The next day he woke and got ready for the next round of testing. Where yesterday had been to determine the nature of the binding of his aura and soul, while today’s was to see how powerful his aura was now. And how intelligent. Nathan was ushered through facilities with machine he couldn't fathom uses for. Others he could recognize due to the sheer quantity of books he had read under his mother's guidance. Soon enough he was placed into a small room with an absolute lack of interior decoration. White tiles and flat sheer walls were the only thing to see in it. But soon enough he heard a voice telling him what he was to happen.

“In fifteen seconds we will begin flooding the room with ather of increasing density. Once you are no longer able to deplete the air in your aura we will stop. If for any reason you need us to stop, feel free to scream and flail. Beginning now.” Was all Nathan got before the room started filling with high density ather. Nathan sat down, got cozy, and started absorbing. Ten minutes in his ather felt a bit tired, his soul a little strained, and his body slightly full of essence and ather. An hour in Nathan was struggling to maintain consciousness but the ather just kept coming. As his vision faded he was relieved to feel the ather begin draining out of the room, presumably being channeled by some formation or enchantment. He woke up to several scientists nodding to themselves in a very odd manner and discussing the meaning of the results of his test. Nathan felt like absolute garbage, odd considering this was the most essence he had ever had in his life.

“Take this.” A scientist said handing him a tiny pill.”It helps with essence overload, and it increases your life essence. It uses a complex combinations of chemicals to break down and rebuild essence bonds in order to reform it into the superior life essence.” She further explained.

Nathan popped the small pink pill into his mouth and swallowed it dry. A moment later he felt oddly empty as all the essence of his body was either converted or pushed out by the pill. He noticed that all the etherium he had gathered had been used to make new aura strings, building new connections and expanding outwards. His aura was already quite large, but given that it would only grow larger in time would mean he would have an exceptional area of influence. A bit later Nathan was informed someone wanted to shoot at him with a sniper rifle.

“No way am I letting someone shoot me.”

“Their not going to shoot you, their going to shoot a few inches in front of you to see if your aura can stop it.” He was assured. Nathan didn’t quite believe him but stepped outside all the same. He barely got out of the building when his aura informed him that it had: detected a rubber bullet aimed at his shoulder, caught it in a shield, and was prepared for combat. It was a disorienting feeling to have his aura explain so much, especially that last part. Was it sentient in some manner, or merely a part of his own mind interwoven with the aura? His studies told him it could go either way, so had no conclusive evidence. That aside, Nathan turned to a stricken looking scientist and understood the situation. ‘Someone had lied to that man, to get him to convince me that I wasn’t going to be shot.’

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“I'm so incredibly sorry, I had no clue. He must have missed, which is unusual i'm very sorry sir.”

“No, I understand it’s fine. What's the next test?”

“We have one more, all you need to do is have your aura do some math.” An incredibly odd sentence, but Nathan was glad to see it something simple. A few sheets of complex math later, Nathan was pleased to find that his aura was better at math than him. While slightly disappointed at his own ineptitude, he had an easy work around for the future. After finishing up there, he headed home and sat. Eventually getting bored he hopped on Eternal Battle Bros and was ruthlessly destroyed by some twelve year old with the mouth of a sailor and the dexterity of a seamstress. Grumbling to himself he found other ways to waste the day away in peace.

Nathan found himself in a rut the next day. As his aura expertly helped him maneuver around the lighting fast attacks of Liz, Nathan felt the hollow feeling in his chest building up to a suffocating malaise. Eventually Liz decided she was done with him sulking and just dodging and gave the order. “Stop.”

“What's the matter?” Nathan asked.

“That's what I should be asking, you could have won this fight Nathan. Your aura is far better at helping you make rapid adjustments, you know what im doing the moment I start and you haven't used any of that to win. A couple days you would have cut off your hand to score a win against me.”

“I dunno, I just feel a bit out of it today, sorry.” Liz looked at him contemplatively for a second before saying simply.

“Follow me.” So Nathan followed her, leaving the training center and walking a winding series of streets until he found himself standing in front of a serene lake. The tranquil waters were clear and gorgeous, clearly showing off a vibrant ecosystem underneath its surface. Nathan found himself gazing into the water when Liz spoke up again.

“When I was being taught how to train people one of the biggest things my mentor drilled into me was the importance of goals. For some the goal to become powerful is achieved so long as they reach the level of strength they wanted. Others will never be completely satisfied until they have exhausted themselves trying to achieve a goal that was always moving away from them. But a few will find a most wonderful contentment in the journey of reaching their goals. And those people can often be crushed if they feel that they haven’t truly achieved anything. Sometimes though it's even worse to accomplish their goals without really trying, or putting the effort they deem necessary. They feel like the power wasn’t earned, and shouldn’t be had. If you feel like you don’t deserve everything you have worked so hard for over this past year then your a fool. You earned your aura skills by working brutally hard. There are Eternals who have weaker auras than you, and it's not because you got lucky it's because you made the best of a bad situation and scrapped every bit of strength out it you could.” She told him, slowly and peacefully before ramping up in intensity until she stared at him as though she dared him to feel bad about himself. Which of course made him quite anxious and caused a downward cycle until they simply sat and enjoyed the wilderness.