After joining Captain Loth my traveling time increased, but that was the price of my current want of companions. I had to hold off my pilot training. Instead I used that time to talk to the Captain and read through the data they had that Aldion had 'acquired'.
Thankfully this extra time allowed me to review more the info inside me. It also allowed me to practice more and address the issue of my damaged mind. Apparently, living thousands of years all in the space of a couple of hours could damage both your mind and soul. Who knew? Good thing my soul was incredibly resilient. According to my past lives it is actually indestructible, though I would still feel the pain of actually being hurt should it be attacked. It was like getting electrocuted without actually getting hurt, but feeling the pain that should come with it. Weird.
Also the mental damage may or may not be permanent. Though it would have been way worse if my soul wasn't the way it is. Lucky me. Some would call it plot armour. I would then reply with something about how they couldn't change it anyway. I couldn't either.
As time passed I got physically and mentally stronger with my training and UE absorption. Elswen's file that we acquired stated that she is quite the talent in UE absorption. It also stated that she practiced the absorption method of Sen Dransil. After that I talked to her about absorbing UE. At first she was confused about what I was talking about when I mentioned UE, after I explained what UE was it was only then that she understood. Her people called it Zamshir, the energy of the ancestor. She told me that her people used to think that the energy was obtained through one of their ancestors that ascended to a realm beyond.
Of course that changed when their technology advanced and discovered that it was coming from the Sub-Space. The name had been around for much of their history that they didn't change it. She also told me of the other ways that UE is commonly used; there is mana, chakra, chi, qi, Helni, Gamsin, and others.
The first four were common in use among humans. It seemed that UE use and knowledge is decently common. I asked how old she was when she first started. She told me she was 5 summers old when she started. Either there wasn't a standardised measure of time or she preferred to use her native measure of time. I asked about her experiences with absorption. She told me that she first started with the Federation Standard Technique as her family wasn't that wealthy.
After finding out she was talented a wandering Sage of her people took notice and stayed in her town to teach her. After that she changed to her current technique that has a long history behind it and was refined and adjusted over the years. Then when she completed her coming of age ceremony and became an official adult among her people she left her home world to experience the galaxy and beyond. That led her to where she is now; a captain of a ship part of a relatively powerful organization.
After listening I could conclude some different points about the MWF. First is that the people within the Federation still maintain a lot of their autonomy within it. Second is that after seeing the benefits of absorbing UE they decided to make and distribute a standardised way of absorbing UE across the Federation. Third is that there could be organizations that function across the Federation.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
During the rest of the time traveling I had continued to train, produce, and talk with the souls within. I also talked on and off with Elswen about her and her culture. Apparently her people have giant forests on each of the worlds they live in. This forest is filled with animals of all sort and they must go in and survive for a month for their coming of age ceremony. All they can take with them is a vital sensor and the clothes on their back, anything more invalidates the ceremony and the individual must take it again.
There are also other races with similar practices in the federation too. Some humans of different cultures also have similar ceremonies. There are also multiple human originated nations and organizations across the galaxy. The humans appeared to be quite separated and divided, though they were largely united in a federation of their own called the Federation of United Nations. They seemed to have some FUN. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahh.
Aldion didn't enjoy my joke that much. Critics these days. Anyway the months passed by like this with me training in my various ways and chatting with Elswen. We seemed to have become friends along the way.
My training had progressed along with our travel. After a little while I had to wear a weighted suit and walked with the pressure that I felt spiritually, mentally, and physically. This was done by Aldion increasing the amount of UE density in the ship. This taxed me at all times and allowed me to get increased focus and stamina on all fronts. It also let me prepare in case I enter an area of increased density somewhere in the universe.
It also allowed me to get increased control and finesse with my body and energy control. Aldion kept on increasing the density and weight of my suit, as well as the density of the UE in the ship, as I was getting used to it. My meditation proved immensely useful. Eventually I got to the point where I could split my mind and focus on multiple things at one. This allowed me to continually meditate, with a decreased effectiveness, and continue doing other things.
All of the effects combined continually allowed me to train and my growth was explosive. While doing my training there are of course breaks. Training extensively, like I am and as hard as I am, without breaks is extremely dangerous. So during that time I just relaxed for a day or two( 24 hours for reference. Everything is in like standard earth time so 1 year = 12 months and all that.). During my relaxing time I played games and watched movies and series. I also read books too. Lots of them come from the souls and Aldion. Apparently it was extremely important to have every single movie book and series available. Very helpful. Very fun. Currently we are only a few days away from the galaxy. This galaxy was quite big, ~100,000 light years across and ~3000 light years thick. (~ means about or around)
I can also see all around me and through walls with my UE manipulation. It's really cool but was also disorienting because it informed me about everything. It was just like that time in the dream state thing except less. I could also change in between my mist form and Humanis form. In my mist form I am exponentially more powerful with UE in every front and nearly impossible, to my knowledge, to kill. Sadly in that form I would need a suit of armour to move around to grab and move things. You could see how that was a problem to my race's early development. Good thing my race has the ability to mimic any living thing. The lower tiers have certain conditions that have to be filled in order to mimic. Alphas on the other hand just have to look at the actual physical form of a being to mimic to perfection.
There are other races that could mimic too. They couldn't do it perfectly, could only mimic a specific person, or couldn't assign different abilities or aspects of different races with each other. Essentially I could look at something, living or organic, and perfectly mimic them or assume their species. For example if I saw Elswen In person I could both assume her species or look exactly like her and essentially be her just without her knowledge. Kinda overpowered but meh. Also this works for nearly anything with a genetic code. A fossil will work but not a cup that someone uses. There has to be sufficient genetic and soul information.
After a few more days we arrived at a space station located at the edge of the galaxy. It is located near an exit point of a Sub-Space corridor used for long distance travel. They use a buoy to gradually force incoming traffic out of the Sub-Space so that they can document incoming people. Quite smart. As we are approaching the space station I asked Aldion if he could connect to the system of the station and download all the information without getting caught. I then ended up with all of the data in the space station without any complications at all.