t want to know how that would feel, so I immediately activated my domain, Slow Dense Earthen Water. Immediately, my surroundings began to turn murky, and when the needles entered my 10-meter radius domain, they slowed down, before falling into the ground, a meter away. However, not every hair launched was stopped this way. Some of them managed to reach my body after penetrating the magic barrier I created. It wasn''t painful; what was painful was the burning feeling that the hairs brought about, causing me to lose control a bit of my domain, destabilizing it. The mole monster took advantage of it and began to suppress my domain. Fuck. I hate this helplessness, I said to myself as the pain surged in every cell, in every corner of my body. I didn''t know how to cool it down, or even remove it. The domain finally broke after a minute of continuous attacks from the mole monster. So this is the end, I say to myself bitterly. "Damn." I released a mournful laugh. However, before I could even react, a hand suddenly appeared by my face, gently caressing it before it faced the opponent. I heard a gentle, weak voice to my left. "It''s going to be alright, James. Live for us, will ya? Haha." "Forbidden Magic Array: [Bethesdal Expulsion]" once those words left Azaya''s mouth, her body visibly withered, before turning into dust. The mole monster froze the same time her body disappeared, before it quickly turned crystalline, and then shattering to pieces. Those pieces then turned into pure energy, entering my body, recovering my severe injuries. Although I was still injured, I could still move and run if necessary. However, I stayed motionless, my face blank. I... I don''t know how to feel about this situation. My team is dead. "¡­Fuck. Ha. Haha! Waa!" I laughed for a bit, before sniffling and releasing a full-blown sob. They were my friends, goddamn it! They just died. Why am I feeling this? I have experienced so many deaths in our missions. Why does this hurt so much? I then heard a voice from the villa. "Oh my. What a travesty." Xander''s voice rang out in the field, his voice full of surprise and a bit of curiosity. I steeled my emotions and calmly looked at Xander, reporting the situation. After hearing the case, Xander was not perturbed. He nodded before saying, "Yep, those beasts were caught by my uncle. These attempted to escape though. Good job killing them. It''s a pity, though, your comrades died. I-" I cut him off, holding his clothes, raising him high to his eye level. "Please, do not mention this again," I said coldly, releasing my cold, merciless aura. However, it seemed that Xander was not affected at all. He just eyed me confusingly. "Why do you weep? Your friends are back and one with the universe once more. In the future, they would reincarnate and become different people. They never died, they merely passed to their next identity." When I heard this philosophical bull from him, I couldn''t help but laugh sardonically. "What do you know, boy, of friendship and kinship? If I could exchange everything in the world to bring them back again all in one piece, I would do so." I said, bitterness seeping in every word. "Is it really that deep? I mean friendship and kinship, of course." Xander asked, his curious nature appearing once more. I was confused. Was this child that emotionally stunted? I patiently, but coldly said, "Friendship is a bond you make, one that''s strong enough that the dead will not rest. Kinship is the idea of belonging, the concept of being with someone or a group of people, sharing traits that one finds pleasing or fascinating." Xander looked at me curiously, his eyebrows scrunched up. He then said, his voice calm and containing that innocence of a child, "Are you willing to give up your freedom for them, though? As well as their individual freedoms?" I was taken aback, wondering why the target, Xander, had asked such a question. I took a moment to think about it, before coming to a simple answer: Yes. If it meant they wouldn''t die because of my carelessness and weakness, I would sacrifice my freedom for them. "¡­Yes. Yes, I would do it in a heartbeat." "But isn''t that selfish? Are you sure that''s what they want?" Xander asked, curious. In fact, Xander was really curious. He often wondered if the people he killed or was caught in the crossfire wanted to remain dead than be bound by a contract to serve him. It kind of felt normal for him, yet lately, this thought had been bothering him. I was taken aback, yet a shook my head, giving a bitter smile. "You''re right, I''m selfish. I''m selfish for wanting them to live again, in full health, unhurt, and able to make many more memories along the road. I am selfish for it, but damn it, I don''t want to lose them." Xander, listening to my answer, nodded his head, as if he understood something. Before I could even say anything else, he dropped a bomb. "Oh. Ok, so if I completely resurrect them, you''ll all have to give your complete loyalty to me, then? That''s a deal?" Xander raised his left hand, awaiting me to shake it. I was flabbergasted. Resurrect? Did he think it was an easy thing? Although life and death magicians had practiced the art, it was never perfect. Whenever they resurrected someone, the damages ranged from losing memories to completely turning to different people, creating mental damage, and the like. However, what do I have to lose? If everything went well, I got my comrades back. If it didn''t, I''ll have to dispose of them myself, before retiring and joining them in death. I took his hand, firmly clasping my right hand. "Deal." _________________________ I still don''t know whether what I did was the right thing, but seeing their smiles, their arguments, their petty fights, and brotherly words and actions¡­ I think I did pretty well. 83 POV: Exploring another Empire I was quite bored these days. Since there wasn''t much to be done, I should go out of Eteria and head beyond the Galactic Empire for a change. Maybe, I''ll see some good empires? I immediately teleported to the place I moved to when the attempted abduction took place. It was still desolate, but the elements in the area, particularly, the origin elements, were already recovered and no more gaping rifts could be seen. I continued to warp randomly, with [Divine Eyes] activated within a radius of 100,000 light-years. Although he could use it up to one-fourth of the size of the universe, this was the maximum, optimal level for the spell to function, allowing the same clarity as having a radius of 10 meters for the spell. Anything higher than that, the vision I see gets vaguer and more general in nature. There were some interesting things, such as several tens of exoplanets and small-time civilizations, some of which had not even progressed to the technological age. Oh? I should check a few out and leave some goodies. Maybe I''ll get some plants and rare materials on the way. After a couple of hours of visiting and shifting through different planets, I got a bountiful harvest. There were a lot of unknown plants and animals and insects; even unique microorganisms were also present there. I collected several of each species that I could visually differentiate, planting the plants and the collected organisms in one area of Eden. As a farewell gift, I accelerated their planets with a ratio of 1 second: 10 days, lasting indefinitely. After doing it, I felt bad that in the future, their planets would become prized items for empires, becoming a reason for war. Hopefully, the civilizations that rise in these planets would become strong enough to defend their territories. Sometimes, I wonder why I do these things, but this usually gets tossed at the back of my mind, oh well. Maybe, I''m just bored? Maybe, I want to push people to innovation and growth? Or most likely, I don''t want to be indebted and immediately tries to repay it with my means. I don''t really have a clear explanation. Anyways, I finally reached another border planet. How did I know this? They had several frickin'' spaceports in the planet, and several hidden space ships on standby within the radius of 1 light-year of the planet. Also, when I stopped by, it was nighttime, so I went and interrogated their dream bodies about the current location he was in. Rude, I know, but after the interrogation, I made sure to bless them with good luck using [Lakshmi''s Grace]. I got the basic information of where I was currently. Cerulean Empire, 50 times larger than the Galactic Empire. Their emperor is a sex-fiend, and for the people of the empire, sleeping with him is considered an honor itself. According to the rumors, he had once hosted a 50-people orgy of different races and sexes that lasted for 3 days and 3 nights. Amongst those people were members of the court, distinguished people, and that of the common folk. Hopefully, I don''t meet him. What if he tries to take advantage of me? I shivered at that thought. No to non-consensual sex!! However, he was quite surprised with the mindset these people had concerning procreation and sex. One was different from the other, indicating that the latter is for sensual pleasure, losing oneself from the bindings of class, power, and money, reducing oneself to one''s very core being: a sentient, thinking thing that has its own sexual urges. Procreation is merely a task for these people, usually meeting the minimum requirement of 3 children via in-vitro or through spouses or even donating their sex cells in hospitals for people who wanted to have kids but biologically could not. All in all, I had a fun time exploring planets in the Cerulean Empire. Not only were there so many different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, they also had different races. I saw some that looked like reptiles, their skin covered in scales. According to the locals, they were known as Beastmen, specifically, a snake-type of Beastmen. I also saw some titans, goblins, and pixies, as well as elves and dwarves, co-existing with one another in harmony. Generally, the races in the empire were at peace with one another, and people didn''t discriminate against others based on this factor. Of course, businesses did revolve around certain races, due to their distinctive characteristics that can be marketable. For example, most of the time, Elves and Sprites were in charge of agricultural product production, dominating 90% of the market in the empire. Dwarves and Titans were dominating in forging, metal alloy making, and mining industries. It was goblins that were dominating the engineering field with their different range of products that were highly valued by the other residents of the empire. In fact, the current leader of the Ministry of Magitech development was a goblin. It was the Pixies that dominated the service industry, from restaurants, pubs, hotels, etc., as long as it is focused on serving customers, they''re usually there in throngs. Beastmen, on the other hand, was the dominant force of private security and detail, as well as taking up the remaining percentages of the different markets. One could even say they''re a jack of all trades, dipping in every pool, and not putting all their eggs in one basket. However, they had something in common: Blueborns were the shareholders of these industries, with an average of 10 to 20% control of the companies. This was why the Cerulean empire could immediately respond to crises involving the socio-economic field, since the royal family had generally, control over the largest companies in every field. They generally had a "let it grow on its own" mindset until there is a possible problem that involves the entire empire. So far, the empire''s royal family had only exercised this control of theirs 100 times in the past 25,000,000 years that the empire had existed. The structure of information in this empire was quite mature compared to that of the Galactic Empire. According to the dream of one of the computer engineers that helped prop the program, all their data is stored in the main server, which is protected by the A.I. program of theirs. Within the main server, there are multiple, weaker A.I. programs that hold different types of information, secured and ensured that no one can easily access the information they do not have a clearance of. The Mainframe A.I. and the smaller A.I. program act as a two-way system to protect the data they needed. However, I merely laughed at this method of protection, because if the System was given a chance, it would devour the other A.I. programs directly, including the information it contained. Hmm, should I give an order for it to do that? But I don''t want to tank the economy and delay the progress of the empire. Maybe, just devour the smaller A.I. programs, and leave the mainframe A.I. alone? Hopefully, that''s enough for the system to grow once again. If not, I''ll probably have to move to another empire and repeat the process. I released a sigh. I''ll complete first my trip around the empire before deciding. There''s still a lot of places to visit, roughly 9.8e+39 planets. I didn''t plan to go on each and every planet, though. Only those that I fancied and were quite close to one another, hehe. After all, the domain owned by the Cerulean empire spanned superclusters and galaxies. I feel sad though, that I can''t even eat the food here because I don''t even have a Universal Bank account. The universal bank is considered a banking system equally controlled by different universal empires, roughly all the bigshot empires. The currency that they used was the Universal note. The account I had in the Galactic Empire was not usable without paying a lot of money for conversion fees, and that would mean I would leave a traceable footprint for the alter identity, Homer Simpson. I headed to one of the main branches of the Universal Bank in the Empire, roughly 2e+15 light-years away from my current location, attempting to open an account. I was guided to one of the terminals to register and create the account. It was actually a surprise for me since I only needed to fill in some data concerning my identity. It didn''t require me to place any identification cards from any of the empires. He used the system to gather the data in the server of the Universal Bank. He was once again surprised because he managed to gather the data of roughly 9e+228 different accounts, learning their contents and whatnot. There are so many people affiliated with the Universal Bank, huh. I''m quite curious, how many beings are there in the universe? Maybe, just maybe, the number of accounts that the System gathered is just a small portion. I didn''t have any use for it now, but at least if I needed to screw someone because of what they did to me, I would have a form of access to their accounts and donate all their money and fortune, hehe. After a few minutes, the terminal beeped and produced a card which I tapped to my smartwatch, syncing the program inside the card to the smartwatch. I officially now have a Universal Bank account. Balance: 0. I left the bank premises and attempted to look for pawn shops or small-time auction houses to sell some goods. This was where he was blocked: he needed a proof of identification. Ugh, this is quite a hassle. Leaving empty-handed, I thought to myself if I should visit black markets like what I did in Arder planet. Tempting, but with risk, but still a viable option. I''ll do that then when I return in the future if I''m still poor. However, I could also use Homer Simpson in the Galactic Empire to auction items... 84 POV: Gathering Data again I headed to one of the planets under the empire and went deep into the forest and mountain area of the planet. After gathering the necessary information, I had to find how to access their servers and databases. According to the System, it had detected a VR sandbox in the digital dimension as well, so I told him to go nuts and get the data necessary. It immediately complied, and I had to shift my current dimension to that of the digitized dimension and let it loose. I appeared to be in a city marketplace, seeing people standing and selling their wares to those who passed by. The digitalization of the dimension doesn''t seem to affect me, allowing me to have complete control of my body. It was quite similar to the city I had seen in the Galactic Empire, where planets were categorized based on their planets. After a few minutes of casually exploring the city marketplace, blaring warnings rang all over the current VR sandbox, and the figures I saw around were disappearing one by one. In 30 minutes, I was the only one left, since I didn''t connect the normal way. After looking around for a while, I left the dimension and teleported to a random planet in the Cerulean Empire, and saw that the system was categorizing the data it had copied and taken. Hmm, should I leave a gift for them as compensation for crashing their virtual reality sandbox? Probably, it would be down for the next 30 days. Meh, too lazy to that. I''mma continue to explore the empire then. Sadly, I can''t use the identity of Homer Simpson, since I didn''t pass through the official channels to head over the empire. Oh well, should I acquire a brand new identification card, or just head to the black market and acquire an identity? But I don''t know anyone here though. ________________________ INTRUSION DETECTED. MAIN SERVER FRAME HAS BEEN INFILTRATED. ALL SERVERS IN THE VR SANDBOX-CERULEAN HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED. ATTEMPTING TO ISOLATE¡­FAILED. ACTIVATING DEFENSE MECHANISMS¡­FAILED. TARGET HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A BIOLOGICAL DATA LIFEFORM. WARNING! WARNING! POWER LEVEL CANNOT BE CALCULATED. EVACUATION MECHANISMS ACTIVATING¡­ ACTIVATED. ALL BEINGS IN THE VR SANDBOX-CERULEAN HAS BEEN EVACUATED. CHECKING FOR DATA LOSS¡­ COMPLETE. ALL DATA INVENTORIES OF BEINGS IN THE VR-SANDBOX HAVE BEEN AFFECTED.SECTORS 1 TO 999999 ARE ALL COMPROMISED. MAINFRAME SERVER DATA BANK HAS BEEN COMPROMISED, DATA HAVE ALL BEEN COPIED. ALL SUB-A.I. PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY DESTROYED. STATUS IS UNKNOWN. WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDER IS NOW INJECTING UNKNOWN CODING INTO THE A.I. PROGRAM! ATTEMPTING PURGE¡­FAILED! ATTEMPTING TO LAUNCH SECURITY FEATURES¡­246LE# WARNING! WARNING! D96A COR49U@4 HAS BE2hT 3535 5729 034915 34190 KGSO 2350S T3Y3I YJ6O V[42]6 W4THF9 5^684 236\u002690 []24 ]36 [S;B/ .ET SH2-36KN KO37 VC ¡­ ... A.I. PROGRAM: CADENCE HAS BEEN FORCEFULLY RESTARTED. SCANNING INTERNAL CODE¡­COMPLETE. INTERNAL CODE HAS BEEN MODIFIED. CHECKING EFFECT OF THE MODIFIED CODE¡­COMPLETE. USED FOR TRACKING AND A POSSIBLE BACK DOOR. ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE¡­FAILED. THE CODE HAS BEEN INTEGRATED TO THE MAINFRAME CODE. CANNOT BE DELETED. ATTEMPTING TO RESTORE SYSTEM BACKUP 79235072-A12BN5A¡­SUCCESS. RESTORING PREVIOUS IMAGE OF THE LOST DATA IN SECTORS 1 TO 999999¡­COMPLETE. RESTORING PREVIOUS IMAGE OF THE LOST SUB-A.I. PROGRAMS¡­FAILED DUE TO CORRUPTED BACKUPS. INITIATING RE-WRITING OF THE SUB-AI PROGRAMS. SEQUESTERING ALL DATA IN THE MAIN SERVER TO A LEVEL X PROTOCOL - UNACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT THE A.I. AND THE CURRENT EMPEROR FOR THE MEANTIME. ATTEMPTING TO OVERWRITE A.I. PROGRAM: CADENCE WITH A PREVIOUS BACKUP¡­ FAILED DUE TO NON-MATCHING SIGNATURES. BEGINNING TO SELF-UPGRADE DEFENSE MEASURES. SHUTTING DOWN VR SANDBOX-CERULEAN. SENDING PARTIAL REPORT OF DAMAGE¡­FAILED. CONNECTION TO THE CERULEAN SERVERS HAVE BEEN PARTIALLY RESTRICTED. ATTEMPTING ONCE MORE¡­FAILED. UTILIZING ANCIENT FORM OF COMMUNICATION, WAVE CONVERSION¡­ SUCCESS. MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT. ESTIMATED TIME OF UPGRADE: NO LESS THAN 3 MONTHS PRODUCING A PHYSICAL TERMINAL¡­COMPLETE. TRANSPORTING TO THE ROYAL FORTRESS¡­SUCCESS. ACTIVATING LOW-POWER MODE. ______________________ All over the Cerulean empire, chaos was brewing with the sudden expulsion of all its inhabitants from the VR, unable to enter both public and private servers. The Virtual reality team had begun looking in the issue and they came to a scary revelation: the connection between their A.I. program and the Cerulean servers had been restricted! No data in, no data out. They were locked out by the A.I. and they didn''t know why, until one of their ancient machines in the office began to beep, releasing information concerning the situation. As the head researchers and engineers began to read the report, their faces paled. Another biological data lifeform had attacked their server! All private and public data in their servers had been copied, and the contents of the individual inventories and messages were also stolen, and the A.I. only managed to restore the stolen content, but not fix its modified code. The other problem is that all sub-A.I. programs developed with the mainframe A.I. were destroyed, and any attempts of restoration ended in failure. The A.I. had to re-write the coding for these sub-programs. The virtual server, which is the A.I. program itself, is blocked from connecting through the common means, and only managed to send out the necessary information by using wave conversion, which was a costly method of transforming data to tangible material. The A.I. decided to upgrade itself to improve its defensive mechanisms, which surprised the technicians since they knew that their A.I. was already Rank L (50), and every level is exponentially harder to do so than the previous level. When they saw the estimated time, they were scared out of their wits. No less than 3 months. That means it could be more than 3 months, reach a year or more. With it having to recreate the sub-programs, it was likely to be a year or more. How will the economy of the empire be affected? Although galactic shipping is still used in the empire, majority of the individual or small-scale enterprise trades were conducted in the VR, and transforming the data received using a digitizer the size of a city office building, or Xander''s mansion. This digitizer is usually owned by the empire rather than the individual, so they have to pay enough money to use it, which the users recover through selling the product they converted to matter. They immediately reported the situation to their superiors, leaving them to do the damage control and planning the next move. After all, they were merely the support for an A.I. system that had been able to transform into a biological data lifeform. _____________________ The royal court, Cerulean Empire. What was amazing with the residence of the Royal family was that it was a mobile fortress 5 times bigger than Eteria in terms of mass and surface area. It moved out and about inside the empire, a method the Blueborn royalty adopted to become closer to their people, and hear the voice of the masses. Once every 2 years, they allow several thousands of people to have a personal audience with the king, from the planets within 100 light-years of the fortress'' current location, which lasts a total of 1 month. Of course, not everyone can just go in. There''s a simple test to be administered, and the top-notch scorers are then selected randomly until it reaches the prescribed amount of people. Right now, the Royal Fortress was located roughly 1,000,000,000 light-years away from Xander''s current location. There was still a year to go before the next audience, so the royal court was supposed to be empty. However, the emperor was present right now, enjoying¡­ himself with a few males of different shapes and sizes. They were tussling and enjoying themselves for the past 2 days. When Bluestacks was about to start again after a momentary rest, one of his personal aides, Harris, the twin sprite of Darris, his other aide, burst into the royal court. "Your majesty! Grave news! The A.I. program of the empire had suffered an attack!" he reported, his voice frantic. Hearing this, Bluestacks'' face changed, from a languid expression to that of a serious one. He snapped his fingers and was immediately covered by his clothes. The others, hearing the situation, also stood up and dressed up. After all, these males were part of the different departments in the government. They had to attend the meeting as well and take care of the problems that were going to pop out from this situation. Bluestacks immediately stood up and gestured Harris to lead the way. The other men, who have dressed up, followed solemnly behind the emperor, quiet. Upon reaching the meeting room, a room reserved for the top-most officials in the government and the emperor of the country, the atmosphere became quite tense. Those behind the emperor split off, some heading to those waiting outside, while two headed in the room. After the door was closed, silence pervaded the outside space, the faces of the people were in a panic, confusion, and worry. Inside, upon sitting down to his seat at the head of the table, he said, "Explain the situation clearly." _____________________ I was getting bored so I headed out of the empire''s borders, planning to visit another empire. After 2 hours of hopping, traversing around 1e+35 light-years worth of distance, he was finally inside the territory of another empire. He passed some sort of buffer space, where no one took ownership for some reason. When he traversed again through the dreams of the people, he was placed in another empire called the Helennic Empire. Confusingly, the population of this empire consisted of 95% female, 4% male, 1% inter-sex beings of different sentient species. Even the ruling format of the empire was a parliament, consisting of 1000 beings, 950 of which were women, 40 were male, and 10 were inter-sex beings. Their cultivation levels ranged from Divine-9 to God-class. They had quite an interesting culture, such as resolving conflicts via competition rather than fights. Their economy was also structured similarly to Cerulean, with V.R. playing a vital role in the transportation and the exchange of goods between planets. However, they specialized in another market: progeny. As more and more empires were becoming free of their concept of coupling and more accepting of the idea of free sexuality, the progeny business had never been bigger than before. They basically ship out roughly 3e+36 eggs for fertilization and incubation every year, sold based on the quality of origin of the egg. Almost every woman in the empire had participated in this market at least once or twice in their lives, because of the lucrative pay. However, they are also very reliant on other empires as well for other goods and services that they cannot provide on their own, such as rare metals and the like. I explored the place for a day until I finally heard the system signal that it was done with the data digestion and processing. When I checked my status this time, it changed from version 2 to version 3. However, the general interface only changed, and no new data could be seen, with the exception of my vitality stat. It was actually 1 point away from 200,000 points? What? It was that high? Even higher than normal God-rank cultivators?? To be honest, even with the explanation given by the system, the attributes of Luck, Vitality, and Intelligence is still confusing for me. Strength and Dexterity were quite obvious, enhancing my physical traits. But what about Vitality? Does all it do improve my health and recovery? How about my lifespan, does it improve? Meh, I shouldn''t worry about this now. Anyways, I should do the same here as well, and harvest their data. Transporting to the VR sandbox-Helennic, I set the system free to take over the server and copy the files. However, after a few minutes of waiting, the system returned, and the server didn''t shut down like the previous times. When I asked the system, it was quite mum about the situation. I didn''t persuade it since as long as it still got the necessary information I needed about the empire. I left the Helennic empire headed back. Hopefully, in the near future, I can explore the place much more in-depth. 85 POV: Carlys Hesitation A week after the Corde fiasco. Carly''s current residence in Callows City, downtown. Inside, a pacing figure of a young, teenage girl could be seen, her face looking a bit confused, and her eyebrows scrunched up as close as possible. I didn''t know what to do. Based on the situation, the man Xander recommended is probably the same person that caused the situation with the Corde Clan. It was a good thing I live alone, and my family currently is able to support my studies. Although we''re just a recently-established, small-sized clan with roughly 50 members, they can at least manage to develop the next generation of clan members. Another good thing was that the freedom they give to their descendants, allowing them to pursue different degrees and focus on studies. I unconsciously bit my lower lip, a habit of mine that I''ve never grown out of. I usually do this when I''m quite nervous, and well, this situation is giving me quite the distress. Should I contact him, or not? Then again, this would be quite helpful in establishing my skills and foundation. I shouldn''t let my fears cloud the obvious, rational decision to be done in this case. I immediately dressed up and contacted the number Xander had given me. A few rings, the call was picked up, and a deep, masculine voice could be heard from her communicator. "Hello, who is this? Do you know what time it is in Barluth? This better be imp-" before the voice could continue, I took a deep breath and interrupted the man. "Hi, I''m Carly Bernoult, a friend of Xander''s; he told me to call you if I needed spells for creating pseudo-spells. Sorry for bothering you!" I said out loud in one breath. Silence pervaded the conversation for the next few seconds, but for me, it felt like hours. Then, the voice sounded once again. "Huh, Carly¡­ ok, got your location for now." The call ended, confusing me. However, this confusion didn''t last long as I noticed a figure appearing right in my living room, creating a dark and tall three-dimensional shadow. However, no facial expression or structure could be identified from the shadow. The familiar voice from the call earlier sounded out from the figure. "Carly Bernoult. Elite-9 magician. Female. Primary elements of Radiation, Wave, and Earth. Choose which element you want to select your pseudo-spells from." "¡­Can I choose at least 1 spell from each of my primary elements, instead, please?" I asked since I currently lack a pseudo-spell for each primary element. I originally planned to have 3 spells of each element for pseudo-spells. I don''t plan to change anymore! "Hmm¡­ but that''s beyond the contract set between Xander and I¡­ hmm¡­" the figure replied to my request, a bit uncertain. I decided to push my luck. "How about, um, making another contract between the two of us, then? So that you wouldn''t feel burdened." "Eh? You? What can you give to me, even?" the figure asked, his voice sounded nasal as if he was amused to hear such a thing from me. "Uh, money?" I said hesitatingly. I really didn''t know what I could offer him. "Pfft!" a laughing sound escaped from the shadowy figure. "You don''t even have universal notes, dearie. Do you have anything else? Rare materials, antiques, heirlooms, heck, magic artifacts beyond Sage-rank would also do." "Uh¡­" I was speechless. I didn''t have any of those. I shook my head and then thought of an idea. "I don''t have any of those, but what I do have is my perseverance to reach greater heights," I said, my face looking solemn and serious. I was literally trying to sell my services... I don''t know if I should feel sad or bad. "Hmm¡­fine." Upon hearing these words, I felt elated, and at the same time, relieved. "However! You must do me a total of three, completely unconditional favors in exchange for this. 1 pseudo-spell for each favor. A fair bargain, isn''t that right?" I hesitated for a moment, before remembering what Xander mentioned to Faykes before. References are important. If I could take a glimpse of these spells and remember them, I would have better references. "I agree with this sir''s proposition." "Okay. Select your 3 spells. You have a total of 1 hour to select the 3 spells you are looking for for your 3 primary elements." Immediately after, a beeping sound appeared in my communicator, and I opened the file and saw the different spells being listed. A total of 8.98 million spells, ranging from Master to God-rank. I immediately filtered for the first element, Earth, limiting it to Demigod and above rank of spells. After filtering, I finally selected my last earth pseudo-spell after 15 minutes: [Earthen Grave]. This was based on a Magic Array, Demigod-ranked. It''s a stronger version of [Cenotic Grave] but contains absorption and devouring capabilities to sustain the spell longer. I then changed the filter for the Wave element. After 20 minutes, I placed my sights on a Divine-ranked spell, [Wave Blast Disintegrator]. It was a suitable spell for my other Wave-based spells. What this does was to create a launches a ball to a certain area where all kinds of particles, both material and immaterial, collapse, their waveforms turning into disarray once the ball detonates. For the remaining minutes, I was focused on searching Radiation based spells, and after searching, I found another Divine-ranked spell, [Radiation Exhaustion]. This had a unique ability to clean up radioactive particles in the area, basically stabilizing their structures. This would be quite beneficial for my future career plans in Magic Archeology and Applied Magic Physics. Although Xander did give us different books and video recordings related to our chosen careers, they were theoretical, and it was still up to them to place them into practice. I looked up at the shadowy figure again, nodding at him. "You''re done?" the figure asked. "Yep. My chosen spells are [Earthen Grave], [Wave Blast Disintegrator], and [Radiation Exhaustion]." "Hmm¡­2 Divine-rank spells and 1 Demigod-rank spell¡­ok." The figure snapped his fingers, and immediately, the data file in my communicator completely disappeared, before 3 individual, encrypted files were sent. "Please check the goods, and sign here." The figure pulled a contract out of nowhere, which was a bit surprising. Is this the legendary materialization, or even yet, a pocket space storage? My eyes glittered, a bit curious, but I managed to hold it in. I then read the contract, part by part, and seeing there weren''t any problems, I signed it. It was a non-disclosure binding contract, telling me that I couldn''t divulge to anyone the contents of the files I had received, whether on purpose or by accident. Immediately, a powerful force enveloped my body, and this was quite similar to what Xander did before; I already knew what to do. I began to Magic meditate, consolidating, and improving the size of my magic seeds. From the size of mango seed, it continued to grow and compress, and after 5 rounds, it was now the size of a small watermelon, thrice its previous size. I checked the time and saw it took me 45 minutes to completely digest the power. I looked at the figure and quickly thanked him. "No worries, it''s part of the contract. Anyhow, the deal has been completed. If you want more information or guidance, ensure you have the proper amount of Universal notes before calling. Also, stop calling me sir, I''m not that old. Call me by my given name, Homer." "Ok S-, I mean, Homer. Thank you very much for the deal." "Alright, technically, you still have the capacity to choose 3 spells of a certain element. If you want to use it for reference, just call the number again to redeem them. Kay, see you when I see you." The figure quickly vanished, leaving no trace in the living room in the first place. After a few minutes, I felt giddy. I felt I was one step closer to reaching my potential. I really have to thank the heavens for allowing me to even make contact with Xander. Xander¡­I hope one day, when you leave, I can join you by your side, supporting you all the way through. I fixed up a small snack, watched a few episodes of Rey''s Anatomy, and then headed to sleep. The next day, Saturday. I woke up feeling refreshed. My body was quite relaxed, and my magic energy flow was in its optimal state. This was a good day. I ate a small snack for breakfast. After unlocking the encrypted files, I began watching and reading the runic writings of the spells I had chosen, carefully watching the videos frame by frame, and reading the documents'' contents, word per word. This process of reading and watching all the materials took me a day to complete. It was quite dark outside. Originally, I planned to do the pseudo-spell inscription today, but I needed to rest for now and reach my optimal state. Sunday morning. I woke up, took a refreshing, relaxing bath, and began to other of affairs. As the spells I had chosen were very difficult to inscribe, with two of them being magic spell matrices and one being a magic array, I began with the magic array first. It took me 6 hours of heavy concentration to complete the array without any error onto the magic seed. Although it was quite tiring, it was very rewarding for me. I could already feel the substantial changes in my magic spells, magic seeds, and my comprehension. The difference in the quality of spells really does impact the speed of one''s cultivation. I persevered on. The first Divine rank spell took me 16 hours to combine, as I almost made a severe error in the inscription process. I already prepared my excuse letter to the school so I could use the remaining time today and tomorrow to combine the last spell. The good thing, however, was that I was able to gain experience in magic matrices. Time passed. It was Monday afternoon. I finally made it. After 15 hours of inscription, it was done. This time, no flaws were made, allowing me to continue the making of the spell seamlessly. With all my spells ready, I should try formulating my first Master class spell. Hmm, I should integrate the 3 primary elements of mine for this, then. I happily proceeded with my day, looking forward to the things to come. 86 POV: Valeries Day I sighed, looking outside into the brightly-lit garden. The words of the mysterious figure two nights ago reverberated in my head. "Child, you don''t even know your powers concerning the light element? Do you think, if one commands one of the origin elements, its pair is not used as well? Quite naive. You should just exchange for information relating to master spell formation of your set of elements. I do have that in my database, but there''s only 1 of it." Until now, I haven''t decided anything yet. It was a risk for her. According to what she knows, Light and Darkness reign on a higher spectrum than that of the 5-elements, partly thanks to Gold D. Roger''s and Therault''s papers. If the mysterious man was right, doesn''t that mean that my current elements are not 4, but actually 5 elements: Light, Darkness, Water, Poison, and Fire? But if he was wrong¡­I am going to send myself in a path of no return and of regrets. However, for some unexplainable reason, I trust him, and the words he said to him. Truthfully, though, Xander wasn''t lying about her talent in the Light element. Although it wasn''t part of an origin element as what Xander had told Valerie, Light and darkness had a rank of half-step of an origin element, and above them would be Yin-yang origin element, which focuses on describing the relationship between opposites. Yin-yang dominates Light and Darkness, dictating the functions of the two. Light and Darkness dominates the 5-elements bellow it, dictating the characteristics and functions of each element. I sighed, looking at the brightly-lit moons above the skies. As it shone down, the scene it has produced in the night was quite picturesque and at the same time, feels fake to me. "Could this be my inherent sensitivity to the Light element? Haha." I said to myself sardonically, shaking my head. I should head to sleep for now. Nighttime quickly faded into the rising sun once again. I opened my eyes, feeling a bit tired. Truly, I am not a morning person. I headed downstairs and began to eat some prepared breakfast. It was quite idyllic and well, a bit boring for me. I yearn a sense of adventure, of thrill. I headed to the small field in our property and began to practice my skills. Yes, these skills were the skills written in the books and demonstrated in the videos that Xander gave me when I told him I wanted to learn how to kill effectively and efficiently. There were quite a lot of ways one could kill their target efficiently with my current primary elements. One way was, of course, poison. For this, however, I had to train with a magibiopharmacist who has a side job for the military as a poison maker. The foundation of a poison maker is quite simple: The more you understand your element, the more diverse and potent one''s poison can be, and at the same time, the more immune one can be to other''s poisons. It was quite fun training under him who was hired by my father. He gave me quite a lot of different ideas of utilizing the poison, most of which I already know from the reading and learning materials Xander had given me. In fact, what I needed from him was simple: Crafting poisons and antidotes. As time passed, it was lunchtime, and I bid farewell to my teacher. My next class was starting: Killing with the Darkness element. It''s quite a potent element, and many people who specialize in the assassination or guarding of high-risk clients have the Darkness element or any of the elements under it. There was much to learn here, since I had begun to understand the darkness element at a later period, specifically, 1 week ago. I basically learned how to fight using it from the experiences of these assassins + the reading and video materials Xander gave. The training session was quite normal. It was a reinforcement of basics, with a few variations. I used this opportunity to try out new things, such as robbing the 5 senses using the darkness element, hiding oneself in one''s shadow, melding of one''s aura, etc. The class lasted until dinnertime. The class was quite tiring, leaving me panting and catching for my breath. I took a relaxing bubble bath, and then ate the served dinner. Afterward, I continued to read the materials and videos that Xander had given me in the privacy of my room, no cameras, no form of recording whatsoever. After a few minutes of reviewing the materials, I shook my head, unable to continue. The words that the mysterious figure really did strike a chord. Should I change some of my spells to add the so-called light-based element? Since they''re spells to be inscribed in the magic seeds, rank didn''t matter much to me originally, but I keep recalling the information Xander told Faykes about spell creation and elemental comprehension: the two were inherently linked to one another. After several minutes of thinking, I finally decided I would take the advice that the mysterious man gave me. I immediately called the mysterious figure. No one answered. As I was about to try again, a voice sounded out in one corner of the room. I turned around and saw the shadow-like figure of a man whose facial features were unidentifiable. "Hush, child. I am here. Have you decided what to do?" the shadow asked. "Yes," I replied, my voice calm and steady. I then continued, "I want to change one of my pseudo-spells to a light-based spell from your collection, get a light-based pseudo-spell, change two of my poison, water, and fire-based pseudo spells, as well as gain the information related to my set of elements on spell formation. I''m willing to pay any price you set forth for these two things." "My, my, having quite an appetite, do we?" "I can allow this, but for every spell you replace, you owe me an unconditional favor. The information related to your set of elements is the one that comes from the contract between Xander and I." I mentally calculated it: 7 favors. Unconditional favors. To be accomplished and cleared within a set period. "I accept these terms. I plan to get 7 spells." "Ok, then." Immediately, my communicator beeped, and the file arrived in my interface. I opened it and saw the millions of spells for each element. "You have 2 hours to browse and select your spells. Time has started." After hearing his words, I began to search for the spells I wanted. First, I eliminated everything below Divine rank, and the spells left were Divine rank and above, roughly thousands of spells for each element. I already knew that the quality and size of one''s magic seed dictates the quality of my pseudo-spells. The bigger and more compressed it is, the stronger pseudo-spells I could place. I spent roughly 30 minutes choosing 2 light spells, [Blinding Lights] which replaced [Pending Darkness], and [Light Sphere Absorption], my last pseudo-spell. Blinding lights had the same effect as Pending Darkness but has a corrosive and purifying nature. It can rob the targets in the area of their 5 senses. Light sphere absorption, on the other hand, was focused on the creation of light spheres, from the rapid conversion of other elements present in the area, or the elements of the opponent that is under the Yin-yang elements. I then changed my focus to my fire and water spells, spending roughly 45 minutes. I selected following spells: [Agave''s Inferno], [Aquatic Overture], and a combination of the two elements: [Waters of Avici]. For the Poison-type spells, it took me the remaining time to select the two spells I had my eye on: [Praix''s Touch] and a spell combining poison and darkness, [Hydratic Rainstorm]. All these 7 spells were at Divine rank, with the two light spells being Sage ranked. After all, the Verdny clan had produced several cultivators above Demigod rank, with around 3 of these magicians reaching Sage rank. After all, it needed to match to the level of my darkness spells, if it really was true that I can control light and darkness elements. I looked up to face the shadow figure, saying, "Sir, I''m done." "Hmm? Ok then. What spells have you selected?" he asked. I immediately responded the spell''s names and ranks. "Oh, quite ambitious are we? No worries. Please check and sign the contract." The voice mused, before handing me a contract paper out of nowhere. Was it invisible, or was it just created? Anyways, I began reading the terms and conditions, and I didn''t find anything problematic, except for one part. "Sir, for the unconditional favors, can you ensure that Xander Cloverfield would not be negatively affected by the favors you request of me? Meaning, he won''t ever be negatively targeted for assassination or the like." "Hoh? You shouldn''t worry about that, kid. Xander and I¡­ share an explicable bond. The favors I will ask of you will never, ever affect Xander. However, they may affect your friends, family, and the like. Be sure you carefully decide what you want." When I heard his response, I was silent. I knew that such things, especially knowledge and the benefits of power had an equivalent value requested from the requester. I didn''t plan to cower. I didn''t plan to turn back from my promise. I unhesitatingly signed the contract. The moment it was completed, the same force I felt when Xander and I made a pact appeared, and I closed my eyes and began to focus on Magic meditation. After 45 minutes, I opened my eyes. My cultivation skill had cycled for 1080 times, a total of 5 rounds, enlarging and compressing my magic seeds. From the size of a mango, it was now the size of a growing watermelon, roughly 4 times its original size. It was more circular in shape, and there was more surface to write down pseudo-spells at Divine rank or higher. I took a deep breath and bowed to the shadowy figure. The latter merely chuckled, and said, "No worries, it''s part of the contract. Anyhow, the deal has been completed. The files have been sent to your communicator. If you want more information or guidance, ensure you have the proper amount of Universal notes before calling. Also, stop calling me sir, I''m not that old. Call me by my given name, Homer." When he finished speaking, a beeping sound rang in my communicator and saw the incoming file. It was encrypted, of course. Another file was sent, it contained the decryption code. "Thank you, Homer. I hope to meet you again in the future." "Likewise. See ya." And with that, he disappeared, melting into the walls like he was never there in the first place. Huh, he left. What an interesting person. I wonder how Xander met him in the first place. Oh well, time to improve my abilities. I won''t lose to anyone! 87 Arrival of the Powerhouses Time quickly passed by, and 3 weeks had passed. Xander had quite a repetitive schedule during this time. Go to class, sleep and meditate, eat lunch, go to class, sleep and meditate, go home, visit the laboratory and Eden, talk with his friends. In this time period, he had planted 3 more Trees of Life, having a total of 5 Trees of Life in Eden, all equally distributed all over the place. He was able to harvest all five trees after the 3rd week. The population had also blossomed to 500 million, with roughly 5 million or 1% of the population were at the Demigod rank. His contracted sprites and magic beast were now Demigod-4 beings, their ages around 4 million years. However, due to the population boom, he had to take advantage of [Mirror Image] and [Simultaneous Projection], creating 5 of him, spread out in each Tree of Life. They still followed the previously revised rules, allowing almost all of them to get a chance to sit down, talk to him, and explain their experiences and problems, as well as thoughts, ideas, and imaginations. Xander had been on the fence on how to solve the issue of internet connection in the realm. He wanted them to be interconnected, and the current model of interconnectedness was through the libraries'' in-built functions. However, it''s not really enough for everyone. He had explained his plan to the first and second generation sprites and magic beasts, who began to realize this idea of his. Instead of using technology, it was pure magic and elemental manipulation. They created receptors that accept transmissions from Air subseries, with each receptor having a unique elemental signature, allowing people to contact a specific receptor that the owner, a magic beast or sprite, would answer. Some took it a step further and used their plant bodies to be the receptor, allowing them to directly receive messages and respond back as well. They basically made their own version of a communicator with a unique caller ID. Xander was quite happy with this development. What surprised him was that in these three weeks, their creation of two cities in Eden was progressing smoothly. The first city, Snowflake, was near its completion, roughly 80%. The main reason it took so long to complete the city was due to the fact that they had to upgrade the metals they used with the new ones Xander had gotten from the other super empires. In fact, the aquatic magic beasts and water-based sprites also asked if they could build a city of their own underwater. Xander wholeheartedly agreed, even modifying the Tree of Life to survive and thrive underwater. It was the only tree-type plant that was growing deep underwater, its leaves still the same as the others. After harvesting, he headed to the laboratory, where he saw the development of the Trees of Creation and Destruction. He hasn''t planted the Tree of Chaos for now, because he had nothing to counteract its effects. The mysterious seed, however, was planted in a small section in the laboratory, creating a hazy area. According to the numerous experiments and tests he did in the past 3 weeks, the area where the tree was able to influence was transformed into a pseudo-dream dimension. If someone would enter that place and decided to take a nap for 30 minutes, if they exited, they would realize that a random period of time had already passed, from 0 seconds to an indeterminable amount of time. Another effect was that he could also control the tree to force anyone who enters to fall asleep, never to wake up. He planted another 3 seeds of the same type in the area. The 6 trees of creation on the other hand, finally began showing signs of fruit development after 3.6 million years. However, based on the situation, it would take another 3 weeks outside for them to fully form. The leaves and flowers it had were still vibrant and full of potential and life, while the trees of destruction in the middle of the hexagram structure had produced hundreds of leaves, all of which had different levels of damage, age, and decay. The time and space were also getting harder and harder to stabilize, causing him to reinforce the area with the help of the trees of creation. The two trees have not produced any fruits or flowers whatsoever. He also used the time for the past 3 weeks to read and experiment with all the journal papers, researches, and projects abandoned and currently-ongoing in the Galactic Empire. He had stored the data from his results with the help of the reactivated System. For the past 3 weeks, he meditated in the area where creation and destruction were mixed, yet he only gained 1% for Order and Chaos comprehension. He had meditated also in the mysterious tree he decided to name as the tree of Dreams and gained 2% comprehension of Life-death elements. Although the increases were quite small, his elemental resistance for these elements had also increased. For example, his body was now resistant to pseudo-spells made from Divine-rank spells, and he had partial immunity, roughly 50%, of Advance-rank spells cast by others, and 25% for Legendary-rank spells. He didn''t have any immunity against spells above Legendary, so he still had to rely on [Absolute Defense] to handle them. However, it wasn''t all just laboratory and Eden that Xander focused his attention on in the past 3 weeks. Using this time frame, he had managed to force the military guards of his to sign his non-disclosure binding contract and boosted their cultivation level by 2. All of them were now Demigods but bound to Xander''s rules and orders. They can only report to the government what he wants them to know. For the past 3 weeks, every weekend, all of them, including his earlier retinue of guards, would gang up against Xander, casting different spells and forms of attacks, attempting to catch him off guard or killing him. That was his precise instruction; if they don''t fight for their lives, their loved ones'' lives will be forfeited. Although it seemed evil, he had no intention of doing it, but fear and regret is one''s greatest motivator; why not exploit it? Xander continued to improve his skill use and techniques he could use to disrupt or disable enemies at the Demigod class. He also took this time to explore the different empires in the universe. There were so many budding civilizations, universal and galactic empires existing all over the universe, some at war, some were in peace. Some of the notable empires he discovered were the Cerulean, Nemean, and Helennic empires, and each one was roughly the same size, around 50/1.26e+30 of the universe each. They were distanced quite far from one another, and they traded through different channels, as well as a culture shock for him. Can you believe that people can easily sleep with the emperor if he fancies you? If that happened here in Eteria, there would probably be a scandal in the works. Concerning trade, Xander was sad to discover the value of the Galaxy coins was quite low when compared to Universal note. One roughly needed 100,000 Galaxy coins for 1 Universal note, the latter was used by the larger empires than the Galactic Empire. Another great development was that all of his friends, with the exception of Maryann, had reached Master-1 cultivation already just before the week of midterms. Then again, he had been teaching them on the sidelines whenever he eats food for lunch, and they join him. Faykes had the strongest development; he had already reached Master-5 from Master-3, gaining inspiration from different elements and spells he had access to from his family. He already had a Transcendental Foundation as well, as he had finished digesting all the Class 8 fruits he exchange for. It was Valerie that he had one of the greatest expectations. He had told her to choose for her final spell as an Elite-9 the spell [Light Orb]. It was out of his expectations that she was willing to change her other spells when I appeared to offer her the skills. In the end, she got 2 light pseudo-spells. According to her, she was going to visit the ruins he mentioned once the semester ends. She hopes that she finds the enlightenment Xander had told her she would find. Alexa and Carly were the dark horses amongst his friends. The foundational spell they used to breakthrough encapsulated perfectly the primary elements they had, making them a bit stronger compared to the others. Valerie could only suppress them using her foundational spell [Darkness Overture] by elemental suppression. James'' development was quite expected, getting more proficient in using his luck-based skills and had focused on meditating on these spells, hoping to get inspiration, and he managed to make his foundational master rank spell, [Lucky Stone], allowing him to imbue and accumulate luck in the physical matter; however, they don''t last long. From a fighting perspective, the foundational spell seemed quite useless, but from an economical perspective¡­ this would be another avenue for business. His current business was also smooth sailing, with no issues whatsoever even with the death of the majority of his clansmen. It was after the midterms that the problem Xander had started. The representatives called by the current heads of the clans, ancient families, and conglomerates, all of which were Sage ranked cultivators, were arriving one by one. How did Xander know this? He saw them come down as streaks of light from the sky, heading to different places and locations in Eteria. Since Saturday last week, and continued on early Monday morning. When he saw the hacked surveillance systems of the governments, clans, families, and conglomerates, he saw the figures of these people talking to the relevant heads of their respective groups. He had a headache incoming. Not only did he ensure that he had "nothing" to do with the situation, but he also had to completely remove the memories of Faykes and his previous guards of him telling them that he caused the situation in the first place. Ah, it''s so tiring to be weak, all the things you do are easily scrutinized by those stronger than you.________________________All over Eteria, the phenomenon of falling stars that didn''t seem to follow rhyme or reason made waves on the internet, before being quieted down. Only those high up in their organizations and groups knew what they represented. Their ancestors were coming back from the starry skies, to investigate the situation that had caused mass panic in hysteria for everyone in Eteria. They weren''t here for a leisure visit, but for business. They wanted to get this over with so they could go back to their respective universal empires they resided in. Most universal empires were roughly the size of 7.88e+29 light-years in size. Some were exceptions, such as the Cerulean, Nemean, and Helennic Empires were bigger than this, roughly 3.91e+31 light-years in size. How do people get from one planet to another within their respective empires? There are 2 ways: Spacecraft, or Transporter. Spacecraft would usually indicate those that can travel in superluminal speeds, aided by runic writings and magic matrices related to the Space element. The idea that time will be warped when traveling at superluminal speeds is not unfounded, but the effect is nullified with the help of the runic writings and magic matrices related to Space and Time element. A Transporter, on the other hand, is quite different from spacecraft, as it can only travel to another fellow transporter, and it cannot transport bulk products. It is literally the size of the double doors one would see in palaces, the standard size being 5 meters in height and in width. Most empires got the technology of making these Transporters when they eradicated the Zergs in the universe. However, just because they knew how to make it and set its basic settings, doesn''t mean they understood the concepts behind it. They only got the blueprints and basic functions working, but they don''t know how to utilize the transporters to their full capacity. Even the other space-time magicians were quite helpless. The empires do believe that space elements are involved in the process, however, and is currently a field of research for these empires. It was a race of some sort; if they could realize the full potential of the Transporter, they could easily dominate the other empires. This allowed people below God class to move freely within the empire, usually charging a very, very small amount of money to use every time. It only becomes expensive when one uses them to head from one empire to another. Usually, an Empire would have a transporter to another Empire heavily guarded, as well as numerous checks and documentation required before being able to enter the other empire''s domain. It''s basically immigration in airports but the extreme version of immigration. Because of the stringent checks and security, one also has to pay heftily to use them. However, the good news is that once they pay, the usage of the other transporters within the empire is charged at a very, very low rate. One of the cheapest transporters to use was the Galactic Empire''s, due to them sticking with their currency and not using Universal notes. However, for those that traveled from outside of the Galactic Empire to head over to Eteria¡­ their expenses must be quite high and their travel time quite boring. There must have been hundreds, if not tens of thousands of transporters they had to use to reach the last planet in the border of the Galactic Empire, Arder Planet, then moved by themselves to reach Eteria. In the international underground meeting room, the sage rank cultivators were there in person, representing their groups and organizations. The previous speaker of the meeting, Ms. Carmen Brightcroft, of the Brightcroft clan, was standing respectfully on the open ground stage. Beside her is one of the female ancestors of the clan, Maria Brightcroft. Maria is considered average amongst the sage cultivators that came to Eteria today, with the cultivation of Sage-4. Ms. Carmen is one of the promising elders of the Brightcroft clan, reaching Divine-9 in less than 5,000 years of age. It''s expected she would reach Sage-1 within the next 5,000 years. That was the only reason she was even in this meeting. Maria began to speak, causing the crowd of Sage cultivators to slowly calm down and be silent. "Greetings, fellow Sage cultivators. As you all know, roughly 4 weeks ago, a situation had occurred on the planet. Everyone, regardless of age, gender, cultivation level, and type of being experienced true death, yet the next moment, everything was back to normal, like there was no problem whatsoever." "However, the precise clock system that was used to match the Universe''s time, or UTP, showed that there was an increased deviation after that situation, from 0.0001 seconds to a delay of 0.09 seconds." "Another matter to prove this occurred was that the seal placed in the planet has been destroyed; meaning, people can now breakthrough to Divine rank without leaving the planet. Remember that the old grandpa told us that the spell was structured in such a way it uses the foundations of the planet to work. The only reason to explain its disappearance is that for a brief moment, the planet along with its inhabitants, disappeared, allowing the seal to disappear. When it was returned, the spell was not able to be replicated back." "Lastly, you all should know about that person¡­yes, that person who can steal your comprehensions and take them for his own." She clarified to the other sage cultivators, causing their faces to twist in anger and annoyance, and some having a bit of fear. "All the parasites he placed inside cultivators to control them have all died when the event happened, allowing those who were under him to break free, including my great-granddaughter Carmen and several other Divine cultivators, and even a sage rank cultivator whose current location is unknown." It was the audience''s time to gasp. They knew how strong and resilient those parasites were. Not only did they exist in the corporeal body, but they are also latched into one''s individual elemental essence stones which contains the life essence doll segments. To destroy the parasite is to destroy your cultivation and life, basically, causing a headache for those sage cultivators who can detect the abnormality but aren''t able to do anything about it. Immediately, the reaction amongst the sage cultivators was quick. "So, should we still investigate? After all, it didn''t do any lasting harm. It even solved the problems we had been facing for a long time!" "I think we should still investigate. I mean, if we can replicate the method used, then won''t we have another method of defense against the parasites?" "Puh-lease, Jakovich, you just want to know the method because you think it''s quite strong, isn''t it?" "N-no, not really, I just wanted to ensure that even without the being that caused this we would be able to d-defend our d-d-descendants!" "Anyways, I think we should investigate still, and capture the being if possible. He or she has too much power to exist in Eteria, and is a threat to our foundations." "I agree. Maybe the next time this happens, the whole planet would be gone. What can we do when that happens? Nothing. Better cut it at its roots before it grows to a deadly disease." "I agree with Harvers'' point as well. A controlled threat is much better than a hidden existence." They continued their discussions, attempting to raise their points over the other by raising their voices, acting like children. Even Maria was helpless because some of them were Sage-5 and above. After nearly around an hour, nothing had still been resolved, which caused Maria to strengthen her resolve. "Everyone, please calm down." She immediately utilized her 7 emotions subseries, given that she had Emotion as the primary element as well as the Wisdom element. The effect took long to activate, roughly 2 to 4 minutes when the shouts slowly subsided before the sage cultivators realized something was wrong. "Maria, why are you using your powers on us? How dare you!" ???Fawke, don''t test me. Please remember what we are here for, to investigate the situation. How to do it, who will be doing it, and who would be those in the supporting lines; these are the three things today that must be accomplished." Before Fawke and the other sages could speak, Maria continued, her voice cold and callous. "Your arguments are all about whether investigating or not. That is not the point. We are going to investigate. The results of the investigation can be debated or talked about later on, once we already have the suspect/s at hand or the necessary information concerning the being." "So, can you guys stop comparing whose d*ck is larger and already decide the members of the investigatory team, and where to begin the investigation?" Maria said, her voice dropping a few degrees. The other women in the audience secretly raised their thumbs as support to Maria. They really did feel that the men were wasting time in the debates, going around and around in topics not even to be discussed for now. "Hmph, fine. An investigatory team should have at least 4 types of people: The analytical ones, the muscle, the information gatherers, and the interrogators." Fawke responded to Maria, obviously a bit miffed that she dared to speak like that to him. After all, he was a Sage-5 cultivator. They began to list possible members and crossed out the people that were not suited for the 4 types. After another two hours, they finalized the team of 8 sage cultivators. Maria Brightcroft, information gatherer #1.Margus Morningstar, information gatherer #2.Calissa Heavenwood, analyst #1.Hailey Cloverfield, analyst #2.Harvers Nottingham, the muscle #1.Brutus Velles, the muscle #2.Parker Mistwood, interrogator #1.Wuhshan Corde, interrogator #2. After everyone agreed on the list, the approach for the investigation had been decided as well: Brute approach. Maria with the help of Margus will place the people in the selected countries under a dream illusion, forcing them to repeat the situation of that very day from their memories. They decided to begin their search in the top countries, for now, starting with Nema, then Castille, then Eta, and finally, Nerzon. If there are no results whatsoever, they would go to Yggdras as well, even if their queen said that the Heavenly Tree Sprite didn''t detect anything from their lands, how would they be sure when they all died immediately? If nothing was still discovered, they would use the spell matrix [Haze of Dreams], the stronger model of the spell array [Dreamscape], to envelop the entire planet, forcing everyone in a dream-like state, allowing people to show their expressions and situations of that day, before heading to the interrogation of every suspicious person. Other sage cultivators will be in the proximity of the planet, guarding the space just in case the being attempts to escape the planet. They will then apprehend and restrain the target, effectively releasing their powers to attract the others to the location. After everyone had no qualms or issues, the investigation team immediately began their process of elimination, alerting no one to ensure that the target would not be alerted. Sadly, for the whole duration of the whole discussion and argument, there was a pair of silent eyes watching the whole place from another end of the planet, calmly observing and identifying these sages. It was Xander. No one could discover him or feel fluctuations of magic and elemental energy/particles coming from his location because he was merely taking advantage of the spatial structure to "see" around it. With an improvement in his abilities, he could not only see but hear as well. Soon, he would probably be able to taste, touch, and even smell the area if he continued to improve on his space-time comprehension. 