Evolution.
Evolution was, as described by Yagnar, the act of walking one's path to power.
To start, people walking on their path to power were called Evolvers. And an Evolver was made up of different components, called Centers of Power.
A fully developed body would have four such Centers of Power, and one wasn't considered an adult until their body reached such a state.
So, in order to be considered an adult, one would need all of the following:
The Cerebral Core: the Spiritual Center Of Power. Yagnar described it as a rock-like structure in the brain that would remain dormant until certain, nebulous conditions were met. It's the seat of the soul, which pilots the other Centers of Power.
The Physical Core: the Martial Center Of Power. The body in its entirety, from its skeleton, to its organs, to its muscles, and of course, finally, the skin. It acts as the container for the other Centers of Power.
The Elemental Routes: the Elemental Center Of Power. They were similar to the meridians of a certain branch of psuedoscience in Mikhail's previous world, yet they were far more complex, and certain emotional triggers were necessary to get them to form in the body.
This Center Of Power was made up of six different components on its own, but since they all shared the same function, were grouped up as a singular Center Of Power.
There was one component for each of the pure elements. And, following the Elemental Wheel — a wheel that Yagnar displayed using a hologram that he created using the last element on the wheel — clockwise, they were:
The Rock Element, the Ice Element, the Water Element, the Wind Element, the Shade Element, and lastly, the Shimmer Element.
As for what this Center Of Power did?
That mostly had to do with the last Center Of Power.
The Fuentevacia: the Aether Center Of Power. This was a spherical organ that would form once an Evolver saturated all of their bodily tissues with Aether. This was done by drawing in Aether from the environment into the body through the Elemental Routes in a process called Aether Absorption.
And Aether, of course, was the magical energy flowing through everything in this world.
So, how many Centers Of Power did Mikhail have?
Mikhail currently only had two centers of power, the Cerebral Core and the Physical Core. Everyone was, obviously, born with these two centers of power, but they could only use one initially.
Yagnar didn't impart much wisdom about the spiritual center of power, other than the most fundamental aspect about it. Namely, that when the nebulous conditions were met, a person would undergo something called a Spiritual Awakening.
This would unveil some of the features of one's spirit, but he did not impart what those features were to the young looking lad. Since it was of course, of no concern to Mikhail, since he had yet to experience the Spiritual Awakening anyway.
But, Yagnar did go into detail in regards to the martial center of power. And that was because of a certain oddity he had come to understand about the lad through Shel when she had healed the gash in his abdomen..
Apparently, for some reason or another, Mikhail was actually coming close to entering the realm of Evolvers when it came to his Physical Core.
To give a bit of context about that: There were four conditions that had to be met in order for that breakthrough to occur.
First, the skeleton had to be refined. Then, the organs had to be refined. After that, the skin had to be refined. And finally, the muscles had to be refined.
Mikhail only needed to refine his muscles before leaving the world of mortals and entering the world of Evolvers as an Initial Metamorphosis Realm individual.
However, he couldn't learn how to do that with the orcs. He had to learn from the Human Tribe about how to continue his path to strength in the Physical Realm.
But that wasn't even Mikhail's concern when he learned that information. He was concerned about what the hell the "Metamorphosis Realm" even meant.
So with an annoyed sigh, Yagnar had explained that too.
Living beings were divided into three major categories. Or, in Yagnar's words, three major realms.
The Mortal Realm, the Metamorphosis Realm, and the Sage Realm.
The Mortal Realm only had one Minor Realm within its boundaries. The physical realm. And, this Minor Realm was divided into four levels of progression; or Stages.
Refined Bones Stage.
Refined Organs Stage.
Refined Skin Stage.
Refined Muscles Stage.
And these three Subminor Realms were further divided into tiers, which existed to accurately describe one's progress in a given Stage.
The Low TIer.
The Mid Tier.
The High Tier.
And the Final Tier.
This first Major Realm was entirely focused on the progression of the body. And progressing through this Minor Realm was already explained. Refining the body. If somehow, seeing the word Refined four times over wasn't enough of a reminder…
Once a mortal finished refining their muscles, they would break through to the next Major Realm and be considered an Initial Metamorphosis Realm Evolver.
However, an individual would also be considered an Initial Metamorphosis Realm Evolver if they somehow awakened their Cerebral Core while they were still refining their body. Which, while possible, and not uncommon in the greater scheme of things, was still considered rare at the local level.
Making meaningful progress past the Initial Metamorphosis Realm was impossible though, until the other two centers of power were formed.
The reason why is made obvious when one looked at the structure of the Metamorphosis Realm.
To start, the Metamorphosis had four Minor Realms. One for each center of power.
The Spiritual Realm.
The Martial Realm.
The Elemental Realm.
And the Aether Realm.
And, these four Minor Realms each had three Stages.
An Evolver needed to focus on Evolving each Center Of Power individually. And because the formation of the Elemental Routes was dependent on one's emotions, one could spend quite some time meandering about before they could make meaningful progress in that realm.
And since the Aether Realm was dependent on the Elemental Realm, the Aether Realm would also take a long while to begin.
But once the stars aligned and an Evolver finally had all of their Centers Of Power, they would finally be able to move on. And then, they would be able to tackle a total of twelve individual Minor Breakthroughs before one could make a Major Breakthrough to the Sage Realm.
And the Sage Realm?
Well…