The new video unsurprisingly had a different figure. The female had a long flowing blue form and had eyes so silver they bordered on white. Then there was the hair which was the same color. Lean and tall with pointed ears and features to make the battle of Troy understandable.

Unlike the rest, she was seated on a throne of white crystals that glinted every few minutes. Atop her head rested a crown made of ornate silver and adorned with gem crystals, purple and even blue.

'Is this a show of wealth or a tutorial lesson?'

"Greetings Psion, I Am Empress Emurae Verilfa Talmonses. First of her name and ruler of all the Silver Expanse and its colonies".

My eye twitched at the word colonies.

"I offer with my tutorial a fair deal. Join the Sikver Expanse and be treated with all honor". My eye twitches turned into a full-blown glare.

"Adam, is this the only basic psychae video in dissemination?"

[Affirmative Medes. The system only chooses the best to teach the newer worlds]

"Regardless of whatever threats and warnings they might give?"

[Thr system sees it as mere words. It is left to the new worlds to either ignore, yield, or disagree. The system does not care much.]

I was certain a headache was coming from the system's blatant disregard for how lives went.

"How many psions on earth have received this video?".

[By checking the download counts it falls under 11, 546,783 of three of the newly inducted worlds]

"Three worlds?".

[Affirmative Medes. Your world was not the only one to be introduced to the system in this period. Five months earlier there were about four and two months ago yours and two other worlds joined the race to the top. Rumours have it that by next month another set of worlds will join. The issue remains in whether your world will be fortunate enough to survive all the factions, empires, and Republics vying for your lands and people. All of these are challenges the system sees fit to put you up against to make your world and all worlds grow]

"For what result?"

[Medes is not cleared for this information]

"So there is a result".

[...]

"Very well". I turned my attention back to the video and luckily the empress had finished her drivel about benefits and rantings about joining or going up against the empire. Now she held a hand up her face a serene mask of ambivalence.

"Most of you wonder, what is Psychae? Why is it so powerful? Along our journey to learn you'll realize many things and with each answer I hope you realize the importance the empire can bring by filling you in on more than the basics".

I mentally face-palmed in annoyance. 'I thought her recruit drive was over'.

"The sources are power rules and anti-rules that govern each universe they exist in. Mana wielders or mages for instance are known to break all denominations of a reality's rules making it a sworn enemy to energy. Yes, you heard it right. Ergos acts by the rules of a universe and dabbles furiously in it. Then there is Astral which is only concerned with maintaining the spirit of all living beings with souls. All of these energies abound and have been in effect since basically the dawn of time. Why am I telling you all this?".

A smile crossed her face for a split second it was almost like a mirage.

"Psychae has been debated to be a source and not an affinity by many scholars. Of course, the arguments keep returning to one fact. What are sources? A power that rules reality. True. But then what of psychae and why is it not considered a source? Simply because it wasn't in existence since the dawn of time".

The silver eyes glinted a bit and a cup floated to her lips. I knew it was one because in any world noble standards remained the same and it would seem Silver Expanse was no different.

Setting the cup down after her drink she looked back to the recorder. I had my head supported by my palm as I watched.

"Psychae grew and came into effect after thousands of years of the mind evolution. Its power when left unchecked could dismember realities. So it was harmed and controlled. Yet it was never made a source. Because as powerful and as reality-bending as it is, it lacks one facet of a source. It cannot be regenerated from beyond".

I sat up at this.

"Yes. Psychae comes from the mind. It is the strength of thought and the will of imagination. With each use, you dwindle the energy of your mind. Testing and medication increase the energy back but there is no other way to increase the amount of your pyschae, especially during a battle".

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

'Well, crap'. I could sense this was going to be a problematic case for me.

"Now we're done with all that drivel. Let's head on to the beauty of Psychae" Her smile appeared once more and I consciously looked away to avoid her smile. Who knew if it was a sort of psychae attack?

"For many of you, a skill is already available. Skills like those are possible when an affinity is realized by the system. For strong affinities that synergize well with a body, you gain two skills. A passive and an active skill."

Didn't I gain more than two with Sol? Aestro must have synergies with both my source and body to create levitation. Haendro synergized with either my psyche or my mind to create that calm skill. Only Psychae and Sol had given me two skills.

'Thinking about it. I should have learned Energinesis with my source but I got it with Sol instead and then got Basic energy manipulation and manifestation for my source. Wait I did manipulate that fire energy quite easily for someone just starting. Was it due to energinesis? Was energinesis the total of all the Basic applications of my source'.

But it couldn't have been true considering that I still started with the Basics. But why?. I paused as I locked onto something different. I had forged by body to exalt sol and it in turn exalted me. The system had bought my schematics, something it wouldn't have to do if there was a better one out there.