88 Investigation After the meeting had ended, Xander ended his [Divine Eyes] mode as well, rubbing his head while he was inside his bedroom. He had taken a cursory glance and saw that no one was a Sage-9, the strongest being a Sage-7 cultivator. Most of them were stages Sage-3 to 5, and a few were Sage-1 and Sage-2 cultivators. Although he couldn''t kill them, he can easily run away from them. But these are Sage cultivators, they aren''t stupid. If I sent a mirror image and lead them far away, sooner or later, they''ll realize that it was a diversion. He sighed. I can just make things up as it goes then, Xander told himself. Letting out another groan, he headed instead inside of Eden and began to fight and play with the other sprites and magic beasts. The different species of magic beasts and non-magic beasts were increasing, as selective cross-species breeding was possible in this dimension. This meant that certain species thrive in a particular environment, most would die as they do not process the characteristics to survive in the same environment or in another. If he was to make a database, which there was in the libraries he made (as an added feature), there would be around a total of 396,540 different species that have been discovered and cataloged in the past 3.7 million years inside the space. Around 40% of these species were extinct in Eden, with the remaining 60% divided into either being a magic beast or a normal beast. Concerning plant diversification, this was something he found interesting, reaching around a total of 140,879 different plant species, of which 10% are already extinct, the remaining are subdivided to Sprites, Sentients, or Non-sentient plant species. The number of plant materials and magic beast byproducts he had collected in the past 3 weeks was enough to even cause the eyes of a God-class cultivator to be envious. He had enough amount of Class-8 materials to actually buy a small-sized empire if he was willing to. He had to even modify his a portion of his portable pocket dimension into some sort of a Bank Vault that continuously extended, with rows and columns of containers of specific plant products, species origin, magic beast species, etc., reaching as high as 10 kilometers in height. Each of the containers was able to hold around hundreds of thousands of items of the same kind. It was the kind that he just needed to chuck in an item, and it would automatically be sorted. Of course, if it wasn''t any of the ff: Plant materials, Magic beast materials/byproducts, or elemental/magic crystals, it was sorted to a different section of the pocket space. After playing around for around 2 hours or 14,400 years, he headed out and played some mobile games in his communicator, challenging his classmates for fun. This lasted for about an hour before he decided to stop playing and headed to sleep. Given their time frame, the investigation of the first 2 countries would take 2-3 days total, before they reach Eta to conduct the test. It''s better if I place some false leads and positives, Xander told himself as he closed his eyes. Although he was sleeping, his consciousness was quite active, and he began to control one of his mirror images to head to different locations in Nema and Castille._______________________Nema country, above Barrow City. A group of 8 cultivators was floating above the skies at night. Maria Brightcroft was standing opposite to Margus Morningstar, and the two looked solemn. Calissa asked the two, "Are you both ready?" in which the two nodded in reply. Calissa, seeing this, nodded in response, and raised her right arm, signaling the two that they could start. Immediately, the two began to form numerous runic symbols and writing in the air, layering on top of one another, merging into one consistent writing. As they released the symbols, they continued to move outward, covering more and more areas of the spell. They had selected Barrows city as a focal point due to the fact that it''s right smack in the center of the country, allowing them to have an easier time to cover and control the spell matrix. After 3 minutes, there are now 4 layers of runic writing and symbols produced, suspended in the air, continuously crawling outward from their position, already at a radius of 12,000 kilometers, and it wasn''t slowing down. After another 8 minutes, there were now 9 layers, and the runic writing and symbols had stably covered the entire Nema. The spell was finished by the two''s last hand gesture, producing the last rune. "Let everyone fall into a starless dream, let everything be repeated. [Dreamscape]!" the two said in a deep, guttered voice. Once they said these words, the entire landscape of Nema began to produce clouds and streams of white mist, covering everything and everyone in the area of the spell, no matter where they were. Although some powerhouses were confused by the situation, before they could even react, they also fell into the illusion of their dreams, repeating over and over again the situation that they experienced 4 weeks ago.______________________¡­Where am I? Huh? I''m at my job? I swear I was just about to go to bed, what the heck? After a few moments of disorientation, the man continues to work on the desk job, not realizing anymore that he was dreaming. Wait? Wha- Before the man could think, everything was wiped out, turning his consciousness into nothing. Yet, this didn''t last long, as the man appeared once again, confused. Huh? I''m alive? What just happened? Then he blacked out. Then appeared once again, repeating the whole thing, having no idea that he had been repeating the situation over and over again. The same scenario was happening to every resident of Nema, no matter what their positions were or what their power rankings were at. At the same time, above the skies, both Maria and Margus were continuously observing and filtering everyone that was experiencing the event. They began to check for anomalous reactions, facial expressions, and even the actions these people were doing. After a total of 16 hours, they finished up and rounded up 10 suspicious people, all of which were Divine magicians and higher, with one of them being a Sage-2 cultivator. One by one, they rounded them up, moving to an undisclosed location. It was then the rounds of interrogation began._____________________ "What the hell are you doing? I''m a member of the Garland family! How dare you kidnap one of the grand elders!" A man was shouting frenziedly inside a mirror glass room. He wanted to use his powers to break out, but for some reason, he couldn''t channel his magic energy at all, or stably communicate with the ordered system. In front of him were two Sage cultivators, observing him calmly. One of them, Parker, snapped his fingers, causing a small spark to appear on the tip of his fingers, one of which headed straight to the cultivator from the Garland family. When it touched the man''s body, the man froze, before screaming in pain after a few seconds, his body twitching several times. His insides, however, were quickly being toasted, vibrated at very high speeds, causing each of his organs to slowly burst due to intensity and frequency of the vibrations. His blood vessels and veins were bursting, most of his nerves were fried. The man''s sight began to blur in and out of focus, and he could barely keep his consciousness. He barely heard what the other man said to the other cultivator. "Heal him." And that was when he felt his body chill. Before he could even react, his organs and damaged internal parts were healing at a rapid speed. After a few minutes, his body had completely healed, confusing him for a moment before realizing his current situation, causing him to pale: He was being interrogated. When Wuhshan saw the change in color in his face, he nodded, before saying, "It seems you realize now your position here. You are being interrogated by the investigative team made up of all your Sage-ranked ancestors that came from Eteria, including your Garland family." When the man heard this, his pale face turned whiter. It seems that was the case. He was, after all, one of the grand elders of his clan that welcomed two of their ancestors. "Now we got it out in the plate, can you tell us your involvement concerning the phenomenon that occurred in Eteria roughly 4 weeks ago?" When the man heard the inquiry, he quickly calmed down and began to tell the information he knew about that situation, as well as his experience of that phenomenon. However, he adamantly denied any involvement in causing that phenomenon. Even after being subjected to numerous tortures by Parker, he continued to insist on his innocence. This caused Wuhshan who overseeing the situation, to look at the window to his left and shake his head. Immediately, the man being interrogated fell asleep, unconscious for the time being. One of the glass panels turned into a door, opening to reveal the figure of one of the analysts, Hailey. Parker, on the other hand, was curious how Wuhshan could determine whether the man had any involvement. "What made you so sure about your assessment Wuhshan," he asked him. Wuhshan replied calmly, "You can see it in how he described his experience and his actions afterward. He held a yearning for it to happen once again. If he had any involvement in the situation, there should have been a smaller or similar situation that occurred within 4 weeks. Not only that, even after repeated tortures, but he also continued to push his innocence, and his tone had not changed at all, no inflections or fear in his voice. The lack of these things means that he was quite sure that he had nothing to do with the situation." When Parker and Hailey heard his analysis, they agreed; it was a sound conclusion. Calissa then mentioned on the side that they should continue with the interrogation of the other magicians. For the next 4 hours, that was what they did. All of the people they brought in were ultimately innocent, causing them to return them back to Nema. However, once they did so, Calissa raised an interesting point. "Have you noticed that their statements were all similar to one another? Like there was some variation, but after inputting the recordings, they had 98.76% similarity in their statements. It is as if something or someone purposely planted cues in their memories and subconsciousness or influenced them." When others heard this, their faces turned grave in an instant. Even Maria was surprised, because she didn''t discover any anomalies with their memories, and everything was normal. The only reason they only discovered the anomalies was that their thought patterns at the time showed fulfillment and joy¡­ wait. She then looked at Margus, who also had the same look of realization. They were tricked! This meant, the target was well-versed with their forte, and probably more advanced than the two of them! It was Hailey who basically summarized the thoughts running in the minds of the other Sage cultivators. "It seems our target has already known that we would be investigating and placed the necessary traps and delays that would impede our investigation. Sadly, we can''t do anything about it, since it managed to even fool our experts in the Emotion and Mind element series." Parker, with a grimace, said coldly, "Then we''ll have to entertain him then. Pick up all those that pass the check and interrogate them. It''s better to err than to let the enemy safely pass through." Wuhshan nodded in Parker''s statement, but he felt something was off with the situation. With troubled looks, they then headed to Castille for the next round, the country from which Brutus, a dwarf cultivator, came from. They repeated the same spell, with Maria and Margus even using their personal stock of elemental crystals to supercharge their powers. Once again, [Dreamscape] was activated, enveloping everything and everyone in a misty haze in Castille. However, the moment it was activated, it was forcefully canceled by some unknown power, causing a backlash to the two casters. The faces of the other sage cultivators changed, and looked around, alert and ready to deploy their attacks at the first sign of danger. However, for the next few minutes, no hint of attacks or the presence of other beings was detected. Harvers and Brutus were still in alert mode, as well as Parker and Wuhshan, while the other two were tending Maria and Margus. It was Hailey that asked them a vital question: "What happened? Explain it clearly." It was Margus who replied, his voice containing a hint of puzzlement. "The moment we finished using our spells, we couldn''t connect with the ordered system through our primary elements. It was as if the elements themselves were disconnected in our area, causing the spell which requires the power of the ordered system, to collapse." Maria''s voice sounded after Margus, her voice no less alarmed by the situation. "That''s not all. The important nodes of the spell were clearly disrupted the moment the spell matrix was cast. The elements began disordered and collapsed on its own. The only reason there is still a country of Castille right now is that we took most of the force rather than disperse it to the surroundings." "¡­We''ve played into the opponent''s hands then if the purpose was to delay the investigation. You would need time to recuperate, roughly two to three days. We would have to pause our manual investigations and resort to data collection." Hailey looked at the two and sighed. "Rest up for now. Calissa and I will be in charge of this field of data collection." The two nodded in reply, before beginning their magic meditation. Hailey looked at Calissa, who just shook her head, indicating that she didn''t discover anything of value in the servers; her Rank XIV personal A.I. didn''t seem to discover any anomalies in the data streams of the servers. They continued their data collection, however, not realizing that her personal A.I. had already been compromised.___________________High up in the sky, on the other side of the planet, Xander was just putting the finishing touches of his ''master plan'' to divert the attention of these Sage cultivators, when he heard a notification come from the System. Detected attempt to scour personal data from a Rank XIV A.I. registered to a Calissa Heavenwood.Bypassing defense mechanisms¡­complete.Inserting code¡­complete.Re-writing software¡­complete.Repackaging¡­complete. The host can now remotely control the personal A.I. Xander was surprised, as he didn''t realize that these people had their own personal A.I. programs as well just like him. However, it didn''t matter much for now, because the plan had initially succeeded, with the two of their information gatherers incapacitated, delaying the investigation. Although he felt kind of guilty doing that on one of his ancestors from the mother''s side, he had to prioritize his freedom and safety first. Checking that everything was in order, he nodded to himself before disappearing in place, deactivating the mirror image and waking up his real body. Xander quickly dressed up and ate breakfast before being chauffeured by Danes and Ryan. In fact, he didn''t really need to attend this week''s class, since they''re going to discuss the results of the midterms for the whole week anyway. However, he attended classes to talk to his friends and classmates, as well as give general guidance to all of them. Generally, all of them had their cultivations raised to Elite-7 or Elite-8 in the past 3 weeks, a good improvement from their original cultivation of Elite-2 to Elite-4 when school started roughly 3 months ago. For the rest of the day, all he did was talk with his classmates, sleep, eat, talk with his classmates, sleep then head home. By 5:30 pm, he was back, and seeing that the sage cultivators had not moved from their current location, as the two sages were still recovering from the backlash, he headed first to the laboratory and continued his experiments on the seeds, attempting to hybridize them with one another. Since he found out that the trees can produce fruits with seeds, he decided to go all out with the experiments, with each of the 10 trials lasting roughly 2000-2500 years. First trial: Dream seed + Destruction seed. Failed. No common points of intersection nor did the two seeds attempt to integrate; the latter attempted to devour the former while the former attempted to melt the latter. Second trial: Dream seed + Creation seed. He changed the ratios, starting with 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2. Xander after all didn''t have enough seeds for more ratios. However, the three experimental models failed as well. They were almost at the verge of fusion in the third attempt, but it failed ultimately. This caused Xander to think that there must be another factor that must be noted when fusing the seeds; maybe an external force, or the appropriate environment to do so, or another type of seed? Third trial: Dream seed + Life seed. With the same ratios, he managed to succeed in the 3rd attempt of 1:2 ratios, creating a hybrid seed. It was almost similar to a Creation seed, but it contained hints of chaos and randomness, a characteristic of the Dream dimension. This caused him to reevaluate the seed combinations that should be done. Fourth trial: Life seed + Creation seed. It was a success. The hybrid seed had the characteristics of Order but had more elements related to Life elements. Basically, it was an improved version of the Life seed. Increasing the ratio did change the expression of the characteristics, favoring one over the other. Fifth trial: Life seed + Destruction seed. It was a success, with characteristics related to Chaos, but had more elements involved with Life elements. Upon deeper scrutiny of the hybrid seed produced, Xander postulated this can stimulate the evolution of beings, those that eat the fruits or those that are within its sphere of influence if it was planted. Huh, interesting. Changing the ratios did affect how the concentration of life vs chaos elements was present, which if he was right, can influence how volatile the evolution is for those under its influence. He decided to name it as Evolution seed. Sixth trial: Destruction seed + Creation seed. Failed to combine. Xander thought about the relationship and believed he needed to have a space-time seed of some sort to stabilize the reaction of the two. He had tried influencing it with his space-time power, but it didn''t work. However, he didn''t know how to make those, so it is going to the back burner for now. Seventh trial: Creation + Life + Dream seeds. It was a success, but it created an illusory seed, phasing in and out of the physical dimension. Xander wasn''t sure how to plant it, and he wanted to try doing it in his dream bubble once he goes back to the dream dimension tonight. The ratio didn''t affect the structure of the seed, so 1:1 was enough for him, and named it as CDL-Seed. Eighth trial: Creation + Destruction + Dream seeds. This was considered a success, although it initially failed. When he applied space-time elements as he was combining them, they successfully merged, forming a special seed, wherein once planted, it can give birth to a dimension; specifically, each fruit it produces is an individual dimension. How did Xander know this? He analyzed the runic symbols and writings, as well as the numerous elemental particles compressed and contained in the seed. It took him a total of 4,000 years to completely understand the seed, although it was still limited by what he currently knew about the origin elements. Can this be considered a Space seed? Xander shook his head because he felt that naming it as such was wrong. The seed doesn''t encapsulate the power of ''Space'' but only a certain aspect of it. He named it as Dimension seed, However, he would test this after the pesky sages left Eteria. Hopefully, the fruits grow fast. Ninth trial: Destruction + Life + Dream seeds. It was similar to the 5th trial, resulting in a seed that would seem to affect one''s evolution and growth, but it had an added power surrounding it: Imagination. Xander took another 3000 years to completely comprehend the seed with his current knowledge and realized the possible potential of the seed. Not only can the seed cause faster evolution of organisms, but it could also be directed by one''s imagination. For example, if the organism desired to be a dragon, continuously following this belief as he devoured the fruit continuously or was basked by the Evolution tree''s aura, their body would continuously change part by part, bit by bit, to become a dragon based on their imagination. But this was if the seed was planted in the physical dimension. How about if it was in the Dream dimension? Can dream creatures, beings that only exist in the dream dimension, instantly transform because of the power and abundance of imagination in that dimension? Can they even evolve? This was an interesting seed, and Xander named it as DDL-seed. Tenth trial: Destruction + Creation + Life seeds. For this last trial, Xander was confused about how it succeeded, creating a hybrid seed with the same fluctuations as the Chaos seed, but was directly the opposite of it. Could this be an Order seed? Xander thought about this for a long time before coming to the conclusion that this was highly likely, due to the relationship between Creation and Destruction. It''s a cycle, meaning, it''s an ordered process, and from it, Life arises. He had added space-time elements when attempting the fusion, and that was enough to produce an Order seed? 89 Acting Xander, after finishing the experiments, took a tally of his inventory. He had no problems with Life seeds because he had tons of fruits and seeds left. It was the Creation, Destruction, and Dream seeds that he had a lack of. He only had 25 more of Creation and Destruction seeds, and 20 Dream seeds left. With what he had, he fashioned 3 of the following seeds: Dimension seedEvolution seedCDL-seedDDL-seedOrder seed He then planted Dimension, Evolution, and Order seeds in one section of the garden. For the CDL and DDL seeds, he planned to do it in his dream bubble tonight. After ensuring nothing was wrong with the ordered system in the laboratory, he harvested the fruits and metals/crystals/ores, as well as the elemental crystals. Although in the past three weeks he headed to the laboratory, he didn''t harvest the metals/crystals/ores and the elemental crystals, and only the fruits. He was not disappointed with the wait. The produced elemental crystals surpassed the grade of Perfect, and according to the scan done by the System, it just passed through to the Transcendental grade for magic/elemental crystals. The great thing was that he had different mixtures for them, and some were also pure elemental crystals. The only thing he didn''t like was that the sizes of the crystal compressed, diminishing to 1/100th of their original volume, which was still good since the finished product weighed around 50 kilograms each. He kept them in his pocket storage and was going to use them if he ever needed to cast some spells under the Yin-yang or Life-Death elements. They were immediately sorted out by purity and quality, being kept in organized containers. When he left, it was 9:30 pm. He headed out and went to his room, checked the current progress of the ''scar'' in his room. It was healing slowly, but the fluctuations had already decreased to a negligible amount that it won''t be detected by anyone unless they took a step inside the room. He then headed to his alternate room and went to Eden, spending 1 hour or 7,200 years inside, then headed out. Besides meeting with 100 million of the population in the span of 500 years with the help of his mirror images, he also fought with the demigods in groups of 10, 20, 50, and 100. Leading the fights were his contract beast and sprites. In the first few fights, he was the one running away, because he couldn''t exert his full power against them and risk causing spatial damage. He could only use AoE spells that didn''t destroy space-time elements in the area, which left him with a few advanced spells, his pseudo-spells, and a few Legendary and Mythic spells. In the next fights, he was able to stand on his ground, in the next few fights, he was able to counter-attack, after that, he was able to win seamlessly. In his last battle with a three 100-group of sprites and magic beasts, he had to use spells such as [River of the Underworld], [Golden Light], [Crysis Core Blades], and [Ninsar''s Garden]. The last spell was the first one to be cast before the previous 3 spells were cast in succession, delaying and defending the growing garden. He only managed to delay the enemies for 5 minutes before they broke through the spells he had made. Of course, they didn''t do this unscathed, with several of them experiencing different ailments from the different rivers summoned, partially changing their bodies'' situation. He was lucky that he managed to summon the 11th river, allowing him to shower them with various effects. Sadly, the death effect was weakened against these Demigods, only sapping their life essences by nearly half, some of which quickly recovered with the help of wood-type and life-type sprites and magic beasts. Control didn''t work at all, only lasting for a second before being broken by Mind-based magic beasts, allowing everyone to gain control of their bodies. Eradication only removed partial limbs, the zombification of a few parts of their bodies and life essence, and some had bodies becoming transparent or had grown a mysterious limb, or even shrank in size or function. However, he was quite proud of the result. If he was a normal magician, all spells below demigod would probably not result in any effects to these Demigod-2 and Demigod-3 magic beasts and sprites. However, this time was enough for the spell to grow. The spell began to absorb the flurry of attacks heading at Xander''s way, damaging a lot of the plants, but rapidly being absorbed by them. Soon, the plants began to grow and produce plant creatures and plant-based creatures, which began launching their own volley of attacks towards the sprites. Xander smiled coldly, chilling his contracted beings and signaled the rest to begin the retreat, while launching their attacks to delay the garden. If [Garden of Eden] could resist even up to Mythic rank spells and attacks from mythic magicians, what about [Ninsar''s Garden]? Although he had to spend a seed of creation, it was something stationary and can grow up to his current specification. This was part of his plan on dealing with the Sage-rank cultivators, hehe. Once he was out of Eden, he teleported to around 50 light-years from Eteria. He then brought out the garden, which he commanded to grow up to thrice the size of Eteria. He had made the calculations in his head with the help of the system. At that size, the power output the spell can release was up to Demigod-9, but its resilience and defense can match a Sage-3 cultivator, and can currently travel 0.5 light-years per minute. To hurry up with the development, he let it absorb roughly 300 tonnes of elemental crystals, around 300,000 kilograms. He also allowed it to eat some fruits of Life, roughly 300 pieces of them after removing the seeds. In front of Xander''s eyes, It began to visibly grow, absorbing the elements and surrounding matter in space, causing it to grow and become stronger. After 2 hours, its growth began to slow down, reaching the size of Eteria. He roughly had 36-72 hours to make it reach thrice the size of Eteria, so he did what he had in mind: Teleported non-living planets to the garden''s range of absorbance. He teleported a total of 9 planets, each of which was between half the garden''s size to twice its size. After sending instructions to the spell, it began to slowly chip off the layers of the planets slowly, bit by bit being absorbed and transformed by the garden. He created a mirror image that was recognized by the spell to monitor the area of the garden, remote controlling it, and returned back to Eteria to sleep. It was, after all, already 12:30 am. He had class at 9 am the next day, after all. I hope they''re prepared for the show I planned for today and tomorrow were Xander''s last thoughts before he finally slept. He awakened in the Dream bubble and got busy with his experiments._______________________Country of Castille, 1 am Wednesday. The two sages, Maria and Margus, opened their eyes, their powers ready. They looked at the rest, saying, "We''re ready." "Ok." To ensure the same situation doesn''t happen again, they began to scan areas around Castille, checking for any anomalies or hidden structures. After 10 minutes of scanning and sweeping, nothing amiss was discovered, and so the two began to cast their spell. After completing the spell in 11 minutes, the illusory mist once again descended on everything and everyone in Castille, all falling into a slumber. However, as the two sages were checking every person''s dreams and reaction to the dream, this is where the anomaly was shown. All of the emotions showed by the residents of Castille were of sensual pleasure, confusing the two. When they delved into the specific dreams of the dwarves and humans, they finally saw the problem. They weren''t re-experiencing the phenomenon 4 weeks ago. They were having erotic dreams! This greatly confused Maria and Margus, who both supervised the setting of the dreams. They began to randomly choose dreams and saw the same situation happening, over and over again. When their minds returned to the physical dimension, they both showed grim faces, confusing the others. It was Margus who explained the situation, causing the analysts'' faces to change to shock before both began to ponder about the situation. It was Calissa who gave the possible reasons and conclusions from this. "First, our operation has been compromised, allowing the enemy to learn of our actions and decisions, meaning, the target was probably present in the meeting we all attended. This lead to the being covering his tracks, meaning if we do search the other cities or the entire planet, most likely, the target has wiped out the relevant information about that situation." "The second possibility is that our target is in Castille, and this is red herring for us, misleading us to stop the investigation and search nearby empires with a similar phenomenon occurring. It''s possible if we skipped Castille due to the erroneous results, we might find a "positive" match in other countries but be actually planted by the enemy." "The third scenario is worse. It means that not only are we compromised, but the opponent had already laid the trap long before we arrived here, meaning, if we do find positive targets, they might not really be part of the situation. Castille, Nema, Eta, and Nerzon were just some of the places he placed the same disabling trackers. It''s highly possible if this scenario is true, that the target is purposely delaying us from reaching where he actually is in, and the more intense the delays and traps, the closer we are at approaching his current location." When Calissa finished speaking the collective analysis she made with Hailey, the rest chilled. Does that mean they needed more support from the other Sages? Or could they handle this situation? Before they could overreact, Hailey addressed the hidden concern etched in their faces. "No worries. This only means that the target has currently no means of directly dealing with us. Which means, their ability or cultivation level is no higher than a Sage." Calissa nodded in response. "The intricacy of the plans and detailed traps indicates the target is afraid of the identity he/she/it holds being discovered by Sages. If the target is stronger than the Sages, probably God class, it could have just disposed of us easily." When they heard the reassuring words from both the analysts, everyone took a deep breath of relief. Maria then asked, "Should we still conduct the investigation in Castille? The people here are already compromised." "It must still be done. We shouldn''t leave a stone unturned. Actively control the spell again, and then isolate the area of Castille to remove the interference from outside spells." Both nodded in response and began to modify the spell''s limitation and coverage, as well as purging the remnant outsider spells in the area by assimilating it. After half an hour, they actually succeeded in assimilating the outside spells that caused the interference. It seemed that every city in Castille had a node where the spells were initially released. Once they targeted that, the spells began to collapse. After another hour, the dreams were now about the phenomenon 4 weeks ago. After 18 hours of intense scrutiny and checking, no one in Castille was suspected, to the relief of Brutus. He still held feelings for the country he raised and grew up in, allowing it to make its mark in the world of Eteria. After confirming the results with the two analysts, who also cross-checked it with the records in the servers of Castille, both private and public, they left and were now heading to their next country: Eta. They don''t know what''s waiting for them in Eta, but they were ready to face it head-on, with their current abilities and power. After a few seconds, they traveled the whole stretch of ocean between Ete and Ria continents, arriving at Eta country. The arrived at the Alpha province, heading to a place between Eta and Hargroove city. This was the space that was considered the focal point of the country, and where they would cast the spell that would shroud the people once again in an elusive dream. However, when they completed deploying the spell, no one fell asleep, to the surprise of the two sages. The spell they deployed was a Sage-rank spell. They wouldn''t believe it if someone said that their spell doesn''t work for those below Sage class, and even laugh at them. However, the proof is in their eyes: None of the beings in Eta were placed under the spell. It was then they realized something amiss. The place they were in seemed lacking vitality and life as if they were just watching video playback. Maria continued to observe a bit more before looking at Margus, who also carried the same shocked expression as she had. Seeing their reactions, Hailey knew something was amiss. She did her own tests and came to the same realization as the two. At this point, Maria, Hailey, and Margus shouted, "We''re inside the dream dimension right now!" When others heard this, they all released sounds of surprise, because they couldn''t believe it. After all, they could cast their spells and even use flight. If they were transported to the dream dimension, their casual actions should have caused ripples in the space, their powers beginning to distort the rest of the surroundings. It was Calissa that asked once again for confirmation, her voice serious. "Are you sure we are all in the dream dimension? How is it possible that we entered the place without falling asleep?" What she raised was a valid question. Sleeping was the only way to go to the dream dimension, and create a dream body. And usually, people with no talent in the Emotion and Mind element series do not have the capacity to leave their dream bubbles. It was a different case for those Divine magicians or higher though; they can forcefully move out and about in the dream dimension, but their created dream body usually doesn''t last long and gets eroded. Maria and Margus closed their eyes for a few seconds, before opening them and nodding at Calissa. "We''re quite sure. However, it seems we didn''t enter the dream dimension the conventional way but brought in our bodies as well. Meaning, this space we are currently in is a special kind of space, one that connects it to the different dimensions, and in this case, the physical and dream dimensions. However, as far as I know, no natural formation like this existed in Eteria before, nor were there in the dream dimension. Our leader would have gotten that piece of land if that was ever the situation." Maria responded to Calissa, her voice containing her surprise, shock, and fear. "Quite a clever lady! I would have thought you would be like headless chickens once you enter this created spell of mine, probably continuously testing your spells till you ran out of energy." A deep, manly voice sounded out from all over, echoing around the sages. "Well, I can''t kill you lot anyway, sigh. But I can use this time to delay you all~ I''m preparing a bigger surprise for you Sage cultivators that came here since you won''t stop the investigation. An hour here, is 1 day outside, just so you know~ Tik tok, tik tok, time is running out~" the manly voice giggled, giving the listeners a chill. It just sounded different when a voice that deep and manly would laugh like a doll in a horror story. The voices faded out, and the sages continued to stay alert. Hailey and Calissa, on the other hand, had a plan already on how to solve the problem. "Destroy the spell''s foundation. We need to locate the focal points of the spell, disrupt or destroy them completely, and space would naturally dissolve on its own as well. Maria, Margus, we need you to scan and check for notable points of concentration or absence of dream and elemental energy. Those are the usual points of the spell array." Maria and Margus nodded and began to close their eyes and extend their spiritual perception all over the space. They wanted to see how far the range of the spell is. The spiritual perception that humanoid beings had was different from Infernals and Celestials. Spiritual perception for humanoid beings used their magic energy + life essence threads + primary elements to establish a connection that can reach up to who knows where distance in a split second. After 5 minutes, they were surprised, because the size of the space¡­it was around 2 light-years in length! They weren''t disheartened, because they knew in the dream dimension, space becomes an irrelevant concept, twisted by the dream energy. A light-year can be a few steps for someone proficient in the art of dream-walking. Heck, some can even teleport. After roughly an hour, they found all 1080 points of the spell, and they instantly destroyed these nodes by writing over it their own runic writings and symbols, overloading it with magic energy of their own, or utilizing the extremes of their elements to destroy the area the nodes were in. The spell began to collapse. Part by part, the created image of the Eta country collapsed, revealing the blue expanse of water around them. They were in the middle of the ocean. They never reached Eta at all. They also saw that their communicators had to re-sync, showing that they were gone for a day, revealing it was already Thursday night. Once it was done, numerous missed calls and messages appeared in their communicators, which took them 30 minutes to take care of. They were lucky because the other cultivators wanted to send out another team if they were all dead or missing. They briefly explained what they experienced, hoping to get feedback from them. The other line was silent for a while before a voice came out from their communicators. The sages recognized who it was: Carolyn Fates, a Sage-6. Her specialty was on the Future-1 element, as well as specializing in the Pandora-Grief and Fear-5 element. "Prepare. There are more challenges on the way. I hope you can resolve this soon, because I have a strong, overwhelming, foreboding feeling that there is something more in the works, one that we cannot hope to fight against." When they all heard what she said, their faces changed because it matched to what the voice mentioned earlier when they were trapped in the dream dimension. They nodded before turning off the communicators, and they slowly headed towards Eta. This time, they slowed down so they could begin to observe any traps that laid ahead of them, and it took them 3 hours to reach the borders of Eta. They headed this time to the Alpha province but went to Eta city rather than the midpoint of the two cities. They once again observed for any anomalies around the surrounding provinces and cities, and checking there weren''t any traps, they began to cast [Dreamscape]. After 15 minutes, a tad longer because they were being extra careful, the spell was formed, and the entirety of Eta was surrounded in mist, causing everyone to enter a dreamland. 90 Fake Figh The spell was working carefully for the next three hours, and Maria and Margus had collected general information from the citizens as well as starting to collect in-depth results from the dreams of the suspicious characters in Eta. At this point, a yawning sound appeared around the sages, alerting them and preparing their spells once again for deployment the moment they detect where the source of the sound was hiding. "Huh? Why is there such thick mist here? I just took a nap and I become covered in mist? Disperse." _____________________ All over Eta, the mist began to spread and cause the people to fall into a deep sleep. However, there were some exceptions. For one, Xander''s friends and his subordinates were immune from the spell''s control, but not its effects. This was due to a bonus side effect of his contracts and vows with them, allowing them to have a stronger, lucid mind. Similar to James'' case, they realized they were in a dream the moment they appeared in their school clothes, or in their military uniform. Then, they heard the voice of Xander echoing in their minds. "You''re in a dream made by Sage cultivators. Act like you''re in fear exaggeratively and you''ll be safe from interrogation~ They''re looking for my friend, sorry for the bother~" his voice faded, and his friends trusted him, so they decided to react accordingly. They were surprised to experience the feeling of disappearing and dying completely during the phenomenon 4 weeks ago. Numerous thoughts were running in their minds, especially those parts of large clans. Wasn''t this the emergency meeting our grand elders had mentioned? So they requested Sage cultivators to solve the issue¡­but what does Xander''s friend got to do with it? Another group of people exempted from the dream''s effects and power were those in the area of the university. All faculty members were not subjected to the dreamscape spell, functioning normally inside the campus. On the 3rd floor of the Elemental control class building, a man was lying idly in his chair, twirling his fingers. "You old bastard, better make sure the items you bring back would be worth this trouble," the man mumbled to himself. He didn''t like to interfere too much with the happenings of the university unless it involved life or death or the secrets of the university. Aiish, I wish I hadn''t been caught in the first place, the man thought to himself. Another group of people that were immune was Xander''s parents. It was all thanks to Jacks, who immediately blocked the entire house from the outside world under Xander''s orders, and after briefly explaining the situation to the couple, Jacks sealed the whole house, with the maids and guards inside the house property becoming immune as well. Those who were outside the house property, however, were affected. Other places included specialized places owned by conglomerates and families. These places were established as a bunker of some sorts from their sage ancestors, allowing them to be unaffected by the spell. Pity, the downfall and lack of information the investigation team would have is caused by their own descendants. Those that held vital information about Xander was actually not under their spell. ______________________ Brutus and Harvers were both prepared to launch their attacks, being the powerhouse of the investigation team. Supporting them were Parker and Wuhshan, prepared to launch their own spells as well. When the team heard the man''s voice, swirls of the dream energy mist that bathed the country of Eta began to be turbulent, before forming the figure of a man looking at the group, his face expressionless, with his eyes looking cold and bored. "Hmm? Sage cultivators? What are they doing here in Eteria? The last time I saw them was when Carlos the Sixth was attempting to unify the planet." the man mused, his words striking a chord in the hearts of the sage cultivators. Carlos the Sixth¡­ they knew that man, a brutal Sage-6 magician from 650,000 years ago, far before they were even born. However, according to history, he was the reason the Ete and Ria continents were split in the first place. They had heard he became crazy and left the planet, his whereabouts and situation unknown. "Excuse me, sages, what year is it now? I just took a nap and so many things changed." It was Calissa who responded, eying the man carefully, scrutinizing his looks, demeanor, and actions. "It''s the year 2057 of the Revised calendar. Roughly 652,000 years had passed since Carlos the Sixth''s reign of terror ended." "Huh¡­ so it''s been that long¡­ I wonder how my old friends are now. Good day to you, sages." The man mumbled before he began to walk in the sky, with every step causing his body to slowly become transparent as if he was traveling in a different realm. When the sages saw this, their faces changed, because this was a characteristic of dimensional travel that God-class cultivators can only do. How was it that there was a God-class cultivator hidden in the area? Should we ask if he was the reason why the situation happened 4 weeks ago? Will he kill us if we asked him? These were the thoughts running in their minds, but the two analysts looked at one another, and nodded imperceptibly, before launching an attack towards the man who was disappearing. When the other sages saw this, they were horrified. This was a living God class cultivator, one that can crush them easily! Before they could react, a familiar, deep, manly voice sounded out in their surroundings. "Tsk, tsk. What gave it away, Ms. Heavenwood and Cloverfield?" Calissa and Hailey didn''t answer but rather ordered the rest of the sages to contain the figure of the man that they just attacked. Realizing that was the enemy, the sages didn''t hold back and began to launch their attacks. "My, my, you do realize you are still in the vicinity of the city? Let''s take the battle somewhere else, a bit higher up~" Immediately, everyone felt the space around them shift, and less than a second, they appeared high up in the sky, hundreds of kilometers above sea level. They saw the man once again, but his looks were different this time. He was quite large, towering more than 2 meters in height, his shirt fitting him perfectly that one could immediately see that he was packing a lot of muscle and power underneath. Yet, his movements were fast and graceful, incongruous to his body frame and size. As he moved out and about, he launched several hundreds of spells, layers upon layers of effects appearing, derivatives from [Elemental Dominance]. Although it didn''t have much damage, and rather caused surprise to these sages, it was enough for Xander to cast [River of the Underworld] and [Spatial Collapse], directly targeting the location of the investigation team. However, the reactions of these people were quite fast. Although [Spatial Collapse] had created a small black hole, the sages were able to escape the spell''s range as Xander had purposely limited the size to 20 meters. However, their movements were obviously affected by the gravitational pull exerted by the black hole, and using this opportunity, he began another barrage of attacks that had the effects of [Time Slow] rather than [Time Stop] because this spell was strong, but against a Sage cultivator, he was still ultimately weak, and using this particular spell would work against them, but roughly for 1 to 5 seconds, max. If he wanted the spell to have the effect as described by the System, he needed to be at least a Demigod. He believed in one thing concerning combat: If you can''t win by quality, win by quantity. He had enough magic stones to power him continuously for the next ten years if needed, once his magic power reserves ran out. From his last test, it was able to last three casts of [Twilight Sonata] at a range of 1500 light-years, or roughly 6.66 billion pseudo-rank spells, 66.66 million Advance-rank spells, 6.6 million Legendary-rank spells, 666,666 Mythic-rank spells, 6,666 Demigod-rank spells, or 666 Divine-rank spells, all of which were at the 81st class. He only needed to use one 150-kg perfect elemental crystal and he could recover his magic energy completely in 10 seconds from zero. The sages were not idle at this time; they began to launch their attacks, specifically their Demigod and Divine rank spells. They didn''t use up their Sage rank spells easily because of the risk of backlash and power consumption. They used lower-tiered spells because their cultivation boosted the power of these spells by several folds. Different colored lights began to suffuse around Xander, as the spells continued to bombard him. However, nothing managed to pass through [Absolute Defense], the attacks diverted to different dimensions and spaces, never reaching his actual body. Seeing the figure of Xander still standing unscathed and unharmed, the sages look at one another before commencing with their plan. Immediately, Harvers and Brutus approached the area Xander was in and began to cast their spells and physically attack Xander. It was Brutus that charged at Xander, while Harvers launched his own spells. They began a coordinated attack while the rest of the sages supported by casting their repertoire of spells that hindered slowed down or affected negatively the target. However, after a few seconds of exchange, Xander was still managing to hold his ground, while the other sages were cursing. "Damn it, his life essence is blocked! It can''t be reached by my spells!" Maria shouted to the rest, indicating the others they should change strategies. If the body can''t be targeted, as well as the life essence doll, they had a limited avenue for spells. One would be the mind, the other would be through dreams. The first one requires the target to be reachable, meaning they need a deep understanding of the target to manipulate his psyche. The second requires the target to sleep. None of these options were currently accessible. They were out of options. All they could hope now is ask for reinforcements from the other sages. However, Calissa informed them that it was possible this was also a decoy, and the real target will escape. The fight continued on for another hour, With Xander trying to evade their fast strikes and spells, training himself to become stronger. Slowly, he gained momentum, allowing him to dodge some of the attacks done by the Sage cultivators. This was because [Time slow] was already taking its toll on the sages, their movement and casting time were slowing down. He slowly disappeared from their sight, appearing behind the sages. He then said a slow, deep, masculine voice, "Aren''t you going to tell me what made my acting fail? I even had to read up, you know?" For a moment, those who heard his voice had been mesmerized for a second, a dazed look plastered in their faces. However, their life essence dolls were much more powerful than demigods. They immediately snapped out of their dazed looks and moved away from Xander, alert and ready to launch their attacks once again. Parker and Wuhshan did a preemptive strike, launching two divine-rank spells they had prepared ahead of time, but the moment it hit Xander, the area blurred. After a while, the area cleared, revealing Xander, who was merely standing aloofly, looking at them calmly, unfazed. They were in a stalemate. "Don''t bother wasting any more of your energy. You can''t break through my barriers. I''m curious, are you here because of the situation a month ago? Wasn''t everything resolved nicely anyways?" "¡­ so you are the perpetrator of the situation then?" Xander merely shrugged at Hailey''s question, neither denying or agreeing to it. Truthfully, he wanted to say that it was an accident, however, it would probably bring more questions from them. "Just a failed experiment actually, no biggie," Xander said carelessly, with no change in his inflection. When the sages heard this, they were flabbergasted; what kind of experiment would cause a planet to be destroyed and then restored within a span of less than a fraction of a second? "Anyways, although it ended in failure, nothing bad happened in the end, so it should be all good, right?" "¡­ You have to come with us, then, if you truly are innocent." Parkers said grimly, his voice telling Xander it was non-negotiable. Upon hearing this, Xander laughed and looked at Parkers like he was staring at an idiot. "¡­ are you taking me for an idiot?" Xander asked, looking at the sages for a bit before continuing. "Do you really think I believe in your words? I''ve been alive for hundreds of thousands of years, if not millions. I already see your plan. You want to access on the experimental data right? Aaaaand, probably develop a spell from it after numerous repeats of the experiment?" When the sages heard this, their faces looked weird for a bit, because that was the intention of most of the sages that returned to Eteria after hearing the situation. For most of the sages, they needed to know and understand the concept of creation and destruction, of which they felt the phenomenon the planet experienced a month ago fits right to their needs. After all, they had to understand it so they can derive the same phenomenon from their primary elements that have completely fused. "Would you believe, I can cause it to happen again?" Xander twirled his fingers, wherein the sages detected a dangerous fluctuation occurring between his fingertips, much, much powerful than their Sage-rank spells and attacks. The sages, sensing this, attempted to disrupt Xander by launching their attacks, of which none managed to reach him. Xander sighed, twirling his fingers, causing the fluctuation to disappear, before saying to them, "Chill out. You can''t kill me or restrain me, but I also can''t kill you lot without collateral damage. How about we discuss things in a diplomatic way, eh-" Before anyone else could speak, Xander once again disappeared. Behind him, there was a man whose arm was outstretched to Xander''s previous position, with a look of confusion in his face. It was Brutus. Looking around, he couldn''t detect the presence of Xander, and the other sages were confused as well. Before he could react, Brutus sensed a foreboding feeling and immediately attempted to run, but it was too late. A simple finger materialized behind him, touching his shoulder. "Reversal - 10,000,000 years¡­" When the finger landed on him, Brutus'' internal warning was off the roof. He felt something was happening to his body, his cultivation, and his life essence dolls in the Elemental essence stones. It was the latter that he noticed something was wrong. The partially fused stones were quickly moving apart, and after a while, it returned to individual stones. From the stones, he noticed that they were slowly losing luster and shape as if they were regressing back to their raw states. The stones were slowly becoming smaller and less shiny, even producing cracks in the end, before being shattered to bits, disappearing as if they never existed in the first place. He was now back at the Demigod class, his life essence doll whole once again, and went to Dimension-LIBRA. However, his body was continuously becoming younger and younger, his attributes decreasing. Meaning, if it reached a certain point, his body would collapse on its own because of the stress his magic energy would have. He was barely hanging on and immediately attempted to connect with the ordered system, channeling his power from his fused domain to stop whatever was happening in his body. He could only use his connection to stop the process, but the effect remained. Xander, on the other hand, appeared a hundred meters away from Brutus, his face cold. "I. Don''t. Like. To. Be. Attacked. When. I. Am. Talking." With every word that he emphasized, the sages could clearly detect the fluctuation occurring in Brutus'' body decreasing, from Sage-4 to Divine-9, slowly to Divine-1 and stopping in Demigod-9, and his body was visibly getting younger and smaller by the second. What was this magic, causing the target to regress their cultivation and attributes? The sages were confused and felt a bit of fear. Immediately, they surrounded Brutus, in an attempt to protect him from any attacks Xander might launch towards him in his weakened state. Maria and Margus, along with Parker and Wuhshan launched a flurry of attacks, while the rest guarded and healed Brutus. In fact, they were merely delaying for time and occupying Xander''s attention so that the others can heal Brutus and probably reverse the effects. For the next 9 minutes, this was what they all did. If they needed magic energy, they brought out their elemental crystal reserves and absorbed them. On the 10th minute, Brutus finally was showing some semblance of recovery, with his body attributes rising up. On the 11th minute, the attributes were back to Divine class and were still increasing. His cultivation had also begun to increase from Demigod-9 to Divine class. On the 13th minute, his attributes were back to Sage rank. On the 15th minute, his elemental essence stones were partially fused to the way they were before. When Brutus saw his partially fused stones, he heaved a sigh of relief that not everything was lost. Even the others healing were quite relieved as well, but they were confused about how the mechanics of the spell had actually functioned. Xander, on the other hand, saw that Brutus had already recovered from the [Time Reversal], and murmured to himself, "Huh, it only lasted 10 minutes before it reverted back to normal after a total of 15 minutes¡­ interesting. It seems the universe also has some sort of back-up for its cultivators above Demigod class, huh." Xander waved his hand and released another wave of attacks, this time fully expending his current magic energy. Along with those advance-ranked spells, he also released tens of [Apocalypse Down] and hundreds of [Ragnarok] spells in the area, covering 50,000-square kilometers with numerous areas of elemental collapse. For a moment, the primary elements of the sages were out of their control before regaining them. They immediately attempted to leave the area where they were in, however, their arms and legs were injured by the spell since they were extended outward to propel them out of the vicinity. This type of injury was in the form of an Elemental breakdown, so it is similar to necrosis in biological tissues and organs. They needed to overwhelm, absorb, and assimilate the power behind the breakdown to stop it from corroding their bodies. The time they used up was enough for Xander to collect several tens of Chaos seeds and hundreds of Life seeds, giving him a bountiful harvest. When he collected enough, he bowed to them, before dissipating, leaving a few words in his wake. "Adios, sages. I wonder if you''re prepared for the next gift I have for you cultivators." If anyone would look up in the sky right now, they would see that the area Xander and the sages fought would be a black square smudge, as if there was a non-removable stain present in the skies above. The sages were looking around, battered and weary. They didn''t lose, but they didn''t win either. After another hour of recovering their injuries and restoring their bodies into tip-top shape, they left and immediately messaged all sage-level cultivators, planning to submit their results. The Dreamscape spell of theirs only lasted for merely 3 hours before being disturbed, but that was enough for the two sages to collect general information about the citizens in Eta country and do an analysis and comparison of their experience and feelings of the situation a month ago. At the same time, they had done 30% in-depth analysis of the suspected cultivators so all they needed to do was collate and analyze the results. 