"By the Heavens! I can't say anything without you interrupting. Does it cost you something to just shut your mouth?!" Raisen raged while barely maintaining his temper in front of the Godly guest inside the Training Hall.
Fen shrugged at the question.
"Well, talking doesn't cost me anything and it can only benefit me. Actually, you should only start lecturing me after I've finished asking all my questions otherwise I won't be able to focus on what you're saying and only on what I don't fully understand." A small hint of passion flashed inside Fen's eyes. "There were many different studies on Earth about the benefits of different teaching practices, but while all of them have their different uses, the one driven by the learner in the beginning to help motivate them showed extraordinary-"
A harsh blow filled with Void energy sent by Dey snapped Fen out of his passionate speech which Raisen and Dey were forced to watch on in fascinated horror.
[Has he done that before with you?] Deion asked the old Knight while the injured youth struggled to recover from his wounds.
Raisen shook his head. "I have to say, that's a new one. Maybe he's finally starting to crack... What a shame, he managed to last so long."
They both nodded their heads in disappointment. While they didn't notice because they were too busy making fun of Fen's sanity, in both of his hands there was a certain finger raised in a rude gesture which they could openly see.
"Ugh... Fuck, that hurt." Fen had to use a sizable portion of his Vital energy to recover from the strike. It wasn't even that powerful, but it left remnant Void energy that increased the amount of Vitality that he had to pour into his wound to heal.
"Ahem. I see the point you were trying to make. Because of the graciousness in my heart," It seemed that nothing would be able to reduce Raisen's shamelessness, "I'll answer your question."
"Yes, there is one more major Class, the Psychics. However, the reason why it's not as well known as other Classes is because of the differences between them. While the other three Classes have the same fundamental skills within their Classes, the powers Psychics have is different depending on the individual."
He sighed. "But you won't understand why unless I talk about the basis of the other Classes. You mind?"
Fen raised in a gesture that said, 'by all means, go ahead.' Just seeing the little smirk on his face made Raisen unconsciously tighten his fists for a moment.
"Fuu..." He had to breath in and out just to calm down his raging heart. Usually, because of his high Stage as a Knight, Raisen could control himself with little effort but this little twig was able to disturb his mental state with ease... The situation was the exact opposite from the beginning of the Program where Fen had to control himself from trying to murder him at every breathing moment.
"Mages and Knights are very similar to each other; both Classes gain their power from an external source of energy that is slowly integrated into their bodies. Mana is used to fuel a Mage's abilities, and Vitality is used to strengthen a Knight, although both sources of energy can be found naturally inside our bodies. But the basis of their abilities come from the power granted by those energies, which is completely different from a Warrior, who, as they advance through their Stages essentially seals their bodies off from external sources of energy.
"A Warrior's power comes from Aura and while Aura is a type of energy it's one generated within your body through cellular activity rather than gradually absorbed."
Raisen stopped when he noticed that Fen had his hand raised in the air with a question.
"What?" He was annoyed, but at least he wasn't interrupted.
"How is Aura different from Vitality? I can already generate it within my body just like Aura, so what's the difference?"
"Well, in most cases, people aren't usually capable of doing that until they've reached Stage one of Knighthood." Raisen glared at both Fen and Deion. "But because you're Vituls you're quite talented with Vitality and receive more power from it. After the first Stage however you can generate small amounts of energy, at least for normal people. For you, your abilities are enhanced."
In the end, Raisen couldn't stop his face from twitching into a half-hidden jealous frown. Still, as a renowned Knight possessing overwhelming strength, it was against his pride to show his jealous side. Off to the side however, Fen and Dey shared a look as they both recognized the old Knight's jealousy instantly.
'While being a Vitul certainly does have it's benefits, is this really worth it? Being hunted down by a Universal Grade civilization certainly doesn't scream 'benefits', but whatever. I can't change my race anyways...' Fen thought, still not entirely sure if he should feel happy or not about his race.