'Did the system see the ability to manipulate and use sol actively as different from normal? But that's wrong to me. Aren't there mages that form the power of... Rule breakers' it made sense now. Even mages broke rules to manifest the power of light. While we Ergos follow the rules. If no one had been able to manipulate the sun with rules then that made me the first right. That made me have a whole new power in my arsenal. And the system knew'.

I returned my ears to the Empress who was talking about Mental touch and how it could be used to sense objects in a set distance around a psion.

"Mind you Psions, psychae has no limits, no tally, and no numerical valuation like source. It acts with the strength of your mind. And your mind has limits. Now to use mental touch you need to first manifest your psychae. I assure you this is nowhere as easy as mana or energy. After all, you need to map out your Nexal pathways for this in your mind".

I stared at the empress like a dead fish. Her last statement had translated into words in my mind. Pain. With a feeling of exhaustion, I stared at a notification.

[Follow up quest II]

[Nexal Pathways I]

[Forge your Nexal pathways. Create a route easily accessed by your source]

[Rewards - 500Exp, Skill Proficiency]

I exhaled. Raised my arms and took my top off. Repeated the same with my pants and sat there in my underpants. With a shake of my head, I found myself retracting into my Nexus.

"Some may wonder why they can't sense or use the Psychae in the atmosphere. Well, there is none. If Psychae were to ever be declared as a source then it would be a manifestation of all minds in the greater universe. Which is impossible given that Psychae can only escape one's mind when used intentionally or unintentionally by a psion".

I kept my eyes shut as I delved into my Nexus. It was now a familiar sight to me. One that didn't cease to astound me. I focused on searching for something.

"Unlike your source which is always clear, affinities are hidden locked away behind a veil of your making. Be it a calm mind, a stormy self, or a turbulent thought. There is always something keeping the affinity hidden from you. For Psions, it is their thoughts that matter. The veil of noise and confusion in a Psychae clouds the will and focus to sense and feel Psychae. So shut the noise ".

I opened my eyes back in the base and frowned.

'Well, this is problematic'. There was no noise in my Nexus. And if there was none it either meant mine was hidden by something else or...I sighed as I shut my eyes. Remanifestimg my awareness in the Nexus I looked down at the calm water. Then up to the storm wall.

'It was either beneath the calm lake, waves suppressed to a ripple that could be caused by the Psychae or it was beyond the Nexus. Lost in the storm of noise that was my locked turmoil.

'The mind is a Psychae's greatest tool. Willing its strength to exert influence on the physical. I looked into the storm. 'Such force and strength would require focus and control.'

I stepped past the bounds of my nexus and was lost in the harsh noise of the storm.

'Focus'.

I pushed my mind to calm the noises, to turn the war to peace, the wind into a gentle breeze, and then to settle the dust.

'Focus'.

I urged the storm to relent. I didn't know if it worked at first but I kept on pulling it to be calm. Kept on pushing. The storm still raged and still fought. I kept on the task of allaying the storm. It felt like my efforts were useless like my attempts were unsuccessful. Then the storm slowly but surely calmed.

'I did it'.

I watched as the storm vanished and left behind a sprawling ocean of calm waves and blue skies. My jaw fell as I looked around astounded at the beauty of a controlled mind. Then I spotted them. Yes them. The affinities. All like little planets revolved around the source. Far apart it was understandable why they had been hidden by the some. Close enough that I was certain all needed the source to work.

Even the golden ball of energy that was Sol. After all at the end of the day, Sol was still an affinity. There was the Blue ball that I assumed to be Haendro moving gracefully around the source. It was the farthest to it and kept going from intervals of frozen to liquid and then steam and back. The ball before it was Aestro. A silver sphere that shot around the source faster and with finesse. It was below the blue sphere and yet never close enough to it. Next was Sol and it was much slower, the slowest infact as it moved about like a planetary-sized object. Finally was a ball of color, possessing no solidity but was existential. It looked like the one time my foster father had made me watch the sun setting while on my knees on the lawn. Beautiful.

I drew my awareness closer to them. Observing each affinity with a thorough even before focusing on what I was here for.

'This is gonna suck' I murmured.

'Follow'.

I saw first-hand the beauty that was Source act. A thrum escaped the ball of solidified energy and waves shooting out into the ball of Psychae. I didn't know if what happened next was normal but Sol reacted. The golden ball of fire surged and suddenly shot a beam as well. It was a true sunset now and not just the colors. With the beams filling the ball of psychae it thrummed then expelled waves of orange and violet energies.

'Follow'

I was almost too astounded at the display to remember what I was there for but luckily I managed. The forging began. I took the energy in my head within my metaphysical mind and brain and began burning a path through it. Even as I gained inches of space in creating the paths in my metaphysical structure I felt my body rattle and screams escape my lips.

I carved five pathways. From the onset of the paths, I hollowed out a cavern. But unlike any would think I didn't stop. The pain was immense but considering how dangerous life was going to be it was either I did all I could, succeeded, or died rather than face this new world as a weakling because I was scared of pain. So I kept on hollowing out my metaphysical mind.