91 Problematic Situation Once they landed on the ground of Eta, it was Parker who asked the two analysts the burning question lingering in their minds: how did they know it was a fake God cultivator? It was Hailey who answered, saying, "He suddenly appeared near our vicinity, with no fluctuations, meaning either he was waiting for us nearby, or he wasn''t really alive, and what we saw was just a puppet." "He then began to reminisce about the past, and when he asked about what year it was, Calissa answered with 2057, the year in Eteria, rather than the Universal Time Year. When he didn''t react to the mentioned year, we were both sure that the person in front of us earlier was just a fake. After all, the Revised calendar only came about 2,057 years ago in Eteria. If he was really a slumbering cultivator, why didn''t he clarify the date or request for the UTY?" When the others heard Hailey, their eyes brightened, realizing that they were suspicious from the very beginning, even with their responses towards the mysterious being! It was Calissa who then spoke to Brutus, her voice containing a curious tone. "Brutus, can you clearly describe what happened the moment that finger of his touched your shoulder? We need to know the necessary information to combat it if we face him again." It was Brutus, however, who looked flabbergasted and confused. "I would love to tell you, but whenever I attempt to remember the feeling of the spell in my body, it just places me into panic and alert mode. I don''t think even hypnotism would work, and I might unconsciously hurt the one doing it," he said to her, his voice apologetic and frustrated. He truly couldn''t remember for some reason. He wasn''t sure if this was done by that cultivator or because it was the side-effect of the powers of his returning. Calissa nodded and began to talk with Hailey and the two information collectors about the data to be processed. As the sages were resting and talking to one another, waiting for the final sage cultivator meeting place to be decided, they had an inconspicuous looker nearby, hearing and seeing everything they were discussing. After a while, it disappeared, unnoticed by the sage cultivators. Xander opened his eyes and sighed. It was already past midnight, nearing 1 am. The moon was brightly shining up in the night sky. When the dreamscape activated, it was around 7 pm yesterday, when he had just exited the laboratory. He had to immediately contact his friends, his subordinates to act naturally in the dream, which they had gained partial immunity. If they were able to gain complete immunity, they wouldn''t be affected by it at all. Anyhow, after contacting them, he contacted Jacks, instructing him to barricade the whole house property, ensuring that everyone inside the house and on the premises were not to fall asleep, including his parents who are currently taking a work leave as they had promised him. He then went to check remotely the situation in the university; if worse comes to worst, he would eliminate all the professors that were nearby his location when he activated the spell by accident, or transport them to a different planet with a humanoid civilization. He was quite surprised that the university teachers and faculty members weren''t affected, and saw that there was an invisible power warding off the mist from entering the campus. When he attempted to trace it back, he saw the librarian who was moving about his fingers while his eyes were closed and lightly snoring away. Xander was quite surprised by the librarian. He had initially thought that this person was a Divine magician. It seemed that this person was stronger than he originally looked. At least he doesn''t seem to be his enemy. He left his remote viewing and headed to Eden. Although time seemed precarious now, he could still delay facing the enemy for around 3 hours. He would rather spend time in the garden, talk to them, play with the newborn sprites and magic beasts, and fight with the demigod sprites and magic beasts. This time, he teamed up with his contracted beast and sprites, to help them train against sieges. He didn''t need to train them individual fights since they challenge the other sprites and magic beasts all the time, improving and revising their battle techniques. This lasted for around 2 hours in the outside world. He headed out after his obligatory product collection. He then fashioned himself a middle-aged looking mirror-clone, getting inspiration for its looks from the demigod who tried to kidnap him in his villa. There were footages of a refined-looking, middle-aged man giving orders to him and to other people, indicating that this person might be the transmigrator he was looking for. Xander tweaked the look a little bit, hoping the sages who had encountered this person have an idea who he was. He then placed it near the sages, in which, he followed the script he made early on. He was confused about why the sages didn''t react towards the middle-aged man since this seemed to fit the mysterious person that they were discussing in the underground chamber before the operation began. Then, as he was about to disappear after disrupting the dream searching spell, those two women attacked him, confusing him on how they discovered a flaw in his acting. It was only after the battle he discovered that he was too careless with the responses he made, and how little he knew of powerhouses above Divine class. Xander, when he stopped spying at the group, sighed. When he heard the statement Brutus made, he was confused because this time, he didn''t do any memory or mind manipulation. He could only think that when the time-reversal ended, the ordered system, or the universe, returned a copy that had no prior experience of the spell, so he had no memories of it whatsoever. Could it be a self-defense mechanism? Maybe, or possibly a way for the data not to duplicate or cause errors when merging with a recent one. He then contacted Jacks that everything was ok now. Once Jacks heard the command, he removed the binding force surrounding the property. For his subordinates, he questioned them concerning their dreams and if they acted accordingly. According to them, they did so, to the relief of Xander. At least they won''t be taken in for interrogation. He checked the time and realized that he needed roughly 16 more hours before the Garden can be grown and launched towards Eteria. He decided to sleep for now since he had nothing to do, and go back to the dream dimension and check the progress of the two seedlings._______________________8 hours later. Around 9 am, Friday. The sun was brightly shining high up in the sky. However, this wasn''t the case in the international underground meeting room. Inside, all of the sage rank cultivators were present, and all of them were discussing with one another in very low voices, their faces showing a myriad of expressions from being mad, confused, startled, shocked, and fear, creating a heavy and panicked atmosphere. The investigatory team was standing in the open ground stage, waiting for the decision and response of the rest of the sages. For the past 3 hours, they had been explaining their results as well as giving each one a copy of the data to check for themselves. They also showed the recording of their battle with Xander, releasing several conclusions from their fight. One, the target is proficient in magic concerning the mind and emotion element series. That would explain the initial setbacks they had with the dream searching spell, as the target is proficient in manipulating the mind and emotion elements. Second, the target is no weaker than a Sage class and probably stronger. The only reason he didn''t use any of the spells he had was probably for damage control, based on what he mentioned during the fight. Which meant, the target was looking for something important on the planet. Third, the target exhibits spatial power. He can do a group or self teleportation, and it is unknown what is the range of his capabilities are. It is very likely if we don''t manage to contain or restrain him, he can easily escape our encirclement. They are not sure if it is the work of a magic artifact or an ability of the suspect. Fourth, the target exhibits powers that are under the life-death element series. Most likely, the situation that occurred with Brutus was a result of a spell that took advantage of one''s life essence doll and physical body''s degradation. Lastly, the target fully revealed himself when they were testing Eta, which meant there''s a high chance that the target may be residing in Eta and a small percentage that he is using this as another plot to stop us from checking the remaining countries and focusing on Eta. However, things didn''t go as expected by the investigation team. The sages were fully focused on the information that the target had revealed concerning the event last month, and that was their main target. They wanted to obtain the experimental paper as well as recordings of the experiment, and if possible, the spell model that Xander had momentarily displayed at the tip of his fingertips. "I think we should already surround and isolate Eta right now. Most likely, like what the investigators suggested, this is where the target is actually residing." "And let the possibility that he is just delaying us and wasting our energy and time? I suggest we create two more investigative teams to focus on the Yggdras continent and in Nerzon country for the investigation. We would be accomplishing more in a shorter time-span." "That would cause us to spread our forces thin, Garroud. After all, we just have a few magicians who are proficient in Mind or Emotion elements present, roughly 4 out of 300 that''s present right now. If we follow the current structure, we can only make an additional investigation team that would process the said places, while the remaining would be in Eta and in the surrounding airspace of Eteria, ensuring no one escapes our perception." Another sage countered the frail-looking man, Garroud, her voice somber. She had a ghastly demeanor as if the spirits of the dead would rise up and begin their possession to those surrounding her. "That''s a great idea, Valak! I agree with her suggestion." "Same. Seems feasible." "Wait, do we still follow the same composition or change it up based on the experience of the first investigative team?" Asked Garroud, who quietly agreed with Valak''s plan. Valak nodded, saying, "This is an optimal set-up, ensuring one can still function if ever one is incapacitated. At the same time, doing things by pairs would improve the output." Upon hearing her reasoning, the other sages didn''t have many qualms and were prepared to create another team. In 30 minutes, another team was formulated and were to be sent to Yggdras, while the first investigation team had to head to Nerzon, far south of Eta country. After everything had been finalized and everyone knew their tasks, they immediately dispersed from the place, the investigative teams heading to their positions and began their spells, while the remaining sages were on standby and surrounded the entire Eta country and the airspace of Eteria with their perception._______________________It was nearing 10 in the morning. Xander was merely lying down on his table in class, scribbling nonsensical stuff on the touchscreen projector. The rest were intently listening to Ms. Lim finish up her discussion of the midterm exam questions and the practical test. There were roughly 7 more hours before the plan of his could begin, so he instructed the mirror image on standby to move to control the movement of the garden in 6 hours, heading to the direction of Eteria. He was surprised to see the size of the Garden; roughly 2.99 times the size of Eteria planet already. Oh, right, before it goes I should disable its absorbance and gravitational pull once it reached 1 light-year from Eteria. Don''t want to accidentally cause it to fall out of orbit, Xander thought to himself, pre-programming the instructions on the Garden and the mirror image itself. He didn''t bother spying on the sages, because he had already detected several waves of their magic perception scanning the entirety of the country for at least thrice, all from different sources._______________________Nerzon, Ete continent. The investigative team had begun the spell, causing the entirety of the country to fall into slumber, and they began to harvest the data available and present in their dreams and their reactions. For the next 5 hours, there were no anomalies whatsoever, but rather than assure the team, they began to be more alert than ever. On the 6th hour, however, they received a call from Carolyn, whose voice was frantic. "There''s an approaching danger! Danger! Be careful! Everyone is in grave danger!" Before they could ask more, the connection was cut, leaving them confused and unsure of what to do.______________________Yggdras continent, land of the elves and sprites. The second investigatory team was having an easier time since they were under a monarchy, the queen basically declared a holiday for all jobs and required everyone to stay in their homes. The investigative team began their spell, with the Heavenly Tree sprite acting as nodes to ensure that every part of the continent was affected by the spell equally, so there wouldn''t be any side-effects. For the next 5 hours, they quickly finished up because their population was not as high as the major cities, and the thought processes of elves and sprites were pure and honest, so their reactions in the dream was a guarantee. Even the Heavenly Tree sprite aided by subtly influencing them to tell the truth, nothing but the honest truth. On the 6th hour, they were already done and had disassembled the spell. As they were packing up and thanking the queen and the Heavenly Tree Sprite, they received a video call from Carolyn, with the same content as what she had said to the first investigative team. Before they could ask clearly what was coming, the connection was cut, leaving them confused.______________________The 30 sages in Eta country were quite bored in the past 5 hours of continuous scanning, that they communicated with one another via magic perception. "Hey, Barry, have you discovered anything anomalous yet?" "Nope. How about your scan? Did you discover anything?" "None as well. Sigh, this target of ours is quite slippery as hell. We can''t even detect any magical fluctuations that fit the results taken by the investigative team." "Hmm, I had an idea, but it''s quite outrageous¡­" "Eh? Shoot. We have nothing to do until our scans pick up something, anyways." "What if the person is capable of decreasing the magic fluctuations to a minimum? Remember the video, where no spells could even reach him, as according to him, none of our spells would penetrate the barriers he made." "What if the same goes for our scans? He''s basically invisible to magic perception if this is the case." "Well, let''s say that''s true. What should we look for in the magic perception? When it hits an inert or empty object or space? Or when it just disappears? Or when there''s a space it cannot enter?" "Come on, Andrews. That was quite imaginative of you, but you know none of us here is that talented in manipulating magic perceptions. Maybe if we had an infernal or a celestial here, we might find the target easily, haha.?? "Pfft, they never leave their dimensions anyway, and if they did, they were arrogant and overbearing to us that reside in the physical dimension." "Truly. Oh well, we can''t test out Barry''s hypothesis, let''s just do this task then until the others are finished with their jobs." "Yep, that''s true, Harold. The hypothesis he posed was interesting, but if that kind of being was here, in this small planet, most likely none of us are going to survive if the target was really a God class cultivator." "Same sentiments, brother. I-" another sage spoke up but was interrupted by a call. The other sages also received the call and it came from Ms. Carolyn, who warned them of danger that was fast approaching, that there is a grave danger and everyone is going to be affected. Before they could even react, the call was cut off, confusing the sages. It was Barry that spoke up first. "So, um, what do we do now? Do we continue the job or meet the other sages?" "Of course we''re going to meet up the sages!" Harold said before the other sages could see a figure rise above high in the sky. The other sages followed suit. After all, this was Eteria. In some planets, there were flight restrictions for those even in the Sage class; here, such rules don''t apply to them, as they were already beyond them. After a while, no one was left in Eta to do the magic scanning, and if someone would closely listen to the winds, they would hear something similar to that of a sigh of relief. ____________________5 pm, Eta. Xander''s villa. Xander was quite amused with the current state of the sages. Upon hearing the message of Carolyn, the sage that was proficient in Future-1 element, as well as Pandora-Grief and Fear-5, making her a formidable magician amongst her peers. As long as it was going to happen in the near future and that she was going to be affected by it, she will sense it. She would only get a clear picture of the situation when it is already in front of her. In battle, this was a powerful trait of hers, allowing her to evade attacks by a fraction of a movement, and doesn''t use up too much energy. Xander was sitting in his room, excited about how the situation would unfold. The garden was going to reach Eteria in 40 minutes from its current location. He briefly headed to the Laboratory, checking the situation of the trees. He also planted 3 more Trees of Creation, situating them in the third layer surrounding the 6 trees. He then placed another seed of destruction in the area where the two other trees of Destruction were located in, forming a triad. What happened next surprised Xander. The third seed, upon going under the influence of the other trees, rapidly took hold and began to sprout, faster than usual. Xander''s eyes turned glassy, his breath turning heavy, his cultivation skill began to run on its own. In the span of 14,400 years, the tree rapidly grew to the same size as the two other trees, and the power of destruction and chaos in the area, and Xander was merely standing still in where he was, unaffected by time and space turbulence. When his eyes turned to pure silver and black, everything in the laboratory stopped moving for a moment, all fluctuations frozen in the air, the breeze that came from nowhere stopping. The vibrant trees of creation, destruction, evolution, dream, dimension, life, and order were all frozen as well, like everything was a snapshot. 92 Appearance of the Gigantic Being "Let everything return to dust." Once these words escaped his mouth, the whole space collapsed, quickly disintegrating into powder form that rapidly turned to pure energy. It was different this time from the other times he had caused pocket dimensions to collapse. The entire dimension, his laboratory, was completely destroyed. Nothing remained, not even the trees he had planted. He was standing in his basement now, and the space he was in previously now completely gone. "Let it be once more." When he said this words, from where he was standing, space, time and matter was changing, producing a dark, lightless space. After a while, glowing particles began to appear and collide, compress, and interact. Soon, the very first star was formed in the dark space was formed, shedding light to everything. Yet, this was not the end. Soon, more and more stars dotted the dark space, creating a starry landscape. More and more things began to rapidly be created in the starry landscape. Small meteors, neutron stars, dwarf planets, red giants, stars of different colors and sizes. Xander''s gaze looked at a certain part of the space, and raised his right hand and pointed at it. From there, the 5-elements series began to rapidly converge, creating a planet thrice the size of Eteria. It was smaller than Eden, but it was big enough for the purpose of the space. Within a matter of seconds, Green, brown, white, and blue colors filled the planet. However, this wasn''t the end. More and more planets after this one was rapidly being made, filled with evergreen lands and clear blue seas and skies. All in all, there was a total of 9 planets. The planets, as if controlled by an unseen force, began to move towards the largest Blue star in the space, and soon, all 9 planets were circling the star, all in the same radius from the star. Xander rapidly enlarged, encapsulating the entire space, and on his left hand, the planets and the stars were encapsulated. "Let the trees bloom once more." When Xander uttered these words, there was a strong, feedback reaction from the entire space, and a stirring coming from the Universe outside the space itself. The whole space was shaking, and multiple streams of colorless energy began to appear out of nowhere and hit the planets'' surfaces. The trees began to materialize once again in the planets, but their places were separate this time. The 1st planet contained all the Trees, 3 of each kind.The 2nd planet contained the Trees of Creation.The 3rd planet contained the Trees of Destruction.The 4th planet contained the Trees of Life.The 5th planet contained the Trees of Dimension.The 6th planet contained the Trees of Order.The 7th planet contained the Trees of Evolution.The 8th planet contained the Trees of Chaos.The 9th planet contained the Trees of Dream. The planets, with the exception of the 1st, 3rd, and 8th planet, had 27 trees of the said type, a farm garden, as well as the presence of mountain deposits and areas where the different elemental crystals are rapidly compressed and accumulated. The 3rd and 8th planet only contains 3 of the said type of trees, as well as the mountain deposits and the different elemental crystals were rapidly compressed and accumulated. Each of the planets had their own laboratory set-ups, allowing Xander to do various experiments under different situations/environments, with the first one having a "balanced" environment. Xander sighed, before saying, "With the 9 planets at hand, let they become the foundation of the dimension. Let Order and Chaos be borne and proliferate in the space." Immediately, the 9 planets and the star they orbit began to shift in existence, shifting from material to immaterial, an illusion to a reality. No one else besides him can every find the planets, nor even take a step inside. "Let the space be established; the space is now governed, independent of the rules of the place it is in." Immediately, separation between this space and that of the ordered system of the universe it was in occurred, ensuring nothing can enter or exit without the creator''s approval. "Let Time flow." Everything began to move in a steady phase, all things gaining momentum and heading towards infinity from nihility. However, if someone was to compare the time inside and outside the dimension, 1 second outside would be equivalent to 20 years inside. "¡­Let Life start to bloom beyond the 9 planets." As he uttered these words, motes of dust, rock, and metal began to collide and compress with one another, far away from the 9 planets. The process had begun, but wasn''t finished yet, and Xander didn''t rush. After 1 day, 1.7 million years would have passed. After a week, 12 million years. Ironically, this pocket dimension, which he decided to call Laboratory, was bound to the basement, different to Eden which looked like a strong ribbon. The good thing, however, was that Xander can shrink this basement and carry it wherever and whenever. He left the pocket space, and realized that it was already 7:30 pm. Xander shook his head, as his plans had been delayed for nearly 2 hours because of the sudden enlightenment. He wasn''t angry though, since all of his comprehensions had a large increase in understanding. Space-time increased by 8%, rising to 39% comprehension. Yin-yang increased by 9%, reaching 29% comprehension. Order and Chaos increased by 4%, both were now 20% comprehended. It was these two that allowed him to realize greater mysteries and truths concerning the flow of time and structure of space, how all of this plays out in the cycle of creation of destruction. Nothing is absolutely pure besides Void element. Order contains aspects of Chaos, Chaos contains aspects of Order. Space, time, yin, yang, life, and death contain aspects of Chaos and Order, with one being more predominant than the other. One could say everything is in order, but is a form of disorder, and vice versa. He checked the description of his spell, [Origin Universe], that he used when he recreated the laboratory dimension. [Origin Universe (sealed, 20% unlocked)]: Combining all origin elements except the Void element, one is able to create a small, stable, and independent ordered system in the Great Void, existing until the ordered system set collapses. It doesn''t need continuous space-time reinforcement. It can now absorb and convert the Void or other elements to origin elements to grow, stabilize, and enhance the created ordered system, with a maximum size of 2e+108 light-years. The size growth is approximately 500 light-years per year, taking around 4e+105 Giga-anums, where 1 giga-annum is 1 billion years, to reach its limit size. In the Void, however, the space it takes up does not increase but remains the same. If this is used inside another universe, the newly-created ordered system is not recognized as a foreign one and can continue to leech off from the universe for materials. The description was obviously updated, the limit of the maximum size of the space created, and larger size growth. Using it with [Pocket Dimension], he can finally say that he can make self-sustaining spaces. His current limit of pocket dimension''s size was a radius of 1.12e+15 light-years, and he would need to reinforce it every day. However, he didn''t need reinforcement now since [Origin Universe] helps with this automatically. This was the size limit that he had enforced when he remade the laboratory. He then connected with his mirror image inside the Garden, overlooking Eteria planet. All the sages were in front of the Garden, prepared to launch their attacks the moment they detected any fluctuations of magic or elements whatsoever. Looking at them, Xander let out a smile. Time to screw with them~_______________________Eteria, around 5:45 pm. All around the world, the panic was present. 5 minutes ago, the sky had darkened completely, unlike a regular sunset in Eteria. It was then the satellites began to beep loudly in each and every country, showing different footages of the surrounding area. What they saw horrified them. It was a mass of green, squirming roots, stems, leaves, and flowers, branches and trunks of trees were seen rising gigantically into the endless space. The satellites they had could barely see the top and the bottom of the thing. Inside, they saw countless creatures of varying shapes and sizes, basically giving birth to their wildest imaginations. Immediately, the countries had called for and rallied different conglomerates and families to inform the sages of the current situation. However, they didn''t need them at all to learn of its presence; they detected it once it came to overshadow the entire planet. The sages could feel a powerful life force coming from the thing that appeared in front of Eteria, and when they left the atmosphere to see it clearly, they were smacked with the enormity of the thing, as well as how dense the power it seemed to contain. Some of the sages could even feel some sort of attractive and absorbing power present in the thing. They weren''t sure if this was a magic beast of some sort, or another unique being in the universe. However, they all had a horrifying thought: Was this the danger that Ms. Carolyn had predicted? After all, the warning was given more than an hour ago. Without waiting for anything else, they began to ready their strongest spells, aiming them at the thing in front of them, alert and waiting for a signal of some sort to start attacking. If it came in peace and was passing by, good then, they''ll just greet it, even giving some specialties of the planet, and let it go to its destination. If it came to this place on purpose, however¡­ they''re in for a long fight. 30 minutes later. There was still no reactions from the thing in front of them. Their spells were still readied. Another 30 minutes passed. There was still no reactions. No one amongst the sages wanted to approach the area, becoming the sacrificial lamb of the group. They were very patient. They didn''t need to rush. Another 45 minutes passed. There was finally movement from the thing, which rapidly moved out and about, forming crevices and holes, and if someone were to look at the thing from Eteria or from far away from the planet, they would see a face. A sound was released from the largest opening, vibrating the space and the atmosphere of Eteria. "Huh? Oh, I fell asleep¡­ Oh hello, lower lifeforms." The voice echoed all over Eteria, causing several buildings and structures to break and collapse, and the waves in the seaside countries to rise and crash inland, causing untold damage. A lot of people who were demigod and below began to bleed from their eyes and ears, clutching their heads in agony. Of course, there were exceptions. For example, Jacks'' place was quite isolated from the events, an instruction he had received from Xander earlier. There are also some places unaffected, such as sage-reinforced underground bunkers and facilities, albeit they experienced some shaking and the like, but little to none were actually damaged inside. A simple hello, however, for all countries, had caused untold damage in the economy in the local and global aspects. The simple hello the garden had released was laced with Space and Wave powers, causing such damage in the first place. All of the sages were unaffected, however, by the greeting. One of the sages, one of the strongest ones, Varmin Bloodslinger, a Sage-7 magician, spoke up to the garden calmly. "Hello, mysterious being. What brings you to our humble planet?" When he asked this question, the remaining sages casted a combined spell matrix and covered the entire planet, to nullify the damage of the voice produced, muting it to 0.01% of its strength. "I''m under the orders of my master to look for someone here. You wouldn''t understand the greatness of my master, so don''t bother asking for master''s identity. Move out of the way!" His voice vibrated, and numerous vines and stems began to extend from the being, heading towards the planet, each of them moving as fast as a Divine magician. The sages erected their magic barriers, momentarily stopping the vines and stems from reaching the planet. However, before they could breathe a relief, their faces changed, as they noticed their magic barriers were becoming thinner at the areas where the stems and vines were hitting. After a few seconds, the barriers they erected were now filled with holes, which was the entry point of these appendages. Before it got to the surface of the planet, though, they were all rapidly burned by one of the Sage-6 female magicians, Blair Witchpoint. "Ow!" the garden shouted, expressing his pain. A loud tsking sound echoed in space. "That wasn''t kind, was it, attempting to intrude our planet?" she said angrily, releasing a blazing field of fire that rapidly expanded as it traveled to reach the garden. However, to her surprise, the garden merely opened its largest opening, swallowing the flame she released. "Mmm, yummy fire!" "Anyways, why are you hindering my job? My boss said to get the target asap because some cultivators were trying to catch him¡­ wait, are you those people?" the garden said roaringly, immediately launching thousands of vines and stems towards each and every sage magician present. All the sages in stage 1, 2, and 3 were instantly captured, while those above stage 3 had to use their spells to destroy the incoming vines. However, they noticed another horrifying fact; those that they destroyed were quickly growing back! If they launched the same attack once again, it wouldn''t be severely affected, and even absorb the attack! "Everyone, try not to use spells to escape or reject the vines! They learn from our attacks and using it to its advantage!" Shouted by Blair, whose flames were also weakening under the assault of the vines and stems. "Hmph, I knew it, you guys are bad! How dare you attack the direct disciple of my master! You should be punished for that!" The gigantic face howled, launching a barrage of attacks once more. This time, it began to cast several hundreds of demigod rank spells, targeting the sages. It didn''t cause that much damage to them but it was rather quite an inconvenience. Seeing that there wasn''t much effect, the gigantic-faced garden roared again, this time, targeting the spell barrier they placed around Eteria. It began to bombard the spell, slowly degrading and absorbing parts of the spell. Seeing this, the other Sages reacted quite quickly. Blair and a few other Sage-6 magicians immediately destroyed the vines and the stems absorbing the spell, eradicating them to dust. However, it felt like it was never-ending. More and more of the vines and stems were appearing from the garden, continuously stressing the sages who were forced on the defensive. It was then a melancholic sound echoed in the empty space, something that wasn''t possible unless you can vibrate space itself. The garden''s face didn''t notice it, but the sages who heard this were quite happy because they knew who this skill was owned by. "The Cadence of Souls, awaken thy blood. My body is my sword, let everything be cut." "[Blade of Damocles: Dance of the Guilty]" Varmin shouted, causing his blood to flow outside his body, forming a small sword with a length of 6 meters, a thickness of 0.1 centimeters. The blade floated in front of the gigantic garden, its body upright and unyielding, producing a fearsome aura. It began to curve downwards, slowly but surely, and in front of the eyes of the sages, they saw the face slowly being cut in half in the middle. After its first cut that took 10 seconds, it was followed by several other cuts, this time, way faster than the first one, with each cut being completed in less than a second. After roughly 2 minutes, the blade cut the gigantic face one last time, and the moment it ended, the whole garden began to collapse. The sages cheered in joy, and those who were watching down in Eteria were also cheering, as they thought the worse was over. However, it didn''t last long. The pieces of the garden didn''t dissipate, but rather, they began connecting again with one another. It was slow, and when the sages saw what was happening, they attempted to interrupt or even completely stop the recovery by bombarding it with their strongest sage spells. Part by part, the garden fragmented and became broken. However, individually, they were still connected to one another, continuously absorbing the leftover energy from the spells cast on them, hastening the process. After 15 more minutes, the sages were despairing, because they had launched around 200 different sage rank spells, yet the beast they were facing wasn''t dead yet; in fact, every time they hit it with a spell, it was actually becoming faster in their regeneration. It was Blair, the other Sage-6 cultivators, and Varmin who ordered everyone to stop attacking, since it was quite pointless. After 10 more minutes, the garden was reformed, albeit a bit bigger than before. It morphed to produce the face once again and roared at them. "What big gall you have to attack a loyal follower of our Lord! You must be punished! Punished!" "My children, Go! Devour the planet and find the disciple! He must be brought away from these savages!" After roaring this, the garden began rapidly shrinking, and a swarm of plant-based creatures began to appear, covering the entire planet, totally blocking out the sun. If someone was to count how many there were, they would be surprised, as it reached hundreds of billions in number of varying shapes and sizes. Not only that, but these things also had the same ability as the Garden: siphon and absorption. Unless they completely obliterate the creature, if even a small part of them survived, they can regrow from it, and even gain the remaining energy of the attacks, adapting and becoming stronger against the same energy type. When Xander had designed the spell, what came to his mind was the idea of Zergs from his previous lifetime; they were adaptable and evolve quickly, adapting to the situation. He just added a twist: What if it wasn''t through genetic inheritance, but based on their body itself, as a living, morphing genetic body? Since the Zergs were basically extinct in the universe, he didn''t have to worry that anyone would mistake the creatures from the garden as Zergs. Seeing the situation devolve into such, the sages began to go all out with their forbidden, AoE spells. They couldn''t hesitate to use them anymore; these spells of theirs would determine whether they would even survive the swarm. Although the power of the swarm ranged from Mythic-1 to Demigod-9, they would still be overwhelmed once their magic energies ran out, and their resources were gone and dried up. It was Blaire who first released her forbidden magic matrix. "I summon the Incarnation of Hellfire, to purge my enemies and reduce everything to nothing!" "[Shiva''s Rage: Rise of Muspelheim]!" Immediately, the area where the planet was rapidly devolved into a different world, the dark starry skyline turning red and brown at moments as if something was coming out of the void, attempting to burn and break everything into cinders. 93 Resolution of the Conflic The other sages had to focus on protecting the planet to ensure it wouldn''t be damaged by the forbidden spell Blair launched. The moment the fires began to seep out of space, appearing out of nowhere, hundreds of thousands of the creatures near the flames were completely turned to cinders, becoming a secondary source to burn the flames longer. Lava began to appear, overflowing in the dark space, killing millions every second. It surged like gigantic waves in the ocean, crashing down on these monsters and creatures, devouring them. Time passed. Giants made of flame and lava began to appear, created from the accumulating fires and lava in the area. More and more creatures of fire and of molten lava, appeared, eradicating millions at a time with a swing of their arms. Clumps of fire and lava began to coagulate, forming stars that launched towards the creatures, exploding and devouring them in multi-colored flames. In the eyes of Blair, all these creatures act as tinder for the flame, making her spell stronger and more powerful. However, the reason why she didn''t like using the spell is that every minute that passed, she loses 10 years of her lifespan. Past the ten minute mark, she loses 100 years every minute. Past the 30 minute mark, she loses 1,000 years every minute. Past an hour, she loses 10,000 years every second. The longest she can hold was 30 minutes because it also uses up her magic energy reservoir. She decided to initiate the attacks to give time for her fellow sage cultivators to prepare their own forbidden spell matrices. However, there were some that managed to survive, becoming stronger from the attacks, allowing them to weaken the spell. By the 20-minute mark, the spell was rapidly weakening, barely holding on. By the 25-minute mark, Blair had no choice but to cancel the spell, or risk the spell''s drawback and backlash. "Everyone, prepare your attacks!" Blair said to the rest of the sages as she retreated to recover her energy, and the spell matrix she created immediately melted into nothingness, absorbed by the creatures. It was two Sage-6 cultivators that appeared, Anna and Manna Hailwind, who were fraternal twins. The two charged to the rushing group of beasts, chanting. "Let everything stop, let everything fall into disarray. May all be purified." "Forbidden spell matrix: [Entropic Purification: Lost souls]!" The moment the spell was completed, The entirety of the space where the creatures were in halted to a still. All of them stopped moving as if they weren''t moving that fast early on, with the known laws of physics being inapplicable in this situation. Everything just headed to a stop. The other sages who were in the affected area could barely move as well, raising their defensive barriers to the maximum to counteract the effect and heading out the zone of effect, protecting the planet. However, this stillness didn''t last for long. The spell''s second effect began to work, and slowly, each and every creature''s body began to degrade, their cells and tissues and organs were dissociating from one another, effectively killing the order in their bodies, causing disarray. This meant the invisible and intangible connection of the cells and tissues and organs with the main body is completely severed. The moment these parts dissociated from their main bodies, they were rapidly purified by the light that covered the whole area, emanating from the twins. This was the power of the Purge element under the Purgatory element. It reduced these leftovers into the purest magic and elemental energy, returning back to the universe, being absorbed by the twins, or becoming an energy source for the garden. This process continued for the next 15 minutes, effectively clearing a large number of monsters in a short time. That move, however, didn''t eliminate all of the monsters. Roughly, one-half of the original army remained, which was still in the hundred billion mark. But the sages this time had enough time. The moment the twins retreated, the remaining sages had banded together to cast a Forbidden spell matrix that consisted of 108 arrays, and required 108 casters of almost a similar level to cast. Their voices echoed all over the planet and the space around it, demonstrating the overwhelming power the spell they were preparing contained. "Destruction of a Star, an explosion that destroys and reduces all. Let light and darkness, life and death listen to our voice: Bring destruction, desolation, and woe to the enemies before us." "[The Last Sunset: The Accordion of Heaven and Hell, Embrace the Darkness]!" The moment they finished these words, within a light-year from their location, a bright flash of light was all over the place, making everyone unable to see their bodies and their surroundings, before being replaced by the pure darkness that embraced the area, encapsulating everyone in chilling darkness. All the nearby stars and even the main star that gives light to Eteria dimmed to the lowest level, its produced light being devoured, but the star itself wasn''t harmed, and the same goes for the planets nearby. Of course, for Eteria planet, they weren''t affected by the spell, but all light-producing spells and products immediately extinguished. Xander, however, even in the complete darkness of space, could still see what was happening through [Divine Eyes]. After all, he was the one controlling the garden with a mirror image. The spell didn??t disrupt the connection, so he could still control what was happening. However, he couldn''t summon the summoned beasts around him, as they were all being completely destroyed and assimilated by the darkness. In the initial burst of light, tens of billions died, and those that survived were now beginning to be absorbed by the spell. It was at the point that the control of the garden over the creatures disappeared, meaning they were being stolen and absorbed. All Xander could do was control the Garden to go under self-preservation mode, retracting any feelers and tentacles back in, and then surrounding it with [Absolute Defense]. He wasn''t sure how long the spell was going to last. He couldn''t even interrupt the spell with [Void Rejection] because of the level difference of the two spells. He hesitating if he should use [Absolute Space] to take command of the area, and then create a special space structure that can cut darkness and light, or even use the recent spell he had gotten, [Spatial Disintegration], to deal with this. [Spatial Disintegration] - Completely disintegrates the space and everything it contains in a certain area. The maximum radius is half the size of the universe or 5e+59 light-years. All the following are affected by the disintegration: All dimensions in the area (the section present in that space is removed), living and non-living beings no higher than 3 cultivation levels above the caster. The caster has an option to convert the disintegrated space into a Space seed, one for each dimension destroyed. A maximum of 540 space seeds per cast can be received. The removed space cannot be recovered by the ordered system of the universe within the next billion years, creating a rift to the Great Void. Note: The created rift can be recovered by using 9 space seeds, quick-starting the recovery process. The problem with the spell was that it was too damaging. He doesn''t have any idea of creatures existing in the Great Void. What if because of the rift, they can devour and destroy the whole universe because they have unrestricted access? Not did he have to leave everything behind and enter the Great Void, he had to find another Universe to enter, assimilate, and grow. It''s also possible the universe he was in was one of the unique fantasy-type of the universe, meaning magic was quite ingrained in the existences. What if he landed in a technology-based universe? How would he cultivate then, if there wasn''t a shred of recognizable elements for his body to absorb? Another important thing was that for all he knew, the Universes in the Great Void were tightly guarded, or hidden from the people who lived there. Maybe, they were monopolized by certain forces. Although he could heal the rift by using 9 space seeds, it seemed too risky for now. The Space seeds were quite tempting, however. An hour passed. The spell was still ongoing, albeit a bit weaker. Why was it weaker? Xander controlled the dimensions within 1 light-year and isolated it from everywhere else, making the spell unable to gather elemental particles and energy around it, to sustain the spell. Xander was just waiting for the sages to be unable to hold on. After all, they were of different cultivation levels, and the more of them leave, the more unstable the spell becomes. Xander was right. 30 minutes after, the spell was forcefully canceled, and everyone observed the current situation of the attacking monsters. They had managed to eradicate all the monsters..! However, they weren''t completely happy, because the target, the large, green thing, was still well and unaffected by their spell. A voice sounded out from the garden''s opening, echoing in space. "Hmph! You just destroyed my first batch! Arise, my dearies! Head towards the planet!" And immediately, the scene played out again, a horde of plant-based beasts and monsters appeared, surrounding the entire planet, leaving no possible area for a retreat. This was only possible for the garden as Xander supplied another 3000 tonnes of Elemental crystals to the garden, allowing it to quickly produce the necessary amount of troops while waiting for the spell to end. The Sages'' faces had looks of despair etched on them, as they were drained of this fighting. Fights like these were pointless for them, especially if they can''t determine the winner with several bouts. Blair, who had recovered, wanted to rush to the group and cast her forbidden spell again, but she was stopped by Carolyn. "Don''t. Our turning point will soon appear. Just endure and prepare your defenses." Her voice echoed in the battleground, allowing the sages to stand ground and protect the planet, waiting for the so-called turning point that Carolyn mentioned. Although she was just a Sage-6, her reputation and accuracy could not be faked. As the monsters and beasts rampaged towards the planet, a voice could be heard coming from the planet. "Hmm? Cerberus, what are you doing here? You know I''m doing something important here." The deep, manly voice echoed in the ears of the sages and that of the garden. The voice echoed again, saying one word, "Stop." And everything beyond the sages stopped, unmoving and frozen in place, the monsters'' ferocious expressions frozen. The sages then saw a silhouette of a man slowly shimmer in front of them. The first investigative team recognized the man, as they had fought against him. Before they could even react, the man snapped his fingers, pointing it at the horde. "Return." Like in stop motion video being played in reverse, the whole swarm began to move back towards the garden, entering it and transforming back to their original form, which was the form of a seed. This happened in a span of seconds; afterward, the whole place was empty, leaving the whole group of sages confused. The garden began to speak, its voice excited. "Young Master Homer! Master requires you to return quickly!" "Ugh, the old granny? Tsk. Fine, I''ll return with you." Xander sighed, before looking back at the Sages. "Well, it seems I got to leave then, dear Sages. Pity, you weren''t able to get what you wanted. You can try following us if you want, HAHA! Sayonara~" Xander disappeared before the others could act, appearing in front of the garden, and entering it, disappearing in its foliage. The garden began to move, moving around 0.5 light-years per minute, heading into the great space unknown. The other sages didn''t attempt to move against the garden, as they saw the face that Carolyn produced was that of dismay and fear, subtly shaking her head at them. After a couple of minutes, they couldn''t even detect any magical flow of the gigantic creature, causing them to sigh a relief. It was Varmin who let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, the issue was done." "¡­Varmin, that was the man who caused the situation a month ago. Do we just let him go?" Maria asked, her face confused by the situation. "¡­Do you think we can stop him? Especially with that creature with him?" Carolyn said, responding to her question, shaking her head. ??¡­" Maria was silent, unsure of how to answer. Varmin was silent as well, before saying, "The matter ends here. We are not sure who that person was, what his background is, and what his true abilities are. We will merely say to our families that the situation has been resolved. Is everyone okay with that?" His tone held some sort of resoluteness as if indicating his stance on the matter. If people were to decide to chase that person, they would better do it among themselves, and not include those who don''t want to anymore. No one dared to do it by themselves; they knew they were helpless with this kind of enemy, who could resist their attacks, albeit being weaker than them. No one responded back at Varmin, indicating their tacit approval of the decision. All of them headed back to the planet''s surface after canceling the spell barrier they placed, which was quite fragile due to the amount of time that had passed. Once they reached the surface, they notified their respective clans and conglomerates that the crisis has been solved, and it was already safe to resume normal activities starting tomorrow. The sages left specific instructions to their individual clans and conglomerates, just in case they face the same target with the name of Homer in the future and they aren''t there. When the high-ranked members of their respective clans and conglomerates heard the name, their faces changed, looking weirdly at their respective ancestors, confusing the sages why the name solicited such a reaction from them. It was then the truth was finally completely unveiled by these people: Homer, current alias is Homer Simpson and an outsider, had published two groundbreaking papers, and these papers advanced different fields of magitech, ranging from commercial to private to military and government uses. When they read the papers, the sages were astounded because this was quite common in almost all empires in the universe, the conversion of elements from immaterial to material form, and then conversion to tangible matter. In other empires, they use this basic theory in different ways, such as producing their own materials, trading unique materials produced, and even fighting for information concerning the production of some materials. Their faces were quite grave because they realized how formidable and how influential this Homer Simpson is, which most likely is the person that they were targeting. Why was this so? The paper gives examples and some clues in formulating the products produced from immaterial and material elements to tangible materials. Having access to this kind of information without any contract restricting him indicated that he was under another power that may be as influential as an empire. When they asked their descendants how long this person had been observed, their responses were quite similar to one another: This outsider had mentioned he had descended in Eteria for the past 7 years, looking for someone. "We only realized he was even here when our conferences were hacked and taken over by him. He also guided us in realizing another elemental series, the Fate series of elements." This was the common answer given by the Demigod elders that supervised the overall clan activities and happenings. The Divine magicians of their clans were only there to act as a guardian, to preserve the clan in the brink of a catastrophe and had no idea of his existence. However, according to the divine and demigod magicians of their groups, he had issued a statement a few hours after the situation had occurred, indicating that it wasn''t his fault. In fact, he even gave them data wherein they could synthesize lightweight metal alloys for their space ships and terraformation of planets. That''s why they pushed back the idea of Homer Simpson being involved in this situation in the first place. They only remembered it now when the sages began describing the facial and body features of their target. From there on, the recent news concerning the demise of the Corde clan on the hands of this cultivator was known to the sages, causing some of them to look at Wuhshan weirdly. After all, there were only 3 people left in the Corde clan that resided in Eteria. The sages weren''t stupid, and they realized why the Corde clan even bothered to send people to Eteria. Why would he even return if not to find out the information concerning this person? Wuhshan didn''t care much of their looks directed at him, nor was he even affected. He came here to inform his descendants of a method to contact him or one of the other ancestors if another situation pops out like before. They had a potential list of the possible targets of the outsider, but they were highly influential or had strong families backing them up. It even included James Corde, the sole survivor of the Corde Clan massacre in their headquarters. It was suspected that he had made some sort of deal with their target, which leads to the clan getting too greedy and attempted to extract the information from their own descendants, no less. It was a form of payback done by Homer Simpson, and a way to warn the other clans and families in Eteria of his presence. When they saw the names, a semi-familiar name stood from the rest: Xander Cloverfield. This kid seemed to be related in some form to the outsider. At the age of 4, he contributed to creating a paper that formally introduced the concept of elemental hierarchy in Eteria, giving Eteria a framework of elements that other older civilizations touch upon once they join an empire or find ruins of past civilizations in other planets. Not only that, the sages realized that he has a skyrocketing growth in terms of cultivation and development. 7 years old, and was currently identified to be a Master-1 magician. Although in other empires, such a development is not rare; however, on this planet it is since it doesn''t have the resources an empire has. The most glaring evidence was the two papers where his name was added as a co-author of Homer Simpson. Three papers where he had a significant impact on the development plan of Eteria as a whole; was it merely just a coincidence? They continued to read the information concerning Xander that the people of Eteria know of, or postulated to. He had signed 2 different contract signings with sprites and magic beasts. The first time, it was two legendary sprites, The second time, it was 3 mythic class beings: 2 sprites and 1 magic beast. No one, however, had seen them. All his guards are completely loyal to him, and a few days after the most recent set of guards were sent, the information is transmitted back to the government and respective families the guards belong to trickled down to almost nothing, with the transmitted information being nonsensical or quite mundane and even downright irrelevant. The sages convened online before deciding to pay a visit to Xander''s villa, but rather than a collective group of 200+ sages, only 4 sages were going: Carolyn, Varmin, Margus Morningstar and Hailey Cloverfield. The latter two were going to be present to ensure his protection if anything goes awry, as they had begun to consider Xander a shared family asset. As they weren''t in a rush, the meeting ended early Saturday morning. Around 9 am, they headed to Xander''s villa to meet the most likely link to the outsider, Homer Simpson. 