'This brat is still thinking of his race as a burden and can't recognize the opportunity that has been given to him... Though, I can understand his thinking. Even as we speak, there are still forces within this organization that I can't interfere with, forces that are trying to obtain his talents and power. They don't know about his race yet but when they do their efforts would probably increase drastically, putting Fen in danger.' Dey thought while sighing inwardly. 'Damn this dimension. I'm supposed to be the overlord here, and yet I can't even show my face to a mere Planet Grade organization.'
Raisen continued to explain while stamping down his feelings of jealousy.
Another one of the reasons why Fen was able to create his own Vital energy even before reaching Stage one was thanks to his Marks, given by both Deion and the Foundation. His body was supposed to naturally absorb the ambient Vitality around him anyways but because his transformation wasn't completely finished yet his body had to rely on them for now until his body finished shifting completely into a Vitul.
While Raisen already knew about Dey's Gift (the Mark on Fen's chest) because he saw it while the youth was recovering after sparring with Amelia, he only found out what it did after Dey explained everything to him.
"Aura is a type of energy created within the body of Warriors after totally sealing their bodies away from external energy but this energy only become available to them after they breach through into Stage two. It is for that reason that the first Stage Advancement is so important; in every Class, breaking through into Stage two requires that you form a core within yourself using energy."
It was for that reason why Stage two was the event that so much value for every Class, no matter the differences. The creation of a core within the body would magnify the individual's powers, and make it so that they can begin to create their own unique energy.
Well, it wasn't exactly unique. After all, the energy would still be just like it's origin energy; Mana wouldn't shift and evolve into Void energy. It would just become better suited for it's user to handle.
To give Fen an idea of what he was supposed to do Raisen manifested a clump of Vitality just above his hand and solidified it twice, once into a Vital energy construct, and again into a round colorless and transparent core.
"This," Raisen pointed towards the floating object, "is what you have to create within yourself. It's the Knight's version of a Mana core. We call it- and don't laugh at the name because it's unoriginal- the Vital core."
Fen frowned while looking at the size of the object. "...It's a little big, don't you think?"
The Vital core was a little smaller than his fist, but he couldn't imagine how it would fit inside his body packed along with all his other vital organs.
"Well, that's why its so hard to break through into Stage two. Not only do you have to condense enough Vitality within yourself to create a solid object, but you also have to rearrange your internal organs to make room for it. Don't worry about any aftereffects; your body will automatically fix itself after you finish the process." Raisen explained.
"So basically, it'll hurt like hell until I finish."
"Yes." The old Knight said with a smile.
"..."
When Fen looked over at Dey, the God gave him a reassuring thumbs up.
[All Knights have to do this in order to advance their Stage. But, unless some historical event occurred in the past few centuries, you're probably in the safest situation to go through Stage Advancement. Not only do you have a powerful and experienced Knight with you, but you even have a handsome and magnificent God as well.] Fen could tell that Dey was trying to make him feel better about the process, but if anything it just made his eyes narrow in skepticism.
"Alright, I get it. So, I just need to accumulate enough Vitality to condense it, right?"
"Exactly. That's why being able to create Vital energy constructs and using the Vital Blade technique is the requirement for Stage Advancement for Knights. If you didn't even know how to condense Vital energy into constructs, how could you make a Vital core?"
"I see... One last question before I begin. Why can't you make the Vital core for me?" Although Fen was a firm believer in the benefits of doing everything himself so he could learn, improve, and get stronger, he still wanted to know why Raisen couldn't just do it for him. Surely, there must be some other fundamental reason why other than that.
"Finally, a regular question. Well, starting from Stage two, or rather Stage one for Vituls like you, the Vital energy your body becomes much more unique to you just like I mentioned before. While you can absorb my Vitality and be fine, others who try the same thing would suffer from it because the energy increases in complexity the higher the Stage a Knight is.
"Think of it like assimilating more of the energy and transforming it until both you and the energy you produce are entirely different than what you started with. That's why you have to be the one to do it, otherwise your Vital core won't be as powerful as it can be. It would be like giving a car a nuclear jet engine, sure, you'd have the core but it would be either too powerful or too unsuited for you."
Fen nodded as he recognized the reasoning behind Raisen's words. "I see..."
