“Bastard, where the hell have you been?” Carl shouted from across the street. Mae was with him but the look on her face was hued pink from embarrassment for two reasons. One, Carl was shouting vulgarities in the crowded street, two she saw Miles and he looked even more dashing.

“Hey, Mae. Long time no see.” Miles ignored the shouting idiot and hugged Mae despite the strokes the latter was having.

“Happy to see you again, Miles. It has been quite some time indeed.”

“How is the academy? Are they treating you nice?” Asked Miles. Carl and Mae signed in to Cross Academy, obviously as both had strong abilities. Malcolm wouldn’t allow them to go to any other institution. After all, they were his son’s oldest friends.

“Don’t ignore me, you fiend!” Carl pulled Miles's arm to only pinned where he was standing. “Gah! How are you so strong! I, too, used Strengthening Serums. How are you still overpowering me?”

“And you think Miles is not using now that he awakened energy?” Mae sighed as he patted Carl’s shoulder. “By now, he probably used the first serum of the F-Series, am I right?”

“Yup, the first one only.” Miles nodded.

“How do you expect us to catch up with you like this?” Carl too sighed in lamentation.

“With your superpowers of course.” Smiled Miles as he walked. “Where are we going?”

“Hehe. Like I promised last time, I am going to take you to the factory.” Carl triumphantly said.

“Stop boasting. It is just a factory where they manufacture new technological devices with cores.” Mae said in disgust. Carl’s family owned most of the factories that produced everyday items that had been created with cores. Like psychic glasses, refrigerators that can work without electricity.

Miles had visited when he was a kid but at the time he didn’t know anything about energy or how it was important to melt the cores. After he started to craft as well he wanted to see it again, but factories were closed to visitors at the time. Now finally he could visit once again.

It didn’t take them long to arrive where the factory was with Miles driving. At the entrance, a guard checked Carl’s ID with a device and superpower to prevent spies from entering. After passing through several gates with tons of security devices built-in, they finally arrived at the furnace.

In the furnace were hundreds of people sitting. All of which were melting cores. This was the image carved in Miles’s mind from his childhood and what he wanted to solve. It was impossible for two people to work on the same core. One person with elemental energy would start the melting process, then another would take over when the first one cut off the energy and started to work on the core but two different energies wouldn’t touch the same core at the same time, as it would destroy the resonance and the core would explode.

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This was the biggest obstacle to the creation of multi-elemental orbs. And it was virtually impossible to overcome. Even with the way Evelyn found, it couldn’t be achieved. Evelyn figured out how to use different types of energy in the same structure by separating them all the time. But even she couldn’t figure out how to bring two different energies into the same wavelength.

Miles had no answer for this question either. He had few ideas, of course, but none of them seemed plausible at the moment.

Most of the areas were close to the visitors. Although Mae and Miles were close friends of Carl, there were still many business secrets in the factory that couldn’t be taken outside under any circumstances, thus they could only visit the furnace and some other unimportant processes.

After walking around for a few hours, they took their leaves to eat.

“How are your studies with Energy going?” Miles asked between his bites.

“Cross Academy is really great,” Carl answered in the same manner. “They already taught us the Veil, although it will take some time to master it.”

“We are taking lessons from three branches and further studies if we want to and have talent in them. We are also taking theory classes to further increase our knowledge. There are classes for forging or medicine as well. It is really comprehensive.” Mae gracefully answered, unlike the duo.

“I am glad it is useful for you.” Miles nodded with a smile. “How about ultimate? Are they giving you lessons on that? They will teach us only in the second year.”

“We have been taught the basics. Academy doesn’t restrict us from forming one, but suggests that we wait.” Carl said with a shrug.

“How about you, Miles?” Asked Mae as she looked at his deep blue eyes. “Have you thought about your ultimate?”

“I-” Miles wanted to answer but didn’t know how to. He failed to create his seed and ended up advancing without one. Could he still create an ultimate? He wasn’t sure. “I am not sure.”

“I think I know mine,” Carl exclaimed in excitement. “I will create a giant robot and use it in battle!”

Carl’s superpower was Metal Sound. Probably because of his love for evil robots from childhood or his superpower created this love. He could roar like robots, causing devastating sonar attacks. It was a pretty valuable superpower as it had two elements, and the second element was also a rare form of vibration, sound. When Carl eventually reached Extol-Rank, he would be a rare genius. He was still one, but he would shine when he learned how to use other forms of his elements.

“As expected.” Miles shook his head. “How about you Mae? Any idea?”

“Not sure yet, but I want something similar to my father's,” Mae said after some thinking.

Ryu Shin had one of the rare types of powers. Before Miles didn’t know the reason but after the classes in the academy he learned that it was only a type of a superpower. His power was to control the sword. At first, people thought it was a faulty telekinesis power that allowed him to control swords with his mind. But when he was battling against a person with a real telekinesis power, the latter couldn’t move the swords even a little.

Then scientists theorized that because Ryu had a faulty power, his control over swords was stronger. Only later did they realize that it was a power under the “Cold Weapon” branch. The Iron Race and their AI Vulcan created the Awakening Serum that allowed those using it to awaken the power to change their bodies to cold weapons or control them. Ryu’s power was in this branch as well.

Weird thing was, the power had its own definition of a sword. Ryu Shin couldn’t control daggers or wooden swords. Not even machetes. He could only control swords with his power.

The ultimate he created increased his mastery over his powers for a short time. It was an augmenting type of ultimate. Since Mae had a similar power, which was to control blades, her ultimate would be something similar as well.