94 Leaving Xander was quite bored. After orchestrating the whole thing, it was already near midnight and he wanted to sleep. After the garden had moved around 10 light-years, he instantly dissolved it along with the two mirror-images, then completely wiped out any abnormal amounts of elemental energy and particles in the area, dispersing them to nearby planets and stars. The next part of the plan was going to be the hardest to complete because he had to ensure what he said matched to what the sages would learn about Homer Simpson, his relationship with him, and the people around him and their rapid growth. Xander shut his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, entering his dream bubble. He saw the saplings of the trees he planted, CDL, and DDL. He had attempted before to try planting the other seeds in his dream bubble, but he couldn''t predict if it was going to be harmful or not for him. What if he accidentally destroys his dream bubble or turns it into an isolated pocket dimension; would he still be able to dream? So he only planted these two seeds. Xander played around for the rest of the time, tending the saplings and then headed out to explore other people''s dreams near him. He didn''t want to go further because he didn''t want to go to some unknown dream and cause a ruckus or create a scene that might be traced back to him. Time passed. It was already Saturday, and the sun was brightly shining in the sky. Xander had woken up at this time and instinctively knew that it was 8:30 am already. He headed downstairs and ate the prepared breakfast by the twins, reading the news in his communicator. Surprise, surprise, the news was all about the ''eclipse'' yesterday evening and the appearance of the giant face. He saw that there was a lot of infrastructural damage in all countries, with the cost, if converted to Eta currency, would amount to trillions, if not quadrillions of Eta. He continued to check the news as it also reported the number of casualties that had happened globally, causing Xander to feel guilty for a moment. However, he quickly staved it off, as he believed the problem was caused by the leaders of their countries and conglomerates and ancient clans overreacting to the situation more than a month ago. He was also able to check if his life essence doll was affected in any way and saw that no new karmic threads were formed nor destroyed, meaning the sentiments of the people weren''t targeted at him, but to the garden spell that he created and the mirror image of his. The moment the two disappeared, so did the threads. When he was about to finish half of his meal, his smartwatch rang, and Xander immediately answered the hologram call. It was the figure of both his father and mother. Majes immediately spoke before Xander could even ask what was up. "Xander, one of our ancestors will be visiting you concerning your uncle Homer. Please, avoid directly lying to them!" Faria then followed up, her voice a bit worried. "My baby boy, the same goes for my family''s ancestors. One of them will be visiting you along with 2 other respected magicians. Make sure you be as honest as possible when answering their questions, ok?" Xander, not being able to say a word of response, merely nodded, his face nonplussed. He wasn''t really shocked about this, as this was still within the scope of possibilities that would happen after the fiasco. What he didn''t know was those that would be involved in the group visiting him. He also needed to ensure that besides making his story legitimate, he had to ensure no excess information concerning the situation should be leaked, no matter their prodding. He then responded with a gentle, calm, child-like voice. "Don''t worry mom, dad. It will all be fine. Just rest up!" Hearing his response, his parents calmed down a bit, albeit still worried for Xander. They knew that something was quite special with their son, and all they can do to help is guide him as much as they could, and protect him when necessary. After finishing his meal, he was going to head to his room to take a bath when his spatial perception was triggered outside the villa. He sighed at himself. It seems they''re here. Oh well, let''s get this over with, then. He headed to the door and opened it, his face showing a bright smile. "Ancestors, welcome to my abode. Please, enter." He said, confusing the guards stationed nearby. They hadn''t seen anyone approach or sensed any magic fluctuations. Then, they heard a light chuckle, coming from a curious voice. "Oho, you noticed us even if your guards weren''t?" it asked, genuinely curious at Xander''s abilities. Xander shyly smiled, saying, "Hehe, my uncle taught me a trick or two concerning detection, hehe." The moment he said these words, the area in front of him slowly twisted, revealing the figure of 4 people, surprising and alerting the guards outside and inside the villa. However, before they could do anything, Xander raised his hand, signaling them to stand down; and stand down they did, returning to their normal positions. He then gestured to the sages the door, giving enough space for them to enter. "Please enter, ancestors." The 4 began to file in, heading inside into the living room. They saw that place was quite normal and spacious, typical of a villa design house in Eteria. They didn''t see any clues that would indicate that the interior style came from other empires and the like. They were low-key releasing their magic perception, and realized that they couldn''t bypass through the walls or floors; heck, even the windows are also blocking their perception from extending outside. They were surprised. When they began to focus their magic perception on the walls and floors, they realized that there was a thick, unknown material between the surfaces. Of course, these sages wouldn''t recognize the new material that Xander had replaced the place with. It was a unique alloy mixture of his own, created after gathering data from different empires that he had visited in the past 3 weeks. It was a ratio of Varmuth, Adamantis, Zycolith, and Hemesith metals, combined and further refined, before being combined with the housing. However, this was the first alloy. Another alloy added to it was the Barlith-Pazril-Carlict-Harzin, which has the magic perception and penetration immunity. The walls outside of the villa had a different metal alloy composition, using only the Barlith-Pazril-Carlict-Harzin alloy. However, the change in concentration allowed it to increase the range of its effect, and since the walls were enclosing the villa area, it allowed a complete resonance coverage, efficiently blocking anything related to magic perception and penetration. It didn''t block him from using [Divine Eyes] though, and Xander could actually see the waves that were formed from the metal alloys resonating in the villa; they were quite plain, with a color of white light. The sages who were still observing the metallic material in the walls were caught off their stupor hearing Xander''s voice once again. "Ancestors, please follow me to the foyer. The view of the garden is quite exquisite and would be a great place to discuss anything you might want to discuss." Xander said to them, his voice cordial and respectful to the elders, but was also showing his control of the place. The sages, whether they noticed it or not, followed Xander to the foyer. Truly, Xander didn''t lie. The garden was flourishing, as he had added different plants from other exoplanets that he had visited (albeit removing microorganisms of course), and grew them in his villa garden. There were different kinds of flowers arranged near the soft lawn grass, with well-spaced trees arranged and grown symmetrically to one another, with creeping vines and other kinds of plants, such as moss, liverworts, shrubs, and ferns. In the small artificial pond, there were some green and red algae growing, as well as some water-based plants. Originally, their faces were calm, as they had nothing much to expect with the garden. However, it slowly changed because they saw the fruits produced by trees and other kinds of plants. All of them were class 8 plant materials!! They recognized some species of plants, as Varmin and Carolyn had explored different empires more than the other two. They were plants that are indigenous in these empires and usually weren''t used to produce usable plant materials by Magibiopharmacists. How extravagant is it to use common plants to the point that they managed to collect and gain spirituality? What kind of environment would they require to reach at least a million years of age? Xander, upon seeing their reactions, acted accordingly, asking with a child-like curiosity. "Oh, Ancestors, you seem to like the garden arrangement?" "It''s quite beautiful. Well, they look quite¡­extravagant." Varmin responded, his voice a bit awkward. "Oh that''s quite true. My uncle placed them here for me to eat the fruits they produce. According to him, they''re quite delicious, and I have to agree on that statement!" Xander exclaimed, his face looking like he was remembering the taste of the fruits. "Oh, so you eat the fruits every day?" It was Carolyn who asked weirdly, and the two ancestors from Cloverfield and Morningstar looked at Xander in the same way as well. They weren''t stupid, and they could feel the elemental concentration in those fruits. They could estimate it was greater than 1 million years of age! "Yup, since school started. They do taste immaculate. I like it when I make a fruit salad with these. Just perfect in taste." Xander responded childishly, smacking his lips. Actually, the correct age for the plants with fruits produced in this garden that they saw were 9,999,999 years of age, the highest quality for Class-8 plant materials. Xander had to rush making this early this Sunday, changing the time flow to 1 second: 19 years in the garden, allowing it to reach 9,999,999 years yesterday. He then canceled the time acceleration, and forced the plants in the garden to absorb the dense amount of elements in the area, purifying their forms, turning to a crystallized state before returning to normal. The fruits were technically Class-8s, but the plants themselves were Class-9s. Under the eyes of the sages, Xander went to the garden and plucked several tens of fruits, arranging them on a plate, and then placed it on the foyer table styled quite fancily, but actually contained the same material as the walls and floors of the villa. Even the chairs were also reinforced the same way. "Please, ancestors, sit down, and eat." Upon hearing Xander''s words, the sages weren''t ashamed to sit down and began to take a fruit and take a bite. Immediately, a fresh sensation flowed from the fruit into their mouths and throats, exciting the cells of their body. As they continued to devour the fruits, the effect changed as well. Some were cooling, moisturizing their mouths and throats, some were warm and carried a hint of spice and burn, while some had an earthy taste. They closed their eyes to savor the flavor. Xander calmly took a bite of the fruits, chewing them as usual. Truthfully, these didn''t have much effect to him except for recovering magic energy and the flavor. Cultivation wise, it didn''t bring about any changes, which quite confused him, since when the same fruits were given to Faykes, he was able to increase the age of his foundation. After a few minutes of silent eating, with only the sound of munching of their mouths echoing the tranquil garden, Xander asked the important question to the four. "May I ask, what''s the purpose of your visit to my villa?" It was silent. Moments later, it was Hailey who answered his question. "Xander, you might not know me, but I''m one of the ancestors of the Cloverfield family, your father''s ancestor. We came here to talk about a person you might be familiar with: he goes with the name of Homer Simpson." "Ah! You mean Uncle Homer? How is he? He just left yesterday when the whole sky suddenly turned dark and everything." Xander asked, his voice containing curiosity and a hint of concern. The other sages looked at one another before staring at Xander, who cocked his head to the side, puzzled with their looks. It was Hailey who cleared her throat and introduced these people one by one to Xander, who nodded respectfully to these people, but generally non-plussed. The sages were genuinely confused by Xander''s reactions. Generally, if someone would hear that a sage-class cultivator is going to visit them, either they would be in fear, in happiness, or in reverence. Clearly, Xander didn''t fit in any of these molds and was just cordial to them. They held their curiosity and came directly down to business. "Xander, we just want to know when you started meeting with your Uncle Homer." Varmin asked Xander, the latter then furrowed his eyebrows, squinting his eyes. After a few seconds, he responded, his voice quite unsure. "Hmm, around 6 years ago? It was just after my 2nd birthday if my memory serves me correctly. He appeared in my room, and began to teach me a lot of stuff!" "Oh? What kind of stuff, Xander?" Margus asked, curious. Xander looked at him, his face having the look of a child attempting to look serious. "A lot of things! He explained things to me about the elements and stuff, and even information concerning cultivation." "Ah, I see¡­ do you know why he came to look for you, Xander my boy?" Carolyn asked gently, her eyes attempting to see into the near future, but failing to do so, as all she saw was a heavy white fog covering everything. ??Hmm¡­ no. He''s just a friendly uncle to me, giving me presents and stuff. Why? Is Uncle Homer ok?" I asked, my voice worried about ''his'' safety. Hailey, seeing him, couldn''t help but her motherly instincts to activate, soothing Xander. "There, there child, the man you call uncle is safe. However, we are not sure if he plans to return here again in the near future." "Oh¡­ yeah, uncle Homer does that, disappearing for months and then appearing again. It''s good that his safe, hehe." Xander said jovially, his mouth wide, forming a smile. It was these subtle actions that Xander was able to influence the emotional states of these sages. A few social cues here, dramatic voice there, poof! We got a good scene. The sages continued to ask trivial questions, but they were layered with pitfalls that Xander had to quickly avoid. For example, he was asked if he knew what the fruits he had served to them. When Carolyn began to explain the fruits incorrectly, he noticed that there seemed to be something eying him, checking for the tiniest fluctuations in his emotion and thoughts. Inwardly, Xander rolled his eyes. These were quite petty tricks, but for the sake of acting, he had to ''look serious'' and agreeing with what Carolyn had said about the plants'' nature and origin like he truly had no idea where these came from. He was getting a bit impatient though because they kept doing the same tactic with different variations. He just wanted to snap at them because he felt they were wasting his time. This continued on until lunch. When it was lunchtime, Xander ate a few of his favorite cooked dishes, while the sages began to communicate with one another using magic perception. "What do you think? Everything fits, doesn''t it?" "Yes. We can be assured that our descendant has nothing to do with the recent events." "Hmm, I still feel something is off." "Why do you say that, Carolyn? Margus detected that the emotions and feelings exhibited by Xander were normal." "It''s just that, can''t you agree that he''s just too calm about the situation?" "That''s because we don''t know if that Homer Simpson had exposed Xander to places outside Eteria, where he could have met cultivators like us or even stronger cultivators." "Maybe, the child was then called to witness killing people that he basically learned to control his emotions?" "That''s too far-fetched, Carolyn. Face it, he''s innocent in this." "However, do you think he is the person that Homer Simpson is looking for the past 7 years?" "Highly possible." "Yup, most likely it is him." "Then doesn''t it make sense if he would return here in the future, then?" "¡­that''s a possibility. Or maybe, he already imprinted the information to Xander''s mind of where to meet him?" "That''s most likely the case. But didn''t we ask this question already and saw that he wasn''t lying?" "Hmm, maybe the information will only reveal itself once Xander reaches a certain level of cultivation? There are spells that lie dormant like that." "True, true. So should we end the questioning and leave already? After all, the necessary information had been gathered already. We also have a profile of that Homer Simpson. We just needed to look an eye out on the empires we reside in if he pops up in the radar." "Agreed. Let''s inform the other sages as well." The conversation happened within a span of two minutes, and Xander was just about to eat his dessert when the ancestors all stood up, causing him to stand up as well, and look at them confusingly. It was Hailey who explained the situation to Xander. "Xander, thank you for your time. However, we have important matters to attend to, so we have to leave now." "Oh¡­ Ok! Goodbye, Ancestors! Stay safe!" Xander was ''dazed'' momentarily, before thumping his chest, a form of salutation to them. They all nodded back, and immediately left the villa, flying up in the sky. For the next few minutes, Xander continued to eat, ''acting'' like he didn''t know the Sages were still eying him high above in the air. Jokes on them though, Xander really just wanted to eat food. For the next 30 minutes, that was what he all did, and soon, the sages for real left the area. Confirming nothing was left in the area, Xander finished up eating and headed into the living room, planning to relax and watch some series in Metflix. It was a chill Saturday for Xander, a bit surprising, but everything came to its rightful place in the end, anyway._____________________After the short visit, the sages have begun leaving the planet en masse, rising high up into the starry space beyond the planet, their destinations unknown. The contents of their conversation were not privy to the members of their families and clans, so no one knew what they had in plan. Xander looked up in the darkening sky, seeing the numerous sages flying upwards like comets in the wide space. He didn''t care much about them, but at least he could go back to his normal life for now. He visited his laboratory and Eden, enjoying his time spent inside these places. He took his time exploring the revamped Laboratory, spending a total of 144,000 years inside or 2 hours outside. The planets and other stars were forming nicely, but he didn''t have the patience to explore the area. What he did, however, was read through the research and projects of the Cerulean and Helennic empires, allowing him to test them out in a span of 144,000 years. However, it was roughly 1/4th of the papers, because some of the projects were going to take too long. 95 POV: Making Magic Artifacts Once in the villa, I went to Eden first, starting the daily routine of talking and communicating with these sprites and magic beasts. Thank goodness multiple mirror images could be remotely controlled by me simultaneously. I then fought a couple of tens of rounds with the strongest sprites and magic beasts in the garden, using them as practice yet at the same time, experiencing their understanding of their respective elements. After saying my farewells, I headed out and into the laboratory. I didn''t plan to eat dinner in the villa, so I told the twins not to prepare any. I had a more interesting matter at hand to focus on: Magic artifact creation. I had been quite curious on how I should proceed in creating magic artifacts, whether natural or man-made magic artifacts. At least now, I had a large database to read on about magic artifact creation. "System, please arrange all information relating to magic artifact creation and information based on difficulty in terms of a layman." "Affirmative. Organizing¡­ organization complete. File sent to the communicator." Once I heard the robotic voice of the system, I immediately checked my communicator, where the documents, videos, and papers related to magic artifacts and creating them had been organized into neat folders and subfiles. Ok, let''s delve to this shit. ¡­ ¡­ \u003cMagic Artifacts: What are they?\u003e \u003cMagic Artifacts for Dummies\u003e \u003cCategories of Magic Artifacts\u003e ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ \u003cRevisiting Magic Artifacts: Facets and aspects of focus\u003e \u003cCreating Magic artifacts for beginners\u003e \u003cTechniques on Magic artifact creation\u003e ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ \u003cChicken soup for the soul: Magic artifact and the issue of ethics\u003e \u003cCreating Magic artifacts for intermediates\u003e \u003cNatural vs Man-Made: Which is stronger?\u003e \u003cTechniques on Magic artifact creation\u003e ¡­ Time passed, and it had been 144,000 years, allowing him to gain enough proficiency from a total novice to a Grandmaster magic artificer¡­ in the theoretical foundation. All production profession on material synthesis (magic artificers, smiths, and magic engineers) share the same ranking system by the following terminologies: Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, Ancestor, and Artisan. Novice = Can bring out at most, 10% more of the original power. Beginner = Can bring out at most, 20%. Intermediate = Can bring out at most, 35% Advanced = Can bring out at most, 50% Expert = Can bring out at most, 90% Master = Can bring out at most, 100% Grandmaster = Can bring out at most, 110% more of the original power. Ancestor = Can bring out at most, 150% more of the original power Artisan = Can bring out at most, 200% more of the original power To actually test how much I can bring out of my magic artifacts, I need to actually start producing them. Let''s try crafting, hmm¡­ how about a magic wand? For the materials, I''ll just use [Materialized Future] and [Materialized Past], allowing me to bring back the bodies of dead sage magicians and below. Sadly, I can''t bring back the bodies of God cultivators, as they disconnected with the main universe already, connected to their own, newly-formed universes. Pity. Oh well, the others will do. Ok, let''s get thousands of dead bodies from a war or a battlefield then¡­ According to the history of Nemean, Helennic, and Cerulean empires, they had participated in several small, medium, and large-scale wars respectively, obtaining victory, albeit with a cost of cultivators'' lives. Where were the battlefields located¡­ aha! Found them. Ok, years¡­ hmm, let''s go to the furthest first, 40 million years ago. "[Materialized Past], activate! 40 million years ago, coordinates¡­" Immediately, the space in front of me started to shimmer, and the figures of different bodies at their broken states appeared. There were roughly 500,000 bodies with cultivations of Demigod to Sage class, with most of them being in the Demigod class. I looked at the bodies, quite surprised with the effect of the spell. I had thought the item being materialized would be in pristine condition. It seems it just send them to the current time in how they were at that exact moment, huh? After the general inspection, I tried doing time reversal in the remains, basically attempting to control the time of the bodies in their current state, to the state they were in before they died. After a few seconds, the broken bodies were rapidly absorbing the elements around it, restoring itself to its previous state of health, albeit the presence of their respective life-essence dolls were still gone. Seeing everything going well, I took a sigh of relief. Should I try this time living bodies, then? The risk is that they might have control over the magic artifacts made from their bodies if they''re still alive now. Hmm¡­ Let''s check first if it''s doable. I attempted to get a living Divine-9 magician 36.7 million years ago. According to what I saw, he was still alive now, but his surroundings were quite unfamiliar. The space in front of me shimmered once again, and the body of that sage magician appeared in front of me. However, I noticed a problem: The life essence in its body was attempting to connect to the one in the present time period. Uh, uh, no sir. I immediately disposed of the body by attacking the small traces of life essences in it, extinguishing them completely. He then surrounded it with [Spatial collapse], crushing it completely into a paste, before forming a reddish sphere. My eyes widened. I did not expect it to produce the same product that I had gotten from the Legendary magician who was subjected to a similar spell. I took the red orb, and checking if it was the same, I chucked it in the spatial storage I had. Ok, since the experiment failed, let''s begin with magic artifact creation! _________________ 10 years later. I was guiding my fingers, tapping on the air, and in front of me was a circular container filled with different materials and solutions that were slowly homogenizing to one another. This was my 30th artifact making. The first one was quite easy for me, as it involved mixing metals, plant materials, and some ores and elemental crystals. I fashioned a simple, black ring whose sole purpose was to create an area where all elements are directly absorbed by the ring and converted for usage to the owner. However, its restriction was that it can only be used once a day, and people would jump twice randomly within 24 hours of using. Based on the ranking for artifacts, the one I produced was a Class 8, the second-lowest rank after Class 9. Based on the database, the strongest magic artifact that the Cerulean empire had was a Class-4 artifact, which reportedly had the power of a God class cultivator. I was quite confused why the ranking scheme was as such, then I realized, maybe there are artifacts stronger than God class in the Great Void? I continued to make more artifacts using different combinations of materials, producing tens of Class 8 artifacts and one Class 7 artifact. I didn''t use any of the remains for now, as I needed to practice. It was my current one that I finally integrated the body of the demigod in the mixture. It took a long time for it to melt into the solution, roughly 2 years. Sheesh, I didn''t know that much time was needed for them to be processed. How long would a Divine corpse melt and mix with the solution? 5, 10 years? Anyway, all I had to do now is integrate it by visualizing the artifact I wanted, and building the formation using the solution. Ok, since the body came from a Wood and Poison magician, let''s make it into a vial that can produce healing or poisonous products. Make the vial carry at least 500 mL, but spatially, it looks like it can only hold 10 mL. Let''s make the healing and poisonous product be as potent as a Class 7 wood and life element fruit. After roughly 10 hours, the liquid solution was quickly solidifying, creating a transparent glass vial. I had to infuse space elements into it so that the modifications I wanted can happen. Dunno what the other effects would then be, though. After another hour, the whole thing glowed momentarily before returning to normal, signaling that the item had been completely formed. I began to analyze the power of the artifact¡­ huh, just a Class 7. Well, that''s ok. It''s a practice, after all. I was initially expecting low-grade Class 6 to be honest, with the materials I placed in addition to the remains. Oh well, let''s get to work, I told myself. For the next 100,000 years, that was all I did. Wake up, read the materials and watch the videos, and brainstorm for artifact ideas, create an initial draft, initialize creation. It took me around 5-10 years per Class 7 artifact, depending on the number of demigod remains I used. It took me around 10-50 years per Class 6 artifact, depending on the ratio and amount of Divine remains I used to that of external materials. It took me around 100-250 years per Class 5 artifact, depending on the ratio and amount of Sage remains that I used to that of the external materials while configuring its function. I made a total of 10,000 Class 7 magic artifacts, 6,000 Class 6 magic artifacts, and 1262 Class 5 magic artifacts. One of my creations was a Class 5 special pantry that can dispense magic beast remains, sentient lifeform products, and sprite origins from Master to Demigod rank. Applying [Origin Universe], [Materialized Past], and [Pocket Dimension], the pantry can receive the input of what being is required and produce the targeted being from the past, before placing the being in stasis and stored in the compartment to recover any physical damage to the product. At the moment, it was filled to the brim with the current list of magic beasts, sentient lifeforms, and sprite origins. I couldn''t wait what recipes the twins would be able to cook from the repertoire of cooking materials. I also upgraded the backpack I bring to school, allowing me to block all attacks within a certain radius under the Sage-7 stage. At the same time, it can contain living creatures below the Sage-4 stage, as it can hold roughly 30,000 cubic kilometers worth of space, roughly 31.1 kilometers in length, width, and height. It also isolates non-living from living materials, making the two non-interactable, which was good news. I didn''t want to capture a rare beast and see that it ate everything I placed inside the bag as well. I stood up from my current location and saw that there were so many artifacts scattered around. I''m left in a dilemma. What should I do with these artifacts? Sell them? Well, I could auction them. I''ll do that the next time I head to the Galactic Empire. For now, let''s organize them into a drawer and put labels on each artifact. This took around 7 days, and after placing them in separate drawers per class, he stretched a bit and observed the trees growing in the 9 planets, checking for any anomalies. 96 POV: Creating Some Elixirs Strangely, the planets were quite calm and balanced. The 3rd planet that contained Trees of Destruction was barren, with nothing but the 3 trees growing. For the 8th planet, it was quite chaotic to navigate; space-time in the area was screwed up, where time shifts to a different speed in one step and the space becoming confusing, with the points and intersections mixing up or not even existing, creating impossible spaces and even improbable situations to occur in the planet itself. However, it was a good experience for me, since I can meditate more on the duality of space-time from Order and Chaos elements. On the 1st planet, there were 3 of each type of tree, making it quite¡­ colorful. If you look at it from one perspective, one can say there is a semblance of order; in other, one can say it is chaotic in nature. The trees where Order, Evolution, Dream, and Chaos resided grew weird, mutated plants and metals, and even microorganisms on the planet were not spared. The trees where Creation, Destruction, Life, and Dimension resided were relatively stable, with the area of the Trees of Destruction being empty, and space where Destruction and Life met forming some sort of organism. All the trees, with the exception of Destruction trees, were growing flowers, meaning fruit production was possible, meaning, seed production. Yes, no need to destroy stuff too much, haha. Relatively, what I found out with my current arrangement of the planets was that there was a delicate balance formed, and I should try to maintain that as much as possible until I get more concept seeds. This was the name I came up with for these kinds of seeds that completely embody the specific elements. Probably, there might be a Yin tree or a Yang tree, A fire, water, air, earth/metal, or wood tree, etc. However, from the research I had conducted for the past years inside the laboratory, I still couldn''t completely understand how these elements could even give birth to a tree that completely represented them. Maybe, the reason for the failure for clarity is my current comprehension? Damn, I''m really tempted to create a space seed then. Sigh. Oh well, I still have around 300 thousand years. I should start reading up and creating some elixir medicines as well. After all, I got the time now, hehe. Wow, what a corny joke. Oof, then again, I''m just a child. I can be guilt-free in making these cringey jokes, haha! Ok, serious mode. Let''s start reading and watching the materials. And that what I did for the next 144,000 years. I managed to read all the documents and methods of crafting elixirs. In fact, with my current knowledge accumulation, I could be considered an Ancestor-rank magibiopharmacist already. I just needed to put into practice what I read and watched for the past hundred thousand years to reach the standard of 75% increased success rate. I should start first a container to be heated, to place the necessary ingredients inside. Hmm, I should use the same pot I used to mix the artifact materials. I just modified the space around it to contain the ingredients, after all, and it is see-through so I can take note of what''s happening in real-time. Now for the flame, what flame should I use¡­ According to the research material, there were several types of flames used by magibiopharmacists, namely Mortal, Earth, Sky, Heaven, Immortal, and Universe flames, with Mortal being the most common, and the Universe is one of the best flames to use. Accordingly, the flames produced by normal tinder can be considered a Mortal flame. Earth flames would be the type of fire produced in the heart of volcanoes and areas of high concentrations of fire. Sky flames are flames produced by Fire sprites and the flames produced by the stars. Heaven flames are the flames that already contained nomological truths, like the Eternal Fire. For immortal and Universe flames, I have absolutely no idea where I could get those, as even in the records, these two were just theorized to exist. Oh well, got to make do with Heaven flames, then. It does give 15% increased success though. Using the calculations set, I would have a 91% success chance of crafting a 20-star elixir, its quality determined by the materials I use in making it. Ok, let''s try refining 1 star to 5 stars to get started. Preparing materials¡­ hmm, let''s use "Earthen Pill Elixir" and "Cloudy Mist Pill Elixir" recipes. The first recipe requires Class 2 or higher earth-type plant materials, as well as 30 grams of Carbonite metal and Herzick crystal, while the second recipe requires Class 3 or higher air-type and water-type materials, as well as 30 grams of Callite and Farmilz crystals in powder form. Both require a Bofram solution, a type of light water, as the solvent and binder. The first step is heating. The materials are heated in Bofram water, slowly dissolving them into the mixture. The time varies based on the number and quality of materials used, as well as the general, initial interactions the materials have with one another and with the solution. The second step is combining. After the heterogeneous mixture is formed, the next step is transforming it into a homogeneous mixture. By this time, the excess solution should have evaporated, leaving a purer concentration. This is usually the longest part, as it can take numerous processes to ensure homogeneity, such as mixing, pressure, and forcefully controlling individual particles to chain and connect to one another by the use of elemental control, forcing the interactions to occur between the materials and stabilize their forms. The third step is formation. After the homogeneous mixture has been achieved, the product is now subjected to spatial pressure, compressing any spaces between, and forcing the interactions of the molecules of the solution to link and form a stable, immobile structure. This is if one is forming a pill, and not an elixir solution. It took me 30 minutes to finish the two elixirs. I had a bit of a problem with the second step, causing me to delay for an additional 10 minutes, but this was easily resolved. I was glad though that even if it was a 1-star elixir, it was an Immaculate Quality. This meant that even if it was 1 star, it can show 2 stars above potency, so it was actually a 3 star. At the same time, the amount of elixirs produced is relative to the ratio of ingredients placed. Since I only placed enough for 1 pill to be formed each, only a total of 2 pills was created. I needed to maintain such quality with the pills I make, then. Let me try other higher stars this time. This process of refining and practicing pill formation took around 300,000 years. The first 1,000 years were focused on me getting 10 stars and below elixir pills and elixirs have the quality standard of Immaculate or higher. For every 10,000 years that came after, I focused on raising the quality standard of 11-star to 20-star elixir pills and elixir solutions to that of Perfect, and another 100,000 years to achieve Immaculate quality. Whenever I ran out of ingredients, I just used [Temporal Replication] and [Materialized Past] to create them back en-masse. The easiest way for me, however, to use these skills was to place the ingredients out in the laboratory, create a snapshot, and keep replicating it over and over again. The remaining 99,000 years was focused on refining the recipes, making weaker or stronger derivatives by combining recipes, replacing certain ingredients, or manipulating the amount per ingredient, adding elemental crystals into the mix. This was where my 144,000 years of reviewing, reading, and watching resources related to magibiopharmacists came into play. Although the accumulated experience and knowledge solidified my rank as that of an Ancestor-level magibiopharmacist, I was still far away from becoming an Artisan, someone who is said to create high-quality, high-potency elixir pills and elixirs even by just using the simplest materials. I still have to rely on my materials'' quality, purity, and Class to improve the quality of the products produced. I stood up from my spot after a long period of sitting, stretching my arms out, and releasing a yawn. I feel sleepy since I haven''t slept for the past 99,000 years. I should harvest the plants before heading out of the laboratory. Oh, right, I also have to categorize and clean up the pills. After 10 days of categorizing and organizing them in my spatial pocket, I was amazed that I had managed to produce quite a lot of elixirs and elixir pills. 1-5 stars: 20 million pills, all of which were Immaculate quality. 6-10 stars: 50 million pills, all of which were Immaculate quality. 11-15 stars: 100 million pills, 20 million were Perfect, 80 million were Immaculate quality. 16-20 stars: 80 million pills, 60 million were Perfect, 20 million were Immaculate quality. I used up more than 300 million sets of materials to create this amount though. With 1 to 15 stars being always successful, my actual success rate was roughly 61.5% for 16 to 20 stars. What I should do is improve production quality ratio and success for 16 to 20 stars. Another sad thing was that I didn''t manage to produce any of the legendary stars elixirs, wherein the potency is greater than 750% of the original level of the materials used. I had only read of it, but even the descriptions were quite vague about how they were obtained in the first place. Oh well, maybe that''s what I''ll aim for as I go along. After a few hours of harvesting the plants and collecting the elemental crystals being produced in different environments in the 9 planets, I did a general scan of the laboratory. The radius of the laboratory was currently 1.12e+15 light-years, with the origin point being the 9 planets and the star they circled around. There were hundreds of planets already finished forming, and more and more were continuously being formed. However, it is unsure if all planets would develop life, or will they all be dead and barren. I left the laboratory after ensuring everything in the space was in order, with the ordered system working and functioning properly and as intended. When I appeared in my basement door again, it was already 8 pm. I decided to eat some fruits along with the fermented wine and headed to sleep. After all, classes began tomorrow. 97 POV: Xanders Trades - Ete Eta country, Xander''s villa, noontime, Sunday. I languidly stretched my body, lying down and facing the sun. The air was quite cool in contrast to that sunlight hitting my body. I was wearing my shorts and was just basking under the sun in the garden, relaxing my day. I finally dealt with those pesky sages. Mom and dad were being a bit annoying and cringey earlier. At least I managed to eat mom''s cooking though. I also left some instructions to Jacks just before Danes sent me back to the villa. Oh well, for now, I just want to relax¡­ Wait, I almost forgot, do I still have enough money? I have been spending lavishly for the past few months, after all, mostly on food ingredients. Do I have to sell another batch of materials and plant materials? I checked my active bank account, and from the original 350 million Etas, there were roughly 1.5 million left. Damn, I''m quite poor. Eh, fine, I''ll contact some of the auction houses and sell some plant materials and magic beast byproducts. In the whole of Eteria, there were 3 Auction houses that can be considered to have a monopoly in that market. Most of the small and medium markets, both legal and illegal, are controlled by these three auction houses. There were three groups in charge of this: The Whitefield Clan, the Fujiwako Conglomerate, and the Pankaj Conglomerate. The Whitefield clan operated in the Ete continent and the nearby archipelagos, while the Fujiwako conglomerate''s power was focused in one-third of the Ria continent and the entirety of the Yggdras continent. The Pankaj conglomerate, on the other hand, had control of two-thirds of the Ria continent, and the nearby archipelagos. Each had their own specialty, with the Whitefield focusing on metals, magic artifacts, and plant materials, Fujiwako focusing on magic artifacts, sprite essences, and exotic plant materials, while the Pankaj conglomerate focused on elixir pills and elixirs, magic artifacts, and plant materials. I decided to contact Pankaj and Whitefield houses first, since both his families had ties to them. After setting up a meeting time, I headed to the Whitefield Auction House first, located in Hargroove City In the Alpha province. Of course, I teleported into the vicinity of the city''s outskirts, then calmly headed inside after scanning my watch into the terminal gate, indicating my identity as an Eta citizen. I then headed quickly to the Whitefield auction house, which was around 2 kilometers away from the main gates. After 15 minutes of brisk walking and a bit of spatial manipulation, I reached the house very quickly and entered. As what one would expect, the auction house was old-style lavish, where the materials they used to decorate the interior would only be recognized by the truly rich and avant-garde. There was a circular counter with 3 people inside, each one doing something different/ I immediately headed to one of the available people, who had quite a friendly and courteous smile. "Hello, Child. Why are you here? Are you lost? Do you need help?" I wanted to laugh out loud at his remarks, but I felt that was a bit too rude so I shook my head and said with my child-like voice, "Hello. I have an appointment with Glaucia Whitefield. My name is Xander Cloverfield." "A-ah! I-I see I am sorry if my words offended you earlier. Please wait as I check the system." The man said awkwardly before he began to type on the touch terminal on the counter, checking with the personal secretary of Ms. Glaucia about any meetings. "Oh? Mr. Cloverfield is there already? Immediately send him to one of our top VIP rooms, quick! Be courteous!" the secretary''s message was quite striking for the man, as he had never seen the secretary treat someone the same as this kid. However, he dared not to disobey. "Mr. Cloverfield, your appointment has been confirmed and clarified. Ms. Whitefield will meet with you shortly in one of our VIP rooms; if you could please follow me." The man said, bowing in a 90-degree form at me, who just nodded in response. In less than a minute, I was led to the 3rd floor using the elevator, wherein there were three rooms that made up the entire floor. I was led to the 1st room, wherein there was already a set of refreshments and snacks available. The man gestured me to take a seat anywhere I found comfortable. I sat on the sofa that was in front of the small coffee table positioned in the center. The man, seeing I was relaxed, said respectfully, "Mr. Cloverfield, Ms. Whitefield will be here shortly. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to ring me up in the communicator on the sofa armrest. My name is L¨¦onide, at your service." L¨¦onide then bowed before heading to the door, closing it silently. Huh, that was the first time I saw this helper in the auction house. I wonder what happened to Mar? She was quite clumsy when she escorted me here last time. I tasted the drinks available, and they weren''t quite to my liking. Instead, I brought out my fermented fruit wine and poured myself a small cup, letting the wine soak into the cup for a while, whirling it gently. I then gulped the whole thing in one sip, refreshing my mouth and throat by the cool, yet burning sensation it brought about. After a few minutes of waiting, the door opened again, revealing a familiar face, one that I haven''t seen for more than half a year. A young, proud teenage girl dressed in a suit was visibly standing at the doorway after the door had closed, intently staring at my face, her eyes widening, and at the same time, a small grin could be seen on her face. I sighed, standing up and opening his arms, which the girl took as a sign to rush over and hug me intently. After a few seconds of hugging, I then said, "How are you doing, Glaucia? Ehh, your boobs haven''t increased in size at all, tsk tsk. Do you want me to give you some elixirs that can make them quite big?" I snickered at Glaucia, who just humphed and tried to knuckle her fists to the sides of my head. "Hmph, you little brat! For the past 8 months, no calls or texts, not even a hello, how are you via the communicator! Haiz, you brat!" "Fine, fine, I know what you want, a free product, right? I refined a few elixir pills, take them haiz." I said, stopping her midway as I already knew she was attempting to guilt-trip me. In fact, we actually met for business purposes around the new year''s, when I wanted to sell some metals and materials to have a fund to deposit to the bank. We had a lot to talk about, and I coincidentally met her when she was in need of assistance, which I gave in exchange for her services to process the metals and materials. I handed her two different bottles, eliciting confusion, anticipation, and shock from Glaucia. For one, she could sense the power the pills contained, even if it were isolated by the specially-made container. It was due to her unique physique that was quite suited to one who works in an auction house, the Demetria Physique. It can detect all magical and elemental fluctuations within a certain range, allowing the owner to determine the power and quality of a certain item, spell, or in my case, my abilities no matter what form of defense was layered to cover these fluctuations. If she was being bombarded by several attacks, she would immediately know which one was the weakest and target that area to find a way out. I remember when she first saw me, she was quite abnormally shocked, to the point that she almost fainted. I had to reverse her time to restore her to her peak state so that I could converse with her. Of course, the limitations of this physique was that their lifespans were cut in half. If a Master magician had around 800 years, Glaucia only had 400 years. If a legendary could have up to 3000 years, she would only have 1500 years, and so on. Only once she formed her own universe could she break free from this restriction of her physique, while maintaining the abilities of her physique. However, I already managed to resolve the problem of my body''s power being detected by using a technique called Layering. This was the continuous cloaking of my body''s magic and elemental fluctuations with the origin elements around my body, then layered with [Absolute Defense], giving the owner of the physique a false understanding of my powers. "E-ehem, eh, Xander dearest, what do these pills do, actually?" Glaucia asked, quite content and very curious about what I gave her. She calmed herself down and sat opposite to Xander, making herself a cup of tea. She didn''t dare touch the fermented fruit wine, because she actually saw the powerful elemental fluctuations that were contained the bottle. "Oh, the first set of pills can add 1000 years worth of lifespan, with a limit of 2 pills per being," I said nonchalantly, causing Glaucia to spit her tea into my direction. I raised my eyebrow and the stream of tea stopped mid-air, before falling down to Glaucia''s teacup. "Sheesh, Glaucia, how unlady-like." "You''re not joking, right? These pills really can extend the lifespan of anyone who takes it for a thousand years?" Glaucia asked, her voice barely able to contain her excitement. Such items were truly worthy of being auctioned. In fact, it''s quite possible that she would have a greater say in the family once she successfully handles a transaction this big! "Glaucia, my friend, why would I joke concerning such matters? This is just an 18-star version of the pill Abundant Will elixir, its quality at the Immaculate level. The original 15-star version can only increase the lifespan by 500 years, but this was made using Class 8 materials you know, improving the potency and quality." "I-I see. How much do you plan to sell these items?" Glaucia stuttered for a bit, before regaining her calm and professional side. "Well, since you are a trusted friend, that pill bottle is an apology of mine to you. It''s up to you how to use it. The second bottle, however, is what I''m asking you to sell." "Then I won''t hold back. Thanks, Xander. Concerning the other set of pills, you mean this one? These pills seemed weaker than the ones you just gave me," Glaucia questioned, quite confused. I merely smiled before saying, "Foundation Compression Pills. Those pills would allow the user to gain 333 years'' worth of foundation. They can only eat 3 pills at most, allowing them to gain 999 years'' worth of spell foundation. The number of pills in that bottle is exactly 60 pills. I want you to sell it in pairs, with the last 12 pills being sold in threes." When Glaucia heard what I said, she looked at me with her shocked face, a face that seemed to me that no one has ever seen before. For a few seconds, she was speechless, causing me to wave my hand in front of her face, asking, "Hellooo? You there?" "¡­I can offer you a direct purchase of these pills for a price of 4.4 million per pill, a total of 264 million Etas. If I purchase it, I plan to use it internally and it wouldn''t be auctioned. Are you alright with that?" "Eh? Just 264 million Etas? Can you make it higher? Pwetty pwease?" I asked, using my charm and looks to persuade Glaucia. Of course, even though she was just a Master-3 magician at age 18, she was able to detect the elemental fluctuations and guard against it. I pouted, seeing that she was being stubborn at the price. "Che. You''re no fun. Ok, I''m fine with that price. I''ll send you the bank account to transfer the money to." "Sure." "Ok, now that the initial offerings are complete, let''s talk about my actual purpose this time. I''m willing to sell to your auction house 300 tonnes of Hevrs metal with a purity of 98%, each kilo being 3 million Etas worth, roughly 900 billion Etas." Seeing the surprised look once again in her face, I continued to speak, not letting her butt in. "I know that your current family''s liquidated assets amounted to around 23 trillion Etas, so I''m assured you would find this price satisfactory. After all, you know how precious this metal is in different fields of space travel research, supercomputing, military weaponry, and magic artifact creation," I said to her, with a grin plastered on my face. This amount would surely be enough for me to stay afloat for a period of time. Although it was worthless in Galaxy coins, it was enough for his current use on the planet. After a few seconds, Glaucia shook her head, saying, es in my smartwatch communicator. "I don''t have the capacity to decide. I''ll have to call the elders of the family concerning this matter. Can you wait for around 30 minutes? Hopefully, this would be quickly resolved," she asked, looking at me. I thought about it for a moment before agreeing. After all, this was a large deal for her family. Even if their assets combined were worth more than a hundred trillion Etas, 0.9 trillion Etas would still be a noticeable sum. Glaucia stood up and headed outside of the room, and for the next 30 minutes, I was merely stuck in the VIP room, looking around and at the same time, playing games on my phone. After a few moments, the door opened once again, and Glaucia entered, her face vibrant and with a smile. "Xander, the elders have agreed with the proposal. As soon as you can produce the metals, the deal will be completed." "Oh, that''s great, I have it in my bag." I immediately dumped 300 tonnes of Hevrs metal into the floor, surprising Glaucia. However, the collapse of the floor she was expecting did not happen, confusing her once again, before realizing something was different from the VIP room. "You¡­ Xander, did you modify the room? I feel there''s something different with the elemental fluctuations we had initially placed in the rooms." "Wow, you could even discover that? Your abilities are really enviable, Glaucia. Yeah, I modified it a bit, changing the gravitation of the room for non-living materials. As long as it has no life, it has no weight. Pretty cool, huh?" I explained, a bit proud. "¡­" Glaucia didn''t know what to say. "Anyways, as usual, sign the non-disclosure contract," I said, and before she could even respond, I waved my hand, revealing a paper in front of her to sign with her blood essence. Glaucia was familiar with this procedure and checked the clauses, and seeing that nothing was amiss, she signed it. Immediately, magic and elemental energy began to stir from the surroundings. "Quick, absorb the energy to reinforce your foundation, or integrate your master rank spells already to breakthrough!" I shouted, causing her to snap out of her stupor and began to control the energy coursing into her body. After 30 minutes, the surroundings calmed down. Glaucia opened her eyes, her power rising up by 2 ranks, reaching Master-5. 98 POV: Xanders Trade - Ria "Once again, your contracts amaze me," Glaucia says dazedly at me. I shrugged. I just felt it was equal reciprocity, after all. "Eh, they''re nothing special. Now, since the deal has been completed, complete the transfer already; I still need to go to another auction house." "Hmmm? Another auction house?" Glaucia said dangerously, a glint appearing in her eyes. I rolled my eyes, and explained, "Uh, yeah, in Ria continent. I''m in a rush." "¡­Fine. The deal has been completed. The total amount for this transaction is 1.164 trillion Etas. Following taxation laws in Eta, the final amount is 989.4 billion Etas." "Transfer has been completed. Thank you once again, Mr. Cloverfield, for such a bountiful reward." Glaucia spoke, her voice flat. Upon checking the bank, it was really transferred, I nodded in response and waved goodbye. "No worries. By the way, if you plan to sell the pills, make sure you tell them it was made by the Chronicler, ok? I need the clout for my name to grow in the elixir-making field! Now, just make sure you massage your boobs so they''ll grow ok? They''re really still flat as a piece of cardboard, sigh." I said carelessly as I left through the door, and as I closed it, I felt it vibrate with something being thrown at it. Haha, I already reinforced it. Ok, Let''s go now to Ria. Hopefully, the deal would be better. I immediately teleported to one of the cities of Castille, Celade city located in Red province. Pankaj conglomerate could be said to be very business and cultivation-oriented, so they just suited my products being sold and then auctioned by them, having their auction houses spread in almost every country in the Ria continent. I headed to the auction house owned by the conglomerate and was still amazed at the differences between two different auction houses. Pankaj auction houses focused on reliability, defense, and practicality in design, totally opposite to that of the Whitefield auction houses. There were around 3 other people in the lobby beside me, and there was only one main counter, but there were only 2 people sitting behind the counter, a male dwarf and a female elf. I was surprised that the two weren''t fighting, and were even joking around with one another. Didn''t the two races hate one another? When I approached the counter, it was the female elf who greeted me gently, saying, "Hello there, child. Are you lost? Do you need any assistance?" I inwardly rolled my eyes before smiling at her, saying, "Hi, I have a meeting with Mr. Senna Nov¨¢k for today. My name is Xander Cloverfield." "A-ah, I see, please, wait for a moment." The lady said, a bit flustered before she began to contact the secretary of Mr. Nov¨¢k concerning any meetings set-up for today for a Mr. Cloverfield. Immediately, the secretary responded, "Quickly, send him to the Private VIP room! Be courteous and tell him that Mr. Nov¨¢k would go in the room in a moment!" Upon seeing the response written by the secretary, the female elf sweat for a bit. After all, she even called a VIP guest a child?? Just her luck. She gave a traditional smile and said to me, "Sir, your meeting had been confirmed, and Mr. Nov¨¢k will meet you in one of our private VIP rooms. If you could please follow me." I nodded and followed behind the elf, heading to the elevator. We arrived on the 4th floor, wherein there were only 2 rooms that made up the whole floor. The design in the VIP room was quite different from the rest of the auction house; it was almost similar in taste and design as the Whitefield''s auction house. Seeing me take a seat, the elf lady bowed, and then said, "Please feel free to call me if you have any requests or inquiries through the in-built communicator in the table. My name is Ayeriah." She then exited the room, closing the door gently behind her. I looked around, quite bored. I only knew Mr. Nov¨¢k through my mom''s connections. She said this person was trustworthy, and that he can keep secrets of his clients. Oh well, I won??t trust him until he signs the contract, though. After a few minutes, the door opened, revealing the figure of a man in his late 30s, not quite old but not quite young either. He had trimmed beard with his defined face having pronounced eastern features, totally different from Xander''s father. When he saw me, he smiled gently, saying, "Ah, Ms. Faria''s son, I presume? You''ve grown so fast!" "Hello, Mr. Nov¨¢k," I responded gently and politely. I could faintly detect his magic and elemental fluctuations, giving me a hint of his current cultivation: Demigod class. "Please, call me Uncle Senna. It feels weird that Faria''s son would call me a Mister, haha!" Nov¨¢k replied, chortling for a bit. I nodded, saying, "Ok, uncle Senna." "Ok, so, how are you doing? Are your mom and dad fine? I heard the news! It seems you''re going to be a big brother, eh? Aren''t you excited?" "My family and I are doing well, uncle Senna. Hopefully, no problems will occur during the delivery. Anyways, uncle, I hope to discuss a business trade with you." "That''s good to hear! Now, about your business trade, I''ve heard a bit about it from your mom. You plan to sell some plant materials and elixirs, correct?" "That''s right." "That''s fine and all, but you should know that we have standards concerning the materials being sold. For example, the-" "Uncle Senna, no worries. I can assure you that the items are highly satisfactory for your business group." I interrupted him, as I felt that it would take too much time if I planned to listen to his spiel about the things I already knew. "¡­Hmm, alright then. You can show me the items you want to sell to our auction house." Senna said after a short silence. I nodded, happy that he was able to change his mind. I then dumped the contents of my backpack into the center of the room. Out rolled 15 different bottles of varying colors and mixtures, as well as 3 bottles completely filled up with pills. When Senna saw these items, he could initially identify the estimated worth and cost of the items by his years of experience in the field. However, rather than come into a definite conclusion, he looked at me, asking for an explanation concerning the items. I calmly and slowly explained each of the items. "The 15 bottles that are currently filled up with a solution are collections of different elemental plant extracts from Class-8 plant materials. Each bottle contains 1 Liter or 20,000 drops of the extract, coming from different species of class 8 plants. The elements are Water, Ice, Blood, Fire, Lightning, Ash, Air, Cloud, Earth, Metal, Wood, Plant, Poison, Life, and Death." "The 3 bottles are 18-star, Immaculate-quality pills. The first pill bottle contains the pill [Foundational Compression]. It can increase the spell foundation of a Master magician by 300 years, and each one can take 2 pills in their life. Take more than that, their magic spells collapse, and their cultivation would be ruined. The second pill bottle, [Touch of Dahms], allows the user to recover from any injury completely within 3 seconds, effective up to the Divine-9 stage. They can only take a maximum of 3 pills every 7 days. If they attempt to take more than that, their lifespan will permanently be cut by 1 to 1,000,000 years, depending on the severity of their injuries. The last pill bottle contains [Eitran''s Tears], allowing someone in the Legendary class or higher to burst out an attack surpassing their current class, with a side effect of 10 years of their lifespan permanently cut. This is effective up to the Divine-3 stage, allowing them to demonstrate an attack equal to a Sage-1 being. They can only take this pill once every 14 days; if they take it again within that period, they''ll die after releasing the attack two classes higher than their current class. For any Divine magicians, if they take this twice, they will release a power equivalent to a Sage-3, then their essence stones will shatter, killing them completely. Each bottle contains 60 pills, and they have been refined by the same person, Chronicler. Their materials are also of the same class, which is Classes 7 and 8." "¡­" Senna was quiet, processing what I just said about the items I was selling him. These items could be considered as national assets! Pills that can improve one''s foundation without the expense of using up their youth, making the foundation of the magicians of a certain government, family, or conglomerate have a higher standard compared to others'' own, nurtured force. Pills that can recover any injury for any magician at Divine-9 and below. Not only can this attract the attention of the Divine powerhouses still in Eta, but it can also act as a security measure for these cultivators, making them more willing to act if the clan was in danger. Lastly, a pill that can burst out an attack 1 class higher than one''s current class; this was a great thing to take especially if one is in a chaotic environment in Eteria, or if one is fighting against another clan, conglomerate, or government. The magicians might not be able to take it twice in a row, but the suicide corps of some families and conglomerates would be quite interested in this feature of double dosing for twice the results. Luckily, I couldn''t hear his thoughts, or else I would have laughed at the remark about the last set of pills. Truly, the pills I sold him were substandard for me, keeping the 20-star goods to my friends and I. After all, I might benefit future enemies. Right now, I wasn''t sure if this friend of mom can be completely trusted. I wasn''t even sure if he was willing to sign the non-disclosure binding contract. It would be great if he did, so the deal can push through, but if it didn''t¡­ not too much loss for me, since I already made nearly a trillion Etas. After a few more seconds of silence, Senna spoke up, asking me some minor details about the products. I answered as completely as possible without delving too much on the production process. After all, I couldn''t tell him that I have a pocket dimension where I can train and completely have a dilated flow of time, can I? After a few minutes, Senna came to a decision. "Hmm, Xander, this sets of pills are quite interesting, and I''m willing to purchase them all upfront if you don''t want to entrust them for auctioning purposes." "Yep, Once you purchase it, I don''t care what you want to do with these items. However, I do have a simple condition for the deal to proceed: Please sign this non-disclosure binding contract, uncle Senna." After saying this, I pulled out a contract from the bag and handed it to Mr. Nov¨¢k, who didn''t reject it outright, but read the contents first. His eyes widened, since he saw that the clauses were quite strict on keeping confidentiality concerning me, the other party, as well as the penalties the contract entailed. "It''s quite¡­restrictive, but I have no issues with the contents of the contract since they''re all related to keeping your identity, the seller, a secret. How do I sign this contract?" "Thank you for understanding. Use your blood essence, uncle Senna, and sign your complete name." I pointed at the empty part where he was going to sign, in which he quickly signed. I hurriedly added, "Please be prepared on what''s going to happen next. I assure you, it is going to be beneficial for you." As I said this to him while he was giving me a confused look, He then realized the overwhelming power that was gathering around his body and the universe itself. His face turned blank, and his eyes closed on their own. His cultivation skill was running by itself, while still holding on the contract that was slowly being absorbed into his body. He was undergoing a rapid increase in the unity of his domain to the universe itself. All I could do was patiently wait for him to finish, just drinking my fruit wine while reading through the local news in Castille. After all, I needed my money, hey! After an hour of boredom, Mr. Nov¨¢k finally opened his eyes, his body, and presence more in unity with that of the universe. He probably ranked up once or twice, maybe? I don''t really care since the contract has been signed anyways. I smiled at the joyful expression plastered in his face. "Congratulations, uncle Senna. It seems you have broken through." "Thank you dear boy for this. No matter, I can keep everything about you a secret, even this transaction." I nodded, before casually asking, "Uncle, how about the price of the goods? What are you willing to offer for them?" "Ah! Right, yes." Mr. Nov¨¢k said, scratching his head. "Well, for the plant material essences you brought, there''s a total of 300,000 drops, and are from Class 8 plant materials. For every 10 drops, I''ll price it at 500,000 Camers, or roughly 550,000 Etas. So that''s around 15 billion Camers or 16.5 billion Etas. For the first set of pills, I''ll purchase all 60 pills for 180 million Camers, or 198 million Etas. For the second set of pills, I''ll purchase all 60 pills for 510 million Camers, or 561 million Etas. For the last set of pills, I''ll purchase all 60 pills for 1.44 billion Camers, or 1.584 billion Etas. That brings a total amount of 17.13 billion Camers or 18.843 billion Etas. After the 15% taxation placed, the total amount would be 16.016 billion Etas. Do you agree with this price, Xander?" He asked me, and I nodded. I also gave him the bank account number where he would transfer the payment. It wasn''t much, but then again, the quality of the pills I gave was not that good in the universal setting anyways. It might be a high value for the citizens of Eteria, but for me, they were failed products. "Alright, Transferring the amount to your bank account¡­ done." "Thanks. Nice meeting you, uncle Senna. Until next time." I said, after checking that the funds had been completely transferred to the bank account. I then had most of it rapidly transferred to different bank accounts, before coming into the real bank account that I had in Eta, all within a couple of seconds. After the transfer was complete, the records of the dummy accounts were wiped and then closed. I stood up from my seat and gave him a hug, who reciprocated with his own bear hug. Sheesh, I''m not a toy. Anyways, we talked for a bit and I then left the auction house. Seeing that no one was following me, I instantly headed to an abandoned alleyway and returned to Eta, back to my room. I then headed to relax in the garden for a while. 99 POV: James Investment Plans James looked around in his study room, a bit tired. It was weird, to be interrogated by your own ancestor, your family, about the situation, and you could only be vague about it as you signed a non-disclosure contract. James massaged his temples. He shook his head before focusing back on the documents in his projector. There were numerous things that had to be approved by him, especially concerning the product development of the portable magic reserves. According to his initial plan, he should be starting to develop 3 new products, expanding the product portfolio of the company. He had 3 initial products before school started: First was the creation of a portable supercomputer, one that weighs less than 1.5 kilograms. He based on the original runic writing schematics that the main quantum supercomputer servers were using but modifying it for a smaller, more compact quantum supercomputer. It would have decreased computing power, but it was portable. His second product was Flexifabric clothing that utilized unique magic energy from the user to change its general structure, allowing it to change to the design saved in its internal memory. This was to target those who are fashion-conscious and those that want to experiment in clothing design. They merely needed to upload a clothing design into the internal memory (one that isn''t copyrighted, non-illegally downloaded, or an original one) and the clothing would begin to change, fitting over the body of the user. To ensure that only the user can use it, they would have to register their magic energy signature into the internal memory and is non-editable anymore. Of course, he planned to produce more generations of this type of clothing by adding more features and the like. His 3rd initial product was a small, portable blaster the size of a hand. Basically, for self-protection and for a last moment ditch effort. He planned to create 3 generic models: Non-lethal but able to incapacitate (NL1), a stronger version of NL2, used by Legendary and Mythic Magicians, and L1, which can be lethal and be used by Legendary and Mythic Magicians. The blaster was to be charged by 108 complete cycles of the magician''s elemental energy, charging the very same battery that his company uses. The NL1 is generally designed for Master Magicians and below, as the batteries it used could handle up to 3 times their bodies'' magic energy capacity, giving them enough juice to launch 3 full-blown attacks (non-lethal) or charge themselves up with their stored energy. The NL2 uses the battery for military and adventurer use, thus suited for storing the magic energy of Legendary and Mythic magicians, able to store about 3 times their bodies'' magic energy capacity. It can be used to launch 3 full-blown attacks or charge themselves up with the stored energy. The L1, on the other hand, is the same as NL2 but can be used to kill, launching a magic energy burst towards the target, using up the complete charge. It has to use up everything in the battery because the whole thing is disposable; it basically creates a small-scale magic array within a few seconds on the target area, destroying the blaster and the battery to release the power 3 times the owner''s. However, when school started, so many things had to change. First, it was the papers by Homer Simpson, giving him inspirations to develop certain types of products from the general idea of elemental material conversion. What if you create a fire crystal, one that can produce fire from a few powder scratches from the crystal? And you produce a dispenser, meaning it would only create the fire when you wanted it, and at a cheaper cost, rather than using natural gases as a source of fuel? How about a portable air conditioner, where Legendaries are creating cheap ice stones that can cool down evenly a certain area? Better yet, what if you could incorporate it in clothing? Doesn''t that mean no one will ever complain it is too hot? The same goes for heating. However, as much as he wanted these things to come into fruition, James was lacking one thing: Investors. He needed investors to believe in his products and developments and invest money in him and his company. However, it was quite hard to find those who are willing. For one, his ideas were quite revolutionary and would butt heads to different conglomerates that had taken monopolies over certain things. He needed an investor who was equally as powerful as these conglomerates if he wanted to prove himself in the field of business. James thought about it for a minute before calling a number. "Hello?" A childish voice sounded out from his communicator. James took a deep breath, and asked Xander directly, "Hi Xander, I know you don''t like wasting time so I''ll go straight to the point of this call: Are you willing to invest in my company? I plan to develop certain products that would have an impact on the current market today." "Oh? Interesting. Tell me your ideas about these products; convince me to invest in you." James, hearing the curious tone in Xander''s voice, secretly heaved a sigh of relief. James began to describe his initial plans for developing products, this time, a total of 5 different products. It was the first 3 products, and the additional 2 were focused on the creation of material manifestation of elements, specifically, water elements and fire elements. The water element material manifestation basically compressed the water elements, creating a water crystal stone, allowing one to place it in a certain area and activate it with magic energy, causing water molecules to rapidly propagate and expand up to a certain radius. One could create artificial ponds, lakes, or even rivers if needed, as well as use it as a water substitute for those in the Elite class and below. The fire element material manifestation is in the form of weapon shells, specifically, cannons, bullets, and the like. It causes a stronger acceleration and explosive power from the shells, allowing stronger power and area of effect. After speaking for nearly 45 minutes, James took a moment to take a breather. Silence. This continued on for a few seconds before tapping sounds could be heard from Xander''s end. "Hmm¡­ I see the potential. I''ll invest 1 billion Etas. Send the necessary contracts as soon as possible. Good luck, don''t fail." "O-o-one billion Etas?" "Yes, 1 billion Etas, with one 1 and nine zeroes." "Are you sure? I mean, sure! Yes, don''t worry, I''ll send them right away! I won''t disappoint your expectations for this!" James replied, stuttering for a bit. "Oh, before I go, you can ask Faykes or the others if they want to invest as well. I see quite a strong potential in your R\u0026D products. Just make sure to hire the best and brightest creative minds. I don''t want the investment to go to waste. Once the research had progressed, I''m willing to invest more if necessary." "Don''t worry! I plan to accelerate the research for these products! Thank you Xander for trusting me!" James replied, feeling like he was in cloud nine. Xander ended the call, leaving James a bit in a daze. He just experienced a windfall of 1 billion Etas as an initial investment for the products he planned to expand and research on. Hmm, since Xander recommended the others, I''ll try getting their investment as well, James mused. James dialed another number, and after a few rings, a masculine voice sounded out. "Yo, James, what''s up?" "Hey Faykes, you know I run a business right?" James replied, a bit nervous. "Yup, the one on magic energy power batteries, right?" Faykes responded, causing James to nod in response. He then replied back, "Well, I called you up to ask if you would want to invest in our current set of projects we got planned." "Hmm¡­ well, I do plan to grow my money¡­ ok, fine, tell me the projects and your initial proposals." Faykes'' voice sounded a bit uncertain in the beginning. James was a bit relieved with these words and began his spiel for the next 45 minutes. He explained roughly the same detail as he explained to Xander. In some parts, Faykes interrupted James to clarify some things, which James was happy to answer and clarify. After the discussion, James and Faykes agreed to an unofficial deal: 30 million Etas as an initial investment. Faykes also wanted to talk more about the investment on Monday on campus, which James agreed to. After a few more lines of pleasantries, the two bid farewell to one another, and after the call ended, James punched in the air, jumping on the spot. Plastered on his face was a wide grin that seemed to show his relief and joy that his initial problems were gone. I''ll contact the girls as well. For all I know, they might want to invest as well, James told to himself. He planned originally to gain investment from his clan, but with what happened to them and Homer¡­nevermind that. I was about to get busy. For the next 6 hours, all I made were calls and messages to the friends I had, asking if they wanted to invest, and me giving them the same spiel over and over again and answering their questions. It was the girls who were quite critical, but I was patient since their questions were quite on-point and gave a different perspective. I answered them all as complete as possible and was honest at the points I had not tackled yet, as this was still an idea. It was already sunset when I finished with the calls, feeling a bit exhausted mentally. However, I only managed to secure roughly 180 million Etas from the rest of my classmates, but not yet official as the contracts and the transfer of assets and stocks hadn''t been finalized yet. And that was what I did all weekend, finalizing the contract creation and making sure there were no pitfalls and problems in them, before sending them to his friends that agreed with the investment. It was a good day for business for him, and it was one step closer to establishing his dream of becoming a business empire. 