After that, Raisen left to the side with Dey to watch Fen tackle the Stage Advancement in the center of the room.
Taking a deep breath, Fen closed his eyes and enclosed his body with Vitality, wrapping it around himself so he could better sense the complex energy. From there, Fen took his time to accustom himself with his own Vital energy; he never actually spent time to become familiar with the Vital energy he used.
Every time he improved his skills with Vitality, he did so with a goal in mind. He used his Vital energy to use the Vital Dash technique he created, to create the Vital energy constructs, to heal his body when he was injured, and to make him stronger. But, he never did more than that. At most he would circulate it around his body passively to always be in an active combat-ready stance, but nothing more.
Raisen's explanation revealed how he was lacking in his control. By treating his Vital energy as a tool, he lost the ability to grow further; but to complete the Stage Advancement into Stage two that would have to stop now.
Slowly, Fen let his heart beat. By focusing, he could feel his muscles tense in delayed unison as his blood was pumped through the large muscle in his chest. Using that feeling he calmly collected his Vitality inside his heart and willed it to be pumped and carried alongside his blood.
He did this for several cycles, just observing and influencing his Vital energy wherever he needed to. There was no reason for him to be impatient; Raisen himself had said that the Stage Advancement would allow him to create his own unique energy so how could he do so when he didn't fully understand it yet?
By taking it slow, Fen could fully understand the changes made within his body and not have to train to discover them, meaning that his powers would grow immediately after undergoing the Stage Advancement. The only thing he was spending was time, which was coincidentally the one thing he had an abundance of.
It was funny how Fen's opinion constantly changed about his perspective of time. In some moments, it could seem like he had too much, while in other moments time seemed to be progressing way too fast. At least for now, time flowed slowly within Fen's mind. The passage of time slowly lost it's meaning as Fen quietly sat and let his body become more accustomed to the beating of his Vitality.
Circulating the energy was great and all, but that denied Fen from being able to access Vitality's full power. Although it seemed like there was no difference, Vitality was known as the 'living energy', and so should be treated as such. Pumping it using his heart took much less effort and revitalized his cells over and over in a positive feedback loop. The energy swept across his cells like the ocean waves on the beach sweeping past before going back to his heart, recharging from his life force and then being pumped back and repeating the process.
As soon as Fen could unconsciously control his Vital energy within his own body using nothing else but a thought he opened his eyes. He immediately had to close them again however as the outside world was much too bright for his eyes which had gotten used to the darkness within his eyelids.
When his eyes adjusted, he saw a sleeping Raisen and a barely awake Dey, who came too after noticing him opening his eyes.
[Finally? Good, now that you finished your Stage Advancement, I can go back to sleep- Ahem, I mean working and doing Void overlord things.] Deion stretched his arms in the air.
"Don't get excited for your nap just yet. I haven't finished yet. How much time has passed anyways?" Fen looked around before realizing that there really was no method for telling the time in the facility. For some reason, he'd never noticed it before because he was still unconsciously keeping track of the time in his head without stopping, aligning the time that he woke with the time he woke up on Earth.
Dey froze after hearing his words. [Fen, kid, you sonuvabitch, it's been hours...So what the hell have you been doing all this time?!]
"Don't worry you useless God, I was productive. I spent the time getting used to my energy so I could control it better. You're gonna lose your hair if you stress too much." An energy vein visibly pulsed when Fen finished his sentence.
'So all I've got to do is condense the Vital energy within my body and form a co- Hmm?!' When Fen tried to do what Raisen mentioned, his body was hit with incredible pain as his internal organs were forced to rearrange themselves to accommodate for the extra 'organ', but after Fen took a breath the pain settled inside him and stopped.
Sending a pulse of Vital energy inside his body, Fen probed around and found a round, circular core close to his heart. An even further examination showed that rather than being pumped through his heart, his Vitality was flowing through this core, being pushed and passively circulating within his body.
"Uhm. I think I did it?"
"What the fuck did you just say?!" Raisen shot awake and wiped away the drool that had collected around his mouth, shooting a crazed look at him.