Hector Vale and Hayden Pryor marveled at Markus preforming exercises and tests for alchemist tang. He'd quickly gone from struggling to stand without throwing himself across half a dozen meters to preforming more and more complex tasks. Currently the alchemist had him arranging glasses in different patterns trying to get him to move as fast as possible without crushing the delicate cups. A small pile of shattered glass lay beside the men as evidence of pervious failures.
"Begin" Tang said and before he had finished saying that Markus had already reached out and staked two rows of a pyramid. From what the two men could see every was done within a few seconds. "A few cracked glasses but nothing broken this attempt, keep working at this drill till you can fully control your strength" Tang said enthusiastically. "I'm trying" Markus said with a hint of frustration as Tang walked up to the table Hector and Hayden were sitting at. "I've never really seen something like this" Tang said taking an empty chair across from them "what do you mean, surely it not that uncommon to adapt this quickly right" Hector said genuinely interested in learning more about how cultivation works.
"While his adaptability is impressive that's not what I was referring to" shaking his head in wonder he continued " usually the first rank of the foundational realm uses the material to lay a base to build the next step, a first rank is usually little different from a mortal besides being slightly more healthy and more durable". " he's got the strength and speed of an average third or fourth rank foundational cultivator and with his element his endurance is likely even higher than that" Tang said with conviction. "So he's skipped multiple ranks" Hayden chimed in " not exactly, I've probed and measured his his energy and it reads as first rank" Tang said watched as Hayden and Hector's faces light up.
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"While this is by far the strongest foundation I've ever personally seen this presents us with a problem" Tang left the words hanging in the air. "I'm not aware of why this would be a bad thing" Hector said confusion and concerns replacing his overjoyed expression " having such a solid first rank will make it extremely difficult for each subsequent rank until core realm and the resources for an average cultivator to achieve a dual core ascension is daunting I can imagine some like Markus to require upward of five times the amount" Tang said.
"You said we have a problem, what did you mean by that" Hayden said with a questioning tone. Clearing his throat Tang turned to Hayden " after you showed me a completely unheard-of alchemy and seeing the results of Markus's first rank I knew that I needed to be apart of this to study and improve this method". "As long as you finance my experiments and and help me advice my craft I'll work for you exclusively joining verdant path corporation" Tang reached out his hand for a shake "what do you say".
A few hours after taking Tang up on his offer the three men split up to tackle their own tasks. After running a few more tests including testing markus's body in version ways Tang went to his workshop to collect some of his personal affects, equipment and notes to move into the warehouse. Hayden got with Markus to discuss who out of the warriors would be the second to go through the cultivation treatment and decide on a stocky farm hand as he was relatively healthy next to most of the malnourished men. Lastly Hector him self arranged for the Blackrock auction house to spectate the upcoming cultivation session early next morning.