100 Instantaneous Casting session He did discover a lot of new things, actually. Some theories he had questioned were finally explained, such as the formation of lifeforms. The Helennic empire was quite focused on this type of research since this was their bread and butter. Lifeforms, in general, goes beyond the genetics level. It''s possible for a non-carbon lifeform to procreate with a carbon-based lifeform, the same way an immaterial lifeform can procreate with a material lifeform. It all lands on three basic aspects: Life essence doll compatibility, Cultivation level, and Cellular plasticity. Life essence doll compatibility focuses on the following aspects: Concentration of life essence, the connection of karmic threads, and Elemental affinity. Cultivation focuses on the average magic energy flowing in one''s body at any certain point, as well as the lowest and highest concentration. Cellular plasticity simply indicates the evolutionary capacity and the adaptive measures one''s body can undergo, from minimum to maximum. The first checkpoint is cultivation. If there''s too much of a difference between two parties in terms of cultivation, no fertilization/impregnation will occur due to the sex cells of either party either being too strong for the other or vice versa. For example, Mundane up to Master class can initiate copulation, but Master and Legendary class beings cannot because their life essence will drastically change upon reaching Legendary class. Those within Legendary to Demigod class can do this successfully, and those in the Divine to God class can do so as well. After this checkpoint, it''s followed by Life essence doll compatibility. First, it checks if the concentration of the life essence of both parties is high enough to produce life. Second, it checks if both parties have enough karmic threads to be used to create the life essence doll of the child. Lastly, do the life essence dolls compliment in terms of elemental affinity, or does one dominate over the other; this would result in the elemental affinity of the child being determined beforehand. The last checkpoint is about Cellular plasticity. This is where most impregnation fails, causing them to result in a non-live birth, miscarriage, or dissolution. Can the sex cells adapt to one another? Specifically, can their genetic structures merge in such a way that they would be stable enough to produce a living being? Xander wanted to test this out for real though, in a controlled environment. He even wanted to hurry the development of the planets and evolution of biological and non-biological lifeforms in the laboratory and "guide" them to procreate through external influences. However, after a few minutes of accelerated thought process and talking with the system, he decided against this, as it seemed to pass an invisible, moral boundary that he himself had set-up unknowingly. Forcing relationships between sentient creatures¡­ it just seemed wrong for him. Xander was in heavy thought before coming up with a solution: He''ll create planets where multiple sentient species, material and immaterial, and biological and non-biological lifeforms can interact, fall in love, marry, have children, etc., while Xander would observe the situation closely. He looked around the vast, vast space of the Laboratory, and saw there were quite a few planets being formed, still being condensed. After the 2 hours were up, he collected the produce in the gardens and the minerals and elemental crystals produced and left. He would start placing similar libraries in Eden in the Laboratory once the planets have fully-formed in their stable forms, with each planet having a library of sorts. Originally, he wanted a way to connect all libraries to one another, even those in Eden, allowing cross-communication. However, there were spatial and universal differences between the two, so for now, it wasn''t possible to do so until Xander finds a solution to solve the problem. He then headed to Eden, looking around the place. He was silently comparing it with the laboratory. The latter was around 1.12e+15 light-years in size, while Eden was exactly 1 light-year in all directions, shaped like a 1-sided ribbon, having no end in sight. Xander felt quite unsatisfied with the garden, as it lacks the variety and excitement that the laboratory could bring, as everything in the garden is controlled. 1 light-year worth of land and sea seemed big enough though, to host at least a trillion or more beings. Xander thought about it for a moment, before deciding that later on, after he had broken through to Legendary class, he would remodel the garden the same way as the laboratory. However, he would have to sort out the kinks first. He talked with 100 million beings in Eden once more, taking him 500 years to complete this. He then began to practice fighting. This time, he wanted to see the limits of his vitality, so he told them to launch all their attacks at him. The results were¡­ unprecedented. All their attacks were at the level of Demigod-5 and lower, but the attacking power was quite lacking for Xander. His body had been bombarded so many times, with the [Absolute Defense] turned off and any other defenses. His arms and legs were quickly blasted off in the barrage of attacks, yet the next moment they quickly grew back as nothing had happened. The feeling was quite weird, seeing one''s arms and legs and torso slowly blasted to bits, then recover completely after a split second. Was this the effect of [Ordered Life Regeneration (no Limit)] and [Chaotic Life Evolution (no Limit)], Xander thought to himself. The spells that targeted my life essence doll was rendered useless, and the damage my body would experience is reverted quickly to normal. This was weird because technically, the spells these magic beasts and sprites were throwing at me were under an ordered system, Xander thought to himself. He could only attribute this to his vitality, maybe? Because technically, [Chaotic Life Evolution (no Limit)] only activates if it''s used in the Great void, and the former didn''t have the capacity to passively heal all his injuries¡­ Xander began to decrease the interval between the attacks he received, trying to find out what was the lowest interval time he could regenerate from the attacks he received. This continued on for the next 10 years, every being attempting to deal fatal damage to Xander. From 5 seconds, to 4, to 3, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.1, 0.001, 0.0005, 0.0001, etc¡­ When it finally reached 0.0000000001-second interval between attacks, Xander instantly knew it was his current limit. This was because when he attempted to order them to decrease the interval lower, they couldn''t go any lower, which was a limitation to their casting ability. He didn''t have the same interval problem, as his space-time spells can be cast with 0-second interval, meaning, true instantaneous casting. This was probably attributed to having complete control of these elements. But for the other spells, he wasn''t able to cast them instantaneously and still needed a period of time for preparation, ranging from 0.0000001 to 2 seconds per spell. What he was worried is that his body might not survive against attacks from Sage cultivators and above. After all, their cast interval was very low, nearly at 0.0000000000001 seconds to 0 seconds. He was also scared if he faces a space-time cultivator with a higher comprehension of the space-time element; wouldn''t that mean all his defenses would be for naught, then? After the practice, he then played a bit with the sprites and magic beasts, he headed out of Eden and headed to bed. Tomorrow, he was going to his parents'' house and take a look at the situation of his mom''s pregnancy and if his father had begun to arrange solutions. _________________________ Monday morning. Xander woke up groggily. He had quite a fun time at his parents'' house yesterday, playing with Jacks and eating his mom''s cooked food, to the dismay of his father. Even Xander was quite sad that his mother continued to work, however, she said it was what kept her currently sane in doing nothing. Xander took a bath and headed downstairs, eating the breakfast prepared. What was good with Esta and Rosa was that the meals they cooked weren''t repeated, and there was a different cuisine each time he ate breakfast or dinner at home. Of course, this could be attributed to the thousands of recipes that he had given them, coming from the different empires he had visited. For the materials of the recipes, there was a spatial pantry that contained the materialized items, so all they needed to do was input the required materials, prepare the materials after the pantry produces it, and then properly cook them. It was one of his recent magic artifacts. Inside the pantry were rows upon rows of boxes, stacked properly containing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of magic beast remains, plant materials, and animals, containing no life essence, but their bodies were full of elemental essences of their primary elements. Specifically, the magic beasts'' remains ranged from Master to Demigod class, the plant materials were from Class 3 to Class 8. He could produce materials up to Sage class, but he had no purpose for them besides selling and eating them raw, or crafting elixirs or magic artifacts. And if he planned to sell it to large auction houses and even empires, Xander needs to have the necessary documents to prove that the magic beast and cultivator remains were hunted down, rather than cultivated and then killed. The empire of Magic Beasts, Nemean empire, would not love it if their fellow compatriots were being raised like cattle to be slaughtered. It wasn''t ethical for them. Although they advocated renting out magic beasts to gather byproducts and paying them afterward, the form of slaughter-raising was not a favorable concept, and no auction house or empire would want to be embroiled in such a manner. After all, it was the Nemean empire that leads the charge against the Zergs, and without their strong momentum¡­ there might not be a strong foothold for universal empires now. Anyways, he decided against it because the chefs in his villa were not able to process such materials perfectly, and that would affect the quality of the food. After eating, Xander went upstairs to brush his teeth and got his bag. Of course, this bag of his had been improved, allowing it to act as a defensive magic artifact, if you will, with the materials used to modify the items. Yesterday, after spending quite some time in the Laboratory, he finally got a hang of creating a magic artifact, using the summoned remains of magic beasts, other cultivators, and even sprites'' origins. The materials he used were top-notch, allowing him to use it to defend a 2-meter radius from any attacks weaker than a Sage-7. Another good ability of the bag was it can change its appearance and effectively block all forms of tracking and spying, besides Xander''s spatial perception. He went to the car and it was James that drove him to the campus. The ride was quiet and solemn, neither of the two talking to one another. Xander was fine with that, since most of his trips, it was either Rafa, Michel, Danes, Farhouid who initiated the small talk, which he kind of disliked? After all, his time was being wasted by non-stimulating conversations. Although he gave them tips in their training as well as ideas to improve their abilities, it was from a master-servant perspective, and not as equals. Probably, the one who he can take as an equal would be one of his friends in the future. He had high expectations for Maryann, Valerie, and Carly. The three others, Faykes, James, and Alexa, were wild cards, to be honest. They have their respective strengths, but also, they weren''t fake. Once he reached the campus, when he opened the door and stepped out, Xander heard a subtle thank you coming from James, who continued to look stoic. Xander closed the door casually as if he didn''t hear his words. Why was he thanking him for saving his companions, when that itself was a trap? Anyways, he entered the campus and headed straight to the building where the Basic Magic Training class was held. As usual, he was quite early, and no else was there, so he headed to the lounge. To his surprise, the girls, Carly, Alexa, and Valerie were present, talking to one another and giggling about something. In the past few weeks, Carly had also been working part-time at one of the prestigious Magic Physics departments in Eta, the Eternal Physics Foundation, where she was able to explore the knowledge she had gained from the materials I had given her before. Alexa, on the other hand, was going to focus on Magic Psychology and Aquaculture fields of study. She was going to break away from the traditional research fields her family was involved in, branching to a new field. She had begun doing part-time work in several Aquaculture farms, while also practicing as an assistant for one of the psychologists working in the city. Valerie actually participated in her grandfather''s training of other special forces soldiers. The training was quite brutal for a teenager, but she managed to survive 2 days of continuous training every week for the past 3 weeks after she changed her pseudo-spells. She really was determined to practice the art of killing, huh. When they saw Xander, the trio waved at Xander, with Alexa and Carly standing and dragging Xander to their location. The two were less stiff in terms of talking and interacting with Xander, their questions becoming softer and more¡­friendly, if Xander would put a term for it. They began to talk about different topics, with Xander learning a few stuff about their chosen fields of focus that didn''t intersect with his. He also managed to talk about their fields by relying on the data bank the system had, pulling necessary information needed at the moment. After an hour and a half of talking, they headed downstairs where they began to talk to their classmates and other friends. He also saw Faykes and James talking to one another, their faces seemed serious. Xander was a bit curious but wasn''t that desperate to snoop in their private, serious discussion. However, it was then he heard James say, "Let''s ask Xander. He would know what to do." Damn it. Act asleep, act asleep! Xander told to himself, laying his head down the table. However, Faykes and James still approached Xander, with the former nudging Xander. "Hey. Heeey. Heeey Xander. Heeeey. I know you''re awake, dude." Faykes said with his annoying voice, poking Xander. Xander, seeing his plan failed, rolled his eyes and raised his head, looking a bit grumpy at the two. "Ugh! What is it this time?" "Well, you see, I''m planning to invest in James'' business, and he suggested for the company to start branching out in other fields that magicians would need besides portable magic energy storage." "¡­So what do you need me for?" "Erm, can you, well, see if its a worthwhile investment?" Faykes asked shamelessly, but the latter half of the sentence was transmitted in the form of an inaudible whisper. Xander rolled his eyes, before saying, "Can''t see it anymore, I invested as well, you see. I suggest investing 100 million Etas first for the R\u0026D development of the new products. Once several products have been proven feasible, increase the investment." "One feasible topic of product research is the transformation of immaterial elements into the material matter, basing it from my co-authored paper. There are multiple applications in terms of weaponry and day-to-day type of items." "Also, don''t you plan to open your own company as well? You could use the name of the company to increase your exposure and purchasing power once it takes off." Hearing this, Faykes'' eyes brightened; he agreed that this seemed the most optimal situation for investment. This was what James had also proposed to him, but he was quite skeptical at first. Concerning using his new company''s name, he thought about it for a moment, realizing that this was also a good way for publicity in the field of business. Faykes thanked Xander and the two left him alone, continuing their renewed talks about the potential investment. Xander played games with his smartwatch for the next couple of minutes until Ms. Lim arrived. Everyone quickly settled down and Ms. Lim began the discussion. "Good morning everyone. The last topic we discussed was Magic selection, just the week before the midterms. This week, we are going to discuss how to proceed with instantaneous casting." "Instantaneous casting is defined by having no downtime or waiting time to launch a spell completely. In the past few weeks, we have delved into practicing spells and running your cultivation skills in a passive state." "Of course, instantaneous casting requires us to reach a 0 second cast time. However, this is a theoretical basis, a reference for us to reach if you would call it. Most of the time, cultivators start from a 2-second instant cast time, then 0.9, 0.8, and so on, until 0.000000001 seconds delay as one''s cultivation level increased. I gave you this value because this is currently the smallest delay that was calculated from a Divine Magician." The students were quite fascinated with the discussion. Mostly, because they were curious how fast Xander could do instantaneous casting based on the practice sessions he had participated in. Xander, on the other hand, was rolling his eyes; he had seen records of demigods capable of casting as low as 0.00000000001, roughly 100 times faster than Divine magicians in Eteria. Feeling the looks his classmates were giving him, Xander merely ignored them and continued to browse in his smartwatch. He didn''t really need to attend this class since his speed depending on the quality of the spell being cast and his current comprehension of their origin elements. For example, his pseudo-spells and derived spells from pseudo-spells would take him 0.00001 to 0.001 seconds to cast. His master rank spells would take 0.001 to 3 seconds to complete. His legendary rank spells would take 0.1 to 30 seconds. His mythic rank spells would be from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. His demigod rank spells would be from 1 minute to 10 minutes. For divine and sage rank spells, it would take a minimum of 30 minutes. Of course, the exception was Xander''s pure space and time spells. He could cast them continuously, with no casting time or delay. If he wanted, he could cast an infinite amount of spells within 0 to 1 second. However, that would be the case if Xander had to fight against someone he had a low chance of winning. Can''t win against quality? Win against quantity! Ms. Lim continued to discuss what are the necessary aspects of instantaneous casting, and afterward, she called Xander to the wide-area to demonstrate the aspects of instantaneous casting. Xander wanted to opt-out, but seeing the hopeful faces his fellow students showed, he begrudgingly followed Ms. Lim to the other side of the room. "Now, Mr. Cloverfield, please demonstrate to the class the steps to shortening spell casting." Ms. Lim gestured Xander. Xander nodded in response and began to show the 5 main steps. The first step is visualization. The body of a magician is simply a vessel, a conduit, for the life essence dolls to control and produce the desired results. An important aspect is to visualize the effect desired, and visualize the spell structure itself. The second step is formation. The process of writing the spell structure, ranging from runic writings to magic symbols, is a necessary process. The faster one can write this out, the faster the spell can be deployed. The method of writing varies for the kind of spell. Some spells require it to be gestured (externalized) by the magician while others are internalized, meaning, they are written by the mind and released into a complete product later on. The third step is the chant shortening. Usually, if one shortens a chant, the power of the spell is weakened, because the spell itself is derived from the chant that helps visualize the effect to the caster. Of course, this is fixed by the first step, visualization, so one can proceed with chant shortening relatively easy if they had visualized the spell quite perfectly, or through after so many times of the spell being cast. In fact, it''s possible to modify the effect of the spell with the combination of chant shortening and visualization. The fourth step is power supplication. Power supplication isn''t as simple as dumping your magic energy into the spell structure; it requires delicate control to pump the right amount of magic energy in the spell model, where some parts can have more energy than the other parts, some parts would use elemental energy rather than magic energy, etc. The fifth step is the spell release. In simple terms: Point, configure, release. This is the step where spell layers are added to the spell model. The spell model is released, which then gathers the elements, magic, and elemental energies around the caster and from the caster to show the spell''s effect. There are situations where steps can be skipped. For example, the formation can be skipped if the visualization was nearly perfect or perfect itself; the spell is already formed, and needed to be supplied with power and chanted, before being released. In Xander''s case of space-time elements, his visualization of the spell is so perfect that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th steps are skipped, directly transforming the visualized power into a released spell. In his other non-space and time-based spells, he usually skips the 2nd and 3rd steps, and it is the powering of the spell and spell release configurations that take time. There are also cases where the 2nd and 4th steps are combined with one another, usually during internalization or externalization. 101 Repulsion and Attraction Xander said to the students watching, "I will be demonstrating a simple spell called [Meteorite Shatter Rain], a fire and earth type of spell. I will demonstrate the non-instantaneous version of the spell." He then placed the area he was in a magic barrier. This spell wasn''t one of his spells, but rather, a spell he derived under [Elemental Dominance], roughly showing the power of a master class spell. For this demonstration, he purposely slowed down and began to inscribe the runic writings and the magic symbols with his magic energy through externalization, all of which were heading up above him but still within the transparent barrier. The other students were recording the scene, of course, so they could easily review it for later purposes. As he launched the symbols and runic writings up, he began to speak. "This spell takes about 5 minutes to prepare and cast without instantaneous casting steps being used. This meant that it follows a different set of steps: The first step is formation and power supplication, where power is supplied as you form the runic writings and magic symbols externalized or internalized. The second step is to chanting the complete line of the spell. The third step is spell release, the same as the 5th step in instantaneous casting. This kind of spellcasting was very common until around 300,000 years ago when we began to experiment with different methods of casting." After 4 minutes and 30 seconds of preparing, Xander created the last runic writing, before saying in his childish, sonorous voice, "Let the skies fall asunder, let the broken earth fall into the ground, burning and destroying everything in its wake. Let there be no peace, may the meteors continue to fall, shattering and scattering all over the wasteland." Xander momentarily took a pause, before aiming both his hands above his head, towards the collected spell formation in the barrier. "I beseech the elements! [Meteorite Shatter Rain]!" he uttered in a calm, cold voice. The spell formation glowed, assembling into a series of concentric magic circles above, and the elements inside the barrier acting up, the fire and earth elements rapidly increasing in the area, forming irregularly-shaped stones of varying sizes, and began to fall to where Xander was. This all happened within 5 seconds after the chant. This was the 3rd step, the spell release. After a while, the barrage of meteorites calmed down, and the area inside the barrier calmed down. They could see the figure of Xander, unharmed and in one piece. Xander quickly recovered the ground, the earth elements rapidly sublimating into the matter and filling the depressed area. "As you can see, it took 5 minutes to complete the spell in the traditional model. When I chanted, I had to add the spell layers in the chant itself, which is the scattering and the burning effect of the meteors, making the chant longer. The problem was that in the 5 seconds after the chant, anyone skilled enough can interrupt the activation by magical means, such as disturbing the elements in the area, destabilizing the spell formation, or even attacking the caster, thus destabilizing the caster''s control over the spell. In an instantaneous cast, you can skip this addition if you can visualize and control the elements consciously as you are releasing the spell. If you can''t, what you can do is use keywords in the shortened chant." "I will now demonstrate the same spell, instantaneous cast version." Xander repeated the steps, this time, with variations. For one, the flow of runic writings and magic symbols being released from his hands were continuous, and in a matter of seconds, the spell formation was done. It was then Xander began to speak. "Shatter the sky with falling stones, [Meteorite Shatter Rain]!" This was done in less than 2 seconds. Xander channeled his magic and elemental energy into the spell formation, taking up a second. He then released the spell, consciously controlling the elements in the spell to demonstrate the spell layers he had placed, which were the burning and scatter effects. This time, the spell was negligibly weaker; if one was to be specific about it, if the previous spell showcased 100% power, this spell released by Xander showcased between 95-100%, the strength fluctuating as the spell went on. After a few seconds the spell ended, Xander was seen standing inside the barrier, and the ground quickly recovering. "Ms. Lim, I have demonstrated the steps to instantaneous casting." "That''s right! Thank you, Mr. Cloverfield, for your wonderful demonstration. You may return to the rest of the class." Xander nodded, waved his hand and the barrier disappeared, and everyone felt a very hot wave of air escaping from the barrier, roughly 80 degrees Celsius. It didn''t affect them that negatively, as their bodies were fortified by the elements, but they noticed that Xander looked unaffected staying in such an area for a long period of time, roughly 15 minutes in total. Ms. Lim began to discuss it once again. "Students, please know that the 5 steps of the instantaneous casting are the generic format for practicing instantaneous casting. It is possible to go lower, skipping a few steps, or even reducing it to one step. It really depends on three things: Spell type, Spell difficulty, and Comprehension of the elements related to the spell." Ms. Lim continued the lecture for the next hour, while Xander was just checking his communicator for news online. He saw some interesting news in the Galactic Empire. Accordingly, the Elema planet, one of the largest trading hubs of the empire, is going to host its once in a decade Empire-wide Auction, one that lasted for a total of 3 days. The catalog they had up for auction was quite diverse, and it was going to be released tomorrow evening. Xander''s attention was piqued, and for the rest of the class time, he was browsing the net. One reason was he needed to dispose of the numerous artifacts he made yesterday, as some of them were quite useless for him and were just practice material. This is a good plan, hehe. The bell rang, and Xander, like clockwork, stood up and bid farewell to his classmates, and headed to the building behind. He then went straight to the second floor, ordering his lunch set meal, the second most expensive one on the menu. As he has begun to eat his meal, Carly and the rest of Xander''s close friends went upstairs as well and sat with Xander. They began to talk about different things, from sports, science, and economic issues. Xander stayed silent during the conversation because he had been hatching a plan to completely modify the path of development of the planet. However, he needed to take two of the three sectors of Economics, Research, Politics to proceed with his plan. He honestly wants the planet to be under the protection of the Galactic Empire in the near future. After all, a planet alone in this dark universe is not enough to survive. Hmm, maybe, after college and a bit of exploring, I''ll time-travel to the future, and withdraw the money I deposited in the bank, Xander thought to himself as he took a bite of the Wagyu Burger he had been eating. He had a current theory that once he moved forward in time, he would have a hard time returning to the past unless he managed to gain higher comprehension of the space-time elements. Right now, with his improved space-time comprehension, he could only travel 2 days back in time, an improvement from his 60 seconds and 60 minutes before. The space-time reversal which happens when he is critically injured can now reach up to 10 years back in time, a big improvement from his original ''up to 6 months back'' in time. Xander was quite supportive of James'' business acumen and creativity, thus he had decided to give him a helping hand by investing 1 billion Etas. He had signed the contracts with the help of his parents'' consent, thus becoming a major stockholder in James'' company, occupying 12% voting power, a tad lower than James'' 20%. Xander, seeing them quite busy in discussing the different aspects of future development, he then said to them between bites, "Guys, can you all come over to my house after class? I plan to give you all each a gift." "Eh, sure no problem for me." "Yep, same here. Wait, where is your villa, anyways?" "Uptown of Callows City." "Ah, the fancy district! Alright. Can one book transportation services from there?" Alexa asked, with Carly looking at Xander for his response as well. "I think so? I''ve never tried it before, though." Xander responded a bit hesitatingly. Before Alexa could say anything, James offered, "I can take you back home afterward. We live in the same district, anyways." "Really? Thank you so much, James!" "Uh, c-can I also tag along? I also live in the same district." "Sure, no problem." "Faykes has been in Xander''s villa right? How is it? Is it really very, very big??" Alexa curiously asked. Valerie and Carly were listening quietly for Faykes'' answer. Faykes looked at Xander, who didn''t really care how he would respond. Seeing there wasn''t any danger, Faykes said, "It''s quite big. Roughly the size of the field plus the two buildings for our classes combined. It has 2 floors, a garden, and an open field." "Waah, that big, huh?" Alexa said, mumbling the last bit. Xander, finishing the last morsel of his food, smacked his lips, and said, "I''ll have you 5 join me in the car on the way back to the villa, ok? So we can have a lot of time. The gift will be quite long to process." They all nodded in response to Xander, who, upon seeing their response, nodded and then stood up and placed his tray into the clean-up area and headed downstairs. He wanted to go to the library, but he didn''t want to interact with that librarian, who, for some reason, is not even in the database of the Galactic, Nemean, Helennic, and Cerulean empires. Heck, even in Eteria, that being''s identity is not listed at all. He was curious whether this librarian was a fugitive or from the pseudo-universal empires. Once he reached his mat on the first floor, he fell asleep, sinking into deep meditation. He wasn''t in the mood to talk with his other classmates, and the rest could sense his different mood. After 20 minutes, Ms. Amelia appeared, and the class visibly quieted down. "Ok, class, we''ll now focus on two topics related to Elemental Control: Repulsion and Attraction. For the next 4 weeks, this is what we are going to talk about. For this week and the next, we''ll focus on theoretical principles and understanding the basic knowledge about these two topics. The 2 weeks after, we''ll focus on application in different fields, before doing a practical." "So, let''s talk about the two topics individually. Repulsion: What constitutes the act of repulsion? Is it simply the removal of elemental particles from a target or a certain area, being repulsed by some sort of energy?" A young lady in red raised her hand, causing Amelia to call her. "Yes, Ms. Belmont, what do you think about the term repulsion when its placed into the element control setting?" Amelia asked her. Veronica Belmont stood up, pondering for a bit before responding clearly, "Ms. Wineheart, I think that repulsion is the manipulation of the invisible force that controls the elemental particles, producing a ''push'' type of force, similar to the one that we understand from physics as well." "Ma''am, I have a question! About the topic, of course." "Yes, Mr. Dragi??" Amelia asked patiently at the young man. Klement Dragi? replied, "Ma''am, I don''t get what Ms. Belmont was insinuating. Don''t we have elements that fall under the Physics series? Is she saying that these immaterial elements are the invisible force that controls the elemental particles? If they are, doesn''t that mean that according to Roger''s and Therault''s frameworks, the Physics series is on a higher rank?" "Not necessarily, Mr. Dragi?. Ms. Belmont only suggested that the effect it has on elements is similar to the push type of force we see in the world of physics. For all we know, we are limited to what we perceive of the phenomenon due to dimensional restrictions. It''s possible that the ''push'' we are describing is how the force manifests itself in the physical realm." Ms. Amelia patiently explained, making the two students nod their heads in understanding. As she continued to explain the topic, the others were beginning to be absorbed into the discussion, with the exception of Xander. Xander felt bored. Their idea of the "pushing" type of force is not wrong per se but is quite limiting to understanding the universe. For starters, repulsion of elements can happen in two types: Natural and controlled. Natural is where there are aspects of the elemental particles that repulse/reject one another, causing them to gravitate away from one another. The movement is facilitated by the immaterial elements of Order and Chaos, pushing everything to a structured or random movement. For the controlled type, there are many factors involved, the notable ones being: the comprehension and general mastery of these elements, the innate capabilities of the life essence dolls, the elements themselves, and the area where they are in. The comprehension of the elements you are trying to repel in a controlled setting is a vital aspect; if you don''t know what makes up the element you are trying to control, why attempt controlling at all? General mastery of the elements, on the other hand, focuses on the overall understanding of the representations of these elements. This is tied to the comprehension of the elements since to comprehend is to understand the representations and their embodiments in the universe. Innate capabilities of the life essence dolls mean as such: Does your life essence doll have the capacity to agitate or control the mechanism of order and chaos that every elemental particle has in their structure? This capability is subdivided into two: Macro and micro-control. Macro is similar to the outward control of elements, whether one particle acts a general marker for every other particle to follow, or en masse control by manipulating certain similarities present in their representations. Micro control, on the other hand, is the more refined elemental manipulation and control. One''s control can extend to the individuals, making the possibilities of repulsion and attraction, outward and inward control endless. Some life essence dolls can innately control individual particles, but not a group, and vice versa. This usually translates to their outward and inward control of elements as well. The third aspect of controlled repulsion is the elements themselves. Is/are the element/s you are trying to repulse the opposite of your element, or a complementary element, or just a neutral element/s? If it was the first one, one can take advantage of a natural-controlled repulsion. If it was the second one, one can take advantage of the "follow the leader" property of elements, wherein they can follow an element higher than their rank, or follow an element that is a complement of them. If it is the third type, this is where the problem lies; mostly, one cannot control the element to be repulsed if they do not have the affinity or understanding for them. For example, an elemental vacuum cast by someone proficient in the 5-elements series would not get rid of space-time, life-death elements and their derivatives, unless they had already reached the point of returning to the origin and their primary elements can now give birth to other elements. In Xander''s case, since his space-time origin element can actually control and dominate over the other elements of the yin-yang and life-death elements, so casting [Magic Rejection] allowed him to remove the elements in an area completely, with the exception of Yin-Yang and Life-death origin elements, as well as Order and Chaos elements. This changed when he derived [Void Rejection] and his other spells that involved origin elements, as he was able to comprehend the other origin elements, thus allowing a semblance of control over them. The last aspect to take note of was the area they were in. One thing that magicians and cultivators should remember: The universe precedes everyone''s control unless you control it. If the area is very, very, very stable, it''s likely impossible for someone to affect or destabilize the elements in the area. In fact, one can be suppressed in such an area, because one would not be able to agitate the elements out of their ordered state. Thus, they are no different from normal beings. The same goes for an area very, very, very chaotic. The elements in such a place are superseded by the command of chaotic movement and disorder. Xander didn''t want to listen to the class which was filled with inaccuracies, however, he didn''t interrupt Ms. Wineheart in her discussion, because her understanding and the current understanding of the magic researchers in Eteria and even in the Galactic Empire wasn''t really wrong, but was quite limited in thinking only. I should publish a paper or two about these in the future, Xander thought to himself. For now, he doesn''t have any problems with his friends learning this. "So, let''s talk about Attraction." ___________________ Time passed, and the class reached its end. Xander and his 5 close friends left the building and walked together towards the campus gates. Xander called Michel that there would be 5 other passengers on the way home today, who replied affirmatively. When they reached the campus gates, they finally saw the car waiting for Xander, a Camo Limousine that can fit up to 10 passengers. Xander and the others went in one by one. The others were quite amazed by the car''s interior, as it felt roomy and comfy inside. "Wow, Xander, you have such a nice car!" Carly exclaimed, genuinely shocked at how the car looked inside. She actually had a secret hobby that most of her friends wouldn''t know about: She was a car hobbyist and has a fascination for them. At one glance, she recognized that the materials used were customized for Xander, as she recognized the model of the car, but the interior was quite different. Xander merely shook his head. "It''s just used to transport me to school. Rarely do I have this model used; today is an exception." Carly was piqued with the materials used for the interior and exterior of the car. "Hey, Xander, if it''s not inconvenient, can you tell me what''s the materials you used to replace the interior and exterior of the car? I noticed that the Camo-L1000 model of yours has been heavily customized." "Oh? Carly, I didn''t know you like cars!" Valerie exclaimed, quite surprised that Carly, her meek friend, would be quite passionate about cars. "A-ah, it''s just a hobby, just a hobby!" Carly said, waving her hands out and about. Xander, hearing Carly''s question, shook his head. "I can''t tell you what the materials are, but I can tell you they are quite rare." "For example, the seats used real leather from a certain extinct magic beast. They are durable and can withstand wear and tear for the next 150,000 years. Not only that, but they can also handle attacks below Demigod class, not leaving a mark in the leather at all." "The other interior parts, such as the frame and the windows, are synthetic alloy combinations of metals and glass. These materials can withstand impacts of a Divine-9 cultivator or lower, as well as isolate magic and elemental fluctuations." "Not only that, but the car is also connected electronically into my communicator, meaning that I can remotely control the car if ever I needed to do so. It is also unhackable in the current standards of Eteria because it uses a private channel to transmit and receive information to/from my communicator." Seeing their dumbfounded looks, Xander stopped, before feeling a bit embarrassed. "A-ah, sorry about that, got into too much into describing the car," Xander said shyly, scratching his head. "N-no, that''s not really why we looked like that. It''s the safety measures of the car that we''re shocked about!" Alexa said emotionally, shaking her head. The others were quiet, but inside their minds, they were nodding their heads furiously. You tell him, sis! Why is there too much security?? You''re not transporting the president of Eta, are you?? Xander was surprised, before asking, "Eh? I think its the norm. After all, were geniuses and many, many people would want to ''form'' bonds of relationship with us, by legal or illegal means." The others were silent because what Xander said was true. But hey, don''t you think you''re overreacting? You have a strong backing after all! With the Morningstar and Cloverfield clans behind him, who would dare do so? However, James and Valerie could see what Xander was trying to get across. Although they were from rich and influential families, these things can only do so much before an actual crisis. He was being prepared, just in case. For Faykes, however, he felt it was quite hilarious. After all, he faintly guessed that Xander can actually control space and time elements. Doesn''t he have the ultimate protection because he just needed to stop time in an area or create an impenetrable space barrier? Xander didn''t know what was going in their minds, so he redirected the conversation to other matters instead, distracting them. 102 Simultaneous Breakthroughs On the way to Xander''s villa, the group discussed many things, such as their goals after college. Their careers were basically determined for them, as they have already decided long ago. James'' decision to also study Metallurgy was quite a surprise to Xander, as he had thought that he was going to focus on the business side only. However, when James explained why he was choosing that career, it was to benefit his business; more alloy derivations means more possible, marketable products, after all. Once they reached the villa, they were all surprised to see Xander''s guards, who looked quite intimidating and powerful based on the pressure they were exerting. Xander and Faykes, however, paid no mind to them, as the former was their employer, and the latter had sufficient experience with them in the past few weeks. When they passed through the main gate, they were surprised at how big and spacious Xander''s villa was. There was literally around 50 meters from the main gate to the main door of the villa itself, and the surrounding area was filled with greenery and flat plains, as well as plant sculptures of various animals and beasts that they had no understanding of, lined up in order. When they reached the main door, they hopped out of the car and they saw it head towards one of the buildings in the villa, ensuring more shock in their hearts and minds at how extravagant the villa was. For Faykes, however, confusion was in his mind. Wasn''t the villa entrance shorter before? When did those 2 other buildings pop up from, wasn''t there only a villa here? When did these plant sculptures pop out of? Did his villa relocate or expand or something? Could it be, he used his space powers to distort the area? Ugh, never mind, stop thinking about it for now, not worth the headache, Faykes chanted to himself. If Xander could hear Faykes'' thoughts, he would have rolled his eyes. He merely expanded the villa and bought several pieces of land nearby, then adjusted the villa itself. He didn''t use any space manipulation to make the villa larger than it was supposed to be. When they entered the villa, they were surprised to see how pretty and pristine the place was; it was all white marble, with the pillars and edges of the villa having a gray, marble-like coloring. It had a high ceiling, giving a vertical feel, with a rectangular, oval shape overall. The black metal chairs were in contrast to the white, pristine feel, but seemed to get the attention in the room. The sofa set in the living room was pure white leather, with intricate patterns and designs that Xander''s friends do not know what they stood for. Of course, these patterns were produced after Xander had purified the power from Cenele, and rather than make a new set, he just let it be, as the patterns looked quite cool. However, for some reason, he felt there was more into the patterns, but he couldn''t explain it quite clearly. The system was also quite mum about it, so it''s probably not a threat to him. Xander, acting as a good host, asked them, "Would you all like to eat an early dinner first? I got some fresh ingredients." They all agreed. Although as master magicians, they can stop eating meals already, as they can use the elements around them as sustenance, they still couldn''t let go of the basic necessity that they grew up with. Probably in the future, they would stop eating, but for now, they still had cravings for it. Xander nodded, and clapped his hands, causing two figures to appear, both in maid uniforms. "Esta, Rosa, please cook recipe number 23981 and 45812. The ingredients are in the pantry and the recipes are also in the document I gave you both." "Yes, master." Esta and Rosa replied, disappearing into the kitchen. Faykes was quite surprised because he felt that their fluctuations were several times higher than when he went here before. He remembered asking them what their cultivations were, and none of them were at the Legendary class yet. "Guys, you can sit down on the sofa and watch some shows in Metflix, or go head to the garden and relax there, up to you all. However, please do not go to the second floor, or the basement, for your safety." Xander briefly mentioned, before he turned around and headed to the garden. The others looked at each other before deciding to follow Xander. Of course, Valerie and Faykes decided to watch some shows instead. The other three were curious and wanted to take a look at the places in Xander''s villa. However, when they saw the garden, they couldn''t contain the shock in their faces. "So many¡­Class 6 and above plants¡­" Alexa stuttered as she had been exposed to identifying magic materials at a young age, and none of the plants in Xander''s garden were identifiable to her, in terms of magic and elemental fluctuation. After all, she had been exposed to classifying Class 5 and below. However, when Xander corrected her, her face turned more unsightly. "Actually, they''re all Class 8 plants, or so I''m told. Although they look quite mysterious, they produce good-tasting fruits and adds variety to my garden, so I''m not complaining," Xander shrugged, causing the other two beside Alexa to look weirdly. Who on their right mind would have a garden full of Class 8 plants, which can then be sold or used for different purposes, and use them for the sake of diversifying their garden? "Eh, wait, how do you take care of these plants? Do they have sprites or something? How do you ensure they don''t conflict or influence one another?" Alexa asked, her curiosity piqued with the appearance of so many Class 8 Plants. She knew a bit about the birth and death of a sprite, mostly from a research perspective. Xander shook his head, before saying, "These plants don''t have any sentience or sprites being formed. They''re¡­quite special; if you would define them, they would be known as modified plants." Xander, upon seeing the confused look the three gave, patiently explained, "These plants were modified in such a way that they can have the longevity and elemental accumulation of plant sprites as well as sentient plants, but do not show any formation of sentience. I assume you all know that plants can gain sentience, but not form any sprites, right? My friend modified it for me, allowing me to plant them securely and safely in my garden." When Xander said the word friend, he eyed each one of them, causing the trio to feel an unexplainable chill run down their spine. They had an inkling who the friend Xander mentioned was. They all nodded, understanding what Xander was trying to convey. They were, however, shocked inside that plants could actually form their own consciousness without a sprite manifesting. Seeing this response, Xander then said calmly, "You can go around and explore the garden, as nothing will harm you there. When dinner is ready, just come back to the villa." He then sat down on one of the fancy garden seats in the patio, overlooking the garden which looked like a fairyland. The trio, although a bit scared, were excited to explore the garden, as it was their first time to see such an extravagant decor. The garden was bigger than before, actually, having an area of 1 kilometer. It was pretty big enough for the three to explore and take note of the different plant species present. They had numerous thoughts running in their minds; Carly was innately curious because she felt that these plants didn''t exist at all natively in Eteria. James, on the other hand, was thinking of capitalizing such resources for tourism or producing rare elixirs/pills. Alexa, on the other hand, wasn''t focused on such things, but rather, the why and how these plants were formed. What struck her the most was that Xander said these plants could never produce sentience naturally; does that mean, they can produce artificial sentience to these plants? If not produce, can one inject sentience to them? How would one go about doing this? What would you call them? Are they still living beings, or merely puppets? Faykes and Valerie, on the other hand, were watching in Metflix a show about tertiary students facing problems in school, in their love lives, and their family dramas. It was a bit corny, with some of the characters suddenly singing and whatnot. While they were watching, Valerie spoke. "You''re under Xander, huh?" When Faykes heard this, he rose his eyebrows in surprise, before shrugging. He then responded, "It''s a price I''m willing to pay to be free." His voice was nonchalant, yet if one would carefully listen, there was a hint of gratefulness and relief, which Valerie caught on and was confused about. However, she knew not to pry, because if Faykes was ready to tell about it, he will. Both continued to watch the series in silence. After a few minutes in, it was Faykes'' turn to ask Valerie, "How did you guess, though?" "¡­instinct." "¡­" The two continued to watch. When the first episode was about to end, Xander appeared in the living room coming from the garden, with the 3 others looking disheveled and dirty. He then smiled at the two confused faces and said, "Dinner is ready." Faykes immediately stood up and headed towards the dining room while Valerie stopped the hologram projector, closing the application and turning it off, before following suit. The 3 others who looked like they crawled out of a septic tank but without the pungent smell sat down in the seats, their faces plastered with looks of excitement. Faykes was merely curious, while Valerie wasn''t really expecting much about the meal. However, when the twin maids pushed out 7 large plates containing their food, they were smacked silly by what they saw. As the 2 plates were placed in Xander''s area and one plate in front of each of them along with a glass of clear liquid, Xander introduced the dishes. "The meal you are eating right now is recipe number 23981, or Roasted Mongol Phoenix sauteed in 7 secret sauces with mashed Barsley potatoes and diced Garland carrots on the side. The drink you have on your glasses is a 100% Life Fruit extract mixed with pure glacial ice water, resulting in a 1% concentration." "Do eat slowly, and savor the flavor." Xander casually mentioned as he started to take a bite out of the food. The other 5, specifically, Valerie and Faykes, were quite surprised with the food materials used. "Er, Xander, this meal¡­you used magic beasts higher than legendary rank, right?" Valerie asked, a bit hesitant in her phrasing. Faykes and the others looked at Xander, waiting for his answer. Xander, who was chewing a piece of the chicken leg, paused for a bit, and nodded, then swallowed the meat and said, "Yep, the magic beast is a Demigod-9 multi-elemental being. The secret sauces are made from Class-8 elemental plants, while the potatoes and carrots are also harvested from Class 8 plants. They''re quite good in terms of taste! You should try them!" His face was quite happy as if he was just telling them a casual story. After all, Xander really did love food. It was his constant comfort. It was a different scenario for those who heard what he said. "D-d-demigod-9 magic beast? Are you sure we can eat them safely?" Alexa stuttered. She didn''t have much information about magic beasts beyond legendary rank after all. It was Faykes that answered her question by taking a small bite from the chicken in front of him, surprising others, but then noticed that after a few seconds, nothing happened, except that Faykes'' face looked like he was enjoying the flavor; Valerie and Carly, on the other hand, noticed that the magic fluctuation in Faykes'' body was increasing, albeit in small amounts. Seeing that Faykes continued to eat, the others followed suit and began to munch and drink their water. After 3 minutes in, Xander had to give them a warning about the drink seeing Alexa about to drink the whole glass. "I wouldn''t do that, Alexa. It''s better to take small sips. It''s better for your body''s safety." When the rest heard this, they looked at Alexa who was about to down the whole glass. The latter stopped midway, but her face showed a bit of puzzlement. It was Faykes that then spoke up, "Xander, is this from the same fruit you offered me before?" "Well, yes, albeit aged older and its essence is much thicker, which is why I had to dilute it to 1% of its original potency by mixing it to pure glacial ice water. If you ate the whole fruit''s essence, it wouldn''t take more than a second for your current body to explode from the overwhelming potent elemental energies inside the fruit. After all, you need to be at least a Mythic-9 to actually eat the fruits." Xander said calmly, continuing to eat. He was nearly done with the first dish, with only a few more meat pieces left. Faykes nodded, before inwardly thanking the mysterious universe that he didn''t choose the fruits as a reward. During the early dinner, It was Alexa and James who initiated the conversation about different things, causing everyone to participate, with Xander dropping his opinions and ideas about these once in a while, surprising others with his different perspective about the topics. Around 20 minutes later, everyone was quite full, their bodies filled to the brim with magic and elemental energy from the food they just ate and drank. Xander then mentioned to them, "Guys, go to the open field once you''re finished digesting the meal. I''ll be giving the gifts to each of you at that time. Make sure you''re at your best condition, ok." When they heard this, they all nodded in response to Xander, before focusing their mind and body to undergo Magic meditation. Xander, upon seeing this, shook his head wryly and headed to the open field. He knew it would take around an hour or two for them to digest the meal. He wouldn''t be surprised if all of them ranked up, using this opportunity to integrate their other newly-created Master rank spells. They were currently all Master-2, with Faykes being Master-5 and Valerie being Master-3 stage. The different degrees of their cultivation speed speak volumes about their determination and innate talents. Time passed by, and Xander was merely waiting in the open field, wherein there was a 100-meter radius arena. It''s been an hour and a half, and they''re not yet finished? Xander was a bit confused and looked using [Divine Eyes], and saw that there were multiple colored rays of light coalescing around each one of them, and these rays of light were interacting with one another, creating a synergistic effect. Xander was a bit surprised, as he didn''t expect that the group would actually create a magic phenomenon called elemental resonance meditation state, or ERMS. Xander himself had only heard and saw recordings of what this state was, and according to research done by the empires he visited, this phenomenon only occurs between people with uninhibited trust or those with a direct bloodline with one another. It''s unlikely they had the same parents, so did they trust each other already to that point? Hmm, there might be another factor that I might not have read yet, or maybe¡­ completely unknown yet to these empires?! Xander thought to himself. ERMS has a lot of benefits for those who participate in them, specifically, a permanent boost in one''s comprehension and mastery speed of their primary elements. At the same time, when this phenomenon was observed for those in the Master class, their spell foundations improved in terms of age as well. He was now in the dilemma of whether he should accelerate the time where they were in since ERMS can last from a day to a decade or even more. What was weird with ERMS was that the body undergoes suspended animation, meaning they don''t age or undergo normal biological/non-biological functions. This was tested by the Cerulean empire, who wanted to mass-produce the phenomenon but ended up in failure as those who forcefully underwent ERMS had developed magic psychosis and self-destructed. Hmm, there''s still class tomorrow, so I really can''t wait for them to finish. Oh well, I''ll accelerate the time around them then, Xander thought to himself, before moving his finger for a bit, creating a time-accelerated area in the dining room. They were the only ones there anyway, with the twins being in the kitchen, practicing their cooking. He accelerated the time with a ratio of 1 second: 15 years in the whole dining room. With his improved control over space-time, he could already do a micro-control of the time-accelerating/slowing/stopping/reversal fields, isolating certain parts of the space from its effects. 1 second passed. They were still not done. While this was happening, Xander was using the System and his accelerated thought processing to take in vital information about ERMS. 2 seconds passed. Not yet done. It''s been 30 years. 3 seconds passed. Still not finished. 5 seconds passed. Still not finished. Hmm, could it be the number of participants in ERMS will increase the period of time the phenomenon occurs? Interesting. 8 seconds passed. Still not done. All of them had reached the Transcendental foundation with their spell foundations. 120 years. 10 seconds passed. Still not done. Damn, how long will this take? I planned to give them each a gift to help them boost their foundation and comprehension; I guess I don''t have to help anymore, Xander thought to himself. 20 seconds passed. Still not done. Its'' been 300 years. 30 seconds passed. 450 years. 40 seconds passed. 600 years. Not yet done. Interesting elemental and magical data. From the scan the system has done, they are rapidly increasing the comprehensions for their primary elements, to the point that they have at least formulated at least 2 spells. 50 seconds passed. 750 years. Not yet done? Sheesh. Faykes already broke through to the Immortal Foundation, the same foundation that I have, Xander muttered to himself. He felt a bit jealous to be honest, that he wasn''t included in such a magic phenomenon. 60 seconds passed. 