- Hours before -

"Sergeant, what can you tell us about team 5? Elowin asked.

Sergeant Agron who was standing with his hands behind his back for the superior officer and seemed surprised by everything being said to him. Even more so when she mentioned that one team.

"Team 5 Ma'am, is actually one of the teams I have been keeping a closer than usual eye on. There is something off about one of the members on that team that I haven't been able to put my finger on."

"How so?"

"It's not a very good answer Ma'am, but it's what I've been going off of for a month now and its I have a feeling that one member on that team is not like the rest. He is definitely an elite of the class, but I feel like there is something off about him. I hate to operate off of feeling, but unfortunately, it's all I have been able to put together." He explained.

"Can you bring up his file and any footage you have that would make you feel this way?" Faelan said walking forward intending to get on the Sergeant's quantifier while they were talking.

"Yes sir!" Agron said as he went to his desktop and drilled into his files on the conscripts bringing up Sorin's file. "I have it separated by his profile, notes, and footage of his training. May I ask, what happened?"

Elowin took back over. "The reserve your batch was sent to experienced two anomalies. One that affected an ecosystem that was in my area of supervision and the death of a champion beast in Captain Faelan's area of supervision. What we have found were a medium crater with a high intensity scorch mark on the side, traps with burned spiked sticks with a superheated scorch mark at the bottom of the hole, and a lake that was completely destroyed and is currently still filling up with water. The beach used to be rock and now it is slag. On top of that the trees around that lake have been blasted away."

She paused watching the Sergeant's reaction. His brows scrunched up. "Ma'am, I mean no disrespect, but are you sure it was someone from my batch that did that?"

"No, as a matter of fact, we are not sure. The amount of aether required for that attack would be enormous. In my mind it would require a tier 4 core to be able to inflict that level of devastation." Elowin said.

"To make matters worse, we followed a trail of cinderpaw bodies moving into the fire region of the reserve until we got to the champion, and we found it not only dead, but practically chewed up and burned alive."

Agron looked extremely perplexed. "At first we thought maybe it was another champion that wandered for some reason."

"But in my over three decades as a beast manager of this reserve, it has never happened. Faelan cut in. "when we examined it further there were blade wounds all over the beast and a crater made up of smaller craters and scorch marks everywhere. We found a smaller pool of blood that didn't belong to the beast, so we know one of them was injured in the fight, but none of them died which is beyond impressive." Elowin continued.

They stood in silence as Faelan was watching clip after clip from the training sessions of the team. He paused on one that led to the death of another conscript. He stopped and rewound the footage, slowing it down over and over again watching it.

"Captain Elowin. I think I might see what the sergeant is talking about. I'm getting the same feeling, and I don't know what it is. It makes me uneasy."

Elowin walked over and watched the footage of the female getting cut down and slamming into the red barrier after the sword disintegrated in her hand. Something seemed off. Like it was just a tough too powerful.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"What tier was this conscript estimated to be at the time of this footage?

"We believe he was tier 1 about to transition to tier 2 Ma'am." Agron said.

"Odd, his strike seems a touch too powerful and has too much control. It reminds me of the Purgatory knights of Count Vernon Ifrite." She replied.

"The fire elementals? Ma'am I have only ever seen glimpses of their combat prowess, but that seems to give the conscript too much credit if I may be bold?"

Elowin nodded as Faelan turned in his chair.

"That's what bothers me. Captain did you find anything about his background?"

"Yes, he is a universe transferee. His world seems to be technology centered based on the clothing and gear he had with him on arrival. So, he could have scientific insights that have been assisting him. It's nothing we haven't seen before from transfers." Faelan said.

Elowin looked at Faelan and they nodded to each other.

"Impressive work Sergeant Agron. You have a good team of conscripts to be able to take down a champion. We appreciate your time helping us close this anomaly report for the Academy board. Carry on."

Agron put his fist over his heart in a salute and turned to his quantifier as the officers left his office.

"I'm on to you Sorin." he mumbled to himself looking at the paused footage of his burning wooden blades.

- presently -

"Cain...Question for you." Sorin said as he saw his teammate coming back from the water after getting up and washed up. "What do you need?"

"I was thinking about what you said about going from tier 2 to tier 3. You said cores are required?" Sorin asked.

"Yes. You have to expand your core capacity and channels according to the lessons I received. There is also the unknown requirement when your body and mind have to break through requiring more space to continue to grow. That usually requires almost a full solar cycle after maxing out your rating."

Sorin thought to himself. Are they talking about the infusion process he did? Sorin thought over all of his actions and the state of his body.

"You said the body and mind?"

"Well yes, the body and mind are always paired together because the brain is part of the body but has a separate function that is not always physical, but it is."

Sorin's eyes went wide.

"Son of a bitch!" he said as he snapped his fingers.

"Son of a what?" Cain asked. "Nothing, nothing, don't worry about it. I appreciate you helping with my curiosity." Sorin said.

Cain shrugged used to Sorin's random and delving questions at this point, so he just shrugged and went to relieve Linx on watch.

As soon as Cain walked off Sorin closed his eyes and looked inward. He had completely forgot that he had yet to infuse his brain. He was still hesitant to begin, but knew it must be done. He started low. He had left the spinal fluid alone and the biochemical lines that filled his spinal column moving outward helping with the electromagnetic signals all over. He slowly pushed aether into that area.

As he did, he felt a severe tingling sensation all over his body. It scared him so he kept wiggling his toes and fingers and kept the aether coming. He opened up his absorption skill to full blast and kept pushing. He got to his brain stem and felt as different parts of him began to become different. He couldn't place his finger on it. The fluid around his brain began to change. It took on a more reactive fluid. He could sense that on impact it would absorb much or kinetic energy letting less through to his brain. As he moved into the brain itself, he would stop periodically as he would temporarily forget what he was doing. Sometimes parts of his body would stop. His lungs would burn, his heart would ache, his stomach would relax and other muscles. He his bowels released momentarily and then came back.

At that point he had to stop and press the cleaning feature of his suit. No way was he going to deal with that.

Once clean, he said back down and continued.

For the next two hours Sorin pushed the aether into his brain until...

*bleep*

Sorin opened his eyes. His senses were dialed up even more. It seemed so overwhelming. He took the next 15-20 minutes getting used to everything. Walking around he had the spacewalk effect on his body. After a while he started getting used to it all again. He opened his notification.

Conditions met for tier 3

AP: 2300/2300

Body: 51/100

Mind: 51/100

Spirit: 60/100

Upon reaching the third threshold, you are no longer required to have your stats move up together. With your foundation now set, you can specialize or continue to grow each section accordingly. The mysteries and growth of your path is completely yours.