The Watcher had been observing Null the whole time during the testing of his new battle suit.
His mind was focused on only one thing. 'Field manipulation, how? It should not be possible.' Null had shown the ability to accomplish a feat that should have been impossible. Every possibility that The Watcher came up, caused him even more concern.
The Watcher entered the room and turned off the alarm, and gave Null a quick scan just to confirm he wasn't hiding anything.
"Sorry Zero, I didn't mean to set off the alarm. I was just trying something I learnt about"
The Watcher wondered where he had learned how to teleport. He also knew it was time to expose him to some of the secrets of the universe. He was worried that exposing him to this knowledge would make it harder for him to return and integrate into human society. Humanity as a whole was not deemed ready to learn about this knowledge. Truthfully It was one of the guiding principles of the galaxy that races had to discover these secrets on their own.
"Well, it seems we won't be able to get around it, I suppose it's time I teach you about one of the secrets of the higher races and the universe."
Zero sent some drones to fetch some equipment from another lab. This equipment would be used as props in the lesson that Zero was about to present.
"Before we start, It is important to understand there are only two factors that affect the tier of a race. The first is how far they have progressed down their evolutionary tree and the second is their ability to observe and manipulate fields.
"The universe is controlled by the laws of physics and the idea of cause and effect, but did you ever think about why are they the laws? What decides how the universe will work?" asked The Watcher. He didn't wait for an answer before continuing.
"The answer can be found in the study of fields. The fields permeate the whole universe and affect the laws of physics and nature. I wasn't planning on explaining this to you, as knowledge of fields and how they work is the domain of the higher race's and not something you should know. Except you have just demonstrated that you can accidentally manipulate the fields."
This was a far greater problem than The Watcher was letting on, but he needs more data before coming to any conclusions and taking any drastic action.
The drones had returned with a box of what looked like crystal balls. "Now for this lesson, we will be using these Zallium crystals. Zallium is a heavy element crystal that allows for the storage and manipulation of what are called field essences. Here take this one" Zero then got one of the drones to hand Null a ball.
As Null held onto the crystal he could hear the voice of the universe louder and clearer than ever. "This crystal has a space affinity" Null responded while he passed the ball from one hand to the other.
**Space Affinity increase +1**
"The voice of the universe, as never been this clear!" Null kept listening to the tune to see what other mystery he could discover. 'This has to be related to space, It has been isolated from the rest of the voice. The more I listen the more I can decode.'
**Space Affinity increase +1**
** Announcement: No further increase Space Affinity can be gained from this source**
The Watcher had a keen interest in how he would react, the study of fields was an advanced topic and to manipulate them you would normally need to capture the essences in Zallium and program it to react with the local field to get the desired results. Yet it appeared that Null, could somehow directly affect the fields. The Watcher wasn't sure how he accomplished this feat.
"You have spoken about the voice, what is the voice?"
"Since birth, I have heard a tune playing in my mind. Once I was outside of the pod I discovered that listening gave me insights into the laws of the universe."
While he was talking he picked up the other crystals and each time he did he either increase or unlocked a magical affinity.
The Watcher was confused in all of his studies into the fields he had never heard of anything like this voice or of anyone being able to interact with the fields without the use of Zallium or its synthetic cousins. 'I guess it must be because of his unique nature, but they are plenty of strange races and I none of them being able to do this.'
The Watcher still had more to teach. "Angels currently know of only 10 fields, there might be more but only the higher tier races would know them. Each field follows a basic set of principles. Each field has its own inertia. It requires energy to shift from its default state. The more drastic the change or the length of time required, the more energy required. When we want to manipulate the fields you will use a pre-programmed Zallium crystal and a reactor to power it"
"but, that not how magic works"
Zero was confused at his response and wanted to understand how he had teleported. "So how does magic work and where did you learn it?"
"Well, magic requires channelling the correct affinity, add in some intent and energy. That is how my Alterra true magic system explains it. Didn't your system explain that to you too?" Null had never interacted with any other lifeform other than Zero so he didn't know that the system was unique to himself.
A bomb had just exploded in The Watcher mind. It all made sense, the artifact was Alterran and Null was an Alterran Seedling. The Seedlings were considered a myth, spoken of only in passing by some of the oldest races. He didn't know what he was going to do but he knew he had a timebomb on his rings.
"Null, I need you to promise that under no circumstances do you mention the name Alterra to anyone"
"Huh, I don't talk to anyone but you but ok I promise" Null was confused why he couldn't mention Alterra but would do as he was asked.
The Watcher had recovered from the bombshell dropped by Null and he didn't want to dwell on it for the time being. He went on to explain more about the fields.
The Watcher listed the 10 fields that the Angels currently knew.
The 10 fields are:
• Space
• Time
• Mass
• Mind
• Quantum
• Energy
• Gravity
• Soul
• Life
• Motion
Null noticed that each of those fields matched a magical affinity in the system. So The fields and magic were linked.