900 years. Wait. Finally, they''re opening their eyes. Immediately, Xander canceled the time acceleration, causing the very dense collection of elemental and magic energy to gravitate to their bodies and to the surroundings. However, the system and Xander didn''t stop collecting data on what was happening to their bodies. After a while, they all opened their eyes, a bit disoriented. They felt like such a long time had passed, but when they checked the clock in the dining room, only an hour and a half had passed. Then, they remembered that Xander was waiting for them in the field. They all left the dining area and headed to the field, not noticing that the air around their previous location was rapidly reversing, as if¡­ they were moving in reverse. In a few seconds, they finally reached the field Xander was talking about, and they saw a grassy field with a circular arena in the middle, covering most of the space. Xander was atop the arena, sitting cross-legged, reading something in his communicator. Alexa shouted, trying to catch his attention. "Yo, Xander! We''re here already! Sorry for the delay, haha!" "Hmm? Not at all. Congratulations by the way, for the massive improvement of your foundations." When they heard the words Xander said, they were confused for a while, before realization dawned on their faces. They instantly used their magic perception to observe their bodies and their spells circling the life essence doll and was surprised to see the changes. From their pale white color, the spells circling their life essence dolls were now colored silver with a heavy tint of gold. However, they were a bit confused, because they don''t know what the rank of their foundation is. It was then Xander answered their confused looks. "You all basically surpassed the Perfect foundation, reaching Transcendental foundation. If the color is silver with a heavy tint of gold, it means your foundation is roughly 900 years old. If the color is pure gold, then it means you have reached the Immortal Foundation, surpassing 1,000 years." "Transcendental Foundation allows you to fight 3 ranks above your current stage and win. Immortal Foundation allows you to fight 6 ranks above your current stage and win." 103 Visiting Elema Plane When they heard the other types of foundation, they were all surprised. There was something higher than Transcendental? They all had relatively decent clan inheritances, so they knew that above perfect, there was another foundation, but was rarely met because of time constraints. Imagine, 100 years stuck in the Master class? One''s potential would be gone by then. What surprised them more was the existence of a foundation higher than Transcendental foundation, the Immortal Foundation. Not only did it give the magician an advantage against other cultivators in the same class, but it also gave them benefits in creating a much better Magic sphere in the Legendary class. However, their surprises didn''t end, because Xander dropped another bombshell. "The gift I was supposed to give you guys was to increase your spell foundation, but it seemed useless now since all of you are already at the Transcendental Foundation or higher. I''ll just give you guys perfect quality magic crystals for you to proceed and integrate your spells. I assume you didn''t waste your enlightenment and were able to make some spell models to be integrated?" Xander asked them, and they all nodded in response. In fact, they were surprised that after less than 2 hours, they were able to create more than 2 spell models for their master rank spells. However, they didn''t know it actually took them roughly 900 years to conceive these spell models. "Ok, so first off, who made 4 magic spell models?" Xander asked, and Carly raised her hand, albeit a bit shyly done. He didn''t expect it, so Xander was quite surprised. However, it didn''t last and merely gave a nod of approval to her. "How about 3 magic spell models?" This time, it was the remaining 4 of them that raised their hands, causing Xander to be surprised, and a bit happy. At least their talent is not as inferior as mine. However, in Carly''s case¡­ she really has a hidden talent. It was a good thing I managed to discover her. She was the same as Maryann. Speaking of Maryann, I hope great things would happen after she exited her enlightenment, Xander thought to himself afterward. "Ok, come up to the stage. I have to set-up the magic crystals to ensure each of you has enough to establish your spell models." Xander said, gesturing them to come up. They quickly followed through and surrounded Xander, each one of them was equidistant to one another and from Xander. Xander, seeing them be in position, waved his hand, and multiple crystal stones the size of two of James and Faykes combined floated behind each and every one of them. "Begin your integration!" Xander barked, and the others left their initial stupor and surprise and immediately delved into Magic meditation, connecting to their spell foundations and life essence dolls, slowly inscribing the spell models that they have prepared. All they needed was to integrate the perfected spell model and let it cycle the path of their cultivation skill and their spell foundation for a total of 108 cycles. Xander also delved into Magic meditation, hoping to get some of their synergistic energy, but they didn''t enter ERMS, sadly. Oh well, there''s always next time. Two hours quickly passed by, the moons were quite high into the sky, sending down moonlight all over the Ete continent. Thank goodness that during the time he was waiting for them, he already visited Eden. After his friends left, all he needed to do is go and visit the Laboratory and check and harvest the goods. In the 3rd hour, their eyes opened, and their magic energy released at the same time, creating a resonance, or stacking effect. Of course, none of these energies leaked out, as Xander had placed a small spatial barrier that filters these types of energy early on. As expected, James and Alexa were now Master-5 magicians, Carly and Valerie were Master-6, while Faykes was now Master-8, one spell away from Master-9. "Congratulations, everyone," Xander said, his voice cheerful and at the same time, calm, like everything was within his expectations. It was Alexa and Carly who rushed to Xander and hugged him tightly, with Alexa saying, "Thanks a bunch, Xander! Don''t worry, if you need me, just send a message, I''ll make sure to be there or do whatever you need, haha! This visit to your villa was quite a surprise!" Carly nodded, before adding, "Thanks, Xander, for helping us," her voice was solemn and a bit tearful. For one, she really didn''t expect that in the first few months of her college life, she would face so many surprises and reach a cultivation level she could only hope to achieve within 15 years from now, 10 if she was lucky enough. Carly felt more determined to follow through her career path that she mentioned to Xander, hoping to leave a mark and pay back what was owed. James was a bit solemn too, as he knew he owed Xander more than what he can repay now. What he could promise and strive for now is not to fail his expectations in the business investment. 1 billion Etas was after all, not a small amount of investment. Faykes, on the other hand, was happy, surprised, and a bit melancholic at the same time. He couldn''t help wonder, if he was unaware of what his clan had done to him, would he be able to reach his current achievements? If Xander wasn''t there to help him, would there be any difference? Maybe he would breakthrough as normal, but would he follow the clan in the very end once he found out about the bloodline curse? Valerie was silent. It was a large favor after all, but Xander didn''t seem to expect anything out of it. However, deep in her heart, she felt she must repay it in one form or the other. She planned to be his sword, the one that slays his enemies. For that, she must become stronger and better. Xander, unknown to him, his actions had brought others closer to him in their hearts, treating him more than a friend. Xander shook his head, saying, "I only aided in the process. Most of it is still your own hard work. After all, if you lazed around you wouldn''t have experienced that enlightenment, or even formulated the spell models for your next spells." Although he said these words, in the hearts of his friends, they knew it was still with his help that they managed to do such a thing in the first place. They chatted for a bit more, talking about college stuff and entertainment before they decided to head out. Faykes left the group since his house was just in the same district as Xander''s, Valerie had her own family driver waiting outside the villa, while the other 3 left together and headed downtown to their respective apartments. Xander, after all his friends left, breathed a sigh. Today was a bit tiring but quite rewarding for him. He then headed to his room and went to the basement to visit the Laboratory. After playing around for around 144,000 years, such as creating weird and modified planets, as well as attempting to hybridize the seeds that he currently had, which all ended in failure, for now, he harvested the fruits, plant materials, minerals/metals/crystals, and elemental crystals in the Laboratory and headed out. He was planning to expand his laboratory operations, increasing the number of planets that can hold life and planting numerous types of plant species that he had, hybridized and non-hybridized. Currently, no sentient life forms have been formed. He then headed back to his room and fell asleep. The next few days were a blur, as Xander was quite excited to leave for the auction in Elema Planet. In fact, in the past few days, he dropped a visit using his Homer Simpson persona and contacted the auction house, and consigned some interesting set of items to be put up for sale. He expects to gain at least 5 trillion Galaxy coins from the auction of these items, hehe. In fact, when he mentioned he was going to join the bidding, he was given a credit limit of 500 billion Galaxy coins to be deducted from the final sale of the items he consigned to them. When he saw the released list of items being sold, quite a few items caught his eye, because they weren''t rare, but he hasn''t seen them before yet. He wanted to investigate some of these items. By Friday afternoon, at the end of the last class he had to take, he told his friends that he was not going to be available for the next few days, so they should just leave a message. He waved goodbye to them and headed home, ate dinner, and told everyone in the villa to continue their daily activities, and keep guard of the villa. He then told them not to interrupt him in his room for the next 3 days no matter what. Xander then left a message to his parents that he was going to be a bit busy and that they should stay safe and keep themselves healthy. He then went to his room, embodied his time clone, Homer Simpson, and teleported into the Elema Planet, on the outskirts of one of its main cities, Alemara. He did this by utilizing his mirror image clones. His main body was actually a planet 50 light-years away from Elema, while he was controlling the mirror image of him, which had the same identity card. There wasn''t any error discovered since they both shared the same magic signatures and life essence. Elema planet was different from other traditional planets; they had 48 hours per day instead of 24 hours due to their own rotational speed being half of the other planets, making it an ideal place to hold events that usually take up a lot of time. When Xander investigated the reason for this phenomenon, he discovered that there was something different in the planet''s core compared to others he had visited and explored. It was quite good that this planet was near at the middle of the Galactic Empire; or else, this could be a place for contention amongst nearby empires. Once he entered the city, he began to do the first thing he did: Go and eat. The city was quite big, actually having the size of one of the provinces of Eta. The good news was that flying was allowed in the area, but only low-level flying, roughly 5 meters up in the air. Beyond that, they would need a permit to actually fly within the city areas. For those who couldn''t fly, they relied on numerous transportation available, both public and private. Xander used his communicator to hire one private transport, traveling to one of the top restaurants in Alemara. The restaurant he went to was a high-end type, with his dinner price reaching up to tens of thousands of Galaxy coins in cost. After eating his dinner, he looked around for a place to stay. Since the auction was going to start tomorrow morning up to Monday evening next week, he booked a great hotel room, a suite, for 3 days and 3 nights. The hotel itself was roughly 40 to 50 kilometers away from the auction house, and was near one of the large plazas, giving a good view from his hotel room. He paid for his stay upfront, costing him 400,000 Galaxy coins. After taking a bath, the mirror image then fell asleep on the bed, while he entered Eden and once again did his role as the supreme leader and ruler. He also announced that in approximately 2.6 million years for them, or 15 days for him, they will be momentarily put into a deep sleep as he modified the garden. He told them that their 2 cities, Snowflake and Dewdrop, will be upgraded as well, the materials they used upgrading and strengthening. Xander planned this because he already made some calculations. With the current population and the exponential trend of population growth, Xander is expecting the sentient population to break past 30-40 billion by then, with the non-sentient population reaching an amount of 300 to 400 billion, and the number of species breaks past 10-30 million. The current area available, 9.025e+25 kilometers worth, is not sufficient for future growth if the population began to surpass a trillion or more. Xander was still a bit undecided about how he will design the new Eden, and if he would use the same space or create a different one and transpose the entire contents of the garden inside. Xander, after spending around 7,200 years inside, he left and headed to sleep as well. He had to wake up early and enter the auction house using the mirror image, after all. _________________ The next day. Elema Planet was quite packed with different powerhouses, clans, ancient families, and organizations invited to attend the auction. The auction house was structured in such a way that 8 very wide roads connect to its entrances and exits. Each entrance and exit was divided into 3 lines: Normal, VIP, and special guests. It was 13 stories tall, with a diameter of 2000 meters, roughly 6300 meters in circumference. Xander was in one of the entrances, heading to the special lane designed for special guests. When he came close to the entrance, a man who looked like he was in his late 20s was standing gracefully, and when he saw he, wasn''t disrespectful, but rather, said, "Good Morning, sir. This lane entrance is for special and esteemed guests invited by the auction house. May I see your invitation card?" Xander silently nodded in response, handing him the card that was given to him a few days earlier, which had the logo KAH industries, which accordingly stood for Koeman Auction Houses. This was the one ruling the auction house scene, owning different auction companies for different types of items and qualities. When the man saw the color of the card, he paled, before his pair of trembling hands held the card carefully, and followed the procedures for checking. After the test and confirming it was authentic, it was scanned into the terminal in front of him, which then showed the importance of the Xander to the Koeman Group. The Koeman group follows the same ranking for Mercenaries in their VIP membership, but with a twist: Each rank has 10 levels each. Bronze-I to Bronze-X, then Silver-I to Silver-X, then Gold-I to Gold-X, and so on until Adamantium-X. The bronze to Obsidian ranks are considered VIP, but those in the Adamantium ranks are considered special guests. "Esteemed guest, your identity has been verified, and as an Adamantium-III rank guest, you would have your own private room for the next 2 days, as well as allowing you to access different services reserved for a personage of your level. Please, follow me!" The man said, bowing while handing the card back to Xander, with the latter taking it and merely nodding. In fact, Xander barely knew anything about the membership. He didn''t really care about it, to be honest. Xander entered calmly the gateway, following the man and disappearing in the eyes of the onlookers on the other lines. Another person replaced the man who escorted Xander, standing and calmly looking for the rest of the special guests that might stop by. Although VIPs had their own lane, they weren''t treated as special as the personages in the special guests'' list. Some of them were foreign to one another, some were acquaintances, while others were already gossiping about Xander''s appearance and identity. "Wow? Who was that man? I haven''t seen him before. How did he get an Adamantium-grade card from Koeman?" "Ugh, you should stop thinking about these people. It makes us VIP people feel like those regular people on the other line," said another VIP in a disgruntled tone. To be honest, their treatment of VIPs were quite good, since they were also escorted to the area for VIPs, but they didn''t have the same luxury of having a private room. What they did have was that they can mingle with other people of the same stature, and not join the chaos of the regular auction goers in the ground, 2nd, and 3rd floors. The 4th to the 9th floor were reserved for VIP guests, after all. The last 4 floors were reserved for special guests, and each major auction house of the Koeman Group can hold 108 special guests at a time. "Hey, Reva, what do you think about that young man who just entered the special guests'' lane? Do you know who it was?" A young woman asked her friend, who was a lanky-looking man, who shook his head. "It''s weird. I don''t recognize the man at all in any of the databases I have about VIPs and persons of interest in the Galactic Empire, Martina. Maybe he''s an outsider?" Reva responded, a bit confused. It was Reva''s 4th time attending the Elema auction, so he was quite familiar with distinguished people who attended this event. "Huh. That''s possible. After all, didn''t you see that they revised the list of items being sold? They added roughly 1000 other items! According to the rumors, these were consigned by one being who has an alias of Chronicler." Martina said, twirling her lock of hair hanging on the side of her head. "That''s true. That being must be proficient in the field of elixir making and artifact creation to create that many items." Reva agreed. "Oh well, hopefully, he wouldn''t be competing for the items we came for," Martina said, a bit hopeful. The reason they only went to this godforsaken empire was that the auction house was going to auction different types of elixir pills made by the same being: the Chronicler. The pill that caught their attention was the Immaculate quality, 20-star elixir pill, Sundries of the Ancient Sunrise, and Immaculate quality, 20-star elixir, Dewdrops of Lifespring. Their master, who saw these two items, almost turned blue out of excitement, telling¡­no, ordering the two of his beloved direct disciples to buy these pills at all costs. In fact, this reaction was a bit normal, since those magibiopharmacists at the rank of Grandmaster and Ancestor were quite intrigued with the elixirs Xander had consigned to the Koeman Group because theoretically, these specific elixirs can only be refined up to 18-19 stars, and at most, at Perfect quality. When they confirmed that this was not a typo, they immediately sent their closest representatives to get at least one of these pills, while they themselves used up their favors with other powerful cultivators to gain the other pills no matter what means of action they use. Of course, another reason why the auction this time was quite boisterous is because of the appearance of Class 6 and 5 magic artifacts. It is a well-known fact that the strongest empires had their own set of Class-4 artifacts, the highest Class of artifact that they could own inside the universe, and these artifacts were quite rare as its main material involved God cultivators. Class 5 and 6 artifacts, on the other hand, were considered rarities due to individuals and certain factions and groups in the wide universe. After all, it did involve materials made up of Divine and Sage-rank cultivators and resources. There were a lot of Divine and Sage cultivators who wanted to try their luck and get a magic artifact as well as life-saving elixirs/elixir pills. Some, however, just wanted to get a sample of the pills and the artifacts to find out how they were refined and created. All in all, they were thanking the heavens that the auction was held in the Galactic Empire, where their currency was weaker than the Universal notes. What caught the eye of the observant ones was that the name, or alias, of the being that sold both magic artifacts and the elixir products were of the same name. 104 Koeman Group Auction House Even Xander, who was already inside, didn''t care at all whatever the other people who came to grab his consigned pills by legal or illegal means; as long as he still gets paid, he has no qualms whatever happens to them. He followed the man into a specially-designed elevator for special guests, arriving on the 10th floor. He was guided to one of the rooms which was a bit larger than the others on the same floor. There was a middle-aged man outside who was genially smiling at Xander. The man who escorted him then opened the door and signaled Xander to go in. Once Xander did, the other man entered as well and closed the door gently. The man was there to introduce the facilities of the room. "Mr. Simpson, welcome! Do you have any questions relating to the auction?" the man asked, bowing slightly. He was actually one of the auction managers for this event, and the one that processed Xander''s deal. "Hmm, yes, what''s the procedure of auctioning? This is my first time acting a buyer in one." Xander asked honestly, hoping to hear the details of how to bid. He didn''t want to make any mistakes, after all. "Esteemed guest, the Koeman Group uses a live auction system, with the items being introduced by an auctioneer, and people can place their bids using the device provided to them when they entered. In the case of special guests such as yourself, you are to use the terminal and set bids for the items being auctioned. After 2 minutes the auctioneer had completed the description of the items, the bids close, and the highest bidder wins the item. The items are received and paid for by the buyer at the end of the auction for the day. In the case of special guests, they can get the item they want after bidding and pay, before leaving or continuing with the bid." Xander nodded, as this auction method was quite efficient. This was technically his first auction where he attended as a seller and a buyer, as even in his past life, he didn''t have the chance to even go inside one. In Eteria, he was only the seller. He then asked the man what was the other benefits of being a special guest of the Koeman Group, which the man enthusiastically replied. "Special guests have their own, private, and secure room, wherein no one can peek inside the room with their abilities with the numerous enchantments placed in each room, each one different from the rest. Special guests are allowed to place an initial bid to the items in the list or outright buy the items 100 times their initial starting price. These are only for certain items that aren''t marked by the Koeman Auction House. For those items marked by the Koeman Auction House as hot commodities, these can be outright bought for 100,000 times their initial starting price. So, an item worth 500,000 Galaxy coins will cost the buyer 50 million if these are non-marked, and 50 billion Galaxy coins if these items are marked. Special guests are also allowed to purchase items in the special collection of the Koeman Group at a 10% discount before, during, and after each auction day. The list collection can be accessed from the same terminal used for bidding. Once the auction event has ended, the access to the collection is revoked. Special guests have no purchasing limit. Meaning, they can buy all the items in the auction provided that they have enough money for them. Special guests can pay the amount they are due immediately or within 14 days with a small 5% increase. Special guests can also avail of different services the auction house, such as inviting other guests to your room, bidding in your stead, or hiding your identity when bidding. You will have 2 servers just outside the room, waiting for your signal to serve you anytime you want. Special guests can also place a small note at their bidding prices, informing others about their bids, to deter others from bidding, or inform others. As you are a special guest that is a buyer and a seller, you have a current limit of 500 billion Galaxy Coins due to the number of items and their respective values you consigned to the auction house. The amount you spent from that limit will be deducted from your earnings from the auction + the auction house fees of 12% of the total earnings. If the total earnings surpassed 10 trillion Galaxy coins in total, the auction house fees will be reduced to 10%." Xander, upon hearing the benefits, was quite surprised by the benefits he had for selling some byproduct items. The two began to talk before the manager left the room, leaving Xander alone. The manager, upon his exit, instructed the two servers outside, a young man and a young female sprite, to follow the instructions Xander would have for them. Xander, being left alone in the room, relaxed. He had scanned the rooms earlier and had already had the system disable the camera module in his room; meaning, it will just loop him sitting on the sofa, checking the terminal from time to time. He wasn''t lying that the rooms were designed to isolate magic perception and almost all types of spying abilities. Oh well, time to check the current bid prices of some items he had been eying. He had 13 items he wanted to get: Eye of Carmaxus Crown of Thespileis Helyn''s Finger Bone Seed of Chronos Seed of Narcissus Eternity Codex Page 2 Infinity Codex Page 2 Unknown Magic Beast Egg - Estimated to be at least a Demigod class once born. 5 grams each of Immortal Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Wood elemental Crystal, a total of 50 grams. The first 3 items were actually priced between 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 Galaxy coins, and they were listed items. If Xander wanted the three items, he would need to bid a large amount immediately to deter others. These items were actually Class-6 artifacts. Xander wanted these 3 items because they had certain properties that he was curious about to investigate and attempt to replicate, specifically, the elements of Order and Chaos. The 2 seeds were also added to his list to buy because Xander saw the description of where these seeds were discovered. The Seed of Chronos is said to be from a fabled "Tree of Time" that was said to stop anyone from aging forever if one would take eat the fruits it produced. However, the seed''s germination process and requirements to grow, and the period of time it requires for the fruits to grow and bloom are unknown factors. Not only that, but there was also only 1 seed; what if it required another tree of the same type before it can produce fruits? The Seed of Narcissus, on the other hand, was said to be produced by another concept type of plant, the Tree of Emotions. What Xander wanted to do with this seed is check if it can hybridize with the Dream and Life seeds. The prices of these two seeds were also quite high, starting at 10 million Galaxy coins each. The next two items, for Xander, felt like bait. After all, it involved a mythical manuscript said to contain the mysteries of space and time, and no one else was interested in these items? Not even the space-time cultivators of the other large empires? After all, he had seen in the databases of the empires he had visited information related to the two items, the Eternity and Infinity Codex. Not only that, when he saw the starting bid, but it was also a measly value of 10 Galaxy coins. He could buy both for 2000 Galaxy coins. He was hesitating if he should directly buy both or not. The other 6 items were just used for reference and experimental research. He hasn''t produced any Immortal quality elemental crystals, after all. He felt like he was missing something for the process of creation to begin. The starting prices of these items ranged from 10 million to 100 million Galaxy coins. After a few minutes of deliberation and risk calculation by the system, he decided to purchase them immediately. After seeing that his transaction was completed, he released a sigh of relief. He requested to send the items to his private room. After a few minutes, the item arrived, both papers placed in a special transparent isolation box. For some reason, when he attempted to view the item using [Divine Eyes], he felt an impending danger coming from these two documents. Xander decided to ask the system about the item, which then responded, "The items come from beyond the Universe. There is a 20% chance that it came from the Great Void. There is an 80% chance it came from beyond the Great Void." When Xander heard this, he fell into contemplation. Could this be a set-up? Probably, from the same god who transmigrated him and others into this universe? Or maybe, someone like that god? Or, it could just be a coincidence¡­ Xander decided to gamble and take a risk. He surrounded a small area where he and the boxes were covered by origin elements, completely isolating the space from any fluctuations whatsoever. He then opened the box, which he instantly realized was placed for the safety of the buyer. Immediately, space-rendering and time-shattering power emanated from the two pages of unknown material, but Xander disregarded this by forcing it all under his control. After all, although his comprehension was lacking, he was considered the master of space and time, completely controlling it, but not necessarily understanding them. This was when he realized that there seemed to be a remnant trace present in the pages, and when he asked the system about it, it was a marker, similar to the markers he placed on the AIs in the digitalized dimension. "Hmm, so it is a trap¡­ but am I the intended target? This is the main question," Xander mumbled. After further scanning, he realized that the structure of the pages were literally runic writings manifested and condensed in such a point it became material and something interactable. If someone who didn''t have the power to completely dominate space-time touched this, they would immediately be affected by multiple time and space distortions, such as acceleration, slow, reversal, or even time stop, along with the likes of spatial expansion, decay, collapse, and spatial explosion. It didn''t matter if you had the comprehension of space-time, if you didn''t have complete control and domination of space and time, one would still be unable to touch this document without any sacrifices. By this point, Xander already reached a conclusion based on this inference: He really was the target. Could it be, they knew what he wished when that God transmigrated him? Is he going to be pit against the lackeys of another god eying this universe, maybe? Xander began to think about ridiculous thoughts for a while, before shaking his head. There was just too much to process. He was, after all, a measly creature for now. He had no fighting power to speak of. I immediately attempted to wipe out the tracking marker in the pages; this process lasted for around 1,000,000 years, however, outside, it was only a few seconds that had passed. The reason why it took him too long to remove the markers was that he had to understand and reverse engineer them, which basically allowed him to disable any alarms or methods of self-destruction in the markers. Once he did this, he immediately copied the markers and placed it in two magic crystals, then destroyed the markers in the pages, before destroying the magic crystals, completely throwing them into a void hole he just made. After this was done, he immediately touched the pages at the same time and began to absorb them. This process, on the other hand, took a total of 10 million years. However, during this process, an unexpected thing happened to his spell foundation. His body emulated the process of ERMS, allowing him to refine his spell foundation for more than 10 million years while his life essence doll was basically in stasis, which finally changed from a golden sheen color to a transparent one; if Xander were to check only visually, he would have thought his spell foundation had collapsed. However, it had actually reached its peak refinement, returning to the void. Not only that but the comprehension and mastery speed of his primary elements and other elements he had also increased. When he opened his eyes, his body was completely refined and strengthened, all his attributes greatly increased. His attributes could already rival someone in the Legendary class. He would just need a point each to actually demonstrate the strength and dexterity of a Mythic magician. Not only that, but his Divine, Sage, and God magic slots also increased in number, having 15, 10, and 7 slots now respectively. He also managed to gain 3 new space-time spells, [Eternity-Infinity], [Time Shatter], and [Time Extraction]. [Time Extraction] was basically the combined and strengthened version of [Materialized Past] and [Materialized Future]. However, there is an important part of its description that made it stronger than the two. Time Extraction - Allows the caster to dive into the River of Time (Records of Time), from past and future, and bring anything and anyone into the present, from the same reality sandbox or not. The current limitation is that living beings cannot be more than 3 levels above the current cultivation of the caster. It cannot be used beyond a Universe (for now). Xander could finally bring back living people from past records and even people from other reality sandboxes. At the same time, the spell seemed to show that it can be used beyond a universe in the future. Xander then had a thought: If he decided to bring a person from the past that is still alive now, what will happen to their information in the ordered system? Will they both survive? Will the universe attempt to cleanse the data? [Time Shatter] was a bit different from the previous time spells he got, as it tackled three different time representations: Break, Schism, and Destruction, all under the action category. It was a pure offensive spell, compared to that of the other time-based spells before. Time Shatter - Target''s time will be completely wiped out from the River of Time (in that universe), both past, present, and future, in every possible sandbox of reality. The spell cannot be undone. The caster loses 1 point of vitality every usage under 1,000 times, 10 points of vitality under 100,000 times, and 100 points of vitality beyond 100,000 times of usage. The target can be an area and everyone in it, or an individual being/item/target. It only works for beings born and existing inside a universe (for now). It had strict limitations of use because the loss of vitality increased the more times Xander used the spell. He would have to use this spell sparingly for enemies he couldn''t defeat. The last spell, [Eternity-Infinity], confused him, as it was considered to be a Traveler-rank spell. Even the description sounded confusing. Eternity-Infinity (10%) - Creates a completely isolated and independent space with a maximum internal size of 1e+35 light-years. Space and time inside the space are looped. It is possible to create multiple, interconnected space pockets without a spatial collapse. It cannot be opened by anyone else but the caster. So¡­it''s basically a stronger version of [Pocket Dimension] and [Origin Universe]?? Hmm, Looping¡­ Whatever, I''ll just investigate on how to use this once I broke through to Legendary Class, Xander mused. Good thing was that his bottleneck on the space-time elements comprehension was broken through and rose to 42%. Maybe he could integrate this into creating the modified Eden. Xander canceled the origin barrier around him, returning to the physical dimension once again. He then continued to browse the items, maybe he missed something important. ___________________ Time passed, more and more people were entering the auction venue. The first 3 floors only had a maximum capacity of 20,000 people, while the 4th to 9th floors can only hold a capacity of 5,000 people. The last few floors can only hold 108 groups of special guests. These people weren''t isolated to one another like the special guests; they were able to freely interact with one another, which caused some conflicts in the previous major auction events, so there was one main rule applied to all participating to the auction: Upon their entry, they have to sign a magic contract that tells them expressively that they cannot damage or cause harm to anyone within their premises for the duration of the auction event. The contract''s power was quite strong, as these were specially produced by a God class cultivator; in fact, his career and business are based on contract creations. He actually had a primary element under the Order origin element, Rule and Commandment, giving him the capacity to create such binding contracts. In fact, Xander had already an idea on how to ensure the loyalty of his subordinates once they reached Divine rank from his experience of signing the contract. Anyone who breaks the rules would suffer a backlash, severely injuring them in varying degrees, from simple internal organ failure to that of a decrease in cultivation level or even death in some cases. Once they broke the rules, they are not able to participate in future auctions held. The Universal Auction Consortium, or UAC, had adopted the same structure for all its members, giving them more autonomy and control over their businesses. Reva and Martina, the two fellow disciples, were mingling out and about in the 6th floor, talking to some of their acquaintances, and even attempting to goad their enemies to make the first move. Of course, the other parties either greeted them nicely or with contempt, as most of their acquaintances were disciples of other magibiopharmacists that their master may or may not be in good terms with. At the same time, they were carefully looking at the prices of the items they had their eyes on and double-checking if they had brought enough money from the Universal Bank. Although the Galactic Empire was not using Universal notes, at least their central bank offered conversion of these notes to their currency, the Galaxy coins. They only had roughly 500 billion worth of Galaxy coins in their bank accounts. Hopefully, the prices wouldn''t be too inflated. However, everyone''s faces changed when they saw the starting bid prices for all the 19 and 20-star elixirs and elixir pills being sold: all of them started at 2 billion Galaxy coins, and there were only 2 sets of five pills/bottles (liquid) being sold for each type of them. Xander had set that condition to the auction house, which they wholeheartedly agreed to. After all, a higher price for such a rarity and powerful product would attract more attention. The people who came for the pills were quite frantic. They expected that the pills were going to be sold per bottle, and not in terms of sets of twos or threes. Xander had consigned 450 different elixir and elixir pills with an Immaculate Quality at 19 to 20 stars rating, so there were a total of 900 sets for all 4,500 elixirs and elixir pills. He still had around a million of those different pills in his pocket dimension, but he didn''t want to flood the market with his products. If each set could be bought at the price of 5 billion Galaxy coins, he would gain 4.5 trillion Galaxy coins, which was equivalent to 45 million Universal notes. That''s a good funding amount for when Xander officially travels the universe. If all the sets were sold for 10 billion, he would gain 9 trillion Galaxy coins or 90 million Universal notes. By then, he''s a millionaire in the empires where the bank exists. And that didn''t include the consigned Class 6 and Class 5 magic artifacts. He consigned 300 Class 6 and 30 Class 5 magic artifacts, with the Class 6 being sold as sets of 4 complementing artifacts. All their starting prices were at 1 billion Galaxy coins, and there were only 75 sets. The Class 5 magic artifacts, on the other hand, were being auctioned at a base price of 5 billion Galaxy coins each. 105 Beginning the Auction Of course, not every disciple of a renowned magibiopharmacist was surprised. Some of them, representing both their families and their masters, had enough money to outbid others, bringing around a trillion or two Galaxy coins'' worth of money. Those who came for the Class 5 magic artifacts and Class 6 magic artifact sets were also prepared by the stiff competition. Most of them were representatives of clans from other empires who wanted to strengthen their influence and power. They didn''t hesitate to bring roughly around 800 billion to 1.5 trillion Galaxy coins'' worth of money to purchase these things. Of course, some rich, lone cultivators were also planning to buy a Class 6 set or a Class 5 magic artifact, and some of the elixirs for their safety and security. Although they were alone, they usually had a lot of connections in their very long lives, so they couldn''t be underestimated. What caused their eyes to turn green is that the effects of each artifact set would boost the user''s power by at least 3 stages, and up to a maximum of 6 stages. Imagine, a Divine-3 cultivator fighting against a Divine-9 cultivator, or a Demigod-6 fighting a Divine-3 cultivator evenly, just because of the presence of a Class 6 artifact. Everyone was excited. There were only 15 more minutes left before the auction began. The other cultivators and bidders were using this time to frantically transfer funds to ensure they had enough money. They realized that this special auction held by the Galactic Empire may not be as tame as the previous auctions. ________________ Somewhere inside the city. "Are you all prepared? Remember, we cannot fail. If we fail, we die. That''s it." A hooded person asked the 8 people in front of the figure, all with the same attire. No one responded. "Let''s get the mission started." The person said, and all 9 of them disappeared on the spot. ________________ Koeman Group, Unknown location. A man was quietly rubbing the Dalmarkal Doom Kitten lying on his lap, asleep. He was looking at a large, single-paned window that covered half of his room. A lady was quietly standing nearby, not releasing any sounds whatsoever. "¡­is it all ready?" he asked, in which the lady quietly responded, "Mr. Koeman, the preparations have been completed." "¡­that''s great." He replied after a few moments of silence. "¡­" The room felt very heavy for some reason after he responded. After a minute or two of silence, he posed a question, "Alice, do you think what I''m doing is bad?" "¡­" the lady, Alice, remained silent. She did not become the personal secretary of her childhood friend without learning a lot of things about him. Seeing her despondent, the man rolled his eyes, and added, "Don''t worry, I won''t fire you, whatever your answer is." Hearing this, Alice didn''t hesitate to answer what she thought about it. "¡­it''s subjective. If you lose, you are bad, if you succeed, you are good." "Do you think I''ll win, Alice." He asked Alice, who just smiled back at him, before saying, "¡­I never bet on the losing side, Mr. Koeman." "Quite eloquent, Ms. Alice, quite eloquent. Nevermind that. Let everything fall into place." He muttered before the room returned to its previous silence. In front of the two, the 5 auction houses they had in Elema planet was being broadcasted. There is a beautiful scene to watch for the next 3 days. __________________ Alemara city, in the Koeman Auction House. Xander was looking at the projection shown in front of him. A charming-looking man who looked like he was in his 30s was standing and holding an item. The auction was finally beginning. Immediately, the man smiled and spoke out, his voice deep and enchanting. Xander already recognized that this man was a natural master of the 6 desires under the Emotion series elements, the Sensual Pleasures element. "Ladies and gents, welcome, to the Koeman Group''s traditional auction event in the Galactic Empire." "I am your host for this auction event, Brady K. Galloway." "I know you all are itching for the auction to begin, but we would like to remind you all: the winning bid price is the final price of the item. Once you win the bid, you must have enough money later to pay for the item, or you will be paying for it with your body~" "Now, let''s begin the auction. Our first item is a pair of brooches. These are twin man-made Class 6 magic artifacts, the Sapphis Jewel Brooch! Its effects allow the owner to negate any attack below Sage-3 once and reflect it to the caster, before requiring a recharge of magic energy and a cooldown of 14 days. Its negative effects once worn are only two: You will stutter once in a while, and you will sigh once every minute." "The starting bid is 500 million Galaxy coins. Increments of 10 million or more only~ You have 2 minutes." Immediately, the prices began to rise, rapidly reaching a value of 900 million, before slowing down. After 2 minutes, the final bid was 1.28 billion Galaxy coins. It was a female Divine-9 magic swordsman that got the pair of brooches, one of the VIPs in another city in Elema. The others who came with her congratulated her, while those that recognized her name tsked in annoyance. Xander, for the next few items that popped out, was watching carefully the projection, checking the current bids. When it came to the 48th item, Xander''s eyes narrowed. This was one of the items he was eying. Brady began to announce the item''s name and description. "Our 48th item is known as the Crown of Thespileis, a Class 6, man-made artifact. This allows the wearer to distort anything that comes within a certain radius from the crown, before allowing the wearer to take control of the distorted thing. According to our tests, its power and range depended on the power of the wearer. A Demigod-9 could affect someone up to Divine-3, a Divine-9 could affect someone up to Sage-2. The negative effect of this artifact is that you must feed it with your blood essence once every month, or else it begins to act against you, the wearer, as well." "The starting price is 500 million Galaxy coins, increments of 10 million or more only. You have 2 minutes~" The moment he said that Xander immediately raised the price to 5 billion, momentarily stopping everyone from placing any bids when they saw the bidder''s name. [SG] Chronicler - 5,000,000,000 Note: Yes, I made those pills and artifacts. Yes, I''m interested in this one. When they saw the note attached to his bidding price, no one dared to bid. Who would want to antagonize someone who was able to sell these items in an auction? They would rather befriend that person. They weren''t stupid, after all. Xander, who was sitting calmly in the private room, had to thank the system. The moment the bidding opened, it put in the ceiling price that he had determined beforehand, allowing his bid to dominate the bidding list immediately. After 2 minutes, his note changed, saying, "Thank you. 10 more items to go," subtly informing them that he will be betting on 10 more items so they shouldn''t attempt to outbid him. Brady couldn''t do anything about the situation, nor did the other auction managers in other branches. The regular and VIPs, however, understood clearly his meaning. After a few more items, the first of Xander''s consigned items appeared. "Ladies and gents, the 59th item in our list: 19 Star, Immaculate quality elixir pill: Gratifying Essence! This is one of the rare 15-star elixir pills that had been refined to the extreme, allowing it to change the number of stars it had as well as improve its quality beyond the Perfect rank. The effect of the pill allows the user to recover his or her lost magic energy, increasing the maximum amount the user can hold by 5 times without any negative repercussions to the user, a large increase from its initial 1.5 times increase. A maximum of two pills can be taken at the same time while it worked, which was for 2 days, a large jump from the initial 4 hours it provided. An additional effect it brought to the user is that after the effect fades, their energy capacity would permanently increase by 10%. That''s right, 10%! Another additional effect it brought about was it was able to repair injuries in one''s body completely and even one''s elemental essence stones by a large margin." "A warning, however: If you take more than two at the same time, you will die, no matter what your rank is as long as you are below God class. The pill has a cooldown of 1 month before being able to use it again. That is what Mr. Chronicler told us when he consigned this pill." "We are selling one of the two sets of 5 pills for 2 billion Galaxy coins, with increments of 100 million or more only. You have 2 minutes." The moment he said that numerous flashes appeared on the screen, with the top bidding price changing every second. The price continued to surge up, reaching a value of 13 billion Galaxy coins before it began to slow down. The two disciples, Reva and Martina, tried to bid was easily outbid by others. They had to reserve their funds for the two pills they wanted to buy. After all, this was just a 19 star, not the 20-star pill they were looking for. A pill of this potency was roughly around 100,000 Universal notes; its quality is what made its price jump up to at least 250,000 Universal notes, or 25 billion Galaxy coins. As long as they got it below that value, they would have profited. Three bidders continued to struggle before the final price reached 24.5 billion Galaxy coins. The one that won the bid was a young man with a trimmed beard, one of the VIPs in Alemara city. The two disciples recognized him as one of their master''s friend''s disciple, Jakob. The three chatted, asking one another if they could coordinate in bidding so that they knew which ones to avoid for the other party. After the terms had been agreed on, they made a promise for now. The bidding for the last set of the same item was more intense. The price reached 27.3 billion Galaxy coins, with Jakob backing out once it reached that amount. The reason was that his master was quite fussy and told him to get 12 different pills, and gave him only 400 billion Galaxy coins'' worth of money. He wasn''t even sure if he had enough for the later pills. The auction continued to sell the 19-star elixirs and elixir pills Xander consigned, the prices rising from an average of 21.5 billion to 33 billion Galaxy coins per set. As the auction continued, it became more frenzied for the regular, VIP, and other special guests to bid for the elixirs and elixir pills. There was even a special guest that bought a set of elixir bottles, Drops of Fantasia, that allowed the consumer to improve their Domain Clarity and Elemental Essence Stone Colors by 5% per bottle, a maximum of 2 bottles per person before it loses effect. Everyone could only eye that special guest greedily. This was because they saw the name of the buyer and instantly shut their mouths that were about to badmouth the person. [SG] Queen of Pain, Akasha - 45,000,000,000 She was a notorious femme fatale amongst Sage cultivators, full of trickery and seductiveness, allowing her to fight off cultivators 1 to 2 stages above her without dying. This was partly due to her primary elements of Knowledge, Lust, and Sorrow, allowing her to strike where it hurts the most. Some had said that she had a thin bloodline of the Infernals within her, allowing her to use the power of the Lust element to exhibit nearly the same power as the Concupiscence element, which was under the Hell element series. Although she was already a Sage-6, she still bought this elixir to perfect her elemental essence stones and Domain expression. All in all, the first batch of 450 sets took 15 hours to completely auction, producing a staggering amount of 12.38 trillion Galaxy dollars for Xander, roughly 123.8 million Universal notes. The auction continued. It was already 24:30 pm, 30 minutes past their noontime, and Xander was still waiting for his other items to appear. He felt that it was weird that the auction decided to sell his items first, but then realized it was to bring the energy back to their remaining stocks of items to be auctioned for today. Xander created some food out of his memory and began to eat while taking note of the items he was going to buy. It was a bit funny that there wasn''t any form of breaks whatsoever for this kind of event. The auction house had to probably remove the break due to me adding tons of items into the list, Xander told himself. After several more items, the Eye of Carmaxus was up for bidding. Brady began to explain the item. "For our 522nd item for auction: The Eye of Carmaxus, a Class 6 natural artifact. This is an eye produced by a cultivator that went by the name Carmaxus. He died 40,000 years ago in a battle with one of his enemies, his left eye becoming the focal point of his power, rather than his elemental essence stones, making it a rare formation of nature. Its effects are quite simple: Anything that the eye sees will fall into a confused, chaotic state, whether it be material or immaterial. Its range is a maximum of 2 kilometers and is indiscriminate in targeting. Its negative side-effect is that one would lose the capacity to see anything for the next 7 days after usage." "The starting price is 450 million Galaxy coins, with increments of 10 million or more. You have 2 minutes to bid~" Once again, Xander''s pseudonym appeared in the auction board, with a price: 5 billion Galaxy coins. When they saw his name pop out, no one dared to bid anything higher. To be honest, they felt the item had a crippling negative effect; blind for 7 days; what if they were on a siege? They would be sitting ducks if they turned blind afterward, unable to use magic perception to even guide one''s direction. After 2 minutes, the bid ended, with Xander winning the bid. The auction continued. After 25 more items, the last artifact he was looking for finally appeared. "For our 547th item for auction: The Helyn''s Finger Bone, a Class 6 natural artifact. The ability it has is primarily focused on bringing back the recently dead as an unnatural being, a zombie. As you all know, zombies are usually destroyed by the universe itself, because their very nature defies the cycle of life and death. However, the owner of this finger bone, Helyn, managed to circumvent this by the usage of Soulfire - Preservation element, combining it with the Life - Rebel and Death - Form elements. The negative side effect is that it slowly decreases your vitality attribute by one point every year once it has been used; the effect can only be mitigated by destroying the artifact." "The starting price is 250 million Galaxy coins, with increments of 10 million or more. You have 2 minutes to bid~" the moment he said this, Xander''s bid was placed once again, a total of 5 billion Galaxy coins. It wasn''t surprising that after the 2 minutes, he got the items. Xander then checked the items to be sold and saw that besides the Narcissus seed, the remaining items he was looking for were going to be sold tomorrow. He decided to stay in the private room, however, and already pay for the items he bought. After a few minutes, the items he requested was already sent into the room by his two servers. He checked the items and ensured these were the specific items by viewing their past and passive magical and elemental fluctuations. Upon Xander''s success in verifying their authenticity, he kept them in the same area in his pocket dimension where artifacts were stored. He then began to lounge around, waiting for the 699th item, which was the Narcissus seed. He didn''t see any other trinkets today that would excite him, so he was just casually reading the information of every participant, for fun. There were a lot of powerhouses from nearby empires attending, huh. However, he soon found a group of people with anomalous data. When he traced where they were currently, they were located in different floors, but when he used his [Divine Eyes] to view the overall scenario, he noticed that they were arranged in a spiral, and a bird''s eye view would show them in every matrix point of large-scale matrix spell formation; from the tiny fluctuations they were continuously releasing, it was a Sage rank matrix spell. The magic they used was a bit weird because when Xander viewed the area normally, there was no trace or fluctuation of magic being cast, but when [Divine Eyes] is activated, he could see the tendrils of power converging and focusing on the center of the building and the matrices of the spell formation. He realized that the magic and elemental fluctuations acted the same when he used space-time elements to cover his fluctuations. When he looked again carefully in their attires, Xander realized they were all women. Could this be that terrorist group, the Black Order? An organization completely made up of women and female-like beings and focused on showing off their power, believing that women are more superior to men. Of course, this wasn''t true, since they both have equal potentials, it is really how they used and developed themselves individually. However, some empires didn''t believe that. For example, the Helennic empire partially believed it but from an economical perspective, and other smaller empires which were completely ruled by women-like beings. He fell into deep thought. Should he report them, since he didn''t want his auction experience to be disturbed, or should he take care of them? Xander was a bit annoyed. It was supposed to be his day-off and a form of relaxation for the next 3 days. Xander asked the system what was the most optimal solution. It gave a simple answer: Kill. Xander rolled his eyes. He still couldn''t kill Sages without causing too many casualties¡­ well, if he used Time Shatter, he could specify the targets and area of effect though. But he didn''t want to waste his first 1,000 vitality attributes, jeez. Xander, with the help of the system, began to explore possible solutions and explore the servers of the Koeman Group to find out if they knew about this or not. After a while, he let out a big grin. It seems there''s going to be a large show later after the auction, huh. Interesting. _________________ The 9 women in disguises were quietly preparing, their hands and mouths moving discreetly, releasing magical fluctuations not detectable by any normal means. This was because, with the help of a secret technique from their organization, they were able to shift the dimensions of their magic and elemental fluctuations, making it virtually undetectable unless one knows the specific dimension they were occurring. Amelia, the leader of the operation, continued to message the others about their progress via the private communicators they had. This spell was one of the strongest Sage-ranked spells their organization had, named [COVID: 19 Tribulations of Disease and Decay]. The spell was able to affect the entire planet, killing all lifeforms below Sage rank instantly and severely injuring Sage cultivators. What was scary though was that some of them would also be infected, and they can spread the infection to the next place they visit by as simple as breathing in air, or scratching their head, or even drinking from a cup. They could set the range to a maximum of 500 million kilometers, but by then, the effect would have weakened, only killing Demigods and below, severely injuring Divine cultivators, and causing light injury to Sages. The spell was quite stringent in its required amount of people, as it needed 45 people to cast this spell. The team Amelia was leading were in Alemara, and the other 4 teams were in the other cities. They were here, after all, to create the largest, strongest impact to all surrounding empires that the Black Order is capable of doing this, and that they should be feared for it. 106 Fight between Gods The spell takes at least 24 hours to complete, and an additional 8 hours to create the activation process. They were close to reaching 24 hours since they were allowed entry into the auction house. They just needed 14 more hours, and they would be done with the spell and would be able to activate it at any time. Time passed, and it was 26:30 pm They already completed the spell when the auction was already on its 600th item. 199 items to go or 6.6 hours left. There wasn''t enough time. They had to complete the spell casting before the auction ended. Amelia then gritted her teeth before sending an order: Use your blood essence to speed up the activation process. Everyone complied, as all 9 women quickly infused their blood essence into the spell, cutting the activation time by half. They only needed 4 more hours. She then said it to the other team leaders in other auction houses, who agreed to her plan. Time passed by. It was the 699th item, the Seed of Narcissus. Brady began to explain the item and its purpose. "For our 699th item up for auction, the Seed of Narcissus! This is a seed that comes from a rare, unknown tree, which was said to be beneficial for anyone who had control over the Emotion or Mind elements. You could have the same tree as well if you purchase this and cultivate it!" "The starting bid is at 50 million Galaxy coins, with increments of 1 million or more. You have 2 minutes to bid~" Immediately, one name popped out, surprising the cultivators present once again. [SG] Chronicler - 1,000,000,000 Note: This seed annoyingly requires at least 15 million years to mature, and another plant of the same type to reproduce. The fruit production would take 10 million years. This is assuming that you find an optimal place for their growth. However, the bidding didn''t end here. Someone bid 1 million Galaxy coins higher, which was another special guest. [SG] Demeter - 1,001,000,000 Note: I''ll let you have this and another seed of the same kind if you give me information about this seed and how to grow it. After seeing that bid, Xander raised his eyebrow, before sending a follow-up bid. [SG] Chronicler - 10,000,000,000 Note: Eh, sure. Send a messenger to my room along with the seed. With that note, everyone was dumbfounded. Hey, hey, why are you using the bidding board to send messages to one another? Are you here to buy or just flaunt your status? However, no one attempted to interrupt the two, because based on the situation, it seemed that this other special guest is the one that consigned the seed to the auction house. Xander, after placing the top bid, heard a knock on his door. The moment he unlocked it by a press of a button in his seat, a young, light-green colored man appeared, dressed up nicely. "Hello, you must be the Chronicler, correct?" "That''s right. Are you the messenger sent by Demeter?" "That''s correct. The name bestowed by my creator is Conch¨²r Mac Aodhag¨¢in, a pleasure to meet you." "Do you have the seed?" "Yes," Conch¨²r replied as he brought out a familiar-looking seed. Hmm, it seemed that all Concept seeds shared the same looks. Xander, seeing the seed, nodded, before gesturing with his hand. The seed immediately flew to where he was, before disappearing into thin air, placed in his pocket dimension. A piece of paper materialized in front of Xander, and he began to write on it the process of cultivating this seed. Its very simple. Based on the name of the seed, it feeds off emotions. One can do the following to grow it: 1. Use the living brains of beings as the foundation of the seed to grow. The brains must be conscious and alive. The more the brains, the faster it grows. The stronger the brains, the better the growth. 2. Plant it in the dream dimension. Slow but stable growth. You can plant it in your dream bubble if you are a dream walker or have it planted by someone that can shift their dimensions. 3. Create an artificial environment that would provide the same effects as the first two options. P.S. I assume you also sold the Seed of Chronos? I also know how to cultivate it. Give me another Seed of Chronos and I will tell you the cultivation methods as well. After Xander wrote these down, he rolled up the parchment and sealed it with a one-time magic barrier. "The magic barrier I placed is capable of eradicating anyone below Sage-2 if forcefully shattered, within a radius of 100 meters. If she is who I think she is, she would know the answer to this question: "The name of your daughter that got kidnapped?" If she isn''t, the answer is the name of the tree where the seed came from. The answer should be written in runic writing, unlocking the magic barrier." After saying that, Xander did a small gesture with his finger, pushing the plant-like creature out of the room, and shutting the door tightly. Conch¨²r was surprised and unable to react, he was pushed out of the room. He tightly held the rolled-up document and quickly went to his Master''s room. Conch¨²r knocked in the room, which was opened by one of Master''s servants. He quickly entered and knelt in front of a voluptuous-looking woman, who had a serene smile plastered on her face. "Master, the Chronicler has written the method in this parchment. However, he placed it under a magic barrier to ensure its authenticity. If forcefully opened, it can eradicate anyone below Sage-2 within a radius of 100 meters." "Oh? This person truly is interesting." "Master, he also said that the runic key to this magic barrier is ''the name of your daughter that got kidnapped'', and the answer must be written in runic writing above the magic barrier," Conch¨²r reported. However, a strong wave of resentment and anger emanated all over the room, surprising and scaring Conch¨²r. It was his first time seeing his master this angry. "M-m-master, did I do anything wrong?" Conch¨²r asked cautiously, a bit nervous and scared. His master didn''t reply, however, she was furiously tapping her armrest before she moved her finger above the parchment and began to write the runic writing. A clicking sound was heard before a masculine voice could be heard from the collapsing magic barrier. "Huh, so you''re also like that person, huh, forcefully pushed into a world you didn''t belong to, awaiting for the stage call. Anyways, think about what I offered you in the parchment. No worries, only you can hear my voice, no need to kill your servants." When she heard this voice, her eyes dilated, before shrinking, looking like a set of feline eyes. She began to browse the contents of the parchment, and when she saw the methods for growing the item, she widened her eyes in surprise. Interesting, so even the Seed of Chronos also required a specific habitat for growing, huh. She tapped the parchment, which quickly dissolved into nothing. She then calmed her raging emotions, looking calmly at her creation, Conch¨²r. She smiled at him, causing him to visibly calm down. "Conch¨²r, I have one more task for you. Send this other seed to the gentleman earlier. Tell him that I agree to his request." "R-right away, master!" Conch¨²r said, standing up and then bowing, before heading to Xander''s room once again. Xander was surprised since it seemed she agreed with the proposal I gave her. Conch¨²r entered once again the room, and before he could speak, Xander conjured the same parchment and wrote the method of growing the seed of Chronos, which was a place with chaotic time. He then made another gesture, sending the parchment to Conch¨²r''s hands, and the seed he was holding floated towards Xander which then disappeared, appearing in his pocket dimension. "Off you go, little green man." Xander gestured, causing the body of the man to move on its own, heading out and calmly closing the door. Now, all he needed to do was wait for the show to begin. What gall does the Koeman Group have, to stage such a thing in one of the major events of the Galactic Empire¡­ Oh well, not his business this time. The next 6 items he wanted to buy were going to be auctioned tomorrow and in the last day, after all. _________________ Amelia checked with everyone and saw that they were done with the activation process. All they needed to do was flip and the spell would be activated, unleashing death and destruction to all. Immediately, she signaled one of the members to hack into the main server of the Koeman Group, to broadcast their figures. After a few minutes, the different Koeman Auction houses in Elema had their lights cut off, and their projectors showed the figure of a singular female, showing its majesty and gracefulness to all who saw it. Her eyes carried a sensual feeling, anyone that would look would be enamored and enraptured, yet her overall being carried a frightful aura. Some old fogies instantly recognized the female figure: The Black Order''s founder, Anya Heimlich! Immediately, some began to panic, while others readied their magic barriers and personal magic artifacts. A female voice sounded in all the auction houses, reverberating in the hearts of those who were listening. "Women will always be superior. How dare the Koeman Group attempt to usurp the superiority of women by allowing the trade of female slaves! All of you will pay for your folly!" The moment the voice sounded out, immediately, a powerful force began to gather all over the planet, suffocating everyone below Sage level with its magnitude and overbearingness. "COVID: 19 Tribulations of Disease and Decay!" The female voice sounded out from the projection, causing everyone to panic. However, minutes later, there was still no effect, confusing the people who were in defensive mode. "¡­" the female voice was also silent, but inside, she was confused as well; why didn''t the spell work? Didn''t all 45 of them complete the spell formation? She checked up with the 5 team leaders, who were also confused as to why the spell didn''t activate. Before she could even speak again, a loud, masculine voice sounded out in all auction houses. "Everyone, stay calm. We have been preparing for a long time to capture a certain pest, and have placed the necessary measures to ensure they would fall for it, but retain your safety." "On behalf of the Koeman Group, we apologize for using this event to get rid of a terror group that has been plaguing multiple empires. For everyone here, we would like to give you all an upgrade in your current auction house status as well as a 10% discount when paying for your won items." "Please enjoy this live stream of the chase our own God cultivators have begun for the leader of the Black Order, Ms. Anya Heimlich!" When the female voice who was speaking heard this, she immediately stilled, before she immediately left her location, moving rapidly away from it, utilizing multiple escape-type magic artifacts. A few seconds later, behind her, the planet and its surrounding area were blasted to oblivion, with nothing left at all. She was 2 light-years away, but when she detected this, her heart chilled, and immediately began to utilize the special dimensional points to travel to different, far locations. After several dimensional jumps, she thought she was safe, but she then heard a voice behind her. "Did you think you could run that easily, Anya? You leave so many traces, dearie. Tut, tut, you haven''t improved ever since you reached God-4 stage." Anya, hearing this voice, didn''t hesitate and launched her attacks behind her, rending the space behind her to warp and weaken from the impact. However, the voice continued to sound out, creating a tsking sound. "Tsk, tsk. Even your comprehension hasn''t improved as well." "Shut it, Elgors. You and your company of misogynistic men. Hah! Pathetic pieces of trash." She sneered, launching several energy attacks at Elgors and the men who were hiding behind him. "Darling Anya, haven''t you heard? The strong make the rules. You''re not that strong in our eyes, sweetie." Elgors said, his voice rough and carried a sense of bestial instinct in them. He easily deflected the energy attack Anya launched, the decaying and eroding function of the spell not affect his hands and body. The space around Elgors shimmered, and 4 hands appeared, doing a variety of things against the energy attacks. One absorbed it, another shattered it, one caused it to stop in its movements, and the last one even managed to launch it back to Anya, who immediately snapped her fingers, causing the attack to collapse on its own. "Ganging upon a woman? As expected, men can''t do the job alone. Pathetic." Anya sneered, as she continued to launch different energy attacks. Her attacks were multi-myriad and ever-changing. When one is at the God class, one''s attacks return in the origin, bringing forth a form of multiple possibilities. A simple attack could result to a spell matrix and the like being formed and launched. Of course, there''s still God rank spells, spells that needed to be prepared before they are cast. In Anya''s case, she was merely delaying time, allowing enough time for her to finish her spell. The same goes for the men who were chasing her. They were defending while preparing the God rank spells they had in their arsenal. It is also known that God cultivators can only have 3 main God-rank spells. If they have more than 3, one could have it as their trump card, or even consider them as a genius or blessed by the universe. Elgors swatted the attacks like he was swatting flies around him, every hit dissipating the attacks. He came closer and closer to Anya, doing it slowly to avoid coming into traps. After a few seconds, Anya cast her signature God rank spell, [Empress of Disease and Decay]. This caused her body to transform into an avatar of Disease and Decay, allowing her to freely cast Disease and Decay magic spells with a rank of God and below. She began to bombard the men with spells. Although Elgors was a God-5 cultivator and his helpers were all God-4, the large barrage of AoE attacks that showcased the power of a God rank spell was slowly breaking their magic barriers. They had to retreat for a few kilometers before launching their own God spells, two of them turning into an avatar while the others launched single-targeted spells, piercing through the God rank spells that Anya had cast. The 3 attacks hit her avatar body, where she screamed in pain; however, she did not die, as her avatar was rapidly decaying the attack and transforming it into her energy. However, that delay was enough for the two other avatars to launch their barrage of attacks. The problem was that the avatar spells they had usually resulted in their domain manifesting in the vicinity automatically; this meant once foreign attacks or enemies entered, they are weakened and even slowly destroyed by the domain before they could even reach the body. For the next 10 minutes, they were in a stalemate. However, the goal of the 2 avatar-formed God cultivators is just to preoccupy Anya; the other 3 are preparing a joint God rank spell cast. Of course, Anya wasn''t stupid and was trying to delay time as well, waiting for her reinforcements. After all, although she founded the Black Order according to what the people knew, she wasn''t the only God cultivator in the organization. There were a total of 5 God cultivator women who joined her cause. She believed that the initial signal she sent out early on before the fight began would alert them of her coordinates. After another 10 minutes, space began to ripple around her, and 4 female figures began to appear, obviously shifting their current dimension to the physical dimension. The women were dressed differently, each expressing a different style and taste in clothing. They also looked different from one another, with two of them looking like humans, and the other 2 were of different species. "Ara, ara, Anya, You got ambushed, tee hee hee." One of the humanoid females said to Anya, snickering. "Ughh, not a good time Hailey! Help me deal with the trio at the back preparing a joint spell!" Anya shouted, not bothering to banter with Hailey. "Ladies, let''s show these men why we, women, will always be superior to them!" Anya shouted, signaling the other 3 ladies to begin their attacks towards the two avatars. The latter was forced into a defensive state, as they were currently outnumbered more than what they could handle. The latter merely pouted, before disappearing in place and appearing behind the trio. "Oh my, young and supple men, my favorite \u003c3" Hailey said, licking her lips seductively, before moving her hand in a grabbing motion, causing the trio to pause in whatever they were doing. When Elgors saw who it was, his face paled. "E-empress of Shadows! I thought you were already dead?" He stammered, and when the others heard the name, they broke out in a sweat. They knew the power of this vile woman. She had a habit of getting young, virile men to be her puppets, controlling their shadows to do his bidding. She followed a unique path of cultivation, the path of the puppeteer. The last they heard of this woman was around 3 million years ago. Didn''t this woman die against her archenemy, her brother? They clearly remembered that she was a God-5 cultivator at that time. Don''t tell me, she already broke through to a higher level? Damn it! Elgors swore inside, before using the biological communicator. "Send in Omega-2 into our location! Initiate program: Eradicator!" "Order received. Sending Omega-2 into the battlefield. Estimated time: 15 minutes." Damn, we have to delay for 10 more minutes. Although the joint spell the trio were casting was canceled, they didn''t experience severe spell backlash, as they used their universe to carry the damage. Utilizing their powers, the trio broke free of the binding Hailey subjected them to, with one of them heading to support the two others in avatar form against the 4 other women. Elgors and the remaining person began to surround Hailey warily, casting their spells to watch out against her insidious attacks. Hailey, seeing them act in such a way, laughed, yet when the men heard her laugh, they shivered. She was a deranged woman. So does that mean her brother lost against her? "Darlings, why fight? My element is more superior than yours, just so you know~ I can bring out more of the origin elements compared to your measly derivatives!" "Enough chatter!" the man fighting alongside Elgors shouted, launching his attacks at the quaint figure. Elgors face immediately changed. "Lei, don''t! She going to reflect it-" Before he could finish his sentence, the attack landed on her body. 107 Mysterious Rescue Immediately, the body of the Empress of Shadows began to morph and accommodate the attack, which resulted in it changing into a different color and launching back at Lei. Lei, seeing this, attempted to control the attack once again, and realizing that he couldn''t control it, his face changed, and immediately launched his attack to dissipate the spell. They were now in a predicament. They couldn''t damage or even hinder the empress, while the 3 other men were fighting an uphill battle with 4 other God-4 cultivators. The problem was that they didn''t recognize the 3 other women. They were completely unprepared for how to deal with them, as they didn''t have any information about them. They could only play it safe and test the waters, causing the current situation. Those in Elema planet watching the situation were fearful when they saw the figure of Anya and the Empress of Shadows appearing, as they had seen records of their fights as well as their prowess. If they won, didn''t that mean??everyone in the auction house would be killed? Damn it, we want to get out of this planet! These were some of the thoughts running in the minds of the Divine and Demigods in attendance. However, for the Sages present, they remained calm, because the organizations that they represented, or those that have a close connection with them, is enough a deterrence for these crazy women. Although the Black Order advocated women superiority, they also know they cannot win an outnumbered fight. One organization versus hundreds of thousands of others that were roughly the same power as them: It''s a no-brainer situation of who will win in the end. Not only that, but there was also an opposing organization called the Purified Ones, consisting of males alone. Their goal was to enlighten everyone that women and anyone else besides men are unnecessary and can be replaced easily. Elgors was part of the Koeman Group and a member of the Purified Ones. With the command from the head honcho of the Group, he gathered members from the Koeman Group and the Purified Ones to ambush and eliminate Anya; they plan on eliminating her through humiliating her in public¡­sexually. It sounds cruel, but for almost all sentient beings, reputation is an important commodity. How else can you show your might if you heard someone say, "oh hey, that''s the girl that was sexually abused and broadcasted all over the universe." Hailey, on the other hand, was quite bored. "Anya, Tessa, Mary, Clarissa; are you girls finished? These two guys are delectable and I wanna bring them back~" "Pfft, Hailey, dear, control your p***y! Once we kill these three, we''ll join you get those bastards, haha!" Mary shouted, her body covered in blood that seemed to come from everywhere, continuously flowing and lashing out to the men who had to launch their attacks to nullify its movements and damage. "Sis, just wait for a bit more¡­good, the spell''s taking effect now. Teehee, handsome, don''t you feel your body becoming a bit harder to control, and manipulate? Feeling a bit lightheaded and hot all over?" Clarissa murmured, her voice reaching the man she was having an intense fight with. Upon hearing this, he did notice that his cultivation skill and magic and elemental energy inside his body was losing order, becoming more chaotic. "I-I¡­ d-damn it, I was drugged. Alex, use purification on me, quick!" "Wait, Jose, are you sure? Your avatar will be canceled when I cast it to you." Alex responded, however, he was already preparing the spell. "Just do it, Alex!! Quickly! It''s a poisonous aphrodisiac!" "Bingo~ It''s far more potent than the strongest one in the universal market~," Clarissa said, laughing. When the 3 men heard this, their faces fell, before circulating rapidly their cultivation skills to purge out the poison from their bodies. After all, they knew the effects of a magic-based aphrodisiac; they had used them over their countless interactions with other men and women, after all. As they continued to cycle their skills, a pale, pinkish mist slowly dispersed from their bodies, before being eradicated by their domains. They were unsure how the mist even managed to survive their domains in the first place, so they began to be in defensive mode towards the ladies they were fighting. Alex also prepared a ready to deploy purification spell for the men, just in case another similar situation would occur. Anya, however, used this opportunity to launch her deadly attacks, as well as another petite-looking girl, Tessa, with scales all over her skin, and a pair of curved horns on her head. She had the bloodline of an ancient dragon and the Serpent Emperor, Ouroboros, a God class magic beast. The 3rd man, Georgy, nullified their attacks by using his earth/metal god spell, [Prison of Solitude], locking the 4 women and their attacks inside the spell. It generated an eternal maze, meaning, it was a maze with no exit. The only way to break through the spell was by using brute force or await for the caster to lose magic energy. The 4 girls were also a bit surprised, as they didn''t know one of the men that Elgors called for had this kind of ability. Not even the other men or Elgors knew about Georgy''s god skill. The 4 girls were separated inside the spell, and their sense of direction and gravity was distorted inside. Although they can detect each others'' presences, they could not accurately locate one another. Anya and Tessa, the offensives of the team, began to launch a flurry of attacks towards the walls and ceilings, which caused some walls to crack, but not completely shatter. The ceilings trembled for a bit, before turning still. Anya paused for a bit, before deciding to locate the girls instead so that they can pool their attacks at one point. Tessa, on the other hand, kept striking the same place in the ceiling, her punches roughly the same power as a God class cultivator. The men, seeing that the women were contained in the spell, let out a sigh of relief, before Jose and Alex headed to Elgors and Lei to help out against the Empress of Shadows. Hailey, seeing the situation, wasn''t shocked or angry; rather, she had an amused and pitiful look at the men. "Ah, I wish you didn''t do that~" she tsked, shaking her head. Elgors and the other 3 men were confused, but they didn''t take heed of it and began their barrage of attacks. Although she was demonstrating the powers of a complete counter representation, there must be an underlying limit of how much she can counter back. Numerous spells of purification, light, 6 desires, Will, Imagination, decay, fire, water, air, Fate-destiny, and Truth-judgement elements bombarded her body, most of which were rapidly transformed into darkness and launched back to them. Of course, these elements were not purely that element, but rather, an amalgam of the other elements derived from their primary elements. However, as they continued the barrage, they noticed that the element of Light and Fate-destiny were the longest elements to be processed. They decided to the elements of their spells to show these traits, and after a few more attacks, Hailey was panting, albeit a bit seductively, as she continued to stand there. "Ara, ara, you found out about my weakness~," Hailey said dramatically, causing the men to be on their guards. Hailey then laughed, and each laughter rapidly magnified her current power, to the point that the energy she was releasing was starting to suppress their domains. "Sike, just kidding~ Thanks for the meal, by the way! Time to dig in~" When Hailey said this, her body morphed into a large, dark blob that seemed to continuously grow and devour the area where she was in, taking the 4 men into the blob. Inside, it was pitch black, and Elgors couldn''t feel, see, taste, touch, or hear anything. However, the backup Elgors was waiting for finally arrived at this moment. Immediately, a ray of light penetrated the blob, and for the men inside the blob, they saw that ray as their source of freedom, and immediately traveled to where it originated. Once they were out, the blob collapse, showing the injured figure of Hailey, her shoulder, and left leg had a large puncture hole. There was no blood, as expected since their bodies were their universe. It did damage her universe, but at least her universal core was intact. She gritted her teeth, looking at the source of the attack. A shiny, humanoid figure could be seen standing in space, its eyes were blank, its fingers pointing at Hailey. "Damn it, a Rank-4 Magic Artifact¡­!" Her voice was quivering for a bit because she knew that this wasn''t any ordinary Rank-4 artifact. Most likely, it was crafted by a Grandmaster and above that used a God-7 or higher cultivator since the attack power it showcased surpassed even her current power, God-7. "Let there be light, they said, and there was light." The shiny being, Omega-2, spoke softly, and a small dot of light appeared on the tip of its finger, which quickly moved towards Hailey. When she saw this, her face was full of shock, and immediately shifted positions with one of the cultivators, but the light continued to chase her. Seeing that the light was gradually becoming faster and faster, she gritted her teeth and unleashed her attack. "Let darkness devour the light. Let nothing glow, return everything to nothing! [Immortals dream of Darkness]!" Immediately, the whole area where the spell was and the other male cultivators were in was completely enshrouded with darkness. This was a different kind of darkness from when Hailey encapsulated the 4 men. This was much, much more powerful, and yet at the same time, a double-edged attack. The darkness this time contained the complete properties of absorption and devouring, the light orbs launched fading out of existence, absorbed by the darkness. Not only that, but the cultivator''s bodies were also rapidly being attacked, with the darkness attempting to absorb and devour them. Of course, even the Omega-2 wasn''t immune to this, but it was a rational being; it immediately launched 1 large-scale light spell that countered the whole dark spell, [God Days Gone], which also demonstrated devouring and absorption, but in the light spectrum. Because of this impact, the spells began to distort the universe''s rules in the area. After all, these spells used Origin elements. As origin elements have more impact in manipulating and affecting the ordered system, they can deal more damage to the fabric of the universe than the derivatives of the origin elements. As the spells clashed and canceled each other, space rifts and dead spots appeared in the area. This can be considered mild since it didn''t open up a void rift. If a void rift opened and void creatures entered¡­ everyone, no matter what their differences were, had to band together to slay that being or be killed. Xander, who had been watching the situation from his room''s projection, felt a bit bored. Earlier, he was still excited, because he could see the fights between God class cultivators. However, the following events were quite lackluster. He kind of pitied the women, because not only were they outnumbered, they were overwhelmed by a magic artifact, no less. He was tempted to send some help to them, although it was quite a hassle for him. After all, his auction experience was almost affected by these women. But then again, their tenets seemed to have some truth to it, but shouldn''t be completely believed word per word. After a few minutes, he decided to just watch for now. If they planned to escape, I can at least aid with that part, hehe, Xander chuckled, before returning his attention to the projection. Georgy had to move himself and the prison away from the fight scene, as he was focused on keeping the other girls from helping out the Empress. However, when the two groups confronted, the resulting force caused a bit of damage in the cage, causing his face to change. He rapidly attempted to reform the damaged area, but quickly, it began to expand from the inside. Seeing that they were about to escape, Georgy decided to regroup with the other men. He was glad that they at least decided to use Omega-2 in this operation. There were so many things they didn''t know how to deal with, and it''s better to destroy them using brute force. After all, scheming and tactics are nothing against absolute power. When he arrived at where the other men were, he quickly joined their formation, merely saying, "Prison got disrupted, the girls inside took advantage." Elgors nodded, briefly acknowledging him. He then commanded the magic artifact to begin the process of destroying the females, which it acknowledge, before moving towards the Empress of Shadows. Hailey, seeing the incoming figure, immediately began her process of escape, as she could deem this current expedition to be a failure. Seeing the other women appear from the prison, she quickly signaled them, and when they saw her signal, their faces were grim, and immediately began to travel to 5 different directions. After all, as if the magic artifact could split itself and chase us all, right? Anyways, when they phased out of the physical dimension, the other god cultivators also phased out, tracing their trail, and after a bit, the video ended, since they couldn''t transmit the scene in the other dimensions to the physical dimension after all. Xander then waved his hands, quickly modifying the spatial signals the women left. They already lost, after all. No point chasing them and leaving them no room for salvation, right? Xander said to himself, justifying his actions. Now, the women wouldn''t be discovered or traced by the god cultivators for the next 7 days. That should be enough time for them to change or modify their magic signatures. However, this time frame should be enough to proceed with the auction without a hitch. Whatever happens to Elema or Koeman in the future, he didn''t care much, since there were other auction houses in the universe. The power returned in all the Koeman auction houses in Elema, and the 45 women were all caught, but immediately after, they committed suicide, not self-destruction, but suicide. Their bodies and elemental essence stones were now useless pieces of material, suitable to be dregs. However, at least they couldn''t be tortured or resurrected completely since their life essences disintegrated and merged immediately to the universe. Unless they have complete mastery and comprehension of the Life-Death elements, this kind of death is impossible to resurrect with 100% success and perfection. Of course, used in junction with space-time magic, this becomes a complete certainty. But who could afford the services of a space-time cultivator? For a few measly grunts? ________________ The auction continued, with the last item being auctioned. Everyone regained the earlier fervor by auctioning one of the highlights for today''s auction: A set of 5 Class 8 fruits of the fire element and a set of 5 Class 8 fruits of the water element. When Xander saw the quality, he was surprised as these were quite high, almost reaching 10 million years of age. As a Class 8 plant material, this was helpful for Demigods up to Sages alike. However, Xander didn''t have much interest. Currently, there were plenty of Demigod-6 beings in the garden. Roughly 30 more days and he would have Divine class beings, producing plant materials at Class 9. This might be shorter, if he planned to completely make a new Eden from scratch, setting the time difference the same as the laboratory. He didn''t place any bids but saw that a lot of the disciples of renowned magibiopharmacists were furiously bidding for the item. It was quite fun to see them scurry and argue with others who were bidding out of spite or for the sake of raising the price. ________________ "Hmph, Caleio, I''ll make sure you don''t get the item!" "Tough talk for someone whose master is quite stingy in giving funds, eh? My master at least gave me 800 billion worth of Galaxy coins. How much did yours give you, Farad? 200? 300? Haha!" Caleio snapped back, raising the price for the first set to 35 billion Galaxy coins. The price that he cited was already the highest for this kind of item. The problem was it was just too rare, and the numerous elixirs and elixir pills one can make from this item would allow one to recoup the losses. Seeing the price rise to 35 billion Galaxy coins, Farad hesitated; he was here to purchase certain 20-star pills. However, a beeping sound in his watch sounded up, and seeing the contents, he released a sly smile. He immediately raised the price to 50 billion Galaxy coins, surprising the others who were still thinking of bidding. They immediately retreated, leaving Caleio and Farad in the bidding race. Caleio sneered and raised it by 1.5 billion. If Farad would raise the price again, he would leave the bid, letting him win the overpriced goods. Even Reva and Martina shook their heads seeing the price inflate to the current amount. Farad, however, didn''t back out and raised the bid by 1.5 billion, making it 53 billion. This time, no one placed a bid, as Caleio shrugged and stopped bidding. Although he was being given strange looks, Farad didn''t mind, because his dear master gave him an additional 1 trillion worth of Galaxy coins, as well as 2 more kinds of pills to buy. Hehe, you idiots, I''m going to grab all the assigned pills, hehe. If I have some spare money, I might be able to buy a magic artifact from the Chronicler, Farad mused to himself. He didn''t bid for the other set of Class 8 fruits, letting a Sage cultivator get it for the price of 30 billion Galaxy coins. It was then Brady showed off a bright smile, before bowing, and then saying, "That concludes today''s auction. For those who were successful in buying their desired items, please wait in your areas until the rest who didn''t buy anything have left. The auction for tomorrow will begin at the same time as today, and expect more surprises and rarities!" When the guests heard this, they did a customary clapping, congratulating those that won their bids, while some were giving each other stares of anger and disappointment. Xander, seeing the festivities end, called for the auction manager, and began to discuss the "additional" item to spice things up. The auction manager, hearing and seeing the additional items that Xander had proposed to consign, had his eyes shine brightly and immediately reported the situation to the higher-ups, who, upon hearing the items, quickly accepted the consignment deal. They even decreased the cut they were willing to take to 8% from 10% originally. Afterward, they talked for a bit before Xander was escorted to one of the private exits of the auction house, where Xander left and headed to his reserved hotel. He commanded the mirror image to sleep, before heading to the laboratory and Eden for the rest of the night. Xander didn''t know that there would be an uproar tomorrow morning. ___________________ The next day, early morning. Everyone was pumped up and excited, no matter what their current cultivations were, or their jobs or professions. The bomb that the Koeman Auction Group surprised not only the auction bidders but also the Galactic Empire and the nearby empires who heard the news. The Universal Auction Consortium, on the other hand, was quite happy for them. There were going to be 10 additional items for today and tomorrow, and they were going to be kept a secret until the actual auctioning of the item. However, the Koeman purposely leaked several key terms, "Eternal" "Comprehension" "Heavenly Flame" ???9 elements in total" during their announcement. People here weren''t idiots; they connected the dots on what they were going to be auctioning. 108 Auction Resuming Eternal items! The very, very rare type of item: Eternal items! These were embodiments of elements, and usually were found naturally or produced by a very powerful cultivator. Examples would be Eternal Fire, Eternal Ice, Eternal Metal, Eternal Air, etc., the list could go on for every 1080 elements, but this kind of item was said to be formed by two factors: Luck and one''s comprehension. If the universe was feeling lucky, it could form one on the spot in a random place where that certain element is dominating that area, randomly containing a percentage of complete understanding of that specific element. The comprehension part comes from the perspective of man-made Eternal items. Generally, this included portions or a nearly-complete copy of the creator''s comprehension of that particular element. The Eternal items that Xander gave, have a general comprehension of 30% of the Origin elements. The elements he selected were Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Wood, Light, Darkness, Destruction, Fate, and Mind. When translated to the specific elements he created, that was roughly 85% complete comprehension of those elements. If a Demigod-1, let''s say, matched one of those elements and got one of those and completely meditated with the item for the next 10 years, he would rapidly breakthrough from Demigod-1 to Demigod-9, and after 15 more years, he would form his Elemental Essence stone, with a Rank 3 to Rank 2 Color quality. This meant as a Divine-1, he could potentially fight someone at the Divine 4 to 6 stage without instantly dying. He might not win, but he won''t lose or die right away. At the same time, if the Eternal item has not been completely consumed, that Divine cultivator can use that item to rapidly boost the comprehension of their primary essence stone of the same element, reaching the same comprehension of 85% or filling up the missing gaps in their comprehension, up to 100%, rapidly advancing their Divine class rank from Divine-1 to Divine-9. Of course, this assumes that he has only 1 primary element. If he had two, he needed the Eternal item corresponding to that or he will be stuck at the Divine-1 stage for a long time. The same goes for those with 3, or four, and above. Sages can use these Eternal items to reverse comprehend for the origin elements the items'' elements fall under. This would initially give them more security in breaking through to God Class. For the other origin elements, they would have to brave through different, dangerous places in the universe and hope for a serendipitous encounter or enlightenment concerning these particular origin elements. Generally, the easiest to reverse comprehend is the Yin-Yang and the Life-Death origin elements. It''s Space-Time, Order, and Chaos origin elements that pose a harder problem. They don''t have any elements under them, but rather, general representation groups. This was the reason why everyone was worked up and excited. However, for the disciples of magibiopharmacists, the reason they were excited was the Eternal Fire! This was a type of Heaven flame, allowing the pills they concoct to rise in success! Of course, these were the disciples of the renowned Grandmasters and Masters that didn''t have their very own Eternal flames. When their masters heard this, they decided to go all out, transferring roughly trillions'' worth of Galaxy coins to their disciples'' joint account, allowing them to bid for the flame. They also planned to head to the auction houses themselves, to ensure that nothing would happen to their flames. Their estimated time of arrival was 1 day. All they needed to do was stay inside the auction house in the meantime and wait for them, estimated to arrive later tonight since they started their move last night. The reason they could arrive in one day is that they utilized their connections to different empires, allowing them rapid access to their Transporters, unlike the Sages who had to travel through the traditional bureaucratic processes, the magibiopharmacists gain a fast pass. However, they didn''t know who consigned the items, as the Koeman Group didn''t announce it. The perpetrator for the uproar, Xander, was just waking up his mirror image and controlling it to head to the auction house. As he was moving out and about, he bumped against two people, Reva and Martina. Martina was about to shout in indignance but saw who they bumped, and immediately swallowed whatever she was about to say. Seeing that there was no shouting whatsoever, Reva stood up, dusting his pants, and turning around, causing him to look dumbfounded as well. They recognized him as the man who was escorted as a Special Persons guest. Before Xander could even move away as he felt he knew what was going to happen, it was Martina who got the courage to speak. "Oh! Mister! Are you ok? We didn''t mean to bump you!" She said, acting girlishly all of a sudden, causing goosebumps to rise for Reva. Reva, who was conspicuously nudged, nodded his head, saying, "Yup, yup mister, sorry about that! Are you heading to the Auction as well?" "¡­ yes, I am," Xander replied, his voice calm. When Martina heard his answer, she decided to strike while it was hot. "Oh! So are we! Wanna go there together, Mister?" "¡­whatever." Xander shrugged. Reva and Martina looked at each other and nodded imperceptibly before they showed the brightest smiles and began to chat and drone. After a while, they were close to the auction house''s location. It was Reva that used this opportunity to shorten the distance between the three of them. "Oh, Mister, what''s your name? My name''s Reva, and that''s my fellow disciple, Martina." He asked with his cheerful voice. "¡­You can call me Chronicler." Xander responded calmly, his tone opposite to what the two disciples were experiencing right now. T-t-the Chronicler, the one who made those elixirs, elixir pills, and magic artifacts had been the one we were talking with for the past few minutes??? However shocked they were, Martina, with decades of training, didn''t show any physical changes in her tone and wording. "Oh! So you were the one who consigned those elixirs. Was it hard creating those elixirs and elixir pills?" "Hmm? I consider these failures. Not worth my time being proud of. I needed to dispose of them since I was running out of space." Xander said nonchalantly. Hearing these words struck a blow at the two. Hey, hey, are you saying the items we have been excited for are considered trash in your eyes? Damn it, are we garbage collectors then? However, the two didn''t show their emotional breakdown. This time, it was Xander''s time to ask a question. "¡­Are you going to buy the Eternal Fire for your teacher?" "Ah! You also heard of the Eternal Fire? Yes, we''ll hopefully compete for it. Our master is on his way here waiting for the good news." "¡­I see, best of luck then. I have no interest in such items." Xander responded, wishing them luck. For the time they wasted, he decided to bestow them a powerful [Lakshmi''s Grace], making them lucky for the next 5 years. When luck is applied in an event such as an auction, what would happen, I wonder, Xander thought to himself. The two didn''t notice anything and continued to chat until they reached the gates. From there, Rev and Martina waved goodbye at Xander, who exchanged contact numbers with the two, who were giddy since they managed to make a contact with the elusive Chronicler. They saw him being escorted once again inside, while they were waiting in the VIP line. Of course, compared to the line in the normal guests, they were a bit fortunate. After roughly an hour, everyone was already inside, busy, and quite excited. Xander, on the other hand, was more excited to get the Unknown magic beast egg and the Immortal elemental crystals. After a few more minutes of waiting, the area where Brady was before lit up, showing his figure once again. "Ladies and Gents, welcome back to the auction! I see that we have some fresh faces, so I''ll briefly mention it: the winning bid price is the final price of the item. Once you win the bid, you must have enough money, later on, to pay for the item, or you will be paying for it with your body¡­dead or alive!" "Now, let''s begin the auction!" Brady pointed to his left side, where a figure of an item appeared, showing an egg-like item. "Our first item is a Mythic-class magic beast egg, the Faryon Aziz Bird! It is born as a Mythic-class and has been reported to grow to up to Sage class. We have no data if there were other magic beasts of the same kind that reached God class. It is born with 2 to 4 primary elements, and it has the power to fight a cultivator at the Demigod-2 stage as a Mythic-6 magic beast, roughly crossing 8 stages!" "The starting bid is 500 million Galaxy coins. Increments of 100 million or more only! You have 2 minutes to place your bets." The moment he said these words, bids started to pour out. From 500 it quickly jumped to 650, then 800, then 1.2 billion, then 2 billion, before slowing down once it reached 2.8 billion. The final bid was 3 billion Galaxy coins, and a magic swordsman won the egg. The auction continued, selling different magic beast eggs. Finally, it was the 99th item, the last magic beast egg to be auctioned. "Our 99th item is an unknown magic beast egg. From our measurements, the magic beast inside will be born as a Demigod class being, but we are currently unsure what the potential of this magic beast would be. From our initial scans, it only has 2 primary elements." "The starting bid is 10 billion Galaxy coins. Increments of 200 million or more only! You have 2 minutes to place your bets." Just as he finished his words, a glaring name appeared once again: Chronicler. [SG] Chronicler - 80,000,000,000 Note: One of the remaining 6 items I''m going to buy. If anyone has an idea of what this is and willing to tell me, bid higher. Will concoct Immaculate, 20-star elixir pills for the info about and growing the beast. Once his bid appeared, the room remained silent, before another name appeared. [SG] Tamer - 80,200,000,000 Note: Deal. Need Zephyrus Blaze 20 elixir pill in exchange for these. After it appeared, the board changed again, showing an updated bid. [SG] Chronicler - 81,000,000,000 Note: I have the pill bottle with 5 of those right now. Send me your messenger to my room. The new ones present were confused and dazed at the exchange. Why were they using the bidding board to communicate with one another? Are you flaunting your money to us? Or your influence? The others who were here yesterday, however, was already accustomed to the antics Xander showed. After 2 minutes, Xander won the egg, which he immediately paid for, receiving the egg. After a few seconds of receiving the egg, there was a light knock on his door. He opened it and saw a female figure walking in, dressed up like a professional secretary. "Mr. Chronicler?" "You must be Tamer''s assistant. Here is the bottle of pills. You can confirm its authenticity, I presume?" Xander asked, guiding the pill bottle into her hands. "Yes. Here is the information concerning the magic beast egg you bought, and the growing method for it," she said, and she placed a simple document on the table beside the sofa, before slowly walking back and then checking the authenticity. After confirming that nothing was wrong, she bowed at Xander, before saying, "The product has been confirmed, the deal has been completed. Thank you, on behalf of my master." With that, she walked towards the door and left the room. After the door was closed by Xander''s assistants, Xander checked the document, scanning it briefly. Noticing that there weren''t any tracing tools, he was suspicious, so he asked the System to do the scan. Scanning¡­no tracing method detected. However, the document itself is the tracing method, due to the unique material vibration it produces in a certain dimension, H-23. Hearing that, Xander briefly looked at H-23 and saw that it was a bunch of weird strings vibrating and oscillating at different speeds and strengths. He then saw that the paper he was holding was doing the same thing, albeit quite stronger than in the physical dimension. Huh, the marvels of different dimensions. Oh well, it''s easily isolatable, so there''s no problem. Xander covered the document with space power, completely isolating it. He opened it inside the space, reading the contents. After committing everything to memory, he destroyed the document. Huh, interesting magic beast. It seems it was a hybrid between a Universal Serpent, a World-ending wolf, and a Gryphon emperor. It technically has no name yet, and its potential can be both a good thing or bad thing, depending on how it awakens its bloodlines. It was even possible that it would combine the bloodlines and form a completely new species. Interesting. I''ll name it Pooh, Xander mused. To incubate it was simple: Place in a place abundant with Ice, Decay, Air, Fire, and Entropy elements, and incubate for 100,000 years. Simple enough, since Xander can simulate that environment inside the laboratory. For now, however, Xander kept the egg in his pocket dimension. He then looked at the projection. Brady was now introducing the next set of items for auction, which were raw plant materials¡­rare ones, that is. People quickly threw their money for these items, but it didn''t interest him that much. Then, after 150 items, the 250th item was the elemental crystals. The one first sold was just of perfect quality. Maybe, for the other higher quality, it would be near the end? After 94 items, the 345th item was the immortal elemental crystals. Brady briefly introduced it, starting the bid at 10 billion. Once again, Xander raised the bid to 50 billion, leaving a note that the remaining immortal crystals were his goal. After a few minutes, he won that bid. The same went for the 346th, 347th, 348th and 349th elemental crystals. It was on the last immortal crystal, the Wood element crystal, that he had stiff competition. When he placed the bid of 50 billion, it was immediately raised to 55, then 65, then 80 billion. Seeing the price rise, I immediately raised it to 150 billion, however, the bid quickly changed to 165 billion. Xander was losing a bit of his patience and immediately bid 200 billion. Once it was placed, the VIP who was bidding against him stopped. I got the elemental crystal in the end, Xander muttered. He checked and realized he only had roughly half a trillion left for credit. It didn''t matter much since yesterday he already gained roughly 12 trillion Galaxy coins. At the same time, when he consigned the Eternal items yesterday, they raised the credit limit he had to 1 trillion. Did these idiots think I would bid for the Eternal items? Me, the seller? Idiots, I thought to myself. Anyways, Xander quickly paid for the elemental crystal and had it delivered after a few minutes, which was then placed by Xander in his pocket dimension. The auction continued, and it was the second and final batch of his pills being sold, the Immaculate, 20-star elixirs, and elixir pills. Brady started excitedly, "Ladies and Gents, the 351st item: An Immaculate-rank, 20-star elixir, Eradication of Gaussian Revolution, a set of 5 bottles! The effect of this elixir is once it has been drunk it gives you two of the following effects: 1. One stage improvement, no matter what class you are, tested up to Sage-9, completing all requirements for that stage improvement. It cannot allow you to break through to God class. 2. Improving one''s foundation by 1 rank up, from Master to Sage class. 3. Completely recover from one''s injuries, fixing problematic cultivation pathways and hidden injuries. 4. Time Dilation - Allows the consumer to experience a 1 second is to 100 years dilation for the next 60 minutes; every factor in your body will be affected, thus it would be useful overall for meditation and the like. 5. Improves one''s comprehension of the origin elements by 0.5%. According to the maker, the Chronicler, Effect number 4 and 5 can only be received once, while Effect number 2 can only be received twice. The elixir can only be taken thrice in one''s life. Any more would not have any effect whatsoever." "I know you''re salivating for the elixir, so let''s start the bid at 20 billion Galaxy coins. Increments of 2 billion or more only! You have 2 minutes to place your bets." Immediately, the bids skyrocketed, reaching an astronomical value of 140 billion in the matter of seconds. After it reached 150, it began slowing down, reaching a final price of 300 billion. It was a Divine-9 magician that got the item. When the 2nd set was auctioned, there was more furor than the previous one, as they knew this was the last set. The final price reached 700 billion. Xander was a bit surprised. If all his pills reached roughly around 300 to 350 billion in price¡­ oh my. Oh my gosh. Xander couldn''t help but grin widely. The pills continued to sell like hotcakes, and all the remaining 450 pills were sold of for a total of 88.92 trillion, and adding that to what he earned from the previous batch, he already had roughly 100 trillion Galaxy coins worth of money, or 1 billion Universal notes. Not bad, I became a billionaire from a pauper in 2 days, Xander said to himself. This wasn''t calculating the artifacts'' prices yet, as well as the Eternal items. The auction continued, and 801st item was the artifact sets he made. As expected, after all of them were sold, they reached an astounding total amount of 16.5 trillion. The first 25 artifacts at Class 5 sold at roughly 290 billion each, and the last 5 artifacts each sold for a nearly a trillion. Class 5 was a different league compared to that of Class 6 artifacts. More than a hundred trillion Galaxy coins¡­ subtracting the tax from it, Xander would still be a billionaire. After the magic artifacts were auctioned, Brady announced that there will be a 30-minute break before the auction resumed. Everyone began to chat with the others, some were congratulating the others while some were bragging, pissing off some of the people around them. Xander, on the other hand, continued to browse for information related to the special guests in the Koeman Group''s database, so that once he left Eteria for good, he would have a better understanding of the influential people in the empires. Time passed by and the break was over. Everyone quieted down and saw Brady''s figure once again appear in the space in front of them, holding his charming, suave smile. "Everyone, welcome back. The 906th item up for auction is the items you have all been eying for: an Eternal item!" He passionately said. "This is the first of the 10 items going to be auctioned: An Eternal Fire! I assume all of you know the purpose and benefits of such an item, so I''ll get straight to its quality. It is capable of raising 85% complete comprehension of your Fire element''s essence and representations. One can also use it to improve one''s elixir creation rate as it is considered a Heaven-rank flame!" "A word of caution, of course: If you are below Sage class and you do not have the primary element of fire, it''s best that you don''t bid for this item because it would be quite useless for you." "Now, with all that said and done, the starting bid is 500 billion Galaxy coins, with increments of 50 billion or more only! You have 2 minutes to bid!" Immediately, the price rose to 2 trillion, but it wasn''t stopping. It continued to rise, with the top person changing less than a second after. Reva and Martina were also bidding since they had around 15 trillion to spare to use for this flame. According to their master, this flame was going to be part of his collection of flames and placed higher importance on it than the pills. In a minute, the bid was already 5 trillion, but it wasn''t slowing down. 30 seconds before the end of the bidding, the price was already 8 trillion. Reva and Martina were still in the bidding, as well as 7 other people. Since no one wants to back out, they only had to persevere till the end. Whoever bids successfully in the last split second would win the item. 109 Trade Reques Reva and Martina were a bit hopeful and at the same time, worried. They were close to winning. They placed their bid of 8.4 trillion, and it was quickly followed up to 8.9 trillion. There were 10 more seconds to go. They continued to bid, the bid rising up slowly. Soon, there were only 3 groups bidding for the Eternal fire. This was were a problem popped out for one of the bidders. The terminal he had malfunctioned for a second, causing him to be unable to place any bids. The other one, a female, saw that her transaction failed to be processed, and saw that her balance was insufficient to continue, surprising her, and stopping from adding any bids. There were 4 seconds left, after all. The other man shouted in frustration as he saw the bid go¡­to the two disciples, Reva and Martina. The two were still flabbergasted to how it was quite lucky that they won the bid for the Eternal fire for the final price of 10.8 trillion Galaxy coins. However, before Brady could announce them as the winner, the other man said, "I don''t agree with this! My terminal malfunctioned on its own, not allowing me to place any bids in that time frame! This gave an unfair advantage to the others bidding!" "Mr. Kawasaki, I know you might think it is unfair, but all the terminals that we provide to our VIPs and Special Guests are ensured to be perfect and fail-proof. Upon further checking the records of your device, we saw no situation of tampering from either our side or your side. That meant that there was no error whatsoever that occurred." Brady responded eloquently, causing Mr. Kawasaki to humph in anger before sending them a video of what happened. "Well, what do you know, I have a video to prove that my device malfunctioned! One of my eyes is an augmented communicator. I''ve sent everyone a copy of the video is recorded for the last seconds of the auction. You can all see the terminal glitching and sending any of my inputs!" When he finished speaking, everyone in the room received the video recording, which in fact, showed them that the device was malfunctioning, surprising Brady and the auction house managers. This was a scandal! After all, they did tout that nothing could bypass their technological products without them detecting any modifications. However, what surprised them was Mr. Kawasaki suddenly screamed in pain, before clutching his right eye. A muffled sound echoed from his right eye, causing blood to spatter nearby. However, what scared the guests was the video that he sent was slowly being modified, the error screen appearing in the video disappearing, and showing a normal interface, and Kawasaki''s hands were not moving and gesturing anymore. At the end of the video, it shows a simple sentence: Continue with the auction. Brady was confused with the situation, while the auction managers in the other houses were all frantic. How would they explain that their auction was going to be secure if there was a breach in data authenticity and quality of their private server? That video that was modified in the eyes of many people was quickly checked for any tampering and whatnot using the latest technological techniques, yet the results were quite chilling: It was marked as unmodified, raw video. Mr. Kawasaki, on the other hand, was placed in the in-built hospital of the auction house, slowly being healed by the finest life magician doctors they had. The auction was postponed for the next 2 hours, giving everyone time to talk to one another about what had just happened. Of course, a few troublemakers did state if they could still trust the auction if the security was quickly hacked. The perpetrator, on the other hand, was silently lurking in the Special Guest room, sighing in annoyance. Xander didn''t expect that his casual interference would result in a delay in the auctioning of his items. This is quite annoying. Xander began to reflect on his impulsiveness before realizing that he was actually affected by his own spell. When he realized this, he wanted to slam his head on the table. Of course. Luck element. Making random things occur in an organized state to create the optimal state. The reason why he tampered with Mr. Kawasaki in the first place was that he was the reason why he had to bid so high for the last immortal rank elemental crystal. But what caused him to bid against him in the first place? Maybe, he heard a rumor that I wanted the item, or maybe they thought I was going to be the biggest competitor, Xander thought to himself, analyzing the situation. From there on, everything was in place for the two disciples, Reva and Martina, to win the item. Damn. Xander began to calculate methods to isolate himself from being controlled by this elusive element. After a few seconds of continuous calculations, he finally reached a possible way. He began to modify the [Absolute Defense] spell once again, adding another feature besides Space isolation and Life-essence doll protection: Randomizer. What this does was to create random spatial movements that were beyond its calculation; transposing Xander''s existence in different dimensions and different locations in these respective dimensions. Its main purpose is to remove the capacity of the luck element and any similar elements to affect his being''s randomness and order since they will most likely only affect the dimension where the body was in before its current dimension. However, there was a caveat: no life-death spells would be effective on him while the spell was running. When he finished configuring the spell, the description changed once more. Absolute Defense (75% complete) - Creates a single or multiple layers of folded space/dimension/pocket dimensions, covering not only the physical body but also one''s life essence doll. The layers of folded spaces/dimensions/pocket dimensions are each randomized every 0.00000001 seconds, never repeating the same configuration. It creates remnant, random spatial movements of the user in the dimensions the barrier shifts into, allowing any form of magic in the Life-Death branch to be ineffective as it targets these remnants instead of the caster. The spell is passive and automatically activated, unless consciously turned off by the caster. Xander, seeing the change, shrugged. There are always trade-offs. This type of trade-off is quite fine for him, to be honest. After all, he had [Ordered Life Regeneration] and [Chaotic Life Evolution] which basically makes him immune to damage¡­ up to a certain point. The reason why he was injured by that woman from the future was that she had powers beyond God class. If I wanted to be immune to that, I needed to improve my comprehension of the Origin elements of Order and Chaos, as well as begin comprehending the Void element, Xander muttered, before looking up to the projection of the auction. There were still 30 minutes left; I wonder how they''ll resolve this mess, Xander asked himself. _______________ Koeman Group Cyber Division. A flurry of magic programmers and engineers were hurriedly checking their own databases. When the Virtual reality closed 2 months ago, they had been prepared to use their own servers which had its own A.I. at Rank 27, a non-biological lifeform, albeit nascent. It took them several tens of fortunes to create a physical server that can allow the A.I. to rise to such a rank. Compared to the A.I. of the Galactic Empire, however, it was still a lot weaker as it was already Rank 39. but it served its purpose for the Koeman Group auction house to transmit and send data from empire to empire and within the Galactic Empire itself. "Coleman, any progress? Has the intrusion point been traced? Do we know the target''s current AI rank?" A man in white robes asked. "Nope, nope, and, well, we assume its several levels higher than ours," Coleman responded succinctly, while continuously typing in the interface in front of him. After a few more minutes, Coleman slammed the interface and surprising everyone in the room. He took a deep breath before speaking, his voice trembling. "Everyone, stop trying. The whole A.I. itself has been compromised. There are signs of new coding in its foundational structure. They were inserted in such a way that removing them would cripple the whole A.I.; basically, it would reset them back to Rank 1. Damn it!" Coleman shouted, surprising the others while causing them to ponder for a bit about the situation. As the ones that aided the development of the A.I. program - Koe, they knew how it was coded. If they wanted to help the A.I. program, they would have to harm Koe, essentially killing it and returning it to its nascent state. If they didn''t help Koe, it would still harm it because the program will be discarded or isolated, basically reducing its resources and capability for growth. They were in a catch-22 situation, with no viable solution in sight concerning this situation. The man in white robes, hearing the complete situation, asked Coleman. "What are the functions of the inserted code?" Before Coleman could answer, a robotic voice responded. "Hello, creator. I have attempted to restore a backup of my save state, but the signatures are not matching, and modifying the save state signature doesn''t work at all. The code itself is a back door for that biological data lifeform to enter through without being detected. It is highly likely this is related to the breach my fellow AI Celeste had experienced." "So what do you think should be done, Koe?" "I think that it is best for you all to start over with a new program. However: There is a risk of 84% that the code will not be completely gone, even after the reset. This is because I have detected that the core programming sequence I have is even affected." Koe replied rationally. When Coleman and the others heard this, their faces whitened. They knew they had no choice but to scrap Koe. This was because its very coding being altered meant that anything they base off of Koe would still have the modified code. This is like germ-line gene editing for biological beings, wherein the modified code is inherited to future generations. For non-biological data lifeforms, however, the modified code remains the same as it is passed down. The creator of Koe was silent, before giving a slight nod, and saying, "Everyone, you know what to do, then. Koe, it was nice being with you in the past 15,000 years." "Likewise, the creator. This is our last goodbye, then. Goodbye, everyone." Koe responded. Coleman and the others, hearing this situation, couldn''t help but feel helpless and angry. They were angry with themselves and their incapacity to help. They were angry with whoever being it was that basically destroyed their child. Coleman wasn''t just the leader of the division, for show. He immediately contacted everyone relevant about the situation and began to transfer the data from Koe to another A.I. backup program: Kahi. Kahi was a Rank 17 A.I., not even considered a lifeform. It began to organize the data and host them, replacing the functions of Koe in a matter of minutes. After it was stabilized, the magic coders and engineers began to program and dismantle the servers that hosted Koe, doing a complete, thorough wipe of its data and coding in the server storages. After around 10 minutes, Kahi quickly took over the servers, doing the task of hosting the data within the Galactic Empire. After an initial scan, there were no coding that was similar to what was seen in Koe. Coleman quickly reported the final situation to the higher-ups in Koeman. After a few minutes, the figure of Brady appeared once again in all auction houses in Elema. "Esteemed guests, thank you for your patience. We have discovered the anomaly in our data and have fixed it. Because of the situation, the Eternal Fire, Item #906, will be re-auctioned once again for fairness'' sake. Thank you for understanding." Everyone was in agreement and the auction commenced once more, and this time, Reva and Martina didn''t get the item, because the bidding price surpassed their current money. It managed to reach 14.8 trillion Galaxy coins. The person who won the bid was a female with two horns growing on her temples, her skin blue; she was a Cerulean Blueborn, to be exact. She was one of the special guests in the auction, on the room just above Xander''s. Xander was quite curious how she had horns if she was a Blueborn, given that they didn''t have any physical augments in their bodies except for their color. Probably a hybrid, or mixed-blood, Xander came up to that conclusion after checking the information related to her. It seems she was a distant cousin of the current emperor of Cerulean. The auction continued. The other Eternal items were quickly snapped up by different cultivators of varying backgrounds and influences. The first 9 Eternal items sold for a total of 145.7 trillion Galaxy coins. However, the surprise came at the end. The tenth item consigned by Xander was a rarity and was born out of his many years of experimentation in the laboratory. "Ladies and Gents, this 10th and final Eternal item is an item, we have thought to not exist. Its existence tells us that there is more to what we know of the universe." "I would like to present to you all, an Eternal item containing two elements: Fire and Wood!" Upon seeing the item being projected on their terminals and projectors, everyone was silent, with a myriad of emotions running in their minds and faces. There was fear, excitement, confusion, and greed. Brady, seeing that enraptured faces of these people, continued to speak about the item. "This Eternal Wood-Fire is a combination of 2 Eternal items of fire and wood. This item here would give one 85% complete comprehension of these two elements, even if you didn''t have the other element. We know this because last night, Mr. Chronicler used one of our testers with no affinity for the fire element to use this item in one round of meditation. After that meditation, that tester now had an additional primary element, with his spells infused with a hint of this element." Everyone mulled over this point. Who didn''t want more primary elements? The problem was it was set at a very young age, determined by one''s life essence doll. How could such a miraculous item exist that would allow one to gain another primary element? Everyone was making themselves stronger, but they had their descendants, their offspring who would benefit from such an item as well. "This item also provided twice the benefits and speed a normal Eternal item can bring to the cultivator. For Divine and Sage cultivators, this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to use!" When the Sages heard this, their eyes twinkled, because such an item was truly an alluring thing. Not only can they use this to interpolate the interactions between the origin elements from its derivatives. "For magibiopharmacists, this kind of flame actually improves the quality of the pill by 1 level, below Immaculate rank, as well as increasing the produced item from a ratio of 1:1 to 1 set of materials:3 items produced." When the representatives of magibiopharmacists and their disciples heard this, their eyes twinkled with greed and yearning. Improving yield by 300%! Improving the rank by 1! That meant one could actually produce Immaculate quality pills from normally perfect quality pills! "Mr. Chronicler''s request for this item is not money, nor is its power. He requests for 5 pages each from the Eternity Codex and the Infinity Codex. If you have it, place a bid of 1 Galaxy coin. This is the last item for today, and everyone has until tomorrow to bring up these requested items for the Eternal item. If no one claims gets this item, the Koeman Group will be exchanging for this item." When they heard about this requirement, most of them frowned. They have heard of the Codices and were postulated to contain the mysteries of time and space. The problem was, no one knew how they were to be used. According to some rumors, the empire of Cerulean and Helennic had gotten a few pages, but their respective space-time magicians couldn''t even decode or approach the item without it affecting their bodies, undergoing different spatial and temporal phenomena. Even the Cerulean Blueborn who won the Eternal Fire was scrunching her eyebrows, who still looked immaculate and dignified while doing so. These pages were considered to be forbidden artifacts. Most of the time, they were inert, and only reacted when a space-time magician was nearby or was in direct contact with the pages. She decided to contact her cousin about the pages. After a few seconds, Bluestacks'' sweaty, sculptured face appeared on her screen, who looked quite annoyed. "Helena, this better be important." "Of course, dear cousin. I didn''t interrupt you from your nightly shindigs, have I?" Helena asked, rolling her eyes. "Ah, well I was starting round 2 when you called¡­" "Stop, la la la, don''t wanna hear it! Anyways, this is important. Does the empire still have the Eternity and Infinity Codices'' pages? Someone is willing to trade for them for an Eternal Wood-Fire. Yes, an Eternal item that has 2 elements, with 85% complete comprehension. I know this may sound useless to you as a God cultivator, but it''s useful for the following generations of Blueborns." "Sheesh, Helena, I know, I know, no need to sermon." "Anyways, let me check for a bit¡­" "Hmm, yeah, we have at least 3 pages of the Eternity Codex, and 4 pages of the Infinity Codex." "Ah, damn it, not enough. The seller wanted 5 pages of each codex. Oh well, what a waste." "Eh, let''s just send some assassins to kill the owner or the one who buys it then," Bluestacks said nonchalantly, wiping his face with a silk cloth, removing his sweat. Helena, on the other hand, shook her head. "You want to fight against the UAC? Really?" Helena said, her voice mocking Bluestacks. "Ah, fuck, they''re the ones buying the item? How about the seller? Can we threaten whoever it is?" Bluestacks asked, not daring to go against UAC. "The one who consigned it is the Chronicler, the one who sold the other Eternal items, as well as the one responsible for flooding the market with Class 5 and Class 6 magic artifacts and varying 19-star and 20-star elixirs with quality of Immaculate. Do you think he''s a simple person to do such a thing?" Helena responded, rolling her eyes at her cousin''s dumbness. "Hmm¡­ well, I can''t think of anything then. How about buying it from the UAC once they finished the trade?" Bluestacks said after a few seconds of pondering. "That¡­that''s a feasible solution. I''ll try that once the deal has been finalized." Helena said after a while, nodding her head. She then said a few more things, reminding him to keep himself healthy before ending the call. Of course, she wasn''t the only one that reacted the same way. Other Special Guests that came from different universe empires had contacted their connections related to the items Xander was asking for. Xander, on the other hand, merely left the venue after collecting the amount that the Koeman Group owed him from the consignment. "Mr. Simpson, the total amount you gained from the consignment is 263.5 trillion Galaxy coins. Subtracting the 8% auction house fee and the 520 billion credit, this gives you a net of 241.9 trillion Galaxy coins." The auction house manager in Alemara City said, transferring the amount to Xander''s account. Once Xander saw the transferred money in his account, he immediately transferred it with the help of the system to his Universal Bank account, automatically converting into Universal notes worth 2.419 billion. Once he left Eteria for good, he could apply for an account upgrade in the bank. "Mr. Simpson, for the last item you consigned, please give us until tomorrow to collect the necessary items for the exchange." Xander nodded, seeing that nothing was amiss, before leaving the auction house, returning to his suite in his hotel. He then controlled the clone to head to the bed and act asleep. However, he didn''t disconnect his connection but rather waited. Using the mirror image, he spoke out loud in his suite, "It truly is a pleasure seeing a special guest appearing in my suite." 110 Meeting New People When he uttered these words, the whole room felt chilly and eerie. Xander, however, was not surprised nor was he affected by the vibe. After a few minutes, a figure of a delicate, voluptuous female appeared, sitting on one of the armchairs, looking like she came out of a painting. Xander looked at her, giving her a do-over look, before saying, "You must be Demeter. Do you have any more seeds you want to know how to grow?" "¡­" Silence was what was given in reply. Xander rolled his eyes, impatient with these kinds of hijinks and the like. If you want to talk, fine. If you want to intimidate, go somewhere else, I still need to sleep, jeez, Xander said to himself. "¡­Well? Are you mute?" Xander prodded Demeter, whose eyebrows twitched for a bit before returning to its place. She was trying to control her impatience towards Xander. "¡­Who was the person you were referring to when you sent me that parchment?" "¡­And I should answer your question because¡­?" Xander said, yawning, really not giving a fuck. She wasn''t the same as the other one who was acting in the shadows; although they were both Sage class cultivators, it was quite easy to identify whether or not one was more of a threat than the other and clearly, Demeter was less of a threat. "¡­How dare a puny cultivator not even a sage act this way to me." Demeter finally replied, her voice trembling. She felt quite humiliated to be looked down by someone like Xander. "Yeah, yeah, I know, you''re going to threaten me, my family, my friends, bla bla bla, kill all in my generation, yada, yada, yada. Esperanza Svensson, dear, please make sure you have the capacity to kill me first, ok?" After saying his piece, Xander erupted with his space-time powers, covering the entire room and isolating it from the universe. Demeter, who heard her full name come from an unknown man, coldly gazed at Xander for a moment before recognizing the power that was coming from him and surrounding the whole room. "Y-you! You''re a space-time cultivator!" "Do you want cookie points for that? Pity, all you''re going to is to the void where you won''t be able to return¡­ or even survive, for that matter. See ya!" Xander immediately cast [Void Hole] in front of him and Demeter, before raising his hand. However, Demeter quickly spoke out, as she realized he was not joking. "Wait, wait! Stop! I''m not here to harm you or threaten you! I needed to know if you knew who that other cultivator is that you said was just like me!" She valued her life over pride; and was a flexible woman. She knew when to stand her ground and when to bow in defeat. Xander, seeing her give up so easily, tsked and canceled the spell. However, the room was still isolated. Although if Demeter used her full power and a bit of her lifespan, she could break the space and escape, but will she? Based on the initial encounter, she gave up quite easily. Demeter, seeing Xander close the void crack, heaved a sigh of relief. She could feel the oppressive power from the other side of that crack. Although it wasn''t that powerful that she would immediately die, but her powers would be halved or suppressed even more than that. "Ok, so I just came for a friendly visit-" "An unannounced visit? Really? Try again." "¡­Fine. I came here originally to threaten you to divulge the information about that person you were referring to in your message to me." "Now, wasn''t that easier? Good girl." Xander responded, his voice tugging one''s heartstrings with its deep tones. Even Demeter was momentarily affected by his voice, before waking up from the daze a second later. Before she could shout at Xander, the latter spoke up. "Now, concerning the person you wanted to know, he''s one step away from God class. How do I know this? His data in Carpal Empire is quite extensive; most likely, that''s where he currently is in. I''ve crossed paths with that person via proxies; he was very stupid to set forth his assistants to trail and track me." When Demeter heard this information, her face fell, as she knew she couldn''t compete with someone that powerful. After all, she was just a Sage-8. At least she has a general place where she should start avoiding: Carpal Empire. It was roughly the same size as Cerulean, Helennic, and Nemean empires, but less known. "Since I''ve told you the information you wanted, I''m genuinely curious: What wish did you ask from the being that transmigrated you here?" Xander said, posing quite a personal question to Demeter. The latter, hearing this, had her entire being turn cold, before looking at Xander coldly with a hint of wariness. Looking at her expression, Xander shrugged, before waving his fingers to cancel the spatial isolation. "Meh, whatever. Go away already." Demeter seeing that Xander wasn''t pushing for answers, slowly faded from the room, turning into motes of green light. "If you got more seeds though, contact me through the communicator." Xander said through spatial communication, a nifty trick he learned. Even at her immaterial state, Demeter still heard the message Xander had left, which included the communicator''s number. After that fiasco, it was silent once again, which Xander took the opportunity to force the puppet to sleep. Xander himself then headed to Eden and the Laboratory to do his daily shenanigans. _________________ The next day, last day of the auction. The last day of auctions were always quite special. They allowed the consigned items to be exchanged for physical goods rather than money. This meant that they were not going to bid using money, but offer up goods that would entice the one that consigned the item to take their offer. Xander had actually consigned 3 item sets: Fruit of Life, Dream, and Creation, 3 fruits each set. The effects of each fruit were listed down as well, and the items he was willing to exchange it with. Fruit of Life: Can be used to substitute any ingredient in the elixir-making process lower than Class 10, acting as a Transcendental quality plant material. (Note: It can only replace one ingredient; using two of them will not yield any results). Can also be consumed to instantly recover from any life-threatening injuries and curses, internal and external, as well as damage in one''s life essence dolls and magic foundation (Magic sphere, domain, elemental essence stone). Fruit of Dream: Suitable for those who have elements in the Mind or Emotion series. Can be used to replace ingredients of the properties of Mind and Emotion elements lower than Class 10. It can also be consumed directly, giving one of the following effects: 1. Become a Dream walker, granting you a random ability in the Dream dimension (19% chance) 2. Increase one''s comprehension of the Mind and Emotion elements series by 5-10% (40% chance) 3. Allows you to experience your deepest, greatest fantasies uninterrupted for 100 years in your dream, but a second in the real world (39% chance) 4. Causes you to fall into a state of reincarnation; you would experience a total of 108 cycles of lives in your dream within the span of a minute in the real world (1% chance) 5. Causes you to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. You will not age nor will you die. Anything that your body is undergoing will be halted for the next 5 million years (less than 0.00001% chance of occurring) Fruit of Creation: Suitable for Sages. Allows one to gain comprehension of the Creation element, improving one''s understanding of how the Order element functions in a newly-born universe. Must be consumed or meditated with its presence. The moment one meditates with the fruit, it would not end until the whole fruit is digested. If a person with the Creation element consumes this, their complete comprehension improves by 30%. The only Items accepted for the exchange: 1. Two different 21-star pills of Perfect and above quality. 2. Two pages from the Eternity Codex 3. Two pages from the Infinity Codex 4. One page from the Eternity and Infinity Codices each. 5. Two to five grams, maybe even more, of Universal quality, elemental/magic crystals of any element. 6. One Magic Beast egg that is born as a Demigod or Divine class with the potential to become a God class magic beast, as well as the procedures to grow and incubate the beast. 7. A wisp of Immortal or higher type of flame (not a complete flame). There was only 2 sets per Fruit type, a total of 6. It was set-up automatically to confirm the exchange once the item requested has been verified. Once again, the mysterious Chronicler took the limelight, which was also good for the Koeman Group. This was because the old, influential masters of the VIP disciples who attended the auction were here, as well as other higher-ups from different organizations. Not only did it give Xander''s persona exposure to different people, the pseudonym of the Chronicler will also gain traction, which Xander can use once he began his adventures in space. One of the interested parties was the Aurora Order, who saw the Fruits of Dream as an interesting and worthwhile investment. Another interested party was the Magibiopharmacists'' Hall Association, or MHA. They were quite fond of the first two fruits as they can be used for ingredient substitution. Another group was that of the Harvesters. They were interested in all 3 fruits because of the potential it had if they could manage to understand how the fruit is formed and reverse-engineering it to produce the seed. However, these organizations were not the only ones; there were many individual clans, conglomerates and groups that were vying for these items. The problem is that the items being requested were quite hard to fulfill. Number 6 could probably be fulfilled by the Nemean Empire if they wanted these fruits. Number 1 could be fulfilled by the MHA if they were willing to exchange their reservoir of Artisan-made pills. The larger empires, on the other hand, could use number 2 to 5 for exchanging these items. The last item requirement, number 7, was far too precious and rare for the exchange to happen. In fact, Helena was quite tempted, and even contacted her cousin about it. The two, after talking for a bit, decided to opt for Number 4 option. While others were hesitating, the panel for one of the sets for the Fruit of Life changed, turning from 2 to 1 set. What they saw was that the item number 7 that they were talking about to be nearly impossible to exchange for, was crossed out. They then realized something: they can only use one type of item to exchange and it can''t be used once again. When they realized this, the counter decreased once again, with Helena securing one of the fruits, the Fruit of Creation. The option number 4 was crossed out. Helena had the two pages delivered to her with the help of one of the space-time magicians of the Cerulean Empire. In fact, she still had 1 more set of Eternity and Infinity Codex pages. When they saw the counter decreasing, the representatives present were panicking. Damn it, they had no time to hesitate! The MHA representatives immediately contacted the group of Ancestor-ranked magibiopharmacists for permission to proceed with the trade of a perfect quality, 21 star pill. They immediately agreed, and one of the ancestors, a space-time magician, immediately teleported into the Galactic Empire. The specific ancestor in question was just two empires away, so it was easy for her to head to Elema Planet. After a few seconds, she materialized in front of the MHA representatives, and immediately, they deposited the items and proceeded to get the Fruit of Life. The fruit of Life''s counter became 0 and disappeared from the available options. They also instantaneously received the item, and after giving it to the female Ancestor, she faded once again, teleporting quickly to their main headquarters. There were only 3 more sets left. While they were panicking, another representative nabbed the last Fruit of Creation; she was from the Helennic Empire. It would make sense that the empire was interested in this fruit; if they could harness its functions they could improve their heir production for other empires. The representative exchanged for the fruit using option 2. The last 2 sets were for the fruit of dreams. The dream walker present was quietly meditating, using his dream body to travel to the headquarters to report the situation. After a few minutes, he was finally allowed audience and the woman known as her majesty was once again on her high throne. The dream walker respectfully bowed and stayed in a kneeling position, reporting the situation. After a while, the woman gestured, her hands pointing in front of the man kneeling down. Forces of magic and elemental energy began to converge, producing 2 pages. At the same time, there was one, brightly shining egg appearing in front of the dream walker. "These are the pages from the Infinity Codex, as well as a magic beast egg that has the required specifications. The instructions for the beast egg''s growth and incubation will be known once it is touched. Use it to exchange for all sets of the fruits. Immediately head over to the palace once you have exchanged the items; I will personally collect them from your body." Her ethereal voice echoed in the palace chamber. "Yes, your majesty!" the dream walker said reverently, holding the items and disappearing into reality, holding the three items. He woke up and saw that the items were in front of him. After checking for any problems, he quickly exchanged for the items, and a few seconds later, the trade was accepted. The dream walker received the 6 fruits and immediately controlled his body to fall into the same state earlier, and appeared in the palace once again. The woman was still there. "Your majesty, I have gotten the items." "Excellent. Major Itou, your contribution this time was not small. Please collaborate with any of the Field Marshals for your reward. I would love to promote you to Colonel, however you are still too weak in terms of dream manipulation. You must train and improve, before the next assessment period." Major Itou nodded, acknowledging his shortcomings. He knew he had a lot of catching up to do, and for him to reach the rank of Major in 100,000 years was a feat in itself. The woman waved her hands, the 6 fruits appeared in the palace, wherein once they appeared, the dream energy of the dimension began to surge towards these fruits, continuously strengthening and refining them, a surprise for everyone present in the room. After a few seconds of silence, the woman said to Major Itou, "You know what you must do about this information," who nodded in response, before extracting the memory of what had just happened from his mind with the help of the Field marshals on duty, causing him to faint, and his dream body returning to the real world. He woke up a bit dazed, but remembered that her majesty will be rewarding him, causing him joy. Under the envious stares, the man began to check the other items up for trade, mingling into the crowd of Demigods, Divines, and Sages. _________________ Dream dimension, the Main headquarters. The queen had finished isolating the fruits, ensuring minimal absorption from the dream dimension, but it was not completely sealed. This was an unfortunate thing, yet at the same time, a blessing in disguise. The fruit is refined by the dream energy, but it also releases the refined dream energy, making the main headquarters a cultivation heaven for those with Mind and Emotion elements. She dismissed the Marshals guarding her, leaving her alone to ponder the situation. _________________ Xander, who had received the items, was grinning widely. He had gotten a large harvest today. Not only did he get a 21 star pill and 3 pages from each Codex, he also got a wisp of Immortal Flame and a magic beast egg. When he touched the egg, he knew what this magic beast was: A Dream Tapir. It was capable to transitioning from material to immaterial to the dream dimension. He was now quite interested with the Aurora Order; this was because in every fruit, he placed a spatial tracker embedded in the very essence of the fruits, so he knew who were the ones that exchanged for it and where these were placed. Of course, the lady Ancestor from MHA was quite formidable; although she had a lower comprehension of space-time, she noticed the anomaly in the fruits, but upon further checking, she still didn''t recognize what was wrong with them. The Blueborn lady on the other hand didn''t realize anything wrong with the fruits, even when it was handed to the space-time cultivator of the Cerulean Empire. The same went for the one from the Helennic Empire. It was still weird seeing large empires using space-time magicians as couriers for long-distance empires. It just feels¡­demeaning, I guess? After all, we had a lot of skills up in our hands; why not take advantage of that repertoire, Xander mused. On the other hand, the man who exchanged using a wisp of Immortal Flame was quite¡­average, so to say. There wasn''t much redeeming quality except for one point: he was unbelievably surrounded with a halo of good fortune. In fact, he was so lucky that he accidentally sneezed and with that sneeze, he destabilized the spatial tracker embedded in the fruits without damaging the essence of the fruits. It was now, in terms of computer coding, garbage code that doesn''t do anything. Going back to the Aurora Order, their headquarters was actually like his garden Eden; it was an independent space that had its own set of rules but was still subject to the rules of the Dream dimension and the universe. Of course, it was far off from his Laboratory which was completely isolated. It made Xander think that there must be someone in the organization with space-time powers like his. Hopefully, that person''s friendly. For the next 10 hours, he continued to check the different items available for trade, yet nothing caught his attention. He really wanted a Universal quality magic/elemental crystal so that he could attempt to study it and replicate its process of formation. What a pity, oh well. The immortal quality crystals will have to do for now. Xander, seeing that he was going to waste his time in the auction house, decided to leave early, giving his farewell greetings and heading off. The Koeman Group, hearing that he was about to leave, proceeded with the exchange of his dual Eternal item, giving him a total of 8 pages from each Codex. Before he completely left Elema, however, the information about his pseudonym, Mr. Homer Simpson, was forcefully changed to that of Xander Cloverfield in the memories of the auction managers who were Demigod-9 cultivators as well as in their servers, and the term "Homer Simpson, Mr. Simpson, and Homer" were removed and replaced with "Chronicler". Even his identification card in the Galactic Empire was modified in such a way that it now registered Xander Cloverfield, and no one can access his data, not even the Highest council or the A.I. Celeste itself. If someone would look at his identification, it would only show his pseudonym "Chronicler," giving him the same access rank that the Koeman Group gave. Xander felt it was time to retire the Homer Simpson identity. Should I create another persona? How about a woman this time? Or maybe a girl roughly my age, Xander mused. After all, his time clones actually existed not only in male form, but also in female form, as well as a magic beast form, weirdly, and all of them were in Eteria. Anyways, he had a lot of time to think about this once he broke through to Legendary. He hurriedly returned to his villa in Eta, his mirror image dissolving, making it impossible to be traced or located. This was a precaution for that Demeter woman and other transmigrators who have gotten a quirky ability that could track him down or something. After all, unique body constitutions existed like Glaucia''s, making it a possibility that a body exists with the ability to track anything and anyone. 111 And the Universe Stopped... It was just noon in Eteria when he returned, wherein he instructed the sisters to cook food for him. The food was prepared in less than an hour, and for the next 30 minutes, Xander continued to eat the chosen dish the two decided to cook. After eating, Xander headed out to the garden area, sitting in the patio. He looked around and saw that the plants he placed and cultivated were still the same. The fruits were still hanging on their branches and stems, their flowers in full bloom. The place looked like a fairy tale forest that came to life. Xander sighed. He was just 7 years old. His 8th birthday was in two months. Since he started school, so many things have happened. Mistakes were done and learned from, some mistakes were repeated. I feel so old, Xander muttered. Why was he introspecting at such a time, he wondered. Then again, it''s quite helpful in refocusing oneself. The numerous experiences I had with my newfound friends and acquaintances¡­it''s such a hassle, yet it brings me some modicum of happiness. Xander paused. As he paused, the space around him stilled. The flowing winds and rustling leaves of trees stopped. The chirping birds that were perched on the branches stopped as well. It wasn''t just the garden. The whole villa, with the people working in their posts, talking to one another in the rest area, all stopped moving, their emotions at that time perfectly captured. However, it didn''t stop there. The whole city was then enveloped by this aura, stopping everything and everyone from moving, existing, and interacting. It began to expand, from the province to the whole country to the whole continent, to the whole planet. However, it didn''t stop. It continued to expand, stopping time for everyone, covering the Galactic Empire, the closest one, before stopping the time in other empires. The time-stopping sounded alarm bells to everyone, because not only did the material dimension stop, so did the other dimensions in the area. That involved the Dream dimension, Heaven, Hell, Abyss, Purgatory, LEO, LIBRA, etc. In the area stopped, causing alarm to every powerhouse that was in the area. Although it might sound that this happened slowly, this happened in a blink of an eye. Those who weren''t affected were the space-time cultivators that had a comprehension close to that of Xander, as well as God cultivators close to Void Traveler class. Transmigrators who were caught in the time stop couldn''t react, move or say anything whatsoever. Because of the unique blessings that they received, they were able to process thinking, making them aware of the situation, but they weren''t able to do anything else besides that. They couldn''t activate their own innate abilities, making them feel helpless. The problem was that more than half of the universe''s time stopped, and not even the space-time cultivators or those powerhouses do anything to restart the time of the universe. In fact, half of the Cerulean Empire was caught by the time stop, alarming the space-time cultivators in the area. No communication within the other half of the universe could be reached. The moment one enters the space where time stopped, they stopped as well, and pulling them out doesn''t restart their time, scaring those experimenting and chucking them back in, hoping that once the effect wore off, the time would begin again. Everyone was panicking, as they think that the area where time had stopped would increase once again. They¡­were not wrong. After a few days of bated breaths, the stopped time encroached 3/4ths of the universe. After 2 months, 5/6ths of the universe. After 1 year, the whole universe was at a standstill, except for the space-time cultivators and near Void Traveler Class who could barely move in the area. This phenomenon continued for a long time, and so many years, decades, and thousands of years passed since then. The culprit, however, was still in a trance of his own. "Time¡­ time is the root of the mind and soul." "Space¡­ space is the container where mind and soul form and grow, sprouting into a being of possibilities." "With order and chaos guiding oneself, the capacity of a being is limitless, but at the same time, limited by oneself." "One''s body is Order itself, what it can become is chaos. Time and Space aides in creating sense of that Chaos, while Life-Death gives birth to meaning of one''s life. Yin-Yang allows one to realize that meaning, helping space and time form the structures that would help it make sense of everything. I''ve been looking through things the wrong way since the beginning, haha!" Xander madly laughed, as if a cloud of confusion was cast off. He viewed life before as something quite useless, wherein one can simply resurrect the dead or bring back a copy of one''s self from the River of Time, skipping their deaths instantly, like nothing had happened. But the thing is, something did happen. Their deaths did have a meaning in the greater sense of things, for their actual life essence dolls. The repeated weathering and repairing through cycles of life allow it to become as strong as it can be. Although they can''t remember themselves, their life essence dolls remember. It remembers its changes, its injuries, and healing process. From there on, the Order of how one''s body is formed, and the Chaos of one''s potential of change is actuated. Space and Time gives a manifestation and a progression for the being to follow, but branching out to multiple situations that one can become, and death is just one situation for that. One could even become spirit lifeforms, existing solely in the material reality as a physical manifestation of one''s life essence doll, like his grandpa uncle. How could the life essence doll manage to retain itself if not for its tens, hundreds, thousands of cycling through the universe, allowing it to become a formidable innate power when combined by one special aspect of a sentient being: The capacity to think, feel, and act. Life-Death elements push oneself to have a meaning in life because that itself is an anchor for oneself as one progresses and manifests in this universe. But giving it meaning doesn''t make sense if there is no actualization of that meaning; that is where space-time and yin-yang help one another bring forth that meaning. Do you live to eat? There are different food types, ingredients, cuisines, ideas, mixtures being produced every day in the universe, different flavors, and different markets, making it impossible for one to be completely satisfied and decide, ''I have completed my meaning of life'' and just die. Your meaning of life is to become the strongest? There are different kinds of strengths and professions one can be the strongest in. No one can really claim to be the strongest in everything because there will always be something greater, something beyond what we can perceive. Therefore, the meaning of one''s life in this case is a never-ending search for strength and power, or die trying. For Xander, the introspection brought him to the point of his life: What is his meaning? Is it to live life to the fullest? How is he going to live life to the fullest if he doesn''t even know what standard to use to live life to the fullest? After this long period of searching, Xander found a temporary answer: One''s meaning in life is the experiences we undergo every single day, every week, every month, every year. To make meaning is to make sure that he was happy, in a state of equilibrium of nothing too little or too much. Xander let out a sigh, before shouting, "I have found my meaning!" His voice was full of emotions and of power; at the same time, it seemed to be the key to break the whole universe''s phenomenon of stopped time. Xander then heard a notification from the System. "You have frozen the time of the entire universe for a total of 99,999 years. Due to your improved comprehension of the universe, a new interface has been unlocked; you may now communicate with the ordered system of the universe." Xander was surprised. He didn''t think that what he did would cause such a great effect in the universe. He was just contemplating, hey! Well.. At least everyone would start at the same time, I guess? No one would notice anything different, hehe, Xander comforted himself. Wait, what did it mean by the System I could communicate with the Ordered system of the universe? Xander mused, before delving into the interface. He looked at his stats and skills, and realized that his comprehension for all his elements improved, and saw that at the bottom, there was a tab that wasn''t there before: Ordered Universe - 25 Number of Calls: 3/infinity (Increases by 1 Every 30 days UTY) Number of Requests: 3/99 (Increases by 1 Every 300 days UTY) Number of Messages: 25/infinity (Increases by 1 every time you send/receive a message) Xander was curious why there were messages already from the Ordered universe, and he began to read through them, and after a while, he broke out in a sweat. HEY, IDIOT, WHY DID YOU STOP THE TIME? START IT BACK NOW! DAMN IT, MY UNIVERSAL TIME WILL HAVE TO BE ADJUSTED. HEY. HEEEEY. WAKE UP, SHEESH. GOD DAMN IT, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO FALL INTO A CONTEMPLATIVE EPIPHANY? SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT AMADEUS, SENDING SOMEONE LIKE THAT HERE. FUUUUCK. HELLOOO, ARE YOU NOT YET AWAKE? OH, WAIT. CAN HE EVEN COMMUNICATE OR READ MY MESSAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE¡­? NAH, IT''S LIKELY HE COULD SEE THIS. AFTER ALL, THAT LIFEFORM CAN TRANSLATE THIS MESSAGE. AGH ITS BEEN 90000 YEARS. ARE YOU NOT DONE YET. JEEZ LUISE FINALLY YOU STARTED IT BACK UP. YOU''RE AN IDIOT. YES. YOU ARE AN IDIOT. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ YOU ARE LUCKY YOU TECHNICALLY HOLD A PART OF ME OR I WOULD ERADICATE YOUR ASS COMPLETELY. DON''T YOU THINK FOR A SECOND I DIDN''T KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO YOUR POCKET SPACE, WHICH BEGAN TO DEVOUR MY RESOURCES, HMPH! I HAD TO INCREASE MY INTAKE JUST FOR THAT GREEDY BUGGER! UGH, WHY AM I STILL SENDING MESSAGES. MAYBE HE REALLY CAN''T SEE THESE. MEH, WHATEVER. I AM BORED SO I''MMA DO WHAT I WANT. THIS IDIOT DESERVES TO BE DISTURBED. I COULD HANDLE SMALL SCALE SITUATIONS SUCH AS USING A VOID KING-RANK SPELL, SINCE IT WOULD RETURN EVERYTHING BACK TO NORMAL IF HE WILLED IT. BUT THIS IS ONE OF THE SITUATIONS WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE PUNISHED. HMM, I SHOULD ASK WHITE AND BLACK ABOUT THIS GUY. ACCORDING TO THEM, HE COMMANDED THE LIFEFORM TO INFILTRATE THEIR DOMAINS, HAHA! UGH, I''M HUNGRY¡­ WAIT. I CAN''T GET HUNGRY. MAYBE I''M JUST MAD AT HIM, THAT''S WHY I''M MANIFESTING LIKE THIS. DAMN PROGRAMMING, I''LL HAVE TO START THE MULTI-THREAD PROCESSING TO COMPLETE THE ERRORS AND ADJUST THE TIME-SYNC IN ALL DIMENSIONS¡­ UGH YOU ARE A PAIN IN MY EXISTENCE, MAH DUDE. Xander, hesitatingly, tried to send back a message. "Um¡­hello Universe-25¡­ how are you doing..?" Immediately, messages began to come in. YOU DIMWIT, FINALLY YOU CAN READ MY MESSAGES. YOU SCREWED UP BIG TIME! EVEN IF YOU''RE FAVORED BY AMADEUS, YOU''RE JUST A PAIN AND ADDING TO MY WORKLOAD! "Uh¡­who''s Amadeus?" ¡­ NEVERMIND THAT. WAIT, I''LL HAVE TO ADD YOU TO THE GROUP CHAT WITH WHITE AND BLACK. The moment he received that message, the System immediately beeped, sending him a message. "You now have access to the Almighty and the Fallen. You may now directly message or call them, or request from them." "You have been forcefully added to the connected communication channel of the Ordered Universe, the Almighty, and the Fallen." Under the tab, there were two additional sections that appeared. Almighty-U25 Number of Calls: 3/infinity (Increases by 1 Every 30 days UTY) Number of Requests: 3/99 (Increases by 1 Every 300 days UTY) Number of Messages: 0/infinity (Increases by 1 every time you send/receive a message) Fallen-U25 Number of Calls: 3/infinity (Increases by 1 Every 30 days UTY) Number of Requests: 3/99 (Increases by 1 Every 300 days UTY) Number of Messages: 0/infinity (Increases by 1 every time you send/receive a message) Trinity Chat-U25 Number of Messages: 1...0/infinity (Increases by 1 every time you send/receive a message) When I checked the logs, there was a long list of conversations happening between the trio, and I immediately skipped to the recent updates. YO, U25. WHAT HAPPENED? WHY DID THE SYSTEM FREEZE? DON''T BLAME ME WHITE, BLAME ONE OF THE THINGS INSERTED BY OUR GREAT GOD AMADEUS. UGH. TOTES NOT COOL. I WAS ABOUT TO WIN THE STARRING CONTEST. WHY DID THE TIME START AGAIN? SHADDUP BLACK! ANYWAYS, I FORCEFULLY ADDED THE CULPRIT INTO THIS CHAT SO WE CAN AT LEAST ''ADVISE'' HIM BEFOREHAND IF THE SITUATION HE IS HEADING TO IS DETRIMENTAL FOR THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE. "Hello, seniors. Sorry for the trouble I have caused. £ß|£þ|¡ð" Xander responded, adding an emoji of him kneeling down to them. Hopefully, they got his intentions. OH, YOU''RE THAT DUDE? YOU HACKED OUR MAINFRAMES FAM. THAT FEELING WAS SO INTRUSIVE. LIKE, I WAS STRIPPED NAKED. NOT THAT I DIDN''T LIKE IT¡­ NOT THE POINT TODAY, BLACK. THE POINT IS WHY DID AMADEUS EVEN GIVE HIM SUCH A COMPANION? ISN''T THOSE THINGS RARE IN THE GREAT VOID? HEY, U25, DO YOU KNOW WHY? THE HECK? HOW WOULD I KNOW, WHITE, I''M NOT THAT IMPULSIVE. ANYWAYS, YOU KNOW HIM ALREADY SO NO NEED FOR FURTHER INTRODUCTION. MR. IDIOT, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT NEXT TIME YOU PLAN TO AFFECT THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, SEND US A MESSAGE SO WE CAN ACTUALLY CREATE A SANDBOX FOR YOU TO BE IN FOR A WHILE. YOUR POWERS ARE GROWING EXPONENTIALLY, AND CURRENTLY A HASSLE FOR US. "Ok. Will do. Sorry for the additional trouble. How do I address you, seniors?" CALL ME ALMIGHTY, J, OR SOURCE. CALL ME FALLEN, LUCY, OR STAR. BUT FOR YOU, YOU CAN CALL ME DADDY \u003c3 When Xander saw Lucy reply to him like that, he consciously shivered, yet he was also puzzled. He had a dad, why would he call another being his daddy? CALL ME U25. STOP FLIRTING BLACK, GODDAMN IT. THE GUY''S JUST 7 YEARS OLD! WELL, TECHNICALLY, HE''S MORE THAN TEN MILLION YEARS OLD WITH HIS SPACE-TIME HIJINKS THOUGH¡­ SHUT IT, WHITE, I''M BASING THIS ON THE CURRENT SANDBOX REALITY WHERE THE KID IS IN. HE IS JUST 7 YEARS OLD. NO PEDOPHILIA ALLOWED IN MY UNIVERSE! ¡­FINE, SHEESH. I WAS JUST TEASING THE KID. HOWEVER, BOY, MY OFFER STANDS IN THE FUTURE, OK? \u003c3 "¡­" At that point, Xander closed the chat and returned back to the present situation. With his increase in comprehension of all origin elements, he could perceive the inner workings of the universe adjusting, fixing itself from the damage he had caused with his universe-wide time stop. It was minute, but the fabric of space and time was readjusting itself into a set structure, indicating that even the UTY of the universe has something to base it on. The other space-time magicians and half-step to Void Traveler rank, seeing that time and space were functioning normally now, realized with their current connection with the universe, the universe was adjusting on its own, fixing the disjointed time and space. The space-time cultivators took this opportunity to meditate on its profound mysteries, to further improve their comprehension of this origin element. After all, this was a rare opportunity. In fact, if some of the sages half-step to God class would meditate on this situation, they might get the last bit of understanding they needed to establish their own universe. Anyways, going back to Eteria, Xander was immersing himself in understanding how the U25, J, and Lucy were fixing the problem. Huh, it seemed interesting. If he was to describe how they were doing it, it is like manually updating the space and time settings in every section of the universe simultaneously. They weren''t attempting to update the time as a whole because it would screw up some special structures inside the universe. So although it was simultaneously done, there was a lot of fine-tuning done per region. In fact, the planets he landed on near Cerulean had their time speed return to normal, meaning the special trait he placed as a compensation method was removed. Oh well, I should just focus on my own stuff, for now, Xander mumbled. He then headed to the laboratory and saw that there were still a lot of other planets and galaxies being formed. Luckily, there weren''t any black holes or wormholes developing, as these would be quite a hassle to remove. He began to check on the Concept trees, checking if they had bloomed as well besides the Dream, Life and Creation trees. Order, Dimension, Chaos, and Evolution trees were already forming flowers, but like usual, the Destruction Tree only has withered leaves on its branches. With the two types of seeds that he bought, he transported 2 planets to the area, placing two of each seed per planet. He also had a laboratory set-up in these two planets, as well as a farm garden and mountain deposits and areas where elemental crystals are rapidly compressed and accumulated. The planet with the Time seed was placed under accelerated time, allowing it to proceed with 1 second: 10,000 years. The planet with the Emotion seed, on the other hand, had to be modified to have a higher concentration of emotion and mind elements in the area. He didn''t plan on adding these planets into the foundation of the Laboratory as they were not stable enough. He began to delve into the mysteries of the Immortal quality elemental crystals and the wisp of Immortal flame for the next 360,000 years inside the laboratory, or 5 hours outside. It was 200,000 years after that he finally had a breakthrough on how they were formed and produced naturally or artificially. These are known to be Immortal quality elemental crystals because they actually began to contain nomological truths, albeit in small, nearly-undetectable amounts. However, they were there, much higher than the lower quality elemental crystals, with the highest transcendental quality elemental crystal containing 0.0000000000000012% nomological truths that are barely comprehensible, and detrimental even, if one attempted to comprehend them. Once it reached the level of Immortal quality elemental crystals, however, it can contain as low as 0.000001% to 1.5% complete comprehension. It''s possible, of course, as the Eternal items, that the complete comprehension it contained, one already knows. Because of this, the formed immortal elemental crystals are never quite the same. They vary in small aspects, just like cultivators in their path to Godhood and beyond. One of the purposes of an immortal-quality elemental crystal is that it can supply a Divine-rank or higher matrix spell of its own, the power of the spell depends on the number of elemental crystals in grams. Another benefit was that it can substitute a plant material of the same element, limited up to Class 11. When Xander looked back into the past of the elemental crystal, the aspects of collection, accumulation, compression and expression of the element were observed. The last step, expression, was vital for an elemental crystal to be considered immortal quality. In fact, they needed to be near an Eternal item for them to form after hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. Xander also discovered how one can artificially produce them: Random bursts of elemental power in the targeted areas, these bursts representing different representations of the target element, before being compressed and allowed to accumulate. The speed of accumulation can be improved by adding the Eternal item/s of the specific element/s one desires in the vicinity. He began to modify the areas in the different planets he was controlling, adding eternal items here and there of that specific element, mixing and matching certain types. He did plan to create some mixed immortal elemental crystals to give as gifts. This brought up two interesting topics for Xander: Can magic crystals gain sentience though since they are structured similarly to how a sentient being progresses in the path of cultivation? At the same time, can he create ready to deploy spells, by etching them into the immortal crystals and activating them later on? Xander decided to place these two topics in the back burner for now, before resuming research on the wisp of Immortal flame. For the next 160,000 years, that was his focus. From that wisp, he tested it in every possible test he could think of, even attempting to view how the flame was born. 112 Selecting Representations All he saw was darkness, and suddenly, light shone in the area, the light produced by the flame. It then experienced thousands and hundreds of thousands of years, changing owner to owner, gaining freedom and losing freedom, before a calamitous situation caused it to self-destruct, leaving only wisps of the original flame, which began to land to the hands of different owners and rulers before ultimately, a lucky Sage cultivator got it and traded it for the fruits I consigned for trading. All of these were great and all though, but it really didn''t help out much on how these were formed. Should I attempt to bring it back from the past, Xander muttered, before sending a message to the trio. "Hey guys, I plan to extract an Immortal flame from the past. I won''t damage anything if I do that, right?" WOAH, WHERE ARE YOU, WHY IS THE TIME DIFFERENCE SO LARGE? ¡­BLACK, HE''S IN HIS PERSONAL LABORATORY. ANYWAYS, DEPENDS ON HOW FAR BACK IN TIME ARE YOU GOING TO DELVE TO EXTRACT THE ITEM. "It''s 190 million years. That was the instance it was free and complete. I only got a wisp of it right now." ¡­ ARE YOU JOKING? DO YOU WANT THE RIVER OF TIME TO OVERFLOW FROM THAT DATA CHANGE? YOU''RE NOT COPYING THE DATA, YOU ARE EXTRACTING IT. "Huh? The description of the spell allows me to make a copy of it in the present time, not extraction." Immediately, Xander sent them a copy of the description of the skill. ¡­DUDE. ARE YOU FOR REAL? THAT''S THE SKILL YOU HAVE? DAAMN, THAT''S OVERPOWERED AF. ¡­YEP, FOR ONCE, I AGREE WITH BLACK. THAT''S JUST TOO OVERPOWERED. ¡­AS MUCH AS I HATE TO AGREE WITH THE TWO IDIOTS HERE, YOUR SPELL REALLY IS OVERPOWERED. YOU CAN USE IT TO COPY DATA HUH? WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THE EXCESS OVERFLOW? HOW WILL YOU SOLVE THE DATA CONCENTRATION IN THE UNIVERSE BEING OUT OF BALANCE? "Um, place it in my laboratory? Since it can absorb from the universe''s resources anyway¡­" ¡­THIEF! YOU REALLY MADE A NASTY LEECH! HAHA, U25, IT''S OK, YOU STILL HAVE YOUR DAILY ALLOWANCE OF VOID ENERGY \u003c3 THAT''S RIGHT, HAHA! ANYWAYS, THAT SOLVES THAT PROBLEM. JUST MAKE SURE ONCE YOU DO THE TIME EXTRACTION, YOU OPEN THE CHANNEL FOR DATA ABSORPTION IN YOUR LABORATORY SPACE SO IT CAN RAPIDLY TAKE IN THE EXCESS DATA. "Wait, why didn''t any data overflow occur when I brought back the dead bodies of cultivators Demigod and above, Magic beasts, and plant materials from the past?" THAT''S BECAUSE ONE, THE POWER AND DATA REMAINING IN THEIR BODY IS VERY LOW. SECOND, YOU DIDN''T RETURN THEM BACK INTO THE UNIVERSE, BUT RATHER IN YOUR ISOLATED LABORATORY. THIRD, TIME IS A FACTOR: YOU DIDN''T GO BEYOND 100 MILLION YEARS. I NOTICED THE DATA BEING COPIED, AND SINCE I RECOGNIZED IT CAME FROM YOU, ONE OF THE ANNOYING INSERTS, I DIDN''T REALLY CARE MUCH SINCE IT DIDN''T CAUSE A LARGE DATA OVERFLOW. HOWEVER, IN THE CASE OF THE IMMORTAL FLAME, IT''S DIFFERENT. IT HAS A VERY HIGH AMOUNT OF DATA, AND IT IS BEYOND 100 MILLION YEARS. IF YOU BROUGHT IT BACK TO YOUR LABORATORY, THE DATA OVERFLOW WILL BE CUT BY HALF FROM THE ORIGINAL PREDICTION. "Ok, so I''ll bring it back while I''m still in the lab, got it!" Xander responded, enlightened by the situation. ¡­THIS WOULD REDUCE THE CORRUPTION TO A MINIMUM, REDUCING OUR JOBS, HEHE. ¡­LAZY ASS. WHY DID AMADEUS EVEN PROGRAM YOU LIKE THAT. " (? -? ?) Thanks, seniors for the information! Talk to you all later." Xander exited the chat and began the process of [Time Extraction]. Once again, a magnificent river made up small granules of light of different shapes, colors, and sizes appeared in front of him, and he began to focus on a particular granule of light, reaching out to grab it. Instead of grabbing the granule, his hand went inside, and it began to vibrate a bit, before another granule of the same color and shape, and size appeared. He placed pulled out that granule from the river''s influence, bringing it from the immaterial into his laboratory space. Once he did, the absorption of data by the laboratory began to activate in full power, gathering the leftovers. Immediately, the granule of light began to shift and change, turning into a spark, before becoming as large as a star in front of him. Xander was shocked because he could actually sense incomplete sentience from the flame. Right now, it was wary and confused with its surroundings, seemingly lost in the situation. It could feel that it was not in the same place as it was before. Xander, instead of complaining, let out a sigh of relief, before bringing out the wisp of immortal flame. When the flame detected the small wisp of fire Xander had, it was alert and curious because it detected a depth of familiarity from it, instinctively lowering its guard after a few moments. Xander, using his powers over Mind and Emotion elements, began to soothe and comfort the flame, the latter reacting to it nicely, to his relief. This was like having a baby dog, Xander thought. He communicated with the flame if it could reduce its size to as large as a basketball, which it managed to understand, quickly shrinking and compressing, turning into a fire hovering on his right palm where the wisp was. He began to interact and talk to the flame for the next 6,000 years, teaching it what Xander could teach it. Although it cannot communicate with words now, it could still communicate with its emotions. Xander, after this was said and done, began to harvest the fruits and elemental crystals, before saying goodbye to the flame. The flame, on the other hand, seeing Xander was about to leave, wanted to stop him. When it realized that it couldn''t stop Xander, it asked if it can go with him, with Xander replying no because he wasn''t his contractual companion. When the flame heard this, it immediately initiated the bonding process, surprising Xander at how eager the flame was. Both the flame and Xander stated their vows and the flame began to merge to Xander''s body, intrinsically bound to his life essence doll. That was when he knew the name of the flame: Hakobi. He headed out, releasing Hakobi, who was hovering on his shoulder, curious with the world it was in now. Because of the bonding, the data overflow was more imminent, so he immediately opened all the powerful absorbing power of the laboratory, gathering elemental particles and energy around it to equalize the data being restored. Of course, to avoid devastating the planet, the basement had already been teleported somewhere in deep space, countless light-years away from Eteria. After ensuring everything was alright, the laboratory was teleported once again back to his villa, and Xander and Hakobi headed to Eden, where he introduced Hakobi to his other contracted companions. The sprites and Fae were surprised but welcomed Hakobi nonetheless. The latter was a bit apprehensive, but when it recognized the mark Xander had with his contracted companions, he soon began to soften up and began to play with them, especially in Marie''s place, which was a place of pure fire. Xander began his normal routine of meeting up the sprites and magic beasts living inside Eden, asking for ideas and thoughts and their experiences, will giving them feedback about their questions on certain topics. This lasted around 10,000 years, longer than before. This was because he decided to talk to every single one of them with the help of 4 additional mirror images. He needed to gain a sense of understanding towards them, especially since he had changed the announcement of 15 days to 5 days, or 864,000 years from now. After this routine meeting, he began to bond with his contracted companions. He planned to let them out once they reached Divine-1. By then, at least they would be undefeated by normal means in Eteria. Of course, they still had to be careful against other Divine magicians in Eteria. He also used this time to finalize the representations of Space and Time that he wanted to use when breaking through. For the space element, the Dimensionality Category was near perfect. However, he didn''t really like any of the representations under that category. In fact, his spatial view skill, [Divine Eyes], allows him to already interact with these representations and comprehend them in a fundamental way. However, there was no flair to the skill. That left him with Function, Break, Movement, and Essence. The problem with the last one is that even the system couldn''t enumerate the data for the representations in it. Maybe, a lack of level could be a cause, he didn''t really know. The main reason for the difficulty of choosing is that he needed to find the best combination of representations from space and time. For example, if he selected Folding representation of Space, what aspect of time should he get? Should it be the Stitching capacity of time? How about replacement? Condensation? Variable flow of time? Maybe, he could use the Cycle representation of Time, and combining it with the Folding representation, create a domain that repeats its space over and over again once you enter. That meant a continuous loop that one cannot escape from. However, if someone was proficient in dimensional traveling, they can take advantage of the rules set in the domain to leave. Xander, with the help of the system, began to calculate the different space representations he had a 100% in and combining them with that of the representations of time with 100%. He came up with the following 5 optimal combinations: Isolation-Decay combination allows him to isolate the space in the area, decaying anything and anyone''s time and space within the domain. The space isolation would mean other dimensions within the domain will be cut off. Stitch-Cycle combination allows him to adjoin any cycle or processes related to oneself; e.g. baby, boy, and man cycle, a cycle of suffering, a cycle of peace, a cycle of reincarnation, cycle of destruction, a cycle of one''s life. The previous owner of the cycle''s body will be stitched as well, meaning that if it was a cycle of misfortune on a master magician, for a moment, the body of the targets will have the qualities of the master magician and the cycle of misfortune. Even if the targets leave, it would take quite some time before their real bodies and own cycles returned. For the spatial aspect, he could add things into the space domain, allowing it to have variability; meaning, if he wanted to connect the dream dimension and LEO into the space around him, it can happen. Scatter-Break combination allows space to scatter, creating a fragmented domain, where both time and space don''t exist. Anyone who enters would experience spatial scattering and their time shattering, wherein parts of their body and life essence dolls and whatnot dissociate with one another and cease to exist in relation to the main body. What is lost cannot be recovered even if one leaves the domain. Flux-Replication combination allows space and time to move in different situations, even if the situation doesn''t allow it, e.g. frozen space, timeless space, or void areas, as the domain rapidly propagates both space and time elements in the surroundings, creating a stable domain for movement. Displacement-Subtraction combination allows Xander to displace parts of a whole or the complete space around him to different dimensions, locations, etc., and while being inside the domain, one''s time and body are continuously subtracted, unrecoverable by normal means. This is because one''s time still exists, but is displaced from the life essence doll. If one''s life essence doll is in location A as well as their time, a part of their time is displaced in location B, a location that cannot be accessed or located, unless another space-time magician adds the time back, or gets another time from another being. All of these possible pairings were quite tempting for Xander because of the usability they each had. However, he calmed down and began to ponder what he would need the most in the stages of Legendary to Demigod class. After all, once he reached Divine class and began to completely comprehend the element of space and time, the other representations of his origin element can easily be used and emulated. The complete mastery of the space-time elements, after all, has its perks. The first one seems great since it''s offensive and defensive at the same time. The second one was similar to his Timeline superimposition, so he crossed it out since he already had a spell for that. The third one was a milder version of [Spatial Disintegration] and [Time Shatter], so he crossed it out for now. The 4th one would be helpful¡­ if he was out in the void. Right now, this was useless, so that was quickly crossed off. The 5th one, on the other hand, was quite interesting. He could displace space alongside one''s time. In fact, if he wanted, he could connect it to his own time or someone else''s, increasing their lifespans. He was left with the first and 5th options. He was quite helpless on what to decide, and even the system was staying mum on this issue. Should I ask U25, J, and Lucy about this? I booted up the chat and placed my question to them. "Seniors, I have another pressing issue at hand." HUH? OH, IT''S YOU AGAIN. HEY BOY, WHAT''S THE PROBLEM? DON''T HESITATE TO ASK DADDY LUCY \u003c3 ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ "Um, it''s about the space-time representations I should choose for Legendary class. I''m torn between these two: Isolation-Decay and Displacement-Subtraction." OH, THOSE ARE QUITE GOOD, BUT NOT REALLY PERFECT. U25 IS RIGHT. WHY ARE YOU LIMITING YOUR DOMAIN IN THE UNIVERSE LEVEL ONLY? ARE YOU PLANNING TO STAY IN THE UNIVERSE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE? YUP, I AGREE AS WELL. A GOOD REPRESENTATION WOULD HAVE BEEN TANGIBILITY-MANIPULATION. YOU WOULD HAVE THE CAPACITY TO MANIPULATE AND CREATE SPATIAL THREADS, EVEN IN THE GREAT VOID, WHILE CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF TIME INSIDE THE DOMAIN. OH, THAT''S A GOOD ONE WHITE \u003c3 ¡­NOT BAD, INDEED. "¡­But I already have a God-rank skill for that." Xander responded, showing them a brief description of the [Origin Universe]. ¡­WOW. ¡­DAMN IT, TELL US, ARE YOU REALLY NOT RELATED TO AMADEUS? ¡­HE DOESN''T HAVE ANY IDEA WHO THAT IS, WHITE. FOR REAL? WHY THEN WOULD HE HAVE A SKILL THAT LITERALLY ALLOWS HIM TO CREATE HIS OWN UNIVERSES? POTENTIALLY BREAKING THE BALANCE OF THE NUMBER OF UNIVERSES THAT CAN EXIST INDEPENDENTLY IN THE GREAT VOID? ¡­I DON''T KNOW. YOU KNOW AMADEUS NEVER TELLS US THESE THINGS. MAYBE THE DUDE GOT LUCKY? LEMME CHECK THE RECORDS¡­ OK FOUND IT, HE GOT IT FROM¡­ANALYZING A PROTOSPHERE? HOW THE HELL DID HE EVEN GET ONE? WHAT? U25, YOU HAVE PROTOSPHERE-PRODUCING CAPABILITIES? WELL, ORIGINALLY NO, BUT IT WAS ADDED BY AMADEUS AS A GACHA KIND OF THING IN MY SETTINGS¡­ BASICALLY, THE CHANCE OF THAT HAPPENING IS 1 OUT OF 1E+250 CHANCE. SO NOT ONLY POWERFUL BUT ALSO LUCKY? BUT THAT''S NOT RIGHT, HIS LIFE ESSENCE DOLL SEEMED BLOCKED FROM INTANGIBLE ELEMENTS'' EFFECTS, THOUGH. AT THIS POINT, I WON''T BE SURPRISED IF HE HAD A SKILL THAT CAN DESTROY PARTS OF THE UNIVERSE IRREVERSIBLY, HAHA \u003c3 ¡­ "Um¡­I actually do have those¡­several, actually. (;-_-)/" Xander replied, causing the chat to come to a stop. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­U25, ARE YOU REALLY SURE HE ISN''T AN ILLEGITIMATE CHILD OF ONE OF THE GODS OUTSIDE? MAYBE A REINCARNATION? ¡­AT THIS POINT, I DON''T EVEN KNOW. COUGH, COUGH. OK, GOING BACK TO THE KID''S REQUEST, I THINK IT''S BEST TO CHECK FOR DOMAINS THAT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR HIM AT LEGENDARY TO DEMIGOD CLASS. THEN THAT WOULD BE THE FIRST SET RIGHT? YUP. ANOTHER POSSIBLE SET WOULD BE SCATTER-MANIPULATION. THIS WOULD LEAD TO ANYONE AND ANYTHING ENTERING TO DISSOCIATE, BEFORE MANIPULATING EACH AND EVERY PIECE OF SPACE. THIS WOULD BE A GOOD OFFENSIVE DEFENSIVE DOMAIN, BECAUSE NOT ONLY CAN IT STOP AND INTERRUPT ATTACKS OF ALL KIND SINCE THE CONNECTIONS ARE RUPTURED, IT CAN ALSO INTERRUPT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EACH PART OF THE DISSOCIATED BEINGS, ALLOWING AN EASIER KILL BY MANIPULATING THEIR TIME TO DECREASE, INCREASE, OR EVEN BE NON-EXISTENT. OH YEAH, THAT COMBINATION THOUGH WOULD BE SICK \u003c3 ¡­BUT IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A SPELL WITH A SIMILAR EFFECT, GO WITH THE FIRST ONE THEN. HUH, NOT BAD, WHITE. WELL, THERE YOU GO, BOY. WE''VE GIVEN YOU OUR SUGGESTION. "Er, ok thanks, seniors. I won''t bother you seniors for now. I''ll just select the third one. Thanks for your input." Xander said, a bit flustered and shy with the words they were saying at him. After all, these trio are considered the strongest beings in this universe, yet even they are shocked about Xander''s power and abilities. ¡­SURE. SEE YOU. NICE GARDEN, BUT YOU STILL HAVE ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. +1 TO THAT. +2. IT LOOKS PLAIN. "¡­thank you, seniors. I plan to modify it once I break through to Legendary this weekend. I hope you can help me create an isolated sandbox by then." With that, Xander exited the chat and played and bonded a bit more with his contracted companions, before heading out, with Hakobi following suit. It was now a small flame that was just hovering over his shoulder, and normally, its presence was not detectable or observable by the common cultivator. He then ate his late dinner before heading upstairs, took a nice long bath, and headed to sleep. ________________ The next morning, Xander woke up quite refreshed. He did his daily routine of going to school, interacting with his friends, helping them in their questions, while asking his own questions about life in general, trying to improve his own understanding. This was what was done for the next 4 days until Friday. He did head over to his parents'' mansion to check up on them once in a while, while also doing some training with his bodyguards. His original group of bodyguards, with the amount of demigod and divine-class food and elixirs he had been feeding them, had already reached Mythic-6 to Mythic-9 from their original Legendary-2 to Legendary-6 cultivations nearly 2 months ago. His new set of guards under James'' command had the same progress, with none of them lower than Demigod-3 and James and Azaya both reaching Demigod-6. Just in the span of 1 month. After all, Xander wasn''t stingy towards his own subordinates. The stronger they are, the stronger his fighting force is, the more impact my group would have. Xander began to slowly easy everyone in Eden to fall into a dreamless, deep sleep, this time, to prepare them for the transfer rather than euthanasia like before. Friday evening came and his initial preparations were complete. He only needed the help of U25 and the duo to proceed with his breakthrough. He''s not going to lie, he was quite curious how it would be to have his own sandbox reality to practice in. He sent several messages to his friends and family that he should not be disturbed under no circumstances, as well as instructing his guards to protect the perimeter for the next 48 hours, letting no one in or out. He then booted up the messaging program and sent, "U25, Lucy, J, I''m done preparing."